by L M Lacee
At the Commander’s nod and a flash of what looked like relief in his eyes. Peyton knew she had been right; she could still feel fine tremors running through Darby’s hand as she held it.
She explained. ‘I know this is a shock and I…’ With a quick look at the others, she grinned. ‘Sorry, we understand how you must be feeling but know this, gentlemen. Whether or not you agree to take us to our solar system, we will make it so you can have your own children.’
Hawk nodded in acknowledgement as Peyton took another calming breath in and let it out slowly. ‘While we were researching how to leave Earth and with whom, we found some very interesting information about you and the Warriors. Darby and Heather discovered…’ Peyton closed her eyes briefly then said reluctantly.
‘Show them.’
Darby quickly flicked her fingers over the screen of her tablet and a hologram of a brain appeared above the table. She had taken this software from the Coalition databases. Heather flicked her finger and the holographic image of the brain started revolving. When the Holo stopped moving, she pointed at what appeared to be a small bulge. In her soft voice, she explained. ‘Right here in the brain you can see a small, what looks like a twisted knot in the back of the head.’
Darby expanded the picture and pin-pointed the area Heather was describing. ‘This is in fact an implant, disguised as a blockage, as you can see if this was ever discovered it would be passed off as an anomaly of your brains. Obviously, it is not. As I said, it is an implant that has been designed for two applications. Firstly, it can render a person unconscious and keep them in an induced coma indefinitely. Secondly, and the more dangerous of the two applications, this implant can be triggered to terminate a person’s life, in effect, it is what we term a kill switch.’
The picture of the brain and implant revolved a few more times until Darby flicked her fingers once more and dismissed it. Hawk swallowed and asked the question that his Warriors knew the answer to, but wished to deny. ‘You have found this in us... in my Warriors?’
Heather gave a sharp nod in answer. He closed his eyes on the despair he felt. One of the other younger Warriors, Heather remembered his name was Lukkas, asked her. ‘Healer, how do you know this, have you dissected one of us?’
The way he accepted that they probably had, broke the heart of each woman there, Heather was quick to assure them. ‘Dear Lord, no. We would never.’
Darby shook her head as she said. ‘I found it, when I downloaded the information from a Coalition computer, Ambassador Jenerika’s, to be exact.’
Hawk opened his eyes and looked at the unassuming female named Darby. She was so small, but he would be a very poor Commander if he dismissed her as of no importance. This female he was sure was very intelligent proved by how often the other females deferred to her. He watched as a slow smile started first in her eyes then encompassed her face. That smile showed what a smile could do to an unassuming female.
He found himself turning his body on an angle and leaning a little across the table. Almost as though they were the only two people in the room and softly asked.
‘Tell me Lady Darby what else did you discover while you were scanning the Coalition’s and Ambassadors computers?’
Darby moved closer as her smile grew. ‘You assume that is what I did.’
He raised a black brow and said nothing, just waited. She ducked her head and looked at him from under her lashes. ‘Well, yeah, okay, I did that.’
‘What remarkable things did you find, Lady Darby?’
‘I found out loads of things. I am guessing your interest will be that I discovered how to terminate the kill switch.’
He stilled, and his seldom seen smile graced his face, turning him from commanding to amazingly handsome.
‘You really are a small gift to myself and my Warriors, tell me Lady Darby can you save my Warriors?’
‘Yes, you are an Elite, are you not?’
He gave a small nod as his smile faded, unsure where this was leading.
Darby drummed her fingers on the table as she said. ‘Obviously you know the codes to alert all your Warriors.’
‘Yes, if they are near a computer or any communication terminal. I can download codes to them.’
Darby rubbed her hands together. ‘Good, I will give you a code that will deactivate the implant. As long as a Warrior or squad leader sees it, he can pass it along through their link and the kill switch will automatically become inactive. We need to do this especially for you and your Warriors on Earth, in case whoever holds the activation codes decides to use them.’
Every male in the room had tensed by the time Darby had finished speaking. Hawk leaned back in his chair as his voice took on the suspicious tones of a Commander and sharply asked. ‘You know about the link?’
Darby dipped her head and hunched her shoulders as she finally realized she may have caused a problem. Peyton took her hand in hers as she stared at the Warriors. Small flames flared in her green eyes, reminding them she was more than just a human. Reminding them all, they were in the presence of a being not seen in millions of years and only whispered or read about in history books.
She admonished the Commander. ‘Tread gently please, Commander.’ At his nod, she said. ‘Only the four of us are aware of the means you have of communicating and believe me, we are the last ones to tell anyone. In fact, if you wish it, I have the ability to wash it from our memories.’
Hawk looked over at his second and the others in his squad. Even the new Warrior, Willian, did not believe the females meant them harm. Hawk was of the same mind. ‘No, Star Daughter, please keep the secret.’
Peyton asked with horror filling her voice. ‘You aren’t going to keep calling me that, are you?’
Which brought more than one smile to a face. Melody watched the interaction and silently touched Darby’s shoulder in comfort.
No one answered Peyton, leaving her with the uncomfortable feeling that in the future. Star Daughter was indeed going to be her new title.
