Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business A New Origin for Shagrek

Shagrek was found by miners working the outer asteroids of the Sol system sometime in the latter half of the 30th Century, and was brought by them to Earth.
There he was confined to the Tokyo zoo as an exotic and dangerous life-form.
When local children began to notice that the creature was learning to talk, xenobiologists were called in.
They determined that the zoo had mistakenly caged a sentient creature.
The creature was released, and the people of Tokyo tried to make Shagrek welcome.
Forever fierce, Shagrek’s disintegration beams killed forty people on his first day of freedom.
He was finally subdued by the Science Police.
-- Encyclopedia Galactica, 2968

CHAPTER ONE
POST-NATAL CARE

13th Floor, Central Hospital, Daxamopolis

Gar Kozz paced the floor of the little room in an agitated manner.

'Will you answer me honestly?' he asked the young woman in the bed.

'Yes,' she said, her eyes downcast.

'Why should I believe you?' asked Gar Kozz. 'You have lied about everything.'

'Yes,' she said again. 'No. Not everything. I will be honest with you now. At the end.'

Gar Kozz fumed silently for a few moments. 'What is your name?' he asked finally. 'Your real name?'

'Rikka.' was the reply. 'Only Rikka. Some clans use only a single name.'

'And how did you come to leave Durla?'

'I was exiled. I was judged Ki’Shosh,' she explained. 'I don’t know if there is a word in Interlac or Daxalian. It means… having a personality or mannerisms that make others around you uncomfortable.'

'Creepy?' Gar Kozz offered.

'Perhaps,' said Rikka. 'But with a sense of mental illness, and illegality.'

'Criminally insane,' Gar Kozz offered.

'Don’t be harsh,' said Rikka.

'I have every right to be whatever I want,' said Gar Kozz. 'My wife is an undocumented Durlan. Why couldn’t you go somewhere you were wanted?'

She stifled a laugh. 'There is nowhere Durlans are wanted. Despite my disability, I was an accomplished programmer. There is a thriving industry on Durla that does outsourcing work for the rest of the United Planets. But my skills were non-transferrable. No one wanted a Durlan working for them off-planet. I got the job on Rickleff II because I am a fast keyboarder. A typist. Doing input for medical billing.'
'I used my hacking skills to create a new identity. There actually is a Janna Kal-Tor on Daxam, you know. Several of them. It’s a common enough name. One was near my age. I cloned her file, and altered it with data from some of the others, creating a unique identity.'

'You created a nearly flawless replica of Daxamite physiology as well,' said Gar Kozz. 'Down to the molecular level. It went undetected until now, after the baby was born, when the doctors here examined you more meticulously.'

'My photochondia,' said Rikka-Janna. 'Daxamites absorb stellar radiation, energizing their physiology to be able to withstand Daxam’s ultra-high gravity. I could copy the form, but not the function. I was fine on Rickleff II as it was just an asteroid. But planetside, on Daxam, it was exhausting. I was able to increase my structural density, but I was still tired all the time.'

'Why did you go to so much effort?' asked Gar Kozz.

'There was a handsome astronomer on Rickleff II. We met. We… I did it for him,' said Rikka-Janna, her eyes brimming with tears. 'I did it to have him. Things were getting serious between us. I had assumed the aspect of a plain, ordinary Daxamite woman. But when I was around him… I wanted to be beautiful. I would feel myself changing, involuntarily. Just slightly. I needed to do something to make my appearance more stable.'

'And what do you really look like?' Gar Kozz asked. 'What is your real form?'

'This is my real form. My only form, now,' said Rikka-Janna. 'I was afraid I was going to be found out. That somehow, I would slip, and spoil everything. I purchased a sample of Yorggian Fever Virus on the Gray Market. I had a tenday of vacation accrued. I locked myself in my apartment, and exposed myself to it. It was worse than I thought it would be. I felt like I was going to die. But I had purchased the anti-viral cure as well. That was even worse. I was unable to eat for days-- only a little water, with some electrolytes. More than half the time, I vomited that back as well. But it worked-- I permanently neutralized my shape-shifting abilities.'

