Sarah7

Ch12

“Why am I special? Why did you say that?” Sarah asked as she finished off her soup. “Is it because I can fight somehow?”

Danner smiled. “Fighting has not seemed to have helped the human race much. You see, Sarah, we lost the war against the Vixen. This world is being methodically gutted of its natural resources to service the alien race that conquered us.”

“We were conquered?” Something stirred within Sarah’s spirit. “Didn’t we put up a fight?”

“Oh yes. Yes. Humanity put up the greatest fight of our history. We advanced technology by leaps and bounds, learned terrible ways to destroy, and it was fruitless. The Vixen are simply too advanced. We are like cattle to them.”

Sarah frowned. Her thoughts turned to the grey creature from her dream. She shuddered.

“At first we held our own for a while, but the Vixen were just toying with us. After they got serious, we began to take terrible losses. However, desperate for anything that might help hold off the Vixen, a large group of people across the world began to follow something called The Prophecy. ”

Captain Danner’s eyes gleamed as memories played across his wrinkled face.

“The Prophecy held that a certain family held the key to defending this planet from the Vixen, or any other alien race for that matter. It was said that a member of the Cannae family would be the key. Only a true blooded descendant would be able to wield the Weapon, and bring an end to the invasion.”

Sarah placed the bowl down and looked out the window. “Why would anyone believe something so far fetched? Prophecies? It’s like believing in magic?” Sarah asked. She began to wish that Creed had not been so quick to leave. This was a healer? He had a bit of a wild look in his eyes, but he had been very gentle, and seemed to know about bandaging wounds.

“Nobody would have, Sarah my dear.” Captain Danner spread his hands and gestured to a picture drawn crudely in a painting on the wall across the room. “Except that it was real. They discovered something buried deep within the earth - right where the Prophecy described. It was called The Weapon.”

Sarah looked at the painting. It depicted a woman standing atop a mountain. There was lightning in the sky. She was holding aloft a sword that was glowing brightly along the blade. The woman had one foot on something that was lying dead beneath her.

Sarah let out a gasp. The painting was crude, and out of proportion - as if a child had created it - but the grey creature that lie dead at the feet of the woman in the painting was the creature from her dreams.

“Is that thing under her foot - a - a Vixen?” She almost whispered.

Captain Danner raised a grey eyebrow. “Have you seen that thing before? It’s not just any Vixen. It’s the Queen.”

“The Vixen are very much like a single huge organism. Like an ant colony. Anything one of those demons see, the whole race knows about instantly. This is part of the reason why they are not only so advanced, but that they were able to counter anything we threw against them.”

Sarah sighed. She was growing rapidly more tired. Between the pain in her ribs and the food, her body was literally shutting down around her in need of rest.

“What does any of this have to do with me?” she said quietly.

“Humanity began to regain some hope against the Vixen. Members of the Cannae family were flown to the site where the Weapon had been found, in hopes that one or more of them might find a key to activate its power. A few actually could. The first time a Cannae used the Weapon against the Vixen, the aliens in the area were wiped out in a manner of moments.“

Captain Danner’s eyes teared up.

“Unfortunately, some of the Vixen survived that first encounter. And this meant that they now knew of this weapon, as well as the key to making it function. They immediately set out to kill each and every Cannae family member on the planet. They were ruthless, and methodical. Within days, the Cannae family had been wiped out. All except one.” Captain Danner looked intently at Sarah.

Sarah’s eyes snapped open. Her fatigue faded somewhat. “Sarah.” she said flatly.

Captain Danner nodded. “Yes, Sarah Cannae. But only barely. She was badly hurt, and dying. There was only one way they could preserve any hope of the Prophecy being fulfilled. Sarah had her memory engrams recorded, as well as her genetic sequence encoded. The process killed her, but she made the sacrifice to give us all hope.”

“You said I’m ‘a’ Sarah. Oh my God. You mean I’m a clone!” Sarah sat bolt upright in her bed.

“Now now hold on there!” Captain Danner laid his hands gently on her shoulders. She was trembling in fear, pain, and shock.

“Look child. You get some rest. I’ve given you a lot to think about. I’ll come back later and we can talk some more.”

“No.” Sarah said, biting the words out. “Tell me the rest.”

Captain Danner looked down at the floor and sighed.

