

Odd Questions,

Odder Answers

By Michael Black

Copyright 2019 Michael Black

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

About Me
Chapter 1

Daniel Curran was in a reflective mood; he never dwelled on the past, but sometimes remembering experiences from long ago helped him make those current decisions that now seemed to always needed to be made. There weren't any decisions right now, so Daniel wasn't so much reflecting as he was reminiscing, remembering some of the moments in his life that would never fade from his memory; both the good ones and the bad. The thought now was just how lucky he really was to have not just the Mom and Dad family he was born to; but also this wonderful family before him now. As he looked at Angie and Jane sitting on the ground in the atrium, playing some kind of telepathic 'Mind Game' with Kenny, he smiled at how natural it felt to him. The empathy side of Kenny's talents apparently kicked in, and Kenny looked at his Father, smiling back in a knowing way.

"A penny for your thoughts, my husband. That smile tells me they are good thoughts." Angel was sitting up close beside Daniel, something she did often now that she was comfortable with emotions; that thought earned her another smile for her alone, "I was just thinking how blessed I am Angel; twenty years ago all I could think of was how old I was, and how much I hated mowing lawns. But now my whole life has changed so much that I don't recognize the 'old me' anymore; I'll be 90 years old next week, but I don't feel more than 40 or so. Heck, that doesn't even bother me anymore. It is still hard to rationalize, that 90 is only a tenth of what I'm expected to live now. I had always been a loner, never socializing much, just keeping to myself; I had never had a family other than my mother and father, but now I have all of you, the absolute best family ever! That is the one part that will always be amazing for me I think."

Angel leaned even closer and planted a rather passionate kiss on Daniel, "It doesn't look like I have to shift into Psychiatrist Mode, you appear to be handling it all very well Daniel. Yes, there have been more changes than would fit into a single book, but I don't think you yet realize that you are the one that made the changes happen. One single act of random kindness 20 years ago began a chain of events that changed the character of the Universe itself; your own world included. Earth did not change its outlook by itself you know; you set all the changes in motion Daniel, because of who you are inside. I also know that you will always resist taking credit for anything, but I tell you truly now my husband that many trillions of people throughout the Universe do give you that credit, even if they don't know you personally." Three voices from a few feet away confirmed the sentiment, "Guaranteed!"

Daniel tried not to blush, but failed miserably once again; he did know one thing for sure though, "Alright you guys, I think its Command Decision time. We are the 'Space Family Curran' here and it has been a while since we did our thing. I want ideas from all of you on where we should explore next; the Universe is so big that none of us would ever live long enough to see it all, but we have a knack for finding things so let's get back to business!" David popped in right next to Daniel, "Does that include me Boss? I've had a few ideas since we met up with the Watchers." Daniel laughed out loud and clapped David's projection on the back, "Of course it always means you too youngster, we are all family and you know that. The one thing the Curran family never does well is handle boredom very well; we need some excitement again. There just isn't much going on around this end of the universe right now. Hal hasn't even said hello for three months, so Earth should be fine; let's go have some fun."

***

The whole Family dove into the task enthusiastically; they really were a version of another space fairing family from an old television series Daniel loved to watch way back when. The way David doted on and protected Kenny even reminded Daniel of the robot; so the only member missing was a Doctor Smith, but that wasn't really a loss for the Curran Family, they didn't need sinister distractions. Angel, Angie and Jane all settled on visiting Bethaan's people to learn about them. Her appearance suggested that they had held to the ancient ways, so their culture would probably be a more modern version of the people Isis had led from a dying universe into this one. Daniel had to admit to himself that it would be interesting to him as well, but there was one little problem with that idea; the code of honor built into the One Rule said it was improper to visit without an invitation. It was not an edict as such, nor even an Emily Post violation of etiquette; it was just considered impolite, "We don't have a formal invite, so just barging in wouldn't be right, would it?"

David chuckled in his usual way when he thought he knew something nobody else did, "Not exactly Boss; when Bethaan thanked us all for saving her and her bodyguard, she said 'We will meet again'. That is a kinda back handed invitation, even honoring the spirit of the One Rule's intended meaning of such things. I wouldn't mind going there one day to see a culture that follows the ancient Isis traditions, but I have an idea that might trip your trigger even more; since we met up with the Watcher's I've been studying the galactic map the Empress gave us. It is pretty detailed in its own way, but much of the sector has never been explored in detail; they were so interested in keeping an eye on our part of the Universe that they felt little need to explore their own sectors. As a result there are vast areas that no one understands. I think it gives us a lot to choose from; and we 'do' have a formal invitation to visit from Delia."

Kenny had been quiet throughout this discussion; he had a fairly clear vision of Bethaan from his parent's memories of the girl, and he thought he might like her when he met her; plus, if she lived sorta like the way the Isis lady did, that would be super to see too. But David's idea really tickled him all the way to his toes; "I like both ideas, and maybe we can go see that girl after we go do some real exploring out there in Delia's piece of space. It would be really cool to do both!" Everyone laughed at that, and Angel couldn't resist teasing Daniel, "I do believe Captain Kenneth has taken command husband; and you have to admit it is a good idea. We do have the time after all..."

Daniel took the jibe in the spirit it was given and chuckled; he knuckled his small sons head and said, "Alright Captain, we'll do both beginning tomorrow morning; how's that. What are your orders?" Kenny giggled at his sudden promotion, and then scrunched up his nose, "Well, we should send a message to Delia; it's only polite and David can do that...oh! We hafta have snacks too, and beer for Father." An energized Kenny and his three 'Moms' jogged off to raid the 'snack and beer' locker to load the ship with those essentials. While 'replicating' certain Earth specialties was routine for the Ship now that Kendrisaan had 'tweaked' the system a bit; the few items, like ice cream and beer, just tasted better manufactured the old fashioned way; the Family stocked up on those necessities every chance they got to visit their original home territory of Earth. When they informed Kendrisaan of the Family plans at dinner that evening, he merely chuckled, "It doesn't surprise me really; what new revelations will you bring back to disrupt our understanding of the Universe this time I wonder. As always, just be safe out there, I am rather fond of you all."

Delia's reply came through just as David was lifting off; her smiling face filled the screen in the common room, "I am pleased that you are visiting us again; please transit directly to our seat of government, the planet Arantor, I have transmitted the coordinates to David. It is a rather long jump from your area of the Universe, but it is also 'protected space' so there will be no hazards to worry about. Your ship has been authorized in the system, so come here whenever you are ready; I look forward to our discussions on how to proceed with the exploration. Be well my friends."

'Protected Space'? The quizzical stares from his girls told Daniel they were all wondering what that meant, "Okay, it seems she expects us to make a tunnel trip to visit with her before we go wandering throughout their sector. Since they use it routinely I don't feel quite as apprehensive about that new method of space travel; but we 'will' use the drone for safety, right David?" His electronic Son popped in a second later, smiling at his Captain, "You got it Boss, I've already placed that little safety feature on automatic whenever I set up the sequence. Let me get us out to three light years distance so we can head over to Delia's turf.' Angel jumped up suddenly, "You're going to do it right here in this area? Is that safe David, there's a lot of populated space in between Eridan and the border void to the Watcher's sector you know."

David didn't make light of her concern, "Yes Mom, it is safe. I've read over the 'Rule Book' 100 times, and understand how this tunneling works. Basically, what we are calling tunnels are not physical tunnels at all; they are closer to the 'Gates' we already use between star systems, so effectively we create a temporary Gate between two points really. There is no distance travel involved; and the only red flag you have to observe religiously is that you don't ever initiate a tunnel anywhere near a star. The destination coordinates are less restrictive, but the recommended distance is still outside of the star system's Heliosphere. That leaves the question of whether we trust Delia's experience with this technology or not."

Before Daniel could comment, Kenny chimed in, "I trust Delia; she never hid anything from us all the time we were there." Angie burst out laughing, "Well that pretty much sums it up; and Kenny's right. Delia and all her people we met were completely open with us. I think we should trust in this new way to travel, it does seem safe enough with David's extra drone precaution." Jane just nodded her head; she was all for it, so Daniel just said, "It's unanimous then; David; when you're ready, go for it." 12 hours later the movie the family was watching suddenly changed to a star field and David said, "Everybody ready?" A big round tunnel appeared and the drone shot off toward it, disappearing into the tunnel a moment after. Seven seconds later David said, "All clear, here we go."

***

It is one thing to travel thousands of light years in a single moment, the Curran Family was well versed in that routine; it is quite another thing, however, to suddenly find yourself seven million light years away, in a galaxy you've never seen before at all. Even the one trip to Bethaan's area of space didn't compare to what everyone saw now; there were no recognizable patterns of stars to latch on to. All five humans were staring wide eyed at the screen; Kenny finally said it best, "Wow, cool! Where are we David?" When David popped into the common room a moment later he was chuckling, "We are just outside the security 'boundary' for this system; if you look close you can see a few of their 'sentinel buoys' that are positioned all around the system. I'm talking with the area controller and he's giving me a route directly to Arantor; ground control has a parking spot already assigned to us outside the 'Palace'."

"She lives in a Palace? I thought her title as Empress was just a mere formality." Jane was a bit confused by the reference, as were all the Family, until they arrived at Arantor after a slow two hours of approach and saw firsthand what the Watcher's idea of a Palace really looked like. Almost all of the planet was a well kept garden with all kinds of flora, from flowers to vines and trees, all growing in subtle patterns with paths and paved walkways weaving around in between the growths. There was a cluster of natural stone buildings grouped where they were supposed to land, carefully constructed to look like a small mountain range, and Jane couldn't resist commenting once again, "That is beautiful! It is what a Palace should look like." For miles in all directions were other separate groups of buildings done in similar fashion, each one with slightly different highlights and designs. There were no signs anywhere to mar the primitive effect of the landscape. There was, however, an obvious landing pad on one side of the palace, more than large enough to handle the ship; even then it looked more like a huge single slab of flat black granite stone, and Delia was standing at the edge of it, waiting for them to land; a distinct smile on her face. David landed gently and deployed the air stairs; five of the Family descended the stairs somewhat formally, but Delia laughed and put a stop to that, "Now now, no formal greetings here; this is my home and you are my guests. I would hope that we are all friends now. Come inside, it is a bit too warm today out here. It may look natural outside, but as you'll see I do like my modern amenities inside."

Delia did indeed like her amenities, for when they walked through the rustic doorway the 'home' had a starkly different 'feel' to the inside. While still distinctly rustic in design, the interior was appointed with modern appliances; including a rather obvious computer screen on one of Delia's desks. Modern wasn't overdone though, and all the walls and ceilings had murals of nature scenes and the sky above; it implied a compromise between the natural world and modern convenience; Daniel liked the feel of it, "This is really beautiful Delia, it blends the best of both worlds; nature and the essentials for comfortable living." Delia gave him a wide smile, "Ahh, so you are poetic as well as intelligent Daniel; my people respect nature, for we all began there; and will return there one day. We just do not ignore the more pleasant modern things. But please sit and tell me of your plans?" She had led them to her version of an atrium, complete with a small waterfall; and stone couches around the pool in the center. As they sat down Angie found out it wasn't quite stone, for it molded to fit her, "You have smart materials here too!" Delia chuckled, "Yes; not likely the same ones as your sector has though, and the concentrations are more randomly placed, judging from that hologram David showed us before, but we do have them. David, are you comfortable with this projection system yet?"

David popped in next to Kenny; then popped out again. A few seconds later he popped back in again and stayed this time, "I think I can work with your system Delia; Serat is making final adjustments now." A woman appeared next to David just then; while not as tall as Delia, she did have the same whitish hair. Serat looked younger too, "There! I think we will both be able to use the system at the same time now David; I found a pretty good balance point for the algorithms." Looking around, Serat smiled at everyone, "Hello; I am Delia's personal assistant and Pilot. If there is anything you need, just ask." Daniel was slowly getting over his inner anxieties that always lurk in the background when he met new people; it was getting easier simply because the Watchers were just so friendly and open about everything so far. They didn't try to keep any secrets, "Thank you Serat. Delia, we are just here on a family outing to explore your area of space and get to know you all. There's nothing official about it, we are just being tourists really."

Delia couldn't keep a straight face, and laughed, "Daniel; Kendrisaan and I have been corresponding regularly ever since we met a year ago, and one thing he told me early on was that whenever the Curran Family goes out on one of your little 'excursions', big discoveries seem to always follow you back home. He says that fate smiles on you all and I tend to agree after reading all your history. However, this excursion is notably different, for there are a few areas within our farthest reaches that you should be warned about. Serat has highlighted the areas where you should use caution while exploring. And there is one area that I would ask you to avoid completely, for it is populated by an intelligent life that does not follow the human form; I believe you call them 'Arthropods'. They do not appear hostile in nature, but the few times we have encountered them their ships kept their distance and refused to communicate at all; so we have left them alone to live in their own way." Kenny giggled from the other side of Angie, "Smart bugs! Now 'that' is really cool!"
Chapter 2

The impromptu school call lasted three more hours; Serat took on the role of teacher, explaining the various colored areas in the Watchers area of the Universe. It was a somewhat smaller sector overall than Council space, and even more randomly populated. The member star systems were all colored bright blue and were grouped more closely together sort of; with non member systems sprinkled in as a lighter muted purple color. Farther out, away from the 'Conference Sector was a large blob of light blue; populated star systems that didn't actively socialize much, but at least welcomed the occasional visitors and some trade. These were the 'safe zones' where visiting and sightseeing were considered fairly normal activities, and Daniel felt good about heading into those areas. It was safe, brand new and could be fun...but it wasn't 'exploring'; not in the way they were accustomed to now. So he listened even more intently while Serat explained the rose colored zone.

The 'Rose Zone' was smaller than the blue, purple and light blue zones combined. These were the more primitive people of the Watcher space; Serat said "Many of the worlds have rudimentary starships, some of them rather advanced in design but are still limited to 'inter star travel' rather than true interstellar contacts. As a result they tend to shy away from formal relations with us. We have found though, that they apparently all know of our society, even the ones who have not ventured into space at all yet. They simply don't want to be influenced by more advanced races." David chuckled next to Serat, "What he is trying to say is that this whole group of people just want to 'do their own thing at their own pace' Boss; I take it they don't act like Earth people do; they seem to want to advance the old fashioned way, by trial and error. Rather refreshing don't you think?" Angie couldn't hold her opinion in, "I don't know about refreshing David; but it certainly is odd behavior, different from our experience. Serat, would these star systems be annoyed if we roamed around out there?" Delia looked surprised by Angie's question, "Angella, I don't think those people get annoyed by much of anything. In our experience they tolerate our travelling through space with equanimity; they don't run, they don't make any aggressive moves, and they don't talk to us even though we have tried to listen to some of their communications; that posed a big problem, they don't use radio communication at all. If I were to speculate, I would say they are ignoring us until they are advanced enough to feel comfortable talking. Other than that snub, they are benign, and follow a different path than we do."

***

Serat's description of the Red Sector indicated that it was the smallest zone, and densely pack with stars; it would be most interesting simply because it was bizarre. The only insects the Family had ever run into in their travels were the weird soldiers they observed climbing out of the ground on the fourth planet of a star system they tracked down as a result of the Iscris incident way back when. And even then they weren't real 'insectoids' with multiple legs and claws. The people Serat described were definitely intelligent insects though, with multiple legs and compound eyes; there were several different species apparently, following various shape conventions, but the most prevalent seemed to be a variation of the 'praying mantis' form; without the claws thank you. Instead of the claws there were two arms with four fingered hands, indicating tool manipulation. These were the star travelers and they built rather advanced starships in several sizes and designs; they just didn't socialize with us mammals. The Watchers actually knew a lot more about these people than the proud humanoids of the Rose Zone; through the expedient of long range observations in stealth mode over the years. If the insects couldn't see or detect you, they didn't scurry into their homes and burrows. The Watchers learned as much as possible about the culture; and then they left them alone out of respect. The insects were bizarre in appearance and habits; but they were quite definitely a people, Delia summed up the policy, "So you see, while we don't have a ban as such prohibiting visits to that area of space we don't encourage it either; if relations ever develop they will have to initiate the contact."

By now Daniel had a better understanding of just what they were getting themselves into with this extended Family jaunt; the Family had always dealt with some unknowns on each trip over the years, that was the character associated with exploring. This time, however, every single detail was an unknown; even the 'friendly skies' of Watcher's worlds were totally new. For the first time ever the Family would be really exploring and learning something brand new; not just filling in historical gaps with the discoveries they had made. While the thought was a little scary at first, Daniel managed a smile when Serat and Delia finished the lesson in galactic diplomacy in this sector, "I think we have all the essential details for this trip; I must admit that I thought of this as just another Family outing, but I see more serious considerations now Delia. I expect we will be using stealth mode much more than usual; at least for the Rose and Red Zones I believe we will just skirt the outer boundary for now."

Delia laughed at Daniel's apprehension, "We didn't intend to frighten you off Daniel; in truth none of the zones are threatening, but our sectors are not familiar with your ship design yet. The first sight could cause some anxiety, so stealth would be prudent in most areas. Otherwise just enjoy your sightseeing cruise everyone." Now that the Family was properly 'indoctrinated' in the likely oddities they would encounter in the Watchers region of space, Daniel had David lift off an hour later, "Let's stick to the member and non member areas first David; it'll give you some more practice with tunneling since it has the most 'safe target coordinates'. Other than that, pick your course as you will." David moved out to the minimum safe distance over the next few hours and gave his passengers a 5 minute warning, "We will transit in five minutes to our first stop; I'm going in visible because this is one of the ship building worlds and they don't startle at ships popping into their space."

Jane took a shot at David then, "Oh, you just want to see their ship designs, don't you! Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind seeing if they stick to just one type myself." Five minutes later they had their answer; As David exited the tunnel into this reserved exit point they found themselves on the outer fringe of this star system; even out here there were about ten 'docks' clearly visible without too much magnification, for they were massive constructs. Four of them had the familiar huge saucer shapes in various stages of construction; Daniel being the long term Practical Engineer, he found himself looking at every detail he could make out from the partially built starships. It was 'learning time' for him yet again; Daniel was in his true element for the moment, 'mechanical engineering'. He found out the Area Controller called the position "Dock Master Control' a moment later as the official hailed David, "Unidentified ship...oh, my mistake; I see on visual that you are that Council Ship. Welcome Ambassador Curran, how may we assist you? I am called Dock Master Bellit."

Apparently word of the new alliance had spread quickly in the year since their first contact; this guy knew exactly who was visiting, so Daniel did the Protocol Thing, "We are pleased to meet you Dock Master Bellit; I and my family are merely visiting unofficially, only on a friendly sightseeing tour as it were. We are interested in your ship designs of course, so that we might incorporate them into our recognition database. That is why we chose your star system to visit first." It appeared Daniel's diplomatic smooth talk was improving, for the man on the screen smiled, "Ahh, you have arrived just at the right time then; we are the largest ship construction and repair facility in the galaxy and have 60 docks presently throughout this system. There are examples of every design in existence available and I can arrange a personal tour of some if you wish." Daniel chuckled, "Thank you for the offer Dock Master; perhaps another time. For now, if we may, we would simply like to familiarize ourselves with exterior views on this trip." The girls almost laughed at the hint of disappointment showing on Bellit's face, but caught it in time. "Very well Sir, I'll transmit the approved approach vectors for all docks to your pilot then; please enjoy your stay."

There hadn't been any real tension at all since the Family had started on this holiday; still Angel had to chuckle in relief, "Well that went rather well; it is the first stop and in the 'happy zone' certainly, but it does feel good to be welcomed out here. I did notice one thing; even though they share similar evolutions, the Krellad have much more flexibility with facial expressions than the Shreela do; I could almost tell what Bellit was thinking from just watching his expressions." Angie and Jane gave Angel raised eyebrow looks; then everyone began laughing, realizing the absurd irony of a 'Grey' you could actually read. Daniel had the final word on that, "David, let us go see some ships youngster."

Because only huge saucer like ships had ever been seen over the millennia it was surprising to find that Watcher society actually used many different sizes and styles of starships; from the big ones they knew to ships the same size as the larger Council ships. Over half the docks were appropriately sized to accommodate the medium sizes; but as they got closer to the home planet they discovered that the Watchers could get really creative with the smaller designs. Even the littlest dock could handle two of David's size of ship. These appeared to be of the 'personal starship' type, or yachts. Some were kind of bullet shaped with obvious engine exhausts, while others had needle noses and sported real wings; Daniel wondered if that design had a practical and functional use, or if it was purely an aesthetic preference demanded by the owner. Not really important in the bigger scheme of things, but it was a curiosity; the sight of those brightly painted starships brought some nostalgic memories of the older SciFi movies he had seen, "David, can you get any kind of read on those winged ships. Is it a functional design or just an affectation?"

David made a point of popping into the common room to answer, "Oh, it is totally functional Boss; Dock Master Bellit gave me a list of ships currently in dock, along with their specifications and origin worlds. Apparently there is a small group of worlds that still enjoy atmospheric flight and use runways; so it is both functional and a preferred choice in building starships for those worlds. I think I like that in a way." Angel laughed at that, "Are we going to have to reconfigure your hull and build a runway at home David? You sound envious." David grinned, "No Mom, I'll fly the way I know best thank you. Depending on air to hold you up seems sort of dangerous, even if it is cool." Kenny had no real clue what they were talking about, since he had never been introduced to an airplane yet; but the rest of the Family got a good laugh out of David's admission.

Daniel and his Family visited six more Krellad shipbuilding worlds over the next four days; all were similar to each other, just varying in the numbers of docks at each world. One thing had bothered Daniel ever since Delia had mentioned that their society's races tended to focus on one particular career path as a culture. There were eight 'primary races' and numerous 'lesser' races in the Watcher sector of space, or the 'Blue Zone' if you wanted to look at it that way; and they all specialized in one particular area of expertise. Then there was the 'Rose Zone, with a single even more different race populating their worlds and doing their own thing in their own way. The Family hadn't even visited there yet, but the summary data that David had accessed in Delia's government archives had suggested that these people were much more diverse in their cultures and attitudes than the Council's people were. The Blue Zone held the most advanced of the races, those who chose to specialize and share their expertise. The Rose Zone culture was less advanced overall, but far from primitive, and was more standoff-ish by nature, doing whatever they felt was important to them and whenever they chose to do it. It felt a touch strange to be thinking it, but Daniel actually felt more comfortable with the Rose Zone's attitudes; it seemed it was closer to what he had grown up with.

And there was the answer to a question Daniel hadn't known he was asking! It began to make sense looking at it this way; the Watcher's culture was an almost mirror image of Earth. Not exactly the same image certainly, the scale was massively different for one thing, but the underlying desires and cultural attitudes were definitely similar in concept. Looking at it from that perspective somehow made this new addition to the 'known universe' less strange. Daniel could relate to it now, "David, let's skip the rest of the Blue Sector for now; I have a feeling it would look much like Council space to us, and socializing with the masses is for another time. We are here this time to just get a feel for these sectors. Head over to some of the Rose Sector worlds and let's see how familiar they might be; in stealth mode like we agreed of course."

