The Breeding Experiment

Author's Note: This story takes place about 50,000 years ago, after Homo sapiens already existed but before all the other hominids went extinct. Some of my portrayals of prehistoric hominids may seem absurd to you, but if that's the case, I invite you to check if your perceptions are accurate. Anthropology is a fast-evolving field and there are still many misconceptions, especially among laypeople. I tried to make my depictions consistent with the known facts, though I may have inadvertently missed things (and of course there would still be disagreements based on different interpretations of the evidence).

***

A commotion arose within the encampment as the hunters were spotted making their way back to it. They had returned with a gazelle. There would be a feast tonight. In preparation, a bonfire was lit by the banks of the Great River. The young people began their celebratory singing and dancing while the elders prepared the drink of gratitude.

***

Far above in a camouflaged spaceship, the extraterrestrials observed through telescopes. This ship was commanded by the zipom. (Their name was an onomatopoeia of the sound they make when they fly and then land.) They had the appearance of flying puff balls the size of a human head, with eye stalks and a contraption like a helicopter propeller atop their heads.

The zipom were itching to capture a human--they'd be happy with any one of them--but Flenai insisted that they wait until an individual needed to be rescued.

Flenai was not a zipom. Her species was known as the chelinar, and her appearance approximated that of a harpy. She was also the main translator on board this research vessel, dubbed the Sahara Sentinel (SS). Flenai was an excellent fit for the role, because not only did she have a passion for studying newly intelligent species, her people's long evolutionary history of creating and singing ever more complex songs gifted to them the unparalleled ability to pronounce a vast array of the sounds that many different species used in their languages. And she had a lot of seniority, given her long life of over a millennia (in Earth years).

***

Thalik was the last human to join the feast, so engrossed was he in polishing his spear point.

Thalik worked primarily as a toolmaker while the other men hunted game or mined for chert cobbles. This was thanks to an accident to his leg from when he was a boy, causing him to require a cane to walk ever since. But at least crafting stone tools made good use of his arm and upper body strength. And he had invented many new types of tools such that he was able to achieve high status despite his leg impediment. There was only one other person in the tribe who came close to being as skilled at stone toolmaking as he was, and that was his rival Hadu. Hadu was always trying to outdo him, and didn't conceal his resentment of Thalik's success.

There was only one cup of the gratitude drink left. It was on a rocky outcropping at the edge of the social group, on the far side away from the river. The people were now captivated by an elder's storytelling, so no one noticed the shadowy figure step between them and the drink and pull something out from within his shawl. It was a small bone vial with clear powder inside. He swiftly poured it into the drink and darted away.

The sun was setting. Thalik finally joined the others at the bonfire to eat the leftover meat. Then his older sister Jayibeh brought him his gratitude drink. Thalik downed it in one gulp, not noticing anything strange about it.

As the night dragged on, Thalik found himself having a harder and harder time concentrating on the storytelling. He was becoming very tired, even though he was accustomed to going to sleep much later in the night. He announced that he'd be retiring early, and staggered toward his tent of reeds and leaves.

Though he was normally not a graceful walker on account of his bad leg, he was never this clumsy. And he didn't know why he had such a headache. It was getting worse and worse. He was about five paces away from his tent when he collapsed, unconscious.

It was now time for the tribe to head back to camp. Jayibeh suddenly spotted Thalik collapsed on the ground and shouted to the others. Several people quickly rushed to his side. They turned him over, trying to feel for a pulse and breath, then turned their stricken faces to the rest of the tribe.

Thalik's pulse, breathing, and bodily functions had slowed to undetectable levels. He had consumed what the zipom referred to as the poison of false death and fallen into a coma. Their bird's-eye view allowed them to see Hadu stealing it from the women. At first the aliens weren't too concerned. The herb had a variety of uses, and maybe he would use it for something innocuous. But, they had missed his stealthy motion of slipping it into Thalik's drink, though they did see him approach up close to it. Now they were discussing amongst themselves that he most likely added the poison at that time.

