Damn. Didn't notice his approach 'til he was right on top of me. With so much of equipment is disrepair (or, to be honest, completely non-existent as I hadn't bother to even make half of it), its only luck that I spotted the warp tunnel opening at all. Didn't have a chance to compose myself. Barely had time to exit the House and lock up behind me before he arrived. Hope he interprets my uneasiness as bewilderment.
"Petar," I say, extending my hand in greeting, "you're a long way from Hoag. What brings a member of our super wizard parliament out this far?"
His handshake's as noncommittal as I remember. "Hello Dragutin. I wouldn't be here if things weren't desperate. But things are desperate, and seeing as you're partially to blame, I think it appropriate to give you the chance to resolve it."
The plain speech does nothing to put me at ease. Have to get control of this engagement. "Not a social visit then. Hrm. Well then, care to accompany me on my rounds? The billet isn't particularly spacious, nor is it in a state for guests."
Petar raises an eyebrow, takes a quick inspection of the House. Dwarf star. Old. Numb. Stubborn. The blue white surface has patches of irregular brown light. The fusion leaks loose gravity. "I'm disappointed, Dragutin. You were a fanatic supporter of discipline back in the day. Its said that you'd upbraid your troops if you found so much as a scuff on their uniforms."
I bite my tongue. Should find out what he's here for. "Yes, well, you'll have to forgive me," I say, starting toward the orbiting asteroid prisons. "Penitentiary life has dulled my habits."
He doesn't follow, the stubborn bastard. "You're the warden here. You're not a prisoner."
I stop. And turn back to him. "I'm an exile," I jab back. "The job title hardly matters. I'm trapped in this star system, just like any of my frozen charges."
"Too bad. I'm not here to hear your grievances. I'm here to reinstate the Red Hand."
Ah...?
Hm.
Okay. I admit, that's caught me off guard.
"Have you been following current events?" Petar asks. "The cosmic tournament we started?"
I drift back to him. My curiosity overcomes my concern. I think... is he here looking for help? "I've been getting reports. Matter of fact, our own super-champion was just here. The boy's certainly managed to overcome the odds against him. Already had five of the seven crowns."
"Five. Of seven," says Petar, disgusted. "Our calculations had him faltering by the third. Even our outside projections never had him succeeding past the fourth."
"Your projections were based on faulty intel. I tried to warn you. We severely underestimated the power of the crowns. And the effects they had on their bearers. The profile drawn up for Rex was laughable."
"Perhaps we should have listened." Wow. That admission must be killing him. He looks at me quizzically. "The super wizard parliament still believes he'll be stopped at Planet M."
I try to not enjoy dashing his hopes. "They're still wrong."
He points an accusing finger at me. "Emperor M is above and beyond the fiercest combatant in our known universe. Your own accounts ranks him second only to the late Sidney Dharma, and that was before the robot claimed himself a cosmic crown."
"Oh yes, certainly. Senator M was. But he's been a wet blanket since his 'elevation'. He's a figurehead now. The fighting spirit's been drilled out of him. If he puts up any sort of resistance, it's only 'cause of Buzz."
"And of the Queen herself?"
"Ha! Come on, be serious. This whole operation started 'cause the boy cracked a planet in half. She doesn't stand a chance. I'd be surprised if her Swarm hasn't abandoned her already."
Petar nods reluctantly. He paces around empty space. One hand rubbing the top of his head. I recognize the habit. He's not here willingly. If anything, I figure he wants to be here less than I do.
"I never understood why you did it." He says after a long thought. "You went behind all our backs. You took the cosmic crown away from Gavrilo, your own kin. You imprisoned the entire Super Warlock race outside space and time..."
This again. It always comes back to this malarkey. "I had to do something. Someone had to do something. Gavrilo was advocating moderation. Moderation! As if we had the time to research, the time to investigate, the time to formulate hypotheses... damn it, man, the enemy had just released space-greed into the universe. They were on the verge of releasing a handful more infectious space-crimes. And us? We were stuck in our laboratories and our parliamentary debates." I wave a hand at him in disgust. "We needed to act. So I took action. I didn't trick Gavrilo out of the crown. He gave it to me. He knew. He knew we didn't need him right then. We needed me!"
"But why did you give it up?" Petar presses. "That's what I never understood. Why did you just surrendered after all that. You had to know our parliament would never forgive you. Not if they wanted to save face in front of the others super-races."
My hands feel warm. I'm dripping red fire. Wasn't even aware I was. I'm letting him get to me. Deep breathe. At ease. Hands behind my back and my chin up. "I purged a threat from the universe. I saved the our race and countless others. I didn't think I'd done anything that needed forgiveness. Or punishing."
"Would you do it again? If you knew you'd be exiled out here? Or worse?"
"I won't act false to my nature, if that's what you're asking. Then or now. I remain the wizard I am."
"But would you act the same way?"
"The point is I acted."
"I guess someone had to," Petar says with a small smile.
"Someone had to," I agree.
