by Isabel Wroth
One of the others had brought her breakfast this morning and had looked around as though he was waiting for Ilaria to jump out of the shadows and scream, ‘boo!’ It was amusing as hell that they thought Cassie was talking to herself. But then again, maybe she was. However, even if Cassie was talking to herself, she sure was getting a lot done. When she wasn’t being interrupted by nosy warriors that is.
“You want to know about humans? Or Sarazens?” Cassie asked.
Ilaria turned around and blinked bright eyes at her, floating down to the ground gently. The alien being’s skirts rippled as though made of smoke. A stack of thick books hovered in front of her, riding the wave of Ilaria’s telekinetic energy.
Had Cassie not been on a mission to get to the bottom of the political drama going on around her, she would be studying Ilaria and asking her a billion and one more questions. Ilaria had already assured Cassie she would be delighted at any time to satisfy Cassie’s curiosity.
“That was unclear of me,” Ilaria murmured, her voice soft and melodious. “I would like to know of your world, Earth. Of your human species.”
The books Ilaria brought over touched down on the table top with a soft hiss followed by a billowing cloud of dust that made Cassie cough and wave her hand in front of her face.
Cassie rubbed at her nose in an effort to keep from sneezing, able to feel the layers of dust and grime coating her face. Gross. “What I know is largely biased opinion. Some facts, historical and recent past. The rest is pure personal experience.”
“It would please me to hear your opinions and experiences, Cassie. Why don’t we take a walk outside? It will refresh you to take in untainted air.” Ilaria smiled, her silvery eyes swirling as though they were made of liquid metal. It was almost mesmerizing.
Cassie looked around at the ungodly amount of neglected books. “But I’ve got so much work-”
Ilaria waved her hand dismissively. “Nonsense, these tomes have gone nowhere for many years. I assure you they will be right here when we return. Come. Up. Tell me of humans.”
Ilaria didn’t take any excuses as she herded Cassie up and out into the sunshine.
*****
The wind blew off the worst of the dust coating Cassie. The deep lungful of air she drew in brought the smell of the trees and the moist grass. The tightness in Cassie’s shoulders released. The cramp niggling in her left calf eased and she felt her beast stretch and sigh with pleasure inside of her. For a time Cassie just strolled along the pebbled pathways, feeling and ignoring the eyes of her guard that looked down on her from atop the circular wall of the fortress.
The round structure was immense, inside and out, a feat of beautiful engineering that felt more like a temple than a reliquary for the stored records of the Sarazen past. It baffled Cassie that no one was safeguarding so much wealth, protecting it for future generations.
The fortress had been abandoned long ago unbeknownst to the rest of the Sarazen population, because it was so remote. The previous keepers had died over fifty years ago and none had come to replace them, because there had been no one to send a message. And due to the electromagnetic interference of this region, it was considered primitive and not necessary to inhabit.
The closest settlement was two continents over. It was inconceivable that so much knowledge had gone unprotected and uncared for, for so long. Anyone could have walked right in and made off with some of the most precious treasures the Saraz possessed.
Though there was much of what she had already read, thanks to the information download Ga’rae had done, she had been able to get through a lot of material very quickly. To her utter frustration, she still hadn’t found what she needed.
They came to a fork in the path and directly ahead was a tree hung with hundreds of crystals. Thread thin filaments that dripped sparkling teardrops hung from the branches like jewels.
Cassie stood there to marvel at the beauty of the pervasive fungus that would eventually consume the tree. First with the teardrops, then the spoors would spread and turn the bark to crystal and, after about seventy years or so, the crystal would encase the entire tree.
Effectively killing it via suffocation.
“Humanity is a lot like the crystals on this tree.” Cassie finally began, feeling Ilaria move closer. “On the surface, our species is unique. In many ways humanity is beautiful. Many of the individuals who make up the species are good. Kind. They stand for justice and the betterment of all. Those individuals are like the tree.
“The rest of humanity is represented by the crystals. Stunning to look at. They are so bright and shiny that they draw the eye and give the illusion that what they are doing is right and good for the betterment of all. But at their core, they consume everything and leave nothing but a shell. It’s what happened to our world. To Earth. Humans choked the life out of it.
“We killed it because we were greedy. We killed it because we were so busy looking at the shiny crystals and hoping to have some of those shiny things for ourselves, worried about what others in our society thought of our status. Worried about material wealth and what the easiest way to attain it was.
“Worried about who was right and who was wrong, whose beliefs were right and whose were wrong. Worried about having control and power. So worried, we killed each other. Killed the animals that lived around us. We destroyed our world. Made it uninhabitable via wars waged in the name of gods and revenge. Wars waged over fuel and power, land and title.
“Historically, governments became corrupt as their power base grew and insanity replaced logic and morality. People were given sacred land and charged with its protection, and when they protected it, they were abused by the very people sworn to protect them. Those sacred lands were taken back and ravaged to make way for pollutants that would fuel the consumer for another few years.
“As soon as one well of profitable revenue dried up, we moved to the next and the next, sucking the life out of our planet without care for the harm we were doing long term. We made leaps and bounds in our understanding of technology, but we forgot how to be friends with our fellow man.
