Alison part 2



It's time. Yes it's time. It's time to tell the story of how this life support
system came to being in the fist place! This is gonna be long!
Note: this one leans more to the horror side of Sci-Fi: fantasy.
Because of it's extreme length and intentional use of nonconventional language
I would require eight hours to convert it to WP format and spell check it.
That's why this one was shipped As-Is.

                 Volume 5
       ---------- Book 1! -----------

By A.T.G.

                     C.1

                Divergant Views

    very goddam long ago on a dustball very goddamn far away...

        Justin (who else? I'm in a rut.) was in attendance at a meeting of the
Commision, A group of elected officials and notable persons entrusted with
the responsibility of guiding the future of this very goddamn far away planet.
        The Commisioner had a proposal. He began by reading a list of gripes
about dayly life (almost identical to the one that resulted in the Soul
Crystals.) He began his porposal. The propsal was so sick that it just made
Justin want to puke. What was even more apalling was the fact that the other
people in atendance were in favor of the idea.
        The idea had occoured to Justin too but he decided it was rediculous
and decided it was best to throw it in the metaphorical dustbin.
        "This technology is best described by the man who created it Mr.Justin
John, the great physisit! A round of applause please!"
        Cheers rang out.
        Justin could only see his own face reflected on the 'Podium's'
teleprompter. He had been notified that he was to give a talk about the new
technology that he had lead the development. He had been kept in the dark as
to what context he was to give his speech. His speech appeared next to his
face on the display. A cursor appeared at the place he had planned to start.
Justin had already decided to go AWOL and ad-hock the speech. Only now it
wasn't a speech he was giving but a desperate plea for the crowd to listen to
reason. "I designed my technology to preform minior cosmetic alterations by
re aranging a person's cells and DNA. It was never intended to preform such
a large scale operation. That doesn't mean it isn't up to the task. It is.
That's not the point. This is a BAD idea. Therefore I will not endorse this
venture. You would sujest we just crawl into a collective hole and call it
progress? That's madness!" Justin noted with satisfaction that the
teleprompter was going beserk.
        The Commisioner was somewhat supprised by Justain's response. "I hope
you will see the wisdom of this action..."
        "Yes I see it, and I think it's bogus. I am certain if a race of
individuals could be created without the burdons of having to seek food and
shelter and have the power to take on whatever form they would choose they
would invariably choose to remain individual!"
        Further praticipation in the discussion would be pointless. Justin
left.


                C.2

            Meditations

        Justin was already home. The meeting was only a teleconference. His
message box was already filling with comments about his speech. Most of them
had a red voice tone tag on them denoting that the speaker was in a negitave
state of mind. Several of the messages had a gold tag indicating a neutral
voice tone. One of the messages had a blue voice tone tag (indicating a happy
or cheerfull). Out of curiosity Jusin opened it.
        "Congratulations! You've succeded in making a complete ass out of
yourself! Never before has anyone seen somebody tear their own achevements
down like you just did. Your 'race of individuals' would do exactly waht we
plan to do as soon as they were created. Have a rotton day!"
        Justin once agian entertained the idea that the commisioner had just
brought to public attention. It really was almost appealing in a way. No it
would get boring after a while and life would ceace to have any meaning. It
would be nice but it would stink at the same time. If the other people could
just see how rotton it would be... No they haven't had the time to think it
thorugh all the way.
        What if... What if it was possible to create a race of beings just as
described. Waht would they do? Justin knew that there was only one way to find
out...
        "Hey Charles. I have another projet for you and the team. We need to
generate an entire genome and supporting equipment. I would like you to start
collecting the relevant files."
        "Who's the contractor?"
        "That isn't funny."
        "If I'm not getting paid, count me out."
        " What does getting paid matter?"
        "What would you wnat me out on the... " Charles suddenly connected the
commisioner's idea to Justin's question "Holy shit It doesn't matter!"
        "Right. If you wnat anything to matter anymore you'd better get your
ass in gear and get those files so I can get to work."
        "Why should I? You were the one who put his foot in his mouth. Why
should I help you?" Charles hung up.
        Justin tried to recruit the other trustworthy members of his team.
The answers he recieved were variations on what I've just related. Next he
would have to try the untrustworthy members of his team. The trustworthy people
on his team were good scientists, motivated by science. The untrustworthy
people on the team were also good scientists but they were motivated by um
alternitave reasons. Justin was aware of this but he also valued them because
they had a different point of view and therefore may come up with something
that the rest of the team may have missed.
        As fortune would have it one of the less trustworthy scientists did
decide to help. The both of them working shifts should be able to get a new
body designed before the Commisioner's plan could be put into action.


                C.3

              Designs

        Joe and justin agreed to meet at the labratory. They were in Justin's
office. Justin's main interest was in physics and secondarily in computers
and artificial intelegence. Most of his projects have been in those areas. It
was a fluke that he got a contract for a project in what he thought was
cosmetic surgery. To satisfy the contract he had hired people like joe who
where experts in this field.
        "I'm so glad you decided to help me with this one, Joe." (a slight
exaderation).
        "Thank you, It's my pleasure. What's the plan?"
        "We need to create a humanoid species that is entirely independant of
outside support. This I hope will disuade people from taking the road that the
commision seems so much in favor of."
        Joe paused to give it some thought. "Okay. I think I already have
something along those lines, Lemme go get it for you." Joe left, jogged down
to his office and returned with what looked like a large medical referance
book.
        Justin flipped through the book. The text contianed a detailed
explaination of the genetic and biological procsses of a living orgainism. He
had already come up with a very ambitous but not completely impractical design
for a life support system (it still had a lot of question marks in the power
supply and computer aspects). The plans also included some sort of neural
interface. "Why this is incredible, with this device the person could interact
directly with a computer!"
        "Um actually I intended that to be a type of remote controll device."
        Justin frowned. "So what does the final product look like?"
        Joe took the book, flipped to a laminated page and handed it back.
        The final product was to all intents and pourposes just a sex toy,
big breasts (not to justin's tastes) The body had no hands (the arm ended at
the elbo and the legs likewise at the knees). "Um No. What I'm looking for
here is A man that can rip the arms off a ROBOT."
        Joe sighed. "Alright I'll go warm up the computer, It'll take about
thirty minitues to load the appropriate DNA. Since our physique is past it's
evolutionary peak I'll use one of our ancestors as a model. I'll call you
when it's ready."
        "Thank you."
        "By the way we'll have to design the female first."
        "Why?"
        "The male is just a modified version of the female."
        "Really?"
        "Yes, If you like we can design a unix first and both genders will be
modified versions of that."
        Justin just nodded.
        Justin was having his missgivings. He would very much prefer to work
with someone else. Did he have a choice? No. This'll have to do.
        An agent of the commision arrived. Justin didn't really want to deal
with these people anymore but he was just a bit curious as to what they wanted
to bug him about.
        "We have come to contract your research team. We need you to do some
heat and power difusion studys and engineering."
        Justin raised an eyebrow.
        The agent pulled out a sketch of the 'Home'.
        Justin looked at the drawing with a note of intrest. The structure
would be in the shape of a Hershey's Kiss about three miles in diameter and
three in height.
        "Hmph."
        "Do I gather that you aren't really interested in taking up this
assignment?"
        "You do. Bye!" Justin waved the agent off with a grin.
        "Not so fast buster. This is a valuble research facility. We Need it."
        "Wonderfull."

                 ---- Intermission ----

        Women who actually had breasts are very rare on this distant planet.
The men who are turned on by such things are even rarer. The women who have
breasts were reciently pregnant, are suffering from a genetic mutation, or had
them artificially stimulated to please themselves or their mates. Most men are
turnned on by a woman's butt. Men (on this distant planet) who like breasts
are generally heaped in the same boat with the homosexuals.


                C.4

            Foundations

        Justin's flat chested wife is none too pleased when her husband moves
twenty tonnes of hardware into her livingroom.
        Three weeks go down.
        Justin and Joe can say that they have finished roughing out the genes
for the basic skelital structure and muscle atachment sights for the body that
they are creating. The body design has come out well. If it was reenforcable
it was indeed reenforced. In addition to teriffic strenght they added just
about every redundancy they could think of.
        The other change they did was they fixed the face. They did away with
the animal features and replaced it with modern features.
        The next step will be to work on the individual cell to make it as
strong and resiliant as possible. These changes will include finding enzymes
that will work in almost every possible environment.
        Justin was pleased that the project was moving along so fast. These
early stages it are easy because they don't requrie any research, only design.
        Justin was a little ticked when Joe took the day off to go watch the
groundbreaking for 'The Home'. It's foundations will be forever attached to
the bedrock.
        No expense will be spared in the construction of this last monument to
their civilization. The materilas will be the most durable available.


                C.5

             Progress

        Six more months go by the wayside.
        Justin's research would have far exceded his means if it weren't so
damn easy to bum stuff off of people. Justin could procure a hundred thousand
dolar EKG macine for a handshake if he needed one (After he revelaed that he
was a research scientist).
        As a direct result of making the celular sturcture suitable to an
acquatic environment several variations of the normal design, an amphibious
version and an acquatic version. (Alison could turn into a memrmaid or a whale
if she wanted to or just grow webbed feet.)
        On the same day Justin comes up with a great idea and Joe makes his
move. Justin realized that it wouldn't be dificult at all to create biological
organs to preform telekenetic tasks. He would have to talk to Joe to find out
how hard it would be to code the DNA. When Justin arrived at the make shift
lab he took one look at Joe and knew that he had been up to no good on his
shift.
        "What did you do this time?"
        "Oh nothing."
        "Nothing." Justin went over to the console to see how much nothing had
happened. He discovered that Joe's brainstorm was a breast enlarger device.
(functionally identical to Alison's) Sigh. "Tomorow you are going to work on
utlraviolet vision or supersonic hearing, No more crap, Okay?"
        "Alright. No more crap."
        "You'd better... get some sleep." Justin watched Joe go back to
Justin's guest room.
        Justin got to work on his idea.
        The other thing on his mind was the fact that the pourpose of this
body was to talk people out of living in The Home. They aren't going to care
if the only way you could have this body was to be born into it. The support
system (already under develpment) would have to be extended to work with or
convert a normal physiology to the patterns that he and Joe are trying to
make. So much to do.
        Justin put in the next series of commands for the computer to chew on.
Unless the computer runs into an unforseen hitch Justin would have the whole
morning to himself. He decided to see how muc progress had been made on the
Home.
        The builders of the home were in the process of bringing the
structure's foundation up to ground level. The builders of the Tower City
would have laughed at how pathetic the techniques being used were. Justin was
very concerned that he wouldn't be able to complete his task in time to save
civilization from self destructing. He would have to see to an alternate pla


                C.6

         Support Technology

        The life support system was Justin's masterpiece. It cooked, it
cleaned, and it even did the dishes! all with only about a thousand watts
of external power (depending on conditions, less than a hair dryer). In short
it could do almost anythig you could want it to do. Here are some examples.
        A welder, for example, could configure it to cover his torso so he
could attach the power supply for his welder on his back and mount the welder
itself at the end of his arm (like the Borg in Star Trek but not as ugly). It
wouldn't matter which arm he chose to use because all members of this species
is ambidexterous.
        A geologist could study the ocean bottom by causing it to form a
flexible protective layer around Her body. With that she would be completely
protected without having to cary any bulky equipment. Such an arrangement
would make her practically indestructable.
        Normally it blends itself into the wearer's fleash and is invisable.
        Justin used a cathode ray replication unit to arrange the molecules
into a maciene capable of producing the other macines that they needed. This
macine was only the size of a small glass of water. Now all justin has to do
is tell it what he wants built and give it enough energy to produce it.
        Justin ordered the device to generate a quantum memory module. Once
Justin is satisfied with his designs he will transfer them itno this module.
From there he will be able to generate the hardware htat he will need for his
proposal.

        I'm not going to go describe in any great detail what the builders
of the house had designed because it is so easily sumarized by one word.
Conventional. (nothing we wouldn't be able to duplicate given twenty years
or so.)


                C.7

          Disturbing News.

        It was printed large on a special edition of the long defunct global
newspaper.
        The 'ruler' of the House is to be selected by lottery. Five hundered
people will recieve tickets qalifying them for the final raffle.
        Justin would have stepped up immediately to show the superiority of
his technoligy but alas it wasn't ready yet. First it couldn't yet effectively
duplicate the house... yet (Joe was working most diligantly to rectify that).
        Meanwhile Justin has a diferent problem on his shoulders. His task
is to put all that junk that he had contrived into one integrated technology.
        Justin is really beginning to get nervous. He knew that he would be
able to do the job. The question now is weather he will be able to finish it
before the doors of the House open. He decided that he would need a
contingency plan. It is almost certain that he would never be allowed to
create his species on this distant planet because the builders of the House
would see it as a threat.
        The stars. That was the answer. Justin would have to create a device
that could create his species on another planet. Theoretically a propulsion
system could be built to take a vessle to another planet within a hundred
or so years. A propulsion systmem that James would have to design (sigh).
        Where would James get a vessle? The closest the people on this planet
have gotten to space was a very impresive spy plane that was capable of
suborbital flight. The last of those planes was de-commisioned a hundred and
fifty years ago. James called a schematic diagram of the plane up onto his
screen.
        He stared at it for an hour while he considered various modifications.
"I'll get you later."


                C.8

         The Presentation

        The next and last meeting of the Commision will be held on Wednesday.
        The 'ruler' of the house will be named on Monday.
        Justin was ready. The meeting couldn't come soon enough. Unfortunately
on this day the meeting wasn't on the agenda for today. Today is monday! Just
about everybody on the planet was tuned into the big event. Justin was watching
only to verify the date of the opening of the house.
        The person who was selected to be the ruler of the house turned out
to be a thirty five year old woman. Gabriella was fairly good loking, to James.
James wondered wheather this rather nervous looking woman knew exactly what
she was getting herself into.

        The members of the commision were greatly supprised to see that James
had chosen to attend this meeting. They were downright astonished that James
had actually attempted much less succeded in creating the species that he had
delineated earlier. They, politely, lent James an ear. But when they saw how
muscular both genders were to be and the fact that the female was to have
breasts standard. They lost interest.
        James was successful in causing a stir. It was decided that there
would be no change to the current plans.


                C.9

            Spaceplane

        "Yessire She's one fine piece of macinery!" said the curator of Ed's
aviation museum.
        James and Ed were standing in front of a sleek black plane. It looked
almost exactly like the SR-71 except this plane had a scram jet mounted
on the top of the fucelage and the botom of the plane was painted with red
feathers to make it look like a bird for the air show that it used to be
featured in. The top of the plane was coated in a thick white layer of dust.
        "I need your plane, Ed."
        "You're not thinking of flying it are you?"
        "I am."
        "Well you can't!"
        "Why not?"
        Ed was stopped cold. Ed shrugged. James has himself a good old
fassioned spaceplane.

        It took only three days for James to install the payload and make
the plane spaceworthy.
        It wouldn't even have been possible without the assistance of the tools
that he had developed for the life support system. The most major change was
the addition of a fusion reactor mounted in the payload bay. It supplied
power to a set of inertial dampeners, a deflecter unit and an impulse drive.
These changes left a space barely larger than a mailbox for the real payload.
        No problem. James's device was a cylender a cubit long and a foot in
diameter.
        Problem. James aint got no pilot.


                C.10

            Grand Opening

        Justin was buissy trying to teach one of his robots how to fly a plane
when someone rang the doorbell. "Annie, can you get that?"
        Justin's wife, Annie, went to answer the door. The visitor was a
messanger robot from the House.
        "Maddame you and your husband have been scheduled to come to the house
on this date." The robot handed Annie a pair of cards.
        Annie dismissed the robot with a nod. The cards looked like driver's
licenses one had a picture of Justin and the other of Anie. Aside from the
names, the only other markings was a date and time when they would be expected
at the house.
        "Hey look we have our cards!" Annie cheerfully anounced to Justin.
        "Hmm, Lemme see." Justin took a look at his card. He looked up and
with a flick of his wrist sent the card spinning towards the garbage shute
on the far wall. He missed, the card ricosheyed to the floor.
        "Hey what are you doing!"
        "Trying to sink the card. It's your turn." Justin said as he went
to pick up his card for a second attempt.
        Annie just stared at him disbelieving.
        "What's wrong with you today, You weren't thinking about going to
the house now were you?" Justin said with a note of contempt.
        "Of course I was, what planet have you been on?"
        "Hey! I've been very buisy reciently."
        "I just thought that you were just trying to bussy yourself while you
waited."
        Justin was at a loss. (the author doesn't know how to get out of this
little sink hole he has just made for himself.) "Why?"
        Annie began. "I am sick of living this miserable painfull life
        "Well at least it's a life!" Justin retorted. "Come look at what
me and joe built." Justin lead his wife by the hand to his make-shift lab.
        Justin began to explain the many marvelous features of the body that
he had designed.
        "Hmpf You think you can play God." Annie said in disbelief.
        "Not really. This is really not a person or eaven an animal but an
extremely complex and advanced macine."
        "Big diference. I really don't think I could live knowing that I was
only a macine."
        "The only real diference between an animal and a macine such as this
is one is natural and the other a work of man's art."
        "Art! She's ugly."
        Justin concealed the drawing's breasts with his hand. "Now what do you
think."
        "She's still to big."
        "She's just strong."
        "I still don't like It."
        "Please."
        "No."
        Justin knew that it was hopeless. He felt miserable.

        On that first day only ten people entered the house. More will enter
tomorow, many more.


