The Way Back (Champions of the Crystal Book 4)

Chapter 3: Journey to the Past

Since they were traveling such a short time into the past to a location that was relatively close, this trip was much shorter than the one from Earth had been. Ford was busy with the console the entire time, lost in concentration; the military officers conferred together over strategy as Scotty recalled what he could of conditions on Stanos. Khediva had downloaded information from Homeworld on the current state of the planet, but it seemed not to have changed much.

The Stanosians' societal obsession with selective breeding and genetic perfection was unsurprisingly coupled with xenophobia and a determined lack of interest in exploration. The population was steadily decreasing, as only those with traits deemed valuable to society were allowed to reproduce, and their allegiance to the absolute sway of the priesthood (though it was unclear what their religion entailed) was, Homeworld felt, a natural outgrowth of the society's belief in a rigid order of things. No sign had ever been found that the creature High Priestess Emalicia had created out of brain tissue and the life energy of many of her subjects—including the last king, Qazhan—had survived or been reconstructed, though the priesthood had continued experimenting with telepathic control of their subjects.

Sabrina shivered, thinking it a theocracy of the worst possible kind. She wondered how Earth's history might have unfolded if, for example, the Roman Catholic Church had been able to exercise telepathic control over its members in medieval times, when it tended to classify science and learning as heretical. In Stanos' case, it had led to a stagnation that Homeworld predicted would eventually cause the demise of the Stanosian race.

Khediva had said that Homeworld had decided not to intervene, as it felt that a race with such dangerous obsessions would only be a threat to the galactic community if it ever matured. Sabrina could not blame them for not wanting to share a galaxy with a race that had, even in its stagnation, created a creature that could kill a Wayship. Still, it seemed hard-hearted to let an entire race perish, even at their own hands.

Of the Praxatillians, only Aurora had been familiar with Stanos, in a vague way; it was listed in the Miahn records as a place the Guardian should avoid, along with Mundisar. Ford recognized Malvarak as the assassin of his grandfather King Baldaran, but evidently Miahn history did not explore his motives in enough detail to include the circumstances of Wayship Sribarak's death. Sabrina wondered briefly how he felt, suddenly caught up in this dark web of family history. It could not feel as bad, she thought, as if it were personal history, as for her and Scotty. Stanos had not changed, but they had. So had Tirqwin and Mara, she thought, and then wondered how much of that change had happened over the long decades of their separation.

Sabrina jumped a little as Aurora spoke unexpectedly from beside her. "You are thinking anxious thoughts, Lady Sabrina. My father always says that anxiety is a weapon pointed at one's own heart."

"There's truth in that," Sabrina admitted with a rueful grin. "Your father is a very wise man."

"He is widely held to be so," Aurora agreed.

"I'm so glad he and your mother got married after all. They were a wonderful couple. I meant to go to their wedding—and I would have, if the Reissians hadn't had other plans for us all." Sabrina's eyes grew distant as she remembered. "I was with your mother in Giandrah while your father fought at the Royal Residence. I lost touch with him when he blew it up. I thought he was dead. It seemed so horrible...that should have been their wedding morning. I was so happy when he turned up alive. It...was one of the only happy endings that night."

"You lost your own father then," Aurora recalled softly.

"Yes. And there were so many other losses. Aliza's husband Jahgh—oh! She was pregnant when I left. Can you tell me—" Sabrina turned eagerly to Aurora, who smiled.