“Okay…” Ellie stared blankly at her mother. It wasn’t simply that she didn’t believe her, but astronomy wasn’t one of her hobbies. All she knew of Sagittarius was that it was her friend Bethany’s astrological sign.
“Ghowrn is approximately seven thousand light years away and borders the last outpost of inhabitable space before the inhospitable regions of the Galactic Center,” Julian supplied, noting Ellie’s incomprehension and incorrectly assuming more technical details would help. “The Gamma Quadrant,” he added with a hint of a smile when he realized his mistake.
“Um, sure,” Ellie said with a blush. She recognized the last term from old Star Trek episodes, but it brought her no additional clarity. Instead of waiting for yet another astronomy lesson, she turned back to her mother.
“So, uh, I guess it isn’t much of a stretch to assume your planet was taken over or blown up or something and that’s why you’re here on Earth. And this Svoryk guy has something to do with that, so we’ll just need to find a way to bring him to justice without revealing ourselves as space aliens, right?”
“If you want to distill a lifetime of turmoil into the most simplistic of one of Richard’s film plots, then yes, I suppose you are correct, Ellie,” Isa replied with a pinched frown, causing Ellie another twinge of guilt over her snark.
“Sorry,” she said sheepishly.
“No, no,” her mother dismissed. “You have every right to be suspicious. To be perfectly honest, I had hoped to never have this conversation with you. Earth is the only home you have ever known. It’s not perfect, but I thought it would be safer to let you believe you were an Earthling. I’m afraid that was foolish of me.”
“Fair enough,” Ellie said with a shrug. “So what actually happened?”
“Korghetia was once one of six self-governed planets that made up the Ghowrn Federation. The Federation existed mainly to regulate inter-planetary trade and to ensure agreements and alliances were in all parties’ favor. This had been the system of governance for as long as Ghowrn had a written history.”
Isa trailed off, pressing her lips together and staring into the distance as if remembering something both sad and unpleasant before continuing.
“I was young when Svoryk was crowned the new king of Huptsov. I remember my parents and grandparents being very distressed by this news, but I was too young to understand what it meant for us. Svoryk had barely ascended the throne before he began making drastic changes to Huptsovian law and amassed a formidable army. Somehow, he got his hands on technology The Federation had never seen before. When Huptsov officially declared their intent to withdraw, no one was surprised. Avoiding conflict, The Federation agreed to cut ties with Huptsov, hoping for a peaceful severance. Svoryk, however, had other ideas.”
“Are you kidding?” Ellie stared at her mother in disbelief. “So everyone was just cool with this guy taking over a planet and withdrawing from the organization meant to keep the peace, but no one thought that maybe he was up to something?”
“Ghowrn history is not bloody and war torn like that of Earth,” Isa explained. “Our written history precedes that of this primitive planet by several millennia.”
“Primitive?” Ellie balked. Her mother could be snobby at times and often referred to New York as uncivilized, but this was too much.
“It is theorized that the planets of the Ghowrn system saw similar levels of turmoil to that which exists on Earth, but that would have been billions of years before this system was capable of sustaining life,” Julian explained.
“Okay fine, we’re primitive,” Ellie grumbled. She supposed it wasn’t too far-fetched for an alien race that was billions of years old and achieved interstellar flight to consider Earth a newbie planet. Still, she felt it was a bit rude to say so. “But don’t even act like your billions of years of peace or whatever makes you any less violent than Earthlings. Unless maybe I’m missing something and it’s a tradition on Core Geisha to psychically electrocute your employees?”
“Korghetia,” Isa corrected, emphasizing the middle syllable. “The Federation was founded on peace, but do not assume our every action can be painted with a black or white brush.”
Ellie opened her mouth to retort, but caught a look from Julian out of the corner of her eye. As much as she wanted to know where the animosity came from, she didn’t want to have a repeat of earlier events, so she put her inquiry on hold.
“Okay… so what happened?”
