Never Again

Macton supposed that Luxans were not all bad. An inferior species obviously; but few species, if any, were superior to Sebaceans. That did not mean he thought they should intermingle with Sebaceans on a regular basis, or recreate with them.

And he certainly did not think that any Luxan was good enough to be with his sister Lo’laan. To be fair, it was doubtful that he would think anyone would be good enough for her, but the slowest, stupidest Sebacean was preferable to a Luxan, or any other species for that matter. At least with a Sebacean the blood was kept pure.

Lo’laan knew all this; she knew the standards Sebaceans in general and Peacekeepers in particular kept to. She knew that she would be frowned upon for even entering with a relationship with a non-Sebacean. To marry one, or worse, have children with him, would cause her to be disowned and great embarrassment to the family. She knew all this, and chose to fall in love with and marry a Luxan. To have a half-breed child with him.

Ka D’Argo was a young Luxan general—almost too young to have attained the rank that he had, even in the Luxan armies. It was a moot point. D’Argo had fallen in love with Lo’laan just as she had with him, and he was not fazed by her family’s disapproval of their relationship. Lo’laan was determined to follow through with this folly, so the family turned their backs on her, hoping to save their reputations and escape punishment by disassociating themselves from the shameful affair. D’Argo just took Lo’laan and moved to a colony world, beyond the reach of the family and Peacekeepers. Or so he thought.

But Macton was not content to leave his sister to her fate. He tracked her down, hoping to save her from her folly. To convince her to come back with him

Luxans are subject to a condition known as hyperage, and intense, uncontrollable anger that could strike without warning. A Luxan in the midst of hyperage had no control over his actions; he became a primitive being, more so than usual. They quite often had no memory of what happened afterwards.

All male Luxans were subject to hyperage, and in time they learned to control it (or so the theory went—Macton had his doubts). But as adolescents lacked the maturity to control the hyperage they were discouraged from marrying young. Macton knew this, and he knew that Ka D’Argo was younger than the age Luxan society deemed suitable for marriage. He knew that D’Argo was putting his sister at risk by marrying this young, and he knew that D’Argo was aware of this.

Although she denied it, Macton knew that D’Argo had gone into hyperage on more than one occasion. He also knew that Lo’laan had been subjected to violence at D’Argo’s hands because of this. But there was no proof of this, for Lo’laan was denying it, and D’Argo obviously had no idea what he was doing. Either that or he just accepted it.

Was it so wrong for him to try and protect his sister from her fate—even if it was one of her own making? Was it so wrong to want the best for her? To want to save her from a life of abuse and ridicule over a half-breed son? Macton would not even acknowledge Ka Jothee as his nephew. Lo’laan would definitely be better off away from all this.

Maybe he should not have pushed so hard. But when he saw the bruises, ugly, vicious bruises like she had sported so many times before, Macton just lost it. He tried so hard to convince Lo’laan to see the error of her ways, to leave D’Argo and her half-breed son. Even so far as to threaten to have D’Argo arrested.

Perhaps that was what pushed her over the edge, Macton did not know. All he knew was that Lo’laan had come at him with that knife and he reacted purely on instinct. The next thing he knew, his sister was lying on the floor, the knife buried deep within her. He flung himself on his sister’s body, cradling her to him, crying her name out in vain, hoping for a response. But to no avail, Lo’laan was dead. When Macton finally realised this, he slowly released her and stood up... just as D’Argo returned home from wherever he had been. The brothers-in-law stared at each other for a long moment over the body of the woman they both cared about, the blood still wet on her brother’s hands.

Stunned, numb beyond belief, Macton left his sister’s home, D’Argo’s tortured accusations echoing in his ears. The face that he had inadvertently caused Lo’laan’s death just was not sinking in. By the time he had reached the barracks he was staying in Macton had convinced himself that everything was D’Argo’s fault, and he wasted no time in having the Luxan arrested for the murder of his sister. It had given D’Argo enough time to hide Jothee, but that was no concern of Macton’s.

His initial rationale was simple: Lo’laan would never have been in that situation had D’Argo not married her in the first place. The Luxan had so swayed his sister from her sense of judgement that she refused to see the danger she was in. She had chosen to remain at the side of a man (a term used loosely in this case) who was obviously hurting her, and she paid the price with her life. By the time that Ka D’Argo had been arrested and duly processed, Macton had truly believed that his sister had been murdered at the hands of the Luxan, despite the fact that Bilar Crais knew the truth among others.

But as the cycles passed Macton was consumed by guilt at odd moments, occasional twinges that were overwhelming when they came and bewildering when they left just as suddenly. At first, he tried not to let them bother him, but they became more frequent as the time passed. It was not as if he thought D’Argo had been incarcerated unfairly-he still believed the Luxan deserved what he got. He could not account for the twinges, and they were slowly eating away at him. The fact that D’Argo was on the Leviathan that had escaped Peacekeeper control only made it worse, for Macton knew that sooner or later D’Argo would be back to exact revenge—especially when he received a simple message he just knew was from his brother-in-law: I know where you are...

Then he received word that Moya, the escaped Leviathan, had taken on the half-breed Scorpius as a passenger and was heading into Tortured Space to escape both Peacekeeper and Scarran control. Knowing that this could possibly be the best chance he had to head off the Luxan’s revenge, Macton arranged to be assigned deep cover in Tortured Space. It took a while, but he finally received word that Scorpius was taking D’Argo, the Hynerian Rygel XVI, and the Human John Crichton to see Katoya for anger management. This was his chance.

As expected, D’Argo did not react well to Macton’s presence, and all D’Argo’s rage availed nothing with Katoya. The first step of Macton’s plan was simple: undermine the fast friendship between D’Argo and Crichton. He waited to get Crichton alone, and then hinted that maybe D’Argo had not told the truth about Luxan hyperage and what happened to his wife. The result was somewhat unexpected, as it undermined D’Argo’s faith rather than Crichton’s, but it served his purpose nonetheless.

D’Argo was kept off balance, angry, which failed him in Katoya’s mental cleansing. Macton arranged for D’Argo to meet him in the arena (by making him think he was meeting Katoya). Macton really played with D’Argo’s mind in that arena, almost convincing him of the “truth” that Macton convinced himself of all those cycles ago. Almost.

But D’Argo proved to have more self control than Macton would ever have given him credit for. Instead of going into an uncontrollable hyperage, D’Argo turned his anger inward and forced Macton to reveal the truth. Not the fallacy that D’Argo killed Lo’laan; not the story that Lo’laan killed herself because she could not face life with D’Argo; but the truth that Macton could not face. The truth that Macton had pushed his sister too far and Lo’laan attacked him with a knife, forcing him to fall back on Peacekeeper training and protect himself.