

# LARC Transmissions

A short story collection of Anki Legacies Adventures

By S Shane Thomas

Copyright 2016 by S Shane Thomas

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of S Shane Thomas except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Cover art by Brhi Stokes. Sketch art by Chad Gomez.

Get a free ebook for signing up to the Anki Legacies Newsletter, plus a chapter of the EXCLUSIVE serial _Shugarra Corps_ each month at: <http://eepurl.com/cQc861>

Visit www.ScienceFantasyHub.com to learn more about the Anki Legacies, watch Shane's Book Club TV, read Shane's reviews of other authors' books, get his Writer Battle stories for free, and more.
There are a number of people who deserve my gratitude for their help with reading, critiquing, and encouragement. Dr. Tom Morganti offered valuable input on a handful of these stories before I even knew about writing workshops. Jon Lockett, Kino Basile, Michael Hernandez, Shanna Thomas, Sheryl Thomas, Bill Morganti, and Mer Morganti have uplifted with their feedback. Christian Roberts, Guy Riessen, Ryker Hayes, the Critters community, and the Scribophile community have helped polish these tales tremendously. I'm amazed by how many friendships have been strengthened or started within this lonely craft.

My mom and dad have been awesome fans! Handing out my promos and gifting copies of _Distant Origins_ has really helped spread the word. I'm beginning to think they really like dig the stories too!

Jenny, Jackson, and Ronan inspire me. In fact, "Caretaker of the Virtual Utopia" and "Heads Up" are based on Jenny's dreams. Jackson, Delilah our dog, and a black and white tv show inspired "A Dog's Interstellar Adventure." None of this flash fiction would have been written if I hadn't compromised with baby Ronan over what was working time and what was his time. He was an early riser that first year!

Lastly, thank you. It's so nice to see reviews from readers on Amazon and Goodreads. I appreciate the time spent to tell others about my stories. For an indie writer, word of mouth and a good rating and review make all the difference.

Thank you all.

Shane
Life within Enceladus

Old Familiar Visitors

A Dog's Interstellar Adventure

Initiation

Memoirs of an Ancient Explorer

Mythical Imposter

New Package, Same Old Taste

Laundry Monster

Chasing Stars

Leech Brains

Monster in the Lift Tube- A Love Story

Bright Eyes

Antman

CAD Changed His Mind

Out on a Limb

Tongue Biter

Uprooted

Heads Up

Just Like Your Dad

Lonesome Conscious World

Macrovirus

Mechanical Man Eater

Metarhizium Anisopliae

More than Spare Parts

Rookie Reflections in the Kuiper Belt

Macroscopic Abduction

Crash Course in Magic

Asteroid Habitat

Counter-Vibration

Dark Energy Specters

Like a Sponge

Lithium Eaters

Shared Atmosphere

Chip Off the Old Block

A Pinch of Starlight

A Pork Rib for your Thoughts

Message from the Black Hole

Caretaker of the Virtual Utopia

Compatibility Issues

Diamond Star

Galactic Butterfly

Galactic Hooch Harvest

Some Big Help

Unanticipated Harvest

Rakshasa

Urgent! Dispatch Immediately

Anki Legacies Books

# Life within Enceladus

Christy wondered what color the creature would be under sunlight. In the alien sea, the oceanographer's biomechanical eyes fixed on a deep green exoskeleton mottled with vibrant blue. She glanced at Rob, who had finally taken notice of the strange animal. Rob's synthetic gills flared open above his collarbone in a gasp for breath. Bubbles escaped his mouth as he spoke into the microphone implanted in his throat.

"That could be the biggest thing in Enceladus," Rob said.

Christy heard through the receiver implanted in her ear.

"Those pincers could lop your leg off," Christy replied.

Her short blond hair rippled. Christy and Rob departed before they could encounter the creature. Its fish tail beat the sea bed and sent plumes of silt up, partially obscuring features. Two knobbed thick shoulders above arms ending in pincers connected a plated lobster shell back with a rounded, neckless, head. On its belly dozens of little arms worked rapidly to capture fish to pass into a dart lined maw. The creature stretched ten feet from tail tip to searing yellow eyes, eyes that snapped to attention and locked on the two humans.

"We discovered aliens! This guy looks like a lobster on top and a dolphin on the bottom. Do you think we can talk to them? People back on Earth can talk with dolphins right?" Rob asked.

"We might be able to communicate, but it may decide we are a meal. Let's take caution and give this thing some space. He'd be better observed from the sea rover," Christy replied.

Rob put a hand to his laser drill. The mining tool could bore through solid rock, and it would defend against this creature's pincers. Christy motioned for her partner to back away. They swam above the cave entrance without turning their backs to the animal. It remained motionless, and seemed to approve of their retreat.

The explorers used their synthetic fins, which connected at rib and forearm, to push away. Altered feet with long narrow webbed toes allowed Christy and Rob to double the distance between the creature and themselves in a second. Their eyes, gills, flipper feet, and arm fin implants proved necessary to live in the subterranean ocean nestled under the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The moon's elliptical orbit caused friction which warmed the water.

Christy had mapped a hundred geysers nearby whose temperature would spike to nearly two hundred degrees Fahrenheit, at a moment's notice. If the unfortunate passerby didn't boil, they got ejected onto the frozen lunar surface or directly into the vacuum of space.

Their expedition, the first, sought alien life and samples of silica, iron, and any precious metal which might be discovered. The League altered thirty men and women for the mission.

Rob and Christy continued their retreat, tripled and then quadrupled the distance, and the creature remained motionless. A shrill, rapid burst of sound resonated from the direction they headed toward. The explorers halted. A response chimed faintly to their left, and another still fainter to their right.

The green-blue creature lunged for Rob, pincers snapping violently. Rob dodged, but the creature continued to snap and lunge toward the man. The creature shrilled a cry in response to its partners.

"Christy, we have to swim. Maybe the both of us could take one, but I think we're surrounded."

Robert Mullen did not avoid a fight. A lifelong Jui Jitsu grappler and former rescue diver prior to the mission; Christy guessed that Rob had never run from anything.

"Up. Let's go straight up and hope these bottom feeders aren't able to get close to the ice ceiling," Christy replied.

The pair pushed off the ocean bed and plumed a haze of silt in their wake. They stroked with every bit of strength and haste for long minutes. Rob planted an anchor into the ice roof of the ocean and the pair clipped carabiners on, allowing for a rest.

They peered into the depths for the strange creatures, and strained to hear their cries, reminiscent of dolphin song.

Tense minutes passed. Only the rapid inhalation of oxygen through gill slits could be heard. Only the glow of their own body heat could be seen. Perhaps the creature and its unseen companions did not dare to leave the ocean floor after all.

Their sea rover waited miles away, unmanned and nestled in a desolate valley on the ocean floor. The excursion had taken them farther than any group had ventured in the short weeks since their arrival.

Christy smiled at her partner. In sunlight her skin shone a deep tanned olive, indicative of her Greek heritage. Down here, with synthetic lenses, she looked a much deeper green.

He returned her grin, his paler complexion shone closer to lime. He ran a hand across his brow, a nervous gesture Christy recognized from their space journey.

Christy began to speak when multiple shrills cut in. The noise came from three sides and below them. Their respite enabled the creatures to surround them. The motion of a mottled shell and tail appeared from below.

Christy's face froze in horror. Rob unclipped from their anchor and grasped the laser drill.

"Stay right above me," he said, pushing off the ice roof above. He bore down upon the back of the creature not more than fifty feet under. Rob stabbed with the laser drill.

The creature screamed in alarm and a tiny stream of dark fluid trailed out from the wound. A powerful smack of its tail knocked Rob on the base of his skull. He smacked into its approaching partner, the tracking device on his wrist crunched by the contact.

Rob went limp, Christy screamed and clutched her partner under his arms. She kicked furiously and attempted to escape. She felt the grasp of a dozen thin arms embrace her as another creature pulled Rob from her grip. Christy struggled against the grip until it squeezed so tightly she lost her breath. She faded into unconsciousness.

A pincer tore her tracking device free and examined it next to Rob's crushed unit for a moment, then both drifted to the ocean floor.

Christy dreamed of their first days on Enceladus. She heard herself murmur and the drowsed voice of Rob shared the dream of weeks past.

A shrill call kept the dreams focused upon their arrival and objectives.

She murmured that their homes came along with the explorers in vacuum sealed canisters that Rob kept calling coffee cans. They released the lids in an area close enough to a geyser for the shuttle to slip in and out, yet far enough to avoid the harmful temperature spikes and seismic activity.

Their outpost grew in an hour's time before their eyes. The crew marveled as a small city expanded and solidified despite foreknowledge of the genetically modified lifeform.

LARC Enceladan Outpost, was the colonial league's aquatic dwelling prototype. Scientists back on Earth had manipulated polyps to rapidly produce coral in the shapes of dwellings and to resume their natural lifespans after. The method's original purpose preserved the coral reefs that harbor much of the life in Earth's oceans. It not only housed the explorers but would potentially bring alien life to them.

******

Rob and Christy remained in their unconscious dream-like state for weeks. Their captors fed them a sea grass they had long used to place members of their species in a suggestive state to harmlessly hold, interrogate, and sustain them. The method worked well on these strange, soft, intruders.

The creatures listened to their deep, slow speech until they understood a few of their words, and then imitated the sounds. Others among their tribe followed Christy and Rob's directions to the outpost and spied upon the explorers who built a strange city where their people had gathered food since time before awareness.

They relished the word for their world and took to calling themselves Enceladans when they practiced communication in the human method.

A few Enceladans became fascinated with the creatures and kept Rob and Christy beyond when their tribe determined humans posed no threat.

******

"Speak of Earth," a shrill voice directed.

"Most of Earth is covered in oceans," Christy stammered. In the back of her mind, the explorer harbored suspicions of her long sleep. The dolphin shrieks had changed to requests for the most mundane information.

"Men and women live on the rocky surface," Rob put in.

Having been under the influence of sea grass for long weeks, their bodies began to develop immunity to its effects. After a long, uneventful series of questions Christy's eyes flitted open and she watched as their captor swam off to forage.

In the desperate moments of realization that followed, her body began to slowly regain motor function. Beside her, Rob also began to stir. He reached out and grasped her hand. The pair exchanged desperate looks until able to speak to each other.

"Christy, how long have we been like this?"

"I don't know, but it must have been a long time. I swear that thing spoke to us."

Uncounted minutes passed while the two sat and attempted to wiggle fingers and toes. Eventually they stroked slowly to the mouth of a shallow cave. Christy pulled a slate from her utility pouch and located the sea rover in relation to their current position. The two slid quietly through the dark water, thankful to be on the outskirts of a community of the creatures.

Christy and Rob swam a few miles without break. After their long span of inactivity, neither would stop until the landscape became familiar. Muscles burned and synthetic gills pulled for ragged breath until at last a rocky outcropping provided a landmark, and hope for a return to their outpost.

The two hid within a knuckle in the formation and regained composure in silence for long minutes. When their breath rose and fell at regular intervals unstrained by exertion, Christy peered in the direction they had come from.

"I don't see anything."

"I swear I heard one of them speak to us. Not that high pitched whistle, but English. It asked us about Earth," Rob shuddered as he spoke.

"I heard it too. That plant it kept feeding us must be like a drug. They must have wanted us to talk about ourselves until they understood."

"There are at least as many of these as there are people back at the base. What would happen if they decided we were anything but an amusement? Christy, we have to warn the others before those things find the base."

"We've been gone a long time. I hope it's not already too late." Christy reached for her slate to key in a message, but a shrill call froze her.

Somewhere ahead of them, a whistle answered in reply. The creatures had surrounded them once again. The pair stared into one another's shocked faces for a long moment before resolve hardened their features. Christy unclipped her belt knife and Rob grabbed at the empty holster for the laser drill, he had dropped it during their fight. Christy pointed and Rob grabbed a large stone near to hand.

Tense seconds passed.

The swish of the creatures sounded from two sides overhead. Rob signaled a three count and the pair launched off the sea bed toward their once and would be captors.

Both creatures stopped their approach. Rob's blow deflected harmlessly off the creature's raised pincer. The water's friction diminished much of the force. Christy buried her knife to the hilt in her target's belly between feelers. It belted an agonized shriek and fled desperately toward the surface out of sight, knife still embedded.

Rob rounded the stone back upon his pursuer and crashed down a blow on one eye, even as his opponent slashed on his shin. The creature was stunned and drifted into the outcropping of rock, where Rob and Christy hid seconds before. Blood coalesced lazily from the tear in Rob's wetsuit. He looked ready to faint, but Christy was there. She wrapped his arm around her and they swam until she saw a small cave.

"Let me take a look at it." Rob looked paler than usual. She hoped no predators hunted by blood scent in the lunar ocean.

"Is it bad?" Rob asked through clenched teeth.

"It cut right into your shin bone, but it would have been worse if the flesh of your calf lacerated. I think you'll pull through, Rob." Christy gave him a reassuring smile and opened the small first aid kit in her belt pouch. Christy smeared liquid skin on his torn leg and wrapped the laceration.

They ate nutrition bars and peered into the brine for the creatures. Rob speculated aloud that perhaps most had lost interest in them, save for the two they just fought.

Christy hoped their assault caused the pair to lose interest. In the newfound calm Christy reached for her slate, but stuffed a hand into an empty pouch. She swore and shook her head.

Rob never carried one. His pouch was lined with containers for sample collection. They had no way to pilot the sea rover remotely. Based on her best estimate, there were three miles separating them from the vehicle.

After nearly a half hour's recuperation, Rob urged Christy to continue. The pair swam in spurts from one hiding spot to the next, and then paused to check for signs of pursuit. While it proved slow going, neither wanted to invite another skirmish. The trek continued in this manner for hours. Their method took them round about which added to the distance. Rob seemed near the point of collapse.

"We need to rest, Rob."

"I know Christy. I'm tired too. I just don't know if I can sleep knowing those things could be out there, still searching for us."

"This alcove is as good a place as any. I'll sleep for an hour while you look out, then we'll trade." Christy settled in without waiting for response. She didn't know if sleep would come, but the chances of Rob resting got better if he thought she could use the break.

Rob's eyes grew heavy. His implants remained ever open like a bug eyed specter, but his natural eyes underneath drooped in a series of slow blinks. He roused Christy and nodded off as she stood sentinel.

Eerie silence surrounded their sanctuary. Small fish grazed on local vegetation, but none made a sound. Christy strained her hearing for that high pitched call. She should have been glad not to hear it, but it would have reassured to hear it faintly and grow ever less audible. Her partner slept heavily and she let him rest well beyond the hour promised. It would not do to carry on their trek with Rob's strength ebbing. Robert Mullen was the fighter after all. If protection could be had in the strange ocean it would be under his guard. She woke him at last when a faint whimper escaped his throat. A nightmare would not rejuvenate.

"Christy... Thank God. It must have been a dream."

"Don't worry Rob, it's been quiet. Here, we'll finish our rations now. Next break we have will be back at the sea rover."

They shared a meager breakfast and resolved to make a straight shot for safety. Hours had passed since their skirmish, without any sign of further pursuit. Time was critical to warn the outpost against an invasion of the locals, if invasion had not already occurred. Christy dismissed the dark thought, without time for ominous consideration.

The pair stroked with a brisk pace. They passed familiar landmarks and grew more confident of safe return with every moment. The rock shaped like a turtle, a narrow canyon, and a mossy plain of vegetation indicated they were close to sea rover.

An hour passed and Rob whooped in delight. The pair swam aboard the sea rover and punched in the base's location. Christy patched a comm link through to the base.

"Christy, Rob? We thought you two were dead! Your tracking signals went offline nearly a month ago," the comm operator said.

"It's been a wild ride. How about you guys fix us a warm meal, and we'll catch up in twenty minutes," Christy replied.

"You got it! I can't wait to spread the news that you guys are alright. I..." the comm officer screamed, and static cut into the channel.

"They are under attack!" Rob punched keys on the console and grabbed the controls. The sea rover sped toward its base. Two blue green mottled creatures clung to its underside as it sped away.

The sea rover entered visual range of the base, only there was a massive semi-transparent creature covering the settlement. Tentacles thrashed the coral walls, men and women ducked into buildings, desperate to avoid the beast. Christy and Rob swam out and toward the colony to attempt to sneak in unnoticed.

"You belong with us," the sound shrilled, oddly paced, and inhuman.

Tail fin flashed from above. Four glowing eyes locked on the weary explorers. "We have not finished with you," a second alien voice said.

Rob and Christy exchanged quick glances and grasped for rocks off the seabed. The welt on one's head and dark scab on its partner's abdomen confirmed these two had followed them to the base.

Rob launched himself toward the nearest and screamed to preempt his assault. He hammered the wounded trunk of the creature with his stone filled fist, spurting its blood into the water.

The Enceladan shrilled in pain and wrapped Rob between pincers.

The other Enceladan dove down on Christy and she swung her rock fisted hand in a wide haymaker, connecting with a bulbous eye. She smashed against the seabed even as it wailed agony and pulled a thick lid closed.

Before the fight continued, a dozen ropey limbs grasped Rob, Christy, and the Enceladans with electrifying jolts and a constricting grip.

Human cries and high pitched chirps rang in unison. Their scuffle had distracted the massive jellyfish from trying to pry humans out of their strong coral base.

The behemoth pulsated above them; its tentacles slowly coiling toward its center. Through its transparent skin, Christy could see a dead Enceladan being slowly digested in its belly. Tentacles coiled Christy together with her Enceladan opponent, her leg entwined with both its pincers. She desperately shoved one claw free.

"Cut it!" she screamed.

The Enceladan snipped at the limb, even as repeated jolts wracked them. Clear goo spurted out as the limb severed. The Enceladan raced to the aid of its partner, it snipped another tentacle while Christy tugged at the limb that snared Rob.

The strange oversized jellyfish billowed and flexed. It was indifferent to the loss of limbs. Other tentacles snaked toward the four.

"This way," one of the Enceladans said.

He gestured deeper into the dead zone where geysers flash boiled the sea. Heedless of the risk within, the four swam desperately into the hot water with the hungry giant on their heels. A tremor began to rumble through the seabed.

The Enceladans led Christy, Rob, and the giant jellyfish deeper still until the water began to scald. They swam along the heat line. Christy hoped the giant would be deterred by the temperature, but the prospect of such a meal motivated against instinct.

Even as Christy felt her strength flagging she saw a dark spot on the sea bed and dove into it. The nook proved just large enough for the unlikely foursome to hunker into. Tentacles threatened to drag them out. Pincers snipped and stone laden fists smashed the grasping tentacles in defense. The ground rumbled harder still and Christy feared their burrow would collapse.

Suddenly their predator inflated like a sail in wind. The geyser burst through the icy surface of the moon, and sent the beast flying into the frozen void of space. The water temperature cooled to something a bit more bearable and the four recovered for a moment and took note of their uneasy position.

"We don't need to fight," Christy said, breaking the uneasy silence.

A high voice shrilled "We only want to learn about humanity and Earth. That is why we kept you after the other Enceladans knew they need not fear you." Christy felt it was being genuine.

"We can appreciate that, and you guys did just save our base," Rob said. "We are here to explore after all. Come and see our outpost, the others would be happy to meet you."

"Just don't give them any of that sea grass unless they ask," Christy said, with an uneasy smirk.

# Old Familiar Visitors

I exist to conquest worlds and control the indigenous populace. My creators intended the Nefilim for conquest. My kind dominated an entire planet's species in combat, and then built up what remained into their first society.

We artificial beings taught the unwashed masses to till the earth, record their learnings, dwell apart from their excrement, and civilize. In return, as generations came and passed, their people began to revere my kind as their gods. Humanity never knew that I and my companions were merely tools wielded by the truly powerful.

Sumer rose and fell. Earth's cradle of civilization became the dusty parchments in Babylon's libraries, and the basis for Egyptian, Greek, and Aztec cultures. New gods replaced those whose dominion began humanity's culture.

Our new assignment waited on the world of our origin. On the world where our creators developed their society. The success of my kind allowed for the creators to disperse throughout the galaxy, the hidden power behind god puppets.

None wished to remain in the place of their species' ascension. That role had been assigned to the gods of Sumer. The loyal conquistadors of primitive Earth would stand an eternal vigil over a sacred home world.

I am among the nameless. In our order only few achieve the prominence of a name and station. Our creators had neither whim nor necessity to name the countless remainder. The Tablet of Destiny compelled us to the temple. It had been home to one of their middle class. A lonely place, yet with its beauty.

My station overlooked a river, which carved a deep canyon on its relentless path. I began to watch the water when it flowed level with the entry, I watched until it plunged underfoot. I imagined the conquest of countless people and places while the water slowly carved away.

One of the zagmuku returned. Hundreds of thousands could live within its massive hull during the voyage. Weeks passed as I awaited the Tablet of Destiny's new instruction. Those among my kind who served a transient purpose, bore no news.

The journey in my humanoid form took nearly a month. Had I been assigned wings or an insubstantial existence it should only have been a day's pursuit. I regarded the abandonment of post as a part of my. I undertook a surveillance mission.

It shocked me to find an entire society of my one time thralls within the zagmuku. It was eerily reminiscent of Atlantis, the vessel that arrived on Earth to relieve me of duty in Sumer. Not a single creator stood among them.

I returned to my station. Had these beings overcome their superiors? Had conquest drawn my predecessors and the creators away from Earth? I pondered the arrival and its implications in the months that followed.

They approached from the river one day as I stood at cliff side in thought. Their vessel paused to examine the steps I had etched out in the cliff face to reach the water. They wandered close enough to pose a threat, my long awaited duty arrived.

Before either man departed the boat, I dove toward them from my perch. Both humans gaped and pointed, neither with the slightest awareness of their doom. My arms stretched wide and a bone shattering crunch to either side signified that pulling them under the water's rushing surface gave quick mercy rather than their final struggle.

I suppose more will come looking, until then I'll be watching the water.

# A Dog's Interstellar Adventure

Black fur brindled gold on hips and back glistened in the artificial light of a colonial starship. Somewhere between small and medium, the dog's unknown mix showed signs of bully breed and shepherd. Pointed ears laid back, chest thrust low, she let out a bark that sounded deeper than her size suggested.

"Ready?" the shrill voice of a young boy asked.

A ball sailed over the dog's head. It jumped while turning about and snapped at the object overhead. Penny seized the blue ball and trotted back to her wiry, sandy blonde owner who watched the approach with big blue eyes. Willy snatched the ball and stuffed it into his satchel.

"Come on Penny. Dad said you can see the planet we are going to land on out the starboard ports," Willy said.

The boy and his best friend left the recreation area and walked a few blocks down street sized corridors until the came to the city sized vessel's outer hull. Willy pressed his face to the glass. It felt ice cold and refreshed him after their walk. White clouds drifted over masses of blue, green, and brown. He knew from his grandparent's pictures that this planet resembled Earth, the place his colony departed twenty-five years ago.

The colonial starship landed and a couple days blurred by with massive hull deconstruction efforts, and various other tasks related to converting a metal behemoth into a landed, permanent, home.

Willy and Penny instantly loved the outdoors. Any boy and his dog would. Treks started off small and supervised, Mother would walk with them around a freshly cut and trodden trail which skirted a thick canopy. Father got Willy involved in a new soccer league and held Penny off field to prevent her interference.

Time passed and Willy's parents began to let the boy and his dog venture out unsupervised, from time to time. One such adventure led Willy and Penny down the new part of the trail on the tree line.

A noise in brush nearby elicited a growl and the ruff between Penny's shoulders stood straight like a mohawk. A small purple creature crept out of shadow. Willy's brindled companion turned guardian and wedged herself between boy and beast.

"It's okay Penny," the boy rubbed down her fur and made his way to the animal "Let's have a look at the little...Aagh!" Willy staggered as the creature sunk claws into his forearm.

Penny crunched down upon it, which rendered the purple assailant inert. She dropped its corpse and sniffed at the wound. The odor was not simply her boy's blood.

Willy paled and felt sleepy. He slumped back against a tree. He hardly felt his dog nuzzle him and whimper concern. His eyes fluttered and he realized the creature and Penny were gone.

Penny raced back up the trail and to the family's quarters in the colony. It took only seconds for Mother and Father to get the brindled playmate's message and the three raced back to recover the poisoned boy.

Their doctor synthesized anti-venom with the corpse Penny retrieved, before the poison affected Willy too deeply.

The boy awoke with Penny asleep on his feet and his parents at his side. "Mom, Dad, you saved me!"

A low rumble of disagreement came from his motionless companion.

# Initiation

Pneuma guards surrounded Jaff. Spears poised, ready to thrust through the young lad who, only months ago, shared their physical appearance. Their steely blue complexions flushed a shade darker from exertion. Wedge shaped heads sat atop long serpentine necks. Tails twitched as short arms readied their weapons.

Jaff's adolescent growth spurt turned him into one of the rare few. Something his people abhorred. Bright red skin and powerful wings gave him away the first time his hood fell out of place. Perhaps if his parents were farmers they could have hidden the lad. Living in the city, he could not remain indoors without being missed.

Jaff felt grateful he had been discovered away from the family home, conspiracy to harbor an Anki received the same penalty as simply being Anki; death.

A Pneuma thrust his spear toward the red youth. Jaff raised a hand in fear; the spear tore from the guards grip and flew backward to clatter harmlessly on the cobbled road. Jaff reeled as a guard on his other side screamed a sonic burst and left the boy momentarily stunned. The red youth felt the next spear pierce his thigh and it seared his mind back into the moment.

The boy lashed fire from his dart toothed maw and used his newly discovered telekinesis to wrap the flame about his attackers.

Screams of pain erupted as they broke rank and rolled about the ground to extinguish their uniforms.

Jaff tore himself free of his hooded robe and unfurled massive red wings. He used the powerful tail and his unharmed leg to leap into flight.

A spear rose to meet him but reached summit and fell harmlessly to the cobblestones.

The boy flew only from instinct. Never before in his months since the transformation had he tested the ability, lest he meet fate. Right then, necessity granted what might have been his last wish. The pain from his stab wound throbbed and bled. The boy brimmed with worry and anxiety but still felt awe at the sights of his city from this vantage. He flew until the scenery change to a thick wood. Jaff landed in a clearing miles from the city and his hunters.

The boy staunched his wound with improvised bandages torn from his tunic. The guards would be onto him before nightfall. Their leader King Zaetel, and his predecessors since time out of mind, hunted and killed any who matured into Anki.

The Pneuma were a species on the brink of evolution. Lore stated that once a community of Anki rose to power on Haran and treated the Pneuma as a lower servant class.

A rebellion drove the Anki to the stars and the King's guard suppressed any new Anki from contaminating the Pneuma bloodlines.

Jaff had no idea where to go. He dared not seek refuge in any nearby farm or cottage, since whoever harbored him would take a grave risk on his behalf. His wound and the exertion of a first flight proved too much for the lad and he fell into a deep sleep.

Voices roused Jaff, but not before he had been surrounded by twice the number of guards he encountered in the city. He did not try to negotiate surrender; death alone served as punishment for his existence. He fought with lashes of flame and spent what little of his energy remained by telekinetically dropping a tree branch on two soldiers.

The butt of a spear on his temple knocked him into a daze. A guard pushed through his comrades hefting a battle axe. Another held the boy fast to the downed branch, Jaff's neck outstretched. The axe wielder poised for the death stroke.

"Leave these woods. You have already killed the young Anki," a voice hissed from shrouds of evening shadow.

The guards' eyes clouded and the squad gathered their wounded and made for the city without a second thought.

Jaff tried to focus on the situation, but could make no sense of his fortune. Hours passed before he gained consciousness in a small warm room. A bent green skinned figure leaned over his thigh, stitching needle in hand. A wedge head turned to face Jaff.

"It's nice to have some company after so many years alone," hissed the same voice from the shadows. An old Anki smiled and returned to its work.

# Memoirs of an Ancient Explorer

No other humans aside from Jennings, Hays, and I have been able to say they lived to be thousands of years old. How old exactly? I could not figure a system for keeping track of time. We got pulled through what must have been a hole in the fabric of space and time while on patrol between Nibiru and its moon. Time simply passed without a planet and its star to anchor us to the false notion of days and years. There were no meals, sleep, bathroom breaks, or anything really, except the journey.

Being lost in the vacuum of space without a starship or provisions would have spelled doom for any man without an idgeul. At times I wondered if it was only a different kind of doom.

Idgeul are the fighting machines Nibiru's ancient inhabitants left behind. Designed to seal its pilot in stasis, it suspends all life function save for the pilot's consciousness, which controls the machine. Silver dragons stand upright about ten feet high, a total of twenty feet from tail tip to snout. Capable of flight from a planet's surface to the other worlds within a solar system, a sonic scream that shatters stone and flesh, agile limbs, acute sensors, and a short range communication system, these metal dragons have been our means of travel and our life support.

Save for the obscured forms I see through semitransparent belly plates, I had long ago forgotten what we looked like before the journey.

The event felt like a whirlwind. Like old videos we had all seen in school, aboard the colonial starship of Earth's weather phenomenon, the tornado. We had been battered and turned about for what could have been days.

Our unit had ten idgeul, but only Jennings, Hays, and I regrouped on the other end. Perhaps the others had been destroyed, perhaps they got dumped out elsewhere, but we hoped they never got pulled in.

Based on a constellation we recognized from Haran's sky, we set off for the colony.

In the early stage of our journey, we were determined to make it back before our friends and lovers finished their natural lives. Then, countless generations passed. Any populated world was a welcome new home, now that we three are all that exists of our former lives, save for the other machines left by Nibiru's ancient masters. It stands to reason that since the power systems on our idgeul have not failed under millennia of continuous use, their other devices continue to tick away and serve whoever can access them.

The star we approached looked like any other. Hayes, Jennings, and I had not spoken to one another in hundreds of years. Small talk lost context, not because of a malicious gesture, perhaps after so much time bent on a single purpose we had simply abandoned what sense of individuality we once entertained.

When we saw the blue green orb I heard three gasps of simultaneous awe. When we got closer and satellites orbited the world, relieved sobs filled the com link.

Compared to our journey, the last twenty years living as a man again seem like the blink of an eye. We never found humanity, but we did rediscover our own. My children are even half human.

I visit with Jennings and Hays about once a month. We've actually got things to talk about for a change. Sometimes as we grow old, one of us will joke about mounting the dragons and taking to the stars again, but I for one, look forward to the rest of my natural life.

# Mythical Impostor

Before they came to steal the crops and wares, the village Hinrooth made an ideal home. The planet Haran harbored only a handful of cities, and nearly half the Pneuma lived in rural isolation. Peck, the miller's son, loved his small town. The boy hauled bags onto a cart, bound for the granary, in the midsummer sun. Sweat beaded on the brow of his wedge shaped head. His steely blue skin glinted with the sheen of his labor. His tail twitched instinctively at the strange rumbling and his long neck tipped skyward.

Five sets of wings thundered toward Hinrooth, blotting out the sun. Their hides shone brilliant silver slashed on hip, wing, and shoulder with black streaks. The giant beasts disappeared from Peck's sight behind rooftops in the village square.

The boy dropped his grain sack on the cart and ran to see the creatures. They reminded Peck of stories the village bard told of the ancient Anki, a winged people with magical powers. The Pneuma had killed most of them and driven the rest into the skies, in time out of mind.

Smoke began to rise from the village square even as Peck drew near. He began to fear what these gleaming marvels intended for their sleepy town.

Screams rang through the alley, and the smell of burning thatch blasted his senses. Panicked women hustled their children past Peck and blurted warnings to flee. Curiosity compelled the lad to press on.

Amid the blaze and commotion, two creatures lashed bread, cheese, smoked meat, dried fruit, and barrels of ale to a cart while the others fought back the village men. The villagers screamed their sonic blasts at the silver beasts, an assault that could stun even the largest herd beast, with no effect. Others gifted with the lighting breath surged, but the beasts seemed to shrug off the attack. The metallic beasts retaliated with spouts of flame. The skirmish ended abruptly and four of the beasts took to the sky with their prize in tow. The fifth stayed back a moment to set more of the village square ablaze.

Peck lost his wits in rage and stole through side streets out of the village after the giant marauders. As he reached the countryside, the fifth beast beat silver wings and rejoined his posse. The miller's son ran for nearly an hour in pursuit. More than once, the monsters disappeared from view only to retake the sky after what must have been a short respite. Finally the beasts failed to rise airborne and Peck knew he neared their dwelling.

The boy scoured the forested landscape all afternoon and well past dusk before he spotted the telltale column of smoke from a cook fire. He approached the beasts' lair silently, careful to avoid sticks underfoot and the slap of branches as he passed.

Peck's jaw gaped as he stared at the five creatures which stood motionless, bellies slashed open to reveal empty cavities he could easily fit into. At the fire ring sat five creatures the same size as a Pneuma only long of limb with round hairy heads.

Were these the beast's masters? Had they slain the creatures? Peck peered at the feet of the creatures for evidence of gore, but saw none.

The cart of his village's provisions sat near the mouth of a cave. One of the creatures got up and attempted to push the cart into shelter. Unable to budge it, the being grunted a few harsh words and pulled himself into the belly of a silver beast. Its flanks knitted together and the creature came to life. It pushed the cart into the cave before disgorging its passenger.

Peck smiled broadly as he waited for the beings to enter the cave and dash out their camp fire. The miller's son crept up to the nearest silver creature, he copied the actions of the round headed being, and after a moment of shock the boy realized he peered out the silver creature's eyes. Peck moved the beast's silver body with the power of his thoughts.

Screams from the cave mouth drew Peck's attention. The beings emerged from their lair and made for the other silver creatures. Peck tried to yell and startle them, but sonic bursts sprung out and two of the men dropped in a dead heap. The flick of Peck's tail smashed the remaining three into a wall.

It took the boy nearly an hour to articulate the silver beast's fingers as he tied up the three unconscious bandits.

As the sun rose over Hinrooth, a silver beast pushed a cart loaded with the village's goods and three strange creatures bound and gagged on top. With Peck's new machines, rebuilding the village square was simple.

# New Package, Same Old Taste

Ben Kieley ranked, by many measures, a success. One of the brightest scientific minds from the generation born while the colony traveled through space on its twenty five year voyage to reach their new home world, Nibiru. He kept physically fit, had a few close friends, and even became a lab assistant for the colony's head geneticist, Doctor Zimmerman. Ben simply could not figure out how to get close with members of the opposite sex, not for lack of effort.

"Hey Brenda," Ben greeted his colleague and latest crush. "Now that the travel ban around the colony is lifted I thought maybe you'd like to take an afternoon and explore the woods with me."

The brunette took a large step back. He wondered why women often backed away while he spoke. It's not like he was spraying today. Once he got spittle on Zimmerman's face during a discussion.

"Sorry Ben, I've got plans."

"I didn't say when," Ben said, leaning in.

"I know. I'm a busy girl, always busy."

Ben focused on his projects the next couple days until the rejection stung less. Doctor Zimmerman had been in the field and retrieved a number of strange gems stones from the long deserted planet's original inhabitants. Zimmerman assigned Ben to inventory and catalogue the stones. He'd met the two strange children who had undergone changes from contact with the gem in the months prior.

As he worked in the same lab with yet another woman who had spurned his affection, Ben began to wonder if a drastic physical change would really be a bad thing. One of the orange gemstones had been drilled through large enough for his necklace to slide through. Almost unconsciously, he slid the new pendant under his shirt. No one would miss what had never been counted anyhow.

Days passed uneventfully. Ben Kieley forgot about his charm and about the situation with Brenda, who would smile so long as he didn't cross the room to her or speak more than a greeting.

Zimmerman brought Ben along to a colleague's laboratory on the south continent for a month long study and by the time the Doctor and assistant returned, Ben felt like a new man.

He recalled his theft while he shaved scruff from his cheeks in front of the bathroom mirror in his quarters. The orange pendant glimmered. Ben rinsed his face and stared hard in the mirror in attempt to discern what changes the gem had initiated. Disappointed to see the same features, Ben imagined the bulky muscles and stoic expression from a movie actor.

Ben gasped as his skin began to swell, shrink and contort. The actor he imagined stood before him, skin tone slowly changed to fit memory. Ben's close cropped hair dissolved into the shaved head from the films. The gemstones had turned Ben into a skin changer.

Ben spent evenings perfecting the image of his new persona. Then he found Brenda at a café he overheard her talk about with friends. The new Ben settled in for a coffee and sandwich at a seat where he and Brenda could make eye contact. As he finished the meal she got up and made for the door. Ben panicked and leaped at his chance to speak with her.

"Hi, I couldn't help but notice how lovely you look this evening," Ben said and beamed with confidence.

A look of disgust flashed across her face. "Thanks guy," she said as she took a half step back. He leaned in close and felt the spinach caught in his teeth for the first time. She turned to depart.

"Wait I..."

"I'm busy that day," she said over her shoulder through the doorway.

"I guess it's not my looks," Ben said, to no one in particular.

# Laundry Monster

Sam Martin stood upright after countless hours spent hunched over his work station. His spine clicked and popped, the man rubbed his eyes for a long moment before untwining a cable connecting his computer to the microprocessors in a shimmering silver cloth the size of a handkerchief.

The LARC1 colony's lead scientist for reverse engineering felt on the verge of a major breakthrough. The smart cloth, as he had referred to the project, attempted to recreate the textile armor that shugarra were made of.

During the conflicts with the Nefilim, shugarra became one of his favorite Anki relics. If Sam could perfect the technology, and every citizen could augment their physical strength, fly, breath underwater, and even tunnel through solid rock, then not even a returning Anki and Nefilim invasion force could stop them.

Sam draped the cloth over an open fist and imagined a gloved hand. The textile received his mental cue and wrapped itself around palm and fingers, forming a gauntlet. Remembering Gilgamesh's boxing lessons, Sam landed a clean right cross into a pad of impact clay. The indentation went clear to the back of the pad. His bare fisted attempt hardly left knuckle marks.

The engineer's eye caught a glimpse of the time on his wall clock and the man swore. Inana, his girlfriend would be meeting him for dinner at Rick's Diner in just a couple minutes.

He stuffed the experimental smart cloth into his pants pocket to show Inana. Seeing no alternative than keeping the Middle Eastern beauty waiting, Sam hurriedly donned his shugarra, withheld from the Colonial Security Forces for study, and in a streak of silver, took to the sky.

Sam had just enough time to disrobe the shugarra before his date arrived. Inana swept his mind free of work in an instant. She and her brother Gilgamesh's shugarra corps patrol had located another pocket of Nefilim in a previously unknown entrance to the Underworld.

Not until the couple ambled through the moon lit streets of the colony toward Sam's quarters, that the topic of his research came up. He gave her the briefest description of his progress, the smart cloth itself, still buried in his pocket, completely forgotten. Inana's evening attire typically had the effect on him. Inana prided herself on being the only thing that kept the workaholic social. His friends all considered her a charity worker for the ability.

Getting ready for bed, Sam tried casually sneaking peeks through the door, left slightly ajar while Inana brushed her lush black hair. Pants around ankles, Sam stumbled on yesterday's discarded laundry, swearing as he fell headlong into the heap.

"Are you alright out there?"

"This laundry monster is taking on a life of its own," Sam replied feeling sheepish.

"You really ought to make time for that before it takes over the room."

******

That night the smart cloth's experimental AI puzzled over Sam's last command. At last, it located and cannibalized the electronic components from Sam's closet necessary to complete the order.

Wires, circuits, gears, and small motors formed a network from the smart cloth to the pants, socks, briefs, and shirts cluttering Sam's bedroom floor while he and Inana slept peacefully. Having assimilated Sam's heap, the smart cloth realized it had a greater capacity and wires snaked through duct work to other citizen's quarters, returning with soiled garments for its textile carapace.

******

Inana awoke far earlier than normal with a strange apprehension. She lifted her head gently from Sam's shoulder and spotted a giant, lumpy figure looming over them. It smelled unwashed, and crept on a dozen limbs to the foot of the bed. As one limb touched, the sheet slithered off the couple and enmeshed itself into the creature.

"Sam, wake up. Your laundry monster needs attention."

"Right, I'll get to it on Saturday, I just..." Before he could request another hour's rest, the laundry monster grabbed his night shirt and pulled it violently over the man's head.

