The near consummation of her plans concerning Kerina and Marina fuelled her desire for Mikkal. Zadina enlisted him on a changers’ course and he was learning how to control his mind. He found it more difficult to master than he expected. Having the capability to do something and doing it in a controlled manner were very different things.
Zadina insisted he participated in the Solstice Eve Fertility Rites. It was dreaded by him but he submitted as Zadina gloried in her power over him. In the countryside at Marina’s farm there were smaller celebrations with dressing up and dancing, lavish tables laden with food, drinking and fireworks. No public Fertility Rite celebrations were allowed on Marina’s farms. If some of the young farm dwellers wandered into the orchards for private fertility rituals, no one criticised or interfered.
Chapter Thirty-Six - Games Entrants
Marina returned to the town, taking Kazimira, Belabeza and Adelza with her. Divak was no longer in town. He had taken Ondiella and the baby on a sight-seeing trip of the islands. She had been so upset at seeing Ga’Mikkal and Marina together he thought it best to get her out of Hemithea. In Hemithea she would soon discover his relationship to Marina, so he decided to stay away until the Games were over as Marina’s name would be on everyone’s lips.
Riyal was being privately tutored by Father O’Flaherty by day and trained by Marina by night. He felt permanently mentally and physically exhausted as the result of these exertions. His mind was being stretched to make use of its expanded capacity, but he could not assess the increase in his physical stamina. Marina was a hard task-mistress and the performance of the goals she sought was only just within his powers, which was what she intended.
Chilka was invited to join in their training sessions and Marina would use her body to explain exactly what he should do. Riyal could not believe how rigorous the training could be. He had never thought he knew everything about how to make love to a woman, but he had certainly had no complaints.
Chilka enjoyed assisting Marina with Riyal’s training. She did not realise Marina knew she would not be keeping him. Riyal moved in with Father O’Flaherty temporarily. Marina divided her body between Riyal and Charles which was the closest she ever came to fidelity. Chilka was surprised Marina had asked her to help train Riyal, as she had not sought her help training Charles.
Chilka joined Marina now in training and despite Pekella and its enticements; a surprising number of Marina’s friends were consuming no stimulants and striving for excellence in their various sports. There were 47 events in the Zeninan Games for which 54 ruby florettes would be awarded. An extra set of ruby, green, blue and silver florettes were awarded for the gymnasts who had the top overall scores. The two running relays had florettes awarded to each member of the successful teams.
Chilka ran for Marina’s sprint relay team and had put a team together for the four kilometres by four kilometre relay which Marina had refused to participate in. The sprint relay team was made up of Chilka and Marina, Belabeza who had been persuaded to replace Adelza and Lamaza the chief planner replaced the late Carina. Belabeza had held the sprint title for several previous Games, but had lost interest in competing and stopped running. She was rusty but was a fine runner.
Chilka’s team was made up of Admiral Folada, Letinza, Querella and herself but it had little chance of winning as they had rarely practised together. Calzina had scraped together a team for both relays consisting of herself, Zada, Ketla and Perlza. A younger team made up of Calzina’s daughter Serengia, Nerova, Suzela and an ex-college mate of theirs, a Blue whose name was Unzela were also entered for both relays.
Few other newcomers were competing in this year’s Games. Usually the best officer recruits made their first attempts and college students competed, but the number of first-time entrants was greatly down. Holders of a florette of any colour in the preceding Games were automatically eligible for each event. As would any holder who was unable through being off planet or injury to defend their titles for one year. Dalzina and Kapalina who were off planet would not defend their titles this year, but in the next would be assumed to be of the correct standard.
Four florettes were awarded for each event. A ruby florette went to the winner, green to the second, blue to the third and silver to the fourth place. Marina had personally won 19 ruby florettes at the last Games. She had retired unbeaten from another seven events during the last twenty years. Her highest count of ruby florettes was 24, one for every year of her then age. This number of winning florettes was unbeaten.
