The Fourth Jump - No Longer Firing Blanks.

With my career in the military established, it was time to prepare my next host body. I called one of the youngsters that Turtle had met before my consciousness overtook his, and discovered Allyson was very attracted to this new body.

Apparently what they say about men in uniform is accurate. She accepted my proposal, and it seemed no time at all until we were married in a private ceremony.

We applied for and obtained the necessary breeding permits. The usual mating rituals occurred.

My new host was a female human. This was of course anticipated, and even to some extent fortunate, as it meant that I need not attempt to judge a prospective mates remaining fertile years prior to proposing. I had some ideas that may improve fertility, but for the time being I had to focus. With my ideas on strategy and weapon enhancements, I began to get promoted rapidly. Finally, I managed to persuade the civilian government to fund an extraterrestrial presence so as to be able to monitor wandering zombie populations from orbit. Of course, there was only one logical person to staff this new space station.

With the streets much safer we were now able to set up protected sites for elderly citizens where they can receive at least minor care for their senility rather than the unfortunate starvation and hypothermia they have currently been often forced to endure. Peregrine's body was maturing nicely, and I had very little time to wait before I was able to jump once more.

I fear for the reception these hosts would receive on Takis. Their mixed heritage combines, in many ways, the worst traits of all their ancestors. But I had little choice other than suspended animation and waiting for help that may never arrive.

With defence to some extent established, and technology being slowly rediscovered, I next turned my attention to the miserable economy. Two separate goals would need to be met; firstly, we would need to encourage the creation of appropriate office and housing requirements to kick start the real estate economy. Traditionally on Takis we usually used famous artwork to achieve this; architects were notoriously all failed sculptors or painters, and the promise of such rewards usually spurred them on to fantastic designs. I believed the humans would respond similarly; I'd already seen enough examples to convince myself that the great architects were out there, just not motivated in the current environment (especially since thugs would often steal valuable pieces - but we still have the contacts that my original Takisian body made there, so they may serve as a source. Brutal, but effective).

Secondly, we'd need to stimulate trade and manufacturing of consumer goods. Without trade, the economy would never recover, and I needed a healthy economy to be able to invest in my more exotic requirements; a healthy economy could kick start the recovered scientific community and provide a mask for me to 'discover' new items of high technology.

Allyson - my mother/wife - has proven an inspiration. These humans have access to a technology that should be impossible, and I do not believe they understand it, but the facts cannot be denied. The nuclear winter would have taken Takisian terraforming technology at least a century to correct, and been massively expensive in both manpower and resources. Allyson has discovered a method to disperse it musically.

As long as she, or one of her legion of fans, continues to play the Song of the Sun daily, the nuclear winter remains at bay. The process is not complete, but even now we have summer instead of endless winter.

The Third Jump

The human scientists had prepared well against every plan I devised for freeing Epokap. There was really only one option they had overlooked, and I was loathe to use it.

I activated the recall device on her ship.

Of course the ship was contained within the facility. Low on power, its engines were still sufficiently mighty to blow a massive hole in the science facility, and in the confusion Epokap managed to escape.

But the ship was destroyed, of course. All of that technology - my best chance of getting home - wasted in a purely kinetic exercise to save a member of the race that my people fear and hate more than any other. I was almost inconsolable; in my depression the symbiotes failed to anchor me into Turtle's body.

But as Epokap herself noted, it was actually not as hopeless as it appeared. While her ship was merely an expensive paperweight, she did manage to salvage many exotic materials that, with appropriate imagination, could be made to work wonders. The first use that I put this too was to create nanites that converted human muscles into reinforced carbon fibre capable of much higher tensile strength. Of course the process was somewhat invasive, but when it is endorsed by the most legendary sportsman ever to hurl a leather sphere around at a sporting ground...

... it quickly caught on, and many large scale construction projects were now possible even without the robotic assistance I wished I could risk introducing. Trips body would now be fine with its limited human cerebrum; I made the jump into Turtle as his body matured.

It was time to infiltrate the human's military. So many scientific and technological programmes were still limited by their short sighted interference. So I turned down several opportunities over the next few days until a lowly military position appeared. When I applied, I was initially going to be turned down, until it came out that I was the son of Epokap, the famous actress:

The promise of an autograph was all it took to make my enlistment official.

