House of Zeor Read online

  THE SIME~GEN SERIES

  House of Zeor, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#1)

  Unto Zeor, Forever, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#2)

  First Channel, by Jean Lorrah and Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#3)

  Mahogany Trinrose, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#4)

  Channel’s Destiny, by Jean Lorrah and Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#5)

  RenSime, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#6)

  Ambrov Keon, by Jean Lorrah (#7)

  Zelerod’s Doom, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah (#8)

  Personal Recognizance, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#9)

  The Story Untold and Other Stories, by Jean Lorrah (#10)

  To Kiss or to Kill, by Jean Lorrah (#11)

  The Farris Channel, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg (#12)

  Other Jacqueline Lichtenberg Books from Wildside:

  City of a Million Legends

  Molt Brother

  COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

  Copyright © 1978, 1981 by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  Copyright © 2011 by Sime~Gen, Inc.

  Published by Wildside Press LLC

  www.wildsidebooks.com

  DEDICATION

  For Marion Zimmer Bradley, Robert A. Heinlein, Andre Norton,

  And to the many other writers who have entertained me these many years, I offer the Sime Series as payment in like coinage.

  Also for Sondra Marshak, Laura Basta, Pat Zotti, Anna Mary Hall,

  And the many others who will soon be joining in the creation of new frontiers.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I am very grateful to Betty Herr and Elisabeth Waters, editor and publisher, respectively, of Ambrov Zeor, the Sime newsletter, for pointing up a number of problems with House of Zeor, particularly Elisabeth’s noting my error in Chapter 10 of the Doubleday edition, in which the “fundamental internal shunt” is defined as the process of transferring selyn from the primary system to the secondary system while the procedure under discussion was the transfer of selyn from the secondary system to the primary. I apologize for any confusion my error may have caused, and I thank the publisher for allowing the correction in this edition.

  —Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  May 1976

  Sime~Gen:

  where a mutation makes the evolutionary

  division into male and female

  pale by comparison.

  CHRONOLOGY OF

  THE SIME~GEN UNIVERSE

  The Sime~Gen Universe was originated by Jacqueline Lichtenberg who was then joined by a large number of Star Trek fans. Soon, Jean Lorrah, already a professional writer, began writing fanzine stories for one of the Sime~Gen ’zines. But Jean produced a novel about the moment when the first channel discovered he didn’t have to kill to live which Jacqueline sold to Doubleday.

  The chronology of stories in this fictional universe expanded to cover thousands of years of human history, and fans have been filling in the gaps between professionally published novels. The full official chronology is posted at

  http://www.simegen.com/CHRONO1.html

  Here is the chronology of the novels by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah by the Unity Calendar date in which they are set.

  -533—First Channel, by Jean Lorrah & Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  -518—Channel’s Destiny, by Jean Lorrah & Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  -468—The Farris Channel, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  -20—Ambrov Keon, by Jean Lorrah

  -15—House of Zeor, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  0—Zelerod’s Doom, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg & Jean Lorrah

  +1—To Kiss or to Kill, by Jean Lorrah

  +1—The Story Untold and Other Sime~Gen Stories, by Jean Lorrah

  +132—Unto Zeor, Forever, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  +152—Mahogany Trinrose, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  +224—“Operation High Time,” by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  +232—RenSime, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  +245—Personal Recognizance, by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  PREFACE

  (FOR 1980 EDITION, UPDATED FOR 2010)

  House of Zeor is my first novel and also the first novel written in the Sime Series—which has become known as the “Sime~Gen Universe.” There are two important distinctions here.

  For most people, the word “series” implies a group of books about continuing characters that is best read in a certain order. As the dedication to Marion Zimmer Bradley, Robert A. Heinlein and Andre Norton was meant to imply, the Sime~Gen books are independent stories—occasionally using a character more than once because all the stories are set in the same universe, chronicling several thousand years of human history. The books can be read in any order; each book will reveal something new about the background.

