The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

are even stranger than those Flutvarn; always reticent, barely communicating and insanely remote. I
understand from what I managed to pick out of the telepathic exchanges that you have with you
some of their missing people” He said after introductions were made with the rest of the crew. He
made to hug T’luha but she glared at him and he thought better of it. Fenrir took an instant liking to
him; and the two were soon great friends. Hivlar was pleased that the boy was interacting as it
would be a step toward his integrating into Kryst society; something usually done at an early stage,
but with no other Kryst on Grevin he was behind in comparison. Vidal was drawn to the Exo-suit at
first, but was soon distracted when one of the Female Mechanoids arrived. Is first question of Tom
was if she was… equipped? Tom got the drift of this and said quite genuinely he wasn’t sure. Vidal
was even more surprised when one of them asked the same of him.

During a long debriefing with the other Kryst, Jovhar and Hivlar said their respective tales.
The Kryst Captain kept nodding occasionally and smiling at the end. Fenrir kept out of the way and
played a form of chess with Vidal and Tom that required three participants. The Kryst ship was called
Sidon Mara; and had nowhere near the top speed of the Veklaar, so Krysta agreed to keep within the
Sidon’s limits. Vidal taking the opportunity to get to know the Veklaar’s crew better; decided to tag
along, besides, Fenrir had taken a shine to him, so much so Jovhar asked Vidal to be Fenrir’s Shuptal.
The term carried a similar meaning and formality to Human God Parent. Trok; T’luha and Tom soon
found themselves the interest of the Sidon Mara’s Engineering team. Hubris and Jennifer were
enamoured of by the Bio-Sciences section of the Kryst crew. It led to them having a great
interchange of data and ideas. More about the Kryst and their language soon disseminated back and
forth between crews and the Unity Hive-Net. It passed the long days the Journey to Kandahar took.

They were almost upon the Kryst home
star system when Hivlar offered to take Jennifer
and the other women to the Jing Ivar Falls near
to Metria Capital City. They had sailboat rides
there in the evenings; all female only ones.

“Think of it as a break from the formalities of
your mission and the “First Contact” protocols.
Besides; the vessels carrying your various
dignitaries would not arrive for a couple of
months” she almost sounded like she was
pleading. Fenrir had mastered a sort of “puppy
dog” look that melted the heart and he was using
it on Krysta right now.

“Ok! We’ll do that”. The other women screamed a joyous “YES” and did a fist punch in the air. The
men just shrugged and carried on doing what they were doing. The journey to Kandahar was almost
complete when they were treated to a remarkable sight. A pod of Space Whales had settled into a
“holding pattern” around a lone female. In plain view of the two crews the huge creature gave birth.
The calf nuzzled up to its huge mother sending out a kind of mewling sound over the Sub space
static. She replied with a series of low frequency warbles and the Pod moved in the direction of an
asteroid filed as one. It was then that they caught the first glimpse of Kandahar. It was a large world,
with seas and oceans, interspersed with six continents. The star Y’Idvar; was a vivid Blue-White
medium sized stable one. (Some Blue and Blue-White stars became unstable exploded) Kandahar
itself was in eclipse to the ships, but when they circled to the Star facing side they were greeted with
spectacular views. The main land mass where Metria resided had a huge central mountain and the
city circled around the base of it. Rivers and waterways radiated out from this “hub” and fed lakes
and coastal regions. The Jing Ivar Falls that Hivlar mentioned formed the hub ward side of one of
these lakes; it was a deep royal blue in colour. Krysta understood why Hivlar had suggested the boat

trip. Some ships could be seen in the deep scans, skirting the edge of the falls, the Kryst Captain
assured her that the ships were equipped with levitators just in case.

The meeting with the Kryst High Council went pretty much as expected. The usual pomp and
circumstance; followed by an in depth study of Kryst culture etc. The Kryst Archive was a revelation.
Krysta fended off the diplomats while the others found out all they could about the origins of the
Kryst, what they knew of the Curators and Hubris made a surprise discovery about the puzzle box
and the colonists that left it on that remote outpost. It would not be known then; but later the
findings would spark yet another journey, this time to the depths of intergalactic space to the edge
of the third galaxy. During the time spent with the Kryst on Kandahar; Vidal grew close to one of the
Kryst Biologists. Veena Turus was unusual among the Kryst; since birth and being a child, she had
been marked as a sufferer of a hereditary disease. Though not harmful; it left the victim easily
identifiable. Its outward sign was paleness to areas of the skin around the head; midriff and lower
limbs. The sufferer also had eyes of different colours. The Kryst eyes appeared to be compound ones
like insects, but that was down to the multiple lensed corneas. Nictitating membranes did a similar
job to eyelids and were similar to those found on the Flutvarn. She also had a vestigial set of wings;
long ago in the past the Kryst ancestral form must have had them. They hung useless from her
shoulders. Her kind was rare and usually only occurred once in a thousand generations. She on her
part had taken a remarkable interest in the Shardvolk anatomy. The Kryst had only ever seen history
files left by some other races of Marsupials. The Shardvolk were similar in many respects and she
was curious as to their reproduction methods.

Vidal like most Shardvolk; was open and honest about all aspects of his species. Unlike most
other races that have taboos about nakedness; the Shardvolk often went unclothed in public, usually
to the embarrassment of visiting races that were more reticent. During a physical examination
Veena had brushed some sensitive hairs by Vidal’s vestigial tail and had triggered an arousal
response. He thought nothing of it but she had reacted with a mixture of shock; surprise and
embarrassment. He managed to reassure her that it was not uncommon among males of his kind to
have such sensitive spots on their bodies. But it had led to a fascination on her part that later
resulted in them getting intimate. Others had noticed how close they were becoming and were
worried it could lead to some scandal.

“You are mistaken Krysta” Hivlar said to her “We are a tolerant society, species interrelations do
happen and our society has overcome the dogmas and inhibitions of the past. It’s extremely unlikely
that any union would result in offspring if that is what you’re worried about” she assured Krysta. The
Veklaar was preparing to rendezvous with a Terran sloop of the Royal House of Thelexis. The prince
regent was to be the principal Unity Council member to accept Kandahar and the Kryst into the
Unity, The Voodon also. The Sloop Jean Bee; was to depart for another dignitary from Unthar and
return to the meeting with them. The two dignitaries would also depart on the vessel with the
signed documents of inclusion.

“I have talked with the Keterian Council and they would very much like a delegation of the Kryst to
visit them as soon as it is feasible. Apparently some interesting discoveries on Shust have shed some

new light on the origins of the Kryst and the Voodon. Atlantis
it appears was home to a colony of a race descended from
your races joint ancestor. It is hoped your people could shed
some light on some of the discoveries” Krysta told Hivlar and
Jovhar. Fenrir squealed and said “Why don’t you two head an
expedition?” he said as he played with some Kryst currency.
One of the coins rolled to Krysta’s foot. She picked it up and
examined the strange light metal coin. It was pale greyish
silver with symbols on one side and some image of a vista on

the reverse; and it was about three centimetres in diameter and three millimetres thick.

“That’s a three Ong piece” Fenrir said proudly; then went on to explain
the Kryst monetary system and the Token system that replaced it and
how each colour represented a value. He then recited a tale associated
with the image on the back of the coin. The Kryst children inherited the
sum total of their parent’s knowledge by genetic encoding. It cut down
on a lot of the tedious amount of time needed in education, though
some tutorship was still necessary. Fascinating as that was; what was of
more interest was the story Fenrir was reciting. She waited until he had finished and looked Jovhar
straight in the eyes.

“That story is an almost word for word repeat of an ancient “Sky God” myth of the Oogand; a
primitive race found on a world near the galactic hub. The Organd origin legend refers to a race of
“Sky Gods” who made the ancestors from the “Clays of the ground, the clouds of the mountains and
the waters of the great sky river”. Could it be possible that the two are linked in the ancient past?”
she asked.

“Our race is old, but I see where you’re headed. That outpost the puzzle box was found on is named
after one of the ancient God’s of Earth; Pan. If my studies of the Human races history are correct,
Pan was half human and half a creature called a goat. The animal died out long before the
catastrophe your people refer to as The End. It could be a common race memory embedded in our
genetic code that periodically surfaces as this legend. It could be tied in to the Matrix Code. Let me
see that image of the control disc from the building on She’brakda please; the one with the double
helix.” He said. Krysta used a pad to call up the image from the Veklaar’s archive. Jovhar looked at it
closely, said something in Krystonese to Hivlar who nodded in agreement who then said.

“The three chains that are marked correspond to the three genes that govern memory, brain
capacity and…” she started to say but Krysta interrupted her

“… Cognitive development! We really must get to the High Council with this. It could be just the key
we’ve been looking for to crack the code and find out just who the Curators really are/were!” The
three of them looked at Fenrir who was spinning coins on a small low table. He turned to them with
an odd smile on his face; as if he knew something they didn’t.

Hubris listened to what Krysta had to say thumbing his chin. He didn’t speak for a minute or
so then announced

“We need to explore that Outpost. Diplomatically things are going exceptionally well. The Voodon
Legate is also signing to the Unity treaty as well. The more of the older races we can contact the
better. Let me study the records from before the Economy Wars that we have of Terra; and I’ll give
you my reasons as to why I’m going to ask for a change to our orders. What you have told me ties in
with the initial data bursts from the drone probe that went to the Third Galaxy. You; Jennifer, Trok,
Tom and T’luha should see the encrypted data; it would save me a lot of time explaining things. I’ve
had a message from Killiris also. Remember the Untharan Captain who helped us out? Well he’s
signed himself into the clinic. He’s managed to contract a particularly nasty… Erm… STD. He was so
embarrassed that he wanted to keep it from his friend’s relatives and his superiors. As far as they are
concerned he’s taking a well-deserved break. His mates will attend in due course, also discreetly”
Hubris chuckled as he said the last part. Krysta smiled and left him to find the others to review the
data crystal content.

Fenrir was reluctant to leave his new found friends; he had grown particularly fond of
Jennifer. She had taught him a form of Universal Hand signing. Despite having the appearance of a
six or seven year old, his intellect and I.Q were off the human and Untharan scales of measurement.

He and his parents were heading back to Kandahar; Jovhar had a new job as Inter-Species Relations
Ambassador, a prestigious role indeed. Hivlar had found a position in one of the research
laboratories on one of Kandahar’s two moons. She could take Fenrir with her; Jovhar would
commute to and from Kandahar, the process being made simpler thanks to the Transporter pads and
terminus installed by the Unity engineers. On the whole it looked like the Unity had new and
powerful allies in the remote regions, a new insight into the origins of some races, and a new
direction in which to search - The Third Galaxy.

Events were underway that would see a complete overturning of the views held about the
Curators. The Ulahri and the Alurak had found a solution to the Ulahri reproduction and survival
problems. Keteria was integrated fully into the Unity and a sense of joyous wellbeing was spreading
out; even to the Second galaxy. There the Gantrax expansion had been brought to a standstill; but a
resolution still had to be found for they posed a terrible threat to the rest of the Universe if one was
not found. The relative peace was really little more than a minor pause. It would be about three
years before a fleet of ships from all sectors of the Unity would assemble for the expedition to the
Third galaxy. Chief among these was a new class of vessel equipped with T’luha’s Quantum Fold
Dispersion drives. It would be the first ship to enter the new domain; scouting out the best targets
for the rest of the fleet to do the in depth exploration. A name had been chosen from Old Earth’s
past that seemed to fit the craft precisely… Endeavour! Emblazoned on the side of its hull a motto in
ancient Latin…

“Per Ardua Ad Astra”

The Chronicles of the Tribe – Series Two

Chronicle 10 – The Abductees

Chapter 1

Beginnings (Date Line 22/06/1989 approx. 8-50am)

It wasn’t his usual time to go out for a jog; that was just
after lunch, but in the hope that he’d burn off the extra calories
he needed to keep his Doctor and Health Guru happy, he’d set
out for a morning jog. He was one Arthur Styles-Cunningham.
He was currently resident in the Wiltshire village of Ludgershall;
or rather outside the village at the quaintly named New
Cottages. He was currently heading down one of the farm roads
called Crawlboys Lane in the direction of the Village centre.
Open Fields lined this particular stretch. It was warm and sunny
and the music in his earphones had a nice steady beat that he was keeping pace with. For some
reason that eluded him, his girlfriend Helen had insisted he carry a Crystal Ball with him whenever he
went out jogging. He stopped and took it out of his Hoodie pocket. He held it up at arm’s length
above his head and looked through it. It showed an inverted image of the white fluffy clouds that
were lazily floating along in the bright early morning sky. He put it back and continued his jogging.
He had managed to get about halfway along the lane when he saw a local girl; Jenny Masterton
stood with her Red Setter, Rufus, staring across at something in the air above the fields. The dog was
whimpering and cowering back behind her. She had her left hand up shielding her eyes from the
sun’s glare. “Settle Rufus!” she shouted at the dog; who was now getting frantic. He pulled hard and
she lost her grip on his leash and he sped off toward the Village. Arthur stopped beside her and
peered over the field at the sight that had transfixed her.

“What you seen pretty Lady?” he said in an imitation of the local accent. She scowled at him
and answered curtly
“Well aint it obvious. It’s one of them dang Flying thingumajigs… A flyin’ Saucer Look!” And she
pointed at the object. In the distance Arthur could make out a silvery grey shape hovering above a
stand of trees that lined one of the fields. At this distance; to his eyes, it looked to be slowly moving
along the line of the trees. It stopped abruptly then made a beeline for them both. There was only a
faint whispering shush of a sound as the object drew closer. For some strange reason neither of
them seemed capable of moving and running away. He was able to look in her direction. The poor
teenager had a look of abject terror on her face. He tried to speak but found he couldn’t. As the
craft drew overhead there was a blinding flash of light…

Reviewing history
In the Achenazi Hall of Records Lance Firewater was reading up on Old Earth’s history before
the Economy Wars. He’d become fascinated with the stories of people mysteriously disappearing,
sometimes to return with tall tales of being taken aboard Alien ships and experimented upon. The

legends of the Kryst and Voodon and the stories about the
mysterious beings they called The Curators had sparked an
idea. He wondered if the “Abductions” that periodically
punctuated the historical timeline could have something
to do with the Curators. He was aware that many cultures
from many races had similar stories and legends. Even the
Krall had believed in the Keepers/Curators and had passed
into a Parallel Dimension to seek them out. But; in light of
recent discoveries, it seemed more likely that some of this
ancient race had remained here in this dimension in the
Third Galaxy. The Kryst and the Voodon believed so at

least. He pulled up the scans of the objects that were found in the Puzzle Box that had been referred
to as a “Time Capsule”. It was a very eclectic set of pieces. He could identify most of them from
Historical resources in the Anasazi, Terran and Achenazi databases.

Those researchers that had previously looked at the objects were all puzzled by one item in
particular. It was a Bi-Metal strip. Information printed on its surface said it was rated to bend at
around a hundred and one degrees Celsius. Not particularly odd in its own right; but it would
probably not have begun to bend as the composition of the metals was unusual. They didn’t appear
to be consistent with materials around at the time of manufacture of the other items. One of the
metals was an alloy known throughout the unity as Jungdenslaft’s Steel. It was commonly used in
Space craft hulls as a kind of lightweight strengthening material. The other was known only by the
name given to it by the Buraxin… Jennuvar Tang. It was a dull coloured material, barely fitting into
the Metal category of the Periodic Table. In its natural form it was a resinous powder, heat it to
around fifteen hundred degrees and it melted and flowed. It then set into a springy metal; it was
prized by the Buraxin as an excellent metal to make swords and blades from. Once an edge had been
“Diamond Lapped” on it, it would slice through just about anything. It would never dull and
remained sharp until heated again to melting point. When it re-hardened; it would become slightly
more flexible and springy. Doing this a number of times resulted in a material that made incredibly
durable clock springs. That discovery had led to the rebirth of the Analogue watch and clock
industry. Not because they were in any way accurate; it was purely from the fashion viewpoint. The
Dupont Family made a vast fortune out of the sale of “Precision” Time Pieces to the rich and famous.

The chronometer on his desk chimed a reminder that he had an appointment with Francine
Hart-Hunter for lunch. He locked down the Library Console and picked up his jacket and sunglasses.
He donned both and headed out into the Central Plaza and the bright sunshine of Mira. He headed
across the square to one of the Alphonse’s Franchise Café-Restaurants; this one was known locally
as Al’s Corner Restaurant. Francine was in one of the window booths sipping a tall iced concoction.
She looked up and waved at him as he entered.
“Lance; here, I’ve ordered your favourite Helva Cakes for desert. I’ll let you choose the main meals;
and I’m paying no arguments!” she said as he sat down. Ginny, one of the waitresses sauntered over
with a couple of menus.
“Me; argue with you! That’s highly unlikely. But I must insist I pay for the deserts; besides, I have my
winnings from a small wager with Thunderfold from the Survey Contingent. Those miners are easily
the most avid gamblers in the sector.” He said winking. Francine scowled and waved a finger from
side to side slowly in front of him “And just what is that supposed to signify?” he asked
“It’s an old Terran signal of disapproval; or so I’ve been told. Jean White-Petal has been studying for
her History Masters and came across a whole load of gestures. You’ll never guess what this means.”
She replied and made a “V” sign with two of her fingers on her right hand.
“OH! I know that one; the Patrol recruits and the Miners use it a lot. Don’t use it again unless you
mean it” he jokingly reprimanded her. She giggled and he ordered two Hasperat Salads as starters;
followed by Jing Lok Casserole with mixed vegetables for mains. Ginny took their order and went to
the kitchens to have it made. She came back with a hot flask of the House Blend of Coffee and two
large mugs.
“With the compliments of the house; after all it is your
Ascension day I believe” she said looking at Francine. Lance had
completely forgotten about Francine’s Ascension in to the
status of Adulthood. Was she really eighteen now he thought?
“Sorry I…” he started to say lamely, but she stopped him short
“Don’t worry about it. David Longfellow forgot about his own
sisters Ascension. He had the perfect excuse though; being on
Patrol in the Denevar system at the time” She said and took his
hand in hers “Lance; it’s understandable you forget these
things… After all you’re only a man!” She laughed wickedly. Touché! He thought as the starters

arrived. He poured honey over the salty; spicy meal. Out on the street a crowd was gathering around
the remembrance monument. As the clock struck Noon a single sweet sounding bell chimed ten
times from the top of the Obelisk style structure.

A Lapse in Time and Memory and a Burning remainder
Arthur came round; his clothes slightly damp, in a grassy patch at the side the lane. Jenny;
nearby, was already sitting up. She was holding her head and shaking. He got up and immediately
felt the urge to vomit. As he did; he noted it was yellow in colour and it tasted sweet. He staggered
over to her; his ears ringing as if he’d suddenly developed Tinnitus. He sat down beside her. She
reached over and hugged him sobbing. There was a small reddening patch on her dress in the region
of her groin. It was then he noticed that his hands had cannulas’ sticking out of the backs of them.
He noticed something else too; it was evening, probably close to early dusk. He looked at his watch.
It had stopped at two minutes to nine. That had been the time he’d been jogging along the lane
when… Why couldn’t he remember; what had he been doing all this time; where had he been? He
helped Jenny to her feet and they headed into the Village Centre. James Harrington the local Bobby
was doing his beat. When he saw the two of them he immediately called the Police Office and asked
for an Ambulance.
A woman from the local Late Store came and reassured Jenny while the Ambulance arrived.
“What has ‘appened to you’se two?” James asked adding “You’re missus has been going Crazy. Here;
you didn’t…” he started to ask, but Arthur interrupted him
“NO! I didn’t I don’t know where we’ve been and I don’t know who did this to us” He said showing
the backs of his hands and a scar that had mysteriously appeared on the left side of his midriff. He
then explained what had happened up till the point they’d been flashed with the extremely bright
light. He told him all about the strange craft; the dog running off, and waking up damp in the grass at
the side of the lane. James listened to his story; his colleague a female officer had arrived and was
taking a statement from Jenny. She signalled to James to compare notes.
“Either these two are incredibly good liars or that makes the third incident hereabouts in as many
weeks” she said “I’ll report the incident to Regional while you accompany these two to the Hospital.

