Extinction (41 page)

Hugany always hated to think of the
history of her people; it was so full of deceit and violence. “Each member of
the royal family who was not going to accompany T’Leh to the colonies was given
a poison. They were each affected at different rates, according to their unique
chemistry. When the keeper of the breeding planet installation died, so did
every Nortes assigned there. Without P’Ket at the control center of the
installation, no other Nortes or member of the royal family could land on the
planet except the emperor himself. The paranoia that the Nortes had bred into
themselves over millennia would be their own undoing. All of their failsafe
protocols were designed so that no one outside the royal family could destroy
the empire. They never thought that a member of the family would destroy it
themselves from the inside out.

“As for the warriors left on the planet,
they were in a dormant state. Their cloning process wouldn’t be completed until
they were needed. When the installation received orders to activate a certain
number of warriors, the process was completed and they were shipped off to
wherever they were needed.” The empress became obviously upset and her hands
began to tremble. She looked at each person in the room individually before she
continued. “If someone has found a way to breech all of the safety protocols,
there were almost one billion warriors dormant at the time the facility was
compromised.”

“I see”, was all the president could say
while he thought about the implication of what Hugany had just told them.

“Couldn’t we just take you to Extinction?
With your help, we could make it past the defense guns to the surface. You are
the heir to the throne, so you could access the facility and we could either
take control of it or destroy it.” The secretary of state received a nodding of
approval from the president and the other aides present.

“Do you remember when I told you that
there were two reasons that I could not take control of the warriors?” Hugany
tried to sit up a little bit straighter in her seat. “I never told you the
second reason.”

1,000 Years Ago - The
Colonies

T’Leh cradled his son while he stood at D’Bath’s
funeral and absently listened to someone speaking of his friend’s greatness. “…
and without his dedication to medicine and our people, our children would still
be suffering from the Unarian disease that had plagued our world for centuries.
He not only kept his people strong but he also furthered the advancement of our
warriors. Through his genetic…”

T’Leh let the rest of the speaker’s
words go unheard. He couldn’t help but think of the irony he was listening to. D’Bath
had taken a scientifically stagnant empire and fueled its growth once more.
Through scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, and apprenticeship
programs he created, D’Bath had gotten the Nortes interested in science again.

And now D’Bath’s latest scientific
project was leading to the death of fifteen percent of the Nortes population in
the colonies. He began to cry as he thought about not only what he was doing to
his own people but what he had made his friend do. T’Leh should’ve known what
this would do to D’Bath and he should’ve watched him closer. He should have
done something more.

The service ended and T’Leh returned to
his palace. His warrior escort had dwindled from twenty to five. The five who were
with him had mottled skin, slow movement, faltering steps, and other symptoms
that marked their time for death was near.

T’Leh felt bad for his warriors. He knew
that their loyalty was genetic and that it wasn’t because they were good
people, but he couldn’t help but wonder whether good people were good because
of who they were or how they were born. It had all been debated over before,
time and time again, Nature versus Nurture. Did anyone really have an answer? T’Leh
decided that his warriors were good creatures but with monstrous orders to
guide them.

D’Bath had said that he could
genetically remap the warriors but it would take more than his lifetime to do
it. D’Bath and T’Leh also knew that they couldn’t guarantee they could find a
scientist as good as D’Bath and as agreeable to unity to carry on his work when
he became too old to do so himself. After the unity, one of D’Bath’s primary
goals was to try to find a way to enter the dormant warriors into the new empire
as equals and voluntary members of the military. They would no longer need to
conquer or kill innocent people. But that dream died with D’Bath.

Once at home, T’Leh gave his son to one
of the caretakers to be put to bed. He gently kissed him on the forehead before
entering his office and sealing the doors. After pressing a series of codes
into his office terminal, a secret door opened and Nogil appeared.

