Chapter 25: History Lesson

Kyle stands, takes Kathleen’s hand and says, “Let’s go home, KK. I don’t like the way this is developing.”

MariLynn jumps quickly from her chair and moves between the couple and the portal. There’s a weapon of some kind in her hand. Tears are streaming down her face as she cries, “It wasn’t supposed to be this way, but you can’t leave. If you do it’ll mean Jonas died for nothing.”

“MariLynn! What are you doing?” asks Sharon Supervisor.

“I’m holding them until Carl sends someone for them.”

A stunned Kyle asks, “MariLynn, I thought you loved Jonas?”

“I do, did, I don’t know. This wasn’t the way things were supposed to happen. Carl said he had information that’d force Jonas to give him Shiloh and that he’d keep Jonas safely on Earth until I could join him there to live the rest of our lives together.”

Kyle responds, “The information Carl had was the fact I’m actually Jonas’ son and he threatened to use it to destroy my family. The problem was Jonas was too much of a Hero to give in to someone like Carl Edmondson. Since he really didn’t have a Hero’s character Carl could never imagine Jonas being willing to take his own life to save his family. Jonas was a Hero to the very end.”

MariLynn says, “You may be right, but it doesn’t fix the real issue.”

“And what is the real issue?” asks Kyle.

“This whole stupid system! It’s cruel and inhuman, and it has to be changed. Carl convinced many of us on Crossroads he can disrupt things to the point where the system will have to be changed.”

“And what would you like to see changed?” asks Sharon.

“We spend years taking care of our Hero. In many cases we’re more of a wife to the Hero than his real wife at home, if he has one. We comfort, heal, and help them plan missions. On each mission we live in fear they’ll not come back to us. The very nature of this setup makes it almost impossible not to fall in love with our Hero, yet we can never complete our lives together, nor can we have his children. Can you imagine how hard it is to watch the man you love impregnate woman after woman yet we’re never allowed that privilege?”

“And do you honestly think a man like Carl Edmondson will make things better?” asks Kyle.

“His Caretaker, Alicia, says that’s his intention. She told us some of the senior staff got wind of his plans and made false reports of his activity on Chaos. Reports making him seem cruel and heartless. She found a way to create another portal and got him back to Earth. Since then he’s been working hard to free us Caretakers from our slavery and to enable the women on Cassandra to freely have babies without the dangers and waste of time created by Chaos.”

“So you took over the computer system and used that to misdirect, at best, or cause the deaths of both Damsels and Heroes?”

“As Alicia explained it those deaths were just collateral damage - sad, but necessary for us to achieve our goals. Now, Kyle, I’m afraid you and your new wife will become two more unfortunate deaths to enable us to have control of Shiloh.”

“And why is Shiloh so important?” asks a frightened Kathleen.

“Carl says it’s the key to control almost a third of Chaos. Once we’ve Shiloh we can use it to gain control of the lands of the Jones Citadel and Hero Samuel’s stronghold.”

Suddenly there’s the sound of a chime and MariLynn says, “Carl’s just arrived. All other portals have been locked out.”

“I’m afraid you’re wrong about that,” proclaims Barbara Haywood as she steps through the doorway and fires a taser into MariLynn’s back.

Barbara is followed by her husband, Marc, and by Kyle’s friend, Larry Martin. Even more surprising is all three are armed with assault rifles. A surprised Kyle asks, “Barbara, how did you get here with Earth weapons and how is Larry able to walk?”

MariLynn suddenly just disappears and three aliens materialize in the side area between Kyle and his friends. They are each obviously different species.

The one who appears to be the leader is short with a stocky body which is covered in grayish-green scales. His hands only have four stubby fingers and instead of an opposed thumb two of the fingers seemed to be opposed to the other two.

The alien to his right is very tall, close to eight feet in height, and is very thin. His pale blue skin is somewhat dimpled like a golf ball and a ring of orange feathers circles his neck like a collar. His five fingers are more like that of a human, but seem to have an extra joint.

For some reason Kyle feels the third alien is female. She’s somewhat over six feet tall and though slender, she’s not near as thin as her blue companion. She’s covered in a fine fur arranged in a patchwork of tans, blacks, orange, and whites that’s not unlike that of a calico cat, except each patch is a solid color. There are other feline aspects displayed, such as the small pointed ears at the top of her head and the teeth at the front of her mouth are thin and pointed like needles.

In a deep rumbling voice reminding Kyle of a distant thunderstorm the first alien answers, “Because we brought them here. We’ve been monitoring the situation for months, but we didn’t have enough hard facts to really make the changes that need to be made. We healed your friend on one of our ships and brought all three here to help us. Since they all exhibit the kind of Hero qualities found in your grandfather we believe they can be trusted to both assist us and to keep our secret as well.”

