02 Quetzals Flock

QUETZAL'S FLOCK
Wearily and slowly, the great birds wheeled on the gentle breezes and dropped
down to settle on the moist ground. Like grey ghosts they were swallowed into the
pink tinged mist shrouding the new rich Schwarm and silver Myrc. They feasted and
gorged and the great red star warmed them.
The miracle of regeneration began, for invisible changes started deep within
them, as they once more fleshed out their depleted bodies. The oldest of the previous
Hatching were the first and then in the subsequent order of the hatching. The
irradiation from the white dwarf responded to fresh radiation from the red giant - and
thus it was that the mechanism of regeneration began. A follicle burst and an ovum
was issued which spontaneously divided, being already fertile and into its genetic
patterns was laid the image of the Flock, with all its inherited knowledge. In some
cases, more than one ovum generated and thus, the casualties they had suffered would
be replaced by twin hatchings.
Those who were to regenerate later, assumed the task of Sentinels, watching
over those in gestation. As the egg-womb grew in size within the breeders, they rose
into the air less frequently. A fundamental change took place in their thoughts. They
now focused their minds and being into the new life maturing within them and while
they continued to consume vast quantities of Schwarm and Myrc, it was not for their
old being but for the new.
The old being was no longer groomed and became increasingly unkempt.
There came the time when the egg-womb they carried had increased to such a size
that they no longer chose to move. They basked, bloated with fat, their bodies
distorted by the huge egg-womb, in the lurid light of the red star.
The Sentinels watched over the Breeders, soaring high and free over the plain
- in the future it would be their turn, for a new life stirred within them also. The eggwombs
grew monstrous. The Breeders could no longer move to browse - however,
they suffered no starvation pangs, for their being was no longer the carcass
surrounding the egg-womb. Within the hardening shell of silica was where their
regenerated life stirred. The outer carcass died and decayed until only the skeleton
remained.
The silver avian and the strange bipeds were an interlude that had intruded
upon one cycle and now were no more than a memory held within the composite
mind of the Sentinels.
The Flock soared high above the plain in the heat of the great red sun, waiting
and calling and encouraging the Unhatched.
.....
The vision faded and Kane returned to reality. He stared across the flames into
the eyes of the old man. He read compassion but there was something much deeper.
"The telling of the vision was enhanced by the presence of the Lord Quetzal."
Kane nodded absently, reality still hadn't returned.
"Who were the men in the alien ship?"
Urartu eyed him steadily.
"An incident recorded in the Mind of the Flock."
Kane swallowed.
"They looked like - my kind."
"Are you sure, Kane Ashford?"
"Right at the beginning the crewman mentioned an ancient legend of my
people - the Enterprise Legend - It can only mean that they are my kind."
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