1 Chapter 1

"Dude, I'm telling you, this time they will definitely start conducting really creepy experiments on humans."

"You're being utterly pessimistic lately. Haven't you proudly listed yourself to the supporting team all this time? Where did it all go?"

"Take my word for it – this time things are different."

Two young men stood leaning against the wall, looking into the courtyard at the construction that had been underway for months. According to publicly available information, this is going to be an additional building of the research institute; however, some still believed that something was amiss. People never learned to trust lizards. Almost a thousand years have passed since the beginning of a new era, everything returned to where it started and moved further. Continents took on a new shape, it took a lot of time to stabilize the climate, but in the end, it went well. New cities were built and a new world infrastructure has grown. Humans returned to Earth, adapted to new conditions and rules. Adapted to the new Coalition's authority and guidance, accepted a new fate and began to build it together.

***

It all started back in 2662, when the three dominant countries, which had divided the whole world by that time, started another war. Either two of them conspired against the third, or one of them imagined they could crush two rivals, it is not clear, but the result is obvious. The consequences of this war, first cold war, which in ten years has transformed in open armed attacks and a global nuclear conflict, were terrifying. More than half of humanity has died for dubious truth and freedom. Before, the world's population was a little more than four and a half billion, and natural resources were depleted by ninety-seven percent. A sharp drop of infertility, the oceans' drying up by twenty percent, and extinction of up to forty percent of all species of animals. Such a concept as the IUCN Red List had not existed for about two hundred years already, because it would have been easier to compile a 'List of species of the Earth, not exterminated by the humans.' Yep, our ancestors did well at consuming. In addition to this, a war left devastation, ruins and two billion of terrified survivors with the scarred bodies and souls – representatives of the once flourishing civilization.

Around that time, at the end of the six hundredth years of the twenty-seventh century, they showed up. Huge spacecraft entered the Earth's atmosphere and immediately established a contact; records of this event, of course, were broadcasted globally. Having sparingly introduced themselves as an alien race of Zirkaazte, their emperor and commander in chief Krezke-Plau Akkatl wished earthlings a good day, assured that they had come in peace and announced the planet evacuation. Our then 'commanders-in-chief' entered the negotiations and tried to explain little green aliens, by the way, these ones really turned out to be green, that no one would be evacuated from their native planet, and it would be better if Zirkaazte evacuated themselves before the warheads had left their burrows. Akkatl, that is the leader in the Sirka language, angrily fluttered his nostrils while saying, "If the victims of your pursuit of power are not enough for you, then you can do whatever you want with your warheads. As for the rest of the sane earthlings, we ask you to get everything you need and arrive at the transportation points as soon as possible." After that, the main argument was announced. After thirty days, the alien race was going to 'rebuild' our planet using some sort of futuristic sophisticated technologies. Since we drained the Earth to an unimaginably terrible state, and it had only a few decades left to live; but Zirkaazte would be willing to provide us with help and all kinds of support they are capable of. For another hour, people of Earth were shown a variety of diagrams and graphs, cutaway images of the planet, designs of some unprecedented tools and machines, charts, holograms, equations, formulas, formulas, and more formulas...

In outline, our ancestors did understand something. To restore Earth's former nature and switch on the minerals' replenishment, someone had to penetrate deep under the ground and into the core, find some specific cosmic energy spots, and apply inhuman knowledge, possibilities, Feng shui and, magic outside of Hogwarts for sure, and thus make the planet come to life again.

At first, no one believed this crap. Soon after that, the speeches of our surviving leaders, their deputies, ministers, and other noble public flooded the live-air. Emergency press conferences were convened, politicians reported on meetings with the representatives of an extraterrestrial civilization. Their opinion already matched with the opinion of almost every human being — the aliens came in peace.

Later on, the idea occurred to the many that in fact there were too much words and energy spent on talks and stuff. If the aliens wanted to destroy the earthlings, take them to terrible experiments, or even worse, then we would all be turned into dust on the spot or simply snatched right from under the soft blankets in the middle of the night.

