In every terrestrial landing Hinev accompanied the scout parties and envoys; having planned most of the landings for inhabitable systems, they brought speech facilitators and image replicators to attempt contact with all kinds of sentient life. Yet it became clear that one form alone dominated this branch of the galaxy–the bipedal humanoid.
Why? Hinev asked himself. How? He more often asked the universe.
Evolution could not produce the same end results on so many different planets without help. Someone, some force had interfered, had made it possible...
* * * * *
Hinev procured genetic samples at any cost, sometimes after difficult negotiation with groups that saw the explorers as a threat. Other times, Kudenka’s explorers and the civilizations they found made attempts to understand one another's languages. The more they learned of each other, the more one unmistakable fact grew clear.
Explorers had already traveled across the universe. There was no other explanation.
So, who had they been?
No one knew. They could have been humanoids themselves or else merely interfered with the humanoids for some unknown reason. Whichever the case, Hinev felt certain they had something to do with the evolution of life itself and the evolution of the human races as well.
What explained the coincidence? He tried to think of as many possible answers as he could.
Perhaps a race had established contact with all of the humanoid races at some time in the distant past. Perhaps the humanoid ancestors had manipulated their genes to resemble one another; though this could only have been possible if one race's level of technology had once been greater than any of the present day. And that technology had since been lost, somehow. And altering the genetic structure of a planet’s entire range of species wasn’t yet possible, not by a long shot, even on Seynorynael.
There was also a possibility that humans had originated from the same strain of people and had been separated, then continued to evolve according to the environments in which they had arrived.
The last possibility was that a great guiding force had simply decided to cast all forms of life in the same mold. The Great One, as it were, had decided to create a human race on more than half of the inhabitable worlds in the galaxy. And of course, that was ridiculous, Hinev thought.
However, Hinev couldn’t limit his work on Sesylendae to proving his theory of a "first race" as the origins of all humanoid life. The small crew's responsibility of attempting to translate and learn the alien languages they had encountered, of learning new histories and scientific methods, new philosophies and cultural practices kept Hinev busy until the very afternoon that the crew once again glimpsed their home world...
* * * * *
Hinev met the Elder Marankeil moments after Sesylendae's landing in the capital Ariyalsynai. The Elders who had come from the Council spoke an older dialect of Seynorynaelian, the same as Hinev and the returning explorer crew. Around them, young scientists and specialists had gathered, throwing out questions in a condensed, quick speech that the explorers understood to be the modern language.
None of the old Council who had authorized their mission remained, but Hinev soon learned that the grandson of a minor representative had taken control of the governing body in the remote past and still lived, solidifying his own leadership and the permanent participation of the other "Elders" as the mechanized council had come to be known.
His name was Marankeil.
The physical appearance of Marankeil's mechanized body and that of nearly every council member who had arrived to welcome them came as a shock to Kudenka’s returning explorers, though they had seen their share of miracles and mysteries on their journeys. Kudenka’s explorers cast uncertain eyes on the mechanical creatures; suspicious eyes, disbelieving eyes.
These were more than simple androids, these were beings whose mechanized bodies of super-android housed the souls and former memories of living men.
Seynorynael was no longer the world they remembered, the explorers came to realize, their confident, triumphant faces soon reduced to expressions of the lost. And they would have to live out their lives in this other world, this unknown Seynorynael, isolated, isolated among a population whom they would never understand.
* * * * *
Marankeil's genius had accelerated Seynorynaelian technology to the point that the humanoid brain could be imprinted in a machine memory, but he had only transferred his own essence and that of the Elders into a permanent mechanized form; Hinev discovered that few were willing to take the risk of transferal, as Marankeil had as yet found no means of reversing the process. Once imprinted, the machine took on the life of its former being–but only a select few had been transformed into an immortal mechanized entity. As yet only a select few were willing to be transformed.
And, for unknown reasons, scientific progress in other fields had advanced little in the three thousand years since Marankeil had taken over the Elder Council. There had been many great strides in cultural advancement, but much had been stagnation in the years that the lesser races joined the Federation. There had also been many wars against certain species of alien terrorists and dissidents in the years since Kudenka’s explorers had set off for the unknown.
Hinev masked his own feelings as he regarded the mechanized units. Marankeil, yes, Marankeil was a threat to him, but not for the reasons that any one would expect. Hinev didn’t show any emotion, but inside, jealousy percolated through his thoughts. Marankeil had achieved Hinev's greatest desire...to become immortal.
A wish, a desire, that had begun long ago when Undina was struck by an incurable disease.
Hinev spoke pleasantly to the Elder Marankeil, while inside he began to wonder if his mother might be transformed into one of these machine beings temporarily, so that he could take her out of suspension while he perfected a cure for her illness. He just needed a little more time. He wondered if Elder Marankeil would help him. Hinev had been working on a cure for his mother’s disease throughout the mission. Finding a cure for her had been part of the reason he became an explorer, and he had found the medicinal substances he required on his journey. He was so close now; just a few more years of research, trial and error would certainly bring a breakthrough...
