On The Road To Eden by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 3 – MEETING IN TOULOUSE

County of Toulouse in 1030 C.E. (Slightly larger than in 862 C.E.  Count Raymond the First of Toulouse possessed the counties of Toulouse, Rouergue and Quercy, plus the vicounties of Albi and of the Limousin.)

 

07:52 (Paris Time)

Thursday, January 5, 862 C.E.

Toulouse municipal wood construction shop 

Next to the Toulouse New Market, outside of the Narbonne Gate

Independent County of Toulouse, Francia

Ranulf was happy to enter the large combined warehouse/hangar/shop that housed the Toulouse municipal wood construction shop, which was heated: while the outside temperature was well above freezing, it was still chilly for him.  Taking off his woolen cape and hanging it in the coatrack of the shop’s entrance lobby, he then put his right hand flat on the small screen of a digital print recognition unit fixed to a nearby wall and which would register the time he had entered the shop.  Once that was done, he gave a warm smile to the very pretty Oriental young woman from the Human Expansion who worked as the secretary and receptionist for the municipal wood construction shop and who sat behind a reception counter.

‘’Good morning, Kimi!’’

‘’Good morning, Ranulf!  How are your wife and kids?’’

‘’Just fine, thank you.  I just accompanied Régis and Marie to their school and they should now be eating breakfast there before starting their classes.’’

Kimi Matsuda nodded her head in comprehension at those words: the Toulouse Primary School, a wooden building Ranulf had helped build, was situated nearby, next to the vast open-air marketplace built just outside of the city’s Narbonne Gate.  The children of the Carolingian citizens of Toulouse frequented it and benefited from free and nutritious breakfasts and lunches, on top of getting a fresh fruit at the end of the day, something meant to encourage their parents in making them attend school.  That had proved successful at once when the school program had been introduced three months ago, with the medieval citizens of Toulouse jumping on that chance to have their young children fed for free.  The local church authorities had then blasted verbally what they called ‘a blatant attempt at bribing the citizens of Toulouse with free food’ but had quickly found out that their strident accusations had only turned their old worshippers away from them, on top of getting them much lower offerings at regular masses.

Walking out of the reception lobby and into the construction shop proper, Ranulf then went to see his foreman, Fidel Ramirez, a Human Expansion man in his late thirties who had taught him and fourteen other carpenters from Toulouse how to work with modern tools, measurements and methods.  A short session in a mnemotronic chair at the knowledge assimilation center of the giant Toulouse Tower, which sat on the Island of the Ramier, next to the old city, had taught Ranulf how to speak English, read, write and count, thus giving him the basic knowledge he needed to learn about modern carpentry.  As a result, Ranulf and his companion carpenters were now able to read architectural plans and follow them to build wooden structures, typically prefabricated houses and communal buildings or small wooden bridges and pieces of furniture.  Fidel Ramirez smiled to him on seeing Ranulf approach.

‘’Aah, Ranulf, nice to see you this morning!  I will have a new, priority project for you and the team today.  We will suspend for a couple of days the construction of park equipment and communal latrines huts, time to urgently build a small family house.’’

‘’Oh?!  And what prompted that change of priorities, Fidel?’’

‘’Last night, a farmer and his family lost their house near Moissac{6}, when it accidentally burned to the ground.  Thankfully, nobody was hurt but those poor people had to find shelter with a neighbor in the middle of the night.’’

‘’Poor people!  Since we got the job of building a new home for them, I suppose that Count Raymond is paying for it?’’

‘’He is!’’ replied Fidel, nodding once his head.  While he himself was paid by the Human Expansion as one of its citizens, the Count of Toulouse, Raymond the First, owned the municipal wood construction shop, built for him by the Human Expansion, and paid its Carolingian employees, on top of deciding the priorities in terms of what to build.  That collaborative effort between Count Raymond and the Human Expansion’s representative in Toulouse, Ann Shelton, had proved most beneficial to all and had already resulted in the building of schools, an hospice for old people, a communal medical clinic and dispensary, communal latrine huts meant to make Toulouse a much cleaner and sanitary city and, most important of all, the Toulouse open-air market, which was now attracting an ever growing number of merchants from all over Francia and beyond.  Fidel then unrolled a blueprint on top of a work table and explained it to Ranulf.

‘’That family in Moissac counts three adults and four children.  We will thus build for them our standard model of four-bedroom prefabricated rural house, to which we will add a small barn.  Kenneth and his specialist team will take care of the electricity and plumbing parts, while a robotic team is already on the site, clearing the debris and digging new foundations.’’

Ranulf nodded at those words, being well knowledgeable by now with the very efficient construction methods and working robots of the Human Expansion.

‘’Then, we should be able to build the elements of that house and barn within three days and to assemble it on the spot within an extra day, Fidel.’’

‘’That was my assessment as well, Ranulf.’’

‘’Do we have sufficient stocks of cut and dried wood for that project?’’

‘’We have still plenty of cut and dried wood in stocks at this time and we are due to receive today more cut wood from overseas, which will then be stored inside our wood drying warehouse.  As for the nails and glass panes, we also have plenty of them.  We can thus start building this house right away.  Robots already brought in the needed wood and parts from the construction materials warehouse.  We now just need to start the cutting and assembling as soon as the others are in.’’

‘’Then, I will go measure and mark in advance the wood beams to be used.’’

That made Fidel smile to Ranulf, most satisfied with him: despite having been a basically illiterate man only four months ago, Ranulf had since proved to be an intelligent, energetic and strong worker with a solid common sense.  In that, he had proved yet again that ignorance was not synonymous with stupidity.

‘’Excellent!  Let’s get to it, then!’’

 

09:07 (Paris Time)

Castle of Vienne, Cisjuranian Burgundy

On the Saone River, thirty kilometers south of Lyons

Kingdom of Provence

Girard de Vienne, Duke of Lyon, Count of Vienne and preceptor to King Charles of Provence, was discussing with Aurélien, the notary of young King Charles, the state of the food provisions for the castle when a guard came to them at a run, completely agitated.

‘’YOUR EXCELLENCY!  YOUR EXCELLENCY!  A FLYING BOAT JUST LANDED IN THE CASTLE’S COURTYARD!’’

Normally, Girard de Vienne would have smacked that guard on the head for saying nonsense but the last few months had been much less than normal.  Despite the typical slowness at which news and information traveled around in the Middle Ages, Girard did know that such flying boats and ships were more than just wild visions.  The news that King Charles of Francia had been to all intents and purposes defanged and deposed in last October by powerful people from the future who used flying ships had reached Vienne in November, along with the news that the various Viking armies ravaging and looting Francia had been massacred by those same people from the future.  That had been a moment of intense celebration in Vienne, as Girard de Vienne and his protégé, young, sickly and feeble-minded King Charles of Provence had been fighting both King Charles of Francia’s army and the Viking pirates, on top of fighting off incursions by the Muslim forces of the Emir of Cordoba, Muhammad the First.  Then had come only days ago news about the rather forceful visit those same people from the future had paid to Pope Nicholas the First in early December.  Of those enigmatic people from the future, Girard de Vienne knew only two things for sure: first that they used flying ships and had terrifying weapons; second, that they had established an outpost in Toulouse and had concluded some kind of pact with Count Raymond of Toulouse.  That some of them had now come to this castle had to be treated with both very cautious diplomacy and utter seriousness.  Girard thus asked a question to the guard in a firm but neutral tone.

‘’How big is that flying boat?’’

‘’It is actually not that big, your Excellency: it is at most some eight paces long and two paces wide.’’

That actually helped Girard in relaxing a bit: the people from the future possessed much larger flying ships and such a small boat could possibly mean that they had come with peaceful intents.

‘’Has anybody come out of that flying boat?’’

‘’Not yet, Your Excellency, but ten of our guards are now surrounding it and are ready for anything.’’

‘’Go tell them to leave the courtyard at once!’’ said Girard, tensing up again.  ‘’I want no provocative action made against that flying boat or its occupants.  I am going to go down to the courtyard to deal with this personally.’’

‘’Understood, Your Excellency!’’ replied the guard before running away.  Aurélien, who was also the Abbot of Ainay, in Lyon, gave him a sober look.

‘’Be careful, Your Excellency: we still don’t know if those people from the future are manifestations of the Devil or not.  They already humiliated Pope Nicholas and are said to be atheists.’’

Girard nearly laughed in his face in reaction.

‘’Anybody who massacres Viking armies wholesale can’t be evil in my mind, Aurélien.  Those people may be atheists but I will ask you not to prejudge them because of that.  They represent too much power to be denied or rejected out of hand without good reasons.  Go alert King Charles but make sure that he doesn’t panic or becomes incoherent at the sight of that flying boat.’’

