Family Tails

A Story of a Mixed Family in the Genetic Age

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Names of actual businesses, their products, etc, are the property of their respective owners.

Story and characters © 2013 Ronald J. Lebeck

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Chapter 32

Dr. Nemeth sat back on the clean room chair, staring at the results before her. This was the third time she had gone over the results of DNA comparisons of Ron and Lupina Daugherty, and the six wolves who are their friends. There was no doubt about it--a one hundred percent match between the samples from the wolves Atka and Sesi with samples taken back at Berkley over twenty years ago of two wolf cubs that were stolen by an animal rights activist group. Dr. Nemeth also found certain similarities between the wolves' cognitive abilities and those of Ron Daugherty and the other men he served with in the military. There were also similarities shared with all of the other G.E.L.F.s--with one minor difference found only in the wolves.

"This could be it," she thought aloud to herself.

Switching samples, Dr. Nemeth pulled up a side-by-side comparison of the DNA from Ron Daugherty and the wolf Kapik.

"I...don't...believe it...!" she muttered in disbelief--not only are they compatible enough to produce viable offspring, in every simulation she tried, the telepathy ability always passed on to successive generations.

"If they do this, if they mate and have a child--whatever kind of child it'll be--it will have the ability and can pass it on to either G.E.L.F. or human! It'll take generations for it to spread throughout the world's population, unless...what was that he said? Ah, unless it could be put into the generation protocols so all future G.E.L.F.s will be created with it automatically, and have it available to everyone else, G.E.L.F. and human alike. I think I can do this, but...how? If this is the right thing to do, then I hope I'm given the proper inspiration to figure it out."

Dr. Nemeth looked at the holograms before her of the two DNA samples for a while longer. She was amazed at how much of the wolf was human.

"It's a wonder they don't exhibit any human-like features."

Dr. Nemeth went out of the lab and stopped in the control booth, shutting the system down for the night. It had been a long day, and she felt like unwinding.

Back in her room, Darcy changed out of her clothes and put on her pajamas and slippers, heated up some water in the little microwave, and made a cup of tea. Ron and Lupina had given the bag of loose-leaf tea to Darcy as a birthday gift a few months earlier. The two-kilo bag of jasmine-flavored oolong tea was one of the few luxuries in her room. When the cup of tea was ready, Darcy turned on her compact stereo system, tuned to her favorite jazz station, and grabbed the sandwich bag in her dorm-sized refrigerator containing some sliced cheese. As soon as she got comfy in her recliner, Darcy finally began to relax and unwind.

Just as Lupina was pulling her shirt up over her head, she felt two hands slip fingers into her fur, starting around her waist, working their way around to her front, and moving up. She gave a start, not having heard as usual, the person the hands belonged to come up behind her.

"You sneak!" Lupina exclaimed quietly with a grin.

She felt a nose rub behind her left ear, and heard a long, slow, inhale--between that, and what the hands were doing, Lupina felt a pleasant shiver run through her body.

"Ooo...you tease!"

"Aye, but ye love it," the owner of the hands said quietly.

"Oh you know I do, baby!"

"Maybe you might like this a little better...," and one of the hands slid down her front, and slowly worked its way between her fur and the waistband of her pants.

"Don't start anything you don't intend to finish," Lupina admonished with a giggle.

"Finishing isn't a problem, luv, and neither is the starting...it's getting the time to properly get from one to the other with no interruptions."

*Gasp!* "I think...we just might...mmm...have a chance...ooo!"

Lupina got herself turned around so that she could face her mate.

"Hi," she said quietly as she put her arms around Ron's neck.

"Hi," he said in return just before giving Lupina a passionate kiss.

*Pant!* "W-What was that for?" she asked, catching her breath.

Licking his lips, Ron replied, "Just because."

"Careful with that tongue, baby...I'll make you use it!"

"Oh...I intend to, luv...," he said mischievously, and then started kissing Lupina down her neck, chest, and abdomen, stopping momentarily at the button that fastened her waistband.

