by M E Wise
“That bridge has remained one way and wrongly secretive for far too long. The causation of the Halfer people was unintentional but not a mistake. Nature took science and adapted itself beyond the control of my people, the Mor’h.” S’lei walked into frame. “If they are the incidental parent,” I motioned to her and she then retreated back into the shadows, “then I am the Son.”
The monitor began to feed me images of vast groups of people watching in different locations. Mor’h, Earth, Mars and Luna hung on every word. “This is not an apology, for I fear it is much too late for that. This is not a threat or rewriting of a mutual history. This is a message for a future peace that we hope can complete this bridge between our people.” I collected my thoughts, “For you are also my people!” My eyes pooled with tears. I took a clearing breath and continued. “I will keep this short and simple, you are not alone. We are not alone. This is the truth.” I signaled for Dae to upload some prepared holo streams and encoded history files. The array transferred the data almost instantaneously. “We will loop this stream for one Earth day. This information is free and uncorrupted. Unlike our beginnings. Let’s try and start over.”
I ended my transmission. The entire ordeal was over in less than ten minutes. It took longer to set up the array than announce in one simple act of kindness that existence as so many knew it to be was a lie. All of the existential value they could apply to it was now up to them. Their past philosophies, religions and basic institutions would have to adapt or fall away to the dark recesses of history.
“You have fed the roots. It is left entirely on them to grow.” S’lei softly added in the silence. She came forward and for the first time embraced me. I felt her lungs express themselves through stomata under her robes. Her body rigid, firm and still tender. “You have done more than we could have ever expected. Our season showered in your strength.” She released me.
“Safe travels.” Her Lo’Nar waited near the airlock. I couldn’t think of anything else to say. The airlock door closed and she soon disappeared into the bell craft she arrived in. They drifted away and then accelerated, followed by a string of opal escorts.
“And now we wait?” Dae asked me stepping into the light. “For now.” Her body language seemed to accept this answer. “Right now you and I share a moon, the stars and our lives. Is there more we could hope for?”
She took my hand and we seemingly absorbed one another. There was no sex, no intent to pursue anything more; we just held onto one another. We revolved in orbit around a distant home. That encircled a rich and mighty star. This star followed suit on an even grander level. The system that held this together, too swam in a deep abyss through the galaxy at large only a fraction on the epic cosmic stage. Our minute struggle, the minutia of our existence in time and space found our mortal coils in labored pain giving new lease to the uncertain future.
Reign Eternal Chapter 1
What if God Were a Child
“Little Tengoku has grown quite a bit!” Proudly spouted Taiyou. We walked the rise to the apartments fixed into the plateau. Nearly three levels of Halfer’s and their families filled these sophisticated looking dwellings. Below was a bustling but modest bizarre of homemade crafts and trade goods. “Sal out did himself! Or Hermes, whatever?” He abandoned the point that he managed to make.
“Paps!” Chortled a tiny voice from down the hill. “Paps!”
Taiyou turned and squatted quickly; “Kasai!” he groaned as his grandson climbed him like a tree. Their happiness was evident.
“Hi.” He said to me playing with his lip. “Hello to you too, Kasai!” I replied with a smile.
“That is my cue to head home!” said Taiyou. “Rasha and Ahleea must have dinner ready. Would you and Dae like to join us?” He said wide-eyed with a child strangling him. “It’s tofu and desert king sushi night.” The invitation was pretty consistent. “I have…” Taiyou cut me off. “Say no more. There are matters, I know. Relax soon though.”
“Bye, bye!” chimed Kasai; as they made their way down the gentle sloping path. I waved.
Ben and Rasha wasted little time after they married conceiving Kasai, whom they named after the eternal fire they were often found singing around. They often hosted the many citizens of our growing town in cookouts and merry get-togethers. The past four years have been hard. We rescued some more Halfers from hidden OG detention camps around Pluto’s Belt. Civil war had broken out in pockets all around the Sol System and a cold war of sorts brewed here. Q’ua Z had organized many Lo’Mor’h against the Human and Halfer presence that was growing on Mor’h. They called themselves the Keepers of the Garden, we called them Kog. They numbered in the hundreds from what S’lei and Gi’Ger could account for.
Many Kog, had once served as Keepers of the Chamber. S’lei believed this close connection to the council has made them feel empowered and emboldened their ideas of superiority. I feel this has been a weakness of many species, the Mor’h included. When threatened the most fearful will always hold true to their past beliefs. The same can be said for much of humankind’s conflict now. My address threatened them. The only thing preventing a greater conflict here is that as long as I and my people hold the Cresche; with that the Cradle of Time, I hold leverage for an uneasy truce. Our passing contact with each other in Bhur’Anto Sit is cold and tense.
