The Adept

We lived in the cave for almost a whole year. Lena was always conjuring up treats, but from day one she taught me to roam the woods and gather edible herbs, berries, and fruits. She taught me to use my crooked and powerless atomic‐fingers more effectively and to do difficult things like fire making with well‐coordinated fingers, toes, and teeth. It amazed me what I could do on my own by now, even if some of it seemed like a circus act.

In painstaking detail work, I made a bedstead of bark, ferns and moss in many weeks, and when it was ready, I stayed two full days with Lena to inaugurate the masterpiece accordingly. I knew, of course, that Lena was as sparing with praise as a Scotsman with his shilling, but as I lay happily and sweatily beside her and almost dozing off, I said my "Thank you for all this!" loud and clear. For once I really wanted to say it, not always just think it.

Lena had gone to neighboring towns a few times, bringing back books and newspapers that soon filled the back of the cave. Rudi Dutschke, a German, had been installed by the Darx as President for life and deftly maneuvered between Scylla and Charybdis. The revolting zealot had become a mature, serious man trying to hold together a shrinking empire in ruins. In Moscow, in the state of East Russia, Vladimir J. Lemonosov succeeded John F. Kennedy, who had died unexpectedly and under mysterious circumstances, becoming the first European president of the United States. In occupied France, the terrorist Lucien Le Loup held on as president of a shadow government, and in the remnants of London still ruled the aged King Philip, since the queen and her court had fled to Iceland. In Rome, the popes resided (the Africans had enforced the simultaneous installation of the Archbishop of Lagos) and did clever marketing for the time after.

Wave after wave, the Darx sent the Dreamer, transformed into zombie‐warriors, northward, but could not overcome the swamps that had formed in the remnants of the Northeast Sea Canal. Scandinavia had been fully developed into a fortress and successfully defied superior forces, as did Scotland, where the Caledonian Canal formed a natural aid to resistance. Water and cold — on this all commentators in the newspapers agreed — were the Achilles heel of the Darx. Our cave was close to the German‐Danish border, where the streams of refugees from southern Europe had been gathering and the refugees had now been living in massive camp cities for years. If Lena's history lessons had not passed me by completely, these camp cities were modeled on medieval structures and, at the same time, were equipped by the Scandinavians' technology and modern weaponry.

Lena explained to me what the power in my brain could accomplish. The first thing I had to learn was that it was very easy to fly. I closed my eyes and wanted it, really wanted it, and then I was there. I was there. Once we made a jump even to Africa, standing in the middle of the sand sea and I was sweating terribly. After minutes, we jumped back over two thousand kilometers, because the Darx satellites close to the Earth had already spotted us. Lena laughed, because now the telephones would run hot in the monitoring room, and that because of two biological lumps in the Sahara, which did not belong there and were also immediately no longer there. There a poor dog got a juicy rebuke, gentlemen!

To get into the systems of the Darx like Lena, I could not yet, that was still much too difficult for me. Instead, she taught me everything that was related to telekinesis. At the beginning I was still very uncertain, but Lena said that this was one of my strongest abilities, because I reminded her of Merlin, whom she sometimes mentioned. I had read about him and was actually convinced that he was a mere legendary figure. Lena corrected me and said that the many fairy tales and some of the miracles he is said to have worked, yes, they would have come about through constant passing on and retelling and affirmations. "But Merlin really existed, he was so much like you!" she said in a tone of conviction. "And he couldn't get enough of fucking!" she added, giggling. Her teacher and she would have developed his power, just as she was now developing mine. Of course, mind‐reading, hypnotic commands and Telekinesis in the 5th century were perfectly suited to let him live on forever as a powerful wizard. "But," Lena sighed, "you humans with your urges are strange! He met his fate because of his love for Nimue, who had become the tool of Morgane La Faye and lured him to his death." Lena was silent and wept to show me her sorrow for Merlin. I cried a little, too, so she wouldn't feel so alone. In the same way, we cried for hours later when she told me about Joan of Arc, whom she had loved very much. — Of course, I didn't ask for a long time why Lena said she was 16 ("if I wanted it that way"), when she had already known Merlin and Joan of Arc ...

Telepathy. Teleportation. Telekinesis. I didn't really grasp these words until Lena looked up briefly from her favorite activity of grilling tough seagulls over the campfire and said I should lift down that boulder up there, there was a small natural chimney behind it where the smoke could better dissipate. I looked up at the rock and saw no chimney far and wide. Lena, who sometimes looked 60 and not 16 when she was grilling, growled, "Wanting, you just have to want it right!" I strained my eyes even more and saw nothing. But, yes, now I could sort of "see through" the boulder and dimly guessed the chimney behind it. It made a sharp bend to the upper right in the middle of it. "Yes," Lena commented, poking at the fire to help spread the embers, "now you've got it!" I looked back at the rock and knew I would never, ever be able to move this thing the size of half a truck, even if I "flew up it."