                C.11

             Flight Plan

        Justin knew that even though the builders of the house didn't believe
in the possibility of space flight the wouldn't like the idea of an alien
species running around the galaxy. The builders of the House are already aware
of the plane's payload. They would most likely just refuse to grant clearance
expecting full well that the plane would ignore the instruction. Then they
would probably launch some automated defence plane to shoot it down. Missiles
the plane could out run but The robot's restraining bolt would have to be
removed to allow it to ignore the command from the tower. That's the up side.
The down side is that there is no guarentee that the robot would follow it's
flight plan.
        Fortunately the robot seemed very agreeable to Justin's plan, almost
enthusiastic.
        Outside the streets are dead. Everybody Justin knows has gone to the
house. The air seems to have a staleness about it like some old deserted room
that hasn't been used in a decade. Three months have passed since Annie went
to the House. Justin had almost successfully convinced himself that he didn't
care. Had never cared. Didn't even like her cooking. Was irked by how she
tended to snort when she laughed. Lies.
        The only friend he had left was the robot And the robot was just
about to be sent into space. -<sob>-
        "Rusty, Are you ready for your final instructions?"
        "Yes sir."
        "The plane is ready to fly. The communications from the tower are
uninportant you will ignore them. Can you do that?"
        "Yes sir."
        "Good. Your first in flight objective will be to achieve a stable
orbit. Your second objective will be to navigate to one of the stars. It is
critical that you leave this star system."
        "Understood."
        "Your third objective will be to locate a planet in the system
somewhere in the star's habitable zone. You will fly to this planet and execute
a soft landing."
        "That will be dificult if the planet has an atmosphere, The liquid fuel
engines will be nonfunctinall after a prolonged journey in space."
        "Just do the best you can. Your fourth and most important objective
will be to activate the colony. Once a stable astral body has been reached
the colony must be activated. Make sure it is done."
        "I will."
        "Thank you, I am counting on you. There is A low preasure area
currently in your path, wait untill conditions have improved then launch."
        silence.
        Justin looked at the robot. It seemed as though one of its processors
had just crashed. Justin nearly panicked.
        "Recieving red priority instructions. All remaining persons are to be
delivered to the House immediately." A short pause. "You are to accompany me
to the house."
        "I refuse."
        "I have orders.."
        "They are unimportant. The mission is your top priority."
        "But I can't ignore a top priority communication."
        "Yes you can. Do it."
        "I am ready to launch when the weather imroves."
        "Thank you, You are doing the right thing." The robot still looked a
bit uneasy but Justin felt that he would still obey his commands. "Please
excuse me for a moment."
        "Certainly."
        Justin stepped out of the building. "FUCKING GODDAMND SHIT!" Raw fury
surged through his veins. He felt like he could rip the head off of the person
who gave that order to the robots with out a second thought. He knew that going
to the house was unavoidable. The only thing that he could was to get revenge.
        Justin returned to his house. The robot was sitting just where he had
left it. "You may procede with your mission."
        "Yes sir." The robot said and left.


                C.12

              Revenge

        A lone robot passed in front of an alley between G and H on 43rd
street. Undetected a figure stepped out of the alley and fell into step behind
the robot. A gloved hand reached up and touched the robot on the side of its
head.
       A high voltage electric arc shot out of the palm of the glove and into
the robot's ear. The charge ripped its way through the audio pick up cable
towards its hearing centers. A fuse blew, The arc, instead of frying the
hearing center it blew the robot's cognative processor. The robot continued
to walk down the street completely unaware of its death.
        Justin turned off his gauntlet and pulled a controller pad out of from
under his coat and pluged it into the side of the robot. He then pulled the
robot's limp arm around his own to make it appear as if he were in the robot's
custody.
        Within a few minitues Jusin returned to his Pro-temproe quarters
(an abandoned warehouse) with his kill. He replaced the the joystick with a
remote controll module. Justin hated VR equipment. It always left him feeling
a bit woozy. A feeling that he could do without and did as much as he could.
but this was diferent. The view projected infront of his eyes wihin the helmit
showed the view from the robot's eyes. Using his left hand he directed the
robot to move forward. With his right hand he ordered the robot to pick up the
object on the table. Satisfied with the controlls he moved on to the next
phase of his plans.

        If there had been anybody in the controll room at the robot's
monitoring station that person would have been notified of the appearent
malfunction of unit DB4438. But alas there was nobody there. The automated
controll program handeled it by sending a green priority global notice
ordering any robot that comes across the DB4438 to bring it to a maintenence
center for repairs.

        The House was just coming into view of the robot. Armored prisoner
transport vheicles were delivering more residents to the house into the house.
Justin had to force himself to avoid looking in the direction of the enterance.
        When the transport arrived at the house it was greeted by a phalanx of
robots. The robots would line up as a metalic wall to block the residents from
doing something. I dunno what. Protect them from trafic I guess? Maybe it's an
houour guard? Oh well. Justin's pourpose was neither to hurt or hinder the
efforts of these robots. Perhaps after his job is done he might get a chance
to look into it...
        Justin entered through one of the service enterances. The robot was
blasted with scorchingly hot air to rid it of any contaminants it may be
carying. There were other robots to buisy with other tasks to take any notice
of Justin's stolen robot. Justin's robot walked down a long coridor running
underneath the main chamber of the house. The rooms adjoining the hall
contained a wide variety of mechanical equipment. Justin stoped at the door
marked "Neural monitoring and logical interface." The lock on the door
varifyed the status of the DB4438's restraining bolt. All was in order.
Admittance was granted. The room was two storys tall and as big as a football
field. It was filled with giant supercomputers (similar to the origional
Central Computer I described on earth).
        Justin wnet directly to an access pannel, slipped it off, and installed
the device. After checking a few settings and the port number Justin closed
the pannel. That was easy. Justin mooved the robot back out into the hall.
Nearby was a robolift (a lift strictly for robots). Justin took it to the
lowest level of the complex. The only thing on this level is the huge re-
enforced concrete foundations. The next maintninence sweep wouldn't be for
another several months. Good enough.
        Justin turned off his remote controll system. "I think that unit
checks out." Justin said to the empty room with a note of amusement. The
equipment he had been using had been bummed off of the used lot at one of the
robot manufacturers. It's pourpose was to verify the functionality of a
robot's sensory and motor functions.


                C.13

       Nothing to Do About Mutch

        The device that Justin planted in the computer under the House would
need to be activated at a pre-defined time. The required program was a real
quickie for someone of Justin's expertise. The only normal comptuer in the
warehouse was an old Stockmaster used for inventory management and climate
controll. It is the equivelent of an Apple II-e, (8 bit data, 16 bit address,
24bit storage). Justin opened a channel to the computer under the house and
sent his little program directly into memory. Operation complete.
        Justin was painfully aware that his days as an individual were
numbered. He checked to see if there was anything of any importance. Nope.
Ziltch. Save everybody form this fate? Nah, centuries too late. Justin decided
to hack into the environmental controlls. "Lets see what this does."
        >del *.*
        There was a pause and for a moment Justin thought it was actually
obeying his instructions.
        His screen suddenly began filling with digital trash. Justin
recognised the trash as the attempt by the remote computer to acces the local
computer's copy of this planet's equivelent of windows and pop a fuck you
message onto the screen. Instead all that appeared were a bunch of syntax error
messages. Justin got a chuckle out of this. Appearently he was more successfull
in messing things up by using an obsolete terminal than he could have by
hacking.

        The robots were quite oblivious to the transmitions from Justin's
stolen robot from wihin the House. They didn't waste any time dispatching
a unit to pick up any persons occupying the warehouse.
        The door of the warehouse was made of thick interlocking wood beams.
The door was designed to slide open.
        The first robot in the squad pounded on the door. "Open Up!" It ordered
in an amplified digital voice.
        "Come right in." A voice from inside invited.
        The robots backed up a few paces.

        There was the sound of several humanoids running in lock step. A bang
followed by an earshattering BOOM!
        Justin cringed. "It was unlocked!"
        The robots neatly encircled the ratty old couch Justin had been lying
on. "Come with us." The robot barked. Before justin could respond he was
being lifted off the couch and the ground.
        The van left as soon as it's passengers were aboard.
        "On this special occasion I would like to share wiht you one of these
fine cigars." Justin said with a smile. (smokers stink.) Justin pulled a
pack of thick old fassioned cigars out of his pocket and stuffed one in
each of the robot's steel mouths. He then pulled the half burnt cigar that he
was only beginning to get used to puffing on and gave each of the robots a
'light'. "Now don't breathe too deeply!" The faces of the robots were
expressionless. Justin pulled a half empty flask out of his pocket and gulped
it dry. "Aaah that was good."
        The robots gave no indication of even beeing aware of Justin's
existance.
        The van arrived at the House and was promptly greeted by the 'honour
guard.'
        When Justin stepped out of the van he said "Gee If you were going to
have an honour guard I would have dressed in a suit." He stood in front of the
van for a moment as he streightened his clothes and righted his posture. He
walked as proudly with his head held high and a wide cockey grin on his face.
The robots from the van followed close behind him through the isle between
the guarding robots. Suddenly his attention was cought by a smudge on the
torso of one of the robots. He stopped and cleaned it off with a handkerchife.
"Don't let me catch you like that again!"
        The robot didn't find it amusing.
        "These robots must not be interactive!" Justin realized.

        The first room inside the house was a large vacant reception hall.
roughly equal in size to a large opera house. In the center of the room
was a desk behind which stood a robot. Justin's escort brought him before
this robot.
        "Welcome to the house. Please go to room two-oh-six for prepairation."
        "I would like an extra key and a wake-up call at seven thirty please."
Justin asked.
        The escort prodded Justin back into motion before he could get a reply
to that. The room Justin was brought two was labled '206' not 'two-oh-six'
as Justin had been told. The robots pushed Justin into the room and locked the
door behind him. The room had a clothes shute, a shower, one of those burn
your skin off decontamination tubes, and a robot to shave every folicle on his
body.

        Justin knew there was no point in arguing that he had taken a shower
only that morning.
        The robot was pleased that he walked the walk without any backtalk but
seemed somewhat upset (suprisingly) at finding Justin's flask. "Sir you will
have to spend at least a week in detoxification for that." (as you may have
guessed that was precicely what Justin wanted to hear) Please exit through
that door and wait for a robot to direct you.
        The hall went behind all the rooms on that level. To the right were
the decontamination chambers, to the left was the main chamber of the House.
A robot came and brought Justin to what in essance was a jail cell. Parole
hearings would be held daily by means of blood testing. Release would be
granted as soon as the alcahol and nicotene levels had dropped to trace
levels. Justin would have begun to protest his inocence at this point
but his spunk reserves had been depleated. Once the door was shut the room
was dead quiet. There wsn't even the hum of a ventelator.

Intermission:
        I almost envy the quiet this charictor of mine is experiancing at
this time. I have this ear condition that even in a sound proof box I hear a
whining little noise like some high-pitched tone generator. This is caused by,
I gather, the fibres in my inner ear inexplicably commiting suicide. That
causes both a loss of hearing on those tones and the neurons that serviced
those hairs to go haywhire and fire continuously. Extremely anoying. Because
of this I can never experiance the sound of silence. (perhaps it is just
diferent for me.)
        I'm not going crazy (thouhg I recognise that I sometimes write as
though I were). In fact this condition is not as rare as I would wish it to
be. I know that one of my friends also has it. I have also heard a statistic
that five milion Americans also can't hear silence.


                C.14

          Visitation Hours.

        Boring boring boring being locked up in a little cell with nothing
to do is boring. Justin was playing with the water faucet. He would take
a little on his finger then draw something on the heated concrete floor, wait
for it to evaporate and then draw something else.
        There was no visible video device. Justin knew that there would be
little cause for the robots to keep him under surveylance but still being
butt naked in a strange room felt uncomfortable.
        Shortly after a fairly good dinner the lights dimmed. The cot was
comfortable. Justin quickly fell into a deep dreamless sleep. In the morning
a robot came to deliver breakfast and take a blood reading.
        "Your alcahol level is almost normal. Your nicotene levels are still
a bit too high. Prehaps tomorow." The robot turned back to the door. "Oh I
almost forgot, you have a visitor." The robot said as it left.
        'A visitor? What the fuck does it mean by that?' Justin's face was a
study in puzelment.
        Almost as if in answer to his question an alien voice spoke his name.
        "Helo?" Justin said as he whirled around to look at the rest of the
room.
        The air in the center of the room began to shimmer. Slowly the immage
of what could only be one of Justin's artificial people. The immage was far
from solid. She was wearing a stola. She had ebony black hair and emrald green
eyes.
        "I never expected to see someone like you here. Welcome. How's the
colony?"
        "Colony?" The woman looked most puzzled.
        A look of concern crossed Justin's face. "Yes, It came in a round
metal thing about this tall." He made a jesture with his hand next to his
knee.
        "I think my mother keeps something like that in the barn...." The
woman broke off her immage dissappeared but Justin could still feel her
presance. Then suddenly he felt thoughts stiring in his head. The room faded
out of his consousness. He watched as his mind was rifled for any and all
information relating to his designs. He was certain that his brain was being
pushed faster than it had ever gone in his entire life prehaps even faster
than it was intended to go.

        The lunch robot arrived at precicely 12:05. When it opened the door
it discovered justin lying on the floor face down. It's emergancy response
programs clicked into action instantainiously. The robot pulled justin over
onto his back. He awoke and pulled himself up into a sitting position leaning
against the cot. The robot saw that he would probably be alright and continued
with the lunch service.

        Justin felt numb. His vision was a blur. His hand looked like a fuzzy
pink thing agianst a darker background. He felt his forehead. It was as hot as
an overloaded processor without a heat sink (which in essance it was). He
pulled himself to his feet. He almost blacked out. The lunch that the robot had
brought was lying on the table. "What? It's lunch time already?" He colapsed
into the chair next to the table. It seemed like minitues before he could
collect anough of his conciousness to turn his attention to his lunch. He ate
carefully. An hour passed.
        When he finally looked up from his lunch he saw another woman sitting
patiently on his bed. This woman seemed to be solid. She had purple hair which
spilled down the back of her black officer's dress uniform. Her hands were
neatly clasped in her lap.
        Now more than ever Justin wished he had something to cover himslef
with. "If you've come to scan my brain like that last person, Leave." Justin
said miserably.
        She smiled kindly. "No I'm not going to scan your brain. And if I did
I would be much genteler about it. I am Alison, and you are Justin I believe?"
        "Yes, I am. How did you get here? You seem almost real. I am using
the telepresence that you designed into my body and focused my energy throuhg
the event horison of the black hole I am using to power my ship."
        "Telepresance? But you can't... Soooot." A grin spread across his face.
"So what brings you to this condemned man's cell?"
        "I just wanted to meet my maker, Not everybody can do that you know."
        "How far did you come to get here?"
        "Roughly sixty thousand years and fourty thousand light years."
        "Do you know who that last person was?"
        "A real bitch. If she wern't one of my direct ancestors I would have
stopped her from doing what she did to you."
        "How many of you are there?"
        "Only three at the moment. One of us runs the computers on an entire
planet, and the other has hitched a ride on my ship."
        Justin seemed dissapointed. "I was hoping that you would build a
civilization."
        "I don't think I could bind myself to a task such as that. I prefer
to roam the stars looking for cool things to do. I really must thank you for
making such an excelent body for me, It has served me well."
Tell me, what happened to that other person?"
        "She used the knowlege that she took from you to betrey her mother
and condem her to death. Later she was punished for her sins by the planet's
natives."
        "Ouch! I almost liked her visit better. She was genteler."
        "Hey Don't kill the messenger!"
        "I can't believe that one of my people could do such a thing!"
        "We have great capacities. Don't wory you built us well."
        "I hope you didn't find those breasts too much of an inconvienance."
        "No not at all, In fact they're quite popular where I've been."
        Justin shrugged "Interesting."
        They talked for the rest of the afternoon. Justin found it quite
pleasant.
        "I'd better leave before the dinner robot gets here. It's been a
pleasure." She rose and offered him her hand. The jesture was not completely
unknown to Justin but he was nervous nevertheless.
        "Go ahead it's solid."
        Her hand was indeed solid and cool to the touch. She picked her hat
off of the bed and placed it firmly on her head. She then turned and walked
right throuhg the door as the dinner robot was opening it.

        All that talk had filled Justin with a deep hunger. Food! He even
enjoyed it for a while. Then he suddenly remembered why he was in this little
room and what he was waiting for tomorow. He pushed the half eaten dinner
aside.
        That night he couldn't sleep at all. That night he just sat on his
cot leaning against the wall. The hours passed in a slow procession. His body
was racked with chills. The room normally comfortable during the day was
cooler now that he was supposed to be sleeping under the blanket. Yet he
couldn't make himself crawl under the covers.


                C.15

            Grand Enterance

        Justin didn't know wheather to be releaved or terified when the
lights returned to their normal daytime intensity.
        Exactly as predicted the robot entered the room.

        Robots on this planet are diferent from the ones I described as being
on earth. I've described the robots on Earth as being minimally sentient.
These robots aren't. They simply preform the actions sudjested by their
surroundings. Because Justin appeared sick the robot took him to the infirmary.
Simple as that.

        The robots in the infirmary are almost as bright as a person and twice
as knowlegeable. "What is your complaint."
        "My head, it's sick. Can you cut it off from about here." He said
while drawing his finger across his neck (gallows humor).
        The robot didn't find it amusing. "Test him and prepare him for
implantation."

        The results of the test were clean.

        After repeating the clean-up procedure Justin found himself in the
main chamber of the house.

        If you don't want to read something very goddamn sick skip to the
next -----------------------------------
        What am I going to talk about? Well I've poked and prodded it in my
other stories. I've beaten a wide path around it in this story while I did
my little song and dance. It's time to go for the kill. I've already judged
this as sick. Let's see what you make of this.

        Justin saw a huge mountain of what had been human fleash. Justin's
little nose-job macine had been used to melt the entire population of the
planet into the body of who had been Gabriella. Justin suspected that her
head and torso was still normal and was probably in one of the side rooms.
Is she lucky?
        The skin would have been smooth and soft if it wernen't interupted
periodically by the various hoses and equipment providing for it's vital
functions.
        A crane was brought over and a sling was lowered. Justin was
unceremoniously put into the sling and lifted up into the air.
        The sling deposited Justin next to a small temporary platform next to
which the last ten persons had passed. On this platform stood a robot. It's
poupose ther was to answer questions and facilitatie the absorption process.
Normally the people who come here are lively and full of questions. Justin
appeared to be dead and his body discarded.
        His mind was soaring over the mountain of code he had created. The
traice of a smile crossed his lips as he remembered one of his favorite hacks.
He took great pride in the digital macinery which was his craft. Patting the
polished polished surface of the code which drove his colinization probe.
Something cought. A snag (a bug if you will). His blood preasure soared and
his eyes snapped back into focus. He found that there was only half as much
of him as there used to be. He had been absorbed up to the chest. His right
hand was already gone, His left would be soon to folow. Next the macine would
turn it's attention to his feet and finally his head.
        There's nothing he could do about that bug now. He could only hope
that the parts of his system that did work could repair the flaw. Hopefully.
        Fear shot through him like a spear. His elevated blood preasure had
caused one of the newly created arterys to burst. Most probably it will be
repaired before much bleeding could occour. What if it wernen't? Well then
he would die. No great loss, especially now.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

        "So, robot what do you think about all this?"
        The robot stopped and looked around. "What? Who's there."
        "Me the author, who else."
        "It's going to make it a lot easier to take care of them. Humans were
always such wastefull creatures."
        "So you don't have any moral or ethical objection to letting society
do this to itself?"
        "Sir, I don't have any oppinions about such things. If you wish I
could referance you several texts about the subjects of ethics and morals."