Kerina when young had held the previous record of 18, but to even achieve one florette was an honour. The year Marina had staggered home with 24 ruby florettes woven into her plait was the last year she competed in the sexual gymnastics event, the recording of which Bromarsh had seen part of, on board her yacht. Her marks had only once been bettered, but then the male partner had also been exceptional. Kerina and Kabaneev had been a rare partnership; they were still talked about with cloying nostalgia by the cognoscenti of such events.
The number of events had remained static for some centuries. Except for the two running relays there were no team events, although team sports had been tried as had swimming and riding relays for a few decades but interest had not been maintained. There were ten groups of events, which were basically throwing events, running, jumping, archery, riding, fighting, gymnastics, weight-lifting and water events. The two multiple events of four disciplines and seven disciplines made up the tenth group.
There was nothing in the rules preventing men competing, but none had ever reached the entry standards. Men, even Zigan men, could not run faster, jump higher or longer, or lift heavier weights than the cream of Zeninan women. Although Inter-planetary Games were arranged sporadically and Kurgian, Markaban and Zigan teams competed against each other, no Zeninans participated.
Zeninan men would be triumphant against other planetary teams, but as slaves they were not asked to compete. For Zeninan women to have any interplanetary opposition it could only be against Zigan males. The Zeninan women would still win, but by seconds rather than minutes and metres rather than tens of metres. Zigan males were wary of competing with Zeninan women. Too many intelligent, strong Zigan young men had been thrown over the shoulder of some slip of a Zeninan girl and carried off to slavery over the centuries.
If you wished to see the best athletes in the universe in sporting terms live, you had to make the pilgrimage to Zenina. Many young athletes, who came as spectators to the Games, remained in the slave quarters of the women they admired. The sybaritic Zeninans who could carouse their lives away, were the same women who could beat the universe. How much more they could achieve on the sporting field, if they forced their bodies to all year-round exertion, restricting their intake of unnecessary substances and stimulants it was hard to tell.
Large numbers of spectators came from inside and outside the Empire, some merely to enjoy the titillation of naked beauty but many to admire the speeds, records and grace of Zeninan womankind. The Games were technically open to all comers but few outside competitors came forward. Not a few extroverts who heard of the sexual gymnastics volunteered each year but were usually weeded out by the need to register a minimum score before the event. This year two Zigan couples had achieved the necessary scores as had one Kurgian pairing.
Nerova, the pretty Blue Bromarsh had been sent before the golden palace banquet, was entered for all the gymnastic events. In the sexual gymnastics she was partnered by a Blue of Zigan origin whose slave name was Falesh. He was a well-muscled lad of average height so he fitted well with the diminutive Nerova. There were at least 40 other couples entered but Nerova and Falesh were the local favourites. Marina had been asked to judge the event as a former winner, but declined as she was entered for other gymnastics events and the sexual gymnastics could count towards the overall gymnastics title. She felt she could be accused of bias if she down-graded a competitor in the running for the overall title.
Chapter Thirty-Seven - Genetic Breakdown<
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The eve of the Games arrived at last and the Solstice celebrations reached their height. In Hemithea town there was noise and laughter, people sang raucously aloud. Music was belted out without consideration for the residents, the stamp of feet to rhythms from revellers booming along with the base notes. Fireworks banged and crackled over all the other sounds. The normal apparent tranquillity of Hemithea was overthrown.
Marina and Chilka finished their last training session and parted to go their own ways. Marina made a final visit to the department before relaxing her weary limbs in a steaming hot bath. Her desk was almost clear, having worked through the previous night to clear it. Yet a small pile of fresh reports was laid there. Marina flicked through them, relieved they were mostly copies for her information only. She read them briskly into her brain without digesting them to be sorted and analysed later in her bath. One report pushed a mental button but when she analysed the content she wished she had not read it.
