Primal Estate: The Candidate Species

by Samuel Franklin

  Then Synster addressed the group. “I will need from you a weekly list of names of all patients controlled under the government program. From what I understand, that should be everyone under United States jurisdiction, give or take a few holdouts. As your work proceeds, I will need updates as to who is clear of their prescription drugs and what their body mass index is. The list should be ordered with the highest body mass index cleared of drugs at the top, to the lowest body mass index not clear of drugs at the bottom. I’ll need addresses for each name.

  “We have programmed your tags to inflict level 3 pain for one hour every night at midnight starting one week from today if certain stages of your work are not complete. Your goals with their timelines are included in your instructions. Study them. You will be held accountable.

  “You should not try to amputate your arm in an effort to modify our relationship. The tags have recently been adjusted to sense this and notify us immediately, at which time you and your families will be transported to our ship and you will be dealt with according to the manner already prescribed.

  “Forget about your current career. It’s obviously the most important thing to you, seeing that you apparently haven’t let poor job performance get in your way. Your career as you know it is over. You now work for me. You will until you die. Your lives are now merely a struggle to avoid agonizing pain and the total destruction of your lives and families. As a benefit, you will be contacted for a list of those close to you who will be exempt from the harvest. As a reminder, this is pain level two.”

  Synster touched his gauntlet and immediately their bodies seized in place. They were unable to speak, groan, or move. They began to look a little red and stiff, but otherwise gave no indication of anything wrong. Synster released them.

  “Levels two and three have been specially formulated so that it won’t be obvious to anyone around you that there is anything wrong. I gave you ten seconds. If you haven’t reached your goals, I suggest you go to bed before midnight. Remember your pain will be for one hour at level three. This is something you will all want to avoid. A few sessions an hour long and you run the risk of permanent insanity.

  “When you get home, you are likely to believe that all this was just a bad dream. Included in your instructions is contact information for Rick, here,” Synster said, gesturing to Rick, “to confirm the veracity of our new relationship. Remember that you may tell no one and only deal with each other. If you decide to commit suicide, your immediate and extended families will be punished as already prescribed.”

  With that, all five of the visitors dissolved in a hazy white light. Rick and Synster were alone. “Rick, I’ve got special assignments for you. We need to manipulate certain political situations, and I want you to assassinate a couple people for me. If you get captured, you can signal us and we’ll have to terminate everyone in the group that has taken you. So if you care about that, don’t let it happen. The targets are two leaders of consumer advocate groups. We want to make it look like a specific corporation was behind the murders, and we don’t want our Provenger to risk it. The situation is fluid.”

  There was a pause. “Okay, who are they?” Rick asked, wondering how or if he’d be able to squirm out of this.

  “I’ll let you know when it’s necessary. You’ll get all the information and equipment you need. There is another, unrelated assassination; this one more important. I suggest you start sighting in your best rifle for about three to three hundred, fifty yards. You cannot miss. This is very important.” Synster grabbed the case he’d come with and was about to leave.

  “Synster, there is something.”

  “What is it?”

  “I need some things. I want my guns, the ones you destroyed. I want replacements. There are some other things. I made a list.” Rick took the list out of his pocket and handed it to Synster, who took it.

  “I’ll look into it. Anything else?”

  “No, that’s all,” Rick said and stepped back. And Synster was gone.

  Rick looked at the wet side of his couch and checked his watch. Carson and Shainan would be home in an hour.

  After cleaning the urine off the leather as best he could and throwing a towel over it, he stretched out and closed his eyes, glad to have survived one more encounter with Synster.

  Exactly one hour later, Rick woke to the sound of barking and keys at the front door. He sat up and rubbed his face. His vision and brain were clearing as Carson and Shainan walked into the living room. They were laughing and sounded like they’d had a good time. Shainan had been making progress with her English. With a combination of sign and simple words, they had started developing a relationship. She seemed a part of the family now.

  Sitting on the couch, Rick stared in front of him. In the center of the living room floor, there were three crates about the size of the ones he put his dogs in. If Synster had given him what he’d asked for, each one would be filled with weapons and ammunition, cash in twenties, fifties, and hundreds, and one-ounce gold coins. By Rick’s rough estimate, between the gold and the cash, he had anywhere from one hundred to two hundred million dollars sitting in front of him; then again, maybe double that. He wasn’t sure. It’s a good thing this is a slab floor, he thought, otherwise the crate full of gold might fall right through. Rick now had the resources to hire an army, arm it, and even gild it should he choose. The way Rick saw it, if he could get stuff, get stuff big.

  “Carson!” Rick yelled. “Get the tractor, we’ve got some digging to do! No…wait. Let the dogs in and pull the Charger out front. We’re going to town.” Rick felt like dinner and shopping. They could risk an evening out with Shainan. He was doing things his way from now on.

