Chapter 1

I guess it shouldn't surprise me anymore. If a team of newscasters can't get things right on tiny little stories that have just occurred why should scientists and historians be able to get things right either? Yet they are always searching for answers! Generally it's archeologists digging in the dust of this backward planet's past aided by anthropologists claiming to understand the cultures of people they have never met and never shall meet — how could they get things right? And then there's the selfish little self-centered belief that this planet is where all human life began.

I guess things are better than they once were. Once man knew for certain that the world was flat and that earth was the center of the universe. We were so certain and assured of our own importance based upon a set of beliefs that we later learned were incorrect.

For the last several thousand years, while we were certain that we were the only intelligent species in the universe, we've received visitations from other advanced species. Many of the leaps and bounds in our way of life were due to subtle manipulations of alien origin. Galileo, da Vinci, Einstein, Edison, Tesla, Marconi, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, and others are recent examples of this. If we go further back in history we find other earlier examples that point to outside influence: the Egyptian and Mayan pyramids, Stonehenge, etc.

For me, my personal part in this, that is the part I can remember, started in the year 1791. I do not know who I was or what part of the earth I was born in before they took me away. Yes I'm talking about aliens. Ooh! There's that big scary word: Alien! Yes "Aliens" took me away. I remember first coming to full wakefulness on their ship and I know I spent a considerable amount of time there. Years, as they are measured on Earth seem relatively short to me, but the time on the space craft seemed to extend on for quite some time. They pumped my head full of information and taught me many advanced topics.

Were they "little green men?" No! They were a tall and beautiful race composed of both male and female members and known to themselves and others as the Haliseons. They seemed almost 'Elfish' to me and I wonder if Tolkien in fact had actually met these people. In any case they seemed almost sad that we were such a violent and disorganized people. They had visited our planet before Atlantis had sunk into the ocean depths and expected to find us much progressed on their subsequent visits; but instead of finding a world government ensuring the safety and happiness of its citizens they found that we had regressed with tiny kingdoms and tribes and nomadic populations all warring against each other.

The Haliseons tried to impart knowledge at various times in history and to various people with surprisingly few successes to show for their efforts. The Egyptians only grasped part of what they tried to teach them and insisted on worshipping them as if they were gods. They took technology the aliens intended to improve the life of the average citizen and adapted it for building burial tombs for their kings and temples for their hundreds of gods. The Mayans were no better. At Stonehenge the group they were working with was so small that a single viral plague eliminated them shortly after the aliens had left.

The Haliseons shifted their attentions to influencing the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla, and Albert Einstein. Their influences can also be seen in the works of Socrates, the Magna Carta, and the writings of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. All of this in an attempt to steer human development along more civil lines while elevating our standard of living.

I don't know how long I was on board their starship, but I'm guessing nearly a hundred years or more. How can a human being have lived so long you may ask, which I suppose is a good question; but who said I'm entirely human? Oh I don't doubt that I started that way, born of a mother's womb just as anyone else on the planet has been; but after all of the genetic modifications the Haliseons have made to my person I certainly can't claim membership in the species of homo sapiens for myself any longer. I share much in common with humanity yet I stand apart from it.

The Haliseons had prepared me and my three predecessors for another strategy to change the course of human development. Though not human I can breed with human females and selectively pass along various traits I deem will be most beneficial to the time in history during which my offspring will be born. I attempt to remain behind the scenes as much as possible preferring the anonymity and lack of public attention to the uproar created by those who misunderstand my purpose.

My predecessors have been called all sorts of unflattering names: Leech, Bloodsucker, and even Vampire; but as is with so many things that humans don't understand the truth is far different than the "knowledge" that has been passed down over the years. Perhaps there was a "Vlad the Impaler" sometime during the past — but I doubt it. Instead I credit Bram Stoker with an imaginative mind and a talent for telling stories.

I look for possible mothers for my children. Yes I do suck some of their blood, but only a small portion and only enough to analyze the quality of their DNA. It takes about a quarter cup of blood for my purposes and yes I can extend my so called fangs at will. The teeth that look most fang like are not for injecting venom but instead are used to gather the blood I need for my analysis directing it into a separate organ the Haliseons created for that purpose in my upper chest cavity.