"It's easier than reaching your own cock" Lena whispered to herself with a smile, but I heard it anyway. Curiosity, ambition and fear of being ridiculed gripped me. I closed my eyes and wanted, wanted very badly for the boulder to fall. Of course, nothing happened, and when I opened my eyes, I saw Lena, who had quickly extended her hand and magically stopped the boulder above me, because otherwise it would have crushed me quite easily.

"Gee, Jan, you've got to watch what you're doing!" she scolded. Then she said, I should take over the rock now, she had to keep grilling, otherwise the cattle would burn. I stared at the boulder, but she still couldn't let go until I finally mustered all my strength and directed it through my crooked fingers. With a jerk, it lifted a little. I turned it carefully and let it float through the cave. What a feeling of happiness! Slowly I turned it, maneuvered it through the mouth of the cave, and then gave it a tremendous push, sending him splashing far out to sea in a high arc. A fishing boat was just nearby and almost capsized. I had to swallow hard, because I almost killed the poor fishermen unintentionally.

Lena blinked her eyes as she always did when she read someone's mind in the distance. Then she said I was getting something new to learn, we had to go to the fishermen. At the same time she grabbed me by the empty sleeve and we jumped into the fishing boat. Lena said, "Put a finger on the fisherman's forehead and command him to forget the incident with the boulder and you!" The two fishermen stared at me with their mouths open, holding their breath in shock because they couldn't see Lena. I reached out a little finger, touched the forehead of one of them and thought, ordered him to forget all this, immediately. He sat down and rowed off quite easily, without looking at me. Lena nodded with satisfaction that it went quite well. Then I had to touch the second one, but he flinched. Nevertheless, my finger touched him lightly when I ordered him to forget. He sat down apathetically and let me row him home. Lena and I flew back to our roasting bird.

In the following weeks Lena came back once from a trip to the next village and said that the fisherman had not completely forgotten everything and now we had a legend about a mysterious Monk throwing rocks into the sea. The other fisherman had not only forgotten everything, but had not had any more gout attacks since then. I had to think of my dream at the time, and Lena nodded, yes, that was from the dream.

In the weeks and months that followed, I practiced telekinesis as often as I could, moving from one place to another with ever greater ease. I learned to throw stones out to sea using only mental power, and to destroy them before they hit with a mentally re‐fired bolt of fire. Lena said that I was already very good at it. Now she took me more and more often to the surrounding villages, where the people soon got used to the monk, who appeared and disappeared here and there. I had to learn to command with my thoughts and was soon quite good at it. Only my urges I still shared with little Jan.

Once I read the thoughts of a fisherman's wife as I walked across a field and discovered her curiosity and her rising desire to do it with the mysterious monk. I ordered her to a secluded shed where we fucked pleasurably. Then I touched her forehead and thought she should forget everything. Lena sat in front of the shed and said with a grin that I probably had enough variety now, and that was true. After so many weeks together, I sometimes thirsted for other women I met in the small villages. Only once Lena interfered and said no, because this girl was a mutant and I should leave her alone.

Not infrequently Lena reminded me not to forget learning and practicing, because with the change grew my drive and desire, even the desire to hunt. Sometimes I also forgot to command the forgetting properly and so slowly the legend of the gaunt monk grew steadily. None of the women would have admitted anything, no, they certainly do not, but one hears, there would be something to it, that the monk quite un‐monkish ..., well, you know!

Sometimes I helped an overturned cart or a stuck truck again so that not only the healing arts, but also the tremendous strength of the monk flowed into the legends, although some other stories reported that he had no arms at all. Sometimes Lena thought for a long time and quickly erased one or another memory in people. Overall, though, she let me do what I wanted to do.

Strictly, however, she watched over my progress. Somewhere, someone had decided that I had to do a certain daily workload of reading, telekinetic exercises and the observation of the time events to complete. I obeyed silently, even when Lena instructed me in all sorts of tactical games and descriptions of battles. Why this or that one should have stood there and not there, how to set traps cunningly and how to recognize cunningly set traps or avoid them. And then again and again technique, technique, technique. I had long since stopped asking what all this was for. I knew the answer: about that we talk later once.

The awakening Jan experienced an adventurous and fun time with little Jan. Lena's sexual ingenuity, her lust and her arts of seduction were extraordinary and inevitably cast a spell over me. Nevertheless, she withdrew again and again to let me hunt for pleasure. She instinctively suspected that this was the right thing to do for little Jan. She smoothly threw my burgeoning concerns about fairness to the wind and only said that I should do what I wanted and not hurt anyone in the process. About it, and only about it I should think, not about fairness.

Curiously I rummaged in the thoughts of the women, if I strode in the localities around in the evenings. Magically attracted me their lustful thoughts, fucking became the fulfillment of secret desires. Not infrequently I groped through a dark bedroom and quietly loved the woman, while the man snored next to her unsuspectingly. Some women were full of longings, but many lived empty and listless, thinking of everything else but sex. I passed them by as they passed me by.

