Shining Star hesitated again, but this time out of simple confusion. “I ... don’t understand. I’m answering your questions as—”
“I’m not talkin’ about just information,” Shockwave cut in. “I mean, let’s face it: You came here in a freakin’ spaceship, you know what I’m sayin’? These nerds were arguin’ about Star Trek terms, but I’m more interested in the Star Trek gadgets. You guys obviously got better technology than us, right? Ray guns, spaceships, that ‘prolight’ thing you keep talkin’ about. So if we let you guys plop down on our little, out-of-the-way planet, are you willin’ to share your toys with us?”
Good point! Steve thought. Aliens and advanced alien technology? Talk about dreams coming true!
Shining Star nodded slowly as he considered this. Steve couldn’t see his eyes, but Callin seemed to be brooding pretty heavily. What if the answer was no? Should they insist? Would the Taalu leave—?
“Yes,” Shining Star said at last. “That is fair. In exchange for safe harbor now, and permanent residence if things proceed well ... yes, I think it would be reasonable for us to share our technology as best we can.”
“ ‘As best we can’,” Shockwave grumbled, “sounds like a loophole to me.”
“I am not seeking a ‘loophole,’ as you put it. But we can’t just hand over the schematics to our prolight technology without introducing your people to the basics first. Do you know what a prime field is? Would you be able to install our veiling technology onto your aircraft without a sufficient power source? Trust me when I say that your fossil fuels would be woefully inadequate, and without proper understanding, a prime field could produce consequences far worse than one of your nuclear facilities melting down. And how can we just hand over weapons technology, when your world is still broken into so many governments, so many different cultures and languages?” He regarded the group as a whole. “But I give you my word as Grand Lord of the Taalu, we are willing to share. We will simply have to work together to determine the best methods of doing so.”
“Not to question your word,” Takayasu said carefully, “but this is the second time you’ve referred to yourself as a ‘Grand Lord’ of your people ...”
“The Grand Lord,” Shining Star clarified with pride.
Takayasu rephrased it, “The Grand Lord. I’m assuming this is a position of leadership? That you don’t have to consult with your people before speaking for them this way?”
“That is correct. I have a council of trusted advisors, which includes Lord Larr, but it is ultimately my decision to make.”
But Takayasu persisted. “You see ... well, I suppose we have no idea how your people age, but by our standards, you appear awfully young.”
“I am,” Shining Star admitted. “Your people and mine mature in much the same way and at roughly the same rate — I am in late-adolescence.”
“Is it normal for your people to have a leader so young?”
Shining Star’s face darkened once more. “No. As I said earlier, my father died protecting our second escape from the Verauns. When that happened, I, as his eldest son, inherited his title and position as Grand Lord.”
“I see,” Takayasu said, respectfully. “So you now wear the crown.”
“The cape,” Shining Star corrected. “Among the Taalu, and other galactic races of note, the regal cape is the designator of patriarchical lineage.”
Steve all but slapped his forehead, as this information explained so much.
Takayasu continued, “The Taalu follow a monarchy then?”
“Now, yes. On Taal, we were only a limited monarchy for centuries, before the Verauns invaded. The Grand Lord’s council, which would ironically translate as ‘Peace Council’ in your language, had certain veto powers over the Grand Lord, if all ten Lords were in agreement. In the past, this was rarely an issue, as the Peace Council Lords were regarded as wise and, more often than not, would convince the Grand Lord of their collective point of view without the need for an actual veto.”
Ardette spoke up. “You said that it was ironic to translate their name as ‘Peace Council.’ Why ironic?”
Steve half expected Shining Star to ask if he had used the word improperly, but instead, he said, “It is ironic because it was the meddling of the Peace Council that led to Taal’s invasion by the Verauns. The members of the council at that time, both just prior to the invasion and in our earliest days on Taal-ceky, proved to be so politically corrupt and self-serving that my father’s generation chose to abandon the council’s formal powers. They advise the Grand Lord now, nothing more.”
Takayasu opened his mouth to speak again, but Powerhouse jumped in. “You said that you’re a paranormal, right?”
“Yes. My ability to fly—”
“If the Seven Stars made this conversion wave thing forty years ago, how did you get changed?”
“I—”
“Is the Paranormal Effect going to last that long? Will people be going paranormal forever? Does anyone ever stop being paranormal?”
“Lincoln,” Steve soothed in a low voice; thus far they had avoided using their personal names here, but the big man’s agitation was starting to concern Steve. “Take it easy, okay? He’s answering—”
But Powerhouse didn’t back down. “No — I want to know everything they know about this!”
After waiting a moment to make sure he would be allowed to speak, Shining Star said, “The answer to your second question is that no one knows for certain. However,” he rushed on when he saw Powerhouse about to cut him off again, “you may have noticed the number of people ‘going paranormal’ has decreased, correct?”
Powerhouse grunted in discontent.
“This trend will continue. The percentage of people converting after the wave passed will growing steadily smaller. We can assume that it will eventually fade altogether, but only time will tell. As for the duration of those converted, to our knowledge, no one has ever reverted back to their original condition.”
Stewing, Powerhouse stared off into space.
