by Mike Luoma
Chapter Seven
"I don't believe it!" Anita tells Alibi, once he's filled her in on their trip to the Tek'Tah base... and the sighting of the Eldred. "You're obviously mistaken."
"And you're obviously not listening to me," Alibi snaps back. He paces across the living room of her apartment. She agreed to meet with Alibi and the Dakhur right after they arrived on Ceres Central. They headed over to her apartment after securing the Stinger ship in Ceres Central's port. Piccolo isn't there with them. He took off to, as he put it, "take care of some personal business."
Alibi spent the last half hour telling her what happened to them on Junzias, but Anita's not convinced the aliens they saw were really Eldred.
What else can I say?
"I know what I saw, Aunt Anita! I'm not stupid!"
"I didn't say you were," Anita says calmly, not raising her voice. "But perhaps your eyes were fooled. Maybe the Tek'Tah wanted you to think you were seeing the Eldred."
"They didn't even know we were there, not at first," Alibi insists. "How could they be staging it if they didn't know anyone was watching them?" He's trying not to raise his voice, but his frustration is clear in his tense body language – teeth clenched, hands balled into fists. He tries keep his temper in check.
"Maybe you give yourselves too much credit for stealth," Anita says, a dismissive note plain in her voice.
Dr. Anita Capituna is a former Prime Representative for the Solar Alliance. She's been leading The Project for the last twenty-five years and running the growing Ceres Central station. Although he calls her his "aunt", Anita has been more like a mother to Alibi since he was three years old, when his biological mother Ruth Kim shot and killed Alibi's father – and Anita's fiancé – Bernard Campion, a.k.a. "BC".
BC founded the Solar Alliance, uniting humankind. He led the fight against the alien race known as the Eldred, and against Dolomay, a million-year-old alien freed from suspended animation. Dolomay represented the final living remnant of the ancestors of the human race known as the "Ancient Enemy".
The Eldred thought they'd destroyed them a million years ago. They did wipe out most, but the Ancient Enemy managed to send out thousand of "star seeds" – high tech DNA transporters – to save their race from total extinction. One of those landed on Earth a long time ago. The human race is the result.
After they eliminated the Ancient Enemy, the Eldred became the dominant race in the known universe for the next million years. But Dolomay had secretly been kept alive in stasis by some of the Eldred. Around twenty-five years ago he was accidentally revived, and became a new threat to both the Eldred and humankind. And thanks to our birthright the Eldred tried to wipe out humanity with a plague. They later resorted to all out war.
Every school kid now learns how the Eldred fleet was wiped out in the war, how Dolomay was killed, and how surprised we were to find out the very existence of the Eldred tied into Dolomay's continued existence. The Eldred didn't realize it, either. The Eldred were created by the Ancient Enemy as a Servant race, and Dolomay's survival over the intervening centuries, even in stasis, apparently kept the Eldred race alive. With no remnant of the Ancient Enemy left, those Eldred not killed in battle simply... died.
Their entire race was wiped out. Hundreds of dead Eldred worlds now stand as mute proof of their former dominance. They've been gone for almost twenty-five years. Or they were. Until now?
"I know what I saw, and I saw Eldred!" Alibi is insistent. "They were picking up human captives from the Tek'Tah out on Junzias! Trafficking in kidnapped humans!"
"I can confirm this," Kit says. Anita looks surprised. The Dakhur had not spoken until now. She shakes her head all the same.
"The Eldred are dead."
"Fine. They died. But now some are back," Alibi insists.
"You are as stubborn as your father," Anita comes back at him with temper of her own.
"Great," Alibi says in disgust. "I never met the guy. Stop telling me I'm just like him. That's not fair!"
Anita backs off.
"Sorry," she says, softening. "You remind me of him so much, sometimes."
"Is that good or bad?" he asks her, still defensive.
"Both!" Anita replies, laughing a little. She gets a bit more serious. "He would be proud of the man you've become," she tells him.
Alibi looks his aunt in the eye.
"I wish you believed me," he tells her.
"I wish I could believe you, Ali," she insists, "But I can't! I saw them die out, Alibi. World after world of theirs went dark, every Eldred on them losing the will to live. Giving up the fight." She shakes her head. "I'm sure you saw something. It might have looked like the Eldred. But it couldn't have been. There are many alien races out there, Al. You've probably just stumbled across one that looks like the Eldred."
"I've seen footage of the Eldred, Aunt Anita. I know what they look like. These were Eldred. Maybe some of them didn't die!"
"They truly did appear to be Eldred," Kit says with a soft purr. Anita looks at the cat-like alien with a mix of emotions playing across her face.
"Really?" she asks the alien with a heavy dose of sarcasm in her voice. "And how many live Eldred have you seen in your lifetime, Mr., uh, " Kit" was it?"
Kit seems a bit cowed by Anita's sharp tone.
"I have not seen any Eldred alive, Doctor. I am too young. But they did rule over my planet, Hur, for many years. We have many records of them, and a great deal of footage of the Eldred from over time. There are no other races that I know of that look like the Eldred..."
"That you know of!" Anita says, cutting him off.
"Now who's being stubborn?" Alibi says under his breath. Anita turns.
"I heard that!" she says.