Jessina’s parents had been located on Alpha; she would have to send her back. The short report provided a recent picture of both Ceckil Callabam and his wife Belaza. Marina glanced at it numbly, seeing them as enemies who would steal her treasure away. She resented having to return Jessina to them. Ceckil Callabam looked like a man in his early fifties. His skin pallid from too much time spent indoors. His appearance belied his age; his passport insisted he was 72.
Belaza Callabam, an exquisite slender blonde looked far too young to have a teenage son. The picture was from their arrival in Alpha and matched the image in Jessina’s mind. There was no mistake. How old was Belaza, her passport said she was 36. Marina called up the file on Belaza Callabam. Origin uncertain, the file said, but gave copious details of her life since she married Ceckil Callabam twenty years ago.
The file made no assessment of her age but provided plenty of images of her beautiful face framed by designer clothes in perfect taste throughout those 20 years. Marina compared the images of Belaza in her wedding dress with the most recent on file. The fashions had changed and Belaza wore her hair in a more contemporary style, but even when enlarging them Marina could not sort them chronologically without remembering the date of each picture.
Marina came to a conclusion. “She is Zeninan,” she said aloud, “it’s the only explanation.” Knowing it instinctively she sought confirming evidence. First she checked Ceckil’s file. Medical Reports, plenty of them until 20 years ago, Ceckil had been a sick man 20 years before. His liver was diseased and his heart not pumping evenly. He was not suitable for operating on because of his chronic asthma. It was feared he would not survive anaesthetic.
Then there was his wedding. Ceckil never visited another doctor. Belaza too eschewed doctors even her two confinements were at home and the doctors who certified the births stated on the forms, they were not present at the birth.
That all seemed pretty damning to Marina as few Zeninan women needed assistance to give birth except in very exceptional circumstances, like a Platinum birth. Jessina could not have been born Gold, but there must have been traces of the colour at birth for this Belaza to name her so confidently. Her mother had clearly known the tradition for naming Golds, but Belaza could not have been born on Zenina herself or her children would have had Zeninan skin-tones at birth.
Belaza was the ultimate trophy wife for a dying trillionaire; a half-Zeninan born off planet. She would remain youthfully beautiful and he would be cured of all medical problems. Even without visiting Zenina he could survive well into his second century in perfect health. With the small numbers of symbiotes in her blood-stream, she could have a low enough libido for him to cope with. She might even be faithful.
So whose daughter was Belaza? She had samples of Floren and Jessina’s blood. She ran their chromosome patterns through the computer and manually removed the most obvious Markaban genes. Marina then asked for a cross-matching on the children to make an approximation of the genetic make-up of their mother. There was insufficient data to get a full chromosome pattern but each child would have half of her genes. By weighting the prediction towards Jessina’s genes, in whom Zeninan traits clearly dominated; it might be possible to define and label the genes which came from Belaza. With luck they could get 80 percent accuracy. It might be enough to identify an ancestral grouping.
The computer sorted the gene patterns and Marina studied the results. It was not as good as she had hoped. There was insufficient information to find relations to match with the Zeninan gene patterns. Marina was about to give up and order the ship to take Jessina and Floren away when she decided to seek expert assistance. She was not a geneticist, she merely dabbled in genetics and followed her hunches. She instructed the computer to produce chromosome break downs of all Zeninans who left Zenina and had not returned in the last 300 years. Few Zeninan women had children after 200 years old although it was possible but Belaza could not be older than 100 without having needed some cosmetic surgery.
Then she went to find her father. Kabaneev was in his laboratory in a distant wing of the Golden Palace, although she had not called him, he was expecting her. He was alone and Marina gave him a quick hug, a gesture of affection she would not make if observed. She gave him the file on Belaza Callabam, the chromosome breakdowns of Jessina and Floren and the abortive computer results of her attempts to work out Belaza Callabam’s gene pattern. Kabaneev took the papers without comment, examining them. After a few minutes he started writing or more exactly covering paper with some very weird symbols.
