Page 104 of Dark Gambit Reliance

"I wouldn't put it past the gods to have caused it," Jade said. "They had the technology, but they must have taken it with them when they left, or those who remained on Earth didn't have the tools or knowhow to maintain it." She turned to Toven. "Which one was it?"

"A combination of both, I suspect. Please, continue your story."

It was an evasive answer, but he hadn't promised to tell her anything. He'd promised to free her people, and he had done his part. Now it was her turn to do hers.

"The males were allowed to visit their tribes when the females were in their fertile cycle, which all the Kra-ell females of breeding age entered simultaneously. But since there were many more males than females, there was fierce competition. Games were organized for the males to fight each other and to participate in other contests of strength and endurance. Only the winners got invited to breed with the females."

"I hope it was the females' choice and it wasn't forced upon them," Mia murmured sleepily.

"The gods didn't go that far," Jade said. "The females chose who they wanted to invite to their beds. In fact, contests like that used to be deadly before the gods enslaved the Kra-ell, but the gods outlawed fighting to the death. Then again, it could have been part of their effort to rewrite history to make themselves look good. But since the fertility festival continued to be celebrated for thousands of years after the Kra-ell were freed, and fights to the death were no longer prohibited, it's possible that the gods' records were truthful on that."

"Finally, we get to the interesting part," Yamanu murmured. "I want to hear how they were freed."

Tom chuckled. "I have so many questions before that. Why did the gods live underground? When did they start interstellar travel? Where is their planet?"

"I can answer some of that," Jade said. "Our sun is what you call a red giant, and our planet is hot, humid, windy, and dark, so the gods are more comfortable in their underground cities. I can't tell you where it is because I was never shown a map of the galaxy with our planet and Earth marked and directions on how to get from point X to point Z. All I know is that it's hundreds of light years away."

"How do you know that it's hundreds of light years and not thousands?" Tom asked.

"I know how long we were supposed to be in stasis, and it was in the hundreds of light years, not thousands, but then our years are not the same as yours. They are significantly longer."

"What do you mean by supposed?" Tom asked.

"It took thousands of years instead of hundreds. I think we were tricked, but it could have been a malfunction."

"Tricked by whom?" Tom asked.

She smiled. "The gods, of course. Who else? It was their ship. But I'm getting ahead of the story." She turned to Yamanu. "You wanted to know how the Kra-ell were freed."

"Most definitely."

"The Kra-ell hated living underground. They loved being outdoors, and they lived for the hunt. Those who worked the fields for the gods were not as miserable as those who worked in their factories and homes. The festivals were the only times those who worked underground got to be outdoors.

"Their liberation happened in three stages. A movement started among the gods to better the Kra-ell's conditions and end their slavery. By then, the animal population had rebounded, not enough to fully sustain all the Kra-ell, but enough for them to enjoy the occasional hunt. The young gods helped the Kra-ell negotiate a new deal. They would still work for the gods during the day, but at night they would be allowed to go topside and hunt if they wanted to. They were given building materials to erect lodging for themselves, the females and children could come live with them, and they could elect a new queen. It was an improvement, but their living conditions left much to be desired, especially compared to how the gods lived."

"They could have built the things they needed," Tom said. "After all, they worked in the gods' factories and produced all of their goods."

"The Kra-ell received only basic education and didn't know how to create the things they built for the gods. They only knew how to put them together."

Yamanu nodded. "It makes sense. The workers who put together cellphones don't know how to design them."

Tom looked like he wanted to say something but then decided not to.

Jade continued. "The young gods who initiated the change realized that it wasn't enough, and they demanded that the Kra-ell be given complete autonomy. The older gods claimed that the symbiotic relationship was beneficial to both people, and to sever it would destroy both societies. The gods needed the Kra-ell labor, and the Kra-ell needed the goods that the gods manufactured because the planet's wildlife could not sustain their population. They still needed the synthetic blood that the gods produced. One of the young gods leading the movement was a gifted inventor, and he proposed to replace the Kra-ell workforce with smart robots that were just as strong and could perform all the menial tasks the gods needed the Kra-ell for."

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"The Odus were invented," Toven said. "I can see how that could solve the gods' problem, but what about the Kra-ell? They still needed to buy synthetic blood and other goods from the gods, but if they couldn't work for those things, how were they going to get them?"

Jade leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. "Things like that don't happen overnight. Someone still had to build those smart robots. On top of that, they weren't easy or inexpensive to make, and the gods couldn't replace the Kra-ell workforce without creating a huge drain on their resources, which were needed primarily to develop their interstellar fleet. The idea sounded good in theory but wasn't economically or practically viable. The gods still needed the Kra-ell workforce."

"So nothing really changed," Sofia said.

"The change was gradual." Jade stretched her booted legs in front of her. "The newly elected Kra-ell queen negotiated with the gods' king for the Kra-ell to be paid actual wages, not just in goods. They were no longer forced to work for the gods. They could choose where they wanted to work, negotiate their wages, and use their earnings to buy whatever they pleased from the gods. Over time, the Kra-ell built better dwellings for themselves, and their living conditions improved significantly."

"What did the gods do with the Odus?" Yamanu asked.