by D. R. Rosier
Bill thought about it, and couldn’t really see anything he could do. He could hardly feed a whole race constantly. But then, he didn’t know nearly as much about energy as a Dravii.
He looked at the Sprisi and said, “You are coming with us.”
The Sprisi looked like it might object so Bill said, “I will kill you if I have to, but let’s see what we can do, I am assuming you haven’t searched for that energy for a billion years. I imagine a lot of suns have changed their age in that time.”
The Sprisi sighed but nodded, getting up.
Ariella said, “What are you thinking.”
He said, “I am going to give you a taste of the energy I created to feed and heal, and you are going to search the universe to see if it, or anything close to it, exists anywhere else. You can do that right? Or maybe figure out some technology that will artificially create it?”
He knew he was asking a lot of Ariella, but really, asking him to commit genocide was asking a hell of a whole lot as well.
The Sprisi said almost accusingly to Bill, “Why are you doing this after all we have done.”
Bill’s voice was low when he answered, “Because what you said earlier wasn’t true, you are wrong, you didn’t lose your souls. I saw one and it was beautiful. It’s the reason I bothered boarding in the first place instead of just killing you from a distance. Well that, and I needed to know where your home world is. But my main motivation was to find a way without the killing.”
The Sprisi looked up at Ariella and spoke a series of number coordinates. At least they knew he was sincere about killing them all.
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Ariella was fighting with herself. These beings had almost completely killed her race. Their attempted genocide only fell short by just three. They had driven her to perform a violent attack to make sure their race survived. That Dravii male had been a subsumed and controlled slave, his life stolen and he was unjustly branded a traitor. Then she had come along and violated him right before he died at her hand. She did not want to save them. She wanted to kill them, all the Sprisi.
Not just for what they had done, but for what they had caused her to do.
She felt guilt at the thought, remembering Bill’s feelings at seeing the Sprisi’s soul. Maybe she couldn’t forgive them, but she wouldn’t become like them either. She had no choice. Plus, she didn’t think she would be able to lie to Bill, just the thought of deceiving him left a bad taste in her mouth. Perhaps one day she would grow beyond her hate, she would be around a long time.
But not today, and she wouldn’t advise anyone to hold their breath until it happened. But today she would save a race she despised, simply because her love asked it of her. Maybe in the end, that would save her.
Chapter 12
Bill took a deep breath. He had realized it was much easier for him to do the right thing. After all, the Earth was doing fine. The rest of the crew… Well, the Sprisi had almost killed off all the Dravii, and they had enslaved the Elvii for the last two thousand years. He couldn’t imagine that Gwen or Ariella were very happy about the direction he was taking things in.
Then of course there was Tiffani, and although they didn’t enslave the Angilli, then did enslave her entire family line, which makes it even more personal. And Larissa, the honor that she treasures, that she holds onto tooth and claw. Well, the Sprisi had pretty much destroyed the honor for most of her race. Leading them into committing atrocities out of boredom as the centuries went on.
Forget the couch. He was surprised they hadn’t jettisoned him into space. Told Sally or Brandon he died and have them take over kill the Sprisi duty. Okay, he knew that thought was a little over the top, but still, it was a lot to ask them. To not only forgive the Sprisi for doing all that, but to even help them survive.
He watched as Ariella walked in and waited to see what she would say. He had given her the energy to scan for yesterday. He wasn’t sure how long it would take her to scan the universe.
Ariella said neutrally, “Well, bad news and good news. The Sprisi was right about that radiation being rare. I was unable to find it anywhere. The good news… I was able to figure out how to create it artificially, but it will take a lot of power to run. We will need to create a large solar array in their orbit to make it self sufficient, but we can use the core of a heavy cruiser to get it running in the meantime.
“We should go to their home planet now. They have a few cruisers in orbit, just in case we found them. Plus… It might not be wise to make their position generally known, at least not for a long time. There will be a lot of people wanting revenge…”
Bill winced, he hadn’t even thought of that. Stupid of him. He pulled Ariella into a hug.
“Thank you, and I am sorry. I just can’t kill them. They are insane in their current state, if we have the choice to heal them… I just hope you can forgive me for it one day.”
He felt her resist for a moment then she melted against him. He heard a sob rip from her chest as she broke down and cried. He shielded the thought carefully as he felt sorrow for her, but also relief, he didn’t want her to sense the latter. This is the first time he had seen her grieve her people, perhaps she could start to heal now.
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A few hours later they hovered at the edge of the Sprisi system. Instead of the killing energy, he fed her the healing energy and felt Ariella multiply it and send it out in a huge pulse. Every Sprisi in their home system was healed and properly fed for the first time in a billion years. It didn’t take long for Ariella to figure out it was the sun that blocked his ability to find the planet, the radiation hadn’t stopped, it had shifted. Although worthless now as a food source, it was doing just fine hiding the life signatures in the system from his ability to detect.
