“The King and his new Queen were deliriously happy and all thought them to be very much in love. Their first year saw much change in the birth of twin sons. They were named Kniam and Knuan. In the old tongue Kniam is ‘first son’ and Knuan is ‘first hope’. Well you Kniam lived up to your name. First in everything you put your mind to. Your studies, sports, training, military strategy...women.” Baylech looked to Amber when she snorted loudly. “My pardon again my Lady Amber. I am retelling ancient history and mean no offense.”
“It is just Amber please.” She shrugged her shoulders, “I’m sorry for interrupting, please go ahead.” Kniam had grabbed her hand since they were sitting male-female with mates next to each other. Kneus flushed when he realized he was sitting next to Gwen.
“Everything you did left Knuan second. He was mad with envy. Though your father gave equal attention to all of his sons, because as years went by he had been blessed with five strong male heirs, it was never enough for Knuan.”
“When I was fighting Knuan in the technology dome he said “never use that term with me again.” Kniam broke in. “He was enraged when I said his actions were madness.”
Baylech nodded sadly, “Yes that sounds like Knuan, he hates to be called ‘mad’ or ‘crazy’ or any term that implies mental weakness. He reacts quite violently to anyone who says or implies those traits.” He paused his brow furrowed, “Where was I?” He tapped his finger against the table, “That’s right.” He smiled, “Now as time progressed, you were all given duties specific to your status. Kniam you were training to replace your father one day as King. Your brother Knuan was to be your First Advisor, a place of great honor, though not high enough for him.” Baylech’s eyes moved around the room, “You Knollig were in the Diplomatic Corps, Knaleg was in the Military Corps, and Kneus had graduated from university and was working with the Scientific Corps. Everyone else here on Terraneu was either your trusted friend, soldier or servant of the King.” Baylech looked around the room, his eyes falling on Asteen and Ailech. Kneus noticed something flashing in his eyes as he moved past the latter.
“It is about this time that things began to unravel.” Baylech had the group spellbound in their seats. “Kneus brought word to your father of the Queen asking for strange scientific studies to be done. Knaleg confirmed he had heard disturbing whisperings in the military corps as well. Knollig was away on a diplomatic mission and was rushed home on the Kings order.”
“I was a member of the Kings guard. In the middle of the night Marcael came to us with a mission from the King. He was the youngest Knoet’un, which translates roughly to ‘First Knight’, in the history of Hedal. There was no other that could outsmart or defeat him. Even you Kniam were to train with Marcael. So when he came to us we obeyed him as if we were talking to our King.” Baylech paused in the story to drink some water. “That night we left Socar on our mission and I never saw the King alive again.” His voice broke and everyone gave him a moment to regain his composure.
Baylech continued, “You see your mother had planned an assassination of her husband and four sons. Knuan was to take your place as King, however your father escaped along with you four. A war was declared with heavy fighting going on both sides, resulting in massive loss of life. After working tirelessly to find a diplomatic solution your father was forced to admit to the madness that had taken his wife. He knew that nowhere on Terra would be safe. He ordered bunkers to be built for the long-term survival of those loyal to Hedal, but only a few were completed before the end. A ship was refitted to see you Princes into deep space in the hopes once you got here, to what you named Terraneu, that your father and females would follow. He thought there would be time to use the port pad and didn’t want to risk females on the ship. The cloning eggs were a last minute addition to your supplies, he didn’t really think you would need them. Using the port pad to come to you was to be a new beginning, leaving Terra to the people of Aekaetum to do with as they would. Your father presented this option to the Queen, end the fighting and those of Hedal would leave Terra.”
“It wasn’t enough for your mother, she wanted your father and you Princes dead. She had lost her own father and half of Aekaetum in the fighting. The King didn’t realize that in her desperation the Queen would unleash her worst weapon. The biological Kneus had warned the King about. Something so foul it was sure to destroy all mankind on Terra. In her madness Elyon didn’t care anymore, she had ceased to care about anything. Except for one thing...her beloved son Knuan. Before the worst of the death toll hit Socar the King used the ship and sent you four into deep space. There was nothing anyone could do to stop what your mother’s scientists had unleashed. If he survived your father planned to use the port pad to find you. If it became obvious that all was lost he would sabotage it so that none from Aekaetum could use it either. Only a true blood of Hedal would be able to unlock it. The ANT was to be used by your father to connect to you Kneus, since you had created it. Your mother captured the King and stole the ANT before he could have it destroyed.”
Baylech paused again and Knaleg took the opportunity to ask. “What was the mission our father sent you on?” Knaleg was always curious about military strategy. He wasn’t the only one who would wonder at this secret mission though. Kneus had been curious too.
