"Three. Two. One and lift off of the starship Vellamun!"

The boosters ignited, pushing the giant ship out of its dock with tremendous force. A wave of proud cheering erupted in the command center. The scientists who had worked on this project for so many years finally got to see it launch.

But the joy died down again quickly. As the bright light of the Vellamun's boosters slowly vanished in the distance, Pirene Station started to shut down. The scientists packed their suitcases, many with teary eyes. Soon, the secret service would come to clean up all traces of project Vellamun and turn Pirene into a trading post. Nobody else would ever know what happened here.

Doctor Moreau sat in a lonely corner of the command center. He had taken a seat at the very back, afraid he would break down in tears and cry upon seeing his creations depart. Yet for hours he sat there, looking at it. What would become of them now?

To his own surprise, he did not cry out in pain. Two dragons fought in his heart. One made of pride, telling him not to shed tears, for his children would do what none of these subhumans who ordered their creation ever could. The other dragon, made of grief, cried out to drown himself in tears, for he would never again breathe the same air as his most magnificent creations.

Aine sat next to him, holding his hand as he whimpered quietly, "I hope they'll be alright."

"Don't worry Max," Aine whispered, "They are better prepared for this than anyone else."

The newly married old couple remained in the command center for a while. Everyone around them quietly packed their things. On occasion, some of their former colleagues looked at them with sorrow. Maximillian just sat there, looking at the screen in utter silence with a haunting smile as salty rivers flowed down his cheeks.

Eventually, the lights went off on Pirene. Men in black suits with sunglasses scoured the station, opening computers, taking their hard drives out and packing them into armored suitcases together with numerous USB sticks and discs. Aine and Maximillian could only look at the big screen, even long after the Vellamun had disappeared in the darkness of space.

Then Mister Hatsokovy approached them, "Doctors, your shuttle is ready. The Astari are waiting for you two."

"So we are flying directly to Southampton Island?" Aine asked.

"Yes," Maximillian whimpered, "But the Astari and Imenu prefer to call it by its Inuktituk name, Shugliaq. The new country is called Astarema."

The command center's big screen shut off. The two Doctor Moreaus stood up, leaving Pirene Station for one last time. Doctor Moreau's journey ended in his new home on Astarema, where he and Aine could do naught but wait for messages from the Vellamun.

But the Vellamun's journey had just begun.

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Tapeesa, Valentina, Sheranee and Setanto all sat in their starship's cockpit, strapped to their seats as the ship launched. With the two little Apuas looking at them from inside their transport box and Tacitus flying the ship, the crew could do nothing as the force of the Vellamun's mighty engines pressed them into their seats.

Through the cockpit windows they saw the endless void of space ahead. On a screen, they could see Pirene station, their home, become ever smaller and smaller. Everyone felt a sting in their chest as the rotating wheel faded from view.

But the moon remained behind them in all its silver glory. Looking out the window, they could see Earth as the Vellamun started its first slingshot maneuver around the blue planet. Seeing the vast oceans reminded them of their ship's namesake. Vellamun, dragon god king of the seas from the legendarium Doctor Moreau had written for his creations. He represented the unknown, while his wife Kavijohka, silver dragon of the moon, represented skill and intelligence. Their son Avastaja the explorer, served as the protector of travelers.

As the starship passed by, they could see, for a brief moment, the sun shining through Earth's atmosphere. Like a transparent eggshell, thin, fragile and essential. Light fell onto the Vellamun's shuttles, reflecting off Kavijohka's silver hull while Avastaja's white nose outshone its dark blue hull.

Then they raced toward the sun for another slingshot maneuver. The cockpit windows darkened as bright light shone into their ship. Solar collectors opened up and the mighty booster rockets detached.

All lights green, yet nobody said a word. Not when Pirene faded from view, not when they passed by Earth, not when they approached the sun. As the Vellamun stopped being shaken by its own booster rockets, a quiet whimper resounded through the cockpit.

As the engine's grip gave way to zero gravity, tears started flying through the Vellamun's cockpit. First Valentina's, then Tapeesa's and eventually Sheranee's. Setanto waited until nobody needed a shoulder to cry on anymore. Still, he needed six shoulders to cry his bitter tears on. They would never see their home again, never see Earth again, never see Max and Aine again in person. But they would see what no human being had seen before.

