Dream Drive: Yuri Ch. 01

"That's patently ridiculous," Yuri said. "The Arabs aren't evil. They're people, just like us." A few of the elders scoffed at this notion. The anteroom mirrored their actions. "Yes, the Caliphate has the Islamic Militia, which is a collection of lunatics, but that doesn't mean that every Arab in the country wants to kill Zibar. Everywhere on Earth, it's the same. The ones in power manipulate the masses to hate those that are different from the norm, mostly by letting the loonies near the microphones. It's a way to distract the public from what the ones in power are really doing behind the scenes. It's the same old story that's been playing in every culture across the globe, for all of human history. It's never going to change."

"Ah, listen to this student of history," Kenfer said, entering from the side door. "It's a shame you didn't learn history properly, you insolent child. If you did, maybe you'd have learned about the ghettos the Nazis had forced the Jews into during the last World War. Did you ever hear what had happened to those people? Particularly the ones that believed the ghettos had been established for their own safety? Huh?"

"That was a long time ago," Yuri said. "And no one's going to try and repeat that."

"Are you really this stupid? Or are you getting high on being contrary to us?" Kenfer took his seat and turned to the head elder. "Seriously, Mansour, why are we even talking to this boy? He's too stupid to be of any use to anyone."

Yuri chuckled with derision. "No use to anyone? That's funny. I do recall getting a lot of things during the last four years for half of you seated here. I wasn't called useless at the time."

"Careful, boy," the elder sitting closest to Yuri quietly hissed.

"You're a bunch of fucking hypocrites."

The anteroom exploded into howls of rage. All the elders glared at Yuri. Only Mansour's raised hand kept the situation from becoming violent. Kenfer's face turned beet red all over again.

"Particularly you, Kenfer," Yuri said, loudly enough to be heard over the mob. "You forbade my career. If it had been up to you, I'd never have been able to join the Army, or obtain my present posting." Yuri cocked his head and sneered. "And now you're trying to get me to use that very post to help you. If that's not hypocritical, then I don't know what is."

"You don't know anything," Kenfer hissed. "Insolent little child. You defied us, your elders, and went and joined the enemy when you should have-"

"Enemy?! Wow! Those are some words. War's been declared already? You know, I'm thinking that maybe the Arabs might be prudent in locking up some Zibar."

Kenfer pounded the table. "Damn it, Mansour! Throw him out! We'll do this ourselves!"

"Do what," Yuri asked. The elders and the crowd finally fell silent. "What is it that you want with me, anyway?"

Mansour considered for a moment. "We need you to talk with your General about...getting us some guns."

"Oh, fuck, no," Yuri barked out.

"Just so we can defend ourselves," Mansour said.

"No, no, no, no, no," Yuri shook his head, making his headache worsen. "That is never going to happen."

"We can't remain defenseless anymore. We've gotten word that the Arabs are planning their move very soon and we can't afford to act like we're above violence any longer."

"No. This is a bad idea."

"Think of the weapons as only a deterrent."

Yuri snorted. "No weapon has ever served as a deterrent, or a path to peace. Whenever one side gets armed, the other responds in kind. If the Arabs even suspected you had a cache of guns hidden in the enclave, they'd raid the place to take them away from you. Hell, they might even end the enclaves altogether and send us back out to mix with the idiots from the sticks."

"The Arabs have guns," Kenfer yelled at Yuri.

"The military has guns," Yuri insisted.

"The Militia has guns. Those very same lunatics you've acknowledged as dangerous are sitting at the checkpoints with guns trained on us."

"The Militia has military oversight," Yuri said. "They won't so much as fart without orders. You start packing heat and the military is going to give them those orders."

Kenfer wiped his face with his hands. "I can't believe how stupid he is."

Yuri frowned. "Neither can I believe how stupidyou are,elder Kenfer." Mansour raised a hand to silence the crowd again. "What would you do with guns, if you were given any? Do you know which end of a gun to hold? Do you know how to maintain a firearm? How to properly use it? Has anyone in the enclave served in the military in the last decade? Does anyone here have any combat training? No? Giving a bunch of guns to a bunch of civilians unfamiliar with them is the same as shooting them in the head. Hell, shooting them in the head would be more merciful."

"You could help train our forces," an elder suggested.

