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What Is Sime~Gen?

These plot outlines are bare bones -- not summaries to make you want to read the novel.  Contains spoilers.  

For the list of links see Introduction to Sime~Gen

Zelerod's Doom
by
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
and
Jean Lorrah

Plot Summarized by Jacqueline Lichtenberg 

Copyright (c) 2000 by Sime~Gen Inc.

Two great Householdings, each dominant in its own Territory, meet and cooperate to save the world from the certain doom foreseen by the Mathematician Zelerod. 

This "doom" is the point at which there is one Gen left alive for each Sime, and all the Simes Kill all the Gens -- then the Simes die for lack of selyn from Gens. 

The only solution is to recycle the Gens -- to use their selyn, their life energy, but not Kill them. 

Klyd Farris, Sectuib in the House of Zeor in Nivet Territory, and his Companion Hugh Valleroy come as ambassadors to visit Risa Tigue, Sectuib in Keon, in Gulf Territory during a trade fair. 

It is hate at first sight -- the kind of hate that never can become love but can transmute into grudging respect. 

During an attack by Freeband Raiders on the Fair, followed by an attack of the Gen Army chasing the Freebanders, Klyd sees how very different Gulf Territory society is. 

Klyd Farris comes from Nivet, a society of juncts ruled by juncts -- with the Tecton, the organization of Householdings, regarded as a negligible nuisance, an infestation of perverts. 

In Risa Tigue's Gulf Territory, the semi-juncts (who kill only occasionally) dominate the government, and Householders are regarded as useful citizens because Channels prevent the Kill. 

After the battle, Klyd and Hugh help with medical assistance to the wounded -- the Farris Channel excels at every form of medical procedure. During this, Klyd seems to revive a dead man. The Farris legend burgeons. 

Negotiations for alliance lead Klyd and Hugh to escort Risa, her Companion/husband Sergei and their changeover age daughter, Vi, to a meeting of the Nivet Territory Tecton. 

Terrorists invade the meeting, change the agenda, and leave Klyd, Hugh, Klyd's daughter Muryin, Risa, Sergei, and their daughter Vi little choice but to travel cross-country to the junct government Capital in the far western Mountains. 

They are escorted by a contingent from Householding Dar, the House specializing in Martial Arts. This is the first time we meet Householding Dar, though they've been mentioned elsewhere. 

On the trail, Muryin changes over to a Sime -- a powerful Channel, and causes more medical complications that slow them down, and later cause both difficulties and amazing results.

The party arrives to confront the junct government's Capital city under siege, and they dig in to help manage the situation as winter sets in hard. 

Klyd and Risa are drawn into the politics and intrigue as well as the fast deteriorating military situation. 

All this is complicated by the even more rapidly deteriorating relationship between Klyd and his Companion, Hugh Valleroy -- which, because of their ever worsening transfers of selyn, stresses them and everyone around them to the point of nervous collapse. 

Risa, being a Tigue Channel, has little patience with the sensitivity of the Farris Channel, and barely notices the strain -- except that people are snapping at each other instead of cooperating. 

They discover they are under attack by the entire remaining population of NorWest Territory which has melted down under Zelerod's Doom, leaving the remaining NorWest Sime citizens no choice but to spread out Raiding -- Killing Gens where they find them. 

The Gen Army from the East is mobilizing to meet the rampaging refugees -- unable to tell the difference between Nivet Territory citizens and NorWest refugees. 

At the depth of winter when all seems lost, Muryin and Klyd come to agree that the only way out is for the Tecton to take over the junct government by coup, and then deploy the Householding Channels all across Nivet Territory to serve transfers and keep the supply of Gens for the Kill from running out. 

This is possible because, on the trip to Capital, Klyd has discovered that there does exist a hidden supply of new Channels who can be partially trained and deployed quickly. 

They strike an alliance with the Gen Army. 

More by miracle and idealism than great military planning Risa and Klyd pull off a stunt that goes down in history, memorialized as Faith Day -- the day when the Simes of Capital gave all their food to the Gen Army and the Gen Army (composed of out-Territory non-Donors) donated selyn to keep the Simes in Capital sane and strong enough to fight the oncoming menace. 

Combining forces they take the field against the NorWest Refugees -- and strike a peace that subsequently becomes concretized in the declaration of Unity and a Government Constitution that holds across the Gen-Sime Territory borders and lasts thousands of years. 

THE END

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