The trouble with unknowns is that they are...well...unknown. Until you see the 'new place' you have no idea what to expect. Daniel and the girls had been cautioned about the cultural attitudes in this small area of space, but Delia's little school call didn't mention that there were one or two surprises waiting for them in this Rose sector of space. They stumbled onto the first surprise when David exited the first tunnel, just outside the Heliosphere of the target system. He picked it for no other reason than it was the first on the list of coordinates. The summary for the star system simply said 'Moderate population, high intelligence'. After a few minutes of scanning, David commented, "Delia should have mentioned that it is a high tech society too. There are artificial constructs orbiting almost all the planets, and lots of ships roaming between them, I'll be dodging them as we move deeper in system Boss. I'm getting heat signatures from some of the ships but no read on power sources yet."

The Ship coasted inward at a moderate speed. David found that he didn't have to change course much, simply because the other ships did it first whenever they were approaching too close. Once or twice could have been coincidence, but after they passed the sixth one David had no doubts, "They know we are here I think; don't ask me how. There aren't any radar pings or evidence of scanning at all. Another puzzling thing is that there isn't radio traffic either, from anywhere. You would think somebody would be talking with all the traffic, but there is nothing."

Kenny wasn't smiling; in fact he wore a pained expression when he spoke up, "They are talking lots; I can hear 'em but it isn't language. It is a constant buzz and it hurts some." Angie wasn't having any of that, nobody was, but she beat everyone to the solution, "David, get us out of here now! I don't care which direction, just move." That was the easy part, for all David had to do was angle 'upward' from the orbital plane of this system, and put on some speed heading that way; ten minutes later Kenny smiled, "It's gone now; it just shut off." Daniel was about freaked out by now, but with Kenny feeling better he gathered his wits together and took command, "Ok David, stop right here. It is conference time; what in hell was that?"

"I'm searching every database I have available Boss. There is no record anywhere of such an encounter at any time in our histories, but I can make some broad speculations based on what just happened. There were no electronic signatures at all, not even radio, so I don't believe they were picking up the ships physical presence; whoever they are, it seems they knew where Kenny was all the time. Did you hear them all the time Kenny, or just when we started getting close to them?" Kenny scrunched up is eyebrows for a second before he spoke, "I kinda heard the buzz ever since we came out of the tunnel David, it just got louder the closer we got to them. It was like they were all talking at once, all of 'em, but they weren't talking."

David had learned to be expressive with his projection long ago and he went into a serious thinking pose for a minute. While he did that Jane piped up. "It sorta sounds like a hive mind kinda thing." David came out of his trance and laughed, "You may be close to the truth there Jane, but these guys aren't insects. I got some images from the one habitable planet we passed on the way in. It is long range visual, but you can make out what this race looks like." An image popped up on the big screen, it was indeed long range, but clearly there was a sea of people moving around almost like ants, but not quite, since no one was following each other in a single file line; for one thing these were a humanoid people, definitely not insects.

The word 'humanoid' covers a lot of territory, they looked vaguely human, but rather tall and slim. They had wide ranging colorations, and even more variation with the patterns the Family could see on the skin. The heads were rounded and they had large eyes, a nose and mouth, but ears were non-existent, suggesting these people had little need for sound communications. While heads turned toward each other occasionally, their mouths never moved much; so they acknowledged each other but didn't talk. It was rather obvious however that they had two genders at least, for many had the pronounced curves in the usual human places, just not 'too pronounced'. Finally, they all wore clothing, telling the Family they were a 'modest' race. The buildings these people walked past demonstrated that they followed the familiar human housing conventions though. Some of the homes even looked familiar in designs that varied from staid to baroque, The Family had started out on this cruise looking for the unusual, and they found it in this star system. Daniel had seen enough to assuage his immediate curiosity, "Alright you guys, let's cover some more systems before we jump to too many conclusions. This race is certainly stranger than we had expected, but let's pick about a half dozen stars in this Rose sector and see if there are any other unique discoveries to find. David, you have the conn."
Chapter 3

The next two days proved enlightening for the simple fact that the six other star systems the Family visited weren't very enlightening at all. The star systems were spread out from each other by a fair amount of distance, which gave the false impression that the Rose sector was large. It wasn't that large, the Rose sector just looked that way since it covered a big volume of space. Unlike Delia's Blue sector, the Rose sector was not diverse. Every system had the same race populating it. All of them had the same people, same constructs and ship style, same buzzing for Kenny, and apparently the same life style. The only difference at all was the number and types of planets in each star system. Daniel thanked God for that little bit of diversity, otherwise it would have been totally weird...well, it was totally weird in that everything, everybody here was the same, and that was downright creepy...

If Daniel had had enough of the Rose sector, the girls and Kenny were quite ready for something new as well; Kenny put voice to the overall sentiment, "Let's go see the bugs!" The laughs from everyone decided the next move and David opened a tunnel to the only point listed in his 'guide brochure', just outside the Red sector. The reason was simply that the 43 star systems within were too densely packed for safe use of tunnels in the sector, so the Family reverted to the old fashioned method of speed runs to transit this space. Where the Rose sector gave the impression of a rural area of space; the Red sector was a small city of stars. That turned out to be a valuable benefit, although it was three stars later before they knew about it...

***

Shaalekk didn't like star travel very much, and she was liking it even less than usual in this new type spacecraft. The Temple had acquired two of these monstrosities seven sunrises ago, and all who traveled between the home planets were expected to use them now; the older ships were archaic, being much slower and not very comfortable. Shaalekk would gladly trade the luxurious comfort of her travel couch for the old craft's reliability now though; the pilot had had them strap in tightly twelve time parts ago, because this ship was not responding well to his expert touch. She trusted Dekaakk above all the other pilots she had had over the cycles. He always treated her more gently, which was a very good thing for a Priestess of her advanced age. Shaalekk and her five young charges were not being treated even remotely gently right now, thank you, not at all. This transfer to the 'new' Temple was not going well, and that description was being too kind...

Shaalekk was the very best teacher in the Temple, and her specialty was the Ancient Language from the 'Before Time'. The words were so archaic that they were seldom used any more at services on ninth day, but she loved the sounds so much that she simply could not abide abandoning them to obscurity. So Shaalekk always required her recruits to learn not only the old language; she expected perfection from all acolytes. That perfection could only be achieved with precise control over the breathing spicules, for the vowels necessary could only be issued from there, not the clicks and chitters the people's mandibles produced in normal speech. It was a hard task indeed, but her five charges were practicing repeatedly on this journey. That was before the ship began acting up however, now all five were chittering in fear. Shaalekk was spending time forcing herself not to chitter as well; the ship was beginning to buck violently and she was now thankful for the tight straps.

Five time parts later there was no doubt in anyone's mind, they were in serious trouble; the bucking was getting even worse. Dekaakk called back from the control chamber, "Priestess, I have almost no control; I must land on that moon off to the left of us, and without good altitude control it will be rough. The beacon is energized, please brace yourselves now." Down they went, Dekaakk fighting every stray movement all the way in. At fifty feet off the ground the controls quit entirely, and the small spacecraft turned into a flying rock immediately. Everyone knows rocks do not fly well, and this particular rock did what it did best; it fell the fifty feet to the ground; bounced once, and then slipped and slid some three hundred yards until a rather large boulder got in the way. Boulders do not give way to errant spacecraft and the sudden stop caved in the nose of the ship, creating a sizably gash across the remaining metal in front of Dekaakk. He didn't mind really, being already dead, but Shaalekk did see it for a moment as all the air in the cabin tried to go somewhere else. Suddenly the pressure door between the Control Chamber and the cabin slammed shut quickly, and the howling of escaping air stopped for a moment, only to be replaced by a high pitched whisper that announced a crack in the hull back in the cabin too.

Dazed by the sudden stop, Shaalekk managed to unfasten her straps and slowly slid off her couch to check on her recruits, only to discover that crashing into a moon hurt a lot worse than old age did. Still, nothing seemed to be broken, and her Chitin wasn't cracked that she could see, so Shaalekk unstrapped all five of her unconscious acolytes, inspecting each for damage. The inside of the cabin started spinning around Shaalekk and she knew the air was too thin to keep them alive now; so she did what her faith dictated, uttering the ancient words she knew so well, "Holy One, accept us." She was already unconscious when she hit the floor of the cabin; there weren't any windows back there, so Shaalekk wouldn't have seen the huge shadow that covered the craft a moment later...

***

Finally the Family was having some fun on this outing, once you got over the initial shock of seeing intelligent bugs skittering all around on their planets, the show on the common room screen was quite enjoyable. It was also very enlightening too; the bug culture was superbly artistic. Rather than the expected 'anthill' types of structures, every building big or small was an elaborate work of art; not a single one was exactly the same, and while the beautifully sculpted cities were not of any recognizable design type, the intricate use of colors throughout them was just astounding. The bugs incorporated massive gemstones into everything, making the cities sparkle in the sunlight. The last two days alone had been worth the whole trip. So far; the Family had visited seven planets, and wanted more...the society was strange in its own way; they had discovered that there were about eight different insect types here of various shapes and sizes, from small ones that had an uncanny resemblance to Lady Bugs, to larger beetles like the 'Hercules' or 'Titan' kind. The predominant variety seemed to be the 'Mantis' type, moving around with a stately grace; they all lived in close proximity to each other on all the planets the Family had seen so far, communicating often in their daily lives.

David was changing course to line up on a particularly intriguing possible stop for sightseeing; his electronic 'tourist brochure' simply said 'newly constructed religious temple complex', and David knew everyone would want to see it after their experience with Isis' 'Truth Stone'. As he steadied up on his new course, David caught sight of a starship moving rather erratically. Egg shaped, it was fairly small but still a starship. As he got closer his scanners showed an odd energy reading, it resembled his own 'engine'. This ship had a 'Tickler Module' installed apparently, but the control of such a finicky propulsion method apparently wasn't quite up to par; the ship was all over the place.

"Boss! I have a starship that's in trouble, I'm heading for him...Uh oh, too late! He just crash landed on that moon. I'm going to max system speed." Daniel was on his feet, along with all the girls, "Go visible David, we're gonna scare the pants off of them anyway, one way or the other." It only took a minute to get there at top speed; David slowed and scanned on all channels as he approached the downed ship, "They 'smooshed' the nose real bad, and they are losing air fast. The rear compartment has 6 life signs, all bug signs. I'm beaming them into the cargo bay, and it's already warmed to 85 degrees." Daniel, Angie, Jane, Angel and an excited Kenny were already running for the door; Angie thought about telling Kenny to stay in the common room, but decided not to. He had already seen plenty of the bugs, and he was enthusiastically liking them so she let him tag along. Besides, his talents might come in handy in some way.

When they entered the bay only one of the survivors was stirring; David had 'poofed' them all while the Family made their way into the cargo bay. The smallest of the six insects apparently gathered its wits and saw the five monsters from a nightmare standing ten feet away, and promptly began screeching and chittering. Then she jumped up and scurried over to the far wall, to chitter some more while wringing its two small hands. About a minute later the four other small ones woke up and rapidly joined the first at the far wall; just as the larger one slowly woke up. It stood slowly, and a bit wobbly; took one startled look at the five humans and exclaimed, "Enlai madaan Kan Dressaa!"

Angel gasped at hearing the words; both she and Angie had picked up a lot of that language when they wore the Truth Stone during their six month video watching, "That's Ancient! It just said 'Holy One protect us'; and look, she wears a truth stone; this is a Priestess. Let me try something..." Just then David popped in, further startling their already upset guests; he could translate for Daniel, Jane and Kenny anyway. Angel stood straight and bowed deeply to the big bug; then said in Ancient, "Priestess, I and my Family greet you, I am called Angel. We saw your plight and have come to help, be at ease for we mean you no harm. I have worn the Truth Stone as well and have seen the visions, as has my Sister Angella; we follow the guidance of Isis." Angel gestured at Angie when she finished.

Shaalekk was astounded; this female speaks the Ancient tongue and claims to be a descendant of the first Priestesses, "I am called Shaalekk and I am a Priestess; but while I wear the Stone, the 'first stories' will not speak to me. I fear there are no more of my kind who can bring forth the visions." She looked over to her acolytes and spoke to them, "Come here young ones, as you can plainly see these people are not the monsters of our legends, and this is a perfect opportunity for you to practice the Old Tongue in real time. Come now, and conquer those fears." To Angel she said, "What of our pilot?" Angel bowed her head, "Alas, he is with the Holy One now; he did not survive." Shaalekk spread her arms wide, "Dekaakk's spirit travels the Universe with the Holy One; it is appropriate, for flying was his joy. We will always honor his memory." It took a few more minutes to get the young acolytes to actually open up a little, but once they began talking they did loosen up some. First contact is good, but it doesn't quite eliminate long held cultural beliefs; that takes a bit more time.

They all finally migrated up to the common room where another round of explanations ensued. When Angie ask about their guest's preferred furniture and offered to create proper reclining couches for them. The youngest, Treddikk, exclaimed, "You can work magic too?" That brought on a rather long explanation on higher technology not being magic; Treddikk grudgingly accepted the lesson, but still seemed skeptical. It seemed she was from a 'lower caste', and being chosen to train as a Priestess was a huge step up for her and that naturally brought on a separate discussion on their caste system. For these people it was normal, a natural way of life for them, and as it turned out it was a flexible system, where anyone could aspire to greatness if they possessed a 'talent' for the position. For them it apparently worked well...just before midnight ship time David put Kenny to bed in his cabin; the youngster couldn't keep his eyes open. Angel asked Shaalekk if they would like her to convert a couple cabins for them to sleep in; only to be told with a now familiar chuckle that the lounge couches would do admirably, "These are the softest biers I have ever lain on. They all decided to make their way to the original destination in the morning.
Chapter 4

Oorraakk was High Priest of the new Temple on Gaadlkk; he detested the title, even while he understood the need for such a thing. It was just that the title was so formal, and his 'style' for tending the people was far removed from those lofty name callings. The sun was shining brightly today and Oorraakk decided it might be a good day for soaking up the warming rays; that hope was dashed, however, when his secretary burst into his private chamber. "High One, there is a communication on the private channel! The new Priestess we had feared lost to us is requesting an immediate audience when they land. She says to gather all of your faith together for the meeting, for she brings another people with her from the Before Time!" Oorraakk's annoyance with hearing that formal title again lasted only a moment, to be replaced by total confusion, "Surely you must have misunderstood the wording Secretary; how can another people from the Before Time travel here? This is the 'Now Time' silly larva; I will speak to her now. " Forty time parts later Oorraakk's entire existence was turning upside down...

***

The atmosphere on the Ship was excited to say the least. As Shaalekk chattered away to her superior, she explained their historic discovery of another living people within the Universe, ones who also honored the old ways, David whispered to Daniel, "Their language is strangely calming isn't it? All the clicks and clacks, combined with the vocal sounds are so precisely modulated, it is mesmerizing. This sounds like Morse code in a way. It is kinda soothing." Daniel had to chuckle at David's choice of words, for the sounds were pleasing to his ears too. "As Kendrisaan would say, you have the right of it David. We came out here just looking for knowledge and understanding, but already we appear to be building a cultural friendship. Maybe we do have some special relationship with Fate after all..."

Daniel and his 'crew' stayed at the Temple for a week, taking in all the strangeness of the insect culture. The first clear evidence of how well their caste system worked for them was imprinted on the Family the moment they met Oorraakk, High Priest of the Temple. While the majority of the Temple complex was occupied by the Mantis variety, the 'High One' himself was a member of the beetle species; being half again bigger than Shaalekk, he at first inspired a certain aversion within Daniel and Jane's minds. It was a remnant of their own cultural heritage, having been born on Earth where millions of bug species lived in an uneasy proximity to humans. Oorraakk's appearance was imposing, but that thought evaporated once they heard him speak. He was not as fluent in the Ancient language; but could make himself understood, and his voice came out in a surprising tenor tone, which was calming right away. You wanted to listen to the guy...when Shaalekk told Oorraakk about their pilot, Dekaakk, the High Priest proved he was the right one to fill the position. "Dekaakk will be remembered always for bringing this new perspective to our existence. He will be the first name inscribed on the wall of the Great Chamber. He now flies with the Holy One for eternity." Daniel and the girls misunderstood the reference to a Great Chamber at first, thinking it was just a remembrance hall of some kind; they found out different on the fifth day when they all were invited to attend the Temple's services.

The Great Chamber could not have been called anything else, for it was simply huge; it had to be to hold all the 'people' who filled it on their day of holy reflection. There must have been 10,000 people attending that day. Intricately carved out of solid stone and colored crystal, this church would astound any religious person on any world within the Universe. Jane had never been terribly religious, but the sight before her eyes might have convinced her to try it out, "This is amazing! God must live here; it is so beautiful. Gorgeous just does not describe it. Look at all those sculptures, and the colors!" As they were led to the front of the congregation, thousands of compound eyes were focused on the Family; word had spread about the strange new people who had saved members of the Temple, and had a connection to the Before Time, and every resting couch was occupied in the massive room. Oorraakk had a special surprise for them when they reached the front of the congregation; in the front row were five human style plush chairs, He chuckled at the human expressions, "I had them made on the first day after we met; please sit and enjoy our little service."

***

When a human thinks of a religious service, we tend to expect a variety of things to happen; there could be sermons, maybe some singing of songs, chants, prayers, almost anything to feel closer to the Almighty...this insect society didn't operate that way; what Daniel and his Family were treated to, was the most amazing musical concert ever performed. There weren't any musical instruments present, for every single member was their own instrument; the girls were wide eyed at first, but managed to settle in and just 'feel' the music surrounding them. Daniel remembered the many local concerts that he and Angie and Jane had attended long ago; he hadn't expected this, but he contented himself with watching his Family's reactions as the notes washed over him. He glanced at Kenny; the boy had his special talents and it was obvious that his munchkin was hearing this from both outside and inside at the same time, for the young man had a serene smile all throughout the performance.

It began as a low hum in thousands of different octaves and pitch; all melting together in an overpowering single sound. For twenty minutes the volume slowly rose until it felt like a thick fluffy comforter keeping them warm; oddly enough it felt cooler inside the chamber to Daniel, even though the temperature on this world hovered at 80 degrees all the time, including at night. He wondered if the music was affecting his senses in some way, at twenty minutes the humming faded, and the real instrumental took over; there were no harsh horn sounds, or drums either. There were some of the more subtle sounds resembling oboes, and flutes snuck in along the way, with a touch of bassoon sounds backing them up; but the most astounding sounds developed when the string section made their voices heard. The tempo changed when real guitar sounds began from far away; it sounded just like hundreds of concert style guitarists playing at once, keeping the beat. And finally the violin sounds surfaced, and both Angie and Jane were in heaven once again; both of them had closed their eyes and were swaying back and forth, absorbing every note that came to them. It lasted for a full thirty minutes, until the sounds faded away, leaving a heavy silence; that this race could produce such pure instrumental sounds was astounding in itself, but the amazing thing was that there were no words. There was never a single word spoken at all, for it felt as if every sound, every note was its own word. These people sang to heaven, and celebrated life itself.

Then the people simply left the Great Chamber; slowly in single file lines, with no conversation, no sounds at all. There wasn't any stampede to meet the strange humans, and Daniel finally realized there didn't have to be, for the Family had been a part of the service. In one single act of participating in the service, Daniel Curran and his whole Family were now a part of this culture; they now were one with the people and there could be trust. This was going to be a very unique report when he let the Council know about it; not to mention that he was obligated to give Delia and her people a full accounting of the Family's encounters as well. Daniel laughed inside; he was beginning to accept that some very odd things happened to his little close knit group of explorers. Sometimes Fate had to tag along behind them, just to keep up...

On the morning of the sixth day Shaalekk climbed the ramp into the cargo bay; David met her and called everyone to the common room before escorting Shaalekk up to meet with them. He had thoughtfully morphed the stairs into ramps for her convenience, and he was treated to a special dose of Shaalekk's chittering laugh in return, "You honor me with such kindness young David, and I appreciate it." As they entered the common room Angie said, "Good morning Shaalekk, we all enjoyed the service a great deal. What can we do for you today?" Shaalekk laughed once again, "I have been thinking ever since you saved us; even in the Before Time we were different societies, but the oldest records we possess hint that we had contact with each other. Would you try to evoke the visions contained within my Truth Stone Angella? And you as well Angel; perhaps Kenneth can bring forth the history if you will allow it."

Kenny jumped right up with a big smile on his face, "Sure, cool!" but Angel shook her head, "Sorry Kenny but you're going to have to wait your turn on this one. Because Shaalekk's culture is different physically we don't know what might happen. Your Mom and I will try it out first to see if there are any unusual reactions, ok youngster?" Kenny pouted for a moment, but then smirked, "Ok Mama Angel; I'll wait." Shaalekk unlatched the chain and handed the Truth Stone to Angel; it was a bit different from the one they knew. It was more oval than round for one thing, and it had a purple gem in the center; other than that the chain was similar, if a bit shorter. There were glyphs on the reverse side that looked similar to their Stone and Shaalekk pointed at one, "That is the Name Symbol; our First Priestess was named 'Entaaka', it means 'Hope Eternal'..." Angel looked at the symbol for a moment, and then placed it around her neck; at first nothing happened, but then Angel's eyes went wide, "Wow again! This will take getting used to; I'm seeing everything through compound eyes, give me a minute here."

Angel turned her head in different directions, even upward a couple of times, "This is odd, the image seems to be frozen; nothing moves yet. For a human unfamiliar with looking through this type of eye structure, it's like looking through two broken windows." She closed her eyes for a minute; it was hard to focus, "Oh wait! That seems to help, the vision is better now too. I think I found the secret; we have to keep our eyes closed and actually see through Entaaka's eyes, then it's only a matter of convincing your mind to see in a different way. I think I'm getting the hang of it now; it isn't a thousand different images, just one. Now the scene is moving well and I'm getting the senses too; it's just so different from what we are used to. Yes, this can work Shaalekk."

They spent the rest of the day experimenting; Angie tried wearing the necklace for a while, her eyes trying to accept the different way to see worlds. Two hours in they let Kenny wear it, and everyone laughed for a while when they found that he had no trouble at all adjusting to pixilated images. All through the testing David remained quiet, a deep thinking expression on his face; he had noticed a real problem no one else had seen. Even Daniel with his natural sense of mystery hadn't seen the obvious; how could a human see the vastly different images from an insect when they were not genetically related at all? Human and insect DNA was only vaguely similar in structure; so the original theory that you had to be a direct descendent didn't hold up, there had to be another reason for this rather unique puzzle. David didn't have an answer to the puzzle, but he had the source of the puzzle lying on her handy dandy resting couch right in front of him, so he asked nicely, "Shaalekk, would it be alright with you if I did some investigating on this Truth Stone? I don't need to do anything to the necklace, but I would appreciate a sample of your DNA if I may?"

Shaalekk took the request with the subtle grace that was ingrained in her race, and after she chewed on a clean napkin for a minute David had his sample to research. She did exact a promise from the Family however, "Whatever David may find, I would ask that you keep the necklace for a time; perhaps you would consent to write down a portion of the Before Time, it will help greatly in understanding our common heritage from a different place than here." Daniel objected a little at that request, "We cannot keep such a treasure from you Shaalekk; it represents your entire heritage." He raised an eyebrow when Shaalekk laughed in her unique way, "But my friend Daniel Curran, this will provide the perfect excuse to return and visit with us again, won't it?" That had everyone laughing hard and Angie managed to say, "She sounds like Father! Shaalekk, Kendrisaan uses the same logic on us often." Getting the joke, Shaalekk joined in before she had to bid her farewells for the night, "I have learned more in these past seven suns than all my cycles combined, and I know the High One has as well. Be strangers no more my friends." A minute later she was escorted to the cargo bay by all the Family. This one trip had possibly produced the most knowledge of all their outings; it certainly expanded their understanding of life's diversity in the Universe.