“People were put into power who claimed they would change things. They claimed to be the tree, but in truth they were spoor of the crystals. Eventually, the pollution of our planet could no longer be ignored, and the three most powerful governments began to build starships. When it came time to take off, the earth had begun to take back its own sacred lands. Volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis. My grandparents said they watched from space as the entire planet consumed itself. Wiping any trace of humanity from its surface.
“The people on board the starships were the best and the brightest of our species. Or those with the most money who had been able to buy their way aboard. We learn in school that humanity evolved and came closer in the wake of our devastating loss. But the way I read our archives and the things I saw and heard growing up, nothing really changed.
“Humanity had its chance, actually we were given thousands of chances. But all those beautiful trees who tried so hard to stand tall in the face of the storm, to give shelter to anyone who needed it, to provide food and sacrificed limbs for warmth? They were consumed by the crystals.”
Cassie reached out with a claw and sliced through one of the slender filaments. Watched the crystal drop, sparkling all the way down to shatter into a billion gleaming bits on the ground at her feet. Cassie stared at the destroyed teardrop long enough to be startled by Ilaria’s voice at her side.
“That is quite a comparison. From the sound of your voice, you do not care much for your own species. Why is that?” Ilaria’s energy prickled along Cassie’s arm as the Matavei urged her to move forward along the path.
“From my personal experience, humans are assholes.” Ilaria frowned in response to Cassie’s grunt.
As a very literal being, naturally Ilaria asked, “I do not understand how a human could resemble anything similar to an anus. As I understand it, until you and the other survivors were brought to Saraz, hu
mans were unable to change shape.”
Friendship with a Matavei was a study in never ending amusement. And a constant study on how to better communicate. Cassie struggled not to laugh as she explained what ‘asshole’ meant. Ilaria gave an “Ah” of understanding and moved on with her questioning.
“Very well, so then in what way did your experience aboard your starship shape you to feel so negatively towards your fellow survivors?”
Cassie shrugged, stopping on the gentle arch of a bridge that spanned a ribbon of black river. Looking down onto its surface was like looking in a mirror. The flowing water so smooth and flat as to have resembled glass.
“I like most of the people I’m with now. I have friends, when I didn’t really before.”
“I find that unlikely. You are quite personable.” Ilaria affirmed with a sincere expression.
“Thanks.” Cassie ducked her head to hide her smile, wondering idly what life would have been like if she’d had friends growing up. “From a very young age it was noticeable that I wasn’t like the other children. I was smarter at a much younger age than is considered normal among humans. Playing with puzzles and games adults would find extremely difficult to solve and solving them within an hour or two.
“I just understood how stuff worked, noticed patterns. Every year I was given another test to gauge my intelligence, and by the time I had turned fifteen I was a prominent member of the ship wide data analyst crew. Unfortunately my parents didn’t feel I was best served staring at a computer screen all day long so my next round of testing was done by eugenics officers. Eugenics are-”
“Controlled breeding with the intent to provide a specific outcome in genetics.” Ilaria stated easily.
Cassie blinked at the dictionary-like explanation, wondering just how telepathic a Matavei was. “Right. Uh, so I was tested and approved for breeding. My intelligence score being what it was, the Eugenics officers suggested I would best serve the population by egg donation. Though it wasn’t really a donation so much as an involuntary harvest.
“I was put on fertility drugs and my genetic material was harvested to be fertilized on a larger scale for the sake of efficiency. Humans can only carry one or two children at a time so growing them in several different wombs was more of a time saver. I don’t know how many of my eggs were successfully fertilized and carried to term.
“My parents thought it would be better for me not to know. But from the elevation in our status and how constantly monitored my fertility cycles were and the continued harvesting and storing of my eggs for future usage, I expect many.
“I didn’t like it. I often tried to refuse the treatments because I didn’t like the way they made me feel. Or how sick I would get after. I was told I was being selfish, and not participating was like saying I wanted our species to fail. When I reached the age of majority by human standards, I was constantly pursued by men who wanted to claim me like a mate. Property to elevate their stature.
“My intelligence became the least valuable part of my personality and the most desirable trait to pass on to offspring. They didn’t want me for anything but what my body could produce for them. Socially, I withdrew as much as possible. I developed an intense defense mechanism of nastiness and temper to keep people away, and eventually people left me alone.”
“Is that what you wished? To be left alone?” Ilaria asked gently.
Cassie shrugged as she straightened up and walked down farther along the path. Wondering what in the hell had prompted her to be so frank. Cassie hadn’t told anyone any of that. Ever. None of the human-hybrids had known her personally. Cassie had been sequestered in the Eugenics level with a few other women, so when they had been attacked and then rescued it had been a complete reset button.
Cassie had become just another survivor. Not one of the ‘special ones’.
