Loss, Part 2
May. 3rd, 2007 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalFinished, finally. Now back to work on inputting the corrections that Kiki and Micheal so kindly provided. :)
He awakened with sound of roaring waters around him, as the healing fluids of a medicant tank drained away, leaving him leaning against the tube’s side, trying to paw away the oxygen mask that covered his face. The tube lifted away, and hands steadied him until he could sit in a padded chair, blinking in the light of a ship’s medical bay. Dream Stalker and Life Healer stood before him, their faces unreadable.
“You live, Brother,” Dream Stalker announced. “We are pleased.”
“Dream Stalker, Life Healer, what happened, where am I?” he demanded, trying to regain his breath. He felt so weak, no stronger than a Ferin joey, struggling to reach the safety of its mother’s pouch after being born.
“You tell us, Brother Gene Mage,” Dream Stalker said. “We had to pull you from the wreckage of your flyer. The crash fields had done their job, but only barely. Your body was near destroyed, and your servitor’s completely obliterated. You’ve been three months in the medicant tank being repaired here in the evacuation ship.”
“Samaneus, I thought he was loyal, but in truth he’d been infected with the Human madness as well, and betrayed me.” He shook his head, trying to clear it as Dream Stalker’s words finally penetrated. “Ship? You mean fleet, don’t you?”
“Ship,” Life Healer corrected. “The rest of the fleet has been eliminated. Less than a score of Varn remain.” She handed him a towel and a set of robes, and he began to shakily dry himself of the medicant tank’s fluids and dress himself.
“Less than a score… How is this possible?”
“We were delayed in our final evacuation while we retrieved you from the wreckage of the flyer. By the time we broke orbit the attackers were upon us and we barely escaped. Then we were faced with dodging both the traitors and then later the Ardactavians as we searched for a safe haven. It has only been a week since we have finally managed to shake our pursuers,” Dream Stalker told him, her face dark with anger.
He attempted to stand, found his footing, then bowed carefully to Life Healer in gratitude for his efforts. “How many servitors and Ferin remain with us?”
“All of our remaining servitors have been executed,” Dream Stalker said. “Given their apparent susceptibility to Human contamination there was no other choice. We have been maintaining the ship’s systems ourselves.”
The Gene Mage nodded. “We can find new servitors, from systems beyond the borders of the Hive, or we can make new ones. Did my Terran genetic samples survive, Brother?”
“Yes, Brother Gene Mage,” Life Healer reported. “They are in the cargo hold.”
“Excellent. I have samples of a species that might prove promising as a replacement for the Creo at least, possibly the Galen if I can raise their number of neural connectors sufficiently,” he told them both. “So long as the Varn survive, the Dominion will survive. So long as the Ferin survive, the Dominion will have the power to exert its will.”
Dream Stalker and Life Healer exchanged a look. “There may be a problem with the Ferin, Brother Gene Mage,” the latter said. “They appear to be dying.”
“What? Why didn’t you report this immediately?” he exclaimed. “Why didn’t you take me out of the medicant chamber sooner?”
“If we had removed you any sooner you would have died as well,” Life Healer said.
“Take me to them,” he said. He held onto Life Healer’s arm as they led him out of the medical bay and into a servitor’s ward room. Lying on sleeping pads on the floor were a half-dozen Ferin, nutrient tubes inserted into their bodies, oxygen masks over their faces, none even conscious enough to greet him. Each Ferin had peeling, reddened skin, and most of the hair on their heads had fallen out “What happened to them?” the Gene Mage demanded. “These are radiation burns on their bodies.”
“We don’t know,” Dream Stalker said.
He kneeled down to peel back the eyelid of one Ferin, a female with light blue hair. Her pupil did not respond to the light above her, indicating a deeply damaged nervous system. “How long have you been keeping them in the power cells?”
“They’ve been cycled in two shifts, in and out every five days,” she said. “The current shift has the healthiest stock remaining, but they’ve been inside for nearly a fortnight.”
He felt his jaw drop open in shock. “A fortnight? Dream Stalker, how could you do such a thing? Service in a power cell must be no longer than a week, and then there must be at least three days of rest for every day of service.”
Her eyes narrowed in irritation. “We did not have the luxury for your soft-hearted indulgence of your pets, Brother. We’ve been running for three months, with no chance to rest until now. It was necessary for our survival.”
“Necessary? Survival?” he repeated in disbelief. “You utterly contemptuous…” He began to sputter. “You are… you are… mentally unfit!”
She drew in an angry breath. “You go too far, Brother.”
“Too far? Too far? I have not gone far enough! I should have your genetic history wiped from the databanks! Nothing less could wipe the shame of what you have done!” Shaking, he stood up again, leaning against the wall to support himself as he rushed as quickly as he could to the ship’s engineering bay. “Shut the primary power down!” he shouted. “Open the power cell. Open it immediately!”
