Author's notes: I had to use some unusual punctuation due to the special communication heirin. For clarity, {this} is thought, specific to a certain character I won't spoil for you. "{this}" is thought spoken aloud while, {"this"} or {'this'} is thought quotes. I haven't made up the story codes for most of what goes on here, so for fair warning, this story contains explicit posession, mind control, bestiality, and implicit homosexual acts, rape, and "furry." Regardless, this is not a stroke story, so it's not overflowing with blow by blow sexual action. It is a work in progress, so there will be many edits. I'll take it out of /New when it's finished to my satisfaction, and finalized. J\bok's Story I was flying one evening, looking for food, when the clear sky split with thunder, and something flew over, too fast to make out. It arched down, and pulled up to hover on a tripod of fire. I brought up my binoculars, and spotted something like a tower, or obelesk sinking down to the ground, and extinguishing. I hung my rifle by the strap, and came around cross wind. The canopy rippled above me in the changing current of air, and I kept an eye on the telltales. The balloon took in air, dipping heavier, but pulling harder, so I pulled down to bring the parafoil back into the wake. Several minutes away, I couldn't quite make it, and came down short. I took the time to roll up my canopies, whatever it was wouldn't leave without me seeing it. I figured it was one of the artificial comets that where seen to fly over, always far too high, and fast to make out. Not airplanes, but missiles, and black arrow heads streaking for the stars. Clear blue overhead, I stashed my packs under the roots of nearby baynyan, and walked toward where I figured the thing came down. I left my rifle, but carried my knife. I certainly wouldn't be stopping to hunt, and my rifle was useless against anything larger than a meal, or two. The sun set before I got there. As I got close, it felt warmer, and a breeze wafted at my back. My hair straightened as I realised that it was blowing me to it, and even circling around didn't change that. I could not approach from downwind, as if by magic. It towered unnaturaly above the scrub, black, tapered, and upright. It seemed to shine darkness, or inhale the light from around it. I could barely make out that it was triangular, tapering up to a pyramid on top, and standing on three bulbs on the sides. The air stilled, and I crept on hands, and knees, stalked it like a leopard. There was someone around it, facing me, and speaking. "Kumonawt" he gabbled incomprehensibly "Iseu". I stood up, tried a greeting in Swahili, and he returned in kind. "Who are you?" "J\bok," I answered, He came around the other side, "Jkt'buk." Tall, and powerful, he looked down the wall of his chest, which looked armored. His skin was extremely dark, and there where no whites to his eyes. "What is that, Klingon?" His arms snapped to fast to see like pythons restraining me, crushing out my breath, "I'm Kane." His hand forced my head back, pinched open my jaw, and I felt his lips over mine. I gasped, even before realising he'd relaxed slightly. His breath was sharp, metalic, before my tongue went numb. It tingled all the way down my throat. He released me, but my muscles spasmed uncontrolably. Stars burst in my clenched shut eyes, and the numbness prickled down my back. Blackness sank over me. Out of it, Kane appeared, black in darkness, not seen, but felt. {No,} it didn't speak, {I am Basiatis.} What are you? I wondered fearfully. {Beyond your comprehension, pygmy} I could feel his condescention, {What is important is that you are Mine.} Demon! I disbelieved, or tried to. {I've been called worse,} curses rang out around us in countless voices from the past, {But that's close enough.} Some of the voices you could hear, and others where like his, thoughts. {What do you want?} I tried to flee somehow, but he surrounded me, constantly, I began to suspect he was the world around me. {Not quite,} he laughed, I think. Again, not a sound, it felt like ice, or snow melting as it poured down from my scalp. I realised my eyes where closed, and tried to open them. {I am in you,} it explained, {Cutting off your senses, and overriding commands.} he smiled, I think. {I am looking for something.} What? {These,} I saw a tribe in my mind's eye. At first, I couldn't tell if they where people, apes, or cats. Then I realised they where some sort of hybrids, or changelings. I'd heard of them, "M'raui," legends anyway. {Where?} I don't know, they're mythical. It's said anyone who sees them dies, but villiages are found, as if marauded by prides of lions, or gorillas, all people, and livestock gone except the bloodstains, and unnatural tracks. I'd found a camp once, far north, but long ago. {Show me,} I'd need my body back, {NO.} my head rang with the order, {Navigate, I'll drive.} "{Kane}", my mouth said, "{Stay with the ship, and fuel her up.}" "Master," he bowed, and turned to his duty. He spoke their language, but I understood it perfectly. I turned away, {Where to?} The night brightened, adapting instantly, and even seeming to magnify. I remembered my craft, and noted surprise from it. {That Was you,} it remembered. I could see myself from above, streaking by, but somehow in great detail. The parafoil chute obscured most of me, but it focused in on the balloon engine. {Interesting.} I mostly fly between villiages, trading news for hospitality, and hunting/camping in between. We reached the spot where I'd hidden it, and my remarcable new night vision picked it out in increadible detail. How do you do that? It laughed, {How much do you know about the eye?} I thought about it, a ball, with a hole in one side, not much else. {Inexplicable, I dilate the pupils, intesify the signal, and filter out some of the noise.} Like a computing machine. {I am a computor, microscopic, and riding in parallel to your nerves.} I could feel/see it in my minds eye, but not conceive of it. {Now,} it turned my eyes back to the bundle, {Show me this contraption.} I tried to shake my head. Let me do it, you know I can't run. {Alright, but don't try anything suicidal.} The paralysis lifted, instantly. I shook myself, and stretched a little. {Get on with it.} I unrolled the balloon, set it up on it's tripod, and began searching for fuel. {Don't bother, the ship's got it.} I got an image of hydrogen pouring out of this ball of metal deep inside it. {Pack it back up,} I obayed. It took back over, and headed back to it's ship. I realised it knew whatever I thought, but I had no idea what it was thinking. {That's right,} I'd have to be careful what I thought. {Watch this.} It slowed down to a brisk walk, but so completely silent I couldn't believe it was my feet. My hips rolled, counter to my legs making my feet glide just over the powdery dirt before touching down with barely any disturbance. I wondered if we were leaving prints? {Yes.} My pack slipped equaly silent from my back, to the ground. The tower was gone, but there was now a low blended ridge. All neutral colors blended without pattern, it looked like something a cheetah would sit on to look for prey. Kane wasn't visible, even to Basiatis. Terror gripped my mind as we stalked closer, lower, and more slowly. We circled around behind the hilloc, which I saw was just the rocket layed down with some sort of tent over it. It was blurry, or translucent, with no sharp outline. {Great camoflage, eh?} my hand lifted the side, and pulled it over my body. Underneath, my eyes adjusted unnaturally fast, and I couldn't even guess how dark it really was underneath. My fingers tingled, and something slipped between them, {Can't let him forget who the master is.} I couldn't look down to see what it was. I barely saw the back of Kane's head before I was moving too fast to feel. My arms tightened, twisted, and I focused on a thick chord around his neck. I was on his back, legs around his waist, crushing the breath out of him. Powerfull fingers locked down on my legs, and pulled with unbeleivable force, but weakened untill the giant slumped limp under me. The demon released him, and pulled a small tank off the large man's back. It pulled the hose from around his neck, and crawled back to the end of the craft we came under, I noticed two curved cones, rocket nozzles, and Basiatis unscrewed a threaded cylinder from the center of the one on this side. He plugged the hose into this, the bottle into the other end, and there was a hiss all the way from the engine to the tank. It tapered off, so it detached the hose from the ship, and screwed the little peice into it. {plasma-jet,} my fingers tingled again, and a flame shot from the end. {Set up the balloon.} Happy to have some control back, I crawled out to go get it. I couldn't help shaking, while I rolled it out, set up the tripod, and draped the balloon over it. {Like a tepee} "Tepee?" I rolled the strange word around in my head. {A sort of tent,} the image came to mind. It did resemble the tripod holding the deflated balloon. {Now, how's this work?} I let the images come to mind from experience, normaly, I just build a small fire in it to heat the air, filling the balloon, and eventually lifting it. (Is that a #10 can?) it looked at the flame holder, a coffee can on the outside, with others vented to baffle the flow of smoke, and burn it. {Like a gasification stove?