Road To Shandara (Book One of The Safanarion Order) (39 page)

“Will be anxious to see you. He’s been all but locked in a room with Iranus, Vaughn, and several other Hythariam. I haven’t seen much of them since I kept Eric and Braden company on watch.”

“Thanks,” Aaron said and swallowed a lump down in his throat as the image of Sarah’s smiling face flashed in his mind. They walked in silence and the more he moved the better he felt. Aaron could tell that Verona was holding some things back and probably didn’t want to over burden him. The rune marked staff was a good walking stick, which he came to rely more on as they kept walking. The further they ventured from his room the more Hythariam they came across. Most nodded in friendly greeting, but some looked at him with worry in their golden eyes. Those eyes were so close to the Drake it was disconcerting.
 

“Is it much further?” Aaron asked.

“Not much. We can rest if you need?” Verona answered.

“I’ll be fine,” Aaron said.

The corridors echoed of people walking and muffled conversations throughout. The place, where ever they were, was a bustle of activity. They turned down another corridor and Aaron could smell food. He just needed to eat some food, then he wanted answers.
 

Verona took him to an open courtyard with tables and benches throughout. The place was a cross between a garden and a outdoor cafeteria. People took plates of food from several buffet stations placed throughout. Aaron selected some food with Verona giving a nod of approval for some and a vigorous shake of his head for things to avoid.
 

The Hythariam still glanced in their direction of which some nodded in friendly greeting. Aaron had never seen so many golden eyes and was surprised to see green ones as well. They were very similar to humans except that their eyes were just a bit bigger than that of a normal person with an almost feline quality to them. They wore clothing of the same quality as what he had been given, which Aaron found quite comfortable.
 

They ate in silence, or more like Verona watched, as Aaron devoured his meal. As soon as he took the first bite he was filled with the need to feed as if his body hadn’t had a decent meal in days. They washed down their meal with water and Aaron felt his mind clear and more of his strength returned.

“You’re looking more human now,” Verona said.

“Feeling like it too,” Aaron answered.
 

They were approached by a tall Hythariam with raven hair and green eyes. He had the bearing of a soldier though he was out of uniform. He gave a slight bow. “Hello. I am Gavril. Iranus sends his greetings and asks for you to join him and Colind, if you are able?”

Aaron got up immediately ready to follow Gavril and Verona rose as well.
 

“It is a short distance,” Gavril said and led them to down a short corridor lined with glass doors. Behind each of the doors appeared to be oval shaped rooms that hung suspended over tracks leading off in different directions. They stepped into one of the rooms and a panel opened on the far side. Gavril keyed in some of the buttons. “The Tram will get us there much faster than on foot,” Gavril said and the Tram shot forth following one of the tracks leading outside.
 

Verona looked delighted and Aaron reached immediately for something to hold onto before he realized that while they were moving quite fast, he hardly felt as if they were moving at all. The trams must have some type of dampeners to suppress the forces that would put them off balance. Gavril seemed to study their reactions and nodded to himself.
 

The Tram took them outside and Aaron looked out the window at the complex of buildings from which they left. They were similar to the style he had seen in Shandara but more modern by comparison. Where Shandara had buildings and gardens complementing the other in their design, the complex of the Hythariam buildings seemed to be more sparse and functional rather than built for appearances. After a few minutes they approached another set of buildings mostly hidden by the trees and surrounding plant life, but Aaron could see a few metallic towers strategically placed around the central octagonal dome. The Tram entered one of the tunnels near the dome and Aaron watch the track disappear behind them. They exited the Tram and Gavril led them away from the platform.
 

Aaron was growing tired but refused to give in and straightened up when he felt himself start to stoop. Gavril pressed his palm to a panel and the metallic door quietly hissed open. Colind and Vaughn turned immediately and came over to greet Aaron.

“You should not be up and about yet,” spoke a voice behind him. Aaron turned to see a beautiful raven haired Hythariam reach inside her pocket and pull out a device. She held the device inches away from his head and slowly scanned down his back.