The Varn manning the engineering console, who had once been the guardian of a minor industrial facility, the Gene Mage remembered, stood up to protest. “Brother Gene Mage, Dream Stalker has specifically ordered…”
“I do not care what that mental degenerate has ordered! Open the power cell now!” He pushed the lesser Varn out of the way and killed the nutrient and hormone feeds to the cell. Then he pressed the release switch and the door to the power cell hissed open. The nauseating smell that greeted him confirmed his worst fears, even before his newly acquired robes become soaked to the waist in the suspension fluid as he climbed inside.
When he emerged, he was cradling the body of another radiation burned Ferin, the little grey body covered in burns and cancerous lesions from radiation, his head completely bald from the poison. He set the lifeless shell on the deck, and fought the urge to begin weeping in rage, or worse, physically attack Dream Stalker as she looked at the innocent form with undisguised contempt.
“Weak,” she stated. Thankfully she didn’t specify whether she addressed the dead Ferin or the Gene Mage himself. “When you recreate them, Brother Gene Mage, perhaps you could make them a trifle more robust.”
“Recreate them?” he repeated. “How do you propose I do that, Sister?”
“Even if the ones in the tanks are dead, it should be simplicity to take a sample from one of the live ones in the ward room and begin cloning them,” she said.
“Take a sample?” he asked. “It is a bit more complicated than that! Didn’t you realize that Bion is a form of radiation?”
“Of course I know that. But your Ferin could survive exposure to the hard vacuum of space, an environment that their original species was never designed to live in. Surely an extended stay in the power cell shouldn’t have…”
“They aren’t made of armor plating, Dream Stalker! Such extended exposure as you have subjected them to is beyond their limits to endure. Every cell in their bodies, every stand of DNA, is now irreparably damaged. I can’t just clone them like a cutting of a plant!”
“Gene Mage, we need the Ferin! Our weapons, our factories, our ships, all are powered by those creatures!” Life Healer cried out.
“Your genetic samples…” Dream Stalker began to say.
“Are in my laboratory on the home world, which has no doubt been bombed into dust by now,” he interrupted. “I didn’t put any in the transports during the evacuation, because I couldn’t believe you’d place all of my precious children at risk!”
Dream Stalker closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “It is done. It cannot be undone. We must find alternative sources of power. Fusion will do for now.”
“We’ll lose orders of magnitude in efficiency,” the Varn who’d been manning the engineering controls pointed out.
“We have no choice,” she replied.
The Gene Mage left them to their argument, unhearing, uncaring. He stepped back inside the power cell and began to methodically disconnect the nutrient feeds from the bodies of his dead Ferin. There were perhaps two or three left alive, but from the damage he could see in the dim light of the chamber, they would only survive for a few scant hours. And then their race would be dead. And he would be alone in the universe, save for the company of his fellow, fractious Varn
I’m sorry, so sorry, my children, that I was not there to defend you.
Later, in his cabin, he took out one of the carefully preserved samples from Earth that had escaped destruction, while all record of his Ferin had not.
“Galapados Lava Lizard,” he read the label aloud, “Latin taxonomic designation Tropodurus albemarlensis.” You will serve me, Galapados, as my Ferin served. And you will bring destruction to the Humans, who murdered those who came before you.
The End
He awakened with sound of roaring waters around him, as the healing fluids of a medicant tank drained away, leaving him leaning against the tube’s side, trying to paw away the oxygen mask that covered his face. The tube lifted away, and hands steadied him until he could sit in a padded chair, blinking in the light of a ship’s medical bay. Dream Stalker and Life Healer stood before him, their faces unreadable.
“You live, Brother,” Dream Stalker announced. “We are pleased.”
“Dream Stalker, Life Healer, what happened, where am I?” he demanded, trying to regain his breath. He felt so weak, no stronger than a Ferin joey, struggling to reach the safety of its mother’s pouch after being born.
“You tell us, Brother Gene Mage,” Dream Stalker said. “We had to pull you from the wreckage of your flyer. The crash fields had done their job, but only barely. Your body was near destroyed, and your servitor’s completely obliterated. You’ve been three months in the medicant tank being repaired here in the evacuation ship.”
“Samaneus, I thought he was loyal, but in truth he’d been infected with the Human madness as well, and betrayed me.” He shook his head, trying to clear it as Dream Stalker’s words finally penetrated. “Ship? You mean fleet, don’t you?”
“Ship,” Life Healer corrected. “The rest of the fleet has been eliminated. Less than a score of Varn remain.” She handed him a towel and a set of robes, and he began to shakily dry himself of the medicant tank’s fluids and dress himself.
“Less than a score… How is this possible?”
