Wraithkin (The Kin Wars Saga Book 1)

by Jason Cordova

  Gabriel stared at her back, dumbfounded. How was she so amazingly perfect, he wondered as he slowly followed Sophie to the house. He looked back up at Caballero, mildly amused. He shook his head at the stark realization he had made. She was Perfect, he thought, and perfect as well.

  Despite everything, he knew he was still the luckiest man in the Dominion.

  #

  The talk with his parents did not fare nearly as well as he could have hoped.

  “How could this happen?” His mother moaned as she clutched a small pillow from the couch. Seated on the cushioning, she looked across the table which separated Gabriel and Sophie from his parents. She looked at him with despair. “How? You can’t be a...one of them!”

  “Rona,” Gabriel’s father warned, his voice low. Rona Espinoza ignored her husband of thirty years and plowed onwards, her agony and anxiety ruling the moment.

  “Was it my side of the family? Oh, I knew it! I knew it!” she wailed and cried into the pillow she held. Gabriel’s father shook his head at Gabriel as he rubbed her shoulders. She sniffled and looked up at her husband. “Was it me, Joel? Did I bring this onto us? Did I bring this pox upon our household? Oh God, why? Why?”

  Joel Espinoza sighed as he continued to rub his wife’s shoulders, his eyes rolling up into his head at his wife’s theatrics. He cast a look at his son that Rona could not see before he leaned close to his wife. He spoke gently into her ear.

  “It’s nobody’s fault, Rona,” he said comfortingly. “These things just happen.”

  “What will the neighbors think?” she asked hysterically, glancing towards the large bay windows across the room, her eyes wide in panic. She clutched the pillow tighter against her chest. In the distance, a faint light from their closest neighbor could be seen. Her eyes went skyward as she fell to her knees. “Oh God, why have you done this to me?”

  “Mom!” Gabriel snapped. Sophie touched his arm gently, calming him. Gabriel closed his eyes and took a deep, relaxing breath. When he felt ready, he opened them. “I’m not dead. I don’t care what the neighbors think. Lie if you want.”

  “Rona, the boy’s smart,” Joel said, placating his near-hysterical wife. “He’s a grown man now, and it’s not like we wanted any more kids anyways. The neighbors can go to hell if it suits them. This is our family, and whether our son is a Perfect or not, he’s still our son.”

  “But what about his brothers?” Rona practically screamed. Joel rolled his eyes again and looked at her, the first hint of annoyance showing on the corners of his mouth. Rona buried her face back into the small pillow and cried some more as her husband hushed her as he stroked her head.

  “Kevin and his wife already have children, Rona,” Joel told her patiently. “They’ve tested fine so far, so they can have more. Andrew isn’t married and they’ll just test him again. That’s the law. We can’t have any more kids, but so what? We hadn’t even talked about more kids. We both agreed that three was more than enough. It’s as simple as that.”

  Gently pulling her arm, Joel helped his wife stand. He glanced at his son and Sophie, who had watched the explosion in mute and stubborn silence.

  “Let me help your mother to bed,” he told his son as he moved Rona towards the staircase. “I’ll be back down in a few minutes and we can talk some more.”

  Gabriel watched silently as his father paused at the liquor cabinet in the living room for a moment. Joel stared thoughtfully at the glass and wood cabinet before nodding, an internal decision made. Reaching inside, Joel grabbed a large bottle of amberlicor and an empty tumbler before he continued to assist his wife up the stairs to their bedroom, Rona still clutching the small pillow against her chest. Gabriel stood and headed to the liquor cabinet. He sighed softly as he opened the glass door of the cabinet. He knew he was going to need something stronger than the honey-based alcohol for the coming talk with his father, one that frightened him more than his mother’s explosion.

  “She loves you, you know,” Sophie told him softly, speaking for the first time since Gabriel had broken the news to his parents. Gabriel gave a small grunt and looked at a tumbler for a moment, measuring, before filling the glass to the top with one of his father’s cheapest spirits, something more useful for starting a fire than being drunk. Gabriel glanced back at Sophie and cocked an eyebrow.