“We were ordered to pretend to be traitor’s to Hedal, ingratiate ourselves to your mother the Queen, rising in her ranks if possible and to stop her if we could. Unfortunately the only one that got close to the Queen was Marcael. We never saw Knuan on Terra. Just before your mother unleashed the biological weapon we were sent off world. That is the first time we ever got close to him. Knuan had been in space onboard the Elyon for the whole of the fighting.” Baylech answered honestly, “Everyone on Terra was dead or dying in less than a week. The King knew long before his capture that your brother was off world. He also knew that he had inherited your mother’s madness and would never stop trying to find you. Which was wise of the King, since your brother is indeed as mad as the Queen was if not more so. The Queen was caught in her own trap she was infected before being able to leave Terra. She knew that if she went to be with Knuan she doomed those on the ship to the same fate as Terra. Her dying wish to her son was that you brothers reunite.”
“What is so ‘mad’ about that?” Jen whispered.
Baylech paused to look at Jen, and then sighing softly he finally answered, “Her dying wish was that Knuan re-unite with his brothers so that he might then bathe in their blood.”
Chapter Twenty Eight
Gwen was fighting back tears. What kind of insanity made Elyon kill off an entire planet of people? “This biological weapon that killed so many, could you describe it for me please?”
If Baylech found her request odd he didn’t let it show. “It was a hemorrhagic virus that mutates often, can live on any surface or in body fluid. Its initial symptoms are fever, headache, muscle pain, weakness, fatigue, diarrhea, and vomiting. The victims didn’t know they were infected or a carrier until it was too late. It was extremely contagious and total isolation was the only way Hedal was going to survive. That wasn’t possible with how connected our commerce and trade partners were with each other. Elyon had released the virus at strategic points so that the whole of the planet was infected in less than forty-eight hours. Why do you ask?”
“No reason. I was just curious...as a doctor.” Could it be possible that their mother’s madness may still be killing people on Earth? Viruses mutate all the time in nature, and Elyon’s must have died off long ago. After exchanging knowing looks she asked Mairi, “Do you need a break to feed the twins?”
“Yes.” Mairi replied weakly, “This might be a good time. I will try to hurry.” She moved around the tables and left the dome.
It was agreed for everyone to take a few minutes to get some water and stretch his or her legs. They would continue when Mairi was ready.
*~*~*
When Mairi returned from feeding the twins and the others agreed it was time to con
tinue Kneus once again took control of the computer console. “I just have a few pertinent recordings to show. As we know our history was written as this: The original fathers were sent to scout for planets to colonize. Our home world was dying, and we were trying to find a planet that would sustain life. The original fathers ship sustained damage, and were far off course but managed to find this planet and land here.” He clicked the computer console. "What we now know to be the truth is that this planet was selected, the home world wasn't "dying" so much as engulfed in war and Elyon's madness and finally we didn't crash...we landed here on purpose."
Kneus clicked again and holographic Kniam materialized his clothing was different. He was wearing some type of armor, a cloak over his shoulders with intricate clasps holding it on. His features were the same, his hair shorter and hazels eyes shone out at them instead of the purple of today. “We have formed a council. Knaleg, Knollig, Kneus, Tharell, Thian, Thomiss and I will decide matters of our new home. The first order of business was what to name this planet. We decided on Terraneu.” With a dry laugh Kniam continued, “When we find a place to settle, our little community will be called Terraneu as well. No sense in getting grand ideas. We have tried the port pad to Terra with no success, we will keep trying.”
Gwen sat and watched, as the recording discussed cloning, sometimes successful sometimes not. They lost a sitting member of the council to an animal attack. He could not be successfully cloned so they chose a new member from among the men. Asteen was now a member. The decision was made to start trying to change their body chemistry to avoid starvation and save cloning eggs by lengthening their life span. A council member was lost to madness in this process. Ailech was asked to sit on the council. Through all of the changes they continued to try to reach Terra via port pad, until the last message.
The last recording showed the decision to block the true history, “We have decided to block out some of our original history. Kneus thinks he can use hypnotic and genetic manipulation to block us from those memories, our new clones will have no recollection of what we block. He is also very good with technology and will hide the pertinent recordings making them appear ‘lost’. I wanted it put into our records the reason for this action, in the small chance that it should ever comes to light.” He paused as if trying to find the words, “We are tired to the very core of our beings.” Gwen thought he looked it too! His usually handsome face was drawn, haggard and pale. “The memory of Hedal and all that is lost to us weighs heavier now than the first moment we landed.” He drew a hand through his hair and continued, “Our people have no reason to continue knowing that we can never go back, the port pad on Terra has not responded to repeated attempts to contact it in all these years. Also, our search for any humanoid life has been unsuccessful.” Kniam continued and it seemed to take a toll on him just to speak the words. “We have heard nothing of Knuan, and even if he found us now, we would be no match for him.” He sighed a drawn out tired sound, “It is time to move on, and let the men have peace. We will begin re-writing our memories with the next cloning cycle. If you see this message forgive us this weakness, our only desire is to give the community hope again. We will make a safe-word to unlock these archives in the event they may be helpful.” The recording ended and the screen went dark.
“So now we know.” Kneus stated into the silence, “We know our true history. We know why we couldn’t hear Marcael or Elyon’s names without blacking out.” He paused for a moment, “We even know why we blocked it all out.”
