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Keepers of the Garden

by Joe Stiles

For Nancy. You never said no.

1st print; Apr 5, 2014

Copyright @ 2014 by Joe Stiles

Part 1

Project Able

Keepers of the Garden 1

Chapter 1

Friday, Oct 7 - The forest air felt cool and refreshing as Jordan Hayes made his way down a gentle

slope. Fog made it difficult to see clearly more than a couple of dozen feet. Early morning sunlight

penetrated the dense vegetation just slightly, rendering trees and bushes only in shades of gray. The

path was worn and not difficult, and Jordan was in no hurry. He enjoyed this time of day more than

any, except for when his work as an archaeologist yielded something new. That was not as frequent as

mornings like this.

His boot steps made little noise. The only other sound was an occasional coo of an unseen mourning

dove. Pausing at the bottom of the incline, he looked around. The fog cleared near the forest canopy,

and at the edge of one tree a squirrel leaped silently across to branches of the next one on its early hunt

for food. Nearby, some unseen critter scurried through fallen leaves.

He smiled as he took a deep breath and paused a few more seconds before continuing along the path.

Adjusting his back pack as he pushed his way through dense bushes, he planned the day. It was his

third trip to the Alamard Basin in western Kentucky. The previous two trips had passed uneventfully,

and this visit had been without incident. Until the discovery late yesterday.

He had been digging in a small grotto slightly away from the area where ancient inhabitants once lived.

It was there he discovered three stone artifacts. The excitement of the find encouraged him, but he had

only one more day before returning to Hunmay headquarters in Austin, Texas with his three member

management team. He wanted to make the best of the time remaining.

He and his team would return to Austin with progress reports, the official reason they had made the

visit. But, he knew it was not the only reason. He was trusted to handle appropriately what was

expected to happen soon. He certainly didn’t think much about that right now. The day was far too

pleasant to consider any such things.

Instead, he thought about and appreciated how participating in some of the daily work gave him a

chance to feel more attached to the project. In a position of management now at the privately funded

Hunmay Foundation, he had few occasions to practice his skills. It was mornings like this when he

most considered it had been a mistake to move indoors into a position of management. Maybe, he

thought, he should attempt to return to a long assignment in the field.

Working in the field was always his preference. But, it was only slightly more than his desire to work

near home so he could be close to his family. It was a tradeoff he rarely regretted, but this morning felt

like one of those exceptions. He shook off the thought as he made his way along the remainder of the

path and approached the grotto’s edge. He was content for now that Hunmay had specifically sent him

instead of others equally qualified professionally.


Vegetation gave way to rocky walls and an overhang. He had been digging near the back of the grotto

and the area was still too dark to work. The sun was not yet high enough for light to make its way in.

He preferred natural light more than from the lamps positioned around the area. No matter. First, he

had to prepare the area for work.

As he proceeded, he thought about the stone artifacts. Two of them were equal sized spheres, each

about the size of a golf ball, except for a small flattened side. Opposite the flat part on each stone, one

barely could see a ring of markings made faint from evident weathering. The third stone was shaped

vaguely like a musician’s tuning fork with its handle curved upward. It had no marks on its smooth

surface.

Jordan had not yet theorized any useful purpose for the stones. Finding them late yesterday, he had not

had much time to examine them or make conjectures. The stones were unusual and well fabricated. He

was sure the ancient natives of the area could not have fabricated them, and it was for this reason he

was more interested in them than he might be otherwise. This discovery promised to justify the real

reason he was here, why he was sent, why he was trusted over others who easily could be here instead.

He understood that an important reason the Alamard dig existed was to look for unusual clues, part of

Hunmay’s so-called silent agenda.

Eventually sunlight brightened the area enough as he finished preparations and started digging. Long

minutes passed turning into hours, and he fought anxiety with disciplined patience learned through

years at his profession. He continued, however, to think about the stones. The work itself seemed to

promise little more. As the day wore on, the October chill invited him to yearn for relaxation at day’s

end and another chance to examine the stones directly. That was almost three hours away.

Suddenly the point of his trowel sank into dirt and stopped sharply against something. He felt the

abruptness against his hand and his interest increased. He straightened his back and focused on the

trowel. Bone or rock perhaps? It didn’t feel quite like that. Had there been a slight sound from the

contact? He wasn’t sure. He proceeded carefully, removing more dirt. Brushing aside some remaining

dirt, less than one square inch of surface was revealed. It was enough for him to see a darkened flatness.

It was metal. He grew more excited, but reminded himself of care he should exert as he continued.

As fast as he could, but slower than he liked, he loosened the packed earth from its ancient hold on the

object, a clear sign of long term burial of the object. But, Jordan thought immediately how this was a

contradiction. The stones and now this metal could not be as old as the burial environment suggested,

once again reminding him of the real reason the whole project existed, Hunmay’s silent agenda, the

real reason Jordan worked for Hunmay.

Alternating between trowel and brush, he uncovered several square inches of the metal surface. It

remained flat with the same weathered dark patina covering it. Eventually an area more than six inches

on each side was exposed. Then, an edge appeared. The metal folded back into the dirt. It was a second

surface. He realized he was being too careless with protocol, and stopped. He had to collect dirt

samples, and measure and document the find.


He knew metal working was not a skill of the past native inhabitants. It affirmed his suspicions

regarding the stones. The objects seemed likely to have been created at most one hundred years ago or

so. He was growing more sure this was the kind of special evidence he and Hunmay sought.

Then he realized he had not announced the discovery. He turned and looked at Stewart McGraw

working a few yards away.

“Stew! Take a look.”

Welcoming the chance to stand and stretch, Stewart turned and walked toward Jordan. Second in

command in the visiting group to report progress, he was also a long time friend of Jordan’s. He

stopped and looked over Jordan’s shoulder. “What have you got?” Bending forward to see more easily,

his eyes widened. “What is that, a box?”

“Looks like, doesn’t it?” Jordan put down the notepad and pencil and picked up the trowel. Stewart

kept watch as Jordan cleared away more. When he uncovered another surface, the corner made by

three exposed edges was clearly visible. “Yeah, it’s a box.”

Neither man said more as Jordan continued removing dirt. After several minutes, another two surfaces

were exposed, leaving only the back end of the box still buried in place. By now, two other project

members were standing around and watching. Jordan stopped, sat back, and stared. A few moments

passed until he reached for a ruler and began measuring. He picked up the notepad. The exposed face

of the box was about seven by ten inches. The third dimension could not be recorded until it was

uncovered.

“Wow!” Jordan spoke with little more than a whisper as he stood. He smiled as he anticipated the

possibilities. Staring at the box for a few seconds, he considered what to do. This was unusual enough.

He would call Hunmay. Turning and taking a few steps, he stopped and looked back. “Would you

mind removing it?”

“Okay.” Stewart sat down and reached for a trowel as Jordan turned away. The others also turned and

drifted off. He stepped out of the grotto into a small open area. The sun above forced him to stop and

blink, waiting for his eyes to adjust. He reached into a pocket for his cell phone.


Chapter 2

David Allen sat in the Hunmay Foundation’s park. Located a few miles northwest of Austin, Texas, he

often left his office to think and work in the park’s pleasant surroundings. It was a place he frequented

when he wanted solitude and a chance to think without interruption.

The park was surrounded by simple modern seven-story buildings which completed Hunmay’s campus.

The park itself was threaded with random stone paths among trees placed frequently around a maze of

brooks and pools of water filled with several kinds of fish. Chairs and benches were located in strategic

locations. One could always find a comfortable place to relax and watch ducks and peacocks which

freely roamed the five acre landscape.

David sat on the bench where he often retreated. He looked up from notes he held and watched a duck

preening itself near the top of a nearby grassy knoll. He stared for two or three minutes until a familiar

sound interrupted him. He retrieved his cell phone. “Hello?”

“David, it’s Jordan.”

“Hey! How is it going?” David was glad to hear from his friend, who helped him through some rough

times in the near past. A past he typically avoided thinking about.

“We found a box. It’s well made out of metal, a newer construction.”

David understood. “So, you think it was buried recently?”

“Yeah, that’s the problem. It’s also heavily weathered. It looks like it’s been there a long time. It was

below the stones, and they’re weathered also. We’ll know more after we date the matrix carefully,”

referring to the dirt itself in which the objects were embedded. “But, it looks like the artifacts have

been there for more like a few hundred years, which can’t be true.”

“Okay. I’ll notify J. P. You didn’t open the box?”

“No.” Jordan knew that would have to wait until it was back in Austin. David knew this was good

news. So did Jordan. It was bound to be just the ticket to help with the silent agenda.

Neither man said anything, both thinking. “Any holes? Can you see in the box?”

“No. It’s tightly closed and it really is well made. It’s even difficult to see it has a lid on it.” Jordan

paused. “I’m still coming back tomorrow. I’ll bring the stones and the box.”

“Sounds good. Then I’ll see you Monday.” David disconnected and then made a call.


“J. P., it’s David. Jordan found a metal box, and he’s bringing it back tomorrow. We’ll open it Monday

morning. Can you be here?” He paused and listened. “Okay, so I’ll see you later and fill you in. Or,”

he suggested, “we can wait for you before we open it.” He paused again. “Alright, we’ll proceed.”

David disconnected and gazed across the park. J. P., as everyone at Hunmay called him, was John Paul

Huntington, a self-made billionaire who co-founded the Hunmay Foundation with Joshua Mayfield,

another billionaire and J. P.’s close friend for years. Mayfield had been dead for more than five years,

leaving no family, with most of his estate now controlled by Hunmay. Both men made their fortunes

investing in real estate, oil, and advancing technology.

Together the men founded Hunmay in order to advance knowledge and understanding of human

culture through careful documentation of history, especially physical history. Hunmay employed teams

of people focused on research in history, economics, and archaeology. Computer science played a

crucial role at Hunmay, especially applications of artificial intelligence helping to understand ancient

artifacts and languages. This widely defined structure was central to the official charter at Hunmay, but

most employees and associates at least vaguely were aware of Hunmay’s silent agenda.

It was well known that J. P. and Mayfield shared a common interest in beliefs which defined more than

just another religion. It was a way to explain life and its purpose through science. Their beliefs in part

included not only a way of life, but also a confidence that an important destiny was imminent.

J. P. and Mayfield created Hunmay to engage in legitimate research, but undenied rumors continued

throughout the foundation’s history that many of the funded projects existed also to help enlighten the

two men’s quest for understanding their supposed destiny. Mayfield died never knowing the nature of

that destiny, leaving J. P. and others committed to finding the answers.

Nobody really knew how many others at Hunmay were sympathetic to the founders’ beliefs, but few

doubted that chances improved for gaining funding on a project when the proposal included hints of

lending support to the silent agenda. The dig in Kentucky’s Alamard Basin was one project which J. P.

seemed to take more interest in than many others. David and Jordan, as well as J. P., had known that

serious clues indicated important artifacts might be found in Kentucky which supported J. P.’s desire

to discover the destiny of their brotherhood. David also shared that desire.


Chapter 3

As Jordon sat near a welcome campfire which held back the cold night air, he examined the stone

objects discovered the day before. He really wanted to see what was in the metal box, but he knew that

would have to wait until it was back at Hunmay in Austin.

He understood the contradiction between clearly more modern fabrication of the box as well as the

precision shapes of the stones versus the archaeological evidence indicating these items had been

buried for several hundred years. Having more than a passing interest in Hunmay’s silent agenda,

however, actually helped him appreciate that the buried objects were not very likely buried as a hoax.

There was more reason behind the burial than that. He was not quite as well informed as David

regarding the reasons the Kentucky dig was considered a prime site for learning more of the destiny J.

P. and Mayfield believed in.

The informal brotherhood at Hunmay had followers scattered throughout the foundation. It was known

by most that some followers of that brotherhood were members of a more formal group called The

League. Jordan had no part in The League, knowing very little about it, but he was at least seriously

sympathetic with the general purpose of the less than formal brotherhood which provided the energy to

sustain the real reasons Hunmay existed.

So, setting aside any entertainment that this was a hoax of some kind, he focused instead on learning

from examination of his find the appropriate clues which might help clarify the nature of the

brotherhood’s destiny. He was confident that the mystery of why these more modern objects seemed to

be buried for such a long time would eventually come to light, and he was satisfied enough with that

certainty to ignore the apparent contradiction for awhile.

But discovering reliable and relevant facts yet escaped him. After all, he was a scientist, and not a bad

one at that. It was still too soon to expect much insight into these items. For the most part, Jordan was

very much only starting his acquaintance with the stones, and as yet had no familiarity with the box.

He turned one of the stones at an angle so the light from a nearby lantern more clearly revealed the

small row of symbols etched into the hard but unnaturally smooth surface of this ball. The other ball

seemed to be an identical copy of this one. He had not yet taken time to examine the third stone object,

which had no markings on it, but which was of a very different shape than the two balls. For now he

needed no better light.

Highly detailed examination was not his desire at this time. This was an introductory session, his usual

way to collect initial impressions and ideas regarding the nature of any archaeological find. So far,

however, he was at a loss for a decent explanation beyond that of something remotely connected with

religion. But, that didn’t sit well with him. His gut told him something more practical was associated

with these carefully carved rocks.


“Any ideas yet?” Stewart McGraw approached and pulled up a nearby folding chair.

“Nope.” Jordan responded with a friendly tone.

“Maybe religious?”

“I don't know.”

“A toy?”

“Maybe. But, this sure is well made for only that.” Jordan continued to stare at the etched marks

around the side of the ball. “Maybe like dice. They have these symbols on both,” he suggested as he

looked over, pointing at the other ball resting on a small table.

Stewart picked it up. “I don’t recognize the symbols. Do you?”

“No. Charles will have to do that.” He referred to Charles Candrill, head of the project’s linguistics

group.

After a few more seconds, Stewart squinted at Jordan. “I’m surprised you aren’t more excited about

this.”

While continuing to examine the stone in his hand, he asked, “Why is that?” Jordan knew what Stewart

was getting at, but he waited to hear it.

“Come on! I know why you’re really here. Your so-called silent agenda.” Stewart wasn’t actually

ridiculing Jordan. The two of them had been friends for a long time. But, Stewart was not interested in

Hunmay’s and Jordan’s less than official motivations. Stewart had a good job at Hunmay, and as long

as the brotherhood’s actions didn’t interfere with his career, he was content to let his friend have his

odd little involvements.

“This is science, Stew.”

“Yeah, but this in particular should be making you coo and gurgle.”

“It’s also real life. Real life isn’t all that exciting, even when very interesting things are happening.

What, you expect maybe a bunch of masked bandits to suddenly appear and take these artifacts from us

at gun point? Then maybe we should grab our dusty hats and favorite whips and ride off after them.”

“No. But, look. This is your game. I know what you’re looking for, my friend, and it sure seems to me

like this is going just where you want it to be. You’ve got to be happy for this.” Stewart realized this

generally met with Jordan’s hopes, along with that of David and J. P., but he didn’t buy into the

brotherhood business. It was of no consequence to him that his friend did.

Jordan looked up. “Sure, this is an interesting find. Really interesting.” He thought without saying it

how happy he was. These finds were exactly what he and others had hoped for. “But,” he continued,

“you do see that this is still science. Valid science. And, I’m going to do my professional best to handle

it appropriately.” He knew Stewart didn’t see it otherwise. Both men were confident in their work, and


they knew each other well. “Even if this turns out to be what we are looking for.” He said it

understanding that while Stewart was not interesting in the brotherhood or anything associated with it,

he did respect it’s integrity otherwise.

“So, you think this is the jackpot?”

Jordan didn’t respond.

Stewart thought, silence is acceptance. Instead, he said, “So, David must have liked the news.”

“Pretty much.”

Stewart and Jordan continued visiting and examining the stones for awhile. Finally tired enough from a

long day of work and ready to return to Austin the next morning, they turned in for the night.

Stewart was not particularly sympathetic with Hunmay’s silent agenda. He didn’t care that much,

mostly feeling as if he was just another employee of just another large enterprise. A confident, but

relatively younger and less experienced scientist than many he worked with, he saw no long future in

his career with Hunmay, and certainly held no interest in any ideas of destiny and brotherhood.

Nevertheless, he worked hard and was rightly proud of so quickly becoming second in command of

this project.

Certainly he had heard also of The League. Nobody at Hunmay escaped knowing about these things.

Beyond what he heard around the water cooler, however, he felt no particular emotions about that.

Certainly he understood the contradiction of more modern objects apparently buried for a long time. So

he considered mostly this was a hoax and quietly even suspected that it was not something which

significantly supported anything related to a so-called destiny. But he took his cue from Jordan and let

it go. He allowed himself to consider only that which lent itself to his scientific interest. In truth, he

was much more interested in his climb up the management ladder. He had other goals in his life than

real academics. So, he played along, not troubled by it in any real manner. He put in a fair day’s work

for his fair pay. That was that.


Chapter 4

Monday, Oct 10 – Sipping coffee, David sat quietly as he folded his hands around his cup. The lab

always seemed cold. So many bones and old artifacts lying around. It felt like a mortuary. He preferred

the warmth of a room filled with computers, but he watched with interest as his friend Jordan sat on a

nearby stool, working with the metal box.

Jordan sat in front of a biological cabinet, a glass enclosed work table designed with negative pressure

and filled with inert gas often used for working with hazardous materials or precious material like

moon rocks. One could work with the cabinet’s contents by reaching through gloved sleeves mounted

into the cabinet sides. He wanted to make sure the box and its contents were not further contaminated.

There might be plant spores inside the box from the last time it was open, and any soil stuck on the box

might contain pollen and microfossils, all useful for dating the box and its contents.

He worked intently with a small instrument in his hand that looked something like a miniature ice pick.

Working in the lab with real objects helped him deal some with not being in the field as much as he

wanted. Carefully, he chipped away at the weathered material filling the gap between the lid and the

base of the metal box. He had been trying to free the lid from its grasp for almost an hour. He and

David had said little.

Normally, David would not be sitting by so attentively, but he and Jordan understood the possibilities.

They were as hopeful as any that the box would yield significant insight regarding the brotherhood’s

history or destiny. This was surely the case, given the unusual nature of the stones and box and how

obviously modern they must be. These artifacts surely had nothing to do with the Indians who lived in

the area so long ago. The evidence pointing to long term burial remained unresolved, but this didn’t

diminish either man’s expectations.

Without looking up, Jordan spoke. “I’m surprised J. P. isn’t here.”

“He’s in Europe and won’t get back till tomorrow morning. I asked him if he wanted us to wait, but he

said no. He’ll be here as soon as he can, especially if this turns into anything of value.” How could this

be otherwise, David thought.

As Jordan kept working on the box, suddenly the lid relaxed some of its grip. “Okay, it’s coming

loose.”

David sat up. Reaching for a phone next to him, he put down his coffee. He lifted the receiver and

punched in four digits. Waiting briefly, he spoke, “Barbara, would you come to the archaeology lab?”

He waited a moment. “Okay!” He then hung up.

“This will still take a few minutes,” Jordan observed. He continued working as David sat back. In

another minute, Barbara Welling entered the lab.


“Open yet?” she asked as she approached.

“Just about,” David responded.

Barbara reached for a nearby chair and rolled it over to David. She was second in command after him,

managing the people involved with a project called Able. The project was defined by David six years

ago, and had grown to seventeen people divided into a management group and three groups of

archaeologists, computer scientists, and linguists. The acronym, ABLE, stood for Automated Belief

and Learning Environment, and was conceived by David as an attempt to develop computer programs

which could help archaeologists and linguists decipher and understand artifacts and ancient languages

or hieroglyphics. The project had continued to develop, widening its scope to include the ability for

programs to understand cultural issues related to people who spoke or wrote the language being

studied. Project Able programs were being applied using data from the Kentucky dig.

Barbara sat as she handed a sheet of paper to David. “It’s from Janet. She’s having a problem with the

new vector tables and listed the log entries here for you. She wants you to take a look at it with her

when you get a chance.” Barbara was much more an administrator, but a good one, than a scientist.

“Okay, I’ll see her later.”

Jordan interrupted. “Well, it’s ready.”

David and Barbara stood to have a closer look as Jordan sat back and laid down the tool he was using.

He picked up a small brush and swept the loose, dusty material that had come from around the box into

a small envelope. Closing the envelope and setting it aside, he turned back to the box and reached for

the lid. Grasping both sides of the box he worked at it as the lid moved upward slowly. A small

scraping sound could be heard as it gave way. Shiny metal surface appeared from behind it as it moved.

The lid fit tightly still, and Jordan had to position his hands at various places around it as he teased it

from its grasp. Another few pushes with his fingers, and it suddenly pulled free. He lifted it away,

exposing the contents.

“Whoa!” Barbara’s eyes opened wider.

David stood motionless, staring at the open box as Jordan said, “Huh!” He laid the lid down and sat

back, more surprised than he thought he might be.

Sitting snugly inside the box were five books. The spines of the books were exposed, and they stood

about one-half inch higher than the top edge of the metal container base. The spines and book covers

were very dark, almost black. Near the base of each spine was an impression colored in light gray.

Each impression looked like a simple small etched symbol.

Jordan, David, and Barbara stood beside the cabinet looking in at the contents. In another few minutes,

Jordan had taken several photographs of the box and books as a mounted video recorder silently

captured all activities in the cabinet as well. He took several measurements and recorded them at a

computer keyboard sitting beside the cabinet, as well as vacuuming the book surfaces, trying to capture

microscopic evidence such as spores and microfossils.


Eventually Jordan commented, “I think it’s time to pull out one of the books. Any preferences?” he

asked nobody in particular.

“Assume the books are in order,” David suggested. “Take out the first one.”

“Okay.” Reaching through the cabinet sleeves, Jordan slowly tilted the box over on its side so the

designated book was on top of the stack. Then he tugged carefully at the book. It moved easily from its

position as he pulled it out without disturbing the other books. The binding was about one-eighth inch

thick, and not very plush, as a finely bound leather cover might be. The entire binding was consistently

the same dark color, and except for the symbol on the spine, there were no other markings visible.

Jordan laid it on the table.

He began to measure the book’s dimensions and enter data into the computer. It was about one and

one-half inches thick, and it was large enough so it fit snugly in the box. The other four books

appeared to be identical in size, resulting in no other free space in the box. The box must have been

constructed to hold the five books with no room to spare. The edges of the bound pages collectively

appeared as a very light brown earth tone. Quality workmanship was obvious.

When he finished his measurements, Jordan removed his arms from the cabinet sleeves and stood

silently. He was confused. Of course, these books could not be more than one hundred years old. He

considered the possibility they were much younger than that. He knew the stone objects must then be

young also, which were buried above and therefore, after the box. This contradicted the nature of the

burial of the box and stones which seemed sure to him that they had to have been buried for much

longer than only one hundred years.

For the first real time, Jordan briefly allowed himself to now consider the burial might be a hoax.

Despite his trust in the unstated reasons why the work in Kentucky was supported, he began to try

coping with the obvious contradiction. Had somebody taken great care to make these relatively modern

objects appear to have been buried for a very long time? Whoever it was had to be reasonably

knowledgeable of archaeology. It was clear to him the perpetrator had gone to great length to set up the

hoax, if that’s what it was.

Nervously, Jordan turned from the cabinet. David asked, “What?”

Jordan turned and looked at him.“If I hadn’t been the one who found them, I wouldn’t be thinking it.

But, this might be a hoax.” Barbara looked up in surprise. David waited. After a deep breath, Jordan

continued. “Look, we’re going to have to wait for date evaluations of the matrix before I feel more sure.

But, I’m betting they’re going to come back showing long period burial. And, that’s just not possible.

These books can’t be more than one hundred years old. Hell, they look to me like they can’t be more

than forty or fifty years old. They’re too well made. Somebody managed to make the box appear to be

buried for a long time. If they were really well trained, they could pull it off. Fake burials at digs have

been done before.”

Barbara spoke. “I understand what you’re saying. Even a layperson like me can see the books aren’t

old. And, the box sure looks pretty new. So, what’s the point?”


“Beats the hell out of me.” Jordan shook his head slowly from side to side. Then he stepped back to the

cabinet looking at its contents.

“Maybe,” suggested David, “the books themselves can answer that. Open it.”

“Okay.”

Jordan shook off his suspicions. Hoax or not, the books were still the point. They might amount to

something. They might still be tied somehow to the brotherhood’s quest. He had to postpone his

concerns until he knew more. He slipped his arms back inside the cabinet sleeves. Reaching for the

book, he opened it. The cover fell back easily with pages exposed about one-third of the way in. “What

the ...”

Barbara and David peered inside at the open pages. Both pages were covered in writing. Apparent

hand writing. Written in small cursive script, evenly spaced across both visible pages, there appeared

to be a few hundred words collected into what looked like several paragraphs. Beyond that, the script

itself was not familiar to any of them.

“Greek?” Barbara guessed aloud.

“No,” Jordan answered slowly. “I’m not sure what it is.” He paused as he peered more carefully at the

dark blue script. He noticed numerous diacritical-like markings throughout the text. “Maybe something

like Arabic or Hebrew. But, really neither.” Again he paused. “Charles needs to see this.”

Jordan referred to Charles Candrill, the manager of the linguistics group in project Able. Charles was a

senior scientist in the project, having had more than thirty years experience in linguistics.

“Sure, get him.” David commanded. “Barbara, we need to take care of other business. Let’s go to my

office. Jordan, let me know what you and Charles figure out and we’ll talk about it at lunch.”

“Okay,” Jordan answered.

“And, start having the books scanned as soon as possible. I’ll ask Janet to create a database for the

scans.”

David and Barbara both turned toward the lab exit as Jordan reached for a phone. David stopped short

and turned back, “Would you ask Cheryl Davis also?”

“Sure. Maybe Emmett?”

“No, not yet. Cheryl’s knowledge of Middle eastern languages should be enough for now, I think.”

“Okay.” Jordan began dialing as David and Barbara left.


Chapter 5

“Good morning, Barbara!” Looking up from her work, David’s administrative assistant Jessie Monroe

cheerfully greeted Barbara as she followed David into his office.

“Good morning, Jess.” Barbara responded warmly while passing on through without pause and closing

the door to David’s office as she entered. She sat down in front of his desk as he settled into his chair.

Barbara complemented David with their management styles. David was a scientist and never felt very

comfortable as top boss of project Able. Where David felt inadequate in managing people, Barbara

was fully competent. She actually enjoyed being second in command, knowing full well that her

knowledge of things scientific was not as keen as that of David. So, she deferred to David in such

matters, while he happily allowed Barbara take command of matters involving human beings.

Barbara also understood the other reasons why project Able was so heavily supported, not only by the

Hunmay Foundation in general, but with particular interest by J. P. Huntington. Knowing that David

was more than just a sympathizer with the loosely described brotherhood, she accepted early on and

without trepidation that he would naturally be in charge. But, time had shown her also just how much

David trusted her to do a stellar job at helping to manage a larger than usual number of people assigned

to this one Hunmay project.

With David climbing the scientific ladder at Hunmay while Barbara was officially on the management

track, she even knew that she was already more likely better paid than he, but with virtually the same

management privileges shared with David.

It was a very good collaboration, one which both had come to trust and treat with care.

“So, you have to be pleased with this turn of events.” Although she was not at all involved with the

brotherhood, Barbara understood more than not that the books surely meant more to those who were

closer to the silent agenda than she. She also understood that followers of the brotherhood disliked the

negative connotation associated with the words “silent agenda,” and she showed her respect by not

using the term.

She never begrudged what she considered mostly a strange activity. It never interfered with her career

in any way which mattered, so she was content to focus easily on her usual responsibilities. Indeed, she

often dismissed this not-so-silent agenda as some sort of harmless boy’s game, silently noting to

herself that she knew of no women at Hunmay who were party to these sideline activities. She was

wrong, but didn’t know it. That alone was a simple measure of how little she paid attention to these

things.

David smiled a little as he obviously feigned ignorance and deflected the not so subtle suggestion.

“Well, clearly the Indians who lived there didn’t write them. Still, they were found there, and as such


we should put some effort into understanding what role they play, if any.” He redirected the

conversation. “The writing we saw in that book should be a useful exercise for Able,” referring more

to the named computer program than the project name. “But, the new language modules are still not

mature enough.”

Barbara had no problem getting back to official business. “Have you decided we need another

programmer?”

David had been considering this for a few days now. “Not really, but probably yes. There’s a couple of

other issues this week I need to understand better first. I’d like to talk some more with Charles this

week after he has some time to look at the books.”

For the next half hour, Barbara and David continued to discuss matters which they agreed to address

during the coming week. This was time they spent almost every Monday morning in an informal

meeting.

Of course, David knew that Barbara had no part in the silent agenda. He appreciated her not trying to

interfere with such things, and respected her otherwise competent contributions making Hunmay’s

official business a continuing success. He knew he could be a lot more troubled if other people held

her position. There were some employees of Hunmay who were unsympathetic with these unofficial

enterprises. David treated her in an egalitarian manner. He was much more than simply relieved by her

quality management style.

David never denied his involvement with the silent agenda and the brotherhood. But, he also rarely

spoke using either informal term, knowing instead that the appropriate description for anyone

supportive and involved was to call such a person an Aldorian, and he knew that The League itself was

a far more proactive group of believers in Aldorianism. David was, however, also not often inclined to

use the proper terms, except when he knew he was speaking with another Aldorian.

He was not a deeply religious person and certainly never thought of the Aldorians or The League as

being part of any religion, but he had considered himself to be Aldorian for several years now, in part

out of respect for his personal history. That history, one which only recently he thought much about

with comfort, was as much as any force which kept him involved with remaining an Aldorian. It had

become a significant factor in how he looked at life. It gave him some peace of mind and helped him

remain connected to the history he had temporarily tried to avoid thinking about, but knew how much

it really meant to him.

Religion, secularism, philosophy, spiritualism, or simply a life style, whatever one called it,

Aldorianism had a following, and the Hunmay Foundation was the result of people with enough

strength, power, and money to create this tangible manifestation which existed significantly to help

formalize this social movement, as it might be called.

Aldorian legend spoke of the existence of a clear but lost description of the source and purpose of

Aldorianism. The legend, however, was not clear about what form this description took. So, any

historical artifacts which in any manner included symbols or written words, were prime candidates for


containing this long sought after description. The books and stones were certainly relevant historical

artifacts, as any items from the Alamard Basin were considered.

David believed, as did many Aldorians, that part of the legends behind Aldorianism suggested the

ancient inhabitants of the Alamard Basin were perhaps some of the early followers of Aldorianism.

Maybe the native Americans living in the basin were themselves the founders of Aldorianism. This

would be only one of numerous life style and spiritual philosophies followed by the many tribes of

American Indians which once thrived throughout North America.

David and his Aldorian friends at Hunmay sought to frame their legends with that of scientific fact.

The clues had strongly pointed to the dig in the Alamard Basin. The books represented a possibility for

providing that factual framework he and others wanted and looked for during the years Hunmay

existed. David wanted more than legend to support his following of Aldorianism. He wanted facts and

logical reasoning.

David’s thoughts were again drifting back into those of his past. He was still not yet comfortable

enough with thinking about his history, and as it crept into his thinking now, he attempted to brush it

aside, indicating he was ready to end this meeting with Barbara and continue with other business. “So,

any other issues?”

Barbara knew David was ready to push on. “I think that’s about it.”

“Okay then.” Looking down at the sheet of paper Barbara handed him in the archaeology lab, he added,

“So, I’ll see Janet about this problem.”

“Good enough.” As the two of them left, Barbara stopped by Jessie’s desk to chat with her as David

continued out of the office headed for Janet Deane’s office.


Chapter 6

Walking down the hallway toward Janet’s office, David looked at the sheet of paper Barbara handed

him earlier describing Janet’s problem.

“Log entries,” he thought with some disdain. “Worthless!” He couldn’t really tell much from the

information Janet had given him. It was not Janet’s fault, he knew that. As usual, too many people in

command had too little knowledge of what it took to program what they thought was simple or useful.

He vowed to have a better error reporting system developed for Able. The present system was costing

more time than it often saved.

David loved solving technical problems. He was happy to let Barbara handle the day to day human

employee problems, allowing him more time to focus on technical problems. And, now he saw the

books as a new opportunity to work on solving yet new problems. It mattered to him that the books

suggested he and other Aldorians at Hunmay might be on the right track toward discovering more

clarity about the source and reason behind their beliefs. But the technical problems which he

understood would also have to be solved in order to successfully answer the questions about the books

motivated him far more than simple philosophical conundrums.

David was bright, very bright. His promotions to command a larger than average group of people at

Hunmay was more than a measure of his intelligence, although in truth he really didn’t understand that

it was also more than a coincidence. By his second year in college, he was taken under wing by

Charles Candrill, who was then a professor at David’s college.

When David was approached then by Charles, he had this uneasy feeling that somehow he already

knew him. But he was so pleased to be noticed so quickly, he didn’t really give it a lot of thought. It

was, however, quite early in his academics. So he would have never considered focusing his interest in

computer science specifically on linguistics and applications of artificial intelligence to it. Charles’

expertise in linguistics and his friendly and somehow familiar guidance easily motivated David to take

the change of course in stride, and he excelled in his work, finishing college easily in three more years

and moving immediately into his role as a PhD student, continuing to be mentored by Charles.

David finished his PhD in five years and never had to face the rigors of locating a career position based

only on his freshly acquired credentials and expertise. Charles had that worked out for him before

David even knew it. Charles was a long time acquaintance with J. P. Huntington and Joshua Mayfield,

and David was introduced to them near the start of his graduate student work. J. P. and Joshua rapidly

came to know David and his talents, and saw as much potential in him as Charles did. So, weeks

before David finished his PhD, he had a standing offer to go to work for the newly chartered Hunmay

Foundation. He couldn’t turn down the lucrative offer, including not only more than average pay, but

he was offered academic poetic license well beyond any he knew he would have had if he instead


become a college professor. The research opportunities Hunmay promised made it very easy to join its

ranks.

David was now only 37 years old. Considering his accomplishments it was more than adequate proof

to him and others that he had made the right moves. It was also very nice and convenient that Charles

had followed him into Hunmay’s organization. David smiled knowing that one of his own employees

was Charles, understanding full well how much he owed his success to him. It was Charles who had

insisted on remaining less than a manager, deferring—indeed, insisting—that David instead move up

the ranks so quickly.

Approaching Janet’s open office door, David watched her staring intently at her computer monitor.

Tall and thin, with long waves of brown hair cascading to her shoulders, she leaned forward slightly,

engrossed in her work. David could only see the profile of her face as she stared downward toward the

monitor. Her hair draped forward, framing the side view of her eyes and the tip of her nose and lips.

Not wanting to interrupt, he stood quietly in the doorway enjoying the view. Becoming aware of his

presence, she turned toward him and smiled, “Oh, I’m glad you’re here.”

He stepped into the office, sat in a chair in front of her desk and waited for her to speak first as he

gazed at her dark brown eyes. Shuffling through pages of paperwork on her desk, she continued, “I’m

really having problems with these vector tables. The resolution operators are not yielding stable results,

and I think it’s coming through these parameters you gave me last week.” She handed him a sheet of

paper.

The cold technical jargon interrupted his thoughts as he took the paper from her and started looking at

it. She waited while he had a chance to examine the data. Watching him as he studied, she noticed he

slumped in his chair. Recently he seemed up and excited by progress with the project, but now he

looked tired. It detracted from his youthful features. Only the gray mixed along the sides of his

otherwise dark hair belied his age.

Showing signs of completing his study of the data, she commented, “You look tired. You’re not

getting sick, are you?”

He looked up and smiled slightly, “No. I guess I have a lot on my mind.” He hid any further clue of his

feelings as he turned the focus immediately back to the data. “Right away I don’t see what’s causing

this. These parameters look okay. Would you email a dump of the vectors? Copy it to Anne,” referring

to Janet’s immediate supervisor. “She helped compute the values last week.”

“Okay.” Realizing no solution to the problem was immediate, she saw no point in discussing it further.

An awkward moment of quietness followed. Briefly, she considered mentioning she liked the way he

was dressed, but quickly rejected that. She didn’t want what she was feeling to grow more awkward.

David also felt a strain in the moment. He wanted to stay longer. He wanted to talk with her more.

About anything. He couldn’t think of anything to say. He knew only too well of his own reputation as

one who could not carry a light conversation. The visit was not nearly long enough for him.


“I heard about the books.”

He jumped on the break with silence. “Yeah. There are five of them.”

“Oh?”

“I only looked in the first one with Jordan and Barbara. It contains hand writing in some foreign

language, but we’re not sure what.” He straightened his posture. “Oh, that reminds me. The books are

being scanned. Can you create a new database for the scans?”

“Okay.” She leaned back in her chair as she watched him.

“So, we’ll use Able to help translate the writing. In tomorrow’s weekly meeting we can get into the

details then. Charles and some others are looking at the books today, and should have something for

starters by then. I’d like you to present a database procedures overview for the scans.”

As he continued talking about the meeting including ways she might prepare for it, she watched him

rise out of the lower mood he was in. His eyes grew wider and his hands filled the air as he conducted

his discussion of upcoming events.

Nearly one-half hour passed as the two of them continued to discuss things Janet could be involved

with. At one point she pulled out a clean sheet of paper and was drawing diagrams on it as she

explained some idea she just had. David leaned forward to have a better look at the paper, but mostly

he looked at her face, which was then only two feet from his. He studied the curves and the softness,

and he looked again and again at the light red color on her lips, almost void of any lipstick. He felt his

heartbeat quicken, until finally he began to feel uneasy with the moment. Damned professionalism

pushed its way in, and he withdraw from being near to her as he straightened up and readied himself to

leave the office.

Janet sensed the end of the visit and sat back. “So, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Okay.” David stood, embarrassed at the brief thought he had of reaching out and touching her face.

He pushed his chair back and stepped toward the door. Turning, he found himself saying involuntarily

and foolishly, “So, I’ll see you in the morning.”

Janet smiled and blinked with amusement. “Good!”

David turned toward the door and retreated down the hall.


Chapter 7

As David and Barbara stepped into the restaurant, they quickly spotted Jordan and Charles just settling

down at a table across the room. As planned, they were meeting for lunch in David’s favorite Hunmay

eatery. It was typically quieter than most other campus dining rooms, and he often held informal

meetings here with coworkers.

After everyone placed their orders with the waiter, Charles started the conversation. “Well, so far

Cheryl and I only had a quick look at all five books.”

Jordan added, “I slowed them down mostly. I wanted to do a decent job of first vacuuming the books

and the box interior just in case we could find some old pollen and spores from back when the box was

last open.”

David understood this was a good idea. Looking at Charles, he asked, “What did you find so far?”

“I only looked at a few random pages in each book. But, with one exception, every page is covered

with cursive writing similar to what you saw this morning.”

“One exception?”

“Yeah. About half way into the fifth book, there are several pages of drawings, sketches of plants. And,

the good news is lots of parts of the plants in those drawings have labels pointing to them.”

David knew what this meant as Charles continued, “We can use those labels as a simple way to tie this

language to our current names for the parts.”

Barbara also realized the good news. “Like a Rosetta Stone.”

“Exactly!” Charles actually looked at David as he spoke. As he watched, he thought about the path he

had taken to get here, and considered how he guided David through so many steps to arrive at the same

place. He felt a deep confidence that the books were what he and the brotherhood had been seeking for

so many years. He was intimately involved with the silent agenda, the typically unspoken goals, as he

knew J. P. Huntington was, and as Joshua Mayfield had been before his untimely death.

Charles wondered briefly how David would be brought into full knowledge of things he didn’t yet

know. He knew that J. P. would soon pull the trigger, probably this week after he returned from Europe.

He knew he would himself then have to fill in many details; that was not what J. P. did. He knew

David would have questions, lots of questions. It was characteristic of him. But, for now, Charles

needed to continue with the present conversation. “Also, Jordan noticed something else.”

As everyone looked at Jordan, he said, “While Charles and Cheryl looked at the books, I spent more

time examining the three stone objects, and I realized that some of the symbols etched on two of the


stones were the same symbols as those on the book spines. So, they are probably sequential identifiers,

surely numbers, letters, or ordinals of some kind.”

Barbara spoke. “That clearly associates the books with the stones. Maybe the purpose of the stones is

described somewhere in the books.”

“Maybe,” Charles responded. “But, I have to tell you a first impression. Cheryl and I are in agreement

some. We think the language used in the books might be constructed.”

“Constructed?” Barbara asked.

“Yeah. Like artificial.”

“So, fake.” Barbara said in disappointment.

“No, not fake. Constructed. It’s actually more common than you think. Lots of people invent complete

languages for many reasons. Some you may have heard of are Volapuk, Esperanto, Interlingua, and

Loglan. There’s even a bunch of people working on Klingon, believe it or not.”

“Oh,” Barbara chuckled, “I believe that.”

“Well,” Charles repeated, “we are guessing this is a constructed language.”

He continued. “But, if it is constructed, then it’s surely not a very old language. The languages I

mentioned were mostly all created less than 150 years ago. People before that time were not inclined to

create such things. It’s a modern phenomenon.”

“Okay,” David asked, “won’t that make this language more easily translated? I remember from

college—in fact, from you, Charles—that one of the main reasons to construct a language is it tends to

be more simple in structure than a natural language which evolved over generations, carrying along

some of the cultural mores and conventions from each generation, slowly making it all messy and

inconsistent.”

“That’s right. But, we did notice one thing which might exacerbate that. It is fairly easy to see some

evidence of the problem, even with what little time we have had so far. The writing in the last book

superficially looks like it is structured in a manner inconsistent with what we saw in the first book.”

“So,” Barbara noted, “it might be more difficult to translate these languages.”

“Well,” Charles corrected, “I think still only one language. But, yes, a little more challenging.”

David was annoyed. “Why,” he wondered, “is every problem always more complicated than it first

seems?” Not that David actually disliked more complicated challenges. In this particular matter,

however, he was growing progressively more anxious and ready to find answers. As one who enjoyed

good problems, he was hoping this time there were exceptions. Along with others who were strongly

sympathetic with Aldorian quests, he was well aware of how many clues pointed to the Alamard dig


and how much they all seemed to say that real discoveries were readily available there. He wanted

faster answers. He was sure Charles was feeling sympathetic with his anxieties.

“I think this does mean we will need an additional programmer to work on Able’s language modules.

Barbara, would you contact human resources and get that started?”

“Sure.”

“I spoke with Janet this morning, and she is setting up a scan database.” Looking back and forth

between Charles and Jordan, he spoke to both. “You two continue to do what you’ve been doing. Any

estimate on how long it’ll take to scan all the pages of the books?”

“Yeah, it looks like it will be done no earlier than Wednesday afternoon. More likely it will be mid-

Thursday.” Charles said.

“Okay,” David said. “Keep Cheryl with you on this until then.” Looking at Jordan, he added, “Please,

keep examining the stones. Do you need any assistance?”

“No, not yet.” Jordan answered. “I’m also staying on top of the matrix dating.”

“Alright. I’d like the two of you to report what you can in tomorrow’s meeting,” David said, referring

to the Tuesday morning weekly all-hands meeting. “We’ll have a much better idea how to proceed

then.”

Of course, David knew that Jordan and Charles were both Aldorian followers. So, he was sure that

both were as curious and excited about these new developments as anybody. He had no doubt in the

motivation both felt as they studied these new finds looking for silent agenda answers. Looking for the

so-called message which explained their own destiny and reasons for all of this.


Chapter 8

Monday mornings were always busy, including David’s usual meeting with Barbara to talk about and

plan the week ahead. After making appropriate adjustments and assigning required tasks, David

typically settled in at his desk shortly after lunch and quietly spent the rest of the day working on

whatever problem most interested him at the time. It was usually one of his favorite times during the

work week. Usually.

Today felt different to him. He felt agitated and annoyed. Unable to concentrate, he stared blankly at

his computer monitor, trying to understand why he was so anxious about these new developments.

Why wasn’t the discovery of writing in the books motivating him to higher levels of welcome

excitement? Why did he instead want the goal to seem easier? He was certainly aware of the obvious

serendipity, the writing in the books coming along so soon after the decision had been made to

improve and strengthen the language features in Able.

He knew the real reason for his anxiety. He tried to avoid it, even in his own private thoughts. It wasn’t

about Able or languages or seeking answers to some kind of Aldorian destiny. He fought against

allowing himself to think about what really was troubling him. But, he knew he was slipping in the

struggle.

It was a little about Janet. But, it was really mostly about finally allowing himself to come out of his

shell after so much time spent hiding his emotions, and especially while trying to ignore his past. But,

recent months had slowly provided the time to change all that. Time and help from others. Others like

Charles and Jordan, his two closest friends.

Less than a year after working at Hunmay, Charles had pushed David to write a technical paper related

to his PhD thesis topic and having it published in Hunmay’s journal, the Hunmay Archive. Charles

made it clear that it would enhance David’s reputation, already being established at Hunmay. So,

David worked hard to finish the paper and submit it to the journal. It was then when he was assigned to

work with an editor from the journal, a technical writer who would polish his work before publication.

The editor was a woman named Karen Bauer.

Karen worked well with David, and he cultivated a friendship with her. It was Karen who helped him

become more gregarious and find more friends, like Jordan Hayes, a long time friend of Karen’s.

David quickly liked Jordan, and before long he convinced him to join the ranks of Hunmay also. In the

meantime, David’s relationship with Karen grew rapidly. He fell in love with her.

Before the end of their second year together, David and Karen married. Karen continued to help David

cultivate his personality. Karen was deeply interested in philosophy and spiritualism, and the closeness

of their relationship and care for each other piqued David’s interest in her Aldorian involvement.


David learned of Karen’s association also with The League and came to appreciate and significantly

respect her involvement, and eventually he was willing to participate also in Aldorian activities. It was

then when he became so deeply aware of not only his friends Jordan and Charles being Aldorian, but

he became more than acquainted with the silent agenda and the story of its destiny.

It was as if David were personally destined to be connected with Aldorianism. Starting out merely as

interest in Karen and her thoughts, his own involvement took on importance independent of any person

in his life. Eventually, David embraced Aldorianism out of his own recognition in its ability to satisfy

his desire to hold with a larger philosophy, something with an ability to help him find meaning.

Meaning with logical reality, not mystical mumbo jumbo he so often saw being peddled by all too

many philosophers and divines. David wanted logical consistency, not what he otherwise saw as

foolish inconsistency. And, Aldorianism seemed to offer him what he deeply wanted in his life, in his

mind. So, his acceptance of Aldorianism not only helped nurture his loving relationship with Karen,

but also it gave him deeper feelings of brotherhood and peace in his life.

But, in a deeper and more private way, he knew that something was missing. Aldorianism provided

him with a foundation for thinking about life, but even it did not provide the ultimate answers he

sought. He knew that the so-called destiny was vague. It wasn’t an answer. Nevertheless, the books, he

realized, offered the real possibility that the destiny would be more clearly revealed. His desire to

know that clarity sooner than later fought against his usual welcoming of complicated problems. This

time he wanted answers faster than that.

Then one day four years ago, after a busy day and working a couple of hours late, David returned

home where Karen had been already. He opened the front door and discovered the worst scene of his

life. There was Karen lying in a pool of blood in the entry way of their home.

The police were not friendly or helpful, deciding obnoxiously and too slowly that Karen was the

apparent victim of a random home break-in by some unknown assailant. But, they arrived at that

conclusion only after a far too brutal investigation which included the police suspecting he was

somehow involved in her murder. It shook him to his core.

Only now, after four very long years, could David go more than two or three weeks without the return

of the tormenting vision of his discovery of Karen. Only recently did he allow himself the luxury of

not blaming himself for her death. How often did he remind himself that had he not worked the extra

two hours that fateful day, she would still be alive? She had been dead for only about one hour when

he discovered her. It never helped that the killer was still unknown, nor were there any suspects,

however slight. David was especially still deeply troubled that the police once suspected him.

Karen’s parents, living in Europe, came to Austin for the funeral. But, uncharacteristically he thought,

they acted restrained around him. Surely they didn’t suspect he was somehow involved? In any case

and for whatever reasons, knowing that he not only lost Karen, but also essentially any future

significance in his relationship with her parents left him off balance and barely able to cope. It only

added to his own feelings of responsible guilt.


He couldn’t turn to either of his own parents for support. His father died from a heart attack when

David was only twelve years old and his mother died after a long battle with cancer the year before he

entered college. He lived a couple of years with an aunt he never really grew close to, and moved out

to live on his own as soon as he could. So, he had tried, mostly to no avail, to gain some sense of

Karen’s parents as his own surrogate parents.

Two years after Karen’s murder, her mother died, destroying hope of any kind of reconciliation. Sadly,

he even learned of her death only through common friends of Karen who worked at Hunmay. David

believed Karen’s father still held him responsible.

In defense of the little sanity he could manage, David became lost in his work, spending twelve to

fourteen hours every day, including many weekends. He would have remained longer in self-exile had

it not been for the interdiction of Jordan and Charles. Almost one year of self-imposed torture was all

they could tolerate of him. They tired of watching their friend’s slow and painful degeneration. They

forced him to seek professional counseling, which lasted for over two years. Through the process,

David resolved his remorse, while depression gave way slowly to more satisfying daily emotions. He

grew yet closer to Jordan and Charles, about the only two real friends he felt he had.

So, thinking about Janet was a breakthrough, a significant event. It was an important step for him to

remotely consider cultivating another friend like Janet, a woman, allowing for more possibility than

just friendship.

Nevertheless, he still recoiled from such thoughts. History would not quit haunting him. Besides, he

understood the land mines scattered throughout the idea of a boss dating somebody who was their

employee. The biggest save in this case, but a small one at that, was officially he was not Janet’s boss.

He was Anne Kilgore’s boss. She was Janet’s boss. Precious little defense.

So, he sat and stared, frustrated and uncomfortable with the whole line of thinking. Why do people find

some thoughts, even their most secret ones, difficult to face?

It was in David’s favor that naively he had no idea that Janet sensed his interest in her.


Chapter 9

Tuesday morning, Oct 11 – David strolled with papers and coffee in tow from his office toward the

conference room. He was tired from a restless night, not managing very well to shut off thinking about

Karen, his associated involvement with Aldorianism and her subsequent murder. And, Janet. He

welcomed the weekly all hands meeting. It might help him turn attention more to work, to technical

problems, to so many things left to do improving Able.

As he entered the large conference room earlier than others, he looked across the empty room at the

windows on the other side. He dropped his paperwork at the end of the conference table as he moved

closer to the front window. Staring out at nothing in particular, he sipped his coffee and tried to calm

his slight nervousness. He knew his own penchant for finding the problems, for locating the gaps as he

came to call it, acknowledging his own tendency to look for troubles which others would consider too

small to worry over.

After a couple of minutes, he turned from the window and looked across the room. He was startled at

the sight of Janet sitting at the far end of the table, and he almost spilled his coffee.

“Good morning!” she smiled as she spoke.

“I didn’t hear you come in.”

“You seemed preoccupied. So, I said nothing.”

“You’re early.”

“I’m excited about the meeting. Our talk yesterday has me eager to proceed. I worked on some ideas

all day.”

“You ready to discuss them?”

“I think so.”

“Okay.” David reached for a pencil as he leaned over the papers near him. Looking up, he smiled as he

became more aware of how Janet looked. Always dressed professionally, but never fusty, as usual he

liked the way she looked. The smart business-like manner in which she dressed somehow seemed to

emphasize her feminine qualities more in his mind than had she dressed more provocatively. “You

look—nice.” The words spilled out, as if by accident.

“Thank you. So do you.” Janet smiled and responded with a touch of mockery.

David felt his face warming and avoided the feeling. “Is the database getting populated with scans

okay?”


“Yeah. It’s on the new server. We set it up late yesterday.”

Janet was a couple of years younger than David. She had not cultivated her career in a particularly well

planned manner. She had a regular boyfriend during college and started thinking with him that she

wanted marriage and children. So, they married quickly after the two of them graduated together. After

three troubled years of marriage, and with no children, she was happy to separate and divorce, leaving

behind all of the problems. She had come to realize just how much a serious career was more what she

really wanted, something her husband did not like. So, within another two years after her divorce, she

had saved some money, quit her job, took out a few loans, and returned to college to work on a PhD in

computer science. Finishing her graduate work, she and Hunmay found each other. She was hired into

David’s group and had been at it now for nearly two years, finding more than enough challenging and

interesting database problems to solve. She loved it.

David and Janet continued chatting about nothing in particular. A few minutes later, others on the

project started showing up. David waited while team members milled about and settled into chairs

around the large conference table. Strolling over to a small control panel near the front of the room, he

flipped a switch, starting four video recorders mounted in strategic locations. Naturally inhibited by

being watched with electronic eyes and ears, everyone grew silent and focused on him, ready for the

meeting to begin. Without a greeting, he spoke.

“The email yesterday explained the purpose of this meeting. I’ll assume you read it. So you know

about the stone artifacts, the five books, the writing, the drawings, and the events related to their

discovery.”

Scanning the room and each face in it, he spoke without emotion. “This morning we’ll hear status

reports from Charlie, Jordan, and Janet.” He kept his gaze more on Janet than not as he continued with

no hesitation. Then, looking at Anne Kilgore, he said, “Anne, would you meet with me after this?

Yesterday, Janet had some problems with the parameters you and I computed for the resolution

operators. I’d like to look at them again.”

Anne acknowledged the request, and David paused only briefly before saying, “We should not expect

very many technical details at this time. These are overview reports to help everyone get acquainted

with new project directions.” Another short pause. “Charlie.”

David sat in his usual chair as Charles stepped to the front of the room. While he discussed several

points David already knew about, he again looked at Janet. She paid attention to Charles’ comments,

and while taking some notes, she didn’t notice David’s scrutiny. Repeating what was becoming more

frequent, he studied the soft lines of her face. He watched her eyes. The dark brown color couldn’t hide

the interest she showed as her focus changed frequently from Charles to the marks he made on a

nearby whiteboard. David caught himself thinking how he would like to be sitting closer to her.

“I’m also growing suspicious that the books have been written by more than one person.” Charles’

voice interrupted him, as he realized he was hearing something new. He looked away from Janet.

Charles continued. “I’ve only had a few hours to examine the writing, but there are numerous shifts

throughout the text. Some of them are subtle, but also some of them are quite pronounced.”


David straightened as he became more interested. He interrupted, “Multiple authors? Are there

different styles of hand writing?”

“Well, yes. But, there’s more to it than that. It’s a bit difficult to describe. A lot easier to show you.

Look at this.” Charles moved toward the computer at the front of the room with a large monitor

attached. He turned on the power and continued his discussion while the system booted. “It looks to

me like the authors were continuing to modify their language as they used it. And, as they made

grammar modifications, they adopted the changes and used them immediately. Also, each apparent

change in the language seems to be accompanied with a change of author.”

Charles looked at the monitor and reached for the system keyboard. He logged in and brought up a

display of scanned images. “Let’s see now,” he spoke as he navigated through several images before

stopping on one. “Yeah, here’s an example.” Pointing to the monitor, he explained, “Compare this

paragraph with the one before it. You can see fairly easily what I mean here. This is one place where

the shift is really quite clear.” He asked nobody in particular, “Can you see it?”

David said, “You’re right! That does look like two different hand writings. But, I’m not sure I see what

you mean by the change in language or grammar you describe.”

“Well,” Charles yielded, “that’s probably easier for a linguist to see. Right, Cheryl?”

“That’s probably true.” Cheryl Davis confirmed the suggestion. “But, the change really is dramatic

here, David. As Charles noted, there are other places where it occurs, but typically it’s a lot less

obvious.” She added, “And, I agree that it looks like with each language modification we’ve observed

so far, a different author seems to take over.”

“Huh!” David grunted. “So, how many people do you think wrote this stuff?”

Charles answered. “Well, sometimes it looks like a previous author returns to writing. But, sometimes

a new one. My initial guess is that quite a few people wrote these books. Maybe more than ten. But,

we’ll need a handwriting expert to verify that more carefully.” Charles waited for his comments to take

effect before going on. “Maybe these books are some kind of journal about the common interests of

these authors, or the lives they lived. Perhaps together. Like in a commune.”

Charles actually wanted to say, “Like those in a brotherhood,” but he refrained. He continued, “Of

course, we’ll surely know after we translate the books.” He turned toward David. “And, here’s the

kicker, of course. These shifts in language structure or definition are going to make things more

difficult. On the other hand, it remains a good bet that the drawings of plants with labels in the fifth

book will be a positive factor in facilitating the translations.”

David understood. “Like translating several languages.”

“Yeah, sort of. By the way, it is well known that while the people who lived at the Alamard site

certainly had a spoken language, there is no evidence they had any written form. The Indians who

lived there did not write these books.”


David said, “I don’t think there are any hand writing experts at ICI.” Then he asked, “Can you find out,

and in any case, locate one? I’d really like to get a decent sense of the number of people who may have

written these books.”

Charles shook his head in agreement without comment.

The room remained quiet. Everyone stared at the display. After several seconds, Charles broke the

silence, “Well, that’s about all I have at this time.”

“Okay,” David responded. “Thanks.” Charles sat down.

David continued. “Well, it is a nice coincidence that we have recently been developing additional

language processing and translation modules in Able.” Coincidence? It wasn’t his idea to do this, but

he couldn’t recall exactly how it came about. It didn’t seem relevant at the time. It did, however, start

to feel like more than a mere coincidence to him. He couldn’t really bring out what actually bothered

him about it. He just felt this barely noticeable uneasiness about the whole business.

He forced his thoughts back into the room. “Jordan, what have you got?”

Remaining in his chair, Jordan began his report. “I’ve been examining the stones and, with Antonio

and Stewart, we’ve also been looking at the drawings of the plants in the fifth book.”

He looked up from his notes at nobody in particular, and then returned to them. “Antonio seems to

have the most knowledge about those plants. But, we agreed we’re in need of a botanist to tell us

anything more useful. Barbara, who’s that guy you know?”

She answered, “Um, Shelby Hartman.”

“Yeah, him. I’ll give him a call.” He wrote the name on his notes, and continued. “We have made

some progress at examining the stones. There’s little doubt, they were not carved by some crude

manual technique. It is certain they were machined with precision. This clearly indicates technology no

more than one hundred twenty years old. And, more likely, judging from the quality of construction,

especially with the etched symbols, they must be less than fifty or sixty.”

Jordan paused for emphasis before continuing. Shaking his head slowly from side to side, he said, “But,

here’s the rub. The preliminary soil dating results came out last night. They indicate the stones and box

were buried for at least a couple of hundred years, maybe much longer.”

The room was silent. Nobody misunderstood the contradiction.

“What possible errors are there?” David asked. He really didn’t know what to think about this. He

looked at Charles, somehow searching for a reaction by him. He saw nothing that helped. The reality

of the situation told him this was a hoax of some kind. So, why pursue it? Why, except for one detail.

If Charles and Jordan were still showing interest, he had to accept the apparent implication that this

was something which had value and meaning regarding the silent agenda. There were times, and this


was one of them, when he had to avoid the urge to rebel against his loyalty to this Aldorian business. It

was Karen’s legacy which kept him involved with it.

Jordan answered. “So far the primary test used in this case was crude examination of microfossils, uh,

grains and spores, and tiny bug skeletons, what few there are. Things like that. So, there is room for

significant error. There are better tests to be done, but which take longer. I think also more elaborate

direct testing of the stones are called for. I’m thinking microscopic electronic scanning. So, I’ve

scheduled time for that. Unfortunately, available time is not until next week.”

Jordan looked at David. “I don’t really have much else to report at this time. Most of my progress

cannot begin until next week. I can, however, contact this botanist—um,” looking at his notes, he

continued, “Shelby Hartman right away and see if he’s available.”

“Okay, Jordan,” David said. “Thanks. Janet, your turn.” He continued to stare at her as she began her

discussion. With more technical detail than Charles or Jordan, she explained to the room how the scans

database was structured and how it could be accessed and searched effectively. She continued on with

a presentation of the new ideas she had. David had a good idea of what she was talking about from

yesterday’s meeting. It gave him an easy excuse to look at her. He paid little attention to her words and

much more to her lips. And, he seldom looked at others as they conversed with her from time to time.

After a few minutes, she finished.

“That’s it for now.” She erased the whiteboard and returned to her chair.

The meeting was coming to an end, but David first suggested, “I think the paper in the books should be

tested chemically. And, the ink. The results will surely be useful information, like where the paper was

manufactured. Paper makers often leave chemical signatures that identify them due to special

processing. The same is true with the ink. Of course, the problem here is that both kinds of testing are

invasive. It’ll mean destruction, however minute, of some of the book’s material. Jordan, would you

pursue this? Before anything is actually done, I’d like to know what destruction there would be.”

“Okay.”

He added, “And, as long as we’re considering some destruction of the paper, why not also find out

how much would be needed for radiocarbon testing? Paper is organic, isn’t it?”

“You really can’t carbon date paper successfully. You really need things which are at least three

hundred years old or more.”

“Well, that’s too bad.” David concluded, “So, I guess that’s all for now. Thanks.” People stood and

began walking out as he moved to the front of the room to switch off the video recorders and shut

down the presentation computer. He took a last look at Janet as she left.


Chapter 10

Returning to his office after the all hands meeting, David stopped by Jessie Monroe’s desk. “I’m

expecting Anne Kilgore in a few minutes. Please, just send her on in.”

“No problem,” Jessie said. “I saw J. P. wandering the hall just a few minutes ago. I asked him if he

wanted to see you, but he said he didn’t. He was waiting for Charles to come out of the meeting.”

“So, he got back from Europe earlier today than I thought he would.”

“Must be tough, all that world traveling.”

“It’s probably a lot more tedious than you think. Most of the time he’s on a business call. Not so much

fun. Charles told me yesterday this was an especially important trip.”

“I wonder what that’s about.”

“Charles indicated that J. P. wants to open a branch office for Hunmay over there. Maybe it’s about to

happen.” Before Jessie had a chance to comment, David added, “And no, Jess, you cannot transfer. I

need you here.”

“Oh, you’d do just fine without me.”

As David turned toward his office door, he shot back, “Don’t even think about it!”

David knew since he was in graduate school that Charles and J. P. were good friends and it was not

unusual for J. P. to visit Charles at work. David also knew that both men were in The League, and it

was surely through it which lead to their friendship. He didn’t know a lot about The League itself

beyond what little he could still remember from Karen’s involvement. Even that little knowledge was

growing faint. Now he felt regret for not learning more about her greater than passing interest in

Aldorianism. He did know that Karen and others in The League were basically the policy makers, and

whenever everyday issues could affect Aldorians, members of The League typically were available to

help in any way they could.

He felt a surge of sadness pass through him recognizing the discovery of the books seemed to suggest a

breakthrough for Aldorians. The discovery promised to explain much. Perhaps everything. But Karen

was not here to celebrate the moment. She would have been all excited to be involved in learning more.

She was not an Aldorian zealot, but she always took her association with Aldorianism seriously. That

was her near passion, and she lived with that energy through her involvement in The League.

If anything could be fairly compared with any well known religion, members of The League were not

unlike church officials. But, Aldorians had no physical church, nor even any regularly scheduled

congregations. Aldorianism was not a religion despite what so many outsiders thoughts. So League


members played more the role of interpreters and guides for others learning about Aldorian philosophy.

It was through Karen’s guidance that David had learned about and willingly embraced Aldorianism.

David used to joke with Karen that he no doubt enjoyed an advantage being married to an Aldorian

police woman. Karen would laugh with him over that, but she never really offered anything which felt

like some kind of insider perk.

Whenever David wanted to know more about Aldorianism or consider how well his own feelings

meshed with it, Karen was the one he could ask. Karen was the one who answered every question he

had. Knowing that Charles and J. P. were in The League never motivated him to approach either of

them with questions. New questions since Karen’s death had not occurred. He hadn’t lost interest, it

was more a matter of treading in place. He had grown complacent with his Aldorian status, and never

gave it much new thought. Not until now.

Virtually every religion which David knew anything about included sets of rules, accompanied with

rewards and punishments which would somehow be doled out to each individual as they lived each day,

by obeying the rules or breaking them. Different religions came with different sets of rules, rewards,

and punishments. David thought how all of that seemed to have little relevance to most people he knew,

including the so-called faithful. He understood that typically the rules were discussed once a week,

usually in a lecture from a preacher or cleric of some kind, and then largely were ignored by the

congregation the rest of the time. More than once he wondered what was the real point. It was a

general characteristic of religions which was off putting to David. Lots of rules, he thought, which had

little or nothing to do with everyday living.

David’s thoughts then turned toward Janet. What did she know about Aldorians? Of course, he knew

she was aware of the word, aware of his involvement. He expected nobody at Hunmay was without

some knowledge of all that. But, he wondered, how did she feel about it? What did she think? For that

matter, what did she believe? If he were to allow himself to reach out to her more than he had, he

understood he should know more about these things. He knew there were loads of questions he had

about her. He realized how little he really knew about her. How little must she know about him?

He knew he should somehow bring up these issues with her. But, should he just talk philosophy? How

would that play out? He almost never discussed any such more personal items with her, or with

anybody at work for that matter. Why would he start now? How could he talk about these things with

her without revealing that he had more than a passing interest in her? Maybe he should just tell her up

front he was interested in her. Here he was once again finding the gaps, looking for the unsolved

problems.

With a gentle knock on the door as she opened it, Anne Kilgore brought David out of his day dreaming.

It was time for the two of them to look into the technical problems Janet was having. David was happy

for this meeting. It was precisely the kind of work which made him the happiest. He appreciated the

specific problem Janet was having and knew that most of the rest of the day would be spent with Anne

constructing a solution.


Chapter 11

Tuesday evening, Oct 11 - The day at work passed more quickly than he thought it might, given his

inability to concentrate a lot. It had helped that most of the day he worked with Anne Kilgore helping

to fix Janet’s problem. It meant he was barely alone for the day, preventing him from day dreaming

more about those things over which he remained mostly uncomfortable. But, now he was home alone

and without any useful distraction from his thoughts.

Only temporarily alone, however. He was waiting for the arrival of J. P., who called earlier and would

be dropping by. The visit was certainly unexpected, but not all so unusual. J. P. had visited David’s

home many times. They were not close friends, but they did share several common interests, not only

with Hunmay projects, but with their involvement in Aldorianism. It was not only Karen who

influenced him to participate, for it might not have come about without support also from J. P. and

Charles Candrill.

So, David waited. Sitting in one of his favorite places, he looked along his living room couch, trying to

imagine an image of Karen beside him. He thought of how often the two spent evenings here, sharing

familiar times with nobody else. He envisioned her lying back on the couch, as he slowly caressed her

feet and calves. Saddened, he realized how his imagination was continuing to grow weaker with each

passing day. He could no longer sense that he actually felt her skin as he once could. Time and his

acceptance of her death was working to distance him from what had been.

The doorbell startled him and shut off all thoughts of Karen. He stood and crossed the room. Opening

the front door, he stepped back.

“Good evening, David.” J. P. stepped in, passing David with hardly a look as he moved out of the entry

way into the living room. Closing the door, David followed as J.P. continued, “I’m glad you were here

when I called. This is convenient.” He turned and faced David. “I won’t keep you long. I’m on my way

to the Lurline.” referring to his private jet named after his mother. “I have some business in Kentucky

tomorrow, but I had to stop by here first. I prefer talking to you directly rather than by phone.”

Had to stop by? Kentucky? David wondered. Instead he said, “Please, have a seat.”

Without a word, J. P. sat on the couch where David had been. David sat at the other end where Karen

nearly always sat or reclined. He waited for J. P. to continue. He knew this would proceed at J. P.’s

pace. So, he waited.

J. P. was born in Germany with the name Karlton Hahn shortly after the end of World War II,

changing his name to John Paul Huntington after he migrated to the United States while still a young

man. Before that, life was difficult in postwar Germany for Karlton and his family as they struggled to

survive. His parents provided as much support as possible, vowing a more peaceful and happier life

than the ones they had suffered through for so many years before and during the war.


Nevertheless, post war Germany suffered during reconstruction. Too many missing infrastructures, too

many corrupt and black markets, too many rigid controls from Allied ruling forces, especially in the

Soviet Union occupied territory, where Karlton and his family lived. It didn’t help that Germany was

split into three occupation zones.

Even as a very young man, Karlton exhibited insightful understanding of successful business ventures.

But, it was just too difficult to have much success in Soviet controlled German territory. He struggled

with one failed business venture after the next, eventually realizing his future would be more certain if

he left his homeland and the stifling controls of the Soviets. After the death of both of his parents, he

came to the United States and a brighter future while still a relatively young man.

Karlton was determined to fit strongly into American society, eventually even legally changing his

name to John Paul Huntington for reasons nobody really knew. Settling in the Texas hill country near

Austin, he didn’t take long to make friends with business men in the oil and microelectronics industries.

He invested wisely based on knowledge he gained from his business acquaintances, and he grew

wealthy in the process.

Early in his new Texas world, J. P. met and quickly became close friends with Joshua Mayfield, who

grew up in England, also coming to the United States as a young man. Together, J. P. and Joshua

partnered in several successful business ventures, continuing to make both of them even more wealthy.

In a moment, J. P. finally asked, “You’ve never been to Europe, have you?”

David was hardly expecting idle chit-chat. “No.”

“You must go someday. It is rich with history. More than anything you can possibly find here. And,

you will find answers there, David. Answers to your questions.”

David squinted at him. What the hell was he getting at? Surely this wasn’t just a friendly visit.

After another pause as David studied J. P.’s face, J. P. said, “Karen’s loss was our loss. For all of us.

There were expectations.” J.P. leaned forward as he looked more intently at David. “But, perhaps it is

time for that to change.”

Now David was more than confused. He was surprised at comments about Karen, and he grew

impatient, desiring more clarity. “J.P., I—What—”

J.P. interrupted. He was not looking for a response. “Have you heard of Situs 22?”

David blinked as his eyes scanned the air. “Yeah, I think. Some old story from the brotherhood.”

David knew that J.P. was one of only a few participants in The League who were called Keepers. They

were typically older members who had spent serious time in The League and who possessed, and kept

deeper and uncommon knowledge about the Aldorian brotherhood and its history.

“That’s right. Not talked about much anymore, and nowadays mostly forgotten. Only a few of us know

much about it.”


J.P. leaned back. “You will find few people who know some of what I must tell you now. Charlie

knows, but nobody else close to you. And, he will tell you more tomorrow.”

David understood the implication regarding what he was about to hear. He should keep it to himself.

But, what did he mean by he “must” be told? What was going on?

“The word situs is Latin I think and means place or location.” David knew this, but didn’t say anything.

J. P. continued. “At the risk of telling you some things you know already—maybe Karen told you these

things—the phrase Situs 22 is a very old part of Aldorian history.”

Now J. P. was going to give him a history lesson? This was all confusing and wearing on David’s

patience. But, he fought the urge to interrupt or protest and listened as J. P. noted that the meaning of

the phrase and the details surrounding it had become clouded by time. He explained that by these

modern times, the story related to Situs 22 had been passed from generation to generation, through

countless repetitions, until it had surely become changed and modified as any story changes in detail

with time with each telling of it.

“Basically few today understand what Situs 22 means really, or about what it refers to exactly. But, of

course you know of the ancient story that Aldorianism was founded by three families. And, perhaps

you have known about how those families were somehow associated with Situs 22, whatever the hell it

really is.” J. P. sounded more relaxed but focused as he continued, and it helped David to grow calmer

as he listened to what J. P. had to say. He was giving up on the idea of saying anything.

“It isn’t clear where these three families lived, or when or why they started Aldorianism. But, my trip

last week to Europe clarified some things in my own mind about this, and it is important that you now

learn about some of these things. One interpretation of Situs 22 is an old reference to places or areas

originally inhabited by the three families. And, during this trip, I confirmed what we suspected was

true, that the Kentucky site is one of those places. There is much of the history of Aldorianism in

Europe which is more robust than we have here. We learned details from the Europeans we did not

have. They believed for some time now that we would find evidence of original family members living

in or around Alamard. The stones and books support that information, and thus, our expectations.”

“So, David, this is a significant time. This may yield real insight regarding the message, the message

we Aldorians have been seeking for so many years.” J. P. looked more directly at David. “But, you

must know that there are forces against us. From other Aldorians. New problems have surfaced and

I’m on my way to try to deal with them. A lot more will soon rest with you, David. You will be asked

to help in new ways which I trust you will be willing to accept. Again, Charles will explain the details.

Go talk with him. Consider what he tells you. You must understand that you are under no obligation to

get more involved. Nobody will fault you. You know that. You learned that from Karen.”

Of course, David knew J. P. was referring to deeply fundamental Aldorian canons. Guilt, obligation,

and force were not words or energies which existed in Aldorianism. In Aldorianism, free will really

meant free will. No rules. No punishments. Maybe even no rewards.


J. P. acted as if he were finishing his short visit. “We are confident that the books found are what we

have been seeking for all of these years. This is a turning point in Aldorian history, and you can be a

part of it. I can’t stay any longer. Charles knows I am talking with you this evening, and he is not only

prepared to answer any questions you surely have, but he also has my full permission to take the next

steps we think are necessary to affirm our destiny. You should talk with him tomorrow. Then, take all

the time you need to decide what you want to do next.”

David was at a complete loss for what to say, or even how to react or feel. He was not only confused,

but frustrated. If this was a crowning moment in Aldorian history, why didn’t he feel more jubilant

about it? Why had J. P. sounded cautious? Even incomplete with what he knew? And, what would

Charles ask him to do? Why might he be disinclined to do whatever it was? He knew he couldn’t get

answers or details from him. He would have to talk to Charles. So much for finding fast answers.

J. P. left as quickly as he entered. He had given David no answers, only puzzles. Only cryptic

statements. He would just have to wait and talk with Charles the next day.


Chapter 12

Wednesday morning, Oct 12 - Charles looked up at his open office door as David stepped in. He

closed the door behind him and sat in front of Charles’ desk. Recognizing the look on David’s face,

Charles said, “So, got a few questions?”

“No,” David mocked, “Nothing.”

“Well, don’t worry.”

David wasn’t worried. He knew Charles long enough, for almost twenty years. He trusted he would

leave the room informed, just the opposite he thought from how J. P. typically gave out information.

David thought of so many things he wanted to know. J. P. did have a talent for generating curiosity.

Maybe that was not so much by accident.

“First, you should know that The League is meeting this weekend. Actually, starting Friday morning.”

“That’s sooner than usual.”

“It is.” Charles answered. “And, it’s why we are here now.”

Like any well defined organization, Hunmay had a formal declaration of its reasons to exist. A charter.

And, like with almost every organization, very few people ever read it. Most had no idea even where to

find a copy of it. A few didn’t even know such a thing existed. That was not the case at Hunmay.

Whenever any person was promoted to a management position at Hunmay, they met first with a

Hunmay employee who was also a member of The League and who discussed the charter with the

candidate for promotion. It was pointed out that the charter clearly stated that The League was the

official owner of Hunmay. It was also pointed out that The League had all rights to any Hunmay

intellectual property. This was not a surprise to anybody.

When David was first promoted years before, he met with Charles. He was reminded that whenever

The League met, fairly regularly once each quarter, it was standard procedure to then deliver to them a

copy of the latest safe backup of all intellectual property which existed throughout Hunmay. An extra

copy was no problem; regular backups were done anyway for offsite storage in fire safes; duplicating

the backup was easy enough.

In David’s group usually somebody besides him delivered The League’s copy to Charles. Only

occasionally he delivered it himself. With The League about to have a meeting, even one not regularly

scheduled, he knew a backup copy had to be created. It was not a difficult job, but it was tedious, and it

took a little planning, plus time and effort by somebody in his group. So, he started thinking about who

he would assign the job.

Charles solved the problem for him. “I’d like you to deliver the backup copy this time.”


David blinked. Why did it matter who did it? “Me?”

“Yes. That’s because I’d like you not to give it to me, but instead deliver it in person to The League at

the start of their meeting.”

David didn’t see that coming. It was a complete surprise. Now Charles had his full attention.

“Of course, this means we are inviting you to join The League.”

“Wow!” David said. He didn’t know what else to say. In recent days he had even thought about how

little he felt involved with Aldorianism. Certainly he had no thoughts of abandoning it, but he certainly

hadn’t felt much energy about it either.

“Think about it. You know you have no obligations here. You can decline the invitation if you want to,

and that will have no bearing on your status. It won’t even affect any future opportunities. If you do

decide to decline, then just give me the backup copy. But, time is pressing, and you must understand

that you have to decide before Friday. One way or the other, we must proceed. There are pressing

issues.” Charles stopped and waited. The invitation alone was a lot to absorb. He had more to tell

David, but one thing at a time.

David struggled with the thought. It was so unexpected, he had to get past his first emotions of surprise,

excitement, flattery, and curiosity. Trying to ground himself and regain his balance, he avoided

thinking about the invitation for a moment, “I assume you will want a complete copy of the scans

database. Scanning should be completed by tomorrow morning, but the indexes might not be all in

place until later. Probably too late.”

Charles assured him, “It’s not a problem if some of that is missing. The raw scans only will be more

than enough.” He knew David was processing the invitation. Trying to help him deal with the idea, he

added more information. “Some members felt it was too soon, preferring to wait another year or so.

But, everyone has learned what is going on, and have virtually all agreed that now is an appropriate

time instead. Whether you accept the invitation or not, you should know what is happening and why

The League is meeting earlier than usual.”

David wasn’t sure what to say, but he realized also that Charles wasn’t expecting a response right now.

It could wait. David regained enough composure so he was ready to hear about why The League was

meeting so quickly, and what the other news was which motivated J. P. to visit him last night. He

thought the invitation alone was not enough to prompt all of this. There was more going on and he was

interested in learning about it. “I’ll think about it and respond in time. But, you have more.”

“Yes, more. Let me start by showing you a very nice thing. Yesterday J. P. gave this to me. He got it in

Europe.” Charles opened a desk drawer and pulled out a clear plastic bag, handing it over to David.

David took the bag. He could see there were inside a few sheets of paper. However, each sheet was

only partly there, instead each was partly burned and destroyed. But, what remained was immediately

recognizable. The unburned parts of the pages were covered with dark blue cursive writing.


“The books!”

“The books.” Charles echoed. “There is another set of books in Europe like the ones we found in

Kentucky. We can talk about the bad shape these pages are in later.” As David continued looking at the

burned pages, Charles continued. “If you join The League, you will learn some other related

information.” Now Charles was appealing to David’s natural curiosity. It was a carrot, enticing him to

be more inclined to accept the invitation.

David wasn’t concerned that J. P. handed the burned pages over to Charles rather than to him. He

appreciated that this was significantly more an Aldorian issue than not, and with Charles and J. P.

being friends and both members of The League, it made enough sense to him.

“This is all happening a bit sooner than any of us expected. The good news is about the pages you hold.

Unfortunately, there is also some bad news. And, that is why we are meeting sooner than usual.”

David looked up from the burned pages. “Why is there always bad news?” he said softly.

“J. P. went to Kentucky last night in order to be in court today. We have learned that somebody in

Kentucky is filing a formal injunction against us. It looks like they want the books and stones returned

back home.”

“What the hell!”

“I know, I know.” Charles assured. “We have agreements with Kentucky to remove artifacts from

Alamard and bring them here. But, they—somebody—is behaving badly. J. P. is trying to get a jump

on the whole business by being there now. He’s trying to find out who specifically is actually behind

this and why. Of course, we have our suspicions.”

Both men knew what was going on. It was about history. History that few Aldorians did not know.

Generally, Aldorians didn’t say much in public about Aldorianism. It was more than tradition, it was

an integral part of Aldorian philosophy. But, modern times were changing that. With each passing day,

growing numbers of Aldorians, especially in the United States wanted to go public and volunteer full

disclosure. The majority of Aldorians, however, and especially those in Europe, wanted to remain

mostly quiet. It had become more than a dinner table topic of discussion. Passions were running deep,

and zealousness had taken hold in some cases. But, those who wished to go public first wanted more

facts to demonstrate. There was hope by Charles and J. P., and to some extent by David, that the Books

would provide some of those facts.

It was commonly known that some Aldorians in Kentucky were not in favor of going public. An

attempt to gain control of the books and stones was clearly an attempt to hide them from possible

public view.

“Just to play it safe, The League wants to make sure that at least we have a copy of the books before

the court ruling. The scans. If you decide to accept our invitation, you should attend The League

meeting starting Friday morning and deliver the copy then. If not, just give me the copy.” Charles


paused briefly and then changed the subject. “David, let’s back up a bit. There are other things I should

tell you.”

David realized also there was little either man sitting in this room could do right then about what was

happening in Kentucky. “Sure, go ahead.”

“First, let me ask you not to mention to anybody our meeting this weekend earlier than usual. Lots of

people know when we are having our usual quarterly meetings. But, we would like to remain

considerably more discreet regarding this time. And for now, do not tell anybody here about these

burned pages. If you join us and go Friday, please tell others, if you have to say anything, that you are

just taking the day off for personal reasons, or whatever. And, we are especially interested in others not

knowing quite yet that you have become more involved.”

That was a little strange, David thought. The League and its meetings are never a big secret. And, why

would it matter for others to know he joined them? He was willing to wait and hear more. So, he said

nothing.

Charles thought about what to say next. “J. P. visited you last night to emphasize not only the

significance of what is happening, but to get a feeling about you. He wanted to just see you in person

and observe what you did or said. If he left you last night with uneasy feelings, he would have

instructed me this morning to tell you still about those pages,” he pointed toward the plastic bag as he

spoke, “but not to offer the invitation just yet. Clearly that didn’t happen. J. P. came away feeling

about you what he has felt for a long time. So, the invitation has been offered.”

David still had little reaction and waited for more.

Charles continued. “I suspect you don’t really know much about The League, nor have you given it

much notice. You’ve certainly had more important things to deal with.” He made this comment to

reflect his understanding of how Karen’s death and the subsequent time following would have mostly

occupied David’s thoughts and energy. There was no reason David would have cared or thought much

about The League during the last few years. “So, I should tell you the basic reasons The League exists.

Maybe that will help you decide whether or not you want to participate.”

Without much pause, Charles began to explain. “It is not the job of The League to define Aldorianism,

or even modify what it has to say to individual Aldorians. Or to anybody else for that matter. The

League exists for reasons which have virtually nothing to do with the definition of Aldorian

philosophy. It exists mostly for two reasons, both of which I’m sure you know already, but I want to

verify.”

“Of course, you know one reason, as do all Aldorians. If you have a question, a problem, or any issue

regarding Aldorianism and you need help sorting out those issues, you know you can ask anybody in

The League and receive interpretation or other help.”

“But, the other reason The League exists isn’t so widely advertized, and you may be only vaguely

aware of it. Not because it is a secret. Anybody who asks would be told. But, it’s not about Aldorian


philosophy or understanding it. So, it doesn’t come up very much. The League consists of Aldorians

who want to know more about Aldorian history than just knowledge of our philosophy. We want a far

better understanding of where we came from and why Aldorianism even exists. Who started this?”

“David, you know as well as I do that objective truth is our great focus. But, how did that come about?

