“I need to know how to do that,” he said, leaning against the door post. “I want to know how to do it, too.”
“Hmm? I think you might find your wrists are a little weak to use this gun,” said M’Nar. “It can pack a fair kick.”
“We could get some of the training guns sent down from the Khalossa,” said Jerenn. “They’re lighter.”
“I won’t get to carry a gun around, so I need to be able to use any gun that’s handy. Though shooting a lighter weight one would also be good practice,” Shaidan added.
“Nothing to stop you watching us work on our weapons and try it for yourself,” said M’Nar. “I think you’re right, Jer, and we should get the practice ones down. Then we can try and get the cubs started on the target practice at least.”
“There shouldn’t be too much trouble doing that. After all, it isn’t as if Dzaka isn’t Brotherhood himself, and brought up in Stronghold from when he was almost a newborn.”
“Was he?” asked Shaidan, coming into the room.
“Here, sit beside me,” said M’Nar. “We have lots of stories we can tell you about just about anyone in the Brotherhood. Who do you want to hear about?”
“My Papa,” said Shaidan, his face lighting up.
“We don’t know too many stories about him because he wasn’t in Stronghold for a long time like we were. What about some more about Brother Dzaka?” asked Jerenn. “You watch what M’Nar’s showing you with the gun, and I’ll tell you a few tales.”
Ghioass, same day
An excited Kuvaa trotted into the main Camarilla assembly room and looked around for Phratry leader Shvosi. There! She was nestled at the edges of a bank of TeLaxaudin cushions, propped up on her seat, chatting now and then to her neighbors while keeping sharp eyes on who was entering and leaving the room. It was that in between time when the recess for dinner was just ending and the next session was about to begin.
Kuvaa wound her way through the other delegates to her superior’s side. “Phratry Leader Shvosi,” she said very quietly. “I need to talk to you alone. Now.”
“Meet me in our office outside the hall,” she said, beginning to get up from her chair. “Tell Azwokkus to join us. He’s over by the trees.” She pointed one delicate hoof in his direction.
“Yes, Phratry leader,” said Kuvaa, dipping her head in a gesture of obedience before rushing off.
* * *
“I checked for devices,” said Kuvaa as Shvosi and Azwokkus entered the small meeting room. “It is clean.”
“What news have you?” demanded the Cabbaran.
“Unity has found it. Found how they were able to duplicate me! It is a device they engineered to morph people into a form different from their own. It turned up as a new device, made a day or two before the incident. Unity alerted me to this discovery.”
She pulled a bundle of papers out of one of the larger pouches on her utility belt and handed them over to Azwokkus. “Here are the plans for it.”
“This will be invaluable for our own research into the same subject,” said the TeLaxaudin, leafing through the pages. “We will have a device ready for the Hunters within days now. Still won’t know how stable it is, they will have to test it on themselves, but it will work.”
“Now we can develop protocols to prevent Unity being fooled by this technology.”
“Device should give off signal when on, so why we not tell Unity to check for that? We’ll know the exact signal once we build our own units,” said Shvosi.
“Good thinking. Yes, we can do this. I will go and enter the plans into the fabricator at my home and get at least one unit made tonight so we can study it more tomorrow.” Azwokkus looked up from the plans. “Well done, Kuvaa.”
She accepted the praise graciously, but at the back of her mind was a worrying niggle. She hadn’t suggested this line of search to Unity, and as part of the safety measures, it wasn’t allowed to go off on a tangent on any topic, so where had it got the idea from?
M’zull, Palace, Zhal-Ghyakulla 6th, Month of the Goddess (June)
It had been a busy two weeks, starting with K’hedduk’s displeasure when Kusac told him that he was already married to Mahzi, and that it had been a village ceremony. It had taken some pretty serious groveling to placate him. Next up had been the heavy schedule of work finishing off clearing the tunnels and crossroads courtyard from the damage caused by the MUTAC. Kusac had been trying to check down the tunnels radiating off the affected areas, ostensibly to find any cracks, but in reality to carry on with the mapping he was doing of the underground Palace. That work was made a little easier by the arrival of Telmaar and half a dozen of his men. With them helping with the heavy work, it had left Kusac a little more freedom for his mapping.
“I don’t know how to thank you,” said Kusac as they finally loaded the last of the shovels and picks into the battery-operated repair carts and watched them head off to the lower levels. “This would have taken a lot longer but for your help.”
“My pleasure,” said Telmaar, brushing the dust off his arms before rolling his sleeves back down and accepting his jacket from one of his men. “Just keep me in mind next time our esteemed higher-ups are handing out promotions!”
“I wouldn’t be too quick to accept one,” said Kusac, slipping his own jacket on. “With it comes exhausting hours of extra tasks!”
“That’s where having friends able to help you works out well,” said the other, clapping him on the shoulder. “Fellow fleet officers should stick together, I always say! Now, I must run. Things to do, as they say.” With that, he inclined his head and left.
“Be careful of him,” muttered M’yikku under his breath. “He’s only a friend while he thinks you can help his ambitions.”
