The Raid of Kollanus -Chapter 03

It had been several years since Air-Sot had placed his feet on the soil of home and all through the long trip, he was apprehensive about just how his report would he received. From its very outset, those who disapproved of the mission were very vocal and what was more important, they almost equaled, numerically, those who did approve. Looking out of the porthole into the uninterrupted expanse of nothingness, he again heard the shouted disapproval, “We’d rather finance new hospitals”, “Don’ t coddle monster criminals” and even “Bring back the death penalty!” His “fool’s mission” was almost as roundly criticized as he, himself. And now, seeing his reflection in the porthole, he read the lines which appeared in the wake of long ago pain, Air-Sot sighed, understanding how his ugliness outweighed his talents in the eyes of many. He was fully aware that age and illness, flavored by a difficult personality had removed him from the Favored List and that the likelihood of ever regaining that kind of recognition was practically nil. His name appearing on the Senior List as it had after many years of absence from any thing like that came as a surprise to all. To Air-Sot, it was almost shocking.

Now, as his mind’s eye surveyed the stocky, swarthy, animalistic captives, renewed doubts about his mission resurfaced within him. “Their world is slightly smaller than our own .. their day is roughly three-fourths the length of our day, and while there exist a variety of climate types, overall theirs is a more moist atmosphere than ours…” Air-Sot said, the harsh voice younger than the face from which it came. Perhaps his sound seemed as much out of place to himself as it did to those gathered to listen, because now he paused a count or two too long while he frowned into the note cards he had prepared for this address. Shuffling them carelessly, he put them into one of the pockets of his tan medical tunic. Then, looking up into the faces all trained on him, he cleared his throat, squared his shoulders and continued, “…and while a considerable variety of flora and fauna is to be found on this world, there does exist a master life form which roughly corresponds to our own .. and it’s here that our interest lies. This creature, of course, is of the type we have so long sought. ” Then directing the multilateral lighting be turned on, Air-Sot said, “Here for your eyes to examine holographically are likenesses.” There was a brief flickering of the glass cube before the mature hulking figure of an Earth man appeared in full- around. Air-Sot paused long enough for the gasps and whispers to run their course, then continued, “Despite the bony ridge above the eyes, the near total lack of chin structure, the breadth of hands, feet and torso, more exists here than appears at first glance. They, unlike others we have met utter complex sounds … have a simple, yet sufficient language, cook their food, defend themselves when necessary, actually manufacture simple tools and weapons… and something else about them I am sure you will find of interest is…” and here Air-Sot was interrupted by a rather shrill female voice from near the rear of the audience. “Surely you don’t intend to have our genus cross-bred with a beastly creature so inferior to us! And yes… I’m aware that your intent is to mate them with our criminal element, and I for one don’t feel that the most malevolent of our villains has ever done something so evil as to merit such degradation. But very likely my own fears are for nothing. I don’t imagine that seed from such a beast could fertilize our eggs. Nor could the reverse happen. Surely the laws of fertilization would not permit such mutation!”

What passed for a smile on the distorted features of Air-Sot flickered on then as quickly, off. Now he pressed a button and pointing toward the tiny creature being carried onto his platform, said, “Those thoughts… the same ones you, Madam, have so eloquently expressed were, indeed our thoughts when first we saw them. But I beg you… observe this young, living and growing exhibit.” Here Air-Sot lifted the child from his blanket and smiling said, “This is the masculine product which has resulted from the blending of the seed from one of our masculine prisoners and the egg from one of their females. I hasten to add that the father in this case is perhaps the most degraded of our criminal element … and the mother was equally appalled at his appearance.” He was in the process of making a statement about how this child should grow to have a degree of strengths and talents when another voice from the audience, this time masculine shouted, “Kill it! It’s hideous… kill it now!” A determined Air-Sot shifted the weight from one twisted foot to the other, glared out from behind a drooping eyelid and parting his loosely hung jaw inquired, “Tell me comrade… is it just this infant you speak of… or would you, if you could, put to death all who in your eyes were counted as ‘hideous’?”

The educational process began in the nursery itself, which contained, on an average some twenty to twenty five children ranging up to as many as fourteen months of age. When a child was able to take its first steps, that was accepted as the signal that it was to be taken to a sort of preschool. At this point, according to individual testing schooling was to continue until the ability to learn, rapidly and easily,. somewhere between fourteen and twenty two years, was reached. It was the duty of the state to continue educating each person to the comfortable limits of his ability to absorb. Beginning in the nursery, all children, including those who were crossbred, were placed side by side. Back on Earth the breeding process was beginning to fit itself into a regular schedule. Mornings were set aside for the actual breeding sessions and these were always well attended. On the other side of the heavy coated glass windows, there was always an ample audience to observe the copulations. Not all the watchers were medical people, but guards, laborers and even visiting politicians from the alien world seemed anxious to see the action for themselves. The usual procedure was to first examine then pair off a savage woman with an alien man, then somehow induce the sex act. Applications for viewing privileges really increased, however, when it was announced that the roles were about to be reversed. Some had tired of seeing what really were a succession of savage rapes in which the women had to be tied down before submission to alien male convicts. Now came the turn of the ugly, savage brutes to assault the alien, convict women. Anticipation of something slightly different really excited the voyeurs and the viewing room became quite crowded.

