by Drew Seren
“Until we know exactly what we are dealing with, we’ll not be able to answer that question,” Phil replied, leaning heavily on the table.
“And do we have any idea what we are dealing with? Other than a very powerful psychic force?” The woman pushed on with her questions.
Aniu stood and walked up beside Phil. “I may be more qualified to answer that than Philaneo is.”
Zhetallia inclined her head toward him. “The council recognizes Aniu Unica, chief archeologist. What has your team found?”
“As has already been stated, it has a very power psychic force—beyond that, we aren’t sure. We believe it may be one of the originals.”
The room erupted into shouts and accusations. Zhetallia pounded on the table with her fists but the chaos continued. She roared at the top of her lungs, and everyone stopped talking or shouting and stared at her.
“Council members, we need to hear Professor Unica out. He’s well thought of in our academic circles. He’s not prone to flights of fancy.”
“But we don’t need to hear fantasies about long established myths,” Sabeto shouted nearly as loud as Zhetallia had roared.
“But all myths have a basis in fact,” Aniu countered. “Please, council members, if you would give me a moment. I know some of our beliefs are a bit outside established thinking, but we are discovering facts to back us up.”
“It is easy to misinterpret the facts when you already have a mold you wish them to fit into,” Sabeto snapped as he glared at Aniu.
“That is very true,” Aniu countered. “But let me assure you that what we are discovering at the dig site outside Indruias has taken us by surprise and only helped confirm what we have suspected for some time.” He glanced toward the seats where Skylar, Solaria and Felonia were seated. At his nod, Felonia rose and strolled over to him.
“If you would, please allow us to show you what we’ve found so far.” She pressed the back of her hand onto the table so she could link her com with the table. Seconds later a hologram rose from the table.
Skylar recognized the dig site. The representation floated there for a moment, until she reached into it and spread her fingers apart to cause the hologram to zoom in. It was just part of the pictures Skylar had sent to Del and still hadn’t received a response on.
“We believe this is a language from before the colonization of Pantheria,” Felonia explained, slowly panning through the primitive writing.
“Don’t you mean before our species evolved?” Zhatalla said.
Aniu shook his head as he took over the narrative from his wife. “No, we do not. There’s growing evidence that our species, like many others in the galaxy, was genetically engineered—most likely by humans since theirs are the genes we all have in common.”
“That’s preposterous.” Sabeto stood and glared at Aniu.
Skylar’s heart pounded as it looked like the larger man might attack Solaria’s father.
“No. It’s science,” Aniu said, his voice level and unemotional. “Science often proposes preposterous things, only to have them proven over the years. I believe that is what will happen with this. But I don’t think it is going to take years.”
“I tend to agree with you,” said a man who appeared in the doorway.
Everyone turned to stare at him. He was the first human, other than himself, Skylar had seen since leaving Stars’ End.
15
Cafpar O’Byrne
THE MAN was dressed in an impeccable dark blue coat that matched his eyes and briskly walked up to the table. Like Skylar, he was dressed for the cold, but he didn’t have on gloves. Skylar wondered how the man’s fingers weren’t freezing, even with the slight heating the spaceport had.
“Is there something wrong?” Filzbalm asked, but didn’t move. “Something has changed.”
“Can you see the man who just walked in?” Skylar didn’t want to stare. He wanted to stay as close to invisible as possible.
“The human. He’s fairly unremarkable, but he moves like he’s a professor at school.”
It was more than that. With the weakness of their link while in the room, Skylar didn’t want to try to explain complicated things to Filzbalm.
“I don’t think you belong here, human.” Sabeto stressed the last word like it was something foul.
Zhetallia stood. “Sabeto, sit down.” She pointed hard at his chair. “Please excuse my colleague, Cafpar O’Byrne, these are troubling times.”
Skylar’s breath caught. Although he hadn’t recognized the man, he knew the name Cafpar O’Byrne. Nearly all humans, and individuals who did any travel between planets, knew the name. He was the CEO of O’Byrne Corporation, the most powerful company in the galaxy. They controlled the production of the majority of human starships, and most of the ships used by the other bipedal races. It was rumored they were trying to get control of the other races’ transports too. They had helped establish the stargate system nearly a thousand years earlier. They were also rumored to have control of most of the Central Galactic Council, either through money, blood, or manipulation.
O’Byrne inclined his head toward her. “Indeed it is.” He walked over to one of the several empty chairs around the table and sat across from Zhetallia. “I was near a stargate when I heard of the crisis here and came to offer whatever aid O’Byrne Corporation and the Central Galactic Council can provide. I have President Cranby’s assureance that we will do everything we can to rebuild Glacier City.”
“What about all the lives lost there?” Sabeto grumbled. “Do you have the ability to bring them back?”
“Unfortunately not.” O’Byrne put his hands on the table. His dermal com glistened gold on the back of his right wrist. “But we can get the city ready for new settlers.”
Sabeto shot to his feet and glared. “No!” he roared. “The Galactic Council will not resettle one of our cities that has been destroyed. We will not allow it.”
