Part 7 (1/2)
The library answers my queries with a simulacrum of Kayya Trnas, who among the Daamin is accorded the t.i.tle of the greatest scholar of Mankind. No matter that Kayya Trnas pa.s.sed from the Universal Song Human centuries ago. The library remembers her. Small, white-furred and red-eyed, Kayya Trnas perches on a table and recites.
”The Human called Darineb Khria was born in the first century of Terra's s.p.a.ce Age...about twenty-seven seventies of Sebya years ago. He rose to prominence in early studies of genetics, and was the first to isolate several important Human gene combinations, including that controlling eidetic memory. Khria died in the Terran year 2069 CE.”
I shake my host's head. ”You have chosen the wrong information. I wish to know about-”
”Wait,” the ghost says. ”Khria's body was frozen in liquid nitrogen at the time of his death. In the Terran year TE 348, twenty-three seventies of Sebya years ago, his body was taken to the Human world Borshall, where his brain was salvaged and placed in a mechanical sh.e.l.l. Darineb Khria survived the dissolution of the Terran Empire and reappears periodically in Human history, notably on the worlds Terexta, Dunsinane, Neordan and Gotlan. He took a key role in the Gotlanian War of AD 3041-43, as well as the destruction of BDA Tr#ska in AD 4635.”
”Please summarize the story.” I am not well enough acquainted with Human history; the names and dates are merely random sounds to me.
”In the past few centuries, Khria has built up a shadowy kingdom of Human worlds: by a combination of political influence, economic might and religious authority, he has effectively become the ruler of over fifty planets. Few even suspect that Khria is their ruler; he prefers to act invisibly. Daamin scholars have projected Khria's ambition, and foresee a gradual expansion of territory along with consolidation of forces. We expect that Khria will seek to forcibly expand his dominion by AD 6000, beginning with biological and economic attacks on the Aetorian League. Khria's primary disadvantage is lack of access to sophisticated Human laboratory instruments for genetic surgery; such instruments are under the control of the Human states of Credix and Borshall.”
Ah, then, my fears are reality. ”Khria has come to Sebya,” I say, my host's voice sounding thin and powerless in the library chamber. There is no use telling the library- neither the Daamin nor the Free Peoples can act quickly enough to prevent Khria from finding what he seeks.
Only I can do that.
Thanking my host, I return my essence to my Sebya hillside.
Shadows are long in the forest and the settlement. Most Humans are having their ritual evening meal. It is not hard for me to find Darineb Khria; his metal sh.e.l.l floats in a small garden where my leaves blossom amid a stone fountain.
Now I use a technique which my brother the Human-watcher has taught me. I take firm control of those parts of my body that protrude into Khria's garden, and I vibrate the leaves and stems quickly, so that they create a whispering echo of Human voice.
”Darineb Khria, you and I must speak.”
Khria's lenses turn immediately in my direction. No trace of surprise escapes his mind. ”I've wondered when you would take notice.” He comes closer. ”I can read the Hlutr First Language, if you would rather speak to me that way.”
”An odd talent for a Human,” I answer with the s.h.i.+fting colors of the First Language.
”I am not an ordinary Human,” he says. ”Welcome to my garden.” He chuckles. ”Although it seems you've been here longer than I have. Er...how should I address you? 'Brother' or 'Sister' do not seem appropriate.”
”You converse with an Elder of the Hlutr. I am the oldest on this planet.”
”As you will, Elder. I thought I detected Hlutr workmans.h.i.+p in the genetic structure of the natives. A fine job you've done with them, fine indeed.”
”Since you know of us, Darineb Khria, you know how little your flattery means.”
”I meant no offense, Elder.”
”I take offense, Khria. I take offense at your arrogance. I take offense at your desire to use the secret power of the Dawn People. I take offense at your animal aggression and your thirst for power.”
”And I suppose you want to stop me. Elder, I think you underestimate me. I have nearly three thousand years of experience, and abilities that even the Hlutr lack.”
His claim is so ludicrous that I am almost convinced he is unsane. ”Three thousand of your years ago I stood on this hillside and directed the evolution of the Dawn People. Ten thousand times three thousand years ago I stood here, before your race had yet arisen. Three billion years ago, before the Pylistroph had spread life to these Scattered Worlds, the Hlutr stood tall in the soil of lost Paka Tel and pondered the mysteries of life. What can you possibly do that the Hlutr cannot?”
”I have computers that can simulate new genetic patterns and carry them over thirty thousand generations in the course of an afternoon. They can look at your Dawn People and unravel three million years of Hlutr meddling to show me their original ancestor. They can guess at what you're headed toward.”
His words stop me for a moment. The grand work of the Hlutr, that which Khria dismisses as ”meddling,” must needs be slow. It proceeds with the speed of drifting continents, with the gradual development of organism after organism. Thus are the Hlutr so long-lived, that we may do this work.
