2061.

Return of Halley’s Comet to the Earth, a report.

Despite what you may have heard on the blogosphere and the SiG forums such as JackPoint, a comet is not a ball of ice and mud with a rocky center.  A comet is an asteroid with an eccentric orbit.

When Benjamin Franklin was zapped by lightning he survived and declared that the Sky is Electric.  Well, we have been carrying the Electric Universe torch – both independent researchers and true scientists – for nigh going on three hundred years now.  The Universe is Electrical, and the Awakening is part of that process.

 Halley’s comet glows because it is seeking charge equalization.  It travels far out in the Solar System where charge densities from Sol are reduced and the as the comet orbits nearer to the sun the charge densities increase and the asteroid releases the electric charge in the form of a coma to compensate.

- Brief from the Thunderbolts team, circa March 2061 –

NBC News with Carrie Carrington Trid News Report September 4, 2061.

“News reports have come in from all over North America of isolated incidents of people suddenly changing.  In Seattle, a young adult troll had suffered from what doctors have said that is part of the changes in Goblinization or what scientists have termed as Unexplained Genetic Expression.

“The troll has suddenly suffered a seizure and have reported to have grown fur all over his body. Scientists had nothing to comment on what happened.”

NBC News with Carrie Carrington Trid News Report, September 10, 2061.

“More incidents of Sudden Unexplained Regressive Genetic Expression or SURGE, has come across North America and the World.  When millions were bathing in the sacred river of the Ganges, a mana surge has awakened and many of the bathers were changed into multi-limbed blue hued humans.  They have four arms and resemble many hindu gods, most notably Shiva.

“Also in the news, more of these Changelings have surfaced.  Forms from cat, to dog, to dolphin changelings, to ogres, to everything inbetween has been reported.  For example, a ten year-old girl in Salt Lake City has apparently changed into a lizard girl resembling a human-allosaurus hybrid.  And a young woman in Seattle had changed into a cat-human hybrid.  However, less of these “furries” have shown up than people with partial SURGEs, and these Changelings have caused quite a stir.  Chad Andersen is on scene to explain.”

CHAD ANDERSEN: “Yes, Carrie, there has been reports of racial uprisings.  Many people are rallying against the Changelings, and while it seems like orks and trolls have a hard time of getting along with elves, humans, and dwarves – now there are changelings in the racial mix today.  I’m here with Martin Clyde, an elf living here in Pittsburgh.

 “There seems to be a lot of people here protesting the Changelings here.”

 CLYDE: “Yes, Chad, we do not like the changes that the comet has wrought.  These Changelings are a danger to humanity and we need to round them up and force them out.”

 ANDERSEN: “What makes them such a danger?”

CLYDE: “They are different from us, Chad.  They have caused trouble with us, and some Changelings are insectoid in appearance, so they resemble the bugs of Chicago.”

?ANDERSEN: “So, you don’t remember what Martin Luther King had fought for a hundred years ago?”

 CLYDE: “These furries and scalies are a danger to us, a danger to our children.  I wouldn’t want my children to associate with them, I don’t want them in my neighborhood, and I especially don’t want the insectoids here as well!  REMEMBER CHICAGO!”

ANDERSON: “Well, you heard it here first, Carrie.  With the nuking of Chicago and the destruction of the bug hive there, feelings are running high admist all of these Changelings.”

CARRIE: “Is there something to be done with all of the Changelings, is the government going to do something about them?”

ANDERSEN: “The Government has nothing at this time.  The Draco Foundation is willing to give help to any displaced Changelings after their change.  But we are going to see the effects of this for a long time to come.  Carrie?”

CARRIE: “It’s just the nature of the changing world we live in.  Chad Andersen, live in Pittsburgh.  In other news . . .”

?*** ? ***

?2066 A.D.

Five years later.

?I, Robert Deckard, am current in high school going to Junior High.  I am going to Hunter Junior High School along with my ork buddy, Michael Drake.  I am human, through and through.  During the year of the Comet, my parents felt that we were blessed that none of us had felt the effects of the SURGE and became changelings.

I suppose my story here begins with the start of ninth grade.  In September.  It’s been five years after Halley’s Comet came and went.  It was a nice September day when we were on the bus, and Michael and I always sat together.

?“You know, it’s going to be a great day today,” I said.