That’s what The League wants to know. Other philosophies or religions mostly came into existence out

of passions. Typically out of zealousness by people which was a defense against threats to their well

being. Even threats of them staying alive.”

“If Aldorianism is all about objective truth, then the hope is Aldorianism came about not because of

the typical volatile history associated with others. We would like to know that we exist instead because

the founders wanted something less emotional. They wanted something more logical, more positive

and objective in its approach and foundation.”

While David did know a little about these things, he certainly had not given any of it a lot of thought.

But, he knew enough of what Charles was saying so now he was beginning to grow a little impatient.

Charles wasn’t saying much of anything which addressed his concerns. He was still willing to wait,

however, for whatever Charles had to say next.

“If you accept our invitation to participate, you will be a part of trying to learn our background. You

will become involved in discovering our history. We don’t define our philosophy. That’s what some

think we do. We are historians, not clerics.”

“I won’t tell you much more than that now. But, because The League is not about Aldorian philosophy,

there’s no real reason any time beyond curiosity to tell you more. Of course, I’ll answer any questions

you have now. But, I trust you can wait and find out all about us when you meet with us this weekend.

If you join us, you will meet with others on Friday. There are a lot of things to discuss with you. I will

not be there on Friday. I set up a meeting here on Friday with a hand writing expert. But, I’ll be there

Saturday and talk with you, answering any questions then you still have.”

Charles seemed as if he was already coming to the end of what he had to say and he hadn’t told him

anything which satisfied his curiosity over things J. P. said last night. He was being almost as

uninformative as J. P. He would have to ask. “J. P. mentioned Situs 22 last night.”

“Yeah, that’s J. P. You know as well as I how he likes to speak in riddles. I assume he tied the old

Situs 22 term to Kentucky. He was enticing you to be more curious.”

“Okay, maybe that worked a little. I am curious some. But, what I’m a whole lot more curious about is

he also said something weird about Karen which I really noticed. He said there were expectations and

it was time for a change. What did he mean? What does Karen have to do with this now?”

“Damn it!” Charles thought. He really wished J. P. hadn’t said that. He knew it would come up during

the meeting of The League, and only then if David decided to join them. He considered how little he

might say now. He really wanted all of this to still wait until the meeting. “As a member of The League,

you recall how much she was involved. And we all were aware of your ongoing and increasing interest


in Aldorianism. Karen would tell us about it during League meetings.” He felt a sudden surge of

reticence to continue. He really didn’t want to get into this now. Not here.

Charles stopped and leaned forward. “David, please join us. Please be willing to wait until the meeting

to discuss this. Trust me, my friend, you will learn everything I know. But, this is really not a good

place to get into it.”

“This is not at all what I thought you would tell me. I don’t know what it would be, but certainly I

didn’t expect for it to go this way. You’re telling me that you, all of you, know things about Karen that

I don’t know. How the hell am I supposed to deal with that?”

“About as roughly as I think you are. Look, I’m disappointed that J. P. said anything about Karen. I

suppose he thought it would be an even better motivation. But, if you can find your way somehow to

be willing to wait until this weekend, you will not only learn what you want to know, but it will

become clear why it is better to discuss it then. Not now.” Charles lowered his voice some in an

attempt to sound more trustful. “Join us, David. Come to the meeting. Let us tell you then. Can you

wait?” He stared intently at David.

David looked back at Charles’ face and into his eyes. He had known this face for two decades. He had

come to trust his intentions, his endless support for him. He never forgot how often Charles went to bat

for him. He was more than a supporter, more than a mentor. He was a real friend. Slowly he lowered

his shoulders. “Okay.”

Charles quickly emphasized his promise again. “You won’t be disappointed.”

“I’m trusting you, Charlie.”

“I know. I won’t let you down.” He waited.

Several seconds passed, and finally David turned his thoughts back to here and now. “So, I guess I

have work to do.” David stood. He wasn’t satisfied in any way he figured he might be from this talk.

But, he still wanted to consider the invitation. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t respond now; he

just knew he wanted some time to think about it. He knew if he insisted, he could ask now for all the

information about Karen he wanted without joining The League. But, he was willing to wait another

day before asking. Without saying anything else, David turned and left.


Chapter 13

Thursday morning, Oct 13 - David sat in his office drinking coffee and working through emails as he

tried to wake up more. He had not slept well last night, following a long and mostly unproductive day.

The meeting with Charles continued to disturb him. It had not gone well he felt, and certainly he

learned almost nothing new. It was annoying him while also challenging his curiosity. Why did The

League have information about Karen he didn’t know? Why did it matter? Why was he only now

learning of these issues, not having known about them all along?

Maybe he should not join The League and ask Charles for an explanation anyway. Why would he want

to join now? Or, ever? If they have been withholding information about his wife all this time, why

would he want to be more involved with them? How could they do this to him?

How in the hell could anything about Karen possibly matter to The League now?

“Damn it!” David blurted out. This was really getting to him. This weird mixture of curiosity and

annoyance was not allowing him to do anything. He could not concentrate. Struggling to respond to an

email, he leaned toward his computer monitor more in an effort to shut out his surroundings as if that

was where the disturbance existed. As if it were not in his mind. Just then the phone rang, making him

jump back.

He knew from the ring tone that the call was from another department at Hunmay. He took a deep

breath and reached for the phone. “This is David Allen.”

“David, this is Betty in legal, calling for Mr. Morrow. He’s in a meeting right now, but asked if you’re

available at ten o’clock to meet with him.”

“Did he say what the meeting was about?” He knew it had to be about the court hearing in Kentucky.

He expected he would not be getting this call had it gone well for J. P.

“No sir, but he did indicate it was important, and if you weren’t available this morning, then as soon as

possible today. I apologize for such short notice.”

“No, it’s not a problem. I’ll be there at ten.”

“Thank you. I’ll let him know.”

Glancing at his watch, it was closer to ten than he realized. He considered that he had already pissed

off much of the morning thinking about the meeting with Charles. He tried once again to deal with

some current pressing emails.


A few minutes before ten, David crossed the Hunmay campus and entered the administration building.

He took an elevator to the legal department, and pushed through the glass door. “Hi, Betty. Is he

ready?”

“Yes, sir. Please, go on back.”

Down a short hall, David stepped through the open door into Wade Morrow’s office. Wade stood and

smiled, offering his hand. “David, thanks for making it. Again, my apologies for such immediacy.”

Tilting his head toward another person in the room, he continued, “Of course, you know Robert.”

“Sure. I haven’t seen you in awhile.” David said as he shook his hand.

Another minute of pleasantries, then all three settled into chairs.

“David, you know Hunter Leach, don’t you?” Wade asked.

Hunter Leach? Of course! David immediately realized. “Yes. I’ve known him professionally for

several years. He’s now in the linguistics department at Kentucky.”

“That’s right. Early this morning we received notification from lawyers in Kentucky who co-represent

the University and the Kentucky State Board of Antiquities. Yesterday they gained a court ordered

injunction requesting a hearing with arbitrators from the antiquities board regarding some artifacts

members of your team found at the Alamard dig.”

David raised his eyebrows and widened his gaze, trying to conceal any hints that he already understood

what was happening.

Wade continued, “The injunction was filed on behalf of Dr. Leach and the state board Tuesday

morning. It seems they are requesting the return of the artifacts to the state of Kentucky, and to Dr.

Leach in particular. The injunction itself does not require returning the artifacts yet, only that they

remain here, but locked up for the time being until a hearing with the state board for final disposition is

held on Monday morning.”

Wade added, “David, the injunction is quite specific. People on your project should cease direct

contact with the artifacts. You must lock the books and rocks in a vault.”

David held back any question. He understood and softly commented, “Hunter has always been

competitive, but this is too much.”

“You’ve had other incidents with Dr. Leach?” Robert asked.

David looked over at him. “Yes, but not like this.” David paused. “You might say he’s been a friendly

rival over the years.”

“Actually, you know him fairly well, don’t you?”

“I suppose you could say that. He used to work here.”


Wade responded, “I remember that. If you have the time, we have several things to talk with you about

him. We would like to know more.”

“Yes,” David said, “I can stay.”

“Thank you,” Wade said. “A friendly rival. How do you mean?”

“He and I were both candidates to manage the Alamard project. I got the job and he wasn’t all that

happy about it. Eventually, he left Hunmay, taking the position he now has in Kentucky.”

“So, you haven’t really heard much about him since then?”

“No. That hasn’t been the case. He often gets involved over our work at Alamard. He has tried in

various ways to challenge our being there.”

“It looks like this is the first time he has tried this legal recourse.” Robert said. “So, in what other ways

has he challenged you?”

“Academically. He has friends on editorial boards, and they often require more work from us on

submitted journal papers before allowing publication. Sometimes they reject our papers outright.”

David believed the real reason was suppression of information, an attempt to hold back Aldorians who

wished to go public.

Wade asked in a more subdued manner, “Is this part of the Aldorian tell-don’t-tell business?”

David knew Wade was not Aldorian, but certainly as a lawyer for Hunmay, it would have been

unexpected for him not to know anything about what was going on. He figured that Wade might even

know more about it than he did. Briefly, he wondered what he might know about Karen. He brushed

aside the thought and answered, “It probably is.”

Wade looked at his watch. “David, Robert and I need to take an early lunch break. We have another

pressing and long meeting starting early this afternoon. But, there are several other things we would

like to discuss with you regarding anything you might tell us about Dr. Leach and any friend he has in

Kentucky. The better informed we are, the better we can deal with Monday’s final disposition hearing

over there. Please, stay through lunch with us.”

“Of course. Do you think I should attend the hearing Monday?”

“Oh, I don’t think that’s necessary. We have related business to handle in Kentucky tomorrow as well,

so Robert and I will fly over tonight. We’re having a meeting with our friends on the Kentucky State

Board of Antiquities who may be able to help us more in understanding what is going on. Of course,

we all know it’s in our best interest if we can remain involved with studies of the artifacts. But the

arbitration board is likely to favor a decision for their own state’s interest.”

“Arbitration board? Not the courts?”


“That’s right. It’ll be a fairly short meeting, probably no more than an hour or two Monday morning.

There’s no reason for you to go all that way for it. Unfortunately, we’re fairly sure of the outcome.”

David thought about plans made regarding the artifacts. “We have a meeting next Tuesday morning,

and made plans for tests on the books and stones. None of the tests are scheduled to begin until next

week, but it does involve scheduling of equipment and resources at Hunmay outside our group. I

suppose I should cancel those tests.”

“Again, David, the current injunction is quite specific. No tests are to be made beyond any your group

performed to date.” Wade looked at his watch. “Let’s go to lunch now. We still have questions and I’m

sure you have some. We can talk about them while we eat.”

“Okay.” David stood, feeling more angry than disappointed.

As the three men made their way to a nearby Hunmay restaurant, David wondered how the Able

project members might manage to perform a small test or two before giving up the artifacts.

Tentatively he asked, “In which vault should the items be placed?”

Wade smiled as he answered, “I would expect them to be in corporate’s main vault no later than

tomorrow morning.”

David wanted to thank him for slipping some time in for him and the project, but reconsidered. He

knew that the less said about the issue, the better. At least they had the rest of the day to finish

scanning the books.


Chapter 14

Back from meeting with the Hunmay lawyers, David was again unable to concentrate on doing real

work as he tried to sort things out. With so little useful information from J. P. and especially from

Charles he wasn’t getting very far. Certainly learning that Hunter Leach was involved was not a great

surprise. Leach had been an ongoing thorn in the Alamard project’s side ever since he left Hunmay.

But, the news did add to David’s emotional chaos. It interfered with his usual more objective manner

of looking for the gaps and so often over analyzing things.

The whole Aldorian business had been feeling like a weight on his shoulders. It wasn’t supposed to be

like this. He was uncomfortable that it seemed more complicated. After all, the basic approach of

Aldorian philosophy was to provide a logical and easy to understand way to cope with life. Called

objective truth, David’s feelings were in sync with anything but that. He railed against his emotions,

thinking that had it not been for Karen he would not be involved with any of it. He knew that was not

true. He had found peace and reason, lasting friendship and emotional support, and beliefs which made

sense to him through his involvement with Aldorianism. That was largely independent of his

involvement with Karen.

David considered whether he had missed telling the lawyers any relevant information about Leach. He

thought about the old days before project Able was defined, before he became a manager, while he was

still a relative newcomer to Hunmay. What little he could recall about those days were clouded and

mostly incomplete. He barely even recalled how events played out when the two of them were each

being considered to head this new project associated with the relatively new Alamard dig. With the

later loss of Karen, he certainly had not given much else a lot of attention, and virtually nothing

anything Hunter Leach was up to. He definitely could not recall the events surrounding Leach leaving

Hunmay, which was during the hardest times while David was trying to deal with Karen’s death.

As he sat and thought about the current turn of events, the possible loss of the stones and books and the

familiar annoying news that Leach was the driving force behind this, it brought into focus his feelings

about the invitation to join The League. He began to realize that he cared more about what was

happening than he had been thinking. He was still not happy with The League knowing apparent facts

about Karen which he did not know, and he was upset over his friend Charles being party to this. But,

he realized that somehow there was more significance to all of this than his personal feelings, and that

mattered to him.

He pulled open a desk drawer and reached in. Bringing out a memory stick and holding it up, he gazed

at it. He marveled briefly at how rapidly technology had advanced. Here he held this small device

capable of storing tens of gigabytes of data, costing only as much as a low priced lunch, while very

few years ago such technology not only didn’t exist, but precious few people even dreamed of its

possibility.


He plugged the memory stick into a USB port on his computer and reached for the keyboard. Logging

into the scans database, he set a couple of parameters with his mouse and sat back as he watched a

small blue progress bar in the center of his monitor filling up.

As the database copy progressed, inching its way toward one hundred percent, he thought about how

such a small thing could mean so much to so many. A device smaller than his car key could store more

knowledge than an entire set of old printed encyclopedias. As the copy came to an end, he felt an

unexpected rush of satisfaction. He unplugged the memory stick and dropped it into his shirt pocket.

He knew then what he would do.

A few minutes later, the door to his office opened slowly accompanied with a light knock. It was

Jordan Hayes. David realized that he had not visited with his friend during the week. “Hey! How’s it

going with the rocks?”

“Okay, I guess. Slow but steady.”

Before David would tell Jordan the bad news, he wanted to wait until Barbara Welling, Charles

Candrill and Anne Kilgore showed up, the other project Able managers. “Sometimes too slow, huh?”

he said.

“Yeah, I guess. But, that doesn’t matter much to me. It’s the journey I like, not the destination.”

“Wish I could say that. Somehow this time feels different. Like it’s a real breakthrough. So, I’m

impatient for results.” David had long known that Jordan followed Aldorianism, perhaps not as much

as he did. So, he figured his friend had less emotional investment in it.

“So, what’s new with that? You always want results.” Jordan smiled. “You know, most any time away

from work you’re a really patient person.”

“You think? I prefer to describe it as my wanting progress. You know, results in progressive steps.

That’s you also I think.”

“Well, maybe.” Jordan acknowledged David’s stronger involvement with Aldorianism. “But, you are

more invested in it than me. That’s your own silent agenda.”

David knew Jordan was right. His embrace with things Aldorian were a direct reflection of his

attachment with Karen. Jordan’s wife and children, on the other hand, were even less interested in

Aldorianism than Jordan was. “But, you support that agenda.”

Jordan answered, “Yes, but I leave it here in the office when I go home at night.”

Just then, and all together, Barbara Welling, Anne Kilgore and Charles Candrill showed up. As they

settled in around his desk, David considered how he was going to break the news. Of course, Charles

knew already. He figured he had surely spoken with J. P. by now. But, the others didn’t know.


“I have some disappointing news. You all no doubt remember Hunter Leach.” David didn’t wait for

any responses. “Well, for reasons which are a bit of a mystery, he has obtained a court injunction on

behalf of the state of Kentucky to have us stop working with the books and stones.”

“What!” Jordan said. Anne said nothing, but was obviously surprised. Charles showed almost no

change or reaction.

David was sure Jordan understood the real reasons. Leach was against the efforts by Hunmay to find

facts about Aldorian history for future public publication. But, he was equally certain that Anne had no

clear idea. She was not Aldorian. Maybe she heard an occasional off the cuff remark.

“It’s important to keep in mind that this has little real effect on project Able. We were busy with a ton

of work to do before the stones and books were discovered, and we will remain just as busy going

forward. Besides, keep in mind that we have a full scan of the books. And, while we have little

remaining data to study related to the stones, in the bigger picture, it is not a great loss.”

David let it soak in for a few seconds. “I should add that this might only be temporary. The injunction

is just a ruling to refrain from direct work with the artifacts for now. There is an arbitration board

meeting in Kentucky Monday morning to decide if this is permanent. And, our lawyers are working

their butts off to try to keep this from becoming permanent.”

David paused again as he looked directly at Charles. “I’m leaving for Kentucky tonight with the

lawyers and will attend the arbitration hearing Monday morning.”

Realizing what David was really saying, Charles smiled. David smiled briefly back at him.

“I’ll report what I learned in Kentucky at next week’s all-hands meeting.” David again paused,

allowing more time for the others to absorb the news. “Now, we have until tomorrow morning before

we must surrender the artifacts and place them in the corporate vault. Jordan, you take care of that.

That leaves us with only the rest of the afternoon and this evening. So, let’s consider now what things

of value can we do while we still have the artifacts. Wade Morrow didn’t place any specific restrictions

on us before tomorrow morning, other than invasive testing.”

Jordan asked, “What about the matrix samples? Can’t we still keep them and run tests?”

It became clear to David just then that the injunction said nothing about anything other than the rocks,

books, and the box specifically. He knew Hunter Leach wasn’t ignorant of archaeological processes.

Why hadn’t Leach also included the dirt? “Yeah, we can still do those tests. We just can’t do any more

tests directly with the actual artifacts.” Realizing he was about to interpret the injunction a little loosely,

he added, “It seems to me that the injunction says no more tests. But, just looking at the artifacts is not

actual testing. So, Jordan, you and Charles have less than twenty-four hours during which you can still

look at them. Just no actual tests.”

“What about the scans?” Barbara asked. “Can we keep them?”


“Yes, for now. The lawyers didn’t think to ask, and I didn’t tell. But, I have no doubt Hunter Leach or

somebody in Kentucky will learn about the scans and by Monday will bring up the issue. The

injunction was surely put together quickly. So, my guess is they didn’t know about the scans at the

time.”

In order for Leach and company to file the injunction so quickly, somebody had to tell him about the

discoveries. Somebody probably actually at the Alamard dig. Since the idea of scanning the books

wasn’t decided until Monday morning, Leach must have been informed and then decided to act before

mid-Monday. He must not have known about the scans until after he had the injunction filed. It then

dawned on David just how important it was that he made the copy of the scans. Before they were

enjoined by a possible later court decision, there was nothing illegal he was doing by making the copy.

It became clear to him that keeping news of the copy’s existence as quiet as possible was important.

Leach would surely later request the scans be turned over to him. He couldn’t ask for the copy if he

had no idea it existed.

David turned to Anne Kilgore. “Anne, your software group is in no way being affected by this turn of

events. You all should proceed as you have been.” He then thought about Janet. “I think I will check

with Janet directly to see how well the new parameters you and I gave her are working.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

David then added a warning to everyone, “Look, everything we are doing today is legal. I’m not asking

anybody to break the law here. But, I’d be the first to admit we are taking some poetic license with our

interpretation of the injunction. So, watch how you approach the legal boundaries here. I will email a

copy of the actual wording of the injunction to each of you. Pretty dry reading, but do take a look.”

David looked around the room waiting for any further questions. “Okay, let’s work smart on this. And,

please keep in mind just how much work we have to do, even without the artifacts. For the most part,

not much really changes here.”

After everyone left his office, David sat and thought. He was now feeling a lot less stressed than earlier.

Besides still not having answers to so many questions he had, he knew what he would be doing next.

He intended to learn during the coming weekend from his meeting with The League what he wanted to

know.

He turned his thoughts for now to that of having a visit with Janet.


Chapter 15

Janet was talking on the phone as David entered her office and slipped quietly into a chair. “Hey, I

gotta go. David is here.” After a pause she said, “Okay, I will. Later.” Hanging up, she said, “You

remember Kay? She said hello.” Kay Miller was Janet’s next door neighbor and closest friend.

“Sure I do. Tell her I said hello.” Changing the subject, he added, “I just wanted to see how the new

parameters are working out.”

“Just fine. In fact, I have an email I was going to send you and Anne in a bit. It includes some of this

data.” Janet handed David a sheet of paper.

Looking over the data, David responded, “Yeah, I see. Well, sort of. I have to think about it some more,

but the values do look more realistic than before.”

David felt relaxed. A welcome change from how he had been feeling mostly for a couple of days. He

liked being here for the moment, and wanted to continue the conversation. But, he was in no mood to

discuss work. And he wanted to stop thinking about the significant weekend he was about to be a part

of. “So, it has been awhile since I last saw Kay. The two of you still buds? How is she?”

“Still buds. You know Kay, always the same.”

“So, is she dating anybody new?”

“Oh, you do remember her! When was the last time you saw her?”

“About three months ago, I think.”

“Well then, yes. I think she’s had two boyfriends since then.” Janet tilted her head and smiled, “You’re

not interested, are you?”

“Me! God, no! I like Kay, but not in that way. She’s a bit—um—much for me.”

Janet laughed. “She’s a bit much for most men.”

“You know, it’s a little weird the two of you are such good friends. You’re not like her.”

Janet was surprised at his comment. Other than Kay dating a lot, she thought the two of them were

alike in many ways. “You think so?”

“Yeah, for sure. In fact, as far as I know, you haven’t been seeing anybody for more than a year.”

“Well, true. But, I’m interested in more than just dating fun and games, which is also actually more

like Kay than you think. She and I have many common interests.”


“So, you’re not interested in a relationship right now?” David tried to steer the conversation.

“I wouldn’t say that. But, it’s not a primary goal.”

“What if somebody did ask you out?”

“Wait a minute! You’re not trying to set me up, are you?”

“No, I was just curious what you’d think if somebody asked.”

“Well, that would depend on who it was. I hate blind dates.”

David paused a moment, thinking what he might try next. Feeling slightly more bold, he continued.

“What if somebody from work did ask you out? Would mixing work and your social life be okay with

you?”

“Okay, wait. This does sound like you are trying to set me up with somebody.”

“No, really. I’m just curious.” He asked again, “Would you date anybody from work?”

She hesitated. “That can be tricky stuff. Especially if it turns sour.”

“So, that’s a no?”

“No, I’m not saying that.” She considered her next words. “My career is important to me. And, this job

has great potential. It’s more than just a job. I wouldn’t take a chance and jeopardize any of this. I

worked too hard.” She looked intently at him “It’s fair to say my career was a major factor in my

divorce.”

Janet didn’t think much about the past. It seemed so long ago, and none of it felt like it had any

relevance. Getting married right after college seemed so crazy to her now. She had given in to the

pressures from her family, friends, and her boyfriend, and married within only a few weeks after

graduating. She never completely lost the thought, however, of wanting to attend graduate school and

do more with her life professionally than most people.

The divorce was, nevertheless, difficult and emotionally charged. It was during then when she and Kay

Miller had become friends. Kay had been an important influence on Janet, helping her work through

and get past the tough times. Without such a good friend, Janet realized she might not have returned to

graduate school and embraced the discipline required to finish her Ph.D. The price she felt she paid to

make it this far was significant, and she protected it.

“I take my profession seriously also.” David’s statement brought Janet out of thinking of the past. She

refocused on the moment.

He continued. “I too would protect what I have here, if I were to get involved with anybody at work.

There would have to be an understanding and commitment to making it all work.”


Janet blinked and squinted at him. Was she reading something more into what he just said? She wasn’t

sure what to say next, so she waited. He averted her gaze and scratched his cheek. Briefly, she

considered what little she knew about David’s recovery from his wife’s death. She tried to pull him out

more as she asked, “Are you thinking about asking somebody out yourself? Somebody at work?”

“Oh, shit!” he thought. Suddenly he realized that this was going where he really didn’t want to go after

all. The upcoming weekend returned to his thoughts and he realized that as much as he was interested

in going on with this conversation, there was just too much possible about to happen in his life. He

decided to back off. “No! Really. I was just curious.” Then he added. “Dating is one of the last things

on my mind right now.”

Janet didn’t buy it. David didn’t usually talk about things like this. The fact alone that he brought it up

meant to her it was on his mind. But, she also realized he was trying to turn away from the topic. And,

she wasn’t prepared to dig deeper and consider more who it was he might be interested in. She was

nervous over who she suspected had his interest. She did, however, wonder what was motivating him

to venture into uncharacteristic topics at this time, and she saw an opportunity to ask about things she

thought about from time to time. “You seem busy with more than just work.”

“Yeah, you can say that.”

“Do you mind my asking? Does this have anything to do with the so-called silent agenda around

here?” Janet was not Aldorian and she knew very little about it, other than the usual casual awareness

of how things worked at Hunmay.

“No, I don’t mind. It does.” He was glad to be moving onto safer ground.

“I know you’re involved with it, but I don’t know much about any of it.”

“I don’t talk about it much.”

“What, it’s a secret society kind of thing, like Masons or Scientologists?”

“No secrets, but part of what we subscribe to is not to talk about it unless asked.”

“Okay, so what is it? Some kind of religion? I hear things every once in awhile, but nothing which is

clear.”

“It’s called Aldorianism.” David realized he welcomed the topic. It felt immediately helpful and

relaxing. He needed to vent some pent up anxiety, and Janet was a good candidate right now to help

with it. “But, it’s not really a religion. It’s more like a general set of cultural guidelines to help think a

particular way about this world and our lives.”

“I’ve heard the word Aldorianism from time to time. So, is it a kind of self help thing? If I wanted to

read about it, is there a web site or book you recommend?”

“I don’t know of any. I’d say no.”


“Really? That’s a little weird, isn’t it?”

“Not really. Part of our guidelines is to not discuss Aldorianism unless specifically asked about it.”

“Guidelines? That’s an interesting choice of words. And, that does sound like you’re asked to keep

quiet.”

“No, look, it’s like this. We embrace no statements which we call rules. The word rules sounds like

there are punishments if you don’t follow them. Nothing about Aldorianism is required, like you have

to do this or you have to believe that. So, we call them guidelines and one of them is that we do not

volunteer talking about this because we consider it a subtle form of being missionaries. We are not

missionaries. Instead, we focus inward on our own ways to bring meaning to this world, not trying to

convert others. That is why you’re not likely to find anything on the Internet which talks about us.

Does that make sense?”

Janet pursed her lips. “Well, I guess. But, why all this silent agenda stuff? How is Hunmay a part of

it?”

“Well, that’s a little complicated. J. P. Huntington is a very motivated Aldorian. Everybody knows that.

So was Joshua Mayfield. As friends, they decided to use a great deal of their fortunes to create

Hunmay as a formally organized way to objectively understand more about Aldorianism. Objective

understanding as in scientifically. But, they also wanted to formally discover what they wanted to

know through valid and scientifically accepted processes. This is a major way in which Aldorianism is

not a religion. A religion typically adopts some dogma as part of its definition, logical or not, and then

it spends huge amounts of time and energy protecting that dogma, even spinning factual data as it

comes up to fit their dogma. If you will, we let the facts be our guides. If the facts change, we have no

problems. We go with it.”

“That sounds wishy-washy.”

“Well, I guess it does on the surface. But, I think it’s a lot more consistent and logical. It’s what we

call objective truth, and that matters to us a great deal.”

“Objective truth.” Janet spoke the phrase as if she were turning it around in front of her with her words,

examining it and trying to figure it out. “So, aren’t you just saying that you rely only on science to be

your guide through life? What about faith?”

“Faith? What’s that? Isn’t that just a belief in something you can’t actually prove? We have faith. But,

we allow our faith to be guided by what we learn objectively. And, science is a pretty good way to do

that. It’s not perfect. New experiments discover new or even contradictory facts. What good is any

faith if the facts don’t align with it? Then it only gets harder and harder to accept. So our faith is that

even if the facts change, eventually they point to the ultimate truth.”

“But, you know as well as anybody who really thinks about it, science can’t prove or disprove that God

exists. So, is Aldorianism a godless belief system?”


“Gosh no! Once upon a time science could not prove that atoms existed. Even to this day nobody has

actually ever directly seen a single atom. The best science can do is exhibit indirect data which implies

atoms have to exist. So, reasonable people believe that atoms exist.” David shrugged. “Besides, there

actually exist a few legitimate scientists who try to find real data which might imply that a creator does

exist. They are looking for a sort of creation or design signature buried somewhere in all the data.

Aldorians again rely on the data. If someday somebody discovers data which leads one to think this

was all created by some super genius out there, or that no such intelligence can exist, then Aldorians

are prepared to handle it without fuss. You can’t say that about a religion.”

“So, like an agnostic.”

“Not really. My understanding is that an agnostic says that you cannot prove or disprove God exists.

Aldorians don’t say that. We say maybe God does exist. So far, however, we believe there’s just no

data.”

“Lots of religious people believe there is plenty of data, including what’s in the Bible.”

“Lots of people who are religious don’t embrace the Bible. Mostly non-Christians, I suspect.” David

was starting to grow a little disinterested in where the conversation was going. The same place where it

almost always goes when two people get into this. And, he was in no mood to get caught up in it. That

was definitely not the Aldorian way.

He glanced at his watch and Janet noticed. She said, “You know, I’m probably keeping you from doing

things you need to be doing. Actually, all this is interesting, but I guess I too should get back to work.

Maybe we can talk about this more tomorrow. Actually, I wouldn’t mind learning a little more.”

“Yeah, I’d like that, but unfortunately I’m not here tomorrow.”

“Oh?”

“I’m going to Kentucky tonight for four days to take care of some business.” David refrained from

explaining the details now, letting later emails and meetings with group managers handle it.

After another minute or so, ending the conversation, David returned to his office. He was frustrated

over the conversation with Janet. What had he tried to actually accomplish? He started something,

something he had been thinking about for days, maybe weeks, and then he shut it down. He knew why

he stopped. What confused him was why he ever started. He knew full well the weekend was a big

moment and it was bound to come with surprises and new commitments that he could not predict. His

happiness with the invitation to join The League was growing with each passing moment, and he was

quickly realizing just how much he had long looked forward to this event. He slowly shook his head

from side to side as he tried to understand why he took the conversation where it went. But, he also

completely failed to appreciate enough Janet’s interest in him, in his social life, in his involvement

with Aldorianism. He could only see what he thought he had done.


Chapter 16

Friday morning, Oct 14 - David sipped coffee, trying to be more alert after another mostly sleepless

night. But, this time it was not born of confusion, frustration, or even anger, but instead from

anticipation and excitement. With each passing hour since his conversation with Charles, David knew

more and more how much he welcomed joining The League. He was still not happy with Charles, but

he had come around to allowing for meeting with him on Saturday to make up for it.

Standing in his living room waiting for somebody to pick him up, through the coffee and morning

quiet he grew more alert. He strolled across the room and entered a small side adjoining room which

served as his home office. Staring at the computer on his desk, he wondered if it actually made any

sense to have copied the scans database onto it last night. He would not tell anybody he made the copy.

He understood that this was yet another example of his finding a gap and trying to fill it with some

kind of solution. He had no clear idea where this books business would go, but somehow he felt that

keeping a private copy would make the future less troublesome.

He turned back into his living room and looked around. Essentially everything he could see was the

same as it was before Karen was murdered. His friend Jordan had commented a couple of times about

how it would help if he made some changes here and there. He had criticized that living in the past was

not all that healthy. David always resisted. He didn’t like change. It was more significant and deeply

embedded in his personality than any attempt to help him remember a world he tragically lost one

fateful afternoon.

He looked at a small stack of papers on his coffee table, printouts from yesterday. Sitting down his

coffee, he picked up the paperwork. Glancing through it slowly, which were copies of emails from

Charles, Jordan, and Anne reporting on work this week on the books and stones, he thought the

members of The League this weekend might find this helpful.

He thought about Hunter Leach and his efforts to thwart the Aldorians who wished to go public, but

unwilling to do so without support from physical documents like the books. Would that really matter?

Why not go public anyway? He realized that he did not really understand the logic behind this tact.

How much could the books actually make a difference? After all, in a loose analogy, how much did the

Christian Bible affect one’s belief? It seemed to him that either a person basically believed it as fact, or

not. How many changed their minds by somebody saying to them, “Look, here’s the Bible. That’s your

proof!” Nevertheless, he realized how much he wished Hunter Leach would lose, despite the clear

odds against that outcome. But, he also knew that whether or not the project Able group ever had the

opportunity to work with the books later, they would all eventually settle back into a routine.

Placing the paperwork and the memory stick containing the copy of the books into his brief case, he

picked up his coffee and stepped to the living room window. He waited and stared out at the end of the

empty cul-de-sac in front of his house. In another couple of minutes, a dark blue automobile turned the


corner onto his street. He watched it drive slowly toward his house and pull into the driveway. Dark

tinted windows prevented him from seeing clearly anybody inside. The vehicle stopped, and for a

moment, nothing more happened until the front passenger door opened and from inside stepped a man

he didn’t know.

He picked up his briefcase and locked the house as he made his way out. The man introduced himself

with a friendly smile as he approached, “Good morning, David. I’m Isaac Milnor.”

“At last we meet.” David responded, returning a smile. He held phone conversations with Milnor on

numerous occasions, and exchanged email with him frequently. The two shook hands, and then Milnor

opened the back door and climbed inside. David sat in the front seat and closed the door.

As the car backed out and drove away, the driver said, “Hey.”

“Morning.” David responded, looking at Garland Pickett.

David had known Garland for several years, also knowing that he was a member of The League. Short,

balding, and David thought, too thin to be healthy, Garland was far brighter than one might realize,

even after knowing him for awhile. He rarely revealed his credentials to others, including people who

knew him well. Most of what David knew he learned by word of mouth. After so many years, he still

didn’t know of any degrees Pickett held, but he had little doubt he had done serious advanced studies

in some area like mathematics, physics, or computer science. David respected Garland’s intelligence

and insights. He trusted him, not so much as a close friend, for they spent few social times together,

but rather as an intellectual superior. In part, because of his respect for this man, David started feeling

more comfortable in being a participant in what was going on. It made him notice he was being a little

more nervous than he thought he should be.

He looked over his shoulder, as he tried to calm his nerves by saying nothing important. “Pleasant trip?

You get in last night?”

“Pleasant, yes,” Isaac answered, “but I’ve been in town since early yesterday. I spent the afternoon

with Garland, helping him set up things.”

What’s to set up? David wondered, but didn’t ask. How many others were involved in this? He hadn’t

thought about it, assuming there would be only two or three people in the meeting. He figured he

would turn over the memory stick and papers, they would talk about it, and beyond that he had no idea

what would happen.

Several minutes passed while everyone silently watched passing scenery. Traffic grew heavy, and

houses were more frequently replaced by small businesses and then office buildings. They were

nearing downtown Austin. Pulling onto a side street, they parked at the curb. The three men left the car

and entered the building next to them.

Stepping from the elevator into an empty hallway, they walked a few steps to an office door with

translucent glass. David had never been here before. Garland opened the door and shut it behind them


as they entered a small reception area. The room contained only a few chairs along two walls. Another

door was the only distinguishing feature in the room. Isaac opened it.

David was surprised to see five more people in the room sitting around a large conference table.

Charles Candrill was not there. He was at Hunmay waiting for a planned meeting with a hand writing

expert. He would be here tomorrow. There were a few empty chairs scattered around the table. David

selected one as he and the others sat. He remained silent as he opened his brief case, removing the

memory stick and paperwork. Waiting for Garland to speak first, he looked at the others in the room.

Besides just meeting Isaac Milnor, he recognized none of the others. He wasn’t overly concerned,

knowing there were other people in The League from not only the Austin area. He found it interesting

that he was by far the youngest person in the room.

Garland cleared his throat to gain everybody’s attention. “David, you haven’t met some of us.” As

Garland introduced each person, with nods and minor acknowledgements exchanged, he became aware

that everyone in the room knew of him already.

Introductions completed, Garland continued, “You have a memory stick I see. What else?”

Accustomed to talking in front of groups of people, nevertheless David felt uncomfortable, recognizing

the implied significance of what was happening. He realized that there was no turning back now. With

a weaker tone than he liked, he said, “A complete scan of the books is on the memory stick.” He was

confident that everyone in the room knew all about the books by now. “There wasn’t a lot of time to

decide what you might want. So, the only other things I have are reports of what we learned this week

about the books and stones. It’s not a lot.”

With a small toss, the papers he held slid out onto the table, inviting anyone to have a look. One man

reached for them, and David focused on him. It was Howard Konard, clearly the eldest person in the

room. With little more than a cursory glance at the papers, Konard turned to him. “David, we are

pleased with what you have been able to do with such little time. You could not bring us anything else

to accomplish any more than what this will.” He corrected himself, “That is, short of the books

themselves. And, of course, that is not possible, even with the best case scenario.”

By his actions and statements, David considered that Konard might have higher authority here than

Garland Pickett, whom he had been assuming was the senior ranking member of the meeting. He

smiled and nodded in thanks.

“We appreciate fully what you have done. Now this is not a major concern, but we assume somebody

will notice that you or someone made a complete copy of the scans. Is that a problem?”

David touched his bottom lip with his tongue as he stared back at Konard. He was mystified at the

question. Everybody knew that The League got copies of all backups. And while most people at

Hunmay were supposed to not know about this meeting and the associated copy, he was a little

surprised that people here were this concerned about it. It emphasized that those here wanted this to

remain as undisclosed as possible, but he didn’t understand why it mattered. “Not really a problem.

But, they are good at what they do and it won’t take long to figure out I made the copy. But, I first


copied the database onto my office system. They won’t know that I made this copy,” he said pointing

to the memory stick. “I’ll explain that I copied the images onto my office system and I’ll pass it off as

mindless reaction to Kentucky. That will be about it.”

Konard accepted David’s explanation. “Before we go any further I should remind you that we have

good reason to request that it be kept quiet that you have joined us this weekend.”

Also when Charles asked the same thing of him, David was curious about that. Why should it matter

that his joining The League be kept quiet? He wasn’t going to ask. He would just have to wait to find

out.

Konard continued. “So, welcome to The League. You may or may not be pleased to learn there are no

membership fees and no initiation rituals, not even a secret handshake.” A couple of others chuckled.

“Just by attending, you are a member. You joined by invitation, but you remain a member only by your

voluntary efforts. Simply remain involved and you are a member. If at any time you decide this is not

for you, just walk away. We only request that you never discuss with outsiders what happens here. If

anybody asks, you are urged to answer only in a general no details manner.”

David nodded his understanding and agreement.

“We are happy you elected to join our ranks. Your insights and talents are most welcome. This

weekend you will be brought up to speed regarding all of this, but in the meantime, do you have any

initial questions?”

“No sir, I don't.”

“Okay, there is one rule. I am not sir, I am Howard.” He smiled and changed the subject. “Actually,

there are three major agenda items to be addressed this weekend. I am aware that you will be out of the

office for four days. That is helpful.”

David knew that Howard must have talked with Charles.

“The first agenda item should take up much of today.” As Howard pointed across the room to another

closed door, he explained, “That room contains a small computer network. It will remain here for an

unspecified length of time, and we would like you to help us configure it.”

David was not expecting anything like this.

“Using backups from project Able and given the recent turn of events, we have decided to install the

program on our network, as well as the scans database. We do not need all of the project Able structure

here. The Alamard dig is extensive and includes a great deal of material and information for which we

have no direct interest at this time. Here we would like to have only the structure required to focus on

translating the books. We would like for you to help us set things up today. Our efforts here will not

only parallel those at Hunmay, but we should accompany and embellish that effort significantly.”


Suddenly David realized some of the reason for the secrecy requests. This was going to be a so-called

skunk works project. It became obvious that the desire was that Hunter Leach and company learn

nothing about this. He actually liked this sneaky aspect. There was something about it that drew his

greater enjoyment. “I’ll be glad to help in any way I can.”

“Good! Thank you. Tomorrow, Charles Candrill will be here and you will meet with him then. He

plans to fill you in on the workings of The League. He will tell you some useful background

information. Our history, what we know, how we know it, what we are trying to do, and how you are

considered a significant and integral part of this. And, you will learn about the significance of the

books. Finally, we will spend time on Sunday and Monday planning what we can do next regarding

this most unfortunate turn of events.”

Howard paused for a few seconds, looking around at the people in the room as if to see if anybody had

more to say. “Again, David, welcome. After these four days, you should get to know all of us more. So,

relax and enjoy this. There are many things we wish to accomplish, and we think you will find this to

be challenging and enjoyable. So, let’s get right to it.” Howard turned to Garland Pickett. “Garland will

work with you today in setting up our network and the books database.”

People slide back their chairs and left the table, each person proceeding with things they would be

doing. David joined Garland and entered the next room. It was a much larger room, containing six

desks with ample work space, each including a computer system.

Garland explained, “We have the basic network already up and working, as well as some of the basic

modules in the Able program. The more recent modules directed at language processing are not yet

installed. So, you can help us with that. And, of course, we would like to get the scans database up and

running.” Pointing to one of the computers, he said, “That system is our network server.”

Garland and David focused on the effort to set up and configure everything as desired, while the others

busied themselves with other items. It was enough to keep everyone busy for most of the day. As the

work proceeded, it made David feel much more comfortable, doing things he understood quite well,

but still complicated enough so he had to pay attention to what he was doing. For the time being, he

was able to put Charles and the next day out of his mind.

As he worked on the technical problems, it helped him grow more happy with the situation.

Technology provided the problems and the motivation. As he watched Garland working with him, he

knew he was also enjoying the technical problems. With a simple feeling of guilt, he took pleasure in

thinking that what was happening here was a form of getting even with Hunter Leach. His awareness

of it surprised him.

He realized more deeply he was happy to keep his joining with The League a secret. Certainly helping

to keep this copy of Able and the scans database a secret, what now seemed like a distinct and

important advantage, made increasing sense to him. It seemed quite possible that Hunter Leach might

well gain exclusive possession of the scans of the books. The League’s copy had to be kept a secret. It

was an important defense.


He wondered also about the others in the room. What drove them? While he found it simple to ignore

the philosophical underpinnings these members of The League clearly possessed, he thought how

much it was a form of faith which kept their interest alive. How similar this seemed to him with many

religions people embraced. So many people firmly convinced they knew the truth, while none of them

were capable of proving themselves right. They had no data to support their faith, but were willing to

work this hard to find it. It was virtually blind belief that somehow the books would provide the

answers they sought.

In this room, the set of books was their bible. Faith drove them. Faith brought them together, and faith

encouraged them to share eventually with the world what they believed. They were missionaries after

all, regardless of a guideline counter to that. They were making plans to convert others.

Early the same day at Hunmay, Janet sat back and looked over a set of printouts. It was a Friday

morning report called the database log. It included a summary of various kinds of statistics regarding

usage of the database, login and logout activities, paging and access counts, cache maps. Technical

facts which were designed to help any administrator care and feed the database system.

The weekly report was about as dry and uninteresting as it got, and Janet paid little attention to the

rows and columns of data as she looked across the several printed tables. She glanced along the list of

database commands issued by end users, reads, writes, views, saves, logins, a read all, views, more

saves, more edits. She laid the report on her desk and turned to her monitor, about to look over her

email, when suddenly she stopped. What? A read all? Did she see that right? She picked the report up

again and looked more carefully. There it was, a read all.

She stared more closely at the data beside the command. Who, she wondered had done a read all? That

is, who had accessed every single scan of data in the database? There were more than 2,300 scans. This

was not usual. If a person actually looked at one of the scans, it would have shown up on the list as a

view, which included a memory address of where in cache it was stored. A read all was not a view, it

was a very fast pass over every scan in the database. Janet realized there were only a couple of reasons

for that to happen. One reason would be caused by a program or script running at low priority which

accessed every scan as it passed through all of them, somehow making use of data associated with each.

But, she realized that it would have also been caused by somebody making a copy of every scan in the

database.

Janet looked up the user ID listed with the command. It was David. She stared at the entry for a few

seconds, wondering what David had been doing. A read all would be a common command later, but

almost always caused by a database-accessing program or script, and in such a case the user ID would

indicate it was such a program or script. So, it was not only a little weird for David, a human being, to

perform the read all so soon after all of the scans were completed, but it could only be a manual copy


being done, which was even more unusual. Knowing David was in Kentucky, she vowed to ask him

about it next week.

Later in the day as she was passing by David’s office, she stepped in. “Hi, Jessie.”

“What’s up?” Jessie said.

“I was just wondering, do you recall when David’s flight gets in from Kentucky on Monday?”

“Sorry, Janet, I don’t know. He booked his flights with the lawyers.”

“Oh. Is that unusual?”

“Not at all. He books trips through other departments from time to time. Good news for us, it isn’t

charged to our cost center. But anyway, I don’t have the exact schedule. I can call the legal department

and find out, if you want.”

“Gosh, no. That’s not really needed. I was just wondering if he might be back in the office on Monday

later. It’s not important. It can wait until Tuesday.”

As an afterthought, Jessie added, “It is a little odd that he didn’t first clear his schedule with me before

he committed to being away.”

“Odd?”

“Yeah, that’s not like him at all. David is almost obsessive about his schedule. He insists things are

always clearly scheduled. He doesn’t do conflicts.”

Janet chuckled. “We’ve all noticed that.”

“Well, I think there’s a lot on his mind right now. This week he seemed out of sorts a bit. But, he did

tell me he would not be back in the office until Tuesday.”

“Maybe the days away from the office will calm him down.”

“I hope so.” Jessie said. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No, but thanks. I guess I’ll get back to work. Lots to do.”


Chapter 17

Saturday, Oct 15 - David waited anxiously in The League offices for Charles. He didn’t have to wait

much longer. “Good morning,” Charles said as he walked in. “Let’s sit in there, it’s quieter,” he added

immediately, pointing to a side room containing a small table and a couple of chairs. He knew David

would want to get right down to business and start learning about the things he promised to discuss.

As the two moved to the room and settled down at the table, David asked, “How did it go with the

hand writing expert?”

“As we suspected, there were several authors,” Charles said. Then he asked, “How about here?

Everything set up okay?”

“Yeah. With Garland’s help, it went just fine. The network is up and the scans database is installed

along with Able’s language modules.” David sat back in his chair and waited for Charles to proceed.

David watched Charles as he seemed to be thinking about how he would begin. After a few moments,

he said, “I am happy to see you here, David. You’ve made the choice we all were hoping for. I trust

you will continue to be satisfied with your decision.” Charles paused before continuing. “I have many

things to tell you today. By the end I should have answered most of the questions I know you have. But

also by then I expect you will have new questions. Ones which I suspect you will not have anticipated

asking. That’s because I have things to tell you which you will find surprising and unexpected and I

think you will also find fascinating and welcome. But, I have a request. I think there are some things I

will tell you which may also not only be surprising, but perhaps disturbing. So, I’m going to ask you

now to try to remember when those moments happen to remain the objective, analytical, and reasoned

person you can be.”

What an odd request, David thought. He couldn’t begin to imagine what Charles might say which

would throw him off balance as much as Charles suggested might happen.

“Look, the bottom line is this. At the end of the day, you will see that the only thing I have done is tell

you some history. Stuff which happened in the past. But, what you will also see is that you have been a

bigger part of that past than you have known. And, that makes your future directly connected to us and

that past, as you will realize. And as we know.”

Charles again paused for a moment. “So, I’ll start with the history which is most personal for you, and

later explain how it relates to the history of our brotherhood. The personal history is about you, and me,

and your parents.”

His parents? That peaked his interest, but only slightly. David had not been very close to his father, in

part because of his death even before he was a teenager. He had grown a little closer to his mother, but


she also passed away so many years ago he no longer felt any deep emotions about her. So he thought

Charles probably had little to actually say about them.

“You may recall that you first met me as an undergraduate at U.T.” Charles referred to the University

of Texas where he was a linguistics professor and David was a second year student in computer

science. “Well, that is not correct. You and I knew each other long before then. Actually, I knew both

of your parents. We were friends even before you were born, and I want to tell you the details of what

happened.”

That was more than a surprise to David. It was difficult to understand or believe. So he actually felt a

little irritated. Why would Charles or his parents have said nothing about this long before now? He met

Charles two decades ago, more than enough time for him to say they already knew each other. Why

had his parents never told him much earlier? Why didn’t he recall meeting Charles earlier?

Before David had a chance to react and say anything, Charles anticipated it by quickly adding, “When

we met at U.T., I kept quiet about knowing you or your parents at your mother’s request. But, now it

has come time to tell you what happened, and I hope you will understand and appreciate it.”

Hearing the odd news that his mother requested the secrecy made him willing to wait for an

explanation. Also, naturally a patient and analytical person, as Charles reminded him a moment ago,

David held back his desire to speak out and protest, going instead along with the way Charles

requested.

“Of course, you always knew that your parents met their first year in college at O. U. But, I was also

there when they met. Your father and I already knew each other. We were assigned as roommates in a

dorm and we liked each other enough to hang out together. It was crowded in the student union that

day where your father and I were sitting, and your mother walked by clearly looking for a place to sit.

Well, I was the one who had the guts to speak up and suggest she sit with us. You know how quiet and

introverted Robert was.”

David shook his head, acknowledging Charles’ description of his father.

“If he had any real interest in Sarah that day, nobody could have guessed. In any case, I certainly liked

what I saw. So, I asked her to sit. And, you know how outgoing your mother was. So, she didn’t

hesitate a second. She sat down. By the end of the next hour, Robert and I were getting to know quite a

lot about Sarah.”

“David, it was me who first showed interest in your mother. Just like your father, he never did much of

anything without first giving it a lot of thought. You are so much like him in that respect. So, it turned

out that Sarah and I actually had a few dates. But, we both quickly realized we weren’t right for each

other, and by then she and Robert were growing interested in each other.”

David had no idea about this. Never once had either of his parents told this story or anything remotely

associated with it. Of course, he had never really asked about those times. Nevertheless, he was

surprised and becoming much more interested in Charles’ story.


“The three of us remained good friends, your parents fell in love, and before our second year in college

they decided to get married. And, I don’t have to remind you how much your dad went head strong

into whatever he decided to do. Once he could ever get off his butt and make a decision.”

David smiled. He remembered that about his dad, and it was nice to hear it from Charles, a man he had

come to think of as a kind of surrogate father after the premature loss of his.

“Sarah was never much interested in college. She was bright enough, but she just didn’t want to be a

student. It was really more her idea than your dad’s to not wait, so they got married instead right away.

But, Sarah also didn’t waiver in her demands that Robert finish school while she worked and provided

the lion’s share of money for them to make it.”

“You know, I was never once upset about losing your mother to Robert. They were destined to be

together. Anybody could see that. And, if you could have only seen how excited and happy they were

when they learned you were on the way into their lives.”

David realized how little he really knew his parents. He was feeling a little upset and embarrassed to

realize that he even had no idea they got married while in school and his mother dropped out of college.

He wondered, had he really been so disconnected from them all those years? They rarely seemed to

show a closeness to each other or toward him. Hearing about how much they loved each other and

cared was welcome unexpected news. But, what, he thought, did this have to do with The League?

“So, you were born during Robert’s and my senior year. And, the joy you brought into that family was

a real gem in life. It was a pleasure to witness every moment. It seems to have even drawn your parents

closer together.”

David continued to marvel at how little of this he knew.

“I held you more than once when you were a baby. Along with your parents, I watched you take some

of your first steps. With your father and me both studying linguistics, it is no surprise that you started

talking a little earlier than most children. Life was good for all of us. Your father and I continued to do

well in school while your mother worked and provided meager but sufficient financial support for you

guys.”

Charles stopped for a moment and shifted in his chair. “I have no doubt that this will be a complete

surprise to you, but through all of these years your father was Aldorian.” He stopped to let that sink in.

“What!” David leaned back. He struggled with that statement, trying to comprehend that it was a fact.

“How can that be? I don’t know anything about it. He never talked about it. I don’t remember him ever

doing anything associated with Aldorianism. Are you sure about this?”

“Of course I am! David, really, I was there. And it was early on, during those loving and happy years

when your mother and I grew interested in your father’s activities. We asked questions, we got answers.

We liked what we heard. We got involved. We became Aldorians. I’ll talk about all this more later.

But, in the meantime things changed and not for the better.”


David was still dealing with this completely unexpected business. He sat there feeling as if he ought to

say something, maybe even protest more. But, he was lost for anything to say. He stared at Charles,

trying to resolve this news with his own conflicting memories of how he recalled his family was.

“Early in our senior year, the year you were born, Robert and I were approached by professors who

began selling us both on the idea of going to graduate school. We were both pretty good at it, and the

school suggested strongly that we didn’t stop short. Of course Robert and I were flattered. Your mother

was supportive and happy, but the first signs of conflict came out then. She voiced reservations about

her continuing to work while Robert stayed in school. There weren’t any angry objections, especially

after she learned that Robert would receive not particularly bad graduate student stipends. So, she went

along with it, but it wasn’t hard to see she didn’t fully appreciate it. Nevertheless, the next year Robert

and I entered the PhD program at O. U. and the status quo continued. For the most part, your folks

were happy. In the meantime, Sarah and I both got more involved with Aldorianism, along side your

father and with his mentoring.”

“Graduate school went well for me. Unfortunately, it was not smooth sailing for your folks. Sarah

started showing more and more hints that she was tired of what she and Robert were doing. From time

to time she would protest and voice her impatience. The burden was growing on both of them. She

even brought up her misgivings occasionally with me when Robert was not around. She looked for

encouragement and support to hang in there. Those few times she brought it up with me, I provided as

much positive enforcement as I knew how. I think it helped. So she did hang in there, but it slowly

grew into an increasing challenge for her.”

Charles paused and looked at David’s expression, trying to see how he was taking it in. “There were

times when Robert was around, and I would have these strong feelings that he and Sarah had been

probably fighting. He never discussed it, and when I tried to broach the issue, he deflected it. But, the

stress and tension were there. And, sadly, it affected work on his PhD. Going into our fourth year, it

was becoming clear that I was going to finish that year, but it also seemed fairly clear that Robert was

going to have to take one more year to finish. That really didn’t help matters at all.”

“It was a real emotional time for all of us. Robert and I had remained close friends, and Sarah and I

were also stronger as friends. To a great extent, your mother had turned to me for continuing advice

and support. But, here I was finishing my PhD and about to go away, while the two of them were to

remain where they were, with a growing young boy, you, and a financial and emotionally challenging

life. And, soon without me for either of them to turn to.”

“I took my starting faculty position here at U. T. It was a heavy day when I left Oklahoma and your

folks, my closest friends. I could see the new stress between Robert and Sarah. But, there was not

much else any of us could do.”

Charles stopped again. He sat there for several seconds thinking about his story, those sad times, the

predicament they faced back then.

“Robert finished his PhD during the next year. But, I almost never heard from them during that time.

There were a couple of exceptions. I phoned them from time to time. But, things were different in so


many ways. Often it felt as if I barely had ever known either of them. Sometimes Robert would answer

the phone, sometimes your mother. They were always friendly enough, but you could hear it in their

voices. Things weren’t right. I had lost my close connection with them, so I learned nothing intimate

about either of them during that time. They would feign that things were well enough. And, I guess

they were well enough for them to struggle through.”

“As Robert finished his PhD, I think he wanted to somehow reinvigorate the relationship he and I once

had. Perhaps that’s the way it was for all three of us. So, he worked hard on gaining a faculty position

also here. Of course, it helped a lot that I was already on the faculty, and could vouch for Robert’s

academics. He was accepted. Sarah and he moved here to Austin. Superficially, the three of us

celebrated our reunification. But, it wasn’t at all what it had been. Those good old days were over. We

tried to recapture that past, but it never really worked.”

“David, it just continued to slowly spiral downward. One day after a particularly bad argument

between your parents, Sarah came to me in tears, looking for emotional support. We talked for hours.

It was hell for her, and I could easily see that it was no better for your dad. That long talk I had with

Sarah exhausted her. She fell asleep on my couch. It was already late. With hindsight it was a terrible

idea, but I let her sleep and I went to bed. In the middle of the night, Sarah woke up and left. I didn’t

know it until I woke up the next morning.”

Charles paused. David could see that he was struggling with his story. Old emotions were peeking out

from under years of avoidance. David kept quiet, watching as Charles worked at calming himself

before continuing.

“That next day was not good. Robert was furious. But, in his usual super controlled manner, he never

actually exploded in a fit of rage. He came to me and spoke to me with the tightest restraint I have ever

seen in him. It was short and over. And, he left. It was clear that he thought your mother and I had slept

together. And, he made it clear that my relationship with either of them was over. Anger can actually

help a person make it through tough times more easily. You were only about seven or eight at the time.

That was the way it remained for the most part until your dad passed years later.”

Charles wiped his eyes as David sat spellbound. He felt strange and awkward, as he realized that he

was not reacting emotionally at all. Finding the story fascinating, nevertheless it somehow seemed to

him more about strangers than his own family. It was clearly a far more personal story in Charles’ life

than his own. He waited at least another minute before Charles continued.

“Well, life has one way of dealing with situations like this. We all plodded on, regularly avoiding each

other, living our separate lives with an unspoken but uneasy truce among us. Robert and I were

professional and cordial with each other at school. It helped that in the university environment it is

easy to mostly stay away from each other. I almost never saw or spoke with Sarah again. And certainly,

sadly, I almost never saw you again. Basically, I had not spent any time around you since you were

about five and in Oklahoma. As far as I could tell, your parents remained together. I have no idea how

well that went. Maybe okay, maybe terrible. Whatever was going on with your folks, I didn’t know.


That’s also in part because both of your parents completely cut off any involvement with Aldorianism

as far as I could tell.”

“David, I don’t want to end this story this way. There were good times and very pleasant memories,

and I want to take some time now to tell you about that before going on and telling what this has to do

with Aldorianism. That connection is more significant than it might seem.”

David was willing to hear more. In one short morning he already learned more about his parents, and

also about Charles for that matter, than he had learned in years. In terms of depth of people’s

personalities, he learned more now than he felt as if he ever knew. So, he listened to Charles as he told

about other times, earlier time, happier times. Times when the three laughed together, played together,

cooked and ate together, walked in parks, went to movies, told war stories over weekend beers, and

even bowled together. David vaguely recalled the bowling. He couldn’t help but wonder why the mind

chooses to retain what it does. What it remembers has nothing to do with importance. Or, maybe it

does.

The minutes turned into over an hour as David asked questions, Charles answered them, and then

remembered during his answer other episodes to tell about the lives of the three of them and all of their

happier and personal interactions.

Eventually Charles leaned back and stretched. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I need a break

before we go on. It’s a little after lunch time already. Why don’t we stop and eat. I’d like Garland to go

to lunch with us. While we eat I actually have a couple of ideas about Able’s language modules to

share with you two.” Referring to the hand writing expert he worked with the day before, he added,

“Robert Geiger and I tried to use the modules to help us look around at various scans of the books, and

we discovered some ideas for improvements which I think will help a lot.”

“That sounds fine with me. I am hungry.” Then David reminded Charles, “You said my mother

requested all of this secrecy and you will explain.”

“Yes, this afternoon. All things in their proper order.”

With that, Charles and David left with Garland for lunch.


Chapter 18

After a long, challenging, but fruitful week at work, Janet was ready for some weekend escape and

what better way than to spend part of it with her friend Kay Miller. The two were on Sixth Street in

downtown Austin having lunch at a favorite place, planning to follow it with some shopping and

otherwise mindless activities together. As they finished their meal and were having a cup of coffee,

Kay was talking about a new boyfriend.

Sitting her cup down, Janet peered into it and shook her head. “I don’t see how you do it.”

“What?”

“Meet so many men, much less date them. Don’t you get tired of it.”

“Okay, we’ve had this talk before. The only time it comes up is when you're thinking about dating and

you realize you don’t know any eligible guys.” Kay leaned forward looking more closely at Janet.

“That’s it, isn’t it?”

“Not really.”

Kay knew better. “Yeah, yeah. So, which? Dating or guys?”

“Okay, guys.”

“What? You found somebody? You’re holding out on me!”

Janet smiled more saying nothing as Kay leaned ever closer and gazed into Janet's eyes. “I know him,

don’t I?”

Softly, Janet answered, “Yes.”

“Oh, come on, you’re going to make me drag it out of you.”

“It shouldn’t be that hard, you know.” Janet toyed with her coffee cup, waiting. She looked up and

stared back at Kay.

In a moment, Kay pulled back, her eyes widened and hesitantly she guessed, “Nah! David?”

Janet tilted her head slightly to one side, and pursed her lips.

“I don’t believe it! Finally, after a year of y’all exchanging hairy eyeballs with each other.” Kay paused

a moment. “Oh, my God! So, when did he ask you out? I know you didn’t ask!”

“Well, he didn’t either actually.” Janet laughed. “He only indirectly mentioned the idea. He never

made it clear he was interested in me.”


“God, is that all? That’s nothing.”

“Well, he did ask me what I thought about dating somebody I worked with.”

“Just like him! Listen, date him, kiss him, get laid. Maybe even marry him and have kids for God sake.

This isn’t a computer program you two are writing. Just let things happen!”

Sounding more serious, Janet defended herself. “We can’t do that, Kay. You can, but we can’t. It could

be complicated. Our jobs matter. What if it didn’t work? Then what? After all, he’s my boss.”

“Look he’s one of the most fair minded men I’ve ever known. He’d never treat you badly over it. Hell,

don’t you remember that I wanted to date him before you ever thought of it, and you objected on the

same grounds then. Let it go! Just hook up with him and quit worrying so much. Geez, you’re as bad

as he is!”

“Nobody’s as bad as he is!”

Kay chuckled. “Well, maybe not. So, do it! If he’s talking about it, he’s interested.”

Janet tried to deflect the idea. “I really did think about it. But, things are strange at work. David seems

stressed about something.” Janet thought about the books and stones. “I think it’s about new things

some of our group discovered. And, he’s acting odd.”

“Oh, come on! How does that matter?”

“Well, it’s making him do odd things, uncharacteristic things. So, I think his talking about dating is the

result of that. Not something he’s really thinking about.”

“Janet, you’re over thinking this. Just like he does. Gosh, you two belong together.” Kay pointed at

Janet’s cell phone on the table. “Look, just call him and ask him out. Do it! Do it right now!”

“I can’t. Besides, he’s busy out of town. I wouldn’t disturb him with this. Something came up at the

last minute and he had to go to Kentucky on business.”

“Oh, geez! What good luck for you. Easy to keep avoiding it.”

“Yeah, that’s it.” Janet said sarcastically.

Kay paused and backed off pushing the idea. “Well, maybe it’s best not to get involved after all.

Doesn’t he still do that cult stuff at work?”

“It’s not a cult.”

“Well, what is it? Some weird religion?”

“No, it’s not even that, as far as I know.”

“Whatever. It’s creepy they do it at work. Frankly, I’m surprised they haven’t recruited you yet.”


“Oh, come on, Kay, it’s nothing like any of that. Actually, they treat it at work more like they belong

to some kind of scientific association or professional organization.”

“But, you said before you thought it was a religion.”

“Well, I was wrong. It is some kind of philosophy, but more than that as far as I can tell. David told me

some things just this last week.”

“You talked with him about it? I thought it was all supposed to be secret stuff.”

“Well, I did too. But, David told me there were no secrets. He said he’d tell me anything more about it

if I asked.”

Janet and Kay continued to talk for a few more minutes before the two finished their coffee and made

their way out onto the sidewalk. They stood looking around, deciding which direction to go.

Suddenly, Kay grabbed Janet’s arm. “Look! Speaking of the devil, there’s David!”

“What! Where? No! I told you he’s not in town. Where?”

Kay pointed. “He just got in that dark blue car over there. There, where that other guy is getting in.”

The tinted windows prevented Janet from clearly seeing anybody inside. “Kay, it’s not him. He’s in

Kentucky and won’t be back until Monday.”

“You sure? Maybe he got back early. Or, hasn’t left yet. That really looked like him.”

“Yes, I’m sure. He specifically said he had something to do there on Monday. That’s not him. C’mon,

let’s go this way. Enough about David for now.”


Chapter 19

Returning from lunch, Charles and David stayed with Garland Pickett for nearly another hour

discussing suggestions Charles had regarding improvements with language translation modules in the

Able program. Then the two returned to the small conference room to continue their talks.

As they settled in at the table, Charles said, “I told you quite a lot this morning, and I have a lot more

to say. Any questions so far?”

David considered it. He was still interested in learning why so many here were so convinced the books

were a serious find, but he was confident Charles would get into that. He really had only one thing

which nagged him the most. “I’m still really wondering why my mother wanted my parents involved

with Aldorianism kept a secret.”

“I know. I’ll get to that, but I want to explain other things first.”

David was willing to remain patient. He trusted Charles to be thorough. He leaned back and waited for

him to continue.

“I have two primary things left to explain. One is about The League and history which you should

know as a member, and the other is what all this has to do with your parents, including the secrecy.”

Without further delay, Charles started. “Keep in mind, David, that an essential focus of members of

The League is to discover our history. The other focus being to help any Aldorian who might need it.

Now, while I expect you know the general story surrounding our past, there are several facts and

details I doubt you know. In any case, I want to make sure as a member of The League you have a

more complete story, so expect me to say a few things not so new to you.”

“Of course, we all know about Aldorianism being founded by three families. But, what we also know

is one of those families lived in Germany. We are certain of that because even to this day there are

more than enough facts and clues which lend support to this. And, there remain enough living people

over there who have kept a continuous thread of information going for several generations. So, we are

confident that Aldorianism started in Germany. This is why in part J. P. goes so often to Europe. It’s

where our roots are apparently and it’s where we can more easily find facts.”

“What we are less sure about is where the other two families were located, and how they became

involved. Did they also start in Germany and migrate to two other places? If not, how did they

otherwise get involved? Actually, do we mean these were real families, or maybe it would be better to

call them something like tribes. It has become tradition to use the word family.”

David had to ask, “Why is it I won’t know much about these things? I’ve been Aldorian for years.”


“Well, you know Aldorianism is about objective truths. But, only those truths which have meaning in

trying to live a content life in this world are generally explained to all Aldorians. It has been a long

contention that while Aldorian history might be interesting, knowledge of it is beyond basic principles

in our lives. Unlike other philosophies and religions, we aren’t interested in arguing with each other

about history. The less discussed in general, the better for the simplicity and clarity of the Aldorian

guidelines.”

“So, for better or worse, it has become a tradition by members of The League not to discuss these

things. By and large only The League knows the historical details.” Charles paused. “Look, would it

change the way you think as an Aldorian if it turned out we all started in, say Kansas? Would it matter

if there were ten families, not three? So, we just don’t talk about our history, and almost always non-

League Aldorians don’t ask. I suppose that’s maybe because they don’t know to ask. But it’s like

anything Aldorian. We would answer if asked. We simply aren’t asked. Did you ever think to ask?”

“No.” David admitted.

Charles continued, “So, what is confusing is when or why the families and Aldorianism started.”

“Consider the books. The burned pages we have are only a few which J. P. has been able to acquire.

There are more of them, all burned in a similar manner. It seems obvious that all of these pages came

from a set of books like the intact ones we found in Kentucky. We don’t know how many books are in

the European set, but we do know how they got burned. Sadly, they were nearly destroyed in World

War Two. They were located in Dresden, Germany when the terrible fire bombings occurred there.”

“J. P. was born and lived in the outskirts of Dresden. As a very young man he saw some of the burned

pages. You see, both of his parents were Aldorian, and while he has trouble recalling for sure, he

believes his father possessed some of those pages, or maybe a very close friend of his father did. At

any rate, back then he had a lot less interest in things Aldorian. So, he didn’t think much of it when he

saw the pages and quickly forgot about it. It was not until he was here and became friends with Joshua

Mayfield who was in The League that he regained his interest. Eventually he remembered those burned

pages. So, he searched in Europe for several years for them.”

“By the way, some good news about the burned pages is that Hunter Leach can do nothing about our

having them. They were acquired by J. P. privately in Europe, well away from the legal contracts with

Kentucky. Nevertheless, we plan to keep it quiet that we have them for now. The less Hunter knows

about it, the better.”

“Because there are direct witnesses regarding the German books, and continuing living knowledge of

them, we know those books were written at least by the time of the war, surely more than seventy or

eighty years ago, maybe even well more. Judging from the quality of the physical construction of the

books, it is possible they were manufactured as long ago as just before the U. S. civil war. And, it’s

reasonable to assume the Alamard books were written about the same time as the European ones.

Maybe not, but likely. We’d like to find out.”

David asked, “Do we know if they are separately written books, or exact copies?”


“No, we don’t.”

“Well, that should be easy to find out. We can take the writing from the burned pages, what little there

is, and search our scans to see if they match exactly or not.”

“Yeah, good idea. At any rate, during various trips to Europe, as J. P. searched for any of the burned

pages, he ran across believable stories that the American family settled in Kentucky. In fact, based on

some stories he heard we grew more confident that the books in Kentucky existed, and they were

perhaps still in the Alamard area. Much of this information comes from European Aldorians who have

documentation which indicates their ancestors knew members of the Kentucky family. We were

fortunate that J. P. discovered that, so to a reasonable extent we expected the books to be there.”

“But, while we are confident regarding what we know about the American family, we have almost no

information about the third one. The best guess so far is they were in Africa, or maybe far eastern Asia.

We just don’t know. And, we also don’t know if they had a set of books.”

“What about this term, Situs 22? J. P. asked me about it.”

“We believe it refers to actual distinct locations or villages where Aldorians lived originally. Its seems

to be very old terminology used by past Aldorians to refer to those locations. It appears that the

Kentucky site was the one called Situs 22. But, so far nobody has found evidence of a reference to a

Situs with any number other than 22. In part, that’s why you don’t hear the term talked about much by

League members. Learning anything new about the term has been fruitless. There is, however, a more

significant aspect to the term which I will describe, but let’s wait until later for that. I won’t forget.”

David held back interrupting and insisting for more now, but he made a mental note to make sure

Charles finished his explanation later.

“Now, it is significant that the European Aldorians were in and around Dresden. They had to survive

not only through the Nazi menace and the war, but then they had to suffer many years of control by the

old Soviet Union. In light of that, it’s easy to understand why they became so secretive about

themselves. It’s hard to break a deeply established habit. So, to this day, Europe wants to remain

hidden and quiet about our point of view. On the other hand, our relative greater freedom and open

society for much longer has led us to become more open to telling others who we are.”

“What I think is unfortunate is how it has affected people in our own ranks. This has turned into a tug

of war, leading in some cases to acrimonious behaviors. J. P. has spent a lot of energy trying to find

ways for us to come together more and stop the infighting. He enlisted help from several people,

including me. I have traveled to Europe a few times with him.”

“It was during one of those trips to Germany when he introduced an Aldorian family to me, old friends

of his family.” Charles looked squarely at David. “David, that family had a daughter. Her name was

Katherine Bauer.”

David jerked and stiffened. “What! Karen? That’s Karen!” He was so surprised he didn’t know what

else to say.


“Yes, Karen. I met her and her family when she was still living in western Germany with her parents.

She had just graduated as a technical writer. It was J. P. who arranged for her to immigrate to the U. S.

He was impressed with her talents and knew he wanted her to join Hunmay, which he and Mayfield

founded the next year.”

David was so surprised, he barely heard what Charles was saying. He had no inkling of an idea that

Charles or J. P. knew the Bauers and their daughter Katherine. He didn’t know what to think of this.

He shut his eyes and turned his head from side to side, trying to deal with the news. Of course he knew

Karen grew up in west Germany. He knew she came to the U. S. about fifteen years ago, changing her

first name to Karen from Katherine, which she strongly preferred. After meeting Karen three years

later at Hunmay, he learned these things. But, he was having trouble trying to comprehend that not

only did Charles and J. P. know the Bauers, but it was through their help that Karen moved here. He

rubbed his forehead and tried to make sense of him knowing nothing about any of this, instead

knowing a completely different story about how she got here. He grew more upset as he tried to

understand that Karen herself never told him the truth. What the hell!

“Damn it, Charles!” David stood up and paced. “This is bullshit! How the hell could all this be going

on? You think Karen would really keep these things from me? Why? Why would she do that?”

“David, I’m not making up any of this. We all thought it was for the good of Aldorianism.”

That angered David even more. “Oh, don’t give me that crap! This is fucked! You’re talking about

Karen. She never lied to me. She wouldn't do that!” He yelled at Charles and paced even more heavily

around the room.

Charles sat quietly. Waiting.

After a few moments and some heavy breaths, David said, “This better be good. This better be, Charles,

or—” He was not sure how to finish. “Okay, look. You tell me how Karen would have lied to me. You

explain that.”

“David, I know that not telling you is a lie of omission and that is still just a lie. But, we all did really

believe it was best not to tell you that J. P. and I knew her. We didn’t go only without telling you. We

told nobody. I mean nobody. Ask anybody in the next room. They all knew Karen, and not one of them

has a clue even now that we knew her, that we were the ones who convinced her to come to Austin,

that we paid for her expenses and even pulled strings to acquire her U. S. citizenship.”

David stopped pacing and stared at Charles. “Why? Could it really matter that others knew?”

“We thought it did. So, the three of us vowed silence.” Charles corrected himself. “No, six of us.

Karen’s brother and her parents also kept quiet.”

“Oh, God!” David sat back down. This was defeating him. He was rapidly losing any feelings. He felt

like some dumb outsider. Had he always been played for such a fool? He looked at Charles. The

expression on his face, in his eyes, begged for clarity.


“David, I’m sorry. I can only repeat that we truly believed it was better to keep quiet. I will explain

what I can and then leave it with you to judge. I’m only asking that you give me the benefit of our

friendship, that you wait and hear what I have to say before making your judgment. Can you please do

that?”

David’s shoulders slumped. He felt beat up and empty. “I need a minute. I need a break. Alone.”

Without a word, Charles nodded and quietly stood, closing the door behind him as he left the room.

It was too much. First, it’s a secret that Charles knew him before college. Next, that his parents secretly

were Aldorian, followed immediately by learning that his mother wanted it kept a secret from him.

Now this? His own wife! All of this secrecy. Do they all think of him as some kind of threat to

Aldorianism? Somebody completely unworthy?

He sat frozen, staring at nothing but in the direction his eyes randomly looked. For a couple of minutes

his thoughts seemed frozen also. Slowly he realized that he wasn’t really angry at Charles. He was

angry at the information. It dawned on him he was also actually angry with his mother. And, Karen. He

was hurt. He had never felt or known any kind of secret behavior associated with his relationship with

either of them. He struggled with trying to reconcile this information with all he had come to know. It

wasn’t fitting in. It left him completely off balance. How could it be? How could it be?

For several minutes he continued to stare off toward nothing. Wow, he thought, I really reacted to all

of this. What was that? Why did I feel this sudden anger at my mother and Karen? Am I really still

angry at loosing Karen like I did? Am I still angry at myself for not being there, preventing her from

being taken from me? Is this really about that? Is her knowing Charles and J. P. all that important?

Does it really matter what my mother did?

The more David thought the more he slowly realized that this was just what Charles told him it was. It

was only just history. He felt a small surge of guilt for the outburst. After all, not only was it just

history, it was history which happened before he even met Karen. In fact, he realized, it wasn’t about

him at all. It was about Aldorians, which David was not part of at the time and about which he knew

very little then. It was their strange game. He was not even a participant.

It was his ego which was hurt. Did he really expect that he and Karen always shared all things with

each other? Were there absolutely no other omissions between them in their lives? Granted, Karen’s

earlier involvement with Charles and J. P. was a fairly significant omission, but still. Did it really

matter that David didn’t know? He had never felt all that close to either of his parents. Did this news

really change that? Did it suddenly matter?

Slowly, David started feeling silly. God, what a reaction. He approached the door. Opening it quietly,

he just stood there. Charles was a few feet away. Without a word, he entered the room and the two of

them sat back down.


Charles waited another few seconds, still saying nothing. It was the best thing he could possibly say.

Nothing. It was the friendship between the two men which spoke volumes and which allowed Charles

to treat David’s reaction as no big deal.

As if there had been nothing more than a short break to stretch their legs, Charles returned to his

explanations. “Before I met J. P., the Bauers lived in the same neighborhood as J. P. and his parents

near Dresden. They were close friends. J. P.’s father and Karen’s father were both in The League in

Germany. I think you might know that back then J. P. still was known by his given name, Karlton

Hahn.”

“You should keep in mind that during that time the Soviet Union controlled east Germany. It was not

an easy time for anybody. The Hahn family took a different approach to dealing with their

environment than the Bauers did. The Hahns learned to live within the system, adapting to it, while the

Bauers never grew comfortable enough to do that. They were deeply troubled by the oppressive world

in which they were raising their children.”

“J. P. doesn’t talk about it, but over the years I have heard enough comments here and there to realize

that something happened in The League. Whatever it really was, Mr. Hahn and Mr. Bauer had strongly

differing opinions. From what I have been able to figure out, Mr. Bauer strongly opposed most of the

others in The League and he withdrew. It was Aldorian business I’m sure, but to this day I still don’t

have a clue what it was. It must have been a big deal because it was the back breaking straw. The

Bauers finally found the motivation and courage to do the impossible. They defected from east

Germany. Suddenly one day, the Bauers were gone. I also know a little about how much pressure the

Hahns received from the Soviets to tell what they knew about the Bauers. It must have been fairly

brutal at times. As far as I can tell, the Hahns basically grew bitter and angry at the Bauers, and refused

to talk about them again.”

“Well, the Bauers made it out and settled in west Germany in Bonn, where you know Karen’s father

lives still. As best as I can tell, it was with the Bauer’s escape from east Germany that they then vowed

to never discuss anything about their past. In fact, Mr. Bauer dropped out of Aldorianism altogether.”

“It took a lot of work, but J. P. was eventually able to locate the Bauers. That happened after he came

to Texas, changed his name, and accumulated enough money to make things happen. When he finally

approached the Bauers, they were able to allow him to be involved with their lives. With time, J. P.

became fairly good friends with them, although it is my understanding that Aldorianism remained a

forbidden topic between them. I don’t think the Bauers ever realized even a little how much J. P. had

become involved with Aldorianism. At any rate, in their desire to provide a better life for Karen, they

were convinced by J. P. to allow him to support her migrating to here. It was all about a richer future

and better opportunities that J. P. argued and convinced them. Evidently they never realized that it was

also a lot about Aldorianism. J. P. had reasons to get Karen involved with it.”

“By that time, I had also met the Bauers. So, I helped mentor Karen as she settled in over here. I was in

The League by then. J. P. had been in The League for years.”


Although interesting to him, including a little of it which David already knew slightly, none of what

Charles was telling him now was packed with any emotional content. It helped calm him more and get

more easily past his early outburst. He wanted to know more.

“Now, I need to take an aside for a moment to explain something about Aldorianism which I am fairly

sure you know nothing about, but which is relevant. I am fairly sure you never heard the phrase family

history Aldorian. Is that right?”

David thought a second. “No, never heard of it.”

“It’s a phrase only members of The League would use. It’s a reasonably guarded phrase, so I would

have been surprised if you knew of it. It is, nevertheless, a phrase which is well known to have been

used practically ever since Aldorianism began. We also simply say HF Aldorian or even more often

just HF. What it refers to is any child who is Aldorian. If a child is a direct descendent from known

original Aldorians, they are called an HF.”

Clearly, David thought, this really is just about history. Never one who was much interested in

knowing about his own ancestors, he found this new information not very interesting. He considered

even asking Charles to get back to things he did care about, especially the secrecy.

“David, your father was an HF. So, that means you are an HF. Your mother and I are not HFs.”

David didn’t know this, but still remained mostly disinterested. He wasn’t even particularly interested

in learning how Charles knew he or his father was an HF. It appeared that Charles was going to keep at

this more than David wanted. His impatience got the better of him. “Charles, can you hold off on this

for now? I would really like to get back to this issue of the secrecy by people I cared about.”

“I am talking about the secrecy. This HF business is the central reason for it.”

“Really!” David said incredulously.

“Yes, really. You’ll see.” Charles continued. “It matters who is or is not an HF. Karen was also an HF.

Others who are relevant HFs are J. P. and both of his parents, Karen and both of her parents, and

Hunter Leach.”

Hunter Leach? Suddenly David was more curious. He realized that he was not so surprised to hear

about any of the others being an HF, including Karen. So far, these facts seemed not so important,

despite Charles claiming it is directly related to the secrecy. Even knowing Hunter was an HF seemed

to be mostly benign fact. But, mentioning Hunter at all, intimating that he was somehow involved with

the secrecy sparked his curiosity. Now he was paying more attention.

“Okay, knowing that somebody is an HF, that is, a direct descendent from one of the original Aldorian

families, is historically interesting, but that’s not what makes it significant here.” Charles was

obviously reminding David that this was going somewhere.


“There are two reasons why this matters. One is about Aldorian tradition, which you should know

about as a member of The League, but I admit has less to do with the secrecy. So, I’ll mention it first

and get it out of the way.”

“Aldorian history, although vague and incomplete, indicates that in some manner there is a message

which will come to light which explains why Aldorianism exists in the first place. The traditional

stories consistently indicate that the message will come to light only somehow associated with an HF.

If there are no HFs, then the message is forever lost or hidden. None of us fully understand these

stories, but to remain on the safe side, it has become important to keep track of who is or is not an HF.

It’s been that way for generations. It’s a major obligation of The League.”

“The other reason has to do with a problem with HFs, with child birth. Over time it has become clear

that medically something odd is going on. It is becoming less and less common for HFs to have

children. But, it is even more odd than that. If either parent to be is an HF, but not the spouse, the

chances of a successful pregnancy is less than if both future parents are HFs. All of this has been

shown to be statistically significant.”

David realized that this did have something to do with Karen and him. If they both were indeed HFs

and all of this was true, then that helped to explain some things. He and Karen had tried all along to

have children. They both wanted at least two. Karen was pregnant once, but lost the baby from a

miscarriage. She did not become pregnant a second time. Suddenly he realized something. “Wait! This

HF business sounds like it has to do with more than direct descendents. This sounds medical, like it’s

about genetics or something. How would they know this stuff back when?”

“Yes. Something about blood proteins or such, including obvious counting of babies. I’m no expert on

this. Garland can certainly explain it if you’d like. But, further back in time, it remains unknown how

they managed to track this so well. But, somehow they did, because modern technology confirms

living HFs nowadays.”

David muttered half out loud, “So, I guess it was lucky Karen and I got together.”

“Not luck.” Charles waited for David to fix his look at him. “Remember, we knew the two of you were

HFs, J. P. and I.” He waited for that to sink in.

At first David stared blankly at Charles, but thought about it. Slowly he turned the information over in

his mind, and eventually he started realizing what Charles was getting at. “Are you trying to suggest

that my meeting Karen and marrying her was somehow orchestrated by you?”

Realizing that David was seeing the light, Charles answered simply, “Yes.”