  Chapter 27

  Yootu aRRives home

  Nwella arrived at Rick’s home one evening without notice. She appeared out of a sphere of milky white light in the center of his living room. He was at the dinner table in the middle of Shainan’s English lesson when it happened. Shainan was horror struck while leaping for a kitchen knife, then throwing herself to the floor with her back to the corner. She held the knife pointed in Nwella’s direction as though she could see through the cabinets that blocked her view.

  Rick was very glad to see Nwella, but she was all business. She ignored Shainan and informed him that another human would be joining them.

  “His name is Yootu,” she said, “and he is being released from captivity on the Provenger Ship. He has been our guest for the last ten years and our only way to dispose of him is to free him. By law, we are required to return such guests to their home, their spouse, their family, or to a comparable situation. Shainan is part of his tribe.” Nwella had become jealous of Shainan living with Rick. “They should probably be married,” she added at great personal risk of revealing her motives. “No other location but this one will serve that purpose.

  “You will be responsible for Yootu. He has recently sustained an injury. He’s been examined and appears to be physically intact, but he may have some psychological issues. He may be dangerous, and you must be cautious with him. Our tests reveal that he is rational and likely not an imminent danger to fellow humans. He has been given the same out-brief as Shainan and should maintain the same dietary restrictions due to his vaccinations. Once we have turned him over, you have complete authority to dispose of him as needed, but we are absolved of all responsibility.”

  Rick acknowledged that he understood. He wanted to speak to Nwella of other things, but he could see with an almost imperceptible shake of her head and the look in her eyes that she would not have it. She looked nervous. They must be watching, Rick thought. Nwella dissolved in the same sphere of milky white.

  A few seconds later another sphere appeared, and there were two huge Provenger clad with armor and knives fully deployed on their left and right gauntlets. They were holding a man between them. They dropped him and he crumpled in a pile on the floor in front of them. They left as they came. There was a long silence. Shainan still cowered in the kitchen behi
nd the cabinets.

  Four hours earlier, Yootu had been resting quietly in his enclosure. All was a blur since he’d been told Shainan had been sent back to Earth. He’d lost track of time. He had no will to keep track nor to ask how long it had been. He’d recovered from his rage and the trauma to his body and brain. But somehow he felt very different, as though something in him had awakened. The ancient shaman instinctively knew that a new time was about to begin. It would be either his beginning or his end. He suspected that he now knew why his tribe had called him the Keeper of the Red Moon Spirit. It was now that spirit which gave him life.

  They flooded his cell with a gas that made him unconscious. When he woke, he was strapped, arms and legs, to a table in an exam room. Both wrists were fixed with tags. This looked to him like a place where nothing good could happen. He figured this was the end, and he wanted to take a Provenger with him if he could. He waited for a technician to get near. Yootu determined he would have to break his bonds and lunge in one motion to have any chance at contact as the tags were activated. He would try for a fist to the throat. If he could crush it in one blow, he could kill it and leave his life with one small souvenir of defiance. With his last breath, he would tell them, in their own language, how stupid he found them to be and that no matter what they tried, humans of the Earth would never be tamed.

  As a Provenger grew near, he summoned all the strength he had, as calmly as he could, expecting the searing pain from the tags that he must ignore. With a burst of force, he tensed every muscle at once from his thighs to his stomach. His arms curled and twisted in a rage that generated a magnified leveraged force against his bonds. They bent and broke easier than he thought as he turned this force into a lunge at the Provenger tending to the examining light above him. His right fist was aimed for the neck, but the wrist straps gave way like strings and his strike flew high and wide, his knuckles grazing the Provenger’s skull. Yootu was stunned that he had no pain, and with the absence of it, he was frozen with disbelief. Only a mild buzz ran through his nerves.

  He quickly regained his focus, grabbed the Provenger’s neck with his hand, and pulled his head down into an accelerating left jab. His fist again hit the Provenger’s skull, glancing off the top of his head as the limp body, already unconscious from the first hit, was unexpectedly collapsing to the floor. Yootu popped his leg restraints. They broke easily and he glanced up at the adjacent control room, looking for any resistance to his escape. He saw another technician behind unbreakable glass that he knew he could break.

  Watching from behind the glass, the Provenger was terrified. She saw everything from the beginning, but it happened so fast that she was only now reacting. The last thing Yootu saw was her lunge for the control panel, and he felt everything dim as the gas shot from jets positioned around the room immediately invaded every pore of his skin.

  Yootu saw colors: red, blue, swirl patterns. He blinked his eyes and felt his head throbbing. He tried to remember where he was and grabbed at a Provenger that was not there. He held his head and rolled to his back. Wherever he was, he wasn’t strapped down. He could move, and he wasn’t being beaten or cut up. So far, everything was good. He sucked in a deep breath and could tell something was different. He could smell and taste something different in the air. It was life, small and large. It was the smell of things growing. Spores. Molds. There was the sensation of dust and dirt, the scents of wood and smoke, things of the Earth. He wondered for a moment what horrible torment the Provenger might be trying to inflict on him as punishment for his attack.

