Primal Estate: The Candidate Species

by Samuel Franklin

  “Like I said, I’m here for you. I’m not sure what the implications of you being cast out are, but if it’s possible, I want you to come live with me. Utu can overcome his anger. Shainan can get around her fear. We can retrain the dogs.”

  Nwella stroked Rick’s cheek and decided that now was the time to tell him.

  “Rick, I need to tell you something else.”

  With trepidation Rick readied for the worst. He looked at her, dead in the eyes, “There’s more? Go ahead.”

  “Until recently, I was doing this for the thrill, nothing else. But, I guess since I’ve become pregnant, something has happened. It’s a feeling I’ve never had.”

  Rick was silent for a moment and then confessed, “The same for me. Until recently, I was also in it for the thrill, as well as the added security of having you involved with me. I was using you.”

  “Okay, I understand that, and I was doing all that, too.” Nwella paused. “I think you knew that. I raped you while you slept, after all.” Nwella looked at the ground. “But I also mean something else.” Back to his eyes. “Rick, two nights ago, I had a dream.” Nwella stared at Rick, waiting for a response.

  Rick looked at her. “So what was the dream?”

  “I don’t remember. I woke up in a panic. I wasn’t sure of what happened. I had to research it before I was sure. I found the studies done on Shainan.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t understand,” Rick confessed.

  “Rick, we don’t dream. Provenger don’t dream.”

  “That’s right, I forgot. What does it mean?”

  “I’m not sure, but when the dream studies were done on Shainan, our scientists were looking for something. They were looking to discover our history related to dreaming. Apparently, there were considerable resources being put into secret studies of this type, and since our last war, that research has been lost. Only fragments remain, so I have no idea what it means. But it’s obviously got to have something to do with the pregnancy.”

  Nwella paused then, even more serious than before. She said, “Rick, there’s something more you should know. It’s bad, really bad. I’m afraid you’ll hate me when I tell you.”

  Chapter 29

  The mAmmoth hunt

  “I’m Steinman Blake with CNN, reporting. Recently, turmoil has erupted in the medical community in the wake of new government recommendations regarding some of the most commonly-used pharmaceuticals. According to government experts with the Department of Health and Human Services, an updated meta-analysis, which combine the results of many research studies, have led government experts to the conclusion that most of the pharmaceuticals we take are not only damaging to our health but unnecessary, provided that humans follow the correct diet for our species. They’ve produced studies that indicate the vast majority of chronic disease and autoimmune disorders are epigenetic in nature, meaning they arise from the environment we create in our bodies from the foods we consume. They admit that genetics play a role in predisposition to particular ailments, but state that the environment created in the living cell is what makes this predisposition expressive. This renders us either susceptible to many infectious diseases or inclined to develop chronic maladies such as autoimmune disorders. Pharmaceutical companies are outraged and are complaining that their tested and approved medications are being sidelined to something as superficial as nutrition.”

  “Steinman, let’s not make the mistake that the government has turned holistic on us. The health care community has also recently been blindsided by ‘Gallbladdergate,’ the new initiative to compel all statistically overweight people to, at least, schedule to have their gallbladders removed in a noble effort to reduce cholesterol. Detractors are calling for congressional hearings regarding the delivery of those gallbladders to the government for research purposes. Steinman?”

  “That’s right, Bob. This is starting to create a pattern of outrageous moves on the part of the Department of Health – moves that seem to defy everything they’ve been saying for the last fifty years

  Utu turned the volume all the way down. Listening to the television had helped him to improve his English considerably in the last few days. Every word that he heard used in context was confirmed. The patterns of syntax rapidly congealed in his mind, and English speech became a part of him with almost no effort. Rick told him it was good that he didn’t sound like Tarzan anymore. When Utu searched “Tarzan” on the internet, he found pictures of muscular men wearing animal skins. He suspected that perhaps he should feel insulted.

  Utu had been glued to the computer every spare moment that he wasn’t enjoying himself at his new earthbound home. He’d learned much since he was first shown how to use it. His unique ability to learn language appeared to overlap into written communication, and he was already reading and writing at a rudimentary level. He was getting access to more than just pictures. The isolation he’d suffered during his captivity resulted in a ravenous appetite for knowledge of his new world, and Utu was amazed that he could learn just about anything he wanted if he knew some basic words concerning the subject and searched the correct terms on the internet.

  The loud squeak of the door to the back patio slowly opening and closing gave Utu the impression of either someone who was deep in thought entering, or a deaf person trying to sneak up on him. It compelled him to look. Rick was standing there with an ashen face.

  “We need to talk, Utu,” Rick said. “Are you ready to trust me?”