A few I visited again and again because they wanted to be loved intensely. Most were afraid of their thoughts, I let them forget everything again, until the next time mostly. Only two or three wanted to live through it consciously and honestly. Here I relied on Lena's good knowledge of human nature and left the choice of forgetting to her. There were many strong women in this terrible time who did almost superhuman things for their families, but only a few who also stood by their longings and desires. Or whose cultural being allowed it.

A bright girl had overheard that the monk sometimes visited her mother at night. She listened and watched us fucking, she felt her excitement rising and rubbed her clit lustfully. She had already tried fucking with the neighboring boys, but had not found any real pleasure in it. She much preferred to lie on her bed, lost in thought, and play with the clit herself. Once, when I had already left her mother again and was still sitting in the grass outside the house for a few minutes, I heard her curious, cautious‐lustful thoughts that came to her while she lay in bed and secretly masturbated.

Cautiously, I approached her bed and stroked her; terror and lust twitched up, then all at once she embraced me. I stayed with her and we fucked each other. Meike, as she was called, was like Sister Theresa a "hard going" woman and could not climax so easily. I stroked her clit with my fingers and thought of exciting and arousing things, tried to transfer this to her mentally. To my greatest surprise, I succeeded and she experienced a surprisingly violent orgasm.

Lena was already waiting outside the house when I quietly slipped out. "That worked out just fine!" she said and hugged me. "This is a major step forward in our training, because now you can practice putting your thoughts, your will into the thoughts of others. But remember, don't hurt anyone!"

She also said that this girl had slight mediumistic abilities, but only very weak ones. Any mutant would have a hundred times more capacity than her. Still, I should practice it. So it happened that in the next time I was mainly busy with Meike.

I tried to lure her out of the house with this new mental ability, and when it succeeded, we made love fiercely in the grass. When I was out elsewhere at night and felt her already in bed and masturbating, then I quickly sent her some lustful thoughts and felt her whooping come. Once she was sitting in the kitchen with her mother cleaning vegetables when I received her lustful thoughts. Immediately I reacted, reinforcing them as I did so. The mother was astonished when, for no apparent reason, her daughter suddenly became sexually aroused and closed her eyes. Perplexed, she observed how her daughter came to orgasm with violently heaving bosom, gasping and groaning.

I felt her own arousal rising rather than her and thought intensely that I was stimulating her clit. Very firmly and concentrated I thought about it, rubbing the clit of the Mother in my mind. Astonished and paralyzed by horniness, she experienced her own orgasm, trembling and quivering as she had not done in a long time and also did not notice that the daughter was looking at her in wonder and knowledge. It took a few days for the two of them to stop blushing when they looked at each other.

Lena praised how good I had become at it and how strongly I could develop my strength. Soon, she said, I would be as strong as Merlin at 16. I was proud, because Merlin had also become my hero. Now I avoided the village for some time and buried myself in the cave, learning and practicing obsessively, because Lena's praise had become important to me. Lena smiled at my eagerness and became again the little girl who played with my cock and made it squirt or was the lascivious girl who wanted it or was the lascivious, demanding female jaguar who had nothing but repeated mating in mind and demanded it with ferocity. I could learn better, she once said, if I were relaxed.

One evening I was wandering through a fishing village and picked up a mental cry for help, very faintly audible but clearly addressed to the monk. I followed my hunch and quietly entered a house. The whole family had gathered in the child's room, a sick child was feverish in bed, and next to the bed an old woman was fiddling, who had evidently called me. "How did you get in?" roared the fisherman, but the old woman bade him be silent with a stern look. "You heard me," she murmured in amazement, then nodded to herself as if to say yes ten times. "She takes the wrong herbs" Lena murmured, and I asked the old woman what kind of herbs she used. "Hawthorn harms the child" whispered Lena and I told her to just leave the hawthorn out. I listened further and said that so much would strengthen the heart, but only once a day, and for the little one a third is enough. Then Lena told me to put my hand on the child's forehead.

I knelt beside the bed in my long robe and felt with my crooked little fingers through the thick fabric for the little boy's forehead. "Feel what it has!" commanded Lena, and I felt. Very slowly I had the image in front of me that the child had a thick, red dumpling in his throat. Lena nodded in confirmation and whispered that I should make it go away, that I should just want it to be firm. I closed my eyes, and the child reared up, then sank down unconscious. The old woman pushed me aside and grabbed the child's forehead. The fisherman misunderstood everything and jumped on me. He wanted to beat me up. I was afraid and thought to myself that I would push him back. He flew all over the room, crashed into the opposite wall and remained sitting on the floor, gasping and bewildered. The old woman hissed angrily at him, then listened intently into the child, smiled, and turned to the fisherman's wife, "He's breathing much more calmly now!" Then she looked at me and raised her eyebrows questioningly. Lena said, the child would sleep for a whole day and then wake up completely healthy. I whispered this to the old woman.

I huddled on the floor for another hour, the women tended to the child and then were calmed. The old woman came to me and whispered, "So it's true, you can heal!" I nodded a little uncertainly and remained seated. I didn't understand myself how I had been able to do that and especially how I had been able to slam the poor fisherman against the wall; I wasn't the husky Kalle after all, hell!

