Title: Legacy
Author: walutahanga
Rating: G?
Character: Crugar. Some Crugar/Isinia
Timeline: SPD, pre-Badge
Summary: Crugar's keeping secrets (what's new?)
Crugar and Isinia had talked of cubs.
In the safe circle of their marriage bed, they had talked of a litter of their own, with Iniana's eyes and Crugar's tail. Back then, the future had been filled with possibilities. Crugar had imagined cubs scampering after him, trying to fill his pawprints with their own tiny ones.
Then Grumm had come, and there was no future anymore, just the dust of a dead world lingering in Crugar's nose and the only thing shadowing his footsteps were ghosts.
"It's called earth."
Kat Manx adjusted the viewing screen controls, bringing the planet into focus. Her voice was smooth and measured as she reported on their findings.
"It's a human-populated world, with an unusually high occurance of ranger teams. Our informants believe that Grumm will target it to eliminate a potential threat."
Crugar studied the screen. They'd spent the better part of the year since Sirius' destruction trying to identify Grumm's next target, and there was an eerie satisfaction in finding it at last. Earth was a small blue world, just like Sirius, though it's inhabitants were many times more primitive than Sirius' citizens had been.
"You really think humans will be a threat to Grumm?" He said.
Kat shrugged.
"They've surprised us before," she pointed out. "It was a human team that ended the Spectre War."
"At the expense of a Master."
The repercussions of Zordon's loss were still rippling through the galaxy. Dark Spectre's destruction and the defection of almost the entire UAE had more or less restored the balance of power, but they were still feeling the effects. Generations from now, they would still be feeling the effects. In his darker moments, Crugar wondered if it had been Zordon's destruction that had made Grumm so bold as to invade Sirius.
"Still," Kat said. "Humans have potential. The kerovan sub-species for example have useful telepathic and telekinetic abilities."
"A single sub-species," Crugar dismissed them. "And their evolution branched off from earthlings several thousand years ago. Earth humans are weak. There is no way they can defend themselves against Grumm."
Kat said nothing, but had a secretive look on her face, as if she knew something he didn't. It was a look he was familiar with.
"You have an idea," Crugar guessed.
"I do," she said. "It's… complicated. Ethically, it's a gray area. But it would give humans an edge."
"Go on."
"What if," Kat said. "We tweaked their evolution? Not much," she added hastily as Sirius opened his mouth. "Just enough to make them more formidable. A little bit faster, a little bit stronger, a little bit smarter."
When Crugar didn't say anything, she continued, pulling up data on-screen. A lot of data. Enough to show that this wasn't an impulsive idea. This was a project she'd been working on for a long time.
"I've been comparing human DNA with several of the more evolved races. So far, they're most compatible with Acquitans, Xibrians, and Mercurions. But the species that really interested me were the Sirians."
"Sirians?" Crugar's attention, which had been starting to wander, snapped back at the mention of his nearly extinct race.
Kat nodded.
"It seems that your species – while normally completely incompatible with humans – garners interesting results when the two are combined artificially. I believe that by splicing a small amount of Sirian DNA into human DNA, the resulting hybrid would display abilities that neither race alone possesses."
Crugar stared at the screen, at the display of DNA twisting and coiling.
"What kind of abilities?"
"It's impossible to be entirely sure, but… possibly phasing, shielding, decoy-throwing. Maybe even a form of transfiguration or telepathy if we're lucky."
"And you would need my DNA for this." It was a statement, not a question.
"It's the only fresh sample we have. Everything I've done up till now is theoretical, using the data in the banks." Kat seemed to take his quiet for hesitation, and plunged on. "Sir, this is a good idea. Even if we don't use it on the entire human race, it would give us a few formidable warriors to use against Grumm. That's all we'll really need if we can get the ranger project up and running."
Crugar held up his hand, and she fell silent, only the faint twitch of her ears betraying her agitation. He continued to study the data scrolling down the screen. What Kat suggested was playing god. Tampering with the evolution of a species was problematic at best. Crugar couldn't know what the exact results would be, or how the subjects would be received. Humans might very well turn on the hybrids, seeing them as different and threatening.
But the DNA that existed inside Crugar was the only real thing he had left of Sirius. He was the last of his kind. When he died, his species would die with him. Their legacy would become nothing more than some dry entry in SPD's databanks, a footnote on the proud race that had been the Sirians.
Crugar was aware of Kat hovering and waiting for his verdict.
"Do it," he said.
