The Legend of Petra Krop de Libertad, 2
(An Ilosebutian Novelette of Hope for the Provincial Peoples of Gaea)
IN THE highest circles of the most powerful governments in the world, it was also known that in the first expedition composed of 100 t ravelers sent by the Thesalocrisian government, 10 had suffered a fate similar to the vehicles, but there was no sense in alarming the ordinary citizens of the world that there could be a potentially hostile consciousness loitering around the Pass.
At first this had caused much i nternational disconcertment among the above governments, and a stoppage of all attempts to cross the Pass, until a background check on the 10 victims revealed past criminal records or a tendency for destructive behavior.
The most powerful governments of t he world ( among t hem the governments of the Grecian Confederation, Federation of Amian States, Rusan Federation, United Federated Kingdom of Anglicia, Confederation of Sainish Republics, Federal Republic of Almania, Federated Peoples of Hindia, United People’s Republic of Chin, United Nation of Ipon and others) then formed a consortium for the purpose of carrying out a top secret experiment that would evaluate the character and identity of the Pass’ mysterious guardian.
The consortium arranged with the poverty-stricken desert nations of the north Afria continent and the giant authoritarian nation of Chin in east Asea continent to send as many of their imprisoned criminals to the Pass in order to try and cross it. The richer countries of the consortium would fund the operation.
In the next five months, more than a hundred thousand imprisoned criminals from north Afria continent and the nation of Chin voluntarily attempted to cross the Pass, in batches of a thousand each, after they were told by their governments that if they managed to make a successful crossing, they would be automatically set free.
None of them managed to cross, but around a thousand were turned back by the guardian of the Pass. These lucky survivors were all shown to be either innocent of the crime for which they were mistakenly convicted of or political prisoners who were detained for beliefs and not crimes. The rest were reported by the survivors as having died by a flaming sword.
The small Thesalocrisian Navy cordoned off the Malian gulf in order to prevent boats from meandering in, and slashed and burned bodies from drifting out. Malian marine animals of the scavenger type experienced a population explosion. The relatives of the deceased prisoners were informed that their kin were now colonizing new worlds and had decided to stay there permanently, for they faced arrest for their old crimes if they came back.
Chin and t he countries i n north Afria reported that they had managed to save an enormous amount of money that would have been spent feeding and lodging the prisoners who had perished in the Pass. When word of this scattered around, practically all of the third world countries of the world likewise offered to send in their prisoners.
I n the succeeding months, hundreds of thousands of prisoners all over the world signed legal pieces of paper explaining that they would try to cross the Pass at their own risk in order to attain possible freedom at the other end; and then proceeded to try. An increasing number of expeditions composed of scientists, adventurers, and other non- criminals were also allowed to try once again, as Psychiatrists assigned to study the Pass started gaining knowledge about the types of persons who could survive an attempted crossing. From the survivors of these attempts, physical scientists were able to construct a tentative map of the Pass; and more importantly the Psychiatrists learned more of the character of its guardian./