Kniam: A Terraneu Novel (7 page)

Kniam knew his people were in shock, and they were all yelling, out loud
and telepathically. He looked around at the council members, who were sitting
calmly waiting for the storm of questions to die down. These six and himself
had all gone through cycle together and gained their positions from their
predecessors at the same time. He trusted them, more than any others. That is
the way the system was designed to work. They had been “raised” together. They
were instilled from ‘birth” that the issues of the community came first. To
work toward a greater purpose together, using their knowledge and experiences
to help their people survive. That didn’t mean that they always agreed on every
issue, because they didn’t. That is why there was a council of six, with him as
deciding vote.

“Enough…” he spoke out loud on purpose. He wanted the little female to
know what was being said. If he could offer her any insight into what was happening,
he had to try.

“If you will be calm, we will continue to explain.” Kniam tried again,
tapping the little hammer to try gaining everyone’s attention. Nobody was
listening, and the situation threatened to escalate.

He hated to do it, but he used his special ability.
Enough!
He
tried to shield his friends on the council as well as those others outside that
were calm, but he could tell that they were not completely unaffected.
Calm
yourselves please! There is still more of importance that we need to relay. Do
you think we would not act for the best of the community and all its members?
You dishonor us with this outburst. Please be silent and listen.

He released the mind hold on the males of his community and waited. It
wasn't something he used often, but it was a unique and helpful ability. While
all members of the community could talk and show images telepathically. Kniam
had the added ability to “lock” them down, kind of like freezing their minds.
He had done it last night to the council when showing his memories. He had done
it again today to try to get the males to listen to reason.

When everything went silent and stayed that way, Kniam continued. “There
is more that the members of the community need to know, as well as the Earth
female.” He pointed at the holographic projection, and it zoomed even further.
They were looking at the cellular level. Zoomed in once more, and now they were
looking at the DNA.

Everyone in the room froze, and it wasn’t his hold on their minds that
did it. “The little Earth female holds the answer to everything.” His gaze held
Ambers and he knew she didn’t understand what was going on. He changed the
projection.

Now there were stars everywhere. It seemed like all the stars in the
universe rotating around the room.

"From my conversation with the Earth female in trying to find where
she comes from, we have taken all known port pad locations that we have
archived over the last twelve thousand years of searching. As you all know, the
ones we have found have not had any humanoid life on them, the only life we
have ever managed to find was the Antilleans. It is impossibly hard to dial a
port pad at just the right time to actually find anything. The port pad
locations we have mapped are placed here on the map.” Kniam pushed a button.
“We took away all systems with red giants.” He clicked and some galaxies
disappeared. “We took out all that were not in spiral galaxies.” He clicked
again and more disappeared. It was getting to be slim pickings. “We limit the
choices with yellow stars.” Click.

Kniam was watching Amber, “We take inhabitable planets that are the third
from their sun.” Click. “The little female would call this planet Earth. We
would call it Terra…or the home world.”

Kniam locked his gaze on her and started clicking and talking about
planets.
 
“We take inhabitable
planets that are the third from their sun.”
Click.
“The little female
would call this planet Earth. We would call it Terra…or the home world
.”
There was no mistaking the floating, blue marble that was Earth.

“So Earth is your home world…” She almost laughed out loud. It was
starting to make sense now. Kniam and the men on this planet were from Earth!
They had evolved in one direction here on this planet and the survivors of
whatever calamity on Terra had evolved in another. That is why they looked so
much like Earth men, because they were! Why was Kniam worried how she would
react? Granted, with the little he knew about women, maybe he thought she was
going to start running around screaming. Ok, so she had been screaming in the
cage when he first saw her. Then she had been screaming when she jumped out of
the medical unit. Again the screaming when they had tried to grab her, and
again in the shower. So maybe there was the impression that she was a screamer.
But he really needed to have some faith that she wouldn’t have a melt down at
every turn!

“Yes. According to the archives the port pad on Terra had deactivated.
There were attempts being made to repair it, but the situation was dire. The
planet was thought to be dying, which as we now know, isn’t exactly true.
Somehow Amber, you activated the one on Terra and arrived on Antilles through
the original portal. We have checked and it is showing recent activity. Kneus
can continue. He has studied the archives, and is the most knowledgeable.”
Kniam inclined his head to Kneus.