Meanwhile, if Marankeil could transfer Undina’s soul and memories into a machine body–Hinev just knew he could find a way to bring her back back to life again!
Some time later, Hinev asked Marankeil if it would be possible.
Marankeil’s mechanized laughter sounded like wind clattering through a rusty grate. The Elder’s laugher was merely surprise. Hinev judged it to have been dismissive.
Hinev forgot about the insult in the wake of Marankeil’s explanation.
In case the disease that had afflicted Undina and hundreds of others had spread into an epidemic, the Council had allowed her to die years ago. The bodies of all the stricken had been burned; their ashes, lest they contaminate the living, had been buried in the Northern snows.
* * * * *
...Kudenka, Niflan, and Mindier agreed. Ariyalsynai had grown and developed into a city of a thousand wonders. It was a hybrid city of new technology and primitive adornments from other worlds, goods and materials collected from a vast new Federation that Kudenka’s explorers had made possible.
At the same time, where was the knowledge of the ancients?
No one but the returning explorers remembered anything about it, or about the culture that had been alive when the explorers left...
* * * * *
Hinev returned to the area near the lyra forest where he had been raised.
Here, here in Firien was where he knew he would find the answers to the questions he had tormented himself with throughout the long mission in space. Here was where the legacy of the first race lived on, the Enorians, though he hadn’t recognized that fact until very recently.
Here in Firien was whe
re the isolated populations had lived in his youth, groups called “proto-telepaths” who had lived longer than the rest of the undiluted Seynorynaelian race. Some scientist, whose name had been lost to time and failing memory, had suggested that the population descended from an old genetic experiment to increase humanoid lifespans. While Hinev didn’t believe that, he had always believed that the proto-telepaths were special.
For their gift was empathy, an ability to read intent in the eyes and face, an ability that Hinev believed bordered on telepathy. They had been dubbed "proto-telepaths", but those that did not understand them doubted their abilities, and the small population didn't mind, keeping to itself, avoiding study and public attention. Hinev’s own father Jerekkil had come from that area and had told his son much about them.
Hinev had reflected upon them a lot during the long mission.
As he had wondered why the Seynoryanelians aged slightly more slowly away from their planet.
And why the members of the mission who had come from Firien, including himself, seemed the most affected by this phenomenon.
Now, though, Hinev had learned that the isolated communities had left the area and blended into the larger populace. From what he heard, proto-telepaths showed up now and then, scattered among the few families who remained in the area. An intensive study of the proto-telepaths’ abilities had been attempted, but had been abandoned long ago.
Hinev learned that Marankeil had pressured the peoples of Firien to relocate years ago. But why? Hinev wondered. Unless Marankeil hated them, unless he feared the possible organization of a group he could not control.
But–could the proto-telepaths be organized? Hinev wondered.
Could their power be used?...
Hinev vowed he would unlock their secret. Through them, he felt certain that he would be able to learn how to prolong humanoid life, how to tap into the hidden abilities of his father’s race.
The transport captain had not lied, Hinev discovered. Nothing remained of the community he had known–the forest had retaken the land, other native trees now filling in the gaps between the original lyra forest. He found the great lyra tree under which he had spent the carefree days of his childhood–but in three thousand years it had not changed.
His father had once told him that these trees were from a mythical place called Enor, according to the legends of the comet riders, the Seynorynaelian ancestors...
* * * * *
Hinev continued to give his review, but it was clear Marankeil was irritated at him.
Hinev smiled at the Elder’s vanity. Marankeil didn’t like to be wrong, didn’t like this little ant telling him that he had made miscalculations.
Marankeil just wanted to be left alone to plan the new explorer mission he had devised, but the mechanized Elder knew he needed Hinev’s help. Marankeil hated to admit that, refused to admit it openly, even while he ordered Hinev to help in the plan.
Hinev and Kudenka stayed in Ariyalsynai to advise the Elder Marankeil.
Marankeil had them present their case to revise the entire project. They, in turn, explained the inadequacy of Sesylendae's engine, the need for a better, bigger ship to house and sustain generations in order for a successful long-term exploration mission.
Then finally Marankeil consigned them to gather all of the improvements necessary and outline a plan. If necessary, he could wait–time had lost all meaning to the inhuman creatures of Seynorynael's Council. The Federation had not agreed to support the new venture, but Marankeil was determined to push it through. He was determined to supervise the project himself…
* * * * *
Hinev had retreated to Ariyalsynai's Federation Science Building, where the new learning of the explorer mission was now studied intensively by representatives of the larger Federation. By the time the crew had returned, shorter missions to the nearest new territories had gone and returned with new treaties expanding the Federation of planets.
Meanwhile, Hinev worked on his own, fabricating a thousand different test serums.
