After the first two pages it became obvious that this was no ordinary diary. No diarist starts off with a short autobiography for a start. Colonel Emerson had evidently meant it to be a record for posterity.
At the time of the Torgon invasion Emerson was forty-six years old, married with two teenage children and head of police in Dorivar, which turned out to be the city Feng and I had visited. At the time of his birth the Darnaqs were already doomed. No offspring had been born for decades and the end was in sight. The Darnaq population of around a billion had dwindled to around ten million by then, huge tracts in the cities were empty, infrastructure was breaking up, supply problems arose. When it became obvious that the cities could no longer be maintained, one city after another was closed down and the survivors, human Faerie and Darnaq moved to Dorivar. By the time Emerson was in his twenties there were less than a million Darnaqs left, all elderly by now. In addition there were about two million Faeries and around fifty thousand humans. More than half the Faeries were working the farms surrounding Dorivar and along the rivers where they grew human type food, mainly grain.
Emerson had joined the police force by then. Originally the police had only few human officers, the vast majority being Darnaqs as the Faeries were unsuitable for such duties. By now the police force was exclusively staffed by humans, the surviving Darnaqs being too old or infirm. Ten years later there were no Darnaqs left.
Emerson was in his thirties now. He had quickly risen through the ranks in spite of being a rather controversial figure. The controversy arose because he was one of a group of people who publicly advocated that the demise of the Darnaqs was a prelude to an invasion by hostile aliens and not a natural tragedy as was generally believed.
This theory gained some credibility over the years as scientists claimed that the virus could not possibly have evolved on the planet. By analysing the initial spread of the disease they also stated that the simultaneous outbreak of the epidemic all over the planet could not be attributed to a natural event. The logical conclusion was that the planet was under attack.
Emerson had been advocating for a long time that preparation for an invasion was necessary and prudent. The police force had never been armed with more than batons. Crime was rare and their main duties were traffic control and crowd control at big public events, attending accidents, sorting out squabbles between neighbours and so forth. Emerson wanted to increase the size of the police force and have them armed. He also proposed to create arms caches and storage of provisions in specially constructed underground facilities that could accommodate a large number of people, if necessary.
There was no shortage of resources. Just about any commodity imaginable was lying around somewhere unused. There were also miles of disused underground railway tunnels that could be modified into bomb proof shelters with comparatively little effort. In addition there were thousands of Faeries who had moved to Dorivar and had little to do because the Darnaqs they had served no longer existed.
In spite of the fact that most people still considered an invasion unlikely Emerson's ideas found resonance. There were two main reasons. There was a growing group who thought that perhaps being prepared for invasion wasn't a bad idea. Better safe than sorry, they reasoned. By far the largest group believed that having a huge idle population was unwanted in the extreme and that Emerson's plan put these people to work on something that arguably was important and desirable. It would have a positive effect on society, whether the fears were justified or not.
Emerson was promoted to Colonel and made head of police with the mandate to implement his plans. He was thirty-five.
Colonel Emerson wasted no time. There had never been a war on the planet. The Darnaqs were a laid back, peace loving bunch and although personal fights occurred at times, organised violent confrontations between groups were unknown. The Faeries were so placid they never bickered, even amongst themselves. The only knowledge of war and warfare came from Captain Harkon's records.
Being an ardent admirer of Harkon and being somewhat familiar with human history he appointed a committee to go through Harkon's library and records to find as many references to warfare and especially guerilla warfare as they could find. He knew that only guerilla warfare against an invader had any chance at all if a confrontation became necessary.
He trebled the size of the police force and started training them in guerilla tactics. Captain Harkon's weapons had been locked up for a long time on the old man's orders. Emerson opened the vault and started copying them in one of the idle engineering works. He produced rifles, handguns and grenades and trained his people in their use. He also trained special groups in the production of bombs. The Darnaqs had been producing explosives for use in quarries and mines for a long time. These facilities were reopened and put into production.
Meanwhile work on the railway tunnels had started.
***
When the Torgons finally arrived Colonel Emerson was as ready as he ever would get. Where the term Torgon had come from no one could say with certainty. Some said it was the Faerie word for shit, but the Faeries denied that this was so. It didn't matter, that's what they were called.
