Star Force: Mak'to'ran (4) Read online

  But then again, the Era’tran still controlled territory in Itaru without having any loyalty to the arrogant, so the current disposition of the V’kit’no’sat wasn’t something that could be accurately divvied up by regions on a starmap.

  Eventually the pair came to a secured section of the station and were passed through by a waiting guard. They entered through an aperture that quickly sealed, leaving them both in an audience chamber where six other Era’tran stood in a ring, one of which was Hamob, and four who wore the ornamental clothing of the Yaern’ek. The other was not recognizable to Mak’to’ran, but he sensed a powerful mind behind the unfamiliar visage.

  “Speak Les’i’kron,” one of the Yaern’ek said amicably.

  “I come here seeking answers. I do not have a statement to make.”

  “Answers to what questions?”

  “Has something been done to the Les’i’kron and why am I immune to it?”

  “If you claim immunity that assumes an answer to your first question.”

  “Let me clarify. Did the V’kit’no’sat do something to the Les’i’kron following the culling to make us less rebellious?”

  “Yes,” the non-Yaern’ek that Mak’to’ran did not recognize said plainly.

  “That is a violation.”

  “Also yes,” Hamob added.

  “Then why was it allowed?”

  “There are things about the pre-culling era that you are not aware of that warranted…some would say,” Hamob amended, “…the measures taken. What have you observed concerning yourself that has allowed you to identify this?”

  “My mind is free to question areas of content that are unconsciously restricted for the others. I have not encountered any deviation in the content nor a single individual who did not behave in an identical matter to certain stimuli. Variation of norms would not allow for this, thus some form of forced alignment must be in play.”

  “Logical,” the other Era’tran agreed. “What have you done to investigate this?”

  “I have searched for anomalies within myself and found none. Experiential evidence says there is a difference, genetic analysis does not concur, and I do not believe this to be a Core issue. I alone cannot be so different than all the others.”

  “And what did the others have to say of this?”

  “I sensed danger in response to the taboo reflexes, so I could not go into depth. Even light entries into the subject matter produced strong reactions, enough to allow me to map them, but I could get no assistance from anyone. I had to hide my curiosity in order to function within Les’i’kron society, for my brothers are blind to certain things. Their unrelenting protection of that blindness suggests coercion of some sort. What can you tell me of what has been done?”

  “When the Les’i’kron were culled,” a Yaern’ek began…

  “Stop,” Hamob insisted. “Let us not repeat the lies here.”

  “As you wish. When the Zak’de’ron were annihilated, the V’kit’no’sat did not want to suffer the loss of our most powerful aerial race, thus the Les’i’kron were an allowance that let your race survive and retake it’s proper place within the empire…though a lesser one than it formerly had. Penance, but it allowed you to live when the Zak’de’ron deserved to die for what they’d done.”

  “And what of our minds?”

  “Your race was diminished in mental capacity, but also given Saroto’kanse’vam in compensation.”

  “Diminished how?”

  “Unknown. The Oso’lon and J’gar handled your rework.”

  “But we intend to find out now,” the other elder said. “Step into the chamber.”

  Out of the center of the room a medical station emerged from the floor into which the large Les’i’kron walked inside. The light cage had numerous holograms activate that gave the assembled Era’tran information regarding Tew’chor’s medical data as an analysis of his genetic code began once he made physical contact with the machinery.

  Who is he? Mak’to’ran asked Hamob.

  Pavon.

  He recognized the name as being one of the Era’tran’s leading scientists, but one that was almost never seen in public. Very old and mysterious, but one cited for many advancements while being too busy with other work to bother taking credit for them. Definitely a shadow leader, Mak’to’ran knew little about him.

  “Your neural activity is not Les’i’kron standard,” Pavon eventually noted. “Yet your brain structure is.”

  “How is that possible?” a Yaern’ek asked.

  “Software,” Hamob answered, also digging through the data. “An inhibitor?”

  “I believe so,” Pavon agreed. “And a crude one. Our technology is beyond this now. They must not have updated the changes.”

  “Sloppy,” Hamob decreed.

  “If there have been no other instances they probably didn’t think there was a need.”

  “There hasn’t been a rebellion of even the smallest kind within the Les’i’kron since the rework,” a Yaern’ek added.

  “Here,” Hamob said, highlighting a segment of coding that Mak’to’ran did not understand the significance of. “They never even tried to alter them.”

  “Probably afraid of systemic consequences,” Pavon agreed, picking up on the discovery and making several holographic adjustments to what Hamob had shown him. “The Zak’de’ron coding is too advanced, so they contained it…and that containment is only partially present in this one. Compare.”

  Another brain scan popped up and highlighted next to Tew’chor’s. They were nearly identical, but there was an undercurrent in the stats that, when isolated, were traced back to genetic code that created the basic mental software that a mind operated off of…and bits of Tew’chor’s was missing.

  “Only the rework?” Hamob asked.

  “Yes. Everything else is intact. I do not know how this could have occurred.”

  “Have you ever sustained significant injury?” Hamob asked.

  “On four occasions.”

  “Detail them.”

