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From:	jaimie nicholson chicken@********.net.nz
Subject:	A little help here...
Date:	Thu, 07 Dec 2000 15:15:33 +1300

Message no. 1 *****PRIVATE: Ice
>>>>>[I've been contacted by someone inside our foe, they want a meeting.
Apparently there are several factions, and the ones that killed Herewini in Otago don't
meet with this guy's moral approval... so I'm going to meet him. His name's Morrie
Karanga, a Wanganui tohunga, I think. Not sure if it's a ceremonial or shamanistic title
in his case... you got anything on him that might help me out?

I�m thinking of setting up a live feed for when I meet him, just in case
something goes wrong (again). I�ll dump it to here, and set a pager
alert on the front. Don�t know how much you care, but you can watch if
you like.]<<<<<
-- Faerie <15:12:55/12-06-61>

*****PRIVATE: Faerie
>>>>>[I've got news footage of him... he's mostly a moderate type, urging
reconciliation and compromise. One of the quieter voices, and most of the old school
listen to him... he's not so influential with the angry urban types, though (but that
shouldn't matter... aren't we dealing with the tribal factions?).]<<<<<
-- Ice <17:32:33/12-06-61>

From:	jaimie nicholson chicken@********.net.nz
Subject:	A little help here...
Date:	Sun, 10 Dec 2000 20:06:03 +1300

Message no. 2 *****PRIVATE: Ice
>>>>>[Yeah, Herewini was urban maori... but the angry urban types still
seem to be split (at least) two ways, providing muscle, basically.

Anyway, the meet's this afternoon, I'll buzz you then.]<<<<<
-- Faerie <12:54:19/12-09-61>

*****PRIVATE: Ice
>>>>>[+++++Activate pager

+++++Begin live feed

Faerie is looking out over gentle hills and fields of cows. Some of them
are wearing brightly coloured corporate emblems - extolling the virtues
of Fuchi NZ Agricorp to passers by. She�s leaning against a wire fence,
a road just beyond it in the foreground. A couple of miles up the road a
sports utility vehicle can be seen approaching.

�Time�s right,� she says, �This could be it.�

The SUV arrives, and passes, then stops at the side of the road. Faerie
stands back from the fence and approaches the vehicle. Three maori men
are getting out, two of them young and cocky, obvious muscle, the third
a wizened old man with long white hair in a pony tail. He says something
to the muscle, and after glaring briefly at Faerie, they go around the
front of the SUV and light up cigarettes (or possibly joints).

�Kia ora,� says the old man, �Shall we walk?�

Wihout waiting for a reply, he walks past Faerie. She turns to follow
him, going through a gate and into a cemetery.

�Do you know why I chose this place?� he asks.

Faerie shakes her head.

�Buried here is the man who arrested Te Rauparaha at the end of the 19th
century.�

Faerie doesn�t reply, and the old man continues after a moment.

�I�m guessing you�ve never heard of him, or the man he arrested, but he
was the first man to use the principle of passive resistance, at least
that I�m aware of. In the 19th century the Pakeha settlers took most of
the land in Taranki by stealth - gradually biting chucks of it off until
we had almost nothing. Te Rauparaha knew that nothing would be
accomplished by war - he had the example of the Waikato to prove that.
So instead, when the Pakeha surveyors had finished marking out roads, he
and his people would come in the night and move the pegs. He did not
think that the authorities would be able to whip the settlers up into a
state of outrage when this was the level of aggression being used. Sadly
he was wrong. He was arrested and held without charges - a grave breach
of human rights laws, and even the Magna Carta, as I understand it. His
followers were forcibly moved to other parts of the country, scattered,
families broken up, possessions destroyed. But he won the moral
victory.�

The old man falls silent, walking among the graves. Eventually he finds
one, and reads the inscription thereon.

"William Bryce, beloved husband of�� he says, �can�t quite make that
out� In any case, I�m an old man, and I ramble. My point is this -
passive resistance and political action are always better than terrorism
and war. My people have lost too many of our young men to drugs and
crime as it is. More dead, more arrested� it will not help us at all. So
I must turn against my peers, and prevent the horror they are about to
unleash.�

He looks Faerie in the face, and she can see tears gathering at the
corners of his eyes.

�They are not monsters,� he says, �I consider them misguided, but their
intentions are good. However, I cannot let them destroy us all. You must
stop them. The ritual is being performed on mount Taranaki, and there is
a second on Ruapehu.�

�What ritual?� asks Faerie, �I was told that you knew what was going on,
but no-one mentioned a rite� what are we talking about, a Ghost Dance
sort of a thing?�

�Even a man of my age has not yet got used to being laughed at by a
beautiful woman, so please, control yourself when you hear this.�

The old man looks northwest, towards the setting sun.

�It is said that when the world was young and unformed, the Mountains
Ruapehu and Pihanga were man wife, and sat side by side. But Taranaki,
young and reckless, lured Pihanga away from her husband with his
youthful exuberence. Ruapehu, obviously, was angered beyond control, and
he fought Taranaki for his woman. Taranaki eventually fled, leaving a
great gouge in the earth between there and where he now stands, a gouge
we now call the Whanganui river. Pihanga, perhaps not surprisingly, was
unimpressed at this display of testosterone, and left Ruapehu as well,
which is why she is now up near Hamilton.

�The rite being performed as we speak is designed to wake Ruapehu and
Taranaki. Once again they will fight for Pihanga�s love. And in their
anger, they will trample everything that is now in between them - the
province will be devastated.�

Faerie just looks at him.

"It's been going on for a long time now... almost three years. I think
it has perhaps five or six weeks to go - it's hard to figure out when a
mountain will wake up. But it stirred last week... most of the island
felt it, probably you, too. You can easily stop it, with minimal loss of
life given the information on the rite I will provide. I know you find
this hard to believe,� the old man says, �and when it was proposed, it
seemed ludicrous. But we now know that myth has power. If it doesn�t
work, then no-one has to worry, but if it is possible� Do you want to
ignore the danger? In any case, I have done all I can. It is up to you
now.�

+++++End live feed]<<<<<
-- Faerie <19:14:37/12-09-61>

*****PRIVATE: Ice
>>>>>[Did you get that? I don�t know whether to laugh, cry, or shit myself.
But I did feel an earthquake, and I heard on The News that it was centred in the Ruapehu
Recreational Zone.]<<<<<
-- Faerie <20:03:20/12-09-61>

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