“Aaron please forgive my daughter Roselyn, she is a healer first and person second.” Spoke an older Hythariam. “Do you remember me? I am Iranus and I’m most pleased to see you up and about.”

Aaron remembered Iranus with his long white hair contrasted by his golden eyes. He had been on the ship that rescued him as he fell. “I remember you,” he said.

“Since you’re here and not resting in your bed where you should be, give me a moment to examine you,” Roselyn ordered.

The others quickly moved to give the healer room to work, save Verona, who stood rooted in place for once at a loss for words. Roselyn raised the device to Aaron’s eyes and slowly scanned downward.

“Can you give us a moment please,” she said to Verona snapping him out of his reverie.

Verona joined the others across the room giving them some privacy, but he kept glancing back in Roselyn’s direction.

Roselyn focused her attention on Aaron and asked him a few questions about the Ryakul wound on his back.

“You’re a remarkably fast healer, Aaron,” she said sternly. “You don’t realize how close to death you really were.”

“You’d be surprised,” Aaron answered quietly.

“Indeed,” she said and then leaned in so only he could hear what she was about to say. “You have friends here heir of Shandara, but be careful as all is not what it seems and the answers given may not be complete in their truthfulness. Some would see the return of the Alenzar’seth as a very grave threat.”

Aaron gave a slight nod of understanding though he had already decided to be on his guard. Roselyn moved away.

“He’s recovering well. Do not keep him long,” she said looking sternly at Iranus.

“Thank you my dear. Please join us,” Iranus said and motioning for them to sit in one of the nearby circle of chairs.

Aaron sat in one of the chairs, “Where is the Drake? What did it do to Sarah?”

“We don’t know where the Drake is now,” Iranus said. “As for what it did to your friend I need to know exactly what you saw.”

“What I saw…” Aaron began and the image that was burned into his mind came forth. The Drake holding Sarah up by her neck. “He blew some kind of green vapor into her face and she breathed it in. Then she began to writhe in pain and after a few moments her eyes turned yellow like his. When I called to her, she pulled away as if she didn’t recognize me. Then the Drake called to her and though she went with him…I could…I could still see…her.” Aaron said, “I know, it doesn’t make much sense, but that’s what I saw.”

“It makes perfect sense,” Roselyn said and then turned to her father. “It’s using a biological delivery agent to spread itself. We suspected, but no one could confirm before now.”

“What is it delivering exactly?” Aaron asked.

“A way to control its victims,” Iranus said.

There were a few moments of silence until Colind cleared his throat, “Tell him the rest.”

Aaron divided his gaze between Colind and Iranus expectantly.

“I had hoped to give you more time to recover before burdening you with this,” Iranus began. “We have observed your world. Where you were raised.”

“Earth,” said Aaron.

“Yes, I’ve no doubt you are familiar with machines?” Iranus asked and continued when Aaron nodded. “We’ve developed machines that are smaller than finest grain of sand that can live in our bodies and group together to form larger machines to perform a number of tasks.”

“We call it nanotech,” Aaron said. “It deals with the manipulation of things on a molecular level.” His response drew a frown from Verona, but Colind, he noted didn’t look at all out of sorts.

“Excellent. I suspected as much,” Iranus said. “The Drake used a gas to deliver Nanites into Sarah. It was they and not the gas that caused her to change.”

“What do the Nanites do exactly?” Aaron asked.

“By themselves not too much, but networked together they can perform complex calculations, including probability, and can adapt to a number of situations. They can form tiny power plants to recharge. Within an organic host they can use the beating heart to convert the movement of the heart muscle into energy. When they were first developed they were coded with a prime directive to keep the body healthy. They worked with the brain, observing the body’s reaction to an infection. After some analysis they would help eliminate infections while allowing the body’s natural immune system to still function. This was essential so we didn’t lose our natural immunity to diseases. We also equipped them with the ability to communicate with other nanotech so knowledge and methods were shared. This went a long way from eliminating the visible signs of sickness altogether.”

