Enemy Papers Page 9

  Fragment: Ioa

  “Nothingness is a tool of the mind: the useful naught of the mathematician, builder, and accounts keeper. Nothingness is not a state either of mind or of being. All that exists will always exist; all who exist will always exist. All that changes is form and the perception of form.”

  Fragment: Ioa

  Consider the one who observes that which is around it then asks “What do these objects and events tell me?” Such is the way and the manner of life; such is the tool of those who would live. Consider, as well, the one who searches only through its mind to determine what is, and what is not, and then looks only to the objects and events that support its conclusions and says “This is truth.” Such is the way and the manner of purposeless sacrifice; such is the tool of the mad, the criminal, and those who hunger for power.

  Fragment: Lurrvanna

  Lurrvanna looked up from its bandaged stumps and spoke to its masters and students: “The Talman is forbidden to us. The temple in which we study talma, our Talman Kovah, has been destroyed. The Talmani have been either murdered or frightened into hiding. Our writings earn their authors the loss of their hands. Rodaak and its soldiers would have The Talman disappear from memory.

  “But memory is the refuge of the Talmani, and it is there where we shall hide The Talman from Rodaak. Fix the words into your minds; then take them, whisper The Talman to others, and have those others pass the words on to still others.”

  Fragment: Lurrvanna

  “Time is our friend. In time, Rodaak and its police will no longer be. In time, we shall make known again the value of talma. In time, The Talman will again be written and the walls of a new Talman Kovah will stand upon these broken stones. In time, tomorrow will come.”

  KODA ITHEDA

  Aydan and The War of Ages

  The War of Ages between the Orange Ones, called the Lleghis, and the Sindie.

  For over a thousand years the races war for control of the world. The rise of Aydan who turned war, then peace, into sciences. Aydan’s army and a peace of complex balances ends the War of Ages.

  Fragment: Aydan

  “Aydan,” spoke Niagat, “I would serve Heraak; I would see an end to war; I would be one of your warmasters.”

  “Would you kill to achieve this, Niagat?”

  “I would kill.”

  “Would you kill Heraak to achieve this?”

  “Kill Heraak, my master?” Niagat paused and considered the question. “If l cannot have both, I would see Heraak dead to see an end to war.”

  “That is not what I asked.”

  “And, Aydan, I would do the killing.”

  “And, now, would you die to achieve this?”

  “I would risk death as does any warrior.”

  “Again, Niagat, that is not my question. If an end to war can only be purchased at the certain cost of your own life, would you die by your own hand to achieve peace?”

  Niagat studied upon the thing that Aydan asked. “I am willing to take the gamble of battle. In this gamble there is the chance of seeing my goal. But my certain death, and by my own hand, there would be no chance of seeing my goal. No. I would not take my own life for this. That would be foolish. Have I passed your test?”

  “You have failed, Niagat. Your goal is not peace; your goal is to live in peace. Return when your goal is peace alone and you hold a willing knife at your own throat to achieve it. That is the price of a warmaster’s blade.”

  Fragment: Aydan

  There will come to you at times a blinding vision that fills your eyes and mind, announcing itself as Truth. Step back and strike down this vision and beat it as though it were a brain-sucking monster.

  Then, with it lying there limp, bent, and tarnished, if it still claims to be Truth, accept it with great caution, remembering that the most dangerous lies arrive in the most highly polished armor.

  Fragment: Aydan

  “Should the goal make honorable the means necessary to achieve that goal? Or does the honorableness of the means employed sanctify whatever goal is achieved through them? Or is right rooted in the honor of both means and ends? One choice makes the leader capable of leading a people at war. The other choice makes the leader capable of ruling a world at peace.”

  KODA HIVEDA

  The Story of Tochalla

  Against violent and almost successful opposition, Tochalla begins the movement to reassemble the Talmani and to rebuild the Talman Kovah.

