Crow - The Awakening (80 page)

Aradia shook her head, "That depends on whether they can collect and control him." She couldn't imagine anyone being able to fully control a deviant, but if they get him when he's young enough they may have a small window of time before he had to be terminated. "It is very a dangerous thing, Tor'eng. They have taken a huge risk." Tor'eng nodded, sober.

"I find it ironic that you are reticent to allow your daughter any kind of contact with the deviant but at the same time want to use the connection she has with him," Aradia observed. Tor'eng slumped in his seat, distressed by the dichotomy of the situation. From a father's perspective, he wanted her as far away from the deviant as possible. But from a mission commander's perspective, he wanted to exploit every opportunity he could get to communicate with his team.

Aradia looked down for a moment then back out at the troops. Sometimes she wished for the simplicity of being amidst them, preparing for battle. Now the burden of authority rested heavily on her shoulders, and with it perhaps the safety of the entire Cooperative. Everyone depended on her for their survival as they faced an enemy that could potentially drive all of them to extinction. "We can only wait, Tor'eng. I have no answers for you. But I trust my father." She looked back at her Minister of Intelligence. "Lohet won't let us down."

Tor'eng rubbed his temples. His head had started hurting a few hours ago and was getting worse. It was odd. He never got headaches. His kind didn't get headaches. Aradia gave him a quizzical look. "What is wrong?"

"My head is throbbing." Tor'eng wondered if he should head out into the jungles for a good run. It wasn't the same as home, but the forests there were rather nice to run through and had tremendous amounts of refreshing life in them. However, the pain made him a little dizzy and he decided against crashing through the trees and underbrush.

"Have you been combat training?" Aradia asked. The training was very violent and challenging and would certainly leave the trainees very sore and battered. But Tor'eng didn't look bruised under his fur.

"This morning, but I wasn't hit in the head," Tor'eng admitted. The training was mandatory for all members of the Defense Forces. No one was too superior to participate in this training, and commanders often found themselves in the mud and soil battling junior soldiers as they all sought to hone their skills. The Sadari were no respecter of rank, after all.

Aradia looked concerned. It was highly unusual for Elves to get headaches. A slight tremor in the ground below their feet confirmed her fears. Elvin fathers were not as tightly bonded to their children as the mothers and none have had daughters that had been flirting with a deviant. In this case, it would seem that the deviant had gotten bored and crossed over, and now his daughter could be suffering because of him.

"We need to get to your daughter, Tor'eng." Aradia stood up. He looked up at her, momentarily confused. But he trusted her instincts. As he stood up, the same conclusion she came to also dawned on him. Keeping her drugged and away from the meadow could have actually attracted the deviant more than deterred him. Looking out of the tent he waved over what appeared to be a young boy, who floated over to them almost instantly.

"Sir?" the Faerie asked, touching down gently before Tor'eng and Aradia.

"We need to go to the cliffs." Tor'eng put his tech belt on.

The Faerie gave him a toothy smile. "Excellent. I've been wanting to get out of here for a while." He held out his hands, and Aradia and Tor'eng grabbed them. In an instant they were high above the jungles and headed toward the coast where the cliffs were located. Tor'eng wondered what his daughter had done this time and considered that perhaps Aradia was correct, that he should send her home. But if the deviant was here, their problems were only just beginning.

The dense tropical landscape that appeared to be a solid carpet of lush green gave way to fingers of tropical forests and numerous mesas. Tor'eng could just make out the ocean beyond the mesas. He had chosen this site because it got Asherah away from the clearing where she had most often been contacted by the deviant. That didn't work, so he secluded her up in a cave away from the jungles. He even resorted to attempting to sedate her for a while, hoping the deviant would get bored. They were by nature egocentric and easily distracted. He was beginning to think even that may not have worked.

The cliff came up fast and Tor'eng could see a crowd on the lip of the cave. He was alarmed. He had a Selkie bringing Asherah food and he also brought a fresh chaperone every couple of days. Those were the only people who really knew about this location.

