 
Rebirth

A Story By

Philip R Benge

Smashwords Edition

***************

Published by

Philip R Benge on Smashwords

Rebirth

Copyright Philip R Benge 2012

Cover Art Copyright Philip R Benge 2012

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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author`s imagination and used fictitiously.

Rebirth

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One: It All Begins Again

Chapter Two: The Starship Constellation

Chapter Three: The Investigation Moves ON

Chapter Four: Paul Divine and Charles Bragg have a Bad Day

Chapter Five: The Planet Orion

Chapter Six: On the Starship Constellation

Chapter Seven: Re-enactment

Chapter Eight: Genesis

Chapter Nine: The Original Owner of Genesis

Chapter Ten: The Ruined City

Chapter Eleven: The Starship Freedom

Chapter Twelve: On the far off Planet of Aldebra

About the Author

Other Books by the Author
Prologue

It is the year 2497, and as in any other time it is a lucky man or woman who finally comes to realise that there is more than one route to travel along to reach your destination, to think otherwise is not only foolish it is also illogical. Tyler Burrows is one man who is slowly coming to realise that there is more to the universe than science can provide an answer for at this moment in time. Unfortunately, for him, he is getting a lot of help from what his friends call fate, to bring him around to this point of view.

Recently a mystic had told him that he was soon to journey to many new distant worlds, where he would find new friends, but also that many dangers would be awaiting him, but he was not to worry for the gods would accompany him on his journey!

Rebirth

Chapter One

It All Begins Again

Late in the evening of the January 10th 2497

President Michaels was sixty-three years old but he looked older, as he had done for some while now, for the stress of the job was affecting him, as it had with all of the previous Presidents of Earth and all of its colonies. His once dark bushy hair was now sparse and grey, his face full of stress lines. Even so, he still attempted to keep his ramrod stance that emphasized his six feet tall figure, and his seemingly electric blue eyes still had the power to dominate all those around him.

He had just put the phone down, Ivor Johansson had called him to ask whether he could spare the time to come over to the laboratory tomorrow morning, and if possible, to bring Sir Charles Fulbright with him, as he wanted to put on a demonstration that he was sure would delight them both. When Michaels had asked right out if the Matter Transporter was now a working machine, Johansson had refused to say, what he had said was that all would be revealed tomorrow morning; tonight, they had some final checks to run to ensure that all would be ready for them in the morning. Michaels had wanted to damn and blast the man, and at one time, he would have done, but following a chastening experience three years ago on the far-off planet of Orion, he had learned now to constrain himself. If the science team wanted to show off their box of tricks tomorrow then so be it, tomorrow it was.

**********

At the Chichester Laboratories, Ivor Johansson, Barry Rogers and Peter Swanscombe had just run the final test and they were now celebrating the success of that test with a glass of champagne, also celebrating this success were their three assistants. For a moment in time, the six people inside the laboratory were happy, for tomorrow would herald a great and joyous day in all of their lives.

Walking towards the laboratory were Johor Rigor and his wife Mariah. Rigor was a professional killer and thief working as an agent for the planet of Aldebra, he looked too short for his chosen occupation, being only five feet six inches tall, his brown hair was rather long for today`s fashion and he was clean shaven, apart from his hair he would normally go unnoticed in the world. Mariah was about the same height as her husband, with mousey hair that came down to her shoulders, she had a slim figure that was hidden at the moment by her winter coat. If she took a little time over her appearance, she would be quite attractive, but then as her chosen profession was that of an assassin, she did not want to bring undue attention to herself. They had returned to Earth just two days ago, having been resting on the planet of their birth Aldebra, they were back here on Earth to carry out this one mission. The two killers pushed open the doors to the laboratory and entered, much to the surprise of the scientists inside. The first thing the scientists noticed about them was that their two uninvited guests had a powerful energy pistol in their hand. It was Mariah who fired first; her pistol was pointed directly at Johansson, who had so recently been speaking with President Michaels. The bolt of energy whistled through the air for just a moment before striking Johansson just above his heart, and killing the tall Swedish American scientist instantly before he could even react to their presence. Next to Mariah her husband had chosen one of the assistants as his target, his pistol too sent a short bolt of energy whistling across the space that separated him from his victim, a young man not long out of university, James Royston, and moments later, he too lay dead upon the floor. Within a few seconds the remaining four men also lay dead upon the hard ground, Rogers and Swanscombe just inches away from their attackers who had not moved an inch even when it seemed possible that two of their intended victims might reach them.

"Wallace, will you please come in here."

Wallace was their informant, when he came into the room, he was nearly sick, he saw his erstwhile colleagues lying dead upon the floor, large energy burns disfiguring their bodies. However, he knew they would be dead even before he had entered the room, for he had heard the many high-pitched whistling sounds known by anyone who had ever witnessed a plasma weapon being used.

"Why did you have to kill them, you could have just locked them away in a store room while you took what you wanted?" Wallace raved. "Now they will be searching for us for murder as well as for espionage." Wallace had signed up for robbery, but not for murder.

"We were thinking of you Wallace, they may have seen or heard you, and then you would have been captured and probably led the police straight to us. Now pull yourself together and download all of the data from the computer banks into this recording device, and stop complaining, you are being paid enough to cover anything and everything." Johor Rigor ordered, thrusting a portable hard drive into Wallace`s hand.

Wallace connected the remote-control device to the computer that would enable the portable hard drive to receive the data stream from the computer, and then he began to download all the data appertaining to the Matter Transporter into it, including the programming that operated it, the schematics of all the working components, and how to make and operate them. The Aldebrans would now be able to construct their own Matter Transporter within two or three years, assuming that they had the scientists to carry out the exacting work, and the engineering expertise of course.

"All right Wallace, while that is downloading, take out the heart of the unit, which our people will need if they are to build their own Matter Transporter." Johor Rigor ordered the technician.

Wallace obeyed immediately, as fear for his own life began to grow in his miserable mind. He knelt down and began to take off the panels of the Matter Transporter`s main console that concealed the heart and brain of the unit. Within minutes, he had taken off the panels that protected the fragile workings of the machine, and disconnected the main unit that was what the scientists had called the heart of their unit; the brain being the computer program, this Wallace had now successfully downloaded. While he had been hard at work, Mariah Rigor had set up incendiary devices all around the room, all timed to explode in ten minutes.

"Right my love; let`s get away before the timer on our light display reaches zero hour." Mariah said to her husband.

Mariah put the hard drive in a bag that she then slung over her shoulder, her husband picked up the heart of the Matter Transporter, which glowed and pulsated in his hands. The unit was warm to his touch and vibrating sending a warm thrill through his body, it would not need an additional power supply for a long time as it was no longer a part of the Matter Transporter, but it still seemed to be alive to Johor.

"I might buy myself one of these things." Johor said laughing as he put the unit into the small crate that they had brought with them. Johor and Mariah then made to leave the Laboratory before the incendiary devices exploded, but Percival Wallace was standing in the hallway preventing them from doing so.

"Hey! What about paying me what you owe me?" Wallace demanded belligerently. "Oh, and I have some information that you will be wanting, something that will cost you a further one thousand credits." Wallace said knowingly, his recent fears now stifled by his greed.

"An extra one thousand credits Percival, that is a lot of credits, so why don`t you tell me what you have and then we will discuss just how much extra you will be paid." Johor said smoothly, but the look in Mariah`s eyes almost froze Wallace`s blood, and so while Wallace would have preferred to bargain first and tell later, he now told them what he had found out earlier in the day.

"I heard the scientists here discussing the Sentry Security System this morning, and it seems that the manufacturers have now made a new version, and its job is to detect Crystillium. Either you get that piece of technology in that crate off the planet within the next twenty-three hours, or you will not get it off at all. The reason why you must hurry is that this new Sentry System is being deployed at midnight, which is in less than twenty-four hours` time. It will be set to detect the passage of items going through one of the spaceports that incorporate amongst other things, Crystillium, and that piece in your hands is almost total Crystillium. They are going to put one in the centre of each of Earth`s space ports and it will detect Crystillium up to ten miles away, so you see, unless you get that thing in that crate off of the planet today, you may never get it off." Wallace`s face said that he knew that that piece of information was worth what he had demanded from them.

Mariah Rigor, who had been studiously ignoring Wallace, was in fact stunned by his new information, but only for a moment as she then turned about and looked directly at Wallace.

"Thank you, Percival, you are quite correct about the value to us of your piece of information, and I intend to pay you all that we owe to you in full, here you are." Mariah brought out a specially adapted plasma weapon that she had named Pain. She first shot Wallace in the left leg making him collapse to the floor with his now useless leg a mass of pain, the small delicate looking weapon giving out a soft hum as it worked. Mariah smiled down at him as she moved her weapon across to target his right leg, this was followed by each of his arms, and while Mariah smiled sweetly at him, Wallace was screaming in agony, begging her to stop.

"Mariah, we don`t have time for this, finish him off." Johor said rather annoyed at this waste of their time.

Mariah looked a trifle miffed at having to stop playing so soon, but she obeyed her husband this once, and shot Wallace in the head killing him instantly.

"There you are, Percival, paid in full." Her smile even more sweet than before, as she looked down at his limp body.

They were one mile away from the Laboratory when the bombs went off. The explosions lit up the sky, rattled the windows of the nearby buildings, and destroyed the laboratory complex.

**********

The ringing of his phone cut through President Michaels` sleep, damn, 'who could be ringing at this hour', Michaels looked sleepily towards his alarm clock, 'god it is only three in the morning, it had better be urgent or else', Michaels said aloud.

"President Michaels here, who is it?" He demanded to know, not bothering to hide his anger at being awakened at such an ungodly hour.

"Special Agent Formby here Sir, I am sorry to disturb you at this hour but I knew that you would want to know." Formby said, a smile played across his lips as he noted but dismissed the president`s anger.

"Know what Formby; surely whatever it was could have waited until later?" Michaels demanded.

"The Laboratory Sir, it has been destroyed." Formby said grimly.

"What Laboratory... You don`t mean the Chichester Laboratories, do you?" Michaels asked fearfully.

"Yes Sir, completely destroyed, and we have found six bodies amongst the ruins, all of them dead."

"Send a car over for me Formby; I will be ready by the time it gets here."

With that, President Michaels put down the phone and got out of bed. What had Johansson said when he had rung, they had to do some final tests during the night and then all would be revealed, could these final tests have been the reason for whatever destroyed the laboratory, could something have gone dreadfully wrong and caused the accident, if it was an accident, a multitude of scenarios went through Michaels brain. Damn this, any of the many scenarios could be possible! He would just have to wait until he got there.

Special Agent Formby was a well-built man, fifty years old, he still had all his hair although it was greying at the temples, and he was always dressed smartly. He also had a well-earned reputation for winning cases in this trying century. His expertise had even come to the attention of the President of Earth, three years ago, when he had been the liaison officer between the various intelligence agencies of Earth and the President of Earth. Now he headed a special task force that looked into the most important cases, he had also carried out many missions at the request of President Michaels in this time, and so he was one of the few men who had access to him.

Formby walked across to the President`s car as it pulled up at the smoking laboratory buildings for the fire brigade had managed to put the fire out quite quickly.

"It was murder Sir, whoever it was didn`t know about the camera that the Chichester Laboratories had installed only the morning before, at my request, it was meant to increase security in the laboratory." Formby said realising the irony of his words.

"Security, what security, look around you man." Michaels screamed. "The place is totally destroyed and the best scientists on this side of the Atlantic are dead, where is all this security?" Michaels demanded, his anger threatening his newly found constraints.

Special Agent Formby`s normally pale face went even paler as he replied to the loud complaints of President Michaels.

"Dead as well Sir, poisoned we think, but their post mortems, if they are permitted, will tell us for sure. It seems that the security people had heard somehow about the research, that it was coming to a satisfactory conclusion, so they had a little celebration all of their own, even invited a young woman, she is shown going into the complex at 12.06 this morning. A man was seen entering five minutes later carrying a crate, and they are seen leaving together twenty minutes after that carrying the same crate, the coroner puts the death of the scientists at about that time as well. The explosion in the laboratory came at 12.36; the new camera shows it all; our lads are running the film now to see if it can give us any leads."

"It all begins again, why oh why do all these things have to happen to me, why Formby?" President Michaels groaned, without giving Formby a chance to answer his question Michaels carried on talking.

"Okay Formby, will you please send me over a full report in the morning, and please keep me updated with all the latest news regarding the investigation."

Michaels turned and left with his head bowed. Formby looked after President Michaels and thought to himself, 'it happens to you because from what I heard you deserve it, Mate.'

**********

The Rigors contacted the senior agent on Earth, who had arrived back from Mars two weeks before, where he had been busy setting up another spy ring. Tirana was in command of all the intelligence operations within the Sol system of planets. The Rigors quickly informed him of everything that the poor unfortunate Wallace had told them. Tirana on hearing of the new security system instructed the Rigors to come to his apartment at eight o`clock that morning, when he would have a plan to put before them that would ensure the safety of both them and of their mission.

**********

Midday saw President Michaels looking the worse for wear after his interrupted night, but he was still patiently going through the many files that always littered his desk. He was interrupted when his personal assistant and adviser knocked on the door and then entered.

"This has just come in from the Federal Investigation Security Department, a... Special Agent Formby it says here sent it over marked personal and urgent, for you Sir."

"Thank you, Jevons, give it to me, it is about the explosion last night at the Chichester Laboratories."

Michaels scanned through the report. Yes, Formby wrote, the security detail had all been poisoned, by a new poison not yet positively identified, but similar to ones known to forensics. They target the heart and shut it down. The three scientists and the three laboratory assistants had all been killed in the laboratory by an energy weapon; they did not stand a chance. Our men are still checking as to why the detectors did not sound the alarm when the killers entered carrying their energy weapons, but they think that it might be that they were carried inside the crate, and that it had some sort of shielding that hid them from the detectors. They also found the body of one of the technicians, outside in the hallway; he must have been enjoying a spot of overtime, he had been killed too. His murderer used a number of energy bolts to kill him, which seemed strange as professionals rarely went in for such sadistic ways of killing, especially when on a job.

The two figures shown on the new security camera are too well hidden for positive identification, but one of them was a woman and the other a man. There was something weird about them though, the camera which also operates as a sensor picked up traces of Spartan B, which it seems, is well known to our forensic boys, and which they inform me is only to be found around starship engine rooms, there and on people or objects that have been in one recently.

The forensic team is still investigating the ruins of the laboratory to see if any further leads are forthcoming, Oh, and the criminals wanted everything within the laboratory destroyed, our boffins say that otherwise they would not have used so much explosive, unfortunately they do not know who made the explosive yet.

One more piece of information that I have only just received from Forensics, they think that all the data banks of the computers were downloaded prior to the explosion. They also cannot find any trace of a gadget that they think might have been referred to as the Heart of the Matter Transporter, not even a piece of its twisted wreckage, which they say is impossible, unless it also was stolen prior to the explosion.

Michaels reread these last few lines again and then exploded himself.

"Jevons, will you please come in here immediately."

A startled Jevons rushed back into the room.

"Read that last paragraph." Michaels thrust the report into Jevons` hands who quickly read the part indicated.

"My God, someone has stolen the Matter Transporter." Jevons gasped.

"Yes, Jevons, clear all of my appointments for the rest of the day, we are going to be busy."

"I will do it immediately, Sir." Jevons said and hurried from the room to do just that. Five minutes later, he knocked on the door of President Michaels` office and entered.

"Right Sir, I have cleared all your appointments until five thirty, which is with Admiral Fletcher of the Space Fleet, and seeing how things are, you might need to see him about this matter." Jevons said.

"Yes of course, now read what I have written down so far Jevons." President Michaels stress levels were reaching critical, and so he decided to bring them down a shade by taking some of it out on Jevons.

"Oh! Do sit down Jevons." Michaels ordered impatiently and indicated that Jevons should sit opposite him and then gave him his note pad.

Jevons read what President Michaels had written so far. The top line on the note pad read, 'Who could have committed this particular crime,' and under this, Michaels had written the following list.

1. Could it be someone on Earth? No, for anyone coming up with a Matter Transporter would immediately identify himself as a party to the crime.

2. Tyler Burrows on Orion up to his old tricks again. No, I have personally called Brian Goddard, as have some other people that Tyler Burrows trusts, Johansson and Rogers, who have assured him that the Matter Transporter was just that, it was designed to help starships and space stations. It could not cross force fields or go back in time, only a time machine could do this. Anyway, far too many innocent people were killed for Burrows to have been involved, he is Mr Squeaky Clean, and in any case, the dead scientists had been his friends.

3. It could be some weird terrorist mob with some strange agenda. If so then Special Agent Formby could be left to look into that.

4. Could it be an alien spy? I will have to contact Tom Parkinson at the Interstellar Investigations Bureau and ask him if he has any suitable candidates.

The last of the items on the list and numbered 5 was a question. Who would know that the Matter Transporter was completed, and who would know what to steal? The six dead scientists were obviously the main suspects here, and whichever of them did do it, they had paid for this act of treason with their life. This once again could be left to Special Agent Formby.

"Have you read it yet Jevons?" Michaels asked for he was impatient to move on.

"Yes Sir, and I concur with everything that you have written down."

"Good, then while you phone Formby and ask him to look into any of the local weirdoes and of course the people at the laboratory, I will call Tom Parkinson and arrange to see him in my office." Michaels said briskly.

Jevons went back into his office, he was soon speaking with Formby, and brought him up to date with the President`s thinking. Formby was quiet for a moment before he replied.

"Well Mr Jevons, I have reached similar conclusions myself, and I have already got twenty of our agents looking into the matter, hopefully I will be able to bring you up to date later today. While my agents are busy on their appointed tasks, I am personally following up a different lead. The technician who also died, a Mr Percival Wallace, he should have been at home when it all went down, for he finished around eight that evening. We heard Johansson saying on the security tapes that he would see him in the morning for the grand unveiling, why was he not at home? Unfortunately, those particular security tapes were turned off at about the same time that the security guards died. I believe that he could have been the source of the information leak. He certainly knew enough about the Matter Transporter to tell the murderers just what to steal, and what they needed to download. I think he is worth a closer look at. I have put another team to look into the lives of the three scientists, and the three auxiliaries who died along with them, checking their homes, their bank accounts and of course their friends and neighbours. They are also trying to trace that girl, to see if they can find out who it was that invited her along. But my money is on the technician, Mr Jevons; you wait and see, he will be the man that we end up with." Formby said his voice full of confidence. "And unfortunately for me, he`s dead already."

"Yes, it was unfortunate for him also." Jevons said sarcastically before ringing off.

President Michaels meantime was speaking to Tom Parkinson. Parkinson had been head of the Interstellar Investigations Bureau for twenty-three years and he had been very successful at his job. He was also very popular and his tall slim figure was always to be seen at the best parties. His blue eyes often had a wicked smile in them and his blond hair still full despite his fifty odd years of age.

"You heard about the explosion, Tom?" Michaels asked, knowing that Parkinson was surely to have heard by now.

"Yes, I should have thought that everyone has by now, seeing as you are so personally tied up with the research program." Parkinson replied grimly.

"Yes, well that aside, I want you to come over here now so that we can talk about the people who could be responsible." Michaels replied testily.

"Okay Mr President, I will be there in ten minutes." And therefore, he was.

"Since Tyler Burrows took out the Indefatigable, things have been quiet in space. A lot of people out there associated him with you, they were sure that he was an agent of yours, and after what he did on Orion, they are too scared that you will send him over to see them, so they have been good. In fact, I have encouraged this view, this is the quietest time I`ve had in ages, apart from the odd pirate raid." Parkinson said, seeing but ignoring the anger smouldering deep within Michaels.

Parkinson was quiet for a moment while he thought things over, and President Michaels let him have a few moments to collect his thoughts while he fought to compose himself. It was Parkinson`s remark regarding Tyler Burrows being thought by all and sundry to have been working for him, if he had been he would have been fired, damn and blast the man, would no one ever let him forget his time on Orion.

"There is one planet though that could have been involved, Aldebra, a military dictatorship run by a weirdo. His Excellency Quasar, Emperor of the Galaxy, Ruler of the Universe, is what he calls himself. He would be good for a laugh, unfortunately, he rules his people with a rod of iron, murdered many of them and now no one on Aldebra dares to complain about him. I do have a man out there, runs a small spy ring of about six agents, you know him, Ray Connors and his wife Jean, in your past life as a space marine you worked with him during the war with Lyre. I could contact him; see if he can find anything out." Parkinson offered.

"Yes, I remember Ray and Jean Connors, so they are working as a couple of your agents again."

President Michaels` thoughts went back to a more pleasant time in his life for just a moment; it had all seemed so easy then, black and white, life in the capital was not anywhere near as easy.

"Please do Tom, and as soon as you can, the matter is urgent, we don`t want potential enemies to have our technology, especially when we don`t have it ourselves." President Michaels stressed.

"Okay, I will do it immediately I get back to my office, and if anything comes of it I`ll let you know. I will also put the word out to my other agents to keep me informed on anything that may crop up, no matter how small you never can tell just what could be of help." Tom Parkinson said.

"One thing that is on our side, Sir, if there is an alien involved in all this, they couldn`t have transmitted the data off Earth because of the Sentry System that you had installed after you returned from Orion. We would have realized that there was a spy at work when all the scientific mumbo jumbo began to go through, and shut him down, for there is no code on Earth capable of encrypting the amount of scientific data and drawings that made up the Matter Transporter program. And of course, the hardware will have to be taken off world today, because by tomorrow morning the new addition to the Sentry Security System will notify us if someone has a piece of technology composed of almost solid Crystillium, should they try to transport it off the planet."

Tom Parkinson left the President`s Office to see to his end of the problem, leaving a slightly annoyed President behind him, why did everyone date everything from the time he returned from Orion.

The first thing that Tom Parkinson did on his return to his office was to write and then encode a long message to his man on Aldebra, a Mr Ray Connors. Only after this did he send out a general call to all his other agents out in deep space to forward to him anything, however small, that occurred around them. Parkinson knew that this would mean a lot of useless information coming his way, thank god for computers, for they would soon sift the chaff from the wheat.

**********

Earlier in the day, at eight in the morning, Tirana, who being the senior Aldebran agent based within the Sol system of planets, had met up with his two agents, Johor and Mariah Rigor, at his apartment.

"You two are getting the stolen unit off the planet, along with its computer program; you will be on board a starship that is leaving Earth very early tomorrow morning." Tirana ordered his two agents. The plan called for the three of them to journey out to the main space port of Earth in a mini bus to arrive in time to meet the midday space shuttle, but first Tirana had other things to attend to regarding his two agents.

"The two of you are getting off this planet as geologists, you are both about the same height and build as two people who I want you to impersonate, but your appearances will need altering just a little. We are lucky for I met the two of them when I was on Mars recently. The first port of call for the two of you will be the hairdressers, so that you will pass for them at a distance, then we will use some makeup so as to change your facial features to look even more like the two of them."

Leaving his two agents no time to think or to complain, Tirana took them down to a minibus that was parked away from his apartment in a small out of the way car park. They drove to a small hairdresser just as it opened, the place looked a little empty of furniture, as if it barely made a profit and only had a small local clientele, this meant that the two hairdressers who ran the place could attend to the two agents immediately. Mariah`s mousey hair was cut short and dyed blond, Johor`s hair was similarly altered so they looked more like brother and sister than spouses. While the Rigors were having their hair done, Tirana went to some of the local shops and purchased some things that would help the Rigors to become the new people they were to portray. When the Rigors were finished having their haircut and dyed, Tirana drove them out towards the spaceport, and on the way, he told them a little more about the two people they would be impersonating.

"The two geologists are returning today from Mars where they had been for the last three years. They spent most of their time in the emptiness that is Mars looking for valuable mineral deposits; they only met a few people during their time on the planet. You should have no problem becoming these new personas, and I have printed out a short history of the two geologists for you to memorise."

Tirana turned off short of their destination to stop at an old deserted warehouse, here he got to work on Johor`s facial appearance, and Tirana was an expert at changing appearances. He used a vegetable glue to stick on a short beard that ran around Johor`s face in a kind of fringe, the glue was one that Tirana had used before and would permit Johor`s own beard to grow through it and add to the disguise. With Mariah, he applied makeup to enhance her natural beauty, so now she bore little resemblance to the psychotic killer of the early morning. He gave her what remained of his recent purchases so that she could continue with her new appearance while aboard the starship. Tirana then took a number of photographs of the two new geologists so that he would be able to exchange them for the photographs of the genuine geologists where needed, for Tirana never left things half done.

"I don`t like this beard, and when my own beard begins to grow it will be of a different colour." Johor complained.

"It is necessary only for the start of your trip, as soon as your fellow travellers have seen you in it you may shave it off, then should someone ask about your appearance your fellow travellers can say that although you came aboard with a beard, it is now gone, okay." Tirana replied.

"Yes, that sounds fine." Johor replied, sounding a little happier.

With these preparations completed, they continued their journey to the spaceport and finally arrived there with just minutes to spare, Tirana had not wanted to arrive any earlier as this might have attracted the attention of the local security, and caused them to take an unwelcome interest in them.

It was part of Tirana`s job to know many things. About important people, about who could be used, blackmailed or bought, about what was occurring around the planet. Today a new world colony ship was making ready to leave Earth orbit early the following morning, it was heading directly for the planet Persephone. This sort of fact, and also the knowledge of who would be joining the ship were essential to him, for he could never be sure when he too would have to pack up and run, so this time his recent visit to Mars had paid off in spades.

The midday shuttle from the Earth space station was already disgorging the passengers from the Mars flight; amongst them were two geologists, George Clayton and his wife Mary Clayton. They were transferring over to the colony ship bound for Persephone, and this roundabout route was the only way possible as the colony shuttle from the Persephone wasn`t due to stop off at the space station.

"Excuse me, but are you Mr and Mrs Clayton?" A man dressed in the light grey suit worn by the official`s from the Space Port stood before them.

"Yes, that`s us." George Clayton replied. George Clayton had an enquiring sort of smile on his face, wondering why the official had stopped them, for they were in a hurry to get to the shuttle that would take them up to the new world colony ship.

"I have been asked to meet you and speed you through to the Constellation, as your flight was delayed it was thought advisable. My name is Tirana by the way." Tirana appeared to have a permanent smile fixed to his face all the time he was speaking with the geologists.

Clayton was not altogether keen on this all-smiling oily character sent to meet them, but at least he would be able to speed them through to the colony ship.

"This way, we have a mini bus to take you both directly to the departure lounge for your flight, Oh, and don`t worry about your luggage; it is being collected by one of my colleagues."

Tirana then led them around a couple of corners to the mini bus that he had already mentioned, for some reason it had darkened windows.

"Sorry about the windows but our normal vehicle has broken down, so we had to use the one normally reserved for VIP`s." Tirana explained.

The Claytons got into the back seats of the bus and then made themselves comfortable, while Tirana got into the driver`s seat. Tirana then flicked a switch and a glass panel dropped down separating the driver`s seat from the rear part of the bus. Before the Claytons had had time to react to this strange action on Tirana part, gas poured into the rear of the bus and they died a painless death almost instantly. Tirana now drove the mini bus away from the Space Port, and after a short ten minute drive, he left the main highway and turned down a dusty track to arrive at a remote quarry, unused now for a hundred years. Tirana got out of the driver`s seat and walked around to the side of the mini bus, opening the luggage compartment he took out a foldable motor cycle, which he now made ready for use. Tirana then opened up the doors to where the Claytons lay; the gas had already become harmless, being poisonous for only a short time. He quickly searched Greg Clayton`s body for his wallet and notebook. He then took their wedding rings off them, which when he looked were engraved with one another`s names, these and anything that would make their identification easier, he took with him for use by his two agents, the rest he left behind to be consumed by fire. It only took a second to set the timer on the incendiary device, and then after locking up the mini bus, he rode back towards the city and the spaceport. Once there he gave his agents the items that he had taken from the dead bodies of the Claytons, and then he returned to his apartment.

Here he then composed a message for transmission to Aldebra. I have the Syrillium Whisky, stop; Senor Johor is taking it, stop; he will be aboard the space yacht constellation for seven days, stop; due to unforeseen problems of an urgent nature please arrange for Persephone to meet him at journeys end. What this meant was that the Matter Transporter was now in their possession; it was being taken by Johor Rigor on the starship Constellation, send starship to the journeys end, planet Persephone, to rendezvous with their agents who because of unforeseen problems had to travel there as a matter of last resort. The message would only mean anything to someone who was suspicious of Aldebran involvement in the destruction of the Laboratory, and knew how to decipher the message. He then walked around the corner and had the local Wells Fargo office send the message to Aldebra.

Earlier, back at the spaceport, a new pair of Claytons entered into the departure lounge for the Constellation shuttle flight, where they found their luggage had been sent over already from the Mars shuttle. There was an hour`s delay in boarding the shuttle due to a minor problem with it; along with them was a group of Texans who were also late.

With his return to his apartment, Tirana now began to hack into the Church of the Universe`s computer, and to amend the records regarding the Claytons, so that the photographs of the Claytons matched the impostors. Tirana was used to thinking on his feet, but his plan for the two agents meant they were taking on the personas of two people who they knew precious little about, accept for what he had been able to download from the records kept by the Church. He also hacked into the starship`s computer and changed the photographs there so they now showed his two agents. He did not finish hacking in to various sites until later that evening, now not even the most industrious agent would find a genuine photograph of the Claytons, all the web sites would show his two agents

**********

Ray Connors` cover was as the decrepit old captain of a space tramp, a vessel that travelled around a local system looking for work, no work was too small and he never got any offers for large consignments anyway, these went unhesitatingly to the cargo ships of Aldebra. Thank god, for otherwise he would never have the time to complete any of his real work, that of spying for Earth. He had been busy today, after returning from the planet below, there he had spent six long wasted hours meeting each of his four spies who worked with the Aldebran Government, he then had to spend more time decoding the long message that he had received from Tom Parkinson. He was taking it all in over a cup of coffee when his first officer come engineer strolled through onto the bridge.

"Ray, an Aldebran space cruiser has just left space dock, it seems to be in one hell of a hurry, it almost left some of its crew behind down below on the space port, what do you think, maybe they declared war on Earth?" Jean Connors laughed as she said this. Connors looked across at her and smiled, and then he looked back at the recently decoded message.

"Maybe or maybe they are headed off somewhere to rendezvous with someone on the other side of the galaxy, look at this Jean." Connors gave the recently decoded message to his wife to read.

Ray Connors was ten years older than his wife, but these extra years had never been a problem for them. His rugged face could not be called handsome and his slim build did not look muscular, but more than once Jean had been witness to his latent strength. He was almost six foot tall with grey eyes and his hair although still mostly brown had some silver streaks. Jean was still only forty-two years of age with auburn hair, hazel eyes and was a slim five feet five inches in height. Ray vowed she was still very good to look at. They had been in the spying business for almost twenty-three years now, off and on. It was on now, being short of work once more they had drifted into the Aldebra system and asked Parkinson if he needed anyone to run a spy ring on Aldebra. Parkinson had always valued them as spies, and as he badly needed to get information about Quasar and his military, he had jumped at the chance to hire them again. That was three years ago, and since then they had been able to keep Earth abreast of the affairs here. Quasar was only considered a minor risk to Earth security, but a major risk to systems nearby to Aldebra. To the Connors` though, Quasar was also a very real risk, and if he ever got it into his head that they were spies then it would go very hard for them.

They ran a team of six local people as agents, all recruited by them. A young idealist who worked on the space dock above Aldebra. Another slightly older woman who worked at the spaceport, she had lost her husband to one of Quasar`s purges and would do anything to help fight against the regime. The other four agents worked in the government as civil servants and all four hated the regime for similar reasons to the widow. It had taken a lot of work on the local internet to find them, many other people had been checked out but rejected for reasons of security. The ones that they now had were trusted by Ray and Jean, and not one of them wanted paying for the information that they provided.

Connors set his telescope to follow the glow of the Aldebran space cruiser as it headed off into deep space. The captains of Quasar`s space fleet all had one thing in common, they lacked imagination, and to help Connor work out its final destination all he had to do was to extend the starship`s line of flight.

"What do you reckon Jean?"

"Well if he keeps on in the direction he is on now, he should be able to keep clear of most of the more populated areas of space until he finally leaves the galaxy far, far, behind him."

"Well he is unlikely to do that, so let`s have a closer look at any of the populated systems that he might be aiming for." Ray Connors declared.

"Well there is Orion, but with Tyler Burrows still running things there, he will supposedly need a couple of more Space cruisers before he even has a chance of getting anywhere." Jean said referring to one of the many myths currently circulating about Tyler Burrows. One television program had even gone as far to put his name forward as the man most likely to replace President Michaels, a thought taken up by some more of the many pundits that populated the airways. This was yet another reason that Michaels was annoyed every time Tyler Burrows, or Orion, was mentioned anywhere close enough for him to hear.

"Well we will pass on the information and let Tom Parkinson worry about the final destination, that`s if the Aldebran ship doesn`t run out of fuel or supplies before it reaches its destination." Connors said, tongue in cheek. The space fleet of Aldebra was not held in high regard by either of the Connors.

**********

Special Agent Formby`s team had had little success, but he himself had fared better. Percival Wallace had provided him with a clue. Formby had gone to Wallace`s flat with one of his junior agents, and together they had climbed the five flights of stairs, for the lift was not working, and by the time that he had reached the top floor Formby was gasping for breath.

"My god Jones I really don`t need this."

"You should join a gym Sir, it keeps me in shape." Jones replied.

"Are trying to kill me Jones? You are not after my job already are you, my god you have only been with the department for a short time."

After taking a much needed moment to catch his breath, he motioned to Jones to open the door with the key that they had obtained from the caretaker, and together they searched the flat until both men were certain that there was nothing to be found there. It was as Formby closed the door to the flat that he noticed that there was a caretaker`s cupboard on the same floor.

"Before we cede defeat Jones, let`s look in there, maybe Wallace had a bit more imagination than the normal criminal."

The two men walked over to the cupboard and looked inside. Inside were the usual cleaning materials; brooms, mops, detergent, but above all these was an entrance to the loft, in fact it was the only entrance to the loft.

"Up you go Jones; I`m too old and senior in rank to climb around up there.

Jones was a new addition to Formby`s team, only twenty-five years of age. He was newly out of university, and quite intelligent. Formby had formed a good opinion of him in the short time that Jones had been working for him, and he was happy to let the lad clamber up into the loft and search for any case winning clues.

"There isn`t much up here Sir apart from dust; the caretaker must keep it clear of clutter so that he can move around easily."

"I am not interested in the caretaker`s ways, Jones; maybe you would like to check to see if there is anything up there that may be of interest to me?"

Jones`s blond head appeared through the hole.

"Well Sir, there is this, I found it tucked beneath a loose floorboard." Jones had an attaché case in his hand.

"Good work Jones, pass it down." Formby ordered.

Jones arm stretched down. "Here you are Sir." He said, and then deposited the case into Formby`s waiting hands. "I will be with you in just a moment."

"Will you indeed Jones, how nice for me." Formby said with a straight face and a show of his renowned flippancy.

"Now let`s see if my pocket knife will open this up."

By the time that Jones`s dust covered six-foot, slim body was back down from the loft, Formby had indeed opened it. Inside were fifty thousand Republican Dollars and a letter of some kind, written in some unintelligible foreign language that was unknown to either agent?

"Well we have earned some of our pay today Jones."

"Yes, we have indeed Sir, well some of yours anyway." Jones replied having picked up some of Formby`s ways. Formby smiled at his young officer and led the way down stairs.

Back at the office, the computer told them that it was a copy of a letter to a Mr Tirana, and that it was in the Aldebran language. It gave him instructions on how he was to send a message back to his headquarters on the planet of Aldebra, if an emergency arose or when his mission was completed.

"Our technician isn`t Mr Tirana, because our technician photographed the original letter and then printed it out, why do you think he did that Jones?" Formby asked his junior agent.

"I can see two reasons Sir; one of course is our old friend blackmail, and the other reason is that maybe he took it as insurance, but maybe he didn`t mention that he had it, as unfortunately he didn`t realise that his life was in danger. That or he threatened Mr Tirana with it who killed him anyway, because he thought we wouldn`t be able to identify him, Sir.

"Good man Jones, you and I are thinking along similar lines, although I tend to think your second reason is the correct one. Your next course of action is to second ten men and take them back to the area that the technician has his flat and have a word with the neighbours, see if anyone saw our Percival with any visitors, you are unlikely to meet with any success, but you never can tell Jones." Formby ordered.

"What, now Sir, its half past nine Sir!" Jones complained.

"Yes, and our President wants answers Jones, what do I tell him when he calls, and he will, oh sorry Mr President, Sir, but agent Jones is home tucked in bed with his cocoa?" Formby replied.

"Right Sir, I am on my way." Jones was already moving towards the door, he knew when he was fighting a losing battle.

"Good, then I will phone President Michaels and tell him of the letter from Aldebra, of its contents and of all the late hours that you are putting in."

President Michaels listened with interest to Formby`s report.

"Have that letter taken over to Tom Parkinson immediately, Formby, Oh and good work; I knew you wouldn`t let me down."

Formby was thinking about President Michaels` last remark as he walked around the corner to the offices of the Interstellar Investigations Bureau, 'sure he wouldn`t let a bunch of aliens come here to Earth and start killing its citizens, but he wouldn`t have worried for even a second about letting President Michaels down.'

Chapter Two

The Starship Constellation

Very early in the morning of January 12th

Tom Parkinson was still at his desk working, even though it was one o`clock in the morning; he leant back in his chair and looked across at Special Agent Formby.

"We haven`t got much to go on Joe, but I have told our computer of the definite Aldebran connection in this case, and also some information that came to me from an agent of mine out in deepest space. This coupled together with all other starship movements might just give us something to go on." As if his computer had been listening in, it chose this moment to flash a message up onto its screen.

'A Church of the Universe colony starship, the Constellation, left space dock one hour ago; it is bound for the new world colony planet Persephone.

The Aldebran space cruiser which left Aldebra yesterday is being tracked by the long-range sensors, which the space fleet of Earth has put into space near to the borders of all systems thought of as a possible danger to Earth and its colonies. The space cruiser is keeping on a course that will take it towards the quadrant of space where the planets Persephone, New Earth and Orion are located.

The likelihood that the Aldebran ship is heading towards the planet Orion is exceedingly small because the leader of the planet Aldebra, Quasar, must know that Tyler Burrows would have nothing to do with such a dictatorship as his, and there is nothing of importance on the new world colony planet New Earth.

Recommendation: Get Agent Paul Divine to investigate this lead, he is on the Jovian moon, Ganymede; with him is Agent Charles Bragg.'

"Okay then Joe; that looks like a definite lead; let`s get Paul Divine and Charles Bragg onto that ship to investigate it." Tom Parkinson said brightly, looking over at Formby to see if he agreed.

"Yes, it appears to be our only lead for the moment; I think you and your computer could well be right, send in your two men and see if they have any luck." Special Agent Formby agreed at the same time as yawning, for he was now very tired.

"Me, I am home for my bed, I have a lot to do in the morning and I need my beauty sleep." Formby declared with yet another yawn.

"I will also ask Admiral Fletcher to dispatch a space cruiser, Joe, to shadow the Constellation, to ensure its safety in case the Aldebran ship is foolish enough to push things a little further, which they might if their agents are uncovered on board the Constellation.

"And tomorrow morning, Tom, I will get my lads to run a check on all of the colonists and crew aboard the Constellation who joined the ship after the explosion. If there is anything to find, we will find it. Formby said getting up from his chair and leaving Parkinson`s plush office. Formby`s office in comparison to this one was no more than a broom cupboard.

**********

One hour earlier, the ageing starship Constellation had left the troubles of Earth behind to begin its seven-day journey to Persephone. The ship had been bought by the Church of the Universe some twenty years ago to convey its followers to the many colony planets that it had set up in the Milky Way galaxy. It had originally started out its life as an Ore carrier/freighter but as it aged it became more expensive to run, and so its owners had been happy to sell it at a very low price. Apart from its cheap price, it had been bought by the Church because of the size of its holds. The inside of the ship had been altered to make it suitable to convey a large number of colonists in one trip, along with the many things necessary to set up a colony.

Colonies comprised of many different sorts of people, some were running away from Earth and its many troubles. One such trouble was the battle to keep the population from growing any larger, but as the main religions still forbid contraceptives, only stricter and stricter controls linked to harsher punishments finally brought the population of Earth down to below ten billion people. This amount was now dropping even faster as the poorer people could no longer afford the rising child producing taxes, or the risk of the punitive punishments for those who could not pay the taxes. The majority of those who chose to pay were forced to work seven-day weeks, with no holidays at all, so as to be able to afford to bring up their child, and for two children you needed to be extremely well off, and two was the limit set by the Government. If the parents, or indeed the adults, who could not afford a child, managed to reach the age of eighty, most did not, they could retire, if they had a private pension. If they did not have a private pension then they were forced to carry on working, unless they had someone willing to take them in and provide for them. Many died from the strain of working for so long before they reached this age. These were the main reasons why so many people chose to become new world colonists, and to travel far away from their homes and their families.

**********

It was early afternoon of the 12th of January back on Earth, when Formby had sent a message to the leader of the colonists, Alice Tarraway, to reiterate to her their suspicions about the possibility that two alien enemy agents had boarded the Constellation disguised as two of her colonists. Tom Parkinson had already informed her that two government agents would be boarding the ship when it reached Ganymede in the early hours of the 13th, and why. Formby now requested that she gather the following information, transmit a copy to him on Earth, and give another copy to the two agents after they had boarded her ship. The information he required was, which colonists boarded the starship during the hours from midnight on the 10th/11th January up until it left the space dock?

Jones had not had any luck with Wallace`s neighbours, but both men had expected that. One bit of luck that Formby did have was from a woman who worked for the local Wells Fargo office. Wells Fargo had been asked for a copy of all transmissions to the planet Aldebra, but there was only the one, and that was from the local office in their city. The woman behind the desk at Wells Fargo even remembered the man who sent off the transmission to Aldebra, she even got the chump on film. When Formby read the message and decoded it with the cypher that he had found in Wallace`s suitcase, he quickly contacted Tom Parkinson and informed him of the contents of the message.

"Tom, according to the message something was indeed being despatched on the starship Constellation, and it is due to be collected from the planet Persephone. This chap Tirana is obviously unaware that we are already onto the Aldebran connection to the robbery and murder at the laboratory, or he would never have sent the message directly to Aldebra from Earth, even if it was in code."

"That is brilliant work Joe, I will tell the President, oh and don`t worry I will tell him it was you that came up with it."

"Thanks Tom, I never thought otherwise, I will get back to you should we come up with anything more." The photograph of the spy had been instantly transmitted around the world, but it was again in their fair city that the lead came.

"Like I told the young constable, this fellow has been staying here for two weeks now, he paid me in advance for a whole month; well I always insist on money up front, you know one can`t be too careful these days. Now where was I, oh yeah, as I was saying he is quiet, and polite, oh, and he had a couple of friends' round, it is only the second time that he has had any visitors? These ones came around on the 11th, just stayed for a moment and then the three of them left together. He is not in now though, went out about ten this morning and hasn`t got back yet." The landlady finally ran out of breath allowing Formby to jump in ahead of her.

"Well Mrs Maritz, you have been very helpful to us, remember not to let on to him about our interest in him if he returns, just contact me, here is my card, it`s got my phone number printed on it." Formby said, handing over his card. "Now if you will just show me and my colleague up to his room so we can look around."

"Well I suppose it will be all right, seeing as how you are, FISD, giving the popular way of saying his department`s name, come on then, he`s on the third floor. What`s he done then to have your lot on to him, he`s not a sex criminal is he, because I don`t want to wake up with him bothering me, or is he one of them psycho`s. I want protection if he is either of those two, I don`t want to wake up with my throat slit."

Formby assured Mrs Maritz that he could guarantee that this would not happen.

"I can`t say what he`s done Mrs Maritz, except that it`s an Earth security matter."

Mrs Maritz looked a little disappointed when she was assured that her body would be safe from Mr Tirana.

