Chapter 16 Cyber Soul

Chapter 16

 Cyber Soul

   Not knowing what else to say and feeling incredibly awkward Kia walked over to Nessa and Micah.  They were both looking at Kian who was now cradling Penny under his arm. His love for her was not lost on Nessa.

   “Kian,” said Kia, “this is Nessa and Micah.”

  Nessa reached out and took Kian’s hand, “on behalf of myself, my brother and our people we want to formerly thank you. We have been hiding from our ancient brothers for such a terribly long time. They thought us dead and indeed, we had buried ourselves always hiding from the Lunans, always afraid they would find us and kill us. But you killed them and set us free. Now we too can walk beneath the sun and reclaim the Earth.”

  “You're welcome but I didn’t even know you existed,” Kian said, “you were in Older’s Bed all along.”

 Nessa smiled shaking her head. “Older’s Bed, is what the native Chimerans called it. It is really just a DNA reclamation sight. When the Chimerans reach the end of their life, their bodies begin to break down as their recombinant DNA begins to unravel. Our brothers made them that way and instilled within them an overwhelming urge to seek out a private place of solitude to fade away. Our ancestors managed to make one of those places near our redoubt in hopes of collecting their altered DNA so they could learn how to combat and reverse what they  considered their brothers perverse and unethical genetic experiments. So the so called Older’s Bed is really just a trash bin for,” she stroked her lips a moment as if she were trying to put the right words in her mouth, but she failed miserably, “junk DNA.”   

  “Junk,” Kian said his voice full of accusation. “The Chimerans are not junk!”

  She stepped back, holding up her hands, as a wave of fear rippled through her. She knew this new ‘improved’ Kian could end her life with less than eye blink. “Kian what I just told you was our ancestor’s way of looking at the Chimeran presence. Not necessarily ours.”

  “Not necessarily,” Said Alex, “what do you mean by that?”

  Micah stepped in front of Nessa. He scratched his chin, something he always did when he was nervous, “sad to say but some of our number still can’t accept the Chimerans. They are a small number, but I’m sure in time we can persuade them to embrace them as fellow human beings.”

 “So you don’t consider us human,” Alex replied, “us, no, not us. You changed me, because of you I’m no longer Chimeran, but I’m not really human either, am I Micah?”

  “Alex, Nessa and I are not in in that small number. We, the rest of us have learned, after many centuries of observation just how wonderfully human the Chimerans are. The others, the minority, are just stubborn and refuse to see. But they have no power and we will not allow them to disrupt our plans to make a vibrant harmonious world where Terrans, Lunans and Chimerans can live together bonded to one another by mutual respect and even love.”

  “Please believe that,” Nessa pleaded as she jumped in front of her brother and kneeled before Kian.

 Kian so taken aback by Nessa he did not know what to do.  She was begging for their lives. She was terrified of him.  He knelt down in front of her and gently grasped her shoulders pulling her up as he spoke.

  “Nessa, never, never do that again,” He said staring deep into her eyes, “I am not your God,nor  your King, nor am I or will ever be your executioner.”

  Nessa looked up into his face, “but you killed our brothers, did you not.”

  “They killed me first.” He said trying to make a joke, but no one laughed….