by Pam Uphoff
“Maybe she resents a powerful older, domineering male.” Diuc’s eyes narrowed.
Rael smiled wryly. "I've heard they are quite protective of each other."
"Interesting. We really ought to send a man in to seduce her. Never hurts to try to bend someone to join the One." Unvu sounded mild, but his eyes were predatory.
Rael forced her voice into mildness as well. "We're trying to nurture friendly relations with Comet Fall. And foster some camaraderie with all the Exile Worlds."
"Foster? Heh. Kick their collective asses, is what we ought to be doing." Ytry grinned.
Damned old Eunuch. He'd been one of her instructors, teaching her how to get through both physical and mental shields, how to subtly influence people to tell the truth. And how to force them to. Fun lessons. Useful lessons. She was more of an agent, these days, than an analyst. And no longer one of the Princess Guards.
These days it’s all “You're too valuable. Let the beefy types do the guarding."
Ha! I've been on hand when needed, a time or two.
"Maybe I ought to go across and watch the training, before you get us into trouble, One Ytry." Rael grinned at his indignant expression. "And maybe we'll get to witness him getting beaten up by his own kids."
He snorted. "Bad Girl. I always knew you’d come to a bad end."
"Yes, I remember your telling me that when I was a green dancer trainee. I guess I'm just proof that only the good die young."
"Stupid foreign songs, infiltrating our society. In my experience it's the bad who die young."
Jaum snorted. "Perhaps we should all go Across."
Rael reluctantly shook her head. "I'm going to call Urfa and tell him about this. Perhaps I’ll come later."
"Good luck!" Ytry's eyes twinkled.
***
"So, how was the first day? Were the kids very hostile to their newly met biofather?" Urfa's eyes narrowed, no doubt reading her expression.
"Only one of them tried to shoot him, then tried to kill herself. Really, I'm tempted to not even mention the boy who slugged him." Rael snickered as the Presidential Director put a hand over his face. “Apparently the second day went well.”
Urfa shook his head. "Murder suicide attempt. One. And if I know Xen, he probably adopted her as a special pet."
"I don't know, but she's still there. I've got inquiries out, about her family. Although this may just be teenage angst." Rael bit her lip.
Urfa raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps you should spend some time there. Eight more days, right?"
“Right.”
Chapter Fifteen
The History of Gods and Prophets
"I'm going to give you a brief history lesson, so you'll understand something of how the current level of Comet Fall magic evolved." He flashed a quick grin. "You don't have to take notes, I don't give tests."
He waved them to the square tables in the "schoolroom" half of the main room. "In the twenty-first century, on Earth—some Earth, we don't actually know if it's the Earth that is causing so many problems now, although we suspect it is—they developed genetic engineering as a method of curing diseases caused by genetic mutations. Then they got bold and started swapping in 'better' genes. And finally, they started testing completely artificial genes.
"They couldn't do the testing in humans. They created lab animals, hybrid species with a few human genes spliced in. Generally those genes that were relevant to the disease they were studying. The protocols of the time limited them to ten percent human derived genes, maximum.
"And that's where the trouble started. Almost every mammal has the same genes, just a few changes in the control genes make them different. And the order the genes are in and which of them turn off and on together and so forth. By mixing and matching genes of the various wild and domestic species, they could create an artificial animal with genes that were nearly identical to the human version, in the human order. And then they substituted in the human control genes. And they got--after a lot of trial and error--children who looked and acted just like 'real people' but that met the legal definition of hybrid laboratory animal.
"Then they could test. Anything. They. Wanted."
Ryol swallowed. Animals? Laboratory animals?
The man nodded. "Yes. That's where the Oner Prophets, the Comet Fall Gods, the Arbolians' founding magicians, and the ancestors of the Purples all started. Oh, it took generations, experimenting with fixing genes, and then artificial genes. And the power genes—which are just variations of the gene that gives perfectly normal people energy from music, from parties, from crowds, dancing. Genes that tested out well in the 'laboratory animals' were used to improve legally human fetuses. To cure diseases, maximize intelligence and so forth. Some even got a single power gene. But in 2110 the company called New Gene started buying out the other commercial companies and consolidated their 'test children' all in one place to study them, train them, and use them. That was where the first known dimensional travel was invented. Something the test kids did enabled the first gates.
"There was a lot of prejudice on Earth, and eventually they exiled all of the genetically engineered people to five worlds. Not just the test kids, but all of the ordinary, slightly engineered children as well. Comet Fall was one of those five worlds, Arrival/Arbolia, Purple, and one other that we've started diplomatic relations with. Leaving one undiscovered. There were other, early colonies that may have had some engineered personnel, but not test kids, when the gate apparatus was destroyed.
"The One World Prophets were an early exploratory party, composed of the test kids from Number One Kids, Inc. who didn’t have the right genes to work the gates. They were marooned two years before the Exile. That world, your world, had a large population that the Prophets married into and eventually dominated.
