Chapter 10: Dinnio Prime

Jason awoke feeling sore in every part of his body. He felt weak. He tried to call out telepathically. He could not. He could only breathe and sigh. He knew he was in a pod in a hospital, but it was not a Collective, Uzliumbax or an Empire pod. The smell was different. He tried to call out but all he could create was a soft croak. His arms were weak, he could barely lift them. He tried to transport himself outside of the pod without any success. He looked up and could see Philippa, Andrea, Linda, Celia, Felicia, Razza, Julia talking to several Dinnion on a hologram. They were on the flat roof of a building sitting on comfortable looking deck chairs with drinks on small tables next to each chair. They looked relaxed but concerned. He realized he could hear them. He listened carefully to the conversation.

“Marast, the other doctors told us they see signs that Jason will probably come out of his deep coma tomorrow. They told us he will be in pain and very weak. We understand time condensation rehabilitation is not going to speed up his recovery. You said you have seen this before on several occasions, but not for a long time?” Philippa asked.

“Yes, we have seen this reaction several times, in all cases it was caused by us, but we have never seen someone else affect us. It proves we must be related! Both species has the ability to have an effect on the DNA of others. In the other cases it was a mild case of autoimmune disease not a full immune war like we saw in Jason and Lisossa.

“It is the only disorder we know of where we cannot speed up recovery. Time in the other dimensions does not count,” said Marast who looked very old to Jason. She had an entourage of eight behind her who listened to the conversation intently. Jason smiled. Typical medical students, he was sure.

“How is Lisossa getting on today?” Philippa asked.

Marast put his hand against his brow.

“She came out of her coma early this morning. She is as weak as a baby, is miserable and very sore. When we told her what happened, she laughed and said it was revenge for all the times we have done it to others and she received all the revenge directed at her.

“We are undeniably all variants of Uzliumbax, Dinnion or Destroyer. The Destroyer women were not affected as we did not touch them. Our DNA is more virulent and faster in changing others than the Uzliumbax but slower to evolve for some reason. Jason’s is slower and more sedate in causing change in others, but in the end, both do the same, though Uzliumbax genes do not cause illness in others. The Destroyer genes are much slower to evolve but to be fair they had further to go. We all change others to become like us. The action of our DNA does not have an effect on most species unless we are fully intimate and species-specific reactions are not predictable.

“We taught all of you how to open the channels of telepathy and the Azloc Language without any negative effect. Why there was such a reaction with Jason we don’t know, it’s the worst our doctors have ever seen,” Marast continued, “though Lisossa comes a very close second.”

“As I understand it the treatment damps down the effect and gives the genes time to adapt, so the doctor told us,” said Philippa.

“That is a gross simplification of a profound condensation of concepts of a quarter of a million years of managing auto-immune disease, but I have to admit it is a reasonable summary,” said Marast smiling broadly as did half of the students.

“I see the pod alert is signaling Jason is awake. Let’s head down and see how he is doing,” said Linda.

Jason saw them all stand up and walk to a portal. Seconds later they were next to his pod. It opened. He tried to speak but only sighed. He made a supreme effort and raised a plaintive croak. His throat was bone dry. He pointed at his throat and made the movement of drinking from a glass.

Andrea passed him a glass of water and lifted his head to help him drink.

“How are you all?” Jason asked hoarsely after he drank the full glass.

“We are fine, for us it has been a holiday, it’s you we are worried about,” said Linda.

“How long was I out of things?”

“One day under five weeks,” replied Linda smiling. “Lisossa became ill at the same time as you. The Dinnion contacted us at the same time Cassius contacted them. The Collective Doctors were flummoxed so here we are on Dinnio Prime in the Capital Vandaska with a clump of Collective Doctors who are having a great time. Lisossa as you probably heard came out of coma shortly before you. You will take a month or more to get your strength back. Rehabilitation doesn’t help speed things up. It is going to be slow like the old days.”

“Jason, may I introduce you to. Prof. Dr. Marast. He has many more professors and doctors in there but his introduction was a summary of a condensation of his illustrious career. He is the person who derived all the treatment methods and refined them over a very long time,” said Andrea smiling at professor Marast. He patted her gently on the shoulder and turned his gaze on Jason.

