Chapter 5

As I lay there, my mind was awhirl. Somehow I knew that what Donna had said was realistic, but her description of our new situation was virtually unbelievable.

A different planet? Okay, that was possible, but one which had been terraformed? WOW! First of all, that implied spaceflight on a grand scale and secondly, it implied a tremendous technological base, far beyond the potential of anything I was familiar with.

Five hundred years of travel time? Surely that meant we were now in a different galaxy, circling a different star.

Cloned bodies? DNA modification? Both of those facts implied that whoever had rescued us had to be experts in the field of genetic research.

There were simply too many unknowns for me to have a solid grasp on my new reality.

Then my circumstances changed once more - somehow closing my eyes and questioning my knowledge opened me to another stream of thought(?) that felt more structured, more compact in some ways. Was it from another source, a different mind? It certainly had a different ‘feel’ and a different ‘pace’ to what information I had ‘received’ from Sawish.

“You have a query?” a thought flicked through my mind.

“Who is this?” I sent a tentative thought.

“Information source: Eritol. You are of a new hive; Human, yes? Of which designation?”

“Well, I’m human. My name is David Markham and... ”

“Welcome, David Markham - Dave - el Patrón. He who saved the Eritol scout ship from the Xalibrox attack, yes. Information required of Eritol?”

“I don’t think I know enough to ask an intelligent question, since I feel totally lost. I should have died of my injuries, but I’m alive. I know I’m old, but I look young. My body looks strong, but I feel weak. I’m in my house, but it doesn’t feel right, almost like my home isn’t sitting in the same place as it was. I have too many questions to know what to ask.”

“Entity Sawish can explain, but is slow, inefficient. Checking medical now...” there was a ‘clicking sensation,’ then “Affirmative to transfer potential, Patrón.”

Another ‘click’ and I seemed to be enclosed in a strange ‘roomy’ sensation,”Sending.”_

For an instant my head felt a strange ‘pressure,’ almost as if my brain had been ‘filled to overflow’ and I saw a bright ‘flash’ behind my closed eyelids. Then I think my brain went into overload because I blacked out. I awakened to a recollection of a previous thought that I had ‘heard’ and remembered.

“Estimated lessening of major weakness ... ten to twelve days. Partial debilitation ... additional sixteen to twenty days. Full recovery ... ninety to one-hundred days. All times Terratoo standard.”

In some way that I couldn’t understand, I’d been ‘educated’ about what had happened to me, where I was, and why I was there. More than that, the knowledge was meant to be available to me at any time I needed or wanted to refer to it, supposedly ‘locked’ in my memory. Unfortunately that information seemed much too far-fetched to be real and I knew I’d need to experience my new surroundings to accept my new knowledge as reality. Even then I often needed a ‘guide,’ who could mentally explain whatever concept I was having difficulty comprehending.

I also discovered that the Eritol are more optimistic than realistic when describing the recovery rates of human beings. Actually, it took me two months to adapt well enough to our new world that I was able to walk even short distances on my own, but that was only after graduating from the use of a wheelchair, then a walker, and finally - a cane. Even after three months, I still feel the need to use that damn cane toward the end of a busy day. During the time I was recovering, I was also being informed that not only was my body much more muscular than before, but my bones and internal organs had been modified and strengthened. That shouldn’t have been a surprise, since Terratoo’s gravity was a little more than a third greater than what we’d lived with on Earth - or Terra, if you prefer using Latin-based terminology. What did surprise me was that almost every living creature brought from Earth had been modified to accept the heavier gravity - not just humans, but all the large animals and many of the larger plants. The only Earthly life forms which hadn’t been modified in one way or another were some of the single-celled animals and plants, but only the strongest examples of each of those species had survived.

Somehow, the Eritol had managed to preserve the ecology of Earth when they’d moved everything to Terratoo, and they’d even improved upon it to some extent. For one thing, they had managed to achieve a ‘natural’ balance which hadn’t existed on Earth for several centuries, but they didn’t expect that balance to last. As an example, the native plants and animals which had existed on Terratoo were extremely old genetic stocks, millennia older than the plants and animals which were introduced from Earth. As a result, they were stolid and slow to change, but extremely well adapted to their situation, so in a competitive situation with Earthly stock, the results would have been questionable. As a result, the Eritol had been forced to virtually sterilize one continent of Terratoo, then cloned the various species from Earth by the millions, and in some cases, billions. They had seeded those various species into the newly sterilized landscape on a schedule which had allowed life to develop in a more-or-less natural manner. In fact, many species had to be virtually nurtured by hand or even genetically modified to a greater extent in order to survive and prosper in their new surroundings.

Of course, that made me curious about how they could have done so much, so quickly, but my ‘guide’ had explained that while higher life forms couldn’t travel at higher multiples of the speed of light, simpler life forms could. It took at least an hour for me to understand exactly what that meant and how it had been used to arrange our transfer and settlement, but once it was fully explained, I could understand roughly what had been done.

