The next Hascome to depart took the name Robert. Like "Elisabeth" before him, he took on a common human name. He was to be partnered with the Human Karen. After carefully considering all the information on her, he was troubled by two parts of her personality. The one that troubled him the most was her quick temper. Most Hascomes in general, and him in piticular, had learned to control their emotions. this is one of the things that made him a canidate to go on this important mission. The second was her lack of modesty, which he hoped would improve with the his presence. The biggest problem he had with himself was the fact he was not a social person. This was another factor of him being chosen to be one of the Hascomes to originally be the one studied. Now having to work with someone else, a female human, was indeed a worry for him.

The Transport Tube placed him at the closest pool of water to Karen's house. She visited it morning, so she was well on her way to that pool when he arrived. He had little time to prepare himself for her arrival. He decided he would place himself on a rock near the pool.

Obviously, Karen was not expecting to see anyone, and thus let out the loudest longest scream that Robert had ever heard.

"Who are you, and how did you get hear?" She screamed just about as loud.

She quickly picked up a up a large stick and waved it in a threatening motion.

"Whoa, hold on a minute, I am just as confused as you are. One minute I am home in bed, the next minute I am sitting on this rock!" Robert said as he protected himself from some of Karen's threatening swings of her stick.

"You better keep your distance, I have killed several wild chickens, so I am not one to be messed with."

"And I would not harm a fly, so would you please put now that club, and tell me where I am." Robert pleaded.

"You really are confused?" Karen said in a slightly calmer voice.

"Yes",  he replied.

"That makes two of us!"

Karen hit her stick on the ground and broke it. She stood up and shouted to the sky.

"How many lives are you going to ruin? How many? I am not going to stand for this!"

"Who are you shouting at?" Robert asked.

"I wish I knew. By the wa, what is your name?"

"Robert."

"I am Karen, and I have been minipulated ever since I was placed in this hot miserable place some time ago. I am sick and tired of it." She stood up and kicked a bunch of sand in anger.

"You are the first person I have seen sense I got here, and I actually hoped you might be able to help figure out what was going on. Now that I know that you are just as clueless..."

Karen kicked more sand and stompped her feet.

"You are no more help than that stupid book!"

"You have a book?" 

"Yes, It only tells me what I need to survive. I know this is going to sound strange, but it updates every day, but basicly still just gives me help in surviving. I do not want to survive, I want answers!" She shouted.

"Could I see your book?" 

At first she was taken back by the question, and normally would have instantly replied no. But some how Robert's voice calmed her some, and she fely like she had nothingto lose by this.

Okay, help me gather enough water here, and I will take you to it.

On their way back, there was some ackward small talk, with both of them feeling a little uncomfortable. As she opened the front door, they put the buckets of water down on the table. Lokking around the room, she commented,

"It is not much, actually not much at all. However it was what I was given, and I guess it is better than living out there."

"Man It is starting to get hot already!" She stated as she began to fan herself.

"So where is that magic book of yours?" Robert said hoping that changing the subject would help.

Karen grabbed the book and brought it to him.

"Wow, this is some great advise!" I have read survival books before that were not half this good."

"So, you do not find it strange that these entries only appear when who, or what is running this game decides I need them?" Karen asked.

"Well, it is certainly unusual, but if helped me be more comfortable, and stay alive, I would not care." Robert said in what he hoped was a reassurng tone.

"Well I do care! I never have been and never will be someone who is happy with someone totally in control of my life! If you are happy with that, than fine. I am not!" Look, we need to fid you a place to stay. Maybe the idiots that gave me this dump, have one for you." Karen said in a angry tone.

"I do not remember seeing any other..."

"You don't remember anything! At least that is what you told me. I have not seen any other place either, and I have been here a while, but maybe that will be another one of their magic tricks. We will never know standing in here. If you want my help to find one, we better go now before it gets any hotter!" Karen said as she splahed some water on her face and headed towards the door.