  “I know she loves me,” he said bitterly and took a large swallow. He coughed slightly as the fiery liquid went down his throat and into his belly. His eyes watered as the overpowering fumes of rye-based alcohol reached them. He coughed again and rubbed his chest, his expression pained. “But she hates what I’ve become.”

  “You had no control over it!” Sophie protested, her voice rising. Gabriel shrugged and took two more quick gulps from the glass before he set the nearly empty drink on a shelf inside the cabinet. His breath came out explosively as he exhaled, the potent alcohol fumes burning his nostrils. He glanced back at Sophie.

  “That doesn’t matter, does it?” Gabriel muttered, disgusted. “To her, to everyone, I’m just one of them. I’m not a Perfect and I’ll wear that fucking label the rest of my life. Imperfect. Scum. Worthless.”

  “Nobody’s truly a Perfect,” Sophie protested weakly.

  “That’s a load of crap and you know it,” Gabriel spat bitterly. He reached for the last bit of drink and downed it in one quick, angry swallow. He set the empty tumbler back inside the cabinet and stalked over to the couch. He sat and turned slightly to face Sophie, who sighed tiredly as she moved behind the chair he had vacated minutes before.

  “The whole ‘Perfect’ and ‘Imperfect’ thing is a load of crap,” Sophie said crossly, her eyes locked onto Gabriel’s as he leaned back on the couch. “When David the Magnificent created the Dominion, I seriously doubt this is what he had in mind. I mean, come off it, Gabe; we’re the Dominion! We have technology none of the other kingdoms of men have. We’ve colonized eleven planets, more if you want to count the ones we’ve taken from the Abassi during this damned war. Who’s next, the Domai Republic? They have three rocks they try to label as planets. The Caliphate? We beat them once; we can do it again. We are the power in this end of the universe, Abassi be damned. We can’t be limited by arcane laws that Emperor David did not pass until, on his deathbed, he allowed the Parliament to control the people. We can’t let something like a potentially genetic non-contagious disease to divide our people!”

  “But it’s the law,” Gabriel said as he buried his face into his hands. “And we follow the law, because we live in the Dominion and laws make us civilized. The law clearly states–”

  “Fuck the law!” Sophie exploded loudly, smacking an open palm down onto the back of the chair she stood behind. Gabriel’s head snapped up in surprise and shock. Sophie stared at him intently, her eyes smoldering. Gabriel had never seen her angry before, nor this determined. Sophie continued heatedly. “The law is wrong! There are brilliant people who get tossed to the dogs every day because some gene marker inside their body says one day, this person might have cancer. That’s curable! We had the technology two hundred years ago, Gabe! What makes being born with the possibility of having cancer so damned different than being born without? Can you tell me, Gabe?”

  “No,” Gabriel admitted, his voice soft in the face of Sophie’s onslaught.

  “Then tell me why we are assisting our ‘loyal’ Parliament with genetic cleansing?” she demanded. Gabriel looked away, ashamed. “Eight hundred years ago, Adolf Hitler tried to exterminate the children of Israel because of their ethnicity and genetics. Before that, one of the greater, civilized nations – the United States – practiced a barbaric intellectual cleansing program called eugenics, just so they could weed out who they termed as being uncivilized. Five hundred years ago, Ali al-Tikriti managed to religiously cleanse Old Earth and turn it into Mecca Prime to better suit his followers and religious perversities. What is so damned different between them and our Parliament, Gabe? Can you answer that?”

  A soft creak of the wooden floo
rboards at the top of the stairs interrupted their argument. They both looked up towards the second-floor landing and spotted Gabriel’s father. Joel, holding the small pillow Rona had taken upstairs with her minutes before, blushed slightly at his perceived intrusion and started slowly walking down the stairs. His gaze shifted from his son to Sophie, his face losing the mask of embarrassment he had shown moments before.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” Joel said softly as he tossed Gabriel the small arm pillow for the couch. The younger Espinoza caught it easily and set it on the seat cushion next to him. Joel reached the bottom of the stairs and sat down on the last step, his knees at his chest. He locked his fingers in front of them and gazed at his son. Gabriel waited expectantly.

