Chapter One

Prompt: Mention the season fall; something has to be born.


Something strange rode across the universe. Its vessel was small and fast, riding on a beam of light. Free of mass and without form, it searched through the boundless playground of time, stars and gravity wells in search of one thing; to satisfy its curiosity.

For it, there was no such thing as death, although it was something it had experienced. It knew not joy or fear. Guilt, jealousy and love were all outside of its ability; although it had felt them all, and more.

This “something” had existed since a time before time. Never, during all of the eons past was there a time it could recall a capacity for an emotion. Such a condition had never existed, or else it would be remembered. It never forgot, ever.

Whatever It felt, whatever It experienced, It did so indirectly. It could only satisfy its curiosity through the emotional databank of others.

Now, it focused on a small planet near a dim star on an outer arm of a spiral galaxy. A water world inside the orbit of a gas giant was emanating a strong experiential aurora. That could only mean one thing – Life!

Where there was life, there were experiences to sample. There would be memories.

The Lightrider came in with the dawn, landing on a dewy field in northern California. There was no comet tail or splashdown. It simply appeared as a low fog, nothing out of the ordinary for a early fall morning. Awareness scouts went out to classify the environment. The shape they would take would depend on the shape that best facilitated their need and current situation.

Form would follow function.

The data was in and the fog bank drifted to a nearby pond in the isolated countryside. It settled comfortably into the murky waters. Subatomic transformations began. The perfect agent had been identified. By nightfall, the larvae were seeded throughout the pond.

One day after landfall, the eggs began to hatch. Millions of mosquito-like beings lifted from the pond. Each one had a mission. It was time to sample experiences. It was time to collect.

The memory thieves spread out across the land.


Word count 356
Running Total 356