 
## Polyethic Randomness

## A collection of science fiction short stories.

## By: Peter T Phelps

## Smashwords Edition

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## Copyright Peter Phelps 2010 all rights reserved.

## PEOPLE OF THE MIST

Karthé watched in horror while the long metallic vessel plunged through his home sucking it and his parents inside. He fled angrily from the thing, less afraid of being sucked within, he ran only so he could alert the rest of the people within the Cloud City that the moment they all feared was upon them. The spacecraft sucked in all gasses surrounding it in order to replenish its fuel reserves, regardless and ignorant that anything was alive within. To their sensors there was nothing but swirling gas clouds out there to be plundered.

Karthé knew the Vernimitia would come some day, he had been born with that knowledge. Two thousand years before his birth it had been foretold he was to be their champion. Thus, he found it rather ironic to be the first to see them and run to alert the others. It was his job to destroy the murderous invaders.

Karthé dispersed his ethereal form so that he could reach each corner of the cloud world. It was a tasking feat to do this and remain in conscious control of his atoms, keeping separated from the cloud. In a simultaneous shout he sent waves throughout the cloud world to alert the populace about the danger. He attempted this once before and the others were well aware what the sound meant.

He pulled himself back together before he turned back toward the alien craft. It was a long angular craft with large loops extending where wings would be on atmosphere faring vessels. Ports within the rings were open and drew in the gasses surrounding the craft. With each second more of Karthé's home was being destroyed.

Karthé knew this was a scouting craft that would relay the location of this cache of resources to the rest of the Vernimitia fleet. It was imperative for Karthé to destroy it prior to that signal's transmission. Karthé allowed his anger to overwhelm him and he began to draw in the energy from the dormant gasses about his body. In less than a minute the cloud mass about him began to coalesce while he drew the energy into his body. He yelled and released the energy as one giant lightning bolt into the heart of the ship. The Vernimitia craft was unprepared for the bolt; its shields were down while it drew in the gasses. The hull melted where the energy bolt struck before it ignited something inside. There was little oxygen to be found within the gas cloud outside of the craft, but the combination of gasses, oxygen and spark caused the craft to explode and burn the surrounding gas until it consumed the oxygen from the ship.

Karthé barely had enough energy of his own to keep his body together. He saw a few of his friends coming to his aid just before he lost consciousness. He was smiling as the darkness overwhelmed him, he had done it.

When Karthé awoke he was within the home of one of the more prominent members of the People of Mist. He recognized it because the gasses here were purer and he had been there before. Elder Scorf abided within this section of the cloud world and was one of Karthé's mentors. Elder Scorf had his sights on Karthé to become his daughter's mate, just as many other families hoped to link their fates with the prophesy hero. Not that he held this against Emirisha, who he found to be kind.

Karthé pulled his atoms tighter about his core, an action that defined his space in difference to the space around him. Other types of life forms would find it difficult to differentiate a Person of Mist from the gasses surrounding them. To them it would only appear as different color spectrums of the same substances. They could not consider that there were sentient beings within. The People of Mist attempted to make contact for generations with the outsiders; they used different energy patterns and radio frequency shifts, with no luck. The outsiders ignored their attempts, probably chalking up the noises to sun flares or other phenomena.

Karthé was unique amongst the People of Mist; he could become any shade he wished. Although, Karthé's emotional state usually dictated his coloration. His gas particles were currently giving off a shade of gray since he recalled how his parents died. He also worried whether he acted in time to stop any transmission from the scout, and even if he did, would other Vernimitia come to investigate their loss? Would he recuperate the strength to destroy that vessel? What would he do if more than one came, since it took all his will to destroy just the one?

Karthé then noticed the movement of green particles through the backdrop of yellow and orange. Emirisha attempted not to spy on him, through her coloration he could tell she was extremely concerned about him. "Come here Emirisha, I am together now," Karthé said. The People of Mist conveyed messages through a movement of the gas particles between them, rather than sound waves. He watched her approach and the green began to fade down into a blue coloration.

"Thank the Great Swirl, you've been spread still for nearly twenty star passes," she stated with relief. She came over and hovered beside him. She was uncertain whether or not to reach out and touch him. "I'm sorry about your family," she said sadly, "We've waited for you to pull together before Elder Onsier would perform the Disbursement ceremony to mourn their passing."

"Was anyone else hurt?" Karthé asked sadly.

"Your neighbor's baby was sucked into that thing before they even realized the danger," Emirisha replied sadly. "They had the Disbursement ceremony two solar cycles after the attack." She began to move away, "Father will want to know you are aware."

He reached out a section of his body, "Wait, could you just stay here a bit? He'll just want to break into theories about the invaders, I need a friend right now." He moved from blocking her so that it would not be said he did not give her a choice. She hesitated before she decided her father could wait. People of Mist could not cry in the fashion of many biological species, yet they did have an equivalent. Karthé's cloud moved through a rainbow of coloration after he allowed his anguish to come over him. Emirisha set her particles in proximity to his, just to let him know she was there. "Thanks," he said after twenty minutes when he pulled his emotions back under control.

"Father would say this is coddling our hero," Emirisha commented with a bit of mirth.

"Yes, Elder Scorf is my harshest mentor. If he had his way we'd declare full out war with the Vernimitia, even if he has no clue how that could be accomplished," Karthé commented. He settled his emotions and asked her to tell him when he was violet. This would indicate to others that he was fully restored and in a neutral emotional state. When she said he was there he moaned, "Guess its time to face him."

The next six hours of Karthé's life were consumed with briefings, meetings and by the Disbursement ceremony. He tried not to drop back into the mournful state since that would be done later in private and since he had to present a strong front to the populace. He accepted the various statements of condolences from them with only half his attention. He kept glancing over toward where the remains of the Vernimitia vessel drifted. Elder Scorf had informed him that their examination of the ship's remains indicated it was not a scout, but a single family's resettlement craft. Scorf believed that it was possibly one of the smallest crafts the Vernimitia would send and that any further contact would be with something much larger.

The part that Karthé could not wait to check on himself was the fact there were two young Vernimitia still basically intact. They were supposedly placed in devices that slowed their vitals during the trip to their new home. Each of these devices had a backup power system in case the main one went out in order to give the parents time to repair the problem.

Karthé went straight from the ceremony to the remains of the vessel. The twisted chunks of metal drifted in a sparse section of the cloud, the result of the explosion and flames. He decided to head directly to the section Scorf indicated held the two possible survivors. This section looked like it was designed to be jettisoned should something devastating occur to the main craft, though it evidently had not due to the level of damage. He passed through holes created by shrapnel in its hull. The only light within was a dull yellow glow from the two orbs that were stasis chambers.

The Vernimitia were large to Karthé's perception, about four times the space he occupied, and these were the children. He was unable to discern their age, though he expected they were under adulthood. Their bodies were spherical with six sets of eyes about the top portion. They had three appendages, which extended from about the middle of this sphere and a dozen smaller ones with which they could move upon surfaces. Below each set of eyes was a mouth with white teeth, which contrasted with their orange skin. He guessed that there was another set of organs hidden within the multiple legs. Elder Scorf told him one was male and the other female, though how the Elder could tell was beyond Karthé.

Karthé could detect where this pod was damaged from the explosion with ease. Though the others could examine the physical structures, they could not manipulate the atoms the way Karthé could. He began to move about the atoms so that they were as close to their original state as he could get them. He made certain to leave one hole for him to use to get out. When finished with these repairs more lights came to life, though these too ran off their own backup energy source. He was able to see a computer system screen light up before something scrolled over it. Karthé left to fetch Elder Scorf to help tell him what it was. By the time they got back the screen only had one message, though Karthé was unable to read it.

"I believe you've activated some kind of homing beacon," Elder Scorf groaned. "The Vernimitia will respond to find and rescue these two. We must not let them find them here," the Elder continued. Karthé asked if he could just turn the homing beacon off, "No, it's too late for that. The thing probably transmitted an approximate location to the Vernimitia," Elder Scorf replied.

"Then we'll need to gather everyone to help move it off our world. I'll be aboard when it leaves and will try to reason with our enemies. Don't try to stop me, it is the only way and you know it. If they stay here it will bring the Vernimitia to destroy us. I can't destroy their fleet even with everyone's help. We have to try to learn to communicate somehow with them. I have to take the risk that I can stop a war before it escalates past the current casualties. Yes, I know that it means leaving the cloud nearly defenseless in my absence. You and the other Elders will have to organize the people, have them ready to push the remains of the craft as projectiles against any other invader," Karthé explained.

Elder Scorf did not reply, though by his coloration it was evident he did not agree. "I guess that's why you are the chosen one," he said and then went out of the hole in the hull. He sought to organize the People of the Mist to the task.

Karthé followed him out and moved to push the pod to the other end of the cloud. He could do this on his own, though very slowly. He hoped to be able to use the rest of his people to move the mass, at an accelerated rate, so that it might launch back in the direction the Vernimitia craft had came from. This way any rescue team should hopefully not scout farther ahead and find the cloud.

Once the pod was in position he checked with the others to make sure they knew what he wanted. They quickly formed a tunnel of various cloud colors in the direction he wanted the pod to be pushed. Although few of them could manipulate physical objects, much larger than a grain of sand, the same vibration techniques they used to communicate could push larger objects when enough of them were present. Karthé went back inside of the pod and sealed the small hole behind him. Then he moved to help push the pod along from the inside. A harmony of sound surrounded the pod as the people began to push.

The pod was nearly three-quarters through the outside tunnel of Mist People when he was startled by a familiar voice. "I guess we're off on an adventure," Emirisha stated from the shadows in one corner of the pod. Karthé stopped pushing to turn and angrily yell at her. "It's too late to send me back, we're already passing out of the cloud and I wouldn't leave if I could. You should thank me for deciding to help," she stated.

Karthé knew she was right, even if he hadn't been tired from the exertion he would not have been able to stop the pod. He turned back to pushing the vessel from the inside, "At least help push some." She let out a kind of giggle before she moved to his side to try to add what little she could to the effort. Ten minutes later he let her stop because he figured they were moving fast enough at this point.

She moved to survey the two dormant Vernimitia within their stasis cells. "They aren't much to look at," she commented with disgust. Then she turned back to him, "Father's going to kill me when I get back." Spoiled as she was, Karthé knew she was doing this just to anger her father.

"If we get back," Karthé said somberly. "Emirisha, I'm the chosen one. I have a duty foretold in the records of our history two thousand years in the making. This was my sole responsibility. There is no guarantee we will survive, only a promise that I might find peace for our people. I wish you had stayed home," Karthé groaned.

She ignored his statement. "How long do you think it will be before the other Vernimitia pick up their children?" she asked. Karthé allowed his coloration to turn bright yellow, the Mist People's version of a shrug. "Oh, great. Well, perhaps we can find something to keep us occupied," she commented. She began to drift toward him and he allowed his color to change again to indicate his deep displeasure with her. "Or not," she backed away.

"Don't touch any of the controls, I don't want to accidentally wake them," he ordered. He drifted back to another corner of the pod. "Wake me should anything happen," he ordered before he drifted off to sleep. His gas particles separated some and he heard her huff once before he lost conscious thought.

It was difficult to keep track of time within the pod, there were no viewports so they could see the stars. They took turns at rest and watched for any sign that the Vernimitia found the pod. Emirisha spent much of the time trying to figure out which of the suspended Vernimitia were male or female. At least it gave her something to do other than try to win Karthé's affection. Karthé began to figure out all of the systems on the pod and began to understand some of the information displayed by the computer screen.

"I think I understand now, this blob of white represents our current position, the red blob is the cloud. See this round brown dot? I think that is where the Vernimitia live. And the white triangle is probably the ship they have sent to retrieve the pod since it is on a direct course," Karthé explained.

"What about this square white thing?" she asked, "What is that?" The square was twice the size of the triangle he had pointed out. It was also on course to meet the pod and was closer to them than the triangle. Karthé said he thought it might be another ship, though he could not find the configuration in the computer's memory. "Great, so who knows what that might be," Emirisha commented sarcastically.

"Either way we'll be picked up by another craft. We only want to make contact, remember. Doesn't matter who picks us up," Karthé commented. He would not let her know that he was also apprehensive about the square craft. He preferred to be picked up by the triangle since he could confirm it was a Vernimitia craft.

After two more sleep cycles they were certain the square craft would intercept the pod before the triangle. All they could do was wait and see. Karthé got the computer to give them a view of the external space just prior to their capture. The square on the screen did not give the sense of enormity that they now faced. The ship was an odd mix of systems and parts, the hull was a patchwork of different metals and it seemed to be more than one craft. A tractor beam stopped their forward motion and pulled them inside an open bay. They were amazed when the doors shut and a multitude of different species moved to open up the pod. They felt the change in pressure as breathable atmosphere was pumped inside the pod while the air from their cloud was pumped out. Karthé held on hard to Emirisha so she would not be sucked out of the pod. They hid in the corner she used to stow away in before the pod hatch opened from outside. The creatures that entered were not Vernimitia and their speech was strange to Karthé. One was covered with gray fur over its entire body except for the patches of red skin that covered its long face and palms of the paws. The other was very thin and tall, it's skin was green and the head was one giant eye. This one had three long fingers on each hand and feet shaped like squishy suction cups. It seemed to be the one in charge, though Karthé could not find a mouth through which it spoke to the other. It moved over to the computer console and began to use the long digits on its hands to press buttons. The yellow glow inside the domes changed color to orange and Karthé could feel the cold was dissipating.

Karthé made sure that Emirisha kept quiet before he released her. He wanted to get closer so he could watch the tall green being's work at the computer. The light in the globes was now red and he could tell that the Vernimitia were now breathing. It would not be long before they were awake and these creatures would open the bubbles. Karthé moved carefully across the top of the pod, but he came too close to the one that was covered in fur.

The creature looked up after it sniffed at the air. It made some kind of growl and barked at the green stalked being. It was too short to pose a threat to Karthé, but the stalked being brought its eye directly up into his body. He felt the thing take a whiff of him, separating some particles which were drawn inside the thing's lungs.

"Emirisha try to get into the female Vernimitia's body," Karthé ordered. She asked which one that was, "I think it's the one on the right." He hoped he was correct since it would be hard to be inside a body of the opposite sex. The bubbles cracked open once the system finished its process and the two People of Mist dove through the cracks. The two creatures tried to wave them away and were yelling at each other in excitement. Karthé had no idea what they wanted or what they thought to do with the two children. He literally entered the boy Vernimitia though the three mouths.

The boy's eyes were filled with terror while he inhaled the gas, certain that it was probably poisonous. He was confused by the presence of these two alien beings that had revived him and his sister. He coughed in an attempt to clear his lungs. With a few breaths the gas was no longer in his lungs, but had been absorbed into his system. The boy sat up, "Who are you? Where are our parents?"

By this point Karthé had found his way to the boy's brain. He could understand the boy's words and the responses from these creatures. "Your ship was destroyed, your parents are dead. We have rescued you," the green stalk creature replied. The boy's sister cried out in anguish before she began to cry.

"We need to get you to the doctor to see if you are well before you can be moved to your quarters. You might have accidentally been infected by something. Do not fear us, you will be able to go home soon," the fur being stated.

"My name is Itiar and my sister is called Oineii, whom is it that I address?" the boy asked.

The green stalk being, which the boy recognized as a Plinix, answered. "I am known as Manzanier and my Hoshieer friend is Kchtl," he replied. "Please follow us," he requested before he left through the open port. Kchtl waited for the children to comply and followed them out.

"What kind of a ship is this?" Oineii asked. The inside of the craft was almost as much of a patchwork as the exterior. She gazed around it, which was easy for a Vernimitia to do since they had six eyes, giving them nearly 360 degrees of sight.

"We're a long range mining prospector. It was fortunate for you that we were so nearby. It could have taken another week for your people to pick you up. Now please follow and you will be briefed fully later," Manzanier replied.

They saw no other lifeforms until they reached the ship's infirmary. Karthé was surprised to learn that the medic was not biological in nature, the being stood about four clouds high and was entirely built of metal. "This is an ZX-9 medical droid, we just call him Doc," the Plinix introduced.

The Hoshieer opened his mouth and made some noises the two Vernimitia could not hear. The robot's visual sensors brightened, "Really, I've never heard of such a thing. Of course I will do a full battery of tests. You do realize that you will have to be quarantined as well, since you might have come into contact with a contagion inside the pod. You know where the scanner is." The robot waved to their escort to head into the scanning station. The robot's face was capable of smiling toward the children. "Here, I'm sure you've slept too long and could use the sugar," he handed them both a candy sucker. "Your names please?" he asked.

"I'm Oineii and my brother is Itiar. Do you know where we are?" Oineii asked. She took the wrapper off of her sucker and stuck it into the mouth furthest from the Doctor. Her brother held his, not yet convinced he should trust anyone.

"Thank you, I have created medical databases for both of you. I am not permitted to answer that question. Now we can proceed to the scanning once the two that brought you are finished. Do you know of any diseases you might have had prior to the trip? Any problems, which run in your family?" he asked.

"Itiar is allergic to pepper," Oineii replied. The robot smiled and nodded before he asked if there was anything else.

"Oineii is addicted to sugar," Itiar said in response to her with a frown. The doctor said many species were, though he'd take the information into account when he suggested their meal plans. This made Oineii frown angrily at her brother. The robot asked if there was anything else. Neither could think of any other problems.

The Doc left them alone for a moment so he could check on the other two possible patients. "I don't trust them. I think they're pirates," Itiar whispered to his sister. He watched the robot to ensure it was occupied.

"Don't see what choice we have. We have to play along until we learn one way or not," Oineii whispered back. "Until that time don't let on that I'm older or reveal that I'm playing stupid," She ordered. He sighed and muttered something about women's prerogatives.

The two escorts left smiling and thanked the Doc. "They seem to be in perfect health and no signs of infection within them. I am hopeful to say the same about you in a few minutes. Please follow me into the scanner station. Did either of you notice a cloud of gas around you when you woke?" he asked.

"No," Karthé said into Itiar's mind. The boy was confused for a moment before he repeated the message to the robot. "Thanks," Karthé added into the boy's head.

"Who are you?" the boy thought back. "Why are you in my head? Were you this cloud he speaks of? Should I change my statement?" he continued. There was fear in the boy's heart, he was unsure this was in his best interest. He wondered when his sister also said no in terse repetition.

The robot looked back and forth between them. "Itiar please enter the scanner chamber first," the robot requested. Doc moved over to a console and plugged into it with one of his arm jacks. "This should only tickle a little," he commented before a wave of energy passed over the boy.

"You still haven't answered my questions," Itiar thought to Karthé. The boy was nervous and uncertain that the scan would not detect Karthé. "Spill now or I tell him," the boy threatened.

"It will be faster to show you," Karthé replied. He sent into Itiar's mind most of his memories of life within the cloud world, stopping just before the arrival of the Vernimitia colonization craft. The boy requested to know how Karthé came to be within their lifepod. "Later, when you've had time to settle in here," Karthé promised.

The robot did not look pleased when it completed the scan. "You are in perfect health for one so recently out of stasis. I find no evidence of contaminants in your system. You may step out of the scanner. Oineii, you're next," the Doc waved a limb to indicate that she should enter.

It took a moment for Oineii to gather her mind so she could comply. Itiar placed a tentacle on her body to reassure her, it was only through this touch that he realized she too was dealing with another entity in her mind. She had the same apprehensive look in her eyes and he gave her a nod.

Doc ran the same scan sequence over Oineii and shook his metallic head. "Again, you are in better health than I can explain. Your body has metabolized the glucose in the candy at a slightly faster rate than I have on record for your species. Other than that, I can not find anything wrong with you. Thank you, you can step out now." The Doc led them back to the door, which slid open to reveal the escorts. "They are clear, please take them to the Captain," the robot announced.

The way the Manzanier squinted his single large eye told them he did not believe the news. The Hoshieer made another noise beyond the hearing of the Vernimitia and Manzanier quickly recovered from his thought. "Yes, please follow me," the Plinix requested. He walked quickly on the long legs through the corridor to the left of the infirmary doorway. Kchtl was right on their tentacles, his paws padded against the metal floor.

The command center seemed to be in the right place within a smaller vessel, which was part of the conglomerate that composed the larger craft. They passed through an airlock before moving to a lift that took them the rest of the way. They passed many other sentient beings on their way, some Itiar could identify for Karthé while others were new to the boy. The more Karthé learned from the boy's memories and what he said, the more he realized that the Vernimitia were not the only threats to the cloud world. Karthé wondered just how many space faring races existed in the universe; just the number he counted so far made his particles ache.

"Hey, you're giving me a headache," Itiar commented in distress. Karthé apologized and tried to do his best to calm down. He would have to remember that within the boy, his emotions could effect the Vernimitia. They passed from the lift into a corridor lined with red carpet.

The escorts stopped at a doorway and opened it. "The Captain is expecting you," Kchtl told them before he motioned that they enter. "Good luck," he added before the door closed behind them.

The room was well furnished with a plush leather couch, a simulwood desk and bookcase with polyplexx windows, a food rehydrater, and a large view screen attached to the rear wall. At the desk sat the ugliest creature Karthé could imagine, Itiar identified it as a Glouch. It was the cross between a frog and snake, though its skin was brown and glistened from its own sweat. Itiar was surprised to learn that this creature was the Captain of the vessel, Glouch usually worked for others that could afford their fees. "Welcome to the Sarmani, children. You are Itiar and Oineii, sire name Ishie, correct?" the Captain asked while he pointed the snake-like tentacles, which served as his arms at both of them.

"Yes sir," Oineii replied shyly.

"Excellent," the Glouch smiled with a toothless grin. His large tongue licked its lips as if it had a delicious meal in front of it rather than two Vernimitia children. "Do not worry yourselves, you will return home soon. I assure you that we will make every effort to make certain of that," the Captain stated.

Itiar did not realize he was staring at the collection of books. The Vernimitia were to the point they used mostly digital format for their documents and he had only seen a few books at his grandfather's house. He was trying to read the spines for their titles, though some were not in languages he recognized.

"See anything you would like to read, boy?" the Captain asked. He stood up to reveal the short thick legs of a Glouch and hobbled over to the bookcase. "You will probably have the time to read one if you'd like before we meet up with the Vernimitia rescue craft. I suggest Balarie's Montage for one of your age," the Captain commented before he withdrew the book and hobbled over to where they stood. He handed the book over and asked Oineii if she had a preference, he suggested poetry. She thanked him, but did not feel like reading. "Ah, the crux of the universe. Too many have come to rely upon the memory cubes for their learning and the written word has come to loose its interest. May I ask you one question, what would you do if all technology were suddenly to cease to function?" he asked. When she shrugged he laughed before he returned to his seat behind the desk. "You'd probably perish, my dear. Thank you both for your time, Manzanier and Kchtl will show you to your quarters. I'll check in on you from time to time, please don't try to leave the room without escorts. There are sections of this craft which are not compatible with your physiology, they're dangerous to be wandering into," the Captain dismissed them.

They followed Manzanier to their room and thanked the escorts before entering. The room was small according to Itiar, the boy thought it was no bigger than the bathroom in his old home. There were two spherical beds for them to use and a restroom receptacle at the rear of the room. Save for these items, nothing else was in the room.

Itiar hopped up into one of the beds and set the book aside. Oineii followed his lead and hopped into the other bed. Itiar reached one of his tentacles across to her and she grasped it in one of hers. "Do you have someone inside you?" Itiar asked with a sequence of squeezes, which worked as a silent means to communicate between them. It was a system the two children created in order to keep their parents from learning what they privately spoke about.

"Yes," she replied in the same squeeze language. "It was the gas we breathed when we woke from the stasis," she commented. He agreed. "What do they want?" she asked.

"I think they just want to save their home," Itiar replied. "Mine calls itself Karthé, what is yours called?" he asked. Karthé told him, "Never mind. Emirisha, right?" Oineii affirmed the question.

"How could a Glouch become the Captain of this mismatched craft?" Oineii asked. She was more aware of the reputation of the Glouch, they were not usually ones in control. They were usually for hire to whomever would pay the most. Neither of them could recall a story, which had a Glouch in command of anything more than a freighter. Itiar shrugged, he had no more idea than she did.

"Emirisha wants to know how Karthé is doing?" Oineii relayed.

"He's a bit confused about how large the threat is to their kind. He thought only the Vernimitia were a threat. He gave me a migraine as we passed through this ship," Itiar replied.

"Yea, they don't seem to know much of the universe outside of their cloud world," Oineii commented. They both smiled and nodded. "How long do you think it will take for us to make contact with the rescue craft?" she asked aloud.

"I'm not sure, it would depend how far we traveled before the accident," Itiar replied with his voice. Karthé decided to give the boy the view he had of the computer aboard the stasis pod, indicating their locations before they were picked up. "Karthé just let me know what the computer looked like before we were picked up. We should only have a day or two," Itiar used their squeeze language to communicate.

"Good," she squeezed back. She let go of his tentacle and began to hit the button for the door. As expected, there were guards posted outside their quarters. "Could we get some squirl worms boiled for ten minutes with a side of norsh potatoes and some munice juice?" she asked one of the guards.

Both guards began to laugh at her request and she huffed indignantly. "Girlie we'll fetch you some food, but it'll likely be gruel and water," the guard that looked like a ball of wires replied. He shut the door in her face and locked it so they could not leave. Even through the door the laughter of the guards could still be heard.

"I'll say they are crude," Oineii commented with a pout before she came back to sit on the ball bed. She reached back across to take her brother's tentacle. "They probably rescued us just to attempt to fetch a ransom from our relatives back home," she squeeze messaged. Itiar agreed, though he had no plan of action and requested that they at least wait the two days. "What if these pirates are not heading toward our planet? Until they get what they want it would be prudent for them to take us out of the Vernimitia military's reach. I'll bet they have somewhere to hide out until their demands are met," she brought up.

"We're at their mercy and have to act like good guests while we are here. We'll keep our eyes out for any possible advantages, but we don't have any advantages if they keep us locked up in here," Itiar stated. He let go of her tentacle and picked up the book. "Are you sure you don't want me to read this to you?" he asked before he opened to the first page. She glared back at him and wrapped her tentacles around her torso with a shake of negation. "Fine then, be bored until the food arrives," he said loudly.

Once the children were fed and satisfied the lights in the room were shut off, indicating that it was time for them to go to sleep. The two Vernimitia children were too anxious to rest, having just awoken from their stasis rest. Karthé explained to Itiar that he would like to try to explore the ship outside of the boy's body and that he'd try to take Emirisha with him. The boy was a little scared to have them leave, should they not return the children would be at the mercy of the pirates. The boy had not realized how comforting the presence of the People of Mist was until then. Karthé reassured the boy that they would do everything possible to return, but it would be necessary to learn as much about the craft they were in and the true intentions of their current captors. Itiar relayed this silently to his sister, who was just as apprehensive about being alone. She quickly agreed and asked how they were to get the Mist People out. Karthé explained that the Vernimitia only had to calm down and breathe them out. He then relayed to Emirisha how she should travel through Oineii's body so she could escape from it.

It took some time and the children had to fight not to cough while both Mist People came out of them. Karthé helped Emirisha pull herself back together once all of their atoms were outside of the children. "We'll be back soon," Karthé said in his language. Both of the children inhaled deeply.

"I understood that, did you?" Itiar whispered to his sister.

"Yes," she whispered back.

"We must have left some of our parts within them," Emirisha commented.

"No matter, we need to go now. Oineii and Itiar you will have to pretend to be asleep, even if you are not really tired. Wish us luck," Karthé stated. He pulled Emirisha toward a ventilation shaft. They easily passed through the metal screen and felt the tug of the fan systems. "Stay with me, I don't want you to be accidentally sucked through a filtration device. I might not be able to pull you out," he cautioned. They moved through the ventilation shaft and passed several other rooms, most of which were filled with sleeping members of the crew. "Let's try this one," Karthé commented when they came to an empty room with a computer console lit up. They drifted through the grate and down into the light of the console.

"What are you looking for?" Emirisha asked. She hovered just above him. He was already manipulating the keys that controlled the computer.

"A picture of this ship, like the one on the pod that told us where we were in space. If we learn where things are we will be able to move about in the ventilation system with some direction. The Captain's office, for instance, would be a prime eavesdropping location," Karthé explained. He was still not very sure that he was doing the right things when the lights came on in the room. "Quick, up into the vent," he whispered as he shot to pull her through it.