‘’Uh, yes, Your Excellency!’’

Letting the royal notary walk away at a quick pace, Girard de Vienne, still a vigorous man at the age of 51, an advanced age for the average man of the time, started climbing down the nearest staircase, coming down from the upper floor of the castle to the ground level.  He arrived at the courtyard just as some sort of door pivoted upward on one side of the mysterious flying boat, which was shaped a bit like a flattened teardrop.  Girard couldn’t help then to hesitate and stop, while his left hand got hold of his sword’s pommel, when a gigantic shape stepped out of the flying boat.  That person wore a sort of elaborate and complicated armored suit and stood higher than Girard, who was considered a big man in Vienne.  However, the newcomer was not holding any kind of weapon and simply closed the door of the flying boat before starting to walk calmly towards Girard.  The latter had to make an imperious gesture to the four guards standing behind him, who had pointed their spears.

‘’STAND DOWN, MEN!  That newcomer is probably here to talk.  Go back by a good ten paces.’’

The nervous guards obeyed him and stepped back to the end of the hallway, letting Girard be alone to greet the person from the future, who stood a good half head over him.

‘’Good day to you, Sire!  I am Girard de Vienne, Duke of Lyons, Count of Vienne and preceptor of King Charles of Provence.  What is the purpose of your visit?’’

The newcomer responded by first unlocking and opening up the opaque facial visor of his helmet and then speaking in good but accented Occitan.

‘’And good day to you, Your Excellency!  I am Corporal Diane Champagne, sent by Lady Ann Shelton, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Human Expansion in Toulouse.  I came to deliver an invitation to an important meeting.’’

Girard stayed frozen for a good second as he contemplated the face of a pretty young woman smiling down to him.

‘’A…a woman?’’

‘’The last time I checked myself, I was.’’ was her facetious reply.  She then became serious and presented a sealed envelope held in her right hand.  ‘’If we could go inside, I could then explain to you the goal of that meeting, Your Excellency.  Be assured that I came with only peaceful intentions.’’

‘’Uh, alright, Lady Diane.’’ said Girard while taking the offered envelope.  ‘’Please follow me.’’

Girard then led her down the hallway and went up the staircase he had just used, coming off it one level up and bringing her to a study, where a large table and ten chairs stood.

‘’The private royal council room.’’ explained Girard after Diane Champagned entered it behind him.  ‘’I will now have someone inform King Charles, so that he could listen to your words.’’

‘’Go right ahead, Your Excellency.’’

Somehow, her relaxed attitude and tone did a lot to reassure Girard, who went out in the hallway long enough to pass an order to a guard.

‘’Go tell King Charles that he should come to the private royal council room, along with his notary.  A person from the future came to deliver an invitation to a meeting.’’

‘’Right away, Your Excellency!’’

The guard ran away, returning a few minutes with young Charles de Provence, who was only sixteen-years-old, and his notary Aurélien.  Girard frowned when he saw that no less than twenty guards and knights were following them closely, probably alerted by Aurélien.

‘’Hold there, men!  Only the King and Abbot Aurélien will enter the council room.’’

The senior knight leading the men-at-arms nearly objected but kept his mouth shut on seeing the frown on Girard’s face.  The latter let King Charles and Aurélien enter, then closed the thick wooden door behind them before going to the council table, where he sat next to King Charles, facing Diane Champagne.  Diane, on her part, examined for a moment the young and frail-looking king before speaking up.

‘’As I said earlier to Duke Girard, I came to deliver an invitation to a meeting with Lady Ann Shelton, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Human Expansion in Toulouse.  For your information, we of the Human Expansion accidentally arrived from the 41st Century on September 23 of last year and are now stranded in this century.  We were then fleeing a race of alien invaders who were destroying the worlds inhabited by Humans.  Before you could panic at this piece of news, be reassured: those alien invaders don’t know how to travel through time, so are incapable of coming here, as incapable as we ourselves are of returning to our original time period.  We are thus refugees of sorts, but we do not intend or even wishes to act like invaders and seize by force new lands for ourselves.  Instead, we occupied faraway overseas lands which were still devoid of human occupation and are presently rebuilding cities there.’’

‘’Then, why come to Toulouse?’’ asked Girard de Vienne.

‘’We sent first a team in Toulouse in order to ascertain the exact date we had ended in.  We also concluded an accord with Count Raymond of Toulouse after finding him to be a caring and reasonable man, so that we could open a public market there and thus be able to attract merchants and buy food from them and from the Count.  While they are not in danger of starving at this time, the refugees carried by our fleet are presently rationed, until we could develop our own crops in the lands we settled overseas.  In exchange, we sell products that we know how to produce in huge quantities, typically products made of steel or glass.  Since the Vikings were approaching Toulouse at the time of our arrival there, we decided to get rid of them and of the other Viking armies ravaging Europe.’’

‘’And in exchange for what did you do that?’’ asked Aurélien in a skeptical tone, prompting Diane in eyeing him severely.

‘’We did that simply to stop and prevent the systematic murder of thousands of innocent people by those Vikings, not simply to gain some reward.  Yes, Count Raymond thanked us then by giving us the nearby Island of the Ramier, on which we subsequently built our outpost, but our biggest reward was to save countless innocent lives.  The Human Expansion stands for the welfare and care of all, irrespective of race, sex, social conditions or beliefs.  The meeting to which King Charles and Duke Girard are invited to is meant to conclude an entente between the various landowners and noble leaders in Francia, in order to cement a durable peace around the country.  Other important Carolingian leaders will also be invited to that meeting, which will be held tomorrow in Toulouse.’’

‘’Tomorrow, in Toulouse?’’ said Girard, tensing up.  ‘’But we can’t get there this fast!’’

‘’We know!’’ replied Diane while smiling.  ‘’That’s why we are going to provide transportation to Toulouse and back for you.  If you accept to attend this meeting, we will send tomorrow morning a flying aircar like the one I came in, which will then fly you to Toulouse.  Before you decide on whether you will come or not, know that there will be a few conditions attached to our invitation.  First, you will not bring any weapons with you.  You may dislike some of our other guests attending the meeting and we don’t want to see it degenerate into a brawl.  Second, religious beliefs will not be discussed at that briefing, except for us to state that we will not tolerate any acts of religious intolerance or persecution by anyone, be they Christian or Muslim.  We are steadfast atheists and we do not wish to waste our time on futile religious debates.  The only thing we wish to accomplish is durable peace around the whole of Francia.  Finally, we will keep the number of attendees to a reasonable number: the more people around a table, the more intractable the discussion becomes.  However, we will be happy to welcome the wives and children of attendees, who will then be able to visit our installations in Toulouse while we talk.  Countess Berthez of Toulouse will be guiding them around.  In your particular case, we are extending our invitation to King Charles of Provence, to Duke Girard, to King Charles’ scribe and to up to six of your relatives.  Please do not bring bodyguards or armed knights with you, as anybody who is armed will be refused seats aboard our aircar.’’

Girard then asked a question on behalf of young Charles of Provence, who obviously had problems following properly the conversation because of his slow mind.

‘’And who else exactly is invited to this meeting, Lady Diane?’’

‘’The list of guests and attendees is attached to our invitation, Duke Girard.  You may take your time to review it before giving me your answer to our invitation.’’

Breaking the wax seal of Count Raymond of Toulouse on the envelope, Girard then opened it and extracted a two-page document made in a type of thin, white paper he had never seen before.  Reading quickly the first page, which was the actual invitation to the meeting, he then switched to the second page, which gave the list of attendees.  Girard couldn’t help tense up on reading a few of the names and he looked up at Diane, misgiving on his face.

‘’You invited the sons of the late Humfrid of Gothie?  Wasn’t Humfrid killed by one of the sons of Count Raymond three months ago?  How do you expect them to not react violently to your invitation when they will receive it?’’

‘’Well, they will be free to ignore it or to refuse squarely to come to the meeting, which would be a stupid and shortsighted decision in my opinion, but attacking our messenger would not only be stupid on their part: it would prove to be their deaths.’’

Girard couldn’t help eye her with some contempt then.  For him, a simple messenger and a woman to boot offering her personal opinion to a nobleman like him was at a minimum displaced on her part, at least here.

‘’Does your lord often listen to your opinion on such high-level political matters?’’

Diane, having expected in advance some level of sexism and snobbery, returned his stare at once, while her voice cooled down noticeably.

