“What do you have in your hands? Is that how you sliced that gun yesterday?” Sabira asked.
Gabriel smiled, the silver and gold in his eyes dazzled as he spoke. “You saw that, did you? Yes, Sabira, my implants severed his weapon in two.” He held up his right hand. A golden-tinged energy field glowed around the blade of his hand, shaped like a long, pointed wedge, extending half a meter from base to apex. “It’s a concentrated molecular dispersion field. When the field contacts matter, it negates their molecular bonds. I believe the Theocracy has a similar technology?”
“We called them rupture fields. But the field generators were too big to ever be implanted in human arms. It takes the biomech of three grank horns to make the rupture field,” she said.
“Gabriel and Orion are what we call second diaspora,” said Maia. “Their ancestors were originally from Tierra as well. But they left more than a thousand years ago to colonize many of the planets that now make up the Constellation. Their ancestors incorporated very small machines, as small as blood cells, in their bodies to help them survive the journey and the many different kinds of worlds they would find out in the galaxy.”
“Those little machines, we call them n-tech,” said Gabriel. “They were passed down from mother to child ever since those early days. They help us in many ways and have become just as much a part of us as our cells. And they allow for the integration of various augmentations into our bodies.”
The wall next to Orion transformed, its surface showing a floor-to-ceiling video illustrating Gabriel’s words. Images of crimson blood zoomed in closer and closer until the fluid became a series of round cells flowing past. Swimming along the churning mass of blood cells, little machines darted in and across and between. These swarmed throughout the body, knitting broken bones and torn flesh. A quick succession of images followed, small objects implanted into bodies, interacting with the n-tech and merging into one.
Next, the wall showed a diagram of a pregnant hen, belly round and heavy. But this hen had coppery skin like Maia and long, reddish-brown hair on her head. The diagram displayed her womb. Strangely, there was only one child inside. The n-tech flowed from mother to child.
Maia continued. “My ancestors, however, did not migrate out into the new colonies but remained on Tierra. Like most Tierrans, there is no n-tech in my body. Though over the centuries, different gene modifications were introduced: resistance to disease, slower aging, increased memory and faster learning, and for some much more radical changes as well. But there is no computerization to me.
“Since I had left the Solar system long after the hard work of colonization, n-tech is not needed for me to survive. Those of us who journey out from the Solar system now are referred to as the third diaspora.”
The wall continued to illustrate Maia’s story. Sabira saw a planet, blue and green and brown, marbled with streaks of white, above it a single pale and pock-marked moon. Then images of massive above-ground cities, thousand of towers piercing the clouds. The cities swarmed with those strange kinds of humans like the founders, with so much hair in so many colors on their heads and bodies, short and tall, muscular and thin and fat, and skin from dark as space to almost as pale as hers. But none looked like khvazol, no stark alabaster flesh, no nearly colorless eyes. A few did have smooth scalps, but with no ownership or bloodline glyphs.
“You mentioned second and third but haven’t said anything about the first diaspora. What about them?” asked Sabira. Her breakfast felt uneasy in her stomach.
“Are you sure this is a deep good idea?” interjected Derev. “She’s not like the rest of us. She’s a servant, a true believer in a way none of us ever were.”
“Not this again,” complained Zonte.
“She has as much right to hear what Maia has to say as any of us,” said Torque. “Then she can make up her own mind about it. That’s all I have to say about that.”
“Oh godsdammit,” said Sabira. “I know you don’t trust me yet, Derev. Fine. But can we stop this game?”
“Or what? You’ll kill us?” said Derev. “Like the vleez children you massacred?”
“Derev, please. That is enough,” commanded Gabriel, his deep, resonate voice filling the room. “We will no longer have the debate about Sabira’s right to refuge in this Embassy. Nor her right to hear what we have to say. All that we have to say.”
Derev tried to match Gabriel’s gaze. He didn’t last long. He lowered his eyes and remained quiet, hunching his thick shoulders.
“Maia, if you would. Please tell us about the first diaspora,” Gabriel said.
