jeriendhal | Returned to Life, Part Twenty-three (Reply)

Her wrists bound behind her, Rachael was dragged along by Gisko through the asteroid complex, gripping her upper arm painfully. They entered a weightless tube connection, and she could see the massive bulk of the Mantle Cracker looming before them through the tube's transparent sides. “Where are you taking me?” she demanded.

“To meet God,” Gisko replied, as they entered the battleship, returning to an artificial gravity environment.. They transited through a couple more corridors, stopping before a massive steel door. Gisko pressed his palm to a lock scanner, and the door unlatched with loud clanks as magnetic bolts pulled back. He pulled her into the chamber beyond, and she let out a shocked gasp.

They stood upon a catwalk, in front a complex looking control panel, that overlooked a multi-tiered circular chamber. Massive tanks lined the walls above and below them, lighting the chamber with a sickly green glow, generated by the nearly one hundred Ferin that floated in the tanks. Prisoners and power sources for the great, ancient ship.

“Oh, by the Dream, what is this place?” Rachael demanded.

“The power cell,” the Gene Mage announced from across the chamber, his voice echoing against the glassteel walls of the tanks. The tall, green, horned alien strode toward them along the catwalk. Rachael looked down, and saw that the catwalk was directly over the open topped tank, presumably to allow easier access for the multitude of feeder and life support tubes that connected each of the little Ferin to the ship. “It is the most massive example ever constructed by the Dominion, exclusively to re-power the Mantle Cracker. Five hundred years ago it could have been accomplished by a fifth of these number of Ferin. Indeed, I would have required more, particularly the poor little ones that were vilely murdered by those Gal Sapiens soldiers. Fortunately, I have you to thank for the solution to that problem,” he said, smiling.

The Gene Mage made a sweeping gesture and Rachael looked up to see... Terinu, unconscious, trapped like the other Ferin in the tanks, but occupying an entire tier to himself. “There is no need to look so alarmed, Rachael Namatjira,” he said. “He is in a state of chemically induced hibernation, until his Bion abilities are activated by enzymes fed through his support tubes.” She shuddered as his hand brushed against her cheek. “General, release her, please. It is not right that she be bound when I wish so much to thank her.”

“Thank me?” she asked, as General Gisko released her wrists. He stayed close to her though, presumably to grab her if she made a move to harm his god.

“For aiding me in recovering my lost Ferin child. Dominion intelligence gatherers had made note that the aliens he'd been traveling with were in this region. I knew if I could offer a sufficiently enticing lure, I could gain enough information about his current situation to maximize the chances of any recovery operation.” He smiled at her. 'The incident with the freighter and the lost proto-Ferin I'd initially thought was a near disaster, but strangely it proved to the moment that assured the success of the operation. Instead of being forced to confront the boy's protectors in deep space, they came to me, in a system under the Dominion's absolute control, guaranteeing success.”

“You used me,” Rachael said slowly. “It wasn't just a tracker that you'd placed in me, was it? You could hear and see everything I saw and heard.”

“Until the moment the hybrid Vulpine's jammer came back online, yes,” the Gene Mage confirmed.

“I was just part of a trap,” she said, her voice growing faint. And here I was worried about being used by people from Earth.

“Child, take heart. Thanks to you, the Ferin will finally be truly restored to their place in the Dominion. I owe you a debt that can not be repaid by merely replacing your body.”

“What?”

The Gene Mage reached over, almost, but not quite, touching her breastbone where she had been shot so long ago. “The damage to your internal organs was extensive, I fear. In the end, once I had sufficient knowledge of human biology, it was far more efficient to clone a new body for you, and transplant your brain into it, rather than repair the original.”

“You transferred my brain to a clone?” Rachael felt her gorge rise up. “I'm wearing a... a... corpse's body?”

The Gene Mage looked puzzled. “You needn't be so alarmed. The clone body was grown in an incubation pod, like the proto-Ferin. Also, like them, it was decerebrate, lacking a fully developed brain. It was never 'alive' in any true sense.”

She gestured to the surrounding tanks. “They're alive!”

“Not truly. They're incapable of life outside a pod.” The Gene Mage's smiled slipped into a frown. “I confess, I am not happy to see them in this state either. True Ferin should know the joy of service outside of the power cells, of laughter and play in their habitat domes.”

“Then why did you even make them?” Rachael demanded.

“I am not the sole voice of leadership among the Varn,” he told her. “Our plans for restoring the Dominion's power are dependent on reestablishing our Ferin population. To that end I have been... encouraged... to find a solution that did not hinge on the recovery of the Ferin boy that I have been tracking for so long. I had hoped to recreate his race in its entirety, but lacking complete notes or genetic samples from my original research, these poor, twisted creatures you see before you are the best I was able to do. They were force grown in a matter of months, rather than the years that your new body required. As a result, their natural genetic deficiencies have been unfortunately magnified.” He shrugged. “At least these poor creatures will not suffer for much longer. Now that a complete and whole genetic example is in my hands, cloning the Ferin boy to create his race anew will be child's play, and I can humanly euthanize the proto-Ferin without harming the Dominion.”

“You can't kill them!”

“They are mine to do with as I please, as much as you are mine,” he said. “Believe me when I say I will be doing them a mercy.” He turned to Gisko. “General, make preparations to launch. We will proceed to the Terran system as scheduled.”

“Terran system? You're going to Earth? Why?” she asked, as Gisko bowed and left the chamber.

“To teach Humanity the folly of resisting the will of the Varn Dominion,” he said to her. “This ship has waited five hundred years, set aside along with an entire battlefleet's worth of equipment in this asteroid, hidden in this system during the dark days of our defeat, for the time when we would have the Ferin returned to us and its systems could be restored to full function. As before, we will use it to devastate human civilization, dealing a fatal blow to the GSA's military might.”

“You can't do that!” she shouted at him.

The Gene Mage only shook his head. “We can, and we will, Rachael Namatjira. And as your two friends served me, so shall you, as we find the optimum use for Humanity in service to the Dominion.”

Lord Gene Mage, Gisko's voice called out from some hidden speaker. We are ready to initiate pre-warming of the ship's normal space drive.

“Proceed, General. I will supply the ship with full power,” the Gene Mage replied. He touched a flat screen control on the panel, and the greenish glow from the tanks that lit the power cell increased in intensity, growing a near blinding white.

Rachael squinted her eyes. In the tanks she could see the little proto-Ferin, writhing in unconscious, terrible, pain...