The crew remained sitting there in silence for a while. "Tacitus," Sheranee eventually spoke up, "Send Doctor Moreau and Aine a message, please. We launched successfully, everything is working fine. We'll send a video message soon."

So the starship Vellamun went on its journey through the stars.

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Later the same day, Maximillian and Aine sat on board a small electronic propeller plane flying over Hudson Bay. Mister Hatsokovy sat in the cockpit with the pilots while the elderly couple remained in their own lounge at the back.

They watched the first video message from the Vellamun. Proud smiles spread on their faces as they saw Valentina, Setanto, Sheranee and Tapeesa on screen preparing the aquaponics while Funi and Vini caused all sorts of mischief in the background. At one point Valentina broke off a fingernail, causing Setanto to come running up to her with a first aid kit immediately. This brought back memories of the one time where the boy did this with Sheranee and ended up with a bite mark in his hand.

Aine and Maximillian chuckled. But every now and then they also had to wipe tears from their eyes.

Just as the first video message ended did the flight attendant enter their cabin. An Imenu, about 180 centimeters tall with long, chestnut hair, hazel skin and blue eyes. As always with Maximillian's human creations, his face defied classical racial definitions. Mister Hatsokovy, with his very narrow view, had previously described him as 'Somewhat Asian or Native American' looking. Hearing such phenomenally wrong comparisons had stopped to surprise Maximillian decades ago.

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"Doctor Moreau," the Imenu spoke up, getting the attention of both Maximillian and Aine, "We'll be landing soon."

Looking out the window they saw the house where the Astari had been raised, next to Boas River. Almost like a big castle, mixing Ainu and Bhutanese elements. Pointy, four-sided spires watched over the red-tiled roofs, ridges decorated with rows of golden animal figurines. Brightly painted walls and flower-bearing trees everywhere. Doctor Moreau's creations never hesitated to beautify anything.

All this used to be a retreat for an incredibly rich arms manufacturer. But she died in a nuclear blast without leaving an heir. The building had been seized by the state and repurposed quickly once Maximillian made the right compliments to the right people.

By now it had become the center of the Astari's little world just below the northern polar circle. A purple flag with a golden dragon in the style of an Imperial eagle and red bands on the sides with golden double helices flew atop the tallest tower. Right below flew the Imenu flag, showing a golden wolf on a dark blue background with the same red bands and double helices, announcing to everyone the Astari had visitors. Maximillian's and Aine's mansion, their retirement home, was not far from here.

Only a simple dirt runway lay near the castle. But the inevitably rough landing would be quickly forgotten. A crowd of over 8000 people had gathered next to the runway. From above they could only make out their hair colors. A bit less than half of them had light hair, vibrant shades of mostly blonde, but also some red and everything in between. Hair colors of the Astari. The majority had chestnut hair.

Doctor Moreau's heart melted upon seeing this, "Did all the Imenu come here today?"

The flight attendant nodded with puppy-like excitement, "Yes creator, all 4528 Imenu came over from Nunavut to welcome you. As for the Astari, all 4021 are gathered here as well."

So all of Doctor Moreau's human creations had gathered here to greet him. All, except for those not allowed to be born and the Vellamun's crew. He already missed them. While Maximillian stared out the window, the Imenu flight attendant stood there, looking at the old couple with a bit of unease. It would still be a while until they could actually land. Aine knew what this meant.

"Is there anything else, Kanut?" she asked.

"Yes, Doctor," the flight attendant stuttered a bit, "Wh- why did only the Astari get their own Nation state and not the Imenu?" This question got Maximillian's attention. He had asked Mister Hatsokovy the same thing and gotten an unsatisfactory answer.

"Well, both of your peoples grew up mostly isolated," Maximillian let out a sigh, trying to answer a question which should never have been necessary, "But the Astari started on Southampton Island, while the Imenu are on mainland Nunavut and had many Inuit educators. The World Government figured it was easier to just leave you in the newly autonomous reservation."

"Then why did the World Government say in its official statement that the Astari were too heavily modified to be integrated into global society?" the flight attendant replied, raising both eyebrows in visible confusion.

