The Beast Inside Read online

  The Dochani available for war against the Fenshians numbered fifty billion, and only about twenty-five percent of those could use fireballs, and whatever else their abilities allowed them to do. The rest of the Dochani would be using the spears, rifles, artillery, and the other items that required only mechanical manipulation to use.

  It was not known how many Fenshians came that day and stayed for nearly two million years devouring Dochani Beta. My parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents and upwards to my one hundredth grandparent from the first after my parents told me of their own account or their parents’ parents account until I was born just outside of this two million year war.

  The entire history of my family goes back more than three billion years and the accounts of my family’s history was originally written in some of my long dead family’s line, and kept alive only by transcribing information over the years so that it would not decay.

  We have an entire library that only contains information about our family on its books. Billions and billions of books, mostly personal journals, were written over the last three billion years regarding the things that my family had done, or things that were done to them.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Compared to our civil wars the war against the Fenshians was really a blood bath, and not a war at all. We did not stand a chance against beings that were so big, and our weapons were next to useless against them. If you want to picture what it was like think of a spear going into a big lake covered in ice, it sticks into the ice momentarily and then sinks and disappears, or it just bumps across the surface to no real effect.

  Well you cannot expect it to have any effect on something that is more than one hundred, and seventy-five thousand tons anyway. Especially since us Dochani are rarely able to carry more than one thousand tons, and we cannot expect to be trying to carry it by employing one hundred, and seventy-five Dochani. It just does not work that way. Also, throughout the war the Fenshians used their ships and their science to level Dochani Beta to ash, and dust.

  It made it worse when they had a device connected to the ships that would just harvest the Dochani as crops, and eat them after some processing like a rather large juicer, or blender. The Fenshians systematically destroyed the buildings, farmland, trees, flora, fauna, animals, and the Dochani more than they were already destroyed. It was like the items on the ground were never there in the first place.

  Everything on land was destroyed and even the lakes, seas, and oceans were polluted. At first we thought that our homeland would never be rebuilt from its ashes upon ashes of what was left of it, but in time a small part of it was partially rebuilt. Even though that small part was rebuilt, this stain of the Fenshians would never leave us because most of Dochani Beta would never be rebuilt.

  My people have called it the karma stain because no Dochani can live there and karma is non existent in most spots that is charred into hard stone that has the appearance of lava stone. Some Dochani say that it could eventually replenish itself, but most are doubtful that it would be restored in many Dochani lifetimes.

  Possibly it would take as long as the Dochani have been in existence to replenish the karma, maybe even longer. The part that was rebuilt was the part that had the gateways to the other two hundred million worlds. It was something about so much karma being used in one spot that it created enchantments that protected the land from contamination.

  After the devourers devoured the Dochani people, buildings, metals, minerals and all other substances needed to sustain growth on the planet they left to go to another planet to devour it everyone supposed because no one really knew as they just up and left.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  One day the Fenshians were there and then the next day the Fenshians left without a trace of them being there except for the destruction that they had left behind. My family stayed in hiding for more than ten thousand years until my twenty thousandth birthday to make sure that the Fenshians were truly gone. It was also because they had to wait for my aqualung and paralung to develop that allowed my body to convert any gaseous or liquid substance to oxygen.

  This waiting had to be done because we happened to be beneath the ocean in hiding when everything went into chaos up above on land. Over ten million years ago bunkers were built at the bottom of the ocean, which were more than eleven miles beneath the water's surface, or sea level. Of course at that depth the pressure exacted on our bodies was more than one thousand kilograms per square centimeter and two hundred times that of gravity at the surface, which happened to be nineteen point eight meters per second squared.

  Thus making the pressure at the bunkers twenty-three thousand, seven hundred and sixty meters per second squared. Over time of being in deep oceans and seas the Dochani developed thick skin like many of the whales and sharks that cohabited the oceans and seas with the Dochani, which allowed them to withstand the pressures of the sea and also different pressures on the various different planets in the universes.

  Due to the predatory nature of most animals on land and fish in the sea and oceans, many Dochani were attacked on sight by these creatures of the deep. Those older than twenty thousand years old were usually not bothered unless they had an injury or were frail from age or disease, however, those under ten thousand years old were bothered constantly especially those considered young children not long after flight.

  We knew that the Fenshians would not stay long because they would need to eat and so they would be off to devour another planet. So many Dochani were lost in those days and very little Fenshians perished. It is not known how many Fenshians had died because as soon as one died or even just before he died, they scooped him up and ate him. Terrible it was for those families who had relatives up above sea level, especially for those children left without their parents.