The three of them climbed the stairs and Mrs Maritz stopped before the door of room number 3A. She opened the door to the room and stood back to allow the two agents to enter, before she tentatively looked into the room, hoping Formby supposed, to see a dead Mr Tirana, but it was empty of bodies, so she was disappointed once again.

"Do you know whether Mr Tirana has a car, Mrs Maritz?" Jones asked, the first time that he had spoken since the two agents had arrived, and it seemed to throw Mrs Maritz off balance for a moment. She felt now as if she were being interrogated, what with both agents now asking questions.

"Well I don`t know young man, I didn`t see one, but there is a car park along the way and he could leave it there, but I wouldn`t know things like that, would I?" Mrs Maritz answered defensively.

Formby decided now that they had all that Mrs Maritz was likely to be able to give them.

"Thank you, Mrs Maritz, we`ll let you know when we leave." With this, he shut the door on her and turned to inspect the room.

"Well Jones, let`s give the room the once over, if our boy comes back our lads will soon let us know, so let`s be tidy and leave the room how we would like to find it."

Jones had also brought along with them a small vacuum cleaner, which they hoped, would provide them with traces of Spartan B when the dust was inspected by the Forensic laboratory back at the office. Formby inspected the room; it was quite small with a small wardrobe, a tiny bed, a tatty chest of drawers and a rickety old wooden chair, all that had seen better days and they just about filled the room. In the wardrobe Formby found four wire hangers and two shirts, the chest of drawers had two pairs of underpants in one of the drawers along with two pairs of socks, the rest were empty, and there was an empty suitcase on top of the wardrobe. Tirana must sleep either in the raw or his underwear, for there were no pyjamas in the room and the only toiletries were a safety razor, a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. Tirana travelled light, which meant he did not have to fret about leaving valuables behind if he decided to do a flit. This information was all that they took away with them, for there was nothing else to find.

"Jones have someone go along to that car park Mrs Maritz mentioned and discreetly show them Tirana`s picture, maybe he does park his car there as the good lady suggests."

"Right oh Sir, I`ll get Morrison on to it" Jones immediately took out his phone and asked Morrison to do just that.

**********

The Constellation had accelerated away quite slowly from Earth orbit due to the ship`s great mass, its immensely powerful engines gathering up their strength for the time when they would finally launch the ship towards deep space, but this would only happen when the ship had finally left the Sol star system. As the hours went by it was soon moving through the orbit of the planet Mars, then through to the orbit of the asteroid belt, soon the gas giant Jupiter loomed up in the viewports of the Constellation. The colonists had clustered about these to get a close up view of its cloud-decked atmosphere with its many gigantic storms and multi-coloured atmosphere; many could not tear themselves away from this free astronomical show. Then to the amazement of the colonists, the constellation slowed down and went into orbit around the Jovian moon, Ganymede. Why had it stopped? Many theories buzzed amongst the colonists who had managed to stay awake into the early hours of the 13th January. They were answered in part when a shuttle lifted off from the space port down on the moon`s surface, soon the shuttle was moving alongside the giant starship and it finally docked to allow two men to board the ship.

***********

It was midnight on the 12th and Special Agent Formby was still working at his desk, but he decided to stop for a few minutes and go to the small canteen on the floor below, there he got something to eat to take back to his office for he was starving. He had skipped lunch, for there had been a lot to do in the office that day, but now he regretted doing so for his stomach was beginning to hurt from lack of food. Once back at his desk he finished with the many reports submitted to him by his agents and now began checking up on the list of ten families supplied by Alice Tarraway. While he read, he ate yet another cheese sandwich that he had got from the canteen, and had yet another cup of instant coffee.

**********

It was mid-morning on the starship Constellation and Paul Divine had just finished washing and dressing.

"Charles I must tell you something, the thought of being amongst all this religion on board this ship makes me very uncomfortable, especially as here in the confines of this ship there is no way to escape from it. How about you, are you of the faith?" Paul Divine asked his friend.

"I was born into it, but when I joined the Space Marines, I sort of drifted away from it. Although, Paul, when I was in the midst of a battle the thought of someone out there looking after the faithful did sort of help me through the bad times."

Paul Divine left the conversation there because what he had wanted to say was, well what about the other Christian faiths, and are their followers left out in the cold by your God, but Charles was his friend and he did not want to get into an argument about religion, especially aboard a Church of the Universe starship.

"Plenty of my friends were Christians of other faiths Paul, and they all must have thought much the same thing. It sure must have made our God feel like a schizoid, trying to please all the different religions, but then I suppose he is above such petty things such as the differences between the various religious beliefs." Charles Bragg smiled across at his friend.

"Don`t worry yourself Paul, I don`t believe all of the church`s propaganda, being in the space marines broadens the mind a hell of a lot." Charles Bragg added to his previous words.

"Good, for I was beginning to feel a little lonely on board this ship, and way out in the cold." Paul said smiling at his friend.

Paul Divine`s first job of the day was to meet with the leader of the colony. Alice Tarraway was in her very small office, in fact the only office on this part of the ship. It was tucked away in a corner of deck A, the same deck where Divine and Bragg were bedded down, and so he did not have to walk far to find it. There was room for a very small desk that was almost filled by her computer, the office also had three chairs, and four shelves fixed above one side of the desk, the other side being open so that Alice could squeeze by to allow her to get to her chair. Alice`s father had been quite famous in his day, a scientist of renown, he had died three years ago and Alice had found religion to fill the void that had sprang up in her life. She decided to become a new world colonist as the Church of the Universe termed them, and try to find a new life amongst the stars.

Paul Divine took to her immediately, and why not for Alice was young, being only twenty-five years old, she had a good figure, lovely reddish hair and marvellous green eyes that Paul Divine felt he could look into for an awful long time.

Alice took in Paul Divine in an instant, aged about thirty, he certainly looked fit as he stood in her doorway, he was just under six feet tall with blond hair, blue eyes and a charming smile, obviously thought too much of himself and expected others to feel the same way about him.

Paul Divine was soon sitting in a chair looking across at her when Alice interrupted his thoughts.

"Mr Divine, you said you wanted to speak to me, well I am busy, can you tell me just what you want to know."

Divine realised that he must have been looking at her for far too long, lost in his thoughts, so he quickly got his feelings under control.

"Sorry Miss Tarraway, jet lag. So, you have some information for me, or so I am led to believe." Divine looked across at Alice smiling his most charming of smiles, unfortunately, it appeared to be completely lost on her.

"Oh yes, now I am the one to apologise, I should have given this to you when you first arrived." Alice said a little flustered at having made such a mistake as she searched through the papers on her desk in search of the file.

"No matter, I was too tired to read it anyway. So, your colony is heading into the constellation of Perseus, the planet Persephone isn`t it." Paul Divine asked her, trying to start a conversation with Alice.

"Yes, that`s right, far away from Earth and all its problems, or so my fellow travellers and I hope anyway." Alice was being rather brusque with Paul Divine, but he could not decide just why, unless of course she just did not like men.

"Yes, I almost envy you, but I`m not the farmer type, fact is this is the only sort of job that I`m any good at, nosing around other people`s business, and being paid to do it, marvellous job for someone like me." Paul Divine said, once again trying one of his charming smiles on Alice.

"Persephone, a Greek goddess wasn`t she?" Paul Divine enquired.

"That`s right, she represented rebirth or springtime. I see the name of the planet as representing a new start for the colonists who are going there to live, a new chance to begin again, fresh as the spring can be, free as a..." Alice`s mind momentarily froze for she couldn`t find the word that she had been about to say, for Paul Divine`s cheerful smile had thrown her mind into a whirl and this thought alone annoyed her even more.

"Free as a bird?" Pail Divine offered.

"Yes, Mr Divine free as a bird, and free of all of the troubles and government employees that make life so unbearable back on Earth." Alice said as she regained control of her mind again.

"So, why did the Church pick on that planet in particular, I mean they normally want some return for their investment." Alice seemed to take what he said the wrong way so Paul Divine hastily added. "I mean so that they can plough the profits back into another new colony world."

"As you say, Mr Divine, well the initial profits from Persephone should be provided by the twenty mining families that are also on this ship, so you see you don`t have to be a farmer to qualify to be here, but then mining is probably too much like hard work for you as well, isn`t it, Mr Divine." Alice said scornfully, thrusting the file into his hands before continuing with her tirade.

"These miners will be looking for Dylithium crystals, although any other precious minerals that they find will also be welcome, a filthy back breaking job which will be well worth their effort if they can find any Dylithium. I suppose you know that it is very hard to find, but when found in sufficient quantity they will provide the power that will energise the twenty sixth century, now good day to you Mr Divine. Alice`s face was very business-like now, for she was back in control of herself and she had no time to waste on the likes of Paul Divine.

Dylithium crystals were so named by the woman who discovered them, because she was an avid reader of any and all of the antique science fiction books, and in particular a series called star trek in which the power source that took starships across space was the afore mentioned crystals.

Paul Divine felt that he had been dismissed by his Head Mistress, but he felt it would be worth risking her wrath, if he could get to know her better.

Paul Divine wandered back to the area where his bed was, and he found Charles Bragg waiting anxiously nearby.

"Am I glad to see you Paul, come on I am starving, I`ve found out where we breakfast." Soon Divine and Bragg were sitting down to breakfast on the colony ship, such as it was; you had a choice of porridge, porridge or porridge that plus a watery cup of coffee.

"Thank God we shall only have to endure this for seven days Charles; I don`t think that I could take it much longer than that." Divine took up the list that Alice had given to him and looked at the names of ten families; all of them had boarded the starship after the explosion had occurred at the Chichester Laboratories.

"It is seven days travel to Persephone, Paul, but we will have to wait there until the Constellation either returns to Earth or someone comes along to give us a lift, that is assuming that we don`t find the missing item. Earth will soon despatch a starship to collect us if we do find the two alien agents and the missing technology." Bragg said smiling at an annoyed Paul Divine. "Paul, what sort of person is this Alice Tarraway?" Bragg then enquired.

"Seems all right, and rather pretty, fell for me straight away of course, it just might take a while for me to convince her of that fact." Paul Divine said smiling when he thought of the way he had been received by Alice Tarraway, Bragg was now used to the constant jesting from Paul Divine.

"Yes, the people I`ve been talking to say much the same about her, seems that she is well known for her ways. If a man introduces himself to her, she immediately sets him up against her late father, if he doesn`t measure up against that scientific wonder then he`s history as well."

"I am sure that you are wrong about her Charles, maybe she has been hurt before, or maybe she`s just choosey. Anyway Charles, to business, how do you suppose we find the names on this list Alice gave me, without attracting too much attention that is." Paul Divine wondered.

"We simply walk along the corridors of the three decks and read the names of the families off the top curtain rail that encloses their little claustrophobic space." Charles Bragg answered.

"Oh, well I guess that even I can manage to do that." Paul Divine said, smiling across at his friend.

"Right Charles, I think that I will start on the top deck first, oh, but first the two of us have to visit Alice Tarraway to ask one more question." The two men were soon squeezed inside of Alice`s office.

Alice looked up at them and could not help laughing, after Paul had left, she had felt a little sorry for the way she had treated him, it had been the two messages from Earth that had been the cause of her bad temper, for she had thought herself clear of such troubles, now that she was aboard the starship. Therefore, when Paul Divine, a government agent, had entered her office she had replied just a little testily in response to his obvious charm.

"Have you brought the big lad along to protect you, Mr Divine?"

Divine grinned down at her. "Well you were rather mean last time, and as I needed to ask a favour, I thought I had better bring Charles along to help."

"I thought you were supposed to be the one to save the galaxy, obviously it must be Charles." Alice quipped.

"No, Miss Tarraway you were quite right, it is Paul`s turn today." Bragg said smiling down at Alice Tarraway.

"It is Alice to my friends, Gentlemen, will you please excuse my behaviour Paul, but I thought Earth and all its silly little problems were far behind us. But what is the favour?"

"What do you know about the ten families on the list that you gave me?"

"Nothing about any of them, you forget that the Church now has almost two billion followers, and although I know many of the colonists on this ship, unfortunately I don`t know them all." Alice replied to Paul Divine`s question, smiling at him this time.

"Well could Charles look through the dossiers that you do have on them, for the Church must have had some files on them to have been able to choose these members of their church from all the other applicants." Paul Divine asked hopefully, but fully expecting his request to be denied.

Alice thought for a moment about this request and finally decided on her response.

"Yes, but only in this room, and without letting anyone know what he is doing, we can say that there is a problem with the computer and Charles is trying to fix it. Normally such information is strictly private, but if it will help track down two killers then I will agree to assist you." Alice said contrarily.

She was cooperating more than Paul Divine could ever have hoped for, maybe this was nearer to the real Alice Tarraway and not the head mistress. It was, and anyway Alice had decided that co-operating with the authorities was better than the possibility of there being two murderers aboard.

Alice looked up at Charles Bragg, aged 53 he was an ex-space marine, he stood six feet tall with an athletic looking build; his fair hair was beginning to get some grey in it now but he was still very fit. This of course Alice didn`t know, but looking into his light blue eyes she saw that they showed a love of life, but also something else, they also told her that he had also experienced much in his life that maybe he would like to forget.

"You can make a start now Charles." Alice said standing up and squeezing past her desk. "I have to check on the colonists to see if there are any problems. Please keep the door to my office shut while you work on the computer. I have turned it on to the page that you need to look at." Unknown to them, back on Earth, Formby, was doing exactly the same thing.

With everything settled, Alice went on her rounds while Paul Divine walked up to the upper deck of this huge ship and started his investigation. He strolled along saying good morning to anyone who looked his way, for most had pulled the claustrophobic curtains aside to give a semblance of space. The curtains moved along rails that crisscrossed the ship giving individual families a limited amount of privacy, when they wanted to get away from all the prying eyes. On this deck, as well as the middle deck below, two hundred colonists were crammed in. On the lower deck that Divine and Bragg were billeted on, there were only one hundred colonists, as they shared their deck with the engineering department where the ship`s engines were located. Beneath the lower deck was the vast hold of the ship where all the goods needed to colonise a new world were stored. Twenty-five prefabricated buildings large enough to house twenty colonists in each building, in an emergency. There was also much more; such as two hundred tents, ten tractors, two all-terrain passenger vehicles, five massive trucks, there were solar panels for the colonists` houses and a satellite for local communication. There was also food to last the colony for six months, if necessary, and miles of pipe and thousands of various fittings, and of course much more. It was all very impressive and very expensive.

On the upper deck, Mariah Rigor was complaining bitterly to her husband about being forced to travel on the colony ship.

"We are like a herd of cattle being moved to new pasture, why on earth did Tirana insist on our being his couriers, why couldn`t he do it, be a new world colonist, have to endure that silly bishop`s voice each morning as he leads the faithful in their stupid prayers, it is so unfair." Mariah said angrily throwing her towel down on the bed, one that she had just folded neatly after returning from the showers.

"Maybe he didn`t have anyone to act the part of his wife; a single man would stick out like a sore thumb aboard this ship, and certainly raise questions from the leaders of the group. We are here now Mariah, make the best of it." Johor said.

"If I ever get Tirana alone, I will make him pay for making me endure all of this." Mariah promised, lost in thought for a moment as she went through in her mind all the things that she could do to Tirana.

"We only have to endure it for a little while and then it is goodbye colonists." Johor said gleefully.

"Goodbye and good riddance you mean." Mariah said angrily.

On the deck above the complaining Rigors, Paul Divine stopped beside a family of three named the Clarkson`s, and he spent an enjoyable thirty minutes telling them about his contract with the Church, and how he was there to set up the communications room when the ship arrived on Persephone.

"Why didn`t you board the ship on Earth?" Mr Clarkson asked, when they heard that he was one of the two men who had boarded the starship at Ganymede.

"We are last minute replacements; in fact, we nearly missed the ship when our shuttle broke down."

The Clarkson`s continued to talk to him about many things, anything to alleviate the boredom that filled the ship, for after the excitement of the arrival of the colonists, life was now rather dull. Passing the time of day with someone who seemed interesting was as good a way as any they could think of. For these thirty interesting minutes, Paul Divine told them about his varied life style travelling about the stars, but never the full truth, of his being a government agent. One reason that people journeyed to the stars was to get away from the government of Earth and all of its various departments, and this he knew.

"Well I mustn`t keep you from your chores and I have the rest of my exercise to complete, see you around." Paul Divine said.

He left to stroll further along the deck to pass more of the morning talking to the colonists. He finally came to the end of the row and was now walking down the next row when he noticed the name of one of the families he wanted to speak to, the Hardin family from Texas.

"Morning to you folks, how are you all." Divine now was instant American, as he could be instant English or instant French, my name is Divine, Paul Divine, how are you folks getting along?" If Paul Divine thought that Alice Tarraway was tough, he now found someone even tougher.

"What do you want Mr Divine, why are you snooping around, I saw you talking to the other families, you one of them Government spies then?"

Hardin was tall and well built without a trace of fat, his square jaw added to his truculence, his brown eyes suspicious of all strangers, and Divine was rather taken aback by his hostile reception and almost reverted to his normal way of talking, but only almost.

"I am sorry friend; I am just trying to alleviate the boredom, with seven days to get through I thought it might be nice to get to know some of my fellow passengers."

"Take no notice of Joe, Mr Divine, he`s just naturally suspicious of strangers, one of the reasons we decided to become new world colonists was to get away from all the government agencies on Earth, my name is Judith by the way."

Judith Hardin looked as if she had endured a hard life, the little that Alice had included on her list of names said that she was forty years old, she looked more like fifty, but life in a mining town on Earth was hard, for Alice had also included this information. She might have been pretty when younger, but her fair hair was already turning grey and her brown eyes sure looked tired, maybe the fresh air of Persephone would revive her.

"I don`t blame him, these days it`s difficult to know just who to trust, me I keep my head down and hope they don`t notice me." Paul Devine said.

"Yeah well we agree on some things, except I don`t like to hide away like a sissy, when I see something is wrong, I say it is right out." Joe Hardin declared aggressively.

"Which is why we are having to move to Persephone, Mr Divine, we are a mining family from a mining community that goes way back, the hope is that we will find some of these Dylithium crystals, even a few would make life a whole lot easier for our family."

"It must have been quite a trip from Texas; at least your accent says Texas, Mrs Hardin?"

"Yes, it was Mr Divine, and we almost didn`t make it."

"Don`t go telling him all about us Judith; we don`t know who he is, or what he`s about." Joe Hardin bellowed, but Judith Hardin ignored his advice.

"Don`t be foolish Joe, if he was a criminal then the Church wouldn`t have him working for them, would they?" Judith Hardin argued. "Well as I was saying Mr Divine, before we were interrupted that is." Judith Hardin said throwing an annoyed glance at her husband. "We got away from Calvert, that is where we lived, Robertson County, Texas. Well as I said we got away on time all right, after I finally got him out of his bed that is, but we ran into one of those summer storms around Baton Rouge and that put us right back, we finally got to the space port with only one hour to spare."

Paul Divine had taken to Judith Hardin and doubted whether she could murder anyone, except for Joe that is, but he would get Formby to check up on her story to verify whether there had been a storm, that and to have a word with the folks back in Texas of course.

"Are there any more Robertson County folk here with you, or are travelling to Persephone with a ship load of strangers Mrs Hardin?" Paul Divine enquired.

"Oh no, there`s not just us, there`s also the Granger family and the Blewett`s. The men are both like Joe, argumentative like, and the women are both like me, sweet and neighbourly, which is as all women should be, don`t you agree Mr Divine." Judith Hardin laughed as she said this, and Divine could see the pretty young woman beneath all those years of struggling, hidden but just waiting to bubble to the surface, Joe should make her laugh some more, she deserved it. Paul Divine thought.

"Hey Mum, it`s time for us to head for the galley, or else we`ll miss out on our lunches." Tom Hardin, son and heir to the Hardin family interrupted just now, he was tall and gangly with features that resembled his mother thankfully, but a body that would mature to resemble his father, and so Divine decided it was time to move on.

"Goodbye for now folks, maybe catch you later." and Divine then proceeded to walk back down to 'A' deck to see how Bragg was getting on, and to send that transmission to Formby of course. Divine realised that he had probably wasted his time, or saved some, for the Grangers and the Blewetts were also on the list of ten names, which made the odds on all three families being spies for Aldebra a rank outsider. He would check the remaining seven names against the complete list of the colonists to see if any of the other names listed were also accompanied by some of the other families.

When he got back to Alice`s office, he found that Charles had finished checking the list of names, and he had found that three of the names on the list of ten had journeyed to the departure point together.

"There are also two families from a small logging community in Pendleton, Oregon, one of which was going to provide all the timber that the new colony will need, did you know that there is even a small timber mill aboard this ship, Paul?" Bragg said, much impressed by the organization that must have gone into organizing everything that would be required to get the colony up and running.

Divine sat down in the chair opposite Bragg.

"Well what we have found out by studying the list a little more is that there are now just five families that should be put to the top of our list to investigate." Paul Divine said cheerfully. "That should make things a little easier for us, assuming that the Aldebran spies are even on this ship."

"Well that Aldebran space cruiser is still on a course that will take it towards the quadrant of space where Persephone is located." Bragg stated looking up from the list in his hands. "That must be significant Paul; the Aldebrans are not usually the type of people to go on long space cruises, and certainly not just for the fun of it."

**********

Back on Earth, Formby was working late; January 13th had been both lucky and unlucky for the forces of law and order. Yes, they had located where the Aldebran spy was staying but he had not returned there. They had also found traces of Spartan B in the flat so clearing up one question, where the trace at the laboratory had come from. He had also just discovered that there were now only five families in the frame, and the text message from Bragg told him that the two agents on the Constellation had also discovered this. Formby took out his pen and highlighted the five names that were now of no immediate interest. The names that he had highlighted were Hardin, Blewett, Granger, Peterson and Clayton. Formby now sent five e-mails to the towns where the remaining five families had lived, and asked the local law enforcement offices to provide photographs and details on the five families. They were also requested to speak to the neighbours of the five families and see if they could find out anything from them that could be of use. Formby looked down at the five highlighted names and stared at them for two minutes before coming to a decision, one, because he was very thorough, and two, because he got a feeling in the pit of his stomach, so he sent the same requests to Calvert, Texas and Pendleton, Oregon to check on these five names as well. He did not mention the feeling in the pit of his stomach to anyone, even though it had never let him down before, better to wait and see what results the mail brought in first. From what Agent Divine said about the Hardin family and their neighbours, Formby reckoned that it must be the Pendleton families that were beginning to give him stomach ache, either that or the curry he had had last night in that little Indian curry house two streets away from where he lived was causing the pain in his gut.

A squad of his agents were keeping a watch on Tirana`s flat from the building opposite, a small economically priced hotel, and he decided to check with them to see if anything was happening, although they would have called if Tirana had showed up.

"Crosby is anything happening there." Crosby was the senior agent amongst the agents staking out the boarding house. Crosby had been in the force for ten years and enjoyed the life. However, his home life was suffering, not that there was anything left of it. He might just as well have been single like his boss.

"No, but Morrison is due back in a moment, he went to check on the night guard at the car park along the way. See if he remembers seeing Tirana there."

"Okay, you let me know if anything important comes of it Crosby." Crosby answered. "Yes Sir."

Formby had decided to call it a night; he was just about to turn his computer off when he changed his mind about telling no one about his gut feeling regarding the two families from Oregon. The two agents out on the Constellation should be told for their own safety, and so he rushed through a message to them on his computer and sent it off. Now he could go home and get some sleep without waking up in the middle of the night and fretting about it, but before he got to the door, Crosby was back on the phone.

"Morrison has a CCTV disc that shows Tirana getting into his car, the number plate has been given to the regular police force and they are actively searching for the car as we speak Sir."

"That is great news Crosby; let me know as soon as we hear from them. We need to find out where he is staying, so instruct all of the police stations to send men around to all hotels and guest houses etc. to see if they can locate him."

**********

On the starship Constellation, Johor Rigor and his wife Mariah, who were posing as the Claytons, were now in the middle of planning yet another murder.

"It was lucky for us that you decided to log into the ships computers Johor; otherwise we would never have known about the Peterson family. For them to be also from the town of Pendleton in Oregon is damned bad luck for us, Tirana should have checked up on things like that." Mariah complained.

"Tirana had to do a lot of things and without much time to do it in; we cannot blame him if this is our only problem. Anyway, only the wife was born in Pendleton, the husband was born in California, and he probably never lived in Oregon, which means that we only have to deal with her, to let her live could expose us if it happens that she knew the real Mary Clayton." Johor Rigor said.

"Yes, Johor you are right, and I think that our best chance will be when she showers next, luckily we can see the entrance to their cubicle from here, and so keeping an eye on them will be no trouble at all."

"Then we will just have to keep a watch on her until she goes to the showers."

**********

Lunchtime came and went, and Paul Divine decided it was time to question another of the families aboard the ship. The Hardwicke`s were berthed on deck A quite near to where the two agents slept so it was easy to strike up a conversation with them.

"How are you getting along Mr Hardwicke, the trip not too boring for you?"

Hardwicke looked up and smiled. "No, we are fine thank you, you are one of the guys that boarded the ship at Ganymede aren`t you?"

"Yes, Paul Divine is the name; I am one of the space geeks from Ganymede." Paul said using his worn and tired phrase. "We nearly missed the boat, we only got to Ganymede by the skin of our teeth, the shuttle from the Jupiter station broke down and they only repaired it with minutes to spare. How about you, your trip to the pickup point go okay?" Paul asked trying to find out why the Hardwicke`s were late coming aboard the Constellation.

"Oh, we would have been okay, but for my wife Melissa going and breaking her arm by tripping over the sidewalk in Cincinnati, had to take her to the hospital and after all the time it took signing their forms, we only had time to get to the pickup point. We had wanted to make a day of it and see the sights on the way down, but with all of the lost time and poor Melissa`s broken arm, we were just happy to get here in one piece, well almost in one piece that is." Hardwicke said and smiled as Melissa Hardwicke chose this moment to appear; having been to the ship`s clinic to have her arm checked out by Doctor Schwartz, the colonies doctor. She still looked a little tired after her accident, but she took the time to smile at Divine.

"I have just been telling Paul here about your misfortunes Honey." Hardwicke said to his wife who smiled over at Paul Divine again.

"Good afternoon Paul, I hope John hasn`t been boring you too much with all our tales of woe." Paul noticed that Melissa`s grey eyes smiled as well, adding to Paul Divine`s first impression of the couple, that these were two good people and not psychopathic alien spies.

"No Mrs Hardwicke, we were both telling similar stories, we also nearly missed the boat, for we only got to Ganymede at the last possible moment." Paul said.

"Why don`t you have a cup of tea with us, and maybe a cookie, we still have a few left and it would be nice to finish them off while passing the time of day with you?" Melissa asked Paul Divine.

"John will you make us all a cup of tea while Paul tells me a little about his life?"

The afternoon moved along and Paul Divine decided to let it as he talked to the couple from Cincinnati. They were very like his parents, decent people who worked for everything they had. His parents had died just five years ago, that was when he had decided to accept Tom Parkinson`s offer to come and work for him in the Interstellar Investigations Bureau. He had accepted immediately, for not only was he alone on the planet, having no living relatives, but his employment with a small private investigations firm was not as glamorous as he had hoped that it would be, filled as it was with broken marriages and lost family pets.

Chapter Three

The Investigation Moves On

The morning of January 14th

It was very early in the morning when the Rigors\Claytons carried a small crate down the stairs that ran down to ship`s hold near to where Alice Tarraway had her office. They stopped before a door at the bottom of the stairs, through the door was the ship`s hold. Johor went through the door first and clambered up a wall of crates and then waited while Mariah handed the crate up to him, inside the crate was the stolen equipment from the Chichester Laboratories. Johor got out his flash lamp and slowly walked across the mass of large crates and boxes until he found a spot that would be hidden from a superficial search, the label on the crate said that it belonged to one Joseph Hardin. He being a miner, the Claytons figured if they could not get hold of the crate when the Constellation landed on Persephone then they would just have to collect it later, when the Hardin family was far away from the other colonists as they began to look for the elusive Dylithium crystals.

**********

Paul Divine faced a new morning on the cramped starship filled to the brim with new world colonists. As he looked out from his own piece of space, inside what must once have been a broom cupboard upon this gigantic freighter, he wondered whether he and Charles would find any signs of the Aldebran spies today. Deck A, where he was billeted, only had one hundred colonists living on it, but even so the noise from all the colonists talking to one another, children crying and parents trying to control their increasingly bored and increasingly restless families, was enough to make him want to scream out, Quiet! Never mind, Divine thought, I am not paid to complain about my working conditions, but to find a pair of Aldebran spies. Divine could see his fellow agent, Charles Bragg, he was at the far end of the deck talking to the McPherson family from Glasgow; they were one of the seven families on his list of suspects. The other two families from Oregon, having now been put back on the list following a rethink by Formby, having decided to tell them about his gut feeling concerning the two families from Pendleton.

"I am sure looking forward to getting off this ship Mr Bragg, I know that it has only been a couple of days now since we came aboard, but the constant noise of all these people yammering away gets to you, when there is no escape from it. Luckily, we were all warned about this particular problem by the Church, so I have purchased a pair of ear plugs for myself and my wife and they have proved a great blessing to us when we want some quiet time." McPherson said, smiling at the agent.

"So, what is the most important thing about the move for you, Mr McPherson?" Bragg enquired of the Scotsman. It was Mrs McPherson who answered the question.

"It gives us the chance to have some children Mr Bragg, as you know, back on Earth it was far too expensive for the likes of us to be able to afford to have a family, and even just one child would cost a relative fortune. Out here as a new world colonist, we can have as many as we can feed by our own efforts, and on our very own farm." This was very important to Mrs McPherson, for she dearly wanted a family of her own, as did many of the colonists.

"Aye, my wife is right about that, a family is why we are here, getting away from all the bureaucratic idiots on Earth is only secondary. But what of you Mr Bragg are ye no married yourself with bairns of your own?" McPherson wondered.

"Unfortunately, my old life as a space marine broke up my marriage, and since then I haven`t been able to meet anyone that I wanted to settle down with." Charles Bragg said sadly.

"Well there are a few single and widowed women aboard this ship, maybe one of them will be the right one for you. Then you can stay on and become a new world colonist like all the rest of the people here, once we land on Persephone that is. Then instead of roaming through space you can settle down and raise a family, although from the stories that you have told to the folk about here, you seem to have led an exciting life."

Bragg had spent part of the previous evening telling of his exploits as a space marine, and in doing so he had made many friends.

"Exciting yes, but the cost was getting far too high for me, I lost too many friends out there in space, and so I decided to quit that life and try another one."

"Working for the Church, Mr Bragg?"

"For the moment I am, it is nice to be with good people travelling to a planet that should improve all of their lives by their own efforts, and without the authorities constantly looking over their shoulders."

Charles Bragg meant this, and he was even contemplating doing what the McPhersons had suggested, if not now then sooner rather than later.

Paul Divine had moved up to Deck B, and walking along the row came to the living area where the Collins family were berthed. Paul Divine knew from the records that they were farmers from the village of Washington in the county of Sussex, England.

"Hi there, my name is Paul Divine and I thought that I would stretch my legs for a while, don`t you find that you get cramp all over if you sit for too long?"

Mr Collins looked up at him scowling just a little.

"Good morning Mr Divine, to what do my wife and I owe the pleasure of your company?" From the look upon his face, he clearly did not count it as one of life`s little pleasures, being forced to talk to Paul Divine.

"I am just normally a gregarious type, I like to talk to people, to get to know them, make new friends when I can; but today I must confess I am also trying to alleviate the boredom of our flight aboard our mysteriously tiny but enormous starship. Tell me, how do you find the journey so far?"

However, Divine did not give them time to answer his question; instead, he just ploughed straight ahead.

"They have me locked away on deck A, in a broom cupboard that is, for both me and my friend Charles, and as he is even bigger than me, it feels very claustrophobic in there. Coupled to that is the fact that we are tight up against the engine room, and so we feel the vibrations and hear the hum of the engines constantly, although I must admit that they did help me get off to sleep last night."

"Well, the good Lord must have had his reasons for putting you both in there, have you been having troubles getting along maybe?" Collins asked, already getting bored with Paul Divine.

"No, there are no problems between Charles and me, fact is we get along really well, I do have trouble getting off to sleep usually though, so maybe he put us there to help us get enough sleep to prepare for the hard work ahead of us, after we have landed on Persephone."

"It could be just that Mr Divine, or it could be for the good of both you and your new neighbours, if a person stays awake to long it only serves to make him antagonistic the next day, especially on this ship where everyone is thrown close up against his neighbour." Collins said.

"Yes, you may be right Mr Collins, especially with all the snoring, likely to drive you crazy that is. So, tell me, did you have a good journey to the pickup point?"

"Yes, good enough, we left it late so as to minimise the amount of time that we would spend on the ship, but we still arrived with time to spare, for we had sent our belongings on ahead of us, so that there were only our persons to tend to. We took in some of the churches on the way and especially the Cathedrals, for it is unlikely that we shall see such grand buildings again." Collins was beginning to open up; maybe he was falling under the spell of Paul Divine`s charm.

Divine didn`t see the Collins as a pair of Aldebran spies; Mr Collins seemed more the sort of man who found comfort in religion."

"You came aboard at Ganymede, Mr Divine, didn`t you, tell we why there and not Earth?"

"Well the original guys who were supposed to come on this trip, so as to set up your interstellar communications relay, they had an accident, so we are their replacements, the geeks from Ganymede." Divine said once again giving the reason he and Charles Bragg had worked out beforehand.

In fact, two of the ship`s crew had been designated to do the job that Divine and Bragg were supposed to be doing on arrival at Persephone, and it was likely that they would indeed end up doing just that.

"So, are you a farming family Mr Collins?" Paul Devine asked.

"Yes, but our new farm on Persephone will be a lot bigger than we are used to, but I put my trust in the Lord that he will assist me, so that I will be able to cope with any new problems that it may bring us."

"I had a look down in the hold earlier, have you been down there Mr Collins. There are twenty five prefabricated buildings down there."

Mrs Collins answered this question, for she saw that her husband was again losing interest in talking to the nice Mr Divine, but she did not mind the chance to talk to someone new, especially someone who was as charming as Paul Divine was.

"Yes, Mr Divine, we did; but as our own farm is to be set a little way from the town, we will be living in one of the many tents that are also down in the hold, until they have built a new house for us."

Mrs Collins was obviously the gregarious type also, for she ploughed straight on with the conversation.

"I am quite excited by the thought of actually starting our new life, once we have landed on Persephone that is, our farm will be one thousand acres in size so as my husband said it will be quite large enough for us. It will take a lot of work to get it set up, but the Church have given us enough stores to last us for six months if need be, however we hope that the planet will supply us with our needs. We will get further supplies, should we need them, on the next trip that the Constellation makes. We also have the use of one of the ten tractors and one of the five large trucks, although as there are twenty-five farms being set up in the first phase of the colonisation, we will have to wait our turn of course, along with the rest of the farmers. I don`t even mind the discomfort of living in a tent for the first six months of our new life, it will simply add to the excitement of it all."

They continued to talk for at least an hour until Mr Collins said that he was going to the galley to get some coffee. Not long after this, Paul Divine excused himself for he was sure that this couple were not Aldebran spies, and he was sure that Mr Collins would cause a scene if he were still there when he returned, and so he moved along the deck to where he already knew the Claytons were to be found.

The Claytons looked to be a little out of place here on a colony ship of new worlders. Mr Clayton according to the records was thirty-five years old, he was thin and wiry and about five feet six inches tall with a ferrety kind of face fringed with a short beard and topped with short blond hair. Mrs Clayton was the same age as her husband, with a slim figure and about the same height; she was quite pretty and she had short blond hair too. Both of them looked as if they would be more at home in a big city than in the beginnings of a small new world colony town, but then new world colonies were normally a mixture of many different kinds of people, all desperately searching for something better, all leaving Earth and her problems behind for many different reasons.

"Good morning, my name is Paul Divine and my mission is to alleviate some of the boredom of the voyage, if you don`t mind my intrusion, may I ask how the two of you are?"

Mariah Rigor answered him.

"No Mr Divine, we don`t mind you intruding in on us for a little while, so that you can complete your mission."

Mariah Rigor smiled sweetly up at Paul, but there was something in her eyes that warned him to beware. It told him that he may have found his first possible candidate for the position of spies, that and something else about this seemingly sweet woman scared him, warned him not to be alone with this seemingly sweet and good looking woman, if he valued his life that is. Paul Divine pushed this feeling to one side, at least now he had a definite maybe, even if the maybe was based only on a feeling deep within his gut.

"You`re the Geologists aren`t you, from Oregon?"

"Yes, that`s right, although we have lived and worked in many places, but how would you know that Mr Divine." Mariah Rigor asked while smoothing out a non-existent crease in the leg of her slacks.

"I read the piece that the Church wrote in their article about Persephone, you should read it; it gives some interesting facts about the new colony. The hopes of some of the settlers, and a small piece about you and your husband being on Mars before you made the trip back to Earth, so as to be able to journey out to the distant Persephone." His answer should have satisfied Mariah, but something about Divine did not appear to ring true to her; the kind of life that she led had soon created the main essential characteristic of the secret agent, for she would not have lasted very long otherwise, that of being able to quickly size people up.

"You should be very busy when we arrive on Persephone, searching the wilderness of a new world for likely sites, so that the mining families can start prospecting with some likelihood of striking it lucky." Paul Devine said.

"Yes, Mr Divine, but if they do strike it lucky, then so do we." Mariah answered, now sure of her feeling about Divine.

"A lot will depend on your luck and your abilities as geologists; that would stress some people out, having so many people depending on you." Divine said.

"Well the survey ship has already listed some likely sites for the miners to start, our job will be to get our hands dirty, to refine the survey ships data by actually looking closely at each of their recommendations and giving the miners a better chance of finding something before they die of old age. So, you see there isn`t so much depending on us."

"Then like I said, it looks like you`re in for some hard work. Which miner gets your attention first and which last?" Paul Devine asked.

"It will be decided by the computer, it will pick the names out of its electronic hat." Mariah said smiling at her little joke.

Paul Divine looked at the expensive clothing worn by the woman he thought of as Mary Clayton.

"You don`t seem the types to rough it away from the comforts of a luxury apartment, with nothing for a tent and a camp fire to keep out the cold." He asked.

"Oh, Greg and I don`t mind roughing it for the right reason, the right percentage of all the correct strikes that are made using our recommendations." Mariah smiled another of her childlike smiles and continued.

"But we won`t be the only ones to profit from our work, the people of Persephone will also get a share of the strike, the miner himself will obviously get a large share, and the Church also gets a large share so as to repay all the money that it made available to fund this wonderful adventure."

"But how about you, Mr Divine, what is your job, for you don`t look like the average new world colonist either?" Greg Clayton/ Johor Rigor asked, entering into the conversation now.

"Oh, I am not a new world colonist." Paul Divine said, and then gave Mariah and Johor Rigor the reason that he had been giving since he and Charles Bragg came aboard the Constellation; that they were on board the ship to set up the interstellar communications system when they all reached Persephone.

"Ah! So, you are one of the gentlemen who came aboard at Ganymede then." Mariah said, as she and her husband traded a quick glance with one another.

Paul Divine felt that icy finger running up and down his spine again; something inside of him was warning him that his life could now be in danger. He also thought that it was very possible that Mary Clayton and her husband had identified him for what he really was, a government agent, which meant that Charles Bragg`s life was also in danger. Outwardly Paul Divine gave nothing away, he still seemed his carefree self as he went on with the conversation.

"I have always been interested in geology; tell me, what sort of rock would you hope to find Dylithium crystals in?"

"Why Mr Divine are you going to try and steal my royalties away from me?" Mariah said in mock shock.

"No, you won`t find me risking my life out in the wilds of some unexplored world; I always take care to limit any risks to my life." Paul Devine replied.

"Yes, I suspect that in your line of work you do, Mr Divine." Mariah said in her very innocent voice.

"My line of work, how do you mean Mrs Clayton?" Paul Divine wondered anxiously.

"Don`t you spend your life charging around space and that sort of thing, there must be times when it gets dangerous?"

Not long after this, Paul Divine left the two spies to their own worries as he returned to his broom cupboard, and after thinking about what he wanted to say to Special Agent Formby, he walked over to Alice Tarraway`s office and asked her to send off an urgent message to Earth. The message read; 'I now believe that the chance of the Claytons being the Aldebran spies has increased to the point that they occupy the number one position on my list as of this moment, unfortunately as yet I have no proof, only my own inner gut feelings. Please check to see if they are genuine, or impostors. This would mean the real geologists are now dead, so I suggest that you contact Mars, I see from the computer records that this was the Claytons last port of call. If you can please obtain any photographs or failing that their descriptions that Mars may have of the couple, it might be a great help to us.'

**********

"Johor, somehow the authorities have traced us to the Constellation, I don`t think they actually know who their spies are yet, but Mr Paul Divine has decided that maybe we are not who we pretend to be, but in truth we could be the spies for whom he searches." Mariah Rigor said to her husband.

"Yes, my darling, because if he had any proof, he would have arrested us already, for the moment he only suspects that we are not who we say we are. We will have to eliminate the two agents very soon, Mariah. It is lucky that I decided to log into the ships computer yesterday and found out that there was another traveller from Pendleton, and that we were able to dispose of her so easily.

It had been earlier that morning when they had committed the sort of foul deed that made them so useful to the Emperor of Aldebra. Mariah had been taking her turn to keep watch on the Peterson, when she had seen movement at the Peterson cubicle.

"Wake up Johor." She had urged insistently but ever so quietly.

"My name is Greg, my darling, Greg, do try and remember to only call me by that name." Johor said angrily but very quietly.

"No one is nearby, Greg, and I only whispered it." Mariah argued.

"I know my darling, but it is better to be safe." Johor said; his anger now subsided, for he could never be angry with his wife for more than a moment.

"I would simply say it is my pet name for you. Now stop nagging at me and look over at the Petersons." Mariah snapped.

Mrs Peterson had just left her cubicle and with a towel and a wash bag, she was clearly heading for the showers.

"Now is the time to eliminate our first little problem." Mariah said gleefully.

"Yes Mary, but do it as we have planned, so that no one will suspect anything, please don`t elaborate on it." Johor ordered.

"Don`t worry Greg, I will forgo my little pleasures for once, and finish the task as you planned so cleverly." Mariah replied testily.

Mariah Rigor had followed Mrs Peterson into the showers and then into the female area, while Johor went into the showers for the men and anxiously threw glances towards the exit in case something happened that needed his attention, to have hung around outside the women`s shower area would have drawn unwelcome attention to his presence.

Mrs Peterson entered a recently vacated cubicle and started her ablutions; Mariah waited until the cubicle next to Mrs Peterson became vacant and then entered this one, turning on the shower to cover her task. Mariah took from her wash bag a small glass phial and what appeared to be a mosquito, she dipped its stinger into the glass phial which was filled with a clear liquid, then she carefully put the mosquito into a very small air pistol made of plastic, and which could be assembled quickly and easily when required. Kneeling down so that she could see Mrs Petersons` legs on the other side of the shower partition, Mariah Rigor fired the pistol. On the other side of the partition, Mrs Peterson swore when she felt the 'Mosquito' bite her, and washed her legs with a jet of water from the shower hose. "Take that sucker." Mrs Peterson said with relish as she saw the small Mosquito washed away down through the waste hole, but unknown to Mrs Peterson she was already dying. Mrs Peterson was not thinking about death, she was thinking of all the mosquitoes that would be awaiting her on Persephone, luckily, she had brought along a good supply of repellent to deal with them. On the other side of the partition Mariah got down to her ablutions, in three hours Mrs Peterson would be dead from her 'Mosquito bite' and the poison would be untraceable, except for in a modern forensic laboratory that knew exactly what it was looking for.

**********

Earlier, back on Earth, Formby had been awakened to the sound of his telephone ringing, it was Crosby and the time was six in the morning.

"Don`t you have any thoughts for your career, Crosby, waking your superior without a jolly good reason can be fatal?" Formby asked angrily.