David was hard pressed to react in any way to what this meant. He tried harder to put it all together.

Charles began to help. “All of us wanted to improve the chances for more HFs to be alive. The Bauers,

the Hahns, and your parents, David. We all wanted that. Regardless of all the troubles in our private

lives, none of us saw the future of Aldorianism as unimportant. But, none of us wanted to pressure

anybody into feeling responsible for that. We did see the possibilities of you and Karen each


perpetuating the family legacy. It wasn’t much of a stretch from that to come up with the idea of the

two of you possibly getting together. From known statistics, we knew that chances to have children

improved with the two of you together.”

David felt new frustration as he quipped, “So, you conspired to breed us? Like cattle!”

Charles expected the accusation, or something like it. “David, no. That’s not how it came about. It

started out innocently enough. I knew about you as I have explained, and I saw a bright future for you

with Hunmay. Independently, J. P. brought Karen here. Nobody had the slightest thought at first of the

two of you together.”

“It was the unpleasant past and troubled relationships which motivated the agreements all around to

remain quiet about both of your pasts. The secrecy was easier to accept in light of our also knowing

that each of you was an HF. We all came to believe that it was simply best not to put that kind of

pressure directly on either of you. There was no doubt that both of you would eventually discover you

were Aldorians, or somehow otherwise become involved. But, we all agreed it was best to let it happen

to each of you as if it were happening as new events, not as part of historical legacy.”

Charles tried to detect if David was letting this in, but David showed almost no expression on his face.

He did, however, seem to be listening. So Charles decided to explain more. “Remember that Hunmay

was founded about two years before we hired you. However, as some of our first employees, both

Karen and Hunter Leach were hired.”

David was already overlooking the fact that Hunter was an HF. Now he was starting to realize where

this was going.

Charles continued. “Around the same time you were writing your first paper for the Humany Archive,

Hunter was interested in Karen. It was totally not planned by anybody. It just happened. But, Karen

was simply not at all interested in Hunter. And, as we all watched quietly from the sidelines, knowing

that Karen and Hunter were both HFs, we had private hopes. When it became clear that they were not

making it together, it was then when J. P. got the idea that maybe Karen might take to you more

readily. That’s when we came up with the idea for her to be the technical writer and editor assigned to

working with you on your paper.”

“Karen’s involvement with you wasn’t the result of some long winded plan cooked up by us over the

years. The two of you getting involved with your paper was it. The rest was up to you two. Yes, we

kept quiet about matching you two, but the real secret is that none of us wanted to expose either of you

to the HF limelight and pressure. If something would happen, great, but we didn’t want to otherwise

force anything.”

“David, we honored your parent’s wishes, along with those of the Bauers. For completely independent

reasons, they were turning away from Aldorianism and wished that neither of you two know about it

while it was happening. Until you later became adults, that is. Karen had always been more involved

with Aldorianism than you, and once she settled here in Texas, she became more active with it and

even became a member of The League almost immediately. Once you grew involved with her, you


naturally followed her, much to our happiness. We saw no reasons then to tell you about your past. But,

now you’re in The League, and now it makes sense for you to learn these things.”

Charles stopped talking and leaned back. He gave David time to think. David realized that things were

more complicated than he wanted. That was life. It was never clean and simple he thought, and all his

life he wasn’t comfortable with that. He had to admit as he thought about the details of what Charles

told him, it was not nearly as sinister as he first considered. It was people just being people. He knew

he couldn’t ultimately fault anybody for what happened. People seldom fully consider the long term

consequences of their actions.

As he continued to ponder all of what Charles said, he grew less angry or frustrated. He began to see

the big picture. He understood what J. P. said about expectations. He now saw new connections and

relationships among the people around him. New revelations about his parents were becoming

welcome news to him, not uncomfortable surprises. He was understanding the humanity of what had

been going on. The rich and challenging lives of those he knew. Knowledge which now began to shed

light on more facets of them than they had appeared to be before.

David often thought of his life as if he were in the boat without a paddle, and he so often tried to find

ways to thrust his arms over the side, trying somehow to steer the boat by his hands in the water at

least in some small manner. Now he was finding the boat drifting in directions which he had never

dreamed of, but as he thought about it, he realized the ride was more robust and interesting than he

ever could have planned.

He looked at Charles and quietly said. “Charles, thank you.”

Charles drew in a slow deep breath. “I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. I will be here tomorrow.

There are other things to discuss, but this has been a long day with lots to think about. Can we stop for

now and meet again tomorrow?”

The mention of stopping helped David realize just how much he learned and tried to absorb. He too

felt ready to stop, even though he now understand there could well be more surprises ahead. But,

waiting for tomorrow to hear the rest was fine with him. He was ready to be home, alone, with his

thoughts, sorting out all of this new and greatly unexpected news.


Chapter 20

Sunday, Oct 16 - David was in a far better mood than he had been most of the day before. Through the

long and troubling talks with Charles yesterday he had been frustrated, anxious, angry, and

emotionally and mentally overloaded. He came home exhausted. It had taken him all evening long, a

couple of stiff drinks, and a restless night to come to grips with what he learned.

It was a slow and difficult thought process which eventually allowed him to feel okay with all the

revelations. Now he was able to accept the new information in a calm and much more comfortable

manner. He was beginning to wonder about new questions coming to mind, along with a few loose

ends he recognized while thinking about what Charles had told him.

After Garland Pickett picked him up at his house and the two drove into downtown Austin, David grew

increasingly anxious to get to the League offices so he could talk more with Charles. He was now

excited about learning more. He realized that not only was he learning interesting new history, but he

was discovering how much more at peace he was about troubling or unknown past windows of time in

his life and his friends and family. He wanted more.

As he and Charles settled again in the small conference room, David said, “The more I thought about

yesterday, the more I realized that you really didn’t explain very well why Karen would have not told

me more. I appreciate the secrecy regarding everybody else. It doesn’t bother me anymore, now that

I’ve had enough time to consider what you said. I’m no longer confused or troubled like I was. But, I

really hope you can explain more to me about Karen.”

“I’m glad you feel better about this. And you’re right. I didn’t say as much as I could about Karen. I

became very tired late yesterday—we both were, I think—I was really glad you were willing to wait

another day for the rest. And, I can explain better why Karen kept quiet, even not telling you.”

“Is this going to be another big shock or surprise?”

“No, I don’t think so. A surprise, yes, but it won’t be unsettling to learn.” Charles hoped he was right

about that.

“Well, so tell me.”

“History comes in many forms, David. Sometimes it is vague and incomplete, other times it is clear

and easily documented. History associated with Karen and the Bauer family is actually more of the

latter kind. As J. P. scoured Germany over the years looking for useful information, he learned

increasingly that the Bauers were involved more with Aldorianism than others. That’s because there

exists a fairly complete and trusted documentation of the Bauer family history. It’s the most complete

family history than any others we know about. And, there is one particular reason why the history is so

trusted.”


David was now especially interested in anything about the Bauers. Charles continued, “You remember

the medallion Karen wore?”

“The medallion? Sure I do.” David hadn’t thought about that medallion for a couple of years now. He

remembered Karen wore it almost every day. He knew he still had it, but at the moment he was not

quite sure where it was at home.

“Well, that’s an important connection. Surely Karen told you the medallion had been in her family for

generations. But, I expect she never connected it with Aldorians in any way. As far as you have known,

it was just a nice family heirloom.”

As David thought about it, he knew Charles was right.

“There is a list kept by The League, including Mr. Bauer, which documents almost every person who

possessed the medallion. That list continuously connects every generation of the Bauer family ever

since the list was started. It contains without a break Bauer family members as far back as 1757. So,

the medallion has existed for at least that long.”

“So, it was made then?”

“Well, we don’t know. All we are sure of is the accuracy of the list itself. It was started in 1757, but it

looks like the medallion maybe existed before then.”

“But, how do you know the medallion has anything to do with Aldorianism? Maybe it is just a family

heirloom.”

“We are confident it is about Aldorians for two reasons. First, the stories handed down through the

years, along with the documentation as part of the list, clearly indicates the medallion is about

Aldorianism. But, the second reason is also compelling. Have you ever looked closely at the

medallion?”

“Yeah, I guess. But, not for a long time.”

“Well, if you do look it, even with a casual glace, you can’t miss the symbols etched on it. There are

twenty-one of them, all arranged around a central blank area. Consistent stories indicate that the central

area was where there would eventually be etched a twenty-second symbol. Once that symbol would

have been decided. It would be the symbol representing Situs 22, the Alamard site.”

“Wait, that’s weird. If it is Aldorian, why would the Bauer family have the medallion which represents

the Alamard site? The Bauers are European; Alamard is here.”

“That’s because one of the historical tales that inplies some of the American family perhaps migrated

to Germany in the late eighteenth century. And, they took the medallion with them. But, for reasons

which aren’t clear, the Bauer family came into possession of it around then. That’s when the list was

also started, in 1757.”


Wow, David thought, J. P. had not only been incomplete, withholding information about Situs 22, but

he had also been inaccurate, clearly leaving it up to Charles to clarify everything.

“Karen knew about all of this history, and she took her connection with Aldorianism seriously. She had

never been at peace with her father’s withdrawal of his involvement with The League. She learned

about Aldorianism mostly from her mother, who also was not so happy with Mr. Bauer’s withdrawal. I

suppose part of Karen’s strong feelings were the result of the common zealous thinking of a young

person, especially during their teen age years. At any rate, when J. P. located the Bauers and

befriended them, it didn’t take long to see Karen’s desire to be more active with Aldorianism. He

guessed how much happier Karen might be if she could be more independent of her father’s control,

and what better way than for her to come to Texas.”

“With their blessings eventually, Karen’s parents wished her well as she left. Nobody objected that she

brought the medallion with her. Mr. Bauer evidently was happy it would be gone, and Karen had

already been handed it as the next person on the list.”

“By that time J. P. also knew of the significance of the connection between the medallion and

Aldorianism. He was about the only one besides the Bauers who did. So, he convinced Karen of the

importance of never divulging the medallion’s history. In fact, he convinced Karen to keep her own

involvement with Aldorianism mostly a secret.”

“Karen herself began to believe it was best especially to not tell others she was in The League, or about

the medallion. Maybe she and J. P. discussed and reaffirmed the secrecy with the failure of Hunter

Leach to become involved with her. So, by the time you were on the scene, Karen was more than

willing to just not discuss The League at first, and especially not to discuss the medallion. If you think

about it, you learned quite slowly that Karen was even Aldorian. Certainly you didn’t know of her

membership in The League until after you were married. And, because of the greater significance of

the medallion, she simply choose not to tell even you about it. She honored the pact she made with J. P.

For quite awhile only J. P. and Karen knew the truth behind the medallion here in Texas. I learned

about it myself only after her unfortunate death.”

“To a great extent, David, Karen kept quiet about these things with you at first, waiting until she knew

how you would feel about all of it. When you first showed interest in Aldorianism, she was really

happy. But, also at first nobody knew how you would feel about going public. So, as a caution, she was

slow to tell you about the deeper connections she had with Aldorians. Unfortunately, she didn’t live

long enough to tell you more.”

Charles capped the explanation with a last statement. “David, it’s not you she was mistrusting actually.

It was her deeply serious caring about Aldorianism which was motivating her. She was actually close

to telling you everything.”

Charles stopped talking, allowing David to think.


David was still calm and accepted what Charles had been saying. He understood the deep feelings

Karen had for Aldorianism, and could see how her connections were strongly held convictions. He

understood how slowly Karen might reveal even to him her involvement.

After awhile Charles said, “David, I trust you realize it is important to remain quiet about everything I

have been telling you.”

“Yeah, I get it.” He noticed that Charles had reminded him of the secrecy more than once already.

Choosing not to protest, he asked, “So, over here, only you, J. P., and I know about the medallion?”

“Yes.”

“Now that we have discovered the books, wouldn’t it be a good idea to see if the symbols on Karen’s

medallion match anything in the books?”

“Of course, we should check. But, I’m not optimistic. Without knowing the medallion’s significance at

the time, before you met her, Karen showed it to me years ago and asked me as a linguist if I

recognized the symbols on it. So, I studied them, and from what I’ve seen in the books so far, I’d say

they aren’t the same language.”

“Really different languages, huh? Do you recognize the medallion symbols at all?”

“No. In fact, I think the symbols are not characters or glyphs from any language. Instead, they are just

abstract representative symbols, one for each Aldorian village. It appears that they never got a chance

to design a symbol for Situs 22, the Alamard.”

“That’s too bad.”

Charles moved on. “There are other things I wish to point out.”

David looked at Charles, breaking his brief preoccupation with thoughts about the medallion.

“Another group of members of The League have been involved with this HF business. Of course, you

know about the human genome?”

“Sure, but only what I’ve heard mostly in the media.”

“Well, the human genome was roughly first mapped around 2000, and more fully completed about

three years later. By now, DNA sequencing is not very expensive, and quite robust. So, the HF group

in The League started a project to sequence the DNA of as many HFs as they can. They are building a

database of the results. The hope is that by comparing DNAs of as many HFs as possible, they might

learn why child birth is becoming less frequent. Maybe the problem is genetic. We certainly don’t

understand the problem at this point. But, it seems like a good idea to pursue this. Would you mind

contributing your DNA?”

“No, not at all. What’s a little spit?”


“Good! Thank you. J. P. and I talked on the phone last night. And, he is arranging to have the DNA

database and associated work moved to these offices. It looks like we’ll be keeping this place open for

awhile.” Again, Charles mentioned the need for secrecy. “David, we think it is extremely important

that nobody new learn of your involvement here. Other than J. P. and the ones in this office, we ask

that you reveal nothing to anybody else.”

“Sure, okay.” David understood this was a good idea.

Still, Charles felt compelled to explain. “We think it’s an advantage especially not to have anybody in

Kentucky know about this. But, this includes others at Hunmay. Please, don’t even tell Jordan.”

Charles knew that he and Jordan were close friends and likely to share information. “The way things

are going in Kentucky, there’s a chance our translation efforts might be even more successful here than

at Hunmay. Project Able is not focused only on the books like we are, but rather the entire set of data

from the Alamard dig.”

David had nothing to say about Charles’ request. It was easy to accept. “I’m just wondering again

about this message thing. Yesterday you said that only an HF can reveal the message. Do you know

more about what that means?”

“Not really. Consistently the stories insist that only an HF can do it. But, I have no idea why. Of course,

if the books are connected to Aldorianism, and at this point we have little doubt, then it would be great

if the books explain more. Maybe even totally clear up this business. I am hopeful.”

Charles added, “Hunter is a fairly good linguist. So, there is always the risk that he might make

progress faster than us. But, I certainly wouldn’t bet that way. We have gathered a lot more focused

resources. We should translate the books more rapidly than him. I guess he might find some legal way

to force us to share our findings with him. I certainly don’t know the laws. But, I know J. P. is aware of

these things, and that’s part of why he’s in Kentucky right now. He’s working on creating as many

barriers in front of Leach as possible. The less he knows about this, the better.”

“What about the stones?”

“Well, clearly it’s certain they are also Aldorian, since the symbols on them are the same as the volume

numbers on the book spines. But, nobody expected them. There are no stories or documents we know

of which mention them. So, they might not be all that relevant. One never knows. So, we’ll keep track

of them as best as we can. Who knows what Hunter will do with them.”

Both men sat silently for several seconds. It seemed that Charles was mostly out of things to say, and

David could tell. Then he thought of something else to ask about. “Charles, what are Keepers? I’ve

known for awhile that J. P. is called a Keeper.”

“Oh that? Not much really. The term refers to those members of The League who are the most heavily

connected with Aldorianism. It refers to somebody who has the greatest commitment to documenting

and interpreting Aldorian history.”

“Are you a Keeper?”


“Yeah. You know me, I really do like history. Are you interested?”

“Oh no, not really. Personal history is one thing, but history just in general doesn’t do it for me. I’ll

pass, but thanks anyway.”

“No problem. Well, unless you have more questions, I’m done for now.”

David thought for a second. “No questions. For now. Maybe later.”

“Well, I’m around, of course. Look I know you have a lot of other things to be doing here, so I’ll get

out of the way. I’ll be back in my Hunmay office tomorrow, and J. P. will call both you and me when

he learns the decisions at the arbitration meeting tomorrow morning. So, I guess you’ll spend most of

tomorrow here again?”

“Yeah, I’ll be back at work for the all hands meeting Tuesday morning. I suppose everybody will

know the result in Kentucky by then?”

“Yeah, I’ll send out an email. Oh, I almost forgot. We have a secure web site. Get the URL and

password from Garland. It’s where we keep most of our less sensitive historical documentation.

Browse it as much as you wish. My bet is even you will find some historical things of interest there.

Every member of The League uses the site. So can you, now that you’re in The League.”

The two men left the conference room. Charles left the offices while David got busy with Garland

Pickett for the rest of the day.


Chapter 21

Monday, Oct 17 - David sat on his couch waiting for Garland Pickett to pick him up for the last of the

four day weekend visit at The League offices. He thought about how much had happened during the

previous three days. He appreciated how much new he learned about Karen, about her family, and

about his own. Somehow, the new knowledge helped him feel closer to all of them. He realized that it

had even drawn him closer to his connection with Karen. He knew now he had greater sympathy for

her point of view about the things which mattered so much to her.

Last night he sat in the same place on the couch holding and examining the medallion. It was the first

time he had brought it out and looked at it since Karen’s death. He had to search for it a few minutes,

not even sure where he had stored it. But finally he was holding it, touching it and experiencing the

energy it helped generate. Energy which brought back warmer feelings he had slowly been losing over

the years since he last held Karen in his arms.

Staring at the medallion, it helped bring back memories of times he and Karen shared. Mostly happy

memories. Memories which had grown weaker recently which he vowed never to forget, but memories

he also vowed would never corner him into not looking forward, open to new experiences and shared

moments with friends, both old and new. He recalled a time not too long ago when he didn’t feel this

way. He knew he now felt the way Karen would have insisted. She was always optimistic and open,

constantly pushing him to hold his own cynicism and doubts at bay.

As he examined the medallion he recalled that shortly after Karen’s funeral, he received a request from

her parents to have the medallion returned to them. David had been polite but firm when he declined

the request. That certainly never helped what little remaining relationship he had with them.

Light reflected on the medallion so he could see a smudge near the top edge. He tilted it for better light

and stared at the spot carefully. It suddenly dawned on him that it looked like it was a drop of dried

blood. Karen’s blood! It was from that fateful day as she struggled with her assailant. With an initial

compulsion to clean off the spot, he stopped as he thought about it. If he left the spot alone, he knew it

could represent a reminder every time he looked at it of her focus and commitment to Aldorianism.

She wore the medallion almost every day of her life.

David sat with, held, and looked at the medallion for over two hours before finally returning it to a safe

resting place, snuggly tucked inside a small cloth bag. This morning, as he thought about the medallion,

it would now symbolize to him his own involvement in what he would do as an active member of The

League.

He saw new importance with the skunk works effort by The League to translate the books, kept as a

secret by all participants. He now fully understood that his own involvement by far would be better

kept hidden from anybody else beyond The League offices. He contemplated also how he would


coordinate efforts in project Able at Hunmay with those in The League offices. He grew more

motivated, even a bit excited at the prospects. He realized that the secrecy helped him enjoy the

involvement even more than he might otherwise.

As he sat thinking about what else he should do today before returning to the Hunmay offices

tomorrow, he heard a car pulling up outside. It was Garland arriving to pick him up. As David locked

the front door, Garland stepped out and stood beside the car. David approached him and they stood

there chatting for a couple of minutes. Eventually, the two climbed into the car and left for The League

offices. David was anxious to continue working on ideas he and Garland had developed during much

of their time together the day before following the relative short visit with Charles. He was happy that

he had yet one more day away from Hunmay. He knew that whatever was decided in Kentucky today,

he would not allow it to hinder his enthusiasm for what was ahead.

Damn it, Janet thought. If I had only been driving a little faster, I wouldn’t have been caught at this

traffic light. So, there she sat, waiting to continue her drive to work. She was otherwise refreshed from

a pleasant weekend visit with her friend Kay and some time to herself most of Sunday just relaxing.

As she sat waiting for the light to change, her mind wandered in random directions. Suddenly, she was

interrupted from her near daydreaming as she barely noticed a certain car passing on the cross street in

front of her. The car was as quickly out of sight as it had appeared, but it caught her attention anyway.

Was that the same dark blue car Kay pointed out on Saturday?

As the light turned green and she started forward, she looked down the side street trying to see more of

the car, but no luck. She couldn’t help but wonder, however, and she thought about the moment on

Saturday when Kay swore she saw David. She tried to shake off the thought. No way. She couldn’t

quite let go the idea that this was an actual coincidence and it really was the same car. After all, the car

was driving in the right direction toward David’s house.

Her curiosity got the better of her. If only she hadn’t already had these recent odd thoughts about

David. At the next corner, she turned left and doubled back, heading now toward his house. In a few

minutes she pulled up to the cul-de-sac where he lived. As she neared the corner, she pulled up to the

curb and stopped. She tried to ignore the silly feelings she had about what she was doing. Looking

down the side street, she could see his house at the end of the short block. In the driveway sat his car,

and parked behind it was the blue car. She was stunned. Kay must have been right. Now she no longer

felt silly at all.

Standing beside the car was the man she recognized as the same one she had seen getting into the car

on Saturday, but otherwise she did not recognize him. And, there he was, David, stepping away from

his front door and walking over to the stranger. They stood there talking.


Janet was so surprised and confused, she wasn’t sure next what to do. What the hell was going on?

Why wasn’t he in Kentucky? Evidently he never went, assuming he was here also on Saturday as Kay

insisted. She sat there watching the two men, not sure what to make of it, until a minute later she began

to think of a far more reasonable explanation. Clearly David didn’t go to Kentucky. Maybe his plans

changed and he simply stayed home. But, why didn’t he go into work on Friday? Was he also not

going in today? Maybe the stranger was a friend of his, and David decided to use the time to spend

with him.

The more she thought about more simple explanations, the more silly she started feeling again. When

David and his friend moved toward the car to get in, Janet quickly drove away, not wishing for either

of them to see her parked where she was. She turned the next corner and headed off to work.

In a few minutes, she pulled into the Hunmay parking garage, entered her building, and settled at her

desk with a fresh cup of coffee. She looked down at a sheet of paper lying on her desk. It was the

database log she looked at last week. She stared at the read all entry she had circled in red. As she

stared at it and sipped her coffee, she was again confused about David. She entertained once more the

idea that he was somehow involved in activities which didn’t make sense. Briefly she thought of

talking to Jordan about her concerns.

As she continued thinking about it, she finally began to wonder why this all was affecting her so much.

Wasn’t his actions really innocent enough? Why did she seem to be caring about this so much? She

knew the answer and that actually didn’t help her feel any better. She thought about the conversation

she had with him last week when he seemed to hint that he was interested in her. She knew she

welcomed the idea. She knew she wanted the two of them to get involved, despite her misgivings

about their working relationship.

The whole business began to annoy her. She had better things to do today. Somehow, she had to put all

of this aside. David was not here, and even if he was, what would she say to him? How could she make

it her business? She pushed the database log aside and turned to her computer keyboard, attempting to

focus on the many other things she should be doing.


Chapter 22

Tuesday, Oct 18 - David sat in his office waiting until time for the weekly all hands meeting while he

thought about the previous four days. He was more comfortable yet with what Charles told him about

his family history. He realized now that he had lived with part of his life missing, information which

had prevented him from a reasonable understanding of people who were such an important influence

on him. He thought that he had managed to live in a form of denial of his own personal history.

He was also excited about technical ideas which had come about through collaboration with Garland

Pickett and after some conversations with Charles. The weekend work translated directly into useful

directions to take not only in the skunk works efforts in The League offices, but certainly also in

project Able. He considered how the ideas developed would be implemented.

He continued to think about how he would manage coordination of efforts between the two groups

during translation of the books while maintaining secrecy of not only his involvement, but also that of

all the work in The League office. The quarterly backups delivered to The League from Hunmay

would not be nearly sufficient. More frequent updates were surely required.

Keeping the burned pages known about only in The League offices would not be difficult, but any

accomplishments made because of their existence would be a little more tricky to share here at

Hunmay. He thought about how that would be managed.

Finally he turned his attention to a particular pattern matching problem which had come up during the

weekend as first noted by Charles. Jotting on paper as he pondered ways to solve the particular

problem, the minutes passed quickly until it was time for the meeting.

As he stepped into the conference room, he looked around the room, seeing that a few people were

already present. Janet was one of them. She spoke to him before anybody. “Good morning.”

He smiled, glad to see her. But, she sounded a little disingenuous. David looked at her as he moved to

his usual seat. What was that? Still, he returned the greeting. “Good morning.” He quickly thought

about talking with her later today. Maybe it was time to suggest he was interested in her. Certainly last

week when he talked with her, he sensed her feelings were similar.

Thinking about the late email yesterday from Charles sent to everyone pointing out that the arbitration

board had indeed supported the Kentucky request to have possession of the books and stones, she

asked, “I see it went as expected. Otherwise, how was your trip?”

What is going on? He could still hear something in her voice. Maybe not. He tried to ignore it as he

answered. “It was mostly boring. You know, spending all that time around lawyers.” David wondered

if the tone of his voice as he lied was convincing. He was not good at this. He tried to look busy as he

selected his usual seat and spread some paperwork on the table in front of him.


Janet was immediately less happy than she felt already. She refrained from saying anything more,

feeling a surge in anger and frustration as she tried to deal with David’s obvious lie. She now had to try

to somehow manage knowledge of what she knew. She could find no way to explain what she had seen

yesterday. What was perhaps an innocent happening had turned in an instant into something

considerably more sinister. Now all she had were questions, all of which felt as if they must have

unpleasant answers. She couldn’t find adequate innocence in her awareness of what he had been doing

instead of what he was claiming.

Cheryl Davis was also in the room and spoke. “When did you get in, last night?”

“No, I flew back yesterday afternoon, shortly after the arbitration board meeting.” David again felt

uncomfortable with his lie.

As remaining people entered the room for the meeting, he hid from more questions by attempting to be

studying closely something written on a sheet of paper. Eventually everybody settled in and he started

the meeting. “Charles sent an email to everyone yesterday afternoon after he received a call from J. P.

and learned the ruling of the arbitration board in Kentucky. And, we all know the books and stones are

packed up and already on their way. But, for now we still have a complete scan of the books, so we

should continue with our plans to see how much we can translate.”

He grew less troubled as he continued. A lie is much easier to handle when everybody accepts it

without further questions. “First off, I’d like to hear from Charles and Cheryl, and then from Jordan.

So, Charles, please.” He sat back feeling much more comfortable as people changed their attention to

Charles.

Janet continued, however, to stare at David, struggling with trying to understand any reasonable

explanation for what was going on. She was angry, hurt, and confused. She couldn’t think straight

about what she would do next. She wondered if she should talk with somebody about this. Jordan?

Charles? What about a direct approach with David? Perhaps she should remain cautious until she knew

more, saying nothing for awhile. Once again she tried to allow for the possibility that nothing

significant was going on. What the hell could it be?

Charles stood at the front, facing the project members. “On Friday, I met with a hand writing expert, a

man named Robert Geiger. We spent almost the entire day examining numerous excerpts from the

books. Sadly, Robert had a chance to examine them directly for only an hour before the books and

stones were locked away. Looking directly at the hand writing in the books is evidently much more of

an advantage than only examining digital photos. The scans in this case. Nevertheless, we did make

some definitive conclusions and they are surprising and intriguing. Here is an example showing what I

mean.”

Charles leaned over the display system and brought up a scan of one of the pages. “You recall last

week that Cheryl and I suggested that several authors not only wrote these notes, but while also using a

language which was changing with time. Well, that is only partially correct. With Robert Geiger’s help

we are certain that multiple authors are involved here. But, all of the writing appears to be of the same


one unchanging language after all. However, the grammar is changing. And, something is going on in

this writing that I don’t recall having ever seen before. It took almost all of Friday to figure this out.”

Turning to the display on the front wall with a laser pointer, Charles picked out a specific character in

the writing. “It looks like each character is composed of two or more parts. Take this one for example.”

Charles isolated and zoomed the display in on one particular character. “It is easy here to see this part

which fairly clearly looks like it could be independent of the rest. This first part appears from time to

time in the notes, but with other secondary parts associated with it.”

He scrolled along the notes for a few characters. “See, here is the first part again, but different

additional strokes with it. And, here. Yet a third way this first part is used.”

Charles straightened up and faced the room. “Now, this particular property of a first part along with

additional strokes is not unique. Chinese, for example, has basically the same property. The first part in

Chinese is called the character’s radical. With the radical, there is nearly always associated a few more

strokes to complete each character, used to designate the full meaning of that character. So it appears

to be with this language.” He paused a second or two. “Sort of.”

“With this language, the first part property is evident, but the rest of the character is not necessarily all

of the rest. Not infrequently, a character can have a second part, followed by yet additional strokes.

There can be a third part and even a fourth part, although it grows more and more rare.”

“Also, it looks like each part is composed with a decreasing amount of stroke complexity. So, the first

part is the most robust. The second part is composed typically of fewer strokes, followed by the third

part, if it exists, with even less strokes, and so on. Furthermore, the first part can often be used without

a second part. Or, the second part can be missing entirely, but with only the first and third parts present.

It is all fairly complicated. More so than anything I’ve seen before.”

With a couple of display examples showing what he was talking about, Charles waited for a moment to

allow everyone in the room to see easily what he was describing.

“Now, while this building up of characters with parts is not at all common, it is even more unusual

than that. It took Mr. Geiger awhile Friday, but he finally realized a highly unusual thing was going on.

And, this is also something I have never seen in any written language.” Charles leaned over the display

system and selected another display. “Here is what I mean.”

Pointing at one part of the display showing what appeared to be a long sentence, he continued. “This is

the first part of this character. And, you can see many of these characters have this same first part, with

various additional parts. But, what Mr. Geiger realized was that the first part was not always written by

the same person. In fact, within just this one sentence—assuming this is a sentence—it looks like at

least four different people wrote the first part.”

David, as well as others in the room, was now intrigued by what Charles was describing. While only a

couple of people in the room were linguists, nobody misunderstood what Charles was pointing out.


“Here is another example,” Charles said, as he brought up a new display. “You can see in this line of

text that this first part appears five times in this apparent sentence. Yet, not all five first parts were

written by the same one person. It looks like three different people wrote them. And, yet other people,

or sometimes the first person, added second, third, or more parts to each first part.”

Charles stopped and waited. Eventually Jordan was the first to speak. “So, it’s like a whole group of

people not only wrote this stuff, but it’s as if they randomly took turns writing each part.”

“Yes!” Charles quipped. “That’s exactly it! I’ve never seen anything like this.” He looked at David.

David was as intrigued as anyone. “So, what do you think this means?”

“I don’t know. I mentioned before that Cheryl and I believe this language is constructed. This leads me

to believe it even more. But, I cannot imagine writing coherent sentences using this process, if that is

what’s really going on.”

Charles then added, “However, Cheryl and I have come up with a theory. Perhaps each part selects a

meaning, with each added part selecting variations on the meaning. If this is the case, then what seems

to be going on here is that an author writes one meaning, followed at times by a second author who

modifies the meaning slightly by adding second parts here and there. And so on with a possible third

author, and then a fourth one.”

As everybody sat staring at the display, David finally asked, “Do you see this process applied

throughout all five books?”

“Well, we’re not sure yet, but we think so,” Charles answered. “Mr. Geiger and I actually did not look

much at the volumes except for the first one. By the time we wanted to look at the other volumes, the

books had been locked away, and it was more tedious selecting specific pages from the scans. Without

the actual books, we could not as easily observe things such as apparent ink flow in places, or pressure

against paper by the author. Things which do not show as well in the scans. We did pick a few random

pages from the other books, and yes, we think we continued to see this pattern of writing. So, I assume

it is applied consistently through all of the books.” He then added, “The good news is that the method

of translation might remain consistent throughout all five books.”

After another few seconds of silence, Charles finished. “That’s what I have for now. Cheryl was also

looking through the books, but in another way, and she discovered something nice. So, I’ll let her

report what she discovered.”

Cheryl stood where she was and began speaking. “Each of the five books contains 250 bound sheets of

paper, or 500 pages to write upon front and back. Nearly all of the pages in the first four books has

something on it. The fifth book has writing only on the first 314 pages. So, we have a total of about

2,300 written pages.”

She paused briefly. “I spent time giving a large number of pages throughout the books a little more

than a quick glance. I was looking for exceptional areas. Things like obvious changes in writing format,

or additional drawings. I made a complete list what I found, noting the scan ID and the type of


presentation exception. These special exceptions will surely help in the translation efforts. While I

looked at almost every scan, I could have easily missed a few places. Looking one at a time at 2,300

images is tedious, and really boring to tell the truth.”

Cheryl paused to let that make its point. “One of the better pieces of news is that I did find additional

drawings scattered throughout the books. Not only are there the drawings of plants we found right

away in the fifth book, seventeen consecutive pages of that, but I found another thirty-eight

independent drawings in the other four books. I found no additional drawings in the fifth book.”

“Thirty-eight! That’s great!” David said.

Cheryl responded, “It is a nice surprise.”

“Are there labels on any of them?”

“On eleven of them. Five of those are more drawings of plants and the remaining six with labels found

on drawings of things I don’t recognize off hand. This does provide additional help with the translation

process. Even the drawings without labels can provide useful clues, I’m sure.”

“What are the drawings of?”

“All kinds of things. Twenty-six of the thirty-eight are still of plants, but the remaining twelve I’m

really not sure about. Most appear to be highly stylized drawings, like abstract art. Perhaps you could

say they are abstract doodles. I have a display of the more unusual ones.”

She quickly stepped to the front of the room and brought up the presentation. Nobody in the room had

much to say. Cheryl was right. The display showed odd drawings, abstract like, and almost like

mindless doodles.

“Anybody see anything?” Cheryl asked. There were no offers.

Cheryl continued. “Of the non-drawing items, I found forty-six format or layout changes from the

normal paragraph style of presentation apparent on most pages. They consist of things which look like

lists, tables of items, or numbered outlines. These formats can also be helpful.”

“I will email the list I made to everyone, along with some additional notes I’m in the process of

finishing. I should send out what I found before today is over.” Pausing a moment in case there were

any comments or questions, she concluded. “That’s all I have for now.”

David said, “Thanks, Cheryl. The things you found should move the translation process along more

smoothly.” He then spoke to the whole room. “Everybody should become familiar with Cheryl’s list.

As you work with the scans, if you find any additional candidate page to add to the list, have Cheryl

look at it. She will remain the manager of this list and she can decide when new pages are added.”

Turning to Jordan, David said, “Jordan, you’re up.”


Jordan stayed in his chair as he spoke. “I’ve got some dating results, and certainly not what we would

like.” He shifted in his chair and leaned forward. “We made five independent tests. The bottom line

from all five tests is that the books were buried sometime most likely between 1750 and 1810.” He

stopped and let that hit home.

“What!” Somebody blurted out. Another asked, “How is that possible?”

“I know!” Jordan said. “What can I tell you? If we had the results from only one or even two tests, I

would say we have some faults of some kind. Either bad sampling, errors during the tests. Whatever.

But, five tests? No way. The tests were made independently from each other, with independent

samples taken at the site by different people. The results are consistent.”

“These results imply the books were surely made before 1750 or 1760, and mostly written also before

then.” Jordan didn’t wait long to explain what he thought. “Books this well made cannot possibly be

manufactured that long ago. The only way I can explain this is they were buried much later than 1800,

but using older matrix material.” He looked around the room. “I think the burial is a hoax.”

That didn’t set well with anyone. Suddenly there was considerable shuffling and chatter among the

people in the room. After a few seconds, David spoke loudly. “Folks, wait! Charles, I see you have

something you really want to say.”

“Yes.” He waited as the room quieted. “Cheryl and I have looked enough at the writing, along with the

others on our team, and we are all certain the writing is something real and consistent. Yes, a

constructed language. But, a language. The books are filled with real statements written by several

different people, and they had something to say. We don’t know what they have to say. Not yet. If the

tests say the books were buried under suspicious circumstances, so be it. That doesn’t change what we

have here.”

Charles was implying that whatever was going on, it had at least some importance related to Hunmay’s

silent agenda. He had no doubt about that for reasons, of course, which he wasn’t about to divulge. He

knew David understood and he was counting on enough people in the room who would not be overly

concerned because they also supported the silent agenda. If the burial was a hoax, then that in itself

must have been done for reasons which would later come to light. Charles held onto his faith that

ultimately everything would be explained and would make sense, and he trusted enough of the others

would follow along well enough to not matter.

He added, “Look, we have an opportunity here to do some good work, to make discoveries. These

books are real. The writing in them is real. And, I am confident that we can all be proud of the work

we do to translate them. Personally, I consider the circumstances of the burial might even be an

attempt to discredit the value of what is written in the books. I think we should proceed as we would

otherwise be doing.”

David voiced his support. “We have an artifact here, a set of books filled with writing in a very

unusual language. How we came upon them seems only to be a side issue. The point is, we have an

opportunity to solve a puzzle. A big complicated puzzle. We could easily be doing a whole lot of far


more boring work than translating an otherwise unknown language. Even the possible fact that the

language is artificial—constructed—even that is a puzzle to solve.”

David hoped his challenge would help matters. He was going along easily with his own enjoyment of

solving puzzles. And, this was clearly a big one.

By now the room had settled again, and several in the room seemed to be accepting what Charles and

David were trying to sell. So, David decided to carry on before the mood changed again.

“Jordan, can you explain a bit more about microfossils?”

“Yeah, sure. Uh, microfossils are things like pollen, spores, microscopic sized bug skeletons, and such.

Spores and pollen especially are so small they float in the air all around us. Right now this room is

filled with them. And, every second which passes a few here and there stick to surfaces of things. Like

the books, made of a porous material like leather. So, when the books were buried, so were those tiny

particles which went along for the ride. Now when we dig them up, we can look at the surface material

stuck to the books and search for spores or pollen which were known to exist only during well known

time periods. That implies directly when the books would exist.”

He continued. “Now, in three of the tests we made, we found pollen especially which were in the

matrix in which the books and stones were buried. One of the pollens found belongs to a plant

commonly called Barbara’s Button. It is one of the natural plants found throughout Kentucky. This

plant usually grows along the edges of streams or on gravel bars of rivers or streams where water

scours them occasionally. That’s just the environment where the books were buried.”

“But,” David interrupted, “how does that imply the dates you mentioned?”

“Because plants, like all living things, are constantly changing, or evolving. And, this Barbara’s Button

is no exception. Pollen from it today does not look like the pollen we found in the matrix. Over the past

two plus centuries, the pollen has changed a bit, and the pollen we see in the matrix no longer exists

with the same structure as today. The pollen we found existed only over two hundred years ago.”

Jordan waited a moment for any added responses or questions. As he waited, he thought about the

stones. Although two of the five tests were administered to the matrix material associated with them,

he was not happy with how little time he had spent working directly with the stones. Now they were

gone, and he was not pleased.

But, he continued. “Stewart and botanist Shelby Hartman have been studying the drawings of the

plants in the fifth book. And, they are concluding that subtle differences in the drawings from what

these plants look like today indicate they were drawn well in the past. Also, probably well over one or

two hundred years ago.”

Stewart McGraw spoke up and added. “Yeah, also we have been unable to identify a couple of the

plants in the drawings. We are still researching this, but our first impression is the plants we can’t

identify are those which no longer grow or exist in Kentucky. Or, anywhere else as far as we can tell.”


By now, everybody in the room was caught up in the information in the conversation. Nobody any

longer seemed concerned with the possibility of some kind of hoax going on. The problem had again

become an interesting puzzle. Janet had been quiet during all of this, focusing much of the time on

David and how he was behaving. She had noticed how little he seemed to be reacting to the dating

news, as if, she thought, he knew this already. Maybe he did. Maybe Jordan had spoken with him

before the meeting. Still, his demeanor didn’t sit well with her. She had grown suspicious of any way

he might behave. She saw him as a guilty person. But, guilty of what? Benefit of doubt was gone, and

now she was judging him badly with precious little evidence.

David started bringing the meeting to a close. “Well, we’ve learned a lot of new things this morning,

and it seems clear we have plenty to do. Puzzles to solve. I am aware of the attempts the Hunmay

lawyers are making to somehow resolve the current legal problems. For now, none of that should affect

our ability to proceed.” Looking at Anne Kilgore, the head of the programming group, he added,

“Anne, I’d like to continue with this meeting only with your team. I have some new ideas to discuss

with the group.” He was anxious to develop new ideas which had come from talks with Charles and

Garland Pickett during the weekend. “Unless there are any other issues or questions, the rest of you

may leave. Our general meeting is over. Thanks, folks!”

As people left, Janet moved to a chair closer to David, along with the others in Anne’s group. She

continued to regard David with less than good feelings and she remained watchful, waiting for

anything new which might help her understand more. She remained hurt over his apparent lies to her,

but she also was not sure what to do about it next.

She wasn’t allowing herself to recognize the real reason she was reacting so negatively about him. She

had been growing more open to a greater personal relationship with him, especially since his

conversation with her last week. And, now this was jeopardizing her feelings. She gave more weight to

the suspicious nature of what she knew than she might normally do. She couldn’t recognize very well

that was what she felt. All she knew was she was unhappy with his behaviors and frustrated over not

being able to explain it innocently enough.


Chapter 23

A few minutes after the weekly meeting ended, David visited Charles in his office. “You really not

bothered that this might be a hoax?” he asked.

“Not at all. It’s like I said. The books are legit, so if there is a hoax, then that’s only about the burial.

That doesn’t diminish the value of the writing. I think it adds to it in some as yet unknown manner.

There must be good reason behind it. I don’t know any more than you what is going on otherwise. All I

know is I would really like to know what the books have to say. There’s absolutely no doubt in my

mind that they have something to do with Aldorianism.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. But, it sure brings up a lot of unanswered questions.”

“Just what you like, my friend.”

“True.” David changed the subject. “Look, I was thinking about the burned pages. I suggested to you

over the weekend that we try to see if the writing on them is an exact match to writing in the Alamard

books. I for one would like to know if they are exact copies or independent writing. To that purpose

the burned pages should be scanned in the same manner so we can apply automated methods of

comparing the writings.”

“How can we scan them the same way and keep them secret?”

“Oh, that’s really easy. I’ll just take the pages personally to the print shop where the other scans were

made. Taking them in like that, they will do a quick and easy scan in just a couple of minutes. With so

few pages and me standing there waiting, they won’t even ask for a work order. I’ve done quick work

like that numerous times before. So, there won’t be a paper trail, and the print shop folks won’t even

remember the incident.”

“I don’t know, David. That sounds a bit risky. We don’t know who informed Hunter Leach that we

found and were examining the books. Maybe it was somebody in the print shop.”

“I doubt that. They never saw the stones, but Leach knew about them also. Somebody else informed

him. I bet it’s somebody who works at the dig itself. Getting a scan like that in such an informal

manner won’t register with anyone. Even the burned state of the pages won’t raise a flag with the print

shop. Those guys see beat up artifacts all the time which get scanned. They just won’t bother asking

anything about it. It’s nothing they really care about. Look, without the same kind of scan format,

comparing the burned pages with 2,300 pages will be far too difficult.”

Charles thought about it. “I suppose it’ll be okay.”

“Good. I’ll pick up the pages after work. But, there are other issues over them I’d like to discuss.”


“Like what?”

“Well, I’d like to consider other ways we can take advantage of having them. I’m not saying we should

definitely do them, but let’s at least consider them. I appreciate the secrecy, but maybe we can protect

them enough while running other tests on them. For example, maybe we could somehow have Robert

Geiger look at them. Since he works here only through an independent contract, he has basically no

knowledge of the silent agenda. So, he wouldn’t have any reason to think anything unusual about these

extra pages. He could look at them and have the luxury of the direct evidence you pointed out was

missing when looking only at the scans. And, another thing. We talked about having the paper and ink

tested on the books to see if we could narrow down who may have manufactured them. Maybe we

could do that with these pages. And, we could do that easily enough I think directly by The League.”

Charles sat quietly for a few seconds, mulling over David’s suggestions. “There is no way we can let

Robert know about The League offices. So, he would have to study the pages somewhere else. Doing it

here is risky. He has his own business offices where he does quite a bit of this kind of work. So, it

would be easy enough to work with him there.”

“So, that’s a yes?”

“No. We should first discuss this with others at The League offices. I like the idea of testing the paper

and ink, but again we should talk with others first. And, I suppose we should also talk to J. P. about the

testing. He still owns the pages, and this would require some destruction of small samples. Still—”

David and Charles talked for a few more minutes before David got restless and left. He was anxious to

visit Janet. The euphoria and excitement he felt from the weekend spilled over and added to his desire

to dig deeper into what she thought about the two of them dating. He had finally decided that his

avoidance and caution over the issue was not really what he wanted. It was time to settle the issue.

Janet’s office door was closed as he approached. He stopped in front of it thinking he should walk

away and not disturb her when suddenly she opened the door.

“Oh!” she exclaimed.

“I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s okay. I was just getting some coffee. Was there something you needed?”

“Your door is closed. Are you busy with something? This isn’t all that important.”

“No. I was just enjoying the quiet.” She stepped aside, allowing David to enter and sit. She closed the

door behind her as she returned to her desk.

He noticed her closing the door, not exactly her way whenever he was there. “Your coffee.”

“It can wait. What do you need?”


David noticed the continued coolness in her voice. It was like she sounded earlier at the meeting. He

had been considering how he would start the conversation. “Is there something troubling you? You

sound different, maybe bothered about something.”

Janet realized she had not hidden her mood so well. She had wanted to avoid any confrontations until

she better understood what she had witnessed. She was still not sure how innocent or guilty David was.

Guilty of what? “I have some things on my mind which are confusing.”

“Work related?”

“No, David. Not work related.” That sounded much more harsh than she liked.

“Gosh, I’m sorry. Forgive me if I’m being too nosy, but can I help? I think we are friends enough.”

“Friends? That’s an odd choice of words.” Damn it, she thought. She wasn’t saying what she liked.

None of it sounded good even to her. She was not controlling herself very well.

“I mean friendly, better than a casual acquaintance. Maybe not like your relationship with Kay, for

example. Have you talked with her about what’s bothering you?”

“No.”

“Have you seen her lately?”

“I saw her Saturday. We had lunch at Henry’s.”

David blinked. “That’s down town.”

“You didn’t come here to talk about Kay.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Maybe I will talk with her.” She stared more intently at him. “She doesn’t have a silent agenda.”

David felt that. Wow, he thought, what is going on? Something continued to feel off balance. “Is it

possible I’m somehow involved? Have I done something you are having trouble with? Maybe you feel

I slighted you here at work.”

That was an arrogant, self centered thing to say, she thought. “No, you haven’t done something wrong

against me. Do you think you did?”

“No, Janet, I just—I mean—it seems as if you are not like your normal self. Even this morning before

the meeting I sensed you were not happy with something.”

Yeah, explain yourself, she wanted to say. “Why are you here? Is there something about work you

need to discuss?”


Again, it sounded too confrontational, almost combative. This was a terrible time to discuss what he

had in mind. “This isn’t about work.” He paused. “I was just walking by and thought I’d step in and

see how you are. Like I said, something seemed wrong.”

She wondered, walking by? My office is near the end of this hall. Why else would you be down here?

Instead, she said, “I’m fine. Maybe too much on my mind.”

“I’m a good listener.”

Oh, will you just stop! “You’re being insistent.”

He realized he better back off. “Your right. I’m sorry.” He stood. “I really didn’t mean to trouble you.”

Why the hell did you lie about going to Kentucky? “It’s okay. I have to handle this.”

“Yeah, I have those days too. I’ll leave you be.” Not waiting for her to respond, he closed the door as

he stepped into the hall. Walking back to his office, he still wanted to know what she was thinking

about. But, now he didn’t have a decent sense of how or when to try again. He couldn’t shake the

feeling that she was not happy with him in particular. It never dawned on him it was related to the

weekend.

As the day plodded on, Janet couldn’t let the conversation with David go. She was not comfortable

with the way she had not really allowed David the benefit of doubt. She was reacting out of badly

controlled emotions. With each passing hour, she felt more uncomfortable and unhappy with what had

happened. Whether or not it was a good idea, she couldn’t let go of the idea that she should just

confront him directly with her knowledge that he did not go to Kentucky. She should just ask him to

explain. After all, she too had often recently considered a more personal relationship with him. She

knew why he had stopped by her office. He too was interested. It couldn’t continue this way, and now

the conversation even risked harming their professional relationship.

Just a few minutes before she was ready to go home for the day, she made a decision. Hesitantly, but

feeling she was doing the right thing, she picked up the phone and tapped David’s extension.

Recognizing the call was from inside the building, David picked up the phone. “This is David.”

“I think we need to talk some more.” Janet said slowly and quietly.

David relaxed and took a deep breath. “Yeah. I think so.”

“But, I can’t do this here. Would you mind coming by my house after work?”

Sure, he thought. But instead he answered, “Damn it, I really can’t. I have to take care of something

after work.” He had to keep his plan to pick up the burned pages from The League. “Maybe later in the

evening, if you don’t mind. What I have to do will only take a couple of hours. Is that okay?”

“Yes, that’s okay. I don’t want to leave it like this.”

“I agree. So, how about eight?”


“Okay.” Janet hung up and stared at the phone. Well, she thought, that was it. Immediately she felt

better. But, as she sat there, the demons wouldn’t leave her alone. She began to wonder about his

wanting to wait until nearly three hours after work. Something wouldn’t let her stop imagining

possibilities. As each minute ticked away, her confusion over the whole situation led her into troubled

waters again. She wondered more and more what he could possibly have to do first. Suddenly she

closed her office for the day and rushed out to her car. Down a few cars, she could see David’s car.

As she sat there, her heart started pounding. What the hell was she doing? She seemed possessed, but

something wouldn’t let it go. In another couple of minutes she saw David come out of the building and

stroll to his car.

She was still trying to understand what was controlling her as she pulled out and started following him.

As traffic grew more dense on the road, she felt more and more pressure not to lose sight of him. When

he turned onto the freeway headed for downtown, she continued to follow, now growing even more

curious about where they were going. She feared she actually knew. After another twenty minutes she

was more sure than ever that she knew exactly where he was going.

As David pulled up alongside the curb, got out of his car, and entered the building nearby, Janet

stopped down the street and turned off the engine. Immediately, she saw the dark blue car parked at the

curb just ahead of David’s car.

“Damn it!” she exclaimed loudly. She considered what she might do. Just wait, or maybe go in? No, he

might see her there. She wasn’t sure how long he would be. Glancing at her watch, she realized it had

taken almost an hour to get here with heavy traffic. If it took even forty-five minutes getting back still

with reasonably heavy suburbs bound traffic, he could not be inside for more than about an hour.

Assuming he would get to her house on time by eight. So, she decided to wait.

She stared at the dark blue car allowing again her suspicious emotions to take over. Now she regretted

following him. She wished she didn't really know anything about this. But, she couldn’t let herself

realize that she didn’t know anything. Instead, she took leaps in logic as she let herself think the worst.

After a few more minutes, it dawned on her that there was no good reason to wait here. David would

eventually come back out, get in his car, and drive back, and then to her house. In any case, she

realized she would learn nothing new by continuing to follow him. She started her car and drove away,

looking more carefully at the blue car as she drove past it.

As she drove along the freeway back to her neighborhood, she tried her best to control the wild ideas

she kept having. A tear swelled in her eye and she brushed it aside, hating what she had done. Hating

how she felt. She felt regret for following him. This was crazy behavior. She was not like this.

She slammed the door as she entered her house, more angry at her own behavior than that of David’s.

She paced the floor waiting for him, looking at her watch multiple times, somehow trying to make the

time pass more quickly. After what seemed like hours and not minutes, the front door bell rang.


Chapter 24

Janet wasn’t sure which was greater, anger at herself or at David. She avoided thinking how her anger

toward him was logically baseless, driven only by circumstantial appearances. It was her feeble

attempt to justify what she feared. What did she fear? Knowing she couldn’t answer that question

heightened her emotion. But, that only served to increase her own disdain for feeling as she did.

She hesitated before opening her front door, suddenly realizing how awkward she felt, and how she

quickly thought this was too surrealistic. She was finding no help as she searched for escape from her

feelings. She opened the door.

David stood there. He too felt awkward. Still suspecting that he was the direct target of her cool

behavior today, despite her denial. He felt frozen in place, waiting for her permission to move.

Struggling for how to start talking about anything, Janet stepped back indicating her silent request for

him to enter. He stepped in and moved a few steps away from the door. He turned and watched her

close the door and approach him. She stopped a few feet from him and stared at him.

It seemed preposterously long before either spoke. “David, what is going on?”

“About what?”

“You know. And, you know that I know.”

“What! Janet—what?”

“You didn’t go to Kentucky, did you?” There, she said it.

Lie, you fool, lie! “Of course I did! Why wouldn’t I?”

“You tell me. You tell me how you could be in two places at once. Kay and I saw you downtown on

Saturday. You were in a dark blue car. You were not in Kentucky!”

“Oh.” David breathed the word out more as a burst of air than a voiced utterance. He shut his eyes,

scrambling over quick and dirty ideas, just as rapidly rejecting one after the other, looking for anything

he could say to avoid revealing what he couldn’t say. “This isn’t work related. You needn’t worry

about your job.”

“What! What the hell! You think this is about my job? Do you?” She turned to one side and took a step,

stopping and quickly facing him again. “My job! You lied to me about going to Kentucky. You made

an unexplained copy of the scans. You are doing something in that office building down town. What

are you doing?” She was practically yelling.

His eyes widened and he stepped back in reaction to her outburst. “Office—you saw me there?”


Oh shit, she thought. She had lost control and let her emotions peak, slipping on her own accusations.

There was no retreat she could summon. “Yes, I saw you there. What are you doing there?”

David was starting to feel anger more than his defensive demeanor. Now he was feeling wronged.

“How could you do that, Janet? What I do in private is my business.”

“Not if it’s affecting work, it’s not. That has an impact on all of us. Your my boss—our boss. We like

what we do, and we don’t want that to change. Is this more of your damn silent agenda crap?”

“It’s not crap.”

“Whatever, David! Damn it! It’s your thing, not mine. You know what I mean. You are doing

something at work which has something to do with this. You made a copy of the scans. Why? For God

sake, you didn’t even come into work for two days. I’m sure that was related to this—whatever it is.”

Now what? David knew he was trapped. He was not only lost for words, but completely unable to feel

good about how this was going. He knew how important it was to not bring The League into this. What

could he say? Weakly, he tried to say something. “Janet, I promise. This is not anything which affects

you. But, I won’t try to explain.”

“Because you can’t. Huh? Is that why? But, why would I trust you?”

“Please. I’m not asking you for some blind trust. I’m only saying that I don’t want to explain myself,

but it is not what you are implying. What I’m doing is very personal, and I have to leave it like that.”

She stared at him, holding back on what she really wanted to say. She was now fully understanding

that what really bothered her about all of this was not what he was doing. Who cared what he was

doing. It was the way he went about doing whatever it was. She could see that it was him lying to her

which was bothering her so much. It mattered because he mattered to her, because she clearly was

seeing now that she was feeling at the bottom of all of this a desire to become involved with him. But,

now she saw and felt reason to defend herself. How could she get involved with a man whose honesty

she couldn’t trust? It was as simple as that.

The most basic truth coming to light forced her to turn away and drop her shoulders. Without fully

realizing it, she quietly stated her real concern. “I wanted more from you.”

David barely heard her statement, and that didn’t help him try to interpret or understand what she

really meant. “I’m sorry.” He ran out of anything else to say.

Janet continued to face away from him. He watched as she took a slow breath, turning her head toward

the ceiling. Then she turned to him and calmly said. “I have nothing more I want to say about this.”

He knew. But, it took far more energy than he felt he had to make his way to the front door and open it.

The cold night air didn’t help his feelings as he closed the door behind him.


Chapter 25

Wednesday afternoon, Oct 19 - Hunter Leach closed the door to his office as he looked at the box just

delivered. As quickly as he could manage, he cut it open and dug into the packing foam for his prizes.

First he extracted a smaller box and opened it. He stared at the three stones cradled in more foam. He

had not seen any pictures of them before. So, this was his first look. As a linguist and not especially

interested in archaeology itself, he found little interest in them.

He removed each stone from its box, one by one. First the one shaped a little like a bent tuning fork.

Turning it in his hands, he saw basically no features which kept his interest. He sat it on a shelf just

above the back of his desk and pulled out the two remaining spherically shaped stones. These seemed a

little more interesting to him. At least they had faint symbols carved on them around the sides. He

looked long enough to see all of the symbols on both of them, but soon lost interest after that. He sat

the two stones on the shelf next to the third one and turned his attention back to the bigger box. As he

turned, he considered briefly that maybe there was somebody in the archaeology department of the

university who would be interested in those little rocks. He thought that someday he might locate such

a person.

Within a second or two after looking away, a small snapping sound startled him. It sounded as if an

electrical spark had occurred, and it was accompanied by a short lived blue tinted flash which filled his

office. He quickly turned back to his desk where there sat a lamp. Thinking it may have shorted out, he

saw no smoke or anything else. He raised his gaze up toward the stones and looked across the shelf

upon which they rested. From his chair, he turned in all directions, looking around the room and at his

computer for any sign of what may have caused the snapping sound and the flash of light. Nothing

hinted at what may have happened. After perhaps an entire minute of looking around the room, he

turned his attention back to the main object of his interest. The books.

He lifted the metal box, noticing that it seemed lighter than he thought it might be with five books in it.

Turning around, he sat the metal box on his desk and pried open the lid. Having no interest in

protecting anything remotely of importance like pollens or other microfossils—he wasn’t an

archaeologist—all he cared about were the books. Sitting the metal lid aside, he pulled the first book

out of the box. He opened it and paged through several pages, smiling widely as he scanned across the

strange looking writing.

As he continued looking at page after page, he realized that he had only two months to study the books

directly before visiting Aldorians from Europe would be here. They would come after the new year

started and claim the books, taking them back to Europe. He doubted they were interested in the stones.

They would surely consider them as just more Indian relics from the Alamard site. It was the Aldorian

books they wanted. He was happy to hand the books over to them, given the amount of money they

were willing to pay him.


Leach was an Aldorian himself, but held with almost no remaining significant emotions or beliefs

about it. He rarely even described himself as Aldorian when others asked. The whole business since his

days at Hunmay left him with a bad taste over any of it. It was fine with him that most all of it was

behind him. If it wasn’t for the European money, he might otherwise drop the minor association with

Aldorians he had left. He didn’t really think about or care that he was himself an HF. Indeed, he had

been even a member of The League in Austin, but for only a few short weeks. There simply wasn’t

enough interest in any of it for him.

How the Europeans managed to arrange with Kentucky to take possession of the books he cared

nothing about. All he cared was Hunmay didn’t have them. He supported the European bias toward

keeping as much about Aldorianism as possible out of the public eye. But, even more, he preferred

keeping Hunmay and the people there he despised away from the books, or anything else Aldorian. His

greatest interest was anything in it for himself.

He did think, however, he should see how far he could get at trying to obtain a copy of the scans

database from Hunmay, which he had just found out existed from his spy friend in Texas. He noted

that he should try quickly to get a copy, realizing he probably had little legal ground to stand on.

Failing that, he would have all the pages in the five books photocopied, even if he had to pay for it

himself. He doubted the university would pay for that much copying.

As he looked at pages in the other books, he ran across a drawing here and there. Finally, in the fifth

book, he found the large collection of drawings of plants with labels. He realized almost immediately

they would provide the easiest path to discovering how to translate the writing. He considered briefly

who might know something about plants to help him understand what the labels probably meant.

What Leach didn’t know was how much Hunmay’s project Able had been upgraded with language

translation modules. This was something his spy knew nothing about, not being directly part of the

project Able group. As far as Leach knew, most of the project Able software was about helping

archaeologists study physical artifacts dug up in the Alamard basin. Virtually none of those artifacts

had any form of writing on them. The native folks who were the most common people in Kentucky at

the time had no written languages. Besides that, he realized, the books could not possibly be more than

a hundred years old, clearly belonging to Aldorians in the area, not Indians, or other European

colonists for that matter. He guessed they were written sometime between the U. S. civil war and

World War I, maybe even later.

As Leach looked at more and more pages of the writing, he began to formulate a plan for using his

graduate students to participate in various projects focused on translating the books. He knew it was

the only real help he would be getting. Furthermore, by using graduate students he knew that he would

receive the lion’s share of recognition from any useful discoveries they made. Any papers published

about this would have his name as the primary author.

The idea of publishing papers stuck for a moment with him. Although he was sympathetic with the

European desire to remain quiet about Aldorianism, nevertheless, he was more than happy to break

with that provided he was able to gain greater academic recognition.


He smiled as he thought about the possibilities for greater fame. If he played his cards right, this could

be a gold mine of accomplishment. As he continued to think about the possibilities, old memories of

similar, but failed attempts at greater recognition in the past came to mind. The memories erased his

smile along with the momentary good feelings. He gave in to his attempt not to think about how badly

it had gone for him when he was at Hunmay.

He remembered how he had submitted a new paper for publication in the Hunmay Archive. He felt

confident about the paper, thinking he had done an especially good job writing it. He was excited over

the boost it would surely provide for his future at Hunmay. It meant a certain advance in pay and

responsibility. He recalled how much by then he had felt overlooked by others. Even cheated.

He had lost out to a young newcomer four years earlier to take on management of project Able, a new

nameless project at the time. He would be manager of studies of artifacts beginning to be found at the

new dig in the Alamard basin. Instead of him, he lost the leadership job to David Allen.

It was bad enough that three years before writing that paper he had been rejected when he showed

personal interest in Karen Bauer. Instead, she took an interest in David, and eventually married him

two years later. And, then it stung even more when Karen was assigned to be the editor and referee of

Leach’s paper. When would the insults cease, he had thought. It was in his mind clearly prejudicial

treatment.

It seemed to be the final act against him when Karen rejected his paper for publication, stating that

while it was well written, requiring little editing, it was not original enough. She cited works of others

in journal articles which covered most aspects of the five major concepts Leach wrote about in his

paper.

Leach protested, even claiming prejudicial practices, insisting another editor be assigned to review his

work. He insisted he had produced original work, and he should receive publication acceptance. But,

that was finally rejected.

Growing more angry over it, he tried one more time to reason with Karen, his only remaining hope he

thought at overturning the decision. He thought about that day, and recalled that as the work day was

nearly over, he had missed her before she went home for the day.

That wasn’t going to stop him. He would go there. He was determined he would confront her as soon

as possible.

After ringing the front door bell, he waited impatiently for the door to open as he looked over at

Karen’s car parked in the driveway. He saw that David’s car was not also there. It was typical, he knew,

of him to work longer hours before coming home. That was fine with him. He wanted to speak alone

with Karen about this miscarriage of justice.

“Hunter, why are you here?” Karen asked as soon as she opened the door.


“You had no right to reject my paper!” He gave virtually no effort to holding back his anger. Enough

anger so it voided any chance for him to argue rationally for a second chance at publication. He wasn’t

thinking about this, driven instead by release of his stronger emotions. He stepped toward her.

As Hunter drew closer, Karen was intimidated and she stepped back. He pressed on and she backed

even further. After another couple of steps, Hunter was completely inside, standing still too close to

her. “What are you doing?” she protested. “You have to leave. Please leave!”

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me why you are working against me? Why you rejected my

work. Who the hell do you think you are?” Hunter pushed his arm back toward the door behind him

and shoved it closed.

As the door slammed shut, Karen grew more afraid. “Hunter, please, you are scaring me. David will be

here any minute.”

“I know as well as you that he won’t be here any time soon. Stop with your bullshit! Why did you

reject me?”

“It wasn’t just me. It was the whole editorial board. We felt the work needed more before it could be

published.”

“Shut up with your fucking lies!” Hunter screamed at her.

Karen jumped back, startled by the outburst. She backed up against the small table standing behind her

in the entryway. She tried to return some intimidation, demanding with a raised voice. “You have to

leave right now! You have no right—”

Hunter cut her off and grabbed her arm. “Bitch! You’re fucking with the wrong person!”

“No! Please!” She tried to pull back from his grasp. It only caused him to grab at her more. She

wrestled with him, trying to pull back. The table against her back yielded only slightly before it

toppled over, banging against the wall. She screamed as she lost her balance and started falling back.

The tall crystal vase standing on the table fell, crashing to floor behind her, smashing into countless

glass shards. Glass pieces shot in all directions. Karen fell to the floor on top of the broken vase, letting

out an insane gurgling sound as she came to rest on the floor.

“Get up, bitch! I’m not through with you!” Hunter leaned over her, looking down at the frozen

expression on her face. Within seconds a crimson edge appeared from under her, spreading wider as it

pooled ever more across the floor. Karen’s blood.

As he stood there staring, he realized he was in some pain also. A couple of shards of glass had

ricocheted from the floor and wall, striking him on his arm and forehead. He reached for his forehead.

Pulling back his hand, he saw he was bleeding also. He wiped the blood on his shirt and stood back,

looking at Karen lying motionless in an increasing pool of blood.


Suddenly, he knew he had to get away. Thinking quickly, he considered this tragic accident and how

difficult it would be to explain to anybody how this was not his fault. If only she had been reasonable.

It was her fault. He had to make sure nobody knew he was there. Fingerprints!

He stood there for a minute thinking about what he might have touched. Nothing but the doorbell and

maybe the door itself when he shoved it shut. Realizing he had pushed the door closed with the back of

his upper arm, it was easy enough to remove his shirt quickly, open the door using it as a shield and

wipe the doorbell with it as he left, putting it back on before he drove away.

Leach sat staring across his office as he thought about how he lucked out that day. It turned out that

nobody had seen him visit Karen. He had gotten cleanly away without notice, and the police never

discovered anything which indicated he was involved. They had interviewed him along with numerous

others possibly involved, and he had easily kept his cool. A smile reappeared on his lips as he thought

about how good he was at hiding his real self from an otherwise unappreciative world.

Waiting patiently for almost two years before he left Hunmay and Austin, nobody ever remotely

thought he was somehow involved with Karen’s death. The police files were eventually added to the

long list of other cold cases. Yet one more forgotten statistic. He left Texas, a free man, ready for new

challenges, but in some place where his amazing talents would be recognized for a change.

He looked down at the open book in his lap, returning to thoughts of deserved grand recognition he

would receive as he translated this strange hand writing.


Chapter 26

Wednesday night, Oct 19 - The argument with Janet left David shaken and depressed. He stayed home

all day, calling into work that morning saying he was sick. It was not the best thing he could have done.

The solitude only made him feel worse. He hadn’t allowed himself to realize that being busy at work

would have helped him far more to grow calmer and able to deal with his argument with Janet.

He couldn’t shake off the confusion he had, wondering without enough clarity why Janet had reacted

negatively as much as she had. His own emotions would not let him now see the hints she gave

suggesting her personal interest in him. He couldn’t acknowledge how she would have subsequently

taken what he had done as personal lies directly aimed at her.

It had gone like that all day. He had not only been unable to come to terms well enough with the lies he

told, but he had also not been able to think clearly enough to attempt to find an explanation he could

offer Janet for his actions.

And, now it was getting later at night. He knew he couldn’t stay away from work another day. Twenty-

four hours shot to hell. He had practically nothing to account for it. Instead, the day left him exhausted

and troubled. He was, nevertheless, restless and wasn’t ready for bed. He opened his back door and

stepped out onto the back edge of the patio.

The October night air was almost freezing. Colder than usual, he thought. But, it momentarily felt

refreshing. He took a deep breath, trying to clear his mind. He still very much wanted to find a way to

explain to Janet. Maybe, he thought, he could somehow tell her enough truth to satisfy her while

maintaining the secrecy he knew he must keep regarding his involvement with The League and what

they were now doing. After all, Janet was not Aldorian. And, this was a personal argument between the

two of them. Maybe she would simply not discuss any conversations with anybody else. Except maybe

her friend Kay. But, he felt that moment that neither Janet nor Kay would associate any significance

with what he had done last weekend.

So, he wondered how much he could say to Janet to appease her, but while also not saying more than

he had to about The League and what he had done.

He folded his arms against the cold night air. It reminded him of how much Karen loved the colder

weather, while he preferred the warmth. He would joke that anything below seventy-five degrees was

winter.

As he stood there, he looked up at the cold dark night. The sky was clear, helping to increase the lower

temperatures. Even with Austin’s night light pollution, he could make out numerous stars blinking

across the black sky. Karen enjoyed nights like this. She would often coax him to stand right here with

her, looking at the night.


He stared over at the constellation Orion and recalled how Karen would always point out the nearly

invisible Nebulas M42 and M43 near Orion’s belt. She was the one with the education in writing,

technical writing to be sure, but certainly not the mathematical strength David’s education included in

his background. Yet she was the one who always wanted to discuss technically imaginative ideas, such

as life on other planets or human beings possibly traveling to other worlds. These things seemed just a

bit too silly and impractical, if even possible, to him. He was positive that such things would never

become reality in his short life time. But, that didn’t slow down Karen’s curiosity and desire to think

out loud about such things. David participated at times like this with her in conversations in which he

would have otherwise never found any interest.

As he peered into the infinite darkness, he knew he would give anything to have another impractical

conversation with his wife. Another chance, even one, to ask. To the night and Karen he spoke. “You

think there are other planets with people on them like us?”

Part 2

Sojourn


Sojourn

On a cold clear winter night in the northern hemisphere sky high above, a person can see the

constellation known as Orion. It includes perhaps the most recognizable three stars which form Orion’s

belt. While anyone peers at it with the many stars nearby, it is easy to wonder if any planets are up

there with intelligent beings. With people like us.

Many of us believe there are such people. We enjoy the idea that there are many planets with people.

Or, beings close enough to being like us. Science fiction stories are filled with such creatures. Why not?

Nevertheless, science so far has not found a single place, other than here on Earth, where life in any

form exists, intelligent or otherwise.

But, we have only started searching. So far we have located precious few candidate planets of any kind,

given the incredibly huge number of possibilities which surely exist. For example, our Milky Way

galaxy is about 100,000 light years in diameter, and within only 100 light years of Earth, it is estimated

that there exists over 14,000 stars. If only half of those stars have planets in orbit around them, then we

have at least 7,000 planets where life might exist which are relatively close to us. Just in our

neighborhood. Never mind that there are at least 200,000,000,000 (that’s 200 billion) stars in our

galaxy, and there exist at least 100,000,000,000 galaxies beyond the Milky Way.

What we never really ask seriously is what we will do if we find a planet with life. More specifically,

we never seriously consider what to do if we discover truly intelligent life on some other planet. It

seems too ridiculously unlikely to bother considering. It’s not our reality. Why think about it? But, if

we did find such a planet, surely we might want to go there. And, many people have pondered what it

would take to visit such a place. And so, let us consider that here for a bit.

Starting with some considerations regarding both distances and numbers of objects in space, maybe

this will help get our mind more clearly around the problem.

Standing out on that cold winter night when the sky is clear, near a populated city the night lights

drown away most of our ability to see many of the stars. However, by going far out into the country

where there are no human made lights near us, we can see an entire band of stars and gases across the

sky. They will appear so densely packed, it will look as if it is a long thin white cloud, stretching from

one horizon to the other. That is what humans started calling the Milky Way long ago; it looks a little

like a long thin milky cloud floating around up there.

What is a little surprising is that without any telescope, just looking with the naked eye, everything up

there, those thousands upon thousands of stars, all of that is in the Milky Way. With the naked eye,

nobody can see anything else associated with any other galaxy. The others are too far away, one needs

a telescope to see them. And, there are at least 100,000,000,000 other galaxies to see. That is incredible.


Just thinking about that big number, 100,000,000,000, a moment longer, to get some sense of how big

it really is, start counting, one, two, three, and so on, as fast as you can. If you lived for 100 more years

and counted like that every moment of your life, even without any sleep at all, counting all the time,

you would reach only about two or three billion. So, you would have to count as fast as possible for at

least 3,000 years to get to 100,000,000,000. So, these are indeed big numbers.

Of course, it is unlikely that all of the more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way have planets in

orbit around them with life of any kind. If only one in every million do, however, that still leaves us

with more than 100,000 planets with life. Only in the Milky Way!

Now, compared to the size of stars, planets are tiny in comparison. So, with our present technology,

seeing another planet with life on it means it would have to be fairly close to us in the Milky Way. The

closest planet possible with life on it out there would be in orbit around the closest star. The closest star

to us is well known. It is called Proxima Centauri.

Suppose now that there is an Earth like planet in orbit around Proxima Centauri, and we decide we

would like to take a trip there to examine it. How long would the trip take?

Well, Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years away from us, and it would be about the same distance to its

planets. Before we jump in our rocket ship and go there, we better figure out how much food we need

to take along. So, let's try to figure out just how big one light year really is, say in miles. Do you really

know what a light year is?

It is known that light travels very fast. In fact, in only one second, it travels about 186,000 miles. More

accurately, it travels over 186,282 miles in one second. That is about 670,616,629 miles per hour!

One light year is the distance light can travel in one year. Traveling at 670,616,629 miles per hour for

one year, and since there are 8,760 hours in one year, this means light will travel 5,874,601,673,407

miles in one year. Nearly 6 trillion miles; that’s a long distance. For comparison, our sun is about

93,000,000 miles from us. So, it is only about 0.0000158 = 1/63167 of one light year away from us.

Since Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years away, then that is 24,673,327,028,311 miles. Yeah, more

than 24 trillion miles!

But, we can’t travel at the speed of light. Not even close. Currently, our fastest rocket ships can go

about 50,000 miles per hour. So light travels more than 13,412 times faster than our own top speed.

With our fastest possible rocket, getting to Proxima Centauri will take more than 56,331 years. If

scientists can figure out how to possibly go ten times faster than that, then it will still take us more than

5,633 years. Still too long, don’t you think?

So, what if science can figure out how to build a rocket 100 times faster than now? Of course, it will

take an amazing amount of money to pull that off, not to mention the incredible advances in science

and technology needed, which we simply don’t yet have. But, that’s not our problem here. If such an

incredible rocket could be built somehow, it will still take us more than 563 years to get there.


This doesn’t look promising. Many might think a more reasonable trip to Proxima Centauri should take

at most only six months. To get there in only six months, we have to figure out how to travel more than

eight times faster than the speed of light. Most scientists believe we will never be able to travel faster

than light. If all of those scientists are wrong, then it looks like we need better scientists.

Human beings evolved through an amazingly complicated set of steps, but all based on a surprisingly

simple set of rules. Those simple rules are working throughout the entire universe. So, every once in

awhile, maybe intelligent creatures similar to human beings have evolved elsewhere also. Those

humanoids are born, they grow up, they have families, they have jobs, they grow old, and they die.

They also have science. They apply that science, and they invent astronomy and space travel, and they

wonder if other planets have life on them with intelligence like themselves. Some of them are religious,

and some of their bibles even tell them they are alone in the universe. Others think that perhaps other

life forms exist, but nothing as advanced as they are. Still others believe the universe is filled with

intelligent life, and a few of them believe they have even been visited, with a few claiming they were

actually abducted and studied by aliens.

Occasionally, because the Milky Way is billions of years old, some planets with intelligent humanoids

started their evolution a few hundred thousand years later than us. So, they still have no machines,

living like our human hunter-gatherer ancestors once did. But, some humanoids started evolving before

us, or faster than us, and their science is ahead of ours. In some cases, their science is only a little

ahead of us, while some are hundreds of years in advance to us.

The laws of science are universal. Gravity is the same everywhere. Water sustains life in the same way

everywhere. And, the general laws of evolution work in the same way everywhere. On some of those

planets out there where humanoids exist, they are learning how to build better space travel machines

just like us. Even if they know we are here, they face the same obstacles we do to pay a visit. The same

laws of physics get in their way also.

Because some humanoids are ahead of us scientifically, they may figure out how to travel efficiently

long distances through space. We can’t do that yet. The guys on the other planets who might be able to

travel even faster than what we might be doing in another hundred years; they have done some pretty

amazing and advanced science. More than we can do. They might be more intelligent than us.

Walking along a sidewalk, most of us hardly notice the ants crawling around at our feet. We like to

think our intelligence is a bit better than that of those ants. Maybe 10 or 100 times better? In any case,

we certainly don’t give those ants much thought. If the science guys on other planets have intelligence

ten times more than us, it might be they give us little more notice than we do for ants.

However clever those alien scientists are, if they live a really long ways from us and they also can’t

travel faster than light, then they too will have to deal with taking hundreds or thousands of years to get

here. It appears that for them or for us, there has to be some other way to travel in either direction

without having to travel so ridiculously fast.

Part 3

The Aldorians


Chapter 27

It is no accident that the structure of life upon which human beings have evolved is based on the

carbon atom and deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA. Science recognizes that in theory life forms based on

other fundamental atoms and structures are also possible, such as silicon or even arsenic, in addition to

a few other but less likely possibilities. But, it is also believed by some that carbon and DNA life forms

occur in nature with a larger probability, with more robustness and chemical flexibility than these other

forms.

The universe is filled with an incredible number of species of life, far beyond the millions of species

found on Earth. Some forms are based on chemical foundations other than that of human beings. These

are species of life so alien to us there is practically no chance we will ever interact with them in any

intellectual manner any more than we do with animals on Earth. However, in other solar systems

similar to ours, with a history of formation like ours, life forms based on minor variations of DNA

have evolved.

There are many inhabited planets in the Milky Way alone. Relatively close to us, barely more than

forty-four light years from here, there is a planet not quite as large as Earth, but inhabited by intelligent

beings who look similar to human beings. They call their planet Sein.

Seinites look vaguely like human beings, with both males and females existing, but if either one

walked down a street here, he or she would not go unnoticed. They don’t look all that much like us.

There are about four billion persons living on Sein. They have countries and they have governments.

They have families and homes, and shopping centers and schools. In many ways, they live in a world

very similar to us. Not every alien planet is filled with little green men with grossly oversized heads,

and arms which almost drag the ground, living in dark gray caves with walls covered in dark metal and

slime.

When Seinites talk, with over fifty major languages spoken across their planet, they always sound a

little as if it is a bad attempt at Mongolian throat singing. Seinite languages sound very little like most

Earth languages. We would have a great deal of trouble learning to speak or understand any of their

languages. Our vocal cords are not quite constructed in the same way as Seinites.

With the roll of evolutionary dice, Seinites developed intelligence and their science and technology

somewhat sooner than us, including crude space travel similar to what we Earthlings can do now.

Only a few million miles from Sein, but also in the habitable zone of their solar system, there is

another planet the Seinites call Feundar. For decades, Seinite scientists looked at and studied Feundar

with their telescopes and observational instruments, trying to understand conditions on their sister

planet. They wondered if life was there. Were conditions favorable for Seinites to walk and breath on

the Feundarian surface?


Some countries on Sein were more powerful and richer than others. In the lead technologically, the

very powerful and rich country Unaleat was the first to develop space travel advanced enough to make

it practical to send robot probes to Feundar. What they found was both exciting and welcome. They

discovered an atmosphere which Seinites could breath, although the average temperature was slightly

less than that of Sein, because Feundar was in an orbit further away from their sun than Sein. They

found running water and plants which seemed not overly different from those found at home. And,

they found simple animal life, but nothing which seemed as intelligent as Seinites themselves.

After enough exploring with machines alone, the Unaleats finally allocated enough money and

resources to develop a manned space ship equipped to support five Seinite scientists who braved the

trip to Feundar.

And, so finally these first Seinites set foot on their sister planet. It was an extremely exciting event,

much as it was when a human being first stepped onto our moon in 1969. Feundar was a place even

richer in resources than the earlier unmanned probes indicated. The Seinites never hesitated sending

more research and exploration parties to Feundar. Eventually, citizens of numerous countries other

than Unaleat were also sending early explorers to Feundar.

At first, all of Feundar was declared to have status similar to that of how we have been treating Earth’s

Antarctic continent. No one country owned it; nobody ruled it. Feundar was one giant laboratory, open

for all to freely explore, but with numerous rules and laws in effect designed to protect its natural state.

In a few dozen years, called talics on Sein, several Feundarian bases had been established, representing

several countries and governments. The first such bases were built mostly for scientists to visit, from

which they could run experiments and conduct studies of the planet. Eventually, however, hundreds of

scientists were on Feundar, some of which would stay there for a talic or more before returning home.

With resources so plentiful and rich on Feundar, the long term visitors there worked hard in part to

develop infrastructure robust enough to sustain living there without having to rely on the burdensome

expense of endless supply ships coming from Sein. Such work fell to those with less scientifically

required backgrounds. And, so it was that ordinary, but highly qualified citizens started traveling to

Feundar, paid to work there for one or two talics at a time before returning home to their families.

Eventually, some employees of the early Feundarian colonies were enlisted to stay for longer periods

of time than only one or two talics. Soon enough, some were staying on Feundar for several talics at a

time. Feundar was becoming more and more like home for some. Eventually even a handful of married

couples and entire families migrated to Feundar to live there permanently. They were the early settlers

of new territories, forming small colonies around the planet.

Finally, the event everybody expected would happen sooner or later did occur. The first baby was born

on Feundar. It was a female. The baby girl was named Canneal by her parents. Almost ninety Earth

years after the first Seinite set foot on Feundar, which is 110 talics (one Earth year is equal to 1.2285

talics), the first native Feundarian was living.


In celebration of the birth of Canneal, a new symbolic calendar was defined, the Feundarian calendar.

Feundarian year zero marked the birthday of the little girl. A year on Feundar was called a tennar (one

Earth year is equal to 1.1013 tennars). Each one tennar later, their new “year,” a planet wide holiday

was observed, simply called Canneal. Nothing about using the Feundarian calendar or holding the

Canneal celebration was officially or legally recognized by Seinites, but that certainly didn’t slow

down the tradition which was rapidly growing favor across the whole planet.

Special and important events in one culture are often not even noticed in other cultures. How many

people in the United States celebrate or even know about the Dragon Boat Festival held each year in

China? And, so it was on Sein. While the birth of Canneal was big news on Sein for a day or so, and

mentioned in passing on the news one talic later, virtually nobody on Sein paid attention to the Canneal

celebration with each passing tennar.

It was certainly not that way on Feundar. Every tennar later the celebration of Canneal became bigger

and more widely observed. Finally, after a few tennars had passed, Canneal became an official

Feundarian holiday. Well, as official as could be declared so, given there was actually no real

government on Feundar. Nevertheless, with each passing tennar, Feundarians planet wide took to

observing Canneal by not working that day. With a population on Feundar of more than 10,000

Seinites when Canneal was born, and growing larger all the time, Sein could do little to change the

new traditional holiday. Nor did they really care to. It did, however, remain a Feundarian holiday, not

much noticed on Sein because it was celebrated with each passing tennar on the Feundarian calendar.

The date of each Canneal on the Seinite calendar changed every talic because the Seinite calendar was

not synchronized with that of the Feundarians. This alone was reason enough for the Feundarian

culture to develop in ways not quite the same as Seinite culture.

As the population of Feundar continued to grow, more and more Seinite immigrants moved in,

additional new Feundarian children were born every tennar, and everyday requirements for living more

comfortably increased on Feundar. Schools and shopping centers were built. Eventually it happened,

new city committees or councils were established to govern and establish controls over the growing

citizenry.

Long ago established as routine social and cultural habit, groups of Seinites identified themselves not

with bloodline families as we do on Earth. Although it was common for this identification to happen

by default anyway on Sein and Feundar, what every person did instead was to identify themselves,

usually as they approached adulthood, with a common life-interest group called a Stria. There is no

word on Sein or Feundar which means “family” in the same sense used on Earth. Instead, only the

word “Stria” is used. So, Canneal and her parents considered themselves to be members of the Stria

named Kroll. The Kroll Stria had existed for more than 300 talics on Sein, with a few members now

living on Feundar.

Along with a growing number of births, there also occurred other first time events on Feundar.

Sacae Kroll, Canneal’s father, quietly read the morning news as he sipped his morning sarl. He had

lived now on Feundar with his wife Fin for over sixteen tennars. “I knew this day would come.” he


said. He spoke in the Unaleat language, but now filled with Feundarian colloquialisms. Few Seinites

would easily understand what he was saying.

“What is that?” Fin asked.

“It’s the first reported murder on Feundar. Can you believe that? You would think with less than forty

thousand of us here in the colonies we’d be more removed from this. It’s the kind of thing you would

expect on Sein. Not here.”

“Sacae, listen to you! Isn’t that a bit arrogant? Surely you don’t think we are better than them?”

“No, no, I don’t mean it like that. I’m just saying that Feundarian colonists are selected for

immigration based on education and usefulness of their background, only for highly qualified Seinites

who are needed to fill contributing positions here.”

“But, it’s been more than twelve tennars since Canneal was born. She’s not the only natural born

Feundarian. Some Seinites have now been here for a long time. Whole Stria have moved here. You

know these things. They bring with them all kinds of attitudes and demeanors. You should expect that

sooner or later somebody is going to kill somebody else.”

“You’re right. I see here it was a crime of passion. Emotions don’t disappear just because you live on

some other planet.”

“There you go!”

“Well, it does make it clear how much we need more than a token police force. Maybe it’s time to

consider having a more unilateral and independent government.”

“Sacae! Please, don’t let your daughter hear you talking about independence like that. She will repeat

such things at school. It will only cause her some grief.”

“I know. I’m careful. But, with Canneal thirteen just around the corner, everybody will again start

hearing talk about independence in the news. It happens every tennar, and it’s growing stronger every

time. It’s more than a whisper, you know.”

“I agree, but you know as well as I do, this is not the time. That day is still far away. There are less

than forty thousand of us and there are billions of Seinites just over there. They don’t have any interest

at all in our being independent. Too many economic and political dependencies.” Fin contemplated for

a few seconds. “We won’t see it in our lives, or in Canneal’s for that matter. She loves her Stria and

still thinks of herself very much a Seinite. She will visit the Krolls on Sein every tennar like she always

has. I don’t discount the possibility she might actually return there to live someday after she becomes

an adult.”

“Do you think so?”

“Oh, yes.”


“Well, that won’t sit well with many Feundarians. She’s a native, the first one. Many others will be

upset if she left for good.”

“Still, you know how likely that is. She’s not really a colonist. She wants the busy life a planet filled

with Seinites, and with all it has to offer. Our little planet is too small to keep her here.”

“I suppose so.” Sacae focused on Fin, watching her as she moved about the room. “You ever miss

home?”

Fin stopped and looked at Sacae. “This is home. But, I do miss Sein and the rest of the Kroll Stria

sometimes. But, I’m like you. I enjoy the greater challenges of living here. You and I are adventurers.

This really is our home. Canneal never showed as great an interest in this place as we have. Canneal

celebration will still go on, even if she leaves. After all, it is also our regular new tennar celebration

now. I suspect she will be loved just as much even then. Besides, you know she will return each

Canneal to be part of the holiday. She loves the attention.”

“Oh, that she does. She got that from you.”

“No she didn’t! I don’t like crowds and attention any more than you.” Fin paused a moment and then

lamented, “What will we do when Feundar gets too crowded?”

Sacae laughed, “Find another planet, I suppose.”


Chapter 28

And, so it was. As the Feundarian population continued to grow, so did its everyday social structures

and problems. In several important ways, Feundar was becoming a normally inhabited planet, as the

number of Feundarians grew from thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Crimes became more common, and with it the need for police, courts, lawyers, and jail. Small

committees of concerned Feundarian citizens developed into more formal structures, becoming elected

city councils. Everywhere on Feundar life was looking less and less like that of wild adventurers, and

increasingly like that of just another planet inhabited by societies with all the trappings of their

traditional cultures and societies.

Eventually military bases were established, with countries which were wary of each other on Sein

carrying the same distrust to Feundar. Starting as formalized police forces, the military eventually

stocked their bases with offensive and defensive weapons, including a few nuclear weapons.

Despite these developments, Feundar remained a world far less crowded than Sein, and considered

more exciting, more wild and untamed. It remained to most a new frontier as decades of tennars passed.

More Feundar babies were born each tennar. Numerous Seinites moved to Feundar to live on a far less

crowded planet, one with less familiar plants and animals, giving new residents a greater feeling of

adventure.

Canneal never moved to Sein as her parents Sacae and Fin believed she would. She grew to love her

native planet. It helped her resolve to stay on Feundar when she met and fell in love with Kanter,

marrying him soon after. Kanter changed his Stria from Pendala to Kroll. Eventually they had three

children, two males, Lawray and Standle, and a female, the youngest child named Bloam. Three more

native Feundarians.

Bloam did eventually move to Sein to live, reuniting with the much larger Kroll Stria living there.

Their sons, Standle and Lawray, remained on Feundar all of their lives, but they visited Sein and the

Kroll Stria often. They also remained Krolls by choice. And, so it was that the Kroll Stria established a

long tradition and presence on both planets.

As time passed, most Feundarians and Seinites forgot about the Kroll Stria fame and history, with

fewer still even knowing the names of Kroll Stria members. The Krolls became just another one of

thousands of Stria living across Sein and Feundar. The traditional Canneal celebration associated with

each new tennar remained the same. With each passing tennar, however, fewer remembered the person

Canneal as the reason for the celebration. The holiday simply became a global wide party held for

reasons very much the same as we have on Earth each new year. It was a good excuse to have a party.

Canneal watched her children grow into respected adults on Feundar and Sein. Her husband Kanter

passed away more than thirty tennars before her. She was proud of Kroll Stria accomplishments, but


perhaps more so than any time on Lawray’s fifty-first birthday. Lawray and his only child, a daughter

named Salir, who was now a young adult at twenty-four tennars, along with Lawray’s brother Standle,

gathered at Canneal’s home for a small birthday celebration. Only the four of them.

In traditional Seinite fashion, a custom continued by most on Feundar, the praise and congratulations

on a birthday were not focused on the birthday child, but instead on the parents, if they remained alive.

And, so the party went that day, in tennar 76. Bloam had remained on Sein, where she continued to

live with others in the Kroll Stria. But, she and several other Seinite Krolls participated in the

celebration through Visual Scope. At one point, the communication interface on the VS failed, and

Lawray was busy trying to establish a reconnection.

Growing frustrated, he lamented to nobody in particular, “Typical problems. They provide such lousy

service to Feundar.”

“You would have it otherwise?” Canneal asked.

“Kroll. You know I would not. And, I intend to keep it that way.” Lawray answered his mother in

traditional, but somewhat formal manner when speaking to the most senior member of a Stria present

by saying the Stria’s name before anything else.

Canneal was flattered at Lawray’s respect. “You honor me, Lawray. But, only the four of us are here.

All Stria. Must we be so formal?” Canneal was never one to insist on social formalities.

“You are always the same, Mother. Nobody could ever call you rigid.” Lawray dropped the formality.

Canneal smiled. “What did you mean by intending to keep it that way?”

Lawray thankfully gave up working with the VS interface. He was not a technical person, and working

on the communication protocol only frustrated him. “I hate hardware,” he said as he turned to look at

Canneal. “I have a birthday gift for you. I think you will be pleased.”

Canneal’s expression was that of interest and curiosity as she waited for Lawray to explain. “I am

going to formally charter a new Council today. I will submit the charter at Feundar Council later

today.” Lawray was proclaiming his intention to be more politically active.

Councils were legal structures, each political in nature, but typically focused on one mission statement.

Any individual who submitted a charter was formally announcing their intention to become a

government official and would contribute significant effort in support of their mission statement. In

return, Feundar Council, the highest level Council on the planet, would provide financial support and

political leverage to any approved lower level Council. Many Councils, if approved, were named after

whomever applied for the charter.

Canneal smiled, realizing how important it was for anybody to charter a Council. It meant the charter

writer was planning serious involvement in whatever effort they were trying to have recognized. She

was especially pleased whenever any of her children took proactive positions on political matters.

“Oh!” Canneal exclaimed. “This is such good news. My dear son, what do you propose to Council?”


“My Council will advocate stronger controls over the Feundarian environment. Our planet is not taken

care of well enough, and I believe it is time to do something serious about correcting this problem.”

Canneal considered his comments for a moment. “Are you advocating independence?”

“No, mother. That is not reasonable nor practical. There are far too many everyday dependencies.”

Tilting his head back toward the non-responsive VS while pointing briefly at it, he added,

“Independence would require, for example, a huge buildup of Feundarian infrastructure to better

support VS here. More structure, more people, more changes on Feundar.” He stopped for a moment

before stating the obvious to everyone in the room. “You know how unpopular the idea of

independence is. My Council application would never receive approval.”

“What then do you propose?”

“A slow down. You are aware of the news that the Feundarian population has now reached one million,

and that more than thirty thousand new Seinites migrate here every tennar. We cannot sustain and

provide for this growth without serious damage to our environment. We do not keep up even now with

the growth we are having. This is a position for which nearly all Feundarians have sympathy.”

“You are a strong person, Lawray. You will have great influence on the Feundar Council. It is the Sein

Supreme you will have to convince,” Canneal said about the highest authority in the Sein Union, the

largest alliance of countries on the planet.

“I know. It also means I will have to spend significant time there.”

Canneal knew how much her son loved his native planet. She appreciated the required sacrifice. “You

are a good child.” Privately she thought, for she would never say it out loud, she was glad the VS was

not working. She knew her Stria well, and even after tennars apart most of the time, she knew Bloam

would not approve of Lawray’s idea. Bloam was heavily in favor of growth and increasing control on

Feundar. Of course, she would find out soon enough. She could voice her objections then, after

Lawray’s Council was approved, not on his day, his birthday, his day to share the joy with his mother

of such a significant plan.

Lawray smiled and took his mother’s hand. He held it gently as he gazed at her. Canneal was over 76

tennars old now and age was beginning to show its relentless ravages. Still, he thought, what an

amazing and beautiful woman.

Canneal Kroll lived for almost ninety-two tennars. That was another fifteen tennars, long enough to

watch the Lawray Council receive approval and become an important arm of the Feundarian political

hierarchy. When she died in late tennar 91, her funeral, called a Lanceron on both Sein and Feundar,

was as large an event as any held for a famous statesman. Hundreds of thousands of Feundarins as well

as millions of Seinites participated in mourning. But, as it is with even the most famous person who

passes, life for the living continues. The Canneal Lanceron came and went while the traditional

Canneal celebration continued.


Chapter 29

Lawray Kroll’s Council was approved. As soon as Bloam found out, she protested to her brother, just

as Canneal had known would happen. While the Lawray Council advocated a slowing of development

on Feundar, especially the amount of immigration from Sein, Bloam believed such policies would

cause harmful stagnation of progress and economics on both planets. The more Lawray tried to

convince his sister of his point of view, the more she turned against his ideas.

The disagreement was not as simple as sibling rivalry. Each of their feelings reflected familiarity and

comfort with their home planet’s general environment. While Sein was deeply established with

traditional social structures and governmental bureaucracy, Feundar remained largely a frontier world,

filled with residents who lived more in survival mode than not. Seinites lived with convenience and

materialism, progressively removed from their connection with nature and direct exposure to

environmental concerns. Feundarians saw new insults to their more undeveloped world with every

passing day, remaining concerned and directly affected by each corruption.

What Lawray saw as protection of his planet while remaining connected to the governing institutes of

Sein, Bloam became convinced it was veiled sympathy for independence. In response to her brother’s

efforts, eventually she chartered the Bloam Council with the mission of enforcing and protecting

Seinite control over Feundar. It became official, the Lawray Council and their influence against that of

the Bloam Council. Despite every attempt to explain his position to his sister Bloam, Lawray could not

convince her he was not in favor of independence. He argued consistently how much he worked for

cooperation and progress, but with environmentally sound procedures protecting the precious and

unique resources on Feundar.

The ongoing political disagreements drove a split between Kroll Stria members on the two planets.

Short of one group changing their Stria name and thus their identity, conditions between the two Stria

groups grew increasingly fractious.

“Kroll. How are you this morning?” Salir entered the room and stepped closer to the bed where her

father Lawray was lying. He had been in hospital now for more than twenty-five days.

Lawray opened his eyes and turned to see his daughter. “I am fine, my sweet. No thris can keep me

down forever. The doctors have informed me I will be up and out of here in the next couple of days.”

“Kroll. That is wonderful news. Does this mean you are thris free?”

“It is too soon to know. And, in any case, I have explicit instructions to go slowly for awhile.”

Salir placed her hand on Lawray’s arm. “Father, you are strong. You will be fine. And, I will make

sure you follow your doctor’s advice. I can continue helping with Council for as long as you need me.”

“That is what I wish to discuss with you.”


“It is okay. I do not mind. I enjoy working with Council. It has become important to me.”

“No, Salir. Just the opposite of what you think.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I have come to know how much Council means to you. You have become far more than only help.

Your emotional connection with our mission has grown for several tennars, and more than I expected,

especially during the last tennar.” Lawray’s eyes focused more carefully on Salir’s face, looking for

her reaction. “My thris has helped me see. I am growing old. The work which Council must do has

become more important than ever. Council needs strong leadership and devotion to its mission. I see

that I can no longer do the work required. My precious daughter, I wish for you to take Council

leadership.”

Salir was surprised. She smiled as she realized how nice the offer felt. “Kroll. My father. I will honor

your request, and I will make you proud.”

“Please know I am already proud of you. You will take on leadership of Council with all of the

confidence and courage I know you have.”

“You will still remain close for consultation?”

“I’m not going anywhere. You can count on me to help. I will thrive through your energy and

commitment.”

Salir quickly thought of the reality of what was taking place. “Bloam Council does not know?”

“Nobody yet knows.”

“What she thinks of you is only magnified in me.”

Lawray understood. He and his daughter never discussed it, but he knew what would happen. Salir had

never hidden her feelings that the right path for Feundar was independence. He did not doubt how she

would begin right away moving her own agenda into place. Bloam would react in ways she felt

obligated. She would push for quicker and more solid controls. She would work tirelessly for stronger

laws which would hamper any Feundarian attempts to break free of Seinite possession.

“Keep in mind that Bloam is also growing older. She is now almost eighty tennars old. We have all

heard the rumors that she may also step down from Council and turn it over to Vicre.” Lawray was

comfortable with the idea of Bloam’s son in command. “You know how he is, full of fire and emotion,

but weak as a leader. It will only dilute the Bloam Council focus.”

“But that will push the authority up to the Supreme.”

“Bureaucrats! That is all the better for you. They will fiercely protect what exists, but will be impotent

at managing new problems.” Lawray added a warning. “Just stay away from obvious suggestions of

independence.” Before Salir protested, he continued. “Don’t think I do not know where you will go


with this. I’m only suggesting you must move more slowly than I know you desire.” He paused a

moment before showing his deeper support for his daughter and added softly, “As we all do.”

Salir smiled and leaned forward, kissing his forehead. “Kroll. If I could only have your wisdom.”

As Lawray gazed into his daughter’s eyes, he spoke softly. “You are Kroll.” Both remained silent for a

moment of shared love and understanding.

Lawray felt he had to return to business. “I believe a key to Council’s success is continuing

enforcement of Paschal.” The greatest Lawray Council winning strategy had been orchestration and

passage of the Paschal Accord almost twenty tennars earlier, which remained the current policy.

Named after Paschal Gontaine, who was a minority member of the Sein Supreme, the accord

practically stopped new immigration. Lawray had convinced Paschal, a long and close friend of his,

that the strong flow of immigration was causing costly and complicated economic losses because of

the incomplete and inadequate infrastructure on Feundar to properly manage so many new residents.

Twenty tennars ago, few suspected the real agenda of the relatively new Lawray Council. Bloam had

not yet chartered her Council in response. So, there was little political machinery in place to counter

Lawray’s actions. But, times were changing. Few on Sein today were unaware of Lawray’s efforts,

Bloam Council stayed on top of Lawray Council strategy, and political pressure was mounting to

revoke the Paschal Accord.

The political will and strength of numbers on Feundar was no match for the overwhelming dominance

of Sein. But, this was slowly changing. What Sein and the Bloam Council worked so hard to protect by

adding more controls and robust enforcement through improved infrastructure on Feundar, in the long

run this brought about an environment which served to make it easier for the new world to believe it

could manage independently of Sein and its policies.

In less than half a tennar later, celebration for Canneal 100 took place. By then, transferring leadership

of the Lawray Council to Salir had completed. Bloam remained in charge of her Council. She was

motivated so much to work against the Lawray Council, she could not bring herself to pass control to

Vicre, as many anticipated.

In the meantime, Lawray continued involvement with his Council but with greatly reduced energy.

While mostly thris free for the rest of his life, nevertheless, the invasive cure left him weakened,

regularly and often he had to return to hospital for two-day visits and exhausting booster medical

procedures.


Chapter 30

Lawray Kroll lived another twenty-two tennars after passing leadership of his Council to his daughter

Salir. It was tennar 121 when Lawray Lanceron occurred. Salir wept while Bloam quietly celebrated.

Such was the state of affairs in the Kroll Stria. The schism between the Feundar and Sein Krolls had

grown progressively worse with each passing tennar. But, this was not unique to the Kroll Stria. The

animosities among the Krolls only reflected the common sentiment spread across both planets. Brother

against sister, Stria versus Stria. Feundar increasingly resisted Sein's control.

Further complicating the situation, the divisions of sentiment were not only aligned with the two

planets. There were many on Feundar who were against independence, while a significant number of

Seinites favored it. However, because Feundar remained the place with a smaller population and

continued with less infrastructure in place planet wide than the older established Seinite world,

differences in opinions were not only more easily noticed on Feundar, but typically emotions ran

higher.

As long as Lawray Kroll lived, the Paschal Accord remained mostly in place and enforced. Such was

the enduring influence held simply by Lawray’s existence. Through enforcement of Paschal, Feundar’s

population had grown to only slightly more than one million. But, as soon as Lawray’s Lanceron

finished, sentiment on Sein began a sure, albeit slow shift away from Paschal.

While Salir tried as much as she knew how to avoid the weakening protection against increased

immigration, she never enjoyed the influence or stature her father held with the Sein Supreme. Bloam

Kroll knew this, and she certainly took advantage of the new political environment. Instead of directly

challenging the Paschal Accord, Bloam advocated smaller and less noticeable changes which

individually were easy to have the Supreme approve. Together, however, the collective power of all

the individual changes effectively rendered Paschal ineffective.

When Lawray died at age 96 tennars, younger sister Bloam was just less than 93. But, she benefitted

on Sein from a much more robust medical establishment. Also, life on Feundar remained relatively

more dangerous and difficult, and Seinite life expectancies grew longer than those on Feundar. Bloam

eventually would live for almost 119 tennars, so for now she remained in sufficient health and

certainly active enough to continue zealous management of her Council.

Salir looked up from the notes she was reading. She had been at Lawray Council chambers for almost

half the day. Suddenly Tao, one of her coworkers who was also a close friend entered hurriedly into

the room. Salir was a bit annoyed by Tao's interruption and was anxious to return to what she was

doing. “Tao, what’s going on? Why the urgency?”

“Kroll,” Tao responded formally, indicating she intended to discuss Council business more than chat

with her good friend. “I have learned some troubling news. You know of the Structure Council?”


“No. Well, only vaguely. It was chartered a few tennars ago. But, I know almost nothing else about it.”

“Kroll. It is an advocate for ensuring proper implementation of regulations issued by Sein Supreme.”

Salir spoke before Tao could say more. “Oh yes, I do recall that. Boring! They observe and point out to

the Supreme when any of their silly regulations are not being carried out perfectly. As I said, boring.”

Salir wished to return to her work as she looked back down at her notes.

“No, Salir, it is something more difficult—and for us. Officially that is indeed their charter, but it is in

the details where they reveal their true nature. I found out they are chartered under crubian.” Crubian

was the term used to describe Councils which were chartered by somebody who wished to remain

mostly incognito. There was nothing illegal about it; almost half of all Councils were under crubian. It

was the legal way for a Council manager to remain unpublicized for the most part.

Again, Salir did not wait for Tao to finish her explanation. She really wanted to keep this conversation

short, what Tao was typically not inclined to do whenever she talked about virtually anything. “Tao,

these anonymous bureaucrats are only a nuisance. We deal with such people all the time. I have some

work here ...”

Tao was frustrated at Salir’s reaction. “Salir, Listen! Your cousin Vicre is the Council manager and he

lives here!”

“What!?” Salir sat up quickly.

“It is true.”

“No. Vicre lives on Sein. You must have misunderstood.”

“I double checked. He chartered Structure Council directly through Sein Supreme, but established the

chambers here. He then waited a couple of tennars before moving here quietly as just another

immigrant.”

“Why, Tao? Why would he do this?”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

“Well?” Salir was growing impatient with Tao’s typical inability to get more directly to the point.

“What they are really doing is trying to make sure that implementation of Sein Council regulations

optimize their control over Feundar.”

“How do you mean?”

“Instead of any qualified immigrants being allowed in, they make sure they are not only qualified, but

they will be working on projects which allow stronger control by Sein while keeping work on other

projects at a minimum. And, they study budgets Sein has authority over and how the money is really

used here on Feundar, making sure any adjustments do not take away from Sein’s ability to maintain

control.”


Given Salir’s knowledge of Vicre, Tao’s descriptions were sounding reasonable. It also made it more

clear to her the way Sein controlled projects on Feundar seemed to be managed. It explained a lot. But,

Salir was confused and unable to consider what she might do about this bad news. If only Lawray were

here, she thought. What would he do? She stood up and started pacing.

Thinking more about how Vicre would move to Feundar and keep it hidden from the whole Kroll Stria

on Feundar, let alone how many on Sein also surely did not know, she grew angry. “The Bedian!” She

blurted out in frustration. A Bedian was any person who disavowed any Stria association, but in

practice the word had become very much a vulgar way to describe anyone who seemed to care little for

others.

“Oh, Salir! You don’t mean that.”

Salir stopped pacing and looked at Tao. “No.” She breathed heavily. “But, how could he do this?”

Tears welled in her eyes. “My own Stria.” She continued to stand and stare at Tao, unable to move or

think straight. She knew how significant this actually was. It ran deeper than a significant Stria feud. It

was a sleazy tactic, low politics and unconscionable behavior, and Salir was not dealing at all well with

it, knowing that a member of her own Stria was directly responsible. “I cannot believe that even Bloam

would allow such unscrupulous behavior.”

“Kroll. I am so unhappy I had to bring you this news.” Tao tried to help Salir think more calmly. “We

must consider ways to make the Structure Council less effective. You can defeat this problem. You do

not have to breathe the same emotional clouds.”

“You are right.” Salir tried to push aside her disturbed feelings. “We can deal with it. Do you know

more about this? How long has Vicre been here?”

“He chartered Structure Council under crubian in tennar 124 and secretly moved here in 127.”

“What!” Salir exclaimed. “He has been here for four tennars, and nobody knew this?” Salir was even

more incensed. She knew right then she would fight him, but it took a lot longer before concluding she

would fight him with the same kind of raw tactics he was using.

As days passed and Salir contemplated how she would deal with Vicre’s Council, she realized that she

had to handle the whole business with some care. The Sein Supreme and the Councils it supported, like

Bloam and Structure, were powerful political machines. If she went about this the wrong way, she

would only do more harm than good.

As time passed she also grew more aware of how much she had lost interest in merely protecting

Feundar from harmful Seinite control policies. With each passing tennar, almost without her own

awareness, she had progressively turned more sympathetic with those who wished Feundar to become

independent from Sein.

It was nearly two tennars later before Salir came up with her solution. It was tennar 133 by then, more

than eleven tennars since Lawray Lanceron. The linchpin of her attempt to render Vicre’s efforts less

effective was the establishment of a new Council. She named it Sorrell, the name of the resting place


of Canneal Kroll’s ashes. The charter looked to the Feundar Council and Sein Supreme more like an

historical group dedicated to the loving memory of Canneal Kroll. It was that. Officially.

Salir chartered Sorrell Council under crubian and even went so far as to list her friend Tao as the

unpublicized manager. In practice, time spent by members of Sorrell Council spent time establishing

“memorial” chambers in major cities scattered all across Feundar. The chambers became local

headquarters where the real work ensued. In her heart, Canneal loved the idea of independence for

Feundar, but always knew it would never come about in her lifetime. So, in her honor, existing

members of Sorrell Council recruited new ones who were also desiring independence. What could not

be rendered real politically would be transformed into almost de facto reality once enough Feundarians

were signed up and ready to reveal their true agenda.

In the meantime, tennar after tennar, the work of looking like that of Feundarians who protected the

memory of Canneal Kroll was enough of a red herring. Nearly anybody who wanted independence also

typically enjoyed honoring Feundarian history. What little anybody noticed which seemed to have

something to do with the idea of independence was noticed in general by very few, and in particular by

almost nobody associated with the Structure Council. The more there were those who wanted

independence, the less there was those who supported Seinite control. Salir was indirectly and slowly

accomplishing her real goals. It was a waiting game. Vicre never knew until it was too late.


Chapter 31

With the Sorrell Council fully in place by the end of tennar 133, Salir and Tao found a few trusted

Feundarian friends who were in favor of independence. They were careful to approach only those who

were also willing to remain subdued in their public opinions about the issue. The idea was to continue

finding like minded citizens who would join Sorrell but who were willing to wait until Sorrell

membership was large enough to make a difference when they would all go public together at the right

time.

It was decided that the right time would be Canneal celebration 150. So, when Canneal 134 celebration

occurred, Salir, Tao, and a few select friends showed up with a banner proclaiming the loving memory

of Canneal Kroll, the first native Feundarian. There was no hint of their desire for independence.

With each passing tennar, trusted new members of Sorrell were added, resulting in new Council

chambers opening in most of the major cities on Feundar. The Sorrell Council also managed mostly to

go unnoticed as they collected intelligence related to the actions of the Structure Council. With such

knowledge and in numerous small ways which avoided drawing attention to themselves, they often

managed to take counter measures which weakened the effectiveness of the Structure Council’s work.

With little notice beyond immediate relatives, Bloam Lanceron occurred in tennar 147. She would not

live to see Canneal 150. She was barely alive to witness the birth of her grandson Bain in tennar 144,

Vicre’s only child. Vicre was himself over 76 tennars old when Bain was born, a fairly common age on

Sein. A few tennars before, he and his wife Dia had moved back to Sein for their health, taking

advantage of superior medical care. The move left Structure Council with day-to-day management by

less competent members. Following Bloam’s death, Vicre took charge of the Bloam Council, but with

his advanced age and a new son, he devoted little effort or time to his position of authority.

During the seventeen tennars before tennar 150, the Sorrell Council membership grew into a few

thousand members with a couple of dozen chambers established across Feundar. Nearing the Canneal

celebration for tennar 150, Vicre, Salir, and Tao were all still alive with each of them remaining partly

active as managers of their respective Councils. However, all of them were much older and none of

them had the fire and energy they once felt with their commitments to their causes. Younger members

were taking charge, filled with desire to hold positions of higher authority and status, but none with the

zealousness to maintain the activity once enjoyed by each of the Councils. This relatively lower

intensity played well with the Sorrell Council as its numbers grew, while the Structure and Bloam

Councils had become far less effective.

“Kroll. It is time to make public our real purpose.”

Salir sat quietly for a moment as she considered Tao’s suggestion. “You have led Sorrell with great

success. You believe we are ready?”


“Yes. Canneal 150 is going to be especially well attended. It is a very good time to hold public

proclamations. We will add independence as an awareness which will grow with every tennar. Our

numbers are large enough, our members are ready. There are enough of us to convince others that there

is reasonable sentiment about the issue. Positive sentiment.” Tao was practically stating as a fact what

would happen, more than her asking for Salir’s approval.

“I have not kept abreast enough with the activities of Sorrell chambers. I trust your conclusion. I

suppose you are right.” Salir closed her eyes and smiled. “I have waited many tennars for this.”

“Kroll. I know you have. It is time.” Tao understood as much as anyone how much momentum had

recently shifted toward the general idea of independence. She knew how easy it would now be to

coordinate the first independence rally during Canneal 150.

Opening her eyes widely and looking at Tao, Salir said with a clear tone of spitefulness, “Oh, how I

would enjoy seeing Vicre’s expression when he learns of this.”

Tao knew how much Salir felt betrayed and hurt within her Stria over Vicre’s actions, which were

surely condoned—perhaps personally commissioned—by Bloam. The feud in the Kroll Stria never

waned. Similar animosities existed and increased throughout most Stria. Emotions, both pro and con,

dominated virtually every conversation about independence, and this had become the state of affairs

for several tennars.

“He might not learn about it for quite awhile. Reports of our first public independence rallies may well

not be noticed much on Sein.”

Superior medical practices on Sein, much better than that which existed on Feundar—more than a

casual bone of contention on Feundar—kept Vicre healthy enough to live for many tennars more.

Having a wife and child contributed to Vicre’s decreased interest in Feundarian issues in general and

the business of the Structure and Bloam Councils in particular.

As Canneal 150 approached, the news of each Canneal had grown less reported on Sein each time. It

was not significant news on Sein. So what was once heavily recorded and reported by various news

agencies was more recently considered somewhat boring and uninteresting to Seinites. It wasn’t news.

Certainly the sudden appearance during Canneal 150 of thousands of Feundarians demonstrating for

independence would otherwise be very well noticed and reported. But, with few Sein reporters

attending Canneal 150, it was certain that Vicre would learn of this turn of affairs slowly.

More importantly, however, with Vicre no longer in charge of Structure Council and with its resulting

diminished effectiveness, there would be little recourse the council would take to counteract the

relatively large support for independence. Momentum was now largely on the side of the Sorrell

Council and its growing number of younger and more zealous members.

Anybody sympathetic with the idea of independence became known as a Sorrell, even if they were not

members of the council itself. In recent tennars, immigrants to Feundar had increased dramatically. It

was no longer so much the focus by Sorrells. In fact, Sorrells began to welcome more immigrants, not


only because it increased the number of those sympathetic to independence, but also it contributed to

Sein’s own decreasing abilities to control Feundar.

The common goal among the Sorrells, and in practice the only issue of significance was that of

independence. Forget about immigration, forget about Sein’s calculated support of infrastructure which

helped them maintain control. All that mattered now was independence.

Normal Canneal 150 celebrations occurred as usual. Hundreds of thousands celebrated across Feundar.

With them stood a smaller, but significant number of those carrying banners and handing out leaflets

proclaiming that it was time for independence. It was a surprise to almost all who were not Sorrells.

It took almost two days before Vicre found out. Vicre’s wife Dia reached for his hand, not sure how he

would react. “Kroll.” She could think of nothing to say beyond a gentle attempt to placate him.

Vicre was subdued beyond expectation, surprising her. He noticed her reaction. “Do not worry. I have

been expecting this far longer than you know.”

Dia said, “You’ve spent so much of your life trying to prevent such a thing. Do you not have greater

abhorrence of this than you show?”

“No. I once believed I would, but I see the inevitability behind this. Who does not want their own life

of freedom and independence?” Vicre had succumbed to the same sure future for most who live long

enough. The outside world and its perceived importance grows dim with age. The older one becomes,

the more inward they usually turn, finding relatives, friends, and closeness of home progressively more

important than most external forces.

Dia could not hide her distain. “This is not right. It is civil disobedience. It should be stopped. The Sein

Supreme should handle this. Why cannot the Structure Council better deal with this? How could this

much organization exist without laws being violated?”

Without really understanding, Bain supported his mother’s comments.

Vicre looked at his son and smiled. “My sweet, you will come to understand.” Looking at Dia, he

added, “This is not about the simple disobeying of legal regulations. Sein Supreme can only force

eventual and terrible violence.”

Dia did not argue back. Actually, she considered Vicre as one who had grown out of touch and who

grew more naive with each passing talic.

There was little or nothing Vicre could do and he knew it. Canneal celebration was over, along with

the independence rallies held by the Sorrells. Canneal 151 and each Canneal after that continued the

trend. Each time the Sorrells grew in number. Each time they were more visible and vocal. Each time

Vicre and his sympathetic comrades watched in vain with essentially nothing they could do about it.

Canneal 150 was considered the historical birth of the formal independence movement.


Chapter 32

Exuberance falters, emotions weaken, and leaders grow old and forgotten. Populations on Feundar

continued to grow even more rapidly as the Paschal Accord was rendered unenforceable by countless

other new laws and loopholes. On Feundar, the Structure and Sorrell Councils lost their focus and their

most enthusiastic leaders, while the same thing was happening to the Bloam Council on Sein. All of

the councils continued to exist, but the word Sorrell effectively became only a term which described

anybody on Sein or Feundar who favored independence.

However, with each passing Canneal celebration, the Sorrells grew in numbers, visibility, and

insistence. The independence rallies also grew in size and intensity. Canneal 200 approached, and as a

number which seemed more significant than others, plans for celebration of Canneal along with

demonstrations by Sorrells indicated that both events would surpass any seen before. The bicentennial

Canneal would be one which even those on Sein would notice more than usual. So, there would be

more than usual news coverage of the independence demonstrations.

Bloam Lanceron and Salir Lanceron had come and gone before Canneal 200. And, Vicre Kroll was by

then very old, living only two tennars after Canneal 200. Vicre’s was the only remaining significant

member of the old guard representing how it used to be. Numerous other members of the Kroll Stria

lived on Sein and Feundar, and while most of them certainly had opinions regarding independence or

not, few breathed the emotional clouds surrounding Kroll ancestors. The rift in the Stria which built

during tennars past faded and weakened with time and everyday life.

During Salir Lanceron, Salir’s close friend Tao, who lived only a few tennars more, honored her love

for her lost friend by joining the Kroll Stria. She would remain a Kroll from then on. Her two children,

Basah and Strein, also joined the Kroll Stria. Feeling emotionally closer to the Krolls than many in

their own Stria, they had come to love Salir as if she were their own parent. It was because of this

special bond with Salir that Basah and Strein became involved with helping to plan and organize

independence demonstrations for Canneal 200. They made sure the demonstrations would be bigger

and more public than any in the past. They wanted to convey to Sein newscasts how much the desire

for independence had grown.

From the Sorrell Council chambers in the capital city of Unad, Basah and Strein managed their

activities and communications associated with independence demonstrations during Canneal 200. It

was from these chambers where statements were released to the media. For the first time, everybody

saw that the independence movement was more than popular. It was organized and well managed, and

the Sorrell chamber in Unad was clearly the headquarters.

“We have done it, brother.” Basah gave Strein a congratulatory hug as she proclaimed their success.

“Every city reports a great turnout. Now they will know how serious we are.”


“I think they already have a fairly good idea, but I agree, everything has gone as well as we could

possibly expect.”

“I have even seen a report that some demonstrators were observed in Ajapol Territory.”

“That’s amazing!” Strein responded. He was truly surprised.

Basah and Strien were talking about the renegade area on Feundar controlled completely by the Sein

country of Ajapol. Ajapol was the only major country on Sein which did not belong to the Sein

Supreme, and which never complied with any international laws except for its own. For more than five

hundred talics, Ajapol had been seen by the rest of Sein as a dangerous enemy, constantly threatening

peace. With its usual arrogance and uncooperative manner, Ajopol managed to carve out its own

jurisdiction on Feundar. The Sorrells had virtually no communications with those living in Ajapol

Territory.

In the early days of Feundarian colonization, Ajapol established police forces to control inevitable

crime just like everywhere else. But, they took it further, emulating their Sein dictatorship, closing

their borders, refusing to cooperate with the rest of Feundar, managing their own proclaimed territory

and its resources for their own selfish needs.

Their police had quickly changed into a strong military presence on Feundar. They were the first to

transport offensive grade weapons to their colony. Of course, the remaining colonies on Feundar felt

they had to protect themselves, storing defensive weapons at first, but eventually some offensive

weapons also. It was inevitable that both sides finally stocked a few nuclear weapons. The war of

words and saber rattling which existed on Sein for so many talics was continued on Feundar.

Thus, it was a surprise to all that independence demonstrations in the Ajapol Territory were extensive

enough to warrant notice. It could be seen as clear evidence of how much Feundar wanted to govern

itself, free of Seinite control.

As Basah and Strein continued to examine incoming information regarding how well demonstrations

were progressing, coworker Tad Ganier rushed into the room. “I’ve just received a report of an

outbreak of violence.”

“Oh no! Let me see,” said Strein. He reached for the report Tad was holding. Reading it quickly, he

commented. “The trouble broke out in Ajapol. This is very bad. It’s the last thing we need associated

with our demonstrations.”

“But,” Basah countered, “it’s in Ajapol. Perhaps it will be seen as typical suppression of its citizens.

Maybe it won’t be so connected with us.”

“That won’t happen, Basah. You know that.” Strein looked at Tad. “How old is this report?”

“I brought it to you when I first saw it. Not long I think.”

The three moved to the communication room and looked through several more recent reports.

Suddenly, Basah exclaimed, “Oh no!”


“What?”

Basah looked troubled. “There were citizens harmed. This isn’t real clear, but it looks very bad.

Perhaps two or three were killed.”

Strein paced the room. “This news will be out and heard quickly by everyone. It will cause troubled

reactions by others. By those here. This is terrible!”

Strein was right. Within the hour, news spread to several cities throughout Feundar. Happy

demonstrations turned to outpouring of anger. Soon, the Ajapol Council chamber in Unad city was

attacked by protestors. The independence celebration was turning into chaotic and violent protests.

Before the day ended, violence became the driving force, and eventually many were acting with anger

and irrational behavior. Riot police reacted.

By the end of Canneal, violence had occurred in most major Feundarian cities. Six citizens were

eventually killed. The insanity which often follows such an outbreak continued. The pent up

frustrations and controlled but serious opinions both for and against independence turned into ongoing

violence over the days which followed.

Buildings were burned, including ones which had no connection with either Sorrell or anti-

independence organizations. Police could not return peaceful behavior to many large cities. The

Feundarian population was close to five million now, and more than half of them were involved

directly with the ongoing outbreak of civil disobedience.

The violence became so widespread and common, the whole affair was labeled the Feundarian Rage

by the media. Sein now noticed what was happening. Independence. What was that? The whole idea

was lost, replaced with madness and violence far more extreme than the most pessimistic could

imagine.

Rage was an appropriate description of what ensued. The Feundarian Rage.


Chapter 33

Freedom and independence are powerful addictions. The lengths taken to ensure them are monumental.

The lengths taken to first obtain them are even greater. And, so it happened across Feundar, as

intensely anywhere on the planet as in the Ajapol Territory.

Irrational and violent behavior dominated ongoing conflicts. Civil disobedience grew worse. Random

fighting would not subside. Additional reactions and anger followed news of more killings.

Immeasurable pent up frustrations turned into deepening chaos and uncontrolled anarchy. The whole

of Feundarian society was tearing apart. Fighting grew more violent every passing day. More killings,

often not even known to have anything to do with the idea of independence. Civil war broke out. It

went beyond a simple fight for or against independence. There were no clear sides to the madness.

The police had little effect on restoring order. So, the military was brought in to attempt to enforce a

cessation of fighting. This only served to bring out additional mistrusts. Each territory claimed another

one was using their military forces to gain further command of more territory. The civil war mutated

into an increasing number of conflicts between different military groups. No declaration of war

occurred, but there was little doubt that war indeed raged across nearly all of Feundar. No reasons fully

explained the greater madness. Old bitterness and hatreds from long established feelings and attitudes

from Sein ruled the day.

Celebration and demonstrations for independence had turned into world war. All in less than four

tennars.

“You slept late,” Basah handed Strein a cup of sarl as he shuffled into the room.

“Marlien cried again last night.” Strein took a sip.

“Your wife has been more troubled lately.”

“The bombing in Sidre may have ended, but with no way to contact her brother, she worries.”

Basah reflected quietly as Strein stood near a window. “It is quiet now. Even soldiers sleep.”

“We are fortunate the battle has not reached us. Yet.”

Strein turned and looked at Basah. “What happened?”

“Again you ask what we all want to understand. Was there really so much anger hidden within us?”

Strein stepped away from the window and sat down. “Do you know of any news about the Harmaud

Council?”


“No. I know they remain in orbit. You know what I know. They have still not found a spaceport where

it is safe to land. The armies do not trust their intentions. They will soon give up and return to Sein.”

“How can anybody mistrust an attempt to negotiate peace?” Strein knew the answer. He was frustrated.

The feeling of helplessness was too hard to accept. He felt responsible. There were those who did

blame him, maybe not directly, but some did say the Sorrells started it. Even worse, some claimed it

was the fault of the Kroll Stria. “Feundarians are being killed every day. Not just soldiers.”

“Is it less troubling if a soldier dies?”

“No, Basah, you know I don’t think that way. No killing is acceptable.”

“I know.”

War ends only after enough killings have occurred, only after enough grow tired of the conflict. That

takes time. The Feundarian world war was too young. Not enough citizens were yet ready for it to end.

There were not yet enough dead. Instead, as it goes with every war, at first the conflicts grow more

terrible, the killings increase, the madness grows wider.

After more than four tennars, the madness did end, but in the most nightmarish manner anybody could

dream. The armies grew short of weapons and ammunition. They received decreasing support from

Sein. Spaceships loaded with new weapons stopped coming. Most ships could not easily land in any

case. Almost every spaceport had been destroyed. Even simple communication between Sein and

Feundar was at best random and weak.

Nobody later had any idea how it started. Nobody could explain the ultimate madness. Nobody knew

why the angers grew so much that the ultimate weapons were finally used. But, they were. Nobody

knew if every nuclear weapon had been unleashed. It didn’t matter. However many were detonated

was enough. That ended the war. People are needed to have a war. When only a handful are left alive,

they don’t fight.


Chapter 34

“Trailia, stay with me. Please, Trailia!” Fearing the final moment had come, Washil paused a moment

before trying again, “Trailia, are you there? Please, answer if you can.” Silence. He waited again for

several seconds. “We will never forget. Know that we will never forget.” He lowered his head and a

tear rolled down his cheek. Straightening and taking a deep breath, he stood and turned to look at the

faces of several others standing there. He said nothing, everybody knew.

The last known remaining citizen of Feundar died.

“Premier, the media is waiting.” The aid turned off the communicator and left the room with Washil.

The others followed. As he walked to the media desk, he thought about what he would say. He had not

prepared a speech for this moment. He wouldn’t allow it. The whole idea seemed too creepy to him.

He moved to the chair behind the desk and sat, looking blankly at the camera. The news director

counted down, “Four, three, two, ...”

The Feundarian world war had lasted almost five tennars. Trailia Baern had lived for a little more than

one tennar after the nuclear conflagration. She outlived hundreds, maybe even thousands who had

been—what—lucky enough to remain alive after the last bomb detonated. Under strict control of the

Sein Supreme, details of what the survivors lives were like were kept mostly quiet. But, news of such

incredible magnitude could not be kept quiet. Seinites everywhere knew the horror.

All of Sein watched Washil Zharad give his message. Who on the entire planet had not lost at least one

friend on Feundar? At least one Stria member? At least one loved one? Millions had died. The entire

planet was radioactive beyond any Seinite technology possible to deal with it.

During the 1.4 talics from the day of releasing the nuclear bombs until just before Trailia Baern’s

apparent death, endless committees of scientists met to try to figure out a way to go to Feundar. They

considered a wide spectrum of ideas, from simple attempts to send a robot spaceship to Feundar to

return the last few known survivors, to grand plans to send an army of robots which could somehow

magically clean up the radioactive mess.

It was not easy for anybody to say aloud that nothing could be done. Every form of life on Feundar

was now gone. The entire planet was filthy with radio activity. It would remain that way for several

thousand talics. The geniuses who built the bombs had done a marvelous job. Kudos to them, and the

many politicians on Sein who commissioned their jobs, and the countless citizens who approved the

policies which led to this. Now they had their permanent reward. They would see the dead planet

shining in every night sky to remind them of what they had caused.

Nobody ever held a Lanceron for an entire planet. There was no organized display of sorrow. Every

Seinite mourned in his own private way. Eventually, the sorrow faded. Even the instant loss of millions


of lives becomes old news. How many today discuss the sixty million humans who died during Earth’s

second world war? How many even remember it was that many who died?

Before the memories became faded enough, the Seinites did manage to pull together and accomplish

things which could only have come about because of such a gigantic tragedy. The first initiative was

symbolic, but as an everyday reminder it represented the spirit of global cooperation which grew with

each passing talic. Every country on Sein quickly approved and adopted a change in the calendar. The

apparent day of Tralia Baern’s death was redefined to be date zero talics. Every date, every talic after

that would be marked and counted from that fateful day. Nobody would ever forget completely.

By date 1.36 talics, conversations and random articles in the media turned into the most wide sweeping

official initiative. Adopted by not only the Sein Supreme, but also by every non-Supreme member

country, including Ajapol, a committee was chartered to draft a new treaty. The new treaty would be

called The Global Unification Treaty, and its eventual goal would be just what its name implied. The

entire Seinite planet would be reorganized politically into only one country. Every citizen of Sein

would live under one planet wide government. No more competing countries, no more armies facing

off against each other, no more citizens living with more restrictive laws than others simply because of

their geographic location.

It was, of course, not an easy or quick task. Differences in life philosophies and political beliefs had

not disappeared when Feundar died. But, every day, every new talic date was a constant reminder of

what had been lost and what could be possibly gained.

And, so it was done. The final draft of The Global Unification Treaty was published on new talic date

12.77. The treaty required unanimous ratification. Only one country refusing to sign would negate the

entire effort. All or nothing. Every country had 20 talics to decide.

With little surprise, even Ajapol signed the treaty. They were the last ones, of course, and most

believed they feared ultimately that if they stood alone against the rest, then they might become one of

only two countries, tiny little them against the behemoth which would be the rest of the planet. They

waited until the last minute to sign, for 19.83 talics. But, they signed. Every citizen of Sein would be

governed by only one ruling group of politicians.

Local governments remained largely in place, but as administrators only able to create legislation

dealing with problems specific to their area. No geopolitical borders were allowed across the entire

planet. No passports or travel documents. Every citizen could travel freely anywhere they wished. The

border crossing stations remained in place, but they became protectors against the errant transfer of

harmful insects, detectors of traveling criminals or contraband, and occasional tax collectors to help

generate locally needed revenues.

Not all of the treaty went into effect all at once. That was not practical. The treaty called for an

implementation period of thirty talics. By new talic 62.6, most of the transition to one unified country

governed by one political system was in place. Numerous odds and ends remained unfinished, but

nothing serious enough to cause the new system to fail.


All major weapon systems on Sein were dismantled or destroyed. The armies across the planet became

the police forces, commanded by private citizens, not by war mongering generals. Crime didn’t

disappear, of course. There still existed citizens who tried to take illegal advantage of others. There

remained differences of opinions and daily arguments which turned into violence. Drugs and their

illegal distribution and use remained a problem for some. The rights of citizens to organize and

demonstrate over political issues remained legal. The police kept such demonstrations from turning

into violence.

With a single globally cooperative police force, however, crime rates dropped considerably. Global

database and tracking systems made it far more difficult to commit a crime and get away with it.

The gaps between haves and have-nots began to narrow. Worldwide charity organizations flourished.

Technology invented by any Seinite rapidly became available to every citizen. It was easier to move

about and find jobs, with fewer restrictions. The general economy planet wide improved, especially

with significant decline of military funding and efforts to protect political borders, which no longer

existed. The funds went instead to science, medicine, education, and the development of technologies

of every kind.

Raw materials abundant on one part of the planet were easily marketed to the entire planet. Local

governmental hoarding and price gouging existed no more. Protectionist schemes between unfriendly

countries ceased to exist. Shortages of any kind grew less common or severe, now that anybody

possessing what was needed was free to sell and distribute it anywhere.

With only minor implementation problems remaining, and with one exception, every other major item

on The Global Unification Treaty had been implemented. The final item stated on the treaty to be done

was scheduled to occur at the end of new talic 75. During the new talic 75 to 76 celebration, which had

become informally called Canneal by so many, it was becoming the de facto official name. The last

official item on the treaty was to change the name of Sein and its one country to the same one new

name, which meant “life provider.”

The new name was Aldoria.


Chapter 35

By new talic 75 when Sein officially became Aldoria, every member of the Kroll Stria originally born

on Feundar was dead. Bloam’s only son Vicre was also gone, survived by his wife Dia and their only

son Bain. However, the Kroll Stria continued to thrive and grow in numbers, but none of the others had

been directly involved with the movement for or against Feundarian independence.

Bain and his wife Cemanna recalled vividly—too vividly—Canneal 200 and the start of the Feundarian

Rage. However, neither had ever visited Feundar, so to them the news in those days was only a report

of conditions in a faraway place. Unlike Vicre and his wife Dia who were also alive at the time and

had strong direct connections with attempts to quell the independence movement, Bain and Cemanna

were mostly dispassionate observers and did not wish to think about that awful past.

In Talic 77, Bain was turning 150 talics old. So a Kroll Stria birthday celebration was held. At 150,

Bain could live another forty or more talics, such was the state of medical science. He was nearing the

end of his career as a statesman, a member of the Aldorian Council, the governing body for the planet.

He had been a member of the lower chamber in Sein Supreme before that, and despite many who

placed significant blame for the destruction of Feundar at the feet of the Kroll Stria, enough Seinites in

positions of influence knew otherwise. Bain had suffered a few direct accusations during subsequent

talics, but he managed to rise above such things and established a reputation as a fair minded and

conscientious legislator while continuing as a lower chamber member of the new political structure.

Several members of the Kroll Stria gathered at the home of Bain and Cemanna to celebrate his

birthday, including their son Kern, daughter Zelea, and their first born, a daughter whom they named

Bloam in honor of Bain’s grandmother. Bloam was married to Edan, who changed his Stria from

Delanian to Kroll. Also attending were the children of Bloam and Edan, son Ansar and daughter Sandil.

Edan met Bloam through her father. He too was a politician, and had been working directly with Bain

on issues related to implementation of the Global Unification Treaty. When he met Bloam, it was love

at first sight. Bloam, however, took a little longer. Eventually they did get married.

With both of Bain’s parents now passed, the tradition of honoring them at his birthday celebration

would still be held by discussing memories of them. Bain was the only one present who remembered

both of them. Cemanna met Bain four talics after Vicre’s Lanceron, and she met and knew Dia for only

sixteen talics before her Lanceron. So, others at the gathering were curious to learn more, especially

Bloam’s son Ansar, who was now only fourteen talics old.

“Kroll. Vicre and Dia were really old when you were born.”

Bain smiled at his grandson. “That was true in the past. But, when I was born, medical science on

Sein—oh, I mean Aldoria—medical science was good enough so we all lived easily for as long as I am

old now.” He looked over at Cemanna. “I still have trouble with our new name.”


“So do I,” Cemanna agreed. “But, I prefer Aldoria.”

Bain continued to answer. “When I was born, it was common for parents to have children when they

were seventy or eighty. My mother was nearly seventy and my father was more than eighty.”

“Kroll. Why did they wait for so long?”

“It was our way. Most of us wanted to have our first career before getting married and having

children.” Aldorians had become accustomed to often having two careers, especially now that they

lived an average of nearly 200 talics. Bain and Cemanna were exceptions, each still involved with their

first and only professions.

Now in his mid-teens, Ansar was growing interested not only in his Stria history, but he showed

interest in politics. “Kroll. Wasn’t your father on the Aldorian Council? Did he do anything else?”

“No. He did devote his entire life to supporting his political beliefs. But, back then it was not called the

Aldorian Council. That did not yet exist. It was called the Sein Supreme. But, Vicre was never a

member of it.”

Ansar wasn’t aware of this. “Kroll. I do not understand. I thought he was a politician.”

“He was. But, in those times very few politicians were actually elected. Most became involved through

organized groups called councils, each one established on its own. Your great grandfather Vicre was a

member of two well known councils, named Structure and Bloam. Structure Council was on Feundar

and Bloam Council was created here by Vicre’s mother Bloam. When Bloam grew too old to manage

her council, Vicre became its manager.”

“Kroll. How could Vicre be very effective if he was managing two councils at one time, not even both

on one planet?”

Bain smiled at his grandson’s observation. “You ask a good question. He wasn’t very effective. When

he was best at leading his Structure Council, he actually lived on Feundar. But, as his mother grew too

old, he moved back here leaving Structure Council in charge of others. He took over Bloam’s position

on the Bloam Council.” Bain felt a little uncomfortable as he explained to Ansar. It was bringing back

some of the more painful memories of those days. But, he continued. “I was almost born on Feundar.”

Ansar was surprised at this. “Kroll. Really?”

“Yes, really. My parents met and married on Feundar. They had been trying to have a baby for quite

some time when they moved back here. Medically there were some complications over my mother

having a child. So, because of that and the fact that Bloam was growing old, they decided to move here.

Vicre would take over Bloam’s work, while Dia could receive the necessary medical care. If she had

not needed medical help, I may well have been a Feundarian instead.”

“Kroll. So you were almost a Bedian.”


“Ansar! We don’t use that word! It is not at all a nice thing to say.” Cemanna sat up as she scolded her

grandson. “Why would you say such a thing?”

Ansar defended himself. “Grandmother, it’s what everybody at Sontreat calls the Feundarians.”

“Then everybody is wrong.” Cemanna tempered her voice. “It is a vulgar word and it is not about

Feundarians. Or Aldorians. It is about anybody who does not wish to have a Stria. Only the very bad

are called that. Please do not use it. Your instructors at Sontreat don’t teach you that, I’m sure.”

Ansar felt appropriately chastized and wanted to change the subject. Turning to his mother Bloam, he

asked, “Did you ever go to Feundar, Mother?”

“Oh no. I was born here on Aldoria after Feundar Lanceron. So were your Uncle Kern and Aunt

Zelea.” Lanceron had become the way to describe the “death” of Feundar. Few ever referred to the

Feundarian Rage, the world war, or the nuclear annihilation. Even mention of Trailia Baern as the last

living Feundarian had become mostly avoided. These terms only served to highlight memories still too

painful for many. This was a time when Aldoria looked mostly ahead as if there was little in the past.

In so many ways, that was an accurate sentiment. Becoming one unified worldwide country, and after

nearly another 78 talics since Feundar’s Lanceron, Aldoria had been turned into something which did

have few real connections with Sein. So, in the minds of most, the past no longer much existed.

For Bain in particular, as well as for Cemanna, it had been emotionally especially difficult. Many had

faulted the Kroll Stria for being instrumental in causing the terrible ending on Feundar. Because of the

stigma, it had prevented Bain from rising to greater political heights, forcing him to be satisfied with

his position in the Aldorian lower chamber. That turned out to be an unexpected blessing. Rather than

becoming involved with more visible global politics and diplomacy, Bain had instead focused on

preventing political barriers from getting in the way of real advances in everyday living. Silently, Bain

had become an unrecognized hero of the common Aldorian. Also, the same desire to stay less visible

had guided Cemanna deeper into medical research, away from the public eye. Bain and Cemanna had

both grown comfortable and very successful at being unnoticed in their respective careers while all

along making significant contributions to society.

And, society was changing in huge ways. Medical science was an especially significant contributor to

change. Cemanna had been working now in medical research for more than one hundred talics,

studying ways to extend life expectancy. Because Ansar was personally interested in politics, he knew

his grandfather Bain had only one career as a politician. But, he was less certain of his grandmother.

“Did you also have only one career like grandfather?”

“Yes,” Cemanna said, “I love studying how to help us all live longer and with better health.”

“Are you why we live so long now?”

“Well, I like to think I am partly responsible for that. But, it was the work of many scientists studying

the problem for many talics.” Cemanna saw this as a good time to break the news she wanted to reveal.


Stating to everyone in the room, she spoke more loudly. “In fact, on this special occasion for the Kroll

Stria, I wish to announce that our lab has reached an important milestone.”

As a participant working at one of three major laboratories researching how to extend life expectancy,

she had been heavily involved in successful testing of a new form of so-called age abatement and was

excited to share with others what had happened.

Realizing that most in the room were now paying attention, Cemanna continued. “We have passed our

last tests successfully, and it has been approved. We can begin using our age abatement method on a

select, but more general population of patients.”

Most in the room were aware of Cemanna’s involvement in a new kind of age abatement technique

called cell restructuring. Her announcement basically meant that the medical procedure was becoming

available to anybody who wanted it, but still with some controlled, but minor oversight. If all

continued to go well for another few talics, then cell restructuring would become an everyday medical

procedure available to anyone without restrictions. Cemanna smiled widely as everyone there voiced

their congratulations.

As the noise in the room decreased, Bloam was the first to comment specifically. “So, my children will

live far longer than ever before?”

Cemanna proudly responded, “It’s even better. We have been able to demonstrate that everybody of

any age can safely benefit from the procedure. Nobody in good enough health has to go without it.”

“Even grandfather? He’s really old!” Ansar said.

After the laughter died down, Cemanna answered, “Even your very old grandfather.” Cemanna

brushed Ansar’s hair as she added, “He can become even older now.”

“Wow!” Ansar exclaimed. “How old?”

“Well, it varies. Cell restructuring works at all ages, but it does a better job the younger one is. Still,

your grandfather might live another one hundred talics instead of only fifty or so.”

Kern joked, “I’m not sure we can handle another one hundred talics of this.”

Again, everybody laughed. Then Ansar asked, “So, how about me. And, Sandil?” He asked about his

younger sister, who was a baby only slightly more than one talic old.

Cemanna gladly answered. “You are both so young, you might be able to live until you are over four

hundred talics old. Maybe even longer. We just don’t really know yet.”

Few in the room were unimpressed. Cemanna was saying that cell restructuring would very likely

more than double life expectancy of newborns, which was already about two hundred talics. Even

those who were older could also have talics added to their lives.


Chapter 36

Common with young people, Ansar Kroll changed his interests with each passing talic. Firmly

convinced he would be a politician following his grandfather Bain and his father Edan, he next became

convinced he would be a musician, especially when he realized the attention he got as his playing the

carrom improved. However, that would fade when he finally realized he would never sing well enough.

Rejecting music altogether, but remaining hungry for the attention his ego had been fed through music,

he tried his hand at art and then writing. Rejected from both of these attempts by an unappreciative

audience, he turned inward with his daily behavior, seeking solitude and self discovery before his real

talent finally came to light. He was very good at mathematics.

Few can predict their future. And it was no exception for Ansar. All too often, however, the inability to

know oneself well enough to decide on a career and declare it so while still in school, Ansar took a

little longer than usual to realize what he might do with himself. Nevertheless, graduating with applied

mathematics as his focus, he remained troubled with what he would do specifically with his new

knowledge.

Sequestered in an office while pondering complicated mathematical conundrums was not what Ansar

could see himself doing. He was willing to accept his path into mathematical endeavors, but in some

way which allowed him more interaction with others. While having a cup of sarl and reading the news,

his parents were also in the room. Ansar had not yet started living alone, although he was already thirty

talics old, an age when most young Aldorians had already finished their education, started their first

career, and begun living away from their parents.

“Kroll! Have you seen this news?”

Bain looked up at Ansar. “What news is that?”

“They discovered another planet outside our solar system.”

“That’s only one more out of hundreds found so far. Why is this one news?”

“Kroll. According to this article, this one is different in two important ways. First, it’s in the solar

system next to us which is only a little more than seven light talics from here. Also, they detected

water and a reasonable atmosphere on it.”

“Seven light talics. Isn’t that a very long distance?”

“Kroll. In space, it’s just next door. But, yes, it is a long distance.”

“How far is it, Dear?” Bloam asked.


“Well, in comparison, the very first manned trip to Feundar took seventeen days. Later, when rocket

propulsion was a lot better, it took only about seven days. At that slower speed, according to this, it

would take almost 15,000 talics to go to the new planet. Even using the fastest rocket we ever built, it

would still take more than 4,000 talics.”

“It doesn’t sound like we’ll be going there anytime soon.” Even with cell restructuring becoming

commonly used by many Aldorians and being constantly improved, life expectancy had grown to

about five hundred talics or so. Thanks in part to Ansar’s grandmother Cemanna and her colleagues

who continued to improve the results of age abatement technology. Bloam continued, “It would take

eight lifetimes just to get there.”

Edan added, “Just as well. We have enough to take care of in our own solar system. We still haven’t

figured out how to return to Feundar and clean it up.”

Bloam cautioned, “Maybe we shouldn’t return to Feundar. Maybe it should remain a reminder of what

we lost. What we are capable of doing.”

“You don’t really think we’d do the same thing on Trailia?” Ansar asked.

The name surprised both of Ansar’s parents, as they looked at each other. Then Bloam asked, “Is that

the name of the new planet?”

“Yes, mother, it is.”

“You know it’s the name of the last living Feundarian.”

“I know, and I think it is a nice thing to do. After all, the name Trailia means wandering child. It’s a

tribute to the memory of Trailia Baern and all who died on Feundar.” As he continued to read the

article, he finally said, “This gives me an idea. I know what I will do with my mathematics.”

Edan asked, “Really? What is that?”

“I am going to work on the relcan problem.”

“Relcan?”

“Kroll. Yes, relcan, a velocity measure. Rockets today use an old technology to get around. According

to this article, about fourty talics ago, scientists discovered through some lab experiments a propulsion

technology called relativistic cancellation. The word relcan is short for that. So far in application it has

not lived up to its promise as a way to build rockets which can go far faster than now. The best speed

ever obtained so far is about eighty percent of one relcan, which is only the same top speed of existing

rockets. So, they finally offered a prize to the first one to build a rocket which goes faster than one

relcan.” Ansar beamed as he considered his new future. “So, I’m going to try to win that prize.”

Bloam remained silent as she considered how many other careers her son had tried. She was not even

sure he would do something with his mathematics, given his very different recent involvement with his


sister Sandil. “Your sister’s birthday is only three days from now. Will you tell her then? Of course,

she will be happy for you, but disappointed in your no longer working with her.”

Ansar sat back and looked at his mother. “Sandil is the real landscape gardener, not me. All I do with

her is provide manual labor. She can find someone else to help her with that. I don’t really contribute

anything else to her new business. You are right, she will be happy to learn of my goal.”

As a politician, Edan knew about goals. They were things seldom achieved, but instead were only

guidelines, pointing toward a desired result. But, as a politician he knew that inevitably compromises

had to come into play, so nearly always the result rarely accomplished the original goal. Nevertheless,

he hesitated to say anything which sounded negative or which might in any way discourage his son’s

new found ambition, his goal.

Turning seventeen talics old, Sandil started her business almost two talics before at age fifteen.

Unusual for most, but not rare. Aldorians who favored less academic pursuits like Sandil often found

their way into careers well before finishing their formal education. Sandil had loved gardening all of

her life. Turning it into a landscaping business seemed natural and easy. She not only had the talent for

such activities, she was already showing a creative flair for creating exciting, unusual, but popular new

ways to demonstrate her abilities to the public, while turning her art also into a succeeding business

with help from other Kroll Stria members. She was beginning to acquire landscaping contracts with

city and state governments, thanks to connections established through Edan’s political career.

Ansar added, “Sandil’s roof gardens will be more and more popular, certainly without me.”

Bloam agreed, “It is a grand idea. And, now that she has a couple of them finished, everybody can see

how nice they are. She will have a very successful career.”

It had become common for office buildings to support rooftops covered with grass or small plants. But,

Sandil took the idea far beyond that. While roofs covered with rows of uninteresting plants served to

conserve energy used by an office building, Sandil developed the idea of creating inviting gardens on

the roofs instead. Her roof plantings would remain an energy saving enterprise, but what Sandil added

was landscaping using her knowledge of what kinds of other plants, including flowering ones, would

also thrive on top of a building. Her landscaping talents would be appreciated and visited by more than

an occasional building maintenance person who showed up from time to time to make sure everything

was okay. Instead, her roof gardens would attract occupants of office buildings taking work breaks. It

would be a place of peace and beauty in an otherwise city environment of glass and steel.

Edan added, “Sandil will do just fine. She is devoted to what she does. I am glad you are beginning to

see a direction to take with your own talents. But, how is this relcan limit useful? What is the economic

incentive?”

“Mining Consa,” Ansar answered. “Travel times between here and the moon will be made much

shorter and less expensive. Raw materials returned will be less expensive to retrieve. Prices of

produced goods will not have to be so high.”


Edan immediately thought of tax revenues which would also increase. Trying to show more support for

his son’s new idea, he then asked, “So, just how much faster is this relcan you will seek?”

“Um, the speed of light is five hundred relcans. Remember, when global unification was completed, it

also included implementation of the new measurement standards. The length of one mile was redefined

so that exactly one billion of them is the distance light travels in one hour. So, one relcan is two million

miles per hour.”

“Oh, yes, I remember well. We all do. I am still not all that comfortable in understanding distances

using the new mile. The old mile makes more sense to me.”

“Kroll. That is only because you used it longer.”

“So, I know that Consa is 230,000 miles from here in old miles. What’s that in new miles?”

“It’s about 171,000 new miles.”

“Wait, so about 230 old miles is 171 new miles.” Edan thought for a few seconds. “That means I need

to multiply by about three-fourths.”

“Kroll. Really, that is the hard way to think about it. It will be a lot more easy if you just forget about

the old distance. There is no need to ever do the conversion. Just only use the new measure. It will get

easier for you more quickly that way.”

“Son, it is hard to teach an old marst new tricks.”

“Kroll. You are far more intelligent than a marst.”

“Well, perhaps. But, I don’t understand why they had to change what a mile is anyway.”

“Kroll. The old mile was a cultural thing defined who knows how long ago, and was some distance

much more illogically defined than the new mile. With our rockets now as fast as they are and they

will continue to get only faster—even our commercial transports between cities will be faster—it made

a lot of sense to define the mile relative to the speed of light. That’s so discussions about distances and

speeds were more compatible with each other.”

Edan thought about the explanation, but saw only small benefit to it. “Even if you find a way to travel

one relcan or more, it would still take a very long time to go to Trailia. And, from what I know, there

remain virtually no economic reasons to go to planets even in our own solar system. Good for

scientists, I suppose, but not much else. It would be quite an accomplishment if you could also find a

compelling reason to go so much faster.”

Ansar said, “Kroll. We are explorers. We always have been. It’s in our blood. That is motivation

enough.”


Chapter 37

And so, Sandil’s seventeenth birthday celebration began three days later attended by a few close

friends and several Kroll Stria members including senior Bain, who was now 165 talics old, his wife

Cemanna, their children Bloam, Zelea, and Kern, Bloam’s husband Edan, and their children Ansar and

Sandil. Bain was nearing retirement from politics, while Cemanna remained active in medical research

of cell restructuring.

“Kroll. We are all so happy you could make it.” Bloam said.

“I am happy I could be here. There are some privileges to being a senior member of the lower chamber.

So, I could return early from the outer territories to be here for my grand daughter’s birthday.”

“Kroll. I too am happy you are here,” Sandil said. “I trust I will see you for many more birthdays.

Thanks in no small part to grand mother and her work.”

“Well, my wife seems to be finding newer and better ways to keep us all alive. And, I must add, while

staying healthy.”

Sandil turned to Cemanna, “Newer and better?”

“Your grandfather has been anxious for this day to come. Not only to celebrate the birthday of our

precious granddaughter, but to tell you the good news. There will be an official news release today

regarding the next step in our work on cell restructuring. So, I am at liberty to tell you what we have

been doing. It has been kept fairly unpublicized so far. For fifteen talics, nearly as long as Sandil has

lived, we have been developing a completely different way to deliver cell restructuring medications to

patients.”

Ansar interrupted, “So we are going to live even longer now?”

“Yes, even longer.”

“How much?”

Sandil chuckled and scolded Ansar. “Let her finish. We all know you want to live forever.” A few

others in the room chuckled also.

“It’s okay.” Cemanna looked at Ansar. “I am sorry, but you might not live quite that long.” Then she

continued with the news. “The current method for delivering cell restructuring is biochemical. We

inject you with a brew of chemicals which target and slow down processes which cause cells to grow

old. This protocol is not very good, although we have seen continuing improvements with it. But, this

new method allows us to seek out specific structural problems with individual cells and then make

more appropriate repairs. The old way often attempts to fix things which aren’t really broken, which


causes a loss in some of the injected chemistry, rendering the entire process less effective than it could

be. The new method is less inclined to make such mistakes, and so it promises far better results

eventually. The new method attempts to fix only real problems.”

Cemanna paused, waiting for temporary chatter around the room to subside. Then she continued. “The

new method uses robots to control the process.”

Ansar was immediately intrigued. “Robots! I don’t understand. How can a robot be of help? Does it

keep you company and report problems somehow?”

Cemanna smiled. “Robots, not one robot. And, you are quite right, they do keep you company.”

Bain placed his hand on Cemanna’s. “Now you’re being coy, my love.”

“I know, I’m having fun with this. I am excited.” Cemanna turned to the others and continued. “The

robots we have built are incredibly small using well known nanotechnology. We have been designing

and building robots that are each a little smaller than the size of one cell. We call them nanobots.”

Once again the buzz around the room interrupted Cemanna. So, she waited.

“Each robot has been built to do two things. First it travels around in your body by way of blood

streams, looking for cells which it can see are damaged. Then using the biochemicals we have been

using all along with the current protocol, it makes repairs which it can.”

Cemanna stopped to let that sink in for a minute. Ansar was the first to realize what she was actually

saying. “The robots are computers. They are incredibly tiny computers.”

Cemanna leaned toward Ansar. “You got it! That is what is new. The nanotechnology is not just a

passive creation, as it usually is in most other applications. We have added computer programs to drive

these tiny objects, turning them into robots. Each robot has an eye of sorts. It can see well enough. The

program can detect common cell structure problems, and thus knows more often when to use some of

the precious biochemicals it is carrying along to make repairs. Less chemicals are wasted, so a better

job is preformed, helping the patient to live even longer.”

Bloam asked, “Mother, this is really interesting news. How much longer might we live?”

“We don’t yet really know. Keep in mind this is all new, still with many unsolved problems. And, now

it requires work by not only medical researchers, but also engineers and computer experts. But, this

new approach promises far better results in the long run as the solution matures. We are only now

starting tests on Aldorians. For the time being only the existing methods will be generally available,

but even they lately seem to be promising life expectancies of about 500 talics. We expect nanobots to

be far more successful eventually.”

Cemanna paused again. “There is something else which will be announced in today’s news release.

Patients who elect to receive cell restructuring through nanobots will have an associated number,

called the Cell Reconstruction Factor, or CRF. It is a number which can be fairly accurately computed

directly by the nanobots in your body. They will all know this number. So, by drawing a little blood


sample from you, which will always contain a few of these nanobots, we can learn the value of the

CRF through one of them. The number is a rough indicator of how much life you have left.”

Cemanna could see that confusion and lack of real understanding was evident around the room. She

added, “For example, suppose we retrieve a nanobot from you and we find the CRF is 2.5. Then that

means you have a life expectancy of 2.5 times normal life expectancy of Aldorians, which is 190 talics.

So, you could be expected to live a total of about 475 talics. But, if you have already lived say 300

talics, then you would most likely have remaining about 175 talics.”

Ansar was quickly understanding, probably more readily than others in the room. “That seems to mean

we will all know how much longer we actually have to live. We will basically know when we will

die.” He pursed his lips and paused a second. “I’m not sure I want to know when I’m going to die.”

Cemanna explained, “It won’t be really different than it is already. If you were somebody not receiving

cell restructuring now, and there are many Aldorians who don’t, then you would know you will

probably live about 190 talics. If you are now 150 talics old, then you know you have about 40 talics

left to live. You know you will die in about 40 talics. But, we all know that is only a statistical most

likely probability. The CRF won’t be any more accurate than it is already. The only difference is now

there will exist an actual number for each person. It only seems like it is more precise. It isn’t.”

Edan had to ask, “Wait, you said there are many Aldorian who don’t get cell restructuring. I thought

everybody got it.”

“No, not everybody. It’s not because they are unable to receive it for some reason. The government

makes sure it is free and available to anybody. But, yes, there still remain a significant number of

Aldorians who choose not to be treated. They are happy to live their naturally expected lives. And,

surely you are aware of Aldorians from time to time who for many reasons elect to stop receiving

treatments. Sometimes they no longer wish to live so long. And, unfortunately, cell restructuring does

not prevent many types of fatal medical problems from happening anyway. Cell restructuring doesn’t

stop death, it only prolongs life.”

The conversation was beginning to sound a little morbid to her, so Cemanna changed the subject to

something more positive. “Don’t forget that nanobot technology improvement is open ended. With

time, nanobots will get better at what they do. So, progressively everybody’s CRF will increase with

time. Life expectancies will continue to grow longer.”

Again, Ansar seemed to show the greatest interest. “Is there a limit?”

Cemanna laughed. “You really do want to live forever, don’t you?” Others in the room also laughed.

Bloam spoke up. “Ansar has a reason, and he has waited for this special day to tell you about it.”

Cemanna said, “Enough about my work. I would love to hear what this is.”

Ansar turned first to Sandil. “You are doing such a good thing with your landscape gardening.

Especially rooftop gardens. I have been proud to help you as much as I can. I will miss working with


you and watching your talents improve, but it is time for me to move on. Two days ago I contacted the

Space Research Institute and yesterday they indicated that they were interested in my working with

them and using my math knowledge help solve problems they work on. It looks like they will hire me

on a fulltime basis. So, I will be moving on to my new career. The news of the discovery of planet

Trailia has helped me see a goal which makes sense for me. I’d love to live long enough to go there.”

Sandil quickly said. “Ansar, that is great news. I wish you all the best with your new adventures. I will

miss your being around each day also, but I can play in the dirt with others.”

Mild laughter around the room and words of happiness from here and there were followed by the rest

of the Stria celebration day filled with more happiness and animated conversations. It was a good time

for the Kroll Stria.


Chapter 38

It was a good time for the Kroll Stria. It was a good time for Aldoria. Life was improving in numerous

ways. Technology was improving in more ways every day. Aldorian history would record this as the

beginning of what became known as The Great Peace. The price paid for that peace was the ruthless

loss of millions of lives and an entire planet, and nobody was forgetting that. Why does it seem to

work that way? Peace isn’t free.

Cemanna Kroll continued her research and testing of improvements on cell restructuring. Her grandson

Ansar started his mathematical career working at SRI, the Space Research Institute, learning the

physics of relativity cancellation, keeping a constant eye on ways to solve the so-called relcan problem.

Sandil Kroll remained heavily involved as her career also thrived in a mostly non-technology driven

enterprise, landscaping office building rooftops.

As Sandil’s reputation grew, her career turned into a thriving business and she regularly added staff

members who worked with her on her highly publicized creations. An increasing number of office

building managers were requesting bids from Sandil to acquire a rooftop garden for their building.

One day, this highly successful venture was made even more desirable when Sandil was contracted to

create rooftop gardens on two adjacent buildings. As she visited the site and developed a plan, she had

perhaps the most creative idea in her career. Realizing the adjacent buildings were not only next to

each other, but of identical heights, she had the unusual idea of building a connecting crossover area

between the two building roofs. The resulting entire area would be effectively three times larger than

that of one building rooftop, and this would allow for more elaborate landscaping than any of her

previous creations.

Sandil presented the concept to the building management, they realized what a novel and attractive

idea this was, and they quickly accepted the idea and approved a contract to add the spanning structure.

The result was very successful and became an instant hit. Soon, management of other pairs of

buildings were contacting Sandil to create a similar project for them. Eventually architects of new pairs

of buildings were designing the spanning area as part of the original plans with Sandil’s landscaping

integrated into the original plans.

Eventually four buildings sharing the corners of two crossing avenues were designed with spanning

areas so the garden area was essentially nine times larger than one building. These huge rooftop

gardens became known as garden canopies. They were the envy of many office building management

groups. Architects even went so far as to design four adjacent buildings one-fourth the height of one

originally planned in order to integrate a garden canopy into the design.

Quickly a new problem became apparent to all, and Sandil was well prepared to expand her business

quickly to deal with the new challenges. The rooftop gardens, especially the larger and more elaborate


canopies, required devoted staff to continuously take care of them. As part of her bids to new

customers, she added the option to include ongoing care takers.

Because the garden canopies were so large, requiring significant recurring maintenance, it was easy for

most customers to accept the additional cost of hiring one of Sandil’s keepers of the garden.

Eventually the logical next step was taken. A canopy was designed for a cluster of several new office

buildings. These gardens were so large and lush, they made it easy for birds and other tree dwelling

critters to show up and more or less take up permanent residence. Garden keepers, especially the more

knowledgeable ones, were in great demand, with supply often lagging and with growing demand. A

career in garden canopy maintenance became a popular and well paying profession.

Eventually, significant parts of the downtown areas of larger Aldorian cities were completely covered

with one gigantic garden canopy, requiring the ongoing maintenance by a small army of garden

keepers.

There was an unexpected cultural side effect which occurred as massive garden canopy complexes

became common in some downtown areas. The staff of garden keepers required to maintain such an

area often became residents of the buildings beneath these structures. While they stayed constantly

around the gardens, the office workers originally intended to visit them lived away from these areas,

entering them mostly only during rest breaks during active business times.

While it was serene and peaceful in such beautifully maintained garden luxuries, living in the buildings

beneath such large structures was not an especially joyful experience. Such new subterranean spaces

had to be artificially lighted more than before. Average temperatures decreased. The original visitors

moved out of the downtown areas and came to work in the now underground office buildings only

long enough to support their financial needs away from the gardens. Nobody was sure how, when, or

by whom these outlying visitors became known as users of the garden.

Society was turned upside down. Keepers became generally looked upon by many as more

sophisticated members of society, while garden visitors, or users, were often now thought of as

engaging in less desirable life styles. One might guess that over time the garden keepers themselves

promoted the whole idea. For whatever reasons, the terms keepers and users became common.

Keepers sometimes had to turn to legal recourse to enforce more respectful visiting to the gardens by

users. While the keepers developed a deep care for the gardens, always working to maintain their

beauty and desirability, users often failed to take better care of them. For example, keepers constantly

had to request that users not leave behind trash.

At one point in the history of garden canopies, keepers closed the gardens and went on strike, insisting

that they would not continue to support their maintenance unless the general public, especially the

users, took more responsibility and care whenever they were visiting these sites. And, there was the

matter of compensation. Keepers generally considered their financial condition not commensurate with

their important enterprises.


During an especially large and animated demonstration by keepers, a segment of society more critical

of keepers than most showed up in organized numbers to counter the usually peaceful demonstrations.

What started as name calling and screaming matches on both sides, sharply turned to outbreaks of

pushing and some personal fights. Police were unable to quell the increasing tensions until it all boiled

over into riots. When reasonable calm and restraint was finally achieved again, six Aldorians were

reported dead, while several were taken to hospital with wounds of varying seriousness.

Nevertheless, the keepers mostly made their point, and conditions for them improved, including what

was considered to be very adequate financial compensatory standards. The keepers were happy, the

users returned to even more elaborate garden environments, and The Great Peace remained intact.

While Sandil Kroll’s career improved with every passing talic, her brother Ansar struggled with his. It

was not a case of failure, or anything near it. Ansar had entered his chosen career after talics of

vacillation with what he wanted to do with his life. Guided into working at SRI only by a sudden

almost whimsical idea of garnishing fame and fortune by solving the relcan problem, reality hit him

sharply as he rapidly got involved with the mathematics and associated engineering challenges faced

by a considerable team of coworkers who had been living with the problem for awhile.

Before the first talic of his employment passed, Ansar realized not only how much he had to first learn

and understand before he was actually considered on an even par with others around him, but he also

had to learn to deal with two distinct kinds of minds. Mathematicians—what he was—thought like he

did, but he had relatively greater problems learning how to deal with engineers. Without both kinds

working on the problem, it soon became apparent to him that the solution would not happen.

Mathematicians, by the very nature of their work, had to develop their body of knowledge with

generalities, while engineers had to take such concepts and turn them into focused application to

specific problems being solved.

It was a measure of Ansar’s considerable mathematical talent which prevented him from failing at

eventually learning the complex mathematics and applied physics which was the everyday fodder of

advanced Aldorian space science. A lesser able mentality would have never persisted long enough to

grow comfortable and knowledgeable enough to contribute to any reasonable advancements.

However, it took several extremely challenging talics to become one of the regular members of the

brotherhood of those working at SRI who knew what they were really doing. On the other hand, while

others he worked with were mostly seasoned and practiced experts in the multi-faceted space sciences,

Ansar had the surprisingly common good fortune of the newcomer. Without having yet really learned

what was not possible or reasonable, he thought up solution ideas and considered them at length, while

more tenured coworkers would have quickly rejected such fruitless paths.

So, in spite of his immature knowledge and because of his naive willingness to consider unrewarding

ideas, Ansar was the only one in his team of coworkers who could have likely seen a missing but

essential part of the puzzle. However, knowing enough to be cautious about discussing his idea around

others and thereby avoiding criticism, he struggled alone with the problem long enough to finally see

he might be onto something important. It took him more than two talics to develop far enough in his


struggles with his insight. Much of the time spent working on the problem was his own, after normal

working hours, for while on the clock he had to concentrate mostly on assigned endeavors.

The day he approached his manager with his idea, he was very nervous. During a weekly blue sky

team meeting when novel or unusual ideas were more readily accepted for discussion, Ansar felt

enough support and courage to suggest he had discovered a mathematical facet to the theoretical

structure of relativistic cancellation which it appeared nobody else had thought about. He called his

idea space-time homeomorphic retraction, or STHR.

The only thing which prevented his coworkers from outright rejecting Ansar’s ideas before he had

hardly said much in his presentation was their willingness to listen to outrageous concepts in the blue

sky meeting, where anything could be considered. As the meeting continued, not only did Ansar’s

coworkers begin to think he might be onto something valid, it didn’t hurt that his idea seemed to show

them a way to apply this otherwise very theoretical result directly to an engineering implementation.

For the first time, Ansar was somebody describing a very promising way to construct a propulsion

engine which very well might exceed one relcan in speed.