'I remember,' said Gar Kozz. 'You came back looking emaciated. You told me you had been visiting the Temples of Sorrow…'

'Things were getting so serious. I thought we… I thought we might bond. Start a family. Even have children, maybe. I wanted that so much. I didn’t want anything to ruin that dream.'

'Well, your plan didn’t work out so well, did it,' said Gar Kozz.

'No, I suppose not,' Rikka-Janna admitted.

'You have been exposed as an illegal alien. Daxamgov does not recognize inter-species marriages. It is as though our wedding never happened. Legally, we are not a family. And our child is a monster.'

'Don’t say that,' said Rikka-Janna, tears spilling over. 'He’s our son. A baby. A little boy. Yes, he’s a little different. Not Daxamite in appearance, not even Durlan, really. But he is ours.'

'It is dangerous', said Gar Kozz. 'The doctors say its photochondia are unstable. It is unable to properly utilize the stellar energy it absorbs. The energy builds us; it releases it in a destructive flash.'

'He is my son. I will take care of him. Perhaps, as he grows older, he can learn to control these flashes,' said the young mother. 'Or, at least, feel when one is coming on, and get to safety…'

'Perhaps,' said Gar Kozz. 'But right now, you have a decision to make. You have already been in this hospital for nearly a tenday, they will not allow you to stay ten days more. You and the boy will be required to leave Daxam. You will need to decide where to go. Perhaps there exist colonies of Durlan expatriates, refugees, or diaspora?'

'A few,' replied Rikka-Janna. 'But as I understand, they are mostly wretched hive of scum and villany.'

'Well, from what you tell me, I don’t believe you can return to Durla.'

'Perhaps Earth?' Rikka-Janna ventured. 'I understand that they are somewhat more broad-minded regarding alien immigration'

'Not Earth,' said Gar Kozz. 'There are high levels of lead in the environment.'

'They tell me our baby does not have the Daxamite sensitivity to lead,' said Rikka-Janna.

'Yes, but I do,' said Gar Kozz.

'But you…' the young woman’s eyes grew wide. 'Are you saying you would come with us?'

'Entreat me not to leave thee, nor to return from following after thee,' Gar Kozz quoted. 'For whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: naught but death part thee and me.'

'But how… Why…' Jenna was confused.

'This is True Love. You think this happens every day?'

CHAPTER TWO
EXCERPTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF JANNA KOZZ

