coordinate to coordinate to get back to his home—to Admiral Byrd, and to his mom. Most importantly, do they need to be warned? Were his people and the starbase the “target” he had heard the other species talking about?
Two Weeks Before the Attack
This time, Crystal didn't tell Hendricks that she went into the cave and down the tunnel and finally to the door. She didn't forecast it on her HDC on a channel only she and he could view. She did it alone.
Standing in front of the door again she was mesmerized by what she was being shown. It was like watching an action vid on the vid channels, but without actors or sounds—only visuals, the most beautiful she had ever seen.
The strange thing, however, was that each scene seemed to telepathically speak to her, or she just knew how to interpret them.
And here she was, watching her race's origins, in a cave, of all places.
On the door a blue planet named Gaia spun near a large sun, and a moon was even closer.
“Your race was born here, but it was taken. Many races were born there, and left through ascension, or killed off, or taken as well. The Fae, the Dwarve, the Ork, the Troll, the Dragon, the Unicorn, the Maya, the Griffin, the Pegasus, the Centaur, the Giant, the Wizard...” the races went on and on. Many she had never heard of, and some only in books of lore.
She stepped back, turned and left the cave.
The Attack
Crystal stared at Mount Gabrielle in the distance, remembering everything that the door spoke and showed her. She had been captivated, lost in the door's hypnotic embrace ever since she had found it.
There was more that was told to her, but she couldn't quite remember it all. How long had she stared at it and watched the vid?
Today she remembered giant men with whips, ordering humans to mine gold on Gaia, but that's all she could remember. Tomorrow, she wondered if she would remember more.
“Hendricks,” she said over her com link, pulling herself back to the task at hand. “Next.”
A hover cart full of ebb chunks zoomed by her and an empty one came to her side. She smashed a small mound, grabbed the chunks, and dropped them into the hover cart.
Finally filling her cart to the brim, she blinked several times, trying to get some stinging sweat out of her eyes. She glanced at the clock on her HDC. Only an hour left.
“Complete,” she called. Instantly, the hover cart moved forward, then zipped ahead toward a large warehouse a mile away.
“Next,” she ordered. When after several minutes no hover cart appeared, she rolled her eyes and blew air out of her mouth, knowing that Hendricks, who was in the Mech several yards behind her, was being slow, as usual.
Hanging her head to the side, she refrained from yelling at him for the moment, and stared at the light fading over the horizon. The sky was a canvas of purples and pinks. It was beautiful, and perhaps the only thing attractive about planet Lumus. The rest of this world was way too still for her taste. There were no trees, no vegetation, and rarely any wind.
She took a deep breath, whispering to herself, I hate this job. She shrugged. At least she wasn't on the hydro drilling crew watching water being sucked up giant tubes all day long.
Water.
She pressed her lips against a soft tube hanging from the ceiling and sucked down a few chugs. Clearing her throat, she pressed the Mech's parrot switch to the off position, and brushed her red hair out of her blue eyes and yelled, “Next!”
When nothing arrived, she pressed the parrot switch back on and turned her torso, causing the Mech to do a torso twist as well. About fifty yards behind her stood Hendricks' Mech, oddly tilting its head toward the sky.
“Dammit, Hendricks! Stop daydreaming and get back to work.”
“Uh,” replied Hendricks over the com link, his voice quiet. “You better take a look at what I'm seeing, Chief.”She sighed and tilted her head, causing the Mech's head to do the same. She was expecting to ask Hendricks about what she was supposed to be seeing—perhaps a mythical elephant cloud formation that he always talked about, or perhaps a cloud that looked like a snowman, like the ones she used to make as a child back at the biosphere on Starbase Matrona?
Crystal, however, saw something entirely different. In fact, there were no clouds in the sky at all and when she saw what Hendricks was gazing at her jaw dropped. Up above, higher than the atmosphere, was Starbase Matona. This was a normal sight, since the starbase acted much like a daytime moon for this planet. However, what was occuring on Matrona, and around it, wasn’t normal at all.
Explosions!
A Sneak Peak at the next book
in the Star Guild Saga!
Star Guild
Episodes 1 – 9
~
Episode 1
The Attack
Location: Andarta System, Circinus Galaxy, 832 year cycle of Starbase Matrona's orbit around Planet Lumus
Year: Unknown
Approximation to Earth: Unknown
Present Human Knowledge of Earth: None