  “Maybe,” he replied stoically. For a moment, Utu thought Rick had come across the two mule deer carcasses that he’d hunted and had hanging in a large cedar tree about a hundred yards behind the house. He’d cleaned them and had managed to eat most of one among himself, Shainan, and Rick’s two German Shepherds, which were now his best friends.

  Utu couldn’t avoid the temptation. He had searched the house and found the rifle Rick had shown him one evening. Rick had demonstrated to him briefly how it worked and how to sight it. Utu had been exposed by the Provenger to many technological wonders since a boy, when he thought they were magic. He’d also experienced and heard about many amazing machines on board the Provenger ship. He wasn’t your typical Cro-Magnon. He expected these miracles to work. He took technology in stride, especially if it could be used to hunt.

  During the week when he wasn’t searching the internet or making love to Shainan on the small patch of turf in the back yard, he hunted the woods behind the house when Rick was at work. It was a beautiful tool, he thought. He’d taken more meat with less effort than ever in all his life. And he had done it alone. It had been heaven. His only complaint was that it was so loud that it made his ears ring. Now he’d been discovered. He knew he probably hadn’t earned the right to hunt this territory. But he had told Rick he needed to hunt, and Rick seemed to agree. He had been warned.

  “Let’s sit at the kitchen table.” Rick beckoned him to sit. As Utu assessed Rick’s serious demeanor, it appeared that he had experienced some kind of momentous revelation. Utu dispelled his first impression regarding the discovery of the carcasses and suspected this had something to do with the Provenger. Utu believed that Rick now knew some of what he’d been waiting to tell him.

  “I’ve just become aware of what is going on with this harvest, how it is likely to be done, and where we’ll stand after it happens. I’ve left you alone for these last few days. I wanted to build trust between us. I think we’re part of the way there.” Rick got two glasses out of the cabinet, the wine out of the refrigerator, and put them down on the table. They both sat down. Up to now, when they ate, Utu had refused alcohol.

  “It’s our custom that when two friends come to an agreement, they have a drink together. Will you consider it?” Rick hoped some wine would loosen his lips.

  Utu looked at the wine. Alcohol had destroyed his people after it had become readily available, and he viewed it as spiritual poison. But he knew that each new situation deserved new consideration. “I’ll consider it.”

  “I just
found out that the current harvests are merely preliminary trials of some type, that the harvests will increase rapidly for people in the harvest age, somewhere between twenty-five and thirty-five, until such time that it becomes so obvious that everyone can’t ignore it and things start going to hell.” Rick paused to get his thoughts together.

  “Synster is stalling to get people off drugs; they need their meat organic. When that happens, all remaining humans who have been designated for the harvest will be taken all at once, or at least as fast as they can process everyone. Once most are taken, the Provenger will come down in massive numbers, shut down our power plants, remove toxic waste, reduce our buildings to dust, and eradicate our history and technology. The few pockets of people that remain around the world will literally be reduced to the Stone Age. No offense.”

  “None taken,” Utu replied without missing a beat.

  Rick continued. “I can only suppose that you and I will be among those lucky few, along with everyone in this town and anyone else on a no-kill list, who will remain alive. That is, if you can call it lucky. We’ll be allowed to start over, building population and civilization again.”

  “Where did you learn this information?” Utu asked.

  “Well, that’s another thing I need to talk to you about. I’m having an affair with Nwella. She’s a Provenger.” Rick saw a black stare come back at him and added for context, “She is my woman.”

  Utu raised an eyebrow. “Sexy, aren’t they? Not as good as Earth women, if you ask me,” commented Utu, keeping his cool remarkably well, considering his landlord was now sleeping with the enemy. Nothing surprises me anymore, thought Utu. I did it myself. But can I trust him? Let’s see where this goes.

  “She’s Synster’s daughter,” Rick added to the already interesting scenario, “and she’s pregnant.”

  Utu made a variety of painful faces at the flood of unpleasant disclosures, puffed air out of his lungs, pushed back from the table, and shook his head. “Couldn’t be. I’ve slept with many, many, Provenger women. None of them ever got pregnant. And Synster’s daughter?” Utu put his hands behind his head. “He is going to tear you apart. She’s making it up. Gotta be…lying to you…the pregnant part.”

  Rick was growing agitated. “From what you could tell, do they obey their laws?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do they obey all of their laws all the time? For instance, in my…our society, we have laws, but we frequently ignore them and do the thing anyway,” Rick explained.

  “Oh, yes, they always obey their laws… almost all the time.”

  “Almost?” Rick asked, the pitch in his voice going up an octave.

  “Yes, almost. As long as they have something to lose in their society, they obey their laws. If they are cast out, for some reason, usually morality issues, then they disobey. They are “rufqwrinst.” It means like a pirate, living outside the law. They would be very dangerous then. But I only heard of that happening a couple times. If you want to know what I think, I think she is lying to you, for some advantage. I never got a Provenger female pregnant; how could you? Look at us.” Utu motioned, pointing back and forth between the two of them. In his world of biology, the bigger the man, the more virile he was.

