Chapter 9 Cyber Soul

Chapter 9

Cyber Soul

  Kia pulled away from Alex, “No, that can’t be. Kian is gone we were connected. I saw him die. I almost died with him. After I changed, our bond grew. But now it is broken. They broke it when they killed him.”

  “Kia Earth has changed,” said Micah, “The Nano bots that swarm this planet are now Kian. We have been hiding in this world monitoring its Nano bots for thousands of years. We know them. We know they no longer exist as they once did. Kian reconfigured them. They now emit his brain wave signature not our ancient brother’s, who sought to destroy us because we chose to stay on Earth and because we chose to oppose their genetic experiments. Kian lives and they are dead. We cannot sense our bothers anywhere. But we sense Kian everywhere.”

  “You lie!” Alex yelled. “Why has he not come here to,” Alex fell silent, “to claim his wife.”

  “The answer is obvious Alex,” Said Nessa, “he can’t sense you. He cannot sense her, at least not remotely. Your union changed you. We saw you. We changed you. Then you changed each other last night, it was unexpected, as was the results, it is all quite odd but beautiful. ”

  Kia backed away from them, turned and walked toward the creek. Micah and Nessa looked up at the clear blue morning sky.

   “I still can’t believe we can finally walk the Earth,” Nessa said, as she bent down, plucked a tiny yellow wild flower and held to her nose, “Such fragrance, such beauty, we lost so much.”

  “Now we have it back.” Micah said, his tone a bit sterner than he intended.  

  “Why did you change us,” Alex asked as watched Kia sit down on the grassy creek bank.

  “When Kia returned to Older’s bed we saw her as a means of combating the Lunans” Micah said, looking away as if embarrassed, “we used our own small swarm of microscopic Nano bots to draw her to us. She and Kian had come there earlier. They intrigued us, especially Kian. We knew he was different. We wanted to study him and Kia. We tried to draw him to the entry chamber but drew him drew him and Kia to the death wall instead. The results were tragic but revealed his potential, which proved, immeasurable but unpredictable. And now he is by our estimation some sort of cybernetic deity.”

  “I’ve never met Kian directly.” Said Alex, “But I touched him for a time through Kia. He is a good man that I know but not a God. And now I’ve taken his wife. He will hate me! If he turns evil we will be my fault!”

  “Go to your wife Alex,” Nessa said as she walked up to Alex and touched his face. “You are a good man too. Kian was dead. You did no evil. He would want you to comfort her.”

  “Comfort her, how can I comfort her without reminding her of our adultery? I am not a good man, maybe not a man at all,” Alex asked as he took Nessa’s hand and studied the smoothness of her Terran skin. “What is a man? You do know I once had feathers, wings and talon toes. Was I a man then?”

  She blinked. He felt her jerk away ever so slightly.  

“Is that why you changed me,” Alex asked, his tone blunt as a club, “why you took away my Chimeran traits, made me human enough to be with Kia, human enough to take Kian’s place?”

  Nessa drew away from him but still smiling sweetly, “We value your honesty Alex, thank you. Now go to her, we can discuss these matters later. What the Lunans did was wrong, but they did it. Kian has already restored the surviving Chimerans to their former animalistic state. It was the right thing to do, I suppose, time will tell.  We,” she sucked in a deep breath as if trying to draw strength from the air, “we have our own, what some might call, prejudices. That however does not mean we wish your kind, your people ill will, please believe that.” She looked down at the creek bank and saw Kia squatting on the ground her arms folded around her knees weeping. “Now go to your wife and give her your strength and your love, she needs it...”