Of course, everyone at SRI was interested in garnishing the Relcan Prize, but they were not the only

organization seeking that accomplishment. The mood of competition was enough to motivate Ansar’s

colleagues to pursue what he had presented. However, it was clear enough that sufficient development

of the STHR theory would be tedious and somewhat risky. There was no certainty the theory would

work out well enough to apply directly to actual propulsion engines. This meant that other existing

approaches and applications they were trying had to continue. The development of STHR would have

the initial status of low priority work. Emphasis and energy mostly continued in other directions. Ansar

worked partly alone on this approach to the problem.

This was just fine with him. He had discovered theoretical mathematics which was new and he felt

unending surges of desire to keep working at it. He didn’t fail to notice the irony that he had taken

himself into an isolated endeavor. Fame and fortune was nowhere in sight. Very few Aldorians had the

slightest notion of what he was doing. It was alright.

Still, several talics passed before progress on applying STHR to the relcan problem showed more

concrete promise than other approaches. The first few propulsion engines engineered and constructed

using the new theory were great disappointments as speeds less than existing rockets could achieve

were obtained. Application of STHR to propulsion using relativistic cancellation was not becoming

everyday reality easily. Nevertheless, Ansar and others persisted, believing that STHR would

eventually yield desired velocities using RC propulsion.

It worked. Not suddenly and with great fanfare. The one relcan velocity barrier was finally achieved,

but as the result of painstaking cost and effort with each small engineering improvement. When SRI

did finally win the Relcan Prize, it felt anti-climatic and a bit uneventful. By the time the prize was

awarded, most of the SRI staff were already working on RC propulsion using STHR and trying to

figure out how to apply the theory to velocities which were significantly greater than only one relcan.

The theory had become mature enough to clearly imply that velocities approaching 90 relcans might be


possible someday. That was 18% of the speed of light, or 180,000,000 Aldorian miles per Aldorian

hour. No rocket propelled with pre-RC propulsion technology had exceeded 1,641,000 Aldorian miles

per Aldorian hour.

Working in the same group with Ansar was an Aldorian he had grown fond of. Her name was Tiaal.

She joined the group a few talics after Ansar, and it had made sense to assign her to work directly with

Ansar and STHR theory rather than having her learn about the other older and diminishing projects at

SRI. After SRI won the Relcan Prize, Ansar and Tiaal were both recognized by their colleagues for

critical contribution to success. The recognition emboldened him, and a couple of talics following the

significant milestone, he asked Tiaal to marry him.

She accepted. It was a good time for the Kroll Stria.


Chapter 39

Thus, Sandil’s career continued to blossom, bringing her considerable recognition and praise. Another

benefit of her fame and popularity was the now long lost bad general public feelings of animosity

toward the past divisive political history greatly associated with the Kroll Stria. It had now been 138

talics since the death of Feundar. Most were forgetting the details. Now most saw a peaceful good side

of the Kroll Stria.

In the meantime, Ansar struggled daily with theoretical challenges which would stop most others, but

which paid off slowly and with considerably less public recognition. Although sharing in the team

accomplishment of winning the Relcan Prize, few Aldorians knew much about what he and his

coworkers had actually achieved. Their silent ongoing contributions had slowly pushed the actual top

velocities obtained using RC propulsion close to 4.5 relcans or 9,000,000 Aldorian miles per Aldorian

hour, far above the old pre-RC propulsion top speed of 1,641,000.

By any measures of success, Sandil and Ansar were certainly among those who had excelled in it. On

the other hand, Cemanna was not specifically recognized as an outstanding contributor to her

profession. Certainly she had sufficient and deserved pride in her work, but she had remained over the

talics one of the countless anonymous ones who helped solve the problems associated with any

challenging profession. She hardly qualified as famous, but anybody around her certainly appreciated

how successful she had otherwise been.

The so-called Cell Reconstruction Factor, or CRF, had grown to over 5.2, indicating that a newly born

Aldorian could expect to live for one thousand talics. Senior Bain Kroll was now 210 talics old, and

few Aldorians anywhere had lived yet more than 250 talics, indicating the actual short history of cell

reconstruction.

In fact, the research and efforts to increase CRF were beginning to show clear signs of trouble. Each

improvement in the applied medical technology was yielding continuing smaller results. The rate of

increase in CRF was slowing dramatically. The current application techniques were reaching their

limits.

As Cemanna’s two hundredth birthday approached, she had spoken with Sandil and Ansar, lamenting

the slowing progress in her own research. In her conversations with them, she explained how she and

others were trying to find changes in existing approaches to the problem which might yield more

rewarding results. Now a seasoned professional at working with theories and helping engineers apply

them, Ansar listened to Cemanna describe the situation, and he realized a critical facet of what was

causing the problem. While Cemanna and most of the professionals who worked in her profession

were excellent medical researchers, few among her ranks had the engineering background Ansar now

possessed. And, what Ansar realized was the solution to Cemanna’s problem was heavily biased

toward appropriate changes in engineering of the nanobots being used.


“Cemanna, it sounds like the nanobots are becoming what you might call muscle bound. The working

parts required take up so much room together with the chemicals needed, there isn’t enough computer

space or stored energy left to include the more elaborate programs needed.”

Cemanna responded, “Yes, more or less. The real problem is caused by the increased amount of energy

needed to support a bigger computer. The onboard tools themselves require about the same amount of

energy they always did. The tools change mostly only to make them more efficient and flexible. Minor

things. In fact, they really don’t look all that much different than they did when we first started.”

Sandil asked, “How many of these nanobots do you actually inject into a patient?”

“A few thousand.”

“Wow! Doesn’t the body’s immune system attack them?”

“Not much actually. That was one of the first problems we had to solve in order for these things to

work at all. Still, they do break down, or run out of chemicals. And, unless we can make the driver

programs more intelligent, they run out of ability to find things which need repair. We see a significant

percent of them doing nothing well before a talic passes. That’s why this doesn’t work without you

coming in each talic and receiving a new treatment.”

“So, the old nanobots remain in your body?”

“No, they eventually run out of enough energy to hide from the body’s immune system. So, after that

they become just more alien junk which the body cleans away and passes out through normal bodily

function.”

“Oh, they become fertilizer.” Sandil said.

Cemanna smiled, “Yeah, fertilizer.”

Then Ansar said, “It sounds to me like you’re trying to have these nanobots do too many things.”

“But, they need to do all of that.”

“No, wait. How about injecting different kinds of nanobots. Some are tool carriers only. Others only

have the job of following along with a store of chemicals.”

“We tried that, but there’s a problem with that we couldn’t really solve very well. If there are different

kinds of nanobots, they have to communicate to facilitate cooperation. Unless the communication is

fairly sophisticated, the coordination of behaviors become a severe bottleneck. That requires even

more robust computer programs, increasing the need for bigger computers, which require more energy.

The problem got far more complicated.”

Sandil said, “You know, we have different kinds of experts who maintain garden canopies. But, they

aren’t very efficient unless there is a central manager who coordinates and directs everything.”

Cemanna looked at Sandil and tilted her head. “Sorry, I don’t understand your point.”


“Well, the things which makes it all run smoothly is communication between each maintainer and the

manager. The manager doesn’t even physically stay on the job site all the time unless there is some

problem which isn’t fairly routine. The communication is verbal, but significantly, also visual. Our

communicators include visuals. That allows one manager to often work and direct more than one work

site at a time. My point is that the manager is the one with the greatest general intelligence. The on site

keepers know a lot about what they are doing, but require more intelligent help when special problems

arise.”

Ansar spoke up, “Sandil is right. A lot of the intelligence doesn’t have to be at the actual work site all

the time, but only when it’s needed. In your case, why not keep most of the intelligence outside the

patient’s body? That outside intelligence could communicate with the internal nanobots as required.”

“But, that would demand some kind of device to carry around with you all the time. That’s not going

to work very well for a lot of folks.”

As Cemanna, Ansar, and Sandil continued to chat about Cemanna’s problems, as many social visits go,

the conversation eventually drifted off onto other topics. But, the conversation did set Cemanna’s

thinking in new directions, and it helped her have more serious meetings and conversations with

coworkers.

A few days later, it was time for Cemmana’s birthday celebration. With each birthday celebration, the

Kroll Stria grew larger with more surviving Stria members attending each time. Cemanna and husband

Bain looked around the room at the gathering of relatives and their close friends.

Bain leaned over to Cemanna and spoke softly. “If any more show up next time, we are going to have

to hold this in a much bigger place. Our home feels small right now.”

“I know, my love. Isn’t it wonderful?” Far more a social personality than Bain, she chose to ignore his

mild criticism. She also knew that inside, he was as happy and proud as anybody here. Turning to look

at Tiaal, she said, “And, it is a happy time for our grandson who has brought you into our Stria. I know

it has already been close to three talics since your marriage, but I think we have had so little real

opportunity yet for us all to acknowledge how pleased we are that you are with us.”

Tiaal blushed. She was always the quiet introvert that Ansar had also become due to his work, and she

felt a little uneasy as most in the room turned to look at her. “Thank you. It is an honor to be part of

such a distinguished Stria. Ansar has told me so much of your history. It is a fascinating story. Happy

birthday, Cemanna. I am very happy to be a part of this.”

Cemanna nodded and sat up as she turned more to address the room at large. “I have some interesting

news to share with everyone. Several days ago, I was visiting with Ansar and Sandil in one of her new

garden canopies—a beautiful place, easy to think there—and we had a very productive conversation. I

want to thank both of them for the suggestions and observations they had with me then. What they

don’t know yet is what I am about to tell you all now.”

Ansar and Sandil, as well as everyone else in the room now had Cemanna’s full attention. “Most of

you are surely aware of the problems our industry has been having lately as we have tried to continue


increasing the results of cell reconstruction. The situation has been very well described by the media,

and since it affects everyone on the planet, certainly we all know about it.”

“However, the talk with my precious grand children the other day left me with several promising ideas

about how we might reconsider the problem. I kept thinking about those ideas, including sharing them

with my teammates at work. We had several very productive meetings in the meantime, and we have a

certain plan in place now which we will be trying to implement. Again, thanks to Ansar and Sandil, we

have a very real new approach to solving our problem.”

“The solution looks very promising. However, it will require a completely new procedure we all will

need to adapt to.”

“As you all know because you all receive it, the current solution requires an injection of nanobots into

your body. And, a one day stay in hospital to allow doctors to monitor your body’s reactions to the

infusion of so many foreign objects all at once into your body.”

“Those nanobots are completely self contained individuals. Each one takes care of itself. Each one is

autonomous as it goes about its business, fixing cell structure problems it can find. It carries all the

tools, all the chemicals, and all the intelligence it will ever possess. And, that is the problem. Basically,

we have run out of room to grow. Each nanobot has reached its practical limits for expansion in any

significant way. Yet we know of perhaps dozens of additional fairly easy cell restructuring problems

we could fix, if we could only add the support to these tiny machines. But, we can’t figure out how to

do that well enough.”

“This new approach is one which is a totally different kind of solution. We will still use nanobots, but

not everyone will be the same. There will be several differing kinds of nanobots involved. Some will

have tools only to fix structure problems it finds. We call them toolbots. Others will deliver appropriate

chemicals to these toolbots. We call them chembots. But, most importantly, there is a third kind of

nanobot involved call ibots, for intelligence. These ibots can connect to either toolbots or chembots

and examine what state they are in. If a chembot is running low on chemicals, it can be instructed to go

get some more from a central delivery station. If a toolbot is found to be facing a problem structure it

doesn’t understand how to fix, instead of just sitting there with nothing to do, or worse, ignoring the

problem and going off searching for things it does understand, it can be instructed by the ibot to return

to the central delivery station to receive a new set of tools or instructions on how to fix the problem.

Even the ibots themselves will be programmed to return to the central delivery station to have its

intelligence modified appropriately.”

Ansar was excited about what Cemanna was saying. He was not alone. Everybody understood the

general explanation, but he was perhaps the only one in the room who was technically curious beyond

that. He wanted to know a little more about how this plan would be actually implemented.

“Grandmother, how will you manage this central delivery station as you call it. It seems to me that that

will have to be something much larger than a nanobot. In fact, I can imagine it being quite large. Is that

something you will have to embed inside our bodies? That seems pretty invasive.”


Cemanna smiled and answered. “You can thank Sandil for the answer, It was actually her idea which

solves that problem.” Ansar looked at Sandil curious about how his sister, a famous and creative

person, but one who was not very knowledgeable about technology, could have provided the solution.

He tried to think about their conversation with Cemanna on that day, but it didn’t help him.

Cemanna proceeded with the answer. “We will do the same thing Sandil does on their jobs. The

manager of all this, which is our central delivery station, will not be on site. That is, it will not be

inside your body. Instead, it will remain outside the body. Any nanobots which return to the station

will do so through a connection between it and the patient. The patient will remain connected to the

station all the time during their stay in hospital. The external station will thus have no limits to how big

or complicated it becomes. Outside the body, there are no such limits. The nanobots will be less

intelligent, but more focused instead of doing only one basic job, but in a much better way than ever

before. There will be room for each one to be improved in that focused way. And, there will be more

than enough room to continue improving and expanding the delivery station.”

Then Edan asked, “So, the patient would remain connected to this delivery station while in hospital. It

sounds like that has to happen in order for this to work. But, then how will these various nanobots do

their work after the delivery station is disconnected and the patient leaves?”

“That’s the thing which is the real change,” Cemanna said, “and, that is what we will all have to adjust

to. You are suggesting correctly. The nanobots will become useless once the delivery station is

disconnected. So, there is no point in any of the nanobots remaining inside your body. Before

disconnection, they will all be instructed to return to the station. None of them will remain in your

body.”

“This will work better than now? I mean, CRF values will increase more easily this way?”

“Yes, we think so because this allows the toolbots to address a much larger range of structure problems

it encounters. And, with time, newer kinds of toolbots can be developed which work on ever more

subtle but important problems. The chembots won’t run out of chemicals needed. They can return to

the delivery station for more. And, they can carry a wider range of needed chemicals.”

Ansar saw another issue. “It seems to me that while this promises a better solution, it is hard to think

this can all continue to work in only one day, like it takes now.”

“Yes,” Cemanna agreed. “We think it will take more like two or three days, possibly longer for more

complicated problems encountered. That’s a big part of why this will require new adjustments in our

lives. Once each talic each of you will have to stop everything for that period of time, and stay in

hospital. We call the time cereave.”

Bloam said it barely loud enough to be heard by others, “life pause.”

Cemanna turned to Bloam. “Yes, life pause. Each of you will take a two or three day cereave, visit a

cereave clinic and have the cell reconstruction procedure administered. Once each talic.”

Bain agreed. “This will take an adjustment in our society. Will this be accepted?”


“Maybe not by everybody,” Cemanna conceded. “For those who cannot take cereave, or do not wish to,

the old procedure is still around. It is easy to do, is not expensive to continue supporting, so it will not

go away. Each patient will have a choice. But, my bet is that with time, cereave will be the choice of

most. After all, it will increase your CRF even more than already, while the existing procedure cannot

do any better than it does already. Studies have shown conclusively that most Aldorians love extending

their lives. They live with greater general health, they quickly learn to enjoy the longer life, doing

things they never thought they had time to do. Aging still happens, but at a significantly slower pace.

We believe the use of these newer cellbots as we will call them, will become very popular.”

Cemanna paused and looked around the room. “But, I have to add that this isn’t going to become

available quickly. There are a bunch of problems to solve first. So, we estimate this is still ten or

twenty talics away from reality.”

The room fell silent for a few seconds until Bain spoke up. “Well, if they have families like this, why

would they ever want to leave them?”

Cemanna smiled and took Bain’s hand.


Chapter 40

The new approach to cell reconstruction using cellbots took more than twenty talics to become fully

useable. The initial tests on Aldorians didn’t even begin until eight talics after Cemanna’s birthday,

and full use of them took almost thirty talics. But, eventually they proved to be definitely more

successful than the old procedure. CRF with the old method remained close to 5.5 at best while it

quickly pushed above six and then seven less than a talic after general availability of the new method.

It was a scientific and technological success. Newborn Aldorian life expectancy was growing close to

1,800 talics, a CRF of 9.47.

However, science or technology was not the greatest issue. It was social acceptance which prevented

many Aldorians from switching to the new method very quickly. The very slow pace of development

and approval hadn’t helped. How can anything be all that good if it was so difficult to construct?

A visit to a cereave clinic meant a patient was prepared to endure at least three days there, but not in a

fully conscious state. This was a dramatic change from the existing procedure which entailed at most a

one day visit while remaining awake and able to read or watch video entertainment.

Fewer Aldorians than expected signed up to cereave. A change in attitude was required by a larger

number of Aldorians before social infrastructure changed enough to make it easy for the general public

to find it an acceptable annual affair. Taking three days out of one’s life every talic, sometimes four or

five, was not smoothly becoming a common everyday occurrence. Most employers at first couldn’t

manage their businesses very well with every employee taking cereave with every passing talic.

Social change is not generally a welcome thing. Even if it is mostly believed to be a good thing. And,

cereave was at first hardly thought to be a good thing. The idea of voluntarily connecting oneself to a

machine which took over virtually all of one’s bodily functions, and submitting to that for days on end

was going to take awhile to be generally popular, if ever.

The external machine, called the central delivery station, was larger and more complicated than first

thought. The first version was larger than an Aldorian. While improvements to it continued regularly,

including more efficient use of space, so did plans for expansion. The basic idea, the primary reason

this whole new approach existed, was working. As an external device without significant size and

complexity boundaries, it was far more easy to design ongoing improvements to it. On the other hand,

the associated improvements to the cellbots remained fairly simple and easy to implement.


Nevertheless, life for Aldorians in almost every way continued to flourish. The Great Peace remained

intact. Ansar and Tiaal had their first child, a son they named Walcia, born late in talic 145. Sandil’s

business designing and developing garden canopies never stopped expanding. Several entire small

towns now existed essentially fully covered by one huge dome of garden beauty. The town itself was

almost completely invisible from outside the city limit.

Sandil’s business also expanded in an unexpected direction. To help maintain a reasonably inviting

cityscape, she also added an architectural division to her business which addressed the many issues of

how to keep the city beneath the canopy a place where citizens were willing to work, to live, to visit.

Sandil’s underground cities were themselves becoming an amazing and interesting phenomenon.

The new canopy cities were designed with randomly placed cliffs, which were not walls of rock or

ground, but instead facades of office buildings. Like giant cave entrances blocked off by stacks of

office balconies laced with ivy, vines, and flowering plants, they were occasionally accompanied with

a waterfall, as small streams were added to the designs. The distinction between natural setting and

Aldorian built structure was blurred, the differences extended and integrated beyond previous

imagination.

Sandil’s business grew into one of the largest and most successful across all of Aldoria.

Ansar’s career was settling into one without as many new theoretical challenges as it once enjoyed.

That was fine with him. He was close to 100 talics old now, and with a wife and new son, he was more

than willing to spend less time in his office hidden among stacks of research work. His reputation as

the central figure in STHR theory had expanded throughout the academic community, and he enjoyed

the opportunity of deciding which one of many offers he would accept, becoming a physics professor

at a renowned university.

Practical relcan limits were steadily pushed aside, as newer top speeds for existing rockets regularly

increased. Top speeds of 24 relcans, and then 29, were obtained, as the limit keep rising, quickly

approaching 35 when new space ventures were being entertained by the Aldorian Space Agency, ASA.

Most of the planets in the Aldorian solar system had been explored by ASA, together with their many

moons, but mostly all with unmanned probes and robots.

The idea of sending space probes beyond the solar system had also seen its zenith. Several such probes

had already plodded their way beyond their own sun’s heliosphere, the final distance in space where

any influence or interaction with their sun, however small, reached its limit.

The planet Trailia had been discovered more than 75 talics ago, and finally rocket speeds high enough

to send probes to visit the distant planet in a reasonable amount of time had become reality. And now


at 35 relcans, which was 70,000,000 Aldorian miles per hour, this allowed a probe to leave Aldoria and

arrive at Trailia in a little over 100 talics.

With such high speeds and subsequently reasonable short travel times compared with life expectancies

of Aldorians, the ASA finally decided to take advantage of this long life expectancy. It made sense for

them to start the design of a space ship which could not only travel at least at 35 relcans, but to do so

while supporting an onboard crew of Aldorian volunteers willing to spend possibly as many as 200

talics of their lives on the round trip.

ASA was betting that the actual round trip might not be nearly that long, given the time it would take

to design and build such a space ship, and all the while the top relcan speeds continued to increase.

Within the first twenty days of announcing the planned trip to visit Trailia, far more than designed 35

astronauts for the trip had applied. With an age limit of 100 talics, Ansar was just too old to be

accepted. Not that he actually wanted to go. He did, but not enough to feel bad about not being

qualified.

On the other hand, his son Walcia, at age 24 talics when the ASA announcement and request for

astronauts was proffered, didn’t hesitate to apply. It was with both of his parents blessing, and it was

not without both of their known contribution to STHR theories that he was easily accepted for training.

He would, of course, have to pass the rigorous training and testing on his own.

The actual trip was not expected to begin for at least another ten talics, more than enough time for

ASA to test, select, and then train the final 35 who would make the trip. In terms of what was required

of each astronaut, intellectual and physical abilities, Walcia held no advantage over other candidates.

Soon the planned trip for the first manned space ship to planet Trailia was announced to start during

mid-talic 182. The ship was named Trailian Visitor. By that time, recan velocities were expected to be

about 60 relcans, which is 120,000,000 Aldorian miles per hour, twelve percent the speed of light.

The upcoming ten talics of training of astronauts, design, construction, and testing of the ship, and

creation of the required support infrastructure, would turn the ASA from a small-sized enterprise of a

few dozen employees managing unmanned space probes into one of the largest employers on the

planet. The investment of time, money, and Aldorians to the endeavor was huge.

Walcia passed requirements and was accepted as one of the 35 who would travel to planet Trailia. The

one-way trip would last 59 talics. With a planned stay of 16 talics before returning, he and his co-

astronauts would be gone for 134 talics. Nearly ten percent of each astronaut’s life would be spent

onboard Trailian Visitor.


Sandil’s one-hundredth birthday was during talic 176. The Kroll Stria celebration was attended by

many, a well deserved time of recognition for all the accomplishments and contributions they had

made.

“Happy birthday, Granddaughter,” said Cemanna as she hugged Sandil. “It is a good time for all of us

to celebrate.” She turned to look at Walcia. “And, I am so proud and excited for you. You will be

leaving for his great adventure in only six talics. History will honor you.”

Walcia was standing next to his father Ansar. “It was my parents who let me do it. They could have

stopped me from it.”

Sandil turned to speak to the room filled with those attending. “Grandmother and I have something to

tell you all. But, I will let her do the explaining.”

Cemanna smiled and scanned the room. “All of you know about KBE, the hereditary material in

almost every cell in each of us. Well, for nearly the last twenty talics, we have known about a plant

which contains an important compound which is significantly used at our cereave clinics. The plant is

commonly known as starguret. Some of you may know about it. For the most part it is a rather boring

looking weed. But, not if it is pruned and taken care of in an appropriate manner. And, that is what has

to happen to a starguret plant in order to make it bloom its otherwise dormant flowering abilities.

Before a bud opens as a flower, it contains the important chemical we seek. So, in order to have a

sufficient supply of the compound for cereave we have to keep dedicated staff who take care of crops

of starguret.”

Cemanna paused for a moment and pointed toward Sandil. “Sandil and I have had conversations and

we came up with a plan. Her business will be taking on management of starguret plants for us. The

plants will be incorporated into their garden canopies. As long as people provide appropriate support

and maintenance of them, they will remain beautiful flowering plants and will integrate very well into

her gardens.”

Bloam said, “I am confused. You said the chemical comes from the bud of the plant before it blooms.

If you remove the chemical, doesn’t that destroy the bud?”

“No. The compound is in liquid form within the bud. At the right time a needle is inserted and much of

the liquid is extracted which does not harm the bud. In fact, it is just the opposite. For reasons which

are not yet really understood, the shortage of this liquid causes the bloom to be more robust and last

longer than otherwise. In seems that there is always a tiny bit of liquid left behind. Because the amount

of liquid left behind varies a little bit from bud to bud, the result is that the bloom opens showing

varying colors. Some blooms are red, others blue, a few yellow or purple. The result is an amazing

looking plant when it finally blooms a few days after extraction. If you wait until only a few of the

buds open and bloom, the liquid is lost rapidly and what little is left behind ferments into useless

material for us. And all the blooms are very small and white.”


Ansar was as intrigued by this news as much as anybody in the room. “So, how does this liquid work

during cereave? You mentioned KBE. Does it somehow react with that? Doesn’t that run a risk of

adversely affecting the KBE?”

“KBE is a complicated molecule, but composed of millions of combinations of only six much more

simple molecules. Every combination is a pairing of two of these molecules, and always in the same

order. The liquid from the starguret contains mostly sugars. But, it also contains a free form of each of

these six molecules. We process the liquid and isolate only these six molecules, which the cellbots

work with. Our cellbots are programmed to find instances of these molecules in your cells which have

lost or broken their pairing, and they replace the missing molecule from the supply.”

Ansar understood as Cemanna finished. “So, the KBE is repaired to some extent. The more you can

find and repair, the less corrupted cells you have.”

Cemanna answered, “That’s right. Cereave is not a process of making you any younger, but instead

only a process of slowing down the normal breakdown of your body. So, you appear to remain young

longer. You age more slowly and live longer.”

Bloam asked, “When do you plan on Sandil taking on this new business?”

“We’ve been in the process of designing and planning for nearly a talic already. We have a lot of

coordination to establish, but it looks like we will be up and running fully just about the same time

Walcia will be off on his big trip.”

Bloam was concerned. “But, with Walcia leaving for Trailia then, won’t that cost him talics which he

would otherwise live?”

“Fewer than you might think,” Cemanna responded. “When he and the others return, they will enter

cereave for a few days more than the usual three to five. A much more detailed cereave will be held for

them as just another part of their job. Most of the applications of cereave they miss will be be caught

up. They might live a handful of talics less than otherwise, but that is the price they are willing to pay

for the opportunity to take the trip.”

Walcia quickly affirmed, “I don’t mind even a little. This is a chance I would never pass up. What an

adventure!”


Chapter 41

As the new approach to cellular reconstruction continued to improve, it surpassed the CRF value of

10.0. Newborn Aldorians were now expected to live almost 2000 talics. Work on cereave clinics

focused mostly on the central delivery station, the heart of the entire application. Cellbots possessed

their abilities primarily due to the increased support from central delivery. It advanced not only with

increased molecular applications, but even more so through expanded intelligence implemented in the

external computer systems involved. Systems which were far too large and complicated to implement

with existing Aldorian nanotechnology.

Cellbots were not only dismantling and repairing specific problem cells in the body of an Aldorian

patient, but they were also designed to carry the problem cells to central delivery where more highly

robust instruments could perform greater reconstruction procedures than ever considered possible with

only internal methods. Each Aldorian patient was being deconstructed, and in a very real sense, being

remodeled and revamped with new parts throughout the body. Each Aldorian patient became a

biological construction site.

As more successes with the new cellular reconstruction procedures became known by increasing

numbers of Aldorians, the old prejudices and fears of the procedure faded away with each passing talic.

It also helped psychologically to know that nanobots did not remain in the body after cereave. All of

the cellbots were first retrieved as they all returned to central delivery, available for sterilization and

reuse on the next patient.

Aldorians who continued to rely on the old procedure, which still returned a CRF of less than 6.0, saw

friends and relatives happily living with CRF values at 10.0 or better. More importantly, the newer

procedure included a far improved repairing of KBE, the chemical genetic basis for virtually all living

plants and animals on Aldoria. By repairing broken segments of KBE, cells could continue to divide

and reproduce longer, thus providing the major reason for the slowing of aging. All of this resulted in

Aldorians not only living longer yet, but in a much healthier state. General illness decreased, especially

that due to genetic disorders.

It was a powerful incentive to adopt the new procedure. Also, everyday life styles and cultural

infrastructures regularly showed improved support for the new way to get the job done. Aldorians still

grew old and died, but far more slowly than ever before.

Through periodic studies and reports, it was commonly seen that cereave clinic repair efficiencies were

still at best only about 45 percent. With enough improvements, the CRF was expected to eventually

approach 20.0 or more. Someday, Aldorians would be expected to live for more than 4000 talics.

Sandil Kroll’s garden canopies continued to flourish globally, and her new contribution by including

the starguret plant into her amazing landscapes provided more than enough raw chemicals to support

repairs on KBE at cereave clinics.


With devoted expertise by Sandil’s garden keepers, the quality of raw KBE fluid extracted from the

starguret plants increased with every new harvest. Many of Sandil’s employees were becoming

Aldoria’s most qualified experts on starguret cultivation. Through their growing knowledge and

understanding of how to take care of the plants they managed to not only increase KBE fluid

production with fewer required plants, but their own studies into plant genetics allowed them to

develop procedures which also increased the lifetime of many other individual plants.

Their efforts also allowed them to discover ways to force starguret blooms to become specific desired

colors, including a few new colors not seen before on the plants. The inviting array of colors attracted

ever more species of beneficial insects, birds, and other small critters to take up residence in the

canopies increasing the pleasure of visiting them.

Space science, including the application of Ansar Kroll’s STHR theory to relativistic cancellation, also

improved regularly. More than just an improvement of pure science, the economic benefits of regular

upgrades to cargo and tourist space ships which traveled in large numbers between Aldoria and its

moon Consa easily funded the ongoing efforts to design ever faster and more efficient RC propulsion

engines. And on a regular basis, passenger capacity slowly expanded.

Space ships using RC propulsion at first were small. Another huge technological challenge had been

learning how to increase ship size, especially when astronauts were included, while at the same time

continuing to increase velocities. The first RC propelled ships could hold only one or two passengers.

Older conventional technology, that which had allowed for commercial flights between Aldoria and

Feundar, routinely allowed up to 400 on each flight. Trailian Visitor was being designed to carry,

protect, and care for 35 astronauts.

Even probes to various other moons and their planets throughout the Aldorian solar system

experienced shorter times to make their lengthy trips. When first conceived, the velocity limit of 32

relcans was fairly easily improving toward the stated goal of 60 relcans for the Trailian Visitor ship,

which was on schedule for completion in talic 182. The total round trip would last 134 talics, including

a 16 talic exploration on the surface of Trailia.

A previous sequence of additional probes had been regularly sent over long past talics destined for

planet Trailia. Data returning from these probes provided significant motivation to complete the design

to send actual Aldorian astronauts to the planet neighbor. The returning data continued to paint an

intriguing picture of the interest the planet held waiting for manned exploration. There were even

chemical signatures detected which clearly indicated the presence of life on its surface. How robust or

advanced that life would be remained a mystery which could only be solved by direct Aldorian

exploration and observation.

It seemed there was another reason so many Aldorians focused on planet Trailia. It helped them not to

think so much about their own sister planet Feundar. Aldorians kept the memories of the Feundarian

disaster perhaps too fresh in their minds. It was not hard to do. In the sky, one could easily see Feundar

every day, appearing about one-fifth the size to them as Earth’s full moon is for us. It was easy to look

up and imagine the hell created there. Even relatively simple telescopes pointed at Feundar allowed


those who dared to look and see more than enough quickly. The pain of what happened was

continuously not far away, reminding every Aldorian every day.

There was a popular sentiment among Aldorians that Feundar should forever remain off limits. Many

felt that Feundar should remain untouched, a constant reminder of the huge lesson learned, and a

continuous symbol of what once had been. Enough Aldorians were sympathetic to such thinking. The

result was that few considered the problem of visiting Feundar. Fewer still were interested in solving

the problem. Aldorian interests turned in other directions. Toward Trailia.

“I have a special favor to ask of you,” Sandil said.

Ansar was visiting Sandil in the garden canopy near her house for which she was especially fond. “I’ll

be glad to. I assume it’s before the trip.” The trip was the simple term most in the Kroll Stria now

called the upcoming trip to planet Trailia. It was now the single most important event in which the

Kroll Stria would be directly affected as their beloved Walcia would be one of the astronauts

participating. He was scheduled to leave aboard the Trailian Visitor only 44 days from now.

“Yes, it is. Makail and I have decided to marry, and we want you and Walcia to stand for us beside

father. We have already spoken with him about it, and we want you two to be a part of this. We want

to marry before Walcia leaves. We have found an afternoon when he can be away from his busy

schedule before he leaves.”

Makail had been working at Sandil’s business for more than 15 talics. He brought fresh and creative

horticultural knowledge to maintaining and improving garden canopies, and he and Sandil had quickly

grown close as friends, considerably more so than coworkers. Members of the Kroll Stria had come to

know and care about him as a close Stria friend.

Ansar smiled and hugged his sister. “Well, it’s about time. Everybody knows you two are right for

each other. Makail is so cautious to act on anything. So, I presume you asked him to marry. I would be

honored to stand with our father.”

“Not always so careful.” Sandil protested mildly. “He was the one who asked. And, he wishes to align

himself with our Stria.” Sandil continued to hold onto her brother. She thought about how much she

cared about him, how proud he must be of his son, and how much he would miss and worry about him.

“This is a time of importance to all Krolls.”

As Ansar and Sandil relaxed their hug, he said, “It is.” He could not hide his momentary flush of

melancholy.

Sandil reached for her brother’s cheek. “He will be fine.”


“I know. But, more than one hundred talics is a long time.”

“It won’t be so bad, we will visit with him every day over viscom.”

“But, that will change after they are far enough away. The communications will be in interactive real

time for only a few weeks.”

Planet Trailia was 7.1 light talics away from Aldoria, and once the Trailian Visitor was only 0.0005 the

distance of the trip there, it would already take more than one day for a message to travel from Aldoria

to the space ship. Hardly conducive to a real interactive visit. Quickly enough, the visits would change

into just daily reports of what happened earlier. Eventually, as Trailian Visitor approached planet

Trailia, each report would be received on Aldoria more than seven talics later. It would be old history

every time.

Ansar and Sandil sat quietly as they gazed at the landscaping around them. He broke the silence, in

part as a way to escape the uneasy feeling he was having. He wasn’t having any real reservations about

his son’s trip, but still it was not easy to casually accept that in only 60 talics Walcia would be more

than twenty trillion Aldorian miles away from home and Stria. “I have something else to mention

which I thought about just the other day.”

Sandil also quickly accepted the break from the somewhat gloomy mood. “What is that?”

“Grandmother and her group have seen huge success with cellbots and cereave clinics. I read a report

recently which explained in some detail how that whole technology worked. And, it included some

discussion by you of the genetics work your company has been doing, with Makail’s help, related to

starguret plants.”

Sandil said, “Oh, yes. Grandmother and I were interviewed together by United Newsgroup. I was

surprised how much in depth they reported.”

Since the report was published, Ansar had visited with Cemanna and spoke with her about it. “I know.

I saw her recently and she said the same thing. When we talked about it, that’s when we both began to

see the same idea. She will talk with you soon, but I just thought I’d mention it now also. We both

think that cellbot technology could easily be modified to work not only on stargurets, but all plants in

your gardens.”

“Really! But, we couldn’t be taking the plants to cereave clinics. So, how would that work?”

“Well, the cellbots wouldn’t have as complicated a support system as the ones injected into our own

bodies during cereave. But, that wouldn’t be needed anyway. You know how much your folks cut and

prune plants all the time and they do just fine. Plants are constructed at the cellular level in a much

different way than Aldorians. So, the cellbots don’t have to be so small. They don’t have to be injected

to work on plants.”

Sandil said, “That sounds interesting, but Makail is the one who is in charge of our genetics business.

He would be the right one to include in discussions.”


“Certainly,” Ansar said. “We realize that. Grandmother knew I would be visiting you first, before she

returned from vacation with Bain. So, we thought it made sense for me to bring it up first. I have a few

other related issues to talk about now. Then when she returns, you and Makail can meet with her and

some of her fellow experts and work out any plans. I don’t really need to be a part of it.”

Ansar and Sandil continued to discuss the idea for awhile longer, eventually returning to some

planning details about the wedding. As happy and excited for Walcia as the two were, neither was free

of worry about Ansar’s son and the 34 other astronauts. Even if everything went smoothly during the

trip, which would last for more than 134 talics, it was a long time to not have a loved relative nearby.

Daily viscom transmissions, which would take several talics just to be received, was a very poor

substitute. It was more than passing interest in the wedding and the idea of cellbots applied to plants

which kept the two discussing. It helped to not allow the mind to wander off into thoughts of the

unpleasant aspects of the upcoming momentous trip to planet Trailia which Walcia Kroll was about to

take.


Chapter 42

As age abatement regularly improved and CRF values continued to increase, all of the Stria on Aldoria

were growing larger with each new generation. The death rate was decreasing across the planet. As

Aldorians lived longer, they also acquired more education, often returning to university more than once,

holding multiple careers. And in concert with growing general intelligence and education, birth rates

also decreased. While the planet’s total population increased, but far more slowly, it also grew

considerably more stable with the same specific Aldorians around over longer and longer periods of

time.

The important and preciousness of each life grew stronger with each passing talic. Aldorian society

worked together more than ever to make sure as many citizens of their single planet wide nation lived a

robust and rewarding life.

Of course, crime never ended. There would always exist some who thought criminal activities would

bring them more and faster profits. And, crimes of passion remained around, but decreasing a little as

recent studies showed.

But, with longer life spans, fewer Aldorians were as tolerant of criminal behavior as in the past.

Punishments for smaller crimes grew stronger. The collective social intolerance of serious

misbehaving showed itself through swifter and more severe punishments.

Unlike the past when Stria members were separated and lived on Feundar as well as Aldoria, now the

entire Kroll Stria lived close to Unaleat, the capital city of Aldoria. The city name had been retained

from the past when it was the most powerful country on Aldoria. The Kroll Stria often held large

gatherings which Bain would attend, the oldest living Stria member. He could frequently visit with his

own great grandchildren, who themselves were already young adults.

As liftoff date for the Trailian Visitor approached, Bain would be 254 talics old, with the young Walcia

taking the monumental trip, Bain’s only great grandson, who would be only 36.

The wedding between Sandil and Makail took place a few days before Trailian Visitor left Aldoria, an

afternoon when every Kroll Stria member attended, including Walcia. It would be the last time the

whole Stria would be together for more than another 130 talics.

The chances for any problems developing with the Trailian Visitor were close to nothing. Aldorian

history of more than 600 talics of rocket and space science, starting well before the first landing of a

space ship on planet Feundar, was more than enough to virtually guarantee success.

Trailian Visitor was huge. While not as large as some of the largest cargo ships which regularly

shuffled materials between Aldoria and its moon Consa, the difference this time was the inside design.

It was constructed to safely transport 35 Aldorian astronauts to planet Trailia and back. But, more


importantly, it was also designed for those travelers to make the trip comfortably and peacefully, an

environment created robust enough to keep 35 Aldorians from developing psychological problems

during the trip which would last almost 135 talics. The longest previous trip taken in space with living

Aldorians lasted only 25 talics.

On board the ship were common rooms, private living quarters for each astronaut, five different

restaurants, a fairly robust shopping center, recreational facilities supporting every interest held by any

of the passengers, all placed along the outer circular edge of a large and richly designed garden.

Virtually every function on board the ship was maintained and supported by a small army of robots.

Some were as small as insects, crawling around in the garden, tending everyday responsibilities in

order to keep the garden plants and few animals aboard alive and well. Others were the size and

vaguely the shape of an Aldorian, each programmed to do any one of the hundreds of tasks required to

keep the ship in top condition. There were nearly 200 robots of Aldorian size on board, six times as

many as there were Aldorians.

The entire living area, garden, rooms of every kind, recreational areas, eateries, hospital, stores, all of it

was all laid out on one curved plane spanning across a huge domed and egg shaped structure which

rotated in whole continuously simulating the same gravitational pull as that on Aldoria.

The robots were not designed to prevent the astronauts from doing any task they wished to tackle. If

somebody wished to cook a meal, the robot chefs were there to help in any way needed. If an astronaut

wanted to tend to some of the garden plants, the robots again became helpers, obeying instructions

from their living masters. A couple of robots were even programmed to be fairly good begnat players,

competing against any interested astronaut in the most popular sport on Aldoria. And, every astronaut

had a special job which they were responsible for which they addressed most days much as they would

any career job. Every astronaut was also cross trained to handle at least two other jobs if it was needed.

During the entire trip, once each talic a cargo space ship would leave Aldoria filled with replacement

supplies as needed. While each cargo ship was large, it was unmanned and still far smaller than

Trailian Visitor and capable of traveling several relcans faster than the larger ship. Thus, a continuous

stream of these support space ships traveled their way toward Trailian Visitor, a new one docking with

the mother ship once each talic or so.

Whenever each newly arrived cargo ship docked with Trailian Visitor, its fresh supplies were taken on

board and packed for its return trip with waste, broken parts of every kind, and other items no longer

needed. The fleet of more than 200 of these supply ships would travel between Trailian Visitor and

Aldoria during the entire time the astronauts were away from home.

Trailian Visitor was so large it had to be constructed in low orbit over Aldoria, impossible to lift off the

planet's surface. On launch date, it slowly broke out of orbit and proceeded on its long journey.

Aldorians across the entire planet watched with celebration and anxiety, some watching through

viscom transmission from a satellite in tandem orbit with the ship, while others simply stood outside

and used simple binoculars to easily see the giant ship in orbit above.


Barely moving at first, as the RC propulsion engines picked up efficiency, the ship’s speed continued

to increase with each passing second. Within only five days, the ship reached its planned velocity of

close to 60 relcans, 120,000,000 Aldorian miles per hour. In less than the first two days, only large

telescopes could still easily see and directly track the ship as it sped away from home.

It took a special kind of Aldorian to go on this monumental trip. More important than being well

educated in two or three career possibilities, each had been carefully selected. Each astronaut taking

the trip was the kind of personality who could easily deal with the endless stress of being locked up in

a space ship, far away from home, Stria, and friends for 135 talics.

It was all designed to help in every way possible to prevent the astronauts from being bored or

becoming depressed. It was the most elaborate and inviting prison ever created for the 35 Aldorians

who would have to stay there. The distinction between volunteer and prisoner was in a sense blurred

aboard this trip.

There was something in the Aldorian psyche, perhaps a deep lesson learned by all from the Feundarian

tragedy, which made it fairly easy to find 35 who qualified for the trip. Maybe it was a cultural artifact

brought on by Aldorians adapting to daily knowledge that each was going to live for well over 2000

talics. Somehow, a mere 130 plus talics seemed more like a big vacation road trip.

“In a couple of days, you won’t need that viewer.”

Jakial looked up from the view screen at Walcia as he approached the large observation deck view

ports. “Hard to believe we’re nearly there.”

“Hard to believe.”

The two men stood side by side and stared into space without using the viewer at the small bright spot

ahead. With a hue more blue than any other, indicative of the water and atmosphere on the planet long

known to exist discovered by earlier probes, Walcia said, “To me it looks a lot like what we saw when

we approached home after practice trips.”

“It does look a lot like that, but it sure doesn’t feel the same to me. It makes me feel the distance now

more than anytime. When I couldn’t see it out there, somehow I felt less isolated.”

After a few seconds, Walcia nudged his friend. “Fifty nine talics.”

Jakial looked at Walcia and nodded. “I know!”

Walcia added, “Only one incident in all that time.”


He didn’t have to say more. Everybody on board had dealt with the three days when Stirnia Lanker

locked himself in the primary control room. The threat of disaster had been aborted with some of the

most intense negotiations and talks with the crazed astronaut than anybody ever believed they might

have to handle. Until that time, the training everybody had gone through to know how to deal with

such a possibility never seemed realistic. Not until it actually happened. But, Stirnia had been talked

off his bad reaction to the lengthy confinement, and today seemed as ready and able as everybody else

to participate in this amazing adventure. The avoided disaster was apparent good fortune to everybody.

“Life detection still is inconclusive.” Jakial referred to the fact that Aldorian technology was not

advanced enough to yet detect how well developed life actually was on the planet. All the instruments

could reveal from the current distance away was that life did exist, and there was lots of it. But, if there

was more down there than huge forests, maybe filled with simple animals, nothing yet indicated

greater possibilities. The only real solution would be to send some astronauts to the surface of the

planet and explore.

Walcia hesitated before he said, “I hope nobody is hostile.”

“That would help,” Jakial said. Everybody knew the defined protocols. No serious weapons were

brought along. This was a scientific mission, not one which included conquest. If threatening life forms

were discovered, all of the Aldorian passengers were trained to withdraw, including a possible total

retreat from the entire planet if it was found prudent.

The Trailian Visitor now held 35 of the closest friends and most trusting of each other than one might

find anywhere back home. And, as the little blue ball slowly grew with each passing moment, the

anticipation and excitement was also growing. Planet Trailia was just ahead.


Chapter 43

The Trailian Visitor was so large, as it dropped into orbit around the planet, it gave an outside observer

the sensation that it was moving very slowly. Smoothly it moved into its planned stable orbit around

planet Trailia. Now naked eyesight from the ship through any one of the many visual ports revealed a

planet which appeared in general as if the ship had actually returned to Aldorian orbit. That is, except

for one thing. None of the planet’s land masses, seas, or oceans looked in any way familiar to anybody

on board. Nevertheless, it didn’t prevent a few who looked from making an illogical attempt to locate

some familiar piece of land.

As a member of a Stria which had shared significant Aldorian history, certainly more publicly than

most, Walcia Kroll couldn’t avoid wondering how the first astronauts must have felt as they sat in a

similar orbit around planet Feundar. Surely the lessons learned from that ensuing disaster would

prevent the same awful fate here. A chill ran up his back and he snapped out of his trance. He turned

away from the visual port and headed for duty station. There would be more than enough work ahead

to keep his mind from wandering again, even before any attempts to land on the planet’s surface.

As a member of the flight control deck and as a trained geologist, Walcia was one of those in the crew

charged with locating primary candidate sites for landing the first explorers. The first landing party

would consist of eight astronauts. Walcia would not be one of them. It was of no real concern to him.

During the 16 talics planned to visit the planet, eventually every one of the 35 would spend significant

time down there exploring and discovering. For now, he was busy finding a good place to establish

base camp.

Part of his job was not only to locate suitable landing sites, but report any unusual sightings to Parren

Dumoss. Especially if that sighting hinted at intelligent life form artifacts. Walcia would stay focused

on looking for an appropriate landing area while Parren would further investigate the artifacts looking

for hints at intelligence with his additional detection instruments.

“I found another candidate,” Walcia said softly. Parren sat near him at a second console filled with

instrumentation.

“Thanks. I see the coordinates.” Parren stared closer at one of the instruments in front of him, while

Walcia focused more on the specific area he located.

Walcia zoomed in more at the specific coordinates. At the resolution he now had set, the area seemed

promising. It appeared to be a large flat and grassy field surrounded by fairly dense forest. The field

was large enough to accommodate a landing module with enough room surrounding it to remain open

and easily compatible with establishing a camp site for eight or more astronauts. This was the third site

Walcia had located, and appeared much more appropriate than the previous two. He would investigate

the area a little more before trying to locate a couple of additional candidates. His team, along with the

ship’s commanders, would together make the final decision where to land.


In the meantime, Parren swept the surrounding area, looking for any hints of nearby intelligence. “It

looks like something here,” he said as he stopped at one location. “Yeah, I think this is not so natural

looking.” The instrument he was using was trained on a location reasonably near the open field.

Walcia was sitting back resting his eyes from the strain of focusing so much. “What is it?” He turned

to look at Parren.

“Well, it’s covered with forest also. It looks like a hill, but more regular and steep.” He leaned in some,

staring more carefully, adjusting resolution as he watched. “This really doesn’t look like a natural

formation to me. I think it’s something. I just can’t get enough resolution to really tell. We will have to

go there ourselves to find out.” After a pause, he added, “It would be great to find thinking beings.”

That would nail it, Walcia thought. A nice open area for landing and setting up camp with what might

be an artifact of intelligence nearby. “How close is it to the field?”

Parren answered slowly as he stared at the readings on the instruments. “It’s just under a mile away.

Probably would take a scouting party three or four hours to get to it from the field.”

Walcia found his thoughts returning to Feundar. All of the natural life that had been there. Now none

of it existed. Three planets with native life, including his own. How many are there, he wondered.

As the first day in orbit ticked by, Walcia and Parren finished their shift. Time was passing quickly.

Eventually, Walcia and the rest of the others in his team did find several good candidate areas for

landing. But, none seemed as promising as the grassy field.

Near the end of the second day, Walcia met with his team mates and the top three commanders of the

ship. They had been deciding which site to use.

“Anything else?” commander Tanoka looked at the others sitting around the conference room table.

There were no responses. “Well, then it’s decided, the field is it. But, let’s use tomorrow to have a

second look, along with the stream bend.” He referred to a second site which seemed almost as good as

the field. Turning to Kalip Rochase, the second in command, he said, “Commander Rochase, please

complete listing your landing party and have it to me by mid-tomorrow.” Looking one final time

around the table, he ended the meeting, “Thanks, everyone. We have a lot to do.”

As Walcia walked along the hallway back toward his cabin, Jakail caught up with him. “How did it

go?”

“Just fine. It looks like the field is it, but we are supposed to double check one more time.”

“Did you hear who would go first?”


“Nothing you don’t know already.”

Jakail persisted. “Any changes?”

Walcia knew what Jakail meant. “He’s still going.” It was already known that Stirnia Lanker would be

in the first landing party, along with commander Rochase and Karnia Searsa, one of the medical

doctors on board. Five more names were yet to be selected.

“I’m just cautious,” Jakail defended, but then he revealed his real feelings. “I’m really not sure it’s a

good idea.”

“Tanoka and Rochase know what they are doing. Besides, you’re not going first.”

As one whose job primarily was documentation, a kind of technical writer for others on the trip, it

didn’t make a lot of sense for Jakail to be among the first to land. There would be too much to do just

establishing base camp and a safe perimeter. Those who were in more appropriate positions to make

initial decisions and set up would go first. Documenting officially those first moments would come

later after review of videos from the landing party’s body cameras.

Jakail turned off in another direction as Walcia reached his quarters alone. Entering and lying down, he

felt a sudden rush of exhaustion. Staring at the ceiling lit with soft hues of bluish-green, he realized

how much stress he must have actually been under in recent days. They all had. For the most part,

however, it had been a long and boring trip. Briefly he entertained the thought that had there existed

more problems on the trip it would have broken talic after talic of what had started feeling like endless

routine. On the other hand, he understood how much had gone into planning this venture.

It suddenly came to him that he was one of the first Aldorians to ever leave their own solar system. He

recalled times as a child when he would talk with his father Ansar about space travel. He really didn’t

understand how much his father was involved with space science at the time, but never doubting a

parent’s knowledge as young children typically do, he trusted being told that other solar systems were

so far away he might not ever see the day when they would be visited. And now here he was himself. It

was imminent that he would walk on an extra solar planet before he was only 100 talics old. In light of

that, it was easy to overlook that it just took 59 talics to get here.

He had a sudden urge to talk with his father, but knew that would be impractical. A single one way

message transmitted home would take more than seven talics just to get there. Waiting another seven-

plus talics for a response, there was no chance to hold a real conversation. Of course, the entire ship

was under the same limitation from the laws of physics. No matter what happened now, they were

completely on their own when decisions of what to do were required. Of course, there was a very big

playbook programmed into the ship’s AI system. Every scenario anybody could think of had been

analyzed before the trip and added to the list. Walcia wondered what might happen which nobody

considered.

He wondered about the forms of life on Trailia. He was ambivalent regarding whether intelligent life

was down there. One moment he considered how interesting it would be to attempt communication

with such creatures, and then just as quickly he felt that it might be much better for everybody


involved if nothing near intelligence existed on the planet. Slowly the excitement of the whole business

faded and he drifted off into a restless sleep. The lighting faded in sync with him as he drifted off, as it

was aware of and automatically reacted to his mental state.

The next day Walcia and others enlisted to verify a landing spot performed their final checks of the

better locations found, and it was affirmed that the grassy field was the best choice. Commander

Tanoka issued the command to go, followed by commander Rochase completing and announcing all

eight astronauts who would be in the first landing party.

“You saw the list?”

Walcia looked up from his control panel. “Yeah. Interesting.”

“Right! Just my thought.” Parren shook his head a little. It had been known for two days that beside

Rochase, also in the landing party were Stirnia Lanker and Karnia Searsa. He added, “But, Tuern and

Blain!” Walcia knew Parren was commenting on how inexperienced the two were.

Walcia protested, “Come on! None of us has any more real experience at this than anybody else.”

Walcia understood that Parren was actually only referring to the relatively shorter career experience

Tuern Blash and Blain Cranole had compared with others. He knew that Parren himself as an

intelligence scientist was hoping he would be first, not somebody with less background like Tuern. So,

Walcia needled him a bit. “I think Blain is a very good choice,” he said, referring not to the one Parren

really was talking about.

Parren made a face at Walcia. “Okay, enough!”

Nobody on board was really greatly concerned with who went first. But, there had been a small

amount of silent betting and playful rivalry going on regarding who might be chosen. And, few had

taken sides with those who were newer in their careers than others. The chatter surrounding Lanker

going continued sporadically. Most of the whole crew understood the therapeutic attempt to help him

feel better by having him walk on terra firma sooner than later, even if it was alien. The last thing

anybody wanted was failure, not only with Lanker, but through anybody’s actions.

In any case, there now remained less than one more day before the first party of eight would enter a

landing module and head for the intended base camp. It would be difficult for anybody to sleep very

well that night before the visit started.


Chapter 44

Autocom sent a safe landing message back to Trailian Visitor, continuing with numerous back and

forth commands and data streams. Rochase and the others had little required of them to do while the

landing module went through its programmed landing sequence.

A whishing sound somewhere within the bowels of the module abated slowly as several small

vibrations flushed through the cockpit. Then the module turned silent and motionless. Now only an

almost inaudible slow beeping sound issued from an instrument on the front panel.

The eight astronauts on board sat quietly staring out the view ports at each of their sides. They

remained strapped in their seats, a precaution taken just in case they might have to lift off almost

immediately. They didn’t know what to expect next, so they certainly were being cautious.

The eight sat in pairs, side by side in the narrow cockpit which was only slightly larger than room for

all of them in four rows. Except for the front two, Rochase and Lanker, who were working and

watching the landing and environment controls, the remaining six crew members had little to do except

sit and look out their respective view ports.

The scene outside beyond the small windows was exceptionally not extraordinary. Nothing looked or

seemed unusual. Just like Walcia and Parren had examined from orbit, the landing module sat at one

end of a grassy field covering a gently sloping area surrounded by bushes and trees. Of the many

variety of plants blocking any deeper view into the forest, it was as if the clearing had been constructed

just for the purpose of an exploration landing party.

After awhile Velor said, “It reminds me of home.” He spoke softly as he stared out of his port.

Sitting next to him across the very narrow aisle, Blain Cranole responded while he continued to also

look out his own port. “Where is home?”

“Up near the Peridranes.” Velor spoke of the vast northern forests on Aldoria where only a few

ventured. It was the largest mostly undeveloped area left on the planet, and would remain that way as

long as it was officially declared a wild preserve.

“I’ve never known anybody from up that way.”

“There aren’t many of us to know.”

“So, where do you live?”

“A little place called Saltin Cove.”

“Saltin? Your Stria?”


“My Stria.” Velor Saltin answered. “My great, great, great grandparents settled it. Most of my Stria

grew up there and stayed.”

Blain suggested, “No wonder you’re a bioscientist. I mean, surely lots of that to do up there.”

“I’m also a hunter.”

Blain looked surprised. “A hunter!”

“Licensed for more than 100 talics.” Extremely few Aldorians owned firearms, a clear reaction to the

still memorable Feundarian tragedy. Even fewer hunted animals. Nevertheless, most understood why

animal herds were culled and maintained, given that so many of them were being crowded out of their

natural and shrinking environments. Including how many had lost many of their natural predators

which kept their numbers naturally in check. Hunters were, it was believed widely, a necessary evil.

The price Aldorians paid for their own existence.

“That’s a bit odd, don’t you think?”

“Because I’m female?” Velor playfully ventured. She knew he didn’t mean it that way.

“Because you’re a bioscientist. Somebody who studies life. But, you’re also a hunter. One who takes

lives.”

“They are more alike than you might think. Both must have a deep understanding of natural habitats.”

Sporadic but quiet conversations ensued throughout the cabin while the eight astronauts sat in place for

the first hour as planned. Nobody ventured to talk loud enough so anyone other than whomever sat

next to them could hear. Without any protocol in place regarding it, noisy conversation seemed to

everyone too intrusive for now. Mostly they all just stared outside.

Nothing of significant interest happened as far as anybody could see. None of the many instruments

pointed in all directions away from the landing module registered anything. Suddenly a sound, similar

to a short low whistle erupted from the instrument panel, causing commander Rochase to jerk. Looking

at the instrument, he called back, “Off the garn side, something is moving.” The four astronauts on the

garn side looked more carefully while the other four across from them attempted to see out that way

also.

Tourmay Dant spoke up immediately. “I see it!” He referred actually not to seeing anything other than

a couple of fronds on a plant move more than the natural movement everywhere due to a slight breeze

constantly brushing most of the forest edge. Neither the instruments trained in that direction nor

anybody else saw anything more. After a short wait, the swaying fronds settled down.

“What did you see?”

“Just a very quick glance. It looked like a large animal maybe, but when I first saw it, it was already

moving back into the trees. Not enough time to tell anything.”


Rochase said, “Let’s watch the recording.” He touched a video screen a couple of times, issuing

appropriate commands. Then on a small screen in front of each of the crew, they watched as the

creature stepped out from the bushes, immediately and obviously showing surprise at seeing the

landing module, and just as quickly turned back into the forest. It all happened quickly. All one could

really see was it was about as large as one of the crew, some orange coloring, and seemed to move

about on four limbs.

“Looks fairly frightened. Maybe it’s naturally not aggressive.”

“We’ll see.”

Nothing else happened during the rest of the hour.

Eventually, Rochase said, “Okay, everyone, let’s start set up.”

The eight unstrapped and climbed out of their seats into the aisle. Bent over because the cabin ceiling

was too low to fully stand, the eight turned to the back and made their way through a door into the

common area.

It was a comfortably large room. At the center was a large table and eight chairs. Every part of all of

the walls served a purpose. There were numerous instruments, more or less replicating all of the non-

flight instruments at the cockpit’s front panel, together with several more elaborate instruments

designed to analyze virtually anything which might be of interest related to the landing module or its

surrounding environment.

Except for six large viewing ports spaced evenly along the walls, the remaining non-instrument areas

were taken up with numerous cabinets holding everything needed for the trip, ranging from eating

utensils and food stores to tools and spare parts. A doorway at the back of the room opened into eight

small bedrooms, a shower, a rest room, and further back a large storage room, which included a small

rover capable of carrying three crew members, parked next to a doorway into a huge airlock leading

outside.

All eight of the crew had specific jobs to do, a long list of tasks rehearsed so many times they could

each recite the steps backward if they wanted to. They were preparing the module for the first of

countless visits outside they had planned for the next sixteen talics.

Tourmay Dant, the only one who thought he saw the large animal, stopped for a moment and looked

out one of the six large viewing ports at the forest near where he looked before. As he stared out,

Karnia Searsa stepped up behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Anything more?”

“Nothing.” Disappointment was clear in his response.

Karnia said confidently, “Sixteen talics to go. We’ll see it many times before it’s over.”

With the module now having landed and sat there quietly for over an hour, the small creatures of the

forest were now feeling safe enough to move about nearby. Numerous small birds and crawling

creatures could be seen, each on its apparent endless quest for food.


Karnia said, “That one looks a lot like a very small marst.”

Tourmay agreed. “More than seven light talics from home and it looks like we are only on a camping

trip back there.”

“Well, of course, we are. Space is big. This planet is relatively very close. It make sense to me that a

planet as close to home as this, if it has life, it might well look like ours.”

“Actually, I think the probability is fairly small. Life throughout the universe might be far more varied

than we can even imagine.”

Tourmay and Karnia chatted for awhile longer before returning to their assigned tasks. They wanted as

much as any of the others to get outside, explore, and take samples. But, the first steps out wouldn’t

happen for almost two days more. Defined protocols demanded proceeding slowly. Small animals and

birds were not the only life forms out there. The quick sighting of the larger animal confirmed that.

Until a much more careful examination of the visible area around the module could be acquired with

instruments, nobody would be going outside.

Nearly five hours later, suddenly it happened. Tuern Blash just happened to look out the large port next

to her. Calling to nobody specifically, she exclaimed loudly, “A big animal!”

Within seconds, all eight astronauts were looking out the same window or the one next to it. There it

was, standing just out from the cover of plants in easy view. Or maybe it wasn’t standing. It could be

hunched over. Nobody really knew. None of the eight aboard could move away from the windows.

They were enthralled by the creature.

Covered mostly in smooth very light orange fur, especially on its sides and across its back, the animal

was only slightly smaller than one of the astronauts. It was clearly another one like the one they

recorded briefly before. Or, maybe it was the same one. If it could stand on its hind two legs, it would

clearly be taller than any of them. Nobody could discern its gender, or if it even had one. The animal

just sat there, or stood there, barely moving, all the time clearly looking at all parts of the landing

module. Showing no real signs of fear, but also nothing which indicated intelligent curiosity, it mostly

remained still, just watching with virtually no visible reaction or emotion. The astronauts parroted the

animal’s behavior, also with virtually no talking or movement. It was as if everybody were mildly

hypnotized.

The staring standoff lasted only a short time, far shorter than the astronauts wanted. Without fanfare

and for no apparent reason, the animal finally looked off to the side, slowly turned while remaining on

all fours, and moved into the bushes, disappearing from view.

For most of the rest of the day, ongoing debates ensued among the crew members as they worked

through their various duties. From time to time, one of them would bring up the video and watch it

again. Was it intelligent? Could it actually stand on its hind two limbs? Or maybe also walk only on

them? Was it afraid of the landing module? It didn’t show apparent fear. Could it vocalize any? Would

it be aggressive or hostile if confronted by one of the crew? In any case, because the animal showed


the most promise for providing the kinds of answers the astronauts hoped for, they decided to call it a

Trailian, giving it greater status than anything they had seen so far, as little as that was.

Nobody had any answers, but the conversations and what little recorded data they had gave everyone

even greater motivation to get outside and start exploring. They wanted to meet with more Trailians

and whatever else there was to discover. It was one of the main reasons they came here.

That night was filled with sleeplessness. The second day was filled with work and anxiety, followed by

another night of restless sleep. On the morning of the third day, the main exit door to the airlock made

rushing air sounds and metal against metal clanks as it opened. Commander Rochase, face covered

with a breathing mask connected to his environment back pack was the first to step out.

Following Kalip Rochase were the other seven selected for the first group, engineer Stirnia Lanker,

medical doctor Karnia Searsa, intelligence scientist Tuern Blash, security and safety officer Blain

Cranole, bioscientist and hunter Velor Saltin, materials scientist Tourmay Dant, and environment

scientist Maern Delogue.


Chapter 45

Commander Rochase began requesting the others to proceed with tasks. They knew already what to do.

Rochase was only telling them when he thought it was time to do it. Blain began setting several

sensors well out from the landing module, evenly spaced and surrounding it. Anything larger than a

small marst would register if it ventured within the invisible electronic fence. A small alarm would

beep issued from a receiver worn on each astronaut's instrument pack strapped along their left arm.

Beyond that, nothing else would happen.

Neither the sensors nor any other instruments could suffice as a weapon. None were aboard the landing

module, nor were there any stored on the Trailian Visitor. While a few had argued on Aldoria that at

least one or two defensive weapons should be available, the overwhelming sentiment and political bent,

still a lasting artifact of the memories of the death of Feundar, won the argument. The trip to Trailia

would be one not only of complete scientific peace in intent, but perhaps foolishly, also one of total

compliance to that idea. Weapons of any kind were banned from the trip. If for any reason it became

reasonable that a defensive weapon would be handy to have, then the mandate was to retreat. No

aggressive actions would be tolerated, even in the name of self protection. Despite the hard line policy,

there had been little trouble finding enough volunteers for the mission.

Maern and Stirnia began setting the main hut. It would be used as a receiving and initial cataloguing

center for gathered samples. It also contained a few emergency items and various tools probably

needed during explorations. Rochase ventured a pause from his own tasks as he stepped away from the

others and toward the forest edge where the creature they called the Trailian had been seen. He stared

at the dense trees and bushes and wondered if the creature was still in there just out of sight, watching

him. As Rochase contemplated the situation, Velor stepped up behind him.

“A couple of us could investigate.” As a bioscientist and a hunter, while everybody was anxious to see

and learn more about Trailians, none were perhaps more so than she.

“Soon, I think.” Rochase turned to her. “But, we must keep with the defined chain of events. That will

fill this first day.” Velor understood and shook her head.

He added, “The only reason we are here is to explore and discover. That’s what we will do beginning

tomorrow. Tonight we will decide together what each of us might do first.” There were no predefined

protocols for what they did regarding exploration. Logically that had to be decided once they were

actually here on the ground and they could see what made sense.

In the meantime, the day filled with busy work, things which had to be done, including instrument and

environment set up for the long visit. This first landing site would be base camp, but it was by no

means the only camp site eventually to be established on Trailia. During the sixteen talic visit, as many

as one hundred different camps would be used, visited by every one of the 35 astronauts in rotating

shifts. Base camp would always be this one. These first eight visitors would have the entire planet to


themselves for the first six days. Then a regular shuttle would ferry supplies and two astronauts down

after each two days to replace and return two back to the mother ship.

Late in the day, an hour or so before sundown, all eight crew members returned to the landing module

to meet and check their status. It was a welcome retreat from the constant confinement felt while

wearing the breathing mask and connecting environment back pack. To the relief of everybody,

nothing serious had happened. Now they all wanted everything to go smoothly. The sooner all of the

set up procedures were completed without troubles, the sooner they could turn focus to the real goals

they all anticipated, exploring the planet.

The meeting progressed fairly casually in a manner which Rochase preferred. At any moment

somebody was up and pacing around the common room table or pouring another cup of sarl. At one

point Tuern stood looking out one of the windows when she exclaimed. “We’ve got visitors again.”

In a matter of only seconds, all eight astronauts were standing next to the windows watching not just

one, but three of the Trailians. Just inside the clearing and at the far end from where the landing

module sat, the three creatures were in a tight group. As seen two days before, they just stood or

hunched there, barely moving, showing no real fear, but cautious anyway, not approaching the landing

module any more than they were already.

Once again, the staring standoff ensued. Neither side moving, neither side commenting, everybody

barely making any moves. The astronauts knew the Trailians could not see in through the windows,

designed for one way vision. There was no concern the Trailians might be spooked by the astronauts

moving around inside.

Nevertheless, speaking softly, as if anything louder would frighten them, Maern said, “They don’t look

like they are communicating with each other.”

Velor agreed, “I don’t see it either. But,” she added, “many animals communicate with vocalizations

which don’t require anything more than using their vocal chords.”

“So, they could be grunting to each other?”

“That’s right.”

Tourmay thought he saw movement off to his left. He turned his head to see one of the four support

robots moving. “One of our robots is starting up.”

Karnia lamented, “No! That’s going to frighten them.” In another second she added, “They see it!”

Stirnia said, “But, they aren’t running. That seems a bit aggressive to me.”

“Not necessarily,” Velor said. “They may well be just careful and waiting to see what happens.

Animals are often curious enough to act that way.”

Rochase said, “They’re far enough away from the robot. Besides, it’s moving away from them, going

about its business.”


The Trailians continued to watch the robot without any significant reactions as it moved into the

central hut, and after a few moments it was out of sight. After awhile, they lost interest in it and turned

their focus back toward the landing module again. One couldn’t help but wonder if they knew the robot

was just a machine and the natural life forms were actually just behind the windows. Were they

intelligent enough for that to explain their actions?

Maern said, “They just stay there doing nothing.”

Velor responded, “My guess is they are still sizing up the situation.” She further ventured, “I think this

means they are more than just a typical animal. By now they would otherwise have returned to grazing,

or foraging. Or, walking away. I think they are studying us. Our camp.”

After a few moments while the Trailians continued to stay in place watching, Tuern suggested,

“Maybe one or two of us could step out and see what happens.”

“The air lock will make too much sudden noise, and the outer door opening is too much also.” Velor

suggested.

Rochase added, “We don’t really know yet how aggressive they are. If they see us more directly like

that, they might attack.”

Tuern said, “They didn’t charge anybody when we were outside before. They had enough opportunity

then.”

Nobody responded to the comment, and the standoff continued until finally the three Trailians began to

move. In unison, they suddenly began to slowly back up, one step at a time. It was as if they were

trying not to startle any of the strange machinery in the clearing. Or, did they think any of it was a life

form? Who knew what the Trailians were thinking, or even if such real logical thinking was within

their capabilities.

Once they fully disappeared into the bushes, the astronauts remained by the windows, waiting to see if

perhaps something else might happen. After awhile, Rochase said, “It looks like that’s it for now. Let’s

get back to the meeting.” Everybody shuffled back to the table and sat.

As they settled in their chairs, Blain spoke. “Maybe we should send out a scouting party and see if we

can find out what’s in the forest. Maybe we can learn more if we can sneak up on one of the Trailians

and watch them.”

Rochase vetoed the idea. “We’re not going to do that until we have a better grasp on the situation. We

don’t want any of us or them to be harmed. I would like to watch one of them under a more controlled

situation first. So, I propose we capture one long enough to study it, and then release it after one or two

days.” He turned to Blain, in charge of security and safety. “Can we construct a kind of trap which

won’t harm them?”

While Blain considered an answer, Velor said, “I’m not sure that is a good idea.”


“Okay,” Rochase said, “What would you suggest?” Velor wanted to go with the idea of a scouting

party, but Rochase had turned that down. She shrugged.

Blain then said, “Every time we’ve seen the Trailians, they have always come out of the forest at the

same place. It would be simple enough to set up a corral using security sensors. The sensors next to the

forest where they show up could be turned off at first and set to turn on manually later, but only after

anything large enough passes between them. They could also then be turned on at high strength.”

Rochase asked, “Strong enough to hold them?”

Blain said, “No. But at full strength they would create an appearance of a barrier. It would be harmless

to pass through it, but just the sight of it and the electrical sounds it would make may be enough to

keep the Trailian at bay. If it worked right, it could force them to withdraw from it, backing up into an

actual fenced area. Something easily constructed strong enough to hold them, and without any harm to

them or us.”

Everybody thought about the idea. “Any problems with that?” he asked the room in general. He looked

at Velor directly. She was the most knowledgeable about animal behavior. She didn’t indicate any real

concerns more than the others.

“Alright, let’s try that. As I said, if we can capture one this way and study it for a day or so, perhaps we

can determine how safe we might be when we start exploring the forest. Of course, eventually we are

going to go into it, but I’d first like to have a better sense of what we might face out there. The

Trailians are the only life forms we’ve seen so far which might present a real problem. Nothing larger

has been sighted or detected by Trailian Visitor.”

With general agreement by all and a plan, the meeting ended. The astronauts proceeded to prepare an

evening meal and rest inside through the night, ready to begin their capture attempt the next day.


Chapter 46

“What if it can jump over?” Blain looked with a critical eye at the fenced area constructed more in the

clearing than the sensors placed along the drip line of the trees and bushes next to where the previous

Trailian appearance occurred.

Maern tilted her head to one side and surveyed the layout. “Maybe. But, I doubt it. That would be well

over our heads. What can jump like that?”

“A monstrit.”

Velor said, “Of course! But, this Trailian doesn’t have hind leg muscles anywhere near like that. I

think we are okay.”

Rochase stepped up. “How is it going?”

Blain turned. “Basically done. We’re about to test it.” He walked over to the bushes where the

Trailians had appeared before. Stepping across the line demarked by the sensors, as soon as he passed

through, a signal was sent and Maern turned on the power from the remote control she was holding.

With an electrical snapping sound and flashes of light, the fence appeared suddenly, looking solid and

intimidating. Even Blain was startled by it, though he fully expected what it did. Involuntarily, he

stepped back from it, but not enough to pass through the second line of the trap, the actual place where

the gate would be when it was closed. After he took a couple of steps further back, a red light blinked

on the remote and Maern pushed a second button. The gate slammed closed.

Rochase said, “Won’t that hurt the creature if it hits it?”

“No. There are sensors on it to stop before that happens.”

Blain called from the fence enclosure, “Okay, open the gate.” Maern did so and he also turned off the

signal sensors. The electrical humming dissipated as the visual field disappeared with it. As Blain

stepped over, he said, “Let’s move the gate just a little closer to the sensors. I don’t want the creature

to have to move that far before we have it trapped.”

Rochase asked, “Does this mean we should go back inside? They might not come out while we’re

around.”

“I think we can stay out most of the day and get things done.” Velor said. “They have shown up only

later in the day. If any of them have been watching us, all this activity will keep them back for now.

Might as well do other things needed out here for now.”

The eight crew members and four assistant robots spent much of the rest of the day continuing to set

up camp huts and equipment. While everyone kept busy, frequently one of them would stop and look


over the trap and the sight where the Trailians appeared before. As the day progressed, anxious

anticipation built in each of them. Eventually it was time for all to return inside for dinner, allowing

them to only think about the possibility of catching one or two of the Trailians.

Preparations of dinner progressed in fits and pieces, while most found themselves more motivated to

stare out the landing module windows than concerning themselves with eating. The wait was less than

expected. “There’s one now!” Tuern shouted as she stood watching outside. It was show time and all

eight astronauts gathered in front of the windows like children eagerly watching a puppet show.

Only one Trailian stood at the usual spot where any had appeared before. Karnia commented on that.

“They really do keep showing up at that one place.”

“I wonder why?” Tourmat asked.

Nobody really suggested anything until Velor softly suggested, “Familiarity. Routine, perhaps. If they

often come into this clearing, maybe they have worn a path inside the forest right there and that makes

it easier.”

Stirnia agreed. “The forest does seem fairly dense around here. I’d sure use a path if there was one.”

Velor added, “Just like animals in any forest back home.”

Everybody grew quiet as the Trailian continued to stand just within the clearing, right in front of the

line it had to cross to activate the sensors.

“It’s not working.” Blain complained.

Velor explained, “Give it time. We changed a lot out there today. If it’s the same one which was here

before, it’s going to take awhile to get comfortable with that.”

“What if it doesn’t?” Karnia asked.

Velor said, “It might not. We will just have to wait and see.”

Just then the Trailian turned and retreated back into the forest.

“No!” Blain complained first, as others moaned with disappointment. Dejected, they all turned away

from the windows and returned to preparing to eat, more as a way to occupy themselves than offering

satisfaction at being hungry. Within a few minutes, all eight were sitting at the table, trying to eat.

Most just played with their food and nobody had much of anything to say. As the minutes ticked by

and nothing happened, Velor reminded everyone, “Patience.”

Maern was about to take a bite of food when a small beep sounded, stopping her. Most at the table

turned and looked at the remote as a second beep sounded. Stirnia almost knocked his chair over as he

stumbled quickly toward a window. “Turn it on!” He almost yelled it. Others at the table started

getting up and moving toward the windows. Maern still sat there for a moment almost as if she had

totally lost the ability to move. Then she slammed a finger onto the appropriate button. Grabbing the


remote, she got up and went to the windows. By then everybody was nosily cheering and milling about,

jockeying for a better look. “Let me see!” Maern protested, and a couple of them moved aside for her

to move next to a window.

There it was. One fine looking Trailian standing with its back to the windows, facing the fence line

from whence it had apparently come. The bright pulsating electrical barrier had it completely

surrounded, and it was easy to see it was not being at all calm about its situation. It lowered and raised

its head, connected to a short neck, while also moving its head from side to side as it apparently was

trying to comprehend what it saw.

The astronauts watched while the creature stood its ground. “Come on! Come on!” Tuern commanded.

It was not yet inside the inner fence area, and everybody knew the electrical barrier was actually a

harmless vision. The creature could escape by just stepping through it at any time. The only thing

working was the intimidation the sound and sight of the barrier presented to the Trailian.

In its continuing frustration and confusion, the Trailian turned to one side looking along the electrical

barrier, perhaps for a less threatening place to go. At one point it faced the open gate to the inner fence.

“Yes!” Blain whispered loudly. But, the creature only continued to stand in place, turning and looking

all around, trying to find a way to move.

“The fence is frightening it. It’s not going to go through the gate.”

From talics of dealing with wild animals in similar situations, Velor tried to explain. “Just wait. It’s

really confused. It’s still trying to understand the situation. This is going to take a minute.” To some

extent, it appeared that the Trailian was starting to act a little less afraid as it continued to look around

at its surroundings.

Rochase asked, “You think it will stay back from the barrier?”

“Maybe.” Velor said. “It depends mostly on two things. How intelligent it really is and how much it

might act out of shear instinct and emotion.” She paused a moment. “It could decide to bolt and

suddenly run right through the barrier back into the forest. It looks to me like it is convinced the barrier

is a solid wall.”

Tuern noted, “It looks to me like it understands the fence is a trap. It won’t move any closer to it.

Maybe we should have built it even closer yet.”

Velor reminded them, “Again, just wait. As long as it thinks the barrier is solid, it will eventually move

around inside that area, and nearly all of it is inside the fence line.”

It seemed like forever. Anxiety was growing with each passing minute as the Trailian continued to turn

this way and that, but really not moving from its position in any direction. It kept turning and

examining the sensor barrier, and only occasionally looking at the completely passive fencing. Then it

did it. It took a step, but in the wrong direction. It was too much for a couple of the crew as they

moaned with dejection and turned away from the window. Maern stayed by the window, holding the

remote with her finger next to the button which controlled the gate.


The Trailian seemed to be growing yet more calm with each passing moment. At one point, it even

lowered its head toward the ground and looked like it sniffed the grass. Then without any particular or

apparent purpose, it turned again toward the gate and looked. After a few seconds, it started moving,

and as easily as that, it finally stepped across the line where the closed gate would be. After a couple of

further steps, it stopped and started turning back. Maern suddenly punched the button, the gate

slammed shut, and yells and cheers filled the common room as all eight crew members jumped around,

laughed away their anxiety, and chattered mindlessly at their good fortune.

The Aldorians had captured a Trailian.


Chapter 47

Talics of experience trapping wild animals cautioned Velor to also use caution this time. There was no

good reason to think this situation was any different. Never mind they were more than twenty trillion

Aldorian miles from home and this was a creature on another planet. “We should wait. The Trailian

could be calling for help. We have no idea how others will react, especially if we are outside.”

Rochase agreed. They would move slowly and deliberately. Sixteen talics of future exploration might

be affected by what happened. If the Trailians turned out to be overly aggressive, without any weapons

to defend themselves, the Aldorians could be significantly hampered in how work progressed.

Waiting for over an hour as nearly all of the eight crew members watched the Trailian in its pen from

the module windows, Maern stood next to Velor. “You really do enjoy this, don’t you?”

“Always.” Velor kept watching the Trailian. The electronic barrier had been turned off and now only

the fence enclosed the creature.

“You are the only one of us who kept watch this whole time.” Looking at the Trailian for a moment,

Maern then asked, “Do you think it is very intelligent?”

“Hard to say, but I do think it is might be. At one point, it seemed to be examining the gate. Like it was

trying to figure out how to open it. At the least, it seems to know the gate is its way back out.”

“Its acting just like a wernic to me. I’ve seen lots of them in pens.”

Velor looked briefly at Maern before turning back to the window. “You have experience with

wernics?”

“My Stria does. My father and grandfather are both wernic herders. Two of my brothers work with

them also. Father always wanted me to join the business. He is still a little disappointed that I’m an

environmental scientist instead.”

The two stood watching silently for awhile. Then Velor said, “I’ve seen no evidence that it has tried to

call for help. And I’ve seen no hint of others around. I think it’s time to venture outside.”

Standing near enough to hear, Rochase said, “How should we proceed?”

“I’d like to go out first alone.”

“Done.” Rochase knew that made sense.

The sound of the opening outer air lock door easily caught the attention of the Trailian. It turned

toward the door and backed up a step or two until its back end bumped the fence. It was as far away as


it could get. Otherwise, it showed no real panic. It actually behaved rather calmly, Velor thought, more

than she expected.

Slowly, she stepped out of the airlock, leaving the door open just in case she had to retreat quickly. She

stood motionless only two steps outside, allowing the Trailian to see her while she did nothing. The

Trailian did remind her of a wernic. That gave her the idea to make a similar low grumbling sound that

wernics make when they are content and peaceful. Her face mask muffled the sound some, but the

Trailians ears indicated that it was aware of her making some sound. Velor took a small step toward

the fence across from the creature. She stopped and grumbled more. The Trailian tilted its head acting

curious, not fearful. Velor took another step. And another.

As she took a last step up to the fence, the Trailian raised one front leg and put it down sharply, a hint

of aggressive posturing. Velor froze in place and continued grumbling. She waited. For almost half an

hour nothing new happened.

Eventually the Trailian moved first. It lowered its head and sniffed the ground in a manner it had done

much earlier. Then it half raised its head. It looked directly at Velor and then it made a sound. Like a

small cry or whimper, it bleated twice. Then it turned its head to the side, looking over at the gate.

Velor felt a shudder run up her back as she distinctly felt the creature was asking for its freedom. It

was asking for the gate to be opened. She stopped grumbling and took one step along the fence toward

the gate. The Trailian repeated its actions. It bleated twice and looked over at the gate.

Velor ventured yet another step. With each move closer to the gate, the Trailian repeated its pleading,

increasing slightly in loudness accompanied with more animation. At one point the Trailian turned

completely and stepped closer to the gate. It was now turned sideways to Velor.

Its body sloped slightly toward the back and Velor stopped to examine it. Its back and side was

covered in what looked like a soft, fine, very light orange fur, with exposed under parts of its body bare

and faintly pink. It's underside looked uncomfortably like Aldorian skin Velor noted. Along its

backbone for half the length of its body the orange shifted to a dark red. The creature had a very short

stub of a tail. It face was flat with its eyes both on the front separated by a nostril ridge. Forward

looking eyes like that often indicated a predator, or at least a creature which otherwise depended on

decent depth perception. Its mouth was also flat to its face. Not typical for a grazing animal. It must not

be one.

As Velor stood still for awhile and examined the Trailian, it suddenly raised one of its front legs to its

mouth. The end of its leg consisted of four long appendages, looking far more like fingers than pads on

a paw. With two of its fingers, it seemed to pick something out of its mouth, as if it were a speck of dirt

or a hair. Then returning its leg to the ground, it wiped the offending speck or whatever it was off on

the ground.

Velor smiled at the behavior. This animal was far more evolved for dealing with its environment than a

mere wernic. She started grumbling again and took a couple of more steps along the fence toward the

gate. Now she was getting close to it, and the Trailian began acting far more animated. It turned this

way and that by the gate and repeated its pleading sounds. At one point it stopped and Velor was


certain it was examining the gate with more interest and focus than any animal with lower intelligence

might have.

