[ Kinship ] Corn A Plenty

Jeff and Jenny walked down the gravel road towards town.  When they reached the old oak that grew at the edge of the cornfield they turned towards the corn field.  Jenny stopped under the oak, and started picking up acorns.

"Come on Jenny!  We don't want to be late!"  Jeff jumped up and down.  "H U DOUBLE R WHY  HURRY!!!"

"I'm getting Mr. Wrinkles some acorns.  He likes them..."

A loud hiss interrupted them.  Both kids looked back towards the road, and saw the large six legged lizard.  It started running towards them.

Without a word spoken, both Jenny and Jeff ran into the cornfield.  The stalks seemed to move out of their way, and closing up when they passed.  When the lizard reached the edge of the cornfield, it hesitated and then entered.

The corn stalks slashed at the lizard, and slowed it down.

Jeff stopped when he heard the commotion behind them.  "I think were safe, the corn is taking care of the lizard."

Jenny patted one of the corn stalks.  "Thanks Mr. Corn."  The stalk seemed to quiver in pleasure.

"How do you know it's a mister?"  Jeff eyed his sister quizzically.

"I just know.  Let's hurry, we don't want to be late."  Jenny skipped ahead of her brother.  The lizard all but forgotten.

***

There's one thing that there's no shortage of in Kinship, and that's corn.  It grows year round, and the stalks never seem to die of natural causes.  There are many fields of corn around Kinship.   Miles and miles of corn...

In some of the fields the corn stalks grow so close together that it's almost impossible to walk through the field.  In other fields the corn grows in neat rows with plenty of room to walk down the rows.

Those that harvest the corn find the quiet of the fields pleasant.  They feel safe.  A few feel a little disturbed when they are in the fields.  Others have a feeling of being watched...

[ Kinship ] Unlucky Lizardman

Slacmere, High Lord of the Blood Talon Clan, and Chief Research Scientist of the Vlakod Federation, carefully reviewed his research files.  He opened the last file and a error message appeared on the Holoscreen. 

**File Corrupted**

Double checking the back-up file, Slacmere discovered that it was also corrupted.  Hissing in anger, Slacmere raked his claws across the console.  Hours of work gone.  A corrupted file was supposed to be impossible.

The last research file was the scans of the strange life form they had collected from the lone planet in Sector 78-1-999.  It had proven extremely resilient to all forms of damage.  Shortly after collection, the specimen had escaped his constraints, and it took a full security team to recapture it.

After all the testing had been completed, the specimen was disposed of via the Transmission Beam.  Set to complete disruption over a wide area, the creature was now nothing more than molecules floating in space.  Slacmere then remembered there was a copy of the Transbeam scan of the creature, that at the very least will provide some data for research.  Slacmere left his research suite and headed down the corridor to the Transbeam Suite.

Empty of personnel, Slacmere moved to the main console, and activated it.  He scanned the files, until he found the correct one, and activated it.  To his surprise it was corrupted as well.  Slacmere would have to request a review of the computer techs.  Something was wrong.

Looking at the corrupted file, Slacmere noticed that the specimen hadn't been disrupted.  The only data not corrupted was the file name, and destination.  He entered the coordinates of the destination into the Transbeam's computer.  It was a planet.

Suddenly, a warning siren went off., and Slacmere was knocked out of his seat.

"The ship is under attack by unknown forces... prepare for a battle..."  Slacmere noticed the desperation in the Captain's voice.  The lights then dimmed, and there was an explosion near the Transbeam Suite.

Slacmere quickly made his decision.  Grabbing some gear out of a locker, he activated the Transbeam.  He would escape to the same planet that the specimen had ended up on.

***

The Sheriff looked at what remained of what could be only described as a lizardman in some sort of high tech outfit.  The odd thing was that it fell out of the sky, and landed in the same spot as Mr. Wrinkles.

Dr. Velasko leaned over the remains of the lizardman.  "You think this is going to happen every week?  Creatures falling out of the sky?"

The Sheriff shrugged.  "Good grief, I hope not...  say I wonder if Mr. Wrinkles knows about this guy?"

"Well if he does, we still can't talk to him.  Anyway, I'll get it back to my lab.  We certainly don't want a zombie lizardman wandering around.  Look at it's claws!"

Dr. Velasko stood up, and scanned the crowd that had gathered.  "I'll recruit a couple of guys to help.  You think it's weapon still works?  It looks really complicated..."

"Dunno... I'll be by later to pick up the gear."  Turning to the crowd, the Sheriff addressed the crowd.  "Show's over people, move along, and for the time being be wary of walking in the street.  Especially at this spot.  It keeps raining aliens."