Chapter Nine
The Guardian's First Human
After the night Leslie had, she woke closer to lunch than breakfast, but she was wonderfully rested. Sornan had of course been awake for hours. As they sat down over their brunch the following morning, Sornan said with a smile, “I have another proposal for you today. It's something I've been discussing with Larkon. How would you feel about becoming one of us?"
She looked at him in confusion for a moment, then it hit her. “A Guardian? But I'm human… and female. How would that work?”
“Let me start by telling you why we’re thinking about this. As you know, our Elders have ended the Non-Interference Mandate. By doing this, they are saying that human evolution is complete. You are ready to join with us as our sister species. That means there will be a lot more interaction between us and humans outside the Centers, and also humans coming into the Centers to learn from us. We will no longer withhold our technology from humans who aren’t part of our society. And everyone will want it.
“That is a situation that is wonderful and heartbreaking at the same time. Everyone is going to want access to life extension of course. How can you look at someone standing at the threshold of immortality and tell him you don’t have time to bring him across it? And more than anything, they deserve to receive it. Their generation is the one for whom the Elders lifted the Mandate. They are entitled to receive this.
“We have to try to save everyone, knowing that we will fail. Millions if not,
billions of humans will unavoidably die of old age or treatable illnesses because we could not get to them in time. The only way we can live with ourselves is to know with certainty that we did everything we could.
“How can you tell anyone that their life is not important.” He looked regretful. “Human biology trained, even if all of us were trained, we cannot get to seven billion people in time to save them. At the same time the people we can reach will place more pressure on a population that is already unmanageable. We will have to insist that human governments impose birth control regulations, probably even more stringent than those we have on Krina. We will definitely not be okay with continued population growth until the Mars Project makes more room for all of us.”
Leslie had been listening to Sornan, lost in the magnitude of the task ahead of them. Suddenly, she gaped at him. “The what?”
“Terraforming Mars, making it able to sustain life. According to the scientists planning the project they can increase its surface gravity to match that of Earth. Afterwards giving it air and water, providing more living space for humans and probably for ourselves. That’s something that Korum and the rest of the Council have been working on. The Elders authorized it while Korum and Mia were on Krina. We Guardians (that includes you, darling!) will need to assess how the people, Ks and humans, are taking the news.
“As for your question, it works for us because our role in society is expanding. With the lifting of the Mandate, there will be far more interactions between Ks and humans. Those interactions will go far better if the human doesn't feel that the K has all the power. A pair of Guardians, one of them human, would be better able to mediate between a K and a human. Our role would be to limit the potential for conflict by letting each side know that one of us was on theirs.
“There will be many more humans coming into our Centers. The mind expert here is planning to start an internship program for humans. While he was covering Saret’s old lab in Lenkarda, he eventually became very comfortable with Mia working there. Several Human Biology Experts are talking about bringing in humans also.”
Leslie smiled. “Who better to study human biology than a human?”
“So true,” Sornan laughed. “So, I’m sure you see when all those humans see Guardians walking around they will feel less out of place if some of us are human.”
Leslie nodded.
“Now, as to how this works for you. I think you’re a good fit. You’re smart, you’re brave, you’re a trained fighter, so you will be self-assured in a confrontation. Most of all you care about people and want to see them treated fairly. Beyond wanting revenge, that’s also why you joined the Resistance. And you'll see that’s why you should join us.”
A couple of hours later Sornan took Leslie to meet Larkon, the Arizona Guardian Commander and the thinking behind the Human Partner Program, to be formally accepted as a trainee.
Leslie saw a tall, well over six feet, Krinar, with dark tan skin and dark brown hair and eyes. Under his light-gray uniform, he was powerfully built. By everything Leslie heard around the Compound, Larkon tended to be easygoing and cheerful. She understood that he liked humans, maybe not to the degree that Jaymira liked humans, but she expected a pleasant interview. She was not disappointed. When they stepped through the dissolving wall of his house, he met her with a wide smile. “Welcome Leslie. Your mate and I have been talking about you for some time now. Do you know why we would like to have you as a Guardian?”
“Yes," Leslie replied. “Because the Guardians are going to be interacting more with the overall human population. The Guardians will be more accepted if there are humans, like me, among them. Is that about it?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “Not to mention we need more man, and woman, power. There are seven billion of you to be interacted with! I'm sure Sornan has told you all the reasons why you make a good candidate for the Guardians.” She nodded. “There is one more thing.” He smiled. “You were a leader in the Resistance. Do you know the human expression, ‘there's no one like an X one’?” Leslie nodded again. “We are hoping that you will be able to talk to your former colleagues and convince them to work with us for the very things they tried to fight us for.”
Leslie looked at him with a stunned expression, then she broke out in a huge smile. “Yes! I would very much like to do that Larkon!”
Larkon gave her a couple of small objects. She recognized both of them, one was a fabricator like Sornan’s, the other was a jansha healing device like the one Jaymira had used on her when she first arrived at the Compound. She thought of her resentful “Things Ks have that humans don't” list from her first days in the Compound. Larkon also gave her the thin silvery band that was a wrist computer, like Sornan’s. With it she could place calls to human networks from inside the Centers. Call her parents every day! She could keep records of her activities. Make videos of things she saw, and also enjoy books and films and play games, all of these displayed on a virtual screen that could be visible to other people, or not, as she chose.
Sornan was apparently thinking of that list as well, because he grinned. “There's more!” Larkon handed Sornan a small packet. “You should take her to the mind lab in Lenkarda first. After that Ellet will be glad to see her."
