With best wishes and congratulations for our new President, Barack Obama!

CNN called Virginia for Obama and then mere moments later called the election for Barack Obama.

YES WE CAN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

It's that time again!  James is celebrating his 39'th birthday for the third time today.   Happy Birthday James.  Hope you are well and that you are taking today off to relax and enjoy yourself. 

So my friend Brian had an idea for a fun photo he wanted me to create for him.  He wanted to be Gulliver of Gulliver's Travels, tied down on a beach by the Lilliputians... all of whom would be played by his wife Lynnea.

I originally wanted to shoot this on a beach (as per the original idea) but the lake in Chelmsford, MA that we were relaxing at didn't afford a beach with a suitable layout for the shot.  So we instead did it on a nearby grassy knoll.

First we "bound" Bri by encircling him over and over with a thin twine.  Then I helped him lie on a slightly raised knoll and lay flat before him so that the camera would be angled up to make him appear bigger.  I said "imagine there is a six inch high person standing on your chest lecturing you" so that he would look in that direction.  That was the first shot.

The subsequent shots all featured Lynnea using the thickest rope I could find on short notice as a prop.  Bri would stand out of shot (typically on a footstool) and hold the rope while Lynnea would pull on it this way and that.

After recording about a dozen different poses, we did the lecturing pose, and then I shot the "sitting on the toes pose" when Lynnea was just relaxing on the stool.  I thought the pose would come in useful and as you can see it did.

Shots were all done by daylight, no flash. EOS 5D with the EF 24-70mm 2.8L lens, which is the widest I own.

Then, after some cleanup in lightroom, came the hours of photoshop work to carefully clip Lynnea out of her surroundings in various pictures and edit her into this one at reduced scale.  I thought the grass, which to a Lilliputian should be knee high at least, would be a problem, but it turned out that just using a gradient transparency on the ends of her legs (or whatever was closest to the ground) worked fine unless you look really close.

Things I would do differently if I shot this again:

1. I really need to get a chromakey backdrop for shoots like this.  I shot Lynnea against a grassy green background, but that was not uniform enough to make clipping her out simple... it was fun, but it was a LOT of work.
    
2. Lynnea had been swimming prior to the shoot, and threw on a pair of pants for her poses.  But in each subsequent pose water slowly seeped through the material and created spots in various places.  I was mostly able to edit those out, but it was additional work.
    
3. Get thicker rope, or simply edit the rope out altogether and use the twine.  The size difference between the reduced rope and the twine bugs me a little.
    
4. A beach location with a nice uniform ocean background would have made for easier editing.
    
5. I would have backed off a little more when shooting Bri.  At 4x6, 6x9, or 8x12 the photo is fine, but at 8x10 the ends get clipped.  That was just dumb on my part... to produce an unclipped 8x10 print some edits would be required.

All that said, I am really pleased with how the resulting image came out.  And more importantly, my beloved friends Brian and Lynnea are happy with it, which is really what this was all about.  Doing something nice for people I hold very dear in my heart.

Love you guys, glad you liked the photo!

Oh I remember now... that's the sun!  I saw that the day we left to go on our vacation here in Rainland.  How nice that it has decided to grace us with its presence... on the last day.  Well I'm not going to be cynical today (I mean, after this point).  Clark's Bridge was a bust yesterday... rain dumping down and you have to pay to get in to the tourist trap it is ensconced in... a veritable fortress of phony, brightly-painted, dreck.  So I'm not going back there.  But maybe I can get to the Flume Bridge today.  We'll see.  Either way there should be something to shoot.

Unless it starts raining.

Okay, starting from now, I mean...

NOTE: This story is chapter 2, the sequel to the previous chapter.  If you have not already read the first chapter, you will find it here.

---

Travel via quantum entanglement was essentially instantaneous, but the habitat still needed an hour or so to complete the final leg of the journey--a series of maneuvers using thrusters to approach and dock with Ellan and Tyr's habitat. Mara used the time to prepare herself. As she bathed she considered what Kennis had said about finding a new world upon which to create humans.

The idea was fraught with problems, really. Homo sapiens were what they were largely because of their environment. As products of natural selection and evolution, they were a perfect fit for Earth, and clearly would not be a fit anywhere else. This meant an enclosed environment, planetary engineering, or genetic surgery. An enclosed environment was the most practical, but hardly the sort of thing that humans would be satisfied with. How could they truly call their new world their own if they had to live in a box to dwell there? A large-scale colony habitat could be fashioned in space, but humans would immediately set out to leave it... they might even learn of Earth, go back there and destroy the new life that owned that world in a bid to reclaim the planet.