Velor took the last steps up to the gate. The Trailian grew excited now, moving continuously back and

forth at the gate, finally nudging against it at one point and with more loudness than any time before, it

repeated its pleading sounds. Then it suddenly stopped, facing directly toward the gate, it stood up on

its hind legs. The behavior startled Velor, and involuntarily she stepped back. The Trailian opened its

mouth widely and let out a short but clear crying sound, sounding more pleading than ever. It

continued to stand up. Standing taller the the top of the fence, Velor could see that it posed no

possibility of it being able to jump or climb over. It continued to stand. It reached out one of its front

legs and touched the gate, wrapping it fingers around a vertical strut. It shook the gate and cried out

once more. Then it stopped, letting go of the gate, it returned to standing on all four legs as it once

again looked at Velor and cried with less energy than before. It stopped and stood looking at her.

After a few seconds, Velor started feeling uncomfortable. She couldn’t get past feeling that this was

much more than anything like a herd animal. It was as if the Trailian had almost held a one on one

conversation with her. It had asked for permission to be let out so it could—what—leave? Or attack?

Velor shook her head and stepped back a little further, not only away from the gate, but away from the

area where all the Trailians had appeared from the forest. She realized she was not being careful

enough, just in case other Trailians were nearby. There was still no clear reason to trust these creatures.

Over her communicator, she spoke. “Let’s have one more come out. Maern.”

She looked back toward the landing module as the outer air lock door closed. After a few seconds, it

reopened, and out stepped Maern. “Go slowly,” Velor commanded. Maern took only a couple of steps

outside, and waited. The Trailian saw her, but did nothing more than stand and watch. Occasionally it

made a very low volume cry sounding much like it had been doing all along.

As the minutes passed, other crew members made their way out. Eventually, all eight astronauts were

standing together near the fence opposite the gate. The Trailian mostly stood still, staying near the gate

but facing the Aldorians. Only occasionally did it make any sounds, but when it did, it sounded almost

as if it were crying more than asking for help.

Another two hours passed while the astronauts continued to examine the Trailian. They had started

moving around more and more, letting the creature clearly see that other than holding it inside the

fence, they were otherwise doing nothing which seemed threatening. The Trailian grew quieter, and

took to moving around some. It never ventured far from the gate, and a couple of times it held the gate

with a front hand, if it could be called that, and shook it slightly. During the time, its crying turned

from a less sad sound and returned more to sounding like it had before, asking to be let free.

It was starting to turn dark, so the astronauts set up a few low intensity lights to illuminate the area

softly. At one point, the Trailian actually lied on its underside, all four legs tucked under its body. “I

think it might be going to sleep,” Velor said as she watched the creatures eyes droop.


The astronauts quickly established a watch schedule, although Velor insisted she would stay up all

night and continue her examination. Other than the first three to stay out, including Velor, the others

returned to the landing module. During this time, the Trailian never stood back up, but an occasional

sound would cause it to react, lifting its head with wide eyes each time. Only twice did it make any

sounds itself, and then each time it was more like faint sighing.

The night passed quietly. Velor had remained vigil all night anyway, watching with boundless interest

and curiosity. The creature never once seemed to actually sleep. The closest behavior to it was like one

falling into a mindless daydream.

“Still nothing?” Rochase asked as he walked up to Velor sitting a few feet from the end of the fence

closest to the landing module.

“Nothing really. It has remained quiet all night, but I don’t think it ever really slept any.”

“Neither did you. You want to take a break?”

“No, I’m okay. Not really tired at all.” Velor stood up and stretched. As she did the Trailian became

active, standing and also appearing to stretch. As Velor took a step toward the fence, so also did the

Trailian, but this time it stepped toward Velor.

“Look at that!” Rochase remained still.

“Huh!” Velor exclaimed as she took a second step. So did the Trailian, again toward Velor. With each

step closer to the Trailian, it acted in kind, stepping toward Velor. Rochase and the others outside

remained still and watched as eventually, Velor and the Trailian were within only a couple of steps

apart. They stood face to face looking at each other.

Velor made her grumbling sound briefly, and almost as soon as she stopped, the Trailian reciprocated

with a similar sound, but with a noticeable higher pitch. “It’s imitating me!” Velor thought. Once again

she grumbled, and once again the Trailian repeated its apparent attempt to imitate her. Then the

Trailian lifted a front leg and reached out almost to the fence with its fingers extended. Velor slowly

raised her left arm and extended it also closer to the fence and opened her hand widely. As the two

held their arms outstretched toward each other, the Trailian then repeated the sounds it make the day

before, softly but clearly asking Velor again to please let it out.

She couldn’t resist speaking calmly, “Not yet. Soon.” The Trailian tilted its head as if it were trying to

understand. As Velor lowered her arm, so did the Trailian as it seemed also as if it sighed in

disappointment. Turning her head toward Rochase, the creature also looked over at him as Velor spoke.

“Did you see that?” Of course he had.

“It’s got to be trying to talk with you.” Nobody he thought could misinterpret the obvious behavior.

“Sir, I don’t really think we are going to learn a lot more without growing more proactive than this,

and I think we would then be doing more damage than good. I think we have to let it out. Now.”


Rochase gave it some thought. “I suppose you’re right. Hard to not think it has some intelligence and

has asked you to set it free. Letting it go now would probably motivate it to tell the others we mean no

harm.” Rochase realized he was being a bit anthropomorphic, assuming the animal would have a

conversation later with its own kind. Or, that it could even communicate in any meaningful manner

like that. “Okay. How do you want to do this?”

“Maybe you all should step into the air lock, but leave the door open for me.”

“Take this carefully.”

“I know. I will.”

After the other astronauts stood anxiously inside the air lock, Velor stepped slowly and deliberately

toward the gate. The Trailian sensed what was happening and went ahead quickly to the gate. It

stopped a step or two back from it, turning its head toward Velor, watching her as she continued to

approach the gate cautiously.

She stopped at the gate and after giving it a look, she turned toward the Trailian and raised her arm

extending it and her fingers as the two of them had done before. The Trailian returned the action in the

same way it had before. Then it lowered its arm and stood there, waiting. Slowly, Velor pulled the

remote from a pocket and reached for the gate locking button. Looking up at the Trailian, she paused a

moment and then she pressed the button. With a noticeable metallic clicking sound, the gate unlocked,

but otherwise didn’t slide open. Velor had only disengaged the lock. Before pushing a second button

which would cause it to slide back, she first took a couple of steps away, moving closer to the air lock.

The Trailian did not move, but otherwise turned it head toward Velor as she moved back. Then Velor

pushed the second button and the gate slid open. For a moment, the Trailian stood motionless staring at

Velor. She felt no fear or intimation, but she remained ready to run for the air lock if she needed to.

With slow and deliberate steps, the Trailian turned back toward the gate, stepped through and without

looking back again at Velor, it continued to walk slowly away, disappearing into the forest.


Chapter 48

For the next two days while the astronauts continued their explorations, but confined to plants, insects,

and an occasional small critter in the clearing, conversations turned to the Trailian. Everyone noticed

that not once had they seen any of the creatures since the one they had captured. There was the

occasional suggestion that they had managed to frighten away any more interactions with Trailians. At

least for awhile.

Exploration proceeded, slowly, methodically, frustratingly confined. But everyone understood why.

How else could it be with no practical way to defend themselves? The mandate for the lack of weapons

of any kind on the mission became a regular bone of contention. Second thoughts were common, but

that was as far as it could go. It was what it was. The visit to planet Trailia had to proceed with great

caution.

Typical of any forest, the growth was more dense at the clearing edge than within only a few steps of

the forest itself. There it grew less dense. And, has had been expected all along, there was also a very

clear path through the forest leading up to the point where Trailians had been appearing. The path was

obviously worn into existence by countless animals passing along the same places.

During the second day of exploration, it was time for the first two astronauts to return to the Trailian

Visitor and be replaced by two new crew members as part of regularly scheduled rotation plans. A

small shuttle craft launched from the Trailian Visitor dropped from orbit and made its way down to the

landing module. It landed by hovering cautiously directly over the landing module and docking with it

on the roof. An air lock on the roof provided passage between the shuttle and the module. With each

trip, once every two days from this time forward, two new crew members would come to the Trailian

surface, while two which had been there the longest would return to the mother ship. The shuttle would

also bring fresh food and supplies as needed, returning used or broken materials to the mother ship for

recycling. Recently caught specimens and other collected artifacts were shipped back with the

returning astronauts as well.

Eventually, after sufficient exploration of the current area, a second camp would be established, and

then a third. At any given time during their visit, at most three camps would be occupied by Aldorians.

It was planned that a few strategic small production camps would be established here and there,

maintained and populated only by robots specifically designed to perform certain kinds of tasks which

could be carried out autonomously, such as mining and simple exploration or surveillance.

If the crew stayed the full sixteen talics, eventually about one hundred camp sites would exist across

selected areas of the planet, each maintained by robots, with any three of them visited by Aldorians at

any moment. In the long run, the value of the planet would be ascertained in order to evaluate the

viability of further exploitation. The best scenario in the eyes of the Aldorians would be a second

planet to inhabit. This time avoiding the mistakes on Feundar.


The first exchange shuttle arrived and docked. On board were crew members Parren Dumoss, an

expert in intelligence science, and Sisual Regent, an engineer. Rochase chose Tourmay Dant and Tuern

Blash to be the first to return to the Trailian Visitor. They would return with the mandate of finding a

second camp site to establish. They would, at least for a short time, be the only on board experienced

experts regarding the planet’s environment, and would thus logically be an integral part of the next

camp site location choice and actual construction.

The first camp site was named using the one voted most popular by the entire crew of Trailian Visitor.

It was Aldorcia, the older term from which the name Aldoria was derived. It meant “sustaining life” or

“life seed.”

Each day came and went, expansion of mapped territory around Aldorcia progressed, and the fact most

noted by everyone, almost no sightings of more Trailians. Most were certain it was no accident. It was

widely believed the Trailians were actively avoiding the Aldorians. The most successful sightings were

quick and partial sightings in the forest of Trailians always in retreat.

After another two days, a second pair of new astronauts would be replacing two more of the original

party of eight. The four original members still on surface duty by then would be Kalip Rochase, Stirnia

Lanker, Velor Saltin, and Maern Delogue.

Commander Rochase started his usual late afternoon status meeting. “On the next shuttle exchange,

Lydaea Turna will arrive as your new commander, and after a two day overlap, I will return to Trailian

Visitor.”

With a total of 35 astronauts on the long trip here, taking 59 talics in all, of course everybody knew

each other. Commander Turna was well liked as much as anybody, so her taking command of Aldorcia

was welcomed.

Rochase had one last significant action item he wanted to accomplish before returning to the mother

ship. “We have explored and mapped enough area. The Trailians have clearly remained no problem. It

is time to send a scouting party to the hill.” The announcement was met with expectation and

acceptance. The forest had been now adequately examined and the hill was tantalizingly close to

mapped territory. “It should come as no surprise that with one exception, I want first landing party

members to go there.” He referred to Velor Saltin, Stirnia Lanker, and Maern Delogue. “The exception

is that I will not go. I would like Commander Turna to go instead. She can learn about the Trailians

directly.”

With no weapons, including any of a defensive nature, they had approached this investigation with no

rush. There had been more than enough to do just within the area of the clearing and closely

surrounding it in the forest. Sampling and cataloguing carefully as much as possible, together with

taking and preserving samples and specimens was easily filling their time. This was their mandate. The

explored forest area had been saturated with installed sensors and hidden cameras as each new area

was explored.


Very early the morning after Lydaea Turna arrived on the shuttle, she and three associates made their

way into the forest, accompanied by one robot and all headed for the hill. They remained in constant

communication with Commander Rochase back in the landing module. As they cautiously worked

their way along one of the paths they had mapped, the one they knew which led to the hill, upon

occasion they would spot a Trailian. Every time as soon as the Trailian became aware of the nearness

of the astronauts, it would turn away. But, each time it would let out a very short burst of sound which

sounded to Velor very much like a warning to others who might be nearby. Velor felt the sound was

not one of fear so much as a simple notification to any other Trailians nearby of the presence of the

astronauts.

So it went easily for the scouting party. The trail was easy to follow and no new creatures were sighted

of any kind not yet noticed during earlier explorations. And all of the ones they did see were

considerably smaller than one of the astronauts. The Trailians were surely the dominate life form on

the planet. Nevertheless, the slow pace resulted in nearly five hours passing before they grew close to

the hill.

“I see it now.” Maern was first to see a hint of the hill hidden behind forest bushes and canopy. The

five of them stopped and Stirnia doubled checked that all of the recorders and environmental sensors

built into the robot were functioning correctly. Satisfied that everything was performing well, the four

astronauts spread out left and right and moved considerably more slowly toward the edge of the forest

next to the cleared area surrounding the hill. The robot stayed on the path.

Just inside the forest edge hidden from easy detection, the four astronauts peered out into the clearing.

The clearing was similar to that of Aldorcia, filled mostly only with short grass. This clearing was

much larger, however, accommodating the size of the hill. Without moving any branches or limbs

aside, still it was easy to see a few Trailians here and there moving about in the area. There was no hint

that any of the creatures were aware they were being watched.

The hill was as tall as a multi-story building and shaped like an extremely steep pyramid. There were

no visible stairs on its surface, which was not the color of soil, but instead covered in patches of blues

and greens. It was also adorned with regularly spaced patches of vegetation, in each case punctured in

the center with an opening large enough for a Trailian to access the plants growing around it. Rising

vertically along the hill’s surface were rib like structures which ran from ground to peak, meandering

slightly from left to right as each one made its way to the top. Each rib looked like a vein on the back

of a hand, but it was about as wide as an Aldorian might be able to reach across with outstretched arms.

In addition to the openings at each area of plant growth, there were also some random other openings,

but smaller in diameter, more like windows or ventilation holes. The top of the hill appeared to be flat

and small in area, with nothing up there one could see.

All around the hill were Trailians, milling about in almost random fashion, stopping and evidently

communicating when two or three of them came close to each other. Velor listened carefully to a pair

close to her and could easily hear the sounds made by them. What she could hear were not the sounds

like she would expect of a spoken language, but neither were they typical utterances she knew which


an animal back home might make. What they were vocalizing was something in between, structured

and complicated. A language, but not remotely like anything she had ever heard before.

As she watched and listened, Velor thought about evolution and the serendipitous nature of its random

mutations. Despite the unstructured nature of the mechanism itself, it never stopped amazing her how

it worked with such efficiency and success. Billions of solar systems and planets. While the probability

of life existing on any place in the universe was mostly unknown, she pondered the fact that Aldoria,

Feundar, and now Trailia all had life. Three planets in only two adjacent solar systems. That was a

mighty small sampling, but she couldn’t let go of thinking that life seemed common and robust,

existing surely on many planets nearby.

Were the Trailians intelligent? Like her? She was growing suspicious of it. Clearly the Trailians had

constructed the hill. She could see an occasional one up on it, standing in a plant area opening, tending

the vegetation in some manner. It reminded her of one who was manually harvesting a crop. And,

nearby Trailians were communicating, not with simple survival utterances, but with cogent

conversation which seemed to her to consist of discussions of more substance than a set of primitive

commands or acknowledgements.

Suddenly, Velor’s thoughts were interrupted as a Trailian standing very close to her turned its head

directly toward where she was hiding. It make a small whisper like sound, alerting another Trailian

near it. The other one also turned and looked in her direction. Velor froze, holding her breath and

wondering if the Trailians could smell her presence like many animals back home. The first Trailian

made a short and low snort, and then it took one step toward her. She considered briefly of backing up,

but she knew there was no way possible to do that without making noise and causing plants to move

too much. She was stuck there hoping the Trailian would cease its concerns.

It didn’t. Suddenly it raised its head and opened its mouth widely, bellowing out a warning sound, loud

and high pitched. Then quickly, it turned and ran. Just as suddenly, all across the clearing other

Trailians screamed out in a similar manner and ran off. Within seconds, not even one Trailian could be

seen anywhere, including those up in openings on the hill. Nothing but sudden and complete silence.

Even the birds so present all along throughout the forest were no longer singing their many songs.

After a few seconds, the four astronauts backed off a couple of steps and gathered on the path next to

the robot. Commander Turna asked, “What happened?”

“One discovered me,” Velor said. “It was so quick. Nothing I could do.”

“Okay, now what?”

“It looks like they all ran away.” Maern suggested. “I think we should take a closer look at their hill.”

“I agree,” Stirnia quickly added. “They are afraid of us. Let’s take a look before they come back.”

Commander Turna asked, “What do you think?” through her communicator located on a shoulder.


Commander Rochase responded, “I’ve been watching through the robot viscom. Couldn’t see much,

but enough to agree."” He paused and then added, “Be careful!”

With the robot leading the way by a couple of steps, they all proceeded slowly along the remainder of

the path, emerging out into the open. Still no Trailians could be seen anywhere as they moved toward a

large opening at the base of the hill. They continued to scan the area in all directions, ready to retreat as

soon as it seemed like a good idea.

Still nothing happened as they drew close to the opening. The robot stopped and Velor moved around

it and cautiously stepped closer to the opening. The darkness inside faded as she stood close waiting

for her eyes to adjust. As she stood there looking hard down a long corridor, she began to make out a

structure further in. Trying to make out what it might be, suddenly from a side opening a few steps

inside, a Trailian appeared and turned toward her.

Surprised at her presence as much as she was, she and the Trailian both snapped to attention. Before

Velor could react any more, the Trailian let out a horrendous scream. It was immediately echoed by

dozens of other Trailians evidently throughout the hill's corridors and levels with equally loud and

shrill screaming.

With no suggestions from Commander Turna or anyone else, the four astronauts retreated quickly back

to the forest, followed close behind by the robot. The party of five retreated for a couple of minutes

down the return path before Turna stopped them.

“That went well,” Stirnia said, followed by chuckles by the others as tensions finally dissipated.

Velor turned more serious. “I think it is clear now that they are very afraid of us.”

“Well, I’m not exactly in love with them!” Stirnia said. They all had a good laugh. Soon enough,

Rochase spoke over the communicator making it clear they should return without any further delay

back to Aldorcia.


Chapter 49

The astronauts were chosen not only because of their intellect, knowledge, medical and physical

condition, and special abilities, but in large part also because of their psychological demeanor. A less

qualified Aldorian would have had great trouble dealing with the mostly boring and lengthy trip from

Aldoria to Trailia. A mind numbing 59 talics of endless tedium and routine, and only to get there.

They also had to deal with knowing that they would age somewhat faster without receiving age

abatement treatment at cereave clinics. The effects of cereave would not wear off immediately, but

slowly. While taking 134 talics for the entire round trip to Trailia, each astronaut would not age the

same amount, but nobody was sure just how much they actually would. It was expected that aging

rates would vary with the 35 travelers.

But, for whatever challenges the astronauts suffered through getting there, much of the task was made

tolerable with the sure knowledge of the scientific and adventurous nature of the visit each of them

expected. And, the visit to Trailia held its promise. None of the astronauts felt anything resembling

boredom while they were there.

Nevertheless, there were some disappointments. To an extent virtually every astronaut would admit to

being emotionally let down by the lack of greater excitement and adventure each had fantasized about

during the long trip. The science was fascinating, but the unexpected challenges almost never

happened. Even interactions with the creatures they called Trailians were rare and quick. The initial

incident at the hill was it. Any other time, the Trailians seemed to remain constantly aware of the

nearness of any astronaut, and they gave the Aldorians wide avoidance.

There was no doubt the Trailians were more intelligent than the usual animal. But they were, it was

generally agreed, still only animals. Not unlike insects which can coordinate through chemical signals

acting as messages and commands, allowing millions of them to manage building elaborate nesting

structures, it was decided the Trailians had built their hills in a manner driven by similar biological

mechanisms. And, during the entire visit, several dozen hills were discovered dotting many of the

planet’s land masses. Some of the hills were as large as ten times the size of the one near base camp

Aldorcia. The planet wide population of Trailians was estimated to be a few hundred thousand.

Like a field biologist studying animals, a firm hands-off approach was adopted by the Aldorians as the

policy of dealing with the Trailians. Velor Saltin and Sadeal Turicia were the bioscientists in the crew

and it remained their duty to continue observations of Trailians, as well as numerous other interesting

life forms on the planets. More than once they were able to notice that an occasional Trailian or two

were seen watching the Aldorians. They reported the eerie feeling that such episodes often felt as if the

Trailians were studying them, something more than mere guarding behavior.

Velor had suggested that in some manner perhaps there could be a safe way to examine one of the

Trailian hills in more detail. She was especially interested in learning more about the structure she had


barely seen down the corridor in the hill near them. It looked different than the rest of the hill. Having

only a few seconds to see it, together with the darkness obscuring clear vision, she could not resolve

enough in her mind to satisfy suspicions of what she had seen. Privately mostly, she had this uncanny

feeling that she had seen something which resembled machinery.

But, every attempt to suggest another investigation was vetoed quickly and firmly by command. It was

allowed that if they were to ever discover a hill which was obviously abandoned, then a survey of it

would likely be allowed. So, Velor mostly remained silent and suspicious of what she found herself

thinking. But, no abandoned hill was ever discovered.

One of the major action items in a long list of planned tasks on Trailia was an examination of plants

and naturally occurring chemicals, looking for anything similar to the starguret plant back home and its

ability to provide chemistry which boosted the longevity of Aldorian KBE, the life defining and

genetic rulebook in every Aldorian cell. Exploration found three decent candidate plants which grew in

abundance and for which the limited chemical tests at their disposal indicated satisfactory possibilities.

Further testing of samples taken back home would reveal enough details.

Naturally occurring minerals were also found which were useful. Enough abundance of these materials

justified continued development and exploitation of the planet. And, eventually, expansion of a second

home for Aldorians. Conversations among the astronauts included mentioning that someday the

creatures here would not be the ones called Trailians, but instead colonies of Aldorian adventurers. The

major downside of that possibility, however, was Trailian atmosphere. It wasn’t actually poisonous to

Aldorians, but it was nevertheless not breathable for long periods of time. Aldorians on Trailia would

constantly require the use of breathing masks.

The crew of Trailian Visitor sent daily viscom packets back to Aldoria. And all along, the cargo ships

still arrived once each talic carrying fresh supplies and materials. They returned home each time with a

load of samples taken from Trailia. It wasn’t as if Aldorians back home were having to wait more than

130 talics to see any of the fruits of the astronauts exploration.

So the sixteen talics came and went. At the end of the visit, it felt as if it came sooner than expected,

but on a daily basis it took longer than desired. The astronauts were ready to go home when the time

came. With no particular fanfare, they shut down most of their camp sites, leaving a handful of

communication robots behind at a few selected camps to continue sending data back home. And they

left three satellites in orbit around the planet in constant communication with the robots on the surface

and with Aldoria.

Walcia Kroll had been as much a part of the exploration of Trailia as any of the others on board

Trailian Visitor. But, like most of the others, he was very much ready to return home. He found it as

curious as others on board regarding the three or four exceptions, those who wished the visit was still


going on. He couldn’t sympathize with them in any way. But, the variety of personalities among

Aldorians had always amused him.

He stood next to a viewport looking out at the speck of light which was home, Aldoria, finally visible

with the naked eye. It would be growing noticeably larger with each passing day now. The ship was

traveling at close to 60 relcans back to friends and Stria.

“You know they’re planning a very big party for all of us?” Dinar Sodana said as she stopped next to

Walcia and looked out at the point of light which was home.

Walcia reached his arm behind her and rubbed his hand gently along her back. “I don’t want to tell

anyone then.”

“I agree.” Dinar leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “I want to tell your Stria first.”

Walcia understood. Dinar was not close to members of her own Stria. She never had been. He realized

that she was more than willing to join Walcia’s Stria after their marriage.

Of all the goals, both public and private which Walcia had envisioned he would try to accomplish on

this trip, finding a life mate was never a remote thought. Dinar was, like him, a geologist. Sharing

explorations on the planet, together with countless hours together in the geology lab on board Trailian

Visitor was a simple catalyst for their growing closeness to each other. They fell in love and decided to

marry soon after returning home. They could have married before returning home, but this was too

important to them. They wanted to share the moment with close friends and members of their Stria.

As Trailian Visitor raced back home and Aldorians there could now see the ship through more

powerful observatory telescopes, a huge celebration was planned. Most of the plans were already in

place. Parades, parties, gifts, monuments, viscom shows and interviews, new streets, buildings and

parks named after the astronauts. An entire spectrum of public displays of admiration, thanks, and

celebration would last for days. If the astronauts weren’t all that tired from the trip, they stood a chance

of being so after all the events planned for them in which they were expected to participate.

And well underway were plans for a second trip to planet Trailia. The early designs of Trailian Visitor

2 were progressing and the first round of tests for volunteer astronauts had already been held, looking

for the 80 who would finally pass all the tests and make the trip.

Trailian Visitor had averaged close to 60 relcans velocity during most of its trip. Rocket engine

technology had continued to improve during the past 135 talics and now average speeds of 84 relcans,

growing near the current known theoretical limit of 90 was state of the art. At that velocity it would

still take more than 42 talics to travel to Trailia, which was marginally better than the 59 talics Trailian

Visitor took. However, on this trip, the 80 new astronauts would benefit from the advancement of two

medical technologies.

First, age abatement had managed to drive CRF values above 20.0. Newborn Aldorians were expected

on average to live nearly 4000 talics. The rate of decay of the effects of cellular reconstruction was


slower than before. So, the Trailian Visitor 2 astronauts were expected to lose significantly smaller

talics of life on their trip compared with those on the first trip.

Furthermore, space technology doctors had also been testing medical ways to safely induce one to

sleep continuously for several days. The crew of Trailian Visitor 2 would be on board for 42 talics

while traveling to planet Trailia, but they would sleep through more than ninety percent of the time.

Each astronaut would be awake only four talics of the trip instead of the 24 to 30 talics during the

previous trip while experiencing normal sleep habits.

The Aldorian Space Agency disallowed any of the 35 astronauts who went on the first trip to take the

second one although a few made the request to return. The average age of the returning astronauts was

now close to 200 talics, deemed too old to make the second challenging trip. However, all 35 original

travelers would serve as ongoing consultants, providing best knowledge of what the next 80 astronauts

were about to experience. They would also have significant input regarding the design of Trailian

Visitor 2 helping to make the trip far more palatable. The final design would call for a ship almost

three times the size of Trailian Visitor.

Trailian Visitor 2 was expected to stay in orbit at planet Trailia for 40 talics. Manned by the 80

Aldorian astronauts and accompanied by more than 400 robots, plans for a permanent base among all

the exploration bases would be selected and construction would begin. No Aldorian this trip would

stay behind on Trailia, but the permanent base would be populated by three dozen robots, and the first

astronauts planned to live there would begin with the arrival of Trailian Visitor 3 someday.

Colonization of Trailia was within sight of many forward looking Aldorians.

As Trailian Visitor returned to Aldoria and parked in its home bound orbit, Trailian Visitor 2 was

planned to launch only fifteen talics later. In the meantime, the welcome home parties began.


Chapter 50

Home coming celebrations came and went. Nearly five talics had passed already since the astronauts

returned. Everyday life had returned to normal routines. Walcia Kroll was as happy about that as many

were. He and Dinar had finally held their wedding, attended by a small selection of friends and Stria.

And they were more excited about the first few days home than almost any time during their trip to

Trailia. They returned to Aldoria to be met with three new members of the Kroll Stria. Sandil and

Makail Kroll had given birth to two children while Walcia and Dinar were away, Velencia, a daughter

now of age 113, and Tendala, a son now of age 106. Tendala had met and married Telena, now of age

100. They had been married already for nearly 35 talics. Walcia and Dinar had a lot of news catching

up to do, and they relished every minute of reconnecting with members of their Stria. They never tired

of hearing about the 135 talics of history they missed regarding their Stria and home planet.

Both Valencia and Tendala had become gardeners, following the now strong tradition of keepers in the

Kroll Stria firmly established by their parents Sandil and Makail. Tendala’s wife Telena was also a

keeper. It was at work where the two met and fell in love. The Kroll Stria was socially becoming what

Aldorians actually meant when they used the phrase “keepers of the garden.” Sandil’s gardens were as

popular as ever and the size of some of them rivaled that of large natural park lands. There had even

been a brief attempt to designate one especially robust garden as a global monument.

Ansar Kroll retained his reputation as the father of relcans with his ongoing knowledge and fine tuning

of space-time homeomorphic retraction. Most STHR scientists now were attempting to find some way

to extend the theory. It stubbornly refused to yield any clues which would allow the theory to be

extended and thus imply that relcan velocities above 90 were possible. Without larger theoretical limits,

few would invest in practical attempts to increase current maximum speeds. Nothing in the theory

hinted how one might proceed.

Nevertheless, plans for Trailian Visitor 2 proceeded with full support of Aldorian society and

government funding. While main news media interest in the first visit to Trailia waned and today’s big

headlines focused elsewhere, that had little influence on interest by a large percentage of Aldorians

who continued to want more stories from the astronauts who went on the trip, along with wide spread

interest in the next visit.

“Ansar, there’s a problem.” Agnar Verdeal spoke quickly as soon as he entered Ansar’s office. As a

cosmologist in general and valued STHR expert who was one of the 35 who traveled to Trailia, he had

been assigned as a coworker with Ansar upon return home. Ansar liked novel insights Agnar came up


with during frequent cooperative sessions when the two tried to find new paths further into the elusive

space science theory. In the process, he and Ansar had become close friends.

“What?”

“We lost contact with the Trailian satellites.”

“What! All three?”

“All of them.”

Ansar quickly thought about what could have possibly gone wrong. Losing communication with one of

the satellites had reasonable probability, but two of them dropping off line at the same time was hardly

likely at all. He couldn’t begin to imagine how all three could go silent. The satellite orbits were such

that at any given moment, one of them was behind planet Trailia relative to its sun. So, solar storms

were unlikely to account for this. One of them would surely continue to communicate.

Agnar added, “They lost contact almost an hour ago. Nothing. They’re fairly sure it’s them, not us.”

Agnar kept explaining what he knew as Ansar stood and they left his office. The two paced quickly

down the long hall in the Aldorian Space Agency main building toward the communications room.

Agnar continued with worried and animated chatter as they approached the end of the hall.

“Any change?” Ansar asked Barth Ogswil, one of the communications room commanders.

Barth gave Ansar and Agnar a bewildered look, saying nothing.

The three stood silent and looked about the room while a dozen technicians worked in a handful of

clusters focused over different equipment. The activity was rushed but controlled. Urgency drove

everyone, but nothing in the room indicated any sense of uncontrolled chaos.

The limits of physics worked against anything they could try. That didn’t stop them from sending a full

frequency spectrum of sensing packets to the satellites. Still, with Trailia 7.1 light talics away, any

signals sent would take 7.1 talics to get there. With another 7.1 talics everyone would have to wait for

any returning response, if any would occur, nobody in the room was optimistic that something they

could do today would cause a resolution to the problem right away. Communications from the

satellites any sooner than 7.1 talics from now would have to happen due to spontaneous and

autonomous action by one or more of them. Few held any realistic hope for that. All three going silent

at once meant something serious had happened, and it would take a troubling seven talics, or more than

double that time, to have the first tiny hints.

After nearly an hour of watching, Ansar and Agnar left the room together. There was nothing they

could do. At least to keep their anxiety at lower levels, they decided to start one of their deep thinking

sessions. Few outside influences would interrupt them during such times.


The next morning, Ansar watched a news viscom as he ate. By now, practically the entire planet knew

about the communication failure. Still nothing had been resolved. If anything else had actually

happened he would not learn of it until he returned to work. As he sat and watched, the viscom

interrupted the news with a priority call from work.

“Kroll.”

“Ansar, please come in as soon as you can.” The voice sounded familiar, but otherwise didn’t identify.

Ansar responded, “Okay. Do we know more about the satellites?”

“Not that. Please, come in right away. It’s important.”

The urgency of the voice stopped him from saying anything but, “I’m on my way.” As he turned off

the viscom, his wife Tiaal asked about the call. He answered, “They wouldn’t say, but it was urgent. I

have no idea what it’s about.” He gave Tiaal a quick kiss, skipped the rest of his meal and left.

Arriving at his office building, he was met with Basil Kronnar head of cosmic observation and Agnar.

Before Ansar could say anything, Basil said, “Come with me.” The three headed quickly down a hall

to one of the viscom receiving rooms connected to observatories located at several strategic locations

around the Aldorian planet. The room was filled with three or more viscom monitors connected to each

observatory.

Basil directed Ansar and Agnar to a particular monitor. “This is Point Sarne observatory.” he explained.

Ansar bent over slightly as he focused on the screen.

“That’s Feundar.” The planet’s image filled half the screen.

“It is. But, notice this next to it.” Basil touched a dot of light just to the left of the Feundarian image.

Ansar squinted as he tried to make out more detail. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. “Is it moving?”

“Yes. When I called you, it was half that size.”

Ansar stood up and looked at Basil. “So, it’s moving fast.”

“It was maybe even smaller than half. It’s too far away to see any details yet.” Ansar looked back at

the screen as Basil continued. “But, it appeared on this monitor about three hours ago and auto-alerts

notified us. It first appeared separating from the image of Feundar, moving out to the left there where

you see it. And, it just stayed there, not changing size or otherwise appearing to do anything. Then just

before I called you, it started getting larger. It’s headed this way.”

Ansar heard every word Basil spoke, but at first didn’t realize what was really said. How could an

object leave Feundar, stop in place for nearly two hours, and then suddenly start approaching Aldoria?

And, at a relatively high velocity.


Basil answered Ansar’s next question before he had a chance to ask. “It appears to be moving at close

to one relcan and in a path directly toward us.” Ansar glanced at Basil as he added, “It’s not one of

ours.”

Ansar straightened up. “It didn’t come from Feundar, did it?”

“We’re sure it didn’t. We’re sure it came from behind Feundar. It’s as if it was hiding back there until

it came out for us to see.”

“Well, it’s not a satellite, of course. It has to be a space ship to move like that.”

“Yes.” Basil reminded Ansar. “It’s not one of ours.” Basil looked back at the monitor. “We have

notified Aldorian security and the government response group.”

The three men stared silently at the monitor for a few seconds. Ansar bent forward slightly. “It looks

larger now.”

“It’s closer. At one relcan, it’s going to appear larger very fast.”

Ansar stopped for a second and thought. “At one relcan, it will be here in only 17 hours!” He knew

Feundar was about 34 million Aldorian miles away.

“That’s right. But, the problem is its size. It’s big. Very big. Bigger than Unaleat.” Basil compared the

object’s size with the Aldorian global capital city.

Ansar objected. “No! That can’t be right.” He knew it was.

“We doubled checked. It’s that big.” He finally made it clear. What Ansar already thought. “That’s an

alien space ship. A very big one, and they are paying us a visit.”

Ansar hardly paused. “What is Aldorian security doing?”

Basil shook his head. “There’s not much they can do. We only have a police fleet, but nothing which

will go faster than one-third of a relcan. And, at that size, what can they do when they meet up with

it?”

“Don’t we have any kind of defensive technology?”

“For what? We have no enemies. We only have a police force.”

“Can we contact them? Have we tried?”

“Of course! We’ve been sending messages to them of every kind we can think of, and at every sending

frequency we have technology to use.”

“And?”


“They are not responding in any way we can detect.” Basil paused. “At their size, they will become

visible with the naked eye in just a few hours. Everybody on the planet will know soon they are

coming.”

Within the next hour, emergency broadcasts around the entire planet warned every Aldorian. Viscom

screens on every channel showed a continuous image of the approaching object. From Point Sarne

observatory, which had the most powerful telescope pointed at the object, a non-stop image was

broadcast for every citizen to watch. Within less than another hour, most of Aldoria was at a virtual

standstill with almost everyone either watching a viscom or standing outside trying to see with

binoculars or the naked eye. It didn’t take long before some were able to see a small dot in the sky.

And, by now, a blurry detail was beginning to reveal its shape from Point Sarne.

The ship was vaguely shaped like an elongated hexagon, with it trailing two sides extended back,

separating into two large jutting cones, each one almost as long as the main body of the ship itself. As

it grew more clear, the thickness of the ship became apparent. Rounded slightly on top and much

flatter on what must be its bottom, attached below in the center about half the width of the largest part

of the ship there was another cone shaped structure, with its open end facing forward. A faint yellow

green glow appeared in the center of the opening, set back some distance from the leading edge. In

another two hours, the ship was fairly easy to see in detail even with the naked eye. By then nobody

doubted the gigantic size of the entire ship.

While the government put into flight every available police ship it had and deployed every member of

the police planet wide, there was actually not much of anything which could be done about the

approaching ship. Citizens across the planet stopped working. The entire Aldorian infrastructure came

to a halt while virtually nobody ignored the situation. With so little apparent obvious time left before

the alien ship would be next to Aldoria, almost nobody could do much of anything but watch viscom

or stand outside looking up. A small percent of panicked citizens were leaving their homes, headed for

the country, as if that would somehow be a safer location. A few were standing in front of various

government buildings, protesting that something more had to be done, but more deeply understanding

that the government was about as impotent as they were.

As the alien ship grew close enough, it appeared to slow down as it evidently settled into a polar orbit

around Aldoria. By now, Ansar, along with others at the space agency were standing outside.

Basil Kronnar noted out loud that a polar orbit was more difficult to maintain than some other one, but

it was the one orbit which allowed everybody on the planet to see the ship the most often as Aldoria

spun normally below. Before one day would pass, every Aldorian would have a good look at the giant

ship about ten times. The aliens clearly wanted everyone to see them.

“You didn’t sleep well.” Tiaal approached Ansar as he sat watching viscom and sipping a cup of sarl.


“No.” Ansar leaned forward and returned a kiss. “Neither did I,” she said. Looking then at the viscom,

she asked, “Any change?”

“Nothing.”

It had been more than five days now since the ship locked in its orbit around Aldoria. While a split

screen image on viscom showed the ship on one side, the other side stayed filled with the usual talking

heads interviewing experts and pundits, each of whom weighed in with their opinions. Society had

grown less apprehensive, acting less chaotically than during the first few hours, but nobody was

comfortable with the situation.

Government attempts to contact whomever or whatever was aboard the ship remained fruitless. Several

attempts to fly close to the ship by relatively tiny police cruisers caused no responses. They could fly

as close as they wished and nothing would happen. Everybody was under strict orders to not try any

aggressive actions. Flying close to the ship from any angle only revealed more metal skin of the giant.

No apparent windows had been located, or doors.

After five days, the giant in the sky was strangely beginning to feel to many as just another natural

phenomenon. Businesses reopened and returned to almost routine. Ansar had even managed the day

before to hold a research session with his friend Agnar. Even a few viscom channels had returned to a

few regularly scheduled shows instead of broadcasting continuous news coverage.

“What do they want?” Tiaal was as frustrated as most. She expected no answer from Ansar. She

couldn’t find anything else to say, but felt the need to say something. Ansar stood and stepped over to

her. He held her in his arms. He too was frustrated and at a loss of knowing what to do, but the warmth

of his wife in his arms felt right. It was the forever constant he could always trust in his life.

At work, Ansar stood in his office looking out the window toward the sky. At the moment, the ship

was not visible. It had just passed overhead and was now orbiting toward the other side of Aldoria. As

he stood staring at an empty sky, he began to notice his vision seemed a little blurry. He rubbed his

eyes and blinked. Looking outside again, the foggy vision was still there. That’s when he realized it

was not his vision. What he saw was real. The sky was turning cloudy looking. But, something wasn’t

quite right. It was not like any usual looking cloud he recalled seeing.

Agnar rushed in and looked at Ansar standing at the window. “You’ve noticed it.”

“What is it?”

Both men thought the obvious, but neither was willing to go in that direction. It had to be something

caused by the alien ship. The worst case was also obvious. A poisonous gas. But, it looked more grainy

than a gas. For that matter, it really didn’t look like anything resembling a cloud. It was a huge number


of discrete particles, billions upon billions of them, floating downward slowly, and far more extensive

than scenes of millions of flocking small birds. As the bottom of this particle fog grew closer to the

ground, it was becoming more clear that each particle was bigger than it first seemed. Then the first

few particles started reaching the ground. Each one landed softly, not bouncing as it should if had

fallen at a normal speed due to gravity. Instead, each one acted more like it was floating or flying.

As Ansar and Agnar watched, frozen at the window, now hundreds of the particles were lying all over

the ground. The ones closer to them made it clear that each one was bigger than it first looked, almost

as large as one’s eye. Ansar watched a few more seconds as more and more of the objects settled

gently on the ground. As he watched more carefully, he could see something like wings or fins jutting

from the sides of each object. As it landed, the wings retracted until they were no longer visible,

leaving only what looked like a small slit on the side.

“Enough!” Ansar thought. He turned and walked out of his office with Agnar following him. He

approached an exit door and opened it. Standing just inside holding the door open, he looked around.

Each object was all white, and now there were so many of them on the ground, it looked more like

snow was everywhere than anything else he could think of. He squatted down to get a closer look at

the objects just outside the door.

Agnar stood directly behind him. “Kroll!” Showing unconscious deference to his superior and friend,

his voice was full of caution.

“They don’t look dangerous.” Hesitantly, Ansar reached out toward one of the objects. His hand

paused just over it and he waited a few seconds as if he expected something to happen. Nothing.

Finally, he closed three finger tips, and with the object between them, he raised his arm. Pulling the

object closer to his face to see it even better, he noticed how soft it felt, but it didn’t yield to pressure

against it. He stood as he continued to stare at it. He turned so Agnar could also have a better look.

Ansar turned the object this way and that looking all over it. The slits on the side were too narrow to

see inside, with the apparent wings seen earlier blocking any inner view. As he turned it slowly, he

then notice a very fine line indicating a crack which encircled the whole body of the object laterally,

which was circular near the center of its overall oval shape lengthwise. As he continued to hold it, he

then noticed that it must have absorbed some of the heat from his hand. It felt warmer than at first, and

just about that time, the front half of the spherical piece started turning by itself like a knob mounted

on the rest of it, the fine crack being the demarcation of the two pieces as the front turned slowly

relative to the rest of it.

Ansar now was too wary and quickly laid it on the floor and stepped back. Suddenly, as if the turning

piece was a power and volume control, a recorded and somewhat robotic sounding voice emanated

from the object. It spoke in standard Aldorian, the official planet wide simplified dialect spoken

regularly by almost nobody, but simplified so anybody on the planet could understand.


We are Kritilians. You have no reason to doubt what this message is about, and as you will know soon

enough, we will do you or your planet no harm. You can touch this orb any time later to listen to this

message again. Your touch will warm the orb enough so it activates. This message explains why we

are here and it explains how you can convince yourself this is a valid message. Each of these orbs will

last and work for more than twenty talics. They have been distributed all across your planet. This is so

your government or other institutions cannot possibly hide them all from the general public. There are

extremely many orbs all across your planet insuring almost all of you can listen to this message.

In two hours from delivery of this message, in each of the larger cities on your planet, we will deliver a

cube. One cube will land near each city center, arriving much as these message orbs have arrived. Each

cube is slightly larger than one of yourselves, but is very light in weight. You can pick one up easily. It

will not harm you in any way. Most importantly you can do nothing damaging to any of these cubes.

Each one is created using a form of energy we have access to, an energy about which you have no

knowledge and which is controlled through special technology.

You may attempt using any methods you wish to cut into any of these cubes. No matter what you try, it

will have no effect. There is nothing you can do other than move each cube around. You can examine

it with any of your technologies. Nothing you can do will reveal its contents. Nothing you can do will

change the cube in any way. This is part of our proof we have knowledge and technology more

advanced and far more powerful than you possess.

Regarding losing communication with three satellites you left in orbit around a nearby planet you call

Trailia, we are responsible for that. We have done nothing to them. Instead, what we have done, and

with more proof of our advanced technological abilities, we have encapsulated your entire Aldorian

solar system with a force field using the same energy with which the cubes are made. That force field

prevents any form of other energies or matter you use artificially to cross its boundary. Thus, no

communication signals with the satellites will cross that boundary. Normal radiations and energies of

natural origin will continue to cross the boundary. Thus, you can still see beyond your solar system

with your telescopes and see other solar systems and space artifacts. Try whatever you wish, you will

find no way to penetrate this force field.

Why we are doing this is because we have visited you to give you a choice, and we want you to know

how serious we are. You have learned through bitter and painful history to live in peace. The loss of

your planet Feundar was watched by us, and we sympathize over your tragedy. But, it is not our goal to

interfere with your own affairs within your own solar system. We do, however, intend to have

important and significant control over anything you do beyond your own Aldorian system.

We are one of twenty societies and species of life who live together in peace near you. We Kritilians

share our technology with these other life forms. And, we invite you to join with us and become

members of our alliance, which we call UL for United League. You have twenty talics from delivery

of these orbs to make your decision. Join us or not. We will return in twenty talics for that decision. If

you do not give us an answer, we will assume you are rejecting our offer.


During the next twenty talics you will be locked within your solar system by our force field, which is a

complete sphere 2.5 light talics from your solar system center in every direction. You have time before

we return to send rockets and instruments to this field and investigate. During this time we will not be

available for any form of communication. You will left alone to decide your own future. Whether you

join UL or not, your future beyond that decision is your own to control. And, in either case, what you

do within the confines of your own solar system is not and never will be our concern. Beyond the

boundaries of the Aldorian system, however, you will be subject to the binding rules of UL, all devoted

to only peaceful coexistence. If you decide not to join UL, we will immediately leave and never again

contact you. In that case, we will leave the Aldorian solar system force field in place forever. You will

then be allowed to live your lives as you choose, but never beyond the Aldorian system. If you join UL,

you will share with us the exploration of our universe and our technologies, but only as ambassadors of

peace. It is your decision. We will return in twenty talics to learn your choice. At that time, you may

send us your answer using any of your common viscom packets.


Chapter 51

Two hours after the orb shower, the cubes appeared and floated or gently flew, landing in town centers

as described in the message. After the wings retracted on each cube it sat there, nothing happening and

light enough for any but the weakest Aldorian to lift it, completely opaque and white. No visible slits

or marks indicated where the wings had been when they were extended. Two hours after the cubes

landed, the huge Kritilian ship left its orbit and Aldoria behind, retreating at one relcan, taking the

same path as the one it used getting there. Then it was gone.

Billions of message orbs remained scattered around the planet together with one all white cube in each

of the major cities on Aldoria. It would take several days to gather all of the litter of orbs. Before the

time the Kritilian ship left, almost every Aldorian had already listened to the message. And even before

the ship left, groups of Aldorians were arguing with each other over the believability of the forced

choice the message promised. Some immediately accepted the validity of what it said. Others declared

that somehow it was all an elaborate hoax pulled off by pranksters or some government agency.

Nobody remained without an opinion of what was happening.

In every major city, Aldorians by the thousands visited their city center to see the cube. Some were

brave enough to touch it. Others would barely get close enough through the crowds to even look at it

too much, fearing unknown repercussions. A few lifted it to see how light it really was. Police in most

cities cordoned off the cube, allowing nobody to get any closer than a few paces. A few city authorities

moved their cube inside a nearby building. In one city, it was only a matter of one hour before a

handful of citizens attempted to take their cube away somewhere, stopped only at the last moment by

police.

Before the next day was over after the Kritilians left, teams of scientists were attempting to test the city

cubes in various ways. Everything was exactly as described in the Kritilian message. Nothing tried had

any visible effect on the cubes. Each cube remained a constant low glowing surface which looked soft

and mushy, but when touched, it felt cool and more like hard rubber layered over with a soft surface.

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Ansar Kroll protested mildly. “I have no special knowledge just

because I work for Space Research Institute.”

Ansar’s sister Sandil then said, “Well, I thought you might know more working with all of those other

scientists.”


“We are space scientists,” Ansar explained, “not materials scientists, like those who are working with

the Kritilian cubes. I know only as much as you do about what they are doing.”

Sandil barely appreciated the distinctions regarding types of scientists. Despite her endless pride in her

brother’s famous accomplishments, she remained mostly ignorant of what a scientist of any kind did.

Bloam weighed in. “It would help if they would explain what they are doing more often. This has

something to do with every one of us, not just the scientists.”

“Kroll,” Ansar said. “Their progress is very slow. It would be a lot of no news if they reported to the

public more often than they already do.” He paused a moment. “I’m sure they report things as soon as

each new thing happens. Besides, unfortunately, so far everything they have tried has resulted in

nothing. The Kritilians have been right so far. Nothing happens to the cubes no matter what they try.”

Bloam shrugged her shoulders and lowered her head, trying to accept that nothing had really happened

yet. “It’s so frustrating. Half a talic and nothing. How could the Kritilians do this? How can we trust

them?”

Sandil grunted in sympathy and started to say something, but Ansar spoke first, trying to ease the

anxiety. “But, you are forgetting about the work related to the encapsulation. I do know a little about

that.” He referred to the Kritilian claim that the entire Aldorian solar system was enclosed in a force

field using the same energy which protected the cubes. “The plans to send a test rocket to the force

field is well under way. It should launch before another talic passes.”

Sandil moved her head left to right. “I don’t believe there is such a thing. How could they possibly

build something so big that all of our solar system is inside? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Ansar didn’t try to object. “That’s why we are building the test ship. We simply send it out there and

check. Real or not, we will know soon enough.”

“But, haven’t you said it’ll take almost fifteen talics for the ship to get there because the field is so far

away? The twenty talics the Kritilians gave us will be over before we will know.”

“Kroll, not really. It won’t take an additional fifteen talics to know. The ship can send us a viscom

packet, which will get here in only two and a half talics. So, it will be nearly two more talics before the

twenty are past which the Kritilians gave us. We will have time to at least know more fully what we

are up against.”

“So, what if the encapsulation is real? And, I don’t believe it is any more than Sandil. That’s just

ridiculous. Nobody has that much power.”

Ansar said nothing. He wished his mother and sister were right, but he knew better. He had no doubt

that the encapsulation was there. But, with no visible way to detect it, the only proof was to go to it and

touch it. That is what the rocket being built would do. It would try several ways to cut into the field, if

it was actually there. If it was real, Ansar knew the Kritilians had the power to carry out their full plan

as they claimed in their message.


Bloam then said, “And the politicians keep arguing endlessly over all of this. We are no closer to any

decision.”

“Kroll. What do you think we should do?”

While Bloam hesitated, unsure what to say, Sandil offered her solution right away. “We should turn

them down. Even if they really can lock us away forever, and I don’t believe they have that much

power, so what? We have everything we need right here. We don’t need to go somewhere else. Aldoria

is a nice place. There’s nothing out there we really need.

The debates and differences in opinions never stopped. Private citizens argued their different positions.

Politicians endlessly held their debates for and against accepting the Kritilian mandate. News

broadcasters and other talking heads showed as much variance in opinion as the rest of Aldorian

society. Opinions never seemed to precipitate around one choice, remaining split and varied in

continuing amounts.

In the meantime, the test rocket was built and launched, on its way to rendezvous with the Kritilian

encapsulation, or where they claimed it was located, 2.5 light talics from the center of the Aldorian

solar system.

In the meantime, before the rocket’s launch, all attempts had failed to send some kind of signal to the

encapsulation which might reflect off it and be detected as it bounced and returned to Aldoria. Nothing

had yet proved one way or the other that the encapsulation existed. Even loss of communication with

the Trailian satellites proved nothing. The Kritilians could have lied and sabotaged them directly.

Traveling at 84.7 relcans, as fast as any rocket the Aldorians had ever constructed, the test ship arrived

in 14.8 talics to where the encapsulation was supposed to be. It had then been more than fifteen talics

since the Kritilians paid their fateful visit.

The test rocket was loaded with every kind of test the Aldorians could construct, given the restricted

schedule they knew they had. There were explosives, lasers, drills, x-rays, sonic pulses, radio and radar

signals of every kind imagined, and various other probes dreamed up for the trip. There was even an

attempt to paint a large swath of the field, which might be seen by telescopes back on Aldoria. The

paint wouldn’t stick to the field, dispersing randomly in all directions in space. Nothing hinted

remotely that the field didn’t exist. Every attempt to somehow punch through it failed. The test ship

sent an endless stream of failure messages back home as every test confirmed what nobody wanted.

The Kritilians were truthful. The encapsulation was real. With an additional 2.5 talics passing until the

failure messages from the test ship returned to Aldorian receivers, now they had less than a mere two

talics left to decide what to do. No amount of hand wringing and arguing changed the fact that the


Aldorians had to make a choice. Even no decision would be interpreted as a negative decision by the

Kritilians. No argument that somehow the Kritilians were bluffing or lying convinced enough

Aldorians. No counter plan had been cooked up, even by scientists trying to discover how to counteract

the force field.

During the entire past eighteen talics since the Kritilian visit, still nothing yielded any results from

testing and attempting to probe the cubes.

Sooner or later almost everybody faces a moment in their life when they have no choice but to make a

choice. Sooner or later nothing can be done but to take a step into the frightening unknown.

The giant Kritilian space ship returned as promised twenty talics to the day from the day it first

appeared. It returned again using the same path it used to appear that first fateful day. This time,

however, there was two major differences.

The return of the ship was much faster than before, this time more than fifteen times faster, first

appearing and finally arriving in only one hour, dropping into the same polar orbit it was in before.

The most significant difference this time was that all of Aldoria was waiting for the moment. Once in

orbit, within another hour, virtually every Aldorian on the planet had seen the Kritilian ship pass over

head. In a broadcast room near the center of the capital city Unaleat, an engineer signaled from his

location in front of a control panel to proceed.

After a pause and glance at several dignitaries standing around him, Aldorian president Storam Miseal

leaned forward and spoke into the microphone. In a clear and firm voice, he hesitated only a second

before he gave the answer.

“Yes.”

The broadcast room fell silent. It is difficult to imagine how so many in one room could remain so

motionless and speechless. Eventually, president Miseal turned to his closest aid and looked at him as

if he expected the aid to know the answer to his unspoken question, “Now what?”

The aid only hinted at a shrug, no more ready than anybody else in the room to break the silence.

Finally, president Miseal spoke. “Well, I can’t just sit here.” He stood and turned toward the exit. As

he crossed the room and opened the door, the others in the room followed him outside and looked up

with him at the Kritilian ship.

It was several minutes later before president Miseal was first to speak again. “What’s going on? They

are doing nothing.”


The giant ship had disappeared to the other side of Aldoria in its orbit, and no communications from

the other side of the planet indicated anything had yet happened. Giant observatory telescopes by the

dozens were trained on the Kritilian ship, along with countless less powerful telescopes and binoculars

of every kind all across the planet. By now a handful of police patrol ships were flying all around the

ship as they had done twenty talics ago, still unable to detect anything other than the massive ship’s

generally featureless hull.

Nearly one full hour passed when radio silence finally broke the vigilance by president Miseal and his

entourage. “A hatch has opened on the ship, and we can see what looks like a small ship emerging

from it.” The presence of the small ship was quickly confirmed by several reports from observatories

which could see the same thing happening. The ship clearly dropped out of orbit with the Kritilian

behemoth and started an obvious decent toward the surface of Aldoria.

Within a few minutes, it became certain the ship was headed for the location of the broadcast building.

As it approached, numerous police started surrounding the area, including several body guards around

president Miseal, who refused to go back inside. He stood his ground and continued to watch the

approaching craft, which was now visible with the naked eye.

Hovering a moment and then descending slowly to the street in front of the broadcast building, its

engines apparently started shutting down as it touched ground. Within seconds, the craft came to rest

and fell silent. President Miseal took a couple of steps toward the ship before members of security

stopped him from moving any closer. They waited. In a few seconds, a small humming sound issued

from the ship as a door began to open on its side. Once open, the view inside was clear. There stood a

body. It looked just like any Aldorian man on the street. The figure stepped slowly out of the doorway

and onto the street. Turning toward president Miseal, the stranger raised his arm and waved. It was so

unreal, it was as if it was an everyday event as the stranger waved just like any two friends might do as

they approached each other while meeting up.

Miseal raised his arm and waved back. Suddenly he stopped, feeling too weird. The stranger had no

apparent weapon on him, at his side or in either hand. His clothes looked like any nameless Aldorian

citizen might look walking anywhere around town. Then he started walking very slowly toward Miseal.

A couple of Miseal’s security police stepped forward and raised their hand guns. The stranger stopped.

Close enough to be heard, he then said in a calm and very friendly sounding common Aldorian dialect,

“Welcome, President Miseal, to UL.”


Chapter 52

A common trait among thinking beings is an almost effortless capability to deal with situations which

are new but which are not overly unusual. The brain quickly places what it observes into some

previously well defined category. Until a phenomenon being confronted is classified in such a manner,

proceeding with something reasonable to do next is at best difficult. The Kritilians knew this. They

knew their first direct meeting with the Aldorians would be considerably less troubling if they

appeared to look just like Aldorians themselves.

“I am Kritilian, my name is Tlak Ahm Olar, and I am an ambassador for UL. Through your broadcast

viscoms over many talics now, we have come to know a good deal about you. It is how I have come to

know and speak your language. I am here with a small staff to hold a first meeting with you, to begin

to answer many questions we know you must have. I wish to start by saying that I understand you may

feel more comfortable for now by continuing with the presence of your armed guards. I wish to assure

you that we have no desires to interact with you except through fully peaceful means. Is there a place

nearby where you will feel safe and my staff and I may meet with you and begin to discuss our

future?”

President Miseal didn’t answer right away as he looked at Ambassador Olar. Seeing just another

Aldorian standing there kept putting him off balance. He was trying to deal with it while maintaining

an authoritative demeanor. He could not resist stating the obvious. “Sir, you look like an Aldorian.” He

almost followed with an apology, as if he might be saying something inappropriate.

“We wish to help you feel at ease during these first highly unusual moments. We appreciate how

confused you must surely be right now. My appearance should help you. I can assure you that

Kritilians do not look like Aldorians. It might help if you think that I am simply wearing a very good

costume. Otherwise, my real appearance might be uncomfortable to you at first. What we look like

does not matter. What we bring to you does. Please, shall we proceed with a more comfortable place to

talk?”

President Miseal felt foolish. “Of course, Ambassador.” He was finally ready to accept that his brain

had decided to think of this being standing before him as a fellow Aldorian. He was ready to meet with

and listen to what Ambassador Olar had to say. In a matter of minutes, a conference room in the

broadcast center was filled with four Kritilians including the Ambassador and his staff, together with

President Miseal and three of his direct aides, keeping the number present equal on both sides. At the

last moment in a display of willingness to trust the peaceful claims of the Kritilians, President Miseal

ordered that no police or weapons be present in the room.

As the eight of them settled at a large table in the center of the room, Ambassador Olar made an initial

unexpected request. “President Miseal, I believe your many citizens would be far less troubled if it

could be arranged so that everything we say here now is broadcast for all to see and hear. Would you


be willing to arrange this? We would prefer this as a show of good faith. We wish to have no secrets

from anybody on Aldoria.”

President Miseal was surprised, and at first considered that there might be topics needing discussion

which were best not made public. Had the usual politics he had known for so many talics prepared him

to mistrust such a state of complete openness? He had never known a time when conversations he held

with others in power could be held so openly with sufficient comfort. He decided not to protest. Pick

your battles wisely.

It took only a couple of minutes for broadcast engineers to set up microphones and a video feed. Then

all of the members of the meeting settled in their chairs.

“President, do you have any immediate questions?”

“No, sir, I welcome anything you wish to say first. I do have many questions, as you suggested earlier.

Perhaps your speaking first will answer some of the obvious ones.”

Ambassador Olar leaned forward. “Thank you. I suppose some of your questions deal with who we

really are, why we first approached you as we did, who really is UL, and such. So, I will address these

issues now.”

President Miseal showed little emotion and waited. He noted silently how reassuring this alien’s voice

seemed, but how it sounded so androgynous. Was Ambassador Olar male or female? Did this being

have gender? What did he, or she, really look like? He doubted these were the first questions he would

hear answered.

“I am a representative for UL. I have been selected to have initial interactions with Aldoria. In time,

and sooner than you might expect, you will meet others who belong to UL. UL is a cooperative union

of twenty cultures, each one living in a distinct solar system fairly close to yours. You are now the

twenty-first member of UL. Each member of UL is free to live its life as it sees fit, unencumbered by

anyone else and allowed to govern its own solar system. Beyond each solar system, members of UL

are bound to the common conventions and laws established by a majority vote of members. What you

do beyond the boundaries of your solar system is our only concern, as will be yours.”

“As a member of UL, you will share equally with all membership in common technology and

intellectual advances, as well as trade and cultural exchange as much or as little as you desire. You will

meet with and interact with UL’s entire membership, confident in the certainty of no aggression by any

of us, and continuing freedom to govern Aldorian society in any manner you define within the confines

of your own solar system.”

“As we meet, the force field surrounding your solar system is being shut down. You are again free to

venture beyond these boundaries as you wish. The only requirement is that any who travels that far

must obey UL laws. You will receive a complete description of these laws. I trust you will find them to

be fair, equitable, and of small consequence, all designed only to promote continuing peaceful

behavior by all members of UL.”


“Plans of aggression or use of threatening technological developments of any kind beyond your solar

system will be meet with immediate renewed quarantine of your system with the force field. There are

no recourses beyond the first infraction. Arbitration and oversight of any such actions will be

conducted by the UL Commission. You will please provide three Aldorian members to this council.”

Ambassador Olar stopped for a moment, looking around the room, waiting for possible responses. He

watched President Miseal lean toward his aides to talk for a moment. After a few seconds, he turned

back. “Ambassador, we believe that any organization performs more efficiently when it is controlled

from the top by one voice. I have the initial impression that the UL in general and the UL Commission

in particular embodies no such hierarchy. Surely I am mistaken.”

Ambassador smiled and nodded his head. “Your observation is correct, sir. UL was started by three

societies very many of your talics past. The first of these is called the Sparn. The Sparn are far more

advanced scientifically than any of the other members of UL. Before UL, they alone ruled a large

domain of solar systems. In their travels and explorations they found other solar systems containing

life forms, eventually finding one with an intelligent society beginning to make use of technology

which would allow them to explore space also.”

“The Sparn had at that time recently emerged from a terrible history of wars, conquests, and hardships

which they had grown so adverse to, they finally arrived at the conclusion that cooperative politics

across their society in whole was superior to the petty bickering and fragmentation governing they had

endured. They emerged dedicated to behaviors only conducive to peaceful existence. With their new

found peace, they also enjoyed rapid development of advanced technologies beyond their own

expectations.”

“The discovery of the first other intelligent life form reminded them of the horrible past, and they

approached this new society with offerings of cooperation and tolerance. It worked. And, it also

succeeded far more when these two societies met with a third technologically advanced one. It was

during the establishment of the cooperation of the three that UL was conceived and chartered.”

“It was also during this time when the Sparn discovered a new form of energy. It is fundamentally the

same as the energy used to sustain the cubes we gave you twenty talics ago. And, it is the energy used

to encapsulate your entire solar system. Recognizing that UL would succeed only if there remained one

voice at the top of the hierarchy, the Sparn autonomously elected themselves to be that voice. They

refused to share their knowledge of how to generate the energy fields you have seen. At first, the other

two members of UL balked at this posturing, but in the final analysis, they realized there was nothing

they could do to change what was. It certainly helped as they learned that the Sparn continued to

otherwise insist on equal status for everyone.”

“Perhaps this was not the solution others might propose, but as time passed and new members of UL

joined, everyday practice proved it was working. To this day, the Sparn alone hold the power to

manage UL as they chose. But, except for continuing to not share this energy with others, the rest of

the covenant remains fair and successful. We all live in peace. Those who choose otherwise are forever

encapsulated and ignored.”


“So, there are others?”

“Sadly, yes. Some reject the UL, and led by the Sparn in each such case, their solar system has become

encapsulated in the same manner you experienced these last twenty talics. It is the policy of UL never

again to return to that society. They may live, as we all do within their own solar system in any manner

they choose. The difference is only that UL members are free to travel beyond, while those who reject

us are encapsulated. We do not have to deal with them again. We remain in peace, free from concerns

over aggressive societies.”

Miseal thought about how close Aldoria had come itself to rejecting the UL’s offer. He took in a deep

slow breath and then said, “It is a very harsh policy.”

Ambassador Olar nodded, “Some members of UL agree with you. It is the only issue not subject to

formal discussion at the UL Commission. It is the will of the Sparn. They know of the objections by

some of us, but it is their control over how this proceeds each time. Our knowledge of their history is

the only understanding we have. Evidently their past was so violent, and their current exclusive

knowledge of the source of their energy together bring them to this position. We have no choice but to

accept it.”

“I am not suggesting we have any second thoughts, but are we bound forever by UL laws?”

“Beyond your solar system, yes. What you do within your own system is left to you. We will even do

nothing to interfere with wars and internal aggression you might choose to practice. However, at the

first sign of your moving such violence in any form beyond your system boundaries, encapsulation will

be reinstated immediately.”

President Miseal stared silently at Ambassador Olar, considering his explanation. He had noticed the

tone of Olar’s voice as it hinted at his own experience with such a binding and harsh state of affairs.

The acceptance was, however, rewarded with the promise of ever lasting peace otherwise, together

with sharing of more advanced technologies and a promise of better lives for everybody involved.

“You have indicated we will share with advanced technologies. Technology, of course, is itself benign.

It is the application which may become negative. Must we accept and use all of what we learn?”

“Certainly not. You are free to live as you decide.”

“Forgive me, Ambassador, but this guaranteed freedom from aggression has its obvious price. We are,

in fact, not free to do as we wish beyond our solar system. That leaves me to consider there are other

costs associated with this covenant.”

Ambassador Olar chuckled. “You have clearly been in politics for awhile. Freedom is not free, but you

will find the costs in this case are not so confining. There are requests from UL which I shall discuss

with you now. And, there are gifts. For the most part, you will not be unhappy.”

Miseal shifted in his chair as Olar continued. He would now start learning what kind of strings were

attached to this proposed great freedom and peace. Olar began. “The UL is interested in starting our


long and prosperous relationship with seven topics now. I will only outline them briefly and in

meetings after at your convenience, we can work through the details.”

“First, as a continuing reminder of the power of UL in general and the Sparn in particular, we leave the

force field cubes with you. They are yours to do with as you please.”

Miseal’s first reaction was unenthusiastic, but then he quickly considered that Aldorian scientists were

bright and clever. Perhaps with more time, they could break the secret of the cubes and their energy.

“I have indicated the next consideration already. We request that you provide three Aldorians who will

be your first representatives on the UL Commission. The Commission meets on a regular basis, almost

daily for a few days alternating with a few days on leave. The meetings are held on a rotation basis on

all of the home planets of UL members. So, your representatives will be required to travel. Their close

relatives—Stria in your case—are invited to accompany with each of these trips.”

“As a member of UL, Aldoria will be required to provide a compound for visiting members and

relatives for each time the Commission meets here. Any plans you consider beyond your solar system

must be presented to the commission for approval.”

“Mr. President, I was once myself a representative on this commission, and I can tell you from my own

experience about the pleasures of serving on it. Members feel a deep sense of cooperation among the

other UL members. You will quickly learn that the commission is quite generous. Virtually any

peaceful endeavor will be approved.”

“As further shows of good faith, and to demonstrate a small sampling of the advances in technology

the UL has to offer for your participation, I will next describe three such advances.”

“We are aware of the medical state of your species. And, we know that one of the more troubling

diseases your citizens suffer you call mullarn. It has been a stubborn microbial infection, and we know

how much you have attempted to rid your society of this scourge, all with very limited success. We

will provide you with a permanent and global solution to this problem. You will never again lose loved

ones to this biological menace.”

Like all Aldorians, Miseal was considerably aware of this disease and its terrible ongoing costs and of

the many failed attempts to rid Aldoria of it. He was impressed with this UL offer, and could not resist

showing his pleasure at this news with a smile. Perhaps not a good idea to break from his political

poker face, but he was beginning to understand that what was happening here was not really about

politics.

“We have been very interested in your ongoing research and application of age abatement, and we are

impressed with your progress using nanotechnology. You have found also additional applications of

nanotechnology which show great promise. Your development in this science is one of two which we

have used to measure your progress as an intelligent culture. The other being your knowledge of space

science.”


“The use of nanotechnology in age abatement is on a similar track in which all members of UL

participate. We offer you the opportunity to have much more advanced knowledge in this science.

Among its many applications in age abatement, you will find we can more than double your own

abilities. Your citizens will then enjoy living for about ten thousand talics.”

President Miseal could not hold back his surprise at this. Living longer had brought about the

increasing desires for most Aldorians to live even longer yet, assuming the quality of their health

remained intact.

Ambassador Olar did not hesitate as he continued listing the topics he brought to the table in this first

visit. “Regarding your space science knowledge, we have theoretical knowledge related to what you

call STHR. We are aware of your current theoretical limit and we can provide the mathematical break

through for which you can basically double that limit. While your space ships can now travel at most

90 relcans, we will provide you with the knowledge and technology so you can achieve 170 relcans in

only a few talics.”

Miseal could not hold back his pleasure and surprise. This certainly felt like anything but a price to pay

for cooperation with UL. “Ambassador, I must say that certainly I speak for all Aldorians when I say

that I am a bit overwhelmed at this generosity. I must confess that this is not what I expected.”

But, it was what he suspected. Mention the prizes first and then demand the price to pay. He was not

willing to break with his cynicism. “But, you have mentioned only five topics. There must be

something in the next two which exact some cost to us.”

“Your caution is understandable, and not without merit, sir. But, I think the cost will be considered

only generous and more than fair. We do have two requests, the first of which is not negotiable, but the

second is fully of a volunteer nature.”

Miseal braced himself. Olar proceeded, first with explanations which Miseal considered a slow

avoidance of getting to the point. But, he remained patient and listened.

“The UL has been in this business for a long time. We have discovered our galaxy to be filled far more

densely with life than anybody first estimated. UL has explored an average of only two hundred of

your light talics from the Sparn planet. But, in that tiny corner of this huge galaxy, we have found over

3,700 planets with some form of life on them. Now, most of those planets have life showing only very

low progress in terms of evolution so far, consisting of little more than primitive forms of diruntum

and tael. However, nearly one third of them have one or more life forms which are showing signs of at

least very primitive intelligence. And a few of those planets possess life forms which have evolved and

advanced to the level of acquiring knowledge of space travel.”

“It is UL policy to continue surveillance of every planet which is advancing enough until we believe

they will acquire space travel within the next eight hundred of your talics. Allowing for a few

exceptions, we usually leave other planets alone. So, we have been watching Aldoria with interest for a

long time. Watching such a planet like yours for this long allows us to well understand the planet’s

intelligent societies. Once such a planet has finally traveled in space beyond the boundaries of their


own solar system, we then decide whether we will make the offer of UL membership. Some planets

possess such violent societies, we encapsulate them without first contact and making any offer.”

“At this time, there are twenty-one member planets of UL, including now Aldoria, and we have

encapsulated another thirty-five. Also, we are currently carrying out surveillance of four other planets.

The Sparn and UL have not yet discovered any society with technological knowledge near their own

advanced state.”

Ambassador Olar had been looking at President Miseal all this time. He paused a few seconds but

continued staring at Miseal. “I must inform you that one of those four planets is the one you call

Trailia.” Miseal showed a hint of a smile, otherwise revealing no particular anxiety or surprise.

“Within the UL membership, we know this planet as Sarnal. The creatures you encountered, the

Sarnalese, are the highest form of intelligence on their planet.”

“It is not my pleasure, Sir, but I must inform you that the Sarnalese are particularly vulnerable to a

common Aldorian diruntum. It is one which is quite harmless to Aldorians. One you call disthripia.”

President Miseal shook his head, showing ignorance regarding this common and mostly forgotten

problem. Only a few bioscientists would know anything about it nowadays. Olar continued. “Disthripia

is particularly virulent to Sarnalese.”

Olar reached his arms out slightly, open palms turned upward, as if to beg. “This disthripia has been

found around the camps you established on Sarnal. I must inform you that UL considers this issue of

considerable importance, and we see no reasonable or practical resolution at this time other than

insisting that Aldoria cannot continue any further contact with Sarnal until UL scientists can find a

satisfactory solution.”

The ambassador stopped and waited. This was the only significant request UL was exacting so far on

Aldorians. He watched Miseal and his aides for reactions, which were fairly unrevealing as he

expected for politicians practiced at their art.

Miseal conferred quietly with his aides, continuing to show no signs of consternation. Looking up

finally, he said, “I am sure you appreciate the challenge we have had during the last twenty talics

trying to understand the UL invitation. With no chance to learn what membership in UL really meant

in practice, it has been a troubling experience making such a significant decision.”

Ambassador Olar responded, “I do appreciate your dilemma. When it was our choice, we Kritilians

came very close to rejecting the UL.”

“Well, sir, then perhaps you can appreciate that we still have reservations, in part because we remain

mostly uninformed regarding how UL deals with a situation like this one. You are requesting we stay

away from Trailia—uh, Sarnal. However, we do not understand the recourses available if we choose to

not accept this. What if we wish to continue explorations of Sarnal, taking precautions based on your

information regarding this problem with our diruntum?”

The ambassador frowned and without hesitation responded, “Please, you must understand that there is

but one recourse. If you do not accept UL rulings of such importance, there can be nothing else done


other than encapsulation of the Aldorian solar system. And, we would then be on our way to other

business.”

In an effort to somehow soften the ultimatum, Olar continued. “The Sarnalese have an intelligent

language which one of UL members, the Kortache, are able to understand and speak. They will take it

upon themselves to retrieve all of your camp site equipment and orbiting satellites and return this to

you. They will take responsibility to clean away any signs of disthripia from Sarnal. But, we have

another inhabited planet for you to investigate. One for which we know Aldorians are medically

compatible. It is one of the four planets we are now watching. We offer this in compensation for your

inconvenience. It is the seventh issue to discuss at this time.”

Olar was also making it clear that Aldorian avoidance of Sarnal was a closed issue. There was no point

in the Aldorians discussing it more, and President Miseal understood this. He also recognized the offer

of another planet as a directed change in focus. He would have to accept the Sarnal ultimatum for now,

and concentrate on the next and last issue. He was not fully happy with this, but he understood that he

was also not really prepared to attempt further discussions about Sarnal. “Another planet?”

Olar straightened in his chair and showed clear signs of desiring to move on to something else to

discuss. He too was not really happy with the disappointing news about Sarnal, but as the voice of UL,

he did his job.

“Yes, sir. They call their planet Earth.”


Chapter 53

“You should go with us.”

Bloam grunted. “I’m too old for that.”

Ansar protested, “Kroll. No, mother, you’re not. Ambassador Olar has made it clear that anybody with

decent health of any age may safely go to Earth.”

Bloam frowned, “It’s not for me. Besides, Sandil has not said she will go.” As if this was a valid

reason.

Sandil quickly corrected her mother. “I haven’t decided. I’m still thinking about it.”

Bloam knew that she had to be careful and not try to argue Sandil shouldn’t go. That would virtually

guarantee she would. Instead, she thought she might find a weakness in the idea of going which would

appeal to Sandil. And, perhaps also to her son. “I don’t know enough about this. I have not attended or

watched the viscom presentations.” Directing her question to Ansar, who had been not only attending,

but showed enthusiasm about going from the start, she said, “Okay, tell me about this trip. Why would

I possibly be interested?”

Without hesitation, he responded, “For our Stria most of all. Enough of us are interested in going, so it

would seem somehow flawed if you and father are not with us.” He stopped and thought about how he

should explain what the trip was about.

It had been almost one talic since Aldoria joined UL and Ambassador Olar and others began

explaining what membership meant. Other Kritilians had arrived on Aldoria, each with more

knowledge related to specifics about the three UL gifts, the cure for mullarn disease, improved age

abatement, and doubling the relcan capacity of Aldorian space ships. Public meetings were held during

which explanations were given on how the solutions could be applied. Each presentation was always

broadcast through global viscoms. Question and answer sessions were always an integral part of each

presentation, clarifying each issue until few were left uninformed who wished to know. Cemanna Kroll

had attended the age abatement presentations as well as some of the presentations related to curing

mullarn disease. In the meantime, Ansar, Walcia, and Dinar Kroll attended the presentations on

increasing the relcan limits.

Ambassador Olar remained the primary source of information related to the visit to Earth, hosting the

public presentations himself which were eagerly attended by Ansar, Walcia, Dinar, and a few other

members of the Kroll Stria. From the beginning, Ansar was especially enthusiastic about taking the trip,

having been disqualified from going to planet Trailia, now more often referred to with the UL name

Sarnal. And now he was trying to convince as many Krolls as he could to also take the trip.


The UL request included an explanation related to how anatomically similar human beings were to

Aldorians, and how easily UL designed advanced nanobots, called nanoconstructors, could modify

Aldorians to not only look like humans, but for all medical and biological practical purposes, they

would be human. Similar nanoconstructors would then reconstruct the Aldorians back to their normal

state during the return home trip. The trip one way would take a little over 81 talics. Including a stay

on Earth for a couple of hundred talics or so, the entire round trip would last about four hundred talics.

Through the UL scheme, the Aldorian visitors could live among humans and thereby more clearly

learn human cultures. The UL requested that four groups of Aldorians volunteer to go. Each group

would act like a so-called Earth family, not unlike Aldorian Stria, and each family would settle near or

in four culturally active locations on Earth.

Ansar decided to appeal to Bloam’s sense of Stria solidarity and good will to others. “Mother, I believe

there will be several of the Kroll Stria who will decide to go to Earth. You know Edan wants to go, but

won’t unless you go also.” He considered that mentioning Bloam’s husband, his father, might help

convince her. “The Ambassador has made it clear how UL based age abatement technology will be

used effectively so that you will virtually not age any more than two or three talics during the entire

visit, including the time it takes to go there and return. It is one of the most opportune and important

times Aldorians can experience in their lives. We will have the unique experience of learning directly

about another planet inhabited with intelligent beings, and being able to influence them into becoming

a new member of UL.”

Bloam listened respectfully, but inside she was not being convinced. She was still trying to gain more

comfort just with the idea of being a member of UL. She was not ready to let go of her concerns that

something sinister was actually behind all this benevolence the UL seemed to be representing. She was

also not excited about the body modifications which would be required. “I like the way I look.”

“Kroll. Ambassador Olar has made it clear that the nanoconstructors used will change us to look like

Earthlings only while we visit there. We will be changed back as if nothing had happened when we

return.” Ansar appealed also to a clear since of adventure. “Beside these harmless changes, think of the

memories we will all have. The stories we will share with our children.” He paused and touched her

hand. “Mother, it will be fun and exciting. A trip we will all remember fondly, together as Stria.”

Similar discussions ensued all across Aldoria in countless Stria homes. The UL offered the visit to

Earth in compensation for the quarantine of Sarnal exacted by them.

Earth was 27.7 light talics away from Aldoria, but with velocities of 170 relcans which the UL were

showing Aldorians how to achieve, it would take only 81 talics to travel there.


Through Ambassador Olar’s explanations, the UL made it clear that they recognized Earthlings were

progressing socially to the point that achieving advanced technology sufficient to facilitate space travel

was expected to occur within only a few hundred talics. However, human beings were so unlike other

UL members, it had been difficult to accomplish adequate surveillance of them while remaining

unnoticed enough as the UL wished. It was not a minor consideration that UL offered membership to

Aldoria. Aldorians were closer biologically and physiologically to Earthlings than any other UL

society. It was easily within the capabilities of UL science to use nanotechnological methods to modify

Aldorian bodies, so that for almost any practical consideration, Aldorians could be physically and

biologically modified to be human. UL technology fell short of this capability with all of the other

members. And, the same technology could safely return each visitor converted back to his or her

Aldorian state. It would be as if nothing physically had happened in the interim.

The idea was presented that Aldorian volunteers consisting of four Earth families would go to Earth,

land and stay for some period of time, probably not more than two or three hundred talics, learn about

human beings, and then return to Aldoria with sufficient information so UL could make an informed

decision regarding a possible invitation to Earth of UL membership.

Infusion of Aldorians in this manner seemed almost the only way the UL could envision how to

secretly learn easily enough what they wanted to know about Earthlings. Human technology was still

not at the stage of radio technology. So Earth could not be examined by listening in. And, as much as

UL could tell without better information, Earth societies and governments were far more fragmented

and volatile than most which UL knew about. On one hand, Earthlings seemed too violent and

aggressive. On the other hand, it appeared they were emerging from a long and dark history, entering

finally into a period of enlightenment which would be accompanied with peaceful and rapid

development of cooperative industry, science, and technology. There were hints that soon enough

humans would be taking their cultural ways into space and beyond their own solar system. It was

approaching time for UL to decide what to do about Earth. And, Aldorians would be the essential

ingredient which could facilitate that decision.

The UL were anxious for the trip to Earth to begin. They were requesting that as soon as the

appropriate space ship and associated plans were finished and implemented, that the trip would begin

as soon as possible afterward. It was their idea that this could easily occur as soon as only ten or fifteen

more talics. UL was actively looking for the four volunteer Earth families, each consisting of no more

than seventy members. Up to 280 volunteers could take the trip.

Ansar Kroll used one of UL’s own reasons to help convince additional members of his Stria and their

close friends to join in on the trip, namely that of those with sufficient knowledge of nanotechnology

and plants. The Kroll Stria included numerous such knowledgeable members. If Earth would someday

be invited to join UL, it was UL plans to include some gifts in a manner similar to how they

approached Aldoria. Earthlings suffered from a common disease called cancer. With medical

physiology so similar to that of Aldorians, together with Aldorians using plant chemistry in age

abatement and logically following disease control, it was likely that Earth plants surely contained

appropriate biochemicals to help with Earth’s similar problems. Who better to investigate these


possible biotechnological paths than Aldorians who were already practiced in this knowledge? Garden

keepers were desirable members of the crew going to Earth.

The new Earth families would travel to their new home in a space ship designed by UL using Sparn

technology. The Aldorians named the ship. It would be called Aldorella, which meant “little Aldoria.”

There was, however, not much about Aldorella which was little. The storage area was the smallest

section on the ship, filled with food and supplies, extra parts, tools, dozens of yet unanimated backup

robots, and shuttle craft for landing on Earth, along with hundreds of additional odds and ends. Storage

alone was larger than the space ship Trailian Visitor. The entire ship was almost as large as the

Kritilian ship which made its appearance on its first visit to Aldoria.

The living area was as robust and environmentally varied as an actual planet. There would be the same

five natural seasons as Aldoria itself passed through each talic. Managed and maintained by more

robots than Aldorian passengers, most of the physical infrastructure would be taken care of by them,

allowing for Aldorians who wished to do it themselves sufficient opportunity. Virtually none of the

amenities of Aldorian home life would be missing during the trip to Earth. Each passing day and talic

would feel the same as home. Constant viscom communication with home would be available, which

would, however, become less and less useful as the distance between Aldorella and home increased

beyond only a couple of light talics.

As Aldorella sped it way toward Earth 27.7 light talics away from home, the Aldorian passengers

would experience progressive physical and biological changes. Each of them would be injected with

nanobots far more advanced than Aldorian science could begin to fabricate. Nanoconstructors—these

complex microscopic robots—would perform modifications to the Aldorians which were difficult to

comprehend when they learned what would happen. Each Aldorian would be modified and turned

literally into a human being. Not just something which resembled a human, but a living being which

was human.