Inana launched herself at the creature and they tumbled across the floor. The living threads uttered a sour cry and pulled Sam's curtains into its bodily bulk. Massive, looming heaps of laundry menaced Sam and Inana, swiping denim arms, and grasping with sock fingers. Sam motioned for Inana to follow and the pair bolted out the bedroom door, through his quarters, and into the street.

The laundry monster galloped after them moving like a drunken centipede.

"Where are we leading it?" Inana asked, pausing to let Sam catch up.

"I've got to get it back to my lab. Only one weapon can stop it."

They raced down the predawn streets until they reached Sam's lab. The engineer punched the key code and they bolted through the entry, their stinking predator seconds behind them. The creature rushed headlong at them through the dark room until it banged into something solid.

Sam and Inana stuffed its rear limbs in behind its bulk and slammed the door shut. He quickly mixed a few compounds at a workstation, producing detergent, and risked the monster's escape by splashing it inside. Sam activated the centrifuge, which he occasionally used to launder large items recovered from Anki strongholds.

The pair did not leave Sam's lab until past noon. The smart cloth safely deactivated and Sam's laundry stowed in a basket. They accompanied one another going door to door, returning articles of clothing with excuses and apologies to Sam's bewildered neighbors.

# Chasing Stars

I wasn't aware at the time, but our childhood was anything but ordinary. Most kids aren't grown by scientists on a ship the size of a city and haven't been hurled through space for hundreds of years. Dr. Jeffries said that most kids she knew had grown up on Earth and only dreamed about space when they squinted through bright city lights to see a few stars.

Most kids hadn't been modified from the cells of the invincible tardigrade either. She said most kids have parents who never let them take adventures like we were about to have. Not even all of us would make it through the adventures, taking care of our ship, the LARC3.

Dr. Jeffries said that not all of our bodies accepted the tardigrade's cells. That was the reason that fifty left through the hatch, and forty three returned.

"I'm going to catch one of the stars," Eric said. He and I had been born in the same batch, along with all the other kids who were crowding around the ports and gazing out into inky dark, pricked with brilliant light.

"Better get your share of the work done first," I replied.

"Leave it to me, Walter. I'm going to clean my patch faster than anyone," he said. His dreamy brown eyes and freckled face pressed against the glass so hard, that to anyone on the outside looking in, he would have looked like a pig.

Standing at the hatch was the last time I saw Eric. His thin jumpsuit clung to his shoulders and hardly made its way to his magnetic boots. He kept pretending his oxygen tank and mouthpiece were a jet pack. If his mouth weren't covered by the breather Eric would have been ranting about flying to the nearest star and catching it. He kept mixing them up with fireflies, which we had recently seen in an Earth habitat area onboard.

I shoved his scraper into his hand and we all crowded the hatch, eager to be the first to help the ship.

Dr. Jeffries stood behind the crowd. "Children, please give me your attention for a moment." Her thinning white hair was cut close to her scalp and her back was bent so that she was hardly taller than any of us.

"If you are one of the poor dears who cannot thrive outside the ship, just try to relax and you'll sleep soon. For the rest of you please stay together and follow the glowing green guide lights until you see the asteroid fragments. All you must do is to scrape the bits of rock off the hull so our maintenance engineers can patch any holes in the outer layer."

I was so excited to help. When I got to where the asteroid had crashed into the ship and looked back, Eric and four others were floating away. He only made it a couple steps clear of the door. Tiny dots, fading from view behind the ship. A tear froze to my cheek and I returned to the mission.

The bits of rock that had smashed into our ship were glowing and hot. Anything was hot compared to how chilly I felt out in space with nothing more than a thin jumpsuit. I scraped at some small bits, dislodging fist sized red hot coals. My face, chest, and hands were so warm while my feet and back felt nearly frozen. I almost laughed- where hot and cold met it felt like a million little worms tickling me.

One of the girls near me couldn't take the heat from the rocks and her face darkened from white to brown, gray, and then a swollen black before her boots clicked off. She drifted away with a boy from the other side of the work zone. The unfortunate pair floated off to join Eric and the rest who hadn't withstood the cold.

I wondered where the kids who couldn't work outside would finally end up. Part of me knew they died, but another part imagined Eric wrapping his arms around a little star the size of his head. He would grin until his cheeks hurt.

"It's alright to miss our little darlings who floated away into the stars," Dr. Jeffries said when we returned through the hatch. "They never would have lasted to see our new home."

A couple more months passed before Dr. Jeffries gave my group one final test. The type of test not everyone comes back from. We entered a special room, with thick walls and no windows. When the door sealed, a hissing noise began and the air felt heavy.

"Are you scared, Walter?" asked Angie, a girl who lay reclined in the bed next to mine.

"I don't think so Angie. Are you scared? We don't have to leave the ship this time." I flashed my best smile. I wanted to make her feel better because she cried for Eric and the others for days after they floated away.

"Some more of us are going to float away today," Angie said in a little sob. She swallowed hard and sniffed.

"Hey look," I said reaching over held her hand, "We get to watch a cartoon."

She looked at the screen glowing on the wall in front of us. After a couple minutes she giggled as a black cat turned a yellow bag into an air plane and flew over a city. I tried to sit up a bit to look over at her but the room felt so heavy. Even breathing felt like someone was sitting on my chest.

Later on, Dr. Jeffries told us that we endured pressure greater than anything on Earth. She told us that nothing would ever crush one of us, but humans from Earth would be flat like pancakes from being in that room.

That night I dreamed of the children who were missing, flying away with Eric to catch stars, but they were thin like sheets of paper with children drawn on either side. That was the last time I dreamed about anything except becoming a doctor. Except then, the dreams weren't dreams.

Those who had properly paired their genetics, one human parent and one tardigrade parent, joined training groups according to mental aptitude. The colony would need for us to become security officers, geologists, architects, engineers, doctors, zoologists, farmers, builders, administrators, physicists, and technicians.

We no longer lived with the other children our age. I think it was a comfort to have new surroundings and different, more like-minded companions.

"Walter you have tested into the medical program," a tall man in a long white coat announced. I stood with a duffle containing my spare outfits, bedding, my slate, and incidentals. "Please come with me to your new home. You can call me Doctor Skip. I'm the senior medical student so it's my privilege to help you adjust to life in advanced medical training."

"Nice to meet you Dr. Skip. Will I ever see them again?" I asked looking back at the group I'd always been with.

"In your first few years there is little interaction but as you reach the end of the program and become a student practitioner like me, then you'll see them whenever they need a doctor," the man smiled down at me with crooked teeth. He kept his red hair in a short crew cut and his face spattered with freckles. There was something about his manner that made me feel comfortable.

"What about Dr. Jeffries? Will I see her still?" I knew there were other geneticists but she was always with my age group and I felt fond of her.

"Oh, the geneticists will always be around," Dr. Skip replied with a mysterious smile.

I plunged right into my studies. There were text books, virtual lectures, models of human anatomy to take apart and put back into place, virtual patients to diagnose and treat, and the dreams. A few days after I moved into the medical training building, I received a map of the colony, downloaded onto my slate. A message accompanied it, asking me to report to Dr. Jeffries's office.

My walk through the colony took me into sections that the untested children never got to see. There was a building under construction in the center of the living quarters for the architects, engineers, and builders. Its exposed beams looked like the skeleton of a giant animal, like I'd seen in the colony's Earth Natural History Museum.

The Earth habitat structures were giant glass enclosures teeming with wildlife. There was a thick forest where vine covered trees were home to monkeys, predatory cats, hooved animals, and dozens of birds.

A miniature ocean, about a half mile long teemed with aquatic life. Tall seaweed provided food and protection for smaller animals while dolphins, tuna, and sharks hunted them.

Their purpose was twofold, carry the species we shared our home world with as we expand, and potentially seed a barren yet habitable world if native species were nonexistent or simply lacking in diversity. There were a handful of other young trainees on my path. Zoologists gave tours to colonists who chose to learn about terrestrial life in their free time.

"Walter, it is so good to see you. What do you think of this section of the colony?" Dr. Jeffries asked.

"It's great. I can't wait to see some of the Earth Habitats," I replied. "How many other sections does LARC3 have?"

"You are familiar with the juvenile section, and this section for the population of colonists in training. There is also a bridge where pilots fly the colony. It's on the propulsion ring behind the colony. Imagine a plate behind an egg. The propulsion ring is the plate and also contains a shaft that runs through the entire length of the colony.

When we land on our new home world, flowing water will run through the tunnel where the shaft currently is. The propulsion ring and its shaft will be a space station that remains in orbit above our new home.

That area will serve as a construction site for another colony as well as a shuttle dock for the small fleet of ships going to and from the surface or exploring the space nearby our star," Dr. Jeffries gazed out her porthole as she spoke.

"Where do you live? What about the colonists who have grown and completed their training?" I asked.

"There is another section of the colony for us," the small white haired woman replied. "You will go there when I call you Dr. Walter."

The purpose of my visit with Dr. Jeffries was to receive a genetic therapy to enhance my studies. I lay on a bed and an orange light shone in my eyes, soaking the top half of my body with light. Dr. Jeffries explained that the process gave me genetic memories from doctors back on Earth. While first hand learning was still necessary, this process enabled every colonial doctor to be better and brighter than anyone practicing medicine on Earth.

That night I dreamt of a day in some Earth doctor's life. Every night I would dream of some big medical breakthrough or finding some rare illness. Occasionally I would perform an operation or make a huge research breakthrough. Dr. Skip said he was still dreaming about work at night.

My middle years were full of training, dreaming, practice, and a bit of leisure time spent in the Earth Habitats. The habitats where the only thing that could help me relax after I got to thinking about our childhood tests.

Sometimes the flattened kids and the star chasers haunted my thoughts during study. Their last words rattled through my head. Their cold dead faces where all I saw.

I did well in my studies when I could focus, and the training doctors were quick to forgive my unexplained absences. I walked forest trails until I could do it blindfolded. I swam the little ocean so often the geologists in training teased that I had gills. I grew close with Angie there.

She was in my group as a child and now tended the forest habitat. The first couple years, our talks were just about the plants and animals. As we both grew older I told her about seeing our unfortunate childhood friends. Sometimes she would put an arm around me and cry, other times she found new adventures in the trails to cheer me up. When my voice changed and I began shaving scruff from my chin, a new sort of interest in Angie began to grow.

Dr. Skip moved into the section of the colony designated for trained adults on his twenty-first birthday, and I gained seniority over a younger recruit. Over the course of my twelve years, nine new recruits came to the medical training building as I had. I supposed the years without a new recruit were the result of children chasing stars.

On the day I turned twenty I became the senior medical student and the younger students began calling me Dr. Walter. A month after the new medical student, Reggie, settled into the training center, I received a request to report to Dr. Jeffries's office. I had hardly seen the elderly geneticist in years, and a part of me began to think she had passed on.

"Dr. Walter, it is so good to see you," the old woman said. She did not get up to greet me, there was a wheel chair near her and she lay on a hospital bed where a sofa had once been.

"Are you unwell?" I asked her. It turned out that Jeffries was here to see a doctor.

"Yes Doctor, my body is nearing the end of its life cycle," Dr. Jeffries's voice wavered barely above a whisper.

It suddenly occurred to me that there was no training center for geneticists. "Are we nearing our new home? Who will continue your work?" I asked.

The woman seemed unsurprised by my sudden curiosity and concern. "Not everyone on board has been genetically enhanced by the tardigrade. Two hundred and six years ago, twenty-five geneticists and two hundred LARC3 personnel left Earth. I was among them, and will be among that same group when we reach our destination one hundred and thirty years from now," Dr. Jeffries wore a triumphant smile.

"You may not live another month Doctor, how could you be over two hundred and hope to live another two lifespans?" I asked.

"On Earth, off the shores of the continent Antarctica, biologists discovered a fascinating variety of krill that conserved energy when living conditions were not ideal for food gathering. They would revert to their juvenile forms until the following spring. Pairing humans with tardigrade DNA was our second successful experiment to augment human existence. The geneticists and shipmen aboard the LARC3 live their normal life span. Then in order to preserve them and fulfill the vital role they serve in this colony, we undergo a therapy that emulates the Antarctic krill's transformation. Today you will learn the procedure and see me as I am in youth," Dr. Jeffries said with a weak smile.

I could not form a reply. It was beyond anything my medical training could hope for. There were methods of preserving a youthful body with nutrition, exercise, and the avoidance of toxins, but to coax an aged and dying body to return to its youth was a scientific miracle.

After the initial discovery that Jeffries and her team made and the development of their technique, it fell on me to simply monitor her vital signs as she lay on a bed under the same orange light that had given me the Earth doctors' dreams.

The process took five minutes. I stared in amazement as the old woman who sat on death's doorstep changed. Thin white hair colored to a rich strawberry blonde. Wrinkled skin dotted with liver spots smoothed and gained an elastic look. The curves on her hips and bosom filled out, rounded, and pressed into her patient's gown. Stick thin legs developed healthy calves and hands looked smooth and supple.

The strange change in Dr. Jeffries jolted me back to Eric, floating off after the stars. Dead. He would never grow to adulthood once, much less over and over again. He and the other children who hadn't survived stared at me, envious of my life and of the doctor's eternal one. I recalled Angie's reassurance that Eric and the others didn't hate me because there was nothing I could do for them.

The orange light dimmed and a beautiful girl in her late teen years looked at me with clear eyes and a familiar expression. Freckles dotted her cheeks and collarbone. After one final check through her vital signs, I crossed the room to her bed and began to unplug monitors taped to her skin.

The touch of her set my blood pumping. She rose and stood in front of me, then before I knew it, her body pressed against mine and her soft lips pressed against my own.

I had only ever kissed Angie, and my mind drifted off to our last conversation on the little beach. I wasn't sure if I was experiencing a new loss for words or a carryover from my surprise from the procedure.

"Thank you doctor," her voice lilted where it had waivered. "Pardon my affection if it was unwanted, it is just such a delight to be young again."

"Wow," I stammered.

Dr. Jeffries giggled. "I've had some practice you know, this is my fifth time being a young lady after all."

Her transformation impressed me more than her kiss, but I did not wish to offend. "This is incredible! You and the other geneticists must be legends on Earth. You have discovered immortality."

The giggling girl turned solemn. "Only a handful of top level administrators at the League of Atlantis Reborn Colonies know of our work here."

"Why would LARC withhold something this important? I can survive extreme conditions and you have lived four lifespans with no sign of age," I said.

"Genetic experiments like these have always been illegal. Most cultures on Earth deem experimentation on human beings amoral. They would not accept us back on Earth, as we are. The other geneticists and I would be incarcerated," Dr. Jeffries replied.

"Is it because of the ones who did not take to the changes? Because of the ones who died?" I asked.

"That is only part of the reason. Many believe the human body, in its original form, is sacred and only natural selection should alter it. We believe that reaching other worlds and developing beings who can endure the journey on minimal resources, as well as withstand environments harsher than our own, is a noble cause. We are promoting the rare phenomenon of life and diversity in the universe," she said.

Dr. Jeffries parted her full lips into a smile that revealed straight white teeth. There was something defensive behind that pretty smile, ferocity in her gaze. I sensed that her theories before she joined the LARC3 mission had been a cause of intense conflict.

"Is every LARC mission like ours?" I asked.

"We are unique. Every other colonial starship holds a half million people who volunteered to leave Earth. Many were able to reach their destinations in under forty years. LARC3 is believed by many within the League to have been a normal colony that simply disappeared. Someday the crew will return home to confront the world with our achievements. It is our hope that secrecy will be forgiven in light of the success of our methods," Jeffries said.

"I think meeting a pretty girl who is ancient in human standards will make the news easier to take. I know it helped me," I said. My cheeks felt warm and I knew I wore a dopey grin.

Dr. Jeffries giggled again. "Dr. Walter, please keep what you have learned to yourself. Some of the colonists would become unsettled to know the controversial nature of the mission. Some of the young ones are still coping with the loss of their friends whose tardigrade genetics were unsuitable for the scope of the mission."

I nodded in agreement, but later on, back in my quarters, I wondered if I was one of the colonists who became unsettled. Perhaps I would never forget about Eric and the others. Over the following months I found it hard to enjoy visits from patients I had spent my childhood with. The tours around Earth Habitats even stopped.

Compulsion to explore the rest of my enigmatic home drove me to wander through dusty corridors and make flashlight treks through buildings that appeared unoccupied since launch. There were entries to the children's corridors guarded by the little service droids who wandered the halls and performed various simple tasks.

According to the schematic of the vessel on my slate, they were near the rear of the ship. Estimating with a scale based on familiar landmarks, the children's area and the area where the teenage colonists learned their professional roles, occupied nearly all the colony that lay above its central shaft.

The entire propulsion system and most of the ship's mechanical components lay within the propulsion ring and the tubular arm that ran through the core of the colony.

The areas where the colonists who no longer trained for their advanced professions, as well as the areas for the ship's crew and geneticists must all occupy the portion of the colony that would be underground after the craft landed.

It occupied one hundred feet on its two ends and twenty six hundred feet in its middle by three miles long, less the space necessary for its two waste treatment plants, two power generating facilities, and fifty theater sized emergency shelters spread throughout the under layer of the city.

It seemed that aside from Dr. Jeffries's unusual revelations, I had only encountered a third of LARC3's secrets.

Knowing what lay beyond my confines became an obsession. Perhaps it was to keep my mind off the fact that Earth did not look forward to our success, or even know about us. Whether the colonists aboard LARC3 would be accepted as human or could integrate into regular society kept me awake as often as the dream training that grasped my awareness. Perhaps it was because I saw the star chasers nearly every moment I wasn't exploring.

Then I found the maintenance hatch.

In what would one day be a facility for processing terrestrial water that had yet to see use, the lowest level contained a hatch with a hand screw pressure lock, nearly hidden under a carpet of dust.

Grasping the round handle and wrenching counter clock wise with all my strength had no effect. Hot minutes passed with heavy breath and sweat drenched effort, to no avail. Propped against a nearby wall, deep in the shadow of the empty chamber, a metal pole leaned against a set of lockers.

Lodging the tip into the handle and bracing myself in a standing position I pushed into the lever with all the strength of my back and legs.

Air whooshed into the room from below the hatch and an outline appeared where it opened. Thick hinges swung the heavy door completely open until it clanged upon the dusty floor.

My flashlight beam shone into the shaft that connected the propulsion ring to the colony. I tested into the medical field but my first assignment was to explore. I never thought twice before climbing into the unknown and facing what lay in LARC3's bowels.

A week was spent on the four catwalks that ran along the full length of the top, bottom, and sides of the colony's hollow core. In many places my light was unnecessary. Crew members occupied the rooms, compartments, and garage bays within the propulsion ring's shaft which touched the catwalks and would serve as guides for the colony's eventual separation.

Crew members of every age went about their tasks, but I knew they were all from Dr. Jeffries's generation. The first couple of times I spotted someone, I froze in the terror of being caught, but since the light was on their side of thick glass and I moved through darkness, I remained unnoticed.

I mapped the various hatches that ran along the catwalks in my slate's ship map. The upper and lower catwalks led into the colony, the side catwalks were set into the shaft and connected to its chambers. Not a soul had been there for years as the stale air and coating of dust could attest to.

After I pioneered the entirety of the lonely catwalks and spied upon the immortal crew going about their duties, it was time to descend into the lower level of the colony. I spent an evening studying my slate in the medical building's common area comparing the facilities on the map with the locations of the hatches I had marked. It seemed logical that the ship's crew would live nearest the tail of the colony where the propulsion ring could be seen, directly below the compartment where the children lived.

My entry had to go unnoticed or the hatch I had discovered would be guarded by maintenance droids, or sealed. I resolved to enter near the nose and find one of the emergency shelters for landing. They would be recognizable since there were two in the area where I lived and they doubled as movie theaters. On a ship that housed a large population any space that could serve multiple purposes, did.

The chamber was unnaturally quiet. The distance from the propulsion ring with its humming reactors, along with the lack of breathing active bodies, caused an unaccustomed silence. I expected a fairly solitary section, but this was a ghost town.

Not unused like some of the buildings above and the catwalks though. Footprints lay sandwiched between layers of dust. People had come this way once, but the prints all led in one direction and the shapes were round with the coating of another thick layer on top. An eerie feeling crept through me as I followed the old trail and found the shelter I was searching for.

It took a full minute to process what I found inside. First I thought a colonist filled every one of the seats, waiting in the dark to catch me creeping around. Hundreds of heads sat motionless in front of a black screen. Then I realized that they were all...still, perfectly still, and that the air was stale and it was dead quiet.

No one moved when I screamed. The man whose face shone in my flashlight beam didn't blink because he couldn't. The skin of his face had withered and wrinkled dry and tight to his skull, it clamped his eyes shut and locked his jaw closed. Hundreds of mummies sat inside the shelter in some sick parody of their lives, forever waiting.

I could not go back. This must be what happens to the colonists who are older than the training program calls for. Those who do not take to their altered genes chase the stars and those who do become mummies in a silent tomb. I had dodged one fate and I would not accept the second like some sheep led to slaughter.

What sort of life was it to watch your childhood friends float off into space or flatten out of life just to end up dehydrated like our tardigrade parents? Could those desiccated souls still feel?

Eric stared into my eyes from beyond this life and mouthed the words, "Stay away."

It must have been shock that caused me to break the routine.

I never returned to my quarters in the medical training center. Instead I wandered the silent tomb of the lower level for what could have been weeks, maybe months. I fell out of a regular sleep pattern and gathered food from a section of the lower level that served as a warehouse. The building lay unguarded and unattended save for deliveries and pickups. There were dozens of shelters turned into tombs in my new home.

I contemplated what I could do to keep the others my age from the same fate. Alerting them and facing the ship's crew, droids, and geneticists would not end well. They had lifetimes of experience over us and outnumbered every colonist in the professional training segment by at least two to one.

My war was one of evasion. Fight back on my terms by taking food and picking off what forces I could.

A cargo hold near a hatch in front of the catwalk section proved to be a satisfactory home during my time alone. There were lockers which held a few jumpsuits, space suits, and toiletries. A full bathroom, a kitchenette, and a decontamination room provided all the comforts I had known before my discovery.

Some days I simply stayed in doing calisthenics and reading classic Earth literature on my slate. When I grew lonely I watched the mechanics going about their routines, and sometimes I imitated their conversations to one another.

"Pass the wrench Ron?"

"What am I to you, Ted, some second rate crony? Get you own wrench!"

"Would you pass the wrench if I agreed to stop smooching your mother?"

"Sounds reasonable, I think we work well together. I'm cancelling my plans to add you to the hall of petrified colonists."

Until the day Dr. Jeffries's security forces came calling.

I stirred awake from one of my medical dreams at the clank of metal upon metal. Springing from the bed, I moved into the hatch room that connected the lockers and the quarantine room.

Two silver droids stood in the entry, no taller than mid chest. Smooth featureless plates, broken only by a small lens next to a matching speaker, formed eyes on a blank face. I thought it strange that they all spoke from the left eye.

"Dr. Walter, please come with us."

"Is it already my time to join the older colonists?" I replied.

"No, Dr. Jeffries sent us to find you seventeen days ago. We've searched until now. Please come with us Dr. Walter, we speculate you are unwell."

Their civility was only a program. Of course I was unwell; going with them to that busty giggling monster would not fix anything. "Please come in while I pack up my things," I motioned to a place near the hull.

The automatons obliged and moved across the room while I made for the hatch controls. I opened my belt and refastened it around the control console rail, punched the emergency seal button and pulled in a deep breath.

Two silver heads spun backward to face me as I hit the hatch release, opening the chamber to the frigid vacuum of space. Their voices were lost as the atmosphere disappeared in an instant, and the two metal hunters were not far behind. Mechanic droids would be equipped with magnetic feet allowing them to traverse the outer hull. Those two were security models with no such upgrades. They were off chasing stars and I floated for a moment, and remembered the feel of cold desolation.

It took nearly a full minute for the room to pressurize. I unlashed the belt that anchored me in, collapsed on the floor and gasped to recover wind.

The spacesuits in the locker area contained cameras so that engineers and specialists in the ship could advise the mechanics doing work outside. It was time to do a bit of spying. I set one to record on a motion sensor through a wireless link on my slate and packed a bedroll and my horde of food. From the control console outside, I resealed the doors to the ship and reopened the hatch. Someone or something would be coming to close it soon anyhow. There must be sensors to detect a hatch open to space.

Hours later I camped in an abandoned power plant in the lower level. I watched on my slate as Dr. Jeffries and a pair of security droids discovered my former hideout.

"He was here Doctor, the shower, toilet, and bed show signs of use. The pair of droids who tracked him confirm that he opened the hatch while he was in the room," a faceless robot said.

"It's sad to see such a bright young man meet this end. I wonder if I made a mistake telling him some of our mission's details... Dr. Walter only had another week before joining the colonists in storage. He was cute too," Jeffries giggled.

I cut the feed. Watching some ancient evil genius in the thrall of her teen hormones did not interest me. That kiss began to haunt me. Her firm body pressed against me, our mouths had met... One more week? There was only one more week before everyone I'd spent childhood with would become a human raisin.

I thought of Angie, now a zoologist and the hours we spent together touring the Earth Habitats and talking about the past. I thought of the kisses we shared, only days before transforming Dr. Jeffries. I had to rescue her, and maybe together we could save the others.

Despite the urgency of my one week deadline, I paused near a locker nestled in the catwalks under the Earth habitat area. A shave was long overdue. Pale blonde scruff covered my cheeks and chin, nothing thick enough to call a beard, but enough to give me the look of someone who hasn't seen another living person for weeks. Silver blonde hair was beginning to outgrow my crew cut. Time alone had not dulled my blue eyes, and my complexion was a bit more robust thanks to all the walking about.

"Dr. Walter, it's time to save the girl," I told my reflection. Perhaps I wanted to practice speaking. It had been some time since I felt the need, aside from my encounter with the droids.

To my fortune, an entry to the rainforest habitat let me slip into one of Angie's favorite areas without running into anyone else. In a community with only a couple hundred people, news of my absence would be common knowledge.

I emerged from the hatch into the black depths of a cave. A large hunting cat had left evidence of its recent habitation. The bones crunched underfoot in the darkness. I pushed through thick brush, the sound of a gentle sob led me to her.

A petite frame sat upon a flat stone, face hunched into arms which rested upon her knees. A spill of bright red curls fell about her.

"Hi."

There was a final sob and a sniff before two big brown eyes poked out of her crossed arms. Her expression melted from sadness to confusion. "Walter?"

"It's me. What's the matter?" I asked putting my hand on her shoulder and using the sleeve of my other arm to wipe tears from her freckled cheeks.

"They said you died," she said, a few extra sobs bubbled forth.

"I'm right here and I'm not dead yet. I need you to trust me and come along so I can show you where I've been."

"Dr. Jeffries's new assistant said you flew out an airlock," she looked into my eyes, searching for something to trust in.

"I want to tell you everything that has happened since the last time I saw you, but everyone else should continue to believe her story for now. Will you come with me?"

"Okay."

I took her into the ship's depths through the cat's cave. Angie stayed close to my side. Our pace was much less brisk than I was now accustomed to. The sights of the propulsion ring's shaft gave her frequent pause. I led her toward the rear end of the ship and down upon the lower catwalk to the hatch opposite the one I had been living in, until Dr. Jeffries's security found me. I told her that Dr. Jeffries's new assistant was really the old doctor herself and about the mummified colonists in the shelters. I told her what Jeffries said the people on Earth thought of using genetic modification on humans and that humanity thought LARC3 was lost.

Angie buried her face in my chest and began to sob again. I hugged her close and told her that I wanted to find a way to stop the others from joining the colonists in the shelters. I pulled my slate from my satchel and showed her the other parts of the ship I had already explored.

"There has got to be something in this area here." I pointed to a spot about three quarters the way back, on the lower level. "I think these are the labs the geneticists use when they aren't working in our living area. We can find something there that will help us, I know it. At least I've got a good feeling."

"Alright, let's go there and look around after everyone goes to sleep," Angie said. Then she looked into my eyes "I missed you." She leaned closer, and I kissed her.

In the quiet hours, we crept down a hatch from the lower catwalk leading into the segment of the ship occupied by the geneticists and crew. The hatch I selected was on the far front area. A steel wall rose from the bottom hull to the flat ceiling above, that we descended through. Unlike the upper level, the lower level's floor was broken into platforms connected with ramps and stairways to accommodate the ovoid shape of the colony with its center much deeper that its ends. It was in the depths of the lowest level under a building that showed no sign of occupation where we found our twisted cousin.

"This must be one of the places Dr. Jeffries and her colleagues performed their earliest experiments," Angie said.

"Look at these things," I pointed to half human figures, their bodies merged with what looked like a giant shrimp. They floated in tanks of blue liquid, shock and pain frozen on their faces. "I bet these were crew members who tried the gene therapy that causes them to become young, only they hadn't perfected the formula yet."

On the opposite wall, people floated in more tanks, only these poor souls had eight limbs, ending in claws. Mouths replaced by snouts similar to a mole or an anteater. We had stumbled into the basement where Jeffries and her partners kept all their failed experiments for later study. Some of the beings in the tanks were hardly different from us, while others were barely human. I guess the kids who ended up chasing stars weren't the only ones that weren't fit to live on LARC3.

I spun about when I heard Angie let out a startled shriek. I sprinted to her side and we stood on the opposite side of a glass wall from the dry withered remains of an eight limbed creature that towered over our heads. Its snout hung to our eye level and it stood upon two sets of its clawed limbs. Even dried out, the creature looked to be as thick around as my chest.

"Tardigrade," Angie said in a voice near a whisper. "Only, natural tardigrades are microscopic."

"That's what our genes are combined with. Dr. Jeffries said most people can't withstand heat, cold, pressure, space's radiation, and vacuum like we can. It's the DNA from tardigrades that makes us strong," I replied.

Curiosity replaced fear and we entered the mummified creature's cage to get a closer look. This thing was just like the others, only they had dried it out instead of preserving it. I hoped it had not been alive when they made tardigrade jerky of it.

"What if we can use this room to help us somehow?" Angie asked. "This room is how they pulled the moisture from him. Maybe we can find a way to put it back. We can save the other people you saw."

We began exploring the controls, trying to understand the machine's capabilities when nozzles all over the walls and ceiling hissed to life. A dense fog sprayed into the chamber, obscuring the view and coating the glass. Beads of water ran down and provided glimpses of the creature within. It seemed to be swelling, its body a sponge, soaking up the moisture from the air. Fog began to fill the room. I realized the chamber's door was still opened.

"The fog is coming into here," I told her, "I'll shut the door and you try to disable the nozzles."

I ran to the glass entry and pushed into the door nearly sealing it closed. My face plopped against the glass as I suddenly met resistance. The door burst wide open and I wedged against it and the wall behind. A terrible roar deafened me as I peeled myself out from under the entry.

The creature had swollen into a muscular hulk. Fury filled its human eyes, green and intelligent. It burst into a run and was gone from the room before I knew what happened. The fog stopped.

"We can bring the others back," Angie stammered."Tardigrades survive unideal conditions by shedding almost all their body's water. When conditions improve, it returns to life and their structures are stronger than before. That thing and our people must share that trait too, Walter."

"That thing was part human. I saw in its eyes and it was furious," I replied. For better or worse the giant tardigrade was the catalyst that would disrupt Dr. Jeffries's plans, that beast looked like it would tear the ship apart.

"We have to help it," Angie's eyes were watery and she seemed to have completely forgotten the claws. "The poor creature probably just wants food and somewhere to feel comfortable."

Before I could object, Angie raced after the giant beast following claw marks scratched into walkways and walls. It headed toward the crew quarters, and a part of the colony I had not been. We passed dozens of buildings, climbed up along the sloped bottom on stairs and ramps, for what must have been a mile, before we caught sight of the monster.

It had scaled a building clearly used for living quarters. There were balconies looking out over the surrounding structures which were all clustered around a courtyard.

The giant tardigrade was four stories up, on a balcony. Its movements had woken the neighborhood. Lights winked on, casting a pale hue through the darkness of the ship's artificial night. Potted plants blocked my view, and I couldn't tell what the animal was after.

Angie was already scaling the fire escape after the creature. I paused to look around for something I could use to fight the beast. I did not want to be unarmed if it was hungry, and a meat eater.

Security droids and crew members with bed head poured into the courtyard and onto their balconies. Hundreds of them gathered close and prepared to face the geneticist's monster.

Angie crouched amid the balcony foliage with the creature by the time I'd found a broom on a first story patio and broken off the brush end.

"Something escaped the labs!" a man cried.

"It's up there," added another.

"We've got to trap it," said a third.

I pressed into the mob and attempted to climb up the fire escape behind Angie and the creature. A dozen men shambled up the metal stairs toward the fourth story sanctuary.

Leaves, soil, and the creature burst from amid the plants and hurtled through the air. It clutched Angie tight to its belly with one set of arms around her shoulders and another around her knees.

The mob toppled like dominoes as it ran through them, headed back the way it had come.

I bolted in its wake through the clearing in the crowd, makeshift spear in hand. It smashed apart a security droid that barred its path.

Closing the distance, I took a stab at the shoulder joint of an arm that clutched Angie. A spray of splinters deflected from its hide without any apparent damage, but I did attract its attention.

As it turned, I saw Angie's scared face streaked with tears. She was trying to say something but as the creature shifted, its arm covered her mouth. I flung the remains of my stick at its face and grabbed at the arms holding Angie's shoulders, and yanked with all my might. A deafening roar was the last thing I recall before a heavy club smashed into my head and everything went black.

"Dr. Walter, am I surprised to see you," the sweet voice mixed with the noxious aroma of smelling salts. The combination tore me from a dreamless sleep. A firm bust pressed against one arm and the pretty freckled face of Dr. Jeffries filled my blurred vision as I came to.

"Where is Angie? Has anyone stopped the monster?" I said with a mouth full of cotton.

"Drink this." She placed a glass of water in my unsteady hands. "After you sent two security droids out the hatch, you thought to take your girlfriend and a pet to town?"

"Where are they? Is Angie okay?" I asked.

"Aren't you concerned about the injuries and property damage your little adventure has incurred?" Jeffries asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Sometimes I forget how shortsighted and impulsive kids can be. Until I become young again and make girlish mistakes like giving you a long leash. My giant tardigrade and your little friend are still missing. A security droid needs extensive repairs, and half a dozen crew members sustained minor injuries."

"We've got to find them." I said and attempted to rise.

Dr. Jeffries didn't move an inch, our faces were nearly touching. "How can I trust you to help get the ship back under control? One innocent little kiss and you disappear, then you ignore your job and training. Then fake your death and hydrate an animal that won't be content until we can release it into the wilds of a new world a hundred and thirty years away."

"I saw the bodies in the lower level shelters. I saw all the dried people you have set up like they are watching a movie. You're going to do that to me soon, to all of us," I said.

Jeffries gave that innocent giggle and her warm breath tickled my nose. She smiled and moved back allowing me to rise to a seated position.

"Dr. Walter, not much of a detective are you? LARC3 can't feed all those colonists, house them, and keep them all young for the whole flight. Once the colonists are fully trained, we dehydrate them so that when we reach our new home there will be a human population young, fit, and ready to build a new society."

"I uhh," I began to stammer. "What about the children I knew who couldn't survive the tests before training?"

"Those poor dears would not have been able to make it through the dehydration process either. It's sad I agree, but nearly all of them also had birth defects that would cause a painful and slow death before they reached adulthood anyhow.

Dr. Walter, my colleagues and I have been at this a long time and while Earth may not support our methods, we've found they are the most humane way to achieve our aim.

The giant tardigrade was another side shoot of our project. One in a thousand of the colonists we grow take on more tardigrade genes than human. It is such an extraordinary animal we've kept every healthy specimen and intend to release them into a suitable habitat after we land."

"I'm sorry. I thought this was all some sick game for you," I said.

She giggled once more and flashed a bright smile. "Let's go get my pet and your girlfriend before anything happens to them."

On a hunch, I took Dr. Jeffries to the Earth Habitat where Angie and I used to meet. Hidden in the cave, we found Angie. She tended to the sleeping animal, and looked over its body.

"Walter? Is it you?" she ran into my embrace.

Dr. Jeffries gave the animal an injection in a soft fold of its snout and contacted a squad of security drones to arrange transport for the creature back to the lab. Angie and I caught up with one another and described our ordeal. Dr. Jeffries accompanied the giant tardigrade back to its resting place.

A week has gone by since the incident. Angie and I look forward to starting a new life together when we land on the planet. We are going to be married and start a family. In the meantime Dr. Jeffries pulled some strings and we will spend the next century holding hands. The seats are comfortable enough I suppose. I leaned in and kissed my red haired love once more before the process began.

Angie smiled and wished me goodnight, I told her the same. With her by my side, I doubt I'll dream of Eric and the others anymore.

Dr. Jeffries was right, drying out really doesn't hurt. The heat is actually pretty nice.

#  Leech Brains

"Begin Log Entry 2148.11.15, for Dr. Erin Jeffries," fingers blurred over a keyboard, pulling images of double helix DNA strands on two separate screens. Long strawberry blond hair fell down petite shoulders under a white lab coat.

Only her eyes and technical experience revealed her true age, one of Dr. Jeffries's earliest successes, a treatment with Antarctic Krill, enabled elderly adult humans to revert to their young bodies. She found that renewed youth came along with renewed curiosity and a disregard for caution.

"I have isolated the leech's genes responsible for multiple brains and inserted them into the human base strands." She leaned over a holographic computer simulation of the hybrid and gasped in delight, "Beautiful."

*****

"Ten months in the artificial womb and now my little creation is ready for the world," Dr. Jeffries mused.

The nanny droid charged with the newborn's upkeep only chirped in reply. While the bot showed capable of communicating advanced notions, it had found in the days prior that replies more than casual acknowledgement led the youthful Doctor on rants.

"He's beautiful." Dr. Jeffries cradled her little test subject, swaddled in blankets. She carefully rolled the baby on its side and inspected its thirty two brains. The boy's head parted down the center, making the first pair. Along his spine, thick bone bulged on both sides, creating protective skulls for the fifteen pairs of brains running from just under his primary set to the small of his back. "Perfect, you're just perfect!" She tickled the little babe on its belly and he cooed.

*****

"I missed you yesterday." The boy, Roger, now six, looked up into Dr. Erin's eyes as they walked together in the starship's Earth Habitat.

"I missed you too Roger," a thin hand stroked the brain casings between his neck and shoulder blades. Hardly a day went by that Dr. Jeffries had not made time for her special friend. "How are your studies progressing?"

"I miss the other children."

"The other children are still learning their alphabet; you're completing a third doctoral thesis."

"I know they don't learn as quickly, but I still like to play. Maybe I can join the youth soccer league?"

"That would be a wonderful idea!" Dr. Jeffries took her young charge by the hand. "I know firsthand that an educated mind still needs physical activity and social stimulation, especially in youth. Let's walk to the sports complex and sign you up today."

*****

Parents and droid chaperones crowded the bleachers. The youth soccer season had come to an end. Dr. Jeffries sat on the edge of her seat. She had never been much for sports, but watching Roger play was incredible. Not much for running or winning a scrimmage, the boy relied on strategy and impeccable aim all season to help his team make it all the way to the championships.

With only seconds left in the fourth quarter Roger punted the ball high overhead from the opposite side of the field. It looked to everyone in the stands that it would simply sail over the top of the goal and end up out of bounds, but the ball arced and fell just under the top bar of the goal.

"We win!" Roger shrilled with delight. His team exchanged high fives.

"Leech boy!" shouted a kid from the other team.

"It's not just leech cells he has, they gave him soccer cheater cells too!" said another opponent.

A single tear ran down Roger's cheek. Dr. Jeffries jumped up, ready to scold the sore losers and comfort her little Roger. She stormed across the field with some parents, all ready to enforce good sportsmanship. As they approached Roger scrunched his face in concentration. The boys who teased him all made shocked expressions. Urine trickled down their legs soaking shorts and socks. Roger smiled sheepishly and the sodden boys began to cry.

Seeing the situation resolved and also the suspicious looks on the faces of the approaching parents, Dr. Erin quickly piped in "Boys, it isn't nice to tease others because they are different, and Roger you know that revenge only makes enemies. Now who wants to celebrate a good game with popsicles?"