‘’Let’s make something clear right away, Duke Girard.  I may appear to you to be only a low-level messenger and a woman but know that Doctor Ann Shelton listens to everyone around her, and not only to those of comparable rank or function.  In fact, we consider everyone in our society to be equals and our leaders are elected to serve the public, not to get rich or powerful.  I am the personal bodyguard of Doctor Shelton, who considers me as one of her friends, and have fifteen years of formal schooling and military training to my credit.  I am thus no illiterate tart.  If you decide to accept Doctor Shelton’s invitation, then you better treat with respect everybody that you will meet in Toulouse, irrespective of their ranks or functions.  Also, in my society, there is absolute equality between the two sexes.  In fact, our political leader, who presides over the destinies of over eighteen million of our citizens, is a woman.  Now, do you need some time alone with King Charles to take a decision about our invitation?  If you do, I will then go out in the hallway and wait there.’’

Girard didn’t need much time before grudgingly nodding his head.  This meeting in Toulouse sounded too important to be missed, while getting on the wrong side of these powerful people from the future could quickly prove disastrous, if he could go by what had happened to King Charles of Francia.

‘’Very well: you may tell Lady Shelton that we will come.  How long will that meeting be?  Could it go on over a number of days?’’

‘’Doctor Shelton is hoping to conclude the meeting on the same day.  Anything longer would basically mean that we failed to get to a common understanding.’’

‘’And what if that happens?’’

‘’Then, we will help and support those ready to listen to us, while we will ignore the others.’’ replied at once the commando.  ‘’Our aircar will return to this castle early tomorrow morning.  Please bring only the minimum of luggage with you.  If you will now excuse me, I have many more invitations to deliver.’’

‘’And where are you going next, if I may ask?’’ said Aurélien, attracting a sardonic smile on Diane’s lips.

‘’To Narbonne, to deliver invitations to the sons of Humfrid of Gothie.  If they react too stupidly and attack me, I just may end up having to kill them today.’’

‘’You, kill them while yourself are being unarmed?’’

In response, Diane raised her armored right fist in a flash before smashing it down on one corner of the table, which was made of thick wood.  To the shock of the Carolingians, that table corner was ripped away cleanly by that strike, with Diane then smiling to them.

‘’I don’t need weapons to kill them, Abbot Aurélien.  See you again tomorrow.’’

Diane then left the council room, leaving Girard and Aurélien to look at each other in disbelief.

‘’By the Devil!  No wonder that those people could massacre Viking armies wholesale!’’ exclaimed the abbot.

 

08:40 (Paris Time)

Friday, January 6, 862 C.E.

Aircar on approach to the Toulouse Tower

Independent County of Toulouse

Girard de Vienne, traveling with his wife Berthe, son Thierry and daughter Eva, plus King Charles de Provence, Abbot Aurélien and three servants, had thought that the moment at which the vehicle he had taken place in had lifted off from the courtyard of his castle was the most memorable moment of his very active life.  However, he now had to revise his opinion as their flying vehicle was approaching a gigantic tower of steel and glass dominating the nearby city of Toulouse.  That tower, whose summit literally pierced the few clouds in the sky over Toulouse, had been visible nearly at once in the distance after the flying boat Diane Champagne called an ‘air limousine’ had climbed to what was for Girard a vertiginous height.  That mere men could have built such a mountain of steel and glass was nearly impossible for him to believe, much less comprehend how they had done such a feat.  However, that giant tower was not only big and impossibly tall: it was also truly beautiful, with gently curving vertical sides and light blue reflective glass and shiny steel surfaces.  His wife Berthe and daughter Eva were presently fawning about it, while his son Thierry had given him a quick, stunned glance.  As for young Charles de Provence, to say that he was overwhelmed by that sight would have been a gross understatement.  As their air limousine approached a vast, round sort of platform near the top of the tower, Girard de Vienne then fully understood how these people from the future could have massacred whole Viking armies with apparent ease: their technological prowess simply put them in a league of their own, way above anybody else around Europe.  Also, from what he had seen up to now, Girard did not believe that those people were some kind of magicians or sorcerers, contrary to the beliefs Abbot Aurélien was still trying to desperately cling to.  He had not seen or heard to date anything resembling incantations, spells or other elements of witchcraft.  His attention was then caught by Diane Champagne, who was now speaking to her passengers from the front passenger seat.

‘’Ladies and gentlemen, we are now about to arrive at the Toulouse Tower, the main Human Expansion outpost in Europe.  It measures a total of 5,742 feet in height at the top of its central needle antenna assembly, while the landing platform on which we will land stands at a height of 5,082 feet above the ground.  The Toulouse Tower is presently home to over 165,000 Human Expansion citizens living in a total of nearly 33,700 apartments spread over 216 stories.  It also contains vast gardens where a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and cereals are being grown, helping to feed the population of the tower.  You will also find in the Toulouse Tower many commercial shops and boutiques, a number of schools, a hospital, an amusement park, a sports complex, various light industries, repair shops and administrative offices.  Basically, the Toulouse Tower was designed and built to be a nearly self-sufficient city.  The tower is also where Doctor Ann Shelton has her offices.  She will be greeting you on arrival after we land.’’

‘’My God!’’ exclaimed Berthe while looking down through her side window.  ‘’Someone better not fear high places if living in this giant tower.’’

‘’That’s a fact, Lady Berthe.’’ replied Diane Champagne, smiling.  ‘’However, living in this tower is perfectly safe, while the view around can’t be beat.’’

‘’And how long did it take your people to build this tower, Lady Diane?’’ asked seventeen-year-old Thierry de Vienne.  Diane Champagne answered him as the air limousine overflew the outer ledge of the top landing pad.

‘’The people of Toulouse, which watched on as we assembled the tower at its present location, will tell you that we took only three days to build it.  However, what they saw was the putting together of prefabricated modules, already fully equipped and furnished and ready to be assembled together.  In reality, the construction of the various modules forming this tower was made on another, faraway world and took over ten months.  Most of our buildings are built using such prefabrication methods, which greatly speed up the total construction process.’’

Somehow, that explanation sounded truthful to Girard de Vienne, who then switched his attention to the three persons visible on the landing pad, near the base of the central needle-like tower’s top structure.  One was a woman with long black hair, while the other two were respectively a man of seemingly mature age and a younger man holding the handle of what looked like a sort of small cart.  The three persons came forward as soon as the air limousine had landed and were on hand to greet the Carolingians as they stepped out of the vehicle, while Diane Champagne took care of taking out and putting on the cart the three chests containing the spare clothes of the Carolingians.  The woman, who clearly stood taller than even Girard de Vienne, bowed her head briefly while speaking in a fluent Occitan.

‘’Welcome to the Toulouse Tower!  I am Doctor Ann Shelton, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Human Expansion in Toulouse and Francia.  To my right is Mister Ben Corbin, General Manager of the Toulouse Tower, who will do his best to make your visit as agreeable as possible.  Young Shinzo to my left will drive your baggage chariot.’’

Girard de Vienne, imitated by Charles de Provence, returned her bow, then pointed in turn at the other members of his group while discretely admiring the beautiful woman, whose green eyes sparkled with intelligence.

‘’Thank you, Doctor Shelton!  Let me present to you King Charles of Provence, Abbot Aurélien, notary of King Charles, my wife Berthe, my son Thierry and my daughter Eva.  We also brought with us two male servants and one maiden.’’

‘’Pleased to meet you!’’ replied Ann Shelton before pointing at a door on the façade of the central structure.  ‘’Let’s go inside before continuing this conversation: the winds can be fierce at this altitude.’’  The Carolingians were too happy to oblige, as the January wind was quite chilling indeed around the platform, and they walked behind Ann Shelton towards the door, with Shinzo and his baggage cart holding the tail position.  The Carolingians hesitated a bit when the door slid open apparently by itself once Ann Shelton came close to it but followed her in, walking into what they considered at once to be a luxuriously furnished kind of lounge.  Once the door slid close behind the group, Ann faced the Carolingians and painted an apologetic smile on her face.

‘’Pardon me if the next thing I will say may appear trivial or even insulting to you but it is concerning an important rule of hygiene we follow here.  Basically, we do not use chamber pots or outhouses to relieve ourselves.  We instead use what we call toilets, which you could consider as the equivalent of your outhouses but of a much more luxurious and cleaner standard.  If you feel the need to relieve yourselves during this visit, then you must use the facilities inside one of our restrooms or bathrooms, which are widely distributed around our various buildings and not only in this tower.  Urinating in some isolated corner or down a staircase would be considered the height of impropriety here.  We happen to have restrooms here in this lounge, so I will show you how to spot them and then use them.  I will now take with me Duchess Berthe, her daughter Eva and their maid, while Mister Corbin will show how to use our restrooms to the men of your group.’’

