Chapter CHAPTER XVI—HUZEEN LIVE AMONG US

“A what-en?” Needless to say, I did not possess the appropriate level of appreciation for the magnitude of this declaration.

She smiled briefly, and then her face became serious once more. “A Huzeen is a crossbreed between a Tepon, Veex or Zux species, and non-Tepon species.”

“Previous occurrences of these hybrids have simply been myth,” added Jules.

Another exasperated sigh loafed over the table from Rahim’s side of the room.

“Is there a problem, Brother?” Iris asked Rahim, practically daring him to answer what I perceived to be a strictly rhetorical question.

“Yes, there is, Sister,” answered Rahim hotly, ignoring her threatening tone. “You are well aware of the fact that the Huzeen is a fictional creature with whom guardians scare their rowdy children with when they want them to behave.”

“You seriously believe that, Brother?” she questioned, her tone incredulous. “I believe that story was created to cover up the facts behind the real existence of Huzeen.”

“It is heresy to conspire about such things,” he countered with a sense of false authority, “And blasphemous to even mention them as if they could be plausible.”

“Is that so, ‘Professor’?” Her tone oozed sarcasm.

“There has been no successful procreation between Tepon and non-Tepon species in the history of our people!”

“That never kept you from playing with fire, Unhenie.”

“How dare you! I would never—”

“I heard about your little friend on Eniam, Brother. What was her name—Bureha Legna? Sister of Neve–”

“That’s enough,” interjected Jules before the argument proceeded beyond a salvageable point.

Rahim opened his mouth to rebut but thought better of it. He sank heavily into his chair. His chest and shoulders slumped. His posture appeared sloppy for the first time since I had met him.

He had entered the room with his pride on a string like a large balloon only to find a space full of porcupines. Iris, with her “Huzeen” data, had been sure to bring extra quills to deflate her brother’s ego.

Now he attempted to carefully back himself into a corner, lest he brush up against one of the sharp points of her willpower. His evasive actions only postponed the delivery of the inevitable and devastating final blow.

He obviously could not argue with the presented evidence. Not yet, at least. He seemed determined to find a way for reasons I did not understand at the time. Rahim stood steadfast in his opposition to Iris and her Huzeen conclusion. Like political opponents in a campaign octagon, he felt determined to bring her so-called solution to its knees.

With both fighters in their corners, Jules proceeded with questions of his own, “If what you are saying is true, Iris,” he began in a tone of objectivity, “Then one of Kaya’s parents was a Tepon?”

“Or another Huzeen,” answered Iris confidently.

Jules thought this answer over silently.

“Wow,” I breathed, mulling the whole idea over.

“Preposterous,” muttered Rahim from his chair.

I began to wonder which one of my parents would have been the special one. I quickly lost the air of unbiased evaluation I had meant to sustain regarding my DNA. The conclusion made sense to me considering everything that had been happening recently. I felt excited by the possibilities of being special.

“Do you know which parent would be the Huzeen?” Jules inquired.

“I believe it was her mother,” Iris answered excitedly. “Most likely a Veex Huzeen.”

“What data did you use to form this hypothesis?”

“I took Kaya to the Spirit Room, Sir.”

“And?” Jules leaned forward in his seat towards Iris.

“I saw my mother,” I answered for her.

Jules looked at me with intensity and fascination as if he could not make up his mind how to feel about the news. He sat back in his chair and laced his fingers together, deeply contemplating the consequences of such alarming information.

“Iris,” he spoke finally, “Why don’t you sit down.”

“Yes sir,” Iris said and took a seat in between Jules and me.

“Kaya,” Jules called.

“Yes,” I answered, timid.

“How do you feel about this information?”

I thought about my answer carefully before I gave it. “It’s all very shocking, of course, but I think of it as meeting cousins that I didn’t know I had. You all seem like good people to me, aliens or not, so I guess I’m okay with it.”

Jules smiled at me, his eyes exuding kindness. “Iris, you can proceed,” he addressed his General.

