My Enemy's Son (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 2) (5 page)

"Stop this arguing," Kenak
cried.  “And Donak, don’t break my desk.  “Now Senya, who are you?  Tell us
your name."  He said the word
name
in Ancient Rozarian.

Senya peered at Kenak for a moment. 
"Name?” Senya repeated the Ancient Rozarian word and held out his shoe. 
“Shoe?”

“No!  Senya, what?  Your name, not the
shoe.”

Senya smiled broadly and shook his head. 
His teeth were very white but there was something strange about his incisors. 
Donak must have noticed this now too because he moved closer.

“Let me see your teeth, son,” Donak said.

Senya shut his mouth quickly and put his
shoe back on.  He was no longer smiling.  He lit a fresh cigarette that
happened to be in his hand and got up, walking over to the door.

“Senya!” I cried.  “Don’t you want to go
to school here?  Please honey.  Let us help you.”

Senya stood by the door.  He took off his
glasses and waved them at Donak.

“Thank you for this,” he said slowly and
then walked out of the office.

“Senya!”  We all jumped up and raced after
him.  “Please don’t go.”  We followed him down the hall and out of the
building.  Dusk had settled on the planet as he headed outside and started to
walk across the campus.

“Senya, please,” I ran and caught up with
him as the two old men huffed along behind us.  “Please, just give us a chance
to help you.  I won’t let them treat you like a science experiment.  I
promise.” 

He stopped and looked down at me.  His
eyes shone silver beneath his long lashes, strangely illuminating the burnt
orange color of the approaching night.

“Ay yah, Shelly,” he said softly and
touched my cheek with his hand.  He ran his fingers across my face as a blind
man would while I did everything I could to keep breathing.  His touch warmed
me throughout my whole being and I saw in that moment a presence, even an aura
about him.

“Who are you, Senya?”

He pulled his hand away as the two
Rozarian men approached.  We all gazed up at him, waiting.

"My name is Sehron de Kudisha,” he
said.

“Sehron de Kudisha,” Donak gasped.  “As in
Karukan de Kudisha?”

Senya nodded slightly.  Kenak nearly fell
off his feet.  He clutched his chest and all color drained from his face.

“Blessed Saint, are you serious?”  Donak
cried.  “If this is a joke, we don’t find it very humorous.”

“Why would it be a joke?” I asked, looking
from one man to another.

“He is descended from the Infidel,” Kenak
stated breathlessly.

Senya put his glasses back on and gazed
out across the campus.  He took a long drag on his cigarette.

“Are you?” Donak demanded.

“How would he know?” I asked.  “Do you
know who your ancestors were a thousand years ago?”

"I could run a DNA sample against
Karukan's," Donak said to Kenak.  "I could do it with a strand of his
hair but I would much prefer blood and perhaps some skin tissue.  Semen would
be ideal of course but I doubt he’d allow that."

"Stop it, Donak!" I
interrupted.  "He is not here for you to run batteries of tests.  He
escaped Rehnor to get away from them not so he could become your lab rat.  Now,
either you are going to help get him citizenship and admission into the
Institute or not.  It doesn’t matter who his ancestors were!"

“You don’t understand, Shelly,” Kenak
piped up, having regained his breath and composure.  “Karukan de Kudisha was
the most reviled person ever to live on this Rozari.  If Senya is in fact his
descendant and it certainly appears that way being that he bears his name and
is marked in the same manner, his own safety would be at stake."

“Perhaps our safety is at stake too,”
Donak added.  “How do we know he is not here to finish the job Karukan
started?  How do we know he is not here to launch the Karuptas efforts to
annihilate the Rozarian Saintists and retake this planet?”

“That is patently ridiculous," I
snapped.  “Do you truly think the Karuptas want to give up their nice green
healthy planet to return to this post Armageddon nuclear wasteland?”