“Professor, I am grateful for your care and I am delighted to meet you. I feel like I have been crushed by a shuttle that landed on me and I am as weak as a newborn baby. I did hear what you said on the roof and at least I know that I had the worst case you have ever seen of the illness. I was interested to hear your observations about our common genes.”

“Emperor, it will be a difficult month for you. The first two weeks are very hard. You will ache and feel weak, but each week will be much better than the previous one. I will visit daily. I am delighted you have come out of the coma without any evident damage.

“Professor, when will my telepathy and powers return?” Jason asked.

“That is an interesting question,” Marast remarked, “right at the end of the last week. They will take a few months to reach full power again.” He turned and walked out at high speed with his entourage scuttling behind him.

“He is a truly brainy guy,” said Philippa, “Queen Basarab Afumati asked him as a special favor to look after you. He rarely looks after patients unless the problems are highly complex. Most of the time he is involved in research and teaching of specialists.”

“I was lucky to enjoy his expertise,” said Jason. “This is going to be a long month. War College ... we will never catch up at the War College. I am sorry guys, for the inconvenience.”

“I don’t think it’s a big issue from my point of view. The groups continued without us. We will make a new group of friends and join in again at the midyear. We may well be together with our Gromelix and that will be adequate compensation. We will probably have some Uzliumbax and perhaps others as well. We have continued with the academic components of the course as well as the simulations. Jason, when you live for millions of years the only time you hurry is during wartime to keep ahead of the enemy. I am relaxed about the War College,” said Ooryphyon.

“The Dinnion showed us they are a very advanced people, way beyond the level of the Uzliumbax if they had had continued as they were, without going to stasis. They are actually further ahead even taking into account all the work the Uzliumbax AIs have done. We talked about the brute force approach that the AIs used in the mathematics. Here, they have all the missing mathematics. The mathematicians were very interested in the approach taken by the AIs and say the work the AIs did is valuable as the mathematics they did had to be translated into a similar form for their own AIs. They preferred some of the Uzliumbax work and were very excited to see it,” said Razza.

“What are the people whom you have met, like and how have they received us?” Jason asked.

“The people are friendly but they are constantly aware of the threat from the Azloc,” said Linda.

“The education here is superb and we have taken advantage of the opportunity to learn as much as we can. They have been very helpful. They use a learning box which has superb simulator with condensation of forty hours for every hour spent in the simulator. Fifteen minutes is as much as I can tolerate. No one spends an hour in a simulator; it is just too much. We visited the military and we have been shown around the planet. It looks dry on the surface despite the fact that they have a lot of rain. Most live below the surface like we do,” said Razza. “They are ruled by regents who give the people every opportunity to express their opinion. The royal family do not rule directly, but use the regents. They do have the ability if necessary, to take back their own power. You will not be surprised to discover Lisossa is a princess. The King is deceased, but we were all invited to stay at the palace with the Queen.”

“Have you learned their language?” Jason asked.

“Yes, it is a very easy language to learn, but everyone is telepathic on the same band the Azloc communicate on.”

“With all this advanced medicine and a civilization that is ahead of the Uzliumbax, why on earth is it going to take me so long to get back to normal?” Jason asked.

“Your early treatment relied on slowing down the process of the competing DNA changing mechanism. Your temperature had to be reduced and you were supported through the process.

“The Collective doctors looked at you before we left, but this was a completely unknown problem. After some discussion they reluctantly let us leave for here. Many of the bug doctors came along and are busy learning at the teaching hospital. They all say the Dinnion are way ahead of the Collective and they have learned an enormous amount. They have initiated an exchange program with the teaching hospital here.

“Without treatment you and Lisossa would have killed each other. Each of you had an equally bad effect on the other. There is no active rehabilitation process that makes any difference. You are going to be gradually mobilized and during the course of a month you will lose your aches and feel better. It will take you three months to fully get back to normal.”

“From tomorrow, you will be able to recommence your education,” said Julia.