“The followers of The Prophecy went into hiding. They took the Weapon and all that they had learned from Sarah and disappeared. They spent years underground while the war continued. The Weapon did not respond to the clones of Sarah they way they anticipated. There was something wrong. Something that prevented them from unlocking the Weapon’s true power.”

Sarah was trembling more now. The darkness, the madness was encroaching behind her eyes. The pain in her side was as nothing now. Fear was looming in her mind.

“What ... what did they do?” Sarah had to know.

“They found a way. They used their technology to force the Weapon to work. And they changed the Sarahs as well… “ He looked at her sadly.

“They gave each generation of clone more knowledge, skills, and abilities. You want to know how you can fight? It’s because it’s in your genes. You don’t have memories of the past because you have no past. But you DO have Sarah’s memories. It’s just that it’ll probably take time to connect to them. For all intents and purposes, you ARE Sarah. And better! Enhanced beyond anything humanity has known before.”

Tears ran down Sarah’s face. This was too much. Her hands were in fists - and spots of blood were staining the plain white blankets as her fingernails dug into her palms.

Captain Danner stood up and turned his back away from Sarah.

“Sarah Six was supposed to be the ONE. She made it so far. The Vixen were on the run. Everything was about to change. Then she disappeared. We were devastated. All our ships were deployed in a last ditch attack. We didn’t have time. You - “ he suddenly turned to her with sad eyes.

“You were going to be different. Our techs had exhausted every conventional idea on Sarah Six. They didn’t have time to test their new theories. Our ship was tasked with escaping the battle and to protect you at all costs.” He looked at the floor.

“We failed. The Vixen crippled our ship as easily as the rest of the fleet. They didn’t even bother to finish the job. They were satisfied that our engines were failing and we were about to crash.”

“How did you survive?” Sarah said with a soft voice. She was still trembling all over.

“Sheer will. Not a lot of us survived the crash, but enough of us did. And we made our way here to this place. This village. We started a new life. One under the Vixen. Our Hope had been crushed.” He looked into Sarah’s eyes once again.

“You must understand something Sarah. You are not just a clone. Or a thing. You are a human being as much as any of us. It’s just that your potential has been unlocked in ways that none of us can ever hope to achieve. After the war was over, the Vixen banned all technology from humanity. No electronics, no engines, not even medical devices. We have been completely separated from what once made us great. There will be no more Sarahs. You are the last.”

Sarah looked down at her hands. The blood ebbed from her self inflicted cuts. She barely felt them.

“I don’t believe it. This can’t be right. How can I believe you? Why would you make up such a crazy story!” She was shouting now.

Creed burst into the room.

“What’s going on Danner? What’s wrong?” he said.

Captain Danner ran his wrinkled hands through his curly white hair.

“I told her to truth. She’s a Sarah. The last one. I told her about the war, and the Prophecy” Captain Danner looked chagrined.

“What? You old fool. How could you expect anyone to believe that old story. It’s more like a fairy tale than history. “ Creed said as he came to sit next to Sarah.

“Look, you’ve got her so worked up she’s cut herself. Are you a doctor or some kind of looney?”

Captain Danner frowned. “You know the story is true. The Prophecy - “

Creed cut him off. “The Prophecy is nothing but a bunch of garbage spewed out by a desperate world government to give a dying race some hope before an unstoppable enemy! If the Prophecy” - he spat the word - “was so accurate, why is ‘Humanity’ now reduced to the stone age, and the Vixen slicing up our planet like a giant birthday cake!” Creed’s face was red with anger.

Creed turned to Sarah, his voice a calm counterpoint to the turmoil going on within her. “Don’t believe that old man. All he’s ever talked about is that Prophecy. Most folks here never even heard of it. And if they did, it was from their grandparents long dead. Take it from me girl. If there ever was a Prophecy it was a false one.”

Sarah put her face in her hands and wept. Blood and tears commingled and flowed down her cheeks.

Creed gave Danner severe frown and shook his head quickly as if to say “not now”.

Danner shrugged and left the room.

Awkwardly, Creed gathered up Sarah and held her quietly to his chest. She cried for a long time before she grew still, and Creed slowly managed to extricate himself and laid her sleeping form back on the bed.

As Creed slipped out the room he muttered quietly to himself, “Damn fool! Too much too soon.”

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