The Mysteries of Eden

By Petri Luosto

In this book the story which started in Cassandra and the Unknown World, continues. The colonists continue exploring the environment and they make discoveries which will change their lives forever.

This book also has an essay on the embryo space colonization in the end of the book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Release date: Oct 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9789523397736

Petri Luosto

Olen vuonna 1976 hämeenlinnalainen kääntäjä, joka on erikoistunut kääntämään historiallisesti merkittäviä tekstejä englanninkielestä suomeksi.

Book preview

Summary

Chapter 1, Vidarr

Vidarr looked at the silent and dark forest. He was around 30 years old human male, who had brown hair and blue eyes. His height was medium and he had an athletic body. He was trained to move very silently in the forest and avoid any attention. That ability has helped him moving a lot in both forest and in the city.

Vidarr remembered his youth in the large cities ruled by the kaptaurs, quadruped sentient animals who have head of a lizard, two hands and who speak with hissing voice. The kaptaurs rule this world. According to that they can treat people as they see fit. According to the old kaptaur legends humans came there because they were meant to be the servants of the kaptaurs. Humans arrived hundreds of years ago but no one exactly knows how that happened. At that time the world was much more anarchic because small states waged wars against each other.

Somehow during the last 100 years one kaptaur Chieftain, Skanda was able to unify the small kaptaur states in the one massive nation. Skanda is known to have hundreds of descendants and he has a massive harem of kaptaur mares as well. The most unbelievable thing is that Skanda is still alive and he is around 120 years old. At that age one can say that Skanda is the eldest kaptaur ever because the kaptaurs rarely live over 80 years old. No one outside the Imperial Palace really knows about Skanda´s health but it is known that he is still alive.

After his conquest Skanda gave large fiefs to his relatives and offspring. Now his family the most powerful landowner family in the massive Kaptaur Empire. It is known that many relatives are both greedy and ruthless Kaptaurs. If Skanda dies the result will most likely be a brutal civil war between his relatives and offspring.

Vidarr thinks that this is why his relatives in different fiefs exploit both humans and their kaptaur servants. Vidarr knows that Skanda will die sooner or later and then his relatives will decide through military force that who is going to be his successor. There are some legalistic kaptaur sects that are trying to create clear laws of inheritance but powerful kaptaur nobles are trying to block their reforms because that will reduce their power.

Bloody lizards. Vidarr is more interested to fight against the Kaptaur oppression on humans than the internal intrigues of the kaptaur Empire. However, he knows that the political development of the kaptaur Empire will be a reality that he must not ignore because some kaptaur nobles hate humans while other nobles seek to cooperate humans in order to gain from them. Humans do have significant power in many cities as merchants, artisans and moneylenders. According to the kaptaur laws kaptaurs should not lend money from other kaptaurs, but there are no laws that would ban humans lending money.

The economic power that humans have also creates oppression and banditry from the kaptaur citizens. Some kaptaur nobles allow that with impunity while others try to prevent that using harsh measures. The most important issue is how the kaptaur nobles see humans. Using humans as scapegoats is an easy way to pacify the kaptaur rabble but it will also force humans to move at the cities owned by the kaptaur nobles how treat humans better and humans will help to develop those cities.

Humans are the second class citizens in this society and they do not have much rights. Only secret societies defend the rights of the humans and their methods vary a lot. The kaptaur nobility would most likely wipe out those secret societies if they could because they are the only way how humans can defend their rights. There are conspiracy theories among the kaptaurs that inpractice humans run the mighty Kaptaur Empire. If that is true then why would humans allow the oppression on humans inside the Empire, Vidarr thought.

Vidarr knew all of this because he has spent most of this childhood in many kaptaur cities and castles. The kaptaurs often banished his family and other because after they were robbed. The only property that they were allowed to have was that they could carry. Vidarr felt that this was very unfair because humans have worked hard to have that property which was confiscated by the kaptaur nobility.

Skanda´s central government was too weak to prevent the power of the kaptaur nobility. The kaptaur nobles saw their own rights on their fiefs as permanent powers and they didn´t want to yield those powers. It was very likely that any attempt to change those powers would lead to the civil war that Skanda couldn´t win. Even though Skanda was the Emperor among the kaptaur his power on domestic matters was very limited. The kaptaur nobles were forced to give him troops for his wars but otherwise they ruled their fiefs very independently.

