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A New Family Prelude

Dramatis Personae

Family of 5 from the Archives: (Descended from United Americas of Old Earth)

Ages are listed in Collective Standard Turns (Old Earth Years)

• Ataksak (Mother) 41

• Negafook (Father) 42

• Nanook (elder son) 22

• Pinga (daughter) 22

• Silla (younger son) 8

Other Cast

• Noctis (Geneticist, Colonist) 193

• Overseer (Colonial General Administrator) 204

The Overseer showed me the assignment details. It was a one way ticket out into a neighboring arm of the Milky Way. But it did as well promise a legacy to be proud of in the field of linguistics. It called for me to have my family and I transported to the recent colony of ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha and altered to share in the forms of the other denizens of this outpost. This was in order to investigate the development of a novel non-terrestrial language.

Completely voluntary of course. And when queried by the overseer I said "Of course I cannot make this decision on my own. You forget that there are four others that I, and you, must ask."

Nodding he queried; "A week enough time then?"

"The decision will be made by then" I replied. "However I have a request to make of you before that time comes."

"Speak yer piece."

"The one known as Noctis that has requested my presence. It would greatly humble not only myself but my family as well if you were to attend a communication session between ourselves and her."

"Well just let me know when y'all are ready! We'll have my people get with your people and work something out! Good enough for ya?"

"Ah...yes. For my own part we have a deal. Now to see where the winds blow from here."

Three days later:

"Good evening. I am Noctis as I'm sure you know" the deep resonant voice said from the display. "As I'm also sure you know what is being asked of you. But just to make it clear for the record, I am hoping to convince you Negafook and your family so as to bring your skills as a linguist to my newly formed colony. Once you and your family have arrived to then become in form like us while also continuing your observations. A recent image of a colonial should be showing below the screen along with a detailed explanation of physiological traits."

A hologram below flickered to life projecting an image of an immense red and black creature with four legs both at rest on its rear and galloping along. A third image showed the crea... colonist flying. Also to be seen were a long neck and tail, pronounced muzzle, and bone like extensions running from the top of its head to the end of its tail. The most dominate feature by far however were the two vast wings being spread wide by a set of finger like supports attached to what looked to be an arm structure sprouting from its shoulders.

"That's a colonist?" asked Pinga.

"Correct, and similar but not identical to what you will all become as well if you agree"

"Is that why you've blanked out the image of yourself in front of the communications array?"

Noctis replied with a loud crashing noise and said "Yes, I didn't want to startle you until you knew what we look like here. Allow me to humbly show myself." The main screen flashed from its standby display to the visage of Noctis.

Or rather her eye. Whose impressive ocular radiance filled the entire screen, it must be bigger than half my body! Her eye a vivid hue of blue. After a moment she shifted her head by drawing it back and slowly twisting it till her other eye was visible and drawing close again. The movement gave us a chance to see the features of her head. The length of her snout and horns, along with the fearsome size of her teeth and lastly a pair of fins on the sides of her head. Other than the membranes of her fins, the features were covered by a heavy growth of black repeating discs interlocked like chain mail. Scales, I suppose they could be called. She had heavy brows overshadowing the slit pupiled blue radiance of her eyes. The pronounced nostrils on the end of her snout flaring with each act of respiration. Through a small gap between her upper and lower lips her bifurcated tongue darted out quickly much like a... uh... reptile.

"Why'd you stick your tongue out at us? That's not nice!" Tiny Silla cried out. Before sticking out his own tongue in retaliation.

The sound of that loud bass crashing noise filled the room again.

"What is that?" asked Nanook.

"Laughter"

Flicking her head and snorting through those animalistic nares she said something a trifle worrisome "How little you all are. I have had this body for only a couple of turns and already I have forgotten how tiny I used to be. We will be very careful with you until you reach your full growth. If you so choose to join us." Here she did little to help her cause when she cracked open her jaws in what was no doubt a charming smile to her kind. But to us it looked like a horrifying promise of dismemberment and consumption.

"You may want to practice that smile in front of a mirror or some such thing." I, a little nervously, quipped in an effort to ease the tension. Some of her teeth were the length of my forearm.

With a snapping noise her jaws slammed shut. "My apologies." She said curling her neck and drawing her head in towards her chest with an air of embarrassment.

Fascinating, I thought. Look at the way she uses more expressive non-verbal gestures. The movement of her head and neck and the way the ear frills move. Hmm.....

"Well I can see he's interested enough to go already" my wife Ataksak said "you've got it written all over your face. However I still have more questions."

"Why is this change even necessary? How long will it take? Will my children be safe?"

Noctis blew air through her nostrils in a snort then began. "In order for Negafook to complete his assessment of our evolving lingual system we determined that his mimicking our forms crucial. Not only in being able to match the movements of the others as in flying or swimming. But also to get a sense in the first person what the different new mannerisms mean as an individual. And since the remainder of the family have bound themselves together. It would be unfair to permanently alter one family member and not offer the rest the same opportunity. After all, included in the changes are a dramatically extended life span."

"The answer to your next question is much simpler. With developments made in the component parts of the alteration catalyst we have shrunk the length of time needed. My change took 15 minutes and the exhaustion left me comatose. The original colonists spread their change out over three months. Your family's will take one week with a month of accelerated growth and then regular growth beyond that time. And before you ask no it will not hurt. It will however be uncomfortable."

"You will be within the heart of the colony while you change. The lethal megafauna that made these changes necessary are not located on the land mass that the commons are upon. The only danger will be from the young who attend their lessons at this location. With all the energy of their youth and their average mass currently being 1400kg. They will cause harm without any intent to do so. For this reason we have decided that you will only interact with the young one on one or with supervision when in groups. They will be important to your field of expertise however as one and all the young were born as dragons."

"When would we go?" I asked

The Overseer spoke up for the first time, replying. "Jump will be made to the regional node in a week's time. From there it will be by pod with a local transit time of approximately 100 turns at 0.95c. As this will be a departure from standard protocol we won't let this chance go unfulfilled. Anything you have need of out there in...uh... the future S*cough*... Noctis?"

"Yes we've compiled the list already and sent it to your display. You should be receiving it now."

"For my part" the Overseer continued "I sure as hell hope ya'all sign on for this. I have high hopes for this colony. Already we have had two. TWO! Archive accepted advancements from them already! If you have any insights gained from the new language a third will move more than a few heads in the Archive as well as in Administration. A long time in transit to be sure but I'm confident you'll do well out there! You'll also have the rare opportunity of working with the same individuals that requested your presence. Instead of, ya know, their grandchildren. "

"Well, what do you think?" I asked my children.

Nanook and Pinga glanced at each other and then nodded their heads.

Silla just exclaimed "I'm going to be a dinosaur!"

"And you?" I asked my wife.

Not looking entirely convinced about the wisdom of partaking of this chance at a new life on a new world in a new colony. She nevertheless smiled and nodded to me.

Turning back to the display I said "We would be honored."

Struggling to prevent her menacing smile from erupting on her scaly countenance. Noctis replied "Excellent. Wait until you feel the wind beneath your wings. You will never look back on the life you left behind again. It is a moment that transcends description."

Looking to each other my family and I smiled at the promise of what was to come.

Author's note: I'm taking a chance on this one and beginning to post it before I have the ending finished. It will be significantly longer and involve a bunch of inferred and off camera sex. So I would rate this one mature, but I suppose that my story is mostly weak sauce compared to a lot of what else is posted on this site. There will be nothing pornographic in my stories unless explicitly stated in the story description.

Anyway, enough of my rambling comments. Not much substance in this chapter, but I hope it gets you fired up for more. So, enjoy.