A couple of days later, Akkatl came in touch and demanded not to drag with the evacuation, reminding that we have only three weeks before the start of the 'cleaning'.

Therefore, the evacuation of our ancestors began. In general, judging by the blogs' entries of the townsfolk of the time, it was fun. Scary – yes, very scary, but also intriguing.

After arriving at the spaceship, everyone passed the registration. Both – terrestrial IDs and biometrical data were entered into the database. In addition, each person was immediately issued a new ID card with a unique number assigned, after which all humans were to be considered the residents of one country, one land without borders and cordons, – of one race.

The second stage was a medical examination. Nothing extreme, just a blood sampling and scanning with some compact digital device. After that, all healthy people were accommodated.

A good third of the world's population refused to register, not to mention having their blood be tested. Mainly these were aged people and complete fanatics who'd rather eat dirt than agree to believe in the guests' good intentions. Alas, there were simply no other options. All these procedures served as measures to ensure the safety of the entire refugee population. Many people were exposed to severe radiation, the consequences of which are completely unpredictable, often terrible and requiring immediate medical attention. Some have malignant tumors of varying degrees, while others have tuberculosis or AIDS. Each case had to be registered, the patient ought to get temporarily isolated if necessary, and proper treatment and care needed to be provided. Therefore, either everyone goes for the checkup voluntarily, or would be sent till the end of their days to a warded solitary isolator on an unknown distant star.

The spaceship was huge. Seven decks: three of them residential, two – for professional and educational purposes, one – to which our ancestors were taken for reception and registration and one medical deck. The cabin and all the life support of the ship were located at the lowest, zero deck. The total square of one deck of such a colossus was about fifty kilometers. Roomy ability was about fifty thousand people. A hundred such ship-cities, eclipsing the sky above the Earth, hovered over the territory of the once the United States and no one would dare to estimate the total number of the evacuating crafts.

After most of the refugees were settled, it took several days to determine whether it is worth relocating certain groups of people, this mostly implied terminally ill or extremely infectious, to a separate ship and the transportation of the mentioned from one ship to another.

When the last representative of Homo sapiens was taken from the surface of our dying planet, all passengers were accommodated in separate, family or dorm cabins. Everyone was briefly instructed on the ship's daily routine, their rights, opportunities, prohibitions, and rules of conduct in outer space, afterward this is exactly what the aliens did –gently nudged humanity drift in a higher atmosphere.

***

For almost one hundred and seventy years, humanity has literally been suspended. Long ago, everyone has become convinced that the aliens did not carry any threat. Moreover, after only the first decade, a new faith was founded, the main role in which was assigned to the green saviors of our world. There was no one who hated or cursed them. The extreme degree of negative feeling was, perhaps, ineradicable suspicion, but only in a small part of the population. The rest were extremely grateful. After all, earthlings were really saved. They were taken to amazing arks, provided with housing and food, although this came not for nothing.

Immediately after the earthlings were settled down, global proficiency testing began. General intelligence level, logical thinking, talents for various sciences, and more features, were tested in order to allocate humans to the appropriate working activity. No one has been left idle. Everyone who was previously engaged in science, technology, medicine, education, or showed a tendency along with a desire to develop in this field, was positioned to the appropriate laboratories after attending Sirka language classes and passing the basic level test. The aliens openly shared their discoveries and achievements with humanity, took people as their assistants, or gave tasks of such complexity that humans somehow came to the conclusions that zirks had come to decades ago.

Those of people who did not show special abilities for science were given positions of cooks, nannies, and general laborers or were sent for education and retraining. So to say, Zirkaazte campaigned humans to actively participate in the development of the common culture of everyday life. All children were attached to newly formed nurseries, schools. There, they taught according to the aliens' study programs, and immediately after completing this training, at about the age of fifteen to sixteen years old, young people were attached to the laboratories to look after experimental insects, mice and worms, collect data, and over time, start their own researches.