According to that it is the kaptaur nobility that runs the Empire in practice, not Skanda. It also means that the members of the kaptaur high nobility are not responsible for anyone. However, the kaptaur religion forbids to kill helpless and innocent and those rules are also applied on humans as well.

In practice, the kaptaur religion is polytheistic and they have 13 main gods and goddesses. In addition to that they have a large number of minor gods and other mythological beings. Usually kaptaurs take their religion very seriously because they think that upsetting the gods would not be very wise. They believe that the gods will reward from good deeds and punish from evil deeds. It is another thing to consider what do kaptaurs mean by good and bad things.

Suddenly Vidarr heard a loud snap in the forest. Someone and some people were nearby. If the approaching person does not make any noise, then it is good reason to assume that the person is hostile. Vidarr quickly took his sword, bow and quiver with 20 arrows. He hid himself quickly and decided to wait. He wonders who was trying to stalk him and he knew that the stalker was most likely hostile. His best bet was to surprise and defeat the stalker.

Vidarr was quickly covered by a bush. Luckily for him, his camouflage cloth made him difficult to see in the dark forest. Vidarr waited patiently inside the bush and he wanted to see what was going to happen. If he was lucky the stalkers won´t notice him and just go past the bush. That would be the best for him but if they get too close then he must surprise them with a sneak attack.

Vidarr assumed that the stalkers are kaptaurs who want to kill him. He expected that there were from 2 to 4 kaptaurs. It seems to be that at least one of them is a kaptaur that can either read tracks on the ground and did smell his presence. The best kaptaurs can do both of those very well. If he does have such a tracker stalking him then he would be in serious troubles because there would also be couple of soldiers covering him.

Another possibility is that kaptaurs do have dogs with them but Vidarr haven´t heard any barking at all. The dogs are better trackers than the best kaptaurs but they cannot move silently. Their barking will attract a lot of attention. Because of that Vidarr was certain that there were no dogs and there was only couple of kaptaurs tracking him. He knew that with a surprise advantage he will be able to kill 3 or 4 kaptaurs because forest isn´t their natural environment. As quadrupled beings with lizard heads, kaptaurs favour open clearings and on the plains they can see possible threats from kilometre away.

The dark forest is completely different environment and it requires time and patience. The experienced kaptaur trackers do have the skill to move in the forests and to forage food from the forest. They often move in the forest with couple other kaptaurs and they can hunt in the forest quite well. That kind of small groups can live from the forest and earn their annual income as well from the forest.

Sometimes these hunter groups may do surprising discoveries. According to one legend, a group of hunters found some metallic monsters far in the north and then these monsters killed most of the hunters. However, one hunter escaped and reached his home village. Soon afterwards the same monsters attacked this village and killed most of local inhabitants. They didn´t neither humans or kaptaurs. The legend said that this incident happened about 20 years ago.

Just couple of humans and kaptaurs escaped that village but people generally were very sceptical on them and that tale. The village was in the very remote location and no one had any interest sending a crew to investigate that area. The terrain was very difficult to travel and it was also considered as a worthless periphery.

Suddenly Vidarr saw the first kaptaur coming in his sight. He wondered if there was three or four kaptaurs. The group of five was probably too much because when the group size increased it was also more likely that the group would make noise. The first kaptaur had a light leather armour which gave little protection for the body and he had a leather helmet on his head with holes for eyes, nose and mouth. That kaptaur carried a bow and a sword as his weapons. Vidarr knew that he could kill this kaptaur if he would hit his head by his bow. It seemed to be that this kaptaur was the tracker of the group and he was quite vigilant. Vidarr thought that it would not be wise to shoot at him when he didn´t know the positions of the other members of that group. If he would shoot and kill the tracker, then it would warn the other members of the group and they would most likely take cover.

Vidarr thought that he should be cautious and allow the whole group to come at the distance of couple of dozen metres when he could use his bow to kill them rapidly. He knew that he should eliminate the whole group as fast as possible and then as fast as he can because there might be another group of kaptaurs nearby. It is possible that the smell of blood might attract local predators as well.

Vidarr noticed that in the behind there were two other kaptaurs. One of them was very large one with a spear and a shield. Another had a bow and a sword. Both of them had also leather armour. Vidarr evaluated that the kaptaurs with bows were the most dangerous enemies because they could shoot back. He knew that he would have the element of surprise and it means that in couple of seconds he could shoot two well aimed arrows which could kill the kaptaurs with bows.

