V2 Chapter 135: Cawl, Make Your Choice. You Can Save the Future of Humanity.
Shock.
This was an emotion that had not surfaced so clearly in the ten thousand years of Cawl's existence for a very long time. So long, in fact, that he could not recall what era had last produced a comparable impact.
His current form had limited means of expressing such a state. His face would not change colour. His voice barely modulated.
So what Cawl could do, in this moment, was sweep his optical sensors across Duvette's body again and again. Pupillary response, muscle tension, cardiac rhythm, respiratory frequency: every datum his instruments could read.
The conclusion arrived quickly.
Duvette Erdmann was not lying.
He meant it.
The exceptional information processors inside Cawl's frame began running at extraordinary intensity. A great number of thought threads deployed simultaneously to work through the implications.
When they finished, Cawl said only one thing.
"Duvette Erdmann. Do you understand what the object you have just described means under the doctrine of the Adeptus Mechanicus?"
Duvette gave a nod.
"Abominable Intelligence. Tech-heresy. The catastrophe left behind by the Age of Darkness. A betrayal that nearly caused the extinction of humanity."
He answered with complete composure, as though he had prepared this response long before the conversation.
The brightness of Cawl's optical sensors increased slightly.
Duvette continued. "But, Cawl—this is an opportunity. An opportunity that could allow humanity to free itself from the situation it is in now. The answers you have spent ten thousand years searching for, this could answer them as well."
Cawl's enormous frame leaned forward a degree.
"How do you know it will not rebel again?"
For the first time, an unmistakable tremor ran through his voice.
"Humanity does not have the resources to face another Age of Strife. This time, we would disappear entirely into the galaxy, along with every star we have ever known."
The Axe of Ominissiah struck the ground.
The low impact resonated beyond the edge of the temporary command tent. Binary data syllables ran beneath Cawl's vocaliser.
He was questioning Duvette. He was also questioning himself.
"But is this not precisely why you came, Cawl?" Duvette took a step forward, opened his arms wide, and raised his voice toward that vast mechanical frame.
"Cawl. Has every shred of pride you once held simply dissolved in front of one relic from the Age of Strife? Has your hunger for knowledge simply stopped here, and left all of humanity to struggle in endless darkness and despair?"
Venus looked at Duvette as well.
She could feel the change she had noticed in this man becoming more pronounced. His words carried no elaborate rhetoric, yet every person present found themselves drawn toward what he was saying without quite being able to resist it.
Venus thought of what she had learned from the secret histories of her dynasty. Ten thousand years ago, in the early Imperium, there had been figures who possessed this same quality, who had walked the galaxy with this same ability. They had been called Heralds.
Duvette paid no attention to what those around him were feeling.
His gaze had not left Cawl.
"Cawl! Belisarius Cawl! There is no one else who can do this!"
"You have kept alive the hopes that humanity should never have lost, through ten thousand years of darkness!"
"You know better than anyone that some miracles can only be called heresy until the moment they are completed!"
"The only one who can save the future of humanity is you!"
Cawl went silent.
His mechadendrites held still in the air. The focus of his optical sensors contracted continuously. Deep within his enormous frame, a sustained hum ran without stopping, as though countless cogitators were running simultaneously.
Duvette did not press him further.
He simply looked at the silent Cawl and spoke the final line.
"Make the choice, Cawl."
"If your judgement, after full consideration, is that the threat outweighs the opportunity, then we destroy the Men of Iron STC entirely."
The temporary command area went quiet again.
Wind came through from the canyon, turning up the dust on the ground. The sound of tank engines and troop movements continued in the distance, but no one in that distance had any idea that a choice sufficient to alter the fate of all of humanity was being made here.
Cawl had not felt what it was to struggle with something in a very long time.
He had even assumed that capacity had long since left him.
But now a fork in the road was in front of him. Looking down both paths, he could see the end of neither.
To seal it or destroy it meant losing an opportunity that might have changed humanity's fate.
To attempt to salvage it meant approaching the deepest prohibition the Adeptus Mechanicus held, approaching the shadow of the Men of Iron, approaching the betrayal in the Age of Strife that had brought human civilisation to the edge of collapse.
His processors produced a deep hum.
Every available resource was directed into this unknown.
A moment passed. Then the conclusion emerged.
Unknown.
Both paths ended in the unknown.
Cawl's vast frame bent slowly. His optical sensors looked down at the man who stood beneath him with a completely composed expression.
"By the Omnissiah. By the Machine God."
Cawl spoke.
"Let me try."
He paused, his voice settling into something heavier.
"If anything goes wrong, I will destroy everything on this planet."
Duvette let out a long breath.
"There is no need to rush. There is one more thing I need to tell you."
Cawl's optical sensors turned slightly.
Duvette said: "The Men of Iron STC has been exposed to Chaos corruption. We need to run the purification first."
The next instant, sharp binary noise burst from within Cawl's frame.
"Are you making a jest of me, Duvette Erdmann?"
His Axe of Ominissiah struck the ground again, harder than before.
"A Men of Iron STC that has been exposed to Chaos corruption. What possible justification remains for excavating and salvaging it? This is not a legacy. This is a living catastrophe."
Duvette only shook his head.
"No, Cawl. For me, that particular problem is not especially difficult."
Every one of Cawl's optical sensors locked on to him.
At that moment, Duvette turned his head and looked toward Venus.
Cawl followed his gaze.
When Venus registered both of them looking at her, her expression finally changed. She stepped back half a pace without thinking.
She had just become aware of how much she had heard. Men of Iron STC. Chaos corruption. Adeptus Mechanicus prohibition. A planetary-scale destruction contingency.
Any one of those words, used carelessly, was sufficient to drag a Rogue Trader dynasty into an Inquisitorial secured chamber.
She steadied herself quickly, put on a serious expression, and spoke.
"I will never speak of this. The Carpé family will leave no records of any of it."
Duvette said nothing.
Cawl said nothing.
Both their gazes had moved past her and settled on the space behind her.
Venus paused, then turned.
A familiar figure was walking in from the outer edge of the camp.
Lord Inquisitor Werner was moving at his unhurried pace, his considerable frame preceding him, his standard expression of mild benevolence already in place. Several Inquisitorial Storm Troopers followed behind him. He was not moving quickly, but he arrived at precisely the right moment to enter the circle of the meeting.
He had transferred from the Silent Verdict to the surface before Cawl's fleet arrived. He simply had not entered the conversation until now.
"It has been some time, Archmagos Cawl."
Werner gave a mild nod.
"And Lady Carpé."
Some of the tension went out of Venus's expression.
Werner looked at Cawl.
"Duvette is correct."
His tone was unhurried.
"He does have the ability to resolve the Chaos corruption. It is a gift of the Emperor's—"
"Hm?"
Duvette's eyes narrowed. His voice was not raised, but it was enough to make Werner pause.
The smile on Werner's face did not shift at all.
He appeared to have anticipated exactly this reaction. He continued, entirely unruffled, with a small amendment.
"It is a phenomenon worthy of careful witnessing."
Duvette kept his eyes on him.
Werner cleared his throat lightly, then turned back to Cawl.
"In any case, Archmagos."
He said it with a smile.
"Prepare to witness something genuinely extraordinary."