by Nick Braker
“So that we are on the same page,” Magnus said. “I’m still leaving my options open. You have not convinced me the Aliri are our enemy.”
“Someone created the black ash around our planet, correct?” she asked.
Magnus nodded, cutting a piece of meat. He stabbed it and placed it in his mouth, savoring the taste. His ravenous hunger gave him little choice. He needed to eat, having depleted his reserves. His augmented ability came with a cost. Since his Aliri conversion, he needed more calories.
“Do you think we did it to ourselves?” she asked.
Magnus shook his head.
“The Aliri believe they are the guardians of this universe. We have little in the way of information about their species, by design I’m sure, and they want to keep it that way. They work in the background subverting species they feel are a threat. My people fit that mold and, as you will discover, so does humanity.”
Magnus scoffed. “We’re not trying to commit genocide on a planetary scale.” Her rhetoric sounded like justifications, excuses.
“Oh?” she responded. “Perhaps, but I would argue that your species has demonstrated identical behavior throughout humanity’s existence. Can you deny that?”
He knew her argument. Mankind had warred with each other for thousands of years, one group destroying another. He knew the conclusion of this conversation. His people’s hands were bloody, too.
“You kill the innocent on a mass scale,” Magnus said. “You cross lines of brutality that no species should dare. It will eat away at your souls, if you believe in such a thing, making it easier to cross the next line and then the next. We have to work with each other, build trust and trade to a mutually beneficial coexistence.”
“I believe I understand both of your idioms. The logical conclusion to your argument is cooperation with an escalating level of power until one side, for whatever reason, is forced to attack. The outcome is the same but with a greater loss of life on both sides instead of just one. Has there been any extended period of time on your Earth where peace worked?”
“You know the answer, don’t you?” he asked.
She nodded.
“No, there has not,” Magnus answered anyway.
“It is the way of things,” Katerra said. “The Aliri are fools. They hope to create a Utopian universe with beings incapable of changing or evolving.” She paused. “Do you know why the Aliri want to destroy us?”
“No, but I would guess it is because you are a threat to them.”
“The masters do not like it when the slaves do not obey,” she said.
“The Aliri think of Kron as slaves?” he asked.
“They treat us as such. There are many races in the universe, yet the Aliri focus their efforts on Kron. Now that you know that, why do you think they want us destroyed?”
“Because you destroy entire species,” he said.
“Only those that threaten us,” she said.
“But,”
“But what?” she demanded. “You would suggest we cooperate with the Aliri after they deemed us unworthy to live in their universe? They conceived a plan to destroy Kron and nearly succeeded in tricking another species into helping them. Our people did nothing to deserve this. We will not lay down and be the slaves to these vermin.”
Magnus’ poker face dropped. His eyes opened slightly. She hated the Aliri. They were vermin in her eyes. Katerra and Magnus said nothing for a few seconds. Katerra took a slow, deep breath. Strange, her emotional state felt abnormal to Magnus, as if even she seemed surprised.
“You know I’m right. You simply do not like my methods.”
Magnus understood her desire to protect her people. The strongest instinct in any species was survival. If the Kron were attacked by the Aliri preemptively because the Aliri found them unworthy then, yes, he understood their actions. Was she lying, though? This could be part of her plan to trick Earth by convincing him she could be trusted and that they work together against the Aliri. The Aliri appeared to be helping Earth. If the Aliri were removed, then what would stop Kron from destroying Earth?
“So, you came after Earth because we were your most immediate threat?”
“Yes.”
“But you’ve learned recently that you were tricked?” he asked.
“The Aliri have placed multi-phased probes in nearly every corner of the galaxy. The probes use both active and passive scanning technology to instantaneously update their TLA system. I found a way to hijack that transmission and, after stealing the Aliri’s first TLA system—”
“You’ll have to explain that one,” he said.
Katerra stole the Aliri’s system that predicted species behavior? That didn’t make sense. In theory, that shouldn’t be possible. She smiled. Was he playing into her hands? Was she leading him to conclusions in their conversation that she was controlling? Hell yeah, she was.
“After destroying the probes that monitored Kron and everything within our solar system, the Aliri became blind to our actions. I timed it all—”
“Wait, that doesn’t make sense,” Magnus said. “They should have been able to see that you planned to destroy their probes and stop it.” He wanted to add ‘Sounds like your story is falling apart,’ but he didn’t want her to be prepared should his suspicions grow to the point he decided to strike. If he didn’t believe her story, she would be dead as fast as he could snap her neck.
“Therein lies the reason the Aliri want us removed from the universe,” she replied. Her tone had an edge of smugness to it. She leaned forward, putting her hands on the table.
“And?”
“Our species is unpredictable,” Katerra said. “It’s part of our genetic code.” She let her words sink in. “From all the other species in the galaxy that we are aware of, we are the only species they cannot predict so they cannot entirely control us. The Aliri want order and predictability. That is why they want us eliminated. We do not line up in their universe.”
Holy shit.
The Aliri want to destroy an entire race of beings because they don’t conform? It sounded strangely like eugenics. The Aliri were akin to Hitler. Magnus leaned back in his chair.