O’Byrne waved the idea away. “That’s not what I meant. Pantheria is still a developing planet. There is plenty of room for your people to grow and expand. Glacier City was one of the largest here. Its loss will hinder your people. I simply meant that we could prepare the city for when your people are ready to resettle it. The only offworlders we’d suggest are builders, and then only as long as they’re needed. We would suggest that you consider more interaction with the Central Galactic Council in return for our help. There are a lot of advantages to being more active in the council.”
Zhetallia again motioned for Sabeto to be seated.
He glared but did it.
“We can consider your proposal, Mr. O’Byrne, but right now we’re trying to determine what happened and how to prevent it from occurring again. As you pointed out, Glacier City is one of our largest cities, but it’s not the largest, or the most important. We need to acquire more information if we’re to determine how to keep our people safe.”
O’Byrne nodded. “Of course you do. I believe your Mr. Unica was giving us his theory on an original inhabitant arising to smite the invaders down.” He gestured at Aniu. “Please, Mr. Unica, continue.”
Skylar tried to understand how one man could walk into a meeting of a group who weren’t even the same species and suddenly take over. He knew how arrogant a lot of the corp-brats he’d dealt with both on Stars’ End and on Hummassa had been, but this was more than arrogance. This was a man who wielded power and was used to people doing what he wanted. Skylar wondered how long it had taken for him to get so powerful, and what he would do if the people around the table decided they didn’t want to listen to him.
Aniu glanced at Zhetallia, who nodded. “As we were explaining, we are finding evidence that humans created a good number of the bipedal races in the galaxy.”
O’Byrne shrugged. “I’m sure you can understand why I can’t confirm that at this time.”
The way he phrased it was all but a confession of humans playing with the other races. The idea hit Skylar hard. He’d always believed that each species e
volved on their own home world. A good number of systems had planets that were capable of supporting carbon-based lifeforms, and on those places beings had mostly developed either as bipeds or quadrupeds. Even with what he’d heard around the Unica household since he arrived on Pantheria, to actually have one of the most powerful humans in the galaxy admit it made him stop and think.
“Not exactly surprising,” Filzbalm said from Skylar’s hood.
“But why is he admitting it now?” Skylar wondered to the Solar Drake. He wished he could ask Solaria, but knew they dared not even whisper. He didn’t want any attention on him. The stress level in the room was rising with each word, and he didn’t want to be the one to cause it to boil over.
“What?” Zhetallia roared. “How can you sit there and calmly all but admit this? This…this…this is outrage. How dare you come to our planet and say this!”
Others turned to each other, expressing their displeasure more quietly, but no less adamantly if the waving of hands and throwing of papers and cups was any indication. In just a few seconds, they’d damaged the table well beyond easy repair—it was going to need to be replaced due to scratches and chunks taken out of it.
Several members of the council stood, glaring at O’Byrne, looking like they were about to take him down before their neighbor put a calming hand on their shoulders, or one of the security guards leveled hard looks that resigned them back to their chairs.
“This is going to turn the Galactic Council on its ear,” Phil said with more anger than Skylar had ever heard.
He was right—the news would to upend things on a level the Council hadn’t seen in hundreds, if not a thousand, years.
Even as he wanted to fade away into the woodwork, O’Byrne’s gaze fell on him. He seemed to study Skylar for a moment as he continued talking. There was a searching intensity in his gaze that told Skylar he could tell Skylar and Filzbalm were speaking telepathically, but that shouldn’t have been possible in the dampened room.
“If I were to confirm your suspisions, I’m sure you understand that the original human explorers didn’t find all enviroments to our liking, and in most cases it was just easier to find other mammals which had traits that would allow them to survive on a hostile planet…like Pantheria. Unfortunately, those other mammals needed pushing to get to the point they could be our equals. So we made the genetic sacrifice and found ways to control the new planets we found.”
“At the expense of other species?” Felonia sounded furious. “What gave you the right to do that?”
O’Byrne sighed dramatically. “People have been debating conquerors’ rights for many thousands of years. Let’s just say, for the most part, we had the bigger guns. But that doesn’t resolve your problem on Pantheria. We need to find whatever it was you let loose and stop it before it lays waste to more of your cities.”
“What? You don’t know what was here before us?” Felonia’s claws left groves in the table surface.
“I have researchers working on it. But sometimes, even highly classified information can be lost. For now, let’s just say that I believe your theories are correct and we need to find it and stop it. To that end, I will assist you in locating your attacker.”
“So this is the humans’ fault,” Sabeto grumbled.
“I didn’t say that,” O’Byrne objected.
Skylar projected a feeling of calm to Filzbalm, hoping the Solar Drake would get the idea to stay quiet until they could get out of the room and away from Cafpar O’Bryne. With the level of agitation coming off Filzbalm, he could come bursting out at any moment, and some gut instinct told Skylar that would be very bad.
Several coms beeped at once. Phil’s was one of them. He stepped back away from the table as he answered it. “What? You’re sure? I’m on my way.”
“Zhetallia.” One of the other Pantherians stood. “It is attacking my city. I must go.”