Nogil bowed and touched his hands to his
eyes and then his lower right hip area, indicating the Detrill heart. After
finishing the Detrill gesture for remorse, he spoke. “T’Leh.” It still felt
more than odd to call the emperor by his given name but it had been asked of
him to do so. “I cannot tell you of the sorrow my eyes see and my heart feels
at the loss of your friend. My people will tell stories of his deeds and life
for the rest of our time. We would not be free if it were not for him.”

“Thank you, Nogil.” T’Leh handed him a
glass of Nortes ale. “I am glad that we did not have to use those escape ships
you had prepared for us. No one is the wiser about our plans. Without D’Bath,
the scientific community is at a loss of what to do next. They all believed
that he was our only hope to beat this virus. Now that he is gone, I believe
that our plans to bring an end to slavery will be accelerated. Without hope of
a cure, our people will want to leave this system and find a new one in hopes
that it will not be contaminated. And we, of course, cannot do that without
your help.”

Nogil felt that he had built not only a
partnership with T’Leh but also a friendship. T’Leh was like no other being he
had ever met. Of course, he had only met other Detrill, warriors, and the few
Nortes who had been involved with T’Leh’s plan. Nogil wanted to help his
friend.

Detrill had the ability to access any
part of their memory at will. Unlike a typical photographic memory, they could
also sort information in any way that they wanted to. It was almost as though
their mind was a computer filing system that they could adjust and access
anytime they wanted to. They also had the ability to help other Detrill access
their memories. This was how they taught their children to use their abilities
or help others who had suffered memory loss due to illness, injury, or old age.

Nogil had never touched anyone besides
another Detrill. He had been touched many times by the warriors but only in
cruel ways to punish him. Nogil wanted to help T’Leh but didn’t know whether he
would be able to give him the gift. Sometimes when Detrill mourned their dead,
they were so distraught that they could not access their memories. Other
Detrill, usually family or close friends, would help them to access their
memories of the loved one who had passed so they could remember and relive all
of the good emotions they had with that person.

Nogil stepped behind T’Leh and placed
one hand over his friend’s eyes. T’Leh didn’t question his motive and seemed to
relax considerably at Nogil’s touch. He then placed the other hand in T’Leh’s
lower torso area, where his heart would have been if he were a Detrill. Nogil
couldn’t feel the connection. He gently moved his hand across T’Leh’s body
until he found it. Nogil connected with T’Leh’s mind and began searching for D’Bath.

It was very difficult for Nogil. Part of
the gift that Detrills gave each other during a joining was a sharing of
memories. The Detrill helping to remember could see and live the memories he
was helping to find. By doing so, the memories now became a part of the
helper’s mind and could be shared again with other Detrill.

Nogil had memories from Detrill two
thousand years ago in his mind. However, he couldn’t see into T’Leh’s mind as he
could another Detrill. Nogil had to navigate by emotion alone. He could feel
the sadness T’Leh now felt and assumed that it was for D’Bath. Nogil followed
that emotion through T’Leh’s mind until he found the source. Probing gently, he
found happy memories, memories that made him smile and allowed the pain to
drain away. Nogil couldn’t see the actual memories but could sense that T’Leh
did.

Nogil probed further and found an
interesting strand of memory. It was one of the strongest memories of happiness
that T’Leh had with D’Bath, so he followed it. Abruptly the memory went from
the most joyous moment in T’Leh’s life to his worst…

T’Leh was only twenty-six when he took
over the empire from his father. Although he did not agree with his father’s
political views, he loved him very much. The watercraft accident was a tragedy
to T’Leh and the rest of his family. His mother died not too long after his
father and T’Leh suspected that her sickness was brought about by her sadness.

Today marked the two year anniversary
since T’Leh had been officially taken over as emperor. He sat in his bedroom,
wearing only his robe. Dr. D’Bath was reviewing his medical scans from T’Leh’s
yearly physical. He was chatting with his friend while inputting and reading
data. “So, what are you going to do on this special day?”

