Scorched Earth | Page 8

the fear of the most imaginable painful torture. No Law was
more, important than that of the CANON. All were the Prime Law, and all punishment
was eventual, excruciating, death. As the child, Daey, was reaching his first year of age,
Canon sacrificed the most beautiful and the most precious of his possessions, in honour
of the child's birth. This most precious possession was the child's own mother, Sunshine.
In the weeks that followed, the child weakened and also died, and the death was kept
from the people. There was a great fear that the population may panic if they were to hear
that their "Saviour" had died, while still in infancy.
While Dioneza studied telepathy and tried to avoid Canon, her twin brother, Richalé,
studied many subjects but he mainly concentrated on the forbidden topic: History.
Richalé wanted to compile facts to prove, without doubt, Canon's claims to creating the
Universe, the Earth, and all of existence.
In 2660 C.E. Dioneza had found repulsion towards all men, and although she had yearned
for children, she wanted no man to bed with her.
Due to her status, in the city, she was given the permission to be artificially inseminated
from her choice of genes, preserved from the time of Omega 4 - EAST's construction.
She had chosen a sample which was labelled as "David Sannstein: April 1995". The city's
parliament had overwhelmingly accepted her choice and granted her the permission that
was necessary, for her to use the sample. All the records that were kept in the gene bank
were obviously ancient. From what was understood contained within the ancient records,
David Sannstein was an Engineer, some 650 years ago. This was several hundred years
before "ONE".
Dioneza presented her brother with this fact but nothing ever came of this knowledge.
Richalé married a girl that he had studied with, at the beginning of the same year that
Dioneza was artificially inseminated.
Months before Dioneza's birth to Dorin, Richalé and his lovely wife, Dianna, had
quadruplets.
Just after Dioneza bore Dorin, Richalé left the Omega 4 - EAST City, with Dianna and
his children: Roman, Daphne, Tatum and Wind. They journeyed for the city of Besten, on
the Eastern seaboard of the continent. During this century few of the O.S.G.I's were still
inhabited. All but the Omega 4 - EAST city and the Omega 7 - PACIFIC city were
abandoned and were utterly forgotten.
In the East, Canon's personal religion had subdued the people's belief and knowledge, and
everyone in the Omega 4 - EAST city began to think that their city was nothing more
than a temple built to Canon.
There were a few citizens that opposed Canon's Laws and some of these were publicly
tortured to death, but some had escaped the wrath of, the now-hated, Canon.
Many people, dissatisfied with Canon's rules fled the cities to settle in the small villages
and towns that dotted the land. Canon, however, sent emissaries to all of these surface
towns and cities, and soon they began to rule over them. Most of these places submitted
to the ways that Canon had forced upon them. Only Besten kept up with the rebellious
stand against the Canon, but soon, only underground cells of rebels fought the new rule.

Richalé's daughter Daphne became involved with the rebel leader Montgomery Bartlett
and married him. Later, the Bartlett line was to become the strongest in Besten.
Dioneza had avoided execution by the Canon, her half-brother since she had the favour of
the city parliament and since she had told Canon that if she dies, her protector would
surely kill him.
Canon did not have her killed, yet he had prevented her from ever speaking in public by
having his men begin riots whenever she called a public audience.
In 2676 C.E., her son Dorin, who was now fifteen years of age, had illicitly procreated
with a thirteen year old called Bernice. Soon after the birth of Martin, however, Dioneza
had the two youngsters married and they had no more children.
At seventeen years of age, Bernice was put into cryogenic suspension when it was
discovered that she had developed a terminal blood disease.
That same year, Martin, who was four years old, wad discovered to be a genius and
Dioneza took to training him in the ways of biology and true history. To Canon's
disapproval, Martin began to delve into the study of the real past, utilizing Dioneza's
computer library.
In 2683 C.E., Dorin made a break-through in light energy emission and began to improve
the old police stun weapons, enabling them to utilize a laser capability, as well. This
study also infuriated the Canon but he did nothing.
Just after Dorin's break-through, Dioneza, who was now forty-eight, was raped and
brutally murdered by Canon's bastard