27 Massaging History - Part III

Dying Star Arc

15th May

When Sayyad finally showed up, he informed me of who it is that's been pulling the strings: Kyle Matthews, the Deputy Governor. Once I knew who the culprit was, I felt like I had a clearer idea of what I had to do. It's been a few days since then. I've put Zayd to rest, and for the time being, I can't think about him. I have to do my duty.

After putting Zayd to rest, I make my way back down into the settlement. I'm headed for the barracks. Deputy Governor Matthews and the other prisoners are all being held there. There isn't any prison as such here on Ceres, so this was the best place to put them. Though it ran the risk of soldiers still loyal to them freeing them, Garrison Commander Maynard decided that it was still best to hold the prisoners in the only location that was really suited for the job. It was better than nothing, after all.

I have Sayyad and the Garrison Commander meet me outside of the barracks, on the landing where the stairs and elevators up and down the settlement are. Most of this floor isn't really all that different from the other residential floors in the settlement. The main difference being that there's a huge gathering and communal area for the soldiers, as well as training zones further in. The prisoners are however being held in some of the empty apartments on this floor, furthest away from the elevator, where they are kept under constant guard.

The three of us, however, do not head to these apartments, but instead another one slightly closer to the elevators. The Garrison Commander leaves the two of us. She'll bring one of the prisoners to us, for us to interview. I guess you could call it an interrogation, but of course that isn't our position to undertake. So, at least on paper, this will be a simple interview. When the Garrison Commander returns, she marches Deputy Governor Kyle Matthews in, with his hands bound behind his back. He doesn't look in the best of shape. It isn't that he physically seems unwell, but he just seems… as if he's a shell. An empty husk. Garrison Commander Maynard chains Kyle to a chair, then leaves the apartment, to stand guard outside.

Myself and Sayyad came here, because there are a few questions that we want answered. Whilst it is beyond reasonable doubt that Kyle is the perpetrator of the events of the last week, Sayyad even told me himself that that was the case, what his motivation for it was, is a mystery to me. I don't imagine he simply wanted to regain his power as Governor. Being Governor of a tiny settlement on the edge of human conquest does not seem like something worth murdering people over. At least, I don't think it is worthwhile to Kyle Matthews. As for Sayyad, he has questions for the former Governor about the events of twelve years. Though looking at Kyle, I wonder if he'll answer any questions. I decide to start questioning him immediately. I have a lot that I want him to tell me.

"Why did you orchestrate the attacks on me?"

Silence. I can't tell if he's refusing to respond, or whether he's simply lost the will to be hear. He looks like a dead man walking. Perhaps he is a dead man walking. That's up to me to decide.

"Why did you manipulate Sayyad into attacking me?"

Nothing.

"What was your motive in trying to have me assassinated?"

He doesn't say a word.

"Why?"

He doesn't move at all.

"Why did he have to die?"

Still, nothing.

It frustrates me. Frustrates me, horribly. Can't he just answer. If he wants to die, I'll kill him with my own two hands, I just need him to answer my questions first. To explain himself. Not because I care, but because its' my duty. As a representative of the Freehold, it's my duty to learn what an enemy of the state has planned. If it were up to me, I would kill him. There's nothing I can learn from this dead man walking. Nothing.

"Hey…"

At first, I don't realise where the voice is coming from. I turn to Sayyad, assuming it must be him speaking to me, but I realise that isn't the case.

"What you really want to know is what happened for me to become like this. Why I'm here. What happened between me and your father. That's it, isn't it?

And you…" he turns to Sayyad, "… you want to know what happened to your beloved Seine. Why I lied to you about her death. If that's so, I'll tell you. None of it matters anymore. This is the end, I guess, of my story. The end of the road. So, I'll tell you the journey that I took to get here. The journey that brought me here."

"It was in the year 2018. Thirty-two years ago. That's when I met your father, Frank Scuderi. The man that I eventually decided I would devote my life to seeing his dream come to fruition. When I met him, your father already had big dreams – dreams bigger than anyone I'd ever met. He was, or rather, is a genius. He had the ambition and the intellect to make his dreams come true, but without his wife Aria, I don't think he ever would've made it to the moon. Though they never got married, Frank often referred to her as his wife. She was what made things possible. What Frank lacked in compassion and ferocity, she certainly made up for. The two of them together were unstoppable, or at least that's what I thought.

They were still in the twenties when they successfully convinced multiple governments and dozens of corporations from around Earth to fund the mission to the moon. Project Artemis is what they called it back then. That was what I thought their dream was. I did my best to help the two of them, but I don't think it would have made much difference whether I was there or not. I was replaceable.