“And it worked.” Amber was looking at Kniam, “Your people had hope long enough to find us or should I say I found you?” She smiled around the room. “Terraneu is thriving and we now have the archives to help us prepare.”
“We need to move on from here. Like they...you...” Catherine paused then found her voice again, “Like the Kniam in the holograph said. We need to figure out a way to defend the community since we won’t be getting off Terraneu.”
“What about taking sanctuary back on Terra? I have learned enough to know that the women were recently brought here. The human population must have recovered from Elyon’s madness.” Baylech looked around hopefully.
“Terra is lost to us by the port pad, and we have no ship.” Kniam informed him, “When we were last there to find women, Catherine was sent to investigate us. The Earth military or science sector has by now found the port pad. It would not be safe to try. Cat what do you think?” He looked questioningly at Catherine since she was the authority on Earth military and would know.
“He is correct Baylech, I’m sorry to say it. Going to Earth for sanctuary would result in us being captured. Not to mention that Antilles might be overrun with your people.”
“You are forgetting they can’t survive off of the Elyon.” Gwen reminded Catherine. “Even if Knuan left forces on Antilles they would have perished by now.”
“He would not leave anyone on Antilles though. He would know that it was a waste of manpower.” Baylech assured them. “Would the Antilleans help?”
“They would if we asked them.” Kniam stood up, “However, I am not willing to rain my mad brother’s wrath down on the Antilleans or Earth for that matter. This insanity needs to end and I would rather it be Knuan’s end than ours.”
“With the advanced technology that Baylech may be aware of, and the now open archives we have a fighting chance.” Knaleg seemed excited at the idea of playing with new weapons. “We can now access shielding, cloaking and who knows what else we may have had before.”
Kniam sounded resigned, “Okay then.” He directed his gaze to Baylech. “How long do we have?”
Chapter Twenty Nine
Kneus held his breath waiting for Baylech to answer. He felt Gwen’s small hand suddenly grasp his. He looked at her trembling fingers attempting to twine with his, and something inside him unraveled. Without thinking, because frankly he did too much of that anyway, he wrapped his fingers with hers and held tight.
“It depends on a lot of factors. Knuan knows where you are now so he will not be distracted. He will make a run straight for this planet. If they don’t get attacked by anything hostile or drift into empty space, they could be here in as few as twenty five years give or take.”
“Why didn’t you just mutiny and kill him yourselves? Why wait for them to find Terraneu?” Catherine’s question made Baylech jump. Not because of the wording, but because she had yelled it across the table.
“Because of the Elyon.” He answered her, “Not only does it regulate the energy we need to survive, it doesn’t function without Knuan.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t ‘function’?” Kneus asked thoughtfully. His fingers were absently rubbing against Gwen’s.
“Just what it sounds like. The ship was programmed to monitor and access the health of Knuan at all times. If he were to be killed in a mutiny, the ship stops moving, all systems are locked down, and it immediately begins the creation of another clone. As I said the ship is constantly monitoring him, making a new copy of his brainwaves every minute of every day.” He ran frustrated hands through his hair, “We tried everything we could think to do and lost a lot of good men in the attempts. Out of the original twenty members Marcael picked for the King’s mission, only nine are still alive.”
“This Marcael that warned us on Antilles. He is one of the nine left?” Knaleg asked.
“Yes. Though he will have paid a terrible price for his failure.” Baylech whispered.
“What will they do to him?” Mairi asked softly.
“He will be killed as punishment for letting you escape.” Everyone gasped with varying mutterings of outrage going on around the room.
“But you said...” Kniam started.
“He will be killed...” Baylech spoke louder, “and then cloned again with his memory intact so he could learn from his mistake, that is a standard punishment. For the loss of two men on a mission Marcael will be altered so that he can not perform sexually for a hundred years.”
“The sexual block wasn’t done on all of you? For space travel?” Ailech asked from his spot at the table.
“No. Elyon insisted her son could not be expected to withhold from sexual activity. They have STARs onboard.”
“What are STARs?” Asteen inquired, and Baylech tore his gaze from Ailech to look that direction.
“It is an acronym for Sexually Trained Autonomous Robotics.” Baylech replied. “Their availability is an added means of punishment Knuan uses. If anyone displeases him, he can have the offender altered to be unable to function sexually as a form of torture. The STARs are exactly as you would think them. They are very attractive both in form and features. They never say no to a request and are trained in physical pleasure, with the added use of chemical pheromones to increase desire.” Baylech paused to look around the room.
Amber hurried to ask him, “So because he helped us, Knuan will take away Marcael’s ability to do anything sexually, but not the feelings of desire?” She looked ready to cry.
“Yes. It has been done quite frequently. Marcael has maneuvered Knuan into punishing him over others many times in the past. Thousands of years traveling through space will make you hard. Marcael was an incredible warrior before we took that last mission on Hedal. Thousands of years have honed him into...well more.”
Kneus: A Terraneu Novel (Book Four) Page 13