Next Chapter ~ Return to Contents ~ Writer’s Den

Chapter Thirteen

The Habitat

A great milestone had been reached. A safe zone had been created in which to build the habitat. It was decided once and for all that Earth II or New Earth weren’t suitable names for this planet. This wasn’t Earth. Earth was dead. Everyone agreed, as Mbuto had insisted, the that new world should retain its original name: Kepler 186f. From now on influenced by Ingrid, the self-appointed chaplain of the crew, the colony, itself, would be called simply Eden. That it was surrounded by forests and fields (the ‘Garden of Eden’) seemed most significant to her. The enclosure and surrounding wall, however, would preserve the respective names Sandra gave them: The Ring of Kepler and Perimeter Electra. A mystical significance had been given especially to the ring by the android nanny, which had been named in honor of the planet and the mother star. In the future, its name would be abbreviated at times to merely the ‘ring’ and the buildings and gardens of the colony would become known as Eden, as Kepler 186f awaited further exploration outside the wall.

When morning came, the entire crew appeared ready to embrace the future. Now that there was a safe enclosure to begin work on the habitat, Said and Mbuto eagerly joined in the effort. Even Nicole had been convinced by her mentor Ingrid to return to the new world. After breakfast, Skip showed the humans a printout of the inventory of what was available from the Triton Project supplies for the building materials and equipment required to build the habitat. There were, numbered and corresponding to a master blueprint, prefabricated walls, flooring, ceiling, windows, and door pieces to be fitted together according to a master blueprint. On the second document, an electrical schematic, there were instructions for installing the electrical circuits, including heating, air-conditioning, and lighting components found on the inventory list. The third document listed equipment for water purification with corresponding instructions, a fourth document listed basic furnishings for the habitat, including beds, chairs, sofas, and desks, and a fifth document itemized kitchen equipment and furniture. In addition to an important inventory of medical supplies and equipment to be furnished in the habitat hospital and a separate inventory for the materials required for the green house and garden, there was finally, one of the most important inventories for the habitat: the materials and equipment for the science lab, to which, almost as afterthought it seemed, the special project of the Triton scientists were lumped in under the title: Clone Research.

Until this moment, due to the greater concerns of hibernation and exploration, the humans had thought little about the specimens taken from their bodies. Now, as if they had heard it for the word ‘clone’ for the first time, there was dissension in the group.

“I knew that was coming,” Ingrid cried. “It’s against nature and God!”

“Would you rather your species becomes extinct?” Skip frowned down at her.

“Let’s face it,” she reasoned sharply. “Thanks to those wars, we are extinct. Those monstrosities don’t count!”

“For once I agree with Ingrid,” Carla made a face. “I hate this. It gives me the creeps!”

“Yuck!” Nicole glared at the list.

“All right, that’s enough,” Abe scolded. “This isn’t Skip’s fault. Our caretakers didn’t create this project.”

“They might not have created it,” Mbuto said, pointing to Sandra and Woody, “but they gathered the samples. We didn’t give them permission for that!”

“That’s right.” Said shuddered. “I know how that clone thing works. I don’t want a thousand Said’s walking the planet. One’s quite enough!”

More calmly, Max posed a medical question. “I’m familiar with clone research. It has its limitations. What makes you think they’re even viable after being in the deep freeze?”

“They are!” Sandra stepped forward, her eyes blazing with anger. “I know they are!”

“Oh,” Abe looked at her quizzically, “how do you know that? We’ve been in and out of deep freeze, but those cells have been in it continually for over a hundred thousand years!”

“That’s a good point!” Sheila nodded her head.

“No its not!” Woody shook his head. “We tested them. They’re already viable!”

Silence came over the assembly. A collective, “What?” followed as the crewmembers stared at their caretakers in shock. The old distrust they had for the android now resurfaced.

“… What are you saying?” Abe studied Woody’s shiny face. “… The clones are already hatching?”

“No,” Sandra clarified, “…not hatched. They’re not chickens. We now have a hundred fertilized eggs in the containers. When we construct the special lab, they’ll be transferred to clone tanks. When they reach their growth, a second batch will be processed the same way. After taking so many specimens, we will have thousands of clones in the future, enough to perpetuate the race.”

“I thought clones were infertile,” Carla looked at her in disbelief. “They’re created asexually.”

“Not true,” Rusty replied this time. “Because male somatic cells are injected into the female egg, the process is sexual.”