Day minus two
We have decided to name him Yon Kozz. We felt he needed a very ordinary name. On the day after tomorrow we leave for a distant, minor planet called Jome. It is a heavy-metal world, poor in light elements such as lead. It orbits a little M-class star about half-way between Daxam and Durla. We thought it appropriate. The dominant life-form is a sort of troglodyte known as the Mbenzi, named for the U.P. discoverer of that world. Although intelligent, they have only a young Stone Age level civilization. By all accounts they are shy, peaceful vegetarians. We believe we will be able to establish our small family there without interfering with the native population. As far as we know, no other species have attempted migration there, and integration into Jome’s ecology.
* * *
Day thirty-three
I have been unable to write in this journal, we have been so busy! Our new world Jome is beautiful. An endless jungle, it is full of fragrant, brilliantly colored flowers. We found a cave near fresh water some distance from the nearest Mbenzi settlement, and have set up a force-fence to mark out our small territory.
So far, the Mbenzi have showed no curiosity regarding our appearance, although they may not know we are here yet. There are several varieties of native fruit which are entirely compatible with Daxamite physiology. A couple are bitter-tasting, but most are delicious. Supplemented by the ship’s stores, we should be able to camp out here comfortably for several years.
* * *
Day forty-four
Yon is such a happy baby! Gar and I are still on the Daxam 22-hour day/night schedule, but Yonni seems to be adapting to the much shorter days on this little world. Gar and I are take turns watching him during the three-and-a-half hour nights. He sleeps during the day, leaving for us the daylight hours. It is the only time to work-- we are happy, but exhausted!
* * *
Day ninety-one
Yonni’s ‘tantrums’ seem under control. That is what I call the involuntary releases of pent-up stellar energy he has suffered from since birth. They come very seldom now, and are nowhere as powerful as when he was a baby.
* * *
Day ninety-four
We have a little garden growing. Daxamite fromatoes, peakumber, arborcchini, and milkplant. With the bounty of fruit from the jungle, we have more than enough to feed ourselves. Gar has finished setting up the shield-fence; we have deployed a few tents for the supplies, but have found outfitting our little cave a fine house. A while longer, and it will be a real home.
* * *
Day ninety-six
Gar brought a collection of memory-crystals with us from Daxam, including many of his favorite children’s stories. Just before dawn, after his final feeding of the night, I sit with Yonni and we read together. He seems to love the bright pictures, the sound of my voice, snuggling up against me. He seems to like 'The Hungry Little Dakoon', 'The Rainbow Color Book', and 'Irekoland' best. As the sun comes up, he gets sleepy, and crawls off into a favorite spot of sunshine to sleep. He will follow a patch of sun through the scarlet fern-grass throughout the day, until it is time for his father to take over his care at dusk.
* * *
Day one-hundred-ninety-one
After trying every fruit we could find in the jungles, we finally braved what we have called ‘giantfruit'. It is massive, some almost a meter long, and can weigh fifty kilograms. The rind is thick and nubbly, and exactly the same shade of tangerine as little Yonni. It is delicious! Sugary and salty and savory all at once, it is rich and filling. A single giantfruit is enough to serve as a base for a dozen meals for the three of us.
* * *
Day three-hundred
Yonni has learned the word 'NO!'. If only he had learned how to say 'yes, please' first! He does not have vocabulary of more than ten intelligible words, and ‘NO!’ has to be one of them.
At least he also says ‘Hi’ and ‘Bye-bye’. He is learning some manners.
* * *
Day three-hundred-fifty
I am a somewhat concerned about little Yonni. He continues to nurse well, but seems disinterested in weaning to solid food. He will eat moderately some of the reconstituted soups and stews from the ship’s stores, but shows complete disinterest in the local foods. However, ships stores will not last forever. Already I am replenishing them with some of Gar and my favorite fruits from the cornucopia of the Jomian jungles.
* * *
Day three-hundred-seventy-five
Finally found something Yonni will eat! There are a couple of preserved chunky soup-stews in the ship’s stores. He seems to have taken to them. I worry about the size of the meat and vegetables, so I am puréeing them before each feeding. He just sucks them down! I spread a little on a slice of nut-bread, and it was OK, although I wouldn’t eat it again. Gar had a few younger siblings, and he tells me it is normal for a baby’s first solid food to be a little disgusting.