Sarge aint gonna like this one bit. More of them Ministry Wallach’s will
follow. You mark my words Jim” she said and the two headed off to tackle
their separate duties. Arthur reached into his Hoodie pocket… The Crystal
Ball was gone!

About ten days later a Cyclist on a touring holiday was reported
missing by his compatriots as they traversed the same area of countryside.
They had heard a strange shushing sound behind them and there was a
bright flash. When their eyesight had recovered they noticed that their
friend was missing. His bike was curiously hanging from the topmost
branches of a tree near to a corn field. Its tyres had burst around the wheel
rims and the spokes were distorted as if it had been heated to within a
degree or two of the aluminium frame melting. The Police took it for “Forensic Analysis”… Unlike
Arthur and Jenny; their friend never came back. James was walking along the lane one afternoon
near to where Jenny and Arthur had said they’d woken up. Lying on the grass was a small; silvery
grey, light weight disk. It was glinting in the sunshine. He picked
it up and examined it. It was one of the oddest looking coins
he’d ever seen. No head on either side; no knurling around the
edge and weird looking symbols on one side with what looked
like a child’s representation of a Pyramid next to a river on the
other. “Well; aren’t you an oddun’. I’ll takes you to our Charlie;
he’ll know where you’ve come from he will” he said and put the
coin in his breast pocket for safekeeping. He thought nothing
more of it and forgot he’d even had it in his pocket until his wife

said she was taking his uniform to be cleaned. That’s when he retrieved it. “Is our Charlie about? I’ve
a little summat for ‘im” he said to her and he gave her the coin. She turned it over and rubbed it in
her fingers. It felt odd too, not cold like metal should. She was about to try and bite it, but he
stopped her.
“My; but that’s a weird ‘un. He’s out by Haricots Chemists; he doing an errand for old Mrs Jenks.”
She said handing it back to her husband. “Now give me yer jacket James Charles Harrington senior”...
He handed over his jacket and his other pair of uniform trousers…

Artefacts and clues
Lance was back at the Library Console in the Hall of Records. He was going over some
ancient reports of strange artefacts that had turned up from time to time. It was while he was
reading an article from a Colony World in the Janvar Republic;
that he saw a reference to another, more ancient occurrence
from Earth by the then Criminal Intelligence Agency. It referred
to the finding of a crystalline tube with metallic end caps
containing a strange Gel substance. Analysis of this had thrown
up a number of odd compounds, mostly silicon based. It was
highly conductive and seemed to be part of a larger structure.
Lance recognised it as an early form of Bio-Circuit that the Kryst
had used in their ships memory cores. The authorities at the
time didn’t have a clue; but the Kryst admitted that even their
records from that time were sketchy at best. A lot of dodgy practices went on around that time. It
may have been some Military Research outfit working in secret. A foot note in the article caught his
attention. He read it quietly aloud to himself.
“The finder was admitted to hospital with a number of strange blemishes, incisions and marks on his
body. It is the opinion of the investigating officers that he was the victim of some bizarre practical
joke. In private the officers had noticed an odd rise in the Ozone levels in the area he was found. He
was gripping the tube so tightly his knuckles were white and blood drained. The area appeared to be
scorched, but there was no trace of any residuals that should have been there; if the area had
suffered from fire…” He looked further into this and found that the Gel Tube had been locked away
in a vault at Fort Knox. He praised his grandfather’s insistence that he listen to the ancient history of
their people. He remembered what his grandfather had recalled about Fort Knox.
“During the latter part of the Economy Wars; a private organization took possession of Fort Knox and
had the entire structure moved, lock; stock and barrel to an undisclosed location on the Moon
(Lunaris). It’s probably still up there with all that locked up history” he’d told him. He thought for a

moment then asked the Library Hive to set up a link with Lars
Helstrom; a friend from his days at Thule Academy. He was a
researcher at Sloan Mining, one of the Aleutian Companies that
had been contracted to do some “resurfacing” work in Mare
Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquillity) one of the Lunar “Seas”.
Deposits of some rare minerals had been found that were useful
in the production of certain drugs. He’d probably have access to
the right surveys and reports in the Terran database that he was
excluded from. A little while later Lars was on a Visual Coms link
and Lance explained what he’d found. He asked Lars to get back to
him with any information regarding the current whereabouts of the ancient structure and its
contents.
“… Sure Lance I’m just as curious as you why nobody has thought about finding this place. Think of
the treasure archive; and the knowledge base. It’s absolutely ludicrous that this omission has been
made. I’ll contact my buddy Flint Henderson over at the Military Base; he’s another “Ancient History
Buff”. Give me about a week or so and I’ll get back. Oh; I almost forgot. Remember those laser

reflectors that the old NASA space missions placed up here? We found about a dozen of them that
had been misplaced. David Martin has set up an experiment in his room. He wants to show you
something when you come to visit next; any idea when that will be, he’s getting rather insistent?”
Lars said in answer to Lance’s request.
“I’m due there in about a month as part of an exchange programme. That son of yours looks like he’s
going to take after his Mother after all” Lance chuckled. Lars laughingly agreed and the two friends
made their goodbyes. The screen went blank. Lance decided to complete another Historical report
he’d been compiling for a wealthy Denevar client and make that the end of work for the day. As he
finished that and sent it on its way; he noticed something further in the ancient article. There was a
name of the person who had originally compiled the report… It was one Jacob Lund-Helstrom. I
wonder thought Lance. Then shook it off as pure coincidence…

An unpleasant discovery
Getting back to his regular routine was proving difficult for Arthur. Why the Constable had
mistaken Helen; his girlfriend, for his wife was understandable. She behaved so much like they were
married anyone would think they actually were. She had noticed the change in him since the
“incident”; as she referred to it, and had begun to question his moves. He’d been increasingly more
irascible; tired too. He wasn’t sleeping like he used to. It was around two in the morning one
Tuesday about a month later that everything came to a head. Helen had found him standing in the
kitchen; he was staring into space, fridge door wide open and a bottle of milk in his hand, with only
the light from inside the fridge showing the blank look on his face. She thought at first he was sleep
walking; but when she nudged him he unfroze and blinked at her and yelled obscenities. If she
hadn’t had her wits about her he would have probably killed her; or at the very least severely injured
her. As it was he managed to shatter the tumbler he was going to pour the milk into against one of
the kitchen cupboards. She recalled later that he’d then collapsed in a heap sobbing uncontrollably.
A week or two after that she came to visit him at Green Lane Hospital in Devises; he was in a
side ward on his own. The notice above the bed read “Nil by Mouth”.
“Hello Darling! I’ve been talking with young Jenny. She’s had a funny turn too. Bad thing was she;
killed that lovely Red Setter of theirs; strangled the poor animal. She’s being admitted today.” She
announced and fussed with the blinds
“No! Leave them; my eyes are still giving me trouble. I’ve become over sensitive to the light. Poor
Jenny; at least I didn’t hurt you. You have remarkable reflexes. The Surgeons are still examining that
object they found in my neck. It’s even got the experts bamboozled” he said in response. He kissed
her and she sat down on the bed beside him
“I knew something was off… oh about the second week after the… “Incident”; I am slightly Psychic,
or so my Gran keeps reminding me” She chuckled. She was trying to keep his spirits up; that was
obvious. “Jenny had one of those things in her neck too. Her’s broke through the skin on its own.

She’s thankful of one thing though…” she added but was interrupted when one of the
Interns entered to change Arthur’s dressing on the wound the surgeon had made to
remove the object. She waited until he’d left and continued. “There’s no trace of her
being… interfered with. The bleeding was from a natural menstrual cycle apparently. It
just got triggered early because of the shock she’d had” she finished. He digested this
and then asked how things were going at work. The mundane seemed to calm him.

Doctor Ida Swenson; leading surgeon was examining the sliver like thing that had been
removed from Arthurs’s neck. She’d asked a former roommate of hers, now the head of research at
Cambridge Scientific PLC to take a look at it; before the “Ministry Wallach’s” came for it
“As you’ll see it’s not like any metal implant I’ve ever seen” she said and handed it to
Barbra Knock. She put on a pair of gloves and put the item under the bench
microscope.
“I see what you mean. Are those flecks of nerve tissue on the filaments?” she asked

“Yes. It was imbedded in his transverse cervical nerve. We’re still not sure how it got there. There
was absolutely no sign of incisions anywhere other than one on his midriff. One of his Adrenal
gland’s showed signs of being examined” Ida answered.
“I see!” Barbra said as she examined the object more closely. She jumped back when the end of a
filament flexed. “Jeez! What?!!” She exclaimed.

“Ah; did it twitch again. You’re not wearing a quartz wristwatch by any
chance?” Ida asked. Barbra looked at her wrist; indeed she was wearing a
Quartz watch, and an expensive one at that. “It reacts to the minute fields
given off by equipment in the Gigahertz bands. Or so our lab tech found out
by accident. Scared the proverbial out of him too.” she added
“It almost made me embarrass myself. That’s freaky by anyone’s standards.
The level of sophistication in this is… Well; beyond anything known. The
circuitry appears to be on a Pico scale. Who would have the resources to
create something like this? I… I can’t even think why they would. I understand a second device was
found in the girl; have you got that one?” she asked
“No unfortunately. When that one was removed and exposed to the air it vaporised!” Ida answered
“That’s a pity. What’s more frustrating is I’m not going to get any chance to examine it further.
When’s Markham due?” Barbra commented and asked
“Douglas Markham is overdue; he should have been here about an hour ago, he called to say he’s
stuck in traffic on the M25. He doesn’t think he’ll get free of the snarl up for at least another hour.
That gives you just enough time to get some Electron micrographs and some MRI scans I believe” Ida
smirked. Barbra and she headed off to the Biographic department.

Arthur was sitting up in bed enjoying a cup of coffee and some walnut cake.
He had the TV on and was watching the news. There was an almighty mess of a jam
on the M25. Helen walked back in as they were showing the twelve vehicle pile-up
in a panning shot.
“Good grief. How did anybody survive that mess? It means I’m going to have make a
substantial detour to get back home to Greenwich for Mum’s Birthday bash tomorrow. I probably
won’t arrive until around midnight.” She said disappointed by what she was seeing.
“Some students on a Rag week thing caused it with their fake UFO and costumes. The motorist at
the head of the line slowed so his passenger could get some photo’s on his phone. The drivers
behind weren’t as quick to react and it was shunt after shunt from there on. Apparently one of the
cars was carrying some government Walla. The police and Emergency services were on the scene
pretty quick. The crazy bugger wanted to get a lift from the Air Ambulance crew. He was headed
here apparently” Arthur regaled, but she hadn’t been listening. She’d spotted something in the local
newspaper she’d brought for him from Ludgershall.
“Arthur; Do you remember the name of the lane you had the “incident” on?” she asked
“Crawlboys… yes that’s it Crawlboys Lane. Why?” he asked
“A huge crack has appeared in it about fifty feet wide. Happened overnight! There’s been smoke
pouring from it all day.” she replied…

The Gifts of Youth
A month later Lance was at Lunaris Edo as he’d said to his friend. The Exchange Programme
he was part of had researchers in all fields swap locations for spells of up to six months between
various facilities. He’d successfully completed his stint on his home world of Mira and had been
seconded to do further historical research and Index Collating on Lunaris. Fortune seemed to be
favouring his side research into the “disappearances” as Francine referred to them. He quite liked
“Abductions” which sounded more ominous. He was just headed to the Shuttle Imbris Locus when
his portable coms bleeped. It was a call from Lars.

“Your little inquiry has stirred up a Hornet’s nest down here. That friend of mine accidentally let slip
about your interest in the location of Fort Knox. It must have filtered right up to the top. The Military
are planning a lunar wide re-mapping survey using the latest deep penetration scanners. How soon
can you get here?” Lars asked
“I’m just about to board the shuttle now. I can take a transport pad if it’s that urgent.” Lance replied
“No; I’ll meet you at the landing station. David’s excited that his Uncle Lance is coming to his
Birthday celebrations” Lars responded. Lance double checked that he’d remembered David’s present
and said
“I thought I’d forgotten something special there for a moment. It shouldn’t be long now. See you
moon side!” he ended the call. Checking his briefcase again when he’d taken his seat. He reassured
himself that David’s present was still there. He’d managed to find an old Ships Chronometer from
one of the early Buraxin star ships in a Bazar on Mira; in Heledar City to be precise. He’d also
managed to get one of the engineering students to fix the intricate clockworks. It kept amazingly
accurate time for something Analogue and “old fashioned”. The shuttle launched and the descent to
Lunaris Spaceport was underway…

Lars was waiting for him as he cleared arrivals. He took Lances’ baggage while he set his
gravity belt compensator. He’d only been on Lunaris twice before and had never quite got
accustomed to the low gravity. He took the briefcase that had David’s present in it back from Lars
and the two friends headed for a Transway to the residential region. They arrived at Lance’s hotel
and got him settled before catching an auto cab to Lars’s place
“I wish you’d stay at ours; though with the work you’re here for, you’d probably be spending more
time on a cot in the Archive than in a comfortable bed. Needless to say Marcia was not well pleased.
She’s seen so little of her older brother. David on the other hand…” Lars said rolling his eyes.
“I wish I could, but it’s a part of the contractual obligations. This weekend is going to be the only free
time I’ll have until we have the indexes collated” Lance responded. Marcia; Lars’ wife, was Lances
younger sister. As with most female Achenazi she took on the name of her Husband’s family line.
There were exceptions, but the rules were still in place when she and Lars married. A generation or
two later and things became more relaxed. “Does Marcia still make Halva Cakes?” he asked

“Oh boy does she! As you can see; I’ve developed a taste for them” Lars
replied and he prodded his bulging paunch “I’m going to have to diet and
exercise more often to lose it!” he laughed. Lance chuckled too and they left
the Cab and walked up the path to the door of Lars’ house. The door flung
open and David sprinted out. He grabbed Lance and dragged him into the
living room to show off his birthday presents and then he led him into the
garden at the rear where the party was in full swing. Kids running wild; party
food on tables and a Cake with candles. It brought back memories of his
birthdays when Mum was alive. He put the briefcase in the kitchen; and went out to play with the
kids. It wasn’t long before someone started shooting water pistols and… Chaos! ...

Chapter 2
The Newness of Command

Dagnor Rongad had been chosen to be the Captain of the Endeavour; he
had an Aleutian father and a Buraxin mother. That in itself was not unusual;
though it had caused some difficulties with obtaining certain qualifications. Take
for instance his choice of belief system. It had caused much friction with his
parents, grandparents and some of his friends. He had changed from his parents
Orthodox Pravda to Hinerian Logislux. It was an informed choice and was his right
when reaching the age of Consentus. He had made the choice as he wanted to get into the Thule
Academy for Martial Studies. That was something his Uncle Halibrad had seen fit to have issue with
“Why can’t you follow in the Family business?” he’d said disgustedly. Dagnor wanted to explore and
discover; not be a trader all his adult life. Begrudgingly they had finally approved; more so when his
Uncle Halibrad and his Mother got approved trading rights with the Academy Logistics department.
It was the kind of trade off that Buraxin couldn’t resist.

Most of his crew were already allocated when he’d been selected; by committee no less.
Thankfully he’d been given right to select his Bridge Crew himself. Nearly everyone he’d chosen was
available and he’d interviewed them personally; that had proved easier than he’d expected. All of
them had been eager to “come aboard”. Two positions had still to be filled. He needed a Science
Officer who could double up as a Ships Councillor. The regulations required a Councillor be present
on board in case of a slip in Morale etc. on long distance missions. He had someone in mind; but she
was undergoing a Hibernation cycle. There was a second choice but she had not answered any of his
requests so far. The other position he’d left till last so his first choice for the mission could become
free of their current obligations; but so far they had been “unavailable for comment” Norvian speak
for “Can’t you see I’m Busy”. Again there was a second alternative; and it was that person who he
was waiting to see now.

The Chronometer on the Ready room wall had been fitted with a “Tick” synthesis system
and someone had adjusted it to have a periodic uneven pattern to prevent people getting drowsy.
At present it was having the effect of causing pure annoyance. He’d tried adjusting it; but all
attempts had made the pattern more annoying. It also had a strange discordant chime that caught
everyone by surprise. You just couldn’t predict if it would be Flat of Sharp; or for that matter if the
chimes would be even. It had just struck ten and the last chime had come slightly late and was half
an octave higher than the rest. He remembered his Grandfather had a Johnson* too. It was a floor
standing model that was so loud it almost vibrated the floorboards when it chimed.
* Authors note: Johnson Dumont had been the most eccentric of the family line and had introduced
some pretty bizarre ranges to their catalogue. Including a Whirlpool bath that periodically vibrated
so violently patrons thought they’d experienced a quake. It did have some benefit to the company
profit line as the Untharans found it “Pleasurable”*.
Midas was late for his interview. That was unlike him as he’d always been prompt even when he
malfunctioned during an Ion storm. Dagnor and he had served together on Mithras; a world in the
Delbian sector. He was just about to put out a call for him when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in!” Dagnor said. A tall wiry man wearing a silver robe under a raincoat entered. It was
Undersecretary Leeson Vimes. Dagnor had completely forgotten that he’d be calling to go over the
schedules for departure.
“Have I come at an inopportune time?” Leeson asked
“My visitor is late so be prepared for our discussion to be interrupted” Dagnor replied and bid
Leeson sit. “I take it this is more “Official” than social” he added
“Relax; I finished all my “Official” visits last week. I’m actually here to ask if I could be part of the
Crew Manifest” Leeson said to Dagnor’s surprise.
“I’m honoured and ashamed also. I should have thought of you when I was looking to complete my
bridge crew. In what capacity would you want to serve?” He asked

“I was thinking that; with my specialist knowledge of the Sciences and my Council skills I could be the
ships Science officer. I also have my Degree in Social rehabilitation and Counselling too. So I…”
Leeson said and Dagnor interrupted him.
“You are officially hired. Mary D’Elbart has not come back to me so she’s lucked out. Now all I need
is for Midas Rexel988 to get back to me on the Second Engineer’s position and the Crew Manifest
will be complete. You know of course we have the great T’luha Habra herself as Head of Engineering
and as a Command officer on the Bridge. General Henderson swung that; letting her out of the
contract she’d signed to design and build a new armed Scout Skitter for the Patrol. She’s an amazing

woman in real life too” Dagnor crowed and winked at Leeson.
“Would it be too forward of me to say we celebrate the placement with a
small celebratory drink?” He said and pulled out a flask of Sonoran
Kegnar Whiskey from the wide sleeve of his robe.
Where did you get that from? I thought it had been banned from import
from Kelgar because of its potency!!” Dagnor said amazed and retrieved
two shot glasses from a cupboard behind his desk.
“Oh nothing much; just my Diplomatic privileges, and a small bribe to a
Customs officer, to turn a blind eye when my hand luggage went through
the scanner. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I had a crate of the stuff
going through Diplomatic channels also.” Leeson said in reply with a
wicked smile on his face. The two of them celebrated his appointment to
the Bridge Crew of the Endeavour. The Whiskey hit them after the
second glass and they were well on to the way to being drunk as Midas Rexel998 walked in.
“Ah! May I try that?” The Bio-Mechanoid asked. Dagnor poured him a glass. Midas downed it in one.
Spluttered then beamed a wide smile “That’s powerful stuff! You could run a combustion engine off
that! But why waste it on something so mundane. What are we celebrating?” he asked. Dagnor
explained and Midas saluted Leeson with a second glass “Slàinte mhòr agus a h-uile beannachd
duibh” he said in the form of a toast. The other two looked puzzled so he elaborated. “It’s an ancient
Gaelic salute from a land called Eire on old Earth. It translates as “Great health and every good
blessing to you”” he said. The others raised their glasses and said the same back in unison…

T’luha was checking over the Engine Bay. The “tweaks” she
asked for had been expertly installed, She was startled by the sound of
cursing coming from behind a console in the control room. She
wandered over and looked through the blast shielding. A young
Achenazi male was struggling with some stray cabling and was having
even more difficulty with some Kryst control circuits.
“Ahrahi Nenu? Magdeh long varro schmek!” he said through his
clenched teeth, He had a loop of optical fibre cable in his mouth. He sat up and banged his head on
the enclosure door that was propped up with a long wrench. That promptly fell over and the door
slammed shut on his fingers “ARGH! VAROZ MECK!” he cursed aloud then stopped short when he
saw T’luha. She looked cross for a moment then burst out laughing. That set the young man laughing
too. They both were gasping at the end. He apologised for his language and introduced himself to his
new boss.
“Ensign Jason “Red Fox” Heart Flower Ma’am; at your service, I’m junior Warp Field Specialist on
loan from Mira University Trust” he said after the two of them got their breath back.
“It’s nice to see that even the Achenazi can swear and curse like the rest of us. You wouldn’t care to
translate what you said; I don’t recognise the dialect?” she said. He went ashen and looked horrified.
“Relax: I already know; I’m just teasing. I hope that the Ancestors take it in the way it was meant”
She added and chuckled “Walk with me to Med Bay and tell me what exactly you were doing to that
console” she said and the two of them left the Control room. He explained that he was doing a
modification that should help with regulating the Plasma Flow better. He’d seen it done to a High

efficiency Engine Pod on a Skitter that was being used for “Frag” racing. T’luha nodded; she’d done
similar mods on her Hovercraft when she was younger. The process was dirty, but effective.
“Jason you are a Man after my own heart!” she laughed. And she regaled him of some of her less
hairy experiences while Doc Willard Manson patched up his injuries.