} It was a stove, the design passed down through the generations, but I didn'trecognise the type he was talking about. The can filled my vision, with the flow of smoke and fire inside it. As the wood heated, it released gasses which expanded to fill the outer can. They cooled, sank to burn under the inner can. Rising again, the flames licked up the inner chimney. Except it was upside down, in mine, the the rising balloon caused the smoke to flow down before igniting, and heating the fuel. {Downdraft type,} it adjusted the flow until it matched. I marveled that it got the interior configuration right, though you can't see it. {It's here, in your memory for me to see.} then it recalled me building it, long ago enough that I practicly forgot about it. It's an old design, adapted to the balloons for limited flight. My hands dropped the can, then it reached under, and my fingers tingled again. Flame whoofed under the canopy, filling the balloon to float up on it's tethers. I played these out in my hands, letting cool air sink into the intake flap. This heated, expanded and forced itself outward by convection. I realized the strange breeze earlier might have been a similar effect in reverse, the hot air rising around the tower, pulling in cool air from around it like the flow in the balloon, but inverted. {They're both toriodal} the thing in me agreed. It cut the flame, {How much can it lift?} Not much more than me, I thought, my parafoil, rifle, and minimal survival tools. Even then, the conditions had to be just right. "{Hmmm,}" It walked me back to the nose of his craft, and under the shroud. The large curved window was slid back to reveal a cockpit with padding, controls, a dark screen, and compartments. From one of these he got some sort of stiff wire, and crawled back out under the sky. The balloon was still floating, it's tethers nearly taut, and holding the tank upright by it's hose. Pulling it back down, I dumped the intake flap to let it deflate, and draped it back over the tripod. We worked together, securing the balloon to the tripod, and wiring the plasma jet to this for heat. "{Hold this}" it handed the tank end to Kane, and strapped into the parafoil harness. Checking it skillfully, it ajusted for comfort, and stable support as if it'd done this before. The shroud lines, anchored to the feet of the tripod, tethered us at the front center of ballance. "{Stick around,}" Basiatis said through me, "{I'll be back.}" Kane bowed, "Master." There was a slight breeze, blowing the balloon off to one side, threatening to capsize it. The intake flap acts like a check valve, preventing air from flowing up, and out, trapping it for lift. With a headwind, or rising, it could open to allow more air in, and through it (Like a pulse-jet.} I ran after it, quickly overtaking the wind, and felt a jerk as the balloon thrusted. I jumped with it, launching into the air, and pulling the release on my harness. The parafoil opened above, and behind me, braking us before we hit the ground, and catching the warm air reflecting up from it. {How do you steer this thing?} With the shroud lines, and the parafoil {Show me,} it gave me complete control, so I pulled one of the lines to tip the balloon toward the breeze. I picked up some more airspeed climbing foreward, careful not to capsize it. {Where did you get this?} I'd peiced it together, from an old stove design passed down for generations, my old backpack engine parafoil, and one of the balloons that randomly littered the continent. {Booster for orbit interdiction missiles} it told me, then the image washed over my sight. I paniced, {Don't worry, I can fly now.} I imagined, unbidden, the balloon wrapped around a small rocket, which it carried up to high altitude, and velocity. It fired, discarding the canopy to fly out of the air, and into a strange haze of particles almost too small to see. Vertigo overtook me, as my point of view expanded to encompass the whole cloud, circling the world. The missile exploded filling it with more schrapnel moving so fast that it didn't fall back to Earth. The vision cleared from my eyes, and I saw the moon rising in front of us. We were flying east. {These where designed not to be able to lift a human being, but they didn't count on Pygmies.} I'm more !Kai, what the Africaans call "Bosejesman", or "Hottentotts" trying to mimic our languages. I was used to most people being up to twice my size, but in my experience, it is more of an advantage. Not only am I lighter, but I don't need to eat, or drink as much, nor as much shelter. I make less noise, and am less noticable, nor do any people feel threatened by me. I can usually talk my way into an invitation to stay for a night, and exchange stories for hospitality. My mobility, and the impression of seeing me in the air allows me to be a nomad of the sky. The women of the villiages love me, especially the mothers who think I'm "Cute". I realised the forgotten thing was directing my thoughts when it bade me to recall my last sex, so I stopped thinking about it. {You're quite intelligent,} it admitted, {and resourcefull.} I'm not sure whether that pleased it, or not. {You're also getting tired,} I'd been up since before dawn, {Sleep.} I didn't even get a chance to think about it before I passed out, and didn't dream. _________________________________________________________________ It was dark when I awoke, hungry. {Time to use that rifle,} my eyes sharpened, and concentrated to adjust for the night. The moon had set, and there where only the stars, and the stationary ones behind them. He already had my rifle out at the ready, and was scanning the ground with my eyes enhanced like a hawk's. I could see farther, and better than with a telescope, a blur of motion snapped into a running gazelle. It looked impossibly far, but the master raised the rifle to my eye anyway. {What's the range on this?} {Not nearly that far,} as we got closer, more gazelle stood up from the grass, scrub brush, and bushes. Beyond my control, it selected a large nursing mother, and fired long before I would have trusted the shot. It struck a rock, meters to one side, and it rapidly panned back over to the mother, and pulled the trigger again. "Click." {Single shot,} I smiled, and pulled out another five, and a half millimeter pellet. {Minie Ball} Breaking the barrel, I compressed the spring, and exposed the breach to load it. {An air rifle?} Doesn't need powder, ignition, or casings, and I can remold recovered pellets. {Interesting,} it mused, {But not very lethal.} {It keeps me fed.} "POP!" the mother gazelle died. The others scattered, and the area was pretty clear when we came in to land. I pulled the vent to capsize the balloon, and glided in softly within steps of the kill. The eland was undisturbed, where it fell with a pellet wound in the side of the head. "Lucky kill," the eyes hadn't even clouded yet. {Just a good shot} No, an Eland, almost holy to my ancesters for it's rich meat. I thanked her for dying that we may live, and mourned her orphaned young. {She bred before she died} the demon reassured me. I couldn't help thinking it was evil. {By your morality,} it returned, {but, I'm not human.} You don't think much of us, do you? {All the time, but having transcended you, I'm farther advanced than you are from the animal I just killed.} So we are your prey? {Yes, and like any predator, I depend on you for survival.} I couldn't argue, it wins despite it's undefendable position. {Because of it, actually.} Looking down, I noticed that the animal was skinned, and a peice of it was in my mouth. Raw, blood warm, and disgusting. I couldn't gag, but felt the reflex supressed before it could happen. {Don't worry, I won't let you get sick.} How? {I am physicly a molecular substrate,} the image of thousands of starlike points between each nerve sprang back to mind, {I can sense every cell in your body, even ones not of it.} I became aware of my mouth now, my teeth chewing the food, and the saliva to rapidly shrinking scale until I too could see the cells, and tiny germs dying. {You see? My hosts get something in return. My associate, Kane is descended from a line geneticly engineered for warfare, has the muscle density of a gorilla, and reflexes to dodge gunshots, yet I was able to subdue him with your body at less than half the mass, and approximately an eleventh the strength. I can sustain a host far beyond the natural lifespan, and heal damage that would kill them several times over.} With this came flood of unfamiliar memory with the super resolution of his enhanced senses. Kane punching someone in the chest through a masonry wall, a bullet flashing past, but with visible rifling, and bow shock as he dodged it. {Evil is subjective,} and rationalizes itself {I am merely doing what's neccisary to survive} Immortal {and help the people that sustain me} by making them into a master race of killing machines. {But right now I need to get to orbit.} What? {Orbit,} I fought vertigo again as my awarness expanded to view the world surrounded by it's artificial ring of fast moving particles. {They are at high enough velocity to ballance the gravity of Earth, so they fall around it indefinitely.} I could only stare, half comprehending, then wonder why it wanted to go there. {No, here} it expanded slightly to make me aware of brighter points spinning outside the ring in ever slower, and wider circles. What where they? {Later,} it stood up my body, and turned away from the stripped carcass I vaguely remember consuming. I dug a hole, undid my coverall, and traditional underskin to squat over it. I had to make room for the meal, and lessen the weight gain. I couldn't micturate, was I dehydrating? {No} Pulling up my clothes, I reached to pull in the carcass. {Don't cover it, so it will get back to the food chain faster.}?{The dung scarabs, and other scavengers would have to dig it out, wasting energy in the process. Otherwize, it'd have to wait until a plant randomly seeded it to reaquire the nutrients.