The Second Jump

I couldn't work with the military restrictions on my laboratory. I subtly began to make mistakes - brilliant mistakes, that only a genius could make, but that a fool would not be able to distinguish from incompetence. Out of respect for my previous contributions I was allowed to continue my work but with less supervision - they were, in essence, merely humouring me.

They thought I was mad.

Surreptitiously, I deployed nanobots to repair the shattered electrical infrastructure. Von Neumann devices, smaller than a grain of sand, deployed to the surrounding deserts and using the toxic ash, constructed solar cells of poor efficiency but in great numbers, and then responded perfectly to my commands to switch into maintenance mode and stop increasing their numbers. Others are taking the credit for my intervention, but I am not interested in fame - even though I have annoying government agents dogging my steps and always asking for interviews or taking sketches of me.

On a personal note I injected Trips body with a genetic marker that "upgraded" the symbiotes to be more compatible with a host containing fused Takisian and human DNA. This allowed me to make the next jump.

My former host, Fortunato, has enough residual presence that he is still largely at my command, but the focus of my consciousness is now Trips body. It was not far in age from the humans adult stage, so I did not have to be particularly patient.

But there was the lingering problem of the other intruder to this world. Trips had already progressed the relationship to the point where Epokap - I have of course translated her name to something more pronounceable - had even visited from time to time. There was no further value to be had in trying to conceal our presence. I couldn't simply dispose of her - there was no way to be sure how many of her race were aware of her activities. The humans have a saying that the best way to deal with an enemy is to turn them into a friend.

Even better than a friend is a mate, is it not?

With Epokap now as my official mate, I ached to examine her technology. She had a working spaceship, after all. But I underestimated the human surveillance program. We had barely had enough time to consummate our relationship ...

... and to produce my next host, "Turtle" ...

... when she was abducted by the scientists still loyal to the military. My FTL sensory beacons tracked many movements of her ship over the course of the next few months. I have of course made a plan to extract her, but she is well guarded. I must move soon, or else her ship will no longer have any power, and I am familiar with the machine; it requires exotic elements that will be beyond my ability to acquire or synthesize for centuries with human technology.

Symbiotic Relationships

My experiments in Fortunato's body were largely successful. I had surreptitiously introduced several small advances, but all of them had been immediately confiscated by the military for their own purposes. I needed to make sure this didn't happen; at the very least, my next host would need unfettered access to the technological advances I had achieved.

My time in this host was drawing to a close. My next host, Trips, emerged into adolescence and I again felt the pull of the symbiotes.

 But something was wrong. I felt the pull, but it was weakened. I couldn't transfer my consciousness. My current host still had too strong a hold - or perhaps it was the symbiotes themselves were weakened, in the unfamiliar only part-Takisian host body. I ran a few experiments, and I was able to chart the strength of the parasites in my current host; they would weaken with age. My control over Trips was partial - rudimentary at best - but perhaps I could find something to strengthen that control. In any case, I had much work still to do, and it was becoming increasingly clear to me that the military would need to be deceived as to its nature.

While Shantell worked hard at her job learning new, safe recipes, my distraction with my own problems led me to help her perhaps less than I might have. Before long I noticed she had become absent minded and difficult to motivate.

But in order for our new foodstuffs to be widely accepted she would need to become a household name. The humans would need to think of her as some sort of Celebrity Chef. I only hoped she could concentrate hard enough to achieve this in her current state; her deterioration appeared to be accelerating and I knew from Sophie's example that it was, at least at present, irreversible. Fortunately she was able to easily pass all the military physicals, so being permitted to continue to work was never in doubt.

I fear the partial control I have over Trips has led to dangerous attention.

This female of the race that I dare not speak of was found loitering around our bunker. Trips foolishly engaged the woman in conversation. While he slept, I examined his government issued communication device; as I had suspected, it had been upgraded with FTL relays to contact this "Epokap". Fortunately the power consumption of these relays was considerable; I doubt he'd be able to use it very often with the current power quotas - maybe twice a week, at best. Unfortunately my efforts to channel these to my own ends have had to be abandoned; there are numerous fail safe circuits to render the item tamper proof. I dare not simply destroy it lest I find some other means of using the technology later, but I fear that Trips will establish a dialogue or even a relationship with this female. While access to their technological secrets would be a prize almost beyond words, is it a risk we dare take? I must hope that I am able to jump soon, or Trips may progress too far for me to avert disaster.