… Arthur woke again from yet another Nightmare. They always left him dripping in cold
sweats, shaking with fear and, on this occasion nauseous. Helen came into his study/home office. He
tended to do more of his work; he was a Commercial Graphics Designer, from home since the Village
became “Connected” to super-fast broadband.
“Another one? And bad by the look of you. The drawn curtains didn’t help this time either I take it”
she stated rather than questioned. “Do you want me to take notes again? My Gran finds the detail
interesting” she asked
“Your Gran’s got a lot to answer for” he jokingly replied “Seriously though this one was really bad. It
didn’t concern me this time. There was someone else on a table in the room. A girl I think; couldn’t
quite focus. The beings had white face masks with garish smiles painted on them. Creepy; as was
what they seemed to be doing to her. It looked like they had cut away a flap of her skin around her
belly and they were poking things inside. One of them had one of those Wand devices I described
earlier. That was the one that came toward me and pointed the Wand in my eye. There was a
blinding light and a burning sensation that’s when I woke up” he answered her rubbing his left eye.
“I wonder; can you wait till I get that magnifying glass with the light. Don’t open the curtains just
yet” she said and went over to the desk drawer to retrieve the item in question. He sat patiently as
she examined his left Eyeball for signs of damage “I can see why the Hospital staff didn’t notice it. It
is minute. It’s just a tiny dot of a scar near the bottom right of your Cornea. There appears to be a
sliver of something metallic in there. I’m calling Dr Marsh and don’t you dare argue with me!” she
said firmly. He didn’t dare argue with her when she was in Bossy Boots mode. He’d done that once
before; much to his regret and had received a couple of painful reminders nestling in his groin
region.
He got up and drew the curtains and was hit by the bright noonday sun square in the face.
“How long was I asleep?” He exclaimed
“You seemed to be sleeping so soundly I didn’t have the heart to wake you. It’s been about three
hours. I’d prepared a salad and some sandwiches as a lunch; but you look a little green around the
gills so it’ll keep for now” she said between talking to Dr Marsh at the Clinic and writing up his
recount of the Nightmare. His nausea seemed to be subsiding so he went to the kitchen. The salad
and sandwiches did look inviting though. He sat down and took a mouthful of the salad and suddenly
felt a searing pain in his left side. The scar he’d been left with from the “incident” was red and sore
“Tell the Doc that the scar is inflamed again will you love?” he said in agony. She did as was told and
hung up then joined him at the breakfast table. He continued to eat, enjoying the salad and the pate
sandwiches. She made him a cup of coffee, but he asked for a white wine spritzer instead.
“Well at least your appetite’s returned” she said smiling. She drank the coffee as she texted her
notes to her Gran…

Douglas Markham was looking at the
amassed collection of surviving implanted
objects recovered from the “Abductees” as
the Ministry were calling the victims. There
was another of the cones with tendrils that
had been found in Mr Styles-Cunningham; a
couple of rod like things a variety of small
pronged devices, a small square glass like
chip that had incredibly fine circuitry
imbedded within, a disk like object about the

size of a Two pound coin, that had been recovered from one of the few Non-Human victims, an
Aberdeen Angus Bull by the name of Dixon, A bead thing with a springy coil protruding from it, what
looked like a piece of fine copper wire, and there was the vial containing a jelly like substance that
had been found bridging two sections of a victims brain. The poor unfortunate had succumbed to
some form of mind control and had walked directly into the path of a large truck on a busy
motorway. He’d been killed outright. It was the Coroner who’d spotted the stuff. A pair of tweezers
and a scalpel had been included in the display for size comparison. The wire had also been
responsible for the death of an “Abductee”. All the items had one thing in common; they reacted to
a very narrow range of frequencies in the Gigahertz band. The wire in particular reacted violently to
microwave radiation. It was that response that had led to the death of Amy Wilkinson, a school girl
from Devises. The families Microwave Oven; unknown to them, had a slight leak from the poorly
fitted shielding in its door. As it was it wasn’t really dangerous, but the “wire” had been implanted in
her Cortex. She went to check on some rice pudding she’d been heating as a snack; when the wire
reacted. From what the surgeons discovered it had instantly heated up and had become mobile. It
had sped down the length of her spinal cord and literally cooked it from within. Thankfully Amy had
died instantly from the initial damage to her cortex. She hadn’t had time to feel pain or injury.
Closer Electron Microscope examination of the wire revealed it to be made of Microscopic sections
each with some kind of Nano-scale mechanics. And Pico scale electronics. Extremely sophisticated
and precise work.

“I understand our American and Russian Counterparts also have recovered
implants” he said to his aide Roberts.
“Yes and the Americans have also recovered a piece of what looks like the
Wand device some of the “Abductees” described being used by “them””
Roberts replied placing heavy emphasis on the last word. Douglas thought for a
moment then asked
“Could you put me in contact with that psychiatrist; what’s her name, ah yes, Dr Felicia Grantham.
The one that handled Mr Styles-Cunningham; I want to know if her granddaughter has found out
anything new?” Roberts left him to make the arrangements and Douglas used the
tweezers to pick up one of the cones. It looked so innocent at that moment. But earlier
its tendrils had been twitching when near to the Quartz alarm clock on his desk. He put
the clock next to the cone and set off the alarm. The devices tendrils twitched, violently
thrashing around, and the tip seemed to want to burrow itself into the desk. He
stopped the alarm and it went inert once more. He thumbed his chin in deep contemplation. He
reached for his intercom and pressed the talk button.
“Roberts; get me Ustinov on line two. Scramble the line!” he ordered and sat down at the desk with
a sadistic look on his face…

… There are constants that underlie the Universe. Entertainers at Children’s parties are one
of those constants; Clowns being another. Add the two and you have a meme that is consistent
throughout time; distance, culture, race, creed, colour and belief, and you can add to that list
species. Even the Alien succumbs to the meme. Marcia had hired one of Lars’ friends to do the job.
Mc Michaels was a Hinerian; and a clerk in a Law Firm during working hours. He’d made it his
pastime to use the Clown to entertain his friend’s kids to begin with. It had proved such a success he
now did it as a second job. “Bobbo the Magnificent” was a great hit and was currently relaxing with
the male adults in Lars’ study; a brandy in one hand and a synthetic Cigar in his mouth. He was
regaling them with the tale of his last “performance”.
“… And then the little horror puked all over the Lasha Arya Spaniel! Bright green it was; I tell you the
look on his mother’s face…” he was saying. Marcia walked in interrupting him mid flow “The rest of
the guests are leaving Lars; David wants you to help him say goodbyes etc.” she announced and
went over and sat with her older brother Lance “Thanks for coming bro’. I know you’ll be busy over

the next few weeks; I appreciate it… as does David. By the way; did you get him a present or not?”
she asked him
“Oh; I’d completely forgotten, It’s in my briefcase in the kitchen” he replied
“I’ll get it; you wait here. Daniel; Thanks for doing the Clown bit. You went down a storm. Little
Vanessa Proust loves that Unicorn balloon animal you made.” She said and went in to the kitchen to
retrieve Lance’s briefcase. He turned to Daniel Mc Michaels; resplendent in his outfit and makeup.
“Your outfit seems to be of the more “traditional” styles I see Daniel;
unlike one female example I saw recently, that was a weird sight. It’s
odd; but I think Clowns are one of the few professions that doesn’t
make any sexual specific differences in titles. A Clown’s a Clown no
matter whether they are Male, Female or… whatever!” He said to
Daniel who had just taken a huge swig of his well-earned Brandy.
“You know; I do believe you’re right. Oh; there’s my ride. Have to dash.
Thanks for the Brandy Lars” he quipped as he left to meet his girlfriend
in her Scoot-along. Marcia came back with Lance’s briefcase just as Lars
returned with David.
“David; I do believe your Uncle Lance has a little something for you”
Lars said and David came and sat down in front of Lance.
“Now David; I want you to take great care of this. It’s very old and
delicate.” He said and opened his briefcase and took out the wrapped present. The boy’s eyes
widened and his jaw dropped when he had carefully opened the wrappings and saw the

Chronometer. He mouthed rather than said the word WOW! “I know you’d
said you always wanted a replica of one for your room. That my dear boy is
an original Buraxin model from their second dynasty” he reached into his
trouser pocket and produced an intricately pierced and chased yellow
metal key. “It’s already wound so should run for about eight days, but you
must wind it only till the key stops. It has a mechanism to prevent over
winding; but if you force it the ratchet with break.” And he handed the
bewildered boy the key.
“Tell you what; let’s you and me see if we can find a place for it in your
room eh?” Lars said and led David off to the stairway “I’ll grab my toolbox
on the way to put up a shelf” he added. David stopped and handed his
father the Chronometer and ran back and hugged Lance and whispered “Thanks Uncle Lance; you’re
a star!” and he rushed back to Lars.
“You’ve made a true friend with him Bro’” Marcia said after they had disappeared upstairs.
“You chose Daniel on purpose didn’t you? To remind me; … of... Dad” Lance said scowling
“Yes; silly of me, but you’ve hardly ever spoken about him since he passed” she replied
“I suppose I had it coming. I do remember that day only too well. It gave me reason to be wary of
trusting Clowns. The horror I felt, the anguish. I admit though today changed my viewpoint
somewhat. He’s an interesting chap Daniel” Lance responded and gave his sister a brotherly hug.
“Mind you I can understand it…the reasons. You don’t usually associate something as happy as a
Clown with Evil. I suppose everything has to have its counterpoint” she added and kissed him on his
cheek.
It was two weeks later while in a discussion with a work colleague that Lance broached the
subject of Universal Constant’s and Clowns in particular. “It’s one of those Memes that is all
pervading. Look at any Archive from anywhere in the known galaxy and you find them. Clown’s;
good ones, sad ones, and yes, even Evil ones. They’re everywhere. There’s the King’s fool; the court
jester, the Practical joker, and even the village idiot. They are all basically Clowns or some derivative.
Like devils; angels, dragons, beasts and even Spirits and Ghosts. The Memes associated with them
are persistent. I even have some evidence that there are records from the second Galaxy going back
to the early times of its creation; tales of Fantastical beings; beings that existed at the birth of the

Universe. But Clown’s… That’s another matter altogether. The Meme is present in all cultures; from
the creation myths to the end of time predictions. Somewhere in there is a Clown.” He said to junior
Archivist Menia Flagg.
“You know it would make a fascinating Thesis subject for a Study Group at the Academy; you should
put you theories forward” she said in response. Lance thought about that and decided then and
there that he’d contact his old Tutor Maximillian Hrung. He was Chair of Occasional Studies at the

Thule Academy Franchise on Mervia 7; An Untharan colony in same sector as Vega. Max had once
done a study of the Criminal Elements, including the Assassins Foundation in the Sonoran Trust.
They had a Clown division. A weird bunch of creeps; who left their victims with carved smiles on
their faces, and they dressed appropriately too. It might just spark an interest in the old joker. He
laughed and explained what he’d just thought about to Menia and she roared with laughter. Ron
Land the Chief Archivist for Lunaris walked in and announced
“We’ve just had confirmation that our schedule has been extended. A survey team has found the
building once known as Fort Knox!!” he seemed genuinely ecstatic about that. Groans came from
most of those present. But Lance couldn’t believe his luck…

Dagnor; T’luha, Leeson and Midas were going over the ships planned itinerary for the
expedition. There were some last minute changes that had been proposed for the Endeavour to take
into account. A course correction needed to be made as a star; near to the planned course to Pan,
had shown signs of becoming unstable, The data had come from the probe sent to the Third Galaxy.
It had taken longer than expected to decrypt. The signal had suffered heavily from distortion due to
the gravity waves being pulsed from the star. It meant that they would arrive later than scheduled
“We’ll have to make sure the fleet don’t get fouled up in the distortions when they drop out of our
Fold Wake!” T’luha said. Midas agreed.
“The only other thing I can see to worry about in that region is the debris field from the destruction
of a rogue planet. It is right across the intended path of the third arm of the flight” Midas added.
“That’s the arm of the fleet that doesn’t have the heavy shielding, the Science Survey Mission. I
suppose we could leave a… No wait T’luha; didn’t you say Hubris had discovered a compact Warp
field generator on his return to the study group on She’brakda?” Dagnor asked
“I see where you’re headed. We could modify it to create a sort of static Warp shell around that part
of the flight nearest to the debris field” she replied almost immediately. During this interchange
Leeson had stood back and watched the interplay of the three senior officers. He had his
Counsellor’s hat on, now he needed to change to the other hat; the one of Science Officer.
“If I may interject” He said “There is another solution. Correct me if I’m wrong T’luha, but doesn’t
the Field the ship generates to “Fold” space protrude ahead of the ship?” he asked. T’luha looked
openly amazed
“You’re right. I see now. Dagnor; Midas our Science officer has just given us a much easier
solution…”She said in reply and went on to explain. “The “field” that Leeson is referring to is a
subsidiary effect of folding space on itself to “drag” the ship in the direction you want to head. With
the aid of the field the “folded” space wraps around the ship and unfolds behind. If we approach
from the right angle the debris field would be moved around and behind the ship. If we arrange for
that exit from the fold at our rear to be coexistent with one of the gravity pulses and distortions; a
sort of tunnel would be created that the other ships to pass safely through. It would mean that we’d

have to rotate our shield dynamics constantly to keep the effect in place. The ships; in effect, would
be doing what the “surfers” Old Earth did. Travelling along and through the arch created by the
wave.” She said. Leeson looked proud of himself for remembering his ancient history.
“We would create the wave for them to ride!” Dagnor almost shouted “Leeson I bow to your
prestigious historical knowledge” he added and did an over the top bow. Midas looked bemused
“Surfers?” he said. Leeson explained the history and the practice. After he’d finished; Midas smiled
and said “Surfing the edge of space into the atmosphere”. It was time for the others to look puzzled.
He explained that he’d recently discovered an ancient form of entertainment called “Movies” while
searching for an unrelated matter in the Terran Archives. He was recalling an image from one of
these entertainments. A genre called “Science Fiction”. He went on to describe how one of the
characters used a piece of shielding from the crews ruined craft to “surf” into the atmosphere of a
planet below him.
“An odd and interesting form of suicide” Leeson added…

Helen was at her Mothers’ Birthday Party. It had been a hard slog to get there. Although
most of the carnage on the M25 had been cleared, there were still odd smaller snarl-ups. She had
eventually arrived late yesterday evening. Arthur had insisted she tried to get there; he’d be OK, he
was in good hands after all. She looked over at her Mother who was unwrapping a present from her
grandniece. Her mother happened to look up and nodded. Later in the kitchen her Mother
approached her.
“Felicia will make sure he is treated well. I know you caught sight of the reports of the other “cases”.
Arthur is different; he hasn’t shown any “bad” signs” she said making the appropriate gesture
“What would you call the nightmares? Panic attacks? Mum; you haven’t seen him when he wakes up
from one. The last one was really bad. I feel like I’m betraying him passing all the notes on to Gran.
He’s like a child at times; a confused and frightened one. I didn’t tell him that they found the…
remains yet. I had to lie that the paper wasn’t delivered” Helen said furiously and started to shake. “I
feel like I’m slowly losing him. He’s changed since it happened; I can’t explain exactly how or what’s
changed, but...” she added
“Be thankful you got him back intact. When the smoke eventually cleared from that crack in… where
did you say that place was called?” Helen replied Crawlboys Lane “Ah; yes. The sight that the poor
policeman and that fire fighter found… The body was barely recognisable as human let alone a child.
A young girl they reckoned” her mother finished.
“What kind of person would do that to a kid? I just hope it wasn’t the girl from Arthur’s nightmare.
That would have thrown him over the edge… Enough! What did May Higson get you; she wouldn’t
let me in on the secret?” She deftly changed the subject
“I haven’t opened her present yet; you know what she’s like, I dread to think what crazy “find” she’s
got me” her mother confided and the two of them went back to the party giggling…

Chapter 3
“Space… The final…”

Lance was in the office of Sandra Marsh; Sector Senior Xeno-
Archeologist, looking at the collated artefacts from She’brakda. One
in particular had his attention. It carried the label “Religious Object
537”; it was an ornament consisting of three columns mounted to a
base. He’d seen something similar during his search of the Terran
Archives.
“Did any of the Kryst ever say whether that was of religious
significance or not?” he asked
“Oh; that thing, it was some sort of offering to bring good luck. Like
the “Feng Shui” principle from an area of Old Earth called China I
believe” she answered not even looking up from her terminal

“It’s just I’ve seen something similar before. In the Terran Archive” He replied and that got her
attention. Lance looked up the entries in his notes and told her the indexes of the relevant entries.
She called them up on the main viewer in the room
“You’re right they are almost identical. Where and when do they say it was found?” she asked then
corrected herself “Ah! But that’s impossible! The Kryst and the Voodon were never in the area
around that period??” she exclaimed, puzzled. Lance explained his research into the “Abductions”
and his reasons for requesting to be on her team when they entered Fort Knox.
“Show me your notes and collations” she ordered. Lance handed over six data crystals and she
scanned through them. “The implants are interesting. The technology looks more like that used by
the Alurak and Ulahri than anything else. But those devices were used for micro excavation work.
We use similar devices when we do a “dig” these days. Less damage to artefacts you see. But putting
them into living beings…? That’s nasty by anyone’s standards” she added after reviewing all the
crystals “You’re in on the team. Have you ever thought of becoming an Archaeologist Lance?” she
replied and asked.

Endeavour was almost ready to depart Unt system to join up with the main fleet. One of the
Biologists had caused a minor hold-up waiting for the delivery of some of the new “Mini-Globes”
from Venosia Prime. “They have a wider spectrum than the previous generation. They are self-
repairing too” she’d exclaimed enthusiastically when Midas asked her. With them aboard; and safely
stowed Endeavour “set sail”. It was about a day to the assembly point at impulse. So Dagnor asked
for permission to try a few “shake down” tests of the secondary drives. He got the go ahead for
when they had cleared Unt system. He; or rather T’luha, wanted to see if the “mods” young Jason
had done would have any noticeable effect. About ten minutes later the two of them had their
answer.
“Incredible; an almost 400% jump in Plasma flow efficiency! Jason you are a genius” she yelled
through the Plasteel of the portable Blast shield. Jason looked proud and smiled broadly
“And that’s only with a 10% regulation from the modified circuits. When we use the main drives
we’ll need to ramp that up!” he replied to T’luha’s statement. The ship seemed to handle smoother
than she had in trials too thought Dagnor. He gave the order to go to secondary for the trip to
rendezvous point and the sleek vessel slid almost effortlessly out into interstellar space.

