Children of Zanar 1: The Zanari Inheritance Read online

  After a couple of turns and a flight of stairs, they found themselves in the basement and Thea located the emergency generator fairly quickly, even though the only illumination came from battery-powered emergency lights. ‘Semi-portable fusion reactor,’ Thea said as she looked the device over. It was a chunky box about three metres on each side and two high with a control panel mounted on one side.

  ‘They use these to power field bases,’ Jay commented. ‘Shouldn’t be hard to start up. Not sure why it didn’t cut over when the main power failed. These things are good for decades.’

  ‘I would imagine,’ Thea replied, ‘that someone shut it down. We’re lucky they didn’t blow it up. If you know what you’re doing, why don’t you take care of it.’

  ‘Happily,’ Jay said, sounding as if he was genuinely happy to be able to do something. He set to work bringing the generator to life.

  Thea glanced at Kaya. ‘We should discuss your training. You’re a biokinetic.’

  Since she had nothing else to do aside from watch Jay work, Kaya gave a shrug and nodded. ‘Sure. Yes, I’m a biokinetic. I’d like to learn to do more than analyse injuries and contagions. I’d like to get better at that, but Geogracus seemed to think I should be able to do more.’

  ‘I’m quite sure you can. We’ll schedule some time with him. He’s a master of that particular discipline and not a bad teacher. What about your telepathy?’

  Kaya smiled. ‘I’m not a telepath.’ Her eyes widened a little as Thea just stared at her. ‘I’m not. I’ve never–’

  ‘Not consciously, perhaps. When you asked me and Jinny to help you back on Abertine, you projected an aura. It’s a telepathic ability. It’s… impressing your will upon those around you. Not aggressively, more like a persuasion. You weren’t even aware of doing it, were you?’ Kaya shook her head slowly. ‘You have a shield too, not an amazingly strong one, but it’s there. You undoubtedly use it instinctively, but you can learn to make more use of it. And conscious use of your aura, and we can work up to reading and sending, if you’re capable. You can probably send thoughts with some practice. It’s rare to be able to project an aura and not be able to send something more complex.’

  ‘So, Sienna would be the one to talk to?’

  ‘Since you’re female, yes. I’m pretty good, but not quite as good as she is.’

  ‘Why does her gender make a difference?’ Jay asked, his attention still on the reactor controls.

  Thea smirked. ‘Sienna doesn’t really like men. She’d probably work with a male student, but I’d tend to avoid putting them both through the experience.’

  ‘Well… damn. And they did a cold shutdown on this thing. I’m having to go through the diagnostics before it’ll come back up. Never thought this bit of battlefield knowledge would come in useful.’

  ‘If you don’t mind me saying, you don’t seem like a soldier.’

  ‘Well, it’s not like I went into it as a vocation or anything. I fell into mercenary work because… Well, I had some family trouble. I basically got told to leave and never darken their doors again. I knew how to shoot and I could handle myself, and I didn’t really have any other skills. Merc work seemed like a good way to burn off some anger and make some fast money. Guess I picked up a few skills on the way too.’

  ‘I was career military. My mother and my grandmother were too. I stuck with it longer, but they both backed me all the way through. When I was inducted into the Jiàn hé Shŏu, they were both so proud…’

  ‘Jiàn hé Shŏu?’ Kaya asked. ‘Is that, uh, “sword and hand?”’

  Thea nodded. ‘Zanari has a load of similarities to Trade. Both were derived from old Earth languages, like most of the human tongues. Someone told me the name was from something called Chinese. There are Chinese loan words in Trade too, but that phrase came from the founder of the unit. We were… elite guards. We handled security for the zanari senate, and we were trained in special operations work in case things got serious.’

  ‘And that’s why you carry all those blades around,’ Jay said. ‘I’m assuming with a name like that, you would learn some sort of martial art.’

  ‘“Some sort of,” yes.’

  It seemed apparent that she was not going to say more, but any follow-up questions Jay might have tried were cut off by the sudden sound of a warning buzzer from the reactor. Kaya let out a squeak of alarm, but neither Jay nor Thea seemed worried. ‘Just the start-up alert,’ Jay said. ‘She’s coming up.’ There was a flicker from above them and then the lights burst to life. ‘Guess I haven’t lost that skill then.’