Thankfully for Ann, the Carolingians took this in stride and didn’t seem offended by her announcement and subsequent visit to a pair of individual restrooms which were situated along one side of the lounge.  If anything, Berthe of Vienne was positively impressed by the typical 41st Century toilet she saw, which could wash, dry and perfume one’s bum at the command of simple buttons, with pictograms making it easy to understand the process and use it.

‘’My God!  I wish that I had a few of those things around our castle in Vienne: I would not need any more to watch for puddles of urine while going down staircases.’’

That remark made Ann Shelton giggle in amusement.

‘’Well, that is one nice side of modern technology.  Now, after using the toilet, you can use this sink to wash your hands.  It has both cold and hot water on demand, plus you have a liquid soap distributor here and an air dryer.  Let me show you.’’

A couple minutes later, the group reformed inside the arrival lounge and was then guided by Ann towards one of the elevators connected to their present level.  As the group entered one of the elevators, Ann spoke again while showing to her visitors a display screen near the sliding doors which showed multiple numbers and words.

‘’We are now inside what we call an ‘elevator’, or ‘lift’.  We extensively and routinely use such elevators to go up and down our buildings, using cabins travelling inside vertical shafts.  You will understand that simply using stairs in a building as high as this tower just won’t do.  The concept and technology of elevators has been in widespread use for over 2,100 years in our history from the 41st Century, so it is a well-honed and very reliable technology which is completely safe.  In tall buildings like this tower, we use two types of elevators: so-called local ones, which travel at relatively moderate speeds and only travel between given portions of the total height of a building, and high-speed lifts, used to connect the base level of the building with the various vertical sub-sections of it or go directly to the top levels.  This elevator is of the local type and will carry us down by ten levels to the one where the tower’s hotel is situated.  You will then get rooms at that hotel, the ‘Toulouse Sheraton’, where you will be accommodated during your stay.’’

‘’And how many levels are there in this giant tower of yours, Doctor Shelton?’’ asked Berthe de Vienne, making Ann smile.

‘’In absolute terms, this tower counts 502 levels above the ground and another 42 levels below ground.  However, the ceiling height of many of those levels vary from our standard height by combining two or more levels together to form more voluminous spaces.  In particular, our apartments, like the hotel rooms you will occupy, have their various rooms distributed on two sub-levels while technically sharing a single circulation floor.  The indications on this information panel thus show only a total of 310 levels above ground and 22 levels below ground, with many of those levels being split, with letters designating each of their sub-levels.  In our case, we are going down to Level 230, which is the one where the Toulouse Sheraton Hotel reception desk can be found.  I will now touch the number 230 displayed on this command screen to activate our lift.’’ 

The Carolingians watched Ann lightly touch the number 230, displayed in dark blue over a bright yellow background.  The sliding doors of the cabin then closed and they felt a smooth sensation of downward movement that went on for a few seconds before their cabin stopped and the doors slid open, showing a long and large hallway opening unto a rotunda at the center of which was their elevator shaft and other shafts and emergency staircases.  Ann led her group out of the elevator and pointed down the hallway entrance facing them.

‘’This hallway leads to the Toulouse Sheraton Hotel, whose rooms are distributed around the periphery of the saucer forming the landing platform of the tower.  We are…’’

She then stopped talking for a moment while apparently listening to something for a few seconds before seemingly speaking to herself.

‘’I will be there in a minute.’’

Ann then looked at her visitors, who were visibly wondering what had just happened, and gave them an apologetic smile.

‘’I am sorry about this interruption.  I was just advised that another important participant to our meeting is about to arrive at the landing platform.  If you will please excuse me, I will leave you in the good hands of Mister Corbin, who will get you hotel rooms and will explain to you the schedule for today’s meeting.’’

As Ann stepped back inside the elevator cabin, Ben Corbin smiled to the Carolingians while pointing at the nearby hallway entrance.

‘’If the ladies and gentlemen would please follow me.’’

As the nine Carolingians and Shinzo followed the manager down the large hallway, whose floor was covered with a blue-green carpet, Berthe de Vienne couldn’t help make a remark while eyeing her surroundings.

‘’This is all so luxurious!  Compared to this, our castle in Vienne looks like a simple peasant’s hut.  If this is indeed the normal level of comfort those people are accustomed to, then they are indeed a rich people.’’

‘’We prefer to think of ourselves as simply a society that takes adequate care of all of its citizens by sharing equally its resources, Lady Berthe.’’ interjected Ben Corbin.  ‘’However, this building was constructed before we had to flee from the Morg invaders and the buildings we are now producing here on Earth for our refugees, while more than adequate in terms of facilities and comfort, are being built to more austere standards, out of urgency and necessity.  Only some two million of our citizens, out of a total of a bit over eighteen million people, are presently awake and active.  The rest are still deep in cryogenic sleep, a sort of artificially-induced sleep which allowed us to pack as many refugees as we could aboard our ships before we had to flee the Alpha Centauri System.  Now, our industries aboard our ships are working at maximum capacity to both build new accommodations for the rest of our citizens and to build a new industrial and economic infrastructure base for them on Earth.  By helping procure more foodstuff via commerce with the merchants of this time, our outpost in Toulouse is helping feed the constantly growing number of our citizens being awakened every day.  We may appear all-powerful to you but we still are in essence a people busy rebuilding a new home for itself after seeing its old home destroyed by invaders.  From what I read of the history of this century, you are probably quite familiar with the plight of refugees.’’

 The Carolingians exchanged glances then, struck by the brutal honesty of Corbin’s words.  Girard de Vienne nodded his head once.

‘’Thank you for your frankness, sire Corbin.  Most leaders of this time would rather hide their weaknesses and problems in order to either not attract an invasion by a greedy neighbor or to keep their own people from revolting.’’

‘’We know.  However, we have no wish to invade others or attack them in order to steal resources from them.  Instead, we are presently settling ourselves in distant, overseas lands which had no human occupants before our arrival.  That way, we can rebuild a new home for ourselves without bringing prejudice to the other people of Earth.  The main goal of today’s meeting is not to push you out of power but simply to ensure that peace comes to all around and that an end is brought to the various wasteful wars needlessly ravaging Europe.  Those wars have caused way too much blood and destruction to our taste, on top of significantly reducing the amount of foodstuff you produce.  For us, a peaceful Earth means a more just and productive Earth, which in turns will help us reestablish ourselves on Earth.’’

The Carolingians again exchanged glances, with Berthe whispering to her husband.

‘’Those people sound like a bunch I could trust, Girard.’’

‘’I am starting to believe that myself, my good Berthe.’’

After walking for over 200 meters down the corridor, the group finally arrived at the connection with what was apparently a wide, circular hallway following the outer ring of the platform structure they were in.  Facing them was a long reception desk and office set in front of huge windows giving a fantastic view of the countryside around the tower.  Leading the Carolingians to the reception desk, where two pretty young women officiated, Corbin looked at Girard de Vienne and Charles de Provence. 

‘’We have an executive suite with four bedrooms and a central lounge area for King Charles, you, your family and your maiden, plus a separate room for Abbot Aurélien and your two male servants.  Would that be satisfactory for your needs, sirs?’’

‘’Those bedrooms, do they have two beds in each of them?’’ asked Girard, making Corbin nod his head.

‘’Two of the bedrooms in the suite each have a large double bed, while the two other bedrooms have two separate single beds each.  As for the separate room to be occupied by Abbot Aurélien, it has a large double bed main bedroom and a secondary bedroom with two single beds.’’

‘’Then that will do just fine.’’ decided Girard without hesitation.  Corbin nodded his head at that and looked at one of the young receptionists, who had been monopolizing young Thierry’s attention.

‘’Please assign Executive Suite 3 to the following names: King Charles de Provence; Duke Girard de Lyon and his wife Berthe; Thierry de Vienne; Eva de Vienne and one royal maid, plus an adjacent two-bedroom suite for Abbot Aurélien and two royal servants.  I will need nine access and services cards for them as well.’’

The female receptionist typed quickly that information into her computer, then put on the counter nine hotel cards with extendable wire clips, which Corbin distributed to the Carolingians.

‘’Keep those cards clipped to your belts or clothes during your stay at the tower: they will give you access to your suite and will also allow you to go eat at one of the restaurants of the hotel, free of charge.  Don’t worry about being at a loss about what to eat at meal times: me and Doctor Shelton will be eating with the guests to our meeting and will help you with the vegetables and fruits with which you may be unfamiliar.  Quite a few of the staples we use are still unknown here in Europe, being from the Far East or from overseas.’’

