“Are you certain that all of these
changes are going to be good for the Church and her planets?” a secretary asks
Maiken in a call.
“Yes. We’ve come far since we
started and if we think God will allow these laws into his Church, then they
should be right and just.”
“If you say so. There have been
many riots and protests ever since you gave the laity the right to vote.
Because of the way the system works, certain planets have different laws such as
having the right to enact vigilante justice, right to openly carry weapons, electing
leaders of their planets that aren’t already politicians, -”
“I’ve already heard of the many changes
the planets are making on a daily basis. A lot can happen in a year, especially
during these changing times. Trust in God to give you peace during these turbulent
times.”
“That’s what I’ve been doing. Maybe
I should go for adoration more often to get the silence I need.”
“It’s a good idea. I’ve been doing
that in my free time with my son.”
“I hope the Lord blesses him while
in adoration. Infants in adoration can be particularly noisy.”
“Not my little man. He’s been
silent and calm while I’m in adoration and it’s not because he falls asleep. He
stays awake for the entire hour.”
“That’s amazing. He’s truly a
blessing. Speaking about children, I have to get to my own. So, tomorrow we’ll
be looking at the voting law again?”
“We’ll have to do some revisions
again since the last revisions caused a lot of trouble.”
“When does change not bring trouble?”
“Someone is bound to hate us for
the changes, so we just have to hope these will work. Maybe they’ll grow to like
the changes.”
“I hope so. God bless you and have
a good afternoon.”
“Same to you.”
Maiken hangs up the call and
finishes organizing her paperwork and digital files before exiting her office.
She goes to the place in the capital building where caretakers teach and care
for the workers in the building only for an explosion to destroy the room as
she enters it. The capital building is shaken by more explosions coming from
within and outside the building as an unknown group of people assaults it.
Guards in the capital mobilize while calling for reinforcements and medical
assistance. In the chaos, Maiken manages to get up from the explosion and searches
for her child only to find blood and small limbs in the wreckage of the room.
She lets out a cry of sorrow and rage before going back to her office to get a weapon Seth gave her to defend herself with.
The weapon Seth gave her is a laser
assault rifle similar to his own except this one has an underbarrel shotgun
rather than a launcher. With the rifle in hand, Maiken goes out to face whoever
blew up the building and her son.
She goes up to a guard and says, “Where
is the enemy? Who is attacking us?”
“You have to get to safety, miss.
This place isn’t safe for a politician like you, especially in your injured
condi-”
“I don’t care! I have a rifle and I
can help. I’m well within my right to defend myself, especially since they blew
up the children.”
“They…I see. You can help, but don’t
be reckless.”
“I won’t.”
“They’ve breached the other side!
We need people covering it!” one of the guards yells.
Maiken rushes to the other side of
the capital with the guard she was talking to and a couple others. On the other
side of the building is a squad of people shooting whoever they come across.
Maiken engages the squad and manages to kill the group with only one casualty
on their side. With this part of the capital clear, they go back to the other
side to see that the other guards have died with more enemies entering the
capital and slaughtering the people in it.
“Kill them all! Spare no one!” Maiken
commands the guards.
The guards do as she commands while
she also shoots down her fair amount. Once the building is clear, an explosion
shakes the building as it begins to fall down around her. Falling debris kills
the guards along with the other people in the building except for Maiken who
manages to survive. She shoots her way out of the debris and finds herself in
front of four people with guns in their hands.
“I was hoping to kill you myself,”
one of them says.
“I was hoping to kill each one of you
as well for what you’ve done,” Maiken responds with her gun raised, “Who are
you people and why did you do this?”
“You don’t deserve an answer. You used
to be an inspiration to us, but you changed when you didn’t put in the right
laws that we asked for.”
“Since I was your inspiration, why
don’t you do me a kindness by at least answering my question.”
“We are nobody. Just your average
laity who’s fighting for change. If it means anything to you, my name is Ham.”
“I remember your name. I never got
to thank you for helping my husband and his brother but now you’ve changed!”
“You are the one who’s changed. We
fought for the right to change our planet in what we thought was God’s Will, but
things have only gotten worse.”
“That’s not our fault. We’re still
tweaking the laws to make them better. Maybe it was all a mistake to begin
with.”
“No. You just didn’t do enough. I
hope God doesn’t punish you for that.”
Knowing what the group is going to
do next, Maiken quickly takes them out with the shotgun part of the rifle
though she is shot in the arm and leg. A medical ship along with reinforcements
finally arriving. Among the reinforcements is Seth who rushes to Maiken who is
being helped by paramedics into the ship.
“Maiken!” Seth yells out as he goes
to her side and holds her hand.
“Seth…I’m sorry. Isaac is gone.”
“What?”
“Lieutenant give her some space.
She needs medical attention,” one of the paramedics tell him as they take Maiken
into a medical ship.
It isn’t until Maiken is stabilized
in the hospital that Seth is allowed to talk to her.
“Are you okay, Maiken?”
“I’m fine, Seth. I just need some
rest, but that doesn’t mean I can’t talk to the public. I need to say something
to them.”
“No, you need to rest.”
“I can’t. Everyone in the capital
building died along with our son. An explosion blew him up as I was going to
pick him up.”
“I don’t understand. Who would do
such a horrible thing as this?”
“I talked to one of the attackers.
His name was Ham, one of the people who helped you a year ago.”
“Ham? He was one of the attackers?”
“Yes, he said he did it because we
changed. We weren’t putting in the laws he wanted.”
“That’s still no reason for him to
do what he did. You think he’d know that from what we went through last year.”
An officer comes into the room and
says, “Excuse me for interrupting you two, but you must see this on the news.”
The officer puts on the TV to show
that the news is reporting that a colony on Mars is defecting from the Church.
A news reporter says, “A rebel
force has taken over a colony on Mars and threatens to take over the planet as
a whole. The rebels name themselves the Catholic Church of Mars have defected
from the empire and the Church as a whole. They have sent out a message saying
that the Church should instate the same laws they have on every planet to give
every citizen the true government that God wants the Church to have. We will
see if our leaders will comply with rebels, reach an agreement with them, or
take back the colony with force. Stay tuned.”
“We have to stop them. All of them,”
Maiken says.
“What are you talking about?” Seth
asks.
“All of the rebellions. All of the
riots.”
“We can’t just stop them all. People
are going to fight if they feel like they aren’t going to get their way.”
“Then we have to cut this off at
the root. After you stop the rebellion on Mars, then I’ll take away the people’s
right to vote.”
“What? We fought so hard to get it
and we’re just going to throw it away?”
“Yes. You see the fruits of our
labor. It killed our son and so many others. It’s made us fight against our
own.”
“The old law made us do the same
thing.”
“But not like this. It didn’t have
this level of violence and separation. Bring down the rebellion and peace to the
Church. Please. For God, the Church, me, and our son.”
“…okay. I’ll do it. I’ll tell
everyone about your decision.”
“Don’t tell them about what I said
about changing the law. I’ll do it after the battle.”
“Okay. Get some rest in the
meantime.”
Seth kisses Maiken before he
leaves. He tells the military leaders of the Church what her decision is, and
they agree especially after what happened to the capital and all the riots that
have resulted in the injuries and deaths of countless people. The Church mobilizes
a sizable portion of her forces to retake the colony on Mars by force with Seth
and his brother Cadmen leading the assault.
As they fly to Mars, Cadmen tells
his brother, “Hopefully this will be the last time we shoot at our own.”
“I hope so too, brother. I hope so.”
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