Vidarr took his bow and aimed carefully at the kaptaur he thought was the tracker. He aimed at the kaptaur s head and shot an arrow which hit the kaptaur on his head killing him instantly. In a second Vidarr had another arrow in his hand. At the same time the alive kaptaur with his bow realized where did the arrow come and was shooting his arrow at that direction. Vidarr was faster and he shot another arrow at this kaptaur´s head. However, the kaptaur was able to shoot his arrow and it did hit a tree from 20 centimetres from Vidarr. That was a pretty good shot from a dying kaptaur, Vidarr thought. If he wouldn´t have killed this kaptaur then he would have hit me, Vidarr realized.

Now Vidarr realized that the leader of these kaptaurs was rushing towards him. He had a shield covering his head and he wielded his spear at Vidarr. This kaptaur was too close that Vidarr could shoot at him and Vidarr did quickly wield his sword. Kaptaur ran towards Vidarr aiming to impale him with his spear. However, Vidarr was able to avoid that attack.

Vidarr´s response was to swing his sword at the kaptaur but he blocked the blow with his shield. Then both Vidarr and the kaptaur withdrew a bit and they were ready for new blows and blockings. Both of them stared each other in a bloodthirsty manner ready for the killing blow.

The kaptaur was able to hit first but again Vidarr avoided the blow and this time he was able to cut the spear in two pieces by his sword. The kaptaur tried to hit Vidarr with his shield at the face. However, the blow hit Vidarr at his left arm and it only bruised Vidarr.

This time Vidarr again did swing his sword which, was in his right hand, at the kaptaur and was able to hit at the kaptaur´s stomach. The kaptaur yelled loudly and hissed: Murderer! You murdered my lord and massshter. I will feed you to the beassshtsssh of this foresssht!

Kaptaur´s defence was open after Vidarr blow and he was able to hit the kaptaur again. This time he did hit the kaptaur at the neck killing him instantly. Vidarr felt sorry for the kaptaurs but he knew these kaptaurs were good trackers and they made one mistake which was fatal. One of them stepped on the branch and that warned Vidarr. Of course Vidarr killed their master, Raktavija. Raktavija was one of those kaptaur lords who treated humans very badly and did kill them when he saw that necessary.

Vidarr quickly inspected the bodies of the dead kaptaurs. He found a letter from their leader that was written on their own language. Luckily for Vidarr he was able to understand that language very well. The message on the letter was following:

Dear Radzavara, we have interrogated humans for Raktavija´s murder and we have found out that the person behind this murder was a famous assassin called the Ghost of Night. It is likely that he got this mission from the local human secret society which is known as Sword and Shield". Raktavija has executed about one hundred rebelling humans and did confiscate their property because they lend him money with interest.

That secret society was pissed off because of those justified executions and they contacted the Ghost of Night to assassinate Raktavija. We have arrested members of that society and we assume that the Ghost of Night is sheltered by Mr. Meili Kenning. He lives outside the city and his house is a good safe house because it is so close to forest.

If the Ghost of Night did live Kenning´s house, then try to find out where did he go and hunt him down using a small group. The most optimal group size would be one very good tracker and two capable warriors. Several small groups like this would be the optimal way to hunt him down and kill him than one larger group because there is so much land to cover. Good hunting! Remember that the Empress Saityr will pay well to eliminate the human who killed her cousin.

Ganusa Vektohara, The Chief of Raktavija´s Personal Guard"

Vidarr was the Ghost of Night. He was a famous assassin who had killed those kaptaurs who have killed humans and confiscated their property. Raktavija´s family have got their castle because Raktavija was a cousin of Emperor Skanda´s favourite wife the Empress Saityr. It was likely that Saityr and her relatives persuaded Skanda to give fiefs to Raktavija and some other Saityr´s relatives.

Vidarr knew Radzavara by name and now he knew that he killed a highly competent hunter. It seems to be that Radzavara and his group underestimated Vidarr and for that mistake they paid the ultimate price. Luckily Vidarr was aware of their presence and realized their potential threat. Vidarr´s quick reactions saved his life.

It was worrying that Radzavara´s group isn´t the only group which hunts Vidarr in the dark forest. This group was able to track down Vidarr for journey of tens of kilometres and it is likely that Kenning gave a pretty good description of Vidarr so that the kaptaurs can look for him, identify him and then kill him.

