The Fall of the Infinite Empire
Chapter 30
Zhed-Hai entered the human centered infirmary unit for first time since he had ordered it built, many years before either of the humans currently in it had been born. As he entered, he was greeted by the sound of Halvor's screams. At one of the room Halvor lay on a table, his body seemingly nothing but blood and mangled limbs. One of the droid attendants was trying to keep him from thrashing about while the others prepared a kolto tank for him. Zhed-Hai looked towards the other end of the room where Tytus sat upright, his face ashen, his breathing labored, but otherwise silent. This pleased Zhed-Hai, as he meant to speak to both of them, and it looked as though Tytus did not need to immediately be placed into a kolto tank of his own. The guards had moved quickly to gather them both, and the droids had managed to stop Tytus' blood loss for the most part. By the time Tytus had arrived in the infirmary his life was no longer in danger. Halvor's wounds were on an entirely different scale. It seemed as though Myra had broken nearly every bone in his body. Zhed-Hai, therefore, went first to Halvor.
The screen above him showed the damage. His ribs were crushed, and all of them would need repair. The bones in his arms and legs were shattered. There weren't really bones left there, just shards of bone floating in a mash of muscle and blood. The remains of his skeleton were poking through his skin at several points. All this damage had been done in a second, or perhaps two. Myra had dropped Halvor upon seeing Zhed-Hai watching her. Zhed-Hai wondered how much further she would have gone had he not been present.
He reached Halvor and looked down upon him. Halvor gave no sign that he recognized the Rakatan Elder. His head swiveled back and forth, for his neck was one of the few unbroken parts of him, with his eyes open only intermittently, while his screams would have overpowered Zhed-Hai's voice. Zhed-Hai gave Halvor a moment to get control of himself, but he did not wait for long. After a few seconds of waiting by Halvor's side he grabbed Halvor by the jaw, which was broken, and held his head in place. This caused Halvor to finally open his eyes and see Zhed-Hai, a sight which temporarily shocked him into silence.
When Zhed-Hai heard what sounded like another scream winding up inside Halvor, he said sharply, "Please stop that. I am here to discuss your recent failures, and I do not want to hear your continued failure of self-control."
Whether it was shame or fear that did it, Halvor got his screaming under control enough to say, "I…did…what you asked."
Zhed-Hai's expression darkened, and he squeezed Halvor's broken jaw shut, eliciting a high pitched moan from him. With a flick of his other hand a barrier went up in the middle of the room, between them and Tytus.
"No, no you did not. I wanted you to incorporate Myra into your group. I wanted her to be recognized as its leader. I wanted them prepared to obey her. I promised you that you could have her if you accomplished that. Perhaps that was a mistake, since you have been far more interested in your payment than on your task," Zhed-Hai said coldly.
'She came tonight' was the thought that Halvor, barely able to speak before Zhed-Hai had damaged his jaw further by squeezing his mouth shut, pushed through to the Rakatan. At one level Zhed-Hai realized the strength of will it took to make even one's thinking clear when dealing with such pain, but he was not in the mood to give Halvor credit for anything.
"Ah yes, and what a rousing success that was," Zhed-Hai said. "You have managed to alienate her further while also undermining your own position with your people. I do not have time to solve all the problems you are creating. Why did you send those children to fight her?"
Halvor tried to formulate his thoughts, to put his explanation in the best possible light. But as Zhed-Hai was focused on the goings on in Halvor's mind he was able to perceive the unadorned version.
"You thought if she killed them, then guilt would drive her to what? Accept you? Accept the Circle and its rules?" he asked.
"Have you ever killed a child?" Halvor asked in his mind.
"Many, many times," Zhed-Hai said darkly.
"It destroys you…well maybe not you," Halvor thought, "You have to find something to let you live with what you did. You tell yourself it's the rules, the way things have to be. And then you make that true for yourself."
"Oh how devious of you Halvor," Zhed-Hai said in response. "I might even have been impressed with such a cynical attempt, if only it had worked. But I do not want attempts, I want success. Now tell me, what clever reason did you have to send Giseric to fight Tytus? How could you possibly think killing him would work out in your favor?"
'I told Giseric not to use the Force!' Halvor insisted.
"I would have thought you, of all people, would not need to be reminded that I choose those I bring here very, very carefully," Zhed-Hai said, anticipating that this comment would call up Halvor's memories of his capture, when he arrived at the research facility on Tatooine with several friends, and what became of those who Zhed-Hai chose not to keep. "I know Giseric. He is a killer. There is no way his pride would allow him to accept losing when he had only to use the Gift but a little to win. And I know that you know that too."
