Off-Worlders Read online

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  WorldCoding is a highly profitable business.

  And a heady rush of power affair to boot.

  Most worlds however, did it very, very poorly.

  Moethiica, however, did not. Because Moethiica had the best WorldCoders known to the cosmos. Moethiica had Cybriids.

  They had come a long way since the disaster of Gen1. Gen1, who had randomly embodied with the lost souls of an ancient, long destroyed, mystery world.

  In their brief existence in the Cybriid Gen1 forms, they had spoken of their fluid, floating being. And they had spoken of being drawn inexplicably to the bodies of these newly created Cybriids, with a burning desire to embody in them.

  Dr. IIz, their creator, had wanted more for his creations than the usual human soul snippets used in CyTech.

  Suffice to say, he got more than he bargained for. Now embodied with the essence of these ancient beings, their size, strength and intelligence was on a par with, and possibly even greater than, the Giant Ancient Astronauts.

  They were incarcerated immediately. For their own protection, as well as for the protection of all else, around them.

  There were many, however, on Moethiica who feared and obsessed over their existence. Even behind bars, the reality of these new monsters of The Lady ate away at them.

  When the inside attack came on Gen1, it was brutal and efficient.

  One, however, survived, and escaped in the aftermath.

  He was one of the smaller ones, wiry, strong and clever.

  He stole aboard a ship.

  He coded. He deactivated his tracker. He hid his tracks cleverly.

  And after a time, with no sign of his whereabouts on Moethiica or any other likely worlds, they gave up searching for him.

  And they tried again with Gen2, and this time they did things a little differently.

  With the success of Gen2 and Gen3, Gen1 and its lone survivor were carefully buried deep in hard to find records, and quickly forgotten. But all living things tap into one ancient mind for part of their consciousness, and the Cybriid were no different.

  And in the ancient mind the Cybriids shared, the Gen1 Survivor spoke and became legend.

  There were twenty-two in Gen1. There were seven hundred in Gen3 - human sized, carefully bred, accepted. And of them, Izabel, brilliant and beautiful, was the best. She served faithfully and brilliantly, for many, many years.

  When the powers that be were informed that Izabel had stolen the Cirillean ship, they did not believe it.