In the first place, the Eritol could send messages at thousands of times the speed of light, so when we had been discovered, a message had been sent back to Mamina. An answer had been received by the scouts surrounding Earth within minutes, then our rescue had been instigated. Conditions on Earth had been assessed, and the planet which had become Terratoo had been selected as our new haven, even though it meant cloning almost all higher life forms due to the higher gravity and other factors. All rescued life forms had been placed in stasis, and their genetics had been studied. Then, the DNA of each and every plant and animal had been forwarded at hundreds of times the speed of light. That allowed the Maminai geneticists to begin work on developing cloning techniques which would allow them to develop bodies which would survive and even thrive on Terratoo. Then, in reverse order of complexity, samples of almost every Earthly virus, bacteria, algae, single-cell plant, lichen, and so forth were forwarded at high speeds. After that, samples of the more complex entities were sent at gradually diminishing speeds in a reverse ratio to the complexity and the intelligence of the species. In other words, the smarter the beasty in question, the slower their transport could travel.

I was stunned at the scope of the task the Eritol and Maminai had managed to perform in something like five hundred years of actual time. That utterly sterile landmass had been transformed into a duplicate ecosystem of a somewhat idealistic Earthen landscape, but many of the more virulent pathogens had been eliminated. None of the major plague, pox, or influenza viruses had been cloned and introduced. There was no typhus, no flu, no measles, no viral pathogens of most sorts, but not all of those had been eliminated either. For instance, the cold virus was still around. However, man and his animal neighbours were all much healthier than we had been on Earth.

Actually, when it came to the higher life forms, almost every fish, reptile, bird, or mammal that was rescued and cloned still retained almost exactly the same brain function as the original had when on Earth. The one major difference was that all humans now had been granted a minor form of telepathy, at least enough telepathic function to receive messages from those who had any form of initial telepathic talent. That detail had been instigated so that all humans could be assisted by the Eritol and the Maminai, but it soon became clear that there were a few humans who emerged from that minor treatment as ‘natural’ telepaths.

That’s when I was astonished to discover that I was one of the few humans who had a natural talent for telepathy. In my case, it had been a recessive gene, but when I had been cloned, that gene had been reinforced until it was dominant, so any future child of mine would also be telepathic to some degree. If I and a woman who also had a dominant gene for telepathy were to conceive a child, that child would be an even stronger telepath. At the same time, I discovered that it was no accident that Donna had been encouraged to remain on the ranch. She was also a natural telepath, although not as talented as I was. As well as that, I found that we were expected to mate and produce children, but that other women would probably be involved.

“Have you set me up to be a breeding stud then?” I snapped in annoyance.

“Conceivably so, as an adjunct to other potentials,” the Eritol sent, and managed to give me the impression that he/it found my annoyance to be amusing. “Inexplicably, telepathic talent expression is much more common amongst female Human subjects than for male Humans. Thus, each talented male is encouraged to mate with several females. Under present conditions, ten different telepathic mates, each bearing multiple progeny, would be considered minimal optimization of breeding potential of present subject.”

“Oh, I’m sure that would go over well with all the women involved.” I snorted. “I can just imagine the jealous fights that would break out amongst the various women. I don’t think I want to be involved in anything of that sort.”

“Jealousy is not an indicated reaction amongst those studied or now involved in multiple unions. Indeed, the reverse seems to factor into such instances. Indeed, successful impregnation of any involved subject seems to be exceptionally rewarding for genetically superior individuals. Research with other telepathic individuals indicates that sensory stimulation between such pairings during copulation is exceptional and shared amongst all individuals within multiple linkage.”

“Are you saying that if Donna and I had sex, it would blow my mind?” I couldn’t help breaking into laughter at that statement. “In fact, any fully involved sex I’ve ever had with any woman has been mind-blowing, so I can’t see how telepathy could make sex all that much better.”

“Since the subject has previous experience with sexual congress as a non-telepath, I would suggest comparison. ” My ‘guide’ snapped shortly. “The subject’s present condition is still improving, but conducive to female superior copulation. I suggest an attempt be made prior to further discussion of the current topic. Mention must be made that the female, designated as Donna, has two female progeny. Genetic study indicates that impregnating the full trio would be to the ultimate advantage of all concerned individuals.”

Then my guide simply fell silent, and I felt him/it break contact. I wasn’t even able to express my distaste toward the concept of incest. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised to have Sawish walk into the room only a short time later, and for some reason, she looked as if she was on the verge of laughter.

“You should know not to discuss sex with one of the record-keeping Eritol, ” she grinned, showing a set of teeth worthy of any predatory animal. “I warned you that the Eritol are a hive society and are each specialists in one branch of endeavor. For instance, the minions who deign to speak to the likes of you or me are similar to worker bees, so they aren’t involved with sex in any way. The only individuals in the Eritol hive who have any experience with sex of any sort are the queen, the princesses, and their consorts. The queen is in overall charge of all factors of Eritol function, while the princesses control the various specialized hives. Normal workers are only interested in doing well at their individual tasks, whatever those tasks may be. Since your contact was someone in the records department, the only interest it would have in sex is in recording the impression of those involved as participants or in encouraging advantageous pairings between beings of other species. That means your contact only has hearsay evidence to go by, so it would be somewhat upset with you for arguing about its knowledge on the subject. I only heard about what had happened because you induced it to break contact. I found that surprising because of the high regard all Eritol have for you, so I checked into the reason and thought you deserved to know why it had broken off and fled.”