The humans had no cure for this poison. Thus, its victims never awoke, silently passing away later. And because of the lack of vital signs that could be detected without advanced technology, as far as the humans knew, the victims were dead upon becoming unconscious.

***

But the zipom detected Thalik's weak vital signs, even from their faraway location. They achieved this by beaming waves at him and comparing the return transmission to the original. They also knew what Thalik's tribe would do next absent outside intervention. His kin would spend tonight processing what just happened and grieving their loss. The next day they would bleed him out to help drain the poison out of him--the first step toward preparing his body for cannibalism.

"It's time," Flenai commanded. "We rescue him now."

The SS descended and deactivated its camouflage.

Flenai broadcast a message in the humans' tongue through a loudspeaker. "Greetings Earthlings. We are extraterrestrial beings with power beyond your comprehension, including the power to neutralize poison. We shall bring Thalik back to life and subsequently return him to you."

A giant mechanical claw was lowered. The humans screamed and ran away as it descended toward Thalik, clamped around him, and brought him up through the open hatch at the underside of the SS.

***

The room that the hatch opened into was designed for chemical analysis and decontamination of anything that could reasonably compromise the health and proper functioning of the people already on board the spacecraft. Thalik passed the tests.

***

The zipom gazed in fascination at their new specimen. His toned arms were covered in tattoos. His bare chest was toned as well, and bronze like the rest of his skin. His black hair was intricately braided and beaded at the ends, and on his upper chest he wore a necklace of black beads interspersed with claws. Around his waist was fastened a beige hide which extended to a jagged hem above his knees.

The poison had left Thalik both unconscious and paralyzed. A zipom injected medicine into him, then announced to the others that the human would likely recover awareness and the ability to move his face and neck before gaining voluntary control over the rest of his body. His reflexes would probably recover before his deliberate movements though. They would be testing that. They would also be doing additional experiments to find out if he also had any other ailments they could fix.

A team of zipom stripped Thalik naked. They would need to sample various areas on his skin.

Each zipom had a mouth which housed a long, thin tongue like a butterfly's. The zipom had no arms or legs, instead relying on their tongues for manipulating the world (as well as sensing the chemical properties of things), and had killer immune systems to deal with any germs they encountered that way. Their bodies were able to convert just about anything they ingested into food for them.

***

Thalik regained consciousness sooner than they had anticipated. He awoke to a very strange set of sensations. There were multiple bright lights in the air shaped like little suns, but what was around them didn't appear to be sky. It seemed as though he might be in an enclosure. He was able to lift his head a bit to glance around, and saw what appeared to be smoothly polished walls surrounding him, studded with large glowing shapes featuring strange markings upon them. He craned his head to gaze further down and saw . . . puffball creatures?! He now noticed that one of them was perched to the side of his head, and that it had just slid something wet and slimy into his ear. Thalik screamed and tried to take a swing at it but his arms wouldn't budge. He then tried to move various other parts of his body, but none of them would move either.

After the initial shock wore off, he contemplated his situation. He was naked in a strange place with strange creatures doing strange things to his body. His dreams were never this vivid. He concluded that he must be hallucinating, though he didn't recall having eaten any strange mushrooms. After trying to move various parts of his body, he discovered that he only seemed able to move his face and neck. He then noticed that other parts of his body still reacted involuntarily, as demonstrated when they jerked in response to light electrical zaps and a hammer to his knee. He noticed that the puffball monsters were using their tongues to hold these implements. So perhaps it was a tongue that was now swirling around his outer ear. He tried to ignore it, but then it switched back to ear-probing. The motions and sounds of the wet thrusting reminded him of sex. His cock stiffened, much to his chagrin. A puffball apparently took notice, and soon the others gathered around to see. They were now chattering animatedly amongst each other. A language? Thalik wondered.