Lit was the name everyone used in calling her, but of course. Lit was not her complete name. In fact, due to her records having been. lost in the prison fire, the prison in which she had been born, neither Lit nor anyone else recalled her name. Lit, it turned out, meant “lost” and for this woman that was indeed an appropriate name. About twenty of her twenty four years had been spent in prison and being in prison or not seemed to make little if any difference to the woman called Lit. All her life she seemed to take pleasure in such pursuits as brawling, stealing, defacing, defaming or destroying whatever others had worked hard to produce. Lit had been one of the first chosen for exile. There was absolutely no examiner who disagreed with the observation that there was no other hope for Lit; she was incorrigible. As with the others in her group, it was assumed that once removed from her world, Lit could do no further harm to anyone. it was, however, a completely wrong assumption to make. Half a dozen times on the long journey and despite the sedative treatment given the vicious cargo, Lit had to be restrained from brawls with the others. Near the end of the journey, Lit had to be confined separately and this confinement had to be continued even after they had made landfall. Lit was tall and as females go, rather heavy, but offsetting this was an undeniable attractiveness. Only the cold hardness of her blue eyes gave hint of her disdain for others and of her total lack of fear.

If Lit had any idea of what was about to happen as she was led from her cubicle, we will never know, but once inside the crossbreeding room she stood quietly, her eyes trained on the doorway opposite the one she had entered. her wait was not a long one. A kind of hushed anticipation fell on the voyeurs as their eyes flicked from the implacable face to the smooth gray metal door. The squat, hulking man took two steps into the room and from -deep in the shadow of an exceptionally dark cave his dull eyes surveyed the female. For some time they measured each other, neither face revealing any inner reaction. Finally it was the man whose nostrils flared – and with a deep rumble sounding in his chest, he charged. Then in the millisecond. before reaching her, his angry roar turned into the shrillness of pain. Lit ‘ s ragged nails lined three parallel streaks of red across the temple. Actually, an unpredictable jerk of the man’s head which took place midway in his charge had saved the sight of one eye. If the savage continued to feel pain no one could be certain. On contact, one massive hairy arm wrapped tightly around the woman ‘ s waist while a series of blows rained down from Lit’s fists and elbows. Now both were off their feet and locked tightly to each other were rolling about on the floor, each trying to impale the other with teeth. “No! Allow them this time!” shouted an agitated Air-Sot to those who clamored for the separation on the two. “I think all the pain has already been inflicted, ” he assured them. Back in the crossbreeding room, the conflict gave every sign of continuing, if not increasing in sound and fury. There was a spattering of blood on the floor and one of the walls, while a small crimson thing, very likely a tooth, rolled into one corner. Then as Lit’s plain prison uniform was ripped jaggedly across her body revealing the smooth fullness of her bosom, Air-Sot noted a slight change in the attitude of both combatants., “Look now- they no longer seem to be fighting! I think, in fact I know , they are copulating!” As was usually the case, he was correct. By the time of the bloody impregnation of Lit had been scheduled, Air-Sot had been back on the planet Earth for several months and just why this particular part of the grand plan should strike his scientific mind as especially significant, he couldn’t imagine. However, each time his thoughts turned to this particular blending of seed and egg he had the feeling that an important corner had been turned.

While he observed the expansion of Lit’s torso he also noted a rather obvious softening and smoothing of her attitude and personality. Somehow this impressed Air-Sot as very important to the overall program and he decided it was time to make a call-in report. Other heads-of- programs made frequent call-in reports, but not so with Air-Sot. There were questions concerning Lit ‘s physical condition and how she and the savage Earthman were accommodating each other in that they were now living· together full time.. It was on this call-in time that Air-Sot was given a sad message. The first child of the experiment, the child of Rabus had died. It never was decided who, the other children who looked so different from this on…or perhaps one of the nursery attendants had clubbed him to death. Here was the biggest setback yet in the whole difficult program.

Air-Sot was beside himself, overcome with the combined feelings of anger, sadness and guilt. At long last he regained his composure and with his voice colored by an unaccustomed softness, he said, “Whatever and whoever… I shall try to forgive them. For surely they could have no knowledge of just what they were doing. This child who was slain…he was the first. Certainly his murderer couldn’t be aware, but we had hope, even the expectation that he would be superior. You see… each race represented in him has special strengths. Perhaps you weren’t aware that here on this land, where we came uninvited, we call the people here “The Sons of Man” and they call us ”The Sons of God. “.