The No Names

by Frank Albelo

I snapped out of my contemplations when Koma spoke, handing me both of the rations he had collected. I wanted to argue with the man, but before I realized it the wrappers were on the ground and I was licking crumbs off my gloved fingers. I opened my mouth to speak, but he simply waved me off… with his extra arms. It was an odd experience to receive hand gestures from a man that also had his arms crossed.

  Koma sat in another swivel chair and looked at the others as they finished their meals and propped themselves on the ground to sleep. Beta instructed Marvin to his spot at the door and the rest of the people settled down. Within minutes, my fellow survivors were out cold.

  “I believe we have many things to talk about,” I said, turning my chair to face our multi armed friend.

  Indeed, I heard in my head.

  “I should preface this by saying I am not just one person,” responded Koma verbally in one perfect voice.

  “I am what is considered a multi-conscience Calforn. The Calforn are the alien life forms responsible for all the mutations you have been seeing on this moon.”

  I stared dumbfounded at the mutant, who just told me he was also an alien. I must have let some of my thoughts slip through out mental boundaries because Koma chuckled.

  “I know it may be tough to believe, but the Calforn existed for millennia before Humankind. We’re very advanced. The fact that I exist is something akin to a miracle for a solar system that has been abandoned.” The man continued.

  “Your existence, however, is the true miracle.” The last sentence was said in a different voice entirely.

  “Wait… I thought the presence of other sentient species in the universe had been disproven!” I tried to rebuttal what the man was telling me.

  He leaned back on his chair, waving his hands around, “That particular bit is somewhat muddled for me. You see, while I have some of the memories of the two Calforn that coexist within me there is no true Overmind for me to connect to here. That fact is the only reason I have been able to maintain most of my human self instead of joining the ‘Great Mass’.”

  I was reeling from what he told me. It had been proven that there was life in the Universe when Mars was colonized and probes reached further and further space, but after centuries of space exploration most had determined that true sapient life was absent. Koma was saying that there was intelligent life in the Universe and they had been in our solar system at some point in its history.

  “Where are we then? You said that the Calforn lived in our solar system, but this planet definitely is not in my solar system.”

  Koma chuckled for a few seconds. I was tempted to use a mutated fist to punch some seriousness into the man, but he quickly straightened out.

  “My apologies,” began a third voice, “we have not spoken with… anyone for quite some time. Basten has the memories from his Earth upbringing and when one of your flawed concepts is brought up my brother can’t help but laugh.”

  I was really starting to get confused. It was as if I was talking to three people on the phone while they had it on speaker. Koma must have seen the confusion and frustration on my face because when he spoke again it was the eerie overlapping voice.

  “We, together, are Koma. My human identity, Basten, was erased when we Calforn reached maturity. While we three may act different when in control of the body, we are one and the same.”

  I felt the mental pressure from Koma increase, a vice holding my mind in place.

  We are the relays for the Overmind.

  “Or at least, were. We have been surviving off the animal life our ancestors left to thrive on this moon.” Koma stood and paced around the room, his bare feet silent on the stone.

  “This moon is within your solar system. The gas planet you see from the surface is hidden inside your asteroid belt. This place is unreachable and undetectable unless coordinates are given by a Calforn command center. Much like this room, except actually functional.”

  “I…” I was not sure how to respond. “Why are there other mutants then? What am I? Why did the Calforn leave this system? The others need to know!” I stood, questions flying by as my mind processed the information Koma gave me.

  Before I was able to wake the others, Koma gripped my arm with two of his. “They are not ready. You are… Calforn, but also human. The Calforn’s control over their bodies is rooted in their ability to modify themselves at the genetic level. You seem to possess this, as well as a link to the Overmind. I do not have memories about my predecessors so I don’t know why they left. As far as why there are other mutants, I am sure our dear Captain Starden has something to do with that.”

  At the mention of the Captain, the pieces of what he had been answering my questions with clicked into place.

  “How exactly do Calforn come to maturity?” I shook my arm free from Koma as I turned to look at him.

  The man hesitated.

  How do Calforn mature?

  I pressed with my thoughts and Koma sighed before replying, “We are parasitic beings. We, somehow, enter your body and then attach to the nervous system. Within minutes of maturity control of the entity is completed.”

  I stood shell shocked. “But the others! Starden said we were all given mutagens!”

  “The maturation is not always successful. Considering the outcomes of the other Digits there were multiple Calforn attempting to control the body, what I am currently doing, but they all drove each other mad instead. Turning into those abominations you have been fighting.” I was happy we had all gotten lucky enough not to be turned into mutated Calforn-human messes. The fact that the Calforn took over people in the first place scared me more than I liked to admit.