“I know,” said Kusac, turning back to him and his brother. “But to have turned down his help would have been suspicious.”
* * *
Shazzuk’s three males had proved to be a godsend with their knowledge of the local areas of both the city and the estate. Any doubts that Rezac, or Kezule’s sons, had had about them were gone, they’d proved their worth.
Rezac had been installed as Lord Lorishuk in the estate on the other side of the capital city. Lorishuk had no wife or sons to complicate the masquerade. He was a loner who’d been posted for several months at J’kirtikk. Those posted there returned changed, something to do with all life being obliterated on the planet—the silence really seemed to affect people posted there, and it was said that it made them go mad. Whatever it was, it was enough to account for any changes in the Lord’s behavior.
Noolgoi and Noi’kkah had gone with him, and one of Shazzuk’s guards—Khoshin. Cheelar and M’yikku, who had been seen most often in Kusac’s company, stayed with him.
Mahzi was settling in to the apartment. As was normal, she stayed in her room except when visiting the Palace harem to mix with the other females there and continue to be trained by Keshti. Kusac had taken her the first time and made it abundantly clear to Keshti that his wife would not be drugged again. She would have to learn the old-fashioned way. She had also been thoroughly schooled to behave like a good subservient wife and to give no details about their personal life at the apartment.
Every few days, Kusac would spend a couple of hours in her company while her servant, Neshol, spent time with Laazif and the other staff. It allowed him to create the illusion that he was content with his wife.
He was settling down for the night in his own room when Annuur suddenly arrived.
“We have six of the morphing units for you,” he said, sitting back on his haunches and holding out a medium sized box for him. “They work on Cabbarans for six hours, males can become females, and females become males. No Sholans on which to practice, so you will have to test yourself.”
“Dammit, Annuur, I could have been doing anything!” he said, getting out of bed and wrapping a robe
around himself. “You can’t just appear suddenly like that! One of these days I may not realize you’re friendly and lash out at you!”
“I knew you were not busy. You need any here, or shall I take to den in mountains?”
“Take them to Kaid, please. He’ll be the one doing the tests on them.” He looked sharply at the Cabbaran. “There isn’t any danger to them while they are using them, is there? They can’t get stuck as half Sholan, half Valtegan, or mess with what gender they are?”
“No. Is as safe as we could make them. You use dials to set what you want to be—male or female, and Valtegan. Then you hit power button and you change. Can use it to change back if you don’t want to wait for six hours to be up.”
“That’s useful,” he agreed.
“We need information from you or from clan members on what memories you want kept from people here. Not ones you use that antidote on, the others.”
“None, Annuur, I want a clean slate from here. If they are going to get memories, have them be from Ch’almuth. Get them to put together basic stuff so they can look after themselves, and not be too curious as to what happened to them all. Touibans have a form of telepathy—can they sing the memories so they can be broadcast to the whole planet at once?”
“I look into this. Idea is good, I like it. New pamphlets we have for Kaid and you, made them rough like printed here on illegal press,” he said. “You sure you not want them all crisp and clear?”
“No, because it would be too obvious we were getting outside help. I want to leave that card for later if I choose to play it. The pamphlets have to go to Kaid as well. I can’t risk anything to do with these Zsadhi events being found on my premises, you know that.”
“Understood. I take them there now.” With that, he was gone.
Kusac sighed and, taking off his robe, headed back to bed.
Prime world, Barracks armory, afternoon the same day
M’Nar watched Shaidan rapidly strip down the assault rifle and put it back together in record time. “He’s got an amazing memory,” he said quietly to Jerenn. “I don’t know about you, but I barely learned how to do the pistol in the first two weeks, let alone the pistol and an assault rifle.”
“Took me about three weeks,” said Jerenn. “Do you reckon it’s because of the sleep tapes they had before they were born?”
“I don’t know, but I’m beginning to suspect he might be mentally picking our brains.”
“I’d know,” said Jerenn firmly. “I haven’t sensed him trying to read me at all.”
“He’s good, though, better than most telepaths.”
“You know how sensitive I am to forced mental contact, M’Nar. The least of what I get is headaches, and I’m not getting any.”
“Hmm. Well, at least Brother Dzaka agreed to allow them to learn how to shoot pistols, and learn to strip the guns for cleaning.”
“Aye, he did, but Gods help us if he finds out Shaidan is playing with assault rifles!”
“I’m actually going to up the ante and show him how to strip rifles now,” said M’Nar, getting up and taking the rifle over to the cub.
“M’Nar!”
“Right, youngling. Time to learn about rifles,” said M’Nar. “If you have a choice of guns, go for the pistols. They’ll be easier for you to use right now, less kickback.”
“I don’t know why I bother protesting,” Jerenn muttered to himself. “It never does any good!”
“But I always know when someone is coming, and we can get the guns, or me, out of the way in time,” said Shaidan, looking over at him with a grin. “When will you teach me how to use the knives, Jerenn?”
“When M’Nar says you’re ready. You need to know more self-defense before we start with the knives.”