“Assuming that abilities are passed similarly in Huzeen as they are in Tepons,” Iris continued full speed ahead, “I knew you would have to be a Veex Huzeen.”

“How can you be sure?” I asked feeling relieved that I had not been associated with the psychotic Zux aliens.

“Because Veex pass their abilities from mother to daughter and father to son where as Zux pass their abilities from mother to son and father to daughter.”

I could feel my eyes widen with awe.

I had always known that my mother possessed something special within her. Now that I had learned exactly what that something was, I felt even more proud to be her daughter. She had existed as part Tepon, specifically Veex, and so had I. Our DNA contained elements from a 5th dimensional being with super powers.

“We don’t look different from everyone else, my mother and I,” I looked down at my own hands as if seeing them for the first time.

“But you have a positive spiritual presence,” Jules offered. “I believe Earth-Humans call it an aura. It emanates from you like a beacon of harvest moonlight, comparable to any Veex.”

“Really?” I asked. I took the statement as a compliment.

“Also, your natural scent is distinctively sweet, almost as much so as a Veex female,” he hummed. “But it’s twice as alluring. There is a certain additional element there that makes you uniquely fragrant.”

I instinctively sniffed my shirt, but only smelled fabric softener.

Iris snickered. She looked as close to giddy as I had ever seen her. I could tell that she enjoyed this discovery.

She chirped, “The smell may be too faint for your nose to detect.”

“But it’s there,” added Jules smoothly. “Believe me.”

I could feel my face flush as we made eye contact with one another. Rahim cleared his voice noisily at my side.

Iris changed the subject. “So, we know your mother had to have been Huzeen,” she explained, “Because she survived your birth. If she would have been fully Tepon, she would have passed away the day you were born.”

“Like my father?” I asked curiously.

“Yes, that fact intrigued me when you first told me, but his absence in the Spirit Room must mean that he is human and that fact was purely coincidental.”

I sighed. I had hoped to find that both my parents had been Huzeen. It could explain how they found each other so irresistible when they first met.

Iris continued in a warning tone, “Keep in mind that this is a seemingly unprecedented event. We still have much more research to conduct. I’ll most likely have to take more samples from you so that Alec can conduct some additional tests. He’s eager to analyze this theory into the ground, nourish it, and produce some indisputable facts.”

“And if he is able to get them,” I began in a tone far too excited to be considered impartial to the idea any longer, “When will I get my powers?”

“Let me clarify something for you before we continue,” she said, serious as death. “These are not some make-believe superpowers used by some guy in tights and a cape or some chick with half her goods hanging out! We’ve seen what passes for entertainment on this planet.

“These natural abilities are just like intellect and agility. They have to be developed and trained to be fully realized.” She took a deep breath before she continued in a lighter tone. “Even within a family or sibling pairs, some individuals are more intrinsically gifted than others at using their abilities.

“These individuals only train minimally, but they are still able use their abilities fully. Others have to train harder than most in order to maintain proficiency. It all depends on your ability and mental focus.”

I wondered which kind of Veex she represented, the naturally gifted, hard-working, or a little of both.

“Not that I don’t believe you, Iris,” I said cautiously, “but wouldn’t I have noticed by now that I had some sort of special ability?” I made sure to use the right terminology that time.

“Is your grandmother still alive?”

“No, she passed when I was eighteen.”

In my peripheral view, I saw Rahim stir in his chair. He seemed interested in what Iris would say next.

“There’s a possibility that your abilities have laid more or less dormant until recently.”

“Why would that be?” I asked curiously, hoping not to sound controversial.

Rahim leaned in a centimeter or two towards us. He had been waiting patiently for his chance to jump in and debunk her theory. He would waste no time in attacking it if she did not come up with a sufficient answer.

Iris sat closer to me than Rahim, but she did not whisper or try to conceal anything from him. “Well, since your mother’s soul just recently passed into the Essence—” she pondered.

“Into where?” I questioned.

Rahim slouched back into his seat before she had even finished her statement. Obviously, to his dismay, the direction that Iris’s answer took seemed to satisfy whatever criterion he had set for an adequate explanation.