Maia took a deep breath, closed her eyes a moment to recompose herself. “The first diaspora is a harder story to tell. There is much that was lost to history and time. By Constellation Standard Years, the first migration began suddenly, more than nineteen hundred years ago. This is around when the first foundations of n-tech and gene enhancements were laid by our ancestors.”
On the wall, the skies of Tierra again. But long streaks of fire tore through the blue. A shiver tingled up Sabira’s spine.
“Tierra’s first contact with an interstellar civilization came without warning. We called them the Slavers. They were more advanced, but our ancestors still managed to fight. In the end, they had left as fast as they had come. Took over a billion humans with them. Another billion were dead on Tierra, many of our great cities reduced to rubble. During the Slavers’ invasion, our ancestors captured some of their technology and vehicles. That is where our knowledge of faster than light travel and formatted matter first originated.
“The billion human lives taken off to the stars by the Slavers were never seen again. Legends grew and spread. It was not until centuries later that we ever found out what happened to them. Astronomers thought it was the remains of a supernova at first. But once human migration reached the cluster, deep within the nebula they discovered the massive and ancient ruins we now call the Old Portal. The New Temple of Mysteries, Eleusis Neos, was founded on Nu’esef beneath the nebula’s red glow.”
“There are traces on Nu’esef, and other nearby systems, of an ancient civilization,” interjected Gabriel. “Vanished many thousands of years ago. In one of the ruins, scholars were able to make a translation. It said, ‘The Gates of Heaven have become the Gates of Hell. We must shatter them.’”
Maia resumed. “It was theorized that the Slavers took our lost brothers and sisters through the Gates of Hell to a distant part of the galaxy, or perhaps to another galaxy altogether. We calculated the Gates' destruction to coincide with the Slavers’ withdrawal from Tierra. They must have destroyed the portal behind them, so none could follow. Perhaps they feared revenge from the stars would fill their skies in some distant millennia. We had only ideas and theories, though. For hundreds of years, no one ever knew why the Gates were destroyed and what awaited on the far side. That is until we, the three founders, passed through the Gates and discovered the truth.”
“You’re welcome,” said Orion.
“Soon after, we encountered the Monarchy. Through our exchanges with them, we gained some new knowledge of what may have happened to the first diaspora and the Gates.
“This city, Glish, is named for one of their many traditional heroes. Their histories say in ancient times, before what you call the Gates of Heaven were shattered, an invading race emerged from the portal and demanded the Vleez worship them like gods. But the Gates were much older than the invaders. According to the Vleez histories, the Gates were as old as the stars themselves.
“The Vleez tried to resist, but the invaders were far more advanced. Dlamakuuz was conquered. Their hero, Glish, allied himself with a splinter faction of the invasion force. Together they outsmarted the so-called gods and convinced them all to return to their homeworld. The splinter faction gave Glish the ability to destroy the Gates behind them. He launched his attack on the Gates from this very location, so the Vleez founded a city here. There is a statue of him near the river.”
; “We were told the Vleez allied themselves with Trickster,” said Playa. “They helped Him shatter the Gates of Heaven.”
“Maybe Trickster represents the splinter faction of the invaders,” offered Zonte.
“Often the same story can be told from many different points of view,” said Gabriel. “And the most dangerous lie comes packaged in a truth that has been twisted around it.”
“From my very first time, the eon has shown me a vision,” said Maia. “If I could find a way through the Shattered Gates, I would uncover the mystery of the lost ones. And that is what happened. From the Monarchy, we discovered that for centuries our lost brothers and sisters had been enslaved, put to toil rebuilding the civilization of the Nahg, a people almost destroyed by the invading gods. They became the Nahgak-Ri, your Divine Masters. We call them the Slavers or Theocrats. They had altered the human body to serve specific functions in their society as well as to survive below ground, living and dying without ever seeing sun or sky. Those people were your ancestors, Sabira. You are a child of the first diaspora from Tierra.