NINETEEN:
Changing the subject and dispelling Peyton’s frown, Melody said. ‘Okay, so we have told you about the implant and how to deactivate it. Peyton tell them the rest.’
‘Right, for our last gift, Darby has one more revelation. Then we would like your decision on whether you will take us to our new world.’
Hawk Roeah smiled and again it turned him from severe to handsome. ‘That is not even in question, even without the benefit of the Star Daughter you have shown us your worth. We will take you to your new home world.’
Peyton asked Hawk as she and the other three smiled in relief. ‘Are you willing to come and start a new home with us?’
‘There is not a Warrior alive that will not accept a chance to call Maikonia home. May we have the next revelation please?’
Darby frowned. ‘Okay, but I am not sure you are going to be really happy about this?’
‘I am sure I will not be, but I feel this is something you have a solution for already. Am I wrong, Lady Darby?’
‘No, you are not wrong. I have the answers, but the solution you may have to find for us. Anyway, when I was downloading the information about the implants and how you were all created. I found out about the ones in stasis pods.’
‘Who?’ Kerol asked.
Darby frowned as she said. ‘It seems that the Emperor of Jenersar or someone close to him has placed Warriors into stasis pods or tubes and hidden them in your Universe.’ At their confused looks, she explained further. ‘It seems that the governing council of Jenersar believes their Emperor terminated the Warriors program many years before it was halted. To cover up that he had not. The Emperor has placed Warriors in an induced coma and as I said, hidden them. It also appears Warriors who have been reported killed in action or have just gone missing have also been placed in stasis.’
Silence filled the house as Peyton nudged Darby and mouthed, go on.
Darby cleared her throat. ‘I have one question before I tell you more. I wond
er if you know how many Warriors were originally created.’
Commander Roeah drummed his fingers on the table for a minute. ‘Yes, there were two hundred thousand Warriors created over the course of one hundred and twenty-five of your years.’
Darby was shaking her head no before he had stopped talking as her fingers flew over her tablet.
‘I am sorry, they lied to you. There were never any more than fifty thousand Warriors created over a seventy-five-year period.’
Melody asked. ‘Why were no more created?’
Kerol, the Commander’s second, answered absently. ‘I would assume that would be due to the fire in the compound. I heard everything was destroyed. I would say that stopped the program.’
Melody asked. ‘Who was held responsible?’
With a slight smirk, Kerol replied. ‘It was said that those who opposed the Warriors program where responsible. No one has been held accountable to this day.’
‘Very strange.’ Heather quietly stated.
Melody frowned and asked. ‘Why can’t they just start up another program?’
Darby answered her absently. ‘Oh, they try, but the scientist that came up with the program died, apparently taking his notes to the grave with him. Along with all one hundred and forty members of his team. No one made it out of the complex. The funny thing about that fire is that not one Warrior was found, not even the embryos. It was hypothesized that the volatile liquids fed the fires and totally destroyed any trace of organic matter as well as demolishing the compound. In other words, there was nothing remaining to allow them to recreate what he had done.’
Melody asked. ‘But the fires did not destroy the scientists or assistant’s bodies, right?’
Darby shook her head. ‘No, intriguing, don’t you think?’
Peyton said. ‘I find it beyond interesting.’
Kerol said quietly. ‘Unless the scientists were not actually there that night.’
‘See, that makes sense.’ Peyton said thoughtfully as she eyed Kerol.
Melody narrowed her eyes at Peyton asking. ‘How does that make sense?’
‘I’m thinking they were killed somewhere else and returned to the buildings after the fires had died down as a warning by the true killers.’
Kerol nodded. ‘That is an excellent theory.’
‘Yep, it is.’ Peyton crowed as Melody sighed.
Heather hypothesized. ‘So, I am guessing without that data, they would be hard pressed to duplicate this scientist’s work.’
‘This is true.’ Kerol stated with a twinkle in his eyes.
Heather looked confused as she asked. ‘Okay, one thing I don’t understand.’
Peyton moaned. ‘Only one thing, I find heaps I don’t understand about all of this.’
‘Yes, well, that is you and your limited capacity for thinking. Now hush.’ Heather retorted.
‘Wow! That was a good one.’ Darby quietly said to Melody.
She grinned in agreement. ‘Yep.’
Heather said in a voice that brooked no more interruptions, while giving the women a meaningful look each. ‘As I was saying, there must be other planets out there that clone people, so why not use their methods?’
Darby snorted. ‘They cannot, there are Warriors that are just about impervious to everything apart from dismemberment or death by removing their heads. The rest are just plain hard to kill, diseases do not affect them. They have more organs than humans, for example, they have two hearts, but only one is used and no one can understand what the other is for. Unless it is a replacement, but so far that has not been established by the Coalition scientists. They also have four lungs, four livers and four kidneys, and their own bodies can use any of them as a replacement if needed, or so the data says. The mad bastard that created them made them from a cocktail of genes. Also, he found a component or substance in their DNA that he could find no use for. Nor could he eradicate or duplicate it and believe me, he tried to do both. They never found a name for it or where it came from.’
Melody asked. ‘How do you know this?’
