Issue Tekno 1 - 56 - 10 10 - 15 OriginsBig 0 - 45 - 8
Leonard Nimoy's Primortals
1995 - 1997
The Origins of the Primortals Part I
Three days after the failed attempt to capture Zeerus in New York, there are reports that Primaster and the other aliens crashed on their way to a high security government installation. Of the cargo plane with them on board nothing but small debris is left in an out of the way area in the Rocky Mountains. The aliens' bodies, a reporter informs the world, haven't been found in the difficult terrain and Steward Davies is presumed dead.
Meanwhile, Prof. Karagigian finds himself on his way to a top secret location by military transport and Kafka is not happy with where the scientists at the base want to stick their needles. Narab, watching King Kong on TV, tells him to cool it off, as he saw on the Surgery Channel that they're pretty harmless. Primaster assures him that the humans can hold them for only as long as they would permit. For as part of their showing good will, they had agreed to being studied.
Because he thought the Primortals, Stewart, Jess, and MacMahon would be more likely to cooperate if they interacted with a friendly face, General Stark had Prof. Karagigian brought to the installation to act as liaison. The Professor assures them he's not going to take sides, as he's not permitted to leave the base either way. One of the very first questions he wants cleared is why the Primortals resemble earth creatures so much in ways that have to be more than coincidence. Reluctantly Primaster agrees to tell the story of how it all began.
65 million years ago the Majae invented what they called the force distortion technology. It enabled them to to bend space and energy to their will and leave their planet. It was too much power too fast. They flew around and tested and experimented on anything that came their way. The fateful expedition to Earth was led by one of Primaster's ancestors and he and the Majae are certainly to blame for what happened next.
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Earth was more dangerous than any of the other planets they'd visited combined and claimed many lives among the Majae. Instead of retreating the dead were named heroes and efforts intensified to tame Earth. The fallen's sacrifice, Primaster's ancestor believed, would be validated by their success to establish control over their surroundings. After a time the Majae learned to co-exist with life on Earth and Prrimaster's Parat-Baj (Over-Father) grew attached to the place to an extent that he felt he had to do something when it was discovered the planet was doomed. He started an operation to transfer as many animals as possible to other, uninhabited worlds. After several centuries he had his doubts, though. Was it compassion, he asked himself, or did he interfere with the universe's natural order and disturbed natural evolution on Earth. The point became philosophical when one of their five mile long ships malfunctioned, crashed into the planet, and annihilated everything within a 100 mile radius, rendering it uninhabitable in the aftermath. The Majae abandoned their operation and left Earth to die.
The Origins of the Primortals Part II
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Earth might have been doomed in the future, but the Majae's efforts to save its life forms brought it to a much earlier grave. Stewart is appalled that they didn't at least "clean things up." Earth was beyond their means to repair, Primaster admits, and due to the prediction of an ecological upheaving its days were numbered anyway. There was no way for them to predict the planet would recover and give rise to humanity.
Subsequently, the affair let to a non-interference policy concerning other worlds. Prof. Karagigian is eager to hear more, anticipating that what they'll learn will change everything in humanity's book. For that reason alone, Primaster refuses to tell them more than he absolutely must.
His ancestor took animals to hundred of worlds they termed habitat worlds, he continues, seeking to redeem his family's honor through the care for them. Since in the wake of the incident on Earth Majae law now prohibited experimentation on foreign planets, scientists lay their eyes on the habitat worlds, desiring to use them as living laboratories. To stem and regulate those desires he chose trusted comrades as wardens to safeguard the natural development of the displaced animals. With his death all changed. There was a fascination with the potential for intelligence all the Earth creatures had within the Majae. Soon enough, even though it took millions of years, through genetic engineering and selective breeding, the Primortal societies emerged, build on Majae principles of peace and non-violence that forbid the taking of sentient life.
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If they had that much control, MacMahon interjects, how could someone like Zeerus develop? They didn't redefine the animals' nature, Primaster explains, just hastened them along the path of evolution. At one point a group calling themselves the Homeworlder Enclave rebelled against Majae rule because they "believed their rightful destiny was to return to Earth and rule it." Since the Majae didn't consider that an option, their leader, Garrizun, turned to violence, wanting to remind them they were "predators, not pray." The rebellion was crushed, but the idea itself kept alive as discontent with Majae rule continued to take root in other races.
Some at the base believe the story as told by Primaster, others, like General Stark, declare it too outlandish to be true. All have one question, though. If the crash wasn't the ecological disaster that Majae scientists had foreseen, then what was it? Primaster admits that it hasn't happened yet to shocked faces. He eases the news by assuring those around that it won't occur in their lifetime. General Stark insists he tell them anyway and let them at least try and stop it. Primaster refuses to reveal this piece of information or yield to any other demand of theirs anymore and insists that from now on all business between them be conducted according to diplomatic standards. Furthermore, he demands that Stewart and Jess be allowed to leave the base and that the public be told they're alive. If his demands aren't met, they'll catch Zeerus themselves and leave Earth without telling the humans any more about the planet's past or future.