“I want to set up sessions with ground obstacles, Jerenn, so he learns spatial awareness. We’ll need boxes and rocks and things to put down in the practice circle, things that if he isn’t careful, he’ll trip over.”
“That’s not fair,” said Shaidan.
“In real life, you won’t be fighting in a circle of flat ground,” said Jerenn. “M’Nar’s right. You need to learn what the real world is like—rocks and all. That will help you be one up on your attackers.”
“We’ve only got about thirty minutes left before you have to be back up in the Palace for dinner, so pay attention,” said M’Nar.
* * *
Shaidan was free tonight to do what he wanted, so he headed over to the pool. Time alone was scarce now with his extra training with Jerenn and M’Nar, and he liked to spend it just observing what Unity was doing and maybe talk to it a bit. Some of his brothers and sisters were also at the pool, so he made sure to swim with them for a few minutes before heading for the bubble pool behind which was the Unity node.
Greetings, Shaidan, sent Unity. I was able to find out how they duplicated Councillor Kuvaa, thanks to your suggestion of the morphing device.
That’s great, Unity. What about Vartra? I haven’t seen him in a long time, he sent wistfully.
That I’m not responsible for; he’s not with us this time. I promised you I would tell you about the Camarilla.
Mmm, yes, you did.
Until seven thousand and five hundred years ago, the Camarilla consisted of only one species, the TeLaxaudin. The Camarilla is a council formed to watch younger species and to see that they don’t harm either themselves or others. Then one of the species they were watching took an action that caused them to think long about what the Camarilla meant and did. The result of that was to ask the Cabbarans to join them.
What was it they did? asked Shaidan.
A species you know as the U’Churians. Their world was in danger. Where the TeLaxaudin would have only observed the death of these people, the Cabbarans couldn’t do this, so they intervened to help them. As I told you, the Cabbarans’ great gift as a people is to be able to manipulate matter, to turn what they can imagine into reality.
What did they do?
The planet, called Home by its inhabitants, was dying because of a solar flare from its unstable sun. So bad was the damage the people had suffered that they couldn’t survive unless the Cabbarans intervened.
And did they? asked Shaidan.
They did. They knew of your people, the Sholans, and how similar they were to the U’Churians, so they visited your world, took a small clan of early Sholans, and brought them to Home. Meanwhile, those Cabbaran ships that remained at Home were working on healing the land from the radiation caused by the solar prominences. They did what they could for the people but were only able to save a small number of them, and they were damaged on a level that meant their children would bear abnormalities that would cut their lives very short.
How did they save all the people of a whole world?
They couldn’t, but what they could do, because the U’Churians had not yet spread themselves all over their planet, was to work where the most people were. With the arrival of the Sholan tribe, it was now possible for the Cabbarans to adapt their DNA to repair that of the U’Churians. They made it possible for that one small clan to inbreed with the U’Churians. This is why your people share a common ancestry long ago.
They look very like us, except for their legs, and their hair being coarser than ours.
The differences are deeper than that, Shaidan, but you can take pride in knowing your early ancestors helped save a whole species.
It’s good to know we were helping others from the earliest of days, agreed Shaidan. So the TeLaxaudin—weren’t they displeased at this?
Many of the TeLaxaudin still believe in not getting involved in the problems of other races, but many are willing to step in and help them if the need is dire. They decided the need was dire and so weren’t angered with what the Cabbarans had done.
Since then, the Cabbarans have been very close to the U’Churians, watch
ing them develop and helping them secretly to discover drives for starships that would take them into space and off the surface of their planet. To this day, more than half the U’Churians live on huge spaceships that ply the merchant routes around this galaxy, The rest live in underground cities, safe from their sometimes violent sun. This is why you see Cabbarans and U’Churians working together as Family, because of the strong bond between their peoples.
So if the worst happened, and the sun had another flare, then all life wouldn’t be at risk this time. There would be enough of them in space to keep their species going? asked Shaidan.
Yes. In fact, there have been several such incidents since then, but very few people were caught outside. The damage to their world repairs itself after a few hundred years, but since Home dwellers live inside the earth, they are never affected by it.
Why don’t they just find another planet to live on, one that has a stable sun? asked Shaidan.
It’s their home. They don’t want to leave, despite the problems it has. The Camarilla now has two races that belong to it, and they watch my projections for all possible futures to see what will happen with each of the younger species.
Wait a minute, sent Shaidan, sitting up with a surge of water that threatened to engulf him. You predict what happens in the future?
In all possible futures. This way the Camarilla can steer the galaxy on the best possible path that avoids all-out wars and natural disasters.
So you’re involved in this Valtegan war?
The war was caused by the fact that fifteen hundred years ago, the Valtegan Empire, spanning four worlds of their people and numerous slave worlds, tried to enslave the wrong people. The Sholans. They were prepared to make terrible sacrifices of their telepaths to thwart the Valtegan plan of domination. The war they caused brought about the Fall of the Valtegan Empire, and for fifteen hundred years it stayed as just four separate worlds. Then came K’hedduk who wanted to unify the old Empire again, and he set about planning to take over the throne of M’zull from his brother to do that.
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