The Caverns of Kronos

The Revolution - Part 6

     The celebrations went on for a long time, with people dancing in the streets and feasting on vast quantities of food and drink, freely available in unlimited quantities for the first time in living memory. The Tharians joined in with enthusiasm, delighted at being able to walk freely about the city at last without having to conceal their identities, and the Konnen soldiers, now out of uniform and dressed in ordinary, civilian clothes, mingled freely with the crowds, accepted by the common people for the most part, although there were still hard words and resentful glances from many of those who’d lost relatives in the dungeons or women who’d been forced to do time in the Konnen pleasure rooms.

     There was some talk of some of the worst soldiers being put on trial for crimes committed down through the years, but Diana and Clarissa spoke out fiercely against it, even when they had absolute proof that a particular man had committed a particular crime. Father Bryon had horrified Diana with many horror stories of cycles of hatred afflicting isolated, self contained communities, with one group of people oppressing another, the hatred of the second group growing until they rebelled and overthrew the first, reversing their positions to become worse masters than those they'd replaced. The same thing would happen over and over again, he said, the cycle turning and turning, greased and lubricated by generations of human blood. The only cure, Father Bryon had said, was to draw a firm line across the crimes of the past. To forgive and forget everything, no matter how monstrous, and then fix one's gaze firmly forward, on the future.

     Making the common people of Kronosia accept this bitter spoonful of medicine would be unbelievable difficult, though, particularly in cases where people had been tortured to death by the bestial and merciless dungeon guards, but as luck would have it most of the guards had either been murdered by vengeful relatives in the first hour of the revolution or had escaped into the caverns. Of course there would be the odd occasion when a man would meet the guard who’d murdered a loved one, or a woman met a soldier she’d ‘encountered’ in the pleasure rooms, but these occasions turned out to be thankfully rare. If not for that merciful fact, Diana doubted that it would have been possible to maintain order in the moon city.

     Eventually, though, the celebrations came to an end and the crowds began to disperse back to their own homes. There was no rest for Tomsk, Clarissa and the Tharians, though. Soon, people would begin to wonder who was now in charge of the moon city, and some of the more ambitious would begin putting themselves forward as prospective leaders. If they weren’t careful, they could have another civil war breaking out between the supporters of rival candidates, so they had to think of a way of persuading the entire population of the city to accept Tomsk as their leader, he being the only person old enough, experienced enough and close enough to the centre of the revolution to be a viable candidate.

     The Tharians promised to support him in his claim, on the condition that he make the Lenses of Farseeing freely available to the Beltharans, as soon as they’d returned home and told them about them. Tomsk agreed gladly, but was privately wondering whether he could find the way to turn the job over to someone else. The task ahead of him was terrifying in its scope and magnitude. He would have to find a way to bring some kind of order to the city, re-creating all the various systems, structures and organisations that were part of a normal city’s life, with priority going to some kind of law enforcement system.

     They couldn’t employ any former guards or soldiers for this, that really would have had the citizens up in arms, so they would have to train ordinary, common people. People who’d lived all their lives as servants, tailors or carpenters would have to be policemen, judges and magistrates, to settle disputes and agree on the punishments for crimes. Kronosia, currently, was just a great crowd of people who just happened to be living together, and if they didn’t knock together some kind of government pretty quick, the strong and ambitious would take over, creating a regime so cruel that people would look back on the old days with longing and nostalgia. That had to be avoided at all costs.