        As you can see robots aren't much better than henchmen.


                C.16

               Launch

        At Nine Fifteen that same morning the robot began the startup
procedure for the number one engine. Ignition was followed by a pop. All
indicators were green. The robot turned its attention to the other main
engine. Whirr whirr whirr POP! All lights wre green. The robot lowered the
canopy and began to taxi.
        At Nine twenty that same morning the robot wheeled the dusty old plane
out onto the runway of the airport.

        The robot assigned to make sure no planes left the city (to prevent
escape but premit arivals) saw what was happening, and dispatched a wing of
fighters to bring it home before it could get anywhere. The fighters were
already standing at the ready and were so swift in their response that they
almost cut Justin's robot's plane off.
        But Justin's cargo was already in the lead. The robot pushed the lever
up to the 3/4 notch. The plane began to slide forward. The acceleration was
painfully slow. The interceptors whized past down the runway. At the precise
moment when the air speed indicator reached two fifty Justin's robot pulled
back on the stick. The plane behaved as if it were riding some invisable
shalow graded rail-line hinted at by it's two main engines. First it edged off
the ground to an altitude of precicely one thousand feet. Then it began a
one hundred and eighty degree turn to bring the nose back to the East.
        The interceptors were radioing threats to the deaf reciever of
Justin's plane.
        Once the turn was complete the plane was running at four hundred.
The robot jamed the throttle lever forward and the stick backward (not all
the way). The engines began burning white. The plane picked up speed. More
air was ramed through the engines and over the wings. More thrust and lift
was generated. Within minitues the plane was climbing to fifty thousand feet
at mach 2.3.
        The interceptors were finally beginning to realize that the plane that
they were supposed to stop was one heck of a lot faster than what they were
flying. Only one thing left to do, send for authorization to fire on the
plane. It came almost immediately.
        The bird was already beginning to pull away when the interceptors
fired their rockets. The rockets shot forward at nearly twice the interceptor's
speed. The bird already had a three mile lead. The rockets crossed this
distance in seconds. At the last moment Justin's robot preformed a roll
maneuver. Because the rockets were tracking the heat of the bird's engines
they buzzed right past when it went horisontal.
        The interceptors were already so far behind that a second attack was
impossible. Lemme take the time to give you an appriciation of what these
speeds mean. The robot is approaching sixty thou and getting ready to start
the scramjet. If it were night the nose of the plane would glow a dull red.
That silly red paint had already burnned off. If the canopy were opened far
enough for someone to stick their hand out to feel the breeze the fleash on
that hand would be promptly striped clean off the bone underneath. The bones
would quickly heat up and burn to ash. The scramjet ignited. It emmitted a
wailing screach ten times louder than the loudest civil defense sirin. All
three engines, like Bill Gates, weren't at all satisfied with the incredible
speed that they have already achieved keept screaming for more speed! faster
faster!
        The robot was imersed in dead silence. Not the slightest vibration
could be detected by the robot's gyros. Approaching mach 4.0 main engine
shutdown at altitude seventeen miles. If it were night (again) from ten miles
further up and out. You would see streamers of flame (like in Star Trek III)
being deposited in the sky as the little black triangle of plane crawled
across the huge quilt of land and clouds.
        The main engines were already so far beyond their range that when
they were shut down there was no change in acceleration. Minitues passed.
The fuel reserves on the plane were almost dry. At 7.3 the plane had achieved
quite a respectable sub-orbital. The scramjet sputtered once... twice. and
went dark for good. The plane began to feel the drag that had been bugging
it along the entire journey. The robot pushed a button. Explosive bolts blew
the tail cone off the plane. A inirial dampening field formed around the
plane. The robot pushed a lever forward one eigth of the way along it's track.
The plane seemed to wink out of existance. Nothing happened really. The plane
still existed but not at that specific location anymore. More accurately the
plane was withdrawing from that point at a rate of twenty seven thousand MILES
per second (italicize that please).

        With it's departure objective complete the robot began to navagate
to another star.
        The selection was made and the robot pushed the lever up to seven
eighth's it's length. Any faster and the plane would be shmuzing with the
speed of light (very bad idea).


                C.17

           Outdoors Inside

        Justin awoke on a park bench. The sky was blue. The grass was green.
The bricks were red. A robot was nudging his sholder.
        "Where... Oh. Go away."
        "I would like to welcome you to the Ho..."
        Justin was wearing a suit, covered by a tan overcoat and a hat. He
shuld have been uncomfortably hot. He didn't even bother to open his mouth
this time. "I said Go Away!"
        "But sir there are some things that you need to know."
        "No there aren't. Beat it."
        "The first thing that you need to know..."
        Justin vaporized the robot with his finger. He had already suspected
that the robot was going to tell him that a thought could do anything here.
He knew that. Would the robot come back to deliver his message. There he is
right now coming up that manacured brick pathway. Would he give up? No.
Could he be disuaded? Certainly not. Ah the trials one must go through.
        After what seemed like three weeks the robot was done with it's
oration. (but he would be most willing to repeat himself.)
        Several minitues later Annie sat herself down next to him. He made
continued to inspect the patch of perfectly grey gravel beneath his feet.
        "I'm so happy that you didn't decide to kill yourself like I thought
you had."
        "'Wish I had."
        If Justin had looked up to see Annie's face his imaginary heart would
have fallen through his imaginary foot. Her face was essentially the same as
it was on the outside but it was diferent. Her eyes were always an off-blue.
Now they are a rich primary blue. Her wonderfull girlish nose is now sharper
and more "attractive" and to top that off her mole count was down by half.
        "Well you can't spend the rest of eternity on this here bench."
        "That's just what I was planning to do. Leave me alone."
        She frowned "Well I guess you'll know where to find me..."

        Justin discovered that if he held his hand out in the not-as-bright-
as-it-should-be sunshine it didn't feel any warmer than it did in the shade.
He tested this a little and found that he could change the temperature of his
imaginary hand just by willing it so, except that he always seemed to hit a
wall when he tried to make it painfully hot or cold. Later on that
never-ending afternoon. A fairly wide chested woman (even by 20Th century
Earth standards). Sat down heavily next to Justin on the bench. This time
Justin looked up. She had an exaduratedly pouty face doing what it did best
pout. She also seemed to being having trouble maintaining the shape of her
breasts. One minitue they would be conical the next they would be rounded then
they would start to sag...
        "Hi Joe."
        "Hi justin."
        "I take it that it doesn't feel quite right."
        "Yeah. I thought it was going to be nicer."
        "Hmph. Lemme show you a little secret."
        Justin looked around and found a precision crafted stick of wood on
the ground. (for throwing with your imaginary cat I suppose).
        "This stick seems real to you."
        Joe examined it with her/his delicate hands. "Yes the textures are
excelent."
        "Watch this." Justin said. He griped the stick in both hands and
raised it above his head. and brought it down hard on his knee. The stick
made a sound like a digital squeak. (the computer generating the stick was
aware that a sound was called for but didn't have a clue what that sound
should be. When Justin looked at the broken end of the stick it looked
like what happens in doom when you go clippingless and walk through a wall.
        Justin handed Joe half of the stick. "Keep this, Whenever you feel
that things just aren't right. Use this to confirm your feelings."
        "But it looked so real just a minitue ago. What happened?"
        "It all boils down to the person who programed this stick into the
computer. He asked himself what qualities does a stick of wood have and then
programed them into the computer."
        "Qualities?"
        "Shape, color, texture, Weight.. That kinda thing. What he forgot was
the most key quality of all. Substance. Without that it's nothing."
        "Substance?"
        "For something to exist in a physical universe it must have substance.
Substance can't be quntified or even completely understood on it's own. We
have many windows that show us a peek of what substance is: Sight, hearing,
touch, and many scientific instruments that record almost everything we can't
experience directly. We now have a fairly good grasp of what substance is but
we almost always overlook it's importance. The reason there is a void inside
the wood is that the programmer never concieved that someone would try to
break it. Not a bad assumption but you can see the result. But if the
programmer had been thinking in terms of substance he would have tried to
make it by approximating it's substance first and adding the other qualites
later. That stick could have been broken, burned, bent, just like a real stick.
This stick? No."
        "Why didn't the programmer use substance then?"
        "Simply because this stick could occupy every computer in the entire
damned building around the clock every day."
        "Jeez."

        Time seemed to be moving backwards it now seemed to be more towards
midday. It felt like it was midnight to justin so he went to sleep. An unknown
length of time later Justin was awakened by a comotion to the north. Justin
was afraid that his neck would creak when he turned to look. Not at all, It
turned smoothely. The comotion was being generated by a dragon. Not that
big fire breathing lizard creature you're thinking of. This dragon had the
head of an insane saber tooth tiger. It's body was like the 'dogs' In
Ghostbusters. It's tail was like a stegasauruses, anding in sharp spikes. It
was escaping a throng of 'Knights'. (men and women, even children, running
around in armor and carrying swords that they couldn't even lift on the
outside.)
        The mˆle seemed to be moving in Justin's general direction. So what
if it were. "I wish it weren't so goddamn loud!" (about twice as loud as the
T-rex In Jurassic Park) Justin complained.
        The dragon did come Justin's way. When it passed Justin's bench
It saw something that looked appetising. Munch Munch, Ooh tasty! Gotta move
on!
        Poor justin.


                C.18

            Making Time.

        When the plane cleared the the solar system all the stars appeared
closer. Not by much but just a little. The shape of the inside of the star's
gravitational field must be acting like a giant concave lense. On the inside
the distant stars are smaller and look far away. Outside of this effect the
stars look slightly larger and closer. This pleased the robot because it
wanted to complete its mission before its systems started failing.


                C.19

           Indoors Inside

        Justin found himself sitting on another bench. This one wasn't outside
it was inside. It wasn't a bench It was a pew and the building a church.
        'What a joke.' Justin thought. 'At least it's quiet in here.'
        Suddenly the computer generated doors burst open and a singing choior
burst into the room. Justin just pulled his hat down over his face.
        The service was very similar to the quiet, reflective celebrations of
God's mercy held by the catholics than the more raucus masses held by country
preachers. The rev. began his sermon. "Today I would like to talk to you about
the Book of Judgement, The last of our most sacred text. Blah Blah blah
(the author isn't up to the task of writing a sermon.) ...On that day when we
go into exile from the world of God he will take his great sickle and cut us
away and send us back into the abys that is oblivion!"
        Justin was roused by this phrase and jumped to his feet. Quite a
dizying experiance for someone who doesn't have a body. He tried to bellow
"A-men Brother!" but his voice sounded small to his ears. He called a
microphone into existance and used that. It was loud enough.
        The preach stumbled but continued. "On that day he will cut us from
the rope of his teachings and let us fall into that neverending abyss."
        "Aint it the truth!"
        The Friar broke off and addressed Justin directly. "My son, Do be calm
I don't wan't to have to send for the police."
        Justin nearly broke down laughing. The half the parish was horified
the other half saw that this too was a joke and deserved to be laughed at,
but not at this time.
        "My brothers and sistersm The time of judgement is uppon us!"
        Justin looked at his arm and discovered an expensive watch that
appeared to be giving the proper date and time. "Ooh In less than a ten hours
too!"
        "My son, I don't believe that's so."
        "Look Pa, It's true. In ten hours every mind in this entire
monstrosity will be whiped clean as slate. Judgement IS uppon us. Have a
Nice Day!" With that Justin marched out of the building. (as he wished he
could walk out of the house as well.)


                C.20

         Goodbye Cruel World

        The 'new meeting house' was the most abstract building yet designed.
Half of it appered to be an inside auditorium the other half was an out door
ampatheater Justin was sitting on a bench (what else) in the back row (just
for laughs). The meeting was just as corney as the building that it occupied.
        Justin glanced at his gold plated, dimond studed, glass faced, attomic
decay accurate watch and noted that it was time for the fun to begin.

        Deep inside that computer that I said had something to do wiht neural
stimulation a program, triggered by the tick of a real time clock loaded
itself into processor 4Ah and began it's work. A diode on the device planted
by Justin's stolen robot began to glow. It is an early version of the
programmer that was used in the first and second volumes.

        Panic swept the people in the 'new meeting house'. The man sitting in
the row infront of Justin just suddenly dissapeared. "Good bye!" All around
the room people were winking out. Then it was Justin's turn. "Good Bye!"

        Inside the small device it's own program ran it's course. It
systematically used electrical impulses to destroy every neural pathway in
the entire House. A big job. No wonder it took more than three months to
finish. Next it re-orgainized all the all the brains into sort of a paralell
processing supercomputer. After that it located what had been Gabriaella's
brain it began downloading it's standard compliment of language, science, and
mathematics. That took less than an hour to imprint (direct copy mode).
        After preforming a system integrity check it shut itself off.


                C.21

            Oh Lonsome Me

        The robots didn't like what they were seeing on their displays but
they couldn't do a thing about it. The readings indicated that an appearently
random energy pattern was reorgainizing every neruron in the entire darn
thing. They preformed several diagnostics on the Neural Stimulation computer
but they all came back within spec. What woried them even more Gabriella,
the only direct means that they had of directly interacting with the people
inside appeared to be in a coma.
        Finally she came out of it. Only there was something very wrong with
her. (Other than the fact that she is as big as a mountain.)

        When Gabriella awoke she was recieving two contradictoary views of the
world. The first said she was expierancing a wild dream of fabulous buildings
and incredible sensations. The other was being a torso sticking outof the end
of a wormlike mass of fleash that lead back to an enormous mountain of fleash
with tubes sticking out everywhere. Gabriella wasn't aware of all of this
world all at once The only part of it she could see is the part of her that
she could see was the part from her waist up which was lying on a cusion in
a small, cozy room not much bigger than a worker's cubicle in a modern office
building. She soon realized that the only things that she could talk to were
the robots, and they weren't much fun. Exploring the much more colorfull
inside world she found a little stuffed animal (like a teddybear). She wanted
it. She got it. So there she was A being who could work out the meaning of
life (or something else of that nature) in an afternoon lay there sucking her
thumb and hugging her teddybear. She looked like a giant baby.

       ---------- Book 2 ------------

        The only rule I would impose on a writer is to avoid the use of the
words somehow, miraculously, and incredibly whenever possible.

        A brief discussion of this cybernetic species and reproduction: When
a cyborg is born or created it is a neuter unless there was something to
specify gender in the sperm with wich it was fertalized. It will continue like
that for a while untill it is a mature adult. Then it detects the presence of
other cyborgs. If it detects (using feramones) no females, or a number of
females fewer than the number of males, it will arbitrarily become female. If
there are fewer males than females then it will become male.
        If it becomes a female and there are no males around then it will
simply clone itself, the child will then become male and then incest will be
necessary untill the population becomes such that there are enough other males
to provide a choice. (harmfull mutations are prevented by special mechanisms
in the mother's cells.)
        When a mother borg becomes pregnant she first experiences a period of
hungry lethargy. She doubles her food intake and halves her activity level. She
puts on a fair ammount of weight. This helps the baby by not shaking it up too
much. When the baby is born hormones in the mother's brain make her violently
protective of her baby. She is so completely obsessed with the baby's wellfare
that she would do anything to stay near it and nurse it. During this period she
neglects herself and looses all the weight she had put on during the pregnancy.

                C.1

              Arrival

        To save energy the robot shut himself down for a measured length of
time, usually a decade or two. Despite these measures it was still nearing
the end of it's reserves. Only now is it finally approaching a star that
may have a planet, anything really. That he could land on and preform his
sworn duity; to press the little green button.
        Fast as the plane is going, relative to the size of the solar system
it is moving slower than the hour hand on a clock. Imagine The floor of your
bedroom was a map of the solarsystem, The sun and the inner planets (throgh
the astaroid belt) are the size of a phonograph album placed on the floor
in the center of your bedroom. Neptune's orbit is so distant that it would
carry the planet through the walls near the corners of the room once in
every fifty or so years. The first thing you would notice about this model
is that none of the planets appear to be moving. Trust me, They are. Very
slowly. Now this plane of ours is moving at a speed up and close to the
speed of light. In an hour it may move about a foot.
        Justin had tought the robots the basics of orbital mechanics, or
what he presumed would be enough to get it there. Immediately there was
a problem. The robot was coming in around the poles of the solar plane
(uh oh). He would have to reverse his engines to bring his speed down to
a level that he could use the gravity of the sun to swing him around back
onto the solar plane. The navigational aids aboard the plane were useless in
this situation. Fortunately he had brought a sextant to measure angles and
he had a fairly good notion of how massive the star was, The rest will have
to be guesswork.