“That is why we are here. That is what the eon has shown us. We have come across the galaxy to find you—all of you—and to take you home.”
35.
“STAR FATHER’S BALLS! That is some godsdamned crazy grank shit.” Sabira stood, heart racing too fast to remain seated.
“Girl, come now,” said Coraz.
“I warned you,” said Derev.
“It’s alright,” said Gabriel, gesturing for calm. “Let her get it out.”
“I thought, oh Gods, I thought your people belonged to Trickster. Maybe like in the old stories. Trickster stole nameless from the Divine Masters and took them through the Gates before they were shattered. I thought that’s why you looked so different and acted so strange. Your people spent ages away from the Nahgak-Ri, separated from Will, separated from the very reason we existed. Thousands of years being warped by Trickster’s lies. Of course, you’ll be strange. But this . . .”
Maia stood beside Gabriel. “Sabira, I know what you have been told all your life. But the truth is the Theocrats did not create humanity to be part of some holy crusade. They were not commanded by all-powerful gods to bioengineer a slave race.”
“So . . . so what then? We just came out of nothing? For no reason? You think that’s supposed to make sense?”
“No, not from nothing,” Maia answered. “It is complicated to explain. But we did not come out of nothing. Humans are the children of Tierra, a rare and beautiful world. Humanity came out of a living planet. We were given life by life itself. A life the Theocrats have enslaved and corrupted for millennia.”
“For what, though? For what reason did this planet of yours make us?”
“Sabira,” answered Gabriel. “There are as many answers to the meaning of life as there are voices to question it.”
“This is grank shit. You really are sent by Trickster. What are you doing to us? You’re drugging us, filling our heads with crazy stories.” She felt as if the splinter spoke through her lips.
“I told you she wasn’t ready,” said Derev. “Now we’re all in danger.”
“That is not helpful right now.” Maia briefly closed her eyes, her jaw tight.
“Maybe he’s right, though,” said Dawn, protectively crossing her arms over her belly. “Maybe the lems should strap her down again. Just to be safe.”
“Don’t you dare,” warned Sabira. “Try it, and I’ll . . .”
“You’ll what?” asked Derev. “Kill us all? Dawn is right. I say we tie her up and leave her for the Vleez or Servants. Whoever gets there first. Or maybe Cal was right all along, and we should kill her now before she kills us. We are never, you see me, never going to be able to really trust her.”
“Derev, that is enough!” Gabriel commanded.
The aggie is right, the splinter whispered in the back of her mind. The Unity will return soon. There are no vleez left to stop you. Kill them all and wait it out in here till they return. Give the Warseers their heads, and they will cover you with glyphs and glory. You’ll make rank, no doubt. Maybe get your own crew.
Sabira’s sight went blurry with tears, her stomach felt tight and hot like she was about to vomit.
“Don't burst your capacity, Sabira,” said Orion. “It’s just a story. It’s all stories within stories within stories.”
Lies within lies, more like.
“Sabira, I know this was not what you expected.” Maia tentatively stepped toward her.
“Stop it, please. Stop it!” She recoiled back from Maia’s outstretched hand. “You’re always talking to me like I’m some little mine rat. I’ve chosen my shaft. I’ve earned my name, godsdammit. So stop talking to me like that.” Sabira felt the hot, sharp urge to punch Maia in her smug, lying face.
That’s right. Take control. Be the person they fear. Be the person you fought and bled and killed to be.
You shut up, too! she screamed inside her own head.
She backed away from them toward the hallway, tears flowing down her face, her throat too tight to speak, and ran to Daggeira’s room. When the door slid shut behind her, she collapsed onto the floor by the bed. Buried her face into her right palm as she reached up with her left to clasp Daggeira’s. Wanted badly for Daggs to clasp hers in return.
You can stay in here. Protect Daggs until the Servants return to finally unify this godsdamned planet. No one will ever know you lost faith. They’ll never know you almost betrayed everyone and everything you’ve ever known for a drug and an old hens’ tale. You’ll be a hero. You may even still make it into Heaven.