New to the Mechanoid division were some of the Voodon
“Fembots” as the lower crewmembers were calling them. They
preferred to call themselves Feminoids; to distinguish the two classes of
“Artificial” life forms. Neither of the two liked the term Android; as that
inferred that were derived from “robotic devices”. The Mechanoids; in
particular the Bio-Mechanoids, had synthetic neural nets and brains as
opposed to the Positronic circuitry of robots and Androids. The
Feminoids appearance did tend to be distracting. As yet; the Feminoids
had not opted for the Bio-skin look of the Bio-Mechanoids. Even they
thought that would be a step too far. Endeavour had six of the
Feminoids in their crew manifest among the Mechanoids. They were just
as strong and durable; just as capable as their “male” counterparts, so
shared duties equally. Even Midas was distracted when he first came
upon one of them during a visit to the Med-Lab to have some checks
done on his “skin”. Since the “Mini-Globes” had come aboard he’d
noticed a strange sensation in the dermis of his left arm. He’d also come
to meet the Ship’s Doctor; Willard Manson. Midas had known him from
his time on one of the Mining vessels of the Volgar Fleet. The Feminoid, who Willard referred to as
Lucy 889 had been drafted as temporary nurse until young Ensign Lisa Grundy recovered from her
“Space Sickness”. The sight of Lucy had stopped Midas in his tracks.

“My sensors are detecting a micro-organism just under the surface Midas” she said. Midas was
surprised; she had hardly looked at him. Doc Willard approached.
“Lucy worked at the Voodon Clinic. She has some of the most sophisticated medical sensor arrays
I’ve ever seen. I’m actually thinking of asking the Captain to assign her here permanently. Besides;
she has an amazing calming effect on the other male crew” the middle aged Untharan said.
“It appears to be a form of bacterium similar to the Venosian ‘Net worms. It seems to like the
environment of the silicon based insulation lubricants in your lower dermis Midas” she added in a
surprisingly sexy voice. Midas suddenly felt an uncomfortable sensation in the region of his Balance
centre; which just so happened to be in a location corresponding to a Human’s Groin. Willard
laughed.

Leeson and a young female member of the Biology contingent Sara Brightman; had decided
to go into the ships Mess. He selected a light snack; she a large portion of something the Terrans
called “Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream”. Being synthetic it was technically a misnomer to call it Cream.
But it was a close approximation. It was then he noticed that she was heavily pregnant. She also
ordered a bowl of Hasperat Renoir. The contrast in the tastes could not have been more extreme.
The Hasperat would have been exceedingly sour and acidic. He was curious as to what kind of face
she’d pull. What she did next made him even more intrigued. She put both foods into another larger
bowl and asked the bemused Fenian Chef to blend the two together and serve her half of the result
and put the rest in a refrigerated container “For later; should I get the urge for a Midnight Snack”
she’d said to him. The Fenian obliged, and handed a bowl and a container back to the young mother-
to-be. Being of Untharan descent, the practices of pregnancy among other races had always
fascinated him as a young whelp. The young woman sat down at a nearby table with a large
dessertspoon and proceeded to devour spoonful’s of the gloop with a distinct look of pleasure on
her face. He later recounted the incident to Byron Franks; a Terran member of the Engineering party.
“Aye; Women get some strange cravings during pregnancy. My wife craved Sausage; honey and
Lard!” he announced “I had to synthesise the Lard from scratch; we were on Mudrag at the time” he
revealed further. Mudrag was a military Orbital Coms platform in the Vakros sector.
“I bet that caused some odd looks” Leeson said in response
“Not really, the chemical structure is similar to Barrel grease for the old Geo-Nav Blaster ports. I got
ribbed more when she was rushed into Med Bay to give birth eating a pot of the black gunk” He
laughed back. Leeson got the strange image of a Human female dressed in a medical gown being
trolled into an operating theatre with black grease all over her face and greedily clutching a pot close
to her chest. Humans! Strange bunch he thought.

More of these mundane events would follow on the flight to rendezvous point one. After
exchanging the new flight details and plans to the Bridge and Flight crews of the other vessels in the
fleet; Dagnor ordered the Endeavour to power up the new Fold Field drives and engage them. The
space ahead of the sleek vessel began to shimmer and warp. When the actual surge forward
happened it was one of the most unpleasant sensations he could have imagined. A brief period of
disorientation, a visual sense of everything around him stretching and squashing in some very weird
directions then; like an elastic band snapping in slow motion, a shuddering and the sense of
incredibly fast thrust, like being shoved hard from behind while having your nose pushed into and
through your head.
“I thought the dampening fields were supposed to diminish this effect; have they been switched
on?” he asked T’luha
“There’s a slight delay before they cut in. I’m still…” she struggled to reply then the whole universe
seemed to wink out then back on and the ship appeared to be back to normal Warp flight “… Ah;
that’s better”. She said when she’d regained her senses. Midas had remained unmoving during the
process. Dagnor was still feeling a touch nauseous but managed to order “All Systems report” before
dashing to the toilet facilities to throw up his lunch. He was not the only one. Doc Manson was
fielding calls from all over the ship for nausea medications.

The passage into “Folded Space” was bad enough. But being in it had other problems too.
Some of the crew; especially the Genovan members, seemed to suffer from visual distortions and
hallucinations. The Untharans kept getting gaseous attacks and Sara reported she’d started having
contractions. She was rushed into Med Bay and prepped for the birth of her child “I didn’t see any
indications in the detailed reports about this kind of “side effect”” he’d said angrily to T’luha
“I’m sorry Doc; but it was an oversight by the research committee not to include tests on pregnant
species” she replied bashfully then to Sara “If it’s any consolation the baby looks fine; just a little…
early that’s all” she felt at a loss at not knowing how to handle the situation. She’d been present
during her two older sister’s pregnancies and births; so she thought she’d be able to handle another.
But this was different; and to make matters worse there didn’t seem to be any specific cause for the
effects. Midas thought he’d isolated a narrow band static
presence, but it later turned out to be a slight mismatch in
some plasma relay couplings.

One of the Achenazi telepaths said she could sense
some kind of energy dispersed around the fleet, but it was
too vague a feeling to clarify. T’luha asked for an Achenazi
headband and put it on. After a moment or two of
disorientation as the ring adjusted itself to her thought
patterns; T’luha began to also sense something. She asked
Jason to run a set of analyses to check the ring was
functioning properly.
“From these readings the Headband is working correctly. Hang on a moment while I try something.”
He said and touched one of the jewel-like cabochons on the front of the rings. “There; I’ve
telepathically locked and synchronised the two rings. Can you read my thought message Ma’am” he
thought at her. T’luha was amazed. She’d heard of this ability to telepathically transfer information
that the Achenazi had mastered. To experience it first hand was something else
“Perfectly clearly” she thought back. Jason spoke there after so as to conserve his “Energies”. He
explained that by working in pairs; linked like this, it was possible to refine and home in on stray
signals and get a clearer picture of direction and location.
“It’s a bit like the ancient practice of Directional Radio Location” he concluded
“I came across dissertations on the subject By Hors Lancaster at Velgas Mining Historical Engineering
Department. I understand the principle. But we need three points of reference surely?” she said
puzzled.
“Mari Spring Buck; the Biologist who caught the “sensations” earlier is willing to act as a “Locus”; our
“fixed” point and we can work together from different parts of the fleet to get angles and lines of
transmissions to refine the source point” he responded.

… Arthur was gathering his overnight things from his Hospital room and placing them in
bags. He was being discharged after having the microscopic sliver removed from his left eye. It was
being carefully examined as it should have caused much more damage than it did. It was late
evening. He laid out his clothes for tomorrow and settled down in a hospital gown for his last night’s
sleep in the private side ward he’d become to think of as his own. In the Nurse’s Station a shift
change was underway. The young Night Matron was being briefed about the patients still on the
ward; who was going for surgery and possible admissions that may come in from other wards in the
early hours. Arthur would be one of the first to be discharged in the morning. He had requested a
sleeping draught; but the on duty doctor had refused and thought it better he have a warm; milky
drink or, as he was not requiring any surgery or medication in the morning and would not be driving,
a small glass of warmed wine. Arthur had opted for the latter.

In the Forensic Lab the sliver had been placed in a container for further examination by a
Ministry “Expert” tomorrow afternoon. A Lab tech had included a set of X-ray Photographs, some
Electron Micrographs and had placed a note stating that the item was to be scanned by the MRI

department staff on duty that night; so that the resulting scans and other data would be ready for
the “Expert” to examine. The Technician on duty read the note and removed the minute sliver and

placed it in a transparent phial. He placed the phial in a plastic steadying cradle and
started the machine doing a series of scans. It was during the third series of
transverse scans that the incident happened. At around Midnight the MRI machine
started to arc and flash and the electrics in the building flickered on and off
erratically. It disturbed the Night Matron so much she called up maintenance to
find out what happened. While on the telephone she had her back to the door to
Arthur’s room. Had she been facing it she would have noticed a bright flash of
intense light. The incident was over as soon as it had started. She turned round put the phone back
on its cradle and went to her desk. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the tell-tale light for
Arthur’s room was winking. She went to the room and opened the door
“Now then Arthur; what do you want…” She froze the bed was empty and the sheets were scattered
around the room. Arthur was gone! In the centre of the bed was a Crystal Ball...

The Military method is… well; let’s say… slow. Sandra Marsh did not like being kept waiting.
Lance could see her temper writhing beneath her ostensibly calm visage
“Just how much longer are we expected to wait to gain access?” she patiently asked to the young
Cadet who had replaced his colleague about twenty minutes earlier
“It should only be a few moments longer Ma’am. We need to make sure that no booby traps have
been left” he replied in a trained example of non-committal reaction that was the flat response
you’d expect from a Military lackey. She stormed over and sat down hard beside Lance; almost
tipping the bench over. Lance wisely said nothing. He’d seen san example of her anger response with
another of these Military goons earlier. He hoped the poor boy would recover. In her excuse; Lance
thought, she was Fenian after all. She was about to speak when the Cadet cupped his hand over his
earpiece and signalled them to come over
“The team have cleared the doorways and seals. You and your people can now enter. Sandra
whistled to the rest of her “crew”
and ten bodies followed the
young Cadet down the corridor to
where the sealed door way had
been found. Judging by the
scarring around the door locking
mechanism; the usual military
“Nutcracker” response had
“opened” the doors. She glared at
the poor Military teams as she
and her crew entered the vast
cavern where the structure
originally called Fort Knox now
resided. The builders of the
“enclosure” had taken great pains
to recreate the location and surroundings of the buildings’ original site; even going so far as to
artificially recreate the beautifully manicured lawns surrounding the building. The whole area was
illuminated in an artificial sunlight. The light was coming from the domed surface inside the
hollowed out space. The impression this gave was that you were on the surface of Earth on a still;
breezeless, summer’s day. The team were stunned into awe filled silence as they proceeded to the
main doors of the building…

Alien Lifeboat
The locating of the “Telepathic” signal source took longer than expected. However it soon
became apparent that it was real and coming from a very unusual source. It took a while to pinpoint

the small craft and its occupant. Midas and Jason came up with the solution to retrieve the vessel.
Traction beams will not work in “folded” space. So an older; much cruder system was deployed.
Guided tether; with gravity slope units would ensnare the craft and help synchronise the speed to
that of the Endeavour. Once synchronised; it would be possible to slowly “winch” the tiny craft into
the Endeavours’ Hangar bay. It eventually took five attempts at capture but success was achieved.

The craft and its single occupant were brought aboard. The
occupant was in a state of deep stasis. The signal was coming
from a transponder linked to what looked like a Kryst
headband. However; the wearer was definitely not Kryst. In
the creatures hands were a number of small objects. Doc
Manson asked for the being to be taken to Med Bay for
recovery. The craft would be pawed over by the Engineering
contingent. The being was in some form of survival suit; one
which was capable of generating a substantial stasis field. It was small; only about a meter and a
quarter high, slim of build and, without disrobing to be certain, had apparent female lines as regards
body shape. The Headband apparatus was removed and a sample of the suits atmosphere taken. It
was Terran normal.
“When we figure out how to remove the suit; the occupant will not have difficulty breathing the
ships atmosphere” Lucy announced; and Doc agreed. Later a meeting was convened in the Ready
room.
“That automated beacon rig is something new. Not even the Ulahri and Kryst have anything similar. I
think we have a new species here” Midas said when he joined the bridge Officers in the Ready room
“The circuitry is incredibly minute; it’s on a Pico scale”
he added and sat down handing out reports and scans
“I want you to pay attention to the medallion type
thing that was around the occupants neck” he said and
brought up an image on the central viewer. The device
was about 26 millimetres in diameter; 2.5 millimetres
thick and had been suspended on a fine metallic chain
only 1.2 millimetres thick. The complex circuitry that
was found inside consisted of Pico scale modules, Nano
scale plasma and wave guides, and a sophisticated
array of sensors and periphery equipment, all on the
Pico scale of engineering. These included a holographic
optical sensor and a wide beam sound receptor. “We believe the chain acted as a form of antenna
for transmitting in the upper sub-space bands” Midas concluded his descriptions.
“Doctor; have you been able to examine the occupant yet?” Dagnor asked over a closed link that had
been set up with Med Bay.
“Not as yet. Though; we think we have found a release system for the seams on the suit.” Manson
replied “Lucy has managed to locate the stasis controls and we will be starting resuscitation shortly.
And I’ve been asked to say Mother and baby girl are doing fine. Could we please rig up some kind of
shielding quicker next time we Fold Space?” he added. T’luha winced at that last remark; and
nodded acceptance. An alarm sounded suddenly and they all left for the Bridge. The Helm was
having difficulty compensating for an invisible disturbance in the “Fold” ahead of them. The rest of
the fleet were having difficulties too
“Any ideas what’s causing this Leeson?” Dagnor asked. The Science Officer; after consulting with his
team looked puzzled
“Not exactly sir; it appears to be a disturbance coming from outside our “Fold” something in the
region of interstellar space near to our first checkpoint” he replied. He brought up a schematic of
their route on the main viewer “It’s emanating from this location. A strong “Old Fashioned” radio
wave!” he concluded

“A Radio Wave?” Dagnor said puzzled.
“I think I know what’s happening Dag- Captain” T’luha said correcting the form of address. She went
on to explain that; because of the way the ships’ drives “Folded” space-time around the ship. Energy
waves and patterns had more of a physical interaction “It’s like the first ships to breach the Light
barrier; and the introduction Warp Fields. They suffered similar buffeting or interaction with their
structural integrity systems. Only in our case the resulting forces have been inverted; if the readings
I’m looking at are correct” she added. She threw a glance at Leeson who appeared to be doing some
Zygon Mental Arithmetic. He nodded and spoke.
“Engineer Habra is correct sir. We have accelerated and are approaching our first checkpoint sooner
than expected. There are only a few events capable of delivering that strength of Radio burst. One is
remotely possible, another would be far too deadly to acknowledge. It has to be the star that was
going unstable; it must have collapsed into a Pulsar. The initial blast from the explosion of the outer
shells would account for the energy shifts” he informed.
“I recommend dropping to conventional hyper warp as soon as possible” Midas added. Dagnor
agreed and a signal was sent to the rest of the fleet to prepare for the manoeuvre. Doc Manson
complained about the buffeting when it got worse as the ship decelerated; but just as suddenly
stopped “Our friend is out of that suit; and…” he was interrupted by a squawking over the ship wide
intercom
“What in blue blazes is that?” Dagnor yelled. The noise stopped. Frantic tests and checks were made.
Helmsman Jarvik Thorn stopped them in their tracks and put the forward sensor imagery on the
main viewer. Before them was a scene right out of hell itself. Most of the systems planets had been

destroyed by the blast wave from the
exploded shell of the star. It had collapsed
down to a white dot with jets emitting
from its rapidly spinning oscillating poles.
The rest of the planets shoved or swung
into far flung orbits; some on collision
courses. Any hope that any outpost of the
mysterious Curators had survived
appeared to be lost. The gravity distortions
had made the area so unstable some of
the Gas giants had dissipated flooding the
system with highly ionised clouds. What
had happened to cause this unnatural
demise? Then a glimmer of hope; the
planet they had come to investigate; Pan,
had miraculously survived. It was now on the outer edge of the devastation. Its atmosphere all but
stripped; but being so dense previously, the surface had survived relatively unharmed. After the
initial shock the survey got underway. Endeavour set about scouring the system remains for signs of
the trigger for this destruction. It was days before they found something amongst the debris. It
looked like a vast black cylinder. It was dormant and heavily battered; but it was obvious that it had
been some kind of vessel. It appeared to be made of the same alloys as the smaller craft the
Endeavour had in its Hangar. It was going to be interesting to interrogate its occupant. What
possible reason could they have for creating such havoc? What had they been trying to hide? And
just who were they? Questions that would soon have some kind of answer; the teams examining the
planet had discovered the remains of an underground base of immense proportions. It covered half
of one of the planets’ four continents…

History Unlocked
Fort Knox had been preserved in pristine condition. Nothing had been touched, tampered
with or removed. The Consortium that had purchased it and had it moved to the Noon; had

recognised its importance for future generations. Within its bullion vaults lay Gold reserves of
former nations. Now of little worth since Gold and materials once considered precious; could easily
be replicated in whatever quantity was needed. However; there was some use for this wealth, as
reference samples of molecular and atomic structures. The vaults also contained then rare minerals,
gemstones etc. But of more importance to Sandra and her team were the Archives of historical data,
documentation, and in Lance’s case, the stored objects etc. from the “Abductions”.
“According to this library terminal the section we require is down two floors and in an east wing?”
Lance said puzzled “Just how deep does this structure go?” he asked. Text appeared on the terminal
screen it read “six storeys”; he whistled. The ancient electronics had voice recognition. That would
make searching the archives easier. Sarah and he separated from the main group and headed down
to the requisite area. She had become just as intrigued as Lance with the “Abductions” and wanted
just as much as Lance; to find out which race had perpetrated them. For such a secure place; the
area and location of the desired objects, was little more than a side room. As they sifted through
filing cabinets and drawers; it became apparent that larger finds had been kept in a place known as
“Area 51”. If memory served him right; that location had been destroyed during “The End” events.
So the larger finds would also have been destroyed.

