"It seems strange they would come to a planet so far away," said Colonel Al. "Why did they choose Earth?"
"They didn't," answered Gregorius. "Their coming here was an accident, or fate, depending on what you believe. You see, the sun which supported their solar system was dying; it had been for thousands of years. They knew that the collapse of a dying star would create a black hole that would swallow everything, including their planet. They were forced to find some way to ensure their survival. They started building a ship, one that would be big enough to carry people, animals, plants, food everything possible to rebuild their world when they found a new home. When the first ship was built, they tried to build more. Being that their planet sat in the outer orbits of their sun, they had the luxury of being able to wait until the last possible moment to leave."
"Then, it happened, much sooner than they predicted," he continued. "Their sun started to rumble and they knew they had to leave their planet before it was too late. They didn't have enough time to build more than one ship and the one they had couldn't possibly hold everyone. With great sadness, only a select few could go. The rest would stay and wait to die."
"How many made it?" asked Emma Lee.
"Two thousand," Gregorius whispered. "Two thousand out of two hundred million."
"That's all?" I asked.
"The ship was made to hold just over four thousand but they knew they could be travelling through space for years," he explained. Many generations would live, die and be born during those travels and their population would, hopefully, grow. They left room for that. They were wrong. When they landed here, or shall I say crashed here, only eight hundred and sixteen were on board."
"Crashed?" Colonel Al asked.
"Yes," Gregorius answered. "They saw our planet and their calculations confirmed that it was habitable but they had to get closer to be sure. When the ship entered our charred atmosphere, it's engines failed and it crashed."
"Did everybody make it?" I asked. "You said there were over eight hundred..."
"Eight hundred and sixteen were on board, yes," he answered. "But four hundred and ten were lost in the crash."
"How long ago was that?" asked Cornelius.
"Over five hundred years," he answered.
"How long before they found the survivors of the Collapse?" asked Robert.
"It was the survivors who found them," he answered. "Apparently, food and water weren't the only things that the people took to their underground shelter. They believed that their survival would have to include violence at some point. Instead of filling their storage compartments with more food or medicines, they stored guns and lots of them. So, when they sent out the first scouting parties to determine if it was safe above ground, they were heavily armed."
"They found the crashed ship on their fourth day," he continued. "It was just east of the city of Algar. The passengers had set up a camp so that those who were injured during the crash could heal before exploring their new home. Their ship was beyond repair. The skies were grey with traces of poison from the Collapse still in the air. The air didn't bother the ones from space; their planet had just as many toxins in its atmosphere. In fact, they could breathe and filter the air better than the survivors. The water wasn't drinkable but they had equipment, if it wasn't damaged in the crash, that could fix that problem. It was something they could share with the survivors if..."
"If what?" asked Robert.
"Let me guess," I said. "If the survivors hadn't thought they were a threat and killed them."
"What?" Emma Lee seemed appalled by such a thing. "Why would you say that?"
"Because," I started but then Gregorius interrupted me.
"...because Nicky knows the nature of man," he smiled. "I can see why Faelen chose you."
"What do you mean Faelen chose me?" I asked. "What the hell?"
"I'll explain later," he said and, if I wasn't so interested in this story he was telling, I'd be pressing him for answers. Instead, I stayed quiet and let him continue. "Nicky's right, the survivors of the Collapse believed that these visitors came from another planet to scavenge what was left of this world. These beings with their orange red hair, blue eyes and pale skin were the enemy and the survivors panicked. By the time they laid down their guns, three hundred and seventy-two passengers were dead."
"Holy crap," I said. "That means that only..."
"Thirty-four survived," Gregorius did the math for me.
"I was getting there," I said jokingly.
"I know," he smiled. "But the numbers have been ingrained in my head ever since I read the stories as a child."
"How did they survive at all?" asked Robert, looking back at Marshal sitting on his cot. "With so few of them left, how did they ever make it?"
"Quite simply," said Gregorius, "the scouting party ran out of ammunition. They got scared and ran back to their underground fortress. That and the fact that their oxygen masks they were wearing started to run out of oxygen and they still couldn't breathe the air outside. A couple of them tried. They pulled their masks off when their oxygen was gone and their first couple of breaths were okay but then the toxins got into their lungs and poisoned them. They were dead in minutes. Ten made it back underground."
"How many were there?" asked Emma Lee.
"Twenty," answered Gregorius. I thought about it; only twenty? Twenty people had enough ammunition and guns to kill three hundred and seventy-two beings? It seemed so unfair. "It's a shame that our first inclination to something or someone new is to destroy it. It's a mistake we seem to repeat again and again."
"That's man for you," I said. "We're such a lovely species."
"So, how did they come to work together?" asked Colonel Al, trying to keep us on topic.
"The alien beings had to work with them," he sighed. "It was the only way they could survive. Their ship was destroyed and their planet was gone; leaving was not an option. They had to make this place their home. They had no choice but to figure out a way to live with the people here and they had to figure it out quickly. They followed the footprints of their killers so they could spy on them to see how they lived. They needed to know what they could offer them as a sign of peace and, hopefully, prevent them from killing anyone else. Soon, they came across the bodies of the ones who ran out of oxygen. They brought one of them back to the ship and performed an autopsy to determine exactly what killed him."
