Chapter 16: The Serome Ability

Most of the structures were not over three stories high. Closer inspection showed that many of the structures appeared uninhabited. Terra led them down a wide street to a vehicle that was open to the air and had seating enough to accommodate all of them with seating left over. Terra stepped to the front of the vehicle and donned a set of headphones. After a brief, rapid conversation with someone on the other end, she entered a destination on the control panel and took a seat beside Stan. Moments later the vehicle, driving itself, began to move quickly gaining speed. It came to a halt when it reached a large building that Stan judged to be near the center of the city.

They climbed off the vehicle entered a large building and proceed down a wide hallway inside. At the end of the hallway, that had many closed doors on both sides, they came to a set of double doors, which swung wide at their approach. Terra and the crew entered into the spacious room beyond and stopped before a raised platform and long desk behind which seven women sat.

The center woman stood and Terra introduced her, "This is Taleah the eldest member of the seven women who head our government."

Taleah bowed her head slightly in acknowledgement and began to speak, "I welcome you to Lathea strangers. It has been countless years since we had visitors. I and my sisters here are extremely curious to learn from where you come."

Stan, not sure, he should reveal the existence of the Seeker simply pointed up, and told her they came, from above.

"The ice is gone?" She asked in an incredulous voice and then continued, "It has been countless years since any of my people have been to the surface."

Stan decided to be less evasive and told her that they came from a ship that orbited high above the planet not sure she would understand since she lived far underground.

Taleah's eyes got wide as she asked, "Then am I correct to assume you are not from this planet?"

"We are not from this planet," Stan confirmed.

At this point her other six companions started asking questions of Stan and the rest of his team as the formal meeting descended into a babble of excited voices. At last, Taleah was able to restore order once more and instructed Terra to escort them to rooms where they could rest and clean up after their long journey. She informed them that they would be guests of honor at a banquet she intended to have that night.

Terra delivered them to their rooms and left promising to return soon. Stan sighed in relief when he attempted to contact Kyle and got an immediate response. He explained their status and their intent to learn more about these people.

Later that evening Terra came and escorted them to a large banquet hall. After extensive testing by Myra and her assurances that the food and drink would not harm them, they joined their hosts in that food and drink. Taleah and Stan engaged in conversation and the others did the same.

Taleah told Stan of their history. The Serome had not always lived beneath the surface of Verona, the name they called this planet. Many years ago Verona had been struck by a meteor that had caused great destruction. The collision instantly killed a large number of Serome and then the huge tidal waves the impact caused took the lives of many more. The meteor had become very hot as it streaked through the atmosphere and when in hit the sea it vaporized huge amounts of water and set off countless volcanic eruptions. The water vapor and the volcanic ash flung into the atmosphere blocked out the suns warming rays, and set off, an ice age.

The Serome population dwindled dramatically. A group of scientists and their families had fled underground to escape, and had designed and built Lathea over the years. The population had begun to expand again and the city enlarged repeatedly. They had even developed a longevity serum, which they administered to the entire population. Tragedy struck again with the discovery, that after a number of years, the longevity serum caused sterility in the males, transferring to the embryos of succeeding males born. They created sperm banks so that the race would continue while they searched for a cure. The last of the men had perished many years before and the supply of sperm exhausted. The race of Serome that had once numbered in the millions had dwindled until only five-hundred female Serome remained.

"Terra is my daughter," Taleah told Stan, "And she is the last of our race. She is only forty years of age. Our race will end once she is gone."

They visited for many hours and then Stan and his team retired for the night. When he was safely inside his room, Stan contacted Remi using Kyle as an intermediary and relayed the information Taleah had given him. They decided that if things went well in the coming days and the Serome did not prove to be deceiving them they would offer to help in any way they could.

The days passed with Taleah showing Stan around her city. She showed him how they had tapped into the planets core to provide them with almost inexhaustible energy. They had even started working on a plan to melt the ice above and return the planet to the way it once was. They had abandoned this research when the population had begun to decline expending all their efforts toward curing the sterility problem. The days turned into weeks and the weeks became months as the new comers joined the Serome in the search for a cure for the sterility problem. They also worked on ways to make the surface of Verona habitable once more. A transmitter was set up that allowed Sonya to transmit people and objects between Lathea and Seeker.

The two peoples exchanged knowledge and ideas over the months. A giant solar panel was constructed in space and the energy it absorbed was transformed to heat and used first to burn through an area of clouds and then to begin warming the earth below. Once a large enough area was free of ice, they constructed one of the Serome domes in the cleared spot, with Geothermal energy used to heat and power the dome making it habitable. A small number of the Serome people moved to the surface under the dome. With the help of the robots of their new friends and the efforts of both peoples, the ice continued to retreat and the land cleared for building additional domes.

Over the years, the Serome had become very proficient in biological and genetic manipulation. Saskia was one of Taleah's sisters and a brilliant scientist. Janessa, Skyla, and Orion joined Saskia and her assistants in their search for a solution that would allow the propagation of the Serome race. Since the last of the male Serome were long dead and the supply of their sperm was gone, no research was available in that area. There were males among the new comers though. If they could make their seed fertilize Serome eggs, the Serome race would survive even though resulting embryos would no longer be purely Serome. Orion donated some of his sperm and the experimenting started.