The history of the Kahu and the Theran system
The Beginning
The Kahu is a slave race that was created approximately a half million years before freed by their creators. Today there is around 35 different species of Kahu living on Thera after 10 were initially created. The Kahu were created to perform menial tasks and jobs, be organ factories, disposable warriors and pleasure slaves. The first generation of Kahu were:
Felines (Domestic cats), Canines, Vulpines, Lapines, Mephits, Rats, Mice, Otters, Snow Leopards and Weasels.
These ten species were primarily pleasure slaves and warriors for the humans who created them. The original Kahu were created in labs for about 1000 years by one of two processes. The first process only lasted about 200-300 years as the success rate was one in 10 million, and that was hitting the subjects with tailored quantum data beams that slowly and painfully altered that subjects bodies into the new forms. The second process was genetically de-evolving humans (volunteers, prisoners, political rivals, dissidents, and end of life test subjects) by injecting chemical nanobots into the subjects that altered DNA at the quantum levels to force the subjects from human to an anthro-human. Both processes were never pleasant for those getting changed, in the early years once the processes were perfected, the humans getting changed would kill themselves in order to not end up as an anthro-human, not for the transformation from human to anthro-human (sub-human), but for the memory and personality wipe and reinsertion that happened once the transformation was complete.
Unfortunately those who underwent the memory and personality wipe and reimplantation of new memories and personalities retained the terror they experienced before and during the memory and personality wipes. This great fear became a trait of the original ten Kahu species and nearly half of the newer species that has been seen as a characteristic of those species. They are very timid, fearful and scared of anything that is out of the ordinary. This trait was desired by the human slave owners because it meant those particular Kahu would do anything to stay in the good graces of their owners. Thought there have been times when those Kahu with the inborn fear response are threatened, they can overcome the fear response and fight to defend themselves. It also appears that the inborn fear response is slowly fading, but how long before it is gone from the affected Kahu species is difficult at best to determine.
Both the transformation and memory/personality wipe and reinsertion was irreversible once completed. This would be the final punishment for anyone convicted of any crimes (real or imagined) for the next 100 to 200 thousand years. The memory and personality wipe was the last thing done to the convicted before they were reprogrammed with new memories and personality tailored to whatever species they were transformed into and sent to their new owner. The name Kahu from the outset was a derogatory term for the anthro-humans until the Kahu took up the name for themselves. Constructed Anthro-Human was the long version during the early years of the species development but changed to Cahu as both a short version of the name and as a derogatory term for the species as a whole. No one knows when the Kahu adopted the name as their own, but surviving records show that the version of Cahu with a K started appearing about 200 thousands years before the Great Kahu war.
The third process began once the Kahu began to reproduce with viable young that remained in the form of his/her parents. After the original ten Kahu began reliably reproducing their own species, then the humans began taking select females from their families and started to genetically alter the fetus’ into new anthro-humans. After 300 thousand years the humans stopped playing god with the Kahu and criminals and began to heavily regulate and control the Kahu’s lives, status and futures.
All-in-all, in addition to the original ten Kahu species (The original ten Kahu species were further altered to be pleasure slaves from birth with lithe, flexible bodies unable to produce young with humans):
Felines (Domestic cats), Canines, Vulpines, Lapines, Mephits, Rats, Mice, Otters, Snow Leopards and Weasels.
Another 22 were added:
Lions, Cheetahs, Leopards, Cougars, Tigers, Lupines, Coyotes, Ursines, Pandas, Hyenas, Badgers, Equines, and Swine making up 90% of the warrior slaves. Red Pandas, Squirrels, Raccoons, Jerboas, Otters, Lemurs, Ferrets, Deer and Antelopes making up the ranks of the pleasure and domestic slaves.