Sandra found the large chest containing the recovered objects. Inside were a number of
smaller boxes of various sizes. When the two of them had opened them all and laid out the items
within; they had before them a bewildering collection of six hundred items. Some were damaged
some appeared to be incomplete. But most were intact. One item marked with a label saying
“Crown 7667” was a variant of a Kryst headband. This one had a
white colour; its crystals and circuitry seem to have been
damaged by power surges.
“That’s a pity. What does the reference note say?” Sandra asked
“From what I’m reading they tried to power the circuits and
managed to blow an entire section of one of their cities power
grids. The “jewels” and crystalline panels lit up like a “Xmas Tree”;
whatever that was, and exploded with enough force to blast out a
lab wall” Lance replied
“I’m not surprised; Polaron circuitry and Direct Current only have polarisation in common. Current
patterns and flows are totally different for Polaron Energy. The current is far greater to begin with.
They were lucky they only blew down a wall. They could have blown up half a city.” Sandra
responded genuinely shocked. There were more of the strange token keys of the Voodon, but with a
different, unknown script, and made of different materials. Many more of the “implants”; some of
these looked like they could still operate if needed. Strange clothing samples etc. A Medallion and
Chain that reminded Lance of an award that used to be handed to Earth Military types. It carried a
legend that related to former sports Event of Earth
“I believe that’s what was once referred to as an Olympic Medal; I’ve seen holographs of surviving
examples. Though this one is very different; the date on it doesn’t make sense. There were no
Olympics in 3150 AD” Lance pointed out as Sandra asked what he thought it was. Sandra found a
complete wand unit that looked like it had been used to cut open some kind of skin tissue. Traces of

the material had stuck to the crystal shaft.
“That’s odd. I’ve seen something like that from the survey done on
Shust” Lance said and picked up a small trophy “The symbols on the
trefoil are not from any known language though. It says this fell out
of the sky over “Nebraska” during a storm; narrowly missing a
Farmhand. He burned his hand from intense cold when he touched
It.” he added reading from the attached sheaf of notes
“Hum! It was recovered from the collection of one of the “Royal”
houses; in the former region known as Mexico in the early century
after the last Economy Wars skirmish. It was sent here to be evaluated by a Hugo Dupree” Sandra

added reading from a Library terminal she’d managed to power up” There are records here going
back thousands of years. The building and its contents eventually ended up in the possession of one
Diego Montanez-Chang!” Sandra finished
“I know that name… He belonged to the Matsu-Hiro-Chin dynasty family line. He went rogue and set
up a sort of revived Yakuza. It didn’t do him much good; he vanished mysteriously around the time
of the First Expansion. I always knew my history studies would prove useful. Many rumours
circulated that he may have deliberately left his underlings to suffer the wrath of the Authorities at
the time. Reports of him appearing in one place or another still pop up. But he’d be exceedingly old
by now; even with longevity treatments” Lance added
“There’s a reference to a “Sarcophagus” that’s located in another vault on this floor” Sandra stated
“You don’t think? ...” the two of them looked at each other and as one shouted “Harriman; Chalmers
get down here!” into their coms…

Helen didn’t believe what the young policeman was saying; she couldn’t believe. But there it
was on the screen; the CCTV footage from Felicia’s “Nanny Cam”. As the detective replayed the
sequence over and over she felt sick. On the screen the electrics of the Hospital spluttered and
flickered. Arthur had woken because of the drama and had thrown the bed sheets across the room.
Then in a dark moment a glow had appeared around him; his face contorted then… There was a
bright flash and he was gone. A few moments later a smaller flash appeared above the bed and the
Crystal Ball materialised and fell onto the centre of the bed. The Crystal ball she was now holding;
the very one he’d lost at the time of the incident. A hand reached over and took the Ball from her
she tried to resist but decided not to when her Gran put a hand on her shoulder
“It’s best really Helen. They’ll examine it and try to find out where it’s been. Though from what
we’ve just seen on the footage. It’s obvious that Arthur was “taken” by “them”” Felicia said. Douglas
Markham took the Ball and put it into an evidence box
“We’ve been checking up on these disappearances and other related incidents since Roswell. The
Russians and the Americans too; though we haven’t been able to check, we think similar things have
been happening in Asia and China. Japan hasn’t responded either; but an insider said their
Government is worried. Especially since the CEO of a certain Electronics Giant went missing” he said
flatly. He gave the box to an aide and whispered some instructions to him. The aide left quickly and
Markham’s driver returned shortly afterwards. “I’m sorry I have to cut and run; Helen, Felicia,
Detective Vance, but we need to act on this quickly. We found from other items the residual traces
decay and vanish in about two hours at most.” He added and put on his hat and left. Helen
shuddered. The hospital ward seemed suddenly colder
“Ministry types! Hate their interference. You should have said you were monitoring Mr Cunningham
Mrs Grantham. It would have saved us a great deal of wading through red tape. But it’s obvious now
that we in the Police are going to be kept out of the loop. At least you know that something is being
done Miss” Vance directed the last statement at Helen. He made his goodbyes and the young
policeman guided the two of them out to Felicia’s car. After he’d gone back inside to “secure the
scene” the two women got into the car.
“Gran: what do you actually know of what’s been going on, and not just with Arthur?” Helen
confronted her Gran. Felicia was silent for a moment or two
“Strictly speaking; I shouldn’t, however… You will recall the Roswell incident I take it?” She quizzed.
Helen nodded. “Well it’s all related we think. I; and a number of civilian “Professionals” were
recruited into a special branch of MI6. We’ve been monitoring events all over Britain; and with our
American and Russian counterparts, we have amassed a great deal of accounts. The body of the girl
is one of the most recent of the failed returns we think. Arthur’s case was unusual. He seems to have
been targeted for remote monitoring or experimentation. I was assigned to his case as I’m related to
you. And I have to admit; in a way I’m glad for that…” She went on to explain about the discovery of
crashed craft; bodies and other stuff. Helen remained silent throughout with a blank expression.
After all she was slightly psychic…

Lance was rummaging in
the boxes of documents that had
been locked away with the
“Sarcophagus” in the room. He
noticed a sealed plastic wallet that
had discoloured with age. He
opened it and let the contents fall
onto the desk. It was a type
written sheet with a scrap of what
looked like green vellum attached.
It appeared to have originated
from some Government Agency.
The signee had a terrible stylised
scrawl of a signature. No name
was typed beside it so the person
could not be identified. The item
Reference number carried the
suffix MORT; so Lance assumed
that meant Mortuary. It was
addressed for the attention of
Operative Carmichael and carried
their Operations number. Lance
noted that the “alien” script on the
fragment bore a resemblance to
Kryst “B” dialect, but only some of
the symbols matched. The others
were different and didn’t translate in Kryst, Voodon 2 or Hagunenon Simplex. Though some symbols
from each language had their counterparts in the fragment of text. He coughed to get Sandra’s
attention.
“What do you make of this?” he asked. She took the item in her gloved hands. Holding it up to a
bright light source she used a jewellers Loupe to look closely at the smaller glyphs.
“Hm; I see what you mean. The material’s odd too. Feels like Vellum but the colour is all wrong. I
recognise the Font of the typed document. It matches some other documents that our Military
friends found in another section of the building. Mostly plans and supporting docs; for some kind of
weapons platform that was never built. “Star Wars Project” it seems to have been called” she
commented adding “Scan the fragment and send it to the Portable Hive. Maybe the Venosian Bio-
Net can come up with something” she finished saying when a loud cursing shout came from the Ante
Chamber where the sarcophagus was located. They rushed in to discover Harriman; a biologist,
wiping some sticky fluid from his face.
“Booby trap!” he spluttered “Was opening a panel on the side and must have triggered a destruct
mechanism for one of those Gel tube things. I’m going to decontamination” he added and stormed
out. The contents of the tube must have been under pressure and they’d splattered all over the floor
and adjacent wall. The rupture had also done something else. It had de-misted the crystal window
inset into the lid. The “Sarcophagus” turned out to be a stasis pod, similar in construction to the
Kryst units. However there were some marked differences. The occupant appeared to be human and
male. Judging by the clothing he had been “entombed” around the late Twenty fourth or early
Twenty fifth century (Old Calendar). That would have been during the Economy Wars aftermath.
Could this be the missing magnate from the Matsu-Hiro-Chin house?
“He seems remarkably well preserved. Hello? What’s that around his neck? Looks like another of
those Medallions.” Sandra said. Lance came over and looked.

“Whoever he is he’s not our missing magnate. Also; that style of clothing
was also popular during the early 2000’s. It’s was called a “Hoodie” I think.
This could well be one of the “Abductees”” he announced “Besides he’s
not the right ethnic grouping. He’s Western European” he added. They
went back to the other room just as Harriman returned in clean clothing
and “hosed down”.
“Ah; He’s not what I expected to see? I was expecting an alien. He must be
one of your Abductees. I’ll get some bio scans done. It looks like that Gel
Tube was storing information about the occupant; sorry about the mishap”
Harriman said and started to do some scans. Lance wondered why the
abductors had “booby trapped” the Gel Tube; but went back to collating the documentary evidence.
Sandra and he had just re-entered the room when Vig’nar L’eeskor, a junior researcher from Unthar
snorted excitedly
“This is going to blow your minds” she said and handed Lance a two sheet document. As the two of
them read it became apparent that the Government Agency that had been responsible for all the
finds they were documenting; had discovered a great deal about the mysterious Aliens that had
been doing the Abductions. They had even recovered a small craft that had crashed in an area
known then as Siberia. They had charred remains of its occupants. These had not survived the
journey in an intact state. It was assumed that the fire had been extremely intense; hence the state
of the bodies. They had also noted that the remains seemed to have large amounts of Nickel and
Cyanide in them.
“Then they couldn’t have breathed our atmosphere; but it does narrow down the number of races
they could have been” Vig’nar said looking at another document. “This says that the craft seemed to
be constructed of mostly composites, ceramics and Titanium alloys?” she continued puzzled.
“That must have confused the heck out of the investigators” Sandra added. Lance was deep in
thought. He’d started all this out of curiosity to begin with; now he was getting obsessed. The details
of this unknown race were beginning to fit together with details about the Curators; and more and
more so.
“I think it’s time we contact the Archivist in charge of the Pan expedition. She’s called Myra Halaran”
he suddenly announced…

Chapter 4
Abducted (again)

Arthur had been looking forward to getting back home. He’d never slept well in hospital. He
was looking forward to being discharged. The warmed wine he’d had with his supper started to take
effect. He was getting very drowsy; but began to
recount the last few days. He’d even signed for a trial of
a new kind of Medical Camera pill device. It was much
more compact than previous models and received its
power by broadcast radio waves. Sending a reflected
modulated signal back to the Transmitter/receiver
module; attached to a waist belt externally along with a
digital recorder. It was this arrangement that had
caused his sleeping discomfort. He was to wear it for a
month or two as the pill slowly worked its way through
his digestive tract. The tiny capsule had the means to
slow its traverse; but Arthur had not been listening as to
how it achieved this. He’d been fascinated by how small it was. It was about 20 millimetres in length
and around 6 to 7 millimetres in diameter. One end had a clear dome where the microscopic camera
was located. Overall it looked like a slightly oversized capsule. Arthur had to admit he was an
unmitigated Gadget Freak. His study/office was a testament to that; shelves and cupboards filled

with tech and gadgets he’d accumulated. Somewhere among all that lay a gold cased; Kymograph
Chronometer. It was one of the thinnest, most accurate mechanical time-pieces made to date. He
had been so afraid he’d damage it he only wore it to very special occasions. With it he had hidden an
engagement ring; he intended to propose to Helen when she got back from her Mothers. They
complimented each other so well that it seemed like the natural thing to do. He got ready for bed
and slipped between the starchy linen hospital bed sheets. He was soon soundly asleep; and
oblivious to the faint shushing sound outside the building. If he had; he would have only put it down
to the approach of one of the summer storms; the weather service had predicted to roll through the
region, sometime late evening or during the night. He was soon in REM sleep; his eyes darting
rapidly back and forth. He was dreaming again. This time he was in an open meadow; blue cloudless
skies, bright warm sunshine. He was distinctly aware that he was totally naked, but he didn’t care he
was enjoying the fresh air and sun. In the distance he could hear church bells tolling out the noonday
peel. Cattle were lowing in one of the nearby fields. The place reminded him of the country village
he’d spent his early childhood in. He began to walk toward the edge of the meadow and a stream
running along its boundary.

The streams’ crystal waters were invitingly cool; tinted blue grey with the reflection of the
sky. As he looked into the stream he saw his shadowy reflection in silhouette. Suddenly the sky
darkened and a second shadow silhouette appeared beside him. He felt fear and anguish as he saw
the face of the figure peering over his shoulder. It grasped him by the shoulders and twisted him
around to face itself. The hideous painted smile on the surgical mask brought a sense of dread to
him; the sky flashed and sparked with lightning and rattled with thunder. He felt a searing pain as
the storm intensified… He woke sweating and flung the bed sheets away. He stood up and walked
two paces then tried to scream as he felt his entire body tingle with pain; then he blacked out as a
bright eerie glow surrounded him…

Myra Halaran was in the rest area of the ships Mess. On the
table beside her was a bottle of Mescal Rosé and a drinking bowl.
She was reading Lances communiqué and going through the
holographs he’d sent. She was wise enough not to drink the Mescal
too quickly; unlike her younger colleague who now had to take a
bathroom break. She too found the “implants” intriguing. She had
also received scans of the “vellum” fragment. The script fascinated
her. She recalled the words of one of her ancestors about the
Rosetta stone. She was awaiting a “live” link up with Lunaris and her
friend when word came that the occupant of the “Lifeboat” had
been resuscitated. Her colleague returned and the two women
finished the drinking cup together. Myra stoppered the bottle and
put it in her holdall. The Mescal had been a present from a former
student of hers. He’d managed to get a job in the Sonoran Trust at
the Archive of History in Kelgar. Zane had been one of her brighter
protégés. Zyra his younger sister was the colleague that was returning from her bathroom trip.
“Remind me to hit my brother when I see him next. Maker; but that stuff packs a punch!” she said;
but cut short when she saw the look in Myra’s eyes “Now what?” she asked
“The occupant has come out of stasis. We’d better make tracks down to Med Bay!” she said casually.
The two of them left the Mess and took a trans-pad to the Med Bay corridor. Midas was waiting
outside; his expression software seemed unable to recreate consternation, instead it made him look
constipated. He was pacing back and forth. He stopped as they approached.
“Forgive me Ladies; I have just witnessed something I have difficulty in… You’d best enter Doc
Manson will explain.” he said. Then he opened the door for the two of them and they went in
puzzled. They saw Dagnor first. Behind him was Doc Manson and to their right was T’luha with an

ensign that neither of them could place. There was an isolation field in place and Lucy was tending to
someone inside on an examination table.
“Captain; why have we…?” Myra started to ask but then clasped eyes on the figure sat on the
examination table. A small side trolley was beside the Table with a number of medicines; potions
and an array of strange instruments. One of these looked like a Kryst Wand, but was shorter and
stubbier. The figure was vaguely reminiscent of a creature from the ancient Terran Archives. It
looked like an Imp as depicted in some Children’s literature, but of gentler features. It had smooth
skin like the skin of most amphibian races.
“We’ve had to recreate the Alien’s atmosphere; hence the need for the isolation field. Its encounter
suit got damaged during removal. T’luha and Ensign Brom are examining that to see how it can be
repaired” Dagnor said unfixing the two women from their locked up stance. Midas had entered
behind them so quietly that when he spoke; they both jumped.
“Are either of you two Ladies acquainted with the Machine Language known as Bachi?” he asked
Zyra responded
“Yes; I tried to learn it as part of my side study project. Not too successfully I’m afraid. It’s a
modulated tonal speech similar to the ancient system used to program computers. An audio based
Binary Translational Codex. I haven’t used it since I completed my studies, but I understand that
there are practitioners here in the fleet. One of the Flutvarn Chemists on the Hydraxia is supposed to
be so well versed; that she can program service droids by merely talking with them” was her detailed
reply.
“Shiva Mxxkkkrth?” queried Midas. Zyra replied in the positive. Midas left quickly for the Bridge.
“Captain; what does that have to do with our being summoned here?” Myra demanded
“Lucy; can you get our friend to recite what she said earlier?” Dagnor asked. Lucy made a series of
gestures and sounds and the little figure replied in a burst of sing-song tones, noise bursts and clicks.
One of the medical terminals shut down, a hand scanner flashed wildly as its logic circuits froze and
the programmable Auto clave blew yet another fuse, making the tech who was trying to fix it curse.
“Ah! I see! And I thought Kryst “B” was a hard nut to crack” Myra responded. Zyra looked around at
the havoc the short exchange had wrought. “I do not want to be around if she gives a long speech”
she thought.

The occupant had indeed turned out to be female as suggested by the lines of her encounter
suit. The helmet of which had automatically formed around her head when the Stasis Chamber was
opened. She stood about one and a quarter metres in height, was slim of body and not as developed
in the chest. That gave her the look more like that of a child than a full grown adult. That would be
proved wrong on several counts later. Her skin was Greenish-blue; her eyes almond shaped and
totally black, like those of the Ulahri. She had the nictitating membranes that were common to the
Flutvarn and Voodon races; and some ancient Earth Amphibians. Her head was not as
disproportionate as the Ulahri and Alurak, and had features distinctly un-common to both those
races. But you felt that sometime in the far distant past, there was a connection. The top of her head
had bony ridges protruding through the skin. Her mouth had thin lips that had a slight curl upward at
either side. This gave the impression that she was smiling wistfully. Myra couldn’t get the impression
of a mischievous child out of her mind. Lucy came out of the isolation field.
“I can’t understand half of the things she is saying, but I get the impression that she is called Twinkle
Twice. That’s how my translation circuits get the sonic symbols as meaning” she announced.
“I wonder if that is figurative.” Myra said thumbing her chin. The Alien; picked up the wand and
deftly adjusted the device. She then picked up a ceramic tile that Lucy had been using to mix
compounds into a paste. Lucy had applied the paste to a small wound on the Aliens right arm.
Twinkle Twice then used the fine beam from the wand to etch some glyphs on the tile. Then she
drew a diagram that seemed to represent a star system. She looked over to them and made gestures
pointing at the tile and pointing upward. Though when she spoke in her Bachi tongue; the console
next to her failed in a cascade of sparks and bangs. Doc Mason was starting to look like he was going
to erupt at the sight of expensive; delicate, and sensitive equipment giving up to the Bachi Imp.

The exploration of the installation on Pan yielded more clues as to the whereabouts of the
mysterious Curators. The alien; Twinkle Twice, was disconcertingly silent on the matter other than
habitually pointing to the star map she’d drawn. She would only eat vegetarian options; and seemed
to take great fun in fooling about with the Mechanoids Audio Sensors. She had poor Midas
reprogrammed to do a silly little dance every time he walked into the Med Lab to see Lucy. He
eventually had a chat with Hasbid and managed to filter out her sound barrage; no one other than
the Kregan Chef and the other Mechanoids could hear the ultrasonic components. This soon bored
the tiny Imp and she took to scrambling the Menu Library circuits on the Mess deck. You could never
be quite certain what you would get when you keyed in your order. Dagnor received a bowl of
Savoury Mince when he ordered a large Jekkta one day and a beaker of Cranberry juice with a slice
of lemon the next.
“Has anyone from Navigation made sense of her star map yet?” he asked angrily, three days into a
survey of yet another system
“We are narrowing down the region. It seems that a number of the star systems here have been
“Artificially” created. Sort of “Custom Built” you might say” Leeson answered
“What?” Dagnor exclaimed. Leeson explained that the Star signatures, their Quantum Identities; had
been manipulated to give them a similar size, shape and class. The Planets orbits had all been
manipulated to give at least two worlds that were compatible with whatever life form the “builders”
intended to colonize the system with. T’luha entered the bridge with the stubby wand device.
“I’ve compared this with Kryst examples. They are radically different. This one seems to be a sort of
Universal tool; whereas the Kryst units are all specialised for a small range of uses. The circuitry is
markedly different too. This uses the Pico scale modular approach. And the power source is unique.
So unique it could be used as a means of locating the Curators home world” she announced and
stopped short when she saw the image on the main viewer.

On the screen was a large image of one of the inner
planets and its moons. The planet was a Water world. It was
covered entirely by an ocean several thousand miles deep.
However this ocean was devoid of all but the simplest forms
of multicellular life. The Ocean was highly acidic; and
constantly in turmoil. What had stopped T’luha in her tracks
was the sight of an artificial array orbiting the planets
second rocky moon. “That looks like a Gantrax ship!” she
exclaimed “A Votron Class platform. I’ve only seen
holographs in the Unat Archives, and they were fragmented,
but it looks almost pristine!” she added
“That’s what we thought, but take a closer look along the
dorsal solar panels” Leeson said. T’luha had the operator scan in close. The script along the side
didn’t look like Gantrax; for that matter it didn’t look like any alien script. It looked more like…
“Egyptian Hieroglyphs; what’s going on here?” she asked
“That’s what we want to know. I’ve asked that Twinkle be brought up to the bridge. Midas and Brom
finally found a means of repairing her encounter suit. She should be less frustrated being able to get
out of the isolation field.” Leeson responded. As he spoke the doors to the bridge opened and Lucy
along with Twinkle in tow entered. The transparent globular helmet, even with its headband allowed
Twinkle the ability to see a wider field of view than for other similar suits used by other races. When
she saw the image on the screen she became very excited. Gesturing and clicking to Lucy she kept
pointing at the platform and repeating the gesture of punching the air horizontally. Lucy calmed the
tiny alien and spoke.
“It appears that Twinkle recognises that platform as being a “home from home” I believe the phrase
is. She’s excited to go there with us; she thinks more of her kind may be aboard” Lucy reported
“How is it you are able to understand her when everyone else is stumped?” Dagnor asked.