Emerson held his horses and evacuated as many of his people and Faeries as he could into the underground facilities and awaited developments. Many were unwilling to go, thinking they could come to some arrangement with the invaders. It was not to be.
The Torgons could speak Darnaq. They had evidently studied the language to be able to boss the Faeries around. And boss them around they did. They put them to work in the most cruel fashion. When the Faeries did not understand what they wanted, instead of clarifying the situation they cut their wings off, dragged them in chains through the streets, ripped the clothes off their bodies, impaled them, roasted them alive over an open fire and consumed them when they were cooked.
In spite of these atrocities there were still humans who believed they could arrange some sort of deal. They put a delegation together who approached the building they thought accommodated the Torgon headquarters.
The Torgons panicked. They had evidently not expected another sentient species on the planet and opened fire on the newcomers without enquiring what they had to say. All humans were killed.
To Colonel Emerson this was tantamount to a declaration of war. He decided to teach them a lesson. The building where the murders had occurred was a forty story waterfront building. It had once been an upmarket hotel. The Torgon elite seemed to have made its home there, judging by the amount of activity around the place. The icing on the cake was the main sewage line that ran past the building only thirty yards away. It would not be too difficult to dig a tunnel from the sewer to the basement of the hotel, pack it with explosives and send the whole structure to kingdom come.
The Torgons worked in ten day cycles. On the tenth day they had what appeared to be a rest day. That is when they had their Faerie roasting parties on the terrace of the hotel. On the day before the event they set up fifty braziers and filled them with charcoal in preparation for the feast. Torgons came from everywhere to partake in the festivities. On these days the place was crowded.
The Colonel decided to hit on feast day. It didn't take long to dig the tunnel and on the eve of the Torgon feast they breached the wall to the basement and spent all night stacking their explosives. Emerson wanted to make a statement and used far more than was necessary to bring the building down.
He waited until lunchtime, the height of the festival, to set off his charge. Watching from a safe distance, even Emerson was amazed at the destruction they had wrought.
When the explosion went off the entire forty story building went three hundred feet into the air as if shot from a cannon. For a fraction of a second it just hung in mid air, turned slightly and went crashing down to earth, killing thousands of Torgons in seconds. Gas and water mains burst, a huge area around the crater where the building had been was in flames and looked as if a meteor had hit it.
"It looks like we've made our point," said Emerson dryly when the dust settled. "Now we've got to tell these arseholes what we want and what we are prepared to do if they don't come to the party."
He was addressing about three hundred of his followers in on of their bunkers.
"I want you to catch me three or four of the blighters and bring them to me. If possible, don't kill anyone when you capture them. I want to send them to their high command with a message, so don't damage them too badly. Andreas, grab your platoon and get moving. Try to get someone with a bit of standing in their community. You have fifteen hours."
"Sir."
Less than six hours later Andreas and his men turned up with three prisoners. The larger one of the three, presumably the male, was dressed in what seemed to be an elaborate uniform.
***
Colonel Emerson describes the encounter in his diary:
It was the first time I had a close up look at a Torgon. Though covered in fine green scales, the head of the creature reminded me of the head of a pig I had seen in one of Captain Harkon's books. It was only the long pig like snout with its tusks that gave that impression, the rest was quite different. There were four eyes, one upper and one lower pair situated above the snout about four inches apart. The creature seemed to be using only one pair at a time, the lower pair being closed when the upper pair was looking and vice versa. The alternating use of the eyes for no discernible reason made me feel uneasy. There were no ears I could make out. The Torgon had two arms and hands with three fingers and and two opposing thumbs, also covered with fine green scales. Loose fitting clothing hid the rest of the creature from view. The Torgon was angry.
"Animal," he yelled at me in Darnaq, "you will immediately release us or I will have you all killed."
Andreas stepped in.
"You will not talk to our Colonel like this, Arsehole," he yelled, "is that understood?"
To emphasise his point Andreas hit the Torgon as hard as he could on the tip of the snout with the flat of his hand.
The Torgon froze. He just stood there and after a small pause started shaking like a leaf. I could not make out if the creature was shaking with rage or fear.