The UL would not discuss how they knew the structure of human beings with such exact detail, and

the Aldorians found it convenient not to ask about it very much. Nevertheless, UL scientists were

aware of how similar biologically humans were to Aldorians. It was as if the two species of life had

evolved as a direct split along the same branch of evolving life on the same planet.

Aldorian cell structure had within its nucleus the complex instruction set of molecular rules the

Aldorians called KBE, the complex long chain molecule known by Aldorian scientists as Kinorexium

Beriatriat Esia. Human beings were built of similar cellular structures, also containing a complex

molecule serving virtually the same function as KBE. The nanoconstructors within Aldorian

passengers would slowly and safely modify every detail of Aldorian cells, including KBE, so slowly

and painlessly the Aldorians would morph into human beings.


UL even pointed out that once the modifications were complete, Aldorians could even mate and breed

with natural human beings. The Aldorians found the whole idea too creepy to think about. Carrying

around with them an artistic rendering showing each Aldorian traveler what they would look like once

they finished being transformed, it was just enough to get used to the odd looking figure they would

become. Aldorians found their human counterparts not too pleasant to view. Indeed, a few volunteers

backed out of the trip upon seeing what they would become. Most, however, remained in the plans.

As part of the argument to emphasize the safety and capability of nanoconstructors to do their job,

Ambassador Olar noted that he and his own aides had been transformed into Aldorians using the same

basic process. Of course, the Aldorians asked then why the Kritilians didn’t transform into humans and

do the job instead. Olar explained that the nanoconstructors were not one hundred percent successful in

making these transformations. Modified Kritilians kept some internal structure intact, and Aldorians

turned into humans would keep some Aldorian structure intact. Because Aldorian structure was already

close to that of human beings, the transformation would be good enough. But, while Kritilians were

close enough to Aldorians to be transformed convincingly, Kritilian structure was too far from that of

humans to pull off the job. Beside this technical problem, Olar noted, Earth was an offer intended to

placate the Aldorian loss of planet Sarnal.

It was, Olar implied, more than placation involved. The Earth visit was one of the seven initial

“requests,” as ambassador Olar had called them, which UL had outlined originally. Everybody knew

that all seven requests were actually demands, none of which could be avoided without the extreme

recourse of endless encapsulation.

Plans for the design and construction of the Aldorella proceeded, while slowly new volunteers for the

trip emerged. Disappointed, but not disheartened, UL and Aldorians accepted that not enough

volunteers to form four complete enough Earth families would transpire. With some minor trepidation,

it was decided that only three families would be organized. As the day for the Aldorella to begin its trip

drew close, 182 Aldorians had signed up.


Chapter 54

Edan Kroll looked across the small cafe at the table in front of the last window. He strolled over to it

and sat down. He didn’t usually think about it, but he was more keenly aware this morning of his

established morning routine. His wife Bloam had taken to sleeping a good hour or more each morning

after he awoke, but he could no longer recall when he began leaving the house to have his morning sarl

here.

He remembered it was here he met Kausis Moaran one morning, and after all this time, he had become

a closer friend than with most others. He scanned the town center just outside the window as he sipped

his sarl. The 182 inhabitants of the tiny village were few enough, he was beginning to know most of

them by name. Perhaps, he realized, he would know all of them before another talic would pass. He

believed that was a good thing, considering the common bond they all shared. In the long run, it would

serve little purpose to feel any were still strangers.

“You’re early.” Kausis said as he approached the table and sat across from Edan. Usually Edan arrived

a bit after Kausis, so they typically sat across from each other facing in the opposite direction.

“I’m not moving.” Edan demanded with a smile as he took another sip of his sarl.

In another few seconds the robot waitress brought Kausis his sarl, and the two seriously and silently

contemplated their cups for awhile.

Then Kausis said, “Tomorrow is devalet one.”

Edan looked up in surprise. “Already!” Had it really been 1.6 talics since they all boarded the

Aldorella and left Aldorian orbit bound for Earth? Perhaps this was why he seemed so introspective

this morning. Unconsciously maybe he remembered the first week long set of medical exams and

status meetings, called devalet, was beginning the next day. It was a milestone. The first of fifty such

planned weeks, to be held regularly during their trip. It was a check on their medical progress as they

morphed into human beings. It was a set of lectures and meetings designed to inform them of what lay

ahead. It was a time for psychological examination to determine how each member of the Aldorian

crew of 182—each Aldorian headed for humanity—was holding up.

“Yes, already. Can you believe it?”

Edan didn’t respond. He suddenly felt a surge of melancholy. Had this been a mistake? No. He didn’t

really believe that. Almost all of the members of the Kroll Stria he felt close to were on board. He was

with those who meant the most to him. Even a few of his closer friends had volunteered to go on the

trip. So, what was going on, why did he have this unexplainable sullen feeling? He didn’t know.

Trying to push it away, he looked up at Kausis and smiled, but couldn’t decide just what to say.

“What?” Kausis asked.


Finally he divorced himself from the negative thoughts enough. “I still can’t believe we are really

doing this. I can’t believe so many of my Stria are doing this.”

“You mean family.” Kausis attempted to say the English word used on Earth which had a reasonably

close meaning to Stria. But, the Aldorian vocal structure prevented him from coming even close to

making the correct sound. Kausis so badly said the word, Edan couldn’t help but chuckle.

“You mean family, don’t you?” Edan didn’t do any better, and it only served to make them both laugh.

It would be awhile yet before the nanoconstructors would modify their vocal chords enough so they

could speak English. Or any Earth bound language for that matter. At this point, it still sounded

nothing like an Earthly utterance.

After their laughter subsided, Edan chided Kausis. “You know we have been advised not to try Earth

speak yet. We are supposed to avoid developing early bad habits.” Edan and Kausis both knew it

would be almost halfway through their trip to Earth, another thirty talics, before they could begin to

pronounce Earthly languages with any success. Neither of them had yet realized that it would then also

become virtually impossible for them to speak Aldorian well enough for anybody back home to have a

clue what they were saying. The two were not the only ones to yet appreciate the price they were

paying for the trip. None of the 182 travelers knew.

“How do they know the word is family?” Kausis asked, saying it again the only bad way he could.

“How do they know that is called English? If they can’t go there, then how do they know these

things?”

“They never said they hadn’t been to Earth. Didn’t you attend the trip orientation?”

“Not all of it.” Kausis was one of those kinds of Aldorians who managed to get along just fine in life

with little or no awareness of his environment. He skipped some of the orientation presentations. It was

how he was. Edan certainly wasn’t like that, and he found it disconcerting that anybody was.

“If you attended, you’d know.”

“It didn’t matter back then. I’d find out enough when it was time. Maybe now is the time. You can tell

me.”

Kausis was becoming a good friend. Maybe it was his cavalier approach to life which drew Edan’s

interest, so distinct from his own. But, he also found it regularly an odd way to manage his life. It

never crossed his mind that he loved explaining things to others. Kausis seemed to know it and coaxed

Edan regularly into such moments of enlightenment.

“The UL have been sending tiny robots to Earth for a few hundred talics. They are so small, humans

never noticed them. They were programmed to record human interactions. After a talic or so, their

memory would be filled and they would return to UL with all these recorded viscoms of behavior and

conversation.”

“But, then why us? Hasn’t that been enough to learn what they wanted to know?”


“No. They haven’t really learned much about the more important things about humans. All they have is

a huge collection of snapshots, not a continuous understanding. They need to know about their politics,

their religions, why they treat each other so badly so often.”

“Badly?”

“Yes, badly. Really badly.” Edan paused and cleared his throat. Speaking more softly, he added,

“Worse than it was on Feundar. They even keep some humans like robots. Worse than that. They

enslave them and make them do things against their will. And, if the slaves don’t cooperate, they can

be killed. One human is allowed to actually own another.”

Kausis frowned. “What if they try to own us?”

“That won’t happen.” Edan considered chastizing Kausis for not attending the orientation, but decide

just to explain. “The Earth’s environment is far more varied than on Aldoria. So, in certain parts of

their planet the native humans there evolved darker colored skin to protect themselves from harmful

rays from their star, which they call ‘Sun.’ Where we are going, we will have lighter colored skin, just

like the slave owners. So, we will be safe.”

“Kentucky?” Kausis attempt to say it, but still sounded like Aldorian nonsense, nothing like an

Earthling.

“Kentucky. You did listen to some of the presentations.”

“Of course I did!” Kausis protested. But, not all 182 of the passengers on Aldorella were going to

Kentucky. Only one family would. The two other families on board were going to places called

Germany and China. Kausis knew this.

Kausis and Edan continued to discuss the trip for only a minute longer. Then Kausis grew bored with it

and changed the subject. That was his way. He looked through the large window beside them and

scanned the area. “It’s hard to believe we are in a space ship.”

“I agree. It’s just like home. That’s the way they planned it.” The whole living area in the Aldorella

was larger than the capital city of Unaleat, including the surrounding country side. Because the village

contained only 182 inhabitants, most of the area was established as undeveloped country. This only

small town on the ship was also called Aldorella. “Have you taken any of the outer tours, or explored

any of it?”

“The country is not for me. I’m still getting used to this town being so small.” Kausis grew up in

Unaleat. He was used to a large metropolitan city.

“I’m amazed at how well it is maintained by all the robots. They are quite intelligent.” Edan referred to

the small army of hundreds of AI endowed robots which could run and maintain the entire ship without

any help from the Aldorians. UL science really was significantly advanced to what Aldorians knew.

He was pleased to see more than enough evidence already that UL intended to share this knowledge.


Briefly he considered how quickly Aldorian society would progress with this input. It led him to then

think about how he was taking a break from all of that by going on this trip. They all were.

Virtually the whole Kroll Stria decided to go to Earth. In large part they decided to because those who

went would age only a couple of talics or so, while those who stayed on Aldoria would continue to get

older more quickly. They decided as a Stria to stay together. Another compelling factor was the sense

of adventure like none other. Ansar and other Kroll Stria space enthusiasts had effectively argued this

point.

Edan sipped his sarl and thought about the thirty-five encapsulated solar systems, the ones who did not

receive an invitation from UL or who rejected it. What must they be like? Was Earth as bad as one of

them? He hoped not. The orientation meeting together with documentation which included everything

UL knew about Earth implied that humans were probably not too bad, but it simply wasn’t really

understood yet. Edan read everything he could locate in the library about it. He understood that the

primary goal for this visit was to learn enough about humans to make such a determination.

“You really think we will look enough like humans?”

Edan broke from his day dreaming. “More than that. We will be humans.”

“I don’t notice any change. When will this happen?”

“It already is. All of the changes so far are internal. There’s nothing to see yet. Unless you examine

your insides. That will happen during devalet.” As Edan explained more, he considered that Kausis

would have no real understanding. “One of the first things changing already is your KBE and other

parts of your cells.”

Agreeing, Kausis said, “Yeah, our KBE is becoming humanized. So, we will have the same genetic

structure.” Edan was surprised that Kausis did seem to know more. “So, what do humans call their

KBE?”

“They don’t have a name for it yet. They have no idea such a thing exists.” Edan knew this from his

reading in the library about Earth. “In fact, only a few of their scientists even yet know that cells exist.

They have no idea what is inside one, or even what they are for.”

Kausis looked concerned. “They are advanced so little. Why would we care about them yet? I thought

UL grew involved only after they had space travel.”

“Something like that. But, UL thinks that Earth is entering an era of enlightenment and rapid discovery

and invention. They believe their space science is going to happen soon enough. It is time to learn

more about them. That’s our job.” Edan added. “Keep in mind that devalet includes presentations to

help us learn more about Earth.” He squinted at Kausis. “You should attend them.”

Kausis feigned indignation. “Of course I will!” He doubted he would sit through all of that. Edan could

tell him later.


Devalet one started. It began with a series of medical exams, most of which were evidently routine and

conducted by AI-bots designed by UL to handle nearly all of the mundane matters. Aldorian doctors

were part of the process, but more as assistants except for special situations which might occur. There

were none. The nanoconstructors were doing their job without any problems. The examinations

included a full body scan by the nanoconstructors, with all of the information recorded in the

Aldorella’s computer system. Blood and tissue samples were also taken and preserved. It was all

intended to make sure the process was starting correctly, and it was saved data needed to transform

Aldorians back to their original state during the trip back home.

Human cell structure fabrication was the initial goal. As that transformation took place, it could then be

effectively followed by conversion of Aldorian internal organs into the shape and function of human

counterparts. It was an elaborate and complicated process, nothing remotely within the scientific

capabilities of Aldorians, but apparently routine for UL.

With each devalet, held at regular intervals of 1.6 talics, medical examinations were not the only part

of the multi-day event. Presentations were included, designed to gradually explain two things to the

Aldorella passengers.

One purpose was to explain what the nanoconstructors in the Aldorian bodies were doing, what the

182 patients could expect, and how the changes would proceed gradually over the course of almost the

entire trip.

The other facet of the presentations was to prepare the Aldorians for Earth life and humans. What they

should expect, how they would live in a relatively more primitive world, and what they had to know to

survive in that world.

There was more than enough to learn. Each passing devalet would include appropriate information,

partialed out evenly through the fifty planned events. The Aldorians would become humans, not

instantly, but slowly over the course of the 81 talics the trip would take.

During this first devalet, the Aldorians would learn that the initial changes in their bodies would be

virtually undetectable, except by the medical AI-bots. The Aldorians themselves would feel or see

nothing new. In fact, they would not begin to notice much going on until devalet ten, or about then.

The first fifteen or so talics of the trip would include changes which would seem mostly uneventful.


Chapter 55

“You have each been chosen to represent your family by those in your family.” The robot spoke in the

clear common Unaleat dialect of Aldorian, unceremoniously starting the meeting, which included the

three chosen representatives along with a few others interested. Named Ponteal by the Aldorians, the

robot looked at and spoke directly to Tendala Kroll representing the Kentucky group, Paream Nedalo

representing the German group, and Treesa Forneal representing the China group.

It was devalet six. By now the Aldorians on board the Aldorella had become accustomed to speaking

and interacting with the many AI-bots, the only UL representation with which they had immediate

access. They could always contact UL or Aldoria via viscom, but with the distance to either now over

three light talics away, those communications were of little practical value.

No non-Aldorian living UL member was on board the Aldorella. While there had been numerous

concerns about this among the living passengers at first, now after almost ten talics nearly all of those

concerns had faded as the Aldorians grew comfortable with the high degree of competent management

and knowledge of the robots. Most of the AI-bots had even been given names by now. Ponteal

managed many of the devalet meetings, as it was doing so now.

“As family representatives,” Ponteal continued, “you will be the primary contact and voice for each of

your families from this moment forward.” Tendala Kroll was the youngest member of the Krolls in the

Kentucky family, and became well known in the group for his deep and passionate interest in history.

The AI-bots had suggested that the representatives chosen would better represent the family provided

they had such interests.

Professionally Tendala had only been a garden keeper, along side his wife Telena, where he first met

her on a gardening job. While he loved gardening, his deepest interest as a serious hobby was studying

Aldorian history and culture. He often considered changing professions to better fit his increasing

interest. It was a natural choice by his Stria to be the family representative.

Ponteal continued to explain in nearly monotone voice the ongoing duties of the family representatives,

as well as the responsibilities of all family members. “During these devalets, you will learn about an

increasing set of guidelines and requirements each of you will have during your visit to Earth. These

are not designed as arbitrary rules, but are based on our best knowledge of Earthlings and should help

you live there well and safely. As your stay there continues you will find it sometimes necessary to

modify these guidelines as you learn more regarding appropriate interactions with any humans near

you.”

“One major guideline we will begin discussing today. We will have more to discuss about this during

later devalets as the issues become relevant. It is important and obvious that you should expose the

alien nature of yourselves to natural humans as little as possible. Essentially nothing should reveal your

origins. So, it will be necessary to limit the number and kinds of objects you take to Earth’s surface.


The full restricted list will be discussed with time, but for today we will focus only on documentation.

You must not take along any viscom units. So, you will have to leave behind everything associated

with your vast library, especially the interactive tools used to access it.”

Tendala suddenly realized some of the unobvious costs which would be exacted upon them all during

their visit to Earth. Taking along virtually none of Aldorian technology and modern conveniences and

living in the relative primitive Earth environment was going to be a challenge. No viscoms, no

communicators, nor any murdahls, coretons, plackables, or sitnords. The list grew longer as he thought

about it. All of it left behind. This was going to be a much greater challenge than first thought. And, in

Tendala’s mind, this was turning out to be a greater adventure than he expected. He would not be all

that surprised to learn eventually that virtually all of the Aldorians on board would feel the same way.

Such was the fundamental nature of the types of Aldorians who volunteered. They had all generally

been made aware of the sacrifices they would make before it was too late to change their minds. Only

now, however, did it begin to feel so real.

And, almost no Aldorian medicine. They would have to learn to make do using existing human

knowledge of medicine. UL allowed for a small list of exceptional medications and equipment for

emergencies, but otherwise the Aldorians had to survive medically just like any human beings.

Fortunately, UL also allowed for a special exception by imbuing the Aldorians with internal

immunities which would protect them from most common medical problems humans normally faced.

The nanoconstructors inside their bodies were building these immunities during the transformation

process already taking place. Another advantage the Aldorians had over natural humans they had

known about already. They were assured that they would age only a few talics during the entire visit

and trip.

Tendala focused back on Ponteal. “We will allow and explain now one important exception regarding

documentation. This exception will serve two purposes. First, this will provide your family with one

way to help you and your future children remember what there is about your world which you consider

important. And, it will provide you with a documentation bridge, if you will, between your past and

your ongoing presence on Earth.”

Children! Born on Earth! He had not considered that at all. But, they would be staying on Earth for two

or three hundred talics. He remembered also that once they were transformed by the nanoconstructors

in their bodies, they had been told they could even mate with real humans and have children. The idea,

however, sounded too weird and repugnant to consider further.

Ponteal looked across the small stage where he stood and nodded. A second robot appeared from the

side pushing a small table out on stage for all to see. On the table were three boxes. Ponteal stepped

over to the table, picked up one of the boxes and held it up for all to see more easily.

He then said, “In here are five old style documentation receptacles, which were in common use on

Aldoria a few hundred talics ago. Some of you have lived long enough so you will actually remember

them. They are modified, however, to appear to be quite similar to ones human beings have learned to


fabricate and use. They call them books.” Ponteal sat the box back on the table and opened it, lifting

off the metal lid. He pulled out one of the five books inside and held it up. “This is a book.”

A few Aldorians grunted sounds of recognition. Tendala stared silently at the book, still not sure how it

worked. He tried to remember if he had actually seen one before.

“It is no accident that you three family representatives have been chosen greatly due to your interest in

history.” Ponteal added, “You will have to learn an old Aldorian style of writing. We will teach you. It

is called Aldorian group script. It is not difficult to learn, and it represents the Aldorian language in a

way which is unlike any Earth language. So, if humans see these books and the writing in them, they

will not easily be able to translate what you have written.”

As Ponteal continued to hold the book up high, he also opened it and flipped through some of the

pages for the attendees to see. The pages were all blank. “Each family can use their five books mostly

as they wish. However, we suggest that you use three of them now during this trip, saving the other

two for use on Earth. Again, all five may contain whatever writing you wish, but we think you will

find it useful in the first three books to document your thoughts as they are up until now. Perhaps you

may decide to document some of your Aldorian history. Maybe each member of your family may wish

to record their personal impressions. Whatever you wish. Once on Earth, please use the last two books

more or less like a journal, and document your ongoing discoveries and thoughts regarding your new

home and world. Please keep in mind that what you write in these books is fully up to you and your

respective families, but also keep in mind that we are especially interested in your everyday

impressions of human beings.”

Ponteal returned the book to the box and replaced the lid. “We only have a couple of requirements

regarding these books. Of course, please avoid natural humans from obtaining any access. And, in case

that actually fails, we insist that everything written in the books must be in Aldorian group script.”

Tendala had heard of Aldorian group script. But, not only was he mostly unpracticed in writing things

with his hands, relying as most Aldorians did nowadays on speak-write technology, he had never

learned Aldorian group script, the very old way Aldorians used to hand write or prepare non-viscom

documents.

“We will teach any of you interested in how to perform Aldorian group script. Viscom classes are now

available in the library. You may attend at your convenience.”

Devalet six came and went with little or no problems. The nanoconstructors were succeeding in

transforming cell wall structures and the Aldorian circulatory system into that which was more like

human beings. The process was slow and complicated, and nothing was yet noticeable by the


Aldorians themselves. Another twenty talics would pass before external changes would start happening,

changes which everybody could easily see.

Tendala Kroll and most of his Earth selected family decided to study Aldorian group script. There

would be many suggestions from the family for what could be written in their set of books. So many,

in fact, it was decided that a committee of members of their family would be formed who would decide

what would be included. The committee, known simply as Keepers, would review and referee

submitted drafts or abstracts of candidate inclusions. They liked calling themselves Keepers. It

reminded them of the relatively significant percentage of their family who were also garden keepers

back on Aldoria.

Tendala Kroll sat quietly in one of his favorite parks near his Aldorella home. He was slowly growing

accustomed to holding the pen he used for writing practice. Pen and paper. He stopped practicing long

enough to consider this nearly ancient form of communication. There was something warm and

personal about it he had not recognized at first. Something he never felt using viscom units. He liked it.

The thought intrigued him as he considered that someday others would read what he wrote. Anybody

could just as easily listen to some viscom he created, but there seemed to be a special kind of private

and more personal connection which would exist if somebody held what he had written with his own

hands. Viscoms were far more efficient and practical, but this writing thing felt much more friendly.

“I was told you would be here.” Tendala broke off his day dreaming and looked up to see Edan Kroll,

his grandfather, strolling toward him.

Tendala smiled and moved over on the bench, making room for Edan. “Kroll. I see Telena told you my

secret place.” For the most part, only his wife knew he came here regularly to practice writing.

As Edan settled beside his grandson, he looked down at the pen and paper Tendala was holding. He

smiled as he thought about it. “I remember doing this.”

“You know Aldorian group script?”

“Not much anymore. But, it will come back to me.”

“Kroll. Perhaps you can make it more clear to me. I understand this is a written form of Aldorian, and I

am learning the first few characters. But, my lessons have not yet really explained what this so-called

group script means. How it works. Why is it called group script?”

Edan felt a sense of nostalgia as he considered how he could explain what Tendala wanted to know.

“Until you know more about this form of writing, it is a little difficult to really appreciate. Aldorian

group script was invented by our ancients as a way to write with symbols in such a way that when one

reads it, the reader would have a sense of several Aldorians speaking at once. The reader would see the

thoughts of more than one author all at the same time. A way for multiple authors to discuss the same

thought as a group, but from the varied points of view of the individuals in that group, rather than the

focused statements of only one of them.”


Tendala shifted uncomfortably, showing his lack of appreciation for what Edan said. Edan reached for

the pen and paper. “Here, let me try a couple of simple examples which might help.” Tendala handed

the pen and paper over. Edan smiled as he examined the pen, feeling it in his hand. It reminded him of

the long lost practice of writing by hand, and he realized how much he was enjoying this opportunity

to restore an old practice back into his life. He leaned over the paper and moved the pen in place.

“I haven’t done this since I was a child, but I remember a little.” Edan paused a few seconds. “Let’s

see. I think this is the character for blue.” Edan wrote a symbol as Tendala watched. “But, not every

single Aldorian word is one character. You will learn most characters which represent phrases of

words, some phrases quite long. There even exist characters which represent multiple concepts at

once.” Edan moved his hand away. “But, suppose you have just finished writing an entire thought and

this symbol for blue is only one of several characters you have written discussing colors, say of the

sky.”

“And suppose you are only one of three who wish to write about this sky coloring. Say your friend is

one of the three, and he wants to agree the sky is blue, but he also wants to say it in a slightly different

way.” Edan moved the pen back over the symbol as Tendala watched. “So, he decides to add his point

of view by noting that the color felt more dark to him. He doesn’t want to disclaim what you wrote, but

make a slightly different way to say it. So, he adds this to the character.” Edan made a couple of

additional strokes which embellished what he had first written. Tendala could see that the strokes did

not destroy or even hide what he first wrote, but did make the overall appearance slightly different.

“Now, suppose your other friend there wishes to add the point of view that this blue, maybe dark blue

which the first friend thinks, also gives him the feeling of coldness. So, he adds his own view point.”

Edan added a couple of more marks to what is already there. Then he moved his hand away for

Tendala to see. “There. The color description of the sky, but all simultaneously from the point of view

of three Aldorians who are discussing what they see. You can see all three points of view in one

place.”

Tendala stared at the character with its accompanying markings.

Edan added, “As many authors as wish could be writing this. In practice at most four or five, but no

actual limit exists. Thus, group script.” He realized that with so few lessons so far, Tendala would not

yet have started learning about symbolic embellishment. Probably he had not yet really seen any actual

group script examples.

Tendala smiled as the idea began to sink in.

“One more example. Maybe a better one, which shows more of the possibility.” Edan started writing a

new couple of symbols on the paper. “Here is one way to describe being happy.” He moved his hand

back for Tendala to see that he had written what looked like two distinct symbols, but with markings

which clearly indicated they belonged together. “Now, your first friend wishes to emphasize their

collective feelings, and wants to show they are more than just happy, they are more delighted than that.

So, he adds his part.” Edan added a few more strokes to the characters. “And, your second friend wants


to suggest they are feeling some ecstasy over the moment.” Edan added yet a few more strokes, and

lifted the paper for Tendala to better see.

Tendala stared at the paper for a few seconds. This example looked more elaborate than the first one.

There was a sense of cooperative art in the writing, more than just a few well defined characters which

looked the same every time. He began to realize how varied one set of written character strings could

become. The same thing being said, but with virtually an unlimited number of emotional or physical

interpretations added to it. The term group script now was making more sense. He smiled as the fog of

missing appreciation faded away.

Edan said, “I can appreciate the request that our writing in the books consist only of Aldorian group

script. It is my understanding that human beings have no written language which is anything like this.

It is a concept which will be unlikely for them to understand. So, what we write will easily remain

undecipherable to outside eyes.”

Tendala realized something. “You cannot do anything like this with viscoms. This is a lost art.”

“I am not sure why it fell out of common use. But, sometimes progress changes things without our

even really noticing.” He looked more directly at Tendala. “What will be written in the books first?”

Tendala answered, “Kroll. The Keepers have agreed that we first document our history and who we are,

beginning with the early exploration of Feundar. Our children will have this to learn from. They will

have this to help them understand why we have taken this task, this attempt to understand humans. The

Keepers have decided that the first two books contain this history. Book three will document this trip

and our transformation into humans, and as suggested, we will reserve the last two books for

documenting Earth and humans.”

Edan thought out loud. “Group script is a very good idea for another reason in addition to hiding what

it says from outsiders. There are two histories which occur at once. There is the history of the

individual. Personal, private, and even sometimes secret. But, that individual lives in a collective world,

public, remembered by many, even often violent. Group script will allow multiple voices to document

this mixed set of thoughts and events overlaid as they are in reality, reflected in a more accurate

manner on the written page.” Edan smiled as he appreciated more deeply what a great idea it was to

document this multi-faceted concept with an ancient process long lost with the modern technology of

viscoms.


Chapter 56

As the Aldorella continued its flight toward planet Earth carrying the 182 Aldorian passengers along

with a few hundred AI-bots, life on board settled into routines which seemed almost surrealistic when

considered in light of what was actually happening. Even the bizarre becomes mundane if enough

exposure to it persists. Few of the Aldorians on board reacted with any trepidation over the voyage into

the relative unknown. Negative reactions were limited and easily managed by psychology based AI-

bots trained in such matters. It was as if the occasionally troubled Aldorians were readily and

successfully treated more like automatons than independent free minds. Was all life like that? Perhaps

life is just a manifestation of some well defined super program. If the program is well enough

understood, the bugs become easy to correct. The Aldorians seemed to fit the paradigm. And, it was

their job to find out if humans reflected the same model.

As devalet 10 started, the Aldorella was then more than five light talics away from Aldoria and 16

talics into the trip. The Aldorian passengers slowly retreated away from discussions of home and Stria

or friends left behind. Life focus turned inward. The Aldorella was progressively feeling more like

their natural home. Even the goal of the trip, which was yet 65 talics away, seemed too remote and

abstract to have much effect on daily life.

The countless nanoconstructors swimming throughout the body of each Aldorian passenger continued

with their slow, but relentless job of modifying each cell from Aldorian form into human based

structure. It was still too early for most of the 182 to notice any changes. The rare exceptions were

considered by the watchful medical AI-bots as more imagination than not.

So, the Aldorella village residents settled mostly into a comfortable existence, content with their

environment and daily lives. While remaining intellectually aware of what was actually happening,

conscious thinking and discussion of the transformative trip was not a common occurrence. The

citizens of Aldorella were living happily through an artificial reality, while actual reality was treated

more as fantasy.

Most on board learned Aldorian group script, and selected contributions were approved for addition

into each of the three family sets of books. The Kroll Stria, together with others who were often friends

of their Stria, altogether 64 Aldorians, constituted the Kentucky bound family. Some 57 Aldorians

were in the China group while 61 were headed for Europe. Of the 182 on board, eventually more than

150 would become primary contributing authors of various passages in the books. Adding to the books

became a collective and often visited hobby on board the Aldorella.


“You’re up early.” Tendala said to his wife Telena as she shuffled into the room. He was practicing

Aldorian group script, some of the more advanced grammatical constructs. He had become more

proficient than most, taking seriously his position as primary editor of his family books.

“I didn’t sleep well.”

Tendala laid his pen down. “Why?”

“I first woke up because I felt itchy. I hope my moving around didn’t bother you too much.”

“Not at all. I slept like a lynt. Doctor Marnal said we might start feeling some changes by now. I hope

you didn’t scratch a lot.”

“No.” Telena paused a moment as she poured a cup of sarl. “Actually I started thinking about having

children.” Tendala was now 157 talics old while she was about to turn 151, still younger than usual for

having children.

Tendala blinked. “Children?” It had become common in Aldorian society for first children to be born

at a far older age than the two of them were. “Why would you think of that now?”

“Because of a conversation with mother yesterday.” Telena referred to her mother-in-law, Sandil Kroll,

not her biological mother Selia. She and Selia had never been close and she had bonded with Sandil

instead. Selia was not aboard the Aldorella. Telena continued, “She and Makail were discussing it. She

thinks she wants more children.”

Tendala cautiously asked, “So, you’re not, are you?”

“Oh, no! But, I am wondering what it would be like after we become humans. It just seems—” She

struggled to think of the appropriate word. Odd? Weird? Trouble? Risky?

Tendala nodded. “I know. They haven’t told us much about it yet.” He referred to Doctor Marnal and

the other medical AI-bots. He knew as well as all the other Aldorians on board that during

transformation, pregnancy was impossible. And, there remained several unanswered questions. How

would Aldorian babies as humans be converted to native Aldorian? What would they look like? What

about babies born to an Aldorian parent and a native human? He really wasn’t in the mood to give the

whole business much thought. “Maybe they should not have children while we are on Earth.”

Telena wasn’t expecting his reaction. She sensed his negative tone, but refrained from pursuing it.

“Tendala, it’s not that simple.”

“Maybe it should be.” Tendala thought, but instead he said nothing.

“Oh, this really itches.” Telena sat down her sarl and reached for her back.

Welcoming the interruption, Tendala tried to keep the subject changed. “You should go see Doctor

Marnal. He said there are simple medicines to alleviate the problem. Do you want me to set an

appointment for you? I’m seeing him later today myself.”


Telena didn’t fail to notice his avoidance. She knew he was trying to change the subject, but she didn’t

fully understand why. She also knew that when he didn’t wish to discuss something, then there was

little to be accomplished by pushing on. Tendala would then just remain silent.

He added, “I read something in the library recently about these nanoconstructors. It turns out that the

technology is not as complete as the UL wants. We Aldorians are the only members of UL who can be

converted to human form sufficiently well. All the others do not look human enough when they are

transformed. They tried. It is a significant factor they considered regarding asking us to join UL.”

“Really.” Telena sipped her sarl.

Tendala picked up his pen and busied himself practicing writing. He was developing mixed emotions

about the trip. He loved his position as primary editor, primary Keeper, of the books. It fed directly

into his deep interest in Aldorian history, and for that he was delighted. He found that the job required

him to spend considerable time in the library researching various topics, making certain that just the

right ones were added to the books. He was not the only one who appreciated the limited space in the

books. Not every topic suggested was accepted for inclusion. He was also deeply curious and

interested in their eventual involvement with Earth. He continued to recognize the historical significant

of their contribution to the whole affair.

One never knows ahead of time where research can lead. And, through his viewing of large numbers of

library viscoms, Tendala naturally ran across some which touched on the general subject of using

nanoconstructors for body transformation. He viewed them with the same interest as the others, trying

to decide if any of the information was something he wanted to discuss in the books. After awhile he

began to notice how much remained unknown related to the technology. That was not very disturbing

in itself. He understood how such a wide spectrum topic could be usefully applied while remaining

new and partly not yet understood. But, there seemed to be another tone which rang throughout the

many viscoms he watched. It was what he sensed was not being said which led to his concerns.

He couldn’t really pin it down, but he kept having a feeling in the back of his mind that there seemed

to be something which the UL was not making clear. Every time the viscoms ventured near something

specific he could not yet isolate, they would turn away and discuss other things, as if it were conscious

editing. It was about more than his vague reservations related to having children. If only he could make

his concerns more well defined. He knew he would have to continue thinking about it before the fog

would lift sufficiently well and when he would be ready to discuss it.

Inevitably, the talics passed and the Aldorians continued to transform into human form. Life on board

the Aldorella remained mostly uneventful. Another 13 talics passed as devalet 18 approached. Tendala

Kroll remained quietly skeptical and cautious about the trip while digging deeper with each passing

day into library viscoms. He remained unable to find clear evidence that something about the whole


business was not quite right, so he was unable to say anything convincing to anybody regarding his

concerns. His natural inclination was thus to remain silent until he could say more definitive things.

One day in the library he ran across Doctor Marnal. “What brings you here?” he asked. He knew the

AI-bots all had perfect recall and complete knowledge of every viscom in the library.

“I am adding new viscoms related to your transformations.”

It had not occurred to Tendala that the library was incomplete and the AI-bots continued during the trip

to deposit new information. “New viscoms?”

“Yes. As the trip progresses, some information would not make sense to be here until you become

more aware of such matters during your stay on board. We contribute more explanations and

background knowledge along the way.”

Tendala found this odd. How could it matter if advanced information or discussions of future trip

conditions were already to be found here? Why would anybody have a problem with viewing

information before it became relevant, whatever that might mean? It also then occurred to him to

wonder just how much more knowledge the AI-bots and hence the UL possessed regarding the trip

which was not readily available to those on board.

Fear of the unknown. The less one understands an issue, the more threatening it can seem. Tendala

couldn’t help but feel less confident about what lay ahead. But, what could he do about it? What could

he say to Doctor Marnal which might tease out more information which might clarify his concerns? “I

am interested in the transformation of our KBE into human KBE. If you are still adding viscoms to the

library, perhaps there are ones related to my interests which are not yet deposited.” If anything was

actually known but not documented, Marnal surely would be aware of it.

Marnal said, “All we know about human KBE is here. The nanoconstructors are turning your KBE into

human KBE.”

“As well as they can you mean. I understand this is not one hundred percent complete. Some errors

remain, but are thought to be minor.”

“That is correct.”

“Then,” Tendala asked, “is everything known about such errors already in the library?”


What was it Marnal was not saying? Tendala remained skeptical that all relevant documentation was

already on deposit. “So, everything you know about KBE and the transformation is here already?”



Tendala stared at Marnal not sure what to say next. He remained silent for several seconds as Marnal

stayed frozen in place, waiting for a cue that the conversation had ended so he could go on about his

business. “So, what is the new information you are adding now?”

“It is about the transformation.”

“But, not about KBE?”


“Can you be more specific?”

“Yes. As you transform more into human beings, you will experience changes in your mental

awareness, knowledge, and your basic senses. There are viscoms already here regarding this. I am

adding more related information. They are related to behaviors, not KBE.”

“Like how food will taste, or what makes me happy or sad? I have seen viscoms about that.”


Every time Marnal responded with that statement, Tendala felt increasingly uneasy. It began to sound

very much like a disguised response. A way of telling the truth, but not really offering a more accurate

or complete answer. He considered continuing with questions which might tease out more satisfying

results, but he was growing frustrated enough to break away from the interaction. If Marnal was

actually hiding something, Tendala knew these AI-bots were artificially intelligent enough to continue

avoiding discussing what they wanted to avoid. He knew he couldn’t somehow trick Marnal into

revealing anything more than he already planned to. Besides, Tendala still didn’t really have a clear

understanding of what was troubling him. His suspicions remained mostly elusive and intuitive.

Nothing concrete enough to work with was yet apparent to him.

“Well, I appreciate the new viscoms,” Tendala said. “I will plan on viewing them soon.”

With that, he turned away from Marnal, who also then turned to continue submitting new viscoms at

one of the library communication ports.

“You are right,” Tendala said as he leaned closer to his wife’s face. “I do see it.”

Telena leaned back. “I first noticed it yesterday when I was in front of the mirror. I thought it was dirt I

missed washing away, but the closer I looked, the more it looked like it was part of me. And, then I

could see it also on the other eye, but not as pronounced.”


Tendala smiled, knowing what was going on and that Telena was not developing a problem. “They

will each grow a little larger. I read about it. It’s one of the first visible changes we can see associated

with human transformation. Aldorian eyes don’t have that little curved end, but humans do.”

Telena frowned. Suddenly the transformation seemed very real. The first visible sign that something

was actually going on. What had been so far only an academic discussion was now becoming a

physical reality. This was more than an occasional itch. She realized she wasn’t all that happy about it.

Tendala noticed. “It’s okay, love. It will happen to all of us. We are going to look more and more like

humans from now on.” He pulled out the printed image of what he would eventually look like. “Have

you been looking often at your target image?”

“No.” She looked directly at him. “I don’t like the way I will look. This is worse than itching.”

“I’m not real comfortable with my look either. But, they have made it clear we will grow used to it

and,” he held up his image, “it will help if you look at your future face regularly and often.”

“I know.” She shook her head slowly. “But, humans are so strange looking.”

Tendala looked at his target image for a moment and then put it away. “I miss working in the gardens.”

Telena looked up quickly and corrected his bad pronunciation. “Gardens.” She realized she also

mispronounced the word and she looked at Tendala with a surprised expression.

“Yeah, I noticed it also.” He was aware of a few words which he could no longer say exactly like he

used to. The transformations were beginning to change their vocal chords enough so they were just

starting to have trouble speaking certain Aldorian words.

Telena continued to stare at him. Then she said, “It’s starting to happen, isn’t it?”

“It’s been happening all along. It’s only now beginning to affect us in ways we will notice.” Before

Telena had a chance to grow more unhappy about it, he quickly tried to reassure her. “This is going to

be an adventure we will all talk about during Stria gatherings for talics to come. We’re in this together,

my love.” He paused to see if he had managed to cut off her declining attitude. “You know they have

told us that we should sign up for orientation meetings at the first signs we notice changes. It’s time.

Why don’t we go this morning to the library where the meetings are held? We should attend together.”

“Okay.” Telena felt somewhat less troubled knowing she would be accompanied through this with her

husband.

Tendala could see that he was distracting her enough to avoid her growing depressed over the whole

business. “The meetings will include lessons on how to begin converting from speaking Aldorian to

using Earth speak. You and I will learn to speak so-called English.”


Chapter 57

“What’s wrong with the sarl this morning? It tastes odd.” Kausis and Edan were sitting in their usual

cafe morning meeting place.

Edan gave Kausis a disapproving look. “You know the transformation will change the taste of a lot of

things we eat and drink. Why don’t you try this coffee instead?”

“I tried it. No thanks.”

“How about tea? People in the colonies also drink something called tea.”

“The colonies?”

“Yes, Kausis, the colonies! That is what they call the area near where we are going. Aren’t you

attending the orientation classes?” Edan scolded him for not being apparently well enough informed

about what was happening.

Kausis squirmed in his chair. “I learn what I need.”

“Well, maybe that’s not enough.” Edan tried to be more conciliatory. “Look, we are all changing. I’m

not a big fan of it either, but this isn’t really all that bad. And, you can always change your mind up

until the end of this trip.”

“No,” Kausis admitted. “It’s not that. I’m just now realizing how much we will change.” He pulled out

his target image and showed it to Edan. “I can’t get used to knowing I will soon look like this.”

Edan nodded, “I know. Humans do look peculiar.”

Kausis turned the image so he could look at it. Staring at it for a few seconds, he finally said, “How do

they know this is what I’ll look like?”

“They know. They designed the look and then they programmed the nanoconstructors to make you

look like that ultimately.” Edan pulled out his target image and showed it to Kausis. “They made all of

us going to Kentucky to look like humans there. So it looks like we belong to the same family. Don’t

you see the resemblance in the two of us?”

“A little. Both of us are ugly.”

“That’s not what I’ve been told. We’re actually designed to be fairly nice looking to other humans.”

Kausis shook his head and shuttered at the thought that this was supposed to be good looking. “Well, at

least now we can say the word family without sounding funny. But, now I’m having trouble saying

Stria. It seems really weird, don’t you think?”


“Yes,” Edan agreed. “Weird.”

Their vocal chords had now changed enough so they had trouble pronouncing many Aldorian words. It

had become easier to voice enough words in Earth speak, so they were now learning the languages of

their respective geographic targets. English for the American colonies, German for the European

family, and Chinese for the Asian family.

“But, I do like this sense of adventure.” Kausis decided to sound more upbeat. “I have no intention to

change my mind and go back home.”

“That’s good to hear. I think we all feel that way. I too want to see this through, and it will be nice for

you to be along also, my friend.”

The UL anticipated the possibility that some passengers to Earth might decide to not to go through

with the visit. Any of the 182 passengers were able to change their minds and return home as late as

when they arrived at Earth. In Aldorella’s storage were fifteen much smaller rocket ships, each capable

of carrying as many as 25. On board these craft were no facilities for awake passengers. Instead,

anybody returning to Aldoria would make the entire trip home in a suspended state of deep sleep while

a return set of nanoconstructors inside their bodies would transform them back to their original

biological state and appearance as Aldorians. They would arrive back home only five or so talics older

biologically, as if nothing else happened.

The UL planned for the possibility of any number wishing to return home prematurely, storing enough

return ships for such an extreme possibility. However, through careful examinations, tests, and

psychological evaluations, few were expected to change their minds. So far, ten light talics away from

Aldoria and just past devalet 18, not one Aldorian had changed his or her mind. All 182 on board were

committed to the adventure.

“Are you itching much? I sure am.”

Edan asked, “Who is your doctor?”

“Solentia. He gave me the medicine already , but it doesn’t stop all of the itching. It only works a little.

Sometimes it really is intense.”

“For me too.”

“You would think they could control this a little better.”

Edan wanted to scold Kausis more for apparently not attending the orientation meetings enough. If he

had, then he would understand the process better than he was indicating. But, he knew saying anything

critical would accomplish nothing really. “It’s very complicated changing Aldorian KBE into human

KBE. Every cell in your body has to be modified. First, the KBE in each one, and then all of the

remaining contents in each cell. A little itchiness from time to time is an unavoidable side effect. It’ll

go away soon enough.”

“When?”


“Around devalets 30 to 35. It varies with each individual. By then, we will be almost completely

human.”

“So, nearly twenty more talics!” Kausis reached for a shoulder and started scratching. “I can hardly

wait.”

“You really should use the medicine more and try not to scratch so much. It can cause permanent

marks. It won’t look good.”

“As if that will make a difference.”

There was no convincing him. So, Edan said no more about it and changed the subject. “My grandson

Tendala seems concerned about something else related to the transformations. He’s not sure we are

being told everything we should know.”

“What! What do you mean?”

“He thinks they haven’t told us everything about having children.”

“I thought it was okay to have children. Even breed with native humans, although I can’t imagine how

anybody would want to do that.”

“We can. That’s not what Tendala is concerned about. What bothers him is when he has tried to find

out about more about when it become time to return home and transform back into Aldorians. He can’t

find out what happens to the Earth born children.”

Kausis considered it only briefly. “Is that all? Sounds like nit picking to me.”

“That’s because you and I are older. You’re not going to have children while we are there. But, what

about the younger ones, like Tendala and his wife. Maybe they will want children while we are there.”

“We’re only going to be on Earth a couple of hundred talics. Just wait.”

“It’s not as simple as that. You know as well as I do the youthful ways. Not all of them are going to

wait. So, some are going to have new babies. Tendala is concerned. How will the babies get converted

to Aldorians? They were never Aldorians to begin with. How is that going to work?”

Kausis stopped scratching and actually started pondering the issue.

Edan continued. “If they are born human, can they even be transformed into Aldorians? Humans don’t

live thousands of talics like us. I’ve read they usually live only sixty to eighty talics. Do our babies

have only that long to live? Tendala’s trying to find out answers about such things and he is finding

nothing.”

“Maybe they don’t know.”

“Well, maybe. But, why wouldn’t they tell Tendala that when he asks? He doesn’t get answers of any

kind. He thinks they are avoiding the questions altogether.”


“So, he doesn’t trust them. Do you?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I’m not sure trust is the issue for Tendala. He’s very inquisitive. I think

he’s just frustrated that he has questions without answers.”

Kausis said under his breath, “I’m sure glad I’m not so young anymore.” He sipped his sarl and made

an immediate face as he put the cup back down. “Okay, I’ll try some tea.”


Chapter 58

UL and the Sparn had discovered scientific facts and developed technological marvels which were

several hundred years in advance of human beings. In a few special cases, Earth was more than one

thousand years behind UL. On Earth, radio waves had not been discovered, evolution was not yet a

described concept, and knowledge of DNA—the Aldorians called it KBE—was not remotely near,

with the human cell itself even barely recognized.

However, compared to the age of the universe and the development of life, one thousand years is not

much. While the Sparn had not yet discovered life evolved more than they were, the odds were against

them being the most advanced species possible. They held the record, however, in their known very

small neighborhood of the galaxy.

Certainly that did not mean they had solved all of the possible scientific questions, nor had they

developed the maximum perfect technologies. Like all intelligent societies, they too were climbing in

the middle of the infinite ladder of scientific knowledge and technological development. They had no

doubt there were others climbing somewhere above them, and already they had discovered a few dozen

societies below.

The technology of applying nanoconstructors to transform biological life forms into ones which were

different but still close in structure was working sufficiently well for the Aldorians to integrate silently

with human beings. It was a means to an end, a way for UL to learn enough about everyday life of

humanity in order to decide if Earth was a candidate for membership in UL.

But, the technology wasn’t perfect. There remained numerous opportunities to improve it. So, it had its

flaws, relatively minor ones, but good enough for the purposes at hand. Tendala Kroll came to realize

this. However, he remained keenly aware of unexplained parts related to what was was going on. The

more his interest developed in understanding as many of the related issues as he could, the more he

discovered which questions to ask. This only served to build frustration as he found less and less

information in Aldorella’s library which satisfied his curiosity. It was not helping him that the AI-bots

he tried to question about such missing information were not providing additional answers. He

couldn’t avoid thinking they were hiding things. He was unable to accept that known nanoconstruction

technology was perhaps as limited as it seemed.

By now, he had unanswered questions not only regarding new born children, but the structure of KBE

in Aldorians and especially in human beings. He didn’t know enough to understand why Aldorians

could be transformed into human form, but no other member of UL could. It wasn’t critical

information he should know, but for the most part only that which his natural interests led him to

desire.

The UL had learned enough about the biological structure of human beings and Aldorians so they were

able to program nanoconstructors to complete the transformative process on the 182 on board the


Aldorella. There were questions Tendala didn’t try to ask. How had the UL come to know the deep

biological structure of human beings well enough to be able to transform Aldorians? If they knew that

much, why were they still unable to decide the worthiness of Earth’s membership into UL?

As devalet 27 approached, just past half way into the trip to Earth, all of the passengers were now more

human than not. Most of their KBE and surrounding cellular structures had been converted as the tiny

nanobots started remodeling major body organs into human form. The process included transformation

of vocal chords. The transformations varied with each, but all of the Aldorians were forty to sixty

percent transformed by now.

Few Aldorians on the trip still were able to voice most Aldorian words correctly, or even well enough

for others to understand what they said. Vocal chords had become so human like, there was little

choice left but to forgo attempting to speak Aldorian and to learn Earth speak. The Kentucky family

began to study and practice English, while the European family studied a Germanic dialect appropriate

for their destination and the Asian family began learning basic Mandarin Chinese.

The effort to learn an entirely new language was easy enough for all of the passengers on Aldorella.

Aldorian was by far a more robust and elaborate language compared to almost any Earth speak.

Nevertheless, it remained enough of a challenge so everybody spent considerable time and energy

learning what they needed. Tendala found no exception to this, and he too had to focus significantly to

learn well enough. It even helped to relieve some of his ongoing consternation regarding answers he

could not find.

The Aldorians were not the only items on board Aldorella experiencing transformations. The

environment itself, the small world in which the Aldorians lived, was also undergoing a slow but

steady set of changes. Earth days were slightly longer than Aldorian days. As Aldorian bodies became

more human like, their day versus night biorhythms were changing also. So, the ship adjusted the

length of day, including the amount of artificial sun light provided in each cycle. Gravity on board the

ship also changed, adjusting gradually to that which the Aldorians would experience on Earth. Plants

started showing up which were found on Earth while natural Aldorian plants almost unnoticeably

started disappearing. The atmosphere also was slowly being modified to be more Earth like with each

passing day.

Aldorians on board who were associated with medical science were some of the first introduced to the

new Earth plants showing up in the village woods. One significant assignment the UL had requested

of the Aldorians was to attempt to locate and isolate natural plant based organic compounds which

showed promise regarding treatment of cancer, a common human disease. The medically trained

Aldorians had long understood how to use Aldorian plant chemistry in the application of attempts to

control or cure thris, the Aldorian disease most similar to cancer. If the UL eventually offered

membership to Earth, they wished to accompany their offer with a medical gift, applications of

treatments for cancer. The medically knowledgeable Aldorians were enlisted to search for such

treatments. However, they had to also learn how to accomplish their tasks using a limited set of tools

they would be allowed to take with them onto Earth’s surface. The less advanced technology they had

with them, the lower the risk of exposing their real nature to native human beings.


Aldorian senses were changing into that which was normal for human beings. And, their digestive

systems were becoming more like that of humans. So, smells and tastes were changing, and also the

available foods were becoming more like that eaten on Earth. Aldorians took cooking classes learning

how human beings prepared their foods. They were also introduced to Earth animals, held in storage in

a suspended medical sleep state until more appropriate recent times, while Aldorian flora and fauna

were gradually disappearing from Aldorella’s environment.

It seemed as if the UL had thought of everything. Tendala Kroll was not the only one to make this

observation. All the more reason he grew more suspicious of missing information, what he and his

family were not being told.

“It’s called baked beans,” Telena Kroll said.

Tendala took another bite. “I like it. Reminds me of pinard.”

“Like what?” Tendala pronounced the word pinard so badly, Telena didn’t know what he said.

He said another word, trying as best he could to articulate a sound which might sound like pinard

coming from his humanized vocal chords. Then he added, “Actually, I’m surprised I still remember the

word pinard,” once again pronouncing it very badly. “I’m aware that I have lost so much of my

Aldorian memory. They told us it would happen. But, it’s only now beginning to feel real. I don’t feel

prepared.”

Telena felt less troubled by the whole process than he did. Perhaps, she thought, it had something to do

with his extended library research about such things. What she was able to accept and adjust to without

explanation was what Tendala seemed to need as significant better knowledge. “Doctor Marnal told us

in plenty of time to prepare for this.”

Tendala said nothing. He understood. His lack of deeper knowledge was not limited to only this trip to

Earth. It was inherent in him. While so many around him seemed to live life with less detailed

comprehension of their world as they lived each day, he had never been known to live in such a

manner. He was always curious, finding a lack of knowledge a sore point in his life. Each gap in his

knowledge became a challenge to fill with new information.

Telena returned to discussing Earth food. “Tomorrow I will try to make something called pease

porridge. We were told in cooking class that it is popular in the colonies.”

“I look forward to it,” Tendala said truthfully. “I think I like Earth food.”

Telena enjoyed cooking. She always did. So did Tendala, but his passion for study of human society in

the library together with being the primary editor of their family books made him feel short of time


enough to add another significant effort to his daily activities. He contented himself to sharing time

with Telena including eating the food she prepared, and when both of them attended classes where

they learned about everyday life of human beings on Earth and in the Kentucky area specifically.

Then he remembered something. “I’ll be late tomorrow. There’s an editor’s meeting. We’re trying to

resolve some new problems with the books.”

“New problems?”

“It’s caused by our losing the ability to remember Aldorian group script grammar. It’s really strange.”

The AI-bots also had prepared them for this. They held presentations describing how the Aldorians

would not only lose the ability to speak their native language, but to some extent as their brains

restructured into that of humans, they would also not be able to even think very well in Aldorian. They

would more naturally start thinking in terms of the new languages they were learning, English, German,

or Chinese.

Knowledge of the deeper grammar of Aldorian group script was degrading. If one cannot pronounce

the words in a language, including the brain’s inability to process them, then it is lost. The Aldorians

were still able to recall the basic written symbols used, including the additive semantic scripting

overlays which supported the group scripting abilities. But, recalling the actual meanings which script

characters represented grew troubling. The AI-bots insisted the Aldorians continue to use the character

set used in group script, but to redefine their meanings to fit the Earth languages they were learning.

This would help continue to hide what they were writing from accidental prying human eyes. The

editors of the family books were now holding frequent meetings to develop common Earth like

meanings to their script writing. They were learning to write native Earth thoughts but with Aldorian

group script characters. They were inventing a character substitution code, perhaps more complicated

than simple substitution cyphers, but not nearly as complicated as group script.

All three families had completed the first two books of their respective volumes, which focused in each

case on Aldorian history as they remembered it and designated important. They were all now writing

in book three where they described the trip to Earth and their transformations. By the end of book three

in each family, they would be writing mostly in native human languages, but using Aldorian scripting.

They were inventing a new language as each day passed, an unusual mixture of Aldorian and Earth

languages.

“It doesn’t mean you will stop writing?” Telena asked.

“No. Not that. But, the AI-bots have suggested we adopt Aldorian group script symbols to represent

Earth speak words and phrases and write in the books that way. So, our meetings are to define this new

writing.”

Telena was pleased to hear this. She understood it would divert Tendala’s curiosity from questions

about children and human KBE, curiosity which all too often ventured into obsession. Working on the

redefinition of the language used in the books distracted him.


Telena said, “I haven’t been learning this new way to write. I won’t be able to read what you are

writing.”

“You’re not alone. Even those of us who are working at it are finding it more difficult to read what we

wrote in the first two books.” Tendala shook his head. “We’re becoming only keepers, not users.”


Chapter 59

As devalet 33 began, the Aldorella had traveled more than 18 light talics from Aldoria. Nearly 54 talics

had passed since the Aldorians on board had begun their 81 talic trip. Nine light talics away from its

destination, the Aldorella was still so far from Earth’s solar system, its sun remained just another speck

in the sky. Only one star among thousands surrounding it in the galaxy. Earth was barely visible and

even then only with the aid of powerful telescopes on board the space ship. That didn’t prevent

Tendala Kroll from standing before one of the large viewports facing their destination and staring

toward where their home would be for the next—how long? How many talics would they finally

remain on Earth? Would they discover the information the UL desired so an informed decision could

be made regarding an invitation for UL membership? Would the humans accept their presence?

What stories would they tell their children when they returned home? Tendala thought again about

what he didn’t know. He hadn’t thought about it recently, having gone for so long now with no

answers. For the most part, he had given up trying to know. He also recognized the less than realistic

nature of his curiosity. He knew of no Aldorians on board who were actually going to have children

anytime soon. A few thought seriously but briefly about it, but none went any further. Pregnancy was

still not possible among the females on board the Aldorella. The myriad unknowns about the trip

together with deep sense of adventure pushed family plans well off the table.

It crossed Tendala’s mind suddenly that perhaps he should stop calling those on board Aldorians. They

were all now almost fully human. What little work the nanoconstructors had left to do seemed almost

silly after thoughts. Like creating hair on forearms. Humans were considerably more hairy than

Aldorians. The lack of as much hair as males on female arms was balanced by longer and denser hair

on their heads. Despite the strange look of humans, most on board were actually growing comfortable

with their appearances.

Soon the nanoconstructors would finish their job and they would then die—if that was the proper word

to describe the inert state they would take on followed by decaying or dissolving into trash their host

bodies would then clean away in a matter of days through normal biological processes.

As Aldorella approached its destination, the realities of Earth were emerging and becoming Aldorian

realities. Everybody paid far better attention lately in orientation classes held by the AI-bots. Now it

mattered.

Not only were the Aldorians—the humans—physically and medically becoming ready for life on Earth,

but their mental state was accepting their new condition sufficiently well. It was starting to feel as if

they had always been human beings. The ship’s environment also was so completely converted to that

of Earth, it had become a game among a few of the passengers to look for anything in the woods which

was still native Aldorian. Or, more correctly, those objects which didn’t seem naturally Earth like.


Assuming they could remember enough about being Aldorian to recall what Aldorian flora and fauna

looked like.

“I thought you were on your way to another book editor’s meeting.” Telena Kroll approached Tendala.

Turning to see, he said, “I am. I just stopped here to take a look.” He turned back to the view port and

Telena joined him.

After a quiet pause as the two stared out into space, Telena said, “I like our new names. They sound—

uh—pretty.”

“Pretty?”

“Perhaps it’s better to say peaceful. I don’t know. But, doesn’t Lawrence and Martha Allen sound right

to you when you say it?” She and Tendala had chosen their English first names from a long list of

possibilities. The family name Allen was one of three selected by majority agreement among those

headed for Kentucky. They would be the Allens, the largest group, but also last names Miller and

Abbott were chosen by others. The families going to Europe and Asia had chosen appropriate names to

fit their destinations. Most of the Europeans had selected Hahn, Bauer, and Wagner, while the Asians

selected Zhou, Wang, Zhong, and Qin.

Tendala rubbed his new Earthly chin as he thought about it and then realized he never did that as an

Aldorian. “Yes, I suppose it does feel right.” He paused and turned to his wife and smiled. “Martha.”

He could now no longer easily pronounce their Aldorian names. Almost every time he spoke recently,

it was in English. It was true also for Telena and the others on board the Aldorella.

Telena—Martha—leaned her head against Lawrence’s shoulder. “We’re almost there,” she said calmly

as she stared out into the blackness of space.

“Almost.” Lawrence paused. “This will be momentous.”

“Momentous?”

“It’s a new word I learned. It means important or significant. I’m to practice using it.” Evidently he

still needed more practice.

Lawrence had a far better understanding of the significance of what they were doing than Martha. She

fully appreciated the sense of adventure in which they participated, but she thought no more deeply

about it than most of the others going. Lawrence was an exception. Few had given it as much

consideration as he, typical of his penchant for more complete analysis of most situations in which he

was involved.

He had not given up entirely on trying to understand more about the ramifications of having Earth born

children and how it all related to human KBE. He only talked about it less with others. He continued to

suspect that new babies would be more human than most realized. They would never have known

Aldoria. They would never have been Aldorians. When they returned home—would they want to

return home—where was their home? When they returned, they would be converted into Aldorian


form, but whose? They would not have an Aldorian identity. How was that going to work? The current

passengers had all been deeply scanned and medically sampled by the UL while they were still

Aldorians; that information would drive new nanoconstructors during the return trip which could

concert them back to their original forms as if nothing had ever happened to change that.

What about aging? His continuing unsatisfied curiosity had turned into concerns. Just how long were

they protected from aging? How good was UL technology? How would it work? Would eventually the

protection wear away and they might then age and die? On Earth?

He had largely given up trying to involve others with his concerns. Mostly such efforts resulted in

nothing more than irrational reaction by anybody who listened. But, most didn’t relate to his concerns.

They were too intoxicated by the sense of adventure, too confident in the grand technology which was

the Aldorella and the medical technology which included the nanoconstructors. What was there to

mistrust? Had not the UL thought of everything? It seemed like nobody other than he had noticed any

serious flaw in the implementation of the entire adventure.

And, adventure was exactly what everyone sensed. It was inherent in the personalities of any who had

qualified for the trip. Doubters were among only those who remained on Aldoria. Lawrence found no

reasonably sympathetic ears. What little anyone paid attention to, they were readily able to dismiss his

concerns as over reacting to minor problems. There were a handful of friends who listened, but even

among them, none felt the concerns he had. As the talics passed, the lack of real concerns beyond his

own softened his own trepidations and allowed him to entertain also the possibility that he was being

alarmist. So, he had slowly turned to being quieter about it all. But inside, his doubts and curiosities

remained.

“Kentucky sounds nice.” Martha’s comment broke Lawrence from his silent thoughts.

“It does. The images of the forest area they showed us are beautiful.” He then added, “They chose a

fairly isolated place.” He referred to the fact that what was then known about Kentucky indicated that

at this time, few humans inhabited most of it. Nearby Indian tribes treated most of Kentucky as a

fruitful place to hunt, but they were generally not inclined to build many villages there. And, very few

English colonists still had ventured often into the largely unexplored and uncharted region.

Then Martha said, “I watched an interesting viscom this morning at the library.” Lawrence was

certainly not the only one using the library to acquire further knowledge about their destination.

“What was it about?”

“Human beings have belief systems called religions.”

“Religions?”

“Evidently they assign greater importance to their religion than almost anything else they believe.

They even allow themselves to believe things which contradict obvious logic.”

“How do they manage that?”


“They explain away the conflict by saying it is the way of God, that they are mere mortals and

incapable of understanding.”

“Is God their leader? Of the whole planet?”

“No, not like that. They have many, and it seems that none live on the planet. The viscom indicated

that precious few have even ever seen them or spoken directly with them using viscoms or some other

communication technology. Basically, it seems that when they want to talk with their God, they just

talk out loud wherever they are and somehow God hears them.”

“Huh!” Lawrence didn’t really understand. “How can that be? Everything I’ve learned indicates that

human technology is not very advanced.”

“I don’t know. But, it seems that not all humans believe in the same God. Most humans are quite

emotional about it. The viscom made it clear that it is not a good idea to challenge anybody about

which God they follow—if that’s the right way to describe what they do.”

“Challenging their belief actually causes problems?”

“Yes. Sometimes extreme trouble develops. Humans have even started wars over their differing beliefs

in God. One possible explanation is that humans believe they were constructed or created by these

Gods, and evidently each human does not trust humans created by one of the other Gods. The mistrust

is so deep, they will fight each other to the death.”

Lawrence mulled that over. “That means they would not enjoy our trying to explain what we know,

that we all came into existence through natural adaptive biological processes.”

“That’s right. The viscom clearly stated that they will not react kindly to it. They really won’t even

understand much of what you attempt to explain. In fact, when we arrive on Earth, almost nobody will

yet have a name for this process. The concept will mostly still not yet be known.”

“How do they explain so many natural phenomenon?”

“As miracles or spontaneous results of actions of God. You must understand that it is a very common

trait of humans to believe that if something is very complicated, or so complicated they do not yet

understand it, then that is proof to them that there is no logical explanation for it, and thus, it must exist

merely due to the omnipotent actions of God.”

“So, for example, they have no logical explanation for how sight exists?”

“That’s right. God created sight as only one tiny part of the almost instantaneous creation of the entire

human being, all at once from what they call dust. They will not expect or even desire an attempt to

explain it scientifically. Depending on how you made such an attempt, they might become violent as a

reaction.”

“That is hard to believe.” Lawrence slowly turned his head from side to side.


“It’s true. There are historical events of which we are aware when humans have gone so far as to wage

war against other humans only because they disagreed with each other about their religions.”

“So, they have a lot of religions. Many differing beliefs. That alone should help them understand they

might be flawed in their thinking.”

“Indeed. But, it doesn’t happen. Actually, they have even more religions than the number of their Gods.

Humans can have differing religions, but the same one God. And, humans who believe one of those

religions are sometimes actually constantly in extreme hatred of humans who believe something else.

As I said, they are willing to kill over it. They will sometimes actually proclaim that God expects them

to kill.”

“This is hard to understand.”

“There are exceptions. Sometimes humans with one religious belief will attempt to convert or persuade

others to believe the same thing, to give up on their own beliefs. These humans are called missionaries.

They even attempt to persuade humans who learned as children what they believe.”

“Don’t they understand how strong early learning beliefs can be?”

“No. They really don’t understand that something like early learning even exists.”

“Humans are so primitive. Perhaps we are well served by not discussing these matters at any time with

them.”

“I agree. We will not be missionaries.”

Lawrence continued to contemplate the conversation. Then he added, “This sounds like something

which could lead to UL quarantine.” He considered that UL might use this understanding of humans to

decide to use their energy to lock Earth’s solar system away forever. He realized that this was one of

the more important issues which needed deeper understanding, if he and his family were to provide UL

with appropriate and sufficient information so they could make an informed decision regarding Earth’s

future.

Lawrence and Martha fell silent as the two stood close together staring out the visual port with mixed

anticipation and excitement. Curiosity drove their desire to arrive soon at their destination and begin

their quest to understand better the alien life forms they had become.


Chapter 60

“Fair morning, my love.” Lawrence said, looking up from his cup of coffee.

Martha smiled. “You mean good morning, I think.”

“I’m still having trouble with some of this.”

“That’s not new. You also spoke Aldorian in odd ways.”

“I don’t remember that.” He marveled at her ability to recall some things. His own memories of being

Aldorian were nearly all faded or invisible. “You say that like it was a long time ago.”

“It was.”

“It does feel like it.” He spoke softly.

“Are you meeting with Jonathan today?” Martha asked about Lawrence’s father. His father was Makail,

married to Sandil who was now named Sara Allen. Jonathan was a member of the

Intercommunications Committee, a group of representatives from each of the three Earth bound groups

headed for Kentucky, Germany, and China. Jonathan had taken the effort to learn both English and

German. He was one of the multilingual passengers aboard Aldorella who participated in the

committee.

“I am. The committee he is on have come up with an interesting idea. They have decided to create

special pieces of jewelry, one piece for each family.” Lawrence was ready to bring it up if Martha

didn’t. He had some news he was anxious to share with her.

“You’re involved with creating these jewels?”

“In a small way. The committee he is on is going to meet with us to discuss it. They have a very rough

plan, but they are not happy with it. We will all try to design something we like.”

“You’ve already seen a design?”

“Yes, what there is of it. We are hoping we will finish the design this week.”

“What is it like?”

“The jewel will be what is called on Earth a medallion which is meant to be worn hanging from one’s

neck.” He explained more. “The design is to include twenty-one symbols, the official UL symbols

which represent each member, including Aldoria. But, the arrangement of them is still not decided.

The idea is that the medallion will also have an unused blank area. That will represent the unfulfilled

hope that one day Earth, called Situs 22 by UL, would become the next member of UL. If Earth

becomes an UL member, only then would a symbol for it be designed.”


Martha contemplated briefly what Lawrence said. “A medallion. Only three?”

“Yes, one for each family.” He stared at her with a slight smile, waiting for the obvious.

It took a moment, but Martha then realized. “So, who will have this medallion? The Keepers in each

family?”

“No. The medallion is meant to be worn. A female member of the family will have that honor. Human

women wear such items and usually not men.”

Martha realized what Lawrence was hinting at. She looked more directly and inquisitively at him,

remaining silent.

“Yes, my love, you will be the one to wear it in our family.”

A rush of warmth flushed across her face and she looked away uneasily as she failed to prevent her

growing smile. It was an honor she realized. Was she really the appropriate choice? She could quickly

think of other worthy candidates for this. “I don’t know ...”

“The two of us are the Kentucky family representatives. We didn’t ask to do it, we were selected by

our family. It’s an honor. The medallion is yours to wear, for all to see. It is recognition of the trust

everybody has placed in us. In you. It will remind us every day why we are doing this.”

“Why not jewels for all of us?”

“They will be made out of something humans call gold. It’s fairly rare and expensive. There is not

enough on board to make that many medallions. It wasn’t anticipated.” On Aldoria, gold is called

terundulite. Martha would know the word, but becoming human with human vocal chords now

prevented him from being remotely successful at saying it.

“Maybe some other material would work. Something which is enough.”

“That was considered, but nobody thought of a good alternative. This gold is very durable and it is a

very common metal used to make jewelry on Earth. And, it will not raise suspicions.”

The week of devalet 40 started shortly after the Keepers and Intercommunications Committee

concluded their medallion design meetings. The final design had not been accomplished because

nobody there was experienced enough in jewelry making to understand what kinds of design elements

could be sufficiently well fabricated in gold. No actual jewelers were on board. It was decided that

those who showed enough interest would make construction experiments until they came upon a

design which worked. In the meantime, the Keepers proceeded with documentation but without a


design, which did not include a drawing in the books. They did, however, include a descriptive listing

of the twenty-one UL member symbols.

Early in devalet 40, Lawrence and his fellow editors, all of the Keepers, were called to a meeting with

Ponteal, the main AI-bot on Aldorella. The meeting was to consist of only one announced agenda item,

KBE.

Lawrence was anxious and happy about the meeting, and rushed to the meeting room in the library the

day it was planned. With KBE the only agenda item, he felt it was one of his best chances to illuminate

his own long held concerns about KBE and how it would be compatible enough with the human form

to support his concerns regarding new borns. And, other unanswered questions he had. He was

determined to make sure his issues were addressed.

Arriving before anybody only served to intensify his anxiety. Now he had no choice but to wait for all

the others. So he paced. And, he thought about his concerns. He decided that his strategy would be one

of a soft approach. He would wait for Ponteal to start the meeting as planned. The discussions of KBE

and whatever Ponteal wished to present first would proceed as planned. He knew he had to be patient

enough for everybody in the room to become focused on the agenda before he could gain sympathy.

With enough like minded thoughts building up in the room, however, he believed it would be more

difficult for Ponteal to avoid his issues.

Slowly, more slowly than Lawrence enjoyed, other Keepers started showing up. As he sat quietly—he

found it difficult thinking of any reasonable small talk—he looked around the room at the others while

they chatted with each other.

As he stared at the others, he began to realize just how non-Aldorian they all looked. They had become

completely human, and he smiled slightly as he realized they no longer looked weird to him. He too

was now human. As human as he would be. Had he really participated in all of this? And, the others?

He considered how much human appearances varied more than he seemed to think Aldorians did. The

differences in facial structure for the Chinese were noticeably distinct from that of himself. Why, he

wondered, would that be the case? What biological adaptations would bring this about? Were

environmental conditions at differing places on Earth so varied it might cause such variations?

He entertained the idea that perhaps the Chinese were not exactly the same species of human as he.

And while the Germans were also not exactly like him, maybe they were closer as a species than the

Chinese. Might they also be yet another kind of human? He thought that these differences might help

explain why humans seemed to have such a lengthy history of mistrust against each other. Can you feel

as close to somebody who looks so different from yourself?

Never mind there were actually no differences, only insignificant external ones. He didn’t really

understand that. Adding to that his knowledge now of how varied religions on Earth contributed so

often to human strife, it was small wonder they didn’t get along with each other. Strike one against

humanity.

Maybe UL membership for Earth was destined to never happen.


He considered further that now he was a human, wouldn’t he share the same emotions and prejudices

as a real human? A brief and disturbing moment passed as he thought about what he might know from

studies in the library related to this idea. He then remembered what he had read, that such emotions

and beliefs are learned. They are not biologically naturally occurring. This was not built into human

KBE. Humans were taught from childhood to hate, to be prejudiced, to care less for other human life

than those of their own kind. They were taught as children that there were other kinds of humans, that

not all humans were the same.

How could a handful of Aldorian humans deal with so many real humans who thought such things? In

part, they didn’t have to deal with it directly. Certainly, it was not their job to teach humans some other

way to think. They were going to Earth to study, to document, and to report to UL what humans were

like. Humans decided human fate, Aldorians were only observers. It became more clear to him that one

of the reasons they would settle in an area not heavily populated was to minimize having to deal daily

with human beliefs. But, they would still be close enough to humans to discover the knowledge they

sought.

Maybe this trip was destined to be a fruitless exercise. Had the 182 Aldorians on board been wasting

their time? They had sacrificed so much to do this. A great experience and adventure, of course, but

perhaps for an end which was not to be. There remained, however, a kernel of Aldorian mind

embedded deep within his human brain, so he realized he could not accept the impossibility of Earth’s

future. He believed it was his job—a responsibility for all 182 on board—to try to find and justify the

same future freedom they enjoyed.

He thought about the 65 talics they had spent on the trip already. It crossed his mind that they had been

provided for with so much comfort and reminders of home. But, where now was home? Still it seemed

to him it was not very natural to be confined for so long. The Aldorella embodied UL technology

which was exceptionally advanced, and yet it remained an extreme limitation on what they could do.

They had traveled a mere 28 light talics. That was nothing compared to the 123,000 light talics across

the entire galaxy. Would technology ever be possible to make it feasible to travel such gigantic

distances? Did it even make sense? Would travelers then exist who lived their entire lives on board

gigantic space ships headed for new destinies? Would this ever become a proper place to live or raise a

family?

The meeting room was nearly full and Ponteal entered. Lawrence stopped daydreaming and watched as

Ponteal began. Lawrence glanced one more time around the room, wondering if his attempt to discuss

his concerns would succeed. The three languages spoken around the room required all of the attendees

to wear language translators. They would hear and speak through them. That seemed already a barrier.

Ponteal began speaking in a fourth language, his own native AI-bot speak. No point in not doing so.

Everything spoken had to be translated. So many languages. That surely didn’t help humans get along

more. “We have added the last of the viscoms associated with KBE to the library. Anybody is

welcome to make use of them. They contain the remainder of everything we know about KBE at this

time. You will note a few relevant areas are still unknown.”


Lawrence doubted the new viscoms would contain information regarding his concerns. Ponteal

continued. “I will not directly address here too many details related to the library viscoms, unless

someone asks something. My goal today is to inform and discuss a specific item about KBE you have

in your bodies which everybody should know. Tomorrow the daily news viscom will contain a more

brief explanation for everybody. And, it will suggest anybody should contact those of you who are here

now if they have questions. As Keepers, you will remain the primary contact and communication link

between the others in your groups and UL.”

Ponteal stopped for a moment and scanned the room, making sure everybody was present who had

been requested to attend. “You are requested to document in your books what we discuss now so future

members of your families will have a source for this information.”

Lawrence straightened in his chair. That was the first time he recalled hearing anything said by any AI-

bot which remotely touched on the subject of future family members. New born children. He

considered bringing up the subject now, but quickly rejected it. That was not enough. The meeting

attendees would not yet be sufficiently engaged. But, now he felt more certain he would look for the

opportunity before the meeting ended. As he thought about the moment, Ponteal had continued talking.

Evidently he had been describing something about the structure of KBE. Lawrence started listening

more carefully.

“... and these four basic stranoids are always paired in this same manner. There are over three billion of

these stranoid pairs in human KBE, quite similar to that of Aldorian KBE. All of the details are

presented in the library viscoms, if any of you wish to know more. What I will discuss today focuses

mostly on one aspect of these stranoid pairs. You will see that this is important, something all of you

will want to know. That is why this meeting is being recorded and broadcast right now for every

passenger on the Aldorella to view. If any passenger has more questions later, I rely on those of you in

this meeting to manage communication of such concerns with me. And, I will again mention that it is

important that you document in your books this special feature of human KBE.”

“As Aldorians, you and humans share three common traits with all living species which UL has

examined, and on every planet where UL has explored sufficiently well. These traits have been found

so far in every one of over one billion species of life UL has cataloged so far.”

“First, every living being which has a cell structure as its primary construction paradigm has within

these cells some form of KBE. The only known living exceptions are a handful of pre-cellular based

forms, all of those are very primitive.”

“Second, while KBE fundamental composition can vary greatly from one species to the next, every

known KBE structure examined so far—all one billion—contains parts which are ancient in terms of

historical biological adaptation. That is, there are always present parts of the KBE which seem to no

longer serve direct primary participation in the current living being. These parts are called dormant

strings, and do not easily get rejected through generations of each species. They appear to remain quite

stable, remaining unchanged through generations, as if they are ignored during cell division and

reproduction, just passed along unchanged each time. There are sufficient details discussing such


matters in the library viscoms. It is not important to go into that here. All that matters right now is to

inform you that such dormant strings always exist and they remain highly stable, not easily mutated

through normal biological reproductions.”

“The third trait all cell based life forms share related to dormant strings, is that through many

experiments, it seems to have no impact on any life form if any of these dormant strings are artificially

modified in certain ways. UL has learned how to make specific and well defined modifications of these

dormant strings which have no effect. Specifically desired substrings of these millions of dormant

strings can be constructed.”

Ponteal paused, apparently waiting for what he said to be considered. Lawrence understood everything

Ponteal said. In fact, he was already aware of some of this information from watching library viscoms.

The modification of dormant strings was news to him, but he didn’t see why this was important enough

to discuss now. He would ask nothing yet. He looked around the room at other attendees, trying to

detect confusion. There were some misunderstandings as one or two asked simple questions. He waited

for Ponteal to answer and continue.

“You have all known that you will likely remain on Earth for an unknown length of time, but probably

more than one or two hundred years.” Ponteal used the human word “year” instead of “talic.” One

Earth year was slightly longer than 1.2 talics. “In each and every one of you, there is now embedded in

your KBE particular well defined artificial strings which have been constructed in seven hundred

different locations among the dormant strings. Every passenger on the Aldorella now carries these

special coded strings resting in these seven hundred KBE locations in every living cell in your bodies.”

That made Lawrence pay more attention. Where was Ponteal going with this?

“UL knowledge of nanotechnology has been used to transform each of you into human form. This

same knowledge will be used to keep your aging from being a problem. The modified dormant strings

support an effective recovery strategy. These strings were embedded into your KBE during the medical

exams you had in devalet one. It was then when we were able to record a description of every cell in

each of your bodies. During every subsequent devalet we have examined these modified strings and

observed their structures for unwanted changes. None have occurred.”

Lawrence squinted at Ponteal with confused and cautious concern. Why did he say recovery strategy?

As if they would be aging after all. His understanding was that they would not age. He waited for more

explanation.

“As you know, when your visit to Earth ends and your return home proceeds, UL nanotechnology will

be used to transform each of you back to your original Aldorian state, close enough so you will have

effectively aged only a few years. The modified dormant strings will have played a crucial role in that

recovery.”

Lawrence noted Ponteal said recovery again. Enough! In his growing frustration, he could no longer

just sit there. Standing, he almost demanded, “Wait! You keep saying recovery. I understand that word

indicates a process of regaining something lost. What are we losing? Are we going to be aging after


all?” He suddenly realized what that might imply. Hesitantly he dared ask. “Are we actually going to

age and die as humans?”

That brought on silence throughout the room. Several stared at Lawrence with surprise. Others turned

to Ponteal, clearly wanting a response.

Raising his voice, Lawrence asked more loudly, “Are we going to die?”

As if he expected this to happen, Ponteal showed no special reaction to Lawrence’s demanding tone. It

was just what a robot would do. Calmly he started talking as if he was only continuing to explain what

he planned. “The seven hundred coded strings, along with the rest of the KBE in each cell, completely

defines every significant property or aspect of that cell beyond what is coded by the KBE itself. With

that information, the entire cell can be constructed to be a duplicate of the original. If the KBE with the

embedded coding is collected from a sufficient number of your cells, especially the cells of your brain,

then a clone of yourself can be constructed which is you. It is by this process, using your KBE with the

embedded messages, both from devalet one together with your most recent KBE, that nanobots can

reconstruct each of you. You will be returned to the Aldorian state you were effectively in when you

started this trip.”

“A clone! A duplicate? Not the original?” Lawrence took a deep breath. “You are not telling us

something. What is going on?” A few others in the room grunted in support of Lawrence’s objections.

“You will be living on Earth among human beings. Humans grow old and die. Consider what would

happen to you if none of you grew older in that environment. UL technology has devised a way for it

to look as if you grow old and die, but you will not, and on your trip home you will be transformed

back into your Aldorian selves.” Ponteal looked directly at Lawrence. “Do you wish to appear to

natural humans as not being natural?”

Ponteal paused, waiting for Lawrence and the others to actually start thinking about not aging

surrounded by others who did. Lawrence did think about it. He realized he had never considered the

issue. How would that look to real humans? It was immediately obvious to him how this would surely

be a serious problem. He couldn’t think of what to say next, but the expression on his face made it

clear that he was troubled over this new thought.

Ponteal repeated what he had just said. “UL has devised a way for it to appear to natural humans that

each of you is aging, growing old, and then dying, just like them. Back here on the Aldorella you will

be fully transformed back into the state you were in when you started this trip.”

Then he continued. “Upon the appearance of your death, blood and tissue samples should be collected

and stored in this.” He held up a small metal, tubular canister which was a little larger than both of

one’s fists held together. “All of you will learn how to take the samples. This container includes a

supply of nanobots which are programmed to take care of the contents once it has been filled.”

Everybody in the room remained motionless and silent. They were trying to process what Ponteal was

saying.


“As you know, you will be able to communicate with the Aldorella at any time during your stay on

Earth. The Aldorella will remain parked on the moon. Whenever you have a freshly filled entity pod,

contact the Aldorella and a transport will arrive as soon as possible. You will then put the entity pod

and the deceased body into the transport and it will be returned to here for recovery.”

What Ponteal described was so unexpected, Lawrence was lost for anything to say. He was frozen by

an overload of such surprising information, he could not begin to formulate a response. Why, he

wondered, had they waited until this late to explain how this was actually going to work? How was it

going to work? He didn’t really yet comprehend what this all meant. He had no choice but to wait for

more.

“If, for any reason, the body itself is not able to be returned, the entity pod alone will be sufficient to

facilitate recovery.” Ponteal paused a moment and then looked directly at Lawrence. “I am aware of

your concerns for new borns during your stay on Aldoria. I am prepared now to talk about this.”

“What!” Lawrence blurted involuntarily. He had momentarily forgotten.

“When two of you have a child, as you probably know, KBE from each parent is combined to yield the

KBE the child will have. The seven hundred artificially coded messages will also combine and remain

embedded in the child’s KBE. There will be mutations, of course, in both the natural KBE, but also in

the coded messages. We do not expect degradation of purpose to be significant. So, if a child grows

old enough and passes, you should handle them in the same manner. Collect blood and tissues for an

entity pod, and contact the Aldorella.”

Ponteal continued without pause, as if what he just said was sufficient to explain away Lawrence’s

concerns. “If one of you mates with a natural human, however, the lack of modified KBE in that

human will mean the child’s KBE will have much greater chances of strongly mutated encoded

dormant strings. Recovery techniques in this case will be far more problematic.”