  ‘Apparently not. Now we need to find the computer room and make sure it’s starting up properly. Then Cassy can access the data.’

  ‘She can just… do that?’ Jay asked. ‘Just access the data on a computer she can’t even see, from orbit.’

  ‘She took care of that station, didn’t she? Before it even noticed we were there.’

  Jay shook his head as they started for the stairs. ‘Remind me not to get on the wrong side of you people.’

  Thea chuckled. ‘It’s not an especially good idea, no.’

  ~~~

  It was when Thea was checking over the microframe computer they had found in one of the offices that Jay drew Kaya aside in what could only be described as a conspiratorial manner.

  ‘You sure about all this zanari stuff?’ he asked, keeping his voice low.

  ‘What?’ Kaya replied.

  ‘You being a zanari. Them being zanari. Are you sure about it?’

  ‘Why not? They seem pretty clear. Geogracus–’

  ‘That’s just it. They did the tests. They say you’re one of them. But the zanari are a legend, a story the conspiracy nuts tell of a great civilisation with awesome power. The people who really believe the Zanar Protectorate ever existed are the same kind of people who believe that hidden aliens are always watching and directing our actions.’

  Kaya narrowed her eyes. ‘So, you think they’re frauds?’

  ‘I’m not saying that. Exactly. Maybe deluded. Maybe they’re on the level. I just think you should… be careful about buying into the deal without due consideration.’

  ‘Well… okay. Why didn’t you say anything sooner?’

  Jay’s eyebrows went up. ‘On their ship? The entire place is rigged for sound, and there are almost certainly cameras. If it’s just delusion, suggesting I don’t believe them could be bad. If they’ve got other reasons…’

  Kaya was really not sure what to say to that. What other reasons? What was he getting at?

  Anything she might have asked was cut off by Thea’s voice from the computer room. ‘Okay, we’re up and Cassy’s in their system. We might as well get out of here.’ She appeared behind Kaya with a smile on her face. ‘Unless there’s somewhere you’d like to visit before we go. There’s plenty of light.’

  Kaya frowned. ‘No… No, it might be early down here, but it’s getting late on the Oracle. We’ll go back up.’ Besides, she really wanted to have a think about Jay’s warning. What reason could Thea and the others have for lying to her?

  Oracle of Zanar.

  It took less than an hour for Cassandra and Geogracus to get the information they were looking for. The enormous biokinetic decided to remain in his low-gravity environment and let Cassandra break the news, but it was clear that he had set speed records in running the comparisons to confirm that the virus which had afflicted the colony before Kaya was born bore the same genetic markers as the one he had found in the bodies. It was obvious, because he had made sure that Cassandra informed everyone of his speed and efficiency in performing the task.

  ‘And you want me to learn biokinesis from this guy?’ Kaya asked Thea once Cassandra had given her initial speech.

  ‘He’s very good,’ Thea countered.

  ‘And he knows it,’ Cassandra added a little sourly. ‘You wouldn’t hear me pointing out how rapidly I had searched through sixty years of medical records to locate exactly what we needed in a matter of forty mi
nutes.’ She paused, widened her eyes, and formed her lips into a perfect ‘O’ of surprise.

  ‘Yeah, hilarious,’ Thea said, though she was smirking. ‘What did you find, sora smart panties?’

  ‘You know full well that I’m not wearing–’

  ‘Cassy…’

  Cassandra straightened her face, but she did seem to be rather pleased with what she had found. ‘The virus which became known as “Drift Fever” was first detected in the fourth sexagoy of four fifty-two. The last reported case was in the second sexagoy of four fifty-three. The symptoms always included a fever, coughing and sneezing, and some muscle ache, but the more severe cases ran to nausea, vomiting, some breathing difficulty, and in only two cases there were seizures, resulting in one death. Average time from start of symptoms to them clearing was nine days. By the end of the epidemic, approximately eighty-nine percent of the population had been infected.’

  ‘That sounds… kind of high,’ Kaya said.

  ‘Statistical analysis of the reported cases suggests that the virus was introduced into multiple population centres and, later, further distributed in some way. The coughing and sneezing suggests an airborne virus, so it could have been distributed by drones flying over the more out-of-reach farms.’

  ‘So, it was deliberately spread, but why would one of the colonists do that?’

  Cassandra smiled. She was giving her little presentation in the big lounge outside Kaya’s and Jay’s cabins, and now the wall screen lit up with what looked like a hospital employee data file. The text down the left side indicated that a Doctor Kenner Nash, epidemiologist, was located at Sadrine’s Landing General Hospital while conducting a study into diseases on the colony as part of a wider study being conducted by the BCU. The picture, on the right side, was of a fairly young man, dark-haired, grey-eyed, with fairly classic, handsome features.

  Kaya caught a slight movement out of the corner of her eye and looked around to see that Thea had shifted into a more upright posture, and Kaya knew who this man really was. ‘That’s Narra?’ Kaya asked. ‘That’s the man whose initials are in my genes? He was on Sadrine’s Drift?’

  Cassandra nodded. ‘Kadal Narra, Kenner Nash. He kept his initials the same, but why not? It’s not like anyone else alive was supposed to know him. His “study” began about forty-three days before the first case of the fever appeared. Of course, “Nash” immediately volunteered his services in attempting to uncover a cause and a cure. I found notes made by one of the local doctors suggesting that Nash was deliberately obscuring the results of tests, though he could not come up with a motive and was ignored by his colleagues. Still, that man is the reason we had a clean DNA sequence for Geo to compare to the remnants he found.’