Engineering a world was possible but would be a massive effort. Altering the orbits and environments of planets was no small task. Given a suitably altered world, Mara would be able to repopulate the environment with the various species of Earth in a few tens-of-thousands of years. But to shift an orbit? Alter the gravitational properties of a planet? Refashion its atmosphere? This would require highly specialized equipment, exorbitant resources, and millions of years. While these things could be had, and the timeframe was largely irrelevant, the process would certainly require the assistance of other people, perhaps as many as a dozen. And wherever minds met, ideas changed--Mara's vision would become the property of a group, and would doubtless be altered. She might not end up with humans at all.

This left genetic surgery--essentially creating creatures that were mostly human, but engineered to dwell on a different world, a world which Mara and Kennis would have to find. One suitable for life, as close as possible to the environment of Earth, but lifeless. Finding such a world was only a matter of time. The real problem was the genomically altered humans--they would not be truly human. Further enough time in the alien environment, no matter how earthlike, would lead to evolution. How would the genomes of Earth compete on another world? Would the primates dominate the world as before? Or would natural selection favor some other species? Genomic preservation through the use of nanos was possible, but nano-enhanced humans would essentially be a different species--Homo lentus--that hardy species of humanity that had extended life spans, improved senses and agility, and a high resistance to disease and adverse environmental conditions. Homo lentus as a species did not last long simply because it rapidly completed the transformation to Homo immortalis. Homo sapiens needed to be created nano-free.

It was a thorny problem and Mara did not see an immediate way to a solution. Nor did she understand truly why she felt this curious motivation to recreate Homo sapiens. [Ten minutes to dock] the habitat informed her, via her network feed. She had spent too much time bathing and the skin of her fingertips had taken on a most amusing wrinkliness. Mara stood as the water drained away in the marble bath, and reached toward the towel bar. Immediately a towel materialized there, synthesized by the nanos which permeated the habitat, and Mara herself.

"It's quite unnecessary, my love, that you should bathe." Kennis said from the doorway.

Mara hadn't noticed Kennis standing there and offered up a small grin. Kennis was gently leaning on the doorframe contemplating Mara, much as Mara had done to her 24,000 years prior. She had not dressed. It was true; the nanos continually cleaned their bodies and their environment. Mara tilted her head to the side and began vigorously drying her hair with the towel.

"It may not be necessary, but I enjoy it. Does it bother you, my love?"

"On the contrary, it may be unnecessary but I could stand here and watch the water play over your body for centuries. I'm quite glad you do it."

"Oh Kennis, you silly girl, centuries in the bath? What would my skin look like after that?"

Kennis laughed then. That gentle but confident laughter that Mara so loved. Kennis was ever her strength. But this time there was a bit of mischief in it.

"I suspect we shall soon find out," she said as she turned to leave, "you'd best finish up. We dock soon."

"Are you not going to dress?" Mara called after her.

"No need," her voice filtered back from the corridor. Well that was also true, Mara supposed, but that would be another unnecessary activity that she nonetheless took pleasure in. With a gentle thud, the habitat rocked slightly as it docked with Ellan and Tyr's home.

Indeed, apart from a necklace of jade beads, Kennis was still nude when Mara rejoined her in the airlock. But Mara was resplendent in a fabulous red and gold dress and her hair had been carefully styled in layered tresses. Her eyes were bordered with dark makeup and gold rings adorned her ears, and her left nostril. She wore a braided gold chain about her neck, and a translucent golden scarf and veil on her head, beaded with small accents of gold and pearls. Golden polish had been applied to her fingernails and toenails, and she wore decorative sandals, also bedecked with gold.

"How do I look, love? Is it all unnecessary?" she asked Kennis, playfully.

"Sadly my darling, yes. You look lovely, but it won't last."

Mara was about to ask why when she noticed a red indicator flashing over the airlock door. The habitats had finished negotiating, and the indicator warned that the environment on the other side of the airlock door would not sustain them. [Destination environment incompatible with your biological requirements. If you wish to proceed please indicate your preference for assistive technology or biological adaptation.]

Just what sort of environment have Ellan and Tyr fashioned for themselves, Mara wondered.

The two immortals spoke simultaneously. "Assistive technology," Mara said. "Biological adaptation," Kennis said. Mara looked at her. "I do not like it when you change your body. I love you as you are."

"It's only for the duration of the visit, love, and I don't wish to lug around gear."

"Gear?" Mara asked and glanced down as a mist of nanos swirled up around her from the floor.

Rapidly the nanos disassembled her dress, sandals, jewelry, and veil, and replaced them with a red and gold wetsuit, swim fins, and small face mask. Special lenses formed over her eyes and air tanks materialized on her back. She looked back at Kennis. [Kennis, please be seated.]