The old woman gathered up her bundle and turned to go. At the door she turned around and looked questioningly at me. I quickly got up and followed her. The fisher family hardly noticed our going. "I am Nana," the old woman said as we walked down the street, "I am a doctor!" "Midwife," I corrected after Lena's instruction, "you used to be a midwife. Now you try to help people as best you can. Right?" Nana walked wordlessly beside me for a bit, then shook her head in wonder, saying she didn't understand. We were silent until we reached her house.

As we entered, Lena said you'd better get out of here now and grinned wryly before disappearing. I was about to ask her what I was doing there, but she was already gone. Nana put her things away and put out a cup of tea, which I didn't touch; I didn't want her to find out that I didn't have arms! She worked for a while and she sat down at the table. She looked in amazement at the clay cup with tea, which stood untouched in front of me. Slowly it dawned on her. "You don't have arms!" she said in amazement and almost choked on the next thought. "Oh, would you like some tea?" and I nodded. She took the clay pot and gave me a drink. I looked at her more closely. She wasn't actually very old, but the ragged clothes and neglected‐looking hair combined with the weathered, embittered face gave her something old and witchy.

Lena was not there, yet I caught a thought stirring deep down in her mind. "No, I don't have a problem feeding or dressing myself, I manage quite well." She snapped eyes widened as she realized that I was reading in her mind like a newspaper. "No, for masturbation I prefer to have a delicate female hand!" I feigned impudently and had to grin, because the good Nana was now actually a little blushed.

Confused, she waved one hand in the air and said, "Never mind, I wanted to know rather know who you are and what you're up to!". I grinned and said nothing to her thought, which she struggled to suppress. I felt as if Lena was whispering to me not to tell too much, just a little, legend and all. "My name is Jan, I live a bit further up in the forest and I go to the villages to be among people sometimes. I'm getting ready for an important task and if I can help people with my powers, I do. It's just very embarrassing for me what kind of stories people tell each other about me!" I paused and waited.

Nana wasn't thinking about fucking anymore; individual events were swirling in her head; the monk lifting broken trucks out from the ditch; the monk who heals the sick with the laying on of hands and knows about herbs; the fisherman who flies across the room as if hit by a giant fist. The monk of whom some women whispered furtively behind their hand that he was a horny goat, and what a one!

"That's true," I said lightly, "but I always make sure I'm wanted. I'm not doing anyone an injustice!" Nana was silent. "You're reading my mind again!" she said indignantly, and I looked at her questioningly. "Don't you want it? Then I'll just listen to what you say!" Still, that was a lie, because I heard what she was thinking as much as what she was saying.

"But I am not a monk," I added, "I used to be Venerable Mother's lover before she died. Since then I have carried her cross, although I think nothing of the popes in Rome or elsewhere!" A long silence followed, then Nana asked, "But how do you heal?" I pondered. I didn't know, but I did want to say something sensible. Lena's thought, wafting from afar, admonished me not to mention it. People would not understand if I heard voices or spoke with the invisible Lena, learned from her.

"I don't know for sure, Nana. I have strong powers, for healing, lifting carts or hurling attackers against the wall. When it's necessary, sometimes I have the powers. Sometimes I can't do anything, but I don't know why!" I heard Lena draw in her breath sharply, for I was at the limit of what I was allowed to say. But Nana didn't ask further, instead she went to a shelf and handled the herbs she collected there. I went to her and we discussed the herbs for probably an hour or more. There was much I didn't know, but some things she didn't, such as how to make a healing tea from the dangerous mulberry for stomach problems.

She grew tired, and I said I would go now and come back some other time. Then we wished each other a good night and I went out through the closed door. Inwardly I smiled at my prank, for she stared at the closed door in bewilderment. I stopped in front of the house and waited until she had gone to bed. After a while I returned quietly and squatted down beside her bed, waiting for a while as she thought about it all the time. "Yes, Nana, I want to fuck you too!" I whispered, feeling around on the blanket for her. She was not surprised, but at first she angrily dismissed the thought, thinking that she was too old and what‐do‐I know. I persisted in my stroking, until her curiosity grew stronger. Then I lay down with her and we made pleasurable love.

Later, I sometimes went with her to visit the sick, helping when I could or shrugging my shoulders regretfully when I could do nothing. Lena often said that nothing could be done and the old Nana did something for the sick person. But each time my mistrust evaporated when Lena asked me days later to take another look at the healthy patient again under the magnifying glass. I then felt the black, mist‐like traces that always meant cancer and death. Then Lena said that to cure such was not right; they were destined to die. The good Nana was very annoyed when I could not help and explained to her that this sick person was already too sick and destined to die; usually she asked angrily if I was the good Lord who knew everything! I was very sad and tried to make her understand that I just had my suspicions. About Lena I could not tell anything. Old Nana then thought and sighed, it could be so, but she would fight as long as she breathed. Our disgruntlement did not last long. Soon it was clear to her that my suspicions were becoming a certainty. Now, almost daily, we went our evening rounds or moved from village to village to treat minor and major aches and pains.