T’Leh lay back in his bed and looked up
to the ceiling. “I’m going to have dinner with D’Nerth and P’Tong. They are
going to try to set me up with another of their friends.” T’Leh chuckled to
himself at the thought of all his previous blind dates. “You cannot imagine the
look on these women’s faces when they realize that they have been set up on a
blind date with the emperor. You would think that I, of all people, would be
able to find someone to fall in love with.”

D’Bath looked at his young friend over
his datapad. “Ah, to be young again. Of course, when I was your age, I didn’t
have my choice of more than a thousand concubines to help me through the
awkwardness of growing up. How is that one young girl? What’s her name? I can
never recall but you seemed to have a crush on her since you were sixteen, if I
recall correctly.”

“M’Tawny.” T’Leh let out a sigh. “I do
love her, you know. It is just these damn laws that we live by and cannot be
changed. Why can’t the emperor do as he pleases? I do not understand why I am
allowed to have a child with a concubine and that child can grow up to inherit
the throne, but I am never allowed to marry that same woman. Why is she good
enough to incubate the seed of the emperor and add her own genetic material to
the family line but cannot marry the same man?”

“I can’t say that I understand your
position because I have never been in it. But I can empathize with you. If I
were not allowed to openly love my wife and to be with her, I think I would go
mad.” D’Bath continued looking over his data. “M’Tawny was your first, wasn’t
she?”

“First and only. I wish I could move her
into the palace to live with me and make a family with me. She says that she
wants to have my child so that we can share that bond forever. So far we have
not been able to accomplish that goal.”

T’Leh thought back to his first
encounter with M’Tawny. He had been sixteen and she was eighteen. She had been
raised to be one of T’Leh’s personal concubines, so she was as virginal as he
was. When he began touching her, it just didn’t feel right to him. He could
tell that she was nervous and not at all comfortable to be in the situation
they were in. She had been taught all about her position in life and knew more
about sex than any ten Nortes women put together.

“M’Tawny and I just talked that night we
were put together. We made everyone think that we had performed the rite of
passage but we did not. We talked about our lives and our dreams.” T’Leh hoped
that the physical would be over soon so that he could call his love to the
chamber and they could spend some time together.

“A concubine has dreams? I thought that
all they wanted was to please the emperor and thereby fulfill all of their
training and familial obligations?”

“That’s what was so special about her.
She knew that she had a duty to her family and the empire but she also had
personal aspirations. She had always hoped that I would take to liking her and
allow her to become more educated than just in the ways of sex.” T’Leh could
feel himself becoming more aroused as he thought of her. He hadn’t seen her for
three days and it was starting to get to him. “We didn’t actually join for
almost two years. I fell in love with her that first night. It took her a
little longer to overcome all of the training that concubines go through to
help keep them from having an emotional connection with their master.” T’Leh
had never liked that word, especially when referring to anything dealing with
M’Tawny.

“And now I can’t even give her what she
wants most. Why can’t I sire a child with her? You’ve already examined her and
said that nothing is wrong.”

D’Bath had almost finished reviewing all
of the data he had obtained but he already had the answer he was looking for. “I’m
sorry, T’Leh, but you will never be able to father any children.” D’Bath placed
a gentle hand on his young friend’s hand. “You have a genetic anomaly that is
causing your reproductive organs to fail. It is very rare and untreatable. Even
with my genetic expertise, I have not been able to find a cure for this
disorder.”

T’Leh sat up and began to cry, not for
himself but for M’Tawny. “Will you report this to the rest of the family?” An emperor
who could not reproduce would be removed from the throne and replaced with
another member of the royal family to ensure that the DNA carried on to the next
generation.

“No. You are only twenty-eight and I am
only…let’s say forty years old.” Both smiled at that. “I have not given up on
you yet. You already have the makings of the best emperor this galaxy has ever
seen and I may find a cure for this eventually. Besides, your cousin isn’t fit
to run a food stand much less the empire that I and my family live in.