Authors: Darryl T. Mallard
“I see,” said Beral.
There was much more discussion and finally Jawara showed up and apologized. “I’m sorry I’m late, honored Kin, but I was delayed.”
“I am disappointed in you, my lord,” said Bellasaris a little testily. “What was the meaning of this delay?”
Jawara looked at Gorgo and said, “My latest wife demanded my presence,” he said sardonically. “I believe she is of
your
house, Mother Gorgo?”
Jawara’s sister and sister-in-laws chuckled even as Cato and Talos sighed in sympathy for the poor young man. Jawara’s other wives didn’t find it amusing either, but dared not say a word. The girl Trina had been formally married to Jawara but a few days ago and she was stronger than any of them. Jawara had politely turned down her advances, but the situation was now obvious. She had been waiting long for Jawara and the High Lady Gorgo had insisted that she be mated soon before there was trouble. The empress and council agreed. The wedding was quickly arranged and just in time.
“Forgive me, kinsman,” said Bellasaris apologizing and giving Gorgo a wry look, who merely shrugged. “But I am sorry to say we are done here now. Please go and rest.”
Angrily the young man turned and left. Quickly the princesses Miko, Coahoma, Nandi and Jayna followed as well as the ladies Carrie and Roxanne. Cato shook his head in sympathy for Jawara.
“It’s late,” he said. “We should all retire as well.”
“I agree, my love,” said Bellasaris. She then looked at the empress who nodded.
“I have this to say before we retire,” said Beral III. “Many of these people are descended from later Earth mutants and have obviously kept many of their ways. However, they have also mixed much with our people. The three princesses and the Ladies Carrie and Roxanne are proof of this. Unlike the Akkadians though, they seem to have very little materialism or prudishness. But they do have certain mentalities that need to be corrected.”
“The Princess Nandi has proven that this can be overcome,” said Bellasaris. “I can tell you that her father, despite his early objections to her willfulness is quite proud of her. He had even toyed with the idea of her ruling after him if he should be killed until his son Mzamo came of age.”
“Queen Shanis has gone into heat for King Kona, Nandi’s father,” chuckled Beral III. “I knew she found him attractive and so made every effort to get them in the same proximity of each other and then waited. My efforts have borne fruit. The bonding is mutual and I will personally arrange the wedding ceremony.”
“I understand that King Kona has ordered twenty head of
cattle
sent to you in gratitude for you efforts, Mother,” laughed Bella. “He sent fifty pure white heifers to Queen Shanis’s clan for her.”
“I know!” laughed the empress. “I suppose we’ll have to get used to that. People beyond the mountains often buy their wives with animals like cattle, horses or Moa. Of course, that is if they are of high rank or beautiful. A girl of lesser status can be had for a dowry of sheep, goats or even service to her family. That’s their currency.”
“I hear beads made of shell, called wampum are used in some places as well,” said Tabba.
“Well,” said Beral III, “all that matters is that these two nations will be joined and both bound to the empire thanks to their princesses marrying Prince Jawara. So, that means the closest nations bordering the empire will become part of the empire along with their vassal tribes in one nice little bundle. As for the others, we’ll have them civilized and in step with the rest of our people in no time.”
“Mother, Nandi was right,” said Bella. “The tribes to the south and west of The Forest Kingdom, Barratia and Matabeland are nothing to sneeze at. Even the peoples to the far south of our own domains bordering Akkadia, Bassia and Tabon are quite formidable I’ve been told. They wiped out an Akkadian army 10,000 strong. They then destroyed two border installations and burned the southern town of Jersey. Hundreds of women and children were carried off and-”
“They had it coming,” said the empress. “They established installations on their borders and soon their damned missionaries began pouring into the locals’ domains evangelizing, calling everyone sinners and telling folks to put on excessive clothes that were to their liking even though these people live in a sweltering jungle. They even tried to rename folks. Depending on their faith they tried to force people to take alien names that were to
their
liking and reflective of
their
culture, in other words, assimilation in the name of religion again.”
Talos snorted and said, “Once they had enough converts the missionaries ceased all pretenses of tolerance and respect for the local religions. They soon began attacking the native beliefs there aggressively, including Nana. Then they destroyed a sacred rock formation that the locals believed was a natural image of the Goddess created by Nana herself to prove that this so-called idol was impotent against their God. Of course the tribes chopped those missionaries’ heads off for this offense and began attacking and burning their missions…all of them. But rather than call back their troublemakers, the Akkadians sent troops in to protect the missionaries and their now declining converts and rebuilt their missions whether the locals wanted them there or not. It was now clear to the southern tribes that the missionaries were just the advance force sent to soften them up for invasion. The Akkadians really were looking to expand their territory and take their land. And
that’s
what started the war.”
“Obviously,” said Gorgo, “they couldn’t take on the empire, so they chose people who were fractured and who didn’t have the allies or means to fight them…they thought.”
“The Akkadians actually wanted to use guns and aircraft to defeat the southern tribes when they started getting their asses kicked,” said Talos, grinning. Then he spat in disgust.
“Yes,” laughed Beral III. “But once our surveillance detected advanced troop movements, aircraft and tanks, they were warned that if they did so it would be a violation of the rules of war on this world and Bellasaria would enter the war on the southern tribes’ behalf.”
“They backed down?” asked Bellasaris.
“Oh, yes they did,” laughed Beral III. “The last time we faced them in battle using our high tech they didn’t do so well. This proved a good lesson for them. And under treaty they haven’t been able upgrade their military technology any further. They were warned to finish what they started
fairly
with spear and sword or face the consequences, which they finally did. Once they were driven back, the Tabonese nicely negotiated a treaty with the southern tribes and even managed to get some of the Akkadian’s women back.”
