A Dragon's Tail Ch. 06-09

“What? Just a leviathan? No dragons, fairies, or unicorns yet?” was Janice’s response. The agents took that as a joke, but Janice was almost serious. She was nervous. She hadn’t had a run in with a leviathan in quite a while. They usually just floated about, dangling their tentacles in the atmosphere, and would occasionally touch someone with a tentacle, and read their minds. Most alien abduction tales appeared to be caused by one of these mind reading events. Every once in a while, they would draw their tentacles into their shell and make their outer shell glow for a short period of time. When she witnessed it, Janice thought it looked like floating turtle shell, but most people think they look like flying saucers. They were enormous, but considered harmless.

Carl, and two of the agents went into a control center which was equipped with a similar system to what they had in Langley, Virginia. One agent was added to the each of the three mobile crews. The agents would be rotated from control center duty to mobile duty.

The plane took off for Misawa Air Base. The third van drove north with two hummer escorts.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Pacific Ocean, just east of the Aomori Prefecture

A helicopter appeared as the engineer and navy seals attempted to use silicone caulk to seal up the tears in the rubber like skin of the U.S.S. Greywhale. A specialist and his equipment were lowered and taken on board. The specialist quickly set up an additional detection system on the Greywhale.

The U.S.S. Greywhale started a slow and methodical examination of the Eastern coastline of Japan. Base readings along the coastline were recorded.

All of the teams were deployed, and soon would be in position.

Chapter 8 – Cave Songs

Ahiko’s Cave

After cleanup, Ahiko came over with the sweet rice cakes and announced it was Karaoke time. She would ask us to pick out a tune to sing, and she would grab an instrument and provide the musical accompaniment. There was a piano, a harp, a Guzheng(Chinese harp), a guitar, a violin, an erhu(Chinese violin), a cello, a biwa(Japanese lute), a pipa(Chinese lute), a shamisen, and several other stringed instruments, along with an assortment of flutes. She passed from one to another, trying to match the instrument to the music being requested. I noticed that my son kept asking for her to play the harp or piano, which were facing away from us. He sat there and watched her bottom move and twitch in her kimono as she played. I could tell she was wagging her little tail underneath her kimono, and I thought that might be what fascinated my son.

It’s easy to recall your life from the songs that were played at that moment. In my case, I was born in 1958, and spent the first 11 years of my life in England, because my father worked in the in the Japanese Embassy. In 1969, I was sent home to Japan to attend Junior High and High School. When I graduated in 1975, I went back to England, and attended Oxford University. In 1980, after traveling europe for a year,I returned home to Japan, and a year later, I caught the eye of the prince. Married in 1983, my first son was born in 1984, and my second son in 1992. Besides Japanese songs, I had extensive knowledge of American and English songs, and when they were popular.

I listened to the songs that Ahiko sang, and asked her to sing several Japanese songs from my high school years. By picking popular songs from events in my life, I narrowed her entry into Japan to about when I was married. Her knowledge of English and American songs went deeper that I could recall. From her knowledge of music, I became convinced that Ahiko was older than me.

The final song she played was an American song called ‘The Sound of Silence’. She played it with a harp as accompaniment. The most startling thing was that two distinct voices came out of her mouth, in harmony. She eventually smiled and made a Vee symbol with one hand, and then pointed with the two outstretched fingers at her throat. She has two sets of vocal chords!

It had been a full evening, and we started to wind down, I already had a bath, and I offered to sponge bathe my son so that Ahiko could use the bath in the tunnel. Ahiko went down to the bath, drew a pail of warm spring water to bathe my son with, and excused herself to take her own bath.

Once she was gone, my son turned to me, “She’s not a little girl, she knows too much.”

I was pleased that my son had also figured it out.

“Did you hear the songs she sang? She speaks American English, and not British English like you. She also speaks French, too. How old do you think she is?”

I gave him a playful whap, “One should never ask a woman about her age, should he?”

“You just said woman, didn’t you. I knew it!”

“That’s right I did, and that about all the information you’re going to get from me.”