* * *
Day four-hundred-and-four
We have discovered a setting on the ships’ stores that allows us to convert one type of protein to another. We are therefore able to turn our homegrown fruits and vegetables into Yonni’s stew. Gar calls it ‘slime’, but I am sure he means it in the nicest way possible. Yonni sees his mommy and daddy eating all sorts of brightly colored foods of various shapes and sizes, and pleasant and intriguing aromas. Pleasant and intriguing to us, that is. Yonni is happy with his puréed ship-paste.
* * *
Day five-hundred-forty
Oh! We had a scare today. Yon wandered away, out beyond the shield-fence, and into the jungle. The shield was still on when we found him missing. We couldn’t figure out how he had gotten through it-- it chimes when deactivated. Fortunately, he found his way back home on his own. We saw him toddle out of the jungle, and were about to take down the fence, when he did the most amazing thing! He threw one of his ‘tantrums’ out through his Durlan antennae-horns! He seemed in complete control. The fence parted where his energy-beams hit, and he just walked through! Gar thinks he can alter the frequency of the shield-fence, and boost its power, but until then we are going to have to keep an eye on our little escape artist.
* * *
Day five-hundred-fifty
The Mbenzi finally showed up today, a small group gathering curiously outside the shield-fence. They are anthropoids, slender and small, the tallest under one-and-a-half meters. They are surprisingly strong, though, as they left us by leaping up into the trees and swinging away.
Yonni ran to the fence to greet them; both he and they seemed frustrated that they could not actually touch one another. Their language is primitive, and even with the universal translator, Gar and I couldn’t really figure out exactly what they are trying to say. Clearly, though, they are curious and excited to see us.
* * *
Day five-hundred-seventy
The Mbenzi are clearly in a pre-industrial age, just beginning to understand the use of tools. In their own language, they call themselves 'Gani'. Of course, they call us ‘Gani’, too, so it may just be a generic word for ‘people’. They do not seem to have proper names.
They have come to visit every evening for the last two tendays-- that’s sixty-three stellar cycles on Jome-- and gibbered and chattered at us through the shield-fence. The universal translators are still not able to calibrate to their language; it is undeveloped, mostly simple nouns, intermingled with the chirping of birds.
Oddly, Yonni has picked up on their language, and seems to be able to communicate easily with them. He has not really learned either Daxamese or Interlac except for a few words, mostly he communicates with his own made-up baby-talk. But he has picked up the Mbenzi’s language quickly and easily. Perhaps because, as a nearly two-year-old, he is on their level, intellectually.
He calls the Mbenzi ‘Mee-Maw’ when he talks to us about them. And I thought that was a word he reserved for me! Well, and sometimes for Gar.
The number of distinct sounds Yonni can make is still small, so I imagine some of his baby-words have to do double-duty.
* * *
Day five-hundred-eighty
We left a couple of giantfruit outside the shield-fence for the Mbenzi when they arrived last night. They were at first confused-- I think they have a sense of personal property, and thought the giantfruit was ours-- but pretty soon they were digging in with relish. They left a lot behind, though, and cleaning up the rind was a bit of a chore.
They don’t look particularly malnourished, we may or may not do it again.
* * *
Day five-hundred-eighty-five
The Mbenzi came back for only a few times after the giantfruit incident, but in smaller and smaller numbers. Perhaps they were disappointed we had not laid out more. Gar said he hoped it hadn’t given them indigestion-- we really don’t know what they eat, except that Guide to the Galaxy back on Daxam said they are vegetarians.
Then night before last, a large group showed up again. They seemed very subdued, but jabbered quietly with Yon through the shield-fence. The universal translator kept picking up 'no hunger' or 'not hungry' (tand’popo) in the conversation, but we have not context for it; we don’t really know what they were saying.
They didn’t come back again last night.
* * *
Day six-hundred-thirty
* * *
The Mbenzi are not as harmless as the Guide to the Galaxy makes them out to be. Gar and I were working in the garden. We thought Yon was safely asleep in one of his favorite pools of light.
