Deliver Us Huis

Waking up was hard. I had been up half the night, my mind swirling with unanswered questions. Sometimes I wished my mind had an OFF button like an android. It would be so much easier than staying up half the night searching for answers to my problems.

As I went about my morning routine I tried to retain a degree of hope. Today, O’Malley was coming back in town, and I would no longer be alone. I also hoped that Petrus would come over, it had been awhile since I had seen him.

Sometimes I wondered if O’Malley and Petrus were the only people who kept me sane. Sometimes I lived too much in my head. But, at least with them, I had someone else to confide in.

O’Malley always heard me out. He was much more than just a butler to me. He played role of both father and friend.

I didn’t remember my father, he had claimed fighting in the war was his duty, and left my mother in all the comfort money could buy. I was born three days after his death at the hands of insurgents. My mother, I was told, seemed to fade after his death. She died six days after the war was over, leaving me to the care of O’Malley, who had promised my father to take care of me if something happened to him.

Years later I had met Petrus at a self defense class that O’Malley had sent me too. All the other children had been either rude or boring. But Petrus was different. He was sharp, intelligent, and within a few minutes of talking to him I knew I had made a friend worth keeping.

Besides, usually when I had a problem, he would help me find a solution. I hoped today would be no different, maybe he would help me find a goal that would let me do something significant.

I stumbled downstairs and found a kitchen knife to open the box of supplies I had gotten yesterday. It was the usual, other than the new cabling for the broken service droid, and a few new charge holders for the house androids.

I looked around the house for something, anything else to do. The apartments were sparkling clean, the cleaning droids made sure of that. In the entire ten story apartment I only used the top floor, which I suppose made their jobs easy enough.

When my parents had been alive all the rooms had been open, but it seemed silly to keep so many grand rooms open, just for me and O’Malley. As I thought about all the empty rooms downstairs, I wondered if perhaps they could be a part of my plan.

Before O’Malley or Petrus came, perhaps I should sit down and list my resources. It wouldn’t hurt, and I still had plenty of time this morning.

I brought my notebook out to the kitchen table and began to write and draw. I was so absorbed by my work I didn’t notice O’Malley come in until I heard his questioning voice,

“Telyina, how is there a box of new supplies here already? Isn’t the service droid broken?”

“O’Malley! You’re back!” I smiled up at him from the piles of paperwork I was sifting through. He came over and started picking up the pieces of paper and inspecting them.

“Accounts? Why are you looking through those old papers Telyina? I assure you I have kept everything on very good order for you since your parents died.”

“You sure have,” I said appreciatively, “Most of the family fortune is still here, despite the fact that we’ve been living on it the past ten years.”

“When your parents died, I knew I would have to make ends meet for many years to come. You’d be surprised how little it takes to keep us fed and keep the lights on.”

“Thank you for all your faithful care of the fortune, O’Malley.” I said, smiling, “I couldn’t have survived all these years without you.”

“Nor I without you, m’lady.” He said turning back away towards the kitchen, his eyes once again falling on the package of supplies.

“I don’t wish to disturb your work, dear,” he said, turning back to me, “But how did you get those supplies?”

“I got them myself,” I said absentmindedly, scribbling the dimensions of the downstairs ballroom in my journal.

I heard a gasp, and looked up to see that O’Malley’s eyes flashing green. He pulled up a chair beside me, full of concern.

“Did you get hurt?”

“I’m fine.”

The lie felt natural on my tongue. I spoke it every day, for it was better for me to pretend to be happy, than to concern O’Malley or Petrus when they could do nothing to help me.

But this time O’Malley persisted, “Did anyone bother you?”

I decided it was best to leave out the incident with the drunken thugs, “No.”

“Did you get lost?”

I forced a laugh, “Look, O’Malley, I’m fine, I got the package, and I came back. Not a scratch. I’m fine.”

“Then what is all this?” he asked, motioning to the mess of papers currently on the table.

“I don’t know yet,” I said, softly.

“Pardon me for saying,” O’Malley tried, “But you seem sad, much sadder than you have been in a long while. What’s wrong?”

For a moment I considered pushing aside his concern, but the emotions inside me demanded to be recognised.

