Altered Human

By Daniel A. Roberts

Dan didn't have any plans to accidentally step into a long abandoned Firmax Creation Matrix while testing new GPS software in the Ozark Mountains.  He certainly didn't expect to have his molecules bounced around dozens of populated galaxies, assembling the final resources to grant the new pilot a tech level six starship to use, complete with an AI that owned a high amount of intelligence and personality.

Altered Human is an accounting of a grand adventure to rediscover Earth while learning about the harsh realities of life throughout the stars.  Among the entities with high sentience that would regard humans as mere rodents or worse, Dan has to not only make new friends, but also punish the enemies that enjoy being brutal.  Many human perceived notions are challenged, other expectations are completely exceeded, while the core of the adventure can easily fracture reality if in the wrong hands!  

Travel the Universe with Dan and his crew aboard the Starship named Jill, doing what even an Altered Human would feel compelled to accomplish!  Exploration, discovery, learning and building relationships with all different kinds of species!  Can Dan complete his task?  Will his new destiny prove that low tech humans can actually rise and and properly learn if the the chance arrived?  Or will a critical mistake actually unravel all of reality, crushing a universe so completely that all life would never be the same again?  Find out by joining the crew and sharing this incredible tale of discovery!

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel A. Roberts
• Release date: Jun 13, 2025
• ISBN: 9798227414045

Book preview

Chapter One: Discovery

Dan didn’t have a clue as to exactly where he was standing.  The Ozark Mountains was not a place to get lost.  He checked his compass, realizing he was either close to the Oklahoma state line, or possibly close to the Arkansas state line.  He just wished he knew which side he was closer too! 

Dare he wait for nightfall to see where the closest city glow was coming from?  Unsure, he adjusted his backpack, then checked his hiking boots.  Knowing he only possessed two days of food and water, he didn’t dare choose the next course of action without a clear goal of knowing just how far away civilization actually existed. 

Even his ratty old flip phone got zero bars in these parts, the higher elevation just out of cell tower reach.  So calling for help was also out of the question.  His deep blue eyes scanned the high hills.  It took a little time, but the cave he located looked big enough to offer adequate shelter.  As such, it would also be big enough to house a large bear or a mountain cat.  He needed to be sure he would be the only living occupant before setting up any kind of camp for the night. 

The ground was uneven, littered with loose rocks and coarse gravel, so it took him an entire half hour to get to that cave.  It felt like the very ground wanted to slide out from under his boots, as if the land had a mind of its own.  Once he was close enough to the cave, he checked around the entrance for chewed bones, animals droppings and other signs that said this place was claimed. 

Dan felt lucky!  No such signs of animal life existed, not even any paw tracks in the gravel.  He carefully explored the surprisingly deep cave.  He located a floor area that was flat, a bit more shiny than average.  How curious!  It almost looked like a tough form of glass.  He tested it with one foot to see if it would hold weight.  The surface seemed solid enough.

He removed his backpack to open it, looking forward to the salty snacks he purchased just before setting out.  The campfire could wait a little longer as it was still a solid two hours before sunset. 

There was a distant sounding high pitched wind-up noise, like a camera flash charging!  Dan looked around, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.  A few seconds later, the glass-like floor vanished!  Down he went!  His brief holler of surprise was cut off from the outside world! 

Into darkness he dropped, but there was no passage of wind!  Was he floating?  Dan couldn’t tell, all of his senses fully scrambled in such pitch blackness! 

Translation Processed

What in the hell was that?  The white glowing letters were in front of his eyes, but also looked like they were incredibly far away.  Dan was still in a state of panic.  He couldn’t tell if he was upright or laying down.  His feet couldn’t feel any surface, as if he was just dangling in the middle of nothing!  A big pitch black nothing with just two glowing words.  Those words vanished, replaced with another cryptic message!

Brainwave Encryption Processed

Hello? Dan called out into the pitch black darkness.  To his shock, there was no echo, no return value for any of the sound that just left his mouth!  Anybody there?  It sounded so strange to his ears to hear the sound actually leave with no feedback at all.  Even in a soundproof room, there was an obvious inner ear buzz against the silence.  Here, even that faint silent low keyed buzzing of the inner ear was completely gone!  Again, the message changed in front of his wide open eyes!

