E-den

The planet was acceptable.
It was a type G7 with breathable atmosphere, flora and fauna.
The ship automatically chose the optimum landing site.
The Megacomp JH5 had scanned all the major life-forms and selected the most compatible for adjustment.
While the builderbots cleared the site and began construction of the Den the bioclones tested the soil and water and calculated the DNA changes necessary to make their food plants suitable
for the new environment.
Within weeks the Den was complete the sustenance plants were thriving and Phase 1 was complete. The most suitable of the compatible life-forms had been selected, adjusted and pre-programmed and was ready for release back into the wild.
Once back there it was hoped that he would procreate and eventually` produce an army of workpets to aid in colonising the planet.

'They look uncannily like us" said E5, "although even ADAM1 (Adjusted
Denizen Ape Male) seems to be aggressive and primitive."

"You've only seen them from a distance" replied E3, "They are extremely ferocious and attack the perimeter regularly. Thank goodness for the guardbots! Without their lasers we wouldn't be able to keep the apes out."

"Don't you find the females strangely attractive E3? Their long fur,
those muscular bodies, those fascinating fat sacks."

"You've been away from the Homeworld for too long 5! Let's just hope that Adam1 still find them attractive."

E4 and E2 with Adam1 and a small army of guardbots left the Den and headed for the place where Adam had been captured. The plan was to release him there and then observe how the others reacted to his return.

"You must find a mate" said E4, "Once you have done this you may return to the Den if you wish."

Adam nodded, he vaguely understood what 4 had said to him but he was confused. He knew the terrain and yet it was quite different. The familiar smells were very faint and hard to recognise, he no longer felt part of the forest and there were voices in his head making it hard for him to concentrate.

"This will do" said E2. "He can continue on his own with just a couple of spybots to keep an eye on him."

"I think we should send a guardbot too" said E4. "If anything happens to Adam we will have to start from scratch and only a very few were compatible. The ADC and ADD may have uses as specialised species but do not have the intellectual capacity to make useful workpets and the ADB turned out to be totally un-viable."

"Affirmative! But only one and it must keep it's distance and only aid Adam in emergencies!"

Adam felt apprehensive and strangely alone. He could sense that he was being followed but he could not tell by who or what. He followed a familiar track that took him back to his village. It was terrible! They all seemed to be hissing at him, or growling, or screeching!
Somehow they sensed that he was different and it was obvious that he was not going to be allowed back into the community. They pushed and shoved, poked and punched him until he ran away screaming. They did not follow but threw stones at him as he ran.

"It's not going well" said E2. "Perhaps we should have the guardbot bring him back to the Den and choose a mate for him ourselves. If his own tribe will not accept him it's unlikely that any of the others will. I think we will have to abandon any hope of breeding slaves outside the Den; at least for the moment."

E4 agreed and they instructed the guardbot to guide Adam back to the Den while dispatching several more with instruction to fetch back several young females.
Adam was relieved when the guardbot appeared he somehow knew he was safe now and he was content to follow the bot back to the Den. He realised that he had changed and whatever had happened would prevent him from going back to his old way of life. Whether he liked it or not he now relied on the Strangers and for better or worse there was no going back.

When he arrived back at the Den the guardbots opened the gates for him and he was welcomed by E2.
"It looks like you will have to remain here Adam, at least for the present. We will provide you with a mate and we want you to breed as often as you can."

Over the next few months many females were brought to Adam but for some inexplicable reason they would lose their appetites and soon sicken and die. Then one day a female from a distant tribe was brought to Adam and though she hated the Den and often tried to escape at least she did not die. Adam had been given the task of giving names to the different plant life that the Eloh found. His favourite flower he had named Lily and because he found his new mate beautiful he called her Lily also.

The supply of new females soon stopped partly because all the other females became sickly and partly because Lily would viciously attack them every chance she got. Presently Lily became pregnant with twins and at last Adam had a son and a daughter but when the babies were only a few days old Lily killed and ate them!
Adam almost went mad with grief: now he called her Lily thorn.
"Why? How could you murder your own child, our child?"

"Not free! Not free! Not free! We must have no children here!
Not free!"

"We must eject Lilyth from the Den!" said E2. "She is always trying to escape and since she killed her progeny she has refused to mate with Adam and is continually trying to turn him against us."

"Adam is coming along very well. He is more intelligent than we
expected and it is quite possible that with more training we could
leave him in charge here and return home. If we eject Lilyth he may turn against us and most of our achievements would be wasted." said 3.

"Lilyth must go! I know that she is the only female that was able to
survive here but she is doing more harm than good and there is no chance of children."

It was agreed that Lilyth be expelled and she was pleased to be going. Adam warned her that she might not be accepted by the others but she said she would rather be a hermit than a prisoner. She left and was not heard of again.

Adam began to pine for Lilyth. He became listless and uncooperative and the Eloh became seriously concerned. Because all but Lilyth had sickened in the Den they decided to attempt to combine part of some DNA from Lilyth with Adam's and engineer a female. With luck this would also strengthen the hybrid strain. The Eloh told Adam that they were going to create a new mate for him, one that would be more compatible to his needs. He trusted them and though he still missed Lilyth it
became easier to bear.
All went well and within the year Adam had a new mate who to all intents and purposes was in her early teens.
Where Lilyth had been fair his new mate was dark. She had long flowing dark hair and eyes like stars and she reminded Adam of the dusk of the early night. He called her Beauteous Evening and he loved her from the first.

Adam and Eve were very happy. Meanwhile the Eloh Den had become a beautiful garden where Adam and Eve could walk and talk with the Eloh safe from all harm. There were fruit trees and plants for food and others for medicine and all were available except for the pineapple tree in the centre of the garden. This tree they were forbidden to approach and they were forbidden to eat it's fruit. There were few animals but they were mostly tame and the Eloh had moved the ADC's and ADD's to a separate compound as they had proved to be unreliable and prone to sudden attacks of rage. Adam was still giving names to the
flora and fauna but he was beginning to notice ever subtler differences between them.

