Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15
Michael-Ceph stretched. He had been sitting in front of this computer too long, it was time he moved a bit. On his way to the elevator, he was greeted by his employees. He knew them all. It was rare these days, that people switched their place of work. Everything was optimized, from the CEO to the janitor. He still hadn’t gotten completely used to it, not even after fifty years.
The day outside was beautiful, birds were singing, and the sun warmed his skin without burning it. Another sensation that still felt unnatural. Back on Luna 3, there had barely been any sun, ever. Most of the light had been artificial, which had made it a suitable place for Cephs to settle. But now that nearly everyone was a hybrid, it didn’t make much of a difference anymore. Human bodies could tolerate an astonishing amount of sun, without breaking down.
Luna 3 … Michael-Ceph’s thoughts drifted away, to a time long gone. By now, he had spent more time inside his human host than he had being part of a Ceph. Nobody had expected it to turn out like this, back when he had gone through with the procedure. It had usually been a matter of only a few years until something went wrong and the Ceph brain was rejected or went mad. When Nora-Ceph had chosen Michael to be a host, she had known that she was effectively causing his death.
But she hadn’t known better. And in the end, it had turned out alright for everyone.
Michael-Ceph passed a statue. One of the many scattered across the city. It showed a human, standing with their back to a Ceph, who had two of their arms placed on the human’s head. It was supposed to symbolize the connection humans and Cephs had developed, several decades ago. But Michael-Ceph knew that it was just a way for Pekok to demonstrate his superiority. It’s not like he really minded, the royal had every right to be proud. Everything society was at this moment was because of him. Michael-Ceph was just annoyed by the hypocrisy of claiming the statue was a symbol for everyone when the human clearly resembled Felix, Pekok’s host.
Not host. He wasn’t supposed to call them hosts anymore, they were bonded humans. And a human-Ceph combination was a hybrid, the next step in evolution. It made him chuckle when he thought about it. An infiltration technique had been turned into something good, something to strive for. Hybrids were the superior life form, and everybody wanted to be one. But even though one Ceph could be split up between 9 humans, there were still not enough to satisfy the demand. Humans reproduced too fast.
This had lead to a rather interesting shift in society. Cephs had gone from discarded, lowest class beings to something close to gods. They were being worshipped. And on top of it, all was Pekok, the immortal royal, who had brought salvation to them all. He had been the one to stabilize human-Ceph bonding and to cause their lifespan to exceed even normal humans. He had been the one to find a cure for nearly every disease and had introduced it exclusively for hybrids.
He was their leader, their protector, their god.
To think they had expected to overturn the humans without him! Michael-Ceph still felt uneasy when he thought back to the crude experiments they had done and called it “science”. It had been little more than primitive attempts, throwing together stolen research and hoping it would work. If Pekok hadn’t found them, they would have failed.
”Please, sir, would you have some spare coins?” Michael-Ceph looked down at the child tugging on his pants. Big eyes stared up at him from a malnourished human face. It was one of the street kids, abandoned by her parents after she had been turned down for hybridization. Genetically inferior, according to the strict guidelines. Many humans tried to produce as much offspring as possible, with a lot of different partners. They were hoping for a genetically perfect child, that’d be chosen to be given a Ceph brain and help them rise up the ranks too.
Michael-Ceph wrinkled his nose in disgust and shook off the hand of the child. It was difficult for him not to kick it, but he stopped himself. Somebody might be looking, and it wasn’t exactly good for his image if he was seen kicking starving human children, even if they were genetic trash. Taking a deep breath, he turned around and proceeded to walk away.
But a tiny hand grabbed onto his clothes again.
”Please, sir! I haven’t eaten anything in a week! My stomach hurts so much! Please, something, anything!”
”Fuck off”, Michael-Ceph snarled at the child. ”You shouldn’t have survived this long anyway. Your parents made a mistake by creating you. It’s not my responsibility to take care of their mistake.”
Again, he turned.
And felt a needle dig into his leg.
Which was attached to a syringe the child was holding.
”What the …”
The expression in the child’s eyes had changed from hungry and pleading to hateful.
”Nora-Ceph would be so disappointed in you”, the little girl said. ”You knew her personally, saw her bravery, but still, you follow Pekok, the one who killed her. How dare you.”
The world became blurry in front of Michael-Cephs eyes, no matter how hard he tried to focus. For some reason, he knew that he wouldn’t wake up again if he blacked out now. He’d be dead.
Like Nora-Ceph.
Like Nora-Ceph.
Oh, how much he missed her.
and 
, rest of the signature by 