There have been so many so called "facts" about my predecessors and I that I should probably seek to dispel. First, if I bite you and take some of your blood you will not change overnight into a Vampire. Second, I love being out on a nice sunny day and my skin is probably more resistant to the damaging rays of the sun than yours. Third, I am very far from dead and very much among the living. Fourth, if I bite you it won't kill you or give you any kind of infection any more than the sterilized needle at the hospital will. Fifth, I do not let my 'brides' suck my blood since they would gain no benefit from it. Sixth, I eat regular food and gain my sustenance from it. Seven, I cannot change into a bat. Eight, I do not use some melodramatic trick like looking deeply into their eyes to hypnotize women. Nine, no I don't sleep in a fucking coffin!

What is true about my kind then? Maybe it would just be easier to state the facts as I know them. I will live more than a thousand years. About five hundred of those years will be on this planet and then my replacement will come freeing me to reap my reward — open ended space travel throughout the universe courtesy of the Haliseons and the ability to settle an uninhabited planet and populate it. Yes I'm very strong with incredibly fast reflexes and do have some mental powers that humans by and large do not. I'm telepathic and telekinetic meaning I can read your mind and influence your thoughts as well as manipulate external energy with my mind to move things and hold them in place. Yes I can and do fly using telekinesis. I also get around by using another mental power to open small controlled wormholes for moving from one place to another. I'm just a bit taller and broader in the shoulders and chest than the average man. I am able to easily attract women with my selective control over my pheromone output; but I can also use that to terrify people and drive them away. Yes I can be killed with a stake through the heart — or any number of other ways as well; then again, who can't be killed with a stake through the heart? I suppose there are other things I could tell but a fellow's got to have a few secrets.

In any case my Haliseon name is Uphuk which sounds an awful lot like "you fuck" and which I interpret as the summary of their instructions to me. Fuck a lot and make a lot of highly advanced babies to bring the species along at a faster pace. Another strange twist about me — quite often I have the women who bear my children live in my house while they are raising our children and usually until they pass on. Kids need a father and I want one to be there for them. It also makes it easier when our daughters come of age — since I want to breed with them at least once due to their advanced DNA.

So how does one keep all these things secret? Where can I live and not be subjected to intense scrutiny and the judgment of my neighbors? How can I support a large and ever growing family? How do I stop people from noticing that I don't age?

Where to start, well how about the issue of money? I've always been able to scrounge up money with a good deal of ease. I suppose that on occasion my methods have been less than honorable like the time in the 1870s when I influenced that heiress to leave all of her money to me before going as a missionary to the far reaches of Africa, but by and large I try to earn my money when I can. Since I still have access to Haliseon technology I do have a huge edge. One of the devices they left me can make gems that the best gemologist can't tell from those made by good old Mother Nature. Now days I do pretty well investing in stocks and bonds. I also have some bonds purchased over a hundred years ago that are now quite valuable.

Where can I live and not be subjected to intense scrutiny and the judgment of my neighbors? The answer is that there is nowhere that I can be free entirely of the scrutiny and judgmental attitudes of others; however I telepathically manipulate the situation when needed. I also have safe houses and stashes of wealth hidden where no one has ever found them.

How do I stop people from noticing that I don't age? I don't. I have complete control over the aging process and can reverse it at will. I can also change many of my external genetic attributes like hair color and texture, skin color, etc. All small external things, but when combined, things that stop someone from recognizing me. I can also turn back the effects of time during my sleep dropping as much as ten to fifteen years in a single night. When it's time, I don't die; I just pick out a new identity and often a new location.

The Haliseons are not cruel and the task they have given me brings me great pleasure. First Uphuk loves to fuck, but I especially love to fuck the wonderful beauties that are generally qualified genetically to bear my children. Second I love being a father and raising my children. I think the hardest part for me is when one of my women dies. I grow close to each and every one of them and it takes a bit of the heart out of you each time it happens.

