Year 8
When he was born his father swore he shone brighter than any star. To say brighter than the Sun was not enough, for there are brighter, more powerful forces in the universe. He held these words with him as he grew. None of them making any sense until he was four years in.
At that point he questioned the logic of them. Against the grain of life, the brain had grasped the crux of it before the base animal�he measured his luminescence against that of the sun: and found himself to be sadly lacking. The logic of his peers confused him.
It was not until sometime during his fifth year that he grasped the finer points of metaphor and came to understand his father�s wording. But still he was too analytical of language.
In his sixth year he saw his first woman�and understood it all completely�
His birth star shone above his head, he knew this but neither thought about nor glanced in it�s direction. But continued running. Blood seeping from his feet from where they gripped the rough-diamond ice, the low gravity little comfort to his pain.
�and thought to himself�how can something so similar to the male�constructed the same�.same flesh�same bone�look so soft�so fragile�so�
He experienced his first orgasm before the thought had finished.
And suddenly understood so much more�
But the pain blocked out quicker than it had begun. The tolerance switch in his brain kicked in and numbed it all. Changed his centre of gravity. Begun the reconstruction of his feet to suit the terrain�and he was once more on the mission.
The plant � his target � was bouncing it�s light towards him off the sky. A glow on the horizon. No more than five miles. Over the next bulge. He increased his speed to match his anticipation. His brain making the necessary adjustments.
�the quest for the why of it all had been a short one. His training suit with the stain had been found � inevitably. His father came to visit�with a female. A female who had been paid to be there. A professional. And she showed him more.
And so he learned a new lesson on the nature of life�
Over the bulge and his quarry was in sight. A vast illuminated blot on the landscape. All noise, and flaring fire. Human taint. He flipped the safety buckle on his weapon and dropped. Flesh renewed once more; wrapped itself around the barrel of the weapon to kill the glare and melted his body into a niche in the landscape.
His favourite part of any mission�to become that which he�d been sent to defend. He took aim at a spot on the perimeter of the plant and settled into his position; relaxing his limbs, slowing his breathing, soothing the heart-tremors in his supporting arm�
�he wrote to her for a while. Unable to control his still-growing emotions he�d become infatuated with the woman sent to make a man of him. She had replied for a time. Their conversations dripping with lust and desire�
He didn�t have to wait long. His true quarry came into view within ten hours of his arrival. The weapon hadn�t moved in all this time. It�s crosshairs focussed resolutely on one space: the space that would be filled with the target�s heart as it passed by � as it would eventually. Time had no meaning to him. He was eternal.
And when the target passed, he squeezed the trigger�
�it was when he spoke of love that the messages lost their fire. He had once again misunderstood. The subtleties of love were still beyond him. The difference between love and rutting was cruelly revealed to him. And that rutting came with a price was the cruellest cut of all. She didn�t spurn him. She only told him that love was going to cost him more�
The projectile left the weapon travelling at just under mach one. Bursting through flaring propellant it homed in on it�s target and accelerated, covering the distance between the barrel and the ventricle within a heartbeat. The target did not cry out. There was no time. It�s heart was burst beyond repair and so it�s body dropped. Dead before it hit the iron gridwork of the walkway. It�s companion uncomprehending, though splattered with it�s blood�
�the breaking of his heart was something he�d only read about in books before. Again he learned by experience. True pain. With no obvious wound his body was unable to heal itself. The brain became confused. With time it discovered the cause and acted accordingly�
She was dead but the pain remained. Her blood dripped from her final client�s jaw and cheek and ran in rivulets down his neck, but the pain remained. He stayed in his position for a further three days, then, confidant that he had not been discovered, returned to his pick up point. His brain began to work on the problem once more. He looked up to the heavens in search of his ship and chanced upon the brightness of his birth star once more.
In his eighth year it seemed that he still had a lot to learn�
