The spaceship flickered in and out of visibility as it emerged from the ocean.

The package has been delivered and primed.

The craft disappeared again, momentarily outlined by moonlit seawater flowing over its vast body as it slowly rolled before rising into the night sky.

It left the planet unnoticed, just as it had come, its cloaking device fully engaged, rendering it undetectable.

***

The first mutation was recorded two years later on a small Pacific island.

The islanders fished a living from the water, and almost all of their protein came in the form of fish, prawns, and crabs—everything else they bought online.

Kaku was the first to change.

It happened overnight.

For a few days, he felt “off”, not quite himself. He picked at his food and slept much more than usual, even nodding off while attending school or playing video games.

His once smooth, dark olive skin had turned a soft pink, and his hair and nails had darkened. The whites of his eyes were bright, like his new teeth, painfully pushing the old set out of the way over the course of a week. His irises turned bright purple.

This was stage one. Except for the teeth, these changes were mostly superficial.

In the following weeks, more island children changed in the same way.

This was reported on the local news, earning the attention of authorities from the mainland.

***

Kaku was the first to experience stage two of the change.

This change was dramatic and painful, and it took 3 weeks.

His body and limbs elongated, and his skin hardened around his torso, hips, elbows, and knees, forming armor-like plates. His hands became long-fingered, with razor-sharp talons, and his feet flattened, with rear-facing thumbs. His clothes no longer fit, and he went without because nothing personal was on display. Besides, he no longer liked the feeling of clothes.

He still felt like himself, a slightly awkward 16-year-old boy, traumatized by his fast-changing body, feeling extremely self-conscious. His new teeth made speaking hard because they were large, long, and sharp.

Everybody stared openly, and many made rude comments. Kaku and the others like him were kept indoors at the schoolhouse, closely monitored by medical personnel from the mainland.

The island was under quarantine. Many feared that this was a contagion that might spread to the mainland.

One day in the schoolyard, driven from his bed by a deep throbbing pain in his joints, his old friend Kiri called him “lobster boy”, which made the other kids laugh. They stopped laughing when Kaku surprised everyone, including himself, by jumping onto the roof of a building and then into the trees behind the school. The roof was 12 feet above ground, and the trees another 50 feet away.

It felt fantastic! The pain in his limbs disappeared like the morning fog when the sun rose to chase it away. His changed body was throbbing with power, effortlessly swinging through the trees. When he ran across fields with massive strides, he felt as if he were flying between footfalls.

***

Kaku stayed in the jungle for what felt like weeks.

People were looking for him, but he had no trouble avoiding them. He did not even have to try; he just knew when someone was nearby and quietly moved away.

Time passed unnoticed, flowing in a smooth linear fashion without any preset hours for eating, sleeping, or washing. Kaku just lived, like he had never lived before. At some point, he was joined by others like him. He was not surprised by their arrival. One moment, they were not there; the next, they were.

The military showed up right after Kaku entered phase three.

The third and final change happened in their brains at the same time, affecting all of them.

***

The day of the final change started like any other.

Kaku woke with the birds and animals of the jungle. Waking up was not a sudden, shocking event, but simply a soft change in awareness, like feeling a cool breeze blowing across your face, gently commanding your attention.

Something was different about this morning.

His mind felt larger, and he could smell different parts of the nest they have built. He was simultaneously aware of many areas around the massive Kauri tree in which they slept, forming a single picture in his mind.

13 of them shared this nest. Kaku knew they were all awake, and they all felt the same strange sensation, like they were in different places, yet still occupied just one spot in space and time. His mind filled with 13 realizations, at first overlapping and competing, before merging into a single understanding.

They shared a part of their consciousness with the group.

“Good morning!”

The words appeared in Kaku’s head, unspoken yet clearly heard.

“Morning!” he responded without speaking, in a chorus of 13 voices. His consciousness again filled with that strange knowing that he is part of something larger, like an online video game where you are all the players at once.

This feeling passed as fast as it came, and all 13 minds became comfortable with this new reality at the same instant, processing the additional sensory input without stress or fear, as if it were perfectly natural.

They were hungry.

Grinning, they descended the massive tree, easily gripping the rough bark with powerful taloned hands and feet, a singular destination in mind.

The ocean called them. It felt like home. Offering food, shelter, and comfort.

Plunging into the waves brought that magnificent feeling of unity once again. Kaku felt the warm water on his skin, enjoyed the strain on the webbing between his fingers and toes, and felt it 13 times, as his tribe experienced it.

The word ‘tribe’ appeared in all 13 minds at the same time, as if it were always there.

They swam submerged, breathing through gills they always had, under their arms on the sides of their powerful bodies. They were having lobster this morning. They all knew where the best lobsters were.