We heard some sort of commotion out around the side of the house, and found a young Mbenzi wrestling with Yon! Yonni was holding his own, although the Mbenzi was at least twice as tall! Gar and I pulled them apart, and Gar-- holding the creature at arm’s length-- took down the shield fence for a moment, and tossed it back into the jungle. We cannot imagine how the thing came through the fence! But they are clearly vicious, dangerous creatures.
* * *
Day six-hundred-thirty-one
Gar and I are at odds about what we witnessed yesterday with Yonni. I thought it looked like a fight-- Yonni defending himself against a vicious attack. Gar thinks they were just 'rough-housing'-- he remembers the little Mbenzi as much smaller than I do. He is taking a ‘boys-will-be-boys’ attitude. I keep remembering that little apeling’s snapping jaws and sharp teeth. I still wonder how it got through the fence. Gar thinks Yonni might have let it in on purpose-- looking for a playmate. I reminded him that Yon hasn’t been able to ‘tantrum’ through the fence since he wandered away, and we increased the power. He just shrugs. He won’t even argue it out with me!
* * *
Day six-hundred-thirty-two
I believe I have solved the mystery of our Mbenzi intruder. I noticed that the jungle here overhangs our camp, allowing easy access over the fence. Gar was dubious that the Mbenzi could survive a ten-meter drop, but I pointed out that we have seen them use vines, not merely branches, when the move through the canopy.
Gar has agreed to re-format the shield fence into a dome, although that re-programming will take some time. In the meanwhile, we are also increasing the power to the fence, just in case.
* * *
Day six-hundred-thirty-three
Now I am beginning to wonder if Gar was right. Yonni seems subdued and mopey every night. He shows little appetite. None of the Mbenzi have returned, and I think he may be in need of a friend-- even if it is only one of a little troglodytes. Perhaps it was just rough play after all. Now I wish we had thought to bring a puppy with us from Daxam.
* * *
Day ?????????????
I have not slept for several planetary cycles. I do not even know what day it is. I have been working frantically to pack up our camp, and leave this place. I know Yonni must intuit something is terribly wrong, but I am trying to maintain his normal routine-- bathing, eating, dressing-- even as I prepare to take us both away from this horrible place.
Gar is dead. My husband is dead. It looks so strange to write it down. Can it really be true? Yet I know it is.
In the middle of the day, Yonni came running to me, with his sweet, peculiar two-legged, one-armed gait. 'Mee-maw! Mee-maw!' was all he would say, pointing back to our little cave shelter. At first, I thought he was calling for me, but then, I realized he was talking about the Mbenzi.
Gar’s throat had been torn out in his sleep. His pillow was soaked with blood, blood slowly dripping on the floor. Even Yonni’s tunic was spattered with his father’s blood. There were bite-marks around Gar’s face and shoulders as well. There was no sign of the Mbenzi, but it looked like he had been attacked by two or three of them.
I have struck the camp, disassembled everything except one stellar collector for the shield fence. That will be the last to go. I have loaded as much of our garden’s produce and the jungle-fruit into the ship’s stores. I made room in a refrigerated compartment for Gar’s body. I want to give him a decent burial-- I can’t leave him behind on Jome.
I have sent request to Xanthu, Earth, and Rann for emergency asylum. I have not heard back.
I have checked the ship’s computers, and our fuel supply is quite low. We never thought to arrange to have it replenished. It will take thirty to fifty tendays to reach one of these worlds, the nearest to us. Jome is isolated, well off the regular routes; it would take just as long to reach a refueling depot.
Fortunately, there will be plenty of food and water to sustain Yonni and I on our journey, wherever we may go.
I will need to research the possible effects of long exposure to the subspace dimensions we will be living in for the next year.
I need to finish packing.
* * *
Day Seven Hundred
It is just exactly seven hundred days since Gar, Yonni, and I left Daxam. I am much calmer now, resigned to being a widow.
A few hours sleep has done wonders. I still broke down sobbing this morning, though.
Earth has approved our emigration. Immigration? I’m not sure. The shipboard computer is running a final check. It should be finished in less than an hour.
Then we launch.
* * *