"Comet Fall had perhaps fifty thousand exiles, and no indigenous population. Most of the Exiles had minor genetic corrections, maybe a slight improvement, in the form of what the One World calls insertions. Some family members who had no engineering at all chose to be exiled with their children. And thirteen of the very highly engineered test kids. A mixed batch from Happy Kids and New Genes, plus a couple of the earliest experimental kids from university research programs.
“Those thirteen are the 'Old Gods' of Comet Fall.
“The term 'god' was a sarcastic term used by the people who owned them. Some of them were the last of the test kids, the best at dimensional control. They'd been drugged, their brains implanted with electronic contacts to directly control the dimensional equipment. They escaped, taking some brain damage as they did so. And sabotaged the gate mechanism, marooning themselves, all the Exiles, all the early colonies, plus the mining and timbering worlds. From what I've read of the Earth's history, they sabotaged the gate, left a bomb or some such.
“The Earth lost its dimensional travel capabilities, and only reacquired it a couple of centuries ago.
"So. That was the Early Diaspora. Twenty-six worlds, all on their own until Earth and the One World again discovered dimensional travel." Master Xen looked them over. "Pretty different from your history? Questions?"
"But . . . " Yrno looked boggled. "But . . . the Prophets! They're, they were sent by Allah to unite the world and . . ."
Master Xen smiled wryly. "And they did. Izmo is no doubt much more qualified to answer your questions about the methods Allah used than I am. I only know about Comet Fall."
He shrugged. "The thirteen 'gods' on Comet Fall were not all of a single mind. They clashed regularly, with occasional disasters of the celestial variety to bring them together to try to stay alive. They studied and experimented with their magic.
“I'm going to skip most of the history. Just hit the, well, low points. A comet impact killed all but perhaps a hundred thousand people, a thousand years ago. Eight hundred years ago, three of the Old Gods withdrew from a society they feared they were twisting and retired to a mountain valley in the west. They were joined later by the wizard grandson of the Goddess of Heal
th and Fertility, who was one of those three. The God of War and the God of Travelers were the other two."
Ryol waved a hand. "So now they're real gods?"
"They were brain damaged when they escaped. Into a world with a concentrated population of weakly telepathic people. The collective subconscious was, is, a philosophical idea. The theory is that everyone is subconsciously connected, and our individual beliefs cancel each other out, except in a few areas where nearly everyone agrees.
“Almost every culture has archetypes. Idealized, personified, and at the base, very similar. In their brain damaged state, the thirteen test kids—who were all grown up by then—were vulnerable, and internalized the archetype closest to their own personality.
“It may be a similar phenomenon to the collective mind of the One, and its faint contact with all Oners. I really don't know if it's been studied. We don't much worry about it.
"But yes, in a real sense, they were made into gods. Some can even be summoned by prayer. Only one of them ever tried to create a church. The combined belief of his adherents was probably one reason he went insane. And has since fled Comet Fall altogether."
He paused, and getting no more comments, continued. "So, a remote valley, gods and wizards. And eventually a country formed up around them, with them slotting themselves into the power structure, but mostly still remaining withdrawn, not part of the national level governmental structure.
"There was a war; each side targeted the other's magical troops. In the end nearly all the trained magicians were dead. Afterwards, four witches and two mages straggled into the valley and settled there. Four generations later, the valley of Ash and village of Ash are the center of magical knowledge and training on Comet Fall. It is not exclusive. There are two other witches' pyramids, plus the Cove Islands and Discordia both have mages. The wizard gene, being a recessive on the X chromosome, keeps popping up, here and there.
"I was born in Ash. And trained there. So I will be explaining Comet Fall magic according to the specific types practiced there."
Lala raised a timid hand. "What is the difference between witches and mages and wizards?"
"Ah. The Prophets, all being the products of one line of research, have two specific power genes. The One gene on the X chromosome collects power from Heat—electromagnetic vibrations from the infrared range and barely into the visible spectrum. The Priest gene on the Y chromosome collects power from infrared through about the middle of the visible spectrum.
"The Comet Fall gods were made by several different companies. They all have a gene very like the One gene, but placed on the Y chromosome. Kinetic energy through infrared. Our wizard gene is in the same spot as the One gene, on the X chromosome. It pulls power from infrared through ultraviolet, and like the priest gene, is sensitive to male hormonal influences. We used to castrate the young wizards—and apprentice them to a wizard until they had enough training and knowledge to regenerate their missing bits. Now we just magically repress the hormones and release them when the wizard feels strong enough, generally in his mid-twenties, when the brain has matured. Although a lot of our people are very late maturing, naturally. The witch gene is on the X chromosome, in the same place as your One gene, but it differs significantly."
"There are variations of each gene. Four kinds of mage genes with slightly different ranges of power pickup, and different talents. I've got both the witch and wizard gene packed in side by side—some of you have that, some of you were conceived after I swapped things around to the One gene, so you are genetically all Oner.
"But, a lot of what people can or can't do depends on the other genes we inherited from our test kid ancestors. Both the artificial genes in the insertions, and the genes outside the insertions. Yes, those animal genes. Many of those genes were identical to the equivalent human gene. Others are slightly different versions. Alleles, if you've had much biology. And they affect a whole lot of what is possible for you to do. And from me, you inherited a whole bunch of those.