Tekkers have begun plundering fleets in the Sol System. They have a steady flow of debris from conflict between Mars and the Luna forces. Earth has all but retreated from the space conflict and partisan divides cause great civil issues on the question of the Mor’h, Halfers and the celestial avarice polluting resolution. This doesn’t stop the youthful masses volunteering for adventurous space assignments for corporations and the military divisions vying for control there. The SPEAR went rogue with support of several corporations who could fund their empirical pursuits. The Orbital Guard now struggle to protect Earth from mutiny within and the hostility of a reinvigorated Martian crisis. Halfer populations have stabilized in the hundreds of thousands and their rights have been greatly improved on Earth.
The same cannot be said by those unfortunate enough to be discovered beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The SPEAR and four major corporations have united under a purity pact. The Declaration of Human Preservation was signed by now Luna President Dominuus Anastas and ratified by five organizations; Imperial Dynamics-a technology and bioengineering firm, the SPEAR led by Prime Gorgon Pri and his military machine, Practical Powers-an energy corporation, Core Too-minerals prospector and the Lunar Cross-a splinter group from the overreaching Red Cross. They formed their own government and seceded from the Earth calling their republic the DHP Union.
No change went unpunished. The SPEAR went unchallenged for nearly twelve months rounding up space-born and exiled Halfer’s. Citizenship into the DHP Union grew during this time due to xenophobic reactions to my address and their show of strength. This faded though as they slipped more and more into a military controlled regime. Gorgon Pri sought a greater influence on Mars, where he once called home. This lead to bloodshed and the bombardment from orbit of the oldest settlement on Mars; Artemis II. The event became a pivotal rallying point bringing the Orbital Guard into the fray as they fought and lost two vessels to the Liberty, the advanced SPEAR cruiser.
Tekker Syndrome has become a serious health concern. Mankind has become so reliant on their machines and gadgets that some addictive personalities sank deeper and deeper into the corporate driven influence those devices had. Trends among young and old now use technology to strengthen limbs, reaction times and maintain constant contact with the net. News agencies often blamed this on my transmission, inspiring such power through display and control! Some were influenced and began cult like followings of the Mor’h and myself. I resented this even more than I did the first appearance of the Tri-Utopia symbols once primitively painted everywhere, now the banner of our unity.
I would be lying if I said this was unexpected. Washing our hands of the gui
lt we carried was always going to leave a stain. All of these realities were my constant trap. A bitter place I would sink and meditate on. No answer came; no matter how great the solution. Dae has said to me, “You can’t control the flow of life. You can’t fight the tide of time.” And she is correct but my conscience lends me no hand in accepting it.
“Reign.” Came a big voice I knew well. “You coming to dinner?” Brigman asked filling my view as he approached. Ben walked, cloaked in his shadow. “Not Reigny-boy!” Belted Ben. “He is master of the castle and a very busy man!” Ben poked at me trying to get a reaction. “Better climb that tower and have a great Dae!” He winked.
“I would say you were jealous but I know better.” I bantered back. “I am headed to the spire now. Save a space by the fire!” I said this often and never made it to that seat time and again. Watching the array streams from the Sol System kept Dae and I busy. Brigman suffered a long year in the glass tower he now calls home. Gi’Ger followed my instructions to the measure. He had a circular tower cell erected outside the north gates toward the Sori desert to hold the once heavily SPEAR influenced soldier. Time watching the Mor’h and our settlement grow organically began to change him. He couldn’t hide reservations if he wanted too. Linking wouldn’t allow for it. I spent hours each day working with him, his remorse often colored and spoiled any sharing that transpired.
Ben adopted him in what I would like to think was Squiggy’s absence. But parts of him lingered in Rashana’s new form, so F’on lived on in her. We lived and buried our differences, often with our dead. Dae and her Ladies worked long hours for a cure or fix to the Halfer condition but the design of it proved problematic. Even with Mie’Scher as a skulking advisor, the task was proving beyond our abilities.
“Good evening Reign!” Hermes played in a British accent. A new hobby it would seem of his was cycling Human dialects and testing the response from the ears that received them. “Another accent Hermes! We need to do something about your identity crisis; as if five personalities weren’t enough.”
“The linguistic pursuits help me learn the proper way to address my people Reign.” Hermes replied mechanically.
“Again with my people!” I rubbed my coarse face. “You don’t rule these people Hermes. Neither do I, no one does. We are a community who decides most things together.”
“But we know this is not the case Reign. That is a half-truth. These people, my people strive on our every influence. If it weren’t for the decisions you have made, sometimes solely for their own good they would not have survived. We have possessed them in a sense.” He stalled and cycled.
“I get the point you are trying to make Hermes. But you lack the nuance to make it. We do not possess them, we care for them and help them adapt.” I posited. “Is this something you can understand?”
His duraframe whirled from dusty deposits. “The collective believes so.” Hermes often had me convinced he was one personality when the matrix would refer to the collective like they were outside his parameters. Many times I had discussions with the collective and Dae on whether or not his growing well of experience and the totality of his time analyzing was somehow a life; maybe not organic but a developing life. Dae found the idea frightening. Hermes would only stall and reply from different perspectives on what life is.