?The ork laughed, “Besides me getting my new datajack over the summer?”

“You aren’t planning to cheat, are you?” I asked.

“No, hardly,” he said.  “I want to learn Or’zet, so I got my dad and my mom to scrimp me a datajack.”

“You always seem to get them to do what you want, hmm?”

“Always, it’s a gift.”

“Well, there seems to be quite a bit of girls,” I said.  “I can’t wait to get to know more girls today.  How about yourself?”

“Oh, you know me, I dig elf chicks,” Michael grinned as he took the lingaSoft out of its wrapper.

“Whoa, are you going to learn that now?” I asked.  “Schway!”

“I might as well get a head start,” said Mike as he plugged the lingasoft in.  Robert Page translated Or’zet, the language of the orks, after Dunkelzahn’s death.  Each chip had come with a miniature power source.  As he jacked in the chip, he closed his eyes as the information entered his brain.

He was down and out longer than usual, so I checked the chip. It was the university course on Or’zet!  “Mike . . . “ I said, concerned for my childhood friend.   About fourteen minutes after he jacked in the chip, he came to.  It scared a lot of people on the bus that he would be unresponsive for such a long amount of time.

Everyone was looking at us when he spoke. “Skraa, Robby,” Mike said as he got up and grabbed his books.  “Ashdautas vrasubatlat!”

Everyone stared at him when he said that.  I didn’t know what he was saying, the other students on the bus didn’t know what he was saying, and the driver – a troll – didn’t even know what he was saying.  Mike looked nervous.

He continued to speak in Or’zet as if it was his native language.  “Robby, what is going on?” he said.  “Why is everyone looking at me like I’m quaalzet?”

I said, “Mike, I don’t even know what you are saying!”

“How ever do you mean, Robby?” he asked in Or’zet.  “I’m just talking to you face to face.”

“Please, make sense, Mike.  Speak English!”

Mike said, “I don’t know if I can speak English, Robby.”

*** ? ***

We found ourselves in the school infirmary with the nurse looking at Mike.  “Well, he seems well enough,” said the Nurse.  “I can’t seem to find anything wrong with him.”

“But he continuously speaks that gutteral language,” I said. “It’s unnerving.”

“Please, nurse you’ve got to at least try,” Mike said in Or’zet.

“Well, if it’s a lingua-soft,” the nurse said.  “It could be that you downloaded the whole information and your brain is interpreting it as your native language until it can access your English again.  In other words, you’ve overwritten your English.”

“How long will it take,” I asked.

“Who knows how long it will take for the brain to recompile your languages,” said the nurse.  “A few hours or maybe a few days.”

“Vut, just vut!” my friend said.  I knew that expression in his voice.  I resassured him by putting my hand on his shoulder as he started to cry.

“Don’t worry, Mike,” I said.  “You will speak English again.”

“Mike sammund,” he continued to speak in Or’zet as he cried on my shoulder. “I desire to speak my native language.  Mikeizg opashim Robby, Robby eunabo.”

Again I have no idea what he said.  I left with him to head to our class, and as I walked I espied a girl.  The girl was a Changeling, she was covered in scales and had the head of an allosaurus, scaly hands with five fingers, and four toed feet that ended in a wicked claw.  She had a long, sinewy tail, and her eyes were golden.  Her skin was covered in a beautiful pattern of red and orange.  She wore shorts that hugged a little above her knees and a t-shirt.  Her t-shirt covered breasts that looked like they were full.  She was talking to another changeling when Mike suddenly continued.

“Robbyizg cerri do izburz Mike,” Mike said.  I didn’t understand at all what he was saying.

I said, “Michael, be quiet throughout the day, okay?  Until your brain sorts itself out.”

“Zug-zug,” Mike said.  I never looked back to see if the Allosaurus lizard girl was looking back at me.

Three days afterwards, Mike had regained the use of his English, although he had to go to Therapy to refine his speech.   Still, he could speak colloquial English.  “Whoa, that whole experience was whiz, man!” he said to me.

“Well, your parents wouldn’t let me come over for the past three days,” I said.  “You were still figuring everything out.”

“Yeah,” said Mike.  “But I can speak both Or’zet and English natively!  I know I can!”  He had a face of pride.  There’s nothing like an ork with a face of pride, his long tusks just seemed to make it stand out.