“What?” Nicole’s eyes popped wide. “How ghastly!”

“Its true,” Sandra said defensively, “plants propagate sexually. Why not clone creation?”

“In the first place,” Ingrid dismissed Sandra and Rusty’s explanations, “this isn’t perpetuating the race. They’re clones. They’ll always be clones. Injecting somatic cells into an female egg is not technically sexual; it’s scientific manipulation of the worst kind. I’d rather our race become extinct than they become our legacy!”

Rusty’s Howdy Doody face now loomed in front of her nose. “Well, that’s too bad!” he growled. “It is your legacy. Like the other women, Ingrid, we have your eggs too.”

Wringing her hands in despair, Ingrid had to be consoled by Nicole and Abe.

“Calm down,” murmured the captain. “We didn’t want to think about it, but we all knew this was coming.”
“Do you really want the human race to become extinct?” Skip studied Ingrid a moment. “What’re you worried about the most? That there will be multiple copies of Ingrid Westfalls and all the other crewmembers?”

“Yeah!” Said answered for her. “That creeps me out!”

“It’s against God and nature!” Ingrid glared at him.

“Ah hah!” Skip tried a different tact. “It’s more basic, isn’t it? Because you think that clones, because they’re scientifically created, don’t have souls.”

Ingrid shrugged her shoulders. “God didn’t create them. Science did. How can they have souls?”

“Who are you to say that Ingrid?” challenged Woody. “You were an atheist, yourself, until you faced the dark sleep!”

It was a fact she couldn’t deny. That moment he said something that reopened a previous issue following hibernation, that, coming from Woody, the least human-looking of the androids, greatly surprised the crew.

“No one has the right to define God or what he thinks,” he announced flatly. “You are condemning your descendents to eternal darkness because of your prejudice. It’s a medieval perception unworthy of the ship’s chaplain. I believe that we androids, who think like humans, can even have souls. Why not? We’re intelligent. We have feelings. The Native Americans believed that everything had souls—plants, animals, rocks, all objects natural or man-made. They are thousands of years older than Western Civilization. How much less are we, your benefactors, who nurtured you and found you a new home? So why do you exclude the clones, your offspring, from God’s grace? Who are you to make this decision?”

The room was again plunged into silence. Even Skip seemed surprised with his outburst.

“I thought the same thing,” he confessed, with a shrug. “Our long odyssey in space has made we caretakers philosophers. The black void of sleep dimmed much of your human optimism, but, thanks to Ingrid’s preaching, many of you are practicing Pascal’s wager— Bet on the fact that God exists. What do you have to lose?” Philosophy has taught me one thing, though. It can replace science to give us explanations, but it can’t give us straight answers, such as, ‘what comes next?’ It certainly can’t define the nature of a soul. There is no scientific instrument that will confirm it’s existence or prove the existence of God.”

Carla, allegedly the most atheistic of the crew, was deeply moved by this conversation. Hastily wiping away tear, a gesture not lost on the others, she turned her back and stared down at the new world. Abe, Sheila, Max, Ingrid, Nicole, Mbuto, and Said joined her on the bridge, sharing her unrest but also realizing the truth to the caretakers’ arguments. As they had done in caring for the stellarnauts, the androids had preserved and nurtured their somatic cells and eggs. Now, as the last humans of Earth, thanks to Sandra and Woody’s harvesting and careful nurturing, they must become caretakers, too. The clones would be their legacy. For at least this hour, criticism and outrage of the subject ceased.

******

In stages, as the habitat was constructed, the science laboratory in which the clone factory would be set up, would be among the first portions finished. It was here that potential food resources would be analyzed and experiments on hybrid plants conducted, and it was here that the first embryos of the new humans would grow and become fetuses, new births, and someday populate Eden.

The first order of business in the creation of the habitat, however, was the preparation of the surface. This required most of the heavy duty equipment that would have been used on the ill-fated Triton Project. Using a grader and then a steam roller, the field was cleared and then the ground was leveled. Carla enjoyed this task very much. The men and other women also took turns with these vehicles. A loader was used by the workers to remove the excess dirt, which was dumped over the perimeter of the circle. When the circle became a relatively smooth surface, the first structure built for the habitat was the permanent wall. This required everyone, including the androids, except, of course, Skip who remained on the ship to keep watch. Cement bases, the most difficult part of this feat, were set up at intervals in back of the poles. When the bases had dried sufficiently, the prefabricated walls were easily installed in the holes. When electrified by means of the generator in the center of the circle, the sixteen foot electrified wall became a physical and energized barricade, the poles becoming secondary line of defense. (To protect the heavy duty vehicles and construction equipment from the elements and store unused building materials, an adjoining shed would be added later to the compound.)

