DarkRevenge (16 page)

“Thank you,” she said the words through gritted teeth. Alex
didn’t think she sounded grateful and Jezar’s expression seemed disturbed as
well.

Kera grinned. It was a feral smile. “It is difficult to
share without revealing oneself.”

“You didn’t,” Alex blurted out.

“I am an adept Visionary. I see the future.” Kera nodded at
Jezar. “He also glimpses the future, but is less adept at sharing it with
others, especially humans.”

Jezar’s nostrils flared but he said nothing.

Whatever happened between Jezar and Tesia hadn’t been
personally pleasant. The vision was bad enough without weird personal shit
thrown in. Alex shook her head. They had bigger problems.

“How do we avoid that confrontation with Darius?” she asked
Kera.

The woman’s color had returned. “Your loyalty will be
tested, Alexandra Zeerah. Loyalty to your mate, loyalty to your planet and
loyalty to your race. All of these will be strained to the very edge of your
limitation.”

“You’re saying the confrontation can’t be avoided.”

“I’m saying what precedes the confrontation is not set in
stone. What you do before Darius appears in that shuttle bay could determine
the future of humanity.”

Great
, thought Alex.
No pressure.

Chapter Twelve

The air was clean and fresh and Alex inhaled deeply when
they stepped outside Kera’s house. The woman’s home had been oppressive and
draining. Several emotions flitted through Alex. There were only so many
discoveries she could take.

“What now?” she asked Tory.

“There’s something I want to show you before we leave
Ardasia,” Tory said, his arm slipping around her shoulders.

Tesia still spoke very little, her face troubled and
strained. Alex touched her arm and the woman seemed startled. “Are you okay,
Tesia?”

“That vision…” Her lips pursed together.

“I know.”

“I’m scared,” she murmured. Jezar shot her a glance and his
hand rose, but dropped back to his side almost immediately.

“We had to know. There has to be something we can do.” Alex
allowed Tory to guide her to the taxi still waiting in Kera’s long driveway.

“Don’t think about it for a little while. We’ll go through
it all when we get back.” Tory pulled her closer to him in the backseat of the
hovercar. “Right now, let’s just enjoy Ardasia’s capital city. We still have an
hour.”

Alex knew an hour wouldn’t be near enough time when she
realized where Tory had brought them. The Ardasian History Museum was famous
all over the galaxy. It had artifacts from all over the system, including some
from Old Earth.

When Tory glimpsed her face, he grinned. “I knew you’d love
this place.”

“I’ve heard of it. I can’t wait to see the Old Earth artifacts.”

“The history they’ve preserved here is amazing,” Jezar told
her. “Our own origins are not very clear, but our archeologists speculate that
we were colonists from Old Earth centuries before the plague descended on the
planet.”

“Really?” Alex’s brain whirled as they entered the huge
building. She didn’t know where to look first. Several corridors marked with
enticing symbols called to her. There was one dedicated to the Teran system.
What would they have there? Another one was dedicated to Placido, a planet
abandoned by a lost people.

“Where do you want to start?” Tory asked her.

Tesia spoke up. “I’m dying to see the excavation results of
Placido.”

“We can split up,” Jezar commented. “Come. I’ll know a bit
about Placido. It’s fascinating.” Tesia followed him, listening and looking
enthralled.

“Old Earth. I want to see what they have there.” To figure
out what the future held, she had to delve back into the past.

Tory nodded. “Old Earth it is.” He took her arm and they
strolled down the corridor and walked centuries into the past.

Some artifacts she recognized. The Ardasians even had an old
automobile from the twentieth century on Earth. Bigger and bulkier than the
hovercars used by humans on Teran and Ardasia, she wondered how ancient humans
managed to deal with the noise and the smell of combustion.

But the section she wanted to see was the display on the
last days, before Earth was quarantined. On Teran One, their historical facts
were passed down through vid memories, not actual artifacts from the time period.

Surprisingly, the Ardasians had actual vids of the days of
the plague. She found the one she wanted and pressed the “play” button. Her
hand found Tory’s. What they saw now could be a portent of things to come.