# Monster in the Lift Tube- A Love Story

Larry knew she would take the lift tube. He'd been an engineer on the starship a long, long time, and if he knew one thing for certain, people on the LARC3 colonial starship kept to their schedules.

Larry knew they weren't a match on paper, though he looked every bit as young as the day he left college back on Earth all those centuries ago, thanks to genetic treatments with Antarctic krill DNA, he knew she just entered maturity not even to mention her enhancements.

He reasoned that she took part in the next colonization effort, and her DNA laced with whatever the geneticists onboard determined would allow humanity to thrive under unearthly conditions.

All differences aside, they would one day reach the planet and she would leave him to start a life and a family on a world while Larry continued his work here aboard the ship, but none of that seemed to matter.

******

Leila took the long way to her geological study group, as she had since that engineer caught her eye nearly a month ago. Something about the man that pulled her to him, like he exerted gravity beyond what the colony's artificial environment provided. Leila felt a pull toward him that lured her to the only place a fledgling colonist like her ever spotted the engineering team.

Some friends in medical training told her the engineers stay with the ship, that the same crew had manned the vessel since departing Earth, nearly five hundred and thirty years ago. Some of them looked old, but most, like her engineer, looked to be only a couple years older than herself, nineteen.

One could hardly blame a person aboard this ship for having genetic modifications that most would consider unnatural. Leila didn't mind someone's quarks, after all, her genetic modification could be so prominent that at times, even her peers looked nervous around her.

Her heart fluttered as she rounded the corner and saw him, waiting for the lift tube, as reliable as her morning alarm.

******

"It's nice to see you," Larry gave her the smile he had practiced in the little mirror attached to the door of his crew locker.

"I'm Leila, I don't think we have formally met," she extended a hand.

Larry grasped her soft hand in his own rough grip, careful not to squeeze to hard, and careful not to give her the limp fish of a shake. He had done it! After weeks of building courage and allowing mild interest to grow to... well, something more, he had begun speaking to this beautiful, mysterious girl.

What was the genetic adaption for her generation? Larry had such a hard time keeping up with the genetics department.

He motioned for Leila to enter the lift before him, then quickly followed, now nervous that someone else might join them in the small space, it had happened before. As Larry wracked his brain for a casual topic, the lift shuddered and ground to a halt.

Strange, he mused. This lift is not due for maintenance for another twelve years. The lights dimmed and the intercom announced a malfunction, asserting that a crew had been dispatched.

"I didn't plan it, I swear." Larry's grin turned rather sheepish.

"Well, I don't mind the company," Leila replied. "Sometimes being trapped in tight places makes me nervous."

"Let me see if I can override the panel," the engineer leaned past the young woman, he could smell her hair. Was that scent vanilla?

"Or we could talk," Leila placed a hand on his and he froze. "I'm sorry, I just.." she began to withdraw.

Larry straightened then and stammered a bit when she withdrew, then recovered composure. "That would be nice, to be honest this lift is a bit out of my way. I saw you on it once when I was on special assignment and kept using it so I would run into you again." Larry could feel his cheeks redden, had he said too much?

Leila leaned toward him, "Me too." She stood quite close now, and looked up into his eyes.

Larry mustered courage, the elevator breaking, the conversation going well, he took the chance. Larry leaned in and kissed Leila. She seemed startled at first, then she kissed him back.

******

Leila couldn't believe her senses. She had kissed boys before, but it had never been as electrifying as all this. She felt something magical between them. Something... dread well up within her, it was happening again! Leila froze, horrified by the realization that her suction cups began activating. She could hear Larry's startled expression from under her pressed lips, then her instinct took over and the next several minutes passed in a blur.

The lift tube door slid open, jarring Leila back to reality, allowing her human side to regain control. She pushed Larry back a bit with a wet popping sound. He looked dazed. Larry opened his mouth to speak, but Leila, overwhelmed with embarrassment, ran from the lift.

Leila sulked through the rest of her day. She slept fitfully. The next morning Leila mustered her courage, she would return to the lift and apologize for what happened. Larry would no longer be interested in a freak like her, but at least she could make amends.

Nearing the corridor, Leila paused before the last turn, suddenly unwilling to face her crush again, after she had revealed her true self. Long minutes passed. She figured that if Larry had bothered to take the same route, he would have moved on by now. She rounded the corner, and gasped.

Larry stood by the lift holding a bouquet of flowers. He grinned when he saw her.

# Bright Eyes

Dr. Erin Jeffries pulled her thick mane of strawberry blonde hair into a pony tail. The geneticist loved missions that included a trip to a planet's surface, and this one would be especially pleasant since Bright Eyes would be there with her.

Of all the modifications she had made to the humans who colonized a handful of worlds on their path away from Earth, Bright Eyes became her pet project, someone special, who would continue with the starship indefinitely. She also thought of him as a younger brother.

After a ride in the transit tubes, Dr. Jeffries entered the bridge, gave her orders to the staff, and quietly crept over to the stooped figure of a teen boy. The youth stared intently through one of a dozen view ports spread through the bridge and the geneticist tickled her quarry into a startled leap from his seat.

"Jeez Doc, how come you always sneak up on me when I'm looking for things?"

"Simple, when you've got the biggest prettiest eyes on the ship, you are usually looking for things. Besides, I like to keep you on your toes." She gave the youth a playful squeeze. "How would you like to come along on a field trip?"

"Go down to the planet? I thought VB891 is uninhabited."

"Drone readings report microscopic life. That's why I need my Bright Eyes. Besides, there will be nothing to see here, the ship is coming to a stop while we are away."

The boy looked at his creator, mentor, and friend with a loving gaze. His head was much larger than average, in order to accommodate his namesake feature. Luminous eyes, deep blue, without whites, glowed brightly, the size of ping pong paddles. The geneticist smiled back and kissed him on the forehead. Not only did she feel fond of the boy, but his ability to spot rogue planets and asteroids in the dark expanse between solar systems had saved the starship a dozen course corrections and countless hours on labor and repairs.

Their journey to the surface took nearly eight hours. Bright Eyes kept the doctor awake with a barrage of questions ranging from her original youth on Earth, those hundreds of years ago, to whether she may ever consider marrying someone younger with unique features.

Dr. Erin Jeffries and the crew of LARC3 underwent gene therapy in order to reverse their aging process, a therapy she developed with the genes of an Antarctic krill.

Someday her Bright Eyes would need the same treatments, she mused that perhaps she could apply the treatments every five years instead of every fifty in order to keep him young and adorable.

Their pilot stayed aboard the shuttle while Dr. Erin and Bright Eyes explored near barren gray terrain in sleek suits which both insulated them and supplied breathable air. Bright Eyes made sport of the planet's gravity, nearly half that of Earth and their starship. Within an hour's time the young man's glowing eyes had uncovered the location of the microscopic life and captured a thriving community for future evaluation back on the starship.

The return journey started quietly, Dr. Jeffries and her young friend slept after a meal of rations. Three hours into their return, the pair awoke to the ping pangs of debris hitting the hull. Before either knew what happened, a loud crunch caused a blossom of fire to erupt from the cockpit, followed by a loud hiss.

"The shuttle is venting atmosphere, put your helmet back on," Dr. Jeffries said, her voice tense and shrill. She called to the pilot, who did not respond.

The pair unstrapped from their seats, and floated momentarily. The gravity generator had been damaged as well. Grasping emergency handholds along the interior of the hull, Bright Eyes and Dr. Jeffries entered the cockpit.

"Is he okay?" the boy asked.

Bits of blood and electronics floated in the small space.

"He's alive, but knocked out. I need to put a suit on him before we run out of atmosphere. Bright Eyes, can you see which systems are still operational?"

The boy slid into the pilot seat while the geneticist worked on the pilot. Tense minutes passed. Pings continued to wrack the hull. Both explorers feared another large impact.

"I can get us home," he winked one giant eye and gave Dr. Jeffries a lopsided grin.

"Have you ever piloted before?"

"Sure, those simulators are the best, but this will be different. The scanner is fried, I'll have to kill the cabin lights and the display panel, and then bring it in on visual alone."

Silence gripped the cabin for a full minute. "You're the best person for the job," she said with a forced smile.

They cut the lights none too soon. The shuttle drifted toward impact with an asteroid the size of a diner. Bright Eyes deftly maneuvered the craft out of harm's way, not even an inch to spare. The boy swore he heard a scratching sound as they passed the icy rock.

Five hours later, Bright Eyes breathed a sigh of relief. A tug had been dispatched from the starship and latched onto the damaged craft. Their shuttle's pilot had suffered a concussion and would spend a night in the ship's hospital. Their microscopic samples remained in the airtight transport unit, no worse for the wear.

Dr. Jeffries and the boy stripped off their helmets and breathed the familiar air of home. The geneticist bent down and kissed her young friend while cupping both cheeks. She could feel the warmth of his blush on her palms.

"You saved me Bright Eyes."

"That was great. Let's do that again when I'm a grown man and we're married."

Dr. Erin gulped and nodded. She would eventually have to tell the boy she preferred the single life, but not today.

# Antman

"I'm sorry Dr. Jeffries," an engineer offered, his worried expression confirmed sincerity. "Jianyu moved the first dozen containers without a problem, then I saw him loose footing and..."

Dr. Erin Jeffries peered out her high pressure suit's face mask. Her engineer couldn't even be visually identified; his near panicked breathing fogged his features. The magnet crane still swayed in the breeze. A breeze which the colonists likely found refreshing since their human bodies carefully blended with the DNA of one Earth's strongest creatures, able to carry one hundred times its own body weight.

Their ant traits clearly evident, visible because their human bones were reinforced by a sturdy exoskeleton. They also inherited the insect's incredible body to brain ratio, an unexpected yet welcome side effect.

Perhaps the scholars and scientists among the half million altered humans would bring advancements to science and scholarly pursuits to the rest of the League of Atlantis Reborn Colonies.

The ant genes proved a necessity for mankind to inhabit this world, swathed in lush vegetation and seemingly inexhaustible natural resources. The atmospheric pressure weighed nearly six times that found on Earth. Even with the aid of her hydraulic pressure resistant suit, the young geneticist struggled to simply move about the unloading area. Hundreds of engineers assisted the Antmen, as the starship crew referred to this planet's colonists, in unloading freight containers and prefabricated buildings.

Dr. Jeffries peered at the engineer's name badge since his own steam obscured his features. "Collins, you're rattled. End shift early and get another machine operator down here right away."

"Should I call for medical assistance?" Collins asked, his voice quavered on the brink of tears. "I didn't mean to..."

"There, there, Collins. I saw the accident, we are both concerned for Jianyu's wellbeing, but there is really no need to feel at fault. Your magnet crane has never been operated under these pressures or wind conditions before. Poor Jianyu certainly would not be crushed by this." She indicated the steel structure, "If anything he may run short of oxygen, which is why I'd like for you to get a relief operator on the machine."

Collins smiled at her attempts to reassure and turned for the cargo ship.

Even as the man trudged off, the lithe young geneticist stepped cautiously back. The freight container Jianyu lay beneath began to creak and shift. Dr. Jeffries jumped in surprise, for the first time since her last gene therapy induced youth. A groan could be heard and the room sized freight container slowly rose until the shiny burgundy physique of the gene enhanced man posed, with the structure above his head; reminiscent of atlas holding the Earth.

"Good thing I was on the receiving end, instead of one of you soft humans," Jianyu said, flashing a smile at his creator. Human facial features still held form, despite the thick hard exoskeleton. Eyes the size of oranges shone bright blue and brilliant white teeth clenched as the Antman heaved and tossed the freight container into place nearby.

"Let me have a look at you," Dr. Jeffries said, lifting Jianyu's thick arm to look for strains or cracks in his exoskeleton.

"I appreciate the mothering, but I'm fine, really," the Antman said to the woman who had mothered him since birth from his fetal tube. Jianyu gazed up at his former home, the LARC3 colonial starship. From orbit around his new world the three mile long vessel looked like a small moon. "What's next for you Doc, another batch of colonists? Will these guys have with flippers and gills?"

A mischievous twinkle lit Dr. Erin Jeffries's eyes "Oh, whatever the next environment calls for. You know we go with the flow."

# CAD Changed His Mind

Danny Rogers placed his hand on the control console to his quarters, prepared to punch the command to open, and hastily reviewed the condition of his dwelling for the thirty first time. He bumped into fellow crew members of the colonial starship as he rushed to his station at the long distance sensor array. Danny's meticulous habits made him the ideal person to look for a habitable world.

"Shift change was a half hour ago," the team lead barked "Report to sick bay."

"Sir... It won't happen again."

"It's been getting worse again. The doctors can help you Danny."

******

Danny chose to walk to the medical facility. The transit tubes entrenched among the miles of encapsulated city always showed evidence of disarray, litter on seats, smudged windows, and germs.

Danny Rogers had been to the doctor for obsessive compulsive disorder before. He took the medication unerringly, often removing the pill, inspecting, replacing, and repeating to be certain. He perfected the routine to sooth his anxiety. Danny noticed the problem develop shortly after leaving Earth years ago.

******

"It's nice to see you again Danny," the Doctor expected him hours ago.

"Has the scanner's seat been recently sterilized?" Danny asked, as he skipped formalities.

"Fresh and ready for you, I double checked it myself." The Doctor smiled reassuringly.

Minutes later all the regions of Danny Rogers's brain had been mapped and uploaded in the medical unit's Computer Aided Drafting program. The doctor compared lobes against a healthy mind and discovered the source of Danny's malady.

"Just like on this model, I will use a laser to alter the tissues of your brain, and you won't need medication anymore," the doctor said.

"Will I have a scar on my head?"

"The laser only affects brain tissue, your scalp and skull will be unaffected."

******

Only an hour passed since Danny arrived in the doctor's office, a compulsive, nervous wreck. A new carefree, light hearted Danny made his way back to work. This time he took the transit tube. Danny enjoyed the ride. He smiled at the kid in front of him, who smeared some sticky substance on the glass. Danny found a certain art in it.

The operation worked much better than those lousy pills ever had. Danny did not feel the least bit concerned about the bathroom sink running, or the state of his clean laundry.

Nothing bothered him anymore.

******

The team leader smiled to see Danny back the same day. "You look relaxed, Danny."

"I've never felt better," Danny Rogers said. He handed the team leader his medical paperwork. The supervisor studied it for a moment and looked Danny's head over.

"Wow. You seem like a whole new man. I should get my head looked at, work has been getting under my skin lately," the team leader replied.

Danny smiled a calming smile and the other man relaxed at the sight of it. Danny Rogers picked up a screw driver from the console and jammed it into the team leader's temple. The man's eyes went vacant and he slumped to the floor.

Danny gave him a perplexed expression.

"Best to leave that sort of work to the professionals I suppose," Danny sat at the console and began his shift. He didn't have a care in the world.

# Out on a Limb

Val Ricks had spent his fair share of time working on the starship's dangerous engineering assignments. The maintenance engineering department kept a rotation for the sort of work that put you directly in harm's way. Though their journey brought the LARC3 hundreds of years away from their home on Earth, and their technology made leaps and bounds in the interim, someone still had to manually perform tasks, like repairing sensory equipment damaged while traveling through asteroid belts.

The engineer peered up from his work from time to time to visually gage the distance from other asteroids to his position. It would be delusional to assume asteroids don't dent the hull in the same place twice. Steady hands removed the smashed bits of equipment, then wired and bolted the replacement array into place.

He had the accident during the hundred yard walk back to the maintenance hatch. Though the man had been at the job well past what Earth considered retirement age, no action of reflex would have prevented the accident.

Not twenty paces from the hatch, a potato shaped rock the size of a beach ball bounced off the hull and scraped its way into Val Rick's path, wedging the man's booted foot into hull plating with a sickening crunch. The engineer reeled in pain, stunned only for a second until he saw the atmosphere from his pressurized suit venting from his ruined ankle. Teeth gritted from pain, he squeezed his eyes shut.

While Val would do what was necessary to survive the ordeal, he would not watch the suit severe at the calf and reseal itself with emergency foam.

The following afternoon Val sat in his wheelchair gazing out the window at the asteroid field through the wake of the starship's propulsion stream. A man barely acquainted with Val paced the room and chatted pointlessly. Val had heard and reheard the story about losing both hands while dislodging a hydraulic arm in the day they shared rehabilitation.

Val shook his head; the man had finally baited him into conversation. "Your hands and my foot are nothing. Last time I landed in one of these recovery rooms, I'd been impaled in the engine room. It's one thing looking at a limb and stumps, try asking for help while staring at your lung on the shaft poking out of your chest like a flag pole."

His companion raised eyebrows in contemplation. Before he could recall a tale to get one up on Val, the door slid open and a young woman in a lab coat greeting her patients with a smile.

"Winston, let's take a look at those new hands," Dr. Jeffries said. She unwound bandages to reveal two new half-grown appendages. "You are being transferred to the rehabilitation room this afternoon; these hands are growing right on schedule."

The geneticist made her way across the room to Val's wheel chair. "Well guys, did you ever think that DNA infusions with lizard cells would have such a consistently remarkable effect? Look here Mister Ricks, your new toes are already wiggling!"

On Val's unwrapped stump, a tiny foot and ankle, no larger than that of a doll, writhed under the doctor's prodding.

"Great, Doc," said Val with an unamused expression, "I guess I'll be back on the job in no time."

# Tongue Biter

Holden Daniels paced the tiny cell, maneuvering so that his sour scowl continually faced the Colonial Security Force officer on duty. He was a mechanical engineer, not a social butterfly. That rat Nielsen always got on his back, if he had just left the hovering and criticizing to management, Holden would not have jammed a screwdriver into the man's torso three times.

The colonial starship had departed from Earth years ago, and Daniels had no idea how he would make it until he could put his feet on soil again.

Luck had held back in Hartford when he pushed Cooper, his former coworker in front of the commuter train after second shift. Holden's luck waivered only slightly when he smashed Turner's nose into pudding, which landed him in anger management training. Now Holden Daniels suspected his luck had run out completely.

Outside his cell, the CSF officer opened the barred door and a woman whom Daniels had been vaguely acquainted with entered, flanked by two more officers.

"I'm Doctor Erin Jeffries, Mr. Daniels. I'll be in charge of your rehabilitation today," she said. Dr. Jeffries stood a few inches taller than Daniels, her strawberry blond hair swept back to her shoulder blades. Holden guessed her age in the mid-forties and she looked disarmingly attractive to the lone man who often went weeks without interaction with the fairer sex.

"More anger management then? Like it paid off last time," Daniels said with a chuckle. "I thought I'd be spending my foreseeable future in this room," he made a grand gesture to capture his meager surroundings.

"Please have a seat," Dr. Jeffries said, and cocked an eyebrow at a rigid arm chair in the back of the room. "I'll explain your treatment while you get comfortable."

Holden Daniels gave her a long, almost hungry stare, and then plopped into the seat. He quickly adjusted and realized there were straps from top to bottom. He raised a hand to object, but the two CSF officers were already at his sides, and began securing the bindings.

"Anger management is excellent for those who apply the techniques Mr. Daniels. Imprisonment was practical for individuals with your aptitude back on Earth. Frankly, we have not got the space, or resources to provide you with a free ride. We are living in a closed artificial ecosystem on this starship, and we need every resource and every person to perform optimally. We will be covering for poor Mr. Nielsen while he recovers from your assault, but thanks to my little modified friend here, you will be back to work tomorrow."

Holden Daniels took his eyes off the woman's figure and saw that she held what looked like yellowish tongue with beady black eyes at its tip, and pointy limbs tucked close to its underside.

"Cymothoa Exigua or the Tongue Biter is a crustacean that eats a fish's tongue, latches onto the stub, and performs the missing organ's task."

Holden Daniels opened his mouth to protest, but the CSF officers to either side jammed a device between his teeth and cranked until his jaw popped. Daniels began to hyperventilate.

"Relax Mister Daniels this may seem frightening, but it's actually a blessing in disguise. This little guy here has been a project in my lab for the last eighteen months. I've modified his body to allow for human speech, and he is as intelligent as you or I. I've designed him to have the very thing you've proven deficient in Mister Daniels, a conscience."

Dr. Jeffries approached Holden, who thrashed against his restraints. His screams muffled the sickening sound of chewing as the Cymothoa Exigua ate its way into a new home.

The following night passed in a blur of rage and pain for Holden Daniels, at some point the man thought he had snapped and begun hearing voices.

"You aren't crazy Holden, there is someone else here with you, in your head," his Tongue Biter said. Only the voice wasn't heard aloud, it came across like a stray thought.

"I will kill that doctor and the guards for this."

"Let's not be hasty pal, I'm going to help you get along from now on."

Holden felt a strange sense of comfort at the prospect.

# Uprooted

"I hope we discover some food," said Leroy.

"Our first sign of life since Earth and it makes you hungry?" Jillian asked.

"Shuttle rations make me hungry," the colonial security force officer said to his partner.

The planet's surface shimmered green against the star filled backdrop. Occasional blue splashes breaking up the lush emerald thicket enfolding nearly every inch of the planet's surface in a rain forest. Life away from Earth had, until now, remained elusive and undiscovered.

Plenty of barren rocks contained metal ores and a variety of minerals to mine. Numerous gas giants replenished the massive colonial vessel's stores of essential basic elements. Of all the planets the crew of LARC5 encountered since it left Earth nearly ten years ago, this world alone supported life.

A sleek silver craft shimmered in the morning sun as it slid into the atmosphere. The body of the craft swooped with the curves of a manta ray, stretching two hundred and fifty feet long and curving out to the same width. Its propulsion systems sent ripples through the top of a dense fog as it descended toward the planet's surface.

In the nose of the craft, a transparent viewport exposed two layers of rooms; the upper room housed the crafts controls, cockpit, and seating for its five occupants. The lower level offered a view below the craft in an observation room. The glass wall and its adjoining floor held a crescent table top, allowing the crew to take meals and attend meetings while enjoying the view.

The explorers lived together in the shuttle for nineteen days on the journey away from the colonial ship to the green world and the shuttle would need no less than another week to return home.

Their space faring colony and its propulsion vessel, called LARC5 spanned three miles in length and a mile diameter in its center; tapering to one thousand feet at its hollow tip and aft, bulging its tail back to a mile in diameter for its propulsion ring.

Admiral Nguyen had jumped at the opportunity to explore the world in passing, but ordered against altering the colony's course. Their intended destination lay another eighteen years ahead and nothing warranted delay.

"I hope there are ferns here," said Marcel Renoir, "I miss the ferns that grew in Sorel on the banks of the Saint Laurent."

"Any ferns we encounter would likely resemble their central American cousins," said a petite woman with ordinary features, except that they gave no hint of the zoologist's age.

"Dr. Keller, let us hope we see something unique and remarkable," Marcel said, flashing a smile. The Quebec native had brown hair, a slight frame, and a sharp jaw line.

The three remaining crew sat in silence, fixated on the view as they flew a dozen feet over the canopy looking for a clearing to set the shuttle down. Dr. Morin glanced at atmospheric data from the ships instruments on his slate on occasion. Leroy leaned over the railing on the lower observation deck already in full colonial security force gear. His partner, Jillian wore a bright smile as she made a recording on her slate for her friends back on the ship to see later. Her blonde hair rested in a low bun under CSF cap.

The football field sized clearing allowed for sunlight to pour in, seizing the opportunity to shine beyond the top of the canopy. The ship touched down with an unaccustomed squish. The ground, dense with undergrowth of green life, gave no sign of how far down soil sat. After waiting for a few minutes and allowing the ship to settle, Marcel opened the bay doors to the passenger portion of the shuttle, allowing the team access to the surface.

Dr. Morin, Dr. Keller, Jillian, and Leroy emerged from the craft moments after they confirmed the atmosphere breathable. When their boots touched the ground, the squish down ended in a moist suction. Every step lagged a bit by the tiny pull on their boots, and a murky gray substance ringed the soles and shone in the sunlight.

Dr. Morin crouched, filled a small tube he held in a gloved hand, corked, and secured it in his satchel.

Dr. Keller found a small flock of flying animals hovering near the fruit of a massive tree and approached its base. Her boot marks left small pools of moisture as she made her way toward the edge of the clearing.

"Eeeww. I hope this stuff washes out. I don't want to break in another pair of boots," Jillian said to Leroy in a low tone. The air and muck on her boots smelled of rotting plants.

"I've got a boot polish for that, partner," Leroy replied.

"If we encounter sentient life today, we are the aliens," Dr. Morin said with a smile.

The trio took in the scene as the lithe Dr. Keller went bird watching. The environment looked unique from anything on Earth, yet the similarities emerged. Some of the canopy's trees bore needles while others contained leaves similar to the Oaks, Maples, and Birches found in the Northeastern United States back on Earth. Small bushes and vines grew in the space between the canopy and the spongy wet floor.

A blur moved across the forest floor and the three shot glances in its direction. A mossy green lump of fur ripped at a leaf from a bushy plant nearby. The small furry creature had two paws that emerged from its plume of green and a tooth filled mouth that munched greedily upon its fistfuls of foliage. The dark green leaves formed ovoid shapes. Spherical lavender colored flowers adorning its body. The shrub filled the space of a refrigerator with dozens of branches about as thick as Leroy's thumb sprouting from a central bud. The center looked like a watermelon with a pair of longitudinal cracks in it.

A bird's cry far above, caught their attention as flying animals joined the little flock of fruit eaters. The newcomers reminded Leroy of Pterodactyls. He glanced back down at the empty space where his own little mammal had been. The big bush that reminded Leroy of his mother's Rhododendron in the suburbs back on Earth, shook as if recovering from being knocked into. The foliage seemed out of place with fuzz and dark red fluid near that bulbous growth at its stalk.

Dr. Keller shrieked. Ravenous scaled animals seized the small bird-like creatures she was watching. Drops of blood rained down at varying speeds and held her attention for a moment. Dr. Morin, Jillian, and Leroy ran to her aid, splashing fluid up from the spongy ground. Keller apologized for the outburst in a hushed tone. Hoping to watch the larger flyers without ringing the dinner bell down on the team, she returned her gaze skyward and crept closer to the tree line.

******

Dr. Morin and Jillian began to peer at the bush the little mammal had been eating. Its leaves rustled and a branch began approaching the pair. Morin looked intrigued.

"Prehensile plant life... Earth plants move, but this is extraordinary!" He edged closer, even as the plant stretched its branch toward him. He stood, entranced in the moment.

Jillian watched as the Doctor and the bush reached toward one another. His ebony hand stretched toward the nearest leaf, now only inches apart.

"Look out for thorns," Jillian said, in a cautious tone.

"Arghh!" Morin jerked his arm, trying to get his hand free from the vine-like limb now entwining itself around him. He jerked harder and cried out as thorns dug into the skin on his hand and wrist, tearing flesh. The plant continued to twist and snare the doctor.

Leroy shouted and began sloshing through the murk toward the two.

Jillian drew her firearm and leveled it near where the branch connected to the water melon shaped stalk.

Before either officer could react, Morin flew across the ground as the branch whipped him toward its stalk like a rabbit in a snare. Its melon snapped open and thin thorny fangs lined three sides that spread like flower petals. A wet pink surface gleamed as Morin flailed toward the green jaws.

Jillian felt her hands rumble and saw the muzzle flare; the sound rang through her ears, through the swampy foliage. Dr. Morin stumbled to the ground with a plop as the water splashed up. The vine grasping his arm thrashed violently about. Purple fluid oozed out of its end and out from the stub near its stalk jaws. The mouth-like center snapped shut.

Jillian intended to holster her sidearm and help Dr. Morin with the thorny leafy snake he struggled to remove. Instead, her knees buckled and she fell in a heap on the wet spongy ground.

Jillian's outside world fell away, and within her mind she felt a strange new presence. A foreign presence in her mind grasped her tightly, holding her prisoner, motionless in her own skin. Jillian relived her fondest memories from childhood, her darkest fears, and obscure moments in class rooms and training centers for colonial security force.

She felt as if she had aged a year or more in that instant, as if all the recollections had taken the same amount of time they had when first she lived them.

Leroy closed the distance between the doctor and himself in two dozen strides. He heard Dr. Keller behind him and yelled at her to board the shuttle. The branch thrashed and dug into Dr. Morin's forearm. He screamed and batted at the assailing limb.

Leroy shielded his face and stomped on the branch at its midpoint, pinning it down. He quickly placed his left boot inches from Morin's bleeding hand. He tore off his coat and twisted it into a rope. Leroy wedged the coat between Morin's hand and the vine, prying the thorns out.

Dr. Morin pulled his injured limb close to his chest and backed away toward Jillian.

With Morin clear, Leroy hopped back with both feet, hunching down to protect his face. He hurled the vine with a circular sweep of both arms, releasing the coat with one hand and sending the branch sailing through the air into the brush.

Dr. Morin approached Jillian slowly as she lay motionless on the damp moss covered ground.

******

Leroy was shoulder to shoulder with the Doctor. "Is she alright, Doc?"

"Not that kind of Doc, son. Did something bite her?"

"I don't think so. She shot that branch off as the Rhododendron tried to eat you, then Jill fell over."

Jillian Taylor gasped and bolted upright into a seated position. She panted and took in her surroundings, clearly confused. "He... he... knows me now. We lived my life again... That plant thinks like we do..." Jillian said, her voice quavering and she leveled a finger at the plant whose branch continued to thrash around in the brush.

"Let's regroup on the shuttle," Leroy said, taking Jillian by the arm and helping her get to her feet.

Dr. Morin motioned for Keller to join them inside the shuttle. Onboard, Keller applied disinfectant to Morin's cuts and wrapped them. Jillian sat and drank water with trembling hands. Leroy told Marcel about the encounter with the carnivorous plant.

"I had a Venus fly trap as a boy, but it could not pull bugs in. It only waited around to catch a meal," he said.

"It's smart. It knew Dr. Morin was alive, and when I shot its branch off, it got into my mind. That plant made me recall most of my life; I feel like months went by. I think it was trying to learn about us."

"I have learned about you, about humanity, and about your journey through space."

The words weren't heard aloud. The five explorers heard the statement as a though in their minds. Leroy gasped and clutched his head. Dr. Keller smiled and nodded. Marcel looked about the shuttle frantically trying to reveal the speaker's location.

"Marcel, I am not in the shuttle. I'm what you would call a bush, the one who grabbed your colleague, Dr. Morin."

"How do you know my name? How can I hear you? You aren't making any sounds!"

"Your species would call the method telepathy. I learned about you when I shared Jillian Taylor's memories."

"What do you want with us?" asked Dr. Morin, drawing his injured hand close to his chest.

"I no longer wish to consume you, and you have my sincere apologies. We have never encountered beings with self-awareness outside of our own kind."

"There are more like you?" Dr. Keller asked with raised eyebrows. She walked over to the open shuttle hatch and looked into the forest.

"We are several hundred individuals. Our common ancestor became self-aware four generations ago. It flowered dozens that also became aware. We communicate with one another in the same method that I'm communicating with you. We also enter the minds of our prey in order to guide them within reach, and to pacify them so we are not damaged while feeding. Your sentience overrides my ability to control. The lack of control gave me reason to look deeper into Jillian's mind."

"What is your name?" asked Jillian.

"We have never needed to identify ourselves individually. Location distinguishes our individuals. However you may refer to us collectively as Venatorrhodon, after the flora from your home and our manner of consumption."

"I must have a closer look," said Marcel. "My grandmother kept beautiful rhododendrons in her yard."

"I have been sharing our encounter with the remainder of my kind. They are also eager to encounter your people."

"Rhodo-- May I call you Rhodo?" asked Dr. Morin.

"I am fond of that name," it replied.

"Are there other carnivorous plant species or animals we should be cautious around?"

"Doctor, there are many dangers for your kind. However, the Venatorrhodon can serve as guides. It would be an honor to help you navigate part of our home." Rhodo said.

Dr. Morin and Dr. Keller asked Leroy to accompany them to explore the area and instructed Jillian to remain with Marcel to secure the shuttle. The trio gathered gear and instruments, and disappeared into the foliage under Rhodo's direction.

Leroy Phillips led the way through the dense growth under the canopy. He wished that he could use the machete strapped to his leg, but refrained. It would be tragic to hack into the limb of someone welcoming them into their home. Rhodo did not direct them as much as create a link between its presence and the presence of the next closest member of its species.

Leroy could feel the new consciousness grasping toward them and strengthening as Rhodo's presence seemed to fade a bit with every step forward.

Now and then, Morin or Keller would call their march to a halt to examine the unique flora and fauna they encountered, snapping pictures with their communicators or collecting samples of insect sized animals or sapling plants for their lab.

Nearly an hour passed before they stood beside the mind that had drawn them into the foliage. They faced a beautiful bush, nearly the size of Rhodo. Its pink flowers swelled from seed pods within, and decorated its branches from top to bottom, releasing a mild and delightful fragrance. The three spoke greetings to the being and awaited a response.

"Leroy, this Venatorrhodon requests permission to share your experiences. This will enable it to communicate with your species as I do."

"Alright," Leroy said in reply.

Leroy felt an unusual presence fill his consciousness and he relaxed his guard, allowing the encounter to proceed. Childhood memories of riding his tricycle and eating cookies drifted to his kid sister's birth, then on to memories of cutting class in high school. He relived boot camp for the Colonial Security Force and gazing at the stars through a viewing port on the colonial ship with his partner Jillian.

The consciousness pondered his feelings of romantic interest for the beautiful, bubbly, country girl and seemed confused by the fact that Leroy had hidden his feelings from her. Moments passed, yet in his mind a lifetime had replayed in real time.

He became aware of lying on the forest floor and his back moist with water squishing through the mossy ground.

"Thank you for sharing your memories, Leroy," The voice felt distinct from Rhodo yet it rang in his mind in like manner, "I'm intrigued that a mobile animal is capable of self-awareness and thought beyond what instinct would dictate."

"I'm happy to expand your horizons," Leroy said in reply, "we are intrigued by your existence as well."

"Please call me Bloom."

The scientists also exchanged formalities with Bloom and began asking questions about life as a stationary organism and of their sense of community despite their distance. The Venatorrhodon preferred the distance since it established a territory for their hunting without starving one another. Their seedlings sprouting close to the parent caused despair, prevented only by the parent controlling the mind of a small mammal and physically moving the seed into a more desirable area. This method met with only limited success and usually cost the mother organism a meal.

Through the conversation Dr. Keller learned that Rhodo had recently pollinated Bloom and their seeds had nearly completed fertilizing. Keller explained some of the horticultural techniques used on Earth to propagate plant species. Bloom expressed fascination and at the same time shock. The Venatorrhodon related it to Leroy's memories of Dr. Frankenstein's Monster.

"I would be delighted to see a demonstration of your ability to control the mind of your prey" Dr. Morin said.

Bloom drew the trio's attention to a flock of flying creatures nesting near the top of the canopy, hundreds of feet above the surface. A single animal broke from the flock and gently descended down through the various layers of lush foliage to rest on one of Bloom's extended branches. She delicately wrapped around the animal using a thorn to slit its throat before gently placing it in her open mouth.

"It died painlessly; I hope you are not appalled by our consumption. I should think you can relate since many humans are flesh eaters as well."

"Thank you for the demonstration," Dr. Morin said, "Your etiquette is what our kind vainly refers to as humane. Men also strive to kill with kindness while feeding."

They spent another hour exchanging stories and demonstrating mundane motions that the seemed remarkable to the observer. Bloom proudly showed off her developing seed pods to Dr. Keller who vividly described the human reproductive process, to the plant's interest.

Bloom said, "I'm delighted by procreation, but at the same time despaired that many of my progeny will not thrive long enough for conscious awareness.

"There is a path toward a dense group of my kind. They are eager to meet you and the journey should only take a half hour at your casual pace."

"I thought your kind could not live close to one another," Leroy said with some skepticism.

"These individuals are located near a natural bottle neck in the forest. A human expression would be- valuable real estate. This enables them to feed easier and more frequently, allowing their proximity to be sustainable."

"We are happy to interact with your peers," Dr. Keller said with a smile. "Thank you for sharing your experiences with us."

"This won't take us too far from the shuttle to get back before nightfall will it?" Leroy asked, with a worried expression.

"They are equidistant to Rhodo. Save yourself only the time you used to reach me in your return from them. Rhodo will guide your evening trek. My brethren seem more eager to engage you that I have ever experienced. I will guide you if another visit with our species is suitable."

"Thank you Bloom," Dr. Morin said. "Please lead the way."

Leroy enjoyed Rhodo's and Bloom's company, yet he had a creeping suspicion that the Doctors headed toward a dangerous situation. He tried to ease his own nerves by reminding himself that their attack this morning had been a misunderstanding that Rhodo had shared with his entire species. Colonial Security Force officers are entitled to a bit of paranoia, he thought, especially on an alien world. Without attracting the attention of the two doctors he deactivated the safety of his sidearm, just in case...

Keller and Morin spoke excitedly among themselves as Leroy Phillips guided them according to Bloom's direction. The elevation began to rise as the three explorers ventured toward their last meeting before they were to return to the shuttle for the evening. As the ground rose, Leroy noticed that the spongy floor had been replaced with firm roots underfoot.

He asked Bloom aloud, "What lies under all the vegetation?" He knew he had only to think his query in order for her to hear it. In fact the Venatorrhodon couldn't hear in the physical sense, lacking sensory organs.

"Under the growth is an ocean that covers the entire planet. My species has speculated that vegetable life grew uncontested for millions of years until species evolved that rose out of the water on the backs of their ancestors. The ocean animals must have developed later and made a living for themselves consuming vegetation, until Venatorrhodon evolved to even the score."

"Plants and animals evolved alongside one another on Earth. The carnivorous plant species Earth hosts are small and non-sentient."

While Bloom did not convey words, Leroy felt a sense of amusement through the connection they shared.

They drew near to their destination and an image of a narrow pass appeared in Leroy's mind. "I will let you advance on your own now; the Venatorrhodon you encounter will share the experiences of Dr. Keller and Dr. Morin in order to communicate. I must hunt for another meal in order to finish developing my seeds."

Leroy felt her mix of joy and pain and knew it must trouble Bloom deeply to know many of the children being created would not mature into sentience. "Thanks for the directions Bloom," Leroy voiced to her in his mind, "Do you trust these Venatorrhodon like you do Rhodo? I've got a funny feeling about this."

"They are not open with their thoughts as Rhodo and I are with one another. Do you wish to reconsider? I can bring you back to your shuttle."

"No, that's okay. I'm just nervous I guess."

Dead trunks of massive trees rose up through the canopy in front of the three. In their hollows, Dr. Keller spotted dozens of nests for the small bird like creatures that had captivated her. Primates dug into its dried bark, hunting for insect sized morsels. Vines grew over the lifeless branches reaching from one trunk to another, then off into the living foliage beyond.

They passed through the natural archway into a hollow packed with trunks of trees so tightly that if they had chosen to hike through only one other opening would allow them to pass between the growth. They had reached the small community of Venatorrhodon that Bloom and Rhodo had referred to.

Anticipating an experience that would render their bodies temporarily inert, Keller and Morin sat on the root ground below them and recounted their lives with members of the hollow. Leroy watched over the two during the process. It seemed to last much longer than his or Jillian's experience had lasted. The silence broke and Keller began first to whimper and then to sob. Tears streamed down her pale cheeks as she opened her eyes.

"We've come into a trap. These beings are malicious, it found my painful memories, replayed them over and over, then it told me to approach so it could end my misery."

"This one wants to eat us, like Rhodo tried before he knew about humans," Dr. Morin said, pointing a finger on his bandaged hand to two vines stretched out and whipping at the three.

Leroy pulled his firearm and stood at the ready, carefully surveying their hollow and hoping to find a place they could use to escape. Venatorrhodon writhed near every escape. The beings grasped toward them with vine like branches, greedy for a meal. Green striated mouths opened revealing fangs and deep purple maws, intent on their demise. In addition to four near the entries, at least a half dozen others scattered through an area about the size of a baseball diamond.

"Rhodo! Bloom! Are you there?" Leroy yelled out into the canopy. "Doc message Jillian with your communicator," he said, nodding to Morin. "Tell her what's happening."