We could spot out more changelings at school today.  One was a boy who had red hair, scarlet red hair, that changed various shades of red according to his moods.  Another girl had a cow’s tail wagging behind her as she walked.  Another, an ork, sported a Mohawk.   However her skin had changed to an olive green.  And we picked out twenty changelings among the normal kids.  As if a school full of humans, dwarves, elves, orks, and trolls – with twenty different changelings – was normal.

We had a history class.  I looked around, and yep the allosaurus lizard girl was there along with one other changeling, the boy with a full head of red hair that changed different shades according to his mood.
“Mary, Josephine, . . .” the teacher called roll.  “Robert . . .”

“Here!” I said.

“Michael . . . “

“Here!”

“Electra . . .”

The Allosaurus girl raised her hand.  Yep, that was Electra.

“Very good, today, we have reports to report on in history,” the teacher, Mr. Thompson said.  Mr. Thompson was a dwarf, a less stocky one with a shaven beard.  The only thing that made him stand out that he had was long sideburns.

“You all have a report due today on the history of North America.  Now remember, this is an oral report.  So lets do this alphabetically,” said Mr. Thompson.  As he called each their names, my fellow students got up and all of them started to recite their reports.  I was anxious to get to mine.

When he called my name I stood proudly up at the head of the class.  I printed out my report the night before, I was so happy to present it.  “Ahem, a treatise on the Advanced Civilizations of North America in pre-columbian times,” I began. 

“The standard model of history isn’t working out for us.  The Awakening showed this,” I said.  “Dragons such as president Dunkelzahn and others appeared on the North American continent during it and he explained everything that had gone on.  But what if during the Ice Age that there was an advanced civilization that had technology that is far beyond what we have today?”

The class laughed, except Mike.  But I continued with my report. I talked about the ideas of Robert Buvual and Graham Hancock, and even showed slides of the Great Wheel in Heaven as it showed on pictographs in Utah and California.  As I continued to speak, the class continued to snigger.  However, Mike and Electra didn’t.  I didn’t notice it but Electra was looking at me with strong admiration.

I closed my report and handed my report to Mr. Thompson, and I sat down.  Thompson took the floor, “Interesting report, Robert.  However, we still teach that America was colonized over the Bering Strait and the people of North America that are natives are descended from this group.”

The class giggled again.  I wondered when they are going to get it that they are being taken for a ride?  “However,” Thompson said.  “This is school where we can explore all avenues of thought and it is good to hear a new theory of the colonization of cilivization of North America before Columbus’ time, especially one on prehistory.  Although it is the opinion of the school board that there was no Atlantis.”

Everyone laughed, except for Electra that looked at me with strong admiration.  I didn’t know it at the time, but the remarks of our teacher had filled me with justifiable exoneration and pride.  I just glowed in the feeling that the theory I wrote about was a competing alternate theory that the scholars were debating on.

“Good work, buddy!” said Mike, patting me on the back.  Electra was still looking at me, and I didn’t know it at the time.

*** ? ***

Two months after the incident was the girls indoor soccer team.  I was trying to find Mike.  However, I didn’t know where he could be.  In my gym clothes, I hunted out the supply closet.

“Come on Mike, where are you?”  As I neared the supply closet, I noticed an elf girl walking out with a satisfied feeling in her face and what looked like milk on her lips.  I stared at her, trying to think of what happened when Mike came out, raising his shorts over his briefs.

“What just happened?” I asked.

“I was just showing Clarice the supply closet,” Mike meekly said.

I said, “Showing the supply closet,” I smirked.  “I bet she got a good view.”

“She did!” Mike said, his tusks resonating.

“Well, your scams keep bullies off our backs, so I thank you for that,” I said.  “Come on, lets get showered and cleaned up.”

“I’ve been noticing Electra lately,” Mike said.

I replied, “So?”

“She never takes her eyes off you,” said Mike.

“So?” I asked.

“You should ask her out.”

“I’m afraid too,” I answered.

Mike started speaking in Or’zet. “To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible,” Mike said in Or’zet.  I had no idea what he just said, but the tone of the voice sounds like Mike was watching that science fiction show again.

“Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear,” he said in English.  Then he transferred back to Or’zet.  “Act, and you may have dinner.  Think, and you may be dinner.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“Seize the day,” Mike said.  “Go to Electra and ask her out.”  Mike was undressing, soon he was naked.  Mike naked was about as shocking as any other metahuman in the showers were naked.  I facepalmed, however, when I heard the sounds of two boys making out in one of the private shower booths.  Is this what we come too?  I got naked and showered.

“But she’s a lizard girl,” I defended my fear.

“Just do it,” said Mike.  “What’s the worst that can happen?”

“I could break her heart?”

“It already pains her,” he said. “Every time she looks at you, its with strong admiration.  She’s a strong lady, and when a strong girl admires you it’s all in your court.  It’s even more awesome when she’s submissive.  That means that the strong girl not only admires you but finds you an equal or better.”

“Okay, but you owe me,” I said.

“Owe you what?”

“Your Or’zet lingua-soft.  I have to understand you when you speak Or’zet.”

“You have to have tusks to speak it correctly,” Mike said.

I said, “I am not going to be an ork poseur just so I can pronounce your language correctly.  I want to understand it not speak it perfectly.”

Mike hugged me in the shower.  It’s a strange thing when a naked ork hugs a naked human.  “Never, ever become an ork poseur,” he said.  “I don’t want you any other way.”

We finished cleaning ourselves, and get ourselves dressed in our clean street clothes as we waited for the bell for the next class.  I liked showering, actually.  We moved on.  Tonight is the soccer game and I wondered if Electra was playing.

The indoor soccer game started with the Hunter Hawks vs. Brockbank’s Braves.  Yep, they were all girls’ teams.  At least it’s better than the basketball games that they have going on almost every week, but then it’s basketball’s time to be away.  A good portion of our basketball team was made up of elves and trolls.  Soccer, you need speed and lower body strength.

The soccer team was mostly made up of humans, but I counted two dwarven girls and one elf.  Electra was there, the only lizard girl – I mean Changeling – in the group.  She still looked a little odd.   The girls were dressed in shorts and soccer jerseys.   Short shorts, of course, so they could show that they were feminine.  Electra was the odd one out.  Even though her tail had to be free, but she didn’t wear shoes like the others did.  Still, the uniforms were all red and black for hawks.

The Braves had their indoor soccer team dress in blue and white.  Similar clothes.  I scanned – yes the team was mostly human with three dwarven girls and two orks.  The elves who go to Brockbank sports must play on the basketball team.

As I nonchalantly scanned around the other team, Mike jabbed me in the ribs and said, “She’s looking at you, dude!”

“What?” I asked, and Electra was looking away.  I could swear she kind of, blushed?  Dinosaurs don’t blush.  What was going on?

“Act, and you may have dinner.  Think, and you may be dinner,” Mike said in Or’zet.  By this time, I also took the lingua-soft treatment.  I didn’t have a datajack, so I relied on a network of trodes.  The result was the same, the lingua-soft overwrote my English with Or’zet and it took twenty hours to recompile my English.  I understood him perfectly.

“I have to stop getting you to watch klingons,” I said back in Or’zet.

Mike laughed as I pronounced the Or’zet wrong.  I always did, since I didn’t have tusks. “It’s better than Neil the Ork Barbarian.  I like Worf and the klingons.  They seem so, ork like.”

“You hoping to be in Starfleet?” I asked.  “The Ute Nation doesn’t have a space program.”

“Nay,” Mike said.  “I’m going to work for the Salt Lake City Police.”

The game started.   I actually got to see the team play.  It was a great indoor soccer game. Although, it looked like Electra was playing harder than the other players.  However, I was reflecting on what I wanted to do with my life.  And it came to me, I had absolutely no idea on what I wanted to do.

I watched everyone play, but it seems every time Electra got the soccer ball, she was kicking it more aggressively.   Her clawed toes kicked the ball, leaving an impression on the ball.  She managed to score the first point for the Hawks and everyone clapped.  I clapped, and she was looking at me, for a while there – I thought she blushed.

The game continued, with the players continuing to play soccer. I watched my mom, and she was getting excited.  I looked at my sister, and she was non-challantly doing her nails.  I wondered what was so interesting about her nails.

I continued to watch the game.  I watched as the ball passed through many of the players, and the Braves kicked the ball pass our dwarven goalie.  That was one point to the braves.  The other team supporters yelled out.  We were tied.  I started to eat on a snack while watching them play.