  “Sophie has a valid point, Gabriel,” Joel commented after a brief pause. He gave Sophie a courteous nod of approval before he continued. “Our laws are designed to prevent an Imperfect from making anything with their life. But could you imagine just where we would be if someone like Sir Stephen Hawking had been cast out because of him having ALS? We wouldn’t have the gate drives without his theory of quantum gravity. But if he were alive today, he’d have been put down before he turned twelve.”

  “But he’s not here today,” Gabriel countered, his voice bitter and cold. “And he was the exception to the rule. Imperfects can’t do anything, and it’s been proven time and time again by scientists. The Shun Lao rule, remember?”

  “Gabe, you’re an idiot,” Sophie said through clenched teeth. “Queen Sarah was born an Imperfect. What did she do? Only wrote the Twelve Laws, that’s all. No big deal, other than creating the foundation of life on the planets of the Dominion, one of which your stubborn ass is parked on right now.”

  “Royalty are exempt from the Imperfect rule due to the inherent line of succession laws,” Gabriel recited from memory. He looked at Sophie, his eyes dark. “I’m not royalty, not a scientist. I’m a farmer’s son who now can’t own any land or farm it. I have a job which requires me to travel between worlds, but am restricted to non-Core worlds due to being tainted. What the hell can I possibly do?”

  “You can live, you stubborn jackass,” Sophie stated as she stood up angrily, blue eyes flashing. She pointed a finger accusingly at Gabriel, her lip quivering slightly as her eyes began to fill with tears of anger and frustration. “I’m going home. If you want to try to live, call me tomorrow.” She turned to Gabriel’s father. “I’m sorry I yelled, Mr. Espinoza. I hope your wife feels better in the morning.”

  “The hangover is going to be murder,” Joel acknowledged and shrugged. With a quick glance back at Gabriel, Sophie walked out the front door. The screen slammed shut noisily behind her. Father and son sat in the silent living room for many minutes after Sophie’s abrupt departure, each measuring their next words carefully. Gabriel broke the tension when he spoke.

  “I think she wants to run away somewhere, a wilder planet with less law,” he said as he scratched a fingernail across his chin. He desperately needed to shave again. He looked at his father. “What do you think?”

  “I think she has a good idea,” Joel said after a moment. He rubbed his eyes and looked at his son seriously. “There are laws, and then there is the Law. I prefer you break minor ones on a faraway planet then follow the bad ones here, where everything around you will be a constant reminder.”

  Gabriel stared at his father, surprised. “I thought you obeyed the laws? You always told us to obey the laws of the Emperor and of the Dominion without question!”

  “I follow them, sure,” Joel chuckled as he cast a quick glance back towards his upstairs bedroom. “But that doesn’t mean I always like them. You’re my son, Gabriel, whether the law says you’re good enough to be or not. Nothing can change that.”

  “So you think I should go to another planet? One like Ptolemy?” Gabriel pressed. Joel pursed his lips thoughtfully as he began to nod his head slowly in agreement.

  “Ptolemy is actually an ideal world,” Joel murmured, his gaze distant as he dredged though his memory for information about the planet. “Low population, lots of land that needs management and even more colonists. It’s also one of the furthest planets from the throne world, and not exactly close to the Abassi. Laws are relaxed there because it’s still being colonized and the pecking order hasn’t been fully established yet. Ptolemy could work.”

  Dad,” Gabriel began, his voice serious. “If I do this, I can never return. Sophie will lose everything she ever worked for. Her family will be hounded, and questions will be asked if we leave together. Our family will be questioned. The Deebs will come daily, harassing you and mom. She can’t handle that, there’s no way.”

  “So a ‘heart-broken’ Sophie resigns her commission, leaves Belleza Sutil and goes to resettle on Ptolemy,” Joel countered quickly with a curt nod. “Two, three months later you leave here for destination unknown. If they ask, we have no idea. The Bureau knows me, of our reputation. The Deebs will believe my story. Plus, your brother could add a little push if needed...no, we’ll leave him out of this for now. You just up and...left the planet, no word about where you’re going. Join up with Sophie on Ptolemy, live as her ‘indentured servant’ while she runs her land. Live together, but not together. There’s ways, and then there are means.”