When I told her later sometimes about this or that amorous adventure, she would grin and joke that I was a horny goat! And if during our excursions to collect herbs or during the tedious preparation of teas and powders the urges of little Jan flooded me, she smiled kindly and did it to me with her hand. Fucking she wanted only very rarely and thought I should stick to the younger ones, she was already an old woman! When I then said that it did not matter at all, she said, yes, maybe so, but she would rather have someone she loved like a girl in love and not just fuck at random, if that's what Mr. Jan wanted! I was astonished, because I had not really thought of that. In love! Was I ever in love?

Lena sat with me at the edge of the forest and said, we want to see how strong I already am. I obediently closed my eyes and listened to the village, looking for Meike in my mind. "She's reading and she's half asleep" I said and looked over at Lena. She nodded. Then she sent me her thought that I should move her here: "It's time for a little lovemaking, don't you think?" I thought hard again about how she would fly here and land softly on the mossy ground of the clearing. In a fraction of an instant, a blur of light twitched through the dusk, and then Meike lay beside me, wondering and gathering up her skimpy nightgown.

I gave her no time to think and suggested to her that she was already highly aroused and near to the climax which would come. She actually squirmed after a few seconds and experienced a surprisingly fast orgasm. I paid no attention to Lena, but slipped as nimbly as I could out of my frock and lay down on top of Meike, still feeling her subsiding orgasm and fucked her quickly and hastily, letting her — barely that I had squirted — slide right back into her bed.

Lena applauded and said that yes, I had become a master, even if I had let little Jan act. She had noticed the doggedness with which I had I had completed this exam task and told me not to tense up so much. But I was discontented because she had to criticize something again. Lena comforted me that everything was okay, I had mastered this task excellently.

Somewhat later we visited Meike again, who was thinking that it would have been a wonderful sex dream, had fallen asleep exhausted. Lena unobtrusively withdrew as I sneaked to Nana's house afterwards and carefully lay down next to her, seeking warmth, comfort and closeness. Before dawn, I awoke and quietly woke her to sleep gently and sadly with her. Then I went back to my cave.

Lena sensed the burgeoning crisis and left me a few days of learning and practice and stayed a little in the background. I slept and dreamed and let myself drift in the wet sand from the surf waves. My sadness and loneliness had surfaced unintentionally and suddenly, sending me into crippling depression. Lena watched me from afar and was always there whenever I needed her.

She sensed that I was missing Mother, Irene, and especially Veronika. So she was sometimes Mother, sometimes Irene, and always Veronika, although we both knew she was Lena.

Mother sometimes lolling on the beach like the Puss Purr and making warm and soft love with her little Jan, patiently rubbing his cock when he felt like it or letting him gently squirt inside, falling asleep at her side.

Irene first drank another glass of red wine before taking my cock in her mouth, sucking and sucking greedily. She thought nothing of fucking on the beach and mostly retreated into the soft moss in the clearing to fuck with little Jan. Sometimes she also came as Anni, who wanted to fuck fast and wild and cooed loudly and deeply at the climax.

When Veronika was there, I cried terribly long and heartbreakingly at first, until she went to wash herself in the beach waves and then came up to the dunes trembling and quivering. The dry gagging in my throat subsided as she lay down like a crucified woman with her arms spread wide and stretched her bottom out to me. Assfucking, she liked that very much, still does! I loved her, loved her with all my heart and smiled happily when our tears mingled at the end. Sometimes she would turn over and really make love to me, delicately holding my back as I gently came inside her.

I really missed Sister Veronica. As a lover of the Venerable Mother, I felt closest to her. I began to put on the heavy silver cross again. Veronica — I wanted to have her with me always.

Lena gave me time and left Veronika with me for a long time, weeks, months, maybe years; I don't remember. Veronika beamed and blossomed since the stupid promise no longer applied to her. She laughed and cried with brightly shining eyes when I gently poured myself into her. In the course of time she became more and more often a demanding female jaguar, loving me with the subtlety and greed of Lena.

I awoke. Lena was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding me close. Gradually the dizziness faded and I was fully awake, but terribly dull and tired. "No, you've been sick for a very long time," Lena said, getting me something to eat and drink. I slept for quite a long time and dreamlessly, until one morning I awoke completely fresh and alert.

Lena, who never slept, was lying next to me waiting. I looked around our cave and remembered everything again, Mother, Irene, Anni and Veronika.

Veronica. I felt the old familiar tugging in my loins, felt the cock covetously awaken. Lena bent over me and whispered in my ear that I was still much too weak to fuck. Apparently the journeyman had been fasting for a very long time, because she stroked me and let the jet spray high before I fell asleep.

I was given salad of medicinal herbs and tiny drumsticks of grilled seagulls. Smelled the acrid smoke again as Lena tearfully fretted with the fire and went on to her old‐wives' ranting. We both laughed heartily at her daily, favorite Cabaret "How to grill a seagull over an open fire?".

