2199 Extinction

“I definitely suggest that we err on the side of caution. I did attempt to warn her away from him, but I know she did not listen. She was angry about being here, I can’t blame her but still.” I shrug my shoulders to emphasize my point. I guess it’s possible she was coerced, somehow. I sigh, disappointed that my years-old plan failed.

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll take the first dose, if I die, or it doesn’t work, then you can rework the formula.”

Twenty years have passed since I held my first baby in my arms. I made it through my ten years of military training and have spent the last ten years trying, desperately, to come up with a vaccine to stop Malum’s disease. I was about five years into my military training when I ran into my former mother. Just bumped into her at some space station out on the outskirts of the Nibshaa system.

She was there because of some sort of ecological disaster. There was no light of recognition in her eyes, only anger. Her not recognizing me hurt, I had to remind myself that in this timeline she doesn’t know me, didn’t raise me. While I’m sure that despite her anger at the Copaie for kidnapping her; she would never release that virus.

But I’m still worried that will happen. Malum is Malum. And I saw him that day, by her side. I wanted to shake her and ask her why she married him again, but that wouldn’t solve any problems, only make things worse. So, instead, I went straight to Cequill. He started working on an antiviral to try to keep us all alive. As soon as my required five years with my spouse were up, I joined him. Day and night we work, determined to keep our race from extinction.

“And if the formula is wrong? If you should die? I would have to leave Saltu. Your grandfather and mother would both have my head. No. I’ll take it first.” Cequill says, picking up a syringe full of green liquid, and inserting it into his left arm.

“We are running out of time!” I say, picking up another needle, jamming it into my arm, and emptying its contents before he can stop me. “Have a little faith in your work, in our work. Besides, if it doesn’t work, my mother and grandfather are the least of your concerns.”

According to the notes I memorized, the virus not only stops the cells from reproducing, but it causes some sort of rapid heating that destroys the cells completely. The notes were incomplete, and I wasn’t able to get ahold of another researcher.

After that day, they quit leaving Talfar, altogether. I made sure they never saw me, and I left their notes as I found them. Talfarian researchers have always been paranoid, but the memory blackout probably made that paranoia even worse.

“Well, it’s been ten minutes and I still feel fine. Let’s draw some blood and find out.” He says, grabbing an empty needle. I watch him draw his own blood and then insert a droplet unto a slide. He sticks the slide under the microscope, places his eyes to it, and begins to play with the settings.

“Anything?” I ask, impatiently. I fold my arms across my chest and wait.

“Hm.” He grunts, still playing with the dials. “Maybe. Just maybe. Okay. There we go.” He says backing up. Here’s the blood I just took.”

I uncross my arms, walk over and look into the microscope. “I can see a lot of roundish discs.” I back up and look at Cequill.

“Yes. Yes. Those ‘roundish discs’ are the blood cells. Did you see it?” He asks, impatiently.

I look back into the microscope again. “Um. No. What am I supposed to be seeing?” I look back at the doctor again.

He sighs, clearly annoyed. “Maybe from my many years of being a doctor. Hold on let me get something.” He goes to the nearby refrigerator, pulls a slide out, removes the one with his blood, and puts the new one in. “This is the blood I took earlier, just so we could have a comparison. Now have a look.”

I look again. “What am I looking for?”

“The difference. The difference. Here.” He says, switching out the samples.

I look away, blink, and look again. “I’m sorry, I still don’t…wait. Is that? It looks like the fresh sample has some sort of blue outline. Is that normal? Put the old blood back under.” He swaps them out again. “Now swap back to the new.” He does, and I look closely at the sample before looking up. “The blue outline, is that from our antiviral?”

“Yes. I would think so. Looks like it might have possibly worked. I need to be sure, though.” Cequill says, digging through drawers and muttering to himself. He pulls out a small square piece of metal, from one of the drawers, and walks away, leaving the drawer wide open. He takes the square metal to the slide, flips a switch on it, and flames appear. He holds the flames to the slide, just enough to slightly heat the blood. After a few seconds, he turns the flames back off and looks under the microscope. “It worked! Come see!” He shouts and waves me over.

I look under the microscope but don’t notice any changes. “Cequill, I really don’t know what I’m looking at. Everything looks the same.”

“Exactly! That heat should have killed the blood cells, but it didn’t!” He clicks the flame back on and holds it back to the slide. He’s looking under the scope again when I hear a faint pop sound. He turns off the flames and looks up.

“What was that?” I ask. ​

“Just the slide. I got it too hot, and it popped. Yes. Yes. I figured that would happen. No problem. I can fix it.” Cequill puts the small flamer, away and pulls a fresh slide out of a drawer. He adds another drop of blood from the vial, he took earlier. “Now to find…I know I have it somewhere….” He starts muttering to himself again.

I just back up and watch as he digs through the refrigeration unit. He is definitely excited. Maybe we have succeeded. Maybe we will be able to protect my people, after all. After a few minutes of digging, he comes up with a small vial and walks back to the microscope.

“We have to be very careful with this. It’s the poison of the Venvos plant. It attacks the cells and kills them almost instantly. Very few creatures can survive its poison. That’s why I keep it. Trying to find a cure. If this works….” Cequill trails off. “Oops. Safety first. I got carried away.”

He carefully sets the vial into a holder and rummages around until he comes up with a thick pair of gloves. He grabs the small vial, and a glass dropper, removes the stopper and then drops a few drops of the poison onto the blood slide. He puts the stopper back onto the vial and puts it back into the refrigeration unit. “That should be enough time.” He mumbles as he walks back over to the microscope to take a look.

I wait, for what seems like an eternity, and then watch as he pulls away. Did it work? I hold my breath and wait to hear the verdict.

He slowly pulls off the gloves and lays them down before answering. “It worked! The blood cells are still alive! The poison is unable to break through the blue barrier. I even added some poison directly to a few cells and it still couldn’t break through.” He says, excitedly.

“You did it! Our people are safe!” I shout, hugging him in my excitement.

“You mean, we did it. We saved our people.” He says, emphasizing the word we. “I wouldn’t have even known what to do if you hadn’t found that research. But enough celebrating, I

have to start mass producing this serum as soon as possible.” With that, he turns around and ignores me, again.

The warm sun blazes overhead, making today the perfect day for the graduation ceremony. The grassy field is packed as mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and other family members gather to watch. Some of the young males are sitting in the lower hanging tree branches that border the field. I arrived a few hours early, so that I could have a front row view.

Iknoyn is graduating, top of his class, so he gets to lead the ceremony. I heard there is over two hundred graduating today, so the fact that he is head of his class, means a lot. I am so proud of my son; he is militaristic like the Copaie, but smart like the Talfarians. He is the best of both worlds.

“I can’t believe they graduate, today!” Amancia says, excitedly. She is standing beside me, one hand over her eyes, as she squints into the bright sunlight.

“I know! Seems like only yesterday, I was holding my tiny son in my arms.” I say.

“I’m so proud of all of you. My grandson, top of his class, just like his mother, before him. I can’t wait to see how good the twins do.”

“Only difference is he gets to lead the presentation and isn’t stuck with something as boring as recounting the history. My poor girls will be stuck doing the same, if they are anything like me.”

“Do I sense a little jealousy?” Amancia asks.

“Yes and no.” I say. But then I hear cheering coming from my left, and I turn my head to see the company of young people marching my way.

There’s Iknoyn, up front, about ten steps ahead of the group. In front of him, marches five adults, the commanding officers. Every one of them wears a camouflage outfit of varying shades of yellow, a camouflage hat sits on all of their heads, raptors sheaved at their sides. Between the outfits and their yellow skin, you would be hard pressed to see a hidden Copaie in the jungle.

From what I can see, all of the adults and a few of the students, have black stripes tattooed to their skin. These stripes indicate how many kills they have. One stripe per military victory. It’s a tradition that I find a little strange, but if I were raised here, I would probably be just as excited as everyone else.

“Company, Halt!” Ikonyn’s voice rings out.

The group of graduates stops, a few hundred feet in front of me, and stands still, awaiting orders. Iknoyn waves his hand forward, and a female steps forward, identifiable by her long black hair plaited, behind her head. The young female is handed something, small, from one of the adults. She places it on her throat and her voice is amplified, echoing across the field, as she speaks.

The young female, recounts the story of the Talfarian-Copaie civil war, and how the planet was destroyed and both peoples were forced to leave.

How the Talfarians refused to allow the Copaie to join them in the search for a new home world. Of the Copaie first arriving on Saltu, a few thousand years ago. The she tells of the many dangers they found upon arriving, how they were almost completely wiped out. The story is grim to start, but then as luck would have it, they found a hollowed-out tree.

This tree gave them an idea. They worked together to build the city of Minerva. As the population started to grow, the people spread out, across the planet, building city after city, all underground. She describes many major events, including the forming of the Copaie military. The decision to have the young start training early was made back when our numbers were few. We needed every available body, ready to fight, in case the Talfarians learned of our location and chose to continue the war.