  Gabriel stared at his father in amazement. The same man who had chastised him as a teenager for lying to his teachers about homework was now giving him instructions on how to defeat the Dominion Intelligence Agency and the law. Gabriel was torn between pride and a small amount of anger at his father. He stopped and shook his head, angry not at his father but at himself; angry at his earlier reaction, and slightly ashamed. His opinion and respect for his father went up more than a few notches.

  The plan could possibly work, he thought as he mulled the idea over more. They think I’m still here while she publicly leaves for Ptolemy. I could join up months later. It’s not like we’ll be apart for too long. Hell, we were apart for even longer when she was at the Naval Academy.

  “It could work,” Gabriel commented, his voice low and thoughtful, “so long as the DIB doesn’t know where I am, and since I’m a nobody anyways with no job, I’m beneath their view. I could use their prejudices against them. The Deebs will be looking for the subtle, when I’ll give them the obvious.”

  Joel stood and walked over to his son. He rested a heavy, calloused hand on his youngest child’s shoulder with a smile. Gabriel looked up at his father and saw a warmth in his eyes he usually reserved for moments when he was proud of something. Gabriel wondered for an instant when was the last time he had earned such high and silent praise from his father.

  “I’m sure you two will decide to do what is best for all,” Joel intoned as he looked down at his seated son. “In the meantime, I have an angry, hurt and confused woman upstairs. I have to ensure doesn’t want to kill me in the morn.”

  “Hey Dad?” Gabriel called out as his father began to ascend the staircase. Joel paused and looked back at him.

  “Yes?”

  “What’d you do in the military, before you bought the farm?” Gabriel asked him. Joel offered him a small, wistful smile before he turned his back on Gabriel.

  “Just sat in a room looking at digital graphs all day,” Joel said dismissively with a casual roll of the shoulders. “It’s a matter of public record, I think. Nothing big. But it did make me feel like I was doing my part, most days. Keep in mind, Gabe, we all have a part to play; you just haven’t played yours yet.”

  Gabriel sat silent in the living room for another hour after his father went upstairs, thinking about the future and the past before he went to bed. After tossing and turning he finally managed to drift off to sleep. His dreams, while not exactly comforting, were still dreams of a man and a woman together, forever.

  #

  Gabriel lay in the hammock, his eyes locked onto the wheeling constellations overhead as he shifted under the warm fleece blanket. He breathed deeply and watched as the orbital station moved rapidly a
cross the horizon, the reflection of light on the metal surface easily seen from the planet. He watched it for as long as he could, tracking it with his eyes as it finally disappeared behind the mountain range to the south. He sighed and pulled the blanket up to his chin to fight against the chill.

  While the previous month had been horrendous to bear, he was certain he had made the proper decision. He had ensured none of the other farmers in the small valley knew of his new status, and his parents had been equally discrete when speaking to his brothers. His father in particular had been a rather strong voice in the matter, reminding them all of the family motto: Sobre todo, la familia permanece.

  Above all else, family remains.

  Gabriel’s oldest brother had accepted the news calmly, his attitude matching that of their father’s. Gabriel had always had an odd relationship with the eldest Espinoza child, and Kevin’s easy acceptance of his youngest brother as an Imperfect confused Gabriel. Kevin’s wife, though, was not as understanding and was more than annoyed when her two children had been forced to undergo yet another gene scan. Both had been clean. Of the middle child, Andrew, who was working as a clerk somewhere near the military lynchpin planet of Anvil, came only a single-worded reply:

  Interesting.

  Gabriel shivered again at the memory of his mother going ballistic that first night and tugged at a corner of the fuzzy blanket. The blanket was soft and the velvety surface chased away both the emotional and physical chills. It had been hard, asking his brother’s wife to lie to everyone or hide the truth, but despite their differences both the Espinoza boys obeyed their father. It had been harder on Gabriel, though, when his friends stopped talking to him after they heard the news.