“I wanted someone to protect me. Someone to stand up and tell the Eugenics officers ‘no’ and mean it. I wanted someone to care about me as a person. Not for the potential embryos and potential status elevation or preferential treatment my genetic material could bring. When I realized there wasn’t a single soul on board who fit that criteria, I protected myself with anger. I loudly and often told the Eugenics officers to shove their fertility treatments up their ass. I told everyone to fuck off and leave me alone. And eventually, they did.”
Ilaria was quiet for a few hundred yards, the constant hum of her energy rubbing along Cassie’s senses like the purr of a beast. Cassie could feel her metaphorical hackles up, ready to snap out and protect herself if need be.
“I sense a great amount of pain from you, Cassie. You have not discussed these experiences with anyone.”
Cassie licked her dry lips and wound up hugging her arms around herself as the memories of feeling so helpless and so completely alone rose up to crash against the huge wall of defense she had put up in her mind.
“Who would I have talked to about it? No one was interested in what I had to say about the whole eugenics issue.”
“Perhaps your mate?” Ilaria suggested. If the alien female’s tone had not been bland and free of all judgment, Cassie might have lost her shit.
As it was, Cassie spoke in clipped, tight words. “My mate is not interested in speaking to me about anything if it does not involve sex. He’s too busy working to care whether or not I have pent up anger issues involving things in my past. To him it’s likely to be irrelevant.”
“I have not met your mate, so I cannot comment to the truth of that.” Ilaria commented seriously. “I can tell you that your past is not irrelevant. I can hear and feel the sadness in your voice when you spoke of the young born of your genetic material. It causes you great pain to have never known them. You wish to have young with your mate.”
As Ilaria was more than a little psychic, it was totally useless for Cassie to try and deny it. She wondered why that was such a relief. “I did. Someday. Yes. But it’s unlikely to happen.”
“Unlikely? Why?”
“Up until a few months ago, Falken and I were having sex almost non-stop. The medic on board the new Asho’s warship checked me out and made note of all the hormones, artificial and natural, surging through my body in readiness to conceive, but it didn’t happen.”
Cassie felt the emotions she had attempted to ignore about this whole baby subject come welling back up. Emotions she had no desire to experience or examine right now. Or anytime in the near future. “Can we talk about something else, please?”
Ilaria inclined her head gracefully. “Of course. Tell me of your mate. What kind of male is he?”
Cassie wasn’t sure this topic was going to make her feel any better. Scratch that, it was definitely going to make her feel like crap. But better talk of her errant mate than the babies she would never know and the ones she might never have.
“Falken is a smooth talking son of a bitch dedicated to his work.” Cassie snapped tartly.
“May I make an observation?” Ilaria ventured in her oh so neutral tone.
Cassie ground her teeth together and counted to ten before answering. “Please do.”
“You have a great deal of anger pent up inside you.”
Cassie’s eyebrow twitched and ticked as that anger began a determined banging inside her head, wanting to be un-pent. “Is it that obvious?”
“Sarcasm is beneath you, Cassie.” Ilaria said seriously. Her tone still that ungodly neutral hum.
“It’s either sarcasm or screaming.”
“Perhaps it would do you some good to scream.” the Matavei suggested.
Cassie snorted and waved her arm up and back towards the fortress. “My protection detail already thinks I’m going crazy. If I start screaming, they’ll probably break out the restraints or something equally drastic. And why is that, by the way? Why can I see and hear you and they can’t?”
Ilaria hummed, floating along the pathways without disturbing so much as a pebble. “In truth, I do not know. I have attempted to make my presence known to these males
who accompany you, but it seems they simply are incapable. I have traveled to several of the continents around this planet via the electromagnetic pathways and find that the males simply do not see or hear me. The females are most easily reached, but even then, they either see or hear me, but not both. I have begun a study of this phenomena, and thus far you are the first being to both see and hear me and not be frightened.”
“Surely, there’s some kind of machine in this technologically advanced empire to explain said phenomena.” Cassie scoffed.
Ilaria finally giggled, a tinkling little sound of delight. “Surely.”
Above them on the wall, one of the warriors called out to her and asked her if she was ready for a meal. She could feel the bastard judging her. Feel him trying to gauge just how crazy she was going. Her beast rose up and threatened to roll out of her to chase the offending male off. But as that was likely to just confirm her approaching madness to them, Cassie turned on her heel and determinedly marched back along the paths she had just walked down.
“What about your people, Ilaria? Tell me more about them.”
*****
The wind swirled down through the crater, rustling the leaves on the trees, making the crystal drops click and tinkle against one another to make an eerily lovely melody. Cassie swept her hair out of her face, noticing that the wind didn’t blow a single hair of Ilaria’s out of place. So strange.
“My planet is…well, in all honesty I don’t know where it is in relation to this solar system. Saraz was not listed in our planetary database. But Matav is somewhat like this planet. Our ocean covers perhaps a quarter of the planet surface, the rest is great mountains and expansive forests. We used to live above the surface, but the closer the planet comes to our sun, the more deadly the radiation levels became to us.
“It is inevitable that within the next three generations the surface will become completely uninhabitable. When this became a concern, twelve or so generations past, our scientists sought the best way for us to survive and many possible solutions were suggested. There are four science teams working towards the most logical methods.