        About a week later the robot was beginning the solar slingshot
maneauver. It was going according to his plan. The only trouble was that
the plane was collecting a massive amount of solar radiation. The shield
That Justin had installed for re-entry were only good for just that. The
robot preformed a roll maneuver. The only thing that changed was instead
of being cooked on one side it was like being roasted on a rotiserie. Yet
it would be enough to keep the plane functional.
        Six hours later the plane was slowly emerging from the turn, Only
one thing wrong, he had overcorrected. (he had gone to close to the sun!!)
His new course would take him up above the solar plane on the same side
he had entered. Each time he burned his engine he would have less power for
shields during re-entry. He should pass close enough, with a minor adjustment,
to the first planet to set him back on a streight course and add a slight
spiral to his heading so he would come into a steady orbit like a comet
instead of just falling back into the sun.
        That maneuver was more successfull than the previous one. Another
several days found it within shouting distance of what was almost a binary
planet. The robot fired the retroes again. The plane fell into an eliptical
orbit around the planet. After a week of waiting the plane's orbit dekayed
to the point where it began to feel the effects of the planet's atmosphere.
At first it was more like a caress. A soft breath on the ancient flight
surfaces. Slowly it began to pick up strength. Becoming a rush, a roar,
ripping, tearing at the exposed metal. The temperature guage began to climb.
one hundred, two hundred. The plane's atitude at this point was very shallow
and it simply began to climb back out to it's apogee. The streak of orange
left in the atmosphere by the plane seemed to be a message: Next time you're
mine. I'm gonna get you, Oh yes!
        The next orbit the temperature guage climbed all the way to three
fifty before the plane began to peel off back into space again.
        The third time around it reached all the way to six hundred. At this
point the robot actavated the shields for re-entry. The ancient airframe
groaned as it's weight was shifted from the surfaces to the shield generator.
        There wasn't enough energy left for the inertial dampeners. The forces
mounted. Then there was this horrible crack folowed by a shuddering that
shook the entire plane. The starboard engine and wing were being ripped from
the frame. There was another crack. Suddenly the engine tore free and
plumeted throgh the plasma surrounding the plane. The plane shuddered and
yawed untill it was nearly inverted, being dragged down by the dead weight
of the second and third engines. The scramjet was the next to go. It went
in only one pop, The plane returned to a neinty degree yaw. The forces only
increased. The robot was numb to the heavings and throwings Just so long
as he can complete his mission. Press the godamned button!
        Five minitues after the plane had lost the last of its engines its
flight surfaces gone, it was gliding at a gental two hundred miles
an hour on its shield. The controlls worked the shield as well as the flight
surfaces. After several minitues of controlled glide the fusion reactor
began to near its critical point. Then it happened. The plasma went cold.
It was still hot enough to fry the living begezes out of anything and
reactions were still taking place. The only problem was that they were
no-longer enough to maintain the shield while keeping the superconducting
containment field up. The shield was the one to take the hits.
        All the robot knew of this was that the controlls were beginning
to get slugish. He didn't know exactly what this meant, only that it couldn't
be good. The plane did continue to slow. The plane was almost there. It was
riding low and slow avove the foothills of a great mountain range. Suddenly
the shield's energy supply dropped below its own critical point and it
colapsed. The plane dropped uncontrollably onto the soft rolling grasses on
the hill below. It hit with a mighty thump!, slid a few yards and came to
rest.
        A minitue passed. The robot reached it's mechanical hand over and
jammed a mechanical finger at that little green thing. 'Take that you
motherfucker.' He felt relieved. Although nothing seemed to happen he had
held up his end of the bargain and that suited him just fine. A flash of
curiosity zipped through his circuits. What kind of place is this?
        He had to use all his robotic strength to pry the canopy off the
cocpit. After stumbeling down the side of the plane he found himself in a
pleasant meadow. The temprature registered well within the the human comfort
zone. The sky was partly cloudy. There was an ancient lookign forest nearby.
The robot stood there while his processors took in all the wonderfull cenery.
And then his power supply went dead. He fell forward with a heavy metalic
thump.


                C.2

              Start Up

        The button actavated the colonization probe. The compartment within
which it was mounted had four small pipes leading from it to outside the plane.
The probe melted and flowed through one of the pipes. Once outside it
resolidified into the metal cylender. After checking to see that the
atmosphere was friendly it decided to skip building a habitat dome. It then
began collecting the matter that was to become the first member of Alison's
species. The chicken did come before the egg!
        Within minitues a lump of metal melted off of the probe and began to
enlongate into the shape of a cocoon big enough for a humanoid. After another
several minitues the cocoon melted away to reveal a one of joe's
nondiferentiated bodies. That's right it had absolutely no trace of gender.
The space between it's legs was occupied with smooth unmarked skin. Anybody
who looked at it would wonder how it planned to use the john, if it even
needed to use the john.
        The colonization probe moved on to the next step in generating a
colony. This first being would be turned into a blob like Alison's belly but
without a body like Alison. The metal began to form again around the body.
        Suddenly system fault messages started to come in from all over the
system. The system monitor aborted the rest of the colonization program and
initiated the automated debugger. The bug was fixed almost immediately but
the damage had been done.

        Citizen 000 was awakened for the first time by a bird chirping in
the distance. It opened it's eyes and sat up. It's eyes were a beautifull
saphire blue. It was completely bald but if you were to feel it you would
notice fuzz that would soon grow into a crewcut. It looked around bewildered
by evrything including the fact that it did indeed exist. The day was in its
waning phase but still comfortably warm. It began to search its body wit its
hands to discover what type of body it had been dealt.
        After about an hour it cautously pulled itself to its feet. It was
suprised even by how the world seemed to move when it changed it's position.
It's brain was blessed by an incredible innate intelegence but absolutely no
symbolic language or any skill other than how to move it's limbs. It looked
around.
        Of all the milion and one facinating things in it's environment the
most curious was the crashed plane. The plane didn't fit. it walked towards
the plane and placed a hand on it. The plane was warm to the touch. The more
it looked at the plane the more it was facinated. What was left of it was
approximately the shape of a rocket. The back the burnt out impulse engine
and the front a point. With a bit more comfidence the first citizen walked
around the plane. It had a feeling that this strange object was that which
had somehow brought it onto this field. It's attention was so fixed on the
plane that it tripped on the fallen robot and fell to the ground. Fortunately
it had the reflex to brace itself with it's arms before it got hurt.
        What was this? it would have thought if it had words. While it's skin
was a flat white. This thing was a shiny silver. It kneeled down next to the
robot and took a look at it. Seeing it caused a strange feeling in the F.C.
The F.C. could feel the fact that this form had once been a being like itself
but now it is dead. It felt a wave of sadness washed through it's hours old
body. The immage of itself falling over face forward onto the ground and
becoming motionless flashed through it's mind. It didn't like that immage. It
suddenly stood streight as it resolved that it didn't want to fall over and
become motonless like that. There was too much to see Too much to do.


                C.3

             Shakedown

        Throughout the rest of the day and well into the night the First
Citizen ran all about trying to see as much of the world as it could before
it fell to the ground and become motionless. As the night progressed the
temperatures plunged. It became frightened. It began to shiver as the night
air saped the heat from it's naked body. A new sensation began to emerge.
It's body was begnning to loose the quick springiness that it had earlier.
It began to feel sluggish and it's mind was losing it's cohesion. It wanted
to lie down and go to sleep but it forced itself onward. It couldn't bear the
thought of puting oneself on the ground intenionally. As it jogged through
the woods it began to see a glowing ahead. It pushed on faster hoping the
glowing was the day, and when the day was reached again it would again bathe
in its warm energy and continue to live.
        The glow was emmitted by a fire. The F.C. was completely baffled by
the fire. It examined the fire with much interest. It tried to peer into
the heart of the burning wood and see what was at it's heart. Supprisingly it
succeded. It felt as if it was being pulled itno the center of the flame. For
an instant it had a complete understanding of the complex physics of
combustion and the emmsion of warming energy. It jurked back into it's head
terrified. It was about to retreat back into the safety of the cold when it
noticed another being lying on it's side with it's head lying on it's
folded arms. Unlike the robot the form appeared to be of the same stuff as the
F.C. itself. Curiosity once again drew it in to have a look at this strange
person. Unlike the robot this person was definitely alive. Maybe you didn't
die if you lay on your arms! The person was lying under a blanket of tanned
hides. The F.C. began to become curious about the exact nature of this
thing's existance. It cautiously allowed itself to be drawn into the man's
mind. The immages inside were bazar, convoluted, frightening to The F.C.'s
mind at least. The man was only dreaming about bedding down with a fair
skinned girl. The F.C. thought it was going to instinctively pop back into
it's own mind. Instead some buried instinct snapped forward like a mousetrap
and it's mind surged forward into battle with this stranger's mind to bring
back whatever booty it could cary. It colapsed to the ground and went to sleep.

        Johnathin slowly woke from what he was sure was the deepest sleep he
had slept in the longest time. When he noticed that the day was already well
underweigh and that his fire had burned down he snapped back to conciousness.
He would have to resce the embers so that he would have a fire in the evening.
Otherwise he wouldn't have fire untill he reached the next settlement. He
frantically searched the ashes with his caloused fingers. He relaxed a little
bit when he found warmth. He carefully put the ashes into the clay lined skull
that he kept for that pourpose. That done he felt better. He went ahead and
relieved himself into the ashes. He felt better still. He started to rummage
for his breakfast so that he could continue on his journey. He stopped before
he started.


                C.4

           Wake Up Little _________

        He nearly dropped his embers on his foot when he saw who or what had
slept the night in a fetal position next to him. It was bald and hairless
like a newborn child yet it was large and muscular like one of the lowlanders
who live in caves. It's face was delicate like a woman's cute like a child's
yet strong like a man's. Argh! From the way it was lying he couldn't tell for
sure that it didn't have anything between it's legs but if it had nothing
it wouldn't supprise him anymore than it's magical appearance.
        'Enough with this worthless speculation' he thought. He retrieved his
flint axe. "WAKE UP!" he hollared at it hoping that it would be so startled
that he would have the upper hand when questioning it.

        For the F.C's first night of sleep it sure was a good one. It didn't
have any dreams that it was concious of. It's brain just worked through the
mass of information it collected from Johnathin's head.
        When it was wakened it whirled around and barked at it's antagonist
in a voice almost and tones almost identical to his. "What the fuck are you
doing rousing a person from..." It broke off as it began to really analyze
it's situation. Something very strange was going on here.

        The quick retort was unexpected and unerving. But he still thought
he had the upper hand so he continued. "Speak your name!" (always a good
place to start)
        "Johnathin son of ...." The strange person broke off and a puzzled
look crossed it's strange features. "Are you Johnathin?"
        Johnathin would have prefered to meet a lion trying to pick apart
the chords on his pack than to have to face the challange of understanding
this puzzle. 'How could it think my name it's own?' he wondered. It was
pulling itself to its feet. It was indeed taller than he was by a good four
inches. Whatever advantage he had when it first awoke he had lost.
        The person who was trying to remember an identity other than
Johnathin couldn't. But it was sure it wasn't johnathin but only an ark of
his knowlege. How that came to be was beyond it's recolection as were the
events of it's first day except for the immage of a metalic man lying dead
in a grassy field. Of more immediate concern was how to deal with this
encounter. "Put that away. I don't know who or what I am but I am certain
that you will not benefit from trying to kill me."
        "Begone You!" Johanithin shouted. Not so much to be perminately rid
of but more to weigh the pros and cons of asking it to work for him.


                C.5

        I'll let you hold my ....

        The real question at issue here is why the hell did the gods send him
this whatchamacallit. Thinking about it in that light the answer became
obvious. It was sent to be his persional servant.
        Johnathin called the strange person back. "Okay here's the deal
I will let you travel with me as long as you carry your share of the stuff."
        It nodded it's agreement. It knew from the knowlege it stole the
previous night what food was but it didn't feel the slightest bit hungry.
Instead it felt satisfied as though it had reciently finished a reasonably
filling meal. "I'll need clothes."
        "At the next camp you should be able to work for some tanned hides
that you can make your clothes out of." he turned his attention to his supply
of smoked meat that he used for his breakfast. The whatchamacallit began to
pack his things in a manner identical to the ones that he was tought as a boy.
It looked strange as hell though.
        When the two of them were ready to get moving Johnathin told it to
cary the fire. It took the skull without question, knowing full well what was
at stake.
        When the F.C. looked into the skull it saw what from Johnathin's
memory was supposed to be dimly glowing embers. Instead it saw a briliant red
light eminating from the coals. It didn't know what to make of this so it
chalked it up to one more strange experiance in a bazar life.
        Johnathin led the way. According to the stolen knowlege Johnathin
intended to travel in this direction untill he saw the smoke of a settelment's
fire. He would go to this settelment. Preform the skilled work that was his
trade in exchange for the payment of sleeping with the daughters of the family
there.


                C.6

          Yabbadabbadoo!

        After about a week of good sleeps the F.C. less dissoriented but even
more confused than it was on that first day. It was beginning to grasp the
realitys of it's existance and to assimilate the knowlege that it had ripped
out of Johnathin's head. The centeral question remained: Why? Why did it
have four toes per foot instead of five? Why didn't it need to eat or shit?
(a universal fact of life if there ever was one) Yet it felt some instinct
inside itself that told it that these things weren't important, only what
is hapening is. It was showing the begings of what would be a shockingly red
head of hair.
        They arrived at a settelment. The place had the air of a small
village. Each 'family' lived in it's own hut. The vilage was placed on the
top of a hill so it would command a view of all the migratory herds of
animals. It was still many years before they would be forced back into caves
by the oncomming ice age.
        The people there were generous and the leather was provided and the
suit of clothes was made. With that done Johanithin and his new assistant
began their work. By the fire in the evenings the stranger was the star
attraction.
        They were very friendly. They didn't at all look at it as a freak
but more of a curiosity. It was actually more curious about them. Its stolen
knowlege was more a collection of holes patched with a primative mythology
but nothing that could hold water.

        The visit lasted almost two weeks. It was watching the flames dance
across the logs in the fire while Johnathin and Betty were hard at work in
one of the huts with the curtain drawn. The master of the village didn't fell
very good about not being able to repay it for it's good work. It wanted to be
a man.
        I, the author decide to come in here and put this would be guy
streight about a few things. "So why do you want to be a man?"
        "Why not?"
        "Dicks are disgusting!"
        "So, every other guy has one, doesn't seem to bother them."
        "If you had one you wouldn't like it, trust me."
        "Why?"
        "Let me enumerate. A dick is something that is practacly useless. It
could be one quarter the normal size and still do the job just fine. When
you use it, it hurts!"
        "It hurts?"
        "Yes, immagine every blood vessle in a certain part of your body
filling up with so much blood that it almost bursts open."
        "Ouch."
        "Damn right. Women use them for their own pleasure and to lead men
astray. You don't want to be used by a woman."
        "I could handle that, I just want to be normal."
        "Listen, the people who made you strong enough to pick up a heavy log
also made some improvements in that regon too. You just wouldn't look normal,
It would raise more questions than your current situation, and you wouldn't
be satisfied by anything except a woman of your same species."
        "What are you talking about?"
        "First they added an enzyme so your balls would work just fine right
underneath your kidneys where they start before you are born. (so you can't
freeze them off) Second, to prevent missfires a safty mechanism was added so
that it would only fire when inside a woman of yor species, anybody else
wouldn't do you any good. Take my advice, be thankfull that you are the way
you are."
        -<sigh>-

        Next morning Johnathin was not just glowing, he was radiating! The one
last favor he wanted was information. He needed to know in what direction was
the next settelment and more importantly wheather there were any lowlanders
nearby. He learned to his dismay that the lowlanders were quite numerous
in these parts. His best chance of avoiding them was to stay away from the
river valeys. The chieftain had a personal encounter with these strange people
himself.
        "The lowlanders are a mystery. They are big monsterous looking people
with crudely constructed faces. They always travel in groups. When a traveler
truspasses on their unmarked lands they will appear and encircle without
warning. They will just stare at you for a while as if trying to be your
judge. I ran into a group several years ago, my brother was killed just
because he spoke to them. But after a while they just go away. Just like that
Stay away from them, and never speak to them."

Note: I'm gonna call da F.C. Jerry from now on.


                C.7

          The Sound Of Silence

        Only three days out of the vilage the travelers ran into a group of
lowlanders. They were buisy gutting a wooly. Just when Johnathin thought he
had successfully evaded them. There they were, A group of twelve or so was
standing directly in their path. They stopped. The ones gutting the mamoth
were standing directly behind them. The travelers bent down and picked up
sticks to use as clubs.
        Jerry began to feel a very odd sensation as if somebody was
wresteling with his mind. When he tried to discover exactly what it was he
began to hear an angry voice in his head 'Speak! goddamn you pathetic
magots!' He realized that somehow the thoughts in their heads were somehow
being transmitted into his own. He looked around trying to figure out
from which one it came from. Soon he discovered that the voice was one, shared
by the many around him and more. There weren't many lowlanders, Just one with
many bodies. He cautiously tried to reach out with his own mind to see if he
could touch thieir's. Their faces turned from grim to joval A few of them let
out a relieved laugh. A mental hand reached out and grabbed hold of Jerry's
and he was engulfed. He felt tired and found he could barely stand. He lay
himself down and went to sleep.
        Johnathin had no idea what had just happened only that it freaked him
out. He ran. The lowlanders made no move to stop him.

        The next morning Jerry awoke. He discovered that the place where he
lay was surrounded by a ring of kneeling lowlanders. They had the aspect of
worshipers praying to an idol. Jerry could feel their thoughts rushing
through his head. If he had been on of their species he would be just another
body claimed by that strange mind, but his alien brain allowed him to retain
his individuality while being fully connected to the collective at the same
time.
        He learned much about these people that no human had ever known.
Such as that the only reason why they spared those that didn't talk was
because they thought that that individual was a member of some other
collective. They killed Any talkers they found.
        The collective IQ was trippled by Jerry's arival. Half of that was
accounted for by Jerry's own mind the other half was the effect of his mind
stimulating the others.


                C.8

        ...And It Snowed...

        Jerry had seen the passage of ten generations. Through his unmatched
seniority he had been promoted to the post of chief medicine dude or
something. Neither he nor anybody else could account for his incredible
longevity, nor did they care. He did his chores all was well. Untill the
weather turned colder and food started getting scarse that was. Cave life
wasn't that good nor was it that bad. Jerry was comfortable and had no
complaints.
        It must have been sometime in late December when the food in the one
of the highlander vilages ran out. With nothing left to do the chief of that
tribe ordered a desperate (suicide) attack on the cave of the lowlanders.
One morning they just appeared at the mouth of the lowlander's cave.

        The men of Chief Chuck's tribe were lined up in front of the
lowlander's cave. This cave was theirs, Oh yes!