"Hmm...let me see...I think I still remember how to do this...," Ron smirked, while unfastening the button.

"You'd better!"

Ron looked up and playfully stuck his tongue out, wiggling it as he very slowly pulled the zipper.

"Ooo...s-s-s-stop tha-a-at!!"

Grinning, Ron reached around and deftly unfastened the tab above her tail in the back, allowing Lupina to shimmy out of her pants. Just one thin layer of fabric was all that stood between feast and famine...

"MOMMA! Vi bit me!"

"AUNTIE LU! Sierra took my green crayon an' won't give it back!"

"DID NOT!"

"DID TOO!!"

"OW!!!"

*G-r-r-r!!*

*H-i-s-s-s-s!!!*

*Sigh* "Hold that thought, luv...," Ron said holding up a finger, "...be right back."

Shortly after making a quick exit from the bedroom...

"SIERRA! VIOLET! Park it--NOW!!"

*Silence*

"Sierra, give Violet the crayon."

"But Daddy...!"

"Si-er-ra-a-a...," Ron said in a low voice, drawing her name out.

"Okay. Here, take your dumb crayon!"

"Hmpf!"

"Girls, if I so much as hear one peep out of either of you in the next thirty minutes, you won't get any ice cream tonight. You got me?"

"Sierra?"

"Yes, Daddy."

"Violet?"

"Yes, Daddy."

"Thirty minutes. Not a peep."

*Silence*

Upon returning to the bedroom, Ron quietly shut the door.

"I hope that's settled for now."

"I guess we'll see how long it lasts," Lupina said with a little sigh.

"Yeah, you know how long Vi's attention span is...," Ron agreed.

"Um-mm, and Sierra's a little sneak, just like her daddy."

"Sneak is it? Well, maybe I might go for a direct frontal assault...come here, you!" Ron said with a gleam in his eye as he snatched up his mate in his arms.

*Giggle!* Ooo...now, where were we?" Lupina asked coyly.

"I was about to go on a little diving expedition..."

"Looking to plunder some booty, are you?"

"Arr!" *Mrrf!*

"Ooooo...yeah...oh, my!"

Rosie and Holly came back from taking Chrys Ann with them shopping, finding Cormac on the deck playing quietly, with Kapik keeping a close eye on him.

"Hi guys!" Rosie called out as they came up the steps.

Cormac waved happily, and both he and Kapik got up and went to greet Rosie, Chrys Ann, and Holly with tails wagging.

"Where's everyone at?" Rosie asked after hugging them both.

"Sierra and Vi got into trouble, and Momma and Daddy are inside."

"Family out hunting, Kapik watch Cormac."

Rosie groaned a little and rolled her eyes.

"I wonder what they did this time," she said in exasperation.

As soon as Rosie got inside, Violet shouted "Momma!"--and then instantly clamped her hands over her mouth in wide-eyed dismay. Sierra, holding her own hands over her mouth, pointed at Violet and made an "Mmmmm!" sound.

"What did you two fur balls do this time?" Rosie demanded, setting her bags down by the table.

Both of the girls, sitting at opposite ends of the couch from each other, and still holding hands over their mouths, looked towards the bedroom and then at the wall clock.

"Must have gotten a time out or something," Holly suggested, bringing in the rest.

Rosie went over to the couch, and hugged and kissed both girls.

"I guess I'd better go find out what this was about," Rosie said eyeing both girls.

Without thinking, Rosie just walked right into the bedroom.

"We're back! Hey, what did Vi and Sierra...eep! Sorry! Geez, put a sign on the door or somethin'...and save some of that for me, too!" Rosie exclaimed in embarrassment, and stepped back out into the hallway, shutting the door behind her.

When Rosie came back into the kitchen, Holly gave her a sly grin.

"Find out what you wanted to know?"

"Um...it's gonna have to wait a bit, they're kinda...busy," Rosie replied with a somewhat embarrassed look. "And you didn't join in on the fun?" Holly asked quietly.