Kneus took up the telling, “The original fathers were sent with certain
supplies to try to find a viable planet to colonize. Included in those supplies
was a port pad that would link to Terra and nowhere else for safety reasons,
with the assumption that they could repair theirs. More importantly, they were
supplied with a certain number of “clone” eggs. These were female human eggs,
stripped of all DNA so the original fathers could clone themselves IF the need
were to arise.” Kneus was looking pointedly at her, since everyone else here
had to know what “clone eggs” were already, he paused and gestured around the
room. “We are the result of the need arising.”

“After many cycles when this community was able, our predecessors made
many attempt to contact Terra. The port pad there was never shown as active.
Twelve thousand years ago something happened and the people left on Terra must
have de-evolved. Amber stated that the humans are just now able to travel and
study nearby planets…this means all knowledge from our time on Terra was lost.”

 
Kniam nodded at his brother, and
Kneus proceeded, “It didn’t make sense that Amber was able to survive being in
the medical unit. Once I researched, and we know the home world, or Terra as we
called it and Earth are one and the same it explains why the medical until
wouldn’t do an autopsy on Amber, and why it did the medical changes instead. It
recognized her DNA in the system, but realized it wasn’t quite a match to ours,
and made the necessary repairs. When Amber went into the medical unit it
recognized her optimum genetic form and matched that. The Earth female will
have purple eyes like us eventually, that is a side effect of using the suns
for energy. Everything else about her will stay the same.”

Amber froze in her seat, “What do you mean my DNA wasn’t quite a match,
so the medical unit made fixes?”
 
She
whispered at Kniam, but she might have shouted for the silence in the room.

Kniam sighed, and motioned for Kneus to wait in the presentation. “It
altered you to match what it thought was accurate. We have been here for
thousands of years Amber, and we made hard decisions about survival. We made
certain sacrifices to make sure that we had enough energy, and supplies to
support our lives on
this
planet. We didn’t know if we would ever have a
chance to get back to Terra, and after time passed we couldn’t go back if we
had found a way.” He looked deeply into her eyes, begging for
understanding…”The port pad on Antilles works both ways Amber, but you can
never go back to Earth.”

She was excited for two seconds when he said the
port pad worked both ways, then her excitement was dashed when he said she
could never go back.

“Why Kniam?” She knew something was coming, and it
had to be bad…

“Have you felt hunger yet Amber, have you a desire
to eat?” Kniam asked

"Well no. But I thought maybe with all the
turmoil of the last few days...What does it mean that I'm not hungry? What
aren't you telling me? I am not going to freak out, so just spit it out."
She might have said this a little too loudly, maybe she would freak out a
little. But they needed to tell her whatever it was they were hiding.

Kniam must have decided to just get it over with
because he blurted, "Over our time here, we have altered out genetic code,
at the atomic level, so that we use our two sun’s, Solarus Minor and Solarus
Major, as energy for fuel. It was the most reliable, renewable source of power
our predecessors could think to utilize. There are many planets out there with
yellow suns, but few are in the zone of being habitable. The ones that would be
able to provide life, usually already have sentient populations established.
Like the Antilleans. We would never interfere or impose on those planets."
Kniam paused to see how she was reacting, and when she just sat there he
decided to finish, "You can never return to Earth, because even though it
does have a yellow sun, it would not provide the same level of energy our two
suns do. Also, the life span of earth humans is limited to at best, what did
you tell me…80-100 years? You will live to longer than eight to ten times older
than that. Your body will never change. You will still age, but not in the way
you explained Earth humans do. You do not require food, as the suns will
energize you with daily exposure. You will however need a certain intake of
water daily. All living things require that."

Amber just sat in shock, taking it all in. Ok she
could never return to Earth. That was something she was afraid was going to
happen either way. When she had been put in the cage at the Antilles camp, she
thought she was going to be a pet for someone. Then when they had talked about
her as a specimen she was afraid she was going on a petri dish.

"So I am going to live for eight hundred years,
give or take a hundred. Have this “optimum body” as long as I get enough sun,
and my eyes will change to purple?” Amber paused, “Okay. I can deal with
that." She didn't really have anything back on Earth to return to anyway.
She had some friends, and it might get lonely here without any female
companionship. She had a job, but she didn't have a career that she would miss
doing every day. She didn't care if she didn’t have to eat...but could she eat?
Would it make her sick to try? She could figure that out when the time came.

