Behind the wall with the screen displaying ‘Reserves,’ five creatures were suspended from the rod hung from the ceiling. Lifeless ragdolls, swinging left and right. Numerous animals of every type were organized throughout the chamber. A few frozen in ice behind polystyrene, others submerged under steaming water circulating through the paludarium, and the rest inside a tunnel with a turbine blowing wind at one-hundred kilometers per hour as the organisms fluttered in their comatose. There stood a teacher behind his computer, surrounded by the entities, cluttered with his own thoughts and ideas. He punched in a statement with his keyboard and the wings of the creatures draped in front of him twitched. A click from his mouse and they started flapping with great force, causing the pen on his desk to fly off, and the rod to oscillate and clink as the hooks carrying the monsters pierced their flesh. With another click, tranquility returned. The main function constructed objects of the five creatures, and within a for loop only one method was called: ‘Fly.’ Clones of the real thing. That’s what they were. Every beast within the chamber was alien to Rorohiko. They were brought in to experiment on, and they had to be killed because they were impossible to domesticate. Every carcass layered with a deodorizing chemical. He wondered sometimes how the First being would have looked. The current theory advocates that all creatures originated from a single being. The being known as the First. Perhaps, a four legged creature able to travel great distances and place its clones in thousands of regions? A winged beast able to soar to great heights and safely drop clones from the clouds? An animal with developed limbs able to climb obstacles using its dexterity and lay clones in remote zones? Or, something unimpressive like a slow and hard aquatic creature? Whatever it might have been, it was probably gone. Swallowed by Rubosamler. It was extremely unlikely to still exist, as it was theorized to have been a simple being, consisting of no limbs and no sensory input. A lifeless stationary shell. Rigid not only in shape and size, but every aspect. Unable to see, unable to hear, unable to smell, unable to learn, unable to imagine. He felt sorry for the creature. How mundane its life had to be, more mundane than his office.

He gently raised one creature off the hook, and laid it on its stomach within the wheeled container. An elevator down the hall led him straight to the roof of Rorohiko. Across the ledge stood an arsenal of gyroplanes refracting in the warm weather. The sun gazed down on him sternly. His long loose clothing was harsh today. He opened the container and laid the being on the hot asphalt. With a few taps on his tablet, the being stood on its two feet and stretched out its wings like a totem. With another tap, it flapped its wings and took flight; hovering five meters above the ground. With a sliding of his middle finger, the bird gained height. Then, with one more tap, the bird began its journey forward, thrusting itself faster and faster until it was a dot in the sky. The teacher controlled the bird with the two joysticks that appeared on the tablet. Not too long after, a wild shining bird joined him. They flew with each other in circles. He aimed the top of the tablet at the two creatures and it displayed two options: ‘TestBefrith0’ and ‘Befrith_Unknown.’ He switched the controller from the former to the latter. The beast he was controlling fell straight down, while the other flew in a straight line. He maneuvered the new creature onto the roof of Rorohiko where he stood, and had it erect tall like a totem. It was the same species. At first he thought it had survived severe burns, but realized it was covered in translucent oil. He slid the container below its wing and waited for a drop of oil to fall. When it dropped and hit the cold surface, it kept together and huddled into a ball. Knowing he could not kill the beast there, he flew it back into the sky and turned off the controls. The creature fell for a couple seconds before catching itself in the air. It flew away from Rorohiko and towards the horizon.

He went to the lab with the container and carefully scooped out the ball of oil and placed it on a Petri dish. The ball reflected his bewildered expression with the blue lights built into the ceiling above him. He tried to split the ball using a surgical knife but it refused to be cut. It slid over to one side of the knife with every attempt. He placed the Petri dish under a microscope and looked through its eyepiece. The surface was bestrewn with white spirals. A black turbulent river veering directions every so often, inducing chaos on the white floating upon it. He closed it in a carrying container and took it to the reserves. He wanted to keep it safe, as he had seen nothing like it. Further investigation was needed, he should have collected a larger sample. He lost a Berifth for a single drop. He slipped and the container fell on his chest, the oil becoming a speck on his chest. The pen. He had slipped on it. He heaved the pen onto the table with frustration. “At once,” he thought. “At once, I’ll take a shower and clean these clothes. Then, get rid of any possible hazards in the reserve.”

Burned with darkness, devoid of activity, and clinging onto his skin. With the droplets washing across his chest, he saw the reflection upon the mirror in front of him: the bulging veins, as if his heart was trying to rinse out the oil buried beneath his skin, refusing to be freed. He touched the darkened part delicately, and with relief confirmed it was still a part of him.

When Rorohiko grew into a pulp blue, the opposite color of the sun, and when the clocks hit midnight, the time almost everyone was reckoned to be asleep, the teacher rang a bell for an old friend. “Vick, come on in,” said Amare when he opened the door. A blue bed lay opposite a computer, with a white mat covering the entire floor.

“Did you get the heater?”

“Yes, yes, it’s right there,” he pointed to a gray box with buttons and a knob. “What did you teach your class today?”

Vick inspected the box. The company’s name, ‘Autohyper’ was labeled at the center-top. “Inheritance.”

“Did they impress you this time?” Amare sat on his bed.

“Yes,” he said and sat on the floor beside the heater. “I practiced associating their faces with their names.”

“Ah, finally getting good at it?”

“Yes, finally.”

“First it was trying new food, now it’s remembering your students’ names. You’re going through a transformation.”

“I did call Gus: Andrew.”

“Oh, it’s no easy transformation, I’m sure.”

“I did get Roy, though.”

“The student we talked about some days ago?” He tapped his head. “The one with sharp eyebrows?”

“Yes, that student. What happened to the code?”

“The code?”

“The code we sent for approval.”

“Oh, it was accepted.”

“Really? With such a name?”

“Yeah, with such a name.”

Vick got up and picked up the heater with the handle stuck on its top. “Light, as always.”

“Autohyper is the best at portable equipment,” said Amare as he made his way to the door.

“I found a creature covered in oil on the roof today.”

“Oil? Is Rorohiko leaking?”

“No, it was some other substance. I thought it was oil at first, but it had a peculiar pattern on its surface when I viewed it through a microscope. I wanted to store it, but,” he said ashamed, “I dropped it.”

“You dropped the entire sample of oil?”

“It was only a drop.”

“Oh,” he paused. “How did you find a single drop? You have a keen eye.”

“No, no,” Vick waved his hand. “The creature was covered in it, but I only took a drop because I didn’t have the proper equipment to store it.”

“Right, that’s unfortunate. Well then,” he said and held the door open. “Come on. Let’s go see the stars.”