“The Voodon translation circuitry I have has a sympathetic resonance with her vocalisations. The
gestures are a form of sign language that the Kregan developed about the middle of their thirtieth
century” she replied “The Doctor wants my assistance in the Med Bay. Twinkle says she will behave
if she can take a look at our ships specifications to assess docking compatibilities” she added and
left. Midas passed her on his way in from the corridor. He stopped short when he saw Twinkle, but
some silent communication between Lucy and him seemed to put him at ease.
“Mechanoid short range coms” a Coms officer said to a puzzled looking Dagnor.
“Leeson show twinkle what she needs to see; Navigation plot a course to align us near the lateral
line of the array” Dagnor ordered. Twinkle seemed to flash rapidly through the ships specifications
then stood back. She looked over at Midas and spoke softly in a series of simple tones and clicks.
Midas looked surprised then he in turn spoke.
“I actually understood that. Captain; with a slight modification we should be able to dock a shuttle
craft with one of the Platforms secondary ports. Twinkle says if she can use a terminal in Engineering
she could work up a design for the adaptions we need to make” Midas said astonished. Twinkle
looked at Dagnor with the same enigmatic smile that she always seemed to wear; but winked the
membranes of her left eye.
“T’luha; would you do the honours? I’ll get things ready at this end. Leeson does that Biologist have
any more of those Mini-Globes?” he ordered
“I believe so sir. I see what you’re thinking. T’luha show Twinkle one of the Mini-Globes and how it
operates. If my suspicions are correct; Twinkle will not need her encounter suit, but we will need
some form of protection or a remote way of contacting whoever we find on board the platform”
Leeson responded. T’luha took Twinkle by her tiny; four fingered hand and left for Engineering.
Twinkle looked up at her and smiled wider and also did another wink…

History’s Vault
Lance and Sandra were about to leave the rest of the files to other team members when
Sandra spotted something in the Library Terminal’s index.
“There’s an entry here about an archive in a Vault on the ground floor. It’s from the period Post
Economy wars; from around the time of the First Expansion. Apparently it contains a list of all the
Missing missions. There’s a footnote; just two words… Abductions Histories” She announced
“What?” Lance said incredulously. He looked up the Vault number in the buildings site layout. “It’s in
the East quarter; and from what I can make out, that area was abandoned on orders of the President
elect of the time” he stated
“We’d better check it out ourselves. Things are on a pretty even keel here; and besides; I left our
lunches up in the main lobby” she winked.
The two of them made that excuse and headed up to the ground floor. Nobody was
watching as they slipped into the corridors that lead to the east corner vaults. They did in fact leave
their lunches in the lobby and managed to retrieve them as they passed by. The Vault they wanted
was situated at the end of a corridor on its own. The lock was an ancient mechanical push button
type. Thankfully the listing in the Library Terminal had
given one of the five accepted codes. Lance entered
the sequence and tried the handle to the door. It
creaked as it pulled back the bolt and the door swung
open. A light automatically lit up the interior which
resembled a small office. The walls had a number of
metal Shelves upon which were stacked piles and rows
of small rectangular objects. There was a desk with a
terminal of some description that had an ancient kind
of keyboard. There was a writing pad, and writing
implements on the desk also. Lance wandered over to
the shelves while Sandra attempted to get the ancient

terminal to start up. The equipment was slow; having been dormant for Maker knows how long.
Eventually the screen flickered into life and a progress graphic showed that it was loading its equally
ancient operating system.
“I’ve seen history files of these things. They were called “Hard drives” an ancient form of data
storage device; there must be thousands on these shelves alone. And there appears to be another
room next door with a lot more stacked on shelves” Lance said.
“Ancient is the operative word. Take a look at this Terminal it’s running something called Windows
10!” Sandra commented adding “It looks like those things are meant to slot into this thing here”. She
pointed to a box like device with a cable running from it to the terminal. The box thing had two slots
on the top. There was a single line of English print on the box by one of the slots. It read “Hot
Swapping of Drives permitted”. Sandra looked at Lance. He shrugged his shoulders saying
“I’m not sure either, but… hang on I think I have an English Phrase dictionary in the Memory of my
Pad”. He looked up the term and was rewarded with a concise explanation, “Hard drives or panel
circuits can be plugged in and removed with power still applied to the device” he read out loud “That
must mean…” he reached up to the devices on the top shelf and selected two at random “… Put

these into the slots and see what happens” he added. Sandra inserted
one of the devices into one of the slots and pressed a button that lit up
when she did. The screen on the terminal displayed a graphic with a list
of options. She selected using some arrow keys on the keyboard “Open
or Examine files” and pressed the “Enter” key as instructed. The display
changed to a larger window with a list of files and she selected one
called “Junction City incident” and lights flashed on the box as the file
was loaded up. It was a Police report of an incident in a place called
Junction City; Oregon, wherever that had been. It detailed the strange
encounter by one of the City’s Police Patrol vehicles with an individual
who had been found wandering around on a road near the City limits. The Man was completely
naked except for a strange head band that had glowing jewels inset into it. The Officers had thought
the man was intoxicated or under the influence of some drug. They had taken him to a local clinic to
get examined. He was rambling on about having been taken aboard some strange craft by small men
in surgical masks. They had put the head band on him and ordered him to lie on an examination
table. Apparently they had done various despicable things to his body while he had remained
conscious the whole time. He had managed to break free of their control somehow and; while the
men were distracted at something on a screen, escaped from the craft.
“The report has been heavily annotated with numbered points. These correspond to the foot notes
at the end of the report; and we’ve seen that stamped logo elsewhere too” Sandra said. Lance read
some of the annotation footnotes. The Logo Sandra was referring to consisted of the three letters F,
B, and I in the middle of a concentric set of circles. Examples of this had been stamped on other
documents in the room they had come from.
“It would appear that a Government Agency had been tasked to look into the incidents and report
their findings directly to the “President”” Lance announced “That would explain the need for
secrecy. If too many of the reports got out to the General Public… Mass panic could ensue. I wonder
if we could get all these devices and that terminal sent to Lunaris central Archive for the Hive to
interface and analyse the data on them?” he mused aloud.
“You’re right there’s just too much for us to check ourselves. I think I know someone who might be
able to help” Sandra replied and dialled a code into her personal coms unit…

Waking up in a strange place at the wrong time
Arthur woke slowly; he found that he was unable to move. He recognised this and his
surroundings from one of his nightmares. He was back in that room on that table. He could hear the
clicking and humming voices of his captors nearby. He was naked apart from the system of restraints
that kept him from moving. With effort he found he could move his head slightly from side to side.

This afforded a view of one of his captors examining his clothing and communicating its findings with
another; taller individual just on the periphery of his vision. No; not taller, the individual was on
some sort of mobile platform, with an array of devices on mechanical appendages. Another of the
ghastly masked individuals came over to him. It was then he
realised that the mask was some sort of breathing
apparatus surrounded by a transparent domed helmet with
an encircling head band. The face looking down on him was
not that unpleasant, but the black almond shaped eyes
creeped him out. This one had a strange stubby looking
wand in one of its hands. It wasn’t like the other wand he’d
seen before. The creature was holding this wand by a crystal
ball arrangement. There appeared to be bands near this
globe and the tip of the wand looked metallic. He couldn’t
focus properly; and he realised that he was being put into
some kind of semi sleeping state. The individual placed the tip of the wand on his chest and he felt a
stinging sensation. Before he blacked out; Arthur managed to see the individual hold up what looked
like part of his lung.

He came to in a white lit room on a low; flat, padded chaise long. He remembered this from
one of his nightmares too. He quickly checked his chest. There was the faintest of scars where the
creature had removed part of his lung. He felt sick and automatically reached for a bowl on a small

cabinet that was at the side of the chaise long. A click and a hum
from across the room caught his attention as he vomited. This
individual seemed to be different from the others. Arthur got the
impression that she was female; but couldn’t put his finger on why
he did. “She” came over and took his hand and placed it on the
head band. He suddenly had a series of images flash through his
mind. It was a quick resume of what had happened after he’d
blacked out. The “Doctor” had temporarily removed part of his
lung to get a “model” to work from so that his natural “Air” could
be recreated. They’d returned his organ tissue intact and repaired
the incision. That eased Arthurs’ mind a little. It also explained why he had no problem breathing
normally. The little alien left him to recover for a while. This afforded Arthur more time to assess his
surroundings. Apart from the chaise long and the stark white walls. The room seemed to be a
recreation of his Study/Office from his home. There was no computer though; instead, on his
reproduced Georgian desk was a writing slope, complete with appropriate implements. It was as if
the aliens had read his mind, but had mixed up his knowledge of antiques with actual memories.
Other inconsistencies laid more weight to that. A statue of Apollo; a pedestal with a model of a Rolls
Royce Silver Ghost, which upon closer inspection turned out to be a miniature of his Great, Great
Uncles Vintage car, and was fully working. The detail was incredible. Scaled up to real size it would
be a pristine; showroom ready example. A filing cabinet came under his scrutiny next. That shouldn’t
be there, that was from Helen’s Flat in Kensington. The contents had not been reproduced in any
detail; just those items he remembered seeing had. He remembered that she’d studied Art at
Cambridge with the vanity of becoming an itinerant Artist. However reality had changed that
outcome to one of becoming a Commercial artist. That was how they had first met. He had been
looking for a partner to set up an Independent Consultancy. He needed to break from the yoke of
the firm he was working for. They didn’t appreciate his talent and imagination. She had been looking
for a place to start her career. With the help of her Father; in the form of enough of an investment,
they had set up in Oxford originally, their joint practice. After some large client work came their way
they moved to London central. Over time they had just become close and… Well the outcome he’d
wanted didn’t look like it was going to happen now. He wondered what she was going through now;
and suddenly felt an outburst of anger. The little Alien came rushing back in and did a gesture that

calmed him. Arthur suddenly realised that she must be a kind of Nurse. He was in an Alien Hospital…
Worse; it must be some kind of teaching Hospital and he was a Guinea Pig…

…The link with the Fleet was soon set up and Lance and Sandra waited for the image to
clear. They were back at Lunaris Central Archive. Myra’s face greeted them.
“The message you sent really intrigued me, and judging by what we’ve discovered here you may well
be right about the link with the Curators. I’m sending you a data burst with what we have so far.
Sandra Marsh isn’t it?” Sandra nodded “I read your work on Species Histories and Legends.
Impressive; especially the way you linked species development as well. I take it that you are in
charge of the works being done in the Fort Knox archives. I would appreciate a resume of what you
have to date. If all goes as expected here; we may end up working more closely together. We have
limited time due to the distances involved so please use data bursts for further communication.
Lance it has been so good to see you; and I like the new look it…” the image began to fade and the
last words were lost. The link ended; Lance had expected this, also that the visual element could only
be one way. Myra looked more mature than he remembered, and he was sure that was Zyra
hovering behind her.
“I didn’t know you were so well connected Lance; Myra Halaran no less. Was that Zyra Helgrav-
Gyron? I knew her older Brother Zane when I was at the Academy. She was also a promising
student.” Sandra said after a few moments.
“Our families practically grew up together. She’s older than me of course. I think of her as the older
sister I never had. Zyra on the other hand… That was purely adolescent sexual attraction I assure
you” he responded blushing.
“So there’s a darker side to that cherubic face” she giggled. The two of them collected the recording
of the data burst and set about collating the data for the return burst. A young trainee recorder
came rushing in almost breathless
“Sir; Madam, I think you may want to see what the Hive has found on one of the ancient storage
devices” he managed to say between gasps. He followed them to the Central Archive Hive room.
Ron Land the Head of the Archive and Brunner Helvard from the Lunaris Council of Elders were
watching a reconstruction of a “Video” file found on one of the hard drives. It portrayed a group of
experiments being conducted on members of various races. Ron Land spoke first
“Apparently that Government agency… the F.B.I. discovered an alien recording device and somehow
managed to get this conversion of the data on it. From their appearance they look similar to the
Ulahri. We’ve managed to identify seven of the races the “experiments” were conducted on.
Thankfully there’s no sound; as some of these surgeries look exceedingly painful for the “Guinea
Pigs”” He said calmly. As he spoke a sequence appeared of the removal of a gland from a Denorgan
female. She appeared to be awake during the whole procedure. Being reptilian; the Denorgan don’t
show expression in the same way as mammalian races. But this looked painful in the extreme. The
aliens examined glands; making scans and comparisons etc. then proceeded to reinstate the organs
back into the Denorgan females’ body.
“That looks like a shorter; stubbier version of a Kryst wand
device. And that other instrument… I’ve seen that before.
It’s similar to a Gantrax hand held scanner” Lance exclaimed
and he checked his Pad’s memory files and produced an
image “See. The tool is programmable to scan for a variety
of energy signatures. I can’t quite see the settings but… Ah;
there! It’s set to read encephalic trace signatures” he added
Brunner’s ears pricked up at that.
“Does that mean they were scanning for Telepathic ability? I
wonder. And you’re quite wrong about the Gantrax
connection young man. If the Temporal signatures of this
recording are correct this was long before the Gantrax ever ventured near this Galaxy” he said.
Lance felt humbled; and backed down to the Elder’s knowledge. They continued to watch

experiment after experiment, some truly gruesome. Then suddenly Sandra shouted “Hold it there;
that Human male. Lance that’s the individual in the Sarcophagus” she exclaimed. She quickly
explained about the side research Lance had been doing and about the discoveries in Fort Knox.
They watched the next three sequences carefully. A graphic of a set of glyphs in the top right corner
appeared to show a clock and date arrangement. The three sequences were spread over a number
of periods. In one sequence a piece of lung was deftly removed; examined and put back. In another
they appeared to be harvesting cells from the poor man’s genitalia. The male Terran members in the
audience winced. In the last sequence it looked like they were implanting something in the left
hemisphere of his cranial cavity. Sandra ordered the sequence stopped. She notices something on
the “Surgeon’s” hand.
“That symbol on the glove; It’s from the pictorial version of Bachi” she announced It is sometimes
used by the natives of Androbar in the Salidar system. They use it to denote one of their Sky Gods…
Bethsush!” she said “Now some of the symbols on that fragment are beginning to make sense” she
added
“If you are referring to the story from the Machine world of Katrine about their creator myth…”
Lance started to say but stopped short changing to “… Oh! I get it! The alien language may have
three components! Clever!” he explained what he and Sandra had just realised. The aliens; could be
the Curators or one of a related species that are present in the histories of many worlds spread
across the two galaxies. It had been noted that symbols and glyphs seemed to recur in many
languages. It’s was always noted also that the advance races on those world carried the genetic
markers to allow Telepathic development. “…This could point to a root language that has; not only
the written and sonic components, but very probably has a Telepathic component… Like Kryst “B”
The Kryst claim that their ancestors were taught their language by Space Visitors; long go!” he
finished. Ron Land and the others from the Archive stood dumbfounded for a moment… Then all hell
broke loose with orders flying left and right. Orders were given to get the man in the Sarcophagus
out and resuscitated as soon as possible.
“Sandra; we need to get this to the fleet and the Endeavour” Lance said as the two of them slipped
quietly away. She nodded in agreement. It was then that they both realised they had completely
skipped their lunch… Again! ...

Chapter 5
“Tread softly among these stars; for they are as like unto sleeping lions”

Dagnor was going over what they had encountered on the Platform. The experience had
been a mind bending one to say the least. Right now the Rest of the fleet were far behind them
doing further research on the platform. The Endeavour was speeding into the region at the rim of
the Third Galaxy. He mulled over what had happened after the shuttle had docked. Twinkle’s

adapter worked flawlessly. The doorway had what
appeared to be a wall mounted version of a “Listening
device” as Twinkle had called the Medallion around her
neck. As Leeson had surmised; once on board the
platform Twinkle shut down the helmet of her encounter
suit. The others had opted for Flutvarn Encounter suits;
Untharan Shielding systems and breathers from Kelgar in
the Sonoran Trust. These fitted over the mouth nose and
neck; just behind the Untharan force fields that protected
the wearers head. Twinkle had opened the door with a
series of clicks and tones. A sort of Airlock had been
behind that. They waited as the chamber normalised to the Platforms atmosphere before passing
through an inner door. The interior of the Platform was dimly lit and it took a while for the Terran,
Flutvar, and others to adjust. Midas simply adjusted his low light level sensor array to compensate.
The interior was fairly stark. With what looked like polished Black Basalt walls and floors. They were

so black it was as if space had been brought inside and all the starts had been left outside. Strange
reflections and light patterns scattered around the corridors. Sounds could be heard in the distance.
Low buzzes, clicks and hums. Twinkle confidently strode
forward and beckoned them to follow. Suddenly; at the
end of a corridor they had turned left into, was another
small figure. It was peeking round from a lighter coloured
transverse corridor. Only half of its face and form could
be seen; that being faintly reflected in the polished black
surface of the adjacent wall. It was another alien like
Twinkle. It was naked and appeared to be obviously
male; and marginally taller than Twinkle. She Stopped
and issued a series of whistles and tones. The other being
smiled broadly; and came forward to meet them running
into Twinkles’ open arms. The male had a growth of fuzzy
fur-like hair on the crown of its head; Twinkle was
smooth there, but had a faint narrow band of the same
wispy hair on her upper chest encircling her neck and
shoulders. The male seemed reticent towards the team;
seeming to want to stay close to and cling to Twinkle. It
was now that something really remarkable happened.
She pulled down a hidden mechanism on the front of her
suit and took out of it a thinner pair of headbands and
put one on herself and one on the male.
“Forgive me for not using your language earlier. But I had to be certain that you could be trusted”
came Twinkle’s soft melodious voice… in perfect Interlac! “I had to destroy that star system back
there on orders of my… Council?” she said hesitantly continuing with “We were not sure how you
would treat us after how our ancestors treated yours!” she finished letting the announcement sink
in.
The Male stepped forward and did a little head bow and spoke in a slightly deeper voice
“Thank you for returning our Mother to us” he said continuing “you need not worry; no life was
harmed in the destruction. The star had become unstable and would have exploded spreading
harmful radiations throughout the sector” he finished and turned back to Twinkle who seemed to
exchange some kind of telepathic message with him and the male ran away down the lighter
corridor to a chamber at the end. The party followed at a more sedate pace. As they walked Twinkle
explained that Zuul and the others were her Children. She was older than she appeared. Their
society was organised around a Matriarchy.
“What did you mean about your ancestors and ours?” T’luha asked.
“We are ashamed of our ancestor’s behaviour toward other kind. We are their descendants and
therefore bear the responsibility for their outrageous behaviour and the results of that behaviour”
she replied enigmatically…

… The Endeavour was approaching a star system similar to the one that the platform was
found in. The Curators were supreme builders and architects; skilled at maximising what a space
could achieve. Their engineering skills would be the envy of the Gods themselves. Is it any wonder
that primitive races viewed them as Gods!
“Sir; we have the target location on long range sensors” Ensign Truft; junior helmsman, informed
“Well; put it on main viewer. Let’s see what we’re up against Mr Truft” Dagnor said curtly. The image
that confronted all on the Bridge was awe inspiring. Before them was a huge; massive star in the
centre of a system of twelve planets all in perfectly symmetrical orbits. Everything here was on a
truly gigantic scale. They were headed for a planet the size of some suns; third from the Star. You

could lose hundreds of Terra sized worlds in its volume. Yet if what they had been informed was so;
this world was artificial and hollow, a machine rather than a planet.
“Sensors; even this far out, are reading standard gravity plus zero point zero one.” Leeson remarked
amazedly.
“If all of these worlds are as they said; artificial… And this is where the Oxygen breathers are; or
rather their descendants, then… just where do we begin?” Myra said…

… Arthur awoke again in his room; there was some kind of commotion going on outside. This
time he was lying on a reproduction of the bed from his hospital room. He wandered over to the
door. Before he had a chance to press the opener it slid open. One of the aliens confronted him, it
was a male called Karda. He seemed frantic.
“Arthur remain calm and follow me” he said in immaculate English. “To use a phrase from your
world “We’re Bugging out!” The Council has informed us that our activities have been noticed by the
“Others” and we are preparing all specimens for transit to a safe location. The enemy will be here
soon and we must leave no obvious traces behind. I’ve been asked to tell you that our Command are
grateful for your assistance and we we’ll retrieve you as soon as we can” Karda said hurriedly and
virtually dragged Arthur down the corridor of the facility to the Sarcophagus room
“Who? … What?” Arthur tried to say but stopped short at the site that confronted him. Humans;
reptilians, and other species specimens were being put into individual Sarcophagi. He was bundled in
one of the units and before he could react; the lid sealed and the field initiated that would hold him
in stasis. He had time to reflect on how his “captors” had treated him once their initial experiments
had been completed. They had treated him with dignity and respect. They even changed the
environment of his room to be more realistic. They seemed fascinated by “Terrans” as they called
Humans from Earth. The aliens called themselves “Volanz”. It wasn’t what their species was called it
referred to their class status in their society. Arthur got the impression it translated more as they
were a group of “rebel” scientists. They had eventually told him of the why and the where; but just
what their final aims were as regards to some of the specimens they’d collected, he couldn’t fathom.
The race to which the Volanz belonged had modified their DNA so much over countless eons; that
they could now no longer reproduce normally. Their efforts were concentrated in finding suitable
“Donor” races that could result in a Hybridised form to perpetuate their kind and their vast
knowledge. He had been made aware that the Human species seemed to be one of the most
promising.

