It was a warm day in late spring in he year 2014. Karen Ball had just gotten off work from her job as an artificial intelligence programmer for the huge North Am CRYSTAL HOLOGRAPHIC CO. It was 4 p.m. and she had a date that was so exciting that she could hardly contain her eagerness.

If the people she worked with knew whom she had a date WITH, she MIGHT be in danger of losing her job, but that was all, there was nothing ILLEGAL in what she was going to do, and she hoped that someday MOST people would come around to her way of thinking that many others nevertheless shared.

In fact she had several close friends that had enjoyed these special 'dates' and after hearing their erotic and sometimes rather wild and fantastic accounts of what they had experienced, she just KNEW that she would never be completely satisfied until she had tried one, also. Her friend Becky had arranged this date for her, and now she was almost at the address that had been given her. Her date's name was Bruce Pong, and he was a 'hybrid' cross between a Giant Panda and a man!

This was her first time trying something like this, but deep inside her she had a wonderful warm feeling as she entered the front door of the apartment building, that it would not be her last! She climbed a flight of stairs until finally she was at apartment C-33.

Nervously, as her trembling finger slowly reached to push the door buzzer, thoughts flashed through her head as to how such a wonderful thing as a Panda-Man could come to be. It had really all begun back in the late 1990's when a millionaire Biologist/Geneticist named Prof. Russell had, at the age of 60, secluded himself for several years on a small tropical island that he owned. He did not appreciate visitors, and never left the place until he died of heart failure in the early 2000's, having had all his supplies flown in. And strange supplies they were, indeed, any and all sorts of laboratory equipment and machinery and components and wild animals!

No one could really figure out what the old Professor was really up to as he toiled long days on his island, running from one booby-trapped and electric-fence guarded compound to another at odd times, as reported by casual boaters who often wondered at his strange behavior. Some thought he was dangerous, others thought his mind had snapped.

But no one really guessed the truth, and as he was stationed in International waters and nothing that he had ordered delivered to the island was considered to be any real kind of threat to anyone, people left the man that some called 'Old Looney' pretty much alone, if for no other reason than the heavily-fortified fortress-like aspect of the place that he had set up to keep people away from whatever he was doing.

Oh, there were times that he radioed to the mainland for hired help to do construction work and other things that he was unable to do himself, but even they were allowed access to only a small part of his compound, and as soon as the work was done, he sent them back, their pay sent directly into their account back home from his Swiss bank.

The people who worked for him did say that, although extremely odd and fiercely protective of most buildings on his island, he did seem to be a nice old man, and no one ever said that he was not generous when it came time to pay them, so no one really minded doing work for him. Anyway, one day after the turn of the new century, all of the radio links that Prof. Russell used to occasionally keep in touch with the mainland suddenly began beaming out a strong S.O.S. on many frequencies, interfering with normal radio communication. Unable to contact Dr. Russell and almost sure that something was wrong, a rescue team was sent to his island.

Upon arriving, they found that all of the power had been shut off to the high-voltage electric fencing, electronic locks, and booby-traps surrounding his compound, but not to the interior of the buildings themselves, so it didn't take them too long to get into his encampment.

They found Russell on the floor of the first building, hand clutching his chest, radio control panel in his other hand, the long coiled cord snaking up to the main unit. On the wall they noticed that the main switch on the island's electronic defense panel had been turned off, probably by Russell himself.

But why? If he did not want anyone on the island while he lived, why would he want to make it easy for strangers to get on it after he had died? Was there something here that he felt needed to be found quickly? One man touched Russell's body. It was already cold. However, upon feeling his chest, the man opened Russell's shirt and noticed that he had a small flat foil packet taped to his chest. It contained a note.

The note read, in part: "If you are reading this note, it probably means that I am dead. I have labored many long years on a project that I hope will bring harmony, peace, and unity to mankind. We have been in the 'space age' for over half a century and despite the billions upon billions of dollars spent on probes, telescopes, radio antennas, and other things, there has so far not been one shred of evidence to show that life exists anywhere else in the cosmos.

"I believe that it does, but it is currently beyond our means to detect or contact such life. In the centuries to come, when we have the capabilities to reach other stars, I feel that we will find much life, but also discover that INTELLIGENT life such as we consider such will be exceedingly rare. I have sensed for a long time the disappointment coming from our failure to find other intelligence, and have felt the great longing and loneliness that humans feel in being the only true intelligent species on Earth.