  I was fortunate enough to have my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents and so on up to my fifteenth grandparent after my grandparents alive and well while growing up. Why was I so lucky and others were not? Well, in our society those who could travel or had the map of the universe ingrained into their minds were more valuable than those without it. Thus they were protected in war because of their rarity, and my family could all travel and had the map of the universe ingrained into their minds, including myself.

  Out of all of the Dochani our family was the strongest travelers. As I have said before, fifty billion Dochani were left on Dochani Beta to fight the Fenshians even though it was not enough to guarantee victory. Many Dochani who were born after the war were born under the water in the bunkers, thus could not leave for twenty thousand years even if they had wanted to.

  When I mention these bunkers it was not like they were a hollow hole in the ground, just that they did not have the same exquisite architecture as those buildings above ground. Granted these bunkers had to be designed to allow the young Dochani to breathe oxygen and provide some recreation that was, in some ways, taken for granted above sea level. Some buildings were made so that flight was made possible.

  A building of note had a four mile high fake mountain that allowed those wanting to fly or climb to do so at their leisure. I especially liked the fact that we could go to a market or an amusement park and, of course, we could go swimming with a breathing apparatus. This defensive set of buildings, which is all we have left of Dochani Beta, provided shelter for only ten billion Dochani and more than seventy percent of those were under twenty thousand years old.

  Thus for a while it was not safe to travel to the surface due to the increased activity of the creatures in the sea. Once I was able to fly, I spent a lot of my time perched on top of the fake four mile high mountain. Our architects were even able to simulate the wind and altitudinal drifts that flowed over and around the top of the mountain. For more than thirty thousand years I enjoyed the wind’s gentle caress as it ran its smooth, but powerful, masculine fingers through my hair.

  The body of the wind embraced mine as though I was its lover sending
its frosty tendrils up my legs, over my thighs, across my abdomen and across my breasts sending tender shivers up my spine. Ruffling the feathers of my outstretched wings with my back arched excepting the wind’s loving embrace I stayed their naked for several days without moving with only the wind as my sustenance. Oh, do I ever love the wind and it’s loving embrace. He takes care of me so much that I even get goose bumps just thinking about him.

  Since most of our books were taken to our forty million colonies we only had the bare minimum to do our schooling and those we had to share with other students. Just think, we had a total of ninety million books for each subject for the just over two billion Dochani children who were under ten thousand years old. Thus twenty-five Dochani children would have to share a book for each subject.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Ten thousand years old was considered the age of majority and also the time under school was finished and it was also when they were ready for university or the workforce. The only good thing about the school system was that we got to be with the same twenty-five kids throughout our ten thousand years in under school.

  I find that ten thousand years is not really that much time if one considered how old our teachers already were, which at the time seemed ancient to me, it would not be that much time at all. Now being over fifty thousand years old myself I am not too far from my old teachers of under school that were over forty thousand years old at the time.

  Our under school system, in most eyes, is an advanced system of levels that teaches students key aspects of our life, and how everything as we perceive it works in the universe. Or universes depending on what paradigm that you are thinking of as all is theory until it is actually discovered to exist. The laws of the universe act upon the Dochani differently than other races in the universe, in fact these laws effect Dochani less than other races.

  For now our under school system has ten main sections and each of those sections are made up into five sub-sections for the first section and two sub-sections for the last nine sections. The first section is called pre-school and each sub-section in it is two hundred and fifty-seven point six years long and their names are crawl, walk, run, swim and flight.

  This first section of schooling is very crucial in a Dochani child’s overall development. It is the first twelve hundred and eighty-eight years that affect a Dochani child the most and those years are usually habit forming. During this time they go through the beginnings of mathematics, physics, chemistry, architecture, biology, genetics, engineering, linguistics, languages of the universe, art, healing, offensive Dochani ability, defensive Dochani ability, and physical education.

  When a Dochani child hatches they are only nineteen to thirty pounds in weight and thus care has to be taken so that the Dochani child will grow up properly. The first couple of months are crucial for a Dochani considering that nearly half of their adult weight is gotten in this time and this is another reason why only one egg is laid at a time. Average adult weight for a Dochani is three hundred and eighty-three pounds for males and six hundred and eleven point five pounds for females.

  After two months a male Dochani would be roughly one hundred and sixty-eight pounds and a female Dochani would be roughly two hundred and sixty-nine pounds and about two thirds of adult Dochani height, which would be about five feet for the male Dochani child and about six feet and four inches for the female Dochani child. Because of this growth in mass crawling does not begin until five months after the egg has hatched, walking not till two years after hatching, running not till ten years after hatching and swimming not till fifty years after hatching.