Darby shrugged. ‘Some notes were in the Ambassador transmissions. I am guessing they were reports sent to the Emperor.’
Peyton asked. ‘What do you think it does?’
‘I don’t know. From what I gleaned from the notes, it remained unknown even after the fire. Truthfully, I cannot even make a guess as to why it is there.’
Melody said. ‘So, let’s just concentrate on the fact they genetically altered the embryos.’
‘Yes.’
‘Okay, so we do that here.’
Darby nodded her head. ‘Yes, we do, and I am sure other planets do to. But regardless of what we do and they do, no one can reproduce what he did. Because when he altered the embryos, it appears as though he then spliced and diced them. Doing ground breaking experiments, forcing the genes to develop inside the embryos in differing ways. For example, there are some Warriors created to fade not camouflage but actually fade. Then others were made to take on the hardness of what we call granite. There are other Warriors whose skeletal form and muscles were built to withstand almost anything, their bones are like chromium.’
She explained for the Warriors. ‘Which is the hardest metal there is on Earth so far.’ She shook her head in wonder. ‘From what I could decode from the data. The same component I was talking about earlier, made a select few embryos develop and take on the status of Elites. Even I could not find out what they are completely capable of. Although I do know like Commander Roeah, they have a gold eye ring, again I could not find out why.’ She held her hand up as she saw a question forming on Peyton’s lips. ‘Before you ask, yes even the Warrior’s eye ring color has a purpose. What that is, I do not know. I assumed from what I could discover it was whimsy of the lead scientist, but I am revising that. Look, everything and anything you can imagine appears to have been tested on those embryos, and they succeeded more than they failed, evidenced by all the Warriors alive today.’
She smiled at the Warriors as she told them. ‘As an added bonus they made every male the same height and weight with very little variation. Which I have to assume, they decided, was the optimum physique for a Warrior which in itself was an amazing feat. Many Warriors if not all, have some kind of ability. Then there is the added compound the scientist mixed in that altered their skin and eye color, and if that wasn’t enough. They made their own bodies develop the switch to render themselves unconscious or dead. On top of all that, the lead scientist or someone discovered a way to halt their desire to have intercourse. And if by some miracle they could have eventually overcome that conditioning, which apparently they had not. He made it so they were unable to reproduce, but thankfully he did not make it irreversible. The man was a genius.’
She suddenly realized they were all staring at her and sighed. ‘He and his people were geniuses; it is sad people like that do what they do, but on the other hand you are here and we are very pleased you are.’
Willian, the other young Warrior, hesitantly asked. ‘Lady Darby could you do what he did?’
Darby wanted to lie, she really did, but Peyton gently interrupted her before she tried too. ‘Darby hon don’t be ashamed of who and what you are. Just remember you are our Darby. No one thinks you are like them or could be capable of doing what they did. You are far more ethical than that. We know this.’
Darby gave her head a quick jerk as she answered the Warrior’s question. ‘Yes, I can, or at least most of it. The mysterious substances are still unknown, so there would be some missing components and data. What I could develop would not be a complete Warrior like you but close enough. Once you get pass the enormous amount of code, it is easy to break it down or it would have been. If I had not flushed what I found from the computers, I discovered it in.’
At their skeptical expressions, she vowed. ‘I swear I found and destroyed all references to it. There is no possible way for anyone to reproduce the program from the data I found.’
‘Except for you.
’ Challenged Commander Roeah.
‘Except for me.’ She agreed as she squinted at him, trying to determine what he was inferring.
‘And the data stream.’ Kerol mused out loud. Darby’s eyes whipped to his as she demanded. ‘What is that?’
‘The universal computer, we will show you when you board our ships. Lady Darby, will it be possible for you to flush it from there as well?’ Kerol inquired.
With a nod of her head, she assured him. ‘I am sure I will be able to, after some time, to study this computer. Although that won’t help if someone has already downloaded it.’
Kerol agreed. ‘That is something we will deal with when and if we must.’
‘True.’
Commander Roeah changed the subject. ‘So, if as you say they created only fifty thousand Warriors, how did they hide that fact?’
‘Easy.’ Heather answered, giving Darby a moment to collect herself. Peyton squeezed her hand, reminding her she was not alone.
Heather asked. ‘They rotated the Warriors, placed some in sleep and woke others. Are there people in your Universe that can make someone forget they have been asleep or implant memories?’
Kerol answered. ‘Yes, they are called Masters or Mind Walkers, deadly males. They can destroy your mind or add or take things away; they are killers and worse.’
‘What is worse?’ Heather asked him, but he just shook his head and would not reply. She vowed to look them up later.
Melody asked. ‘Well, there you go. They probably employ them. I know when I was in command I did not meet every soldier in the army, just like you probably have not met every Warrior.’
The males all nodded in agreement as the Commander stated. ‘I have not, that would be impossible.’
TWENTY:
A maudlin atmosphere fell over the room as they sat and thought about how easy it was for the deception to have happened. Finally, Kerol voiced what they were all thinking.
‘We were told two hundred thousand Warriors, why would we doubt them. If they wanted to hide us from the council and each other, they succeeded, we never questioned them, ever.’