"We can freely communicate with each other, it seems, but not with anything else. I have worked hard to change all that, to give mankind friends in intelligence and future companions who will keep him from falling into the boredom and stagnation that loneliness can bring. Please search the other buildings immediately, and take care of and raise my children. God bless you."

"My Children", the medical team wondered. What the devil? Professor Russell never married. He HAD no children! Nevertheless, as they began to search the other buildings, they soon discovered what Dr. Russell had been doing. And the next morning it was making headlines all over the world.

Inside were large cages and.... playpens, containing what appeared to be animals but most of them with the shape and form of young bipedal human children of two or three years, fur-covered bodies notwithstanding! Many were crying a strange yowl that was something of a cross between a baby's cry and a puppy's whine. There were dozens, of all types and descriptions! The team was standing around in utter astonishment at the way the situation was already when a 'child' that somehow resembled a wolfish creature reached for one of the female team members through the netting of his playpen and SPOKE, 'hungwy. pweese, bottle.' She fainted.

After an 'inventory' was taken, it was found that there were 8 'children' who had wolfish characteristics, actually they appeared 'human' in body proportions only, and resembled nothing else so much as young Werewolves. There were 17 who looked, apart from their humanoid form, exactly like black-and-white giant pandas! Then 6 were found who resembled black-and-brown bear cubs, and 22 others whose apparent identity was not exactly immediately certain.

They all ended up being shipped back to the United States, which took immediate jurisdiction, and a fierce legal battle ensued for many years over ownership of them and the legal rights, if any, that they had. Other countries wanted them. Scientists wanted to study or dissect them.

A few, narrow-minded individuals thought that they should be destroyed, or made slaves. But after being in the custody of researchers for a while, it soon became apparent that these young 'animal-kids' were at LEAST as intelligent as fully human children of a similar physiological age, and were much stronger in most cases. they were soon learning to read, write, spell, even create things as good as, or in some instances, BETTER than a human could do.

It was soon decided that, given the gentle behavior they showed, so unlike the animals some of them resembled, and their great intelligence and learning ability, that they should be given the full rights and privileges of any fully-human citizen, and that anything less would be cruel and inhuman. That was the start, nearly 14 years ago.

Many of the Professor's 'children' it was found, reached full Adult body maturity in as little as 7 or 8 years, longer than it would take a 'pure' animal to do but shorter than the time it takes a human. Whether they would have a full human lifetime would not be known for many years, but one Doctor gave most of them possible life spans reaching into the late 50's, AT LEAST.

It appeared that Russell had managed to create most of his 'family' by microscopically combining living DNA code from two different species, and then growing the embryo in tank like artificial wombs and also using other, pure animal species as surrogate mothers. Since the DNA (and RNA) of any species is simply molecular code, it can be extracted from the cell of one kind and parts of it 'spliced' into the living egg cell of another species, without any danger or fear of rejection.

In fact, the egg cell not only accepts the strange code as part of itself, but actually thinks it has been fertilized when this splicing has been done and begins to grow! Russell had apparently used human eggs he had obtained.

The male cells did not necessarily have to be sperm, all Russell needed was the genetic code contained within any living cell from an animal's body., to combine with the egg. He had apparently exhaustively studied the maps of the millions of human gene bits compiled in the 1990's and had a thorough knowledge of what traits the most important ones were for. Some were for the color of eyes or hair, while other gene bits were responsible, if inherited, for disorders such as leukemia or hemophilia.

Still others apparently did nothing. What Russell had done was to make his own genetic-bit code maps of the animal species whose cells he was using, and using scanning microscopy and micro-lasers, had eliminated the animal traits that he found undesirable, such as those for undue aggressiveness, and spliced the remaining genetic material into the human DNA traits that he wanted, such as those coded bits representing the potential for high intelligence, upright stature, large brain size, and other items.

It probably took him dozens of failed attempts for each egg cell that he finally succeeded in getting to grow and divide, but up until the day he died, he never gave up trying.

