Tani's Destiny (Hearts of ICARUS Book 2) (6 page)

“You’ve contacted ICARUS directly, not the Academy, correct?” Tani asked.

“Yes, that’s right,” Astra said, frowning.  “We know the difference between the two.”

“Forgive me, Astra, I don’t mean to insult you,” Tani said.  “It’s just that about six weeks ago it was discovered that the Director of the ICARUS Academy had been compromised.”

“Compromised?” Steel asked.

“The Xanti had a device that they implanted into people’s brains called a controller.  Are you familiar with that at all?”

“No,” Steel said slowly as he and Astra shook their heads.  “Can you tell us more about it?”

“It’s nano technology that’s injected into the host’s brain.  The host is then at the mercy of whoever controls the controller, and it’s impossible to fight.  The host will do absolutely anything and everything they’re told.”

Astra and Steel both looked a little sick.  Tani didn’t blame them.  It was a horrific device.  “How is this controller removed?” Steel asked.

“That’s the hard part,” Tani said.  “No one’s ever found a way to remove a controller using mundane means without killing the host.  However, there are two women on Jasan who, working together, can shut it down and destroy it using their psychic abilities.”

“The Director of the ICARUS Academy had one of these devices?” Steel asked.

“He did,” Tani replied.  “My parents took him back to Jasan to have it removed.  From what you’re telling me, I have a very bad feeling that someone…whoever put the controller in General Christoff probably…has infiltrated both the Academy and ICARUS.”  

“Who?” Astra asked.

“I’ve got no idea,” Tani said.

“Tani, is there any way that you can get ICARUS to help us?” Astra asked.

“I’ll certainly try,” Tani replied.  “But I need to know more before I can tell you whether or not they’re even the right people to contact.”

“I thought that since the Xanti were involved, ICARUS would help,” Astra said.

“Not necessarily,” Tani replied.  “There are specific guidelines that ICARUS must follow in order to determine whether or not a situation or problem is a direct result of the chaos left by the Xanti.  If what was meant to be, what Fate had ordained, has been altered, then it’s the sworn duty of every member of ICARUS to do what they can to put things back on track.  Obviously they can’t turn back the clock, but they try to right as many wrongs as possible.  But, just because people are in a bad situation doesn’t mean that it would be right for ICARUS to interfere.  If that is their fate, unaltered by the Xanti, then they cannot interfere.”

“I understand,” Astra said, obviously disappointed.

“I don’t,” Steel said, frowning darkly.  “By that code, no one can help people who are being exploited or enslaved unless the Xanti enslaved them.”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” Tani said.  “I’m saying that
ICARUS
can’t interfere.  The Jasani can, and do, interfere in situations where basic rights are violated, as do most of the planets in the Thousand Worlds that signed the Law Enforcement and Defense Treaties.”

 “I apologize, Tani,” Steel said.  “I misunderstood you.”

Tani smiled, accepting the apology, and continued.  “I know the rules that ICARUS operates by because my parents helped write them, and invited me and my sisters and brothers into some of the discussions they had about it.  Tell me what the problem is that you need ICARUS’s help with, and I will tell you whether or not I think it’s a matter that ICARUS can involve themselves in.” 

“If it is?”

“Then as soon as it’s safe to do so, I’ll contact my parents and tell them the situation.”

“And if it isn’t?”

“Same answer,” Tani said.

“Very well,” Steel said.  “Do you want the long version or the short one?”

“I don’t have any appointments that I’m aware of, so let’s go long.”

Steel smiled, then glanced at Astra who nodded.  “Please understand that much of what I now tell you is old knowledge, passed down through our families for generations,” Steel warned.  Tani nodded her understanding.  “It all began four hundred and fifty years ago when a thousand of my people, the Khun, were stolen from their home world by the Xanti, and taken to what was to become our new home, Garza.  When the Khun were put down on Garza, about two hundred Nomen were already there, waiting for them.”