“So, do you think we are going to win?” Mike asked in Or’zet.

“It doesn’t matter who wins or loses,” I said.

Mike took the opportunity to quote the Klingon he really liked.  “If winning isn’t all that important, why keep score?” he intoned.

I groaned.  He’s quoting from a show that is almost one hundred years old.  “Give that show a rest, will ya?” I asked.  “Maybe I should have you watch Support Your Local Sheriff instead.  Good Western.”

“It might be interesting,” Mike said.

I then said, “How many times do I have to remind you that you are not a klingon?”

Mike just grinned.  I kept watching the indoor soccer game.  We were running out of time, and so far our goalie was exchanged for another.  In fact several team members were replaced.  However, they replaced a player with Electra who took one look at me, and started to play aggressively again.

She kicked the ball to the other end of the Braves’ field and it took one powerful kick and the ball went past their ork goalie.  We won a point.  And the crowd on our side cheered! Electra held up her hands in two fists and absorbed the cheers in a cheering face with her tail swaying from side to side.  It was like she was happy, but no one noticed that the soccer ball had deflated because Electra ripped a hole in it with one of her toe claws.  However, I noticed that.

I met her outside, wearing her plain clothes.  I told my mom I wanted to delay so I can talk to her.  Her plain clothes included shorts and a t-shirt with her shorts belted.  One thing she didn’t have to worry about was grooming.
“Uh, hi there,” I said.  I shyly wave, but Mike would say something about shyness is for cowards.

“Hi, Robert,” she said almost shyly hiding herself.

“You did great out there,” I said.

“Really?” she asked.

“Yeah, you did great out there,” I said.  “So, would you like to go somewhere and hang out sometime?”

“I don’t know but, how can I say this,” she said.  She then turned around and hugged me against the wall.  She was so close, and her movements so intimate that she just raised her head and whispered into my right ear, “Yes, I would love to hang out with you sometime.”

I was astonished.  She asked, “Can you escort me out to my mom’s car?”

Electra was putting on these pink fluffy, I guess you could say shoes, over her saurian feet.  She then put on her heavy black jacket.  And finally put on a special red and green beanie.  She picked up her gym bag in one arm. “I have to keep myself warm, silly,” she said.  “Or I go into a stupor.”

“You are still warmblooded?” I asked.

Electra smiled, “Of course, silly!”

I held her hand as I walked her to her parents’ car.  She started to say something, “You may not know this, but I’ve admired you for quite sometime.”

“Everyone tells me that,” I said.  “What is it you admire me about?”

“Your light, your intelligence,” said Electra.  “You are so intelligent and so smart, it just makes me excited to hear you speak.”

“Oh, is there anything else you like about me,” I prodded.

She just blushed and said, “You’re so handsome and cute!”

“I am?” I asked.  “I don’t think anyone said that to me before.”

We reached her van, and her human brother opened the door for her.  “Come on, Electra, lets go home.”

“Just a second, Chaz,” Electra said.  She turned to me and embraced me with her arms. “I have practice a lot, I might not find any time to get away to go hang, but here’s something on account.”

She moved her lips closer to mine and we kissed.  We kissed in what would seem like forever, and then Chaz honked the horn.  “Come on, Electra.  Lets go!”

Electra broke off the kiss, and got into the van.  She closed the door and waved goodbye to me.  Her parents drove the van away.  I was walking to my own car where my mother was waiting for me when Mike joined me.

“Whoa, score one for the Robster!” he said, in a cheerleading sort of way.

“Am I off the hook?” I asked.

“I would say you’re off the hook when you come to the end of the road,” said Mike.

I asked, “What did you say?”

“You touched first base,” said Mike.  “Then you have to go all the way to win this bet.”

“What?”

“You heard me, Robby,” Mike said.  “You have to run all the way home, there’s no outs on this particular baseball game.”

I held my head and wondered what the heck is going on; or what exactly am I getting into.   “Can I take this one slow?” I asked as I got into my mother’s sedan.   Mike got in with me.

“The best prize comes to the hunter who waits,” Mike said in Or’zet, then he switched to English.  “An ork proverb.  You can take it as slow as you want.”

I nodded as my mother drove me, Mike, and my sister away to our homes.  I thought about it, what does fourth base mean to Mike?  We were best friends since grade school, what did it mean.