  Rick sat back and crossed his arms. “She said it happened just after I went through the Recombinant. Would that make a difference?”

  “You went through the Recombinant? How did you get them to put you through?”

  “Carson was injured and sick. I asked and they said it would give him a better chance at survival. Also, I didn’t want to subject him to something like that alone. I guess Synster needed me badly enough or had some other motive. If it was the Recombinant that allowed this to be possible, I don’t think they knew it could happen. They haven’t put many humans through, so they told me.”

  “My mother was put through before I was born. So was my father, I think. But now you’ll have a nice healthy baby, maybe as strong as me. Do we know if it’s a boy or a girl?” Utu smiled at him. “You know the Provenger have a way of knowing that.”

  “Yeah, we do, too. So do you still think she’s lying? She also said she had a dream.”

  “Maybe not,” Utu paused. “And Provenger don’t dream.”

  “Well, she said she did, and looked up the study they did on Shainan’s dreaming…said they were looking to fill in some knowledge gaps in their history.”

  “I don’t know anything about that,” Utu lied. In fact, he knew quite a bit. Dreams were indicators of spiritual energy, both good and evil. Provenger didn’t have dreams. To Utu this could mean only one thing. They had no spirits; they had no souls. He’d overheard rumors that long ago they’d considered the possibility of researching a type of energy that humans would consider souls. For some reason it was never pursued, maybe because of the war.

  “Well, do you think Nwella lied about the harvest?” Rick asked.

  Utu stared at Rick for a long time. Rick waited. Utu stared some more. Finally, Utu spoke, “I don’t think so, if she is pregnant. I think you can trust what a pregnant Provenger female tells you. It has been my experience that when they need to deceive, they avoid you before they would lie. It’s offensive to lie. That isn’t something they’re really likely to do when pregnant. Regarding the harvest, I think that’s how they’re going to do it, or something close. They will return this world to where it was and probably do the whole cycle all over again. With their ability to move forward in time, it is not long for them, these thousands of years we need to fill Earth. It is only years for them. The problem they have with an intelligent population is that they always advance. That’s why they have to ensure they don’t advance too fast. Did you ever wonder how many times they’ve already done this to us?”

  “Maybe…” Rick then asked, “If you’ve been thinking all this, then why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You work for the Provenger, Rick. Why should I tell you anything?”

  “You should understand why I do. They threatened to kill me, everyone in my family, and everyone I know in the most horrific way.”

  “Well,” Utu paused, collecting his memories on Provenger laws and protocols, “they can kill you for the sake of the project, I think, but they can’t just go around and kill everyone else, not for punishment or revenge. I think that would be against their law. Probably all those that they would have killed for your punishment would die in the harvest anyway.”

  “Hopefully, the Provenger will honor their deal. Someone needs to survive to perpetuate the species. I’ve been able to exempt family and friends, take them off the harvest list,” Rick explained further. “Also, by working with them, I can position myself to know them, learn their weaknesses.”

  “I see,” Utu said, processing the word “exempt” in its context for the first time. Utu continued, “But also, and I’ve got to say this, most of my knowledge of the Provenger is from hearing them speak to each other. I couldn’t ask questions,” Utu explained. “I need to tell you now, Rick. Obviously you’ve figured it out. I’m good with languages, like the Provenger. I can speak their language, yours, and all the others, to some degree, from the interaction I’ve had with them. One of their favorite things to do was to help themselves learn by trying to teach me. Of course, I couldn’t learn a thing,” Utu smiled. “I never let it be known that I knew their language or any of the others. If I had, I would be a threat to them, and they wouldn’t have let me go. This is my secret. If you let it go, I will die. They will kill me. You haven’t told Nwella I can communicate with you?”

  “No, of course not. But if she becomes an outcast, she will come to live with us, in our own little Stone Age tribe.”

  “That would be awkward,” Utu admitted. “We can’t let her know we talk to each other. And if we do, I’ll have to act simple, stupid.”

  Rick looked up at him with doubt.

  Utu continued, “That’s how they know me. At least, until we know we can trust her, if that would ever be possible.�
� Utu paused. “Does it scare you, losing all your technology?”

  “Yes, I suppose it does.”

  “Your technology, it is all a thin veil of civility concealing the brutishness beneath. It is not real.”

  “Yes, I suppose it is. That’s very profound you know,” Rick admitted, impressed by the thirty-seven-year-old shaman.

  “I read it last night on the internet. I think Shainan is getting jealous of it. She wants me in bed.” The two hunters, twelve thousand years and a kitchen table apart, smiled at each other and decided to have a drink.