2.8.

Eolai’s strength gave out, and Diego caught him before he collapsed. The Yonohoan man was heavier than he looked, even missing an arm, but Diego was stronger than he’d once been thanks to the weeks of exercise aboard the Yonohoan flagship and the enhancement of military grade medical nanites. The young sergeant had to be cautious to avoid injuring the patient with his strength.

“Good. You’re doing good, Eolai,” Diego said.

“Do not patronize me. These injuries are not healing as fast as they should be,” Eolai said, sounding annoyed at the frailty of his own body. “It disgusts me, but it seems that my father employed weapons which damaged the nanites in my body. I am fortunate that he did not have the ability to turn my own body against me completely, or I fear that I would be nothing but a puddle of blood at this point.”

“How can I help you recover, Eolai?” Diego asked. He looked around; they were in the exercise room of the flagship, but the familiar environment did not bring comfort. The bodies of the Topokans killed in the attack remained where they had fallen.

“I need to get to a hospital ship to receive a new arm and to have my nanite systems rejuvenated. Unfortunately, it seems that Bob is even more critically injured than I am,” Eolai said.

“Yeah, it’s strange that nobody has come for us, isn’t it?” Diego said.

“Not exactly. In order to defend itself from attacks, the networks which connect the flagship to the rest of the fleet are set to self destruct immediately when they detect the invasion of virtual viruses and hostile attack programs,” Eolai explained. “Additionally, it is standard policy to disconnect from them when engaging in covert activities. The fleet likely knows that we are missing, but they may not realize that we are in need of assistance.”

“What sort of reason would they not be looking for us?” Diego asked.

“They might believe that we are making pilgrimages to see some of the sights where our father stood and fell defending the worlds of the helpless and the innocent,” Eolai said. “As brothers and sons of Eodar, it is both our duty to pay our respects to the many lives and deaths of our father, and it is also our privilege to do so in solemn silence. If the local governments knew of such a pilgrimage, it would help confirm the location of Earth, as it would narrow down the search area to this wing of the milky way galaxy. For that reason and many others I might create a distraction and go silent to take you somewhere sacred with me.”

“Why do you think that Eodar attacked you, Eolai?” Diego asked. “I thought he was a great diplomat.”

“He is young. So young that he might not realize that he is not the original Eodar. He is likely displaced from time and circumstances and believes that he is still in the very earliest stages of the Liberation. They would not have told him that they were capturing his imprint; it was common when the imprints of children were taken to withhold such information from the subject.”

“Why would they do that?” Diego asked.

“So that the child would not be afraid of death,” Eolai said. He grew solemn. “The method used for the technology you are calling ‘flash cloning’ destroys the original in order to make a copy, Diego. The imprint is not simply data, it is a perfect record of a being as it was in a specific moment of time. In order to obtain that data, the original is destroyed utterly. Not even bones and ash are left from the body.”

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Diego felt sick. “You said he believed he was twelve years old,” Diego said. “Someone did that, used a technology like that, on a child?”

“The liberation wars saw the use of terrible weapons and tools, Brother Diego. Our father was far from the only child who was slain in the name of ‘the greater good.’ It is our responsibility, as his son, to find the imprints of Eodar and erase them so that he cannot be continually brought back to life against his will,” Eodar explained.

“It is?” Diego asked.

“Yes. It is the solemn belief of Eodar that when he passes from the light of this world, he will walk with our ancestors in the universe of the afterlife with the honored dead. Each time he is resurrected, he believes that he is snatched from that fate and forced into the torment of this universe once more,” Eolai explained. “To him, it is a grave and dishonorable sin to end his life. Many of his decisions are based upon the religious teachings of the ancient Yonohoans, which are not always as reasonable as the modern version of our religious practices.”

“Are we … are we expected to kill him?” Diego asked nervously.

“No. But we are expected to ensure that no drastic measures are used to extend his life that he does not consent to,” Eolai said. “It is for that reason why Eodar is permitted to kill the Topokans. They are not allowed to play ‘shrodinger’s cat’ with Eodar as I have permitted them to do with me.”

“But we also can’t leave him just wandering the universe with the false belief that he is eighty thousand years in the past,” Diego pointed out. “And the last time you tried to tell him that the war was over, he nearly killed you.”

“And yet it is my duty to try and try again to rescue our father from the torment that his resurrection brings him,” Eolai said. He sighed. “I had believed that this is one duty of being a Son of Eodar which would never fall upon my shoulders. But with the privileges of my position come the responsibilities. I shall fulfill my duties and ensure that Eodar is rescued from whatever forces are ensnaring him, and I will see to it that he leads a life of as much happiness and joy as is possible to provide him with. Then, even if it means that I am no longer the Last Son of Eodar, I will ensure that he returns to the city of the dead to walk with his honored ancestors, and mine, until the day in which I join them.”

At that moment, a hologram flickered to life nearby.

“Renosa! You have found us,” Eolai exclaimed.

The Yonohoan woman looked grim. “You have been attacked. Tell me who would dare do such a thing to the Last Son of Eodar so that we may call in the alliances and wipe the perpetrator from the light of this universe,” she declared.

“My father has returned to us, Renosa,” Eolai said gravely. “I attempted to bring him the closure that his torments and time of service in humanity were over, but he is so very young this time. He did not believe me. He thought that I was an enemy attempting to use and ensnare him in a web of illusions and lies.”

Renosa turned serious. “I shall tell the others. You do not stand alone in your solemn and sworn duties, Eolai. We will stand with you through this time.”

“Thank you,” Eolai said. “But it must go no further than the watchers of the tombs. The universe cannot know that Eodar is alive once more. Not until he has returned to the afterlife can his existence be acknowledged for the sake of the unsteady peace which his past lives have purchased.”

“Of course. You are injured. I invite you to my ship for the treatment of your injuries, and I shall send the Topoka to guard the souls of their fallen brethren aboard your own ship, and to return it to service,” she said.

“Thank you, Renosa. You were always the reliable one.”

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