“Stop it,” she spoke aloud, tasted the salt of her tears, felt the knot tightening in her throat.
Sabira feared she couldn’t tell what was real anymore. Sometimes, back in the Labyrinth, somebody’s mind just broke, shattered into pieces. They’d talk to people that weren’t there or act erratically and aggressively with overseers. Sabira had seen it more than once. Eventually, overseers prodded the crazy diggers until their skin blackened and crisped off their bones, right in the middle of the warrens in front of everyone.
Is this what madness felt like, she wondered, a voice yelling inside your head that wasn’t your own?
How do you know it’s not your own voice? Who else would I be if I’m not you?
A soft tapping sound came from the door. “Jump down a shaft, Maia. Godsdammit.”
“It’s not Maia.”
“Torque?” Sabira recognized her voice and was shocked. Usually, the mech girl had barely looked up from her lessons on Constellation technology to even acknowledge Sabira was there.
“Can I come in?”
Sabira, somewhat stunned and confused, didn’t know what to answer, so didn’t respond at all. After a moment of silence, the door slid open. Torque walked in, wringing her hands, eyes darting from floor to Sabira to medtech to hands and around again. She sat down on the floor about a half meter from Sabira but sat perpendicular, facing the blank, light blue walls.
“I don’t think Gabriel’s going to kill you,” said Torque. “There’s that at least. Derev finally stopped talking. Gabriel scares him. Dawn keeps saying they should strap you down again.”
“Maybe she’s right.”
“I don’t think so, that’s what I have to say.”
Sabira rubbed away the tear streaks from her face, wiped the snot pooled at the tips of her nostrils onto the knee of her pants. “It’s all crazy grank shit, right?”
“Tierra? Could be grank shit, but it could be real,” said Torque. “It does kind of make sense, in its own kind of caved-in way.”
“I saw it. Everything she said, when I drank the eon last night.”
“I know. I saw it, too,” said Torque. “I see what everyone sees. If we drink eon together, I mean.”
“Really? But how could you?”
“I don’t know. I just do. That’s all I really have to say about that.”
&
nbsp; “So you saw my visions last night? When I brought the eon to the nameless?”
“You freed them. And they tore down the domed palaces and pyramids. I saw it. Like I saw Rain’s brood-brothers. And the children of Zonte and Playa spreading out through the galaxy, outnumbering the stars. All of it.”
“How can you bear it? I feel like I’m going mad sometimes, from just my own visions. How doesn’t it break your head?”
Torque paused for a moment, closed her eyes. “The eon helps me understand a lot, about me I mean. Like there are parts of who I am that I never . . . But now that I know, I can start to see how they—I—fit together.” Her eyes opened and darted around the room again.
“Do you think it’s true, what the eon shows us?” Sabira rubbed at the scar across her chest.
“Maybe. I think so. At least sometimes. Or maybe it’s like something that could become true, or could not, depending on how we go.”
“So maybe I help destroy the Unity?”
“Maybe.”
“Then the planet with the blue sky, the place I saw, that’s really Tierra. That’s really where humans come from? Not Nahgohn-Za? Not the Divine Masters?”
Torque didn’t answer. She stared at the wall, rubbing her palms along the sides of her legs.
“Then what’s the godsdamned point if that’s true?” asked Sabira. “If the Gods are just more aliens and the Masters nothing more than thieves who stole our ancestors from their home, then what was it all for? With the Servants, in the Unity, I knew my place, I had a purpose. And now here they are, out of nowhere, telling me I need to reject all that I am. That the very purpose of my creation is a lie.”
To hell with this nonsense and whining. You are a Servant of Divine Will. That is your purpose and will always be your purpose, no matter what lies these strangers tell you. You could take Torque as your hostage. If they want to get to you and Daggeira, they’d be putting her at risk too. Just hold strong until the Servants return. Then you’ll know what’s true. Then you’ll be where you belong.
Before the Shattered Gates of Heaven: Shattered Gates Volume 1 Boxset Page 23