“If I could get a ride with you, Lusino,” Phil said. “I believe it might be faster than my hover car, and my ship won’t be ready to leave the space port for several hours.”
“I might be of some help too,” Aniu announced. “If it’s like the last attack, we’ll need every hand we can get.
“I have a long range shuttle we can use,” O’Byrne said. “I can have us there in minutes.”
Without much discussion, the ones whose coms had gone off followed him out of the room, all of them moving as quickly as possible.
Skylar stayed in his seat as some of the remaining adults conferred around Zhetallia.
Solaria leaned over. “I still think you look like an O’Byrne.”
He rolled his eyes. “I really am starting to believe you just think all humans look alike.” Other than the color of their hair and eyes, he didn’t see much resemblance.
With a soft chuckle, Solaria tapped near the corner of her right eye. “Predator.”
There were times that her fallback answer to things like that really irritated him, but he stayed quiet. Although Skylar’s mother had never given him a name for his father, he couldn’t see any way it could be Cafpar O’Byrne. He was the CEO of a major corporation, and she’d hated everything to do with corps. She also hated psychics and he was sure O’Byrne was a fairly strong one. There was no way Solaria was right.
16
Scattered Words
SKYLAR STAYED quiet as the council meeting hastily wrapped up and then followed Solaria and Felonia out to their hover car. He waited until they were on the way back to Indruias before he started asking questions.
“If the bipedal races being gene-engineered by humans is such a secret, why did O’Byrne tell us just now, and why didn’t he make all of us sign nondisclosure agreements or something?”
“I’m betting he had the agreements ready and the new attack distracted him,” Felonia said as she turned on the hover car’s lights. She tapped the autopilot icon on the control screen, then turned in her seat.
“Can we look forward to him showing up with them soon?” Solaria asked. “And didn’t you think O’Byrne looks a lot like Skylar?”
A thoughtful line crossed Felonia’s brow. “Maybe.” She hummed. “Yes, I can see some resemblance, but as diverse as humans have become, it’s hard to say. They’ve been playing with their own DNA as much as ours. It is nice getting a confirmation from him about our findings. Now I’d like to see hard data. We don’t just deal in one man’s words. We believe in science. We need to see the proof.”
Her words confused Skylar. He understood how the scientific method worked, but if he had an idea that went against common belief and had just had one of the most powerful men in the galaxy confirm it, he’d be thrilled. It sounded like Felonia wasn’t as happy as he thought she should be.
“But it’s a start,” Solaria said.
Felonia nodded. “It is a start. But right now, we need to figure out what’s happening on Pantheria. Who have we awakened and what can we do to stop her from destroying our world?”
“Are we sure it’s a her?” Skylar asked.
“Almost positive. Nearly every survivor from Glacier City kept going on about ‘She’s angry,’ or some derivation of that.” Felonia turned slightly like she was trying to find a position where she could see out and see Skylar and Solaria. “If it’s not actually female, it’s coming across that way in the waves of psychic anger it’s projecting.”
Skylar’s com beeped. He glanced at the display that appeared over his wrist. “It’s Del.” He tapped the com twice so a hologram of Del projected where the display had been. “Del, do you have anything for us?”
“Just a second.” Del tapped his wrist and Melody’s hologram appeared next to him. “Okay, unless you need to link Solaria in on this, I think we’re all here.”
“I’m right here,” Solaria said. “So’s my mom.”
Del bowed respectively. “Greetings, Mrs. Unica.”
“Greetings, Del,” Felonia replied. “I’ve heard a lot about you from Solaria.”
“Good, I hope.” Del�
��s gray forehead darkened slightly.
Felonia looked at Solaria and then grinned. “Very.”
“Okay, so do you have anything for us?” Skylar asked. He really hoped Del had been able to dig up some good information on the writing they’d found.
“Yes. It’s actually a combination of different primitive scripts.” He pulled up a display of the glyphs they’d found. “We have figured out some of it.”
Felonia looked doubtful. “Some of it?”
“Right,” Melody spoke up. “When Del sent this to me, I checked it against some of the data my mother has access to—she’s got human files going back ten thousand years, as far as recorded human history. Or at least the parts that weren’t lost to one disaster or another.”
“And that’s where we found two of the symbols.” Del touched an image that looked like a strange bird. “This one is from some ancient human tombs, but there are also similar drawings in Alpha Centari, the Globulan System, and even on Tursipia. Once we figured that out, we went digging further.” He gestured and several more of the pictures lit up.
“All of these also appear in primitive writing on multiple worlds,” Melody said. “At this point we are trying to decide which meaning is appropriate depending on the context of the sentences. It would help if we had more of the writing.”
Felonia pursed her lips and looked closely at the lit-up symbols. “We hadn’t thought to look at the individual symbols. Our translation programs look for repeats and try to put them into some known pattern. You two really are geniuses. If you want to be part of an archeological puzzle-solving team when you get out of school, let me know and I’ll make sure there’s a spot for you here, or in any other dig site you want. I’ve got contacts all over the universe.”
“Thanks.” Del blushed again. “I’m hoping the museum offers me something beyond this short internship.”