CHAPTER THREE
CAPTAIN’S LOG

2929.0213
>>I have been informed that for the duration of this journey, I am Captain Janna Kozz of the private star-barque Janna. I did not even know that Gar had named

2929.0214
>> I did not even know that Gar had named this vessel. We will arrive on Earth in twenty-eight tendays. Which means just under two thousand sleep-periods for Yonni.

2929.0216
>> I wanted to have a special dinner with Yonni, just the two of us, but a real feast. I baked a half a giantfruit, as well as some smaller dishes. Yonni reached into the giantfruit with his little hands… and threw a handful against the wall! Then he had a complete meltdown, screaming and throwing food in a one-sided food fight. Then he ran up and down the hall of the ship, then ran screaming in circles until he collapsed from exhaustion.
He looks like such an angel when he is sleeping. But what a mess!
I was beginning to clean up, when a thought struck me. Perhaps he was suffering from some sort of space-sickness? I never had finished my research on prolonged exposure to sub-space.
While he was sleeping, I took him to the shipboard auto-doctor for a thorough examination.
I feel so bad.
Yonni’s hybrid physiology does not allow him to digest vegetable protein. He is a pure meat-eater! And all this time, Gar and I were trying to raise him on an ordinary Daxamite diet!
I have re-programmed the ship’s stores to convert the stored vegetable matter there into meat-cubes for Yanni. It is a slow process, but I believe the ship can produce a kilogram a day-- surely a toddler can’t eat more than that? He should also be able to tolerate supplemented nut-milk. Although it means removing nut-bread from my diet-- we were just not able to produce or collect enough nuts! Oh, well, the sacrifices we make for our little ones.

2929.0509
>> Yon is a much happier boy now on his new diet. The ship is small and cramped, and moreso each day as time goes on. Some days, he is content to stay in our quarters and read, or watch holos, or play simple screen-games. Some days, he just has to run in circles. I am afraid he will wear out the deck-plates!
He does have one unfortunate habit. If he particularly likes a toy-- we only were able to bring a few small ones-- he will hide it somewhere on the ship. I think it is his way of establishing his property rights. Unfortunately, more often than not, I will find the little thing with my toe, and then I am upset, and another toy is broken.
He has begun hiding meat-cubes around the ship as well, but these are easier to find, as I can quickly detect the smell of putrefying meat. It is absurd, because the ship’s store produce all the meat-cubes he can eat!
2929.0828
>> I feel like I am the mother of a teen-ager. Yonni has been so sullen and isolated lately.
He often does not return to our cabin to sleep, instead curling up in the sonic shower, the auto-doctor’s examination couch, or even the ship’s stores.
His appetite is off; he still drinks plenty of his nut-milk every day, but he picks at his meat-cubes.
Then, every once in awhile, he will look at me with his big green eyes and say 'Mee-maw', and break my heart.

2929.1130
>> We have passed the outer edge of Sol’s Oort cloud. Just a tenday, and we will be on Earth, our new home.

2929.1202
>>Gar was right from the first!
Our child is a monster!
I am at a loss what to do. I went to the ship’s stores to check on Gar’s body. It was nothing but bones, and even they had been cracked, and the marrow eaten! It is clear that Yon has been supplementing his diet throughout the trip by cannibalizing his father’s corpse!
I have locked him out of our quarters, sealed the bridge, and transferred control of the ship here.
I have been carefully reviewing the data from the shield-fence. It is now apparent to me that Yon was sneaking through the shield most of the time we were on Jome, most likely to hunt small game in the jungle.
A horrifying thought has occurred to me.
What if it was the Mbenzi he was hunting?
When we unexpectedly found the little Mbenzi in our camp, what if Yon was playing with it like a cat plays with a mouse?
It is obvious to me now that it was Yon who killed his father.
The peaceful, vegetarian Mbenzi were completely innocent.
I have been a fool, when the truth was right before my eyes.
It is not that the Mbenzi were getting in. Our son was getting out.

2929.1203
>>I have become hysterical. I need to think this through more clearly and rationally. Yon is not a Durlan, and he is not a Daxamite. He is intelligent, like the Mbenzi, but most likely only as intelligent as the Mbenzi. Gar and I misunderstood his nature: he needs meat every day, and, most likely, fresh meat at that. Even the frozen corpse of his father, horrible as it may seem, was preferable to the artificial, machine-made protein that I have been feeding him.
It is only a few days to Earth. There will be animal protein available to him there. Even living animals, if that is what is necessary. It is only a few days. I need to reconcile with my son.
He is still just a baby. How could I think of him as a monster?

2929.1204
>>What did I expect?
The ship was a mess. Putrefying meat-cubes and waste covered the floors. The child crouched in a corner like a wild animal, his green eyes gleaming at me. I did not at first understand the scorch-marks on the walls, but soon realized he had been blasting stellar energy from his horn-antennae.
‘Mee-maw’ he whispered, a throaty growl. Then he leapt at me, and took a nasty chunk of flesh out of my neck. I instinctively threw him to the ground-- it was all that saved me. Then another deep, productive bite from my calf.
‘Mee-maw’, he purred again.
‘Mee-maw’ does not mean mother, or father, or Mbenzi.
‘Mee-maw’ means meat.