Science Will Save Us

Sophie was able to overcome her dementia. With my assistance - offered via subconscious conditioning while she slept - "her" ideas to transform the education system were successful. Teens are now permitted - nay, required - to attend the new high schools opening around the town. I even attended myself, just before my 18th birthday.

My skin colour may be human, but my facial features are still very much those of my Takisian heritage. However, this has not proven the handicap it might have been. I recalled the number of Shantell from my original host's time at Boot Camp. She seemed not to have aged a day, and she was more than amenable to meeting the "son" of Tachyon.

She had been one of those I was grooming as a possible mate before I decided on Sophie. There was no reason not to make use of Shantell now that I had a fresh new host. We hit it off - it's fairly easy when you remember their likes and dislikes.

I am on a schedule. No long drawn out romance for me. Barely 24 hours after she arrived, I asked for "mother" to gift me the ring "Dad" had bought her.

Things progressed fairly normally from there:

My new host, Trips, was born. Shantell studied cooking; there are ridiculous restrictions on food rationing at present that are largely due to most traditional recipes not being appropriate with irradiated poisonous ingredients. I have some knowledge of antitoxins and have produced a few crude nanobots based on my own symbiotes; via hypnosis while she sleeps, she is learning these tricks and hopefully will be able to teach others to produce edible, nutritious, or even tasty foodstuffs.

I have much better access to the equipment I need now; this host has been recognised as a budding Scientist and while the military still controls all the best facilities, I have made some subtle technological advances. Slowly I will introduce new power sources and bioelectronics that will be powered by the latent gamma radiation in the atmosphere, but I must move cautiously.

Sophie has lost vital signs.

The usual Takisian phrase translates as "she is no longer with us", but for these humans, that is clearly not the case. I have taken some surreptitious scans of both Sophie and my former host Tachyon, but it could take decades to learn how these manifestations work. It is a puzzle that needs solving; can it be harnessed? Or even reversed? If I can make it work on a large scale, could I perhaps bring back Baby?

But I must be realistic. Start with the basics; I cannot properly study a quantum phenomenon when my equipment is barely capable of analysing macro scale objects. I am forced to study biology once more to see if the keys to this process exist in simpler forms of life, such as plants. And I must become expert in what technology the humans still have, so that when I produce superior examples it will seem a logical improvement rather than the product of my more advanced culture. I may even need to study marine life, but I am uncertain how that can even be accomplished; what fish remain in the nearby lakes and oceans are not easily baited with traditional lures, and I am uncertain as to whether my slim Takisian physiology is capable of landing such fish without mechanical assistance. I shall have to see if I can invent something, in whatever off time I get.

A Concerto Of Neurons And Neutrons

My instruments confirmed what was already visually obvious: the initial stages of ennui and dementia have set in for Sophie.

We are now in a race against time. As Principal, Sophie is in position to enforce a raft of changes to the education system of the nearby school, but it is not enough. High schools remain closed as adolescents are too valued for their work around the home to "waste" with education. She must advance still further - and now, she must do so before her last vestiges of clear-headedness and ambition leave her.

On the bright side she has passed the military's physical examination - she is one of the strongest specimens they have, even considering her age - so she is physically permitted to continue working. I only hope that she can retain presence of mind to put in just a few more years of effort. I will try to keep her mind engaged at the chess board, as that may slow the decay.

She is actually quite good at this. Perhaps there is still hope.

... For Horrors Untold

It appears that these humans have adapted the same zero point energy that the Sims had. I have no other explanation.

The body is still in the ground - I have gravimetric devices that would register any movement - and yet this entity wears the face of my former body. It appears to be composed of WIMPs as I have observed it moving through solid objects, but on the other hand at times it demonstrates what I can only describe as some form of quantum entanglement that enables it to manipulate objects by merging with their molecular structure.

At first I thought this was some unique Takisian biologically aberration caused by the unique environment, but carefully phrased questions suggest that many humans undergo this quasi-material metamorphosis upon cessation of bodily functions. The humans do not seem to be able to harness this power in other ways; this requires much further study. I will not interact with this creature for the time being; I must be content to observe until I have formulated an appropriate course of action.