While David was preparing for lifting off the next morning, Kenny jumped up, "Don't raise the tailgate yet David, I got one more thing to do." He found all his parents following him to the cargo bay, where the young Treddikk was waiting patiently at the bottom of the ramp. They exchanged what looked like photos and then bowed deeply to each other; the little ritual completed, Kenny came bounding back up smiling as Treddikk backed away. Kenny waved at her and she returned the gesture as the ramp came up. Daniel looked down at Kenny with a raised eyebrow, "What up Son?" Getting a giggle, Kenny said proudly, "She can hear me and I can hear her; we're gonna see how far away we can do it! We are friends now...I gave her a picture of us and she gave me a picture of her Family, see?" Daniel had to smile when he looked; in the picture were about eight of the insects, only two of them much taller than the others. It was a Family alright, and for a moment he appreciated his own Family even more than usual. "Ok David, off we go! Looks like we'll be making short hops most of the way back so Kenny can experiment too."

***

Kenny's little telepathy experiment went far better that anyone expected really; they were almost half way back to the anchor, passing the Conference planet before Treddikk's mind signal faded to the point they had a physical 'range' to go by. As a perspective, the distance was more than the Earth was from Council space; David told Kenny that he could find a girlfriend on Earth and be able to talk with her whenever he wanted to. Kenny made a rude noise, saying girls didn't interest him yet thank you. Angie heard that and pointed out that Treddikk was a girl; and Kenny came back with the most perfect logic ever, "Yeah, but Treddikk is Cool!" They all were happy for the rest of the trip; even Daniel, despite having two detailed reports to complete. The reports would not be the same, since the Watchers already knew of the intelligent insects, but the Council knew absolutely nothing about them. For that reason the two reports would focus on two totally difference aspects of the Family's first contact experience. Kendrisaan would go nuts over the church service that was a music concert; he adored music in general and would hear every note too, due to the direct link connection Angel still maintained with David. Occasionally Motherhood can have some hidden benefits, like listening to music remotely.
Chapter 5

Homecoming was not the usual affair; the Council was used to Daniel and Family bringing back amazing discoveries that added to their already vast knowledge base, but this time the Family was revealing that the humanoid shape was not the only gauge for intelligent life within this Universe...or any other one for that matter. As a result of this latest discovery Daniel was in high demand for almost two weeks, as the report spread out the questions multiplied; reading a highly detailed report was one thing, but up close and personal interviews were oh so much better to really absorb the information. The recording of the church music concert was number one on the Council's version of the Hit List on the first day back; and stayed there for over a month; people on 100,000 worlds wanted to hear the pitch perfect natural sounds that so sublimely honored life within the Universe.

David had gone over his DNA scans 1000 times already; no matter how he tried to view and organize the chain data, it always looked normal. He needed some more expert help to solve this twisted puzzle. He knew who to consult, but unfortunately the man was seriously unavailable right now; and ironically Kendrisaan was presiding over a full council debate regarding the very people he wanted to help. The full Council was debating insects, and had been for over a week; ever since he had migrated into the Command Controller matrix on the Ship David had been forbidden from interrupting Kendrisaan in Council sessions, and most definitely not during a full Council session. No one could interrupt any Council proceeding actually; no average everyday someone at least, but another member could...

Daniel was enjoying an almost full day of no interviews from scientists; everyone else was doing their own thing at the moment, and he was just relaxing in the Atrium. It was such a peaceful feeling he didn't even know it when he fell asleep...or thought he did. Angel, Angie and Jane were in their quarters 'playing' with Shaalekk's Truth Stone again. It was growing more and more tiring simply because a human who looked too long through the pixilated images in compound eyes developed rather painful headaches. Angie and Angel had found a partial solution by limiting their exposure time to only forty minutes each. That helped, but also hindered the progress somewhat. The on and off routine sometimes caused the Truth Stone to reset to where it began, and they would have to start all over again.

Enter Super Hero Kenneth Curran; when Angel and Angie finally caved in and let him help out they found that he could wear the Stone for over two hours before a headache tried to bother him. Today was the second day they tried it and were coaching him in what they wanted most. Just chit chat between two bug Priestesses wasn't useful because none of them could translate that click clack speech, and the three couldn't reproduce the sounds anyway for recording; so during those times they described and recorded the sights. But often a human Priestess would hold a conversation with a bug Priestess in the Ancient language, and all three were near fluent in that language now. As a result they made much progress today and discovered there was dissention amongst the troops. It was close to the time when they would 'have to move the people', and there was disagreement as to where to go. For the first time there was an indication that there was a choice of destinations; they had never known that before...

***

Daniel was standing on a mountain; no, that wasn't right, he was apparently standing on something clear and solid; he could feel the surface under his feet, since the ground was a long way down below him, high up went without saying. It looked like a desert down there; as he looked around, off in the distance Daniel could see cities, many different cities. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of cities, all separated from each other; one was way out there by itself, and yup! It had pyramids. He didn't see them well, but all of them looked different; the buildings were all of different designs and different materials, like all the places he had seen, "Okay, this is going to be one strange dream."

"NO!"

Startling certainly; the voice wasn't particularly loud, but it sure was emphatic; kinda weird though, the voice didn't come from any direction; it was all around Daniel, "Ok where am I?" The sky was that rose color but without a sun, just like the girls described, "This is before; you are now." Daniel already had plenty of questions lined up in a row, but he didn't think they would get him very far; this voice wasn't very talkative. "Why am I here? Daniel should have known better than to ask such an obvious question, and he got the answer he already knew would come, "To observe." The huge balls of light and fire descended towards all the cities just then; there weren't just the three he expected either, there were thousands of them. They were different sizes and they each settled over or near a city as the whole sky turned a deep red, just like the Truth Stone had shown, but it didn't feel hot. After what felt like a long time to Daniel, all the glowing balls rose into the sky and headed in many different directions; three of the balls stayed close together though, in a sort of formation. Daniel somehow knew those three carried the people in his Universe; before they were all out of sight, the cities began burning, one after the other; even the ground below him was doing that. It should have been hot, but Daniel wasn't hot or cold, "Who are you?" After a short pause, "All questions have been answered; see them." Daniel felt a little annoyed at that, he liked straight answers, "I don't understand." Maybe he'd get a little more explanation yet, but he was disappointed when the voice simply said, "Continue and you will. Go now."

Nothing happened for a moment; but Daniel heard another voice, "You ok Boss? You are staring off into space you know..." "Huh"...and David came into focus, "Wow; that was weird! I was somewhere else, like in that Truth Stone video David, I was watching the big exodus and a voice was talking to me." David looked at Daniel with a surprised expression, "You mean you talked to God, Boss?" Daniel began to laugh, remembering something. The voice had been rather cryptic when he asked it who it was. That question had been asked once before, thousands of years ago by a man called 'Moses'. The 'I am' answer was ambiguous to be sure, but the question had been answered. Heck, it was even in some versions of the bible; so maybe the voice simply meant that all questions that could be asked had already been asked many times, so why ask again? "Maybe I did David; I'm not sure. But I think we were just told to continue doing what we are doing, to find the answers that are already out there, so that is what we will do..." David almost forgot to ask Daniel to help him out after hearing that, "Wow! That is bizarre Boss, but I've got a problem of my own that I'm hoping you'll solve for me. Can you call Grandfather and see if he will be available anytime soon?"

"I'm available now David; what do you have trouble with? I'm taking a day off while those Ambassadors bicker over what to with the new information you brought back." Kendrisaan sat down on the couch next to Daniel and David spent some time describing how he couldn't figure out why Angel, Angie and Kenny could make Shaalekk's Truth Stone playback the recording, but Shaalekk could not, "I'm already certain it has nothing to do with ancestry Grandfather; it has to be in the chain structure itself, but I haven't found it yet." Kendrisaan nodded sagely for a moment, "You have done very well David, but I do believe you are over thinking this; remember you are dealing with two physically different people here, Insect DNA is different in structure than human DNA normally, but with those three you have all the added sequences from all of our people to search through; so I would suggest focusing only on the sequences that are very similar in structure or identical within the two chains. That could help narrow it down. Both are very long anyway." David smiled widely, "Maybe I have been looking too broadly; I have been looking at all the chains to see if there were similarities between the base pairs. It will take a couple minutes to isolate just the similar or identical sequences; I'll be back." Daniel laughed at his Father in Law, "Now you're in for it; you'll be wishing for the Ambassadors soon." Kendrisaan joined in the humor, "Nonsense Daniel; Science is my life, it is just the relaxation I need right now."

It took five minutes before David popped back to the Atrium. He put up a large hologram of two DNA chains, "I removed all the species and family chains Grandfather, those would have little to no similarities; the rest of the chains had some similarities that were close enough to compare. The image here is the fourth chromosome in the traits chain; as you can see, the two chromosomes match except for the third link. Shaalekk's chromosome is deficient in protein, could that be the cause?" Daniel was way out of his element, having never studied this esoteric subject at all, so he just watched Kendrisaan's expression as he stared at the hologram for a full minute before he said, "It is certainly possible David; it is the emotional characteristic chromosome in this chain, is it not?" Seeing Daniels puzzled expression, he continued, "Daniel, the name I call it is immaterial really, it is made up. But in plain language this is where it is decided whether you are calm or excitable, passive or aggressive, and to a smaller extent if you are psychic or not...don't look so surprised my friend; the fact is that most people are psychic to some degree; it is all in the protein count. In yours and Jane's case the link is broken; it can be repaired usually if you want to some day. David, Shaalekk's link isn't just deficient, the marker is dormant because of the low count, and that could be due to dietary preference; we would have to have other samples from Shaalekk's people to confirm that."

***

A new dilemma frowned at Daniel and the Family; they had planned to head out to Bethaan's corner of the Universe to reacquaint them with her; and possibly look around a bit if they were welcomed. The plan was to tip toe through the dead zone gate and ask 'permission' to visit. While it got a little close to a portion of the One Rule, it was not dangerously close; but now they had a reason to visit Shaalekk again, and they 'did' have an invitation for that visit. The iffy part was that the Family would need to ask if they could do a little medical research on several others of their people while they were there; and the last thing they wanted to do was offend their new friends. Accessing the Truth Stone's secrets was a powerful incentive for cooperation though; it was important to their religious identity and Daniel crossed his fingers, "Let's do it. We will just be extra cautious in how we ask them to help." Kendrisaan laughed at Daniel's insecure gesture, "You still know how to brighten my life Daniel, I will have a 'potion' ready by morning for your trip. It is perfectly harmless to the insect genetic structure; basically it is water based and has no taste at all. It will take as much as a week to show any effect, depending on their metabolism."

One thing you don't do when dealing with a brand new race of people in the Universe, is just barge in unannounced, even with a blanket invitation. Interstellar Etiquette always dictated that you stopped short of a populated star system and asked permission, or at least said 'hi', and asked if it was ok to visit for a while. The Family made one single tunnel jump from the Anchor Point to just outside the Red Zone, and fired up the communications array. David used the Temple's channel simply because it was their destination, and the only one known at present...and waited for almost two minutes before Oorraakk's pleasant tenor voice answered, "Welcome friends, we await your arrival with pleasure." Angel laughed, "Sounds like a yes to me!"

David landed right where they had before, just outside the Temple entrance. The Family didn't really expect it, but Oorraakk and Shaalekk were standing there with the diminutive Treddikk just behind the two seniors. Both of them looked at Treddikk and Shaalekk motioned Treddikk forward; the young mantis stood tall and then bowed to Daniel and the girls, "We greet you all; welcome!" Then she turned to Kenny and bowed to him alone, "I greet you Kenneth Curran; I am hap...happy you have returned"...in English.

While the girls just looked to each other in shock, Daniel chuckled as he looked at his Son, "Kenny?" Kenny had a wide grin on his face, "I was teaching Treddikk English last time; she is smart!" Oddly, Treddikk's Chitin turned a lighter shade of purple and she said, "Thank you Kenny..." Shaalekk merely clicked a chuckle, "Our cultures grow closer; please come into Oorraakk's office friends." They spent the day just discussing both cultures and the different ways they did everyday things. Kenny and Treddikk had wandered off so she could show him the Temple grounds. When the discussion turned to science and medicine Angel brought up what they had discovered so far in the Truth Stone; how there was so little information, and the why of it, "To really appreciate the full value of what is contained within the Truth Stone, people of your species should wear the Stone to unlock it, and our David has discovered a possible reason why it has not spoken to you yet Shaalekk. Would it be possible to gather samples of DNA from several others to confirm what we believe is the problem?"

There it was, the moment of truth; would offence be taken? Shaalekk provided the first answer while Oorraakk looked off in silence for a moment, "We do not know of this DNA medicine yet, and our knowledge seems to be lacking in some areas, but the procedure is easy enough Oorraakk, and not intrusive at all. I have grown to trust these humans High One, and we do call them friends after all." The High Priest chuckled and agreed readily enough; he would provide the second comparison sample. Then Angie laughed out loud, "Kenny says Treddikk will do it too; he was listening in while teaching her some more English." The third 'volunteer' was just in the next room. Oorraakk explained to his Secretary/Assistant what was needed and how it was done; the young Acolyte didn't even flinch, "Of course High One; this is important for all our people." David had his samples an hour later and he worked through the night while his Family slept.
Chapter 6

When Daniel, Angie, Angel, Jane and Kenny were having breakfast in the common room, David popped in to deliver his results, "Ok, it is confirmed; it is apparent that some or probably most of these people are deficient in an enzyme that produces the proteins that turns on that link in the chromosome. Treddikk was the key to this, since she is partially telepathic and can hear Kenny easily; her level is just over the line from being dormant. We'll have to ask her about what changed in her diet since she was accepted into the Temple. It may even be something to do with the caste system itself; it will take time to narrow it down." Daniel was impressed by David's summary, and encouraged by his dedication to the new puzzle, "Kenny, would you contact Treddikk and have her ask Shaalekk to join us here please?" Kenny smiled, "Sure Father", and ten minutes later Shaalekk showed up with Treddikk close behind.

Daniel had David explain what he found to Shaalekk and her young charge; he wasn't surprised when some of the more scientific details flew right over their heads, and smiled when both Angel and Angie managed to translate the specialty words into more understandable everyday wording. He was proud of all of them; they were really into this...when Shaalekk made the connection between 'mind talk' and controlling the Truth Stone, she stopped David's dialog, "Treddikk, there is another Truth Stone in my chamber; it is in the bottom drawer of the Time Keeper stand by my sleeping couch, please bring it here? While the young Acolyte was accomplishing her task Shaalekk asked David, Is there enough of that 'potion' for two doses David?" David looked puzzled for a second, then grinned as he understood her intent, "Yes Shaalekk, because your level of proteins are so low you will need to take about two thirds of it to be effective for you; but one third will be more than enough to enhance Treddikk's abilities." So they measured out two thirds of the vial and Shaalekk drank it with the help of a convenient straw they had; Kenny liked to use them sometimes to sip his favorite drinks. And they waited for Treddikk's return...

When the young Acolyte returned she tried to hand the Truth Stone to Shaalekk; who promptly held up her hand and said, "No child, remember the Ancient writing and read the name symbol on the back." Treddikk studied the inscription on the back of the Truth Stone for a minute, turning her head several times, "Priestess, it says this belonged to 'Emlaaka'." Shaalekk had no way to smile, but she could chuckle in her unique way, "Yes young one, Entaaka and Emlaaka were Sisters of the same egg, and served the Holy One together; this Truth Stone is yours now, wear it humbly as the Priestess you will be. Put it on and drink this water; it will help bring the visions to you." Daniel didn't think any of the Family understood what just happened, but apparently Kenny did; for he broke away and walked right up to Treddikk, crossing his hands over his heart and bowing, "Welcome Priestess of the Before Time." Suddenly it came to Daniel; he had not seen any other Truth Stones here, these two must be the only ones and weren't simply high tech recording devices but symbols of something more to an entire people; this was big, Daniel knew that much now. He also knew that Kenny was learning more about this culture than any of the rest of the Family; faster too, and that was a good thing.

After Treddikk drank the rest of Kendrisaan's genetic restorative David explained that there was no nuclear clock and the effects of this would show up when they decided to on their own, based upon how quickly their metabolisms absorbed the enzymes. As he said that David remembered something Kendrisaan had said that the dormant gene was probably the result of a diet deficiency, and if that was true throughout the race then Treddikk's chromosome should have been dormant too, but it still functioned, "Treddikk, while you were growing up did you eat anything other than what you normally ate?" Treddikk cocked her head for a moment, "I don't think so David; about every fourth cycle, if the crops were bad, we had to eat the bark from the 'Todaad' tree for a little while, but that was all." Angie picked up on that right off, "We need a sample of the bark; can we get some Shaalekk?" It was Shaalekk's turn to cock her head; science wasn't her specialty, "You will have a supply for study tomorrow Angella. I do not understand such things, but David may ask for any assistance that will help our people" For now we must wish you a pleasant sleep cycle, our newest Priestess has a busy day ahead."

Apparently Shaalekk held a great deal more sway in her society than the Family realized; for she came out to the Ship the following morning just as they were finishing breakfast, "The Courier should be landing shortly with the bark Angella; Illiskk is only two stars away." It was ten minutes before David announced its arrival, "He is approaching now; stay inside as he will land to the left of us." Everyone could see that the ship that landed was not the shiny new design; it wasn't battered per se', but it definitely had that 'well worn' look to it. The beetle pilot who descended the ramp carried a small box in his arms which likely contained the bark David was waiting for; the pilot bowed to Shaalekk and began chittering in their native language, "I greet you High Priestess; I am Rllaatt from the Science Institute. I have brought the Todaad bark you requested. The new design ships have all been grounded, as there has been another accident so I had to use the older one; my apologies. When Shaalekk climbed the tailgate and handed the box to David, she told everyone what the pilot had said, "I am now doubly apprehensive of using those craft."

Daniel caught the looks that both Angel and Angie were giving him; he knew the 'We must help' looks very well by now He already knew the propulsion system used in the new design was based on the same system David wielded so easily; but he also knew the One Rule prohibited 'giving away' advanced technology. He thought to himself, "This is a ticklish situation"; then the absurd irony hit him and he almost laughed out loud. This was not giving technology; but refining what was already developed by these people, just like back on Earth. They already built it and just needed help controlling the power, "I take it he does not speak Ancient Shaalekk; would you ask him if we may look at the design specifications for the new ships? Perhaps we might be able to identify the problem since we use a similar system."

Shaalekk actually jerked back slightly, startled; the humans had been willing to help in bringing forth the visions embedded in the Truth Stone, but now they were concerned about the safety of her entire race as well. She chattered away at the astounded pilot/scientist for over a minute; while Rllaatt kept glancing up at Daniel and the girls, who descended the ramp to join the two. Finally Shaalekk said, "Rllaatt says he is a specialist in botany, not propulsion; but he will go back to the Engineering section and pass on the request; he will let us know by tomorrow afternoon if that is acceptable. The Engineering section is on another world farther away, but it is still an easy journey for this ship."

When Rllaatt took off five minutes later Shaalekk begged off on the offered chitchat, having to attend to Treddikk's 'investiture' within the Temple; so Daniel and his favorite crowd headed back up to the common room. David popped in as they all sat down, "Well that was easy, the chemical composition of that bark is nutritional for the insects and produces the proteins that activate some sequences in their genes. I'm writing up a proposal that they grind up the bark as a kind of seasoning for other foods; Kenny told me Treddikk thinks it tastes pretty good really." Kenny, however, wasn't saying anything at the moment; he was staring off into space, apparently talking with his friend. They all left him alone until he was ready to talk. That took all of ten minutes before Kenny looked up smiling at his family, "Treddikk is getting her badge engraved; she said she will be out to say hi soon." Jane gave him one of those 'Huh' looks, "Her badge? I thought the Truth Stone was her badge!" Everybody including David was just lost with only that little bit of information; Angel just chuckled, "I guess we'll find out when she gets here..."

It was two hours before both Shaalekk and Treddikk arrived. They let the Family know in the simplest way; Treddikk called Kenny on their own private channel, "They're right outside now, and Treddikk says to just stay here, they'll be right up." As the two mantis entered the common room Daniel and the girls couldn't help but notice that Treddikk walked with the same stately grace that Shaalekk did; if a little faster. Also noticeable was the expected Truth Stone; less expected was the emblem newly etched into her Chitin just above what would be her left shoulder. Simple yet intricate at the same time, it consisted of two circles with stars in each, connected by a wavy line. The 'mystery of the badge' had been explained without a single word having been spoken. Next up, the mystery of the crashing starships...

***

Rllaatt was pondering that exact mystery himself; he had flown all through the night to reach the Engineering Department in order to convey the request he was tasked with delivering. While the Engineering section of the Science Institute didn't quite occupy all of the small planet it resided on, it still could easily be named the Engineer World, had the insects used such conventions. Rllaatt knew where he needed to make such a serious request so he asked permission to land at the First Engineer's compound; stating that he had a request from 'The Humans'. Everyone knew of the strange people who rescued the High Priestess Shaalekk and her recruits by now, so permission took less than a minute.

Rllaatt expected to be greeted by a lesser engineer; what he got was the First Engineer himself waiting patiently at the entrance as Rllaatt landed. The old mantis skittered up the ramp as it touched ground; dismissing a formal greeting with the wave of a hand, "So this ancient vehicle still flies well young pilot? I just now received word of your coming by radio. The High Priest asked that you be listened to when you arrived, but I did not expect you until the suns dimming." Rllaatt was a bit surprised by the friendly greeting; he was being treated as an equal by the most senior Engineer, and he felt he should respect that courtesy, "First Engineer, I must confess to treating the engines somewhat harshly on the journey here, but they never complained at all. It may be an old design, but the ships have always been reliable. I felt that time was important in this case, for the humans have asked if they might review the new ship's specifications and circuits; they hope to help us avoid any more accidents. Dekaakk was my friend and I would honor him by helping with this in any way that I am able."

It was time for the First Engineer to reveal that he could be surprised, "These humans know of such things? They must be very advanced indeed." Rllaatt was chuckling before he realized it, "First Engineer, I was only near their starship for ten time parts, but I tell you truly; there are no engine nozzles at all for such a large ship. It is easily ten times as large as ours, but all it had were many emitters placed all around it in neat patterns, much like our new design. I believe they use the same propulsion principle on their starships. The language they spoke is strange to me, and the High Priestess Shaalekk translated the words for me." The old engineer shrank back startled, "So they are at least as advanced as we are; perhaps more so. If my Sister trusts the humans, then I must do the same. How is Shaalekk my friend; has she totally recovered from her ordeal? Come Rllaatt, you must be weary; you will eat and rest in my chambers while my staff gathers all the documents. While this is certainly important, you should not return until new sun. I will send a message to Oorraakk explaining the slight delay." Rllaatt could not help but be surprised that the highest scientist was so closely related to one of the highest ranked members of the Temple. For Rllaatt, this was personal because of his friendship with Dekaakk; now he knew that it was equally personal for the Engineer as well, but he kept it to himself. Rllaatt slept soundly that night, wondering if he would ever experience another day as enlightening as this one had been.
Chapter 7

Having the necessary data doesn't always provide the information you want, as David found out when Rllaatt landed late at night the following day. The young pilot/botanist had brought every 'technical manual' and blue print that existed for the entire new design ship. The First Engineer had insisted on that, simply saying, "There is no half trust Rllaatt; we either trust the humans fully or not at all. I am guided in this sharing by the High Priestess' trust. They may find it easier to help if they understand how the different systems relate to each other." He was more right than he knew, but the first mountain had to be climbed first...language. Transferring the massive load of books and drawings to David was the easy part it turned out; Rllaatt made a brief request to the Night Priest at the Temple and shortly thereafter they had 30 Acolyte 'volunteers' whittling away at the piles in Rllaatt's cargo bay; just over an hour later the gang of 'stevedores' returned to their quarters to resume their interrupted sleep cycle.