  The second distinction is the contribution of Jean Lorrah. She pointed out that since I had clearly established that the Gens are also mutated humans with characteristics as intriguingly different from the readers’ own as those of the Simes, I must include the Gens in the logo or stand guilty of Sime-chauvinism!

  These Gen characteristics are not too apparent in House of Zeor mainly because the viewpoint character, Hugh Valleroy, is Gen. He was raised in a culture that does not regard Gens as mutants, and the reader sees all through his eyes. This makes House of Zeor one of the easiest Sime~Gen books to read, a good place for a new reader to start.

  In addition to the books, the first Sime~Gen magazine, Ambrov Zeor, grew from a newsletter to a full-scale fanzine, publishing everything from genealogy charts of the Zeor Farris family to Sime~Gen fiction written by fans. But then the pages of Ambrov Zeor became filled with such things as the reprint of my first professional sale—a Sime~Gen story called “Operation High Time” (If, Jan. 1969)—and Sime Surgeon, a full-length novel that was a rough draft of Unto Zeor, Forever. Two new Sime~Gen ’zines, Companion in Zeor and Zeor Forum, Transfer for Ancients, came into being to handle the creativity of the fans and the volumes of Sime~Gen discussions among the fans and between Jean Lorrah and me as we worked out new background material for future novels in an effort to answer all the fans’ questions.

  Jean, already established in Star Trek fandom for her Sarek and Amanda stories, began writing Sime stories for Ambrov Zeor and—because she was already a seasoned professional writer—I soon had her working on a Sime~Gen novel titled First Channel. She deliberately crafted it as an introduction to the Sime~Gen Universe as well as to answer the veteran fan’s hardest questions without the use of technical language.

  At this writing, we are now doing the sequel to First Channel, Channel’s Destiny, and Jean has launched her own fantasy series for Playboy titled Savage Empire. (Don’t miss it in 2011 reprint from Wildside Press in paper and e-book formats!) I am doing some Playboy SF originals, currently called “The Kren Series,” starting with Molt Brother (also out from Wildside Press in 2011 in paper and e-book).

  The Sime~Gen books will be distinguished from Savage Empire and Kren books by the starred-cross logo (the symbology is discussed in depth in Ambrov Zeor, Numbers 5 and 6) you see on the cover of this book. Watch for it carefully because some of the Sime~Gen stories will be written by Jean Lorrah and filed under “Lo-” not “Li-” in libraries and stores. Also, I can’t exclude the possibility of some other fan making a professional contribution to Sime~Gen history.

  At this time, Jean plans to write the prequel to House of Zeor, titled Ambrov Keon, developing the householding and channel-mutation that is the antithesis of the Zeor Farrises. When she has completed that, I intend to tackle the real sequel to House of Zeor, which tells of the founding of the House of Rior and the Distect philosophy as well as the details of how Klyd Farris engineers the “Modern Tecton.” That novel will involve the head
-on clash between Keon and Zeor, the first of a long recorded history. (As of 2011 those novels have been completed and published in Mass Market, then collected in Omnibus by Meisha Merlin, and will now be available through Wildside Press in paper and e-book along with new novels and stories. For information see jeanlorrah.com or jacquelinelichtenberg.com or http://www.simegen.com/writers/simegen/ )

  There are several other book projects in the planning stages. As of 2011, for more information on the availability of the back issues of the three Sime~Gen fanzines and current and future books, see http://whatsnew.simegen.com a blog where you may contact us or http://www.simegen.com.sgfandom where there are links to all the fan written stories published in the paper fanzines, plus many new fan-written Sime~Gen stories, and even co-operative fiction.

  Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  Spring Valley, New York

  April 1980

  Updated November 2010,

  Phoenix, Arizona

  CHAPTER ONE

  ASSIGNMENT

  Hugh Valleroy paced back and forth, heedless of the muddy water he was splashing onto the boots of the District Director of Federal Police.