“Right, because like a cold, once you start feeling sick you’re pretty much along for the ride.” Aaron said.

Iranus smiled slightly, “Correct. So by all outward appearances we ‘cured’ most diseases entirely, but in truth the Nanites enabled us to resist them before they were even felt by the body.”

“I understand the concept of Nanites, but it doesn’t explain what happened to Sarah,” Aaron said.

“I’ll need to delve a bit into our history to help you understand better,” Iranus began. “Particularly how we came from our home world of Hytharia to Safanar. The Nanites ability to keep the body healthy was only the beginning of their capabilities. We could also have them manipulate the biological blueprints of a living organism. We learned how to alter the genes for aging, to increase brain function thus stimulating growth in our ability to calculate, and even increase our body’s durability and strength.”
 

Iranus paused allowing for what he had just said to sink in. The gravity of such a momentous advance in technology was not lost upon Aaron.
 

“The moral implications of those advances must have led to conflict,” Aaron said after a few moments thought.

“Thats putting it mildly,” Roselyn said speaking up for the first time since she had examined him.

“Aging?” Aaron said, “So you were able to stop aging entirely? Didn’t that lead to overpopulation on your world?”
 

“Much more than that,” Iranus said evenly. “When people live too long they lose perspective. They cease being human, for lack of a better term. Organisms such as ourselves were not meant to evade death entirely. So yes, we were able to heal ourselves and delay aging, allowing for the possibility of a fuller life. But some wanted to live forever believing that since we could in theory, live forever, that we had a right to do so.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Verona said.

Iranus’s lips curved in a knowing sort of way, “It sounds wonderful, does it not? But imagine this, if you will, a whole society that for all intents and purposes didn’t have to fear death or growing old? You would amass a multitude of knowledge, but without wisdom, without the certainty that you are only allowed so much time in this life. People became unmotivated and their fundamental values changed. Instead of bringing people together in harmony, it drove them apart in chaos. Essentially we took away the things that made life worth living.”

“What did you do?” Aaron asked.

“We decided not to stop aging altogether, but simply slow it down to acceptable levels,” Iranus answered.

“How do you decide how long one should live?” Aaron asked.

“We voted on a range and agreed on 200 to 225 years, life style permitting. To prevent constant lobbying in our courts, an agreement was put into place to revisit the age range every 50 years.” Iranus said.

“I can’t imagine deciding as a society how long one should live,” Aaron replied.

Iranus pursed his lips in thought for a moment, “Is it so foreign a concept to you? If you live a healthy lifestyle, you have a better chance to live longer. People no matter their origins have this balance, but ours was the next logical step with the resources at our disposal. We were able to manage the genes for aging that it still took place, but at a much slower rate.”

“Still,” Aaron said, “Even with a majority vote, conflict or even outright war must have been inevitable.”
 

“Yes,” Iranus replied solemnly. “There are those who worked in secret to thwart the council’s efforts to maintain peace. War, as you said, became inevitable. The precious gift stemming from the Nanites became a weapon. You’ve glimpsed the remnants of our world through the portal. You’ve seen first hand what they did to our world.”

“Why Safanar?” Aaron asked. “Couldn’t they open a gateway to another world instead?”

“I’m sure they tried, but opening a door doesn’t mean you’re going to like what is on the other side.”

“That’s not really an answer now is it,” Aaron replied.

Iranus smiled, “No it’s not. Safanar was the first successful connection to a habitable world we were able make. But to understand why we came here, I must explain the situation on Hytharia. Our planet was dying, to say the least,” Iranus began addressing everyone in the room. “In developing our technological prowess, we all but exhausted our natural resources. Something happened to our sun that caused it to age faster than we had originally projected. The lifespan of our star should have ranged in the billions of years, but was eventually reduced to thousands and then hundreds of years. Even then it should have been enough time for us to find a suitable world to colonize. We utilized every means possible in the search. Sending out probes through space as fast as possible, but these things take time.