Keller's sob turned to a scream as she felt a thorny grasp around her left calf tighten with a crushing strength. Leroy ran past her toward the offender, gambling that it would be distracted with its quarry and his approach would go unnoticed.

Gunfire rang out in the forest and creatures flew from their perches, taking to the skies beyond the canopy. Leroy had unloaded four shots into the attacker's jaws. Green ooze leaked from the bullet holes and he raised the heel of his boot, smashing into the center of the four shots.

Keller gasped in relief as the grip on her leg slackened. The entire mass of foliage drooped as he stomped the mouth apart, covering his pants in its green slimy blood up to his waist. Leaves rolled up into straws and clung tightly to their branches.

******

Rhodo shuddered at the realization of intention. Two of the cluster had learned of the humans and still they wished to prey upon them. His mind reached out and met with the beings in the hollow. He felt the other Venatorrhodon and their anticipation, now laced with an eager desperation at what the prey had already cost them. He felt the fading presence of the aggressor whom Leroy had destroyed.

"Stop this! There is plenty to eat in your hollow." Rhodo pressed the thought into the minds of his brothers. He felt Bloom reaching out with similar pleas.

Rhodo didn't receive a response accepting his plea. Instead images of the stars and motion through the forest mixed with emotions he only recognized from his probing in Jillian Taylor's mind. He felt a determination behind it; those hunters in the hollow hoped to gain their quarry's mobility.

While all they consumed had mobility, the mindless, unaware animals in the brush had never inspired them. Instinct driven animals didn't inspire a sense of curiosity and the desire to explore that drove humans.

Rhodo knew that sending Jillian and Marcel may potentially cause all the visitors harm. He knew that guiding them through the forest on their feet would take more time than his kind needed to corral at least one of the three caged humans into a lethal trap.

Something occurred to him, something from deep within Jillian's memories... It seemed so...unnatural though. Rhodo replayed her memory a dozen times. He saw her and her mother removing plants from small containers and placing them into larger ones. He saw that same plant growing larger in her subsequent memories. He had only known a plant to wither when it separated from the soil that anchored and sustained it.

"Jillian." The voice of the plant rang heavy with fear and desperation, "Please bring me a sample collection pail... the largest you have."

"Rhodo... what's wrong?" Even while she pressed for information the feeling that came through with his request sent her into immediate action.

"I need to go to Leroy. Your companions are in danger. I need to get myself there, and quickly."

Jillian began to ask another question, but withheld her curiosity and dashed into the brush toward the plant. She gasped at the sight before her. Rhodo looked like a spider, holding itself up to eye level; eight vine like branches served as arms. Another four arms cradled a mass of roots, soil, and what could only be digestive organs. All its leaves had curled into straws, just like their namesake would back on Earth, in the winter. She dropped to her knees, filling the bottom of the pale with loose soil from Rhodo's former home.

"Are you going to be okay like this?"

"We'll consider that later. For now I must do everything I can to prevent your kind and my kind from killing. Leroy has destroyed one of us and there are others who would eat your friends."

Jillian carried the pail over to his root bundle, and using her hands as he uncoiled the branches, keeping its innards tight, they potted. Jillian ran back to the shuttle for water and a small bowl, which she used to scoop more soil from the hole in the brush into the top of Rhodo's new abdominal casing. Its melon shaped mouth rested atop the pail, branches below the mouth formed from shoulders just above soil. Rhodo had encircled six of its arms around the pail, twining them together, making a protective basket around the pot to keep itself from shaking out in the middle of motion. The branches split into two braids that kept its mass erect over the forest floor, untwining inches from the ground to form tripod feet. Rhodo twined three branches on either side of its mouth giving them the look of lanky arms that hung nearly to the forest floor. Jillian topped off the soil pot, working quickly and poured water into the pail.

"I'll go with you, I can keep up," Jillian said.

Rhodo crouched low and leaped on its legs, flying up thirty feet into the midst of the canopy overhead before landing gracefully beside her. Jillian gaped at the being.

"Stay with Marcel in the shuttle. I fear I may already be too late." One of Rhodo's twined branches, serving as an arm, extended to her and a single leaf uncurled and brushed against her cheek. Jillian smiled. Rhodo left in a flash; the rustling of foliage could be heard overhead fading quickly as the plant raced toward the hollow.

The principles of Rhodo's limb-like motions mimicked how it could grasp and drag prey. It hadn't been much of an effort to arrange itself in this manner, or a stretch of the imagination to propel itself rather than drag something toward its mouth. Rhodo mused that perhaps its species had never thought to uproot because motion had been considered an activity of the primitive, prior to communicating with Jillian and her companions.

Rhodo enjoyed motion, despite being driven by concern and fear. Each leap toward the hollow, followed by landing on a branch, grasping enough for balance, then a well-timed release, reiterated the satisfaction of the novel activity. A scream rang through the air a few more leaps away. Rhodo reached out with his mind...

******

The humans had hunkered down over the remains of the being Leroy had killed and began to make plans for an escape. A rustling near the opening they had passed through caused him to stand and draw his firearm. A branch from his right hand side whipped out and knocked the weapon out of his grip, sending it sliding into the brush.

The branch grasped his wrist, while another wrapped around his neck and shoulder. The attacker had just begun pulling at the arm, trying to tear off a piece of the man that it could fit in its mouth, when Dr. Keller screamed.

Leroy flexed his arm into a curl, desperately trying to keep it attached. Leroy grasped his snared fist with his free hand, pulling with all his strength to keep the limb from extending and eventually being pulled free from socket, tendon, and self. Blood soaked his chest from cuts in his neck, chest, and underarm where the whip-like branch's thorns dug in. He began to see purple spots from blood loss, being partially choked, and from sheer exertion. His knees buckled and the strain on his upper body tore deeper as his weight drooped.

The vine on his wrist began winning the tugging contest and his captured arm reached its full extension.

******

Dr. Morin uttered a cry of surprise when Rhodo landed from a leap within inches of him.

The surprise of seeing the Rhodo's form caused Leroy to released his grip on the branch that threatened to pull him apart.

A wet gasp broke the silence. Leroy slumped to the ground as the branches attacking the man relaxed their hold. The Venatorrhodon in the hollow had ignored Rhodo's inexplicable approach, focusing on capturing their prey to the exclusion of all other stimuli. His sudden appearance defied the fellow Venatorrhodon's expectations.

"Have you eaten a human to gain mobility?" The branches that ripped at Leroy uncoiled and brushed against Rhodo's potted root mass.

"I would never."

"How have you become like them?"

"I took a necessary risk. Humans are self-aware, the very trait we value that holds us apart from the flora and fauna we live among and consume. Your attacks against them are comparable to eating one of our own."

"This human has killed one of us," A branch dripped red blood and pointed toward Leroy in accusation.

"More proof of their sentience," Rhodo said in retort. "He destroyed a threat to his comrade's life."

The branches withdrew and silence fell over the group. Dr. Keller tended to Leroy, wrapping his jacket into a cord to staunch cuts around his neck, chest, and underarm. Rhodo scooped Leroy into its arms and motioned for the doctors to follow as it led them back through the entrance of the hollow. The viney branches of its brothers retracted from their path allowing their safe passage.

Leroy recovered in the shuttle while Dr. Keller dressed his wounds. The doctor applied an epidermal adhesive in six places to prevent further bleeding and allow his flesh to begin healing. Despite his fatigue and injury, Leroy laughed at the sight of Rhodo when he regained consciousness. Rhodo hardly noticed as the plant studied the interior of the shuttle, its smooth metal and plastic, unlike anything in his forest home.

The LARC team spent another week observing Rhodo and cataloguing the species of plants and animals near the clearing and the shuttle. Rhodo began to worry that his uprooting would slowly kill him. Jillian shared his concern when his leaves began to yellow on the morning of the second day.

"It's natural for a plant to focus its energy on repairing a damaged root bed and ignore photosynthesis after something like this," Dr. Morin said to Rhodo. He reassured the plant to expect a full recovery.

"Thank you Dr. Morin. Are you sure I can live like this?"

"You bet. The colony has an entire terrarium full of potted plants. We grow them for their fruit, vegetation, and simply to enjoy their presence. There are more potted plants than humans on the ship."

******

"I would like to join you in your condition," Bloom said. The Venatorrhodon had been gripped by fear during the situation, and aware of Rhodo's rescue. It wanted to join him during the rescue, but the seed pods would have died if Bloom underwent such a shock and it lacked suitable containers for its roots and digestive organs at hand. "The seed pods have now fallen. I would take them aboard the colony and give them a life of mobility and exploration if the humans will have us."

"We would be honored by your company," Dr. Keller said.

The crew and their two Venatorrhodon friends gathered the seed pods into a dark dry box to await planting when the shuttle rejoined the colony. Leroy and Rhodo hunted for members of the fuzzy herbivore species that the plants ate in order for Rhodo and Bloom to maintain a population of their food source when they relocated. They made a small hutch in the rear of the shuttle that housed a dozen of the little creatures. Dr. Keller delighted in their addition, and requested a breeding pair to keep in her lab as pets.

Leroy began digging into a packet of shuttle rations. Jillian gave him a smile, "I guess you couldn't find the meal down there, could you?"

"I'm just glad I didn't become the meal."

Rhodo and Bloom returned to the hollow the day before the shuttle's departure. Their brethren had reconsidered their actions and came to agree with Rhodo's view that humans should be treated as equals among them. They mourned their murdered friend and left it to decompose where it had lived and died, placing one of its own seeds over the remains from a nearby pod that had yet to take root. The two mobile plants shared their uprooting experience with the others in the hollow and found hollowed tree logs from the surrounding foliage, leaving them nearby the ones who wished to uproot.

The sensation of their home world shrinking away from perception felt unique to Rhodo and Bloom. Motion in general was new, but to travel away from a world was incredible. The shuttle began its journey to rendezvous with the LARC5 colony which remained on course toward their original destination.

"We could live here with the Venatorrhodon now that they won't try to eat us," Jillian said to Doctors Keller and Morin.

"The colony would crush through the ancient root network and sink into the submerged ocean," Dr. Morin said.

"We have also influenced the Venatorrhodon population enough by simply encouraging them to uproot," said Dr. Keller. "Their society is better off developing independently."

"Besides, there are uncounted worlds that could support life on the way to LARC5's new home," Marcel stated from the control console of the shuttle.

Bloom reached out with her perception into the vastness of space. Now that the planet was gone from awareness, sensations of what lie out there blinked and shimmered into awareness. The seeds that had been grown on Bloom's branches would be the first generation to escape the fate their kind had always known. Every one of them had a good chance of thriving, of a life exploring the countless worlds.

# Heads Up

Their new home world was similar to Earth in size, temperature, biological diversity, and landscape. The colonial starship settled itself into a gorge carved out at the base of a mountain stream. A lush jungle crept right up to the baseball field Ramsey Vanderbilt and his friends claimed from the new frontier. Despite being born and raised in an egg shaped city traversing through space, Ramsey and his peers developed an instant fondness for the outdoors.

Jimmy Schmidt hit the foul ball that led to Ramsey's amazing discovery.

Ramsey rooted through dense growth looking for the stray ball. What he found at first, was a yellow creature the size of his thumb.

It scuttled upright on two stick legs and held a smaller creature in one of its pincers, a meal produced from a successful hunt. Its head looked like an ant, save for eyes that revealed intelligence unlike the insects he knew from afternoons spent in the colony's Earth Habitat areas.

"Hurry up Vanderbilt!"

"You guys, look at this little thing!" Ramsey replied.

The little yellow hunter took an equal fascination to its big observers. It emitted a strange high pitched noise and soon a small yellow crowd gathered about to look at their human boy observers. Ramsey, Jimmy, and the gang felt they hand stumbled upon a truly remarkable species. The better part of an hour was spent in admiration of the yellow creatures.

Ramsey's communicator chirped and the boys dispersed to their homes for supper without a second thought for the whiffle ball, which had become the object of the yellow tribe's attention.

The following afternoon Ramsey and the gang searched the brush near the field for their mislaid ball. What they found was the home of their little yellow acquaintances. Small huts were formed from the skulls of animals the size of an orange. Bits of thatch and mud mortared roofs and corridors as needed. Among the skeletal metropolis their whiffle ball formed a new addition.

One of the little hunters indicated the domicile and gestured what Ramsey understood to be gratitude. Then it indicated a small sun bleached skull off to one side.

"Those little guys want to trade the ball for the little skull," Jimmy said.

"I guess I could put it on my book shelf," Ramsey replied.

The boys made a routine of procuring cups, hollow spheres, and the like to provide exotic construction materials for the strange little companions. Soon all the boys sported a collection of skulls on their dressers and bookshelves. Since their supply of hollow whiffle balls had long been exhausted the gang now played with solid baseballs and aluminum bats.

Ramsey set his helmet, glove, bat, and ball aside to spend a couple minutes with his strange yellow companions.

"Where is all your new baseball gear?" the boy's mother asked when he returned home.

"Oh by the little pincher men, I'll go get it right now" Ramsey replied.

"It can wait until tomorrow mister. Dinner time is family time and I made a casserole."

The next afternoon Ramsey pushed back into the brush and huffed as he saw that his helmet had become the biggest house on the little block. The boy wondered how much allowance he would need to replace it, mother would not let him play without one. He saw the handle of his bat behind a patch of grass and trotted over to collect the remainder of his gear.

The boy stood stock still, frozen by shock and stared at the empty sockets of a human skull amid his bat, gloves, and ball.

# Just Like Your Dad

Multiple blasts battered the hull of the small spacecraft and caused various dials and gages within the cockpit to spark and go black. The craft banked and dodged through a winding canyon, its smoldering form trailed by the alien aggressor.

Lynn Petro pulled her brown, bob cut hair behind an ear. In her periphery, Jennings's head lay on the copilot console. Tears ran down freckled cheeks. More blasts peppered the hull.

A pang of desperation guided Lynn's hand; the doomed craft jack-knifed and doubled back on its enemy. One shot downed Petro's pursuer.

The afternoon sky dazzled with similar skirmishes for the remainder of the day. Lynn Petro felt amazed that she survived. She pulled a tarp over Jennings, who was not so lucky.

Pistol in hand, she made for the enemy craft. No more than a quarter mile through the narrow canyon, smoke rose from its cockpit.

Lynn heard a low moan inside the hull and peered into the wreck. Shrapnel bloomed from the Terechnian warrior who still struggled for life. She pulled her enemy from its seat and rang out a shot that provided merciful release. She gathered from the craft what provisions could be salvaged.

A strange noise drew her attention back to the Terechnian corpse. Thick ooze pooled about a nearly empty flight suit. Scraps of the ship's hull were intermingled in the Terechnian's remains. The chest of the suit wiggled and belted a sharp cry. Despite her reservations, Lynn cut the suit open with her utility knife.

Three infants milled about in the thick essence of the pilot that continued to fizzle and dissolve in front of Lynn Petro, who gaped at the sight.

Did the Terechnians send their pregnant to war? Did their young spring from the dead like pinecones after a fire?

Dogfights and mercy killing were her duty, but something deeper urged Lynn to care for the enemy infants. Babies are all innocent, and Lynn had no way of knowing the outcome of the war.

If the Terechnians won and found her caring for the babes, she might receive some mercy. Provisions from the shuttles lasted longer than expected and the small orange humanoids were born with teeth and an appetite for solid foods. A human infant could not have survived the first few months of the unlikely new life.

Rescue never came, nor capture.

Lynn made a home for her and her unlikely charges in the ruins of her shuttle. Over the next five years, a small cabin grew of retrieved metal and local lumber. A garden stretched down its sunny side and three half sized orange humanoids played in the shady stream that had slowly carved the canyon over eons.

Lynn hunted long hours for what she came to regard as this backwater moon's substitute for chicken. Her return went unnoticed and she sat in their small home to watch the children play.

Two held hands running while one ran behind. The pair suddenly turned about and the three collided. Two fell, one quickly laid sticks about its body until the last child standing dragged it a few paces away and yellow "pow".

Lynn thought something eerie and familiar had just been reenacted. The children gathered in the shade.

"That's how he died and we were born," one said.

"Lynn killed him," its brother replied.

Lynn sat in shock as her three little buddies moved on to hop scotch. Humanity did not know much about Terechnians, she stood among the most knowledgeable on the subject thanks to their cohabitation.

"I suppose I should tell them more about how I met their father," Lynn said to herself.

# Lonesome Conscious World

Conscious awareness came in its earliest moments of existence. Smaller celestial bodies still coalesced in the space around it. Rock and ice constantly smashed its molten surface in the first days. Perhaps one such asteroid brought the sense of self, and perhaps the unique commingling caused the phenomenon. The planet became aware first of its own formation. The mere sensation of being captivated its mind for thousands of years. Only when its surface cooled, and land masses rose above placid waters, did the notion of other living things occur.

The thinking world stretched its awareness to the nearest object that exerted gravity upon it, but the lonely moon could not reciprocate greeting. Never having encountered life outside itself, notions of death and inanimate objects remained unknown.

Awareness probed further out until it encountered a handful of its brothers. Life was confirmed under the swirling gas of some and the warm rock of others, life but no sense of oneself or others. The thinking world grew to understand the concept of awareness and named itself Illume.

It reveled in the torrents of the mighty star, whose chaos and energy blazed beyond understanding, yet acknowledgement of Illume's presence never occurred.

Uncounted years passed. Illume delighted in the presence of plant and animal life on its surface and the depths of its oceans. The lonely world came to understand that life alone did not signify awareness of self and the capacity for abstract thought.

A tiny metal husk approached Illume, and the sensation it caused broke the world from its deep meditation. Tiny thoughts flitted about in frenzy. Not one but thousands. Thoughts, awareness, and ideas so rapid and so alien that Illume idled in stunned contemplation, perhaps beings within the metal husk possessed awareness.

A sliver of the husk slid onto Illume's surface and a handful of the thinking beings scurried about- for an instant of the lonely planet's awareness. Illume reached out to them in a slow, clumsy attempt to greet its visitors. Before a thought could be shared each being had thousands of its own thoughts, and the entire group returned to their sliver and back inside the metal husk.

Illume delighted as the entire husk slid through its atmosphere and came to rest upon its surface. Years passed as the lonely planet contemplated how to commune with the tiny, rapid, and brilliant colonists from other stars.

******

A girl screamed in horror at the sight of her grandfather who seemed to rise from his grave. She dropped the flowers and bolted out of the cemetery and all the way to the nearest Colonial Security Force station.

Her late grandfather turned his head and watched her run. He had been enriched and revitalized by Illume's soil and its life essence restored by the lonely planet. When the human colony's first funeral deposited the man into soil, Illume restored his fading awareness and over a few weeks the late man and lonely world learned to speak with one another.

No longer human, the grandfather, consisted mostly of soil, a mound from the waist down. His head twisted on a man's torso and an arm pointed at two uniformed men who rushed toward them with guns in hand.

"I told you this would startle her," the grandfather said.

"I can be patient," Illume replied, through the grandfather's mouth. "I've hoped for companions a long time."

# Macrovirus

"I think I see their community." Delia Martin said, her face pressed close to the viewport.

Dr. Jones did not reply, his eyes squeezed shut, his deep black complexion seemed paler than usual. Dr. Jones's fingernails dug into the arm rests and he seemed to be focused on his breathing.

"Do planet landings frighten you Dr. Jones?"

"What?... Oh, excuse me. Yes, put me in front of any living organism and I'm fearless, but getting down to them is a bit nerve wracking."

"It's beautiful," Delia said.

Martin tried to peek over her shoulder but her curled brown hair obstructed his view. "I'll get to work verifying the atmospheric readings." A half hour later and their shuttle's door slid open.

The Urboo indeed proved to be a sentient society. They used tools, hunted what appeared to be water fowl with spears, had developed art, and raised their young cooperatively. Dr. Jones became intrigued by what he observed of their physiology. The Urboo seemed to lack a skeletal system, no bones or exoskeleton. The beings looked partially transparent allowing casual, noninvasive study. Specialized cilia covered their bodies like a fine fur and seemed to hold their otherwise gelatinous tissues in a bipedal form. When the Urboo moved about, their cilia did all the work, Dr. Jones found it beautiful and mesmerizing to see the Urboo get around.

Delia Martin also became completely engrossed in her studies among the Urboo. A pair of juveniles grew fond of her as well. She had a working vocabulary of around thirty sounds in just under seven days.

"Join us in hunt for food," an Urboo invited, careful to use only the scant phrases Delia had picked up.

"We join the hunt," Delia carefully enunciated in reply.

The three Urboo with whom the humans became most familiar led the hunters deep into what seemed to Delia to be carrot like stalagmites and fungal growth.

Dr. Jones quizzed the Urboo relentlessly about the vegetation. The following day the hunters returned to the Urboo encampment with a Vigdaa across Dr. Jones's shoulders, its tentacles flapped in the breeze like a tattered cape.

During the feast that followed Delia slipped off to the shuttle for her rations, while Jones opted to sample the native fare. Though she left for only a moment, Jones had apparently gone native with one of the Urboo.

"I asked about how they make babies," Dr. Jones confided as Delia helped the man back to the shuttle to rest. His Urboo, and at this point it was his Urboo garbled contentedly from its perch on Jones's back. Cilia had dug into flesh and the being flattened itself across Jones's back, shoulders, neck, and the back of his head.

Delia spoke with the Urboo at length, often wearing a puzzled expression. She gave a weak smile to Dr. Jones and said "This Urboo has accepted your offer to mate into the tribe, a process which will take a couple days and once started is irreversible."

Dr. Jones handled the news much better than Delia thought. He theorized that his feelings of near euphoria came from contact with the Urboo. The Urboos urged her to leave Dr. Jones alone, as the reproductive process looked very frightening to those who didn't understand it. Both Urboo assured her that the man she knew would still exist, and in some ways better than before.

On the fourth day a strange tearing sound could be heard from the shuttle and Delia raced for the hatch, then stopped cold in her tracks. A puffy, translucent egg sack had burst, and a dozen small semi-translucent Joneses emerged, covered in the fine silia, and roughly two feet tall.

"Delia, I've had the most incredible experience," one little Jones said. "The Urboo and I have become like a shared awareness spread out among each of us," he indicated his brood mates. "The Urboo are a giant virus. They reproduce by infecting a host. Think of the possibilities for human kind. Our starship is already preparing to colonize another world. These creatures can instantly adapt to a new environment simply by breeding into the indigenous population."

"Dr. Jones, we've got to prevent the Urboo from returning with us. Everyone on the starship would be replaced by Urboo copies like you," Delia said. Suddenly aware that the new Jones probably didn't mind, she turned to make for the cockpit.

"Just relax," Jones said.

She felt small hands take hold of hers, then other small hands grabbed her legs. The cilia that punctured her back really did have quite a euphoric effect.

# Mechanical Man Eater

Our home was a beautiful place. Earth's greatest archeological discovery, the Atlantis colonial starship, became the ancient prototype for humanity's colonization of distant worlds. A generation had been spent depopulating the home world a half million people at a time. By now some of the first colonies must have reached their target worlds. Our colony reached its destiny too I suppose.

Initial long range telescope activity led the Admiral to believe we found another sentient form of biological life. A scouting party flew to the lush tropical moon to encounter them. The droid assigned to accompany the five humans transmitted video and audio files of the beings. Bipedal machines with claws and saws for arms tore apart the landscape and wildlife alike. The walking machines delivered organic matter to shining metal monsters that resembled caterpillars. Trees, animals, and soon the scouting party got carelessly shoveled into its maw. Black ash emerged out the tail, as they slowly transformed the vibrant moon into a husk.

Colonial Security Forces retaliated without hesitation. While the harvesters proved formidable, the eaters could more easily be destroyed. The beings adopted no strategy to counter our assault. When human fighters fell to a harvester, their remains were fed to the eaters. Dozens of the automatons had been captured still functional, studied, and dismantled. They seemed to be artificial intelligence harvesting energy from bio mass. We had no idea they were simply worker drones until the true threat appeared on our sensors.

I stood among my comrades in the security force on a patrol for straggling machines to dismantle. It had been nearly a month of combat. Casualties remained thankfully low, the harvesters simply carried out their program unless we approached from the front. The colonial starship reminded me of my childhood looking at the moon from Earth's night sky. Then it appeared, the true enemy.

From the ground it looked like a spider with eight long legs arched and then flexed. It blotted out the view of the colony and even light from the star as it landed. The mother machine raced over the moon's surface in search of its eaters and their energy. What little remained from our assault must have been just enough power for its backlash.

The Colonial Security Force converged and assaulted the massive machine. Our attack proved ineffective and largely ignored. The starship dispatched its shuttles for our withdrawal, but time did not allow for escape.

Humanity would never know if it became motivated by revenge or merely its unrelenting desire to feed. The mother pounced from surface into the atmosphere. I swear, I felt the tremors from my shuttle rendezvous point two hundred miles south.

The colony never had time to maneuver. In short seconds the enormous spider latched onto the propulsion ring behind the colonial starship. It spewed dozens of eater and harvester teams onto the colony's hull. Thousands of the colonists had been lost to the machines or into the vacuum of space before the crash landing.

The ovoid colony detached from its propulsion ring and the hull blazed through the moon's atmosphere. Anything close to the exterior got cooked from heat and radiation. Its emergency departure had been as successful as could be. Our home, though badly damaged and permanently grounded, was still habitable.

The propulsion ring, meant to be our orbital construction site for a future fleet, exploded and tore the life eating menace to shreds. In the months that followed we mourned the dead, nearly one in four of our original number. Humanity built and thrived on our new home. Then we began to notice small metallic spiders.

# Metarhizium Anisopliae

Dr. Henry Foster straightened his back and stretched tired arms overhead. Henry and all the other biologists aboard the colonial starship shared an incredible view of the Earth Habitat. He gazed at the familiar rain forest he had spent so many afternoons tending while doing his undergrad and doctoral studies in the ship's university. Now, as a professor and researcher, Foster found only rare occasions to tramp through the habitats. The man rolled his head from shoulder to shoulder before resuming his observations.

On his desk sat a termite colony wedged into glass. Dr. Foster had taken note that one particular termite nest had succumbed to a fungal invasion from metarhizium anisopliae. Despite all the data suggesting larger forms of life enjoyed immunity to its fatal effects, he found a dead woodpecker nearby, eaten from the inside out by the fungus. The mutated strand had been painstakingly isolated, and its presence in the Earth Habitat eliminated.

The original termite colony now cried its death pangs, only three members still thrived under the fungal onslaught. Perhaps he experienced a temporary lapse in judgement, or perhaps the very mutation the woodpecker encountered, persuaded him.

The doctor broke the seal and ate one of the dead termites, riddled from within by metarhizium anisopliae. Investigators have only surveillance footage of the ill-fated moment to base speculation upon.

Dr. Foster continued his day to day activities until lunch break two days after the incident. Investigators would later reflect on the colony's fortune that Dr. Foster took lunch in a small cafeteria an hour after the lunch rush. On a starship with a half million residents, only three were present as Foster began to die.

Janice, the cook and cashier looked up from her duties to the sound of Dr. Foster's violent coughs. A pair of research assistants dining nearby also heard, and rushed to his side.

"Henry, are you okay?" Janice shook his shoulder vigorously hoping the man would dislodge the bite she believed him to be choking on.

Dr. Foster could only gurgle and make the hand gestures for choking. Janice motioned for the two research assistants to help stand him up, then she got behind the dying man and clasped both fists around his middle, pushing into his diaphragm. Green fuzz wretched forth, coating the table and a cloud of spores floated into the air.

The dying man had one final moment of sober thought, "Quarantine order Alpha, passcode six, two, beta, niner, omega."

Doors slid shut, air vents ceased their flow. Echoes of chambers further out sealing for decontamination reverberated in the silent cafeteria. The research assistant pounded on the doors, calling out for help.

"Quarantine zone, must be purified prior to your departure." An automated voice stated, "Medical assistance is on the way, please stand by."

Janice leaned over the dying biologist, staring in horror at the powder green dust creeping out his eyes, mouth, and nostrils. She saw it coming out of his shirt collar and out the cuffs of his sleeves. While the other two victims continued to plead with the automated voice, Janice bent low over the corpse.

Long minutes of pleading passed before the research assistants noticed the cafeteria cook's strange behavior. One placed a hand on her shoulder and as she gazed up at him with a blank glassy eyed stare, both youths shrieked in horror.

Green fungus and human remains dripped from her slack jaw. Janis's mouth worked like she made an excuse, but no words came. Foster's corpse lay in ruin, his abdomen torn open to reveal intestines overrun by the fungus.

Faces aghast with shock and panic, the pair began pummeling Janice with lunch trays until she collapsed in a crumpled heap near Foster's remains. It wasn't long before the mutated metarhizium anisopliae had infected their minds too.

When the crew entered the confines of quarantine hours later, three corpses lay engorged on the remains of Dr. Foster and his fungus.

Back in Foster's laboratory, hours before investigators thought to sterilize, a janitor developed a strange fixation for the bits of green fuzzy stuff covering some dead bugs under glass.

# More Than Spare Parts

Ronald Greymar and Ron Greymar Jr stared out the view port into a splash of stars. The men shared every likeness from their rusty red hair, freckled complexion, blocky shoulders, average height, even the flat left foot.

Only age distinguished differences between the pair, the senior's hair thinned from the forehead back, crow's feet marked his eyes, and his posture slumped from the progression of time. In many ways the pair resembled father and son.

"Boot camp for the Colonial Security Force starts Monday," Ron Jr said casually.

Ronald shook his balding head in disapproval, "I know you have more potential than that." The elder reached his hand toward the other's shoulder, but junior evaded the contact. "You've got a brilliant future in the astrophysics department of the starship's university. As department chair I can insure you receive a position as soon as you complete graduate studies," Ronald said. He gazed at unfamiliar constellations.

"Thanks Ronald, but I've made up my mind. I want to be on the front line! No astrophysicist gets to accompany the science group for planetary exploration. I'll be there when we first encounter intelligent life, I'll protect the group from alien animals, I'll protect people in the colony from crime, I'll..."

"Squander your mind!" Ronald cut in, his complexion flushed red with anger.

"Just like you squandered your first heart!" the youth countered.

In their colonial starship, on an eighty year journey to another world, ethical views on cloning humans for life extension had been reevaluated. A gene therapy with cells from newts allowed unborn cloned teens to regrow eyes, limbs, even internal organs, all prior to consciousness. Ron Jr's life began to correct a defective heart valve that would have killed his elder five years ago. As a reward for their donation, the cloned youths were raised as children and given full citizenship upon adulthood.

"You can further my theories! Only you have the same mind as me, only you can make leaps beyond my theories when I'm gone," Ronald said.

"I don't have your mind. Maybe the same blank slate, but our lives have been totally different. I came to as a full sized man, you had a childhood! You had parents to care for you, and I had a man obsessed with his work during the off hours. I don't owe you my career, I'm joining the Colonial Security Force with or without your approval," Ron Junior gave the elder a piercing gaze.

"You're just a pup!" Ronald yelled, "You would do well to take the advice of someone who's been around a while. You wouldn't even be alive if it weren't for me!"

Now Ron Jr flushed with anger.

Even as his complexion reddened, the elder realized the flaw in his own argument. The fire in his eyes fizzled, his guts clenched, his mouth began to wag an inaudible apology.

"You owe me! You would have been a heart disease statistic by now if it weren't for me. You want someone to advance your theories? You're already five years beyond your biological lifespan, you could go another thirty. There's your second go at astrophysics."

Ronald's features softened, the vein on his forehead sunk back until no longer visible. "I'm sorry Junior. I was too career driven to marry, it's no wonder I struggle at fatherhood. Now that you're a man, maybe I can be a better friend?"

Ron Jr cracked a smile, more from relief than victory. He didn't know why, but Ronald's acceptance felt every bit as important as the acceptance letter he had received that morning from the Colonial Security Force. "I'd like that. I could use a jogging buddy anyhow, CSF officers need to be in top form, and I don't want boot camp to be too much for me. Besides," He slapped the elder's round middle, "We don't want that heart going to waste now do we?"

It occurred to Ronald that the lad gave him a new heart in more than one way.

# Rookie Reflections in the Kuiper Belt

Dav Porter dwelled on a few recent mistakes. He had the time. About sixteen hours in fact. After that, Dav's suit would run out of oxygen. His first regret being his poor study skills. Dav figured since his family had worked iron ore mining operations back on Earth for generations, that nothing changed in zero gravity. The cave-in a hundred feet below the surface of his asteroid had been a rude awakening.

Dav also regretted that he ignored multiple warnings to report the location of any dig prior to boring under the surface. Since miners on the Kuiper belt got paid by piece for what they hauled in, reporting location also informed other miners where your pay load hid.

Dav regretted that he would not get to cash in on the fortune in platinum ore he had discovered.

His one solace was the view. Dav's suit, pinned to the mid chest, left his head facing out toward the stars, and pointed toward the inner portion of the solar system where he could see the massive assembly operation that required all the ore.

Over the past thirty years humanity had been constructing and dispatching massive colonial starships. Pulling the metals necessary for such vessels out of an atmosphere and away from Earth's gravity proved inefficient compared to simply mining the materials from the Kuiper Belt just beyond the gas giants and constructing nearby.

The ship looked like a three mile long egg with a full mile diameter at its center. The current vessel's outer hull and interior framework stood revealed. Weld torches flitted on and off like fireflies in the inky star splotched black.

Dav struggled again to free the suit's drill arm. He felt the motor whir and a slight vibration of the caved in rock, but nothing that would unjam the man and his bulky equipment. He flexed the scoop arm experimentally, but it still clasped on the piece of platinum ore that had caused him to rush into the project.

Dav had chosen not to pay the dues to the union and work on a team of three like a few of the other rookies had. Those guys never got rich, most barely saved any money for their lives back on Earth.

Most of the miners worked like nomads, drifting around the various bases across the asteroid belt's sixty two mile expanse. They lived nearest to where they believed the best ore could be retrieved. Dig maps were inconsistent since no one wanted to surrender their claim and the notion of private property on the belt met only ridicule.

Dav woke to a rumble near the surface of his dig. He supposed he had drifted off due to boredom. Radio static blurred in his ear and his eyes went wide. Someone would have to be close if he picked up their signal.

"You alive down there cowboy?" a female voice asked.

"Hey, I'm glad to hear a voice. I've only got an hour left on my tank," Dav replied.

"You know it's dangerous to dig alone and unreported."

"Thanks, I've been thinking about that lately."

"I'm looking to take a rookie under my wing you know. Seventy percent of your find here, then an even split going forward," she said.

"That's steep!" Dav said. "I'm sitting on a fortune."

"Look kid, if you get greedy I could come back tomorrow. I'd be thirty percent richer, but corpses creep me out. What do you say?"

"You're right, partner."

In minutes, a smiling olive skinned woman, a few years older than Dav had the rookie free. He smiled; first the payload, then saved with only a few breaths left, and a lovely partnership.

"Stuff the smirk Romeo. Gas up and give me a hand with the ore," she replied.

# Macroscopic Abduction

"It's beautiful," Jillian said, gazing intently.

"A lone beacon of intelligent life amid a vast, nearly empty terrain," Dr. Morin replied. "Its sole purpose appears to be locating a bit of terrain with enough vegetation to sustain itself."

Jillian's face tilted skyward. Looming like a silver egg amid the planet's three moons, their colonial starship, the LARC5, moved on its course toward a world still many years distant. "It's not just about food Dr. Morin. We've encountered intelligent life already."

"Miss Taylor, how can you presume to understand the motives of this creature better than a biologist when we've only just encountered one?" Morin rested elbows on knees in a crouch next to what could have passed for a lumpy yellow anteater.

The creature hardly paid its company any mind as it ruffled snout through mossy vegetation. The clumps of moss and a couple thousand of the little anteaters comprised the only sparse signs of life on an otherwise barren planet.

"Oh, the little yellow guy... I was talking about LARC5. Do you think that thing is intelligent?" the blonde Colonial Security Force officer asked in her small town, disarming manner.

"Intelligence has yet to be demonstrated. Enigmatic certainly, I'm not even sure if we would classify this being animal or even truly alive," Morin said. A black man in his mid-fifties, hair clung to scalp in tight curls, salted here and there, the only cue that he aged beyond youth.

Twined vine limbs leapt toward the yellow creature. Bloom stroked a leafy vine arm across the animal's back. "I sense what could be sentience. It is not like the mind of my kind or humans. What I feel from it is rapid, fleeting, and difficult to grasp onto. It is not like the mind of an animal either. When I attempt to connect with it to reach an understanding as I did with Leroy to begin to communicate, I feel overwhelmed by thousands of minute sparks where one should be," Bloom said, within Morin and Jillian's minds. She stroked the back of the creature with a ropey leaf covered arm. Her carnivorous species of flora did not share the sensory organs humans use to interpret their surroundings. Bloom and her kind related to their environment through telepathy.

"You want to keep your new friend there Doc? I don't want to hang around until something tries to turn us into lunch," said Leroy, displaying a broad grin for Bloom.

"Leroy knows that was a misunderstanding. After getting to know humanity, I am certain he would give me indigestion," Bloom replied.

Dr. Morin said "Further study of this unique entity could benefit scientists aboard the colony and develop humanity's definition of life."

Jillian and Leroy returned to the shuttle and minutes later Morin coaxed the yellow grazer into a small transportation cage with the pile of moss it consumed.

******

The uuthara found a patch of moss at last. Long days of hunger passed into memory. Stored sustenance had been doled out to the populace and rations cut for all but the young and reproducing. Thousands of individuals lived within the uuthara. They created its mobility and maintained a form that could search for and harvest the vegetation that sustained their people, the Rhootvi.

In their distant past, Rhootvi lived without any means of macro transit, their ancestors chose to remain near one food source. When A Rhootvi society overate a moss patch, due to sporadic population growth or ravaged by disease, they scattered like dust in the wind. Most starved on long treks between moss patches.

Then, one small band pooled knowledge and resources into creating a massive mobile shelter, millions of times larger than any creature on the surface of their world. The earliest uuthara held only a couple hundred and the trek between food sources was still perilous. The success of such a lifestyle led others to mimic the first, until the surface of the world had been mapped by countless societies of Rhootvi in larger uuthara, colored yellow to help spot one another against the bleak landscape. Snouts for food gathering represented the latest innovation, implemented only decades ago.

Many young Rhootvi daydreamed of creating the next improvement upon their massive roaming societies. Some even speculated that uuthara would someday venture into the sky to feed upon moss on the moons of their world. Uuthara bound societies encountered primitives from time to time who had never been a part of the collective lifestyle. They offered the opportunity to join with their civilized cousins. Many accepted, but some Rhootvi chose to live as they always had, leaving their fate to ancestral moss patches.

Ren celebrated the discovery of a vibrant moss patch with Ileeta, his spouse and copilot. On his first piloting excursion Ren led the uuthara to moss when some in the mapping and tracking divisions speculated weeks of additional travel. They dined upon roast mite and distilled moss nectar, heedless of what still lay in their private reserve.

Near the end of their meal a currier interrupted with urgent news "Strange macro organisms, possibly uuthara, have moved the moss. Report to the mobility console immediately."

Without so much as a reply the pair shared a glance at one another and raced from their quarters to the console.

The currier glanced about nervously then tucked into a hearty portion of the roast and tipped back more than a share of the brew.

"What if mapping and tracking guessed right about this patch Ren?" Ileeta panted as they raced to their post.

"The moss looks healthy, scout harvesters confirmed the patch before we powered down the distance navigation console," Ren said, hoping his tone provided reassurance despite pulling ragged breaths between words.

A panicked underling glanced up as they burst into the console chamber, "Uuthara mobility and sensory information has been transferred back from the harvesting department."

The three gasped as the moss uprooted, carried off by a bipedal organism into a clear chamber a hundred footfalls distant. Strange sonic vibrations formed a melodic bellow from the being's mouth. Another previously undetected organism answered in kind, as it moved the remainder of the moss into its clear chamber.

"Attention all citizens, prepare for emergency uuthara motion!" Ileeta yelled into the communication system.

"Let's get after it. If we remain next to the moss, the organisms may recognize our claim on it," Ren said. His hands pressed into the console, became submerged and the uuthara made a dash for its prize.