  Fragment: Tochalla

  Tochalla told those who would listen about lessons and a discipline that had been crushed and forbidden five centuries before. In the intervening five hundred years, the surviving memories and fragments of talma had become things twisted by faulty memories and embellished by generations of the ignorant and the imaginative.

  “We will take it all,” wrote Tochalla. “We will gather in everything, much as Rhada did with the many versions of the Laws of Aakva, and we will examine, test, discuss, and challenge everything. If we are honest and mean only to serve truth, then what remains will be the truth of it.”

  Fragment: Tochalla

  I look at a battlefield and see the combatants twisted in death, seemingly still battling in that existence beyond, and I see this knife before me and see an argument for joining the dead. It is so clear to the Talmanist, this wonderful future of health, prosperity, and freedom, and all that needs to be done is to protect this freedom. “Here is everything you need and want in this little box,” I cry to the fighters. “All you need to do is open it!”

  But first there must be a war to determine if the box should be opened, who should open the box, who should interpret the meaning of the contents, who should select the recipients of the gifts, who should distribute them, and who should tax them and at what percentage.

  There is something so deceptively clean about a knife. Suicide is the powerless one’s illusion of killing the Universe. It is a powerful illusion, though. Its temptation draws me to the edge, but it is at the edge where I remember the words of my old teacher, Bakkni Liu, now dead these thirty years. “It would be a shame to end your life the moment before the talma you need to achieve your goals appears.”

  That is my fear: to open my veins and have revealed to me the answer I seek just as the last drop of my blood hits the ground. I put the knife away, then, and remind myself that the only entity who knows all the paths of talma is the Universe. As a part of the Universe, I will exercise patience and wait for the rest of the Universe to inform this part what the proper path is.

  KODA TAKMEDA

  The Story of Cohneret

  Cohneret who, under the rule of the wise Ponu Li, studied the role of accidents and their uses, and the rules governing love and the other passions.

  Fragment: Cohneret

  “In the past are the mistakes we made. In the future are the mistakes we will make. In the present are the mistakes we are making. Curse the mistakes, rail at them, regret them, learn from them. But do not wish for the perfection of time when mistakes will no longer be made, for that is what we call death.”

  Fragment: Cohneret

  Passion is a creature of rules. This does not mean do not love, do not hate. It means that where your passion limits talma, you must step outside of the rules of your love and hate to allow talma to serve you.

  KODA NUSCHADA

  The Story of Maltak Di

  Maltak Di and the codification of The Talman, the teachings, and the rituals: systematized problem-solving strategies, investigated truth, observation, and the method of the witness.

  Fragment: Maltak Di

  “The Talman does not contain all truth, and never will it. For this generation, and for all the generations of all the futures, newer and better truths exist. We must keep The Talman open to these truths, or see talma become another curious myth of the past. To all of those generations and futures, then: if you have such a truth, stand before the Talman Kovah, as did Uhe before the Mavedah, and speak it.”

  Fragment: Maltak Di


  “Choice’ is not an empty word that I use, Arlan; it is the nature of our race. To be alive is to have the ability to have goals; to be of this special life, is to have the ability to choose; and to choose anything is to choose goals.

  “Without a goal, Arlan, you are simply taking up space not only in this room, and this kovah, but in this Universe. Either find a goal, or turn the space over to one who does have a goal.”

  Fragment: Maltak Di

  And Maltak Di said to the student: “I have sixteen beads in my hand. I’ll give you six beads, how many beads will I have in my hand?”

  “You will have ten, Jetah.”

  “Hold out your hand.” And the student did so. Maltak Di then dropped six beads into the student’s hand and opened its own hand to show that it was empty.

  “You lied, Jetah!”

  “Yes. Your response to my question should have been Jetah, open your hand and let me, first, see the sixteen beads. Instead you answered from ignorance.”

  “Jetah, that is not fair!”

  “Now you answer from stupidity.”