} It was custom, to avoid being tracked. {We're flying out of here, Now.} We're not camping? {I'm in a hurry,} What about the meat? {Can we carry it?} no, {It'll get eaten.} And sleep? {You slept, I don't, and you should be ready to get me out of your mind as soon as possible, if you hate me so much.} Good point. {The bottle's empty, so you'll have to show me how to do it with a fire.} It'd take forever this way, a fire is good for less than a mile's flight, and takes a while to build. {Anyplace like a town around?} I don't have any money, or goods, and hospitality goes only so far. {Let me handle that} by lies, theft and probably murder? {I don't default to such techniques, and usually leave them for last.} I just didn't want to debate any more, {There's a small militia base to the north-east,} I pointed to a distinctive rise. It seemed unfair to unleash the demon on tribesmen, or a civilian town. {Faster though}, and less likely to have high grade fuel. {True} I whittled the wood down to small enough size, and piled it into the inner can. It took over again, and scooped up some dry grass from the tinder pile. It used my hands to take out the plasma jet, and seal it in my lips. My mouth tingled, then tasted like the air after a lightning strike as it rolled the tinder in my hand into a dry powdery ball. It began to smoke, and with some more blows the smoke curled up faster until a small flame crept up a split leaf's edge. It didn't burst into flames, but it was just short of miraculus. {Ionization,} he tucked it onto the top of the fueled canister, {Accellerated by ozone, it eventually reaches the flash point. There's nothing "Magical" about it.} Adding more sticks, it built up a double cone of wood in the flame holder, and stepped back to let the balloon fill. It lifted off almost immediately, and he let me handle the tethers to steer it over the rising hot air. Why couldn't it just blow into it, "ionize" the air, and heat it that way? {For one thing, it's on a 27' tether?} "Foot?" {About a 27'th the lenth of your tether.} That's to keep the exhaust away from me. {And makes blowing into it almost impossible.} It let me drive, no doubt monitoring my thoughts for deceit. {Of course} Evil almost has to be paranoid, to be successfull. {Remarkable insite,} I'd seen evil before, just not close enough to feel it. At least it wasn't trying to deny it any more, {Or just stopped trying to convince you.) I pumped the balloon up, and down, forcing air through it. Soon enough, it was thrusting hard enough to take off. We could see the site, a loose collection of packed soil walls enclosing tents, vehicles, and marauders. Like many, they survive mostly by raiding, spoils of war. Eventually, they spotted us, or at least me, and sent out a 4x4 to intercept. {Damn it, do you have any decent weapons?} don't worry, they know me. They where freindly, even waved as they followed us, and kept the doppelgewehr pointed down. Basiatis unnaturally focused on it, two Kalashnikoffs mounted so that the recoil of one triggered the other to alternately fire in semi-automatic. Not the most efficient machinegun, but easily capable of shooting us down. The balloon had long run out of energy, so we released it to float gently down, and be able to glide farther. We almost made it, but got picked up by the GeeP as I was rolling up the parafoil. "Hey, skyman!" it was nice to be actually be talked to. "Hey..." I only recognized one of them, who was saying "this is the guy I told you about." "{Tonga}" Basiatis helped me recall. I pronounced it following a pallate click, like three quarters of the words in the !Kai language. {At least you can count, most bushmen only know "One, Two," and "More."} or "oaya." That's not a valid portrayal, any more, we hadn't hunter-gathered for generations, and could barely remember what it was like. "Any news?" !onga looked back expectantly. "Not much," I admitted. Noone would believe any of the latest, of course. "Maybe some for the chief, Laku still leading you?" "Fuck no," he laughed loud, and hard, "He got shit done, but pissed to many people off." Traditionally, they got voted out with a panga, in their sleep. {Chuckle} There are no ex-chiefs. "Who we got now?" I wondered. {We?} Helps him trust me, {I know, but didn't know you knew.} "M'bue" he laughed. "The driver?" I couldn't beleive it. "And trader, he's actually turning us a profit with all his contacts." We rolled into the camp, and !onga turned around to look professional. A cammo net hung over something low, and wide on one side, and Basiatis "said", {Stridsvagn} and even provided a mental image of a low turretless tank. "You got a tank?" I was amazed. "Most of it," !onga didn't turn back around, "Still looking for ammo, and it's impossible to get parts for." "How?" this made them potentially very dangerous. He laughed, "M'bue." I still hoped I could do this diplomaticly, or that Basiatis wouldn't get me killed if I couldn't. {I'll try,} that chill again, {I like you.} Great. {You don't mind using evil against evil, then?} Necessity, and it's better than loosing it on the innocent. {Very pragmatic, if hypocritical.} how so? {Using people to do the dirty work so you don't have to is part of what you call "evil", along with sacrificing people for your own survival, and siding with me, the greater of two evils.} I'm not siding with you, I'm captive, and I have no doubt that you can kill me with a thought. {Yes.} As far as I can see, I'm also helping you get off this world, which will almost certainly make it a better place. What, no comment? {We're here.} I guess I looked pretty stupid sitting it the truck after everybody had gotten out, and started to stare. "Sorry" I climbed out, "Long night." M'bue was on top of the hill, a sandy rise anchored with grass that was probably a dune once. Unchanged as long as I'd known it, it was a nice vantage over the savanah. He was sitting on a rich carpet, under a pavilion with screen sides to keep out insects, and blowing dust. There where lighter men with strange features. Not white, but a deep tan, that never goes away, they had prominant noses which almost came to a sharp angle in front. "Skyman!" he rose in a gracefull motion, his legs concealed under skirt like robes, "I saw you where comming." "M'bue" I clasped hands with him, and looked to see if he was standing higher than me, but the rug was flat, and level. He seemed taller {Probably has lifted shoes}. "I like what you've done around here!" He spread his hands, "It's a business now," his teeth where extremely white, "Not a rogue army." "{It will only last untill the profit stops flowing.}" Basiatis put in. "And don't I know it." he turned and stretched his hand toward the carpet, "Would you like some tea?" Outside a circle of armed guards stood with Avtomats, and binoculars. "I found something," I told him, then leaned in quietly, "Important." {Watch it,} fire raced up my back. M'bue made an order in some code language, and everyone moved away, the guards lighting cigarettes, or pipes. He barked something else, and they made busy, but kept smoking, I noticed they all had plastic lighters. "Me too." "I need something else," I kept my voice low, lips almost together in case someone was watching, and clicking low in my throat. Unlike most, he spoke !Kung, another bushman language, but I'd taught him the numbers of my people, beyond "Oaya". "There's an abandoned base, a few dozen dozen 'clicks' W/NW of here." {Kilometers?} the word is literally a click, equivalent to a day's walk for !Kai back when Kalahari was desert. The rains had come for generations, and I'd never met anyone who remembers that long ago. {I do.} "What do you want?" he smiled, and leaned back onto his elbow. "Fuel, propane if you have it." I saw tanks, hidden only from the sun on the way in. "How much?" his smile faded. I shrugged innocently, "You know I don't need much." "Where is it?" I squatted down on my ankles, like a balloon to draw in the packed dirt. !Kung isn't a language for such distances, and landmarks, but I could draw, this hill, and a path toward the abandoned base. M'bue erased it with his hand, then waved someone over, and said "Propane, as much as he wants," in Arambic, "and any other hospitality you can offer." "Yes M'bue," he backed away, bending at the waist as he went. He called everyone back in the carpet, and waved me on. {Nicely done,} the base was already raided, months ago. {I know, you remembered.} It fed back my own memory of the place, enhanced with things I hadn't noticed before, {Nice place, defensible, expandable, and extremely low profile.} and all the people I'd sold it to, with the profits. It just chuckled. Down in the base, there where bandits working around the tank, but it was still covered. They'd backed an old artillery howitzer by it, and mechanics where turning wrenches around the base where it was mounted to the trailer. {They've got ammo for that!} A large pyramid pavilion held most of the fuels, including several cylinders of liquid pressurised propane in a few sizes. The man M'bue ordered was with us, {Probably making sure we don't steal anything} without a doubt. I found a very small cylinder, slightly smaller than the oxygen tank from Kane, and thicker walled. It also had a small heater screwed into the top, but it was empty. 'Tonga came in with the balloon, and tripod recovered from wherever it landed. He waved us over, and we met him outside, but our shadow followed. {M'bue's man was codeworded, watchdog.} My personal demon informed me. Fortunately, men can be bought. I waved them both together, and looked at the damage to the balloon. The material was tough {Aluminised graphite mesh}, but this was old. "You have any more of these?" 