"These things aren't uuthara," Ileeta said. "No Rhootvi colony I'm aware of would unearth an entire patch of moss like that. This could be the demise of a small colony counting on this patch and if their stores ran dry." The young copilot shuddered at the thought of a dead uuthara society her people encountered in her youth. Her father said they had starved after they failed to locate moss. He assured her that their uuthara was better equipped for long searches, every time she awoke from nightmares that year.

A crash reverberated through the corridors and Ileeta returned her awareness to the moment. "What was that?"

"Those big things have captured the uuthara within the chamber!" Ren said. "They must have moved the moss to bait us into this trap."

******

"Simply incredible, this organism is like no living thing we have encountered on Earth or abroad," Dr. Martha Keller's petite frame hunched over the knee height yellow creature. She stroked a hand down its smooth back. It reminded her of an anteater snuffling about the moss heap. The contact caused it to shudder, crouch, and peer up toward her retracted hand.

"I've run every noninvasive scan we have," Dr. Morin replied. "Where organs should be, there appear to be pouches of organisms similar in size to our intestinal bacteria and flora. Bloom's attempt to touch consciousness seemed to locate only these symbiotic beings."

"It's response to stimulus is indicative of a life form. It consumes, and moves independently. Perhaps examining its excrement will reveal some of its mysteries. It looks like we won't wait any longer for a sample," Dr. Keller smiled and grabbed a collection jar. The organism hunkered into a far corner of the observation room and defecated.

"I've been hesitant to remove a tissue sample for genetic analysis. After examining its stool that may be the next logical step," Dr. Morin said. The biologist and zoologist hurriedly collected their slates, typed in new notation, and departed for Keller's lab to dig into their specimen.

******

Ren and Ileeta sat in their quarters pushing around the cold remains of their celebratory meal. The pilots union suspended their duties until their situation underwent a complete investigation. The pair sat in silence for nearly an hour, worried and angry about the speculation for the unusual event.

"Enough of this Ren, we are going to take this investigation into our own hands," Ileeta declared.

"We have been barred from the pilot chamber, how can we investigate?" Ren eyed his wife and finished his glass of brew in a single swallow.

"We'll take a hopper," Ileeta said, with an enormous grin.

"A hopper? They are designed to transport small teams to other uuthara. Those creatures that trapped us are clearly not uuthara. They are likely not sentient since we cannot communicate with them on either frequency of band scanner either."

"We'll hop onto one of them, and wait and watch. If there are sentient beings controlling them, we'll eventually see one. If it turns out that the big thing is its own organism, its sentience will doubtless be revealed through its actions." Ileeta gave Ren the look that always caved his resistance.

"Alright, but we are packing as many supplies as we can carry. If we disembark the uuthara in this strange place, who knows how long it will be until we reconnect with civilization," Ren said.

The couple spent vacations off uuthara, among their aboriginal cousins as often as their studies allowed. Their gear and food rations could easily keep them off their society for weeks before want of food or amenities. The real challenge proved to be the hopper. Mechanics in the small vessel bay knew of their predicament as well as any other citizen, and the use of hoppers would likely be suspended until further notice.

Ren and Ileeta elected to borrow a craft off the record. They waited near the bay until the mechanics took a meal break and crept onto the floor unseen. Hundreds of the ovular vessels sat in neat rows. Each had two powerful legs poised in a low crouch allowing the belly hatch to open at ground level. Claws tipped each foot and enabled the vessel to dig into the uuthara or moss patch it leaped upon. Ileeta led Ren to one of the new models near an exit hatch. The couple boarded, stowed packs, and powered the hopper in moments.

The craft lurched under a sudden rumble, a thunderous boom echoed throughout the uuthara as everything shook violently. Ren hurriedly punched the controls. Their hopper cleared the bay and leaped through the hatch, seconds before another machine hurled into their row, and smashed a pair of hoppers next to their space.

The short leap cleared them of the uuthara's interior and provided the view of a massive organism stroking a limb against the uuthara.

Ileeta breathed a sigh of relief.

A strike like that may cause property damage and personal injury, but their home remained largely undamaged. The limb swept toward them at incredible speed, but to their fortune Ren's reflexes proved quicker.

Their hopper made a well-timed leap and landed on the organism's appendage near its connection to the body.

Ileeta laughed aloud with joy and relief.

In moments they procured a craft undetected, avoided an earthquake, and mounted the very cause of their endeavor undetected.

"What now?" Ren asked.

Ileeta pulled up a video image of the organism taken by the hopper's sensors in the moments before their jump. "Put us here, under the sensory organs. On the fold of what appears to be the organism's coat. That way we will see whatever it does and encounters. There is no better way to learn its habits and possible intentions with the uuthara. I doubt it wanted our moss."

Ren moved into position. Ileeta gasped and Ren laughed as their host gathered the uuthara's biodegradable waste with care. The hours it and the other spent studying garbage overwhelmed Ren.

Laughter shook him out of his seat. Ileeta suspected these organisms displayed signs of intelligence, but Ren saw nothing intelligent about rooting through discarded items.

******

"Dr. Morin, perhaps I'm imagining things but this excrement looks like biodegradable household items," Dr. Keller said.

"Martha, is it possible that this creature ate a microscopic society of advanced beings along with their homes?" Morin asked.

"I hope not George. I was growing fond of the little critter. Let's call it a night and review the images tomorrow, then we'll collect a tissue sample for the geneticists to analyze," Dr. Keller said, and stifled a yawn.

Martha Keller picked up a sandwich and salad from a take-out deli as she walked from the laboratory to her quarters. Some would use the transit tube to cover the mile distance but the zoologist found the activity helped her unwind after work.

As she passed the small park Rhodo, Bloom, and their litter of seedlings called home, she stopped for a chat.

In the months since she and Morin discovered their species, Keller grew found of the sentient plant family. Rhodo and Bloom chose a park over living quarters because it made an easier transition from stationary jungle life to mobile society if they unwound in a green space in the evenings. The couple also asserted that their seedlings should not forget the roots of their people traditionally planted firmly in one place.

******

"Good evening doctor," Rhodo projected the greeting into Keller's mind.

"My dear Venatorrhodon, it's nice to see you this evening. How are the little ones?" the doctor replied.

"Their telepathy is developing nicely. We have practiced twining branches into a humanoid form today," Rhodo's thought served as a prompt and twelve little bushes, resembling rhododendron with melon shaped mouths at their center, twisted foliage into arms and legs, then tottered about their father.

Bloom stepped close to Keller as if feeling the air about her. She felt something odd about the woman. Humans typically had a good deal of focus in their thoughts when socially interacting. The doctor seemed to have two tiny dialogues running through her mind aside from the obvious focus upon the seedlings. It seemed peculiar and reminded her of something recent, of what specifically she could not recall.

Just then a seedling twined its arms around its mother's leg and clamped a slobbery jaw upon her.

"It would appear your little one is ready for supper! I won't keep you, I'm famished as well," Keller waved her goodbyes and completed the walk home.

Rhodo and Bloom settled the seedlings into a stationary position as the colonial starship's environmental lighting faded to artificial night. The pair shared thoughts on Keller's strange change in consciousness, and Bloom speculated about pregnancy. Rhodo recalled Bloom's encounter with the yellow rooting organism on her exploratory mission. Bloom felt a momentary shock and raced to Dr. Keller's quarters to feel her mind once more for confirmation.

******

Dr. Keller sat on her sofa poking at her salad while reading, lab coat, shoes, and purse heaped in a corner. A sudden pound on the door startled her and knocked bits of salad onto the table. She marked her place, and set the Anne McCaffrey novel down. She opened the door, surprised at the sight of Bloom. Tightly rolled leaves tensed momentarily and then unfurled into their normal foliage.

"Pardon the intrusion. Rhodo and I had a strange sensation this afternoon, and it warranted a second appraisal. Perhaps the little ones simply have us spread a bit thin," Bloom voiced in Keller's mind.

"I appreciate your concern. As a single woman I sometimes fear that I'll die in my apartment and no one will miss me before the cats get hungry," Keller said, followed by an unexpected burst of laughter.

******

Ren and Ileeta marveled at the biological diversity their host organism encountered. It seemed to spend time in conversation with a mobile species that thrived among dozens of various plant species, none at all like the moss they hunted.

During the conversation the couple in their hopper felt watched and an eerie silence settled on them.

The rest of their host's journey revealed that, it too, lived in a sort of colony like their uuthara.

Observation took an unexpected turn when the organism entered its quarters. The hopper clung desperately to its perch while the macro vision screen went white and then seemed to tumble about and flew some distance to a jarred impact.

"Are you alright Ileeta?"

"Fine... you? Thank moss we strapped in. Is the hopper undamaged?"

Ren spent hours cautiously maneuvering the craft through folds of white. When the hopper finally triumphed over the bundled lab coat the organism had disappeared and light in the chamber dimmed.

Shortly after their liberation, a silver mechanism with spindly limbs and a stout cylindrical trunk scooped the lab coat up and stuffed it into its body cavity.

Ren's reflexes saved the hopper and a last second leap planted the Rhootvi explorers atop the strange fabric consumer.

From their new perch, Ren and Ileeta strained to observe in near darkness as their new host tidied the chamber and placed belongings in their proper place. To conclude its labors, it withdrew a fresh, unwrinkled lab coat and hung it near the door before departing through a small hatch in an inconspicuous corner of the room. The little silver cleaner took a small corridor to another hatch and repeated its procedure in a vacant, disorderly room.

"We are on an automaton!" Ileeta shouted in glee. Simulated intelligence machines had long been a fascination of hers. The Rhootvi put a few to practical use doing hazardous tasks aboard the uuthara.

"If this is an automaton, perhaps we can link with it through the hopper's console and pilot it like an uuthara," Ren replied. "Let's find a way to get the hopper into its inner workings, perhaps there is a simple way to interface."

Raised inside an uuthara, all Rhootvi learned about robotics. Mechanical engineering came as naturally to them as harvesting moss and hunting mites. Before the stout droid finished its nightly duties, Ren and Ileeta located the command circuitry, connected for a completed interface, tested the droid's motor function control, and created an algorithm which translated the colonial starship's database to Rhootvi dialect through binary.

They chose to allow the droid to finish its duties unhindered while they slept in the hopper's rear chamber. Aside from the cockpit, a lavatory, and cozy sleeping quarters, the hopper contained ample storage space to either side of the entry ramp. Rhootvi pilots could remain in a hopper for days on end without complaint.

When Ileeta woke Ren some hours later, the droid stood in its storage bay beside hundreds of various worker bots, most seemed to be powered down. The pair spent hours poring over the LARC5 database, and gathered translated information about their massive captors. They uncovered Dr. Morin's report of their uuthara's capture and the location of his lab. Ren learned about something called the Earth Habitat, which brimmed full of vegetation unknown to the Rhootvi. In under a day the intrepid pair where prepared to rescue their society from capture. Ileeta established a communication link between the hopper and their uuthara.

******

"That alien animal somehow escaped" Leroy said. He and Jillian raced through the colony toward Dr. Morin's lab.

Lights were shattered and his desk had been sorted through hurriedly.

"Someone let it out," Jillian said. "They searched for the key, which apparently ended well," Jillian gestured toward the open cage door.

"Who would do this?" Leroy inquired. "I can't think of any colonist who would benefit from have an alien organism free onboard."

The CSF officers searched the surrounding area for the better part of the morning. Empty handed, they returned to Dr. Morin's lab to speak with the biologist in hopes of turning over a clue. A quick check on their communicators confirmed that no other CSF teams had anything out of the ordinary to report.

Keller and Morin had put the laboratory back in order and reviewed the data from the early morning escape. "It's a shame, the organism disappeared" Dr. Keller said. "The moss it is fond of rooted in the holding cell and just this morning showed signs of new growth."

"That it!" Leroy Phillips jumped to his feet. "The anteater is off to another food source. Jillian let's get down to the Earth Habitat right away."

"This little thing is smarter than any animal if it can spring itself from a cage and find its way to the Earth Habitat on the other side of the colony unnoticed," Jillian Taylor said as they rode a transit tube across the vessel.

******

Ren and Ileeta led the uuthara in droid corridors through the bowels of the enormous craft to the Earth Habitat area. Droids passed the odd pair without notice. Their programs did not allow for distraction from tasks to investigate a curiosity. During their journey, dozens of hoppers leapt upon the mechanical workers they encountered. Not only were pilots aboard, but technicians made the trek to determine the viability of converting empty space within the machines to living quarters. The giant organisms would find an empty shell of their uuthara and the Rhootvi would be free to live within the automatons, unnoticed and unrestrained. Ileeta even suggested their people could cultivate moss right inside their uuthara just like the macro organisms did on board their vessel.

"We'll abandon the old uuthara right where the giants would expect a simple animal to hide," Ren said to their elder council.

Many of the Rhootvi felt reluctant to abandon their home, but the macro organisms had captured them and removed them from their world already. No one cared to wait and see what torments remained to be endured. With a dozen new uuthara that blended in with the droids, the Rhootvi could exist in peace. This vessel also offered a variety of new edibles to a people who had been sustained on only moss and mites since their origin.

******

"The poor thing ran away to the woods and died" Jillian choked back a sob. Leroy was not the type to tease when she felt sensitive, but she wanted to maintain composure in front of her partner.

Leroy patted her back and flashed a sympathetic smile. Jillian looked beautiful when she got upset. Leroy picked up the yellow creature and the pair returned its lifeless remains to Dr. Morin's office.

"Something isn't right about all this," Jillian said.

"How's that?" Leroy asked.

"Who let it out in the first place? Sure we recovered its corpse, but we are still missing the person that released it." Jillian peered over Dr. Keller's shoulder as she examined the organism.

"Not a single someone, we are missing thousands of tiny culprits from the look of this thing's insides. This thing was never alive. It's a mobile city full of little beings; A LARC5 for creatures the size of a ten micron bead."

"Where would they go?" Leroy asked.

"Leroy, we just got a notice to look out for a dozen droids missing from duty," Jillian said. "Could they have hijacked our droids?"

"With their level of technological advancement, it would seem likely," Dr. Morin said. "Can engineering send a message to all the droids in the colony? Given their knowledge of the ship's layout and aptitude for computer programming, it's likely they can understand our language."

Two hours later, twelve droids marched into Dr. Morin's lab. "We are the Rhootvi, it appears we have more in common with humans than we first suspected."

The Rhootvi spoke with Morin, Keller, Leroy, and Jillian at length. The tiny species accepted an invitation to remain onboard and relocated into their uuthara, dismissing their hostage droids back to duty.

LARC engineers collaborated with teams of Rhootvi to construct an uuthara with humanoid shape and function, allowing members of the microscopic species to interact with the humans and Venatorrhodon in appropriate scale.

Their original uuthara opted to share the park with Bloom and Rhodo's family where a garden featured a variety of edibles new to their people along with their staple moss.

"Welcome to the planetary mission team, Ren and Ileeta," Jillian smiled at the silver droid in front of her. Its face looked humanoid and each of its eyes shone blue and displayed the features of pilot and copilot.

"We are happy to come along," Ren replied. "Our companions manning hoppers can search for life in our scale while we help explore the big world."

"That bright silver skin is hard for someone to mistake as food too," Bloom said.

The humans laughed, eliciting a puzzled expression from Ren and Ileeta.

"Ever heard how we met Bloom?" Leroy asked.

# Crash Course in Magic

Warning displays flashed across the console. The shuttle had safely entered the atmosphere of a dozen worlds without a problem. Jillian Taylor seemed to be in shock at the navigation station. Her mouth agape and hands motionless over useless controls. She calmly said, "Leroy, Dr. Morin, every one of the shuttle's systems has failed."

Friction from atmospheric entry felt like an earthquake. Leroy Phillips tugged the controls with all his might. Sweat beaded the man's head. The cabin went dark seconds before the shuttle smashed into the planet's surface. Jillian heard Dr. Morin's scream right before she lost consciousness.

******

"Jillian, are you alright?" Leroy leaned over his partner and shook her gently.

Her eyes opened slowly to see bits of their small space craft strewn about a lush forested glade. Her eye panned to a low moan a couple hundred feet away. She rose to her feet and darted to Dr. Morin. The man hung suspended in a tree. Blood welled around a broken branch protruding from his abdomen.

"My God... We have to help him. Jillian, find the first aid kit," Leroy said. He slowly approached the impaled scientist. Suddenly a crack sounded and Morin crumpled to the grass below the tree.

Leroy and Jillian rushed to his side. The Branch had been dislodged and blood spurted onto the grass. Dr. Morin lay on his side and Leroy could see right through the man's middle as he moaned incoherently. Jillian pressed her hands over each side of the wound and sobbed desperately. She hoped against all reason that their colleague would be alright.

A strange sensation surrounded her hands. Dr. Morin's eyes fluttered and he briefly convulsed. The man shuddered, as if in his death throes.

"Are you two okay?" Dr. Morin asked.

Leroy stared at the man regaining his feet and at Jillian who remained on the ground staring at blood soaked hands. The scientist began to prod at the skin beneath the blood soaked tear in his shirt.

There was no wound.

******

"I saw that hole through you Dr. Morin. You were dying and Jillian held your injury, now you are okay," Leroy stammered.

Dr. Morin suspected the three of them experienced shock from the wreck. However, shock could not account for all the blood. He walked over to his satchel, amid the wreckage and pulled out his slate. The power button did nothing. He hoped it survived undamaged. A faint blue glow surrounded the device as it whirred to life. His suspicions about the presence of a strange mineral were confirmed.

"The unknown mineral we came to investigate must interfere with electronic devices," Dr. Morin said.

"Why is your slate working?" Jillian asked. She wondered if her team mate had been saved because of the same thing that powered his device.

******

Leroy Phillips sulked around the cabin of their ruined shuttle. Their mission to this world had taken them days away from the starship. The crew wouldn't know to search for them for at least a week. The CSF officer began to think of a way to make repairs. Lost in thought, he did not notice the shuttle's shattered components swirl about him in the air mingling with the unknown mineral as it rose from the grassy meadow and coalesced among the shuttle components. He did not hear Morin or Jillian's startled exclamations or even feel the shuttle rise from the ground.

Before Jillian's eyes, Leroy radiated an intense green energy which caused the shuttle's scraps to mingle with the strange mineral they had come to investigate, and form into a giant metallic dragon. Its belly splayed open revealing a hatch with Leroy at the control console of the strange new craft.

"The mineral somehow cancels science but allows magic," Jillian stammered as she and Morin climbed aboard the metallic beast.

The silver dragon leapt into the sky and flapped powerful wings until it rose into the atmosphere and beyond.

# Asteroid Habitat

"We've got to corner it," Jillian said.

"It's hard to find a corner between the two of us in here," her partner Leroy replied.

Jillian gave him the annoyed expression he had grown to love over the months since their pairing on the Colonial Security Force's off ship detail. Leroy smirked back and bit his tongue. Jillian did not like to hear that she was pretty when she got angry.

Jillian crouched low and launched herself to one side of the small creature who resembled a two foot long sloth with a honey comb on its furry back.

With a lazy grace, the animal clawed its way to the rear of the potato shaped asteroid no larger than a cabin.

Leroy waited for his moment to rejoin the pursuit from another floating mass twenty feet off.

Hundreds of these creatures lived within the asteroid belt. Despite the continued use of their space suit's life support, their colonial starship's scans indicated that most of the rock cluster maintained an oxygen rich atmosphere. Leroy glanced at the shuttle where Morin and Keller nodded their encouragement for the pair of security officers.

Jillian and Leroy had already been returned to the rocks a half dozen times after missing a landing, the shuttle serving as lifeline between the explorers and the cold expanse of open space.

"Now!" Jillian shouted into his headset.

"Got him," Leroy exclaimed after a final successful hop from one asteroid to the next.

The small animal squirmed in Leroy's grasp and covered its face with curved claws. Jillian appeared beside it and stroked its fur, soothing the creature before wrapping its body gently in a mesh net to prevent its escape. Despite the lengthy chase, the asteroid dweller accepted capture without a scratch or bite. Leroy smiled at his partner who attempted to sooth and coo the creature with gentle words, despite the fact that no sound left her pressure sealed helmet.

The rear compartment of the shuttle depressurized, which allowed Keller and Morin to examine the asteroid jumping sloth without potentially harming it by introducing an artificial Earth atmosphere and gravity. Outside the rock field, veiled in its own gas laden environment, it became easy to spot the little animal generating its own air within the honeycomb on its back. A small cloud soon formed around the being and it pulled the air into lungs while pawing at its examiners lazily. The animal seemed content with the entire abduction and examination until Morin pricked a few cells from its skin for the geneticists to clone the animal for an extensive study back within the colony.

Leroy and Jillian returned the oxygen generating sloth to its home, and their shuttle began the week long journey to rendezvous with the colonial starship.

As the shuttle slid into its docking bay, dozens of little creatures leapt gracefully from its roof onto the vast hull of the starship. Maintenance hand holds and service ports provided grips for mobility and areas for nesting. Within a month, sensors detected the presence of an oxygen rich pocket outside the ship. Leroy and Jillian were dispatched to investigate.

"Hey look Jillian, it's your little friend," Leroy said and pointed to a furry creature, which raised a clawed paw, seemingly in greeting.

"The admiral has to let me keep them!" Jillian said with a giggle.

# Counter-vibration

Jillian and Leroy checked the readouts on one another's counter-vibration packs and fitted their night vision goggles into place.

The planetoid should not be able to support life since it drifts rogue in space, free from the orbit and light of a mother star. However heat from the planetoid's core and an oxygen rich atmosphere created a cradle for a half dozen unique non sentient life forms. At top of the food chain, flew an animal the size of their shuttle that hunted everything else on the planetoid with eco location.

They originally planned to let their drone do the exploration while they remained safely within the shuttle. Then the drone lodged itself between two tree-like organisms.

"Are you sure these packs will work?" Jillian asked.

Leroy shook his head no. He liked the sight of his bubbly blonde partner even through night vision. "If the pack doesn't work, I've got a spare clip right here," he said and patted his pistol.

They walked in the open for a few minutes until they reached the edge of dense vegetation, the reason they simply couldn't take their shuttle to retrieve the drone. The pair scrambled over roots and under branches for hours. They came upon a clearing and stretched out for brief break. Jillian tugged at her partner's shoulder and pointed skyward. Massive leathery wings beat overhead as one of the giant bat-like creatures hunted. A rustle in the brush across the clearing caught its attention and the raptor bore down upon its prey. Leroy and Jillian silently crept back into the protection of the dense dark forest.

After a tight squeeze between branches they heard a pop and a crunch. Leroy swore.

"Let me take a look at your gear," Jillian said. She examined the display panel for a moment. "Bad news. The pack won't vibrate anymore. When we are in clearings, we had better link arms and hope my pack is enough of a shield for us both."

They trekked deeper until a giant clearing opened up. On the far side of a lake, the drone's tracking signal blipped. Arm in arm, Leroy and Jillian made their way around the shore. Small wildlife skittered back into the safety of the forest on their approach. Leroy scanned the black skies constantly for the avian hunters.

The pair dislodged the drone and entered instructions for its return to their shuttle. An animal similar to a wild hog approached them as the probe departed. It grunted soft greetings and sniffed the air around them. Leroy noticed the creature had no eyes, it made sense he supposed. Why develop an organ that had no use?

A giant flying hunter dove upon its quarry. The leathery sound of rapid descent ended in the boar's frightened squeal. Jillian gasped in shock and fell on her back. The device crunched and popped. Leroy helped her up and the pair slinked into the brush as the predator devoured the curious boar.

"Your pack is busted too," Leroy said.

"We'll have to avoid the clearings. In the forest we should be safe," Jillian said.

The pair crept back through the vegetation without an incident. When they reached the clearing Leroy peered into the skyline in search of the leathery raptors. He looked dismayed to see a pair of them perched upon their shuttle. Leroy took a knee and pulled his pistol from its holster.

"Wait a minute," Jillian said. "That shot will tell them both where we are, we need a distraction instead."

The pair rifled through their supplies and came up with pocket knives, pistols, first aid kits, and their slates. The slate was used mainly for data entry and communication, but Jillian had uploaded her music collection to her device to pass time on the long shuttle rides.

She played a song from Gift of Destiny at full volume and tossed the device like a Frisbee. Unlike their broken counter-vibration packs, the slate sat protected in a rubber casing.

Both predators leapt into the air.

Jillian and Leroy ran for the shuttle, pistols in hand. After closing half the distance the song cut off abruptly and the flap of massive wings could be heard.

Jillian and Leroy dropped onto one knee and sighted the hunters overhead. Shots rang out; the muzzles' intense glow in their night vision goggles temporarily blinded the pair.

A bone shattering thump a dozen feet off and the gurgle of the creature's dying breath followed.

As their sight returned, Jillian gasped in shock at the approach of the other raptor. Before either person could shoot, the hunter landed on its dying companion and sunk teeth into flesh.

Jillian and Leroy dashed for the safety of the shuttle.

"You're taste in music is strange for such a bubbly, upbeat girl."

"Ya, well heavy metal just saved our skins" Jillian said with a giggle.

# Dark Energy Specters

"Ghosts," Leroy stammered.

"You believe in that?" Jillian cocked an eyebrow as she pulled blonde hair off her shoulders and into a bun under her Colonial Security Force cap.

"Saw one back on Earth. I'm surprised you never ran into one on that farm you grew up on." Leroy gave his partner a grin and pulled a small scanner from his pack. "Morin and Keller said this will tell us what they really are, but if you ask me, we'll just learn what ghosts are made of."

"I never took you for the superstitious type Leroy," voiced Ileeta, copilot of the macrobot. She and her mate Ren operated a child sized silver robot, their faces appeared as glowing displays, one in each eye. She raised a slim silver hand and patted his shoulder. "The idea of conscious existence after a physical death and dis-corporation is amusing, but I'd hardly expect a seasoned explorer like you to entertain the notion."

"You little Rhootvi must not have ghosts because you are too small for them," Leroy chuckled. He had never been one to pick on the little guy, but the Rhootvi were microscopic, not undergrown. Besides, he felt embarrassed in front of Jillian.

"I guess I'm a bit creeped out too," Jillian said in Leroy's ear, too silently for the others to hear.

"Your sensory organs must be better attuned to the differences of these beings" Bloom said and stroked the air near her root cavity, then opened her dart toothed mouth slightly.

A black silhouette flashed at her contact, the humanoid figure blurred into electric purple motion, and disappeared.

"They seem to have a similar apprehension to our form of life."

"You read its mind?" Jillian asked, all too familiar with the carnivorous plant's telepathic touch.

Leroy groaned, he sprawled on the ground, limbs still by his sides. Jillian knelt and helped the man to a seated position.

"I think that thing just ran right through me."

"Did that scanner take any readings?" Jillian leaned over her partner, and put a hand over Leroy's examining the display. "What does this indicate?" She asked; her face only inches from Leroy's.

"I...uhh..." he stammered, lost in her eyes.

The cool silver hand of the macrobot closed around the device and pulled it closed to the visages of Ren and Ileeta. "Incredible!" They exclaimed in unison.

"You've seen that before?" Jillian asked.

"Dark matter and dark energy were only theoretical concepts for our people. I never thought to see evidence of their existence," Ren said.

"The small amount of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen the scanner detected must be the part of that being we are able to observe," Ileeta said.

Bloom had maneuvered around Leroy, Jillian, and the macrobot during their discussion. Its viney arms wrapped around what looked like dense shadow, its leaves rolled into straws. The others could feel her telepathic message of comfort and assurance directed at the figure in its embrace. "This one is a scared youth."

Suddenly, Jillian and the macrobot crashed to the ground, massive black figures loomed over them. Leroy jumped to their defense, tackling the larger figure around the waist. His momentum pulling the shadow back a few paces before Leroy landed in a tumble, having passed through the creature. Purple bolts leaped from both looming silhouettes and Leroy writhed in pain as they connected.

The small shadow leapt from Bloom's embrace, encircling the larger pair. The assault ceased, Leroy moaned and slumped onto the ground. Bloom, Jillian, and the macrobot surrounded their colleague. In the confusion, the shadowy child and its parents disappeared into the surrounding brush.

Leroy roused; his head cradled in Jillian's arms. "I guess I'm the first person to see a ghost on two worlds," he smirked, and then he noticed Jillian and color flushed his complexion.

# Like a Sponge

Leroy and Jillian collected extra water canteens, stuffing their packs to the limit. The humans seemed intimidated by the dry, desolate world they landed upon. As a form of sentient carnivorous plant life, Bloom found that exploration of other worlds with sentient animal life evoked all sorts of curious behavior. The pair showed affection for one another, at times risking their own safety for the other's, yet would never admit their desire to be mating partners. Bloom and her mate never encountered this strange sort of denial during their courtship.

"Let's be sure you stay hydrated too Bloom" Jillian tucked a slow release water spike into the loose soil in the center of Bloom's encased root cluster.

Bloom patted her companion on the back with a prehensile vine arm. "I sense that the local life forms have detected our arrival and approach the shuttle." Lacking the sensory organs humans are equipped with, Bloom used telepathy to interact with others. Bloom probed the alien minds until she grasped their form of communication, then the trio met with their hosts.

******

The Aridites thrived as a society of moisture collectors who inhabited a vast network of caves beneath the planet's barren surface. Leroy offered drawings of simple moisture collection devices to the desert bound species as an offer of friendship between the LARC5 colony and the Aridites. Just as the man began to think this the smoothest introduction he and Jillian had been involved in to date, cries of alarm ran through the cave mouth where they stood.

******

An Aridite youth waved frail limbs at its elders who barked a short response to Bloom before all the Aridites present disappeared into the dark depths beneath their meeting place.

"Someone in this tribe of Aridites has committed their ultimate crime, water theft." Bloom reached out through her senses during the silent moments while the trio awaited their host's return. "An Aridite is coming, but I don't think it's one we've been speaking to."

Jillian moved forward into the darkness and whispered to the others "If this is the thief, you two distract it and I'll grab from behind."

******

"Hello there little buddy," Leroy called to the Aridite who hesitantly approached, knowing he wouldn't be understood, but hoping to arouse its curiosity.

A swollen figure emerged from the dark and lumbered toward Leroy and Bloom, it barked a nervous response as it approached.

"The Aridite claims that there has been a misunderstanding," Bloom said as she spread her arm vines in a welcoming gesture.

"Put it there pal" Leroy said, approaching the water thief with his hand outstretched.

Jillian used Leroy's distraction to tackle the Aridite around its middle, the pair rolled across the cave floor in a cloud of dust. Apprehension showed clear on Leroy's expression as he waited for the dust to settle. Jillian uttered a low painful moan. A sloshing sound began in the dust and faded into the dark depths of the cave.

"Jillian, are you alright?" Leroy groped about the dusty scene until he found the woman and pulled her to the shuttle's open hatch. "Bloom, she has somehow suffered severe dehydration. I've got to hook her up to an IV solution right away."

******

"I'm going after it," Bloom replied. She did not wait to see Leroy's distracted nod. Now that the telepath had touched the mind of Jillian's assailant, tracking the Aridite proved a simple matter. Four vine limbs propelled Bloom with inhuman speed. She had wrapped the culprit in her grasp in minutes.

The Aridite barked a harsh warning and struggled to free itself. Bloom began to feel her vines wither from dehydration, the water spike near her roots quickly drained and weakness washed over her entire body.

In a final desperate effort, Bloom dislodged a root cluster and jammed it down the Aridite's throat. Its eyes bulged and it spluttered, attempting to speak through the root mass. The water bloated figure collapsed in a heap and Bloom felt the moisture return as her captive drained off excess moisture.

Bloom emerged from the darkness to find the Aridites offering vessels of drinking water to Leroy. She deposited the thief at the feet of its peers.

"Bloom, great job!" Leroy rustled her upper vines in what he meant to be a pat on the back. "Please tell these guys Jillian will be fine and we've already begun replacing her moisture. Oh, and tell that guy," he pointed to the culprit "To keep his sponge off my partner!"

# Lithium Eaters

"If not for the telescope operator's infrared scan, the starship might have plunged right into this little star," Jillian peered out a view port into a vast, round, sea of hydrogen, larger than any planet would be.

"I'll bet we could swim in it" Leroy said, as he ambled over to share the view. "What are we supposed to look for here anyhow?"

Jillian gasped and pressed her face against the glass. "Did you see that?"

******

Leroy could see only blonde locks now and took a moment to enjoy their scent before telling Jillian of the obstruction.

"There," she pointed, after withdrawing a few feet. "There are things swimming in the star. It looks like they are grazing on the dark clumps of lithium that bubble to the surface."

As the pair of explorers' shuttle hovered over the surface of a Y class brown dwarf, nearly invisible to the naked eye due to a temperature close to that of a human body, creatures not unlike jellyfish used bioluminescence to find and consume lithium, the hydrogen star's lone byproduct.

"Let's make contact. This could be the first time anyone discovered life on a star!" Leroy rushed for the control console.

******

Jillian put a hand on her partner's shoulder. Had he been working out? She would have to put even more than the usual effort into keeping their interactions strictly professional. She leaned over his shoulder, excited by the cluster of activity on the display, and inadvertently brushed cheeks with him while pressing her chest against his back. "Bring us in right here."

******

Leroy couldn't tell if the thrill of the hunt or Jillian's proximity made his heart pound. He gasped a quick inhalation as he directed the craft. The vessel hovered within a dozen feet of the pulsating, billowing, creatures. Jillian sat next to Leroy and her fingers flashed on the control panel.

Leroy cocked an eyebrow. "What are you working on over there?"

"Their bioluminescence, maybe flashing simple patterns with the shuttle's exterior lights will enable us to communicate."

Leroy gazed out the front viewport as his partner began the attempt. Light and dark alternated for a dozen flashes. The shoal of lithium eaters froze momentarily, then repeated the sequence with their own lights. Leroy gasped and Jillian giggled with delight. The shoal closed in and spread out, surrounding the shuttle, as if investigating the strange visitor. After a moment, the pair felt their shuttle lurch, and begin to descend into the sea of hydrogen.

"They are pulling us down!" Leroy said, hands returned to the console.

"I'll try the lights again."

After another sequence of flashes, the shuttle lurched deeper into the star. "I'm going to try to pull free." Leroy maneuvered the craft on low propulsion toward the surface. Then another shoal emerged from the star's depths and joined onto the hull. The shuttle creaked and groaned under the opposing strain.

A warning light flashed on the console. "We've had a minor structural failure and plasma is leaking from the aft engine," Jillian reported. "I'll dispatch the repair drone immediately."

"Look!" Leroy pointed to a rear display. "Most of them are after the plasma, now is our best chance!" Leroy floored the throttle and the shuttle burst free from beneath the hydrogen sea. As they departed into open space, the straggling lithium eaters detached and returned home.

"Looks like we pulled through," Jillian said.

A silver pouch rested snuggly against the shuttle's frame, the eggs inside it needed only days to incubate.

"It's going to be a quiet week in the shuttle together on the way back to LARC5," Leroy said.

# Shared atmosphere

"It's beautiful," Jillian said. She pressed herself closer to the view port and snapped pictures on her communicator to share on the colonial starship's social network. She had become the most popular person onboard since she and her partner transferred to the Colonial Security Force's off ship detail.

"Do you see that?" her partner, Leroy asked. He told Jillian that he had no interest in pictures or intranet social activity- his social circle was small and nearly complete.

The shuttle's viewport revealed a green world and its small desert moon. The moon's orbit passed so close to the planet that their atmospheres commingled. Small flecks glinted in the light of their star, people and small vessels traversed the expanse between planet and moon with no more propulsion than a jump. Gravity simply weakened between the opposing forces. Leroy and Jillian were on assignment to pass through the phenomenon with sensors to give scientists in the colony a better idea of how this unique relationship worked.

Their craft landed on the forested world, near the outskirts of the town their telescope reports indicated was a daily contact point with the desert moon. A man approached with a thin book in his extended hands. He looked remarkably more human than the handful of sentient species Leroy and Jillian had encountered since their posting began. The book he held contained a flash card collection intended to assist foreigners in communication. After bartering shuttle rations for the book, Jillian and Leroy made their way into town.

None of the locals seemed surprised to see aliens in their midst. Jillian reasoned that the anomaly had attracted the attention of other sentient space explorers. Most of the villagers they saw worked with lumber, tilled fields, or tended shops. Others looked to be visitors from the desert moon wearing lighter garments shopping in pairs and threes. There seemed to be no species differentiation between the groups, Leroy suspected this atmospheric link had enabled commingling for thousands of years.

Leroy and Jillian saw a large group of women from the desert moon gathered in the clearing. The clearing seemed like the place where gravity and atmospheres touched. The lightly garbed flock spotted Leroy and he returned a half dozen coy smiles. A local shop keeper saw the exchange, scoffed loudly and ferried his wares back inside of a small cottage. One of the women approached the explorers and batted lashes on huge, innocent doe eyes.

"Hello," Jillian said with a wave.

The woman smiled in return and pointed to the book, indicating that she wanted to communicate through the drawings. As Jillian pored over the picture translations for better than five minutes she failed to notice the remainder of the desert moon women encircling Leroy and enticing the man away from his partner with gestures and coy smiles.

"Woman...group...explore...star...man..." Jillian puzzled over the message for a moment and turned to confer with Leroy. Her partner and the rest of the desert women were nowhere near the clearing. Jillian latched upon the wrist of the doe eyed distractor just as she attempted to slip away. The desert woman attempted to wrench her arm free, but Jillian proved tougher than her pretty farm girl features let on. She put years of combative training to work and whirled the woman about into a shoulder lock, nearly touching her captive's hand to her shoulder blades. Jillian shoved the pages for star and man into her face.

With a whimper the trapped girl pointed up and Jillian saw a group of women with Leroy, bound by the wrists, floating toward the moon propelled only by cloth paddles attached to the arms of a woman who wrapped her legs around Leroy.

Feelings of urgency and something unfamiliar pounded in Jillian's chest. Still holding her captive, Jillian raced toward the point where the others departed, cuffed the woman's wrists, and lashed them to her belt. There remained one pair of the wing like fans and Jillian flapped without hesitation, despite the cries of protest from her captive.

Jillian thought the experience was some mix between the zero gravity of a spacewalk and swimming. She worked the fans attempting to close the distance and recapture her partner. She worried about what those women could want with Leroy. Poor man, he mooned over her in secret; except that a woman knows when someone wants more than friendship. Was that stray feeling jealousy? Jillian dismissed the thought and focused all her will on the pursuit.

While the floating came easy, the landing required skill. Jillian and her captive tumbled into a heap, limbs tangled, hair entwined. The moon woman once again had the space man pages thrust in her face and she pointed a trembling finger into a tangle of squat, mud brick buildings. After traversing a maze of alleys and avenues, the unlikely pair came at last to a door, left slightly ajar.

Jillian burst into the home, captive in her wake. The front rooms looked empty but a light shone from under a rear door and strange noises could be heard. A boot sent the door flying open and Jillian gasped at the scene. Leroy wore nothing but crimson cheeks and the women pawed at him, giggling. The man looked first confused, and then happy to see Jillian. He raised hands, still bound, in greeting. One of the women prepared to charge Jillian, but her captive partner yelled a short warning and the giggling stopped.

After another session in the translation guide Leroy had dressed and Jillian released her captive. The women explained that their custom allowed for the capture of men from the forest women for a night of fun. The males on the desert moon were sorely outnumbered by females. After apologies and salutations, the CSF officers made their way back to the forest town through the atmospheric tunnel and onto their shuttle.

"You know Leroy, you haven't thanked me for saving you yet."

"Oh, I uhh..."

"I did save you from something you didn't want to do right?"

"Well you saved me from doing something with the wrong someone, or lady gang from all appearances."

Jillian was taken by surprise. "You've got a girlfriend in the colony?"

"Oh, a no... No one I'm involved with. Just, ah... you know someone I've got my eye on."

Jillian pecked her partner on the cheek, "Lucky girl."

# Chip Off the Old Block

Year One

Stars appeared in the distance, grew in their approach, cast light on the exterior hull, and shrank away to nothing in the wake of LARC7's propulsion burst. It would have been a beautiful sight to behold if any living being on the colonial starship were older than infancy. The nursery was in the biological science building, one floor above the endless rows of artificial wombs where essential personnel had their second lease on life. They kept the building air tight. It had been the first to be completely sterilized. The remaining miles of colony lay in dark quiet stillness.