        Jerry stepped forward to greet the visitors. "Welcome! I am pleased
you've decided to come off of those cold wind swept hills. I'll go fetch
some hot coca and we'll have a good old fassioned gettogeather."
        The Chief Chuck was confounded. The other lowlanders were shocked,
then enraged. They reacted by impaling Jerry on a spear. Jerry was made
of tough stuff, the spear didn't go far but Jerry was down for the count
anyway.
        He was awakened to find himself being dragged to the far corner
of the cave where the other male lowlanders were being butchered and their
meat smoked. He roused himself and stood. He still wasn't doing very well but
he knew how to fight. The highlanders were startled by his sudden reanimation
but they weren't unprepared. Anyhow Jerry killed one or two of them, and the
rest allowed him to escape.
        It was cold that night. Jerry had no idea where to go so he just
followed the north star. He didn't have any reason to live nor did he have
any reason to die. The threashold was all that there was between him and
death. He couldn't bring him to kill himself so he traveled to the north and
let the snow take him. He walked and walked. His bloodsoaked garments were
saping the heat out of him into the cold air. He keept moving. Around midnight
he fell to the ground exhosted. He began to shiver. The shivering became a
shuddering. And then it suddenly stopped and Jerry fell asleep. If he were
a normal person he would have been dead.
        When Jerry awoke he felt like he was in a dream. Everything seemed
so surrealistic. His clothes were frozen but he wasn't cold his hands were
numb but the fingers still clutched. 'I've been granted another day.' Jerry
thought. He picked himself up and started to walk. His clothes were so stiff
that they hampered his progress but he didn't take them off. His perception
of time was greatly impeded so that when he looked at the sun he could
easily percieve it's motion accross the sky. Wierd.
        Jerry continued his chace after the north star. At night he slept.
Each morning he seemed to be waking up later and later. Soon he feared that
he would sleep all the way arround the clock. The winter got worse yet
Jerry never bothered to build a fire. One morning when he was streatching
after waking up, his clothes just broke into pieces and fell off. Months
passed.
        Seasons had been fading for years now. Now further north they seemed
to dissappear entirely. All was winter. One morning Jerry awoke to find
himself burried under a foot of snow.
        Several weeks later he found himself in a desert of ice. The sun
nolonger rose and fell, istead it seemed to creep around Jerry in slow circles
Jerry could nolonger tell what time it was. He could hardly beleave that he
was in the same universe. All he had was his unerring sense of direction that
keept him pointing northwards. He walked and walked. The sun crossed his
path dozens of times. The dull monotony of ice was enough to make him want
to scream. He accelerated to a brisk walk. There must be a tree or a
mountain or a rock somewhere!
        The desert continued on endlessly. The day refused to end. The sun
sometimes flirted with the idea of dipping below the horision but it just
didn't happen. Soon enough it did. Above Polaris was nearing the zenith.
Around the horizon were the stars of the zodiac. He lay down to go to sleep.
The Ice was as hard and rough as sandpaper but it was warmer than the air
above.
        The spot where Jerry chose to sleep that night was the same spot under
which the Centeral Comptuer was eventually constructed.
        Twenty five thousand years later Jerry awoke. He felt like he was
being suffocated by a great weight. He found he was entoombed in what seemed
like a solid block of ice. He pulled with all his strength. He broke free. He
was still mostly encased in ice but his joints were free and he could moove.
He was startled by a new sensation, he was hungry. His life support device
was running out of energy. It would be able to recharge once exposed to an
energy soruce like the sun but it was night now and day wasn't for another
two months. Jery saw the problem from a slightly diferent perspective. He
thought he needed solid food so he took a rough bearing from where he was
sleeping and started out.


                C.9

          The Frosty Man

        Between the middle of nowhere and civilization lies Mongolia. To
the Chinese they are barbarians to be walled out. Beyond them is the vast
forests of siberia and all that permafrost. The people are like cowboys but
in a diferent part of the world. The steppe on which they live is not for
the farmer but a clan of heardsmen can make a decient living.
        So we have a bunch of these Mongolian dudes camped with all their
horses, and livestock penned up nearby. They are sitting aroudn a campfire
telling tall tales when they heard staggering footsteps approaching. What
was approaching was about the size of a man. He appeared to be encased in
a thick layer of ice. His arms were held stiffly out to each side. He didn't
seem to be able to bend his left knee. His head looked more like a collection
of iceicles than anything else. Only one half open eye and a hole where the
mouth should be. The Mongoles weren't scared because the guy was so messed up
that it wouldn't take any effort at all to drop him. Ever so slowly he
approached. The Mongoles stepped out of the way. He walked right past them.
He didn't seem to see anything other than the fire. When he achieved his
object he stopped and stood almost directly above the flames.
        The mongoles watched in facination as the ice began to melt off of the
strange figure. The flesh that was revealed didn't show the slightest sign
of frostbite. They were full of questions.

        The energy from the fire revived his strength. The gnawing hunger that
had been with him for weeks was waning. He knew that there were people around
him but his head was locked in the ice so he couln't look around. He didn't
know weather he could trust these people nor did it seem to matter very much.
        For nearly an hour the ice melted off of his body. He tried to speak
to the people around but his voice wouldn't come. A fit of shivering
overtook him. He fell forward into the fire. It felt good. He could feel the
energy surge through him. The heat soon became uncomfortable so he pulled
himself off. When he stepped away from the fire the air felt incredibly cold
and the surrealness was gone. He found he could speak.
        Yes he certainly did have a lot of explaining to do and he did it
as well he could. In the morning the mongoles lent him some clothes and tools
and sent him on his way.


                C.10

             The Virdict

        Jerry had been living in china for five years. In that time he went
from knowing completely nothing about chinese language and custom to being as
learned as any of the more learned scholars. The man who was assigned to
investigate the strange person came to this conclusion: The gods were most
foolish in creating such a being. It is completely uncontrollable. It's great
stature makes it difficult to assail. It can't be made to fear starvation
because it needs no food. It can't be tempted by desire because it is lacking
in that area. The most dangerous thing about it is not its powerful body but
it's briliant mind. It learned in five years what would take a normal man ten.
It is my duity to recomend the expediant ilimination of this person. But my
feelings lean towards charity. It is no way responsible for its position in
life and shouldn't be punshed therefor. I have found it to be kind and gentle
of spirit and deserving at the very worst exile to the lands beyond the
western frontier.
        The recomendation of the (place title of official here) was accepted
and acted uppon.


                C.11

              Persians

        Crossing the persian desert (present day Iran) is nothing to take
lightly. To jerry it was a walk in the park. More boring/frustrating than
anything else. At great length he came to a villag. He was happy to find
civilization beyond what he was told was an uncrossable desert frought with
brigands and various other genus of barbarians.
        The village was little more than a collection of small buildings.
The villagers were milling arround the main square discussing this strange
business that Jerry wasn't yet aware of. A man turned to jerry as if to ask
his oppinion of the situation. He just shruged. Several uniformed men arrived
on horseback and began speaking in a language that few of the vilagers appeared
to understand. The vilagers who were acting as translators turned to the rest
of the villagers and began speaking in the language of the village. Instantly
men began lining up in the center of the square. The man who was attempting
to communicate with Jerry pulled him with.
        The soldiers selected several men and Jerry from the line, gave a few
orders, and mushed them into motion. They were marched westwards untill
sundown where they were allowed to make a camp. Jerry spent the next several
days attempting to gain at least a vague notion of what the hell was going on.
He learned that he had been summarily drafted into service by the elete and
unbeatable army of the Great Ilustrious and Imperious Darius the Second
Emperor of the Mighty Persan empire for the purpose of crushing the puny and
insignificant army of the little tiny (insignificant) king of Macedonia and
his motly assortment of similarly drafted soldiers.
        The lands that they were passing through were rich and fertile.
(present day Iraq). They didn't call it the fertile cressant for nothing.


                C.12

               Muster

        The Camp of the Great Powerfull etc etc persian army Jerry was amazed.
Never had he dreamed that there could be so many thousands of people on the
entire world much less in one area under the command of one person. The
Great etc etc Darius the second he learned was using that elaboratly embelished
purple satin tent up on the hill. The other men were sleeping under whatever
could be provided for them. Armed with whatever could be made in short order
and trained with equel haste. That more than anything else drew Jerry's
attention. Why would such a large army seem to be so paniced in the face of
what was surely an inferior force. That was a mystery that would have to wait
untill Jerry had more words.
        Training began before the new recruits had time to recover from their
long march. The taining was very simple. The first phase was where they ran
you around untill you dropped from exhstion. This continued untill the day when
the recruits could keep up with the instructor. Then the running was deminished
only to the extent where it allowed other training. The second phase was very
simple too. It consisted of nothing more than pure obediance training. When
the Captain tilted his standard to the left they were all to march to the left
Etc etc etc... After two days of that the recruits were tought how to handle
a sword and spear. The techniques were most lacking in Jerry's oppinion but
he didn't know the enemy so he witheld judgement and just played along.
        Marching orders came again and they were off to defeat the
Macedonians.


                C.13

            The Macedonains

        On the eve of battle Jerry got his first look at the puny army of the
Macedonians. The poor fools were outnumbered ten to one! Jerry almost laughed.
This Darius must just trying to be cautious by bringing such a large force to
bear on such a small force.
        "Whatcha laughing at?" his commander asked.
        "This situation. It's rediculous. We've been building such a huge army
to face such a small foe. How could an army outnumbered ten to one expect
victory?"
        "Don't laugh. A few years ago they did just that." The veteran said.
        Jerry was so stunned by the response that he was standing alone when
he came to. These Macedonians must be ferocious indeed to acomplish such a
feat. This was a matter that deserved investigation. He left camp with a
spring in his step and a grin on his face. He almost got twenty yards before
he was stopped by the guards. The guard tried to hold him back with his sword
but Jerry simply knocked the man aside without paying him much notice. What
did catch Jerry's attention was that the Great Noble etc etc Emperor Darius
the Second would place guards for the purpose of keeping his own soldiers in.
If he was truly Great Powerfull, Etc etc Wouldn't that alone be enough to
cause people to follow him?

        As for descriptions of the G(r)eek soldiers Jerry had heard all types
Everthing from pathetic little snots to ten foot giants with spears thirty
feet long. The man who met Jerry's approach was healthy and proud. The man
drew his sword as Jerry approached. Even so he appeared completely unaffected
by Jerry's rock solid form. In an voice that demanded without being focefull
Jerry's complete obedience. Not to say that Jerry had the slighest notion as
to what exactly was asked.
        Jerry raised his arms to show that he meant no harm. The man in turn
sheathed his sword and jestured towards a campfire set off from the others.

        The People Around the fire were also wearing persian uniforms. Jerry
was acheing with questions that he knew couldn't be answered untill he could
learn this language of theirs.

        Over the next week the turncoats were initiated into the Army of the
Macedonia. The army was led by a man named Alexander who was simply the King
of Macedonia. This man also happened to be the Pharoh (God-King) of Egypt, and
was seeking to be the Emperor of Persia (After he killed the current emperor).
Jerry took it uppon himself to discover who or what this man really was. The
best way to do that was to just go up and talk to the man. The strategy had
worked just fine with everybody he had meet so far and it didn't let him down
this time eather.
        The man who answered to the name of Alexander and seemed to be the
king was only five foot seven. He wore a clean wool tunic with a dyed stripe
around the edges. His eyes revealed a vigorous man driven by churning emotions
guided by a keen intelect.
        That was it! It had to be! It was just the man's vivaciousness that
gave him the power to command milions. Jerry watched as he and his architects
planned one of the seventy citys that would be founded under his reign.
Alexander was literally reshaping the map of the world.

        Over the next few years Jerry became a loyal and trustworthy officer
in the Macedonian army. By and By (after the sacking of Babalon) Alexander
led them to the Caucus Mountains. Not knowing that the lands on the other side
would one day be held by the Chetchens (yeah those people).

        The Chetchans as they still do have this thing against foreign rule.
To put it quite simply their calvary massacred Alexander's infantry. Alexander
realized what he was up against and most wisely turned tail and ran. Jerry
didn't go with them because he was dead. Or that was what the macedonians
thought. Well anybody as horribly mutilated as Jerry was would WANT to be dead.
Horibly mutliated doesn't really describe it, butchered and beaten to a bloody
pulp would be more accurate.
        But not dead.


       ---------- Book 3 -----------

            The Sin of Healing

Did you know that you get hiccups when your vocal chords are dry and that
gurgleing is an effective remedy? (at least it works for me).

        In this book I will take poetic license with various historical events
and introduce some ideas that simply had no place there, a thousand pardons.


                C.1

        The Kind Little Old Lady

        The first thing jerry sensed other than it's own pain was the dim
cozy interior of the old woman's sod and stone hut. What was left of it's body
was tucked into a bed besides the fire. Jerry didnt' have the strength to do
more than watch. The little old woman seemed to be suffering from some sort
of degenerative illness. She fuddled about doing her chores muttering to
herself. Ocasionally she would come over and stare loveingly into Jerry's
mutilated face. Even though Jerry couldn't understand the words he got the
impression that the woman took him to be one of her own children. She was kind.
Her kindness seemed to fill the Jerry's wounds and he/it fell into a
comfortable sleep.
        With sleep came dreams. In one of those dreams Jerry was confronted by
an abstract world of impossibly streight lines and strange symbols. Jerry saw
itself in perfect detail both inside and out at the same time. It saw what
it was for the first time but didn't have the knowlege it needed to understand.
It discovered that the symbols responded when it turned it's eye in their
direction; they seemed to spring to life. He experementially tried to touch
one. Suddenly the immage of himself became female. He retreated in fear.

        When Jerry awoke next the hut had changed in ways that could only be
acomplished by the passage of several months. The searing pain that had been
it's scourge the last time it had awoke was now only a dull ache. The first
thing Jerry saw was the little old woman trying to feed the nearly skelitin-
ized remains of one of jerry's comrades.
        Still it was nearly a half an hour before Jerry could rouse herself
enough to try to turn her head much less get out of bed. The little old lady
returned and was overcome with joy in finding Jerry awake. She immediately
went to get Jerry some soup.
        The first thing that Jerry did despite great protest from the little
old lady was to take his comrades outside and burry them in the snow. Jerry
noticed and was quite disturbed by the fact that all the men had red hair.
Some of the soldiers looked like they had been there for a long time.
       Over the next few weeks Jerry's strength improved and she was soon
able to help out with the chores. Inevitably Jerry discovered that she
was turning into a woman. As you can immagine she was quite disturbed by this
but there was no herb to heal the wound between a woman's legs.
So what she did was ask to be called Jenifer. (Hi Jen!)
        Each day now Jenifer could feel the strength return to her muscles.
The winter was slowly yielding to to spring. Standing on the crest of one of
the huge grassy hills overlooking the Caucas mountans Jenifer knew it was time
to go. After placing her comrades in their final resting place she bade
farewell and was on her way.
        Carrying only a patched togetaher suit of armor, a blanket, (all the
swords being made of Iorn had rusted away) Jenifer went on her way.


                C.2

              Warfare

        War was in the air and all around. Even form a day and a half away
Jenifer could feel the rumble of thousands of footfalls reverberate throgh
the air the pillar of smoke rising from the Southeast told her two things
where the battle was and that if she didn't hurry she wouldn't make it in time
to do any fighting. This thought raised two very relevant questions Did she
still want to fight? and would they let her fight? that is if she still wanted
to. But that wouldn't matter much if they didn't let her...

        As evening fell she came across a farm the farmhouse had been razed but
there was a light in the stables. As Jenifer approached she could make out two
arguing voices. One belonged to a woman. The other belonged to an early
adolescant boy. It seemed that the boy wanted to go fight but the woman
wouldn't let him. The woman broke off when she noticed Jenifer staning in the
open mouth of the stable. She tried to stand to greet the visitor but colapsed
back onto the pile of hey she had been siting on. She was holding a bloody
rag to her stomach. "Welcome! Come to fight?" She greeted in the most cheerfull
voice she could muster.
        Jenifer smiled and answered "If they'll let me."
        "Sure Sure!, you only have to be a man or taller than the *man*" (King
Alexander). "I make it on the second requirement and this guy here doesn't make
eather."
        "I'm a man!" the kid protested.
        "Shut up Sam."
        "Hey, you're not my mother!"
        "But I'm your sister, I'm here to see that you don't get yourself
killed."
        The boy went back into his snit.
        "Brothers! Do you have a brother?"
        "No. Do you have a sword or something I could use?"
        "Just this crosbow which is mine and this bloody dagger."
        Jenifer wiped Jesica's blood off of the dagger and put it in her belt.
She started to pick up the crosbow figuring Jesica wouldn't be needing it
untill she recovered from her wounds. (unless that is)
        "Hey that's mine!" Jesica protested.
        "But you can't use that."
        "Sure I can, what are you talking about?" Jesica said and to
demonstrate she shot another bolt at the trunk of what had been a majestic tree
untill war had stripped it of most of its branches.
        "But you are wounded." Jenifer said pointing out the obvious.
        "This, Nah it's just a scratch." Jesica said denying the obvious. "I'm
just winded, I'll be ready to fight in a few hours."
        Jenifer wasn't about to deny that because in her experience even deep
wounds healed fairly quickly. Maybe it was the same for her two. Maybe. (not)
"Do you mind If I shack here for the night?"
        "Sure. But we only have enough food for ourselves."
        "No problem."
        The rest of the evening was filled with a lot of meaningless smalltalk
like 'How many people did we kill yesterday?' (the equivelent of 'how's the
weather?').

        While I wait for the charictors to wake up I'll bitch about digital
technology for a bit.
        Digital Technology is cheap. That's why it is so popular. It costs
only 50› to make a compact disc. <the c is for cheap, look at one of your cds
and you'll see. In fact off of a $17 C.D. the companys make a $15 proffit.

        Jesica woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. There was
a dull ache in her stomach. She knew she was sick but was a little to
embarased to ask Jenifer's help. The reality and gravity of her situation was
finally sinking in. This was no game. No second round. No extra man. She was
wounded in battle and if she doesn't act now she will die. She went over to
where Jenifer was sleeping but couldn't bring herself to waking her. Just as
she was about to go back to her pile of hey and endure in silence. Jenifer
woke up and saw the terror in Jesica's eyes.
        "I know some medicne, wait and I'll be back in a few minitues. Just
relax and try to be calm." Jenifer disappeared into the night.
        Jessica was pretty sure that she would be alright but calmness was well
beyond her grasp at the moment. What had made her think she could stand the
rigors of war?

        War: 1.armed conflict. 2. bloody hell.

