00109



Security Leader Mita Morgan sat in her office at the Security Agency Building, feeling satisfied. And why not, after all? When she came to the World of Hope, she barely had enough money to find a cheap room and also have enough left over to waste on food. Those days were history.

She occupied herself with helping Hope Leader Xavier Bright prepare for the upcoming war with their motherworld, Earth. She had listed on her schedule for today the task to check and see if the top of Hope Hotel would make a decent observation point for Ldr. Bright when the time came for the fight. She also needed to inspect a few of the warehouses in the business district, and find which would be the best place to store their secret weapon... or, she should say, secret weapons. It had to be somewhere inside Sparkle City, and a place Earth would not suspect, so that, when they came, the invaders would not attack the storehouse containing the secret weapons first thing upon their arrival.

Xaiver Bright chose cheap but effective weapons, and as many as the World of Hope could make with their limited resources;he preferred to use these over a few big, expensive items for the upcoming face-off.. He had some big ticket things, of course, but why put so many eggs into one giant basket? If something went wrong with a big item, and you did not have much else to back it up, then you are seriously diminished in options. Besides that, there were only so many big, big war machines one could hide from planet Earth, before the brains on Earth realized what you had.

The big brains and bean counters on Earth were not all stupid. Somehow they put the pieces together and figured out there was a secret fuel ore processor hidden on Hope, which Earth whole-heartedly disapproved- Earth preferred that the ore mined on the World of Hope must be processed on Earth, so that the World of Hope would have to keep depending on the Earth for its processed power fuel, and then, for that reason, Hope would not be inclined to try anything that was independent-minded, such as breaking away from Earth's grip. Indeed, Earth deliberately kept the citizens of Hope in a state of always needing, so that Hope would not get any big ideas.

Earth needed the fuel ore of the World of Hope, as well as also needing many of the products raised on the farms outside Sparkle City. Hope Leader Bright knew this, of course, and he resented the way Earth tried to maintain the status quo- in other words, how the Earth Leaders deliberately kept the people of Hope as beggars, pleading for alms from the planet Earth.

Well, the war of the worlds would come, and soon, for sure. Earth did not get any fuel ore shipments through the wormhole lately, and soon Earth must send their Army in order to take over this small but uncooperative planet in the middle of nowhere. Certainly the terran leaders disbelieved Ldr. Bright's excuse, that the gang of Hopers had taken over the rocketport, tying up everything, so that the shipments were stuck on the tarmac, ready but unable to lift off. Ldr. Bigges claimed he did not want another Incident -that was where the illegal church people were taking refuge in their hide-out, and the subsequent disasterwhich had occurred when the Security Agents had the hide-out surrounded. What a public relations nightmare that turned out to be! Ldr. Bright told the  Earth Leaders he refused to accidentally kill more dissident citizens this time- those people who wished to kick the Earthers back to Earth where they belonged, and kick out their dictatorial Earth ways with them. So, out of concern for his people's safety, Xavier Bright refused to attack the Hopers during their take=over of the launching and landing fields.

Regarding the Incident, Mita Morgan herself had been the one to figure out where the illegal, lacking-state-approval church had been holed up, and when she told Ldr. Bright (he was only Gov. Bright back then), he had sent his then-Security Leader Tretl Clyden and the Security Agents off to arrest them and take them into custody (and most likely he intended to make miners out of them). Things went awry, and the whole building in which the illegal church had been hiding had blown to bits. Oops- Hey, what can you do- Obey the law and avoid that kind of danger! Mita thought to herself in regards to the whole Incident thing.

Meanwhile, Earth, wanting their ore shipments and not getting them, could easily read the signs of what lay ahead. And signs there were, if one cared to look.

Ldr. Bright had started the Citizens Defense Group, which took all able-bodied young men and woman and "volunteered" them into the CDG organization, allegedly so that there would be a civilian force which could hunt and neutralize the wild animals and outlaws outside the city, to protect the city from such harmful creatures. Earth, however, suspected Xavier Bright had other aims for training such a large army- to one day use the force in an effort to repel the Earth Army when it finally came.

As tensions between the World of Hope and the planet Earth worsened, Ldr. Bright wisely used an ace up his sleeve, sure to delay the Earth Leaders from making their decision to send their Army- If he had not, probably already the Earth Army should be there, fighting them and trying to take over the World of Hope. But an early arrival of the Earth military would not be good for the people of Hope, because they were  not yet ready to meet the challenge of the invaders. Not yet. There were still things to be done in order for the World of Hope to be ready for when Earth actually did send its forces. But Ldr. Bright had slowed down their decision to start a war, by holding Osmo Martin hostage, and vowing to kill him if Earth sent any soldiers.

Osmo Martin was a youth who was only just recently out of school and come to Hope, just like Mita Morgan was. In fact, they had been classmates, and when she had been in school, she always believed one day she would be Mrs.  Osmo Martin. Osmo had never noticed her, however, back in those days in school on Earth. Hmph, but he sure noticed Ldr. Bright's niece, Sheila Bright, didn't he, once he got here to Hope. He seemed to like her. A lot. At least, he had, until he became Ldr. Bright's prisoner. The great Osmo Martin, now a hostage- Ha! What a joke he turned out to be! How she had wasted those years in school, hoping... Well, who cares- all water under the bridge at this point.

Sheila Bright hated when her Uncle made Osmo a hostage, but, because she loved her Uncle and appreciated how he had taken care of her since her mother had died, she remained loyal to Ldr. Bright, and did not rescue Osmo Martin.