“Unpredictable? How are you so different?”
“The answer isn’t easy to explain when you do not understand the genetic makeup of other species in the galaxy. Try to perceive it from this point of view. We are unique, different if you will, an anomaly in the cosmos. The Aliri are simply trying to get rid of the trash, from their perspective. The other species, and there are many, do conform to the Aliri’s expectations and are predictable. Their genetic code does not give them the ability to go against their nature.”
The Aliri. Why would Alara work for a race like that? Stockholm syndrome? He trusted Alara. Wait, was this something the Aliri had changed in him? Grep had completely lost it when Magnus decided to save Alara in the church and take her advice on how to handle The General. Was Grep right about the Aliri wanting to put a mole inside WSO, someone who could directly manipulate events? If Carena was an example of the good on Kron and Katerra’s reputation as a destroyer was an Aliri-manufactured lie, then they were not the monsters he believed them to be. Magnus could sense Katerra was about to drop a bombshell.
“Magnus?” Katerra asked.
“Sorry, I was thinking. You said your race was unpredictable—”
“No,” Katerra said, interrupting him, “I said our species is unpredictable.”
“What...” Magnus said, and then it hit him. “No way.”
“I cannot say or do anything to prove what I know, so I’ll have to leave it to you to do that.”
“No way,” he repeated. “Bullshit.”
“There it is again,” Katerra said. “Your proclivity for profanity. I will make an effort to try it sometime.”
“Really?” he said. “You drop this on me and then change the subject to profanity? You’re lying. You have to be. You’re from a goddamn different planet light years from Earth and you want to say we’re
the same species?”
“Approximately 1,100 Kron years ago, our species lived on a planet we call Aeon.”
“How many is that for Earth?” he asked. Magnus knew what she was going to say.
“Roughly 5,747 Earth years,” she said.
Damn it.
If her story was a lie, it was a good one. His mother, a religious woman, had taught him over and over that Earth might be old but humans were created about 6,000 years ago, nonsense from his perspective.
“And now the real reason I shared this with you, Magnus. Follow me,” she said, getting up and returning to the stargazing chamber.
“Lapdog?” he reminded her.
“Ah,” she said, still walking away. “You’re in Rome. Do as the Romans do.”
“You know a lot about Earth cliches. You seem to enjoy flaunting it.” Magnus followed her, irritated.
She stood in front of the stargazing wall. Katerra waved her hand, flicking her fingers faster than he could keep up with. The movement reminded him of Jules. He sighed inwardly. His team and Earth might be in danger but, if Katerra was telling the truth, he had to spend the time to find out. The wall changed from the view of Citron below to a star map. He recognized the Milky Way galaxy displayed in front of him.
“Magnus, this is Kron,” she said, pointing to a solar system on the left side of the map. It lit up as she did. “Your Earth is here, only 20.5 light years from Kron, extremely close on a galactic scale.” Earth lit up, too. “Finally, this is our home planet we once called Aeon. Magnus, the name Aeon is pronounced the same in both our languages. No translation is necessary.”
It wasn’t lost on him that he had chosen Aeon as his name at the sorority party. Coincidence? He didn’t believe it for one second. Something had influenced him to choose the name. Who had done it though? The Aliri? Alara? Some other force?
“Your story is good, Katerra, but the devil is in the details.”
“I do not comprehend that one,” Katerra said. “What do you mean?”
“It’s a saying on our world that means a lie is made more believable by giving more and more details to influence the listener to believe it.”
“Ah, I see but that doesn’t mean I’m lying. Our history remains intact because we have made a concerted effort to learn it and pass it down from generation to generation. Tell me, what do you think so far?”
Magnus believed her. It added up, unlike the Aliri story of just wanting to help. If there was any consistency in the universe, no one ever did anything for anyone else without wanting something in return. He knew what the Kron wanted, they wanted to survive. The Aliri’s help was offered without anything discernible in return. That was enough of a reason to not trust them.
“If we are the same species, you’re clearly saying the Aliri will eventually come after Earth. Alara mentioned humans were unpredictable when we interrogated her at WSO, so it seems there are many points of data that corroborate your story.”
“Interesting choice of words, Magnus,” she said.
“I have a friend on Earth. A few words of his vocabulary kind of rubbed off on me.”
She nodded, continuing her story. “Alara? Your ambassador for the Aliri. Interesting that she works inside your organization. Yes?”
Magnus knew what she implied. He nodded. “Suspicious, yes, but all ambassadors share that distinction in Earth’s culture.”
“Let me give you one more detail from the devil,” she said, enjoying her reference. “Our history teaches us that Aeon knew it would expand into the stars. Our original home world was in trouble so they deployed numerous automated stellar probes across the galaxy to find potentially inhabitable planets. If they found any, the devices would report back to Aeon.”
“Potentially inhabitable?” he asked.
“Of the planets that are hospitable for our species in the galaxy, most are already inhabited and those that are not, our ancestors planned to terraform.”
“Okay... and?”