What’s going on with him? Steve wondered. Then he took advantage to ask, “Has anything ever prevented the changes from happening in the first place? I mean, on the worlds where it changed people. If you guys can travel faster than light, some worlds out there must’ve had warning that it was coming.”
Shining Star paused to take a drink of water before answering, “We had a rather unique experience on the final leg of our journey to Earth. By a combination of our course and speed as handled by our autopilot, we actually overtook the conversion wave — the wave had passed through our region of space so many years before, it never occurred to us that we would encounter it ever again. Our prolight engines and prime field work by elevating us above the dimensional plane, so we didn’t encounter the wave as we passed it, but when we dropped back into normal space, it was right behind us.
“But as a result of our experiencing the second exposure, we believe that our prime fields might act as a filter against conversion — the problem being, there are so few of us left, that might have been a mere coincidence.”
Powerhouse perked up. “So this prime field thing could maybe—?”
Shining Star shook his head. “Even if it were possible to project a prime field around an entire planet, your world has already been exposed to the conversion wave. The damage here has already been done. My siblings and I have been around prime fields our whole lives, and it has never had any influence on our conversion abilities. We are still ... paranormal.” A beat passed before he added, “I’m sorry.”
Powerhouse deflated, and it was painful for the others to watch.
But Shining Star continued, “To answer your previous question about how I was converted ... by now you have seen that converted traits can be passed on to children. I inherited my abilities from my father, as did my brother and sister. They were activated within each of us upon reaching puberty.”
Takayasu asked, “How many of your people have gone— have been converted?”<
br />
“At this point, only the three of us. And our father before us, but as I’ve said, he is gone now.” He hesitated, then spat out, “And my cousin, Palkin. Thankfully, he is gone, too.”
Treading carefully, Steve began, “Um, why—?”
Shining Star looked down at his carrots as he cut Steve off. “Palkin was a traitor. He betrayed us to the Cargaun. And if it weren’t for Palkin’s interference, I might have been able to save my father’s life. I would rather not discuss that now, please.”
An awkward moment followed until Shockwave filled the silence by asking, “So your old man was paranormal, and so are you ‘n your brother and sister. You just had this one bad egg, your cousin? I mean, he turned out to be your only ‘rogue,’ right?”
Shining Star looked up. “Yes.”
“Then I’m curious how you guys got run off this last time.”
“I don’t understand.”
Shockwave leaned forward. “Earlier, you made it sound like this Cargaun guy found you by himself — like, without his big fleet of spaceships or whatever, am I right?”
“You’re partly right. When the Cargaun located us, he was on his own. But after his battle with my father, he returned with a strike force—”
“So he was paranormal, too? The Cargaun, I mean. I mean, he had to be, ‘cause you said he fought your dad. Otherwise your whole family woulda just squashed him, right?”
“Ah ... yes. Yes, the Cargaun was paranormal. In fact, the Cargaun was the only known being in the galaxy who possessed conversion-type abilities before the conversion wave.”
Everyone in the room perked up once again. “Wait,” Steve blurted, “what?”
“The Cargaun — and, to our knowledge, the Cargaun alone — possessed what you call ‘superpowers’ before the living stars released the conversion wave. This was instrumental in the Verauns’ initial bids for expansion through force. Grand level strength, durability, the power of flight ... all things that were considered impossible before the conversion wave, yet the Cargaun possessed them.”
“Jesus,” Takayasu muttered. “How powerful is he? By the new standard, I mean — post-conversion wave.”
Shining Star’s face was grim. “Powerful. And our second exposure to the conversion wave left him even more powerful.” Then he sat tall, proud, even puffing out his chest somewhat. “But I am pleased to say that, while the Veraun Supremacy may be a problem for generations to come, the Cargaun himself is no longer a threat.”
Shockwave asked, “Didja kill him?”
“Not quite,” Shining Star replied. “The reason we had dropped into normal space in the first place was because the Cargaun was chasing after us. We were tired of running from his obsession, so we turned to fight — something his strike force did not expect.”
“Wait,” Alan said, actually holding up his hand like a student in class, “I have a question.” When Shining Star gestured for him to speak, he said, “When you talked about meeting the conversion wave before, you said that occurred on the last leg of your journey here, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“So ... this Cargaun followed you almost all the way here?”
Shit, Steve thought.
“Not here, specifically,” Shining Star said. “Remember, we were looking for worlds with Taalu-tek people, and we’ve made more than one stop along this course. Our journey has brought us to, and hopefully ended with, Earth, but the Cargaun knew none of this. Nor would he have cared.”
“So ... he was just following you?”
“Correct.”
Alan grunted. “Is there any chance he’s still following you?”
Shining Star shook his head, and even started to reply with an immediate “No,” then paused. After a moment’s consideration, he said instead, “We do not believe so.”
“You don’t ‘believe’ so?” Shockwave demanded.
Takayasu followed up with, “Then you don’t know for certain.”