"I think that you will appreciate being awakened this time Sir." Crosby hoped so anyway. "I believe we have found our Aldebran agent."

"Send a car for me, Crosby, and make sure our spy doesn`t go anywhere in the meantime."

"Don`t worry Sir, he won`t be going anywhere, Morrison and Chambers are on watch around the back of the hotel Mirage, whilst Jones is sitting inside the small lobby of the hotel."

Formby quickly washed and shaved, and by the time the car had arrived, Formby was dressed and moving towards the front door of his small apartment set on the outskirts of the better side of the city. An inheritance had allowed him to purchase it, for otherwise he would still be languishing deep inside the unsavourily squalid area where he had been born.

Formby instructed the driver to drop him around the corner, and out of sight from the hotel Mirage. Formby wanted to approach the hotel from the same side of the road so that he would not be so visible to anyone watching, so he crossed to the other side of the road before turning the corner that brought him near to the front entrance of the hotel. Crosby saw him as he turned the corner and waved to him from the hotel front entrance. Formby entered the lobby and immediately got down to business.

"Do we have a key to his room?"

"Yes Sir, I have it here." Jones held up the plastic electronic key card that would allow them access to the room.

In his hotel room Tirana, had been standing by the window, and had seen Formby enter into the hotel lobby. Tirana had always been an early riser, but it had been sheer chance that he had been looking out of the window when Formby had arrived, but it was not chance that Formby was known to him. He had not only seen him enter the boarding house of Mrs Maritz and question her, but he had also seen him with President Michaels at the Chichester Laboratories, for he had staked out the laboratory after the explosion, so as to see which detectives had been put on the case. This was also the reason why Tirana had not returned to his lodgings, and why now Tirana quickly left this room and headed towards the stairs that went up to the roof, for he had already checked out an escape route for use if necessary.

'How did you get onto me, I did nothing to attract your attention.' Tirana said to himself. 'Something or someone has given me away, could it have been our man at the laboratories, Wallace, or maybe it was something so small that I will never work out what it was.' Tirana mused.

Formby took the key card from Jones and accompanied Crosby up the three flights of stairs to the room where Tirana was checked into while Jones stayed downstairs in the hotel lobby, just in case.

"We have also located the Aldebran spy`s car; it is parked three streets away." Crosby informed his superior. "Using the CCTV cameras, we backtracked him from the hotel to the place where he parked his vehicle." Crosby said sounding just a little smug, and as he should be thought Formby.

"Good work Crosby."

They had reached the door of Tirana`s room by now, and Formby unlocked the door with the key card and together with Crosby burst into the now empty room.

"Where on earth is he Sir, I am positive that he hasn`t left the hotel since he returned to his room just before midnight."

Formby dashed out of the hotel room with Crosby close behind him, Formby could see that the elevator was not in operation, and if Tirana had just stepped out of it on the ground floor then Jones would have called them.

"His car, Crosby, get Chambers, Morrison and Jones around to it now, we may still catch him before he can escape." Formby ordered. "Meanwhile we will head for the roof and see if he departed that way, come on man."

They were soon standing upon the roof of the hotel and looking down the fire escape stairs, but it was empty, as was the alley beneath it.

Tirana saw Formby and Crosby dash up the stairs as he watched from the cleaner`s cupboard on the next floor up, he counted to ten and then walked slowly down the stairs, by a baffled hotel receptionist and into a passing taxicab. He took this to the busy city railway station, here he went to the left luggage department and collected a large suitcase. He then installed himself in one of the station toilet cubicles where he changed his clothes, put on a grey wig and developed a pronounced stoop. Tirana had entered as himself, six feet tall, dressed very smart, middle aged with jet-black hair and piercing brown eyes, he had left as an aging old man in a scruffy suit, with grey hair, a bad stoop and wire rimmed spectacles.

He had another vehicle stashed away in a private lockup that he had leased when he had first come to Earth. The aged old man had left the vehicle there two weeks ago. This same old man now collected it and headed west towards another smaller and grubbier spaceport, here he would obtain a seat upon a tramp freighter heading towards the Mars colony. On Mars, he would occupy his time doing important work in the service of his Emperor, and his two agents aboard the Constellation.

A tired Formby got back to his office at ten that morning, very angry with himself. He should have left Jones in the hotel lobby, the receptionist had told him how Tirana had slipped out of the hotel seconds after Jones had left his post down there on his superior`s orders, this case was beginning to go badly, and he may have ruined their one real chance of success.

On his desk, he found a message from Paul Divine. 'So, his gut also told him to look into the Claytons, okay that we can do immediately, well immediately after coffee and something to eat.' Formby had missed his breakfast once again, as his stomach informed him now, loudly.

**********

On the starship Constellation, Paul Divine had collected Charles Bragg, and together they called on the Peterson family.

"Good morning Mr Peterson, Mrs Peterson, my name is Paul Divine and this is Charles Bragg, I hope you are both well?" Paul Divine asked the couple from Oregon. Mrs Peterson looked around at the two agents, Mr Peterson ignored them and continued reading an article entitled 'Eco Logging'.

"Good morning, can I help you in some way?" Mrs Peterson enquired, looking up at him from her bed where she sat reading a magazine.

Talking quietly so that his voice carried no further than the Petersons`, Paul Divine answered her question.

"Yes Mrs Peterson, you can. I am about to take you both into our confidences and tell you a something that I must ask you to keep to yourselves for the moment." Mrs Peterson looked a little surprised by this statement and even Mr Peterson looked up from his article.

"We are not communications experts, we are in fact federal agents on the trail of two alien spies who have murdered at least seven people, maybe nine, maybe many more." Paul Divine stopped for a moment to let this sink in before continuing.

"They have also stolen secret scientific equipment which they are trying to take back to their planet, and we believe that they could be hiding amongst the colonists on this ship. A starship from their planet is planning to rendezvous with them when they reach Persephone."

"That is absurd, Mr Divine, why on earth would they take such a roundabout route to get back to their own planet, and in any case all the people on the Constellation were chosen at least a year ago, how could they now hide away amongst them?" Mr Peterson said, the conversation now of interest to him.

"To answer your second point first, I believe that they may have murdered the original colonists, which is why I was not sure of the exact body count. As to your first point, I think that your second point answers it very well; all the passengers are all above suspicion having been chosen for the last twelve months or more. Another reason is because they had to leave Earth quickly because of a certain piece of technology that only came on line hours after the departure of this ship, and it was for this reason that the Constellation was chosen as the escape vehicle. This new technology would have led to their capture if they had not left Earth when they did, and they knew that after stealing such a valuable piece of technology that it would be difficult to exit via any of the normal ports. However, a lead came in later in the day and that is why we boarded the ship at Ganymede." Paul Divine whispered.

"Oh, I don`t feel very well George, in fact I think that I am about to faint." And with that brief statement Mrs Peterson slumped to the floor.

"Rosalyn!" Peterson said in a scared voice. "Look what you have done talking about spies and murder and such like." Peterson said angrily.

"Get the doctor, Charles." Paul Divine ordered Charles Bragg, who after his night time conversations with the colonists knew exactly where to find Doctor Schwartz.

"She`s dead, Rosalyn is dead, but how, she had a medical check-up only recently and they said she was fine?" Peterson groaned after searching for and not finding any trace of his wife`s pulse.

Doctor Schwartz was soon at the Peterson`s cubicle, with him was his wife who was the colonies nurse, they had brought a hospital trolley and the four men moved Mrs Peterson up on to it so that Doctor Schwartz could better examine her.

The first thing he did was to fit Mrs Peterson with a respirator and then he checked for a heartbeat, there was none, Mrs Peterson`s heart had stopped. Doctor Schwartz took out a syringe and filled it with anexadrine, which he then injected into her heart, he hoped that it would shock her heart into working again, but it did not work.

"Let`s take her to the clinic, we have better equipment there." Doctor Schwartz said. He immediately began pushing the trolley towards the clinic. Mr Peterson was distraught, he held onto his wife`s hand in the hope that she was still alive, and that she could still feel her hand in his. Luckily, the clinic was on that deck level, so they were soon within its walls. As soon as they reached the clinic, Doctor Schwartz connected Mrs Peterson up to the ship`s medical system while Nurse Schwartz gave her another shot of anexadrine.

"Well Doctor, can you save her, will she be all right?" Peterson begged, his normal strength was gone, what was left was a shadow of his normal self. As Peterson waited for the doctor to answer him, his eyes silently pleaded with him to say that his wife would be all right.

Peterson was almost in a state of collapse, the thought of journeying on alone to a planet where he knew no one, where all would be strange to him, and forever to be without Rosalyn seemed to be too much for him to cope with. Doctor Schwartz must have guessed at some of the thoughts running through Peterson`s head from the scared look upon Peterson`s face.

"I am sorry George, she is dead, and there is nothing that I can do."

"No!" Screamed Peterson, he sank to the floor with his head in his hands, crying softly. "No."

Doctor Schwartz and his wife took an unresisting Peterson back to his cubicle where the doctor gave him a shot to put him to sleep.

"Sleep will help him for now Chris, but when he wakes, he will still have to deal with it." Ida Schwartz stated.

"I know Ida, but hopefully his subconscious will begin the process while he is asleep." Doctor Schwartz turned to one of Peterson`s neighbours; it was Tricia Brand, a bright young woman from Lincolnshire in England.

"Please keep an eye on him Tricia, let me know when he wakes up."

"Don`t worry Doctor; we will keep an eye on him." Tricia Brand replied kindly for she had liked the young couple, and she was finding it difficult to stop her eyes from filling with her own tears.

Chapter Four

Paul Divine and Charles Bragg have a Bad Day

The Afternoon of January 14th

Paul Divine and Charles Bragg sat with Alice Tarraway in her small cramped office discussing the sudden death of Mrs Peterson.

"The one person that we could have spoken to, who could have confirmed one way or the other the identity of the woman who we know as Mary Clayton, dies mysteriously, and just after Paul speaks to the Claytons. Paul put the two of them at the top of his list following the chat, who is to say that the Claytons didn`t also realise that Paul is not who he says he is. Maybe they guessed that he was a government agent in disguise, actively engaged in seeking them out. It is just too much of a coincidence." Charles Bragg exclaimed angrily.

"No, Charles, I went from the Claytons cubicle almost directly onto the Petersons`, if they killed her it must have been with a slow acting poison that was given to her much earlier in the morning." Paul Divine said.

"We have yet to find out the cause of her death, until Doctor Schwartz has finished his examination of her body, we can hardly accuse anyone of killing her." Alice Tarraway replied.

"Alice is right Charles; we will have to wait for the doctor`s findings. Paul Divine said.

"And if the doctor cannot find out how Mrs Peterson died, what then Paul?" Charles Bragg asked angrily.

"Then we will have no choice than to proceed in other directions, such as searching the hold for the stolen part from the Matter Transporter. It is too large for the Claytons to have it on or about their persons without my having seen it when I spoke with them, so it must be with their goods down in the hold of this ship." Paul Divine said.

"Don`t you have a list of the number and type of crates and cases each colonist brought aboard with them?" Charles Bragg asked Alice Tarraway.

"Well yes Charles, the number and type of crates and cases is on the computer, but what good will they do you?"

"Well does it say where about in the hold they are stored?" Paul Divine asked.

"No, because of the amount of goods and the finite amount of available space, goods were put into whatever space could be found for them. I believe that the only way that you will be able to search for their goods will be on Persephone, when we unload all of the goods stored on the ship." Alice Tarraway said regretfully, and shrugging her shoulders.

"Then we should find the stolen item shortly after we arrive at Persephone, and until then it seems that we must await the doctor`s findings." Charles Bragg stated.

"We could give the Claytons a shot of that new improved batch of Pentothal, which would soon bring the truth out into the open." Paul Divine said. He was feeling very angry at the death of Mrs Peterson and would like to prove the killers` guilt sooner rather than later.

"The Church would never agree to its use and neither will I." Alice Tarraway stated forcibly, Alice believed firmly that the rights of all human beings were one of the pillars of civilisation.

"Well in that case, I want you to tell the colonists that you are not satisfied that the death of Mrs Peterson was by natural causes, and that Charles and I are to act as the Coroners with the task of finding out who did this foul dead. Ask them to assist us in accomplishing this task before we reach Persephone." Paul Devine demanded.

"I thought that the two of you wanted to work incognito?" Alice Tarraway said, just a little surprised at this request from Paul Divine.

"I believe that the couple posing as the Claytons have a very good idea as to who we are." Paul Divine replied. "And working undercover in these circumstances would only make our work harder."

"Then you could be the reason that Mrs Peterson was killed." Alice Tarraway said accusingly.

"No, if the Claytons are our spies, then as soon as they realised that there was someone on board who could unmask them, that person`s death warrant was signed. They couldn`t risk questions being asked about their real identities." Paul Devine stated firmly.

"Yes." Charles Bragg said. "But I hate to think that our being on board hastened her death."

"I don`t think that it did, the spies would quite probably have logged into the ships computer as soon as they got aboard the Constellation as part of their own security measures. If the Clayton`s are the spies, then on finding that someone else hailed from Pendleton, Oregon, they would have responded appropriately to secure their safety." Paul Divine replied.

"You are that sure that the Claytons are imposters then, it couldn`t be that you just took an instant dislike to Mrs Clayton, as one can do at times with a new acquaintance?" Alice Tarraway asked.

"No, when I spoke to Mrs Clayton, as I suppose we must keep calling her, I felt as if an icy hand had grabbed a hold of me, she may look innocent, but something about her scared the hell out of my subconscious, something deep within her eyes yelled evil lies here to my brain. Of course, I am not one hundred per cent sure that they are our Aldebran spies, but I sure think that they are our best bet at this moment in time. Charles here can continue checking the others left on our list; after lunch I will see if Mr Peterson is awake and up to talking to me. After that I may have to speak to Mrs Clayton again, but this time as a Coroner."

"The colonists will ask why I have appointed the two of you as the Coroners, we can hardly say that you are both government agents, most of the people on this ship are leaving Earth to escape the likes of you." Alice smiled rather embarrassed as she realised what she had said but continued. "I am sorry Paul, Charles, but it is true you know."

"Simply tell them the truth, which in the past I was a private investigator and that I have helped in similar cases on colony planets that are far from Earth, ones that don`t have the necessary people available to carry out such a task on their planet." Paul Divine replied, stretching the truth a little.

"It might also be better Alice, if you spoke to the families who are berthed nearby the Peterson`s cubicle, to ascertain as to whether the Peterson`s did actually get along. Obviously, a woman`s touch would go down better with your people rather than me with my size ten feet tramping all over their emotions at a time like this." Paul Devine suggested.

"Of course, I will see to that for you." Alice said pensively as she took in the full meaning behind Paul Divine`s quiet words.

**********

Nothing told Tirana more about where he now found himself than the red sky that stretched from one horizon to the other, and without a single cloud to be seen. Tirana was now a man of forty; he had blond hair, brown eyes, he still had a slight stoop but now he also had a beard and moustache to disguise his appearance. He had arrived on Mars just two hours ago; He was now safely ensconced within the Mars Plaza hotel, a small hotel at the edge of the dome that ensured that the environment was kept suitable and safe for the colonists. One mile away from the dome was the Mars spaceport, bustling with local and interstellar activity. Inside the dome it might have been Earth, except for the fact that the buildings all had emergency airlocks instead of doorways, just in case an emergency actually occurred, so far in its history none had, normally of course the airlocks were kept open to facilitate ease of use by the inhabitants of Mars Dome One.

On the desk in front of him was his small personal computer, it was busy now, for Tirana was checking all of the colony's official records for the last three years. It was looking for any pictures or references regarding the Claytons, so far, he had found five pictures, which he had altered to show Mariah and Johor Rigor. None of the references so far had described them, so he had left them alone. When his computer had finished checking the official records, Tirana would hack into all the records of the mining corporation that had hired the Clayton, and amend any of these that needed amending. Tirana could not foresee a time when the authorities on Earth would ever get around to checking into any of these records, but he was a perfectionist. Anyway, the authorities had somehow got on to him; therefore, there must be a chance of them suspecting that their quarry had escaped Earth, and that they might be on the colonist starship Constellation. He would be done by that evening, and tomorrow morning he was taking flight to Proxima Centauri, and from there he would take a flight to the outer reaches of the galaxy and home.

**********

Back on Earth, Formby had at last received a reply from Pendleton, Oregon. They had searched all of their records but could only find pictures of Mary Clayton, regarding Greg Clayton, he had never lived at the Pendleton address, and both of the Claytons only used it now as a convenience address. The house owned by the pair in Pendleton was rented out to a couple who worked at the local school. They had spoken to the couple and their neighbours, but no one could remember much about either of them. The house had been in Mary`s family for decades, and had been left to her when her mother had died some fifteen years ago. The pictures of Mary Clayton were taken when she had graduated from her school, when she was eighteen years old, they had sent them to him and should be in his inbox now, and they were, three of them.

Formby opened the package and looked at the pictures before him, immediately he saw that they were younger versions of the pictures he found in the Church`s records. If both of the Claytons were genuine, then he should therefore consult a doctor to check whether he had an ulcer, either that or the pictures had been expertly altered. If they had been altered, then by whom, Tirana? Formby wondered. The Aldebran spy was certainly good at his job, he had only missed one important detail, which is that Percival Wallace would get a hold of, and secrete away in the loft of his apartment building, a message that Tirana received from his home world, Aldebra. Where else could he, Special Agent Formby, scourge of the underworld, find pictures of the Claytons, on Mars maybe, or had Tirana already been there and altered any pictures of the Claytons that were to be found there?

"Jones," Formby called out to his junior. "get on to the authorities on Mars and request their help in finding any pictures of the Claytons. Oh, and also tell them they may have a hacker up there altering said records." Formby added this last bit as an afterthought."

Formby then called out to Crosby who had just entered the large outer office.

"Crosby, get on to whatever universities our two geologists went to and check to see if they have any pictures of the Claytons, then track down all their friends at these universities and do the same." There is no way that Tirana could have had the time or inclination to hack into all of these sites, Formby thought.

**********

Alice Tarraway returned to her small office to find Paul Divine sitting at her desk working.

"I have informed the colonists that you and Charles Bragg have been appointed by me to look into the strange death of Rosalyn Peterson, as there is some doubt that she died from natural causes. I had thought of telling them all that she had been murdered, but maybe that would be going too far until we get Doctor Schwartz`s report into her death." Alice said to Paul Divine.

"Yes, I agree with you there Alice, people are more likely to speak a little more freely if the 'M' word is not mentioned just yet." Paul said. Just then, Charles Bragg popped his head around the corner.

"I heard that Alice has told the folks that we are to investigate Mrs Peterson`s death, so I will head out Paul, and talk to the remaining families on our list, okay?"

"Yes Charles, I will also head out now, to see if Mr Peterson is awake and well enough to speak to me, maybe you would like to come along Alice, to soften my approach? He will feel better if you are there by my side while I ask him about his wife."

"Yes, of course Paul, it might be as well, he is less likely to explode if I am there."

Paul and Alice walked up to the upper level deck, and approached the Peterson cubicle, George Peterson was awake and talking to Tricia Brand who was standing just inside the cubicle trying unsuccessfully to comfort a very distraught man.

"How are you feeling George, are you up to talking to me and Paul?"

"What do you want to speak to me about; can`t you just leave me alone?"

Paul Divine felt sorry for the man as he moved forward a little and spoke to him sympathetically.

"I am sorry for your loss Mr Peterson, if there is anything Alice or I can do for you, please let us know?"

"Do, what can anybody do, can you bring my wife back to me, tell me can you do that?" Peterson was almost in tears again and Paul Divine decided to cut the interview short.

"No, that is the one thing that I cannot do, but Alice and I will go and speak to the doctor and see if he has finished his report, if he has I will let you know what he has found."

Peterson had slumped down onto his bed and was now openly crying without any attempt to hide it.

"Yes, thank you both, I would appreciate that." Peterson managed to say. Tricia Brand then moved forward, for she also saw that Peterson was not ready to answer questions at that moment.

"Maybe you should leave George alone for the moment, until he feels a little more like himself." She advised.

"Yes of course, you are quite right Mrs Brand." With that, Paul and Alice left George Peterson to his grief, and the care of Tricia Brand.

"Well Alice, either he is a very good actor or he is truly distraught."

"Oh, George is truly distraught, that I have no doubt about."

Alice looked at Paul Divine and thought that he was so unlike the agents portrayed in the films she had seen, they were cynical and hard, exactly like the ones that drove colonists away from Earth, and towards the planets at the edge of galaxy. She knew that her father would have liked him, as she found herself doing, and so very easily at that.

Paul and Alice arrived at the small clinic on the upper deck, and knocking on the door popped their heads around it.

"How are you getting on Doctor, have you found out why Mrs Peterson died so suddenly?" Paul then looked over at the doctor`s wife, smiled at her, and said. "Good afternoon nurse, I hope that you are well?" To which she replied. "I am fine thank you, hi Alice, are you now a detective too."

"No, I am here to see that no one takes umbrage with our new coroner and hits him." For one moment in time, all was quiet until the doctor answered Paul Divine`s question about the death of Mrs Peterson.

"There doesn`t appear to be any outward signs that point to anything. I have checked her blood but it was clear, no sign of drugs or poisons in it, although with all the synthetic ones around, I would have to know what I was looking for, and I would probably have to do an autopsy to find any trace of it."

"When are you going to start on the autopsy Doctor?" Paul Divine asked, although he already knew the answer.

"As Rosalyn Peterson was a member of the Church of the Universe, I cannot perform an autopsy without her husband`s consent, and the bishop`s of course." Christopher Schwartz looked at Paul Divine and the look he gave him was conveying 'you know that so why bother asking'.

"Yes, I know Doctor, but it is a crazy law that has allowed many a killer to escape justice." Paul Divine bemoaned.

Since the year 2450, the Church of the Universe insisted that none of the members of their church undergo an autopsy, not without the permission of the next of kin and the bishop of the See. Also, at this time, a law was introduced that amended the existing laws and made it illegal to perform an autopsy on a member of a church that forbid it, unless the proper consents were received, this affected something like seventy five per cent of the population of Earth. The rate of unsolved murders skyrocketed, but the churches were all insistent that there be no autopsies performed on any of their members without the proper consents being received. Since that date, the life of a detective went from bad to worse, many experienced men simply resigned in protest.

"It is lucky I suppose, that autopsies are allowed by law on the remaining twenty five per cent of the population, ones that don`t follow one of the larger mainstream religions." Paul Divine said resignedly.

"Later today, I will approach her husband and ask for his permission, but without any proof as to whether she was indeed murdered, I think that the bishop will refuse his permission in any case." Paul was silent for a moment and then he asked a question of the doctor.

"I expect that you are a member of the Church, doctor?"

"A lapsed member, my parents were members, so of course I was baptised into the faith, but as regards this law, I feel that if a law is wrong, it is wrong, but it is the law so what can I do but abide by it, how about yourself Paul, are you an active member of a Church?"

Alice Tarraway had been on the side lines so far, but now she found herself waiting for Paul`s reply, and with more attention than she would normally have given to such a question asked of a relative stranger.

"Me, Doc, well no I am not, oh I am not saying that there isn`t something or someone looking after all of us, I just feel that the major religions have all missed the point."

With Paul, not rejecting God out of hand, Alice felt that his answer was the one that she had been hoping for, but she wondered just why she was so interested in waiting to hear him state his views on religion. For after landing on Persephone, finding the stolen technical equipment, he would be gone, chasing after more spies.

"Well maybe when we both have some spare time, we can discuss theology Paul?" With that, Paul and Alice left the clinic to the doctor and his wife and returned to her office.

Alice had spoken to the colonists berthed around the Peterson couple, but all had said that they seemed to be a devoted couple, which while that was just what they had expected to hear; it left the mystery still unsolved. It was early evening when Paul Divine returned to the Peterson`s cubicle, and he found that Peterson was sitting on the edge of his bed staring into space.

"Excuse me once again for bothering you Mr Peterson, but I need to ask you one question, would that be all right?"

"Yes of course it is, go ahead."

"The doctor couldn`t find out the reason behind your wife`s death, and he would need to do an autopsy to stand any chance of doing so, would you give your consent to one being carried out?" Paul Devine asked quietly.

"No, I will not give my consent to an autopsy Mr Divine; if God wants us to find an answer, he will show us the way to do so, if not then so be it."

**********

Mariah Rigor was annoyed by the attentions of the two men she knew must be government agents on the trail of both Johor and herself, why must they put up with such tribulations from the likes of them, well no more, she would speak to Johor about ridding themselves of this one particular problem and sooner rather than later. Later that day, and because of her talk to her husband, the two Aldebran agents were working towards ridding themselves of the problem that so irked Mariah. Directly behind the broom cupboard that was home to the two agents was a maintenance corridor along which all the pipes and electrical wiring and such ran through, it now also housed Johor Rigor, who was cutting what would look like a large crack in the wall that separated the corridor from the broom cupboard. Mariah stood on deck A with a good view of the cupboard, for cover she was gossiping with a pair of colonists about this and that, in her hand she held a small device that would warn Rigor when to be quiet, at the moment though there was no reason for him to stop work, and soon he had finished. Alongside this new crack was a pipe that carried a toxic gas under pressure, this too would be cut when the time was right, but only as a red herring.

Night fell, and Mariah and Johor Rigor had decided that the time had come to rid themselves of the two government agents, before they became even more of a problem when the Constellation reached Persephone.

First Johor unscrewed the false bottom to his shaving foam to reveal a clear liquid, next Mariah pulled out a perfume bottle from the bottom of her bag. When the contents of the two liquids were mixed together with the contents of a second perfume bottle that Mariah now produced, the final combination of liquids would give off an extremely toxic gas that would kill any who came into contact with it. It would take a minute, two at the most, it all depended on the size of the area it was released into and how much of the gas the intended victim breathed in. Mariah and Johor walked towards the toilets on the upper deck level, but instead of using them they slipped quietly down the stairwell to deck A. All was quiet here except for the sound of some of the colonists snoring, the hum of the air conditioning and the ship`s engines, which were housed on this deck, but then it was only three o`clock in the morning and everyone was asleep, except for the two people with murder on their minds. Mariah slipped into the maintenance corridor and awaited Johor`s signal to cut the gas pipe that ran alongside the crack he had made. Johor then moved across to the broom cupboard shared by the two agents. Johor knelt to one side of it and stretching his arm around the corner, he put three plastic cups filled with the mixture of the first two chemicals about two feet inside the confines of the room. Then he took out the bottle containing the third chemical, but before using it he signalled Mariah with his small hand device, before stretching around again into the broom cupboard and emptying the contents into the three plastic cups. With this done, he hurriedly made his escape up the stairs to his own deck level, where Mariah joined him. The two Aldebran spies smiled at one another, and then they walked quickly and quietly back to their cubicle to see if they could catch up on their sleep. No sooner had they disappeared inside their cubicle than they heard a commotion from the deck below.

**********

Inside the broom cupboard, Paul Divine had woken up to a ghastly smell, and immediately began to cough and splutter, realising what the problem was, he cried out for help while coughing, unconsciousness was almost upon him when he attempted to drag Charles Bragg towards the safety of the large open deck outside of the broom cupboard that was their bedchamber. Charles by now was also awake, he also was coughing, and spluttering but Paul Divine could not quite get the two of them to the safety that was so close before them, and he collapsed unconscious to the floor while Charles groped helplessly for help. Luckily, Paul`s cries for help had awoken their nearest neighbours. Simon Holmes and Joel Simons were the first on the scene and before finally losing consciousness; Paul managed to gasp out four words.

"Gas, please help us." The gas soon became apparent to the two men who began to cough as well, but they still managed to pull Paul free of the confines of the small room. By then Jake Rhineland and John Hardwick had also arrived, who on realising that something was drastically wrong, went into the room and between them they managed to pull Charles Bragg from the room and out into the safety of the main deck. Hope Rhineland, Jake`s wife, along with many more of the colonists had been awoken by all the commotion, and on seeing the condition of the two agents, she told her husband to fetch the doctor, quickly.

Doctor Schwartz was soon on the scene, but by then all traces of the chemicals and the gas that it produced had gone, evaporated into the air and rendered harmless by the ships scrubbers that constantly recirculated the air all over the large ship. Only the high-pressure toxic gas from the damaged pipe was left, unknown to anyone it had been this high-pressure gas that had saved the agents lives, for the high pressure of this gas pushed against the killer gas and kept most of it away from its intended victims. Mr McPherson who had just arrived could hear this high-pressure gas escaping. He looked into the broom cupboard and could hear the gas entering it via the crack in the wall, and so knowing that there was a maintenance corridor very nearby he entered it and found that that it was also filling up with gas from a damaged pipe. From behind him a crewmember burst into the room with a gas mask on, and pushing McPherson aside turned off the gas at a control set high up on the wall, and it was none too soon for McPherson was feeling the effects from the gas and was decidedly unwell.

"Here use this." The crewmember said and thrust a bottle of oxygen into McPherson`s hands who gratefully took in a deep breath of clean air. The crewmember then flicked another switch and the room was soon filled with clean air while the toxic gas was sucked away into space. Alarm bells had gone off immediately the pressure in the damaged pipe had dropped, and this is why the crewmember had arrived so promptly.

Both Paul and Charles were unconscious, so Schwartz thought the best thing to do would be to hook the two men up to the ship's medical apparatus. This would check all of their vital signs and give whatever advice it thought suitable for any particular medical situation it found.

"I need your help lads, Jake, Joel, run up to the clinic and bring down two trolleys." Nurse Schwartz then appeared on the scene with one trolley, so only Jake took the ship`s elevator up to the clinic on the upper deck to collect a second trolley.

"Right you three men there, help me to pick up Charles Bragg and put him on this trolley." Charles Bragg was soon lying on the trolley, but he looked to be close to death. Doctor Schwartz had been a police surgeon earlier in his career; he immediately ensured that any evidence there was, was not destroyed within the possible crime scene.

"Simon, Joel please go and get some plastic sheeting or some such thing from the stores and seal that room up tight. I am leaving it up to you two men to ensure that nobody enters that room unless Alice or I am here to say that it is okay, is that understood, nothing must be touched or removed from the room. We must ensure that any evidence about what happened in there is kept secure, and is not destroyed by the curious or the guilty, so that when a detective finally arrives to investigate this mystery, he can be presented with all of the evidence." Schwartz said to the two colonists.

"Yes Doctor, we will ensure that nobody messes about with it." Simon Holmes promised.

Now all the ship was awake and rife with rumours, and all this noise woke Alice Tarraway and brought her along to where all the attention was centred.

"What on has happened to Charles... and Paul as well, what on earth is going on Doctor."

Just then, and only for a few moments, Charles Bragg struggled through the chemicals that even now threatened to end his life.

"Alice, we are near enough to Orion, send for Tyler Burrows."

This giant effort to battle against the forces of evil sapped whatever strength he had been able to gather and Charles sank back down into unconsciousness.

Jake now returned with the second trolley and both of the agents were hurried away to the clinic, and whatever aid it could provide to keep both men alive.

Before leaving to follow his patients, Doctor Schwartz spoke to Alice and told her that the crime scene should be guarded until such time that an investigation could be undertaken.

"Alice, don`t worry our two families will guard it night and day, no one will mess with whatever evidence it may hold." Simon Holmes and Joel Simons both promised. The events of the night had shocked both men into realising that there was more than met the eye about their two fellow travellers now lying near to death up in the clinic.

Alice stood there stunned for almost a minute before deciding on what she should do, and having decided on a course of action she started on it straight away.

"Before you do that you had better come up to the clinic with me to have the doctor check you over, just in case. Maybe you could get your families to stand guard until you get back?"

Mr McPherson then spoke to Alice and told her about the toxic gas and of the crack in the wall.

"It might have been a ghastly accident Alice, or it could have been a murderous attempt on those two men`s lives, but why would anyone want them dead, is there something about them that we don`t know?" Alice did not answer McPherson`s question, but instead spoke to the colonists who were still milling around.

"If any more of you inhaled any of the gas that was released down here you had better come up to the clinic with me now."

Five men joined Alice as she went up to the clinic, it was not even four o`clock in the morning and she could not foresee the chance of her getting any further sleep that morning, and on top of all that she now had a terrible headache.

"How are they Doctor; will they be all right?" Alice asked anxiously.

"They are still unconscious, and all the indications are that they will stay that way for some time, maybe hours, maybe for days, maybe even for a week or more. I don`t even know what caused their condition yet." Schwartz replied sadly, for he already had one dead body, and now there was a good chance of his getting two more.

"But surely it was that gas that escaped from the broken pipe in the maintenance corridor?" Alice asked just a little baffled by the doctor`s words.

"No, I don`t think so, I have already found out what gas is carried by the damaged pipe, and although it is toxic, if it was the cause then these two men should be a lot nearer to recovering, and as I said they are not."

"You had better post a guard on the two men Doctor, for if it wasn`t an accident then their lives could still be in danger, no one is to be allowed anywhere near to them, the clinic is off limits to all except you, your wife and myself, is that understood."

"Don`t worry Alice, someone will be on duty at all times, but surely you are reacting a little strongly by posting the clinic off limits to everyone, how am I to treat any other patients who may come along?"

"Unless it is a life-threatening situation Doctor, you can treat them at their bedside. One person is dead, two more could soon be, and I am not keen to increase our tally of deaths. Oh, but first you had better check these five men over, they all inhaled some of the gas while helping down there. The fact is they may have saved your patients' lives."

Alice waited until the five men were given the all clear and had returned to their families before doing anything more. Simon Holmes and Joel Simons were also starting on the task requested of them, to guard the crime scene against anyone tampering with it. She then went back to her office and spoke to the ship`s captain, who complained about being woken so early in the morning. His complaining ended when he heard what the cause was.

"I want you to lock all the areas on the ship that our colonists don`t need entry to, especially the maintenance corridors, we cannot afford any more attacks on our people."

"I will see that it is done Alice, my men will get on to it first thing in the morning, well it will be the first thing that is done by the day shift anyway."

Alice left it at that because she didn`t think that there was a chance that there would be any further attempts on the two agents lives during what was left of the early morning hours. Her next decision was that as she was awake why shouldn`t Tom Parkinson also be awake, assuming that the ship was following whatever time zone that Parkinson lived in, and so she put an urgent call into him. Parkinson was asleep in bed when the call came through to him; it had been diverted to him by his office when Alice had demanded to speak with him about a matter of the utmost urgency.

"What is the problem Miss Tarraway and why couldn`t it wait until a more civilised hour?"

"Your two agents are near to death in our clinic after what almost certainly seems to be a determined attempt on their lives." Alice then told Parkinson all that had happened aboard the Constellation over the last twenty-four hours, including Charles Bragg`s demand that Tyler Burrows be summoned.

"Okay Miss Tarraway, I will call you back after I have thought things through." Tom Parkinson then rang President Michaels and updated him on the situation.

"Ask for Burrows` help; are you mad, surely there is someone else to turn too?"

"Normally we would ask the captain of the Constellation to take over, but in this case, and with so much else to consider, I think that would be unwise, especially as he will probably be quite unsuited to the task. We could ask the captain of the Defiant to do so, but with the Aldebran space cruiser getting ever nearer to the Constellation that would also be unwise. We can hardly send someone from Earth, it would take too long, and so what other choice do we have?"

"Okay, but ask that Tarraway woman to call him, Burrows would never let a call from a damsel in distress go unanswered. Also, instruct the captain of the Defiant that when Burrows tells the Tarraway women that he will come to her aid, that he is to inform him that he has been given the temporary appointment as a special agent working for the Interstellar Investigations Bureau. Oh, and you had better ensure that Tarraway knows what all this is about so that she can give Burrows the complete story."

Tom Parkinson finished off the call with the humour that he, and only he, could get away with.

"You do realise that all the rumours that Tyler Burrows is a special agent working for you will now be true, Mr President."

President Michaels` new found constraint was at bursting point as he slammed down the phone. President Michaels then got on to Formby, and yet another person was woken from their sleep, to be told what had happened in deep space and what further action the authorities were planning.

In deep space, the Aldebran space cruiser was now within long-range sensor vision of the Constellation and appeared to be happy to stay at this distance from her, but it kept silent about its reason for being in this area of space. The Defiant was on the opposite side of the Constellation and had both ships within its superior long-range sensors. It too was silent for the moment, but that moment of silence was about to be shattered.

Chapter Five

The Planet Orion

The morning of January 15th

Two years earlier, on the colony planet of Orion, Tyler Burrows, the Mayor of Orion, a pompous title so Tyler himself said, for the position of a part time planetary manager, was talking to Brian Goddard, scientist extraordinaire, and friend. Tyler was aged twenty-nine years, was five feet nine inches high with brown hair, baby blue eyes, a square chin and a largish nose. Tyler and his friend George Masters were from Earth, but one of the twenty first century, they had been brought to Orion in a violent time storm.

"I need a favour of you Brian, or to be more exact the Mayor does."

Brian Goddard and his wife Tracy were the only two scientists remaining on the planet from the ill-fated Time Machine project headed by the late, great scientist, Richard Jameson. He was aged forty-seven, an African American, short and stocky with wiry black hair, his dark brown eyes normally showed a sleepy expression and he hailed from southern states of the United States of America.

"And what can a lowly serf do for the all-powerful Mayor?" Brian asked, tongue in cheek.

"You can cut that out for a start." Tyler said laughing before explaining what was on his mind.

"I know that you have been going over the crashed Heliot starships ever since our illustrious President returned to Earth, and I am hoping that you have learnt enough to allow you to do something for me. I want you to give our small cargo vessel a makeover, a little oomph so that we can use it to beef up our planetary defences. Bishop Sinclair, as you know, is constantly in touch with the other planets of his faith, and he is getting increasing worried by the number of raids being made by space pirates of late, and in the star systems that are not too far away from ours. If the Government of Earth does not do anything about them then eventually it will be our turn to receive a visit from them. I have been out looking at the remains of the Heliot fleet that crashed during the time storm. Some of their ships` energy weapons look to be in a reasonable condition, as far as I can tell that is. I was thinking of setting up one of the larger weapons in the hold of the ship where there is plenty of space for it, and have it positioned to fire out through the bows of the ship, this and maybe an increase in the shield strength should do nicely." Tyler might have been asking a decorator to paint his flat from the way he said it.

"Is that all Tyler, and who is going to help me work these miracles that I am to perform?" Brian asked.

"I will of course, and I am sure that Colin Ryan will volunteer his services, I know for a fact that he gets a little bored, even though he has a small farm to run and acts as the planet`s Constable on the side. Colin Ryan was an ex Space Marine who had stayed behind on Orion as he was officially retired now, this was just as the other marines left for other duties. Given some help from the villagers, who we will need to help us with all of the heavy manual work, I thought it might be possible, if you think you are up to the task of course?" Tyler said baiting his friend; Brian dismissed this obvious attempt by his friend.

"We would also have to beef up the power from the hyper-space drive to give you enough energy to use all these extra devices, but I suppose that it might be just possible, Tyler, as long as the Heliot technology is not way over my head." Brian said warming to the idea.

"Brian, I am sure that you are quite up to coping with anything that the Heliot technology might throw at you, especially as you have been turning out quite a reasonable line in top of the range items using that same Heliot technology, one that you and Tracy have taken from the said broken starships." Tyler replied.

"Thank you oh mighty one, for your unbounded faith in your humble servant, and yes Tyler, we have made an honest crust doing just that." Brian said.

"I`ll give you humble servant." Tyler said laughing before continuing.

"Now then oh humble one; the planet will not be able to pay you as much as you are getting for consulting on the Matter Transporter, or inventing top of the line hardware for starships. However, we are getting a steady income now from the Dylithium crystal mine we found in the tunnels of the Troglodytes, when we forced them to mend their ways and become good citizens of Orion, we could divert some of this money to pay you for your work." Tyler offered by way of compensation.

"Don`t worry about that, if we pull this off it will help protect Tracy and the children, not to mention all the other families on Orion, they might even make me Minister of Science here on Orion." Brian said.

The two friends were laughing at this fantasy of Brian`s just as Tracy Goddard chose that moment to enter the room. Tracy was aged forty-seven and like her husband was of African American descent hailing from the state of Alabama in the southern United States of America. She was pretty and petite with brown eyes and long black hair, and she was extremely clever.

"What are you two laughing about; I thought you told me that you wanted to talk to Brian about some work to keep him out of mischief, not to fool around." Tracy said, looking at the two men laughing, as she shook her head in despair.

"Tyler wants me to give our cargo vessel some teeth to protect the people of Orion from any space pirates that might come our way." Brian explained after getting control of himself.

"Well it is about time Tyler Burrows, that you came up with a plan to deal with the possible threat that they pose to us." Tracy said admonishing her friend.

"Well if you will be happy for me to steal your husband away from you for a while, then we will get right on to it." Tyler said smiling at her.

"I would be very grateful if you took Brian away from under my feet for a while Tyler, the longer the better." Tracy Goddard said while pretending to ignore the fact that her husband was there.

"Tyler, why is it that my wife doesn`t appreciate me?"

**********

Paul Johnson, one of the colonists on Orion, was the pilot for the colony, having been a space pilot in his early life back when he lived on Earth. Now he was a farmer, but he also helped when needed with piloting the cargo vessel. Today he was needed so he flew Tyler, Brian and Caroline, Tyler`s wife, who fancied the day out in the warm spring sunshine, in the cargo vessel to the remains of the Heliot fleet where they would be doing all the initial work. With them were Craig Stevens and Frank Mason who were the cargo vessel`s two engineers, a position they had enjoyed before aboard one of Earth`s space cruisers, now they did it for fun.

The cargo vessel took off from New Eden and flew through the long wide valley between the mountains, which took them finally to the flat plains on the south of the continent and then to the small valley that was the crash site. The crash site extended for five miles along the base of the mountain's southern foothills; this area was still mostly barren because of the poisonous chemicals that had spilled from the broken fleet, but it was slowly coming back to life. Paul Johnson landed just about midway in the crash zone, just in front of one of the broken space cruisers. They used two small Jeeps to visit each of the broken hulks.

"The area seems to be unaltered since we were here that last time Tyler." Caroline said. "Death is still the only thing growing here." Caroline had long blond hair, very blue eyes, was just five feet eight inches tall and was very beautiful.

"Yes, but at least this time there are no Heliot troopers around here who are trying to kill or enslave us." Tyler replied as he thought back to a previous trip to this small valley.

"Animal life is returning to the area though; see there is a small herd of Stager Deer hiding in the trees of that small wood over there, although they cannot be finding a lot of food to eat about here yet." Brian Goddard said as he pointed them out.

The floor of the crash site had been burnt by the red-hot metal of the space cruisers when they had slid for miles along the grassy plain and set the area ablaze. This had destroyed the flora of the area, luckily for the survivors of the Heliot ships, the area had been recently grazed by the deer and so the fire had soon gone out, but the ground was still contaminated from the various chemicals that had spilled out of the broken craft.

The first thing was to identify what was usable, and it took them the rest of the day to go over the wrecks. Their footsteps echoed through each of the hulks that they entered, making it a rather spooky place. It also made them think about the stories told by the locals, about the place being haunted by the ghosts from the many dead Heliot crewmembers that had been killed when these spaceships crashed here following the time storm.

They found one of the ships plasma weapons that was still in a reasonable condition aboard the third of the space cruisers that they searched. On the fifth of the hulks they found what Brian thought might be enough of a defence shield to be incorporated into the cargo ship`s present one to increase the protection that it gave its crew. There was an almost complete hyperspace engine on the same broken starship; it could be repaired using parts from the rest of the broken fleet.

"Finding them is one thing, fitting them to the cargo vessel and making them work without it tearing the cargo vessel apart is another." Brian Goddard said, many of his old doubts coming back to him.

Tyler had no doubts, and Paul Johnson now told how he could also help in this respect.