When his erection subsided, a puffball seemed to issue a command and another one resumed licking Thalik's skin, this time spending a lot of time on each area while very gradually moving its center of focus. None of its licking was effective at reviving Thalik's erection. The puffball finally stopped and brought out the zapper. It delivered stronger shocks than before to various points on Thalik's body. He jolted from zaps to his nipples and the undersides of his feet. Finally, a zap to his perineum made him shriek and instantly expel all of his semen. The last thing he was aware of before losing consciousness again was jagged moving lines on a wall display becoming erratic, along with another frenzied commotion amongst the puffballs.

***

The zipom determined that the human would be safe from the poison's effects for now, but symptoms might reemerge afterward so they would keep him onboard the SS and continue monitoring him 24/7 until he was conclusively healed.

***

Thalik was taken into a zoo enclosure (also within the SS) where it was expected that he would likely feel more comfortable. It also wouldn't be opened to the public until he had adjusted to his new living situation. But, it was constantly being videotaped and viewed by thousands of researchers.

Flenai decided that now would be a good time to visit him.

When Thalik woke up, he noticed that he was in a lush, unfamiliar environment. He was able to seamlessly move his whole body, and--shocker --even his formerly lame leg! Then, noticing that the diffusion of light seemed a bit strange, he looked up and with dismay saw a false sun in a false sky again, and the memories came flooding back. He tried to remember what had happened right before his weird hallucination.

He was startled out of his train of thought when Flenai alighted in front of him.

"My name is Flenai. I come in peace," she said in his language.

Thalik gaped at the bird-woman. She had wings, a long tail, and a crest of feathers, which were gradated from white at the base to blue at the tips. The skin of her lower legs and talons were black, as were the delicate humanlike hands at the ends of her wings. She had blue hair that arced around the sides of her face to reach slightly below her chin. Her large eyes were the color of gold. And aside from the feathers of her wings, tail, and crest, she was covered in short fuzz. The front of her torso was white with blue specks, which were arranged in two concentric arcs on her upper chest like layered necklaces, and in four vertical lines crossing them. And she was wearing a strange contraption fastened around her waist (a stun gun, just in case she needed to use it against Thalik).

After staring at her for about a minute, Thalik blurted, "What are you?" A pause. "And where am I? What is the meaning of all of this?" He gestured all around him. "What is my purpose here?"

"You are not on Earth anymore. You are in a spaceship-- a giant, floating home for us extraterrestrials. We rescued you after you consumed the poison of false death. Then, the zipom experimented on your body to determine how to heal you. They even fixed your leg."

She had been observing the operation and experiments via a live cam and mic. She was not only the translator but also the overseer of anthropology, so she had to make sure the zipom were doing their jobs according to protocol, and to give directions through the speaker if necessary.

Thalik asked, "Will I be able to rejoin my family and friends again? I hope they don't think I'm dead."

"Yes, soon. I've already communicated your situation to them."

***

The next day Flenai had a surprise for Thalik. It was his sister Jayibeh! She was the only one of his kin brave enough to come on board. She ran to him and they embraced. The two of them had always been very close. She marveled at what Thalik could do now with his fixed leg, and Thalik discovered from her that Hadu had been badly shaken by the message Flenai had broadcast when Thalik was rescued, and had confessed to his crime and was now exiled from the community.

***

After thoroughly exploring his new enclosure, Thalik wondered if there was any way he could be allowed to travel freely within the SS. He posed this question to Flenai.

She answered, "Well, it's true that your atmospheric and temperature needs are roughly equivalent to that of the zipom and myself. But, if I'm to let you out, in order to keep the others comfortable, I would need to keep you on a leash, and have my stun gun ready to paralyze you again if necessary."

Thalik grimaced. He knew what leashes were. His people used them to lasso wild animals.

Noticing his hesitation, Flenai added, "If that sounds too unappealing, another way for you to see the rest of the SS would be for me to show you pictures. I can even show you moving pictures and recorded sounds."

"What is this witchcraft?!"

"It's science. I'll explain more later."

***

The zipom didn't need to do further experiments on Thalik's body anytime soon. Now was a good opportunity to do experiments of a different nature--tests of his cognition. Flenai took it upon herself to become Thalik's personal tutor.