Static crackled but the vid cleared. The narrator had an
emotionless, passionless delivery. Perhaps the impact of his words made him
numb.
“In Earth year 2260 A.D., the political leaders of the nations finally
obtained a peace treaty after a millennium of warfare and destruction. But
their peace was short-lived. A plague released by an alien force called the
Huacan infected two-thirds of the Earth’s population. Several colonies escaped
and terraformed five planets, moons that orbited the Melida Star in the Teran
system, but most of Earth’s population was overcome. The last survivors on
Earth were rescued by an Ardasian envoy.”

The vid switched to a gruesome scene. A small army of humans
faced thousands, maybe millions, of plague-infected monsters. The battle was
brutal, with the small army showing bravery and courage. But the infected
humans were strong, incapable of feeling, and outnumbered them a hundred to
one.

The death and destruction sickened even a battle-hardened
soldier like Alex. She made herself watch even as the plague-ravaged creatures
swamped the small army’s positions and ripped them apart with their bare hands
and teeth. Especially teeth. It was disgusting. She’d thought disintegrators
were the worst way to be killed but this was much, much worse.

The vid closed in on one pocket of resistance. A woman,
blonde hair flying in the wind, her ancient weapon firing projectiles into the
mass of bodies attacking, screamed a battle cry and stood alone, all her
comrades dead and bloody at her feet.

Suddenly, an Ardasian warship appeared and lifted her out of
the battle. Alex wanted to cheer. The vid showed other rescues and how they
came to Ardasia.
“These humans were immune to the plague of Old Earth. A
small force of these humans returned to Earth and defeated the Huacan. But to
defeat them, the Earth’s surface was made uninhabitable for humans and Huacan
alike. The surviving humans scattered throughout the Teran system and some
settled on Ardasia.”
Several pictures of these humans appeared on the vid.
The blonde woman from the battle was listed as a Commander Darina Stanton.

“She led the Earth forces against the Huacan.” Tory stared
at her and then at the blonde woman. “She settled here, mated with an Ardasian
and had three children.”

“She looks so familiar but we don’t have pictures of her when
she was young.” Alex studied the strong features. Darina Stanton had been a
beautiful woman.

She glanced at Tory. He studied her just as intently.
“You’ve studied the ancient bloodlines on Teran One. Name the Firsts.”

Alex blinked. “You wanted me to see this.”

“Yes. I remember that the Gregor, Zeerah and Stender
bloodlines were a few of the Firsts. Who else?” He was headed somewhere with
this but she couldn’t see where it was.

“The Sollys, the Orions and the Nylans. Six,” she said.
“There were six primary bloodlines.”

“And some of them came later. Like mine.” He held her gaze.

“The Ingles came when the first Stender fought for and
ascended the throne.” She should know. She had studied Tory’s bloodline
intently. It was in her nature. The Ingles had played a small but important
part in the Stenders coming to power. And without Zachias Stender, the six
families might have destroyed themselves.

“And who else is in your bloodline, Alex?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, other bloodlines have been absorbed into the Zeerah
line. Which ones?”

She chewed on her thumbnail, thinking hard. Intermarriage
was common and lesser bloodlines combined with more powerful ones. Often,
lesser lines disappeared, becoming a part of an older, stronger line. The
Zeerahs hadn’t incorporated many other lines since they were connected to the
royal family and less likely to “marry down”. It was one of the reasons her
family had objected to Tory. “Well, a Zeerah mated with a woman named Sabine
Dudley. She was listed as a visitor from Teran Five.”

Slowly, Tory shook his head. “No. She wasn’t a Teran Five.”
He flicked a few buttons on a keyboard station near the vid display. “Look.”

A genetic chart filled the screen. Alex studied the
information, used to reading gene charts. She was adept at reading odd
connections and notations. This one was no different than the ones on Teran
One.

At the top of the chart was the name Darina Stanton married
to…she peered at the name, unable to quite believe what she was seeing. Married
to an Abel Dudley. “Dudley is an Ardasian name?” She blinked.

“It’s also an Old Earth name,” Tory told her.

She frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Jezar has told me that Ardasians don’t know where they
originally come from, that their early history on this planet was almost
completely lost.” Tory glanced at the genetic chart. “But when their greatest
Seer had a vision of Old Earth’s destruction, the Ardasian government
speculated that they had come from Earth.” He pointed to several names. “These
are Ardasian names that can be found in Old Earth’s annals.” He stopped on one
name.

“What does this notation mean?” She pointed to a symbol that
appeared beside Darina’s name and several of her descendents.

“It’s a genetic marker.” Tory pointed to Darina’s name. “She
was immune to the plague that destroyed Old Earth humans.”

Alex’s gaze snapped to his face. “Immune?”

“Immune,” he said, no trace of humor. “Entire bloodlines are
immune.”

“I don’t understand.”

“A small part of the human population carries a gene making
them immune to the effects of a deadly plague that killed millions.”

“And you think I may be one of them.”

“I am.”

She stared at him. He seemed quite serious. “How do you
know?”

“Kera suggested a few years ago that I have a genetic workup
done on Ardasia. Not only am I immune to the plague but I’m descended from some
of those last fighters on Old Earth who settled here.” He switched the chart to
a different one. Another Dudley but this one was Cano Dudley, not Abel. “Cano
mated with another female soldier who survived that day. I’m descended from
them.” He pointed to a fork three generations past Cano Dudleay. “This is Arden
Ingle. He immigrated to Teran Five and then to Teran One.” He caught Alex’s
glance. “He carried the gene.”

“I’m so confused. What does this gene have to do with the
civil war on Teran One?”

“Think, Alex. What bloodlines are being eliminated on Teran
One?” Tory’s voice was hard and cold. “My line, carrying the gene marker making
us immune to the Old Earth plague. Your line, carrying the same gene. And
finally, the ruling family, who, incidentally, has intermarried with your line
and mine several times over the last hundred and fifty years.” He focused back
on his genetic history, his bloodline. “All the bloodlines that could resist
the plague are being systematically destroyed.”

“But why?”

He didn’t glance at her. “To control the survivors.”

“That’s why they had me transport the vials.” Suddenly, it
all made sense. Even if there had been a breach, she was immune. But anyone
else would be infected—and probably would have eliminated her for them.

She started to shake. Someone was playing God. To release
the plague on a planet was to doom it. To survive the plague didn’t necessarily
mean survival, since the plague created zombies.

Tory’s arm wrapped around her shoulders. It suddenly seemed
very cold and she couldn’t stop shivering. The idea that anyone, human or
otherwise, would release a deadly plague on whole planets and murder those who
might survive was abhorrent.

“You wouldn’t die from exposure, but anyone else who tampered
with it would.” His body heat wasn’t enough. She thought she’d never feel warm
again.

The idea that someone, anyone human or otherwise, would do
this seemed inconceivable. “Are you absolutely positive that the containment
box had plague vials?”

“The Ardasians confirmed it.” Tory turned her away from the
display on the plague. “I know you don’t want to believe it, but it’s a fact.
Someone has a plan and it doesn’t involve a lot of survivors. I think whoever
it is didn’t count on the Ardasians helping us. Perhaps they hoped no one would
know until it was too late.” He led her to a different display. The corridor
that laid out Old Earth history ended at a long perpendicular hallway, one ran
left, one ran right. “To the left, Ardasian history from its inception. To the
right, Teran system history. Take your pick.”

Alex took a deep breath. “I’d like to see the Ardasian
history.”

He smiled, the first she’d seen in a while. “Good choice.”

It was amazing. Every artifact and display was dated with an
Ardasian date and with an Old Earth date, still used by the Terans in their
current planetary dating. She stared at the earliest artifact, which was dated
Old Earth 900 BC. It was an ancient machine, something from Old Earth that the
new Teran planets had never preserved. She glanced at Tory. “They call it a
Gahnat. Do you know what it is?”

“It’s an ancient computer.” Tory peered closer. “The story
is that a handful of early Old Earthlings made it here and settled. How and why
they don’t know. Apparently, some great catastrophe struck them and they lost
much of their technological knowledge before they arrived. The myth is they
wandered in space for a generation and found this planet when all hope was
almost lost. This is all they could preserve after landing.”