  Cassandra turned and looked up at the screen, her hands clasped at her back. ‘We can be sure, then, that Narra was alive and conducting genetic experiments to resurrect the zanari thirty years ago. What we need to do now is determine his current location and objectives.’

  ‘But it’s crazy,’ Jay said, shaking his head. ‘How can this guy think he can get away with this? He turns up on some planet and infects people, and the next generation are born zanari.’

  ‘Yes,’ Cassandra agreed.

  ‘So, zanari can’t interbreed with humans. People are going to notice.’

  Cassandra gave a shrug. ‘Even with extended lifespans and a fertile period which lasts much longer, people today tend to pair with those of their own generation. A generation of zanari are born and mate with zanari to produce zanari. Some decrease in colony fertility might be noticed, but nothing major.’

  ‘And if he could get this to work properly,’ Thea said, ‘it wouldn’t simply end with new zanari being born. Narra wanted to take the species beyond its current limits, but he also hated the constraints of zanari society. If he went ahead with a full-scale implementation of this, he would want to do it in such a way that he could control the society that developed as well as the species.’ She frowned. ‘Doesn’t entirely explain this extermination…’

  ‘Unless someone found out what he’s up to and decided to clean up,’ Jay suggested.

  ‘Yes, but that doesn’t quite feel right.’ Shrugging, Thea looked around at Kaya. ‘Whatever the case, I suggest we get some rest and decide where to start hunting tomorrow. We’ve no idea where to look for Narra, so we’ll follow the one lead we have. We’re going to track down the people who destroyed Sadrine’s Drift and ask them some very pointy questions.’

  ‘Don’t you mean pointed questions?’ Kaya asked.

  ‘We’ll be asking those too, but if we don’t get answers we like, I’ll have a few blades on hand.’

  56/1/483.

  Kaya was not entirely sure what woke her, but whatever it was, it was not welcome. She had had trouble getting to sleep between worrying over Jay’s comments and the new evidence regarding Narra, and had tossed and turned, as much as that was possible in a suspension field, trying to work things out in her head. She had eventually drifted off, but her lack of sleep probably explained why it took her several seconds to realise that the ship was accelerating and it was the pressure on her chest which had woken her.

  Between the acceleration and the counter-pressure of the field, she found it next to impossible to reach the controls on the bedpost. After flailing wildly for a minute or so, trying to reach them, she found herself glowering at the switch and wondering how anyone got out of bed when the ship was moving. She could see the button on the panel, right there in front of her, but she couldn’t… And then she found herself being lowered to the floor. Cassandra, she assumed, must have noticed her predicament, but she would have to ask about voice controls.

  Dressing was not as hard as it might have been. They were on the move, but the acceleration was not as high as usual. Maybe two gravities. Breathing was certainly not as difficult and walking was a lot easier when she headed for the lounge.

  Thea, Cassandra, Fay, and Jay were already there, watching the large display screen which seemed to be showing some sort of tactical plot of the system. Kaya could see the circle representing Sadrine’s Drift and a green marker, which was presumably the Oracle, but it took her a second longer to notice the red marker moving toward the planet.

  ‘What’s that?’ Kaya asked.

  ‘From the mass and energy signature,’ Cassandra replied without turning, ‘and the BCU Security registration it sent to the interdiction stations, I believe that it is a Farrel-class heavy cruiser. Since we are not supposed to be here, and we have largely gathered the data we needed, I’ve begun moving out to the hyper limit. We should be able to stay outside their passive-sensor range. They won’t know we were here.’

  ‘Oh. Wonder what they’re doing here? And thanks for letting me down from the bed. I couldn’t reach the switch.’

  ‘Huh,’ Jay said, grinning. ‘I guess I have longer arms.’

  ‘I am accelerating less rapidly than usual so that we might have some time to determine their purpose before we leave,’ Cassandra said. ‘And I did not turn off your bed field.’

  ‘You didn’t? I thought you saw me flailing around on a camera or–’

  ‘There are cameras in the cabins for communication purposes. I do not routinely monitor them. I did not see your “flailing.”’

  ‘Did you get annoyed at not being able to reach the switch?’ Thea asked.

  ‘Well, yes,’ Kaya admitted. ‘I was going to try yelling and then it just let me down.’

  ‘Right, well, we can add telekinesis to the list of things for you to train in.’

  Kaya grinned, a little weakly. ‘I’m not a telekinetic.’

  ‘Most of the controls on the ship are coated with a polymer which makes them easy to flip or push using minimal telekinesis. You obviously have some talent and enough power to activate the control. Don’t worry, Geo may be our expert, but I’ve got enough talent to teach you the basics. We’ll have you bench-pressing weights with your mind before you know it.’

  ‘Well, that’
s something to look forward to. How long before that cruiser gets into orbit?’

  ‘A little under thirty minutes,’ Cassandra replied.

  ‘I guess I might as well wait then.’ Kaya walked over to one of the sofas and settled down to watch.

