Chapter Ninety-Eight: A Dying Galaxy
"Is your wife okay? If I'm not mistaken, Joanna, yes, this is the name of a very virtuous and virtuous woman, and of course I do not have the privilege of meeting this descendant of the Wenzhi agricultural family, and if you have the chance, please send me a blessing, the blessing of the Sage of Kezmia. ”
The blessing of the instigators and conspirators. "Such holy words will be conveyed." Robert smiled.
"Our star is dead, but it won't become elusive for thousands of years." Fakhl shifted abruptly.
"Then the furious red dwarf will devour everything it can touch, and Zoroaster will finally go into annihilation, but Allah is above, what a perfect place of paradise this once was." He exclaimed.
"Bahman, Aldi Behsht, Shahriwal, Span Dalmaz, Moldad, and, of course, Ahula, the stars of the six sages orbit around the hot but gentle star of Ahriman, and they are surprisingly placed between life and death, and almost every planet has an atmospheric structure and natural resources suitable for life to thrive." Fakhl described, holding up his bone-shaped arm.
"Once upon a time, vegetation and the sea were the most common sights, lush and full of life everywhere, but now all of this is gone, a dead ash, an irony, isn't it?" He smiled wryly.
"Forgive me for taking the liberty of not being an assomer, patriarch." Robert emphasized at this point.
"But there are such people in your bureau, you obviously know that no matter how long that era has been, life has really taken root here, and the endless oil and sea steam fields under Ahura are the best proof of this, but now these low-level mineral deposits are no longer a part of the Yinmeng energy menu, right?" Seeing Robert silent about this, Fakhle couldn't help but laugh.
"So they made this barren land my prison of exile, believing that they would leave me in such despair, that I and my family would rot and die, and that I would never be in trouble." The old man was still smiling.
"Someone has to be held accountable for the explosions and deaths, and instead of punishing you and your family, the Security Committee has chosen a way to calm the anger of the people." Robert reminded.
"I still don't understand why I was punished, there is no evidence to link me to those 'events', I just did what any oppressed person in Kezmia should do! Do you want my wife to die in vain? Yes, I told the truth, told what happened to my people for thousands of years, called on them to stand up and get attention, do you really think I deserve to be exiled for this? And taking a step back, if they had sentenced my family back then, you can imagine how many of these 'incidents' would have happened after that? To quell the anger of the people, whose anger are they appeasing? Fakhl grimaced for the first time.
"You are advocating the independence of a silver alliance race, the patriarch, this is the real reason, I think the security committee made such a decision because it does not want to ruin the future of a nation for the misfortune of you."
"Famine, disease, discrimination and indifference, what kind of future can they bring? Mr. Kent? The equality of all people is just another lie of you politicians who dance on the Tycoon Flyer, and my people and I have had enough of this deception! ”
From 'them' to 'you', further debating will only lead to more anger, and Robert decides to err on the side of caution.
"I've come to Zoroaster this time, Patriarch, just for the grain trade between your family and Chilian, and I have no other intentions." He had to turn to the focus of his trip.
"Nothing else? Mr. Kent? Fakhl put on his usual smile again.
"Then my answer is very simple, it's just a pure business, that's all." He laughed.
"A business that makes three million Kezmians in Ahura eat food that has expired for decades? You're going to have to pay for all your oil. Robert smiled politely. I think you know that doesn't make any sense at all. ”
"Living in an era when interstellar trade has become easy, but there are people with the same roots who have always been surrounded by hunger and poverty, my people have suffered so much in your world, and now they have chosen to come to me to expand the territory of the Kezmian people, I must ensure that they have at least food and clothing, which should be solved by you and your government." Fakhl looked annoyed.
"Because of your incompetence, I had to take over the preparations, which was to keep my people from starving! It's just that your government's first reaction when it sees this business is to suspect that there is some conspiracy involved......" Fakhler's voice was strong and his tone was appropriate, and he was extremely eloquent, waving his hands and half-speaking, but Robert interrupted him.
"Hoarded food, privately built armies, drills to block the Stargate, Patriarch, I don't think you want me to continue to extrapolate the results, do you?" Robert was extremely disgusted by Fakhle's words, but he still tried to maintain as much manners and demeanor as possible.
“…… In Zoroaster, I can do what I want, that's the agreement. Fakhl said.
"No, you can't, the Alliance didn't sign any kind of agreement with you, you were simply exiled here, and this is the end of the story, that's all." Robert reminded.
"What's not to do? You didn't say no when my family and I were waiting to die in Ahula, you didn't say no when my people couldn't stand your brutal rule, you didn't say no when they migrated here, you didn't say no when millions of people were starved of food and clothing here, until we pried open the mantle on Shahrivar and found an unexpectedly rich amount of ethovskite, but you regretted it and said no, Robert, there is nothing so cheap in the galaxy. He laughed.
"The Zoroastrian system is now a sacred place for the Kezmians, and only we are willing to endure hardships and be reborn in such a place, while you will only send those bandits from the Prospecting Bureau to try to get what is not yours."
"You're talking about Harley. Pixar's squad? Where are they now? Robert knew that the Development Committee had sent a geophysical prospecting team from the Joint Exploration Bureau to Zoroaster six months earlier, and had not heard from the team until he set out from Proviston.