Then he recognized Lohet and Penipe, and his heart jumped. She made it home. He wanted more than anything to restore their bond. But Penipe looked completely distraught and Tor'eng let go a few feet above the ledge to land lightly and run up to Penipe. She was clinging to Lohet in desperation, not even aware of Tor'eng's presence.

Lohet was shaking his head as he grabbed Penipe's shoulders. What she was asking was impossible. "You knew this would happen, Penipe. The deviant must die. There's no other way. The risk to us all is just too great," Lohet tried to remind her. But she wasn't accepting it.

"He's different! He's not the same as the others!" Penipe insisted, her face drenched in tears, looking back at her daughter then at Lohet. "He saved me twice at the risk of his own life. And he's giving his life trying to save Asherah," Penipe screamed, sobbing. "What deviant does that?" she asked, her teeth clenched in frustration and terror. "What deviant cares about another?"

"Penipe... it's the law," Lohet responded, blinking away a tear. He had not cried in thousands of years but was tormented by Penipe's agony. "You knew this was going to happen."

Penipe wailed out in anguish and ran back to Asherah, falling to her hands and knees and shaking her as she tried to bring her back. "Please! Don't let her die!" She put her face down on Asherah's chest, sobbing inconsolably. "Don't leave me, Asherah!"

Lohet turned and saw Aradia. She looked at him, then down at Asherah. Tor'eng cried out and ran to them, pulling Steven away and cradling Asherah. "What happened?" he yelled, looking at the people all around.

"He tried to save her, Tor'eng. He gave his life to save her. He just didn't know about the bond," Penipe sobbed. She opened her mouth in a soundless wail that came from deep within, and anguish washed over her in waves as she felt her daughter slipping further away from her.

Tor'eng looked at her, stunned and shaking. "They were bonded?" He couldn't believe that Asherah would have hidden that from him. Taking a deep shuddering breath, Penipe nodded as she caressed Asherah's face, wiping her own tears from her daughter's cheeks. Tor'eng looked angrily at Steven, speechless. The deviant was dying already and Tor'eng was without anyone to blame but himself.

Sally ran over and held Steven defensively as he lay limp, putting his head in her lap and crying silently. She knew this was coming but still held out hope. But now her worst fears had come to pass. "He was a good kid! Not a monster!" she said indignantly, as she ran her fingers through Steven's wavy black hair. "He would have done anything to save her." She bent down and kissed Steven's forehead, her tears falling on his face. "He was a good kid," she repeated as Jonah sat down next to her and held her head to his chest as she sobbed quietly.

Tor'eng was having trouble breathing as the pain welled up. He had tried to protect his daughter and it had all been an act of futility. Penipe grabbed his face and held him and Asherah. She looked back at Lohet, pleading.

"Your daughter, Lohet. It could be your daughter. You would do anything for her," she said as resigned depression weighed down heavily on her. "He had compassion, Lohet. True compassion."

"That's not possible," Lohet said. "Deviants don't develop compassion."

Penipe gasped and started wailing quietly as she felt Asherah slipping away beyond her reach. She was completely spent and her world was collapsing around her, and she just rocked back and forth crying and holding Asherah. "Don't go. Please don't go," she whispered over and over again.

Aradia looked at Lohet and shook her head. Lohet looked back at Penipe. Aradia put her arm around his waist, "Father. The law is without exception." Lohet nodded as he stood there staring at them. He was still torn. Aradia wiped a tear from his cheek. "The last time you cried was when Mother was killed." Lohet looked at her, seeing her mother so richly in their daughter's countenance.

The Gatekeeper's Temple was an enormous example of living architecture. The trees used to build it towered over
three
hundred
yards
overhead and were arranged to form the perimeter of the vast building. Clusters of massive trees grew within the architecture to provide additional support. Branches were trained and woven across the expanses within the perimeter to create floors, and several floors made for levels of immense chambers. Within each of those levels, walls and rooms were grown. The overall motif was that of a multistory cathedral that reached high into the heavens.

Gaps in the outer walls allowed light in. Where no sunlight could filter through, brightly glowing fungus was cultivated on deadwood that was brought in or harvested from the trees as they grew. There were no stairs - the occupants either gated to the different levels, climbed, jumped, or floated.