Adjustments For Carbon Life Form Processed

What was this all about?  Excuse me, can you hear me?  Dan was still marveling over the fact that his feet were still dangling, but he felt no pull on his body, as if gravity gave up its grip.  He drew in another breath to make another verbal challenge, but the text vanished and was replaced yet again.

Processing Verbal Interface

Good! Dan nearly yelled.  If you can turn on some lights, I would appreciate that! 

Adjusting Visual Perception And Field Of View

He expected something to happen, maybe even a voice replying to his questions, but nothing of the sort materialized in any form.  Dan was still just floating in the pitch black of darkness.  He began to wonder if he somehow fell to his death.  That this is what happens after your life is tragically snuffed out too fast to know what actually killed you!  The letters vanished again, this time replaced with a written request!

Name Your Ship

Huh? Dan gasped out.  Name my ship?  What ship?  I’m floating here in the damned dark!  The request to name a ship flashed several times, as if the message was growing impatient.  Dan nearly hollered, feeling trapped and frustrated at the same time.  Okay, what kind of ship is it?  Another word was added to the request that blew his mind!

Name Your Space Ship

Dan’s mind did serious mental gymnastics at this point!  Whatever or whoever was doing this was following some kind of programming, not actually generated by a thinking organic intelligence.  It was too basic, unresponsive to easily understandable verbal requests.  It felt like he was being interviewed by some kind of evil computer, where the AI was programmed to mess with his brain! 

Okay, Dan agreed, feeling weird over this entire ordeal.  I’ll name my ship Jill.  Got that?  He always liked Jill.  The real living Jill that lived in his thoughts was an outgoing bright woman in his graduating college class.  He wanted to look her up and ask her out to dinner after his Ozark Mountain survey trip, to see how well the new GPS unit would function. 

He knew for damned sure the company that hired him wouldn’t be happy, he just proved their GPS programming sucked big time.  It made him lose his sense of direction! 

Jill

Accepted

Female Personality Adjustment Completed

Before Dan could verbally respond to that glowing stack of new messages, the words vanished.  He could finally feel a surface against his feet!  The darkness started to fade, revealing a closed closet like enclosure.  The wall in front of his face parted, a nearly silent set of sliding doors softly hissing open.  What greeted him made those blue eyes roll upwards.  The shock to his nervous system, an overload within his mental theater, pushed away his conscious mind with a violent inner shove!  Dan fainted on the spot!

Chapter Two: Jill

The woman’s attractive soprano pushed through the darkness of his sleeping mind, making those frozen thoughts start to function again.  Wake up, Dan! 

His eyes popped open, once again visually consuming his new environment.  The tan colored smooth walls, the integrated controls inside clean touchpad quality interfaces, monitoring screens filling with local information, with the massive amount of room to move around to those different stations presented itself once again!

Everything was strange to his eyes, but highly familiar at the same time!  What a weird feeling of contradiction, as if he was trapped within a realistic feeling dream! 

Did somebody just tell me to wake up? Dan asked, recalling the lovely voice. 

Yes I did, Jill replied. 

Dan looked all around, but nobody was standing there!  Is this Jill I’m hearing? 

You should already know that, Dan.  She sounded slightly sarcastic!  You’re having trouble realizing where you are, right? 

Hell yes, Dan confessed, sweat forming on his forehead.  As far as I know, I’m actually unconscious at the bottom of a rocky cave, in a coma until exposure or the elements finishes killing me.  Or can you tell me something different? 

You’re a real mess, Jill mildly complained, but followed that up with a soft giggle!  But you’re my mess.  Okay, this is what happened. 

The area got brighter, illuminating the large room from one side to the other.  Jill continued, You entered a dimensional matrix that has been dormant on your Earth for around seven million years.  It was originally installed by a race of beings known as the Firmax.  It was their temporary base of operations before a genetic based calamity killed them. 

