Chapter 1

"Starknight please come in," a voice demanded into his ears. "Starknight please come in! We have three bogie's inbound. We need you to intercept them. Please confirm orders Starknight."

Aocles Kaper switched his com unit to air control and quickly confirmed his orders. "Roger that Mama. Three bogie's inbound and am to intercept. Any chance of help?"

Aocles was flying a night time patrol of the surrounding desert. As it was night time back up was a bad chance. With three inbound bogie's though they might revert other patrols.

"That's a negative. We have two other groups of bogie's heading for the other patrols. We are waking other pilots now though. Report when possible. Mama out." Damn, he thought. His wing mate and him might have a chance to bring down two but three could get them both killed.

His F-15 Eagle was at three-quarters of a tank and fully armed. Two AIM-120's and two AIM-9L/M Sidewinders completed his armament. His wing mate held two AIM-7F/M Sparrow missiles and two AIM-120's on pylons under the wings.

"Bacon, this is Starknight come in."

"This is Bacon Starknight. Go ahead."

"We have three bogie's coming in. AWACs have them at nine o'clock. No reinforcements as the other patrols are busy too. We are alone on this." After transmitting the coordinates for the enemy fighters Aocles activated his HUD display.

"Roger that Starknight. HUD activate. Radar detects three MIG-23's coming our way. Commander they are coming in hot. Sir they must have some long range missiles because they are firing. Not even my long range missiles can reach that far though. Even with AWAC support. They have something new. INCOMING MISSILES-2 miles and coming. Take evasive maneuvers."

Fear coursed through Aocles. He had been flying for two months now, and this was his first time in a fight. Aocles threw on the thrusters and sped up towards the MIGs and missiles. One hundred feet from the missiles and Aocles pulled a hard left. The missile shot past him and turned around for a second pass. The MIG was coming in fast and Aocles saw that he was in a trench. A missile for one wall and a MIG for the other wall with spikes. Well when in a trench their is only one way out. Up. Aocles pulled up when the MIG and missile were closer then he felt comfortable with. The MIG had been hoping the missile would finish off the F-15 but he was wrong. The missile contacted the MIG and blew them both to hell.

Aocles looked for his wingman and saw the remaining two MIGs chasing him. Quickly he approached them from behind. He got a lock and let lose a missile. Another MIG fell. Aocles turned his attention back to his wing mate. He was just in time to see machine gun fire rake through the cockpit. Bacon was dead. He himself tried to shoot down the remaining MIG but all his bullets missed.

Within seconds the MIG was behind him. The Master Warning came on. Aocles looked behind him to see a missile heading right for him. The eminent danger caused the standard response. His life started to flash before his eyes. At his birth his mother and father named him Aocles Hampet Kaper. Five years later his parents separated. His father, Larry Kaper, apparently was fed up with Julie doing drugs and going out of the house for sex. Aocles went to live with his father at his junkyard and loved the time they would spend restoring old cars. In the eleven years since the divorce he had not once seen his mother. Now he never would again. Despair cut through him. He had wanted to see his mom one more time and see how she was doing. Despair sliced his heart. Regret flooded out of control. He had ran away from his dad to join the air force. After lying about his age he was sent to flight school. Thanks to extensive use of air plane simulators he was almost an expert in flying. Now here he was at sixteen dying in the middle of a damn desert.

Reality came crashing back. The feelings of despair and regret still cut through him. He knew that if he didn't eject he would be done for. The lever was pulled and the glass of the cockpit exploded off. Ten seconds later his seat ignited and shot out. Mere seconds after that the plane blew up. The MIG flew on and didn't return. The chair weighted down the parachute so it descended rapidly. Luckily there was a soft landing in the sand. All except his arm. Somehow it hit the ground and something metal.

Quickly Aocles unbuckled himself and pulled in the parachute. No need to advertise his landing location. Bundled up, the parachute was buried in a small hole of sand. His chair went into a second hole that took longer to make. The entire time his left arm excreted pain. It was useable but only just. Laying back his head hit something metal. The same thing he hit his arm on.

Curious he started digging. There shouldn't be anything metal out here. Various sweeps had shown this place as just sand. And even if it was a piece of his ship it wouldn't be buried and it would have an impact crater. After just a few handfuls of sand a bit of metal was revealed. Weird markings covered it. Four hours until dawn doesn't give much of a light in the middle of the desert so anything else was unnoticeable.

As Aocles' hand swept over the markings a new memory awoke in him.

Tall trees stood all around the small meadow. In the middle of the meadow was a ship. Ten feet long with four fins running from behind the cockpit bubble to just a few inches from the front of the ship. The entire thing was a deep blue with black markings carved into it. A hand reached out and ran over a small set of carvings. Nopath.

Aocles blinked rapidly. Most of the memory faded away, all but one word. Nopath. Without thought Aocles started digging around the name. As he dug he uncovered more of the strange metal. More and more sand fell away to reveal the top of a strange plane. A bulbous cockpit, inch-thick fins, rounded bow, and weird indentures at the back were uncovered by the time the first rays of light crept over the horizon.