The topmost level formed an arch as the branches were trained at an angle so that rain was shed off the structure and down the outside of the trunks that made up the exterior walls of the building. And life was everywhere. The trees, the mosses that grew in the trees, diverse epiphytic plants and vines that hung from the trees and branches and the glowing and culinary mushrooms growing within the structure. It was the abundance of life that gave the structure and the inhabitants their strength and vitality.

At the center of the structure were the gates - platforms that blended two worlds and allowed travelers to seamlessly travel from one world to the other, with each floor representing a gate to its own destination. Gatekeepers manned the gates and kept them open so that residents from within the Cooperative could traverse them freely, traveling to any of the dozens of worlds this particular temple served. There were several such temples in this core fracture zone, and each fracture zone had similar temples, creating a massive web of connected worlds that spanned across thousands of galaxies.

A Faerie floated up through the levels and entered the primary chamber of the governing body of this particular temple. He walked lightly until he stood in front of a massive knurled branch upon which sat a cluster of member species of the Cooperative. Gatekeepers. He stood there patiently waiting. The gatekeepers were seeing currently, exploring the area of space and planets within their purview. They kept a constant watch for any hint of a Sadari incursion. One of them was a Keratian elder who was much older than even Lohet.

The Keratian elder breathed deeply and looked down at the Faerie. "You've seen Lohet." It wasn't a question. He could smell a great many things on the Faerie, molecules that have clung to him in spite of his traveling at speed through the air.

The Faerie nodded. He waited patiently. One did not talk to these people unless it was requested of him.

Another gatekeeper shook her shaggy fur and jumped off the branch, disappearing in midair and reappearing walking on the floor, approaching the Faerie. She disappeared again and reappeared behind the Faerie, taking a deep breath as she circled him. "Migalo is back?"

The Faerie nodded again.

"I smell blood." the elder said. "Elvish and... something else."

He looked confused for a second. "Human? But not quite. Different."

The elder stood up and before he was fully standing appeared beside the Faerie, looking at him for a long moment. "Terran?"

The Faerie nodded, grinning. It was a game to him, but the gatekeepers preferred to experience the acquisition of knowledge. The Faerie enjoyed how they were able to riddle stuff out like that.

"Terrans in the Cooperative?" He continued circling the Faerie. "And there's more?" He waved the Faerie to speak.

"The deviant from Terra," the Faerie said simply.

All of the gatekeepers in the room looked up now. The elder looked at the Faerie, "There's more?"

"He has been poisoned and is dying."

"But poison cannot kill a deviant." The elder stopped circling the Faerie and faced him.

"He has not matured and is still vulnerable," the Faerie explained. The elder gazed at him, but seemingly through him as he considered the ramifications.

"The mission?"

"Accomplished," the Faerie said. After all, Lohet was back.

He looked up at another gatekeeper. "Verify the death of the deviant."

The gatekeeper nodded and vanished. The elder looked back at the Faerie, then was suddenly back up on the massive branch and he and the other gatekeepers resumed their seeing. The Faerie turned and floated out of the chamber.

"Are we dead?" Steven looked around. The forest reminded him of his own, except the trees were much larger and taller. Asherah looked around, holding her hands to her chest.

"This is my home planet," she whispered. She pointed, "Look, there's the temple." Steven followed her gaze and beheld the structure. It was absolutely monstrous.

"But, are we dead?" Steven asked her again. She put her arms on his and guided him toward the temple. "I was born near that temple." She looked around. "There. That tree." Steven saw it, a towering tree that had its branches trained to form buildings up its trunk.

"That looks familiar," Steven said. It reminded him of his diminutive tree house. Only these were massive, multistoried, and went up the whole trunk of the tree. He remembered the work it took him to make his. And yet it was all by instinct. He just knew what to do. The trees on Earth weren't as big, however. There had been large trees, but most of them are gone now. Seeing the massive trees around him now he felt really disappointed that similar majestic giants on Earth would be so casually squandered.