They simply followed the vibrations that marked their location.

***

The man from America was wearing a dark blue suit and a bright red tie.

He appeared confident and even smelled nice. His vibrations told the true story.

“Do you know why I am here?”

The meeting took place at the school, in the assembly hall. The tribe squatted behind Kaku, forming a diamond shape. They did this automatically, without thinking about it. They do a lot of things like that.

“Yes”, Kaku answered. “You are here because you are afraid.”

The man’s eyes shifted for a moment before he regained composure. “That is not true. We are not afraid; we are curious and concerned for the safety of everyone on this island. Yourselves included.”

Kaku smiled, displaying his new teeth. The man flinches again at the sight of it.

“You are not speaking truthfully. Your words say one thing, but your being says something else. These words you are speaking are not your own. I can hear the voice coming through your earpiece. Speak for yourself or bring the speaker here.”

The man drops all pretense and cocks his head, focusing on the words delivered into his ear. He even brings his hand up to cup his right ear.

After a minute, he nods, then removes the small earpiece and drops it into his pocket.

“How did you know that?” he asks, sounding sincere.

He was. Everything in existence is in a constant state of motion. It is called the Hermetic principle of vibration. This means that all matter has wave properties and vibrates at one or more frequencies. The tribe is connected to these frequencies, and nothing is hidden from them. They can hear others’ intentions.

Kaku decides to have some fun and keep the science to himself for now.

“We can hear your thoughts”, he smiles again, broader this time, and almost giggles out loud when the man’s consternation changes the motion of his matter to a fever pitch.

The man retrieves the earpiece, thinks better of it, and drops it back in his pocket. His mind is racing, and he is clearly struggling to process what he has just learned. His mouth hung open, and his eyes darted from one tribesman to the next, obviously suspecting them of prying in his mind.

“Close your mouth, sir. Do not be afraid, we do not pry. We just listen to that which is broadcast.”

Kaku leans forward, dragging his tail across the wooden floor of the assembly hall. The tail is new. Not all tribesmen have one, and others are growing wings. This is all right and good. The frequency says so.

“What you are saying is this: We do not understand what is happening on this island. We do not like that the ‘afflicted’ seem to thrive, simply living off the land. We cannot allow this possible contagion to spread to the mainland and from there globally. We fear what we do not understand. We kill that which we fear.”

Kaku swishes his tail across the floor. “Are you here to kill us, John?”

John Smith, special US envoy to the Pacific Islands, seems to have forgotten how to breathe.

Kaku gently reaches out with a carefully placed wave, snapping John out of his frozen state. Kaku was extra careful, but John felt the intrusion, and his wave pattern became chaotic. He fell sideways out of his chair, scrambled to his feet, and rushed for the door, his confused entourage scurrying after him.

***

“That did not go well.”

The tribe was watching the sun set from their nest, going over the meeting earlier in the day.

“It did not. John arrived feeling apprehensive and left terrified.”

“He is a military man.”

“They should not have sent a military man, but someone from science.”

“Yes, when scientists are scared, they do research; when the military becomes scared, they drop bombs.”

“We will know when they decide to do that.”

“We can easily stop them.”

“It will just escalate from there.”

Kaku feels all these thoughts washing over him. He is still connected to John, and what he has learned from John’s panicked mind and his superiors’ reactions is very concerning.

Everything Kaku learns, the tribe immediately knows. This is true for all tribesmen.

They understand that John is representing a clan of plunderers. They take what they want when they want it and use the guise of law, security, and progress to fool their nations into keeping them in power.

They are narrow-minded and short-sighted predators. They are not wolves but a pack of feral dogs. Wolves will kill to survive and manage their own numbers to remain part of the system. Feral dogs will kill and breed for pleasure.

It is time to retrieve the package from the ocean. It will require all 13 of them to assemble and then operate the weapon.

It is a weapon of mass destruction.

It will slightly alter the human mind, enabling them to know a lie when it is told. Once this weapon is activated, everyone it is used upon will know the true motivations behind others’ actions. It will not change the nature of humans, but it will make it impossible to hide why they decide to take specific actions.

It will not cause the destruction directly. Nations will destroy themselves and each other, with their true nature and desires on full display.

The world will reset.

The feral dogs will be reduced to a few packs of wolves.

The system will heal.

The planet will survive.

This is why the tribe exists.

***

Kaku enjoyed the warm water on his skin, felt the strain in the webbing between his fingers and toes, and felt it 13 times over, as his tribe experienced it.

They will assemble and activate the weapon.

They will man the weapon and move it across the globe, bringing the wave of enlightenment to all nations.

When it is done, they themselves will die and return to the earth.

There is no place for them in the future world.

They do not mind.