Lion Man’sCaptive
By
Kaitlyn O’Connor
(C) Copyright by MadrisDePasture, May 2014
Cover art by Jenny Dixon,December 2020
ISBN 978-1-60394-
SmashwordsEdition
New ConceptsPublishing
Lake Park, GA31636
www.newconceptspublishing.com
This is a work of fiction. Allcharacters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination andnot to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons orevents is merely coincidence.
Chapter One
“Don’t be absurd! There areno intelligent life-forms out there … with the exception of thecolonies.”
Several of the scientistsin the forum uttered appreciative chuckles, as if the reference tothe colonists was the punch line of a private joke. Aidan felt hisface heat—mostly with anger, although there was also a touch ofdiscomfort. He should’ve become immune to the barbs of his peersconsidering how many times he’d been swept up in this same debate,he thought with disgust. He supposed he was developing a thickerhide, because, for once, he didn’t lose his temper. “I wasn’tsuggesting intelligent life-forms. I suggested there might be higher life-forms on one, or all, ofthe target planets in the G-1493 system. From the data we’vegathered, it seems to be a relatively young system—comparativelyspeaking, but it’s certainly old enough for higher life-forms tohave evolved. It isn’t our place to decide whether these higherlife-forms have a right to exist or if those that evolved on thehome world are superior and therefore more deserving ofexistence.”
Hatim, the lead scientiston the forum, glared at him. “You’re suggesting we plant ships fullof colonists on alien worlds to deal with alien life-forms?”
Moshe nodded. He always agreed withHatim. The man should try to develop original thoughts, Aidanthought with disgust, or at least a spine.
“Better the devil youknow,” he said sagely.
“We can’t be assured thatthe environment would be conducive to our colonists without theterra-formers,” Lazar said in a kindly voice that suggested he wastrying to explain something to a person that was mildlyretarded.
Aidan’s temper leapt up another notch.“So, once again, we play gods? We drop the terra-formers on thehapless life-forms that may already be there, destroying them andreplacing everything with our own seeds? We’ve barely scratched thesurface in our studies of these worlds! There’s been no realattempt to discover what kind of life might already be flourishingthere. The telescopes aren’t designed for that and we haven’t sentout any probes—as we should before we make this kind of decision.Maybe we should reconsider sending colonists there?” he saidtightly.
If he’d suggested they allkiss his ass he didn’t think he could’ve shocked them more. Hatimso far forgot himself that he dropped all pretense of civility.“Are you out ofyour mind?” he roared. “Whenhave we discovered a system that evenbegins to compare toG-1493? Three planets! Three! All within the temperate zone. Allrock planets. All with similar gravity and pressure—well within ourcomfort range once they’re terra-formed.”
The forum promptly disintegrated, alldecorum vanishing out the door. No one seemed to realize thateveryone else in the room was in complete agreement. They beganarguing loud and long over the merits of colonizing G-1493. Aidanwas angry enough by that time that he was inclined to stay andargue his own issues, but he could see that it was pointless.They’d made up their minds before the forum was ever called. They’donly attended to make sure that their particular interests wereconsidered.
He supposed, if it came to that, so hadhe.
There were times—likethese—when he almost regretted his decision to become a linguisticanthropologist—any kind of anthropologist! Specializing in linguistics when therewere no languages left to decipher only made his situationmore frustrating. Itdidn’t look like he was ever going to get the chance to apply hisknowledge beyond the home world, and there was very little, now, tobe discovered on the home world.
Colonization had been well establishedby the time he’d gotten to college, however, and it had seemed theperfect field for him—combining his facility for language with hisinterest in cultural development.
Unfortunately, by the timehe was working on his masters, a brilliant team of scientists haddeveloped the genesis terra-formers. Even he could see thatit was a brilliantconcept. By breaking down everything on the target planet andsowing the seeds of beginning life from their own world, andaccelerating the process of evolution, they’d achieved far moresuccess in terra-forming than prior efforts. The terra-formersinsured that, when colonists arrived, they stepped out on a worldthat truly was their own—a young Eden, fresh and burgeoning withlife, and ready to be molded.
The problem, as far hecould see, was that it had gone to their heads—the ability to playgods. Gone were the days when they thoroughly examined and probedthe potential colony worlds they found. Granted, in the decadesthey’d spent colonizing other worlds before the genesis terra-formers theyhadn’t discovered anything but microbial life, and precious littleof that, but that didn’t rule out the presence of higher life-formsas far as he could see. It didn’t rule out the possibilityof intelligent life, although he wasn’t crazy enough, or comfortable enoughin that belief to openly suggest such a thing. There were far toomany worlds that could support life to rule out the possibility of higher life-formshaving developed or even intelligent life.
Grabbing his papers, Aidanshoved them into his satchel with a violence that suggested that hewould’ve preferred shoving them down Hatim’s throat. Thethought did crosshis mind.
On the other hand, Hatim had onlyvoiced the thoughts of the forum as a whole, he thought withfrustration, stalking from the chambers. Choking the life out ofthe bastard might help his feelings—briefly—but it wasn’t going tochange anything else except his status as a freecitizen.
* * * *
Aidan wasn’t generally inclined towardimpulsiveness. Not only was it his nature to consider theconsequences of possible actions before he leapt, but he wasinclined to think that his intelligence would overrule any tendencyto leap before he looked even if he’d had that particular trait inhis genetic markers.
He wasn’t completely comfortable in hismind, therefore, when he found himself in route to the G-1493system, grimly determined as he was to beat the genesisterra-formers to the target worlds and uncover proof of his theoryof the existence of higher life-forms on other worlds.
Part of that discomfort arose from theethical issues behind his mission—most of it actually.
From the moment the thought hadoccurred to him—while still in