“Huptsov invaded and took control of Helsyn—a valuable industrialized planet—before anyone knew what was happening. From there, it was nothing for the newly formed Huptsovian Empire to gain control of our worlds. Soon, Korghetia was all that was left of the former Ghowrn Federation and our defenses were not prepared for the impending war. Were it not for your father’s people, we too would have fallen.”
“The Eidyn people.”
Ellie hadn’t meant to speak aloud and was just as confused as anyone else when the words came out of her mouth.
“How did you know that?”
Ellie could not immediately answer. It was as if her head had suddenly been implanted with someone else’s memories. This was far more tangible than the vague influence from earlier. She didn’t think revealing this to her mother was a good idea.
“Um… You mentioned them earlier,” Ellie stammered, remembering with some relief that she had heard the name that evening. “Rather Julian did. When, uh…” Her relief was short lived when she realized her save had painted her into the awkward corner by once again bringing up her mother’s erratic behavior and mistreatment of Julian.
“Yes, the proverb,” Isa dismissed just a bit too rapidly before continuing with the history lesson. “Exploratory missions to the outer reaches of the star system always showed Ulanta, our farthest planet, as a cold and inhospitable sphere unsuitable to sustain life. As such, we were completely unaware that we shared our system with a highly advanced civilization. So advanced, in fact, that our inability to detect their presence was largely due to their efforts to remain hidden.
“We were on the verge of falling to the Empire when the inhabitants of the planet sent a delegation to Korghetia. They called themselves the children of Eidyn, the oldest civilization in the galaxy. They were explorers before their ancestors finally settled on the remote Ulanta, which they called T’al Eidyn, and claimed they never intended to involve themselves in the affairs of The Federation. However, Svoryk’s swift rise to power changed all of that. It was their concern he had access to advanced technology. Their technology.”
At the mention of Eidyn technology, the information stream flared within Ellie’s head, showing her images and impressions that were like nothing she’d seen before. An alien landscape. Strange, towering buildings. Airships straight out of a 1950s sci-fi comic. But as quickly as the images came, they were gone, reduced once again to an unintelligible humming in the back of her mind.
“The Eidyn people were as technologically superior to us as we are to Earthlings,” Isa continued. “With their help, Korghetia did not fall to the Huptsovian Empire. Rather, we were able to recapture Sonna and along with the people of T’al Eidyn, we formed the Ghowrn Alliance of Sovereign Worlds.”
“But if you’d won, why did you leave?” Ellie asked with a slight frown.
“One victorious battle does not win the war,” Isa said with a tight and unreadable expression. “By the time I came of age, Svoryk was becoming more aggressive in his bid for power. As a show of political solidarity, your father and I were to be married. Of course, there was concern as to whether or not our biological makeup was even compatible.”
“Um, wait,” Ellie interrupted. “This is going off topic in the worst way…”
Isa smirked. “If there is a constant in the known universe, it is that no child ever wants to acknowledge that their parents had to engage in sexual relations to reproduce. No, sweetie, I am not going to detail my sex life. I simply need you to realize when I said that the Eidyn were light years in advance o
f us, I was not exaggerating. Eidyn reproduction is closer to what we consider genetic engineering on an organic level. To create life, my own genetic makeup had to be altered slightly. The best genetic traits from both your father and me were built into a framework that would, through more traditional means of conception, grow to become our daughter.”
“Is that why I’m a—” Ellie began but clamped her mouth shut. Despite her automatic curiosity, this was not a conversation she wanted to have in front of Julian. Her strange appearance had caused her enough trouble as a child, but admitting to a high school nurse that she did not have a menstrual cycle had brought about a whole new level of complicated questions.
“Had I known the extent to which people could be narrow-minded and cruel, I would have found another way to explain your physiological differences.” Isa gave her daughter an apologetic glance. “Eidyn sexual development is wildly different from ours and yours is different yet. I was the one who selected to define your pattern as female. That your internal reproductive organs are Eidyssic does not make you any less of a woman than those of us with ovaries.”