Shining Star again considered his answer before saying, “Not for certain, no. But this is what happened: The Cargaun’s strike force managed to track our ships, in spite of our best attempts at veiling ourselves. As I said, we were tired of running — I believe your idiom, ‘We didn’t want to always be looking over our shoulders’ fits very well. We lost good people in the confrontation, including Lord Jere Newlo, another advisor and lifelong friend to my family. But we managed to destroy every ship in the Veraun strike force and kill my traitorous cousin.
“As for the Cargaun ...” A tight smile that was equal parts pride, bitterness, and satisfaction flickered across Shining Star’s face. “We stranded him. We left him alone, in deep space, with no ships at his disposal. The Cargaun had the power of flight, and he was extremely fast as converts go, but he could not travel at prolight speeds. It would take him many years, maybe decades, to reach the nearest star, let alone one with an inhabited planet. And that’s if he knew which way to go, and if he could survive exposure to the cold vacuum of space, without food or water, for that long. I couldn’t.
“So ... no, we do not believe the Cargaun is capable of following us any longer. We are fleeing the galactic war itself, not him. Not anymore, not ever again.”
Another silence followed this declaration. Steve was starting to feel psychological whiplash from the many shifts in moods tonight. Seeking to switch things back to a more positive subject, he asked, “You said the Cargaun was made stronger than ever because he was exposed to the wave when it passed you the second time.”
“That’s correct.”
“So he was outside of any prime fields when it passed?”
Callin nodded. “Yes. He and I fought in open space while our two fleets clashed.”
Steve’s inner geek exploded again as he fully absorbed this. “So ... so you two were literally fighting in outer space?!”
“Yes.”
“That— that is so awesome!” Then another thought hit him. “Wait. Does that mean that you were made stronger, too?”
Shining Star shifted in his seat, which smacked of discomfort, but his answer was another straightforward, “Yes. My conversion abilities are essentially the same as before, but on a Grander scale. My brother and sister and I share the same basic conversion — presumably as a result of our common bloodline. But after the second exposure, I am markedly more powerful than either of them.”
Steve was fascinated by this, too. Were Callin’s siblings Class Two and he Class One, then? Or where they all Class One before, and now Callin was, like, Class One-Plus?
In the meantime, Alan again raised his hand, but this time he started speaking without waiting to be recognized. “I have a suggestion ... well, more of a theory, really ... just hear me out. You, uh, you said that the Cargaun is the only known being to have paranormal abilities before the conversion wave. And you said that the conversion wave hit about forty years ago, right?”
Shining Star nodded.
“When did this take place in the big scheme of things? I mean, had the war started yet? Were the Verauns already attacking Taal and their other neighbors?”
For the third time, Shining Star faltered before answering what struck Steve as an innocent question, and this time it was more noticeable than before. Takayasu threw Steve a look; his expression was neutral, but the pause clearly hit his radar, too.
Finally, Shining Star answered, and the seeming harmlessness of his reply made the hesitation rub Steve wrong even further, dampening his previous exuberance. “The conversion wave erupted from the living stars a few weeks after the invasion of Taal.”
Alan continued, “So the Cargaun had already started his personal rampage across that part of the galaxy?”
“Yes.”
Alan grunted. “Okay,” he said to the room at large, “hear me out here. It’s been established for those in the, uh, galactic community that the Seven Stars are alive in some weird way, right?”
Shining Star did an odd backward roll with one shoulder — Steve guessed it was
the Taalu equivalent of a shrug. “The biogenic energy has been well established. What exactly that energy means has been debated since the end of the last interstellar wars. But the term ‘the living stars’ has become quite prevalent.”
“That’s very interesting,” Alan commented, his energy perking higher, “very interesting. How long ago did the previous interstellar wars end?”
“About three-and-a-half centuries ago.”
Alan grunted. “And why did the debates about the living stars start then?”
“I ... I’m not sure, really. I think that’s about the time that the biogenic energy was first detected by the Daluvanians.”
“Uh-huh, uh-huh. So until then, the living stars weren’t considered ‘living’?”
“I suppose not.”
“So, let me see if I’m following you here.” Alan read from his notes as he rattled off, “The previous interstellar wars ended. The biogenic energy from the Seven Stars was identified. Three-hundred-and-fifty-odd years later, the Verauns started another big war, and the Cargaun — the only known super-being at the time — was their leader. And very shortly after that, the conversion wave erupted from the living stars, and the wave has the same biogenic properties, and it sometimes creates new super-beings. Did I get all of that right?”
Shining Star nodded, but his expression suggested he might not be happy about it.
Alan grunted. “Okay, hear me out ...”
“We are hearing you out,” Shockwave groused.
“Okay ... okay, what if ... what if the conversion wave was a reaction of some kind to the Cargaun?”
Huh? Steve asked, “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what if the whole creation of new super-beings was a response by the living stars to the Cargaun’s existence — or at least his behavior? You’ve got this super-Veraun, who’s bringing an end to peace that has lasted for three-and-a-half centuries — the same time at which the Seven Stars became the living stars, at least as far as anyone can tell, right? The Cargaun, who has enough personal power to make him a threat to the whole galactic community, starts really tipping the scales from order to chaos ... and suddenly there’s this wave of energy that’s giving other people powers? Think about it!”
Paranormals (Book 2): We Are Not Alone Page 20