“See you tomorrow Hermes.” I said making my leave into the elevator at the center of the tower.
The light was dying outside and I felt heavy in my steps. I recovered easily as always though. Dae was beginning to feel some stress in the lack of age on my face. She had begun developing crow’s feet as she called them. I didn’t notice. She was as euphorically beautiful as the moment I first laid eyes on her. At thirty plus now, we both had fallen into routines of work, responsibility and family.
“Would you look at what the cat dragged in!” Called Marta as I stepped from the elevator. “It’s my angelic son in law!” She met me with a kiss often before Dae would.
“Get your behind into this kitchen,” she called to me while rushing in and out of an an apse with Mor’h and repurposed lab equipment we called a kitchen. “Eat before you waste away.” On a mission to save some Halfers I used an opal craft to rendezvous and retrieve Marta O’Shea; Dae’s mother, from the Kuiper belt trade lanes. It was a thirtieth birthday surprise for Dae. The reveal was one of the most beautiful reunions I have ever witnessed. I’ve seen many over the years. Some came and some went. If we could make it possible we tried.
“Thank you.” I was always very gracious of her offerings. “Dae?” I asked.
“She is freshening up a bit. Ladies should always be presentable!” Marta smiled. “Mom! I am not some dirty prospector! Nor am I deaf.” Dae corrected from the far side of the spire we have made our room. She swiftly made her way to the table and kissed me firmly. “It is good to see you Mr. Mister!” She said as her eyes filled me with lust. She had me wrapped tightly around her heart and she knew it.
“You look tired.” She observed. “It’s the Kog. They are causing issues with some building materials we need.” I rubbed the space between my eyes. “No matters of state talk at the supper table.” Scolded Mother Marta. She slopped down a healthy portion of potatoes, only they weren’t the same she always complained. The Mor’h counterpart was much closer to a yam. I enjoyed them and she took notice. They are now a staple at several meals.
“How are your ladies?” I asked chewing on a local carrot like root. “Anything of note?”
“I worked with the little pale ones in the garden. The little ones?” Marta measured with her hand. “Lo’Mor’h, Mother!” Dae corrected. “Hush girl, Reign understood me.” Marta’s accent was more pronounced when she was flustered.
“Dalia and Wan Sah tested another inhibitor on the Halfer strain. No change yet but the method requires a little gestation.” Dae beamed proud of her colleagues. The one good thing that came from my interstellar unveiling was that Dae could now contact some of her old colleagues in the Sol System as well. They did this discreetly of course. “Dr. Malik believes we are onto something.” Her old professor from India was a renowned biologist and genetics expert. We catalogued contacts in the array codex and could somewhat dial them back. It wasn’t the best form of communications with the great lag at times but it worked.
“I love you.” I mouthed to Dae across the table. She smiled and continued eating. She winked though signaling some coupling was in our future. After Marta retreats to her quarters that is.
I have discovered that when I have alone time; an infrequent happening, the predatory garden on the first level of the Cresche is where I enjoy walking and thinking. The mammoth butterflies completed their entire life cycles feeding and inadvertently fertilizing the many duplicitous types of foliage here and I could somehow relate to that. Stationary predators needed to lure and convince an outside accomplice, willing or not to join their struggle. These ornate and beautiful plants spent millennia perfecting the symbiotic nature of it. I wondered to myself over and over again as to why the butterfly or the bee just doesn’t fly away and be done with it?
Somehow in a strange twist of fate; these two separate structures became permanently entangled. The butterfly could lay eggs around the base of the goliath pitcher plant and the rotting waste it expressed nurtured those eggs. Nature cleaned up after itself this way. In turn the butterfly carried pollens as the bees would, back and forth across the garden and wherever their wings could carry them; propagating the future of both species. It would take only one seed carried on the directionless wind and chance to further the growth of both species. Given their dual reliance, that chance was a small gamble.
How do I fit in this puzzle? Dae says I am natural. An evolutionary response correcting an artificial influence and making that work more efficiently. I see the Halfer’s though and their condition is far from natural. Yet here we are building a future of coexistence together. Are we only developing a symbiosis like the butterfly and the pitcher plant?
Or are we the bees and the butterfly being funneled into a duty of furthering the success of the Mor’h? Our life here is contested. As the lives of the Halfer’s are contested in the Sol System. The wind of time seems to have blown us here. In the course of separate pathways, we have found one.
I now look ahead at the horizon. From the walkways that stop at an edge to nowhere; this garden was like the wheel of life and the many spokes that delivered you to nowhere were subconscious movements. One foot traveled in front of the other leading anywhere as you and your mind wandered. But each path lead back to a bigger picture. Everything around you could consume each other at any given time. This was the truth of a predatory cycle, a smaller scale only mirrored the larger scale, predator or prey. Your greatest chance for survival was your uniqueness or your even more precarious alliances. Even that wasn’t an assurance; I noticed the wings of a mammoth butterfly struggling to escape the pitcher plants sticky nectar. Larvae wriggled at the basin.
