Fic: Arc, Part 2 (Terinu, PG)

[jeriendhal]

Now it was Lili’s turn to be confused. “Wait… what… you mean you don’t know even know who she is?”

“They cannot strip away Her childrens’ souls, but they try to steal the memory of their souls,” Marty said softly.

Lili spared him a glance, then turned back to White D 6. “I think you’d better tell me what’s going on. What is life like on this station? Why do you insist on going by that weird designation instead of the name your family gave you?”

White D 6 gave her another blank look, “Family?”

“Family. Wife, husband, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, annoying cousins. Surely you what…” Lili’s voice trailed off, a dawning realization growing within her. “You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you? You really don’t?”

White D 6 shook her head, her previously irritated expression turning to something more blank, lost. “You’re saying all those words like they’re suppose to mean something. I don’t understand.”

Holy Den Mother bless and protect me. Protect her. What had the Varn been doing to the vulpine on this station? It’s no wonder security is so horribly tight here. Lili cleared her throat. “I think we’d better start at the beginning. A family… it’s when two people get together, then have children. They raise them together, support them, along with their other relations, by blood or otherwise.”

White D 6 said, “We don’t have that here. Just our tasks. Males and vixens live in separate barracks. They’re permitted to be together as couples for the purpose of procreation, but that all. There’s nothing after that.”

“I don’t understand. How do you raise your children?”

“We don’t. When a vixen becomes pregnant, her embryos are removed and finish gestating in a uterine replicator. We’re raised in crèches in a separate section of the station until we’ve finished training for our work details, then we’re transferred to the adult barracks.”

“Who raises you in the crèches?”

“Creos mostly, some galen. It… wasn’t bad.” She looked at them again. “You two are… siblings… that’s the word, right? Raised together by the two adults that had procreated to make you.”

“Raised by our mother and father, yes.”

“That doesn’t seem very efficient.’

“It’s not supposed… It’s…. Efficiency isn’t the point.” Lili rubbed her head fur and started again. “How long has this station been operational?” How long has this insanity been going on?

“About seventy standard years, I think.”

“Two and a half generations.” Yes, that would be long enough, the bare minimum time really, to raise a creche full of children away from their parents, completely isolated from vulpine teachings and beliefs, then another to make sure the first generation wasn’t a fluke, and could prove itself self-sustaining. And once the third generation is raised to adulthood, will that be a proof of concept? Will this be expanded?

This transfer station had caught the Resistance’s attention because of the extreme security at what seemed to be just another cargo facility. Now she was beginning to understand why.

“You two stay here. I’m going to get your idents for you so you can move about more freely,” White D 6 said, while Lili tried to organize her increasingly appalled conjectures.

“All right then.” White D 6 left, pulling the door shut with a slam, leaving Lili and Marty alone.

They sat in silence for a long moment, before Marty said, “This place is fills Mother with sorrow. All are blind to her here.”

“I think you’re right, Marty.” Lili sat on her haunches and then stood back up, trying to work out the kinks in her body from nearly a three days of enforced tranq sleep. “This is going to be like the other places we’ve been too. It’s not just a matter of you reminding everyone that the Holy Den Mother loves them. We’ve got to teach them what She is.”

“They already know. But their souls have been blinded to Her.” He added, almost conversationally, “You are going to murder White D 6.”

Lili froze in mid-stretch, turning to stare at her strange, mad brother. “Did the Holy Den Mother tell you that, Marty?”

“Yes. She’s very sorry about it too.”

“So am I. Are you sure she’s not, um, exaggerating slightly?”

“She doesn’t really do that. Though I’ll admit I have to ask for clarification sometimes when she speaks in metaphors. This one was pretty clear though.”

tbc

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[aynne-witch.livejournal.com]

I'm having visions of Brave New World here

and a lot of upheaval is about to happen ...

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Where Marty goes, chaos is sure to follow. And none of it is ever his fault. :)