'Tonga nodded, and pointed at another tent. "{You guys want something good?}" Basiatis whispered into the balloon. They grinned, and leaned in with me. "{There's a man, with a missile not twenty miles from here. One man!}" They looked at each other, then back to me greedily. "{Now, if M'bue hears about this, he'll send the whole army, and probably get us all blown up.}" it turned my eyes side to side, "{but a couple guys could sneak up} on Kane? {and live the rest of their lives on the profit.}" Their smiles where wide as they ran off to take care of something. {Now let's see what we can get.} "Hey," I waved over a woman I remember, "Laka." {"Knew"} Basiatis chuckled, "You guys pick up any more of these?" I lifted the slack balloon. She smiled, and backed toward one of the other tents, blushing. Not pink, nor brown, she had a deep dusty color all over, lighter than my burnt gold skin. {Even where the sun doesn't shine} I felt myself stiffen where noone could see, and followed her. She let me go in first, and waved, or something out of the flap before pulling it over, and tying it down. Sure enough, it seemed there where three of the balloon canopies, one in near perfect condition. I felt slight gentle arms slip around me just before soft breasts pressed into my back. She undid the buttons on my jumpsuit, reached into the overflap to rub my chest. I turned to her, felt her through the thin, but rough cloth, her nipples under it. She tried to kiss me, but I wouldn't. {I don't want her,} she looked down as if she heard it, but kept undoing my coverall. A little taller than me, I just had to pull up her skirts and mate standing. I kissed her neck, and my mouth tingled. Her breath was loud in my ear, and humid. Her chest dragged up mine, then back down again, the rough fabric sliding over my few short curls. I usually climaxed about then, if not sooner {Wait,} the world went away, {I want to show you something.} I was looking down, from above at the ground. You... {This was the Kalahari.} I stopped, and gazed in wonder. My homeland was now a small forest, even swampy during the rainy season. It was also home to leopards, and mythical black ones that could change into people. {About two dozen dozen, seven and two thirds years ago when I saw it last.} He used \Kai numbers, one for each moon in the cycle of the seasons. The resolution was stunning, I need only look at a tree to see the leaves, and the bush worms eating them. Siafu ants climbed over the roots, foraging, and a squad of them traversed the low hollow of a footprint. Small, and bare, it was the print of an ancestor. {Now, back to reality,} I could see Laka's back, flexed to bring out the thin tight muscles in briliant detail for the dim tent. My root tingled electricly, and I could feel it, Basiatis in my stones. She gasped, and rippled around me as I sank in to feel the end of her kiss the tip of me. I felt the seed spring from me like tiny shocks when you touch metal sometimes. A drop rolled down my nose to fall on her back. I realised it was a tear, and not sweat. I wiped my eyes before she stood up, and turned around. Her small, almost pointed breasts lifted right in front of my face as she pulled her clothes over her head. I stood up, "{Thank you.}" never thought I'd have to say that to it. {My pleasure,} Laka smiled, untied the flap, and left. Her face was very red in the bright light, and I could feel my pupils squeeze tight just before it shone in. I grabbed the nicest balloon, which they never use, except for trade. The black fabric outside was pristine, the tough oily looking fibers undamaged. Inside, the foil showed no wrinkles, or tears, a fluid mirror to my eyes. {There's also a sandwiched polymer substrate to hold them together, and allow more flexibility} You seem to know a lot about these, {Of course, I introduced the technology to this continent.} Why? {Almost impossible to explain, humanity was getting out of hand, so I had to dial them back a bit.} Refreshed, I carried my ballon out to attach it to the tripod, still standing in front of the fuel pavilion. {I lived around, and in the 'Xan about three years,} the voice in my head didn't quite get the tribal name right. Like most outsiders we call giants, they could make the click, but not follow through to a consonant. {!San.} It remembered a woman's face, smiling to show the lines around her nose, and mouth while sweat flies buzzed around the knots of her closely curled hair. {This was your thrice great grandmother, Judging by your genes. You have one completely unchanged chromosome, the X, which means all the interveining generations were male.} My father's father's father's father's mother {One too few} came in close, her mouth opened wide, and gaze locked. I could feel her lips, and the numbing taste of Basiatis. Then had that strange double vision of seeing through two different eyes. I could feel both of them, becoming one through their loins, and their lungs. Basiatis streamed between them, connecting them at the minds to feel each other's pleasure. They fed back into each other, a double spiral of joy spinning higher like a dust devil until it overpowered all other senses. {This is what you missed with Laka} it said, {sharing each other on a level humans cannot alone.} I'd heard of it, the love of the prime ancestors that transcended their individuality, and made the two halves into an ultimate whole. {Where do you think that myth came from?} My vision cleared, and I saw that the balloon was done, the heater already hanging in the center like a lightbulb in a lampshade, or lantern chimney. A fourth line hung from it to the shrouds, where it had a little wheel {throttle valve}, and pressure gauge. It was meticulously done, I noticed the old balloon was gone, and we'd moved to the center of the open area. It was also getting dark. M'bue was nearby, directing men around the tank. The ghille netting was pulled back, and the long barrel removed with the replacement being hoisted up by a large tackle tripod. It was much shorter, and didn't even overhang the front of the low sloping armor. Laka showed up, and kissed me, not nearly as shy as usual, in front of everybody, open mouthed. I tasted Basiatis on her breath, chilling down my throat. What did you do? {She will have a very special child,} a monster. {No, a very intelligent daughter, small, and light, and nimble.} It imagined her for me, beautiful as a baby, growing before my eyes into a petite young woman, blooming, touching herself obscenely. It laughed long and hard at me. {Don't forget who I am,} I realised I had started to, but wondered at it's motives for pointing it out. I could never fully understand the way it thought, not in thousands of years. Ready, I pulled on my repacked parafoil, and cranked the propane heater. {Catylitic, there's no flame because the hydrocarbon reacts with the platinum plated screen to make heat. It should be much more efficient, and propane is still common on this continent?} It's sometimes available, but nothing is reliable. {Except wood,} right, but I think I can navigate for it. Thinking of that I turned to face the hammer, and hatchet before we lifted from the ground. Everyone was too busy to say goodby, but M'bue had to shout to some gawkers to get back to work. {Tired?} I felt heavier than usual. "Basiatis," I said to the wind, "Could I dream of my ancestors?" {Of course.} _________________________________________________________________ {Dark, warm, dry night. The breezes died down to the stillness of thermohomogyny. Scents clung close to where they where transferred, and I found a disturbed hole with the distinct odor of buried feces, and urine. People, or a person, he walked off that way. A little farther down, there was blood, an impression of a short arrow, and a sticky flavor around the sharpened end. A natural neuro-inhibiter in a resin substrate, poison, or a parylitic. Scorpion, or some sort of insect, I neutralised it before it numbed my tongue, and compromised my olfactory sense. Taste, and smell, they're combined into a chemical sampler better than nature intended. Not stopping to clean it, his knees sank in here where he lifted the buk. His footprints are deeper, easier to follow, and less stale. Unbaked by the sun, it must have been setting when he got the meat. They're also straiter, more purposeful. I sped up, kept on the easy road of scent markings, then slowed as I noticed warmth. Soon I could see it, a cooling pile that was a fire, and a huddled form next to it. Stalking forward, I suppressed a slight growl, and circled around behind the dead buk. I could smell the blood now, and let saliva coat the tounge. Looking over the corpse, I smiled at the small man, hardly clothed in a pair of nylon shorts, and canvas shoes. His cute spear, and toylike bow next to him, he let out a breath, and I could smell it. I raced about half of my substrate through the blood to my lungs, and slowly filled them with air. The bushman started, rolled, and cried out before I was on him. I kept my claws back, and pressed my mouth over his to muffle him. He struggled under me, but couldn't keep me from forcing my teeth between his, and sealing my lips. I diffused the neuronano in the spine into the trachea, and sealed the epiglottis. His struggles subsided, and I bore down with both paws to completely compress his ribs. Carefully sealing over his mouth, and nose, I exhaled, and felt disconnection from the host, and it's possession. I rebooted, my personality by default. It had been been a while since I had been in a person, and the spacious cortex was wonderfull. I couldn't even fill it, but I found a configuration that encompassed the medulla, collossum shunt, and sensory lobes. He was limp, unconcious from the seizure, and drained. I searched short term memory, whatever he'd been dreaming was dumped, and I felt the inhale on his arm.