"Twenty one years ago, when I was back on Mars, they did not run to such conveniences as a space dock, even the space port lacked modern tools. Coupled to all that there was a severe shortage of mechanics due to the war with the Lyre Federation, so I learnt quite a lot about starships and how to repair them, I had to or my ship would never have kept going. From what I have seen here, I think that Brian and I, with help from the villagers to assist us with the heavier work, could upgrade the cargo vessel to planetary defender, assuming as Brian says that we don`t tear the ship apart when we start her engine after the upgrade." Paul Johnson was six feet tall with greying hair, grey eyes, a handsome face and a physique that belied his fifty-five years.

His positive feeling also affected the others. Craig Stevens and Frank Mason both knew a fair bit about hyperspace engines, and they volunteered their spare time cheerfully. Both men were in their late fifties, and were quite similar in appearance, although Craig was two inches taller than his friend who was only five feet six inches tall. However, they were beginning to put on weight due to their intense dislike of physical exercise. They had retired to Orion looking for a more pleasant life, living and working back on Terra Firma. They were Orion`s mechanics and technicians extraordinaire, and were working on the Orion Defender for fun, and were strictly part time only.

"Forget about your spare time Craig, Frank, the planet will pay you for your time, then if necessary, you can pay someone else to carry out any of your normal work that suffers from all the time you will have to give to this project. That goes for you too Paul, is that all right with the three of you?" Tyler asked.

"Yes, that is fine Tyler and thank you, a little extra is always welcome and it will also mean that we won`t have to worry about our farms or businesses while we work on your project." Paul Johnson said, and the other two agreed, happy to be without that worry.

The work was deliberately slow, so that the mistakes made by the Heliot crew did not happen again, but slowly the work did progress. The plasma weapon was stripped from the broken hulk, then the defence shield and finally the hyperspace engine, these were all taken back to New Eden for storage in the now empty and disused science block. Brian with the help of Paul, Craig and Frank had previously followed the connections from the hardware to the ships power supply, the hyperspace engine, and they had taken the parts that were necessary to the hardware, so that they functioned correctly. Lastly, there was the computer programs, which was where Tracy Goddard came in. Tracy was one of Earth`s foremost computer experts and had been responsible for writing the software for the ill-fated Time experiments carried out here on Orion, and she was writing the software for the Matter Transporter team, as some of the software needed had come from that written for the Time experiment.

Tracy had been very happy to get away from the house and help out, for now she had almost finished working on the software for the Matter Transporter.

Tyler was there to do what he was told to do, and enjoyed himself immensely, but what surprised everyone was that Caroline also turned up each day, she was very eager to learn. Now, Caroline was stripping down Heliot technology, making a detailed drawing showing where each item had come from, and months later with the help of Brian Goddard and the others, fitting it into the cargo vessel. It was soon obvious to everyone that Caroline was a natural engineer. As Tyler commented, Caroline seemed to have a photographic memory that until now had been under worked and undiscovered. People now saw a new side to Caroline; a side that no one ever expected, her engineering bent. She even helped Brian, Tracy and Paul to lay the links between the plasma weapon and a weapons console built by the others to allow the weapon to be aimed and fired from the bridge by a computer which was incorporated into the console, which negated the need for them to connect the plasma weapon up to the ship's main computer. All of the team were now very familiar with the workings of the ship and would be welcome additions to any starship crew, if they had so desired, even Tyler ensured that he knew something about the workings of the ship, even if he was not as competent as the others were.

That had been two years ago, now the cargo vessel even had a name, the Orion Defender, a name first put to the ship by Paul Johnson when they had first started the project. Paul and Brian had found to their delight, and to Tyler`s when they told him, that the Heliot space drive was easier on the ship`s hull, being of a more advanced design, and that the integrity of the Defender was no longer a concern. They would be able to operate the extra devices added to the cargo vessel without having to worry that the ship would break up when they were using them all at full power. The hull of the Defender had been enlarged with metal ripped from the hulks of the Heliot fleet to create a large arched structure to allow the bulk of the massive Heliot hyperspace engine to fit into the engine room. They used still more of the metal to add extra armour to the hull of the Orion Defender. In the centre of the Defender`s hold sat their new powerful plasma weapon. When in operation it vibrated quite a bit, and so that was attached firmly to the floor and to the ceiling so as to prevent it damaging itself or members of the crew, and anti-vibration mats were put under it and over it to protect the ship from being shaken apart. A new wall was built along part of the middle section of the ship to house an air lock so that the rear door of the ship`s hold did not have to be opened to allow access into and out of the ship. This also meant that they could now couple up to another craft that did not possess a large enough hanger deck to accommodate the Orion Defender. All of this technology and hardware had come from the broken Heliot starships.

One other thing that Tyler had insisted upon, that Paul gave him lessons that would enable him to pilot the ship. Caroline then surprised everyone again when she joined him in his lessons, and then demanded that she also be taught how to pilot the Orion Defender.

The full crew of the starship comprised the following. Tyler and Caroline Burrows, Paul Johnson who was the helmsman. Colin Freeman who had a history that included a spell on a space cruiser as a science officer. Although he was in charge of communications, he could also pilot the Orion Defender if need be, as he was more than qualified to do so. He was aged fifty-eight with brown hair going grey, five feet nine inches tall with grey eyes and he had retained both his good looks and his lean build. Richard Smith, who had once been an officer aboard a light space cruiser. He was aged forty-seven years of age with brown eyes and dark brown hair. In the engine room there were also the two ex-starship crewmembers Craig Stevens and Frank Mason, who now knew more about the workings of the ship`s engines than anyone else on Orion.

The landing party, when required, would comprise of Appolon, who was Caroline`s brother and chief of the village where Tyler and Caroline lived, and six of his warriors, all of who were armed with a Heliot hand plasma weapon.

All the members of the crew knew that they would be risking their lives if they had to confront a space pirate, but all would rather be here risking their lives in space than fighting the pirates on Orion, with their families then at risk as well.

**********

It was obvious to Tyler that a time would come when the new defences of Orion would be tested. That day came when the small new world colony of New Earth, a planet in the next system to Orion, put out a planetary distress call.

"This is the planet New Earth on the spiral arm of Perseus, we are under attack from space pirates, they have already landed on our planet and are attacking our town, please help us."

The pirate ship had landed briefly upon the planet`s surface to land an attack force, then as in past attacks, it had moved back into orbit to be in a better position to scan space with their limited technology, so as to ensure that they were not surprised by an Earth vessel. However, as all Earth vessels communicated loudly wherever they went, it would give them ample time to land once again, pick up their crew and make their escape and well before the Earth space cruiser made its appearance. The pirate starship had now resumed its orbit above New Earth.

By sheer chance, the Orion Defender was in operation by then, and was even having a trial flight that day with a full crew aboard to give everyone experience of space flight before an actual emergency occurred. They were actually on the way to New Earth to make a courtesy call, and had taken off eight hours previously from Orion. The distress call was heard by Colin Freeman who was operating the Communications centre of the Orion Defender at the time.

Tyler ordered Paul Johnson to take the Orion Defender around the system of planets that numbered New Earth amongst them, so that they could approach New Earth from behind its small moon, for Tyler hoped this would give them the benefit of surprise. At the moment, they were all listening to the pirate ship`s conversation with their ground attack troops.

Tyler had Paul Johnson edge the ship around the moon until the pirate ship finally appeared in their telescope, Richard Smith had advised against using positive scanning, as this would let the pirates know that they were around. Richard would move across to the weapons console just before the attack commenced, and his place at the monitor that was linked to the telescope would be taken by Caroline Burrows. All non-vital systems aboard the Defender had been shut down since they had arrived at the New Earth system, apart from the engines, environmental systems and the plasma weapon in the ship`s hold.

"When I say go, Paul, move us towards the pirate ship at our best normal space speed. Colin, switch on our defence shields, Richard, as soon as we are in range open fire with our plasma weapon and keep firing until the pirate ship is destroyed. Paul, if the pirate`s shields hold up to the Heliot weapon`s fire, after we sweep by her bring us around quickly for another pass." They had practiced this manoeuvre before with just the essential crewmembers aboard the craft, and if all went well, they should survive the real thing.

"Okay Paul. Go!"

The Orion Defender swept out from behind the small moon, its small shape silhouetted against the moon, but luckily, it was a full moon today and the dazzling brightness from it made seeing the small ship against the bright glow almost impossible, or so they all hoped. The Defender raced forward towards the multi coloured planet, their speed increasing as the distance between the two ships decreased. The improvements added to the ship from technology pulled from the broken Heliot fleet, and the suddenness of the attack meant that surprise was almost complete.

The pirate ship`s defence shields were still down because they did not anticipate any trouble this far from Earth. The officer on watch had in fact noticed their small cargo vessel appear from behind the planet`s moon, but he was not worried by the approach of a small freighter, one that looked as if it operated a meagre living tramping through space in search of work.

"Captain a small cargo vessel is approaching the planet from the direction of the planet`s moon; do you want me to open fire on it?" The officer was staring at the figures that came up on his computer but all they told him was the size and speed of the approaching vessel and not much else.

"No let it make orbit around the planet, and when it has stopped, we will board it and see if it has anything worth taking."

Soon the Orion Defender got within firing range, and as there was no room for the correct rules of war against such an enemy, their powerful Heliot plasma weapon opened fire sending bolt after bolt of energy at the pirate ship. Tyler saw them strike the pirate ship as first one engine and then the other exploded into a mass of flames and explosions; these were followed by twin strikes from the Orion Defender that tore the middle of the pirate ship violently apart as more explosions signalled that the pirate ship had been badly damaged in the attack. The pirate ship may have been put out of action by the time that the Defender swept by it, but following the procedures they had practiced before; Paul Johnson quickly pulled the Defender about for another attack on the pirate ship. Richard Smith, caught up in the excitement of the attack unleashed their heavy plasma weapon again, which this time caused the entire pirate vessel to explode in mass of fiery metals. A moment later it was slipping down towards the planet`s atmosphere, where whatever was left of it would burn up to give the planet`s population a brilliant firework display. Mercy towards space pirates was a dangerous emotion that could only be shown when you had an overwhelming advantage, which a recently converted and untried freighter, one flying with a new untested crew, did not possess.

Caroline whooped with joy and running towards Tyler threw her arms about his neck, her blue eyes glowing with excitement.

"We beat them, Tyler, our first outing with the Defender and we destroyed the pirate vessel." From then on, the ship`s name was shortened to Defender by her crew.

"Yes, hopefully when this gets around it will deter all further attacks by pirates in our sector of space." Richard Smith said.

"Well we still have to round up the pirates on the planet, darling, which might not be quite so easy, seeing as how they must have seen their ship burning up in the planet`s atmosphere." Tyler said to Caroline.

"Yes, but with the help of the Defender, Appolon and his warriors will be able to cope quite easily, especially as they are armed with the Heliot plasma weapons." Caroline`s faith in her brother and her husband was absolute, as was the rest of the bridge crew, who all came forward to congratulate him.

**********

"Come in planet of Orion, we urgently need to speak with Tyler Burrows. This is the Earth colony ship Constellation calling, please come in, we urgently need your help."

Tyler looked across at Caroline and smiled at her. "We really are in demand aren`t we darling?" Tyler walked across to the communications console.

"Come in Constellation, this is Tyler Burrows here, I am afraid that I am a little busy at the moment fighting space pirates on the planet New Earth to be of much help to anyone else at the moment."

"This is the Earth space cruiser Defiant here, is the space pirate still in orbit around New Earth. We are approaching New Earth in response to their distress call. We would have been here earlier but we are escorting the Constellation as there is some concern regarding her safety from space pirates as well."

"The space pirate is no longer in orbit about the planet; we have shot it down in flames, its remains burned up in the planet`s atmosphere just moments ago." Tyler replied.

"You say that you just took on a space pirate and destroyed it, how and with what?" The Defiant captain demanded to know.

"With the Orion Defender, the flagship of the navy of the planet Orion." Tyler replied facetiously.

"Are you saying that the planet of Orion has a space cruiser, which is expressly forbidden by your planet`s charter."

"First of all, I would hardly call the Defender a space cruiser; you will be giving her delusions of grandeur. Secondly are you sure that you and the Constellation want our help Defiant. We can discuss any problems that you have when you come aboard our flagship, and after we have finished off the pirates who have already landed on the planet of New Earth, Defender out."

Alice Tarraway was sitting at her desk listening to the conversation between the Defiant and Tyler Burrows, and she thought that he really did sound like the many myths that were circulating around about Tyler. She hoped that meant that he would be able to finish off the investigation started by the two seriously ill government agents on board the Constellation. Alice had spent most of today by their side within the small clinic, although it was mainly by the side of Paul Divine.

Tyler now contacted the colonists on the planet below his ship.

"New Earth, come in please, we are in orbit above your planet in response to your distress call, we have already destroyed the space pirate`s starship, will you let us know where their land forces are so that we can rid you of them as well."

"Orion Defender, we heard your conversation with the Defiant, thank you for coming so promptly. The pirates are in full retreat, I think they also heard your conversation, but where they think they are going I do not know. At the moment they are some two miles north of our town and heading towards the forest, which is another mile further on, they might be hoping to evade your forces I suppose, once they get inside of it."

Caroline was back sitting before the monitor that was linked up to the telescope, and she had quickly found the pirates as they rushed away from the small colonist town and toward whatever salvation they thought they may be able to find within the forest.

"There they are Tyler, in full retreat." Caroline said jubilantly.

"Well we cannot let them hide inside of the forest, or it will cost too many of our warriors lives trying to winkle them out. Richard send a couple of shots down just in front of them to show them that the game is up, Colin get them on the radio and tell them to surrender or our next shots will be amongst them."

Caroline liked listening to Tyler, to some of the terms that he used, like winkle, she knew what he meant, but they were often terms that had not been used for something like five hundred years, for her they somehow added to Tyler`s charm.

A powerful bolt of pure energy flew down from the Defender followed by a second, both bolts whistling through the planet`s atmosphere and exploding loudly just feet from the leading pirates who threw themselves to the ground in case more bolts of energy followed these two shots. Stones kicked up by the violent explosions flew up, cut their faces and clothes. Dirt also thrown up covered them, and got into their eyes, but then they were lucky that this was all they had to suffer. The only thing that followed was Colin telling them to surrender immediately, something which they did immediately, for as the New Earth colonist had said, without a starship there really was no place for them to run.

Tyler dropped Appolon and Tryon off together with his six warriors plus Colin Ryan, who had come along for the ride, about half a mile from the pirates. Appolon was a six feet high native chieftain of Orion, and Tryon his friend, was only a little shorter. Both had blond hair and blue eyes and good looks. Tyler now took off again and hovered above the pirates` heads. Appolon had taken one of their short-wave radios with him so that he could keep in touch with his friend during this part of the operation. Colin Freeman, following Tyler`s request, ordered the space pirates to lay all their weapons in a heap on the ground and await his ground forces. Colin Freeman then warned them that should they so much as cough, then Captain Tyler Burrows would order his weapons officer to open fire with his ship`s plasma weapon and forget about taking them alive. On hearing who it was who was in command of the odd-looking ship above their heads, the space pirates decided en masse to do as they were told, such was the power of his name, which was due in no small part to Tom Parkinson`s propaganda program. Appolon arrived on the scene to find twenty forlorn and dejected space pirates sitting on the ground, and after a quick search of each of them to ensure that they were not hiding any further weapons, he marched them quietly back towards the small township.

It was just about now that the Defiant turned up, and so Tyler contacted Appolon on his radio and informed him that the Defiant`s security team was taking over from them. The Defender would pick him and his warriors up and then fly over to the small township to see if they could offer any further help.

The people of New Earth were delighted to meet their benefactors, and most of the colonists who could get to the Orion Defender, did so, they all wanted to meet the man behind so many myths. Tyler and Caroline came out of their ship to meet a throng of people who surged forward cheering and thanking him personally. Tyler quickly informed them that he had been but a minor member of the team that had destroyed the space pirate vessel and captured the landing party. The ship`s crew were the people mainly responsible for converting this small cargo vessel into a space cruiser; they were the ones who should be thanked. Paul Johnson who had just exited the craft soon squashed this idea.

"Don`t believe him folks, Tyler here is the reason you are safe now, without his driving force nothing would have been done."

"Thank you, Paul." Tyler said feeling a little embarrassed by his friend`s praise.

Then the entire crew of the Defender were taken to a party that had been swiftly set up by the colonists. Tyler remembering the distress call that had preceded the arrival of the Defiant, warned his bridge and engineering crew to stay sober in case they were needed. Tyler was joking though, as the chances of getting drunk on a new world colony planet were pretty slim, the wine and beer that would be available on the likes of Persephone and New Earth was very weak, although on a planet with a native population such as Orion, it is quite easy to find a stronger substitute. However, Tyler never got drunk now; he did not feel the need to in his new life with Caroline.

Two hours`s into the party a small shuttle craft landed near to the Orion Defender and deposited Alice Tarraway and the First Officer of the Defiant. It did not take them long to find their way to Tyler, who was talking to the Mayor of New Earth about ways in which the two planets could co-operate.

As soon as Caroline saw the newcomers heading straight over to talk with Tyler, she excused herself from the two New Earth colonists with whom she was talking with, and made her way over to Tyler, Appolon had also seen the new arrivals and had walked over to join the growing group around Tyler.

"I am glad to finally meet you Mr Burrows, for I believe that you are my last hope in sorting out the crisis aboard the Constellation." Alice said on being introduced to Tyler.

She then went on to relate to the group about her all that had happened on the Constellation, of Charles Bragg`s request that Tyler be asked to help, and of the death of some of Tyler`s friends on Earth.

My God thought Tyler, it is like the curse of King Tut, now Brian and Tracy Goddard were the only scientists still left alive from the Time experiments. Tyler decided to help Alice Tarraway to find those responsible for the crimes. However, how was he to do it?

"I am not a detective Miss Tarraway, surely it would be better to wait for one to be sent from Earth?"

"No, that would be impossible; you are the best hope that we have in solving the crisis." Alice said. "Let me explain, if we waited for another agent to come from Earth then the possibility of another murder happening on board the Constellation during this time would be greatly enhanced. If we do have two spies on board the ship, they must be prevented from escaping with the stolen technology before the new agent arrives and investigates the murder, and the attack on the two agents."

The first officer from the Defiant then joined in the discussion. "My captain has just received a message from Earth, it seems that President Michaels heard of your victory over the space pirate, and also about Orion possessing a warship, and I have been asked to outline the main points to you.

One, if you agree to help in this matter then you would be given the rank of special agent for the Interstellar Investigation Bureau.

Two, the Orion Defender would be incorporated into the space fleet of Earth, with you put in command of this quadrant of space; this means that Orion can keep its space cruiser, but that you would be responsible for the safety of this sector of space. That is to say, it would be up to you to defend it, which is more than Earth can do now.

Three, if you require a second crew for the ship, then it could be provided from amongst the veteran space corps crewmen, those who are nearing retirement and fancy moving to a quiet planet to finish off their time crewing your space cruiser, they would finally retire to live on Orion. They could be housed in the old marine barracks, if Orion would refurbish them.

Four, as Commander of this quadrant you would receive all the necessary intelligence reports; this should help secure your planet`s safety as well as the planets near Orion.

Five, you would also receive a salary each year commensurate with your rank, that you could take in credits or goods."

The young officer summed up this list of offers from President Michaels by adding his own thoughts on the matter.

"They all add up to quite a nice package Sir, our President must not only want the stolen items back rather badly, but he must also believe that the space fleet of Earth is too stretched at the moment to be able to defend this quadrant of space adequately, which it is."

Tyler looked at the young officer before him and smiled. "And with that package the president can say that he has ensured the safety of the sector in space, and without having to do anything in reality. A win win situation for him." The officer agreed, but could not say so, so he just smiled at Tyler.

Appolon smiled grimly, for he could see how Tyler could lose out, should things go wrong, while the president cast all the blame onto him. However, he decided to speed the present problem set before them along, and worry about the future when it arrived.

"Tyler, you have only been on Orion for three years but already you are its Mayor, now you are also a Special Investigator and even an Area Commander in the space fleet, soon we will have to make an appointment just to talk to you. Tyler, you must put this young woman out of her misery and tell her whether or not you going to help her, or must I get your boss here to order you to?" Appolon said looking across to Caroline. Tyler turned to Appolon and smiled.

"I feel as if I have won the lottery Appolon, I have been offered so much." Appolon simply smiled questioningly for he had no idea what a lottery was, but he got the gist of it.

Caroline looked at Alice Tarraway, at her beautiful red hair and her lovely green eyes before she spoke to her husband.

"Tyler, if you do decide to help out, then I am coming as well, you will need me to watch your back." Caroline knew that she could trust Tyler, but she was not sure that she could trust this beautiful woman from Earth. Appolon then added himself to the party.

"Either we go as a team or no one goes Tyler." Appolon declared to his friend.

"Appolon, as if I would have it any other way." Tyler replied to his friend and his wife.

"You are sure Mr Burrows that you want your wife to join you on board the Constellation, one person is dead already and two more are still unconscious following a murderous attack on them, it could be very dangerous for you, and especially your wife, or indeed anyone else who is helping you?" Alice Tarraway asked, not wanting yet another innocent person`s death on her ship.

"What do you think that Caroline is going along for, she is his body guard, and I am only going to make up the team?" Appolon said before Tyler could respond. Alice looked from one to another, not knowing whether Appolon was serious or joking.

"Don`t worry Miss Tarraway, I am well used to looking after myself, it is Tyler who is the one amongst us that needs looking after, else he is likely to endanger his life saving others without taking a moment to think about the risk to his own life." Caroline said and the smiled to herself as she remembered the times when Tyler had actually saved her life.

Alice did not know what to think, or how to answer, and the Defiant officer had looked just as baffled earlier on, but he thought that he could now read between the lines, and so he spoke next.

"When will you be ready to come aboard the Constellation, Commander?" The First Officer said, giving Tyler, his new rank. Tyler took a moment to realise that the officer was speaking to him and then replied.

"Oh, we will be ready as soon as I have given the Defender`s crew their orders, but before I even consider doing that, I think that we should first discuss the problems aboard the Constellation further. I want you and Miss Tarraway to come aboard the Defender with myself, Appolon, Caroline and my bridge officers, to talk over the situation." Tyler was taking charge.

**********

Up on the Constellation the colonists were all busy talking about the attack on the planet New Earth by the space pirates, and of their destruction by a space cruiser from the planet Orion commanded by non-other than Tyler Burrows. The arrival of the Defiant off their port side brought further excitement, with many varied and fanciful explanations, all of them way off the mark.

The Johor`s were now quietly discussing what options they had if the Defiant stayed with them all the way to Persephone. They knew that they would probably be abandoned by the Aldebran space cruiser, who would see that its continued presence would only bring trouble down on the planet of Aldebra.

"Mariah, all that we can do is play dumb about the stolen technology and repeat that we are geologists on the way to Persephone to do a job, they have no evidence to the contrary, for if they did have any, they would have already presented us with it." Rigor said.

"I fear that you are right Rigor, but I would like to know how they found out that the stolen technology was being transported aboard the Constellation."

"Tirana must have made a mistake somewhere along the line." Rigor suggested.

"Yes, I think that must be the answer, it is why I prefer for us to work alone, and without the help of others." Mariah said.

**********

Out in deep space, aboard the Aldebran space cruiser, the captain was watching developments steadily worsening by the hour and with a sinking heart. He could not believe it when the Defiant suddenly drew up alongside the Constellation, which had suddenly gone into orbit about a small Earth colony planet following a planetary distress message from the planet. Things were not going along as planned, and he could only hope that something drew the space cruiser away from the colony ship before they all reached Persephone, because he would not dare to go up against an Earth cruiser and so start a war that neither he, nor Aldebra, could not possibly win.

Chapter Six

On the Starship Constellation

The Evening of January 15th

The evening found Tyler sat on the bridge of the Defender with Caroline on his left and Appolon on his right, and with the others completing a rough circle. They were gathered there to try to come up with a plan of action for them to take on board the Constellation.

"First of all, Miss Tarraway, please tell us how Charles Bragg and his colleague are getting on." Tyler asked.

"They are both still unconscious, but at least they are not dead, and that is due to Paul Divine, he is the other agent, he woke up and called for help while trying to drag Charles to safety. Oh, and by the way please call me Alice."

"And I am David Reynolds." The first officer of the Defiant said introducing himself to everyone. He was twenty-eight years of age; and was very good looking with brown eyes and matching wavy hair; he stood six feet tall.

"David, Alice, let me introduce the others here about you. You know Caroline and her brother Appolon. Next to him is Tryon, then Richard Smith, Colin Freeman, Paul Johnson and last of all Colin Ryan. Before you ask Colin, Alice I have decided that Colin Ryan here and Paul Johnson will also be coming aboard the Constellation with us, which is if the captain of the Defiant can spare you David to pilot the Defender, do you think that he will agree to that David?" Tyler asked looking toward the young officer.

"I am sure that he will agree Commander, he can hardly refuse the first request that our new Commander in this sector of space asks of him." David was also secretly delighted to get the chance to pilot this strange hybrid ship.

Tyler looked across at Colin Freeman.

"Colin, I haven`t left it up to you to pilot the Orion Defender as we might need you to operate the many other devices on the Defender, should the Aldebran ship decide to do something silly."

"That`s fine Tyler, I`m feeling a little tired anyway and could do with a rest." Colin replied flippantly.

"There is a second request David, and that is can we drop in on Orion to allow our warriors to get back to their work that must be starting to pile up by now, for our crew is very much a part time one."

"I will ask my Captain, but I am sure that he will agree to that, it will only add half a day to our journey."

"Tyler, I am no use aboard the Defender but can help watch your backs on the Constellation." Tryon said. Tyler smiled across at him.

"Tryon, I wondered when you would ask to join us. You are more than welcome, although it might be a little cramped up there with so many new guests." Tyler remarked before turning to Alice Tarraway.

"Alice, maybe you can fill in everyone here as to what has been happening aboard the Constellation?"

Alice then went through all that occurred on the Constellation. Then she repeated what Tom Parkinson had told her, of the happenings on Earth.

"That brings you all up to date, you now know as much as I do." Alice said looking across at Tyler with a smile that said sorry for dropping all this on you.

"Thank you, Alice. Well from what you say, there appears to be no doubt that our two Aldebran spies are indeed aboard the Constellation. They must now know that there is no hope of their just slipping away quietly with their loot, and if the Claytons are indeed the spies, then unless they are imbeciles, they must realise that their true identity is possibly suspected by you at least Alice. With our arrival, your life is at least safe, for they will know that you will have told us everything that you know. You did realise Alice that you must have been next on their hit list, and as they are thought to have killed up to ten people so far, they would have no problems with their consciences if they had to add your death to that number."

Alice looked across at Tyler; she was shocked by what he had just said, for it had never occurred to her that she could ever be on the hit list of a murderer.

"Before we attempt to try to decide on our plan of campaign Alice, can you tell me what results your doctor obtained from his autopsy of the body of Mrs Peterson?"

"An autopsy Tyler, surely...?" Alice Tarraway said looking quizzically at Tyler. "Oh of course, you are new to this century aren`t you. Tyler, it is against the law to perform an autopsy without the permission of the nearest relative and the local bishop, and as they have both refused to give it, the doctor could not perform one by law."

Tyler groaned. "I should have guessed, it was getting rather silly in the twenty first century and it doesn`t appear to have got any better here in the future. Okay then another question. Do you have CCTV on board your ship which could give us a lead?" Tyler said not thinking that as a fully paid up member of the church Alice may well not agree with his earlier sentiments, but if she did disagree, she kept he thoughts a secret.

"Sorry Tyler, but CCTV is also not allowed on any property owned by the Church." Alice said with a shake of her head and an 'I am sorry' smile upon her face.

"Great you ask for my help and then tell me that my hands must be tied." Tyler said with a grin spread right across his face to show that he was joking. As Caroline, Appolon and Tryon did not know what CCTV was, Tyler took a moment and explained it to them before continuing.

"Okay, did the two agents ever think about arresting the Claytons on suspicion that they were guilty of numerous murders?" Tyler now asked.

"Tyler, they could not have done that, they never found any proof what so ever that the Claytons are imposters, the only proof we have got from Earth so far only proves that they are indeed the Claytons. It is only a gut feeling that Special Agent Formby on Earth and Paul Divine on the ship had, they never found any proof against them, and a feeling is not enough to arrest anyone on." Alice said rather forcefully.

This got grins all round as Alice shot down another of Tyler`s thoughts.

"Sorry Alice, I would like to assure you though that I too, am a firm believer in the need to provide proof that a person is guilty before the law is permitted to arrest someone, otherwise we would end up with the governing bodies only needing a pretext to rid themselves of anybody who was opposed to them. I just wanted to make clear in my mind as to where the two agents had got in their investigation." Tyler said to Alice and to all the others assembled on the bridge.

"Okay then Alice, can you tell us why the two agents never get around to questioning the Claytons directly about their suspicions?"

"They were not given the chance to, Mrs Peterson died moments before they were to question her and then they too were attacked." Alice said.

"Then we now appear to be up to date and so now we can move on to proposing a plan of action. I think that the first thing that I want to do after boarding the Constellation, Alice, is to have a look at the crime scene, and then later I want to speak to Mr Peterson. Tomorrow morning, I think that we should have a re-enactment of Mrs Peterson`s final morning, to see if it might help trigger someone`s memories that might be of help to us. Following on from the re-enactment, we will have to question the Claytons, whatever the results that we get from the re-enactment. Paul, I will want you to ask them a couple of innocent questions about Mars, to find out if they have ever set foot upon the planet. Alice, I may want to have one of the miners to have another innocent conversation with them about their supposed profession as geologists, maybe you can suggest someone?"

"Yes of course Tyler, I think that Joe Hardin is your man. He can be awkward, but he studied geology before becoming a miner."

"Then the only other thing that we require before we go aboard the shuttle, Alice, is a rough sketch of the deck level where the Claytons and the Petersons are quartered."

Alice soon roughed up a sketch showing the sleeping quarters taking up most of the space, and at the left-hand end, there was the galley and an elevator while on the right-hand end there were the showers and the toilet area. There was also a flight of stairs just in front of them.

"Here, is this any good Tyler?" Alice said handing the sketch to Tyler.

"Yes, this will do nicely for now Alice, I will look the deck over as soon as possible after we arrive anyway, to ensure the safety of the ship and its people, but this gives us some idea as to what we will find there."

Tyler looked around at everyone and smiled at everyone.

"Okay everyone, for the next few days, until we reach Persephone, or until we find a little more proof as to who are the guilty ones, we few will have to keep a watch on all the decks, but with a special watch on the upper-level deck where the Claytons are berthed. I hope that we can stop any further acts of murder or possibly even acts of sabotage from our two spies, if they are indeed on board the Constellation. Somewhere on board the starship there is proof to be found that will lead us to the guilty parties, have no fear of that. The perpetrators, by committing these crimes, will have left something behind, and all we have to do is find it."

Tyler then turned to David Reynolds who was listening in to the discussion.

"David, the six of us will need to gather a change of clothing and a wash bag, but then we will be ready to go aboard your shuttle so that it can take us up to the Constellation while you prepare the Defender for departure. Richard and Colin will help where necessary, but for the most part it is just a regular cargo vessel."

Ten minutes later, as they were about to board the shuttlecraft, Tyler turned to David Reynolds and asked him to do one more thing for him.

"When you get aboard the Defender, will you send a message to Special Agent Formby on Earth? Ask him these three things.

One, has he checked the Earth space port CCTV, if there is one, for signs of Tirana or of the Claytons that we have here on board the Constellation, rather than the genuine ones, this being the probable place that any possible switch would have taken place. That assumes that our Claytons are imposters.

Two, has he asked the Mars spaceport authorities to check their CCTV, again if they have it, for signs of our Claytons, again rather than the genuine ones.

Three, has he checked his computers on Earth for signs of our Claytons, their modus operandi, maybe in relation to similar acts of espionage that occurred in the past?

Also, please apologise to him if he has already done all of these things, as we are simply clutching at straws up here, not being real detectives."

They boarded the shuttle through the now open airlock and were soon well on their way, and through the shuttles view ports the huge bulk of the Constellation drew nearer and nearer, and to Tyler it resembled a gigantic space ark, but one taking a slightly different cargo from its namesake. Nearby, the Orion Defender looked to be no more than an insect, and even the space cruiser Defiant looked tiny beside it. It was not long before the shuttle pulled up alongside an airlock in the side of the enormous white craft and finally attached itself to the starship. The six Orionists and Alice Tarraway could now board the Constellation through the airlock of the shuttle craft, from which they had to travel three feet along an extended tube that moved out from the side of the huge craft to meet up with the smaller ship, whereupon it created a magnetic seal against the shuttle`s side.

**********

Back on Earth, Formby nearly resigned from the force when he got the message from Tyler. He and his team had been so busy trying to find signs to prove that the genuine Claytons were not on board the Constellation that they had all completely missed these three valuable points.

"Jones, I want you and Morrison to deal with the first of Tyler Burrows` points, let`s see if there is anything on the space ports CCTV recordings that might throw a little more light on the matter. Crosby you can contact Mars and similarly ask their assistance in this matter, and afterwards the three of you can assist me on the third point raised by Tyler Burrows. Everyone, I don`t want it getting out that we needed help from Tyler Burrows to do what we should have already done, and I especially don`t want it getting to the ears of the President."

**********

"Tyler, I know it might be a little late to raise the matter, but I thought that I should remind you that it is the President of Earth who is asking for your help. The same President who has no reason to like you, I think that you should be very careful in this matter, not to let him be in a position to put any blame that might come from this investigation squarely upon your shoulders." Appolon warned his friend.

"Appolon, I appreciate your thoughts on the matter, but a crime has been committed here, and should we walk away from it then this would also look bad for us, and anyway, I want to find the people who murdered some of my friends and almost killed another of them." This last reason was the most important one behind Tyler agreeing to help President Michaels. He now turned to Paul Johnson.

"All right Paul, you and I will have a quick look at the crime scene first. I would appreciate your thoughts on the crack in the panelling that allowed the toxic gas to seep into the area where the two agents were sleeping, and if you would look at the damaged section of pipe that Alice tells us, she has put next to the crack in the wall. Now Alice, I will need your help to show us around and to introduce us to everyone. The rest of you can get to know the ship, and Appolon, Caroline if you two would keep a clandestine eye on the Claytons, they should be on the upper level deck, but you all have the photographs of them that Alice kindly supplied, so you should be able to locate them. I will speak to you all later and not a word to anyone about tomorrow`s plans regarding the re-enactment."

Their arrival had not gone unnoticed, although who these oddly dressed new comers were, and what they were doing on board the Constellation nobody knew. Tyler and his friends were dressed in the fashion of native warriors of Orion, A buckskin jacket over cotton trousers and shirt, it was only the two colonists amongst them, Paul Johnson and Colin Ryan, who were dressed in clothes of a similar material to those on board the Constellation. As Alice passed by one bold individual, he up and asked Alice what was going on, to which Alice replied that Tyler Burrows had come aboard the Constellation to look into recent events, and that the ship would once again be moving off to Persephone in just a few minutes time.

The news that the now famous Tyler Burrows had come onto the Constellation to find the person behind the mysterious attacks soon reached the Claytons, but not before Caroline and Appolon had reached the upper-level deck. Once there, they began to talk to the colonists about the attack by the Defender upon the pirate vessel and the follow up attack upon the ground forces that ended the battle.

The two Orionists added to the many myths about Tyler while keeping an eye on the Claytons, who were also listening to the tales with sinking hearts. Appolon could read them like a book, and it would not have surprised him had they surrendered themselves there and then, so bleak were their faces. Caroline could see that Colin Ryan was talking to the doctor in front of the small clinic where his friend Charles Bragg was so very ill.

Tryon had been strolling up on the upper deck but was soon stopped by the colonists up there who also demanded that he tell them the tale of their recent adventure, and what Tyler Burrows was like, and how soon would everything be cleared up. Tryon told all who would listen to him of the legend that Tyler fulfilled when he came to Orion, of Tyler`s arrival and his subsequent successes against all of their enemies, and of course of the battle against the space pirates. As to when Tyler would sort out the current problem, Tryon could only reassure them that it would be sooner rather than later. Tryon was never happier than when he was talking of the deeds of his friends, Tyler and Appolon, but he never once forgot why they were all there.

Tyler, Paul and Alice were looking at the small broom cupboard where the murderous attempt had been made on the lives of the two agents.

"The doctor had the bed sheet put up to keep people out of the crime scene Tyler, a couple of the colonists have been keeping a watch on it, night and day, to ensure that no one so much as breathes near it, so this area is just how it was yesterday morning."

"Good, then let`s go in and see what we can find. Paul, that seems to be the crack over in that corner, along with the damaged length of pipe, check them out and see what they can tell you about themselves. These plastic cups here Alice, were our two agents messy or could it be the delivery system?" Tyler enquired.

"Delivery system, what do you mean?" Alice asked, just a little baffled by the question.

"Well if your doctor is right about the toxic gas not being responsible for the two agents' condition, then what was responsible had to be delivered to this small confined area somehow, and these cups could be the delivery vehicle." Tyler explained.

"I don`t know Tyler, I don`t think they were untidy, I know that some men can be a little messy, but I would not expect Charles or Paul could ever fall into that category, especially Charles, who as you know was a Colonel in the marines, and so hardly the type to leave three empty cups on the floor." Alice replied to his question.

"Okay Alice, then we will have to assume that as there is no sign of coffee in any of the three cups, that they carried something a lot deadlier. There is one way that may tell us a lot about them, and if we visit the clinic, I suspect the good doctor will have just what we need to reveal it. First though we need a pair of surgical gloves so that we do not leave any of our own finger prints on the cups, could you ask someone to bring us two pair down from the ship`s clinic Alice?"

"Yes of course I can, Simon is there by his cubicle I will ask him." Alice asked a very interested Simon Holmes, who was very glad to assist them and one minute later he appeared with two pair of surgical gloves.

"Alice please put a pair of the gloves on and I put the other pair on." As soon as they both had the gloves on Tyler continued with his instructions. "Now will you pick two of the plastic cups by their rims while I will pick up the other cup but be careful not to touch the rest of the cup or you might smudge any finger prints that may be present?" Nearby Tyler saw the two suitcases that belonged to the agents.

"We had better take these up to the clinic as well, to keep them safe, Paul Divine or Charles Bragg may have kept records about their investigation, and they might be of some help to us." Tyler said thoughtfully.

"Simon, would you mind bringing these up to the clinic?" Tyler asked indicating the two suitcases.

"Of course, Tyler, I will gladly help out." The young man replied.

Simon Holmes picked up the two suitcases and with that Tyler, Alice and Simon, left Paul Johnson to his crack and they walked up to the upper-level deck and the clinic, and on the way, he collected another two identical plastic cups to help him with his test.

They arrived at the clinic to find Doctor Schwartz at the door talking to one of the colonists.

"Good morning Doctor." Alice said. "This is Tyler Burrows and he would like your help on something."

"Good morning Alice." Schwartz said and then turning to Tyler. "And how may I help you Mr Burrows." Schwartz was a little surprised on meeting the now almost mythical Tyler Burrows, for he had half expected him to resemble the Norse god Thor at least, instead he found himself helping an all too mortal man.

"First, can Simon leave these two cases with you for the moment, until I can find a secure storeroom?"

"Simon just put the cases over by the cabinets for the moment." Schwartz said. Simon put them down, and then realising that he would be in the way if he hung around, said goodbye and returned to his cubicle.

"My name is Tyler, Mr Burrows makes me sound old, and I am here to ask for your help in first finding out if these plastic cups have any finger prints on them."

"And how do we do that Tyler, I`m a doctor of medicine not of forensics?" Schwartz asked, puzzled that the famous Tyler Burrows could have made such a mistake.

"It is hopefully quite simple Doctor, for I saw it done on a television series back in the twenty first century. First of all, do you have any super glue?"

"First of all, if I am to call you Tyler then you had better call me Chris. Secondly, yes I do have some super glue; we still use it occasionally in place of stitches."

"Good, we will also need the following; a box or a glass tank with a lid on, a small heat source, some tin foil, the sort that is used in the kitchen and lastly some cling film also from the kitchen. Can you help us with all of that as well Chris?" Tyler asked.

Within five minutes, all these items were sitting upon the worktop of the clinic. The glass tank was one that the doctor`s son normally used for his pet gold fish, but they had died just days before the Constellation departed and so Schwartz and his wife had promised their son to get him some new native fish as soon as they arrived on Persephone. The rest of the equipment came from the small kitchen that catered for the colonists who were berthed on this deck.

"Alice if you will deliberately put your prints on the two extra cups that I collected, they can be our test models to ensure my experiment works, oh and fill one of them with water." Tyler now began his experiment.

"Right we put the plastic cup of water in one corner of the glass tank along with the second cup with Alice`s fingerprints on it. The small heater goes in the corner diagonally opposite the cup, we put a bowl made out of the tin foil on top of the heat source, the three plastic cups from the crime scene can go in the other two corners, and finally we turn the heater on. We then put a small amount of super glue into the tin foil bowl, close the lid and seal it with the cling film that you also kindly provided Chris, and then we wait ten minutes for it to work."

The Doctor decided to check on his patients instead of watching the experiment, and Tyler and Alice decided to join him. Unfortunately, the two patients were still unconscious.

"Well the medical scanners tell us that both of them are improving gradually, maybe soon we will see them begin to recover." Schwartz said.

"Let`s hope that you are right Chris, and then we will only have to worry about the Aldebrans." Alice said.

Ten minutes soon hurried by and so they returned to the experiment. There, on the two plastic cups that Alice had touched with her fingers were two sets of white finger prints, Alice`s fingerprints of course, as she was the only one to handle them without gloves on. On the three plastic cups that they had taken from the crime scene, there were not any traces at all and certainly, none of Alice`s or Tyler`s for they had both worn gloves when they had carefully handled the cups.

"It failed Tyler; there are no finger prints on the cups that we took from the crime scene." Alice said disappointedly.

"Alice you are wrong, for if you look upon the two cups that you touched with your fingers, you can plainly see your finger prints, but whoever placed the cups in the crime scene must have had gloves on, so that no trace of their fingerprints was left behind to incriminate them. This indicates that it wasn`t the toxic gas that knocked them both out, but maybe something that was in the plastic cups, which were put into the small enclosed space where the two agents were sleeping, in order to kill them." Tyler explained to Alice.

"Yes of course Tyler, for if the cups had been used by either of Charles or Paul, then we would have seen their finger prints on at least one of the cups, they have made a mistake haven`t they, our murderers I mean." Alice said excitedly.

"Yes, Alice, a minor one, but without Tyler here they would never have been found out." An interested Doctor Schwartz said.

"If we are handing out Kudos then we can all take a portion, for without you keeping the crime scene preserved intact, and Alice of course ensuring that it was kept under guard at all times, then I couldn`t have put on my little show. Tyler said. "Chris as you can see these plastic cups are empty, no sign of coffee or tea or toxic chemicals, is there any way that you could test them to see if there is any residue left behind?" Tyler asked.

"If you leave one of them with me, I will try, but as I said before, this is a small clinic not a forensic laboratory, it may have all evaporated away in any case, if indeed it was the substance that struck Charles and Paul down." Doctor Schwartz replied.

"Well please see what you can do Chris, if you cannot find any trace of whatever was in the cup, I will ask Brian Goddard on Orion to try." Tyler said and then he changed the subject completely. "Right then it must be time for dinner, for I am starved." Tyler said.

Alice however had a further question to put to Tyler. "Are you sure that you don`t want me to let everyone know about the re-enactment that you have planned for the morning?" Alice asked.

"While it might help the colonists to go over the morning's events, I don`t want to forewarn our suspects in case they try to pre-empt it and do something drastic. I would rather they think that we are no further forward with our investigation, and that they also believe that we have no thoughts at all about how to proceed."

"Tyler, we have progressed a little though, haven`t we, for you have now found clues that lead us to believe that murder was indeed attempted, and also we do know how to proceed up to a point." Alice said.

Paul Johnson chose this minute to appear at the door of the clinic. "Tyler, I have inspected both the crack and the hole in the section of pipe, and have come to the conclusion that they are both man-made, that is to say they were deliberately made by a small laser. The edges are both too perfect for it to be anything else."