"And?" I prodded.
"And, it was what they suspected," he said. "When his oxygen ran out and he took off his mask, the man tried to bring oxygen into his lungs from the air outside. The toxicity in the air collapsed his lungs and he suffocated. Bottom line was that the underground survivors could not survive above ground, not with all the toxins in the air."
"That must have given the Fire People some peace of mind," said Colonel Al. "Now they knew that, if they went far enough away, they'd be out of their reach. They could try to rebuild something out of what they had left."
"Yes," smiled Gregorius. "That would have been the obvious thing to do, the human thing to do, but these beings weren't human. They didn't think the way you and I do. They didn't know about hatred or violence. Their planet was peaceful. When it came time to choose the passengers that would leave on their ship, there were many who insisted to stay behind and let others go before them. If the same were to happen here, people would kill each other to escape their dying planet. The Fire People didn't do that. When they were faced with these people who killed them for no reason, their instinct was to discover why they were greeted with such hostilities and try to amend it."
"So, they studied the dead guy to see if they could prevent this kind of death from happening again?" I asked.
"Yes," he said. "These aliens were extremely smart, beyond genius level. Their civilization had technology far more advanced than anything we've ever had here. They built a spacecraft capable of travelling throughout the universe with enough provisions to last thousands of years! We could never do something like that and
who knows what they had to leave behind on their planet. Fortunately, some of their knowledge has survived in the form of carefully organized files stored in secret vaults on their spaceship. These files are written in their own language and contain information they would need when trying to inhabit a new planet. Among them were the instructions to adjust atmospheric gases by filtering out toxins and making the air breathable for them if they needed."
"But I thought you said these beings could breathe here?" asked Robert. "That the toxins in the air didn't harm them?"
"I did say that," said Gregorius. "That's because they also had an advanced physiology. Their internal organs, like their lungs, could be easily adjusted to suit their environment. It wasn't a slow procedure either. It was evolution on super fast motion; give them a week in a toxic atmosphere and their entire respiration system could adapt to it if necessary. It was a part of their genetic makeup and it wasn't restricted to breathing."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I mean," said Gregorius, "that these beings could adjust their bodies to do very miraculous things. If they needed the strength of twenty men, they could have it. If they needed to be underwater for several minutes without air they did it. If they needed to run faster than any creature here, they could. They truly were amazing creatures, unlike anything we've ever seen. It's hard to believe that, even after most of their species had been murdered by the survivors, they were still willing to, not only share this knowledge with them but also try to teach them how do it for themselves."
"Did it work?" asked Robert.
"Not quite," he answered. "But, although, they may not have been able to change the survivors bodies as quickly as they could change their own, they did teach them how to filter the atmosphere so they could move above ground. This was their peace offering and the survivors were happy to accept it. Slowly, they emerged from their underground homes and started to build a new life with the Fire People."
"And what about these Dark Lands?" asked Colonel Al. "I thought the people there were deformed and feral?"
"It's true," he said. "I have heard the rumours of the monsters that live there but I believe they're only people like us. People who have been affected by the toxins in the air. Unfortunately, no one has returned since we declared it a prison so, I don't know if the people are feral. If they are and the prisoners we've sent there have managed to survive, than they must be strong and smart."
"Who oversees this prison?" said Colonel Al.
"They oversee each other," said Gregorius.
"And the air there is still toxic?" I asked.
"Yes," he answered. "Not as bad as it was when the survivors emerged but there are still poisons in both the air and the water."
"So, the rest of the people here, including the Huxleys, owe their entire existence to these people from another planet, these Fire People?" I asked.
"That they do," nodded Gregorius.
"So, why does Amelia want them dead?" I asked. "You'd think she'd be happy to see them."
"Not when these beings, with all of their capabilities, could come and take her leadership away," he said. "The Huxleys have not really lived by a code of ethics."
"You don't say," I said sarcastically. "How'd they get to be in charge anyway?"
"When peace finally settled between the Fire People and the survivors, they began to live together," he explained. "They restored what they could of the city that was here before the Collapse. They built homes and lived side by side with each other and eventually, the Fire People and the survivors began to fall in love with each other. Children were being born with blood from both the humans and the aliens. The more the blood mixed, the faster the DNA of the Fire People disappeared. They no longer had the same physiology that helped them evolve. They couldn't rely on any kind of super strength or speed and they began to feel the effects of the toxic air and water. Their species was weakened and their peaceful and harmonious disposition started to be replaced with jealousy and anger. Fighting broke out and a need for law and order settled over the city. That's when the Huxleys became the rulers of this world."