“Everything.” I burst out, feeling my eyes well up with blue sadness, “Everything’s wrong! The slave trade, the poverty, the lives of the people of this city, of this entire planet. Everything’s just so miserable, and no one’s doing anything about it. And I want to find a way to make it all stop… but I can’t.... I don’t know what to do, but I can’t do nothing and...” I shook my head, “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.”

O’Malley shook his head, “You’re being too hard on yourself. You shouldn’t have to solve the problems of an entire planet.”

“But if I don’t, who will?”

O’Malley opened his mouth as if to respond, but then closed it again. For there was no one.

Silently I turned back to my writings, calculating expenses, mapping out floor space, hoping that some answer would appear out of all of them.

But nothing seemed to make any sense, or give me any ideas. Not that I was lacking in funds, rather they were plentiful, but I still had no idea how I could use them. It was to my relief when I heard knocking on the apartment door.

I opened the door and let Petrus in. My heart skipped a beat, like it usually did whenever I saw him. Even though I knew my feelings weren’t reciprocated, I still felt a rush of pleasure whenever he was around.

Seeing all of the papers strewn about on the table he looked to me questioningly, “What kind of plan are we cooking up this time, Tel?”

I shook my head, “That’s the problem, Petrus, I don’t know what we’re planning. There’s a problem, but I just can’t find a solution to work towards.”

He went and sat down at the table, flipping through the papers. “And what is the problem?”

“Well, just about everything.” I said.

He looked up from the table. “Could we be slightly more specific?”

“I’m afraid not.”

He paused, looking from the papers in his hand to me, “So the problem we have to solve is, everything. All this world’s problems?”

I nodded.

He set the papers down, “Mind to tell me why it is suddenly our job to fix the entire planet?”

I sat down at the table, “Yesterday I went to get supplies, and there was a family, being forced into bondage by a gang, right in front of the crowd’s eyes, and I tried to stop them, but I couldn’t and… I guess it just made me think.

This entire planet is in such a bad state, and no one’s doing anything about it. I was mad at the crowd yesterday for not helping that poor family. But then, I didn’t help them at all either. I couldn’t. I was no better than them. And... I’m not doing anything, I’m not changing anything.”

“And so you’ve decided to start now?” Petrus asked, his purple eyes dark and serious.

“Yes,” I said, “I need to find a way to fix this, because if I don’t who else will?”

“Fair point.” He said leaning back in his chair, “So... what are you going to do?”

“That’s the problem,” I sighed, “I don’t know. I’ve written out all of my assets, and between this house, and the money I’ve been left I have quite a lot. But not enough to fix all the world’s problems, at least not in any way I see that I could do.”

“Have you thought about working a change through politics?” Petrus asked.

“That wouldn’t work,” I sighed, “The only thing our current government does is argue, promise change, and sit around filing endless rounds of paperwork. Government power would be nice, but I could get nowhere close to the authority I need to work the changes that need to be made.”

“So you would need absolute power?” Petrus asked.

“Yeah, things need to change now. Even if I was Huis’s queen, all my changes would be questioned and downplayed, and the parliament would waste time splitting unimportant hairs.”

“So you would need a dictatorship?”

“It sounds bad when you put it that way,” I paused, “But it would be better than anything we’ve got now. I don’t see how things could be much worse than they are.”

“The funny thing about dictatorships is that they are usually bad.” Petrus said, “But I think it’s just because we have bad dictators.”

“Yeah. Too bad our government doesn’t have an open dictator spot.” I joked.

“Who says we have to operate within the bounds of our current government?”

I looked to Petrus, confused, “What?”

“Listen Tel,” he said, “You are a smart person, with a lot of resources, a lot of good ideas, and a reason to rule. On the other hand our government is fragile and ready to collapse. If you really want to fix this planet, I see no other choice but to take down the current government, and institute your own rule.”

I stood up, looking at him incredulously, “You’re kidding.”

“Not even a bit.”

“You suggest global domination is the best way to go here?”

“Tel.” Petrus said, voice calm, “You want to do something significant? You have to have power. You want to help people? You’re going to need power. Ruling Huis is the only way you’ll be able to institute changes to better the lives of the people.”

“But… That’s impossible! How would I go about taking over the world?”

Petrus shrugged, “I guess that’s what we have to figure out now.”

“I guess…” I nodded slowly, “I guess it is.”