And the Earth, meanwhile, was in the state of transformation. Immediately after the evacuation, several dozen shuttles set off to the surface of the planet; they spread wide over certain coordinates, and then "dived" into the planet. Some literally dived into the oceans, while others - into the earth's crust. For a long while, nothing happened. Each earthling took their habit as the first thing after waking up and before going to bed to peek at the porthole in the hope of finally finding out what the aliens had in mind. Yet, months passed, and everything remained the same. Believers no longer burned in their faith, and unbelievers were ready to panic, almost assuring (again) that the green critters needed nothing more than the remaining crumbs of the resources of their former home. But then everyone remembered that there was no point in throwing so many people into space, providing them with housing and work for the sake of trivial marauding.

Only in April 2696, after ten months of waiting, when tension swirled in the hearts of Earth people and one could almost feel the electric current literally permeated the corridors, cabins, and laboratories, did humans witnessed an incredible phenomenon. In the middle of the Atlantics, approximately in the northern subtropics, the steady water surface rippled, dark spots appeared between the crests of waves, which quickly grew, as if something unimaginably huge rose from the bottom of the ocean. Everyone froze like stone statues, trying to understand what was happening and being afraid to blink and miss the most important.

The tectonic plates, which have kept relative peace for millennia, have set in motion. As if in slow motion, humanity watched the birth of a new island, although a few days later it could already be considered a small continent. Everyone wondered what triggered this phenomenon. Did the aliens find the right switch in the heart of the Earth, or did they themselves act directly on the plates? Be that as it may, the fact itself was astounding. How was this possible? How could this be known? How much more did the zirks know that the humanity had no idea of? How long did their race exist and where did they come from? These and similar questions tormented every other Earth survivor, and the answers were not long in coming.

At the introductory lecture, our ancestors were informed that those who own smart gadgets would have access to the Earth database for a while of a month to two. On the ships, there were special repeaters that provided some sort of connection to the terrestrial Wi-Fi. Later this will not be possible, and over time, everyone will be able to exchange their gadgets for those of Zirkaazte technology, learn how to use them, and get access to an alien knowledge base.

At first, they did not learn much from that base, since many things were closed to the public, and most of the open resources were presented in alien language – Sirka. What green men willingly shared, was the translated general information about their race, anatomy, planet, administrative division, and hierarchy of power, a little about robotics, medicine and construction. So, earthlings finally found out what Zirkaazte were hiding under the snow-white spacesuits. In general, the Zirks not only were green, but also something about their appearance made them remotely look like lizards. Erect walking lizards, with developed speech and unimaginable intelligence. Skin color ranged from pale lawn-green to dark-olive. They wore exoskeletons not because they were shy, disdained, or feared Earth infections, but this was a necessity. At that time, the Zirkaazte race was not yet able to breathe earthly air. Yes, you've caught it right— at that time. The thing is that the main activity and talent, possibly laid down by nature and the universe in the Zirkaazte race, was genetic engineering. This is the field, in which alien rescuers unfolded to their full potential. These greens examined and re-examined every cell of every living organism that they could possibly find in the outer space. Countless tracts and doctoral works could be found in their knowledge base in Sirka on what needs to be done to make a life of some race or species better in less than two hundred years, how to improve immunity in three generations, how to teach great-grandchildren to breathe under the water and many, many others. They totally cracked this nut and experimented on all samples they could get including themselves. Volunteers were selected, a control group was created, a data pack was collected based on tests, analyzes, physical data and parameters, then all this was analyzed and genomic changes were applied. Probably, the Zirks just got used to trust each other, plus for more than three hundred years, judging by the information from the zirka-wiki, there was not a single fatal outcome in such experiments. They were carried out under the strictest control and supervision, with the smallest doses, which in single or several applications could not radically affect. At the slightest deviation of the organism's reactions from the norm, work with a specific organism put on hold and then this organism was been closely watched for a long time and rehabilitated in order to avoid negative consequences. Then they wrote new treatises, built new hypotheses and continued the hard work. Thus, over the past thousand years, the Zirkaazte race has evolved by more than seventy percent in such a not so natural, but very successful way. After the start of the operation of saving the Earth, and maybe even long before it, all the minds of the Zirks were aimed at solving the problem of intolerance to the Earth's air. Looking ahead, please be informed, that they managed to achieve the first result only 240 years after the formation of the Biosphere III.

