Worldship Files: Leviathan by Erik Schubach

Author:Erik Schubach [Schubach, Erik]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Erik Schubach
Published: 2019-08-17T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9 – Wake Me Up Inside

What I found out would have had my jaw on the floor if I wasn't in virtual zero G in the microgravity down here. Hells, I needed the mag-circuits in my boots powered just to keep my feet on the floor. Every child is taught the history of the Leviathan. And about population Equilibrium. The Worldship can only sustain a specific number of souls, with an acceptable safety margin, or the whole delicate ecosystem on the world could be thrown out of balance.

So by the charter, population levels for all races are to be kept at the same levels as they were upon Exodus. Which, is why I exist. During a period of low Human or other race's birthrates, the Reproduction Clinic will either gestate or clone babies to replenish numbers. It is why the Clinic exists.

And the fluctuations in populations has remained static since launch, with acceptable fluctuations within a tenth of a percent over time. The most noticeable was the Human population that seems to be in chaotic flux all the time, as we are such a short-lived species. For every thousand humans who die, every year, only three or four citizens of other races die.

Every few years, we lose some lesser Fae who die in accidents or something similar. There was even a lesser Fae illness that swept through the stacks seven centuries ago that actually killed off a significant number of lesser Fae including Sprites and Pixies. But their numbers are almost back to Equilibrium now.

I had to smile at that, Graz's children were the latest Sprites born, and that brings their numbers up to just shy of launch day numbers.

And I figured that is was just common sense that the Greater Fae were eternal, so their numbers were unchanging. But I was shocked to find that since Exodus, the Leviathan has actually lost twenty-five Greater Fae over the eons of her journey. It seems they are not immune to freak accidents either... and even one murder in the early years.

And two are marked as inactive. After some digging it seems they are still alive, just as ice sculptures, engaged in the act of coitus, adorning the Winter Lady's bedchambers. One had been a lover who was dallying around with one of the palace staff behind Mab's back. She... 'sentenced' them to that fate, to be frozen on the cusp of release just as she had found them the day she walked in on them, until the day of Land Fall, when the Fae walk on the Ground again. She was truly wicked.

I shivered, my breath fogging on my lips as I decided I had gotten off easy. Maybe I should send her a fruit basket or something for sparing me. Or would that be too close to a thank you?

The more striking information is that no Fae children had ever been born to take the place of the ones lost, and maintain the Equilibrium. Though many mating and breeding attempts were made, it was determined that the Greater Fae were incapable of producing new progeny.

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