“From your recorded history, your planet’s indigenous life was destroyed by a meteor impact. There is some truth to it but the meteor was Aeon’s stellar probe. Our people activated the probe and, after most of Earth’s indigenous life ended, the device terraformed Earth into a world our ancestors could inhabit.”
“They... we are responsible for killing the dinosaurs?” he asked.
“Extremely likely,” Katerra said. “I have no historical records or data on Earth but Kron has the same history at exactly the same time period. Aeon prepared both of our planets for colonization should they ever need it. We believe it is likely that the planet of Aeon was not the origin of our species. We believe this process was repeated at least once before Kron and Earth.”
Magnus felt lightheaded. “Can I have one of those floating chairs?”
“Computer, two chairs.” As ordered, two chairs entered and hovered over the floor near Katerra. “Affix.”
“What about all those thousands of years of technology that Aeon must have had?” Magnus asked. “Where did it go? Both our species should be way ahead in technology.”
“Our ancestors destroyed Aeon by abusing their world’s resources,” Katerra said, “forcing them to move to other worlds. After they arrived on Earth, several global disasters destroyed your technology. On Kron, it was by choice. Those that migrated to Kron wanted to break from technology and start fresh. Foolish, as it nearly brought us to extinction.”
Magnus sat down, rubbing his neck. Unbelievable, yet he believed. Two species, separated by light years had the same origins. Two species? No, one species, who needed to work together against the Aliri.
“Where do we go from here?” Magnus asked. “Fuck the Aliri.”
Kron - Capital City of Citron
Wednesday, October 28, 1987 - 02:30pm
Magnus
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” Katerra said. She waved her hand again and the wall’s display switched to a view of an orange star. She took a seat in the chair next to him. Varuuk entered the room and then moved to stand next to them, head bowed. He brought another tray with two glasses on it. Varuuk waited until they both took their glass.
“Thank you, Varuuk,” Magnus said.
Varuuk left. Katerra eyed Magnus.
“Your effort is wasted on them,” she said. “First, and most importantly, you must train to control your Ryikoda transformation. Otherwise, you will kill someone, even those you hold dear.”
“About that,” he said. “Can’t you cure me?”
“No,” Katerra responded quickly. “Listen carefully. There are three triggers. The first will transform your physical body to Ryikoda, a second one will keep your higher brain functions active and the third one will return you to your normal form.”
“Triggers?” he asked. “What the hell have you done to me?”
“An unexpected, or should I say, unanticipated side effect of mating with Carena.”
“She gave me an STD?” he said. “Shit.”
“A what?” Katerra asked. “Keep in mind, I know your language but you will lose me on the nuances of it.”
“It stands for sexually transmitted disease,” he said.
“It is not a disease, Magnus,” Katerra retorted. “You are now capable of even greater feats of dexterity and physical endurance.”
“So, I’m even better in the sack?” he said, sarcasm dripping in his words.
“You must be feeling better. Nuances?” Katerra prompted him.
“Never mind. This Ryikoda is a good thing?”
“It was designed to be, but it failed for the males of our species, as I mentioned.”
“Why didn’t it weaken me?” he asked.
“We could waste time talking about it or let my scientists poke and prod you, running every test we have to find out. Perhaps we should make you our first human test subject and reveal my entire plan to all of Kron?”
“You must be feeling better. Was that sarcasm?” he asked.
Katerra glar
ed at him but nodded, continuing. “There are more important factors in play here that you are not aware of yet. Only three people know what is going on. Commander Kada, who you may remember, myself and you. It must remain that way.”
Magnus guzzled his drink down. The fruity liquid tasted like a mixture of lemon and mint. It cooled his healing throat and he desperately felt he needed another. He held up his glass.
“You can have mine,” she said.
Magnus accepted her offer.
“Our actions outside of Kron’s solar system must be to convince the Aliri and the Earthlings that we are not working together. If any of your people know then the Aliri will eventually know.”
Katerra wanted Magnus to help her destroy the Aliri. Magnus decided to take the chance that Katerra could be trusted. He wanted revenge but not at the expense of someone that didn’t deserve it or was duped. Technically, Satirra killed Beth but she did so under orders from Katerra who had been tricked by a race of beings trying to destroy both of their worlds.
“Who is this Commander of yours? Are you sure I’ve met him?”
“You met her in the second contamination chamber,” Katerra answered. “Under my orders, she gave you several injections to help you against the radiation poisoning and boost your metabolism. I couldn’t sit back and let you die.”
“Gee, thanks,” he said. “Did the thought cross your mind to give me painkillers? Those cleansing chambers were hell on... on... Kron.”
Katerra ignored his question. “In the spirit of cooperation, we could exchange technology beneficial to both our worlds.”
“Uh huh, what is it you want?” he asked.
“The technology that enhances your healing rate. Our people would benefit from it, too. I’m sure you would agree that an exchange of information—”
“No,” he said, cutting her off. “That one is non-negotiable.”
Magnus couldn’t let her know about the Aliri changes. She hated the vermin with a passion. What would she think if she knew the Aliri had tainted him? Besides, he had no idea how to share that with her scientists.