Evolution's Essence (10 page)

“
Nada. It’s my natural
immune system. Anything foreign is destroyed instantly. I doubt
even Keptl blood could infest me at this point.”

“
Is that true?”

Someone asked the shocked
room, needing a second opinion from Netul.
“Average Solarians would succumb, but no, not them unless in
vast quantities or their immunities are fighting something off. A
Defilier could spew their vile blood on them and they could
resist.”

“
Then we need to find a way
to synthesize that immunity for…” Johnny the Medic
began.

“
Unless you want to die, go
right ahead. The Solarian gene therapy I invented for humans
is
part of the enhanced
immune system. If you don’t have the MAOA gene you can’t get it. It
negates Beast brain poison and boosts the immune system. You can
try disproving me, but you won’t get anywhere. I ran every variable
and even got permission to access the Creelin database recently
specifically on genetics to circumvent human limitations and make
you like us, but it is impossible. Human evolution is different
than Solarian. Though they made it possible for us all to be here
today, you guys have as much in common as Drakes compared to us. I
may sound like a bitch, but I’m not going to sit here and give you
hope where there isn’t any.”

“
You could be a little more
socially proper.” Jessica said a second later. To the rest of the
table she said “Forgive my niece, as a child she liked to harass
other children than listen to me about manners.” Renee
grumbled.

Talon though put her sword away and said “I
rather like her. If she’d swear the Hunter’s oath she’d be just
like any Huntress.”

“
Sorry, Blondie, I like
money. My credits on the cures I made are being spent to make the
city of Fire ours. Olly already plans to make it into an
interstellar flying city and make it a battleship like a Creelin
Mothership. I and Papa are going to need resources to make it a
reality. Especially since I’m going to be having enough daughters
to make sure if we
do
croak, our line won’t die off.”

“
What about a son? Can you
dictate gender of your offspring?” Elder Javelin asked, leaning her
head to the side.

“
Can’t have a son. Olly’s
sperm was made sure he could only give daughters. Apparently Mantiv
and Reten had a son once and the moment he hit puberty he went
nuclear. Daughters are safe. Sorry, Elder, no son to sew his seed
in every willing female, but on that note humans are a close enough
match to my daughter that they
can
have children. Be warned, they’ll all be as strong
or nearly as strong as me.”

“
Just how strong are
you?”

“
You all know Archiver
Tammat from the holovids splitting a red giant in half?” heads
around the table nodded as it was part of all childhood education.
“I could defeat him and not break a sweat and Olly can smother my
own power.” She grinned more at all the pale faces. Only the
Hunters didn’t do much more than chuckle. “Papa is the strongest
Class Twelve in all of humanity, and is getting stronger thanks to
me, but to us he can’t even be considered a Class One to
us.”

“
It is not a boast, but a
fact. But do not let your fear dictate your future actions. Neither
have the will to be destroyers. They are creators and
healers.”

“
But what of their children?
The security risk is a great matter.” Emperor Coleson had to play
the opposing field. “The danger is too grave if they are among
humans. Earlier I was warned Oliver Void would kill me and be
unable to stop himself for his newborn babe resting above us. If I
were an assassin and tried to kill Isabella and managed, Oliver
would kill me and in his rage would destroy an entire planet. Or
can you guarantee it he would be satisfied with me?”

“
No, but we would not let
you get that close to the youngling for that very reason. We would
remove all assassins because the danger is greater. Mantive’s four
hundred and thirteenth daughter was slain, but he vaporize a whole
solar system, killing four trillion sentient lives till Reten
managed to bring him out from the bloodlust.”

“
Four trillion?” Oliver had
a look of horror on his face. “Why? Why didn’t you tell me, Netul!”
his fist cracked the table.