When I undressed my son, I found that he had an erection from the concert Ahiko had given. I teased him about having a Lolita complex, but I had to admit to him, that Ahiko was enchanting. I talked to my son about Ahiko, and told him that it was a natural reaction to such a nice and pretty girl. I handed him a glass and asked him if he knew how to release his pent up energy. He did, so I excused myself from the chamber until he had completed and called me in. After I finished cleaning him up, I placed the pail of water on my lap and told him to lie down on his bed. I wheeled myself down the tunnel to the bath. I gave Ahiko the fluid that I had acquired.

“Ahiko, I am an adult, and I am responsible for my son and his fluids. This fluid is a gift from me to you, so that you can become a woman. I don’t want you to wait until my son becomes an adult, and I don’t want you to go through another rebirth without this. I believe in duty to my parents, and I believe I have to treat this as my father’s desire to have you use my son’s sperm as wish from beyond the grave. I trust my father, and if he wants you to have this, then I feel I have no other choice than to help you, even if you have a child.”

Ahiko picked up the cup and looked at it. She looked into the air and asks questions. She questioned my father several times about not having a baby, and then passed her hand over the cup of fluid.

The fluid seemed to sparkle. “You son is practically sterile, did you know that?”

I nodded, “We were concerned about illegitimate heirs to the throne. We have him on male birth control implants. He has a normal sex drive, but should not be producing any sperm. He agreed to this so that he could have sex with women and not worry about having children out of wedlock.”

“Where is this implant?”

“It was placed on the inner side of his left arm.”

“Oh… I’m sorry. I didn’t know what it was, and your father wanted me to remove it.”

“He did, did he?... Why that meddling old goat!”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m Sorry!”

“Ahiko, I am not upset with you, and it was probably necessary to do if this procedure is to work.”

“Do you think it’s going to work?”

“It has once before.”

“What?????”

“You seem to know your Japanese folklore. Since you do, then who was the mother of Jimmu, the first Emperor of Japan?”

“That’s easy, the sun goddess Amaterasu.”

“And she lived in a cave, just like you.”

“B… B… But I am not a goddess!”

“Tell me then, if this was 2600 years ago, what would the locals think of a girl, that that never aged and could glow like the sun, just like you did when you healed me? Would they think that she was a sun goddess?”

“Oh…”

“Amaterasu could have been a girl just like you, with your condition. And if something in the male Y chromosome cured her, then it is present in my son, because my son is in the direct male line from Emperor Jimmu.”

Ahiko stared at me, and then at the fluid in her hand. “Ohhhhh… This could actually work?”

I smiled and nodded at Ahiko. Ahiko continued to look at the glass.

“The sparkles in the fluid are sperm, there are not very many. A normal sperm sample should be glistening right now, and the ones that are sparkling are not moving well. I don’t know how the implant worked to cause sterilization. I would not think that it causes low sperm count and reduced mobility. If you have to have some of his sperm frozen, I would have a sample tested for mobility. This might tell you if he has a problem.”

“Could you cure him, if he has a problem?”

“I don’t know. I have ovaries, and not testicles. If I were to try to cure him, I might end up converting his testicles into ovaries and transgendering him. He did hurt his penis when he fell, that’s where he was bleeding from when I found him. He had punctured one of the corpus cavernosum, that’s one of the inflation bladders. I did heal it, but the penis itself does not produce hormones or sperm, so I felt somewhat safe doing that. While I was healing the puncture, I increased the size of both his bladders. I added two centimeters to its length and a centimeter to its thickness. He should be having bigger erections now. His penis will take four to six weeks for the tenderness to go away. I think he’ll enjoy his new size.”

Once again, I marveled at this child, who was not a child. She was clearly reading medical textbooks, to help her heal people. She was very wise, but was skiddish about herself. Any doctor who could successfully enlarge a male penis could consider themselves wealthy beyond means. This child had mastered the technique, but was living the life of a monk. I personally have raised two princes, who I had tried to raise with humility, but it is difficult to do so when they know that they are royalty. With all of her abilities, I was astounded by Ahiko’s humility.

