Chapter 8 The Story of the Dae

Once the drinks and snacks were set out, the room settled down with all eyes (and ears) on L'ao.

"My main hobby is history, and the story I am going to tell is assembled from many different sources.

According to the ancient records, my people, the Dae, came to this world about ten thousand, five hundred years ago," she began, "We came through an opening between worlds in the mountains nearby, to where I will be returning from here.

"The reason why we came isn't in the records, and from the way it's written I get the impression that was deliberate. It might have been escaping some disaster, or a political thing; we just don't know. Those who came through were very tight-lipped about it, and after all this time the Arrival is nothing but dim legends."

She paused for a moment, taking a sip of her soda and collecting her thoughts. "There were roughly a thousand Dae, and when the portal closed they knew it would not be opening again any time soon. In fact, there are detailed directions written in several books on calculating the time when the portal can open. But I will get to that later.

Apparently we had some advanced technology then, because a city was founded in a cave created for the purpose. It was built to hold many more Dae than had come through. Eventually the machines broke down, and stopped being mentioned in the records. I have looked, but if they still exist, I have never found them.

Sixty or seventy years after the city's founding, groups of Dae began leaving to explore the world and settle elsewhere. We prefer to live in communities of no more than fifty or so. It took a long time, maybe hundreds of years, but eventually we had colonies around the world. They took radios with them, but after a time they broke down as well, and the city heard no more.

It was a surprise when my ancestors found primitive humans; based on a few hints, a survey was probably conducted before anyone came through, and they thought the planet had no intelligent life.

My ancestors helped the humans advance their agriculture and begin domesticating animals. The smaller groups usually got along with the natives, but in some places they were shunned and killed."

Ron raised a hand. "How do you know what happened to the small groups when you said they were out of touch?"

"It gets ahead of the story, but when the Dae began returning to the city, they brought their records with them, and I have read them."

"Oh, okay, makes sense..." said Ron, and subsided.

"Some humans tried to worship the Dae as gods, but that was discouraged. The word "Dae" means "The People" in my own language, and we consider ourselves no better or worse than humans; only different.

Time passed, human civilizations rose and fell; wars, famine, disease, all the frailties we are all subject to. Of course the Dae were affected too. Well... except for war. On earth, at least, we have never fought against each other. We have helped human friends in wars, though.

The leaders and priests of the enemies spread rumors about us as evil demons, and those who got our help were tarred with accusations of evil magic, and pacts with supernatural beings.

As time went on, the Dae withdrew from human affairs, not wanting to make a bad situation worse. Generations of humans telling stories, and finally writing them told distorted memories of us that only grew worse with time.

A number of groups were formed in the human communities to hunt us down and kill us as "Satan's Minions". Fortunately we had not cut off all contact, and our human friends warned us.

As the Christian church rose to prominence, my people had the wisdom and foresight to contact the Pope and Cardinals and reach an agreement with them. Today, the church knows we exist, but will not acknowledge it. Sightings are always dismissed. They understand we are intelligent beings, not evil supernatural things, but they will neither help us, or attack us.

Nonetheless we still had to defend ourselves from attacking humans, and were not always successful. Entire colonies have been slaughtered. Our enemies are usually the less-educated, being led by those who seek power, and see the Dae as a target to unite their followers.

As time passed and human civilization developed, it became increasingly difficult for us to remain hidden."

Tara raised her hand. "Were relations between the ...Dae and humans always bad?"

L'ao smiled. "No, I am happy to say. There have even been a few marriages that lasted many years. But no children, of course; we are too different."

She took another drink of soda and had a handful of potato chips before continuing.

"A few hundred years ago we realized that human civilization was advancing to the point where we would be discovered, and likely killed or put in zoos and laboratories to be studied. That would be intolerable, but we would not be able to prevent it, since our numbers have slowly declined over time.

There is something about this world that decreases our fertility rate, but it took a long time to have a noticeable effect. After it did, our numbers continued decreasing. It has been estimated that, if we do not leave, we will become extinct in a few hundred years.

A sort of... mental event occurred about fifty years ago. A longing to return to the place of our ancestors slowly grew in the hearts and minds of all Dae, so the colonies began migrating back to the city. As far as we know, the last group arrived about six years ago.

There are only four hundred seventy-four of us now, and all are ready to leave."

L'ao looked around the room. "But we have a problem. The portal can open for thirty hours every seventy-one point six earth years, but since it originally closed, there are no records that it ever has."

"Any idea why?" asked Bonnie.

"Actually, yes. A few years ago our elders revealed a book that holds the secret," she replied, and looked directly at Kim. "And that is where you come in."

Kim looked surprised. "ME?" she asked, "I've never even heard of your people before tonight. What do I have to do with anything?"

"Your bio-generated plasma is the only energy capable of opening the portal," L'ao answered. "We were going to ask that Shego woman to help. She died, as you know, and we despaired of ever being able to leave. Then you gained her ability, and gave us hope again."

Kim's face screwed up in thought. "Well, if this," she ignited a hand, "Is the only thing that can open the portal, that would mean..."

"Yes," interrupted L'ao, "According to that new book, on the Dae world, several multicolored comets crashed and gave some of our people extraordinary powers. Four of the powers were like Team Go has, others were different. A scientist experimenting with the plasma-generating power discovered the portal-opening ability."

Tara raised a hand. "Uh, are you from another planet, or another universe?"

L'ao cocked her head at the blond. "I was born here in Colorado."

Tara opened her mouth to explain that isn't what she meant when L'ao grinned. "I know what you meant. I was just making a joke. It was getting too serious in here."

L'ao nodded to herself in satisfaction. The smell of fear had been dampened while she told the story, and making a joke reduced it farther.

"But seriously, we don't know. The records don't talk about it, and none of us living have any memory of the star patterns where we are from to compare. Our world must be fairly similar to Earth, since we have no trouble breathing, or eating. Our taste in food is similar to yours. There are diseases, like the Black Plague, that killed many thousands of humans, but did not affect us at all. On the other hand, there is no known instance of a human being harmed by any germ we carry."

L'ao looked around the table, then at her red-headed host. "So, Kim Possible, you know my story. Will you help bring it to an end on the earth?"