The Kahu lived with their human masters on whatever world or ship they resided on until they could no longer perform their tasks. At that point, a Kahu that became useless was either killed or sent to fight for the right to die of old age in the gladiator arenas facing seasoned warriors. This lasted for another 200 thousand years before some humans began to demand that the Kahu be set free to live their lives as they see fit. The humans demanding Kahu freedom started to get more attention in governmental circles and institutions as fringe groups began destroying training facilities around the known galaxy at the time, freeing the Kahu slaves. The human factions that wanted to keep the Kahu as slaves began fighting back striking at known and alleged freedom fighters, creating tensions in numerous factions and societies.
War over Kahu slavery broke out when a high ranking politician who was against Kahu slavery, but wanted to stop their breeding until they became extinct from not reproducing was killed by an unknown assassin while debating in congress. The Great Kahu war (as it was called later) lasted for over 400 years until one of the pro Kahu slavery factions built a weapon they were going to use to wipe the Terran solar system from the galaxy when some of their Kahu slaves revolted and damaged the weapon to the point that when fired, it literally destroyed the Terran solar system. The weapon was a quantum resonator that if fired at full strength would have vaporized everything within a 100 light year radius of Sol. As it was, the weapon discharged at 25% power leaving Sol with three massive scars on its surface, vaporizing Mercury, leaving Venus a ring of slowly expanding and coalescing dust and four 1000km wide chunks (one of which wound up in Earth orbit), Earth suffering a 500km long+ slice (800Km deep and 400km wide) on the Northern hemisphere, Luna getting split in two with a third hovering 100km from Luna, Mars was reduced to rubble thus becoming the second debris belt around Sol. The four gas giants were severely damaged, losing a good half of their atmospheres, with Jupiter igniting becoming a dwarf star and Pluto getting knocked close to 300AU out of her orbit. The Terran solar system was lucky compared to other systems radiating out from their arm of the Milky way. Many systems went supernova killing 100s of trillions of innocent humans and Kahu.
The Freeing of the Kahu
The first 1000 years after the Great Kahu war ended, humans and Kahu alike retreated to various planets to lick their wounds. Most of the surviving Kahu making their way to the destroyed Terran system, knowing that humans would not pursue them into the now deadlands. The Kahu settled on Earth renaming her Thera and calling Sol Scar due to the scars left by the great weapon as well as settling on Io, Ganymede and Europa in hopes that the moons would quickly warm up in Daemon’s light and heat. The Theran (Kahu), quickly discovered that Thera was still habitable but was no longer a tropical paradise she once was. Despite the glancing blow from the great weapon, Thera suffered greatly. The Great Chasm as the Kahu call the wound on Thera is barely habitable as the chasm is filled with floating islands of debris that has different levels of gravity. The great human cities are naught but ghost towns and forbidden to any one on the pain of death. Thera’s atmosphere while breathable, was toxic to humans after some of the industrial centers were destroyed when Thera danced and bucked from the weapon’s beam hitting her.
As far as the Kahu on Thera was concerned they were free from human slavery and for the humans, they were free as well, but not formally. A few hundred years after settling on Thera, humans made contact with the surviving Kahu to broker a tentative peace between the two entities. The humans told the Kahu that they were from their influence and control and that they were free to settle anywhere in the galaxy they chose. The Kahu realizing that the humans could not breathe the air on Thera without special gear, told them that they will settle in the Theran system and make it their own as well as anything within a 100 light year radius of Thera as long as the humans let them be. The humans countered that in order for them to agree to their demands, all of the Kahu would have to settle in the claimed region and not to leave for no less then 10 times the time they were slaves and that they would be heavily restricted on what technology and knowledge they would have access to that they didn’t create themselves.
Eventually the Kahu and humans agreed that the Kahu would have all rights to Theran system and any system within 100 light years of Thera as long as they remain in a greatly reduced state of technological knowledge and level like that of early human space exploration, and that for the long term, humans would only be deities until the Kahu learned from their creator’s past mistakes. The humans also wanted to test about 1% of the Kahu every 3 generations to see if they were able to be given new knowledge and technology. This would only last for 1.5 million years and begin once the Kahu had memory changes reflecting their agreement.
