Tribes Gather - Chapter Ten

He slept peacefully after that, and awoke refreshed and of a clear mind. All effects of the entheogen had vanished, and he wished now that he had a simple stick of clear grass to smoke. He checked the navigation metrics again, and the ship was on course. His mind went back to the conversation with his father, whose last words had been:

You must now make your way to the Ruulin world, where a threat looms that would destroy all our best laid plans.

Unfortunately, father never really revealed what those best laid plans were. He was to simply follow his orders, given by the man who was both his father, and the king of his people. The steady beep of his comm-pack broke into his thoughts. Realizing that someone was trying to contact him, he accepted the incoming signal.

“Karunik? Are you there?”

“As I always am, brother.”

“Listen, I’m sorry I had to talk to you that way, but you know the rules.”

“I am, Prithartu, and you need not make explanations. I was equally curt, if you didn’t notice.”

Ritartu might have grinned, Karunik couldn’t make that out from voice alone. “I did notice, Karun! But just as well, it helped me keep up the act.”

“Does father know?”

“Know what?”

“You know…”

“Know what?”

“Stop playing games, Prith!”

Prithartu laughed out loud. “You’ll never change will you brother? The first time in years we get to talk informally and all you can be is serious!”

“Does father know?” He repeated.

Prithartu sighed. “Yes, he does. I suspected he would have contacted you himself by now.”

“He did, thanks to soma, but you know father; it’s always about my next task rather than my previous.”

“Wallowing in self-pity are you, brother?”

“If I had the time, maybe, but I have much to do. So can we get down to business?”

“The sample you picked was active, Karun, and that’s a job well done. We feared the virus would die out during transportation, but apparently it’s a mutated version; immune to the radiation of our machines.”

“That much was assumed anyways. The virus would have undergone at least as many evolutions as we ourselves have gone in the form of the Ruulins and Yitakus.”

“Yes but the relation between the virus gene and the humanoid gene has remained more or less the same, so these two species are as vulnerable to the new one as we were to the old one.”

“And what of its effect on Manushyas today?”

“That cannot really be tested, Karun. But it would be safe to surmise that it is alien to our immune system even today, due to its numerous evolutions.”

“Is it still heat-based?”

“Very much so, and lucky that Prithvi is now a cold wasteland, or three species would have endangered themselves just by being on the planet.”

“What are you planning to do now?”

“Well, our gyaniks are working on breaking apart its component compounds, to pinpoint the exact mutations. That’ll enable us to find out how it would affect us really.”

“And what are we to do about the virus that their machines would have picked up?”

Karunik couldn’t see it, but Prithartu shrugged. “What can we do, Karun? And I am only a Chief-gyanik, not a decision maker like father, or like you will be one day. We can only hope that the Ruulin affinity for cold atmospheres continues, and that the conflict goes on long enough to prevent Yitakus from colonizing hotter worlds.”

“Either way, the virus will remain with them.”

“Yes, but it will remain dormant.”

“So you are satisfied with the mere stalling of danger, Prith?”

Prithartu shrugged again, “what would you have me do, Karun? Who can I possibly influence in this matter? You know very well that personally, I would have us mediate a peace and co-existence between the three species, for there is room for all. But can I bring about such events?”

“No, but I can.”

“But you will not. Father may love you, Karun, for you are his son and heir, but he does not trust you. He is aware that you do your duty only reluctantly, and he keeps one eye on you all the time. The moment you try to contact either the Ruulins or the Yitakus regarding this, he will send his personal fleet after you.”

“And for fear of death I must follow a path I do not believe in.”

“Oh don’t be so dramatic, Karun. The choice, as Shiva has taught us, always rests with you. You want to help them? Go do that, but accept then that it will bring consequences.”

Karunik couldn’t help but smile, “and have you changed, brother? Do you know that what you’re saying could get you into trouble, for inciting treason?”

“No, Karun, it wouldn’t, for I am the son that father trusts, and does NOT keep an eye on! Now enough of this banter, for there is indeed work to do. I have to relay some information to you about the Ruulins.”

“Do it.”

“Hol, the Ruulin capital, Karun, has only once been penetrated, that too by a horde of Yatuki-monsters. One Manushya will find it altogether more difficult.”

“What stands in my way?”

“What does not? Firstly, penetrating into the Hol star system itself will be a difficult task. The outer planets fiercely guard their borders and between them they keep a watch on all the possible entry points. One such planet, Tura, is particularly keen in its defense; and unfortunately for you, it will lie directly in your path.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“After Tura however, you can reach the inner periphery without much trouble; except that this is where the trouble actually begins. You will have to pass the orbits of two of the most militarized planets of the eleven in the Hol star system. Entry to their orbits is heavily guarded by technology we have no idea of whatsoever. But we know it is a formidable one from what we gathered out of the Yatuki-monster attack on Hol.”

“And what of Hol itself?”

“Hol to the Ruulins is like Prithvi to us, Karun, or perhaps even more. While we were forced out of Prithvi by the virus the Ruulin civilization counts its beginnings from the formation of Hol, and there it survives even today. There you must find a certain Ruulin who will be able to help us, Tanuya Ruul.”

“But what is the danger that Hol faces? Father warned me of an impending danger, but chose to withhold details.”

“The thing is, Karun, that we want to mediate peace or battle between the Ruulins and Yitakus on our OWN terms, thereby becoming a sort of patriarchal species. What we do NOT want is either of them to independently defeat the other, and become triumphantly confident enough to challenge us. Under our current state we can only provide psychological overlord-ship, and cannot withstand the physical might of either.”

“Sounds exactly like deceptive manipulation to me, Prith.”

“And so it is, but what are you going to do about it? Look, I don’t support this ‘manipulation’ any more than you do, but I do agree with those who believe that the Milky Way belongs to us. We were here first, and WE are the species that came out of natural evolution. The Yitakus and Ruulins are mere mutations of what is Manushya.”

“That’s pure nonsense, Prith! If so, then we are mere mutations of ancient apes! And perhaps we should genetically re-engineer them and let THEM rule the galaxy!”

“You cannot argue this one like this, Karun. Our species was the first intelligent one in the galaxy. If your apes can discover space-flight and understand the concepts of quantum vedics then I will let them inherit it all, but they cannot. It is we who did, and the basic sciences of both Ruulins and Yitakus are only racial memories of our own knowledge.”

“Tell me, brother Prithartu, how do you propose then to inherit our rightful place in the galaxy without playing games from the shadows?”

“Reveal ourselves, I say, and let it be known that we are the Original Species. Our numbers will never be large enough to threaten the territories of either two, and we can act as a perspicacious buffer between the physical mights of our descendants.”

Karunik laughed mockingly, “A moment ago they were mere mutations, Prith! And now you proudly call them descendants?”

“And are they not both, Karun?” Prithartu challenged back. “Mutations or not they are indeed our descendants and as such come second in inheriting this galaxy, not first.”

“If it is just the galaxy we want, then it would be enough to just concentrate on the Yitakus. The Ruulins are not interested in the Milky Way.”

“That is correct, brother Karunik, and that is why you are being sent to help the Ruulins, NOT the Yitakus.”