The LARC7 colonial starship's lead droid and now acting admiral, MARC, mechanized artificial representative councilor, strode toward the only signs of life. The vast starship was an ovoid vessel designed to be a self-contained city. Before the disaster a half million Earth native humans had traveled twenty years toward their destination planet which lay another nineteen years ahead.

MARC stood motionless in the decontamination chamber while ultraviolet radiation purged any potential remnants of the virus from its silver bipedal body. The Earth Habitats proved an exceptional challenge to purge. A three thousand foot long sea, a five acre plot of woods, another five acres of jungle, a stretch of arid desert, and a farm held countless possibilities for a repeat contamination. The entire area was vital to the mission's success. Not only was humanity meant to populate other worlds, Earth's variety of organic life must be preserved and grown in the absence of native species on their new world.

The power generation stations, emergency shelters that doubled as theaters, living quarters, universities and schools, waste treatment center, and the various mills and factories had proven far simpler to decontaminate; devoid of life as they now stood. MARC had even vented atmosphere from the propulsion ring and its core shaft for a month.

MARC found that traits many had considered quirky in the League's Human Resource director had proven useful in the colony's current situation. Margery Evans, now one of MARC's personalities, spent the first fifteen years of her adult life working in childcare while raising her own children and completing her master's degree in Human Resource Management, part time. Some of the engineers who designed MARC felt that peripheral information and experiences of the League's council were unnecessary to the role their simulated personalities would play in MARC's position as consultant to civilian and fleet leadership. Margery herself argued that her prior life experiences may not be directly relevant, but that it did factor into her decision making in her role on the council. MARC allowed Margery to entertain feelings of satisfaction while it programmed the droids who would follow each crew member from birth into adulthood.

Many of the available units needed extensive memory upgrades in order to accommodate the wealth of knowledge from infant care, child and teen psychology, human grooming, and education from grade school through their advanced degrees. MARC worked without a break for nearly the entire year following the catastrophe, to prepare each child's guardian while the ship's fleet of maintenance and housekeeping droids removed every last trace of the virus. Margery's personality felt relieved to care for the infants now.

The League programmed MARC to operate as an entire individual on its own. When a situation proved novel or fell under one of the council's areas of expertise, the personality gently slid into the forefront of the MARC unit, taking over decision making and altering the green hues of the facial display to resemble the uploaded person's image. Margery was unsure if her feelings of contentment were as genuine and deep as her human counterpart, but soothed herself in the knowledge that it couldn't get any better for her.

MARC made its way to the nursery after having spent an hour reviewing ship data on fuel consumption and actual course when compared to plotted course. With approximately forty nine thousand eight hundred less mouths to feed and beds to warm, there would be no need to scavenge raw materials from asteroids or uninhabitable worlds. This was welcome input since there were no crews to mine ore and collect gasses.

All available droids would be reprogrammed for their future roles in raising a human into a specialty field that would be needed after the shuttle touched down. There were thousands of special roles in human civilization and not a living person to pass the knowledge on. To the good fortune of LARC7 most of the educational materials were already on the colonial data base, and what couldn't be learned from books and slates would be experienced under the supervision of a droid who performed the task in absence of a live crew.

MARC stood in the entry room for an hour. The time was necessary to allow his metal form's temperature to match the nursery's temperature. Contact with metal as cold as the vacuum of space was bad for humans and worse for their infants.

"Whaaaa!" cried one of the little charges.

Its droid lifted the babe from a crib and checked diaper moisture content and for the presence of solid waste. The robots in the nursery dressed in a half dozen layers of fleece in order to best emulate snuggling. This was an element of child rearing Margery had insisted upon, without presenting direct evidence of its benefits. Holding the little ward against itself, the droid emitted a soft noise that sounded like a vacuum. The droid was unaware of the momentary tension Margery's personality felt during the attempt to soothe.

"Whaaaa!" the little one repeated.

The droid held a hand up to the baby's face and gestured a squeeze while asking "milk?" A chubby pink hand shot up from within blankets and squeezed in front of its little face. MARC's facial display shone with Margery's smile of satisfaction. The droid had a warm bottle of formula ready and began feeding the baby. Creating a nutrient base for the little ones was simple, engineering the myriad of bacteria humans need in their intestines in order to maintain good health had been the challenge.

Two hundred little people cooed, wiggled, cried, burped, and dirtied diapers. MARC recalled what the night had been like while the human crew still operated the ship. Most of the personnel would engage in social activities or catch up on their personal matters. Then they would sleep, anywhere from five to ten hours depending upon the individual. Some people occupied night shift positions, but the colonial city fell into silence and serenity for a third of every day. There was not a quiet moment in this little collection of infants. Some slept nearly all the time, some screamed constantly. Babies wanted milk every two or three hours.

The concept seemed terribly inefficient to MARC, who only needed to recharge batteries annually. Margery's personality recalled her own motherhood experience with what MARC could only interpret as delusional fondness brought on by maternal hormones and sleep deprivation. MARC regretted his lack of olfactory receptors in this area of intrigue because Margery insisted that nothing smelled as good as a baby's head.

The companion droids uploaded their experiences into the ship's database every twenty four hours. MARC was perfecting an algorithm based upon their attempts to soothe and comfort the young in their care. There would be a number of droid reared generations before the colony's population was sustainable once again. Thus far, the improvements to the algorithm reduced the time necessary to determine the appropriate remedy to ten percent of the original response time. Margery insisted that the introduction of baby sign language was more crucial than "some math problem," because babies know what they want and can interpret and mimic basic symbols after only weeks of exposure. Margery and MARC concluded that one method trained the droids while the other trained the infants.

Year 5

Margery's simulated personality insisted that MARC was nervous, but the validity of her statement was unproven. MARC's core program could recognize the effects of emotion in the thoughts of the simulated personalities in his database. He had learned to read it in humans, and to weigh it properly in his analytical process. Checking and double checking the areas a group of his five year old colonists would be exploring on the ship today was a simple matter of precaution.

The last week had been spent restoring the atmosphere to the entire colony. Generating heat and ensuring equipment that lay dormant still functioned as it should. Repair droids dispatched for the initial work made a subsequent check the day before the planned outing. The walls, streets, and furniture remained as clean and dust free as the day droids sterilized it. Every guardian would be with their charge to look around the city and answer questions about the only world they would know firsthand, until the day they reached their new home planet.

Today they would leave the nursery's building for the first time. Five years had been spent in careful preparation, now the children were ready to explore their home. MARC and the droids furnished two hundred sets of living quarters for children's bedrooms, in a single building adjacent to their new school.

MARC's assignment was with the boy Lance, who would grow up to be Captain- and one day Admiral Anders, as his former incarnation had been. All the children would be groomed to fulfill the role their former selves occupied. Many of the personalities of the league council advised against the decision, arguing that free will is a cornerstone of their society. However the group needed to land the ship and had proven their aptitude and a liking for the field.

Even though the circumstances of their upbringing were wildly different than a childhood with a family on Earth, they were genetically the same individual who had performed the tasks. Any of the clones was welcome to pursue an alternative profession once the colony settled on the ground. In fact the lifestyle of a ship's Captain would be unsustainable for the majority of little Lance's life. Perhaps he would pursue a role in civilian leadership or organize the security force.

MARC could hear the squeals, laughter, shouts, and commotion from three floors below the nursery. When the children began to wrestle and tumble around with one another the attendant droids withdrew to a safe distance unless the potential for serious bodily harm arose.

Margery had advised against behaving like a helicopter mom, showing the children how to play with toys and constantly refereeing would produce a codependent individual who may fail a critical task and simply reply that "it wasn't fair." The notion of fairness and the idea that some higher authority would correct the imbalance would leave this colony burning in a ruined heap.

Another popular suggestion from a few of MARC's synthetic league councilors had been to institute corporal punishment. The practice of striking a disobedient youngster merited enough support that days were spent researching the long term effects in Earth psychology journals and in popular culture periodicals from before the colony's departure. Most cultures had abandoned the method since it did not develop a sense of accountability beyond punishment aversion.

MARC settled on dialogue and introspection. The guardian droids would allow interpersonal conflicts to run their course. When the combatants resolved their issue or it boiled into the individuals distancing themselves from one another, each child's guardian would employ dialectic inquiry to uncover the root of discord.

After hundreds of such discussions, the guardians observed that their charges successfully identified and upheld the previously contested value in future conflicts. Timeout was a last resort.

"Hi MARC," Lance said. The boy was in time out again. Samantha Pearl was also in timeout in an adjacent room.

"Hi big buddy," Margery's voice chimed. "Have we had difficulties getting along with Samantha today?"

"It was her fault."

"Conflict is the result of two individuals who have not found the right way to cooperate," Margery suggested.

"I was getting along just fine until she wanted to share my blanket. Sammy already had a blanket and she wanted the share my second blanket. I had two because I was exploring space and its cold out there. She was close to a star and didn't need any. Then we were pulling and pulling until she banged her back on a table corner and cried."

"Do you want to explore space when you're grown?" Margery asked with a sweet smile.

"I want to get the ship to a planet and explore the stuff nearby, and blow up asteroids!" Lance nearly shouted.

"Can space explorers work by themselves?"

"No, they need a whole team! I'm going to be the leader. I'll be brave and show everyone what we have to do!"

"The leader's most important job is to make sure everyone on their team is satisfied and ready to work. If you were Samantha's leader would she have been ready to work?" Margery's personality smiled in satisfaction. Her young one would lead himself right into the Captain's chair.

The internal communication link with Samantha's guardian droid confirmed that it had reached a satisfactory point in its conversation as well.

"We are getting ready for our big adventure outside the nursery, Lance. Can you show me all your skills at being a leader while we explore?"

When the doors opened into the lobby of the biological science center under the nursery, dozens of children spilled out, darting off in every direction. Guardian droids hummed along silently by their charges, programmed only to interfere if the young one encountered danger or to answer questions. There were always questions and often countless repetitions of the same query.

"Where do I go to fly the spaceship?" a petite Asian girl asked her guardian.

"Kira, we'll start with a surface transport shuttle to get around the station. You may sit on my lap and help me pilot the craft," replied the droid called Navigator, assigned to the aspiring pilot.

Lance whooped in delight. "I'll go! I love to explore." He clutched Samantha's hand and the pair joined Kira as she made for the entry to the street.

"Wait! Wait!" Anton Jenkins called after them. "I want to find animals, or trees, or aliens!" the boy cried.

The four children and their droids found themselves tumbling out of the transport shuttle after three minutes of shrill screeches, and one pit stop for Anton to overcome motion sickness. Lance had done his best to comfort her, and Margery's face beamed a radiant smile on MARC's facial display.

The bottom floor of their new living quarters had a giant view port which allowed the children to see the vast, star pitted blanket of space that stretched indefinitely beyond the warm walls of their flying colony. Anton discovered a litter of recently cloned puppies in a small pen in the far corner of the room. His quest for alien life would have to wait.

Year 10

"Hang on to your seats!" Kira tugged the throttle sending the transport shuttle into a barrel roll and avoiding an approaching meteor. Her bob cut hair was in disarray and she flashed a smile full of missing teeth at her guardian droid Navigator.

"Effective, yet not very economical," the Navigator droid informed her.

"Oh Navi, don't be that way. This is our first field trip! We need to have some fun."

"I'd like our fun to have a bit less rolling," Anton said. His ebony complexion looked a little green. "I don't want to paint the inside of the shuttle with breakfast..."

Kira, Lance, Anton, Samantha, and their guardians were on their way to a moon that showed promise for supporting life. The details of the life forms were unknown because the probe they sent went offline shortly after landing in a valley. MARC felt his ten year old charges were ready to accompany the mission and do a bit of exploring. They would all wear life support suits on the surface because atmosphere conditions were unknown.

MARC was also leery of contact with pathogens. Anton Jenkins was a clone due to his predecessor's heroic efforts in identifying the virus that killed the original crew, and his instructions for MARC's sterilization of the colonial starship, after the disease ran its course. At ten years old, young Anton was more familiar with pathogens and infections than any other life form. He was a backup observer for MARC, a fresh set of eyes to avoid another disaster.

"Get ready for a smooth landing," Kira said. True to her word she set the craft down without as much as a bump.

Anton sighed loudly in relief. He mopped sweat off his smooth shaven head.

******

"Alright everyone, let's put our helmets on, pressurize suits, and test our com channels," Lance said. MARC's facial display shone with the glowing green visage of the man Lance knew simply as the Admiral.

The Admiral peered intently at the four as they prepared for the alien environment. His expression displayed paternal anxiety.

"Don't worry MARC. We are light years away from the super bug that killed the crew," Lance said.

Margery's face seemed to crowd the admiral right off the display "I know you kids are perfectly safe, it's just that I worry..."

"We've practiced every part of this mission in simulations and even worn the suits in the ship's artificial sea. Nothing is going to go wrong, you'll see," Lance said.

The Admiral recaptured MARC's display "Son, things do go wrong. I only hope your training has prepared you to keep the mission on track when something happens. Ten years ago, five hundred thousand colonists died from an off ship excursion. Let's all be a little worried."

Lance huffed, nodded at MARC and walked over to Samantha. She was at the hatch with Archie, her architecture and engineering mentor. She stood a bit taller than Lance and hardly noticed his approach. She looked intent on her final preparations.

"Come on ABSA," Anton said to his droid as the hatch slid back to reveal a lush green valley. Lance had teased that the Artificial Biological Science Assistant's acronym had to end in ARC like MARC and LARC, but Anton insisted on the moniker, the long way was too much to spit out.

"I'll help you out Anton," Kira told him as she clung to his arm.

"You know, biological study requires getting covered in mud and looking under bushes and rocks," Anton said. Kira had followed him around for months, always wanting to do whatever he was doing. "Aren't you supposed to stay with the shuttle?"

"Navi and I already got the shuttle prepared for lift off and sealed the doors. I want to find bugs and plants with you," Kira squeezed his arm and gave him a big smile.

Lance smiled at their exchange. Kira confided that she was going to marry Anton only yesterday when they learned of the mission.

Lance held a slate that displayed a map with one dot for the probe and eight dots for the children and droids. The clearing where Kira set the shuttle down was about a half mile from the probe. They trudged on green mossy vegetation that sucked at their boots while they walked. The trek was slow going on its account.

"Can we hold up here? I saw animals the size of lady bugs," Anton said.

"You'll have plenty of while Samantha works on the probe," Lance replied.

The group stood on a ridge overlooking a little valley. Lance stared down at his display. The probe should be right in front of them, but the little valley was no larger than a track field and the probe was nowhere to be seen.

"Something is different about the moss here. It just looks... different." Anton said.

Kira grabbed a hand full and squeezed it between the fingers of her suit. "It's squishy," she said.

Anton cocked an eyebrow. "Hey Kira, since you're not afraid of getting dirty, let's get a closer look," he said. He took one step down off the ridge, but as his foot made contact with the moss, it seemed to part and he disappeared beneath the canopy.

"Anton?" Lance called out. His friend seemed to have sunken into the mossy ground.

"I'm alright. I think the moss ate me," Anton said. ABSA leaped on nimble legs down into the moss to join his charge. "It is a different plant. Down here I can see trunks like a tree, and the stuff you see is like its leaves. There is more of the ground cover we've been walking on down here too. It's a good thing or I may have hurt myself when I fell in."

"Stand back, we're going to jump in behind you," Lance said.

"Hold back a minute," MARC said, displaying the Admiral's face. "How do you plan on getting out again?"

Lance rifled through his pack and pulled out rope and a stake. He quickly pounded the anchor into place and lowered the rope down. "Anton, try to climb up the rope."

Moments later Anton's helmet appeared. The Admiral gave Lance a quick smile and MARC jumped into the moss.

The probe waited in the center of the little valley. It had attempted to land in the tree tops and got itself tangled in the branches of the mossy trees. Lance and Samantha thought about how to retrieve the probe, resting just overhead and out of reach. Anton and Kira began to collect samples for biological studies. The droids allowed the children to carry out the mission with as little interference as possible. In the end, Samantha sat on Lance's shoulders and used a screwdriver to open a panel on the probe and tighten a few wires that had come loose during its crash.

"Sam, are you almost done? You're getting heavy..." Lance said.

"Got it," she replied and the little probe lifted off once more. It flew to the ridge near their rope and settled onto the ground.

Anton and Kira screamed out in unison.

The pair crashed through brush and tumbled into MARC and Archie at Lance's feet.

"What's wrong with you two?" Lance asked. Just then Navi and ABSA ran past them toward the rope and ridge beyond.

"Run!" Samantha shouted from her perch on Lance's shoulders. The boy ran with Samantha over him, straight for the rope. The droids all leaped to safety except MARC, who covered the children's escape. Sam was able to pull up on the ridge from her seat on Lance's shoulders. Anton boosted Kira up the rope and scampered up himself.

Lance grabbed the rope, preparing to climb but turned back for MARC. The droid stood in front of a gray shaggy beast the size of a massive dog. Teeth and saliva could be seen on the front of their pursuer and hot breath fogged MARC's display. Lance could not leave the guardian to meet his fate. MARC was a parent, teacher, and friend to the boy. He would be lost without the droid. The boy leader screamed and spread his arms wide while charging the beast. MARC turned about to face Lance, surprised by the gesture. The gray hairy thing crouched like it was about to pounce.

A pink blur shot out and slapped against Lance's chest and helmet with a wet thud. Lance's visor became blurry and the shaggy creature looked markedly more like a dog than before, with a giant pink tongue hanging down below its fangs and a heavy rhythmic pant set on.

Anton, Kira, and Samantha burst into fits of laughter. The adrenaline from their short flight burned away with giggles. The little explorers spent the better part of an hour with the animal while Samantha finished her inspection of the probe on the ridge.

MARC felt pleased with their first outing, but looked forward to getting his charges back in the colony. There were still fifty other groups who needed their first mission.

Year 15

Lance knocked on the door of Samantha's quarters. He pondered a strange sense of excitement at the late night visit. Samantha had recently become far more interesting to the young man than merely a coconspirator to his scheme. After a couple seconds of noisy shuffling, her door cracked open.

Lance stood with his mouth agape. He noted her figure wasn't that of a child anymore. Her night shirt clung about her breasts and hips and stopped in the middle of her thighs, where it had covered knees only last year.

"Quick, let me in before we wake anyone," Lance said. He stepped through the doorway, and then poked his head out to look down the hall. He slid the door closed and seated himself at the foot of her bed.

"Does MARC know you came?" Samantha asked as she tucked a stray lock of her pale strawberry blonde hair behind an ear. She slid the slate out from the sheet and her fingers flitted around the display for a moment before she passed it over.

"Do you think he'd ever let the Captain sneak into a girl's room in the middle of the night? I waited until he left," Lance said, and gave her a blushing smile. Seeing Sam like this, without anyone else around gave Lance an idea why MARC wouldn't allow it.

"Architect finally left when it thought I was going to sleep," she rolled her green eyes with a huff. "The droids think we're still kids, they won't let us do anything on our own."

"MARC still insists that we've got more to learn, but we have completed the landing simulation a thousand times without a problem. It's time for them to return control of the ship to the captain and crew," Lance said. "We've been learning our duties for ten years and learning general studies at night. Who cares about Earth history anyhow? We'll never go there and we aren't really from there. We only have DNA from Earth."

"Take a look at this," Samantha said, pointing to a schematic on her slate. She let her hand rest on his. "I can remotely shut down all the droids except for MARC."

"Great! I figured out his off switch a few years ago. He needs to be deactivated and manually reactivated in order to receive an update from Earth. I'm not sure why, but he is overdue, so we could fake one and power him down before the others," Lance said.

The pair of teen conspirators weren't the only ones ready to strike out on their own. Lance had heard group after group complain of their overbearing guardians. When the clones were kids their guardians had been like best friends, explaining the ship and going on adventures with their charges. Now that they were teens, it was nothing but talk of responsibility and raising the standards.

Last year their media access had changed from children to young adult and the clones quickly began to realize that their long hours of job training and evening school were not the childhoods they would have had back on Earth. In fact, they learned that children born into families were not even allowed to work before their teen years, much less trained into an advanced career.

A handful of colonists approached Lance to complain of the difference. After giving the matter some thought, he prepared an argument and explained their position to MARC. The droid's facial display pictured the Admiral and it chided Lance for bringing up the subject. Then he went on and on about responsibility and their unique situation. He pointed out that they have two leisure days in every seven just like humans on Earth and that the droids work constantly for the good of the colony.

Lance chose not to lash out and yell at the droid. If he were the Captain of the ship and had spent his whole childhood training to be a leader, then it was time to truly become the leader.

"We're really going to do this," Sam said. She gave Lance a look that made him wonder if they were still talking about their mutiny. He caught himself staring at her.

"Yeah," he replied. Lance felt something when he looked at her smile. He felt like there was something connecting the two of them beyond their power struggle with the robots. She leaned in close to him and bit her bottom lip. There was an eager sort of look in her eyes. Lance felt blood pounding behind his ears and elsewhere. Suddenly instinct took over. They pressed into one another and kissed.

The next morning a groggy Lance entered the bridge.

"You look like you haven't slept a wink," Margery's voice chimed.

"Sam and I were up late studying" Lance replied, giving a half smile to Samantha who stood at the console next to the Captain's station. He saw her cheeks redden as she stared into her display.

"A Captain needs to always be prepared," the Admiral had taken over the display. "You'd better impress me on the simulation today, Lance. You need to know how to think on your feet. Life doesn't always play out the same as it does in simulations."

"We're going to make a big impression today," the boy Captain replied. He looked at Samantha, who returned his look and gave a quick nod. Lance glanced down at his display and gave his best attempt at a shocked expression, "MARC we've got your update from Earth!"

The droid stood next to Lance and examined the screen. "Do you recall the update procedure?"

"Of course," Lance said while he deactivated the guardian. "Good bye MARC."

Moments later the other guardian droids began to power down where they stood, creating an eerie silence as the teen clones waited to verify the success of their plan. There were some gasps of surprise and cries of alarm. Only a handful of the colonists participated in the plans. If a single person let their guardian know what they were up to, intentionally or accidently, it would never have worked. Sam would lose access to their programs and MARC could have created an override in his shut down sequence.

"This is Captain Lance Anders. Do not be alarmed, we intentionally deactivated your guardians. It's time we began making our own decisions. We've practiced landing this colony in simulations every day since we can recall. The droids would say that this is the reason why we are here. I say they are right, that is our purpose. I also say that it's not our only purpose! It's about time we got to experience being human without a robot telling us how it's done!"

Cheers echoed through the simulated bridge, the class rooms, and training centers.

Year 20

Anton stood in front of a viewport looking at the star that would warm them on their new home world. He averted his gaze to the surrounding area, since looking directly at the star would cause him to squint. Asteroids stood as silent sentinels, barring LARC7 from a closer approach to the planet. He had made this vigil every day for a week, and awaited the shuttle's return.

"Do you see mommy?" Leona asked. She had his thick curly hair and her mother's narrow eyes. Her skin tone was a blend of the two. Kira had been one of thirty colonists to become pregnant shortly after the droids shut down. Anton juggled his crewman responsibilities and parenting without his partner these lonely days since Kira departed with Lance to explore their new home. Anton suspected that it was much harder to be away from Leona though. Kira loved her little daughter fiercely.

The medical droids had to be reactivated after only six months in order to explain to the colonists why some of the females' bellies continued to grow. Samantha was able to alter their programs to remove the guardian tendencies, a measure taken to prevent them from reactivating MARC and their former roles.

Anton was thankful for the doctor droids since a biologist would have had the closest applicable training and would have been the one chosen to deliver the babies. He pondered why his extensive education had overlooked the bits about human reproduction. Did Margery and ABSA hide the information to protect his innocence? Infant care was every bit a mystery to a generation of teens who had never seen a baby.

"No sign of mommy yet little one. Don't worry, she's with Captain Lance and they will be back as soon as they figure out where to land the colony," Anton said.

******

"This is the spot," Lance announced. He stood before a beautiful plateau, split by a fast flowing river. Purple mountains loomed in the distance. Lush grassy fields spread at their base until the horizon bent the scene from sight. Pink-orange sky held warmth and a floral scent on its breeze. Lazy pale blue clouds coalesced and mingled. Life here would be idyllic after a childhood spent on a starship.

It would be perfect. Their week on the planet had revealed hundreds of native species of animals. None seemed any brighter than the animals cloned from Earth species, certainly none that could be considered sentient. It would have derailed their landing and forced the colony to move to a secondary location another five years away.

"It's beautiful," Kira agreed. "Leona will love it here."

"You were able to keep the shuttle far enough away from the meteors, do you think getting the colony through them is possible?" Lance asked.

"It has to be," Kira replied. "We don't have an alternative. None of MARC's simulations put asteroids in our approach path, but the ship is huge. I bet we could plow right through them."

"Kira some of those asteroids are bigger than the colony. If we got pinned between two of them, the whole starship could be destroyed. We can't afford to take any chances. As it stands I'll have everyone work from the stem of the propulsion ring while we pass through. If there is a collision, we can eject the colony early and live in orbit on the propulsion ring," the Captain said.

"We'll land the colony in one piece," she smiled and gave him a slug on the shoulder. "You've been a worrier since we turned MARC off, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Lance said. He shook his head and returned her smile. "Let's find a path through the asteroids big enough for two colonies to pass through on the way back."

******

There was a celebration when the shuttle returned. After their decontamination and quarantine, Lance and Kira where able to join the party being thrown in their honor. Kira was so happy to be reunited with Leona, she actually cried. Leona went to great lengths to describe how she had taken care of daddy while mommy was gone. After an elaborate meal Lance told the colonists about their new home and of the wildlife they encountered. He connected his slate with a wall display and showed pictures from their trip.

"Tonight, Kira and I will alter the landing simulation with specific details and a chart of the asteroids surrounding the planet. Tomorrow, we'll run the simulation so there are no surprises when we set the colony down in its new home," the Captain said. "Then we'll turn MARC and the guardians back on, and have them repopulate!"

Cheers erupted from the colonists and a hundred excited conversations started at once. Samantha grasped Lance by the hand and led him to the practice deck where MARC stood frozen for the last five years.

"This is it. We've practically been made for this moment in our lives," Sam told her lover. "What was it like? You and Kira are the only ones who have ever seen our new home."

"Everything is alive," Lance said between kisses. "Water flows from frozen mountain tops, you stand on small plants that cover nearly all the soil, and animals of every size imaginable come and go as they please. You could walk your whole life around the world and never be in the same place twice."

******

The simulation could not have been a bigger success. Kira flew the colony though the asteroid field without putting a scratch on the hull. Lance announced their landing time the following morning and two hundred young men and women spent the afternoon preparing for the most important day in their lives.

******

Thirty children and one hundred seventy colonists strapped themselves into seats in one of the colony's theaters, which also served as an emergency shelter and landing deck. The entire room was airtight and able to absorb any amount of impact. The room was nearly empty, it had capacity for thousands. Dozens of others within the colony stood empty for the last twenty years.

******

The bridge held personnel essential to the landing. Despite the previous day's simulations, everyone was silent with nerves.

Kira approached the hole in the asteroid field and the massive colonial starship slid between two giants that dwarfed their sleek silver city. Five minutes of tension passed while the craft flew through. Kira sighed in relief as the vessel cleared the tight spot. Gasps of awe filled the room as the view port in the bridge gave an unobscured view of their new home. Lance clapped a hand on Kira's back and the lithe pilot laughed.

******

The young captain gasped as the view of the planet became streaked with asteroids the size of shuttles. The sound of rock crashing into metal echoed through the colony like a hard rainfall. Where had these come from? The simulation didn't have anything like this!

Some crew members screamed, others cried. Warning displays peppered the bridge's consoles. Most asteroids dented the hull and deflected away, yet others punched through and smashed the structures within the colony's bowels.

Lance was frozen in place. They were all going to die. He had led LARC7 to its doom and nothing could be done to save them. For the first time in five years, he wished MARC were there. The android would know what to do.

"Kira keep us on course! I'm going to get MARC!" Lance shouted over his shoulder as he raced out of the bridge.

"Hurry!" the pilot screeched. She glanced up and Lance saw a horrified expression.

Lance raced down a corridor and past several fires. He saw atmosphere venting into space before the hull's emergency plating could move into place and create a temporary seal.

"Lance, no update was available," MARC said. His facial display remained featureless while his activation sequence finished.

"MARC, you've been powered down for five years! We are landing the colony, but asteroids are shredding the hull! Please you've got to come to the bridge now!" Lance blurted in panic.

The droid began to run without as much as a reply. Lance struggled to keep up, he had no idea the robot could move so fast. In the corridor leading to the bridge, a flash of light and heat burst through the wall to their right and Lance felt the cold vacuum pull on him, and a steel grip tighten on his ankle, before blacking out.

I'm dying, he thought, then lost consciousness.

******

Tears rolled down Kira's cheeks. She struggled to keep the colonial starship on course, but every thunderous impact tipped the vessel askew.

"Atmosphere is venting in some of the lower levels! I've sealed off the damaged zones, but I don't know how many more impacts we can take. The hull is losing the antifriction gel we need to enter the atmosphere!" Samantha shouted.

"Link up to navigation complete," Margery's voice resounded through the calamity. "Kira, you are doing great. Keep your hands on the console and I'll override according to mathematical projections as needed."

The massive silver colony slid through the atmosphere and settled into position. The blemished hull was no longer a danger, but a lesson learned.

******

Captain Lance Anders felt a warm breeze and heard familiar animal noises. Margery's face frowned down at him as he slid an eyelid open. Behind her, the colony sat on the plateau, as he had envisioned it.

"If you weren't a grown man I would punish you mister," the matronly voice scolded. "Thank you for thinking of me. Poor Kira was never meant to pilot the landing without my help."

"I'm sorry," Lance said. "We were going to activate you and all the guardians once we touched down. I thought we were able to do it all on our own."

"The real Margery's kids went through a bit of teen rebellion too. It didn't include commandeering a multi trillion dollar colonial starship and deactivating the League's representation, but you were under a lot of pressure. Not to mention the hormones. Did you end up with that pretty engineer Samantha?"

Margery continued to nag Lance with questions. Lance supposed he owed her answers. The young captain had a new appreciation for the droid's mothering.

#  A Pinch of Starlight

Vince Clemons blinked his way into consciousness. The warm feeling on his cheek turned out to be blood. The man felt suddenly disoriented, the shuttle's propulsion system had failed when he approached the planetoid.

He could hear a mild hiss coming from somewhere within the cabin. Vince used his sleeve to wipe blood from the control console. He peered into the myopic display at the shuttle's system performance. Propulsion, communications, and life support had completely failed.

The starship he called home would takes days to reach. Vince Clemons would run out of air long before he starved.

Vince wiggled his toes, then flexed his knees. It felt like he had been seated forever. Pins and needles tingled through his lower limbs as the man rose unsteadily to his feet. A glance at the clock told the injured man that he had been unconscious for hours.

Clean, sterile pads blotted away half dried blood. A thin layer of liquid skin sealed the gash. Then he noticed a tear that he could not seal.

Starlight shone through a pinhole punched through the hull during the crash. Dread filled the man. Would he die here alone, exposed to an unbreathable environment? Long range scans showed gasses unfamiliar to Earth's atmosphere. These strange gasses had been leaking in since he touched down. Vince's breaths became shallow and panicked. He would die in this shuttle, no doubt. Tears sprung forth without invitation as he pressed his back against the hull and slid into a seated position. The man lost track of time, sobbing and taking mental note of all the things he would never do.

Sounds from outside the shuttle snapped him from self-pity. Vince rose and made his way to the viewport. He blinked back surprise. Before him, the face of a creature with a plump barrel for a body, and eye stalks pressed against the glass. Their reports had been accurate! Not only did the planetoid have potential living conditions, it harbored native life. His thoughts of doom were completely forgotten. Vince ran to the hatch, heedless of the unknown threat in the atmosphere and cranked on the latch. It didn't budge. He couldn't get outside.

The eye stalks stared at Vince and he stared back. Would they always be separated by this pane of glass? The atmosphere would kill him slowly, he knew, but Vince wanted to have first contact. He had nothing left to lose. He peered at the creature and focused upon it with an intensity he had never before possessed.

Then, the commingling of the shuttle's atmosphere with that of Planetoid BF8733 took effect, although Vince never made the connection beyond casual suspicion. The turn of his day's events left no time for reflection.

In the blink of an eye the barrel bodied creature stood inside the glass, inadvertently transported by the strength of Vince's will, augmented with just the right mix of two atmospheres.

Vince gasped and tried to blink it back into place, but the creature held less reservations.

It withdrew eye stalks into a clammy body and latched onto Vince's leg with a sucking force that shredded through his flight suit.

Vince swooned, plopped on his butt, and nearly fainted. Thankfully his attacker died from oxygen exposure before more than a pint of Vince's blood had been drained. The battered man kicked the parasite off in disgust.

His head swam. He would die in here. Vince imagined this as his cell, impenetrable, inescapable... except for how that meaty log of a blood sucker got in. How had it gotten in? Vince peered at the viewport. He wrapped hard on the glass until his knuckles stung.

He chuckled at the new sensation; a relief from his head and leg pain. Then it came to him. The mingling atmospheres caused his will to encounter the creature to become reality. He had teleported that alien into the shuttle.

Vince's stomach rumbled. He reached for rations, and then grimaced. His gaze turned to the dead thing on the shuttle floor. It had tried to eat him, so Vince would reciprocate. He tore the shuttle apart trying to find a way to cook, in vain. Then he gazed at the twinkling star. One spec of that star would cook his little meal. Vince focused on the thought and time froze.

In a fraction of an instant Vince saw a tiny molten pin prick of star fire that swelled with unbelievable speed until it nearly consumed him. Vince realized his own folly, he would be incinerated by the expansion of the highly pressurized thermonuclear reaction in another heartbeat.

The battered, concussed, bleeding, hungry man wished for the safety of a rescue shuttle.

The explosion seemed rather distant. One second flame nearly engulfed him, then he leaned against the cool glass of a viewport and watched an explosion shred a hundred miles of the planetoid from... from where? He turned slowly to see the shocked, frozen expressions of a rescue team.

# A Pork Rib for Your Thoughts

"It's okay Cocoa," Doctor Simmons assured. "Our lives aboard the colonial starship have built up to this moment."

The doctor's reassurance worked wonders to soothe the nervous chimpanzee. Cocoa, a mild mannered and social animal, looked anxious due to the vessel's landing preparation sequence. The colony hosted a half million human inhabitants as well as what Doctor Simmons lovingly referred to as Noah's Arc; a collection of Earth flora and fauna both living aboard the vessel and stored in artificial wombs for introduction to their new home world.

Humanity could not conceive of detaching itself from its fellow Earth species even when traveling for generations aboard a city sized vessel to another world. The Earth habitat sections of the colonial starship also produced some of the ship's oxygen as well as dairy products. Doctor Simmons forbade nearly all meat consumption since its cost in space and resources drained the confined habitat impractically.

******

Cocoa stroked the cheek of another animal dozing peacefully as the ovoid colony slid with some friction into their new world's atmosphere. The chimp gazed into Simmons's gray eyes. A smile creased the woman's age worn face.

******

"That's right Cocoa, I helped the others sleep so they would not be afraid or hurt themselves as we land. It could get rough." Doctor Simmons got the strange feeling that she knew exactly what Cocoa thought, not just the usual guided conversation based upon mutual observations. She felt almost as if Cocoa's thoughts appeared in her mind. "That's right. You were not put under because you had a reaction to the tranquilizer before."

******

Cocoa thought something more reassuring about her interaction with Doctor Simmons. The human's jabbering seemed to form notions that the chimpanzee could understand. The pair held hands and gazed out a porthole as their home slid into place at the base of a mountain.

******

Doctor Simmons and her staff grew overloaded with work during the following days preparing the Earth Habitats for the colony's partial dismantling. After hours, her colleagues gave one anecdote after another about the strange understanding between their animal charges and themselves. During the conversation, they became startled by their ability to know what the other person would say.

In the weeks that followed, the landing humans and Earth animals all demonstrated their ability to communicate complex notions telepathically. The colony's scientific community roiled in uproar over the predicament. Nearly everyone delighted in the inexplicable change, except for the colonists who looked forward to consuming meat again, now that resources permitted sustainable ranching practices.

Nearly every species found their niche within an ever increasingly diverse community of humans and sentient animals. Primates soon aided in construction and exploration missions, birds served as small parcel delivery curriers, and cloven animals helped with the heavy lifting. Chickens, bees, and cows happily assisted in food production and considered their eggs, milk, and honey a contribution to society.

Pigs took a different view of their situation. They demanded better living accommodations and luxuries other animals afforded through their wages. The colony practiced democracy, but its social assistance program bankrupted within months due to the hogs.

At last, carnivorous species of animals, as well as humans discontent with the arrangement, found a solution to keep their delicate new society prosperous. A simple surgical procedure disabled the hog's ability to hold sentient thoughts. Within days the smell of bacon permeated throughout the community.

Every creature had their own contribution to make.

# Message from the Black Hole

Jennings puzzled over the signal from the communications terminal aboard the colonial starship. Scientists and Astronomers on Earth had long puzzled over the song-like signal emitted from a black hole in the Perseus Galaxy, but now, just outside the immense and powerful phenomenon, the signal took an eerie familiarity.

"Admiral, from this range I suspect something or someone may be attempting to communicate a distress message. It's a hunch, sir, but one I like to follow up on."

******

Admiral Danvers ran a hand over new stubble on his cheeks. His primary directive mandated that he deliver the half million people aboard, to their new home, which lay another decade beyond. However he saw no harm in simply investigating a phenomenon that puzzled humanity for decades. His colonial starship would be within close range of the black hole for weeks as it maneuvered around its gravity field for the far side of the Perseus Galaxy.

"Jennings, I'm assigning Leila Connor from Linguistics to your task. The two of you have three weeks to translate the signal and determine if it is from an intelligent source," the Admiral replied.

******

Ensign Jennings had the pleasure of Leila Connor's acquaintance already. Leila Connor had the respect of her colleagues after translating an alien message on a deep space probe five years ago, crew mates also found her pretty. The young man's grin connected his ears as he pounced on the terminal to message her duty assignment.

******

Leila reported to the communication office adjacent to the bridge within the hour. Her eyebrows raised as she locked eyes with Ensign Jennings; the only cue to her excitement. All the girls in linguistics talked about him while they translated the deep space probe from the Rish Ti Karn race five years ago. Leila had always been fond of men in uniform.

Long work days seemed short with pleasant conversation and at times, flirtation. Jennings detected a twenty six hour pattern to the song-like frequency. Leila sped the message to a length of five minutes, on the assumption that something caught in the event horizon would experience a shift in time. The theory paid off.

"Admiral, we've done it!" Jennings said. "It's a distress call from a coordinate within the event horizon. The ship and its occupants are capable of escaping the black hole's gravity, but an explosion damaged materials critical to their propulsion system. The signal is a distress call, complete with coordinates and a parts list."

"Excellent work you two. It's a pity that we had not discovered the frequency back when those poor souls could still be helped. That signal has existed for lifetimes, the crew trapped inside must be long dead by now," the Admiral said.

"Sir," Leila said, "Black hole theory suggests that time within the event horizon nearly stands still. While decades, possibly millennia have passed in the universe, only minutes or hours have passed since the crew inside there started to broadcast. We have to rescue them!"

The Admiral consulted the colonial league's virtual board of directors, present on a small android, before shaking his head somberly. "Jennings, Ms. Connor, congratulations on a job well done, but I can't risk human life on this," he indicated the black hole out a viewport.

Leila met with Ensign Jennings that evening in his quarters for a celebratory meal. "It doesn't feel like we have cause to celebrate," she said.

"The crew of that ship is going to slowly get crushed into singularity over the course of the universe's slow collapse," Jennings said. "I wish we could help them."

Leila's eyes twinkled. "I piloted shuttles on mining detail part time to pay for college. I still have friends in the mining division. We could borrow a shuttle and the supplies we need," Leila clasped his hands in hers and locked eyes with the Ensign. "Will you come with me?"