Vidarr assumed that Saityr, the favourite wife of the Emperor Skanda wants Vidarr to die. The kaptaurs do not know Vidarr´s real name because he didn´t tell that to Kenning. It means that the relatives of Vidarr are safe because they cannot identify him by name. However, it will be difficult for Vidarr to move unnoticed in the kaptaur cities because Saityr´s agents will do everything to catch him and then they will execute him. Vidarr expected that his description will be known throughout the Skanda´s empire and for some time that empire will be too dangerous place for him.

In practice, it means that Vidarr had to forage food from the forest. Luckily for him he does have knowledge and training to do that. He would also need a place to rest and to be safe. Places like that are not near the Kaptaur empire and Vidarr knew that he must to travel further from the Kaptaur empire. The question is to that where should he travel?

Vidarr is north from the Kaptaur empire. There are some scattered villages that are internally independent but they will pay tribute to the nobles of the Kaptaur empire. Some of those nobles hate the Saityr´s upstart family but they hate humans who kill kaptaurs even more. If they could capture Vidarr then they would deliver Vidarr in chains as a gesture of good will towards Skanda. This would mean death to Vidarr because Saityr would want to execute him.

Vidarr had no real chances to stay here. Vidarr knew that if they would identify him then he would be in big trouble. When Vidarr accepted the contract to assassinate Raktavija he assumed that he could kill Raktavija in a way that no one would notice that.

Vidarr found out that Raktavija´s dear hobby was hunting. In addition to that Raktavija usually hunted alone in the forest. Vidarr assumed that Raktavija would again hunt alone. He shot an arrow at Raktavija. Vidarr shot that arrow from cover and surprised Raktavija. The first arrow didn´t kill him and he was able to yell help. Vidarr shot another arrow which killed Raktavija.

Vidarr was in big troubles because Raktavija´s hunting entourage was just couple of hundred metres away. They heard Raktavija´s screams and came to help him. At this point Vidarr was leaving but it was possible that the members entourage could see where Vidarr shot his arrows and where he was going. They could be able to hunt him.

Only couple people knew that Raktavija would hunt in that area. Even fewer on those were humans. Kenning was a servant in the Raktavija´s stables and he did overhear a conversation between kaptaurs regarding Raktavija´s hunting and he told that to Vidarr. It was very unfortunate for Kenning that the kaptaurs later realized that he did overhear the conversation and they sent soldiers to interrogate Kenning. In order to save his wife and children he was forced to give information about Vidarr to Raktavija´s soldiers.

Luckily for Vidarr he wasn´t Kenning´s guest anymore and he was able to leave and he went towards the dark forest. The kaptaurs cannot sent an entire army to hunt down Vidarr. Instead they sent a group of experienced hunters to kill him. It means that there are still at least one or more groups of kaptaur that will try to hunt him and to collect a reward.

Vidarr made a decision that since he is north of the kaptaur empire he should stay somewhere else for couple of years. The most logical option was to travel north. In practice it would mean going deeper in the dark forests but when time goes by the fuss about Raktavija´s death will settle down and the kaptaurs will assume that the murderer is dead. Then Vidarr can come back and continue his fight. As long as the kaptaurs hunt him he cannot be close to them. He knew that now he should be careful and cautious. Usually Vidarr killed lower level kaptaurs and there was nothing more than local problems on that. Vidarr assumed he could kill Raktavija undetected and he knew Raktavija´s family connections to the Emperor Skanda´s favourite wife Saityr. If everything had gone has he planned, then that connection would have been meaningless.

Chapter 2, Cassandra

In the morning Cassandra stood next to the window and watched out to the rainy weather in the spring. She is a blond and athletic 17 years old woman. She was wearing a white coat and her pants had the camouflage option which allowed them to blend in the terrain in the forest. That would prevent seeing her in the long distance but they provide no camouflage in the short distance.

She was on the office at the Exploring Geography and Biology building. To be more specific her office was at the spaces of the Astrobiology. During the past months she has explored the nature surrounding the Colony and gathered a lot of information. She was focused on gathering information regarding different kind of threats on humans in this planet because she knew that she is going to live and die in this planet.

She remembered the events during the last year. She recalled how they saw a video clip 359 days ago regarding how humans arrived to this planet. They had sent a seed ship from Earth which did have both frozen egg cells and frozen sperm. When the ship had landed and the Colony founded it was the time to fertilize those egg cells by using machines. All of that happened some 30 light years from Earth and the trip from Earth took about 1000 years.