A simple chair materialized beneath Kennis as she sat and waited for the nanos within her to receive their instructions. Mara watched as Kennis' skin changed from its smooth olive shade to a pale turquoise, and rapidly became scaly. Her nose receded and gill-slits formed on her neck. Kennis grinned at her reassuringly as her eyes changed, becoming larger and slightly more bulbous and richly green in the iris. The hair on her head became a deep emerald green as well, while the hair on the rest of her body vanished altogether. Finally her limbs changed--first lengthening in the long bones and digits, and then webbing grew between her fingertips, and her feet flattened into long wide fins.

"Ah, this is why I had to sit." Kennis noted as she gently pedaled her legs. Her voice sounded odd as well, like she was gargling. "Do I make a beautiful fish, my love?"

"I prefer you as you were, but even as a mermaid, you are quite lovely."

"Shall we be fish together?"

"I prefer to remain as I am."

"Suit yourself," Kennis said, glancing at Mara's wetsuit.

"Apparently I have."

[Biological adaptation complete. Kennis, please flex your gills.]

As Kennis wondered how exactly she would do that she found that somehow it was simply second nature... just a variation on breathing. Her gills opened and closed but didn't seem to provide her with any air.

"I can flex them but I am getting lightheaded unless I breathe through my mouth."

[That's fine. Your gills will only function properly underwater, provided you actuate them. If you forget, your nanos will actuate them automatically. Eventually you will use them without thinking. Your lungs will function if you choose to breathe through your mouth. Please do not attempt to do so underwater.]

"Thanks. I'll try to remember that," she said, with a hint of sarcasm.

[Sorry Kennis. Of course you will. Mara is your breathing apparatus functioning to your satisfaction?]

Mara took a breath through her mask and gave a thumbs up sign.

[Mara is your breathing apparatus functioning to your satisfaction?]

"Yes." she transmitted through her network port. "When I raise my thumb like this, it is an affirmative response."

[Noted. Your oxygen tank will self-replenish more rapidly than your lungs will consume air. Please wait while the environment is equalized.]

From small vents in the floor warm briny water with a slight green coloration began filling the chamber. It rose rapidly and quietly and very soon covered their heads.

"Hab, why is this water green?" Kennis gargled.

[It is inhabited by microorganisms native to the oceans of the fourth planet around Regulus. They will not damage your biology.]

"Thank you."

Mara glanced up at her formerly carefully styled hair, now floating about her head like so much seaweed. "Kennis, you knew about this didn't you?" she transmitted through her network port.

Kennis held up one webbed thumb with a half grin. "When I raise my thumb like this..." she began, but by then her lungs were empty of air and so the remaining words were lost.

"Well why did you not tell me so?"

"Because my love, if I had I would not have gotten to see you bathe or see you dressed like a princess from Delhi. A lie of omission, but I made this one only because I so love to see you in all your incarnations. For what it is worth, you appear graceful in your wetsuit," Kennis transmitted.

Mara stood, gloved hands on hips, and simply stared at Kennis.

"Lithe and attractive."

More wordless staring.

"Like a sleek, kind, stunningly brilliant, um... red-and-gold sea lion."

"Kennis. You are incorrigible," Mara transmitted, but she grinned all the same. It was truly impossible for her to be mad at Kennis.

"Hab, how can I vocalize when my lungs are empty?"

[Your larynx has been compartmentalized with your gills. Should you choose to do so you can draw water through your gills into your larynx and expel it through your mouth while vocalizing. You should find this form of vocalization most proximate to your original voice. Your nanos will manage this function for you until you are able to do it yourself.]

Kennis tried to speak aloud, and found her gills drawing water in quite automatically.

"Ah, thank you Hab. That's much better," she responded her voice sounding quite normal.

[You're welcome Kennis. Equalization is complete. Please enjoy your visit with Ellan and Tyr.]

With a whir, the airlock door opened to the dimly lit interior of the other habitat. Immediately Mara and Kennis found themselves surrounded by all manner of strange aquatic creatures. Tiny orange three-legged squid, golden sheet like animals with no visible fins, globe-shaped creatures which vaguely resembled jellyfish, and several varieties of what appeared to be fish, but not like the fishes of Earth. These creatures had a surfeit of fins, to the point where they almost looked feathered instead of scaled. Each had a number of greater fins which were like long whirling streamers--they did not appear to be useful for locomotion, perhaps they were for mating displays. These fish appeared in many colors and sizes, from small black ones the size of a fingernail to red or purple hand-sized ones and ever increasing combinations of size and color. There were two that were at least 5 feet long, all white, with their great streamer-fins swirling about them. The walls crawled with strange shellfish and three-legged starfish, tubes from which the heads of snakelike creatures would repeatedly rush out and then as quickly retract inward and dimly luminescent balls of fluff rolling about in long strands of grass like sea-plants.

Ellan and Tyr were nowhere in sight. "Strange that they would not be here to greet us," Mara transmitted to Kennis.