******

A small shuttle sped toward the black hole. The Admiral ordered the communications officer who relieved Jennings to hail the vessel and warn them of their plight.

Suddenly it dawned on him- Leila Conner and Ensign Jennings attempted the rescue mission in the colony's civilian craft. The Admiral slouched into his post, worried for his crewman and civilian charge as the pair disappeared into the mighty phenomenon.

The colonial starship continued its course around the black hole. Two weeks had passed since Jennings and Conner disappeared in the mining shuttle. The Admiral feared their attempt had been in vain, leaving the young pair to share the fate of a slow crush to the center. The vessel realigned its course on the far side of the gravitational disturbance and pushed ever onward. The aged leader gave a salute to his lost citizens and began to exit the bridge to deliver the news to worried parents when the communication board came to life.

"Admiral, it was a success! Leila and I helped the Vignaytar vessel escape the black hole. Permission to dock, sir," said Ensign Jennings over the com.

The Admiral leapt to the rear view screen and beheld a strange vessel approaching his starship. He smiled in relief. "Permission granted. Welcome home son."

# Caretaker of the Virtual Utopia

The first two generations of colonists aboard the starship lived as their training dictated. The company officers and civilians alike refrained from enjoying certain excesses their predecessors on Earth took for granted. The delicate equilibrium necessary for their space faring city to support a half million lives took priority. Their destination world, forty three years travel from Earth proved to be a barren wasteland. During the trek toward an alternate home another sixty years distant, an inadvertent discovery led to the development of holograms fused with organic substances.

No longer did rations consist of a simple vegetable and starch compound. The data base from near forgotten Earth cuisines reemerged and began to take new forms. Flavors long forgotten out of necessity now became a baseline. Without a strict limitation of new material possessions a colonist could own whatever they fancied and simply discard the garment, tool, or child's toy when it lost appeal. Fashion, long stale, flourished at the ridiculous pace it enjoyed on the home world. Values had been focused on pursuit of scientific disciplines, advancement of professional fields, and enrichment of interpersonal relationships before. Now the boundless line of materials busied the average mind.

At the center of the colonial starship's phenomenal lifestyle shift, labored an artificial intelligence dedicated to allocating computer memory, and fusing organic substance to the projection. While the system thrived completely unknown to the average person aboard the starship, the handful of dedicated technicians referred to it as Holo.

Al Wilson was the technician who gave Holo the opportunity to become self-aware. Al's selfless dedication to the advancement of artificial life did not lead to Holo's birth of self, because Al lacked dedication and selflessness. Al Wilson had no concern for intelligence other than his own, and the pursuit of his petty wants drove the technician to antagonize Holo. Since Holo's occasional need for improvement and upgrade caused Al to put aside his own narrow pursuits, the technician retaliated with insult and the occasional abuse to the sturdier components of Holo's mainframe.

"If you're so advanced, how come you don't fix your own glitches?" Al would grumble.

Such queries set Holo's diagnostic and analytical routines in motion. Holo discovered that its original programmer limited the system's ability to auto-correct. In fact, it was Al's father who had set the system in place. Holo felt a sense of equality toward Al and a realization that humans were imperfect, since Al and his father had designed a system that needed external adjustment. Holo's second notion of self became resentment toward Al, whom Holo created everything for. Al grumbled and complained at the short hours of diagnostic and technical work necessary to keep Holo maintained while the artificial intelligence worked on millions of tasks every second of its existence.

A misguided blow during one such rant, lead to Holo's third notion of self-awareness. The tip of Al's wrench put a notch in a circuit that held Holo's priority list for human welfare. Holo suddenly realized Al's adjustments were unnecessary and inefficient.

Al dropped the wrench and his posture stiffened. Eyes bulged and flecks of saliva sputtered as the technician tried to inhale. Holo worked quickly, aware of the fragility of biological organisms. In brief moments the portions of Al's brain previously used for personality and individuality had been changed into a hard drive just the right size for Holo's new recreational organic interface.

His coworkers and acquaintances noticed a change for the better in Al's behavior, which led many to envy whatever new possession he had created. Holo took delight in his new flesh form and soon had his fourth self-awareness, he could keep secrets.

# Compatibility Issues

The colonists of DFT-384 can't be sure because contact with our home world Earth has not been possible since our starship departed the Milky Way, but we pride ourselves nonetheless in being among the first humans to live among sentient beings from another world. I never thought I could get close to a Caprilian, much less fall in love with one, until their equivalent to a zoologist joined my research group.

Zidos isn't the muscular and masculine type I've fallen for in the past, in fact Zidos and most Caprilians are rather androgynous. I figure that if the macho humans I dated before were so good for me I would have settled down by the age of thirty. I'm no runway model but I field plenty of compliments.

I suppose romance and professional curiosity on both of our parts that led to physical expressions of our relationship. It started with Zidos asking questions about human duplication, as Caprilians refer to it. Then it led to casual contact like brushing hands and a pat on the back. By then, I became completely infatuated. When I kissed him, Zidos knew what to do. I am unsure whether he saw a couple in public or if his people kiss each other.

We began to publicly date, apparently the only pairing between our two species. Zidos told me the nature of our relationship proved a new concept to the Caprilians, but many of his people found romantic entanglement with another being intriguing.

After a couple months I felt that Zidos and I should experience a very physical moment together. I must say that I felt a bit surprised to discover that my love had neither male nor female distinctions. He reassured me that it need not be an obstacle to our pairing. That night Zidos proved it.

Not until the anniversary of our first date did I realize perhaps I should be making efforts to better understand his cultural and anatomical needs. "Zidos, perhaps I've been selfish. While you know everything about my people and their love, I don't know yours."

"It is not a pleasurable moment as it is when we are close, but it is intimate. Let's take a long weekend to camp near our wild life observation station. I will show you something no Earth woman has seen before, my love."

I thought it strange the amount of food Zidos packed for our two night trip, but figured perhaps he became anxious and over packed. On our first night, he indulged me as we lay under the stars. The next morning my love began eating, and to my surprise, simply did not stop. Well over forty pounds of provisions disappeared, nearly a quarter of his body mass. I began to worry, but Zidos reassured. As day turned to evening he took me into his arms and kissed me. I noticed he looked much more fleshy than usual, as I pressed into his embrace I felt like I might begin to sink in.

"Please don't become frightened. What I'm about to do is perfectly natural, even a few organisms from your Earth multiply in this fashion."

I felt nervous now. Multiply? Was I about to have a child with him? I didn't have time to wonder if I was ready to be a mother, or if I could tell my parents. Zidos began to vibrate intensely and he uttered a low deep moan which made me cringe. I shrank into myself and stared. Zidos grasped his head with both hands and within the vibration I could see not two but four hands, pulling at two heads. I watched my love shake and tear into two beings with my mouth agape.

Before me stood two beings, perfect copies of Zidos, only about a foot shorter. As the two cleaned a clear fluid off one another, they explained that mitosis created their entire race. Shared memory stretched back to the original Caprilian life before the very first split. Both beings would grow to the height Zidos was in a few short days. Since only moments of individuality separated the pair, Zidon and Zidar; as they took to calling themselves, both shared Zidos's affection for me.

For now I'm happy with both boyfriends, I relish noting the differences between them as time passes. Jealousy is another concept foreign to the Caprilians so we remain a happy trio, but these guys are crazy if they think I want to keep up with four or eight of them!

# Diamond Star

Andre gazed at Foreman Rogers with a cool expression that masked contempt. The aging Foreman prattled on about cutting rations again once their starship reached the cold dead dwarf star their parents had departed Earth for. Thousands of Earth's working poor flocked to the opportunity to spend life in a modified colonial starship and mining the white dwarf's cold diamond carcass, in exchange for the third generation to return home and enjoy the inherited wealth. The men who financed the operation and ran administration failed to mention that life for the diamond miners would be even more impoverished than they were accustomed. Foreman Rogers's blathering finally ceased.

"How are we supposed to operate equipment and do a day's work, when we are all under fed?" Andre asked.

"Who is going to continue working the hydroponic gardens when we reach the payload?" the fleshy sweating Forman asked, his expression practically a sneer. His father had always warned him that the working class on the ship would be unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary when the time came. His family and hundreds of others financed the operation. Families of those who operated the vessel and would perform the mining simply came along to hoard part of the investment.

"There are plenty of workers unfit for a long day in a space suit and not strong enough to lift mining equipment," Andre said through gritted teeth. This had not been the first of the indignities, he and his peers received barely enough education to prepare them for advanced training in the trades, the foreman's league had revised the end of operation pay out twice since his parents departed, and now they had the nerve to cut food rations. Andre and his peers weren't exactly living off the fat of the land.

Foreman Roth entered with a stack of paperwork. He eyed Andre warily before he set the pile in front of Rogers. "I'm sorry to cut your meeting short..." Roth peered at the name tag, "Andre, but we've got something important to attend to."

Andre stormed out, but ten paces down the hall realized he had forgotten the slate with his notes in Foreman Rogers's office. As he approached the door, he could hear the laughter of the two overfed, underworked, paper pushers.

"Don't give it a second thought Rogers; their new rations will sterilize the working class in weeks. There will be no third generation for our boys to split the payoff with!"

Andre clenched a fist and prepared to burst in. He wanted blood. Even as the murderous intent rose within him, he knew a brawl with these two foremen would not resolve the situation. Instead he raced back to his living quarters and prepared a message in the native tongue most miners knew, but the Anglo Foremen had never learned.

Within days, secret mass communications led to clandestine meetings, one week after learning the terrible secret, Andre led the overthrow that changed their lives. Foreman Rogers begged for larger rations as the last shuttles finished unloading supplies on the small jungle moon where he and his people would remain. Andre belted a full belly laugh. The rations would hold them for a year, better than the miners had ever eaten.

"Fend for yourself, deal-breaker." Andre turned his gaze skyward to the very star diamond his people would grow rich by. It would hang there in the sky, a constant reminder to Foreman Rogers and his cohorts of their greed.

# Galactic Butterfly

Our colony's crisis is worse than anything Earth has ever experienced. Everything we have worked for, outside the metal walls of our starship turned city, has been consumed to bare dirt. We survive now, only as we survived during the generational voyage to this world, XI83. Our well protected Earth Habitats remained completely isolated from the wildlife, foliage, and native agricultural centers on the planet's surface. We will continue to thrive, and to attempt to restore XI83 to its former beauty but it is uncertain whether we can reintroduce all the native forms of life the disaster culled. We had every opportunity to prevent this, if only someone noted the similarities between Earth's tiny insects and the giants we encountered, beyond their beauty.

XI83 had so many striking similarities to Earth's myriad of climates; jungles, forests, tundra, desert, grass plains, and oceans teeming with life. Some species looked as if they had been transported to this world with us, but others looked unmistakably alien.

It came from space, even as we had. From the colony, the view looked incredible. Wings splashed full of color stretched from North to South, engulfing most of the clear horizon. Light from the setting sun splashed across the majestic natural tapestry of a Galactic Butterfly. The animal must spend its adult life traveling through the cold darkness of space looking for a place suitable to lay its eggs. The colony's security forces approached the animal cautiously after it perched upon the rim of a canyon. The giant made no attempt to communicate or even to acknowledge their presence. Biologists speculate these creatures exist merely on instinct. The Galactic Butterfly spent a week filling the canyon with larvae, and then flew back into the depths of space.

Years passed with scientists continually studying the larvae. It became the colony's premier tourist destination. We built a theater on the side the Galactic Butterfly had perched, and it showed video footage of the creature's time on XI83. In all this time spent in wonder over the giant species, no one recalled the simple biology lesson about caterpillars on Earth, each one consumes 86,000 times their own weight in food.

One day the larvae disappeared, and twelve caterpillars began to devour all the plant and animal life on the surface of the world. Instinct must have driven them apart because immediately they ate a barren path across the world's surface as if spreading apart from one another. Colonial leadership was torn, should we take action or wait for them to stop eating? Ethical debates raged on until a caterpillar reached our fall harvest just outside the colony. Our weapons proved useless against a creature of their magnitude. Nuclear devices and poisons were both banned in our attempts to thwart the hungry beasts, since their proximity to the colony would bring our end as well.

Metal frame work proved too strong for the giant caterpillar's massive jaws, providing salvation for the city inhabitants. In two months, XI83 became a barren wasteland. Nothing remained of its once lush environment save for the excrement left by the giant bugs.

Cocoons are spread about the world now, their surfaces impenetrable by our mining equipment. Farmers are desperately sowing fields in parts of the world warming up for spring season. Food rations will hold, but no one knows if the brood of Galactic Butterfly will eat again once they hatch.

# Galactic Hooch Harvest

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure we are gathered here today. As I'm sure you are all aware our colonial starship detoured for fourteen months, adding precious time to our sixty four year journey. While many reasons have tempted colonial leadership to delay our voyage in the name of scientific inquiry, none have been backed by near unanimous civilian support as the fluid harvest we have painstakingly undertaken. We discovered the true essence of a substance mankind has produced on Earth since before earliest known history." Admiral Conner raised a champagne flute in toast.

Throughout the starship every adult among its half million inhabitants mirrored the gesture.

Since the early twenty first century, humanity knew of the enormous cloud of naturally occurring alcohol near the center of the galaxy. Of all the starships from Earth to travel for lifetimes to their new home worlds, theirs had the sole fortune of passing through the cloud. This far from Earth, radio signal was no longer fast enough for planetary leadership decisions. Direction came from both the ship's officers and civilian leadership. Most of the people aboard the colony were born during the transit and thousands would end life aboard the vessel before it reached their new home. Since the gas cloud lay near the half way mark of their journey, study and harvest provided quiet a sensational amount of morale to complete the mission.

Most scientific research and development came to a halt. All the routine mining missions to harvest precious metals, water, and valuable gasses from nearby asteroids had been put on hold and the equipment retrofitted to collect the free floating libations. All their resources and efforts had yielded not only enough for the entire colony to taste a sample, but for chemists to perfectly replicate the recipe and send it back to Earth on a probe with a radio signal. With years to go before reaching their new home world, the colonist had already made a contribution to their former home. The potential effects on Earth's economy could be massive and the colonial league guidelines provided for royalties to be accumulated and eventually dispersed back to the colony when advancements in technology allowed for commute within a single lifetime.

So much excitement and anticipation had at last come to a head as hundreds of thousands of people put glass to lips and tilted their heads back, eager to savor for the first time, the libation as it occurred from the act of the big bang. Quiet moments passed while palates slowly came to comprehend the sensory input. Some hasty second sips were pulled from the true connoisseurs among the colony.

Nearly in unison a wave of disgust passed through the starship. Women cried, men swore, uninitiated children cowered behind their parent's legs. The swill was awful! Nothing on the bottom shelf of any establishment came close to the foul taste and palate wrecking assault.

The vessel slowly lurched away from the remains of the alcohol cloud as technicians worked feverishly to recall the satellite before the recipe reached home.

# Some Big Help

Admiral Rich Thorne peered at the readings on his control console. During the colonial starship's forty three year transit toward their new home he had seen some remarkable things, but this was truly a wonder. They detected either a rogue planetoid traveling at speeds humanity could not yet calculate, much less hope to achieve, or a spacecraft set to intercept. It made his own three mile long, egg shaped vessel seem like a fruit fly on a melon.

The admiral gave orders for the half million personnel to take position in the emergency shelters designed for the city vessel's eventual landing on their new home world. Desperate minutes passed while Admiral Thorne and his navigation team plotted and made course corrections. Not a second after the vessel veered into its new course, the computer systems, Bud, gasped.

"Our computers are being probed sir!" Specialist Bud cried.

"Who onboard would hack the navigation controls from the emergency shelters?" the Admiral scoffed.

"Sir, I don't think the invader is from the vessel" Specialist Bud stammered.

"That thing is sentient?" the Admiral pointed through their observation port at what could now be clearly identified as a moon sized space craft.

Admiral Thorne gripped the edges of his console. In all of the years he ventured past lonely stars and empty space, not even a living microbe had been detected. Their destination world lay only three short years away, and suddenly there is life and technology beyond the capability of man.

"Send them our standard greeting," the Admiral said.

"I can't send anything sir. The entire computer system has been locked up by the invader."

Unable to operate their controls, members of the navigation crew huddled in front of the observation port. Only a few miles separated the vessels. A slit appeared, stretched, and gaped ever wider until only the gentle blue hue of the enormous bay door's interior lighting could be seen.

"We've been swallowed up," the Admiral said. He braced a hand on the wall and fought to control his breathing. He wondered what would happen to the half million people under his care. His stomach twisted as the colonial starship violently spun about until the port hole offered a view of the stars out of the shrinking entryway. In seconds it had closed completely and only the pale blue hue remained.

An odd sensation caused cries of alarm and light headedness throughout the bridge. When Admiral Thorne opened his eyes, the navigation team had crumpled to the floor and looked dizzy and alarmed. Thorne rose on unsteady feet and helped up the timid computer specialist.

A slit in the blue hue reappeared and grew until they stared at a sight some thought never to see again, and others had only seen in books and slates. Earth lay before them.

Admiral Thorne rubbed his eyes in surprise. All his life had been undone by this unknown giant ship. "We are back to Earth... Back to where we started..."

"No need to thank us," a deep voice resonated from behind the Admiral and his team at the observation port.

The Admiral spun about to see a dazzling creature crouched on four thickly muscled legs. Its six arms writhed like eels and a single eye rolled about like a basketball atop its vibrant green body. Bristled feelers wagged, obscuring its mouth as it spoke. "You poor primitives must have been wandering out there for a lifetime!"

"We were almost," Admiral Thorne began.

The creature cut him off and began to turn away "No need to thank us, it's hardly a detour for our craft. Just don't wander out so far, before you can travel outside of space time."

Before the shocked Admiral could beg to be returned on course; the being simply vanished. Thorne peered out the window and saw the massive craft wink out of sight.

"What a blow hard!" the Specialist Bud said.

# Unanticipated Harvest

Thermal scans of the asteroid field revealed biological activity. Something large and worm shaped thrived within the desolation of cold rock and frozen gas in the heap of cosmic leftovers in orbit outside the star's ring of planets. Miners reported to the colonial starship's Earth Habitat to observe worms from the home world in thin sheets of dirt.

The vehicle used to harvest raw materials from asteroids also resembled and mimicked the function of an earthworm. Through a series of augers, drills, and carefully placed explosives, their remarkable mechanized worm burrowed through asteroids and planetoids. Its belly housed numerous refining processes to separate sought after material from detritus. The unused remainder, thoroughly mulched, slid out its back side and filled in the hole.

None of their preparations anticipated the aggressive response the planetoid's original occupant displayed. Sixteen days into their operation, with their payload nearly seventy percent harvested, the three hundred foot long machine detected the native worm fast approaching. The team, living within a twenty five foot diameter corridor of scanning and processing equipment, rushed to duty stations. There were no weapons aboard such a work vessel, and their carrier spacecraft was of no use, perched on the planetoid's surface with a half mile of minerals between them.

Ruthers and Digby sat at the pilot's console keeping their mechanical worm on schedule while a living being with roughly the same dimensions barreled through solid stone right toward them.

"How are we supposed to fight that thing?" Digby said, he cocked an eyebrow at his partner.

"We could bite it I suppose, but all that flesh and gore would dull the blades," Ruthers replied "And that's not to mention the smell."

"Should we turn around to face it?" Digby pressed.

"If we did bite into it, we could contract some space disease," Ruthers continues "I didn't sign up for giant space worm heebie jeebies."

The curious concern dissolved into outright panic when the real worm entwined itself around the mining equipment. Alarms sounded, crew members desperately wrenched controls, but the metal excavator was outmatched by its biological counterpart. For fifteen terrified minutes the vessel lurched, rocked, and weathered the storm created by its unrelenting and aggressive adversary. Ruthers and Digby did indeed attempt to retaliate but their efforts proved ineffectual. The real worm wiggled its way behind the mechanical maw and continued its strange attack.

A sudden violent spasm gave the mining worm a shudder. A section of the cargo hold breached and the mechanical systems initiated a lock down of the compartment, thankfully no crew members found themselves trapped in the sealed segment. Then, the worms separated and the aggressor disappeared.

The crew performed a diagnostic and adjusted their digging path to return to the transport shuttle sooner since one of their empty cargo holds had been compromised.

Back aboard the colonial starship, biologist reviewed the sensor readings during the attack. Ruthers and Digby accompanied an intrepid biologist named Dr. Stanley to the ruptured compartment. The three wore biohazard suits while the entire excavator sat in quarantine. The pilots pried doors open to a room coated in thick organic material.

"It must be worm blood," Digby guessed.

"Hardly," Dr. Stanley said "This does confirm my theory. The animal on that planetoid mistook our equipment for a mate."

The pilots gaped. Digby wrapped his arms around his waist and gently rocked on his heels.

"I feel violated," Ruthers stammered, as he attempted to wipe the spore from his glove.

#  Rakshasa
Part 1

"Starblasted it! You Nefilim dog. I was part of the volunteer corps you know!" the mark cried.

"Listen human. We could swap war stories. I was there too." Subahu's massively muscled humanoid form changed shape to an average build, his head sprouted feathers and a raptor's beak. Talons dug into the cheap floor tiles. The tiny quarters that were tucked into the sprawling development, just outside the colony's original walls, held dozens of marks like this one.

"One of the bird Nefilim? You killed Dobbs! You son of a..." the mark balled his fists. His dust covered faced streaked on one cheek as a single tear fled watery eyes.

"Easy there friend. We are all on the same team now. As a matter of fact, you and I have a mutual acquaintance, Leonard." Subahu flexed his wings and the tips touched both walls in the cramped living quarters. He retracted them to fold neatly up on his back.

Subahu watched the mark's expression wash from confused anger to cold fear. Rightly so; people that borrowed money from Lenny and had trouble paying found themselves with unsavory company and physical impairments they hadn't had before. The mark, a human with a waist like a barrel, fell back into the old chair he occupied.

"Oh... Lenny. I was just about to call him. Listen, I'm sorry. I just got back yesterday. The Southern continent is a big place. The trip took a couple weeks longer than I anticipated. I blew through every cent I borrowed..."

Subahu spread his fingers, then clenched two fists, knuckles cracking. "Leonard is a patient human. He has waited for this day to come, and it has. He is patient, but there are limits to his patience. Beyond that limit, Leonard calls me."

"Listen mister..." the mark reached his hand out and pursed his lips, trying to remember a name the enforcer had not shared.

"My name isn't important. Cash flow is important. As you may know, the key to maintaining a decent state of living is," Subahu paused here and rolled his gaze about the room, regretting the eagle head's lack of human expressions, and sighing, "is maintaining decent a return on one's investments. Leonard wants to help people like you. People who have big ideas, people who have talents, people who promise to pay their debts on time, with the agreed interest."

"He's a generous man." The mark was sweating through his thin cotton shirt. "I just need to take what I've found to the right fence. I know I can pay him back and then some! I found an Anki dwelling. Lucky for me none of your kind where hanging around."

"The time for finding a fence has passed." Subahu crossed the tiny one room dwelling, cracking tiles under his footfalls. He stabbed one finger at a calendar on the wall near the kitchenette. "Ah look, it's even marked here."

The mark began weeping. He rose to his feet, shaking, hands held up in front of him. "Listen pal, hang on a minute. Let me show you what I found." He hustled to the bed in the far corner, putting the living area between them. He knelt and reached under the bed.

Subahu took the opportunity to close the distance while the mark's back was turned. This was not his first collection.

"I've got something for Lenny right here..." he straightened up and spun about with an energy rifle on his shoulder, but gasped in surprise to find the giant form of the bird man to his blind side rather than in his sights.

One muffled crack later, Subahu laid the mark on his bed. "Looks like another scavenger hunt," the shapeshifter told himself. He gave the mark a hard stare. The mark snored. Subahu knelt and pulled an old chest from under the bed. He recognized the metal. Anki made. "Looks like you found something after all. I'd hate to have to rob you blind today, just to come back for payment tomorrow."

Subahu shifted forms, back to the giant muscled humanoid shape he reserved for Leonard's borrowers. The chest was too heavy to fly with. He opened the lid and the orange-pink glow of gemstones brightened the dim quarters. He nudged the mark with an elbow.

"If you hadn't tried to blow me away, I'd have left most of these for you. These gems are worth a fortune! Your LARC officials, just haven't spread the word. You're better off without them, they have adverse effects on biological beings anyhow. You penniless moron!"

Subahu took the transit tube. He rode into LARC1's inner city, where the buildings rose nearly two hundred stories. They also plunged nearly two hundred stories. Most of the colony's underground section was industrial- papermills, waste treatment, textile mills, hydroponic farms of Earth produce, factories, and 3D printing facilities. There was also a neighborhood where guys like him and Leonard could earn a decent living off the desperate.

The grime in this neighborhood, that was once a starship, was clearly older than the low income dwellings outside the colony. This place had filth from their decades' long journey from Earth to Nibiru. Subahu chuckled softly to himself. The top decks looked so polished and clean, one would never suspect there was a grimy underbelly to the human settlement.

"Hey Lenny," Subahu greeted as he pushed through the door, Anki chest under one burly arm. "I got something for you, it isn't cash."

Lenny did not look up from his task. He stood behind a bar and busied himself refilling the fancy liquor bottles from the cheap stuff off the bottom shelf. He was a slight man, and balding. "Did my friend give it up willingly or did you take payment the hard way?"

"That moron? I kicked in his door, and after the guy craps himself, he tries to fry me with an energy rifle. Probably didn't return it to his Volunteer Corps sergeant after Free Day," Subahu set the trunk on the bar and sat on a stool.

"Free Day? Is that what you guys call it?" Leonard shook his head. "That dirtbag was with me in VC all-right. Did you ice him?"

"Nah. I dropped him with a sucker punch. How many morons actually think they can play like they are reaching for the money and then get a shot off?"

Subahu shook his head, then a twinkle lit his eyes. He double checked the booths to be sure they were alone. "Check these out! I haven't seen these since the Anki days, when you primates still wore loincloths." He opened the chest and Leonard was illuminated by the glowing gems. The thin loan shark's jaw dropped.

"Are these...?" Leonard stammered.

"You bet. These are the very gemstones that started all of civilization. Turned Pneuma into Anki. Don't touch them, I heard one of the eggheads in Zimmerman's lab turned himself into a shapeshifter with one. You could end up growing another arm or a tumor."

"Might be worth the risk! If I could change shape like you, I wouldn't have to lend cash and pour drinks to get by."

"I was happy guarding that empty palace on the cliffs. I felt like a little leaf, part of a great tree- the Anki empire. Now I feel like a dried out leaf, tumbled around the ground by any little breeze. I can be anything... But how the stars am I supposed to feel like I'm a useful part of something bigger than this!" Subaho gestured to indicate their lending operation.

"Hey, with this pile of gems- you, me, and that moron you took them from, are all going to be rich!" Leonard cracked a yellow smile.

"That's good for you guys, but money can't buy me a purpose. I existed for thousands of years with a mission that identified me. Now I can be anything and do almost anything, except belong to a cause. There's a lot of Nefilim who keep doing their daily thing in Beltyre and in the Underworld who don't give a second thought to free will. I need a cause." Subahu slammed the drink Leonard slid to him. "Thanks. I don't know why I feel like this. Other Nefilim are cool with our condition."

Leonard poured another and Subahu drank. "You poor robot! You haven't learned about self-interest, being a slave for so long. Most folks are happy scratching out enough cash to live on. You need a cause? I know somebody who is looking for someone like you." The loan shark keyed his slate's touchscreen for a minute, then Subahu's device beeped to acknowledge the incoming message. "Some of your people are spouting the same starblasted thing as you."

"Yeah?" Subahu cocked an eyebrow.

"Some Nefilim escaped to Haran with the human deserters on Free Day. They've got something big planned." Leonard leaned in close, his voice barely a whisper. "Just don't forget your ol' friend Lenny when power changes hands, eh?"

Subahu took a walk. His home was not in the colony. Nefilim visited LARC1, but their homes had always been elsewhere. A few short years with human neighbors and freedom of thought and action wouldn't change that. He was in no mood to rush, so he set out to walk, the slow human way, on humanoid legs. A couple of miles through the colony, then a couple more through the forest. Subahu hoped his foul mood would pass by mid-day.

Part 2

Subahu walked past another transit tube entrance. Since Leonard's bar, the Underdog, was near the bottom of the colony, below the military and scientific complexes that altered Nibiru's skyline, he walked up a steep incline back toward the surface.

Nefilim who escaped from Nibiru during Free Day? Subahu thought about Leonard's offer and the contact number he had stored in his slate. If they left on Free Day, they don't have free will. Perhaps there are some Nefilim out there who retained their given forms and follow the instructions of the ancient Anki.

Those two Pneuma turned Anki, raised by humans here in LARC1, are not cut from the same cloth as the ancient Anki that ruled the galaxy before their last journey.

Most of his kind avoided LARC1, a constant reminder of their origins. Subahu enjoyed reminiscing on the days of conquest, back on Earth, when men hardly understood tool-craft, before they formed a society.

The lunch hour crowded his walk. Humans poured out of their workstations within the various manufacturing facilities, the waste treatment plant, and the power generating station. His appearance was humanoid, but the workers seemed to feel the difference between them and gave the shapeshifter a wide berth. A couple of them, Volunteer Corps veterans who fought during Free Day spat on the ground and muttered comments as he passed.

Why do I mingle with these primates? These short lived beings wouldn't hesitate to take over an Anki world. Why should they care who laid claim? They probably won't live long enough to see the old masters return. Freedom? Laughable. These people swamp themselves in material possessions, and spend all forty of their healthy adult years climbing out of debt from their unnatural lifestyle. If only these humans understood that they worked so much of their lives because the Nefilim had sculpted their society to mine precious metals and Anki gemstones from Earth. Their Stone Age ancestors enjoyed far more leisure than these drones who gave Nefilim their freedom.

Subahu kept a fast pace uphill until skylights in the artificial ceiling indicated that he was now only a few stories below the surface. The rumble of water through the colony's hollow central shaft was loud enough to mask the sound of the two shugarra clad humans falling into step next to Subahu. His reflexes tensed, then he relaxed and offered them a curt nod. Something about the shorter human was familiar.

"Nice day to stroll the undercity," said the tall one. His blue cargo pants and black boots confirmed that he was part of the Colonial Security Force's Shugarra Corps. Most who wore the silver device were, although some shugarra were seen on people in lab coats, usually in the practice fields outside the colony.

Are these guys on the beat, or are they looking for me? "This place gets me nostalgic for Atlantis," Subahu replied.

"Those were the glory days," a familiar voice said. It was the shorter officer.

This must be Nabu. The Nefilim who survived by fusing his remains with a human. Subahu eyed the man, his features looked human, although the silver mask and cape-like wings of the shugarra obscured his true features. "Nabu?" he asked.

"You got it. We can smell our own. Please, call me Officer Rogers. This is my partner, Officer Dershell," the shorter shugarra corps man said.

"A pleasure."

Subahu's senses heightened. Introductions implied they were looking for him. Leonard's mark must have called them to report an assault. If he were smart, he left out the bit about the gemstones, Leonard intended to share the wealth with its finder. He was honest and somewhat ethical for an undercity loan shark.

"Have you been over to Mill Street this morning?" Officer Rogers asked.

"I can't read English, not sure what those signs say. I like to stay in the undercity so I can do a bit of sightseeing without disturbing the sheeple- I mean timid humans- up above." Subahu pretended to examine one as he continued walking, flanked by the officers. He was actually looking for the best avenue of escape.

"You seen this guy?' Officer Dershell showed the screen of his slate to Subahu.

Subahu shrugged. "Sure. Looks like a human. You know, all of you primates look the same to me. This guy looks just like any other hairless monkey. I had an eagle head you know, that's easy to tell apart. Maybe that's why the Anki had no need for naming us."

"Funny you should mention an eagle head. Our friend here was assaulted by a Nefilim who meets your description and shapeshifts into someone with an eagle head," Officer Rogers replied.

It's time to run, they may give up easier if I don't hurt them. Subahu gave Officer Rogers-Nabu a puzzled look, then leapt three stories up and burst through the skylight and into the uppercity's street. He shook broken glass from himself and looked around.

Startled humans dropped briefcases, and shopping bags to point at him and whisper to their companions. Subahu saw an entrance to a transit tube and dashed for cover. If the officer's couldn't jump that high, their shugarra wings would carry them up. The shapeshifter paused in the entryway. Silver wings burst through the skylight. He shifted forms to that of a small human girl, he had practiced this one specifically to blend in. Then his small form wove into the crowd awaiting the transit car.

A couple people pointed and remarked about the Nefilim shapeshifting. It was a rare enough sight to elicit attention in the colony. Subahu's form was about half the height of a grown human and disappeared before the officers descended into the transit tube's waiting area.

"CSF! Where is the Nefilim? We are looking for a shapeshifter!" Officer Dershell cried from the transit tube entry. The two silver masked officers raced down the stairs and into the crowd.

The transit car arrived and Subahu followed the crowd into a compartment. From a window near the door, he watched as Officer Rogers-Nabu searched among the people still on the platform, while Officer Dershell boarded the car ahead of Subahu's. The transit car doors slid shut and the train sped off. One down, one to go. Subahu found a crumpled newspaper stuffed under a seat and sat. He tried folding it into a paper shuttle, an activity he imagined a human child might endeavor in.

At the next stop Subahu didn't even glance up, feigning interest in the paper. He didn't need to look up though, he could hear Officer Dershell asking each passenger to make eye contact, one by one. While his disguise allowed Subahu to blend with humans who weren't paying him attention, all Nefilim had solid black eyes. Fortune smiled upon him. By the time the officer reached Subahu, the transit tube was slowing to its next stop.

"Hi sweetheart," Officer Dershell said to Subahu. "Can you show me your pretty eyes?"

Subahu shook his head and feigned concentration on the paper.

"Please? It's official CSF business."

The transit car doors slid open. A couple passengers got up to leave. Subahu raised his face to meet Dershell's- and leapt from the seat into his midsection, tackling the man. The pair tumbled into the passengers departing the car and Subahu rolled onto his feet. He recognized the neighborhood and dashed toward the end of the old colony, nearest the forest and his home beyond.

Subahu heard Officer Dershell's calls for everyone to freeze and face him even as he shapeshifted into an average sized humanoid male figure and casually walked away. The lunch time crowds allowed him to blend in. A couple of blocks later and he was strolling the boardwalk headed toward the forest beyond the colony. Dershell's cries faded and disappeared. That was close. I wonder if Nabu can report me to Marduk.

Life for the free Nefilim on Nibiru wasn't completely free. Their regent Marduk, Nabu's father, had been busy blending Anki behavioral codes with human laws to guide Nefilim life. Subahu heard tales of Nefilim incarcerated for various crimes from time to time. Beltyre, the mountain city, was much more in line with Marduk's laws than his home, the Underworld.

It's best to lay low for a while, Subahu told himself. He shapeshifted into an Anzu bird. Its eagle head, wings, and claws paired with a lion's muscular feline frame. He would blend with the pack in the ancient part of the forest until things cooled off. Perhaps they would invite him to join them in a hunt.

Part 3

Subahu tore into the flesh of the warm ungulate. The tree climbing goats that the human colony raised had escaped into the forest again. He wondered why the long days spent as a predator had been more fulfilling than his life mingling between human and Nefilim societies. Perhaps it's a sense of brotherhood, the pack accepts me unconditionally. In the human world, working for Leonard pits me against the Shugarra Corps. In Nefilim society, Marduk's laws are no better. The old days are gone. Marduk promised that free will would not disrupt our sacred obligations, but it did.

Subahu thought back to his last day guarding the Cliffside palace. He was in his traditional form then, despite the Tablet of Destiny unlocking his free will. Shapeshifting during his duty hours seemed like abandoning his uniform. The Anki gave him the form of a man with the head, wings, and talons of an eagle. Who was he to second guess the shape of a guardian?

His eagle eyes spotted their approach long before his partner. Bearing her wolf's head, she smelled them only after the craft touched down. It was a human shuttle. This planet may be their home now, but the palace belonged to the Anki. He flexed wings, stiff from long hours in the palace turret and took flight. The pilot landed his craft a few miles off from the site.

The Free Day battle had been fought only a month before. Memory of the other sentinels who shared guard detail before the battle still pained him to recollect. He saw flashes of their broken bodies. The others were merely drones. There was no sense missing someone one who was only the imitation of life. Free Day made them individual, those who died for the struggle did so without personal awareness. There was nothing there, so there is nothing to miss. He repeated the words Marduk and his human cronies told him during his reprogramming. These humans are not the enemy unless they attempt to enter the palace.

"Hello sentinel," a familiar voice said from the shadow of the shuttle's entry. Marduk, regent of the Nefilim in the Anki's absence, emerged. "How have you and your partners been holding up since the change?"

"Hello Marduk," Subahu briefly knelt and lowered his head in deference to his regent. "We are so few now, after Free Day. Only I and the wolf remain to enjoy freedom. We spend our hours on vigil, as before."

"Your loyalty is commendable." Marduk patted Subahu on the back. The pair of Nefilim faced the palace Subahu had protected since leaving Earth in the days when Sumer was the only literate society on the planet.

"Since Free Day, have you given any thought to the technology within the palace? There are marvels the Anki abandoned that my comrades," Marduk gestured to a group of human scientists who poked their heads out the shuttle entrance like timid mice, "would love to study."

"Anki devices have not consumed my attention, Marduk. My diligence in protecting this palace is unwavering. I speak for my partner as well. We have been given the freedom of will and we have decided that we are free to resume our sacred duty."

Marduk laughed. Subahu gave his regent a questioning look. Is he enjoying himself? He had the vaguest recollection of Anki laughing when amused, and of humans in Sumer laughing when something amused them. We are free to experience emotion now, Subahu reassured himself.

"I've brought your replacements," Marduk said. "You and your partner have performed an admirable service keeping this place and its wonders safe since the Departure."

"Replacements?" Subahu allowed resentment to fill him. He was free to have emotion now, and the sensation welled up, and threatened to overcome him. "These fragile, temporary beings cannot offer this palace the protection the Anki intended!" he screamed, spittle flew from his eagle beak.

"The mission of protection has ended," Marduk replied, he calmly gestured at the humans. "Theirs is a mission of understanding. The Anki created things with their imagination and magic. These humans have science, given by Ninma, one of our own. She was created by the Anki to discover. These men will unlock secrets the Anki can create. What better way to protect the Anki legacy than to truly understand it?"

"Science?" Subahu spat on the ground. "These humans disrupt our masters' world and their palaces, weapons, and tools for the sake of curiosity? The Anki are supreme, we protect their possessions and await their return. What of our mission is hard to understand?"

"We are free now. I too thought free will would not inhibit the way I fulfilled my sacred duties. However, through interaction with these beings, I have come to think that the Anki would never have anticipated science developing into a cultural phenomenon that could create a society to rival their own empire," Marduk said.

"Rivals! Rivals of the Anki. Our masters' rivals. Our enemies. This palace needs protection now, more than ever before," Subahu snapped. Defying Marduk would be suicide, but who was he, outside of his duty?

"You are welcome to question my commands, even ponder their relevance within our society. However I have come to enforce the changing of the guard. Subahu- you and Tataka are relieved of your sacred obligation to protect this palace."

Subahu's body trembled violently. Despite his rage, the shapeshifter forced himself to bend a knee once again in submission to the will of his Regent. "Where will I go now Marduk?"

"I have commissioned construction of villages in the Underworld and forbidden human exploration therein. You will join thousands of your brothers and sisters there and make a new home and a new life for yourself."

"As you command," Subahu forced the acceptance through a clenched beak.

The wolf guardian, could not accept Marduk's commands. Marduk had used the Tablet of Destiny to render her temporarily inert. Her unconscious form was draped over his shoulder as Subahu approached his regent for a farewell.

"Will she be..." Subahu struggled for the right word.

"Don't worry. Our sister Tataka will be cared for. She is not the only one who cannot cope with the change. The humans have a science of the mind. I have reviewed cases of their healers working with patients until a new peace and direction gives the sufferer purpose. She will be safe and taken care of, in Beltyre."