  “So, what now?” I asked grimly.

  I still considered myself a human, and I still wanted to return to Earth with the others, but I didn’t know what Koma’s goal was.

  “I want to live. I also want revenge. A large serving of revenge on the man responsible. My memories of my arrival on Dun Lund have been foggy, but I need to know what happened.”

  “You aren’t a Digit. You said your name was Basten before you mutated. What was your purpose, Named?” I huffed when I remembered Koma was actually a Named human.

  Pulling up his arms in a placating gesture, Koma replied, “I was just a researching grunt. I was in charge of monitoring the geological behavior of this moon. I have nothing against Digits; I swear. Plus, it's not like you don’t have a name now, Alpha. We’re also no longer human, so we are both a bit outside of their rule.”

  I couldn’t argue with his explanation, so I did my best to relax.

  “You will need to practice your control of the Calforn mutations. It will tax your body heavily, but I believe you can do it especially after seeing you fight. You handle that wrench like a pro by the way.”

  “Ha! Have to work with what I have.”

  “Indeed.” Before I had a chance to stop him, Koma pressed both of his mutated limbs on my temples.

  Join my mind. Resonate with your body. It will show you what you are capable of, I heard in my in my mind as the room blackened even while my eyes remained open.

  Within my mind I saw a naked version of myself. I could recognize most of my features, but the distinct scaling I had seen after I began mutation was markedly clear on my body. My expression was blank as I looked out on the blackness around me. I walked closer to my mental body as Koma continued speaking in my mind.

  I will allow you to see your integration progress. The potential of your body will increase the more you use it and I will be able to share what I have been able to glimpse from the Overmind.

  As he spoke, tendrils of red and black blood were highlighted throughout my body. These were extremely thin, but they were inside and throughout all of my mental body.

  Your Conditioning Mastery will improve your body’s base strength and energy efficiency. Each Rank deepens that connection.

 

  The tendrils faded from all throughout my body, highlighting my
internal organs and some of my muscles.

  Your Metabolic Hyperburn Mastery allows you to burn food stores to significantly improve your strength, reaction, and speed. Each Rank allows you to dig deeper, with more efficiency.

 

  The tendrils moved from my organs and coalesced on my left hand, highlighting the bones and my forearm muscles.

  Your Appendage Mutation Mastery will allow you to control the anatomical properties of your body. Like making a large, strong fist for instance. I could almost hear the smirk in Koma’s mental voice.

 

 

 

  The maroon essence that had been flowing all around my body shifted and settled along my spine, short waving wisps reaching out and fading as they touched the rest of my body.

  Subconscious Manipulation Mastery is one of the Masteries I do not know much about. I do know it is linked to our rapid rate of healing; increasing it tends to happen as a result of injury. The prospect of getting hurt to be able to recover better did not sit well with me, but there was nothing I could do. Koma continued with our hallucinogenic conversation.

 

 

 

  Lastly, Cerebral Maturation Mastery is linked to our connection with the Overmind. I am not sure what the limitations for this are, but it does allow us to sense one another and other Calforns. While speaking in my head, the tendrils crept up my spine collecting where my brain was and within my eyes. Every time Koma spoke, the dark red blob brightened and flared with the rise and fall of his voice.

 

  After the final shifting along my mental body, the world brighten around me. My eyes refocused on Koma who was sweating intently as he removed his hands from my temples. I blinked, clearing the spots from my eyes caused by the fluorescents of the room and the living mass that I saw was augmenting my body. We both sat in silence, the snoozing of the Digits and Koma’s panting the only sounds in the room.

  I let myself smile briefly. There were still many questions left unanswered about the Calforn, but Koma only had so much information. With a better grasp on what was happening to my body I could plan and use it to my advantage. Ideas and counter plans had already taken over my mind.

  It was obvious Starden knew something he wasn’t telling us and I was determined to find out. I made sure to close off my mind as much as possible as I contemplated. Something Koma had said about finding this place, the hidden nature of Dun Lund and the gas planet, meant that the Government or the Bankers had found a command center somewhere on Earth or the Colonies.

  My engineering mind wanted answers. The pieces were beginning to fall in place, but there were too many blanks as of yet. I knew Koma would be key in figuring out a way to return to Earth, but the path off world was still not clear.

  “We will need to establish ourselves better here in the city. You said you lived off the existing species, we may be able to do the same to depart from the USG’s rations.” I said, the inkling of a plan forming in my mind.

  “Indeed. I also believe that meeting with the survivors of previous drops would be beneficial,” replied Koma with a grim nod.