  The director, Stacy Hawkins, huddled under a meager ledge watching his best field operative quietly going to pieces. The two men had been waiting in the icy October night’s rain for more than half an hour. Hawkins was well aware that New Washington would have his head if this mission didn’t succeed. That success depended on Hugh Valleroy’s unflinching nerve.

  Beyond the distant riverbank, a horse nickered. The flooding waters tore savagely at the tiny island on which they waited. Another horse raised an answering cry. Valleroy stopped in his tracks, head whipping toward the sound...on the Sime Territory side of the river.

  “Don’t worry,” said Hawkins. “The only way onto this island is through the Ancient tunnel. Only Klyd knows the entrance point on their side.”

  Valleroy resumed pacing. Tonight he’d travel the other branch of that tunnel...into Sime Territory...to search for Aisha. No, he corrected the thought, to find her.

  “Hugh, will you stop that infernal splashing!”

  Valleroy brought his boots together and ceased walking. “Yes, sir.”

  Thirty seconds of watching Valleroy’s spare frame poised as if straining for release made Hawkins snap, “Oh, go run around if it makes you feel better! But don’t splash me!”

  Valleroy sloshed restlessly about the small clearing, craning his neck as if he could penetrate the midnight darkness and spot the approaching Sime. “Stacy, he’s not coming.”

  “He’ll come. He’s dependable as sunrise.”

  “He’d have to be crazy to come out in weather like this!”

  “Weather doesn’t bother Simes. You, of all people, should know that.”

  Valleroy rounded on his boss, voice dangerously low. “What do you mean by a crack like that?”

  “Shove it, Mr. Valleroy. You don’t talk to me in that tone.”

  Valleroy backed off. Hawkins had been his friend for years. But the man was still his superior officer, and Valleroy was only a field operative on assignment. “Sir. Would you mind explaining your remark?”

  Realizing that Valleroy was under an inhuman strain, Hawkins spoke gently. “I was only referring to the fact that you’ve been our best interrogator ever since you came to work for us. You can’t know a language without knowing the people who use it.”

  Valleroy found his sudden anger dissipated. Hawkins had avoided mentioning it as if he hadn’t even thought it—what everybody else on the post called him—Sime-lover. His voice hardly more than a husky whisper, Valleroy said, “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me. Who else is there to send? But just think what my post will be without you!”

  “I’ll be back. And with Aisha.”

  “I know that. But either way, I lose. You don’t intend to take that reward money and come back to work for a living, do you?”

  Valleroy didn’t answer. Full retirement pension and twelve acres of land was a big enough reward...it was all he’d ever dreamed of having. And now he’d have it while he was young enough to enjoy it. It didn’t really matter if he didn’t come back...because if he didn’t succeed, he wouldn’t want the reward. There would be no reason to live...without Aisha.

  “Look,” said Hawkins, “I know how frightened you must be. But Simes are only human mutants. If you don’t look at their arms, you can’t tell the difference, can you?”

  Absently, Valleroy answered the rhetorical question, “No.”

  “If Simes didn’t have this instinct that drives them to the kill, there would be no reason at all to fear them, would there?”

  “Of course not. But all Simes are subject to the need-cycle. And when they take selyn from a Gen, the Gen dies. I’ve never heard of anybody choosing to commit suicide that way.”

  “Neither have I. But the channels are different. When they take from a Gen, he doesn’t die.”

  “So you’ve been telling me.”

  “Klyd is a channel. His people don’t kill. So there’s no reason to fear them.”

  “What makes you think I’m afraid?”

  “I know how it was when I first met Klyd. He doesn’t look any different from an ordinary Sime.”

  Valleroy snapped, “I’m not scared, I tell you!”

  “You don’t have to shout. Your fear is like a blazing beacon. It’ll bring him right to us.”

  “Oh, hell!”

  “You can’t fool a Sime, you know. Your emotions are an open book to them.”

  “You think I don’t know that!”