"Is that everything or is there anything else I
should know?" She looked around at the council then at Kniam.
 
She raised her eyebrow and waited for what
they would throw at her next.

The little Earth human was taking this a lot better than he had hoped.
Maybe she wasn't going to start screaming as was her habit. It was a positive
sign that she was accepting of what was happening. They could not send her back
to Earth because of her extended life span, which was one reason. There were
some holes in that logic if she wanted to push it. There was just a lot of risk
with letting her go back. In his, and the councils opinion, un-necessary and
un-acceptable risk. The decision had been made, and he wasn't letting her go
back.

"Now that it has been decided that you are not going back to Earth.
We need to inform you…no wait...we need to talk about the choices you have for
your life here on Terraneu." Kniam paused and came around to stand in
front of the table.

"The council and I have decided you will be given two choices “he
waved at the others around him, "Which choice you decide on will be
accepted by all. There will be no argument or attempts to influence you in any
way." He was getting to the part where he had a sinking feeling Amber
might start screaming.

Kniam held up a finger, "Choice number one, you will agree to donate
your eggs for the purpose of either cloning, or attempts at reproduction. Your
DNA would be stripped, and we would use the eggs for more cloning cycles."
When the little female’s eyes narrowed on him and she took in a deep breath, he
hurried on, "Choice number two: Since you are genetically compatible with
the men here on Terraneu you will agree to engage in sexual relations for the
means of reproducing offspring." Whew. He knew from his talks with the
little female that she would never agree to the first choice. He was counting
on that. She was too soft and would shy away from the clinical cloning process.

He wasn't counting on a human females temper. He had heard her screaming
for a lot of different reasons. In the cage, in the medical unit, and in the
shower, but he had never seen the little female turn that shade of red...he
would go so far as say it was almost purple.

"Now just a damn minute." She seethed at them. "You give
me two choices, TWO." She then jumped up off her chair and started pacing.
"One choice is to let you have all of my eggs for cloning or
other
attempts
at reproduction. The other is to be some kind of slut whose sole purpose will
be some kind of baby maker?" She had stopped in front of him and he had
the sudden urge to cover himself.

She held up a finger next to her thumb, "One, I am not letting any
of you near my eggs, so the answer to choice number one is NO!" She held
up another finger next to the first, "I am not going to fuck my way around
your damn camp, making babies. So the answer to number two is hell NO."
She held up her middle finger, the significance of which was lost on him "This
is what I think of your choices."

With that Amber spun around, he was so close her soft hair swept across
his face as he stood there stunned.

He didn't realize he was frozen in his spot until she spun back around
and he held his breath again. She practically snarled, "Have any of you
brainiacs
thought about going through the “
two-way”
portal to Earth, and getting
enough women for all of you? Your own damned women?!? Out of four billion of
them, even barbarians like you might have a shot at finding some females crazy
enough to come here of their own free will!”

Her eyes were flashing daggers at all of them, her breasts heaving in her
agitation. He thought she was magnificent. “Of all the damn hills to slide
down, I would slide down the one that lands me here! Stuck on this crazy ass
planet, with a bunch of ..." She had made it to the door, and nobody made
to stop her, himself included.

She swung back around, "Oh, and if I had chosen to
settle
for
choice number two, who was supposed to be the first lucky rider?" she did
an exaggerated slap to her hips and glared around the room, Again her gaze
locked on his.

Kniam tried to look away, "Uhhhhh...I was going to be the one to
sacrifice..." He didn't get to finish.

"
SACRIFICE
... you...that..." the door opened when she
got near enough, "If you think to come near me again with those options
I'll..." He didn't quite catch what she said after that as she made it out
the door, but it was relayed to him by one of his men outside that she said
something about needing a knife.

Then another was happy enough to relay that she had threatened to cut off
something "vital".

Yet another relayed the part of his anatomy she would use it on.

Then something about him chocking on it, and he cut off his mind to his
people.

"Ok…so…that went well." Kniam moved around the table to sit at
his spot. "Did anyone think to analyze the chances of using the port as
Amber has...uh, so calmly suggested? Can we try to use it to bring women here
to Terraneu?

Kneus was the first to get his voice back, "She had to have
misspoken, I would swear I heard her say
four
billion
females.
Could their numbering system be different?" His gaze swung around the room
looking at the other council members, all of them frozen in their spots with
shock.