"These two weeks, I'll be training you as if you were normal Comet Fall kids. I'll try to show you how to experiment and discover your specific talents. Two weeks isn't very long. I suspect you'll be coming back regularly. And I'll train you all according to the specifics of what you've got."
One of the other boys, Jay, shifted. "How many animal genes do you have?"
"Billions. We use percentages for them. I have 93% of the original test kid genes. So all of you will have close to half, most of you more, because the Prophets had 100% test kid genes. Note my cautious non-use of 'animal genes.' You'll find a lot of prejudice about it. I'd recommend not mentioning it to anyone outside of this program."
Gior sniffed. "Yeah, really. I doubt we could get much more flack than just being known as one of your bastards.
Xen's eyes softened a bit. "Wouldn't recommend testing that theory."
"Can we find out how many, what percent we have?" Foyh asked.
Master Xen looked over his shoulder. Diuc and Izmo exchanged glances.
Izmo nodded. "Those advanced genetic tests we ran will have detected them. A few of you may have already been told. I will get that information for the rest of you."
“Good.” Master Xen looked back at them. “Any more questions? Then we’re done for the day. Relax for a while, have dinner whenever you wish. I’ll be rousting you out early tomorrow morning for exercise.”
***
Arno drew out a map of the maze . . . then consulted with Ryol and Jay about what was on the far side of each corridor. “Master Xen picked us up here, so we never explored any of the other corridors off the first three gates.”
They looked at each other. “We ought to do some careful, controlled, exploring.” Arno grinned. “I’m going to go grab a few things.”
Tougher shoes, and a loose jacket that would hang over the clip on holster in middle of his back.
The dog appeared and tagged along with them.
They mapped back three gates on every corridor off the first two “main” gates.
And got home with no problem at all.
***
And a bonus surprise, as Aunt Rael showed up for dinner, and moved into one of the upstairs rooms at the school. “Can’t let the priests have all the fun!” Five dirty looks as she giggled. The sixth priest, Ytry, laughed.
***
The sun wasn’t even up yet when the chimes went off. Arno groaned and stuck his head out the door.
A hideously cheerful Master Xen in shorts, tee shirt, standing where he could look down both corridors. “Up and at ‘em for the morning run. Or walk, but push yourself. One thing about magic. You may be using outside power to do the work, but you’re using your own energy to control it. The more fit you are, the more magic you can do. At any level.”
Aunt Rael trotted down the stairs, ready to run.
Arno moaned and withdrew. Maybe we shouldn’t have mapped out so much of the maze. But, shorts, tee shirt, running shoes, and out the door.
Apparently people from all the embassies came and exercised. Joel and Chris trotted up to walk beside him. In the predawn he couldn’t even tell their hair was purple.
“Man! Rescued by Captain Wolfson! We were so grounded yesterday.” Chris threw his hands up. “And Mom said she’d tan our butts if we ever went in the Maze again.”
Arno sniffed. “We were figuring it all out. I’m going to map it.”
A narrow sliver of the sun crested the eastern hills as they reached the exercise area, and Master Wolfson ran off up the trail.
“He runs the whole two kilometers twice. Every morning.” Joel started running, and Arno followed. Broke off to walk, then ran a bit more. Walked. Ran.
Chris blew out a tired breath. “He’s teaching martial arts, this month. Do you Oners even have things like that? Karate, Judo, Kung Fu?”
“Yeah. Aunt Rael taught us a bit, and Ebsa who’s sort of a stepbrother.” Except if Mother’s really my Aunt then her stepson would be my stepcousin? Arno shoved the thought
away. “But they don’t get home very often. We took karate classes one summer.”
“Well, that a ton more than we started with, which was zero, zip, nada.” Joel shrugged. “They don’t let little kids box. Because of head injuries.”
“Yeah. Aunt Rael says no blows to the head or neck.” Arno looked around. They’d trailed in pretty late, along with most of his . . . siblings. The people who knew the drill were lining up.
Master Xen summoned them with a wave. “Any of you that have had any martial arts line up behind that group. Completely clueless, come with me and I’ll get you started.”
Arno headed for the “any martial arts” group and followed a kata led by Nighthawk.
The clueless . . . what he could see of them, were getting the very basics.
Jay was well trained, and Nighthawk sent him off to the next group.
Gior, of all people, knew Judo. Nighthawk summoned an old man to take her off a ways, where they threw each other around, attracting an audience.
Arno tripped over his big feet, but at least didn’t get sent back to basic.
Yrno and Or What stayed with the basic class.
Shower, dress . . . And then Master Xen spun around suddenly.
“They’re here already? A week early? Well, there goes my schedule.”
“Who?” Yrno squinted the direction Master Xen was looking.
“The building crew.”
Chapter Sixteen
Building with Magic
Arno studied the . . . interesting people. Eight men. Four of them looked a lot alike, and very striking with their jet black hair and golden eyes. The one with the black handlebar mustaches seemed to be in charge. The rest of them were more normal, well, all tall and fit, but with varied normal coloring and a wide range of ages.