I'd been aboard the Haliseon spaceship so long that finding my self back on earth in the 1791 was strange to say the least. From a technological perspective it was probably about ten thousand years behind the Haliseon level of technology I'd been privy to aboard the spacecraft. The writer's of science fiction had accurately guessed about a number of things: transporter technology, subspace, hyperspace, worm hole travel, food replication units, artificial intelligences, holo-decks, gravity generators, advanced energy weaponry, and shielding. Of course there were a bunch of other things they were in the dark on but that's only to be expected.

So when I found myself put back on earth in a time where flint and tinder box were close to the peak of technology you might imagine I had some pretty severe 'techno-withdrawal' symptoms. My Haliseon benefactors had foreseen this and left me with a full lab of gadgets hidden well beneath the planet's surface and only reachable via wormhole travel. In this day and age you might be able to imagine my feelings by picturing yourself backpacking and camping at primitive sites — only for centuries on end!

I didn't much like the way things were running in 'Old World', too many countries trying to hold onto colonial power becoming wealthy while they slowly but surely ground their 'colonies' into the dust. The English, the French, the Spanish, the Dutch were all trying to conquer and hold as many colonies and territories as possible.

When they felt I was ready the Haliseons placed me in Amsterdam under the assumed name of Lukas die Graef or "Luke the Count" in English. Underneath my cloak I wore a money belt full of precious gems and gold coins of the day. I spent several weeks at an Inn just trying to get accustomed to things. I nearly drove the innkeeper mad insisting on a tub full of heated clean water every morning. I had a facility for languages and had been taught more than sixty Earth languages by the Haliseons which helped me blend in and enabled me to learn from almost anyone I met. One morning, after eating a hearty breakfast in the common room, I walked out with a new acquaintance of mine.

It was my third week in Amsterdam and I went to the market square with my friend pretty much just for the novelty of it. The 'square' looked more like an attempt at a circle to me. There were various merchant shops surrounding an open area with a dozen or so tent-like stalls and twice that many hand carts where people were peddling their fresh meats, produce, and baked goods. I was quite startled to discover that along with food, cloth, and other goods, I could buy a human being! Now that was something I had a real hard time adjusting to: slavery. You've probably heard about how it had become popular in the southern part of the newly birthed United States of America, but really it was just everywhere. What an awful source of misery that was!

My friend hadn't come for the slaves and was busy looking at the many imported goods brought into Amsterdam via its thriving shipping industry. Rare spices and silks from China and India, manufactured goods from other European countries, coffee, tea, sugar, and coca. I learned that he had traveled to Amsterdam to buy these goods for his father's store and planned on taking them back with him. He kept chattering about the good profit his family could expect to make. I left him to his buying after agreeing we'd meet for dinner back at the Inn in the evening.

I walked over to the large enclosure where nearly forty shackled slaves were being displayed. I telepathically ordered the slave merchant to not notice anything unusual about my behavior before turning toward the three slaves nearest me and listening to their quite conversation. They were incredibly startled when I began talking to them in their native tongue.

"My name is Uphuk. Will you tell me your stories? How did you come to be in this awful and unfair situation?"

They told me that a rival tribe had snuck into their village in the dead of night, killed their elders, and clubbed their best fighters before binding them, and then bound the rest. They were then tied in a long line and forced to march for three days until they reached a small bay where a ship was anchored. A slaver bartered with the rival tribesman before coming to terms and trading for them. Still tied they were put into smaller boats and rowed out to the ship. Once they had boarded the ship they were separated by sex and led down into two separate pens in the hold of the ship where they were shackled in place.

While I was listening to their story I managed to look around a bit while maintaining eye contact often enough to be polite. I saw that these slaves were from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Before the day was over I had managed to talk with each of the slaves. Though the majority of slaves were black skinned from the continent of Africa, there were slaves of other parts of the world sold here as well. Two young women of Middle Eastern descent had been sold by their family. Three were from India, a mother and her two daughters. One exotic looking young woman was from the Malay Peninsula.