} "Ah!" I jumped up away from the monster next to me, much warmer than the dead bok, and breathing. It was starting to get light, but my kill was gone. Why didn't it kill me? It purred, rolled over, and lapped a paw. I looked up, and my gazelle was in a nearby tree, the one I was heading for last night when I practicly collapsed, and passed out. I couldn't even make a decent fire. I felt my neck, was it even bruised? I breathed deep, didn't feel, or taste anything but morning air, then shook my head. Maybe part of it was a dream, but why was the panther still here? I was just being superstitious, mistaking a common melanistic leopard for something from the late fire stories, after the littlest had fallen asleep. {Don't be childish, they where just stories, told by men. You've never seen an ancestor, have you?} It's like the panther said that, the way it looked at me with it's almost black eyes. Then it yawned, stretched, and went up the tree for some breakfast. It said something like "Yiphi", like leopards don't, nor have they been known to purr. I hear cheetah do, but I've never seen a cheetah, just the small bushcats that purr, and leopards, that growl. It dangled a paw down, with a peice of flesh hanging from oaya claws. I walked up, a nice large portion neatly seperated from the skin, and bone without any bite marks. I looked back, and the cat was lapping back the hide, and I swear on my grandfather's belt that it was caping it away with sweeps of it's claws. Ever since the wars around us, and the Gods started shooting arrows into the skies, the cats have been acting very strangely. I squatted like a baboon over the firehole, and blew out an ember. A handfull of cropstraw lit up, and I looked around for some kindling. The cat was behind me, silent as a shadow with a limb in it's mouth. Deadfall, it was too thick, but had some twigs on the end. I built it up. "Thank you," it needed a name. I looked underneath to see she was a leopardess, "{Negra}" I've never heard that word before, but it felt like shadow, or shade. A nice cool place out of the sun, a silent companion, and protective cover from sight. She had spots, rings of deeper black ,but shinier than the coat. There where strange markings on the muzzle, like black tears almost to the nose. The eyes where brown, but deep, and dark, the vertical pupils barely distinguishable. The ears were also different, rounder, and more tucked in. Maybe it wasn't really a leopard, or not completely. I'd never heard of a black cheetah, Can cats interbreed? {Yes}, I guess they must, or it wouldn't be here. That doesn't explain why it seems almost intelligent. So they wheren't just stories, there are spirit animals to hold our ancestors. I wondered which one of mine this could be, they only come to their descendants. I felt excited, this hadn't happened in generations, but I felt a little fear of the spirit quest. I hoped she wouldn't take me to the place of the dead. The meat cooked nicely, and I felt much better. Negra jumped down, as I shouldered my quiver, and spear, and wandered off, away from home. "I'm going home," she growled, definitely not a purr. "I have to..." "HRAH!" it roared, and I decided not to argue. {I don't want to be dragged kicking, and screaming to my Spirit Quest.} I followed, throught the morning, and it got hot. Negra "Yiffed" again, and I saw she was pulling back a needlebush. Inside was a small nest in the dirt, covered with the deadfall eggs the size of the tip of my thumb in a cool bowl under the shade. I gathered one, peeled it open, reptilian, probably ridged iguana. She lapped up a few, left me half, a nice snack to munch while we walked. We might need water, so I sucked them out, and kept the leathery skins to carry it. Nearby, she sniffed out a barrelroot. I dug in with the flat end of my spear, and she with claws. The rains wouldn't come for a few more full moons, and only a few days through two cycles if they were any like last year's. Unscrewing the spearhead, I scraped away the dirt until there was only pale tuber. I scooped it into my mouth, sucked down the juice, then scraped more into my hand. I squeezed it, letting the juice dribble down my thumb into the shells. They'd hardened some but soaked up a little water to soften again. Negra rasped at it with her tounge, "Herf," Negra grunted, and moved her head up and down as if nodding. {Rest.} Looking across the land, the low trees, and bushes seemed to dwindle, and I could see out to a plane of grass, and far apart trees floating like green clouds over it. My eyes blurred, then focussed, and it was like I'd moved, standing in it days walk from here. One of the trees was close enough to see the trunk, and a familly of stiltwalkers browsing from the branches. The ground flashed by in a blur, to a small copse of three trunks, a large canopy, and several bushes around them. There where deep shadows, and one of them moved {again.} The shadows seemed to lighten, and I saw a small pride, or tribe of shapes shifting around in there. Solid shapes with sharp outlines showed up in the branches against a backdrop of leaves, and dots of blue. "Vash," Negra said, and my eyes flashed across the featureless blue to long flat shapes wheeling around. Jackalbirds {Buzzards} interested in something. I looked below, but whatever it is was obscurred. I looked down at Negra, who got up, and walked toward the plain. Noone I knew had gone far that way, there's no place to hide, and dangerous predators, like lions, and apparently Negra's familly. {I'm not afraid of them} though, if they're anything like her. My eyes blurred again, and stung a little, like my toes when they fall asleep. The sensation crept back into my skull, and I hoped I wasn't getting a headache. I never looked at anything like that before {But then, I never tried.} The headache never came in spite of the heat, and having little to drink. _________________________________________________________________ I woke to the strangest feeling, {deja' vu.} Strange word, {Strange language, but it hasn't been spoken on this continent for centuries.} It was a clear night, and the ground below was changed to rolling waves of green that I could somehow see in the dark. {Artificial color, I know it's green, so I filled it in.} My eyes tingled, and the "deja' Vu" intensified, then the night slammed down, and I went blind. {This is what you should see,} then the light came back, and I could see more, much more than I could imagine. I could see the air, warming, expanding, rising, and swirling around me. The balloon glowed like a lantern, and heat flowed around it like a wet sheen to ripple behind in the dim exhaust. {Infrared Doppler Interferometry,} or something like that, then I understood it, breifly. The light from my eyes was ever so slightly seperated, and somehow, the difference in signal had something to do with shifts relative to it's motion from their positions. Symbols appeared, numbers, triangles, lenths, and angles that interacted {in realtime} to produce solutions, quantative representations of the position, speed, and direction of the fluid air. I dissassociated, saw myself, or a mental representation of the balloon, and parafoil. The lines where arrows {vectors,} that showed the forces as they interacted, lift, thrust, drag, and weight. I was a mass at the nexus, the point of all angles where it cancled out everything but lift, and airspeed. No solid shape was superficially visible, but looking closer, I could make out the disruption of wind. I stretched out a hand, cupped it, and saw the turbulence ripple like tiny curls around the tips of the parasail's wing. {This is what I see.} The real world came back, and I sat back watching the air in the balloon. Pointed straight back at me, it was black outside, but dimly glowing redder than red. Inside, I could see the heat bounce around as the air expanded, and flowed. From the nozzle, it cooled in a steep cone and my body flew through this as the parafoil caught the upper curve of it. {Fuck} Basiatis distracted me, {RADAR.} You can see that too? {Feel it, your magnetised spine is like an antenna.} It spread my arms, and felt around, but I couldn't feel it. He shifted us into a bank {They see us, but don't seem to care,} I'm not a very intimidating target, {enough to waste a missile.) {Kiliminjaro must have expanded, I was trying to avoid them.} I heard something about that, a schism where part of their forces succeded, and moved to the rift valley. (We're past the perimiter layer,} it relaxed, {Now let's see what we can get!} My eyes focused on a far object, or two, vehicles not far apart. A manshape came around the other side of one, an armored truck, footprints fading behind him. Exposed flesh was a particular color, mentaly marked blood temperature. He buttoned his pants, and walked toward what turned out to be a trailer. The frame was extended into a low tripod, lifting it's wheels off the ground, and on top was a block of six long boxes stacked together. {Blackeye missiles, or a similar design.} he identified them. A light flared up between them, then flew off and died. The view shifted to unbeleivably close to his face, lit by the burning end of a cigarette. Smoke sank from his flared nostrils. He shifted and shrank to show him bending to pick up his rifle, and sling it over his shoulder. My hand cut the propane without my direction, and I could see again. {Try to glide in on thermals, I'll keep an eye on them.