The Ven Hypothesis (Kepos Chronicles Book 2) by Erica Rue

Author:Erica Rue [Rue, Erica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: space travel, biology, Genetics, aliens, Colonization
Publisher: Tannhauser Press
Published: 2018-12-21T07:00:00+00:00

23. DIONE

Dione and Professor Oberon were the only ones left on the Calypso. Lithia and Evy had gone to get a shuttle ready, and Zane had followed Bel into the Mountain Base. Dione finally had a moment alone with the professor, and she needed to say something. But the words kept getting stuck.

“Dione, is there something you wanted to talk to me about?” Professor Oberon’s voice was gentle and patient.

“I’m sorry,” she said, blinking back tears. “On the Ven ship, I thought… I thought you were dead. You weren’t moving, and there was so much blood.”

He put his hand to the back of his head where his wound was still healing. “Dione, you can’t blame yourself. If you had stayed, we’d both be dead, and so would the others. You gave them a chance to escape, and somehow, me, too.”

“What do you mean?”

“You probably noticed the Vens hunting me had the same symbols as the blue ones that boarded the Calypso. I don’t understand it all, but I think they were hunting me for retribution. It’s strange, because they don’t seem to have the same ritual for adults who are killed in battle. It’s almost reassuring that they hold the lives of children sacred, too.”

Dione had never thought about that. The Vens seemed like a monolith to her—all the same, all violent, evil, irredeemable—but they had to have hierarchies or social structures, surely, and culture. No. Curiosity had its place, and this wasn’t it.

“They’re monsters,” she said, emphatically.

“Maybe. Certainly from our point of view. I’m not condoning their behavior, but I’m asking why. Why are they doing this?”

“Maybe it’s how their culture operates, or there is some biological imperative within them to kill. Who cares? They almost killed you. They killed hundreds of Ficarans. The sooner they’re all dead, the better.”

The professor thought a moment. “I think what you’re saying is that this question doesn’t matter right now, because we’re all in danger, right?”

“I guess so,” Dione said.

“What if understanding their motivations helped us defeat them?”

Dione said nothing. She was torn. This was not the time to study the Vens, unless it could be done at the same time she was killing them.

“I think that survival is our number one priority,” she said.

“I won’t tell you to show them mercy or spare them. They won’t spare our lives. Just don’t let your anger blind you to opportunities to understand, because those opportunities may save your life. They may save the planet.”

“Bel has been studying the one we killed on the ship. She has a hypothesis,” Dione said. “She was making observations about the Ven’s physiology, and she noticed a pattern. The Vens have a lot of the adaptations of prey: the thick plating, the rectangular pupils, the appearance of being dead while regenerating tissue.”

The professor furrowed his brow. “She thinks they’re actually prey.”

“What if they’re not nomadic hunters roaming the galaxy for prey? What if they are fleeing something more terrible?”

“That’s a troubling idea. More terrible than the Vens?” The professor considered the proposition for a moment, then shook his head.

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