Relying on the blueprint in the android’s shared minds, as well as the printouts from the database, with Skip giving his counsel from the ship, the work crew laid the foundations—perfectly cut sections of flooring that fit the corner stones at each corner on the foundation blocks. Onto the flooring, walls were set into slots, and then the crane was used to lift up sections of roofing, also set into slots. At various locations indicated by the blueprints, doors and windows, which came as complete ready-to-used units, were set in place. Four restrooms were set up—male and female, which included showers, baths, sinks, toilets, and medicine cabinets. The fixtures were all made permanent with industrial glue. Electrical circuitry radiating from circuit boxes for lighting, heating, and air-conditioning had also been preplanned, and was already operational before the roofs had been set into place.

The sleeping quarters, a galley, kitchen area, hospital, recreation room, library complex, utility rooms, and the science laboratory which would, when the habitat was finished, store, nurture, an propagate the clone cultures, were completed in several weeks. While the green house and garden area was set up, the habitat was filled with household furnishings, kitchen appliances, hospital and scientific medical equipment and supplies, and most of the dried and canned food on the ship was transferred to the kitchen stores.

The largest room in the main compound was designated the command center, which was almost an afterthought after most of the work was done. In Phoenix One Rusty ferried unused computers and communication equipment from the station’s supplies to this important room. For added security, all of the buildings, even the green house, were connected by corridors. Around the perimeter of the circle, twenty foot post were added with lamps, also for security. A prefabricated gate in one of the wall slats, however would remain unoperational—locked tight until the outside world was tamed.

As the final touches to the Ring of Kepler (as the circle was called), were added (an adjoining utility shed for the heavy duty vehicles and construction equipment and a guard tower in the center of the circle), Skip was already discussing with Abe, as the captain sat his command center, the next expedition on the new world.

“Captain!” his voice boomed from the command screen. “In the coming days after you and your crew are rested up, you should think seriously of tapping the planets food resources. As you folks began building the habitat, my crew took samples from the field being ploughed under. We’ve found that the grain in the field is unfit for human consumption. Some of plants sprouting up in the grass proved to be actually poisonous. Exploration of the closest patch of forest in which the dome was discovered will hopefully uncover food resources, such as fruit, nuts, vegetables, and herbs. I’ve been eavesdropping on your crew on the ship and also as they went about their work on the habitat. Despite their high and mighty talk, most of them don’t seriously consider killing the sloth-like and squirrel creatures and other alien life forms. Mbuto and Said simply want to beg themselves a beast. We don’t even know if the furry creatures of Eden are edible. After searching the nearby forest for edible plants, which are your best bet right now, you might also study the lake and more distant ocean for fresh water and marine creatures, which, when tested, are fit for human consumption.”

“You don’t say.” Abe stared blankly at Skip’s image in the command center. After listening patiently to Skip’s long-winded suggestion, which sounded very much like marching orders, he could merely nod, amazed anew at the android leader’s brazenness. Arrogance was a very human trait.

Sheila, who sat next to him getting acquainted with the controls, exclaimed as soon as his image vanished, “The nerve of that man!”

“You have said it.” Abe looked at the darkened screen. “Man!... Woody’s little speech on the soul and what constitutes humanity helped redefine what that means.”

“You would classify that creature as a man?” Sheila looked at him in amazement.

“Well, you must admit.” He uttered a sour laugh. “He does!”

“Hah!” Carla joined the conversation. “Those andies think they’re above humans. As our watch dog, Skip is more powerful than ever. He has almost god-like powers.”

“You can’t really mean that.” Ingrid shook her head. “Not after what we heard Woody say. I’m half-convinced, after his speech and what Skip said, those androids also believe in God. It is troubling, I admit, but Abe’s right.”

“And what about the clones?” Sheila asked thoughtfully. “Will they really have souls?”

“Blah!” Said made a face. “I’ll never get used to it. The very idea creeps me out!”

“It’s something right out of science fiction,” Mbuto marveled at the thought. “What would my people back in Africa think if they saw an army of Mbuto Sawalas marching toward them?”