  “There are survivors! What!?” I shouted, the entire group of Digits jumped to their feet in seconds, weapons in hand.

  Chapter 9: Stiff Housing

  “What the fuck do you mean there are survivors!?” I repeated, some of my lingering anger flaring back into my voice.

  “There is a group of Digits that survived from earlier drops, but they are difficult to find considering the size of the wilderness around the city,” exclaimed Koma.

  He was obviously alarmed at the response of our group. The others had quickly shaken off sleep and fallen in behind me, partially surrounding Koma and blocking the path to the door. Beta handed me my wrench without me having to ask for it, but I set the head down on the ground.

  They need to know, I shot at him.

  No. Not about the Calforn. That is for you and me only. If they get off this moon they can know.

  The conversation between Koma and I that went unheard would determine the interaction between our group. I could guess why the Calforn hadn’t approached the survivor group even when he knew about them; he would have been attacked outright. I was sure that if we fought Koma we would win, but not everyone would come out of it in the end.

  “Koma caught me a bit off guard. He says there are other survivors from previous drops,” I told the others over my shoulder.

  “Alpha! We need to contact them right away! Lord knows how long they have been stuck here,” Zeta spoke up, getting a hold of my arm. There was desperation in Zeta’s voice, surely assuming the worst.

  “They have been here for approximately three months,” said Koma.

  “Why did you not approach them? You said yourself you were following us, ‘keeping an eye out’.” I questioned the Calforn.

  “There was no way for me to interact with them without them trying to kill me. The only reason you all did not outright kill me was because of you.” Koma accentuated his point by jabbing his finger on my armored chest, causing the others to flinch.

  Koma confirmed what I had suspected. It also dawned on me, that if the other survivors had made it this long they would have encountered humanoid mutants as well as animal ones. Koma didn’t seem able to retract his extra arms or even hide his features long enough to interact with the survivors properly.

  “Very well. We will look for them when we are more establish—”

  “No! We need to go and get them! There is strength in numbers, you know that Alpha. Look at how we took down that horse thing!” The look in Zeta’s eyes told me she would remain adamant about contacting them. I sighed, shaking my head gently.

  “Fine, fine. We need to see Starden first otherwise we will be in a tight spot food wise. Especially with me having to eat more to umm… perform.” I just barely managed to placate the woman, so knew I would have to keep to my word.

  “I think the girls and I can manage the delivery with Marvin. Delta, how about you and the others search through the buildings and gather what else you can find.” I saw the shock in the others as I spoke of splitting up. I felt bad gambling with their lives, but Koma was an asset we needed to use while our goals aligned.

  You know I can hear most of your thoughts still, yes?

  I cursed silently, but I pushed my plans to the man mentally. To the others it looked like we were eyeballing each other menacingly, but I moved past that before it made them nervous.

  “I think Koma has proven himself enough with that weird creature outside. Plus, everyone seemed to be okay with him following us here.”

  “Well… that was because you were here, Alpha,” said Gamma from behind the others.

  I turned to look at her, spotting the same concern she had shown when I had mutated in front of the others.

  “It’s alright, Gamma. Koma will behave or I will come back to rip all his arms and shove them down his throat.”

  The details of my threat caused the girl’s eyes to widen, but I said it more for the benefit of Koma. I looked over my shoulder at him before he replied with, “Noted.”

  “With that settled, Koma can you separate the ape upper body from the rest? I’m gonna take it, and one of the dog bodies, to exchange for rations.” The man replied with a curt nod. “Good, get me once that is all done and we are ready to move out. I might need a nap to finish recovering.”

  The others chuckled, Delta and Gamma still eyed Koma suspiciously, but they all began descending the stairs. I watched them leave, Marvin remaining behind in case of a worst case scenario. I hobbled over to the ATC and plopped down on the ground, my back resting on the robot. Before I knew it, I had Koma slapping my face to get going.

&
nbsp; I felt a growl escape me, but I quickly reeled it back in. I could tell my instincts and emotions were heightened since the mutations started in full swing, but I needed to keep them in check. I had Marvin follow us downstairs and I loaded the ape body onto him. Once that was done and I had the girls stand on either side of it to make sure it didn’t slide off I picked up one of the exsanguinated mutated dogs and threw it over my shoulder. I winced slightly; my muscle and bone injuries from the fight with the experiments had not fully recovered, but I grit my teeth and faced the group.

  It was odd seeing Koma in his simple pants while three armored humans stood around him. I wished them all good luck and activated my helmet as did the girls. The trek to the surface was well known now, but I kept myself alert.

  Test your mental range, Alpha.