[Greetings Mara and Kennis. Welcome to the habitat of Ellan and Tyr. You have been granted full guest access to all habitat functions.]

"Thank you Hab," Mara transmitted, "where are Ellan and Tyr?"

[I have been instructed not to answer that question.]

Kennis laughed. "My love, I think Tyr is having one of her games with us: hide and seek. Let us hope she is here in the habitat. The last time we played hide and seek with Tyr, it involved several hundred years exploring the ice fissures of Europa."

"It could be fun. Shall we look?"

"Why not?" Kennis shrugged and then swam a few meters into the habitat, her strong legs propelling her forward. She stopped and hovered there glancing left and right as curious fish approached her and then darted away. Truly Mara could not help but marvel at how beautiful she was, even in this merfolk form. Their habitat understood Kennis and Mara's tastes and had made the changes as aesthetically as possible. Once again Mara appreciated this as her love hovered, her skin covered in turquoise scales, but with a pattern of indigo diamonds running down her spine and terminating just above her buttocks. Each diamond was perhaps 10 cm high by 3 cm wide, except the last, which was twice the size of the others.

"Are you coming?" Kennis asked, turning to look at her. At the noise the fish retreated en-masse, only to return again, slowly.

"Yes of course, just contemplating you my love."

Mara kicked off from the floor and joined Kennis inside and together they began by swimming the periphery of the habitat. Unlike their own home, Ellan and Tyr's seemed to be configured as a single chamber. The habitats were of comparable sizes, about 300 meters long by 200 meters wide by 10 meters high, which seemed all the more enormous when the entire space was a single chamber. There was nothing to compartmentalize the space by function, and no furniture of any sort was evident. The floor seemed to be covered with fine sand and outcroppings of stone upon which the various sea-life grew.

"It's basically a giant aquarium," Kennis noted, echoing Mara's thoughts.

"It's marvelous isn't it? Not the sort of environment I would choose to live in, but still it is quite amazing. Such varieties of life."

Kennis nodded. "Yes, I--oh, Mara we seem to have acquired some friends."

Mara looked back to find they were being trailed by a school of yellow streamer-fish, several red fish, perhaps six blue fish, and the two largest fish they had spotted earlier.

"Curious creatures," Mara transmitted. Then she removed her mask briefly and said "Boo!" At this all of the fish scattered except the two largest, their great white fins fanning out gently around them. "Kennis, these ones do not fear us."

"At that size, it's not surprising. Besides we likely have no analog in their environment, so unless we do something obviously threatening, they have no reason to fear us."

Mara swam closer to the two giant fish. The fish backed off slightly, but did not retreat.

"On the other hand, Mara, we may have reason to fear them."

"I hardly think Ellan and Tyr would fill their habitat with dangerous creatures and then invite us to simply wander about without warning. I sense no threat from these animals."

[You are not in danger in this habitat. None of the creatures here see you as a food source.]

"See?"

"Well..."

"Oh Kennis, ever my protector," Mara noted with a smile. She swam a little closer to the large streamer-fish, and again they backed away slightly, but not as far as she approached. She was closing the distance. She took off her mask again, letting it dangle. "It's alright," she cooed quietly, "I will not harm you." She held her mask to her face long enough to take a breath and then swam a little closer, again murmuring gentle reassurances. The fish did not retreat further.

"I think they must be a mated pair, Kennis. Where are their young do you think?"

"Perhaps all around us," Kennis transmitted, not wanting to alarm the fish now that Mara was so close.

"You think these colorations might denote age rather than species?"

"Anything is possible, I suppose. I note that each successively larger specimen is a lighter shade than the previous. The smallest ones are black, and these two are the only white ones I see. It could perhaps indicate age."

Closer and closer she edged, until she was within arm's reach of the pair. Carefully she removed one glove and reached out to touch one of the great fish.

"Mara..." Kennis warned, "I wish you wouldn't."

"Hush Kennis. It's all right."

Her hand finally settled gently on the side of the fish's face. There were no gills evident. The skin of the animal was warm to the touch, and the multitude of tiny fins gently undulated under her palm in a peculiar rhythm. It tickled and Mara smiled. Then her brow furrowed as she noted a distinct pattern in the beats of the tiny fins. It is not regular, and not random, Mara thought to herself. Then she realized what it was and drew her hand away in surprise.

"Kennis, these are sentient creatures," she transmitted.

"But there is no mention of sentient life on Regulus-4 in any of Ellan's or Tyr's books, or indeed in any books ever published."

"Maybe they have not told anyone else of this species. But they are sentient. This being just tapped out a series of primes on my palm."

"What?"