“
Because you are not him and
that was not the worst thing he ever did by accident. He lived for
a
long
time and did
both good and ill. Your crimes are not his. I was granted this one
allowance for Emperor Coleson to have perspective on what would
happen if he tries anything against you.”
Netul turned his head down the table.
“As for the offspring of their union, Renee’s decision is to
bare only enough daughters to the species doesn’t end with them. No
more than a thousand true daughters be alive at any given time.
That much we can easily handle despite individual power. Renee and
Oliver have demonstrated allegiance to both our ways and yours.
Their children will likely do the same and will know the penalty if
they use their abilities for illegal gain. We would detain them and
your retraining methods are similar to Solarian. I will not say
there is no danger. Just like your own vessel in orbit, depending
how it is used is always in question. Attack or defend. Either way,
we will always be observing them for their own safety and
yours.”

“
Glad to hear it.
Reassurance is all I need. Amanda Lockwell be sure that is part of
the airing, in context. It will deter anyone from acting
recklessly.” The reporter could only nod.

“
Four trillion lives.”
Oliver took the news hard.

Privately Netul spoke with
the Emperor and Empress.
“Do you see how
hard the knowledge hit him? Because of Renee he is influenced by
her own need to save lives. This is why you know of him at all. We
would have taken him if he were dangerous and conditioned him in
the ways of honor and justice.”

“
It is good. It will let the
common folk find he has empathy to temper the use to use power for
selfish purposes.”
The Empress said. Her
husband keeping his thoughts silently private.

“
Enough with the dark turn.”
The leader of all humanity declared. “The tests will wait till
later. But I’m curious to know what you are assembling on the
table.”

“
Oh, this?” He pointed to
the gradually growing ball. “It’s the teleport
disrupter.”

“
So small. I can play golf
with it.”

“
It doesn’t need to be
larger.”

Renee noted his confusion. “Idiot, he’s
trying to lighten the mood. It does resemble the old tradition of
golf though.”

“
Guilty.” The man at the
other end of the rectangular table raised his arms. “How does it
work?”

“
Creates a broad spectrum
electrical field that keeps all openings of hyperspace at a single
frequency from happening with a calculated distance of sixteen
million kilometers. And when it is finished and shuts down it’ll
self-destruct.” He looked down and went back to putting the tiny
parts together.

“
Why?”

“
It is an advanced
technology I cannot allow into your hands or anyone’s. If someone
figured it out there is a possibility in that someone could trap a
person in hyperspace, which is deadly if the individual stays in it
for more than a single second. That higher level of reality shreds
all particles except in the very instant. You can open a hole to go
through, but have no exit. Since you want President Chandler’s
technology I need to make sure this doesn’t also become a weapon.
The danger of this item is too great a risk. And it’ll take two
more days to assemble and test it. Don’t ask how. If it works I’ll
need to make another because they are single use and will explode
apart. So if you try to capture it in space, these tiny pieces will
scatter in all directions. Neither you or anyone else will be able
to reassemble it.”

“
Paranoid much, Brother?”
Vanishing Claw rolled a shoulder.

“
I do what I must to save
lives. Even from yourselves.”

“
Point taken.”

“
So what’s next people?”
Renee asked as the knowledge seeped in and to keep arguments at a
minimum, but that is exactly what the Emperor did, but
telepathically made sure he personally didn’t like it. He liked
being the good guy so much more.

“
And who are you to decide
what we can know and what not? Humanity isn’t going to get so
overwhelmed that we’ll implode. If you know our history as I
believe you do, we are survivors. When something bad happens we
learn from our forefathers mistakes and our own if we live long
enough. Since entering the Age of Logic, threats of religion and
government segregation have been nigh an issue. We believe in
technology and one another. Sure there are issues, but you are
still just one man. If you gave us your technology and we
discovered how to use it I would personally promise its use to be
used for its intended beneficial purpose. Given to trustworthy
people with a known track record of course.” Coleson inclined his
shaven head as a sign of sympathy. “Many believe the Creelin are
unfairly hindering us by not teaching like a parent would to a
young child. Ours is a curious race and we make it known we stumble
and scrape our knees and elbows. We make mistakes, but like a child
we’ll grow and become stronger
because
of those mistakes. If we do
not learn, we stagnate and stagnation leads to festering rot. Like
the mercs that took your lovely mate and you alone killed millions
of the most despicable bastards plaguing our society that all would
have hung if our Marines had caught them. Some we did thanks to the
king’s fleet I’ve been told. You’ve been open to me, or should I
say Pirate King Dorgen has been. He and I go way back when he
uncovered the Geo Record’s secrets. Mr. Void, won’t you teach
us?”

