Dead Heroes – Excerpt 4

Sol was still above the ragged peaks of the Forclatt range as Zaya Glen left the small service port near the mountains. She waved goodbye to some colleagues, smiling over the progress they had made as she stepped into her vehicle. She was the director of this vivarium, its very presence testimony to her perseverance. When she had submitted the proposal for large facility a year ago, opposition was rife: "Why keep alive these creatures when we have their DNA and RNA in the computers," argued many. "Four centuries of cloning have given us every delectable meat or poultry to be conceived."

"Storage banks will be subject to the energy demands that we can't fully predict," Zaya had argued. "Our computer system is equally susceptible to possible failures—"
"None of our systems have failed in more than eight centuries!"

"We have not been thus aligned for the Tal Apex since our current accomplishments have been in place. We can't be so arrogant as to overlook all possibilities!" Zaya had stressed.

The word "arrogant" had brought several reprimands from older scholars, but her cherished mentor, Master Scholar Elite, Sage Lanj Gamion, had joined her argument and won over General Assembly members ambivalent to the discussion. The vivarium was established, with Zaya as its head.

With the hovercraft on automatic, she took time to glean dust from her hair before fashioning it into a long braid that she looped and pinned into two circles on the back of her head.

"Send to Paul," she spoke to her personal unit. She fastened the unit to the console and maximized the screen. Paul Berklin, her Life Partner, answered, his face on the screen showing a reserved smile. "Some problems at the vivarium," she said. "I'll be at my office later than I thought—to get month-end updates done for my classes."

"So no family dinner this evening," he said with reproof.

"I'll try to get there—"

"Actually, we've already eaten: myself, Tammir, and Sinoa."

"Oh. Well...I expect to wrap up here in the next hour or so," she said. "See you all then."

"Sinoa's off to meet friends—going to hear Sage Gamion, I believe."

Zaya hid her dismay: They had planned for this to be a family outing—all of them going to the park together.

"Tammir and I decided to stay here and watch it on the tel. Shall I save you a copy?" Paul continued.

"Yes...That would be nice. Thank you."

"All right. See you later." The conversation ended, leaving Zaya with Paul's slight frown.

I must spend more time with my family.

Dust billowed behind the craft, creating a thin haze on the barren landscape. She stared out to where the vehicle lights highlighted gaping cracks. They wandered like old wrinkles across the orange face of New Esrii. Enormous white flowers of the dosan, native to Gari's Desert, now blotched the grasslands, pushing to the edges of the counties Two and Four. And it might get worse. She gave a worried sigh and looked up, unable to see Berant, but hoping the work there to build protection around that volatile asteroid was proceeding as well as her own project.

A small device above her right rib cage vibrated. Surprised, she sat back, but let it tremble a bit longer. She hadn't expected any contact until after the meeting of the General Assembly. Finally, with a touch she quieted the device and opened her compac. After entering several codes on various encrypted pages, she read the Hurist message: Mtg 2mor 0700, at HQ. H.P.

The Hurist. A legendary facet of New Esrii culture. The Hurist motto was To Perpetuate True Insight and Cultural Integrity. Certainly a statement with which Zaya agreed. She had attended some lectures back when she was in Prep, and a few times while she studied at Varsity and then Seminary. Tomorrow would be her fourth meeting with the group leadership, having been asked to join them after the previous County Two representative, a retired scholar Zaya had studied with fifteen years ago, expired. She had sent condolences to the family, not realizing that the man's death would create this opportunity for her.

That wasn't the only persuasion for her involvement. Six of the current eleven commanders had found mental focus on a single phrase in one column in the more than fifty-three billion books in the Hall of Memories. Zaya had awakened one morning with the image in her head; she told her counselor about it and the woman told her what she had seen—the passage in the old Sights. "I have found someone who can read the writing," she told Zaya at a follow-up visit. She gave her a printed copy of the quote: There will be a time when the our citizens will not be of one world; when the life forms will vary, but mind energies will flag. Beware the infiltrators! They will sap rationality from the masses and be hard to cull from the norm. From them will come a crisis far greater than we fear from Tal.

At that time, six months ago, Zaya couldn't imagine a crisis worse than Tal's passage.

Then three days ago had come information from the deep space satellite, Izmir II, showing a flotilla on apparent trajectory to the inner sector space station that had been placed there centuries ago, but, because of Tal, abandoned for nearly a generation. Zaya always thought the information from Izmir II fed directly to the General Assembly mainframe; she wondered how the Hurists obtained it, and the information it had sent was curious.

"Warships!" the aged Punataa had declared after setting up a conference call to the Hurist commanders. A Master Scholar Elite in two fields, and a Sage in metaphysical interpretation, Punataa was the oldest of the Hurist Coalition leadership. "They're going to attack us during the Tal Apex."

"Attack? Why ever would they do that?" Majreed Burda asked.
Conjecture had heightened, including Master Scholar Elite Tandra Licafol's suggestion that the Yivenese must have associates on New Esrii helping them. "The war armada comes from without—outside our sector," she insisted, referring to the passage that had pulled Zaya, Majreed Burda and four others to the group leadership. "And anarchists are within our society aiding them."

"Licafol, you've gone from a dubious threat, to a possible war, and now you suggest anarchy?" Master Scholar Sandor Vhutan said.

"The General Assembly will address this possible war fleet, as you call it, Master Punataa," M.S. Daiten Chang put in. "Nothing for us to do until after the General Assembly meeting. Once we see what course the GA lays out, we'll know where to intercede and how we can best enhance the proceedings."

Zaya and five others had agreed with Chang.

And now, although no reason given for this sudden call (high priority and at headquarters, no less), she wondered if new information had been found, and this would be on the agenda. Tomorrow at 0700, she thought.

Consternation settled in. She had planned to have breakfast with her oldest child, Dannel, who was returning to planet after thirteen days. That would be early. If she changed their meeting place, perhaps she could still.


Learn the history of New Esrii at the Web site
Release date: 24 December 2011
Dead Heroes - a Sci-Fi story of death...and life.