Osmo Martin's father, Gunther Martin, was the founder of Martinology back on Earth. Gunther Martin was very influential with the Steering Committee for Policy for the World of Hope, and even more than that, he exerted much influence upon the Council of Earth Leaders. He would do all he could to keep Earth from sending the Army- Mr. Martin would be sure to push Earth to try diplomatic solutions to their differences with Hope, although Hope Ldr. Bright had already told them the time for negotiations was long past and they could not maltreat the World of Hope any longer.

Sooner or later, Earth would be sending the Army. Ldr. Bright knew that. Especially now, since he already pretty much let the big shots on Earth know how things really stood- that the World of Hope  when he took his hostage, because he could no longer force himself to kowtow to Earth any more. But holding Osmo Martin hostage might just delay them enough for him to complete their preparations.

And she would stay by his side. She was, after all, his Security Leader. After Security Leader Tretl Clyden's failed coup, Ldr. Bright had made Mita Morgan the new Security Leader. She knew Hope Leader Bright wanted someone who understood him, and could work with him to keep things running the way he preferred things to run on Hope. Mita believed she understood him more than most others, including his own niece. And she also admired the man.

Sec. Ldr. Mita Morgan not only admired him and wanted to help, she wished to help him in any way she could, no matter what. And she also wished to please him. That was why she had worked behind his back with the Warden at the fuel ore mines, in order to set up and send a live video feed to Ldr. Bright's personal screen, so he could see the gladiator match between the miner Clyden, and the other two trouble-making miners.

It had delighted Ldr. Bright to learn that Clyden, who before had tried to usurp his place, now yelled the loudest amongst the miners during inspiration times meant to rally the miners into a productive frenzy, fiercely declaring his loyalty for Ldr. Bright. Clyden yelled so loud, not because Clyden as  Clyden himself actually had any appreciation for his former boss, but because, during the process of transforming a man into a rugged, hard-to-kill, hard working miner, the subject's mind explodes, and the transformation technicians quickly administer the ID Wipe, which keeps the miner's mind from putting itself back together again. Then, the miner is brainwashed into loving to work as hard as he can, digging out ore, for Ldr. Xavier Bright. What a clever way to handle the criminal element. Well, now Clyden- just a number these days- No. 360- shouted the loudest at the morning pep rallies, and he kept demanding to fight those two trouble-makers, and both at the same time, yet, in the gladiator pit.

The two trouble-makers- They were miners who had tried on several occasions to escape. The ID Wipe, and the subsequent brainwashing, seemed to not work very well on them. A person of strong convictions, it seemed, sometimes did not fall under the spell, and often, as a result, these defective miners were tossed to the Eaters in the moat that surrounded the whole mining mountain.

As a matter of fact, No. 317, one of the trouble-makers, had almost been tossed to the Eaters already, but then at the last minute, when Osmo Martin (at that time a Security Agent, and not a hostage) thought No. 317 looked like George McCleer, Ldr. Bright halted the execution after Osmo called him about it. Mr. McCleer had been sent to Hope, allegedly to help Ldr. Bright find ways to make the World of Hope run more efficiently on the meager resources sent by Earth, but actually, Xavier Bright knew, Mr. McCleer came to see if he could find evidence of the secret ore processor. Osmo Martin, of course, knew none of this. He just remembered that Mrs. McCleer had suspected her husband had been made into a miner. She did not believe he had died in a mine cave-in.

And later, when No. 317 had been returned to his cage, Ldr. Bright told Osmo that the matter had been checked out, and No. 317 was just a common criminal, after all, and Mr. McCleer was, indeed, dead under tons of rubble in the mines. And Osmo believed him.

And now Clyden the miner wanted to fight No. 317 and his companion, No. 248, as well,  because these two were just not loyal enough for Clyden/No. 360's liking. So a gladiator match had been scheduled. Mita allowed herself a smile, thinking how at this very moment Ldr. Bright was watching and enjoying the  ongoing match in his office.

Her communications unit went off. Ldr. Bright said he had some more plans he wanted to discuss with her, getting ready for the war. "Oh, and by the way, I saw your hand in this surprising twist, that the Warden rigged up a live video feed for me, so that I could see the match. Am I correct?"

"Yes, Sir," she admitted  proudly. "It must have been a quick match, Sir, if it is already over. I hope it was not too disappointing for you, if it ended so speedily, Ldr. Bright."

"Yes, but it is just as well. There are things to do. Thank you for helping make it possible, Sec. Ldr. Morgan, to see it happen live. Clyden went one against two, and so, in the end, one of his opponents wrapped chains about his neck and kept strangling him until it was over. The other miner spectators howled to see their champion fall. I know it is hard to kill a miner, but not impossible, as Clyden found out this day. After that, I cut off the connection, rather than have the Warden come back on and delay me with his long-winded prattle. I am too busy to listen to him."

"Understood, Sir. If we are to defeat Earth, we must make haste to make all preparations."

"Yes, Sec. Ldr. Morgan. Unlike Clyden, who lost his battle, I must come out the winner of my contest, and I shall prove myself to be the better."

With all sincerity, Sec. Ldr. Morgan answered over her comm-device, "Of course, Hope Ldr. Bright. Can it be otherwise, but that the Earth Leaders shall learn they are no match for your mind and will and are inferior to your ways?"

"What? Mita, I know that the Earth Leaders will lose to any contest of wits and will against me. I was not speaking of a contest with them."

Mita became puzzled. "Oh no, Sir? Then who did you mean?"

A touch impatient, Ldr. Bright replied, "Think about it, Sec. Ldr. Morgan. You are an intelligent woman. Meanwhile, like I said, come back over to my office, I have some new projects for you to help me plan."

"Yes, Sir. I'm on my way, Ldr. Bright."

(c) drk 2012