Ahiko tipped the glass and admired the sperm. I could see the sparkles flash more often. “I think I know what is about to happen. I have only 45 chromosomes, and I may be able to absorb one of your sons to give me a complete set. I am a single X female. I also have damage to chromosome pair 17, so I also need to replace both of them as well. I may be able to get any male to supply the extra chromosome, but your son may be one of the few donors that can help me because of a compatibility issues with chromosome pair 17. Our genes must be nearly identical on those chromosomes except for my damaged part“.

She seemed to know a lot about herself. It appears that she might have been tested and re-tested in a lab somewhere. Maybe she was a lab experiment. Maybe she is afraid that she will be sent back to the laboratory.

Ahiko looked up and off to the side, “This is a setup isn’t it?... It’s not like he happened to injure his penis, it was on purpose, wasn’t it?... He was pushed off the path!...Sperm can live for many days in the birth canal and womb, and that may be enough time for me to absorb the final chromosomes before my rebirth. I am missing a sex chromosome. Since I am a single X female, I may change sex depending on which sex chromosome my body chooses to absorb... How am I doing?...”

She stared to the side and up. She was checking with my father.

“I thought so...”

She pauses and looked at the cup, tipping it and watching the fluid move. “It may be that heaven is rewarding me for my years of service and helping me to become whole again. I think your son may have had an intentional fall so that I could rescue him, and I think he was intentionally hurt in his you know what. If I do change and grow testicles, I will gladly return and heal your son’s condition, if he indeed has one. If I stay a female, I think he should become an adult first, and then make an informed decision. It is also possible for me to ‘heal’ his sperm first, just like I just did to this sample, before he inseminates his wife. I may be able to assist in insemination without changing his gender.“

When I heard her say ‘his wife’, I felt nothing in her voice, and I really expected to. “Ahiko, this may be the first time I heard you talk without emotion. Your speech is so clinical that I think you’re hiding something. Are you having second thoughts? Please, talk to me! Tell me your real feelings.”

She looked back at me and her eyes watered. “Haven’t you looked at my body! I’m a mutant! How could anyone ever love me?” She broke down in tears.

“You may not have noticed, but I think he has a thing for your tail. He kept asking you to play the piano and the harp so that you would face away from us. And all the time you were playing, he kept his eyes fixed on your bottom. He had an erection several times from watching you. And don’t sell your front side short either. I’m not sure there are many men who you won’t turn their heads if you end up with two sets of breasts.”

She put the cup down and ran over to me. She was still crying as she wrapped me up in her little arms and hugged me. “Thank You…Ohhhhh, It may not be true, but Thank You…Thank You…”

“Do you love him, Ahiko? Do you want to have his child?”

She nodded. “But if I do this, I may turn into a boy, and I will never be able to have his child. I’m scared. I don’t know what to do. I’ve been hurt so many times just trying to have a friend, I’m not sure of myself anymore. I want to grow up, and have a chance to find out. But these last three days have meant so much to me. I don’t want to lose him.”

I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Ahiko, what if you did become a man, and my son became your best friend, would that really be so terrible?”

“No.” it was not very forceful, but it was a positive sign.

“Even if you became a man, could you father a child, and raise it? Would you be a good father?”

“Oh Yes, I would be a good father. I want a baby, I really do, I want to take care of it, and help it grow. But, I have dreams, I dream of having a child within me, a want that dream to come true.”

I gave Ahiko a hug. “I want that for you too, but even if you become a man, I think you will be a great father. What I gave you may not give you his child, but it will allow you to have one. So I think you need to do this, so that you CAN have a child, and I think that this is more important than any feeling you may have for my son right now. I have seen you holding your doll Miss Flowers, and I actually think you really want to have a child. Tell me, and wait a minute before you answer this, are you in love with my son, or with the idea of having a child?”

I just held her, and waited. She sat on my lap for about thirty seconds, and I could feel her hug me and then release several times. She stood up and took Miss Flowers from me and hugged her doll. She placed her doll in a nursing position at her chest. She started swaying back and forth, humming to the doll. She put the doll down and came back over and hugged me again. She repeated hugging me for a few seconds, and releasing me. She then went back over to Miss Flowers again, and pretended to nurse it again.