What else was a distinctive and very curious feature is their hierarchy. In fact, they did not have one at all. The chief leader and emperor, Krezke-Plau Akkatl, was considered an ordinary representative of the race as any other engineer or teacher. Yes, he was empowered to make decisions, on which the fate of all his wards zirks depended, to participate in negotiations and conferences, to conduct political activities, to organize ministers and advisers. In addition, he was very actively involved in all areas of the life of the race. As some earthlings believed, only one who was distinguished by outstanding knowledge and abilities was elected to be an Akkatl. It was even rumored that Krezke-Plau was a member of the group that had delved inside the planet to redraw the tectonic map. And more than once he was seen strolling along the corridors of the 'arks', working in laboratories or simply scrolling something on his tablet with a bored look on his face. No matter how ridiculous it may sound, but perhaps this is the essence of successful prosperity of race, nation, or country, a condition for the development of thought, science and spiritual balance... What our ancestors have not been able to comprehend.

By the way, as for the ruling elite of the refugee coalition, they and their families were resettled in similar cabins that all earthlings were entitled to, regardless of their social status and rank. They, like everyone else, underwent medical examination and testing. According to the test results, they could be distributed to schools or linguistic centers. However, the former presidents, of course, with their noses stuck up to the sky, agreed to resign with pension benefits, as compensation for the harmfulness and severity of ex-work. Zirks did not insist. Looks like they knew exactly, that sooner or later, life would even out everyone, as they deserve.

***

So, with these digressions we almost missed the main thing – the emergence of the seventh continent. Such a high-profile event caused a storm of disputes and discussions, which did not stop for more than a month. The story did not end there, and after forty days, the porthole views attracted the attention of all humans again. This time, the waves rose close to the southern coast of Eurasia, between the Africa and remains of Oceania, splitting apart to let out uneven battlements, ridges and craters; black, naked, soaring higher and higher above the sea, so that after a few hours they would freeze in a phantasmagorical polygonal figure in the middle of a raging blue.

After that, the Pacific Ocean also embraced a new island entity. All three were located in relatively comfortable climatic zones. The area of each island did not exceed the size of Australia. The islands had the shape of an almost even circle, which is probably why they were called the 'Biospheres'. Back in those days, they did not quite justify this name. After creation, the Spheres were left forgotten for several centuries; enabling nature to do its job, painting these stony gorges, valleys, and passes in all shades of green.

By the winter of 2696, the traces of human civilization came to an end. The most significant change in the appearance of the surface of the planet was the destruction of all terrestrial buildings. Cities were erased, torn down along with asphalt and underground utilities – uprooted. Six continents turned into steppes, interspersed with impassable rain-forests, mountain ranges. The drained seas replenished thanks to the tide provoked by the birth of new islands. The delvers got silent. Not that it was classified information what they were doing all this time, but nobody wanted to ask. Everyone was already quite shocked by what they saw and knew so had no intention to dig out another reason for worrying. Since no new islands were foreseen, over time people calmed down and returned to normal. Not one generation has changed, while new changes have become noticeable, but with each generation, humanity has strengthened intolerance, faith in the future. With excitement and curiosity, everyone was waiting for news from the surface of the blue planet, and with a slight exertion people were waiting for the day when the forced exile will be over.

Homecoming has been scheduled for the second half of 2870.

***

No matter how fantastic it may sound, the aliens did not become invaders. They didn't wrap up and left, leaving humanity to stomp at the three-path stone. From the very beginning, Zirks made it clear that they would not claim power and resources, but they would not let the current Coalition do the same mess as before. They didn't settle in human cities, there were no Zirks promoted to the high-ranking posts, but their presence was felt in everything: in bizarre forms of residential and industrial complexes, in programs lobbying for environmental protection, non-exhaust mechanical engineering, non-waste industries, unique air ventilation systems, water purification, and other things. Like Prometheus, who once gave fire to people, they were ready to give humanity a lot, asking in return only prudence and non-impediment.

