Darkworld: Earth

2.20.

“I wish to share something with you, Diego. It may be troubling to watch,” Eolai said.

“What is it?” Diego asked.

“The plotting of the murder of our my father,” Eolai explained.

They stood in the bridge of the flagship, which had mostly recovered from its encounter with Eodar with the help of the crews from the others in the Yonohoan defense fleet. They had been in sol’s space for almost two months at this point, mostly busy dealing with the ESF and its affiliates. Diego was surprised by Eolai’s calm words.

“Wait, what?”

“The object that your people believe was a jamming device was broadcasting a large amount of data. We have been going over it in detail since we learned of its existence,” Eolai explained. “It is data selected from the historical archive. It has taken some time to figure out because the data is so old, going back to the second phase of the Liberation. Many of them appear to deal with Eodar the original’s training,” Eolai explained.

He shook his head. “Some of it is hard for me to watch. In many ways the ancient Yonohoans were victimized by the High-Command that led the opening stages of the Liberation. We were conscripted and forced to fight in a war that we couldn’t understand against forces that had never even heard of our world or our people. Eodar was at the age of four taken from his loving family and thrust into a Toormonda, where he and the other children that they had gathered from Totola were forcibly educated away from their parents.

“When he was allowed to return, he was used as a bargaining chip to force the Topoka to negotiate terms of their surrender to the High-Command.

“When that was concluded, he was trained to be a forward scout. It is a dangerous position, with an extremely high mortality rate. However, as he had repeatedly distinguished himself. His leadership of his class of trainees meant that they were expected to have a seventy percent graduation rate. That is about sixty percent higher than normal, Diego. The decision was made two years before they should have graduated to harvest the entire class for replication. They were, of course, not told of the decision. Their imprints were taken while they were asleep in their bunks.”

Eolai’s voice broke a little bit. “They murdered a classroom filled with children in order to make more children into soldiers to fight and die in a terrible, terrible war.”

“I’m sorry, Eolai,” Diego said. He put a hand on Eolai’s shoulder and looked away. It was both a very long time ago, but also only one generation by the way of Yonohoan thinking. Time did not fix or soften the tragedy of war. “I think what happened to those children was a war crime, personally.”

“Yes, a crime. And then compounded by the refusal to allow those children that they had murdered to rest in the halls of their ancestors,” Eolai agreed. “We have agreed to share this information with the military of your world. I ask you to review it so that you may explain the context in terms which they will understand. When I see it, all I see is a roomful of murderers plotting an atrocity. Yet, had they not acted, then humans may yet serve under the yolk of the master races from which we were freed during the liberation.”

“I understand, Eolai. I’ll watch it, and I’ll try to explain it to the generals in terms that they can understand,” Diego agreed. “You think that is the version of Eodar that’s loose on Earth right now, don’t you?”

“It fits with the data I have available,” Eolai agreed. “I wish to be alone for some time now. When you have finished reviewing the data, find me and we will spar again. You are getting more accustomed to your enhanced body. I believe it may be time to move on to training you for your armor.”

“I’m getting armor too?” Diego asked.

“Of course. Did you not know? These clothes we are wearing are the traditional ship-wear of a power armor user,” Eolai explained, grinning.

“Oh,” Diego said. “I thought the reason we wore them was just because they were just comfortable.”

~~~~~

“So that’s what Eolai believes that whoever sent the messages was trying to tell us. The Eodar on Earth is a victim of a war crime committed against him and the Yonohoan people. Although the clones of Eodar went on to become war heroes, the version on Earth is likely that of a child-soldier who’s own trainers literally murdered because they saw the potential to utilize him as a weapon,” Diego summarized. “While the perpetrators of that act are long dead, the echoes of their actions have reached out across time to bite us right on the ass, sirs and ma’ams.”

Major Mary Phillips chewed her lips, forcing herself not to become emotional. “How do we know that this information isn’t doctored?” she asked.

“According to Eolai it has high level encoding which prevents it from being altered. These meetings were left in the historical archives during phase three of the Liberation Wars. During phase five, they were used as evidence at the trial of the perpetrators of this tragedy. While they were convicted postmortem, this actually had very real consequences. Throughout the universe, their imprints that were placed under lockdown. Any clones of these men and women were forcibly retired and set to pasture. But the trial was kept secret, and Eolai was very surprised at the existence of the data,” Sergeant Cruz explained.

“How does this change the current situation with the rogue agent on Earth?” General Turnball inquired.

“I would say it significantly complicates things, sir,” Diego said. “The Yonohoans see Eodar as a tragic hero. Constantly called out of the afterlife in order to serve humanity in its hours of need. If this video shows the version of Eodar that is loose on Earth, then it adds a level of tragedy to the mix which I’m not entirely sure how they’ll respond to. They love their kids, sir. If they think that we mistreated a child version of their people’s greatest hero, they might withdraw a large chunk of their support. That’s just my speculation, however. I strongly suggest treating the situation with as much caution and delicacy as possible.”

“What would you say if I told you that we may have located Eodar?” Turnball inquired.

“That would depend on whether or not you’re planning on bringing him in, sir,” Diego admitted. “If you’re leaving him in play, then--”

“He is currently classified as a sleeper agent of an unknown and potentially hostile polity,” Turnball clarified. “With access to unknown weapons and technology. We cannot afford to leave him in play.”

Diego was silent a moment. “In that case, sir, I would recommend sending the Yonohoans in to collect him. They’re his people. They’ll be able to handle this situation better than we can.”

“I see. Thank you for your time, perspective, and suggestions, Sergeant,” Turnball said. He waved his hand, and the PDA-egg cut the connection.

“Are you sure you wanted to reveal that information holographically, sir?” one of the aides asked. “We’re not certain how secure these devices are.”

“I’m more concerned about Sergeant Cruz revealing it than the communication devices,” Turnball admitted. “We’ve been testing the devices by spreading disinformation to see if the Yonohoans would react to it. So far we haven’t caught them red handed, so we’re forced to assume that either they can’t monitor the communications like they say, or that they are monitoring them but won’t tip their hand for anything minor. So we give them something major that we don’t really care about and see what they do.”

“I see, Sir,” the aide said, withdrawing his objection.

“We’ll give them a week to act. If they don’t bring ‘John Doe’ in by then, then we’ll take him in ourselves.” Turnball said.

“We’re not going to hurt him, are we?” Mary asked.

Turnball looked offended. “We’re the ESF! We are not in the business of bullying children!” he paused, then admitted “but it remains a fact that this child has been trained and equipped with military knowledge and hardware. We need to make certain that he doesn’t harm anyone, including himself, when we acquire him.”

Mary felt relief that they weren’t going to simply eliminate the boy. It would have possibly led to a terrible fallout with the Yonohoans, possibly to a point where they would start taking back their generous gifts.

She swallowed. One week. She wondered how handing Eodar over to the Yonohoans would affect their relations with them. As she understood it, things could only improve by such an action.

Unless something went horribly wrong.

She kicked the thought out of her head as soon as it had registered.

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