Mana Pool Snippets - The Job

Part 4

"G-what?" I asked, turning a notebook page. In between Jaruka's talks, I had thought briefly about the couple's magic. I can multitask, but I have to balance it well.

"Genetic Magical Transformations," Jaruka explained.

I wrote down the name and quickly made a connection. "Right. GMTs. Totally forgot. Like the Galmadesh species in the Goomash Raid." I paused spotting Katie walking out the backdoor and out to the vineyard. "Yo-You think they..."

"Nothing like that, I made sure," Jaruka interrupted. "But the asteroid crash, the Wave, the terran transformations—they stink of GMT. Every human on this planet was part, I believe, is an engineered event. Somebody did this, and Benali is one clue."

"I see," I said. "So, on the record, you have any hope the Council will send aid?"

I asked because of their track record. Terra Firma is still in PCPA laws, but I was not sure if they were still Red Flagged. The Council values and honors life. My answer was definite.

"Crog no," Jaruka immediately said. "If I were them, I would not come near here for any reason."

I blinked. "But they must. Terra Firma..."

"Is still and will be a Red Flagged planet, I guarantee it. You try asking those questions to Denverbay and he'll say it too. No aid. No support. Just monitor." I didn't know if Jaruka had any evidence for his claim, but I hoped that he was wrong.

By noon Terra Firma time, I was famished, but I kept going, this interview was getting too good. I settled for snacking absentmindedly on the sample plate in the meantime.

"Mr. Teal," I said. "Tell me everything. And I mean everything. I want to know what happened between the asteroid crash and now."

"That's a lot of information," Jaruka said. "You have me for a day..."

"We can go into the night. I'll do the same for Scott and Katie. What I'm seeing is something bigger than Benali's involvement."

"Benali is involved."

"That be the case, piecing things together helps. Whatever I collect today and the next four days, including whatever you can get while on the planet, will help tremendously. Can you do that, Mr. Teal?"

He agreed without hesitation.

Even after I recorded everything from Jaruka, I wasn't prepared at all for Scott and Katie's perspective.

Zimana.

It's slightly smaller than Terra Firma; has oceans, forests and mountains, but unlike the backwater planet, Zimana has smaller oceans, varied geography, and the largest forms of fungi within over fifty worlds. The humidity scares away most off-worlders. My people colonized planets and moons in our twelve planet, two star system, but I, like my father, prefer my species' birthplace.

My family, the Zader Khu family, live in the mushroom forests of Monta. Over the years, my father worked hard as a reporter, but never went as far as a mansion and cushy life. He preferred the family cabin, deep in the forest, and kept working until his passing.

Since returning from Terra Firma two days ago and completing Captain Brill Secambre's interview (I did taste the food and drink on Terra Firma), I feverishly finished all the compiled notes and memory recordings for Councilman Denverbay. Everything was collected into one single file, compressed and broadcasted on a secure channel to be analyzed for unknown reasons. The process will be repeated over and over.

I felt mentally sick of the truth, like, why was there no aid, and a blanket of Titan Spires?

Jaruka was serious about terran magic. Katie demonstrated her magic effortlessly with several simple spells she had learned and created on her own, but Scott was unable to due to a massive injury to his mana heart, and the nasty scar on his chest confirmed it. Know this: very few species ever use liquid-state energy sources, but none in the galaxy create it. Terran magic looks and feels so stable that focused right it could be a formidable weapon. Every human is or will be turning into terrans, with the same power level, in the next four years by their math estimates.

Limited energy, unlimited uses. I read before that humans have powerful imaginations. They could do almost anything they dream about, beneficial or threatening, that be another reason for the Red Flag.

I received clearance for more visitation rights to Terra Firma and will be sending reports until the job is done. Once the station on the moon is repaired, the techs, Jaruka, and I will all be pitching in to gather every single shred of information from the planet below. Do the job until it ends.

Something about this cries for attention.

I took another sip of tea and looked up at pictures on my wall. I was able to keep pictures from Terra Firma before I sent them, all within the winery and the city of Temecula. One picture was the guards standing near the wine production warehouse. Ketho had acted the same since we landed and left, but Tigap changed quite a bit and enjoyed talking to the Walsh family whenever he could. There were even more pictures of the grapevines, the warehouse, the storefront, and some places in the city that I was permitted to visit, with a DNA mask on of course.

I was unable to witness a terran transformation, but Jaruka could can send video of that in the future.

The picture I pride over all is the crew. The night before I left, New Years Eve for Terra Firma, I had Scott, Katie, the totems, and Jaruka stand together. The party had just finished and I did not mind the used glasses scattered around the lit patio. The totems and terrans looked happy, but Jaruka was not so enthusiastic.

They have so much potential for good, why are they still considered a threat? Humans and terrans I mean. They need to be known in order to receive aid, right? First Contact rights were breached, I get it, but they know that the Republic exists. Humans need aid, they need magic education.

I reviewed my notes from Jaruka and a troubling fact surfaced. Jaruka had showed me a black band around his leg. I'd seen them before but did not understand until he explained its purpose. The band was linked from his vital signs to those controversial Titan Spires orbiting Terra Firma.

Titan Spires, massive orbital A.I. cannons, and there were dozens of them. They were a contingency plan, in case the primitive culture escaped the planet. If they did the spires would activate and eradicate two-thirds of the total population and set natural evolution back ten thousand years.

The idea is horrifying, considering that I adore the terrans, Katie and Scott, but even worse is Jaruka Teal whose death also activates the spires.

And none more so, the massive impact on his people and Viro itself from what I can gather with little research.

Denverbay is treating Jaruka like a human tolerance test.

Now I understand why Jaruka hates Denverbay so much. Everything is on the line for the Halcunac: his freedom, his home planet, and Terra Firma's future. Some argue that Denverbay is doing this for the sake of the Republic, but at what cost?

And that is why people must know about it.

Only a few people knows about my father's secret for success. My father, the original Xi'Tra Zader Khu, had connections with underground freedom of information sites. He called it the purest form of journalism, for support, for community. "We're in this together" was his motto.

I support my father's beliefs, separate but in one galaxy.

So as you read this and the attached interviews and photographs, I am taking a huge risk in my career. I might be assassinated, but the information is out there. It might be discredited by Council members, corrupt politicians and journalists, but it's out there. The Council will do whatever they can to silence their cries, but there is a chance for the Republic and its citizens to listen, and listen well.

I'm not asking for anybody to go straight to Terra Firma blind. I want anybody that reads this to prepare.

These humans and terrans need help, a lot of help. All we can do now is sit back, prepare, and wait for the right moment. These stories need to be shared, the galaxy must know.

Just be sure to keep quiet about it.