  ~~~

  It was almost fifty minutes later before they found out why the cruiser was visiting Sadrine’s Drift. It arrived when Cassandra had predicted, entering a low polar orbit, and then nothing happened. The sensors lost sight of the other ship as it passed behind the planet, and the marker began to flash as its predicted path was indicated, and they watched and waited to see what might happen.

  Kaya was starting to think that they were going to see nothing before detection became impossible, but then Cassandra spoke.

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘Oh?’ Kaya and Thea asked at more or less the same time.

  Cassandra’s voice was entirely devoid of emotion when she spoke again, but it sounded like a strained sort of lack of emotion, like she was forcing it. ‘Detection of a thermonuclear detonation approximately six hundred metres above the settlement of Sadrine’s Landing. Approximate yield of ten megatonnes. Registering additional detonations…’ She trailed off and turned away from the screen, her head bowed.

  ‘They’re nuking the place,’ Jay said, his voice barely above a whisper.

  Thea was at Kaya’s side before the latter was aware that she had moved. Kaya was silent, staring at the screen, but she looked up as Thea stepped up beside her and shook her head. ‘I… I think after all that’s happened,’ Kaya said, ‘one more insult is just… nothing.’

  And then Fay was there, dropping to her knees to bring her face down to Kaya’s height. Long fingers enfolded Kaya’s smaller hands and Kaya found her eyes drawn to the alien girl’s. ‘Among the filarax,’ Fay said, ‘cremation is reserved for those who have fought honourably during their lives. The fire, it is believed, speeds your soul to Zankora where it is judged by Zankatosh the Unspoken. I know that you do not subscribe to the beliefs of the filarax, but… Do not think of this as an insult. However unknowingly, these people in their ship have granted your people a great honour. One they deserve, for they died defending their territory as any filarax would do.’