Approaching Cataclysm [draft]
A Black Moon War vignette by Mark Latus

     I still can't understand how it all fell apart so quickly.  Why didn't
I see it coming?  I long ago stopped counting all the attempts to circumvent 
my rules, none of which ever truly posed a threat to me.  As it should be
for am I not Rudra the All Seeing?  The Ancient One who can see into every
heart, every stronghold!  The Unblinking Eye of Nemesis, the Schemer of 
Schemers, Rudra the Omniscient and Infallible!  
     The Infallible ... were I given to displays of emotion I would vent a 
bitter laugh.  Did I begin to believe my own legends, become complacent after
these many centuries?  No, I do not want to believe that but the alternative
is worse.  For the alternative is that though I watched I did not truly see, 
that I let it all slip from my grasp with my mind unclouded with vainglorious 
fancies.  It seems like a nightmare and in truth it is but not one from which
I can awaken.  I fear that no one will wake from the dark dream that shrouds
Nemesis until it is far too late.  After thirteen millennia is this how it
it ends?  All those centuries as the power behind every throne on Nemesis 
only to spend my final pawful of years as a powerless figurehead watching my
world careen towards disaster.  Was it for this that I created Nemesis?
     I recognise the arrogance in that thought but I also recognise the truth.
Nemesis is mine!  My world, my people!  All Nemesis bears my stamp, the mark
of the order I forged from chaos so long ago.  So very long ago ...
     I am the oldest being in this solar system, 
[Internal - Doesn't know Puck still around to claim that title (unless you 
            count the sentient wonders]
                                                 the last living remnant of
the age called Silver Millennium.  Oh I am aware that others could claim 
that title.  Lately I learned that two of my kindred survived and that 
Pseudo-Guardian was reborn with his memories intact.  But as captain Ferrite 
is trapped in a cursed cycle of death and rebirth you could hardly call him a
survivor.  As for Artemis and Luna they slept for over twelve thousand years,
I slept less than two hundred and built a world once I awoke.  
     The thought of Luna brings an almost forgotten biological response which
is supressed with ease.  As I always told my fellows the mind must rule the
body or you will be enslaved by your desires to the detriment of your reason. 
It is fortunate those were not the empty words Puck claimed or centuries of 
celibacy would have taken its toll and long ago my brain would have been 
drowned in a see of frustrated hormones.  Still it is odd to think this way   
after all this time.  For so long I believed I was the last of my kind, indeed
the last feline of any species on Nemesis.  So much has happened in the last 
few years.  To learn that two other mooncats survive ... and to feel my power 
slip away despite all my efforts to retain control.
     But I don't want to lament my loss yet again, I was pondering that I am
no longer unique.  Indeed I am no longer the only cat on Nemesis for when
Demand returned from his diplomatic visit to Earth amongst the many gifts 
that accompanied him was a pedigree siamese.  A female, of course.  Doubtless 
there was a veiled insult in offering me a nonsentient to serve as my mate.
A wasted effort as the prospect did not tempt me in the slightest.  Too much
like beastiality.  I gave it to one of my aides with orders to see that all 
its needs were met.  I want it looking its finest in case Demand ever inquires
what I did with his gift.
     With that thought I wonder what Demand is up to but as always I sense 
nothing.  My greatest asset was my clairvoyance and Wiseman has blinded that. 
There are no shortage of places I can see but those that have become crucial 
are shielded against me.  When Demand returned from the darkside of [world
name] with Wiseman I dismissed the wizard as a freak with a unique ability
to block my farsight.  For what did it matter?  Demand was the sickly heir to 
the teetering Clan of the Black Moon, a once strong family declining before a
coalition of enemies.  Enemies determined to ensure that though all Four
Avatars had appeared within the Black Moon Family they would be incapable of
using them politically or militarily.  Even if I could not track Demand while
he stood with his wizard I could observe both his enemies and allies and that
would provide ample information.
     So I told myself ... my first great mistake, first in a fatal series of
misjudgements that have torn the keys to the kingdom from my grasp.  I had
no idea of what Wiseman had made of Demand, of the third eye he had either
gifted him with or unlocked.  Whichever it was I had no conception of the  
personal power Demand had gained.  Yet even that paled before the oratical
skills he now demonstrated.  Oh it was easy to predict what he was trying to
achieve but over the centuries I had seen so many try to unify the four 
worlds and fail that I merely tried to predict how long before his campaign
collapsed beneath the tides of history.  His failure was inevitable, if his
allies or own family did not turn upon him then a rival's assassin would bring
about it's end.  So I told myself for I had seen it all before.
     It never occurred to me that he might succeed.
     Life is full of unexpected reversals, a lesson I learned most dramatically
ages ago but perhaps forgot in my complacency.  Yes, ages ago even by my 
standards and I was far from young the night the Silver Millennium ended.  That
was the first time my world turned upside down.
[Maybe the second, better check the timeline and see if the cats were around
 for the death of the first Serenity or date from the second's reign]  
                                                 On that night I stood with 
the last heir to the Clan of the Ancients Ring, the Princess-in-Exile Valorie.
Sure that the day would soon come that the ursurpers could no longer hold their
stolen throne and Valorie would take her rightful place as Queen of the Four
Sisters and ruler over all Nemesis.  Yet before that terrible night ended I 
would owe my life to the rebels and have vowed to give them the legitimacy they
craved for their rule.  A vow that I would considered the foulest treachery the
day before ... I snort at the overly moralistic thought.  I never thought any
such thing.  I considered the prospect unlikely and unappetising but I never
rejected it outright.  To think otherwise is self-deception.
     Unbidden the memory returns of that night, the masked ball that was to
have preceeded the formal opening of the conference concerning Earth.  How
like Lunarians to hold a party prior to diplomatic wranglings over the 
Arcadian question.  The Terrestrials insisted it was a purely internal matter