  “I know very well you know it.”

  Valleroy stalked toward the other man. “Go ahead. Say it. Say it! Sime-lover! Why are you so afraid to say it to my face? Everybody says it behind my back. You think I don’t know?”

  “Hugh, what is the matter with you? You know perfectly well you’d have to be convicted of sedition if there were any truth to what people say. If it were true, you wouldn’t be so frightened that you have to charge around in the mud.”

  Valleroy’s hand went to the starred-cross that he’d hung around his neck under his shirt. He hadn’t worn it since he’d been promoted to a desk job. If Hawkins knew he had it—if Hawkins knew what it was—no court in Gen Territory would acquit him. His hand was trembling. He forced it behind his back and splashed away.

  He could admit it to himself. He was frightened. But not the way most people would be. He honestly didn’t know if he could allow a Sime to touch him. He only knew that all the events of his life had been leading up to this test. And now he wasn’t sure he could pass it. But he had to find out.

  “This is a volunteer mission,” said Hawkins. “If you want to back out, there’ll be no black mark on your service record.”

  “I’m no coward, if that’s what you mean.”

  Over the roaring of the flooding river, a soft voice spoke disconcertingly near. “Your man is correct, Stacy. A coward is one who cannot face that which he fears. This man fears prodigiously, but stands firm in spite of it.”

  “Klyd?” called Hawkins stepping away from the overhang.

  “Were it not indeed I, it is doubtful if either of you would still live. You trespass on Sime Territory.”

  “That’s debatable,” answered Hawkins. “But when you hear why I set up this meeting, you’ll forgive us.”

  “It is not my place to blame or forgive,” said the voice. “Tell your tale, but do it swiftly. I pause in haste.”

  “What’s the matter with you? Why so touchy?”

  “Swiftly, I said.”

  “Well, yesterday, a band of Sime raiders attacked a tourist group at Hanrahan Pass. They left five dead and made off with the other twenty-three.”

  “It is to the prevention of this that my existence is dedicated. I regret there is nothing I can do to save your people. Many of us still depend on such raids.”

  “One of the kidnapped passengers was Aisha Rauf...our Treasury’s chief engrav
er. This might have been an ordinary raid...or it might have been aimed at Aisha. If she can be forced to make the plates, your people could flood our market with bad currency...destroy our economy within months. With no organized resistance we’d all be in the pens within a year.”

  “I begin to see the problem. You wish me to find this woman and return her to you?”

  “Well, that or determine what actually did happen to her.”

  “Impossible.”

  “There must be a way!”

  “To trace one particular Gen captive? No...unless...was she of courageous character?”

  “Very!” said Valleroy.

  “You know her, Mr...?”

  “Valleroy, Hugh Valleroy. Yes, I know her.”

  “Describe her.”

  “I can do better than that. I have sketches, and I can make more. She used to model for me.”

  Valleroy proffered a waterproofed case filled with his sketches. To avoid the other’s accidental touch, he held the case gingerly by one corner.

  Klyd took the case, apparently just as leery of any brief contact. “You are an artist?”

  “He’s my best composite man. That’s why I want you to take him with you. He knows a bit of your language—”

  “Take! Stacy, I’ve executed many dangerous assignments for you, but here I must—”

  “Now, just wait a minute. Don’t go getting that Sime temper all lathered up. Hugh’s as good an operative as you are. You ought to make the best team I’ve ever fielded.”

  “You don’t trust me alone with her?”

  “It’s not that. Any minute somebody may discover who she is and what she can do. We’ve got to get her out before—”

  “Contrary to popular belief, Simes can’t make Gens do anything against their will. If your Miss Rauf is not a traitor, nobody will turn her into one.”

  “She may not be a traitor, but she’s only human.”

  “All right. I will try to find her. By myself.”

  “No,” said Hawkins. “I insist Hugh may make the difference between success and failure. She’d be as frightened of you as of any other Sime.”