Free Dark Planet by Charles W. Sasser Page A

taa camps. What was he talking about, Kadar San?”
    I hesitated. The mere mention of taa frightened Humans.
    “Surges of taa produced by the Zentadon endocrine system can bring about a physical and mental transformation,” I said, speaking from personal experience after the night of the attempted sabotage. “In this stage, Zentadon are capable of what you Humans call super strength and abilities.”
    “I remember when I was a little girl and my great-great grandfather was more than a hundred years old,” Maid interrupted, reflecting. “He told stories about the early years of colonization and exploration. He told one of the stories as a warning whenever the children were unruly and needed straightening out. Sort of like, the boogie man will get you if you don’t behave. It was about how his great-great grandfather fought in the Revolution. He saw Zentadon soldiers wipe out one of our colonies. He described them as looking like devils with their green or purple eyes and their tails. They moved with such incredible speed that they were like flitting shadows, unable to be seen except the way you see a bird out of the corner of your eye before it disappears. They actually exploded buildings with only the collective energy of their minds. They shredded flesh off Humans and ate it. I …”
    She looked pale beneath her brown skin.
    “It is little wonder that Humans are suspicious of Zentadon,” I commiserated.
    “The story is true?”
    It was suddenly important to me that I make her understand.
    “The Indowy through their technology developed means of inducing taa in Zentadon at their will and thus controlling us by it,” I said. “Zentadon are inherently peaceful people. We were captured in large numbers and interned in camps under the most horrid conditions. The camps were run like animal breeding and experimental stations. Hundreds of thousands of us died — as many as twenty million. All to satisfy the Indowy quest for super soldiers to be used to conquer the galaxy and enslave the Humans and other sentients to a cartel of madmen who ruled the Indowy at that period.”
    “The camps were here, on Aldenia?”
    “Hundreds of them, all over the planet, along with various war research laboratories and factories. There was one unforeseen consequence of the taa scheme, however. Taa in sufficient quantities released into our systems may produce a condition known as lintatai, which can destroy us very quickly. Lintatai may occur in two ways. A Zentadon goes into a fugue state of mind during which he will neither eat nor sleep. He will not do anything unless ordered, and then only as a zombie reaction. He burns out on the inside and slowly withers, useless to himself and everyone else until he dies.”
    Maid shivered. “How awful. And the other way?”
    “The Indowy wanted to build super soldiers based on the control of taa. And they did. The downside was that we literally burn up from the inside out with all that energy. Prolonged overdoses cause us to go into acute lintatai and explode from the inside, to spontaneously combust into flames.”
    “Like one of the saboteurs did?”
    I shot a glance at her.
    “I was told about it,” she quickly explained. “Is that why the Zentadon are so comparatively few today?”
    “The Indowy had to keep replacing Zentadon with fresh captives, running us through the camps by the millions. If we survived the camps, not many of us survived the taa rushes imposed upon us in combat. Soon, so few of us remained that you Humans were able to … Well, the Great Revolution succeeded. Humans have recorded it in your histories, from your point of view.”
    Maid looked horrified. She stared at Aldenia with new intensity.
    “It is an evil place,” she whispered. “Is that why it was abandoned.”
    “It is said that the malevolent spirits of the Indowy butchers and the Zentadon who collaborated with them are trapped and isolated in the darkness of the planet. That no one who goes there