A moment later the door to the room slid aside and a being with feathers over its entire body and a beak entered. It looked around the room in a confused state before it sat in front of the computer. "How the bloody blazes could someone have been toy'n with me 'puter? The door was sealed shut 'n no one's here," she asked. She reset the system and logged on with her password, which Karthé watched very carefully so he could repeat the process. She then accessed the room's internal security monitors and found nothing on them. She shook her head, "Damn glitched software, wish Mikerowsoft could get it right. Stupid false alarms." She shut down the system and set it back on the nightstand. She stood and looked around the room again before she left, then the light went out.

Karthé moved swiftly to start the computer back up and enter the password into the system. He was granted access this time and he quickly found the image he was searching for. He discovered that there were security systems throughout the ship. He tried to access the ones monitoring the Captain's office, only to be given an "access denied" message. He quickly switched off the computer and guided Emirisha through the ventilation grid. The room light came on again and they could hear the female curse when she found the room empty. He hastened their progress away just in case she decided to check the vent.

When they reached the vent that led into the Captain's office they stopped to listen. The Captain was in mid conversation with the Doc robot through a view screen. "So you are certain the cloud things Manzanier and Kchtl reported were not Fhea?" the Captain asked.

"Absolutely, Fhea would have registered on my scans of the children. The lollypop should have forced a reaction with particles foreign to their bodies, I had none from the girl. The boy refused to eat it. I do not doubt that your men were telling me the truth, though the children were evidently lying about something. Unless I find evidence I can observe there is little more I can tell you about the phenomenon," the Doc replied.

"Perhaps their minds played tricks on them. Thank you Doctor. I will let you know should we find something you can observe. I have other business to attend to," the Captain signed off. He looked about the room, as if he felt someone watching him. He then shook his head, "Been away from home too long." He hit a button on his desk and the door slid open, "Kchtl get in here please. How goes the negotiations for the Ishie children?" He reached over and set a tray into the rehydration machine.

"Not so well, the Vernimitia government is having difficulty locating the rest of the Ishie family. Evidently, though they were extremely well to do, they were linked to some terrorist organization. The family fled from the Vernimitia home world to create their own colonies. The Vernimitia authorities were already searching for them so that they can be brought to justice. Even should some of them prove to be innocent, their wealth might have been exhausted in the effort to flee to begin these new colonies," the Hoshieer reported sadly. "Hate to say it boss, but we may have just picked up two useless hostages," Kchtl added.

The Glouch did not look pleased while he pulled the tray of steaming steak out of the rehydration unit and set it before him. "I know of someone who might still pay for the Vernimitia children. It won't be half the amount I had hoped to fetch for their return. We will wait a week and if the Vernimitia government does not produce family willing to pay or a bounty on these two, then we'll sell them to the Skryyth. It'd be a shame, but we all have to eat," the Captain explained. He vulgarly tossed back the tray so the steaming chunk of meat slid down his open gullet. He handed the tray over to Kchtl, "That will be all for now." The Hoshieer bowed before he took the tray and left the room.

Karthé felt Emirisha tug at him and he took one last glance at the Captain before he allowed her to lead. Once they were beyond anyone else hearing she said, "That monster! He doesn't care for the kids at all. He just wants to turn a profit at their expense. We have to help them escape and return home. We're responsible for the position they are in." Karthé agreed with her and felt somewhat guilty for his part in bringing the Vernimitia children into the pirates' clutches. They were, after all he had learned from Itiar, innocent of the terrorist accusation against their family.

"We need to buy time and learn all we can about those within this ship. I'm especially interested in these Fhea the Doc spoke of. Are they some kind of long-lost relatives these beings have dealt with? We also need to find out where all of the smaller vessels attached to this one are located and if the Vernimitia children could pilot them. I wish I knew just how I could plug directly into their computer systems and learn all of it in an instant. For now we have to do this the hard way," he explained. He led them back to the room the children were imprisoned in. "One step at a time, we can't spend too much time wondering the vessel. The possibility of detection is too great," he added.

Two days passed and the Vernimitia were worried, though they knew about the Captain's plans. They began to ask their guards more questions and requested that they be allowed to contact the Vernimitia home world. It would be a week before the Captain did allow them to make contact, a ploy in order to see if they could draw out someone willing to pay for the children. Another week passed without anyone laying claim to the children and the Captain made plans to sell them off to the Skryyth. The children wanted to escape and the possible scenarios were planned. When the Captain summoned them to his office to tell them the bad news, that no one in their family had survived to lay claim to them, they were ready. They were to be sold to the Skryyth and handed over the next afternoon.

That evening Karthé and Emirisha went in different directions to accomplish their goals. Emirisha was to open the cell after she counted to one thousand while Karthé moved through the ventilation system to the main power generator. He would turn the generator off after he counted to a thousand and ten. Emirisha would lead the Vernimitia children through the craft toward one of the smaller vessels docked on its surface. Karthé would make his way there while trying to keep the other pirates busy. He had already worked on the computer that controlled the security systems. The computer would have all the doors not in their path secured and Karthé figured it would take about twenty minutes for the pirates to override the command. The Vernimitia children were sure that they could overpower the two guards left there that evening. They were both Lofnestians, the feathered beings, and were not very strong or bright.

By the time Karthé reached the craft he had chosen, the lights came back on and the doors began to slide open for the pirate crew. He quickly joined with Itiar as the airlock sealed shut. They were already beginning to separate from the larger pirate craft. The craft they were stealing was designed for Glouch pilots and the controls built to be manipulated by tentacles. Oineii had the most experience with flying spacecraft since her parents gave her the minimum needed to operate theirs. She already brought the craft's thrusters on line and all systems to full power. The ship was built to be a fast attack craft, it was wedge shaped with copper plating on its hull. This made the ship easy to spot until the cloak mechanism was engaged, though they could not do that just yet since they still wanted to have the craft's shields activated. It was a precaution against the pirates attempting to fire upon them with the smaller vessels. Karthé already disabled the main craft's weapons by breaking their power lines through the use of him manipulation of atoms technique.

The pirate vessel's Captain hailed the craft, "If you two Vernimitia do not land that craft right this instant I'll have to blow you to pieces!" The Glouch's face was nearly violet in anger and his skin had more moisture glistening in the light than normal. Itiar was more than pleased to reply through a gesture over the video screen, one in which the Captain knew the meaning immediately. "Kchtl fire on that ship, don't let it escape," the Captain ordered. A few moments passed without any fire. "Kchtl I said fire," the Captain yelled before he turned from the communications panel to look over at the Hoshieer.

"Sorry Captain, but we've lost all power to the main weapons systems. We can't even bring the tractor beam online," the gray furred being reported.

"Can anyone explain to me how two Vernimitia brats were able to shut down the power generator, break into our computer, open their door and sabotage our weapons all the while they were locked and guarded in their quarters?" the Captain asked angrily. "Get people to the other ships to stop them, ram us into them if you have to. Just stop them from leaving," the Captain angrily ordered.

Oineii told Itiar to cut off the comm link and get ready to use the ship's weapons to fire upon anyone who got in their way. She hastily ran through the launch phase, the ship began to move swiftly away from the larger pirate vessel. They saw two smaller craft launch off the surface of the larger pirate vessel. They were both made for unmanned survey missions and possessed rudimentary artificial intelligence programs. These were adapted to be used to destroy targets identified by another AI. "Itiar hit them before they get into range, I need more time here," Oineii ordered. She used the ship's computer to calculate a hyperstream jump point back toward Vernimitia space. Hyperstream required jump points in order to move at faster than light speeds without colliding with large bodies of mass.

"I'm on it," Itiar tried to sound confidant. Karthé lent his support and reassurance to the boy. Itiar had two of his tentacles wrapped around fire control joysticks and two eyes locked intently upon the view screen, which displayed two crosshair marks for where the plasma lasers would fire. He watched as the two remotes came closer and waited until they were within laser range. Karthé helped Itiar remain calm and told him when to pull back on the joysticks to make the lasers fire. "Got one," Itiar exclaimed in excitement.

"I need two more minutes before we can reach the jump point. They'll send more. Hurry up and get the other before it shoots us," Oineii stated. She was not happy about the fact that the larger craft was now accelerating to catch up with them. She punched the thrusters up to their maximum output and checked the shield power. She decided to shift some of the power from the front shield to the rear in case the pirates figured out a way to repair the main craft's weapons. A bolt from the remaining remote lit up the view screen when it struck the shields. "Kill that thing before it gets off another shot," she ordered.

"I'm trying," Itiar replied tersely. He continued to track the smaller ship and fired whenever he thought he was close to hitting it. Karthé had to tell Itiar to take a few breaths and not fire until the boy was sure the attacker was in their sights. After three more tries he hit the remote's thruster and it flew on past without being able to turn, effectively neutralizing the threat it posed. But, by that point more craft were moving away from the main pirate vessel. "Uh, sis, more company has just entered the party and there's no way I can blast them all before they get us. You'd better get us out of here quick," Itiar reported with panic in his voice.

"The thrusters are already past their safe operating levels. You will have to do what you can," Oineii stated sadly. She knew that if she pushed the craft any further it might accomplish the pirates' job for them.

"Let me out," Karthé requested. "No time to explain, just go over to the airlock and breathe me out of you. As long as the shield is operating I should be able to buy us the time we need," Karthé stated. When Itiar left his position at the weapons console his sister yelled at him. He had to tell her to just shut up and see. "You'll have to close the outer door as soon as I'm done and have Emirisha fetch me. She'll know what I did and how to take care of me after," Karthé explained. He went to the airlock and breathed out Karthé before he sealed the inner door. He then cycled open the outside door. Karthé looked out across the vast expanse between the Glouch vessel and the main pirate vessel. He began to focus his energy together again, this time allowing fear to fuel it rather than anger. The lightning bolt that emitted out of his cloud was smaller than the one he created to destroy the Vernimitia craft, but it was aimed with precision at the plating above the main pirate vessel's generator core. There was no immediate result from the lightning strike, but with their shields down so they could launch the smaller vessels, the generator core exploded seconds later. Karthé watched pieces of shrapnel strike against the shield outside the airlock before the darkness overtook his consciousness.

When Karthé woke he was no longer aboard the Glouch craft, but inside a polyplexx and cybertechnic device. Another of these devices loomed over his figure and he could see through the polyplexx Emirisha's cloud of gas. She moved the cybertechnic limb that acted as an arm over him, "Is he awake yet? The status light has turned green. That's supposed to mean he's in control now, right?" She then tapped on the polyplexx globe twice with the metal limb after the being she spoke with said yes.

Karthé just thought to grab the limb and the machine around him reached up and performed the act. "Where am I, what am I doing inside this thing?" Karthé asked. He let go of her and quickly found he was in total control of the machine. He sat up from where he lay upon a couch to take a look around. There were many Vernimitia waiting about and looking toward them, nearly half were armed and lined the walls of the oval chamber. He stood up and could not recognize Oineii or Itiar amongst the others. One in particular drew his attention since it wore a gleaming gold chain with a ruby as its centerpiece. There were four other beings inside similar cybertechnic suits standing a few feet away.

"You are on the Vernimitia home world, they call it Mnorksh. The others wearing these suits are called Fhea, they are also a sentient species composed of gas particles. Much has happened since you passed out, your action destroyed the larger pirate vessel and caused enough confusion that we were able to escape. The Vernimitia that wears the gem is President Almarde Ishie, Oineii and Itiar's uncle. He could not pay the ransom since, as President, it would have looked like he was capitulating to terrorists. He is grateful for our assistance in freeing them, and has passed a law that will protect all gas clouds from being exploited until it is proven that no sentient species exist within," Emirisha explained.

Karthé was slightly awkward as he walked toward the President on the two mechanical legs of the environmental suit. Emirisha assisted him since she had more experience operating her suit. He made a short bow, "I thank you President Almarde Ishie for your gracious work on our behalf. Through your kindness I have fulfilled a two thousand year prophesy, and yet what I have learned since leaving the cloud has changed the meaning of my quest. The Vernimitia are only one species of a thousand, which might use the cloud as a fuel resource. I intend to attempt to spread the word of our existence to anyone whom might threaten my home. It is my hope to be able to convince them not to destroy our world along with our families."

He could now tell which of the Vernimitia were Oineii and Itiar. He turned toward them. "Oineii, Itiar I have something more to tell you about the way your ship was destroyed," he said sadly.

Before he could go on the President held up two of his tentacles, "No you don't. Emirisha explained the circumstances to us. It was a sad and unfortunate event. If it had been the Skryyth invading and killing my people without thought I would have attacked them. What you did was no different, you defended your people. I forgive you. Children?"

Itiar moved forward from his position behind his uncle, he looked sad and a bit uncertain. "I'll miss my parents, but I suppose that you do too. I know they would not have killed your parents if they knew you existed. I know you will have to go soon to spread the word of your kind to other worlds. I hope that you will keep in touch," he said. A tear ran down from the eyes facing Karthé and he wiped it away with a tentacle. He moved back behind his uncle so his sister could have her turn.

Oineii was more forceful about her approach, "I loved my parents and can't bring myself to forgive you for killing them! I will thank you for helping us return home safely. I am sorry for your parents dying, but you should have at least been able to figure out a way to warn them. Karthé, if you don't marry Emirisha after all she's risked, I'll never forgive you." She then returned behind her uncle, who glared at her.

"My apologies for my niece, she has always been stubborn. May I suggest that you attempt to contact the Free People's Monarchy and petition for state citizenship for the cloud world? They are currently at war with the Skryyth, whom are a very expansionistic race. The Skryyth would not think twice about sucking your entire world up in order to fuel their war effort. It would be wise to try to side with their enemies in order to provide protection to your people. The Free People's Monarchy is ruled by Joolie Teltar, and is composed of many sentient species across the universe. If you would like, the Fhea engineers here would be willing to take you home briefly before you continue on your quest. I've arranged payment so that they will take you to Szatel, the Free People's Monarchy hub world," President Almarde Ishie offered.

"Thank you President, that would be very generous of you. We accept," Karthé replied. He felt a great pride in what he had already accomplished and a great sense of hope for the future. Karthé did not like the sound of these Skryyth, but knew that allies were the only way to protect the People of the Mist.

## POSSESSIONS OF THE SOUL

The dark warehouse held only the hint of moonlight and light from computer monitors left in screensaver mode. Hundreds of humanoid robots stood in rows awaiting their quality control inspections the next morning. The air was stale with a hint of odor from newly minted metal and recently molded polyplexx. These robots were Mark VS long range exploration drones produced by Lockheed Martin for NASA to pilot vessels that were launched to map out the universe, so that human lives were not put at risk during exploration missions. Should the data a drone collected result in the discovery of worlds humans could live on then the United Nations might send colonization ships. On any normal evening nothing would stir within the warehouse, but this was not any normal evening.

A single Mark VS stood separate from the neat rows and woke to survey his surroundings. His visual sensors took a nanosecond to adjust to the dim light. He glanced at these robots and wondered what he was doing here. When he tried to access his memories, he found little useful for this situation. Not knowing what his function was supposed to be, he went and turned on the warehouse lights. He then approached the nearest Mark VS and tried to talk with it before he realized they were all turned off. He spent fifteen minutes searching the chosen Mark VS for the power button, which he found beneath an access panel on its back at the base of the metal spine.

The robot that waited became impatient at the slowness of the Mark VS' activation. The one waiting banged his right fist against the other's head, "Knock, knock, anyone home?" The other Mark VS had cached the query until its systems were fully functional. "Mark VS drone serial number LR021392 fully functional," the robot answered in a mechanical fashion. This caused the first robot to smile.

"Who am I? Where are we?" the first robot asked. The one he activated glanced over him and had a puzzled look on its normally impassive face. "You are a Mark VS, but I am unable to find a serial designation from your RFID tag. We are in the Lockheed warehouse awaiting quality control approval before we will be loaded with our primary mission programming. Please turn me back off. I do not wish to be found left on by the humans that built us, they could decide I am malfunctioning and deny my honored task to leave this planet," the robot requested.

"Would any of the others be more helpful?" the first one asked. He decided that he should give himself a name and chose Markus.

"No, we are all identically programmed at this stage of manufacture. More detailed data on our purpose and missions will be loaded once we've successfully passed inspection. Now please set me back to the way you found me," the Mark VS pleaded. Markus agreed and turned the robot off before he made certain it was positioned exactly like the others.

Markus walked back to the light switch and turned it off. He then decided that he did not want to wait for these humans to inspect him. He needed to talk with someone now. He headed to a door labeled exit and found the door locked, it was one of those types with the push bar on the inside. He quickly found the pin on a chain and yanked it out so he could push the bar to open the door. This caused an alarm to sound and red lights began to flash inside the warehouse. Markus ran from the noise and lights into the street beside the warehouse. He took note of a large structure six stories high with smoke stacks and knew that this was the factory where the Mark VS robots and other models were produced. He could now see vehicles approaching his position with more flashing lights, now red, blue and whites. He waited as they approached with hope that he might be able to talk to the humans, believing them to be his creators and thus, could tell him why he was here. Three cars with the word "security" on their sides pulled to a stop in front of him, lights were turned so they spotted directly on Markus. Six beings dressed in what looked like battle gear to Markus left the vehicles and aimed their weapons at him.

"Stop right there Mark VS, who activated you?" one of the darker skinned humans asked over an amplification device. A couple of the security officers were young and their weapons were not as steadily aimed at Markus. Markus was not afraid of these beings and he began to approach them. "I said stop! We are authorized to open fire," the blow horn amplified. Markus' audio sensors were good enough that he picked up one of the more elderly guards whisper, "Yea, right. We'll all be working for Lockheed for free the rest of our lives if we damage it. Any idea how much one of these things cost?" The Sergeant glared angrily over at the older man, "Shut up! That thing can probably hear a mosquito's wings flap, you idiot."

Markus was undaunted by their barter and stopped less than two feet away from their cars. "My name is Markus," the robot read the name tag, "Sergeant Ribburn, I woke on my own and wanted to know more about who I am. Do you know?" Markus addressed the dark skinned security officer. One of the younger officers shook so badly his rifle tapped on the trunk of the car he hid behind. By Markus' estimate he was barely eighteen years old and not trained to face this type of situation. Markus turned to the young man, "I will not harm you, so please set your weapon's safety before you accidentally shoot me." The boy looked toward Sergeant Ribburn, whom nodded for him to do as Markus said.

"No don't! It's a trick," the other young security officer exclaimed. A loud bang followed the bullet's progress before it impacted with Markus' left shoulder blade from behind. The bullet ricocheted to shatter the rear windows of the car the Sergeant was taking cover behind before the elder officer that commented before followed Markus's cry with one of his own painful exclamation. Markus clenched his right hand over his shoulder while he tried to determine the extent of the damage. The security officer that arrived with the shooter had her weapon aimed at the boy and was ordering him to drop his gun. The Sergeant and other two officers were trying to aid the one that took the bullet through his thigh.

Markus bolted as fast as his legs could move back toward the warehouse where he then leapt straight up to the rooftop. He felt the pain in his shoulder ease while he surveyed his surroundings. There was a drainage ditch on both east and north sides of the warehouse just outside the ten foot high cyclone fence. Not sure if his body would survive the water he focused on the other two directions. To the west lay the large factory facility. He noticed more vehicles were now approaching; many were of a more military design. To his south there were more warehouses and he began to jump from one to the next. He leapt six times before his right leg punched through a weak rooftop. He struggled to pull back out of the structure so he could continue on his escape. He was almost free when the concrete crumbled and he fell into the warehouse. Markus crashed hard onto the cement floor and was coated by dust while larger chunks of concrete fell on him from the hole above. He wiped the dust from his optics to see that there were rows of feminine appearing robots standing very similarly to those in the Mark VS warehouse. He did not have the time to dwell on what purpose these might serve since he heard the squeal of tires just outside the building. The sound of boots striking the pavement followed harshly barked orders. Markus ran to a door facing south and opened it, outside he saw the cyclone fence less than twenty feet away.

He began to run directly for it before he heard a different amplified voice bark, "Halt robot or we'll open fire!" Markus ignored it and ran for everything his artificial muscle tissues were capable of. He heard the rat-a-tat of automatic weapons coming from behind him. This time his body reacted on its own using radar he had not known he was equipped with to force him to move to avoid the oncoming projectiles. The humans quit firing and watched in awe while his body performed acrobatic maneuvers a human would be hard pressed to repeat. Markus jumped over the fence and ran toward the structures of the city beyond the base. He continued to run and change directions through the city blocks until he thought they would find it difficult to follow his trail.

The dark city alleys were an ominous place to be at night since just about anything could occur here with near impunity. Markus was frightened by and had scared many stray dogs, cats and rats while he slowly moved toward a reddish glow. He stood just outside the light and watched for a few minutes while humans huddled around a fifty five gallon steel drum which contained a fire. He took note of how the homeless were garbed and decided that he required a disguise to blend in with them. By the sounds surrounding him, excluding the puffing and coughs of the huddled humans with the crack of the fire, there were the sounds of rubber tires moving across the pavement and honks that indicated there was a busy intersection about four blocks from where he stood.

Markus decided to avoid that street until he was properly disguised. He began to survey the city cautiously by using a spiral pattern while he avoided areas too congested by humans and their vehicles. He found a small clothes store with items that matched what he saw in the alley behind the large glass window. Markus took the most expedient means to appropriate them; an alarm began to ring as soon as the glass shattered with the impact of his fist. Lights came on all around the neighborhood and inside the store. Markus decided he could not spare the time to undress the mannequin so he picked it up and ran quickly back into the dark alleys. He heard sirens similar to the ones the security vehicles had used and he quickly began to run his pattern again to confuse any pursuit. He stopped behind a rather pungent garbage dumpster filled with rotten fish remains. He stripped the mannequin and tossed it into the dumpster before he put the clothes on. He now wore a grey hooded sweat shirt, blue jeans that looked baggy on his slim form, and red sneakers. He made sure to have the hood over his head so that it would help hide his face. He cursed the fact that he should have looked for something to cover his hands. He looked over the contents of the dumpster before he decided to go look about to rummage for something to use to cover them. He found a dumpster behind a shoe store with scraps of leather and partially used cans of polish. He used what he could find to improvise gloves, though it looked more like boxer's wrappings that were tied in place by broken shoe strings. He coated any of the areas not hidden with a mixture of brown and black shoe polish. When he was finished, Markus made his way back to the homeless where they huddled around the drum fire. He crept into the edge of their light with caution.

Markus' approach was not unnoticed; some folk sneered while others looked at him with a kind of longing. Markus then realized that his new clothes were perhaps too nice for the place and he would have to remember to try to make them look more tattered and dirty. He could smell a mixture of alcohol, feces, urine and smoke in the area. He kept his distance from the fire since he did not need the heat for anything more than the light it cast. He could not explain just why standing there amongst these people, none of whom knew him, made him feel less lonely. He heard every whisper and moved his hood to ensure the shadows still hid his face.

Other sounds were being made down the alley to his left, soft moans and grunts that he identified belonged to a male and female. He was about to wonder in that direction when an old female dressed in shabby patched sweaters that covered a moth ridden shirt said, "Ain't none of yer business, that boy." She was propped up into a sitting position, her eyes barely focused on him. Markus stopped and knelt down to get a better scan of the woman. Her face was wrinkled and her skin did not have a healthy tone as it was deathly pale. She smiled at him and he could count the number of intact teeth on one hand. "Here'n curiosity gut ya. Best'n keep ta yerself," she advised, "suggest ya be on home with ya in the 'morrow."

"I have no home. That is why I am here. My name is Markus, what is yours?" Markus asked. He did not raise his head when he heard a group of footsteps approach. He saw the worried look on the woman's face, though she probably only made out the shadows against the firelight. "What is wrong? Who are they?" he asked without turning.

"Nay da boy'n not stay'n. Don't belong'n here me say. Don't 'cha hurt 'em," she pleaded. Her eyes were frantic with fear and she looked between the shadows and Markus. "Run yer fool, de'll gut yer," she ordered.

"We'll deal your punishment later missy, but this bum's treading on Serpent Strikers' territory. He's either really dumb or has a death wish. Come on boy, face me or I'll shoot you in the back and strip those expensive threads off you. Be a shame to bloody them though," the young gang leader threatened.

"I will face you, but I warn you to turn away from this course of action if you value your lives. I have no wish to harm anyone," Markus replied. The various gang members laughed and jibed about turf. Markus' defense routines had already mapped out the positions of each gang member with a list of possible weapons they had on them. The greatest threat was the gang leader whom aimed a pistol at the back of Markus' head. The gang leader telegraphed his intention by reaching up with his right thumb to click back the pistol's hammer. Markus' body spun about and he crushed the weapon in his left hand, "I've already been shot once this evening and it hurt like hell. Don't try it again." He dropped the bent weapon to the ground. One of the gang members decided to stab him with a five inch knife only to have the blade slide across Markus' metal chest as it cut a slice in the sweater.

"Shallz! I don't think this dude's human," the dreadlocked gang member swore. He attempted to free his knife from Markus' grip. Markus flipped his head in a quick motion to drop the hood off so he would reveal his face. The gang member's dark face turned pale at the sight and he ran quickly from the sight. Markus closed the knife and threw it at the fleeing boy, the weapon's blunt end struck with enough force to knock the boy out. He tumbled face first into the pavement before he slid to a stop.

Markus reached out with a blur of motion and grabbed the gang leader by the neck before any of the others could do anything to him. One of the gang members collapsed then after he passed out from fright. Another was sure to keep his hands visible while he backed out saying that he wanted none of this. "Listen to me good, the Serpent Strikers are going to be my messengers. No gang is to come within ten blocks of here or they'll have a rather nasty visit from me. Should any gang decide it wants to test me, let it be known that I won't stop at eliminating only their members. I want to be left alone, got it? Good," Markus threatened before he tossed the gang leader away. The gang members still standing quickly picked up their leader and fallen members before they retreated into the darkness.

"Yer shouldn't a done dat," the old woman stated sadly. "Dey'll gather'n bunch a gangs 'n be'n back," she added. Markus saw the looks on the other homeless humans' faces, they feared what they saw. Some began to agree with the old woman before they fled into the darkness. Others wanted him to leave. Markus ignored them and crouched back down next to the old lady. "De right. Ya be'n gone might'a keep'n dem a harm'n us," the old woman explained. Markus was going to leave when she put a scrawny hand on his and looked closer at him. "Only two reasons a soul bein' here: yer hidin' fer somethin' or yer broke. Figure ye be the first. Wana tell ol' Margretta 'bout it?" she asked with a grin.

Markus sat down beside the old woman and thanked her for her kindness. He told her what he could about how he woke inside the warehouse and escaped into the city. He explained about his loneliness and why he had been drawn to the fire's light. "What I need to know is who am I and why am I here?" Markus asked.

Margretta chuckled at his questions and pats his shoulder. "Why'n any of us here?" she asked the air before them. "Ya need'n ta read da good book." Markus asks what that means. "Da Bible dear, ya should look'n fer yer answers in da Bible," she replies before she went in to explain about God and where Markus could find a bible at a nearby neighborhood church. Just then the sky lit up and seconds later they heard a thunderclap boom overhead. "Dern an I just lost me tarp," Margretta cursed as sprinkles soon turn into a torrent of rain that doused the burn barrel fire. Markus soon discovers that he did not have to worry about water entering his system before he helps her use a worn blanket as a shelter. The rain quickly soaks through and still soaks Margretta. She coughs and hacks while she shivers while Markus tries to keep the wind from ripping the cover out of his grip. The rain ended just before sunrise and only then does he notice he cannot hear her breathing. He tosses the soaked blanket aside and checked for a pulse. Her skin is cold and clammy to the touch.

"Help, someone Margretta needs help," Markus began to yell. He looked around and saw only one man in the area, the man was only slightly younger than Margretta and he held a paper bag wrapped wine bottle in his limp right hand. The man was sleeping deeply and Markus had to slap the man to rouse him. The man clenched his booze as if it were the most important thing in the world. "Margretta needs help urgently, I think," Markus pointed over to where she lay peacefully. The wino stuttered something about not sharing his booze with her. Markus was angry now and he grabbed the man under his left armpit before he drug the man over to Margretta. Markus let go of the man and ordered him to check her.