Once Sharon can overcome her shock she asks, “Who are you?”

“The three of us were appointed by our governments to oversee this operation. We’re the ones you call the Council.”

“But I’ve seen the Council, they look nothing like you.”

“What you saw were computer created images. It was felt you would co-operate more easily with those who appeared similar to you rather than relate to us as we really are. We now see the folly of that thought because some of you questioned why we had any right to dictate how things were to be done.”

“But why would you have control of this facility?” asks Kyle.

“Because our peoples created this place and set up the current Hero / Damsel system to try to save a dying planet as well as to help improve the lives of people on another world.”

The feline alien adds, “All three of our peoples are primarily traders and explorers. The K’rling,” pointing to her reptilian companion, “first found Chaos more than a million of your years ago. It was a single planet circling a surprisingly stable young sun. What made it unusual was the fact the planet was not created by that sun; nor did it originate as a molten or gaseous blob. Instead, it was created from the repetitive collisions of numerous spatial objects. The resulting forced combination of many different masses inspired them to name it Tyrlvn, which could be translated as Chaos in your language.”

The K’rling adds, “Because of that uniqueness my people decided to attempt what you would call terraforming. An atmosphere was formed, during which additional gases and fluids were released from the frozen rocks that made up the basic structure of the planet. Because the planet had no molten core to maintain warmth a thin vapor cloud was created to hold in the planet’s heat while mitigating harmful radiation from its sun. After much study it was decided the climate was best matched by that of Sol three so flora and fauna were both transplanted. Some did well while others seemed to find something was missing in their new environment and they did not survive.”

The tall blue alien adds, “The K’rling asked my people, the Jrkopy, to assist with adding a population and culture to the planet. After the work the K’rling had already done we decided to transplant people from what we determined was the most stable group on Earth at the time, which was the early thirteenth century in your calendar. Thus we transplanted scattered villages and farms from the area between the Isles of England and the Steppes of Russia, placing them, their homes, shops, animals, and crops in various locations around the planet of Chaos. The only things we did not bring were the churches, priests, and the upper echelons of their political system. Religion was completely removed from their memories and we planted the idea of feudal lords who lived elsewhere and seldom bothered the general population in the peoples’ minds.”

The feline explains, “We, the Mewor, were searching for new planets with which to establish trade. Five hundred and sixty cycles ago one of our ships discovered Cassandra and approached it regarding trade. Without attempting to communicate with the ship the planet launched hundreds of nuclear rockets. Our ship launched counter-measures in defense of itself. The combination of explosive materials created a radiation cloud that began to make physical changes in the DNA of the Cassandrans.”

She continues, “Eventually these changes made it almost impossible for the females to be impregnated by Cassandran males and almost emasculated their males concerning their ability to sexually please their females. It is also slowly reducing their ability to lead and it is now estimated in less than a hundred cycles the true Cassandran males will all be dead or suffering from severe dementia. In trying to help the remaining Cassandrans we sought ideas from our longtime allies and trading partners the K’rling and the Jrkopy. Since the Cassandrans were found to be genetically compatible with humans the Jrkopy suggested we bring all the females to Chaos. We carried a few to the planet to see if it will work, but were surprised at what we found when we arrived.”

The Jrkopian takes over the conversation by saying, “During the time since we had populated Chaos something in the local minerals had altered the DNA of the people. One of the changes seems to be the removal of that spark of intelligence that makes humans creative. That is why the planet still dwells in the middle ages. Another change made them sexually incompatible with humans from other planets, which is why the act of sex causes such a burning sensation. We later learned the pheromones produced by Cassandran females cause certain Chaosian men to irrationally want to possess them, yet are nearly driven mad by their inability to mate with them without the burning.”

“Once these facts were known,” explains the Meworian, “our social scientists developed this system to utilize men from a more modern Earth to impregnate the Cassandran women. The struggles and efforts of the Damsels assures their children will be cherished and not be taken for granted while the efforts and sacrifice of the Heroes assures they are impregnated by the best men available. This also enables the slow shift of power from the Cassandran males to the Earth-Cassandran males. Before this recent outside influence we were projecting there will be a sufficient number of the adult new males to begin to assume control of the planet within seventy cycles. There are two aspects to our plan that involves Earth itself. The rescues by the Heroes provides an emotional and physical outlet for many of the best men on Earth while their interaction with the people on Cassandra, Crossroads, and Chaos is believed to help prepare a core group of leaders who will one day be faced by aliens visiting Earth. We’re hoping these people will help prevent a reaction like that of the Cassandrans.”