Tales from the Wheel

   “Time moves slowly but passes quickly.”

- Alice Walker

Summer, Earth Year 2901- Wyrd Town, The Stretch District Sewers, Mars

“Time, time, do I have enough time”? emotions could still be confusing to the King, so he was not sure whether this was excitement or panic he felt. Perhaps both were possible. He shifted his attention to the Drone, waking the Hynes from his programed rest period. Unlike the base consciousness he had the pawns maintain in the Grix, the King had wiped every bit of personal autonomy from the slimy piece of garbage once known as Edward Hynes. Only his memory anagrams along with some basic automated responses remained. After all, he needed the body alive for now and didn’t have time to clock into Drone every time it needed to eat, shit or sleep.

“Father Hynes” existed his sleeping chamber and trotted over to the communication room, located nearby. Wyrd Town consisted of several ramshackle structures, the biggest of which was called ‘The Chapel’, built in and around the largest subsurface sewage disposal zone in the old underground. A massive chamber overall, many on the surface of Mars would be shocked and likely more than a little dismayed that this crack pot gang or cult no one outside of the Stretch even gave a second thought about now counted about two thousand souls as followers. Hynes’ lies had earned him a lot of sway with these followers. Another reason why his body was still useful.

As he entered the communication room, the King noted with relief that Mother Azalin was not present. In the Children of Wyrd’s very loose hierarchy she was the one who could overrule anyone, including Hynes. Good! He didn’t need to take the time convincing her that the rerouting he was about to do security patrols were needed. Hynes’s memories showed that he’d been concerned Azalin didn’t really like or trust him very much. “If nothing else, she is a good judge of character then,” the King thought quickly.

“Jonah my lad.” The King greeted the dispatcher on duty with Hynes’s boisterous voice. “Some new info from up top. The Scrappers may be making an incursion into the north quadrant. Will need to concentrate patrolling there for the next few hours to be safe.” Jonah nodded eagerly and reached into the box containing the robotic messenger mice. Quickly programing the change of patrol routes, he dispatched eight of them via the wall tubes that would send them scurrying at incredible speed to each patrol’s captain. Eight dispatches were away, but there were nine active patrols in total. “Uh, Father, I just to note, a motion detection mouse registered mass movement of a rat horde near a buried entrance in East quadrant. It might be nothing… but it might mean something large scared them off while moving through there. I had dispatched team nine to double check, but I guess if you want…”

“No, no, that is fine.” Hynes answered while elsewhere the King cursed. It would be too suspicious to suggest otherwise. “They should definitely check it out to be safe. Good work Jonah.” Blast your competency! Getting Hynes to excuse himself with the claim of needing to ‘check on a couple other things’ he hurried the body back to the private sleeping chamber as fast as he could without looking like something in a total fluster. Time! Time is slipping away. Slamming the door to the bed chamber and locking it, the King existed Drone, thrusting his total conciseness back into his own trapped form. If the ninth patrol intercepted or even managed to pull an ambush, those he had summoned and his plan for freedom could both be completely undone. Time! Did he still have time to plant a spoiler? In desperation he reached out to see if he could connect to one of the lesser creatures that traveled with the patrol. “Time. I just need the time...”