"Wha...? Um...no, they need some time together, too."

"I would've," holly said with a mischievous grin.

"Um...Holly!"

"Can't blame a girl for thinkin', besides, any guy who'd take a wolf and one of us skunks as a mate, oughtta be somethin' special."

"Well, yeah...he is," Rosie agreed quietly, looking towards the wall separating the kitchen from the master bedroom.

Dr. Nemeth had been working a lot of long hours, even spending much of her weekends, in the lab and also dealing with her usual duties as G.E.L.F. Project Lead. One of the things her team had managed to find was how to make ordinary humans capable of being compatible with the G.E.L.F.s without violent side effects. Of course, it would be expensive, and not something that could be produced in large quantities. She wasn't sure how much of a demand there might be for it, but that was something for the marketing people to worry about. The other item of research that took much of her time lately was isolating the telepathic ability of the wolves, Atka and Sesi. Sometimes she stopped and thought about how having this ability might change things in the world. There was a reasonable chance that lying wouldn't be possible, and communication could be much swifter and more certain. It could certainly help in finding people who are lost, buried in an avalanche or debris, kidnapped, or trapped. It might be able to assist medical people in helping patients who are physically unable to respond. A lot more research would be called for to determine the full extent of this capability, though her part was trying to find the correct sequence that gave the ability. Dr. Nemeth felt that she was getting closer...if only she could get a nudge in the right direction.

"Maybe I need to take a break for a while...get away from all this. I've got plenty of vacation time on the books, so that's not a problem. The problem is, where to go? I want--need--someplace quiet, where I know no one will bother me," she mused quietly to herself.

It dawned on her that there was only one place to go--Alaska.

Ron, Lupina, and Rosie had quite a time trying to find a school to start their little ones in. The nearest public school was in Stevens Village, on the other side of the Yukon River from them, was over forty kilometers away as the raven flew. No country schools existed between Fairbanks and where they lived, so the alternatives were to either home school, or drop the kids off a a school on the way to work. They met with their friends who would soon be sending their own kids to school.

"If we do the home school thing, they won't get to socialize with other kids, especially human kids," Jeff brought up.

That was a good point, and one that they all felt was necessary.

"A private school might be better for the kids--the public schools here don't have a good reputation," Rob suggested.

"Hmm, yeah, we thought of that, but all of the private ones are religious, and who wants their kids to have somebody else's beliefs shoved down their throats? They should be able to make up their own minds on what to believe or not," Lupina said with concern.

"Could we start our own private school? We've got the land, and with the G.E.L.F. and human families living out here, I'd think it would be a help," Rob suggested.

"Well, we could, I suppose, though our kids are ready to start now. We can go ahead and get a start on it--by the time it gets built, we get supplies, teachers, accreditation, and whatever, it'll be ready in time for the other kids," Ron said.

Ron, Lupina, and Rosie decided that they would have to put Sierra, Cormac, Chrys Ann, and Violet into a public school, though everyone decided to go ahead with building their own private school. Ron got in contact with an architectural firm to work out the building details, Rob took it upon himself to contact the state's department of education for the necessary requirements, Lupina and Rosie started working on finding teachers that would be interested, including contacting The Center to see if any of the G.E.L.F. college students were education majors. By the time the Daugherty kids were enrolled into kindergarten, the school project was well under way.

It took some doing to convince school officials that the two-year-old half G.E.L.F. children were developmentally equivalent to five-year-old human children. Their teacher, Mrs. Amberhahl, was amazed that they already knew both the English and Cyrillic alphabets, could count to one hundred in American English, Irish Gaelic, and Russian, and could do some simple math. Their teacher was given some instruction on how to deal with G.E.L.F. children and things to watch for that indicated there might be trouble--body language, such as how ears and tails were being held, raised hackles, different growls and snarls, and for the two skunkettes, hissing and feet stamping. The last thing anyone wanted was to be sprayed by either Chrys Ann or her sister Violet. Parents of the other children had to be reassured that only wild animals could carry diseases such as rabies or distemper, not G.E.L.F.s, and that skunks don't smell bad, and only spray if anything was stupid enough to not heed the obvious warning signs should they feel threatened. Thankfully, there wasn't any major trouble for the whole school term.