  “Severed tail, parasite infection, radiative poisoning, and kinetic trauma.”

  “Which was the earliest?” Pavon asked.

  “The kinetic trauma. The other three were suffered during combat with the Hadarak on different occasions.”

  “Davur?” Mak’to’ran asked, referencing the infection.

  “Yes. The pain it entails is beyond explanation.”

  “Few have survived it.”

  “Irrelevant,” Pavon noted as he continued to work using a series of holographic buttons and a lot of telekinetic input mixed with a direct neural interface. “How young was the kinetic trauma?”

  “2.4 years.”

  Everyone looked at Tew’chor in dismay, for at that age he would still have been in a hatchery and they were among the most guarded locations in any race’s civilization.

  “Explain the circumstances,” Hamob said, keenly interested.

  “There was an explosion. 204 of us were killed, 1093 injured or recoverable. I was one briefly dead.”

  “What kind of injury specifically?”

  “I don’t know. A wall blew out into us and I was thrown with the debris against another wall. I only know that from holographic replay. I have no memory of the incident.”

  “What was the cause of the explosion?” the Yaern’ek asked.

  “We were not told.”

  “Power conduit failure,” another Yaern’ek said, having just pulled up the file from the Urrtren, as everyone gave that a skeptical look.

  “A cover up?” Hamob floated.

  “Possibly,” the Yaern’ek admitted.

  “Genetic,” Pavon said after a long pause. “Look at their profiles.”

  The genetic coding of the individuals killed in that blast were arrayed in a floating clusters around the chamber and over Mak’to’ran’s head, but he couldn’t pick anything out of them as the technical genius of those assembled here far outweighed his own.

  “Generic mod
ifications off a premade template,” a Yaern’ek agreed, “to hide their true identities.”

  “Not identities, composition,” Pavon insisted. “He is too old.”

  “Meaning what?”

  “There was not natural reproduction until the 48th generation.”

  “That is not true,” Tew’chor corrected. “I am 19th generation and I reproduced multiple times prior to the 48th.”

  “Those hatchlings were replaced in the egg stage. Your offspring were killed before they developed.”

  The Les’i’kron hissed, with all 7 Era’tran reactively flinching as they looked in his direction.

  “We don’t know everything,” Hamob explained, “but we have learned that the rework of your race was a gradual one. Individuals could be created, but reproductive combinations had complications. It took 48 generations for them to work the problem out.”

  “They killed our hatchlings?” he all but spat. “For what purpose?”

  “Unknown,” Pavon answered, but Hamob wasn’t content with that answer.

  “It is speculated that they couldn’t maintain the suppression on your genetic code, and the power of the Zak’de’ron resurfacing was too great a threat to risk.”

  “A threat to who?”

  “The V’kit’no’sat.”

  “If we were completely culled, what threat could we pose?”

  “The Zak’de’ron were superior to all the V’kit’no’sat races,” Hamob said bluntly. “They attained technological, biological, and intellectual levels we have yet to catch up with.”

  “This makes no sense. If the Les’i’kron are a threat, why allow us to live? What else is going on here?”

  “Arrogance,” Mak’to’ran said from behind Tew’chor. “They wanted to subjugate the Zak’de’ron as a living testament to our victory. You were made to be equal,” he said with a discontented growl.

  “We were told the culling was the result of us overstepping our authority and trying to splinter off in rebellion. Is this true?”

  “No,” Hamob said firmly. “The Zak’de’ron created the V’kit’no’sat along with the Oso’lon and the J’gar, but your ancestors were always the dominant partner. They built virtually everything the empire has, then the empire betrayed them because they refused to become ‘equal’ with the others. It was a massive mistake that we still have not yet recovered from to this day.”

  “That is debatable,” a Yaern’ek differed.

  “Do not speak of things you do not know, hatchling.”

  “The empire has recovered from those losses.”

  “I was not speaking of combat losses. We lost the wisdom and knowledge of the Zak’de’ron that built the V’kit’no’sat. We have not come close to replacing that.”

  “As you say. I was not there to witness it.”

  “You’re saying that we were superior,” Tew’chor said slowly, “then forcibly primitivized after the culling and had our hatchlings murdered up until their process of suppression was perfected?”

  “More or less, yes,” Hamob admitted.

  The Les’i’kron’s tail spikes flared into white brilliance, then his scaly appendage curled forward like a scorpion but stopped just short of damaging the equipment surrounding him. His rage could visibly be seen on his neck muscles, but his mind was almost blank from Mak’to’ran’s point of view. Whatever emotions he was feeling he wasn’t transmitting and the Era’tran wasn’t going to try to poke his way inside to find them.

  “Why?” he asked quietly. So quietly it sounded dangerous.

  “Even suppressed you are powerful,” Hamob said, deactivating the holograms around him and stepping forward. “And somehow you have broken through some of the programming in your mind. How long have you noticed this difference?”

  “All my life.”

  “Then you were wise to hide it. If they had discovered your increased intellect, they would have killed you long ago.”

  “You assume that’s why they killed my hatchmates?”

  “I assume there was some noticeable problem. Ever since the Zak’de’ron were destroyed, the empire has been rewriting history to hide the truth on many things.”

