Chapter 1

Zal followed his quarry into the unmapped system, through the ring of asteroids, toward the heart of the system. Would his enemy gain enough momentum from the gravity of the sun to slingshot out of the system? Zal was ready for that, using his host to guide his craft as close to the sun as his quarry.

But it wasn't the gravity of the sun his quarry planned on using, it was the third planet's, a medium size planet, the one with the unusually large satellite. As he followed close behind, Zal saw his enemy's rockets burning on a course toward the satellite; he was swooping low, close to the pock marked surface.

As Zal flew past, his enemy fired his retro-rockets, slowing his momentum, and then the enemy was on Zal's tail, firing energy blasts into his stern. Zal's craft shuddered from a hit, his host staggering as the artificial gravity failed for a moment. Taking a second to ensure his host was okay, Zal checked their coordinates. Yes, they were distant enough from the planet to use the most powerful weapon in his arsenal. It would be nearly as dangerous to him as to the enemy, but he had to chance it.

"Are you sure?" his host asked.

"We must," Zal answered. "Do it now!"

Quickly, before the opportunity was lost, his host launched their last anti-matter torpedo. They watched their enemy take evasive action, but it did no good, at this range, the blast would be too powerful to escape. Suddenly the torpedo exploded with the power of a small sun.

Zal got a quick sight of his enemy's mortally damaged ship spiraling down to the planet before it disappeared into the thick atmosphere. And then he felt the shock wave buffeting his craft. He fired his rockets, trying to use the satellite's gravity to escape. Then voicing a silent cry, he discovered the damage from the energy hit was greater than he thought.

Realizing he wasn't going to make it, using what little control they had over the damaged craft, Zal had his host head for the planet. It was their only hope.

Zal awoke. He was all right, he was almost indestructible, but his host was badly injured, too injured to even try to repair. Zal tried to communicate with his host, but his mental functions were gone. Zal took a moment to mourn for the being who had been his host and his companion for so long, but he needed to find another host, and quickly, or he would be dead too, as soon as his host died.

He used his mental powers to scan the surroundings. There were a few small woodland creatures around, none with the kind of intellect he preferred, but if necessary, he could temporarily use a lower order being. Then he sensed it, a slightly more intelligent creature nosing, exploring, sniffing at the remains of his craft.

It was a mammal, a quadruped, a little smaller than his dying host. As it came nearer, Zal waited, hoping it would come close enough he could use his mental powers on it. Then it was there, outside, pawing at the wreckage, its black nose poking through a rent in the shell of the wrecked craft.

The creature was near enough now that Zal could use his powers to coax it closer. Zal sent out mental tendrils pulling the creature to him, making it more aware of the scent of his dying host. Drawn by the scent of alien blood, the creature touched it's nose to Zal's nearly dead host.

In that instant, Zal completed the painful process of transferring hosts, an act he had only performed a few times before in his long life. Once inside the quadruped, seeing through its eyes, hearing through its ears, smelling through its acute olfactory sensors, he observed the final moments of his former host's life.

Zal's new host was a domestic animal, a male. Topper was his name. Probing, Zal learned that Topper had jumped his owner's fence, spurred by the drive to reproduce to find the nearby female in heat. Topper found her in the woods they were in now. They mated, long and hard, and with Topper finally sated, the female turned to the other males surrounding her. Then there was the frighteningly loud sound of Zal's ship crashing into the ground, terrifying them all.

Topper was the first to return, drawn by strange odors to explore the crash site. And so it was Topper that was chosen by Zal as his new host.

Zal found it easy to control Topper. Though more intelligent than the woodland animals, his intellect was of a very low level. Zal knew he would have to find a member of the dominant species to serve as his host, the species that had domesticated Topper, if he was to succeed in this new world where it looked like he would be condemned to spend the rest of his life.

"Topper ... Here Topper! Get over here you Damn Dog!" Zal heard through his host's ears. Then he saw Topper's owner walking across the field toward them. A biped, his slim form silhouetted against the setting sun as he came closer.

Zal released his hold on Topper letting him go to his owner. The dog happily running to join his master, jumping up, his muddy paws dirtying the man's jeans.

"You bad dog," Karl Warrick said, attaching a leash to the dog's collar. Then with a laugh, "Well, guess everyone needs to get a little once in a while."

Topper tagged after his master across the grassy green field edging the woods, not pulling on the leash, his tongue hanging out all the way back to the big old farmhouse. Topper slurped away at his water bowl, then flopped down onto the cool linoleum of the kitchen floor.

Zal let the rest of the day pass normally for Karl and Topper, observing, learning as much as he could about the man and his dog. After dinner and some television, they went upstairs. Topper sleeping on the floor at the foot of his master's bed.

That night, while Karl and Topper slept, Zal, who never slept, extended his mental probes to learn all he could about Karl Warrick.

Karl was an orphan. His parents were killed in an auto accident when he was a child. He was raised by his maternal grandfather on this very farm, where now he lived alone.

A little more than a year ago, three events occurred almost simultaneously that greatly affected Karl's life. First, his fiancée told him she had decided she didn't really love him and called off their engagement. Second, at the engineering firm where he worked he was turned down for a promotion he knew he deserved. And finally, the event that had the most impact on him, his grandfather died and left his estate, including the farm, to Karl.

Karl took a leave of absence to settle his grandfather's estate, but when he realized he no longer needed to work, he resigned from his job and took up residency in the farmhouse. He didn't farm, he wouldn't know how, and the last few years his grandfather wasn't able to farm. The fields were rented to a neighbor, and with that income, his savings, and the stocks and bonds left by his grandfather, given the frugal, reclusive life he had been living for almost a year, Karl had enough to get by.