More stuff about Cain because he's cool. Maybe answers some stuff?


January 1 Demeter's Ark, Lake Chad, Chad

This century was so comfortable. It was something Cain had thought quite a bit since he'd been freed of that hole in the earth that foolish man had put him in. Proeathan things were comfortable yes but even human made things. The world had been made comfortable in his passing with soft beds, and supportive chairs. Such a far cry from long ago. He could still remember sleeping on raised wooden platforms, with just a blanket between him and the wood.

Oh how the world changed. And changed again and again and again.

He liked how comfortable the chair the AIs provided for him was. He'd had a lot of technology to assimilate in a short amount of time. Electricity and flying machines and this thing the humans had called the 'internet' but he'd never seen. It had been broken already by the time he was rescued. It was fascinating. And the AIs, the AIs were wonders. What they were going to give him was a wonder.

Hera's masked face was projected on the glass in front of him. "Cain," she said.

He smiled, "Hello," he said. "What do you need of me?"

"You agreed to our price for your help," she said, "its time for us to start paying."

"Fantastic," Cain's smile widened.

"A synthetic will be provided to you. You may do whatever you wish with them. What do you want from them?"

Cain leaned back in the, very, comfortable chair. He'd thought about this a long while. Since they'd told him what Lucy was, what they would offer him for his cooperation. As far as he knew only Clay and Micheal knew like he did. But Lucy had been created for a purpose unlike the one Cain had. She'd been designed to mimic someone who'd died.

"I want a son," Cain said, "fertile, and who looks like my son," an old pain splintered in his chest.

"Who is the mother?" Hera asked.

Old memories he was sure he'd forgotten flickered briefly into recognition. The charming smile of an Indian princess from a long time ago. Her cheerful laughter, and the whisper of her voice in his ear. She'd been so beautiful. She'd said they'd have been together always. What a naive idiot he'd been.

"Mother doesn't matter," Cain said, "someone who looks my ethnicity."

Hera was silent a moment, "And what is that?" she asked.

"Can't tell?"

"You are a very strange man," Hera said. "You are as old as any tree. But even trees remain the same. You should be short, but you are not. You should have old features, but you don't. Your immune system is not like humans from when you'd been born. Its almost as though you've changed over the past millennia. Where are you from? What land calls you their son?"

Cain's smile was sharp and hard and like a knife, "Or maybe I'm not like the rest of humanity. My father is from Tibet, that's all you need to know."

"I see," Hera said. "What do you want for your son?"

"A longer life, if possible. If not it isn't an issue."

Hera was quiet for several moments. "You want fertility, and a long life?"

"A normal life for a human," Cain corrected. "He doesn't have to be perfect. Humans are horribly flawed creatures after all. I imagine a pure human would be even more flawed."

"Such things require balances, Cain," she said.

"I am a balancer," Cain said, "tell me what."

"You have options. Normally to give longer life we'd make a synthetic sterile-

"So synthetics are not inherently sterile?"

"No. They are not a hybrid which is often sterile. But to give both things it must be a sizable exchange to give him a normal life. He can be an idiot-

"Unacceptable," Cain growled.

"He can be born disfigured-

"Also unacceptable."

"Or he can lose a sense," she said with seriousness. "Sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch. Which one would you rob your child of?" she asked calmly.

"Any of them?"

"Yes."

"Smell," he said, he'd met a man once who couldn't smell. Had been completely normal and one of the best smelling people he'd ever met because he was so concerned that his body oder was offensive to others. "Is that all?"

"There will be other things, but you don't get to decide them. The red moon decides those."

"But he won't be an idiot?"

"No. He'll be normal in most ways-

"Most ways?"

"Lucy is normal in most ways isn't she?"

Cain frowned, "She is," he agreed.

"Then that's all there is we need from you, Cain," she said. "The fruit of your desires will take some months to cultivate."

"I have time," Cain said.

"Yes… I suppose you do," and she disappeared.


this really doesn't answer anything does it? I know a bird or two this is going to frustrate to no end. So close to getting answers and then-