Page 105 of Dark Gambit Reliance

"They were modified to be house servants only. The factory robots didn't need to look like people, and they cost much less to make."

"So that's the end of the story?" Marcel asked. "The Kra-ell were given equal rights?"

Jade laughed. "Not even close. The Kra-ell were free, they had their tribal grounds, and the gods didn't interfere in their affairs, but they were regarded as second-class, or rather as savages, and from their point of view, the gods were not wrong. For many generations following their emancipation, the Kra-ell were ruled by a dynasty of queens who were happy to let the tribal wars resume. It was our tradition, our nature, and the Kra-ell celebrated the freedom to kill each other. Most wars were over hunting grounds, others were about revenge, and some were fought just for the sake of fighting. The male population began to shrink again."

"Did the gods step in to stop it?" Mia asked. "That must have affected their workforce."

"By then, the gods had automated almost everything, and they no longer needed as many workers. They were happy for the Kra-ell to kill each other. They supplied the tribes with primitive weapons like swords, knives, and javelins, which would be useless if the Kra-ell ever turned against them."

"That was my next question," Toven said. "The Kra-ell were warriors, the gods had resources they needed, why didn't they attack?"

"The gods had superior technology and weapons." She waved a hand around. "It's the same old story, and Igor learned nothing from history. You came in with your spacesuits and subdued a force twice as large as yours with hardly any effort." She closed her eyes. "I made the same mistake. Perhaps if I’d had better weapons and more advanced surveillance at my compound, Igor wouldn't have had such an easy time killing my people."

"How did they do it?" Yamanu asked.

She waved a dismissive hand. "That's not part of the story I promised Tom."

What Jade had promised was the history of the gods, not the Kra-ell, but that was the history she knew, and the two were intertwined.

"Still, despite the tribal wars and deadly duels, the Kra-ell greatly outnumbered the gods, whose birth rate was a tiny fraction of the Kra-ell. But when a progressive queen outlawed the tribal wars and duels, our population exploded, and things got really bad. There weren't enough jobs, and the Kra-ell lived in abject poverty. Thankfully, enough time had passed for the animal population to grow and flourish, so they didn't starve, but things were bad. The gods started to fear them, while the young gods started to demand that something be done about the Kra-ell plight."

"I don't understand," Toven said. "After so many generations of being free, they should have built their own economy independent from the gods. Why didn't they?"

For the first time since he'd met Jade, her proud expression turned embarrassed. "We didn't have the right set of tools. We lacked education."

76

JADE

"The gods valued education and technology. We valued nature and staying true to our roots. We lived like primitive humans did a long time ago, while underground, an advanced civilization thrived. The gods who had supported the Kra-ell all along realized that our queen's progressive ideas would fall apart if we stayed rooted in our traditions, and the tribal wars would return. The only solution they could see was to make us more like them, not genetically because that was anathema to us, but by providing us with an education above the basics, so we could start building our own economy."

Tom nodded. "I bet there was a big resistance to the idea. Access to education is critical for removing class barriers, and the ruling class seldom grants it without a fight. Human history is rife with examples."

"You're right. The progressive gods demanded equal rights for the Kra-ell and access to the same education the gods had, but the king and the gods' council refused. They reasoned that if the Kra-ell wanted a better life for themselves and their children, they needed to develop their technology from scratch like the gods had done."

"That wasn't smart," Yamanu murmured. "They were sitting on top of a powder keg. They should have made at least a token concession."

"They didn't,” Jade said. “The movement grew, and as rumors of impending uprising started, the king ordered all the Odus delivered to the capital, and they were reprogrammed to defend the gods. I won't bore you with the war details, but the gist was that the Kra-ell were stronger, faster, and outnumbered the gods twenty to one. Even with the Odus and the advanced weaponry, the gods barely stood their ground, and the casualties on both sides were staggering. The king of the gods agreed to meet the queen of the Kra-ell and negotiate a peace treaty."

Tom shook his head. "I find it hard to believe that the gods let the situation escalate like that without trying to defuse it or launch a preemptive strike."

Jade glanced at Yamanu's phone, which was propped on the coffee table. Yamanu and Tom were still wearing their earpieces, so it was possible that the comment had originated from whoever was listening on the other side, but she was surprised that Tom, a god, deferred to anyone.

"As I said before, this is the history I know. Things might have happened differently, and perhaps the gods had made some halfhearted offer that the Kra-ell refused. The agreement they reached was that the Kra-ell would receive an education that would allow them to advance faster, but they would not be privy to the gods' genetic knowhow and their most advanced technology. In exchange, the king demanded that the Kra-ell submit to genetic manipulation to control their population growth. The queen refused to budge on that, fearing that the gods would manipulate more than the reproduction rate. The king responded that the only other option was for the Kra-ell to colonize other planets."

"I assume that the queen agreed," Tom said.

"She did. As part of the treaty, the Odus were decommissioned, and the technology to make them was banned. The gods replaced them with simpler robotic servants that were not nearly as strong and were easy to destroy."

"We suspected that was what happened to them," Yamanu said.

"You knew about the Odus?"

Yamanu nodded. “But I don’t understand why the gods would agree to decommission the Odus. What if the Kra-ell rebelled again?”

"I suspect the king wanted to get rid of the technology and used the treaty as an excuse. The Ouds could potentially be used against him by his own people. "

Tom lifted his hand. "So that was why the Kra-ell were sent to Earth? To colonize it?"