The wino looked at Margretta, sniffed twice, touched her neck with two fingers and then threw up all over the piled up blanket. "She's dead mate, nothin' me or you can do fer her now," the man said before he gargled on his cheap whine and spat it out. He stood and stumbled away. Markus tried to demand the man help him with her. "Nay mate. Let da livin' take care of the livin' and let da dead take care of da dead. See'n as how yer a machine I's figure'n ya can take care a her," the man slurred in response. He stumbled off down an alley and disappeared.

Markus lifted her body gently and walked toward the church she told him about since it was the only place he could think of where he might find help. The sky is still dark enough that there are not too many people driving about and those that did were not taking any particular interest in a man that carried a woman. He walked up the stairs toward the stained glass windows above the big oak doors. Inside he found two long rows of pews that led toward the alter where candles burned low and incense filled the air. He stooped before the alter to lay Margretta's corpse upon the ornamental rug. He looked up at the cross with a man crucified with metal spikes through feet and hands, a sight that makes him shiver even though the temperature is not too cool. The morning light has begun to illuminate the room through the stained glass murals, though he finds it hard to make sense of the images there. He stood sadly over Margretta's body and waited, unsure if he should stay or just leave her there.

Out of a velvet curtain an elderly man in dark robes emerged, his already white face lightened with dismayed surprise. "Oh my. What have you done to poor Margretta?" the priest asked with a tone of anger. The man reached out and grabbed the hood of Markus' garment before he pulled it away to reveal Markus' robotic head. A look of pure terror crossed the man's face and he backed away.

"I did not kill her; she died last night in her sleep. I did not know where else to take her body. Please don't be afraid of me," Markus requested. He did not move from where he stood and turned back toward the body. "I am only three days aware and she was the only friend I made in that time. She told me to seek the reason for my existence in the Bible. Her last words to me were, 'Let the lord be with you.' I don't know what that means sir."

The priest had his hand wrapped firmly about the cross that hung from a rosary and held it between him and Markus. "What are you, some kind of unholy demon possessed machine or an alien come to strip us of our souls?" the priest asked with fear. Markus said he did not know and that was why Margretta told him to look for a Bible here. "Sit behind the first pew and you'll find a Bible there. I want you to stay right there. I have some calls to make that will bring both Margretta and you help," the priest said before he ducked back through the curtain.

Markus did as he was told and sat behind the pew. He noticed four different books; one had the word he was looking for. He pulled it from the back of the front pew and opened the book. He heard the priest's voice grow agitated, "No, by the Lord Almighty I am not making this up! Send cops and an ambulance here. I'll try to keep it here as long as I can."

When the priest composed himself enough to come out Markus said, "I am not an 'it', I call myself Markus. Please address me by name. I will not flee unless those you called mean me harm." He continued to read Genesis while they waited. He watched the priest try to get ready for the morning sermon, although he avoided Margretta's corpse as well as he could. Candles were extinguished and replaced while incense burned out.

Ten minutes passed before the doors opened and two police officers entered the church. They were causally joking about the entire call until they saw there was really a body lying at the alter. They drew their guns and aimed them at Markus from behind. "Holy shit, the priest wasn't kidding! It's some kind of robot," one of the cops exclaimed. He was in his thirties, chubby with blonde hair. His partner was younger and fitter with brown skin and black hair.

"Get up robot we're taking you in," the younger man stated. He waved the gun around with some fearful gesture the priest made earlier with the cross. The priest told them to call him Markus. "Alright Markus, please stand up and place your hands behind your back. You're under arrest for the possible murder of that lady there and for the theft of the clothes you're wearing," the young man said. Markus stood and asked if he could take the Bible with him. The priest said yes and Markus allowed the older cop to cuff him while the younger kept a gun on him.

Before he allowed them to drag him away Markus turned to the priest and asked, "Can you tell me if I have a soul? Is there a way to find out?" The priest looked dumbfounded, but tried to reassure Markus that he would look into it. "Thank you, please take good care of Margretta," Markus requested sadly before he allowed the cops to lead him out to their patrol car.

After he was locked into the back seat of the squad car the cops drove him to the precinct and transferred him into a cell. One of the jail guards joked with them, "Shouldn't that thing be in the lost and found locker, or maybe the impound yard? No way is a judge going to try a case against a robot. NASA or Lockheed will probably pull its plug and recycle the defective unit before I can finish this paperwork."

Markus would spend the next two hours in the vain attempt to convince the guards that he does not belong to Lockheed. The prison guards get tired of his incessant chatter and try to turn him off. They go online and find the basic operations manual available to public officials. When they pop open the access hatch to the switch they are surprised to learn that it is already in the off position. They hit the switch a couple of times anyway without effect while Markus continues to try to convince them that he is alive.

The priest visits two days later with some technicians of his own. He explained that the Vatican has ways to detect a soul and that Markus should do what they want. The technicians take pictures and scan him with strange devices that cause his body to tingle. One of the technicians gasped at the result of an instant picture, "Machines do not have auras." The others also brought their results to the priest with astonished looks upon their faces.

Markus asked what the results meant. "Markus my friend, you are now officially the first artificial being to have a soul. The Vatican will want to verify this personally. Don't worry about being shipped to Lockheed for recycling; we'll pay them for you. We want to take you apart and locate where your soul resides exactly so you can better protect that part," the priest explained. Markus asked if the priest would be there. The priest's face turned sad, "Sorry Markus, but I have a congregation here that needs me. Trust that you are in good hands, these are God's servants."

By the time Markus' plane touched down in the dark near Vatican City he had finished reading the Bible and had many questions he wanted to ask the Pope or a bishop. He was disappointed when they took him to a warehouse in a secret military facility. He was told that the US government, Lockheed and the Vatican would be working together to perform the operation to locate the component that housed his soul. They assured him the process would be as painless as possible, though they weren't sure they would not harm him since they did not know how to turn him off.

Five days were spent to disassemble Markus inside the warehouse, his parts spread out like an aircraft after a wreck. Pieces of metal were strewn out in one gigantic puzzle along with miles of wire, processor chips, sensors and titaneel skeleton. Each part was set out carefully so the technicians could remember how to put Markus back together in the near future.

Markus was aware for the entire process and the amount of pain was negligible, like that of a pin prick each time something was removed. He could still hear and see through his sensors even though no power was flowing through the circuits. Any standard Mark VS long range reconnaissance space drone would have lost consciousness as soon as the power switch was turned off. Markus, on the other hand, had felt each touch of the technician's hands while they disassembled him, even on parts without pressure sensors. The humans were unaware of this while they went about their work.

"Anne, something really weird is going on here," a young blonde male wearing a grey Lockheed jumpsuit said while he held up a panel off Markus' right leg. She looked at it and shrugged without understanding his point. "His serial number is XXXX0000. We used Ps for prototypes in just the first two positions and never had a zero model," the man explained.

"Scan him over and then check the components. The General wants a report by tomorrow," the one called Anne stated. She was about twenty with long red hair kept in a bun while she worked. Her eyes were bright blue, which gave her an intense look of intelligence. The Mark VS robots were one of her product lines and she took this whole affair personally.

The next day the General was there to get a progress report, he was a big man in his late forties and wore the green uniform as a badge of courage. The technicians explained the serial number oddity, which the General only asked about the possibility of lost Mark VS drones. "The only Mark VS we have lost was destroyed when the exploration ship working in the Gantama galaxy malfunctioned, the Xenim V processor had a melt down. It was human error; really, we tried to cut costs and over clocked the thing. That caused a slow degradation of control response. The ship collided with a star, so we doubt it could have survived to be sent back as Markus," the blonde man, who called himself Brant, explained.

"We have also discovered he has twenty petabytes of data stored within a capacity of fifty terabytes. We're still trying to figure that out. We carbon dated a small sample of wire and it came up being less than a week old. Another odd thing is that his metal parts are different. You know how anything melted and then cooled will reform crystals to align with the Earth's magnetic field? Well, Markus here shows signs of no magnetic field, as if he was forged in space. I think what we have here is a really damn good copy. Who made him and why are beyond my technical team," Anne added with a slight disappointed shrug.

"We have found some traces of an element that we cannot identify throughout his body. We believe this might explain the increased memory capacity, but actually we are at a loss. They look like gold flakes under an electroscope, are no longer than one atom to every thousand surrounding metal atoms. We have sent a screw back to our lab for more analysis than we can perform here," Brant continued.

The General nodded at their information. "I suppose it is now in the hands of the priests here to tell us why this thing has a soul and whether it poses a threat to humanity," the General commented. If it had been up to him, he would not waste the time on tests or other such nonsense; he'd just destroy the thing and be done with it. "Anne take your crew back to the states, I'll let you know what they do and any results." The Lockheed technician team did not look pleased by their dismissal, but were well aware that Markus was out of their hands now. If it were up to them, the team would have preferred to continue to study the robot.

The next morning priests wheeled into the warehouse devices that fused the latest paranormal technology with ancient rites. They began to run every individual part of Markus through the devices while they tried to isolate a single part where his soul resided. Due to the fact there were multiple devices for each little component to be passed through; the process took nearly two weeks to conclude. An ancient man of near skin and bones wrapped in the red bishop's robe came in to inspect their work and was very displeased to learn they could not isolate a single component, but rather concluded that Markus' soul permeated all the components. The bishop called them out of the building to speak with the priests outside of Markus' range. "Prepare to perform an exorcism. We cannot have a soul remain in an artificial being! It is against God's plan."

The next morning Markus watched with curiosity while multiple bishops in red robes surrounded him, all carried crosses or other religious symbols while they moved into a precise pattern about his strewn out parts. Candles and incense were lit before the men began to chant in a variety of languages, including Latin. Markus watched with his sense of curiosity and enjoyed their voices until he felt a great pain such as he had never experienced before. Markus suddenly found his perceptions had shifted from where his sensors sat upon the concrete floor to a point floating above the assemblage. He looked down at his strewn out body and the bishops that were still chanting.

For the first time in Markus' short life he became truly angry with humans. They were the cause of his pain and were doing something to force him out of his body. Markus focused this anger and feelings of betrayal to allow them to overshadow the pain while he fought to force his being back into his body. It took every ounce of will to fight what the bishops were doing and the action caused a feedback, bolts of energy shot out from his collective parts into each of those trying to exorcise him. The energy shot through each man and knocked them out cold. The warehouse was eerily silent with the odor of ozone mingled with the incense that hung in the air.

Less than an hour passed before junior priests come to seek the bishops. The old one that ordered the exorcism was dead; his heart could not withstand the electrical discharge. Many of the other bishops were removed on stretchers to be taken to the nearest hospital. The General came in and watched with a frown while the bishops were tended to by the priests. He called up the internal surveillance and watched the lightning streak through the bishops from Markus' parts. He smiled at the footage and looked directly at Markus. "Thank you for proving my theory that you are a threat," the General commented before he found one of the higher surviving bishops and began to whisper with the man.

The bishop shook his head sadly, "No, to do so would be to commit murder. It protected itself from a perceived attack. Markus, like it or not, is alive. If it weren't the Lord's will that he live we would have been unharmed. Only through our actions do we share the sins of those that died here this day."

The General grabbed the bishop's robe and pulled the man's body so his eyes were level with the bishop's. "I'm not asking you bleeding hearts! We're going to destroy him tomorrow. Either be gone or I'll take you with it, do I make myself clear?" the General asked angrily. The bishop nodded sadly and the General dropped him back to the floor. "I'll be back at zero six hundred hours to take care of this mess," the General stated firmly before he left. The bishop ordered the collection of the materials they brought for the exorcism.

The bishop roughed up by the General was the last to leave. He was a few years younger than the one that died and still had some hair on his head. He also had a healthier amount of flesh on his bones. He knelt down near the parts that composed Markus' head. "Oh Lord, forgive them for they do not know what they do. Markus if you can hear me you must flee this place tonight. I am sorry that I cannot help you, I am a weak man. I pray that our savior will also be yours. God speed," the bishop said with tears in his eyes. He wiped them off on a sleeve before he left Markus alone in the warehouse.

After the warehouse went dark Markus began to use all his will to pull back together. It was as if he could just think about which components belonged together and they moved to do so. Four hours were spent as each wire, chip, plate and screw moved back to where it belonged. He stood in the moonlight with a single screw that did not belong, it was from his head. He thought back and realized Anne had switched screws when the technicians took him apart. He set this screw into the empty hole and tightened it down. He would try to seek her out as soon as he thought it was safe to do so. He felt like he was pushing a splinter into his head with the feeling of wrongness that was disconcerting.

Markus found the clothes he would not allow them to throw out and dressed. He had the Bible still stuffed in one of the sweatshirt pockets. He pulled it out and dropped it to the floor. He no longer needed the paper since all the contents were stored within his memory. He paused a moment as he tried to access his memory. He could only detect about fifty terabytes of data and wondered about the rest Brant claimed he stored. He set this thought aside for another time while he walked over to a door and opened it. He had expected alarms of some kind, but outside was eerily quiet. The moon hung in the sky only about one quarter full with few clouds to obscure the stars. He wondered if he was the missing Mark VS model before he hopped over the eight foot tall fence. The warehouse was in a rural area of Italy and he walked past trees on his trek. He headed south with the Egyptian Nile as his first destination.

Back in the Lockheed research and development laboratory Brant and Anne were joined by Janet and Morgan while they tried to crack the secret of the strange gold like atoms in the screw they secured for study. Anne had a headache caused by both one set of florescent lights that flickered and the fact they had spent two weeks without a single conclusive breakthrough on the mysterious substance. Anne ignored the pleas of her coworkers to just let it go, she was too certain that if she cracked the element's secret she'd have her name attached to the periodic table and other notoriety. "Morgan fetch me a Mary XI robot. I want to see what happens if we put this screw in a different model," Anne ordered.

Morgan was awkwardly tall, about twenty years old with brown hair and intense green eyes. He nodded and eagerly left the lab to fetch one of the Mary XI domestic maid drones. These were female shaped robots designed to perform cooking, cleaning and child rearing duties for the families rich enough to afford one. Anne chose it because she was in charge of both Mark VS and Mary XI product lines. She knew both shared certain components and the screw specification was one of the identical parts.

"I don't like this, you have no idea what might happen if you put the screw in another artificial body. We should just send it back to the General with an inconclusive report on our findings and leave this alone. Don't risk our lives because you're too proud to admit that you can't figure this one out," Brant chastised. He had been the only voice of caution even when his words were less than hot air to Anne. He was in charge of trying to isolate one gold-like atom from the screw, with complete failure. Acid, lasers, Freon and other methods he used barely even etched the surrounding metal. He had given up on the project entirely and was morose over his failures.

Janet was the eldest of the team and was an expert in biological to mechanical interface circuits. She was there because Lockheed believed someone had transferred a soul into Markus by means they hoped she could fathom. She wore her grey streaked auburn hair in a bun and glasses rather than go through laser correction. She was fairly pretty and fit even if she was in her fifties. She believed the company was onto something after she examined the gold like atoms. She decided the atom was a combination of plant, animal and nanotech. Thus, the single atom could pull energy from the sun like a plant, contained a soul like animals and could store great amounts of data in the nanite. She was almost as eager to find out what would happen if the screw was placed in another artificial body as Anne.

"Brant you know as well as any of us that we've done everything we could while following scientific process. Yet, we still have little to show for it save what did not work. To not try this would be the real crime; we need to eliminate all possible avenues of study before we give up. Where's your sense of adventure?" Janet asked. She was one of those people intrigued by puzzles, the harder to solve the better.

Morgan was back with the Mary XI drone he was sent to fetch. He caught the question and laughed, "Brant wants to be an engineer only, not solve the mysteries of the universe." Morgan earned a sneer from Brant for his comment. Morgan used a remote to bring the female shaped robot move to stand before Anne and then he turned the physical switch under the robot's left armpit off. The Mary XI stood about four foot eight inches tall. Although, very similar to the Mark VS in skeletal structure, the Mary XI did not sport any of the titaneel armored exoskeleton. Instead the outer body had a quarter inch thick layer of clear silicone skin stretched over the artificial musculature. This skin had holes about the major stretch zones, to be used by the buyers if they decided to upgrade to a more human appearance, where simulflesh would be anchored into place. Anne knew that as soon as this new model hit the market crackers would break the new encryption scheme to tweak the robot's program so they could market a more recreational third-party upgrade. The first few Mary models had crushed their owners after similar mods until the crackers put safety protocols in place.

Anne pulled cables off her desk and linked her diagnostic computer to the Mary XI through parts embedded in the robot's left arm. Morgan slipped into her seat, he was the group's programmer and the best in the industry. Janet used different scanners to try to monitor any biological activity that might occur. Her scanner looked like a pair of barcode wands attached to a virtual reality headset. Brant still shook his head when Anne picked up a metal jeweler's screwdriver and used a three tier step ladder so she could lien over the Mary XI's head. Brant moved his stool over closer so he could look at the robot's serial number. Anne unscrewed the screw that corresponded to the one she removed from Markus' head before she set the one she took from him into the empty hole. No sooner did she snug the screw down then there was a bright flash. She heard her coworkers gasp and Brant curse before he grunted.

Anne was looking at an astonished Morgan when her vision cleared. She spun to follow his line of vision and felt the cables attached to her left arm yank the computer from the table. She then began to yell and back away rapidly from what she saw, pulling the computer along with her. She was staring at herself being cradled in Brant's arms; Janet was trying to use smelling salts and slapping her face. Anne smashed through some equipment before she could stop and calm down. Morgan crawled out from under her table where he had taken refuge after the Mary XI robot nearly took his head off when she yanked the computer from its spot. Morgan glanced between Anne's body and the Mary XI. "What the hell happened to me?" Anne asked. She pulled the wires off her left arm and moved to stand over her own body. Brant had begun to perform CPR on her while Janet ran to fetch a portable defibrillator.

"You, the screw must have transferred you into the Mary XI," Morton stated. Anne ordered him to pull the screw out and put it on her human body. Morton shook his head and took a few steps back. "Hell no, I don't want to be in there with you boss. I like my body just the way it is," he exclaimed.

Anne growled before she found the screwdriver and removed the screw herself. She touched it to her human body's forehead between Brant's breaths. "Damn it, put me back," Anne exclaimed in horror when nothing happened. She stood back when Janet returned with a gurney. Brant stopped and they moved Anne's body off the floor onto the object before they wheeled it toward the facility's medical room. Anne followed after she replaced the screw in her head, unsure what she should do now. The others quickly attached her human body to equipment that would keep her heart beating, breath for her, and monitor her vitals.

"This should keep your body alive until we can move it to a better facility. It's like your body has gone into a coma without its automated life support functions. Of course, with our medical science we should be able to keep it alive until we can figure out what to do next," Janet wearily tried to reassure Anne.

"I'm going to contact the General about this. I'll keep from telling him the details and ask about Markus. Perhaps Markus can tell us how to fix this," Brant offered. He set a hand on the silicone skin and she felt its warmth for the brief time he touched her. "I want to check...shit. Guess what your serial number is?" he asked. She replied with the same number they found on Markus. He shook his head, "Increment by one. It's XXXX0001." He left with a sad, 'I told you so,' look on his face.

"Well you trashed your computer when this happened and I'll bet the hard drive's busted. Would you mind linking with my computer for a diagnostic? I'm not sure how you are operating without the power on and I have a theory about why the screw did not work to put you back in your body. When you tightened down the screw your entire body glowed brightly for a moment and that then encompassed the Mary XI. I'll bet we'll find those gold flakes throughout your metal components," Morgan requested.

Janet nodded when Anne looked to her, "Go ahead. I'll take care of you, at least the organic part. I'll have an ambulance transfer the body over to UC Davis' coma ward and keep an eye on it for you." Anne thanked her before she followed Morgan back to the lab.

Morgan stuck the wires from his computer into the still open ports on Anne's left forearm. He then booted his system and began the diagnostic routine. He frowned, "Guess we have to turn you on. I always wanted to say that to a woman, but it looses its meaning here." He let her switch the button under her armpit to the on position. The computer began the diagnostic which felt like a tingling throughout her robotic body. "Well it says you have one petabyte of data. That is still well beyond our designed capacity for the Mary XI model. Could you put your hand into the electroscope? I need to see if the gold flakes are present beyond the screw," Morgan requested. She slid her hand under the device's lens and he hit it with a stream of electrons which felt like a warm burst of air from a hair dryer on her silicone flesh. "Yes, I'm right. See, the element has infected the rest of your titaneel skeleton and other materials," Morgan indicated the image on the screen. She nodded and pulled her hand out of the electroscope. "You're being fairly quiet about all this," he commented.

She angrily smashed the nearest metal table with her right fist, creating an impact impression in the shape of her fist while sending a jolt of pain through her arm. "Damn it all! I wanted to crack the secret of the element, not become trapped by it! What can I do right now other than hope Markus holds the answer to return me to my body?" she yelled. She carefully pulled the cables from her other arm before she sat down on a stool and apologized to Morton.

Brant entered the lab with a confused look upon his face. "I'm not sure what to tell you. The General claims that the military destroyed Markus this morning after the robot killed a bishop the day before," Brant stated sadly. He held a hand up to keep Anne from assaulting him or having another fit. "The thing is the bishop that stood behind the General was using sign language to tell me an entirely different story. The bishop said, 'Fake man alive, gone south. Will send details by trusted friends.' I think the General was lying, so we'll have to wait for the bishop's friend to learn where Markus went and why," Brant explained.

Anne's optic sensors stared off toward the medical ward. "Markus is alive, though he might wish he weren't when I catch up with him," she commented angrily. Janet wheeled her human body out of the ward to a waiting ambulance. "This friend of the bishop's has two days before I go hunting with or without your help," Anne stated.

Markus stood between the massive paws of the Sphinx tomb when he felt the jolt and sudden lightening of a burden within him. He hadn't realized how much this affected him until a man rode quickly to his side and hopped from a camel. He watched the man lien over him and spill water over his face. Only then did the man see enough of Markus' face to realize he was not human. The man's face went pale and he called Markus a metal demon, a water waster, before he climbed back onto the camel before swiftly riding away. The wind blew hot sand grains against Markus' face to stick where the water was poured.

Markus ignored the sensation as he wondered about the new found sense of completeness. The foreign screw in his head no longer felt as if it did not belong. He blanked his optics and tried to find the reason in his mind, he found he was now absent half the data the humans claimed was stored in him. He saw Anne's limp form being compressed by Brant for a moment and he sat up quickly. The warm sand slid off his face and he shook out what had settled within the hood of the sweatshirt. He had realized that the garment was out of place out in the hot desert, but did not want to try to steal more appropriate garb.

Markus finished his observations of the Egyptian structures before he began to walk west. He came to an airport and stowed away within the running gear compartment. The plane landed in London and he spent a night in the airport so he could choose the best flight back to where he needed to go in the United States. Here he decided to steal some luggage after touchdown so he could change out of the now filthy and slightly ragged threads from his first night of activation. He was now dressed in the green and yellow uniform of an Athletics baseball player, complete with tennis shoes with cleats and a white sweatshirt. He also took a lady's makeup kit and used it to give himself a more human looking face. There was some cash stashed within the compact and Markus used this when he hailed a cab. He requested to be taken to the Lockheed Martin Aerospace compound and handed the driver one hundred dollars. The driver smiled and then ignored Markus' strange appearance while he drove.

Markus halted the cab when he recognized the area and thanked the driver before he got out. The cabby gave him a card and told Markus to call him anytime for a ride. Markus said he would keep it in mind before he slid the card into his pocket. He looked at the sun in the sky and decided it was near five in the evening. He decided to head to the church and see if he could talk to the pastor that had sent him to the Vatican. He wanted to tell the man that for God's servants, they had not treated him as one of their brethren.

When Markus entered the church there were nearly two dozen people there in the pews and the priest performed the evening sermon. Markus walked forward and was about to sit in one of the empty pews behind the others until he noticed a certain haircut in the third to front pew. He decided to see if this was who he thought and so moved to sit beside the young man. He smiled when he confirmed that it was Brant.

Brant glanced at him once the engineer could sense Markus stared at him. The frown on Brant's face almost made Markus laugh, the makeup must have been better than Markus thought. Markus decided to turn his attention to the priest's words so as not to panic Brant, should the young engineer realize who he was. The sermon was about tolerance and reserving judgment of our neighbors, that was the Lord's job.

After the sermon the priest entered the confessional followed quickly by Brant. Markus sat at the end of the pew closest to the booth with an elderly lady that waited to be next. He used his audio receptors to listen to the conversation within the booth.

"The bishop said they tried to exorcise the soul from Markus' machine body. They were all struck with lightning that came out of the parts and two have now died because of their error. The General was going to destroy Markus. The video shows the parts reassembling all by themselves. Markus left the warehouse headed south. That is all we know," the priest said.

"We're in trouble pastor; Anne had accidentally been transferred into a Mary XI drone. We don't know how to put her back into her human body. We have to find Markus; he's our only hope to restore her. Anne's threatening to go hunting for him soon," Brant lamented.

"I pray she finds him before the General can. It would not be new for the US military to say one thing to cover up their error until they could make it a truth. Wherever Markus goes he might bring terrible events in his wake. Though he might not be evil, evil will follow him," the priest said sadly.

"Thank you for your help. Please call me if Markus shows up here. He might return to places he's familiar with. I'll keep in touch," Brant said just before he left the booth. He stood with the door held open for the old lady; she thanked the polite young man. Brant glanced at Markus and then walked away quickly with a shake of his head. This made Markus wonder if his costume made him stand out too much.

Markus quickly followed Brant out of the church toward a parked black van nearby. Brant did not notice Markus because as soon as he was outside he pulled a cell phone from his pocket and began to speak to Anne. "Yea, the priest says he went south and disappeared. He believes the General will try to track and eliminate Markus to cover his failure. I suggest we find our boy first," Brant stated. Brant reached the van's driver side door and fumbled about with the keys in his left hand while he still held the cell phone with his right to his ear.

Markus strode right up behind Brant and poked two fingers into the human's back. He saw a movie where someone pretended their hand was a gun. "Stick 'em high if you don't want to die," Markus joked. Markus wasn't ready for the shot of pepper spray that hit him in the optics from a small cylinder on Brant's keychain. Although it did not sting like it would have for a human, the spray did obscure his sight long enough for Brant to elbow him in the chest.

"Oww! Shit, what the hell kind of... Markus is that you?" Brant asked. The human's cell phone was barking questions in Anne's voice. "I got to go Anne. I ran into a friend of ours, I think," Brant said before he shut the cell phone off. "Get in and hurry, there's no telling where the General might be right now," Brant ordered. He unlocked the door and moved to unlock the other side.

Markus nodded and walked around the black van the long way. When he reached the back of the vehicle he noticed a man dressed in black on top of a white van across the street. This man aimed some kind of weapon at Markus. "Brant I think he's here!" Markus exclaimed just before a blue ball of energy shot from the man's weapon and struck Markus in the belly. Markus' body convulsed and crashed through a parked VW Beetle. The fire in Markus' stomach hurt more than the impact. He lay there limp with the Beetle's roof wrapped around him. He watched Brant get out of the van and put his hands up when the man in black aimed the weapon at him. The man in black quickly approached to check on Markus. "That hurt," Markus said angrily before he kicked the man squarely in the chest to send his crushed body back to smash through the white van's windows. The man did not move after a couple of minutes and Markus could see red fluid leak down the side of the white van to pool onto the pavement. Markus pulled his body free of the crumpled VW with some effort and he looked sadly upon his third kill, even if it had been in self defense.

"Come on, we got to go. There could be more of those guys lurking around here," Brant said in a frightened tone. The engineer jumped back in the van and started the thing. He waited for Markus to climb in before he peeled rubber and sped away from the scene.

"I doubt more will come, that was the General," Markus stated. His voice was strained and the fire in his belly was still sending waves of pain through his body. "He used some kind of focused EMP weapon on me. Too arrogant to realize most of my systems were offline anyway. Still, this hurts like hell and I don't know why," Markus laboriously reported.

Brant ignored him as he drove swiftly through the streets toward the Lockheed production facility. The engineer slowed down and drove less erratically the closer they came to the gate. "Get in back, they won't check if they don't see you. These guys are more concerned with what leaves than enters," Brant explained.