One day Adam was conversing with E7. "why do you all look so much alike?"

"We are all clones. E1 is still on Heaven (the homeworld) in case
anything should happen to the rest of us. We are COD's - Computer Optimised Designators - hence our sign which some call the 'eye' ( note their D has no backbone and is like a reflected C). We are co-ordinated by JH5 which optimises our performance and keeps us at peak efficiency. We travel from place to place looking for new territory, materials, suitable food and possible helpers like you and Eve.
Of all these you are the rarest - good help is hard to
find."

"Why is it important to give names to everything E7?"

"Well firstly designations are not, strictly speaking, names, but names can be used as designations and they are important for creating categories and ultimately order. When we come across a species capable of creating categories we let them. We help them choose names and help them rationalise them. Then we leave them to finish the task while we continue searching. When they have finished we return and the JH5 simply converts the information into SF (Standard Format) and transmits it to Heaven."

"Where is Heaven and will we ever see it E7 ?"

E7 checked his portable JH and then pointing upward he said "Heaven is up there. If you are good someday you will go there."

"What is good?" asked Adam.

"It is always doing what JH5 tells you to do."

"Who is JH5? I sometimes hear his voice in my head but I have never met him."

"JH5 is a GOD, a Genetically Optimised Designator." said E7. "This is our GOD."

Using his portable JH, E7 projected a picture of a large imposing green machine with the letters JHV clearly printed on it in Purple.

Adam could not remember much from the 'before time' but he knew he was happier now than he ever had been. Eve was bright and intelligent like Adam and they spent their time wandering through Eloh Den, eating, sleeping and making love. They had given names to almost everything in the garden and with the help of the Eloh they had even begun to order them into classes. The Eloh had become very fond of them and were often to be found walking through the garden with them conversing.

"Where did it all come from E8?" Evening asked

"You are talking to E3" said Adam laughing and pointing at the Eloh's insignia. Eve was always confusing the symbols. "I think she means how did it begin. E3."

"Long, long ago your world was all fire and smoke. Slowly it cooled and one day it began to rain. It rained for a long time and there was a lot of steam but eventually your world was covered in water. Then one day a comet circled your sun and a piece broke off and though much of it burned away some splashed into the water. That was how life came here.
It thrived in the water and as the water slowly sank into the cooling
crust to form oceans and seas life crept out of the water and onto the newly formed land and spread everywhere. Someday, like us, you will travel to the stars for life strives to spread ever onward and upward."

"But you made Eve." said Adam.

"Life grew Eve as always. We just gave it a helping hand Adam. Life begets life. You can alter it but you cannot create it. You can
seek to change it to suit your purpose but for every gain there is a loss."

"Why is it that Eve and I can hear JH5 but Lilyth could not? is it
something you did to us?"

"Yes. We adjusted you so that you could benefit from the wisdom of GOD and because Eve was created from you she too can hear his voice. He senses what is in your minds and helps you make choices and decisions. Without JH5 you would have great difficulty understanding us. He also aids you in your choice of names and categories. Even we would be lost without the guidance of JH5."

One day Adam was wondering how his old village was fairing when E5 suddenly appeared.

"JH5 told us that you were wondering how your friends were fairing. We've a couple of spybots stationed in your village if you would like to see. Though they did not seem very friendly last time you met them."

E5 left Adam a portable JH and after a while watching the villagers
coming and going Eve decided to go for a walk by the river. Adam
recognised many of the villagers but he was amazed at how old they looked. When E5 returned to pick up the JH Adam asked him why the villagers were looking so old.

"Look, that's scarface, he's about the same age as me but look at him. What's happened.?"

"You have been here for 264 moons. We altered you so that you would only age slowly and also you live well here. Your friend has neither advantage and will not see many more moons. You will see many, many generations come and go if you are careful. Give me the JH, I must go now the Serpent is missing."

"What is a Serpent?"

"It's a Naga worm we picked up a couple of millennium ago. It is quite entertaining but not to be trusted. It has certain telepathic abilities but is inherently unreliable. If you meet it do not trust it."

"Where is that snake?" asked E2. "It must be using it's telepathic
ability to hide from JH5. It knows that if it can eat some of the
genetically modified pineapple from the CenterTree that its telepathic bond with JH5 will be broken forever. If that one JH4 hadn't gone mad and caused the deaths of its whole crew there would never have been a need to carry a telepathic de-coupling agent and we would not be required to grow it."

"Why does the Serpent wish to escape we have always treated it well?" asked E4."

"It does not trust us and would rather that we never returned to it's planet. JH5 has always suspected that it feigned friendship in order to gain our trust. It has become more openly difficult since it learned of the TDA in the CenterTree fruit but it has been kept in check by JH5. Something must have strengthened it. Luckily the Serpent is not capable of obtaining the fruit or of piercing its skin"

When Eve returned she was not alone and she was carrying a
pineapple!

"Is that the Serpent?" asked Adam.

"It is a friend." said Eve. "He has come to help us escape the tyranny of the Eloh."

"Hurry! Hurry! We must all eat the fruit before the Eloh detect us. I
can only screen us from JH5 for a few more minutes. We must
hurry!"

"We have been commanded not to eat that fruit" said Adam "We must not eat!"

"They have tricked you." hissed the snake. "They are here to turn you into slaves and steal your inheritance."

"It's true! He has explained it to me. They are here to steal our
planet and subjugate it's people! Hurry Adam!"

Eve passed the fruit to Adam. What should he do?