‘’That promises to be an interesting experience, Sire Corbin.’’ said Berthe de Vienne, making the manager smile.

‘’Indeed!  If you will now follow me, I will lead you to your suites.’’

The group was about to follow Corbin down the circular hallway but fourteen-year-old Eva hesitated while looking outside through one of the giant windows behind the reception section.

‘’Am I crazy or did this tower turn a bit to the right in the last few moments?’’

Corbin smiled in response and showed to the Carolingians a thin but clear space between the inner circular wall of the outer rotunda and the inner ledge of the hallway’s floor.

‘’You are a very perceptive girl, Lady Eva.  While this tower is solidly fixed to the ground, the outer section of this structure in which the hotel is housed rotates slowly around the tower’s central axis, accomplishing four complete rotations per day.  That way, the hotel guests can admire from their rooms or from the restaurants and lounges of the hotel complex the whole area around Toulouse, and this from a height of 5,000 feet.  That rotation stops only once per day, briefly, during the late hours of the night, in order to allow the transfer of fresh water into the local water tanks of the rotating structure and the flushing out of the liquid and solid waste produced during the day.’’

‘’My God!  I can’t wait to admire such a view.’’ exclaimed Berthe de Vienne.

‘’It is indeed a feature that our hotel guests appreciate a lot, Lady Berthe.  If you will now follow me.’’ 

The tower manager could only do a few steps down the five-meter-wide carpeted hallway that ran inside and around the circumference of the landing platform structure before all the Carolingians suddenly halted, with many also taking a step back in apprehension.  Corbin understood at once what had caused their reactions: a cleaning robot was going its merry way up the hallway and was going to pass only a couple of paces away from the group.  Deciding to deal with this potential problem at once, he shouted an order at the robot.

‘’CLEANER 163, STOP AND HOLD IN PLACE!’’

The robot, a squat machine some 1.4 meter-tall which rolled on four small wheels, stopped at once and stood immobile in the middle of the hallway.  Corbin then walked to it and opened a mechanical inspection panel on one side of the robot before waiving at the Carolingians to approach, which they did with some misgivings.

‘’Please do not be afraid of this machine, good people.  It is a type of machine we call a ‘robot’ and which we use to do manual labor of various kind.  There is no magic or sorcery involved in it, just science and technology which evolved over thousands of years.  This model of robot is designed to sweep and clean large floor and wall surfaces, like in this hallway.  If you will get closer, you will be able to look inside and see parts of its mechanism.  By the way, such robots have been programmed with a limited kind of intelligence and can speak, understand and read up to six languages.  However, they are programmed to be non-violent and to obey verbal orders falling within specific limits.  In your rooms that you will occupy, you will find a model of robot that we call ‘robotic maids’.  Those robotic maids will automatically take care of cleaning your rooms, do your beds and perform any other kind of cleaning job needed inside your rooms.  You may also have periodic visits by other types of robots in charge of doing maintenance or repair work or coming in to pick up your dirty clothes and then bring them back once cleaned.’’

Hesitantly at first, the Carolingians bent down a bit to look through the opened maintenance panel of the robot, with Girard de Vienne being the first to have a look.

‘’By God!  This looks very complicated to me.  And you say that this is a simple machine, with no magic or witchcraft involved?’’

‘’Well, it is only a machine but it is not very simple, as you can see, Duke Girard.  In fact, it takes a minimum of twelve years of general schooling, plus at least two years of specialized schooling and training, before someone can be qualified to maintain and repair such robots.’’

‘’Fourteen years of schooling!’’ exclaimed young Thierry de Vienne.  ‘’How many of your people spend so much time in school, sir?’’

‘’Nearly all of them, sir.’’ replied Corbin, straight-faced, making the Carolingians look at him with near disbelief.  ‘’Even the least skilled of our people, including persons with mild mental retardation, can read, write and count at a minimum.  Education is provided free to all of our citizens, along with all the basic necessities of life, like adequate food, complete health care, an adequate home or apartment and a standard minimum of clothing allowance.  When our people finish training or learning to fill a job or produce things or a category of service, they can then earn money and be able to afford for themselves what are considered luxury products or services.’’

While the Carolingian nobles present stared with disbelief at him, Corbin didn’t miss the looks exchanged between the two male royal servants and the one maiden, a teenage girl who was maybe fifteen or sixteen-years-old.  Those looks conveyed envy, not shock.  Corbin let time for all the Carolingians, including the servants and the maid, to look inside the robot, before closing back the maintenance panel and giving an order to the robot.

‘’You can resume your duties, Cleaner 163.’’

‘’Yes sir!’’ replied the robot in a normal human voice before starting to roll again, watched by the overwhelmed Carolingians.  Abbot Aurélien couldn’t help sign himself then, attracting a mild chiding from the tower manager.

‘’No need to sign yourself, Abbot: no evil is involved in our technology.  Now, let’s get you to your rooms.’’

The Carolingians did follow him then, but more than one of them glanced back at the robot rolling away down the hallway.

After a very short walk, Ben Corbin stopped in front of a door and opened it with his own access card, then invited the Carolingians to go in.  Girard de Vienne, following close behind Charles de Provence, did six steps down a corridor past the entrance, which had a number of doors along its sides, then had to stop, stunned. He now could glimpse at the central lounge area of the suite, which had a high ceiling and huge windows giving a view of the old city of Toulouse and of its surrounding.  His wife Berthe also had to stop, equally stricken by the utter luxury and apparent comfort of what she was seeing.

‘’My God!  I have to correct myself: compared to this, our castle is a pigsty.’’

That made Girard wince and chide her in a low voice.

‘’Come on, Berthe!  Our castle in Vienne is also the royal residence of King Charles.  It isn’t that bad.’’

‘’Well, this is certainly much cleaner and the view of the outside can’t compare.’’

‘’True!’’ recognized Girard as Ben Corbin started describing the suite to their group.

‘’This executive suite, designed mostly for visiting groups of businessmen and merchants, is comprised of four separate bedrooms, each of them with their own bathrooms, plus a common lounge area, a dining corner, a private conference room, a private fitness training room and a communal hot tub.’’

‘’Uh, what is this ‘hot tub’, Sire Corbin?’’ asked Thierry de Vienne, making Corbin nod his head once.

‘’A hot tub is a kind of large, deep bath where hot water is constantly circulated, forming whirlpools.  It is a very nice way to relax after a hard day of work.  We will visit it together after I will have shown you the rest of the suite.  First, though, I will show to King Charles his room.’’

Going to a nearby door on one side of the lounge area, next to a ‘U’-shaped staircase leading to the upper level of the suite, Corbin opened it and invited in Charles de Provence.  The latter reacted like a kid given a nice new toy when he saw the vast, luxurious and very comfortable-looking bedroom assigned to him.

‘’This is a marvelous room, Sire Corbin.  Thank you very much.’’

‘’I am glad that you like it, Your Majesty.  Shinzo, please drop the King’s foot locker next to the closet.’’

Helped by one of the royal servants, the young porter lifted the large wooden chest containing the effects of Charles de Provence off his baggage cart and dropped it next to the long closet covering nearly all of one side wall of the bedroom, opposite to the side where big, high-ceiling windows gave a fantastic view of the outside.  Ben Corbin then described the inside of the bedroom to the awed Carolingians.

‘’This is one of the two main bedrooms of this suite.  By the way, your own bedroom is similar to this one, Duke Girard.  As you can see, the bedroom proper has a big double bed with drawers along its sides, a large closet, two chests of drawers, a work desk, a desk with mirror for taking care of one’s appearance and a reclining chair.  Near the entrance door, you will see the door to the bathroom connected to this bedroom.’’

Corbin then led the Carolingians inside the bathroom, where they were able to admire the tile-covered floor and walls, the large bathtub, a long two-sinks counter and a toilet.  Then leaving the room altogether and returning to the lounge area, he pointed at the large flat screen television sitting on a low table set against the large windows of the lounge.