Aocles looked up from his work into the rising sun. Four hours of work really took a toll on his muscles. His legs were cramped from squatting, his neck from looking down all the time, his arms from pulling the sand away from the strange object. Standing up Aocles took an appreciative stare at his hard work. The black markings covered only a small portion of the deep blue object, but it drew your eye anyway.

The recent memory scratched the back of his mind but didn't take hold. Previous memories did though. As they took hold they flashed in his mind rapidly. A smooth hand movement next to the cockpit, taking hold of a strange joystick, talking in a strange language to a computer, then finally the beauty of a million stars as seen from space.

Aocles fell to his knees and grabbed his head. Every memory left a little information in his mind. The pride of Hemsut, the ship; how to control Hemsut; the ability to understand and talk the strange language; and then the sense of navigation all space pilots should have. His brain burned like fire. His eyes twisted in their sockets trying to look everywhere at once. His tongue and throat swelled and shrunk in tune with the fast beating of his heart. Everywhere his muscles twitched. Tightening and relaxing rapidly, tearing and healing, conditioning the muscles to an unknown strain. Slowly his bones hollowed out and strengthened.

Suddenly, his stomach decided to rid itself of its contents. Aocles heaved what little was left in it. His lungs slowly healed themselves and sent all tar and extra mucus up his throat. He coughed and coughed until finally nothing came out. Abruptly, the pain stopped everywhere. Thank the gods, thank you. It took Aocles a few moments to notice something else had stopped; his heart.

A crouched figure was surrounded by seven imposing people. The figure crouching before the others was completely naked and showed several lacerations across his body. The seven figures surrounding him wore dark cloaks that covered them from head to toe.

"Rushid, you are hear by condemned to death. Your experiments have breached our code. We are simply here as spies, and as spies we are to keep quiet. We are suppose to stay hidden. Thanks to you humans of your island are now dying. By attempting to alter their DNA to suit your needs you have brought them technology they shouldn't have. Lomath tells me he has already fixed the problem of the technology, and Opunum has taken care of most of the population. Your angels and dragons have been destroyed. No longer are you apart of this group. Now as a renegade Tol'marinea on this world you were punished. If we could we would send you back to the empire. But as you know we have lost touch with them so we are just going to kill you and put your private items in the darkest part of the world." The voice came from the middle figure with a strange harshness in contrast to its femininity.

Rushid looked up at the speaker. He knew he could never talk his way out of it. Yet what they said had given him hope. There was a third creature he had created that none of them knew of. That of the lakinsor. A nasty creature that even the empire couldn't hope to match. Its amphibious nature allowing it to live on land as well as in the water. Its four legs could speed it along to speeds of forty knots in the water and eighty miles per hour on land. Its titanic head could easily crush the biggest blue whale or delicately snatch a mouse out of the grass. Then along its lengthy body were wings. These wings were at least five times longer than the body of the beast. What set it off from other creatures though was its tail. At least fifty feet long it had spikes ranging down either side and was impervious to metal.

Rushid grinned. He knew his fate, but he also knew that currently if the lakinsor came out the seven spies would never be able to handle it.

Pain seared his eyes as they opened to the bright sun. Aocles turned onto his side and put an arm to his eyes. Looking around he noticed there were a bit to many shadows. He slowly raised his eyes to where the sun should be. Holy shit. What the fuck is the moon doing up? It was just dawn. His last conscious moments came back to him then. His heart had stopped. So what was he doing now? How was he alive? Then his surroundings hit him. It was dark out. The middle of the night, yet he could see almost as if it were noon. That wasn't the only new occurrence. His entire body felt as if it was one hundred pounds lighter. It was impossible because he still looked the same. He hadn't lost any weight. Thoughts stopped flowing as Aocles quieted himself down. Something had happened to him and he didn't know what it was. It was to quiet. He felt at his neck for a pulse. None. Not his wrist, chest, or even on his legs. His heart wasn't beating.

Aocles sat down in despair. He was dead. Most certainly. How else could you explain his problem. He could see in the dark, he weighed virtually nothing, and his heart wasn't beating. Despair and guilt took another slash at him. Mom, Dad, I'll never see you again. Damn air force can't even send out a rescue party. Gods damn them. Unfortunately the air force had sent out a SAR team. They found the downed planes and two bodies. One was identifiable as his wing mate but the other was burned almost to the bone. Taking the body as Aocles' the SAR team returned to base and contacted the families.

Tears streamed down his dirty face making tracks down his cheeks from his eyes. His breath caught up in his throat and he started sobbing. Why did I ever run away? Dad treated me okay. We had fun fixing cars. Why? Why did I come out here? Now dad is going to believe I am a goner. Mom will probably never know. Unless dad tells her. My gods, how could I do this? I haven't seen mother in so long and I come out here to put my life on the line for no reason other than wanting to fly. As the moon continued its never ending path towards the horizon, Aocles continued to sob. Eventually his tears stopped leaking out of his eyes, but he just lay down and continued to sob.