“We were delayed in our final evacuation while we retrieved you from the wreckage of the flyer. By the time we broke orbit the attackers were upon us and we barely escaped. Then we were faced with dodging both the traitors and then later the Ardactavians as we searched for a safe haven. It has only been a week since we have finally managed to shake our pursuers,” Dream Stalker told him, her face dark with anger.
He attempted to stand, found his footing, then bowed carefully to Life Healer in gratitude for his efforts. “How many servitors and Ferin remain with us?”
“All of our remaining servitors have been executed,” Dream Stalker said. “Given their apparent susceptibility to Human contamination there was no other choice. We have been maintaining the ship’s systems ourselves.”
The Gene Mage nodded. “We can find new servitors, from systems beyond the borders of the Hive, or we can make new ones. Did my Terran genetic samples survive, Brother?”
“Yes, Brother Gene Mage,” Life Healer reported. “They are in the cargo hold.”
“Excellent. I have samples of a species that might prove promising as a replacement for the Creo at least, possibly the Galen if I can raise their number of neural connectors sufficiently,” he told them both. “So long as the Varn survive, the Dominion will survive. So long as the Ferin survive, the Dominion will have the power to exert its will.”
Dream Stalker and Life Healer exchanged a look. “There may be a problem with the Ferin, Brother Gene Mage,” the latter said. “They appear to be dying.”
“What? Why didn’t you report this immediately?” he exclaimed. “Why didn’t you take me out of the medicant chamber sooner?”
“If we had removed you any sooner you would have died as well,” Life Healer said.
“Take me to them,” he said. He held onto Life Healer’s arm as they led him out of the medical bay and into a servitor’s ward room. Lying on sleeping pads on the floor were a half-dozen Ferin, nutrient tubes inserted into their bodies, oxygen masks over their faces, none even conscious enough to greet him. Each Ferin had peeling, reddened skin, and most of the hair on their heads had fallen out “What happened to them?” the Gene Mage demanded. “These are radiation burns on their bodies.”
“We don’t know,” Dream Stalker said.
He kneeled down to peel back the eyelid of one Ferin, a female with light blue hair. Her pupil did not respond to the light above her, indicating a deeply damaged nervous system. “How long have you been keeping them in the power cells?”
“They’ve been cycled in two shifts, in and out every five days,” she said. “The current shift has the healthiest stock remaining, but they’ve been inside for nearly a fortnight.”
He felt his jaw drop open in shock. “A fortnight? Dream Stalker, how could you do such a thing? Service in a power cell must be no longer than a week, and then there must be at least three days of rest for every day of service.”
Her eyes narrowed in irritation. “We did not have the luxury for your soft-hearted indulgence of your pets, Brother. We’ve been running for three months, with no chance to rest until now. It was necessary for our survival.”
“Necessary? Survival?” he repeated in disbelief. “You utterly contemptuous…” He began to sputter. “You are… you are… mentally unfit!”
She drew in an angry breath. “You go too far, Brother.”
“Too far? Too far? I have not gone far enough! I should have your genetic history wiped from the databanks! Nothing less could wipe the shame of what you have done!” Shaking, he stood up again, leaning against the wall to support himself as he rushed as quickly as he could to the ship’s engineering bay. “Shut the primary power down!” he shouted. “Open the power cell. Open it immediately!”
The Varn manning the engineering console, who had once been the guardian of a minor industrial facility, the Gene Mage remembered, stood up to protest. “Brother Gene Mage, Dream Stalker has specifically ordered…”
“I do not care what that mental degenerate has ordered! Open the power cell now!” He pushed the lesser Varn out of the way and killed the nutrient and hormone feeds to the cell. Then he pressed the release switch and the door to the power cell hissed open. The nauseating smell that greeted him confirmed his worst fears, even before his newly acquired robes become soaked to the waist in the suspension fluid as he climbed inside.
When he emerged, he was cradling the body of another radiation burned Ferin, the little grey body covered in burns and cancerous lesions from radiation, his head completely bald from the poison. He set the lifeless shell on the deck, and fought the urge to begin weeping in rage, or worse, physically attack Dream Stalker as she looked at the innocent form with undisguised contempt.
“Weak,” she stated. Thankfully she didn’t specify whether she addressed the dead Ferin or the Gene Mage himself. “When you recreate them, Brother Gene Mage, perhaps you could make them a trifle more robust.”
“Recreate them?” he repeated. “How do you propose I do that, Sister?”
“Even if the ones in the tanks are dead, it should be simplicity to take a sample from one of the live ones in the ward room and begin cloning them,” she said.
“Take a sample?” he asked. “It is a bit more complicated than that! Didn’t you realize that Bion is a form of radiation?”