After the initial “rough housing” he had been treated respectfully. The aliens always wore
breathing apparatus when in the areas of the “Oxygen breathers” as they referred to most of the
specimens. He had managed to get to know some of them by name. The female “Nurse” was called
Jarme; there was Karda, he was one of the “Guards”, the terms were relative, there being no real
class structure other than family in their society. Arthur had gathered that it was a Matriarchy,
women ruled the roost. The “Doctor” an older female it turned out; was called Hutta’ Gar. The last
syllable was a sort of marker or term of respect. He’d learned that there were six such terms in
common use. These were; Gar, Nun (pronounced Nu an), Uul, Mer, Yem, and Thu. All the Gar’s were
medical and technical, Nun was the class used for Engineers, and Uul were political and legal. Mer
and Yem seemed to be general population seniors; and Thu was used for explorers. All the terms
denoted seniority. There was one other term; used only for ruling classes. Kang; was the suffix that
was applied to the Matriarchy.

He’d been told what had happened after he was taken from the Hospital. The Volanz had
monitored those around him closely and remotely. The woman; Arthur was always referred to as the
man, had been disturbed by his departure. The Volanz had a difficult time understanding Human
emotions. They had feelings, but nothing as intense as the “animal” feelings of lesser races. It took
Arthur a while to understand that they were referring to Helen, from the descriptions he got from
their “mind transfers” he thought they were referring to Helen’s Grandmother; Felicia. Arthur liked
her in an odd sort of way. She was a forceful; determined woman so it came as no surprise that the

Volanz called her Felicia Kang. Helen was called Woman Yem. Arthur had chuckled at that thinking
of how Helen would have reacted. He had tried to explain to Karda; but the alien had no concept of
Human humour so didn’t get the irony. He was satisfied in the end that she hadn’t given up hope
that she would see Arthur again. As it turned out another team of Volanz had “acquired” her as a
Specimen. She was taken one summer evening a year after Arthur. However that team had “bugged
out” for Hylon not too shortly after that. Hylon was an “artificial” world designed for long term study
of “Oxygen breathers”. Hopes were held that the world would become a “generational” colony. The
Volanz did their best to synthesize many food and dietary requirements for the specimens, but relied
on them to help develop things like taste and textures. They were caring “zoo keepers” after all.
When Arthur had heard about Helen being taken to Hylon he
had requested that he could be sent there at some point to be
reunited with her. But initially the Volanz refused; there
appeared to be some sort of friction between the two teams.
Arthur had completely forgotten about that till now. Probably
down to some kind of impressed amnesia on their part. He had
been in a Sarcophagus before so knew what to expect, but it
still freaked him out a little. He got the impression that all this
haste in preparing the specimens for transit meant that their
journey was being forced on them by external pressures. He
managed to glimpse a group of Volanz who were armed with stun wands. They seemed to be in a
hurry. The field cut in and he was oblivious to all that happened next, but he had heard Hylon
mentioned before he went into stasis…

… The team entered the chamber at the end of the light corridor. Inside was a large domed
room with instrument consoles around the outer walls. Various doors lead off at intervals and a
central hexagonal console surrounded by a number of low benches and tables. There were eight
occupants in the room. The aliens appeared to be of a similar age to Zuul though a couple seemed to
be younger. Two more entered from one of the doors. Twinkle greeted all of them individually as
she had Zuul. There were five other females and five other males. All were naked apart from
headbands or in the case of the last two to enter; silvery tabards with tool belts. After the greetings
were over Twinkle explained about the pride of children in front of them. She explained about their
ancestors. How they had modified themselves so much they could no longer reproduce normally;
like the Unat and The Osir they sought new means to perpetuate their species, and some new means
to pass on their vast accumulated knowledge. Eventually; thanks in part to the discoveries made
during the “gatherings”; the choice boiled down to two options. One was to de-evolve; the other
was to create a new species to take on the mantle and move on. A decision could not be made and a
conflict began. Two factions with two agendas; diametrically opposed. The group to which Twinkle
and her family belonged were the descendants of the group in favour of de-evolution. They
originally called themselves the Aradash; however over time they realised that they could not do
what they needed without the genetic data of an “evolving” race. So; like their opponents; they set
out to find viable specimens. Their opponents called themselves the Hurabash; and collected and
manipulated the DNA of many species. In the process they created Monsters; demons and half-

breeds, or altering the brain capacity and mental abilities. The Aradash
found these practices abhorrent and shunned away from the regions that
the Hurabash spread into. It was the Hurabash that had aided the
evolution of one of the Universes’ most hated species. They had created
the Gantrax; originally to be intelligent slaves. But they had not expected
the speed at which the insects evolved. The Hive mind was almost
impossible to control or manipulate so the Hurabash banished them to a
galaxy and a system surrounded by energy clouds and barriers. They
thought the prison impregnable. They were wrong and the scourge of the

Gantrax horde was unleashed on an unsuspecting universe. The Aradash in the meantime tried on
the most part to “blend” with the race cultures; hide their presence and work behind the scenes.
Over time there presence filtered into the cultures of many worlds. They gathered the knowledge
they needed slowly manipulating their own DNA to alter and correct the changes made by their
ancestors. Eventually they became a less evolved species. They also managed to retain the ability to
manipulate the basic quantum energies of matter with the power of their own minds. They realised
new; younger races and forms of life were coming to the fore; including the Humans, the race that
had helped them so much. So a pact was formed to protect the younger races from the ravages of
the Universe; to keep examples of the pure origin species; so that, should the worst happen, a
repopulation could be set in motion. Over many millennia the new races made peace with the
descendants of the Hurabash. They found that they could interbreed and that lead to the race that
Twinkle and her family were part of. They called themselves the Eloi.

They told the crew of the Endeavour and the crews of the fleet about the refuge world
where the descendants of the taken now lived. How they were ashamed of their ancestor’s actions
and as a means of forgiveness; they gave them the “Keys to the Font of the Future”. An object was
given to Midas this he was told was part of the keys; the other they had hidden on Earth many
millennia ago. It was protected from damage by a means that they could not translate into a form
that the newer races could understand, however Zuul described
what they were looking for.
“Midas; I hand you one of the great keys to the Font. I hope that
your friends will find the other key. When they do I will show you
how to manipulate the great beam. With that you can bring the key
to this platform.” He handed Midas a crystal object with embedded
symbols in side. He handled the object and turned it around to view
it from all angles. As he did so he received a series of impressed
mental images. He passed the object to Zyra and she immediately
received a mental flash of a building; one that had recently become
familiar to her.
“Myra; we need to contact Lance and the others. The other part of
the key is somewhere in Fort Knox!” she exclaimed…

… Arthur felt the now familiar sensations of coming out of stasis. It would be a while before
he could speak and respond. But he could hear and feel just now. He was aware that there were a
number of people around him; at least one of them belonged to a race he’d met while at the
“facility”; there was the faint cinnamon scent with just a hint of musk that denoted an Untharan
male. He assumed; until his eyesight returned properly, that he was on Hylon. He tried to focus
harder on the voices around him. He could here six distinct individuals; at least one had a slightly
mechanical edge to it. An android perhaps; he’d heard his captors say that they occasionally used
them as overseers in some of their “facilities”. Two seemed female and human; though he didn’t
quite recognise the language at first, he would later recall being taught it by his captors using one of
their “educators”. The voices were in fact speaking a form of Interlac. The others were definitely
male and one appeared to have a strange sibilance. One of his fellow “guinea pigs” in the group he
had been in used the same kind of lilting mix of consonants and vowels sounds she was a … Flutvarn.
He laid back letting his body recover slowly as he’d been taught. He was almost slipping into a light
sleepiness when a scent brought him back to alertness. His vocal chords were still numb so he
couldn’t speak. He wanted to call out “Karda voork’an Loor tug? Geer rathra Hylon” but stopped as

he realised that the scent was not of his familiar guard. It
was close; but there were subtle differences. Besides their
voice was coming from the wrong height and didn’t have the
same resonance. He’d have to wait till he recovered
properly. He felt someone place a pill on his tongue;

practiced at this he swallowed the pill as he knew it was meant to speed up his reactions, then came
the same bitter sweet liquid. He imagined in his mind’s eye the table with the pills and potions that
some of the “inmates” jokingly called the “Suicide Kit”…

… A member of a firm of
Solicitors and Attorneys was
present. The company had only
recently been allowed to handle
cases in the Unity. They were based
in The Sonoran Trust. They were
called “Hatpin, Needle & Thread”.
He was junior partner in the firm;
Mark Thread, his two superiors and
partners were Jane Needle and
Simon Hatpin. He held out his
business card to Lance who took it
and examined it.
“I’m sorry it has to be like this; but the Central Unity Legate wants the “Abductees” rights to be
upheld. Forgive me for being a little slow on the uptake; I’m new to handling Unity cases and my
partners want me to get a handle on the differences between the Legal systems. I’m the junior
partner so they sent me. They reckon I need the experience” he smiled
“It’s OK; all of us are a little new to this. I understand you handled a case recently of a recovery in
the Gorza Region. A Buraxin freighter found a similar Stasis Chamber. The occupant was a Genovan
female who had been missing for around twelve millennia; you and your firm found out that she had
a vast fortune and estate left in legacy and seized by a corrupt official. You proved right of
succession by some deft means. If you’d had the knowledge we are now finding it may well have
been easier. I suppose it’s only right that these people have some kind of legal representation. The
Unity prides itself on being fair and just. I hope that your records from your original corporation on
Terra before the Economy Wars help us find out who this person is” Lance commented as they
walked into the recovery centre at Lunaris Central Medical. Hatpin, Needle & Thread had their
origins in the great legal organizations of Earth’s past. When the first tentative expansion had begun;
the original founders of the Company of Hurt & Brannigan decided that they needed to have
“Outreach” franchises in the new colonies and regions. When the areas that were absorbed into the
Dark Empire fell out of the Unity control; four of the “Outreach” franchises, theirs among them,
ended locked away from the rest of the great Law houses. They adapted their practises to suit the
“Negative” regime. But now that the Sonoran Trust was on trading and treatise terms with the Unity;
it seemed only right and proper that the Legal practises and the Legislature of the former Dark
Empire be brought “up to speed”. Hence Mark Thread and juniors from the other Law franchises
were sent to learn the Unity Legal system and act as ambassadors of trust.

Sandra was looking over the finds that had been placed in the Sarcophagus with the man.
There was a shorter form of those Wand devices; what looked like some of the Kryst Data Crystal
Disks, but these were hexagonal. The other items were an eclectic collection. A chess piece made of
a form of ancient plastic; a medallion that had been around his neck, some coins of a long since
defunct monetary system, an ancient digital watch which was now a collectable item, it was also in
mint, working condition. Some writing materials including a fountain pen similar to the ones found in
Fort Knox; the “Note Pad” had some written pages that were in a condensed form of English
originally known as “Shorthand”. They would have to wait till the Hive decoded this as it was no
longer used except by some primitive rim colonies that had decided to regress to a simpler society.
There were some squares of a material that seemed to be based on a plant fibre. Other coloured
fibres had been used to create some kind of Monogram in one corner consisting of three characters.

But the rolled up item was of more interest. That was what she had carefully unrolled and had asked
one of the techs to carefully scan the individual pages. She knew what it was as they had examples
from Fort Knox; it was called a Newspaper. Lance and Mark walked in on her as she put the page
images up on the main viewer.
“Aha: I recognise that. We still have them as a means of disseminating news to a wide populace.
Some people in the Sonoran Trust still like to read things on paper” Mark announced making Sandra
jump. Lance introduced him and explained that the Unity Legislate had hired Mark to look out for
the “Abductees’” legal rights. Sandra shook the young man’s hand
“So you still use Newsprint? A primitive means of communicating, but… Anyway: this one was found
with our friend in the recovery wing. It was rolled up and in the Sarcophagus beside him. We think it
has some relation to the time period he was abducted” she said. Mark nodded in agreement. The
paper was a local Gazette. It was published for the Wiltshire area and this seemed to be a local
version or a Parish Paper. It concerned a place called Ludgershall. The main story was about the
discovery of a huge crack in a local lane. In which the smouldering remains of a young girl had been
found. This was a follow up piece on that incident saying the identity of the corpse and how the
council had found traces of radioactive compounds in the walls of the crack.
“Sounds pretty grim” Sandra noted
“There’s a day and date in the top right corner of the front page; it looks like an old calendar… Yes it
is; it’s from the early twenty first century old calendar” Lance said. Mark read the pages carefully.
There was a picture further in about a disappearance from hospital in a nearby town. Local law
enforcement were seeking public assistance in finding the man; one Arthur Styles-Cunningham.
There was a fuzzy photograph of the man. Sandra asked the local Hive to adjust resolution to see if
the image could be cleared up. A few seconds later the picture was sharpened and clear
“That’s our man! Now we have a name we can search the Terran data base” Lance said gleefully.
Mark said nothing but pulled out a comslink unit. He deftly typed Arthur’s name, Ludgershall and
Wiltshire into the unit and pressed a series of buttons.
“I have a copy of the Company records Hive on board my cruiser. If I’m correct the original Law
practice took over the ownership of some Legal firms in that region; long before the Economy wars.
If our man had any dealings with them; then there will be a record. One thing we legal types are
good at is keeping records. We have a wait though as the archive is compressed and sections have to
be decompressed to scan them. Is anyone else hungry?” He said…

Ron Land had received the request from The
Endeavour to look for an object in a vault somewhere in the
lower levels of the west wing of Fort Knox. The description
was slightly vague as to what to look for other than an odd
transparent disc with a protrusion in the centre. He’d already
seen a number of metal objects that could match the
description. But Myra Halaran had been insistent that it was
crystal. He’d rounded up a group of junior Archivists and was
leading them down to the level that had been indicated. The elevators had suddenly decided to all
drop to the lower levels and stay there; when a Military rookie had inadvertently smashed the glass
of a wall mounted box device. A series of alarm bells and sounds had burst into life and all but
deafened everyone. The commotion was resolved in due Military fashion by shooting a console that
seemed to regulate the buildings power. However that resulted in the entire building being plunged
into darkness. Governor Hedwig had taken great pleasure in reprimanding the Commanding officer
for the stupidity of his decision. Emergency lighting was set in place and work continued. The
Elevators were another matter, even when power was restored they would not budge. A six word
security key was needed and each word was eight letters long. An ex “Safe Cracker” from Hedebar
City in the Sonoran Trust was called in to help. Ron didn’t hold out much hope. They exited the
stairwell on the correct level and proceeded to the vaults that the object could possibly be located

in. He took one of the vaults and each of the other three team members took another. Armed with
the description they set about looking through indexes and catalogue entries; but eventually
resorted to just checking each box or drawer individually. About two hours in; a shout came from
one of the juniors. They all went to that vault room. The junior in this case was Tress W’Gurn; a
Buraxin exchange student, she was holding out a disc
shaped object that did seem to fit the requirements. It
was about 15 centimetres in diameter, had a yellow
metal outer rim, a crystal surface and a conical bump
made of some silvery metal in the centre. There
seemed to be some kind of layered structures within
the crystal, but they were so fine you would need an
electron Microscope just to make out the larger
sections. Bridging the metal parts with the palm of the
hand set it off glowing. Ron took a holograph of the object and had it relayed to the Endeavour.
The reply was not quite what he expected.
“We have the objects location. Place it on the floor and stand well back” T’luha ordered. Ron had
this done and the team retreated up against the walls of the Vault. There was a glow developing
around the object then a bright glaring flash and the object was GONE!
“Thank you we’ll be back in touch. Good work all” was all that Captain Rongad said in response. Ron
and the team were left to wonder just what had happened. Tess had some documents in her hand.
They appeared to be receipts of transfer. One of the origins read Roswell New Mexico…

… Arthur was sat facing his “Attorney”. He had been informed of where he was; that had
come as a shock, but the time scale of his “sleep” had come as an even greater one. In return he
explained about the Hurabash and the Aradash; how his captors had treated him and the other
“Abductees”, that name was going to take some getting used to. He understood why the Unity
wanted this young man to fight for his “rights”. But what he couldn’t; or rather wouldn’t understand,
was why he’d survived, how had he survived and particularly how his Stasis unit had ended up in
Fort Knox? Here he was a survivor from a lost time and place; he felt so out of sync it unnerved him.
Mark was speaking some legal nonsense; Arthur was barely listening when a name popped him back
to full alert.
“… So Felicia Grantham had the Banking Corporation of Hiumitsu International keep your estate in a
solvent, profitable condition. That corporation eventually merged with one of the founding family
owned corporation that founded the Matsu-Hiro-Chin Dynasty. It would appear Mr Styles-
Cunningham that you are an exceedingly wealthy man even by current standards. I would say that
you could quite easily afford to buy yourself a small planetary system. There are also records of the
artworks you did…” Mark was droning when Arthur interrupted him
“If you are referring to the Graphic Art projects I did for Clients; that was my job; I’m not a real artist.
Besides; I had a partner, they were a joint effort and they could hardly be called “art”” he scoffed
“On the contrary… Arthur; not many works survive from that period; your work was turned into a
cult by many of the later generations of… as you would have referred to them, Comic Book Artists.
Your style was copied and used to create a whole sub culture of Graphic Commercialism. Some of
your surviving creations sold for trillions in the currency of your time. I believe the President Elect of
the Unity has one of your originals hanging in the stateroom of the Unity 1… a piece for a long
extinct company called Microsoft!” Mark proudly commented “An Ancestor of mine was responsible
for securing it. We have to handle your discovery discretely; if the media circus gets wind of any of
this…” He added
“You still have Paparazzi today! Why does that not disturb me” Arthur responded sarcastically. Over
the coming weeks Arthur was brought up to speed with many millennia of history. The Ulahri
education alcoves were a god send in helping him to get all that history into his Twenty First Century
brain. In return; the Unity Archivists and the rest gained knowledge that had been lost, they gained

knowledge of the Aradash that was invaluable. Quite what the descendants of them meant by the
behaviour of their ancestors was a mystery. From what they gained from Arthur the Aradash treated
him and other species with dignity and respect. But more would come to light when this mysterious
world Hylon was explored. The Endeavour had been “Burst” contacted with the events on Lunaris,
the discoveries about the abductees and about the finding of Arthur. It was decided that the fleet
would remain at the platform and the Endeavour would travel the great distances faster. Just how
fast would come about when the crew received the second part of the “Key”…

… “So…unless I’m completely missing the mark. This Great Beam is a long distance
transporter system” Midas said
“I suppose you could say that Midas Thu; but it’s a bit more than that. It can also be used as a
navigation beacon through Quantum Slipstream Channels. I think I can convey the principle better
with Mind Flash” Hebor; another of Twinkles Children responded and he “flashed” Midas with the
full description of the operating principles of Quantum Slipstreaming.
“It’s like folding space into permanent tunnels, where as our Fold drives are only transitory. Is that
right?” He asked
“Close enough; there are some differences in the way the fields are maintained, but… Yes; that’s
pretty much right. If you use the beam as a “Guide line” then your journey time will end up being
greatly reduced, because of the interaction of the two field systems. The repulsion would send you
along the Slipstream at speeds even we Eloi have never mastered. I envy you as I cannot go along
with you “Mother” needs me here to help maintain the platform.” Hebor replied with a slight tone
of disappointment in his voice. The Eloi had been extremely cooperative; especially since the crew
of the Endeavour had returned the complete key to them. It turned out to be a literal key. It
unlocked the Eloi equivalent of the Platform’s Hive. It was more than just an Artificial Intelligence it
was a vast trans-dimensional database. The Knowledge of countless generations of Aradash and Eloi
was too vast to fit into the physical space of the platform; so it was spread across many parallel
dimensions. All of these were in close proximity to each other and locked within a Quantum
Tesseract. The original Curator race’s crowning invention.
“All the knowledge of the known universe; and then some, all in one place” was how T’luha had put
it when trying to explain the idea to Dagnor “But this is only an access point. The actual Tesseract is
located somewhere near to the centre of the Third Galaxy. Its power source is a super massive Black
Hole!” she added
“This is going to blow the minds of the Central Council. In the meantime we need to find out more
about this artificial world Hylon. You know it’s a pity we haven’t got that abductee here with us; he
may not know it but he could have a clue as to what “Oxygen Breathers” we might encounter. The
Eloi have been so out of touch with the rest of their race they aren’t even sure that the coordinates
they have on file are still valid. I’m hoping that the next Burst Transmission will carry the
authorisation to explore this “Brave New World”” Dagnor responded T’luha wincing at the
reference. Leeson also grimaced; he got the satire only too well.
“I’ve been looking at the platforms Hydroponics. They grow a most unusual plant there. It’s the Eloi’s

principle food source other than excellent synthetics. They call it a Kabrut;
in its natural surroundings it is parasitic. But here they grow it on its own.
The farm is huge; but it needs to be; artificially grown Kabrut is weak in
nutrition. The plant’s natural habitat has perilously high levels of Gamma
radiation. That is one of the plant’s sources of energy that results in the
high mineral content of natural Kabrut. The Eloi are methane breathers like
their ancestors. So they find worlds like the ones the Ulahri and Alurak
come from natural environments. But there is something about the soils of
their home world that provides the right nutrition for the Kabrut’s principle
host plant. That life form is more of a sedentary energy source. It has
Crystals growing in its cells that absorb Gamma radiation as one

component of the “Photosynthesis” process. The Crystals replace the Chloroplasts in our known
species of plant life. Apart from that the rest of the process is virtually the same” Leeson said and
stopped realising he was droning on about something that the others were not quite interested in.
“I have to admit; the Eloi are a bit of an enigma. I can’t get over how incredibly advanced they seem
most of the time, then extremely dumb, particularly where it comes to picking up on other races
emotions” Myra said out loud after their hosts had left. “It’s like a sort of schizophrenia. Oh; and
Leeson, I think you may be onto something with that plant. The Kabrut; they keep it well away from
others, it’s like they’re addicted to it. But I did an analysis. Apart from one or two odd minerals, it is
basically a form of carbohydrate. I did notice that they remove part of the plant before shredding
the rest... I wonder?” she added then left.

