Blue Roses and Lithium Thorns
Chapter 4: …And the Lithium Thorns
She's so cold and human. It's something humans do. She stays so cold inside. She's so number nine. She's incredible math…just incredible math.
And is she really human? She's just something new. A wicked lithium flower just about to bloom. I smell lithium now…smellin' lithium now—
Da'an switched off the radio.
Liam wasn't there. Had he overslept? It didn't matter. Da'an had a message waiting for him. Zo'or wanted to talk to him…alone. Maybe he had heard him spying yesterday. Maybe that wretched volunteer had squealed on him.
"Bastard."
Da'an would have to portal to the Mothership alone. Zo'or wouldn't wait.
Zo'or was alone in his chair. Not even the pilots could see them. The bridge was cold and dark. All the entrances were sealed with the exception of the one Da'an came through. Zo'or appeared angry. Da'an had never seen him like this…except for that one time…
"Seal the entrance," Zo'or ordered monotonously.
Da'an did as he said.
"Are you alone?"
"Yes."
Zo'or turned and stood. The distance between them felt like miles.
"I know what it is you have been thinking," Zo'or said, "for I have been thinking the same."
Da'an said nothing. He didn't have to.
"Would you abandon us, Da'an?" Zo'or asked. "Would you abandon your duties? Would you abandon the Commonality?"
"The strength of the Taelons lies within the common purpose. That is the Commonality. To even so much as comtemplate leaving it is blasphemy," Da'an recited.
"But the humans draw their strength from individuality. Have you never wished to feel as they do?"
"…Yes."
"Then, you and I have a common affliction."
Da'an looked away. "How many have gone to her?"
"Six," Zo'or replied.
"Who are they?"
"Mechanics and pilots. People we can spare. No one of higher importance."
Da'an sighed. "What is it you wish of me, Zo'or?"
"Time and time again you have endangered Taelon welfare for these humans. Now, you wish to abandon us for a goal that could only be described as…human. Your thought has obviously become infected."
"Then, you know what happened last night?"
"Did you think that you could escape the psychic link, Da'an? Do you honestly believe that you can just walk away without some form of punishment? This is not some kind of clique. This is your life. This is the Commonality. We have all given ourselves to it. Some of us have given more than others."
"What would you do to me if I said that I was leaving?"
"I would brand you a traitor. However, I already have reason to believe that you are a traitor."
"How so?"
"The Commonality is always watching. Do you think I am blind?" Zo'or asked back. He revealed a data crystal. "I have been watching you ever since the state of emergency, Da'an. I know that you are affiliated with the resistance. I have known for some time."
"I don't know what you are talking about," Da'an said emotionlessly. "I would never associate myself with a group of extremists."
"Oh, I think you would, Da'an, especially if your own protector was one of them," Zo'or said entering the data crystal and flipping on the datastream.
It was a video recording of a raid from the state of emergency. A shuttle had recorded it in order to search for hiding resistance members. There were three men in a window. One was black, one was old, and one was a young white man. Zo'or paused and zoomed in on the face of a man. It was Liam.
"So you assume that I am affiliated with the resistance just because my own protector is?" Da'an asked.
"If only it was that simple," Zo'or said. "However, your deceitful activity has more than proven where your true loyalties lie. Time and time again, you have done all that you can to sabotage my agenda for the humans. While you commit actions to fabricate your loyalty, in the dark of night, you devise schemes with these humans to depose your own species. A mole. A Brutus hiding in my own Synod. And of all people, my own parent."
"What do you want me to say?" Da'an asked. "That I regret my actions?"
"I want you to cease your endless lies and admit to the truth!"
"I have lied and cheated no more than you have, Zo'or."
"Where do you think I learned it from, dear parent?"
"Should I feel sorry for you?" Da'an asked back.
"You said that I was your child, and that you could never allow me to be harmed," Zo'or said.
"And I still believe that, but you cannot expect me to regret feelings about the Commonality that we both share," Da'an replied.
"What did you do to that Jaridian?" Zo'or forced out impulsively.
"What are you talking about?" Da'an asked.
"Nothing. This is about us and where our loyalties lie. That is all that it has been about."