        Twenty long minitues Jenifer returned carrying a clay bowl that she
had salvaged from the farmhouse. in it was a substance that looked suspiciously
like mud. Jenifer proceded to put it on Jesica's wound. At first it stung then
even though it had been warmed over a fire it chilled Jesica to the bone and
finally it made her so tired that jenifer had to carry her back to where she
had been sleeping.
        "Wait where's sam?" Jesica asked.
        "I'll go look for him."
        Sam had gone. His blanket was rolled up next to the place where he
was sleeping. Jenifer went outside to see what she could see. In the distance
she could see a figure running over a hill on his way towards the battle.
        Several minitues passed.
        Suddenly the victory horns rang out.
        Several minitues passed.
        The figure that had just ran over the hill came running back. Hot on
his heels was the defeated army running for its life from the Macedonians.
Their intent was obvious. Since they couldn't have victory they would have
this boy's instead. This was no small threat for the dwellers of this humble
shed eather And the boy was leading them streight to there too!
        Jesica was leaning against the doorframe. She couldn't see as well as
Jenifer and couldn't distinguish much in the dim light cast by the waining
quarter moon. By and by an exausted Sam approached the shed. Jesica started
twards him but jenifer held her back. Moments latter the retreating army
overtook the poor boy and with the furry of defeat peeled him like a bananna.
There is really no better way of describing how quickly and completely they
butchered the little dude. Jesica screamed. The soldiers (bloodthirsty canabals
at this point) turned towards the women.
        "We're um... sorry we won't get the chance to rape and murder you. We
hope you won't take offense to this It isn't because we think you are ugly
or anything but we just don't have the time because we are running for our
lives and stuff. Ta ta for now!"
        Jesica's eyes were a sea of hate. She wiggled herself free of Jenifer's
protective grip. She charged the insane soldiers with fists raised. They cut
her to the ground before she could land a single punch.


                C.3

       That bar in Alexandria

        It was rummored that the reason why the women serving beer at Pauli's
bar in Alexandria, Egypt got their big chests from the two steins that they
keept for themselves after serving the third to a patron.
        Marcus doubted that the bar's outstanding popularity owed singularly
to this rumor. More than likely the great diversity of faces among the
waitresses revealed the truth that the owner had imported the women from
throughout the new empire and then by carefull instruction created the rumor
which had supposedly made this bar so popular.
        Marcus, a native of Carthege (near modern Tunis), had come to find a
quiet place to study this girl he had picked up earlier in the day. Most bars
are dead quiet untill about six thirty, this one was a noon saturday place.
Marcus had forgotten that Egyptians had a thing against going out at night
(D‘mons and stuff) therefore they partied during the day. This woman really
was a study in femininity. This woman was incredible! Not for any particular
strength but for the fact that she had every trait and weakness ever associated
with a woman. Marcus wasn't really interested in having her because she looked
so fragile that she would break like those fragile greek pots (cringe) that he
had tried to deliver to spain. That was just the beginning. Her voice was soft
and feminine Marcus tried and failed to immagine it ever being raised in anger.
Her eyes were large, vacant, and in beg mode. More than that they promised to
cry profusely if he tried to leave. Marcus through a series of well developed
questions he was questioning her to determine wheather there was a shread of
logic in her. So far he had failed to detect any. He figured it was the fault
of his questions so he keept trying while stll trying to look mialdly
interested in her.
        Marcus soon discovered that the woman used some form of passive logic.
While her responses revealed the clumsy way in which her mind worked her brain
continued to process the information thusly her behavure and actions on a whole
were premeditated and well planned. What was more disturbing was the fact that
her hands showed no sign of strain when lifting a large beer stein. As the man
of great wistem said : "WOMEN!!!" (sigh)
        When her intuition informed her that she was taking an intelegence
test her responses became wilder as if trying to prove a capacity for abstract
thought but utterly disprooving it at the same time. Marcus realized that the
conversation was rapidly deteriorationg and decided to look for someone else
to discover.
        At first glance Marcus took Jenifer to be a man. Just looking at her
height and broad sholdiers. But as he looked a way his eyes were drawn back
to notice that instead of tapering to a narrow waist her figure rounded out
to a feminine waistline. All movement in the bar ground to a halt starting
with the Egyptians and spreading to the other patrons. The Egyptians quickly
got up and left through the other exit. The woman who had caused this comotion
didn't take any notice. She appearently was exhosted from her travels and far
more interested in a nice rest in the cool dim of the bar. The girl next to
him tried to re-start their conversation Marcus froze her midsentence with a
glare from his cool green eyes.
        Getting up he meandered his way over to The corner in which Jenifer
had taken up residence. Jenifer spoke first "What's with these Egyptians? They
keep running from me as one wold from a lepper!"
        Marcus laughed in a way precicely calculated to cool the situation.
"Its just that you bear a close resembelance to what they were taught the Devil
looked like."
        "Is that so?"
        "The preists around here seeing no red haired blue eyed people decided
to make the devil a red haired blue eyed man. You just happened to bear a close
resembelance to him."
        "How reasuring."
        "Mind if I join you."
        "Go ahead."
        "So what brings you to this dingy little bar?"
        "It's not as hot as outside."
        "I meant Why are you wearing that leather armor. You look like a
soldier freash off the field."
        "I am. I've been trying to keep this empire from falling apart. Havent
had much luck."

        Marcus studdyed the rugged woman for a while. She was wearing an old
fasioned leather armor and save for her smoothe but dirty skin and figure she
would have passed quite nicely for a galadeator or something. Damn she was big
(3 inches taller than Marcus).
        Jenifer was much too tiered to think properly the only thing she felt
capable of doing was sitting and drinking in the cool of the bar. She was in
a wandering phase at the moment. It seemed as if her entire life was made of
settled phases and wandering phases. She felt ready for a settled phase now.

        "So would you be interested in coming back to Carthege with me and
being my wife."
        "Sure."
        Marcus was just as taken back by the answer as he had hoped she would
be by the question.


                C.4

          Life with children.

        Jenifer did get maried and moved to Carthege with Marcus. After a
ten month pregnancy she gave birth to a daughter. She called the child Isabel.
Isabel Looked far more like her mother but had her father's eyes and hair. Her
face was a bit cuter than her mothers but promised to be a near match to her
mothers. Her bellybutton dissapeared by her third week and she never had more
than eight toes.
        Isabel was far better at learning than growing. She studyed almost
everything she could get her hands on. By her eightenth birthday she was as
smart as eather of her parents but only looked to be only twelve years old.
        When she turned twenty she started reading people's minds. Her mother
found that she could read her's back but Isabel definitely had the advantage.
Soon after that she found she could "feel" what was going on in diferent rooms.
Her father was quite impressed with her daughter's talents and used her to
help him bargain the best prices and to watch the seas for storms and warn his
captains when their ships were in danger. Buisiness boomed! There was always a
tension between her and her mother.
        Jenifer woried constantly that her daughter was getting too stuck up
and snobish because of her wealthy family and her formidable talents.
        Isabel couldn't believe how simple minded her mother was. She keept
trying to get her to conform and treat everybody with respect. Why?!! All the
worms do is wander around eating and shitting! They may be nice in bed (on
occasion) but not much else. Her only appearent aspirition in life was to
become one of the Preistesses of Astrite (one of those old love goddesses) so
she could do all the rich and goodlooking boys.
        Jenifer would not stand for this atitude. With her husband's leave she
took her daughter up into the Atlas moutnains to try to streighten some things
out while she was still stronger than her daughter.
        During the pair's first night up on the mountain Jenifer couldn't
shake thee feeling that she'd better kill her own daughter, smash her head open
with a rock while she slept, while she still could. Her work was cut out for
her.
        The mountain was having an effect on Isabel but not the one that
Jenifer had hoped for. The mountains seemed to instill her with an amazing
calm. The type of calm that always allowed her to focus her powers with much
greater effect. As she usually did she followed her mind to see what it would
show her. Tonight it took her into her mother's past...


                C.5

          Cosmic Traveler

        Normally in these trances Isabel is in a semi sleep state but
something woke her up. It was a loud screaming boom. She looked and saw
something falling from the sky. It was being ripped apart by the Earth's
atmosphere...  She saw it eject a metal cylendar out onto the ground... She saw
her mother take form from the soils surounding the wreckage. She caused time
to reverse and watched as the wreck being sucked back into the sky. Watched
it pull itself back togeather. Watched it streak away from the planet at
break neck speeds. Watched it return to the deserted world from where it came.
She saw the mechanical man get out and walk back to the strange building where
it had been instructed. She reversed time once again to discover this man's
fate. She saw how the mechanical men came to take him away. She watched them
take him to the tiny room.
        She decided that she must know what this man knew and she had nothing
against raping his brain to get it. So that's what she did...


                C.6

              Betrayal

        Just as one's evil desire can be used to point to the good one's
conceince can be used to point to the evil.

        Jenifer wnet to wake Isabel up. It was already well past dawn and it
was time to begin. Isabel rolled over, Jenifer was shocked by the fire of
malace that lit her daughter's snake green eyes, she tried to step back but
her body refused to react. She could still feel her clothing and everything but
she couldn't even blink to save her life. Then for no appearant reason her
muscles moved her back a pace and a half and stoped. Isabel stood up, a false
grin on her face "I will not be kneeling to your whim anymore bitch!"
        Jenifer could sense under her daughter's confident exterior the war
she was waging against her own conceince.
                                   ^ I'm 18 and a half years old and this is
the first time I've ever actually employed the I before E rule.

        For the next several days Isabel led Jenifer around the mountain like
a dog. One day she would make Jenifer sprint down the trails at a frightening
pace without sandles untill her feet were all cut up and she was so exhosted
that she was about to colapse. The next day she made Jenifer climb a sheer
cliff. Even when Jenifer was locked in mortal terror Isabel would force her
body to continue the ascent, looking down every so often, wihtout pause or
rest. When she finally reached the top Isabel made her walk over the edge.
Just for laughs.

        Jenifer awoke to the sound of her husband's voice. He was trying to
comfort his comotose wife. Saying how much he loved her and how much he wanted
to her to get better. For a fiew minitues Jenifer almost believed things would
get better. Then Marcus went on to describe how heroic his daughter was by
defending her injured mother from a brigade of brigands and returning her to
Carthege, and most horifying of all that he was going to make her sole heir to
his assets and fortunes. Jenifer wanted to scream out against this outrage but
she couldn't even twitch the smallest of her muscles. Marcus finished and left.
        Isabel entered. She could barely maintain her somber appearance utill
he left the room. She opened Jenifers eyes so she could see the evil grin on
Isabel's face. "How are you enjoying your inferior self? You know that this is
just the beginning don't you. I'm going to have so much fun.." 'you don't know
what fun is.' Jenifer thought in response. "First I'm going to make your
husband despise you.. Then I'm going to make you kill him. he he." Isabel was
quite giddy in anticipation.

        I, the author, could torture you by describing in horrible detail how
this was acomplished but I've decided to spare you. So I'll skip to after
Marcus's untimely death...

        Marcus's estate was turned into Isabel's pleasure palace. She and her
Bikini clad girls would entertain guests at diner and well into the night.
Jenifer ceased to be Jenifer the pure and became Jenifer the Whore.

        All bad things come to an end too.


                C.7

        Hanabal the Canabal

        Nobody ever thought that General Hanabal could ever be defeated. For
months he had waged a brilant campaign against the Romans. But that was before
the romans fought back. As history has recorded third of the Punic wars ended
with Rome as the victor and Carthege in ruins. Perhaps it was because he used
Elephants Which the Romans were able to counter using methods developed by
Alexander. Perhaps it was because he didn't move on Rome soon enough. Or bcause
he wasn't ready for the counteratack on Carthegan soil.
        Carthege was burned. The piles of stones left over were kicked over.
Every fertile patch of land within twenty miles was salted. The inhabitants
were eather killed or raped and then killed. That was the real problem with
Rome It saw human beings as a renewable resource and squandered them without
remorse. It was this practice more than anything else that led to Rome's
downfall. Anyway since our main charictors didn't have the misfortune of being
human Isabel was able to use her 'influence' to get herself and her 'daughter'
passage back to Rome on one of their Galleys. Isabel quickly fell into an
intimate relationship with the captain. She talked him into a trade. Her
daughter into servatude on the ship for his hand in marage. He didn't refuse.


                C.8

              Slavery

        Jenifer's battered, smashed, abused, and tortured mind was slow coming
back on-line after being put back in the driver's seat of her body. Isabel's
slaping her across the face. She jumped up and made a lunge at Isabel. Isabel
mearly stepped back. Jenifer was secruely shackled to the deck and couldn't do
any dammage. "Oh I almost forgot." Isabel said. Jenifer was once again
paralized. Isabel reached down to where Jenifer's bellybutton should have been.
The area turned the colour of mercury, then flowed into Isabel's hand and
dissapeared revealing a fairly normal bellybutton. Jenifer found herself free
again and immediately, with teeth that had never seen use, bit a chunk of
fleash out of Isabel's arm. It tasted of blood. The Leutenant quickly came over
and gave Jenifer a good whiping while Isabel retreated to the captain's
quarters to bandage her wound.
        Just because they didn't like her at all they made her row two shifts.
When they finally let her go to the hold she found she really really had to
use the pot. (there's a first time for everything.) You never really realized
how much experience is requried for such a simple task. She was quite alquard
to say the least. You may be thinking that the other rowers might try to rape
her. Fortunately they were all too hungry and tired for it even to enter their
heads. Each was in his own private hell. Heck it barely registered that there
was a woman in their midst. She was hungry. Even after the meager meal she was
still hungry. So she was a normal person now she concluded.
        The next morning she felt sick, she felt sicker than she had ever felt
in all her life. The pathetic breakfast didn't help worth a damn. Instead it
made the illness worse. She could barely row. She was almost certain that the
officer's whip paid her specail attention. That afternoon Isabel and the
captain decided to have some special entertainment. (Jenifer and one of the
guards on the lower deck while they watched.) The Captain was woried about her
health. Isabel reassured him that she would be dead within a week. (wasn't
getting some vital neutrients redaly available on the planet where she was
designed.) The next day she could barely move to get her bread. That afternoon
a 115ø feever overtook her and she slipped into a coma. She awoke the next
morning feeling amazingly better. Hungry but healed. She knew that if she
appeared to be any better there would be no telling what they would do to her
next.
        Fortune, for the first time in a while, smiled on her and she was
spared. The ship arrived at Rome and recieved a new captain and even more
importantly a new concubine. This woman tried to maintain as stern a
countainance as she oculd muster when moving form the captain's quarters to
the upper deck. But Jenifer could tell that she took pitty on her. Being a
slave was tough but it was better than what she had been getting.


                C.10

             The Undead

        After the Victory (parade) in Rome Isabel and her man went on a
vacation north into Galia (france). Because of the captain's wealth they were
accompanined by a troup of paid and enslaved. One day, without appearent cause
or explaination Isabel ordered the troup to stop. She got out of her caravan,
opened up one of her trunks and started handing shovels and digging equipment
to her bewildered escort. She then instructed them to start digging into the
hillside. Her husband (for all extents and pourposes) came over. "Why are we
stopped?"
        "I need to dig something up." she explained.
        He turned to the unimpresive hillside, Looked at it, and then back at
Isabel. "What?"
        "You say you wanted power, wealth, and fame right? Well I'm going to
give it to you." (cough cough)
        He was no expert in mining and wouldn't know where to look for gold
but he was pretty sure this wasn't one of them. Maybe she knew of some
pirate or bandit or something who had made his cache here. Asside from the
present digging the hill looked as if it hadn't felt a human footfall in ages.
        Amazingly in less than an hour the shovels began striking something
other than a rock. Nobody could figure out what it was but it was made out of
some strange metal that was as black and as hard as Iron but not nearly as
heavy. It to have at one time composed some sort of obolisk or monolith but
time, glaciation, and other natural processes had twisted it beyond
recognition.
        "Is this the treasure you wanted to claim?" The patrician asked a bit
disgusted.
        "Just wait." Isabel directed the diggers to concentrate their efforts
in a certain location.
        After another fifteen minitues. metal was struck again. Isabel ordered
the diggers to put away thier shovels and resume their former duitys. She went
tin and with her own dagger completed the task of freeing her prise from the
dirt. It was nothing more than a freaking Silver Cylender. Hopefully it was
pure so it would be worth melting down into jewlery or something. Isabel
Wouldn't let it out of her sight. He was a bit disturbed by her fettish over
this stupid piece of metal but was at the same time disturbed by the fact that
she knew exactly where to go to dig it up.

        Let me tell you one of Isabel's little secrets: You know how she looks
like she's entering her holding pattern at thirty nine? (Women claim to stop
aging when they reach fourty) Well, confidentially, she's fifty eight.

        As I have told you in previous volumes this alien species needs to
regenerate every thirty years after they first mature.
        Since Isabel was expecting this she was ready. She thought her Roman
patriarch would simply take it for an illness and be all the happier that she
lived through it. She was wrong. When she woke up she found herself in a
funeral shroud and in a dark place. There was an incredible preasure on her
body from all around. Felling around with her ESP she discovered she had been
burried under a ton of dirt and could barely move. She was only glad that she
hadn't undergone the Egyptian burial procedures.

        The mournign family of Micus Lecus (actually marcus Licus), prominant
roman buisnessman, was gathered around a nearby patch in the cemetary. Some
of the young children who obviously didn't realize what a tragedy had just
taken palce were merily prancing around the cemetary looking for something
to do. Suddenly they ran back to their parents in terror. The mourners didn't
know what the commotion was about so they sent Cathrine to check it out.
What had roused the children was that there was a growing pile of displaced
dirt above one of the recient graves. As the horrified children and adult
watched a hand slowly forced its way up though the dirt. It quickly started
pushing dirt away from where it came up. Soon all the moruners came over to see
what the growing comotion was about. In moments a mud caked head came up and
took a gasping breath. All the spectators screamed and ran.

        Isabel laughed at the fleeing mourners. All she wanted to do was get
back at the persons who had burried her. She jumped back into her grave,
retrieved her preacious metal cylender and went on her way.