The Eloi prepared the Endeavour for its flight to Hylon. The Eloi were reticent about the
other worlds in the system; just warning the crew that the planets were created to match life forms
that were “differently” based. They were insistent that the Endeavours crew avoid contact until the
Eloi had the chance to prepare their occupants for any future encounter. Not that they thought that
the crew would be harmed, just that the “tenants” guarded their right to privacy fastidiously.
Normally that would have rung alarm bells; but the crew were willing to give the Eloi the benefit of
the doubt. After all; the Eloi had not shown any animosity or distrust on their part. It was as if they
truly were apologetic of their ancestors…

Chapter 6
Second Chances

Arthur was still getting used to being a multi billionaire. Mark had been true to his word and
he and his partners had recovered Arthur’s legacy. He had even helped to set up a second franchise
in Meldar Province on Herebron; a world in the Genaro sector of The Sonoran Trust. When Arthur
learned about the former Dark Empire and Kelgar; he was drawn to the similarity of the social order
to the Chicago of the late thirties early forties that he had dreamed of being part of. Granted that
had been a romanticised view; but Kelgar, and Hellion City were so close in comparison he decided
then and there that he wanted to live there. He had only the faintest hope now of ever seeing his
beloved Helen again. Even if she had survived the transition to life on Hylon; so much time had
passed her descendants, if she had any, would barely know him. So he decided that the life of a
Playboy “Gangster” would suit him better. His skills as a Graphic Artist also translated to the
Holographic Design industry. During the process of his “estates” reclamation; he had discovered
some of his Commercial studies had become design classics, and his works demanded huge sums in
auctions. In short Arthur was so wealthy he just didn’t know what to do. One thing that had tipped
him to the path he intended to follow had been Mark’s life story. The young man had been at a loss
while waiting for yet another deposition in connection to Arthur’s legacy; he’d rambled into the
subject. Learning how he’d been part of the criminal Boys Cartel at one point, how a wealthy “client”
had funded his education in the Law, struck a chord with Arthur. He too had started life in humble
beginnings; he too had been “spotted” by a wealthy sponsor. She had even “adopted” him as her
son at one point. Yes; he thought, this is going to work.

What Arthur didn’t know; but would learn once his new life was established, would be that
Helen did indeed survive. However; she had not become part of the “Great Experiment” that was
Hylon. Instead; after the initial examinations were done and she had been “placed”, she decided
that, knowing Arthur was with another group, she wanted to be placed in stasis until such time,
however long that took, she could be reunited with Arthur. That time was fast approaching…

… Lance and Sandra were called into a vault on the lower level. Lance was pleased that
Arthur had settled; but that didn’t mean they could relax. Ron Land was in there with a member of
the Military.
“Ah; you two meet Major Win Stanley; Patrol Intelligence Service. I called him in when we came
across the files in this room. There’s something about the content that is so odd; only a Military
mind could possibly shed some light on them” Ron said.

“Please call me Derek; I’m no longer in active service. The files are from a period that relates to The
Roswell Incident. But these concern another set of circumstances in the former United Kingdom. We
now know that pieces of the recovered craft were taken to Britain for a specialist investigation. At
some point after the Economy Wars; The Brit-Hugeno Dynasty acquired the remains. Their then
scientists had discovered a similar set of pieces on Charon; Pluto’s moon. By close comparison it was
found that the two craft belonged to the same fleet” Derek informed
“I read all that during my Historical Thesis; it was a standard requisite. What has this got to do with
the Curators?” Lance asked
“It doesn’t; well not exactly” Ron replied “Let Derek continue and it might become clear” He added.
Derek went on to reveal something that had come to light in the files in this Vault. At the time they
recovered a number of flat hexagonal crystal plates. Like those your abductee had with him. The
original discoverers didn’t know what to make of them. We’ve been trying the same methods that
were tried on the Kryst discs. An attempt was made during the fourth decade of the Brit-Hugeno
Dynasty using polychromic lasers aimed in narrow beams at the disks to see what the diffraction
patterns revealed. The results were inconclusive. Early last week; that previous experiment was tried
again, this time using just three beams focused into a scanning single beam. The results were strange
to say the least. The Curators didn’t record data as any other race would. The crystals emitted a low
intensity field that bore a remarkable similarity to the signals from the Achenazi Head bands when
used for telepathic communication. We tried the experiment again with two Achenazi present and a
head band connected to one of the Venosian Bio-Hives. Take a look at these” he said and handed
them the holographic recordings. Lance put the data crystals into the holo player.

When they’d watched all of the Holographic scenes; Ron, Lance and Sandra just sat looking
dumbfounded at Derek.
“Before you say anything I must say this. The reference in the last scene to a location on old Earth
was checked out. The Atalaman Congress and the Thelexis Dynasty have scoured their collections;
the item that we saw in the last scene survived The End and was eventually found in the personal
collection of Alanora Thelexis. It’ has been brought here to Lunaris. I thought you here should be the
first to witness the activation. And this vault has the most secure construction in the building should
anything “untoward” happen” he said and smiled. None of them spoke for a few moments. Lance
was the first to speak
“Will any of the material be still viable after all this time? It’s not like the other stasis units. Apart
from the shape and size; do we really want to revive such a thing?” he asked hesitantly
“Don’t worry we have taken precautions, and it was agreed that Lunaris was the best place to do
this. In particular here in its secure location” Derek answered
“But the risks; if it manages to escape…!” Sandra said
“Taken care of; we have installed the immobilisers that the Hurabash used themselves. They were
found elsewhere in this building. The thing can’t escape out into the wider community” Derek
explained briefly
“I suppose my authority to refuse has been revoked by the High Council?” Ron Land added
“I’m sorry; but that was part of the agreement. In a way it’s actually better that the three of you are
here. That way there will be an “independent” record of events. One more thing… I’ve asked for a
Vahamat representative from the Inter Species Medical Council to be witness to all this. She is an
expert on Gantrax physiology. When asked she jumped at the chance. She should be arriving shortly.
Her name is…” Derek responded but was interrupted
“Denarius!” said the lilting voice of the tall slender Vahamat as she entered the chamber “forgive me
for being a little late; I was meeting with an old friend from The Sonoran Trust” she explained “If the
initial message I received is correct this could well be the only surviving example of the “prototype”
creation” she finished. Derek nodded and let her view the Holograph recordings that the others had
just watched. When she’d finished she stared silently at the last still image.
“When do we get started?” she asked…

Hylon and the Hybrids
Dagnor was reading through the reports of the first aerial scout survey; and the latest
transmissions from the fleet back at the platform. Maps and stellar cartography didn’t match with
what they were seeing now; compared with the ones sent from the platform. There had been
extensive changes. The artificial system seemed to have shifted position in relation to the other star
systems. The land scape below had changed too. The vast open plains and farmlands; interspaced
with large settlements and cities. The layout reminded him of the Taxxan territories before the last
exodus was forced upon Terra. From what the surface scans showed, there seemed to be a lot of
mechanisation of infrastructure and systems. The stealth ability of the remote drones meant that
population centres could be looked at; from a discrete distance. There appeared to be distinct
colonies of individual species; each one being a species taken by the Aradash or the Hurabash. But
the figures didn’t match up. There should have been greater numbers. His intercom buzzed.
“Yes; what is it?” he barked
“Commander T’luha asked me to inform you that the special landers are ready and primed sir!” the
young ensign’s voice said
“Thank you Ensign Tuulk. Tell her I’m on my
way” he responded and singed off. He; like
the others was puzzled by the scans. He left
for Engineering and arrived just as T’luha and
Midas were signing off the preparatory work
sheets. The two landers were of a new
design. They looked vaguely like ancient
dirigibles with propeller drives. The design
had been chosen to be “less aggressive” in
appearance. To him they just looked
antiquated; but that was deceptive.
“What are those pod things for?” He asked. Midas looked at what he was pointing at.
“Ah; those are secondary sensor array pods. The lateral “seam” hides the main sensory and weapons
arrays, not that we expect to need weapons of course” he replied.
“Humph! I just think they look a little stupid. Makes the ship look like it’s got some kind of skin
disease” Dagnor commented. T’luha looked about ready to explode then burst out laughing
“I guess they do at that!” she giggled “Seriously though; they contain the latest tech from Venosia
Prime and Mars Planetia developments. They cover a greater spectrum than the ones on the
Endeavour’s secondary array. And judging by those initial reports; we may need them. Overhead
scans of one of the Northern population sensors seem to indicate most of it is underground” she
added
“Well the Eloi did say that they have been out of touch with their central government for decades.
The same would seem to be true for this place” Dagnor noted “Have the teams been assigned?” He
asked
“Yes; and all the portable equipment and supplies are stowed. We just need your go ahead for
launch; as soon are we are aboard that is” T’luha replied
“I’ll head back to the bridge you two get to your respective ships. May the Maker be with you. You
may launch when ready” Dagnor ordered and headed back to the bridge. Midas and T’luha went
their separate ways and the two “Airships” launched and headed slowly into the atmosphere of
Hylon. T’luha’s target was originally an Untharan habitat near to what appeared to be a grain and
produce centre. Midas was to explore the large settlement they’d found near the equator. The scans

showed no obvious signs of life; to all intents and purposes it
appeared deserted. It was situated near the coast of a vast
inland sea; and stretched back inland for hundreds of
kilometres. A huge “island” off the coast appeared to be some
kind of city in its own right. Some signs of decay were present.

A crater could be seen; and a collapsed stadium led to the conclusion that some disaster had
befallen the settlement. They would know more when they landed.

It was a different situation for the Untharan settlement. Although it too appeared deserted;
there were signs of recent activity. Tracks of some kind of vehicles led to a large set of blast doors for
an underground bunker. Unusual for Untharan habitation practices. They landed the craft in a
nearby pasture. This was a bit of a misnomer; as this huge expanse was almost as big as some small
countries. Automated farming equipment was scattered all over the place; some of it in a severe
state of disrepair. T’luha and her team headed over to the
huge blast doors. The opening mechanisms seemed to
have been used recently.
“These look like larger versions of the gates found on
She’brakda so… There should be… Ah!” T’luha said as she
searched for a panel. There were three of them two
seemed to be inactive. The third wasn’t. “The symbols are
different but I’d bet the principle is the same” she said
and touched the symbol that replaced the cartouche on
the She’brakda panel. It glowed and emitted a sequence
of tones.
“That sounded like a piece of Mozart; a piece called K545 I
think” exclaimed Tuulk “let me try. He’s one of my
favourite ancient Composers” he practically pleaded.
T’luha stepped aside and let the ensign try his hand. He
pressed the symbol again and listened to the sequence of
notes. “Assuming the buttons represent the semitones of
an octave this should be the next sequence” he said and
played some notes. There was a chime; a loud clunk and
the sound of the opening mechanism starting up. It
sounded like huge gearing then a hiss and the huge door swung up and over like a garage door.
Inside was dark and the vague shape of large machines could be made out. Dimly at first interior
lighting flickered into life and brightened.
The machines were huge transporters. Something heavy and large had been brought in here and
there were signs that it had been dragged to a large set of retractable gates. These turned out to be
the means to access a large goods elevator. Again there were signs it had been used recently.
“The basic scans show that smear to be some kind of blood; unknown species” Ger’hun a biologist
said. They proceeded to a stairwell with more caution.
“Whoever is here must have decided to live an underground existence” Tuulk stammered.
“You may well be right. I’ve just received the aerial scan images from Midas’ team” Leeson said. He
had changed his mind at the last minute and had joined T’luha’s team. “They show a large crater in a
mid-city block area and a damaged stadium. Looks like some kind of meteor impact or gigantic
explosion rocked the city and its surroundings. Some of the large towers have signs of their
foundations having been damaged. One is leaning at about twelve degrees off vertical” he added
and showed them a projection of the images.
“That might explain a lot of things. Keep your eyes and ears open. Move on” T’luha ordered…

… Midas and his team had opted to “dock” their craft to a tower on the Island. Everywhere
there were signs that the buildings had not been used in decades; probably even longer.
“There’s some traces of radiation; but nothing near harmful levels” a Tech said
“There are more of the same symbols and script that we think is Hurabash. What’s that over there?”
said Glenna Trove as she spotted a flat metallic and enamel object. She picked it up and wiped the
layers of dust from the surface. It looked like some kind of Identity badge. “Weird; reminds me of
the Shield Identity Badges used by The Force back home on Kelgar” she added.

“I forgot you came from The Sonoran Trust. You’re right it does; wonder
what the cop looked like” mused Midas “That looks like an elevator to the
lower levels. If this place is abandoned; why is there still power?” he
asked rhetorically
“There’s a backup Solar Power Grid; we saw it on approach. If they were
using Polaron power; the crater would be where the main distribution
node would have been. That could account for the trace residual
radiation” the Tech replied. “Hello?” he said and picked up something his

foot had touched. It was a
transparent crystal rectangular
object with other geometric
shaped layers applied onto it. The object was about the
size of one of the teams’ recorder pads. Very light, but it
was obvious that there was Pico scale electronics hidden
inside its layers. Along the base of a triangular layer was a
slot. And a cabochon was centred on the face of the
triangle. “The Eloi had some of these on the platform
they’re a kind of electronic key; Wonder what door this is
meant for?” he added. They began to examine the floor
and surrounding area more carefully. Three more of the keys were found a second “Shield” and
about twelve of the notched token style keys that the Kryst used in the clinic. There were also a
number of the strange washer type metallic coinage tokens and six 3 Ong
pieces. The second shield was peculiar. It had a Cuneiform symbol instead
of the Alien head “coin” of the other and the script looked like an archaic
script from the Velshi system world Canasta. It was that races symbol
form of Bachi machine language.
“This is getting stranger by the minute. We need to get down to the lower
levels; any luck with the elevator Halnz?” Midas asked the Chief
Technician, a Flutvarn
“Should be… Ah…” he said and the doors opened “It was a simple binary
code; a fourth year student puzzle at best” and he smiled the wide
froglike smile only his species could do. The elevator interior was well lit
and spacious enough for twice their number. A panel had symbol style buttons inset into a backlit
panel. They appeared to represent the different levels of the building. Six columns were above a
dividing line and each column contained twenty four symbols. Below the line were six columns five
containing ten symbols one containing seven. The script was the same archaic form as on the second
shield.
“I’m assuming that the highlighted column represents this elevator shaft. The dividing line is ground
level… so if I select the symbol above the line and press…” Glenna said as she touched the symbol.
The doors closed and a mechanical sounding voice said something in Bachi; and a slight movement
could be felt as the elevator descended to the ground floor. It stopped at every floor and the doors
opened briefly. Each floor looked similar in its floor plan except the floor before the ground. This
floor seemed to have suffered some kind of damage recently. The team exited the elevator and
decided to explore…

…On Lunaris the odd shaped Sarcophagus; which to be honest looked more like an oversized
version of the Kryst Escape pods, was proving to be a tough nut to crack. The systems controls
seemed to be secured using a sophisticated cypher code. The power for the unit was coming from a
form of Polaron reactor; but not like any that had ever been seen before. Arthur’s more
“conventional” unit had been relatively easy to get into.

“I thought I was good at these sorts of puzzles. This one has got
me tied in brain knots” Derek said in exhausted frustration.
And he cursed the Curator genius that had locked the control
panel this way. Sandra laughed. Just then; Lance and Ron who
had been away to fetch some refreshments, walked in on the
laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Ron asked; Lance agreeing with him.
“It’s this damnable cypher” Derek swore something in Buraxin
“It’s like nothing I’ve come across before. I swear it keeps
resetting my inputs” he added and thumped the side of the
unit. That made Sandra’s giggling even louder.
“Honestly Derek; your behaving like a spoiled child. Show me
what you were trying to do” she said and Derek explained how
the strange electronic input panel worked. She looked at the
pad and the combinations that he’d tried and rearranged them into a grid.
“Twelve by twelve in a grid… I wonder?” she said and highlighted a diagonal set of symbols. The
input panel had the same twelve symbols in a hexagonal array. She pressed the highlighted
combination. The panel flashed and a chime sounded. On one of the frosted windows a display of a
countdown appeared.
“How … What?” Derek stammered dumbfounded.
“Simple really what do you get when you multiply twelve by itself? No need to answer that it’s 144. I
looked over the attempts you’d made and arranged them in a grid. You made twelve attempts that
came up with a response other than a reset of the panel. One seemed to stand out as unusual; that
one made the power supply glitch and the lights flicker before resetting. I assumed that meant
“close but no Cigar”. I’d seen something like it before. I looked to see if there was a similar pattern
and sure enough the diagonal I chose to highlight was the inverse of your attempt” she said proudly
“you’d just been over complicating things a little. I used to crack the combination lock on my
brothers locker. He used a hieroglyph set and some of the symbols here are close to those” she
added
“Damn! Remind me never to let you in my study; my safe is an old combination model” Derek
whistled. The unit appeared to be starting a slow reanimation procedure. Derek had the unit moved
to an area they could secure and that was a safe distance from the habitation block. All they could
do now was to wait…

…T’luha and Leeson were exploring the vast garage for the farming equipment. Tuulk and
another ensign were attempting to gain access to yet another locked set of doors. This appeared to
be to an elevator. T’luha spotted something on the floor in a corner; she dusted it down. It was
another of the Crystal plaques that Midas’s team had found.
“These remind me of those that the Eloi had on the platform there might be something to go in this
slot…” she said when the young ensign with Tuulk managed to get the panel to open up.
“It’s a dummy front to whatever this is… is?” she exclaimed. Leeson and T’luha came over with the
rest of the team.
“That angled bracket and the connector look as if…” T’luha placed the connector into the slot. The
cabochon began to pulsate. She pressed it and the doors opened. It
was the entrance to a stairwell. The illumination was dim, but
afforded enough light to make out that the stairwell led down to a
lower floor. They set off down the stairs and this brought them to a
sort of staging area. There were elevators for freight and people and
rows of desks along one wall. Various mechanical weighing devices
and containers were evident. There were a large number of the
metallic tokens scattered about. Another of the second type of badge