Eden's Gate

Chapter 7: Charming Chats and Cleaning Cages

Voltaire has the run of the place again. This time, Clifton had left him with Taylor and the others while he went to clean his enclosure. Voltaire was chewing on Mr. Lepus' blood stained ear. Two years of cleaning hadn't gotten the stain out. Kaitlyn was sure that no matter what they did it wouldn't go out and so far she was turning out to be right, and at this point even Edelweiss had to agree that they wouldn't get the stains out without damaging the toy. Kaitlyn was keeping Voltaire from eating him by telekinetically moving him around. Taylor was watching Sasha go about the room and observe them all, while Richard read a book. Edelweiss was cleaning her flute.

"So, Richard, that's a new one. What's it on?"

"Various battles on the African front. Right now I'm reading about the Glorious 155th Battery."

He never took his eyes off the book as he spoke. Kaitlyn found that both he and Edelweiss were capable of reading and talking at the same time, but she was not.

"You and your wars. Why does it interest you so much?" She teased.

Richard smiled a bit. "Because these are the really hard decisions. The ones that matter. Human history is written either on the battlefield or by people trying to avoid the battlefield. War literally moves nations."

Edelweiss shook her head, "So what did this 155th Battery do to earn them the title of Glorious?"

Richard closed the book, it taking on his red glow as he levitated it to the table.

"To understand the story of the 155th, you have to know a little about what was going on in Africa at the time. In short, the Germans were starting to realize that with the Americans having landed in the African Theater, they wouldn't be able to last if they didn't make a big move. They decided to go for the port town of Beja, which was their main center of supply."

"I assume that was risky." Kaitlyn said.

"Yes. On the one hand, Beja was well defended, but on the other hand there was a lot of area to defend when it came to getting there. The Germans wanted to use that. So the Germans employed Blitzkreig."

"Blitzkrieg?" Edelweiss repeated.

"It means 'Lightning War," Richard explained, "and it was a favorite strategy of theirs. The idea was to attack with heavy and mobile rank and infantry units so fast that there wouldn't be time to respond. It was a perfect strategy for this situation. If the Germans could steam all the way through, they could take the city, and once they had it the allies supply lines would be cut in half making it much easier to hold. Anything they left behind wouldn't be able to recover in time."

"So what happened?" Edelweiss asked.

"The Germans decided to go through a town called Sidi Nsir, because it had a railway directly to Beja they could use to move even faster. Guarding the passage through to the town was the 155th Battery and a group of troops from Hampshire. They fought valiantly to hold the advancing tank battalions off, but they realized the fight was lost, so they followed orders to cover the retreat of the Hampshires and stayed behind, dying down to a man."

"Oh my god!" Edelweiss called out, "that's so sad! How can you enjoy reading this stuff?"

"It's tragic, yes," Richard said, "but them staying behind and fighting to the last man, aiming their cannons directly point black at the tanks, cost the German advance time and manpower. They effectively clogged the tank treads with their bodies and broken scrap."

"But why?" She asked. "What good is that?"

"Because it killed the momentum. Blitzkrieg only works if it's fast and unbroken - like lightning. When the Hampshires got away, they were able to warn the next outpost that this is where the Germans were coming from, and because of the time the 155th bought, the rest of the army had time to move their defenses into position. The momentum was lost and the surprise was killed. The charge, which may well have changed the war, failed. Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives were saved by the sacrifice of only some 130 odd men."

"Live by the blitz, die by the blitz." Taylor said, looking intently at the glass of water Sasha had left behind on the center table.

Kaitlyn had seen her down a handful of pills with it, and then immediately walk off. She wasn't sure what that was about.

"So they died for the greater good. Sacrificed their lives." Edelweiss said.

"The sacrifice of 100 for 100,000s. I'd say it's worth it, even if it is sad that those 100 had to die." Richard repeated, for emphasis.

Edelweiss looked down at her flute carefully, considering it as she thought of her response. "If you think like that...eventually, you'll run out of lives to sacrifice."

"That may or may not be true," he said, "but when it comes to stopping something like the Nazis, whatever it costs is worth it."

Edelweiss looked up at him.

"How can you be so callous? Those men, they had mothers and fathers, probably brothers and sisters, some may have even had wives and children. Did they deserve to lose their loved ones?"

"That's a question for the Nazis, not me." Richard said, his coy smile turning into a frown as he cheeks went slightly red.

Taylor's ears wiggled for a minute and they walked over to the cup of water. Without a word, they began walking it towards Clifton's room. Katlyn immediately caught on.

"Taylor, what are you doing?" She asked.

"I'm going to put Voltaire's dirty water in this cup and see what it does to Sasha." Taylor said, restraining a chuckle.

"Absolutely not! Do you know how sick that could make her?" Edelweiss said, standing up and putting her hands on her hips.

"...wait, it could do that?" genuine surprise was in their voice.

Voltaire went and chomped at Mr. Lepus again, who Kaitlyn had dodge it with ease. The dance was starting to get a bit boring, but it was still apparently fun for the turtle so she'd keep at it for a little longer.

"I mean it's filthy water that's been stagnating for days, at least."

"Two weeks!" Clifton corrected from his room.

"Two weeks?! Good heavens, two weeks. It's murky and gross, who knows what's in it. It's dirty enough that Voltaire can't handle it, why would she?"

Taylor turned around on the tip of their toe and put the water glass back precisely where they found it before returning to the table.

"I wonder what actually is in it." Kaitlyn said.

"Algae, probably," Richard suggested, "at the very least."

"Probably some nasty bugs left their babies in it too." Edelweiss said. "Though with any luck our house is clean enough for that to not happen."

"Don't count on it," said Taylor, "we live right next to an entire forest of buggers. Doesn't matter how clean you keep it, they'll get in. You should know that."

"I wonder how turtles go to the bathroom. Some of that may be in there." Kaitlyn suggested.

And the conversation about what could be in the water continued, stopping another fight from happening.