The Commandments, Great sins and punishments
Our commandments are akin to law and define each of the Great Sins…
1. Like your Gods and Demons, you are naught but animals, taking on our basic form yet keeping much of your beastial traits, making you our bastard children. Just like your beastial cousins, you’ll have the same wants, need and desires and unlike your cousins are able to control them. Both elevated and unelevated can not live and survive without each other. Be one with your beastial brethren as they willingly give themselves to you in order to sate your needs and desires. As they give themselves to you, you must do the same. By failing to do so, you are committing the greatest of all the Great Sins.
2. Using our knowledge and creations when you are not ready to is the second Great Sin.
3. Warfare and warmongering is forbidden, this is the third Great Sin. No fighting will be allowed outside of family units, clans, tribes and factions.
4. Killing an elevated for any reason outside of what is prescribed for committing a Great Sin is the fourth Great Sin.
5. Our cities shall not be intruded upon until we return. Only those that we summon shall enter our cities freely. Doing so is the fifth Great Sin.
6. Preventing a summoned one from entering our cities by any means, is the sixth Great Sin.
7. The Gods and Demons gave Thera, her solar system and a large part of the galaxy to you to use as you see fit. Once you and your children’s children are fit to leave Thera, you’ll inherit your new lands. Treat the heavens and Earth we gave you with respect, nurture the lands and help them recover from our war. This is our greatest commandment to you.
The penalties for committing a Great Sin are heavy. The Sinner(s) will be stripped of all possessions, name and family, be thrice branded, their tongue cut from their body to show all present that they are no longer an elevated but a mere animal before being placed with the Abeios to suffer a most quick and painful death.
Thera…
Thera is what the Kahu named Earth after they claimed it after the Great Kahu war. The planet is no longer habitable to humans after the planet was hit with a Quantum Resonance beam that cut a Great Chasm in the Northern Hemisphere and causing untold gravitational, climatogical and ecological damage. Sol was also renamed Scar due to the massive wounds it received from the beam that not only devastated Thera, but ravaged the entire Theran system including igniting Jupiter. It is unclear how long Jupiter will burn as the weapon that caused the damage was a new type of weapon and untested.
The Great Chasm is just that, a 500+Km long gash in Thera that is 400Km wide and close to 800Km at its deepest. The chasm is filled with numerous debris islands that are floating in various gravity nodes. Life flourishes in the chasm, but at a great cost. One has to learn quickly how to navigate the gravity nodes and debris islands or die a painful death.
The mean planetary temperature on Thera is about 8c. At the poles, the temperature gets as low as -154c with a high at the equator at 11c. Since getting hit by the energy beam, the atmosphere is in constant turmoil with storms raging across the planet nearly on a daily basis.
About one half of the plant and animal life was wiped out when the energy beam hit Thera. Flora and fauna on Thera is not like it is on Earth today.
There is one predator on Thera that evolved after the energy beam struck that has taken a particular liking for the Kahu. Lucky for them less than 10% fall to the predator. The predator is called the Abeios (Ah Bey Os), loosely translated it means Lightning Death. The Abeios has a life span of roughly 80-150 years depending on the region of Thera it resides. The pupal stage of the Abeios is called the Ona (or Feeder), which lives just under the surface for 77-147 years before it changes into the more lethal adult stage. During its pupal stage, the Ona is a small pink and blue ball of fur the size of a small grape, consuming small insects and animals with small, gooey webs. Ironically, the Kahu young catch Ona and keep them for pets for about 6-8 years before setting them free. When the Ona transforms from a harmless ball of fluff to its more lethal adult form it goes into a 3 year hibernation. When the Abeios emerges from its den of sorts, it is no longer a cute ball of fluff but a long, thin and wormlike, it is furless, about 40cm long and 20cm at the thickest with one third of its front body nothing but razor sharp teeth. It begins hunting Kahu in one of two ways, some Abeios are ambush hunters and other are tracking hunters. Either way the Abeios hunts for one particular Kahu scent that they need.