“Excuse me for interrupting, but who are Nomen?  You mentioned them earlier, but I don’t recall ever hearing of that planet, or those people before.”

“As far as we know they don’t have a planet, and they aren’t truly a people.  They’re part human, and part machine.  They refer to themselves as
Nomen
, so that is what we call them.”  Tani nodded again, her face showing none of the nausea that churned in her stomach as Steel continued.  “They were bigger and stronger than our people, and had weapons that appeared magical to the relative primitives our people were at that time.  They ruled over the Khun, and their rule was cold, emotionless, and absolute. 

“The people soon learned that they were expected to mine a rare liquid metal that the Xanti wanted.  The Nomen taught the men how to mine, and the women how to grow food without soil and raise livestock to feed everyone.  Then they made sure everyone worked hard enough to satisfy them.

“For four and a half centuries the Khun mined the metal for the Xanti, living and working as slaves with no hope of change.  Then one day, without warning or obvious cause, the Nomen ceased to function.  They just fell over dead, every single one of them, all at the same time.

“We were afraid at first.  We’d long prayed for freedom, but this was so unexpected that we didn’t know what to do.  Not only had the Nomen died, but none of the machinery worked, either.  

“For two weeks we waited, terrified of what would happen when the Xanti came to collect the metal as they did every month.  But when that day came and went, and the next, and the next, we began to understand that something had happened somewhere in the universe, and whatever that something was, it had freed us. 

“We abandoned the mines completely.  For the first time in centuries men, women, and children lived and worked together.  The women taught the men how to farm, and we all tried to get used to living as free people.  Then, a few months after the Nomen had dropped dead, a ship landed on Garza, near our new village.  I was nine years old at the time, and I remember watching my father and his three most trusted men go out to meet it while the rest of us got ready to run and hide. 

“It turned out that the new ship wasn’t filled with Xanti or Nomen.  It was a Welfare ship, and inside of it were the first kind people we’d ever seen.  With their help, the Khun began to prosper.  There weren’t very many of us by then, fewer than five hundred, and the Welfare captain confirmed that we were the only people on the entire planet.  But they didn’t care how many of us there were.  To them, the Khun were in need, and it was their creed to help, so they did.

“They built a school and provided a teacher who taught anyone who wanted to learn, child or adult.  They brought new, up to date farming equipment, seeds and fertilizer, and machines that would dry and preserve our harvests much more quickly and easily than the methods we’d been using.  They told us which crops were in demand and helped us learn to grow and sell them so that, for the first time, we had money.  Not a lot, but enough to buy things we needed, like this old ship.  They even made it possible for those of us that were interested to leave Garza and go to college.  For sixteen years we learned what it was to live as free people, and true citizens of the Thousand Worlds.

“Then, about a year ago, the Nomen returned.  They looked completely different, so we didn’t know who they were at first.  My father and his men went out to meet their ship, as they’d done with the Welfare ship years before.  They entered the ship which took off, heading in the direction of the old mine.  They did not return. 

“The next morning, before dawn, I led a group of twenty males to the old mining compound in search of my father and his men.  When we got there we found their bodies hanging from posts in the middle of the compound, on display.  There was no one else there so we took them away and gave them a proper burial deep in the mountains where they could never be found.” 

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Tani said, while placing her fist over her heart and bowing solemnly in the Jasani way.

“Thank you,” Steel said, his voice rough with unshed tears.  He cleared his throat and continued.  “By the time we got back to the village, the Nomen had come and gone, taking not just the men, but the women and children as well.  Only the oldest, the infirm, and the very youngest children were exempt.  Babies were handed off to the care of men and women too old and weak to mine.  The new Nomen had dehydrated food for the prisoners to eat so there was no need to leave people on the farms to raise food when they could be mining instead.”

“This is why you didn’t come to school this past year,” Tani said to Astra.

“Yes,” Astra said.  “Steel and Khurda offered to take me, but I refused.  I could not attend classes knowing what was happening back at home.”