"I will not be ordered to pity the ravings of a degenerate ruler," Da'an said firmly, like a stone wall. "You will not blame your sick and twisted actions on me, especially considering that you are older than most beings could ever hope to be. You have sabotaged more people than anyone. You have sabotaged me time and time again. You have repeatedly tried to end my life and the lives of all who have supported me. Your clandestine experiments on humans have cost the lives and souls of hundreds of humans and Taelons. You have openly contested my feelings and opinions. You sinned, in a period of only four years, more than I ever could in a lifetime, and now I am suddenly supposed to remain loyal to you and to a species that has robbed me of my freedom…and has stolen my memories?"
"They stole mine too!"
"I know that!"
"And you did nothing!"
"I am doing something now!"
Zo'or slammed his fist on his chair. Da'an saw his eyes glow red. It scared him, but he could not let it show.
"Goddamn you, Da'an. Everything that I have done has been for the survival of our kind," Zo'or said viciously.
"So has everything that I have done…until now," Da'an said slowly walking up to his child. "You want it too, don't you?"
Zo'or shook his head. "Want what?"
"You want to leave the Commonality. Your repeated experiments to understand the human psyche. You have even gone so far as to enter the body of a human."
"True," Zo'or agreed.
"You do not see how I can condemn your actions and then work with humans against my own species."
"Duplicity, as I said."
"My intent is to understand the human psyche as well, but perverting their minds and stealing their memories is not the way to do it, Zo'or. Our only hope as a species is to work with the humans to find and renew our own feelings. We must work with the humans to deliver ourselves from extinction. No human on that entire planet can save us. Only we can do that."
"What I wish to know is would you kill me. Would you let me die?"
Da'an looked deeply into Zo'or's eyes. "No. Never."
Zo'or looked back just as deeply. "I don't believe you."
Da'an looked hurt. Something sentimental probably should have let his throat, but instead, "You have much more than me to worry about if assassination is your primal fear."
"My intent with the cult was to draw out potential traitors," Zo'or explained, "and I have done that now. You, Da'an, are a traitor, and traitors to the Commonality must be destroyed. You do not care for me or the Commonality."
"You don't either!"
"You're absolutely right, Da'an. I do not care for this wretched Commonality, but I am in a position to control it. You would take that from me to do the same."
"You're crazy!"
"And you are a traitor."
"Why won't you come with me? We could go together. We could leave this place. Everything about this place has been a torment to us. We can end that. We can end it together."
"Or we could work together to end this war and control the Commonality together."
"No one can control the Commonality."
"The priests can."
"And do you honestly believe that they will surrender that control to you?"
"I already have the upper hand as leader of the Synod. The Commonality has failed to oppose me before. You and I seek the same thing. Therefore I am offering an alliance. If you agree to join me and work for control of the Commonality, then I will destroy all information that links you to the resistance. You, as a member, have the ability to destroy them once and for all. Destroy them and join me. With the Commonality under our control, we could bring the Taelons into a golden age. We shall defeat the Jaridians once and for all, and humanity will be our soldiers and our slaves."
Da'an shook his head and drew himself away from Zo'or. Nye's words. It will drive you mad or it will kill you. So this is what she meant. Those who can see the prison bars either go mad or they die. "You do not seek freedom. All you seek is power. Your leadership of the Synod has driven you mad. Now you would either have me branded to hell with you or destroyed. You're a sick child!" Da'an shuddered. "I should have given you to the gods when you were born!"
"And I should have killed you when I had the chance!" Zo'or roared. A wave of energy immersed from Zo'or. It sent Da'an clear into a wall. "This is the point of no return, parent! You passed it the moment you chose humanity over us. You have gambled with them and lost! And now you will pay the price. Agent Sandoval!"
One of the sealed entrances opened. Sandoval and a squad of volunteers stood behind it.
The look Zo'or gave Da'an was a terrible mesh of madness and pure evil. Nothing was left of the old Zo'or. While Da'an had been contemplating freedom, he had been contemplating control. Those eyes…they grew dark. That was why Nye had come! She knew this was going to happen.
"The Synod is going to have a trial, dear parent," Zo'or said softly as Da'an lifted himself from the floor. "When it is over, your form will be forever altered, and things are going to change around here."
"Zo'or you bring this upon yourself," Da'an said mournfully.
Sandoval helped Da'an to his feet and put some cuffs around his wrists. He brought Da'an close. "He's sold his soul."
"We all have," Da'an replied.