“That’s okay, I didn’t, that is… We don’t have to discuss that,” Ellie stammered, her face ablaze as her mother either ignored or didn’t notice her discomfort over the subject.
“Again, I am only telling you this so that you may perhaps gain a better understanding of that which I myself do not fully understand. You see, there was something else written into your genetics that your father did not tell me about.”
“The Kyroibi.”
Again, Ellie was surprised by her own voice. The word fell from her lips with the same musical tonality that Julian’s voice had when he’d spoken her name.
“How?” Isa asked in a sharp tone matched by her pinched brow.
“You and Svoryk both were talking about it like it was something pretty important,” Ellie reminded her mother, though in truth, the word had simply popped into her head and didn’t seem to want to leave.
“Yes,” Isa confirmed with a nod. “Your father was the custodian and master of the Kyroibi.”
“But what is it?” Ellie asked.
“I cannot explain that which I do not fully understand, Ellie,” Isa answered automatically, almost too quickly. Immediately, the humming in Ellie’s head swelled into something akin to distrust.
“I don’t believe you have the ability to lie to your daughter anymore, Isaverlline.” Julian’s voice was quiet, but the threat was clear.
“Be mindful, Julian,” Isa hissed, grasping her wrist once again.
“Oh no, we are not doing this again,” Ellie said, reaching out to protect Julian from her mother’s sudden and malevolent mood swing. But instead of writhing in pain, Julian sat with his arms folded over his chest and leaned back against the sofa, maintaining eye contact with his enraged employer. Suddenly, another insight surfaced within her mind. “You’re Eidyssic, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Julian replied, never breaking eye contact with Isa.
Ellie looked from one to the other, unsure which was more disturbing: the animosity her mother was not even trying to hide or the cold defiance in Julian’s stare.
“Um, okay… you just said you were allies.”
“T’al Eidyn and Korghetia are political allies, yes,” Isa explained. “But remember, it was an Eidyn who put Svoryk in power. Not all had pledged loyalty to The Ghowrn Alliance.”
“What exactly does that mean?” Ellie asked.
To her surprise, it was Julian who answered.
“I came to Earth on Svoryk’s orders. He sent me to find and retrieve the Kyroibi.”
He spoke without hesitation but also without emotion. No malevolence, yet no regret, and no hint of apology either.
“Svoryk? So you…”
She trailed off, hoping that one or the other would provide an explanation. If Julian was the enemy she could certainly understand her mother’s animosity, but nothing more. She knew the saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but four years was a long time for either of them to play a role.
“To the Empire, I was merely property, a weapon of war to be deployed as needed.”
“Property?” Ellie gasped. “You’re talking about slavery.” She narrowed her eyes at her mother. “Now who’s the primitive culture?”
“Do not get the wrong impression, Ellie,” Julian continued before Isa could speak. “Neither the original Federation nor the newly formed Alliance condone slavery. Svoryk was misled to believe he had dominance over me. My loyalty has always been to the Kyroibi master, but because of your father’s last instructions, I opted to give your mother temporary dominance to prove that I had never been under the control of the Emperor.”
“Okay, seriously. Slavery? Dominance? I don’t care what you call it, this is getting more than a little creepy.” Ellie shuddered and stood up, needing distance from both Julian and her mother.
“Ellie,” Isa said in a softer voice. “Sweetie, it’s late. Perhaps we can continue this in the morning, when Richard arrives.”
“No,” Ellie shook her head. Although she was both mentally and physically exhausted, she knew that sleep would not come while her mind raced with more than questions. “I want answers, Mom. What happened to my father? What does Svoryk want from me? I need to hear something that makes sense.”
“Your father—” Isa began, but cut off as her whole demeanor changed. “I’m sorry,” she sighed, her eyes heavy with loss. “Not long after your conception, there was an attack on Korghetia’s capital, confirming that Svoryk had access to advanced technology. The Huptsovian army broke through what we had been foolish enough to think were impenetrable shields. Though we’d been in hiding, your father and I were soon discovered and taken prisoner. He was sentenced to death and I was to become one of Svoryk’s brides.”