  Fragment: Maltak Di

  Maltak Di drew upon the slate a circle and a square, and then it connected the two figures with two lines. Of the first student, Maltak Di asked: “Nyath, how many different paths are there from the circle to the square?”

  “There are two paths, Jetah.”

  “Nyath, you may not stay; you cannot learn.” Maltak Di faced the second student. “Oura, how many different paths are there from the circle to the square?”

  “Jetah, if the two paths are repeated turn-in-turn, there can be many.”

  “Oura, you may stay; perhaps you can learn.” Maltak Di faced the third student. “Irrisa, how many different paths are there from the circle to the square?”

  “A number without finite limit, Jetah.”

  “Irrisa, you must stay. Perhaps one day you can teach.”

  KODA OVSINDA

  The Story of Lita

  Lita’s further investigations of truth and the realities of illusions

  Fragment: Lita

  The unintentional chain of events we call an accident describes paths as real as any path planned, diagrammed, and executed in principle with talma. And if the accident alters the present to the more desirable future, this special kind of path has the advantage of having already been proven valid.

  Fragment: Lita

  “Without a key, a door is a wall. Without a door, a key is but matter. A door with a key in the presence of mind is an opening. Without mind, neither the key, the door, nor the opening can exist.

  Fragment: Lita

  “Are we to ignore a truth revealed through crime because the method of obtaining the truth is somehow tainted? Nonsense. Truth is truth. The crime would be to ignore it.”

  KODA SIOVIDA

  The Story of Faldaam

  Faldaam, first Ovjetah of the Talman Kovah, supervised the movement of the Talman Kovah from Butaan to the new city of Namndas’s Mark. Faldaam investigated the problems of meaning and language.

  Fragment: Faldaam

  “Words are maps to existence. Once you travel a portion of reality, it is possible to know the meaning of its words. If all you have before you, though, are words, all you can consider are meaningless croaks and marks.”

  Fragment: Faldaam

  The student asked, “Ovjetah, what is knowledge?”

  Faldaam studied the question, and the student. “Knowing that you do not know, bright light, is knowledge.”

  KODA SINUVIDA

  The Story of Zineru

  Zineru taught talma through individual and team sports. Its principal work investigates communication and the casting of lessons.

  Fragment: Zineru

  The learned student has much to contribute to the game. However, the hard truths, the ones that cannot be manipulated, will be told to us by the players.

  The players have seen and felt the metal; the students have only theorized about it.

  KODA SIAYVIDA

  The Story of Ro

  Ro extended the application of the principles of talma to crime and the law. A militant movement among a sect of the Talmani to remove the Myth of Aakva from The Talman was opposed and defeated by Ro. Students of Ro’s were the discoverers of the projected death of the Planet Sindie.

  Fragment: Ro

  We place these words on paper and carve them into stone which gives them more authority than any words deserve. As future generations learn, these words may become less guides to truth and more objects of mindless reverence unless those future students retain the courage to amend the incorrect and discard the false. Truth above self; truth above family; truth above clan, tribe, and nation; truth above gods; truth above all.

  Fragment: Ro

  The tool of the one who acts becomes the one who acts. The one who murders is no more responsible than the one who orders the murder and provides the weapon and compensation—and no less.

  KODA SISHADA

  The Story of Atavu

  Atavu was Ovjetah of the Talman Kovah at the time of the civil war between the supporters of the Talmani and the Tieyki, those who would remain. Upon the end of the war and the victory of the Talmani, Atavu and the Jetai Diea of the Talman Kovah left with the generation ships.

  Fragment: Atavu

  Sometimes I contemplate this awful vastness of the space we travel through. Giant stars are but particles of dust in the scheme of this Universe. And we search for an even smaller particle upon which to refound our race. It is an awesome task. But is it as frightening a task as Uhe’s vision set before it? In out hearts we only challenge the Universe as we know it, and we know it very well.

  Uhe challenged what it thought to be God.