And the surprises were still not over. It was never learned exactly how, for example, Russell had managed to obtain some live body cells from a Giant Panda, but it was speculated that a fellow scientist stationed in China or one of the world's major zoos had a hand in helping him obtain them.

It was clear that of all the creations he had worked on so far, Russell was most proud of his Panda-people, not only because they were most beautiful of form and pleasing to the eye, but because they seemed to show the most potential for adaptability into the planet's family of man.

Of all of the genetically mutated life forms removed from the island, almost all showed at least human-level intelligence potential, although it must be remembered that this was human-type intelligence as interpreted by the thought-processes of another species! It could not be expected to be identical, but was instead a kind of intelligence all to its own, and no one could ever be sure what the end result would be.

After removal from the island to the mainland, 2 of the Panda-human children died, plus a few from the other species types, of some unknown malady. it was rumored that some religious fanatic poisoned them, but this has never been proven. Another surprise awaited when the pure animal females of different types---bears, wolves, and others---were removed from the island and found to have been already impregnated with embryos as surrogate mothers. They began to give birth several weeks to a few months later, and this added 4 new Panda-people to the population, among 12 of other gene-types.

As they grew, due to their gene-selected gentle nature and high intelligence and eagerness to learn, the Animal- children were allowed to mix and play with human children of their own general weight-range. There were a few non- serious accidents, mainly because the animal-children were surprised to find that their human playmates were so much weaker and more easily injured than they were.

It was not at all uncommon to see kids and non-kids playing together on a playground, or the 'weird' kids being invited over to their friend's house for dinner. And someone thought of giving these geneomorphs average American first names, and last names relating to their background in some way... as in the case of Bruce Pong, who was one of the original 17 Panda-kids!

One final surprise came in the last few years when it was learned that some of the animal-people of the same mixed species type had managed to impregnate each other. Far from being sterile, these were not 'hybrids' at all, but an entirely new genetic variation or race of creatures that were fertile! Russell had done his work well. And it was found out that when the mothers gave birth, the babies were true to form to their parents.... no freaks, throwbacks, or deformities. the world had indeed been given not one, but several races of non-human friends with which to associate and grow with.

Many of them, especially the Panda-people, had no trouble finding jobs to support themselves or places to live, mostly due to their celebrity status. many were paid handsomely just to visit a clinic a few times every week and let doctors and scientists do studies and lectures on them. And, surprising as it may seem, at least the Panda- people had inherited something else from their human- spliced genes.... a year-round intense sexual drive.

This had been rumored at for some years as the growing pandas were caught at least several times playing 'doctor' with their human friends...as ordinary human kids will sometimes do. But it really became apparent two years ago when a couple of the 19 adult Panda-people were known to have made an 'underground' pornographic movie, with humans.

Such things were not illegal in 2014, but it was something that was not ever mentioned in 'proper' society, hence the 'underground' status of the movies. Nobody was really sure, anyway, exactly WHICH Panda- people were in the movies, because to most humans they all looked almost exactly alike!. But as all these thoughts flashed through her head in only an instant, Karen realized that that was then and this was here and now! She pressed the button and heard a buzz.

A few seconds later she could hear the stepping of heavy padded feet and the door began to open, and she found herself looking into the face of what for all the world appeared to be the face of a Giant Panda like you see in the zoo, except that this one was a bit over two meters tall and standing upright, wearing a bathrobe!

"Hello?" he spoke in a strange and mellow, pleasant non- human voice. She was looking down at the floor where he was standing at what she thought were black house slippers of some kind that he was wearing, until she realized that she was looking at his real, furry feet! "You must be Karen," he then said. "Won't you please come in? I think you're very pretty."

Blushing as she entered his apartment, and wondering if he was coming onto her already, or just trying to be friendly?

The air in his apartment had an odd herbal odor of some sort, but the place appeared to be very clean and spacious and lavishly furnished... Hell, she thought, it was a HECKUVA lot nicer than her OWN apartment. "Won't you sit down", he pleasingly asked, "and I'll get us something to drink?" "Oh....Yes", she finally spoke. "Forgive me, it's just that I've never had a ...date... with someone like you... I mean, someone as nice as you.... I mean I've never met someone like you actually in person before!"