The symbols were his own invention, a method of shorthand notation for certain common Zeninan DNA strings which in combination could be used to approximate the genes of any given subject. Marina sat and waited whilst he covered seven pages of paper in his tiny oblique hand. He read through his code, before inserting the sheets together with Jessina and Floren’s patterns into a data reader.
“She reminds me of someone, this Belaza” he said to Marina.
“Does she resemble someone you know?” asked Marina.
“She does, but it was long ago.”
The computer whispered into life producing a print-out of several pages. Kabaneev’s fingers flickered over a few buttons and his chromosome model tried to match with the individuals Marina’s program had picked as possibly Belaza’s mother. Marina had been surprised to see how few Zeninans had left and never returned. There were less than 5,000 Zeninans on the list; 62 percent were Greens. In that period just over sixteen Zeninan women of Blue, Silver and Gold had left a year and never returned.
Father and daughter sat in quiet contemplation whilst the computer executed the program. Their minds so in tune that conversation, audible or mental was extraneous. They were not in mind-link they knew each other’s thoughts without trying. The computer reached its decisions and they scanned the answers together. If Kabaneev’s presumptions were correct there were only four possible women who could be Belaza’s mother.
Kabaneev ordered up the files of the possible women. One was dismissed as improbable as she had died on Kochab over a hundred years previously. The remaining three were all Silvers. Their names were Xanbela, Amza and Vlanga. Amza had left 250 years before but was in her 212th year when she fled from Marina’s ancestor’s wrath. The time span though technically possible seemed unlikely. Xanbela was Amza’s grand-daughter. Marina saw a similarity between the name of Amza and Belaza and began to draw Kabaneev’s attention to it but he was silently staring at Vlanga’s file.
“Was Vlanga Vlama’s older sister?” Marina asked.
“She was, and almost certainly is Belaza’s mother.”
“How can you be sure, father?”
“Did you never see a picture of Vlanga?”
“Not that I remember, her file says she left 58 years ago, in the second year of my mother’s reign. I wasn’t born then and Vlama never talks of her.”
“I’m not surprised. Vlanga supported Zadina in her attempt to assassinate Kerina and got out of Zenina only just ahead of Kerina’s guards. She has never r
eturned.”
“Was she a Cultist?”
“Not in any serious way, but she hated Kerina and Zadina used her.”
“There is nothing in her file. All it says is she left and has not returned.”
“There was no proof and Kerina did not want to find any. If she proved Vlanga’s guilt she’d have to execute Zadina for treason. Kerina couldn’t face signing her sister’s death warrant. Vlanga had fled; Kerina felt there was no point pursuing the matter.”
“Why did she hate Kerina?” Marina asked and then wished she had not. There was a long pause.
“Because of me,” was the barely audible reply. Kabeneev took some time before explaining.
“Kerina spent a lot of that year away on progresses to the colonies consolidating her position in the Empire. Vlanga conceived a daughter, Kerina found out and had her forcibly aborted. Vlanga never forgave her.”
“You were the sire?”
“Yes.”
“This Belaza looks like her?”
“Very much so.”
“Do I have any surviving half-sisters or brothers I don’t know about?”
“None Kerina could find. Kerina was right; she couldn’t afford to have her consort sire a possible heir when she hadn’t fully consolidated her reign. Your half-sister could’ve become a huge problem when Kerina died.”
“There’s only six days to go, six days of the Games. I had best send Jessina back. I may not be able to protect her from our enemies. There is one thing more you can do for me, father?”
He was shocked with what she wanted, but after a little explanation agreed to get her what she requested, it would take a few days. So Marina embraced her father and left.
***
Jessina was surprised to be woken early the next morning by Charles. She and Orina were to get dressed and come with him, if they were to watch the Games that morning. They needed no further asking, for the main item of interest had been how well Marina would do in the Games. Marina could not lose or do any wrong in the eyes of most of her employees and their children.
Heroine of Zenina Page 18