BEGINNING
A sickened and dying Earth had forced Mankind to make its leap for the stars. 10,000 settlement starships sent in 10,000 different directions. Most of the starships came to bad ends. A handful of starships found perfect worlds where civilization flourished. After that, in the words of the other star traveling species, Mankind spread like a plague.
THE AMBASSADOR
Just beyond the edge of the galaxy a wormhole disgorges a single ship. The ship contains a single sentient mind, but is filled with a multitude of spare ceptu hosts for that mind. The mind belongs to an incorporeal being who had no concept of a personal life span. He had no concept of a life’s natural beginning or ending. He had never been a child. He would never grow old. He had lived through the lifespan of millions of ceptu hosts.
He had been chosen to be The Ambassador from The People to the inhabitants of this galaxy. The probes that preceded his ship had shown the only life forms to be mechanical creatures of flesh and bone. They were simple, fragile creatures one and all. Some of them had actually advanced to the point where they could travel between stars. He would meet with them. The People had no interest in these mechanical life forms except as a source of information. Perhaps they had knowledge of another immortal incorporeal race. That was the dream, to find another immortal race that The People could commune with on their long march through eternity.
As The Ambassador passed one of the worlds of the mechanical star traveling creatures he felt a mind he could communicate with. The creature was a female, a mechanical creature that was made to grow replacement mechanical creatures inside itself. The female mechanical creature understood The Ambassador's message and would be waiting for him outside a large...government ...building. A space would be cleared outside the building where his ship could land.
Melissa sat at her desk going through her notes. A Third Level Diplomat with a Grade 2 Empath Rating, Melissa had come here to negotiate between the two mining companies that claimed this world. When Melissa felt the mind probing at the edge of her consciousness she exploded with joy. “It was the mind of a new species!” Melissa was familiar with the mental touch of every known star traveling species. Melissa contacted the civilian authorities and asked them to contact both mining companies to tell them what was happening. This was no time for someone to do something stupid.
Melissa looked down at her tiny son. Her son was so beautiful. The discovery of a new species was their ticket off this backwater planet. The diplomats on the planet of Market would want to meet this ambassador. Melissa and her son would be his escort to Market. This was the golden ticket to a new life for both of them. Melissa kissed her sleeping son on the forehead and gave him a loving smile. Melissa then turned and hurried out. Melissa wanted to be waiting when The Ambassador's ship landed.
As The Ambassador left his ship the...woman...was waiting outside his ship to escort him into the building. They had barely begun their discussions when a loud continuous noise began to sound. “We are being attacked! We must go to the shelter!” the woman said. The Ambassador tried to calm her. “Surely they have heard my ship broadcasting its peaceful diplomatic mission. They will see the diplomatic markings and not risk damaging my ship.”
One of the blasts destroyed The Ambassador’s ship. He could feel the deaths of all his spare Ceptu hosts. Another blast shook the building showering the room with large rocks and broken pieces of metal. A shard of metal almost cut the female mechanical creature in half. Its fluids were leaking onto the floor and the bits of energy in its brain were beginning to fade. The Ambassador's ceptu host was also seriously damaged. Soon it would be useless and all The Ambassador’s spare ceptu hosts were dead. The Ambassador had nowhere to go and he could not survive more than a few moments without a host.
The Ambassador sensed a tiny mechanical creature trapped in the rubble that was not seriously damaged. The life form was at an apex of its adaptive development. The Ambassador could make a place for himself in the...infant's...mind where The Ambassador could survive until The People came to rescue him. As The Ambassador entered the infants mind he knew agony. He could survive here, but the pain would drive him insane. The Ambassador had the ability to put himself in a dreamless trance inside this young mind where he would not notice the pain. He put out two tendrils of energy that could pull him back to consciousness. The first would be activated if he came near a ceptu host so he could leave this thing and get his life back. The second would be activated if this host were attacked. The Ambassador would not willingly leave this host except to go back into a ceptu. The pain was too much. If this host were attacked he would take control of the host and endure the pain long enough to end the danger and then he would go back into the trance. The Ambassador hoped for a continuous...sleep…until he was rescued, but until he was rescued this host must survive. As the pain shimmered around him, The Ambassador forced his consciousness to slip away.
CHAPTER 1
THE MONSTERS
◊My name is Bob Nesslun. I am a Ghoul Hunter. I kill creatures that try to kill me for a living. Anytime a large dangerous animal wanders into an area where modern weapons cannot be used and develops a taste for human flesh, you call me or someone like me to come to your world and deal with the problem. I am the only ghoul hunter who works alone and kills these creatures using only his bare hands.
My first memories are from the Market Sphere university planet of Udell. I grew up on Udell in the care of my Uncle, Professor Nesslun. My Uncle was a huge bear of a man. He was a Grand Professor of mathematics, the highest ranking professor of mathematics on a university planet. Professor Nesslun was also a very successful businessman and was quite wealthy. He was a very important, powerful man. He also preferred the sexual company of other men. The thought that he might be handed a baby and be told it was his responsibility had never entered his wildest dreams. He also had not known that his baby sister had a child.
The Constable explained to him that I had been pulled from the rubble of a public building on a planet ravaged by a war between two mining companies. There were no records, no names, only the tattoo on the bottom of my foot. The tattoo identified my Mother’s name and my Mother’s planet of birth, nothing more. With this information they were able to find my Uncle.
As my only living relative my Uncle could raise me himself, give me to someone else to raise, or simply give me back to the authorities to deal with. To my eternal gratitude he decided to raise me himself. My Uncle told me that when he looked down at me he could see the eyes of his baby sister Melissa. He could no more have given me up than he could have cut off his own hand. Other than their mother, his sister Melissa was the only woman my Uncle had ever felt a bond with.
Eventually I finished my mandatory schooling. I knew I was a disappointment to my Uncle. My grades were always, at best, in the middle of the top third. I never developed the scholarly bent that I would need to become a first line teacher or researcher and although I had the empathic abilities of my mother, I had no desire to go through the necessary training needed to become even a grade two empath.
My Uncle was disappointed, but I didn’t want to settle down on Udell. I wanted to see all the first line planets of The Market Sphere, tour the more interesting worlds of the Baronies of the Sons Of Shonlin, and maybe even a short trip into the Empire of the Lan-Thu itself.
After my graduation from mandatory schooling I was sent to the vocational school on the planet of Thrandon. I seemed to have a knack for the atmosphere regulation equipment used in the deep gloried mines. Gloried mines produce most of the fuels and trace metals which make our civilization possible. I was soon on my way to the mining planet of Nimbus.
THE GLORIDE MONSTERS