The serum he had begun when he left Seynorynael.
The serum that was to have saved the life of his mother.
It had all begun so harmlessly, so simply.
He had been collecting antibodies to fight her disease, strains of superantibodies that numbered in the hundreds by the time that Kudenka’s explorers returned to Ariyalsynai.
By the end of his quest, he had traveled to the remotest corners of Seynorynael for enzymes and agents to create an elixir to alter human life, destiny, and fate–forever.
* * * * *
Marankeil’s project kept Hinev in Ariyalsynai and working as an advisor during the drafting of the mission. Hinev’s own agenda kept him in the laboratory when he was not on leave, traveling across the planet on his own errands.
After two seasons of experimentation, Hinev realized what his serum was missing.
In due course, he went on a short trip to Firien and returned with lyra samples, then formed a base partly composed of the living chlorophyll of lyra trees. The lyra, of course, were crucial to his progress, to developing his serum. The lyrachloroplasts harnessed energy from the very light of Valeria, producing only a by-product of neutrinos and charged leptons, feeding the lyra tree without altering the cellular structure. Lyra were themselves practically immortal, if left alone by human beings, that much he had ascertained. However, injecting the lyrachloroplasts contained in lyra leaves into his system would not miraculously bestow the lyra’s abilities on him. He never expected that they would, but he knew that the lyra tree was going to be the key to his success.
The lyra did not function like ordinary lifeforms.
The lyrachloroplasts, taken from cells in the lyra leaf, moved through Hinev's circulatory system without interacting with any of his own. It was as though he had injected dead matter into his blood system, and even his own system paid the invading matter no mind. His own system should have reacted to them, produced antibodies–something should have happened!
Nothing did.
Not until he took a blood sample and removed the lyrachloroplasts.
They began to function on their own, under his microscanner.
He put them back into the dead lyra cells.
The dead lyra cells that had contained them, that had now ceased to function, began to function again.
So, he thought. The lyrachloroplasts were the secret to eternal life.
How they were able to remain dormant he did not know, but he spent uncounted hours searching for an answer.
* * * * *
...Hinev knew that the lyra imitated the very life cycle of Seynorynael, the creatures that survived long periods of extreme sub-freezing weather by a natural form of suspended animation, secreting enzymes to revive the life processes after the spring thaw.
The animals regenerated new cells, as all lifeforms did, all but the lyra tree, that seemed to live by perfect preservation, as though the lyra lived impossibly frozen in time.
Was that why the lyrachloroplasts hadn’t interacted in his system? Why his blood hadn’t even recognized that they were there?
So, so how could he use them? Hinev's concern was that a functioning human system lived by regenerating new cells, that to maintain eternal youth, cells must be able to replicate new, perfect copies of themselves. People aged because the body failed in this; the body’s cells could only replicate inferior copies of themselves, and with each replication, the lifeform came one step closer to death.
So, Hinev sought out stem cells, found in foetal tissue, which could regenerate new tissues, before imperfect replication took over. After an extensive experiment to hybrid the two serums he had produced, Hinev eventually dismissed the line of pursuit, meeting only failure.
He returned again to the notion that the lyra lived by preservation rather than replication and made an expedition to the northern sno
ws to locate Seynorynael's oldest living creatures. He took blood samples from more than a thousand species showing variations in the enzymes responsible for long-term hibernation, a hibernation that was almost like suspended animation. In this blood, he found bio-chemicals that broke down cross linkage in tissues. “Cross linkage” in tissues was caused by free radicals of oxygen; cross linkage itself accelerated the aging process. If these extraordinary bio-chemicals might be made to do the same for human beings...
There were other problems, though. Hinev wanted power. And he wanted to defeat the power solar radiation had over life.
So, in the most intelligent species of creatures, he searched for brain-activity boosters; in others he found chemicals that protected the animals' bodies from radiation by channeling and using the radiation as a heat source. In others, as in Seynorynaelian humanoids, survival depended upon building a reflective barrier in the skin. Even then, most people died from a radiation-induced cancer. Yes, Valeria’s light, which was life to them all, was also killing them.
Slowly but surely killing them all.
Hinev’s serum had begun so simply, as a search to cure his dying mother.
It had since become Hinev’s quest for physical immortality. A quest he only half-believed possible, despite his search.
For a long time, serum after serum, Hinev felt destined to fail...
* * * * *
A controlled cancer–was it possible? Not in remission, not rampant–but controlled? Controlled so that it could replicate perfectly, instead of shortening the replicator caps as normal cells did? A shortening that made human beings grow old and die?
For cancer was cellular replication gone wild; it was precisely this growth that killed the organism afflicted by cancer. The cancer literally ate away the domain of functioning cells, replacing them with ones that grew like a wildfire, that spread like a virus, that killed without mercy.
But controlled cancer? Could it be controlled?
Three years after the return of the explorers, Hinev found that it could in the viedurg animal.