that would be swiftly dealt with but there were plenty of dissenting opinions.
Some felt that with the rapid expansion of Greater Arcadia the Emerald throne
would soon shift from Mu to Arcadia and we would have to make treaties with
Queen Beryl of Earth.  Others, particularly the Martians, held that there 
could be no peace with a demon worshipper and that if Earth fell to Beryl the
other worlds must ally against her.  In fact the Martians urged that the
planetary alliance should already be militarily intervening against Beryl with
or without the blessing of the other terrestrial kingdoms.  An opinion shared
by many far less religiously inclined who saw this as the perfect opportunity
to break the last vistages of Terran Imperialism and establish the autonomy
and power of the planets.  There were those who went farther and saw this as 
the chance to gain terrestrial "protectorates" to serve as sources for those 
materials they currently had to import from Earth.  The irony of the planets
colonizing Earth seemed lost on those members of the delegations.  While I
am not one for moral judgements for such matters are relative it still felt
rather sordid.  
     Of course there were plenty of doves to counterbalance the hawks.  Queen 
Serenity still held that it was possible to settle matters peacefully.  
Unfortunately as that would have meant at the very least recognising the 
legitimacy of Beryl's reign over Arcadia, if not her new territories, there 
were no shortage of those who would oppose negotiating peace.  In addition
even the Moon, the solar system's renowned heart of peace and acceptance, was
not immune to the paranoia Beryl's reign had inspired.  It seemed she could 
corrupt anyone, even the Terran Guardians, to rally behind her banner and had
stated that attempts by the other worlds to interfere would be met by violence,
military and terrorist.  For that reason no terrestrials were attending the 
conference for fear they could be spies for Beryl and bring retaliation against
both the delegates and their worlds.  There had already been incidents on Mars,
attacks on clerics and their congrgations calling for a crusade against 
Arcadia's ruler.  In an unprecedentted (and until recently unimaginable) move 
King Halcyon had confined all terrestrials to the embassy compound and given 
orders to arrest any found outside its grounds.  Diplomatic protests had been
ignored, there were to be no exceptions.  Not even Prince Endymion despite
his betrothal to Halcyon and Serenity's only daughter, Princess Serena.  While
Luna refused to talk about personal matters I suspected tempers were flaring in 
the royal household.
     For my part I could observe matters with a certain detachment as my 
opinion currently carried no influence upon my homeworld.  As a courtesy
I was to be allowed to attend with my mistress, Princess-in-Exile of Nemesis,
Valorie.  But since Nemesis could not be ignored the Coalition had been invited
to send a delegation and they had.  None of them were particularly memorable,
the captain of the ship they arrived in was another matter. 
     Unlike the Nemesian Coalition diplomats that everyone thought must be 
spies Ametryne really was an agent.  A fact I discovered when he managed to 
corner me alone and tried to convince me that it was my duty to return to 
Nemesis for my true commitment was to the Four Sisters not to a princess who 
would never become queen.  There was a certain element of truth in that for I 
had always see my duty to the institution of the monarchy rather than the 
individuals.  When you had lived as long as I had and seen the throne pass 
through so many hands it was the only sensible point of view.  The Queen is 
dead, long live the Queen.  Yet for all that and despite my reputation for 
loving naught besides logic I retained a ... fondness for the Clan of the 
Ancient Ring and for my many masters and mistresses, past and present.  Of
course what was much more important was that it would be bad policy to 
legitamise rebellions by recognising usurpers as a valid government.  Especially
as they had shown no proof of long term viability.  I told Ametryne that I
thought the coalition too shaky for the alliances to endure much longer.  Even
my presence could not mend the growing divisions.  At best I thought it would 
hold together another five years at most and that was a best case scenario.  If
I was wrong then should he return in a decade with a stable govenment behind 
him we would talk.  After we parted I learned we had not enjoyed as much 
privacy as I thought.  While no humans had seen us that annoying kitten Nermal
had witnessed our conversation.  For once the cocky, joking attitude he had 
inherited from his sire was gone, replaced by shock.  In answer I told him that
royalty had to begin somewhere and if the Coalition endured a reappraisal might
be in order.  Our kind had to take the long view and he should consider this a
lesson along those lines.  Then, once I had convinced him of the dire fate that
would befall him if he ever spoke of this to Valorie, I took my leave and 
returned to my Princess.  She was in a troubled mood and petting me took the
edge off it.  I remember hoping that the Coalition would collapse as I would
dislike abandonning her.  An overly sentimental view perhaps but even I mellow
after a good backrub.    
    Even had she not told me earlier the cause of Valorie's distress would have
been easy to deduce.  Unlike many worlds that had been colonized by people from
many of the Terran Kingdoms the original colonists of Nemesis had been 
overwhelming Arcadian.  Arcadian was the primary language on all four of the
Sisters and the local dialect was still comprehensible to speakers of 
Terrestrial Arcadian.  The previous rulers of Arcadia had possessed enough
wisdom to see that this unique relationship was worth preserving and had always
granted Nemesis most favoured nation status and seen to it that blood ties
remained strong.  There were many clans who were strongly pro-Arcadia and that
included the Coalition.  The Ancient Ring had looked more to Nemesis as their
motherland than Arcadia and sought to foster that attitude amongst their
subjects but even they had a special place in their hearts for Arcadia.  The
very nation that this conference had been called to deal with one way or 
another.  The Nemesian Coalition was the strongest advocate of striking a deal
with Arcadia saying that who ruled Earth was irrelevant to the planets so long
as trade and military pacts were honoured.  Valorie was rightfully appalled by
Beryl's actions.  Yet despite that she knew Arcadia was popular with her people
and that Queen Serenity who had given her sanctuary favoured peace.  But not 
peace at any cost which was a fact many delegates tended to overlook.       