Things moved extremely quickly after that, the Sprisi did not have the same knowledge of energy that a Dravii did, but they were extremely good at making things. They were not content to sit and wait for Bill to go system to system to stop their people from being monsters. They worked with a vengeance, their shame pushing them to work hard and fast to stop the nightmare of their making. They created several thousand copies of the device Ariella had designed and headed out to the stars.
What would have taken Bill months to do alone, took weeks as they swept through the universe together. A secondary benefit from the device was they could survive in their energy forms on ship. That meant they could immediately abandon the bodies and lives they had stolen, joining the ship that healed them. The Sprisi retreated to their home world when the job was done, promising they may join the universal community at some time, but felt it was better to heal wounds first.
Plus, they had more than enough to do at home. They had to somehow make amends to the host species on their home world. They had abused them far longer than the Elvii, Angilli, Dravii or Demonae.
Bill was quite sure it would happen though, and in his lifetime, after all he had quite a long life ahead of him.
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Eventually his mates came around, actually becoming glad how it worked out in the end. They all saw the guilt and horror the Sprisi expressed at their crimes. Their souls were better off without the weight of genocide staining them.
Epilogue
Ten years later…
Bill groaned as he woke up. It was a late night last night. He, Tiffani, Ariella, Gwen and Larissa were in bed, limbs tangled. He felt a familiar presence and turned his head.
Lana was there. Still very short at nine years old. She was his first daughter with Gwen, she looked Elvii, with the exception of her ears, they looked a little smaller. He had one other girl and a boy with her. He also had children with Tiffani and Larissa. Once Tiffani had a full blooded prince to pass the crown to she had insisted on having children with him as well as others with Gabe. He grinned. It wasn’t like she had to twist his arms.
One thing he worried about, the wisdom of what he had done, essentially creating new races. His children also had
his abilities, which could be disturbing at times, especially right now. He admitted though, whatever the future held, he wouldn’t change a thing, he loved them all to much to contemplate life without them. He double checked and sighed in relief when he saw that he and all of his mates were covered.
Bill said in exasperation, “What have I told you young lady? No coming in here unless you knock first.”
He noticed she looked excited, and almost growled, it was like she didn’t even hear him.
Lana said eyes wide, speaking fast and bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet, “But dad! It’s happening, now! I had to come get you, all of you.”
His eyes widened and he teased her saying, “What’s happening?”
Of course he knew exactly what. He just couldn’t help but tease his daughter.
The entire castle shook with a loud roar and he widened his eyes further, almost comically, “Oh, that!”
Lana giggled and rolled her eyes.
He said, “Ok, I’ll get these sluggards up, you go back now.”
He watched as his daughter’s astral form faded from his sight. They had learned any advanced human along with all his children, could see and communicate through astral visitation. They had a few close calls when the kids were toddlers, so he started erecting a golden shield around the room during certain times. So they couldn’t get in at all when he was…
Occupied with his mates.
He got everyone up and dressed in a hurry, racing outside. There was no way he was going to miss this.
He looked up at Ariella. He always underestimated her affect on him. She was so big and beautiful when in her natural Dravii form. Just awe inspiring. He winked up at her as he sent the triumphant thought that he bagged himself a sexy dragon, it had been a running joke over the years.
They all sat on the ground, gathering their children around them, as the objects on the ground rocked. There were over a thousand rocking objects. Bill heard one crack, then another. Then it was like an avalanche of sound as they all cracked open revealing miniature dragons. Dravii, they were all about the size of a German Sheppard, not counting tails, as they took their first steps into a wider world.
He gave Ariella’s avatar a soft loving kiss and said, “You done good baby,” as the large Dravii roared in triumph. The eggs had been there a long time after being laid five years ago. The full period of gestation for a Dravii being ten long years.
Bill smiled, so happy for his mate that his eyes filled with tears. Though he was heard to say later he got dust in his eye, no one believed him at all. In just ten thousand years, a drop in the bucket that was the lifespan he now enjoyed, the Dravii young would once again take to the stars. Becoming the protectors of the Empire and all its races, which eventually he knew, one day, would include the Sprisi.
Afterword:
I hope you enjoyed the conclusion of Bill in Space.
I wanted to take a moment to talk about the resolution for Bill’s instinctual inability to share his women. Obviously all humans are different and it was not my intention to paint humanity with so broad a brush. It was all about the way I saw him specifically. Obviously in the real world there is polyamory, and open relationships, that actually work. Work without something as extreme happening as what Bill did to himself, although I believe those are in the minority. In my mind Bill was a good sacrificing person who always tried to do the right thing, but was instinctually pigeonholed, against his conscious will, with an alpha personality toward his relationships.
About the Author: If you have any comments or suggestions you can send me an email at [email protected]. I started out posting short stories online, and at readers’ requests started to publish them. This original work is not posted anywhere else. If you like my work, or even if you don’t, please consider leaving a review of this book.