Oliver was still working as he said “You made
a good point about scraping elbows and knees.” Netul held his
breath. “You did it on your own, but your parent’s spanked your ass
when you did something bad as all parents do. I’ve done done that
when my woman was kidnapped and repeatedly raped. I crushed
cruisers, fighters and battleships like you would swat a fly and
vaporized their stronghold as easily as I breathe. I spanked a
metaphorical child harshly, but I still killed millions. Many of
who never knew better. Quite a few were raised believing bad is
good. I Read them and they didn’t know any other way of life. That
is on me that I didn’t give them a chance.” He carefully used the
Valek like a tiny pincer. Telekinetically he could have assembled
it in a second or two, but he was enjoying the act of taking his
time. “And like children, you do not give them the Psionic
chromosome as a toddler. You’ve seen how badly their tantrums
backlash on them.

“
Right now though you
are
learning, not
stagnating. People will throw tantrums like a child because they
aren’t getting their way. It’s why the Creelin aren’t more than
friends. They aren’t allies. They are watchers. If you seriously
fuck up, they won’t intervene. I might, but you cannot count on it
because I
am
just a
single person. I’m not a super hero in your movies, though I do
enjoy them as a novel distraction.” He looked up to smile then went
back to work. “But you haven’t asked yourself one important thing
about me yet.”

The silent table waited as the Emperor took
several breaths and interlaced his fingers atop the table. “Please
enlighten us on this question.”

Oliver stopped working, sat up straight and
locked amber eyes on midnight black. “You’ve yet to ask how I feel
about being absolutely alone knowing all of my people are gone.
They stripped me of my memory and left me alone indefinitely with
no way to recover. The Creelin knew where I was as soon as they saw
the Geo Record, but decided to leave me buried likely to the end of
time. I know my people fought an enemy and I was their greatest
general and my younger brother was the Galactic King of thousands
of whole galaxies. They all vanished along with this enemy… but I
asked myself always if whatever made them disappear was my doing.
Was it a creation of mine that went awry and left me alone and
buried for twenty five thousand years? Was I evil and my brother
gave me a second chance by making me completely blank. If I didn’t
have Renee, no one can think at my level. I’m in constant agony
because I don’t know what the fuck happened and they aren’t making
it any easier and I know they know, but rather than crack open
their mental defenses I’m humoring them.” Netul breathed. Renee
reached under the table and ran a hand over his jeaned thigh.
“There are some who have forms of amnesia, but mine was total. They
can associate with me. It is frustrating, but they have others to
help them. I’m alone in my search, though I have help.

“
The question you need to
ask is if you were in my place and all of humanity vanished and you
were among people less advanced than you, with no memories, how
would you feel if you ultimately discovered you made something that
took away those you loved. There are trillions of humans, but any
one of you could end up just like me. If you decided to make war on
the Creelin using one of my creations to put you on the same level
and repeat history, nothing is learned but lives are lost. I’m
sorry, but Humanity is
not
ready.” He shook his head and then added to ease
this blow. “Creelin were once young like you. They tell me that
they struggled to get where they are. They adapt too. If they are
where they are because we, my race, didn’t give in, so can you. Be
patient and enjoy what it means to be young. Because one day you’ll
find yourselves older and wiser and need to guide another young
race if the Creelin do for what my people did for them and everyone
else.”