“Of course I know that. But your Ferin could survive exposure to the hard vacuum of space, an environment that their original species was never designed to live in. Surely an extended stay in the power cell shouldn’t have…”
“They aren’t made of armor plating, Dream Stalker! Such extended exposure as you have subjected them to is beyond their limits to endure. Every cell in their bodies, every stand of DNA, is now irreparably damaged. I can’t just clone them like a cutting of a plant!”
“Gene Mage, we need the Ferin! Our weapons, our factories, our ships, all are powered by those creatures!” Life Healer cried out.
“Your genetic samples…” Dream Stalker began to say.
“Are in my laboratory on the home world, which has no doubt been bombed into dust by now,” he interrupted. “I didn’t put any in the transports during the evacuation, because I couldn’t believe you’d place all of my precious children at risk!”
Dream Stalker closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “It is done. It cannot be undone. We must find alternative sources of power. Fusion will do for now.”
“We’ll lose orders of magnitude in efficiency,” the Varn who’d been manning the engineering controls pointed out.
“We have no choice,” she replied.
The Gene Mage left them to their argument, unhearing, uncaring. He stepped back inside the power cell and began to methodically disconnect the nutrient feeds from the bodies of his dead Ferin. There were perhaps two or three left alive, but from the damage he could see in the dim light of the chamber, they would only survive for a few scant hours. And then their race would be dead. And he would be alone in the universe, save for the company of his fellow, fractious Varn
I’m sorry, so sorry, my children, that I was not there to defend you.
Later, in his cabin, he took out one of the carefully preserved samples from Earth that had escaped destruction, while all record of his Ferin had not.
“Galapados Lava Lizard,” he read the label aloud, “Latin taxonomic designation Tropodurus albemarlensis.” You will serve me, Galapados, as my Ferin served. And you will bring destruction to the Humans, who murdered those who came before you.
The End
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-05-03 08:27 pm (UTC)(Just one tiny thing... this sentence gave my reading a hiccup: We did not have the luxury to indulge in your soft-hearted indulgence...)
*skitters off to try to concentrate on some betaing, though it's a lost cause tonight or tomorrow*
no subject
Date: 2007-05-03 08:45 pm (UTC)Oh, I'm growing quite fond of the Gene Mage. He may be trying to take over the universe and enslave Terinu, but at least he doesn't want to either kill the boy dead, dissect him, or twist him into a pirate/assassin.
All the poor guy wants is to bring his kids back into the world...
no subject
Date: 2007-05-03 08:52 pm (UTC)Aaaawwww *sniffs*
The poor Ferin all dead *sniffs*
Great story - (both parts)
mjkj
Sorry, but if you mean me - my name is Michael not Micheal
And you definitely should post this also into the Terinu-forum - it now works again - you should be able to post without any problems
no subject
Oh, and I forgot: I did not provide any corrections for this story =S
mjkj
no subject
Date: 2007-05-04 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Ooohh *is flustered*
Well, if that is the case - thank you *blushes*
mjkj
...sends next installment...
no subject
Date: 2007-05-04 12:42 am (UTC)Sorry I didn't comment on part one but I wanted to see how this panned out without accidently influencing it.
With only a few small changes this is pretty much what happened to the ferin. The differences wouldn't affect this story. The parts about the Gene Mage becoming incapacitated and the fleeing varn destroying the remaing ferin through over use in their haste is right on the money. As is the Gene Mage's anger and grief. The scene with him wading into a powercell amongst the dying ferin is almost identical to one I've already thumbnailed! ;)
(I've also got a pic which is a splash page for the next chapter of the comic that suits the mood of this.)
Great story, as usual. I think you've captured the confusion and indignity of the varn nicely. they did not ever expect that their own servants would (a) turn on them and (b) actually succeed in defeating them. Sam being given a greatly extended life span is a nice touch and the sort of thing the varn would be capable of doing. The Gene Mage would consider that he'd rendered a great blessing on him and never consider the consequences. Sam comes across a little insane, I think, in the first part. But then, after all, he has had an unnaturally extended lifespan and the grief that accompanied it. It's unclear whether he volunteered to take the Gene Mage down or whether he decided to do this off his own bat. I like to think that he refused to escape with the others, feeling he had a score to settle plus a deep desire to end it for himself.
Good stuff! Very close to canon. I really enjoyed this one.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-04 01:06 am (UTC)I didn't quite mean to make Sam seem as crazy as he did there, though getting back at a thousand years of loneliness has some part of it. I think mostly he was in shock at that point from seeing 10,000 little Ferin get nuked by his supposed allies. In my story's metaplot he was actually supposed to assassinate the Gene Mage, but I think the intention of the Rebellion's commanders was that he survive it. Unfortunately I decided to give the poor fellow a Viking funeral. *evil grin*
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
no subject
Date: 2007-05-04 01:17 pm (UTC)Though he did crash them into a fountain....
no subject
Date: 2007-05-04 01:20 pm (UTC)