“Yes,” said Talos with an evil grin. “The ugly, human or mutant women of Earth stock, but not a single mutant child or mutant female of Bainian blood was returned. I have it from reliable sources that those women, once freed from the restrictions of their society became something else!”
“Aye!” laughed a councilwoman. “I’ve heard that warriors from the southern tribes have been crossing over the borders and raiding for Akkadian girls of Bainian blood ever since!”
“But…What about the treaty?” asked someone.
“The treaty forbids conquest, as in large armies crossing borders attacking towns, cities and holding land,” laughed the empress. “However, traditional raiding in small numbers for livestock and captives is fully allowed. Of course, the Akkadians cannot cross the border in force either, or use guns, but they are fully allowed to try and take their people back or take captives of their own to trade, but they seldom do well at this.
“And missionaries are
always
attacked on sight now,” said Talos. “Even many of their converts who fled with them soon became fed up with all the rules. Rules that even the priests, preachers and certainly most of their people didn’t always keep. Disillusioned, they returned to their own people. After all, if these prudes were right and Nana false, why did they lose the war?”
“I understand that a very large area along Akkadia’s southern border has now become abandoned by the Akkadians and is now a kind of ‘No-Man’s-Land’, laughed someone. “Fortifications now guard towns and villages beyond. In between there is nothing but wilderness used by the southerners for hunting, and old ruins of Akkadian towns. It would seem that their greed has
cost
them territory rather than gained it for them. Oh, well. They did start it.”
The empress yawned and said, “Well, this has strayed to another topic and I’m tired. We will eventually bring the tribes of the south under our wing. Unlike the Akkadians, we don’t want control or to force our ways on them. We only want friends and family. Once the people see what we have to offer them and realize we have no intention of suppressing them or their ways, they will come to us. It will be the same with the peoples to the west. Now, everyone, I bid you goodnight.”
******
What the empress and her kin would learn from her new daughters from the Midwest was that there were many nations in their region. Powerful kingdoms were there, and a few queendoms, but mostly confederacies ruled by male chiefs and councils. They couldn’t tell much of what lay beyond their furthest vassal tribes’ peoples and didn’t agree on certain points regarding certain tribes and territorial boundaries, but one thing all the princesses agreed on was that the lands to the far west, south and north of them were vast and full of warlike people of many different origins and mixed origins. There were cities as well. Not as advanced as the ones in the empire, but not primitive either, not all of them.
Originally from the east, most the western nations had brought with them the concepts of ecological conservation and preservation that they used to or at least seen working well there. Others were from peoples that were tribal to some extent even on Earth. It didn’t take much for them to revert back into their old ways. As for those mutants and their human vassals that were neither indigenous, nor tribal, two thousand years was a long time. Many had either quickly slipped back into barbarism or had been forced to learn from the other peoples in order to survive in lands far away from high technology and convenience. Of course, many of the mutants who came to this region were feral. They needed little by way of technology to survive. However, as established lone ago by Bellasaris herself, towns were always opened for them and contact with their non-feral kin encouraged to keep them from becoming more animal than human.
******
Over the next few months and years Empress Beral III would have her hands full in her dealings with first, President Chambers, and then President Wollcott. Under Chambers administration much mutually beneficial things had been accomplished concerning medicines, clean energy and immigration. But once Chambers’s second term was up, that changed.
President Philip Woollcott was a hardline conservative. Although a Democrat, many believed he was a closet Republican. He was adamant on the Bellasarians sharing their military technology. The empress was forced to remind the president that the treaty was already struck and would not be renegotiated.
Also, the Bellasarians carefully screened all mutants entering their domain. Adults with the wrong kind of mentality or intentions were denied entrance to their realm. This sparked protests from mutants and humans alike, but Beral III was adamant. People coming to Bellasaria with the intent to spread their religious or political views were
not
welcome. She cited past troublemakers like Reverend Green and the terrorist Barbara ‘Edge’ Hines, and the conflicts they caused, as the perfect examples of why she wouldn’t bend on this issue. Her Telepaths would pick such individuals out like pits from an olive and send them packing before they could ever set foot in her realm. Mutant and even sometimes human children were another matter altogether. Bellasarians eagerly picked out the healthiest mutant children from government foster homes and international orphanages, or in some cases, were actually given mutant children by their families.
The American government and indeed other nations were increasingly criticized for allowing Bellasarians to pick mutant children like animals and bring them back to their lands. As often as not, this had
nothing
to do with morality or humanity, but everything to do with exploitation…on their part. Mutant soldiers were now in demand and mutants of other gifts like healing were now realized as beneficial to their national needs.
Then a teleportation portal exploded killing three and injuring nine in the White House, when under President Woollcott’s orders, and against the agreement signed by President Chambers, the Bellasarian operators were removed (by force) and an attempt to dismantle the teleport for study was made. The Empress responded by recalling all teleports worldwide on the planet except for Bain, and their technicians. This didn’t make Woollcott very popular internationally or even domestically. When something like that was tried on the Island of Paolo nearly forty years earlier, the portal destroyed an entire city. They had been very lucky. The president was charged with gross endangerment to the populace, but argued that America needed that technology to defend itself. Needless to say, the relations between the two nations/worlds began to breakdown under Woollcott’s administration.
However, many adult mutants did enter Bellasaria either as individuals or even in family groups. A number of Native American groups were eager to visit the western region after Princess Coahoma’s visit, environmentalist and naturalist as well. Since their intentions were innocent the Bellasarians allowed this. Even humans of this ilk were allowed to visit…or even stay.