The Legend of Earth (The Human Chronicles Saga -- Book 5) by T.R. Harris Page B

mated in pairs and for long-term. As a result, the mothers and fathers of the offspring produced through these unions would have to consider the future and plan accordingly for the well-being of the children. Meanwhile, these offspring would plan for their own futures, including for families of their own.
    When the Juireans switched to a more dispassionate means of reproduction and child-rearing, things began to change. Females become pregnant through artificial insemination and the children would be raised in government-run facilities. The needs of every Juirean were satisfied from cradle to grave, and with their life path predetermined at an early age as well. There was no need to plan for the future in Juirean society, since all decisions had already been made for them.
    Early on in the history of the Juirean Empire, the need for military power had been great, yet as the years passed, the quest for more proficient administrators to manage all the gains the Juireans had already acquired began to take center-stage. The philosophy and organization of the Expansion also diminished the need for a large military, as growth was achieved by petition rather than conquest.
    There was still a need for adequate military force in the outer limits of the Expansion, but within its core, the Juirean military was nearly obsolete. Where ten to twenty military vessels may be required to maintain control of an area such as the Fringe, one ship may do the job of patrolling a hundred worlds within the interior of the Expansion.
    The Klin noticed this gradual change, and within it, an opportunity.
    The Klin had always seen themselves as the true inheritors of the galaxy; the first race to contact other worlds within the Alliance Cluster and the inventors of the gravity drive. But now they were few and far between, with the Juireans the dominant force in the galaxy.
    With time, the Klin knew the Juirean military would eventually vanish altogether, to be replaced by a much smaller police force limited to only local dispute resolution. Yet after four thousand years of waiting, they were desperately looking for a way to hasten that time….
    The plan began to jell once the Earth was discovered by the Klin. Here was a race of extreme beings – extreme strength, extreme savagery, extreme capabilities – who were every bit a match for the Juireans. All they lacked was the technology to go up against the Juireans – as well as a reason.
    A resource-draining war was all the Klin needed to reduce the Juireans to a level of military strength where they – along with their compliant Kracori – could make a move to supplant the Juireans as leaders of the galaxy. The plan had been perfection in its simplicity: The Humans would seek revenge against a race that had savagely attacked them, and the Juireans were gullible enough to see new threats where there were none.
    But then it had all gone so terribly wrong.
    The Humans had proved to be more proficient at war than even the Klin realized, as well as much more conniving and deceptive. And now the Kracori had revolted, commandeering hundreds of Klin spacecraft, along with the means to manufacture more.
    The only race that had followed the plan precisely as the Klin had conceived it had been the Juireans.

 
    Chapter 6
     
    The same Juirean Guard commander in the yellow cape led the trio of Humans out of the massive pyramid building and to over to one of the adjacent towers. They took an elevator up several stories before being shown a spacious set of suites at the end of a long hallway. The Guard told them that the rest of the Humans would be joining them momentarily. He also informed them that armed guards would be stationed at the other end of the corridor near the elevators and that none of them would be allowed to leave unless ordered by higher authorities.
    When the door to the suites closed, Sherri and Riyad set upon Adam with a combination of congratulations, thank you’s – as well as a few