  Yootu heard a shriek, a scream of horror or joy he could not tell, but it was immediately followed by arms that were warm and loving. For a moment, he thought he might be dead and his mother was holding him. Then he realized he was in the arms of Shainan. Before he could open his swollen eyes, they flooded with tears, both for being with her and in fear that she was with him.

  If they were on the ship, he knew that he would kill her before he would let the Provenger hurt her. He knew he could do it quickly. He opened his eyes and did not recognize anything. That was a good feeling. She held him tightly, and he realized her cries were of joy. That told him everything. He must be on Earth. He must be home. The rush of being with her gave him a momentary boost. They held each other and looked into the other’s face, then remained cheek to cheek. Yootu slowly checked the new environment around him, vigilant for a Provenger. He saw a man and a boy, no threats. He tried to stand with her help but stumbled and fell.

  Four hours later, Yootu opened his eyes. Shainan was lying naked next to him on the bed, wiping a cool, wet cloth on his head. She had stripped him, cleaned him off, and put the bison rug over them both. She wanted everything to be as normal as possible when he awoke. She wanted desperately to be his woman in every way. She was undone with joy. But when he woke, she didn’t know what to do.

  “Shainan,” Yootu whispered as he reached out to pull her in. She snuggled her body in tighter to his and positioned her face close as he turned to look her square in the eyes. The presence of humanity that had been so rare for the last ten years flowed into his soul, and he was lost in thoughts of what should have been. He tried to avoid thinking about the moment on the ship that she didn’t show for her visit. He wanted to tell her of the imagined day he’d planned, the game he’d killed and brought to her, the fire they would make, and the stories they would tell to their children. Before he’d been told she was gone, he’d planned it all. He wanted to tell her.

  “Shainan, I had our day planned,” he explained in their dead language. “We had children, and we…” Yootu’s chest heaved and he sobbed. So much grief, so much pain for so many years welled up within him, choking out any words, the pain becoming the words he wanted to speak to her. And she knew. She knew exactly what he was going to say. He did not need to speak.

  She could not get close enough to him. She wanted only for him to be happy. She wanted only to be with him forever, and yet the fear of being separated again forced great pain into the face of her joy. They both cried until they slept, in each other’s arms. And when they slept with the bison hide covering them, they could have been home. They dreamed of things ancient and wild, of their tribe and camp, of children and friends, of fires and hunting, of swimming in their river and loving. They dreamt of paradise.

  Shainan was awake for an hour before she stirred enough to disturb Yootu. She hadn’t wanted to bother him because he looked so beat up. She remained motionless for as long as she could bear. It was still dark out, and she had no idea when day would come. Finally, her curiosity overcame her, and she started moving about with the express purpose of waking him. She wanted to know why he was there, how long he would stay, what would become of them.

  He woke up slowly at first. Then suddenly he was with her, his eyes blinking, his vision competing with the swelling all around his face. He’d assaulted a Provenger, and even though they had determined he was incoherent at the time and would be released anyway after his exit physical, the guards charged with his security had not been easy on him. But now he was free and again on his Earth, something he’d never thought would happen. All he had to do was heal from his minor wounds and he would be complete again. He would be with his love, Shainan.

  Yootu rubbed the crust from his eyes and noted a minor headache. He was amazed, considering the drubbing he’d sustained by the guards, recalled only in semiconscious slow motion fragments. He looked at Shainan. There was so much he wanted to do. Had this been the time he’d been preparing himself for? He wondered. What situation would he find himself in?

  During his time with the Provenger, Yootu had learned a great deal about what humans would have to overcome in this new world. Eavesdropping during his captivity had taught him many languages as well as providing a fairly comprehensive picture of much of the Provenger technology, all without their knowing. If they had been aware of what he knew, they never would have released him, he thought.

  “Shainan, my love,” he began in their
ancient tongue. “Though I have not always known it, I know now. This is the moment I have been waiting for my whole life. I want more than anything for you to be my woman. I will bring you game and give you children. I will show our tribe…” Yootu realized they no longer had a tribe. “We will found a new tribe, and you shall be the mother of our new nation, and they will honor you always if you will be my woman.”

  Shainan looked alternately from his right to left eye as she tried to hold back her joy and listened to his words. She knew well that all of this was just too good, and she didn’t ever want to lose him. She would be his woman. She caressed his face with both her hands and kissed him slowly, first on the mouth, then on his cheeks, then his nose, working her way all over his battered features. “I will always be yours.”

  Yootu flipped over on top of her as she encircled him with her legs. Yootu had not been with a human woman for over ten years, and he was overcome with lust and joy, knowing that their union could create a life, a child of their tribe, an heir to their blood, and they would truly be one. He buried his face in her delicious hair, grabbing on both sides of her head. He looked deep into her swimming brown eyes and saw ripples of color reminding him of their river in full flood on the open plains of the Earth, something he had not enjoyed in ages.