“Are the Karuptas going to invade Rozari?”
Kenak asked, hesitantly gazing up at Senya while Senya stared off in the
distance, a bored expression on his face.

"Didn’t you say the Karupta have
de-evolved?"  I reminded them.  "How are they supposed to invade?  On
horseback?"

“Still,” Donak shook his head.  “He is a
de Kudisha.  His ancestor was responsible for the havoc that turned this planet
into this.”  He waved at the red dust.  “By admitting him into this Institute,
by assisting him even, we could be jeopardizing our own standing.  You could
lose your funding, perhaps even your department.  I could lose my
privileges."

"We are anthropologists," I
reminded Kenak.  "We are supposed to study your ancestors.  It’s perfect
that Senya is here.  He can give us insight that no one else has.  I'm sure the
Dean will understand that even if he is a Saintist.  Look at him."  I
pointed at Senya who was now crouched down in the dirt, picking at the toes of
his shoes.  There were two holes forming right above his big toes and an ugly
black nail was emerging through each of them.  “He’s just an innocent mutated
kid with some weird things about him.  Maybe we can give him a whole new life. 
Maybe he can study something and get a job.”

"Oh, I see," Donak replied
snippily.  "It's perfectly fine for you to study him but not me even in
the name of medical science."

“We are just talking to him, not cutting
him open."

Kenak rubbed his eyes tiredly and Donak
fumed.  Senya straightened up, apparently having finished destroying his shoes.

"Alright," Kenak sighed. 
"Let's just submit the paperwork and get this done.  We shall argue
another day on who or how we may study him.  Will you come back to the office
with us Senya...er Sehron?”

Senya shrugged and breathed out a plume of
grey smoke.

“Yes, of course he will.” I grabbed the
boy’s arm and pulled him back toward our building.  Surprisingly, he came along
docilely.

“Where do you live, Senya?” I asked as we
walked back.  “Are you living on the street?  Are you homeless?"

“Perhaps you would like to take him home
with you now, Shelly?" Donak snipped from behind us.  “Your newly adopted
son, the descendent of the Infidel.”

"We will get him a dorm room
too," Kenak sighed.  “The son of the Infidel will be housed, clothed, fed
and educated by the taxpayers of Rozari.”

Somehow, Kenak, with the assistance of
Donak and me, got through and submitted all of the paperwork.  We had a bit of
challenge determining Senya's birthday and how old he was.  Ultimately, we
settled on what sounded like the closest date on our calendar, August 1st. 
That made him almost exactly twenty-seven years old, the same age as my oldest
son, Thad.

By the time the new semester started,
Senya was speaking Rozarian fairly fluently although his accent was thick and
inflection was almost always off.  I would also practice English with him which
was just as terrible.  Kenak took him to be assessed for placement but returned
befuddled.

“What's the matter?” I asked.

“We couldn't assess him,” Kenak sat on the
sofa and looked at his hands.

“He couldn't understand the tests or the
procedures or what?”  I felt terribly sad.  Maybe he wasn’t all that smart but
I still wanted Senya to do well and succeed.  I wanted him to get a degree or
at least some sort of education and skills so he could make money and have a
normal life.  Well as normal a life as a guy with weird powers and blind silver
eyes could have.

Kenak shook his head.  “He already knows
everything.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mathematics, physics, the sciences,
economics, everything."

“Algebra?”

“No Shelly, advanced differential
equations, differential geometry, ergodic theory and dynamics.”

Donak came through the door just then.

“I think he used his telepathy to read the
minds of the examiners and retrieve the answers,” he stated.  He grabbed a soda
from the fridge and sat down next to Kenak.

 “No,” Kenak replied emphatically.  “He
had to work out equations and argue the proofs and not only did he do it
quicker than the professors but in several cases proved them wrong on their own
solutions.  Not to mention, I administered the exam in organic chemistry
myself.  He demonstrated a full understanding of the topic and even tried to
engage me in a discussion of nanotechnology and electro optic materials to
which I have only a very limited knowledge.”