  Fragment: Atavu

  Truth of nature and import of meaning are not matters determinable by a consensus. If only one being understands the meaning, the meaning is understood. If only one being sees the truth, the truth is seen.

  KODA SHITEDA

  The Story of Poma

  After seventy-one generations aboard the ships, Poma was the Jetah who discovered and chose the planet upon which the race was refounded. The planet was named Draco for the elderly Ovjetah who died as the ships made landfall. Poma became the first Ovjetah of Planet Draco’s Talman Kovah set in the camp that eventually became the city of Sindie.

  KODA SIHIVEDA

  The Story of Eam

  As the explorers of Draco began the colonization of other planets, Eam formulated its talma of colonization.

  KODA SITAKMEDA

  The Story of Namvaac

  The Thousand-Year War, where thirty-one planets of the Rutaan Alliance combined to separate from Draco. Hundreds of years into the rebellion, Planet Draco under siege, the Ovjetah of the Talman Kovah chose Namvaac to take the Talman Kovah and its students and hide them within the vastness of space.

  Fragment: Namvaac

  And the student said to Namvaac, “Jetah, the darkness covers all the Universe. It is such an all-powerful evil, I feel so small and helpless within it. Next to this darkness, the black of death seems so bright.”

  Namvaac studied the hooked blade, then handed it back to the student. “Where you are now, child, Tochalla has been before you. It, too, was in darkness. It, too, had a knife. But Tochalla also had talma.”

  KODA SINUSHADA

  The Story of Ditaar

  The end of the Thousand-Year War under the stewardship of Ovjetah Ditaar, who designed and formed the Dracon Chamber to govern the seventy-two planets colonized from Planet Draco.

  “What are the goals? What are the intended goals? Whose goals are served by the event? Whose goals are intended to be served by the event?

  “The more of the truths you acquire that you need to satisfy these questions, the closer you will be to understanding the situations that arise between creatures. And understanding the event is but a particle away from controlling its nature and effects.”

  “I have stood where t
he Kathni have stood, and the universe is a different thing through their eyes. Long ago Lurrvanna taught us that logic is a creature of context and invention. If this was true for beings inhabiting the same planet for uncounted thousands of years, can it be less true for beings evolving from separate environments, inhabiting different planets?”

  KODA NUSINDA

  The Eyes of Joanne Nicole

  Written by the first Ovjetah of Earth’s Talman Kovah, Tessia Lewis, it is the story of Joanne Nicole, a USEF soldier captured during the USE-Draco War, and who became part of a talma to peace. Its publication for human audiences was under the title, The Tomorrow Testament.

  ENEMY MINE

  The Drac’s three-fingered hands flexed. In the thing’s yellow eyes I could read the desire to have those fingers around either a weapon or my throat. As I flexed my own fingers, I knew it read the same in my eyes.

  “Irkmaan!” the thing spat.

  “You piece of Drac slime.” I brought my hands up in front of my chest and waved the thing on. “Come on, Drac; come and get it.”

  “Irkmaan vaa, koruum su!”

  “Are you going to talk, or fight? Come on!” I could feel the spray from the sea behind me—a boiling madhouse of white-capped breakers that threatened to swallow me as it had my fighter. I had ridden my ship in. The Drac had ejected when its own fighter had caught one in the upper atmosphere, but not before crippling my power plant. I was exhausted from swimming to the grey, rocky beach and pulling myself to safety. Behind the Drac, among the rocks on the otherwise barren hill, I could see its ejection capsule. Far above us, its people and mine were still at it, slugging out the possession of an uninhabited corner of nowhere. The Drac just stood there and I went over the phrase taught us in training—a phrase calculated to drive any Drac into a frenzy. “Kiz da yuomeen Shizumaat!” Meaning: Shizumaat, the most revered Drac philosopher, eats kiz excrement. Some thing on the level of stuffing a Moslem full of pork.