2929.1205
>>I have locked myself in the medical bay, and re-routed command functions here. I am able to monitor Yon as he moves about the ship. When he inevitably sleeps, I will raid ship’s stores for food.
I cannot in good conscience take Yonni to Earth. Not until they-- and I-- know just what he is, and what he is capable of.
His stellar-energy blasts have destroyed the sub-space etheric radio, and damaged the navigation system.
There is a cluster of Trojan asteroids trailing in the orbit of the eighth planet from the sun.
I understand it, too, has been colonized.
I believe I can convince the navigation system to reroute us there. I think I can also repair the etheric radio sufficiently to send a distress call.

2929.1207
I have been monitoring Yon and the ship’s stores. He is feeding himself, but still is trying to get access to me.
He is, at heart, a predator.
I am certain that he now sees me only as a source of fresh meat.
I am having trouble sleeping. The auto-doctor has been unable to adequately treat the wounds on my shoulder and calf, and they are becoming infected.
In three days we will exit subspace, and land on a local asteroid.
I pray it is uninhabited.

2929.1208
Yon is trying the medbay doors again. I have become very familiar with the sound of his energy-bolts. I fear that the proximity to Earth’s yellow sun is only making them stronger.
It seems

<<End Captain’s Log>>

CHAPTER FOUR
LEGION HEADQUARTERS

“Three-year-old Yon Kozz was able to survive on the corpse of his mother, and on the remainder of the ship’s stores, for approximately one hundred days more. Afterward, in a fit of hunger and rage, the child’s antennae-blasts utterly disintegrated the ship. In the thin, near-airless void of the asteroid his ship crash-landed on, he lapsed into a deep coma. Kept alive by the radiation of Earth’s yellow sun, he continued to grow and mature, after a fashion. When found by the Terran miners, he was skeletal and emaciated, but an adult.”

Lar Gand paused.

“I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Rond Vidar, in his repairs and enhancements to the time-viewer. Without his skill, the record of events we witnessed would have been impossible to compile.”

“Because the mining vessel whose crew discovered him, and which ultimately brought him to the Tokyo Zoo, was the Shigaraki Maru, the creature once known as Yon Kozz was christened ‘Shigaraki-san’, or ‘Mister Shigaraki’, interlacized to ‘Shagrek’.”

“Feral and fierce, he is a hybrid of Daxamite and Durlan-- but taking, perhaps, the worst aspects of each. Intelligent but ignorant, he also more driven more by appetite than emotion. It is doubtful he ever has or ever could care about anyone or anything but himself.”

“In the intervening decades since Shagrek’s birth, Daxamgov has somewhat softened its policy on alien residents, and is willing to take responsibility for Shagrek’s captivity and maintenance. Under the red sun of Daxam, his physical strength, durability, and the power of hsi disintegration beams will be somewhat reduced.”

“Now, we just need to find him again,” said Dream Girl, with a shudder.

This is actually really creepy Klar, congratulations on giving Shagrek way way more presence as a character than I would ever have given him credit for...goes to show that every character really does have potential!

How sharper than a serpent's tooth is an ungrateful child....

I suppose young Shagrek couldn't help himself. Very chilling when Janna realizes that mee-maw means meat!

Great little horror story, Klar!

This is *amazing.*

Shagrek seemed like such a throwaway character, and you've really done him great justice, Klar! I love how you've integrated various elements of the pre-existing Legion universe (like Durlans and Daxamites) into his story, and not actually contradicted anything, just added to the total and built something much more interesting, full of pathos, and yet also respectful to continuity!

Truly awesome, thanks for sharing this brilliant re-imagining!

A great origin story that could actually fit in established continuity! Great job building up the suspense, and throwing in enough moments that the ending was still surprising!