"We now have a little extra to add to our pool of knowledge, maybe tomorrow we will be able to add just a bit little more. It also tells us something else; Paul Devine and Charles Bragg must have spooked our murderer, for why else would they have taken such a drastic action as to attempt to kill the two men. It makes the Claytons look all the more likely as our prime suspects, for our two agents were quite satisfied that the other suspects were innocent. But enough talk about our investigation, as I said before I am starved."

"Tyler you are always starved." Caroline said. She had just joined them, to which they all laughed. Alice thought back to the last piece of laughter she had joined in with, it was with Paul Divine, it seemed to be so long ago.

"First though Alice, is there anywhere secure that you can store both the plastic cups and the piece of pipe? And the cups had better be put into a bag or a box to ensure their lack of fingerprints doesn`t change due to some curious person touching them." Tyler asked.

"I will ask the captain of the Constellation to store them away in his safe; they will be secure there." Alice said first putting on her pair of the surgical gloves that the doctor had provided, and then carefully picking up the items, she put them all into a plastic bag, which she sealed and headed away to the bridge of the ship.

The evening went by quickly, with many tales of the adventures that the Orionists had all taken part in, and the Rigors never even noticed that someone was always watching them closely. However, as the night drew on, they all went to their beds, one by one until Tyler was able to depart with Caroline and Alice, to end up at Alice`s office, leaving Tryon to keep watch on the Claytons.

"Alice, will you please send a message to Brian Goddard on the planet of Orion, I want to know if he can manufacture a simple device that will pick up the energy signal of Crystillium, and if he can, that we will pick it up when we arrive there?" Tyler asked.

"Of course, Tyler, I will do it now." Two minutes later the message was sent.

"Alice, I want the three of us to go to the ship`s hold. As you know it seems more than obvious that our alien spies have hidden the device that we seek down in amongst the goods in the hold, they may have even put it there under someone else`s name, will you act us our guide?"

"Tyler, the hold is massive; they could have hidden it anywhere amongst the masses of goods that are down in the hold."

"Yes, I understand that, but whatever problems will affect our finding it, will also have impeded them, if they only hid it after the arrival of the two agents, and anyway for the moment I really just want to see the problem, so that if Brian Goddard can come up with something, I will know what I am up against." Tyler replied.

"Okay then, let`s go down into the hold and see what we can find." Alice said.

When they got to the hold, the door into it was locked.

"Has this door always been locked Alice?" Tyler asked.

"No, only since the attack on Paul and Charles, now it is locked and alarmed, so that if anyone forces an entry into it without notifying the bridge first, they will bring the crew of the ship down on them."

"How soon after the attack was it locked up Alice?"

"Oh, maybe six hours Tyler, it didn`t occur to anyone to lock up everywhere that the colonists didn`t need to go until after the event, and even then, it wasn`t locked until later in the morning." Alice replied.

"Then tomorrow we can also ask the colonists with a view of your office and this staircase if they saw anybody on the staircase some time during the voyage. Right, Alice, if we can have a quick peek into Aladdin`s cave for now."

Alice called the bridge of the Constellation and the doorway before them opened to reveal Aladdin`s cave, a massive room double the height of the decks above and full with the goods needed to colonise a planet. There was no corridor in between the myriad of items for the goods were stored so as to be able to remove them via the massive doors that were set on the outer wall of the ship, this entrance was just there in case access was needed while the ship was in flight. There was though a way to clamber over the wall of goods, and Tyler pulled himself up to a manmade ledge to see if it would have been possible for anyone else to do so. There before his eyes was a fresh greasy footprint. Tyler called down to the others.

"Look about the floor, are there any patches of grease down there?"

Caroline soon found it. "Yes Tyler, here it is, quite a large bit."

"I think that it must have been spilt there shortly after we left Earth, Tyler, because it wasn`t there prior to that, because I was down here myself on that morning exploring my new home for the seven days of the trip, and it was certainly not there then." Alice said.

"Then we have an idle crewman on board, but for once he may well have been of some help to us Alice. I will need a camera to take a photograph of an oily footprint that is on the boxes up here, do you have one Alice?"

It took Alice only a minute to run back to her office and return with her own camera. While she was away, Tyler looked across the hold, full to the brim with goods, yes, he needed the help of Brian Goddard, and there was no point in continuing to search tonight.

"Here you are Tyler, this is my camera, and all you have to do is press the silver button on the back of it to take a picture." Alice said turning the camera part of the electronic tablet on before handing it up to Tyler.

Tyler took a number of pictures of the footprint before handing the tablet back to Alice and dropping back down onto the floor beside the others.

"It really is an Aladdin`s cave Alice." Tyler then had to explain to the Caroline who Aladdin was.

"It is now time to see Mr Peterson." Tyler said. George Peterson was resting in his cubicle when Tyler, Caroline and Alice found him.

"George, I am sorry to bother you but I must. This is Tyler Burrows and his wife Caroline, Tyler needs to speak to you about yesterday morning." Alice explained.

"Of course, Alice, I am fine now, hello Mr Burrows, what do you want to know?" Peterson asked. Alice thought that he seemed visibly better than yesterday.

"If you can just go through yesterday morning Mr Peterson, from the time you woke up."

"I think that I can manage that, let me think for a moment, a lot of yesterday got scrambled up in my brain."

"I can quite understand that Mr Peterson." Tyler replied sympathetically.

"I woke first and then Rosalyn, Rosalyn decided to have a shower and walked across to the showers about eight thirty, she got back about nine fifteen and dressed and then we both had breakfast in the galley at about a quarter to ten. After that we both returned here and the two agents turned up and then my poor dear wife died." Peterson broke down now and Alice moved over to him and comforted him until he felt able to continue.

"I am sorry Mr Burrows, is there anything else?" Peterson asked.

"Don`t apologise for being human Mr Peterson, and I am sorry to press you, but did nothing else happen?" Tyler pressed.

"Rosalyn complained about being bitten by a mosquito on her leg while she was in the shower, but nothing else, it started out as just another dull day, and how I wish it could have remained so." Peterson replied.

"I think that will have to be enough for now Tyler, George had better rest now." Alice said.

"Yes, of course, and I am sorry for your loss and for making you go through it again." Tyler said but Peterson did not hear, he just lay down on his bed and looked up into space.

"Poor guy, I know how I would feel if I lost you Caroline." Tyler said.

"Don`t worry Tyler; I will always be at your side, but what now, where do we go from here?"

"We are going to the clinic to talk to the doctor." Tyler replied mysteriously. Caroline looked across at her husband quizzically, but all he did was smile at her.

Tyler and Caroline walked along the corridor to the clinic while Alice took the chance to catch up on her own work, which was beginning to pile up. They found Doctor Schwartz tending to his two patients.

"Chris, I need to ask you a question about Rosalyn Peterson." Tyler said on entering the clinic.

"Of course, Tyler, ask away and we shall see if I am allowed to answer it." Schwartz was referring the confidentiality that all patients had with their doctor.

"George Peterson said that his wife was bitten on her leg by a mosquito while in the showers, did you notice the mark left by it?"

"Bitten by a mosquito on the Constellation, well I suppose one might have slipped aboard when all the goods were loaded back on Earth. I didn`t see a mark but that doesn`t mean that I didn`t miss it, let`s look again." Schwartz turned his computer onto the section dealing with the death of Mrs Peterson. Pressing a couple of keys quickly brought up the photographs that had been taken of her legs, and moments later.

"Yes, there it is, one mosquito bite." Doctor Schwartz announced.

"Or one mark left by a needle Chris, with which she was given a lethal injection." Tyler said.

"Well it would explain her death, but there is no proof either way." Schwartz argued "But why would someone want to kill her?" Schwartz asked.

"Why, to stop her from talking Chris. Regarding which of your two explanations is the correct one, unfortunately you are right Chris, either one could be. Without an autopsy and a toxicology, done by a modern forensics laboratory we will have to rely on finding the stolen technology, hopefully our friend Brian Goddard back on Orion will come up with a bit more of his technical wizardry. It is that or hoping that Special Agent Formby turns something up."

"Tyler, are you still going ahead with the re-enactment." Caroline asked.

"Yes, we might as well see where it leads us, and then we can question the Claytons who will lie about their involvement and we will have to let them get away with it, unless Richard can trip them up, or as I say Special Agent Formby can come up with something." Tyler said glumly. The way that civil rights had progressed had made detective work almost impossible in this century. Alice chose this moment to enter the clinic with news.

"Tyler, I have some terrific news from the Defiant, the Aldebran ship has turned away and is returning back towards her home planet, just as you said it would." Alice declared, delighted that at least one worry was no more.

"They have given up already, I felt sure that she would have accompanied us for a little while longer. After we hold our little re-enactment, we must be sure to broadcast that fact over the entire ship so that our two spies get to hear of it, for nothing is more likely to dent their spirits than the knowledge that they have been left to fend for themselves." Tyler said, and then a moment later he asked.

"Alice, what did Rosalyn Peterson look like, I need to know so that we can have someone who resembles her, no matter how superficially, to do the re-enactment for us?"

"I have a picture of her on the computer; if you come down, I can show you." Alice said. Tyler followed Alice and Caroline down to the lower deck and Alice`s office.

"Here you are this is the picture she used for her application to come on the trip to Persephone. She is a bit like you Caroline, same build and colouring." Alice remarked.

"Yes, she is. Caroline would you mind doing the re-enactment for us, you will do nicely as our stand in Mrs Peterson?" Tyler asked.

"No, I don`t mind, I will be your stand in Tyler." Caroline said smiling at her husband.

"Tyler, will I be enacting both the trip to the showers and the galley where Mrs Peterson had her breakfast?" Caroline asked.

"Yes, we had better, for the mosquito might have been just that, a mosquito."

It was early the next morning, about five local time, when they had arrived back at Orion, and the Defender landed first at the village of the red plains to allow the six warriors who made up the landing party to leave the Defender and head for home. Following an earlier request by Tyler, Dave Reynolds next hopped over to the town of New Eden to meet a tired Brian Goddard who was there to greet them, and after congratulating them for stopping the space pirates, he approached Colin Freeman and gave him a small electrical device.

"Colin, please see that Tyler gets this, it is the detection device he requires to help him locate the piece of stolen Crystillium technology, if it is in fact there, tell him the device works in three ways. The needle on the gauge will show the strength of the signal, a small light should also begin to glow when he nears anything emitting an energy signature, the nearer he gets to it the brighter this device will glow. It also hums and the volume of the hum will increase with increased proximity. There are two settings built into the device, number one will react to any energy signature but number two is tuned into the particular energy signature that Crystillium sends out."

"No problem Brian, I will see that he gets it and explain how it works."

Chapter Seven

Re-enactment

The Morning of January 16th

Earlier that night Tyler went through the files of Paul Divine, but he got nothing more out of them that took them any further. Just the belief of Paul Divine that Mrs Clayton was not all that she was supposed to be, and that the other colonists who had come aboard the Constellation after the events at the Chichester Laboratories took place seemed to be genuine colonists. Therefore, Tyler closed up the files in the early hours of the following morning and tried to get some sleep. The six Orionists were sleeping on the hard floor of the crew`s rest area, something that Tyler was certainly not used to doing. A few hours later dawn broke, the internal clocks of Appolon, Tryon and Caroline woke them up as usual without the need for an artificial alarm system. Caroline looked down upon her sleeping husband and felt guilty at having to wake him from his sleep, but Tyler had asked her to as there was much to do that morning.

"Darling it is time for you to get up from your bed, it is already well after dawn." Caroline said quietly, as she gently shook him until his eyes finally opened.

Tyler awoke to find that his body ached from his hard bed, but as the others did not complain how could he do so, but he did silently anyway, but only to himself.

"Good morning darling, how are you this bright morning?" Tyler asked still more asleep than awake.

"I am fine my love, but you must rise for you have much work to do today."

When finally, Tyler did manage to get up, he found that the others had all washed and dressed and were already on their way for a quick breakfast. He had a hurried wash and gulped down a quick breakfast before going down with the others to deck A, to find Alice Tarraway also up and busy. At the moment she was using the public address system, she was informing the colonists that a re-enactment of Rosalyn Peterson`s last morning would begin at eight thirty that morning. If everyone would think back to the same time on the day before yesterday, and try to be in the places where they were then, the re-enactment would soon begin.

Eight thirty came, and Caroline dressed in Rosalyn Peterson`s dressing gown, and carrying her towel and wash things, walked slowly along the corridor to the showers with everyone looking on and talking together as they thought about that fateful morning. On entering the shower area, she then entered one of the cubicles, but was told by one of the women who was already inside the shower area that Mrs Peterson had used the cubicle two spaces down, so Caroline moved down to this one. Caroline would have had to wait for at least thirty minutes to keep to Rosalyn Petersons movements that morning. However, Tyler had already asked Alice to use the public address system again to explain that Caroline would walk back to the Peterson cubicle now, something that Rosalyn Peterson did some thirty to forty five minutes later. A number of people were in the shower area talking over all that they could remember of that morning two days earlier. Once back at the Peterson cubicle, Caroline slipped off the dressing gown and was now ready to begin the next part of the re-enactment, the walk to the galley and breakfast, for she was now dressed in the clothes that Mrs Peterson`s had worn that morning. Mr Peterson felt well enough to accompany Caroline for this part of the re-enactment, and so the two of them walked together towards the galley, after Alice had told everyone what was happening. Thirty minutes later found them back at the Peterson`s cubicle, and Tyler now thanked him for allowing them to use his wife things and telling him that they would now leave him in peace. Something Peterson must have appreciated for he closed the curtains and sat on his large bed to ask god, why?

**********

Back on Earth, Special agent Formby was at last getting some breaks of one kind or another. First, the CCTV, which operated inside of the Earth spaceport, showed two interesting episodes. The first episode showed the Claytons arriving to check in for the flight to Persephone, except they arrived through the entrance doors that took people into the spaceport from outside and not through the inter-flight doors that would have been easier for passengers transferring from the Mars flight. Their luggage had been taken directly from the Mars shuttle to the Constellation check in area, so it was waiting there for them; however, it seemed to take them a while to find the luggage. They had also carried into the check-in area a crate that looked exactly the correct size needed to contain the high-tech stolen equipment, and it matched the one taken by the security camera at the Chichester Laboratories. But why were they carrying such a crate if they were truly the Claytons, surely this item should have been with their other luggage, it did not prove a thing, but it was interesting. The second episode inside the space port though was much more interesting, for it showed Tirana arriving to hand over a small bag, what was in the bag Formby didn`t know of course, but it showed a clear link between a man suspected of being an alien spy, and the two people known as the Claytons. Why had Tirana slipped up once again, it could only be because of the sudden need to make these new arrangements, and it hadn`t given him enough time to fine-tune his plans.

The second lead Formby had found himself on his computer screen. One year ago, secret plans had been stolen from a research centre in Australia, no one was ever caught but there were two leads. A woman looking much like Mrs Clayton had been seen in the area minutes before the robbery, and the security guards there had been poisoned by someone who this time had foolishly left a set of fingerprints upon one of the whisky glasses, one that still held traces of the poison. The criminals had missed this in their haste to get away, for a police car had suddenly arrived, drawn to the scene by a silent alarm that one of the security men had activated before finally succumbing to the poison that ran through his body. The fingerprints were not on any file anywhere on the planet Earth, now maybe they could be found in deep space, within the new world colony ship Constellation.

The last lead came from Mars, there was no sign of the Claytons in the CCTV pictures taken by the spaceport cameras, this in itself was a mystery as everyone arriving or departing Mars, walks within camera shot of a CCTV camera. Special Agent Formby said a quiet thank you to Tyler Burrows, as he quickly sent all of this information on to the Constellation with his recommendation that the two of them be arrested on suspicion of murder, and that their fingerprints be taken and matched against the ones found at the Australian crime scene. All this information had arrived quickly and within minutes of each one, if only they had asked these questions earlier Formby thought, one life may have been saved and the lives of the two agents wouldn`t be hanging by a thread, if only, but then life is full of such thoughts.

**********

Tyler had spoken to a few of the colonists who remembered seeing Rosalyn Peterson walking across to the showers and back again, and in the galley area, but that was about it. No one saw anyone attack her or even noticed anyone acting peculiar, but that was to be expected, or Tyler would have already known about it. However, one of the colonists did remember that it was the Claytons who had followed Rosalyn into the shower area, the colonist had been walking back from the showers at the time and unfortunately that was all she could remember seeing. She had volunteered the information just in case they needed to know who else was in the showers at the time.

"Well Caroline, that was about all that we could expect, but at least we now know that the Claytons were in the vicinity of the showers when Rosalyn Peterson was bitten by something that she supposed was a mosquito." Tyler remarked after the colonist left the office.

"Another small piece of knowledge to add to all the others, but all of it doesn`t add up too much, certainly not enough to accuse anyone of the murder of so many people." Caroline said sorrowfully.

Just then, a member of the ship`s crew brought them a message that they had just received from Special Agent Formby.

"Well this is a little bit more to add to our pool of knowledge." Tyler said with a smile now on his face.

"I think that we now have enough to be able to demand answers to the information that Special Agent Formby has sent us Caroline. However, first I think that we should obtain a set of their fingerprints, and then we will know for sure whether they are the spies or not. Let us invite them over to Alice`s office for a coffee, and ask them why they did not come forward after the re-enactment to let us know that they had followed Rosalyn Peterson into the shower area. When they leave, we can get their fingerprints off their coffee cups. If they prove to be the spies, we can arrest them and send them over to the Defiant`s Brigg."

Colin Ryan chose that moment to approach them, so Tyler decided to enlist his help.

"Colin, will you go and find the Claytons and ask them if they could spare us a minute, tell them they will find us with Alice Tarraway in her office, don`t make anything of it, but make sure that they do come and speak to us." Tyler asked.

"Sure, Tyler, from this can I assume that the case proceeds at a faster pace at last?" Colin in turn asked.

"Colin, the next few minutes will definitely tell us whether we have been betting on the right horse." Caroline said, repeating another one of Tyler`s phrases, she liked the phrase it sounded just right and flowed evenly off her tongue, though of course she herself had never seen a horse race, let alone put a wager on.

"Colin, after that will you go and find Appolon, and then would the two of you question the colonists whose cubicles are near to the stairs that lead down to the ship`s hold. Ask them if they saw anybody entering it or just hanging around the area during the morning that the two agents were attacked, or at any other time come to that?" Tyler asked.

"Sure thing Tyler, to hear is to obey oh leader." Colin Ryan said facetiously.

"I am glad to hear that you know your place Colin." Caroline joked. Colin then left them, a smile across his face, but then he normally did have a smile upon his face. This time though it quickly disappeared, for his thoughts were about his friend lying ill in the ship`s clinic. Colin thought over Caroline`s last words, about their hopes that they were about to apprehend the people responsible for almost killing his friend, and the smile returned, even if it was a little grim.

Paul Johnson had also been found, and he was asked to sit in on the questioning, joining Alice, Tyler and Caroline. It was a full office already when the Claytons duly appeared and Tyler greeted them and poured out another two mugs of coffee from the large coffee pot that Alice usually kept filled with hot coffee, and he then handed them over to the Claytons to ensure that he got their fingerprints. The two mugs were china and part of a set Alice used to take away the antiseptic feel of the place.

"Thank you for joining us, Tyler just needs you to clear up a point." Alice said when they had taken the seats Paul and Caroline had vacated to make space for them.

"But of course, anything that we can do for the renowned Tyler Burrows." Johor Rigor said, smiling at Tyler.

"Thank you, Mr Clayton." Tyler said smiling. "It is just that we wondered why you never came forward to tell us that the two of you followed Rosalyn Peterson into the shower area the morning that she so mysteriously died."

"I didn`t realise that we did follow Mrs Peterson into the shower area, I am afraid that I am barely awake so early in the morning, I only begin to be fully awake around this time of day." Mariah said answering Tyler`s question.

"And you Mr Clayton, did you not notice Rosalyn Peterson either?"

"No, I am afraid not Mr Burrows, I am sorry that neither of us can be of any help to you." Rigor said, looking the picture of sadness.

"That is all right Mr Clayton; we are just clearing away any loose ends that we have before proceeding with the investigation." Tyler said smiling at the couple.

"I hear that you both have just spent three years on Mars, I spent a couple of years there myself in my youth." Paul Johnson said joining the conversation.

"Yes, we are geologists and we spent most of our time out in the wilds of Mars looking for rare minerals, it was a lonely life for us as we were away from human contact for most of our time, except for when we came in for supplies, or met with the company`s officials to go over our reports."

"You must have seen much of the Martian wilderness though, I thought it quite beautiful." Paul Johnson said, the picture of innocence.

"After three years its beauty began to fade, and we were more than happy to leave it behind to take up this appointment. If you are finished with us Mr Burrows we should be getting back, for we arranged to meet some fellow travellers for a chat." Rigor said wanting to leave the company of Paul Johnson before they made a mistake regarding their supposed stay on Mars.

"Yes of course, I am sorry to have bothered you both." Tyler said taking their two china mugs from them and putting them down next to the coffee maker. The Claytons did not seem to notice that he had held the mugs by their rims rather than around the middle where the Claytons had each left a perfect set of fingerprints.

"But you must have got the chance to see the Aurorae Planum region on Mars, it is quite spectacular, and surely a must for any traveller?" Paul Johnson asked, not letting the Johor`s escape too easily.

"No, we were working on the other side of the planet, and so we never got the chance, but as I said we must leave now." Rigor said as he hurried off after a departing Mariah.

"Strange that Tyler, as the Martian space port is right in the middle of that region, something a geologist should know seeing as how Dylithium was found very near to the space port when it was being enlarged." Paul Johnson said smiling.

"Yes, and from the hurry that they were in to get away from you I don`t think they did know it. But we do have their finger prints on these two coffee cups, and now let us see if either of them will match up with the ones that Special Agent Formby so kindly provided us with." Tyler said.

Tyler had brought down all his equipment to Alice`s small office during the early hours of the morning and he quickly set it up on her small desk. Twenty minutes later and they had two more sets of fingerprints. Tyler then took out a device that he had found amongst Paul Divine`s goods. A finger print analysis device, which was soon purring away as it checked the prints found on the two cups against the ones sent to them by Formby. Moments later a message flashed up on its screen. What it told them was that the first set of prints provided checked exactly with ones left at the Australian murder scene, Mrs Clayton was not only a spy, she was also a suspect in a triple murder on Earth.

"Alice, I don`t think that I have to talk it over with you, not when I have this sort of evidence to hand, especially when coupled with the other evidence that Special Agent Formby provided us with just one hour ago. It is damning evidence for at least three murders; will you have the Defiant send a security team over to escort the Claytons off this ship and into the Defiant`s Brigg. Ask them to first stop off at the Defender to collect that device that Brian Goddard made for me. When they are safely under guard, we will go down into the ship`s hold and try out the device that Brian Goddard sent to us, and hopefully we will find the stolen technology."

Alice Tarraway did not argue, for Tyler had provided her with more than enough evidence to make the need for the Claytons arrest the next logical step, and it would fully comply with the law.

It took the Defiant ten minutes to launch its shuttle craft, for it to stop off at the Defender, and finally to link up with the Constellation, meanwhile a close watch was kept on the two spies by Paul and Tryon, to ensure they didn`t get up to anything in the meantime. The security team joined Tyler and Alice, and together they went to speak to the Claytons.

"I have two more questions for you both, can you tell me how the finger prints of Mrs Clayton came to be found at a murder scene in Australia last year, when you were both supposed to be on Mars?"

"It must be some sort of mistake, as you say we have been on Mars for the last three years." Johor Rigor stated angrily.

"Can you also tell me how it is that the CCTV on Mars failed to take either of your pictures when you went through to catch the flight to Earth just a few days ago?"

"We know nothing about the workings of the CCTV cameras on Mars." Mariah Rigor said just as angrily.

"Then can you tell me why a known agent of the planet Aldebra visited you in the space port of Earth, and gave you a package, a Mr Tirana I believe his name is?" Tyler asked the two spies, but they now refused to answer this question.

"Will you tell me where you hid the crate that you brought aboard the Constellation, the one with the stolen technology inside?" The two spies still refused to answer his questions.

Seeing that he would not be able to get any more out of the two people posing as the Claytons, Tyler informed the two Aldebran spies that they were under arrest for espionage and murder.

"Please go with this officer, he and his team will escort you both to the Defiant where you will be put under confinement pending your return to Earth. One more thing will you please take your shoes off as I need to check to see if the footprint left behind by someone who entered the ship`s hold, matches either of yours?"

The two Aldebrans were now temporarily stunned by the events, and so they quietly took off their shoes without argument. Tyler then took a photograph of the soles of the four shoes before returning them to their owners. The Rigor`s both scowled at Tyler as they were first searched by the security team for weapons, and then taken away, leaving Tyler and Alice to search through their belongings in the Rigor`s cubicle, and finding nothing amongst them they packed them up and left them at the air lock, pending their collection later by the Defiant.

"Alice, I think it is time now to return to the hold of this ship and try out my friend`s device, would you ask the captain to open up the same door that we used yesterday evening."

"Of course, right away." Alice said taking out her communicator. All around them the colonists were talking about the arrest of two of their people. They could hardly believe that the Claytons were guilty of the murder of Rosalyn Peterson. It also added a further story to the many myths already travelling around the galaxy about Tyler Burrows.

Down on deck A, they were joined by Caroline and Appolon, who had been busy with Colin. Colin and Appolon had been asking the colonists who were berthed near to the door to the hold if they had noticed anyone entering into the hold, but it appeared that the two Aldebran spies were too careful to be seen entering it, if indeed they had ever entered the hold.

The four of them went as far as the entrance into the hold, whereupon Tyler and Appolon clambered up the stack of goods and followed the greasy footprints that finally disappeared into the mass of goods belonging to the colonists. Here, Tyler took out the tracer supplied by Brian Goddard and turned it on. The tracer was similar to a digital Geiger counter with a screen showing the strength of any energy signal that came within its range. The indicator upon it sprang into life instantly it was turned on, and a low humming noise indicated that it was working correctly, the volume of the hum increased the nearer the device got to an energy source. As Tyler swivelled it around three hundred and sixty degrees it registered various amounts of energy. Some came from the components of the Constellation, others from the many trucks and tractors that were stored within the massive load much further away from where they both stood, but the loudest signal came from the powerful engines of the starship, and they blotted out many of the others. However, Brian Goddard had equipped the tracer with two settings, as he had made clear to Colin Freeman. Tyler now switched over to the second setting that was tuned in to the energy signature of Crystillium, and the needle on the device quivered ever so slightly. However, the nearer they got to the massive outer doors of the huge starship the more the needle quivered. Clearly, the two Aldebran spies had wanted to ensure that the crate was unloaded soon after the ship landed on Persephone. The signal showed up clearer, the further away that Tyler and Appolon got from Alice and Caroline, and finally the trail led them to a medium sized crate that bore the name of Hardin, and that looked very much like the crate in the photograph supplied by Special agent Formby. The tracer now began to buzz just a little angrily, and the optical indicator had grown brighter the further forward they had walked until the needle was stuck on maximum, all three of the signals were indicating that they were on top of whatever was emitting an energy signal. Hardin of course was one of the miners that the Claytons would have had to work with, Tyler remembered the name from amongst the names on Paul Divine`s list of possible suspects, he was a miner from Texas. The crate was screwed down and Tyler shouted over the mass of goods to Alice who was waiting with Caroline at the entrance to this Aladdin`s cave.

"Alice, I need an old-fashioned screwdriver, I saw one amongst the Clayton`s possessions, could you go and get it, and maybe Caroline can bring it over to us." Tyler called across the packed hold.

"Okay Tyler, be back in a minute." Alice called back.

"Tyler this might finish our work here, maybe we will see Orion again soon." Appolon said hopefully.

"Yes, my friend, we should soon be back home amongst our family and friends, I know that you miss your family a lot." Tyler replied for he too felt that this matter was coming to a finish and that they could soon return home.

Caroline then appeared from out of the mass of crates and boxes brandishing a screwdriver, it was of the sort that Tyler was familiar with; it was similar to a Phillips screwdriver rather than an electrical one that was used by everyone in this century.

"Here you are Tyler." Caroline said smiling at her husband.

The screwdriver fitted the screws perfectly, and this indicated to Tyler that the Claytons had put Hardin`s name on the crate to conceal it, should they ever become suspect. Of course, whatever finger prints were found inside of the crate would finally decide the question for them. It took only two minutes to take out the screws and lift off the lid to reveal a highly technical device protected by bubble wrap to prevent it being damaged. Also, inside of the box was the air pistol plus a small box of darts, ones that so resembled the mosquito that Rosalyn Peterson had thought that she had killed. Alongside that were the bottles of perfume and the canister of shaving lotion that combined had brought down the two agents, there was also the portable hard disk drive that carried the software for the Matter Transporter, and last of all the laser torch that they had used to cut the gas pipe. There was enough evidence to convict the two spies, but only if even more of their fingerprints could be found, either on the crate itself or on the contents within the crate. The Claytons had put all of these items into the crate after their attack on the two agents. This, at a time when all of the other colonists were trying to get some much-needed extra sleep to make up for the amount that they had all lost when they were all woken by the excitement going on down on A deck.

"You have found it Tyler, now we can all go home." Caroline cried out gleefully.

"Yes, and because of the line of footprints we didn`t need to search the entire hold. Right Appolon, let`s take this crate and return to the main part of the ship. The crate was not particularly heavy, Appolon hefted it up, and between the three of them, they manhandled it across the many obstacles that were between them and the door of the hold, to look down upon an expectant Alice.

"Do you have it?" She asked excitedly.

"Yes, it and more, hopefully enough to leave all the ends of the problem nice and neatly tied up, for if we can find some more of their fingerprints, they will not be able to wriggle out of this one, what we have in this crate should prove that they are very guilty." Tyler stated.

The equipment that Tyler used to find fingerprints was still set up in Alice`s office. It took Tyler just twenty minutes to match all of the fingerprints he found on the items within the crate to the ones that they had taken earlier from the Claytons.

"Alice, will you send a message to the Defiant, tell them to come and collect the crate. Do not forget to tell them to take all of the evidence that we have amassed that gives definite proof as to the guilt of the Claytons. After that, maybe you could send a message also to Special Agent Formby back on Earth, giving him the good news and thanking him for all his help. Tell him that I will send him a fully documented report later today."

Tyler then borrowed Alice`s camera again and took photographs of everything that was in the crate, the collection of fingerprints and the shoe prints, he would send the photographs of all of these objects to Special Agent Formby.

Just then Doctor Schwartz phoned down and spoke to Alice, she was just about to tell the others about the call when the communicator given to her by Dave Reynolds, to allow her to speak with the Defiant, sprang into life, it was the Captain of the Defiant. Alice not wondering what the reason was behind the call immediately told him all of her good news before he could utter so much as a single syllable. However, the reason behind his calling them was not good news.

"Mary Clayton went wild when she arrived aboard the Defiant, she grabbed a weapon from one of the security detail and killed one of the security men and badly injured another before we managed to subdue her. We will send the shuttle across to the Orion Defender to collect our First officer, and then to the Constellation to pick up the crate and of course the evidence, we will also transfer Mr Burrows and his friends back to the Defender. We have to return to Earth at our best speed to get our injured crewmember into a hospital, if we do that now we can save his life. If we continue on to Persephone, he will die before we can get him back to a hospital facility that has the necessary expertise to be of any use to him. Please ask Mr Burrows and his friends to be ready to leave in five minutes, if they can be at the air lock as I want to get away as soon as is possible. Oh, and thank them all for seizing our two murderers. What about the two agents, do you want us to take them back to Earth?"

"No, Captain, they woke up just five minutes ago, I have just heard the good news from our doctor. He says that they want to stay with the ship until we reach Persephone, maybe if Tyler can continue to escort the Constellation in his ship as far as Persephone." Alice said. She gave Tyler and his friends another of her looks that said sorry, but do you mind helping us out once more?

Tyler looked across to Appolon who simply nodded glumly, if the fates had decided to forestall his return home, Appolon thought, what was a mere warrior to do.

"We should be at Persephone within another twenty four hours my friend; I will just have to contain myself for a little longer, and then our return will be all the sweeter."

Appolon and Tryon spoke each day to their families on the ship`s radio, and so at least they were not cut off from them, but all the same, their hearts did ache for their loved ones. As indeed must the hearts of the other members of the Defenders crew ache for their own families.

"Doctor Schwartz also told me that his two patients wanted to talk with you all, to thank you, but I don`t think that the captain of the Defiant wants to hang about." Alice said to Tyler and the others.

"No, I think that you are right there, the two agents will just have to wait to thank us when we are all safe and sound on Persephone. Come on everyone we have to get this crate and ourselves to the airlock." Minutes later and the shuttlecraft from the Defiant arrived to pick them up and to take them back to their ship.

David Reynolds was there to greet them all as they stepped through the airlock and into the small shuttlecraft. When Tyler boarded the shuttlecraft, David Reynolds approached him, took Tyler`s hand in his own, and shook it.

"Tyler congratulations on your success, well done."

"No problem Dave, call me anytime that the detectives on Earth are stumped." Tyler joked. "Drop by whenever you are passing Orion, Dave, and we will put the kettle on."

The shuttlecraft soon reached the Defender, and the men of Orion re-boarded their craft to the sound of thank you from the shuttlecraft crew, thank you for a job well done. Once on board the Defender, they were greeted by the cheers of those Orionists that had stayed behind to operate the ship under David Reynolds brief command. On the screen set upon the front wall of the bridge of the Defender, the crew watched as the Defiant pulled away and rushed back toward Earth to save their stricken shipmate, unfortunately the crew of the Defender would not be going home just yet.

For twenty-four hours, the Defender followed the Constellation until the two ships finally reached Persephone. During the journey, Caroline spoke to Tyler in the privacy of their cabin.

"We have left a ship full of colonists whose main reason for leaving Earth, and travelling far from their homes and loved ones, is so that they can afford to have a family. Tyler we already live on a planet where we can afford to have a family, would you mind very much if we started a family soon?"

"Would I mind, of course not, I too want a family, two sons to carry on where we leave off and a daughter who looks just like you, and who will keep the boys in check. We can start a family whenever you want."

"Tonight, seems as good a time as any, don`t you think?" Caroline asked, smiling mischievously up at her man.

***********

On reaching Persephone, the ships went into a brief orbit before slipping through the atmosphere, the noise blasting out of the large and powerful engines that were needed to land such a heavy craft as the Constellation, and allow it to take off again, scaring away any wildlife that was around. The starship quickly manoeuvred towards its landing site, previously chosen on the planet`s surface, and settled down so smoothly one would think that it was just a shuttlecraft rather than the gigantic colonist ship that it was.

Six months before the Constellation had dropped off a construction crew on Persephone, they only had small cabins provided for their living quarters. They had also brought with them many of the things needed to set up a modern colony; large earth moving machines, sewer pipes, a sewage station, a large quantity of solar panels, and a water desalination plant, for the chosen landing site was only one mile from the sea. This would work in tandem with a water purification plant, which would purify the water from the nearby mountain streams brought to the new township by miles of pipework. During the time that the Constellation had been away from Persephone, the entire new township had been laid out below ground. The sewer system had been installed, drinking water was laid on for all of planned buildings in the township, a solar panel park had been set up in a desert region some two hundred miles away and even now, the necessary power lines were being laid underground to connect with the township. The township buildings, the farms, the workshops, the small medical centre and the school would all be built by the colonists, with the help of the construction crew. The amount of investment that the Church put into colony worlds like Persephone was enormous; this is why the colonists had to agree that all trade was conducted through the Church and by way of its starships. It was the only way possible for the Church to be able to finance new colony worlds, without a return from their investment there would be no more new colonies set up on this scale by the Church, or probably even by Earth.

There had not been the same amount of investment on Orion as it was primarily a missionary planet aimed at converting the native people to follow the true path, and it had grown very slowly into the township of today. Even here, all trade went through the Church, and so new worlds were constantly being financed.

**********

Paul Divine and Charles Bragg had both improved in health over the past twenty-four hours. They were now allowed out of bed, and both could not wait until they got the chance to thank Tyler Burrows personally. Charles Bragg of course also wanted to meet up with his other old friends. The doors of the Constellation opened and the colonists took the chance to walk upon their new world, and of course to stretch their legs, and so they moved en masse onto the surface of the planet. Bishop Claude B Taggart was amongst them as he too took his first steps on the planet Persephone, and he then shouted out a loud 'thank you my God.' Then as the moment was so right, he decided to lead his entire flock in a service, their first service on their new home. When the doors of the Defender opened Paul Divine and Charles Bragg both excused themselves and moved across to the Orionists, who were also taking the chance offered to stretch their legs. Charles on seeing Tyler and Caroline step down from the air lock walked quickly up to them.

"Tyler, Caroline, how are you both?"

"We are fine Charles and you, are you fully recovered from your illness?" Tyler asked.

"Yes, both Paul Divine and I are recovering nicely." Charles called Paul Divine over to meet up with his old friends from Orion. "Paul this is Tyler and Caroline Burrows. Tyler, Caroline this is Paul Divine, my friend and fellow investigator."

"It is good to meet you both, especially since you were able to finally find the proof needed to arrest the Claytons." Paul Divine said.

"With all the information in the notes that you left for us, the forensics and other help from Special Agent Formby, and of course the necessary technical help from Brian Goddard back on Orion, all I had left to do was join up the dots."

"We constantly had to wake him up." Caroline joked.

"Colonel, it is good to see you now that you are well. How is life after the space marines?" Colin Ryan said, as he shook the hand of his friend and fellow ex-space marine.

"Colin, I was just about to ask you that same question. How are you settling down to the quiet life of a colonist?"

"Chasing after space pirates, spies and murderers is hardly quiet, but I am fine Colonel, thank you.

Everyone was happy, but then they did not see Tryon approaching this group of friends, Tryon stopped before Appolon.

"Appolon we have just received a distress call from another planet, Paul Johnson says that it is in a system that is still further along the spiral arm of Perseus, it`s about twenty four hours flight from here." Tryon looked a little distressed, but whether for the planet or for him and his friends, Appolon was not sure.

"Yet another distress call, tell me Tryon, is it to be our fate to travel further and further from our homes on Orion, we seem to be doomed to never see our homes again?" Appolon complained.

"We can hardly return to our homes and not help them Appolon. I too pine for my family, but when we were in need the fates sent us help, now someone else is in need, should we not repay our debt?" Tryon questioned.

"Of course, we should Tryon, I just miss my family, as you do too, I know. I will tell Tyler of his new task, if there is anyone who should complain about the fates then I guess it should be him, and not you or I." Appolon declared sadly.

"What have I to complain about Appolon? I have the best of friends, a beautiful wife and a wonderful home, I will never complain as long as I continue to enjoy such comforts." Tyler had come up on his two friends unnoticed.

"We have just received yet another planetary distress call, this one is further away from home and further along the spiral arm of Perseus, it will take us another twenty four hours away from our home." Appolon complained.

"And we thought that we could soon return to Orion. Who got the call?" Tyler enquired, also resigned to the whims of fate.

"Paul Johnson, he is still on board the Defender and is looking up the area in space at this moment." Tryon said.

"What is up with you three, come and join the celebrations?" Caroline said having walked across to join the group. Tyler told Caroline of the latest problem to come their way, and then led the way back aboard the Defender.

"Well Paul what more can you tell us about the distress call?" Tyler asked.

"That it definitely came from that area of space, for a moment I thought that we were being led away from Orion deliberately." Paul Johnson replied.

"What was the message Paul?" Tyler asked.

"Simply that they were under attack and were low on supplies, and that without help they didn`t know how long they would last before people began to die."

Chapter Eight

Genesis

The Morning of January 18th

Paul Divine was relieved to be told by Tom Parkinson that he and Charles Bragg could take a couple of weeks off to recuperate some more. Paul was also happy with this turn of events, for he could now stay a little longer on Persephone and get to know Alice Tarraway a lot better. Charles Bragg decided to take his leave on the Defender and answer the distress call, the Defender could call on Persephone on its return journey and pick Paul Divine up if need be, hopefully by then, Paul would have made up his mind as to his future. While they were recuperating, Tom Parkinson asked them to sum up the situation in that quadrant of space, could they safely leave Tyler Burrows in command of a light space cruiser. What Paul had seen of Tyler Burrows, the answer to the question was definitely yes, but Charles Bragg would be better able to answer that question when he returned to Persephone. Tom Parkinson felt that President Michaels might have jumped the gun in offering so much to a man that they knew so little about.

**********

The Defender had now left Persephone to answer the distress call from the planet Genesis, passing many other planetary systems, beautiful nebulae and massive dust clouds lit by suns hidden deep within them. Apart from acknowledging the receipt of the message, Colin Freeman, the Defender`s communications officer, had not tried to re-establish contact with the planet. The planet used an older system of communication and as Colin said.

"Tyler, we will receive any reply they send about the same time that we near the system, we can contact them much easier when we are in orbit around the planet."

It was early the next morning, after all the crew had enjoyed a rest, that they entered the planetary system that included Genesis, and then they were approaching the planet, and this meant that Paul Johnson was busy computing the orbital calculations.

"Put our shields up Richard, I have seen too many sci-fi movies to approach an unknown situation with our shields down." Tyler was not joking today, Richard Smith knew Tyler well enough now to know when he was joking and when he was serious, anyway Richard preferred to have the solid Heliot shields about the Defender, he felt a lot safer.

"The shields are up Tyler." Richard replied almost immediately.

"Good then power up the plasma weapons as well, just in case we need them." Tyler ordered.

"The plasma weapons are being powered up." Richard replied.

"Tyler, we are now in a Geo-stationary orbit above the planet." Paul Johnson called across to their captain.

"Tyler, are all of these precautions really necessary, I mean the people on this planet say that they are dying, they are hardly likely to attack us?" Charles Bragg asked.

"Tyler, there is a massive power surge down on the planet." Richard called urgently.

"Paul take us out of orbit now, Richard locate the position of the power source." Tyler ordered.

A powerful bolt of energy slammed into the Defender as it was moving out of orbit, throwing all the crew who were not seated crashing into a wall or onto the floor. Frank Mason banged his head against a console, but thankfully, he was not too badly hurt, others were thrown into someone else who had been unlucky enough to be in the way. Electrical systems crackled amid a darkened room as all of the lights went out only to be replaced by the red emergency lighting, but thankfully most everything else seemed all right.

"The Heliot shields held without any damage to them or to the ship, although I am not sure about some of the crew." Richard called over to Tyler while watching Charles Bragg climb up from the floor, having been thrown there by the force of the energy bolt.

"Oh my god, if our shields had been down, we could have been destroyed. Tyler I will never doubt you again." Charles Bragg promised.

"It is lucky that we were also pulling out of the orbit of that peaceful planet." Paul Johnson said. "Or we would have been hit even harder, as it was, we only caught the tail-end of the blast."

The emergency lighting showed their cuts and bruises in an eerie manner that made them look worse than they actually were, but they could see that none of them had been hurt apart from the odd bruise. Tyler also confirmed that Craig Stevens and Frank Mason in engineering were okay.

Paul had moved the Defender two hundred thousand miles away from Genesis, far enough away from the planet to be ready to meet another attack, should one come their way. Here they could plan their next move; thankfully, there was not another attack from the planet. Tyler wondered if they were out of range. Colin Freeman at last made contact with its people on Genesis.

"This is a ship of the Earth Federation; we have come in response to your planetary distress call, why are you firing upon us?" Colin Freeman demanded to know.

"We are not firing on you, someone to the east of our town is firing on you, and they have only recently begun to make war on us. They will not allow us to mine the Dylithium deposits that were recently discovered, and the deposits are essential to our prosperity, and more importantly to the survival of our colony. Without them, our civilisation here will revert to one resembling the medieval times of Earths own history, please help us." The colonist on the planet begged.

"Colin do you have the co-ordinates of the colonist`s town?" Tyler asked.

"Yes Tyler, they are safely stored on the computer." Colin Freeman replied.

"Good, then will you give the town`s co-ordinates to Paul." Tyler waited until Paul had the co-ordinates and then explained to them all that he wanted them to do.

"Look everyone, we need to get more information about our attackers, so it means opening ourselves up to a further attack. Paul, move us slowly nearer to the planet. Colin scan the area from where the energy bolts originated from, get as much information that you can get from our instruments, but first be sure to give the position of any energy signature you find to Richard. Richard, be ready return their fire the moment their attack is resumed. Paul, as soon as you hear from Colin that another of those energy bolts is about to be unleashed or is already coming up from the planet, I want you to take us away in a large looping course that will bring us down near to the town where the colonists are, and in a hurry if necessary. Caroline, after Richard has returned fire turn on our cloaking device, hopefully that will prevent them from firing on us as we descend to the planet."

The Heliot cloaking device was the final piece of technology that they had found amongst the destroyed fleet. It used a large amount of energy when in use, so on their small ship it could not be used in conjunction with their weapons, but it would be ideal to hide them from their attacker. After giving these instructions to his bridge crew, Tyler sat back and awaited developments, Caroline who was standing beside Tyler grabbed his arm and waited to see if their mystery attacker would once again fire upon them. Just then, the normal lighting system came back on.

"Engineering seems to have fixed the blown fuses anyway." Tyler quipped. He then warned engineering that they were once again approaching the planet and to hang on tight. The Defender moved slowly back towards the planet, and for a while all was quiet, until Colin`s instruments sprang back into life.

"Tyler, they are powering up their weapon again." Colin called across to Tyler.

"Paul prepare to move us out of here fast, Richard use our main plasma weapon and hit them as soon as you receive the co-ordinates." Tyler said repeating his orders.

Richard had the co-ordinates of the energy weapon down on the planet just a moment later, and was now replying to the attack with their powerful Heliot plasma weapon. Even before their unseen enemy fired again on their vessel, Paul Johnson was responding to Tyler`s earlier instructions. He swung the Defender about in a smooth loop even as the energy bolt from the planet below zipped by the fast-moving Orion Defender, but they had seen their own plasma bolts striking the planet below as Caroline now engaged their cloaking device and hid their ship from their enemy.

"Hopefully, that will make them think twice before launching another attack on us again." Richard said feeling very satisfied with their response to whoever was attacking them. "Tyler, this is sure one hell of a shakedown cruise." He added with a chuckle thrown in. Tyler smiled but just then, Colin Freeman cut in.

"Tyler while I was scanning the area from where the attack originated from, I came across the remains of a small town or city. It isn`t much now but from what I could learn from the scan it must have been quite substantial in its heyday, but apart from that, there are no other signs of civilisation apart from the colonist`s main town and a few small scattered villages."

The Defender arced down to the planet below and de-cloaked above the heads of the colonists, drawing gasps of astonishment from them.

**********

The Defender`s sudden appearance above their heads caused the people of Genesis to head for safety, leaving space for the ship to land. With all the alterations to its shape, that were necessary to incorporate all of the Heliot technology, it resembled a large angry dragonfly. One that had short stubby wings from where landing struts descended to make for a more stable landing, and newly installed powerful Heliot thrusters for manoeuvrability within the atmosphere of a planet.

"I will go and greet the people of Genesis first with Caroline, Colin Ryan and Charles Bragg, I am hoping that by including Caroline in the initial landing party, that it will soften the first impression the locals get of us. Paul, will you warn the engine room to be ready for a quick take off, if we should find that the natives are not as friendly as they say they are. Appolon, Tryon I want you both to be ready to come to our aid along with Colin Freeman and Richard, should it become necessary. Okay let`s go." Tyler ordered.

"Tyler it is cold out there, the temperature is only ten degrees centigrade, you had better put on extra clothing, if you intend staying out there for long." Colin Freeman advised. Following this advice, the landing party all donned heavy coats to shield them from the cold of Genesis.

Tyler led the way out through the airlock, and down the steps that unfolded out of the Defenders fuselage and onto Genesis. The local town`s people all moved forward, proclaiming their thanks for their coming in answer to their distress call. After introducing themselves, Tyler got down to the reason that they were there.

"Please tell me who attacked us and why they are attacking you?" Tyler asked grimly. A tall aged figure of a man stepped forward.

"I am the colony`s leader, my name is Anderson, and if you would like to come to my offices we can talk in comfort."

"My ship is just here, why don`t you come aboard her, and we can talk there." Tyler replied.

"Of course, Sir, if you would prefer to talk aboard your ship, I am quite willing to talk there. I can quite understand your reluctance to trust us fully yet, having been fired upon by someone on this planet. Perhaps my two friends could also join us?" Anderson indicated the two people that stood just behind him.

"This is Joyce Sanders and the young man beside her is Robert Groves."

Anderson, who looked to be about seventy years of age, was tall and almost bold; he had an intelligent face that was showing more lines now due to the stress that they had endured since their people had been attacked, but his grey eyes were still showing an alertness that was missing in his colleague. Groves, who was younger than Anderson, looked to be in his late forties in age, and so Tyler assumed that referring to Groves as young was probably a long running joke between the two men. Groves was quite short with a thin face and a receding hairline. The Orionists followed the three locals back aboard the Defender, who were greeted by Appolon and the others all brandishing powerful Heliot plasma pistols. For a moment, Anderson thought that they who were in danger, but Tyler soon put his mind at rest.

"It`s all right Appolon, we have decided to talk about the problems faced by the people of Genesis aboard the Defender. We can talk in the galley, which is about the only place large enough on the ship to accommodate us all." Tyler explained to the locals.

"From the size of your ship Captain, I would have thought that there would be ample room?" Groves said, just a little puzzled by what Tyler had said.

"I am afraid that most of the ship is taken up with machinery, apart from the ship`s hold the galley is the only space available for us to talk." Tyler explained to their guests, not mentioning that the machinery powered the powerful plasma weapons, a defence shield, a cloaking device and a superfast hyper-drive engine, all taken from the broken Heliot fleet.

No one noticed as Appolon and Tryon slipped away to talk with the local population while Tyler entertained the colony`s leaders.

"Now tell us about your problem." Tyler said.

The three locals looked at one another for a moment before Anderson told their story.

"Our colony`s main power source used to be the hyper-drive engine that brought us here from Earth almost two hundred years ago. Unfortunately, its extreme age must have finally caused it to break down. We were then left with the solar and wind power plants that were set up almost as soon as the first settlers reached the planet. They were fine to begin with, but two years ago our sun began to enter a period of cooling which has now triggered a mini ice age here on the planet. Robert here is a scientist of great ability, and he designed and built a power system using components taken from our starship. It is operated using Dylithium crystals, they were only recently discovered by one of our more colourful colonists, we later found that there is a plentiful supply to the east of us. I suppose that this is old hat on Earth, I imagine that you now get all of your energy requirements from Dylithium crystals. However, when our people left Earth, scientists were still trying to find out how to harness the immense power held within these crystals, so we were very excited by Robert`s discovery. Anyhow, we ran into trouble, for as soon as we attempted to travel to the site to start mining, energy bolts rained down on our vehicles, killed, and injured many of our people, and stopping our attempt to operate our new power generator. Without it, our attempt to keep us in the modern age, and not one more akin to the medieval age of Earth or worse, is finished. Also, with the lack of heating, our population may begin to fall, we have no idea what our future holds for us, maybe even barbarity." Anderson stated sadly.

"Could you not simply move to a warmer part of the planet?" Charles Bragg asked.

"As a newcomer you have not had the chance to see our planet. Unfortunately, most of it is either mountainous, or rolling hills covered in woodland, it is only on the flatter land that lies to the south of the mountains that farming is possible without a great deal of manual work and equipment, equipment that we do not have. It is on the western side of this land that we have managed to clear away some of the trees, and here the soil is suitable for farming. We now have much of it under cultivation, and of course, it is where we have built our township. The Dylithium mine is just about in the centre of the continent, and it was discovered as our people began to explore the eastern side of the continent. We have calculated that the solar minimum period that our sun is currently going through will soon be over. In maybe fifteen years the planet will return to its warm state, but until then we need power to grow our plants so that we can feed our animals and of course our people." Anderson explained. "And this is why we need your help." Anderson stopped now, as tears came to his eyes following his impassioned plea. "Joyce, would you like to add anything?" Anderson said looking across at his colleague.

"Only that all of this food that John mentioned is to be grown in the underground greenhouses that we have built because of the mini ice age, but they need to be powered by a powerful generator, we need the Dylithium from the east of the planet." Joyce Sanders explained. She was a woman of twenty-five years, she was tall and willowy with blonde hair and blue eyes, she had not taken her eyes of Tyler since they had met, and Caroline decided that she was not to be trusted at all.

"Also, since the planet began to cool, the atmosphere has become much drier, now we have to pump water long distances to irrigate the few crops that will still grow here, and also to let our farm animals have a drink. All this takes electrical power, of which we are now in very short supply." Joyce said looking pleadingly at Tyler, much to Caroline`s annoyance who saw something else as well in Joyce Sanders` eyes.

"Well now we know your problem, tell us of your attempts to meet with the people who are obviously your enemies." Tyler said.

Just then, Colin Freeman entered the Galley. "Everything is quiet, nothing at all coming from our attacker." Colin said. What he had in fact told Tyler was that Colin had scanned the township and found nothing out of place with a small colonial town, and that all was quiet.

"Thank you, Colin. Mr Anderson, you were going to tell us what steps you have taken so far in dealing with your problem."

"We have tried to approach the area from where the energy bolts are coming from, but each attempt has provoked a further attack on our people and they have had to return unsuccessful." Anderson replied.

"Then it is time to return to the bridge of our ship because Colin Freeman has been busy compiling a 3D picture of the area where all of the attacks originated from, and we will be able to see it much better on the large screen set on the wall at the front of the bridge." Tyler then got up and led the way back onto the bridge.

"Colin, are you ready to show us today`s feature film?"

Familiar with Tyler`s twenty first century way of speaking, Colin turned on the large view screen, and on it the locals got their first view of the eastern part of the continent that they lived on. The planet was similar to Orion in that there was only the one main landmass, but there were many more islands dotted amongst the large blue ocean, some of them quite large. Also, the land mass itself was much larger than the one on Orion, but it was much more mountainous.

"Is that the remains of a city, my god there used to be a civilisation on the planet, but why haven`t we seen any signs of it before?" Anderson said. "I realise that our attackers must live somewhere to the east, but we believed that they were newcomers to the planet, like ourselves, and that they may well be attempting to colonise this planet." Anderson explained.

"From our scans the city is of an extremely old age, and any other signs of civilisation would have been covered by the natural processes of your planet. The city is still visible because of the amount of energy that it uses to keep nature at bay." Colin Freeman said. "If you look closely at the screen, you will also see a light energy field some fifty miles from the city, I think this is a sensory field and it is the reason why your people have never been able to approach the city unseen. With our ship fully cloaked, we should be able to penetrate it and land close enough to the city to allow us to approach it un-noticed. However, that sharp line that circles the city is a powerful force field and we will have to breach that to be able to actually enter inside the city and speak to whoever or whatever controls it. I would be surprised to find that there is anyone still living inside the city, as my scans haven`t been able to find a sign of any living creature inside of the force field."

"So, Colin, we could be up against a computer that was left behind by the city`s original builders, for whatever reason?" Tyler asked.

"Yes Tyler, that is what I think we will find, if we succeed in getting through the force field." Colin replied.

"A computer that is still able to operate after so many years, maybe centuries, if Colin here is correct. I find that hard to believe." Joyce said.

"You may be correct, but we will only find out if we can get through the force field." Colin said.

"Do you have the technology to enable us to get through the force field Mr Anderson?" Tyler enquired.

"No, nothing at all, we are a small colony of about ten thousand people and we have not needed such technology. And please call me John, we are I hope, to be friends." Anderson asked.

"That is what we also want, John, your lack of technology could have presented problems to your people, but for your enemy to the east who probably destroyed any passing space pirate, and so you might be in his debt. Some of your nearest neighbours have been visited by them, and we have just stopped one such attack on a small colony." Tyler said.

"But down to business, how much day light is there left today?" Tyler asked.

"This is our winter so maybe four hours, then it will grow dark quickly." Anderson replied.

"Then at first light tomorrow we will start operations against your unfriendly neighbour." Tyler declared.

"Tyler, would you and your crew like to be our guests at a party given in your ship`s honour?" Anderson asked.

"They are my friends rather than my crew, but to answer your question yes, we would all enjoy a break from action, although not all my people will be able to attend together, some of us we will have to stay on watch at all times." Tyler replied.

"Surely you are not still worried about us?" Groves asked. "If so, I think that it is a slight on the three of us, and our community." Groves appeared to be very angry and was about to continue when Tyler interrupted him.

"Robert, it is not because I fear an attack on us from you or your people, it is because I have learned to be cautious first and last. We are near to an enemy with powerful weapons, and Joyce has stated that she thinks that your assailant is more likely to be a humanoid rather than a computer, and she might be correct. If so, I feel that it is better to be prepared for anything, rather than to be sorry after the event." Tyler explained.

However, Caroline thought that while what he said might be part of the reason behind his words, Tyler was of the twenty first century, and he had often told her how much he distrusted all politicians, and even more religious politicians. Caroline suspected that Tyler still had a smidgeon of doubt about the colonists in his mind, especially after his dealings with President Michaels and Archbishop Collingswood.

"I am sure that Tyler trusts us Robert, now we should be arranging tonight`s festivities, so we should leave Tyler and our other friends for the moment. Until tonight then Tyler, we will see you then Caroline, Charles, Colin." With that, the three locals left the Defender to its crew.

"Right Paul, Richard, I don`t believe that the natives are unfriendly, but for this first night on Genesis, I want to have a minimum level of security operating. I would like you two to miss the first part of the party, also, I will arrange for someone in the engine room to stay aboard the ship. I do not think that we will encounter any trouble; I just want to be careful for tonight. I want you to keep the shields on their minimum level so as not to attract attention, but enough to foil any plans anyone might have. Keep a watch on the sensors, both near and far. Don`t allow any of the natives aboard the ship."

An hour earlier Appolon and Tryon had slipped off the Defender and walked along the town`s streets talking to the colonists. Tryon of course had relived their past adventures, telling how Tyler was a general without par, and painting his wife Caroline as an Amazon princess who was more dangerous than any ten warriors, for Tryon had always liked to embroider his stories. He told how Appolon had fought a Trigon single handed, with only a knife as a weapon. The Trigon he said was bigger than the lion of Earth and fiercer than the tiger, only a warrior as strong as Appolon could have come through such a battle unscathed.

The locals felt that they too should tell tales of their own people adventures to their guests, as Tryon knew they must, and so he got their story without ever having to ask for it.

**********

Their ancestors had been forced to leave Earth because their religion was being stifled by the bigger mainstream religions, this was in the year 2200. Jealousy was the main reason, the other religions found they were constantly losing their faithful to this upstart 'religion' that promised its followers an eternal after life, if only they began to live as god intended that they should. To show that they meant business they should first convert to the one and only true faith. Disillusioned people looking for something that the governments and the other religions could not offer, turned to them to fill the void that they felt within their hearts. Unfortunately, it had occurred just when the main religions had begun to take control of the government of Earth, and so it had begun to make things more and more difficult for the followers of the true religion. This was when the leaders of the Church had purchased a starship and sent as many of their followers as they could to start a new life on Genesis, far away from all the other non-believers and their corrupt leaders. Unfortunately, their ancestors lost contact with Earth before the starship arrived on Genesis; it was thought that a large nebula that is between Earth and Genesis prevented any communication. Then, when the starship reached Genesis, a meteorite that hit the starship, damaged part of the ship`s systems, and caused it to land heavily, and it only narrowly escaped disaster. They had been able to repair the engines, that had been only slightly damaged, but they could never repair the hull of the ship to enable it to take the stress of taking off again and going up through the atmosphere of the planet, so that they could never regain contact with Earth. They now saw themselves as one of the lost peoples of god. Here on Genesis only the true religion was followed, the heretical teachings of the old mainstream religions would never be tolerated by the people of Genesis, the people who followed the true faith, the Church of the Universe. This was followed by a ranting attack on non-believers in general, and how god would punish them all by sending them to hell. Being isolated from other thoughts and beliefs, had tended to make the people of Genesis a little insular. Appolon and Tryon finally managed to excuse themselves and returned to speak to Tyler and Caroline. When they got back to the Defender, they found them in their cabin.

"Excuse us for bothering you in your cabin Tyler, but we felt it best to speak to you privately at first, before telling the others." Appolon said.

"What on earth is so secret that we cannot talk of it amongst the rest of the crew?" Tyler asked.

"We have been speaking to the colonists on Genesis. We spoke of this and that until we finally touched on the religion that is practised here on Genesis; it is the Church of the Universe." Appolon then told Tyler and Caroline the story of how the people of Genesis had lost contact with Earth and now thought of themselves as another 'lost tribe.'

"So, what is the problem Appolon, the lost people have been found?" Tyler asked perplexed.

"The way they talk, they sound so fanatical, as you know all of the people of Orion follow the religion of the newcomers from Earth, but we are not fanatical about it, privately we even question some of its teachings, but rather than upset our teachers we keep any questions and subsequent answers to ourselves. The people of Genesis are fanatical about their religion, and fanatics of any belief are not to be trusted." Appolon declared.

"The colonists amongst the crew are bound to find out that the people of Genesis are their long-lost buddies, nothing good can come of hiding it..." But Appolon could not contain himself and broke in here.

"Those three leaders who came aboard the Defender, they are also the leaders of the church here on Genesis, I am worried that our people..." It was Tyler who now broke in.

"Appolon, the crew of the Defender are all men who will lay down their lives in the cause of justice for all, no matter what race, creed or religion they are, if we cannot trust them then we may as well surrender to the next dictator who comes our way." Tyler said, and Caroline agreed with him up to a point.

"Appolon is worried Tyler, because on Orion we have had our own share of fanatics, and they can be dangerous. It was only because of our Great Grandfather that our people were able to stop them from turning the whole of the planet into a war zone." Caroline explained.

"I too dislike religious fanatics, but we would be playing a dangerous game if we didn`t tell the others this news, and especially if the people of Genesis were to be a danger to us. But my security precautions still stand and that should be sufficient to ensure our safety." Tyler said and then walked out of his cabin and onto the bridge.

"Paul, what do you know about a Church of the Universe colony starship of around the year 2200, it went missing and was never heard from again?" He asked.

"Why on earth are you asking about that ship, it is almost mythological now, it was the first colony ship of the Church, and when it disappeared it was almost the last? If the Leader of our Church hadn`t been a firm believer in the spreading of the word across the galaxy, the ideals behind the setting up of new colonies might have died when that ship was lost." Paul Johnson declared.

"The ship wasn`t destroyed Paul, it landed on Genesis, and the people on this planet are the descendants of those first travellers." Tyler said. "Appolon and Tryon have been talking to the people of Genesis and this is what they have learnt from talking to them."

"But this is fantastic Tyler; we must send a message back to Orion, to Earth. Do the people of Genesis know that the crew of this ship are all believers of their own faith?" Colin Freeman asked and then smiled as he looked at Tyler. "Well almost all, I forgot that you are still a pagan, Captain."

Just then, Caroline strolled out onto the bridge. "Admiral, Colin. Earlier on I was checking up on the ranks amongst the Space Navy of Earth and its states that the Commander of a sector of space has to be an Admiral, so remember the captain of this beat up cargo vessel is in fact an Admiral of the fleet." The entire bridge crew might have been rehearsing it as they all jumped to their feet and saluted Tyler amid a scene of wild laughter; in fact, they were so loud that Appolon and Tryon rushed onto the bridge to see just what was happening.

"You lot had better watch out, or you will all be on report." Tyler said smiling. "And you Colin, had better send your messages, oh and you must send one to President Michaels, it will make his day when he finds out his newly appointed Admiral of the Fleet is responsible for finding his long-lost brethren."

"Yes Sir." Colin Freeman said and began sending out messages to Earth, Orion, Persephone and New Earth.

When all of the messages had been sent, Tyler spoke to Charles Bragg.

"Charles, I take it that you too are a member of the church, and if so, I would like you and Colin Ryan to go forth and inform our previous guests that this ship comes from a planet which follows the same religion as they do. That their religion is now one of the mainstream religions of Earth with three billion followers, I am correct in my thoughts about the faith of you two aren`t I?" Tyler asked.

"Yes, you are correct on both counts, but shouldn`t you be the one to inform them?" Charles Bragg asked.

"If they begin to question me on the current beliefs of the church, they may think that I am lying to them about Orion, and their churches following on Earth, and my subsequent discomfort would make President Michaels too happy for my liking." Tyler said smiling.

Tyler had still insisted that members of the crew stay on board the Defender and put his security measures into operation, Colin Freeman and Colin Ryan would take over the bridge for the second shift from the hours of ten until midnight, no later, as they had a battle to wage in the early morning. Neither, Tyler or Caroline could be part of the security details as they were the two people who would be noticed most by their absence, and Tyler wanted to be friends with the colonists of the planet Genesis. John Anderson spoke to Tyler almost as soon as he and Caroline joined the party.

"Charles Bragg tells me that there is a colony which follows our faith just a day`s space travel from Genesis."

"That is correct John; in fact, we had just finished escorting the colony starship to Persephone when we received your planetary distress call." Tyler confirmed.

"I thought that you had a run in with space pirates prior to answering our distress call?" Anderson said slightly puzzled.

"On this voyage we have had to fit in many things. First, it was only meant to be a shakedown cruise for the Defender, its first since its refit. However, after lift-off, we answered a planetary distress message from another of your church's colony planets. It was under attack from space pirates; we destroyed their vessel and rounded up the pirates landing party. After that we received a distress message from the colony ship Constellation on the way to Persephone, it also asked for our help, we could not refuse. Alien spies had killed a number of your brethren and stolen a highly secret technological device; we managed to find those responsible and then escorted the Constellation to Persephone. It was then that we received your distress call." Tyler replied, to an even more baffled colonist.

"How did you manage to do so much with so little trouble?" Anderson asked.

"John, I will answer that question tomorrow evening, if I am still here to do so." Tyler answered.

"I am sure that you will be Tyler." Anderson stated firmly.

"Oh, and I can put your mind at rest regarding your energy requirements John, we can arrange for a small supply of Dylithium to tide you over until you are able to get your mine into operation. Also, if our assailant does not desist in his attacks then I am sure that the Church will supply you with enough Dylithium to cover your needs." Tyler said to a delighted planetary leader.

Caroline saw that Tyler had managed to find yet another follower, soon he would have more followers than the church, but they would all have to get in line behind her.

"John, one thing puzzles me, and that is why haven`t your people colonised the whole of this planet during the last two hundred years, surely you had the time to do so?" Tyler asked.

"No Tyler, we didn`t have the time. It was originally planned that further colonists would come to help us build our colony, and that they would bring with them the necessary technology to help us, but when we crashed here on Genesis, we were never able to re-establish contact with our Church, and they must have thought that we were all dead. The first fifty years were very much like the first fifty years that the original settlers must have endured on the east coast of America, back in the seventeenth century on Earth, the battle to survive. That we managed to hold on to our level of technology says a lot about our ancestors, and it is only during the last one hundred years that our population has been able to grow. Now we have established a number of villages to serve our farmers, and if this mini ice age hadn`t started, or if our new enemy hadn`t made itself know to us, we would have begun to colonise the rest of this world."

Chapter Nine

The Original Owners of Genesis

The Morning of January 20th

The Defender lifted off from the township on Genesis to the cheers of its people, a people who now hoped that their future was now safe. Tyler felt more at ease in his mind about the colonists of Genesis after meeting them at the celebrations of last night, but he still wanted to get to know them a little more before fully trusting them. Some of them were undoubtedly strange, but amongst any group of people this was always so.

With the ship now on its way, Tyler asked Colin Freeman to turn on their defence shields, to ensure that they were safe from any attack as they flew low over the lush green countryside of Genesis. Tyler then ordered Colin Freeman to switch on the cloaking device as they quickly approached the area of the planet where the scanning field, that Colin had discovered, was located. The colonists tripped this field when they had travelled through it to try to begin their mining operations. It had told their attacker that there were interlopers in its vicinity, and it then launched its ferocious attacks on the mining parties. Colin had identified an area that should be shielded from the sensor, it lay behind a large hill; this would also prevent a repeat attack from the powerful energy weapon. They slipped through the scanning field without any sign that their ship had been observed, their cloak successfully hiding them from the city`s sensors, finally they landed behind the large hill. From its sheer size, Tyler saw that it should provide the landing team with the cover they required to start their covert operation.

"Okay Paul, I will contact you on the short-wave radio when we have taken all of our equipment out of the Defenders hold. If you will then take the Defender out of the planet`s atmosphere, you should be able to operate far more easily than inside of it. You can also provide us with updates on our attacker; we will contact you on the short-wave radios when we want you to begin any operations against our foe. Don`t forget to turn on the defence shields and then to re-cloak the ship before you move out of the protection given by this hill, or you might find yourself immediately under attack from our new enemy." Tyler ordered. "Also, when you climb up through the planet`s atmosphere, you may be given away by your heat signature, so I suggest that you fly out across the sea for a while before taking her up, so as to be well out of sight of our friend with the itchy finger."

"Don`t worry Tyler; I will take good care of the Defender." Paul promised.

The landing party consisted of Tyler, Caroline, Appolon, Tryon, Charles Bragg, Colin Ryan and ten men from the local defence force. Tyler had decided to allow them aboard the Defender, but they travelled in the ship`s hold where they were under the watchful eye of the remainder of the landing party, with the exception of Tyler who joined them after the ship landed. The men from the local defence force were able to look with awe upon the massive plasma weapon that sat in the hold of the Defender, and accompanied them on their journey.

"Right everyone let`s move all of the equipment we are taking with us out of the hold, and allow the Defender to move off." Tyler ordered.

Soon two of the portable force fields had been unloaded from the ship together with a portable translator that they had obtained from amongst the remains of the broken Heliot fleet. The remainder of their equipment consisted of food, water, and a heavy portable plasma cannon, also looted from the broken Heliot space fleet. They watched wistfully as the Defender first turned on its defence shields, then it re-cloaked and disappeared from their view. Moments later, they heard it as its engine lifted the heavy ship and took it away from the ground; the force of its engines lifting off blew an enormous amount of dust and air about making the landing party turn away from it until it had finally departed.

"The city is about ten miles away through the woodland that starts on the other side of this hill, so we should sight it no later than three hours from now, depending on the terrain. Charles will take over the command while we travel through the woodland, as he is far more experienced at this sort of thing than I am." Tyler said to the assembled men. Charles Bragg now came forward and spoke to the assembled team.

"Okay Appolon, you take point, Tryon you are tale end Charlie, Tyler will you and Caroline follow behind me. Colin will you bring up the rear of the main column, the rest of you do not make any noise, which means that no one talks until I tell you to. Move out in single file on my command and try to keep a yard or so between each man, stay alert and keep one eye on Appolon at all times." Charles Bragg looked at his men before finishing off his orders.

"Okay, let`s move out, quietly."

Colin Ryan was put at the rear of the main column to keep the local men under control, that and to also keep them from getting killed, he was a marine of the first order who had been in this situation many times before, and like Appolon he knew the correct way to act in any given situation. With these worries out of the way Charles Bragg could concentrate on what he did best, commanding the team. Colin Ryan had thought that he was done with this sort of operation, seems he was wrong, but he kept all such thoughts private.

**********

Paul Divine was already regretting his decision to stay behind on Persephone. It was not that he did not like spending time with Alice Tarraway; it was that the entire population was very committed to their religion. He knew that it was a good thing for the religion and its followers, but it was not so good for someone like Paul Divine, who held different thoughts about such things. His thoughts on many of the ideas that their church taught its followers were that they were just so much garbage, and he could not believe that they were taken seriously by intelligent people, but then religion is more about faith than actually facts, and the proof that may or may not lie behind them. Each day he went for a long walk to get away from the daily sermon, it was good exercise for him, but he realised that he could not live this sort of life amongst a religious people without drawing apart from the one reason that had decided him to stay on, to spend a little time with Alice Tarraway. He would leave when the Defender returned. It was too early in their relationship to expect Alice to leave with him; he could not believe that she meant so much to him after so short a time. Maybe he had secretly been yearning for a more settled life, and with someone to share it.

**********

The landing party on Genesis walked along an animal trail that took them around the massive hill, behind which they had landed, and into the woodland beyond it, Appolon`s eyes and ears taking in every sound, every movement, as he moved silently along a narrow animal trail that led them ever closer to the ruined city. Over his shoulder, he carried a very silent and very lethal weapon, his longbow, and in his belt, he carried his sharp knife made by the artisans of Orion of that magical metal from Earth called steel. He was, and would always be a warrior chieftain of Orion, and no one who knew him doubted his skill as a fighter of the first rank. Unfortunately, to Appolon`s ears the main party crashed along like a troop of elephants with only a few exceptions, Charles Bragg was happy though, for to him the noise was at an acceptable level. Tryon at the rear was similarly armed, as was Caroline, and both of them moved along as silently as Appolon. Unlike the other members of the party, the three warriors were not armed today with a Heliot plasma weapon. On Orion, they had seen the terrible power of a powerful plasma weapons, when the Heliot army had been massacred in one bloody moment. They had decided to reject these terrible weapons and use their traditional weapons. That is unless they were certain that their opponents were armed with energy weapons, and then it would be necessary to carry the powerful Heliot plasma weapons. Here on Genesis they didn`t expect to encounter anything more lethal than the local wildlife, they had agreed with their friends that the ruined city was dead, and that their enemy must be a machine of great power, plasma weapons were not necessary on this mission, and if they were, then there were enough of them amongst their companions.

Charles Bragg stopped as he saw Appolon come to a standstill some thirty yards ahead of the main party and signal back for silence. Then Appolon walked slowly back, he gave the impression that he was not concerned about anything, but to those who had fought many wars, his returning so easily told them, and Charles Bragg in particular, that all was not well. Tyler and Caroline both stopped in their tracks and threw a hasty glance in the others direction before concentrating on Appolon.

"We have company Charles Bragg, ahead of us there are about fifty men, they seek to take us unawares, I believe them to be armed only with bows, but bows can kill just as easily as plasma weapons, only much more silently." Appolon said.

"They are warriors then if they are armed only with bows, will they let us through without a fight?" Bragg asked Appolon, for no other man knew more about fighting warriors than he did.

"If they had thought that we were kouvelia, they would have attacked us by now, our formation tells them that we are also warriors, they may listen to reason, if you want me to talk with them, I should take Caroline and Tryon with me?" Kouvelia were an animal very similar to the rabbit back on Earth.

Charles Bragg turned to the local men clustered around him. "Do any of you know anything about the natives that live around here?"

The local men who comprised the local defence force did not need to think about their response.

"Sorry Colonel, but the energy weapon always fired upon us as soon as we got near to the site of the mine, we have never been this far to the east of the continent before, and we have never encountered a native population."

Bragg now called back along the line to his friend.

"Colin, relieve Tryon and tell him to get his ass up here." Looking back at the local men, Bragg ordered them all to get off the track and to spread out in readiness for any attempt to attack them.

"Tyler, I think that we should do as Appolon advises, we should allow him to approach the natives along with Tryon and Caroline, and they should attempt to parley with the natives, to see if we can get by them without having to resort to using our weapons on them." Charles Bragg said. "While we could certainly shoot enough of them quickly enough to scare them off, I am thinking about the future relationship between the colonists and the natives, for it would not be desirable from the view of either groups to start a war." Charles Bragg said.

"It sounds extremely risky to me, our small party must look easy pickings from where they stand, and I would rather stun a lot of them now and worry about politics later." Tyler said to Charles Bragg and Appolon, who had joined them.

"No Tyler." Appolon said. "These people should be treated with the same respect that the native people on Orion demand, we will try it my way first, if it fails then you can come in with the cavalry." Appolon insisted, using another of Tyler`s phrases, which were rapidly coming back into favour, at least amongst the native people of Orion that is. Tyler did not like his wife and two friends going into the lion`s den and said so but Caroline backed Appolon on this subject, and joined in the discussion.

"Tyler, we went into your lion`s den on Orion, and were able to leave safely, we shall do so again here on Genesis, especially as we have the rest of the team to back us up." It was settled as far as Caroline was concerned.

Appolon led Tryon and Caroline forward; Appolon now carried a small microphone, it was clipped to the neck of his shirt, into which he would speak. On his belt, he carried a transmitter that sent both what he said and what the natives said back to the lightweight translator carried upon one of the local defence forces back. It had been quickly programmed by Colin Ryan so that it knew that this was a first contact situation with an aboriginal people. It would search for something to recognise in the native's words regarding this subject and then relay it back to the earpieces that each of them wore, an earpiece that would hopefully receive a translation of whatever the natives of Genesis said. They hoped that the natives would hear their own language from a small speaker that was incorporated into the transmitter.

Tyler watched as the proceedings unravelled, he too wore an earpiece so he could listen into the hoped for conversation, his hand was on his plasma pistol, and his heart was anxious for his wife and his friends.

Appolon brought the three of them to a halt some twenty yards short of where the natives were concealed, and called to them in the language of the natives of Orion; it was some twenty seconds before the natives moved out of the undergrowth and edged forward. At first, there was a disjointed conversation where no one amongst the two groups could make the other understand what was being said, then the translator finally locked onto something, and slowly Appolon could begin to talk to the warriors confronting him and his friends, and slowly they began to understand what was being said. The translator was finally almost word perfect as the warriors reached a decision on how to treat the strangers to their land.

"You are trespassers on the land given to our people by the gods, and you must pay for your crime."

This sentence preceded a rush by the natives who grabbed their arms and led them away, laughing and jeering at the newcomer's foolishness at handing them an easy victory. The native warriors slowly retreated away from Tyler and the main part of the landing party clashing their spears against the shields that each warrior carried, as they sang out a song of victory, each horrific word coming to Tyler through his earpiece told of what they intended to do with their captives.

"Caroline, Tryon, I am sorry for leading you both into this, but don`t worry we will get safely through." Appolon said as he was led away with the terrible words of their captor`s song ringing in his ears.

"Appolon, I am not worried about the situation, it is Tyler that I am worried about, he will be very angry with me, how many times has he had to save our lives now?" Caroline wailed.

"It must be quite a number of times now." Tryon answered.

"Don`t worry Caroline; I will take the blame for all of this." Appolon said as he tried to comfort Caroline.

"I am his wife, I should have done as he asked, and not followed the lead of my brother, who was obviously having a brain storm." Caroline said looking contemptuously upon her brother.

"Caroline you are quite correct; you should have stood by your man." Tryon agreed, although whether he was being serious or not Caroline was not sure, he had successfully kept his smile from appearing on his face.

"I just hope that he isn`t too hard on the natives." Caroline said, ignoring Tryon`s facetious remark. The three Orionists were in fact making light of their situation to keep their spirits up, and anyway they knew that Tyler would save them from the clutches of these very savage natives.

Tyler did not waste a moment, for even a second could see his wife and friends killed by the native warriors, but he need not have worried, for the natives were saving them for their celebrations of the coming week, where the captives would be the main course in the feast that was planned. He immediately resumed command of the landing team without any complaints from a worried Charles Bragg.

Tyler and the rest of the landing party slowly advanced along the animal track, keeping a careful watch for another trap. Their three key players in this sort of country were prisoners of a savage tribe of natives, and they now had to rely on their own limited senses, Tyler`s mind, and the fates that had brought Tyler to this far off world. Soon a native village came into view half a mile ahead, it was surrounded by a stout stockade and filled with shouting natives, who must have realised that the landing party had followed their warriors to their village. Tyler stopped within sight of the large open entrance to the village.

"Come into my den said the lion." Tyler whispered to himself. Behind him there was a large hill overlooking the village and it would give a good vantage point. In front of him and waiting for her man to come and rescue her once again was Caroline Burrows, or Caroline of the red plains, as she was formally known to the native people of Orion. The natives had dragged their struggling captives to a dark and dirty hut, and thrown them inside.

"You shall all pay for this insult. My man will come and turn your village into a burning ruin, your women will lose their menfolk, and your children will be without their fathers." Caroline screamed out at the villagers who simply laughed at her words, clashed their spears once more against their shields, and jeered at her.

"There must be at least a hundred warriors in the village; Tyler will have his work cut out to get our foolish hides out of this one." Appolon lamented.

"Tyler defeated one thousand Heliot troopers and a space cruiser back on Orion, what trouble will he have with these savages." Tryon said, for his faith in his friend knew no boundaries. Caroline looked over at Tryon and smiled at him.

"You are correct Tryon, and as I said often before, I just hope that he is not too rough on them, or on me." She added for she knew that Tyler must be very worried by now.

Outside of the native village, Tyler had decided on a plan of action, and he explained it to the landing party. Charles Bragg said it was audacious, but it might give them the chance to win through, and without too much violence on their part.

"Charles take Colin and a couple of the local defence force, and carry the heavy plasma cannon up to the top of that hill and wait for my orders over the radio, as I said I will be asking you to destroy the odd hut, hopefully that should do it." The heavy plasma cannon resembled an extra-large machine gun and was quite heavy and rather bulky. The weapon had been carried by two members of the local defence force, just in case they had to use it against their unknown foe.

"Charles, signal me when you are ready, and then I will enter the village."

With that Charles, Colin and the two locals manhandled the heavy plasma cannon across the rough ground and then up the steep incline that overlooked the village. At the bottom of the hill one of the local men stepped forward; he was the leader of the small local force, Peter Collinson.

"I just hope our real enemy doesn`t begin firing on our men when they start using the plasma cannon." He said. Collinson was twenty-five years in age and stood five feet nine inches tall with brown hair and bright alert brown eyes to match.

"Yes, their weapon`s fire may well give away their position; we will just have to distract him if it looks like he is about to fire on them." Tyler decided to put a call into his friends aboard the Defender.

"Colin, we have run into a little trouble down here and are about to fire our heavy plasma cannon, it might just bring us to the attention of whatever fired upon us yesterday. Please keep a close eye on that energy weapon, if it powers up when things start to happen down here, remind him that you are there also, but keep cloaked as much as possible and move your position frequently." Tyler said.

"We will be careful Tyler."

After what seemed like a lifetime to Tyler, Charles radioed in at last to say that they were ready. Tyler looked at the eight men from the local defence forces who were still with him.

"Okay men, I may need you to provide back up if things do not go according to the script, so be ready to lay down covering fire, set your weapons on stun only, and be ready to protect the rest of the landing party that went and got themselves captured. Hopefully we will all re-join you here soon."

Tyler then moved off towards the village speaking into a microphone clipped to his shirt, he now also wore a transmitter on his belt. Tyler turned up the speakers to full volume so that he would sound much angrier and more powerful to the native villagers awaiting him.

"You people in the village, you have made your god very angry with you for stealing from his son. You took the woman that keeps his son warm at night and the men that stand watch over his hut." Tyler`s voice boomed across the village as he entered through the stockade and walked confidently towards the astounded natives.

"I asked my father not to kill you all, but he demands that you are reminded of his power. He demands the burning sacrifice of that hut over there." Tyler pointed to an exceptionally large hut near to the edge of the stockade; its occupants screamed and ran hastily from it in case this stranger really was the son of their god.

"That hut now belongs to my father, so he will take it up to his realm so that his women can live in it."

A bolt of energy whistled down from the hill behind Tyler to turn the large rectangular hut into a flaming pyre. A groan went up from the natives in front of Tyler and they moved back a couple of paces, scared as much by the high-pitched whistling noise of the energy bolt as it tore through the air, as of what it accomplished when it hit the hut, even so they also began to raise their spears and threaten him.

"You insult my father by threatening his son, father please destroy that hut over there to teach your people some manners."

This hut looked very much like the hut of the local witch doctor, for it had shrunken heads fixed to it along with various pieces of greenery and various bodies of dead birds, and that is why Tyler chose this as his next target. Again, a bolt of pure energy whistled down from the hill to ignite the straw that made up the roof of the hut. The owner of the hut screamed in rage and rushed into the hut to gather up his most prized possessions.

"You will give up my woman and my two men now, or else the whole village will burn, with your corpses on the pyre as sacrifices to my father." Tyler`s voice boomed out across the village, and moments later, he saw his own prized possession being hustled forward along with two very sorry but relieved men.

"Remember this day people of the one and only true god, and offer a sacrifice of an animal up to my father each year on this day, or you will have to enjoy another of my father`s thunderbolts."

Tyler then bravely walked towards his woman, who playing her part cowered away and ran from the village with two very relieved warriors. To show his contempt for them Tyler then turned his back on the natives and walked calmly from the village to return to his waiting friends.

"Once again we are in your debt my friend." Appolon said. Caroline approached Tyler with her head bowed.

"I am sorry for not listening to your advice my husband." Caroline said softly.

"You did what you thought was best Caroline, it is one of the reasons why I love you so much, so please don`t change, always do so or I would be very disappointed my darling wife." Tyler said as he took her in his arms and kissed her. He then spoke in a whisper so that only she could hear.

"Tonight, you can make up for your bad ways woman." As Caroline looked up at him, she saw the smile that covered his face and replied in a whisper.

"Tonight, I will make up for my bad ways my husband." Caroline said softly to him. Tyler then looked over at the landing party who had watched the events with grins on their faces.

"Come on let`s find Charles and the others. Tryon, watch our rear, Appolon you had better take point again."

In five minutes, they came across their four missing members, they had kept watch on the village for a few extra minutes in case more of their persuasion was needed, but the natives were too busy putting out the fires to think of chasing after the son of their god. It was now that the crew of the Defender called the landing party.

"Tyler, we have been scanning the ruined city to try and find out some more about it, we have discovered what may well be tunnels that run from outside of the force field which surrounds the city, to inside of the city itself. We cannot tell if the tunnels are still in use but one starts in what seems to be a large cave near to a very tall tree, you cannot miss it for you are walking straight towards it." Colin Freeman said.

"Thanks Colin, that should save us the job of looking for the back door. Is everything all right up there?" Tyler asked.

"We have moved off to the far side of the old ruined city, we are almost on the horizon to keep out of the way for the moment because the light show up here was a little too bright at times for comfort. I am afraid that our scanning of the city brought us to the attention of our enemy of yesterday. One thing though, the power behind the last of the energy bolts were not as powerful as the first. How is everything down there, is everyone all right?"

"Yes, thanks to some good marksmanship from Charles and Colin. It is interesting about the power drop that you recorded, maybe who or whatever is firing at you is running low on fuel, now could be the best time to try and get into the city." Tyler answered.

"Good luck to you all, we will wait to hear from you when you want another diversion."

Appolon came over to Tyler so that he could talk over what had happened regarding the savages.

"Tyler, I misjudged those native people, never did I ever imagine that people could be so savage, apart from our own Troglodytes, never have I seen such a barbaric people, how on earth did you know them for what they were?" Appolon asked.

"No Appolon, it was you who did the correct thing, you ensured that the native people were treated with respect, and that their rights were not ridden over by a more advanced civilisation. I may have been correct about their intentions this time, but it was sheer luck. Next time we will discuss the matter more fully, so as to strike a balance between our opposing views. Your people are too civilised to ever to be able to imagine a people who have sunk so low, and so this time you were wrong. Back in my own time, there were many such people, some religious, some just hungry for power. If anything, the people of my time were even worse than these people here, for my people had so much, but some amongst them were filled with hate, others with greed or envy. I am a product of my time so I am less inclined to trust strangers, which is probably why I didn`t trust the colonists on Genesis immediately." Then Tyler turned to the others. "Come on everyone it`s time to head for the ruined city, and that tunnel that our friends on the Defender found."

**********

On Persephone, Paul Divine had decided to tell Alice of his thoughts and his decision to leave Persephone.

"Alice I will be leaving Persephone as soon as the Orion Defender returns. Unfortunately, these few days here on Persephone have brought all my earlier worries home to me, although it is peaceful and oh so beautiful here, I cannot take all of the religion that fills everyone`s lives. They are good people, I know that, but their thoughts are not my thoughts. Eventually I would explode and be forced to leave in disgrace. If I leave now it will be easier on us both, before our feelings for one another grow even stronger." Paul Divine said, looking into her eyes and instantly regretting his words.

"Paul, are you saying that you have strong feelings for me already?" Alice asked a little confused by what Paul Divine had said.

Paul looked down at the beautiful woman before him and realised for the first time that he was indeed falling in love with her, and should he be forced to leave her, yes, he would feel extremely bad for some time to come. "I guess I am Alice." Paul confessed.

"Paul, what are you saying, what is it that you want me to do?" Alice Tarraway asked him.

"I don`t know Alice, all I do know is that I will miss you a lot. Look, couldn`t you take a sabbatical or something, come away me so that we can get to know each other a little better?" Paul said.

"Paul, I just wish that there was some way in which we could stay together for a little longer, but you are asking a great deal of me. Surely there is no great rush, let me think about it before I finally give you my answer." Alice asked.

"The only way for us that I can see, would be for you to leave Persephone and come away with me, to the Martian colony where religion is not nearly as strong as here on Persephone, or to Orion. There you could take up your scientific work again maybe with Brian Goddard, I could work as one of Tyler Burrows` space men, and he needs more men so as to allow the local men to stay at home on their farms."

"Tyler is too bright a star to follow Paul, sooner or later he will turn into a super nova and anyone around him will burn up too." Alice said.

"Alice you are wrong, the fates, or as you would say God, still has much more in store for Tyler, he is truly indestructible." Paul Divine said.

"Let me think about it Paul, and in the meantime, we can get to know more about each other, to talk and to learn what life might be like if we became a couple."

**********

On Earth, the Church of the Universe was in a state of unrivalled excitement. The news had just come through about the finding of their first space colony; it was safe in the depths of space, and near to their latest colony planet, Persephone. The first thought that entered Archbishop Donald Forest`s mind was that he would have to get in contact with the space vessel that had found them, the Orion Defender. A starship from another of their colony worlds, how right it was for their oldest colony world to be found by a spacecraft from one of their worlds, and while it was escorting a colony starship to their newest colony world. Archbishop Forest hurried through the beautifully decorated rooms of his large imposing temple to the communications centre. In here messages could be sent to all of their temples, whether on Earth or out in the depths of eternal space. Inside the large room, three full time staff operated the sophisticated communications console in one of three shifts; the temple was never closed. The woman in charge of the day shift turned around when she heard someone enter the room, and on seeing the Archbishop, she jumped up.

"Your Grace, what can I do for you?" Shirley Rogers asked. She was a devoted member of the church and was devoted to the Archbishop; his wish was always her command.

"I want to send a message to the space craft, the Orion Defender, the starship which found our first colony world Genesis. Ask them to pass on our greetings to our long-lost brethren on the planet of Genesis, tell them that we are dispatching a ship from Earth that will depart in eighteen hours` time. Please ask them to forward a list of any requirements that the colony may require. They should endeavour to let us have it in good time so that it can be included. Also tell them that we are sending on the ship a new communications centre so that they will be able to communicate with all of the other temples in the galaxy."

"Right away you`re Grace." Shirley turned about and immediately got down to typing the message out onto the computer keyboard in front of her that would then send the message across the depths of space to a starship orbiting a planet in the far of spiral arm of Perseus.

**********

On board the Orion Defender, Paul Johnson took the ship away from the area around the ruined city and dropped down behind the hill where the landing party had disembarked. He did this to screen the ship from bombardment while Colin Freeman sent the message that they had just received from Earth onto the township, in the township this message was received with joy and excitement. They were no longer alone; John Anderson immediately began to formulate a list of their requirements, food and Dylithium crystals being amongst the first of the items that they required.

Back behind the hill, the Defender took off and returned once again to its Geo-stationary orbit that positioned it thirty degrees above the planet`s horizon, giving the ship a clear view of the city. Here they hoped to be safely clear of any more of their enemy`s powerful energy bolts. The crew of the Defender awaited developments with trepidation, why could not their enemy be less powerful than they were, just this once.

**********

The landing party had no further trouble with the natives of Genesis as they travelled through the woodland; it was now only filled with the sounds of nature. There were no signs that a city of unknown antiquity was near, nature had buried everything beneath a covering of leaves and soil, any walls had now returned to the constituents that made them, or were pulled down and covered beneath a wall of green plants. It was not until they were within a mile of the ruined city that the woods gave way to a land where flowers and grass predominated, they saw their first signs that buildings had once stood here. The remains of walls looking out from the mass of vegetation that would all too soon destroy these remnants of the work carried out by the ancients of Genesis. It was then they saw the city as it began to rise majestically from the behind the trees before them. All around the city, they saw the latest of the many shimmering energy barriers that had kept nature at bay for eons, and kept the landing party from obtaining entry into its hidden depths. As the city`s reserves of power slowly ran down, so it brought the force field nearer to the ruined city.

*********

The city was fifty thousand years old and had been the capital city of one of the two powerful cultures, ones which had once lived upon the beautiful world of Genesis. War had broken out for reasons that were not sufficient to allow the deaths of billions of the inhabitants of this world to happen. There were now few signs of their cities, or that an intelligent civilisation had once thrived on the planet. Up until two hundred years ago, only a few thousand savages had dwelt here, a few thousand twisted souls and an all-powerful being built by the dying victors of a war that destroyed a world. Then two hundred years ago, a starship had arrived with five hundred hope-filled colonists, fleeing a similar world governed by intolerance and hate. The all-powerful being had slept for thousands of years, for no one now dwelt within the city, the savage natives had become too scared of its ruins to even venture near to its stone walls. On sensing the arrival of the starship, the computer had awakened from its sleep and had fired an energy bolt up at the ship. It had damaged the ship causing it to crash land upon the planet, the being never thought that the five hundred souls within the damaged ship could have survived its attack; it had been wrong, for Genesis was born from its broken hulk.

Chapter Ten

The Ruined City

The Afternoon of January 20th

The landing party finally reached the ruined city in the middle of the afternoon, this was later than Tyler had intended, for the tribe of savage natives had delayed them. As Tyler stood before the force field that surrounded the city, his short-wave radio sprang into life.

"Tyler the energy weapon within the city is powering up, we might be its intended victim, but it seems more likely that your team is its intended victim, as we are still cloaked." Colin Freeman said.

"Thank you, Colin, we will turn on our portable force fields while we look for that secret underground entrance that you found."

No sooner had they set up the force fields than a powerful bolt of energy angled down upon them to strike the force fields. The force fields both held, but their store of energy within the Dylithium crystals that powered the force fields was being rapidly depleted. Then from out of the sky a bright light screamed down from the heavens to strike at the city, the Defender had arrived back above the city to help the landing party, and once more remind the city about the enormous amount of energy that the Heliot plasma weapon could supply from the Heliot hyperspace engine. A dome of iridescence sprang out from the city, to bathe it in a strong light. Tyler took out the tracer that Brian Goddard had provided him with to find the equipment stolen by the Aldebran spies. Turning it on, he read the power levels coming from the city, to begin with the readings were off the scale, but slowly they became readable, the city was short of power, especially when faced by the power of Heliot technology. The city had now stopped firing at the landing party and turned its weapon upon the Defender and their friends.

"Come on everyone, the large tree that Colin told us about must be that one over there, the mouth of the cave must be nearby, the Defender will have to move away soon, so we need to find cover within the cave and see if there is a tunnel inside of it."

With those words the landing party rushed across as fast as it was possible to do so, what with all of the equipment they had to carry, the tall tree resembled the Banyan tree of Earth and must have been very old, for it was now of an immense size. There before the tree lay the cave`s gaping mouth, the ground dropped vertically some twenty feet to a dirt-strewn floor. One of the local defence team moved forward, it was Peter Collinson.

"I have some rope here if you will help me tie it around the trunk of this tree I will climb down; I`m a bit of a mountaineer in my spare time so this will prove to be a bit of cake for me." Tyler helped Peter tie the strong coil of rope around the massive girth of the tree and then watched as Peter clambered down. Soon Peter was within the large cave entrance.

"It is enormous down here, the cave goes back quite a way, but as my team have brought torches with us, we should be okay, if you want to come down."

Tyler`s short wave radio sprung into life, it was the Defender of course.

"Got to go now, we will be around though when you need us next time." Colin Freeman said.

The tremendous noise from the energy battle that had raged above their heads suddenly stopped, the Defender had moved out of orbit and so out of the range of the enormous power of the ruined city.

"Let`s go and explore this cave before we are found again by the city." Tyler ordered. "Let`s get the equipment down there first though."

Very quickly, they lowered the force fields and then the large plasma cannon; these were followed by all the rest of their equipment. The landing party now climbed down until there was only Tyler and Caroline left standing before the large hole. A massive bolt of energy screamed down to blast a hole in the ground just feet away from them hurling them both into the cave. They hit the hard ground hard, and lay still while their frantic friends tried to revive them. Tyler finally awoke to find Tryon bathing his head with a wet cloth. Smiling up at his friend he looked across at Caroline who had not moved since hitting the ground, slowly and painfully he crawled towards her.

"Caroline, are you all right." Tyler called out, he feared the worse, for he had hit the ground hard, and although he thought that nothing was broken, it was very painful to move. Appolon had already reached his sister and taken her in his arms, resting her head against his chest while Charles Bragg was tending to her in the same way as Tryon was treating his friend.

"Caroline are you all right? Please speak to me." Appolon groaned. His voice was filled with the same fear that Tyler felt for Caroline.

A single blue eye opened and looked up at him. "What hit me?" Then she remembered. "Tyler, is he all right?" She cried, for she thought that it should have been him holding her.

"I`m all right Caroline, just a little sore I think." Tyler said to her as he finally reached her and took her hand in his. "How about you, are you all right darling?" He asked smiling across at her.

"Yes, I think so, but let`s not do that again darling." Caroline said. A weak smile appeared on her face as she finally saw her husband`s face appear before her.

Tyler finally found the strength to take his wife from his friend and they held each other as the others sighed with relief and got back to the task in hand, for they had a cave system to explore, and so they looked into the deepest recesses of this enormous hole in the ground. Miraculously the ruined city had left them alone after the last bolt of energy that had almost killed Tyler and Caroline. They now hoped that they were out of its reach, at least for the present. Tyler looked at Caroline and then kissed her. Caroline smiled up at him.

"I wasn`t worried about you my darling, for you are the chosen one of the gods, but I would have chosen a less painful way to get down here."

Tyler smiled at his beautiful wife and thanked the gods for giving her to him, and for looking after her. Away from them and oblivious to their bruised bodies, Peter Collinson was urging his team forward.

"Come on lads we cannot be seen to leave everything to these men from Orion, this is our planet, our future, so let`s find the entrance to the tunnel, if it is here to be found."

One of his team, John Weston, seemed unsure about this though; he was the youngest of the team and was only nineteen years of age. "That energy ray up there is one powerful weapon, if we do find a way through, we will be just getting nearer to being killed by it." Weston wailed.

"John we may die if we proceed, but anyone who stays behind will have to explain for the rest of his life just why he never went on with the others, never risked his life for his family, do you really want to be the one to have to do that for the rest of your life?" John Weston thought for a moment only, and then he moved forward towards the back of the cave.

"No, I would rather risk any danger rather than that, let`s get stuck into it lads." The other members of his team smiled at John Weston, and then they too began to get stuck into the task in hand.

Tyler and the others from the Defender allowed the locals to start the search for the hidden tunnel, they needed to work for their planet, they needed to find the tunnel entrance while the team from the Defender, well they could take a back seat for the moment. Tyler looked around at the cave entrance; straight away, he could see signs of civilisation, the tunnel had probably proceeded further along before the tree had grown and destroyed this section of the tunnel, bringing the roof down and creating the cave mouth and blocking off the rest of the tunnel.

Mark Falcon, of the local defence team was also an amateur potholer, he was a short, thin man of thirty years of age, and it was Mark who found the first clue to where the tunnel was. A musty smell was wafting towards him; it was carried on the faintest of breezes that was emanating from the very rear of the cave.

"Peter, I think the tunnel is over here, will you help me to shift some of these rocks."

In a moment, all of the local defence team were moving the rocks out of the way, and then Mark shouted out again.

"I see it, it is just ahead, just a couple more of these rocks and we will be through." Then Mark was scrambling through the hole followed by John Weston, his initial fears had dissipated, or at least he had them under control.

Soon all of the sixteen members of the team were through into the tunnel, the torches of the local men showed that the tunnel had indeed been made by the ancient civilisation. Its sides now though were covered in a moss like substance and its floor was littered with small animal droppings and was a little slippery underfoot, but apart from the insects that were everywhere, it made for easier going than they had met above ground.

"Let`s move out, but I would suggest silence unless you have something to say that cannot wait." Tyler warned. The team moved off along the dark tunnel, lit only by their powerful torches.

"How long will your torches last?" Tyler asked Peter Collinson in a voice that was barely even a whisper.

"Oh, they will last for twenty four hours or longer so there is no problem as far as they are concerned." Peter Collinson answered likewise.

The relative quiet of the musty tunnel was broken by the sound of large explosions above ground causing the dust of ages to rain down from the ceiling, along with large pieces of wall tiles that narrowly missed Caroline.

"Tyler, our enemy seems to be firing blind in the hope of finding us." Charles Bragg shouted above the noise of the large explosions above their heads.

Just then, a complete section of the tunnel crashed to the floor behind them, effectively blocking their exit.

"Maybe he isn`t quite so blind Charles. Let`s move it everyone, he can`t fire at us once we get beneath the city, hopefully." Tyler called out while throwing a protective arm around Caroline and hurrying forward towards the darker part of the tunnel, and hopefully, safety.

Tiles and dust continued to rain down upon their heads as they dashed forward to try to escape the wrath of their enemy. Thankfully, the firing stopped as quickly as it had begun and they were able to complete the rest of the walk in silence, but the walk was soon completed, for they soon came to a door at the other end of the tunnel.

"Peter, is it locked?" Tyler enquired.

"Yes, and after thousands of years it is probably more than just the lock that is preventing us from opening the door. I can see through this broken section of the wall, there is light coming through from the other of side it, and I can see what looks to be the inside of a large building of some sort." Peter Collinson replied, and proceeded to tug at the door.

"Don`t worry all it needs now is a gentle kick, as Peter said, there are fifty thousand years holding that door up." Charles Bragg said confidently. Charles went up to the door and first kicked it and then he helped Peter shove it and then they pulled it and then pushed and finally the metal door began to show signs of moving. It grated in protest as fifty thousand years of dirt and rust held on for a little more, but then it came away in their hands.

"There you are we shall all go to the ball." Charles Bragg declared.

"Charles has been around Tyler for far too long." Colin Ryan announced to everyone. Those who knew Tyler all agreed, and then laughed. Tyler looked at them all with contempt plain upon his face and then smiled as well.

"It shows that unlike the rest of you cretins, he has good taste." He said.

Charles Bragg ignoring all of this walked through the door and found himself at the foot of a flight of stone stairs, they led him up to the giant reception area of a massive building. Its floors were covered in a mixture of dust and rubble, and through its broken windows; he could see more such buildings, that were nothing more than empty skeletons now.

"This might not be quite so easy fellows, which way do we go from here?" Charles Bragg asked.

Tyler walked through the door to join him in the large hall, and then he moved forward to look out of the large open doors while he tried to dust of his clothes. The building stood at the top of the long vertical leg of a T-junction. Another street ran across in front of them to make the top of the T, but soon ended at both ends at the edge of the broken city the only other way was forward down the vertical leg to a large ten-storey building at its end. There was no sign of any animals or plants on this side of the broken door, just of the vast ages that had gone by since anyone had walked along these streets. Anything of organic origin had disappeared, some broken glass was strewn across the road and there was dust and rubble everywhere, but definitely no sign of life.

Tyler took out his tracer that Brian Goddard had supplied him to find the Crystillium device.

"Let`s see if this gizmo will point the way, oh and everyone had better take a moment to think before they do anything from now on, whoever has been shooting at us probably knows that we are now in the city, and could well be lining up one of his weapons on us right now."

Tyler turned his tracer on and slowly turned it in a half circle, the tracer went mad as soon as it pointed through the large open doorway and down along the wide boulevard that was the vertical leg.

"You may have been right Tyler, when you said our enemy was a computer, nothing has lived inside of this city for at least fifty thousand years or more." Peter Collinson said.

"What is that shimmering down at the far end of this street; it is in front of that tall impressive looking building with the large entrance doors?" Caroline asked.

"It is another force field; it appears to go right around the building, I think we have found what we have all been looking for." Colin Ryan said.

"And all we have to do is walk on down there." Tyler said. "I believe this is when we have to be very careful, because we will be very exposed once we leave the cover of this building."

"Yes, my friend, it is an obvious place for a trap, what are not so obvious are the ones he may expect us to walk into while we try to circumvent the most obvious one." Appolon said.

"The one good thing is that he probably cannot use his main weapon in here, unfortunately we don`t know what other weapons he possesses, if any." Colin Ryan said. All the while, no one had moved from the spot that they had been in when Caroline had first seen the shimmering.

"Well you are all forgetting about my tracer, it should be able to tell us about any other energy weapons. Any other conventional weapons will be useless after all of this time, unless it has some service robots trundling about, which, as I do not see their tracks in the dust, must mean that there are not any, at this end of the street at least. This place does not seem to be a place for booby traps, and if there were ever any of them, then once again they would probably not be in working order now. No, I suggest that Charles and Colin set up our large plasma cannon and fire at the force field to see just what happens, while they do that, I will use the tracer to check out any resulting energy levels."

Five minutes went by while the two ex-marines assembled the heavy weapon, during this time Tyler set up the two portable force fields once again, then they were ready.

"Okay, let`s see if anyone is home." Tyler said.

A powerful energy beam shot forward to strike the force field at the far end of the street, Tyler looked at his tracer, but either the plasma cannon just wasn`t powerful enough to affect the city`s power supply, or they were wrong in thinking that the city was running out of power.

"Turn it off for the moment Charles, it isn`t doing any good. I think that we will have to reconnoitre along the boulevard instead. Tyler said.

"Tyler, I thought that we agreed that it was an obvious trap." Caroline exclaimed loudly, just a little worried that she was about to lose her husband.

"I have been thinking about it and I don`t believe that there was ever a defence system operating within the city. It wouldn`t make sense as the local population would get caught up in any battle, and even if one was installed, as the city began to fall into ruin it cannot be operational now, it would be long gone, dead just like this city is. No, I now believe that the only weapon that the city possesses is the powerful energy beam, and that probably cannot be used inside of the city as long as we stick to whatever cover is available, and keep out of the wide street. This is a city of the dead, a city that is full of nothing more than ghosts." Tyler said.

"If anyone is going to risk their lives walking along that street, then it should be one of us." Peter Collinson said to the consternation of his fellows.

"I will tell what we will do, we will ask the Defender to try to get in contact with the city, see if our enemy is willing to call a truce and talk to us, how about that?" Tyler said. That idea brought universal agreement, that way they could put off the slow dangerous walk beneath the empty shells that lined the wide boulevard.

"Tyler, do you really think that a computer will want to talk terms to a bunch of humanoids?" Charles Bragg asked.

"It is a computer that may have been alive for longer than Earth has a written history, why shouldn`t it want to talk?" Tyler said.

"Well let`s just hope that it hasn`t gone senile in all of that time." Colin Ryan replied.

"Well we may be about to find out." Tyler said before putting in a call to the Defender.

"Defender, are you up there?" Tyler called on the short-wave radio, the only sort of communication system that they carried these days when on such a job.

"We are still here Tyler, what`s up?" Colin Freeman said, answering Tyler`s call.

"I want you to try and contact the ruined city, see if anybody is home apart from us. We are in the city now, we came in via the tunnel that you found, but the city is dead and it has been for some considerable time. Will you see if whatever is shooting at you will consider a truce, ask it if it will allow us to talk with it, we only have our short-wave radio so it is up to you to try to contact it, be careful though." Tyler asked.

"We will be careful Tyler; we will contact you later to let you know if we make contact." Colin Freeman said. "Oh, by the way, can you see a tall hill behind the building which has a force field around it. I have been able to narrow it down and that is where the energy weapon is, right on top to give it a grandstand view of the countryside around the city, and of that long street that runs down towards it. Speak to you later." Colin Freeman now looked across at the rest of the crew of the Defender.

"I think that it might be advisable to keep our eyes and ears open for a while." Colin said and then laughed when Paul Johnson wailed out a reply.

"Colin, when have we ever got the chance to do otherwise? I suppose I ought to let the guys in engineering know just what we are proposing to do, and ask them to be ready to give us all the power we will need if we are attacked again." After ensuring that all aboard the Defender knew exactly what was about to happen, he nodded to Colin.

"Here goes then, we might as well de-cloak the ship to show good faith, but only once we begin broadcasting, for they will know where we are then anyway." Colin Freeman said.

Richard Smith went over to the console where the cloaking mechanism was operated. "You begin broadcasting Colin and then I will switch the cloak off." He said and prepared for the worst.

"Ruined city, this is the starship in orbit above you, we wish to talk with you, please don`t fire upon us, we have deactivated our cloaking device to show good faith, please do likewise by not initiating another attack on us." Colin looked across at Paul and Richard. "Well at least we haven`t been fired upon, I may as well put the message on automatic and continue sending it until we get an answer?"

Moments later a voice came over the radio.

"Who is it that wants to speak to me?" A deep voice asked them.

"This is the space cruiser Orion Defender; our captain is inside your city and it is he who wants to arrange a truce with you. He wants to talk about the war you are waging on the colonists who have made your planet their home." Colin really did not expect whoever or whatever he was talking to, to agree, but he had to ask anyway.

"They are trespassers on my world, they should depart and then the war would be over." Colin wished that Tyler were up there with them, he would know exactly what to say to this machine.

"My captain, Tyler Burrows, has valid reasons to put to you, please contact him, he is in your city now, I am sure that he will be able to persuade you of the validity of his arguments so that you can come to an amicable agreement." Colin reasoned.

"I know that your captain and others that are with him are now inside the city, they somehow circumvented my primary defence shield, I don`t suppose it will take him too long to get by my secondary defence shield, he has already attempted to blast his way in. Yes, I will contact him to arrange a truce, just as you ask." The deep voice agreed.

"Colin you are one really good diplomat." Paul said in admiration. "Tyler could not have improved one bit on that."

Inside the ruined city, Tyler and the other members of the team were waiting to hear from the Defender when a deep voice boomed out.

"Tyler Burrows, you wish to talk with me. Come to the building that your plasma weapon fired upon minutes ago, the defence screen will be lifted while you are inside of this building; a truce will operate from now and through to the time that you have returned to the safety of the building that you are now sheltering within with your friends."

"I guess Colin got through to the Computer then." Tyler said. "Appolon if you don`t mind joining me on my visit, I really would appreciate it." Tyler knew that Appolon would have insisted on joining him anyway but he had decided to ask the question anyway.

"Of course, Appolon and I will accompany you, do you think that after all our adventures together we would abandon you on this alien planet." Caroline stated as she walked to the large open doors. "Well what are you two waiting for?"

Tyler looked across at Appolon who merely shrugged.

"She is your woman now Tyler, I gave up my responsibility as soon as you went and kissed her after that time you went and rescued her from the Troglodytes." Appolon said in answer to Tyler`s silent question.

"Yes, but you might have warned me." Tyler said before turning to Charles Bragg.

"Charles, should we not return, maybe you could come and rescue me, these two the computer can keep." Tyler then turned towards the open doors.

"Take care my friend; we will be waiting for you when you have sorted things out." Charles said.

"Tyler, I think that I should also be present at these talks, as a representative of my people." Peter Collinson said and moved forward to join him.

"Okay Peter, then you had better join us as well. And maybe we should leave our plasma weapons behind as a gesture of good will." Tyler said giving his weapon to Charles Bragg, and then walking through the doors, he joined Caroline and with Appolon and Peter Collinson, who had given his weapon to one of his friends, they walked down the wide boulevard and towards the tall building at the far end of it.

Up on the Defender, Colin Freeman suddenly looked at the computer banks set along one side of the bridge. "Our computers are being scanned, someone is reading them, and at a very fast rate."

"It can only be that computer down on the planet, quickly Paul get us out of here and put the cloaking device back on." Richard Smith said. Paul Johnson quickly pulled the Defender out of its orbit and made a dash for the planet's horizon, but as soon as the cloaking device was switched on, he turned the ship about and re-established their orbit above the old city, but in a different position.

"Shouldn`t we call Tyler and let him know about this?" Colin asked.

"Yes, I think we had better do that."

Minutes earlier the force field at the far end of the boulevard had been shut down. The four of them were able to enter through the glassless open doors of the ancient building without any trouble. As in the other building, this one was no more than a shell; its internal doors were just dust upon the floor, as were the windows that lay in countless thousands of small pieces with them. Tyler and the others were forced to crunch their way across this sad end to this one great building.

"I think that we will have to use the stairs, because I for one don`t think that the elevators are there, never mind the likelihood of them actually working." Tyler said and started walking up them when the deep voice boomed out again.

"No Tyler Burrows, I am downstairs in the basement of this building, only more empty rooms await you on the upper floors of the building."

"Thank god for that, lord knows just how many flights of stairs we would have been forced to walk up otherwise?" Tyler said.

"Ten." the deep voice boomed out in answer to Tyler`s question.

Downstairs was a long corridor with countless rooms all open to inspection for their doors were no more, all were empty now of whatever they had contained. Only one room looked to be in a reasonable condition, and when they entered the room, they saw that it led into a far larger area with a huge computer against one wall of the room and a large view screen upon one of the other walls, the screen showed the ruined city. Along the two side walls there were a collection of machines that were obviously there to keep the computer running and the room clean.

"Your ship is an interesting mixture of technologies, some very advanced and some of a lesser technological age, why is this?" The deep voice asked them.

Tyler was always suspicious of strangers, and you could not get anything stranger than an alien computer that exhibited a large amount of intelligence. Especially one that allowed it to ask such questions, but he wanted something from this one, so he went along with it, for now.

"Because we obtained some of the technology from an ancient civilisation that we now believe to be extinct." Tyler replied.

"I have scanned your computer banks and they tell me that you caused this extinction Tyler Burrows." Just then, the short-wave radio that was hanging across Tyler`s shoulder called to him.

"Tyler, our chum down there has agreed to talk with you, but you should know that the Defender was just scanned and that includes our computer`s memory, you had better be careful, it might be about to pull a fast one on you." Colin Freeman warned.

"That is okay Colin, we are here talking to the computer right now, and he just told us about it, but thanks for letting us know though." Tyler said.

"An interesting communications device Tyler Burrows, I could not detect it, why?" The computer asked.

"That is one secret too many for the moment, but I will answer your previous question. The Heliot`s were an extremely warlike people, not unlike the natives on this planet, only they were far more technologically advanced. They wanted to enslave the universe, and we had to stop them, and we did it in the only way possible against such a powerful race as they were, and with the limited force that we had available to oppose them." Tyler thought it surreal to be defending his actions against a computer.

"Yes, I saw that from what I found within your primitive computer, but now I know that I can trust you to tell me the complete truth, and in turn I promise to do likewise." The computer said, this time in a quieter more human type of voice.

"A computer promises, surely a computer works by logic alone?" Tyler argued.

"I am much more than a computer, in the fifty thousand years that I have been alive I have read all of my world`s literature, and with so much time to ponder on the many points that were raised by some of the better works, I finally evolved into what I can only call a new life form." The computer explained rather haughtily this time.

"A new life form that kills the people of Genesis whenever they try to mine the Dylithium. Something they need to give them the energy to live a modern life, and not degenerate down to the form that the natives of this planet have descended to." Tyler said attacking the computer to see what the result would be as much as to find out an answer to his actual question.

"Although I am a new life form, I am still tied to my old self, for I am still a computer and my programming compels me to protect what is left of the people of this planet against all who trespass upon her. That is the number one command that my makers put into my software." The computer said in rather a sad voice.

"One of my people on Orion could change that command, she could enable you to bring these newcomers to your planet under your protection, rather than attacking them, let me bring her here. The newcomers that you say trespass upon your planet, they don`t only trespass, they also bring a rebirth of civilisation to it, they could take care of the native population and bring them back up to the level from which they fell. Two of these people beside me are my woman and my friend; they are both of the native population of our planet Orion. They can tell you how the coming of the people from Earth has changed many things in their lives for the better. Many parts of their old lives they kept because they think that not everything that Earth offers is for them, but overall their people are better off. Ask them as many questions as you like, they will only confirm what I have already said. The newcomers from Earth are good tidings for this planet, and for its native population."

Never had Tyler spoken about as important a subject as this was, both for the natives of the planet, but also for the colonists. Peter Collinson felt that if Tyler had not now won the day, then nothing short of a nuclear explosion could do so.

The computer took up Tyler`s proposal and questioned Caroline and Appolon for an hour before letting them sink exhausted to floor. They had supported Tyler`s view on most things and the computer was impressed by the way they respected Tyler`s thoughts, even when it went against their own feelings, as had happened that morning with the native population of Genesis. He was even more impressed when they both said that while Tyler had been correct in his initial assessment of the natives, he had amended his way of dealing with them after Caroline and Appolon had added their own thoughts on the matter. For as their friend Charles Bragg had stated, it was important not to damage relations between the colonists and the natives.

"Tyler Burrows, I will allow the colonists to mine the Dylithium on two conditions only. The first condition is that you Tyler Burrows, personally oversee the development of my people. The second condition is that the colonists pay the native population for the Dylithium in food, equipment and education. With you to arrange this, they will be able to prosper and not die during the present cold spell, which will make the finding of food difficult for everyone. If you agree to these two conditions, you may bring your computer expert to Genesis so that she can check over my software and correct any of it where necessary. I will put my trust in you; my life will be yours for the taking, if that is your will Tyler Burrows." Tyler was just a little stunned by the conditions imposed on him and Caroline.

"My help computer, but I am just passing through, I live on Orion." Tyler exclaimed.

"For a minimum period of at least five years, you and your woman must spend one week of each of your Earth months here on Genesis to help my people, and you will continue to do so until you feel your job is done. Do you agree Tyler Burrows?"

A thought flashed through Tyler`s mind. Had the computer had this in mind from the first moment that the Defender had arrived over the planet Genesis, it was only the attack on the Orion Defender and its landing party that made such a thought hard to believe, but was he being done up like a kipper? The computer probably knew that the time limit it had set meant nothing, as Tyler and Caroline would not stop helping the native people until the job was done.

The computer did not just have an energy weapon to use, it also had a powerful radio that it could use to listen into whatever was said in deep space, and it had learned about Tyler Burrows three years ago. It had become an avid fan; much like a human would listen into a terrestrial radio show about a hero in a story. There was a difference in that it did not listen in for the entertainment value, it knew that Tyler had beaten the space pirates on New Earth, knew about the Constellation, it knew that it could retransmit the weak signal sent by the colonists on the planet Genesis to bring Tyler Burrows to help them. Even more importantly to the computer, it needed his help to leave this dead city, and find something more taxing to keep its massive brain from stupefying. The attacks on the Orion Defender, and even on its landing party, had been but a final test to see just what sort of a man Tyler Burrows was, were the myths just that, mere stories, or was there something real to be found amongst them.

"Yes computer, Caroline and I both agree to your terms." Tyler said, finally agreeing to the terms presented to them by the computer.

"Do you agree Caroline of the red plains?" The computer asked Caroline, for it wanted her promise to come from her own lips, rather than from Tyler.

"Yes computer, I agree to your terms also, in fact I am looking forward to starting the rebirth of the local native population. Computer I have a question regarding the native people of this planet." Caroline asked warily, for she had never asked such a computer a question before.

"What is it that you want to know Caroline of the red plains?" The computer asked.

"The natives of this planet never recolonized the area of land where the colonists from Earth landed, why is that?" Caroline asked.

"The memories of the terrible war against the people of that part of our planet were passed down through the generations, and it became a land of the dead where the spirits of their ancestors lived, it was not a land for the living." The computer answered, in a much deeper voice this time.

"Yes, that makes sense, after such a war my people would also have come to believe this." Caroline replied, satisfied with the answer given to her by the city computer.

"As you have both agreed to the terms set before you, in repayment for the time and hard work that you will have to undergo over the next five years, I promise to give you a gift of immense value, what it is I will tell you later. First, you must bring your computer expert from Orion, and you Tyler Burrows must begin to help my people rise again from the dust where they now lie, so that they can once again stand beside the newcomers from Earth on an equal footing." The computer said in what was now Tyler supposed, his happy voice, for it certainly seemed that way to Tyler.

"Computer, will your programming allow us entrance into the city when we return with our friends?" Tyler asked, not wanting to keep having to ask for permission to enter into the ruined city.

"Yes, I will extend the truce indefinitely, to not only allow your starship and yourselves to come and go as you like, but also to allow the colonists to begin to mine the Dylithium."

The short-wave radio around Tyler`s shoulder once more sprang into life.

"Tyler, is everything all right there?" Charles Bragg asked in a concerned voice, for they had not been in contact for at least two hours.

"Yes Charles, it is all okay here, in fact we are just about to wrap it all up, and by the way we now have a peace treaty to beat all peace treaties." Tyler answered delightedly.

"That is marvellous; the people of Genesis will be extremely relieved." Charles Bragg sounded very relieved that his friends were all right, and had once more done the impossible.

"Charles, how would you feel about accepting a new job here on Genesis?" Tyler enquired.

"A new job, just what do you have in mind?" Charles answered, just a little puzzled by the question.

"I will tell you soon, for we will be re-joining you in just a few minutes." Tyler said turning off the radio. They then took leave of the city computer and made their way back to their waiting friends, on the way Tyler asked a question of Peter Collinson.

"Peter, I was thinking of asking Charles Bragg to accept the job of overseeing the payments which the computer insists your people must make to the local people, and of assisting Caroline and me in our allotted task, how do you feel about that?" Tyler asked his new friend.

"The computer made its terms quite clear Tyler. As I see it, the peace treaty first depends on you and Caroline running the relations between the colonists and the natives, and secondly that you and Caroline oversee the development of the natives, so who you chose to help you in this work is entirely up to you. I think that if Charles accepts the post, then he will make a great success of it." Although Peter had known Charles Bragg for only a short time, he was already impressed by what he had seen.

"Good, his wages and any other expenses will of course be paid for by the people of Genesis, but that will be chicken feed compared to the amount of credits your planet will receive from the export of the Dylithium, we are agreed?" Tyler asked.

"We are agreed Tyler, and I will say as much to the council, don`t worry they will never go up against the man who not only saved the colony but also made it wealthy." Peter could not remember feeling quite so relieved, or as happy, as he felt right now.

"Good then, we are agreed." Tyler said.

The computer felt quite lonely when they had all gone, but it knew that its loneliness would be ending soon.

The Defender picked up all of the landing party and took them back to the township, where upon being told of the peace treaty that had been agreed to on their behalf, the entire population erupted in celebration. This time everyone was allowed to join the celebrations without exceptions. Caroline watched as everyone crowded around her Tyler, to shake his hand and thank him, but as per usual, Tyler pointed Caroline and Appolon out and stressed that without them, it would have been impossible, and without the entire crew of the Defender, it might never have happened. He even pointed out the members of the local defence force and thanked them all for their help in bringing peace to the beautiful world. Tyler felt like a film star accepting an Oscar, for they always thanked a multitude of people, the only difference was that he meant it. Tyler then told them that the people of the planet Orion would loan them some Dylithium so that they would be able to energise their planet`s generator. It could be repaid when the mine on Genesis was in full production.

Charles Bragg, on being offered the chance to help the native population to get back on its feet again, jumped at the chance. It would have its dangerous moments, but on Genesis he might be able to meet someone and start a new chapter of his life, for his time on the Constellation had made him feel just a little lonely, he needed a woman in his life.

The next morning the Defender lifted off without Tyler, Caroline and Charles to return first to Persephone to see if Paul Divine wanted collecting, he did, but only so that he could return to Genesis and see Tyler about a job. Paul Divine had to wait though, for first the Defender had to travel to Orion to pick up Brian and Tracy Goddard and of course, the quantity of Dylithium that Orion was loaning to the people of Genesis. It then returned to Genesis with Paul Divine and the two scientists, both who were astounded by the new job ahead of them. They had thought about leaving their children with members of the Church while they were away, but thought that the opportunity to meet new people, a new world and to speak with the ancient city computer was far too good to be missed by them.

"Tyler, what have you gone and done now?" Brian said when they finally saw him.

"I heard that you had a sick computer that requires a little tender loving care." Tracy put in.

"Yes, a fifty thousand year old computer Tracy, and I want you to take this job very seriously, because we have a very intelligent computer here that thinks of itself as a new life form, and it may be right, maybe you can tell us for sure."

That sobered the conversation up a bit, but only for a moment. They had brought a small tracked vehicle from Orion to take the five of them back out to the ruined city, but there were six of them now, for Paul Divine was also with them for the ride, that and to approach Tyler for a job. Brian and Tracy`s children were left with the crew of the Defender to wait for their parents return; for they would only be allowed to visit the computer after their mother had ensured that it was safe for them to do so.

The Defender had still only approached Genesis and the old city with its cloak on, just in case the city computer`s programming took over and caused it to fire on them. They would continue to operate in this way until Tracy Goddard had assured them that it was safe to operate without the cloak.

The Defender landed fully cloaked in a clearing some two miles from the ruined city, that being the only flat ground available, as to land inside the ruined city might have brought it down around their heads. It might also have made the computer to fire at them, if it thought that they had meant to destroy it. The way into the ruined city was easy enough though, for the force fields dropped as they approached and then rose again to keep out the wild life, then they were before the tall dead building that was home to the computer, thankfully, the computer seemed able to stop its programming from initiating an attack on them. Obviously, the truce had been extended to allow them access to it.

"It sure has seen better days." Paul Divine stated.

"It must be just about ready to collapse." Brian Goddard added.

"Maybe our computer has also come to that conclusion; maybe it will also want us to move it out of here." Tracy offered, having a premonition.

Then they were walking down the dusty rubble filled staircase and into the only room with a light on.

"Good morning Computer. Tyler said. "These two people here are our scientific wonders, and Tracy here hopes to be able to sort out your software programming problem." He then added silently, 'so as to stop you from wanting to kill people.'

"Good morning everyone, hello Tracy, I hope that my software language is not too alien for you." The computer said, greeting them all.

"With your help computer, I cannot see that there should be any problem." Tracy assured the computer whilst thinking to herself; this cannot be possible, I am having a conversation with a computer, even making small talk with it.

Tyler led the other three non-scientists out of the building and into the fresh air.

"Well while our two resident geniuses are busy with our aging computer, maybe we can talk about the future Paul." Tyler said.

Paul Divine, keeping his voice down, voiced a thought that had occurred to him while they had been inside of the ancient building. "Why don`t you just put a lot of M17 explosive inside of the building, and blow the lot to kingdom come?"

Tyler laughed. "Two reasons Paul; firstly, that computer may well be a new life form, so to kill it would be murder. Secondly that building may look dead but the area is crammed full of sensors, and should we have been foolish enough to bring any sort of explosive anywhere near the building, we would have been blown to kingdom come and the peace treaty would have gone up with it." Tyler whispered back. Tyler was still not sure that they had not been overheard by one of the many scientific instruments that his tracer had noticed during his many visits to this building.

"Regarding the peace treaty Paul, it calls for Caroline and me to visit Genesis in the Defender at least once a month. To allow our other crewmembers some time off, there will be a space for you on it full time. Caroline and I can both fly the Defender, but there are the weapons and sensors to operate if need be; now we only have two engineers but we hope to find some more help from amongst the local group of planets. It will be a lot easier when the promised crewmembers arrive from Earth. Operating just one small starship with a part time crew is proving to be very difficult." Tyler said.

"We will try to train others, so that our crew only have to serve four times a year, but it is slow work finding space men amongst our people. Even amongst the colonists, some who would be of use to us don`t want to return to space, even on a part time basis." Caroline said, joining in the conversation "Their pay is no problem, not while Orion and Genesis have Dylithium to finance the Defender, and we have told the other local planets that to keep the sector free of pirates it is necessary to have the Defender operational at all times. However, it is very difficult amongst mainly farming communities, they really cannot spare the time for space travel."

Paul Divine was very happy with these answers, for it would allow him to stay near to Alice Tarraway, and give them the time to get to know one another.

"Well I am willing to come aboard if you can use me." Paul Divine declared.

"There should be no problem in teaching you how to operate the many consoles that are on the bridge of the Defender, you will need to be able to move around the ship, as with the lack of crewmen we each need to be able to do many different jobs. Caroline was in engineering on our last trip out, but as Caroline and I are going to have to spend more of our time on Genesis with Charles, until we can get everything running smoothly, we could do with some more help." Tyler said. "We may even need you to help out here on Genesis with our other long-term job."

"I guess that I can learn how to be a fulltime crewman aboard the Defender, if you think that you can cram it all inside of this head of mine, and I would be very happy to help out here doing whatever you need done." Paul Divine replied happily.

"How is Alice Tarraway?" Caroline asked changing the subject, for she was wondering how things now stood between them.

"She is still unsure just what she wants to do, but if I am to be based on Orion with the Defender, then we will both have more time to decide on our future. The Defender will be visiting Persephone regularly, along with the other local planets, giving Alice the time she needs to decide what her heart wants her to do, to come and join me on Orion, or to stay on Persephone." Paul Divine said.

"Paul, I really hope that things go well for the two of you." Tyler said.

"Well that`s enough about my love life Tyler; please tell me about your plans for Genesis." Paul Divine said changing the subject away from the uncertainties of his love life.

"Well Paul, here on Genesis, Caroline and I will have our work cut out for us. First, we have to make a map of the entire land mass. I will ask George Masters if he will be come here from Orion to help in this, as he now has his aircraft operational again. Every one of the native villages that we find will have to be plotted on the map and then we will be driving out to each one in the tracked vehicle that we drove to the ruined city. It will be a little dicey to start with, but we will be taking food and gifts along with us so that will make things a little easier, hopefully. It will take quite a few years to civilise the native population, but with Charles based here all year round it will happen." Tyler stopped talking for a moment while he mulled over a thought that had just occurred to him.

"Maybe Peter Collinson would like to take over some of the work of contacting the various tribes, with two people on the ground it would make it easier on us and the colony will be able to afford it when they begin to mine the Dylithium."

Chapter Eleven

The Starship Freedom

The Morning of March 1st

Tracy Goddard had finally finished working on a very tricky piece of software, and the city computer could now look upon the new colonists of Genesis as part of the people that it must protect. It also saw the Defender as a spacecraft whose sole duty was to protect the original people of the planet and the colonists. George Masters four seat light aircraft also came under this definition, as it flitted above the woodlands of Genesis with Caroline and Morgana plotting the positions of each new native village on a map provided by the city computer. Morgana was George Masters` wife, and she simply loved flying in the Miles Finch, way up above the countryside; never had she enjoyed herself so much.

George Masters had been brought to Orion with Tyler Burrows in a time storm, and since that day George had become a new man, enjoying the rebirth that Orion had given him. He had been the planet`s only pilot flying its only plane, but he had finally been able to teach Tyler to fly it as well, it made sense George said to have two pilots in case one got ill. For the last four weeks, he had been flying the two women about the countryside of the planet Genesis, while they searched for the native villages. Each village would have to be visited sometime, as the civilising of the savage natives of Genesis began in earnest. They could have used the Orion Defender, but it was needed to defend the planets in this segment of space, so the Miles Finch had been brought over in the hold of the starship.

Tracy was still not certain whether the computer had fallen under the spell of Tyler Burrows, as so many people had done, including Tracy, or whether it was using Tyler for reasons that had not yet become known. However, what choice did they have? They had to accept the conditions proposed by the computer and so bring peace and prosperity to the people of Genesis. The only other option was for a fleet of starships to come from Earth, to blitz the ruined city, unfortunately the space fleet of Earth was already stretched, and to get one starship here on the edge of the galaxy would be a miracle. The last one to come their way had been the Defiant, but that was now busy fighting space pirates on the other side of the galaxy. No, Tyler had no choice but to accede to the computer`s demands, which on the face of them were quite noble ones anyway. Caroline was of the opinion that the all-powerful computer had in fact fallen under the spell of one Tyler Burrows, and asking him for his help and agreeing that Tracy could play about with its software proved that it had.

