Chapter 30 Nightmares, Concessions, and Contingency Plans.
1084 Words
Hilda was sleeping restlessly with vivid dreams. She had been feeling nauseous and sick since she came back to Hansstadt earlier the same day and she hadn’t managed to convene a meeting with the other Terran Council leaders. Suddenly, another dream began. Hilda saw herself and Melanie raising their child. Hilda felt how her blood pressure increased, felt a desire for blood, and then she lifted her child and slowly sank her sharp fangs into the innocent child, hearing the child uttering a shattering cry of pain before passing away. The blood was dripping down Hilda’s mouth, and her purple eyes shone with a strange and eerie, terrifying glow.
Hilda woke up, and she vomited up blood. Had Melchior poisoned her after all? She wouldn’t let this affront go unpunished. She looked up, and she saw her private doctor Herbert Braun. He scanned the blood on the floor with a DNA scanner and then spoke.
- The blood you vomit up is not yours, which is a good sign.
- The toxicology report shows nothing. You are probably just sick from drinking over a litre of human blood. I have given you medication to excrete the iron from your body.
- You should be fine in a couple of days.
Hilda:
- But what about my dreams? The dreams of eating my own future child alive?
Herbert Braun:
- I am not a psychiatrist, but I’d say you have some post-traumatic stress from the ordeal. I will leave that out of your report if you don’t mind. I am your friend, and I don’t want your enemies to use your mental health status against you.
- I’d recommend a lot of rest for now. Your cousin can do your work until you feel better.
Hilda:
- But who can protect me when the one I fear the most is myself?
Herbert Braun:
- Fearing yourself after those dreams is a healthy reaction. That means that you are sane, and not a monster like Melchior.
Hilda:
- Thanks, doctor. I need to speak to my cousin now. Please help me get to the meeting room.
Herbert helped Hilda to the meeting room where Michael Muller was waiting.
Michael Muller:
- Oh my god, Hilda, you don’t look well at all. What happened to you?
Hilda Muller:
- Dr Braun believes that the combination of iron poisoning from drinking too much blood and post-traumatic stress is to blame.
Michael Muller:
- Yes, Melanie told me what happened up there. What a monster that man is!
Hilda Muller:
- Yes, and the worst part is that we caused that form of evil to happen.
Michael Muller:
- No, we did not. While Joachim, Benjamin and Bjorn committed countless atrocities to the Martian population it was still caused by greed which is a natural human emotion.
- What Melchior is doing is not even human. Drinking blood, eating humans alive while staring into their eyes. It not a human form of evil.
Hilda Muller:
- So, what are you implying? That Melchior is controlled by Rangda and the Xenos?
Michael Muller:
- Yes, that is the only reasonable explanation.
Hilda Muller:
- Okay, but why then would he want to enter the portal with his army? It would be easier to instruct the Xenos to attack via the portals, while Melchior’s army attack from the sky.
Michael Muller:
- I don’t know, maybe there is something else they are after? The botched expedition to the Divine Dimension came across another alien species, didn’t they?
Hilda Muller:
- Yes, the Zetans. A small group of them managed to kill off a large part of Emma Schindler’s expeditionary force before the Xenos swept in and killed everyone.
Michael Muller:
- So, from this limited information on hand, can we assume that the Zetans and the Xenos are enemies?
Hilda Muller:
- Yes.
Michael Muller:
- And that Melchior, most likely possessed by Rangda using unknown means, is leading the Martian army to the Divine Dimension to fight the Zetans?
Hilda Muller:
- That is a likely scenario yes.
Michael Muller:
- Then I suggest that we let Melchior and his army travel to the Divine Dimension, once they are away from earth and no longer a direct danger to us, we send a small expeditionary force to contact the Zetans on a diplomatic mission, trying to form an alliance.
Hilda Muller:
- And if the Zetan butcher this group as they did the last?
Michael Muller:
- That won’t happen. I would send someone highly skilled in diplomacy and avoiding unnecessary conflict.
Hilda Muller:
- And who would that be?
Michael Muller:
- You are talking to him.
Hilda Muller:
- You? But you have shunned all responsibility and power in the past.
Michael Muller:
- I prioritised time with my family over scheming and greed. I could live a life in wealth and affluence without committing evil deeds. I managed to stay friends with everyone by avoiding the stress and fear of people scheming against me. That my friend is diplomacy in its purest form.
- Now I am 60 years old, my children are all grown up, and it’s time to step up.
Hilda Muller:
- You are right. I never thought about it that way.
- So, let’s do it your way. Let’s give Melchior the supplies he wants and give him free passage to the portals. But how do we sell it to the other factions?
Michael Muller:
- I think we should hide our suspicions about Melchior’s allegiance from the other factions. Besides, you don’t think it’s a coincidence that he threatens our capital, do you?
- House Rashid was eliminated since they were the target of the first Xeno invasion. House Cheng, White and Bolivar have all suffered much from the Xeno invasions in China and Central America. The only ones that stood relatively unscathed were Goldstein and us, and now our capital is under severe threat. That is not a coincidence, Melchior knows what he is doing.
Hilda Muller:
- Alright then. I will speak to Markus White and make him summon an emergency meeting in America. Let’s give Melchior what he wants and get him out of here as soon as possible.
- Writer
