Chapter 25 #2
his ear. “Before we get to that, I’d like to analyze your health, if I may. We must be careful that no diseases are brought
to us, as we have weak immune systems. We use sound waves for detection and healing. They realign the body.”
Mekos nodded and Davro leaned forward, the disk in his hand.
“Ow!” Mekos put his hands over his ears. “That sound! It hurts my ears.”
“I apologize.” Davro adjusted the disk with his thumb. “I forgot your heightened senses.” He swept his arm down the length
of his nephew, not touching him. “You have an injured ankle.”
“He fell off a roof,” Aradella said.
Davro smiled, showing white and even teeth. “As the Reaver. All of Empyrea enjoyed those episodes.” When he held the disk
over Mekos’s left ankle, he winced in pain, then Davro drew back. “There! It is repaired. You are easy. It takes us years
to repair those Earth humans we pick up. When we got Kaley’s grandfather, he had only weeks to live. Although, as you saw
on the playboards, we can bring Earth people back to life after they’ve died.”
When they looked blank, Davro said, “Many of the people on the boards died long ago on Earth, but we revived them. We love
talent and creativity and we don’t want it to die out.” He looked at Ian. “May I?”
Ian shrugged as though to say, Why not?
Davro moved his hand before the little man. “Except for the missing half of a leg, you are perfect. If you had the leg here, I could reattach it.” His eyes twinkled. “But that lizard is still searching for the rest of you.” He turned to Aradella. “Do you mind?”
The drink had relaxed her, but she was impatiently waiting for things to be explained. She opened her arms to give him permission
to inspect her body.
Davro held out the little disk before her face. “Good! That mask has caused no damage.” He moved downward and when he got
to her stomach, he gasped. “I have never heard this sound before,” he said softly, then closed his eyes as though in ecstasy.
“Our bodies can no longer do this. We . . .” When he looked at Aradella, his eyes were so soft they were like a rain puddle.
“You are ovulating.”
Aradella pulled back. That was too intimate and way too embarrassing!
Davro put his disk away. “You are in perfect health. No flaws at all. But you . . .” He smiled at Aradella. “Tonight would
give you a son. Wait until tomorrow and you’ll carry a girl. Males are faster and die quickly. Girls are there for the long
wait.”
Surreptitiously, Mekos and Aradella touched hands.
Davro stood up. “My sister would chastise me for dawdling. Would you like food? Rest? Bathing?”
“We would like to know why about everything,” Aradella said.
“What we have seen is not what we expected,” Mekos said. “You people have done terrible things to us. You divided men and
women.” He held up his left arm. “You put chips inside us. Why?”
Davro walked to the far side of the room, then turned back. “How do I explain that we destroyed ourselves?”
“Does that sign NOO have anything to do with this?” Aradella asked.
Davro sat down as though energy had left his body. “It has everything to do with it. It means No One Offended.”
“Offend is the word that upset Qip,” Ian said. “Darr had to give him a drink to calm him down.”
“I need to check the medicals on dear Qip. I miss him very much! Did he finish his mechanical man?”
“Darr is my friend,” Ian said.
“Friend,” Davro said. “Only Qip can put a soul into a machine. We cannot do that.” He took a moment to gather his thoughts. “Yuzan is the home planet of the people here on the island of Empyrea,”
he said. “We are intelligent people and our technology is advanced. We can travel through space and visit other planets. We
can do remarkable things.”
“And you used all that knowledge against us!” Thanks to the drink Davro had given her, Aradella was calmer than her words sounded.
“Not at first,” Davro said. “Long before we found your planet, we destroyed ourselves. The truth is that our many successes
hurt us. We became jealous, competitive, and angry. Technology became overshadowed by what we were feeling, and those injured senses began to manifest themselves in violence. Murders were committed, corruption, thievery, burned
buildings. We didn’t even know we were capable of violence—certainly not against each other.”
He paused, obviously not wanting to dredge up the bad history. “Someone came up with the idea of making everyone equal. The theory was that if all people were the same, there would be no more hatred and anger. The process of equalizing started
generations ago. Babies were created in tubes so the division of the sexes could be eradicated. If the cells were male, they
were injected with female hormones and the other way around. Equal. People were neither one nor the other. They—”
“But what about my grandmother?” Mekos asked.