  “Can what has happened to me be replicated in the others?” Tew’chor asked bluntly, getting ahead of the flow of conversation.

  “No,” Pavon said regretfully. “Their adult minds are fixed. Only training can alter them now, save for a total reset. Yours developed differently from the outset, and I believe it might be due to the way the Kich’a’kat repaired your body initially. The technology has been copied from what the Zak’de’ron originally gave us, and it is possible it had an effect on your body that your compressed genetic code allowed that was not anticipated. A slow, virtually invisible effect.”

  With a thought Tew’chor dismissed the medical cage and it withdrew back into the floor as he spun about and paced around the chamber, his head low to the ground as he thought. His tail flicked back and forth, but it had returned to its normal state despite his obviously irritated emotions.

  “The Oso’lon and the J’gar only, or were others involved?”

  “Such things were not advertised, but I do not believe any other race had the genetic knowledge to accomplish this,” Hamob stated with one caveat. “However, all races were complicit in the annihilation of the Zak’de’ron. They had to be, otherwise the Zak’de’ron might have been able to win the war.”

  Tew’chor’s head came up and locked eyes with the Era’tran. “We were that powerful?”

  “Yes.”

  “And if our current hatchlings were able to develop uninterfered we would be a threat again?”

  “The genetic coding is fixed now,” Pavon explained. “Les’i’kron are not Zak’de’ron. You, in a way, are both due to an unforeseen error. There is no threat in the others anymore.”

  “Because our minds have been programmed to follow the V’kit’no’sat? Itaru created a slave race, didn’t they?”

  “You are not Zen’zat,” a Yaern’ek pointed out.

  “Their minds are free, ours are not, so who are the slaves here? If I went back and told them all of this, they wouldn’t even care. They’d cover it up because they’ve been programmed to do so. I have been in danger all this time. If I had shown deviation I would be dead, either by the claws of the Les’i’kron or by assassins from Itaru. This is not the equality of the V’kit’no’sat that I have devoted my life to. This is treason.”

  “It is,” Mak’to’ran agreed. “And a treason that has to be purged.”

  “Meaning what?” a Yaern’ek asked.

  “We must end the lies and be V’kit’no’sat…not imposters pretending to be so. The V’kit’no’sat created this problem, and if we are going to reforge the V’kit’no’sat we must solve it. The arrogant cannot be allowed to survive in the Les’i’kron genetic code, else it will spawn synchronicity in others.”

  “We cannot alter the adult population,” Pavon warned.

  “And the hatchlings?”

  “Without knowing exactly what the Oso’lon and J’gar did, we could cause developmental problems.”

  “Then let’s ask them,” Mak’to’ran said bluntly.

  “No,” the Yaern’ek said firmly. “We do not have the resources to tackle this problem given current circumstances, and those who perpetrated this will not be interested in undoing it. We cannot let the Zak’de’ron return.”

  “We cannot let mind-controlled V’kit’no’sat exist,” Mak’to’ran pushed back. “They are a threat to any who do not abide by the parameters of those who programmed them, as well as the basic fundamental of our empire. We are equals, not slaves. This cannot be allowed to continue.”

  “How do we stop it?” Hamob asked.

  “The hatchlings. The Les’i’kron are already divided. If we start a pure faction, in time it will grow and replace those who are tainted. When we are in a position of leverage, we can alter their offspring as well. Given time those of free mind will exceed those enslaved. Their ra
ce can be restored without the Zak’de’ron returning.”

  “I cannot guarantee that,” Pavon warned. “Without knowing exactly what happened to this one, we will not be able to replicate it.”

  “How are his offspring now not free?” another Yaern’ek asked.

  “How recently have you spawned?” Hamob asked, referencing the egg laying procedure that only required one Zak’de’ron, but the eggs would remain dormant until another fertilized them. There were no males or females, for all Zak’de’ron were identical, and that method of reproduction in the Les’i’kron had not been altered.

  “18 years.”

  “Assuming your hatchings are not free of mind, then either your genetic code is passing on the suppression or it’s being implemented in the hatcheries. We need to find out which.”

  “If this is occurring in the hatcheries, how would it be implemented?” Tew’chor demanded.

  “Monitoring to detect anomalies,” Pavon said without hesitation, “then alteration of any who did not fit prescriptions. There would only be a rare few now, coming from those of you in the earliest generations.”

  “But those in the hatcheries would have to be complicit?”

  “To some extent, yes.”

  “I am a Prefect. I can access all files contained on my world. If there is complicity in my hatcheries I will find it, and it must be there if my offspring are flagged.”

  “Or,” Hamob said gently, “your offspring are being destroyed and replaced by others.”

  “If that is occurring, there will be dead Les’i’kron adults shortly. Take what scans of me you need to continue your investigation, then I will return to probe the source.”

  “It is best if you stay here,” Hamob said. “You are in danger in Les’i’kron territory.”

  “I have always been. This is nothing new, save I have knowledge I previously lacked. I thank you for your assistance, but am appalled that any V’kit’no’sat race would allow this to occur to another.”