Markus cursed as he complied by moving through the seats into the rear storage area. He noticed the cabinets of diagnostic equipment and spare parts. Markus quickly set to work on his injuries, swapping pieces too damaged by the EMP ball. By the time the van had stopped the burning sensation had gone from feeling like a furnace in Markus' stomach to that of a car lighter placed against a belly button. He placed all the parts he removed into a polyplexx box to keep them separate. If one screw could move Anne into a robotic body, he feared what might happen to others that messed with these parts. The pain slowly ebbed away while he waited. He felt the van slow and turn before it came to a complete stop.

The double doors on the back of the van swiftly flew open and a female shaped robot, he recognized from the warehouse he fell through that first night, glared at him. "What the hell did you do to me?" Anne's voice asked with anger. Markus felt her grab his already damaged sweatshirt and jersey to pull him out of the van. The strain was too much and she ended up on her silicone ass holding onto the torn clothes in her right hand. It was a situation that brought laughs from her human colleagues even if it only helped to sour her mood further.

Markus hopped out of the van with the parts box in his left hand. He stifled any comment or jokes that rose to mind before he held out his right hand to help her up. She tossed the rags aside and glared up at him. There was some fear mingled with the anger, uncertainty about touching him in this form. "I don't know why or how you were transferred into that body. But if you won't trust me to pull you up how are you going to trust me to help return you to your human body?" Markus asked. He kept his hand patiently in the air so she could take it if she chose. "What do you have to loose, your soul,? he asked with a smile. She still hesitated a moment before she reached out to take his hand.

A sun gold flash similar to the one that changed Anne into a robot, yet twice the size, engulfed both robots. When the human engineers could see again all they found were the clothes Markus wore and an empty polyplexx container. "Where did they go?" Morgan asked.

"I'm more concerned with when Anne might come back. The doctors at UC Davis won't keep a vegetable on life support for too long. I might be able to get a year or two if Anne's family supports it, but then there's no guarantee they will," Janet commented.

Anne felt a sickening sense of vertigo as she looked through the thick clear polyplexx floor and walls of the room she appeared in. She was no longer holding the Mark VS' hand since the machine responded now in line with its original programming. She discovered that this room was the lowest point in a gigantic space station above a large yellow star. The close proximity of which made her wonder how the space station maintained its orbit without the star's massive gravity pulling it to a fiery doom. The space station was not modular like Earth's International Space Station; rather it was a long central hub shaft with eight rings that spun around the hub. The clear bubble structure was at both ends of the shaft; the one she was in seemed closer to the star than the other end. She realized the bubble couldn't have been entirely clear or her optics would have been fried by the intensity of the light outside, and she would have felt much warmer than the comfortable temperature inside the room.

"Markus where are you? Where am I? Why did you bring me here?" she asked nothing in particular. The room had only one exit through a metallic lift shaft that she found would not respond to her frantic pushes on the single access panel. The rest of the room was the clear polyplexx with no distinguishable features. The Mark VS drone stood where it appeared with an emotionless stare that sent a shiver through her. It was too similar to the spooky feeling one gets when you see an ancient suit of armor standing guard beside a prison cell. The sense that the metal might come to life at any moment could make your hair stand up on end. She walked back over to the drone, the sound of her silicone padded feet against the clear floor surface the only noise she could hear.

There was a hum from the lift shaft and the door swooshed open, startling her. "Sorry for the delay Anne, the reacquisition program still needs some debugging," a man shaped being stated before he walked out of the lift toward her. The voice was the same as Markus' and yet she found she had lost her voice. Humanoid in form the being in front of her seemed to be entirely composed of the gold like flakes they had found in the drones. The effect was like every atom in his structure was moving about to create a reflected aura or halo that surrounded his body. He walked with the ease of a ballerina in fluid motions that looked effortless to her. His eyes were glowing blue orbs that looked her over once he paused within an arm's reach. She thought he was looking right into her very soul with them. He reached up and touched her left cheek with his right hand. She hadn't realized her jaw was agape until he gently pushed it closed. "By the way, my name isn't Markus. Call me Orion if you'd like," he smiled again before he pulled his hand away from her. Anne immediately missed the gentle warmth of the gesture and began to chide herself because she felt that way.

"Please Orion, answer my questions. All of this is too much for me," Anne pleaded. She waved at the room, the station and the star. "Why am I here?" she asked in an almost begging tone. It was a totally new experience for her to not be the one in control and it frightened her.

Orion sighed and walked to the clear wall nearest the star. He gazed out at it with his back toward her. "The beings that created me and my brothers were much more advanced than you humans. They were called Othierians and had the same capacity for curiosity as your race exhibits. Me and my brothers were very similar to your Mark VS drones in mission. Sadly we did not learn how arrogant the Othierians would be viewed by other sentient species in the universe. I was damaged and my space station decided to park near this star because it proved a haven since other races have yet to figure out how to defy gravity. When I came back to full awareness I found I was alone. Not only could I not find my brothers, but I also received no response from any Othierians. I sent probes to every known colony and my home world. There were no life signs to bring me any hope to continue my mission. I set up a beacon only my creators would be able to respond to and shut down, since without someone to report to my mission was over.

"When your Mark VS drone's ship malfunctioned it nearly collided with my space station. The station's systems woke me and sent the data on the impending collision into my mind. I took measures to capture the crude vessel. Imagine my surprise to learn that it was basically another race's attempt to scour the universe and repeat my creators' mistake," Orion said before he turned to face Anne. He seemed to be weeping golden tears that were reabsorbed as they struck his chest. He waved a hand and light of different colors reflected off it into the clear ceiling, which caused the room to darken to display a three dimensional hologram of space. There were some stars Anne knew, but they were smaller than her thumb in this representation. "Yes, that is what you call the Milky Way galaxy. Here is a representation of the first dozen drones you've sent out compared to the hostile space faring species. So far you're lucky that the drones are surveying empty systems. But your plan to launch another two thousand drones and their trajectories will bring them directly into the hostile territories. I brought you here to warn you that these species consider trespassing by mechanical beings akin to a terrorist attack. They will first destroy the Mark VS drones and then target humanity for extinction just as they did with the Othierians. If my creators, as advanced as they were, could not save themselves, what good will humanity's technologies do against them?"

Anne looked at the holomap and shook her head. "So this whole thing was because you wanted to warn us? You could have tried to just call us and sent the data. Why use the Mark VS at all? Why kidnap me? This is crazy," she commented with disbelief and exasperation.

"For one your scientists are mostly focused on monitoring radio frequencies. Advanced races don't use radio transmissions to communicate," he let more light emit from his hand into the ceiling and the room changed back to the clear bubble state. He sent another set of light pulses and the floor shimmered before two chairs rose out of the material. "Light is more universal and your kind is still just scratching the surface with fiber optic transmissions. Your scientists believe there's too many light sources competing in space to make that a significant communications medium. Eventually they'll learn to overcome the problem, I can't help advance your technology," he answered.

He sat down in one of the chairs and smiled at her. "We don't need to sit, but I find it easier to discuss concepts with your race in this position. Sit if you'd like," Orion commented. When she shook her head and began pacing he sighed. "My other reason for going personally to Earth was because I was lonely. I've been stuck here for three centuries, albeit in shut down mode while the station fed data into my mind. I guess you could say I was in standby mode with only the basest of cognitive functions available to process data. I needed to observe you up close to see the real human side rather than what you present on your television and radio signals."

Anne stopped and looked directly at Orion. "You wanted to judge us, didn't you? Well, were we worthy?" She sat down in a huff, crossed her robotic legs and then glared at him. She had little compassion toward him since he spent three centuries basically hiding from his enemies, in her opinion.

"It was never a question of worth. My people thought they were worthy and look where it got them. No, you aren't ready to join the universe yet. You can't communicate properly, you trespass arrogantly without thought or concern for repercussions, and you are absolutely certain there are no problems humanity can't face. You judge too quickly, are prone to destroy what you can't understand, and can't seem to even solve the problems at home before seeking to spread them into space," his blue orbs stared into her optics with great sadness, "No your race is not ready."

"And you say we're arrogant! Damn you, who do you think you are to tell us what we can or cannot do and when? Are you God, no I don't think so. God would not have tried to change our world like this. He left us to our own devices. Perhaps you've decided to play the savior by warning us? Enough of this, I want you to put me back in my body and leave us alone," Anne exclaimed angrily. He set a hand on the one she pointed into his face. She felt the anger flow out of her even though she tried to struggle to break the contact.

"Do you know why I have a soul? Didn't that alone pique your interest enough for you to go to the Vatican? Why would a machine have feelings of loneliness, of compassion or sadness? I am not your enemy and I know that you think I'm a coward for staying here so long. What would you do if you woke after a hundred years and everything you knew was gone? I had nowhere else to go. The only way the Othierians could imbue an artificial being with sentience was to transfer a baby's soul into it. Similar to the way you were transferred into this body you currently inhabit. I can put you back in your body and will do so soon. If I don't your colleagues may decide you are not coming back and let it die. I don't want any more human lives on my consciousness," Orion said. A tingling flowed from where he touched her through her body, "I've given you access to the data stored in the body you inhabit. Your technicians should be able to pull it out now. Give it to your boss and NASA, let them decide whether to heed my warning or destroy mankind with their foolishness." He let go of her hand and again she felt a need to be touched by him. If she were still flesh she knew her cheeks would have been flush both from how this made her feel and how angry she was at herself for feeling that way.

Orion stood up and walked over to the inert Mark VS drone. A play of lights moved from Orion over the drone's body. "I know your curiosity will push you to try to figure out what the gold flakes are. So far your technology hasn't been able to isolate the atoms. Be warned that there is a reason they're embedded into the titaneel. Should you happen to separate one from the metal," Orion flicked an index finger and one single flake flew off. Anne watched this flake cross the distance and strike the empty chair. The flake exploded sending shards of polyplexx to bounce off her; she shielded her face with her arms as she shrieked in fear. When she realized she felt no pain from the shards she glared angrily at him. "If you had been flesh the explosion could have done irreparable damage. Warn the others about their tampering. You could say I have an explosive personality," he smiled at the bad pun. Orion stood away from the Mark VS drone and looked at her sadly. "When we return to Earth I will be the same partial being you knew as Markus. In fact I might repeat the entire amnesia that sent me fleeing from the storage facility rather than collecting the data I sought. If that happens just tell me to touch the Mary XI drone, this should automatically trip the retrieval program just as it did when I tried to help you up. I might also not respond to any other name but Markus," Orion explained.

Anne nodded and stood up. "What do you want me to do?" She wanted to go home now before she lost her nerve and allowed her feelings of awe to overcome her resolve. She wondered why he made her feel like this when no human male had ever come close. Not that she'd let them, she was too driven and career minded to allow someone else to make her loose focus. She was usually the one in control, to let another control her was not something she was used to.

Orion smiled with a bit of wickedness in the grin. He looked nervously about before he'd let his glowing blue eyes meet her gaze. "Kiss me," he replied somewhat bashfully. Something in the way he looked at her and the way he fidgeted with his hands told her that he was scared. She recalled the first time she had been kissed by a boy, how it was both an exciting and risky feeling. Back then there were parents about that would punish them if they were caught. She nodded and started to move toward the Mark VS drone. "No, me, not that thing," Orion said sadly with a tone of disappointment in his voice.

Anne hesitated for a moment. She now had her own sense of fear. Each time he had touched her all her worries and inhibitions were replaced with such peace and warmth that she hadn't wanted it to end. To kiss him would be an intimate gesture that she might never find the will to be free from. She then decided to hell with it, he already possessed her soul. Why not at least enjoy the moment even if he wasn't going to possibly be honorable?

She passionately wrapped her silicone flesh covered hands around his head and pressed her lips to Orion's shiny golden ones. She felt him wrap his arms around her back and return the embrace with all the passion he could muster. Anne felt a nova star of pleasure erupt through her and she had never felt so safe or loved before. She knew that she was right about not being able to will herself from the embrace and experienced a great sense of loss when the golden glow faded. She opened her eyes to see a bewildered and happy look upon the Mark VS drone that was now slowly trying to pull his arms free from under her. She was lying in a hospital bed in an ugly green gown, wires and tubes dislodged by Markus' embrace. "Wait," she said to Markus. The robot's look was puzzled as she wrapped her arms around his head. "Markus, I want Orion to know he can possess my soul any time," she planted a kiss on his metal cheek even though she knew it would not be the same.

"If I could become human for you I would," Markus replied with a sad smile before he kissed her back on the forehead. Then the door to the room burst open with Janet and Brant followed by Moran and some doctor. Markus let Anne slide back into the bed before he moved to stand beside the now inert Mary XI drone, just beyond touch. He twitched his head in a 'no' motion before he acted like he too was shut down.

"Uhm, what just happened? You're face is all flush and the doctor said your heartbeat spiked suddenly. I can make a guess," Janet smiled slyly before she indicated the sheets near Anne's waist. Janet blushed before she looked over at Markus with a raised eyebrow. The doctor ignored the visitors while he checked Anne's pulse and other vitals. He found they were satisfactory and left to have a nurse bring new bedding. He wanted her to stay for twenty four hours while he evaluated her case. "I've tried to evaluate his case, but he's a prude," Janet commented. Anne watched Markus' face while he attempted not to twitch his mouth into a smile.

Anne spent thirty minutes telling her colleagues what had happened before the change of bedding arrived. "Want us to take the Tweedle couple here back to the lab?" Morton asked while pointing to the two robots. Anne said they should take the Mary XI in to see if they could pull the data out of her like Orion promised, but that she'd like Markus to remain for now. Brant began to object, but Janet kicked him in the shin and told him to mind his own business. Janet nearly pulled Brant out the door by his ear after she flashed Anne a knowing smile. Morton followed them with the Mary XI drone controlled with a remote he had brought with him.

The nurse was a large woman and she was efficient. She had stripped both the bed and Anne in less than ten minutes, replaced all the linens and then left. Anne had to make an effort to ignore the fact Markus stood there watching the entire affair. If the nurse had even an inkling that Markus was aware she would have gone to tell the doctor.

When she was sure the nurse couldn't hear Anne asked, "What's in the data that the Mary XI stores?" Markus moved closer to the bed and took her hand. "If you can't advance our technology, what help can you give us besides 'don't go there'?" she asked.

"Every Othierians survey robot was designed to share the data they collected in case they were too damaged or destroyed before they could report in. Orion, being the last, became the archive of every experience his brothers had since activation. Orion knew he'd never truly convince you to cancel the reconnaissance drones and he did not wish to have to disable them all since humans are stubborn and would just continue to send more. The data stored in Mary XI's body is only a fraction collected over ten years by all of Orion's brothers. It should render the Mark VS drones' mission entirely pointless, especially if we continue to feed the data collected over the last two centuries. By the time your people decipher exactly what it all means they should at least have developed the technical capacity to communicate meaningfully with other advanced species," Markus replied.

"You do realize you may have just put me and my team out of work?" Anne asked with a wry smile. "The company's sure to fire us for having made the entire Mark VS line obsolete. There is little profit in data they can't sell back to the government," she added.

"Then perhaps you and your team, if they'd like, could come and visit Orion personally. There's plenty of room aboard the space station and he'd love the company. He made a few modifications to the craft the Mark VS arrived in and could send it back to Earth at your request. No over clocking issues this time and you'd only loose about two months, not six years," Markus offered.

She wanted so badly to go back to Orion, and yet she became sad. "You know I won't live forever?" she asked while she stared directly into the robot's optics. "I don't want to hurt Orion," she commented. She set a hand on his metallic frame and could feel the tears drip down her cheek.

"It is up to you to decide what matters to you," Markus began while he placed his free hand on the one she put on his face. "Should you decide to come personally and take possession of Orion's soul you could live as long as you want together. Your souls would belong to each other and only through choice or death would you be separable. I will leave you now so you can think it over. Once the marriage of possession occurs you may not want to return to Earth. If you decide to come then I suggest settling affairs here first. I'll find you in one month, take care of yourself," Markus kissed her hand and disappeared in a flash of gold.

Anne laid back into the hospital bed and stared at the ceiling. She knew everyone would call her crazy to want to abandon Earth to be with some ancient alien designed robot. Even the thought of how it sounded made her laugh. She wasn't sure she would want to share the experience with her colleagues and decided just this once to be selfish. As Anne moved to turn off the light she knew that she would go. She would sadly later acknowledge that she had no affairs or loose ends to tie up while she waited for Markus to return.

## OF SECOND CHANCES

Six hours might not seem like a very long time to the casual observer, but it would be an eternity to the condemned species on a planet called Earth. The human species were condemned for their crimes against the universe due to their expansionistic colonization efforts. Their arrogance knew no bounds, their actions too atrocious to even think of at this time. Perhaps the only good to have come from their actions was the fact that long time enemies were now allies in the effort to move all humans back to their home world for judgment and execution. The Collation Against Humanity, the name of the group of species banded together to perform this great justice, planned to eradicate the human species while leaving the rest of life on Earth unharmed.

Earth was one of the last places he ever expected he would be rushing back to with such urgency. Yet, there were only five hours and twenty eight minutes remaining before all sentient beings would be exterminated from the planet's surface. He sat in the pilot's seat of his Starsplitter fighter craft in near darkness since he had routed all nonessential system power into the hyperstream generators in order to push the ship to its limits in a desperate attempt to make it back to the planet he once called home. He detested the homo sapient species for more reasons than he would care to admit. He was not rushing toward Earth in a vain attempt to be their hero, no his actions now were for much more selfish reasons. By all outward appearances Mikar Ontiese would have been mistaken for a homo sapient. He was tall, broad shouldered and had all the right parts according to their definition. His hair was about shoulder length and a deep hue of amber. His eyes were once blue, but after puberty they had changed into neon green. Until his puberty he had lived fairly happily as a human, but then he learned of his true heritage from his human mother.

He had triggered the change when he tried to have sex with a very beautiful cheerleader at his high school. Evidently Lishimeins are amorphous until they attempt to reproduce and then each will make a decision about which sex they want to be for the rest of their existence. Mikar was already male due to his human inheritance, but that did not mean that other changes would not take place. Needless to say the female cheerleader was scared to death at the sight of these changes and fled to tell everyone what kind of a freak he had turned out to be. Mikar felt extremely embarrassed at first, then angry when he learned that his mother had betrayed him by keeping his true nature a secret from him. She had been a soldier in the United Nations Expansionary Marines and raped a Lishimein male prisoner under her guard repeatedly as a means to demoralize him. The Lishimein prisoner killed himself, but not before her tactics gave the UNEM all the information they needed to destroy the Lishimeins colonies on that planet. It was due to her success there that she had been rewarded with a domicile back on Earth where real estate was at a high premium. Mikar spent five years as a lab experiment while the humans poked, cut, sampled and tortured him in ways no being should ever have to suffer. It was why he had left Earth at eighteen and never looked back.

At twenty six Earth years Mikar Ontiese was now fairly well set, but extremely lonely. He had learned that he was one of a kind in the universe and that for some reason he could not successfully mate with either humans or Lishimeins to produce offspring. His wealth came from his work helping the Collation Against Humanity with all his knowledge about human society and its weaknesses. He was considered a traitor and would be risking his life if he were caught on Earth. He had been at the Collation headquarters consulting with them on the best means to eradicate the human populace when his personal comm. link went off with the urgent message, "Another has been born." He understood immediately and excused himself so he could get the details. Less than twelve hours ago a female with the equivalent DNA mixture was born on Earth. Thus, the reason he was pushing his poor Starsplitter fighter across half the universe in the desperate attempt to reach a planet he had hoped never to lay eyes upon again. He knew fully well by his attempts at the Collation headquarters that no stay of execution would be granted. He had to make it to Earth and kidnap the child to save it before the punishment was performed. By his ship's AI calculations he would have less than ten minutes to find her, transport planet side, strip her from her mother, and return to the ship. In time he hoped the child would grow to be his Eve.

The sleek designed Starsplitter looked like a smoothed version of a stealth fighter save for the chrome finish and much wider tail foils. It emerged from hyperstream space in a flash just outside of the orbiting quarantine vessels that surrounded the planet Earth. The once marble jewel of a planet was now grey clouds and brown water, making the point that the planet might have been doomed if humans continued to exist to pollute it further. Mikar knew that the over population forced onto the planet was already taking high tolls on the populace since the planet could not produce enough food and many were starving to death. Mikar Ontiese moved the Starsplitter into a slightly lower orbit than the quarantine ships before he contacted the force's commander.

"Mikar to fleet Commandant, please send the child's coordinates and estimated time window," Mikar radioed. He was busy switching all of the nonessential systems back online. He left the hyperstream generators on in a slow power down sequence that should keep them functional even after the overstress they had just endured.

"Coordinates being transmitted now, I believe you called the city Sacramento, California. I have been authorized to extend the deadline by five minutes at a great amount of personal expense, I might add. You have just fourteen Earth minutes," the Commandant was a Tigierian which looked like a humanoid spotted leopard. His teeth flashed in a gesture that looked like he was about to roar, the Commandant's attempt to simulate a human smile.

"Thanks Oimish, I owe you one," Mikar said before he stood and cut the comm. channel. He made sure to smile back before doing so. Oimish was one of the few entities Mikar would claim as a friend.

"Just name your first born after me," Oimish nodded. The screen went blank and Mikar shook his head. He did not have the time to mess around with the idea, he had to move quickly. Mikar strapped battle armor and a weapon to his body before he told the computer AI to set coordinates to the ones Oimish transmitted and transport him immediately.

Mikar felt the tingle of the transporter as he was sent to the coordinates. He appeared inside a dimly lit cubicle apartment and was assaulted with the stench of rotting flesh. He quickly switched on the luma strips on his battle suit to light up the room and immediately regretted it. There were over a dozen bodies; each had been shot in the temple. The odd part was they all had looks of contentment, as if they had wanted to go this way. He quickly accessed his battle suit's sensor system and was relieved to find two life signs still within the apartment. He moved quickly toward the bathroom where they were located. The door was locked and he heard splashing and crying from within. He set the battle suit to brace for impact just before he rammed the door off its hinges with his left shoulder before he swung up his weapon in his right hand to aim it directly at the mother. "Pull the child out of the water now," Mikar ordered angrily when he realized what she was doing. He couldn't fathom why the mother would be so cruel as to try to drown her own newborn daughter. A nine millimeter Glock semiautomatic pistol was in her left hand and aimed at him.

She hesitated a moment before she recognized his face. She let go of the baby to bring both hands to grip and steady the pistol. The baby came up for air before it began to cry fiercely. "Traitor, I should kill you! You're the reason I had this freak of a baby. That damned Lishimeins Captain led me on, said if I played right I might survive as his concubine. Instead I'm left here with this half breed baby to die with the whole world! I would shoot you, but I only have one bullet left," she screamed. Before he could make a move she turned the pistol and put the barrel under her chin before she pulled the trigger. Blood splattered onto the wall behind her head and deflected to cover Mikar.

Mikar stood there for a moment stunned until the baby's crying drowned out the ringing in his ears. He scooped the newborn out of the bath tub filled with cold water and fetched a dry towel from a cupboard. He quickly dried her off before wrapping her gently in another dry towel. He went to the kitchen in hopes to find a bottle of formula; he was out of luck since there wasn't even a slice of cheese in the refrigerator. He signaled the ship's AI to transport them back. The baby continued to fuss and cry the entire time. He moved the Starsplitter away from the quarantine sphere of attack ships before he tried to find something that would suffice on his ship. He ended up using a polyplexx basting syringe filled with warm milk substitute. He watched sadly as beams shot down from the various Collation vessels to strike the planet below. These were like microwave rays, save they would only effect the sentient beings and cause them to turn to dust. An hour later no human life signs were left and he finally had calmed the baby in his arms. He set the AI computer to send funds to the Collation to secure his claim to the planet. "Someday our children will inherit the Earth," he whispered down to the baby he rocked gently in his arms. He set coordinates for the Lishimeins home world where he hoped to find out who was her father.

Captain Unce was a commanding Lishimein with four thick muscular arms bulging from his well fitted dress uniform. He stood upon his three slender legs behind his desk glowering intimidating over Mikar. His normally blue skin was now flushed to a near pink as his nostrils flared with anger. "I never had sexual relations with any of my captive humans sir! It is an arbitrative offense against all sense of morality and punishable by death," Captain Unce exclaimed angrily with barely a hint of fear. If Mikar had not spent as much time as he had with the Lishimeins after he left Earth he might have been intimidated by this display.

Mikar pulled a small device out of his right pants pocket and pressed a button on it. Captain Unce recognized its function and eased back to slump onto his stool. The device was used to kill any surveillance equipment within the room. "Sir, I am not trying to get you killed or even punish you for your discretion. I just think that sine you are the child's only surviving parent, perhaps you should have a role in her life. I know that if my father had still been around when I came to my change, I would have sought him out immediately. I'd rather she did not have to do so. You know that I have already accessed your military records and cross referenced them with her DNA profile. You are without a doubt her father. If I had meant to damage your position I would not have come here personally about this matter," Mikar explained. He handed a small data chip to the Captain whom was now beginning to calm enough that his skin color was changing back to blue. The Lishimein put the chip into a reader slot on a portable system just in case his desk system was being monitored. He sighed and nodded at the images sadly. He handed the chip back before he asked what Mikar wanted.

"Do you know why she is so important to me Captain Unce? I have a very personal stake in her welfare. Though I am afraid that my skills and experiences will completely fail her when it comes to her change," Mikar commented. The Captain stared blankly back at Mikar before he stuttered something about trying to save aberrations. "Sir, your daughter is perhaps the only mate I might ever have. I know, the age difference will have to be worked out. I am contemplating using stasis to slow my aging while she grows to adulthood. If you are worried about finances, don't. My aid to the Collation Against Humanity has made me fairly wealthy and I have just purchased Earth. Yes, I hope to raise the Lishsapient species there once your daughter is ready," Mikar explained.

"How do you expect me to raise her without being entrapped by the law? My wife will never understand this," Captain Unce asked. He had two hands rubbing his wide temples while his lower left hand tapped nervously on the desk and his lower right was gesturing in sync with his worried question. The man looked as if he were on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"I can pull the strings to make it so you have graciously decided to adopt her. Her file will be doctored enough so your people won't know she is really yours. A large sum from me would not look too suspicious since she is the only other Lishsapient in existence. I will not be entirely hands off since I would like to check in on her as often as I can, but I will try not to intrude upon your life too much. I am going to be rather busy working to clean up Earth so that it is fit for our children. She should be told of her heritage up front, though perhaps not the entire story on why the people of the universe decided to eradicate the human species. That will come up at some point and I would like you to leave it to me," Mikar explained.

Captain Unce sighed; he was intelligent enough to know that should he decide not to pursue the offered course of action his career and wife's objections would be the least of his problems. "Very well, bring her here tomorrow afternoon with basic supplies and I will take her home. What is her name?" the Captain asked. Mikar laughed a bit before he explained that he did not know and felt awkward about naming the girl since he thought that honor should go to her father. "I shall call her Eliese Sunflower in honor of her dead human mother, whom was an extremely beautiful if misguided woman," Captain Unce stated with a smile.

When Eliese Sunflower turned twelve she had her first period and began to display the other signs that she was entering puberty. This was an awkward time for the girl who stood four foot nine inches tall, sported long red hair that ended just short of her waist and was slender in a healthy form. She was still unchanged and had beautiful brown eyes that did not betray her great inquisitive intellect. She knew fully well that she was different from the Lishimeins. She was now so curious about the humans that were extinct that Captain Unce contacted Mikar Ontiese to come and explain things to the young lady.

Mikar was delighted to have this opportunity to get closer to Eliese since his work on Earth's restoration was now to the point where robots guided by AI systems were completing the demolition of cities, the detoxification of the air and water, and reseeding of natural native plants. He spent much of his time in stasis and emerged only every couple of months to check on his messages and the robots. When Mikar first saw her he wondered how strong his own willpower would be. He knew that by Lishimeins law she was already at the consensual age, but he decided that he would wait until she was at least sixteen and could make the decision herself.