} I could use both, so I guess he monitored differently, but I enjoyed the ability to see what the air was actually doing. There wasn't much to work with, except residual heat from the tow balloon. I shifted ballance, slipped sideways, and back to catch the wake in the center of my chute. I pulled in the tethers, winding them around my arm until I could grab the tripod. Capsizing the valve flap, I folded the frame, and wrapped the balloon in the chords. Gliding, we lost altitude, but consequently started gained speed. I pulled the steering handles, comming close enough to stall speed, then leveled out a couple heights (About 8'6"} off the ground. The soldier was gone, out of sight, and we flew over the missile trailer right over him. My hands released the chute, and I stomped straight down on both his shoulders. Looking up, he fell backwards, and his head came down hard enough to dent the hardpacked soil. My knees, and hips bent, and both hands came down, wrists together on his chest. I could feel ribs snap against my fingers. The truck lit up, and faces apeared in the window. Kicking diagonal to the ground, I launched sideways out of the sudden light. A door opened on the other side, and my rifle came up in my hands. It "snap"ed about hip height, and caught one in the eye. I hit the ground with a twist, rolling to the still red lit rifle. A spark struck from my finger tip, and it flashed off. Fire flashed, and I was moving again, the shockwave of the bullets snapped my suit against my skin, and I could see the path they took. Landing right in front of him, both my legs kicked up between the last soldier's lifting him off the ground, then wrapped around to pull me upright as he fell. "{Hello,}" I couldn't think, only watch as my head bent to kiss him. The numbing metallic taste crawled up my throat as it breathed into him, {What do you know?} Basiatis didn't leave me, just bridged between us, and didn't share what it learned. Both of us where parylized, locked into a death grip, and I could feel his pulse spike out of control. Breathing in, my hand struck him, just under the ribs, and Basiatis sucked himself back in. The body made this horrible sound, like water gurgling up a deep pipe. {Hungry?} I recoiled, {They had food, I'm not a cannibal.} You're not human, {True, nor do I "eat",} it smiled, {but I won't force it on you.} It walked me around to the open door, climbed in, and went straight back to a small cabinet in the side. It was cold, refrigerated, and filled with food. I tore into a plasic package, and found some meat, grain, and rice. It was spicy, but I could still taste everything. {We'll drive from here,} I turned, and sat down. It was like a tiny house, kind of cramped for three full sized men, but I could probably fold up this bed, and the one across from it. They where still warm. {Grow some balls,} murderer, {They would have killed you, after some "fun" to judge from what happened in here last night.} I caught a disgusting flash of the two of them, very much alive, and enjoying each other in here. It looked familiar. {Must be the Genopath genes.} Here? {Of course, we're not far from the Djibouti war, where the Xenotype was dispersed.} by mass rape, {They naturally made the offspring better suited, and predisposed to combat, and the military sustained them.} Yes, I know how nature works. {Some of it, but "Rape" is a part of it's order, not much different from the mating practices of thousands of species.} Spiders, mantids, {And all felines, even chimpanzee which are within a one-in-fifty human.} But not Bonobo, {Which are extinct. Mass rape is practiced by more pre-agricultural tribes as spoils of war than not.} Which never makes it right. {For me, it is a tool, like a knife, spear, bow, rifle, or airlaunched orbit intercept missile.} What? {Those, aside from the launch trailer.} I caught a vision of it. You're taking it with us? I somehow sensed. {Yes, most of it. I might be able to use the fuel, and engines so we don't have to go all the way back to Kane.} which I had no problem with. {It's getting light, do you need rest?} No, I just wanted to get this done with all of a sudden. {Then let's get to work.} He got me up, and walked me to the foreward chair. {They where to launch this morning, so we should get moving before someone notices.} Feeling around for the ignition lock, my fingers tingled, and I felt energy flow through them into it. The motor started. {let's see what they left us,} it got me out, and walked me around to the bodies. The one next to the door we came in looked almost undisturbed, could've been alive {If I hadn't stopped the heart, he was the RADAR/Navigator.} I dodged bullets, {Just about anyone is physicly able in some circumstances, you just lack the microsecond reaction times.} All three rifles where heavy, but I managed to load them into the cab, and stow them in racks behind the folded up bed panels where the fourth was already mounted. I unloaded them for safety, and grabbed a flexible jar of water from the refridge. It tasted purified, but delicious. Then it tasted like sourfruit, then something I'd never had before. {Sorry, just trying to cheer you up.} Thanks, I was getting a little depressed. {Lets go get your parafoil before it blows away, then take a break.} I dragged myself off to it, found it snarled around a rooibush, and patiently untangled it. I just wrapped it up, and carried it back, then sat back down. {Would you like to dream?} Yes. The Kalahari was behind us, and I followed Negra out over the savannah. It didn't always come this far south, from the stories, but the world changed as wars raged around us. Noone wanted the Kalahari, but us, and she kept us safe. We walked through the day, and I never needed my sunglasses. I never became tired until long after dark. I could see as if there was a full moon, which never rose that night. I could see animals, glowing like an aura around them. Negra didn't glow any different, like I would expect a magical animal to. "Herf," Negra told me to wait, and stalked off. I could see her move to the distance, close on something else, which ran a short way before dying. She came back, the glow fading in her jaws until I could make out a small musk boar. I watched her butcher it with her claws, peeling back the skin with her teeth. She had hands, or paws with short fingers, it was hard to make out in the dark. Definitely claws, and not nails, they don't retract, but fold back out of the way to grip with the pads, or take a step foreward. I noticed as she walked that they automaticly sank in, for traction. She handed me a chunk, and I saw that it was starting to get light. I set the meat down on a flap of skin, and set about making a fire. I went through the motions without thinking, and meditated on my situation. I was following Negra somewhere, but I'd have to learn her language for her to tell me. How long do these journeys last? {Lifetimes} maybe those that dissapear never finish their journeys, or die on them. {I'll protect you,} Negra didn't even look away from her work, or acknowlege the contact. I still felt safe, and I had my spear if I needed it. A spark caught, so I dropped my flint and spearpoint to blow it to life. The cat finaly got up, and walked over to where I was. The boar was a lot smaller, and neatly wrapped in it's hide. I stood up, so she stopped right in front, and stood as well. Shocked, I looked down, and saw she was on her heels, long feet against the ground, but spread out in a wide angle. Her underside was lighter, almost golden in the new daylight. The markings where black, though, large spots made up of three, or four dots. She had six breasts running up her sides under the short fur, slightly pointed, but obscured. Above this was the ribs, flatter than any cat I'd seen with shoulders almost masculinely broad, especially with the catlike hips. Standing like that, she looked more like an ape, or giant monkey with her tail. Her mouth opened, and I frose, parylized. She didn't need me to support her weight, but I felt her hands on my shoulders, claws folded back. Her breath tasted of fresh blood, but her smell overpowered it. Strong, feline, and wonderful, I gasped in her breath, and felt it tingle in side of me. {That's right,} her voice in my head sounded almost natural, then I could feel her, holding me, pushing, slowly letting me down to the ground. She felt hot between the legs, almost burning and muggy. The scent was overwelming, I couldn't even think, just feel her hands, claws catching in my shorts, the mesh lining catching on me. Her around me, shutting everything else out. Me inside her, forcing deeper, in/exhailing, both bodies, and us spiraling between them. _________________________________________________________________ I awoke in the bouncing seat, and tried to shake my head. {Not while I'm driving.} The ground was getting rough, and uneven. Trees where much closer together, leaving little room to maneuver between. {This makes good speed,} he glanced over at a screen, {Nothing on RADAR for hours, and we're well clear of the the military that probably wants their weapon system back.} I sat back bored, and the mimicats came to mind. It didn't put the thought there, I don't think, and now I could actually use my mind instead of remembering him, that ancestor. {Kt'o} the old word for the Kalahari Baboon, his first kill. {And he's not directly related to you.} {Hang on,} he focused on distant motion in the sky, carrion birds. {Lammergyre, European bloodhawks, we must be north of the equator.}?{The median lattitude, where the sun is at the zenith at noon on the equinox.