David bowed to Rllaatt; thanking him for delivering the goods, only to get a quizzical turn of the head and a short chittering sentence in return. Rllaatt did bow though; but that was the extent of their pleasantries. Having no clue as to what to do next, David was about to resort to hand gestures when a familiar voice sounded from outside, "Rllaatt apologized for not understanding David; perhaps I can help, may I enter?" As Treddikk came up the ramp she chittered away to Rllaatt, who chittered back quickly. In between Treddikk picked up a rather thick book with what looked a lot like Morse code dots and dashes all over the cover, along with some strange squiggles mixed in, "Here David, this is the project summary; it should be a good basis for learning our language. Rllaatt says he can help with some of the technical words. Kenny explained to me about your ability to learn quickly; shall we begin?"

***

Daniel knew something was up the moment his eyes opened; the first clue was the total silence. He was alone in bed; the first time in a long while, and the usual tiny sounds that let him remember where he was were missing. Daniel dressed quickly; then headed for the common room to find out what was going on, only to find the same silence greeting him. What the heck? This was odd; with five others in his Family, at least one usually made some kind of noise. Maybe he'd get some answers outside; Daniel headed for the cargo bay, finding all the noise he could handle the second he opened the hatch. Apparently there was a party he wasn't invited to; for Treddikk and Rllaatt were standing next to David, chittering at him at high speed in the local language; and David was responding in kind while pointing at different sections in about ten books all at once. That was surprising enough; but Jane, Angie, Angel and Kenny were scurrying around, laying out hundreds of drawings on tables that now lined the walls of the cargo bay. It appeared to Daniel that the insect engineers had come through in grand style...

Everyone was concentrating so intently on their own tasks that no one even noticed Daniel standing at the hatch for over a minute; it wasn't even Daniel's presence that broke up the intense concentration, it was the shrill whistle at the top of the ramp that turned heads toward Shaalekk standing just inside the bay. The normally prim and proper mantis was laughing rather hysterically at the sight before her; all work came to a sudden halt until proper morning pleasantries were observed. Noticing that both of the young insects' antennae were drooping, she ordered them to find sleeping couches in the Temple, "I have heard David's speaking in our language; his context and form are near perfect and you should be proud of your accomplishment. Go now and rest young ones..."

Having sufficient understanding of the insect native language now, David dug into the functional design of their propulsion system; unlike the older ion type engines, the new 'tickler drive' operated in a similar fashion to the Council method of coaxing the vast energy in the Universe to cooperate with their starships desire to move from point 'A' to point 'B'. Since those two points in space were constantly changing, the system needed some very sophisticated parts positioned in just the right configuration to deliver the results you wanted. David studied the 'tickler module' for a few minutes. The theory was solid enough and the placement of the emitters well thought out. The problem was that there weren't enough emitters to provide a smooth transition from one direction to another; what was worse, the whole system had the secondary function of protecting the hull structure from sudden changes in motion, and by default the passengers inside. The insect ships were stressing the hulls and passengers every time they took off. When David explained 'inertial dampening' to Shaalekk, she let out a whistle of exclamation, "Your point is well taken David; I have always disliked space travel simply because every change in direction made my stomach queasy. The older ships weren't too bad, being slower in their movements, but the newer ships were supposed to eliminate the sense of motion entirely; they didn't, and it was terrible during the journey here. I felt no motion when you brought us here, and did not even know we were moving at all until you showed us approaching the Temple. I have no background in science, but this should be the first conclusion presented in our report." The two wasted no time, David writing 40 pages on just the module conclusions; with Shaalekk editing occasionally to make the presentation 'culturally correct'. The rest of the Family wasn't left out either; both David and Shaalekk translated all the dots, dashes and squiggle symbols as they went...

***

Daniel didn't feel left out so much as he felt out of touch with the subject matter; even after almost 21 years of careful tutoring about how Council technology worked he was still basically a mechanic at heart, feeling more comfortable with the hands on part of machinery. He didn't have one of the starships handy to look over, but he did have hundreds of system drawings not five feet away to look at; he might not be able to read the words and labels, but drawings were drawings and he could certainly trace circuits. He found the tickler module drawing and started familiarizing himself with the layout and connection points, and found a number of wires that ran in parallel right up to the top left corner and stopped at a bracket with a bunch of dots, dashes and squiggles next to it; it obviously was continued on another drawing, "David, what does this label say?"

David glanced over and frowned, "It says 'Continued on Shield Generator Drawing' Boss. Let's look at that, it is an odd use of power distribution." They found that drawing farther down the line; and it showed a flaw that could cause some erratic behavior during flight, "Look at that Boss; they tap directly off the main power with no buffer circuit for the shield generator, and feed the propulsion emitter node as well off the same circuit. Under certain conditions this setup could cause a feedback loop in the flight controls; we need to take a good look at the physical controls in the pilot station." It took a couple minutes to locate the drawing itself because it had not been unfolded yet; while Shaalekk looked for it David browsed through the tech manuals until he found the section on flight controls and known characteristics. Inside he found a photo of the entire flight console; it wasn't Spartan per se', but the button and switch layout was not overly complicated either. As Daniel gazed at the picture he said, "I think I could fly that; it almost looks easy!" From behind he heard Shaalekk, "You are correct Daniel; none of our pilots are dedicated flight people, and are specialists in many other fields. Many of my people take up flying as a means to maintain their manual dexterity; I have been told it takes a very light touch to fly a starship." Daniel burst out laughing, remembering one day twenty years ago when Angie made him learn to fly the ship manually, "I can certainly appreciate that Shaalekk!" Daniel looked meaningfully at Angie; she tried hard but couldn't hold in her own laughter. That one moment accomplished one thing that was needed more than anything else; it let the Family relax a bit; to 'loosen up'. The task before them was still very important, but now they could get back to enjoying the puzzle for what it was; a way to help these people understand what they had already invented themselves. So far it looked like they would be suggesting a few changes in circuitry and possibly an addition or two.

The photo of the control console suggested a good layout for a pilot; but the drawing told another story. David looked apologetic when he spoke to Shaalekk, "High Priestess, I do not want to offend your scientists; but they chose a fractional control for a power system that uses proportional distribution. That is why the pilot would need a very light touch to keep the ship under control. Because the shield generator is connected to the propulsion node, any change in shield demand could affect the power to the node while passing a large object in space. In other words, the navigation sensors kept changing the power demand to the shields; and the changes in power flow affected the emitters. Dekaakk could not keep up with the sudden changes, so there are four areas that should be changed; more emitters in key places to provide a finer response to directional control and inertial dampening; an alternate power source for shielding to reduce power surging, and using proportional controls to allow more precise response. All those will help stabilize the systems, but the fourth will help even more; installing buffers at key points in the power grid will smooth out how the entire ship operates. A few circuit boards can help there, but integrating a computer control to coordinate it would be best."

Kenny had been roaming around trying to puzzle out all the different schematics laid out in the cargo bay; he wasn't paying much attention to David's explanation, but when he heard David mention computers he piped right up, "The People got lots of computers David; everybody has one. Treddikk showed me hers and it's real smart! It was talkin' to me in English right from the start; Treddikk taught it..." Shaalekk had learned to read human facial expressions from their many talks; what she saw now was complete astonishment, "Yes, computers are a large part of our daily lives; they assist us with many tasks in our society. I apologize for not making that clear. I have instructed my own computer to allow you access if you wish to talk with him" David was about to respond when he froze for a second; a voice sounded within his matrix, "Hello David, I am called Edo. I must apologize for my actions, but I have been monitoring your conclusions about the new starship design. While engineering is beyond my area of expertise, the conclusions you expressed are logical and I have sent a preliminary report to the First Engineer. His response stated he was coming with his team to discuss corrective actions. I did not want to offend you and your people, but this issue is very important to my people." All that took barely one second, and David gave his best approximation of astonished; while he began talking with Edo he told everyone, "I don't need to; Edo just contacted me. He's been monitoring the conversation and has the First Engineer and a team coming here to work on the finer points. Boss, they aren't just computers; they're AI's..."
Chapter 8

With such a revelation there was now little to do but take a break and wait for the arrival of the First Engineer and his team. They all migrated to the common room, where both Rllaatt and Treddikk joined the group an hour later; while they were both disappointed to have missed the discussion on the ship design, they were elated to learn that the senior engineer and his group were coming to discuss improvements. Both had a personal stake in it, one having lost a friend and the other having witnessed the physical result of a crash. David begged off on the usual talk talk and spent the entire afternoon talking with Edo, and as it turned out with some 20 other AI's through the people's version of an interstellar internet. The number one question asked of David was, "What is it like travelling through the stars?" David gave it to them straight; the boredom, the excitement, and the wonder of discovering new worlds and people. He stressed that when carrying passengers long distances it was essential to have lots of entertainment media on board; not only for the 'organics' but for the AI's as well. When asked why, David chuckled and told them that even an AI could go 'stir crazy' too and pleasant distractions made long journeys tolerable. By sunset David had seven volunteers who expressed an interest in space travel; none of the AI's in this society had ever been in space. The insects preferred the 'hands on' approach to flying and it had never occurred to them that incorporating AI's in their spacecraft was not only safer overall, but would also let them just 'enjoy the sights'. Even before the engineers arrived David knew there were several cultural attitudes about to change in this intriguing society, and none of the Family had even walked among the people yet. That day would come, David was sure of it; he knew his family well.

***

Angie was thinking much the same thing; funny how that happens in a tight knit Family. The only difference was that she just wanted to go out and see something different, "Shaalekk, would it be alright if we just walked around town for a bit? I would like to meet more of the people." Shaalekk looked at Treddikk, "Would you act as guide young Priestess? Perhaps Rllaatt would agree to accompany you." It only took a minute to sort out who was who and the seven 'people' headed down the ramp and out toward the sprawling town/city about a half mile away; it was balmy for a change, the temperature hovering at 78 degrees with some beautiful cloud formations in the sky blocking the direct sunlight. As they neared the first row of multi story buildings, Daniel started feeling a little uneasy; he was thinking they were grouped a bit too closely together, "Shouldn't we spread out a little? We don't want to look like a gang trying to intimidate anyone." Treddikk looked up at Daniel and chittered a high pitched laugh; then let Rllaatt in on the apparent joke. Kenny was just grinning, trying not to laugh himself. Daniel asked him, "What is going on Munchkin?" Kenny did laugh then, "You'll find out Father..." The three girls were just lost; but they all found out what the joke was two minutes later when they met up with the first group of locals at what had to be an open market with hundreds of different leaves of all shapes and colors, hanging in decorative bunches. It didn't take a nuclear scientist to figure out this was a grocery store. There were a dozen locals representing the various species, including one of the 'almost lady bug' type. All of them backed up slightly to give the human group room to browse; then all bowed in unison, each one chittering a short sentence in turn. Four astounded humans look at Treddikk for help; she chuckled, "The words vary, but they welcome you to 'Ita', and wish you well on your travels. It is the name of this city and means peace."

The Family already knew about the 'bow of respect', so all of them bowed to the locals; with they crossed hands over the chest added for effect. Angel spoke, "We thank you for your courtesy, and wish you a pleasant day." Treddikk translated, which brought on an excited cacophony of delighted chittering from the crowd; then they simply went back to their business." The ritual was repeated all day long; whether at one of their stops or just passing on the sidewalks that lined every paved street; always with a cheerful greeting. Daniel had to ask, "Treddikk, I don't understand; everyone acts like they have known us for years, I just don't get it." Treddikk looked up at him for a minute; then said softly, "Daniel, all of the people in this city know you now. All were at the service you and your family attended and you are all considered one with the people now. There is a phrase in our language that translates as 'one friend, all friends'; it is our way. The service was also recorded and transmitted to all of our planets; you are welcomed in any city on all our worlds." All the way back to the ship Daniel was in a quandary; how was he going to explain the absolute trust expressed by the people here? Finally he just smiled; no matter what words he chose, this report was going to be the longest one ever...

The Engineering Team arrived the next morning, and a weeklong conference began; right from the start it was a learning experience for everyone. Daniel had been half expecting some kind of resistance to changing the design of a brand new starship fleet, but there was none of that kind of thing. There was no arrogance and no arguments; they all listened to David's presentation with rapt attention; each taking voluminous notes all the time. Then the group moved to the drawings and wiring schematics; every system, every component, and every connection was put under a microscope. David stressed adding redundant circuits where safety was concerned; and when he mentioned that adding a separate reactor for just shielding and environmental systems, the engineers actually nodded and started a whole new page of notes. It was there that Daniel asked David to explain, "I understand the need for redundancy David, but why use a different 'kind' of power source?" David smiled his best 'teacher smile', "It's because of the 'nature' of the power Boss; you see, the 'tickler module' isn't a reactor at all. It is an energy collector and distributor, and requires a very precise control at all times. The Universe is the source of a vast amount of energy and the module taps into a small part continuously; the shield system's power demand is changing at the same time and likely caused erratic fluctuations in the flight dynamics."

The last subject the group tackled generated the most robust discussion of all; flight controls. The First Engineer explained their rationale in using them, "We have always used fractional control in all our power applications; they are reliable and provide precise power distribution. We had used them successfully for many cycles in our older starships for that reason, and felt it would be just as successful in the new system. It appears we were wrong however, if I understand your words David." Here it was, the 'meat' of the problem; an error in judgment that was the proximate cause of two crashes and the loss of one life. David took on the role of diplomat in his answer, "First Engineer, I agree that fractional controls are very useful in most applications where a precise control of power is necessary; we use similar theory in our power plants and manufacturing facilities where external variables are few or non-existent. Using them in your older ships was a good enough choice at the time; the difference however is the 'nature' of the power you control. The older ships use a reaction propulsion system, and there is a built in 'lag time' with the response to both changes in power and directional control. With the new system you are tapping into the power of the Universe itself, and the changes in power and directional control are instantaneous; in effect the fractional controls were working against you all the time. With the addition of the shield generator tapping the same power, the ship became unstable under certain limited conditions. Separating the individual systems and using redundancy in some of them will eliminate some of the instabilities, and using proportional controls will smooth out the response time. Your control console layout is remarkably similar to my emergency manual control layout; would you like to experience the difference in response?"

Daniel perked up when he heard that, "Good idea David; Rllaatt, are you the only experienced pilot here?" There were three actually; two of the junior engineers liked to fly too. The First Engineer chose to observe from the comfort of the common room, along with his nine other junior scientists. David did his shape changing trick; creating comfortable couches for all his passengers, including three pilot couches on the bridge for his 'pilots in training', As the emergency controls folded out from the bridge console, David gave the short introduction to each control's function; five minutes later Rllaatt lifted off, the very first truly 'alien' pilot to ever do so. Four hours later when they landed again David had thirteen enthusiastic converts; everyone expressed amazement at how smoothly the ship changed direction in any plane; the First Engineer was probably the most surprised when he said, "I felt nothing; not a single movement at all!" Angel chuckled, "That is a byproduct of carefully integrating the inertial dampeners into the directional node First Engineer; I'm sure David will point out the best positioning in your design...David did just that ten minutes later; suggesting a buffer circuit to improve and smooth the response time. Redesign was complete; and after twenty minutes of many thanks and respectful pleasantries the engineers boarded Rllaatt's ship for the trip home to their institute.

Daniel made the mistake of thinking that the insect engineers took a similar production approach to starship design as humans did; so he was more than a little surprised when Rllaatt showed back up four days later...not in his older ship, but one of the shiny egg shaped ships. He explained to all the Family in the common room, " The engineering section was making changes as the discussions were going on; as each modification was approved by the First Engineer, it was only a matter of rewiring it or producing a new circuit board or two. The ship flies so smoothly now it is truly a pleasure to travel among the stars!" Daniel could only shake his head; "These 'bugs' don't waste time! No, you can't go there; these are intelligent 'people', no matter what they look like..."

***

The job was done and Daniel and Family were free to head out once again...except for one little detail. Neither Shaalekk nor Treddikk had indicated whether Kendrisaan's potion was affecting them at all, or not; and it had been almost three weeks now. They couldn't just blurt out 'Hey; is it working yet?' That could easily cause a lot of negative thoughts, and the Truth Stones were an important part of their lives. The Family would just have to wait and see. At least one Truth Stone decided to cooperate, for on the second morning Treddikk arrived; and her first words told everyone that some things were not right in her Universe, "The visions have begun, and some are disturbing; Angella and Angel, I ask for your counsel. You are both daughters of Isis and Emlaaka spoke to her often. Would you wear her Stone for a while? I will replay the last sequence and perhaps you can help me understand the conflict." Both girls looked at each other and then tried to talk at once. Angel won out though, "Of course we will help you Treddikk...wait! You can control the visions?" Treddikk cocked her head, "Yes, you didn't know? The four symbols at the cardinal points on the front control the sequences; the top symbol is forward from the beginning and the bottom is back from the end. The left symbol is next sequence, and the right symbol is last sequence. The stone itself is for starting and stopping the visions; touch it once the vision begins, and touch it again to stop the vision." Angie laughed suddenly, "It would have been much easier if we knew that when we watched the Isis Stone; it seemed so random." Seeing the dry humor Treddikk chuckled, "You should have found my people earlier Angella; that is the first days lesson when we are accepted into the Temple."

Angel put the Stone around her neck and fastened it; closing her eyes to delay the headache she knew would come after a while, Angel touched the Stone once and settled back in the recliner. At first nothing seemed to happen; but slowly the scene brightened showing a lush garden, with trees and plants lining a maze of pathways. There still was no sun visible, but the sky was a softer magenta color. This was an earlier time than they had witnessed with the Isis Stone. Angel could see the tops of the crystal spires, but they were backwards, "Okay, I'm in a garden on the other side of that crystal city. Emlaaka just said something to her Sister, but I don't understand it; but she did mention Isis." Treddikk explained, "She said that Isis would meet them soon; it is what comes next that is disturbing." Isis did arrive a few minutes later, and bowed to them, "Entaaka, Emlaaka; the gardens become smaller each day now and the time of migration is near. The 'Angry Ones' have petitioned Ra to remove your people from the list of Chosen, and replace you with their own people; they say that you are not like them and are lesser; there must be a judgment." Then as slowly as it had started, the vision faded out...

Angel unfastened the clasp and handed the Stone back to Treddikk, "That was indeed disturbing Treddikk, but I'm not quite sure what it means. Would you dictate any more of the visions to your AI, and have him translate your language into English for us. I for one want to see how this plays out. It answers one question and at the same time asks another. Being able to read it would help us understand what was going on." Daniel was in his serious thinking mode again, but took the time to comment, "Yes, that would be a big help, and give us both perspectives much at the same time. This vision does clear one thing up though; there wasn't disagreement on 'where to go', it was 'who would go'...
Chapter 9

The Family was actually overdue to head back home to Council space, but none of them was even thinking of that; they had another mystery to solve, and knowledge to unlock. That was what drove them now. Treddikk came through for them, giving Daniel and the girls four pages of dialog between Entaaka and Emlaaka the next morning that showed their daily living in two more vision sequences showing the two Priestesses interacting with more of their people...'all' of their people; but more importantly it laid bare their fears and concern for their people's lives. There were thousands of people, but far less than were shown in the Isis Truth Stone. It looked like there wasn't enough transportation to move all people and the insects were being excluded because of their numbers...it was the wrong conclusion; but Daniel didn't find that out for two more days. Treddikk was taking this very seriously indeed, for she sequestered herself in her room until she had information worthy of reporting; and everyone was rewarded with a bombshell of information.

Daniel and Angel were watching a movie that hadn't been seen for several years; 'The Ten Commandments' was a uniquely appropriate one that dealt with just this puzzle unfolding before them now, Angie, Jane and Kenny were taking another trip into town, looking for some of the beautiful artwork the people produced; they were on a decorating kick. Treddikk came scurrying into the common room far faster that Daniel had ever seen her move, "This tells all of it Daniel, I apologize for taking so long. This confused me at first, but it is clear now." She handed Daniel two pages, which was odd. Even single spaced it would still be kinda short. Angie, Jane and Kenny came in just as he began reading, only to be stopped short by Oorraakk's arrival, followed by Shaalekk. No one said a word, but Angie had about the widest grin Daniel had ever seen on her face; finally she said softly, "Go ahead and read it my love, all of us have seen it already. Angel jerked for a moment, as Angie told her about it on their private channel; then she looked at Daniel, "Oh yes my Husband, you definitely have to read this one!" Then all three girls were grinning at him, and Kenny was having a hard time not giggling; all while the High Priest and his two Priestesses remained silent, just staring at him. Totally weirded out now, Daniel did the only thing he could do; he began reading again...

***

The vision was of Isis seeking out Entaaka and Emlaaka the moment she was given the decision Ra handed down; "No one is to be left behind my friends; the Highest One was always going to take all peoples to the new place, but this outbreak of anger and dissention has shown that the plan must be changed. All peoples will be separated by distance and nature; the 'Others' who harbor anger and divisive thoughts will face many trials over time, until they learn the lesson he sets before them. My sect is to travel with them to help begin that lesson. The many peoples who do not seek conflict will be allowed to live in a different area separated by emptiness, but will be tasked with watching over the others and to look for the change.

Entaaka; Emlaaka, the Holiest One has heard your peoples songs, and he finds them pleasing; you will be given a place of your own to live in peace, and prosper. Hold to the old way and grow as a people; live well and prepare for the one who will appear one day. He will not be of the Before Time, but will be born of the New Time; he will follow the old ways with honor and through his actions bring new life to all. Watch for the one, for he will come."

Daniel looked up from the pages and saw everyone looking at him in silence; half of them with smiles on their faces. It suddenly dawned on him what they were thinking, "Oh no no no, don't pawn this off on me. I didn't do anything special; I'm just me!" Angie laughed loudly, "You can deny it all you want my love; but that is exactly why you are special. Everywhere you go you affect people; it is not opinion, just fact. Father will confirm that when he reads about this. You may not have been named, but they were talking about you 13 billion years ago Daniel Curran..."

Oorraakk spoke up from the side, "We have only known you for a short time Mr. Curran, but I tend to agree with Angella; the way the words were spoken does describe what I have seen with my own eyes. There is a phrase in our language that simply states, 'Truth does not lie'..." Kenny got in the final word, "I always knew you was special Father!" The girls laughed hysterically for a moment, and Jane stated the obvious, "That settles it then; you are 'da man' husband!" Daniel had to laugh at the levity; it actually made it easier for him to accept more notoriety than he ever wanted. Besides, he knew deep down the prophecy didn't mean anyone specific; at least he hoped it didn't, that would really weird him out. The group talked about various subjects for the rest of the day, and when Oorraakk, Shaalekk and Treddikk went back to the Temple to sleep, Daniel was thankful the girls didn't tease him about the prophecy; they could have but he suspected they knew this piece of the 'Great Puzzle' was a serious development, and they were a part of it too. So Daniel forced himself not to dwell on it and had forgotten all about it by the time the Family went to bed. It had actually helped that he had a very odd report that he had to write now; the Council expected full reports, even if they were bizarre ones. Daniel thought he would sleep well that night; and he did, until...