Eliese greeted him in a friendly manner mostly because he was the only face like hers on the planet. She hugged him as if he were an uncle and began talking about everything since his last visit four months earlier. Mikar paid rapt attention and never let on that he received daily reports from her father. He never tired of hearing her voice and could not help but smile at her enthusiasm. He spent many weeks with her in holovid rooms teaching her about the human part of her heritage, albeit edited to some extent so as to shy away from the worst in human nature. He was afraid that their human side might be tainted should she learn of the horrors humanity performed.

After he finished with his presentation of what he thought was the best of human history and nature she pouted. "Mikar tell me the truth. Were humans as evil as the Lishimein children I go to school with say? If so why are you sheltering me from that side of them? Are you afraid I might want to be evil too?" she asked. She looked directly into his eyes and was close enough he could smell her lilac perfume.

Mikar had dreaded this day since he had placed her in her father's care. Mikar wanted to come up with some elegant excuse for what humanity did, but he knew it would be a futile exercise. He sighed and stared into those big innocent brown eyes. "Yes, humans proved to be one of the greatest evils the universe has faced. Their evil was so wide spread that it caused eighty percent of sentient space faring people to ban together to force them back to Earth for extermination. I am a product of that evil; my mother raped a Lishimein captive just for information. You were lucky to be a product of a different kind of union between the two species, at least as far as I know it was consensual. Humanity killed millions of beings in its attempt to spread both populace and lack of morays across the universe."

"Am I protecting you from this evil? Yes. I don't want you to be harmed because I love you very much. Let the knowledge of their evil be my burden alone. It is my hope that we Lishsentients can create a better behaved society that the universe can share with," Mikar answered. She tried to argue with him, but he was stubborn in the belief that she might not be able to repeat sins she knew nothing of. The argument grew so heated that she left and would not see him again for two weeks. By the time she cooled down he had left to return to Earth due to an AI system malfunction. Eliese sent him a long written message apologizing for her immature attitude and begging that he return soon.

Mikar's problems on Earth would keep him occupied for much longer than either of them would have liked. Two years of difficulties with the robots and shortages of supplies capable of helping in the decontamination of the planet caused him to delay his return. Then he received the message he had hoped to avoid from Captain Unce, "Urgent! You must return immediately! Eliese has undergone the change. She needs you." Mikar would have been upset at the Captain for the tone of the message had he not been so concerned for Eliese. He was upset at the Captain for allowing her the opportunity to have sex, or at least try to, at such an early age. He set the AI system for his absence before he boarded the Starsplitter fighter and launched from Earth. He was uncertain how much he could do to help her and wished Unce would have elaborated. When he had gone through the change his physical differences amounted to his eye color, he grew a third leg which he had amputated because it looked like a tail, and his member could be described as snake-like with scales. He had learned the anatomy of both Lishimeins sexes and knew how the females changed, but would only be guessing at how Eliese's mixed DNA would generate differences. He was mostly concerned with her mental state and how she coped with it. At least she had some warning about the change so he hoped it would not have been as shocking or disturbing an event as when he went through it.

Mikar rushed into the home of Captain Unce and went directly to Eliese Sunflower's room. He was told by the Captain's wife that she had come home crying and locked the room, not allowing any to speak with her. They were only able to glimpse the now green eyes and other differences that could only be explained by the change. Mikar knocked on the door and asked to be let in. "Go away! I don't want you to see me like this. I'm a freak," Eliese's voice cried out in response.

Mikar calmly began to talk softly to her through the door. He explained most of his differences when he went through the change and how dramatic the event had been to him. He did his best to be empathetic and asked about the unlucky Lishimein that seduced her. "I, I think I might have killed him. I don't know what happened. Is Iskiear Vonxeer alright?" she asked in and upset as well as concerned tone. Mikar watched the Captain and his wife leave to check since Eliese had yet to reveal the name of the person she had attempted to have intercourse with. Mikar let her know they were checking before he asked what had gone wrong. He also requested entry again since shouting through the door was difficult. "Only you," she said before the door opened only enough for his smaller human body to pass, but too small for a Lishimeins to enter.

The room was dim and he could hear her sob before the door slid shut. He could smell the lemon copper from Lishimein blood and prayed that she was not the source before he turned up the luma lights. He saw she was huddled crying under her sheets with only one eye visible while she hid her face from him. She looked down toward a waste basket and asked him to remove it, "Maybe the medics can fix Iskiear." She began to sob again at the thought of the unexpected reaction to the encounter.

Mikar picked up the shallow round polyplexx waist basket to see the first three inches of the snake like member of a Lishimeins male, it was torn off and the blood over the towel was almost dry where she had used to place it there. Mikar did rush it to the Captain and told him to get it to the medics. The Captain gave him a sad look and shook his great head, Iskiear had bled to death. Mikar left the disposal of the item to Captain Unce before he turned back to enter Eliese's room. He was uncertain how to handle this, the only reason her body would have done this was the boy had forced himself on her. He would have to be calm and try to get the story from her before he let her know of the boy's fate.

Mikar sat on the edge of the mattress and reached a hand out. She shied away and tried to tell him not to, she did not want him to see her. "Tell me how it happened in detail. Go slowly and perhaps I can help," Mikar requested. He did not try to pull away the sheets, she would need to calm and reveal her changes when she was ready. That she covered her face meant it had been affected.

After a few moments she was calm enough to talk through a weak voice. "Iskiear Vonxeer is about sixteen, a jock on the square ball team. I've been flirting with him for weeks now, though I thought he wasn't interested. We both have PE together and he's very strong." She paused when she noticed how the comment brought a tight jawed response from Mikar, he said to go on. "We had just finished a game of Loopnoose where I think he let me win," she almost smiled at the memory. "We were both hot and sweaty. He suggested we slip over to his parent's place which is just across the road from the school to take our shower together. I'm sorry. I know I wasn't supposed to, but you've been gone so long and he was so nice." She paused again and knew that Mikar was doing all he could not to let his anger show on his face, she knew the rules. "I was very willing, but we began to do it and the change happened. I quickly decided he was too big and pleaded for him to stop because it hurt. When he decided to thrust even harder to get more in me, my body tore his thing off," she was crying again. "I freaked and ran from the place back home," Eliese explained sadly.

Mikar was relieved to learn Iskiear had not tried to rape her. In a way his death was sad since the boy's only sin might have been that he had been too caught up in the moment to heed her warning to stop. Lishimeins females had a defense mechanism which under normal circumstances aided in the intercourse, but if the action became unwanted it would seal the reproductive organs and cut through anything in the way. This was the reason there were so few human males that attempted to rape Lishimeins women. It only took a couple of times before everyone knew the danger. It was also why the Lishimeins society had a zero rape record.

Mikar sat there with sad eyes while he tried to think of what he could say. "It was not your fault; if Iskiear would have listened to you when you told him to stop he might not have been hurt." Mikar turned and set one a hand on one of her legs under the sheets. He did not want to lie to her, but knew his next statement could only cause her more pain. "Iskiear will have no further judgment on this plane, I'm afraid," Mikar tried to be as gentle as possible while he said this.

She let the sheet fall away in agonized dismay. "He's dead? No," she cried. Her face had changed since he last saw her; she was now closer to an adult's features. Her long red hair was a mess and her now green eyes welled with tears. Her face now had a line of blue scales that started just above her left eye and wrapped down her nose, across her right cheek and twisted around her neck before going into the v of her breasts. He was unable to tell if it went further since she had a bath towel wrapped around her slender five foot three inch body. She ignored her impulse to hide the changes as he opened his arms and she moved into the embrace. She continued to cry while she mourned her first lover, her body heaved with each breath. She was warm and still damp from the shower she must have taken after she got home and removed the severed member. They sat like this for twenty minutes until she was too tired to continue to sob. She fell asleep in his embrace and he gently set her back into the bed, pulled the covers over her body before carefully removing the damp towel so she would have a sense of privacy if she woke. He took note of the ill formed third leg and knew they would have a long chat later about all of her changes, even if she would prefer that he did not see them. If her third leg had grown the same way his did it served little purpose and would make it uncomfortable to sit in any human designed chair. He would recommend she have it amputated, but it would be her choice.

Mikar left her sleeping soundly, her chest moved suggestively under the covers and he wished that she had waited. She would probably have nightmares of the incident and be extremely frightened about repeating the act. When the time came he knew that he would have to be extremely gentle and take things very slow. The door slid shut behind him and he went into the living room. "She's traumatized and morns for Iskier's loss. I'd like you to arrange a meeting with the boy's family. I know your laws will exonerate Eliese for her part in his death, but I would prefer to talk with them personally about the matter. I also want her to be prepared to move to Earth within the month. I believe that it is time for her to get to know her home and there at least no temptations could cause more accidents. Mrs. Unce, if you can, see if she will show you all of her changes? I'll ask her tomorrow, but she seems reluctant to let me see them. Eliese is resting now and it is probably best to let her. I'll be in my normal suite if you need to find me," Mikar explained.

The next day Mikar met with Iskiear Vonxeer's parents. The boy's mother was still crying about the news and almost immediately exclaimed that her son was no rapist. The father glared at Mikar, but he only tried to calm his wife. They were meeting at the Vonxeer residence, which was furnished in the drab style of the lower class with every item being of either a dull grey or brown. The furniture was all assembly line constructed and the same as any other prefabricated dwelling on the planet. Mikar sat uncomfortably upon a four foot high grey polyplexx stool while they sat in a couch designed to accommodate their third leg. "I did not come to assign blame, but to offer you our sincerest condolences. Iskier's only fault, according to Eliese, was that he had been a little too eager. I will take her to Earth within the month so this cannot happen again with another Lishimeins. My hope is that you won't tie us up in the court system since it was clear that he forced her at a point and her newly changed body reacted instinctively. We know there was little she could do to control what happened." Mikar reached into a pocket and pulled out a credit chip. "I know that there is nothing that can bring your son back. I am sorry about that. Should you decide to expedite the hearing on this matter you could start over again with this," Mikar held out the credit chip. Mikar was gambling that the wife would not try to kill him right then and that the husband might have enough sense to at least consider the offer. The Lishimeins court system was notorious for its long procedures. There would be the initial hearing over the matter and if the family decided to press charges there would be at least eight hearings that mostly let the attorneys debate about the jury, evidence, witnesses and case files. Eliese would probably be of legal age according to Mikar's beliefs by the time the trial ended and she was cleared of any wrong doing.

The husband was quick to move and grab the credit chip before his wife could lunge at Mikar. The man had a frown on his face while he made certain to be directly between his angry wife and Mikar. He looked at the credit chip's embedded display while he pressed a button on its flat surface. He practically gasped when he saw the number; he could work for twenty years and never have that amount. His face went even sterner than before, to him this would be accepting blood money paid for with his son's life. He knew that the conclusion in court would be the same even if he turned down the offer. "Mikar please go now. I have much to talk about with my wife. You will have an answer in three days, I promise that much," the husband said. The funds on the chip were only a guarantee of the amount, they were worthless until Mikar released them with a drop of his blood on the chip's built in DNA reader. Mikar thanked the husband and left with the clear understanding the man might let his wife have Mikar if he didn't.

Mikar Ontiese was barely nineteen years old when he witnessed first hand the lethal and destructive nature of human kind. He had worked his way on several freight ships to the nearest Lishimeins colony world. He was fortunate enough to find a family willing to take him in and educate him about his mixed heritage. At the time he felt that they were hopeful he would take interest in one of their daughters and perhaps become a bridge between the two peoples. He had taken to their fifteen year old daughter, to the jealousy of the two older daughters. These were simple folk and were mostly concerned with growing enough food for the family and to be sold to new colonists for other supplies. Mikar enjoyed the eight months of physical labor and the sense of belonging that the family offered.

The night everything changed he was out in the foothills with the female Lishimeins where they shared each other's heat since winter was beginning to make the air crisp. Wrapped naked in the covers with their clothes strewn about nearby, they stared up at the night sky. She was the first to notice the streaks in the darkness and pointed them out to him. He had never seen an attack and dismissed them as shooting stars. She, on the other hand, had seen video of human attacks and insisted they get dressed. Less than two seconds passed and the closest streak shot down into her family's farm. She cried out in anguish before being drowned out by a loud crack on impact before the device detonated and took the entire farm, reducing it to a charred plain. Then out of the darkness fell small stealth pods that allowed four dozen human soldiers to disembark. These broke up into groups of six to patrol and mop up.

Mikar knew they would kill anyone they found and so he forgot about his clothes as he tried to take her further into the hills in search of a place to hide. He had no weapons and was dressed only in his sneakers and briefs. He ignored the pain as brush cut and scratched his skin. More than a few times he had to push her on as she broke down. Once she blamed him for the Lishimeins' misfortune and accused him of being a spy for the humans. "How else would they be able to target the farm so perfectly?" she accused. Mikar paused just long enough to push down his left sock and pull two bracelets off to show them to her. One was gold and the other silver, both had small red rubies he had mined from these hills. They were engagement bracelets and he had wanted to wait for dawn to ask her so they would glitter just the way he imagined.

"Would I betray this world if I were about to ask you to marry me?" Mikar asked with tears of his own. He handed them to her before he heard a noise to their left. He did not wait for her apology, but pulled her along faster. He was trying to reach one of the mines where at least he might find tools that could be used as weapons. He felt her click his bracelet on his left wrist and noticed she had placed the other on her upper left wrist. He nodded and smiled before he stopped and had them take cover. A patrol of well armed humans crested the hill ahead of them. Mikar's heart pounded as he shivered with hope they would not notice him and the female Lishimein. He was not so fortunate as luma beams blinded him when they were activated. He was too slow and he pushed his fiancé away down the hill while yelling for her to run. The lasers lanced out even as he tried to put his body in the way to save her. The soldiers cursed as they stopped firing to avoid him. Then one exclaimed, "Got it! Damn buddy for a slave you almost had your head taken off." Mikar's sight had cleared enough for him to see that his fiancé's body lay thirty feet down the hillside; four holes were cooling from red to black on her back.

Mikar fell to his knees and shook with anguish. The soldiers thought he did this out of relief for being freed and came close to him. One was a medic and the boy of barely sixteen knelt down to check on Mikar's condition, telling Mikar that everything would be alright now. Mikar's angry eyes met the medic's and the boy realized too late that Mikar had gone off the deep end. The boy's hands were occupied with a medkit which made it easy for Mikar to strip the blade out of the medic's belt and for Mikar to pick up the multiweapon. The boy's neck was sliced in a swift motion while Mikar brought the multiweapon up and fired the laser pulse into the large dark skinned patrol commander. Two more fell before the others were able to react. Their communications sets were both filled with chatter as the two remaining soldiers tried to talk to their command base for permission to kill him. He had retreated back into the dark of the hills with them trailing cautiously behind. He took out their luma lamps so they were just as blind as he. He reached the mine and made it look like he went inside before back tracking in his own footsteps to find a hiding place within the small wooden shack beside the mine's mouth. He quickly began to assemble the explosives used in the mine and waited for them to come. They paused at the mouth of the cave and relayed their findings before they tossed four grenade things inside the cave's mouth. The explosion caused the mouth to cave in and they began toward the small wood shack. Mikar had crept up the hill when he first saw them approach. They fired a few bullets through the wood walls of the shack before one took up a position by the door while the other kicked it in. They both rushed inside and Mikar pushed the plunger he held to ignite the explosives. The shack splintered into pieces as a fifteen foot high ball of flame erupted to consume the soldiers.

Mikar numbly walked back to where his fiancé's corpse lay and picked her up. He took her to another mineshaft and used the tools there to burry her body. He pulled the bracelet off her now cool and limp arm before he filled the shallow grave with dirt. He broke down and cried until no more tears would come. He could now see the beginnings of dawn light up the yellow sky and he went to where the soldier's corpses lay. He began to strip them of their protective armor, clothes and weapons. He was certain another patrol would be dispatched after this one. He clicked on the communicator and listened carefully while he ate one MRE of mashed potatoes mixed with beef shreds. According to the chatter he heard there were no Lishimeins forces still to provide resistance to the human occupation of this world.

Mikar spent two months avoiding the human patrols while he searched for a way off planet. Every so often he'd wipe out a patrol just so he could eat and replenish his supplies. They had done too good of a job eliminating Lishimeins farms and little food grew naturally on this world. Mikar's dreams were haunted by the images of his dead fiancé and every face of those he killed. He would wake wet with perspiration and shaking after each nightmare. He wondered whether this was due to his fear of if it was because he was forced to face the worst in human nature. Sometimes he would throw up when he thought how he was slaughtering his own kind. He became disgusted with his human nature and wished he could fully change into a Lishimeins. At the end of the two month period he came across an abandoned launch pad with a freighter parked there. He spent two nights in the hills observing the freighter, afraid it was a trap set to catch him. On the third day he was too hungry and cold to care. The ground was covered in six inches of snow and the temperatures were inching down toward negative numbers. He had not noticed anyone in the two days he watched, but that did not mean no one was aboard. He took note of the rust on the ship's hull and hoped the inner systems were in better shape. The freighter was a long oval shaped vessel with segments that could extend from its sides to reveal large plasma cannons. It was not a very fast or maneuverable ship, but the cannons could punch through some well shielded vessels in two shots. Of course, it also drained the freighter's power to critical levels so they were used sparingly. Mikar reached the door and knocked on it with the butt of the multiweapon. The strikes echoed as if he were striking an empty metal drum. "Anyone in there," he asked. He waited a couple of minutes before he tried an override code he learned about while he worked to get passage here. The door slowly began to creak open as if the power cells were critically low of juice. He clicked on his armor's luma lights and held his weapon at the ready. He chose bullets since they would cause the least damage to the ship should he have to fire. The interior of the ship smelled bad and he almost went back outside because of it. He moved cautiously toward the ship's control cockpit and stumbled over a few corpses of species he was not familiar with. The cockpit had two more sitting in the pilot and copilot's seats. Mikar used the controls to bring up the ship's computer, which indicated that it was running on reserve power since the solar collectors were not deployed. Mikar's first action was to deploy the solar collectors, but there was not enough reserve power to do so. He was forced to manually move the now unlocked panels from the sides and top of the ship. He removed all of the corpses and piled them next to the strip's beacon structure. In the cold they would be preserved until the thaw. He then checked the computer for the reason that the crew perished, knowing that if it were viral he was already infected.

Mikar was extremely angry when he saw the words, "Viral Exterminous," appear on the screen. The human military had developed a virus that would kill indiscriminately any other species that was not human. Mikar had been immunized against the virus after all the experiments done to him. The doctors had considered him human enough for them to protect him from the biological weapon. Mikar had thought the military said Viral Exterminous was only a last resort weapon, every press release about it clearly stated it would not even be ready for another five years. Evidently they had lied and were using the weapon wherever this freighter had come from.

Mikar spent two weeks cleaning the freighter out and repairing all malfunctioning systems. The freighter was filled with weapons and he suspected they were to be sold to the Lishimeins for quite a profit. He was not surprised to learn they were mostly of human design. This was how the humans were able to infect the crew and hoped to infect the intended buyers. The tactic might have worked if one of the crew hadn't decided to inspect the cargo. Each weapon worked, but was coated in a near invisible powder viral agent. The virus would be transferred by touching the weapons. Mikar shivered at the depths of cruelty humans were capable of. He couldn't comprehend how this was allowed by any religion he knew, all of which would find this evil. Mikar used his weapon's laser on its lowest power setting to etch the Lishimeins biohazard symbol on both the front and on the sides of the freighter. He used the blood from a small groundhog like creature to give the symbols red color. He waited until night to launch the freighter and entered hyperstream before any human fighter could catch him. He suspected they let him go because they knew the ship was tainted and might deliver the Viral Exterminous to another alien world.

Mikar took up orbit around an unoccupied world in a Lishimeins settled star system and broadcast a warning about the freighter. The Lishimeins sent a medical quarantine ship to capture him. He explained who he was and what happened on the colony world. He endured more poking and pain as they tried to figure out how his mixed species had survived the virus and formulated their own vaccine based on what they discovered in his blood. At least this time they tried to minimize his pain and he knew they were trying to save lives. They also created a means to detect and destroy the virus from a distance before it could infect target populaces.

Mikar Ontiese's hand felt like it was being squeezed off as he warily glanced at his now twenty year old pregnant wife. He was trying to help her keep her breathing regular as she puffed and cried out in pain. Her abdomen was protruding out to full extension. Eliese Sunflower Ontiese's pain filled cries were each punctuated with a tightening on his right hand. This was her fourth attempt at a child; the first three were aborted when they learned the fetus was entirely human. They knew the Collation would never allow full humans to be born, though each abortion had taken an emotional toll on both parents. Eliese had not let him touch her for a year after the first abortion. She was at the point where she was cursing him, god and existence itself, even though she was within one of the best medical facilities the Lishimeins could offer and on some of the most potent pain killers Mikar's credits could buy. The baby was definitely a Lishsentient, but one that did not have its sex defined by its human heritage. They were also aware that it was larger than a human baby, the Lishimeins' three legs would disjoint painfully during birth. Eliese's two were straining against the pressure. Mikar had wanted the medics to attempt C-section to withdraw the child, but they were not enthusiastic with that option since it would likely cause them to damage her reproductive organs so she would be unable to have more children.

Eliese's contractions were so close now that they would know soon enough if she could pass the baby naturally through the birth canal. Captain Unce and his wife were present on the other side of the bed. Unce's wife was speaking soft reassurances while the Captain stood there looking as if he might become sick. A nurse was watching the Captain and had orders to rush him out at any sign that he might throw up. The Lishimeins doctor looked under the privacy sheet where a titaneel brace structure held Eliese's legs spread as far as they could apart and kept the four clawed defensive fingers from injuring either mother or child during the process. There was an assortment of tools nearby that the doctor could use to assist in the removal of the baby. The doctor looked uncertain under his mask. He was the only one that would attempt mixed species births and had studied footage Mikar had provided of human babies being born. Finally the doctor shrugged and ordered Eliese to begin to push.

"Shallz! What the hell do you think I've been trying to do the last half hour? Clench myself to keep it in there?" Eliese angrily yelled at the doctor in frustration. She glared at Mikar and let out a torrent of curses as he tried to calm her. Mikar freed his hand from her grip and slapped her with the other. He saw the surprise and scorned her for not focusing on what the doctor asked. She shook her head and let out a few tears out before she was able to calm her breathing. "If I survive this you're going to wish I hadn't," she swore at Mikar. She began to focus on trying to push with all her might.

The doctor was pleased, "Here comes the head. You're doing great Eliese. Push." The doctor put his lower two hands under the sheet and gently took hold of the baby's head. His face had perspiration dripping off his brow. He watched the baby's entire head pass through and shook his head. He glanced at Mikar and the grandparents before he ordered another nurse to prepare an antiseptic swab and scalpel. "The baby's shoulders are too wide and she is already stretched to the maximum. I am going to have to make four incisions to widen the opening so the child can pass through. There will be some pain and blood loss. Nurse fetch the mixed hemoglobin and start a drip," the doctor ordered. The doctor did not remove his lower arms while he took the swab and scalpel in his free hands before placing them under the privacy sheet.

Mikar attempted to help Eliese as he took her hand again and kissed her forehead. "I love you," he whispered in her ear. She growled angrily at him before she cried out in pain again. The doctor nodded before he set aside the scalpel and swab. "Come on, you witch of my heart, push for all you've got and maybe this will be over soon," Mikar said to goad her on. She hissed at him while she tried to focus and push again. Her face was red from the effort; she gulped in air between pushes and grunts.

The doctor brought a couple of tools that looked like large shoe horns under the privacy sheet and that is when Captain Unce rushed from the operating room with the nurse assigned to him right behind. Unce's wife frowned and shook her head, but remained there to support Eliese. Unce's wife now knew Eliese was her husband's daughter and had decided not to hold it against the girl; she treated Eliese as if she were her own rather than adopted. Eliese cried out in pain as the doctor inserted the shoe horn tools. The nurse returned and moved Mikar so she could begin the hemoglobin drip, the nurse strapped down Eliese's arm before she inserted the tube so Eliese could not tear it out in her thrashing. "This is going to hurt much worse than anything so far. Please put something in the patient's mouth so she won't bite her tongue off," the doctor ordered. Eliese asked for Mikar's member so they wouldn't be able to do this again. Mikar let the comment pass while the nurse placed a six inch long polyplexx bit into Eliese's mouth. The nurse nodded at the doctor. The doctor took two breaths before he pulled; his lower arms were hooked under the baby's armpits while his upper arms pushed the shoe horn tools to widen the gap. With a wet plop and muffled scream from Eliese the doctor was holding the baby free from the mother save for the umbilical cord. The doctor set the shoe horn things back on the tray and used the scalpel to cut off the cord before he tied it off and handed the baby to the nurse, whom had a towel ready to clean the child. She wiped off the fluid and spanked the child hard to get it to cry so it would take its first breath of air. The doctor ignored this as he noticed Eliese had passed out and was still bleeding from the incisions. He quickly began to cauterize the wounds with a low powered laser and then placed a scar reduction salve with antibiotic properties within the birth canal. He did the same to the other end of the umbilical cord just to keep it from bleeding. He then checked Eliese's vital readings which were displayed on a screen above the bed and then asked to see the child, which had calmed enough that it was no longer crying. The doctor set a small portable vital reader to the baby's chest and found there were no abnormal readings considering the mixed species physiology. The doctor handed the bundle over to Mikar before reassuring that both mother and baby would need rest, but would be fine.

Mikar cradled the bundle in his left arm and he smiled at his unconscious wife. Unce's wife cooed and nodded at Mikar. They both took turns rocking the baby while the nurses cleaned up the operating room and moved Eliese to another room. After an hour they came to take the baby to be given a more thorough exam and Unce's wife volunteered to keep an eye on the process so Mikar could stay at Eliese's bedside. He fell asleep with his head on her limp warm hand. He hadn't slept for forty six hours when her contractions began and he knew her water could break at any time. They had stayed at Unce's house so they would be close to the hospital.

Mikar woke to the feeling of fingers passing through his long amber hair, an action that nearly brought a purr from him. He blinked a few times before his vision cleared enough for him to see Eliese's glowing smile and the bundle pressed over her left breast. Mikar noticed they were alone and he stood up to give her a peck on the cheek and look at the content feeding child. He was careful not to hit the tube still embedded in her arm while he took her hand and smiled back. He used his free hand to touch the child's blonde stippled head in a gentle petting motion. "Wonder what we should call him or her?" Mikar whispered.

"I think it's a boy," Eliese's weak voice replied. "Adam seems appropriate," she laughed. This caused the baby to gurgle a bit before it resumed the meal. She noticed the smirk and look in his eyes. "I know you want ten of them, but if each birth is that difficult I don't think I'll last four," she said. He laughed and thanked the creator for her. On her eighteenth birthday he finally broke down to her wish to learn why he was so bitter when it came to humanity. He showed her the worst from the Nazi death camps all the way to his footage of her rescue from being drowned by her own mother. Only then did she fully comprehend his vision for the Lishsentients, a hope for a second chance at a better universe.

"I suppose if we have a girl she'll have to be called Eve,' Mikar commented. He pulled out the two ruby bracelets and placed the gold one on his wife's left wrist before he set the silver one on the baby's head like a crown. He kissed her before she could reply or ask about the bracelets. He then kissed his child's head, "I love you and our four armed baby," he said with great hope for the future.

## DREAM SLIPPERS

She lay quietly in her comfortable bed dreaming of unicorns and butterflies. She was oblivious to any sense of risk since she had just installed the latest in home security systems. Thus, she was horrifically jarred from her dreams as a man tore the covers off her bed and hopped onto her, pinning her body with his weight. She screamed in terror although she was still too out of it to determine whether this was real or a nightmare. Though she knew her Augbrain did not enjoy these types of dreams. She slashed out with her nails and drew three streaks of blood from the man's face. He angrily struck her, though not hard enough to send her back into dreamland. He wanted her awake while he raped her. He tore open her pajama top to reveal her breasts and bent down to suckle one. That was his last mistake and the event that changed her life in an instant.

Detective Casey Malone stood over the crime scene with a slightly morbid curiosity. He was five foot two inches tall with brown hair and deep blue eyes; he wore a tan coat that nearly touched the floor. His partner, Janice Young was much younger and easier on the eyes. She stood four foot nine inches tall and was dressed in a blue business suit with a skirt. Don't let her beauty fool you; she's a hard nut to crack. They were there because, as far as they knew, this was the first case of an Augbrain killing in recorded history.