"Help train," Yuri asked, incredulously, and then trailed off. He looked from one face to the other. "Are you kidding me? I only did basic training. I know how to work a gun, true. I can teach some people to disassemble and reassemble and maintain a few types of weapons, but I can't train anyone to be fighters. These aren't the good old days when just knowing how to properly hold the butt of a rifle against your shoulder made you a soldier. These days, fighting requires a lot more technical savvy than guts, or physical fitness.

"I'm talking about technical savvy that takes a lot of time to acquire. Months of training and specialized education that I can't provide. If you're thinking of going as old-school as possible... Do I really have to tell you what happens when a few guys with small arms go up against a bunch of men in combat exoskeletons? It isn't pretty, let's leave it at that."

"Ordinary soldiers with rifles can still destroy robots and mechs," an elder said.

Yuri shook his head. "You'd give an opinion on Islamic law while Imam Malik was in Medina, wouldn't you?" The elder blushed and glared at Yuri, but made no reply. "Special forces and professional soldiers can take down mechanized enemies with small arms and handheld explosives, yes, but it takes three vital things to do that. One, they must vastly outnumber the enemy. Two, they must have full command of the surrounding terrain. Three, they have to be trained to work together to such an extent that each soldier will not only know the exact best way to react to any move the mechs make, but will instantly know what each and every other man in his unit will do at that same moment. One slip up and half the unit is mowed down in the next instant.

"That kind of coordination takes even longer to train than the technical stuff. I'm talking a full year, at the least. The Caliphate has entire brigades that are continuously undergoing such training. They're also specially trained and equipped for urban warfare and peacekeeping." Yuri sighed. "I mean, this discussion is completely moot. I was never trained in advanced tactics. I couldn't possibly train such a force for you."

"We don't have that kind of time," an elder said to Mansour. "Not if the reports from the south are true." Mansour nodded, sadly.

"Let's get back on track, shall we," Mansour said. "We need to speak with your general. Can you arrange a meeting between us, or not?"

"Not if you're going to ask him for guns."

"We won't."

"Then what would the meeting be about?"

"It's futile," Kenfer said to Mansour. "His general doesn't have that kind of authority. Can't have it! I mean, the man recruited Yuri, how smart can he be?"

"Major General Moussa Houdani has plenty of authority," Yuri said. "Real authority. He also has plenty of duties that are crucial to the Caliphate. The kinds of duties that you wouldn't know anything about, Kenfer."

Mansour put his hand on Kenfer's elbow again. "Do these duties extend to oversight of the Militia?"

Yuri frowned. "Not usually. Why?"

"Can he influence the placement of guards at the checkpoints?"

"Maybe."

Mansour leaned in. "Would he be willing to appoint some friendly faces at the checkpoints. Friendly faces that might be willing to look the other way?"

"You're not seriously trying to arrange for guns to be smuggled in here?"

"No," Mansour said. "We're interested in smuggling something out."

Yuri's eyebrows rose.

Kenfer rolled his eyes. "Us, you idiot!" He gestured broadly. "All of us!"

Yuri looked over his shoulder in amazement. The assembled men cast dark looks back. He faced Kenfer again. "You want to sneak out and leave everyone else behind?"

Kenfer banged a fist against the table. "No, you idiot! Everyone! Every man, woman and child in the enclave." He huffed and then muttered, "Though it's clear some should be left behind." Mansour shot him a warning look.

"Are you kidding me? You want to try and sneaktwenty-three thousand people through the capital?"

Kenfer crossed his arms over his chest and refused to even look at Yuri.

"Where there's a will," Mansour said, "there's always a way."

"We could divide up into smaller groups," an elder suggested.

"Some classified military transports, maybe," another added.

"Can he get us passes," a third elder asked. "Special passes that would allow for free movement?"

Yuri had to rub his temples again. His headache had been bad before, but this kind of talk was making it worse. "And where, for the love of God, would you take our people? The desert? The mountains? That would only leave them vulnerable to exactly the kinds of semi-literate rubes that had been hounding us for years.

"Or, are you thinking of making it across the borders? That's the one thing that would provoke the Caliph into action against us. He can't stand emigration. And even if you managed to get to any of the borders, since when do they allow anyone across? The borders are still officially contested by the Caliph. There's military on both sides. Sneaking past all those watchful eyes is a lot harder than any of you can imagine.