The two of them search the areas where Karen knew there was a water source, and a few that Robert "accidently" had them stumble across. The last one had a nice supply of berries and nuts, that they snacked on. Karen made use of one pool the coll off completely while Robert made sure he had more exploring to do. By the end of the day nothing had been found. Karen shared some of her wild chicken with Robert and they decided to look into the book to see if anything new was there. There was a new entry.

"Because of extending help to your new friend, we have allowed you to find new places for you to enjoy. It has been observed that you two seem to make a good team and should stick together."

Karen slammed the book shut and threw it on the ground.

"Feel better?" Robert asked.

She gave him a dark stare.

"Not yet!" She said and got up and jumped up and down on the book a few times.

"Now?" he asked.

"Look you still do not get it do you? I refuse to be minipulated any more. There is more to being happy than 'discovering' a new pool, or more fruit and nut trees! Anyway, we have work to do." Karen stated.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, unless you plan on sleeping straight on the sand, we need to figure out where you will spend the night."

Robert gave her a fuuny look.

"We searched all day, remember?" He said in a serious tone.

"Well maybe my magic book will come up with something, but you are not spending the night in here!" Karen stated.

Robert was not sure how much those overseeing this project were willing to still use the "Information book" now that he had joined her, but he had an idea.

"Look, I have no clue why I wound up here, but I have no intention of dying now due to a lack of shelter. I do not require a large amount of space. We could simply hang a covering that would divide off a small space for me."

Robert put up his hand to stop the objections that he knew Karen was about to raise.

"I promise it will only be tonight. I will do whatever necessary to make a shelter for myself in the morning."

After several long loud "discussions", Karen finally agreed.

The next morning when Karen awoke, she discovered that Robert was already up and in the middle of building his shelter. Robert, as well as all the Hascomes that were going to be the first ones to go to a new enviroment had been given survior training. Karen was amazed at what Robert had constructed.

"How is it that a man with no memory of who he is, or where he came from, could construct something this complex?" Karen asked with a dumbfounded look on her face.

"I can not answer that, other than once I started, everything just fell into place."

Karen gave him a sideways glance.

"I bet you worked in sales." She said wagging her head.

She went back into her cabin and sat at her table. She was not sure about Roberts story. Was he truly another "victum", or was he just another part of whoever was in control plan? She glanced over at the book on the nightstand, and pounded her fist on the table.

"I am sick of being a lab rat! I will get to the bottom of this if it kills me!" 

She stood up and went to the window and saw Robert still working.

"You may be my best hope of ending this nightmare." Karen mumbled.

She sat and watched Robert work, very rapidly and methodically in erricting his shelter. She wanted to go out and bring up again about a person with "no memory" creating a perfect shelter, but decided to wait for another time on that one.

CHAPTER TEN

It had been three weeks sense the Hascomes had sent the lemar visit Maggie. His assignment now was to only show up if Maggie was about to make a serious mistake. Maggie did continue in her routeens, but her depression was getting worse and was preventing her from making any progress. One of the goals of this experiment was that the enviroment they choose to move their species to would be one that they would enjoy, not just merely survive. Nathens job was to see if he could help Maggie overcome whatever it was that was making her depressed. If this could be accomplished, then there could still be hope in using this kind of enviroment. If the root cause was that she was lonely, then the conclusion was that her depression would go away quickly when Nathan showed up. It was hoped this was the case, because out of all the enviroments choosen, so far the rain forest seemed to be the most promising. It was also becoming quickly appearent that they running out of time.

Nathan was picked to pair with Maggie, because he was the best out of his trainning group in dealing with a simular enviroment, and that her had a nack for boosting moral. If there was a down side to assigning him, it was they noticed that he had a tendency to get too attached to whom he was working with.

Nathan reviewed his notes. His story would be that he was from another village that was from far away. He was part of a group that was on a hunting expidition. Through a series of strange and unexplainedable cirrcumstances, he got seperated from his group and had wandered for days, hopelessly lost. The transfer tube placed him at the mouth of a cave that the lemer had showed Maggie . Today was one of the days that she regularly visited that cave. It was not long before he heard Maggie approaching. He was pretending to just waking up, so he made sure he did not startle her, It was a wise choice because he could even see her, three arrows bouced off the rocks near him.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" Nathan shouted in surprise.