"He knew the costs of defying me!" Halvor replied, his anger motivated more by memories of his friends than Zhed-Hai's imputation of dishonesty.
"I had thought you were not a fool. I had thought your place was at the head of your people, that you would see my purposes fulfilled…" Zhed-Hai began before Halvor interrupted, through gritted teeth.
"I am not your slave!"
In response to this outburst, Zhed-Hai electrocuted Halvor's prone body, but only briefly. He had wanted to go for longer but thought that, in his current state, Halvor might die from any more. Disappointing as he was, it would be a waste to kill him before he had offspring, the Elder thought.
"Of course you are my slave. You are my slave until the day I let you go, and even then you will do as I wish, because I will have left you no other path forward, for I see now that you lack the judgment to make decisions for yourself, much less for your people. A change of plan is in order."
Whether Halvor understood what Zhed-Hai said was unclear. The will power he had summoned to discuss matters as long as he already had, was waning, and his thoughts were growing disordered from the pain. Turning to the droids Zhed-Hai said, "Kolto submersion will be insufficient, given the severity of his injuries. It must be injected directly into all the areas of trauma. There will be no need to employ pain blockers."
And with that Zhed-Hai turned away from Halvor. With a flick of his hand the barrier between Halvor and Tytus withdrew, and, once he had passed the point where it had been, Zhed-Hai, with another flick of his hand, returned it to its position.
There were droids working on Tytus, applying kolto sprays to his wound. Zhed-Hai thought for a moment about his discovery of the miracle substance. He had still been relatively unimportant at the time, responsible for a handful of useful discoveries, all of which were minor improvements on existing techniques or substances. They had not been enough to get him noticed by the Council but had been enough to get his request to go to Manaan for extended study approved. He had heard how the sentient fish species there displayed remarkable powers of regeneration after injury and wanted to figure out how it worked. He had tried and failed to figure it out by capturing specimens, observing, and then dissecting them. Years spent fruitlessly had him doubting his own abilities. It had been desperation to achieve something, anything, commensurate with the time he had devoted to the world that led to the decision that the problem was that he was isolating the creatures, the Selkath, from their natural environment. And so he had gone into the deeps, and made his discovery. The explanation for their regenerative properties was not in the Selkath who came close to the surface, close enough to be caught by normal means. It was with the great matriarchs in the depths, beasts no Rakatan had even been aware existed before. It had required a holistic approach, understanding the species as a whole and in its natural environment. And that had required overcoming the bias, all too common among his people, against other species and their ways. You can't understand something, Zhed-Hai had eventually realized, that you hold in contempt. To find its secrets you must first appreciate its mysteries.
He had failed to take this attitude towards Myra's mate. He had categorized him from the beginning as a regrettable obstacle to his plans for Myra, and for the subsequent generations of her people. He had cared only for how insignificant his Gift was. But there were other strengths a being might have, and he had forgotten that in his excitement at having finally found what he had spent more than a century looking for. It was time to evaluate Tytus holistically, to come to understand his full role, actual and potential, in the population of humans Zhed-Hai had gathered on Lehon.
"Don't want us hearing what you say to the other, do you?" Tytus asked, while looking at the barrier between him and Halvor.
"I don't care what he hears, he no longer matters. I just hate the sound of his screaming," Zhed-Hai answered.
"Being your servant doesn't seem to have much to recommend it," Tytus said. After Tytus said this, Halvor began uncontrollably shrieking. Tytus flinched at this and for a moment felt a surge of pity. Zhed-Hai had no noticeable reaction.
"Is this the nature of your objection to Halvor and the northerners, that they are my servants?" Zhed-Hai asked. Tytus did not respond immediately, and took a moment to calm himself and block out the sound of Halvor's agony.
"What makes you think I object to them?" Tytus finally asked.
"Myra objected to it when she found out that I had put Halvor where he is. But not enough to cut ties with them, not until you showed up. I take it you convinced her," Zhed-Hai said.
Tytus laughed at this.
"What?" Zhed-Hai asked coldly.
"It's just that you two have spent a lot of time talking to each other over the last few months, and I would have thought you knew her better than that," Tytus said.
"Better than what?"
"People don't really convince Myra of things. If she wasn't right so often, it would be a pretty nasty character trait," Tytus said, smiling. "It wasn't me coming here, it was the children, and she didn't get convinced, she was just reminded."