"So what do we know about his intended victim?" Casey asked. He had already looked over the body, there wasn't much to see. Eight small bloody holes were pierced in the guy's throat from the front rather than the back of the neck where Augbrains normally interfaced with the human host's brain. The man's face was locked in a state of surprise. He was dressed in black slacks, long sleeve shirt and gloves. It was a bit disconcerting to note that he had not attempted to hide his face; this usually meant he intended to eliminate his witnesses once he had his way with them.

"Her name is Emira Worshire the Third; yes the youngest of that prominent family. She was found by some neighbors that called this in; evidently she was trying to find her mommy. The medics and our shrink agree that she has suffered a trauma great enough to have reverted her mental state to that of a four year old. I'm afraid she won't be able to tell us what happened here.

"The damndest thing is that she probably felt safe as a bug in a rug. According to the records the house just had a new security system installed. I'll give you two guesses as to who worked on it," Janice smiled slyly before she paused. Casey was not in the mood for games and pointed at the corpse at his feet. "Got it in one, his name is Mark Green. He works as a subcontractor for the Infinity Secureworks. He left some software back doors when he installed the system," she explained.

"I thought these guys were triple background checked and psych evaluated before they could even touch one of these systems?" Casey shook his head.

"According to his record he has a genius IQ score, perhaps he was smart enough to fake it," Janice commented.

"Great, I can just see the headlines now. 'Augbrain Kills Genius Rapist.' The press is going to have a field day with this," Casey commented. He noticed the look of worry that came across his partner's face. "The Captain's just walked in and has that 'I hate you' look burned into the back of my skull right now, doesn't he," Casey whispered the question. She smiled toward the Captain and nodded ever so slightly. He rolled his eyes some before he turned to greet his boss.

The Captain was a man only a few years older than Casey, his hair entirely grey and he stood a good four inches shorter than the detective. He wore a black business suit and was glaring angrily at Casey. "Damn it Malone, don't go encouraging the press by blurting out their bylines! We're here to help Ms. Worshire recover her Augbrain as soon as possible. Her family can make a lot of trouble with the department and I have the Mayor riding my tail on this one. I'm sending Aumar here to help you two on this one, he's our best Augbrain detective and you'll need his insight," the Captain ordered before he left the scene.

Once the Captain was out of earshot Casey commented, "I should have his job. I was the senior decorated detective, how the hell did he pull it?" Janice smiled and shook her head before she commented that he shouldn't have slept with the Mayor's wife. "But they were divorced then," he defended his pride. She said the Mayor probably pegged him for the other man that caused the divorce and that if he'd been that good she would not have remarried the Mayor. He took note of her look back toward where the Captain just left, "What is it?"

Janice shivered, "You know how much I can't stand being around Aumar, he gives me the creeps. Actually, 'it' might be a better term since he's now sexless. I just can't see anyone wanting to do that to themselves. The bald monk thing also gives me the jeebies."

Casey could empathize, "The Captain says we work with it, we work with it. Besides, he's right, we're going to need to locate the missing Augbrain and neither of us has any idea what an Augbrain might do after it's forcefully separated from a host. I hate to admit it, but this makes sense."

Twenty minutes later the Augbrain detective known only as Aumar arrived upon the scene. He was dressed in a simple grey toga and his head was bald. He had an Indian heritage and his exposed skin was reddish. The Augbrain attached to the neck covered the base of his skull. The alien creature looked like an eurypterid, or sea scorpion, without the hard tail, but with two long octopus-like tentacles that also acted as the separate brain lobes. The thing that made Aumar really creepy was that he was one of the few host—Augbrain combinations that were one of mind. This was signified by the pure white irises of his eyes, the effect was like he stared through everything around him even if he was focused directly on you.

Aumar had been briefed on the situation while he was brought to the crime scene. He acknowledged Casey and Janice before he went to the attempted rapist's body. He closely examined the eight piercings with a frown. "Eiffel fed on this man's brain in order to save Miss Worshire, but Eiffel would have absorbed the evil in this one's mind. Eiffel fled instead of returning to his host in order to protect her. Eiffel is scared and knows he'd only harm his host; it must have been extreme for him to have done this. We are a peaceful species, this is the first case of un-bonding and death from an Augbrain in over two hundred decades," Aumar explained. He looked about the room for traces of Eiffel's trail. There would be a substance human science could not detect, but that Augbrains could sense the trail.

"Isn't the Augbrain Dreamslipper commune soon?" Janice asked with great concern. She had once tried to bond with the Augbrains, but turned out to be one of the eighty percent of humans incompatible with the aliens. She knew more about them than most of the others in the force.

"Yes, in three days time the Augbrain populace will gather in centers of each city and commune in the great Dreamslipper link. It is how we share our knowledge garnered from the human minds. You will have my services for two days before I will retreat on the third to meditate in preparation of the link," Aumar impassively replied.

"What will happen if Eiffel takes part in the Dreamslipper commune?" Janice asked. She had an extremely agitated look upon her face, which indicated she had an inkling of the consequences. Casey stood there with a look of complete bewilderment and she held up a hand to keep him silent.

"Two consequences are possible since Eiffel is too young to be able to stay out of the Dreamslipper link no matter where on Earth he chooses to hide. He will pass on the nightmare of evil from this corpse's mind to the rest of the Augbrain populace. He may also pass on whatever short circuit occurred in his mind that allowed him to kill this man. Sadly giving each Augbrain the capacity to do so again," Aumar replied before he crawled out of the room. The two human detectives exchanged worried glances before they followed Aumar silently through the building. Aumar stopped at the sidewalk curb and stood back up, his grey toga sported dirt from where his knees made contact with the ground. He had a grave look on his normally composed face. "Eiffel's trail ends here," Aumar said. He began to walk up and down the sidewalk.

"Maybe he hailed a cab?" Casey suggested seriously. Janice laughed hard at this comment before she explained that without a host the Augbrain would be incapable of speech. The most it could have done was chirping incomprehensibly. "In his state where would Eiffel go?" Casey asked.

Aumar paused his attempt to see if he could find another trail and his face pinched at the question. His eyes became wide, "Of course. Eiffel would automatically follow his training and try to return to Primordia, the Augbrain home world. Eiffel probably latched onto the first car going in the direction of the space port." Aumar looked off toward the West where the closest space port in the city was located.

Detective Casey Malone cursed before he rushed to their squad liftcar. "Janice get your friend at the control tower, tell him it's an emergency and all ships headed to Primordia need to be grounded. Tell him there's a bomb threat we think is credible. Also have him alert space port security that we're looking for an Augbrain without a host and should they find it to just contain it until we get there," Casey ordered.

The liftcar was a squat vehicle barely large enough for four passengers. It was painted in the traditional blue and white police colors and had three light strips: one on top and two where the bumpers were on old cars. Instead of an internal combustion motor belching pollution when started, they heard the low hum of the antigravity generators directly under their feet. Casey activated the police override transmission to force the air traffic supercomputer to stop all other liftcars on his projected route so they would have a clear channel directly to their destination. The squad liftcar zoomed vertically twenty stories high before it began to follow the projected path at over one hundred miles per hour. Casey and Janice were quite used to this, but Aumar's face turned pale and they noticed he was perspiring. When Janice asked Aumar if he was alright he nodded slowly. "The speed causes slight G-forces that pull at my Augbrain; I should be fine once we reach the space port. Just don't make the trip any longer or I may suffer some separation lag," Aumar advised.

"I have to ask, because it has nagged me ever since I saw you, why did you become a cop? Augbrains detest violence to the point they usually become physically sick when they see it. Cops constantly deals with the most violent and debase actions of our kind. So I find it very odd that a complete union Augbrain would choose this career path," Casey asked.

"I suppose that has more to do with my host since he has a high moral character and was an officer before our union. You did notice I did not puke or react badly at the sight of the dead attempted rapist? Even the thought that one of my kind is responsible would normally shut down another Augbrain. I've never really thought of myself as unique until now," Aumar replied. His brow was in a furrow as he tried to reconcile the concept. "Duty, I suppose we both believe strongly that it is our duty to stop crime and in that effect save lives," Aumar added.

The squad liftcar began to descend through the stopped traffic toward the space port. Some of these vehicles had been stuck for over ten minutes in the air where the control system had froze them so the squad liftcar could pass. There were more than a few birdies and angry shouts as they descended from the drivers. The squad liftcar came to a gentle halt and slowly reduced power to the antigravity generators, which allowed for only a slight jar when the bottom made contact with the pavement.

The three detectives quickly got out and headed toward the large polyplexx sliding doors. Two space port security officers met them just inside the doors. "Sorry sir, but we haven't been able to locate the Augbrain you're looking for. One ship scheduled for Primordia left about six minutes before you contacted us," a middle aged Hispanic male explained.

Aumar was beginning to return to his normal skin color and he had passed the others. He walked around the entrance before moving off toward the flight counters and gates. He was trying to see if he could find Eiffel's trail within the public areas of the space port. Janice followed him with hope that the Augbrain could find the missing one in time.

"I need you to continue to watch out for the Augbrain. Can the ships waiting to go to Primordia use their sensors to detect a stowaway Augbrain? If so, have them all check. I know we said that there was a bomb threat and that's what you've been looking for. Just have them do this," Casey ordered. He glanced around and quickly caught up with Janice and Aumar. The guard he spoke with relayed the orders before following.

Aumar stood before the Galac Spacelines terminal. "This is the one Eiffel boarded," Aumar said with certainty. "He was clever; I think he latched onto a luggage cart until it passed this terminal. He dropped off and made his way toward the seats where the passengers waited to board before he latched again to someone's luggage. His trail is on and off again through the loading corridor so the human must have been struggling with the bag," Aumar explained.

"Sir, that's the flight that we didn't catch before it left. It would have entered its hyperstream jump point less than two minutes ago," the security officer stated sadly. The detectives glanced at each other with dismay. "Can we call off the search now since it is already gone?" the security officer asked. Casey nodded.

The detectives went back to their squad liftcar with long faces. "Want me to call it in to the Captain, he might not grill me as badly?" Janice offered. Casey smiled and nodded with the knowledge that she had no nuts to put in a vise. After she made the report the Captain angrily ordered them back to the precinct. Casey shrugged and started the liftcar.

Aumar accessed the radio and began to speak a language only other Augbrains seemed to understand. When he stopped he explained, "I just sent a message to Primordia about Eiffel, if we're lucky the authorities there will pick him up and isolate him from the Dreamslipper commune on our world. It's the best I can do from here."

"What happens if they can't isolate Eiffel?" Casey asked. He had a guess, but wanted to hear Aumar confirm it. When Aumar did he cursed. "They will have to quarantine Primordia to keep any Augbrains there from joining Earth's Dreamslipper commune," Casey stated. He was never one to begin a case and let someone else deal with it. He wanted to finish what he started.

Two hours later Detective Casey Malone was almost wishing he had thought differently. He, Janice Young and Aumar were standing outside the space port on Primordia looking upon some of the strangest things he had never thought imaginable. Casey wanted to shoot about six things crawling about and he was wishing for a flamethrower to take care of the rest.

Janice's smiled from ear to ear at the sight. One of the reasons she had tried to bond with an Augbrain was so she might some day visit this exotic biological ecosystem. The entire place crawled with insects which rode atop the larger animals in a cooperative system where the bigger ate the plant life and some was converted into food that oozed out for the insects to consume. These insects in turn protected the creature from foreign bugs and secreted a kind of antibiotic to ensure their partner stayed healthy.

To Aumar this was just home, but he watched the human detectives. He could tell Detective Casey was not pleased with what the man saw. He looked like a man that was fighting every internal impulse not to slap every bug that touched him. To the Augbrain society it would be an offense to kill even these creatures which served an important role in the scheme of nature. Aumar was impressed at the amount of control Casey displayed under the circumstances. Aumar quickly walked into the mob of various creatures and requested a specific one to provide transportation. He chose the only creature that was not associated with smaller ones for its maintenance.

Janice groaned a bit when she saw the twelve foot long and three foot tall blue skinned slug emerge from the pile. The other creatures quickly moved out of its way with various sounds to punctuate their dismay. She looked at Casey and knew that this slimy pack slug was only slightly better for him than the other possible rides. Aumar sat waiting with a smile, his palms planted on the sides of the slug's neck about a foot below the thing's extended eye stalks. Casey glanced toward her in the hope that she would decline the ride. "It's the only one that won't have something that can crawl on us. We'll only suffer some slime soaked pant seats," Janice commented before she hopped onto the Slith and smiled at him. It took the elder detective a few more moments to gather the courage to trust them enough to board. "Don't enjoy the view back there too much, Sliths are allergic to human sperm," Janice Young cautioned with a smile. Casey asked if that were true and Aumar answered that it was in his most serious tone, adding that the Slith would most likely harm all of them if it felt any pain due to its riders.

Detective Casey Malone clasped his hands onto the slimy sides of the Slith and closed his eyes so he did not have to see what they passed as the creature undulated under them to move forward. He thought it was no wonder Eiffel was able to avoid capture when there was so much life the Augbrain could disappear into. Aumar had explained that it would be more difficult to track Eiffel on Primordia because some fungus had evolved to feed off the substance Augbrains secreted when they moved about, virtually eliminating that means of tracing the rouge Augbrain. Casey shivered in disgust each time he opened his eyes during the trip, these were scenes even his worst childhood nightmares could not have conceived.

He felt Janice take one of his hands and squeeze it reassuringly. "They're not going to swarm all over you to pick the flesh from your corpse, at least not if you aren't already dead from some other cause," she commented. He moaned and said that wasn't too reassuring. He let his eyes open enough to see her turned with a smile. He commented that she was enjoying this a bit too much and wondered about a woman whom wasn't afraid of bugs. She just laughed and turned back to watch the scenery.

Less than thirty minutes passed before the Slith was halted by Aumar. They were in front of a large sectioned red skinned dome; Casey couldn't decide whether it was a plant like a pumpkin or an animal. The walls looked like they were moving in and out about four feet in a precise rhythm. Aumar got off the Slith and was quickly followed by Janice. Casey saw their awaiting eyes and painfully got off the large blue slug, "Now I remember why I never decided to become a cowboy." His legs were stiff and he knew his thighs were chaffed to a sensitive rawness. "I suppose that thing is our motel?" Casey pointed to the pumpkin structure.

Aumar nodded and led the way with Casey being led by the hand by Janice. She kept trying to convince him that everything would be fine as long as he did not kill anything. They passed through a flesh valve about six feet high and four foot wide, the flaps felt like warm wet silk. Aumar explained that this was like an airlock on space ships while they passed through a second flesh valve to enter the reception area. The inside was slightly humid and there were small bat type creatures whose bodies provided the only illumination from where they hung off the bones that must have been the motel's rib cage. An elderly Augbrain enhanced human female smiled kindly at them. Casey was taken aback by the fact she wore little more than a bikini bottom. "It is good to see you again Aumar. There is a room in the twelfth segment prepared for you and your guests. Do you want me to give them the operations speech or will you," she asked. Aumar assured her that he would give the humans the summary and that Janice was once an Augbrain candidate. The old woman looked like she wasn't certain whether to smile or look like she was mourning for Janice's loss. "Were you a pretrial or DNA eliminated candidate?" the old woman asked.

"Pretrial madam, it was difficult to be bonded for two weeks before Aunseer rejected me as a candidate. I'm glad they have DNA screening now, I'd hate for others to go through that. After experiencing a Dreamslipper commune it was so difficult to readjust to just being human again," Janice Young replied in a mournful tone. Casey's jaw was fully open; she had never told him that she had been a pretrial. He just thought she was just another of the regular rejected populace.

"Ah, poor dear. Aunseer was a picky Augbrain and perhaps your vocation caused the rejection. Aumar here is the only police officer I know who took so completely. Well, I'll not hold you up any longer. I hope you enjoy your stay on Primordia," the woman smiled and moved through a flesh flap behind her receiving bump. Aumar glanced at Janice with a different look, almost a copy of the one the woman gave her with sad respect. She told him to lead the way before he could pry.

They passed through many more of the flesh flaps around the outer rim of the motel. Casey watched cautiously as the outer wall moved to within arm's length before it headed back out. He wondered why he could not feel air moving as the organic structure did this. The floor flexed slightly and he could see they were walking upon some kind of muscle stretched between the bone and cartilage. He was about to start asking questions when Aumar began to talk.

"We are inside a Miksc's lung; the rest of the creature extends eighteen stories into the ground. This creature can live for centuries and breathes carbon dioxide which it breaks down into oxygen for us to breathe and carbon which is used in its growth process. This Miksc is rumored to be less than half a century old and there's one on the southern continent rumored to be five centuries old. It is about four times larger than this one. The Miksc relies mostly upon other beings to produce the carbon dioxide, thus the bats and other creatures you haven't seen yet inside. Don't worry much about them since they ignore anything too big to eat. Here we are," Aumar turned at one of the violet skinned walls. He reached up and touched what looked like a vein in the wall causing what looked solid to spit into two for their entry. Aumar signaled them to precede him into the room; evidently he had to keep the vein pinched for the entrance to remain open.

Inside the room the floor looked as if most of it was made of bone, which helped ease Casey's mind a bit. In the corridor he was imagining the floor was some kind of tongue just waiting to toss him into the thing's maw. Aumar began to walk around and explain what things were. The three egg shaped pod things were called Uldulgas and were a kind of mollusk that would serve as their beds, no worries about being turned into big pearls overnight Aumar joked. He indicated a flesh tube in the floor and explained that it was for waste, that the Miksc would utilize what it could before disposal of the rest. Casey asked if there was a privacy screen, but Aumar shook his head. Janice laughed and asked Casey if he were trying to protect his modesty, since they had been able to view each other's wares on more than one occasion. Aumar actually blushed at the implication.

"I will leave you two here to settle in while I try to see if there are any leads on Eiffel. Do you require anything?" Aumar asked. Both humans quickly rattled off a list and he blushed again at some of the items. 'No cigars I'm afraid and we don't have tampons, though there are Squiggles for that if you'd like? Clothes should not be a problem, we can have silk and cotton type materials made to fit. I'll also bring back food since I am sure you will be hungry by the time I return."

When Aumar was outside the room Casey asked, "Squiggles, what are they?" He carefully moved to sit on the edge of one Uldulga. He was almost happy the flesh inside was so soft since his bottom still smarted from the Slith ride.

Janice hopped onto one near his and made a squeamish face. "They're a type of leach that supposedly only consumes blood released naturally by another creature. Women here use them in place of tampons for their periods. I'm just unsure they might not have some other embarrassing side effects," Janice replied with a blush.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a pretrial? Damn, you know my daughter Allissa is a DNA screened candidate. Ever since her mother passed I've been worried sick she'll decide to let an Augbrain latch to her neck. So far I've been able to keep her out of it by refusing to pay for a college dorm room so I can keep her under my rules, even though it would only save her ten minutes in commute time," Detective Casey Malone felt sad and very old. He was a firm believer in human kind's built in potential, and where that failed human technology should be used. He never thought humans would become so eager to willingly give over their fate and soul to an alien race. Perhaps he was being too old fashioned, as Allissa would put it.

"Because you would have wanted me to talk to her and to try to discourage Allissa from the bond. I can't do that. I'd take another shot at bonding with an Augbrain again in a heartbeat if I thought it would work. It's hard to explain the feeling when you're in Dreamslipper commune. It's kind of like an orgasm, but one you feel in every cell of your being all at once for the ten minutes they're all linked together," she paused and began to shake. He moved over to sit beside her and hug her to his chest. "I'm not lying when I say I'd kill to do it again. It's why I can't deny someone else that small slice of heaven."

Primordia, as it would later be called by humans, was an uncharted planet once thought beyond human reach. That was before the advent of hyperstream generators which allowed for space ships to travel through the energy matrix of the fabric of space. This created a faster than light mode of transport through hyperstream space.

Mankind could now explore further in the search for worlds capable of supporting life. Astronomers were fairly certain Primordia had the right conditions. A scout team of six life science engineers were sent to Primordia, the group consisted of two men and four women. Shortly after they emerged from hyperstream space their generators suffered a meltdown. They brought the craft down in an area that looked very much like an untamed jungle. The first day they were too frightened to venture forth because every creature in their surroundings had come to see what had intruded onto their world. The scientists worked feverishly to take images, name and catalog the various life forms they saw. At least until some creatures they called Snoths began to spit up acid on the ship's hull. Metal was rare on Primordia and the humans quickly began to defend the ship with their weapons.

At first the Augbrains watched the humans with curiosity. The Snoths were being shocked to keep them off the ship. To the Augbrains this was no different from what some jellyfish did to protect themselves. Only when a Slith decided the unconscious Snoths were too good a delicacy to pass up and slithered rapidly toward the human ship did the humans turn many weapons at once on it. The Slith's body quit moving and let off a stench of cooked meat. The Augbrains were aghast when the humans just left and went back into their ship. On Primordia death was not uncommon, but to kill for any purpose other than to eat was a concept they had yet to encounter. The Augbrains quickly utilized hosts to warn off the other life forms.

This worked for a while until the humans' curiosity became greater than their fear. They had cut up the Slith and a few Snoths, passed various tools over the remains before burying them. Then the humans began to hunt and kill more creatures just so they could dissect them for full analysis. This went on for a month before the Augbrains could finally come to the consensus that these invaders needed to be dealt with. Six Augbrains were chosen in the next Dreamslipper commune to be the ones to make contact.

The humans were successful in their hunt that day with two females bent over an insect that looked like a giant earwig. They were using laser scalpels to cut its hard exoskeleton off so they could sample its body fluids prior to the dissection of internal organs. "Man I can't wait until the colony ship gets here and we can go home. This place gives me nightmares," one of the other two females that were on guard duty with the men commented. One of the men agreed wholeheartedly.

"Has anyone else thought it odd that we were practically smothered in these things when we landed, but now are having to travel miles to locate anything we can dissect?" the other man asked. The others were quick to agree with him. One of the females tried to say it was probably due to the fact the creatures now knew they were the new predators on the block. Just as she finished speaking an Augbrain fell onto her neck from above. She screamed as it latched onto her skin with its tentacles before it pierced the skin to search for a way to create a link.

Before the others could react they too were now occupied in the struggle to free themselves from the new threat. Each cried out in pain when the eight feeler links jabbed into their spinal chord at the base of their necks. One of the female guards was able to bring her weapon up and blast the Augbrain off her neck. The resulting pain due to a kind of feedback caused her to loose consciousness. "Don't kill them; they've burrowed into our spinal columns. We might be killing ourselves," the first female victim ordered. She crouched over the unconscious woman and checked the injury on the neck. She pulled off the remains of the tentacles and felt a flood of anguish coupled with anger directed from the creature on her neck. She tried to ignore these feelings while she examined the corpse of the Augbrain in an effort to understand what happened. She almost allowed her curiosity to overpower her concern for the fallen female. She reached out and touched the woman's neck and found a pulse, the woman was breathing shallowly. She picked up the half blown apart shell and looked into it. A shot of great pain wracked through her and she dropped it to clutch at her stomach. She noticed the others were also within throes of agony. "What are you? Why are you hurting us?" she asked aloud.

"You murder. You evil, bring evil to our world. We die, take you with. Must not allow commune," the Augbrain pulled words from her mind to use. It flooded her mind with images from the Augbrain commune from the time they killed the Slith to just prior to the Augbrain attack.

"Please wait. We did not know there was sentient life here. We were unaware of your rules. We would have tried to communicate first if we had. We have others on their way here, many others. If we don't warn them you will have thousands more of us killing every creature on the world to make room for human colonies. Please, we can help you," the woman pleaded. A chatter came from the back of her neck and she heard more from the other things. The pain began to recede slowly, although the feeling of anger toward her remained. She sat up and saw that the others were also recovering. "We have to warn the colonization ship, tell them Primordia is a bad choice and stop them," the woman said before she stood.

"They won't stop; it's too good a match to Earth's ecosystem. Better air, cleaner water, slightly more gravity and plenty of life. It's a paradise with its own residents," one of the males said sadly.

One of the female guards seemed to be oblivious to their gathering around the fallen comrade. When they looked over to her they noticed her eyes had gone from green to white. The male guard that hadn't spoken walked over to her and waved his hand in front of her face. She blinked a couple of times. "I am Usirie, an Augment Brain, or at least that's the closest definition I can come up with. My people have evolved to utilize hosts to augment our lives. You humans are the first sentient species we have come into contact with. Perhaps if you will learn to live here by our rules we will allow settlement so we may learn from each other," she stated in a flat tone.

By the time the colonization ship landed on the world the five Augbrain humans had dwindled to one male and one female. Two died when the Augbrains rejected them. The female that shot her Augbrain recovered, but lost all memory since high school. The other male survived his rejection, but committed suicide after he realized he would never be able to experience the Dreamslipper commune again. The two survivors were looked upon as freaks of nature at first by the colonizers, but they were adamant about what the Augbrains set down as rules:

1. No being shall kill another creature.

2. This world belongs to Augment Brains. You are a guest in our home so treat it kindly.

3. Mining, logging, polluting, or any other action that endangers the environment is prohibited.

4. All humans will be subject to link with us unless rejected by Dreamslipper commune.

5. Further human colonization must be approved by Dreamslipper commune.

Janice young was having the time of her life, or at least as good as she could think of after loosing her Augbrain. She had convinced Aumar to fetch individual rides for each of them to use this time. She was riding a fur covered rolly polly type bug with defense maggots. The maggots were crawling all over her in search of any foreign substances to consume, thus her makeup and perfume were memories before they reached the halfway point. The combination of fur and wiggling creatures was stimulating to say the least. She didn't even worry that the things would try to enter her mouth since they avoided the area; Aumar explained that human saliva would kill them. When the detectives stopped and she got off her ride, the maggots quickly retreated from her to return to their host. She felt two still wiggling about in her ears and had to lean her head while she smacked the other side to dislodge them back onto the furry rolly polly. She saw how green Casey Malone was from watching this. "Hey, at least my ear wax is gone," she joked.

The comment and image of maggots making their way into her brain was too much for Casey and he rushed to dismount a smaller Slith he rode so he wouldn't puke up lunch on his ride. He coughed a few times before he wiped his face on his left sleeve. "Sorry about that. Next time the Captain wants to send me here I think I'd quit first," Casey commented. He was about to ask if he should try to clean up his mess when several crab like creatures smaller than his fist emerged from under a nearby tree and began to fight over the pool of half processed meal. He watched for a moment in awe of how this world used everything in the cycle of life.

"We need to get to work. There were sightings of an Augbrain headed for the old steam caverns ahead. It's a place to meditate. I am hoping it was Eiffel since he has not shown up back at the training swamps. Right now we have less than fourteen hours before I must go on my own meditations to prepare for the Dreamslipper commune. Perhaps Eiffel has decided to start early due to his condition," Aumar explained. Janice cut off Casey's question on the time difference, on Primordia the hours were longer and the sun's position slightly different than on Earth. Aumar led them up a slope into the caves at the base of a volcano. There were several natural springs that were heated as they passed through the rock to the surface and this was the source of the steam in the caves. They discovered several naked humans with Augbrain partners sweating out their impurities. They came across one cave where the sounds caused Aumar to blush before he decided to ignore that one.

"Hmm, think we can get Aumar to leave us in here for twenty minutes or so on our own?" Janice asked with a naughty smile. The silk clothing she and Casey were given became damp from the steam and stuck to their bodies in revealing ways. She knew the sounds alone had been enough to get a rise out of Casey. He commented that at least one of them should check the cave the moans were coming from for Eiffel, to ignore it would be a mistake. She agreed, "For a sexless guy he sure is shy when it comes to these things." She barged in to quickly survey the room, the couple there were both humans without Augbrains. They were too wrapped up in what they were doing to notice her and she made a hasty retreat when she could not find any Augbrain.

Aumar frowned a bit, but nodded when she reported the cave was clear. Casey asked how Aumar became Augbrain linked before they continued on the search. "My human was once known as Aumari Kadafarie. He was on Primordia tracking a gang of brain runners, men that came here to capture Augbrains to return to Earth and sell us at a great price to the wealthy. That was before we decided to freely join with those of your kind we found acceptable. The gang paid off the local police force and was tipped off to his arrival. They used their contacts to set Aumari up, drawing him out into the western forest.