On the second day I was already thirsty for action and full of vigor again, but Lena was smart and knew that it would take a few more days until I was fully recovered. Since I didn't believe her, she seduced me on the spot, so that I lost my hearing and sight and fell asleep almost unconscious. When I woke up again, she smiled and said it would be better if I took the time I needed.

When I finally got up, the first thing I did was look for the silver cross and hung it around my neck. I resolved never to take it off again. Lena left me alone with my thoughts all day and didn't come back until late at night.

"Lena, I need to know why I'm here. Why I'm learning, what my purpose is!" She was silent for a long time. I was determined to find out. Nothing could dissuade me. The dream during the long, severe illness was not out of my mind, I had to know who she was and who I was, and above all, what I was for.

Lena sat down very close to me by the softly crackling fire and nestled her young girl body against me. Today I don't remember what we spoke and what we only thought. Only that she told me everything. I hope that I remember everything and that I can reproduce it correctly here. [Command: the Memomail‐check with security level 5 now has to check from the beginning again, skip the rest of the memomail, final command!]

Lena thought of the big, wide universe, black as night, with millions of little white dots swimming in it. I will try to explain everything to you, Jan, in the words you understand. We are a very ancient people living far out in space. We have spread out on artificial planets that we have created in the course of time. Each of our sub‐peoples owns or manages a part of the universe, a sector in which there are many galaxies. We are not like humans, but rather spiritual beings in your terms. We live as an individual about three thousand earth years. You experience me now as a 16‐year‐old girl, I took your conceptions as a pattern for my appearance, because our concepts of time are different. I am now according to your terms about 2000 earth years old and will enter my final stage with about 3000 earth years. I exist like you not for the first time in my world — only you have to think in very large periods of time. The death, as you understand it, concerns biological matter like that of the people, nevertheless there is also with us after the final stage a stage of the long rest, after that each of us returns anew to his people; I to mine and you, small Jan, to yours. You'll understand it maybe one day.

The people to whom I belong are also responsible for this galaxy as guardians of this sector, therefore also for the earth. I and some others are responsible for the earth exclusively, we must ensure the smooth functioning of this area. Since we are not material in the earth sense, we have been accomplishing this for centuries with the help of mediumistic people through whom we use our power, whom we influence and to whom we lend abilities so that they bring about changes in our sense. Those whom you regard as magicians, seers or exceptional people are tools chosen by us, because we as spiritual beings cannot directly effect anything in material terms ourselves. We proceed in the same way on other planets, with the living beings there. And inhabited planets there are millions, believe me, although humans are a unique race.

When I tried to explain this to Merlin at that time, I did not really succeed; Nostradamus and the clever Cagliostro understood some things, but failed because their knowledge went far beyond the culturally conceivable. Your time will not understand you either, so it is better if you keep it to yourself.

Our people have become an excellent merchant people in millions of earth years. No other people but ours trade, we have achieved by cunning, guile and wars that we are the only ones in this part of the universe. All other peoples are dependent on our supplies, in return we receive from them knowledge, power and technology, which we then use. We supply all materials and beings you can imagine, we are the great hypergalactic department store, if you will. Our people are divided according to their tasks: some research and discover new delicacies and specialties, others grow, plant or harvest, others provide intergalactic transportation. My people are responsible for overseeing the development and safety of the specialties of this sector.

Would anyone like to throw a big party on Alpha Centauri, with some asteroids burn up as giant fireworks: we deliver, promptly and free of charge. If someone wants to offer a wine made of pressed alcoholic worms, tender thighs of dragon embryos or intoxicating drugs made of the tears of cosmic owls to his guests: we deliver! Our supply is almost inexhaustible and our deliveries keep many worlds going. Some underdeveloped worlds, like Earth, provide the raw material, specialty, or delicacy that is demanded elsewhere by more evolved beings and delivered at a good price.

Our researchers discovered a few million years ago in your era that a certain species of ape on Earth could be evolved by genetic manipulation. The first prototypes of humans aroused great interest among our customers, they were perfectly suitable as servants, workers or simply as objects of observation for empires: Humans who lived their lives in an invisible cage being observed, just as you humans keep hamsters or guinea pigs in cages. In addition, people could be used for many things, from slave labor in mines to artistic, serving as musicians or actors. Some peoples love the slightly sweet tasting human flesh. Most popular, however, were people who lived like goldfish lived in the aquarium and could be observed in their life cycle. The child's rooms of all galaxies soon became full of our invisible cages where humans live and are gawked at by the curious children of our customers.

But there was one problem we couldn't solve. More accurately, we weren't interested in solving the problem because it would have hurt our human commodity business. The problem is that humans only reproduce on planet Earth. On other planets, in other galaxies, they are completely barren. No, no, they fucked eagerly and lovingly, of course, like on the good old Earth, but they were infertile. That was good for our business, that created new demand.

