Date: Thu, 14 Sep 1995 02:46:44 -0400 Reply-To: GrinnyP@AOL.COM Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Carol Ann Liddiard Subject: "Origins" Chapter 9, part 2 . . . and the rest of chapter 9 . . . ------------------ Seattle, 1995 "But Methos told me your people created some sort of disease that caused immortals to lose their healing ability." Duncan was perplexed by the story she told as they walked towards Anne's condo. "Yes, MacLeod, we did," came Carol's weary reply. At the door she knelt down and began picking the lock. "However, the one thing the Wise One never tried, and never _would_ have tried, was killing the test subjects. He never knew that for some reason massive shock trauma would trigger a reaction that partly healed the damage caused by the disease. They would never be true Herrialdaketa, but they would be immortal, after a fashion. We used to call them Elbarridun Haurketa." With a soft snick the door opened. "You mean they couldn't become immortal if they died from disease?" Duncan followed her into the condo. "No, it has to be sudden and violent . . . oh, shit." She stopped so quickly that Duncan ran into her. The spacious condo looked as if a tornado had run through it, smashing and destroying breakables. Duncan moved around Carol slowly, as if sleepwalking. He crouched down to touch the shattered remains of a delicate blue vase. Carol silently knelt beside him and waited. "I gave this to her after Kenny tried to run her down," Duncan reminisced, studying the porcelain patterns absentmindedly as he sifted through the fragments. *Adam, no one is here.* Carol stayed silent, not wanting to disturb Duncan's reverie. However, when Methos and Richie walked through the door, he jerked his attention back to the present. "How do we know he hasn't already killed her?" he forced out the anguished question. Methos moved towards them and laid a hand on Duncan's shoulder. "If we can find something that Anne might wear often, like a favorite piece of jewelry, Carol can scan it and see if she's still alive." Meanwhile, Carol frowned as she took the pottery pieces from Duncan. She concentrated harder on the shattered vase remnants and saw something that surprised her. "Carol?" She focused on the scarf that Methos was holding in front of her. Grasping it, she concentrated fiercely on Anne. What she saw startled her so much she dropped it and looked at Methos. *Adam, look at this!* Duncan took in the look that Carol was giving Methos, and asked, "What? What do you see?" When she didn't answer, he grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "What do you see? Is she alive?" he asked frantically. "Calm down, Duncan, she's alive," Carol spoke soothingly to the agitated immortal. "I was just surprised that's all. She's alive and well, and the baby's fine." She patted his arms awkwardly. Duncan hung his head in relief for a moment then stood up. "All right then, what now?" Carol stood also and shared another look with Methos. Turning her attention to Duncan and Richie, she asked, "How much do you know about skydiving?" --------------------- Breeding Facility, @6,000 BCE Song smiled grimly as she realized that she had finally found the place of her brother's last memories. She looked down over the ruins of what had once been Sagu's breeding facilities, feeling the abhorrent pull of the enhanced spirit site it was located on. Cautiously, she walked towards the facility, on constant alert for any evil ones who might be lurking nearby, although she could sense none. As she got closer, she grimaced as she began to pick up residual memories of the women who had been imprisoned there. she asked although she knew the answer. In the center of the site was the great barracks where the pregnant women had been kept. Song entered through the main door, somewhat less cautious because she was now standing at the epicenter of the spirit site, and could feel no other Herrialdaketa. She paused at a collection of memory crystals, leaning over to examine one more closely, when something sharp plunged through her back, narrowly missing the left kidney. As her knees buckled, Song saw a filthy, emaciated figure wielding a flint knife in one hand, cradling a large crystal in the other. "Ha ha, got you now," he chortled and pranced around, obviously insane. Song swung her small axe and inflicted a nasty wound to his chest as he moved in closer to stab her again. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" she wondered as she staggered to her feet. The stranger whimpered in pain and danced away from her half-hearted blows. "Bad person, bad person. We're going to make all of you pay." With a shock of recognition Song realized who it was. "Bigarren, is that you?" she asked, trying to reconcile her childhood memories of a shy little boy to the wasted man who stood before her. "Why are you trying to kill me?" "He says we must kill all of you, and I obey Him," Bigarren giggled and lunged again. Song swung back and narrowly avoided being slashed by the wicked dagger. He screamed in rage when he missed, dropped the knife, and disappeared through a doorway. Cautiously, she followed, alert to the possibility that there might be more evil ones lurking nearby. "Aaaahhhh," his wail alerted Song half a second before Bigarren came through an entrance behind her, this