Petar rubs the top of his head again. Staring at me in silence. He's pensive. Uneasy. Trying to come to a decision. Hrm. No, that's not it. Coming here, he's already decided. Now he's trying to justify it. Trying to tell himself there wasn't another way. "You think the boy's going to turn on you," I let slip in realization.
"On us," Petar corrects. A quiver to his voice he's fighting to hide. "On you, on me, on all of us who were there. On everyone who allowed this tournament to happen."
"You believe, after Buzz, after he's free of the crown's compulsion, he'll take revenge on the super wizard parliament? You think he'll march on Hoag itself?"
Petar nods. "Some are less pessimistic. We're crunching the probabilities right now, running simulations, but... well..." He looks at me. Right at me. "You said he was here. You talked to him. What's your take on it? What would you do?"
Here we go. Now we're getting to the point. "What are you asking me to do?"
"You're our best chance at stopping him."
"Is that why you're here? You want to put me in front of the boy, hope for the best? The parliament was willing to sacrifice one soldier, now they want to throw another on the altar?"
"Our parliament... hasn't agreed to anything," Petar admitted with a frown. "They haven't authorized anything yet. They don't even know I'm here."
Oh. Oh wow. Of all people, I never expected this of him. "Petar, what you're suggesting..."
"This is why you first formed the Red Hand! To be soldiers when everyone else wanted to be diplomats. To take action when action was needed!"
"You're asking me to commit treason. I'm an exile. I'm forbidden from leaving here."
"You've acted without approval before."
"And look where it's gotten me. Abandoned to a dying star system. What you're asking is worse. To act against my own. A high crime against my people. Against my home."
"If you don't do this, you may not have a home. Not the way we know it. Maybe not at all."
I wave off the hyperbole. "You don't need me. The Red Hand doesn't need me. Track done any of the others. Find Trifko. Or Vaso, even. Both fine soldiers."
"Oh, I tried. I definitely tried," the arrogant prick, as if I'm the one insulting him. "I started looking soon after Brody was defeated, but your small company has dwindled to near extinction. Trifko and Vaso have disappeared; no one knows where either of them are. Danilo went a little mad and is now chasing the edge of the universe, or so I heard. Nedeljko is trapped along with the Super Warlock race. And Cvjetko died when his House collapsed in on itself. All that's left of the Red Hand is you. And the boy."
"And... what, you didn't even bother with Gavrilo? Are we that ashamed of him now?"
He's struck silent. Petar, of all people. Has it really been so long since anyone's thrown mistakes back at his face? Back at the parliament as a whole? Hardly believed it when I was told how imperious they'd gotten. Hardly believe it now. Maybe it is long past due for Hoag to face its failures.
Petar closes his eyes, just for a moment, then opens them heavier than before. "Has no one told you?" He doesn't wait for my frustration to resolve itself into sarcasm. "Dragutin, Gavrilo is gone."
What?
"...what?"...?
"Our super champion went to him shortly after the tournament started. There was an incident of some sort. A bad one. We're not certain of the details, but we've intercepted reliable reports from Buzz's Swarm."
I... I don't... this isn't...
He pauses. "I'm sorry. Your brother is dead."
I think... I don't know what I think. I don't know how to think.
My chest feels empty and heavy at the same time.
When was the last time I saw him? What was the last thing I said to him?
A hand on my shoulder. Petar's looking at me with a politician's mask. Feigning concern. Practiced words of condolence. A mechanical empathy.
It's... all somewhat appreciated regardless.
Then he starts talking. About who's to blame. What needs to be done. He throws around words like sacrifice. Responsibility. Patriotism. Duty. I can't hear him. I'm not listening. Him and his kind don't know the meanings of those things. Its just leverage to them.
I make some semblance of an answer that satisfies him. He makes promises he can't keep. He makes assurances that have no weight.
He shakes my hand. "You're doing the right thing, Dragutin."
I hold it firm, so that he remembers it. "Yes... someone has to."
I watched him leave, flying free of my penitentiary. When he's beyond the orbit of the asteroids and the systems gravity, he peels open a tunnel under spacetime and warps away.
I float outside my small drab House for a long while afterwards. I stare out into the black where he'd gone. Somewhere that way is an infinite number of stars. Countless planets swinging around them. An impossible variety of creatures and their cities and their empires. The mighty super-races of the universe. Super Wizards From Space. Hoag. And him.
It seems so emptier now.
There's a knock from inside the dwarf star. A coded banging of neutrons against the fusion surface. I toss back an all-clear. A spiralling darkness splits from the bottom as the House opens. Trifko and Vaso come out. Both wearing the same style red uniform as myself. Both scanning the visible spectrums for hostiles, watching the subtle radiations for eavesdrops. Trifko has a loop of fusion in one hand, armed and at the ready. Good formation. Good discipline.
"What was he doing here, General?" asks Vaso, nodding out at that emptiness. "What'd he say?"
"Very little," I reply.
"Sir. Does this change anything, sir? Are we still doing... doing all this, sir?"
I set my jaw. I stare right at him. "Oh yes. More so than ever."