Analog Science Fiction And Fact - June 2014 by Penny Publications Page A
Authors: Penny Publications
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a psychological line of demarcation. Centuries of conflict, bloodshed, and implacable hatred had made it unbridgeable in every sense of the word.
The Ambulan invasion of fifteen years ago had been an unqualified success.
Or—if you happened to be a Dokharan—it had been an unmitigated disaster.
The Ambulans met little resistance at first. A Dokharan traitor—Tajok—had given them the recognition signals. Outpost after outpost was taken by surprise. The coastal defenses soon acquired more gaps than a hockey player's smile.
Why did Tajok betray his kith and kin?
According to Tajok, they
weren't
his kin.
His family had been members of a persecuted—and prosecuted—religious minority. His parents, his siblings, his cousins—all of his relatives had been tried for heresy and executed.
And now their oppressors had become the oppressed. Tajok rejoiced.
He had no regrets.
But he
did
have an agenda. Vengeance was only part of it. He was a gerontologist who needed subjects for his longevity experiments.
The Ambulans were only too happy to oblige.
Tajok infected thousands of Dokharans with fatal maladies. He crippled thousands more. He monitored their resistance to disease and tried to enhance it. He measured their recuperative powers and tried to augment them. Most of his treatments failed. Most. But not all. A few of his victims recovered and—in some instances—Tajok's procedures had been the determining factor. He could be sure of that because he kept repeating the process with different subjects until he
was
sure.
The makeeva flourished.
Makeeva were large, carnivorous plants that tended to grow in arid soil from which nutrients were difficult to extract. The makeeva stunned its prey with thorns that were coated with a powerful cholinesterase inhibitor. The leaves of the plant then closed around its victim and excreted a corrosive acid that consumed the remains. Digesting a big animal could take years.
Dokharans disposed of their dead by surrendering them to the untender mercies of makeeva. The shimuda performing the ceremony didn't actually say, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," but the basic concept was the same. Dokharans believed that absorption by a makeeva began a process by which the dead were reunited with the soil from which they sprang.
The Ambulans had a different point of view. In their opinion, plant food was the highest destiny to which degenerate Dokharans could aspire.
Pure pragmatism dictated where Tajok's research facility was located. His experiments were conducted in a six-story building immediately adjacent to a cemetery. The building was subsequently enlarged, eventually acquired another story and two wings. The cemetery, too, was considerably expanded. More than once. If Tajok's activities had been allowed to continue, the city of the dead would have soon rivaled the city of the living in size.
But they weren't allowed to continue.
Ambulan aggressiveness didn't cease with the conquest of Dokhara. Bodajiz was invaded soon afterward. The Zifrans, supposing that they would be next, formed an alliance with the Bodajizans, Dokharan partisans flocked to join the coalition, and the Ambulans were eventually defeated. Tajok had to flee.
He was captured by Zifran troops. They mistook him for a fugitive Ambulan—one of many who were put on trial and sentenced to ten years of hard labor in the shiroz mines.
He survived.
Somehow.
He shouldn't have. Ten years in that hellhole should have made makeeva fodder of him. Seven hundred and fourteen prisoners of war had been sent to the mines. Six years later, none of them were still alive.
Correction.
Almost
none.
Tajok served his full sentence, was released on the same day as Luhor—a Zifran thief whose third offense had been punished with three years in the mines. Tajok and Luhor had become friends, did not part company when they were set free.
They made their way to Izmir.
In addition to being a collaborator and a
The Ambulan invasion of fifteen years ago had been an unqualified success.
Or—if you happened to be a Dokharan—it had been an unmitigated disaster.
The Ambulans met little resistance at first. A Dokharan traitor—Tajok—had given them the recognition signals. Outpost after outpost was taken by surprise. The coastal defenses soon acquired more gaps than a hockey player's smile.
Why did Tajok betray his kith and kin?
According to Tajok, they
weren't
his kin.
His family had been members of a persecuted—and prosecuted—religious minority. His parents, his siblings, his cousins—all of his relatives had been tried for heresy and executed.
And now their oppressors had become the oppressed. Tajok rejoiced.
He had no regrets.
But he
did
have an agenda. Vengeance was only part of it. He was a gerontologist who needed subjects for his longevity experiments.
The Ambulans were only too happy to oblige.
Tajok infected thousands of Dokharans with fatal maladies. He crippled thousands more. He monitored their resistance to disease and tried to enhance it. He measured their recuperative powers and tried to augment them. Most of his treatments failed. Most. But not all. A few of his victims recovered and—in some instances—Tajok's procedures had been the determining factor. He could be sure of that because he kept repeating the process with different subjects until he
was
sure.
The makeeva flourished.
Makeeva were large, carnivorous plants that tended to grow in arid soil from which nutrients were difficult to extract. The makeeva stunned its prey with thorns that were coated with a powerful cholinesterase inhibitor. The leaves of the plant then closed around its victim and excreted a corrosive acid that consumed the remains. Digesting a big animal could take years.
Dokharans disposed of their dead by surrendering them to the untender mercies of makeeva. The shimuda performing the ceremony didn't actually say, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," but the basic concept was the same. Dokharans believed that absorption by a makeeva began a process by which the dead were reunited with the soil from which they sprang.
The Ambulans had a different point of view. In their opinion, plant food was the highest destiny to which degenerate Dokharans could aspire.
Pure pragmatism dictated where Tajok's research facility was located. His experiments were conducted in a six-story building immediately adjacent to a cemetery. The building was subsequently enlarged, eventually acquired another story and two wings. The cemetery, too, was considerably expanded. More than once. If Tajok's activities had been allowed to continue, the city of the dead would have soon rivaled the city of the living in size.
But they weren't allowed to continue.
Ambulan aggressiveness didn't cease with the conquest of Dokhara. Bodajiz was invaded soon afterward. The Zifrans, supposing that they would be next, formed an alliance with the Bodajizans, Dokharan partisans flocked to join the coalition, and the Ambulans were eventually defeated. Tajok had to flee.
He was captured by Zifran troops. They mistook him for a fugitive Ambulan—one of many who were put on trial and sentenced to ten years of hard labor in the shiroz mines.
He survived.
Somehow.
He shouldn't have. Ten years in that hellhole should have made makeeva fodder of him. Seven hundred and fourteen prisoners of war had been sent to the mines. Six years later, none of them were still alive.
Correction.
Almost
none.
Tajok served his full sentence, was released on the same day as Luhor—a Zifran thief whose third offense had been punished with three years in the mines. Tajok and Luhor had become friends, did not part company when they were set free.
They made their way to Izmir.
In addition to being a collaborator and a
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