"The Huxleys were one of the few families that survived the Collapse completely intact," he said. "They went underground with a mother, a father, two girls and one boy. They added to their numbers over the years and quickly became a family to be reckoned with. They've always been addicted to power and were one of the more vocal families when everyone lived underground. Nothing changed when they emerged. There were over twenty Huxleys the day the spaceship crashed. By the time the cities were partially restored and the population had grown, Preston Huxley decided the world needed someone to rule and keep things in order and he was determined to be the one who did it."
"Preston decided the best way to strengthen his family was to unite Huxleys and Fire People through marriage," he said. "He picked one of the remaining pureblood women from the Fire People and married her. He then arranged marriages for his younger sister and brother and for three of his cousins with other pureblood Fire People. From then on Huxleys were only permitted to marry someone who only had the blood of the Fire People in them."
"And what about the Fire People?" asked Marshal who was curious about his supposed ancestors.
"They refused to restrict themselves to only one family," he explained. "They had no idea what marriage was or why it was even needed. Where they came from, beings were allowed to dedicate themselves to whoever they wanted; male or female. Procreation was a gift that carried on their species. It didn't matter who created that life, once an offspring was born, everyone took the responsibility of loving it and teaching it to love with patience and kindness."
"His union of the two species didn't work the way Preston thought it would," he continued. "He believed that having the blood of the Fire People running through their veins would give the Huxleys advantages that others didn't have. They wanted to be stronger and smarter than everyone else but that didn't happen. The Huxleys remained the same and, even though they acted like they had special powers, the Fire People knew they didn't."
"Preston grew old and knew he had to do something to ensure his family remained in power," he said. "That's when he came up with the idea of the First. It wasn't hard to get the people to agree to this, things in the beginning were tough. Nobody wanted the responsibility of being in charge of everything. People were happy to have the Huxleys in charge and the Huxleys did everything they could, without affecting their own comforts, to keep the people happy. The only obstacle that stood in their way were the Fire People and their knowledge of the lies the Huxleys were telling everyone. The Fire People didn't like the idea of one family always holding the title of ruler. They wanted a leader to be chosen by everyone, someone that understood the needs of the people and would work for the people. The Huxleys only cared about themselves and ruled to benefit their own needs. The Huxleys obsession with power was not to be denied. They had to get rid of the Fire People. The only way to do that was to kill them."
"What?" I asked. "They just figured they should kill them? How did they manage that?"
"They poisoned them," Gregorius said matter-of-factly. "They held a feast for them, to celebrate the prosperity of Algar. Only the Fire People were invited and only the Fire People were poisoned. It's what's known as the Red Death. They didn't all die, thankfully. You see, Faelen had a very close friend in the Huxley House named Caroline. Caroline Huxley was Preston's granddaughter and, like me, hated her family and all the evil things they did. Nobody in the family knew of her hatred and so, thought nothing of speaking of their plans for the Red Death in front of her or any other Huxley. Caroline couldn't believe what they were planning to do. After all, her own grandmother was part of the Fire People."
"Caroline heard about the feast two days before it was to take place," he said. "She didn't know what to do so, she went to Faelen and told him everything. Faelen knew he couldn't save them all but he tried to save as many as he could. He also knew they'd never be safe in this world so
, he took them through the portals and hid as many as he could."
"How many did he save?" asked Robert.
"Not as many as he wanted," he answered. "In the end Faelen saved just over fifty of them. They were hidden with the idea that they would be brought back when it was safer for them. That was over two hundred years ago."
"So, how does Amelia know about the portal?" asked Robert. "That seems like information that should have been kept secret."
"Mitchell Collins," Gregorius smiled proudly.
"Collins?" asked Robert. "Part of your father's family?"
"Yes," said Gregorius. "He protected the records of the Fire People."
"How did he do that?" asked Robert.
"Like I said, the Collins were in charge of the storage facilities," he explained. "A job they started doing when everyone lived underground. So, it was only natural that they would do the same job above the ground. When the Huxleys came to power, they didn't care who looked after the storage facilities just as long as everything was kept in order. After the Red Death, the Huxleys tried to convince everyone that they had actually died of a mysterious virus brought with them from their home planet. It was a ridiculous accusation but, nevertheless, they ordered their spaceship destroyed for fear the virus would get out and kill everyone else. The Collins were put in charge and told to clear out the inside and take any food or water they found and add it to storage. The Collins, however, found things that were far more important than food and water."
"What?" asked Robert.
"They found navigational charts of the universe," he said. "There were cabinets full of DNA samples of plants, animals and some of their own people. There were plans for restoring dying atmospheres or creating new ones if the planet they landed on wouldn't allow them to breathe. There were plans for harvesting energy from everything from the sun to the soil itself. Everything they found, could be used to help them survive on several different planets or help everyone on this planet if our atmosphere were to collapse again. There was no way the Collins could destroy this information and they would never give it over to Huxleys. The information would only be another way for the Huxleys to hold power over the people. Still, they were afraid to hide so much vital information, knowing that punishment for doing so would be severe. Mitchell hated the Huxleys and understood the implications of losing such vital information. He took everything they found and hid it somewhere only he knew about."
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