Welcome to the next episode in the Space Opera saga of Alex Deroma.
I'm continuing to use the brilliant writing prompts in the Worldbuilding Community to determine which direction the story goes in. The one I'm using for this episode is; Worldbuilding Prompt #584 - Power Vacuums.
In the last post, Alex's slave revolt reached a climax as the free Kerber slaves stormed Salujh, the capital of the Slavers on Margal VI. Now she's won, what comes next ?
According to the map they'd taken from the Governor's Palace, this settlement was called Slime-Cabbage-36.
The Slavers hadn't been imaginative when they named the slave-worked farm settlements. They were all pretty much identical; a grid of basic machine-extruded habitation domes with a larger more luxurious one at the centre for the Slaver overseers to live in.
There were no more Slaver overseers. After the storming of Salujh the free Kerbar army had spread out across the planet like ripples in a pond or the wavefront of a supernova. They had ruthlessly slaughtered every Slaver they found as they reached each settlement.
Now, Alex, Garrad and a dozen Kerber who had appointed themselves as a kind of unofficial bodyguard walked into Slime-Cabbage-36. Shade sat proud upon Alex's shoulder, preening his feathers and giving beady-eyed stares to any who came too close.
As with other settlements, the large central dome was a charred ruin. They could see Kerber working the fields, tilling the slimy mud around the cabbages as the incessant rain fell steadily.
Image created by AI in NightCafe Studio. The results of the prompts I enter only seem to get weirder !
Two Kerber were slowly dragging a cart loaded with freshly harvested cabbages along the track into town, towards the storage barn. Seeing Alex and her party, they stopped, falling prostrate into the mud.
"Masters !" was all they said.
Alex almost growled in frustration. "Get up ! Your former masters are dead. You are free people."
"Yes Master !" the two grubby furry little people said earnestly as they warily rose to their feet.
Turning to Garrad, Alex's face was screwed up in a grimace of frustration. "Damn it, every village is like this. Give them a chance to kill Slavers, and the Kerber go berserk, ripping them to pieces. Then they go back to the fields and carry on as if nothing has changed. How can we make them see that they are truly free ?"
She looked at one of the Kerber who had come with them. "Cirus, talk to me. What am I doing wrong ?"
Cirus was probably the most outspoken of the Kerber that Alex had met. But even he was hugely taciturn by human standards. He shrugged. "No one told them to stop, so they keep working. We're Kerber. We need a master. We've always needed a master."
"No !" Alex shouted in frustration. All of the Kerber took an involuntary step backwards. Thousands of years of servitude made this an inevitable reaction.
Then she stopped herself, lowering her head in thought.
"Okay," she said to the two Kerber from Slime-Cabbage-36, "Please ask everyone to gather at the centre of the settlement. I'd like us to have a meeting with everyone present in, let's say, half an hour."
The two nodded, confused that she had said please. It was a word exchanged between masters, not used on Kerber. But they hurried off to get the other inhabitants.
Image created by AI in NightCafe Studio. Still weird.
After half an hour, there were nearly two hundred Kerber gathered in the clearing in front of the burnt-out ruins of the Slaver house, making a ring around a cleared central space. Alex deliberately didn't move to the centre; she stood among the ring of Kerber.
"My friends," she began, "The Slavers, your former masters, are gone. You are free, but I know that means very little to you right now. I am what you call an Imperial, but we are not your new masters. You must govern yourselves. But I know you need some help with that, it is a long time since you've been in charge of your own destiny."
She waited for a few seconds to let the words sink in. Most of the Kerber had expressions of intense thought; these were all concepts they'd never had to think about before. Then she continued.
"I'm going to try to give you a few pointers. Not instructions, but maybe you can learn from some of the successes and failures we've had in the Empire. So as a suggestion, how about this. Each Kerber settlement should send one of it's wisest elders to a neighbouring settlement. Not to be a master, but as an advisor. See what is needed, and work with other neighbouring advisers to meet those needs."
"The Slavers gave you very little, and took much. But that little needs to be made by you. Not everyone needs to work in the fields, because you only need to grow enough for your own needs. So find out who can weave, who can make tools, and build a better world for yourselves. Let the advisors co-ordinate it, but don't ever let advisors become masters. I know you can do it. Do any of you have any questions ?"
Most of the Kerber continued to look deep in thought. They weren't a stupid people, it was just that this was all very new to them.
Then one of the older ones raised a hand. "But what do we do when the Masters come back ?"
Alex could see the worry. "Fight them. Work to build build up the knowledge, resources and tools you would need. But I hope I can persuade the Empire to protect you."
A child raised her hand. "Will you stay with us ?"
This was the question she had been afraid of. After months leading the revolt, Alex had become attached to these diminutive, shy, but also utterly terrifying people. They were completely alien, and yet had so much in common with people of all colours and shapes throughout the universe.
After some thought, she answered. "I have my own people I would like to return to. Family and comrades who will be missing me, and who I miss. I don't even know if I can get back to them. If I can't, there is no-one I would rather be among than the Kerber. But if I can, then I hope I will be able to visit from time to time."
She wondered if she would ever get home, or see the ones she loved ever again. She missed Trass terribly.
To be continued....
