Chapter Ten: Source Point Conception — Part 5

The Warrior Past Subtext, Memory Transference: Part 3 . . .

“The entire Clan, and most probably the entire tribe, commonly performs such abuse.” Alon said.

“Who are you to judge our ways? Who are you to say that killing a demon is an act of abuse?” One of the Pole Bearers demanded.

The young man was touched by a blast of Orange Bug’s plasma field, began writhing in pain, his face burned and his mind shattered by a backlash of electrical discharge. Orange Bug drifted back to Alon.

“You are not of this tribe.” Orange Bug said, after studying Alon closely. “As it is justice to act, so shall it pass, with justice, that those who commit a sin of omission, supporting harm of others in ignorance of truth, shall experience omission directly. The first question is the most important. Who brought this child into the hands of those ignorant of the universal laws of justice?”

Alon said nothing, but Orange Bug read his mind, saw the face of the woman he had once loved, saw the betrayal of her own child through Alon’s memories. Orange Bug turned to orchestrate the actions of his tribe of bugs. Within seconds, every person in the tribe of the Blessed Many vanished. The bugs struck them hard and fast, and with a brutal efficiency that would plague Alon’s dreams for the rest of his life. Not one hume stood a chance against the savage assault, and when the Bugs were done, not one body remained as evidence of their act.

“Are they dead?” Alon asked.

“They are omitted.” Orange Bug said, and from the tone of his voice, he was being careful in his correction of Alon’s perceptions.

No man woman or child over the age of three had been spared omission by the Bugs. The entire Blessed Many were gone, leaving behind only one adult and perhaps a hundred small children. Jaya had been spared, and a scant handful of toddlers had been left behind as well. Orange Bug and his tribe put their focus on Jun. The biggest orange ball spoke in kind tones to Alon. “Those who could not learn are no longer welcome on our world. This woman we have little hope for, and these children whom we know will grow up strong and good, are what we have spared of the tribe that would harm its own. The healing begins now. We will start with this one child, who suffers only because she is different.”

The Bugs lifted Jun from Alon’s hands, and began working over her body with beams of light and tiny claws. Alon’s face was distorted in a sorrow he could not have imagined experiencing before. His tight, Malaysian features expressed such incredible depth of emotion in the dim light of the glowing bugs. He sobbed wretchedly, but he knew that nothing could have spared the tribe once the Bugs had decided upon their action of justice. They sometimes omitted entire nations from Zon’s surface. Deep down he knew that generations of ritual torture and infant mutilation had brought this genocide against them, and that on this night, when this moment was done, only the children of the Blessed Many would remain. His eyes were filled with tears of rage as he restored his sword to its scabbard. The Orange Bug, using his ion field in cooperation with hundreds of his fellows, took Jun into the center of the bug swarm, and with careful embrace, healed her wounds. Light flickered about them, licking Jun’s skin.

“The mark of her skin, used to tell others of her powers, to mark her as a creature of the sky, and therefore of evil, cannot be removed without killing her. But now, while the skin is traumatized, we can move the matrix of the organic pigment into the structure of her cells. This will allow her body to clear the pigment from her eyes — and allow her sight to be restored. It will make her a creature the color of the sky for the entirety of her life. Her children, and her children’s children for as many generations as breed true to her, will have blue skin.”

Alon wondered at the incredible power of the bug race. “If it will save her, then let her live blue. She is still Jun. I will love her no matter what color is put in her.”

Jun stopped screaming as the healing auras of the bugs worked across her in waves, healing every broken bone, every bruised organ, and forever altering her genetics so that she would accept the blue pigment as part of herself. Without accepting it, her body would have refused it, and in so refusing, she would have died. By their will, Jun became whole, the bugs making her so different from the rest of her people that in doing so they forever altered her destiny. Orange Bug returned the child to its father. Alon held his daughter closely, happy that she was again calm, knowing that her mind was scarred by the experience. He looked through tear stained eyes at his wife. He fought against the hate that threatened to overpower his heart.