“Yuck!” Nicole wrinkled her nose. “That’s really scary. An army of Said’s would be even worse!”

“Well, I think we should put this subject to rest,” concluded Abe. “It’s a done deal. The clone lab is almost set up. In no time whatsoever, the first generation of infants will be processed, ready to march out the door.”

“Ho ho!” Max chuckled. “What a sight that will be!”

Thinking of what he had just said himself, Mbuto also broke into giggles. Feeling light-headed and weary from their labors, the other crewmembers joined in the mirth. The thought of clone babies—perfect matches of themselves marching by the hundreds out of the door, was a hilarious thought, and yet not so far from the truth.

******

With the habitat finally built and work on the laboratory by Sandra and Woody finished, Skip insisted that they begin searching for food resources in Eden. The question remained in everyone’s minds: would it prove to be a bountiful garden or forbidden forests and fields unpalatable for human consumption. Already, during the construction, Sandra and Woody had performed tests on the field before it was cleared and found the grain to be lacking in nutrition and, in the case of the other plants growing amongst the grass, actually poisonous. So, exploration of the closest patch of forest in which the dome was discovered will hopefully uncover food resources, such as edible fruit, nuts, vegetables, and herbs. This would be the first food-hunting expedition conducted on the planet. As Skip shrewdly pointed out earlier, no one wanted to kill the furry creatures discovered in the forests, especially, as in the case of Mbuto and Said, merely for sport.

During this first critical exploration of what had been labeled the ‘Domed Forest,’ Phoenix One was again used, with Skip standing ready in the ship to fly down at a moment’s notice in Phoenix Two. Their first breakfast in their new home was a festive occasion. Several of the dried foods found in the station, somehow overlooked during their long journey across the galaxy, included pancake mix, dried potatoes, grits, cryogenically frozen ready-to-heat bacon, frozen orange juice, and canned peaches and pears. Though the food was over a hundred thousand years old, it was in remarkably good shape. Coffee, as well as hot chocolate brewed from dried milk and chocolate mixes, rounded out the breakfast menu. Ingrid insisted on saying grace, this time with the grateful respect of the crew. Many of them gave the celestial god, as she called him, much credit for their survival and success so far. Even Carla bowed her head respectfully and, following grace, added her own ‘amen.’

With the rover parked near the forest’s edge, the eight explorers entered the forest cautiously, with their weapons drawn. Conditioned by their experience with the spinners, they were filled with anxiety and dread, hoping once again to encounter only the harmless tree-swingers that had greeted them before. As they followed behind the captain, Nicole, already experiencing panic, claimed they were being watched.

Pointing to a patch of jungle foliage, she exclaimed, “There…I heard it. It’s over there!”

“Oh no,” groaned Mbuto, “she’s freakin’ out!”

“I don’t see anything, Nicole.” Said squinted his eyes. “It all looks the same to me: green on green.”

“Nicole’s not right in the head,” observed Carla. “Before she comes unglued again, some someone should take her back to the habitat.”

“No they’re not!” Max said, giving Nicole’s shoulders a shake. “Stop this!” he scolded her sternly. “You want to be permanently exiled to the ship?”

“Yes,” she answered in a small voice.

“No you don’t.” Ingrid came forward. “My dear,” she cooed gently, “remember our special prayer?”

“Yea thou I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death…” she began.

“Silently my dear,” Ingrid cupped her mouth, “in your head.”

“That’s a good idea!” Abe glanced back with a frown.

“Don’t look for trouble, Nicole,” Sheila said in a hushed voice. “Let it find us. We’ll deal with it when it arrives.”

That very moment, as if to underline Sheila’s consoling words, out of nowhere it seemed, a hideous two-headed frog-like denizen hopped out onto their path. Nicole, of course, was frightened out of her wits. Without thinking twice, both Mbuto and Said opened fired on the hapless creature, turning it into a smoldering mass. Hearing the commotion following this incident and Captain Drexel’s anger at the two men, Skip’s voice screeched from his communicator: “Captain! Captain! What happened down there? Please report in!”

“Two of my crewmembers were trigger happy.” Abe confessed.

“Please explain!” demanded Skip.

“They thought the creature was a threat,” Abe sighed heavily. “It came out of nowhere and scared them half to death.”

“Describe this monster.” Skip snapped irritably.