“Yes, I think you are right, it may not be your son that I want, but a child.” With that, Ahiko places herself upside down in a chair with her legs over the back and spreads her legs. She then places the cup at the entrance of her birth canal and did what the spirit had instructed her to do. She carefully let the fluid seep through holes in her hymen. She’s a virgin! This may not be an immaculate conception, but if she has a child, it would appear to be a virgin birth.

Ahiko put the cup down, and starts singing the rice planting song again. She voice wavered when she hit references to ‘reaping the harvest’ and ‘glory of Japan’, but continued to sing. She repeated the song three times. She then took a towel and cleaned any fluid from the outside of her body, and put on some underwear. She then walked into the hallway and held out her hand. My father appeared.

My father waved at both of us, bowed, and faded away as he released Ahiko’s hand. Ahiko tried to talk to him. “Wait, Are you leaving?...Why?...Do you have to report this to someone?...I see…I want to see you again, you were nice to me. Can you do that? Goodbye!”

She waived goodbye, and said that we would be able to see him again, after he had reported the news. We start back the main room. “Princess, I’m sorry that you were hurt. It’s my fault, for not following instructions. I didn’t think it was right.”

“Ahiko, I want you to always trust your judgment. You didn’t know the spirit, and he could have told you to do something terrible. My ankle will heal, and I would rather hurt my other ankle than for you to compromise what your heart is telling you to do. Will you promise me that you will always follow your heart, even if it going to hurt others, even a little?”

Ahiko didn’t say anything, and continued pushing the wheelchair along. I stopped the chair. “This is important, Ahiko. You are very special, and no person, and no spirit, should force you to do something that you feel is wrong. You are going to have difficult decisions to make, and sometimes it will hurt people. You will have to do what’s right in your heart, and not what will hurt the least amount of people. Can you promise me you’ll do that?”

“I understand what you want me to do, and I will try.” Before she wheeled me back to the center chamber, she asked if she could call me ‘Mama’. I teared up and nodded. We stopped the wheelchair and we hugged again before entering the main chamber.

We entered the chamber and Ahiko did a healing on the Prince’s fractures and on my ankle. She then crawled into my lap and I held her for several minutes. My son looked at the two up us as I hummed to her and stroked her hair. “It’s girl stuff, she’ll be OK in the morning. Just go to sleep.” The prince rolled his eyes, made a crude comment about women’s plumbing, and rolled over.

When Ahiko was ready, she looked up at me, “Thanks Mama, I needed that.” Ahiko now had a sore ankle and a sore leg. She moved herself into the child’s wheelchair and wheeled herself to a bed to sleep for the night. We said ‘goodnight’ to each other and slept soundly.

Chapter 9 – Closing In

Northern Japan, Misawa Air Base, Aomori prefecture

A second burst of energy was reported in the Aomori prefecture. This time, the two bases near Tokyo and the Misawa Air Base station all picked up the signal. They resolved the location to less than twenty five square kilometers before the zone faded.

The two vans took off, along with their Hummer escorts. The third team from the south was still three hours away. All three vans started monitoring for a dark matter burst.

Within fifteen minutes, a second burst was recorded. The Base station and all three vans picked up the signal, and resolved the location to a two square kilometer area. As the first of the two nearby search teams entered the search region. Another burst was recorded, the signal had moved 10 kilometers to the south. The first team held its position as the second crew bore down on the new location. The two vans bore down from the north, as the signal headed towards the van rushing up form the south.

Once the second van neared the new position, another burst was recorded. The new triangulated position was 8 kilometers to the south again, and appeared to be on the road they were traveling on. The Team to the south was still two and a half hours away, but told to continue driving north to intercept the south bound vehicles. Both of the northern teams continued south, on separate roads.

From the first van, Janice was in the back, coordinating satellite images. “Ok, we have it narrowed down to three vehicles. She has to heat up every four minutes, so she may be in the trunk of the car. We’re coming up on a metropolitan area, so team Bravo needs to overtake all three targets on a parallel road. Did you get that Bravo?”

The teams tracked the occasional signal bursts through the town of Hachinohe where it turned east to the Tanesaski coast. Team Alpha continued on the coastal highway, while Bravo continued on the main highway. Parallel triangulation allowed the two teams to narrow the signal down to a single vehicle. With satellite imaging, they followed the car to the small town of Taneichi.