"Because the people making those decisions have no idea what they are talking about," Maximillian let out another sigh, carrying frustration accumulated over many years of working with people bereft of passion and imagination, "It's just not true that your people are less modified than the Astari. Both of you are completely different from the rest of humanity. In fact, each one of your peoples has more internal genetic diversity than the entire human race. If future paleo anthropologists found your bones, they would classify you as a hundred different species or subspecies of humanity. For the unimaginative bureaucrats in charge of the world government, this is easy to see on the Astari. They have pale skin like Europeans or east Asians, but their faces don't look like they are... 'supposed' to.

"People who are used to viewing everything in the greatly retarded American classifications of race may see an odd mix of East Asian, Native American, European and many other features in them. But that is merely an illusion produced by an unimaginative, deficient mind which can not find a box to put them in. Now add in the Astari's strange eye colors, purple, teal, sometimes gold and widespread heterochromia and you know how easy it is to brand them as mutants. It should be the same with you Imenu. But your uniqueness is completely lost on such unimaginative people, because you have hazel skin. To those deluded bureaucrats so fond of the fair skin genes their parents bought them back when everyone of means in East Asia wanted their children to look like a K-pop idol or anime protagonist which lead to China having more blond and blue-eyed people and green-eyed redheads now than Europe, you are just another group of blue-eyed brown people. A color combination which has become rather popular during the 21st century's genetic engineering craze."

"So they separated us because of our skin colors?" Kanut tilted his head unintentionally, his facial expressions shifting between various stages of bewilderment and enragement, "That doesn't make any sense!"

"No, it doesn't. They can not wrap their heads around the fact that Astari and Imenu are spiritual siblings."

At this point, Aine interjected, "You should also keep in mind that they view you and your siblings differently because you were created through genetic engineering, Kanut."

The Imenu flight attendant remained confused, "But why? A lot of people have modified DNA."

"Yes, but they weren't created from scratch through genetic engineering," Aine explained, "See, genetic engineering started out as just another medication to heal inherited genetic disorders like hemophilia. Then it was used for minor improvements, like giving your children good teeth. But it didn't stay like this, because a large part of what people, across different cultures, find attractive are merely indicators of health, including good teeth, but also full hair and smooth skin. Now add in the scientifically proven fact that attractive people, on average, have it easier in life, combine this with all parents having a powerful motivation to give their children a head start and you'll see the slippery slope.

"Many countries faced a severe aging crisis during the 21st century, especially China, which ended up transforming itself and created the World Government. These countries used whatever tools at their disposal to fix their aging crisis and motivate their citizens to have children again. Genetic engineering was one of these tools. But that is only the tip of the iceberg of what genetic engineering was used for and the fact so many people still bear its mark is extremely uncomfortable for the World Government. You Imenu and Astari go beyond anything that Max's colleagues did, because you didn't start as otherwise normal human embryos. No, you were genetically engineered from the ground up. Some people want to view you as something completely separate, not even human at all. That's why you were sometimes referred to as elves. Others see you as fully human, regardless of genetic engineering. The World Government thinks they can satisfy both groups by drawing an artificial line between you. Whether or not this makes any sense doesn't matter. They would do this even if there was no difference between the Astari and Imenu at all."

"But if it's completely irrelevant whether there is a solid distinction between our two peoples, why do they even bother enforcing the border? Aren't international borders supposed to be a thing of the past? I asked Mister Hatsokovy and he wouldn't answer."

Maximillian had asked the same question to Mister Sunglasses all the time as well and had not gotten an answer either. His fingernails buried themselves into the armrests every second he thought of it. Aine, however, could think of something.

"They probably hope your people will develop a grudge against the Astari," she concluded, "After all, the bloodthirsty news media always needs something horrible to make money with and the new government has promised world peace. No stuff for headlines. But two groups of mutants, created by a supposed madman, hating each other would ensure catchy headlines for decades to come."

Maximillian looked mortified as he heard this. He had personally known journalists who would do things like this. In fact, he had seen journalists and politicians do worse for clicks and votes. To think they could do the same to his children made him regret the fact he ever unveiled his creations to the public.

But the flight attendant could only chuckle, "Don't worry creator, we won't let this happen."