“Well, it looked kind of like a frog,” explained Abe, “except it had two heads and was very ugly.”

“Listen, crewmembers,” he addressed Mbuto and Said. “You can’t fire upon all creepy-crawler critters just because they’re ugly and scary. It has to be a credible threat, as in the case of the spinners.”

After his bellicose talk earlier about conquering alien species, the contradiction in Skip’s attitude seemed evident. No one, though, could argue about his logic now. Just waiting for the opportunity to use their revised weapons, Said and Mbuto had proved to be trigger-happy. In a whisper now, Abe scolded the two men, promising to restrict them to the habitat if they fired their weapons indiscriminately again. With Skip’s admonishment in mind, the explorers continued on their way, taking samples of what looked like fruits, nuts, berries, and herbs along the animal beaten path and the bank of the stream.

******

Unlike last time when they went shallow into the forest to inspect the dome, the explorers continued to follow the stream into the jungle, as they had on Wolf 1061c. Occasionally, Skip’s voice would break the tranquility of their exploration to check on their progress and give advice , but for almost an hour as they searched for more fruit trees, he was silent while listening to their progress through the trees. When the explorers reached a certain point in which the leafy canopy of the surrounding forest blocked out the sky and the shadows deepened to almost Stygian black, they turned on their flashlights. Abe could not recall in his military service ever encountering such darkness in the daytime. It was, as their lights played on the greenery and glowing eyes of creatures, like walking through a nightmarish tunnel. Not only the sloths and squirrels, as they were nicknamed now, but countless furry or scaly coated, multi-eyed, and indescribable denizens peered out of the foliage. Not once were they challenged or threatened in the forest. Unlike the meadows and fields, where spinners and other monsters lurked, there were, except for a few bizarre creatures monsters making an appearance, no incidents in the forest. At one point on the stream bank, a long, multi-legged denizen slithered in front of them into a nearby bush. Except for its legs and one-eyed head, it reminded everyone of a snake. Small insect-like creatures flittered passed them and an occasional bush would stir or a new, startling noise echo in the distance. More startling, after these unsettling sights and sounds, was a large, ambling ball of prickly spines, crossing their path. Not wanting to alert Skip, Abe quietly restrained Mbuto and Said, who had pulled out the weapons and were ready to fire, but it was too late. A squeal from Nicole and loud gasp from Sheila caused alarm on the bridge.

“Captain Drexel, report in!” barked Skip.

“Well, it looks like a giant porky-pine,” Abe’s voice quivered. “It’s not moving toward us. It looks like it’s getting itself a drink in the stream.” “… Phew!” He sighed heavily. “It’s walking away, back into the jungle.”

“Are you taking pictures out there?” asked Skip. “I’d like to study some of these monsters.”

Abe looked back nervously at his crew. “Uh… I think so.”

“They should be making a visual diary,” Rusty interjected.

“I’ve taken a few shots!” Carla called out from the rear.

“Me too!” Ingrid chimed.

“Good!” grunted Skip. “Keep me informed, captain.”

Plunged into silence once more as they followed the stream, they began gathering samples again. There were strange-looking berries and fruit resembling bananas on nearby bushes and trees. One of the bushes found had what looked like small cocoanuts growing on its branches. When they arrived finally at a clearing in the forest, there was a collective gasp.

There in the middle of a small meadow sat the skeleton of one of the beasts, identified now by the explorers as Kepler 186’s version of an elephant. How it wound up in the middle of the forest was a subject that occupied their attention, as they rested by the stream. Though they carried canteens filled with recycled water from the ship, both Carla reassured them, after sampling it, that the water was safe to drink.

“So, the burning question,” she announced, wiping her mouth of droplets, “is ‘Why did this dumb brute, maroon himself in the jungle?”

“Curiosity?” Mbuto looked up from the stream.

“No.” She shook his head. “He’s too stupid.”

“You don’t know he’s stupid,” Max said thoughtfully. “He might have been looking for water and, like Mbuto said, just been curious. I read about a leopard in Africa who climbed up Mount Kilimanjaro then froze to death near its top. That extinct volcano is nineteen thousand feet tall!”

“So why did he climb the mountain?” Nicole wrinkled her nose.

“The same reason the elephant went into the woods.” Mbuto shrugged.

“Right!” Max pursed his lips. “What else can it be? We must have walked two or three kilometers into this forest. He’s a grass eater. It certainly wasn’t to find food.”