Not all alien guests remained on Earth, most of the ships left the atmosphere a couple of years after landing, the rest descended underground, into equipped hangars. About a couple of tens of thousands of green individuals stayed on the planet. Artificially built Biosphere islands became a kind of neutral territory, where humans freely contacted the Zirks, and served for the sake of science – the major of buildings on the Biospheres were universities, training centers and research institutes. Zirkaazte shared their knowledge, accepting students of our race, teaching truths both known on Earth and new cosmic laws, which can only be comprehended by plowing the vast expanses of the great Universe.

For a while, everything came to order and fell into place, the world grew, developed, becoming the same as before, but ... better. By the 3000 years of the old calendar, or by 130 after the reboot of the Earth, the world's population was about two billion people; five hundred thousand accounted for the Biospheres. Ancient North America, Asia, and Africa were partially rebuilt and newly populated. However, centuries later, a new problem arose. Despite the fact that the Earth has rejuvenated, all resources were again in abundance, democracy and pacifism flourished, the problem of extinction did not completely disappear. Probably it's wasn't the best decision to go against God's plans. So, in the year of 625 AR, the androgenesis trend was noticed and later officially announced or, putting it simply, the girls' birth rate has sharply decreased.

Of course, the alarm was sounded by Zirkaazte. All statistics on the Earth species population, not only humans but also butterflies, penguins, wild, garden and domestic plants, were carried out strictly meticulously and mainly by them. The problem was approached from all sides of science by deploying a full-scale long-term study of the phenomenon. The ova of all fertile women were collected for analysis. The genomes of young girls, adult women, representatives of different races and parts of the world were compared. Men were also not deprived of attention. For several years, every human being literally has been subjected to thorough examination regarding the conditions of food, accommodation, ecology, medical and all other influences possible. Experienced scientists of both races were brought in to investigate the unexpected riddle. The results were not particularly encouraging - the X-chromosomes of men and women were no longer able to get linked in the process of release from pronuclei, so only Y entered the fusion with the maternal one. The number of women was catastrophically reduced, but no solution was found. Years passed, decades passed…

Then, the Coalition was presented with an unexpected, incredible and simply fantastic idea by a friendly Zirkaazte colony.

"... This is what we're experienced in and this is how we will help you..."

And the work began.

It was essential to break the process into several phases. After all, you can't just take the female uterus and insert it into the male's body. The organ will not work properly if there's noting that switches it on, supports and controls. It was planned to study chemical triggers in extreme close up and synthesize evolutionary hormone that could be passed from mother ... to son. The hormone was responsible for the production of ova in males.

The idea was supported and accepted, although, given the worldwide panic, humans would have supported anything, even if it were even more impossible. For implementation, scientists from Earth and Sirkazai were involved. It happened on the verge of fiction, they had to work on theory, building sequences of probability, in other words, drawing diagrams with a pitchfork over water. And to work on the verge of permissible speed – there were fewer and fewer women each year.

The first phase began 200 years later, during which scientists worked tirelessly, passing on all the accumulated knowledge to the next generations, who came to replace them, igniting the idea of saving the human race. With the first years of the 9th century, the implementation of m-estrogen has begun. Five years was devoted to studying the susceptibility of Homo sapiens.

The hormone was introduced into the genome of the control group of young women who volunteered to take part in the experiment. In the 20s of the 9th century AR, after several years of unsuccessful trials and despair, children, whose body was capable of producing m-estrogen itself, began to be born. They were closely watched and supervised since birth during their childhood and throughout life while continuing to set things ready for the second phase.