We, the guardians, had to see to it that mankind on earth developed slowly and steadily, that enough people were there for the export and that nobody disputed us this right to the raising and to the trade with people. Where it made sense or was necessary, we intervened in the events. Since we are not material in your sense, we exercised our powers through medially inclined people. We controlled and inspired Caesar, Alexander the Great, Merlin, Nostradamus and Jeanne d'Arc, Ragnar Eriksson as well as King Harald Bluetooth or the Goth King Guiscard. We traveled with Richard the Lionheart and Christopher Columbus, whispered into the Prince Henry the Navigator's thoughts as well as those of Magellan and Roald Amundsen. The list is long, for Albert Einstein and Otto Hahn heard our whispers as did Isaac Newton or Lamarque, who, incidentally, was much closer to the truth of genetic inheritance than his adversary Charles Darwin. We did not intervene everywhere, in order not to let mankind develop too fast; we watched your cruel wars calmly, because we knew that humans could not stand it without anger and hatred. So far, so good.

Lena paused, for I had, with increasing horror, grasped the meaning of her tale, largely at least and was now trembling in panic. She stroked me begrudgingly and gave me time to slowly regain my composure. After a while she continued.

Over many millennia we nurtured and bred humanity, allowing it the freedom of movement, which it needs to thrive. We took the goods, namely the sperm and eggs, from where people themselves did not need them for their own reproduction and exported them after fertilization, frozen and in super‐fast transport boxes. We were so careful in our harvesting that we never disturbed the people.

But some of our people, who were soldiers and colonists and were dissatisfied with their share of work and income, developed an impatient, reckless piratical spirit. They wanted to make quick money, that's what you would call it. Forty or fifty Earth years ago, they discovered that it would be more lucrative for them to exploit the Earth along with the specialty of man himself, quickly, greedily and ruthlessly. That they would leave the earth destroyed and desolate afterwards, was indifferent to them. They were soldiers and not breeders or traders.

The first thing they did was to make reconnaissance flights with their best customers, showing them the Earth and the people. Some of these flights were observed by the earth people, but this was dismissed as UFOs. Once such an exploration flight with the potential clientele crashed in New Mexico, the Roswell story made some headlines. But soon the Darx, for that is what they were, tried to mentally influence the authorities. They succeeded only partially, because they did not have the good training in it that we, the observers, had.

Next they built huge bases on distant space stations, set up a proper supply chain as a trade route, and lastly, in the 1960s, established a base on the far side of the Moon from Earth, the "Dark Side of the Moon," as you already know. The rest is quickly told. John F. Kennedy had his astronauts land on the moon in June 1969, the Darx suspected they were discovered and went over to the merciless attack.

Their fighting machines might be good warriors, for the devastation they had wrought was enormous. But with bombardments alone you cannot subjugate anyone; so they tried to use our mental techniques and chose the most suitable ones: simply, they used special drugs to make them docile or aggressive. With this force they destroyed all resistance and made as many prisoners as they could and shipped them to their prison islands, which they built in space around the Earth. They collect sperm and ova in great quantities and export the embryos created by artificial insemination at incredibly low prices. My people are concerned and have specifically charged me with taking action against the Darx.

I had slowly awakened from my torpor and thought about it all again. "The Darx, they're from your people?" I asked. Lena nodded unhappily. Yes, the Darx were of her race, of her people, if I will. But she belonged to the part that had awakened humanity, bred it, and let it develop in peace. The Darx wanted to destroy them, to make her silver as fast as possible. That thereby a whole species would be wiped out, maybe even the whole planet, doesn't matter to them. Planets there are still some millions in reserve.

Despite this, I wanted to know more. "The people you discovered were still apes, as you said. How did they actually become humans?" Lena felt the dumpling in my throat and thought long about a good answer. Yes, humans were the best evolved apes, they were like all animals without the "consciousness" component and also had no genetic device at that time, learned, experienced and gave their experience to their descendants. This was however indispensable, in order to develop slowly to higher beings.

The explorers of her people at that time had already enough of always exporting only rare species of animals like saber‐toothed tigers, cave bears or dinosaurs. They wanted to create something new, and the marketing people were excited by the idea of offering as a commodity a race slowly evolving from animals into higher beings. It was a captivating thought to create, over millennia, a race that would become different and more interesting from generation to generation and becoming more interesting. Researchers were sent out in large numbers and began frantically their experiments until everything fell asleep again after the initial euphoria. The most dogged researchers, not wanting to give up, became lonely and withered away in their high‐tech laboratories spread around the globe.

One of these researchers responsible for the development of the earthlings was a rather crazy and drug‐addled guy who loved to secretly copulate with the female monkeys in monkey form, which was still frowned upon in his time because it was considered that one decently does not stoop to the level of lowly creatures. You would also be considered quite twisted if you fucked with monkeys today. Likewise the spontaneous genetic experimentation was strictly forbidden — rather, the researchers had to fill in forms, submit applications, and fudge long budget lists in order to conduct a genetics—experiment. Our researcher was a bit far from the mark, whistling at the academic rules of the game, screwing feverishly the female monkeys and doing his wild series of tests. Apart from drugs and playing chess on the net, he was left with only the female monkeys to spice up his average life.

