Microstory 91: The Perfect Race (1 of 2)

Some time ago, a group of scientists from all over their solar system came together and formed a rogue faction. They were unhappy with the state of the universe, and decided to create the perfect race. This new creature would not be bred for war, or any kind of pedestrian violence, but it would be extremely difficult to kill, and its intelligence would be practically immeasurable. Its purpose would be to systematically end all life, using its superior intelligence, so that they could start over. My contacts in the system are still gathering data, however they have managed to relay to me key documents. The creature’s skin and bones are extremely strong, but also flexible, so that it can more effectively protect the other systems of the body. The muscles are much stronger than those of most other beings, and they are capable of manipulating their own mass in order to leap farther and run faster. They can extract energy from a number of different gases, and exhale at the same time as they inhale, so cardiopulmonary exchange is unhindered. Their bodies were designed to carry two of every single organ, with only one being used at a time. If one of a pair is damaged or otherwise fails, the other will take over. The failed organ will be filtered out and replaced by stem cells in a matter of months. If both of a pair fail, the body is capable of dropping itself into a state of extreme hibernation inside of a nearly impenetrable cocoon, so as to give the stem cells enough time and energy to regenerate. The most impressive feature is the fact that brain matter can be found throughout their entire body, giving them around 20 times the number of neurons as most people. When the government discovered this faction, the project was scrapped, however there was already a living prototype. It is illegal to kill any living being with a soul, so its neural processes were stunted to diminish the danger, and everything was all right; that is until the Fosteans discovered the project and co-opted the prototype in order to create the perfect soldier, leading to the story of Manifest Infinity.

Microstory 90: One True Mate

There is another universe, right next to ours. It wasn’t ever supposed to be so close. The void between universes is designed to be immeasurably large, but due to a little human ingenuity, and one or two cataclysmic accidents, theirs and ours were brought closer together. This caused significant problems for our God, but that is another story. The interesting thing about these travelers is their biology. They were, in almost all respects, human. In fact, being the rightful humans who evolved legitimately in their universe, they were considered pure. But there was an aspect of their reproduction that, all things being equal, made them unique. When a male and a female copulate for the first time, they are inextricably connected. Certain chemicals are released in each other’s bodies that prevents each from reproducing offspring with any other partner, which means that there is no such thing as a half-sibling. Other chemicals are released in their brains that tighten a psychological and emotional bond between the two. A final, and extremely mysterious, process occurs at the same time. The two mates are linked by time and their lives. If one dies, the other will die as well. When the relatively small population was drawn towards our universe, most of them lost their mates to the void; with only a handful of couples surviving together. Not long after arrival, one such of these lucky couples was torn apart by a machine that propelled one of them into the future. The other was left immortal, doomed to spend the rest of his days waiting for his true love’s return. Gavix doesn’t know that his mate will one day return to him. He knows only that he has been alone for [redacted] years.

Microstory 28*: (Excerpt from my novel)

*This is an excerpt from my novel, entitled The Last Refuge. Chris and his friends have just met a man named Gavix. They get off on a bit of a tangent once he reveals something special about himself.

---

“You’re immortal.” Chris’ darkened eyes widened.

“That’s why they call me The Only.”

“You're not the only one, though. So is Peter Fireblood.”

“Yes, but he's different,” Gavix agreed, evidently pleased to hear such a thing. “And I'm sure you've noticed that only certain people are even capable of recognizing how long he's been around.”

“What the hell are you two trying to say about Peter Fireblood?” Cody asked in mild anger.

Chris laughed along with Gavix and pointed at Cody as an example. “I've yet to meet anyone else who sees the timeline discrepancies.” Peter Fireblood is a famous musician who appears to have no single birth date, and is not tied down to one time period. When two people who have a sufficiently large enough difference in age discuss him, they will refer to his history with conflicting or paradoxical information. Neither of them will notice the variations, as if they hear what they expect to hear, rather than what the other is actually saying. It’s like he lives in this sliding timescale that necessarily prevents him from aging. As far as Chris has been able to work out, Peter Fireblood has been famous for centuries, and no one seems to notice this about him.

Cody and Cordelia shook off the last moments of the conversation. Anyone who Chris tries to explain this to will quickly forget what he said and go back to the issue at hand. “Do you know our situation?” Cody asked.

“No idea,” Gavix said plainly. “You’ll have to get me up to speed. I only arrived a couple days ago. I haven’t been to the islands since they fell asleep.”

“Wow,” admired Cody. “You’ve been walking around out there for the last thousand years.”

He laughed at this. “Yeah. One thousand years. Long time.” There was a hint of sarcasm in what he said.