At the dawn of the second day Aocles heard a rumble. He sat up thinking it was some vehicle. The rumble sounded again and he realized his stomach was empty since he had puked the day before. But the dead shouldn't be hungry. This was the first sign that he was still alive. The only problem was that he did not have any food to calm his stomach ... His canteen from his survival belt was almost empty, too. Aocles took a swig of water and turned back to the ship. It was most definitely a ship. His memories were solid now and he knew it was the ship of Nopath.

Aocles crawled to the ship and looked at the cockpit. He pressed his hand into a set of carvings and the cockpit opened up before him. A black seat was surrounded by several buttons, screens, and two joysticks. As light entered the cockpit lights turned on and a screen flashed on.

Settling into the seat, Aocles stared at the screen. Letters flowed across it and his mind took a few seconds to adjust to the language. Nopath? Weird. Now why would it know Nopath? Why would it ask for him? Not seeing a keyboard Aocles spoke out loud. "Nopath is dead. He has been for many centuries now. Who are you to ask for him?" As the words left his mouth Aocles knew he was speaking in Tol.

"I am Hemsut. I am the personal ship of Nopath Kaper. Who, may I ask, are you?" The voice predominated from behind his head but it still came from all around.

"I am Aocles Hampet Kaper. Commander in the U.S. Air Force, call sign Starknight. Born July 19, 1990. As of now I am probably considered dead. I sure feel like it."

"A Kaper? Has Nopath mated with a brasfet? Illogical. He would never do that. Hybrids are illegal and are put down when they are found. Besides I know nothing of this U.S. or this air force you speak of. And if you were born 1990 you would be at least thirty thousand years older than me. That is just an impossibility. And if you are considered dead than I suggest you make off and be dead. Especially, if you feel dead. Now please leave. I must contact Nopath. He would never die before telling me he was about to." As the ship talked her voice got heavier and more forceful.

"Listen Hemsut, Nopath is dead. I don't know how or why but he is. And if I left you I would most assuredly be dead. Now as for the matter of me being a Kaper. You can take a blood sample if you want. It will show my blood as that of Nopath." Aocles spoke with such confidence that Hemsut decided to take a blood sample. Aocles felt a small bite at the back of his neck.

Minutes passed by in silence. During the silence Aocles took a chance to look around. The seat fit as if made for him. The joysticks were just the right length from his body and the console didn't make him feel crowded like his fighter had.

"YOU'RE A HYBRID! GET OUT OF ME! I WILL NOT SANCTION A HYBRID INSIDE OF ME!"

Aocles jumped out of the ship and landed lightly on his toes. Increased agility. He backed away a few paces for good measurement. What Hemsut said then fully hit him. Hybrids.

"Hemsut, would you be so kind as to enlighten this hybrid of what a hybrid is?"

"No."

"Listen Hemsut, I am a simple human that has just had a life changing experience. I was just shot out of the sky, hit my arm on your hull, dug you up, went through excruciating pain, and then find out I am something I have no idea what the hell it is. Just please inform me." His tone was pleading and Hemsut found it hard to deny someone that had helped her.

"Fine, but listen closely. I don't want to repeat myself. First, you need to know of the Tol'marinea. This was one of the first space faring races. It was in all actuality one of the first intelligent species to exist in the universe. After a few millennia the Tol started into genetic manipulation. The first successful experiment produced what they called brasfets. You refer to them as humans. These brasfets were made into slaves. Cheap, useful, and ever so plentiful. Eventually some Tol started to fall into love with these creations. They gave birth to abominations. They were different from anything else. While they looked the same on the outside the insides were screwed up. Their hearts shriveled up at the touch of oxygen from the atmosphere, their muscles would tear and heal themselves until they were strong enough to support the body in a gravity field 100 times that of Tol'Homeras, their bones hallowed out and became stronger, their eyes could see in the darkest places, and their brains could collect information on a level never heard of before. The first Hybrid to actually grow up became a tyrant to his planet. It took twelve years to kill him. They had to take lasers and slice his head off. Yet a Hybrid's skin is so tough it took those twelve years to make it to the spinal cord. Now, Hybrids are killed at birth. Most Tol though shudder at the thought of even taking a brasfet to bed. So you are a Hybrid. One that should never have come to birth. Now that I have enlightened you would you please leave?"

"This doesn't make any sense. From the way you describe a Hybrid they are born that way. I just went through pain to get that way. I must be different. But why?" Aocles sat down ignoring Hemsut's dismissal.

"Actually, it's in your blood. As you just had the transformation you still have some blood in your body. It seems you have more than just one Tol in your background. In the distant past you had just one Tol in your DNA. Now you have two. And from the amount of this second Tol DNA I would go so far as to infer it is one of your parents. Which one would be hard to guess at though." Aocles knew the answer. It wasn't that hard of a guess. He lived with his father his entire life. As he had not shown anything supernatural it had to be the one that left him at five.