It’s all very strange to me. Being raised on Talfar, I learned their version of the civil war that once tore a planet apart. Knowing both sides of the story, I can see the middle ground, and probably the truth of what actually happened. Both sides were foolish and to blame for everything that happened. It’s a rare point of view, for sure.

“Positions!” Iknoyn’s voice rings out, pulling me from my musings.

There is movement as everyone distances themselves from everyone else, and as blades are pulled.

“Front Guard!” Iknoyn bellows. The group holds their raptor in the front guard position. “Lunge! Guard! Perry! Advance! Retreat!” He calls. The entire group moves as if it were one individual instead of a few hundred.

“Spin!” Iknoyn orders, and they complete a complicated spinning maneuver involving body and blade. “Front Guard! And rest!” Everyone sheeves their blades, returning them to their sides, and the group returns to their original positions.

Iknoyn backs up and falls into place amongst the front row of students. An older male Copaie steps forward to address the crowd. He is tall and muscular, what skin I can see is covered in black tattooed stripes.

“Thank-you, parents, friends, and family members for joining us here, today. As you all remember, a lot of hard work and dedication brought us to this day. Ten years ago, you all kissed your children good-bye, and today you welcome home grown adults. In the coming weeks they will find their place in the world; either by finding their dream career, by joining the off-world military, or by another means.

We invite you to join our graduates on the field and to congratulate them. Career tables will be set up and each young person is expected to make their career choice before they leave this place. Thank you, parents and others, for loaning us your children. And remember students, if a career choice is not made within thirty-two hours, you will be escorted off the planet. Thank you.”

I let out a small chuckle. The Copaie do not accept laziness. You either work or you leave. As far as I know, every young Copaie has found a job. The only one’s exempt from the work rule are the childbearing females, who are expected to produce hundreds of babies, and the elderly.

I step forward and scan the crowd, looking for Iknoyn and for young Astra. I have successfully managed to avoid physical contact with my younger self these past twenty years, and I don’t intend on messing that up, now. I see young Astra off to my left, surrounded by a group of friends, as she always is.

To her right, and further behind her, I spot Ikonyn and his steady girlfriend, Leita. She too, is a graduate, today. Iknoyn brought her home to meet the family a few months back, they had already been dating for a year at that point. Her belly is swollen with child, just eight weeks away from its birth. I’m just waiting for the day she comes to me and asks to join the family. I’m sure it will be any day now.

After watching the two of them, a while, I take a deep breath and walk in their direction. “Ikonyn my love!” I say opening my arms, as I approach them.

“Hello, mother!” He says, enfolding me in his arms. He looks exactly like his father, except for the pale-yellow skin and the two-toned eyes. Even has his father’s brown hair, odd for a Copaie male.

“Vos.” Leita says, giving a small bow.

“Leita.” I say, giving a small nod to acknowledge her.

“Vos, I... I have a question for you.” She says, slightly trembling.

I turn to look at her, a scowl on my face, and say nothing, as per Copaie custom. Poor dear. She is so sweet. I imagine this can’t be easy for her. I remember asking my mother-in-law for permission to join the family; it wasn’t easy for me.

“I know tragedy has struck your family, twice, but I would like a chance to make it better. That is, if you would allow me, I would like to officially join your family. I promise to faithfully love and serve your son as a good wife should. As you know, I am just weeks away from giving birth to our first child. I promise to produce many more babies in the future. Do you accept?” she asks, her voice cracking a bit in fear.

The tragedies she is referring to is the death of Iknoyn’s father, the death of my husband, Xuves, and the death of my baby girl. I was nearly done with my military training, when I fell in love with one of the trainers. He was helping me to catch up on all Copaie culture, he was the sweetest guy. Xuves treated me as an equal, rather than as his subordinate, like every other Copaie male.

A year later, I found myself in the same position as Leita, asking my mother-in-law for permission to join the family. She said yes, and we were married the following year. A year after that, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Eclle. One day, when Eclle was two, Xuves took her off world to visit his aging grandparents. They lived on the fourth planet of the Grenian System. A terrible storm kicked up as they were trying to land, obstructing his view, and they crashed into a mountain. Both of them were long dead by the time help arrived.

I was pregnant with my second set of twin sons, when I learned of the news. I miscarried that night. I came home from the hospital to an empty house. Iknoyn was in military training by that point, my twin girls were with Faya, and the older twin boys were with my mother, Amancia. It was one of the worst moments of my entire lifetime. Not to mention, humiliating, because now I was a mother of five with no husband to care for us and no job skills of my own.