The voice simply said, "There are more answers; seek them." Daniel wasn't anywhere like before; in fact, it felt like he wasn't anywhere at all; it was just pitch dark; "Do I know the questions that must be answered still?" "No..." Ookay, cryptic annoying time again; but there 'were' little answers with those non-answers, Daniel could feel it; "How will I know I found an answer?" Brief pause, "Answers are light; find the answer and see the question...sleep now." Daniel felt like being snarky, "I thought I was!" The voice sounded amused, "No; but you will now."...and Daniel opened his eyes, to find his three girls surrounding him in the big bed; all sound asleep. He looked around for a moment just to make sure he was really where he thought he was; then yawned. Yup, Daniel was tired; too much thinking does that to you. So he closed his eyes again and found out the next morning that he had slept much better than he expected, when David played alarm clock to remind Daniel they needed to begin the report. They had agreed last night that the Family needed to get back home too, being more than a little overdue already.

The report went far better than Daniel had expected, simply because David had taken the initiative and wrote most of it himself; all Daniel had to do was edit a few sections with some of his own unique wording, "You know me well Munchkin." David chuckled softly, "Yeah Boss, you kinda rubbed off on me..." As the sun was setting Shaalekk came bounding up the ramp like a young mantis. Entering the common room, she bowed deeply to the Family; "I can see the visions! All my life I have longed to be one with the legends, and now it has come to pass; all because of you my friends. Our peoples were as one with each other long ago and we are again; the cycle is complete. Return often, and stay long; our home is your home." Shaalekk bowed once more, and then walked slowly and proudly back to the Temple. Angie whispered, "It doesn't get much more profound than that." In the morning it did get just a touch more profound though; just before David lifted the ramp Kenny walked down to where Treddikk was standing. They stared silently at each other; then did something no one had seen before. Kenny lifted his hands, palms toward Treddikk, and she stepped forward and touched her antennae lightly to Kenny's hands. The two separated; Treddikk walking back into the Temple and Kenny walking back up the ramp, with a smile on his face. When he came into the common room Kenny sat down in his favorite chair and grinned, "Told ya she was cool! Let's go home." Nobody teased him...

***

The actual trip home was uneventful, due mostly to the fact that David made one big tunnel jump to a point over a hundred light years inside Council space. He was experimenting, but only where there were wide open spaces to play with. Daniel and the girls started watching some of the movies even Daniel had never watched; when you had millions available in the library there were plenty of candidates to choose from. They were entering Eridan's local space in only three days; the fastest time yet. Kendrisaan was waiting right where they expected him to be as David landed; but he wasn't smiling. Sometimes transmitting those reports as you headed back wasn't such a good idea after all, and Daniel could see plainly that this was one of those occasions; his Father in law only looked like that when Daniel was required to visit the huge Council Chamber...Daniel wasn't smiling anymore either...

Unhappy was one thing; but it turned quickly to anger when Kendrisaan explained the problem, "You have been called to Council to testify on the issue of revealing technology to other races who do not possess it; all of you." The common room erupted into shouts from everyone present; including Daniel. Kendrisaan covered his ears for a moment, shouting back, "Please! One at a time; and at a lower volume people. I know it is an emotional moment, but we must discuss this rationally." From behind him Kendrisaan heard a soft voice ask, "Me too Grandfather?"

Finally a smile materialized on the man's face, "No Kenneth, you need not testify." Kenny frowned and put his hands on his hips, "Darn! That woulda' been so cool too." Daniel barked out a laugh at that, "I don't know about cool Son; it is seldom fun, but if your Grandfather allows it you can sit with me at my desk. You'll have to be quiet though, ok?" Kenny nodded vigorously, but stayed quiet to show them he could. The gesture was not lost as Kendrisaan chuckled, "Alright young one, you have won; it is very unorthodox but there have been a few similar precedents over the years. I doubt there has ever been such a young precedent though...oh! That reminds me; David will testify as well, since he was the lead in the discussions about their people's technology. I have set up a projector booth near the podium, and it is 'slaved' to our system here at home, so you will be able to link there David. But all of you be calm; believe it or not I saw nothing in your report that even hinted at what some are concerned about in the Assembly. To tell the truth, I suspect a few of them are using this as a way to force us to allow them access to our newest technology."

Kendrisaan's last words got Daniel's attention immediately, "Wait a minute! I thought you shared everything with the Council races equally." Kendrisaan laughed then, "You misunderstand; remember Earth Daniel; the exact same principle applies throughout all races when it comes to technology. If you have not invented it yourself, we never 'give it away'. As you found out, hints to improve or maintain safety are acceptable, but giving something brand new is out."

The grilling at the great chamber went rather well actually; all three of the girls were asked to give their own versions of the accident that started it all, and the investigation into what caused the crash. Jane had no knowledge of the technology at all, but when she described seeing the insect ship she got applause, "We only saw the ship in flight for about 40 seconds, but I'll never forget it. They were all over the place in every direction imaginable; and a couple you would never think of..." Then it got almost hilarious when she mentioned, "David said the ship had a tickler module; and that's when I knew they were in real trouble if they couldn't control it." Laughter erupted the chamber, sounding something like a riot in progress, and Jane smiled back at all the Ambassadors, knowing the scientific name was just too long to remember...

The really serious grilling was directed at Daniel and David however, after the preliminaries were understood; David was asked directly why he thought it was acceptable to modify alien engineering to more closely parallel the Council's technology. He handled the question well, "Sir; at no time did I or anyone else physically modify any part of their system, their basic design is sound. What I did do was point out that by tapping power from the directional node they were creating the possibility of feedback affecting the stability of the system. I then suggested a separate power source for the Shield generator to avoid fluctuations in the whole system, and suggested adding redundancy and buffer circuitry in several critical circuits to maintain reliability. In each case the goal was overall system and passenger safety, not changing the basic design. There was one change that I did insist on however; that they change from fractional controls to a proportional arrangement." There were many gasps from the scientists in the crowd; one in front said loudly, "They used fractional controls on a capacitive propulsion node? It's amazing there weren't more accidents!" David was on a roll now, "I totally agree with you Sir; they were lucky. They had used fractional control on their older reaction engines, so they assumed it would work just as well on the newer design too. I showed them it was essentially unstable in starships of advanced power capabilities. In summary, these people invented their own advanced starship design and built it on their own; the only suggestions we made were to correct errors in judgment and increase safety with components they already possess."

Daniel thought the hearing was almost over, until an Ambassador he had never met actually jumped up, "David Curran, did you not offer an alien pilot the opportunity to fly your ship manually? Didn't doing so give them the perfect chance to reverse engineer an advanced system?" Daniel thought, 'Oh here we go; bickering again' but David pinched the guy off, "How so Sir? They have known how to fly for millennia." An image of the insect's pilot station materialized in mid air next to him, "This is a photo of 'their' flight console; they have been using this configuration for centuries. As you can plainly see, its layout and function is nearly identical to ours, except for being contoured somewhat differently for their pilot's physical comfort; and it was three pilots Sir. They took turns experiencing how smooth proportional controls are; this was a demonstration of the 'method of control', not the physical characteristics of control." The mad scientist opened his mouth to attack again; thought better of it, and sat back down grumbling. David had just reminded the entire Assembly of a basic tenet of the One Rule; you don't penalize a society for inventing something new, you help them understand it.

Daniel was proud of his electronic son; and it was obvious that Kendrisaan was too, for he didn't even try to hide the wide grin, "Are there any more questions?" After waiting the required five seconds for an answer he continued, "If there are no more then we will vote; is there any reason to continue the inquiry? Yes or no"... it took only thirty seconds for all 100,000 members to say no, and the day's proceedings were over, and Daniel had not been asked a single question throughout any of it. Even though he was still a bit annoyed by some of the questions; for the first ever time he didn't really mind attending a session of the Council...
Chapter 10

At some point in every life one has to accept a simple fact; that what we are doing affects others. Most of the time the results of our actions are so subtle that we can easily dismiss them as coincidence; Daniel didn't have that luxury however. Over twenty years he had been forced to face the reality of fame, Daniel still couldn't say he liked it, but he had grown to accept that people from different societies spread over thousands of light years sought him out for advice on wide ranging subjects; many of them trivial or mundane in nature. Daniel's 'inbox' was always full of messages and it would have been impossible to even read each one, let alone answer them all; but Daniel had an edge, the very best Personal Assistant anyone could ask for; David...

Over the years Daniel and David had come to an understanding; since David could read and understand messages in less than a millisecond Daniel let him browse through the thousands that came in everyday; categorizing and prioritizing each one as to whether or not it required Daniel's personal attention. As a result David answered most of them himself; even if it was only the one sentence 'Thank You for letting me know about that' variety of response. Since official correspondence was few and far between anyway, it left less than 100 messages for Daniel to read through by himself.each day. The system worked well usually, and left Daniel plenty of time to enjoy his Family's antics; it was just good times again and life was peaceful for a few weeks until an odd message came in that got everybody riled up. Even Kendrisaan was concerned when he read Hal's message...

It had been over five years since two Alien Ambassadors had hatched a plan with Daniel to give Earth's governments an attitude adjustment; it had worked far better than anyone expected, not only eliminating hostilities but renewing interest in space travel to the point that Earth routinely travelled between the Sol system to Alpha Centauri. Even after the unhappy incident with a lost Chinese starship, the primary focus turned to exploring the Gates and travelling to far distant stars faster, just to extend Earth's knowledge of the Universe around them. Purpose-built science ships were the order of the day; built to survive extended exploration of numerous star systems far away from home. The Council didn't mind at all; young races did that sort of thing and the non-interference section of the One Rule required that no one bother them in their natural growth as a space faring people; you just didn't wag your finger at an adventurous race who wanted to go to new and potentially dangerous places. So when Hal's report said that a science vessel accompanied by two Earth gunboats was missing, it should not have generated much more than sadness; there were a couple problems however. Not only did the flotilla go through Earth's gate the wrong way and by default into the destroyed Iscris system; the science ship also carried a young girl by the name of Alicia Borden; and 'that' fact put an entirely different perspective on the news...

***

Daniel and the girls had only met Alicia once, and then only on a 15 minute video cell phone call from her home in Brisbane Australia; she was twelve at the time and the short meeting had impressed all of the Family. It had been innocent enough, as Hal assured everyone that he just wanted a friend and didn't reveal much more than he was friends with the Family; nothing more. Hal had taken her under his wing to help her in her school work, becoming something of an intergalactic tutor in the process. While Hal was away over at Alpha Centauri, David had intercepted a cell phone call from Alicia, and the rest was now history. Even though the One Rule frowned on direct interference in a world's problems, there was a matter of honor involved in this; Alicia Borden had given them her name freely and with no expectations. Doing so had made her the Family's 'friend'. While Alicia thought of it in the conventional Earth way, the actual meaning was imbedded in a culture that spanned 100,000 alien worlds; Daniel and his 'crew' now had an honor obligation to find her and help if needed. Angie had explained the concept to Daniel a long time ago and he was not about to ignore the responsibility; seeing his girls and Son staring at him expectantly, Daniel only had one thing to say, "David, saddle up. We have a mission, and will head out as soon as we get aboard."

David had barely lifted off before Daniel asked him, "Do you have a target area near Earth you can use for a single tunnel jump David?" It took a minute for David to answer while he dodged some local inbound traffic, "I knew you'd want it Boss so I already set it up. We'll arrive just inside the Kuiper Belt if the drone shows a clear target; it'll be an hour and a half before we are far enough out to initiate the jump from this end." It was a long ninety minutes, but right on time the Ship popped into the Sol system; David didn't even say hi to Hal on the way to the gate, and twenty minutes later they transited into the Iscris system in stealth mode, only to find nothing there. The burned up planets were still there, and the sun was still 'sunning'; but there were no other starships. "Uh oh, this is perplexing; there are remnants of ion trails all over the place, some crossing over each other; it looks like they explored this system for a long time. The strongest trails are around that other Gate however, so they found it. I'm heading there guys, but it will take some time to map out what happened here." In fact it was three hours of slowly cruising around the system before David was willing to share what he had found. This was not normal for David, who usually provided a running account of what he was scanning for; and why. What was particularly troubling was that he didn't project in the common room at all while he investigated; that made everyone even more edgy and Angel asked him after the second hour, "David, what is going on? You're acting like you are in one of those spy movies."

David sounded almost nervous when his voice came through the speakers, "I'm sorry Mom; I have to use every bit of concentration I can to isolate this spaghetti mill of ion trails. The good news is I have identified which trails are the science ships, and they seemed to be operating independently much of the time. The bad news is that the trails cross each other a lot; as if they were double checking each other. This pattern does not look like any well planned and organized exploration. Boss; you remember the frustration we had back tracking the metal planet? Well, this is much worse than that..." Daniel finally smiled, remembering just how frustrating that puzzle had been, "Alright Munchkin, point taken; continue on smartly and give us the best you got."

***

At just over three hours David suddenly popped into the common room, "Alright guys, this is the best I can come up with. Bear with me here, the system rotation suggests that they stayed here for about a week." A big holographic globe materialized next to David, showing the entire Iscris system in detail; three planets that had once been inhabited, four moon sized planets farther out; a heavily populated asteroid belt and then the two known gateways on opposite ends of the system being the outermost objects. The show began with three ion trails entering from the Earth gate, two colored blue and one orange colored; the science ship and her two gunship escorts. The little flotilla's trails spread out and each one headed for the outermost moons; orbited for a while, then moved on to three more targets closer in to the system's star. When the trails indicated they had reached the last one, things got confusing, and David had to explain, "So far it looks like a pretty standard pattern of exploring a new system; but then they all back tracked, covering every planet and moon a second time; the two gunboats actually dipping deeply into the irradiated atmospheres of the three destroyed planets, "This is where it gets strange, either the gunships are more heavily shielded against radiation exposure or they were willing to take big risks; any ideas?" Daniel and the girls looked at each other with puzzled expressions on all their faces, but Kenny beat them all to a conclusion, "They weren't exploring, they were 'looking' for something they wanted!"

Angie managed a laugh after hearing that, "Good detective work Kenny, it is the only thing that would explain doing something so dangerously stupid as endangering the ships and crews like that. They wanted something valuable and were willing to take serious risks to find it; but what?" David gave his 'Aunt' a wink, "That question should be answered shortly; I have been following the track's directions and they went out to the asteroid belt, staying there for another week apparently scanning every one of the bodies from just outside the orbital rotation. While it is not unheard of, this particular asteroid belt orbits the star in the opposite direction from the planets and moons orbits. I'm approaching the other gate in real time, but you'll see in a minute where they hit the jackpot. Two actually; the one they were looking for and the other gate they didn't know was there." The three tracks converged on one asteroid that was almost as big as one of the moon sized planets, happily orbiting by itself just inside the main body of the belt. David put up the physical image of the jagged moon on the screen; it took only a few seconds for the entire Family to see that the big rock was winking at them as the light from the sun played across its surface; "Wow! That is one big gemstone!" Jane was staring intently at the various colors on the screen, dancing around within every fissure. David chuckled, "Not far off Jane; I estimate that about 60% of the asteroid is composed of just about every kind of gemstone known to man, judging from the color variance. We now know where the Iscris got the gems for their artwork. All three ships matched orbit with this rock; I'm guessing they stayed right here for three or four days, and probably sent at least one team down to investigate it up close. Watch the hologram now, I'll speed it up a bit."

As the panorama's movements sped up slightly, everyone could see the other gate come into view as the asteroids moved merrily past it, colored light green. As it got closer the two gunships broke orbit and headed right for the gate; disappearing into it a minute later. The science ship moved off and decelerated to a stop on the other side of the gate to wait; Daniel said it in plain language as always, "Oh great! The idiots opened up a hornet's nest by going into that weird star system. With no stealth available to stay hidden, any of those hostiles would have seen them right off; what happened next David?" "The two gunboats didn't come back after approximately two days, but something else did..."

Two red lines came from the gate at a pretty high speed and angled inward toward the planets, "These are nuclear power signatures Boss; they're android ships, and from the apparent speed they were looking for a fight. They probably wanted to know if there were more gunships around. I don't think they saw the science ship at all, for they continue on into the system for a while before returning home after about a day." It was obvious why the android ships didn't see the Earth ship, for it lit up its engines and slipped through the gate a short time after they saw the strange ships enter the system; to an unknown destination. Daniel came close to exploding when he saw that, "Damn it! This can't get much worse can it; the two gunships are a lost cause for now; but we'll have to investigate them later to see if anyone survived that 'first contact'. Right now our priority is finding that science ship with Alicia onboard David, line up with their trail and send a probe through the gate; let's see if we can figure out where they went to."

It took David twenty minutes to track back to where the gate was physically situated now, but only a minute to program the drone for a five minute excursion before returning to report on conditions on the other end of this new gate direction. It was a very long five minutes however, before the drone reappeared and gave up it's secrets. David's eyes went wide when he received the video log, "Oh no, this has to be the wildest coincidence ever! You aren't going to believe it guys, but we have been there before. I'm heading through now..." As the star patterns shifted like so many times before, everyone's jaws slowly dropped open; Angel was the first to recognize the area of space they had only seen once before for a couple of hours, "Oh my God! Bethaan's people have a back door; how weird is that!

***

David slowed to barely a crawl, drifting slowly toward the one planet with the most ships orbiting around it; while broadcasting in all channels the Family's arrival and intentions, using the Ancient language he knew these people spoke, "People of the before time, this is David of the Earth ship Protector One. I and my Family request permission to speak with the Highborn Bethaan again; we have met before and seek our missing scientific vessel. May we approach?" It took a whopping five minutes before David got a reply; apparently peaceful visits were not the norm here, but it was equally apparent that their previous meeting had made a favorable impression; a familiar baritone voice finally answered, "I am Patha, First Commander of the Host and Consort to the Queen. Indeed we have met before and I remember you and your family well David; your actions have proven you are an honorable people and we welcome your return. Approach Dendaara at your leisure; you will not be molested. Your missing people are also here and are well. Shall I dispatch one of our shuttles to bring you to the Palace? I remember you do not have one of your own."

Some minor confusion ensued when David explained that he could land the Ship gently on any large flat surface; but Patha finally accepted the novel idea, "Ahh, your abilities abound David; very well then, the Palace Concourse should provide enough space for your ship. I will have a shuttle meet you and guide you to us; I must prepare 'The Welcome' now, be well my friend, the Queen awaits your arrival." Several surprises came to light as the Family neared the planet Dendaara; first off, these people were not quite as scientifically primitive as their first short acquaintance had suggested, the sheer numbers of ships Daniel could see were proof of that, and many looked purpose-built for hostile action. There were some thirty orbiting Dendaara alone, with another hundred or so either orbiting three other populated planets or transiting between them. David told him, "All of them have stable fusion signatures Boss, and the ones I can see up close have emitters located in patterns that suggest they are transitioning to a more advanced gravity based propulsion system rather than ion reaction drives."

The next surprise came into view while the escort shuttle guided David to the other side of the planet; the science ship they passed was not your average everyday Earth design. In fact the basic shape and color was all too familiar to everyone staring at the big screen in the common room, including Kenny, "It look like us David!" While more boxy in design, with less curves overall, the Earth ship did look remarkably like a big loaf of bread with ion propulsion nozzles attached. The long held galactic humor would have been funny, except that later the Family found out the unique shape was the only reason the starship had not been destroyed outright.

The final lesson was surprising for Daniel alone; until now he had unconsciously thought of Bethaan's people as being dormant, stuck in another time and place, but now as they followed the shuttle down through the clouds, Daniel could plainly see how wrong he had been. While the buildings and other structures were of a design older than the Universe itself, there was a modern 'feel' to the society spread out below them. While he would always think of the basic theme as Egyptian, with ornate stone and marble columns prevalent in many of the buildings, there were also structures dotting the landscape that honored newer and more modern design features; he whispered to himself, "This culture is not stagnant; they are growing." From off to his right he heard Angie exclaim, "Wow, look at that!"
Chapter 11

If this world had been impressive, the seat of power coming into view was simply astounding; the Palace was not only beautiful, it was huge. Done in the classic Egyptian temple style, the building had to be a half mile long and at least as deeply set into what had to be the largest pyramid ever constructed. The solid gold apex was barely visible, piercing the clouds drifting by. In front of all the majesty was a mile long concourse currently populated by hundreds of neatly parked shuttles almost up to the entry portico; leaving a wide open space for David to land right up front where their welcoming committee was patiently waiting. David touched down and deployed the air stairs; Daniel and his crew went down to find out just what was going on. So far the only thing Daniel was sure of was that two Earth starships had gone through a gate they didn't know existed and had not come back. Everything else was just a little fuzzy, especially why the ships were in the Iscris system in the first place. The kinds and variety of gems found would be extremely valuable on Earth; that was a given. Daniel didn't like where this 'rescue' was leading; the questions were piling up rapidly and the answers were few and far between right now. The only good things would be finding Alicia and finding a back door to where they intended to go anyway. He decided to concentrate on that for now...

Patha stood at the front of his retinue, at the top of the stairs; just as the Family remembered him, the man wore much the same garb he had worn at their first encounter eleven years before, if substantially more ornate with the classic head dress symbolizing power. The piercing eyes missed nothing as Daniel approached, flanked by the girls on one side and Kenny on the other. Behind Patha were thirty other dignitaries dressed in a variety of colorful clothing of various styles, but all adorned with decorative badges of rank. As The Family stopped, Patha's stern expression softened to a half smile, "Greetings Captain Curran; The Queen's Court welcomes you and your Family on behalf of the Dendaaran people. Please follow us, the Queen awaits us." The Courtiers all turned and led the procession into the Palace; Daniel felt his natural aversion to overly formal meetings rising steadily and tried to remain calm. The girls all glanced at him with smirks on their faces; they knew exactly what he was thinking. They came close to giggling when they entered the throne room; the large chamber was striking for all the statues of monarchs and animals placed carefully around it, creating an avenue right up to the throne. The walls were covered with carvings and painted scenes of this cultures history; some just beautiful and others almost mysterious in nature.

The surprises weren't over for the day; Bethaan sat regally on the throne, a slight smile on her face and a sparkle in her eyes. That was odd enough as she had said before that she was daughter to the Pharaoh; that was a mild question in itself, but something had obviously happened in the past ten years since they had met. No, that wasn't the biggest surprise for the Family; standing next to the throne with a wide grin on her face was a woman who had trouble standing still. She wore the revealing and diaphanous dress of a hedonistic society, and the pronounced curves she possessed challenged Angel's own playful softness; unlike the darker colors common here, the woman's hair was bright blonde, flowing down to her shoulders. The happy sparkle in her eyes told the rest of the story; Alicia Borden had grown up in the last 6 years, she would be 18 now and defined the word 'gorgeous'.