"You have no idea what you are talking about!"
Alibi hears Anita's thought like a voice loud and clear inside his head. He's not sure she didn't say it. Could she have thought it so loud... he could hear her?
"I have no idea what I'm talking about, huh?" Alibi says, louder than he meant to. She looks confused for a moment.
"Humph!" she lets out a heavy sigh. She glares at Alibi, turns and leaves the living room.
"Great," Alibi says, dejected. "She doesn't believe us!"
"Yes, this is obvious," Kit agrees.
"We're wasting our time here," Alibi says.
"Suggestions?" Kit asks.
"I don't know," Alibi says. "Maybe we should go back to Junzias, see if we can find out anymore about what was going on." He looks around the room, thinking. He sees pictures of Anita and BC on the walls, pictures of himself as a young man with Anita, his graduation picture from the SAIF School, him in his Mediator uniform on the first day he got it, pictures of people from the Project. One of the pictures gives him an idea.
"There's someone else we can try," Alibi tells Kit. "An old scientist, used to be with the Project, but he's retired now. Doctor Krishnavurti." Alibi walks over to the picture that caught his eye. In the picture, two men in lab coats stand on either side of a much younger Anita Capituna, one tall, thin and English, the other short and Indian. He points at the photo. "This guy."
"The tall one or the short one?" Kit asks.
"The short one," Alibi clarifies. "The tall one was Doctor Dundell. He died when I was a baby. But Krish has been a family friend for as long as I've been alive. He's kind of an expert on the Eldred. He and Dell there once took an Eldred ship apart, helped us humans figure out the Eldred tech."
"Sounds like he may be a good person to talk to," Kit muses. "I hope he is more open minded than your aunt."
"Me too," Alibi agrees. "He's kind of a hermit. Lives on Rigel Four. He doesn't go out at all. He's kind of a recluse."
"Do we have to take the same stinking Stinger ship we came here in?" Kit asks warily.
"No!" Alibi says with shared relief. "I've got a Cruiser of my own docked here at Ceres Central. We'll take that instead. It doesn't stink so bad!"
"So you say. Your race does not share the same sensitivi
ty to odor the Dakhur possess. All of you humans smell... like sweaty, stinky meat. To me."
"Hey, thanks!" Alibi says, his voice heavy with sarcasm.
"You are welcome," Kit says. He hisses his equivalent of a laugh.
As they walk through Ceres Central to the port where Alibi's cruiser is parked, Kit's head keeps turning, as if on a swivel. The crowd is mostly made up of humans, with some Flaze and individuals from other races mingled in. Some heads in the crowd also turn towards Kit's as they walk past.
"You look... funny," Alibi says to Kit. "Different, sort of."
"My hair is standing on end, a little," Kit explains. "I am not used to being around so many humans."
"We're not exactly used to seeing Dakhur around here, either," Alibi tells him.
"We Dakhur traditionally have not wanted to deal with the Flaze or the Domo, who were the primary races in this part of space until recently."
"I can see that. Can't say they've impressed us, either. Although if the history books are right, we kind of owe our very existence to them."
"We Dakhur had thought the Flaze might be more... reasonable, once the Domo had declined. But as you well know, our dealings with them have not improved!"
"Right," Alibi says. "Well, I thought they were being straight with you. With me!"
"I have not yet killed you," Kit offers.
"So you believe me?"
"So far," Kit says. "You humans seem to be somewhat reasonable. Although you look like the Ancient Enemy, most of your people have been straightforward in your dealings with the Dakhur. However, we have found that not all humans are the same. There are independent human warlords who are as violent and disagreeable as the Ancient Enemy was said to be."
"Really?"
"You do not know? Yes! There are a couple of humans who have taken over dead Eldred worlds and used the leftover technology found there to enrich themselves at the expense of many others. Self-styled warlords."
"They've taken over Eldred worlds? Nobody does that!" Alibi exclaims.
"There are humans who have. You do not know of them?" Kit asks.
"I've never... How do you know about them?" Alibi asks.
"For the same reason I speak your race's language," Kit explains. "As I told you, my father negotiated the deal with the Flaze you mediated. My family were diplomats, until the Flaze ruined my father's honor. I was raised to be a diplomat and so was instructed in the languages and taught the histories, mores and customs of the races that dominate this part of the known universe. Each diplomatic family among the Dakhur specializes in different areas of the known universe, you see."
"I see. So you learned about us in school?" Alibi asks, curious.
"School? Hmmm..." Kit purrs, thinking. "Yes, I guess that is what I mean."
When they reach Alibi's Cruiser Ship, Piccolo is waiting outside.
"Here we are," Alibi says. "Hey, Piccolo!"
"Got your message," Piccolo says. "Didn't want to take the Stinker, huh?"
"It is bad enough that I have to smell you all the time," Kit says to the man.
"Ha," Piccolo starts to laugh, thinking Kit is joking.
When no one else laughs, he stops abruptly. "Oh."
Alibi cycles the airlock open and the three of them enter the ship.
"Huh," Kit lets out a quick grunt. "It does not smell as bad as I feared," he admits.
"Thanks?" Alibi says with some uncertainty. They head for the bridge and strap themselves in for the trip to Rigel Four to see Doctor Krishnavurti.