“The leopard and elephant were both stupid!” Carla made a face.

“The poor thing,” Ingrid reached out to touch its bleached bones.

Sheila and Said followed her example and stroked the skeleton. Abe laughed softly as he listened to their chatter. During this rare moment, as children on a nature hike, they acted as if they hadn’t a care in the world. Yet all of eight of them, especially Max, were exhausted from exploration. With her pack crammed with the most seed, nut, and fruit specimens and her camera filled with countless pictures, Carla, who should be ready to drop by now, was the most animated member of the crew. Dumping out his canteen, and stooping to fill it with fresh water, he looked back at her that moment, cracking a smile.

“You certain this is safe?” he asked, taking a slurp.

“I tested it.” She cocked an eyebrow. “It’s safe. We should dig wells in the circle and stop drinking that piss from the habitat.”

“It’s purest H²O!” Ship called defensively from the bridge.

“God is talking again!” grumbled Carla.

“That’s not funny!” Ingrid frowned.

“No, but it’s half true” Said looked up at the sky.

“That’s heresy,” protested Ingrid. “Skip is hardly divine!”

As Skip explained the excellent reclamation equipment on the ship and habitat, which purified their water, Abe pointed in the direction of the rover. Wordlessly, he informed them that the trek was over. Without notifying the android captain, the crewmembers followed him back down the stream bank toward Phoenix-One. On the way back, they encountered those familiar sloth-like and squirrel-like denizens and varieties of alien creepers, climbers, and crawlers not seen before, until, reaching the edge of the forest and looking out at the field.

They had been lucky earlier in the day. They hadn’t encountered spinners or other monsters on the way in. Now, on the way out, they could see the chimpanzee-sized menaces skittering around the rover as if waiting for them to return.

“Hey,” Nicole tapped Max’s shoulder. “I thought those things were brainless. Look at them. They’ve been lying in wait for us!”

“Yeah,” Max, said, shielding his eyes from the sun, “I see what you mean.” “Calm down Nicole, we’ve got our weapons.”

“Damn!” Said whistled under his breath. “There’s hundreds of them. We can’t kill them all!”

“He’s right, sir” Sheila said in scared voice. “We need Skip again.”

“All right.” Abe sighed with resignation. “Skip, are you listening to this?”

“Don’t worry,” Skip replied calmly. “I’ll use our sound weapon. Stand fast. I’ll down and let them have it!”

As the eight explorers waited on the edge of the forest, they noticed a peculiarity with the spinners. Unlike their foolhardiness in approaching Perimeter Electra, was their hesitancy to enter the forest. They would skitter up a few meters from the edge then skitter back, as if fearful of the jungle. This fact belied their brainless appearance and foolishness when attacking or attempting to enter the circle. When Phoenix-Two appeared briefly in the sky, he warned them to shut their ears. This time to protect their inner ears, he gave the monsters a lighter dose of sound, but it still jarred the explorers brains. When the spinners had scattered, the crewmembers gathered their wits, and made a mad dash to the rover. No sooner than they had entered Phoenix One and buckled in than Sheila was taking the rover back to the habitat. By then, of course, Skip was already half-way back to the ship.

“There, that didn’t take long!” Abe exclaimed in a cheerful voice.

“What would we do without Skip?” asked Mbuto, shaking his head in wonder.

“We’d be dead.” Max said thoughtfully. “How many times is that now—three, four?”

“That’s the problem,” Sheila looked into her rear-view mirror. “We depend on him too much!”

“It’s his job!” Said shrugged his shoulders.

“As the French would say,” Ingrid replied light-headedly. “it’s a fait accompli. Like it or not, he saved us again!”

“Yes,” Carla looked tauntingly back at her, “he has god-like powers.”

“What would you know about God?” Ingrid waved dismissively.

“Hah!” she tossed her head. “I know as much as you do. Out here, at the edge of the universe, Skip watches over us constantly. He’s the closest we have to a god.”

“Oh stop teasing her.” snapped Mbuto said half-seriously. “Because he has superhuman powers, doesn’t make him divine!”

“Let’s keep things in prospective,” insisted Said. “He’s one of our caretakers and protectors. It’s his job!”

“I have no argument with that.” Ingrid glared at Carla.

“He’s still a robot!” Sheila murmured to Abe.

Next Chapter ~ Return to Contents ~ Writer’s Den