The Gendar Conspiracy (short story)

The Gendar Conspiracy was a 10,000 Dawns story by James Wylder. It was the third story in the series to cross over with the Doctor Who universe, and was a prequel to the Christmas Special crossover White Canvas. It was released as part of A 10,000 Dawns Christmas, and later rereleased in The Outer Universe Collection.
The Gendar Conspiracy featured the official use of characters and concepts from the DWU works of Jayce Black and Simon Bucher-Jones.
== Summary ==
Sergeant-Instructor Littlejohn has been called to Vo'lach Prime by the Vo'lach following the theft of a sacred urn by a group of five conspirators, who ended up turning on each other, leaving two of them dead in a pit on Vo'lach Prime while the rest made their escape. One of the two dead conspirators is a Firmament (or rather a Knight of Sky) from the 10,000 Dawns, an incursion from the outer multiverse to which Littlejohn does not take kindly, summoning the Arbiter of Knives to answer for it. The Arbiter makes it clear that the Firmament (singular or plural) in this affair were not acting on orders from the Firmament authorities, but Littlejohn makes it clear that his people will still hold the Firmament responsible unless the Arbiter actively joins the investigation.
The urn was an artefact from the planet Gendar, famous for the fact that its vibrant native civilisation should not, by any scientific analysis, exist. Indeed, for the last three months, Drezen Hael, an archeologist on the payroll of the Gendar Is Fake Trust, has been searching the desert for proof positive that the entire thing is some kind of hoax. Just as he's beginning to ponder whether he's been wrong and it's all just a tourist trap as opposed to a massive hologram, he has a deadly encounter with a man in blue robes who stumbles out of the desert, bleeding from a wound in his chest. Before Hael can react, the man does something using his gauntlet and transfers his wound and exhaustion to Hael while sucking out his health and life-force. Hael dies in the sand while the stranger wastes no time in heading for his destination: the giant statue of the Goddess in the distance.
At the feet of the statue, Littlejohn and Knives briefly run into a tour guide before being found by the Gendar's leader, Virtuoso, head of its unlikely-named government the Historic Preservation Society. The skittish woman, who seems older than she should logically be and makes a bad job of hiding it, soon admits that the urn was not a random artefact but, secretly, the key to a hidden cache in the Temple of the Goddess; she gave it to the Vo'lach without telling them its significance because she was worried about ill-intentioned people stealing it to gain access to the secret room.
Meanwhile, the man in blue robes is already waiting in line outside the temple to gain entry. He ruminates on what led him here: he was part of a conspiracy with Artillo Brinzo, Auteur, and the two other, now-dead individuals. He didn't know the whole plan, but knew enough to know that the next stop would be Gendar, hence why he decided to head there after Auteur and Brinzo betrayed the three others and left them for dead on Vo'lach Prime. However, he sees read when he looks up at the statue of the Goddess and realises she and Auteur are one and the same. Enraged, he murders his way through the line of waiting tourists, though he knows deep down that it's already "too late".
When a guard runs to Virtuoso's office and alerts here, Littlejohn and Knives to what has happened, they hurry to the secret chamber only to find the urn already in its slot, the secret compartment open, and it already empty save for a handful of notes, including a post-it with a smiley face on it and a flippant "Sorry" in Auteur's handwriting. Convincing them that he won't try anything just now, the man in blue robes shows them a further sheet of paper left behind by Auteur, which makes plain the God and Goddess's identities as Gideon and Auteur. The document also shows that Virtuoso is in on this, and was present when the statue of the Goddess was built. The man in blue explains the simple conclusion: the entire billion-year history of Gendar is a "billion-year con-job", micromanaged by Auteur to give herself a cushy "day job" as a Goddess from which she could plan out her later moves. However, she and Brinzo (as well as Gideon) have already left the planet with what they needed, and it is too late for the rogue Firmament to get his own or stop what is coming for the 10,000 Dawns.
Because he knows the 10,000 Dawns will soon be destroyed, the rogue Firmament refuses to turn himself in to the Arbiter of Knives, and he tries to use his life-sucking gauntlet on Littlejohn, only to be overwhelmed with the "time" that he contains, briefly being sent back to his earliest moments in a cloning tank. He is no luckier when he tries the trick on the Arbiter of Knives, winding up absorbing actual knives into his body, which kill him from the inside. Virtuoso quickly runs off, claiming she must attend to the medical emergencies the rogue Firmament created outside the temple; Littlejohn and the Arbiter casually share their certainty that Virtuoso isn't a Gendar at all but rather a disguised Firmament, but decide not to do anything about it. The Arbiter decides to take the rogue Firmament's body back to the 10,000 Dawns in her Factory of Crystal, frustrated by the fact that the trail went cold: the papers left in Auteur's cache are only fragments and notes for "some sort of heist", leaving no real clue about their next destination or their wider plan. Littlejohn is more unfazed by the situation, noting that "these things tend to come back around".
In the home of the Firmament, the rogue Firmament is reborn without his memories in a cloning tank, helped by the Arbiter of Resurrection. He cannot help but feel like this is all very familiar.
== Characters ==
* Sergeant-Instructor Littlejohn
* Arbiter of Knives
* Drezen Hael
* Rogue Firmament
* Tour guide
* Virtuoso
* The Goddess
* The God
* Arbiter of Resurrection
== Worldbuilding ==
* Virtuoso was called back to office as leader of the Historic Preservation Society after an "empire of cyborg thingies" tried to conquer Gendar.
* The incarnation of Gideon prior to the current, suit-loving one was less of a "fop" (as Auteur puts it), and wasn't "a boy", but this current male body is not his first.
== Notes ==
* The story was dedicated "to Anarchic".
* This story features a brief appearance by a Gendar tour guide. Maxie Masters, a Gendar who'd been a tour guide back home, later became a recurring character in Arcbeatle Press's P.R.O.B.E. stories. However, she has not been confirmed to be the same character.
== Continuity ==
* The Arbiter of Knives previously visited the Totality in PROSE: Rachel Survived.
* Littlejohn first appeared in PROSE: The Short Briefing Sergeant's Tale. He was previously seen on Gendar in PROSE: White Canvas.
* Littlejohn and the Arbiter of Knives meet on Vo'lach Prime and speak with the native Vo'lach. These elements debuted in PROSE: Ghost Devices, and were briefly mentioned and seen respectively in PROSE: White Canvas.
* The rogue Firmament mentions Artillo Brinzo as another member of the "conspiracy". The conspiracy in question is that at the heart of PROSE: White Canvas.
== External links ==
Category:2019 short stories
Category:Stories that crossover with non-DWU series
Category:Arcbeatle short stories