by Aer-ki Jyr
“The procedure took some time,” Kip explained. “You can step out now.”
The arm bar lifted but the Chixzon didn’t move. “What have you done to me?”
“Feel different?” Brad asked.
“I am not the same, but I do not know how.”
“We’ll let you figure that out with time, but for now let’s continue with our chat while you eat.”
“What have you done to me?” Radonon demanded.
“We’re not saying,” Kip said firmly. “Still think the process is undoable?”
“It is, of that I have no doubts. Other alterations can be made, and you have definitely done something.”
“Have a seat,” Brad said, pointing to the stool with a tray of foodstuffs set beside it on a portable tabletop. “One way or another.”
“Our discussion is over until you tell me what you’ve done.”
Brad raised a hand for emphasis, then telekinetically lifted Radonon off his feet and flew him out of the medical chamber and over next to the stool where he dropped him a few inches onto the ground.
“If we have to dig the information out telepathically we will, but as you’ve already pointed out, you have nowhere to go and you cannot stop us, so let’s make this civil.”
“And what harm is there in telling me?” Radonon challenged.
“It’s a puzzle. We’re assessing your abilities in self-analysis, thus we can’t tell you when you have to figure it out yourself.”
“Testing our superiority?”
“You could call it that.”
“Have you damaged me?”
“Not by intent,” Kip promised.
“Yet you are making alterations in a physiology that you do not understand,” Radonon complained as he twitched his head for the third time. “Or is it physical? Perhaps you have done something to my mind.”
“You tell us.”
“Experimentation is beyond the limitations of your scruples, thus you must have a direct purpose. A biomonitor chip buried within my body?”
“We don’t like implants,” Brad said, nixing that idea.
“I feel unbalanced, so a sizeable alteration has been made,” the Chixzon said as he stood in place, twitching his head fractionally to the side again as if trying to reset his thoughts. “Why am I still here?”
“Meaning what?” Kip asked.
“In this room. You know I have the ability to cut through most materials, so why am I not in a fully shielded cell?”
“You’re not doing anything with us here,” the trailblazer said confidently.
“Such a declaration implies an unnecessary risk. You seek to solve most problems through infrastructure, yet you do not now in favor of a personal guard that could potentially lapse in a moment of opportunity for me.”
“You have nowhere to go,” Kip reiterated.
“But I could still cause damage, even kill one or two of you. The medtech perhaps.”
“Only if we get sloppy.”
“But keeping me here is sloppy. That is not your method of operating. You cover your weaknesses, not leave them arrogantly open…unless you’re hoping I’ll attempt to break out.”
“Would we risk our people for that?”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Radonon said, glancing at the floor but Kip could sense that his mind was going elsewhere. He was distracted and trying to ‘blink’ himself back into focus. “Which is why I do not understand your recklessness. If you are readying another facility you could keep me sedated until it is complete, just like you previously did.”
“Maybe we think you’re mostly talk with little skill to back it up,” Brad offered.
“You may be ignorant of us, but you are not dumb. Do not expect me to believe so under any circumstance. You are working another angle.”
“Feel free to figure it out,” Kip taunted, tossing his hands up and to the sides in an innocent gesture.
“Eat up,” Brad suggested. “Your body is low on fuel.”
Radonon looked at both Archons, not willing to let go of the problem at hand, but in agreement as to his physical needs. He sat down on the stool, wrapping his tail around it again as he picked a sugar stick up and smashed half of it into his small mouth opening before biting it off.
“Taste the same?” Kip inquired, but the Chixzon didn’t respond.
“Is your superior patience beginning to run thin?” Brad asked.
“Perhaps,” he said, taking another bite and fighting a mental war with himself, the source of which still eluded him.
“Well then, how about we discuss a topic of your choice?”
“Your origins.”
“What about them?”
“You’re hiding something. I didn’t realize how much until just now. Your abilities and aspects of your tech don’t add up. You’re siphoning off of something.”
“We’ll discuss anything that we would with the Protovic,” Brad said evenly. “Certain secrets we will still keep.”
“What did you hope to gain from my transformation? Your current powers are far too advanced, and your understanding of genetics far too simplistic. If you had a handle on your own genome you wouldn’t need me to upgrade the Protovic, you would have simply designed what abilities you wanted to give them. You were looking to gain from a mystery when you already have something far more valuable. How is that possible?”
“We did not add our abilities after birth,” Kip said, throwing him a bone. “We were born with them.”
“Then why does he not have them?” Radonon asked, pointing a black finger towards where Vortison sat.
“We only want those who have earned them to have access to them. So yes,” Kip said, reading his thoughts nonstop, “that makes us biologically superior to you.”
“You have an advantage, we have others. Do not assume superiority.”
Brad lifted the tray of foodstuffs off the tabletop and floated it to the side. Kip took control of it as Brad lifted the table a few inches off the ground then used his Lachka at full force and crushed it down into a ball over the course of three seconds. He continued to compress it even further, then dropped it at Radonon’s feet.