Sornan landed their small ship outside the mind lab. “Do you remember when I first met you on Ormond Beach? I brought you to the pool area, and everyone was speaking in Krinar?” “Yes,” Leslie said. “And Mia came out and was speaking the same language. I hated her so much for that.” She cringed, thinking of everything Mia had done for her. Noting that, Sornan gave her a sympathetic smile. “Mia was able to do that because she had been given a brain implant, a single cell-sized device, that automatically translates any language for her and allows her to speak any language she wishes, and sound like a native speaker. Shall we go in?”
She grinned at him. “Absolutely!” A quarter of an hour later the device was implanted and tested. She spotted and gave Mia a friendly wave. Mia was sitting hunched over a tablet. Mia briefly smiled and gave her a quick wave back, but she looked totally engrossed in whatever she was doing.
Ellet greeted her warmly. Her task was to implant the basic weapons of a Guardian into her right index finger, the stunner. Embedded in the palm of her right hand, the nanoblast, and under the skin in her occipital region, the shield. She had been prepared for some discomfort, having weapons implanted under her skin, but there had been none. No more than there had been for the translator.
Sornan told her all of these were smart weapons. The commonly used weapons of the Guardians were non-lethal, the stunner. The new design of the stunner, since the invasion of Earth, was a tiny smart device embedded in a finger. The stunner could assess the health and vitality of the target and adjust the strength of its charge accordingly. A charge that would incapacitate a Krinar would be deadly to a human and an effective charge for a human would be useless against a K. The defensive weapon, the shield, had a similar intelligent design. If someone tried to attack a shielded Guardian, the shield would limit its response to the force needed to incapacitate. In the case of an incoming projectile, the shield would simply capture the projectile’s kinetic energy for itself, rendering the projectile harmless. The second law of thermodynamics was more like a suggestion where Krinar technology was concerned. The nanoblast could be a weapon in the most extreme circumstances and was very deadly as such. It was considered more of a tool, though. It might be used, for example, to remove a barricade erected by a mob.
As Sornan continued talking, Leslie realized that there was quite a lot to becoming a Guardian. The traditional equivalent of basic training was about 500 days of individual mentoring by a trained Guardian. In Leslie’s case that would be Sornan, of course. After that there would be more specialized training. She would have this a few times a year for the rest of her, now, very long life.
Every day would include physical training and fighting lessons. Like there would be for a Krinar recruit. Even though Leslie was not expected to develop the physical skills of a Krinar, impossible for any human, she was expected to reach her full human potential.
Her human body was incapable of matching the blinding speed and deadly hooking strikes of the Krinar style of fighting. However, she didn’t need to. She and Sornan set up a dojo in their house where they could continue their nightly practice of mixed martial arts. Given the changes brought on by her nanosytes, she was soon, at least for now, capable of defeating any woman and virtually any man in the sport.
There were also discussions, when the appropriate situation occurred with Sornan and other Guardians, about Krinar and human law. Given Leslie's nationality, the emphasis was on US laws. The United States was where Sornan would supervise her training. And where they would have most of their initial assignments. The Council would not allow Krinar or humans taken into the Krinar society to be punished under human law. But the Council was increasingly likely to sanction a member of the Krinar society who deliberately violated those laws. The Guardians were responsible for imposing those sanctions. A human with a serious complaint was also allowed to seek redress with the appropriate Krinar authority, which, in practice, meant the Guardians as well.
None of this had been true under the Mandate. The Non-Interference Mandate did not encourage strong bonds of friendship and cooperation between Ks and humans. It had always been incredibly hard for a Krinar to ignore the curiosity of a close human friend. All the more so if the human or their family member had a life-threatening medical condition that their Krinar friend could have easily fixed, had that not involved violating the Mandate.
In actual practice, the human friend could be sworn to secrecy, for which the Krinar would be held accountable. Those were sketchy situations though. To the Elders it was much better that such relationships never occur at all. Except, when the human was claimed as a charl or taken to Krina, where they were no longer a part of the human society.
Now, in what would have been considered an unthinkable practice under the Mandate, Sornan and Leslie would each carry a jansha healing device for treating sick or injured humans they might encounter. That is, once Leslie learned to use its basic functions.
None of this was much more familiar to the Krinar than it was to Leslie. She found herself part of a society in transition, trying to find its way forward.
Like virtually every human who acquired one of the wonderful tools, Leslie spent much of her free time for the next few weeks excitedly making and unmaking things with her fabricator. She was especially excited by her ability to make transport pods and the more advanced ships they used outside the Centers. In her own mind she labeled her obsession the “sorcerer’s apprentice syndrome.” She spent less of her free time, but still did it, reading about her jansha device and its myriad settings. Jaymira told her that, a few weeks prior to K-Day, a human girl had fallen from a bridge in Costa Rica, over a hundred feet onto rocks. A biologist and soil specialist, doing site selection for the future Centers, had found her, and used his jansha to bring her back from the brink of death. Later she became his charl. Leslie viewed the little thing with a good deal more respect after that.
The Human Compound had been repurposed as the “Arizona Krinar Orientation Center.” Some of the last remaining Resistance fighters had been allowed to remain and learn in the new facility. She and Sornan were asked to participate in a program where human/Krinar couples spoke to groups of humans about the misunderstandings that might arise when relating to another species. The two of them were not the only couple Larkon asked. He wanted everyone to participate in the program to acclimate humans to K society, including Council members.