“Wow,” I said and pondered that.  “Maybe
the Rehnorians really are more advanced than the Rozarians.”

“I doubt that,” Donak replied drily.

“No,” Kenak responded.  “Rehnorians, the
Karupta especially are less advanced than us.  He must be as exceptional in his
intelligence as he is in other ways.”

“I wish I knew more about those unique
proteins in his plasma,” Donak sighed.  “I wonder if they are the source of all
these powers and abilities.  Of course, I can’t draw any blood on him.”  Donak
looked pointedly at me.  “How proteins would make him a genius though, I cannot
fathom.”  He stood up again and crossed the office to look at the window at the
dull red landscape.

“What's going to become of him then?”  I
was now more worried than ever. If the Saintists found out about him, if they
felt threatened, they might revoke his citizenship and kick him off this
planet.  “Can he still go to school here?

“Yes,” Kenak replied.  “He is very
interested in medicine.  He wants to become a doctor.”

“Really?”

Donak cleared his throat and turned around. 
A slight smile played on his lips.  “Surgery, neurology, brain function. 
Apparently he doesn’t know everything there is to know about these subjects as
of yet.”

“He said he wants to heal people,” Kenak
added.

“A blind brain surgeon?” I laughed.  “I
think I’d be a little nervous about letting him cut into my head.  What if he
cuts out the wrong part?”

“He sees more with those sensory lenses
than you or I could ever imagine,” Donak replied.  “He can spot things with
those that a normal eye simply cannot.  I believe he will make a fine surgeon
and an excellent diagnostician.”

“Why do you think the Rehnorians gave him
up?” I asked.  “Do you think they didn't understand what he is?”

“I don't know about that.”  Kenak shook
his head and went to stand by the window with his friend.  “But whether they
understood or not, it is undoubtedly to our benefit that they did.”

A year and a few months later, Senya, was
now known as Dr. Ron by the staff of the medical centre, a nickname given to
him by a group of nurses.  He had Rozarian citizenship.  He had completed all
coursework from the medical school at a record pace and was currently working
through his internship at the hospital.  He still lived in the dorms but was on
probation for entertaining too many young ladies in his room.  The girls
flocked around him which surprised Kenak and Donak but was patently obvious to
me.  I didn’t see him very much anymore.  Occasionally, I caught a glimpse of
him walking across campus and disappearing inside one or another building
before I could catch up to say hello.  All the research and information about
Rehnor and the Karuptas that we had hoped to garner from him had fallen by the
wayside. 

From the beginning Senya refused to answer
our questions and to this day politely or impolitely ignored Kenak.   It didn’t
bother me any.  I could see he was running away from something and didn’t want
to remember it.  Poor Kenak was saddened though.  He thought he had found the
capstone for all his years of research and study only to have it slip through
his fingers.  Senya, for all his brilliance, mutant chromosomes and magic, was
just a young man at heart and this I needed to keep reminding my Rozarian
friends.

The door opened and a man stepped in.  He
was older, about Tim’s age and huge, easily three hundred pounds.  The man had
a lion's head of white hair and very pale white skin with eyes that were a very
pale blue, almost color-less.  He was wearing a handsome suit of obviously fine
fabric although the style was a little odd and he was clutching a Universal
Translator in his hand.  He brought it up to his mouth like a microphone and
spoke into it.

“Hello,” he called.

“Hello,” I replied and the translator
repeated it back to him in whatever language he was speaking.  “You don't have
to hold it and speak into it.  Just put it in your pocket and it will hear us
and translate out the speaker.”

“Thank you,” he said and did so.

“Can I help you?”

The man cleared his throat.  He pulled at
his collar and I could see he was sweating heavily under his suit jacket.

“Why don't you take off your coat?” I
suggested.  “It's much too hot here to be dressed like that.  Did you just come
out of a dome?”