Bruce the Panda-man chuckled, "Yes, it's ok, I understand perfectly, I get that reaction from almost everyone. I'll be right back." He went into what was apparently the kitchen and in a few moments she could hear the tinkling of glass, and soon after he appeared holding a tall clear glass of pink liquid in each hand. "I like wine," he said, "I hope that doesn't surprise you."

"Uh, not at all," she replied, "I enjoy it too. Are you an.... uh.... vegetarian also?"

"Not really," he said as he sat down beside her on the overstuffed couch. "I eat some chicken or fish once in awhile, but don't really care for much other kinds of meat, so I guess I'm a semi-vegetarian of a sort."

She noticed the many potted bamboo plants sitting around the apartment. "Do you eat that stuff, too?", She asked. "Only once in a while, as a snack of sorts. My gut is a little different from my wild cousins'. Actually, I really enjoy rice, cottage cheese, pudding...." he trailed off as he looked at her. His bathrobe had come open, and she could see that he was wearing what appeared to be a giant-size pair (about size 'XXXLLL' she would guess) of men's boxer shorts underneath., around his... well, he really had no 'waist' of sorts, but he was wearing them just the same.

He noticed her stare and looked down towards his own lower body.

She felt her face flush as she blurted, "Uh, I was noticing how big you are, I MEAN, how big the shorts you are wearing are! I mean, you uh, must be quite heavy?"

"Not really," he said in such a nice voice. "Actually, I'm overweight."

"You know," Karen said, looking now at his black furry arm that was holding his glass of wine, "Until this moment I always kind of thought that this whole animal- men business has been some kind of huge prank with people in costumes or robots or something, but.... you're real, aren't you?"

His thin, black lips, shiny with wine, curled upwards into a smile at both corners. "Gee, I sure hope so," he giggled. Still looking at the shiny black textured fur on his arm, she hesitatingly reached her hand out, and it hovered in midair. Fingers trembling, she asked, "May I-- -may I touch you?"

"Sure," he replied. Whereupon her fingers touched the smooth fur of his arm and, light as a feather, began to slowly stroke up and down. His fur was not quite as smooth as it appeared to the eye, but was not coarse, either. Taking her other hand, she massaged and felt of his heavy arm, feeling the strong muscles and heavy bones beneath, as he watched her with interest.

Taking his paw, er...hand, she kneaded his short fingers slowly open and say that it was much like a human hand as far as manipulative ability was concerned, only the whole hand was heavy and covered with black fur on the back, and the fingers and thumb were a bit stubbier, though thicker, and instead of fingernails he had claws on the ends, which had been trimmed short. And the fingers had smooth black naked pads underneath. She was fascinated by his body structure.

She lay her palm inside his, and he slowly closed his hand around hers, as if they were shaking hands. Her other hand, that was massaging his arm, continued to do so, and she let her face slowly sink into the wonderful cushion of fur covering that heavy appendage.

"You...you really ARE real," she gasped, as she knew it was true, and she could even smell the soft, exotic, barely-there, natural, non-human scent on his arm.

He sat the glass of wine down that he had been holding with his other hand, and replied, "Gee, like I said before, I sure hope so. Uh, may I touch YOU now? Would it be all right with you?"

Her eyes were closed as her face lay buried in the fur of his arm, she looked as if she was in a dream, and mumbled, "Uuh-huh, you bet!"

Accepting her invitation, he slowly leaned his massive head over toward the back of hers and she could feel his warm breath softly caressing the back of her neck. He gently touched his shiny, moist, warm, wet black nose into her blonde hair and began drinking in her human scent, along with the scent of the perfume and shampoo that she had used. He looked as if he, too, were in a dream as he slowly drew in her natural scents, with a nose and olfactory arrangement that was many, many, many times more sensitive than even the best human nose.

He tenderly lay a paw/hand on each of her shoulders as he lightly and carefully sniffed her hair and now around her face, being oh-so-careful, as if he were afraid he might accidentally harm her in some way.

Her hands slowly reached out as he did this and began to bury themselves in the wonderfully thick fur of his chest, and as his heavy arms slowly reached in behind her to pull her closer, she softly moaned and tilted her head back, exposing her long, smooth alabaster neck to him. He looked at it for a moment, thinking it was very beautiful. Then slowly, not knowing whether he was driven by conscious thought or some animal desire still hidden deep in his genes.