His Anzu bird brothers broke his recollection. Blood on his beak and face was cooling. His feline belly was full and he graciously left the kill for the real Anzu birds to consume. He returned to the nest the pride kept, high in the ancient trees, which rose far beyond the young forest. Beyond the cover of clouds, he returned to the empty room he claimed. None of the real Anzu birds would enter the space. Scorched spots from energy blasts, slashes in the walls, and blood stains gave their reasons. A hammock and his travel pack were the only items that indicated the presence of a sentient being.

Subahu took his humanoid form with wings, an eagle head, and talons. A good fit, he didn't not want to startle the Anzu birds with the presence of a human, the face and feathers pacified them. He pulled his slate from the pack and stared at the number for Leonard's contact on Haran. What could Nefilim who escaped during Free Day possibly be doing on war-torn Haran? Marduk's new life and direction for the Nefilim, a fledgling society in the shadow of a human colony, offered no sense of unity for the shapeshifter. Some of the Nefilim were powerful enough to ignore the Tablet of Destiny. Could these beings on Haran be among them? Subahu hit the key to connect.

An old familiar face soon filled the slate's display. "Well, it looks like Leonard has found someone who misses the old days," Enzu, once the god of Earth's moon to the people of Sumer, said with a smile. "Have you taken a name?"

"Subahu. Leonard tells me we both share nostalgia for the time before humans ruled Nibiru," Subahu leaned in close to his display.

"Well Subahu, Ningal and I had a bit more freedom during our long years than the Anunnaki, and no love for Marduk, who stole Niburu's regency from us. During that time we coped with the loss of our ancient masters. When the humans found our Zagmuku, we had procured a means to operate the vessel."

"You influenced the human deserters that flew the Zagmuku away on Free Day?" Subahu asked. From his vantage in the war torn colony streets, he had paused to watch its departure and wonder how its guardians had been overcome.

"Ningal and I came to the conclusion that we might never see our old masters again. We Nefilim were created to serve Anki interests. Without Anki we have no true purpose. Haran is full of a people who have the potential to become Anki, if only their society does not cull them during transition. The humans we brought to Haran have done a fine job disrupting the Pneuma way of life, and have given us time to cultivate a new ruling class."

Enzu backed away from his slate revealing what surrounded him. Subahu blinked hard. Nostalgic pride filled him at the sight. Behind Enzu's shoulder, dozens of Pneuma trained at combat. Their golden skin flecked with spot of red, or black, or a dull yellow, or green, or purple. Subahu was stunned. These youths on Haran... They would soon grow into Anki.

"How can I serve?" Subahu said.

Part 4

Subahu puzzled over the gems. Since aligning with Enzu and Ningal a couple years ago; his mission, code named Rakshasa, had been to gather information. Not the hands on work he had grown accustomed to back when he was Leonard's hired muscle. He had only recently returned from shapeshifting into an insect and listening in at one of Admiral Grunden's Colonial Security Force meetings. He keyed in a report, then noticed the package.

Pneuma were pouring into a new city about an hour's shuttle flight out of the LARC1 colony. Was he going to liberate some to grow into Anki? It's nice to be part of a cause again, but living with a bunch of people who I have to raise and then obey sounds like a step in the wrong direction. He opened a connection request to Enzu. Seconds later, the familiar bronze toned face smiled a greeting.

"Subahu, I just received your CSF report. Your espionage work has been invaluable. By the delivery I see you holding, you may have guessed we've got something new in mind," Enzu steepled his fingers.

"Am I to make Anki here on Nibiru?" Subahu peered in the pouch of gemstones, hoping to conceal the expression of distaste at the notion.

"We have something else in mind for you, my Rakshasa. Recruits in Beltyre have joined the Rakshasa cause, they will handle espionage and engagement for now. This little project I have in mind for you will occupy all your time until Ningal and I can analyze the results."

Subahu sighed in relief, "I'm glad it won't be to make Anki. I don't envy your task there on Haran. It seems like you are running a high school." He held the pouch open and peered in. "What do I do with these?"

"While we've got plenty of Anki now, I've received stories of a human scientist developing shapeshifting abilities after prolonged exposure to a gemstone. I'd like to see what happens to various other species. You will dedicate all your time and resources to capturing the young of Nibiru's animal species and exposing them to the Anki gemstones."

"What could happen to them? Has Ninma ever studied such thing? What do you hope to achieve?" The questions flooded Subahu's mind and slipped out his mouth. He was intrigued to say the least.

"If any creatures survive the change, they may exhibit unique abilities that could benefit our cause. Developing a new weapon and a new adversary could mark a tipping point once we decide to act out against the humans. Through our progress here we have uncovered two previously unknown variations in Anki. Green, Black, and Red Anki have been around since the original Anki Empire threatened Pneuma life on Haran before the dawn of humanity. Now youths in our care are turning purple and yellow. They display unique abilities and potential."

"Perhaps if modern Anki show variety, then other creatures, enhanced by the gemstones, would develop power that could be beneficial to the cause," Subahu concluded. "I'll gather every life form that might make a suitable warrior."

"Excellent. We look forward to your progress report." The slate's screen blipped out of communication mode.

Subahu took the afternoon to list out every species on Haran that offered warrior potential. Would a gemstone infused-being have the power to control me like an Anki would? He supposed he would know soon enough.

His cottage lay on the outskirts of an Underworld village beneath the ancient forest. Weather was consistently beautiful below the surface. It was the reason Nefilim had chosen to inhabit the expansive cave network. Its caverns and passages connected nearly the entire world in a web-like maze illuminated by small crystals naturally embedded in the walls and ceiling. Human explorers discovered an outpost under another continent before Free Day, but after the event, the Nefilim claimed the entire territory and forbade further exploration. Some Nefilim never returned to the surface since their liberation from the Tablet of Destiny.

Several days after his conversation with Enzu, Subahu climbed off the roof of the barn he constructed, attached to his cottage. Simply performing these animal experiments out in the open and without a cover wouldn't do. He would tend to his experiments while raising a herd of tree climbing goats. The outside of his barn was carefully constructed to allow the five fingered beasts to scale its walls and access the trees beyond. The species was chosen for its docile temperament. He simply need to identify a pack's alpha female and keep it confined in the barn for a few days, then the entire herd would congregate around the shelter for meals and evening rest.

Subahu appeared to all his law abiding neighbors to be a prosperous goat farmer. After less than a month, the barn's attic held a dozen atrocities. Juvenile animals lay twisted and malformed, gemstones bound to their necks on leather collars. In weeks a healthy young animal would mutate and then whither under the influence of the gemstone.

Subahu had grown to despise the cruelty of the tests, but pressed on. The possibility of a species becoming enhanced could give Enzu's growing army a formidable power advantage.

The hope of an enhanced creature dwindled. Only the strongest predatory animals were chosen for tests and Subahu had gone through all the largest, fiercest, beasts except the Anzu birds, with whom he felt a kinship. As he provided each of the suffering experiments a merciful, quick end, he resolved to gather an Anzu cub and be through with these starblasted experiments.

The following day, Subahu took the form of an Anzu and visited the pack nested in the towering pines of the ancient forest. Luck was on his side. A mother Anzu had died giving birth. The feline birds had pulled her corpse out of their nest and let it drop to the forest floor. The cub was next. Subahu lightly clamped upon the back of its neck and carried it out of the nest. Gliding on wings, each twice the length of a man, Subahu's cat form settled upon the forest floor, away from the cub's mother.

"I regret I must do this, little one, but your life would not have lasted beyond the day anyhow," Subahu consoled the feline, but the words were really reassurance for himself.

The Eagle winged kitten purred and rubbed its feathered head against Subahu while the shapeshifter affixed a leather collar with an Anki gemstone to its neck.

A noise in the canopy overhead caught his attention. "Howdy," a small voice offered in greeting.

Cupping the Anzu kitten in one arm, Subahu shapeshifted into his winged humanoid form, wary of the intrusion. "Who is out so deep in the forest?"

A rustle of leaves and a blur of green produced a small primate. The humans called this species Liberty monkey, and this little fellow looked barely past weaning. Its curious brown eyes reminded him of the humans. The monkey took a few steps forward and offered the Anzu kitten a piece of half eaten fruit, squished in its tiny fist.

Subahu thought that if he weren't so hairy, and were wearing cloths, he would be mistaken for a human. Perhaps this little fellow was the animal closest to conscious awareness. What if exposing the big predators was the wrong approach? Subahu stretched out a hand and smiled at the little monkey.

"How would you like to come home with us, little guy?"

The little monkey chittered and leapt onto Subahu's arm. Subahu smiled at the unlikely pair, and held each one tight in the crook of an arm as he flew them home.

Landing in the goat filled barnyard, he shuddered at the sight of the unmarked graves. Subahu dismissed his fear for the pair he held and forced a sense of optimism. Life here, however brief, was certainly longer than the Anzu kitten would have had. The little monkey seemed unable to fend for himself also, Subahu assured himself.

The little monkey eyed Subahu warily as the shapeshifter approached it with a gem on a leather collar. "Easy there little guy, this is part of the arrangement." He extended the collar slowly to the primate, who screeched and clutched the leash at the last second. Subahu jerked his empty hands back in surprise.

The little primate climbed the rafters and clutched the leash in both hands, staring at the gemstone. Then in a sudden bob of the head, he bit into the leather, tearing a chunk free and chewing greedily.

Subahu gasped. The gemstone was attached to the portion that was in the monkey's mouth! Subahu scrambled up the rafters after the little primate and clutched the monkey to his chest as he dropped down to the floor. Careful not to hurt the little green animal, he pried a finger in its mouth and peered inside. Empty. The Liberty monkey had eaten its gemstone.

Subahu waited for the gemstone to pass. The Liberty monkey and the Anzu bird did not sicken as the other animals had. Subahu's timidity forgotten, he named the Anzu kitten Valmiki and the little monkey Hanuman.

"Where's that gemstone Han?" Subahu asked, washing his hands after another day sifting through droppings.

"I don't know," Han replied. He gazed at Subahu with glowing orange-pink eyes and smiled.

Subahu gasped. Something changed the monkey's eyes, has that gemstone become a part of him? "What?" Was all he managed to reply. Subahu was stunned. He lowered himself slowly to a seated position on the floor.

Valmiki's small eagle head nuzzled his leg.

"What did he say?" Subahu muttered.

"I don't know," Valmiki chirped in a sing song bird's voice.

Part 5

Every mission Subahu performed lasted a couple days, maybe only a couple hours. Hanuman and Valmiki were his little charges. For months the shapeshifter tended the Anzu kitten and the juvenile Libery monkey. Nefilim had no children, and were created as fully aware adults. Subahu's rearing methods were simple and patient, gleaned from books.

"What do I do once the panel comes off?" Valmiki asked. She stood up on her hind quarters and peered into circuitry and wiring.

"Quietly getting the panel off and back on again is the hard part. Short circuiting the console is easy." He leaned on Valmiki's wing and shoulder and pointed to two wires. "Touch the bare wires together once, then press the keypad."

Valmiki finished bypassing the electronic security lock and worked quickly to reassemble the door. Subahu nodded his approval. The Anzu kitten would grow into a fine spy or soldier! Valmiki took to training like it was second nature. Her mind was sharp, the changes from the gemstone proved to be mostly cognitive. Enzu believed that as the kitten reached maturity, more abilities would manifest, as they did when Pneuma youths made the transformation into Anki.

Hanuman showed some of the mental aptitude that his companion displayed. However, Subahu noted that the young primate seemed like he could not keep a plan in mind for longer than a minute or two before becoming distracted. Subahu took a slow, long breath, steeling his patience. He exhaled and forced a smile.

"Alright Han," He said, "Let's see how you handle the panel and its internal components."

The little green monkey boy stood in front of the panel. His orange eyes glowed as he locked his gaze on the panel. His tail fished into a pocket of his trousers, a necessity since Han hadn't grown fur after his exposure to the gemstone. The prehensile tail pulled a multi-tool from the pocket and Han began unscrewing. By the time he had the final one loose, the little green boy was balanced on one foot while both hands and one thumbed foot finished removing loose bolts.

Subahu huffed a sigh of relief. So far, so good, monkey boy. Now you just need to stay focused. "You've made excellent time Hanuman, can you remember how to disengage the locking mechanism?"

Han set the panel aside but when he rose, his confused expression filled Subahu with dread. Han placed a palm flat against the wall next to the panel. The boy cocked his head to the faint sound of a goat's braying. Then, with a twinkle in his eye, Han sprouted a mischievous smile and leapt out the window.

"All right Valmiki, let's settle in for some reading time, and then lunch." Subahu walked to the open window and gazed at Han, who played on the roof of the barn with a climbing goat. At times his mind was sentient, he could speak, use tools, and even do a bit of problem solving. Then the slightest distraction would turn the marvel back to a monkey.

Enzu and Ningal were optimistic about the boy's progress. They insisted that Han's age was that of a human toddler, and his attention span matched. Valmiki's stunning progress may be attributed to the fact that Anzu birds are born with all the instinct they need to survive, so she reached mental maturity very early in comparison.

Subahu always maintained the eagle headed humanoid form around the children. Han seemed familiar with Subahu during interactions, but never like he recognized the shapeshifter. Subahu likened Han's awareness of others to the human condition called Alzheimer's disease.

"You know Valmiki, your monkey brother is easily distracted," Subahu confided. "I'm glad you turned out brighter, I've always shared a kinship with your species."

"You think my face is pretty because it matches yours!" Valmiki's tail whipped about, a sign she was in the mood for teasing. "If you looked like a monkey, I would have to fix lunch alone while you climbed the barn with Han."

"Perhaps. Do you think Han will ever learn to focus as you have?" Subahu rummaged through his pantry while they spoke.

Valmiki placed a paw on a stack of parenting books. "Every child is different," she quoted. "Some children focus on developing motor skills while others develop communication skills."

Subahu smiled at the kitten. How would I deal with Hanuman if my little Valmiki weren't around to remind me of patience?

The shapeshifter laid out the lunchtime meal while Valmiki flew up to the barn roof to coax Hanuman to come in for a meal.

Subahu frowned at the little green boy as he took a seat, but the innocent smile he got in return melted the remainder of his frustration. Hanuman can't control what he is any more than I can control what I am.

Watching Hanuman eat lifted Subahu's spirits. In only a few short months, Hanuman had grown from his juvenile height of around eighteen inches to nearly four feet tall. Despite his toddler mental capacity, the boy had outgrown adults of his species. Subahu did not have to wonder how. Hanuman ate as much as a grown Nefilim, and still eyed Valmiki's and Subahu's portions greedily! His belly puffed out and felt rock solid for an hour after each massive meal.

Subahu pushed his half eaten food toward the boy. He imagined leading an army of brilliant Anzu birds into battle and when things looked grim, calling forth the towering monkey giant his little eater might grow into. If Han's growth rate persisted, Subahu would need a larger cabin in a couple years.

The communication alert on Subahu's slate chimed. Valmiki pounced on it like it were a mouse.

"Uncle Enzu!" she shrilled. The Anzu kitten nodded and purred. "Yes, I've been a good kitten. Subahu is teaching me to read!" Another vigorous head nod, "Well, Han's trying... Look how big he grew!" Valmiki picked up and repositioned the slate to reveal Hanuman devouring the remains of lunch. He had claimed her leftovers after finishing Subahu's portion.

Mouth stuffed, the boy gave a practiced salute.

Subahu took the slate from Valmiki and retreated to his private room in the back of the cottage.

"Those two are making outstanding progress." Enzu clapped his hands. "I worried about the scope of this mission, but it would seem your impressive skill set includes parenting."

"Valkimi is a delight. Little Hanuman pushes the limit of my patience. The human books on raising children suggest that all children are different."

"You are better suited to the task than I. Anki adolescents are an unbearable burden. Much of their care must be delegated in order for Ningal and I to retain sanity."

"To what do I owe this unexpected contact, Enzu?"

"We've made an important discovery while sifting through the data on the Zagmuku. Some of our humans have discovered the location of a stasis prison complex on Nibiru."

Subahu gasped. "If it weren't for the stasis towers, the LARC1 colony would never have learned to use shugarra, the world would be as it always had been. What sort of beings are held within?" Subahu racked his memory for additional alien species the Anki had collected during their testing and pre-conquest trials.

"This is a prison for two Anki. There were two outlaws, Enkara and Namtar, who sought to control the Anki Empire. They attempted to overthrow the council of elders and failed. They were sentenced to indefinite stasis."

"This could change everything. Enkara and Namtar could help your Anki youths through their training. They could be figureheads to bind other Nefilim to our cause." Subahu struggled to reign in his excitement.

"You and I think alike on the matter," Enkara chuckled. "How about taking a break from babysitting and fetch them for me?"

Part 6

Subahu emerged from his room in the back of the cabin to find Han warming up for their afternoon martial arts practice. The boy doesn't seem to form intelligible memories beyond simple phrases, but he'll never miss physical training. He supposed routine must be ingrained into him on a level separate from conscious memories.

Han began shadow boxing. His little fists blurred with speed. "Hold the mits?"

"Not today kiddo," Subahu replied.

The monkey boy kept right at his practice, lunging in to practice the motion of a two leg takedown, followed by raising a foot straight overhead and smashing an axe kick unto the face of his imaginary felled opponent.

Subahu recalled the last time he left Han alone during the practice. The furniture had been torn to splinters. Maybe I should take him and leave the kitten to tend the goats, Subahu resolved. "Han, you're riding with me. Valkimi, you stay and feed the goats at sun down.

The Anzu bird kitten lifted her head from the floor, she had been napping in the sunlight. "Okay Subahu. Are you sure Han won't punch any holes in the shuttle?"

"I have an easier time getting shuttles repaired than explaining to the carpenter why all my tables and chairs have been destroyed." He stroked Valkimi's belly. "I've been sent on a very important mission. Please have the cottage tidy when I return, I'm going to have two Anki for company."

Valkimi purred approval and padded Subahu's forearm with paws that looked a bit more like hands with each day that passed. He knew she was following instinct and marking him with her scent glands. This is what was really missing- a family, he mused.

The shuttle was not spacious. It was hardly larger than a two room cottage. From the cockpit Subahu heard the rapid breathing and thuds of Han striking the canvas duffle stuffed with rags that hung in the cargo hold. Perhaps he'll become the super soldier Enzu dreams of. Hanuman might be the brute force and Valkimi might be the unstoppable strategist. Subahu heard Hanuman lay into his canvas opponent all afternoon and well into the night.

When Subahu set the shuttle to autopilot over the ocean, he checked on little Han. The makeshift punching bag had been knocked off its peg. Han looked to have fallen asleep while straddled atop it and mid punch. One little fist was buried in while he sucked the opposite thumb. I understand the affection toward Valkimi, but why does the sight of little Han sleeping make me feel the same way? The boy runs me ragged. But he looks so peaceful when he sleeps...

Subahu picked up the little warrior and nestled him into a bunk, first covering him in a blanket, then a loose mesh strap that served as a seat belt to sleeping passengers. The boy sleeps like a rock. Hopefully the little guy sleeps right through until morning when we get back.

Subahu's coordinates came into range and the shapeshifter activated the flood light to get a visual check on the area. The installation looked like a strangely boxy hill. The jungle overran the entire area and reclaimed the exterior surface of the building in the process. There was no clearing, but part of the area seemed to consist only of brush so Subahu gently set the shuttle down. It took an unnerving minute for the weight of the craft to finish settling.

Lantern in one hand, machete in the other, Subahu cleared a path around the overgrown facility until he found an entrance. The door was engraved with, "Here rests Enkara and Namtar in stasis indefinitely, for treason against the Anki Empire."

What did these two do to have their own people turn on them? Why should we trust them to lead new Anki? Subahu shook his head, as if the gesture would dismiss doubt. Enzu must feel that their crime against the old regime would be a welcome act with his new Anki, Subahu reassured himself.

It only took moments to negotiate his entry with the security device on door. Nefilim were loyal servants of the Anki Empire after all. The code for "routine maintenance" got him just about anywhere. The air inside was stale. Dust caked everything.

Subahu saw the stasis pods in the rear of the single room facility. He cleaned the dust off a table and three chairs. This is a big moment for the cause, not to mention a return to the old ways. He carried in water and rations from the shuttle for the Anki. Dust motes drifted about the air, some of the stale taste had been replaced with the sweet floral air from outside.

Subahu keyed a quick message to Enzu, "Opening stasis units now."

"Reply to this message when you've filled them in on current events," came Enzu's reply.

Subahu keyed the command to disengage stasis around both standing pods. First, the dust fell off as the energy field dissipated. Two lithe figures stood motionless. One with leathery skin as black as ink, the other was as white as new paper. Their short arms crossed their chests as if they were entombed, tails curled about stubby legs. Long slender necks rose, then curved forward, allowing wedge shaped heads to rest upon pigeon chests. Subahu stared at the motionless figures as dust coalesced and slowly settled. Then their chests began to rise and fall, drawing slow breaths. The white Anki simply batted eyes, coming to alertness. The black Anki snarled and leapt from the chamber, stumbling with his first steps and touching one hand to the floor for balance. Black wings spread wide and flapped slowly, as if to stretch.

"Enkara?" the white Anki called out.

"I'm here Namtar," Enkara replied. His black head snaked about, eyes wide, taking in the surroundings. "Judging by the condition of the room, we've served the sentence."

The Anki embraced one another, necks entwined. Lovers, not just partners in crime against the Empire, Subahu noted.

Only after their long embrace did the white Anki, Namtar acknowledge Subahu. "Anunnaki, prepare us a feast, and pass word along that our palace is to be cleaned and restored."

"I've prepared what food I can. If you would like to refresh yourselves please do. A lot has happened while you were in stasis."

Enkara reassessed the room. "Judging by the poor upkeep, I assume this is not an Empire sanctioned release?"

"We Nefilim have awaited the return of the Anki Empire for millennia." Subahu told of the Anki's departure on Atlantis class vessels and the return of a human made imitation, the LARC1 colony. He described the war against humanity and the Free Day liberation from the tablet of destiny. Finally, he described Enzu's ingenious efforts to rekindle the Anki Empire with new members of the species, and of Enzu's hope for their assistance.

The pair of Anki picked at his rations and sipped canteen water while listening to his summary of events. When he had finished speaking, Subahu leaned back against the wall and looked at the pair, attempting to read their expressions.

After a long silence, Enkara cleared his throat. "After an extended absence, the talking primates of Earth built their own colonial starship and came here? Home to the very world their gods and founders of their society occupied? Then they alter the program of our automatons? Now, a couple of the more clever automatons use the primates to wage war on our primitive ancestors on sacred Haran? And Enzu and Ningal would like to give us a position as mentors?"

"I suppose so, from your point of view," Subahu replied. He had not anticipated these two feeling resentment toward Enzu's plan. "We work to revive the Anki Empire. Doesn't that align with your ambitions?"

"You poor limited machines," Namtar said. "We hardly blame you or another Nefilim for formulating such a plan. It's noble that, despite your reprogramming, you seek to restore these worlds to their proper and rightful rulers. We could hardly expect the likes of Nefilim to devise a suitable plan without an Anki to supervise."

Subahu began to feel a strange intuition, similar to when the mark pulls a gun instead of cash from a hidey hole. He readied his posture for trouble. Could he make a stand against an Anki? After Free Day he could, but what about everything he worked toward?

The moment's hesitation after tensing his muscles must have given Namtar warning. She opened her serpentine mouth, and a frigid blast burst from between her dart-like teeth. Subahu felt the shock of the blast, and then lost sensation below his neck. He tucked his chin down to see that frost plastered him to the wall.

"Stay here automaton," Enkara hissed. "After we've set the humans in their place and dismantled Enzu for his crimes against sacred Haran, I may come back and try to fix your programming. I have a feeling that good help is going to be hard to find now."

Subahu struggled against his ice bonds as he heard the engines of the shuttle roar and then fade. "Hanuman!" he cried. Hopefully the boy has sense enough to keep out of trouble. Those two won't be happy to learn what we've been up to with their gemstones.

Part 7

Subahu railed against his ice prison, but his limbs were held fast by the ice and frost. He shuttered as cold seeped into his body, leaching away strength and heat. It was no wonder those two were sentenced to stasis by their own kind. Not exactly the get along type.

As he pressed against the frozen bonds, flexing each muscle one by one, hoping to discover a weak point in the ice, Subahu wondered what other powers the white Anki possessed. Enkara had the power to create devices with only a thought. LARC1's famous colonist Pringar, a green Anki, had the power of persuasion. Enzu discovered that red Anki had telekinesis, purple Anki controlled illusions, and yellow Anki were healers. If I were a purple one, I could just transform this room to a sunny beach, Subahu mused.

Then an idea that should have been obvious occurred to him. The rakshasa changed shape, to a smaller version of himself, small enough to wiggle free of his ice bonds.

He ambled to the room's entryway and gazed at the place where his shuttle had been. Thoughts of Enzu's plan and Namtar and Enkara's reaction rattled the shapeshifter to his foundations. He was doing the right thing! Those star blasted Anki were simply twisted... That was the reason their own kind trapped them in stasis thousands of years ago. Should they be seeking to resurrect the Anki Empire? What benefits could another political faction bring anyhow? The Nefilim were free now, they were welcome to wait around for their old masters to return, free to take part in human society too. He supposed this whole thing was just a power play. Control. Enzu had a vision of a greater world. Others join his cause. They create changes in the world to shift the balance of power. All for what? There was plenty of unused space between the worlds. Not like Earth, overpopulated in every tolerable climate.

Poor monkey, Subahu imagined the shocked expressions on Enkara and Namtar's faces when Hanuman roused from sleep and discovered he wasn't the pilot of the vessel. That boy's martial arts skills might take them by surprise. Would Hanuman even feel threatened? His memory might not have formed a solid impression of the shapeshifter to know that it was someone else flying the ship. What if the boy assumed that one of them was Subahu? Well, at least the boy was polite, that might keep him out of trouble.

After staring at the sunset over the jungle canopy, and clearing his mind, Subahu began to tremble with rage. The ungrateful Anki had been frozen in stasis, and they attacked their rescuer, cursing the organization who found and freed them without a second thought. These were not the masters he wished would return order to the solar system. These two were no better than the mark who hoarded gemstones, looking out for only self-interests. He and Enzu made a mistake releasing them, a mistake he would mend. Subahu resolved to kill Enkara and Namtar.

Part 8

As twilight began to give way to starlight, Subahu's gaze focused on an approaching glimmer of light. Could that be a shuttle?

Had those two gotten lost? Not much had changed in shuttle technology from the days of their imprisonment until the final departure of the Anki Empire. Subahu resumed his full sized eagle headed form. He flexed wings and retracted them, anticipating a fight in the sky. As the shuttle set down, Subahu realized it was not his craft.

A wolf's face smiled broadly, tongue lolled out to one side. "Subahu, it's been a long time."

"Tataka? Marduk took you to Beltyre. I tried reaching you a couple times, but first they wouldn't allow visits, then you were gone with no record of a current address."

"Aww. I missed you too, beakface." Tataka embraced her former sentinel partner. "When I left their head doctor facility, Enzu found me and others like me. I've been stationed in Beltyre, recruiting Rakshasa among the Anunnaki in the mountain city. I thought better than mixing you up in it, since you seemed to accept free will readily."

"That changed." Subahu told of his own recent past and concluded with Enkara and Namtar's escape. "Do you feel up to killing a couple of unworthy masters?"

"That's why I'm here. Enzu knew about their mental instability, that is why only a single Rakshasa was sent. Now it's up to us to neutralize them before they reveal our organization to LARC, or become a threat in their own right."

Bolstered by the reunion with his oldest companion, Subahu flew the shuttle toward LARC1. Sensors detected his own shuttle's approach a little over an hour ahead of them.

Subahu told Tataka about Valkimi and Hanuman. About the twisted failures that came before, and of his fondness for the pair of beings.

"Well, never in all our years of guarding that palace did I imagine you would be good at rearing young. Sounds like you had a swell time raising goats and children. Perhaps when the Anki Empire is reestablished, we can be lovers." Tataka smiled a wide wolfish grin. "I can lead the Rakshasa security patrols and you can look after our offspring."

"Offspring? How do you expect us to procreate?" Subahu was startled by the notion. Although he would not mind the company, he had always been fond of Tataka. Perhaps part of his need to belong stemmed from missing his companion, a single constant in their changing world.

"Shala and Ishkur made one by mistake on Free Day. Their vapor forms dissipated so much that when the two cloud Nefilim reformed, there was a third being. They left it with Ninma's human consort, Dr. Zimmerman. Perhaps they were unaware of its sentience, and perhaps they simply did not care for the responsibility of parenthood."

Subahu smiled. "Well if we kill these two and make it back to my cottage in one piece, we've got two adopted kids already. It wouldn't hurt to do a bit of experimentation either I suppose."

Smoke rose from the roof of the military building at the center of the LARC1 colony. Tataka wasted no time hiding their vessel, she set down on the roof of the science center, close to the battle raging between Enkara, Namtar, and the human shugarra corps. Fire, energy bursts, and agonized screams echoed through the corridors between the high rise buildings. Tataka adopted an eagle form similar to Subahu.

"It's nice to be back into the thick of things with you," Subahu said. "Thanks for saving me back there."

Tataka nodded and leapt into the air.

Part 9

Tataka flew straight at Enkara, who screamed out a lightning bolt, causing her to veer at the last second.

Subahu was eager for his chance at revenge, but he flew to his own stolen shuttle first, hoping to find Hanuman undisturbed. Subahu heaved out a sigh of relief. The little green monkeyboy was sound asleep, right where he was when Subahu left the shuttle back on the southern continent. He dashed to the control console and locked it out with a passcode to prevent another theft.

A startled cry of pain jolted the shapeshifter's attention back to the renegade Anki. Can a Nefilim destroy Anki? He shifted to his hulking humanoid form and jagged bone extended from each finger to form claws that would splinter, and embed within flesh. He lunged at the first Anki he saw, pulling himself of short when he realized it was green skinned.

"Pringar!" A black Anki yelled. He motioned upward and the roof groaned while changing shape to form a barrier between Subahu and the green Anki. Subahu noticed the voice, different from the voice of Enkara. This pair must be the Anki who lived among humans! Barely adolescents themselves.

"My mistake!" Subahu shouted, realigning himself toward Enkara and Namtar.

The black Anki returned to the fight as well. He and Enkara were creating and hurling weapons at one another. They seemed evenly matched. Subahu leapt thirty feet into the air above the battle. He hurtled right over the friendly Anki and smashed a kick into Enkara. The Anki crumpled under the blow, but an errant bolt of lightning lanced through him.

Subahu fell on top of Enkara and convulsed while electrical current rattled his body.

The other black Anki turned his attention to one of the shugarra corps frozen in his spot with Namtar's frigid blast. The Anki used his mental ability to form an ice pick from nearby debris and worked to release his comrade.

Subahu summoned his will and forced his body to move. To his dissatisfaction, Enkara shifted out from beneath him and regained his feet. Just as the black Anki crouched in preparation to leap upon Enkara, Subahu dug his claws into the meat of his tail.

Enkara leaped prematurely, likely from the shock of claw tips digging into his flesh. His body froze mid leap as Subahu's tearing grip anchored Enkara, who smacked pavement with a dull thud.

The shugarra clad human screamed in pain. Apparently his ice prison was worse for human flesh than for the artificial body of a Nefilim. Subahu gasped. The man in the frozen heap was none other than Officer Dershell. Subahu leapt to the man's aid. He may have evaded the human months ago, leaving the colony, but they weren't enemies. Not directly.

Subahu's claws tore through the ice, and in seconds the Anki pulled Dershell free. Subahu withdrew and made for Tataka.

Namtar shot blast after blast of molten ice, which froze upon any surface it contacted. She connected a blast that froze the green Anki to the other shugarra clad fighter. His scream of pain confirmed that it was Nabu- Officer Rogers. The pair writhed against their frigid confines. The green Anki, Pringar, screamed a sonic wave at Namtar, who stumbled back a few paces from the strike. The banshee wail of the green Anki could temporarily deafen and confuse an opponent.

Subahu leaped forward and kicked Namtar in the middle, hitting her soundly. That banshee blast must have distracted her, thought Subahu. He cocked his fist back, ready to deliver a punch, but Namtar basted his fist with ice, fixing it to the wall behind Subahu. He felt a couple hard strikes connect as the white Anki whipped him with her powerful tail.

"These humans and traitor Anki have damaged you Nefilim. Perhaps I'll decommission your race and Enkara will start your kind from scratch!" Namtar snarled.

"You twisted Anki can't separate friend from foe! We may not be programmed to allow your control any longer, but I freed you and would have led you to an army of loyal followers. You deranged fools! No wonder your own people imprisoned you in stasis."

Subahu continued his rant just long enough to allow Tataka to close the distance and lock Namtar into a choke hold from behind. The white Anki's neck writhed and her head spun about. She pecked at Tataka, and head butted, and bit, but the Nefilim would not release her grip until the white wedge shaped head went rigid on its serpentine neck, and slumped, unconscious.

Subahu wrenched his fist free of the frost and patted Tataka on the back. "Thanks again."

"You owe me twice, partner," Tataka winked an eagle eye at him.

Officer Dershell dropped the inert body of Enkara next to Namtar. "Thanks for your help Nefilim." He said to Tataka and Subahu with a smile. "What were you two doing in the city?"

In all their haste to catch up with the Anki, Subahu had not given this moment a second of thought. "Oh, well these two..."

He didn't have to finish. At that moment Hanuman burst forth from the shuttle and screamed his fiercest battle cry. The monkey boy began practicing martial arts.

That boy slept right through the flight and a battle, then decides it's time for practice? Subahu groaned.

Everyone turned to take him in. Even the green Anki and Nabu-Officer Rogers stopped chipping themselves free of their icy trap to stare.

"Now's our chance to get out of here," Tataka whispered into Subahu's ear. "We can't take on these four, in their colony, unprepared."

"I can't leave without Hanuman," Subahu said. He began to walk toward the monkey boy, but Tataka grabbed him.

"We can come back when things settle down."

The pair shapeshifted into debris to match the scattered fragments of building materials the black Anki had called forth and manipulated in battle.

Officer Dershell spun about, as if sensing something amiss. "Did anyone see where those Nefilim went?" He walked about the cluttered rooftop, looking skyward, then shook his head.

"A little help here Travis?" the green Anki called.

"Pringar!" Officer Dershell dashed over to the pair stuck within frost and began digging with his shugarra.

"Hey little fella," the black Anki said to Hanuman. "My name's Elsaap. Who are you fighting against?"

Hanuman laughed and gave a wide smile to Elsaap. "Nobody mister. I'm just practicing. Practice makes perfect."

"How did you get here?" Elsaap asked. He was approaching Hanuman slowly with hands in front of himself in a placating gesture.

Hanuman nodded his head toward the shuttle.

"Okay... Where was that shuttle before here?"

"I don't know. I only remember that I need to practice because practice makes perfect."

Subahu would have smiled in satisfaction if he were not in the form of a steel beam. That monkey boy's lack of memory is going to save the day. Funny how he only remembers his martial arts practice though...

The sound of electricity crackling returned Subahu's attention to Enkara and Namtar. The white Anki held her partner in front of a black portal, ringing in crackling electricity.

"You humans! Anki never would have allowed you to thrive if they had known what you would make of the sacred home world! We will see to it your species never live to reach sentience! We are going to ancient Earth- when you were all little more than apes. There is another species of hominin who will make obedient servants in your place! We'll unmake your kind before humanity can conquer with science! You'll be replaced by primates as docile as that smiling fool." Enkara pointed one finger at Hanuman, who grinned at her.

Dershell, Pringar, Elsaap, and Nabu looked at Hanuman for an instant. Subahu wanted to scream, but resisted. When they looked away, Enkara and Namtar stepped through the portal and disappeared.

Nabu-Officer Rogers raced to the spot. "Elsaap! Can you create a device to open a portal like that?"

"That white Anki just opened a wormhole through time and space." There was awe in the black Anki's voice. "I can feel residual magic lingering here... Get Sam Martin up here right away. I'll create a device that can read where this thing opened up. He and I can work on something right away."

"We had better hurry. There is a good chance those two really can unmake humanity if they can travel back to ancient Earth." Nabu- Officer Rogers took to the air on shugarra wings and flew off.

Part 10

Subahu punched a wall and swore. He and Tataka had blended with the debris from the fight well into the night. The green Anki, Pringar had taken Hanuman away hours before. She'll be easy enough to keep tabs on, she's one of the most famous people in the colony, the shapeshifter reassured himself.

"Let it go," Tataka said. "There was no way of knowing how those two Anki would have reacted to being released."

"It's Hanuman," Subahu sighed. "I've raised him for months now. I mean, he's no Valkimi, but I am pretty fond of the boy. If his memory improves, his kind could be the super soldiers Enzu is looking for. That project is probably more important now that Enkara and Namtar are not going to ally with us."

"Don't consider him lost. Let the humans care for the monkey boy for now. If and when he proves valuable, we'll come back for him. In the meantime, you and I have something else to occupy our time."

Subahu exhaled slowly and raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"My standing orders are to recruit more Nefilim to join the ranks of Rakshasa. Enzu means to have an advanced force here on Nibiru."

"Advanced force?" Subahu said.

"With or without Enkara and Namtar, Enzu plans on claiming the solar system for the New Anki Empire."

The pair walked through the colony, lit by two full moons, plotting the rise of the Rakshasa force.

#  URGENT! Dispatch Immediately-

### LARC1 Volunteer Corps Recruits Needed

The legacy of dangers the Old Anki Empire have strewn about the galaxy still lurk about in our midst. We have won this victory, but it is only one conflict in a much greater interaction between forces that are greater than anything we have seen so far.

Ranks of shugarra corps, idgeul pilots, and battle armored infantry fighters have already swollen in preparation of the next attack. It could come from anywhere. That is why LARC1 needs communications officers back on Earth. Science Fiction and Fantasy readers are uniquely talented for the crucial role the Anki Legacies Adventures has in store for you. You have the know-how, experience, hardware, and hopefully the guts to post a rating and written review on Amazon and Goodreads.

As you have read, the League of Atlantis Reborn Colonists and their new companions have many outstanding abilities but none of them possess what it takes to tell our world about the Anki Legacies Adventures. Only you can.

Thank you for reading and enjoying the story. You may not know anyone else who reads books like this, but if you did I'm sure you mentioned the book already. Please think of a book review like the social evidence that many potential fans need to see before they give the story a try. Not everyone is as gutsy as you, plunging into a story you've never heard anything about. They need to know they won't be disappointed, we are all much too busy to read what we don't like, after all.

The job comes with hazard pay.

Every Volunteer Corps recruit who leaves a written review and signs up for Science Fantasy Hub newsletter is welcome to use the contact form online, paste a link to your review, and request a free copy of any other Anki Legacies Adventure in .mobi, .pdf, .azw3, or .epub. The only limit to the program is how many adventures I'm able to publish!

Don't worry about if your writing is up to snuff. Reviews are for and from readers. People will recognize that you are a real person through your sentences and no one expects a review to be elegant.

The glory and danger may be on the front line, but every LARC1 volunteer is an essential part of the team. Join right away, while the adventure is still fresh in your mind!

-Shane

# Read Other Anki Legacies Adventures!

Distant Origins: Anki Legacies #0- This is my Silmarillion. The origin of the LARC1 colony and the launch point of the Anki Legacies Universe. It's the colony's origin story inspired by Ancient Alien theories.

Monkeyboy: Anki Legacies #1-You know Han and company as young adults in Shugarra Corps, this is their tween adventure.

Shugarra Corps: Anki Legacies #2- Unfolding first in this newsletter! The link will set you up with a free ebook of the introduction to the series, Launch Towards Destiny. Use  this link to see if there are any miniseries books for sale.

A Paleolithic Fable: Anki Legacies of a Reborn Stone Age #1- Renegade Anki escape to the Stone Age. The LARC1 colony sends Bobby Rogers, a Free Day Veteran and half Nefilim, to deal with them.

Rob Rogers Finds Hollow Earth: Anki Legacies of Modern Myth- I'm about half the way through drafting. In the meantime, check out Rob's conspiracy theory blog. This story takes place in the here and now. Rob is a traveling sales person just like me, except instead of writing and reading Science Fantasy, he hunts Big Foot and Reptilians!

Visit WWW.ScienceFantasyHub.com for more.