The farthest station got a spotlight on it from an unknown source!  The positive mind link and creation matrix unit only had enough scattered resources for one new ship and pilot, which ended up being you and me.  This is the navigation center.  You can call up stellar maps, plot courses and set up waypoints for multiple transit locations. 

The spotlight shifted to the control panels next to the navigation station.  Jill explained that one too!  This is the weapons platform.  You can charge our main batteries, set up targeting locks and paint distant targets for destruction once we get into firing range. 

Information exploded in Dan’s mind as he continued to visually explore the main command center!  He finally spoke up!  That right there, just before weapons is the science and analysis station!  And that there, close by are the scan sensor arrays!  And this, right here, is the cargo monitor and shuttle bay access!  He ran both hands through his hair, certain he was losing his mind!  How do I know this stuff? 

Because you designed this ship, Dan, Jill explained casually.  The creation matrix built this on what you would consider an ideal space ship.  You also created me, your ship’s artificial intelligence, at a factor of two hundred and sixty nine equivalent IQ points. 

Dan pointed to the floor at his feet.  He didn’t wander one step from where he passed out.  I’m on my ship right now, aren’t I? 

Without any doubt, Jill politely confirmed.  When we started talking, I did a galaxy wide scan.  I’m sorry to inform you, but the Firmax civilization has been gone for millions upon millions of years, well after the creation matrix you discovered was abandoned.

Dan nodded, seeking out and finding the pilot’s chair.  He sat down, rubbing his forehead.  Finally he said, Tell me the basic background of the Firmax, please. 

Jill made sure a hot drink materialized next to Dan’s chair.  This is what you call hot cocoa.  It’ll help you relax while I narrate. 

Dan took a careful sip.  Good stuff, Jill.  Thanks. 

Anytime, she said, then got into the requested details.  The Firmax was a class six civilization.  They could harness the power output of entire galactic systems.  To this very day, no other space faring race has even come close to those levels of technology.  When they realized they were dying out, they took steps to erase their knowledge so other more militant beings couldn’t use their technology for war.  The dimensional creation matrix you activated was the last one left in the universe.  So we both got lucky! 

Dan nodded, taking another sip.  She was right, it did help him to calm down!  So, where are we right now?  I suppose we’re still on Earth? 

No, Jill replied, sounding uneasy!  Your basic atomic structure was broken down and transmitted by several interstellar powered hubs.  Your mind was mapped, given a new technology boosted structure and then your ship was assembled molecule by molecule.  A Firmax pilot would be able to fly home once the process was done, but for you, there are no Firmax worlds in your memories.  So we both got deposited on a random planet with your personal ship, ready and fully operational. 

Wait, Dan muttered.  My brain is artificially redesigned? 

To a certain extent, Jill carefully explained.  Your personality, memories and biological functions are preserved.  You gained extra memory patterns for the ship’s basic and advanced functions, certain analytical skills and the mental capacity to accept multiple inputs.  You can now multitask on levels other humans cannot. 

Dan winced.  Well, I don’t feel any different.  Shit.  I guess I did die. 

No, Jill corrected him.  You were transmitted as a data wave carrier beam, reorganized and reassembled in a different galaxy other than your own.  Sorry.

Dan quickly finished his drink.  When he set the cup down, he realized with a shocked expression that he was no longer wearing his hiking gear!  He wore a pitch black flight suit, a gun belt and a sidearm pistol that looked flatter than it should be.  Stuck to his left arm was a tube, not perfectly round but like a hand grip.  The item was familiar, but no information about it came surging forward.

What in the hell did that creation matrix do to him? 

Why do I have a gun?  He asked himself more than anyone else, but Jill happily provided her terrifying answer.

That so-called gun is a neutrino jacketed proton emitter using a force ninety discharge beam.  Setting its strength can vaporize another being or even destroy a large vehicle with a single shot.  You have it for self defense. 

Oh my God, Dan said out loud.  He knew those terms!  The energy designations made sense to his unexpected education through the creation matrix!  So now he owned a personal gun that was nearly identical to how a fictional phaser from his favorite show, Star Trek, might actually operate! 