"Not to mention that none of our neighbors want us there. They deport any one of our citizens they catch on their territory. We all know what awaits those repatriated, don't we?"

"We can go north, to the sea," Mansour suggested.

"And then what? Say you get a fleet of boats and load everyone on them. Where do you sail? Half the world is a war zone. And the rest of the world is even worse. 'No fucking foogees, thank you'. Have you never seen the vids? I know you must have. I got half of you your internet access points." Some of the elders shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

"What vids?" Kenfer asked.

"Vids of youths attacking refugee camps. They tie up the men at gunpoint, make them watch as they rape the women and then set them all on fire." Kenfer's jaw dropped. "What? You never heard of that? 'The Foogee Burnings'? They're very popular." Yuri swept a hand over the table. "Ask around. They'll tell you. Hell, they can even show you!"

"That can't be true," Kenfer protested. The faces of the other elders told him it was. "Where is this happening?"

"Everywhere," Yuri said. "Both the GAU and the Bloc tolerate that kind of behavior cause those same groups of violent, ultra-nationalistic youths are pivotal to their recruitment and propaganda machines."

"That's insane."

"We finally agree on something, Kenfer. Sadly, it's completely true. If we try to leave the Caliphate, the Caliph will come down on us. If we were to, somehow, manage to get away, we would only be getting out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"This is our home. This is where we live, where our ancestors have lived for almost two millennia. This is where we must stand and thrive. The Arabs outnumber us. Vastly. We have to cooperate with them. It's the only way forward."

"I agree with you," Mansour said. "But that doesn't change the facts. The Arabs are planning to hurt us. We can't bury our heads in the sand and pretend that they're not. We need you to put us in touch with your general as soon as possible." He leaned forward. "The situation is dire."

"While you were away, playing with your Arab friends," Kenfer said, "they started tightening the noose. There was no bread delivery today. The medicine delivery didn't come, either. The trash still hasn't been picked up. They're going to make their move. Soon."

Yuri wondered if his discovery had had anything to do with those. The enclave's management was under military supervision and the military, particularly the forces in the capital, had been thrown for a loop this morning. "I don't think a day's delay means anything."

Kenfer snorted in derision and sat back in his seat, shaking his head.

"Yanuk, please," Mansour said. "Just put us in touch with your general. We know he's not a man that hates based on skin color, or ethnicity. We know he's willing to help us. We just need you to put us in touch, discreetly, and we'll take it from there."

All the elders' eyes were upon him. He could feel the men in the anteroom holding their collective breath. He sighed and then shook his head.

Pandemonium erupted in both rooms. Yuri's head was going to explode. The men shouted and yelled, the elders pleaded. Arguments and curses were being hurled at him but, in his ear, they all combined into a sound like fingernails being dragged across a blackboard.

After a whole night of beauty and magic watching the supercomputers do his bidding, this argument was like watching someone paint a huge building with a tiny brush; boring and repetitive and unproductive. He didn't want to think anymore. He just wanted to sleep.

The elders would have none of that, it seemed. They took to grabbing him by the elbows, or shaking him by the shoulders as they listed all the crimes and discriminations their people had suffered at the hands of the Arabs. The crowd in the anteroom shouted abuse at him.

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. "Enough!"

Both rooms fell silent. He could feel his heartbeat throbbing painfully across the back of his skull. "Enough. No more."

"You'll put us in touch with the General?" Mansour asked. He was the only elder still in his seat.

"No," Yuri said and held up an imploring hand. "I'll tell you why your fears are unfounded." Everyone murmured. "But only you!" He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. "They have to go." He shook a finger at Mansour. "And you all have to swear to me that you'll never,ever, repeat what I tell you. Not to a soul."

The elders turned to look at Mansour. He considered for a few moments and then nodded. With just a few gestures, the elders sent the men in the anteroom packing. Kenfer summoned the attendants from the side door and sent them to speed the crowd on its way out the door. A minute later, the attendants closed the front door behind themselves. Yuri was alone in the villa with the elders.