Darcy Nemeth arrived in Fairbanks the second week of September, and rented a small crossover vehicle for the week she would be visiting. Following the directions she had been given, she found Ron and Rob's place of business and met them there, along with Lupina. As soon as Helga finished her classes for the day, they left the shop and Darcy followed them home. Having been notified ahead of time, Holly made sure the guest room was ready for Dr. Nemeth when she arrived. The kids ran to greet their father and mother (or "aunt", depending on the child), and also Rob and Helga. They said their hellos to Dr. Nemeth, and then went on about their day in Kindergarten class. After Darcy got settled into her room, Ron and Rosie got supper started. "They seem to be growing nicely," Darcy commented to Lupina. "I remember when you were their size."

Lupina, Rosie, and Holly are among the very first of the Gen-1 G.E.L.F.s created, along with others such as Willie, Maxine, Lizzie, and Tacey.

After supper and the kids went to bed, the adults gathered in the great room to talk over a glass of chilled mead. Kapik was there, too, having come to see the kids before their bedtime.

When the subject of the wolves came up, Darcy said, "I found some interesting things about your four-footed friends."

Kapik perked her ears up and Ron asked, "Such as?"

"Well, for starters, not only are they part human, if they had any more human in them, they would have some physical characteristics resembling the wolf G.E.L.F.s."

"You mean like me?" Lupina asked.

"Yes, in some way or another," Darcy replied.

"Like eyes or sense of smell," Ron said.

"Precisely, as was true in the opposite direction in your case," she agreed. "I found out some more interesting things--there is enough in common between you and Kapik here that she can definitely pass her telepathic ability on. In every simulation I've run of possible combinations, the ability always gets passed along. Further, I've finally been able to isolate it. It seems tied to that special awareness of yours--Kapik and the others all have it, too."

Ron and Rob looked at each other in surprise.

"Are you saying that Rob and the others all have some sort of latent form of Kapik's ability?" Helga asked.

"As far as I can tell, yes. The only thing I need is to figure out how to give it to all of the existing G.E.L.F.s and to other humans, without...side effects," Dr. Nemeth replied.

The room was quiet for several seconds while everyone thought it over.

"Man-brother Ron can be Kapik's mate, make little one with think-speak?" Kapik asked everyone openly, though Rob and Dr. Nemeth didn't have the ability to hear her.

When Ron replied with a bit of embarrassment, "It seems so, sweetie," Rob and Dr. Nemeth gave him an odd look. "Kapik just asked if the big guy could make a little one with her that has that telepathy thing," Rosie blurted out.

Noting the increased look of embarrassment on Ron's face, Dr. Nemeth suggested, "We...could do in vitro fertilization in the lab..."

"No! Do right way, no work other way! Kapik know, you see!"

"Um...Kapik says that it won't work that way, it's got to be done 'right way', which I think she means the old fashioned way," Lupina said quietly, holding her mate's hand.

"Oh. Interesting...well, I guess that's something you'll have to work out," Dr. Nemeth said. "Er...nobody's trying to force you to do something you don't want to do."

Kapik got up and went over to Lupina in a posture of submissiveness, and laid her head on Lupina's lap.

"Kapik want to give gift...you allow once?" Kapik asked privately.

Lupina leaned forward and nuzzled Kapik.

"I know you do. I think it's a good thing, but we need to talk about it with Rosie and Ron."

Later that night when they went to bed, Helga snuggled against Rob, thinking about what they had learned from Dr. Nemeth.

"What do you think about this gift of telepathy?" she asked quietly.

Rob thought a moment and replied, "Well, I can see where it can be both a good and bad thing, and I can certainly understand Ron's dilemma."

Helga looked up into her husband/mate's eyes and blinked slowly.