‘’This is what we call a television.  We use such devices to watch various entertainment shows, movies, news programs or even play video games.  Don’t worry about how to understand and use such novelties: Shinzo here will stay with you for the next hour in order to show you how to use the amenities of this suite.  While we are still together as a group, I will now cover some ground rules that apply to all the occupants of this tower and which constitutes legal laws in the society of the Human Expansion.  First, and most important, is that all persons, irrespective of race, sex, social status or personal beliefs, are equals in the eyes of our laws.  This means that physical violence, verbal, physical or sexual abuse towards others will not be tolerated.  In normal circumstances, the perpetrators would be arraigned in front of a judge and either fined or given some kind of communal work as a punishment.  However, as guests and non-citizens of this tower, the less serious infractions will only result in your expulsion and forced return to Vienne.  In the case of the more serious infractions, like physical and sexual assaults, then Doctor Shelton may decide to have you prosecuted or not.  Please understand that, while our clothes may appear very provocative to you, this does not mean that a girl or woman wearing a revealing outfit is some kind of whore.  It simply happens to be the kind of fashion we use.  Secondly, nobility titles and privileges have vanished from our history for over three millenniums and bloodlines mean nothing legally to us.  Only personal merit, skills and competence count as factors of advancement in our society.  So, please do not assume that your nobility titles will give you special rights here.  You will be treated like everybody else in this tower is treated: with regard, respect and politeness.’’

The Carolingians exchanged bemused looks on hearing that, with Charles de Provence looking offended, but Girard de Vienne hurried to whisper in his ear.

‘’Please do not protest this, Your Majesty: we are on their territory and it is their laws which apply here.’’

‘’Very well, but I find this business of ignoring noble titles quite offensive.’’

‘’I will discuss this later on with Lady Ann Shelton, Your Majesty.’’

Charles de Provence, half-convinced, nodded his head, to the relief of Girard de Vienne, who had feared some angry and uncontrolled reaction from the young monarch.  In turn, Girard replied to Corbin in a polite tone.

‘’We understand your rules and laws and will abide by them during our stay here, Sire Corbin.’’

‘’Excellent!  Now, let’s continue the tour of this suite.’’

That tour took another ten minutes, at the end of which Girard de Vienne and his family, plus the royal maiden, had been assigned rooms, with the young royal maiden sharing a two single-bed room with young Eva de Vienne and with one of the male servants sharing Thierry de Vienne’s bedroom.  As for Abbot Aurélien and the remaining male servant, they were assigned an adjacent, two-bedroom suite.  Before leaving the Carolingians, Ben Corbin spoke to Girard de Vienne and Charles de Provence.

‘’Your Majesty, Duke Girard, the meeting you were invited to is due to convene in a bit over half an hour.  Someone will come at that time to guide you to the conference room, while someone else will offer a guided tour of this tower to Duchess Berthe, Lady Eva and your servants and maid.  In the meantime, feel free to freshen up and install yourselves comfortably.  I hope that you will like your stay in the Toulouse Tower.  I will see you again at the meeting.’’

 

09:51 (Paris Time)

Executive Suite # 3, Toulouse Sheraton Hotel

Toulouse Tower

Girard de Vienne and the royal servant named Jean were about finished helping young Charles de Provence to prepare for the incoming meeting when someone knocked on the door of the King’s bedroom.

‘’Come in!’’

The door slid open then, revealing the young porter named Shinzo.

‘’Excuse me, sir, but the participants to the meeting have just been called in.  I will lead your group to the conference room where Doctor Shelton is waiting for you.’’

‘’We will be ready to follow you in a short moment, young man.  What about my wife and daughter?’’

‘’Doctor Shelton has sent a guide for them, so that they could tour the tower while you attend the meeting, sir.’’

Girard nodded his head at that: those people from the future may know nothing about proper court etiquette but they were at least polite to a fault.

‘’Excellent!  Just give us a little moment and we will follow you.’’

Girard soon declared King Charles ready and led him out of his bedroom, linking up with the waiting porter.

‘’Are my wife and daughter already gone?  I don’t see them.’’

‘’They left with their guide and the servants a minute ago, sir.’’

‘’Then, show us the way to that meeting, young man.’’

Leaving the suite via its main entrance door, the group was joined by Abbot Aurélien before starting to walk down the large hallway.  They nearly bumped at once into another group of Carolingians led by a man from the Human Expansion.  Girard the Vienne and his son Thierry instinctively had their right hands go for their belts when they recognized two of the Carolingians before remembering that they had no weapons on them.  Those two nobles reacted the same way at their sight, prompting the big, athletic man guiding the other group into giving a verbal warning in Occitan.

‘’Hold your tempers, gentlemen!  You have been brought here to discuss, not to fight each other.’’

Girard de Vienne gave a cold look at the two young sons of deceased Margrave Humphrid de Gothie, Guifred and Miron, before signaling to his son Thierry to calm down.  Humphrid de Gothie had been a troublesome neighbor of the Kingdom of Provence for years and had been trying constantly to grab more territory from its neighbors, until he had made the fatal mistake of threatening the people from the future, a mistake that had cost him his life.

‘’The man is right, Thierry.  Let’s keep our peace while in this tower.’’

He then bowed politely to salute the mature woman accompanying Humphrid’s sons.

‘’I don’t have the pleasure of knowing you, my dear lady.  Are you also part of Humphrid’s family?’’

‘’I am his widow, sire, and my name is Elmessandre.  My sons are still quite young, so I decided to accompany them to this meeting in order to ensure that they keep calm and steady heads.’’

‘’And I am Duke Girard de Lyon, preceptor of King Charles de Provence, present to my left, Marquess Elmessandre.  This is my son Thierry and Abbot Aurélien, the notary of His Majesty Charles de Provence.’’

The marquess bowed back to him and to Charles de Provence, but her sons conspicuously stayed straight and kept an icy attitude, prompting their guide to hurry them on.

‘’If you will now follow me: the meeting is about to start.’’

Girard waited until the group from Narbonne had walked away before telling his own guide to resume walking as well while keeping a healthy distance with the other group.  

They did not have to walk for long before each of the two groups took place in separate elevators and went up by three levels, to emerge onto another rotating peripheral hallway lined with doors.  However, Girard de Vienne noticed at once the difference between the hotel floor he had been on and this floor, which looked more like a place of administration and business, with many of the rooms lining the hallway having transparent walls showing people sitting at desks or circulating around.  Their porter, Shinzo, confirmed that impression once they were out of their elevator cabin.

‘’We are now on Level 232, which is occupied by the various administrative and executive offices managing this tower.  It is also a rotating level, like your hotel.  We are now going to go to the main conference room on this level.’’

The Carolingians followed the young man while eyeing with intense curiosity the various offices they were passing by.  Abbot Aurélien then made a remark to his companions as they were still walking along the peripheral hallway.

‘’These people seem to employ women as much if not more than men in those offices.  How important are women in your government’s administration, young man?’’

‘’They have completely equal status and importance in it compared to men, like in all aspects of our civilization, Abbot Aurélien.  In fact, our top leader, Chief Administrator, Lynn Tsu, who governs our eighteen million citizens here on Earth, is a woman.’’

‘’And may I ask how she gained that position?’’

‘’You certainly may, sir.  Like all our high-level administrators in our civilization, she first had to pass various tests and competence exams to become part of a small group of no more than six candidates vying for the post she presented herself for.  Then, a democratic vote by all our adult citizens chose her to fill the post she had on Alpha Centauri A-4 before the planet was destroyed by the Morgs: Governor of Kyoto Alpha, the capital of the planet.  We use this form of government candidates’ selection to ensure that, first, all the candidates are fully qualified and competent to fill the open position and, second, to ensure that the public approves the candidate who best meets its expectations.  High level leadership positions are typically voted in for periods of five years, renewable via public elections.  If, however, some administrator proves to be inadequate for the job, he or she can then be unseated by a new vote called for via a public referendum.’’

The three Carolingians exchanged bemused looks at those words: such a type of government could not be further from their own system of aristocratic government ruled by bloodlines and violent overthrows.  Girard de Vienne then asked a question of his own to Shinzo.

‘’And your elected leaders, why do they vie for their posts?  Is the pay or rewards attracting them?’’

‘’Well, there always is the factor of holding significant power, which may be described as a kind of reward by itself, but that is not the predominant one: we don’t want megalomaniacs to be in charge of our society.  As for the pay, it is actually limited to a specific level that is no more than four times the minimum salary in our society.  Since all the basic requirements of life, like food, lodging, clothing, health and education are provided free to all of our citizens, one does not really need to earn a lot of money to live well.  There are of course perks attached to leadership positions, like an official residence, government-provided private transportation and a more extensive wardrobe allotment, but the main motivation for gaining a leadership position in our society is to serve the public and make its dreams and expectations become reality.  The only high-level positions not subject to public elections are military command positions, which are strictly governed by competence, skills and valor.’’

Girard, like his son Thierry, could only nod at the last sentence, with which they could only agree: they had too often seen some royal prince or count be put in charge of an army based simply on their aristocratic rank and then prove on the battlefield to be either incompetent, foolish or even cowardly.

‘’You do seem to know a lot about your government system, despite being a simple porter, young man.’’