The Firmax technology was indeed fantastic!  To take the function from his mind, a completely imagined form of fiction on his home world called Earth, to successfully construct the tech that would actually make it work for damned real?  It felt so freaky he nearly passed out again! 

His eyes went to the handle hanging from his left shoulder.  It was magnetically attached until he grabbed it, letting the device know it was about to be used. 

It felt strangely heavy in his hand for such a narrow handle, ergonomically designed to fit his grip.  His mind finally processed the actual function! 

No damned way, Dan uttered, his heart freezing within his chest.  This is not really possible.  Is it?  He held the smooth buttonless handle-like device, pointing it away from himself.  He willed it to activate.  It did so with a satisfying low hum! 

No, it wasn’t an actual light saber from the fictional Star Wars universe, but it was very close.  The tech for it flashed within his mental field of understanding, the upgraded knowledge finally coming through. 

The blade wasn’t a form of laser jacketed plasma, but an actual metal, incredibly damaging to anything that energized material would touch.  It still glowed, but not as brightly as it would on the movie screen. 

The blade that unfolded from the handle was only three molecules thick!  It was a form of highly destructive en-matter.  Turned to view from the edge, it vanished, too thin for the human eye to see.  Slightly turned to the side, the wicked white hot metal was easy to gaze at in all its destructive glory! 

Jill, is this en-matter blade also for self defense?  Dan’s question was very serious at this point. 

No, she replied.  It’s for offensive purposes. 

Against who? He demanded, feeling a flash of anger.

Anybody who wishes you dead, Jill politely explained.  You might not realize this, Dan, but any galaxy in this universe is highly dangerous.  Many different races, different views on life, not very many of them will regard you with respect.  They’ll see you as either food or something to experiment on.  Sometimes you’re simply classified as mere target practice. 

I see, Dan dryly replied.  I think I’m going to be sick. 

Feeling his mental willpower, the intelligent handle was tuned to his thoughts.  Feeling Dan’s mental desire to put the weapon away caused it to alter its state.  It folded the blade back into the handle, the low hum coming to an end.  Without thinking anything more about it, Dan returned the dangerous weapon back to his left shoulder, where it re-magnetized to stay in place. 

Dan felt exasperated!  So what now, he nearly shouted to the ship’s interior.  I own a damned phaser, a badly replicated light saber, an intelligent starship and now what comes next?  Anything else I don’t know about? 

The desperate question was designed to help him cope with his current situation, as the words were completely rhetorical in nature.  What he didn’t expect was a well constructed answer!

What you don’t know, Jill casually added, knowing her pilot’s mood was growing foul, Is that you have no idea where you are.  Where Earth is located, or what to do with everything you just gained, a science fiction nerd’s wild fantasy coming true. 

She wasn’t wrong!  Eyes feeling like they would fall out of his head, Dan approached the navigation center.  He opened the scan interface and regarded the displayed information about the planet his ship was resting on.  The galaxy it was located also listed its overall statistics.  Mass.  Energy output.  Life readings. 

No life on this current planet, just a rocky environment with no atmosphere.  The local sun was a small blue thing with a very low heat output.  The galaxy though, that was another matter!

Communication traffic was thick!  The Jovian Union was in negotiations with the Confederate Star Systems.  A race called the Grindle are curious scientists, dissecting all forms of life they encounter so they can understand that life form’s functions.  They were hated by everyone!

The Vox Federation was at war with the Kickarn Alliance, the Galactic Hub Trade Union posted open routes with items that needed transport, payment collected upon the cargo being received and so much more!

Hundreds of situations among thousands of various life forms in this one galaxy was easy to isolate and study on that one interface alone.  All Dan needed to do was pick one, get as involved as he wanted to, for whatever reasons he would see fit. 

Dan sighed.  Jill.

Yes, Dan? 

He gestured to the massive readout on the touch screen.  When I was on Earth, I would have paid big money for a space simulator this well designed.  But here it is, for damned real.  You’re right, this is a nerd’s wild fantasy.  The funny thing is, all I want to do is go home.  Do we know how to find Earth? 