The ship had by now moved into high orbit above Earth.

"Would you like to look out the window and see for yourself?" Flenai asked him. She issued a command to the ship's AI, and a hole opened in the wall of Thalik's enclosure, revealing a vast window behind it. The entire sunlit side of Earth could be seen, with stars all around.

Thalik's eyes widened. "Earth is a circle?!"

"Earth is a sphere. And its rotation is what causes day and night."

"The Earth rotates?!"

He is so cute, Flenai thought. There's so much he doesn't know. It's like teaching a toddler.

Flenai showed Thalik a 3D holographic projection of Earth that he could zoom in and out of.

He stared at it in amazement. The maps his people drew in the dirt were nothing compared to this. He asked Flenai, "Where was I when you extraterrestrials picked me up?"

Flenai grabbed a laser pointer and pointed it at a spot in Northeast Africa. They zoomed in until Thalik recognized the landmarks. Then he looked for other places he recognized.

Flenai decided he'd had enough of that for now and zoomed out again.

She explained, "You can browse through this model Earth as much as you want in your spare time when I'm not around. There's something else that I want to show you now. Remember when I told you before that Earth is a sphere? As you can see, I was simplifying. The Earth is an oblate spheroid. And see this line projecting through them? It represents the axis that the earth turns on. And notice that we have the directions oriented the same way that your people orient them: up represents east, right represents south, etc."

She then showed him a diagram of the solar system, with the poles of earth still at the sides so that the solar system was oriented like a vertical disc.

Thalik smiled and added, "My people orient the directions this way because the sun appears to rise from its east, thus east seems more sublime and worthy of 'looking up' to."

He was awed by the size of the sun relative to earth and curious about the other planets and moons. But after Flenai told him that there was no life on them, he soon redirected his focus to other parts of Earth, some very foreign to him. He asked, "What's all the white stuff covering vast swaths of Earth?"

"Ice. It's very cold in those places."

"Can people live there?"

"They can, but it's difficult."

"Do people live there?"

"Yes, but even they tend to avoid the permafrost regions."

Thalik could hardly contain his excitement. "Are they humans like me?"

Flenai paused. "Well . . . I don't know if I'd call them the same species as yourself, exactly."

"What do you mean?"

She took a deep breath. "Being of the same species is most often defined as being able to breed with one another and produce viable offspring--and actually doing so to a significant degree. But we don't know yet if that is possible in this case. How about I just show you what they look like?"

She pulled up a projection of humanlike being--a stocky male with a low, sloping forehead, long cranium, massive browridges, pale skin, unkempt hair, and a long, thick beard. He was wearing a tunic of thick brown fur tied together with rope, and boots made of similar material. And he was brandishing a spear.

Thalik stared at the hominid's features in fascination, then his eyes drifted to the spear. Ever the weaponsmith, he asked, "What material is that spear made of? It looks like an elephant's tusk, but it is curved strangely."

"It is the tusk of a wooly mammoth, though this one's tip has been sharpened to a point." She then brought up a projection of a wooly mammoth.

"Are there any of these people or mammoths on board this flying place?"

"We do not have mammoths here at this moment; a spaceship is not a good place to house large animals over the long term. As for the humanoids--in this case Neanderthals--we have two on board--a mother and her child. Speaking of which, the zipom would love to try breeding you with the Neanderthal woman as an experiment."

Flenai showed him a hologram of the Neanderthal woman on board.

Thalik scoffed. "I'd rather mate with an extraterrestrial than that pale-skinned whatever-you-called-it."

"For your information, their light skin helps them absorb more health benefit from the sunlight, which is important in their dim habitat."

"Are there no other types of humanoids that the zipom have considered for this breeding experiment?"

"The only other type we have on board is a pygmy. We have no desire to mate you with her or any other females of her kind because they are too tiny to be anatomically compatible for sex with you, let alone to give birth to a hybrid baby."