Theogony 1: Janissaries by Chris Kennedy Read Free Book Online

eliminated him.”
    “Couldn’t Dracula turn people into vampires or the undead?”
asked the British prime minister.
     “Converting people into vampires is a fallacy,” answered Arges,
“but when they bite someone, the Drakuls do inject a poison into them.
The venom works like a mind control agent, and the victim will do whatever the
Drakul that bit the person tells him or her to do. This is usually just to wait
somewhere until the Drakul is hungry again, but they can also be told simple
commands like ‘guard’ and ‘attack.’ Victims may appear to be converted, but
they are simply under control of a toxic agent. With regard to the victim being
undead, there is some veracity in that, as the first thing the poison does is to
destroy all of the higher level brain functions of its victim. The brain ceases
to function, but the body is not dead. For all intents and purposes, victims of
the Drakul are, indeed, the undead.”
    “So,” said the German president, “We can either join the
team, help out and work to defeat the Drakuls, or we can be eaten alive. Not
much choice there. Consider Germany to be ‘in.’
    “Australia is ‘in,’ too, mate,” said the Australian prime
minister. “What do you need from us?”
    “In the interest of time,” broke in the U.S. president, “by
a show of hands, is there anyone that is not ‘in?’” No hands went up.
“Thank you for your support,” said the president, “and welcome to Olympos, the
code name for the effort to assist the Psiclopes and defend the planet. The
first thing that I need to tell you is that there are going to be requirements
for membership in this group that are going to be non-negotiable. The biggest
of these is that, once the word gets out, there will be financial obligations.”
    “We are hoping to send out the first mission within about
six months, with it returning approximately six months later. At that time, we
will announce that we have made contact with the Psiclopes and that our focus
has shifted from terrestrial obligations to defense of the Solar System. We
will unilaterally withdraw from all of our previous treaties and implement a
new one, the Treaty for the Defense of Sol. Within one year of the
announcement, developed nations will be expected to spend 30% of their GDPs on defense;
high developing nations will be expected to spend 20% on defense and low
developing nations 10%. We will be standardizing all defense systems for
interoperability and implementing a single combined military. It won’t be the
United States’ military, but the Terran military. Everyone that participates
will have the same opportunities for command; senior level promotions will be
made by a board that is made up by representatives of all participating
nations.”
    “I’m sure you’re all wondering, ‘what’s in it for me if I
participate?’” asked the president. Several heads nodded. “While I’d love to
call upon everyone’s honor and say it’s the right thing to do, I know you are
going to have to sell this to your citizens. First and foremost, your nation
will have access to the Psiclopes’ technology. In the brief discussions we have
had with them, we have found that their technology is far beyond ours. Our scientists
agree that the nations that don’t have access will be completely left behind by
those that do within five years and will be unable to compete economically.
Most agree that will happen within three years.” He looked around the room.
“This isn’t meant as a threat; it is economic reality. We are not going to share
this technology with those countries that aren’t willing to do their parts, nor
are we going to allow them to steal it.”
    The German president nodded and stage-whispered to the
British prime minister seated next to him, “Now we see why the French weren’t
invited.”
    “I’m not pointing fingers at anyone,” said the U.S.
president, who, like everyone else, heard the ‘whisper.’ “Everyone will