Zhed-Hai stood and thought for a moment as the droids continued to work on Tytus.
"Why did you do that?" he finally asked.
"Get myself speared?" Tytus asked. After Zhed-Hai nodded he said, "I have been asking myself that since I woke up and realized I wasn't dead."
Zhed-Hai waited for a few seconds before asking "And what did you conclude?"
"I don't know. I didn't think much before I did it. There were a lot of good reasons to do it. I didn't want to be part of someone getting killed unnecessarily. I didn't want Halvor to turn what happened into another way for him to show everyone how in control he was. I wanted to hurt him. And it's a stupid way to run things. But I can't tell you which one is the real reason I did it. Glad I didn't die though," he said.
"You wanted to hurt him? How?" Zhed-Hai asked.
"You think anyone is going to look at him the same after this? Even if Myra hadn't done what she did, you think people are going to see him as a leader now? He was being a scheming little coward, and if he kills that man, he gets away with it. Everyone just remembers it as the night that Halvor killed someone for breaking the rules. They remember him being strong. Well now they remember him willing to kill someone so he could show off. Maybe next time he decides to strut around at that silly meeting they won't let him get away with it."
"Why do you object to Halvor's way of doing things?" Zhed-Hai said.
Tytus looked at Zhed-Hai for a while without answering. Then he asked, "Why am I talking to you like this? Why am I saying so much?"
"Kolto heals but it doesn't take away the pain right away. The droids injected you with a chemical to reduce the pain. It has a tendency to lower inhibitions. What's wrong with Halvor's way of doing things?" Zhed-Hai asked again.
"It's wasteful. People die, and what do you learn? Who is the best at fighting? So what?" Tytus said. "Why should I listen to someone just because they can fight?"
"How would you pick leaders for your people?" Zhed-Hai asked.
"I wouldn't," Tytus declared.
"Large groups need leadership," Zhed-Hai said confidently while shaking his head. "You can't let each do what they wish. In lower animals instinct takes care of things, but for us, for the sentient creatures of the galaxy, something else must be supplied. There must be a will to guide the group."
"Just let the group decide. Get everyone together and just talk the problem through. The old men who ran our tribe, before Myra and I left, they never listened to anyone but the ones whose support they needed to stay in charge. And if you didn't like it, you head to deal with it or leave."
"The alternative is anarchy," Zhed-Hai said.
"The alternative is freedom," replied Tytus.
"There is no difference," Zhed-Hai responded.
"Of course there is. People working together isn't anarchy."
"Anarchy is what freedom always turns into." Zhed-Hai said while shaking his head.
"Maybe," Tytus said as he shook his own head, but to keep himself awake rather than to express any disagreement. "But everything falls apart eventually, and it would be good while it lasts."
Zhed-Hai looked at Tytus while the human fought off sleep and thought how frustrating it was that he was born so weak. He was smarter than Halvor, and had a temperament more in line with what Myra's mate would need. This was someone who could command respect while accepting her superiority. He was just such a missed opportunity, breeding wise. He had hoped that Myra's obvious strength would have tempered some of Halvor's less desirable qualities, out of a desire to impress her, but it had seemingly done the opposite. Zhed-Hai opened the barrier between the two treatment areas. Halvor was awake and moaning. The injections had already taken place, but the pain would not go away until the kolto had finished its work and healed all the wounds. Zhed-Hai looked at Halvor and could not help his anger. So much talent wasted. He had come to Zhed-Hai a compromised specimen. The traumas of his past, the violence seemingly inherent in the northerner's culture, had almost made Zhed-Hai cull Halvor on Tatooine after harvesting breeding material. In the back of his mind a voice said that it made no sense to blame Halvor for what he was. This is what the Empire created. It was something of a miracle that Myra was not similarly damaged. Was it worth keeping Halvor now, Zhed-Hai wondered?
Halvor looked up at him, and Zhed-Hai could tell he was fully conscious, despite the pain. Zhed-Hai lifted the barrier between them and sneered at Halvor while saying loudly, so both he and Tytus could hear, "Would you like for me to kill him, Tytus?"
Tytus looked across the room at Halvor, who was too weak to do anything but look on Zhed-Hai with hatred. Then Tytus shook his head, "No. Just let us go when you are done with us." Zhed-Hai had known what the answer would be, but he wanted Halvor to hear it. An end needed to be brought to this pitiful little contest. Myra would rule, and Tytus would be with her. Zhed-Hai had resigned himself to that fact, and he needed Halvor, the source of this failure, to do so as well.