When an Abeios scents their prey, the Kahu is dead without even knowing until it is too late. When an Abeios strikes it enters the prey through the groin heading directly towards the chest. The moment the Abeios enters the Kahu, it instantly injects poisons that stop blood from gushing out of the prey’s body. Once the Abeios reaches the chest cavity, it digs what little claws it has into the Kahu’s spine and vital organs before jamming its snout into one of the hearts arteries. It takes no less than 10 seconds for an Abeios to launch itself at its prey and to reach the chest cavity and lock itself in place. By the time the Abeios is secured in the prey’s body, the Kahu is already unconscious and will be dead in roughly 30-45 seconds. Once the Kahu is dead, the Abeios dies shortly afterwards, it is there that the blood filling the Abeios’ body fertilizes the eggs. Within two weeks the eggs hatch and the Ona eat their way out of their parent and a week later they emerge from the now buried Kahu and head towards their new hunting grounds.
Thera’s orbital year was lengthened from 365.25 days to 484 days after the Quantum Resonator weapon was discharged at the Sol solar system, the Theran day went from 24hrs to 39 hours. A this time the current year is 684a.k.w.
The Kahu
The Kahu are a genetically engineered species consisting of 32 different species that became reproductively viable. Despite the commandments laid down by the humans and their ancestors, the Kahu are a relatively peaceful species. Despite the Kahu being genetic creations (anthro-humans), they can get pregnant with humans and can interbreed with each other. Kahu hybrids are frowned upon as the Kahu see them as soulless and tainted beings. Two different Kahu species can mate with no one objecting, but when they produce offspring then they can get into trouble. When a two species couple produces a hybrid, they usually kill the infant due to the inbred species purity. If the infant is not killed at birth and allowed to live, the Kahu and the child and/or children are excommunicated and banished from society. The Kahu have a strong belief in species purity, hence their overall dislike for hybrids. But that dislike for hybrids and the belief in species purity is a double standard. The feline, canine, and big cat species are the few Kahu species that can breed with a different sub-species of their species family and not face excommunication and banishment for their young. There are a few places on Thera that are accepting of hybrids and they are considered backwards and illiterate.
The Kahu have been conditioned to accept the humans as gods and demons until such time that they are taught otherwise. The only Kahu that know otherwise are the summoned and even then it takes many months to fully convince them.
First Contact (short story)
First contact the Kahu had was not with the humans as what was supposed to happen, but with another space faring species called the Terradynnians and their allies. The Theran system was discovered by a Terradynnian by the name of Luscius Snowpaw after she registered the aftereffects of the Quantum Resonator weapon’s discharge. First contact was made some 120 Terradynnians later once they were sure that the affected area was safe to travel to. The Terradynnians first foray on Thera was uneventful by most accounts, despite no one knowing that a visitor from another world was there. When Nystra Hunnydhew, his pet and slave Ainoko Ironrose and the albino snowcat Jheremie Merffeild paid a visit to the planet 200 years after the first visit, their mission did not go as expected.
Storytime
They made it to Thera’s surface safely and began making their way to one of the nearest villages to their landing site. The village that was their destination was chosen due to the large number of different species, making it easier for the two to blend in. They knew about the Kahu’s aversion to hybrids and wanted to make it the Kahu aware that there were emissaries from another civilization on their planet. “Unless you are told otherwise Ainoko,” Ainoko nodded silently knowing that he couldn’t disobey no matter what, because if he disobeyed or misbehaved, he would be punished once they were back home. Nystra made sure that Ainoko was properly groomed, and wearing his best silks as he was planning on having his pet perform with the albino snowcat for the locals once they get settled in one of the inns. They made landfall an hour’s walk from the village so as to appear that they were travelers from a distant village.