The fish she had touched suddenly drew closer and stretched out one of its great fins toward her. "Kennis!" Mara said in alarm, forgetting to transmit. The fish froze but did not retreat.

"Mara are you alright?" Kennis said agitatedly.

[Mara is not in danger. These fish will not harm her.]

"Hab, why are the sentient variety of this genus not on record in the literature?" Kennis asked, a bit sharply.

[I have been instructed not to answer that question.]

"Well what is the exact nature of this species?"

[I have been instructed not to answer that question.]

"Kennis, it's alright, I was just startled. Of course they are as curious about me as I am about them. I touched this fish, and it is only fair that it should be allowed to touch me," she transmitted.

Mara took another breath from her mask. "It's alright," she said soothingly, "go ahead." The fish continued reaching toward her and gently stroked the side of her face, once downward and three times up. Mara's brow furrowed again and again the fish repeated the almost loving caress, once downward and three times up. It was then as Mara gazed into the fish's eyes her own widened suddenly in recognition. The fish drifted in close and planted three soft kisses on her forehead. One over her left eye, one over her right, and a third higher up in the center--a triangle of kisses. A thin whisper escaped its lips, uttering three distinct phrases--one for each kiss.

"Sim salem, sim salom, sim salaam."

Then it waited a moment, drew close one more time and, as Mara knew it would, planted one last kiss in the center of the triangle. They spoke the fourth phrase together.

"Sim sey."

She finally understood, and had she not been underwater, the tears she was shedding would be evident to all. But the fish knew.

"A Tyr so zuzu," it said, and then backed away from her. As one, the two fish turned and began swimming slowly toward the center of the habitat.

Kennis' scaly arms wrapped around her from behind and held her close.

"That was amazing my love. You actually communicated with it? What a remarkable creature!"

"Yes, she is."

"Oh is that the female?"

"They are both female."

"I heard her speaking to you, but the language was not on record."

"This is true, but I know it nonetheless. She said 'sim salem, sim salom, sim salaam'--'love the mind, love the body, love the being'."

"And 'sim sey'?"

"Love you. And then she saw I was weeping and said 'a Tyr so zuzu'."

"Meaning?"

"No tears for Tyr."

"Ah, is she taking us to Tyr then?"

"Kennis, she is Tyr. And I assume the other one is Ellan."

"What?"

"We have found them, come, let's join them habcenter. It's been too long."

She reattached her mask, and the conversation continued as they swam after Ellan and Tyr, with Kennis vocalizing and Mara transmitting.

"I had no idea such extensive biological adaptation was possible. All the adaptives I've seen have been humanoid." Kennis observed.

"You mean you haven't been playing along this whole time?"

"Not at all. I knew Ellan and Tyr were studying the sea creatures of Regulus-4, and I knew they dwelled in an aqueous hab, but I did not know about this. Apparently they have modeled their entire biology on the species native to Regulus-4. Doubtless they could swim its seas unaided and blend right in. Amazing."

"My poor Tyr."

Kennis seemed not to notice. They were arriving at the center of the hab. Here the stones formed a semicircle. Opposite the entrance of the semicircle stood three triangular stones. Two next to each other and just touching and a third balanced atop them so the apex of the two beneath supported it by the ends of its base. This formed a fourth triangle of empty space between them, which pointed downward. Ellan and Tyr waited by this sculpture, hovering in place with their undulating fins.

"Kennis, my friend, welcome. You have found us." Ellan said, her voice issuing clearly from the fish on the left.

"It was Mara who found you, really, she somehow intuited your mate was Tyr, and concluded by deduction that you were Ellan. I confess I did not recognize you."

"I am not surprised. If anyone would recognize Tyr, Mara would."

Kennis glanced back at Mara, who seemed to have stopped at the entrance to the semicircle. Then she looked back at the sculpture and nodded to Tyr while pointing to the lower left, then the lower right, and then the top triangle.

"Salem, Salom, and Salaam?"

"You are most astute Kennis. Yes, the triangles represent the mind, the body, and the being in that configuration." She turned toward Mara. "You told."

"I did not."

"Then how does she know the tongue?"

"You spoke it in her presence. I was obliged to translate your words for her. Kennis is brilliant, and exceptionally gifted at language."

"No doubt she is."

"Love, what tongue do you speak of?" Ellan asked Tyr.

"Amaratyr."

"I've never heard of this tongue. Have you Kennis?"

"No."

"It is a language Mara and I created," she glanced at Mara, "for each other."

"Oh of course," Ellan said, "that makes perfect sense."

"It does?" Kennis asked, glancing back at Mara.

"Kennis, my dear, there was a time before our time together you know. Amaratyr is a lover's tongue. Tyr was my first love. She and I were together for 57,122 years. We parted 488,905 years ago but remain friends."

"You never mentioned this to me before."