Shinzo smiled at that, rather than taking offense with the remark by Girard.

‘’Well, classes on public administration were part of my thirteen years of schooling, sir.  I took this job of porter when our administrators asked for posts in this tower to be filled.  I do like the human interaction involved with the job.  In Kyoto Alpha, I was working in a junior public relations position.  This may be a bit lower in terms of professional level, but we have sixteen million of our citizens still in deep cryogenic sleep, waiting for enough new resources and infrastructures to be built for them on Earth before they could be awakened and then be able to resume their lives.  I thus can count myself lucky in a number of ways to be here.’’

Girard nodded his head to himself, sobered by such a modest and altruistic explanation.  He then gently patted Shinzo’s shoulder.

‘’I like you, young man.  I hope that you will realize your dreams one day.’’

That made the young Oriental man sigh.

‘’Right now, my only dream is to find a nice girl to my taste who will also like me, sir.’’

That made all three Carolingians grin with understanding: women were also a subject of high interest to most male aristocrats around Europe.

After walking for about sixty meters, Shinzo then led his small group into a large, fifteen-by-ten-meter room with a high ceiling and with giant windows giving a fantastic view of the outside.  The middle of the room was filled with a large, long conference table with 32 padded captain’s chairs distributed around it.  More chairs, apparently meant to seat aides and assistants, were distributed along the walls, while one separate section of the vast room contained service tables and food counters.  The level of luxury and comfort of the room struck Girard de Vienne, but not as much as the identity of the various Carolingians already present in the room, milling around and munching on cold food from the buffet.

‘’My God!  Nearly all of the top nobles of Europe are here.  I see Margrave Robert le Fort of Neustria, Adalard the Seneschal, Margrave of the Normand March, Count Raymond of Toulouse, King Solomon of Brittany and King Louis the German of Eastern Francia, among others.’’

‘’I see my brothers Louis and Lothaire!’’ exclaimed Charles de Provence, who then walked quickly to them and started an animated conversation with them, watched from a distance by Girard, Thierry and Aurélien.  A Carolingian man in his late twenties then came to Girard and bowed his head politely to him as he spoke.

‘’Duke Girard, I am Jean de Chambriand, personal advisor to Doctor Ann Shelton.  If you will follow me, I will show you the places assigned to you and King Charles of Provence at the conference table.  Abbot Aurélien and your son Thierry will be able to take seats installed along the wall behind your seats.  The conference is due to start in a couple of minutes.  If you will please follow me.’’ 

Girard nodded his head and followed the man to the long, large table, where de Chambriand showed him one of the high-back captain’s chairs.  A small plaque resting on the table in front of the seat bore Girard’s name. 

‘’You may sit now or stay up until the meeting is called to order, Duke Girard.’’

‘’Thank you!’’

With Jean de Chambriand then walking away to greet more participants arriving for the meeting, Girard de Vienne looked at the plaques lining the table next to his own seat.  Charles de Provence’s seat was directly to his left, next to the seats assigned to King Lothaire II of Lotharingia and Louis II the Younger, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Italy, both brothers of Charles de Provence and rulers of kingdoms adjacent to Provence.  To the right of Girard’s seat were the chairs of Marquess Elmessandre and of her sons Guifred and Miron, followed by the chair reserved for Fourrat, the Count of Arles, who was no friend of Girard or of Charles de Provence.  Going slowly around the oval table while reading the plaques on it, Girard saw among others the names of King Louis the German of Eastern Francia, King Solomon of Brittany, Duke Sancho-Sanchez of Vascony{7}, Count Bernard of Auvergne, Count Salomon of Barcelona, King Ethelbert of Wessex, Viscount Olibia II of Carcassonne, Bivin de Gorze, Count of Metz and of the Ardennes and Count Baudouin Iron Hand of Flanders.  Not surprisingly, one chair at the presiding end of the table was reserved for Ann Shelton.  Girard however stiffened on seeing that the chair directly to the left of Ann Shelton’s seat was reserved for Chief Administrator Lynn Tsu.  He was still digesting that fact when a concert of exclamations from the Carolingians around him in the room made him turn around and look outside through the large windows of the room.  Girard froze instantly as he stared in awe and disbelief at what looked like a flying mountain of metal now approaching Toulouse at low altitude, approximately level with the top of the Toulouse Tower.  The flying ship, as it could only be a ship, soon stopped to a hover directly over the old city of Toulouse, with its shadow completely covering the medieval town and its immediate surroundings.

‘’My God!  What is that?’’

‘’The exploration cruiser H.S.S. MARCO POLO, the flagship of our fleet.’’ said a male voice near him, making Girard turn around to face a tall, powerful man wearing what looked like a sort of military uniform, along with a belt supporting some kind of holster.  The man smiled to Girard while presenting his right hand for a shake, the way Girard was becoming accustomed to see from the people from the future.

‘’Let me present myself: Major Lars Nierman, Chief of Security for the Toulouse Outpost.’’

‘’And I am Duke Girard of Lyon, preceptor of King Charles of Provence.  I must say that I am having a hard time believing that such a huge mass can fly.’’ said Girard while shaking the man’s hand.

‘’That is strictly through advanced science and technology, Duke Girard.  The MARCO POLO is bringing in Chief Administrator Lynn Tsu, our political leader on Earth.  She will preside with Doctor Shelton over this meeting.’’

‘’I see!  Your ship could intimidate any hardheaded monarch around the World just by showing up.’’

‘’That’s effectively part of the idea, Duke Girard.’’ replied Nierman, smiling.  That was when Jean de Chambriand asked out loud for the participants to take their seats.  Girard thus went back to his chair, imitated by the other Carolingians guests. 

They waited, sitting, for only a few seconds before Ann Shelton spoke in Occitan, her voice slightly amplified by a microphone.

‘’Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this conference in Toulouse.  I am Doctor Ann Shelton, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Human Expansion in Toulouse, with responsibilities for the European continent, Asia and Africa.  Chief Administrator Lynn Tsu, the head of the Human Expansion on Earth, will soon join us, at which time we will be able to officially start this meeting.  Before she arrives, I would like to precise a few things to all of you.  First, the Human Expansion has no plans or even intentions to invade and take away your fiefdoms and territories.  Our main goal today is to create a durable and effective peace across Europe, so that we could put an end to this wasteful and bloody war nonsense.  As long as you will govern legally and with fair regard to the wellbeing and prosperity of your subjects, you will have nothing to fear from us.  However, if you allow your people to suffer because of neglect, greed or blatant abuses, we will pay you a visit to convince you to mend your ways.  If you ignore our advice then, our next visit may be less polite.  That’s what happened to King Charles II of Western Francia, whom we stripped of his royal powers and sent him packing to his personal lands, due to his utter failing to protect his people from the Viking threat and for his propensity to heavily tax his subjects and then waste the money collected in a succession of unnecessary fights with other Carolingian nobles, instead of building an effective army to repel the Vikings.  From now on, the borders which exist today will stand and we will not tolerate any attempt by anyone to grab by force additional territory.  If you have a border dispute, then come and see us and we will be most happy to mediate your dispute.  If some outside invader threatens your fiefs, then be assured that we will deal with those invaders harshly, the way we dealt with the Vikings.’’

A visible wave of relief went around the table then, with the various kings, dukes and counts not already allied with Ann Shelton noticeably relaxing on hearing her words.

‘’Second, and as a follow-up to establishing peace, another of our goals is to encourage free commerce and exchange of both goods and ideas throughout Europe.  This will help the common people prosper and have more comfortable lives.  For this, we will help by gradually building a network of modern roads, first across the counties controlled by Count Raymond of Toulouse, then extending those roads outwards through the neighboring counties and territories.  These roads will be for the good of everybody and will not represent efforts by us to annex parts of your lands.  We will only ask you to let our construction teams go through your lands while they build those new roads.  Third, and this point is extremely important to us, we want to bring a stop to the worst human rights abuses and injustices presently perpetrated across Europe.  I am talking about slavery, the use of torture and religious persecutions.  To us, every human life is equally valuable, irrespective of sex, social rank, bloodline, ethnicity or beliefs.  We will be very severe with anyone perpetrating such types of abuses, including those committed in the name of religion.  There will be no more torture and burning at the stake of supposed witches and sorcerers, nor will we permit the continuation of slave trafficking and holding.  If you own slaves now, then you better free them within the next few weeks and give them the same rights as free citizens.  If you don’t do that, then you will get a forceful visit from us.  Also, warn your local churchmen to stop inciting hatred and intolerance against people with different religious beliefs or who say things that contradict your so-called ‘sacred books’.  If they don’t, then they will pay for that.  Know that both slavery and torture, which have not occurred for millenniums in our history, are capital crimes punishable by death, according to the laws of the Human Expansion.  We intend to soon apply those specific laws everywhere in this World and not only in Europe.  So, take our warning to heart.  Finally, if you wonder why we want to do all this, the answer is simple: we want to see a more peaceful, just and prosperous Earth where everybody will be able to live free, decent lives.  Call it a sort of ‘Pax Humana’, if you will.’’ 