Lawrence was stunned by all of this new information, but the picture was growing more clear. Yes, the

Aldorians would grow old and die. Yes, children would inherit similar protection, especially children

of two Aldorians. But, even in unusual cases, desired transformation would be possible. It depended on

the living Aldorians to successfully collect what was needed for an entity pod. And, to some extent, it

also depended on preservation of the body.

As Ponteal explained in more depth, Lawrence and the others remained mostly silent, still trying to

process all of this new information. It was so unexpected.

During devalet one, nanobots inside each Aldorian had first inserted the seven hundred coded strings

into the KBE in every cell in every Aldorian. Then they recorded a full copy of the entire KBE

molecule from every cell and delivered the data to a receiver temporarily connected to each Aldorian.

At the end of the process, which took most of one day, a computer on the Aldorella then contained a

description of the entire KBE in every Aldorian cell on board the ship, along with a small container

associated with each passenger containing tissue samples and blood. It was enough data and samples to

almost fully describe the entire being.


Another container for each Aldorian was also filled. It was the most important part, consisting of a

complete description of each Aldorian's brain. Called a neural map, each container was for all practical

purposes a clone of an Aldorian brain. This container held a copy of the Aldorian brain complete

enough to allow for a brain transplant.

The Aldorians knew these collections had been taken. They understood it was important to have them

in order to successfully transform each passenger back to the same state they were in at the start of this

trip. Without these aids, a transformed human could be transformed back into an Aldorian, but it was

near certainty that the resulting Aldorian would not be the same as before. In some cases, it was

possible the result might be significantly different from the original.

Indeed, the Aldorians understood that any human on Earth could be transformed into an Aldorian,

merely by duplicating the same process used to turn Aldorians into humans. But, without any

collections like those taken during devalet one, the resulting Aldorian would be a fresh creation, a new

being who had never existed before. It was becoming clear now that this was what would be done with

new born Aldorian children on Earth. But, this had never been explained well enough to anybody.

They had never heard about the seven hundred coded strings or any information related to them.

Lawrence thought about how he had been one of the rare few on board who had realized that

something was missing in the explanations. It wasn’t as if they had been misinformed. They had been

assured that a reverse transformation would take place, but how it would be done to insure return to

original state had never been revealed sufficiently well. So, it left him realizing that nothing had really

been explained regarding how new borns would be handled. They had been told only that it would

happen.

And now he was learning along with the others that although they would be transformed back into

their original Aldorian beings, it was despite the fact that each of them would now grow older and

eventually die. Would he have volunteered for this trip if he had known this? Would anybody? His

anger swelled. Now they were told the truth, so late in the game.

Slowly Lawrence managed to state as calmly as he could, “This is not what we agreed to.”

Ponteal stared at Lawrence for a few seconds in silence before responding. “It is now.”


Chapter 61

Lawrence did not sleep well. He remained upset after the meeting of Keepers unraveled following

Ponteal’s blunt and unexpected response. It was not what they had agreed. Not in Lawrence’s mind.

He would not allow himself to accept that details of how recovery would occur had never been

explained. He fixated on that word. Recovery. That was not the same as they had been led to believe.

Sitting in town park, he watched two ducks gliding across the small lake in front of him. How could he

accept this? He was not alone. Numerous passengers who watched the broadcast were not happy with

this apparent turn of events. A few would decide finally to return home immediately. He wanted to, but

Martha had resisted. He had trouble with that. How could she accept this?

Edan Kroll, now named Daniel Allen, approached without comment and sat quietly beside his

grandson.

After several seconds of silence, Lawrence softly asked. “Are you going home?”

“Lawrence, let this pass.”

“Are you?”

“No. We volunteered and agreed. We are still Aldorian.”

“This doesn’t trouble you?”

Daniel turned to Lawrence, who avoided his stare and continued to gaze across the lake. “No, it

doesn’t. And, I’m surprised you are. You are bright. This is not like you. You have such an analytical

mind. They kept that inside you while they transformed you into this human form. You have the

intelligence to see how inconsequential this is.”

Lawrence looked quickly at Daniel. “Inconsequential!” He blinked and struggled for words. “They—

we—this isn’t the...” He stopped for a moment and shook his head with closed eyes. “We are going to

die!”

Daniel scoffed, “No we’re not! It will only look that way. Think about it. They have never deceived

any of us. They collected KBE in devalet one, and you knew it then. They made it clear it was for use

during return home. Every devalet since then, they checked us carefully to make sure the process was

not failing. And, you knew that.”

“They never told us we would die—or, appear to die.”

“Is that it?” Daniel leaned toward his grandson and lowered his voice. “What bothers you more, that

they didn’t tell you all the details right away, or that they aren’t doing this your way?”


Lawrence recoiled at his grandfather’s accusation. “No, no! This—no—this is bigger than mere

details.”

“Is it?” Daniel stopped. Arguing would not work. He had to appeal to Lawrence’s intelligence. “Think

about how long we Aldorians have learned to live. What did it do for us beyond each of us enjoying a

longer and healthy life? It made us all more appreciative of life. We have grown less tolerant of

malicious behavior. We prize our environments and work hard to make them more peaceful and

supportive of respectful behavior. And, it increased our curiosities. We have all become explorers. We

seek other life now and other opportunities for life to succeed. In all of us, we want humans to be

successful also. We share with UL just what UL desires. What better page in Aldorian history than this

great exploration? How could any of us decide not to complete this adventure? Of course there are

flaws in the plan. What in life is free of that? So they didn’t tell you right away about the KBE

messages. That isn’t the point of focus. The greater schemes are. In that larger scheme, does it really

matter that these facts about KBE do not fit your own sense of how it ought to work? We have to

proceed with this. It is now our destiny. You are Kroll. You would not yield to anything else. We must

know whether humans should join us. You must know. You cannot be satisfied with any other choice.”

He paused again, and then added quietly, “We will all return home someday knowing we were such an

important part of this. You can’t let that get away from you. If you go home now, regret will haunt

you.”

Lawrence remained silent. He thought about how Daniel’s argument sounded so similar to Martha’s.

Was he really this much out of sync with the others? Not all others. There were some who were going

to turn back now. The morning viscom reported twelve who wanted to. Five from his own Kentucky

group. But, none were direct Aldorian relatives. The Krolls were staying. All of them. He considered

that. All of the Krolls were continuing on to Earth. He was a Kroll. Deep within his very fiber, he

understood he was one who did not quit, who took on adventure and challenge as a matter of fact. UL

had left that nature untouched, still alive and driving him and his Stria. He considered that UL had

even left behind memory of Stria. They knew what really drove him.

Then he remembered. He turned to Daniel. “But, the children.”

Daniel agreed. “Yes, the children. What about them? What would you have UL do? What? They made

it clear they can be taken care of just like us. They will carry the same KBE message inside their every

cell. They too will be transformed into Aldorian here on the Aldorella. They will return to Aldoria with

us.”

Daniel then added, “Have you thought about how those children will have never known Aldoria? They

would have been born on Earth. As humans. They would be humans who just happen to have unusual

KBE. They won’t know Aldoria. They won’t have a history there. Yet we will take them off to a

strange world they never knew. They won’t die as humans. They will live on as Aldorians. They will

be taking on a far greater adventure into the unknown than any of us could ever dream about. Would

you go to Earth knowing you would stay forever a human being? That’s what we will be doing to our

children.”


“Lawrence, how can you possibly not stay with us?”

It wasn’t fair. Daniel knew his grandson too well. He knew where to pick on him. Lawrence tried to

think of his next argument, but he realized he really had none. He wasn’t going to admit it out loud, not

to his grandfather, but he knew he had let his emotions get to him. He recoiled at the sudden realization

that it was new in him to feel this way. This was human, not Aldorian. He started to understand that

there was more about this trip to learn than the basic nature of human beings. He had the opportunity to

learn about himself in ways which would never been possible any other way. He could do more than

report the human condition to UL. He could learn about himself in ways he hadn’t even known existed.

Daniel saw Lawrence straighten. “What?”

“Maybe.” Why was that so hard to say? What was this thing going on inside? He was being so human.

Daniel placed a hand on Lawrence’s shoulder. “You are Kroll.” He stood there for a moment watching

his grandson. Daniel looked up at his grandfather. “Thanks,” he thought, but he said nothing. Daniel

knew. He smiled, turned slowly and strolled away. Daniel watched him leave and then looked at the

ducks out on the lake.

Earth ducks.

Lawrence felt something new. Embarrassment. He found himself unable to speak of his weakening

resistance and growing acceptance to what he had been protesting for so many years. Especially to

others close to him. He found it easier to talk with those less close to him. This was a complexity in

humans he was only beginning to realize. Trying to understand this became a substitute for his earlier

concerns. Each day passed and his discomfort with what he had been thinking grew faint.

So, he quietly changed his focus and activities toward trying to understand and document human

emotions. It never dawned on him that he was no more uncomfortable with his feelings than anybody

else. Humans were more adverse to close friends or relatives giving criticism than strangers. Aldorians

sought and accepted criticism, but only from their closest Stria members.

In only three or four days, others, including Martha, gave virtually no additional thought to what he

had been complaining about. It was he who took longer to let it go. It would take more than a couple of

days for him to know this was the way it worked in humans.

Only one of the originally reported dozen who wished to quit and return home right away repented and

decided to stay. The remaining eleven could not be convinced. They were going home. One of the

fifteen small transports in storage was brought out and its systems booted. Within only a couple of

hours after preparations completed, the eleven climbed on board and were connected to deep sleep

monitors, the portals were shut and locked, and the transport was launched.


It was a strange moment. Not like a funeral. Not like a goodbye to those going on a visit. But, also not

as if these were quitters. Lawrence and Martha were two of many who stood near the small transport as

the time for launch grew near. Lawrence quietly considered how he had almost been one of those

boarding the returning ship. Martha thought about it also, and she placed her arm across Lawrence’s

back and slowly rubbed it. Lawrence smiled at Martha. Now it felt more silly than not to entertain any

idea other than going on to Earth.

With the other spectators, all of these Aldorian humans watched the air lock hanger doors shut off the

transport from them, followed shortly by outside doors opening. The blackness of space filled the open

space, and in a few seconds, with no sound or vibrations, the transport slowly drifted out the open

portal and slipped away, growing smaller and smaller until it was only a speck of light in the distance.

Then the dot moved backward, in the direction opposite that of the Aldorella and disappeared entirely

from view. It was gone.

Lawrence and Martha turned and walked away from the launch center along with the other spectators.

Few said much as they left in a dozen random directions. They would be returning to the center only

one more time, in 14 years. Then they would also enter transports, but headed for their new home on

Earth.


Chapter 62

In the blackness of space there finally appeared The Blue Marble. Earth. From the Aldorella, the moon

was closer and appeared larger than its parent. Lawrence and Martha Allen were looking through the

same view port where they stood so many times in the past. This would be the last time on their trip.

Devalet 50 started tomorrow and once it concluded, everybody on board would climb into the small on

board transports and head for their new planet, their new home.

They had traveled nearly 28 light talics in slightly more than 81 talics. That translated into 22.6 light

years and 66.4 years using their new human based values.

Unlike each devalet before, this one was treated like a party. A huge celebration was planned. The

remaining 171 passengers were excited, anxious, impatient, curious; it was a special time for each of

them, one they would never forget. It was difficult for anybody to not think about the eleven who had

returned back to Aldoria. It only added to the complex spectrum of emotions felt by all, melancholy,

sympathy, jealousy, pity.

Lawrence had all but forgotten his concerns over KBE and children. He had embraced the same

enthusiasm for the adventure everyone felt. “Six more days,” he said. “It feels like a long time away

somehow.”

Martha hugged against him more as she agreed. “I am having trouble sleeping.”

Lawrence hugged back. “I know.”

“Can you see where Kentucky is?”

“No. It is on the other side from us. That is China you mostly see now with Europe there on the left

edge.”

As Lawrence stared out the view port, he imagined that he could see the moon and Earth growing ever

so slightly larger as the Aldorella approached. It was only a psychological effect. The great space ship

had slowed to a relative crawl.

“Earth is smaller than Aldoria.” Martha said.

“It is? Very much smaller?”

“Not much. Less than one-tenth smaller. The viscom I watched was about measurements. It was odd to

watch. The viscom compared each measurement with the Aldorian equivalent, but I cannot remember

anything about such things.” Martha thought about it for a moment. “It is an odd feeling knowing what

we were like as Aldorians while not being able to remember anything but a vague sense of then. It is as

if that was all in a dream and never real.”


“I do find a few isolated things which I remember better than most. I think the transformation included

this by design. Doctor Marnal confirmed it.” Lawrence referred to their AI-bot doctor. “But, even he

didn’t know how it was designed, or how they decided what we would remember.”

“Why would they have us remember anything?”

“So we do not forget who we really are. So we always know why we are here.”

After a moment, Martha commented, “I hope this works.” She fingered the gold medallion she now

had been wearing around her neck for eleven years.

Devalet 50 progressed as they all had before, with little or no issues or problems. And, as usual, the

week of medical exams included orientation presentations. Once again, the Keepers were scheduled to

meet with head AI-bot Ponteal. The meeting would include discussions of how, when, and under what

circumstances the visitors would be required or able to contact the Aldorella. Lawrence watched

Ponteal as he moved to the front of the room, ready to address the Keepers assembled for the last time.

He attached his translator unit and waited for the AI-bot to speak.

“Today we double check what you will be taking with you to the planet surface. This will include one

additional item we have not yet distributed. I remind you that the only items which you can take to

Earth are your books, three entity pods with each family, the biology kits, the approved medical tools

and supplies, two months of basic food items, the approved human tools and supplies you all have

been learning to use, and the supply of clothes you will wear.”

Lawrence, along with everybody else, was well aware of these things. Ponteal, in his usual robotic

manner, remained overly pedantic, often describing already well understood items. Several Aldorians

had long been trained to work with the instruments in the biology kits. The items in the kits looked like

tools which were like those found by any human scientists at the time. But in the right hands, these

tools included embedded UL technology capable of analyzing plants, animal tissue, and minerals, all

designed to bolster attempts at finding medically useful chemicals. In particular, the Aldorians would

search for important aids to combat human cancers. If UL ever approached Earth with an offer of

membership, one of the gifts would be any discovered medical remedies.

Aldorian family doctors had been trained and learned to use some medical equipment, also designed to

look like tools normal human doctors used, but with more advanced UL technology embedded within.

Lawrence barely listened as Ponteal droned on, obviously repeating what he knew. Even if the

presentation had been new to him, he had trouble concentrating. Now that he had committed his focus

to being on Earth with his family, he was anxious to get on with business. With the launch to Earth’s


surface still two days away and the big celebration tomorrow, he was not doing well holding back his

impatience.

“It is time now to discuss communication.” Lawrence watched as Ponteal turned to the small table

beside him and picked up three objects. He lifted them up for everybody in the room to see. From

where Lawrence sat, they looked like two small rocks and an odd shaped third object. Unlike the other

two, the third object looked as if it must have been designed and fabricated. However, it also appeared

to be made of the same stone material as the two rocks.

“This is your communicator.” Ponteal referred to the three objects as one thing, implying the three

pieces somehow worked together as one unit. “Each family will receive one of these. The primary

Keeper in each family should retain control of it.” That meant Lawrence would have one of the sets.

“The three of you should come up here. I will demonstrate how to use it, and then each of you should

try it and train others in your family to use it.”

Lawrence approached the front of the room with two others. They stood around the table and watched.

Ponteal sat the three objects on the table and then grasped the two round stones. Up close, Lawrence

could now see they were also fabricated. They were flat on the bottom so they didn’t roll around. Near

the central circumference horizontal to the ground, he could easily see some carved symbols. He didn’t

recognize them.

“These objects have been made to look like carved river rocks, but they contain a small packet of UL

energy and communication nanotechnology circuitry. They are very rugged and will last and work for

hundreds of years.” Ponteal explained as he held the two round stones about one inch apart and turned

them, apparently setting them so one particular symbol on each stone faced directly toward the other

stone. “You initiate the communicator by pairing a specific combination of symbols. The symbols

carved on the stones are old Aldorian group script. They represent the ten largest cities on Aldoria,

used to represent the digits zero through nine. This particular communicator belongs to the German

family, so its required pair of symbols are five and seven, representing the 57 members of that family.

The combination for China is five and four, and for Kentucky, six and zero.”

Ponteal aligned the proper symbols to face each other, and after about two seconds, a small electrical

sparking sound emanated from the pair accompanied with a short lived blue tinted flash. “Now the

initiation has succeeded.” Ponteal looked up. “However, communication cannot still occur this way.

You must align the two symbols while these two pieces are resting under this third one.” Ponteal took

the third piece which had two parallel straight prongs about four inches in length, joined together by

one curved prong running in the opposite direction. He moved it to the center of the table and turned it

so the third prong curved in an upward direction. Then he placed it so it rested over the spheres with

both of them between the two parallel prongs.

Ponteal straightened. “Now the communicator can be used. When you are on Earth you must be

outside to use it.” He pointed at the third prong curving upward. “And, this part should be pointing

toward the moon. Stationed on the moon will be a communication unit. You just talk, as I am doing


now, and the unit will respond when it needs to in the same language you are using. It understands

Chinese, English, and German. And, Aldorian, although none of you will be speaking that.”

Xui Li Wang, named Treesa Froneal when she was Aldorian, was now the Chinese family primary

Keeper, and asked in her current ability only to speak Mandarin, “I thought the Aldorella would be

parked on the moon’s back side. How can this communicate with the ship from Earth?”

Ponteal responded, “It won’t. This will connect directly only with the communication unit which will

be stationed on the moon’s front side. Also, there will be stationed there a small tag ship beside it

which will collect a recorded viscom of your messages and fly it back to the Aldorella. Of course, this

means you cannot normally hold a two-way conversation with any of us. If you require that, you will

have to send a request, so the tag ship can return to the Aldorella and bring one of us to the

communication unit.”

Ponteal looked around the room. “We cannot respond quickly to emergencies. You will have to

manage them without our aid. You know you have been trained for this. This communication scheme

supports the primary purpose only so you can make periodic reports of your progress and what you are

learning. You will not have to record everything you wish to say in your books.” He paused a moment.

“Also, whenever you need, you can request an entity transport to come and pick up anybody with their

entity pods.”

Lawrence hadn’t thought about entity pods and the simulated death they would experience for several

years now. The reminder from Ponteal caused a shiver up his back and jolted him into a renewed sense

of how serious this whole experiment was. It was emphasized by this knowledge that immediate

contact with or response from the Aldorella was not possible. He and his family would even not have

an immediate way to contact the other families on Earth. They would quickly all become strangers

with each other. Only each member of their own family would be available for direct support and aid.

The meeting lasted only a few more minutes while everybody in the room had an opportunity to test

initialization of the communicator and to ask any remaining questions. There wasn’t much of anything

left to discuss. Walking out of the meeting room with his family communication unit in his pocket,

Lawrence felt some melancholy as he realized that the world he had grown accustomed with here on

the Aldorella was about to end in only two days. As confined as he sometimes felt living in this tiny

world, now leaving it behind felt far more uncomfortable to him than he thought it would. Even the

unpleasant becomes one’s normal if it lasts long enough. He had become like most humans. Change

was usually not desirable.

As Lawrence strolled along the path heading from the library toward town center, he barely noticed

anything around him as he thought about the impending stay on Earth. The great experiment was

finally starting. He thought about how he would prepare for the visit, realizing how little there was to

actually do for it. Everything he would take with him would fit in a not overly large chest. And, he

would soon be standing somewhere in Kentucky watching the transport which delivered him and his

wife leaving them behind.


Just as the meeting ended, Ponteal reminded everyone that provided the visit succeeded, which did not

depend on whether Earth was a good candidate for UL membership, then Aldorians everywhere would

be given the gift of longer healthy life. Every Aldorian would then enjoy living for up to ten times

longer than they did already. Now 4,000 talics, over 3,200 Earth years, tomorrow 40,000! Lawrence

then wondered if all the others here had the same associated memories left behind deeply embedded in

their minds as he realized he had. UL seemed to have thought of everything.

The celebration, which lasted for hours, still came and went. Every one of the 171 passengers attended.

They laughed, they danced, they toasted their future. Family members hugged members of other

families and vowed to somehow stay in touch, even if it was only by way of a second hand message

relayed through the moon’s communication base.

The giant ship came to rest on the back side of the moon so quietly and softly, few noticed at first that

the Aldorella was no longer flying. Soon enough, however, somebody looked out one of the view ports

and noticed the barren landscape. Then most took a moment to look. The moment did not last.

Attentions were dedicated to making last minute visits between families with friends they would soon

not see. What little packing was required was nevertheless a slow process. Nobody had enough room

to take with them all of the trappings of life they had accumulated during the trip. Decisions regarding

what to leave behind had to be made.

The final moments arrived as groups of two, three, and four showed up at one of the assigned six

transport launch pads. The time had come to take the final short trip down to Earth’s surface. Lawrence

and Martha settled into flight seats near the back of the transport. They gave each other a nervous

smile as Martha placed her hand on his. Lawrence looked around the cabin as the first twenty-five

members of his Kentucky family also prepared for the flight.

Another five minutes passed and then a barely noticeable humming sound throughout the cabin

indicated that the ship was coming to life, making ready to leave. The huge outside portal doors to the

air lock opened, unseen by anybody on board, watched only by passengers waiting for the next

transport once the first one was gone.

With no view ports to see out, Lawrence contented himself to studying others on board. He considered

that he would ride on this ship only this one time. Someday his body would be transported back to the

Aldorella in one of the much smaller entity pod transports. He would be returned to the Aldorella then

and reanimated, the start of the transformation back to a living being who would then live on the big

ship until it was time for all to return home. How long would it be? He wondered.

He found it difficult to keep his focus on anything. The transport flew with virtually no sound or sense

of movement. He wasn’t sure why he expected something else. The trip was unexpectedly boring, with

nothing to do except sit in his flight seat. Drowsiness overcame him and he drifted off to sleep.


Of all the major events on the entire trip, this one was perhaps the most significant. But, Lawrence

Allen was asleep as the transport approached the wooded clearing somewhere in western Kentucky.

Surrounding the clearing were dense and wide spread forests ranging across mountainous terrain. What

few human beings were thought to be in the region would almost surely not see the transport arriving,

given the obscuring density of trees in the area and the ever so silent systems which flew the small

space ship.

Martha touched Lawrence’s face and he opened his eyes and looked at her. “We’re landing.”

Lawrence straightened and quickly reached for a pocket. He felt a sudden urge to confirm that the

family communication unit was there. It was his responsibility, along with the others of the first group

landing to assess the area quickly and send a message confirming all was okay before the remaining

family members would be sent down. Otherwise, everybody would climb back on board the transport

and return to the Aldorella.

With a slightly audible hiss, the transport door slid open and Kentucky sunlight filled the cabin.

Lawrence unbuckled and stood up. A few stepped out ahead of him before he and Martha reached the

opening. He placed a foot on Earthen soil for the first time and looked around at grass, trees in all

directions, a bright blue sky above the clearing, and a limited view of forested mountains in the

distance. His eyes finally noticed the creek running along the edge of the clearing. This was his new

home. It was April 2, 1757.


Chapter 63

Lawrence picked up the three communication stones as he looked around. As far as any of the first

landing party could tell there was no apparent reason not to report good news back to the moon

communicator and tell the others to come. As he finished sending his first message to the moon, he

briefly considered but rejected sending a message to the other two families somewhere off in Germany

and China. It already felt too inconvenient to trouble with it. But, he also realized that with only one

communicator for the whole group, it would remain a force which helped keep everybody in his family

in touch and staying closer together.

Over the ensuing years there would occur a handful of communications between different families by

way of the moon communication base. But, time had a way of cutting away those parts of life which

were less direct and immediate. Keeping in touch with people thousands of miles away faded.

Eventually, no family would contact another one.

As Lawrence placed the stones in his pocket, very briefly he felt a twinge of anxiety and concern that

somehow he was not prepared for all of this. The reality of what was going on loomed and he closed

his eyes to avoid seeing it. Trying to avoid his feelings, he turned to Martha and said, “I hope the other

families have landed in such a rich and beautiful place.”

“They also would be blessed.” Martha turned in this direction and that and finally revealed what she

was doing. “Where do you want to build our new home?”

Lawrence laughed loudly. “Maybe we should first get the others here and establish a plan.”

“But it will include where each of us lives, will it not?”

“Of course it will.” He stopped and looked around also. “I prefer it is away from this clearing.

Surrounded by just the right stand of trees.”

Martha gave him a hug. “Now, that’s the spirit.”

Soon enough two more transports arrived and delivered the remaining family members, together with

the rest of their supplies. Groups organized into dealing with specific issues. Storage bins would hold

the community food supplies and construction tools, which would be associated with a small trading

post. A town hall was decided, along with a doctor's office and a community bakery and kitchen.

Smaller groups of two, three, or four members located choices of where to build their homes.

The forests surrounding them provided more than a variety of foods, building materials, water, and

miscellaneous raw materials, it also offered the science research team a wide variety of plants and

minerals for testing. The more promising finds were documented in the set of books still managed by

Lawrence Allen and the other Keepers in the group. UL would be pleased with what they discovered.


After only a few days, with no surprises appearing before them, the not so small colony of 60 people

established the beginnings of their little township. After nearly seven weeks had passed, the new Earth

families were putting finishing touches on construction projects. Lawrence and Martha built their small

but cozy cabin almost one hundred yards away from the clearing where the Aldorians first landed and

where the community structures were established. As Lawrence first envisioned it, their modest home

was surrounded by forest. The town center was not visible from where they lived, but was only an easy

three minute stroll away along a smoothly worn path.

Now interests were turning to other issues. How would they establish contact with other people in the

area? How many others were there? It was expected that some nearby people would be American

colonists, but also Indians. What little they had learned from Aldorella’s viscom library left them with

more questions than answers on how to deal with these other individuals. They would have to learn

how to be humans. Library information was not sufficient, but they knew that Kentucky was still

largely unsettled. It was mostly used as native Indian hunting grounds and even they typically did not

live in the area. Still a few colony traders were moving into the area, establishing a small number of

semi-permanent camps here and there.

In a short time the Aldorian visitors met with outsiders. First encounters seemed awkward. The

Aldorians were not at first confident that they appeared to others like typical human beings. But, the

few passers-by were friendly enough, and with time regular trading visits occurred with various

trappers and some passing Indians, and the Aldorians started feeling more at ease with their apparent

biological camouflage.

Life easily settled into what they wanted it to be. They were able to have enough outside contact so

they could learn what they felt were appropriate bits of information about the human condition. The

Aldorians knew this was not a short term process. It was going to take decades. It was never forgotten

that significant events associated with modern scientific discovery and human culture were milestones

which were prerequisite to knowing when enough knowledge of humanity would be sufficient. This

was going to take awhile.

In the meantime, the Allen family, together with others in families named Miller and Abbott settled

and lived everyday life in their small Kentucky township. They named it Adahy, which was a

Chickamauga Cherokee Indian word meaning “lives in the woods.” Members of the tribe frequented

the Aldorian’s trading post on their hunting trips through the area. The Aldorians came to know them

well, and even felt a closer comradery with them than the somewhat less frequent visits by passing

English colonists.

As days turned into weeks, and then into months and years, the Keepers filled book four of the five

they had, and with only the last book available they grew more restrictive about what they would write.

By now they were writing everything in the books in plain English, but using Aldorian group script

symbols as direct substitutions for English words. One English word, the same Aldorian symbol every

time. No more group scripting, no more subtle overtones of multiple mixed thought. All possible

natural Aldorian meaning had disappeared from anything they wrote in the books.


And, precious few opinions. The fifth book became little more than a place for recording specific facts,

often regarding a passing visitor and what they said—news from the outside world came to them most

of the time this way—and the last book also became a ledger mostly of scientific, biological, and

medical facts. As time plodded on in this manner regarding the books, fewer and fewer members of

township Adahy felt any connection with them. Eventually, only the Keepers gave any thought to them,

and even among them, a few grew mostly uninvolved. They relied more heavily on frequent periodic

communications with moon base to report the human condition.

Kentucky during the late eighteenth century was becoming an increasingly troubled area. The French

and Indian War of 1754, which dragged on for seven years, had its share of influence on Kentucky life,

what there was of it. Most of the conflicts occurred northeast of Kentucky, but it had its influence on

the attitudes among those closer to the Aldorians. That influence resulted in occasional feelings of

greater mistrust between the Aldorians and passing outsiders. The Aldorians remained independent of

emotional ties to either side in the matter, but that was often misinterpreted by visitors to Adahy as

alignment with whomever they were themselves not aligned. It contributed to some cooling of

relationships with a few of the travelers who were often in the area. The Aldorians noticed, but

discovered no real way to change things.

The struggles didn’t abate during this time. The American colonies increasingly pushed for

independence from Britain, and by 1775, the American Revolution was beginning in earnest. The

violent forces mostly near the eastern continental shores forced some who feared for their lives, or who

wanted no part in the fighting to seek a peaceful existence elsewhere, inland, the only direction in

which these displaced people could venture. A few sought solace as far away as into Kentucky. This

added social pressures to the Aldorians and to the Indians in the largely unsettled area. It didn’t take

long before fighting between the colonists and Indians became more common. What would become

known as the Chickamauga Wars broke out only one year later in 1776 and would last into the year

1794, eleven full years after the end of the revolution.

It was a harder and increasingly less peaceful time for those living in Adahy. They had lived there now

for 25 years. The year was 1782.

The screams from outside forced Lawrence to jump up from the table where he had been sitting. He

bolted for the door and yanked it open, then seeing Martha running along the path toward their home.

Without breaking stride, she screamed, “They’re attacking! Lawrence, they’re killing people!” Martha

reached the door and nearly knocked Lawrence down as she wrapped her arms around him and began

to sob uncontrollably.

“What! Who? Who’s killing people?”


“I don’t know who they are.” He could barely understand her panicked, crying voice. “They saw me,

they are coming!” She looked up at Lawrence as tears ran down her face. “They will kill us.” She

started crying more heavily.

Lawrence was frozen with confusion and alarm. It was only when sounds closer to them began to filter

through the dense forest and he could then begin hearing an occasional sound of musket fire. What

shocked him the greatest was the violent screams as people were surely being slaughtered with hand to

hand weapons such as knives, swords, or maybe arrows. There was no hint of who the attackers were,

but the encroaching sounds of violence finally shook him free of his inability to act.

“Quickly, we must leave! Quickly!” Lawrence and Martha ran inside and rapidly stuffed odds and ends

into a sack each picked up. There was so little time to think, there was little rhyme or reason behind

what they were grabbing. Lawrence did consider the importance of the books and communication

stones enough to grab them as they were about to leave.

Martha objected. “Leave them!”

“No, we can’t! We’ll hide them in the forest. We can come back later for them.”

That was that. The two scampered out the door and ran deeper into the forest away from the increasing

sounds of violence. Martha began crying again as they stumbled their way. In a few minutes, they

came across the creek they had visited so many times before. Running along the creek for a few

hundred feet, they came upon a small grotto, an overhang where the flowing water took a sharp turn in

its meandering. Lawrence called out, “Here, I’ll hide it here.”

Martha stopped and watched as Lawrence bent over some as he moved toward the back of the grotto.

He kneeled down and started digging into the sandy mud with a stick. After a couple of minutes he

pushed the metal box containing the books into the hole and started covering it. “The stones!” Martha

called out. Lawrence had almost forgotten. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the

communication pieces, dropping them into the hole. Another minute of covering up and Martha grew

more alarmed. “Lawrence, that’s good enough! We must go!”

Lawrence stopped and stood up. The two turned away and ran off, deeper into the forest.

Part 4

The Garden Project


Chapter 64

Thursday, Oct 20 - Janet was worried. David did not come into work yesterday, and two hours into

work now, it was beginning to look as if he would be out another day. Was he really sick as his

assistant Jessie said? Or, was this more sinister? Was he missing work again and spending it down

town? What was going on?

She wasn’t doing well with her emotions. One minute she felt really awful that she had exploded like

she had, accusing him so heavily. The next minute she was again almost as angry as she had become

Tuesday night. Had she caused damage or was he still being very weird? Whatever was going on, she

stared at her computer monitor trying to become more productive than she had been the day before.

“What are you doing?” Janet demanded.

“It’s not my fault.” David tried to excuse himself.

Karen stood up and blocked his exit from the room. “Not so fast! You owe both of us an explanation.”

David’s head jerked against his pillow as he blinked his eyes and tried to understand what was

happening. Then he relaxed. “That was not a pleasant dream,” he thought. But, it was also the first

time in months he could remember dreaming about Karen in any way. Had he really not handled this

whole affair well, as Karen accused him in his dream? He knew the answer. So he tried to push

thoughts aside.

He blinked his eyes, trying to focus across the bed and see his alarm clock. In a couple of seconds he

moaned and closed his eyes, realizing he had not set his alarm and now he was almost two hours late

for work. But, he wasn’t all that upset. He was not looking forward to going in. Sooner or later he had

to face her.

“Sorry. I over slept.” David said softly as he passed sheepishly by Jessie’s desk and went into his

office. Jessie followed him and forced him to get to work. “Charles has been waiting to talk with you.

I’ll let him know you are in. And, you have an eleven o’clock meeting with the lawyers.”


“Good,” David thought. That will keep him busy at least through the morning. He put his briefcase

down and looked at Jessie. “I’ll go see Charles now.”

As he entered Charles’ office, he shut the door behind him. He answered Charles before he could ask.

“Just a stomach ache. What do you have?”

“We have made progress on three passages near the end of the fifth book. It’s a lot like we were

thinking. The writing is almost pure direct word substitutions of a specific symbol for each English

word.”

David settled into a chair by Charles’ desk. “Good.”

“Well, a decent start. But, I don’t think it will continue that way. Work to translate passages at the

beginning of the book are not going nearly as well. It can already be seen that the grammar used is

slightly different and more complex. That increases the difficulty. And, initial considerations of the

other books continues to confirm that the grammar grows far more complicated. I have never seen

anything like this. Constant changing of the grammar, and growing more complicated in backward

order. Fascinating and unique. It’s not at all clear how to handle it. So, don’t get your hopes up

thinking this will translate quickly.”

“Still. Progress on three passages.”

“Yeah. The first one yielded easily. It’s all about a plant. A drawing accompanying the passage had

plenty of labels which were used in the written sentences. And, Cheryl has made fairly good progress

on the other two parts, which appear to be about a trader who came into the village. There is a drawing

of what clearly looks like a tobacco leaf. Use of its labels also helped break open that translation. But,

parts of that writing are still not solved. Anyway, it does appear that another part of that writing

discusses news reported by the trader. Cheryl thinks it’s about a war. If she is right, there are other

passages in book five which may also be about war. We’re working on it.”

“A war? Involving them? Maybe that would explain why they disappeared.”

“Probably not. Cheryl thinks it’s about a war away from the Kentucky area.” Charles wanted to stop

with more details. “Look I’m sending out an email with all the details. I’m working on it now and

should be done soon.”

David accepted that and changed the subject. “So, anything yet which hints at Aldorianism?”

“Nothing. The only overall first impression is that the writing is about life during well more than a

century ago.”

David realized that this added to the confusion. Well constructed books, existing and being used more

years ago than technology suggested was possible. It was, however, quite nice to see that in only the

last couple of days some simple translations were actually taking place. “How much is Able helping

you?” He asked about the language processing modules in their software.


“It’s starting to help. Now that we are making actual use of Able, we are beginning to discover

improvements to the program we would like to have.”

“Okay, I see two things coming out of this already. First, we should set up a meeting with your group

and Janet.” David was referring to Charles’ linguistics team and Janet and the others who worked on

the database. “Your translations should be connected by extensions to the scans database, so we can

more easily manage all of this information.”

David then turned to the part which held his interest. “But also, we should set up an ongoing series of

meetings between you and Anne so we can work with you to continue expanding and improving the

language modules in Able.” Anne Kilgore managed the programmers, including a couple of new ones

hired for this work. “I think I will call this the Garden Project, given all the stuff about plants you are

finding at first. We should maybe meet once each week at first and back off to only every other week

as things improve. Let’s start tomorrow.”

“That sounds good, but you’re forgetting one other thing. The League.”

David realized, even though for only a short while, he had managed to not think about all of that, and

the apparent trouble which had come along because of it. Briefly he wished none of that was real, that

he could just settle into being a programmer and manager of it. “Oh—yeah. We need a regular way to

deliver new data and programs to them. And, what about data they discover?”

Charles suggested, “We can talk with Garland about it. How about Saturday?” Charles was referring to

Garland Pickett, the technical guru in The League offices.

David hesitated about meeting with The League in only two days. He wanted to not be involved with it

this weekend and just to be free from the apparent source of stress for awhile. He knew that actually he

wanted to have time to somehow straighten this situation out with Janet. He wanted to see her Saturday.

“I’m sorry, I have other plans this weekend.”

“Okay, I can meet with him anyway. We can at least start figuring out how to handle this.”

“I trust what you come up with.” David didn’t want to discuss the weekend any more. “I’m sorry about

missing work. It means I haven’t yet had the burned pages scanned. I’ll do that today.”

Having said that, David and Charles ended their discussions and David left the office. As he walked

back to his office, he glanced at his watch and realized it was time to meet with the lawyers.

Settling into Wade Morrow’s office, the Hunmay lawyer working on issues related to the Alamard dig,

David was not looking forward to what might be next.

Wade didn’t beat around the bush. “David, it looks like Hunter Leach and his Kentucky alignment are

coming back for more. They know enough now about your scans database and language translation

efforts, something they were not fully aware of with the previous injunction. They are going to ask for

sharing of that. At least they know they cannot take exclusive possession of it.”

“How can they have access to any of it?”


“Work product results related to original ill gotten artifacts. Namely, the books.”

“This isn’t right.” David spoke the words softly.

Wade tried to reassure David. “I don’t think they have any legal ground to stand here. What they are

doing is trying anything which hampers your work. But, defending our position will be expensive, in

time, money, and interrupts. You should know now and prepare for trips to Kentucky.”

“Trips? More than one?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so. This whole affair will surely play out over several weeks, or even months.”

David groaned and rubbed his forehead.

“I’m sorry to give you the bad news, but this is going to happen. As project manager, your testimonies

from time to time cannot be avoided.”

Now David was starting to appreciate much more the set up of The League offices and their attempts

to help. It became even more apparent how important it was to keep their efforts a secret. It had

crossed his mind yesterday that surely there was little harm in explaining the truth to Janet and asking

for her forgiveness over his actions, apologizing for his obfuscations. Now he understood it was not at

all a good idea. The fewer people who learned about these extracurricular activities, the better. He

would have to keep Janet in the dark. That only frustrated him more.

Wade continued. “David, I see no reason for your project to change anything you are doing. Just be

prepared for untimely interruptions every couple of weeks or so. Who is second in charge of your

group?”

“Barbara Welling. She’s not going to have to be going to Kentucky also?”

“Probably not. But, you should make sure she is on top of your work all the time. Sometimes you may

have to spend several days dealing with this.”

“Oh my God!”

“I understand. Look, we are going to fight this with all of our resources and try to end this as soon as

we can. You have some powerful backing here.” Wade clearly alluded to J. P. and his considerable

abilities to get things done behind the scenes. David knew this, but right now it wasn't making him feel

any better. At least, he thought, he had already begged off having to deal with The League this

weekend. He might not be able to do anything about Janet either, but at least he took some solace in

being able to be alone, away from this mess for a couple of days.

“How soon will these interruptions start?”

“Oh, not for another week or two. They are not rushing with this. They know this is far more

complicated and they will proceed slowly.”


Que Sera Sera. David left Wade Morrow’s office a few minutes later and strolled slowly across the

Hunmay campus. He stopped at his favorite park bench and sat for awhile. The sun beat down on his

face and he squinted from the glare. Fighting it no more, he simply closed his eyes and leaned back.

Why couldn’t this all be stopped? Surely J. P. could do something. David was certain J. P. already

knew all about the situation and was busy moving on it as he sat there. But, what could he do? If David

had all of that money and power, what would he do? He smirked, recognizing that he had no clue what

it was like to be in such a position. He had long adopted an attitude of fairness and open treatment of

all around him. It was already a deep enough conflict within, and he had not been so terribly bad.

Certainly not nearly anything like he imagined J. P. might be capable of doing.

David smiled and opened his eyes. He stood and looked over at a duck nearby as he stood and

continued he way back to his office. “I’d take the money and live in Bora Bora.” The duck looked at

David and wiggled its back end from side to side.

The rest of the day went quicker than David feared it might. Near workday’s end he took the burned

pages Charles had passed to him and had them scanned. The print shop folks handled it just like he

suspected they would. They didn’t care. They just wanted to finish the day and leave. They certainly

didn’t indicate they noticed anything peculiar because there wasn’t. The pages were yet one more item

in a very long string over the years of dealing with odds and ends dug up at archaeological sites. It took

only a few minutes to do the job.

Shortly after receiving back the pages and a burned CD of the scans, David returned to his office. He

had been able to avoid Janet all day by arranging that Barbara Welling meet with her and the database

group to plan the extensions needed, while he worked all afternoon in his office on some program

design, defining the new Garden Project.

He knew he couldn’t continuously avoid her, but this worked at least for now, and probably all of the

next day. Then he would have the weekend to formulate a more affirmative action and resolve this

awkward problem. He hated knowing that their relationship would have to be redefined as nothing

more than one between two professionals. He saw the irony in the fact that it had hardly been anything

more than that all along. He was as much to blame for that missed opportunity as anyone.


Chapter 65

Friday, Oct 21 - David stepped into Charles’ office. “Got a minute?”

“Sure!” Charles motioned for David to enter.

David closed the door and as he sat he said, “I have something for you before we meet with the

others.” He referred to the meeting he and Charles would have with the programmers to discuss

improvements to Able’s language modules.

“And, I have something also.”

David handed Charles an inter-office mail envelope. “Here’s the burned pages with scans on a memory

stick.”

“Any problems?”

“No. Just like I knew it would go. Now they can be examined the same way as all the rest. So, what do

you have?”

Charles reached for a desk drawer and pulled out a small box and opened it. “Time to give me some of

your saliva.” Charles handed David a small envelope. “Inside is a vial. Just spit into it.”

“That’s it?”

“Well, do it before you eat, and first rinse out your mouth real well with water and wait ten minutes.

Then make sure you collect a good two milliliters of saliva. There’s a line marked on the vial. Close it

up and seal it in that envelope. That’s it.”

“I can give it back to you today. How soon will I know anything?”

“Preliminary results on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Full results later in the week. Two guys,

I don’t know them, are coming into town this afternoon. They will work in The League offices for

awhile. They are bringing the system they use with them.”

“They can do this in the office?”

“Oh, no! All they can do in the office is study the DNA sequencing results on a computer they have

with special software. We have hired a lab here in Austin to do the actual sequencing.”

“And, they can have this done by Tuesday. Wow! That must cost a lot. But, J. P. can afford it.”

“Not as expensive as you think. Or, I thought. Just a couple of hundred dollars for each one. And, get

this, they can almost do a full sequence in only about one day. Just a few years ago it would take


outrageous money and time. So, they didn’t start this project until only about three years ago and it’s

had low priority most of that time.”

“Really, so how many will they collect? How many samples do they have already?”

“They want a sample from every Aldorian at Hunmay who is willing. It’s totally volunteer. They don’t

actually have all that many yet. Just a few from back then. Only a couple or so from our group.”

“Not me.”

“David, nobody wanted to bother you at the time. You were in no condition to deal with much of

anything then.”

David understood, and he certainly wasn’t interested in discussing it now. “So, why now? It sounds

like it’s more important than it was.”

“From what I know, it’s only been in the last couple of months that they finished implementing the

algorithms and software they wanted for conducting their studies. So, they only needed a handful of

test sequences, which they had. Now, they are ready and want as many samples as they can get.”

“What are they looking for?”

“Don’t ask me. I know as little as you. All I know is they want to see if Aldorian DNA can somehow

explain this HF business. You remember me telling you about family history Aldorians. They want to

see if DNA helps explain it. Evidently J. P. has learned recently in Europe that DNA might have more

to do with this than earlier thought. He is the one who pushed up the priority.”

David and Charles chatted for a few more minutes before joining the programmers meeting. Before

their lunch break, David managed to collect his saliva. The programmers meeting continued most of

the afternoon. He had managed to avoid seeing Janet all day and still wanted the weekend to give the

situation more thought.

As the first Garden Project meeting ended later that afternoon, David waited until he was nearly alone

with Charles. “I have something to tell you. In private.”

He and Charles proceeded to Charles’ office.

“What is it?”

“The other day I was looking at Karen’s medallion. You suggested you would like to examine the

symbols on it again, so I dug it out. I thought about it again during the meeting. You still interested in

looking at it?”

“Of course!”

“Okay, I’ll bring it to you Monday. I’ve still got other plans this weekend. But, Charles, there’s

something else about it that might be useful. I don’t know. Do those DNA guys have a sample from

Karen?”


Charles was confused. “Um, no. They didn’t start collecting DNA until after she was gone. But, what

does this have to do with the medallion?”

“Blood. Karen wore that medallion constantly. She was wearing it the day she was murdered and some

of her blood is spattered on it. There’s a spot of dried blood. Do you think there might be DNA in it

which can be analyzed?”

“God, David, I don’t have a clue. But I can certainly talk with the DNA folks this weekend. I’ll call

your cell and leave a message after I find out.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“It’s no problem. And, while we have it, I can examine the symbols. I recall that I didn’t think they

were language elements back when I first looked at them. But now with the books, even if they aren’t

from a language, maybe still we can find a connection to the books. That would be useful.”

“Sure. Anything which might help.”

“Anything different would help. So far all we have translated, which is precious little, are mostly

discussions about plants, as if a bunch of biologists wrote this. There’s a couple of indications of some

war near Kentucky, and that’s it. Not the smallest hint this has anything to do with Aldorians. I was

hoping for hints at answers to more important questions, like where the Kentucky group came from.

Europe? Or, maybe they started here and later went to Europe. Nothing like that yet.”

David reassured Charles. “Yeah, but this is only book five. You haven’t begun to translate anything in

the first four books.”

“I’m really not complaining. It’s more a matter of exactly that, the other four books. It’s a little

disconcerting, and frustrating. We have been looking at numerous segments of writing in them, and it

continues to appear that whatever grammar is used, it grows far more complicated in the earlier writing.

I’ve said it before, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Yeah, isn’t it great?” David tried his best to project an excited and happy tone in his voice. What a

great academic mystery this is.

“I suppose.” Charles paused for a moment. “I know what it really is. I have watched so many events in

the last weeks which implied we were growing really close to a significant breakthrough in learning

about early Aldorian history. So, my expectations have grown also, and I now find myself having

trouble accepting that what we have here is like any other archaeological find. It takes a lot of painful

and slow detective work to tease out any new information.”

“We’ll get there. I don’t have any doubt. I want to know also.”


Chapter 66

Saturday, Oct 22 - David was surprised but relieved that he slept well. It must have been his body

agreeing with his decision to avoid the external world and stay home. This was his time. There was

nothing to do but relax and day dream. He sat on the couch, sipping his coffee and staring out the

living room window at the developing morning light.

Nothing passing through his mind stayed for long. Nothing brought up feelings of stress. He thought

about weekends with Karen like this. Quiet, peaceful, nothing to worry over. It would be so nice if

only... Damn it! Now the worries started. Now the search for gaps, the quest for answers to every

minute question, the relentless analysis of the most mundane and uneventful moment. It was his talent

and his curse.

So, he yielded and began to think about Janet. He was still confounded over her reaction that night.

When? Only four days ago. It seemed a lot longer than that. What happened? How could she be so

confrontational? This wasn’t about her job. It wasn’t going to affect her. He told her that. But still, she

reacted so strongly. Was she really that stressed over his lies? Lies which weren’t that important.

It took a few moments to think about the incident before he began to see that the lies were unimportant

to him, not to her. They mattered to her. But, why?

David could sometimes be about as clueless as—as what? He was clueless. What was he as clueless as?

Yeah, David, that’s it. That’s what you should be concerned with now. Finding analogies, conjuring up

metaphors. There he went again. Just the way his train of thought would typically go. From the

momentous to the trivial. It happened every time he thought about people and social situations. He was

so very bad at understanding people’s behaviors and attitudes. He had no troubles dealing with

Hunmay’s silent agenda. Surely people’s hidden agendas weren’t all that different. He considered the

possibility by even thinking it, that indicated how little he understood people. Thank God for Barbara.

It was his blessing that he had a co-commander of Project Able who enjoyed dealing with people and

was so good at it. It left him to manage the technology and the talents of his team, not their emotions.

Wait! How the hell did he now start thinking about his management style? He was thinking about Janet.

No he really wasn’t. He was confused enough regarding how she had reacted and knew he was doing

badly at understanding her, so he did what he usually did in such a situation. He changed the subject

and thought about things he felt comfortable over.

It was hopeless. David was simply not going to realize the obvious. Janet had become open to the idea

of cultivating a relationship with him, and he had no earthly idea of that. He could only conclude that

he had to repeat to her that what he was doing would not affect her job. It was his private business, and

he would promise to her that their professional relationship was in no jeopardy. He would tell her first

thing Monday morning. What else could he do? What else could possibly be the problem?


Having solved that problem, his mind turned happily to other issues.

Such as the medallion and the speck of Karen’s blood. He thought about pulling the medallion out and

looking again at it, but decided against that. Any further risk at damaging the tentative blood sample’s

DNA was not a good idea. He would leave it in its cloth covering and protected, taking it Monday to

Charles. In a way, he realized that having Karen’s DNA sequence would draw her closer to him. And,

certainly he wondered if either his or her DNA would yield useful clues which helped explain the HF

phenomenon.

It was too bad he and Karen had not had a child. She lost her baby the one time she was pregnant. Too

bad they hadn’t tried harder. What, he wondered, would the two of them be like as parents? How much

would his life have been different now if he had a son or daughter? For that matter, what would it be

like to have a brother or sister? But sadly, he never knew, having lost both of his parents during his

teenage years.

He thought about that for a moment until his mind typically wandered off topic into more technical

matters. Charles had explained they knew somebody was an HF by not only tracking family history,

but today they were able to tell using chemical testing. Something Charles didn’t really know about,

but Garland Pickett did. He hadn’t talked to Garland about it. He was wondering now just what they

could see scientifically. And, he wondered why it had become the belief that an HF was required to

have anything to do with the so-called Aldorian message. These were issues regarding Aldorian history

which actually held his interest. His involvement with The League was more than mere peer pressure

involvement. He actually had interest in some of it.

Maybe, as others thought, the message was described in the books. Charles and The League certainly

had confidence in such a possibility. But, what little they understood so far indicated that at least the

writing in book five seemed to consist of mostly fairly mundane journal entries regarding plants and

local events in and around Kentucky. What if all the books were equally unrevealing? Why, David

wondered, were Charles and the others so perplexed with what appeared to be increasing complexity in

earlier entries in the books? It seemed like a great academic challenge to him.

David grew more curious about the varying complexities. He looked across the room at his office door

and decided to examine at the scans database he had copied onto his home computer. As soon as the

system finished booting, he started the database program, and began looking at the last page with

writing on it in book five. What little he had looked at so far, nothing seemed remotely familiar to him.

He didn’t speak any language other than his sloppy version of English, but that certainly didn’t prevent

him from being able to recognize numerous other languages when he saw them in print. This looked

nothing like any of them. Yet he felt intuitively that this was not some hoax. This was a real language;

perhaps constructed as Charles had suggested, but real. And, he knew he wanted to learn what it said.

Not knowing enough about linguistics and how Charles and the others approached the problem of

translating something like this, still he wondered if he could sense the complexity simplifications

which they so easily saw. He stared for a minute at what appeared to be the last sentence in the book.


Then he opened a second window into the scans and scrolled to the beginning of book five. He

examined the two entries for several minutes. Nothing.

On the other hand, the exercise was not without merit. He found a renewed motivation to become more

deeply dedicated to solving this mystery. So what if the books turned out to be little more than an

almanac, written by a weird bunch of secretive farmers. Still, he would devote as much mental power

to supporting the linguists as he could. He vowed also to attempt at better understanding what linguists

knew.

What David did not recognize was what he was actually doing. He was adopting the same attitude as

when he lost Karen. He was retreating into his private chamber of solitude under the guise of academic

research. If he stayed on track with this, he would soon isolate himself from an outside world he could

not somehow negotiate. His decision to isolate himself all weekend from others was not a singular

event. He was retreating into old familiar territory.

Finishing his coffee and growing distracted from examining the scans, he stood and turned away from

the computer, thinking he was growing hungry. Then his cell phone rang. He reached for his pocket

and then stopped. He really wasn’t in the mood to speak with anyone. So, he let it go to voice message

and continued to the kitchen. After pouring a second cup of coffee, he retrieved his cell and listened. It

had been Charles, as he suspected, indicating that the DNA experts at League offices were interested in

the blood sample on the medallion, indicating that there might be a chance of recovering some DNA.

And, Charles reiterated his interest in again examining the medallion. David put his phone away,

deciding he would still wait to take the medallion to Charles on Monday rather than taking it into the

League office this weekend.

David continued all weekend in lone time. Maybe he was retreating into forced solitude. But for now

at least, the escape was more therapeutic than not. He reenergized and reconnected with professional

goals, however ill advised they might actually be when he embraced them in this manner.


Chapter 67

Monday, Oct 24 - Janet looked up as David stepped into her office. She waited and watched while he

stood there quiet for a few seconds. Almost mechanically he finally spoke. “I am as dedicated to this

job as you all are, and I would never do anything to tamper with this environment, to your environment.

You are all professionals and I will never treat you as anything less, or with anything short of complete

fairness.”

Janet stared at him blankly.

After a short pause, he continued. “I am temporarily involved in very private matters which I must

repeat have nothing to do with our jobs here, but which I simply cannot discuss at this time. I

apologize if I somehow led you to think otherwise. I admire your dedication to treating this

professionally, and I can only say I take no offense at your questioning what you believe may have

happened. But, nothing serious is going on, and our professional relationship here is not in question.

You do an excellent job here, and I would never let anything get in the way of treating you

inappropriately.”

Janet was frozen by the cold machine-like statements. David waited two or three seconds with no

expression before he turned and left. She sat there, not being able to respond in any way. What the hell

was that?

She had been at Hunmay now for only two years, and she had not been witness to David’s emotional

retreat before she came here, so she had no basis with which to compare what just occurred. Otherwise,

she might have realized that David was returning to comfortable behaviors he once hid behind. Instead,

she felt almost noxious. She was patronized, but in such a manner she felt she had no useful way to

respond. She couldn’t believe the statements, the detached treatment. Not one word about what was

really going on. How could he not notice?

As she sat there trying to deal with the moment, she began to shake. She stood and closed her door.

Leaning against the door, she stood there unable to move, confounded and not at all sure how to deal

with this.

David settled behind his desk and turned to his computer. He had made his position on the subject as

clear as possible. She could not possible think any further that he would somehow not treat her fairly.

He had recognized the problem and corrected it before it had grown beyond reason. Now it was time to

move on.

He opened his brief case and retrieved the small cloth bag containing the medallion, and then

proceeded to Charles’ office.

“I brought you the medallion.”


Reaching for the bag, Charles invited David to stay. “Thanks. Have a seat.”

While David settled in a chair, Charles continued. “I’ll take it to The League offices after work. I had

some very productive talks with Stan this weekend.” Charles referred to Stan Robertson, the linguistics

expert working in The League offices. “He came up with some really useful insights regarding the

translations. And, he is fairly sure he found a passage which talks about the three families. David, we

are making a couple of decent breakthroughs right now. It’s a long way from being able to translate

most of this, especially the earlier writing, but it’s an unexpected quick break in book five.”

David barely heard what Charles was saying. He was lost in his own thoughts. “I am glad Karen can be

a part of this now.”

Charles squinted at David. “Well—yes. Of course. I wouldn’t get your hopes up too much. I’ve been

assured that the DNA will be in bad condition, mostly degraded. At best only a few fragments are

expected to be retrieved. It might not be enough to help understand any clues about HF properties.

That is, if any exist. Apparently we don’t even know if this DNA project will lead anywhere positive.

Besides, the problem is not just collecting DNA sequences and examining them. The bigger problem is

comparing two DNA sequences against each other and trying to find a common structure reasonably

unique to HF Aldorians. That’s why they need more sequences, including people known not to be

HFs.”

As Charles talked, he continued to notice David’s demeanor, which seemed disengaged and remote.

What was on his mind? Did it have something to do with his relatively sudden change of plans and not

going to The League offices this weekend? “On another note,” he continued, “J. P. has approved our

doing some testing of the pages he collected in Europe. We can finally gather some chemical data

regarding the books.”

Charles finally said enough so David began to join in. “That should finally pin down a decent date.

And Stan coming up with something about the families is a positive connection.”

As David appeared to snap out of his mood, Charles decided not to ask about it. “Of course, one

connection is good, but we should avoid making firm conclusions with such little evidence. It is

possible it is only a coincidence.” He paused a moment. “We need several of these connections before

coincidence can be ruled out. If this writing is as old as indicated, then historical continuity might be

more difficult to establish.”

“Historical continuity?”

“Meaning the facts in the writing are similar enough to what we know today.” Charles clarified.

“There’s an old experiment. More than a century ago I think, somebody first documented this time-

changing phenomenon. A chain of people are involved. A very short story involving a few specific

facts is written on a sheet of paper. Just a couple of sentences. The story is read quietly to a second

person, who then tries to write down on a second sheet of paper the exact same wording of the story.

They read their version to a third person who repeats the copying and reading to a fourth person, and

so on until everybody has heard and written the story. Then the last version of the story is compared to


the first. It can be very surprising how different the final version has become. Now, imagine how a

longer and far more complicated story, like in the books, can be changed over a much longer period of

time. The more the change, the smaller the historical continuity.”

“That seems logical. Happens all the time, doesn't it?”

“Sure. And historians argue this effect constantly. Aldorians are no different. We want to know as

clearly as possible the original facts surrounding our beginnings.”

David realized a vague parallel. “That’s sounds similar to biological mutation. Like in DNA. But, on a

much greater time scale. Errors in copying take place in unpredictable, but certain places.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but yeah, I guess that’s right. But, I have deeper concerns regarding

how quickly we can translate the books. The mutations this time seem to be within the writings also.

While we are catching some nice breaks with book five, I’ve continued to examine the apparent

grammatical structures of the language used in earlier writing. The further back I look, the less I can

see structures I can work with. I think this is going to become a very difficult problem, and faster then

we want.”

David suggested a possibility. “But, maybe it will improve in incremental steps which keep revealing

themselves as you accomplish each translation. Where you make a translation, maybe the structures

close before it will become more clear to understand.”

Charles affirmed his caution. “Well, maybe. But, right now I don’t have a lot of confidence in it. I

can’t shake the nagging feeling that it is not the same language used throughout. Just the symbols or

characters used remain the same, but for differing languages. And, with vastly different grammars.”

David and Charles continued their visit. What seemed like detached interaction from David at first

turned into the engaged and interesting way he normally held up his part of a conversation when it

involved technical focus. Charles knew David well enough. So he continued to entertain what David

wanted to discuss. The more they talked, the more David sounded interested. And, the more he seemed

to cheer up.

The Monday conversation with Charles following the announcements David had issued to Janet with

such cold emotion and detached attempts at sounding as if he much cared had drawn David out of his

uneasy feelings. Deep within, he knew he had not handled what he had said to her very well. But, he

had managed to walk away and convince himself he had handled it well enough. The visit with Charles

served to cover and remove his hidden feelings from his own awareness well enough so he could move

on with other concerns.


Even the weekly all-hands meeting Tuesday morning passed smoothly enough. Janet was left with an

empty feeling of loss of what might have been. But, she knew she was not certain of what that really

was. It had all come to a sudden stop before it even actually began. While it left her off balance, by the

end of the Tuesday meeting, she could clearly see that David was behaving as if it was already a

forgotten past. Maybe she had imagined more in him than was ever really there. So, she dodged her

emotions as best she could and decided to focus more on continuing what it was like before any of this

came up. The main thing which happened was less usual interaction between the two of them. David

relied on continuing work with Janet by using her manager Ann as a buffer, letting most of the direct

interactions occur with the two of them.

Wednesday afternoon, David received a call from Garland Pickett. There had been some success at

retrieving DNA fragments from Karen’s blood. Enough, they thought, to make some use of it in the

DNA database. It could have been a lot better, but still they had enough genomic data to help. And,

Garland also reported that they had no problems with results at sequencing David’s own DNA. So, his

data was also beginning to be compared with others in the database. Ending the conversation with

David acknowledging he would visit League offices during the coming weekend, he hung up the phone

in an upbeat mood and more than ready to fill the remainder of the week with satisfying work.


Chapter 68

Saturday, Oct 29 - David parked his car and entered The League offices. He was more than ready to

meet with Stan Robertson and Charles regarding ideas the two had developed while working on

translations during the past few days. Involving himself with greater than usual focus on technical

development was his way to feel the kind of peace he desired. It was an old familiar strategy, however

ill advised, whenever he attempted to avoid unpleasant emotions.

But this time, unlike the relatively shallow involvements following Karen’s death when he immersed

himself in work, he was faced now with numerous above average technical issues. Translators at

Hunmay and in The League were not only enjoying some early successes, but they offered more than

enough suggestions on how to improve Able.

He was also eager to meet with the DNA expert, Andrea Perez. He wanted to understand more about

what they were doing in general and find out more about his genome. And, Karen’s. He wanted a copy

of both sequences. With no clue what he would do with them, somehow he believed it would bring

back a renewed memory of Karen, away from the faded condition his memory had become.

Making his way down the hallway and through the entry doors into the offices, he stopped short as he

stepped into the conference room, completely surprised when he saw J. P. and Charles sitting at the

conference table. The two looked up at him as he entered. “Well!”

“Well, to you also.” J.P smiled and invited David to join them. “We have been discussing a plan, and it

directly involves you. Please, have a seat.” J. P. pointed at a nearby coffee pot as he spoke.

David poured a cup and settled at the conference table next to Charles as J. P. said, “You have been

very busy, and I’m about to keep you that way.”

David knew that whatever it was, it would not be something routine. There was no way J. P. would be

involved with anything very mundane. Knowing how J. P. typically seemed to approach any topic in a

circuitous manner, he remained silent waiting for him to get to the point.

“First, David, I wish to thank you for loan of Karen’s medallion. We all appreciate how much it means

to you. How much it meant to her. Charlie now has it and wishes to study it more.” Charles remained

silent. “Andrea indicated—and I understand you know—that they have been able to retrieve some

DNA fragments from the blood stain on the medallion.”

David interjected quietly, “You’re welcome.”

“Andrea is not in the office today.” David was disappointed to hear that. “She is over at the DNA lab,

taking care of some issues regarding sequencing.” J. P. waved his hand. “Nothing to worry about. They

are getting good sequences, but evidently there are multiple ways they can be displayed or stored.


Apparently, Andrea can proceed in a less complicated manner if the lab uses some other presentation,

and she’s working with them to set it up.”

“Besides,” J. P. added, “I spoke with her, and my understanding now is that it is too soon to learn

much from the data they have. Looking at these raw DNA sequences doesn’t seem to tell us much

about what we want to learn. Apparently, the payoff is not in having the sequences, which is all they

have so far, but rather there seems to be some additional analysis and cross comparisons they have to

make first before we get anything like the answers we seek.” J. P. shifted in his chair. “I don’t know

about you, but this DNA stuff is a bit over my head. Andrea tells me that DNA is made up of these

pairs of molecules called base pairs, and human DNA is made up of three billion of them. I didn’t even

know there were that many chemicals out there. No wonder progress is slow with it.”

David refrained from correcting J. P. He knew at least that all base pairs together consisted of

combinations of only four different molecules.

“In the meantime, we should remain directed toward continuing improvements on Able and the

translations of the books. Charlie and Garland have informed me this morning at the progress they are

making. But, they are not the only ones to report progress with this effort. I have something of value to

add, as I was discussing with Charlie when you arrived. And, it involves an errand I would like you to

do, but not here.”

An errand? Not here? Okay, J. P. had his attention.

“I want you to go to Europe. You should leave tomorrow evening.”

David sure didn’t see that coming. He took another sip of his coffee.

“The recent trips I’ve made over there have finally garnered what I’ve been trying for more than a year.

Yesterday, I received word from Lenz Becker. Lenz plays the same role in Germany as you do here.

During the last few months he has managed to put together a team of League members over there who

are sympathetic with our goals. David, I want you to meet with him in Berlin and help install a setup

like we have here in these offices. And, you and Lenz can establish a set of protocols for regular

sharing and exchanges of data. I understand this can easily be done through a secure Internet site. Lenz

has a very good Internet expert working for him. So, you should also meet with him and Lenz to set up

all of this. He assures me that about a week should be more than enough time. So, go home and do

whatever you must to leave tomorrow. You will fly there on the Lurline. I would love to be going with

you, but I have more pressing business to take care of here.”

“Okay.” David was surprised at all of this. He found little else to say. That J. P. would provide the

Lurline, his own private jet, to fly him over there seemed far more excessive than the job seemed to

call for. David believed this surely meant how important this whole business was to J. P. So, there was

little else he could do but go along with this sudden plan. But, he realized also that he didn’t mind the

opportunity to go to Germany. Especially now. He had never been to Europe, and getting away from

Austin right now felt inside like a convenient way to stay away from local issues which he kept

thinking were not completely resolved.


“Before you go home to pack,” J. P. continued, “get the latest backup of the setup and data we have

here to take with you. And, don’t worry about work. Charlie can inform everybody what’s going on,

and we all know Barbara Welling can manage just fine.”

Suddenly David had a thought. How could he be so close to where Karen’s father lived in Bonn

without attempting to make contact with him? Hesitantly he asked, “I do have a special favor to ask, if

it is okay with you. Is is possible I can take an extra day to stop over in Bonn and see if I can talk with

Kristian Bauer?”

J. P. and Charles looked at each other. Charles smiled as J. P. turned back to David. “Why, that’s no

problem at all. Take longer if you really think it would help. Bonn is actually along the way to Berlin,

so it is an easy lay over. I’ll inform my pilot.” J. P. leaned in and asked with some concern, “I know it

has not been smooth sailing with your father-in-law. Certainly I know Kristian well. He is a stubborn

man. Do you think he will be willing to talk with you?”

“I have to try.”

“Yes, of course. Nothing ventured.” J. P. waited a moment before standing. The meeting was over.

Charles and David stood. “Is there anything else you wish to ask me? Otherwise, I leave this with you

and Charlie to take care of details.” J. P. shook their hands and left. Business as usual.

Closing his front door, David stood in the entryway staring at the spot where he had discovered Karen

four years ago. It never crossed his mind to move away from his house after her death. Even when a

couple of friends asked whether it might be better to live elsewhere, away from the constant reminder,

he rejected any possibility that he would leave. As he stood there, he wished he had been able to talk

with Andrea and find out whatever he could regarding Karen’s DNA, and his own. He vowed to make

it one of the first things he would do after returning from Germany.

Germany! His first trip to Europe. Something he and Karen planned multiple times, but somehow

managed to always find reason not to go. How many times had Karen politely cancelled an upcoming

visit with her family? Had it really been so easy to think almost anything else was more important?

And, finally, he would only now be taking the time to attempt a visit. He shook off the guilt feeling, sat

his briefcase down and moved to the living room. He sat on the couch and stared out the window.

It was late Saturday. He had remained in The League offices for the day. Knowing he needed only an

hour or so on Sunday to prepare for the trip, he spent the day working with Garland Pickett after

gathering software and data backups to take to Germany. He thought about J. P. How can one person

amass so much money? What drives somebody to pursue such a goal? J. P. had shown no concerns

over cost, allowing David to take a side trip to Bonn. J. P. had been almost flippant with his casual


statement, “I’ll inform my pilot.” David smiled. My pilot! Such power. How much further did J. P.

extend his direct influence?

J. P. had clearly used his influence in Karen’s life. And, he considered how much he had influenced his

own life. More indirectly, perhaps, but nevertheless in ways which cleared the way for David to then

take the more easy path to arrive where he was now. Where would he be today if were not for J. P.? He

would have never met Karen. He would not be going to Europe. He would not be trying to somehow

make peace with Kristian Bauer.

He would not have met Janet Deane. Suddenly he felt uncomfortable. He looked around and realized

that it had grown dark in the house as night began. He stood and turned on a light. Closing the blinds

on the window, shutting out the world, he moved to the kitchen in search of food.

After meeting the pilot and copilot, David settled in one of the oversized seats in the Lurline. He

looked around at how luxuriously the interior of the jet was decorated and he couldn’t believe J. P. was

going to all of the apparent expense to send only him somewhere.

David was pleased to be helping others become seriously involved with attempting the translations. He

trusted Charles’ opinion on just how difficult the translations would be in the long run. He remained

impatient to see more progress, so more experts involved was good news to him. But, he knew he was

growing less interested in actually knowing what the writings had to say. After all, he thought, what

would some villagers in Kentucky one or two hundred years ago have to say? Already the few

successful translations from book five indicated that it would most likely consist of current events.

Maybe of great interest to historians, whom The League members mostly were, but David was

becoming skeptical that deep revelations regarding Aldorianism were forthcoming. His own interests

were expanding, but associated with the computing challenges, attempting to write more clever

modules added to Able which might increase the abilities to translate the books.

However, David was finding it mysterious that whomever wrote these books would have bothered to

invent—construct, as Charles called it—a whole new language, just to keep secret what they wrote.

David considered it possible that some of the writings might yield Aldorian relevance after all.

He leaned his head back and looked out the window next to him as the force of acceleration pushed

him gently against his seat. Next stop for fuel, New York. Then, Paris, and on to Cologne Bonn

Airport in Germany. How would Kristian Bauer react to his visit?


Chapter 69

David raised his arm to knock on the door, but hesitated. Second thoughts. He realized that he had no

clue what he would say. Maybe he should wait for Kristian Bauer to react. Maybe his presence alone,

all this way from Texas, would be enough to influence Kristian to be willing to accept him standing

here. Maybe it was enough to buy him time to—to do what? Oh, God! What was the right thing to say?

He was frozen. Suddenly, the door opened.

“Oh!” David was startled. So was the stranger standing before him.

“May I help you?”

At least David wouldn’t have to try his terrible knowledge of German. “I apologize. Perhaps I have the

wrong address. I was expecting Herr Bauer. Is he here?”

“Herr Bauer?” The stranger sounded as if he was having trouble believing David said that name. “Herr

Bauer no longer lives here. He sold us this house more than a year ago.”

“What! But I, uh, do you know where he went?”

“No, I am sorry. I do not really know him.”

David was at a loss for what to do. How could this be? How could he travel all this far to find this?

Now growing impatient, the stranger said, “I am sorry, but I must be on with my business. Is there

something else?”

“No. I’m sorry I troubled you.”

“It is no trouble. Excuse me, but I must leave.” The man motioned, attempting to herd David away

from his front door as he closed it and proceeded to walk away.

David moved back and walked out to the curb of the street. As the man walked off, David stood there

watching him. One time the man looked back at David, but continued on his way. David remained at

the curb. Suddenly he felt strongly disappointed. And a little angry. How could this be? Why would he

not have learned Kristian had moved elsewhere? As he stood there staring with disbelief at the house,

an unexpected and strong sense of loss passed through him. A tear rolled down his cheek and he wiped

it away confused over it. Why would he feel like this now after all the time he had no contact with him

at all? Somehow it didn’t seem fair.

He continued to stand there feeling helpless. He had no idea how he might attempt to locate him.

Perhaps when he got to Berlin, Lenz Becker could help find him. He was having trouble accepting this

and refocusing on J. P.’s reason he was here at all. Looking back at the house one last time, he


imagined he might somehow see his father-in-law standing there. After what seemed like well more

than a minute, David moved away, returning to the bus stop to go to his hotel.

It was a terrible day and following night. He tried in vain with the hotel concierge to somehow locate

where Bauer had gone. There was nothing they did which yielded any useful information. The

concierge apologized. He was no better at handling this task than David was. It was not what he had

ever thought about doing. Frustration was building along with his sadness.

David went through dinner and the rest of the evening like a zombie. With an equally fitful and long

night, he managed the next morning to go through the additional motions to make it back to the airport

and the Lurline.

David arrived in Berlin in the middle of the next day. He tried to let it go that he had failed to meet up

with Mr. Bauer as he met with Becker and his group of coworkers and quickly got involved with

setting up the computer system in the Berlin offices. An attempt to locate with Becker’s help where

Kristian Bauer might be had failed also. There was little recourse by then but to forget the idea of any

kind of reconciliation. Expanding project Able to the Berlin office became David’s only real focus.

The week passed quickly, during which David thought about Kristian Bauer only a couple of times

more. He adjusted to the idea that any remaining connection he had to Karen’s family was no longer to

be. That was all over now.

There were a couple of problems which slowed down the Berlin installation. This resulted in the whole

affair taking days longer than David first believed it would. Working through the weekend, it was

Wednesday of the next week before Becker drove him to the Berlin airport.

David had become comfortable with the visit, and he had warmed up to Becker personally. He vowed

to stay in touch and accepted Becker’s invitation to return to Berlin for a friendly visit and a chance to

actually play tourist with him someday soon.

Settling in the Lurline, David was not looking forward to the long trip home. He felt strongly

dissatisfied with the entire visit, despite the successful installation of Able. Whenever he had the

chance, as he did now, to slow down and think about Kristian Bauer, he continued to feel badly. He

stared out the window as images of the airport rushed by his view. He laid his head back and closed his

eyes.

As he sat there wishing he were anywhere but here, he contemplated how easy it was, if not to make

enemies, but at least not to ingratiate others to himself. Hunter Leach, Kristian Bauer, Janet Deane. He

hadn’t been trying. No matter how you live your life, some people are not going to like it, and they

won't like you.


David was exhausted and ready to be home where he could hide. As he stepped off the Lurline and

before he could walk the few yards across the tarmac to the terminal building, he could see J. P.

Huntington standing inside the glass door along with Charles Candrill. He certainly hadn’t expected

this greeting. Were they really that anxious to learn how the installation had gone? That couldn’t be it.

They already knew it had gone well. Why were they here? Whatever the reason, the last thing he

wanted right now is company.

Charles held the door open as David stepped through. “What’s going on?”

J. P. spoke first. “David, there’s a private meeting room over here. We have to talk with you.” J. P.

turned and started walking toward the room.

“Have to talk?” David wondered at the choice of words. Was this another one of J. P.’s typical

obfuscated approaches to making a point? Or often his way, to make no clear point at all? He really

was in no mood to deal with this right now.

David sat down and took a deep breath. He muttered, “I’m tired.” Maybe that would prod J. P. to get

on with it.

“I suppose you are, but this couldn’t wait. Charles and I wanted to meet with you before anyone else.”

Again the same vague sense of urgency. David was barely willing to be patient and pay attention.

J. P. paused and looked at Charles. He nodded in apparent approval and J. P. turned back to David.

“While you were gone, we had a completely unexpected breakthrough with the DNA.”

David had to interrupt. “This can’t wait? This is about my DNA? Or, Karen’s?”

“Not Karen’s.”

“Then mine. How is that so important?”

“No, David, wait. The blood on the medallion wasn’t Karen’s.”

David raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“On the medallion. It didn’t belong to Karen.”

“What! Wait, how do you know that? You didn’t have any of Karen’s blood from before.”


“No we didn’t. But we were able to recover enough fragments of DNA from the medallion to learn that

the blood belonged to a male.”

David took only a second. “Her killer! Her killer?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, God!” David stood up.

“No, wait! Please. I want to explain. The police are waiting out there. They can wait. We want you to

hear this first from us. Your friends.” David settled back in his chair and J. P. continued. “The

fragments indicated that the blood was from a man. The test results were not all that good. The police

would be less than impressed regarding an old cold case. Trying normal channels would have gone

nowhere.”

“We knew the police had plenty of blood evidence locked up from the crime scene. I have friends,

David. Friends in high enough places in the police force to listen. And, who would not ask too many

questions about why we might have this DNA or information. We approached them and convinced

them that it was worth looking at such a cold case again.”

“Back in those days, DNA analysis was still very expensive. So, nearly always they only made what

were called DNA fingerprints. That was enough to verify that they had two blood samples, from Karen

and from some unknown male. They never went any further with the blood than that. Again, too

expensive. So they knew a man was apparently the killer, that her death really was no freak accident.

But, in those days, actually still mostly true today, they don’t go around collecting DNA from

everybody. Think about it, they didn’t even collect a sample from you, did they? No! They did what

they always do. They interviewed everybody they could and checked for satisfactory alibis. That led

them nowhere, and as the weeks and months passed, the case went cold.”

“Please, J. P.” David wanted him to get to the point more quickly. He only wanted to know who it was.

Did he really have to wait for the police to tell him?

J. P. ignored him and continued. “So, we convinced them to further look more at their blood samples

using the quick, inexpensive and easy methods they have today. They did that. So they had two DNA

sequences. But, all that ended up verifying was that they had two sequences. They knew one belonged

to Karen, and they knew the other was from a man. But, who? The sequences got them no further than

they already were. They have no good enough DNA database to compare samples against.”

David suddenly realized. “We have one!”

“We do.” J. P. agreed. “We don’t have Karen’s sequence, but we do have the man. We collected DNA

almost two years after Karen’s death from almost everybody still around then, and we have him. The

blood on the medallion belongs to Hunter Leach.”

David just sat there trying to let it sink in. He was so surprised he could say nothing.


Before waiting too much longer, J. P. continued. “As soon as we learned what we had, we let our

contact know. The police worked with authorities in Kentucky. Leach was arrested and he was

extradited here to Austin just two days ago. He is being held now. He’s in jail here, David. No bail. He

has basically confessed. He’s a broken man and ...”

David interrupted. “Leach!” He practically yelled. “Leach! He killed Karen! He did it?” He started

pacing around the room. “Why? Why did he do it? Why?” As he stomped around the room, he blurted

mostly incoherent noise. It took a few moments more. “Wait! All that DNA work. First by you, and

then testing it against our database. Then the police and finally them sequencing DNA. Arresting

Leach and extraditing him. This didn’t happen overnight. You made the partial sequencing before I left.

You told me that.” He stared hard at J. P. “You knew the morning you told me to go to Germany.

Didn’t you?”

“David, we thought it was better. We knew what we had to do about it, and you would have been in no

condition to help. And, it might not have worked.”

“You knew! You lied about how hard it was to compare sequences in our database. You made sure

Andrea wasn’t there so I couldn’t talk with her. You knew already! Didn’t you? You lied! It’s all been

a pack of lies! My God, did you cause delays in Germany?”

J. P. and Charles didn’t move.

“You shipped me out of town for this. What the hell!” David stormed for the door. “Lies! All lies!”


Chapter 70

Janet’s call went to voice mail. She disconnected, put her cell on the coffee table and leaned back. She

just arrive home from work and she really wanted to talk with her friend Kay Miller. But even if she

might be home next door, she wasn’t answering her calls. Janet was anxious to discuss her thoughts

and feelings and get some feedback from one of the few people she listened to very often. The events

of the last two weeks stirred her emotions beyond her own comfort level and she knew that Kay was

almost the only person she trusted to help her sort things out.

It started Monday morning more than a week ago when an email to everybody at work from Charles

informed her that David would be out of the office for several days. It didn’t indicate where he would

be. Her immediate thoughts were based on suspicions that he was yet again involved with the

mysterious things going on in those downtown offices. And, with people she had never seen before. It

certainly didn’t bolster her confidence that it was not in some way jeopardizing her job. She could still

not recognize that this reasoning was her own subconscious way to avoid the truth. David’s behaviors

were getting in the way of a closer relationship between the two of them.

The latest two weekly all hands Tuesday meetings had been so positive. Especially the one this week.

Charles had led both meetings and the reported progress had been quite good. It was progress which

was better than expected, given the fact they no longer had direct access to the books. The news

implied that her efforts with help developing database support modules in Able would remain

interesting and challenging. Just what she wanted in her work.

In the meeting this week, Charles presented a list of twenty-one symbols he had discovered in book

four which were not in the language being used in the rest of the books. He explained that he was

uncertain what the symbols could mean. What he did not tell anyone was about the existence of

Karen’s medallion and that was where he first saw the symbols. Nor did he explain that he and others

believed the symbols represented the twenty-one communities or villages which were early

establishments of Aldorians.

Otherwise, translations of passages in book five were proceeding, but indications were beginning to

become apparent that translations would become significantly more difficult. Nevertheless, it was

becoming more plausible that the five books were journals of ongoing current events from when the

writings were made. It remained a mystery why it was all written in the constructed language used in

an apparent attempt to keep the contents of the books a secret. Of course, the more the books were

successfully translated, the more it would likely become understood why.

Then the emergency meeting of everybody in the Garden Project called by Barbara Welling right after

lunch today was a complete shock. Barbara had few details, but she did report the essential facts, the

reason for the meeting. Karen Allen’s murderer had been discovered. It was Hunter Leach. He was

now being held in the Austin jail. He had confessed. She knew basically nothing more than this. She


had no explanation for David’s absence or where he was, but it seemed clear to her that his absence

surely had everything to do with Leach’s discovery and arrest. She didn’t know when he might return

to work. Perhaps next week.

Furthermore, it appeared that perhaps there was less concern by others in Kentucky about the Garden

Project folks having direct access to the books and stones. Lawyers at Hunmay would be working now

to have the artifacts returned. There was every reason to believe this would happen soon.

So, Janet was having more trouble with all of this than she liked. She tried calling Kay again. No

answer. Then she noticed Kay’s car was not in the driveway, so she wasn’t next door. So, Janet paced.

She was having no progress trying to understand what she knew. Was all of this somehow connected to

Leach’s arrest? How did that explain the offices downtown and the strangers? Were they perhaps plain

clothes detectives? Maybe that could explain the secrecy, why he would not explain to her, or anybody

else for that matter, what he was involved with. Had she been too quick to judge David in a very

unfavorable light? But, that didn’t explain why he had made the database copy. Was it as innocent as

he proclaimed?

She could not erase the uneasy feeling that there were other factors in all of this which did not add up.

She could not bring herself to accept blind trust in his innocence. Yet she now had this frustrating

desire to somehow help him with this huge series of events with Leach. She wanted to console him.

Damn it! She kept pacing.

An unexpected knock on her front door startled her, and she stood motionless for a moment. Maybe it

was Kay. Certainly she hoped it was nobody else. She open the door and stared in disbelief at David.

Neither of them moved. Neither of them said anything for several seconds.

David’s eyes were red and watery, and Janet could see he was almost trembling. He took a slow deep

breath and looked up more directly at her. “I lied. It was all lies. I am sorry. Whatever you may think,

you must know the truth. All of it.”

Janet stood there looking at him as he waited. Slowly she moved at first. Then she stepped back from

the door. “Please, come in.”

THE END

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