"My love, be not jealous, what matters is our life with each other. We agreed not to discuss previous relationships a quarter-million years ago."

"I'm not jealous, just feeling a bit daft. The last time we visited our friends I joked with Tyr about your lovable quirks and idiosyncrasies, and probably bored her to tears with information she already knew."

"You didn't bore me Kennis; I have enjoyed our discussions and our correspondence immensely. Mara has never stopped being a favorite topic of mine. She will always hold a place in my heart. I took pleasure in seeing her through your eyes."

Mara grinned, but remained at the entrance to the circle.

"My goodness Mara, will you please come in? You were happy to touch me when you thought I was a flamboyant tuna, now that I am one of your best friends you are afraid to approach? Shall we have the hab reassure you again?"

[You are in no danger Mara. Tyr will not--]

"Hab, I was speaking rhetorically."

[Sorry.]

Mara swam into the circle, and Ellan approached her.

"Mara it has been too long. I have so enjoyed your books."

"And I yours Ellan. I visited Ganymede after you published your geological survey. It was fascinating."

"Indeed she spent seventy years there," Kennis added.

"You are too kind. I caught the dedication in your book on Earth's satellite Luna. Thank you."

Mara nodded then glanced at Tyr.

"Yes you must approach me too. Just like the last time we visited."

Kennis and Ellan laughed.

"Go on Mara, what troubles you? You and Tyr were practically inseparable when they last visited us,” Kennis said.

Mara did not respond, but communicated volumes to Kennis in her expression.

"Come on Ellan, I think these two need to speak privately. Why don't you take me on a tour of these many creatures you share your home with?"

"I would be delighted. Will you be well, love?" She asked.

"Yes, my dear, go on. Kennis has published some works on the former sea life of Earth; I think you will find her very informed. There will be much to share."

Tyr watched them swim away, and then turned back to Mara. "She's lovely, Mara. You chose well."

Mara looked at her.

"But that is not what you wish to discuss is it? Nor have you suddenly had second thoughts about us. This is about me, isn't it?"

Mara nodded.

"You have been wrestling with a dilemma. The idea of recreating Homo sapiens has caught your fancy, but Earth is no longer available. And that leaves you only three options, of which the most viable involves genetically modified humans."

"You are incredibly perceptive, that has indeed been a dilemma for me. But it is not what it is bothering me now."

"Oh but it is. You see the problem is not what you think it is. The problem is that you are taking a superficial view."

"Excuse me?"

"My dear, you are disturbed because I have altered my biology to this form--the Vipara, one of the most beautiful fish on Regulus-4. You love me--but as I was. In this form you see only what you have lost. No hand to hold, no lips to kiss, no hair to smell, yes?"

"My Tyr was human."

"And Ellan's Tyr is not? Am I not human? Am I not truly human? How far has our species come that you should still cling to romantic notions about meat? The being is paramount, not the body. The brain within this Vipara body is human. The mind within this body is human. And you know it."

"I still miss you as you were."

"Love, you knew I was Tyr. I didn't have to tell you. I saw it in your eyes. You saw me in mine. I am still the Tyr you love, in every bit of my being. This outward appearance is only that. It is not healthy for you to be so preoccupied with superficialities. Come here."

Mara approached, and Tyr wrapped her great fins around and around her. Her body temperature was higher than Mara's and Mara felt quite warm and safe in her embrace... almost swaddled.

"Would you not wish to hold Kennis like this? Would you not wish for Kennis to hold you like this?"

Mara said nothing, but luxuriated in the warmth and closeness.

"It is not arms and thudding hearts that make an embrace a human embrace. It is the human mind that does so. Understand, my love?"

Mara nodded and Tyr released her. Her heart really was thudding. Tyr had been an amazing partner to her--a brilliant mind--but in the end, Mara could not provide what Tyr needed and so they had agreed to separate. There was no denying the attraction was still there, of course.

"It is this romantic superficiality that caused you to enter my home with that archaic wetsuit and breathing apparatus, instead of more sensibly adjusting your biology to suit the environment. I suppose it bothered you that Kennis altered herself."

Tyr's perception was as sharp as ever. When they were together Mara often found that Tyr could explain her own feelings better than she herself could.

"Yes."

"You deny yourself the full range of human experience then. When I swim it is like flight. I perceive the motion of the fluid in ways you do not, I see beauty you do not. When I choose to dance there are so many things I can do with this body that I could not do with my bipedal primate body. Biological adaptation is now a human ability, why not use it? Indeed one might argue that to not use it is to not be fully human."

"I had not considered that perspective."

"Well then, a fresh perspective makes a fine seed for new thought. So let us not belabor the point. But consider it. And you might find that doing so solves your dilemma--genetically modified humans are still humans, as long as they possess human minds."