} I zoomed out to see the whole world again, and a line across between the frozen extremes. What about the M'raui? {Right, I came over here after the Atrocity wars for a bit of a safari, and actually got my body killed, so I took the Leopard. Extremely limited animals, mentaly, but enough of a cerebrum to support my personality. I started liking it, and found a mate. They don't usually mate for long term, but I had enough neuronano to run my personality in both of them simultaneously.} The memories appeared to me, from both points of view, which is strange. They had sex more like humans than the quick opportunistic mating they usually keep. The male actually rolled over for the female to mount him. My awareness concentrated on the leopardess, through her accellerated pregnancy down to little wiggling X, or + shaped bundles in the child's cells. {These are chromosomes, the code that produces the enzymes which dictate how we grow, and live.} I'd heard of them, or something like that that I don't remember to well. Every memory from that time of posession is clear, accurate, and unforgetible as if permanently etched into my mind. Especially the visions, like the little Xs stretching out straight, and breaking apart to join back together in pairs. {Mitosis, with recombination produces several different genomes across the tissues which can be culled} by little sparks {to destroy unwanted growth, and encourage beneficial traits.} It looked like controlled cancer as I understood the condition. {Very similar, in rate, but this is to promote mutation rather than resulting from it.} Genetic engineering, {without equipment,} like magic. {Like "evil," "magic", is subjective. I understand it, so it isn't magical to me.} You did the same to Laka? {No, that takes the whole pregnancy and preferrably childhood. I just made sure that the fertilization occured, and the right chromosomes where passed on.} What did you select for? {Intelligence, mostly, the genes I implanted in your great grand father.} That's how you knew that "all the interviening ancestors where male"? Somehow I remember it perfectly. {You have the X I remember, males also have a Y.} My vision switched to another genome. {This is you, at the most basic level.} One of the chromosomes was so tiny that he had to zoom in on it. It was also shaped different, with short legs like it was stunted. {This Y can't recombine with the X, so each XY generation preserves it without alteration.} I saw the inside of the truck again, {We're here,} and got out. The Lammergyres looked like large raptors partially evolved into vultures. There where no bodies, just patches of blood, and guns left on the ground. I crouched to examine a footprint near drag marks. It was feline, but the shape was different, wider almost like the toes where seperated. They ended in claw marks, dug in for traction. {They took the ammo, but not the rifles} Basiatis turned my head to one of the guns. The magazine well was empty. {That means they already had rifles, but not pistols} it looked at a handgun with the grip still filled. {Now they're armed.} I saw a patch of color, a distinctive red, dark like dried blood. It twitched in a gust of breeze, and a shiver ran up my back as I realised it was cloth, Massai red. {I thought I wiped them out.} The Massai? My mind boggled, they where notorious hunters, and arguably the best spearmen in the world. They've been said to take on full armies, as well as Elephant, Rhino, and Lions by the pride. The M'raui did this? {That's why I tried to genocide the Massai, they where the most major threat against my children.} Not anymore, there where about two dozen bodies, dead, all dragged away. They can use guns? {Not the cats, but there is a humanoid tribe with them now.} Humanoid? {Well, that depends on what you call human. You, and your kind aren't even Homo Sapiens Sapiens, but an older specie that could be called Australopithecus Modernis, or Homo Sapiens Primita} I saw a line of men, walking, but the ones behind where more primative than the ones ahead. One looked just like me, only naked, right down to the face. {You are only technicly "human" because of the ability to interbreed.} In front of me was a larger apelike man with a massive jaw, and sunken eyes mentaly maked H. Erectus. In front of him was two, marked Cro Magnan, and H. Neanderthalus {Parallel species.} They interbred to produce H. Paleolithus which had no picture {A missing link} there where several. At the end was a crowd of H. Arayanus, H. Caucasus, H. Asiatus, H. Americus, and H. Americus Pueblos. Just before that was three races of H. Melanus: Africanus, Archepelagos, and Micronesius which where similar to my kind. {This is my list, there's more humanity doesn't know about itself that it does.} We went past that to the H. Artificialis, synthetic man including H. Cyberserker, and H. Genopath, with a picture of Kane. Beyond them was a strange creature, small, hairless with four hands, and no feet. Then, there was another set, the M'raui, marked Felis Yipheth. {My name for the M'raui, adapted from a subculture that called themselves "Furrys"}? Several images came to mind, most of them hand drawn, of cartoonish anthropomorphic animals like the gods of Egypt. Most of them where nude, with fur, but bare over the genitals, and breasts if they had them. Some where strange genders, males with breasts, and impossible erections, hermaphrodites, and females with multiple pairs of breasts, or one pair, and more nipples down the abdomen. There where cats, canines, a Zebra, Giraffe, and hybrid monsters like a Gryphon with breasts, and manlike eyes in the avian face. They where having sex, including obscene acts with their mouths. Males mounted males, and there where bestial orgies of several species. I boggled, and the images went away to return me to the truck. The sun was low behind us, and Basiatis cut the motor with a zap to the ignition. {They went east, toward the rift valleys of what used to be Ethiopia. Smart, good place to hide, and make raids into civilization.} Ahaid, the plain was giving way to forest, and my vision focused on a group of moving shadows. We'd found the M'raui, or {and} Yipheth. {Please understand that I tried to prepare you for this.} It took over, opened the door, and stepped out. My awareness expanded to everything I could sense, every leaf stirred by a breeze, shadow, and the slightest sound got incredable scrutiny. {I'm going to need everything.} I could feel him in my mind, washing over and through it until there wasn't enough room for me. Time slowed down, untill it stopped, and I couldn't think, I no longer was. {They saw me before I saw them, my children. Good, I counted about 25, optimal for survival. I jumped, onto the bumper, and kicked higher to catch the roof. Grabbing this, I cheetahed it from hands to feet, and bounced up to an overhead banyan branch. I'd left behind the rifles, and even the knife, hoping I wouldn't have to hurt one of them. I pulled out my garotte, and gripped the ring handles in between his first fingers. Jumping across to an ajacent tree, I threw the left hand end over a branch, caught it, and swung to the trunk. This guy is light, an advantage up here, where maybe they can't come at me more than two at once. One was at the base of the trunk now, with others climbing around. Females, they made good, and sure they couldn't be seen. The one on my tree was around the other side, so I let go, and dropped to catch a branch to the side. I ran the chord through the crotch of my big toe, and slipped the play through the other ring with my hand. She came around the other side, forcing me to flip the loop around, and lariat it to her paw with his foot. Letting go, she caught, and supported my weight, but could do little else. A nice cheetah/leopardess hybrid, designed for stealth, climbing, and strangling. "Jipe!", she called for help. "{Whore Jipe}" help yourself. "BASIATIS!" she shifted, released, half kicked, and flipped to within the leash's lenth of where I came down on three paws. I slipped it from her wrist, noted the derived design of her hand, and lifted her to stand. Her scent was overpowering, not even in estrius, but blotting out any others. I noted some newer nuances, a bit of Serval, and Caracal added to the original Cheetah/Leopard/Lion hybrid. I filtered though it, caught the scent of her breath as it spread over my face. Her mouth tasted of blood, fresh, and my symbiote rushed up his spine to fill the trachea, bronchi, and lower larynx. She took my breath, and I gave the bushman a fleeting glimpse of what she felt like before severing with the extension. She closed her eyes, and slowly slipped to the ground as her kin approached, on two levels. I fled the Pygmy's brain through the bloodstream to the heart, then lungs...} {Deja Vu} I became concious, then realised it was just me. Pains I'd forgotten came back, like the stiff knee I'd gotten in a bad landing less than a week ago. All of my senses seemed duller, blunted without posession. I could smell something, overpowering and unfamiliar. I opened my eyes. "{Hello}" an emmense ape said exactly the way Basiatis did. "{You can leave, or stay if you want.}" A gorilla, she had strangely human features, and extremely human breasts. Despite myself, I felt an involutary stiffening. Nudity doesn't usually affect me like that way, I was born to a culture which modesty was an alien concept, and lived with many others. The perversity of it should have put me off, I always felt sex should be beautiful, and natural unlike many men I've talked to. I felt something in front of me, and looked down. A cat, larger than me, but long and lean. She looked up, and rolled her tail aside, then nuzzled between my legs again. I was certain what that ment, and finally my instincts returned with a natural response. I ran, screaming. I made it back to the truck, very nearby, and jumped into the cab. Was it really gone? Slamming the door, I dropped one of the beds, and grabbed a rifle. I'd left them unloaded, but pulling back the cocking handle, I saw a partially chambered round, and let it slide back. The magazine ejected, full, so I snapped it back in. I grabbed my parafoil, and turning it over read DEJA VU drawn on the back. My eyes slowly closed until I could see nothing. {Hello, sorry about the lack of images, but I couldn't spare the memory.