“I have no telepathy, nor do I have any powers, I feel lost without that side of me,” said Jason. “It is going to take ages to get fully back to normal. It is not going to be a wonderful holiday either.”

“You can mix with the Dinnion without a recurrence and you will not be vulnerable to this problem in the future,” said Razza. “Your snout is going to grow a bit.”

“I believe you, the doctors wouldn’t!” He replied then tried to pick up his arm and failed.

“I am completely exhausted, and I need to sleep,” said Jason as he started to close his eyes. “I can’t keep my eyes open a minute longer.”

The next morning, they walked in to find Jason looking more cheerful and was being fed by a young male nurse.

“How are you feeling?” Linda asked.

“There are less aches this morning but I feel bone weary.”

“Jason darling, you’re going to be very tired during this next month. Sleep as much as you need. We are having a good time here. The Queen has put us up at her palace and we are comfortable and well looked after. We all brought the children along as well and they instantly adapted to the new telepathy. Everyone is very impressed. You don’t need to worry about us, we are very happy spending time with the Dinnion who clearly regard us as their relatives. The Queen will be along to visit you soon. This illness, as unfortunate as it is, will give you the opportunity to have a much-needed break,” said Philippa.

“Isn’t it strange. We have treatment for nearly every illness that takes minutes, hours if it is complex and we can rebuild someone in a week. The longest rehabilitation is usually a week. But, I had to get something that takes me out for over a month and takes three months to recover from.

“I was introduced to the bugs through medical technology and I meet the Dinnion in the same way. This new life of mine is strange and disconcerting at times.

“The hospital food is pretty good even though it looks like paste. I am really hungry,” said Jason.

“You lost thirty-seven pounds in the first two weeks. You are all skin and bone. Lisossa lost twenty-nine pounds.” Said Philippa.

“Shoot, that is a lot of weight. It will take ages to get my muscles back and I have a lot of eating to do! Philippa, what is the Queen like?” asked Jason.

“She is pleasant and personable much like Lisossa. We sit and chat like old friends in the evenings. She misses her husband very much. Her daughters are busy with their own lives but we see them two or three times a week at dinner time.

“Pardela would find them interesting. The families do not include the husband most of the time. The family is usually made up of the mother’s side of the family and includes uncles and aunts on her side. The male figures are usually uncles and older cousins. The husband lives with his family and brings up his sister’s children. The husband is not a husband as we know them, but is more a boyfriend who is seen intermittently. It is not unusual for each child to have a different father.

“The Queen said her husband chose to stay with her, which was very unusual, but she found his company enjoyable and they spent a lot of time together. The princesses have adult children spread throughout the Regency. She has a lot more power than in most regencies she tells me and she can take it all back in a heartbeat.

“The Queen is an academic at the University. She is an authority in the area of xeno-biology, lectures at the University and is involved in research. She had a big team of people in an administrative building next to the palace that handle her business affairs.” Philippa replied.

“I look forward to meeting her.

“I can’t wait to get a bit more mobile. I can hardly do anything for myself. I can’t even hold my child.

“He is happy to see you and is chatting away on the second channel,” Philippa replied. “He isn’t verbalizing much at all as telepathy is so easy for him.”

“Philippa, I am getting tired, Ben is looking cranky and I need to sleep.”

“Jason I will see you tomorrow, sleep well.”

Lisossa was pushed into Jason’s room on a hover chair.

“Jason, I feel like an old crock. I have never felt like this in my life before. You look as bad as I feel. You have lost so much weight.”

“I was saying to Philippa, my experience of high-tech medicine has been of high-speed treatment. This is very unusual in this modern world of the ancients with amazing medical abilities.”

“Yes, it sucks but we are alive and we will get better in time. Let us not dwell on our aches, pains and misery.” – she raised her eyebrows and became more animated.

“My mother tells me Jason; you have millions of children and many wives. You have so many you can’t even see all of your wives at any one time and you have an AI to maintain communication with them and your children. That is the most extraordinary thing I have ever heard.”