How simply she put it. She was right, Mara realized, she had been taking a superficial view.

"Although personally if you want to create humans, I think you should just breed with Kennis."

"Not that again. You sound like my mothers."

"Well okay. Enough preaching for one visit I suppose." Tyr said with a laugh. "It is good to see you again Mara."

"It is nice to see you too, Tyr."

Ellan was explaining to Kennis the chemical pathways that gave rise to the bioluminescence of the Vurn Orbs nesting on the habitat walls when a voice called out from behind them.

"Kennis, Ellan, shall we go for a swim?"

It was Mara with Tyr chasing behind her. Kennis did a double take, as she had never seen Mara with adapted biology. But Mara had indeed changed herself to match Kennis in appearance, but had chosen to give herself a golden coloration with dark amber spots. Kennis stared open-mouthed.

"What? I tired of lugging around gear. Am I that repulsive?"

"You are glorious, my love." She turned to Tyr, "I don't know what you said to her, but I have long worried that she was missing out on some great experiences, so whatever it was, thank you."

"Yes, thank you Tyr," Mara added and then turned back to Kennis, "she also may have solved my other dilemma."

"Clearly. We can now see what too much time in the bath will do to your skin."

"Oh my," Ellan said, "Kennis you are incorrigible."

"You have no idea," Mara said, but with an inexhaustible grin she continued, "Tyr has invited us to swim in the open seas of Regulus-4. Will you come, Kennis?"

"My dear of course I will come."

"Well let's go then. I want to swim!" and off she raced.

"I think perhaps she was a fish all along." Kennis said with a laugh.

"Weren't we all?" Ellan asked.

Mara finished her book and wandered into the atrium Kennis had entered a few days earlier.

"What are you doing Kennis?"

"I am watching the moon."

"Why?"

"It pleases me to do so, Mara."

"Will you do so awhile longer then?"

"For at least a thousand more years."

Folding her delicate arms, Mara leaned against the doorway and stared at her. Kennis sat, legs folded, mouth slightly open, her olive skin and brown eyes awash in the moonlight that poured through the windows of the atrium and bathed her slight features.

"Will you stand there and study me all night?" Kennis asked without turning to look at her.

"Yes, for a thousand years as it so pleases me."

With a faint exhale Kennis smiled and glanced down with a smirk.

"My love you have forgotten the moon..." Mara admonished coyly.

She looked back at Mara, with her hair rimmed by the moonlight. Her eyes, even darker in silhouette, held a mischeivous promise floating in a sea of devotion. "But I have remembered something more important."

With a playful glance over her shoulder Mara feigned ignorance. "Whatever could that be? A star perhaps? I may have spotted one out of the library window."

In a fluid motion Kennis rose, her silk kimono changing from aqua to burgundy as she approached. Her message was clear, Mara looked down and changed her simple white sari into a demure amber robe in response.

"And after that, shall we sleep?" Mara asked.

"It has been many years."

"Seven hundred and twelve."

"Do you remember how?"

"Do you remember the last time either of us forgot anything?"

Kennis leaned in close, her kimono faintly disappating in wisps of wine-scented mist, "I forgot the moon a moment ago." The kiss was sweet, long, and pulled gently at something deep within Mara... something she had indeed forgotten.

For many days afterward they laid on the couch by the atrium window in each others arms, their garments a pool of particulate mist on the floor nearby, and watched the moon together.

"What did you write about?" Kennis finally asked.

"When?"

"The day you entered the atrium and spoke to me. I assume you wrote a book that day."

"I write a book every day."

"And on that day?"

"I wrote about humans."

"What species?"

"Homo sapiens."

"Ah, our progenitor species. May I read it?" Kennis asked.

"My love you may read any book I publish, and even those I don't."

Kennis closed her eyes and became quiet. Mara stared at the moon. Kennis was right, it was pleasing to do. Perhaps her next book would be about the moon. Kennis smiled and opened her eyes.

"That was wonderful, you almost make them appealing."

"There was among them everything that gave rise to us, my love, to you, and I find much appealing in you."

"And I in you, Mara, but there was also among them everything that led to their extinction."

"Nothing that couldn't be cured with education."

Kennis raised one eyebrow at her.

"Well, " she smirked, "maybe that and a little genetic surgery."

"Shall we try to repopulate the species?"

"I think I would like that, as long as we don't have to impersonate deities."

"Shall we do it tomorrow?"

"No, Earth must process the poisons in its environment before humans can survive there."

"Nanos."

"No. No nanos. Else they would not be Homo sapiens, but Homo lentus."  Mara said.

"Not without genetic surgery--"

"Which the nanos would automatically perform."

Kennis thought a moment. "Shall we create them on the moon then? Construct an environment for them?"

