SG1-15 The Power Behind the Throne by Steven Savile

to the sloping roofs and the twisting spires. They came together as a whole, like some great tapestry of life laid out beneath him. Still, for every beautiful old spire there was a modern steel chimney belching factory smoke into the air. For every red clay rooftop there was a corrugated iron one where function was more important than form. Most noticeable of all though were the graveyards and the crematorium fires that burned through the night. These were Iblis’ greatest achievement. The paranoia had always festered away at the back of Keen’s mind. The man was a half-breed, that was his dark secret. He looked at the Corvani and saw perfection; they were strong, the embodiment of the Divine Principle, angular, aquiline, beautiful. He looked at the Kelani and saw a primate three rungs down the evolutionary ladder.
    Prejudice made him malleable.
    It was a short step from being different to being demonized.
    “So why the secrecy, my friend?” Keen asked.
    “Because this is for your ears only, Great Keen,” Iblis said, pandering to the man’s vanity. It was a tricky game this flattery. Keen was no fool, and it would be a mistake to think of him that way. The man was sharp. He had an uncanny gift for knowing when he was being spoon-fed platitudes and had a habit of playing the bluff incompetent when he wanted to gauge the loyalty of those around him.
    The idea of feigning weakness was alien to Iblis, but watching Corvus Keen he had begun to see just how advantageous it could be, if played right. It took a certain finesse to pull it off. It was all about playing up the clichéd expectancy of the bloated greedy megalomaniac. The secret was to keep it as close as possible to your true nature. Keen did crave power. The man was corpulent but the slovenly manners were an act, as was the unremitting cruelty. He enjoyed the air of bloodlust his random acts of violence fostered among his followers so he nurtured it and pretended at capriciousness.
    Unlike so many humans Iblis had encountered throughout the galaxy, Keen’s thirst for power was almost Goa’uld-like in its capacity and arrogance, but beyond that, the thing that had excited Iblis the most about this human monster was the guile and cunning he displayed on a daily basis in pursuit of it.
    It went against Iblis’ nature to lurk in the shadows, to lie, cheat, and steal, but being with Keen was teaching him that there was an entirely new way to wage a war. That was exciting. There was no other word for it. It opened up a slew of possibilities that promised to be amusing. And that, as far as Iblis was concerned, was the great fallacy of war. It wasn’t merely about winning or losing, it was about playing the game with style. It was about the beauty of taking aim on a victim, not just about pulling the trigger. Anyone could kill, but genocide was an art form.
    “Go on.”
    “Look up and tell me what you see.”
    “What foolishness is this?”
    “Just do it.”
    “I see the sky. It is neither the night sky nor the day sky, simply the sky.”
    “Oh but it is so much more than that, Keen, so much more. That is just such a banal way of looking at the world. You aren’t that simple, I don’t believe it for a minute.”
    “Which is why you wanted this conversation alone. I understand.”
    “Indeed. What if I told you there were worlds out there, thousands upon thousands of them waiting to be conquered, what would you say then?”
    “Then I would say I see opportunity,” Keen said. “But you are talking absurdities, my friend. There is no life on other worlds. Life revolves around Banak and Thrace. The twin moons regulate the tides and provide the unique balance we need for life to flourish. That is just the way it is. Without them our world would wither and die. You might as well try and sell me the idea that the world is flat. Every rational thinking man knows it is not.”
    “And every rational thinking man is wrong, my friend. There are worlds out there. Humans