“The Essence,” Iris continued, “Is the place where all 5th dimensional souls go after their physical life has expired. It’s located in another dimension—one much higher one from where we are now or even where Tepo is—well, was located,” she answered then continued. “Your mother’s passing may have released the full potential of your ability. Since you have no female offspring, the ability would be yours and yours alone. With training, I imagine it could be stronger than your mother’s.”

This felt like too much to swallow in one sitting. I had drunk from a fire hose to quench my thirst for knowledge and now I felt physically full though I had not eaten in four or five hours. My mind, too busy with wonder, did not have room to consider hunger.

That last thought grabbed onto me and held on tight.

“Iris—” I said distantly.

“Yes,” she replied.

“There are others like me, right? Other Huzeen!”

It felt like more of an expectation than an actual question. I would have been both surprised and disappointed if she said anything but “yes.”

“We believe so.”

“We?” asked Jules.

“Alec and I,” answered Iris.

“Do you know where the others are located?” he asked, sitting up straighter in his chair.

“There’s no way of knowing, Sir,” she answered respectfully.

“Can’t we look for them?” I yelped. “They may be in danger! Think about it, every other victim of General Hayami before my mother had been a random night owl in the streets when they were attacked. My mother did not fit that mold. She was in our home with my son.”

“You’re right,” Iris agreed. “General Hayami must have known something.”

I continued thoughtfully, cementing my proposition, “That Zux general came into house in order to kill mother who was a ”

I got worked up thinking about General Hayami targeting other families. When the day came, if that person did not have the support that I had, how would they survive?

“She took my son alive. Why if not to use him to get to me? Rahim was there to protect me, so she couldn’t have killed me then and there.”

“That’s possible, Kaya,” agreed Jules. “We were seeking your expertise, but somehow the Zux found out about your abilities.”

“True,” spoke Iris. “There’s a possibility that one of General Hayami’s victims was a Huzeen who had connections to you and your family. Her abilities would have allowed her to ‘taste’ the difference in the victim’s biological make-up. But who?”

“Oh my God,” I stammered. “My ex.”

“What about him?” asked Iris.

“He was killed by General Hayami. In fact, he may have been the first.”

“And you think he was a Huzeen?” questioned Iris.

“I don’t know. I guess anything is possible.”

“Where are his medical records?”

“At my old job. They should have everything on file.”

“I’ll have Tala hack into their computer system and extract everything on him. What was his name?”

“Timothy Derrick Jones.”

Iris pulled what resembled a digital keyboard out of thin air above the table and began to type away feverishly. A small bubble of text appeared in the air before her. I imagined it to be the response from Tala. I could not read any of it and I assumed it was written in their native language. She and Tala exchange a few more messages before she swiped her hand and all the text bubbles disappeared.

“So what are we going to do about the Zux systematically killing and kidnapping people,” I asked, ready to lend a hand.

“

are not going to do anything,” Iris answered.

“Why not?” I shouted.

“We need more information. We need to be sure that the Zux actually know about the Huzeen here on Earth. If our actions alert them to the Huzeens’ existence, we could be—”

“But were the one that said we should fight back!” Though I became irate, I could feel a sense of coolness washing over me. “Not this time, Iris. I’m serious!” I said, shoving her coolness away with all my might.

“What was that?” she asked in shock.

I looked around the room, frantically searching for stray vermin or some other unwanted creature. “Where?” I asked, beginning to pat myself down. “Is it on me?”

“No, nothing is on you or in the Meeting Hall,” she sighed and rolled her eyes. “I was asking you what you were doing.”

“When?”

“Just now when I was trying to calm you down.” Though I looked directly at Iris, in my peripheral vision I could see Rahim and Jules scoot to the edge of their chairs.

“Did she just reject your influence?” Jules asked.

Rahim gasped despite himself.

“Yes,” Iris whispered, breathless. “And it worked. She fought me off.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“We know what your ability is,” answered Jules.