Now that there was silence, Yuri found himself regretting his outburst. He really shouldn't tell the elders. If they told on him, he'd be in big trouble. He reasoned that the news would break soon anyway, but he knew that was no excuse for revealing classified intelligence. He guessed he could probably get away with telling them. He was the master code-breaker, after all. That was bound to net him some leeway and tolerance before any future court-martial.

The elders sat down and patiently waited for him to start talking. Something about the way they looked at him, even the female ones, reminded him of his grandfather. Yuri missed him and his stories. Even as a little boy, Yuri would get bored of stories quickly. He'd guess the ending and shout it out loud to get the person telling him the story to stop and go away, leaving him free to find another preoccupation.

His grandfather had been the only one to not get insulted by that behavior. He'd just laugh, rub his head and call him his "bright boy". Then he'd tell him another story, a better one.

Yuri wiped his face. "The botched deliveries...those are probably my doing. I deciphered a whole mess of messages last night. There's a massive GAU fleet in the Mediterranean being made ready to invade us." The elders gasped as one. "It'll happen soon. Unless the Caliph manages to talk it out with them. So, you see, we had every single officer in charge of...well, everything, really, come into the School today and that's probably why the deliveries went awry."

"You're not lying," Kenfer feebly said. His face blanched.

Yuri looked him in the eye. "I wish I was. Anyway, you must not tell anyone anything about this. You gave me your words." He looked around the table as all the elders, even Kenfer, nodded.

"So, you see, it would make no sense for the Arabs to go on a killing spree, right as we're about to be invaded."

"Madness never makes sense," one of the elders said. Yuri nearly rolled his eyes at her.

"It's true," Kenfer said to Mansour, sounding shocked. "What they were saying. It's true." Mansour nodded. All the elders looked to be deep in thought.

"What's true?"

Mansour stared Yuri in the eye, making him feel judged. After a few moments, Mansour relaxed in his seat and spoke. "Last month, we received word from our compatriots in the south that a discovery had been made in the mountains. Endless truck convoys have been ferrying heavy digging equipment into the area, ever since. Armed men were suddenly patrolling the entire countryside, making sure no one got close to the digs without permission. Permission not even the local authorities could obtain. There's a lot of speculation as to what they're drilling for, but if the GAU is planning to invade us..."

"Uranium," Yuri said.

All the elders nodded, agreeing with his reasoning.

"Fuck," Yuri said.

Mansour grinned sadly. "Pretty much." He lifted his cup and took a whiff. "How do you think this will play out?" He took a sip of his tea and set it back down.

Yuri fidgeted in his seat. Suddenly, he was struck by the weirdness of this meeting. Had anyone told him yesterday that the elders would be summoning him to ask for his help, he would have thought them crazy. Now, not only had they allowed him to insult them repeatedly in front of an audience, but the head elder was asking for his opinion.

He was too exhausted to think of any reason why he should not give it. "Well, the Caliph had been spouting anti-GAU propaganda since before the civil war had destroyed the old kingdom. I don't really see him as allying with the GAU, but he's a calculated man. Realistic. He knows he can't possibly win. Our Air Force could challenge the GAU's naval air groups, but my decrypts suggest that the GAU has a lot of air power ready to act from bases in Spain and Italy." He could tell that the elders were bristling at his use of the word "our", but he kept on talking.

"Indeed, I guess the primary purpose of their carrier-borne air power will be to defend their fleet and landing vessels against our attacks. Our fleet is chronically under funded. It's severely lacking in ships and trained seamen. The weapon systems are largely obsolete and the electronic warfare suites are laughable. The GAU can sweep the fleet aside in an hour. The real battle will be at the beaches. Once the GAU establishes supply ports, it's game over.

"We could stall their advance into the hinterland, but not turn them away. Never mind their technological superiority, they'd win by pure attrition. I mean, the GAU can always ferry another million combat robots and their operators to our shores. We don't have a combat robot industry. All our losses are irreplaceable. We have no allies. The Bloc couldn't come to our aid, even if it wanted to."

Yuri paused as the likely source of Ali's smirk finally dawned on him. The Caliphate was surrounded by hostile nations and the GAU hadn't approached any of them to join in on the invasion. It was standard GAU practice to amplify any pre-existing tensions in a region they were about to attack. They'd play the locals against each other to reduce resistance and gain allies that would help them with the ensuing occupation.