“Ah yes, my sister, Vian. While her cells were developing in the tube, it was seen that she had a special ability. No one was sure what it was, but they knew her brain was different. As I said, we like creativity, so she wasn’t changed.
After she was born, it was found that she could foresee the future.
It’s why she was made one of the Seven. And because her body was not changed, she could give birth.
” He gave a fond look at his nephew, then sighed.
“Besides our physical bodies, there were great changes made in the society. People who owned more than others caused hurt, so it was decided that all people would be paid the same. I am a doctor and I earn the same as a street cleaner. Today on Yuzan, we look alike, dress alike, our living areas are the same. There is—”
Aradella interrupted. “And if you aren’t the same, you’re sent to Abicis.”
Davro grimaced. “As hard as it was tried to make everyone alike, there were differences and they offended people. When a person
was as pretty as a model or as ugly as a toad, it hurt the feelings of others. Different people tend to get more attention
and that caused great anguish.”
“So the frogs complained,” Ian said.
“Yes, they did,” Davro replied. “For years, misfits were sent elsewhere but now it’s to Abicis. My sister fought against Qip
being sent away, but she couldn’t stop it. However, she did manage to protect me before birth and since then. I’m not exactly
like others.” He gave a slight smile at that.
“If you had a whole planet of people who were exactly alike in looks and income and the misfits were expelled, you must have
been happy,” Mekos said.
“For many years, we were, but then Bellis, with its similar atmosphere, was found and we . . .” He took a breath. “Your planet
and your people were our downfall.”
Mekos’s face showed his anger. “Are you saying it’s our fault that you stole one of our islands, renamed it, then took over
control of our lives? How are we involved in your self-destruction?”
Davro’s eyes seemed to agree with his anger.
“Your planet was a shock to Yuzans. No one thought such places still existed. Your healthcare was primitive. Each island spoke a different language. Water and sanitation were bad. I apologize, but we felt great pity for you. With a unanimous vote, the whole planet decided to unite to help you.”
“So they inserted the chips,” Aradella said.
Mekos drew in his breath. “And they called what they were doing to us the Righting of Ancient Wrongs. And they are ‘Peacekeepers.’”
“Yes to all of it,” Davro said. “At first, there were only good intentions, but ‘helping Bellis’ became the main concern of
all of Yuzan. People wanted to come here, to see this place, to become involved.”
“They wanted to help the poor, pitiful inhabitants of our crude planet,” Aradella said tightly. “To help inferior beings who
could not take care of themselves.”
“That’s the way they saw it,” Davro said. “And it started with good intentions, but gradually, as they say on Earth, Bellis
became our ‘vacation paradise.’ It was where people could get away from the perfection on Yuzan.”
“And stay in your box houses,” Aradella said.
Davro gave a small smile. “The houses here—not on Yuzan—are movable. If we go on a ship, either water or space, our houses
go with us. It saves having to pack.”
“What made you stop ‘helping’ us and begin ruling us?” Mekos asked. “And spying on us?”
Davro grimaced. “It didn’t happen quickly.
Yuzans saw that on Bellis people were not alike in wealth or intelligence or personality.
By that time, my planet had forgotten about differences—but what they saw made them stop being content with having exactly what everyone else had.
People began saying we should follow the Bellis culture, so a different wealth system was set up.
Gradually, it became socially acceptable that on Bellis people could have more or less than others.
As you’ve seen by the houses, even colors became a show of independence.
” Davro waved his hand. “But wealth was not the biggest problem. There were other things that had been lost.”
“Love,” Aradella said.
Davro nodded. “Love, passion, hate, anger, grief. They had all been eliminated.”
“And the new generation wanted to feel it,” Aradella said as she glanced at Mekos.
“That’s right,” Davro said. “The chips were adjusted so people could feel the tears and laughter of the people of Bellis.” His lips tightened. “If only that had been enough! They began to want more
than just those everyday emotions. They saw that if they manipulated things, they could intensify the anger, hate, and violence.”
When Davro looked at them, his eyes showed his sadness and apology. “One thing they saw was that if they separated the sexes,
the emotions were stronger. Men were more aggressive if they competed with each other. And women alone deeply yearned for
home and family. The Yuzans chose two islands and began a campaign to get the Bellisans to want to separate the sexes. Women were told they didn’t need men, and the men were made to believe women were holding them back.