“Yes, Lisossa it is true I have so many women having my children I can’t even keep count. I also spend time with the same group of women most of the time. I will ask Linda to give you a background history of my life and you can watch it. It will give you an idea of my life and background and help you understand about my life, the problems of our galaxies and our allies. It will help you understand us and our allies better and it will explain how and why I have impregnated so many women. I hope it will satisfy your curiosity,” said Jason smiling.

“I am pleased to see you again. You have also lost a lot of weight I see. Lisossa, can you tell me a bit about yourself?”

“Jason, I was born in the capital here, in the palace, a long time ago more years than I choose to remember. It has been a happy life. I was the last daughter, but we were active children and were interested in our world. The surface of the planet looks dry, but we have plenty of rain. Most of our plant life develops below ground with camouflaged light and energy captured from above the surface. My father loved walking and took me and my sisters for two hour walks most days early in the morning before school. He was a keen biologist and was very interested in plants, animals and agriculture. We would fly to a starting place and walk. He used to identify plant and animal life for us as we walked. He was a wonderful teacher.

“Vandaska, the capital city is the only city with buildings above the surface. Even so, most of the city is below the surface, so we have large areas for agriculture and many national reserves.

“I walk every day when I am home, often with my sisters or nephews and nieces.” Lisossa explained.

“Do you have any dangerous wild animals?” he asked.

“Most definitely we do. We are all armed when we walk.” She replied.

“What about security, body guards and dangers of assassins?” Jason querried.

“Our society does not enjoy a turgid political climate, nor has it ever been so. We are a peaceful prosperous people. This galaxy has been relatively conflict-free until recently. We are surrounded by peaceful civilizations. We do have security guards at the palace, but we would take only one with us when we were very young. My father was very competent with weapons and so were we all by the time we were in our teens.” She replied.

“Does your society practice any martial arts?”

“We all learned unarmed combat in school, university and during mandatory military service. You will see the parks at lunch time filled with people exercising and sparring before they eat. You can learn our system on a learning machine. I will give you one of our machines. You can learn our history and culture and any subject you wish.

“Despite the low level of threat, we all were aware of the Destroyers and dreaded their reappearance in case they decided to attack us. We thought we might be scheduled for destruction this time round.” Lisossa replied.

“Why is it so hard to negotiate an alliance with the Azloc?”

“Jason, we tried to speak to the Azloc about an alliance on many occasions. They have no such concept. It was inordinately frustrating talking to them.

“All of the civilizations they conquered would have been delighted to form an alliance with them. The Azloc are weird as conquerors. They invade the planet, do as little damage as they can and take over. They then hand back the power and say we want twenty percent of your industrial output dedicated to our purposes. They then ask for what they want done and if the civilization can’t do it, they send the equipment to do the necessary work and send Azloc along with it to teach them how to use it. They don’t keep Azloc on the planet and they don’t interfere. The machines and related AIs are very easy to use.” She explained.

“Have any people fought them or caused problems after conquest?” Jason asked.

“There were a people called the Jeraz. They sabotaged production and what they did produce was unusable. The Azloc wiped them all from the surface of their planets. They fed them all into biological replicators to produce plant food for crops they cultivated on the planets. They took representatives of all the species they conquered to watch what they did.

“The demonstration of what they could and did do was effective. For all of us it was a salutary lesson. Most of the civilizations don’t mind the Azloc approach as they say it is less costly than what they would normally have to do if they were working with allies and the Azloc are happy to do the fighting. They do not need crew for the navy nor do they need soldiers on the ground. The Azloc build strong space-based defenses for the planets they conquer,” said Lisossa.

“Do you have any idea how they do research and teach each other?” Jason asked.

“We only see the advanced products as a result of research and development. We have no idea how they go about it. We asked the young Queen who we see periodically. She said ‘we do, we talk, we make, we make better.’ I asked her how they learn. ‘I get what I know, I teach what I know.’ I asked how they got knowledge from others. She said ‘we get on connection’. I asked what connection? She said ‘we connect, we all connect. Do you not?’ I asked if they are all connected? ‘Yes, we connect.’