He looked up to see Maggie had another arrow pointed straight at his head.

"Whoo there miss. If this is your tribes territory, I will quickly move on." Nathan said as he attempted to stand.

"Do not move!" Maggie said as she pulled back further on her bow.

"Look, I don't want any trouble. I have been lost for weeks, and just wanted a place to rest up some." Nathan said holding out his hands in an attemt to get her not to shoot her arrow.

"I said stay put!" Maggie repeated.

"I don't think you want to shoot me." Nathan said softly.

Maggie smiled.

"You do not know me. I may not shoot you right this minute, but if I do not get the right answers, i will have no problem filling you full of holes. So, chose your answers wisely. First who are you and where did you come from?"

"My name is Nathanitugal. I am of the tribe of Klites. I was on our annual hunting expidition, when we were caught in a violent storm. We wer all seperated and seeking shelter we all split up. I had never been in such a violent storm. I was tossed about for what seemed likie forever. I must at some point, been tossed into a rock or tree, because I was knocked out. When I awoke, I was alone. Like I said I have been wandering around for weeks trying to find my way home." I have survived of what I could find. No one from my tribe has ever been in these woods before. At least they have never said anything about them before. They are very different than my home woods. Like I said before, I do not want any trouble. If these woods belong to your tribe, I promise to leave."

"I do not trust you. If you are a hunter, you would have been trained on how to get back, storm, or no storm."

"I am the youngest of six. All are very good at tracking and hunting. I was not taken on hunts as young as my brothers because of my proving to not have the right skills. However, I am now at the age where it is required for me to go. This was my first, and quite possibly my last hunt." Nathan told her.

Maggie looked around where Nathan was.

"If you are a hunter, then where is your weapon?"

"It flew out of my hand in the storm. I made a club, and a crude knife. They are both a little deeper in the cave."

"I still don't trust you! I have been here for a while and have not come across anyone else." Maggie said in a sad tone.

"You are all alone?" Nathan asked.

Maggie snapped out of her saddness and pointed the arrow between Nathan's eyes.

"That is none of your concern, I can take care of myself quite handlely."

"It seems that you have no fear of men, but you do fear anaimals." Nathan stated.

"You do not know me or what I fear. If I were you, you should be very afraid of me." Maggie stated.

"I know you fear the animals, because It shows on you as it did on me. This is the real reason I could never develop the skills to kill them. I did finally learn how to overcome those fears, but in doing so I also gained great respect for them. I am still willing to move on, but before i do, I would be willing to help you learn to lose your fears." Nathan offered.

Maggie had no idea how long she may be stuck in this situation. She had learned from the lemer, but that was just wierd. Learning from another human would be better. She was really torn. She missed her conversations with the lemer. She hated being alone. She also had so many things thrown at her, she was questioning every move she made. She could feel tears welling up insider her. She fought through those, and much to her surprise she told him,

"I would like that."

Maggie still had the bow and arrow pointed at him so, he decided to take it slow. He began with a few animals that they could hear. He told her what they were and several other things about them including how she could get close to them.

"Listen. That is a black winged kilt. Watch."

Nathan did three short high pitched whistles and a gruting noise. In the distance they heard those same noises. He repeated them. This time the reply was closer. A third time. The bird landed on a limb above the cave. Carefully he pulled out a cracker like object out of his top pocket, opened his hand, and placed it in his palm with his fingers held staight out. The bird came down, landed on his fingers and took the food and begain pecking it.

Maggie was amazed.

"How...how did you learn to do that?" She asked.

"Practice and patince. I also had to lean to surpress my fears."

"Could you teach me to do that?" She asked.

Nathan smiled.

"Yes, but it would be a lot easier if you did not have your weapon pointed at my head."

"Oh, yea, I guess it would. Follow me," she said.

Maggie lowered her bow and headed down her marked trail.

"Tell me more, while we are on the way back to my tree house."