Order of Magnitude

XVIII. The Path Forward

    Broken, beaten, defeated, Turner and his associates found their way back to SubTerra. They brought with them a meager collection of supplies, hardly worth the long trek. Plus the images of an entire community lying dead in pools of blood had done nothing to improve the team's morale.

     When they returned, the group didn't see any parvs guarding the entrance. There was a moment of panic when Chandra thought her group had suffered the same fate as Turner's. But then she saw most of them standing in a throng in the common area. She rushed forward to see what the hubbub was, still on edge from her trip.

     Jacques stood in the center, speaking loudly to his captive audience. Chandra blew a sigh of relief. It's just Jacques, she thought to herself. Nothing to worry about. In fact, she was genuinely happy that her community was treating him so well; it would make integration so much easier like this.

     "All of us have suffered in one way or another," Jacques bellowed. "Every single parv in this room has felt the pain of losing a loved one to a human! We have been attacked, hunted, dragged out of our homes and forced to live underground! The time of the humans living so free and easy above us is over!"

     The crowd cheered its approval. Chandra and Turner weaved through the parvs to get to Jacques. "What's going on here?" Chandra asked, a little amused.

     "I'm telling these guys that they don't have to hide in the shadows," he replied in even tones. "And they seem to agree with me." He turned to his audience. "Don't you?"

     Another cheer, this one louder than the one before. Turner smiled and cheered along. It was nice to have some good news after such a trying journey. Not to mention he had never seen a group this large act so animated before. It was truly awe-inspiring.

     "So," Jacques said, quieter. "Where are the others?"

     Turner had been dreading that question. It was never easy to report the loss of anyone, let alone a whole community. He struggled to find the words, so Chandra stepped forward. "They were killed," she said. "Those scientists found your home and murdered them all."

     The room went deathly silent. Jacques looked out at the thousands of parvs that surrounded him, and they stared in anticipation. "Do you need any more proof than this?" he asked to everybody and nobody at once. "The humans kill us indiscriminately. They don't care about us. They have no qualms stepping on us, or gassing us, or experimenting on us! We are nothing but vermin to them! Even their Prime Minister calls us pests! Is this any way to live?"

     "NO!" came the collective cry of the crowd.

     "Should they have more rights than us just because of their height?"

     "NO!"

    "Can we just sit back and let them treat us this way any longer?"

     "NO!"

     "So what do we do?" Jacques asked. The crowd remained silent this time, each parv searching his or her neighbor for some sort of answer. After an eternity of quiet, Meghan cleared her throat.

     "We fight back," she said.

     "That's right!" Jacques smiled. "We fight back against the humans!" There was a less enthusiastic reply from the crowd, which their orator picked up on immediately. "Okay, I can see that most of you are afraid. And I get it. Really, I get it. I mean, how do we fight against those that so clearly outmatch us?"

    More reticence from the parvs. This time, it was young Asa who spoke up. "Very carefully," she joked, which received a big laugh from the community.

    "She's not wrong," Jacques said, trying to build off of the energy. "We are tiny creatures; we have to rely on subterfuge and stealth. It's the only weapons in our arsenal. But these are effective weapons nonetheless. We are the unseen, we can blend in to our surroundings, we can hide and attack at the right moment. The humans can't do that. They can't hide. That is our advantage, and it is a great advantage." The crowd watched with growing enthusiasm. "We have power as parvs. Those that live so high and mighty above us will never see us coming. If we rise up together, we can beat them! We can reclaim our freedom! Our group outnumbers theirs! But this will only work if we are all on board." He paused a moment and surveyed his audience. "Are we all on board?"

    The crowd roared in approval.