Prologue
“My Lord,” Kergah said as he entered the large, opulent room, dropping to one knee just inside the door with his head lowered in the ceremonial offering of his life.
This was Stevan’s office, his work room, the room where affairs of state were conducted, not the Grand Hall that was used for pomp. Stevan smiled, and beckoned to his oldest friend. Kergah knew he wasn’t expected to kneel, but that was Kergah.
“Rise my friend.” Kergah rose, but not with his customary smile and Stevan felt his heart sink and a weight settle into his stomach. “What news?”
Kergah strode across the room, paying no attention to the polished stone walls covered in the pelts of tanned Sartuck or the gleaming ceremonial battle armor that decorated the room. Tergah was twice Stevan’s age, but he still carried himself with military precision, his hair cut close, just as he’d worn it when he’d commanded Stevan in his battle group.
“Terisha miscarried,” Kergah said softly, his lips thinned and his eyes haunted.
Stevan stared at his second in command, his own lips pursing at the news. “When?”
“During the night. I just received word. The doctors, they delivered the infant, but she was too young and fragile. She lived for only hours.”
Stevan scrubbed at his face. He wanted to lash out, to draw his long knife and plunge it into Kergah’s chest and feel his hot blood run over his hands. He wanted to rip and kills, to destroy all those around him that had brought them to his place. He was head of the Firaspatciti, the mightiest warrior of the most fearsome race in the known galaxy, but even he couldn’t defeat fate. While Kergah would willingly give his life for nothing more than his request, killing him would do nothing to change their situation, and he would lose his most trusted advisor.
“Do they know what happened?” Stevan asked, shoving the rage down deep.
Kergah shook his head. “Same as always.”
Stevan bolted from his chair. A lesser man than Kergah would have flinched. “She was the first woman to carry a child this near to term in twelve years!” Stevan roared. “The doctors assured us they’d discovered the cause and could control it!”
Kergah nodded, ever unflappable. “They have, my Lord. But knowing the cause and being able to correct it are not the same thing.”
“We are going to go into the long darkness!” Stevan bellowed as he began to stomp around the room.
He knew it wasn’t Kergah’s fault that Firaspatciti’s birth rate had been at near zero for a hundred years. It wasn’t his fault that youngest person on the planet was now eight years old. It wasn’t his fault that every Firaspatciti woman that conceived was miscarrying within weeks. It wasn’t his fault that a genetic flaw had crept into his people and was killing them from the inside. None of it was Kergah’s fault, just as it wasn’t his, but Stevan was boiling over with rage. His people were dying, and he couldn’t prevent it.
“What of the Aquallians?”
Kergah shook his head bitterly. “Nothing. Genetically we are compatible, but they just can’t conceive. The artificial hormone is ineffective.”
Stevan placed his hand on his desk and leaned in heavily, staring at the top as he breathed deep and hard, choking off and smothering his fury. Battles were lost when bloodlust took over. Kergah had taught him that. When you stopped thinking and simply struck out blindly, your enemies could use your rage against you. He couldn’t allow his wrath to consume him because this wasn’t a battle he could afford to lose.
“Help me, my friend,” he finally said as he looked up. “I don’t know what to do.”
Kergah shook his head slowly. “Nor do I, my Lord.”
“Are we, as a people, doomed?”
“Perhaps it’s time we joined the Ancient Ones.”
Stevan shook his head. “Perhaps, but I’m not willing to go into the long darkness just yet.”
“Yes, my Lord, but we are hearing rumors that other peoples are starting to see a decline in their birth rates as well. Perhaps we are simply the first of what is to be the end. Perhaps our time has come.”
Stevan smiled, but there was no humor in it. “The Firaspatciti have long led the known galaxy as their protectors. But this one time I don’t wish to lead.”
Kergah snorted. “Nor I, my Lord, but what other options are there?”
Stevan shook his head. “I don’t know. But I refuse to go into the long darkness without a fight.” He rose to his full height and shoved away his doubts. His line had ruled Firaspatciti for over a hundred thousand years. There was no way he was going to be the last Gerretterdedsath to rule.
“Perhaps it’s time to consider other options,” Stevan said.
“What other options?”
Stevan shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said softly.