The emotion in her mother’s voice was so overpowering that Ellie felt a lump form in her own throat.
“El’iadryov had been expecting the attack,” Isa continued. “Unbeknownst to me, he set in motion the events that would eventually bring us to where we are now. I didn’t know I was carrying a powerful relic along with my unborn child. It was only when his life was taken that something awoke within me.”
Ellie stopped her pacing and came back to settle on the sofa. Something awakening within her was the best way to describe what was happening to her at the moment.
“That was the Kyroibi?” she asked, hoping to finally find out what exactly it was.
“In one sense, yes,” Isa replied with a slight wince. “I am not Eidyn, so I cannot fully understand the phenomena. However, I could feel that something was guiding me. Imagine my surprise when I found myself involuntarily pulsing to a remote island where a ship awaited my arrival. Before I knew what was happening, I landed on a remote and primitive planet in an arm of the galaxy I’d been told was inhospitable to life. I was terrified, but I knew inherently that your father had a plan for us.”
“That’s the part I don’t quite understand,” Ellie said, pouring another glass of wine. “To protect us, my father left his own people and yours to be overtaken by Svoryk?”
“He was protecting us, yes, but in as much as he could, he was protecting his people too. If the Kyroibi were to fall into the wrong hands, it would mean the end of fair rule in the galaxy.”
“But if Svoryk already rules the whole system—”
“He does not.”
Ellie looked over at her mother’s assistant, who until just then sat unnaturally still and silent, as if trying to give mother and daughter a measure of privacy in which to discuss the father Ellie never knew.
“Doesn’t he? Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“The attack on Korghetia failed to bring the planet under the Empire’s control. The three planets of the Alliance remain sovereign, but no further victories have been won on either side,” Julian explained. “I am here because from the beginning, Svoryk has believed the Kyroibi to be the key to taking complete cont
rol of the system. He has been given just enough information to be dangerous, but not enough to fully understand what the Kyroibi truly protects.”
“And you do?” Ellie asked hopefully.
“The Kyroibi holds the forbidden knowledge of the Eidyn people.”
Ellie waited, but Julian was not forthcoming with anything more on the subject.
“Right then,” she said with a sigh. “So I’ve just sort of got this… thing… tool… weapon… whatever, inside me, but no one can tell me a thing about it except some creepy space toad wants to use it, rather me, to take over the universe?”
“I understand this has been a terribly overwhelming day for you and I’m truly sorry,” her mother said, stifling a yawn.
“That’s quite an understatement,” Ellie replied with a sarcastic snort, but immediately felt bad for her outburst. “I’m sorry. I’m a bit punchy and this is all just a little bit insane. Okay, a lot insane.” Her mind was humming with about a million unanswered questions, but she was also beginning to grow too tired to think straight. It was just past midnight, a mere twelve hours since she had started her ill-fated Organic Chemistry exam, yet that seemed a lifetime ago. “You’re right. I probably just need sleep.”
“Of course,” Isa said, relaxing slightly. “I promise you, Ellie, we are safe for the moment. Richard will be here in the morning and we can discuss our options then. But if you don’t mind, I’d like a quick word before bed.” She leveled a pointed stare at Julian, who remained seated next to Ellie. “Alone.”
For a moment, Julian appeared to ignore her, but at last, he stood.
“Very well,” he said, bowing slightly to each woman in turn. “I shall retire. Understand, Isaverlline, that the Kyroibi reveals the truth even if you refuse to accept it.”
Isa stiffened, but did not reply. Once Julian disappeared down the long hallway to the bedrooms, she turned to her daughter.
“I know this is hard for you to understand, Ellie, but you need to be careful. Julian is more dangerous than you know.”
“Then why do you keep him around?” Ellie asked, taken aback not only by the fear lacing her mother’s words, but also because the thing in her head had been telling her something very different all night.
A Space Girl from Earth (The Kyroibi Trilogy Book 1) Page 5