Within weeks of Frank leaving for the moon, Aria disappeared off the face of the Earth. Frank decided to leave his son, your stepbrother, behind and continue onward. I think it's hard to say, even now, whether that was the right decision. It was cruel, yes, but Frank didn't want to sacrifice his dream, not even for his own child. Some say that your supposed to live for your children, but Frank refused to. Perhaps that was the first sign that I got, telling me Frank wasn't the man I thought he was.

I still spent most of my time on Earth, but when I returned to the moon, I understood that there was something that had changed about Frank. Without Aria, Frank became…somewhat incomplete. I didn't realise at the time, but I think without her, he was only able to stand upright and walk forward by absorbing himself even more into his world. Into his dream. He always had a habit of not being 'in the present', but it seemed more noticeable each time I returned to the moon.

Eventually he became unrecognisable to me. During the Lunarian War, Frank threatened to use a spaceship, the Persephone, to level the city of Jakarta. It would've killed perhaps as much as thirty million people. Probably at least ten million. Of course, he never went through with it. He didn't need to. It was more than enough to make his rivals concede.

The cruelty of it, however, shocked me, and I did something that even now I don't regret. I joined a plot to kill Frank. However, it turned out that he already knew about the plot. My co-conspirators were arrested, though Frank left me alone. I think he knew even before I did, that I would then ask to be reassigned here, just to get away from him. He understood me better than I understood myself.

When I left, he made it clear that if I ever did return to the moon, it would be the end of my life. I realised then, that even as I was doing everything I could to get as far away from him as possible, I was still of use to him. That's why he let me away, because even here, I was still doing what he wanted me to. I was still dancing to his tune.

Shortly after I arrived on Ceres to take up my post as Governor, something important happened. The Persephone, the only ship large enough to transport the materials and people needed between Ceres and Luna, was destroyed. Luckily, the Proserpina was already in construction at this point, but it would be another three years before it arrived on Ceres.

Seine, believing that the terrorists may have been targeting her, ordered me to immediately replace her as Governor, and create the illusion that she was dead. She knew who the terrorists probably were. She knew it would be your friend, Sayyad. And she knew, that you might've helped him. That's why she let you think you were dead. When we found out that you had indeed helped your friend, she decided it would be best to keep you in the dark. Because she didn't understand the twisted logic that would make you do something like that.

That's also why we had to force the Palestinians out into the tunnels. It would be impossible to keep Seine hidden from you otherwise. We had to isolate you from the settlement, and that was the only way we could do it. Yes, it was cruel and discriminatory, but it was the only way we had. Of course, the obvious answer would've been simply to have you killed, but Seine made me promise not to do that. So, instead we exiled the entire Palestinian population at the time of the attack on the Persephone, into the tunnels.

I can't give you the exact answer you're looking for Sayyad, as to why Seine did all that. All I can say for certain, is that Seine no longer trusted you. How could she? You aided a terrorist. I don't know whether your goal was to stop her leaving Ceres, or something else, but either way, that's twisted and ugly. She didn't understand it in the slightest. That's why she felt that she had to fake her death.

Another ten years on, I received the news that Akira Scuderi, the son of Consul Frank Scuderi, would be coming to Ceres. To be honest, at that point already I was wary of you. Of course, we don't get much news from Luna, and I didn't know a thing about you, other than what you were like as a young child. But I understood, that if you were like what Frank had become… if you were like Frank, then perhaps it was my duty to stop you. To make up for my previous failure. My failure to see the course Frank was taking, and stop him before it was too late.

When you arrived, and we sat down at the first council meeting… it arrived me of something that Frank would do. The blatant disregard for the past, forcing your way over others to be successful, and the lack of trust in anyone or anything other than your own ability, all reminded me of him. And honestly, it scared me. But I thought to myself, that perhaps it was fine. As long as nothing you did was wrong. The plan you came up with Francesca de Marcos, however, scared me just a little more. Again, it wasn't bad, but it still put fear into me. Because it was something that I could see was similar to Frank. I could imagine that if Frank was in your position, he might choose to solve the problem the same way.

That's why I did what I did. I felt like it was necessary to stop you. That you were doing something that couldn't be taken back. That if you carried out this plan, it would just be the first step towards something worse. That's what happened with Frank. I never held him to account. I never questioned him, or what he planned until the very end. When it was too late to do anything about it. I didn't want that to happen again, so I tried to make sure it couldn't. That's why I manipulated Sayyad, using the fact that he thought Seine was dead, and that's why the soldiers attacked you. If I had to do it again, I would. I believe that I tried to do the right thing. Whether I was right or wrong, I don't think any of us here can definitively say, but I know I tried to do the right thing."