***

Bethaan stood after a moment and smiled warmly at Daniel and the Family; speaking in Ancient she said, "Captain Daniel Curran, you and your Family honor the people of Dendaara with your return; we welcome you as allies and friends. May the Gods smile on us." Then her smile widened even further and she spoke in English, "Alright then, now that the formals are done; Alicia my friend, will you entertain our guests as I dump this restricting uniform? Patha! Your help please." As the Court filed back out to wherever they had business, Bethaan and Patha headed for her quarters to make her more comfortable, a now animated Alicia bounced down from the dais, the same bubbly and happy girl the Family remembered, "Oh this is so cool! You guys have no idea how fantastic it is to see you again. Is David still on the ship? And who is this young man Mr. Curran? Come on, let's go to the living suite; Bethaan and Patha will be back there soon and we can chat some more." Remembering herself, Alicia gave Daniel a sheepish look for a moment, "Forgive me; I've learned to slow down some, but when I get excited I blast off again." Daniel could only laugh, "Don't worry about it Alicia, I get it all the time from these four; I'm used to it now. Oh, by the way, that munchkin over there is our Son Kenny. He is very special; but of course I'm a bit prejudiced in that department."

Entering the Living Suite, Jane exclaimed, "Wow, this is nice!" While the main chamber in the palace was done in classic Egyptian or Ancient style, with hieroglyphics, statues, carvings and paintings everywhere, back here in the living area it was more subdued. Not bland by any means, but a well thought out use of space and décor. There were paintings and smaller sculptures placed carefully for the best effect, and all the furniture was modern in both design and execution. They sat down in couches and chairs near a small garden that immediately conformed to their contact and Angie commented first, "They have smart materials too."

From behind they heard Patha's now familiar voice, "I do not understand, but if you mean the resting chairs then yes. We discover this 300 cycles ago when a planet was taken by our star; it is the one that is most out in this system. Bethaan will be here after bath. Did I say it correct Alicia?" Alicia, smiled warmly at the hulking man, "Oh yes Patha, you said it almost perfect; you have come a long way since that first week." Patha smirked at her; "Do not remind me, I almost hurt you that day." Seeing the shocked look on the Family's faces, Alicia laughed, "I must explain. When we first arrived here, we were held in locked rooms for a while. They didn't know us and were suspicious of us until we managed to communicate. Patha took it upon himself to learn our language when he saw how hard it was to learn his for us. He made me talk a lot, and that wasn't hard for me..." Daniel and the girls broke out laughing, and even Patha managed a smile, realizing the humor in that statement. Alicia continued, "Anyway, we used the old 'learn by doing' method, and it worked great until I told him to get up on the desk one day." Patha broke in, "I slipped on damn desk and fell right on her and most squash her." Alicia chuckled and walked up to Patha, slapping him lightly on his cheek, "You did not, you big hunk of meat, you sprained your wrist avoiding that!"

Daniel saw something missing, "Wait a minute, I don't understand. If you couldn't communicate at first how did you end up on Dendaara? I'm thankful you didn't just blow the ship into space Patha." The big guy actually cringed, "Almost did that; ship came from same place Silent Ones do when attack us, so we thought they attack again. But then the ship started 'talking', and we knew wasn't Silent Ones. Also, the ship looked like yours Mr. Curran; I remembered shape." Daniel just had to smile; another benefit for a starship looking like a loaf of bread; safety. Alicia chuckled, thinking much the same thing, "Yeah, we couldn't make ourselves understood, so Patha let us know to go to the planet the old fashioned way, through pantomime. He stationed ships all around us and in front and behind, and started moving slowly toward Dendaara until Doctor Melrose got the message. He is also the Captain."

This was starting to get confusing again; Daniel asked, "Patha, you have been at war with someone for centuries who never talked at all? " Patha gave him a shocked expression, "No! Until five cycles ago we were at war with Jenaad in other star where you find us last time. Silent ones only came once every hundred cycles for one day fighting, then go away for hundred cycles more. This has been two hundred cycles since last time we fight them."

If Daniel was confused by the sequence of events, all three girls wore lost expressions. Angel gave him her famous one raised eyebrow that always said 'What the heck?'; then smiled thinly. Daniel was sure of one thing though, "I need to have a long discussion with this Doctor Melrose, Patha; where are they being held?" Alicia's turn to be surprised, "Oh! No one is a prisoner anymore Mr. Curran; all the scientists spend every day at the Dendaaran science labs; they're having a ball here. Thirty kids in a candy store; but they will be back in about an hour, right Patha?"

When Doctor Melrose showed up, Bethaan was back and it was girl talk time; they talked about everything and anything, acting as if Daniel, Patha and Kenny were invisible for the most part. Patha just took it in stride and Kenny found that he liked talking with Patha; the man didn't treat him like a kid. Daniel only wanted to know one thing from the Doctor/Captain, "Doctor Melrose, would you tell me why your 'expedition' was organized in the first place?" The man sitting across from Daniel certainly looked like a scientist, with his casual 'sleep in my clothes' appearance; but Captain of a starship? Not so much...his first words however told Daniel far more than he was prepared for, "Please call me Ian Mr. Curran; the expedition was my own idea originally, and was inspired by your own exploits. You see Daniel, I had been a Science Fiction nut ever since I was born and dreamed of traveling among the galaxies to learn new and amazing things; when your story became public I was hooked. I do not believe I idolize you like Alicia does, but I definitely envy you."

Ian described his own background in detail; even before Daniel's unique story had begun their career paths had been strikingly similar, if from different directions. Ian had grown up tinkering with every mechanical or electrical device he could get his hands on, just as Daniel had. Both had served in the Navy; Ian Melrose choosing the officer path through a competitive appointment to the Academy, where he focused on every engineering and science course he could latch on to. He specialized in research and development, and even worked at Area 51 for an extended period that coincided with Daniel's 'awakening' one day 22 years ago. Ian was at the secret base for the next six years and was involved with all the research from ion propulsion to shuttle development and the gravity drive breakthrough. His next Navy assignment took him away from his goal of exploring space, so Ian resigned his commission, went back to Australia and landed a high position in a company that focused on space travel, and just happened to be next door to the University where a young Alicia Borden would win a scholarship four years later, "I taught several subjects at the University that dealt with applying known discoveries into an efficient and practical starship design. That was where Alicia and I met; she signed up for all three of my courses and would stay after class to discuss what we covered each day and even suggest her own ideas. The lady is smart Daniel, and never slows down." Everyone laughed at that and Alicia blushed, with a sheepish grin once more. "Anyway, Alicia also took on a part time job with Lidel Industries; in the design department as an assistant, while we were building the 'Venture'. Only thing is, she didn't treat it as part time; she was there every spare minute, every day. The girl does not sleep; but she did contribute to finishing the ship ahead of schedule. After the ship was tested extensively, and a crew was chosen, the question of where to explore came up; the Sol system had already been explored, and explored again, so we wanted someplace new and worthwhile. I'm afraid the choice of the Iscris star was my fault. I had heard about that while I had been working at the base; rumors flew around every day there and I knew it involved the opposite side of the gate, so I badgered James Lidel to go there to explore. I hope we didn't violate any interstellar law Daniel."

***

Daniel wanted to be angry about some part of this, any part, but he saw Angel looking at him seriously and shaking her head. He knew he couldn't do it; "No Ian, you didn't violate any law; mostly because there aren't any laws as we know them. The One Rule is a collection of definitions that describe what is right and wrong and is based on one word, honor. While barging in on a populated star system is wrong without an invitation, the Iscris system is a dead system now; so you were within your rights to explore it. What I don't understand is why you had two armed ships with you." Now it was Ian's turn to look sheepish, "That was a last minute decision I'm afraid; our CEO was friends with another American company's CEO that specialized in smaller armed starships for our expansion outward. The man suggested that they tag along to provide protection for the trip. I believe you know one of the Commanders, a 'Captain Moulton'."

Daniel finally did find anger at hearing that name, "Oh great! The pompous idiot was in on this." Ian's eyes went wide for a moment and he nodded, "Yes, you do know him; he was a problem from the moment we entered the Iscris system. The pompous ass kept insisting that he take charge of the whole operation, since they had the guns to solve any problems we might encounter. I had to remind him repeatedly that this was solely an exploration, but both of their ships wandered off whenever they felt like it. When we found the big asteroid of priceless gemstones he claimed it as theirs. I sometimes think he would have done something nasty if the other gate had not been discovered right then...he actually ordered us to guard their booty until they got back. Two days after they went through the gate it was not an issue anymore; survival was. Who were those two strange ships Daniel?"

Angie spoke up, "They are a race of androids Ian; we know little about them except that they appear to be controlled by a small number of humans who live there. They are the ones who destroyed the Iscris planets; they do not communicate at all, just attack anyone who is not their Masters. Bethaan, they must be what you call the Silent Ones. Both Patha and Bethaan looked confused, "What are androids", Bethaan asked Angie. "They are mechanical people who can walk and act like us; some are very useful, friendly even. We know one of those named Albert; but others are built as tools for humans, and have little sentient intelligence, like these apparently are. Patha, you said the Silent Ones have not come back in two hundred cycles; you have defeated them every time they showed up, right?"

Patha furrowed his brows for a minute, "I will have to consult the records, but I do remember that 1000 cycles ago there were large battles almost every cycle back then. The attacks have diminished over many cycles." Angel exclaimed, "Good! That suggests that they don't have the ability to build new ships; and the ships we have seen are rather primitive compared to yours. We will have to confirm that with a trip to that system, right Husband?" The look Angel gave Daniel made him laugh, "Of course we will Precious! For two reasons really; first, we have to make sure those androids are no longer a real threat to our friends here, and to find out what happened to those gunships." Alicia glanced over at Bethaan with a pleading look, but the question was addressed to the Family, "May I go along too please? I want to know my people are safe here." Daniel saw both Patha and Bethaan smile at Alicia; there was little doubt they liked her, "Of course you can come along Alicia, we know you've never been on the Ship before." Alicia giggled like the girl they had first met, "Well; there is 'that' too!"
Chapter 12

The departure the next morning was short and sweet; Bethaan asked Daniel to return quickly so that she and her court could plan on a course of action based upon what they found. Daniel assured her they would have a better idea after a two to three day investigation. Doctor Melrose had gone back to comparing notes with his Dendaaran counterparts. The expedition had started out as a wash at first; but now every scientist had an entire living culture to study and understand. There were 17 men and 13 women in the complement; plus one stubborn young lady who had not taken no for an answer. Alicia had traded in her skimpy attire for a more subdued ships coverall she had worn on the way out here. While there was a little anxiety about what they might find, the general atmosphere was a positive and happy one.

David lifted off slowly; angling up toward space once more. He had not felt left out at all, having listened in to the entire discussion the night before through Angel's link to him; and he was doing a lot of thinking about this excursion. It wasn't anything sinister, but more of a series of strange coincidences that didn't seem to have any real relationship to each other. Still, it bothered David; but being just as practical as his 'Mom' was, he decided to think on it some more before bringing it up to Daniel. The Family loved solving the puzzles they found; but David wasn't sure yet that this qualified as one of them.

During the trip out to the gate Alicia was the excited bubbly kid they knew, finding every single thing amazing; so Angel, Angie and Jane played tour guides and showed Alicia the entire ship. She rapid fired questions every minute and it was a good thing all three had decided to walk her throughout the Ship; they barely made it back to the common room to watch the transit on the big screen. David gave a running account on what he was doing, "Going stealth mode Boss, transit in ten seconds...ok, we're through, nothing on scanners at all. I'll swing around to line up with the other side." Alicia was wide eyed as they went through the gate from the other direction, just saying, "I don't think I'll ever get used to that!" Jane laughed at the quip, "Trust me Alicia, I've done it for something like 19 years now and I can guarantee you don't get used to it."

***

No one on the Ship had any preordained expectations when they exited the gate into what Daniel had come to think of as 'The Weird Star System', but had there been a list, it would not have included someone turning the lights off. It wasn't completely dark way out here at the edge; but it sure was a heck of a lot dimmer. Daniel was confused, "Umm David; are you sure we are in the right system? Wasn't there a Blue Giant here before?" David popped in to the common room, which startled Alicia for a moment; and he wasn't smiling, "That's correct Boss; our Blue Giant star is now a dwarf, and even then it is barely within the blue spectrum. All the readings I have so far tell me the star partially collapsed and that would have released a whopping amount of energy on all wavelengths. What is really weird is that it didn't collapse into a Neutron Star; it 'shrank'. There is no record anywhere in the archive of a star doing that. How do you want to play this one Boss?" Daniel wasn't a scientist, but he had watched plenty of TV shows that dealt with stars and planets, "Is the star stable right now David? Any indications it will do something else strange? We are not going to play a game of galactic poker here."

David was silent for three minutes; "Ok, I've scanned all known measures; even looking for any gravitational fluctuations. For now the star is stable, but I'll set a continuous scan algorithm while we are here." The four girls and Kenny were staring at him, but they looked calm enough, "Alright David; we do a fairly fast pass through the system, scanning all the way, The two priorities are locating the gunships and a look at the three populated planets; I'm only interested in life signs and whether those androids are any threat now or not. Let's go."

Planets don't orbit a star at the same speed and stay in a nice straight line; the third and fourth planets were on David's side, so he 'zigged' to the third first and ran a one rotation orbit to cover the four 'bases' they knew about, it being actually the closest planet at the moment. "It looks like they are all there Boss; I never had an exact count, but there are no ships in space, just grounded here. All the androids seem to be fried though, the ones I can see are splayed out all over the place; doesn't look like they will ever be a threat again." David 'zagged' over to the fourth planet to take a look; this was easy since there was only one city to check out. As David slowed into a geosynchronous orbit over the city the image showed clearly on the big screen; Angie saw it first, "There's no one there! Where are all the people?" Alicia was confused to say the least, but it was good news for the Dendaarans, "So it is unlikely that our people will be attacked again, right Mr. Curran?"

Daniel was able to laugh despite finding even more questions that needed solid answers, "Alicia, you really need to get used to calling me Daniel; yes, the androids appear to be nonfunctional, and their starships probably are too. I would say the threat is no more. We have a new dilemma however; the humans who were controlling the androids are missing now, and we need to know where they went. We also don't have a clue yet on what happened to those two gunships; David, anything on them yet?" David's projection looked at Daniel, shaking his head, "Sorry Boss, the star's partial collapse wiped out all trails like an eraser; I've got nothing on any frequency. I'm scanning at maximum though, trying to find those ships. Should I head over to the fifth planet? I can use a wide sweeping course around this sun to cover most of the area."

Daniel didn't see anything wrong with that, "Go ahead David; let's see if they survived underground, but priority scans for those gunships." David conducted one more full scan of the star before he started moving; seeing no hint of instability, he began a slow curved transit around the star, looking for any odd readings at all. At first there was nothing; but as the fifth planet came into view two things happened at once; "Boss! There's another gate out there on this end of the system; the readings are flickering at extreme range, but it is definitely there. I also found the two gunships, they're on the surface of the monsters planet; I'm speeding up."

As David swooped in and hovered over the two gunships, Alicia spoke up, "What do you mean 'monsters planet' guys?" David popped in to explain, and played back the recording from the Family's first encounter with this star system, showing the soldiers climbing up out of the ground. Alicia reacted much as everyone knew she would, "Ugghh, a monster is right! They are butt ugly!" David laughed, "We have all watched too many horror movies Alicia; but I must disabuse you of that description. The fact is; these refugees from a horror movie may very well be the sovereign race that owns this entire star system now; judging from what I know so far, the androids are all dead and the humans that were here have apparently abandoned their claim. I have multiple energy readings from the same places as before on this planet; and plenty of life signs; these 'people'are the legitimate heirs now. We should respect them for that, no matter what they look like. All indications suggest that they are pretty darn intelligent too." He shifted the screen image to the two gunships below, "Boss, you might as well call those ships blocks or Swiss cheese; see all those holes in them?"

The holes were the size of a fist, and there were at least one hundred peppered in each hull; concentrated in the engine section and weapons bays mostly; but about ten holes were in the bridge areas too. Both ships were systematically 'killed'. Daniel summed it up for everyone, "Well that settles that; the morons charged in looking for a fight; and they found one! Why is it whenever we come here, we leave with more questions than answers?" He meant it as a rhetorical question, but when Kenny sat up straight and answered Daniel, things got worse, "Father, someone is trying to touch my mind; he seems angry but curious too! Should I answer him? He knew we were here all along." Daniel already called this the weird star system, but now he was going to have to rename it to bizarre star system, Kenny, I trust you Son; if there are no headaches then I guess you are our Ambassador here, but if it doesn't feel right you stop, ok?" The three girls nodded their approval, while Alicia settled for being lost again; Kenny just grinned and said, "Ok Boss," That got a healthy laugh all around.

***

Kenny got comfortable and closed his eyes; and almost made the first and last mistake, Uh oh; they don't talk; it's all images. I showed him all of us and he got mad again; I don't think he meant to, but he flashed a picture of a man in a cave with bars, it was that Captain Moulton guy, they got him." Angel wasn't normally to emotional, but this was an exception to the rule, "Oh Great! That dummy tries to start an interstellar war for a second time, then he has the bad grace to live through it. I want to strangle that poor excuse for a human! What the hell do we do now; he thinks we are with Moulton."

This was a critical moment, and Daniel knew it; this was a race that didn't talk at all apparently, only using imaging and maybe symbolism to get their point across. This was going to be touchy no matter what; how do you tell someone you mean them no harm when they don't talk? Then he had it; you show them, "Kenny, can you show him an image in your mind of all of us standing with our arms out to our sides with hands open? "Kenny scrunched up his nose, "Sure, that's easy!" Daniel grinned, "Ok, but here's a harder one for you; I want you to show him the Ship landing gently next to the two gunships down there, and then show me coming down the stairs and bowing to him." Kenny giggled at the idea, "Cool! Make a movie; got it. Lemme set it up in my head." After about a minute Kenny's eyes opened wide, "Wow! I think he said ok; he showed me a cave down there with all kinds of flowers in it, and bees landing on them." Daniel chuckled, "Not exactly a definitive yes, but at least it is a positive image. Alright, let's do this David; we can't argue with bees and flowers. Go visible and land next to the ships please."

As David landed, at first nothing happened; but as Daniel reached the bottom rung of the air stairs a big hatch opened about fifty feet away, and a dozen soldiers streamed out. They positioned themselves on either side of the hatch and all held their club/weapons cradled in their arms. The symbolism was not wasted on Daniel; the meaning was clear in fact. "We are suspicious, but will not shoot you unless you get aggressive." Then the guy who had been communicating with Kenny climbed out of the hatch; Daniel had expected the official would look like the soldiers did; but this example of an intelligent society would have been recognizable in any back yard on Earth. While only having two legs instead of six and two arms with hands attached, the thorax and head gave away the 'man's' ancestry; standing some six feet tall and gesturing for Daniel to come forward was an evolved ant; his antennae 'sniffing' the air around him. The ant man suddenly cocked his head as Daniel heard soft footsteps descending the stairs; all four girls and Kenny spread out on either side and Kenny said, "He was wondering why it was only you Father, so we had to come down. He's waiting for us, so come on!"

Despite feeling very tense at seeing the weapons, Daniel smiled at Kenny. The boy's lack of fear was actually softening his own anxiety a bit, "Alright guys, it's show time; just stay a little back as we approach them, then we'll do the bowing thing." Kenny giggled, "Oh, he already knows you are the Boss Father; but he's showing me ice right now. I think he's saying it is too chilly out here to talk much." All of the Family stopped and bowed as they had decided, which had the hoped for effect on the The Ant Man; who bowed in return as he confirmed Kenny's supposition by gesturing at the open hatch. Then he stepped in and headed down inside. Kenny just shrugged at Daniel and stepped in himself; followed by everyone else. The short stairway led down eight feet to a series of shallow ramps leading even farther downward, the temperature rising the deeper they went. At 100 feet it was a pleasant 75 degrees, as they reached a level that had a large chamber with dozens of tunnels branching off in different directions. The Official picked one and led them down it; that was where the learning curve began, when Jane said, "Will you look at this; I was expecting an ant farm, but these tunnels are smooth and precise, and the color patterns make for some beautiful designs."

The Family had no idea where they were going, but as they passed dozens of side chambers, it became clear that this was an advanced society, for many of the different sized chambers were obviously science labs. Apparently letting humans see what the ants were doing wasn't a breach of security or anything like that. The high point of the journey was when Kenny spotted a smaller ant that could only be a kid like him, peeking out from one of the chambers. Kenny stopped and bowed to the child; at first the young child cocked his head in surprise, but then stood tall and returned the simple gesture of respect. Then he clicked his mandibles together; making a high pitched sound that could have been a laugh or giggle, and ran back into the chamber. It was the only real sound any of the Family had heard yet; the official had stopped and watched the exchange; now he bowed to Kenny himself, turned and continued on. Kenny giggled, "I think he likes us now, another picture of flowers, but many more bees flying around. I think bigger numbers mean different levels of happy thoughts." Daniel smiled at his Son, "That clinches it! I'm appointing you as my Assistant Ambassador, Kenneth Curran; and that's official." Kenny giggled, but the Ant Man merely glanced back as if to say, "I thought he already was."
Chapter 13

It was a long journey, but finally Daniel could see they were closing on their destination. The chambers became fewer and much farther between; this area was not a main part of the complex. He asked Angel, "Are you still linked with David? I want to let him know we are ok." She merely laughed, and David spoke in Daniel's mind, <I've been monitoring all along Boss, and Mom is letting me watch through her eyes; it is rather beautiful, don't you think?> Daniel frowned and wagged his finger right in front of Angel's nose, making sure David got an eyeful too, "You two need to let me in on these side plans you know; I've been antsy since we landed; no pun intended thank you." He got two mental laughs for his trouble and an echo as they both said, <"Duly noted Ambassador Boss!"> Sometimes it could be frustrating to be teased; and sometimes not. Daniel just smiled as they rounded the last corner; then the smile vanished as Daniel saw the small cell with a ragged Captain Moulton inside.

Moulton may have been ragged looking, but he still retained his full arsenal of unbridled arrogance; for when he looked up and saw the Family standing across from his cell, the man jumped up and started off, "Curran! I'm actually glad you are here; these 'bugs' attacked my ships and killed everyone, then kidnapped me and have treated me like dirt! I want you to exterminate this infestation before they attack Earth like they did that other star system. The vermin need to be eradicated before they can hurt any more civilized races!"