“You were saying?”
Both Archons could feel the wheels moving inside his mind with the analysis portion that was still Star Force developed being pulled on heavily. The more doubts they fed him the more it differed with the limited propaganda that had been downloaded into the rest of his mind. There wasn’t much, for a race as advanced as the Chixzon couldn’t be too deluded or they’d cease to function and self-destruct, but everything about them was tinted with a slight deviance that didn’t exactly match up with the truth.
All of Nefron’s memories had been altered accordingly so they were useful but didn’t conflict with his new culture and knowledge…but the learning portion was untainted and still remained Star Force, developed through all the years spent in the maturia and then further with advanced training and even combat against the lizards. Nefron had been one of the oldest Reds in the Protovic, and the higher level of wisdom that he had accumulated over the years was now fighting with the much older and polished doctrine in the few places where it didn’t match up, with the Archons trying to give him as many corners to peel back as possible.
“You’ve never seen telekinesis that strong,” Kip said as Radonon stared at the ball of twisted polymer. “In fact, you didn’t even consider it possible. Yours is far too weak to ever attain that level, used primarily as a tool. A precision tool for when your fingers are too large.”
“An upgrade we created,” he admitted. “Built to mimic one naturally occurring that we discovered. It was somewhat stronger, but not on this level.”
“Just one?” Brad asked.
“Telepathy may not be widespread, but it is not exceedingly rare. Telekinesis was a myth until we encountered one race that had it.”
“Which you destroyed?”
“They…”
“Deserved it?”
“They would
not yield.”
“They were not a threat to you,” Brad continued, pulling more data from his mind as the subject matter floated to the surface. “They had something you wanted. Something you feared not having, so you took it from them then killed them so only you would have it. I can understand your fear now, especially because you can’t get inside my head to see how it works. You must be terrified.”
“Do not mock me. It is a weak tactic that will not work.”
“I mock your cowardice, which I will admit is not your own, only now inherited in memory. The Chixzon destroyed an entire race out of fear, not necessity. Their telekinesis was not strong enough to truly threaten you, it was just something they could do that you could not. You couldn’t stand that. How pathetic.”
“And inferior,” Kip added.
“Perhaps you are correct,” Radonon said, his head complaining against that admission, “but we are not in the habit of leaving potential enemies at our back. Your track record in that is hit and miss.”
“Meaning?”
“You do not pursue the Skarrons. You left their empire intact.”
Brad and Kip exchanged glances. “You do know how big it is, right?”
“No larger than the lizards.”
Brad laughed. “Are you serious?”
“He doesn’t remember,” Kip said with a smirk. “I think he never paid attention in the maturia to that portion of the map.”
“Or did we not give them that much of a map?”
Kip hesitated for a moment. “Good question. Maybe we didn’t.”
“If you withheld knowledge, I am not to blame for that,” Radonon pointed out.
“Well then, let me bring you up to speed,” Brad said, telepathically sending the size and scope of the known Skarron Empire to him while making sure not to include anything else.
The Chixzon visibly flinched, and as he did so Kip could feel his analysis programming digging into it and working all kinds of new angles…and in the process, it was very slowly augmenting the rest of his altered memories and knowledge to bring them into line with logic and reality. That caused even more mental friction, but it was like trying to cut down a tree using a pad of sandpaper…very ineffective, but what wood was scraped away wasn’t coming back, and given enough time and effort the tree would eventually be felled.
Which meant it might take years, or even centuries, but if they could keep exposing Radonon to stimulus that required him to learn rather than just remember and repeat they could undermine the Chixzon in him. They couldn’t bring the Protovic back, but maybe they could free his mind enough for him to chart his own course going forward.
That was the hope, at least, and it hadn’t been squashed by the transformation programming reasserting itself and wiping clean the bit of Protovic now exposed within him. Yet, anyway, with Vortison closely monitoring his mental status in case they needed to yank him back inside the chamber for another quick alteration if some new surprise thwarted their plans, but for the moment it seemed they had a crack in the Chixzon stranglehold on his mind and it was already beginning to widen as the alien imperative to remain in the know and gain the upper hand was actually prompting the analysis and working against itself.
Now it was just up to the Archons to feed that fire and see where it went.
“Their empire did not exist previously,” Radonon said warily. “For them to have grown so large with such inferior capabilities is both alarming and impressive. The Brijderat used to inhabit that region of the galaxy, a part at least that we allowed them to, and they were far more advanced, as were others. What transpired to wipe them off the map? Something major. I know a great deal of time has passed, but there are too many races missing. You know what has occurred. Tell me…or at least confirm that you know and it’s amongst your list of secrets.”
“Why do you assume the forces set against the Chixzon didn’t continue to fight and destroy others?” Brad asked, getting back to a limited point that they’d explored previously.
