The Japanese Research Vessel had just harpooned a whale, one of many in the pod, when the ship was attacked from below, where it was upended and then sank. The harpooned whale was then seen to expunged the harpoon and the wound healed itself as the pod continued north toward its favorite feeding grounds. It was a start. It was just one vessel fishing around the deep Marianas Trench. Aside from the remnants of some surface flotsam, there was no visual evidence that the ship ever existed.
Life aboard the aircraft carrier, the USS Dixy-Ray Lee, incidents attributed to the recovery of the probe were soon forgotten as the ship, and it's crew, steamed toward their home port of San Diego. Those who needed to know, to become a part of this new phenomena, were either accepted as the norm or simply washed from the memory of those aboard the carrier. Those who came in to contact with the probe, however, were changed both physically, and mentally, to produce a human hybrid, a physical representation of someone who was more alien than human.
After hitting what I can only describe as a dry spell, or writers block, I revisited the story only to find that several chapters had been erased from the hard drive. These missing chapters covered the changes that occurred to the human body once exposed to either the research probe, or those who were already experiencing the metamorphosis from human to that of its new hybrid form.
Of the many new features that one could experience was the ability to be able to read someones thoughts and change them, or to add new ones that would force someone to enact on a thought imposed by another, to self-heal a wound or grow a missing limb. One of the more miraculous changes was to take nourishment from exposure to natural sunlight without the need for additional food or water. Likewise, there was no need to breathe oxygen or any other form of gas as the body had the unique ability to take from its surroundings whatever it needed to stay alive.
Yet, despite all of these new features, outward appearance's remained unchanged. They were, to all intents and purposes, just like you and I... human.
Then, just a few nights ago, we were watching a program on the History Channel, where the existence of human hybrids were being discussed as being a reality and, as if by association, the book I was writing.
How do you escape purgatory? Basically you give all your money, wealth, land and whatever else you own to the church and they will absolve you of all your sins so that you go straight to heaven. Better still, you can just give it straight to me via PayPal. It's quicker that way.