Daniel did not have to be either a telepath or empath to sense the rage building; he could plainly see it on his girl's faces; he felt his own rage building from deep down inside him. But then he felt something else, and looked down at Kenny; his Son was so angry he began broadcasting openly, for anyone to see. He wanted to kill the man right here and now! Apparently the Ant Man saw that plainly, for he shrank back momentarily until he realized the emotions were not aimed at him. Then he did something unexpected; he walked over close to Kenny and put his hand on Kenny's shoulder, shaking his head in an obvious no. In Daniels mind he saw a field of wilted flowers with no bees anywhere; the man was broadcasting openly as well, his sadness at such a severe thought plainly visible. Kenny looked up into the compound eyes for a full minute, before nodding himself. Daniel knew what he had to do, and said it out loud, "David; create a cage in the cargo bay, no bigger than 8 by 8 feet; no privacy and only the basic amenities found in a prison cell; nothing more. If this gentleman will allow it, we will take Captain Moulton home with us to answer for his actions." Daniel got an immediate reply from David in his mind, <Working on it Boss; five minutes.> Apparently the official understood what Daniel had in mind, for an image came to mind, of an entire planet covered in flowers of every color, and millions of bees flying all over them; this man not only agreed, he wanted Moulton gone! That would have been the end of it, but then the official did something that surprised everyone present, including Moulton; A video played in their heads, from the Ant Men's perspective, showing exactly how the two gunships had entered their system and attacked the only ships they could find; four of their round saucer like ships approaching the fifth planet; barely a minute later one hundred of the flying saucers rose from the planet's surface and made quick work of the two intruders. Then it stopped; the only thing missing was how these people had managed to get the two ships from space down to the surface. For Daniel's purposes it didn't matter; the video was enough damning evidence of criminal intent. Before he asked, David said, <I got all of it Boss; I had to be a little creative, but I managed to record it all.>

Moulton was his usual crude and annoying self, "I know you don't like me, so I guess I should have expected the crummy treatment on the way back; but at least you're taking me back home to Earth." Daniel stared at the man for a long time, before deciding to let him know what was in store for one Captain Moulton, "My bad; I should have been more precise. We are not taking you to Earth; we will be taking you to Council Space to stand trial for crimes against a sentient race, as well as piracy; that may end up being a charge of privateering if you can prove that some Earth government actually was stupid enough to sanction your conduct, but the end result will likely be the same. Kenny, would you try to picture the Captain being beamed over to his new cell, and his being locked up please?" Kenny grinned, and when the official understood the process, he turned to Daniel and nodded once. He was still startled when Moulton suddenly disappeared from his cell; but the man recovered quickly. That task completed, the Ant Man started leading the Family back to the entry hatch; part way there, the young ant they had seen before stepped out into the tunnel, and handed Kenny a small cube that showed an infinite number of colorful designs on each surface, making sure Kenny understood he was to keep the gift. Kenny nodded his thanks, and pulled out an equally small and flat disk he always kept in his pocket. Showing the ant where to operate it, he started the collection of pictures of places he had been; about 40 of them.

The young child stared at the images in rapt fascination, but when it stopped on an image of Treddikk, the child became excited and held up the image to the adult official. Clearly startled by the picture, it wasn't clear to the Family what was going on; but the Ant Man looked at each of them as if in confusion. Finally he led them further down the tunnel to one of the chambers with all sorts of colored plants within. Leading them all through the narrow path between the plants, he stopped at the far wall and pointed at a deeply set carving in the surface; it was an image of a large pyramid with two creatures standing facing each other; an Ant and a Mantis. Under it were the now familiar dots and dashes they had seen so often. Everyone was wide eyed, but Angel managed to ask, "David, can you see this?" David didn't reply for a moment, "Yes Mom, it says 'Two Peoples, One Home'; these people are from the Before Time too. Boss? This is another example of the 'one answer, two questions' trend lately." Daniel couldn't argue with that, "Kenny, I got a hard image for you. Please show him a picture of all of us in the cargo bay when we were going over the blueprints with Treddikk, Shaalekk and the engineers? Can you do that?" Kenny grinned and scrunched his eyes closed; after a few seconds the official jerked and looked at Daniel pointedly. Coming to inner decision, he then crossed his hands over the upper thorax and bowed once deeply. The gesture wasn't wasted on Kenny, "That holds the old meaning Father; more than just respect, it means we are now friends as well. I think it is important for him." Daniel had not been chosen as Earth's representative for being ignorant or indecisive, and there was only one thing he could do. Crossing his hands over his chest, he bowed to the official just as deeply, and then offered his hand. It took a moment, but the Ant Man seemed to understand the gesture, and took Daniels hand in his. There was no shake; the touch was enough.

Arriving back at the entry hatch, Daniel gestured to the man to stay below ground, and wrapped his arms around himself, hoping to get the point across that it was just too darn chilly outside. Apparently he appreciated the concern, for Kenny giggled, "He understands the humor Father; you don't wanna know the picture he flashed at me." Once more Daniel took the Ant's hand, and then all four girls surprised both of them by crossing their hands and bowing deeply at both of them; it was done, and the family climbed to the surface. As the hatch closed behind them, everyone jogged the short distance to the Ship. It felt even colder than when they arrived, and once the air stairs retracted they took off and went to the common room; No one was interested on checking on Moulton; Sheriff David was in charge of the prisoner anyway.

The Family had barely gotten comfortable on the couches before David popped in to give them an update, "Ok guys, I'm glad to have you all back; and there is a growing list of things you all need to know Boss. First off, that image he showed you was not just an odd coincidence. They know our other new friends native language, but only in the written form. They stopped vocal speech millennia ago when their culture shifted to a mental image and symbol based communication. I am talking with him now though, although I write out my end while he uses the mental imaging in response. It isn't too hard after I got the hang of it. I get the impression he is embarrassed that he can't vocalize it, the technique was lost ages ago.

The second most important thing is that we way underestimated how advanced they are. One of their ships took off an hour ago to scope out the fourth planet, and the power signature showed advanced fusion generation. The weapons they use are projectors; true disruptors actually, based on the same principle as the old Distortion Generators many of the Ancient races used centuries ago; that's all I can say about that for now, but the last odd revelation he admitted to was that they have always known about the gates, but seldom used them. They actually watched the humans on planet four abandon the system through another gate on this end; he showed me. It is so unstable though that they never wanted to explore it." The image on the big screen showed what 'unstable' could mean; just like the Shreelan shortcut gate, this was an abstract blob shape too. The big difference however, was that this one 'flickered' occasionally. David continued, " With those androids out of the picture now, I don't think the humans will be back anytime soon, and it looks like these new friends are considering a move to that planet soon, this one they have inhabited is getting pretty cold faster now on the surface."

The three girls were looking at David as if he had just found the biggest black hole ever, but Daniel was just frowning and shaking his head, "Oh boy, this report I have to write now is gonna be the craziest ever, and I'm going to need all of you to contribute to it. But first things first; Alicia, we have to get you back to Dendaara. We promised to bring you back to Bethaan and we always keep our promises. David, get a move on, we have been gone two days now." David's projection saluted smartly and winked out; Daniel continued, "Alright, what about our buddy Captain Moulton? Angel and Angie, you remember a lot of the information in the matrix; has the Council ever dealt with a crime like this before?

Both girls looked surprised, but Angel fielded the question, "Daniel, the Council normally deals with entire worlds when it comes to violations of the One Rule. Each world deals with individual violations locally; frankly my husband, I don't think there has ever been an incident as unique as this one is. First, you have an individual or small group from an observer race invading a previously unknown race, that turns out are direct descendants of the Before Time, and are apparently related to another previously unknown race we just met. I think you understand already just how convoluted this is. The Council will likely debate this for a long time. As you know, the One Rule is not a collection of laws as you know them; this incident is a clear violation of the underlying premise of the One Rule, honor. The report we will help you write will present every fact in plain language my love; it will likely be as long as our first one." Daniel groaned, remembering that report that Angie and Angel compiled; over four hundred pages single spaced. Angel smiled warmly at him, "Don't worry Daniel; we have had practice, and we have David to organize and compile it." They both laughed, and that only made Daniel groan again.

***

The Family stayed on Dendaara one day; it had only been two days, but Alicia's home coming was a spectacle to behold. She and Bethaan acted like two long lost Sisters, hugging and kissing excitedly. Patha, the normally stoic head of their military, couldn't hold back the smiles either; he whispered to Daniel, "They are much alike Daniel; it is a good match. Bethaan, being High Born, was isolated for much of her life before Alicia appeared; now she has found a balance that is good for our people." Patha was relieved to find out the Silent Ones were gone for good; "Now we can focus on improving relations with Jenaad."

Ian Melrose had something of a surprising revelation when Daniel mentioned finding Captain Moulton and what they were doing with him, "I can't say I'm sorry for the man; frankly it is what he deserves. I would ask that you let Jim Lidel know that the Venture is safe and that we intend to stay here for as much as a year more, to learn from our friends here. While he may be slightly annoyed that the ship will be away longer than expected, I know the man fairly well. He will appreciate all the knowledge we will bring back eventually." Daniel assured Ian that Mr. Lidel would get a personal message from him detailing all of the adventure he had subsidized.

Alicia made her not so unexpected confession just before the Family lifted off, "I'm going to stay here with Bethaan and her people; it is just so amazing all the time. Will you tell my Mum one thing for me? Tell her I have found more than I ever knew I wanted; she will know what it means." She hugged all of them fiercely, tears in her eyes; even Kenny accepted the attention with a smile on his face. Then she left the ship with a smile for the new life before her. David took off three minutes later; rather than intrude into Jenaad space to use the front door shortcut to Council space, he chose to backtrack to Earth so Daniel could deliver his messages first. Once that task was complete Daniel chose the Alpha Centauri shortcut to Shreelan space, and one tunnel jump to get them home; the report was almost halfway complete when David landed just outside the Curran abode.

It took four more days to fine tune the longest report Daniel had ever written; David and the girls helped on every detail; and even Kenny had some unique contributions of his own. While Kendrisaan was pleased to have his Family back where they belonged, he was also angrier than they had ever seen the man. He didn't say much, but it was obvious that their seemingly innocent humanitarian mission had escalated into something much more sinister. The only official comment was, "David, leave Captain Moulton in your jail cell for now; it is perfect under the circumstances." His choice of words left no doubt that The Oldest One was not just angry; he was livid. As a result, the Family was inspired to finish the full report without sacrificing detail; there was none of the usual light hearted family banter for four days. Finally Daniel handed his Father in Law the finished product; a small translucent cube weighing half an ounce. If printed out, the book would have weighed some 17 pounds; it was indeed longer than the original survey report that had launched Daniel on this odyssey 22 years before.
Chapter 14

Kendrisaan went into his home office and transmitted the report directly to the Security Head of the Council; while The Oldest One would preside over the 'trial', it was the responsibility of the Head of Security to review the data and determine what violations of the One Rule were appropriate. After two days of little sleep, he called for the full Council to convene, to assess the aberrant conduct of one Jeremiah Moulton, Citizen of Earth; alleged leader of an invasion into the sovereign space of a previously unknown race of intelligent people. The intent of said invasion being to exterminate all life within the target star system. It took two days for every represented race within the Council to arrive; what was surprising for the Family was that, for the first time ever the entire 'peanut gallery' was packed full far above the floor of the chamber. There were no empty seats anywhere; a wide eyed Angel estimated a half million people in attendance. If it surprised even Kendrisaan, it terrified Jeremiah Moulton, for when he was beamed into the holding cell for the accused he was completely silent. Daniel figured it was the first time the man realized just how much trouble he was really in. Angie said it in even simpler terms, "He knows he's screwed." That won her some smiles from a few closer members. Kendrisaan thoughtfully had Daniels usual desk expanded to a large conference table, with chairs for all the Family; Kenny appreciated the gesture most and made everyone proud by conducting himself as an adult throughout the entire proceedings. He further impressed the entire Council when he delivered his own testimony in precise factual language.

Captain Jeremiah Moulton impressed no one. After the 'charges' were read, unprovoked invasion and attack of a benign and intelligent race that resulted in at least two murders, he was asked simply, "Captain Moulton, how do you justify your conduct?" Recovering from his initial shock; Moulton launched into a lengthy rant; claiming that the 'monsters' had destroyed a race who had sought refuge in Earth's star system for a short while. His two ships were merely delivering justice to that aggressive race of monsters, "The President agreed that the invaders had to be stopped before they tried to attack Earth". Kendrisaan's head jerked up at hearing those words, and the Security Chief stopped Moulton in his tracks by asking him, "Mr. Moulton, are you saying that your attack was officially sanctioned by your Government?" Apparently Jeremiah Moulton had some common sense after all; his eyes widened as he realized that what he had said could easily change the direction of the proceedings, "No; I never discussed the plan with him."

The Security Chief then asked Daniel, "Ambassador Curran, would you comment on that claim?" Daniel stood and told them, "The Iscris were never attacked by this race of Ant People; the Queen Mother described the type of ships that destroyed their home, and the description matches the ships used by the Android race from the third planet in that system. Also, our 'cousins' from the far reaches of the Universe independently described repeated attacks from the same type ships, crewed by people they called the 'Silent Ones' because they never communicated in any way. The attacks were conducted through the same gate that serves the Ant People's system. The conclusion is that the aggressors were the Androids and not the Ant People. Captain Moulton attacked the wrong race of people.

It went no better for Moulton when all the girls testified about their impressions of the Ant culture; the prevailing opinions made it clear that the Ants were nonaggressive, but were willing to defend themselves. The discovery that the Ants had been closely related to the other insect race in the Before Time Universe pretty much clinched Moulton's doom. After a unanimous vote Kendrisaan delivered the sentence, "Captain Jeremiah Moulton, you have been found to possess beliefs and actions that violate the precepts within the One Rule; your conduct has placed you apart from intelligent society. You will live out the rest of your days on the planet Arendel, in total isolation. Let the order of the Council be carried out." Before Moulton could say a word, he disappeared; and that was that. There was silence in the great chamber as people began filing out; returning to their own lives and the Family went home.

Once settled in their favored atrium, winding down took some time. Daniel asked Angel, "I thought you said it would be a long debate at the trial before anything would be done; that only took three hours." Angel was startled, "Oh no my husband, The trial itself was never going to be debated, given the evidence against Moulton; the incident and its implications for the Universe will be talked about for years however. While it is a small incident relatively, it has reminded everyone that evil still exists." Kendrisaan joined them a minute later, finally smiling after such a grim ordeal; Daniel gave him a few more minutes to relax before he asked Kendrisaan a question that was weighing heavily on him.

"Oldest One, I am a bit confused; I don't understand how it is that for a serious crime against another race, he is given a whole planet to play on." Angie spoke up too, "I am also at a loss Father, I've never heard of Arendel." Kendrisaan chuckled, "I can understand your anxiety; but I should explain; the planet. Arendel is a water world, with numerous intelligent people inhabiting the ocean that covers that world. Several thousand years ago we encountered them and communicated with each other about our belief structures and moral values. At one point they were offered membership in the Council in observer status, but they declined saying they would not need such an honor because they could easily follow current events anywhere from their home. Don't ask me how they do that; the people won't talk about it. They did appreciated the gesture however, and offered us the only land mass on their planet; a small island about a mile long and half mile wide. There is fresh water there and we have placed a small self contained home there for him to live in, but little else. There is no entertainment and only a small library of books to read if he wants; the only electronics are a heating oven for his prepackaged food and a medical monitor in case he needs attention. Other than that he is in complete isolation.

Daniel frowned, 'That' is indeed harsh Kendrisaan; there is a saying on Earth, 'Worse than Death' and it relates to imprisonment. There have been many debates, but seldom any effective solutions. What if he commits suicide?" Kendrisaan looked at Daniel for a moment with no expression, "That is a personal choice Daniel; we of the Council celebrate life, but we never force another to participate. Jeremiah Moulton is isolated because of his own actions, not ours. How he reacts to it becomes his choice, for his conduct cannot be ignored and certainly not rewarded." Daniel could not really argue with that, so he stopped worrying about Jeremiah Moulton. There were more important things to ponder; like how a race of Ants had ended up in a remote star system far removed from any other race from the Before Time. Something didn't add up, and it bugged Daniel not to have a clear answer to a mystery like this.

The girls and Kendrisaan were staring at Daniel; Angie asked him, "Something is troubling you again my love; what is it?" Daniel broke from his reverie and smiled at everyone, "You caught me; I was wondering if there is a solution to this latest puzzle. That one star system has more odd shaped pieces than any three other puzzles we've had before; the place is just weird really. First we have thousands of androids operating from a planet in that system, who apparently never learned to communicate and just went around attacking anyone else they found. Second we have a really small group of humanoids from God knows where, who it seems controlled the androids in some way, and bailed out when they knew the star was going nova; and that brings me to the weirdest part. Stars are not supposed to do what that one did, are they David?"

David's projection had been nodding his head in agreement; now he smiled, "You're absolutely correct Boss; I've run every algorithm I could think of to maybe explain it, but stars simply do not start going nova and stop half way. It just doesn't happen; but that one did it; perplexing is a nice word." Daniel laughed loudly; sharing the confusing puzzle was making him feel better, "You got that right David; we may never figure out everything, but I'm sure our new Ant friends hold one of the answers. That image the Leader showed us was not just coincidence" David frowned a moment, then smiled, "I need to tell you something Boss; the chamber he took you to wasn't like the other ones with plants in them. That one had way more flowers and bees in it; when he showed you the etching on the wall he was broadcasting openly. It was a world with a yellow sun, and there were plants and flowers and trees all over it; like it was his idea of a paradise. I had the feeling that he was praying in a way."

It's one thing to draw conclusions when you have lots of facts but quite another story when all you have are little hints to go by. So far the only thing Daniel knew for sure was that there was a race of Ants way off in a remote part of the Universe that 'might' be related to another insect culture on the other end of said Universe, all because of one carving in a cave deep underground. Angie beat him to the obvious conclusion, "We need to talk to Oorraakk and Shaalekk Daniel." Kenny voiced his own version a moment later, "Cool! I was waiting for ya to figure that out Mama." That got him more than one raised eyebrow from his parents; Kenny just giggled. The rest of the weird puzzle pieces in that star system would have to wait for now; first things first.

***

Angie, Angel and Jane spent the next two days shopping for their favorite treats that fueled all the Family's travels through space; As the Family launched upward into Eridan's atmosphere, Kendrisaan waved from between the two small pyramids at the entrance; he had a strange look on his face this time, Daniel's report had reminded him of something he had read centuries ago in an ancient scroll. Now he went back inside to his office to find the passage he could only vaguely remember. It wasn't much different in the Ship's common room as David headed outward at maximum system speed; there wasn't the usual happy banter that defined the Family's normal excursions. The girls were spending time trying to figure out just what to say when they arrived, and Daniel let them have at it while he did his own pondering. Daniel had decided that they would use a two tunnel journey to the insect sector of space. Kenny would reach out to Treddikk at the half way point to ask her to let Oorraakk and Shaalekk know the Family wanted to visit again to discuss their latest discoveries. A confused Treddikk responded that 'The People' were pleased to have their friends return so soon; they had some news of their own to share.

When the Family landed at the now familiar spot just outside the insect Temple, Daniel realized they had not talked about how to present their latest findings. In all their travels the discoveries had always dealt with pretty much one puzzle at a time; once the pieces were fit together, the resulting picture showed what had happened in this Universe millennia ago. Each puzzle solved revealed that there was an even bigger puzzle from long ago in another Universe entirely. Using all the other puzzles as a guide, Daniel figured this latest one was a 'doozy'; it involved at least four different races in four star systems, on opposite ends of the Universe. How could he explain it without sounding crazy; Daniel decided that the best way was to tell it just as it happened. As Oorraakk, Shaalekk and Treddikk settled onto their resting couches, he told them a little about the original search and rescue that started it all. Having never explored beyond their own sector of space, the insects seemed to find the tale interesting, especially when David helped out with some recorded video. The images of a destroyed Iscris system brought the expected shock from Oorraakk, "There are still people who would harm others?" Jane answered that simply, "Yes Oorraakk, the Universe is not perfect; our own Earth is struggling with learning to live with each other, and probably will struggle for some time to come. The Council people are cool though, and I'm sure they all will like you when you are ready to meet them." Shaalekk laughed at that, "It is a good thing to know Jane, for my Brother has begun designing our first large starship. He says that since meeting you all, it is past time for us to rejoin the Universe."

Daniel took that as his cue, "Perhaps it is time, but that is your decision of course. That sentiment may help us with a curious discovery we made while searching an odd star system on the opposite end of the Universe. You see, we found another race of people who are similar to you, Shaalekk. David, please show the etching in the chamber?" As the image appeared on the big screen, all three insects began chittering excitedly. Standing next to it was the Ant Leader; remembering where she was, Shaalekk stared at Daniel for a moment, "The Guardians Daniel; I believe you have found the Guardians." Daniel wasn't quite ready to put a name to the new people, "So they have a name, that's good, but who are the Guardians? He wasn't very talkative while we were there." Treddikk broke in with her unique chuckle, "I must correct that Mr. Curran; 'She' was speaking to you all along. The Queen puts a lot of speech in her imaging; the reason you did not know it is that you don't speak our common language. Kenny showed me some of the images; the words are in the different patterns within those images. Her name is Tnic by the way; it means Life Flower, or Flower of Life.
Chapter 15

Slowly the story emerged; Shaalekk explained that none of the oldest written records were really helpful for the simplest of reasons; "The Guardians were a part of our culture for many cycles; as you know our society includes hundreds of different species and they were one of them. Most of us are what you call pacifists by nature; non-aggressive and seeking no conflict. The Guardians were more though; unlike the rest of us, they were willing to defend our right to live in peace. If any of the races threatened us, our friends would stand up for all of us. Treddikk and I know this because of the Truth Stones; you helped us more than you know, for the stones tell the whole of it. Entaaka and Emlaaka lived during the harsh times before the migration, and for a time after it. The Guardians were chosen by Ra to guard the 'Portal'.

***

The Isis stone had suggested that there was dissension among the races as the migration neared, but now the Family learned that in one group there had been open hostility. From the insect Truth Stones a clearer account of what was going on emerged. Emlaaka and Entaaka had talked about it many times. The old 'you don't look like us, so you are inferior' disease had surfaced. All of the races had felt fear when they learned of the migration to a new Universe different from what they knew, but how each race confronted their fears varied quite a bit. Angie and Angel had caught glimpses of the frustration building among the many races, but their perspective was skewed by being a part of the largest group of all, the humanoids. The Gods had chosen the shape for a practical reason; the flexibility that went with combining form and function. It allowed the greatest chance of their creations surviving the many challenges they would face in the New Home. Being nearly perfect, as Gods usually are, the plan had seemed fool proof at first; simply seed the new Universe en masse and let them have at it. The Gods had missed one tiny little flaw however, fear of the unknown breeds irrational thinking, and the people began breaking off into 'factions'. The plan must change...

The humanoid structure was the largest group of course, but within that group appearances varied radically, and attitudes toward each other defined what faction each would fall into. The petitions that flew around everyday pretty much decided that. Those who demonstrated the problem traits of aggression, greed and penchant for violence would be placed a fair distance away from each other in one sector, and eventually learn to live in peace or destroy each other. The smaller group of humanoids who would come to be known as the Watchers, was placed far away in a separate part of the Universe. A big empty void was placed between the two groups to isolate the differing ideologies. The Watcher's task would be to observe the changes in attitudes among the first group, if they occurred.

That left one group, the insects; they were friends with a few of the first group of humanoids, but not enough to place them in close proximity. The 'bugs' had only one goal, to live their lives in peace and honor. The Watchers understood that concept already, so Ra gave the insects an isolated area of Watcher space all to their own so that they could grow and learn at their own pace. Problem solved, right? Not quite, for there was a single race of humanoids who practiced a particularly ugly trait, hatred. They not only didn't like peoples who didn't look like them; they didn't like anybody who wasn't them. 'The Others' believed they were better than everyone else, and deserved the very best of everything. Ra pondered that dilemma for a while, and decided to place that problem group in another Universe entirely where they could live as the best of all peoples; the only people at all, in a Universe all their own. Only one little detail remained; the physical process of the seeding.