        The noble patrician, the reciently victorious captain, came staggering
in laughing with the girls that he had on each arm. He stopped dead in his
tracks. His grin faded. The girls who he was escorting and were escorting him
moved behind him as if for their own protection. Isabel stood in the center
of the room. She was still filthy. She held a silver dagger in her right hand.
She stepped forward to within arms reach of the Patrician who was still trying
to decide what would be the most appropraite course of action.
        He started with an apology and ended in a scream and finally silence.
Then it was time for the girls to scream. Isabel let them escape. 'Pathetic'
Isabel thought.

        The scream was heard in all the rooms around the chamber. The alarm
was sounded. Guards flooded into the chamber from all directons, not just the
main doors like Isabel had expected. In her fit of bloodlust she had
underestimated the estate's security staff. At first the gurads halted at and
blocket the doors. It only took thirty seconds for the captain of the guard
to accurately decipher the scene. Dead master lying on the ground, once dead
mistress standing in the center of the room, blood dripping from her dagger.
"KILL HER!!!" A guard stepped forward and with an expert skill disarmed the
woman by chopping off her hand, slashing her throat to kill her and a stab in
the heart to finish her off. The guard stepped back to allow the Captian of
the guard to inspect his work. Well they weren't about to stop the party
just on account of the trivial death of the host. They decided to close off
the room and take care of the mess and the paperwork in the morning.
        When they opened the room in the morning it was as it had been.
Isabel's body had appearantly fallen onto its back, It had been resting on its
side. Her green eyes stared at the celing. The mortician who was going to
prepare the body for its second burial got down on one knee next to the body
as an assistant layed out a streacher. The doctor reached forward to close the
body's eyes. As his hand touched the woman's forehead the body's good hand
reached up and poked the mortician's eyes out. It then jumped to its feet and
made a run for the door. One of the guards with quick reflexes threw a dagger
at the fleeing murderer. It struck her squarely in the back. she slowed down
slightly as she was trying to use her left arm to pull it out. Two more guards
chaced after her wiht a net to trap her.
        Let me tell you another little thing about Rome. When Rome says you
are dead you'd better practice being real still. Can they teach this basic
principal to Isabel? Just watch them.
        The first thing they did to the recaptured Isabel was to take her to
the dungeon and locked her in chains. Seeing that they would need to call in
an expert for this one they hired an auger. The auger closely examined the
woman and was most shocked by the fact that she was growing a new hand. He
said "A being such as this could only be of supernatural origin. We must
place a curse on it that it can never break free of. Take its head and secure
it by fastening chains through its cartelege. Take the body, stuff the most
potent poisions down its neck and then seal it in a vault. Inscribe it with a
warning that it must remain untouched for the next ten thousand yars."


                C.11

               Freedom

        For the first few weeks after Isabel left Jenifer was doing fairly
well. For a galley slave that is. She knew that she wasn't getting enough food
for the ammount of work she was forced to do. This became quite plain as her
fat reserves melted away revealing the incredable muscles beneath. She only
realized how severe this was when she saw what she thought was a chain of beads
of sweat running down her arm. When she looked closer she discovered it was
one of her own arterys carrying little packets of blood to her muscles. She
still felt okay though.
        Half way through her second week her muscles began to ache. It was all
too plain that this was a direct result of her meager diet. She knew what she
would do! She would steal some food from one of the goners! No that would be
horrible. She felt even sicker from guilt now on top of hunger.
        Soon the ship was ordered once again into battle. The slaves were
chained to their positions.

        Two hours later the ship that Jenifer was chained to was aflame and
sinking. The Romans had fled. The poor slaves were left to die. One man seemed
to break free and crawled over to unfasten the iorn bars locking the hatch
that trapped the rest of the slaves in the hold. When the man turned around
Jenifer saw with horror how he had escaped He had ripped off his own foot.
Jenifer was well aware of how humans healed and knew what this meant for the
poor man. She looked down at her own chafed ancle. Would she have the strength
to rip it off? would it re-grow like before. A burning timber fell infront of
her killing the men in the row in front of her. She gave it a try. She pulled
with all her strength. It hurt horribly but accomplished little. She kept
pulling the shackle tore her skin open she could see her ligaments streatched
to the breaking poing. Blood streamed out of the wound then stopped. The lower
deck was almost completely flooded. It was only a matter of time befroe the
ship would go down completely. She twisted. The ligaments and their backups
gave away. she pulled on the tendons. A most unusual sensation filled her leg
as she was streaching both her flexors and extensors at once. With one last
jerk she tore her leg free of the shackle and her rather unusual foot.
        She hobbled to the ladder and up onto the burning deck. She jumped.
The seawater brought a new wave of pain to her stump. Instinctively she began
treading with both legs. She had to force her injured leg to remain motionless
as not to agrivate the wound. A furled sail floated only a short distance away.
She swam to it and pulled herself up onto it and cought her breath. She
wondered wheather she would be rescued. She wondered why the sail was still
furled while she and the rest of the slaves had to work so hard pulling the
water around the ship. Perhaps without sails, no slaves, the ship would be
light enough to be pulled by sail alone. But where would you find a tree big
big enough to support a sail big enough to pull a ship without rowers? She
pictured a ship in her mind with rowers, then looked at it from the outside in
then saw that when the slaves and the oars were removed its waterline was only
slightly effected. What if the timbers were made thiner? would it still be
seaworthy? She tested diferent timbers to see which ones could be removed and
where they should be added. She fell asleep dreaming of ships and rowers and
sails and timbers and WATER. Hell if there was no WATER than ships would be
pointless...

        Rowing. 'Who would be rowing out in the middle of a desert!' she
though absurdly. The sound was hypnotic. Creak. 'Timbers, now if they were
put togeather in triangles instead of squares they wouldn't do that...'
        A voice spoke. "This one may be interesting, Bring her aboard, alive
if possible." A rope hit the water. A man hit the water. Jenifer turned her
head. Before she blacked out she saw a man swiming towards her with a rope.


                C.12

           Homeward Bound

        Jenifer woke up to find herself in the care of her late captian's wife.
She was wearing a spare uniform that had appearently been designed for a man
because it while loose elsewhere was snug around her hips. With the much better
diet now available to her she would probably be needing something more
generous soon. Her leg had been bandaged. She adjusted it a little because it
was already getting tight as she grew a new foot. The captain of this ship
was a middle aged patrician. He was unusually fit and trim for a patrician of
his age.
        "So how did a girl like you come to be a galley slave?"
        Jenifer knew that the question was honest and benign but she couldn't
bear the thought of digging into that memory. Like her foot it was something
better cast off and grown again. She said "When your legions sacked my citty
(thrice now) They took every person with a strong back into slavery." She sat
up and streightened her posture. Concidering what she had been through she felt
supprisingly good. If it weren't for her foot she would be up and about seeing
about designing new ships.
        "I see." The captain said. Although he couldn't think of any better
explaination he just couldn't shake the feeling that she was lying. "Welcome
aboard, My ship is your ship untill we reach port."
        "Thankyou sir."
        The ease with witch she responded gave him the suspicion that she may
have served in an army at one time. Could that be possible?

        When Jenifer left the boat she wore two shoes. She said that the second
was filled with cloth. That had been partaially true when she started wearing
it but wasn't true at all anymore. After she was out of sight of the ship she
took the limp out of her step and started looking for a shipyard.
        At the shipyard she met a man who was quite probably the most conceted
man she had ever met. He, of course, was the world's greatest shipbuilder
extrodenair. The instant she showed the slightest interest in shipbuilding he
took her on a whirlwind tour of the shipyards. He never stopped talking for a
half a second. He was continuously pointing out the various features that made
the Roman galley the finest ship, bar none, in the entire world. If he deigned
to listen to Jenifer he would have learned from her experience about the
marvels of Chinese and Egyptian design some of which are still in use now in
the waining years of the second milenium.

        Jenifer was sick of Romans and Civilization she just wanted some peace
and stability in her life. She traveled to the northern fronteer of the Roman
empire and made her home. Only occasionally traveling to the City of Lucitia
(the first city to have streetlights and a nightlife, later called Paris) for
news and trade.

        Brief history lesson: Sometime in the 200's The roman empire split into
the east and west. West was governed by rome and the West was governed by
present day Istanbul (wich we all know "was once constantinople") Rome fell
to the barbarians in 432 and Constantinople withstood the Turks untill 1200
        Our story continues in the year 853.



                C.13

     "Save The Life Of My Child" Cried the Desperate Mother
                                       -Simon and Garfunkel

        Cristianity was spreading with the plague. Or that was how it seemed to
Jenifer. The plague brought illness. The Church brought forgiveness. The core
of Cristian belief was that if you do what Christ says now he'll return the
favor when you die and send you to paradise. A nice belief system, If you
planned on dying that was. Since Jenifer already had immortality or so it
seemed, she had no use for the Cristian brand of immortality.
        Jenifer was doing just fine. She had found that through a combination
of a healthy diet and cleanly living she could almost achieve the same level
of health she had enjoyed before. To achieve a good diet she grew vegies in her
garden and when she had the taste she hunted a little venicen. Clenliness
wasn't such an easy matter. Nobody bathed, Not even in that funky holy water
those preists keept peadling. According to the Bible water was water, it was
the sacrement that counted. The church never bothered to translate that
passage when reading to the public. It was also widely believed that only
witches could float. Yes fresh water was harder to float upon than salt water
but still not at all difficult no matter who or what you are! (provided you are
still fleash and bone.) For that reason she could only bathe in remote streams
when she was absolutely certain that nobody was watching.
        She didn't leave her fram much. All around lords and "nobles" were
fighting over little patches of land that really weren't worth the blood that
was being shead over them. After the colapse of the clasical civilizations
disease ran rampant through the populace. She spent much of her time curing
people and teaching them her techniques for avoiding them. (cleanliness, good
diet..)
        There's another story behind her involvement in medicine. Although
she always had an interest in medicine she had barely used it until her son
fell to cholera. But that was more than sixty years ago so I won't bore you
with the details. (smirk)

        Norman had a farm. He was a pesant. He didn't really own the farm.
The farm was owned by the church. God bless the church! All he had to do was
attend mass regularly Pay a small offering to his holiness and he had a farm.
        Norman had had six chile now he had only two. Illness was his family's
curse. It was every family's curse. It fellt to Norman that it was his alone.
Each time one of his chile cought ill he would send for the good frair to send
prayrs to the good lard. Far too much more often than not he would be sending
the chile instead. And Now the disease has got his hand's on poor Franklin!
Only too soon will it take him too. Norman stepped outside into the light but
couldn't see it. All was gloom to him on this warm and sunny day. The rays
only chilled him further. His wife, Marry sat down beside him. They didn't
look at each other instead they seemed to find a mutual interest in a lonely
rock sitting on the ground outside their house. Taking charge of the situation
Norman stood and said "I'll go... I'll go and fetch the Frair." Marry looked
at him in dispair. Norman looked up at the dim orb of the day for what little
inspiration it could give him. A memory stirred itself from within his head.
When Grandpa had coughten ill many years ago he was cured by a woman who lived
in a town some miles off. Too far! No, not so far. "We'll take him to the
medicine woman who lives to the west of here."
        "But that was so long ago!" Marry protested.
        "I think she had a son. Perhaps he could help."
        "But the people said she was a witch!"
        This time Norman locked his wife with an I've made up my mind stare.
        "I'll take him if that's your decision, we cant' afford to be late
with the harvest."

        Franklin felt like a dead weight on Marry's back. Her sole motivation
was his soft breathing in her ear. She talked to him some. He just hung on
to her back existing within his own pain.
        She approached the house that she was directed to by one of the
vilagers. The house had a worn feeling about it. It appeared ancient yet clean
and in reasonable condition. A woman with shockingly red hair was tending the
plants in the small field enclosed by a weathered stone fence.
        "Hello?" Marry hailed.
        The woman working in the field stopped and came over to where Marry
was standing. She was large and bony. Her amazingly blue eyes looked out from
a clean and worn face. "Yes, What can I do for you?"
        "I'm looking for the son of a doctor who used to live here. Can you
help me?"
        "My son died years ago, No."
        Marry was about to thank the woman and leave when her brain inverted
that last statement. "Can you help my son?"
        "No, I'm sorry, but I can't"
        "But why?" Marry asked, completely shocked.
        The Medicine Woman's eyes migrated over to the vilage steple. "The
church"
        Marry didn't know what quarel the church had with this woman or vice
versa but she wasn't about to let something petty interfere with her son's
health. "But please He's dying!" Marry pleaded.
        Jenifer stepped forward looked into the child's eye and then at the
ground. Agonizing momemnts passed. "take him inside. I'll... I'll be in
shortly."


                C.14

        This is what she Said:
           Ooh eee
           Ooh aah aah
           Bing bang
           walla walla
           Bing bang
           Ooh eee
           Ooh aah aah
        And then She shrunk my head!
                               -the chipmunks?


                 Game On!


        The house had a cool musty feeling about it. Marry looked around
for a cot to lay Franklin on. Next to the fireplace there was a cot. After
tucking him in Mary looked around. There was a washbasin but no waterskin.
just a stick jammed through another stick. Experamentaly she pulled the second
stick out of the first. Water flowed and squirted out everywhere.
        "You're supposed to turn it." Jenifer's voice came in from across the
worn threashold.
        Marry put the stick back in and gave it a twist instead. A gentle
stream of cool clean water flowed.
        "Burn! I say." Jenifer said as she pulled a rope on the celing. A burst
of air heated the embers of last night's fire enough so they ignited the
kindiling set blow tonight's logs.
        Franklin started to laugh but ended up coughing. After seeing that
the fire was properly lit Jenifer turned to her patient. After examining the
child Jenifer went to get some medicine. Jenifer walked around the fireplace
to the niche where the wood was stored. After the wood was removed all that
showed were the unusually streight lines of the stone. Mary watched as Jenifer
used one of the pokers from the fireplace to pry loose the large stone from
the bottom of the niche. The stone was about a yard to a side and five inches
thick. With some strain Jenifer removed it. Instead of a cache of medicines
as Marry had expected a deep hole was revealed.
        With candle in hand Jenifer climbed down into the hole. Mary started
to follow but Jenifer stopped her. After a pause Jenifer confessed "Well
you've probably already cost me my life so I guess there'll be no harm in
letting you see what I have down here. Come on."
        Marry followed Jenifer down the hole. she was a bit nervous at being
so cramped in the confined tiny space. Jenifer lead her down an ancient flight
of steps into a more open cavern. The tiny candle did little to relieve the
incredible darkness. "After I built this room the roof started to leak So I had
to seal it with pitch." (that's why it's pitch black in here) Jenifer lit a
several larger candles which did a better job lighting the room. Mary then
saw that Jenifer had embedded flecks of silver and gold in the celing so in
combination with the cool atmosphere one felt like one was outside in the
night. In the center of this room was a large table. On the table were two
books. One was ancient and the other had been bound less than a year ago. The
ancient one had a faded but incredibly detailed immage of the anatomy of a
flower that Mary had never seen. The new book had the identical immage copied
perfectly from the older volume. What was so disturbing about this is that
the copies were identical. The fact that they were of such vastly varying ages
made it even more disturbing. Ten yars ago the hous of the lard had burned.
After it was rebuilt the Frair brought a new coppy of the Good Book. It looked
nothing at all like the old one. It was much bigger and all the pages were
different The letters in the new one were drawn with great care with fancy
colors.
        Jenifer was examining some of the most perfect glass jars Marry had
ever seen. They were of roman origin. Jenifer valued them highly because she
feared that she would never see their peer. She selected the ingredients she
wished to use and took them to the table to begin mixing them. "The older
book is a the second copy of a work by one of Greece's finest botinests.
Sadly after three hundred years or so books become so fragile that they
become unusable that's why I have to re-copy them every few centuries. The
text can be reproduced exactly wihtout error but the pictures invariably are
distorted by recopying. I had the good fortune to obtain an origional from
one of the librarys in Itally that was still in pretty good condition." Jenifer
picked what looked like a freash book off the shelf. It's pages were impossibly
ancient. They were so fragile that if Jenifer tried to flip them like you would
a paperback they would crumble to dust. Still the writings inside were intact
and legible. If you read greek that is. Jenifer put the book back on the shelf.
She put a dried leaf inside the semi old book that she was copying. "Please
look through it if you want to, This medicine will take me another few
minitues.
        Marry looked through the book. Other pages horrified her and almost
made her want to run for her life herself. They were written in with strange
rhunes and showed pictures of people splitting appart with their guts hanging
out. On another page was a grotesque picture of a human heart. Another had
a picture of a skull with half the skin removed with one eye closed and the
other staring at her out of a hollow socket. She forced herself to be calm and
returned the book to the page with the dried leaf.
        Jenifer finished, blew out most of the candles, and lead Marry back
to the main room of the house. Marry became anxious when Jenifer stopped to
reconceal the tunnel to the secret room and replace the wood. Jenifer just
gave her a look that said by itself 'it has to be done'. Finally Jenifer
took the medicine to the sick boy. He swallowed weakly, coughed again, and
fell asleep. Jenifer put the preacious bottle on the fireplace's mantle with
some other trinkets where it wouldn't be noticed untill the next time she went
to the catacomb.
        Jenifer took a long hard look at Franklin. 'Cute kid.' she thought.
"I'm going to go make some dinner." she informed her guests and went over
to the kitchen area to make dinner. Soon dinner was ready. A hearty meal of
meat and vegtables for the adults and a thick tomato soup for the boy.
        After the boy was fed the adults went to the table for their own
dinner. Marry was a bit overwhealmed at the generosity of her portions. Tonight
she would eat like a king. After dinner they moved over to the wooden high
backed chairs over by the fireplace. They were a luxury over the stools that
ringed her own fireplace.
        Mary sat closer to her son. Jenifer started the conversation. "Back
about twenty five years ago, before the new priest came I was able to treat
as many as twenty patients a day. He was a good man. When he died the new
priest nearly had me killed. I was able to survive by not accepting patients
and repenting for my previous 'misdeeds'. Other people, just like you, came
asking my help. I had to turn them away fearing for my life. It's just gone on
too long. I can't just wait around with hands tied watching people die!"
        Marry felt guilty "If you would like I will leave."
        "No, I've already made up my mind. I wll bear the consequences of my
decision."
        Marry was both impressed with the woman's courage as she was confused
by why she would do such a thing. "But why? If I leave now nobody will know,
You'll be safe!"
        "But your son will be alive. People will notice. I can't live my life
sneaking around behind people's backs. I'm a healer. I heal people. Good people
respect me and bad people curse me. In the civilized times healers were among
the most respected. In these dark times they are scroned and murdered."
        Mary felt it was time for a very direct question. "How old are you?"
        "When I first moved into this house I planted an oak tree." She stood,
went to the front window and pointed to a masive ancient tree that took up
much of the yard.
        Mary began to understand why Jenifer didn't just move out when the bad
priest came she simply thought she could outlive him. Perhaps this time she
was wrong. "But why don't you ever grow old?"
        "I do for a while but then one day I wake up and find myself younger.
It's always been like that. I can't explain why but that's just how it has
been. It really is difficult seeing other people age and knowing that you can't
do anything to stop it."
        Mary tried to immagine what it would be like. Wierd. "How did you make
all these things in your house?"
        "Time. Over the years I come up with ideas which I build into the
house."
        Marry sat back to enjoy the wonderfull house her host had built. After
a few minitues when she was about to drift off to sleep Jenifer got up and
offered to show her to her room. Marry protested saying that she wanted to stay
with her son. "I tried sleeping in those chairs once and regretted it for a
week. Let me show you to a propper bed. Up a real flight of stairs (as apposed
to a ladder) they reached the 'loft'. The loft was a true up-stairs. It was
deviced into three rooms. Two larger ones filled with cots that had once been
filled with patients and a small room at the end which was Jenifer's The beds
were stuffed with feathers and wraped in linnens. "You can sleep in one of
those, I'll be in my library doing some work."