Looking around the table at the various reactions to Ann Shelton’s speech, Girard de Vienne saw a lot skepticism, along with some frustration and irritation, but little actual acceptance and welcoming, except with the Carolingian allies of Ann Shelton.  While Girard could easily live with her rules and wishes, it appeared that many around the table were going to pay only lip service to her declarations.  The next few weeks and months could thus prove interesting around Europe. 

A few seconds after Ann Shelton had finished speaking, a mature woman of fair height walked in the conference room, accompanied by a younger woman and by a huge man wearing the sort of armor that had brought grief to the Vikings.  Girard immediately pegged the man as a bodyguard for the mature woman, who was then announced out loud by Jean de Chambriand.

‘’LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, GRAND ADMINISTRATOR LYNN TSU!’’

Seeing Ann Shelton get up from her chair at the arrival of the woman, Girard did the same while discretely urging Charles de Provence, who tended to be slow on the uptick, to do the same.  The other Carolingians also got up, albeit some hesitated and took longer to get on their feet, probably because they thought that their own royal titles put them on a par or above that woman.  Ann Shelton obviously took good notice of who was slow to pay respect to Lynn Tsu before going to her and whispering words with her for a moment.  That discreet exchange went on for a few seconds before Lynn Tsu walked to the chair reserved for her and sat down, while the younger woman accompanying her sat on one of the chairs lining the walls of the room, behind but close to Tsu’s chair at the table.  Girard de Vienne was then able to notice that both Lynn Tsu and the woman who had come with her had the kind of slanted eyelids seen on people from the Orient.  Lynn Tsu then started to speak, her voice amplified by a microphone at her station.

‘’Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.  You will probably notice that I will not use the terms ‘Your Majesty’ or ‘Your Eminence’ when addressing some of you, using instead their generic titles, like ‘King’, ‘Duke’ or ‘Count’.  That will not be meant as an insult but rather will be to mark the fact that I intend to treat all of you equally during this meeting.  As Doctor Shelton told you already, this conference is meant to bring a lasting peace in Europe and to put a stop to the most egregious violations of human rights that had been plaguing this World.  I will again emphasize that we of the Human Expansion did not come here to conquer and have no wish to seize power from you.  However, we will deal harshly with any of you who will threaten peace or indulges in gross violations of human rights, like using torture, continuing the enslavement of people or persecuting others who hold different beliefs than yours.  This will apply equally to aristocrats and churchmen: don’t come and try to justify your acts by telling us that you acted in the name of God, as this will only attract an even harsher response from us.  For us, religions are pure superstitions which faded from Human history millenniums before our own epoch in the 41st Century.  We simply believe in true science and in the laws of nature and of the Universe.  Our technology is based strictly on pure science and has nothing to do with magic, sorcery or other kind of superstitious nonsense.  Those who may try to raise their people against us by accusing us of being some kind of demons or sorcerers, or who will use religion to smear us, will then experience what our technology is capable of in terms of weaponry.’’

That not so veiled threat was not missed on the Carolingians sitting around the table, many of whom exchanged nervous glances with the others near them before Tsu continued speaking.

‘’Many of you may wonder why we are ready to intervene in the affairs of Europe.  The answer to that is both simple and straightforward: we consider every human life on Earth as equally important and worthy of respect, irrespective of sex, race, ethnicity or beliefs.  The life and basic human rights of a peasant from, say, Provence or Brittany, are as important in our eyes as the life and rights of one of our own citizens from the Human Expansion.  We do not consider ourselves to be more worthy of living than your peasants and certainly do not intend to claim ourselves superior just because of our technology and science.  A criminal from the Human Expansion will be treated by us as harshly as a criminal from one of your fiefdoms.  It just happens that violence and crimes are rarely seen in my society, the product of millenniums of social progress.  Unfortunately for us, we then encountered an alien race who considered all other sentient races as simple vermin to be exterminated on sight.  From living in peace for centuries, we had to defend ourselves for sheer survival, while our worlds were being invaded and destroyed one by one until my world in the Alpha Centauri system was left alone with Earth.  Then, the Morgs came to Alpha Centauri to invade it.  We resisted fiercely with all our available ships but still lost due to the overwhelming superiority in numbers of the Morgs.  Despite causing tremendous casualties to the Morg fleet, we had to flee Alpha Centauri with as many refugees as we could carry in the flotilla which carried us to Earth.  However, the Morgs then used an experimental weapon which projected our flotilla back in time, all the way to this century.  We now have no way to return to our original time period, but that also means that the Morgs, who are now over 3,000 years in the future, can’t come and harm this Earth.  You can thus rest easy about the Morgs showing up here.  In turn, we firmly intend to rebuild our industrial base here on the Earth of the Ninth Century and will then send our ships to find and destroy the Morgs’ home world before it could become a threat to all other sentient races in this galaxy.’’

Girard de Vienne, his curiosity piked, then raised a hand before speaking in turn.

‘’Dame Tsu, could you show us what these ‘Morgs’ look like?’’

‘’I certainly can, Duke Girard.’’ replied Lynn Tsu, who then typed something on the computer keyboard of her station.  Four giant display screens then emerged from the ceiling of the conference room, close to its walls and allowing everybody to look at a screen without the need to twist their necks around.  Tsu then spoke as a video started to play.

‘’What you will now see is a battle scene showing our ground troops fighting against a Morg army that had landed on one of our planets.  You will be able to see some of the Morgs then killed by our soldiers.  Unfortunately, we ultimately lost that fight and had to evacuate that planet due to a numerically superior Morg fleet.’’

The video, which had a live soundtrack set at a reasonable volume, then showed what appeared to be the streets of a ruined city, parts of which were burning.  The Carolingians all stared at the screens as Human Expansion soldiers wearing their intricate armor suits were advancing along a street, supported by a big, intimidating armored vehicle on tracks.  Both the soldiers and the armored vehicle were firing repeatedly with disintegrator guns at some opponents down the street, with beams of blue-green lasers firing back at them.  More than one human soldier fell, hit by the laser beams, but the remaining soldiers kept advancing and firing, eventually passing by the half-incinerated carcass of what looked like a giant spider measuring a good three meters from end to end.  At that point, Lynn Tsu paused the video to let the Carolingians have a good look at the dead giant spider.

‘’This, ladies and gentlemen, is a Morg, wearing a protective suit.  We learned during the course of our two-year war against them that they actually ate the humans they either captured or killed, as they are carnivorous and feed on other living creatures.’’

A concert of horrified exclamations went around the table as the Carolingians had a good look at the dead Morg.  Girard de Vienne, while as horrified as the others, could not help register then the awesome combat power of the Human Expansion soldiers and of their support vehicle.  That in turn made him realize that an alien race able to defeat such an army had to be itself extremely dangerous.  Lynn Tsu then started playing again the video, showing the human soldiers fighting and advancing until a flying ship started firing at them with an incredibly powerful weapon which created huge explosions on impact, forcing the human soldiers to retreat after their support tank was destroyed by a direct hit.  Tsu then stopped the video and spoke up in a grave tone.

‘’You now have seen what kind of enemy we had to face.  During the course of two years of war, we endured devastating losses and learned to fight with a ferocity that we had not experienced for centuries.  As a consequence of that war, all of our soldiers and ship crews are war-hardened veterans ready to fight to the death to protect what remains of our society.  That includes protecting the values which govern our society and protecting the rights of our citizens.  We may want peace on Earth, but don’t push us around or ignore us, or you will regret it bitterly.  I have now said what I wanted to say to you, ladies and gentlemen.  I will now leave and let Doctor Shelton continue with this meeting.  Please remember that she is my representative for Europe, with plenipotentiary powers.  If you piss her off by your future conduct, then you will be pissing me off equally and there will be consequences for your actions.  On this, I wish you a good day to all.’’

Tsu then rose from her chair and left the room with her assistant and bodyguard.  The Carolingians sitting around the table were silent for a moment, digesting her ultimate warning, until Ann Shelton took over once Tsu was gone.

‘’Ladies and gentlemen, I will now explain to you our infrastructure program planned for the county of Toulouse and the adjacent counties and kingdoms, starting with our road construction projects…’’