”Your computers produce visions,” I say. ”Without the Hlutr to show you how, you cannot make those visions real. And I will not allow you to have that knowledge. You have nothing to offer me, Khria.”
”I can give you eternal life.”
”Eternal life? You, a Human, speak to a Hlut about immortality? I have lived over a thousand times your tiny span already.”
”And you will die. Tomorrow, a million years from now, ten million...it doesn't matter. Because ultimately you will die. Life grows dearer as it grows longer, no? And death hurts more.”
”So it is written in the Universal Song. All die, Khria. Not even the Hlutr can change that fact.”
”I don't doubt that Hlutr can't do anything about it- else you'd have made yourselves immortal a billion years ago. I also don't doubt that some of your Elders are hard at work on the problem. It would take you ten million generations to do the work, even if you knew what you were working toward.”
”Eternal life is a fable.”
”You're mistaken. I've run the simulations on a Muspel Three Thousand; you can inspect my results if you like. A super-powerful Hlut, able to shrug off the worst forest fire, able to regenerate almost instantly, capable of unlimited growth on any organic base. It could live through a supernova by sporing: each spore retains the full consciousness of the organism. Reconstructive DNA is quadruply-redundant to eliminate risk of mutation-based damage, and the organism would have complete control over all biochemical processes down to the molecular level. Currently your body structure cannot last beyond three billion years at an absolute maximum: my new Hlut would have a lifespan that starts at six billion.”
”Whatever you have designed, it cannot bring immortality to any of us now alive.” I am distracted by the attention of Hlutr Elders, a phantom wildwood on the frontiers of my mind. And I know, although none of them admit it, that part of what Khria says is truth. Certain Hlutr have contemplated the type of creature Khria describes.
Perhaps some have even made experiments in that direction. Possibly the Hlutr of the Gathered Worlds, sundered from us since the time of the Great Schism, have proceeded further.
The wind of s.p.a.ce whispers with knowledge that should not come to me, from the brooding mind of the Eldest Herself. She alone in the Scattered Worlds survives from the era before the Great Schism; She alone knows the full story of Hlutr experiments upon the Hlutr form. Could it be possible that the Eldest, on Her island in the Secluded Realm, might be a product of those investigations? If Khria is right, She is nearing the limit of Her time in the Universal Song does this explain Her sudden interest?
She does not speak, does not sing an opinion into the quiet music of the Inner Voice. Perhaps She has been watching all along, as She watches all programs that might lead to the successor race.
Khria answers me with a snort. ”Would I offer what I can't deliver? Your genetic structure, your memories- your consciousness- can be integrated into the new design. A timeless moment of sleep, and then you awake as a creature that cannot die.”
”You cannot deliver this thing yet. And without the Hlutr method of altering genetics, your new immortal creature will remain an image in the electronics of your machines.”
”There you have me,” he admits. ”You need my computers and my concepts...but I need your ability and your billions of years of experience in using it. Otherwise, I'd have to do the job one bit at a time, and it would take longer than the Hlutr have been in existence.” A winged insect, Terran lifeform, buzzes for a moment around Khria's metal casing. With the speed of Summer suns.h.i.+ne, he strikes with a mechanical arm, and the insect falls dead to the ground.
”There you have it,” Khria says. ”You can help me, and gain eternal life. Or you can try to stop me, and wind up dead...sooner or later, no matter how you try to avoid it.”
”You know what answer I must make.”
”Don't be too hasty. I'll give you time to consider. You can find me when you need me, I'm sure.” Khria turns, and in a moment he is gone.
My mind whirls without direction, and I pull my awareness back to my steady place on the mountain. My roots drive deep into soil and rock, and I feel their comforting tension even as confusion makes me sway and s.h.i.+ver.
My brethren on other worlds sense my emotions, and they withdraw their attention. Even the Eldest turns Her thoughts away from me, so I am left on my own in swift-falling night.
I watch the stars, and I ponder.
More than three-quarters of a Hlutr lifetime spent guiding the Dawn People along their path toward a goal they cannot begin to imagine. So much longer to go before that goal is in sight. So many possible wrong turnings; perhaps the children of Sebya will never become the successors we long for. Other hopes have died before, in nuclear fire or ecological catastrophe.
If the Dawn People fail, I will have to die with them.
If they do not fail, I will never live long enough to see their triumph.
And Khria offers eternal life.
With Khria's improvements, the Hlutr race would never pa.s.s from the Universal Song. We would never need successors. The Galaxy would never be bereft of the compa.s.sionate Hlutr song, the guiding Hlutr mind.
And what of Khria...of the damage he would do with his knowledge of Hlutr genetic techniques?