time swinging a large, deadly axe, and still cradling the strange crystal. Soon Song found herself in a fight for her life. Bigarren's madness lent him a strength that he would not normally have, and she was also distracted by the rising energy currents coming from the ground around her. "It doesn't like people like us fighting on it," he laughed as small bolts began hitting her. "It can't see me because of the lovely crystal, but it can see you. And it can get you." With Song distracted, he was able to get within her guard and strike a nasty blow. She fell on her side, clutching her abdomen to keep her intestines from spilling into the dirt. Through the pain she looked up at the axe looming overhead and began to pray. Bigarren swung eagerly, but in his haste he tripped over some rubble from one of the collapsed walls. As he landed with a thud next to her, Song grabbed the axe from his hand, pulled back, and beheaded him in an awkward one-handed blow. Apprehension bloomed as she realized a vast energy storm was rising from the spirit site and was centering on her. Reflexively, she grabbed the crystal from the fallen Bigarren, and curled around it. The storm continued to swirl, looking for a target for its wrath as Bigarren's quickening began to rise from his body. The two energy streams collided headlong in a fantastic explosion of light and heat while Song huddled around the crystal and prayed. --------------------- Seattle Airport, 1995 Aboard Carol's plane, Duncan watched as she and Methos checked to see that all the gear was on-board. Carol stopped by Richie as he strapped himself in, laid a hand on his shoulder, and asked him if everything was all right. At his affirmative answer, she nodded to Methos and said, "I'm going to the cockpit now. Strap yourselves in, we'll be taking off in a few minutes." Duncan watched her go before turning to Methos. He wanted to ask something that had been on his mind since they had visited Anne's condo, which had been pushed back because of his worry over Anne. "Methos, when she was talking about people who suffered from that virus, she was talking about us, right? We're descended from her people?" Methos nodded an affirmative as he sat down next to Duncan and buckled his seatbelt. Duncan continued, "How is that possible?" "Carol figures it's a natural outgrowth of all those long journeys the young men and women of her tribe took upon reaching maturity. They must have spread their seed far and wide. What makes us what we are is a series of recessive genetic traits, and eventually in some isolated population pockets people began to be born who shared those traits. Because they were recessive, it took a long time to work it's way through a population, and that's why most of the early immortals were men." Methos finished strapping in and smiled at Duncan. "Men are more susceptible to recessive genes." "Then we're, what did she call us, Elbarri . . ." "Elbarridun Haurketa," Methos finished. Duncan nodded impatiently. "What does that mean?" "Um," Methos hesitated. "A kind translation would be 'wounded ones'." "And the real translation?" Methos looked uncomfortable. "In her language it means, well, crippled children." "Wonderful." Further conversation was delayed as the engines started up and the plane taxied down the runway. --------------------- /Notes/ The Herrialdaketa had developed a spoken language before they became telepathic, but had not yet progressed to the stage of developing a written one. Once they became telepathic, they searched for a method of keeping and transfering information, and soon found that crystalline structures had the properties needed to holographically "store" information in a way that was accessable. Over years of experimenting with different minerals yielded other uses for the precious and semi-precious minerals, such as energy amplification for communicating long distances. Because they discovered this technology early, the Herrialdaketa never had a use for "written" communications, and thus were illiterate by today's standards. The so-called "damping crystal" discovered or invented by Sagu (see: evil leader) is unique in it's properties and uses. No one is sure what the chemical makeup was of the interlocking crystals, although it is theorized that they were not all made up of the same mineral. Only Sagu knew what substances were used, and a gas chromatograph analysis is not possible as all but one of the pieces are still missing. The completed crystal could be used to mask the presence of telepaths, even groups of up to a hundred. It's other unique property was the protection it could afford to a Herrialdaketa foolish enough to create an energy vortex on a spirit site, usually by extremely violent thought patterns, or by releasing a quickening. The consequences of such an act could range from mild brain damage to total molecular dissolution, depending upon the amount of energy stirred up. This made the crystal a much sought after weapon, and was one of the reasons the Herrialdaketa named Abesti sought to nullify it's power by scattering the pieces. (to be continued in chapter 10) --------------------- As usual all questions/comments/criticisms/flames to me at liddiard@bs1.prc.com or GrinnyP@aol.com Carol Ann =========================================================================