Kim Miller
A man walks out of forest ... In what might be an alternate universe story of Paris, Texas, a stranger with no background slowly finds his way home.
An isolated family group finds the stranger, sees his yellow cat-like eyes and thinks to kill him, but decides otherwise. They give him the name Falk, teach him to speak, to hunt, how to live among them. He forms a bond with one of the women, always knowing that he does not really belong here. And so he sets out to find his way to his own people, if only he knew who they were.
On his travels he experiences bad interactions with other isolated forest dwellers who mistrust him, abuse him, and almost kill him. From one such settlement he escapes with another captive and the two of them travel to the city in the west that is somehow in his mind. Once there he is taken captive again while the woman he's been traveling with sides with the captors. It turns out that she has been sent out to find this man and bring him to the city.
Falk finds himself in the custody of the Shing, the aliens who had conquered Earth a millennium before. Their hospitality is kindly and supportive and they say they are not captors and he is their guest for whom any request is fine. He meets Orry, a young man from Falk's original planet and who speaks well of the Shing. Orry tells him his name is Ramarren but someone erased his memory of his real self. The Shing offer to return his identity and fly both Ramarren and Orry home.
Ramarren sees the plot, that they only want to know the planet's position to attack it. He undergoes the mind return procedure, all the while fighting to retain his identity as Falk in a hidden part of his mind. And once the procedure is complete Ramarren knows he's in a duel of wits against the Shing. He needs their ship to get home again, but he can't divulge anything about his home planet.
The final stage of the story rages with energy as Ramarren and Falk fight as two people against the 'mind master' of the Shing, knowing there is this one chance after which all hope will be lost.
A man walks out of forest ... In what might be an alternate universe story of Paris, Texas, a stranger with no background slowly finds his way home.
An isolated family group finds the stranger, sees his yellow cat-like eyes and thinks to kill him, but decides otherwise. They give him the name Falk, teach him to speak, to hunt, how to live among them. He forms a bond with one of the women, always knowing that he does not really belong here. And so he sets out to find his way to his own people, if only he knew who they were.
On his travels he experiences bad interactions with other isolated forest dwellers who mistrust him, abuse him, and almost kill him. From one such settlement he escapes with another captive and the two of them travel to the city in the west that is somehow in his mind. Once there he is taken captive again while the woman he's been traveling with sides with the captors. It turns out that she has been sent out to find this man and bring him to the city.
Falk finds himself in the custody of the Shing, the aliens who had conquered Earth a millennium before. Their hospitality is kindly and supportive and they say they are not captors and he is their guest for whom any request is fine. He meets Orry, a young man from Falk's original planet and who speaks well of the Shing. Orry tells him his name is Ramarren but someone erased his memory of his real self. The Shing offer to return his identity and fly both Ramarren and Orry home.
Ramarren sees the plot, that they only want to know the planet's position to attack it. He undergoes the mind return procedure, all the while fighting to retain his identity as Falk in a hidden part of his mind. And once the procedure is complete Ramarren knows he's in a duel of wits against the Shing. He needs their ship to get home again, but he can't divulge anything about his home planet.
The final stage of the story rages with energy as Ramarren and Falk fight as two people against the 'mind master' of the Shing, knowing there is this one chance after which all hope will be lost.