"Humans belong on Earth. They are bound to that world, genetically suited to live there. This was the birthplace of Homo immortalis--but we are suited to dwell anywhere."

"Do you not worry that the humans will simply make wars again? Poison their world again? I deeply felt your sentiment for them, but they are barely out of the realm of the apes, they will fight over anything, and are able to maintain such cognitive dissonance that they will destroy their own environment and doom their own species. Do you really think education can save their species, preserve it?"

"Why not?"

"Because, my dear, education was what caused the division in the species last time. Homo lentus was the result of those humans who actively worked to improve their species. The only thing that 'preserved' Homo sapiens were those who willfully remained uneducated out of fealty to mythological creatures. Right up until they destroyed themselves. It's perverse to be favored by natural selection because of your intelligence and refuse to use it--a lemming gene at work perhaps."

"I should still like to try."

Kennis closed her eyes briefly and then reopened them. "Latest estimates are 36,000 years before the Earth has processed all of the poisons in its environment."

"Shall we sleep until then?"

"I think I should like that. What books will you write while we sleep?"

"I have three I started while we made love that I need to finish, and then I think I shall write one about the Moon."

"You didn't finish? Was I that distracting?"

"Yes, although one I cannot finish."

"Why not?"

"I don't know how it ends." Mara yawned. "I have not felt tired for many centuries. This is a peculiar sensation."

She reached out with one arm and touched a finger to the pool of mist on the floor. Immediately the mist swam over them and solidified into a patchwork quilt of subtle grays resembling the lunar surface.

Kennis watched Mara sleep for a day and then turned her attention to the Earth outside the atrium window, shrouded in soupy haze. She doubted the wisdom of returning to the planet the species that had proven so ill-equipped to look after it. Mara's book about the moon was published while Kennis contemplated the Earth, and Kennis found it as fascinating as Ellan's volume on the geology of Ganymede and forwarded it to her to read. Mara's voice floated unbidden into her consciousness, woven into the stream of information entering her network receiver. I thought you were going to sleep with me.

Sorry love, I was thinking. I loved your book on the moon.

Do you not wish to sleep?

I might enjoy looking at you more than sleeping.

Come nestle in my mind with me, let our thoughts tangle together in wonderful disarray. There will be plenty of time to sort them out later.

I can do that with my eyes open, Mara.

Try feeling tired. Your biology will take over from there.

Kennis felt tired, and soon she slept. Once she was no longer conscious, all of the furnishings apart from the couch and blanket immediately dissolved into mist and disappeared through vents near the floor to be stored until needed. The habitat maintained its position automatically and carefully so that the light reflected from the moon would pass through the atrium window and illuminate the photosynthetic skin of the sleepers for many thousands of years.

"Mara, wake up." Kennis said.

Mara opened her eyes. "Did I oversleep?"

"No. It has only been 24,078 years, but there has been a development."

"What happened?"

"See for yourself." Kennis said, indicating the window.

Mara glanced out and was shocked to discover the Earth was unshrouded and most of the landmasses were a glorious shade of orange.

"Is this a predicted stage in the processing of the poisons?"

"No. There is a new species of life on this planet borne out of the poisonous environment, which has converted the pollutants into new compounds and created a new state of equilibrium."

"Suitable for Homo sapiens?"

"Not remotely. I checked with Ellan and Tyr and they have modeled it is likely that this species will achieve sentience in a few million years. I'm afraid that Earth does not belong to Homo sapiens anymore."

"No return to Eden, " Mara said softly. A small tear travelled down her cheek. She touched it and glanced at her finger, with a faint mote of puzzlement on her brow.

"I assume the moon is off limits, then?" Kennis asked.

"Of course, it belongs to this new species." Mara said.

"Perhaps another world? There are thousands that might suffice."

"Perhaps. I think I am going to miss looking at the moon."

"We can remain here for a few million years and contemplate it. Maybe get to know this new species when they venture forth from their world."

"No. Let's leave. This was our birthplace, and it is about time we left the nursery and explored our universe. It has been nearly 100,000 years since we last saw Ellan and Tyr."

"What about making humans?"

"Call it a romantic notion."

"Your book on the idea received some great reviews."

"Another time maybe."

Sensing the subject closed for the time being, Kennis closed her eyes and cast out the sensor net.

"Ellan and Tyr are at Regulus. They would love to have us for a few years. We can be under way immediately if you like."

Mara glanced thoughtfully at the Earth for a moment and then rose from the couch, wrapped the blanket around her and left the atrium.

"Well I'd best make myself presentable then."

In the harsh light of Sol, the habitat finally pivoted away from the moon, wavered in many shades and colors, and then vanished.

The orange world waited for those who would give it a new name.

---

NOTE: I wrote the above story fragment off the cuff in a forum I frequent.  You can find the original post here.