       

[SiM - Nemesis's arcadian roots 
 Ametryne.  Not a good man but a man who knew his duty. Death of Valorie, 
 the return to Nemesis]
[Rebuilding : The Voices of Rudra; Duty, Neccessity, Family - The three 
              cornerstones of Nemesis.  Was omitting Honour an error?]
[500 years post fall - Returnists arrive, the eugenics program begins.  Build
 a stronger people by applying survival of the fittest to human society]
[The Bureacracy supplants the Voices]
[The Game of Houses begins in earnest]
[Fast forward to present]
[Demand - dismissed as just a another wannabe messiah until it was too late]
[Sailor Nemesis reborn - brief ref]
[Wiseman - the outsider with his own agenda.  Never call up that which you 
           cannot put down.  How long can Demand ride the tiger?]
[The terran poem Rudra chances across]

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
 Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
 The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
 The best lack all conviction, while the worst
 Are full of passionate intensity"

It concludes with these lines

"And what rough beast, its hour come at last
 Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born"

I do not know the sources of all the terran imagery but the meaning seems
plain enough.  I wonder how I chanced to read that particular poem and 
suspect that destiny seeks to tell me something.  If that is true then I can
only hope that it is an omen that disaster shall strike Nemesis.  For what I 
truly fear is that I have read the epitaph for all who lived below the red
sun.  
     I am the most ancient creature in this solar system.  Yet never before 
have I felt the full weight of my years.  For all my philosophy, biological 
control and emotional balance I cannot shake the terrible loneliness and     
isolation.
     Queen Serenity if your spirit truly remains to watch over your daughter
then hear the plea of one who knew you long ago.  Tell me that all I have
built will not fade away like a sandcastle in a windstorm.  Give me some
sign that it was not in vain, that I have not lead my people to disaster.
     Someone tell me I did the right thing!
     Please?

The End