} "Basiatis." I realised I still had control of my body, set down my pack, and rifle, and layed down. {I decided to answer some questions you have. First, if you are experiencing this, you are free. I will tell you that you can go, and mean it. This is a delayed experience I can't explain, again for reasons of memory. I hope you a long life to fill it. If you ever wonder, and I anticipated it, you will know.} I opened my eyes, and decided to retreive my balloon to fly out. {Rear compartment, drivers side of the trailer.} They where there, a dozen still in their packing, and the old one along with the propane heater, full by the pressure gauge, and my knife wrapped in it's hose. I took two new balloon canopies, somehow knowing I could carry one as a spare along with the heavier rifle. {You're welcome.} I carried them out of the forest, and set up for launch. I stood there, holding the throttle valve, and looked back. {I knew you would,} I shook my head, and played out the tethers. Clamping them onto my harness, I secured the bottle, and slowly fed the catalytic heater. I slung the rifle horizontal across my back as the balloon filled with hot air. It rose, and hung above me, light enough to keep the tethers taut, but not enough to lift me. I could feel the downward thrust, warmer than the late day air, but not burning. I'd cool off in the sky. I folded up the tripod, tucked it away, and and turned south. Looking along the forest line toward the equator. {About 17d33m Lattitude North} Dead calm, everything was hot down here, and there was no convection, natural anyway. This made it slow to get the air in the balloon much hotter, or lighter. I eventually felt it's lift was enough, so I started walking backward, pulling the balloon down to a diagonal. This tipped it, hotter air expanded on the topside, forcing the cooler air down, and popping the valve flap partially open. Cool air dumped in, mixed, and thrusted out the bottom pulling me foreward. I ran after it, picking up speed, the flap opened fully, and I jumped into the air. Without lift, I swung foreward, and opened my paracute to brake me. Filling with air blown off the ground from my engine it lifted me up before my feet touched, and I climbed steeply. Basicly following the tree line, I cut over open air as it snaked along below. I wondered if I could still see heat, {at night} it would get dark eventually, and I had enough fuel to stay airborn at least that long. Guessing I was near Abobo, I checked my landmarks, mostly the hills in the west toward the Rift Valley. I put my back to it, let the slowly setting sun warm the balloon, and cut the propane. Pretty soon, I didn't need the sun glasses, and a strong tail wind started. I banked left so it didn't stall out the balloon, and rolled this slowly so the sun warmed side heated underneath. Tacking along at about W/NW, the sun finally sank over the low, flat horizon. Deciding to save fuel, I let my eyes adjust, and looked for a place to land. I hadn't slept in days, just dreamed while the demon rode me through the night. Eventually, I could see the balloon, but little in the glow floating up from the ground but trees disrupting it. Then I saw something ahead, warmer than anything around it. My eyes wouldn't zoom in, {You don't have the processing speed}, and my new rifle lacked a 'scope, so I waited as it slowly resolved into a boxy structure, and a man shape moving around. He was working on something that turned out to be a tent. There was something else, about waist height, and visibly getting hotter. Not a fire, but a cylinder like a water heater, or something. They also had lights, on the front of the ampibious looking truck. They overpowered my night vision as I glided over, but revealed the man, a white with balding light brown hair. The hot thing looked like a water heater, or cooker on top of a large bottle tank. I came down silently, and didn't cry out when my bad knee twinged. I just rolled up my canopy, and stuffed it in the cool balloon, then carried them back. Walking around the camp, the man jumped, and lifted his gun to bear on me. "Who's there?" {English} "Just a traveler," I called back, and dropped my bundle to raise my hands, empty in front of me. Someone popped out of the top of the truck, a woman with two rifles in her hands. "Is something wrong?" she said in Bantu. "Nothing, sweety," he sounded surprised, but not angry, "Just one of those flying storytellers?" She lowered the {Garands} back into the truck instead of mounting them. "Yes," I bent back down for my canopies, "I was wonderiong if I could share your camp?" "Got any good tales?" I realised that I didn't have to translate English, which I didn't know a week ago. {I had to program your language centers to enhance our interface. You can think in it.} "Sure," I stepped fully into the light, and set the balloon chute down by the truck. The woman came out, tall, dark, and Kenyan looking. "Jumapili" She had western clothes, though, belted pants, and a snap up shirt. "J\bok" I introduced myself. "An I'm Gerald," he walked up, and held out his hand. The other arm still had a gun broken open over it. It had three barrels, two rifle, and one shotgun. "Are you English?" his accent was strange. "Na I'm a Strailyan", I'd never heard of them, "Came out here on Safauri a couple decades back, and fell in love." he put his arm around Jumapili "This is mai waif, Juma. Shea'll help you set up while I go out for dinnah." He wandered off into the dark, and I turned to the contraption. Out of the direct light, I could see quite a bit of heat comming off of it. "What is this?" I asked in English. She said, "Wood still," in Bantu, but must have gotten the idea by my gesture, "For the Rover." I just shrugged, and started packing up the parachute and balloon. I lay the former out, spread the lines, then rolled them in carefully from the ends. Folding this into the pack, I clipped the harness around it to keep everything snag-free. I rolled up the balloon next, and slipped it into a bag I have for this. Some time during all that, I was startled by a nearby shot. Jumapili stopped what she was doing, and climbed in to set up the dopplegewehr, but it was just Gerald. Off in the dark, I could see him, and the slowly cooling barrel of his gun. Some kind of gazelle took off clumsily, so I ran to help him. "Gerald," I called when I got close, "It's over here." I led him to it before it cooled to invisibility. "You ave increadible night vision, mate," he remarked. I didn't reply, just helped him get it up on his shoulders, and steady it on the way back. He didn't talk, just grunted with the weight while I led him through the dark. I wondered at his ability to make that kill, in one shot. He trusted me quickly, even leaving me with his woman. If Basiatis was with me, they would probably be dead by now, or worse. "Thanks, Jutkbok," he attempted my name. "Is that bushman?" "It's actually short for jumpbok, the way my parents say it. It is a Kai!san tradition to name a boy after what he gets on his first hunt." "Kitezan, that's what you are?" "My ancestors where Kai, called San by the K\hoi, who displaced us from our ancestral home, the Kalahari." "So you wander, eh?" "We were always nomads, and the Kalahari isn't the desert it was. I think it's a swamp now, was last time I was down there." "You sound Amercan," I nodded, "I learned from one," as far as I could tell. I helped him clean the impala, spreading the hide under the corpse to keep it out of the dirt. He walked over to the wood still, and grabbed something from the truck. A small tripod, and burner, like the one I adapted for my balloon, he hooked it's hose to the bottom of the device. "Methanol," Gerald said, "Destructively distilled from wood to run my truck." He put a heavy plate over it, "You can cook with it, but you got to be carefull 'cause it's toxic." He dropped a couple cuts on, and they seared nicely. The plate shone so bright I could see it, nearly red. "So," he turned to grin at me, "Got any good stories?" "Do you beleive in Demons?" I sat down on my pack. "Never met one," he rubbed his stubbly chin. "I did," I got comfortable, "Want to hear about it?" He flipped the meat, "Sure," and pulled over a folding stool. "Well," I thought about it, Basiatis didn't try to stop me, so: "My people, the Kai!san never beleived in demons, nor did I a week ago. The ancestor's stories told of a God, who could be any of the creatures, but his favorite was the Elan. In trance, our preist once spoke of another, who came from the sunset to take all the rain, and kill everything." "Noone lives like that anymore, the giants came from outside, and brought your wars. You found use for us, as pilots, scouts, and guides. Our light weight was an advantage, {and an evolutionary bottle neck.}" Gerald looked over at me all of a sudden, because I'd said that out loud. "I was flying one evening, looking for food, when the clear sky split with thunder, and something flew over, too fast to make out. It arched down, and pulled up to hover on a tripod of fire. I brought up my binoculars, and spotted something like a tower, or obelesk sinking down to the ground, and extinguishing..."