Upon entering the village, they were greeted with great surprise and curiosity as no one ever saw a short bunny leading a rather tall and effeminate male wolf and snowcat into the village and into one of the more prominent inns. Nystra presented themselves as traveling dancers going from village to village showcasing the wolf and snowcat pair as exotic dancers and performers. The innkeeper, a small feline slightly taller than the bunny asked, “Why is the wolf adorned with ankle, wrist and neck cuffs and the snowcat wasn’t?”
“That is because the wolf is my pet and property. He is bound to me via a contract that will end when both of us deem it time to do so. The snowcat is free to do whatever it is he so chooses to do.” Nystra said to the innkeeper. Nystra told the innkeeper that as he is not sure what the local customs were concerning some of his pets other talents and if he could show them off if asked. The innkeeper looked the hybrid over taking note of his bearing, attitude health and grooming in case she had to report the bunny and his charges to the village leader. No matter how hard she looked at the three she could not shake the feeling that they were not what they appeared to be, moreso the effeminate wolf male, despite how cute he looked. “The two males could dance tonight to pay for your rooms and board and after that what ever coin they earn could be used for more time.” She said proferring Nystra her paw. “By the way, my name is Sadi.”
Nystra thanked her and made his way to Ainoko and Jheremie to let them know that they would be performing for the crowd for a few hours, and that they need to put on a good show. The two nodded as the innkeeper came to their table with some food and drinks as well as keys to two rooms. “The stage by the bar is where your boys will be performing.” Sadi said before leaving. “By the boys, what is your names so that I can give you a proper introduction?”
“My name is Jheremie.” The snowcat said eagerly.
“And what about you my handsome wolf?” Ainoko blushed, shaking his head indicating that he wasn’t talking.
“Why isn’t the wolf talking? I heard him talking to the snowcat when I approached.” The innkeeper asked Nystra about why Ainoko wasn’t speaking to her.
“The wolf is under orders not to speak to anyone save me of Jheremie unless he is told otherwise.” Nystra said. It was then that the innkeeper realized that the male wolf was a slave, and a well cared for one at that. The wolf knew his place, and he showed his pride as a slave as well.
“Wait, you mean the wolf is a slave?” She asked incredulously.
“Yes he is, his name is Ainoko.” Nystra confirmed.
“So you think…?” The innkeeper slowly asked before continuing, “Do you think I can bed your wolf after he is done dancing for the night? I will gladly extend your stay here two weeks if you say yes.” She looked at Ainoko, marveling at his breeding and health. She was willing to risk her standing in the village if he were to fill her with his young.
Nystra looked at the innkeeper and Ainoko who was watching the two intently his tail twitching nervously before replying, “Yes you can and to take care and go slow with him as he has rarely been with a female of any species. I do want to talk to you once Ainoko and Jheremie are on stage dancing. Sadi nodded watching the two males rise from the table and head towards the stage, taking note that the wolf seemed to move with the grace of a cat and that he seemed to have been declawed. After the two males were on stage and performing Nystra rose from the table and made his way to the bar to talk to Sadi.
“I need to let you know Sadi,” He said softly, “The three of us are not from Thera or any of the colonies around Spark, but from a planet called Terradyne and that we were visiting your world to see what happened to the solar system and to provide help if needed. Also, I have to let you know that Ainoko is not a pure wolf but a wolf/cheetah hybrid who was created by an advanced machine untold millions of years before he was born. Ainoko chose to live his life a slave as he didn’t want to be responsible for more than what his master, owner and lover demanded of him in addition to taking care of his 5 cubs.
Sadi looked at the bunny in shock and surprise at the revelation. “Are you serious?”
“Yes I am Sadi.” Nystra said, “We are here to help if we can. I am asking that you not tell anyone about us until we are ready to let everyone know.”
“I can do that.” She said. “Please tell me more about your world while we wait for your boys perform.”