  Flight does not begin till the juvenile feathers have completed forming, which is a bit more than five hundred and seventy-five years after hatching. Although the physical aspects of a Dochani take longer than most other races, the brain develops exponentially in a Dochani. At only two months old, a Dochani child begins to speak. By five months conceptual thought develops, and fluent speech is articulated.

  Two years into life the Dochani dot organ develops and rudimentary healing and defensive Dochani ability is possible. Ten years into life the Dochani is better at healing and defensive Dochani ability and has rudimentary offensive Dochani ability. Fifty years into life the Dochani have satisfactory healing, defensive Dochani ability and offensive Dochani ability. Although a Dochani child is bright enough and resourceful enough to learn these things on their own, it is better to get training through the under school because training on one’s own reduces the chances for a Dochani to survive in the often harsh universe.

  Some Dochani have learned on their own in the past, but not too many of those came to realize their own potential and had died far too long before they had ever reached a venerable age. Survival is for the fittest of any race of beings and even the Dochani race have faced extinction with races that were far superior in thought, and deed than them.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I know that it is strange to believe that there are others out there in the universe or universes that could be better prepared for life than us, but if we are here then they are clearly possible to be in existence as well. A Dochani needs to continue their learning longer than most races and conceptually they sometimes even go beyond themselves in learning.

  To us Dochani time is not really a concern so we make sure that we are totally prepared for anything thrown at us, no matter how long it takes. I once spent fifteen hundred straight years in the library only taking a break every few days to eat and it did not seem like much time was spent at all and sometimes I think I should have spent more time on researching for my university thesis for my under-grad degree in biology, but what is done is done.

  Sometimes hindsight seems to give us better choices, but the future always has something better in store for us and we just have to have the patience to wait it out since we will get there eventually. Most likely my master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation made up for it anyway, which I spent far more time than that on it. It is not unheard of for a Dochani to spend fifty thousand years getting their education, even though some stop before even pre-school is done.

  What a waste for a Dochani to stop school before they can officially hunt for food properly and some believe as long as they can fly to a store and buy food that they do not need to know how to hunt. In most cases the law society of Dochani Beta wants one to finish up to at least under school, all ten sections of it. The other nine main sections of under school are novice, initiate, beginner, moderate, intermediate, advanced, frosh, junior and senior.

  Sub-sections of these nine main sections are level one, level two, level three, level four, level five, level six, level seven, level eight, level nine, level ten, level eleven, level twelve, level thirteen, level fourteen, level fifteen, level sixteen, level seventeen and level eighteen respectively. Now that I have briefly told you about the educational structure of Dochani Beta, I will tell you about the time I finally got to go to the surface of the lake that I had spent so much time below and then maybe you will understand how to get there from wherever you happen to be reading this. I know time is almost here for myself to depart and your journey even though starting soon, has not yet begun.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  At the time that I arrived from the Dochani home beneath the lake waters, eleven miles beneath the surface to be exact, I had finished my education which was the highest achievement for any Dochani to have a doctorate and was sixty-five thousand and five hundred years old. In the time that I was in the underwater home I had buried many of my older relatives that had passed away at even fifty thousand years old, and some at one hundred and ten thousand years old.

  Some people just could not live in something that seemed so much like a cage even with all of the amenities and more that the surface of our planet had before the wars with the Fenshians finished destroying what our civil wars started to destroy. I implore you to be always free and go wherever you can as we don’t always get to have a choice to be free and go where we please when we want
to.

  The above was written by Veridas Serdoma in her journal or maybe she wrote many journals and we just have to find the right one. It is within her families’ collection of journals. Possibly on the planet Geh, but no one knows if that is the case. Although, there is suppose to be a few important books there that could only be read by a chosen one. Only one of her own blood could find the habitat that she talks about in her book, which was written more than a few million years ago.

  Pretty much this book has a list of all of the colonies that were founded by the Dochani race and is much sought after by the Fenshians and their allies the Mechanaar. Not much is known of the journals of her family and it is supposed that if someone finds those journals that they might find this particular journal that is more important than the rest combined. If the books are on Geh, they might have destroyed them already. That planet has a ban on magic items and anyone found with them in their possession is killed by being burned with the items in question.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  In another land billions of light-years away and billions of years in time away from the great Fenshian and Dochani war on Dochani Beta there was a world of the Sevlin called Sevle. Many Dochani were sent to many planets to give the people on those planets warnings of the impending hostile visit to them from the Fenshians and Sevle was one such planet.

  Kenjin was from a world called Dochani Zeta. The Dochani race was a sentient being that laid eggs. An egg’s incubation period was approximately three hundred years, but could lay dormant for a lot longer than that. Some of the Dochani could travel from world to world with their advanced minds. They are a highly biological race with everything that a typical humanoid has, but with an anatomy that is enhanced far above a typical humanoid.