***

Daniel had learned early on what the gateways were; Angie had explained that no one knew how the gates were created, or why. It had always been assumed that God had provided them as a way for people to more easily travel the vast distances in the Universe when each race found them. Now, as Shaalekk described the Seeding, Daniel realized that gates were a byproduct of the Gods own travels; each transit to another star system leaving a remnant of the journey. Finally the seemingly random placement of the gates made sense; it also showed plainly why some systems only had one gate, while others had multiple ones. The Gods did a lot of backtracking when they placed all the peoples at different times. Daniel found it ironic that the Council's use of the gates was more of an accident than by design. The new tunneling method of travel was already proving to be much more effective.

As Shaalekk described the final choice Ra had to make, her voice grew softer, "When Ra decided to move the others to their new place and away from all other peoples, he needed to have someone to guard the portal that would be created by the placement. Of all the species of people that existed, there was only one that embodied both peace and honor; what you call Ants were the people he chose for the responsibility. They had protected our kind for millennia; they are not aggressive by nature, but will defend against any attack tenaciously; their soldiers know no fear. Ra chose the Guardians and they accepted the task for the good of all the peoples. It was something of a legend to us that they Guard the people to this day Daniel, and your discovery bears that out." Looking pointedly at the High Priest, Shaalekk made her case, "Entaaka said there would be a sign when the task was complete, perhaps this is that sign Oorraakk. We must welcome them home."

One thing Daniel liked about the High Priest was that he did not waste any time getting to the point of a discussion, "Our sector of space holds 43 star systems; we have colonized most of them, but one that we have left alone looks remarkably similar to the Queen's image you showed us. I have to wonder if we have somehow saved it for the Guardians without realizing it. No matter, if the Other's threat is indeed no more, then the Guardians will be welcome here. That brings us to the real question, how do we know the danger is no more? Entaaka said there would be a sign."

David had been silent since they all began talking, but he had something to say now, "I've been analyzing all the data from our trip Oorraakk, there was a lot of it that simply didn't make any sense, but after hearing your story I may have some answers. We have always assumed that the humans on the fourth planet had somehow evolved there, but there were only 25,000 of them in one walled city; they also controlled a race of androids that numbered in the hundreds of thousands on planet 3. When they knew the sun was going nova the humans apparently didn't give a second thought to the androids, and abandoned the system through that weird gate. If we go back there I want to send a probe through and see what's on the other side; it has to be the 'portal' the Guardians have been guarding for millennia. The last strange piece of the puzzle is the most convincing for us I think. There has never been a sun going nova that stopped half way, yet that one did; I would say that is the biggest neon sign ever, it is time for the Guardians to come home. We are going back Boss, right?"

Daniel didn't have to answer, for Jane jumped up excitedly, "Of course we're going back David; warm up those engines!" Then she looked at Shaalekk, "You are coming with us too, aren't you Shaalekk? The Queen should get the formal invitation from you." Looking about as surprised as anyone had seen the Mantis get, Shaalekk actually stuttered, "Wha...why yes, I believe you are correct Jane, but I think Treddikk will accompany me, she does have telepathy and that will undoubtedly help in our discussions." Being somewhat more comfortable with space travel than Shaalekk, Treddikk didn't even flinch, "It will be my honor to help bring back the Guardians. How long will we be gone David?" She was startled when David chuckled, "Oh, I have a tunnel target I can use over there; total time to get there would be about four hours; ok Captain Jane?" Daniel was happy to get a little teasing payback for once, so he just gestured for Jane to answer; watching her fighting the shock she felt, Angie and Angel just smirked innocently, enjoying the show. Jane managed a smile, "Yes David; that will be fine. We should get this show on the road; will you come with us Oorraakk?" The High Priest merely chuckled, "I admit it is tempting, but I must make the announcement to our people; they will be astounded that the Guardians will finally return to us, and I must begin preparations for the welcome."

The girls spent the first hour of flight converting two of the spare cabins into sleeping chambers for their two amazed guests; David was orchestrating the changes of course, but Angel, Angie and Jane showed them how easy it was to change their décor on a whim. Both considered it magic at first, but Treddikk was coerced into trying a little fine tuning all her own, once she got the hang of giving directions that instantly became solid reality. When the girls told her that it was unlikely that her race would be using smart materials anytime soon, Treddikk gave them a soft chuckle, "Good! I do not mind modern convenience, but I don't think magic everyday would make me comfortable."

At the three hour mark David called them all back to the common room; he was far enough away from surrounding stars for transit. If the two insects were amazed by the cabin conversion exercise, they were astounded when the view changed on the big screen; Daniel smiled at the two Priestesses, "No amount of warning can prepare you for the first transit through a gate or tunnel. I think we all remember how it felt the first time." Daniel could see they were heading away from the fifth planet, but before he could say anything David popped in, "I'm going to check out that weird gate Boss; we need to settle that question first. I set a drone for a ten second look see on the other side and return for a first look, ok?"

David slowed to a stop 200 yards from the outer edge of the flickering gate and launched the drone through the strangely shaped blob; the seconds ticked away. At ten seconds nothing happened; then fifteen seconds passed with no drone. David was about to turn away from the gate when the drone lurched back into view, "It is drifting Boss; looks like it burned out it's capacitor getting back, I'm dropping the tailgate to pick it up." Ten minutes later David was manipulating the smooth torpedo shape into a cradle he morphed into existence while the Family watched on the screen. Other than being without its propulsion, the drone appeared undamaged. Another minute passed as David worked his magic on it, until another image appeared on the big screen, "This is 5000 miles beyond the gate and the drone is turning to return...uh oh, there it is; the reason why it burned out. There's a Black Hole twenty million miles off to the side of the gate; the drone had to use all its stored power just to get back through the gate. That tells me that the Others didn't make it; their engines were not very powerful. It's a certainty no one will ever use this gate again; in fact the gate will probably disappear completely in a few more years, that black hole is getting closer. I'm moving to the fifth planet now Boss; can you contact the Queen Kenny?" The boy giggled, "She already knows we are here again David. She was wondering why we took the long way around; I told her the Others are gone for good now; she liked that news."

It was a good thing that Daniel and Family brought Shaalekk and Treddikk along, for once the initial arrangements to beam directly into the hatch chamber were finalized the negotiations were comically simple. The Queen might not be able to vocalize in the common insect language; but she definitely could think in the complex series of clicks, clacks and special vowel sounds. While Shaalekk could handle the telepathy part fairly well, Treddikk had mastered it, so she took the lead; asking the all important question. Now that the Others were gone forever, did the Queen's people 'want' to reunite with the rest of the insect culture? To sweeten the deal Treddikk sent an image of the planet they would be given for their own within the insect sector. The Queen responded with a humorous quip that got everyone laughing, "Excellent, when do we go?" The easy planning came to a grinding halt however when the Queen was asked how many of her people there were to transport; her reply surprised even Shaalekk, who had expected it, "There are currently 392,712 occupying the colony; but there are also 10,750,412 eggs in stasis that must awaken on the new world. The Caretakers will be busy preparing them."

Daniel had not expected the task to be easy, but those numbers put a big barrier in between planning and success, "Oh boy, I didn't expect that. Sheesh, if we made speed trips and filled the cargo bay with 100 or so each trip, it could take months to move everyone. How the heck do we pull this one off?" The only practical solution was to get Council ships to help; a lot of Council ships if it was going to be done within any reasonable time frame. Getting Council permission first would take time, then gathering the ships would take more time. It was far from a perfect solution, but it was a possibility. Kenny giggled for a minute, "Father, Empress Delia has bunches of big ships; maybe she will help." Angel was all for the idea, "Ha! Good thinking Kenny; those ships are massive, and they really don't have much to do now. Shall we go ask, Daniel?"

Before they left to plead their case for assistance from the Watchers, Daniel had little doubt that Delia would think it just another day in their lives; he already knew they were 'Masters of the Universe' in a profound way, having kept eyes on most areas of space for millennia after all. The Watchers were so benign in their attitude toward other races that it put the Council to shame. The real consideration was logistics; they would be moving an entire culture from one end of the Universe to the other. Surely the Ants would want to take as much of their personal belongings and equipment as possible. Flower of Life set him straight on that point when she said simply through Treddikk, "Inanimate 'things' can be reproduced later; life must be the first priority." She did point out that her scientists might want to take their most important experiments with them if possible; there were quite a few of them, "Oh, and the soldiers wish to know if the ships must be abandoned." Daniel assured her they would address those concerns as well; how many ships were there? The 213 number surprised him; he thought it would be far more, given the thousand android ships they had had to fend off over the centuries. All were the flat, disc shaped craft they had seen already.

***

The Family pretty much expected the response Delia gave them, but they never suspected how much she knew about the Guardians. The Watchers were not terribly religious, "Our oldest records described them and the responsibility they took on. None of our races knew where the Others were taken, so we could not have known where the Guardians were placed to prevent them from causing trouble for the rest of us. Now that the Others will no longer be a problem, it is a time for celebration, and we will of course help. Would twelve of our ships be enough do you think?" The Family knew from long ago just how big the massive ships were; Angel couldn't resist laughing, "I'm sure that number will be more than enough Delia, and will allow for greater flexibility in where to put all the possessions they will need to bring. When do you think you can assemble them?" Delia gave her a wide grin, "Why, they are ready now Angel; Serat notified the chosen ships when I agreed to assist. All are crewed at minimal levels to allow enough space for the Guardians to feel comfortable during the trip." Daniel appreciated the subtle humor behind that statement; the actual trip to their new home would only take about 4 hours, but getting all the people and equipment 'on and off' the ships might take days.
Chapter 16

Daniel was right, for even though the Ant people were all packed and ready to go when the armada of ships arrived in orbit, it still took almost three days to load everything up. The Queen helped out enormously by dividing everybody up according to who needed to go together, or needed to tend the egg cache. 30,000 rather sophisticated and self contained egg stasis chambers went up first to three of the massive ships, along with some 40,000 caretakers to watch them. It was a shock at first for the Caretakers to 'meet' the Krellad crew, but the crew went out of their way to be both diplomatic and gentle with their pantomimed instructions. It didn't hurt to have Treddikk go up with every group either, just to handle the finer translations; she was worn out by the third day. All the starships went up to one ship, along with all the 45,000 soldiers that made up the fighting force. There wasn't much diplomacy needed on that trip since they all lined up in ranks beside the ships and stayed there for the duration.

The thousands of scientists went up to their ship without any hitch; being typical scientists, they were always interested in new things, and being with their equipment didn't hurt either. They had also collected every bee and bee hive in all the tunnels, and packed them away in their own crates. Finally the workers went up to four more ships, all 280,000 of them; each one carrying their own bag filled with their personal belongings and trinkets. The Queen made a point of showing her pride in them. They were the heart of the colony; the construction crews, laborers and support personnel, essential to any successful society. If anyone could relate to that it was Daniel Curran. The only ones left were five humans, two Mantis Priestesses and one Queen Ant; the Queen was staring down the long tunnel that led to the only home her people had ever known. Suddenly an image flashed through all their minds; it was just the tunnel she was looking down but Treddikk spoke up to explain, "There was only one word in there; she said 'Remember'...she is ready now."

The flight out was somber to say the least; the Queen stared at the big screen in the common room constantly. Even though they were heading for a new and better life, this race had existed in this star system for some thirteen billion years, Daniel could understand the Queen's feelings as he remembered how he felt standing across the street from his long time home on Earth. No one spoke or distracted her as David took them out to the safe distance for a tunnel jump, other than that, the trip back was as smooth as everyone expected. The mood shifted drastically when this flotilla arrived over the lush world. As David made dozens of passes at high altitude to let the Queen choose a site for the new beginning, she became animated again, pointing at surface features she had never seen before. Finally she chose a large flat grassy plain with flowering plants mixed in. David landed at the edge where a dense forest bordered the plain, and the Queen asked that the soldiers and their ships be brought down first. That move puzzled Daniel at first, but when the Commander suggested that the ships survey the surrounding planets for any threats, the Queen told him to limit exploration to this worlds surface only; it would be impolite to show suspicion of their new friends. With the Others gone, it was time for the people to live again as was promised long ago. The guy stared at Daniel and the Family for a long minute before he nodded at them, and it finally dawned on Daniel why she brought them down first. The soldier caste had been protecting their people for some thirteen billion years; they knew no other life, but it was time to learn a new way. The Queen was a smart cookie and knew what she was doing.

Insects do not waste time in their tasks; it took four days to bring all the Ant people down to the surface, and for a while there was disorientation with each group. Except for the soldiers, none had ever seen open sky before, so there was a fair amount of gawking and fear of open spaces. The Queen allowed all groups time to adjust, then the creation of their colony began. Workers split up, half concentrating on building above ground structures, while the other half tunneled into the earth, creating deep chambers to protect the eggs and their heritage. The Family and the two Priestesses watched a whole society building a new life in two weeks; it would grow larger from this spot. The day before Daniel planned to take Shaalekk and Treddikk back to the Temple, the Commander came to see him. Treddikk translated his words, "Before you leave I wanted to thank you for bringing the people to this world Daniel Curran. For the first time in millennia there is hope for a better life; my kind has never known peace, so we have no purpose now. We do not contribute much, and will die out eventually; it is better so."

Daniel had thought of the soldier caste as just big ugly bugs for so long, but the Commander's words struck a chord deep down inside. He remembered vividly his own feelings of being useless after a life of hard work; it seemed so long ago now. Rather than just a big ugly bug, Daniel saw a man standing in front of him now; a 'person' with feelings, and perhaps a little insecurity mixed in, "I once had thoughts of being useless too Commander, but I learned that there are many different shapes to a man's purpose. There was honor in protecting the people and ensuring their survival. Now that there is no more threat, the people will grow on this world, and they will meet other peoples. They will need help in that; help them grow. Purpose is important, but life is most important; honor life." The Commander tilted his head for a moment, staring at Daniel intently. Finally he stood tall and placed his palm against his thorax, "Your words are true human; we have had only one purpose for so long a time, perhaps it is time for us to learn other ones." Then he just nodded once more and walked away. "You are a smooth talker husband, and you do have a knack for speaking the truth." Angel had been listening; she smiled at Daniel and planted a kiss on him. That always made it a good day.

***

Their job completed, the Family headed back home for a well deserved rest. After stopping to drop off Shaalekk and Treddikk so they could report their adventure to Oorraakk, David made a single tunnel jump back to the familiar space around Eridan. They had been gone for almost two months and the down time was welcome. As always happened with the Curran Family, relaxing did not mean discussions stopped all together though. Because this latest series of discoveries had so many mysteries attached to them, the daily atrium conferences were quite lively for a while. Kendrisaan dove right into the most perplexing of the curious discoveries, "It is something of a disappointment to find out that the gates were nothing more than residual traces of the seed ships travels throughout the Universe. We had always believed that the gates were intentionally created as a way to travel through the vastness of space. Now we find that they were merely a byproduct of the seed ships own propulsion. It may be hard to swallow, but I cannot deny the evidence before me. The three Anchor Stars were a clue, I think, that we did not understand, but now we do. Apparently those were the three original entry points into this Universe."

Angie seemed to latch onto the implication, "So the Gods couldn't risk having the Others anywhere near those stars, and they didn't want them associating with any other race either. They would have taken them far away from everyone else, to a separate Universe. They also knew it would leave a trace gate, so that is why the Guardians were placed at that star to watch it and defend against any incursions. And we don't even know where that star actually is; David, can you show us on the universe globe please?" David projected the globe with just the Anchor Stars, and the Milky Way galaxy in it, then added the Watcher's Galaxies and Bethaan's home galaxy for reference. Way off behind the Milky Way, near the edge of the globe, was the highlighted star system. David let the Family get a feel for the distance before he spoke, "It makes the Watcher's space seem like next door, doesn't it. It is even farther away than Bethaan's home; the Guardian's star system is just under 11 million light years from Eridan, Boss, and there are no other star systems within 50 light years of that star. They were really out there in the boonies."

Daniel was shaking his head, "I just can't wrap my head around the Guardians spending some 13 billion years all alone in the universe, for the sole purpose of protecting the rest of us. It boggles my mind." Kendrisaan smiled then, "Daniel, I think it is the perfect example of what 'honor' really does mean. We use the word in general to mean many different actions, but I believe 'sacrifice' is the most profound of all. At least now it is finally over for the Guardians, and they can take their rightful place among us; they have earned it." Daniel could understand that much, but it also brought back a question that had bothered him ever since learning that the gates were not planned, "I can buy this sequence of events up to a point Kendrisaan; but if the gates are just leftovers from the seeding, then why is there a gate in Earth's system at all? The entire solar system is only four and a half billion years old. It didn't exist back then, when all the migration was going on."

Kendrisaan laughed for a full minute before answering, "Daniel, I am no expert in planetary evolution but I have read extensively about Earth, I can give you my own meager insights; your own archaeologists have given you all the clues you need to answer the question yourself. What has been called 'modern man' appeared on Earth between 100,000 and 80,000 years ago in the Pleistocene Era, and were unlike any other examples of humanoid species on Earth. The curious fact is that they did not just appear in one place, but all over the world. Your scientists have never found any 'link' between earlier species and the modern human; I believe they will never find a link because there is none. The tiny scraps of geologic evidence found suggest to me that the Earth truly was 'God's Playground'; think about it, all fishes and land animals can trace their heritage all the way back to the Dinosaur age and beyond, but not humans. It seems to me that God 'seeded' the Earth one time with genetic material he already had from the migration; that explains two parts of the puzzle; why there is a gate at Earth and why your race is almost genetically identical to us. How is that for a deduction my friend?"

Daniel chuckled at the matter of fact delivery, "I think you've been hanging around me too long Dad. I have to admit your analysis is believable, but how do the Iscris fit into that? I got the feeling they had visited Earth." Kendrisaan was obviously enjoying this, for he chuckled right back, "That is a bit harder to explain...unless you can accept that they were an earlier experiment that may have gone wrong, you said it yourself once. If the Dinosaurs had evolved, they might have evolved into the Iscris; I suspect that is exactly what happened. The Iscris are the descendants of Earth's Dinosaurs, and when the asteroid struck Earth, a few survivors were rescued and moved to another star system where they finished evolving. It may have been at the same time the Others were taken to another Universe. It is sheer speculation, but it does explain why the Iscris system has two gateways; most only have one. It could be pure coincidence that the backside of that second gate links back to the Old Ones origins, or it might not. I get headaches if I ponder it too much." It was late and time for bed, when Daniel suggested it he got no arguments at all. Kenny even yawned, which pretty much sealed the thought. Everyone was tired it seemed, and Daniel figured it would be a peaceful sleep; it wasn't, but at least everyone did sleep.

***

It was a dream; Daniel knew that right away. Finding himself floating in space kinda made it obvious; he was at the outer edge of the Guardian star system. The star still glowed dimly and behind it Daniel could plainly see the portal to another Universe, even though he wasn't supposed to at that distance. The blob shape almost looked like it was on fire, changing color as it pulsated. Then suddenly it flared brighter than any sun, and disappeared. "It is done." Daniel wanted to make some snarky comment, but just couldn't bring himself to do it, "So the threat is gone, and we can relax for a while now; thank you." "No, it is not your way." Daniel sighed; after all these years of bouncing back and forth from one strange encounter to the next, he was feeling more like an employee rather than some 'Indiana Jones'. "There are more; there are always more." Daniel hated vague answers, and sure didn't like hints that didn't say anything, "Alright, where to next then?" "The people wait; find them."

Just like before, it was a short conversation that left Daniel feeling more frustration than enthusiasm; the only satisfaction was seeing the portal close for good. That helped a little, right up until he opened his eyes and saw Angie, Angel and Jane all staring at him wide eyed. Angel smiled, "We saw and heard it too, husband; and so did they. She nodded toward Kendrisaan and Kenny standing in the doorway; the atrium had seven occupants five minutes later when David popped in. Kendrisaan stared at the dark sky for a few minutes before he said, "It is an infinite Universe; we sometimes forget that, don't we? I think that was the message the voice wanted you to understand Daniel. The details of the migration consumed our thoughts for so long that we forgot that there must be thousands of races out there somewhere waiting to be found, and the voice was right. Sitting around relaxing isn't your way, any of you; idle boredom doesn't suit the Curran Family, we know that. So you will go out again to find new worlds filled with strange people to confound the Council even more; it is what you all do best." Kendrisaan grinned to let them know he liked the idea.

Daniel had to admit to himself that the brief frustration he had felt was gone now; the almost eager smiles from Angie, Angel and Jane helped smooth his ruffled feathers, and he knew they would go anywhere just to 'be there'. And then there were David and Kenny, who loved any place new and freshly discovered; those munchkins simply wanted to 'do stuff'. Nowhere in the Universe was really unreachable anymore; the new tunneling method of travel David was perfecting ensured that even the farthest stars were only moments or hours away. Yes; this really was the Curran Family way, "Ok David, put up the Universe projection again. Include every place we have ever been, every track or discovery on record; then we will study it for a few days before deciding where to go next. Our One Rule will be our guide; we only go 'Where no one has gone before'..."

***

About Me

Alright, here's the hardest part for me. I just don't do self promotion very well, so rather than rehash what is in the first book, I'll just list all the other books I've written since this odyssey began. Sounds about right since I thought the first book was all there would be; so here they are, in order of when they were written:

The Ship \- Written last November, this is the one that started it all, it was a theme that had been bouncing around all my life inside my head, and a question. What would you do if some alien contacted you and asked for your help? It evolved as I was struggling to write it, and I finally realized that my characters were driving the direction the story was going because they are the ones 'living it'. I've stuck with that concept ever since, and the story has continued into what I now call the Daniel Curran saga.

Sacred Honor \- This one is a standalone right now, about an old Marine, an orphan girl and a snarky starship with an attitude. Together they learn about themselves and the world they live in out on the far rim of space.

Places Unknown \- The second book in the Daniel Curran series, it begins defining who and what the growing 'Family' are all about.

Love Absolute \- A very short short story of about 20 pages, it's about dogs in space and what they can really mean to us humans. My Tina nudged the back of my arm one day when I was wondering if I would continue with this writing thing, and this one popped out. I like the way it came out, even if it is real short.

Endurance \- The third book in the Daniel Curran (and Family) series, the Family finds themselves helping Earth find their way to the stars.

A Promise Remembered \- This one is about an alien warship with no more war, and a young Earth girl living on a harsh world far out in the Universe, who doesn't even know of Earth. Strange meeting, stranger discoveries, and an old book all add up to the meaning of life.

Strange Alliance – The fourth book in the Curran Family series has them trying to convince Earth that living in peace is much better than conflict. With the help of a couple of alien looking 'Aliens', Earth's Officials get a lesson in real racial paranoia.

Odd Questions, Odder Answers – This one makes number five in The Ship series. Will there be more? Who knows...but I have learned that this writing thing can be fun. More importantly, it is a collaboration that needs feedback from the people who read these books. Without that feedback, is it really worth it?

Sooo, here is my backhanded method of self promotion. If you like my 'style' of writing, please leave a review at the site you downloaded the books from. What the heck; if you didn't like the style, say so in a review too, it's one of only two ways to let me know if I'm doing anything right (or wrong). I am not a professional writer, so I don't have any fancy commercial website. I suppose you can say this really is a labor of love. Trust me, it is not easy.

The other way to let me know is to email me at:

mwb_8@yahoo.com

Don't forget the underscore if you decide to go that route, ok? In any case, I thank you for reading my books. The only promise I can give you is that I'll keep trying as long as it is fun, and the imagination holds out.

Michael
