The Sword and the Plough Read Online Free PDF

the black rock into soil.
    For a while, brother and sister sat in
silence, gazing out at the black soil vista that was their world.
Here and there, spurts of green proclaimed the presumption of weeds
in the new fields. They too had clandestinely made the long voyage to find a
home in this new world.
     
    * * *
     
    “Elizabeth V,” Helen said abruptly.
    “What about our magnanimous queen?” Lars
enquired.
    “ I was just thinking – day dreaming really
– what it must be like to have a number after your name; to be loved and respected
by millions – to be royal .”
    Lars grinned and made a sweeping bow as best
he could from his lounger.
    “Helen the First,” he exclaimed in his most
sonorous tones. “Our most glorious and sovereign majesty.”
    “Yes, and Lars the Last, if you’re not
careful,” his sister countered. “But just think,” she went on,
“Earth, Megran, New Terra, Lumai, Theti, Trion, all belonging to
you; the whole Commonwealth of Planets to do what you like
with.”
    Lars scooped up a handful of the black soil
and let it sieve through his fingers. Its quality and texture
swelled his farmer’s pride.
    “ I don’t think the Royal Family would think
like that,” he mused. “They’re born to it – it’s their job, like
ours is ploughing fields and planting. It’s just the way things
are.”
    Helen shrugged. “Maybe, but they do have
everything.” She gazed out at the black fields. “Just think what it
would be like to live in a big city – a city with a population
larger than all of Trion’s people put together…” Her voice had
taken on a faraway timbre. “Elizabeth V – oh, how I should love to
meet her – see her crown, her jewels, her palace…”
     
    * * *
     
    The Royal Family had won the hearts and
minds of Earth’s peoples right from the start.
    Elizabeth III had been the perfect choice
to begin the new dynasty. Tall, blue-eyed, raven-haired, and with a
film star’s fortunate combination of features, she was ‘every inch
a queen’ – as tabloids
around the world had gushed. The sudden swell of popular interest
in the idea of
monarchy – a notion that had been redundant for some time –
persuaded the new world officials of the wisdom to restore a
connection with the past and manufacture a folklore that bound the
global population to the new proposals.
    They called in historians to look back to the
first Elizabeth. Everything about the ancient queen came under
scrutiny, and many of the trappings from her era were uplifted to
the new regime.
    The new queen called upon her nearest
relatives to support her, distant relatives at home and abroad were
reinstated, ancient names and lineages from other nations were
resurrected, and a broad ranging modern aristocracy came into being
to assist the new world administration.
    If the petty national type-castings and
hatreds steadily declined under the new one planet concept, so too
did the host of ancient faiths and doctrines. Humanism became the
new conviction – such were the expectations and aspirations the new
world regime represented.
     
    * * *
     
    Lars leaned back, his hands clasped behind
his head, and considered his sister as she spoke on about the queen
and her riches.
    Helen had untied her ponytail and shaken
loose her hair so that it framed her smooth-skinned oval face.
Despite the rigours of her field hand tasks, her home made creams
and lotions had kept her skin soft and feminine. However, she had
not been able to stop the black dust from griming her hands and
fingernails.
    She looked older somehow, with her hair down,
and once more Lars reminded himself that his sister was no longer
the skinny little kid with the yellow ponytail who worked as hard
as he did in the new fields every day. Rather, she was a young
woman with an independent future of her own. Again, he felt the
responsibility he bore as her older brother and the only family
that she had.
    Her words faded from his consciousness as
his mind drifted. Five