Commonwealth
Universe
Downfall
Era/Era I
The
Sorendaal/Pirate novels
Niall Encardi heard the news of the
coup at the beginning of the final lecture in MERAH, before graduating as a
doctor from the Merkator Medical Academy. His classmates spread the rumors and
speculations in harsh, rapid whispers, punctuated by curses, as they waited for
the team of professors to step up to the lectern in the center of the lecture
amphitheater.
The timing of the news struck Niall as symbolic and
ironic. The new regime called itself the Restoration Alliance, and had been
threatening the entrenched government of the Central Allied Worlds for nearly
three years now with strong backing from the Set’ri, who insisted on “purifying”
the Human genome. Their dogma included sterilizing all “defective” genetic
variations, and making slaves of any humanoid race that didn’t match their
narrow, exclusive criteria.
MERAH stood for Medial Ethics Relating to Augmented
Humanoids – meaning Wrinkleship pilots, Khybors, and all the lesser mutations
and variations that had come about by accident or as byproducts of the
tinkering of generations of scientists. The ones who couldn’t reproduce were
safe, and perhaps to be envied. The Set’ri didn’t care about them. The ones who
could pass their augmented genetics on to their children -- especially Khybors
-- or whose tangled genetic side trips could show up in future generations of
their family line even if they themselves didn’t or couldn’t reproduce -- such
as Wrinkleship pilots -- were their targets.
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