“No, I wouldn’t have been able to do that, either,” Tani said.  “Although, I have to ask how it is that you’re still free.”

“Paranoia,” Astra said.

“Pardon me?”

Steel arched a brow at his cousin, but Tani caught that little twitch at the corner of his mouth and knew he wasn’t really annoyed with her.  “After living for centuries as slaves, we Khun had a difficult time accepting that our freedom would last.  We’d learned by then that the Xanti were no more, but that didn’t take away our fear of what the future might hold.  After a while, the village elders decided to do something about it.

“It took about a year of exploring but eventually a cliff was discovered deep in the mountains that was riddled with caves.  Dozens of caves of all sizes, some with one chamber, some with as many as five chambers.  We chose the largest and deepest of the caves, sealed it off, and began storing food and supplies there.  We planted more than we needed just so we could stockpile more and more food against the day we all feared.  It was a ten day walk from the village to the caves and back, but it was worth the effort for us to know we had a safe store of food, and a place to hide if we needed it.  It helped.”

“I imagine so,” Tani said, shivering as she tried to picture herself in such a hopeless situation.

“Two days before the Nomen returned to Garza, fifteen young women and fifteen young men had gone to the caves with a large load of freshly preserved food to store.  Astra was one of those, a happenstance I am forever grateful for as she is the only member of my family still living.

“When my companions and I returned to the village after burying my father and his men, we gathered up the older people and the littlest children that had been left behind and took them to the caves.  Then we returned for the farm animals and anything else we could carry away.  Sometime between our fourth trip and the fifth, the Nomen destroyed the village and every crop, house, and building they could find.

“During the first few weeks there were a few escapes from the mine, but there’ve been none since.  Right now there are a little over a hundred of us, about sixty males, and forty females, including the little ones.  The remaining four hundred Khun are once again enslaved.  We don’t know how they’re being treated, if they all still live, or if some have died.  All we know is that if we don’t free our people soon, the Khun will cease to exist altogether.”

“I’d say that this is definitely a legitimate ICARUS matter,” Tani said.  “The fact that the Khun were taken from their home world by the Xanti to begin with would be enough, I think.”

Steel and Astra both smiled with relief.  “Thank you, Tani,” Astra said.

“Well, don’t thank me yet,” Tani said.  “I haven’t done anything.  I will though, that much I promise.  Do you have any idea who’s making these Nomen?  Or who’s giving them orders?  Because I guarantee you it isn’t the Xanti.”

“Unfortunately, our efforts to learn more about where the Nomen come from have failed,” Steel replied.  “We’ve tried several times to follow their ships after they come to pick up the metal, but we simply can’t keep up with them.  But, even though we haven’t been able to learn anything about our people, we’ve collected a great deal of information on the compound itself.  We’ve got maps, a couple of surveillance images, and we know which buildings hold what, where everyone sleeps, when they begin work and when they’re allowed to quit for the day.  We know what type of security they have on the fence, what kind of ground transports they have and their capacity.  We have stacks of lists and images and maps, and it’s all useless information because it doesn’t tell us how to free our people without getting everyone captured or killed in the process.”

“What’s in the mountains where the caves are that prevents the Nomen from coming in to get you?  Or just dropping bombs on you, for that matter?”

Steel looked at Astra, who nodded at him.  He looked back at Tani.  “Blind Sight.”

“Did you say
Blind Sight
?” Tani asked, shocked.  Steel nodded.  “How did you manage to get your hands on a Blind Sight?”

“Khurda was very quick to catch on to anything having to do with technology.  Like my father before me, I had three best friends when I was a child, and we all did everything together, including going away to school.  The first thing we did when we got home from college was go to the old mine compound.  There was so much that we’d never understood before, but we knew enough by then to identify almost everything we found.  It was Khurda who figured out that the reason everything stopped all at once was because the Xanti had planted a transponder that received a signal at regular intervals.  If that signal wasn’t received, the transponder sent out a different signal that caused everything to stop working.”