At this point there are around 49 people on the Colony. There were supposed to be 50 but one of them, Orpheus who was Cassandra´s partner and another astrobiologist died in an accident. The next class will be allowed to leave the ship tomorrow. Because of that this will be the last day for Cassandra´s class to be the undisputed masters of the planet Eden. After tomorrow they will be forced to live with the next class which does have 50 members. It means that at the evening there will be a feast.

There is the next class which will be allowed to leave the ship and then there will be altogether 15 other classes. The only exception is the latest class because some of that class´s members are still in the artificial wombs. The next class which members are 16 years old have gone through an intensive training an education. Cassandra have mostly interacted which the people specialized in biology and she knew that these people should be good at their work.

In her mind she compares the next class to her own class one year ago. She was very enthusiastic to leave the ship after her long education and to start gathering information from the nature. She remembered how dangerous and cruel place the nature can be. One should not underestimate it if one wants to survive. Then she glanced at the edge of the forest and she almost expected that a pack of predators would emerge and attack the local herbivores.

Cassandra remembered the fire-proof cones, the black dives, the dark sabre cats, the ants and the strange village where was remains of both humans and quadruple animals which enslaved humans. Cassandra has spent her time to explore all of those issues because they are the threat to the Colony and the inhabitants of the Colony in one or another way.

The fire-proof cones indicate that even when the forest looks like both dense and intimidating it will burn sooner or later. In this way old forests die and are being replaced by new plants. They have taken numerous samples from the ground and that has revealed layers of ash in the depth couple of meters. It indicates that the local forests will grow fast and they probably burn fast as well. What will start those forest fires? Cassandra does not know the answer to that question. It can be the lightning, a plant or bacteria causing the fire through self-combustion. It would be a good idea to find out how those forests catch fire if they want to prevent forest fires. The forest fire won´t probably threaten the Colony directly but it will threaten the fields surrounding the Colony and all the devices planted in the forest.

The black dives probably aren´t a big threat to the humans. It is known that they are carnivores and they like to dive from the branches of the trees to the backs of the large herbivores and to tear off junks of their flesh. They have been named because they have black feathers and they like to dive on their victims. Humans are too small targets for them and humans usually wear both helmets and armour. Their beaks are not suitable to crack through that kind of equipment.

The ants from this planet can be a very serious threat especially if they can attack people. One ant was able to wound Eratosthenes on his hand a year ago. It took months for him to recover from that wound but now he has recovered completely and he is working on geography and geology to map the natural resources of this planet.

The most amazing thing to find was the village which did have the skeletons of both humans and quadruple beasts. Cassandra did inspect those skeletons and she did find out that their heads were very much like lizard heads. How did those humans end to be the slaves of these lizards? How many lizards there are in this planet if there was one village? It seems to be likely that there are more villages or even towns elsewhere. They were armed with swords, spears, bows and they had different kind of leather armours which indicate that their technological level is pretty low comparable to the Iron Age or the Early Medieval period. It is wise to assume that we will meet them sooner or later, Cassandra thought. The distance to that village is some 160 kilometres and it indicates that the lizards do not enjoy living this much north. Perhaps they prefer warmer climate.

Cassandra has also researched both plant and bacteria samples taken from the forest. Her goal was to find bacteria which can be harmful to the humans so that they can be identified and it would be possible to develop medicine to counter them. So far she has not detected any bacteria which can be harmful to humans. Perhaps this means that the local bacteria haven´t adjusted to the arrival of humans yet. It would be smart to expect that this kind of situation will not endure in the future because bacteria can mutate and new mutated bacteria can be a threat to humans.

Cassandra looked out through the window. Suddenly hands covered her eyes and she heard a familiar voice: Guess who?

I don´t know, she laughed and she knew the person who was there.

It is me, Eratosthenes, silly Cassie, man answered and moved his right hand to pat Cassandra´s belly and his left hand to Cassandra´s left shoulder.

Cassandra grabbed Eratosthenes left hand and looked at it and said: It seems to be that you have a souvenir from that ant.

Please don´t remind me about that. That thing strikes me down, Eratosthenes replied.

Perhaps it means that the ant struck you on the ground, Cassandra laughed and looked at Eratosthenes who had light brown hair, blue eyes and pale skin.

You killed that ant by using a very tough trick. The combination of a rifle and a bayonet and sticking them to that ant´s head and pulling a trigger surprised all of us. You saved my life, Eratosthenes replied.

You are my friend. That was the least that I could have done in that situation, Cassandra said.

"I am disappointed to be just your friend. I would like