One day, out of sheer boredom, he analyzed the genetic coding of a certain species of monkey and saw that essentials here, namely the genetic device to pass on learned, experienced and give experience to their descendants, was missing — clear, but now he also saw where! Now he put all his academic ambition to develop this. He stole genetic material from other more highly developed beings, compared them with those of the apes, experimented and thought a lot.

After a long series of experiments, he had succeeded and was now able to manipulate the genes of female monkeys to pass on learning genetic material. He became an eminent researcher, received many awards and a lifetime high premium that enabled him to continue his secret research until he passed into the terminal stage to indulge his secret passions. His students developed a genetic brake with which the speed of transmission could be accelerated or — which was wiser — slowed down. As a precaution now also nearly all animals of the earth were provided with this genetic device, since one counted in the marketing directorate on an ebbing of the interest in humans after some year millions and wanted to throw then intelligently becoming animals on the market.

.

So the humanity began to evolve. Where they reached a dead end, we gently intervened. We made use of shamans, sorcerers and seers to help people move forward; artists, explorers and discoverers, as well as kings, founders of religions and generals were our preferred tools. Our work was very slow, but efficient and concerned about humanity — our raw material. We did not want to hurt anyone, one of our highest commandments.

Lena smirked as I thought of the book title, "From Hand Wedge to Atomic Bomb." Then she became serious when I thought about the multiplication of her people. No, we do not multiply like humans. We multiply spiritually, knowing that it is always the existence of someone who is manifested again in our descendants. Our relationship with them is not like yours with the children, but we consider them as pupils entrusted to us. My teacher was my father in your sense, but I felt him as my teacher. The carnal desire is something that our people no longer know, like many other highly evolved species do.

Your next question is easy to answer: I am Lena. You wanted me to be the 16‐year‐old image of your mother, so I became Lena. For you I am bodily and fleshly actually present (I grinned), but no one else can see me. This bodily and fleshly pattern is like a real human being, but only for you to experience. You don't fuck with inanimate matter, you fuck with a pretty young girl. It's that easy.

As for the Darx and your task, that's harder to explain. To do this, I must remind you again that my people cannot act materially directly. If I want to create a hammer, I have to give one person the thought to work a piece of metal until it looks like a hammer, and another to work a piece of wood so that the hammer has a handle. I create a hammer through these people without being able to take it into my own hands.

The second important thing is that the mental effects of my people and those of the Darx interfere with each other, cause strong interference, and we cannot influence each other directly because of the complicated genetic relationship. Neither they nor we can override the barriers implanted here. The Darx can inhibit my work by strong mental interference fields and vice versa. When sister Karin perished so miserably, Darx were in the vicinity and controlled the area mentally. I was largely paralyzed and rushed to Kalle and Irene to stand by them. At the bombing of Berlin and your monastery as well. Your depression could only break out because my forces were not sufficient to lift the mental interference fields of the Darx, which they had erected over the northern border. In the end, I am always the strongest, but it often takes a few days, according to your calendar, for my mental control to overcome their mental control, to trump that of the Darx. Unlike me, however, the Darx cannot mentally control people with highly mutated powers like you, they absolutely cannot control them mentally.

This brings us to your task. You have heard that I cannot directly affect the Darx. So I have chosen you to be my tool, my hammer. I have to stop the Darx, otherwise they will destroy the whole humanity, maybe even the whole earth. So don't think that I am robbing you or forcing you to do something that you don't want. You want mankind to survive, humanity survive. I know it, I have researched you thoroughly.

We will stay here for some time and practice your skills. You will then be infiltrated into the central control of the Darx‐supply chain via the chain of prison islands, bringing ruin to the Darx. The further you advance into their territory, the less I will be able to keep contact with you, the more you will have to stand on your own two feet and have to decide for yourself. If I venture too far, I could be eliminated by the Darx; my existence would be like my task too early and without result. But if you succeed in reaching the supply chain, then you can eliminate the Darx and would ensure the survival of mankind. I don't want to hide that it is not very likely that you will survive this adventure. What I can promise you is that one distant day your and my descendants‐existence will meet again.

Lena paused. My head was smoking and my heart ached all at once. I didn't want to be raw material, in the invisible cage living observation object or sweet‐tasting delicacy. So many things cleared up; how often had I thought why Lena had not intervened here or there — now I knew: she could only intervene where I could. She needed me as a tool; without a tool she could do nothing. Her weaknesses and her failures in some situations were now clear to me; if the Darx‐front was close, then she was weakened. Now she had trained me to finish off the Darx. Lena was watching over Earth and would do anything to accomplish this task. It was about humanity, not about little Jan. I wanted to crawl away and cry, because after fulfilling my task I was superfluous and dead. That with the distant existence remained completely unclear to me.

Lena let me doze off, warmed me with her body and stroked me gently, so that I fell asleep relaxed. I was infinitely glad that she was not some slimy space‐monster, but a dear little girl.

So sweet, like Mother.