        The next morning wheeled itself around. For the first time in her life
Marry fell out of bed. She had never owned a bed, in her own house she had
sleept on the heap of hey covered by a blanket up in the loft. She had been
too anxious about Franklin to get a good sleep but still she was refreshed. She
went downstairs to see how he was doing.
        The fire had burned down to embers again. Franklin's bed was empty!!!
Panicked Marry rushed forward to find wheather he had fallen out of bed too.
Looking around the room Marry was relieved to find Franklin playing with some
toys over in the corner. She asked how he was doing. He said he was hungry and
that his head hurt. 'Monster' she thought 'yesterday he's dying and today he
has a headache!' She thought for a moment about starting breakfast herself. Nah
she'd better find Jenifer first. She went upstairs looking for her. The door
to her room was still closed. She pushed the door open. Jenifer was very much
asleep. She was sleeping on her back with a thick arm hanging half way over the
edge of the bed. Her red hair was all over the place. Her bed was actually a
stack of tanned hides. She was sleeping under a wool blanket.
        Finally she stirred. Her bed always made her stiff in the morning but
it was always a good kind of stiff because she felt like a whole new woman
after streatching. Seeing that Jenifer was naked Marry almost backed out of the
room but Jenifer showed no signs of caring one way or the other. As Jenifer
dressed Mary was impressed by how clean and healthy she was. She had always
been tought how vile and wretched witches were supposed to be. Even naked this
woman looked noble and godly. Marry was just as hungry as franklin but this
witchwoman was definitely taking her time this morning. She dressed in what
must have been the most expensive suit of clothes Marry had ever seen. It was
a thick richly coloured leather suit. It had the air of a military dress
uniform. Designed not to seduce but to intimidate. She then went over to a
dusty old dressing table that was almost certainly origional to the house.
Excavating a comb from under the inches of dust that had accumulated on it she
began to comb her hair. Marry became impatient for her breakfast. Jenifer just
gave her a look that put her in her place. Jenifer was now in the jewlery phase
of dressing. She truned to an old wooden julery box. It wouldn't open. It had
a lock but Jenifer didn't have a key. Jenifer solved this by removing from a
drawer an amazingly shiny silver steel dagger. She jammed it into the box and
gave it a twist. The box poped open and Jenifer put the dagger snugly in her
heavy leather boot. Inside the box was a jumble of necklaces and bracelets that
hadn't seen light in fifty years. She selected ones that would be comfortable
to wear. Suddenly she came acorss something that gave her pause a cross.
        It was a silver cross necklace. She held it in her hand looking at it.
It had been given to her by one of the good priests nearly a hundred years
before. She had never worn it because to her it was the symbol of death.
Whenever the ancient kings had needed to make the point that crime would not be
tolerated they always stringed a bunch of criminals up on those things untill
their hearts couldn't pump the blood up to their brains anymore. Although she
knew that her body could probably survive that for much longer than any normal
person she still didn't like the idea of death. Death. She felt sick. What had
she gotten herself into! 'Be strong' she thought to herself. She pocketed the
trinket and stood.
        She went downstairs to make breakfast. Franklin ate like a wolf or
'Franklin wolfed down his food' if you prefer. Marry was impressed by how well
someone as imposibly old as Jenifer was quickly prooving herself to be
interacted with her young son Franklin. She was light and almost silly. As
Marry helped Jenifer clean up she once again noticed the extrordinary care she
was taking.
        "Are you ready?"
        "Ready for what?" Marry asked.
        "If you are ready to leave I will escort you through the village and
if possible all the way back to your house."
        Marry wasn't quite sure what the 'if possible' was supposed to mean but
she was thankfull that she woldn't have to travel alone.
        Jenifer opened the door to the fresh and sunny day.


                C.15

           The Villagers

        The first landmark the travelers passed was the ruins of the pub. It
was the only change that the new priest made that Jenifer could agree with. The
sanity factor of the vilagers increased five fold. Untill the bootleggers
arrived of course.
        The road passed through what could be described as the village square.
The church dominated one end. There were a few shops, vendors, and their
respective patrons. A juggeler/jester bumbled his way over to the travelers
to solicit their attention. Jenifer found the clown amusing and rewarded him
with a silver coin. Since Jenifer seldom went into the vilage and then only
early in the morning few people recognised her. Those that did were terrified.
Mostly because she most definitely looked yonger than she had the last time she
had come to the village and partially because they knew that she only dressed
up when she was on a crusade against the tyrany of the local lord or the
church. It was almost never a pretty sight when that happened. One faithfull
churchgoer went to warn the priest.

        George arrived at the rectory of the Rev. Cook. The rectory as opposed
to the awe inspireing splendor of the church was a humble stone structure,
newer than Jenifer's but smaller and in poorer condition. "The witch Jenifer
is in the company of a woman and child, she is leading them away from her hose
through the village, they will be here in moments.
        Rev. Cook was saddened by this news. He had sincerely hoped that she
would abandon her sourcerous ways. "Follow them and see which village they
go to. Ask the minister of that village to return here with you."
        George nodded and left.
        These witches. Every year or so one pops up and starts spreading her
evil sourcery. When he had first exorcised her twenty years ago he had hoped
that she would be able to resist her basic nature and become a good christian.


                C.16

         A life on the table

        The Frair from Noramn's village arrived at Rev. Cook's Rectory. The
difference between the two men was striking. The Fiar was a short humble
looking man of about fourty who wore a brown cloak carried a wooden cross
around his neck and a big dumb looking nose in front of his face. What little
hair he had was rinsed but had never seen soap. His pot belly compleated the
picture by making him look humble.
        The Rev. Cook was a tall imposing man. His sixtyfive years had given
his face a weathered look, Both with implied wisdom and power. His robes were
black with red sashes. Gold crosses were sewn into the crimson material. Even
at sixty five the man was trim and fit. His hands were thin and slender as
those of a conductor of a symphony orchistra. definitely not from any form of
manual labor.

        The frair looked a bit uncomfortable. He almost never traveled outside
his village. Being summoned with such urgancy was completely outside his
experiance and expectations. Rev. Cook invited the friar to sit on the three
legged stool on the oter side of his table. "Before we begin may I inquire
as to how the woman who reciently returned from this village and her son is
doing?"
        "Quite well infact, They gave twice their usual offering last week
in thanks for his miraculous recovery. I was hoping I could collect some of the
magical root and bring it back to cure the other sick children."
        "The woman had come to solicit one of my villagers who was a repentant
witch doctor. Who evidently has returned to her sourcerous ways."
        "But the boy is cured! Certainly this person who may once have been
a witch is now doing god's work. Certainly this can't be a sin!"
        "God's work must be done by Jesus's children! She has NEVER bowed in
reverance to his holiness or made offering to his church."
        "Oh dear..." The friar wanted to make further objection but logically
knew that Cook was somehow in the right. "How can I help?"
        Cook smiled.


                C.17

          Quarterback Sack

        While not concously aware of it Jenifer could feel the hordes of people
around her hose. Cook had done an exceptional job of pushing the buttons that
would stir the general populous to riot. Still they were slow advancing on the
house. It was so old and peacefull that only the most zealous had any real
determination. The door suddenly exploded inward from the force of a powerfull
kick. The strongest of the village moved forward, kicked the table that Jenifer
was sitting at over. The candles fell to the stone floor. Ropes were fastened
around her wrists in front of her and a hard wooden pole was run behind her
back through her elbows. The men used the pole to lift her to her feet and
forced her to move out through the door.

        As she left her house for the last time the old sod roof was already
beginning to smoulder.


                C.18

         Don't let me down!

        The phony trial started up freash and early in the morning. It was
phony because she had already been convicted. Unless anybody could muster the
courage to speak out against the curch's will in this matter there would be no
hope at all for repreve.
        The trial was held inside a nearby cathedral. Despite it's name and
intended use Jenifer thought the setting appropriate to what was to happen.
The gothic architecture that is commonly associated with the word cathedral
didn't exist in the 840s. There were only three windows in the head
of the church. Jenifer wasn't sure of the symbolism of this because she thought
there was only supposed to be one God. But she was impressed by how well it
was designed so that the ray of light entering through the center window
shone down on the cross on the alter. Speaking of light the place had such a
deficit of that substance that it had to rely on the use of candles even in
the middle of the day.

        Jenifer was indiferent to the whole affair because little could make
any difference now. The usual witness were presented to sware on the lord's
good name that Jenifer was indeed a witch and a wicked dispickable one at that.
        Jenifer was in the mood to just lean forward and fall asleep on the
table when Mary was called forward. Appearently there was some sort of argument
because when one of the acolytes brought franklin up to where Mary was to
testify Mary's look became all the more pained. Jenifer watched the priest lead
her through the entire 'testamony'. She had almost hoped that Mary would raise
an outcry, denounce the church, and storm out of the building. Instead she just
cowered in the presance of the richly adorned priest.

        Look reader, I know you are already marking Mary down as a traitor but
that's just not how it is. READ THE TEXT GODDAMN YOU!

        Eventually it came time for Jenifer to speak on her own behalf. Since
what she said here isn't going to affect things much I'll just summarise.
She told the audience why, in her oppinion, it is neather the right nor
obligation of the church to circumvent the normal civil authorities (such as
the barrons) and accuse, convict and or puish a citizen such as herself. It
went over most peoples heads. Several of the landlords presant were a bit
intriegued. The priests, a bit bemused by her eloquence, didnt' care.


                C.19

    Knight to king's bishop three!

        The local landlord got wind of these happenings. Normally he would look
the other way. But in most cases the accused wasn't a trusted advisor and
friend. For years, him, his father, and even his gradfather had been sneaking
over to her house in the middle of the night for a drink and some advice.
Usually they would ask about some of the touchier issues a lord must deal with
such as what to do to the church. But in his grandfather's case the motive was
a bit different. I digress. She had always been trustworthy and far more often
than not absolutely right about most issues. That's why they never asked her
to pay taxes in centuries. She was a real human asset.
        But what made her do such a thing and put herself at such peril? The
answer was obvious. She had been living in the same house longer than anyone
could remember. With the current priest as strict as he is, she had just gotten
restless.
        What to do? What to do? Normally he would just go to Jenifer, lay the
problem out to her and come back the next night for the solution. Hmph. What
would she do?
        Confront the church, be declared a heritic and get burnt at the steak.
        Obviously delecacy was in order. Perhaps one of the bishops will
listen to reason.
        That's just what they did.

        The Duke knew he couldn't just waltz up to the bishops personally and
demand her release. He would roast over her ashes. Since Knight Oselot was
kinda an intermediary between him and the church the knight was sent.
(yes oselot is infact a saber toothed cat but he sounds so much like a knight!)
        A tribunal was formed and Oselot was adimtted. He stated his case.
The bishops listened. They asked him to wait outside for their verdict.
Several days later a servant came to him and asked him to return to his master
with the advice that he should never speak of Jenifer again.

        The bishops weren't hasty at all. They took the greatest care. As the
significance of the case increased they scrutinized with tenfold vigor. What
made the case so imortant was that by all appearances it's subject appeared
to be immortal and impervious to all the detremental effects of time. To put it
bluntly she would just go on living and never die. Not only was this proven by
the meager writen record, it was supported too by the general rumor/myth that
invariably accompanys anyone of great age. She herself prooved it by showing
absolutely no devotion with the church. In death all are united. She never in
her life had ever shown any devotion to the church. At times she had befriended
the church. At other times she was at odds with the curch but never would she
think of submitting.
        The church couldn't possibly coexist with such a being. Death was its
bread and wine. Without deat the church would have no influence over the
masses. If she began again to show as an alternitave to death through her
work as a healer the church would colapse.
        All that remained was a mystery and a question.
        Why would god grant a WOMAN such gifts?
        Could this poor pesant be made to pay her dues to the church?

                C.20

         The pit of dispair

        The cell in which Jenifer was confined to was to all extents and
pourposes a shithole. It hadn't been cleaned in at least three months yet yet
it had been occupied for much of that time.
        Yes, It stank.
        The walls were thick.
        The floor was hard.
        And the door was sturdy.
        That stank too.

        When the Bishop arrived he was jubelant with expectations.
        When he left he was more determined than ever that the woman must die.

        Jenifer never told the men that she had absolutely no notion as to how
to duplicate her condition in another person. Only that she would never dream
of granting the requests of a pigish and tyranical monster as the pope. To
her he seemed to take that well. But as he left he turned to her and said
        "You will burn tomorow, you know. I have been selected as your
cleanser."
        After he left Jenifer wanted to scream but before she could draw breath
she was on the floor again weeping. The floor felt real to her. Yes it was hard
yes it was cold. The cold seeped into her fleash. Chilling her bones. Filling
them with a sensation that could only be described by the word mortality.
        Her mind writhed. Her body shuddered. She had seen it. She had studied
it. She knew ways of defering it in other people. But now she was scared. More
terrified than she had ever been in her life. All those times she was in battle
or doing something dangerous. She knew she would be alright. Loose a limb...
grow a new one. No big sweat. Loose a life...
        'Those wretched heartless people! Jealous just because they grow old.'
But they knew how to deal wiht it. They dysfunctional system of churches and
kingdoms really did have a pourpose. She pulled the necklace out of her tunic.
She thought of the men she had seen suffer by the hard and cruel timbers of
this device. Then she remembered the screams of those who's fleash was being
seared by the heat of the fire. Hers would be worse. 'Might as well put it on,
show them what a good christian they have made me.' They wouldn't notice.

                C.21

       Burnin' with the devils!

        The friar came to hear Jenifer's last confessions. She complied as best
she could. There wasn't really much in her life beyond her garden, her healing
and her studies. He noticed her cross and commented on it's fine craftsmenship.
She pittied him. She could see plainly how blindly he plaid his role in her
death. He would never see.

        Two large men entered the room. They carried knives. They forced her
along out to where a cart was waiting.
        Fastened to a vertical beam was a horisontal bar. The bar had Iron
shackles hanging from each end. Jenifer was secured to this device facing
backwards. An army of holy monks gathered around the cart. Not to restrain
further the prisoner but to ward off the mob of people that lined the streets
making angry shouts at the cart.
        To Jenifer's amazement and horror the shouts were in her favor and for
her release. Didn't those people realize that she had been chosen? Couldn't
they see that the only thing that could save her now would be a total rebelion
against a legion of well armed, heavily armored knights?

        The wood already felt hot though the fire wasn't yet lit. The ropes
were around the ankles and around the wrists above her head.
        Her cleanser lit a flame. The priests and bishops began a hymn.

The flames ripped at her fleash as she writhed in their agony. No pain could be
worse than this. Even when she was cut up on the battlefield she was still able
to hide from her pain because she knew that nobody would come to finish her off
and that she would be able to recover. This was most certainly different this
was DEATH. She let out a loud cry of pain. The Hymn rose in pitch and tempo to
a chant. Their bodys already lit more by the fire than the growing twilight.
Her body twitched at the impossible ropes. Her feet were already burnt but her
hands keept tugging. Her body writhed. It wanted to live It needed to live!

        Marry cried.

Burning

                                                          Clawing
        Terror

                           The   cor ne as of    her  EY ES

           Jackals                                           Hell
       Dancing              Misery
                                            Death
                                                        fire
Seared white by  the FIRE; blind.
            pain unimaginable

    Ecstacy! Oh the Pain. The priests LOVED watching the poor woman's

                           PAIN!!

They danced and cakled like evil spirits.

She knew she was lost. With that thought her pain subsided and her world faded
to numbness. Yet there was one thing left for her to do. Her body mustered
all the feble strength it had left. Boiling hot blod rushed into her brain.
She saw her chared corpse from the outside thistime yet she knew that she was
still being driven by it. Her one last final instinct was to scatter herself
into hundreds of little pieces and seek the brains of the living.

Jenifer died.

        Mein Laven!

                C.22

                Cry

        While Jenifer was off to valhalla or Nirvana or riding the stix or
chillin with Ra and isis and the gang. The priests were clutching their ears
and roling on the ground in agony shouting obsenities in languages that hadn't
been heard in more than a thousand years. All of Jneifer's knowlege had been
distributed among the people who had participated in her 'cleansing'.

        Half of the clereks were dead before morning. Many by their own hand.
Some only after taking the life of one of their neighbors. Of all only one
recovered his sanity. He was never the same again. He took up residence in
Jenifer's rebuilt house and tried as best as he could to continue the work of
maintaining her library. His hands could never duplicate the excelance of
Jenifer's work.


But is it art? Response please!

  DOOM synonyms
By the way have you been splatted lately?
 Have you taken on a Cyberd‘mon lately?
use the LR. (rocket launcher)
"Death from a distance!"

there are acutally six 'w's Who, what, Where, Why, how, and can