“They were weak, and only wise enough to exploit a major flaw in our strategic alignment. We relied on the Uriti too heavily, to our gain for such a long time, but their weakness was not one that we could counteract. The Alliance against us could not destroy them, but they did neutralize them…and with that single tactic shattered our entire plan. Our conventional forces were not developed enough to hold their inferior forces back, nor did we have time to augment them. We were running too low on population and could not quickly correct our mistake. Our enemies were far greater in number, but they did not have the power to overtake others that we had previously held under our suppression. No, something else has occurred.”
Kip frowned. “They didn’t destroy the Uriti?”
“They could not, and I do not believe they have found a way to this day, though I have no way of being certain.”
“What did they do?”
“They found a way to pacify them. Attack them and they would undo the restraint.”
“Any chance the Uriti are still out there, or do they have an expiration date?”
“To our knowledge the Klamensh do not expire with time, and when we created the Uriti we did not see nor anticipate that changing. Only two Uriti were ever destroyed, both of which required extreme and unpredictable circumstances. It is most likely that our Uriti are still out there imprisoned, though they are useless to us until we find a way to counteract the sedative.”
“What of the original Klamensh then?”
“I do not know. The sedative did not work on it, and we never discovered why. If the facility that held it was destroyed it is most likely that the Klamensh was released. Hopefully it destroyed the attackers in the process and exacted a small mote of vengeance on our behalf.”
“Didn’t you guys kind of have it coming?” Kip asked, not ignoring the magnitude of what they were just discussing, but not wanting Radonon to pick up on any reaction from him. “I mean, come on, when you go around wiping out entire races for the fun of it, you’re not exactly being the good guys.”
“It was never for fun, Archon. If you are truly in my mind you would know that. Every one we destroyed was out of necessity…” he said, cutting off with a bit of hesitation even though his thought was complete.
“Even you can see the lie in that. Your telekinetic grab didn’t require their extinction.”
“Leaving a weapon such as that for others to find and copy would have been foolish.”
“Oh, so you plan to backstab us later on if we agree to side with you?” Brad asked.
Radonon looked at him and flashed the green in his eyes. “We do not break agreements. Serve us and you will not meet the same fate.”
“Don’t lie,” Kip said, even though he detected no deception within him. “Our abilities are too advanced for the Chixzon not to try and steal from us. Even if you personally did not, the others would eventually. You’d need to find a good way to do it, since we can kill you rather easily if we wanted, but do not deny that the Chixzon would try if they had an opportunity, agreement or no.”
“We are far too dangerous to leave alive,” Brad added. “You would betray us eventually. It’s in your nature.”
Radonon’s mind was in flux again, almost to the point of a headache as he tried to reconcile the actions of his remembered past and the logic thread the Archons were weaving…without success. The two were incompatible, not on their face, but other tenets of Chixzon culture clashed with the facts, most of which the Archons didn’t even know about yet.
“I will not betray you if you are loyal,” Radonon finally said. “And the others are genetic copies of me. We all think and act alike. Our agreements will hold so long as you do not break them.”
“Unless necessity dictates,” Brad reiterated.
“An advanced race cannot exist without some commonality, some binding tethers to give it structure. Chixzon hold to one another and to our word. We may lie as a tool, but when we make a formal agreement it is fixed, we do not alter it
unless the other party does first.”
“Has that always held true in Chixzon history?”
“Yes,” he said, though both Archons picked up on a flinch.
“In reality, or rewritten history? Remember, you didn’t observe any of it. You only have manufactured memories. You can only speak for yourself, not others that you have had no actual contact with or knowledge of. You were Protovic, and carry the memories from Star Force, the knowledge you’ve gained, the skills you’ve learned. The others, present or future, will not have that base. If they come from cultures that were deceptive, would the Chixzon in them hold pure or would it be inclined to loosen the loyalty where necessity demanded?”
“As you know, I can only speak of myself and what I know. And what I know is that we hold to our agreements. Join with me and I will honor whatever bargain we strike.”
“But you can’t honestly guarantee, 100%, that any other Chixzon will,” Kip said firmly.
Radonon didn’t answer that for a long moment, but in his mind both Kip and Brad sensed the doubt creeping in…and how the analysis section of his mind fed off it.
4
December 26, 3092
Solar System
Earth
Amy-12199 walked up the circular staircase and into Davis’s office to find the Star Force Director and Greg waiting for her. She paused for a moment on the top stair, stretched her arms behind her back and twisted her neck to the side, rocking her curtain of red hair as she let out a long sigh.
“That bad, huh?” Greg asked from his chair.
“Kip and Brad didn’t want to leave, so they sent me to fill you in,” she said as she walked up and grabbed a seat next to the trailblazer and across from Davis.
“What’s Nefron’s condition?”
“Uncertain. His telepathic ability is increasing, but not to the level where he can block us out so he has no option of duplicity. That said, we’re not totally sure everything he thinks is on the level. If he’s convincing himself to believe and play along now he could change his mind later.”