***

"I mean, why did they really need to grow hormonal hermaphrodites? How many years have passed since then, but I don't recall hearing the exciting news on this thread. Or maybe I missed something? Didn't you see, by chance, did today's headline read 'The First Delivering Man'," Josh recited the 'headline' though not in a triumphant tone, but more like a funeral murmur. "No? Too bad, me neither. Listen, old Shirokawa respects you, hey school that face down, not that really respects, but he treats you differently than the rest of the group. Go ask him, would ya? He knows for sure. The first brain of the Earth to all Biospheres! Hey, where are you going...?"

Unwilling to listen to Josh's chatter, Chris abruptly changed his direction and turned into the corridor that led into the courtyard. It was a little rude of him, but a friend is already used to such. There was no alternative way to plug up his verbal diarrhea. If others could restrain Josh with words, then certainly not Chris. The silence was his weapon, which he skillfully used.

Walking across the parade ground, he entered the sports complex and headed for the locker rooms. Over the past month, he trained less than he should and literally felt that his muscles went jelly.

The gym was empty, but someone was in the sparring room. That's great; you can't imagine a better exercising. Quickly having taken off his uniform, he put on trainers and, kneading the joints of his hands and elbows as he walked, proceeded to the far hall. Slowing his step a little, he listened – but of course. Who else could have been warming up here, while the entire academic part is having lunch?

"Erzketau-kri," he bowed his head respectfully, entering and meeting his eyes with a tall zirka.

"Newman-kri," the lizard replied, turning to face Chris, "have you prepared a report yet?" he straightened his breath, exhaling slowly, and took a defensive position.

"Only the conclusion remains," Chris attacked immediately; he didn't come here for chitchat.

Lunge, dodge, lunge, dodge, and step back. His breath hitched a bit, but the body warmed up instantly. The next attack was firmly blocked and beaten off by zirka; then again, and again. He skillfully parried. Chris made several offensive attacks but then retreated. He did not have a goal to knock his opponent down on the ground. Especially considering that with this specific green buddy, it would not work even in his wildest dreams. They circled the tatami one way, then the other, taking turns in carrying out a series of offensives and defenses. Somewhere in the twentieth minute, sweat began flooding his eyes destroying concentration, but Chris did not want to leave yet and he decided to push 'Mister Grinch' a bit more or at least make him nervous. He was already getting into a rage; his hard palms flashed, hitting and beating off; the project manager retreated, knitting eyebrows in tension. 'Now Imma getcha!' has run through the student's mind, when suddenly the world had turned upside down and a cool floor covering had hit him in the back.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Chris exclaimed, pointing the reproachful finger at zirka. "We did not agree on the use of … tail-weapons!"

The scientific coordinator, maliciously twisting his mouth, wiped his face and drank some water. The strong fern-green torso with a scattering of small darker, almost black spots, moved as he breathed, gleaming with drops of sweat; the tight-fitting trainers were wet at the waist; the tail appendix was growing from the cutout on the waistband and hang loosely down to the ankles. As soon as it 'heard' of itself, the tail immediately tensed, wrapping zirka's legs around. Well, for sure, the zirka itself wrapped its tail around his leg, making fun of the human, but in Chris's eyes, everything looked different.

"And what did we agree on? We had a spontaneous fight with no voiced rules, didn't we," the lizard said boldly arching an eyebrow. He approached and offered his hand to Chris.

"But still, it wasn't fair," the young man grasped the zirka's forearm and easily got to his feet.

"When you want a fair fight – warn me in advance. Newman-kri," zirka bowed his head and already turned away ready to leave, but Chris suddenly decided.

"Tau, I mean ... Erzketau-kri! Will you tell me..?"

Erzketau turned around, looking puzzled.

"What... what's it gonna be? What is the new building for?" Chris came up close so that he could catch the wooden smell coming from the coordinator's skin. Though zirka was taller, Chris looked straight into his eyes without any abashment or embarrassment; looking up, he looked as if at an equal. Black eyes without pupils burrowed Chris for a moment as if wondering something. Or maybe he just had been solving the matrix problem – you never guess... Then zirka sharply exhaled and said quietly:

"The second phase, that's what's it gonna be there."

And he left, leaving his student to watch the receding broad back with bulging eyes, not knowing what to think.