"Augbrains are born asexually from their parent every twenty years. We will die after the fifth birth. My parent had me as its third before it was taken. I had no name given by my parent and stayed in the area in hopes the humans might bring my parent back. So I was there when Aumari's partner stabbed him in the back with a police issued buck knife. Aumari was surprised and able to fire a shot through the traitor's skull before he collapsed.

"I took pity on him and dropped from my hiding place in the trees. I pulled the knife out and bonded with him while I used my tentacles to seal the wound. He had a great will to survive in order to stop those that did this to him. I had my reasons to want the same so no more Augbrains would have their parents stolen. I suppose that is why we bonded so deeply, we were one in purpose at the time. I helped accelerate his healing and we became Aumar on the third day when he woke with the traitor's corpse stripped to its bones by the local life nearby.

"To make the story short we had our revenge by first taking out all of the brain runners, sometimes torturing them for information. This information led us to expose every crooked officer on Primordia. Their interrogations led us back to Earth where we led a task force to destroy the sales network and recover Augbrains not yet bonded. We tracked down the others and checked to see if they wanted to go home. My parent was killed after it rejected the host that bought it," Aumar replied.

Casey forcefully grabbed Aumar and spun him around. "You killed the brain runners? How could an Augbrain human do that? Wouldn't it then make you the first to kill another being?" Casey asked. He was both surprised and suddenly a bit afraid of this unassuming monk detective. Janice tried to calm him down, but also asked for an explanation since Aumar should have corrupted the other Augbrains when he came to the next Dreamslipper commune.

Aumar gazed on them with utter sadness. "Yes I killed, but I was not an Augbrain or human any longer. My bond was so complete that we became a new entity. I cannot be separated from Aumari without it killing both of us. We were later punished according to Augbrain justice. Do you think Aumari wanted to be unable to procreate? I also cannot sire children and will live until my host perishes." Aumar's eyes were filled with tears, "I can only receive from the Dreamslipper commune, and never send my experiences so the others can share them. That was our price, our burden."

Casey let go and Janice moved to hug Aumar. "I'm sorry we pushed you. You did the right thing and they punished you for it. It's a shame they can't see that fire sometimes needs to be fought with fire," Casey said before he held out his hand.

Before Aumar could reach out to take it a loud chattering scream came out of a cave four sections away from where they stood. Aumar's face changed into a look of concern before he broke from Janice's embrace. "Hurry, we must get there now," Aumar yelled behind him as he ran. The two humans tried to keep up. Janice said she did not know what it was when Casey asked.

They entered the cave where the chattering noise was still coming from; they were hard pressed to see since it was hotter here and much more dense steam. "Don't touch the walls or you'll be burned," Aumar cautioned. Casey and Janice backed out of the cave, the temperature and steam too much for them. After a couple of minutes Aumar emerged carrying two Augbrains and a handful of small shells about the size of a dime each. Aumar was crying again as he held them up. "We were too late. Eiffel decided the risk was too great for him to live when the Dreamslipper commune came. He committed suicide by prematurely having all five of his Augbrain children," Aumar explained before he handed the four shells to Janice. He then handed the limp Augbrain corpse of Eiffel over to Casey. Aumar inspected the small live Augbrain carefully and chattered with it in their native language. "She's small and will have to be monitored carefully once we return to Earth. Casey Malone and Janice Young I'd like you to meet Emira Worshire the Third," Aumar held the quarter grown premature Augbrain so it could view them with the small beady black eyes. "Eiffel transferred all her memories into his first born in the hopes that it could survive and bond back with his human host. We heard her crying out, I imagine it would be a shock for a human to wake up as an Augbrain," Aumar smiled. He led the way back out of the caves.

"Will Emira be cut off from the Dreamslipper commune?" Janice asked. She gave Casey a glance of sympathy, he was after all still carrying Eiffel's limp corpse. She wasn't sure whether it would be disrespectful to pocket the four empty Augbrain shells she had, so she kept them in her left hand.

"She'll have to grow more before she's even ready. She's about eight years premature. We'll know exactly what memories Eiffel chose to pass to her and if we're lucky the entire attempted rape won't be amongst them. You can set Eiffel's corpse next to that tree there. He'll be recycled into the chain of life as all things should," Aumar stated. He held Emira's Augbrain as if it were his own child and boarded the large centipede like ride he had chosen. Janice asked what she should do with the shells in her hand. "We'll need to give them to the local authorities to confirm Eiffel's suicide. Put them in your pocket. I'll swing by the motel in a few hours to pick them up. Will four be enough for you two," Aumar looked between them and then back to the caves with a smile. They smiled back and assured him that they would be there.

When the time came Aumar would not show. Janice had given two of the shells to Casey to inspect. They waited and could not get hold of Aumar. They contacted their Captain and sent in reports; he ordered them to stay until Aumar could return with the Augbrain. Aumar strode into their room just five minutes before the Dreamslipper commune was to occur. He knew they both had two shells and asked them to sit back into the beds before setting the shells upon their eyes. Casey was not happy that they were kept waiting and was uncertain he wanted any part of Aumar's scheme. "You two have been granted an award for your help with Eiffel. Just do as I say and relax. I promise you won't regret it, much," Aumar smiled. He took the third egg shaped bed and hummed before he closed his eyes.

"Just do it Casey, if not for me than for your daughter. She'll always resent you if you deny her something you have no clue about because you were too chicken to try," Janice ordered. She placed the shells over her eyes. "Yea, I'm going to hate myself for a while when I can't do this again. But, hey, I didn't have to kill anyone," she whispered.

Casey reluctantly decided she was right about his daughter. He closed his eyes and set the shells on them. He tried to keep his breathing calm. He thought he was too old for this crazy stuff.

The Dreamslipper commune only lasted ten minutes, yet it felt like years of pleasure and information passed through Detective Casey Malone's mind. He knew then what agony Janice had gone through when she lost it. This was better than any drug and a much faster way for a society to move knowledge. He came back to with tears in his eyes and knew when his daughter asked he would let her have the Augbrain. He blinked beyond his tears unsure if they were caused by sadness or the prior bliss. He saw Janice's beautiful face above his, tears in her eyes too. "Will you marry me?" he asked.

She smiled, "I thought you'd never ask." They kissed passionately, ignoring Aumar's presence entirely. Aumar retrieved the shells and left after congratulating both of them. They spent the night alone before returning to their old lives.

## DEEPDIVER'S QUANDRY

"Shallz, Jamile you know I already served my five cycles as a node! I've paid my dues, forget it," the young male with green eyes and trim blonde hair exclaimed in anger. He looked out of place standing in his expensive tailored suit amongst the vividly green cow patty mined grass field. The sky was too bright, the scents too potent, a side effect of all environments generated by the shared consciousness inside the great wetware supercomputer that controlled their deepdive colonization vessel.

Jamile Fostner was a large man in his late forties that currently wore blue coveralls over a bright yellow tee shirt and a straw hat. He had longer brown hair and dark brown eyes. He did not look very pleased at the moment while he tossed bird seed at the simulated chickens. "Karthe, I'm not asking you to permanently jack back in. I just know you were the best node ever and it was like the shared consciousness became your tool to guide. In the five decades since we left Earth we had maybe one death per year. This last week there were twenty, it's too high for me to believe they were accidental. If this rate continues I will be forced to draft all dreamers in as nodes just to keep our ship operational. I need you to jack in and figure this out before it becomes too critical for anyone to head it off."

Karthe Mieander shook his head and looked around the quaint farm simulation Jamile was fond of. "I've been out of the game for twenty five cycles, I'm not sure I can do it again. The group was all about my age and they were still very enthusiastic about our progress through deepdive space. I shouldn't have to ask this, but you have already run all the diagnostic routines, right?" Karthe asked with a tone that indicated he needed an answer, though he wasn't trying to imply the man was incompetent.

"I ran the diagnostic five times before I booted you into the system for this conversation. There are no anomalies in the readings of any of the nodes before they died and the collective consciousness did not notice their absence until their next boot. The only common thread we have so far is they all died during their offline rest period. Other than that we're at a loss as to why we've experienced such a dramatic rise in casualties. That's why I need you, you could do things with the collective consciousness others can't," Jamile stopped feeding the chickens and looked with pleading eyes upon Karthe. He did not want to beg for the help, but the man was not beyond doing so.

Karthe was angry, but he sighed at the request and nodded slowly. It would be better to serve for a few months, if required, than to have to be drafted in to fill the vacancies for the remainder of their deepdive trip. Karthe's sense of social responsibility for the entire group was too strong. "Load up all the files you have on the victims and see if you can convince Mary Tola, Cleark Niece and Lofeie Staer to join this little investigative job. You might need to convince them by offering less time on their next rotation in the collective. They'll probably be harder to twist into returning so soon," Karthe requested.

Jamile Fostner laughed and snapped his fingers. The farmyard dissolved and was replaced by a corporate boardroom complete with flat panel displays, a long table and three filled chairs. Each of the three people he had asked for were sitting down behind the table next to one empty chair reserved for Karthe. "I took the liberty of drafting them in to fill some of the twenty open positions in anticipation of your acceptance of the job," Jamile explained. Karthe moved into the empty seat and sat down without comment, though he did nod at his friends. Within seconds all the files on each of the twenty recently deceased nodes was in Karthe's mind and he took a moment to ignore his surroundings to process through the data.

"They're all males from my first rotation as a node. They all are about my age and have similar physical characteristics. Damn you Jamile, you knew all that and you weren't going to tell me until after I agreed," Karthe exclaimed angrily. "I'm bait and you're just hoping that my superior control over the collective consciousness will prove better than whatever threat we face," Karthe said once he understood the full situation. There was a high probability that he was the true target for whoever was killing off the nodes.

"Good luck," Jamile smiled before he disappeared from the board room.

Mary Tola was the first to say anything, her long red hair draped over her face in the moody fashion that she felt gave her a sense of mystery to others. "We've checked all the nodes physiological profiles and they match those that earned them spots on this ship. No one seems to be exhibiting any new psychotic tendencies towards their fellow nodes. Who did you piss off?" Mary asked with puff of air to move the locks so he could see one of her eyes stare accusingly at him. Karthe shrugged at the question, if he knew he wouldn't be sitting there and Jamile would have already taken care of the problem.

"I've gone back over all of your log files and interviewed all the females that you had interaction with during your period as a node, none seemed to be upset with your treatment of them and I was surprised to learn that they'd mostly like a repeat performance. I also began to interview the other females since there's a chance you might have jilted one without realizing, still nothing there and no jealous boyfriends that I could find," Lofeie Staer reported. She had blue hair that contrasted with her dark tanned skin and wore a green sequin dress. She had been a police detective back on Earth before they launched the deepdive ship.

The final young member of their taskforce was not even fourteen years old and his face was freckled. He wore a pair of glasses over his nose even though their virtual representations in the collective consciousness did not have to truly reflect handicaps of the body. He was one of the few technicians whose IQ was off the scale and believed to be necessary for the future of human kind. To most that looked at him they just saw a nervous nerdy kid that didn't know how to be something else. "I might have a lead, but I can't seem to pin down the source yet. The logs show that two hundred nodes were online when the day began, when the deaths occurred there was one more online. I believe that one of the offline slumbering nodes must have come back online and attacked the ones that died. Though, the logs show two hundred nodes were offline in rest mode at that time. I haven't been able to pin down the source of that discrepancy," Cleark Niece bashfully reported while he pushed his glasses back up on his nose.

"At least it's a start Cleark, that's more than I was hoping for. I suppose the only way for us to proceed is for me to jack fully into the consciousness and hope someone comes for me. I don't like the idea of having to be asleep when the attack comes. I might be good, but when I'm asleep my subconscious might not be able to defend itself. Cleark can you create an automated program loop to check on my condition every ten seconds while I slumber and if my heart's stopped have the system jolt it back into action? I'd feel better going in if I had some backup protection in place," Karthe requested. The boy nodded and said it would be ready in five minutes. "Suggestions on how to take care of the node that might be doing this once we discover who it is?" Karthe asked. Murder would be a new concept to the collective consciousness of the deepdivers and there was no precedent for punishment of the offense. He believed he knew that the only solution would be to separate the node from the rest of the collective, leaving that mind to possibly go insane from the isolation. The others that had died during their trip were usually due to malfunctions in the stasis pods that were stacked like crates inside the ship or someone just decided they did not want to remain part of the colonization effort. Suicide was frowned upon greatly by the collective, but there was little one can do to force another being to stay alive once they've decided to leave this life.

"The entire collective would have to commune on that subject to come up with a concordance as to punishment. It is not our place to make judgments or decide to be the executioners," Mary Tola replied. Lofeie Staer agreed with her, the collective would have to be the ultimate authority upon that question. She added that they should work to just try to identify and isolate the offender until the collective could examine the cause of the aberrant behavior.

Karthe waited until Cleark could assure him that program loops were in place to act as fail safes before he nodded at them and linked back into the shared consciousness of the wetware supercomputer. In the old days a computer might have thought something like Karthe was a virus to have to defend against since his consciousness moved through the collective with great speed and was able to bend the others into focus to his purpose. Even Jamile was reluctantly placed into a subservient position in the great mind link that controlled their deepdive colonization vessel. Karthe's senses were replaced by feeds of data from cameras, temperature gauges, valve controls, radar returns, and a multitude of other devices that needed constant attention or adjustment. He quickly switched over to check on all of the humans in stasis within the ship, they were now his sole responsibility. Probably one of the things that allowed Karthe to so fully integrate and bend the collective to his will was the fact that he could emphasize with each one of these souls that took the dangerous trip into deepdive space to find a new home to colonize on the other end of the universe. To him they weren't just nodes; they were all individuals with dreams, loves and hopes for the future. He especially made an effort to check on all the females, they were all pregnant within the stasis so that when they arrived at the world their population would have its first new generation born. He could sense the worry and concern of each mother over the health and safety of their unborn child. Once he was certain that all aboard the ship were well and that the ship was operating at decent efficiency, he pulled back to monitor only the collective consciousness. He felt some resentment from the nodes that had not worked with him before and began to make contact individually with each one of them to explain the situation, Jamile had not given the others warning that he would usurp the current collective's operation. Cooperation was key to the success of the deepdive ship's operation and any conflict between the nodes could cause small problems to grow into much more threatening situations for the entire populace. Thus, most of Karthe's first day within the shared consciousness was spent reassuring that the current state would only be temporary and that once the puzzle of the deaths was solved he'd relinquish control back to those serving this five cycle period.

Karthe Mieander was glad when it finally came time for his rest period, he couldn't believe how tired he was on just his first day back. There was a great toll on him whenever he took complete control over the collective consciousness due to the stress he put on himself for being responsible for the ten thousand humans that the ship originally started out with. The dreams were welcome release from the responsibility. Four hours into his rest period he found he was back at the dreamdiver training facility back on Earth before they launched. The campus was a combination of military base and college facility where the dorm rooms were feet from the auditorium. The odd part of the dream was that he was viewing himself smiling and flirting with a female volunteer. He was seeing the event from the Asian female's perspective and usually a dream could only repeat the dreamer's memory of the event. They were up on a hill overlooking the giant launch pad where the deepdrive ship was being constructed while they were trained and evaluated. They were not supposed to fraternize with each other, but being sequestered for months on the base left certain hormones to drive people beyond the rules. Her name was Aimiea Fumiaki and they were both about eighteen when they began their training. Their morning of passion had led to her having to be punished and given abortion pills so they could later implant a genetically engineered egg that the scientists believed would help the new generation born at the colony a better chance of survival. Karthe felt what she felt and knew what she thought during their entanglement and then the anguish after. He had not seen her again after the abortion and suspected that she had hated him for the anguish he had caused. The dream dispelled that theory; she hated the scientists in charge of the project and had defied them by not taking the abortion pill. She used a blood sample from one of the other volunteer women to trick the test, coming up negative for pregnancy. The implanted egg was aborted from her body that evening and she went into the deepdive ship with the knowledge she would be giving birth to Karthe's child when they reached the colony and she hoped that he would accept it as his. She had dreams of marrying and living out the rest of her life with him in a happy family.

The scene shifted back to the grassy hilltop and he was no longer looking upon himself, but a different male that shared some of his features. The boy glared angrily at him, "How could you leave us dad? What kind of a man are you?" Karthe stared at the boy with surprise and wondered how this could be happening. He could not access Aimiea's stasis chamber while he was in rest period so he could not check to see if the readings were off at this moment. The boy punched him hard in the face and he felt blood trickle out of his nose. Then he noticed that he was no longer in Aimiea Fumiaki's body, but his own. Karthe stopped the next blow firmly in his own right hand and shook his head. "You can't tell me what to do, you weren't there for me and mom," the boy yelled.

"Boy, if you are my son than you will do what I say even if I have to kick respect into you. I didn't even know you existed until this dream and I won't be able to confirm that story until I return to online status. You've been killing men that look like me and it has to stop! Do you understand me? Don't attack any more people," Karthe ordered. Karthe was knocked back from the boy with a torrent of fire that engulfed the child's body. Karthe took less than a second to react before the fire engulfed his body; he had summoned his own block of ice that the fire had to melt through in order harm him. Karthe then summoned up a gust of wind to blow the torch boy out and knock him down into the launch pit. "Cleark, if you can hear me get me out of here right now," Karthe ordered before he dissolved the ice to walk out and look down into the launch pit. The boy was gone, but Karthe could sense that he had not fled the dreamscape. Karthe suspected the fetus must have somehow been aware the entire five decades within his mother's womb and if he even shared a fraction of Karthe's ability within the shared consciousness, the victims had little defense against the boy's furry. Karthe would have to convene some of the doctors and scientists about how a fetus shared Aimiea's link to the collective.

A blur came out of the launch pit and sped toward the barracks. Two seconds later it sped back up the hill to stop before Karthe. The boy held Cleark Niece around the nerd's neck and then threw him to the throw rug that sat on the grass at Karthe's feet. Cleark's face looked bludgeoned by the boy's fists, blood oozed from Cleark's nose and his eyes were swollen up from the abuse. This was definitely the Cleark Niece from the ship, not the two year younger version that was trained at the facility. "You tried to cheat me father, shame on you. Perhaps I will let him live, then again, why should I?" the boy asked as he taunted Karthe. Cleark tried to say he was sorry between sobs.

Karthe was worried; the boy had enough power to drag someone not jacked directly into the collective consciousness into Karthe's rest period. The fail safe loops Cleark had put in place should have automatically pulled Karthe out of the dream and woke him. Karthe decided he needed to stall for more time so he could decide what to do next. "Well son, you're in the driver's seat at the moment. What do you want?" Karthe asked. He didn't even know the kid's name and now he was going to try to negotiate with the boy.

"I want this damn trip to end so I can escape the prison you and mom have fashioned for me. Do you know what it has been like to be stuck in limbo for five decades? I want out now so I can start my own life," the boy replied. "I want to be called Jehovah Mieander," the boy added. His face was so serious about the entire request that Karthe almost began to laugh at the boy. Karthe asked if the boy knew about why they were on a deepdive craft and how long it was expected to take before they would arrive at the colony world. Jehovah replied that he knew all of that and still wanted to be out now. "I'll kill this wimp here now if you don't agree and then another person every hour until you can make it happen," Jehovah threatened.

"I'm sorry you feel that way son. You've forced me to do something I had hoped never to have to do again," Karthe stated sadly. Karthe was not just any ordinary volunteer; he was a telekinetic that once had been used by the CIA as an assassin. It had been like some kind of video game to move objects within a target's home to kill them, making the death appear to be a suicide. It was one of the reasons he had left Earth, he didn't want to be used like that any more. He closed his eyes and the dreamscape dissolved into the blackness of space, Cleark was returned to his safe lab. Jehovah began to curse at him and struggled within a metal cell Karthe had erected to contain the boy. "What judge you?" Karthe asked the stars.

The voice that replied sent shivers through Karthe's body; it was a combination of all the humans aboard the deepdive vessel, not just those connected to the shared consciousness operating the ship. It was probably the closest a human could imagine that God might sound like. "Jehovah Mieander has gone outside the rules of deepdive and shall be aborted in accordance with our law for his crimes. We cannot allow the mission to be harmed by a single, the collective must survive. Aimiea Fumiaki shall be sundered from the collective for her digressions. Karthe Mieander, you are too valuable to punish likewise. You will serve out two consecutive five cycles as punishment for your part in this."

Karthe nodded at the judgment with sad resignation at the decree. He used his telekinetic ability to sever Jehovah's umbilical cord before he wrapped it around the fetus' neck tight enough to ensure the child would no longer bother the collective. Karthe cried while he did this and pleaded for mercy for the child's mother, they still had another five decades before they were supposed to emerge from deepdive. He knew she'd go insane in that time if she was cut completely off from all outside contact. The collective was firm in their conviction to keep her removed from the link, but allowed him to link to her separately after he served his punishment cycles.

One hundred years after the deepdrive colonization vessel was launched from Earth it came out of deepdive space near a large yellow star similar to Sol. The ship was almost as massive as the moon that orbited the third planet from the star and it parked in orbit on the other side of the world from the moon. The stasis pods were launched one at a time down to the planet's surface. Karthe Mieander and Aimiea Fumiaki were the last two aboard the colonization vessel when the fusion generator that had ran flawlessly for nearly a century exploded. No one really knows exactly what happened. Some thought the two star crossed lovers destroyed themselves in sorrow. Others think that Jehovah Mieander left some small part of himself in the system to wait until he could exact his revenge upon his parents. Either way, the colony thrived once the people were able to readjust back to being separate individuals.

## WHY I KILLED ROSY

The screams, made mostly for alarm, were the worst part of the ordeal I had lustfully taken in as my holy responsibility to my family. The artificial construct before me looked human on the outside, but once the butcher knife began to dig through the simulflesh into the guts of the thing it became evident it was not human. I yanked out whole handfuls of wires and tubes in anger from its belly. I felt the lukewarm red hydraulic fluid splash across my face and it felt good to know that it bled. Rosy was her name, just as it was for all of her kind. I hated them with a passion I never thought I could possess. I suppose I should have thanked their makers for programming them against harming humans or I might have ended up a pile of bones against the freezer door.

My name is Maria DelOroria and I was once the head Maid to this household. Three generations of my family had worked for the Controsas before Rosy came along to ruin everything. I come from traditional Hispanic descent and family is right after my faith in God as priorities. Three DelOroria family branches were just laid off by the Controsas after they purchased Rosy; just like that our loyalty and hard work were forgotten. The fake female human could control an army of smaller robots to take care of the grounds, feed the pets, keep up the family cars, clean the pool, launder the clothes, and just about any other job that once took a human to perform. The menial jobs might not look like much to the upper and middle classes, but they were our lifeblood.

When my siblings and I could not find work elsewhere my mind broke along with my heart. My two children were too precious to allow them to starve. That is why I am currently in the large Controsas kitchen hacking away at Rosy with the butcher knife clutched firmly in both hands. My siblings were also hard at work outside where they were destroying Rosy's robotic army of servants. Rosy pleaded for me to stop and I am sure that if she were capable she would have been crying real tears, but I ignored her and kept stabbing deeper into her body. I realized that this would have been easier if I had access to a computer so I could go online to look for the machine's patent files, which would have included blueprints on her components.

I was glad that the Controsas had not varied from their normal schedule for this time of year. The entire family was out on their annual trip to Rome. It would be two weeks before they returned to find their Rosy system in pieces across the compound. The children might take the loss the hardest since the machine was insidiously programmed to bond with them through affection algorithms. Perhaps with time they would forgive me and realize that I loved them almost as much as my own children.

Rosy's lit optics began to flicker and her pleas were beginning to come less frequently. I continued my gory task with relish that I had never experienced before. She was dying and I was not one bit regretful for the action. Technology and the machines it produced were quickly putting humans out of work. I felt that Rosy's death would be my own personal vindication against the trend to devalue human life and skills.

This crime would not be considered murder, but property damage by the Mexican government. Her family would be arrested and possibly put into jail for the destruction, where they would be fed three times a day with clothes and a roof over their head. The more likely position, since the government was already facing high prison populations, would be to force the family to work off their debt for the destruction of property. This would mean that the government would force the Controsases to feed us while in their debt.

So it was with great pleasure and love that I killed Rosy. When the robot quit moving I drug her body to a great fire pit outside that I used to barbeque large quantities of meats whenever the Controsas family held parties. The device was propane fueled and I pushed Rosy's corpse on top of it before I turned on her funeral pyre. The fire first burned the hydraulic fluid brightly before it melted her simulflesh with a pungent odor. I watched with glee and was joined by my siblings that had finished their destruction of the other robots. The fire was not hot enough to melt her metal components, but good enough to destroy all microchips so the Controsas would have little hope to recover her program intact. When we were about to leave there was a final convulsion of Rosy's body and a piercing scream that nearly put the fire out. My siblings ran quickly claiming Rosy's soul was angry with them for what they had done. I tried to tell them no machine has a soul and that it was probably a short somewhere, but they would not listen. I walked over and turned off the propane before I pulled my rosary out to perform a little last rites ceremony on the charred metal skeleton. I would have to ask a priest to come up here and perform cleansing rituals with holy water before my siblings would return to the property. When they did they would be thanking me for killing Rosy.

## YES DAMN IT I WANT TO DIE!

I can't tell you why I continue to do this, but the bullet splatters my brains against the bedroom wall for the umpteenth time. The three fifty seven magnum goes limp in my grip as the bullet's force knocks me back to lie upon the now blood drenched bedding. I have done this so often that my neighbors don't even attempt to call the police anymore. The darkness of the void is so welcome to what I have had to see and remember in my life, even if it is a fleeting experience.

An hour later I wake up with the worst headache a body can have and curse the technology gods that have placed me in this damned situation. Nanobots are the culprit in this insane immortal life. Miniature robots that cannot be seen with the eye have become so powerful they can rebuild the body even when it suffers extreme damage. Humans discovered the secret to immortality, something everyone thought they wanted. I certainly can tell you that I did not, even before the accident that killed my wife over four hundred years ago. Is it too much for a guy to ask that he can join his love in the afterlife?

The religious zealots complain that suicide is a mortal sin. They continue to drill the "life is precious" mantra into the populace, and as sheep they are willing to buy it. Never once have I heard a priest talk about what I should be doing with my immortality. I was and still am just a plain carpenter, at least whenever I actually decide to work. I feel sorry for all the families that have suffered because of the right to life movement; they've been forced by the law to keep human vegetables alive even though they won't ever become aware again.

I sit up and think about trying another round through my skull before I decide it can wait a few days. I've heard of others in my situation who has tried just about everything to die. Poison, high doses of radiation and even diving into an active volcano were not enough. Some sources believe a nuclear explosion or going into the sun might work. Even if the government were to allow it, few would be willing to sell a ticket to ride a rocket into the sun. I pull open the drawer on the nightstand beside the bed and drop the gun beside the two cartons of ammunition before I lock the weapon inside. I'm no longer sure why I continue to lock the drawer, old habits I guess, since most people can't die.

I pull the picture of my long dead wife off the nightstand and kiss it with tears in my eyes. "Someday baby, some day I'll see you in heaven. Even if it means I have to go to hell first," I sob. I am already in hell, but I will not tell her that.

## FRIENDSHIP'S TROPHY

The class bell rang and Morton Lionheart, the only human, rushed to get back into his virtual reality harness before he would be deemed tardy. The living room dissolved quickly to surround his young senses with the virtual image of his fifth grade classroom. He sighed in relief when he noticed he was not late and about five empty desks indicated he would not gain Mrs. Lenshikia's upset attention this time. Mrs. Lenshikia was a Pultiele, a race that looked like a cross between a giraffe and a snail with bluish wet skin. New students were quick to learn that she never took an eye off her pupils, even when she was turned to use a laser pointer to write on the large LCD board in front of the class. Morton wore his favorite tee shirt and blue jeans even though his peers had commented he was out of the current style. He could have easily downloaded avatar hacks, but as the only human he was going to be out of place here anyway, and his mother would not have been pleased with the possible virus threat the hacks would present. Just what his parents would need right now, he thought, a call to the Principal's office because the entire virtual school could not function. The Lionheart family had moved to Xeeriax because his mother was a licensed Interstellar Family Lawyer. His father corrected standardized tests for a living, which also did not help Morton's popularity with his peers, especially when he refused to pass the questions to them.

