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“Okay, that clears things up a little. We are aware that you Dhaarrir have a… different way of doing things here on Yoria.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Well, first of all, we seek no gain from our presence here. Our duty is to aid and guide rather than exploit.”
“But you were the ones to first colonize Yoria, weren’t you?”
Pheidon sighs. “Yes, that is true, and that is why we curse our mistake every day—and work to make up for it.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“We discovered Yoria, yes, and at first, we planned to utilize it for its natural resources just like you have, but during one of our expeditions on planet, we discovered that this is not just some planet that also harbors life. This istheplanet.”
I’m just about to humiliate myself and tell him to elaborate when he stops the chair and steps in front of me arms held out wide. “When you look at me, what do you see?”
“Well, I see—”
“Yes, you see a human. We Qhins have grown larger over the years, and our faces might look a little different, but in essence, we are humans. When we first landed here, the prevailing theory for the likeness was simply that evolution works the same in different places, depending on the environment. The environment on Yoria is similar to the one on our home planet, so we assumed that in such environments, where life is possible, eventually, beings such as ourselves would rise to the top of the food chain and dominate over the planet. This theory was accepted for years, decades, until we discovered the truth. We did not discover Yoria; we returned here.”
“You’re saying that you’re descended from—humans?” I look at Zanika, who is smiling widely.
“Not just us, Neb-en-khata. You as well.”
* * *
“But how is that possible?How can the humans on Yoria be so much further behind in their development? It doesn’t make any sense.”
We continue on our way through the white halls, surrounded by rooms of clear glass with scientists working all around us with everything from vegetables to lasers.
“As far as we can tell, something wiped out virtually all of humanity more than 10,000 years ago. We are not exactly sure what it was, but we are working to find out. Before that time, humans were the most civilized, and technologically advanced, species in our galaxy. It is our belief that before what we call the event, some humans were able to escape to neighboring planets. Most likely only a fraction of the ships ever made it to a hospitable planet, but we now know that three of those planets were—”
“Qhinia, Folkmaer, and Dhaarria.”
“Right.”
“Well, I see the resemblance between you, but how do you explain—”
“We can’t completely explain why the Dhaarrir developed such different features. We have found bones of a canine species on Yoria matching your genetic makeup, but you are also more than ninety percent human, so our guess is some kind of genetic melding, intentionally or unintentionally mixed with thousands of years of evolution on a vastly different planet.”
“Okay, say I believe everything you’re saying. We are all descendants of humans and Yoria. What do we do about what’s happening in Ebkherun? I don’t know if you know what goes on over there, but it needs to be stopped.”
“Zanika here has already filled us in on the specifics of life under Dhaarrir rule. A lot of it we already knew from surveillance, but there was some new information too. That’s actually the reason we let you in in the first place. Funnily enough, until you mentioned Zanika here, we actually thought that you were a part of some clever Dhaarrir ploy to infiltrate us. But you see, Neb, our main mission here is to get everyone off of Yoria.”
“Wait, you don’t want to be here? You have such an amazing setup.”
“We are here out of necessity, not desire. The moment we discovered the truth, we realized that it was unethical of us to interfere in the development of these life-forms. By then, however, you guys and Folkmaer had annexed your own slices of Yoria, and it became apparent that if we left, you would just divide the rest between yourselves, and that would be the opposite of what we want.”
“So, you want to liberate the humans?”
“Exactly. No species can prosper under the exploitation and control of another more advanced society. In order for Yoria and humans to take the next step in their development, we need to get everyone from all planets to agree to abandon their interests on Yoria. Andthatis where you come in.”
Pheidon gestures towards a transparent room where I see—me. Well, it can’t be me, I’m me, but an exact copy of me lying on the examination table. Beams of light are being shot into the body, surrounded by Qhins. I look up at Pheidon, he just smiles and says, “We have to send something back to Dhaarria, don’t we?”
I realize that the Qhins are going to be sending back an exact clone of me, dead. The Dhaarrians will think that I didn’t survive the crossing. Shit is getting pretty real.
1 week later
It’s trulyunbelievable how quickly I have healed. I’m not a hundred percent by any means, but I’m steadily getting there. Today is the day that we are to be discharged from this facility and make our way down to Yoria. Pheidon has been kind enough to grant us use of one of his houses on a secluded island five miles offshore. It will be the perfect place for us to heal completely while we plan what’s ahead.
I was not let in on too much detail of what is to follow, but it seems the Qhins have a plan to open communication with both Dhaarria and Folkmaer. Any contact with each other will be truly historic since we have been in this political stalemate for centuries. I am learning a lot about Qhinian culture and have discovered that it is vastly different from my own. The biggest difference is that they don’t shy away from love and sex; they embrace them. Pheidon apparently has multiple lovers, as do his lovers and so on and so forth. They also don’t seem to mind which gender their lover is. I don’t really have any intention of going that far in my liberation. I’m just happy to be spending time with the love of my life.
With my body out of use for the present time, we have been spending our time cuddling and talking mostly. As much as Zanika is discovering a whole new universe from the one she grew up in, I am as well. Learning that we are both essentially the same species only divided by time and place was a mind-blowing revelation. Since our talk, Pheidon granted me access to their published research on Yoria, and using a sophisticated translation lens, I was able to go in and verify everything he had said.
There is no doubt in my mind that we are going to be on the right side of history. Both Zanika and I ache for Ebkherun, knowing the pain and suffering the humans are enduring at the hands of my home planet. We will not rest until Yoria is liberated, but first, I need to heal.
