The War of Pawns (The Human Chronicles -- Book Three) Read Free Page A

never imagined he would have to. As anger and hatred grew in Malor’s heart, he saw the vision of his future quickly slipping away. He would not be The Immortal Juirean , the greatest of the great, with statues and other monuments built in his honor. Instead, he would be the Beast, the Juirean who killed millions of people – and for what?
    And now he had to wage war against his own people again, just to maintain his throne. Every waking day was a constant reminder of his betrayal by the Klin.
     
      It was during his struggle to retain power that Malor began a massive propaganda campaign to direct as much of the pent-up anger and resentment among the populace away from him, and toward The Others. Through a constant barrage of messaging, Malor told the people that it was The Others who deserved their scorn, especially the Klin. It was they, and not Malor, who should be held responsible for this insult to their entire world. As he explained, so many millions of Juireans had died, and all for a promise from the Klin that never came true. It was the Klin who were responsible for this debacle, not Malor.
    Eventually, the message began to take hold, and the people of Juir soon acquired a seething, almost insane hatred for the Klin, a feeling that would last for thousands of years.
     
    Within four years of the debacle that was the Proclamation Ceremony, Juirean scientists had managed to reverse-engineer the technology from the original space probe sent by the Klin, and built the first practical interplanetary spacecraft of their own. The first of these craft lifted skyward, heading for the nearest of the Alliance planets, a trip that would take 17 months. However, the trip was never completed.
    Seeing now that the Juireans would not be denied access to space, the Alliance eventually made direct contact with the Juirean spacecraft, and then sent a diplomatic mission to Juir herself.
    Malor had long ago anticipated this event, and had developed a plan for such an eventuality. He would embrace these emissaries, rather than lash out at them with anger. He would welcome them and gain their trust.
    Even though the Juirean race as a whole still seethed with hatred for the aliens, Malor was able to rein in the populace, at least to a point where somewhat normal relations could be developed with the Alliance.
    Unknown to both the Juireans and the aliens, Malor had bigger plans.
     
    Juir was granted limited membership in the Alliance, and as such, was only allowed to purchase certain technologies from the other Members and trade in selected commodities. Yet unknown to the other Members, nearly every off-world mission by the Juireans consisted of around 80-percent spies to diplomats. As the Juireans traveled among their neighboring worlds, and mingled with the natives, they were spiriting away scientific secrets, technologies, demographic information and other sensitive data of all kinds. Their agents infiltrated the highest and most-secure levels of the Alliance, and returned their findings and treasures to a centralized clearinghouse that involved nearly the entire planet of Juir.
    In the reasoning of Malor and the rest of the Juireans, the Alliance may deny them the official status of full Membership, but the Juireans were not about to be denied what they felt was rightfully theirs, even if they had to steal it.
    Malor was approaching 176 standard years of age, and nearing the end of his strength and usefulness, when the time finally arrived when he could put in motion his ultimate plan to exact revenge against the Alliance – and the Klin in particular .
    By this time, the Alliance had grown beyond the Cluster, and now controlled nearly 40 worlds in the surrounding area, mainly as the result of the Klin invention of the gravity drive and faster-than-light travel. Although the Alliance traded with these other worlds, they always retained control within the Cluster itself and the core worlds within, with the accepted name of the