"Dilemma?"

"Many humans believe that having any kind of sexual relationship with any non-human is wrong, immoral, and even just plain sick," Rob said quietly.

"They would think that of us?"

"Yes, most definitely," Rob replied.

"But you, Ron, and your military friends don't think that way."

"No, I guess either we're more open-minded about it as far as the G.E.L.F.s are concerned, or maybe it's because we're no longer fully human ourselves," Rob agreed.

"But Ron is part wolf now, and Kapik is part human...why should there be anything wrong with that?"

"Well, he still looks human, and she still looks like a regular wolf, so humans will likely only see that if they found out about it," Rob replied.

"What could they do if they did? It's none of their business," Helga argued.

"Someone would make it their business, and then there would be trouble."

Helga thought for a while on that.

"Does it matter what Kapik looks like if she is a sentient being?" Helga asked.

"Prove that she is."

Helga raised herself up on her elbow to look directly at her husband/mate.

"How can you say that? You know that she is."

"Helga, you have to remember that I can't hear her or the others--and neither can regular humans. Unless she either can somehow be able to speak like humans, or humans all become telepaths, a human court will not consider her a sentient being. You and the rest of the G.E.L.F.s can demonstrate that you are sentient because you have the ability to do so...poor Kapik doesn't."

Helga slumped back down onto the bed.

"That is a point I did not consider," she said with a sigh.

They lay there quietly for a while, except that Helga's tail was twitching noticeably.

"What are you thinking, dear?" Rob asked after her tail thumped the bed for the umpteenth time.

She looked up with a little "Mrr?" sound just as her tail stopped moving.

"I was just thinking, what if they do choose to do this and they have a little one--what becomes of him or her?"

"I don't know," Rob said quietly.

Every day that Darcy Nemeth was there visiting, she went out for walks with the wolves going with her. They knew the property boundaries, and watched out for her. On one of the trips, Darcy made her way up to the ridge. If the wolves could have communicated with her, they would have told Darcy all about the human who came that was responsible for taking Atka and Sesi from the very lab she had worked in at U.C.-Berkley, and bring them to Alaska. If they could have shown her a mental image of the person, Darcy would have recognized her as a former high school classmate. Darcy enjoyed the view from the top of the ridge, and the air smelled better to her here than it does down in Texas. Not that it actually was better, just that it reminded her of her childhood home of Colorado Springs, CO. The north edge of the property butts up against the Yukon Flats national Wildlife Refuge, about forty kilometers further north runs the Yukon River. About one hundred kilometers beyond that is the Arctic Circle, and much further beyond that lays the Brooks Range. She couldn't imagine what Atka, Sesi, and their lynx friend Lola, went through to make their way this far south from where they had been released. After sitting and resting from the climb, and looking at what things grew among the rocks at this latitude--she was a biologist after all--Darcy decided that maybe she ought to head back to the house.

"I suppose it's time to go back. You mind showing me an easy way down from here?" she asked the wolves.

"Wuf," Atka said, and then he got up and stretched first, before leading the way.

Later that evening, Ron spent some time alone in the glade, meditating on the issue of Kapik and her gift to humanity. After a time he was joined by another in the glade.

"A little late for you to be out, isn't it?" Ron asked as the other person approached.

"Yeah, well, sometimes I like to see the aurora, and this is one of the few places that I can," said the dark shape that settled down next to him.

"The top of the ridge would give you a better view," Ron said quietly.

"Perhaps, but here one can see more clearly with the heart than he can with the eye."

"Edgar, you're sounding like me," Ron said with a wry grin.

"Maybe that's because we both see with more than our eyes," Edgar said with circumspection.

"I suppose...we are both artists," Ron agreed.

"We're also the first in many ways, and yet...we seem to be old beyond our years in others."

There were a few moments of silence between the two.

"Just out of curiosity, if you were to ever mate with another raven G.E.L.F., would the little one be born like the others, or would he or she hatch from an egg?" Ron asked.

Edgar thought on that a bit.