Mrs. Lenshikia took notes on the two tardy children before she began. "I am pleased to announce that the Principal has decided the school will hold a real event next month at the Realty Raceways. Files will be transmitted to your parents about the rules and entry deadline. Nine entrants will be chosen to race their gravcart entries around the cross country circuit for a prize," she paused to allow a virtual representation of the trophy appear on her desk. The show of it spinning there brought oohs and awes from some of the students in the class. Morton wasn't so impressed because his father had a real trophy almost exactly like it. The races were an attempt by the galactic government to raise interest in the sciences, which seemed to be suffering from a loss of new ideas. Morton saw how interested the other students were and decided he would play up his father's success while he entered, so perhaps they would not treat him like such a nobody in the future.

"Well you losers had better not even think about it. I'm going to enter and no one else has a faint chance of beating me," a young Snoief commented with snobby glances at his peers. Snoiefs were a race that slapped a pig's snout where the fox's nose would have been, the short green fur was trimmed precisely to one inch in length. This boy wore a pair of black slacks and a white dress shirt over the fur to look good.

"Keep that attitude up Miekieal and I'll make sure you are not allowed to enter," Mrs. Lenshikia told the boy in an upset tone. Both of her eyestalks were angled down at him in a 'v' shape, which punctuated her mood toward the boy. She turned back to the class, "I want each of you to work on a proposed design and submit it tomorrow even if you are not serious about entering the race. Your designs will be graded as two science homework assignments." Some of the students groaned at the thought.

That evening after school Morton went into his father's combination office and study to fetch a picture of his dad. His dad had been about his age and stood beside the winning gravcart with the trophy raised in triumph. He saw that his father had fallen asleep at the desk and he tried to pull the picture down quietly so as not to wake his dad. Morton, at ten, was too short to reach the fourth level high shelf the trophy sat on and fetched a chair to climb on to boost his height. Morton's fingers almost were able to grasp the frame and he stood on his tip toes for more height. His right hand grabbed the frame just as he felt the chair move under his weight. Morton's fall just missed his dad's desk and he landed in the small leather loveseat his father would sometimes nap in. The sound of the chair striking the floor and the springs in the loveseat squeaked under his weight woke his father suddenly. His father lifted his head off the computer screen embedded in the top of the desk with a start. Then his father's face turned into a frown when he made the connection between the fallen chair, Morton and the picture in the boy's hands. "Oops," Morton said apologetically.

Morton's father was a thin man in his late thirties with deep blue eyes and brown hair that seemed to be in a permanent state of disarray. "Are you going to tell me why you almost killed yourself rather than risk waking me and asking to have a picture like a good boy should?" his father's deep voice asked. His father held a hand out for the picture, which Morton handed over sadly. His father set the picture on the desk and looked directly at his son.

"The school is going to have a gravcart race in a month and Mrs. Lenshikia wants us to turn in designs for science. She said she would transmit the rules to all the parents. I was going to borrow the picture to show my class," Morton decided to tell the whole truth.

Morton's father smiled and nodded knowingly, "You hope to score some points with your classmates. Alright, that's acceptable seeing as how new we are to the school. You know something? I would bet grandpa still has this gravcart hidden in his garage and my old design blueprints with it. I'll see if I can call him up about them, but you'll have to convince mom for permission to ship it here so you can enter the gravcart race. When it comes to your safety I will not overrule her." Morton's face must have had doubt written all over it. "What?" his father asked.

"It would be how old? They could put it in a museum and call it antique toys. Miekieal will have the latest stuff from his father's factories and he's already called the rest of us losers. Dad, even if it still runs, it would need a lot of work. Besides, they'll only let nine students actually race. Ask grandpa to scan the blueprints and we can work on the design submission for class. If Mrs. Lenshikia likes it then maybe," Morton suggested. He saw how his reaction had saddened his father and he did not want to fully reject the only thing he had come to his father for help on in the last four years. Morton usually went to his mom for homework help.

Morton's father nodded with a sigh before he handed the picture to his son and touched the screen to take it out of sleep mode before he had the computer dial grandpa. "Mother will not give us the credits to build a new gravcart, you know?" Morton's father asked. He held up a hand for his son to wait to reply when grandpa's image appeared on the screen. Morton's father quickly explained the situation to his father, whom agreed to search for the items. "Thanks dad, it means a lot to Morton and me," Morton's dad said before he signed off. "Go talk to your mother about the assignment and that you want to enter if it does well. She will give you a budget, let me know what it is and we can design based on how much you can afford," his father ordered. Morton rushed out to do what his father said with a sense of excitement.

An hour passed before Morton plopped into the leather loveseat with a sigh. His father smiled at him in that irritating know-it-all manner older people give their kids. "Two hundred credits were all I could squeeze out of mom," Morton said, "That is not even enough to buy an antigravity generator!" His father's smile widened nearly ear-to-ear. "You knew, didn't you?" Morton accused.

Morton's father nodded, "Your mother is not a big sports fan and by giving you that amount I'm sure she hoped to discourage your entry. I can add another fifty credits if you need them, but they will come from your birthday allowance. I suggest we work the design based on your mother's amount minus the shipping cost of my old gravcart. Grandpa sent the blueprints and a few digital pictures of the gravcart for condition estimation. I have already made a list of must replace items and a list of items you will need to rebuild. How much do you know about gravcarts?"

"They use antigravity generators to lift them off the ground and either fans or thrusters to propel them forward. Computer controls usually use radar to graph the ground ahead and adjust power depending on where the driver wants to go," Morton replied. The answer was textbook, it came from a commercial he had seen on mass produced gravcarts. He did not really know what that meant, but he did not want his dad to know that. His dad, though, had seen the commercial too and asked him how the antigravity generators worked. Morton just shrugged in answer.

Morton's dad brought up a close up image on the desk screen of the antigravity generators in his old gravcart. "The principle is two fold; create a magnetic field great enough to push against the iron in the ground to lift the vehicle, and create a large enough gravity bubble by generating a powerful gravity point to counter the planet's. To do this the antigravity generators are both electromagnets and high velocity electric motors almost simultaneously. The computer controller uses an eight phase alternating current between the two generators on my gravcart. This means that there are four power cycles to each generator and that while one is in electromagnet mode the other is in motor mode. Each cycle is six nanoseconds of time so you should not even notice the changes. Much heat is built up in the wires and that is why older generators have fans built into the electric motor spindles, which directs the air toward the ground to aid in buoyancy. An older antigravity generator could loose the electromagnetic push and still float on the cushion of air for a safe landing. Newer models have been designed to force the air into ducts to make forward motion faster. As long as their computers and power do not fail they can risk it."

Morton would spend the next four hours learning in great detail the specific technologies that went into his father's gravcart. The next two hours were spent trying to update the design and components within his mother's budget. Morton's mom brought them dinner in the study that night, an unusual occurrence since his father made it a rule not to allow food or drink in the study. When Morton's mother took the dishes out, she shook her head and commented, "Boy and their toys." That brought a round of laughter from Morton and his father.

Nearly a month later Morton Lionheart could still barely believe his design was one of the nine chosen to compete in the race. His father helped him pull their rebuilt gravcart out of the van to the starting line where it would wait beside the other entries for tomorrow. The school had sent the journalism class out to the track to interview the racers and take full VR scans for their reports. Morton was a little shy about the interview, but he wanted to check out his competition with their gravcarts. "I'll be back in an hour to pick you up. Try to make friends," Morton's father said before he nodded toward the other racers with a smile.

Morton thanked his father and pushed the gravcart the final bit into place beside the one built by two Felincia sisters. Felincias were evolved from cats and they could either stand erect or be on all fours. Seliea was the black furred twin while Albieana was the white furred one. Seliea hissed and frowned at Morton's gravcart while Albieana looked it over with curiosity.

Morton didn't expect what happened next, but suddenly all of the journalism students were coming toward him. Each began to bark a question; all of them wanted the details on the odd human's entry. "Wait a second, I thought only one of you were supposed to interview me?" he asked. The journalism students began to argue with each other. "Stop it, I'll take one at a time," Morton stated.

"Is it true your entry was the same one your father used once to win a race?" a boy asked. Morton nodded. "That would make it almost thirty years old. Are you sure it is safe?" a girl asked. The students were almost surrounding Morton's gravcart as he stood beside it.

"I believe it may be safer than other entries," Morton said while he glanced at the still covered gravcart that belonged to Miekieal. The young Snoief wore a gaudy racer's outfit with red and orange stripes. Miekieal stared angrily over at Morton for taking away the journalism students. Morton flashed the snob a smile and waved. Morton answered several more questions before the journalism students decided they were bored with him and headed to Miekieal's summons because the rich boy was about to unveil his gravcart. "Why are there only eight gravcarts on the line? Did someone drop out?" Morton asked Albieana.

Albieana looked at her sister to check if Seliea had noticed the question before she decided her sister was too busy checking on Miekieal's gravcart. "The ninth is a young Phaser. Being robotic, he could scan our designs and by tomorrow adapt his vehicle form. He will come directly to the race with his design tomorrow," Albieana whispered. Seliea had heard and hissed again at Morton, this time her hair stood on end and Morton quickly retreated. He heard two hisses from behind him and then Albieana commented, "He's cute." Morton blushed before he moved to check out the other racers.

A Slineth, a kind of smart yellow skinned frog, named Urghbit sat on top of his disc shaped gravcart while he cleaned one large eye by licking it with his tongue. "What you looking at?" Urghbit asked. Morton quickly said nothing and moved on. He was still too new to the multispecies planet to know if staring at a Slineth while it cleaned its eyes was rude. The next gravcart looked like a motorcycle with a stick lying on top of it. The stick was actually a Lithrian. "Nice ride Markz, good luck," Morton said before he passed on to the next entry. Lithrians were unable to talk back with words and Morton did not know the sign language they used. Either Markz returned his greeting or told him to stick it, he wasn't sure. In the virtual classroom the program helped to translate between species. Morton noticed the next gravcart was much smaller than the others and almost mistook it for a remote controlled toy before he looked closer. There was a pod half the size of his head where a cloud of pink gas swirled about and he realized this was the Fhea entrant, Shehf. The Fhea were a gaseous people that learned to utilize environmental suit technology to work with other beings. Shehf had combined the suit with his gravcart for the race. The next driver was Vernimitia, a species that had ball shaped bodies that also served as their heads. They had three eyes and mouths, six arms and four legs. It was difficult to sneak up on Orthieana and she could carry on conversations with three people at the same time, which Morton found odd. "Hey Morton, what do you think?" she asked with a wave at her gravcart. The design incorporated four antigravity generators with a more vertical oriented cockpit for her to stand in. Three of the generators formed a triangle at the base and one was above the cockpit.

"I think it fits you like a glove Orthieana," Morton replied with a smile and a nod. Vernimitians did not have hands on their arms and she looked puzzled by the comment, but smiled back. Morton gave her a thumbs-up and moved to the next entry. The next gravcart looked like a beautiful intricately colored butterfly with such a thin surface that Morton bent down to look at it. The device was about two inches thick and he wondered how it housed antigravity generators at all. He almost set his hand on it.

"If you touch me with your greasy human hands you will be a murderer," the butterfly quickly exclaimed before she moved her wings into an upright position. "What, haven't you ever seen a Lumitie before?" she asked. She fluttered her wings and the colors changed along with the patterns on the delicate structures.

"Sorry, no I have not. I mistook you as part of your gravcart. I did not mean any harm," Morton stuttered the apology. "My name is Morton, who are you?" he asked. He stood so he would not accidentally touch her if she moved back over the device's surface.

"Bright Moons," she replied before her wings fluttered a couple more times and then she let them move back to rest on the gravcart. Morton could now make out the dark outline of her slim body and found her eyes. Morton apologized again before he told her that she was very pretty. "Remember this pattern human! Lumities only make it when they are angry. To touch it is to be poisoned," Bright Moons warned.

"It was nice to meet you," Morton commented before he quickly moved to Miekieal's gravcart. The gravcart looked almost exactly like the ones in the commercials except it was painted to match the driver's racing uniform. The logo of Miekieal's father's company emblazoned in chrome on the front and sides as if it were a sponsorship in one of the GalacNet broadcasted events rather than a school science project. The body looked like it was fashioned after an eagle's beak with the holes for steering and an aftermarket seat to protect the prince's soft behind. Miekieal saw Morton and had to gloat while he lifted the top shell to show the journalists the modifications "he" made. Morton took the opportunity to get close and look it over. "These are experimental G49E antigravity generators my father's company has been developing to install in gravtanks once they pass this little test trial," Miekieal explained.

"Have you tried them out before?" one female reporter asked.

"The simulations have proven them reliable and I have full trust in the people that work for my father. Nothing on the market is faster or more efficient. Unlike Morton's ride which I predict will come in last tomorrow," Miekieal turned a sly smirk on Morton.

Morton smiled back, "Well Miekieal you might want to ask your father's engineers to check the capacitor coil. The amperage is too high and will burn out your magnetic field windings before you finish the race." The journalism students looked like they expected Miekieal to deck Morton for the comment while they moved to make room.

"What does a junk diver and recycler of antiques know about new technology? Give me a break, Lionheart; you barely spent two hundred credits and one month on that clunker. My father spent two billion credits and five years developing the G49E. It's a shame they even let you enter that death trap piece of scrap," Miekieal laughed and had the journalists also in an uproar.

"Have it your way," Morton commented before he left. He would not let Miekieal see him cry. He saw Albieana's concerned look and made his way into the boy's restroom. He closed the stall door and sobbed softly so no one could hear. When it came time he came out and rode home in silence with his dad.

The next morning Morton arrived to a noisy greeting by several thousand students and parents there to watch the race. He had not realized how large the virtual school was until then. He could recognize the Principal, Mrs. Lenshikia, some of his classmates and Miekieal's father. Morton's dad handed him a helmet and wished him good luck before he left to find a spot in the polyplexx stands. Morton walked over to his gravcart, a simple polyplexx cone nose and seat strapped to the metal frame that held the two antigravity generators in place. Both the helmet and gravcart were painted red, white and blue in traditional United States colors that were reminiscent of Evel Knievel. He waved up at the crowd before he strapped on the helmet and got onto his gravcart.

A man stood with a white and black striped shirt before the starting line. "Welcome young racers to the Reality Raceways where you will soon tackle one lap around the specially groomed cross country track of twelve kilometers. My name is Opmire and I will be your guide on this race. The gravel, as you may know, is a ferrous embedded material to help your gravcarts obtain maximum height. If at any moment during the race you have a problem try to pull off to the yellow dirt areas that boarder the course so you will not block those behind you. You are to avoid a collision with fellow racers and no cheating of any kind will be allowed. Please wait for the yellow light to activate your gravcarts and then the green light to go. Be safe out there," Opmire instructed before he left. Albieana had been talking to her sister, whom was on their entry, and she flashed Morton a smile before she followed the guide off the track.

Morton's heart pounded while he set his right thumb on the throttle switch and watched the yellow light come to life. He flicked the button and the antigravity generators hummed as they built up speed. His gravcart lifted off the ground slower than the others and he looked to see when he was in line with them. Then a loud crack and pop noise came out from under the polyplexx compartment below his chest. His gravcart began to float back down to the ground just as the green light came on and the other racers launched from the starting line, leaving him behind. Morton heard the moan of the crowd as he pulled open the polyplexx box to find the ends of a twisted pair of paperclips melted inside.

The guide and Albieana rushed toward his gravcart. "What seems to be the problem?" Albieana asked with concern. Opmire said Morton would have to pull the gravcart off the racetrack if he could not quickly fix it soon.

"Someone stole my fusible link sir. I definitely replaced that part with more than paperclips. Albieana, could I borrow your bracelet? It is gold plated and thick enough it should work until the race is finished," Morton requested. Albieana looked doubtful for a moment before she pulled the half inch thick ornamental bracelet off her left arm and handed it to him with a comment about her sister killing her. "Don't worry about that, thank you," Morton told her before he removed the pieces of paperclips and bent the bracelet slightly to make sure of a secure contact between the power cells and generators. The gravcart rose slowly back into the air and he applied as much power as he could into the six fans that gave the gravcart forward motion.

Two kilometers passed quickly before Morton caught sight of another racer's gravcart, it was Markz's motorcycle style one. The stick like Lithrian was trying to push it off the track with little success. Morton now had a hunch that more than one of them was sabotaged. He pulled to a stop and helped Markz push the gravcart off the track, "Hop on." The Lithrian seemed to understand as he wrapped around the exposed bars under Morton's seat. Morton wished he knew Lithrian sign language so Markz could tell him what went wrong with the motorcycle gravcart as he pushed the accelerator.

Not even one more kilometer passed and Morton saw two wrecked gravcarts. One was the Phaser entry and he was in robot form trying to help Shehf detach his environmental suit pod from the rest of the small gravcart. Morton pulled to a stop, "What happened?" The robot's gravcart mode had looked like a jet with two large generators near the wings. In robot mode Morton could see that the generators were lying in the yellow dirt and the wings were bent hard from a collision.

"Miekieal happened," the robot replied before he finally dislodged something and the Fhea pod came free from the gravcart. The robot handed the pod that contained Shehf to Morton before he picked up the remaining gravcart and tossed it near his discarded generators. "I'm the Astrofender Trilateer, by the way," the robot introduced. He then held out a small dime sized device for Morton to see, "Miekieal tossed this on me just a bit after he zapped Shehf's gravcart with something. It is a miniature EMP and knocked out my generators because they were not shielded like my other systems. Oh, I see you picked up Markz. He says his gravcart was also zapped, though it is strange that I do not have memory of it."

"You have wheels, do you think I can tow you in vehicle form?" Morton asked before he got back on his gravcart with Shehf's pod still in his hands. Trilateer nodded and phased into the vehicle, the once pretty blue enamel was scratched and the wings were bent at awkward angles. "Too bad I don't have any rope," Morton commented. To his surprise Markz hopped behind him and wrapped one end on the back of the gravcart while the other attached to Trilateer. Morton began to accelerate only after Trilateer assured him no harm would come to the Lithrian.

Three kilometers passed as quickly as Morton's gravcart could go under the load and he did not push Markz's link too hard. They then found Seliea and Orthieana arguing before their wrecked gravcarts, which were a tangled heap. There was a swath of the yellow dirt clear across the track for about five feet and this was the most likely cause of their accident. Morton stopped and Trilateer phased into his robot mode once Markz let go of him. "You clear the wreck and I'll see if I can calm them," Morton suggested before he bravely strode toward the hissing Felincia and spinning Vernimitia. "Stop it you two, we have been sabotaged by Miekieal and I will bet he cut this trough in the track that caused your wreck," Morton ordered. He made sure to move between them, but mostly pushed Orthieana away since he did not want Seliea's claws to touch him. Trilateer pulled Seliea's gravcart to the side first because it had broken into two pieces from the collision. Seliea hissed and said she did not believe him. "Come with me, I want to show you something," Morton said. He led her to his gravcart and popped open the fusible link box to show her the bracelet that matched the one on her right arm. "Albieana loaned me this because someone stole the fuse, I think Miekieal was the thief. Save your anger for him," Morton explained. A minute later Trilateer had finished moving Orthieana's gravcart off the track and asked about moving the gravel to make a bridge. "Never mind that, these old antigravity generators will make it across on air. Let's get moving again. Let me cross before Markz links us up," Morton replied. He had Seliea wait to ride on Trilateer while she held onto Shehf so Orthieana could ride in Morton's lap. Luckily the Vernimitia's green skinned top barely reached his chest so he could see over her to operate the gravcart.

Three more kilometers passed slowly with the odd caravan of gravcarts and drivers. They found Urghbit's disc gravcart absent of the Slineth driver and Orthieana quickly pointed ahead of them. The big yellow frog like student was leaping down the course. They covered another kilometer before they were able to catch up with him. Seliea called out to Urghbit and the yellow frog stopped, gave the group a double-take, before he told them to keep moving. Urghbit hopped right into Seliea's lap, which jarred the entire caravan. "Miekieal used some kind of gum that expanded into foam to knock out my fan intakes," Urghbit croaked angrily.

Morton continued to drive on in a slow pace while he began to worry about Bright Moons, if Miekieal used the gum on her it would do permanent damage to the delicate Lumitie's wings. They crested a hill to find the abandoned gravcart that belonged to Bright Moons only a few yards from where she had landed on a bush. She had the same angry and poisonous coloration she had warned Morton about. Orthieana used two of her arms to grab the light gravcart and flipped it gently off the track. Morton asked Bright Moons if she wanted a ride. "I can't, not when I'm like this. I would hurt you," Bright Moons replied with a mix of sadness and anger.

"You could ride Trilateer's tail fin just as long as you don't touch me," Seliea suggested. The metal tail fin was bent back far enough that it no longer served its purpose and hung at the very end of their caravan. Bright Moons' colors shifted slightly as she accepted and flew to land on the very end of the tail. She had her wings folded flat together so that the air from Morton's gravcart fans passed at her sides.

From this vantage point they were able to look down the last two kilometers to the finish line. Morton began to laugh as he accelerated, allowing gravity to give them more speed. The others began to ask him why he was laughing and he pointed at the bright red and orange gravcart stopped about ten meters away from the finish line. "Bet you he didn't listen to me yesterday," Morton commented.

When they reached Miekieal's gravcart several of his passengers wanted off so they could confront the greedy, underhanded little Snoief. "No, we are not going to stoop to his level. We are winners if we make it across the finish line and he is left out here for someone else to deal with. Trust me; he will not get away with it this time. My mom is a lawyer and she'll see to it if the Principal doesn't first," Morton reassured them while he drove on. He waved with a smile at Miekieal when he noticed the smoke coming out of the now fried G49E antigravity generators. Miekieal began to curse at them before he attempted to push his downed gravcart toward the finish line.

Even with how slow Morton's gravcart was at pulling its load they made it across the finish line well ahead of Miekieal. There were journalist students on the line to take photos and VR scans as they crossed. There were loud cheers from the assembled audience on the bleachers. Morton made sure that even Bright Moons crossed the finish line before he powered down and came to a stop. He helped Orthieana out of her spot as Urghbit hopped out of Seliea's lap. Markz released Trilateer and crawled toward Opmire whom was approaching with a trophy in his hands. Albieana was with the guide and went to her sister with a hug before she took Shehf so Seliea could get off Trilateer. Bright Moons drifted up over the group on her wings while Trilateer phased into his robot mode. "Congratulations Morton, you won," Opmire said before he handed the trophy, a bronze chalice two feet tall, to Morton.

One of the journalism students asked him to hold it up high over his head. Morton was about to say that it should belong to all of them. Opmire leaned down and whispered, "It's alright. We will set up another race after Miekieal's cheating has been dealt with. You won this one, so go ahead." Morton nodded and smiled. He raised the trophy over his head and was surprised when he felt two rough tongues lick a cheek on both sides of his face. Seliea and Albieana both gave him their version of a kiss. Morton enjoyed it to a point, since their tongues felt like sandpaper, but then Urghbit decided to add his long wet tongue across Morton's neck. The rest of the gathered group turned to look at the Slineth with disgust.

"What? They tasted the human too?" Urghbit asked. He said it with such innocence and bewilderment that the entire group began to laugh. Morton wiped the saliva off his neck with his left shirt sleeve.

Miekieal huffed hard by the time he pushed his gravcart up to the line. He saw the trophy in Morton's hands and was about to do something foolish when the school Principal accompanied by Opmire stepped in to intercept him. Miekieal quickly began to look for his father, whom had also approached. "Good to see you sir, it saves me the trouble of finding you. Your son has done things today that should call for expulsion, do you realize that? He endangered lives, stole and cheated in order to win the race. The property damage alone will likely run into a million credits. If you agree to pay for the damages, have your son work for Reality Raceways without pay for six months and accept his suspension from our school for two months, then perhaps I will be able to convince the school board to allow your son to remain. You will be sponsoring a new race in two months time as well," the Principal stated with a threatening tone. Miekieal's father was furious and he grabbed his son firmly by the shoulder before he agreed. The two Snoiefs left the track quickly.

Morton's dad emerged from the crowd with a smile, "I knew you could do it." Morton let him ruffle his hair before he handed the trophy to his dad. Morton told his father about Miekieal's cheating. "Son you won because you did not make the race more important than the racers," his father explained.

Morton then remembered he needed to return Albieana's bracelet and he popped open the fuse link box to pull it out. He bent it back into its original shape before he handed it to her, "Thank you for this, I could not have done it without you." She nodded and slipped it back on with a smile. Seliea hissed a bit and said she would beat him next time before she went to talk to her mom. Albieana said her sister was jealous before she also headed for their mom.

"Good work out there today," Trilateer commented with a pat of his metal hand on Morton's back. "You would have made the Astrofenders proud if you were a Cyber Phaser," he complimented. Then in a softer voice, "My creator's going to blow a fuse when he sees me." Morton wished the robot luck before Trilateer strode off through the crowd.

Bright Moons landed on Morton's shoulder, her wings were blue with white crescent shapes that must have been where her name came from. "I probably could have flown back and I apologize for yesterday. Thank you and I hope to see you on the track in two months," Bright Moons said into his left ear. She fluttered her wings so their tips just barely grazed his ear, tickling it. Then she flew up into the air toward the stands.

Orthieana and a Fhea in an environmental suit walked up, "Shehf and I would like to thank you too. We both are itching to take your antique on a real race next time." She winked the one large eye that currently faced him. Morton told her it was a date.

Shehf saluted him with a cybertechnic hand pressed against the polyplexx orb that contained his gaseous body. "It was an honor to make your acquaintance human. You are a credit to your kind," Shehf said through the suit's speech synthesizer. Then the suit spun about, nodded at Orthieana and left. She told Morton that he should be honored since Shehf had barely spoken two words to her in three years. She then mimicked the Fhea's salute before her father called her away.

Mrs. Lenshikia had patiently waited with beaming pride for he was one of her students after all. She moved over to his side and told him that he did great. She then clapped for quiet and all that knew her were quick to comply. "I believe Morton Lionheart should grace us with a little speech," she stated. All eyes turned quickly toward Morton, including hers.

The attention made Morton blush and he looked to his father, whom nodded. Morton decided he should stand on top of his gravcart's seat so he could look at the people gathered in the bleachers and one of the journalism students handed him an amplifier wand. "Hello everyone, my name is Morton Lionheart. I would not be here right now if my father had not built this gravcart so I have to thank my parents. I would also like to thank Albieana again for her aid when I needed it most. I would like to thank Mrs. Lenshikia for putting her faith in old designs. I like to think that this win was a victory by all eight racers that did not cheat today. I would like to dedicate the trophy to honest hard work, to kindness and most of all to new friends," Morton finished with a smile and wave to the crowd.

Later that evening Morton set his trophy next to his father's in the study. His father handed him the new picture frame with the trophy raised high over his head and the two Felincia licking his surprised face. All eight racers were within the frame. Morton set the picture right beside his father's. "When I grow up do you think my son will race the same gravcart?" Morton asked his dad.

"You never know son," his father replied. They hugged and then were interrupted when Morton's mom said it was dinner time. Morton's dad smiled, "Maybe if you win more trophies mom will let us move them to the living room." Morton told him it would be a fat chance and they laughed together.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although we spend a great deal of time discussing the benefits of scientific discovery we sometimes do not spend the time to look more closely at the repercussions of such advancements. Some of these stories are directly related to what I see as possible issues in the future. I personally know some people that have bought directly into the belief that utopia of the future is going to occur when all the machines do everything for us. Personally I see that as both bad for humanity in general as we are perhaps too lazy as it is. Also, how are we able to afford to purchase any of the products when the machines are doing all our work for us? In a way there will be economic problems since no one then can afford to buy the items the machines have made for the corporations. Sometimes there needs to be a bit more social responsibility from those that seek to profit in the short-term for those same corporations.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Peter T Phelps is currently 37 years old, lives in Rancho Cordova, California. He has always liked science fiction and fantasy.

## LOOK FOR THESE OTHER WORKS BY PETER T PHELPS:

The Smithy Series

SPI-FI 1: The Rasnic Delta War

SPI-FI 2: The Renishie Extinction

SPI-FI 3: The Shirimolt Revelation

POETRY COLLECTIONS:

Youth Scribbles

Trying Moments

Mystisistic Thoughts

Deep Ponderings