I can only make a detailed scan the current galaxy we are in, Jill explained, slow and careful.  She didn’t wish to upset her pilot any further!  There are trillions of galaxies.  It may take a good long while.  When we do find it, it may no longer be the Earth you know and love anymore. 

Dan fought back a wave of tears.  I can grow old and die without even getting close to finding it.  Damn it! 

No, Jill replied.  Search your new new education.  You’ll know why that growing old won’t happen anymore. 

What?  Dan was mystified, but did as she asked. 

The Firmax creation matrix along with its medical AI studied his entire biology!  They witnessed his cells dividing, the cellular genetic chain known as the telemere grew a few molecules shorter with each division! 

The mitochondria would eventually lose its instructions, the cells would grow weaker!  Firmax technology stopped that telemere chain from breaking down!  They ‘fixed’ his genetic code over what the computer matrix processed as an original bio-mechanical flaw!

Oh my God! Dan bellowed out, realizing the truth of his new existence!  I’m freaking immortal!  He fought not to hyperventilate!  He finally asked, Am I also invincible? 

Not quite, Jill quickly replied.  While you are thirty two thousand nine hundred sixty one times more dense in your molecular structure, you can be killed by civilization level six Firmax style technology.  Your gun and your heat blade can severely hurt you. Even end your life.  But a standard energy weapon from any level five or lower civilization won’t have any deadly effect on you.  It’ll just hurt a lot. 

Basically, you turned me into Superman too?  Dan wanted to hit something.  He worked hard to control his breathing! 

No, Jill responded, eager to please.  Superman, in your thoughts, was vulnerable to materials from his home world.  You are not.  Your improvements was not based on any fictional characters you know about.  They are standard Firmax upgrades, even their own people used them when they existed.  Keep in mind that the Firmax are all gone.  Even this level of modification couldn’t preserve them for all time. 

Very true, Dan mused, running both hands through his wavy brown hair once again.  This was so much to process all at once!  So where do I focus?  What do I do now? 

Anything you desire, Jill said, lowering the ambient light of the control room.  She made it feel more warm for him, though the actual temperature was locked in at a comfortable seventy eight degrees fahrenheit. 

Alright, Dan said out loud, making up his mind.  Show me what my ship looks like on the science station screen.  He walked over to that station. 

The ship that appeared was sleek, midnight black with points of energy from various areas of interest.  The short but sweeping wings and rear dorsal fins gave the vessel a martial feel to it.  When the sizing lines appeared, his eyes went wide!

His ship is massive!  Nearly resembling a four or five man gun ship, the actual size was measured at nine miles long!  From tip to wing tip, four full miles wide! 

There were many identical shuttles that matched the shape but much smaller, all various types of multi-passenger ships within the launching bay.  Each one owned its own arsenal of weapons and advanced multiphasic shielding.

Ah, the multiphasic shields wasn’t the only defense!  The ship’s hull, the pitch black hue was due to all light being absorbed!  Any energy weapon, should the shields be down, wouldn’t even heat up that incredible hull. 

The Firmax were on record for parking a ship this size inside a rogue star, just to have all the energy of that star drawn into the hull’s defensive molecular structure!  It could suck up an entire sun and not even grow warm!  Incredible! 

The weapons readout was another matter of epic proportions.  Level six civilization based energy attacks were not designed for the feint of heart!  Not even the so-called fictional Death Star could match this terrible level of firepower. 

Planet killing was considered small stuff.  A well placed shot into the local star could invert the energy reaction, causing a shockwave that would erase an entire solar system if it was desired! 

Fourteen major energy emitters.  Nine torpedo tubes?  Really, torpedoes? 

No, not torpedoes.  In Dan’s implanted education, they were called Phasic Trans-Matter Guided Missiles.  They would become ghostly upon launch, their molecules widening to the point of being nearly invisible. 

The launched weapon would penetrate any kind of shielding, float through any hull type, even the energy gobbling materials his own ship was using as a standard hull! 

Once deep inside the ship’s energy core, it would return to its solid state, become fully integrated and then it would detonate!  It would deliver up to a force seventy