Twenty years on, Crugar can still smell the dust of Sirius. He can still hear the ghosts of the dead, treading in his footsteps, whispering his name in voices only he can hear.
The voices fade into the background when he looks at his cubs. Of course, he does not call them that. That would be a blatant violation of SPD protocol, and raise questions he has no answers to. How can he explain that he had not authorised the 2001 experiments out of a desire to protect a living species, but out of a need to preserve a dead one?
The B-squad look and behave human. Their official classification is 'mutant' and only a very few personnel know that the truth is something closer to 'hybrid'. B-squad show no characteristics of their parent race, at least none that human senses can detect. On base, only Crugar and Kat have sensitive enough olfactory systems to know that B-squad don't smell strictly human. In any case, the particulars of body odor isn't something that should come up in polite conversation, so Crugar feels their secret is secure.
Sometimes, though, he wonders if the human exterior is deceptive. If, for example, he was to try and teach the rangers the sirian language, would their vocal cords be able to pronounce the growling syllables and rolling consonants? Or, if he were to speak to them of sirian mythology, would they grasp it on some fundamental level that humans never could? He wonders and he is desperately tempted to know. Only Kat's steady presence stops him. Thank the Wolven for Kat. She watches him with knowing green eyes, but never says anything and never judges. She only interferes when she believes that his judgement is in question.
Of course, when it comes to B-squad, his judgement is always in question.
When he looks at Syd, he likes to imagine that her innocent materialism comes from his little sister, Hati, who could be distracted by anything shiny. Once she'd cried a whole day when she lost her necklace at the beach, until Crugar had borrowed a friend's metal detector and spent a whole week combing the sand. It had been worth it to hand the necklace to Hati and see her smile.
Sky and Sam remind Crugar of his stern, militarian father, who'd enforced rules with a heavy hand. They are always convinced they're right, even (especially) when everyone else disagrees. They are stubborn and arrogant, and never speak of their feelings. Crugar's father had died in the first wave of Grumm's attacks, leaving Crugar knowing the man little better than he had as a cub. He likes to think that through Sky and Sam, he can come to understand his father better. And in a way, he does – though not all of it is positive.
Jack worries Crugar. He reminds Crugar of the rebellious older brother who'd ran away when Crugar was still a cub. Letters had come infrequently for a couple of years, then stopped abruptly. The next thing to arrive in the mail had been a death certificate and a set of dog-tags for an off-world militia group. Crugar still has those dog-tags. He sometimes thinks of giving them to Jack, and telling him of Cerberus, but the two are too much alike as it is. No sense in giving him ideas. Kat accuses Crugar of being too hard on Jack, but she can't see Cereberus in the muted gleam of defiance in Jack's eyes.
Bridge's antics annoy some people, but Crugar secretly treasures them. His cousin, who had been an entertainer by profession, had been the same. Orthrus had always been doing tumbling tricks and slap-stick comedy to make his younger cousins laugh. Crugar sometimes worries that Bridge would be happier in another profession, but can't tell whether it is because Bridge would be, or Orthrus.
Only Z does not remind Crugar of anyone in his family. She bears no resemblance to anyone related to him by blood.
No, the memories she triggers are far more painful.
Isinia.
Z has the same compassion and practical common-sense as Crugar's long-dead wife. Isinia had never allowed Crugar to feel sorry for himself, and Z is the same. She bullies the other rangers into action, and provides tart criticism when it is needed most. Intellectually, Crugar knows that Isinia was lost with Sirius. None of her DNA went into this human child. It's entirely impossible that Z could have inherited anything from her. But the resemblance is striking all the same.
There were ghost stories on Sirius, of spirits who lingered after death and fathered children on living females. Back then, Crugar had never paid much attention to the old stories, but now he more than half-believes that Z truly is the child of his wife's spirit. All of B-squad are the children of Sirius' spirit. Like the ghost-sired children of the stories, they are drawn to face their parents' murderer, to right the wrong made against the last generation.
Crugar is little more than a ghost himself these days. The flesh still lives and the heart still beats, but he is not truly living. He has not been truly alive since he watched his world burn. He is just one more ghost whispering in his childrens' ear, urging veangance. And like those ghosts, once placated, he will finally be able to rest, to fade and disappear into the darkness, following the rest of his race into death.
He will leave behind him the tattered remnants of a legacy, stowed in the safest place he can find, where it can never be erased, or stolen, or misused. Within the rangers themselves. And whether they know it or not, whether they value it or not, they will carry Sirius inside them wherever they go.