"You know, that is a very good question. I just might have to bring that up with Dr. Nemeth while she's here. While we're on the subject of mating, I've heard about what your friend Kapik proposes."

"Geez, does everyone know about that?" Ron asked wryly.

"Just those closest to you, of course. When I heard about it, I sought out Kapik myself--had an interesting discussion with her about it," Edgar replied thoughtfully.

"I can imagine."

"I also understand that it's causing some contention within your own thoughts," Edgar said quietly, looking at Ron in a most bird-like fashion.

"That's putting it mildly."

"Tell me the pros and cons as you see them," Edgar requested.

Ron spent a good half an hour at least, covering the various points for and against that, he has been struggling with concerning the issue of Kapik's gift and the implications that he could think of. Although he had discussed it with his two mates, and his friends Rob and Helga, along with Dr. Nemeth, sometimes talking to someone with a totally different perspective can be more thought provoking--especially if the person is a one hundred sixty-eight centimeter tall raven G.E.L.F. by the name of Edgar Corvus.

"So a wolf who is part human wants to mate with a man who is part wolf, so that her offspring can pass along a limited form of telepathy to both G.E.L.F. and human alike, presumably this 'gift' can only be passed along by direct mating. On another front, our dear Dr. Nemeth is trying to find out how she can give it to others either by design or by addition, as how you came to have your unique abilities. The question, therefore, is--is one or the other the correct way, or could they both be the correct way, according to the wishes of the universe itself? I'm assuming that the universe seems intent on both of our kind acquiring this ability, starting with Atka, Sesi, and the others having been given it in the first place. If Atka, Sesi, and their littermates, plus their lynx friend Lola, all have or had this ability and could pass it on, we might wonder how many other animals that were taken from that lab at that time also have this telepathic ability. They could be spreading it throughout their respective populations as we speak. Atka, Sesi, and the others would not have come to be here so that their paths would join with yours if they had not been taken. Perhaps you were meant to meet them and care for them, just as you were meant to meet Lupina, and through her, Rosie, and have the children you do by them. I have no doubt that they will grow up to be fine people in their own right. Perhaps it will be so with Kapik. She is a sentient being and capable of making her own choices for her own reasons, and if you do choose to do this, I'm sure that it will be for the right reason--the only one there can be."

With that, Edgar stood up and patted Ron on the shoulder, using one of his "wing hands", which can easily go unnoticed in the feathers of his wings. Unlike the bat G.E.L.F.s like Kylie, Edgar has extra digits at each wrist joint, in addition to the ones that make up the framework of his wings. It's like having two sets of fingers on each "hand"--one set became normal wings, and the other set allowing hand-like ability. It was an unexpected mutation that the scientists at The Center are still trying to figure out.

After Edgar headed off towards his home, Ron sat still, clearing his mind and opening himself up, just as he did after he had met Lupina. In times past, when he needed it most, he would feel a profound presence that would wrap around and envelope him--the Primal Mother, beautiful and terrifying, one who gives and takes--she had claimed him as hers long ago, and Nature looks after her own. He sensed rather than heard, "Give me your heart, child" and he bared it to Her. The wind kicked up, carrying with it the scents of the forest. He saw in his heart's eye three groups of figures in a circle--humans, G.E.L.F.s, and animals--arranged like a wheel. In the center of the wheel stood a pair of figures, a male and a female--not human, not G.E.L.F., not animal--joining all together in a complex web of fine lines linking mouths, minds, and hearts. If the G.E.L.F.s were to be the ones who would teach the humans "a great lesson", then the pair of figures who are part human, part genetically engineered life, part wild animal, would provide the means through which that lesson is taught. When the image faded in his mind, so did the breeze. When he opened his eyes, Ron saw Kapik trotting shyly towards him. In a whisper he said, "Thank you" to the air around him, and a brief breath of air whispered among the trees as if in reply. When Kapik met Ron, who was still sitting on the ground, she kissed him.

Not a wolf kiss...a human kiss.