Kesl’s eyes popped open. He stared into the soft, inviting face of a creature he’d never expected to find. He felt the Bigfoot’s warm, hairy skin and recognized the intelligence behind the large brown eyes.
“Shit, you’re real,” he said.
The Bigfoot set him down and Kesl steadied himself against a chair.
Jana came over and took his arm. “How are you feeling?”
“Surprisingly good.” He looked at Jana and his face lit up with a big smile. “You worried. My God, you worried. I can see it as clear as day.” Turning his attention to Chris, he nodded and said, “You’re pleased for me.”
Chris smiled. “Let’s just say the transformation is incredible. I feel like I’m looking at an old friend for the first time.”
Kesl grinned. He felt emotionally whole for the first time in his life. “It feels something like that for me, too.” He turned to the Native American woman who stood beside the Bigfoot. “You’re anxious. Why are you anxious?”
Chris interjected, “This is Auntie Ayasha. She’s head of the Potawatomie Tribe and Keeper of the Sacred Fire.”
“Sacred Fire?” Kesl shook his head. “What do you mean?”
Chris jerked a thumb at the Bigfoot. “Her. Auntie’s the keeper of the Bigfoot secret. While the Bigfoot was healing you, we were talking. She was concerned that you might prove useless.”
“What do you mean healing me? Is that why I can read your feelings, emotions … even intentions? Is this what’s normal for … umm … normal people.”
“Pretty much,” said Jana.
Kesl looked at the Bigfoot. “With you I can’t sense anything.”
To Kesl’s great surprise the Bigfoot answered in a voice that reminded him of a well-polished newscaster. “We are social beings like you, so we have our own subtle ways of communicating what to and not to do in social contexts, just different from yours. Interestingly, your brain was wired to read emotions, as you say, but you were not able to consciously access that part of your brain. Probably some early childhood trauma or an illness your mother had during her third term. I was able to remove the blockage.”
“Christ! Is this change permanent?”
“You’ll know once you walk onto the casino floor, won’t you?”
“How do you even know how to do something like this to me or any human for that matter?”
“Some of us learned a long time ago how to manipulate humans’ information processing flow. The brain, after all, is exceedingly plastic. With the right nudge here and there, so to speak, disrupted pathways can be set right again.”
Kesl eyed the tall creature in front of him. It was not what he expected, and it seemed to be saying the others were not the same as she was.
The Bigfoot nodded. “There are many of us now that have spread across your world. We’ve been evolving and learning in isolation for a very long time. Our experiences have shaped our physiology as well as our neural nets.”
“You can read my mind?”
It shook its great head. “No, I was just inside your brain, so to speak, modifying your information processing circuits. I have a good sense of what you call thinking, but not what you’re thinking in any given moment.”
“Of course … of course.” Kesl reached out to the creature. “May I touch you?”
“Yes.”
“You’re more like a plant then a mammal aren’t you? No need for organs, don’t need to eat for energy. Impressive. How do you reproduce?”
“Enough!” Ayasha interjected loudly.
“It will be quite fascinating for him, Auntie Ayasha,” admonished the Bigfoot.
“Of course. But we need to see if he’s going to help before we tell him everything about you.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s why I’m here,” said Kesl. He looked at Chris and Jana. They nodded their heads.
The Bigfoot smiled. “Explain it to them, please, Auntie.”
Ayasha laid out the history of her tribe and its interaction with the Bigfoot in short, sure sentences. Then she explained how the Bigfoot had come to a turning point in their evolution. They understood they were not part of the natural order on the planet and now needed to know who they really were, why they were put here, and, most importantly, take this next evolutionary step.
“Every Bigfoot has had from the beginning the knowledge of how to create a replication spot. A sort of built in blueprint, you might call it. It is connected to the energy of the original portal, which happens to be located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
“Whenever a Bigfoot understands it needs to produce improved versions of itself, it enters the energy field of the replication unit it builds. Bigfoot investigators have wondered about the stick structures for years. The field is just like a 3-D printer, only it uses the available biochemical material in the surrounding area to rapidly build the new improved version of itself. Once used, the replicator loses its power.”
Kesl gasped in amazement. “I get it. A nano bio factory, amazing, brilliant … I.” He smiled sheepishly and said in a calmer voice, “Go on.”
“That’s it, that’s how we evolve.”
“Very powerful … my God, if somebody could control this it would change the world. Uh … sorry. It’s hard not to get excited about this. Please continue.”
“When the Bigfoot steps out of the field, the Mother Bigfoot takes the new version and, for a period of about two years, trains it and guides its development.”
“Of course, it must learn, just fascinating. Please go on.”
“Afterwards, the Mother Bigfoot naturally passes away and dissolves back into the elements,” the Bigfoot interjected.
“That’s why we’ve never found any traces of you,” said Chris.
“Indeed,” said the Bigfoot. ”Our original programming was to have as little impact as possible on other species of this planet.”
“So what’s changed?” asked Kesl.
Ayasha turned to the Bigfoot. “Do you trust this man and his friends?”
The creature nodded. “It’s okay to tell them.”
“About a year ago, some kind of directive was implemented. It must have been embedded in their original programming. Members of five major Bigfoot clans were instructed to gather here in the UP. A representative from each would enter the energy field of the mother portal, downloading all of the information it had gathered in the course of thousands of years. The wise one here would be the last one to enter. If all went well, she would become the Mother for a new kind of Bigfoot.”
“For what purpose?” Chris asked.
“We don’t know what the purpose is, just that we are compelled to do this thing.”
“You mean, whoever built you programmed you to make this next step?” asked Jana.
The Bigfoot nodded.
“Jesus!” She threshed her hair. She looked at Auntie. “You knew about this?”
The old woman nodded. “It’s been our purpose from the beginning to protect the Bigfoot and help them, and now with the next piece of their evolution.”
“It doesn’t bother you that you don’t know what this means?”
“We believe the Bigfoot will bring a golden age of peace and prosperity for the planet.”
Kesl looked at Jana. For the first time he could see a person’s feelings, feel their distress. “Auntie Ayasha is right. This is a momentous day. A possible leap in technology that will benefit mankind.”
Jana shook her head. “Look, Stephen, I know you’re feeling giddy right now, what with this shift in your awareness you’ve got going, but this is not necessarily a great day for mankind. Whatever comes out of that mother portal could be anything, good or bad.”
“You’re being too paranoid. What do you think, Chris?”
Marlowe drew in a deep breath. “I’ve felt a kinship with the Bigfoot since the first time I saw one twenty years ago. I can feel their goodness. I know they are beneficial. Even so, as an engineer, I have to ask myself, what did their creators mean for them to do after the completion of this transformation?”
“So you agree with Jana.”
“Not completely. But I do think caution is in order.”
The flip side of seeing emotions in others was the onslaught of emotions within. Kesl reeled from the rebuke by his friends. The hurt was as unbearable as any pain he’d ever felt from confusion assaulting his senses. He started to lash out, but the Bigfoot laid a hairy hand on his shoulder.
“Your friends are right,” she said calmly. “We don’t know what will happen. Even so, we cannot stop ourselves. Precautions should be taken in case the transformation proves a danger to your world.”
The warmth and sincerity of the creature’s words soothed Kesl’s feelings and restored calm to his thinking. “Can we do that?”
The Bigfoot nodded its head.
“Terrific … just terrific. Then let’s do it,” he said, his initial enthusiasm returning with a big smile. When the others didn’t join in, he frowned. “I can see there’s something you’re not telling me.”