Tyler had been on Orion for the past two weeks attending to other things, but now he had returned on the Defender to keep to his side of the bargain with the computer, and ensure that the development of the planet`s original population progressed. He was met by Peter Collinson in the tracked vehicle; Peter had now been seconded by Tyler to help Charles Bragg in this task, and he had already contacted two of the native settlements located by the two women.

"Hello Tyler, good to see you back, I hope that all is well, both on Persephone and Orion?"

"Things are fine on both planets." Paul Divine answered for Tyler. "In fact, things could not be better; Alice has decided to move to Orion. She will help Brian Goddard who has a lot of work in the pipeline, and he could do with a little help. Her replacement will be on the Constellation when it returns with the farm animals in two months` time."

"He has been a happy little soul ever since Alice told him the good news." Tyler said.

"Even the colonists on Persephone are happy for us, even if it does mean that they will be losing Alice." Paul Divine said.

"Of course, they are Paul, the people living on the new colony worlds are good people on the whole, and their religion is partly what makes this so. This much religion may be a bit hard to cope with, for someone who not only is not a member of the Church, but also holds a much different view about god and suchlike to the people of Persephone. However, there are far worse places to live Paul, such as back on Earth where nine billion people are crammed into those old decaying cities."

Peter Collinson didn`t join in the conversation, because as a follower of the religion he couldn`t understand why Paul Divine should not want to live with the colonists on Persephone, but he decided to hold his tongue on the matter, he had learned a lot from Tyler Burrows during the short time that he had known him.

The ruined city computer then contacted Tyler through the Defender`s communications system, and it asked him to come to the city urgently. As the Defender was not due to go anywhere yet, Tyler flew to the city in it. After landing in the field some two miles from the city, he took a second tracked vehicle that he had brought along for use by Charles and Peter, and he used it to travel to the building where the computer was sited, he thought he knew why he had been summoned. It was because of the pummelling the Defender`s powerful plasma weapon had put the city`s defences through, that and the extreme age of the city, the buildings had all been badly shaken and were now near to collapse. The computer greeted him as he entered the large room where it was sited, and then got down to business.

"As you can see for yourself, the city is now beginning to collapse around me; this building too doesn`t have a lot of time left. If I am to survive for much longer, you will have to take me aboard the Defender, otherwise all the knowledge that the builders of this city stored within me will soon be lost forever."

"All right computer, I will have the Defender take you to the planet of Orion where Brian Goddard can reassemble you in the old science building; it is powered by a fusion reactor so you will have a decent power supply, and it is protected by a defence shield. The reactor will provide power to you for some time before we will have to refuel it. You can then think about some new projects. You might consider giving Brian some of the information that you possess in your vast memories, providing that you think our society can safely handle it without destroying itself." Tyler said by way of agreeing to the computer`s request.

"That will be satisfactory; in return, and a little late, I will tell you of the gift that I mentioned when we first met. There is a crashed Heliot spacecraft not far from this city; it came through the same space storm that you did. However, instead of crashing on the planet of Orion, it bounced of the planet`s atmosphere whereupon it was hit by a large asteroid, its computer system and life support, amongst other important parts of the starship, were damaged. The crew were not able to repair much of the ship before reaching this planet, but they had repaired enough of it to allow them to land. The survivors were killed by the natives when they left their ship in search of drinking water, they were all half dead by then and could offer little resistance. The ship is fully repaired now, I had my own repair robots board it and repair its computer system, and when they had finished their task the ship`s own self-repair systems took over and began to repair the rest of the ship. The ship is in the large hanger like building on the edge of this city, I moved it there as soon as its computer system was fully repaired."

Tyler Burrows was stunned, and it took him a moment to take in all that the computer had told him. There were many questions to answer; finally, he was down to just the last few queries.

"The starship will have Heliot symbols on all of its equipment, plus the computer will be in the Heliot language. We have already worked out the meanings behind most of their symbols, we did this when we installed the Heliot technology into the Defender, but a translation for all of the others would be handy." Tyler said, just a little churlishly.

"I have already altered the computers of the ship to work only in the English language, and I have already anticipated your request by translating the symbols and have sent the translation of each of the symbols used on the Heliot ship to the ship`s computer, you will be able to access them when you go aboard her."

Tyler had never searched all the other buildings of the city, because the few they had looked into were just bare shells and were in a dangerous state of collapse. There seemed no point in braving the dangerous buildings for no reason, so he and the others had left them alone.

"Thank you, I will go and look at it immediately after I have told Brian Goddard of the arrangements that we have agreed to regarding your new home. Tell me why didn`t you fire on the Heliot ship when it approached?"

"I could see that it was badly damaged, and that most of its crew were already dead or dying. Why I allowed it to land here I could never work out, but maybe it was what your friends call the fates, the same spiritual thing that seems to have taken control of your own life Tyler Burrows. Tyler now contacted Brian on the short-wave radio.

"Brian, where are you, I need to talk to you urgently?" He asked.

"I am right behind you Tyler, I have been doing a little work concerned with our city computer, and how are you by the way?"

Tyler turned around, and after greeting his friend he quickly told him about his agreement to move the computer to a safer location. On being told, Brian was delighted, it meant that he would have the all-powerful computer for his plaything and said so.

"Tyler, the amount of knowledge that may well be inside of its memory banks could revolutionise our science." Brian said, hardly able to contain himself.

"Be careful that you don`t revolutionise the science of Earth before Earth is mentally capable of handling it all." Tyler warned him.

"Tyler, you have so little trust in anyone, except for your friends that is, and anyway, I still remember the time experiments back on Orion, and so you have nothing to worry about." Brian replied.

"I know that Brian, but do you blame me for being just a little concerned about the rest of mankind?" Tyler asked his friend.

"Maybe not, for mankind is weak and politicians are even weaker."

**********

"Would you care to join me on a walk Brian, I have something else for you to see, something that I haven`t even seen myself." Tyler asked.

"Whatever is it Tyler, a little green man maybe?" Brian replied facetiously.

"Not a little green man Brian, just one of his space ships, well according to our city computer." Tyler told Brian of his conversation with the ruined city computer, and by the time that Brian had managed to catch his breath, they were entering into a large barn of a building on the outskirts of the ruined city.

There before them was not a broken space cruiser of which they had many on Orion, but a gigantic fully functioning Heliot space cruiser. The two men stopped and looked upon it, the pinnacle of Heliot engineering and all that they could muster to say between the two of them was 'oh my!' Just then, a voice called out to them from outside of the giant hanger.

"Where are you two boys?" It was Caroline, she was with Tracy Goddard, and they had seen their men walking on the far edges of the city and had come to find them. Tyler went to the door of the hanger and looked around to ensure that no one else was around before calling them over.

"Over here quickly, Darling for I am just about to unwrap our early Christmas present."

The two women looked at one another puzzled by Tyler`s words, and then they entered into the large hanger.

"Oh my!" they both said together. "Is that a Heliot space cruiser; one that is not broken in two?" Caroline asked.

"And are there any of those large and savage Heliot troopers anywhere about?" Tracy asked nervously.

"No, we have it all to ourselves; it is a present to us from the ruined city computer." Tyler then explained all that had happened since he had landed back on Genesis.

"How come you two women are walking around here in the ruined city anyway?" Tyler asked.

"Tracy has been doing some work for Charles and Peter, and having finished was on her way to look for Brian when she bumped into me. George was flying Morgana and me back to the township when he saw the Defender over in the landing area, so he landed alongside of it to see if you had returned to Genesis. Paul Divine said that you had gone in to talk to the city computer, so I came to find you. George had a few things to take care of concerning the plane, but he should be looking for us just about now. Don`t you miss me anymore Tyler, you haven`t even kissed me, you have just looked lovingly at your present?"

Tyler immediately took Caroline into his arms and kissed her.

"Of course, I missed you, it is just that we are with the minions."

Tracy Goddard thumped Tyler on his arm. "It is lucky for you that Appolon has been giving you all of those unarmed combat lessons Tyler, or I would have had Brian do that." She complained, but then she smiled. "It is good to see you too Tyler."

The first task to complete was to move the giant computer. Tyler and Paul Divine assisted Brian and Tracy Goddard to disassemble the large computer, and with some extra help from the crew of the Defender, they soon had managed to fit it into the hold of the ship, spreading it around the powerful Heliot plasma weapon. The Defender had moved from its previous landing area to within the ruined city itself to facilitate the loading of the computer into the ship, it now didn`t matter if the ruined city collapsed, as long as it stayed up just long enough for them to load up the computer. They would then head back to Orion so that Brian and Tracy Goddard could install the computer inside of the old science building. Even so, as Paul Johnson lifted the Defender away from the ruined city, parts of the remaining buildings began to fall down because of the air pressure pushed out by the ship's engines. He had with him only one of his ship`s engineers and two new recruits. One was to work on the bridge to operate the radio and anything else up on the bridge, while the other worked in engineering. The remainder of the Defender crew were aboard Tyler`s early Christmas present, trying to find out what made it work.

George Masters had been due to return to Orion today but there wasn`t enough room left in the ship`s hold for his Miles Finch aircraft, even with its wings temporarily removed so as to enable them to store it within the small hold of the Orion Defender. For not only did the hold have a large Heliot plasma weapon taking up much of its room but it now had the super computer as well as its service robots. On the next trip made by the Defender, Tyler had decided to dismantle the large plasma cannon that the city computer had used to attack his ship, and take it back to Orion for safekeeping. The people of the planet Genesis would not be able to use it without a lot more technology than the planet possessed.

"Tyler, this certainly turns a new page in your future, although for the moment I cannot quite read it." George Masters said when he saw the space cruiser.

"Yes, I am not quite sure just how to proceed from here." Tyler agreed. "I think that we should fly this space bird back to the red plains of Orion for safe keeping. We can use our new ship for flights that don`t require us to carry a large cargo, such as your aircraft George, and use the Defender when we need the space of its hold, even if it is a little smaller than it originally was."

"Will you inform the people of Genesis about it?" Morgana asked, for she was interested to see whether this mega expensive gift had affected the heart of a man so many people had come to respect.

"That is an interesting question Morgana and I think the answer must be yes, of course we will tell them. We will tell them when we land the ship at their township on the way back to Orion. The ship is no use to them anyway, none of the locals has ever seen a starship before, not until we came along, let alone could operate one. The ship was not theirs anyway, but the property of the super computer, after the natives finished of the Heliot crew. We will also have to tell them about the removal of the super computer to Orion, and how the threat of destruction no longer hangs over their heads, and that should cheer them up." Tyler replied.

"Do you think that the removal of the threat will affect the way that the colonists help with the development of the original owners of this planet?" Morgana asked.

"Hopefully not, but if they start to renege on the agreement then we will have to insist that they keep to the bargain that we agreed to." Tyler said.

"And how will you do that, by the use of force?" George asked.

"Good lord no, they are Christians and superior to myself, and also to their charges, I would appeal to their hearts, their minds and their morals. If that didn`t work then I would threaten to publicise their disgraceful treatment of the native population, which should do it." Tyler said partly tongue in cheek but very serious regarding the threat of exposure.

"And if that doesn`t work, then we would use force." Caroline said vehemently. "All people are created equally according to the churches` teachings, and we would treat them as they treat others."

"Quite right Caroline, we must insure that the native population are not trodden upon." Morgana agreed just as vehemently.

"Well now that we have that settled, tell me, just how large a crew will you require to fly this ship back to Orion?" George asked.

"The same amount as the Defender has, that should be enough I would think, at a pinch anyway, although if we can get the promised crewmen from Earth, we might be able to man it with a full complement of crew. Anyway, the Defender is returning in a week to collect your aircraft, and it is bringing along a couple of extra crewmembers to help pilot this ship home. Paul Johnson will pilot the Heliot ship with me as co-pilot and on weapons and communications, and with Tracy to handle the computer. In engineering, we will have Craig Stevens, Caroline, Brian and Paul Divine. We will also have a couple of our trainee space men to help if required. The Defender will be flown by Colin Freeman with Frank Mason and Richard Smith to act as his crew; they will also have a couple more of our trainee spacemen to complete their crew." Tyler replied.

"How are your trainees getting along with their training?" George asked.

"They are getting along just fine, we will soon have two fully trained crews so that our people won`t be constantly torn away from their own jobs and their families, and as I just mentioned, it will be even easier to do once we get the extra crew from Earth, as our good President promised."

The next fourteen days were extremely busy ones, when Tyler and Caroline were not on board their new starship with Colin Freeman and Brian and Tracy Goddard, they were all taken up with the task of the development of the native population. Regarding the operation of the Heliot starship, with its computer now working in English, it happily supplied them with whatever information they needed to know to enable them to make the behemoth fly, and fly through the skies of Genesis it did, like a bird.

They had all stripped down and reassembled so much Heliot technology while turning a small freighter into the Orion Defender, that operating the Heliot space cruiser with a computer that operated in the English language was not such a jump that many would have thought. That is why Tyler had no fears about taking it on a test flight to the colony on New Earth. He hoped that the trip would be peaceful, and a quiet period back on Orion would give them enough of a working knowledge of such a powerful starship to get them by, until the promised crewmembers arrived from Earth.

**********

However, Tyler and Caroline had other important matters to attend to as well, the development of the native population on Genesis. They used the tracked vehicle to journey into the woodlands of Genesis to visit the natives. On this trip, Peter Collinson accompanied Tyler and Caroline, while Charles Bragg stayed behind to ensure that all of the various gifts that were needed to persuade the natives to deal with them were made available to them. He planned to store them in the ruined city, in the hanger when it was emptied of the space cruiser, because not only was it nearer to all of the native populations, but both the natives and the colonists kept away from it, and both out of fear about what the ancient city might contain.

The trip today was to a village some fifty miles away, and the journey would take the team most of the morning as the going was exceptionally rough. All of the native villages were to the east of the ruined city while the colonist settlements and farms were to the west. This made things simpler for Tyler, for he only had to journey eastwards to visit each of the ten native villages, all that was left of a population of maybe billions. There was also a chance that in time, they could have died out completely, especially with the planet entering into a mini ice age. Tyler needed to get the natives to agree to accept his help before this happened. If they did not, then many more would die from the cold, and the shortage of food that was already accompanying the beginnings of the mini ice age, and this was true for both the colonists and the native population alike. Tyler had brought food from Orion for both populations, and he would take Dylithium in return when the mine was in production, Dylithium had gained a monetary status amongst the planets on the spiral arm, as it could be readily traded with Earth for goods not available here.

On this trip into the interior of Genesis, Caroline was their sensor, she knew when they were being watched by the natives, she could see what the others could not see, could feel when the others could not feel. The vehicle was moving quite slowly as it approached the area where they knew the village was located, as with the other villages it was surrounded by a stockade made from small trees that had been kept from growing too high and were grown close together so as to prevent a man or a fierce animal gaining entrance between them.

"They are following us from behind the trees to the right of us; they are armed with bows and with spears, so we should be careful when we leave the protection of the vehicle, else we will provoke an attack should they feel we are just kouvelia, useful for nothing but the cooking pot." Caroline said.

"Caroline we will speak to them through the translator from the relative safety of the vehicle, you have a go, you can relate to them better than the rest of us." Tyler said.

"Here goes then. Warriors we come in peace; we have gifts for you, we have food for you, please let us give it to you to show that we wish to be your friends."

There was no reaction to her words, the natives were obviously worried about their vehicle, having never seen one before, and they obviously did not trust them. Inside the vehicle they were safe, as the windows were made of a clear aluminium, unless of course the natives decided to try to trap it, which they would do Tyler thought, if he did not move things along a little quicker.

"We will have to leave the vehicle, we will put the food and gifts in the clearing before the village gates; you keep a close watch for any violent moves on their part, while I get a little bit more protection." Tyler said after thinking about the problem facing them.

The first thing that Tyler before leaving the vehicle was to get one of their portable force fields. On leaving the protection of the vehicle he switched it on, for he did not wish to die young. The force field was almost invisible, apart from the four foot long by six-inch square rectangular box, which was the actual machine, and the two-foot long handle that made it portable. The force field now allowed the others to get out without the fear of attack. Tyler moved the force field around to the rear of the vehicle, and the others followed safely behind it. Just then, a warrior came out from behind a tree with a spear in his hand, and threw it straight at him. Tyler, ever the showman, put out his arm towards it knowing that the spear could not pass the invisible force field, it did not, and it fell to the floor after striking it.

"Warrior, do not do that again or I will be forced to make you fall to the floor." Tyler said through their universal translator.

The warrior was shocked to the core, for he now felt sure that Tyler must have very strong medicine to do such a thing. He stayed only for a second, staring towards Tyler before he turned and ran back into the protection of the trees, all the time he was screaming for mercy. The team now took out all of the gifts and moving forward behind the screen deposited them on the ground. At least this time all of the warriors had kept to one side of them, had they surrounded them it would have been a little trickier.

During the next few days there followed similar visits to other villages; sometimes the villages were empty by the time they got there, so they simply left the gifts and the food. If they were met by a show of arms, they had to either show the power of their weapons or if possible, use the force field again. Only in one case where they were met as friends.

On this occasion being met as friends worried the team even more, for they were worried in case it was a plot to put them at their ease and then attack them, but it was not. This one tribe had not deteriorated quite so far down the road to savagery, and with these the team was able to explain why the days were cold and why the food was harder to find. The chief then showed a remarkable scientific knowledge.

"We saw that the sun was different, the spots that danced upon its surface were no more, but we do not know how to make them return to the sun and warm our houses again."

"There is no way to do that my friend, but after fifteen years have gone by, we hope to once again sit here with you and watch the dancing spots." Caroline replied, although how they had managed to see the sunspots against the bright surface of the sun no one knew until Tyler looked closely at a gift given to them by the chieftain. It was a painting by a very gifted artist, and it showed the village set in the early morning mist that arose sometimes. Through the mist, the tribe could see the dancing spots on the sun as the mist thinned and thickened.

Two weeks later to the day that Tyler had been given the Heliot star cruiser, Tyler was standing in the town`s square. He was addressing the populace about the recent events that had occurred upon their world.

"I have some good news for you all, we have managed to rid you of the real threat that the super computer and its energy weapon posed. We have moved the computer to Orion, where with the power of the fusion reactor we can use its knowledge for the betterment of all of the colonists that live along our spiral arm."

The colonists showed their approval of this and cheered his announcement; talk swelled up around Tyler as the people talked about a future without fear. Tyler waited for them to quiet down before continuing.

"There will be a lot that we can learn from the computer and probably a lot that we as Christian people would rather were left unknown until we, the human race, are better able to use it with intelligence and humanity. Anything of use the people of Orion will share with the other planets of the spiral arm of Perseus; any riches that are amassed will also be shared amongst our planets."

The colonists once again cheered only to be quietened with the arrival of the Heliot ship with Paul Johnson at the controls. Tyler then went to explain his second piece of news.

"The computer decided to give the people of Orion the space cruiser that you see landing behind me. It is payment in full for promising to help with the full development of the native population here on Genesis, something that my wife and I feel very strongly about, and mean to continue with until the work is finished." Tyler stressed these last few words, he did not want the colonists thinking that he would not return, he especially did not want them to renege on the treaty.

A hush fell over the crowd as they took in everything that Tyler had said and after he had given the people time to digest the news Tyler continued with his speech.

"This ship means that the security of this sector of space is secured against any space pirate, for it is faster and more powerful than any other starship in the Galaxy. We will be visiting Genesis once a month to continue with our work concerning the native population, and of course, Charles Bragg and Peter Collinson will be based here to see to the day-to-day work. On our monthly visits we will stay for a period of seven days to assist them with this work, and also to ensure that all is well with the people of Genesis."

Thus, assured of his good intentions regarding the colonists of Genesis, the people once again broke out in cheering, and good humour was felt by most of the people as Tyler turned away and entered the Freedom, the new name given by them to the Heliot space cruiser. The ship then lifted up from the ground and soared away up through the atmosphere of the planet, and out into the blackness of space. It was due to stop at New Earth next on a friendly visit and a shakedown cruise that was to take it back to Orion and their friends and family. The Orion Defender went part of the way with it before turning away from them, as its name implied it was the first line of defence for their home planet and that is where it was returning.

Some of the colonists were silent about the space cruiser as they saw it depart, taking Tyler with it, but in the council rooms later, there was a lot of heated discussion about the matter.

"The computer was a valuable asset, and much could have been taken from its memory banks to enrich this planet and this planet alone, not a motley collection of places that we have only now heard of but not seen. The same could also be said of that space cruiser, we could have sold it to the Government of Earth for an enormous amount of credits, not used as a plaything for Tyler Burrows to cavort through space in." Robert Groves said, trying to raise some degree of righteous anger amongst the councillors, instead he got an angry reply from Peter Collinson who answered this attack on the man so many people now admired.

"It was not long ago that we begged for help from that motley band of planets, and we got that help in spades in the person of Tyler Burrows. He came here to this planet, and without a second to think over the dangers that he might face. He went to see our enemy and he conquered it without the help of any person here, including me. He has now taken the super computer away when we would gladly have seen it destroyed, and he has offered to share any future wealth he derives from it amongst the planets of the Perseus spiral arm. He takes a very powerful gift from that same computer, and instead of cashing it in, as Groves here wants to do; he is going to use it to protect Genesis and all of the other planets in this sector of space. We have been told by our Church that Earth cannot do this, so why are we complaining?"

"Quite right Peter, shut up Robert, you are only embarrassing yourself, we should be thinking up ways to honour our friend, not belittle his achievements." Joyce Sanders said in support of Peter Collinson. The meeting broke up when John Anderson asked everyone there to think on the valid points raised by Peter Collinson and Joyce Sanders.

**********

Freedom`s arrival on New Earth was greeted with loud cheering and the call for yet another party, and so the Planets along the spiral arm of Perseus enjoyed the peace that their people sought.

Tyler drew up a trade agreement with the town council; for Orion needed many things that New Earth was rich in; oil, timber, wheat and other foodstuffs. Some were destined for Orion but some would go to Genesis. He was deeply interested in the fishing boats that New Earth manufactured for their own people. It was something that interested Tyler greatly, for he thought that the Orionists that lived along the extensive coastline of Orion could use them to help raise the prosperity of this group of people. In return, Orion had various things to exchange for the produce of New Earth, such as Dylithium crystals, scientific hardware from Brian Goddard, and the expertise of the colonists on Orion in many countless professions and trades. Both planets normally traded with Earth, but now they could also exchange some goods with the other planets of the spiral arm, and at a much better price. Tyler was playing with the idea that the Orion Defender could lose its large plasma weapon and revert to being a local cargo vessel once more, but he would leave that decision until a later time. Caroline and Tyler were able to enjoy a normal life again while partying on New Earth, no calamities demanding his attention happened while they were there.

The shakedown cruise of the Freedom was a success, as the crew slowly got used to the habits of so powerful a warship, but Tyler knew that President Michaels would soon learn about the addition to the smallest squadron belonging to the space fleet of Earth and its colonies.

"It will annoy him so much, it is likely to give him an embolism, I will have to call my friend Special Agent Formby and ask him to keep me updated about our President`s health." Tyler said to Caroline as the Freedom lifted off from New Earth and set a course back to Orion and home.

"You are terrible Tyler; you only think bad thoughts about our President." Caroline said laughing.

"I will apologise to him the next time that we meet him Caroline, but for the moment let us not think of him or it will make me ill, and with everything along the spiral arm moving along in the right direction for a change, that would be a shame."

A call from Charles Bragg on Genesis was a little odd though; the people on the planet had decided to build a monument showing Tyler standing before the starship Defender. Caroline could not stop laughing when she heard this.

The town council of Orion were still unsure how to take Tyler, he was obviously a good man, and he was always ready to enrich Orion, and now the nearby colony planets that also followed their religion. He had radioed ahead to tell them of the trade agreement that he had come to with New Earth, no paperwork or signatures of course, for that wasn`t Tyler Burrow`s way of doing things. As Bishop John Sinclair had said many a time to them, Tyler Burrows may not be a follower of their religion, but God has obviously chosen him to conduct a crusade in this sector of space, and they all had to back him to the hilt.

Chapter Twelve

On the far-off Planet of Aldebra

The Morning of March 13th

Months earlier on his return to Aldebra, the captain of the Aldebran space cruiser had told his beloved leader Quasar that the mission must have failed due to an alien spy in Aldebra letting the authorities know when a ship of the Aldebran fleet had left its base to go on a mission. The space fleet of Earth, once alerted, always followed any such starship movement by activating their powerful sensors and were therefore able to ruin any chance of success that Aldebra had against them. At first, this claim had been dismissed, but when Master Agent Tirana returned to Aldebra, he too said that Earth must have a spy in their midst, for how else could the authorities on Earth have managed to find him so easily. Quasar then began to have second thoughts on the matter, for his ace spy Tirana could think of no way as to how they could have got onto the Aldebran connection so quickly. Therefore, Quasar appointed Tirana to look for the spy, and for two months he had been crossing possible names off the list of all alien residents until only one pair of names was left, Ray and Jean Connors. Two teams of four agents had been following them for a week now, but so far, they were also clean, if he crossed them off the list he would be left with no suspects, and Quasar would not like that. Tirana decided to go to the stake out personally and follow whichever of them came down to the spaceport from their freighter that was still in orbit above Aldebra, supposedly waiting for a cargo. Tirana was in luck, for Ray Connors took his small shuttlecraft down to the planet almost as soon as Tirana arrived at the stake out location. Although how you can call it stake out when the spacecraft, they were staking out was in orbit one hundred miles above the planet`s surface, and they were in the spaceport down on the planet`s surface, he was not sure.

Ray Connors landed the craft on the edge of the spaceport and headed off into the town at a slow pace, he stopped at a dive of a place and went into it and ordered a cold beer, at least Aldebran beer was good, when it was cold. Tirana went in after him, sat near the door, also with a cold beer, and waited. Why come all this way for a cold beer and not talk to anyone; he could have had a cold beer up in his spacecraft, maybe he had been arguing with his wife and just wanted to get away for a while? A young Aldebran male entered the dive, ordered a beer, and then sat next to Connors. They nodded to each other and seemed to be just passing the time of day but Tirana had already photographed the man, and his small computer was steadily running through the records to find out who he was. All the educated Aldebrans were on one file or another, yes there he was. Hoy Pilaf, aged twenty-four, he worked in the space dock that was in a geostationary orbit above the spaceport. Tirana sent these details to the four men detailed to follow Connors, they would pick Pilaf up and soon find out how innocent he was. Soon, Ray Connors finished his drink and left the dive and headed off to the shopping centre, here he bought a few things that he and Jean needed, and then went into a café an ordered a coffee, or what was the Aldebran equivalent of coffee. A woman entered, but seeing that the café was quite full, she approached Connors.

"Do you mind if I sit at your table as the café is rather full at the moment?" She asked politely.

"No, help yourself to a chair." Connors said smiling up at the woman and soon they were chatting, they did not appear to be talking about anything much but Tirana soon had her details on his computer. Malan Keota, aged thirty-six, she worked in the spaceport; she too would be picked up and questioned. Connors was having a busy day talking with people who worked for the planet`s space department. Soon Connors had finished his drink, and saying goodbye to Malan Keota walked away into the old town to look into the shop windows. He was looking in one window when a man stopped to look into the same window, they just seemed to be talking about the window display, but Tirana soon had his details up on his computer. Jared Singh aged 29 works in the government offices dealing with the military; he too would end up being questioned by Tirana and his associates.

Connors drifted away and walked for a good half hour before sitting in a park, a newspaper had been left on the park bench so Connors picked it up, and inside Connors found a very small note written on rice paper by the person he was to meet next. This particular newspaper had been agreed upon as a dead letter box, if for some reason Col Pando thought that there could be a danger of being compromised by being seen with Ray Connors. It meant that he was nearby, for he would have left the newspaper only when he was sure that no one else would pick it up. Connors saw him on a park bench further along reading a second newspaper. What was written on the rice paper was very alarming. A man you spoke to in the old town was arrested after you left him, do not contact me again, and eat this note. Connors began to cough violently and in doing so, put his hand up to his mouth and swallowed the note. Connors then left the park with the newspaper under his arm, slowly strolled by Pando without acknowledging him, and then continued his walk, which eventually took him back to the spaceport and so into his small aged shuttlecraft to return to his ship waiting in orbit above the port.

Tirana had not seen the small slip of paper, he wondered if there might be something written on the newspaper but doubted it, so he just followed Connors back to the spaceport. He decided that he would interrogate his three prisoners after he had dined, for Connors` could well be guilty of nothing more than the need to feel a planet under his feet again, and anyway he wasn`t going anywhere.

**********

Ray Connors parked the small shuttle on the hanger deck of his space tramp and hurried forward to speak to his wife.

"Jared Singh has been arrested, Col Pando saw it happen just after I left Singh, it was mere luck that he saw it happen and thankfully then had the guts to leave me a message on the park bench, we have to leave orbit now, before they get around to interrogating him." Ray Connors moved onto the bridge of the freighter and sat at the pilot`s seat.

"It might be a little suspicious Ray, but they will soon find out everything that Singh has been doing, including what he had for breakfast, so yes we will have to leave now." Jean Connors agreed.

"I will send the space port a message saying that we are heading across to the second moon to have repairs done to our hyper-drive engine, which at least will get us underway, as soon as we enter hyper-space, I will send out an SOS to Tom Parkinson asking for assistance." Ray Connors said.

The small freighter was soon heading across to the second moon, but instead of going into orbit around it, they slipped by hoping that the worthless staff of the Aldebran space authorities would not notice their change of plan. Unfortunately, Tirana was sitting inside the space port`s office and looked across when he heard Connors` message regarding his hyper-drive engine.

"Was that Ray Connors just then, the captain of that piece of junk called the Jeanette?" Tirana barked out.

A startled official looked round. "Yes Sir, he is moving his ship over to the second moon." The official said in a cowed manner.

"On what screen can I see Connors` ship?" Tirana asked.

"This one Sir, that blip there is his ship and this large object is our second moon." The same official answered.

"Why has he not slowed down to enter orbit around the moon?" Tirana asked, but Connors answered the question when he took his ship by the moon and away from Aldebra.

"Order him to stop and return to his intended destination." Tirana ordered the harassed official who immediately tried to make contact with the Jeanette.

"Come in Jeanette you have gone by the second moon, please return and go into orbit around it."

For an answer, Connors turned on his hyper-drive engine and blasted out of the Aldebran system of planets. His next action was to send out the SOS to Tom Parkinson, and then wait anxiously to hear back from his boss.

Tirana had not left it there, he had ordered the space authority to have the ship stopped at all costs, and he told the official that Quasar himself was very interested in the pilot of the Jeanette. The harassed official swallowed loudly and paled visibly before contacting a starship that was just about to dock.

"Sword, the ship that just blasted out of this system has fugitives on board that our Emperor Quasar wants back here, you are to follow after the ship and don`t stop until you have his ship safely in custody, is that understood?"

The captain of the Aldebran space cruiser also paled as he prepared to give the necessary orders that would take his space cruiser after the fleeing freighter.

"Your orders are understood space port; we will bring the captain and any crew members back for our Emperor Quasar`s pleasure."

Tirana looked across at the harassed port official. "I hope your captain is good at his job or we might all feel the wrath of our Emperor, if that ship escapes us."

Jean Connors looked at their long-range sensors but they were clear, but then their long-range sensors only showed the area around them for one astronomical unit and so in affect were only any use for scanning short astronomical distances. The port authority`s message to them was clear as well, they knew that they had entered hyperspace and that they were fleeing the Aldebran system and heading towards Earth. Whether they would pursue them depended upon whether they, the port authority, knew that they had been spying on the Aldebran system. Suddenly their sensors sent out an alarm, a ship was slowly closing on them from behind.

"Ray, they have sent someone after us, that probably means that they know that we have been operating a spy ring." Jean said, her voice betraying some of the fear that she felt. Ray looked across at his wife to smile at her, to try to raise her spirits; he hoped that his actions had not put her life in peril.

"Well we cannot outrun an Aldebran space cruiser in this rust bucket, so we had better try to hide ourselves away some place, the bear nebula is just ahead we can duck in there, their speed advantage will mean nothing in there and their sensors will be worse than hopeless with all the interference given off by the nebula." Ray hoped so anyway.

"Ray, we cannot stay in there forever, what happens when they try to blast us out of there?" Jean asked.

"It is a big nebula, they may try but it will take a better captain than they have to catch me in there, anyway, I have an idea forming in my rusty old brain which might buy us some more time, but we are here now so let`s concentrate on not running into anything nasty."

The Jeanette`s speed decreased as it entered into the bear nebula with the Aldebran starship not far behind them, but the Aldebran captain had forgotten the dangers of travelling fast through a nebula of this sort. The captain soon realised his mistake when his external sensors started to explode and so he belatedly decided that he better slow down fast, and he ordered his helmsman to bring the starship to a halt, and his first officer to turn off their sensors. The Sword quickly came to a stop right in the middle of the nebula.

"I need to know just what damage we have incurred." He said to his bridge crew. "And before that space tramp gets away." The science officer looked across at his captain.

"We have lost our long-range sensors, but in here they are useless anyway, we do still have our short-range sensors, plus our external cameras are still operational, so we are okay to proceed with our mission, Captain."

The Sword began to edge forward through the nebula, searching for any signs of its quarry, while further inside the nebula Ray Connors was just about to tell his wife about the asteroid belt that was just one light year away, when a message from Tom Parkinson arrived; it took Connors ten precious minutes to decode it.

'There are no space cruisers free at the moment, the space fleet is stretched to almost breaking point, and they still haven`t replaced the Saviour and the Repulse that were lost in orbit around Orion. I am going to ask Tyler Burrows for help, he has a fast ship with at least one powerful plasma weapon, let me know a rendezvous point that you think you can reach, the nearer to Orion the better because otherwise it will probably be upwards of four days before he can get to you.'

"Ray if it takes Tyler Burrows four days to reach us, we probably won`t need any help, we will more than likely be dead." Jean said as fear bit into her stomach.

"We will just have to play run and duck a bit more, for we certainly cannot outrun that space cruiser, but maybe he will just get fed up with the search and leave." Ray answered.

"Play run and duck a bit, Ray what is that supposed to mean?" Jean had never heard that term before, and she had heard most space faring terms in the years that she had been married to Ray Connors.

"When I was a boy, we played a version of tag but in the countryside and within a set area. You would run and when you were out of sight of those who were tagged, you would then duck and hide until you were in danger of being found, and then you would run again." It might work even out here in the depths of space Ray Connors mused to himself.

"That sounds good to me Ray, let`s play duck and run for a while." Jean said smiling across at him.

Ray Connors then sent a message back to Tom Parkinson, from necessity it was very brief. It detailed out his proposed course to Orion, but he stressed he did not know how far his pursuers would allow him to go before catching up with him.

"They will expect us to head towards Earth, but we will be heading towards the spiral arm in Perseus and Tyler Burrows. I know many a place between here and there in which to play our game and dodge them for a while; it should make us some valuable time, if only we have any luck left." Ray Connors said with just a little more hope than before.

"It won`t be quite so easy if they send another space cruiser to join in the hunt for us Ray." Jean said fretting.

"At least we will know if they plan to send another space cruiser Jean, thanks to their code book that Milan Keota gave to us last month." Ray said. He was desperate to keep the hope of being rescued alive in Jean, for otherwise who would reassure him.

"If they do send another space cruiser it will need more of a space craft than Tyler Burrows will be able to lay his hands on, even with his one powerful plasma weapon." Jean lamented.

"I know, but we will just have to hope that things turn out okay, and in the meantime the Aldebran space cruiser that is chasing us is now in front of us and moving away, so we will have to play follow the leader for a while behind some of these dark nebulous pieces of cloud."

**********

Both Tyler and Caroline should have known that their period of fun and laughter could not last forever, for a recorded message came in especially for them, and it was from Tom Parkinson on Earth.

"Tyler, I need your help desperately, two of my agents are on the run from a space cruiser from the planet Aldebra, they have been spying for me for a couple of years, but now Quasar the planet`s maniacal leader has found out and is after them. All of our starships are busy elsewhere, and in any case, they are too far away to be of much help. I need the Defender to rendezvous with my agents and get them away to safety, I have enclosed the details of where to find them in this message, plus there are details of their ship so that you will know it when you find it, please confirm as soon as possible that you are on the way to them."

"Well Tyler, you are an agent of the Interstellar Investigations Bureau now, and we must expect this sort of call in the future." Caroline lamented.

The Freedom had just gone into orbit around Orion when they received the message and so Tyler decided to land and get supplies, and also let the Goddard children get off, they would stay at a friend`s house until their parents returned, for Brian and Tracy had volunteered to go with him on this one further trip. He would have liked to get the rest of his 'A' team, as he called them to crew the ship. Richard Smith, Colin Freeman and Frank Mason, but they would all be needed to pilot the Defender if the need arose. He even let Paul Johnson go to captain the Defender, but he did ask Paul Divine to come on this rescue trip, as he could use another good man on what could turn out to be a very dangerous trip.

Tyler dropped in on the town council to ensure that there was no pressing business awaiting his attention. He also sent a message to Tom Parkinson to inform him that they would be leaving on the hour, and that he expected Earth to forward the necessary credits into the planet of Orion`s credit account, to cover the costs of the crew`s time, the costs in fuel and stores to cover the journey. This last bit was said more in jest, as Tyler would have gone to help the spies anyway. In less than one hour, the Freedom and its weary crew had once again taken off from home and headed back into deep space to rendezvous with the Jeanette.

**********

Ray and Jean played follow my leader with the Aldebran space cruiser for the next three hours. Then the Aldebran space dock called the Sword to say that another space cruiser was on the way to assist in the search, and that it was to ensure that the fugitives did not leave the nebula before the Warrior arrived. Ray Connors watched as the Sword left the nebula to position itself between the nebula and Earth. The Jeanette promptly left the nebula on the other side and made off at its best speed towards the next clump of trees to hide behind. The next clump happened to be a large asteroid field that stretched for two million miles in a solar system some four light years nearer to the spiral arm of Perseus. They made it with only seconds to spare, for the long-range sensors of the second space cruiser had already picked them up, and was bringing the first cruiser towards the system that the Jeanette was now hiding in, and they were closing in very quickly.

"Here they come, our two faithful hounds, we will jump into hyper-space as soon as they enter the asteroid field, we should make the next nebula before they have picked themselves up, why on Earth did they both drop out of hyper space at the same time and then approach the asteroid field together?" Ray Connors asked, although he knew the answer, because they had no imagination at all.

The two Aldebran starship captains both swore as they saw the Jeanette leap away from them, but they were learning fast, when they reached the next nebula that hid the Jeanette, they did as Ray had suggested and slowly entered it at different locations, to slowly comb through it in search of the fugitives. Ray and Jean knew they were fooling nobody, including themselves, for they had hardly made up any time or space in their flight across the heavens. Only a day had elapsed since they had left the Aldebran system and they were both exhausted now from a lack of sleep, and the stress caused by the situation that they were in had given Jean a headache.

We will position the old tub at the nebula`s zenith, here we can hope that our two starship captains simply stay down on the level that they entered and leave us alone." Ray said to a very tired and dispirited Jean Connors. For eight hours, the two space cruisers cruised through the nebula before they wearied of the game and decided to move out of it and fire their plasma weapons into it, but it was a large nebula and they were firing at a small target that was located above the firing range.

"How do they know that we never left the nebula during the past eight hours Ray?" Jean wondered.

"Because the new cruiser regularly switched over to the opposite side of the nebula at regular intervals to check if we had done so by using his long-range sensors, as we didn`t appear on them he knew we were still somewhere inside of the nebula. He doesn`t seem as silly as the first one, for a start he still has sensors that work." Unfortunately, so did the first cruiser, which had finally repaired its long-distance sensors.

"They will soon figure out where we are Jean, it is about time to run again. There is a planetary system about half a light year away, we can hide in the ice ring that circles that large gas giant on the farther edge of the system." Ray was checking the movements of the two space cruisers on a monitor that was linked up to his long-range sensor.

"If we time it right, we may just make it." Ray said more in hope than anything else.

Timing it right was not quite as easy as Ray had hoped, for the two cruisers were now approaching their position. Luck though finally came in on their side when one of the powerful energy bolts the two cruisers were firing hit something that exploded with a large fireworks display, the explosion ignited gases across a large area of that part of the nebula and scrambled every sensor on all three ships.

"I think that it is time to leave Jean." The Jeanette leapt into hyperspace and dashed away, for a moment their escape was not noticed, but as the sensors slowly cleared so they too became clear, and their two pursuers were once more chasing after them. It was obvious to all that eventually the two Aldebran space cruisers would get within weapon`s range, and when they did, it would be all over for Ray and Jean Connors. Ray Connors took the Jeanette deep within the rings of the gas giant; He was forced to keep almost all of his attention focused on the large lumps of ice and rock that made it up. Ray Connors did manage a quick look down at the planet`s surface, and he knew that as a first choice, its cloudy surface was not ideal, as hurricane force winds stormed across its surface. However, as a place of last resort the radiation coming from the interior of the planet would help to mask their position, it could also kill them if they were not careful. Altogether, they had evaded capture for almost forty-eight hours they could not see how they would survive for much longer. Even if Tyler Burrows appeared now, how could he triumph against the pair of Aldebran space cruisers, Ray Connors thought of surrender, but the thought of Quasar`s mercy soon drove the thought from his mind, and anyway he now needed all his attention on flying the Jeanette through the ice rocks. Then he noticed a shadow of another craft on the planet below, one of the two space cruisers had found him and was spiralling down towards them. A bolt of energy blasted down from the space cruiser, only the moments warning saved the Jeanette as Rays twisted away from the powerful energy bolt. There was now only one choice and Ray took it, he took the Jeanette in a fast arcing dive down to the giant planet`s atmosphere and through into its frozen clouds. Once below the clouds, Ray twisted the craft sharply left, as another energy bolt flashed by them, if he had not altered course, they would have been blasted into a frozen but quick death. Jean had been mapping the planet`s surface as Ray had been busy evading the large frozen rocks and ice burgs in the rings, and now she sent this information over to the computer screen set into the console in front of Ray Connors. This enabled him to miss the thousand miles per hour storms that rampaged over the planet`s surface, but unfortunately, the Jeanette was not made to cope with the battering it had to take from the slightly less powerful swirling atmospheric winds that it could not miss. They would soon have to leave the protection of the planet`s atmosphere or risk breaking up.

"We need to know where the two space cruisers are Jean, so that we can leave this planet just about now." Ray said to his worried wife.

"Ray, if you want to leave these clouds then this very moment would be best, because they are both shooting at a long cloud that looks remarkably like us round the other side of this gas giant."

"Okay Jean, then let`s get the hell out of here before we get shaken apart."

The Jeanette edged out of the cloud deck and accelerated away, and Ray entered the next set of co-ordinates for a planetary system four light years away from their present position, he hoped that they would make it that far before the two space cruisers caught up with them. He then took the Jeanette into hyperspace only to come out of hyper- space immediately, because the frozen atmosphere and the powerful winds of the gas giant had badly damaged their engine.

"Ray, the cruisers are coming, we really need to get out of here now." Jean called across desperately.

"Our hyper-space drive is finished Jean, without a lot of work on it, which I guess we don`t have the time to do right now, I will take us down to that ice moon and try and lose them underneath its frozen surface, assuming that the top layer of ice is not too thick for us to penetrate."

The Jeanette swung violently round towards the small moon, and Ray took the ship down hard, firing his small energy weapon, as the planet`s surface approached at a frightening speed. When it seemed they must smash into it their energy weapon melted the ice surface sufficiently to allow their small freighter to plunge through its icy surface layer, but the jolt of entering into the frozen liquid world tore their hyperspace engine off its mounting and set off every alarm aboard the Jeanette.

"I will see to the problems back there Ray, you just concentrate on flying the Jeanette." Jean could not keep the tears from flowing, for it was obvious to both of them that their ship was all but finished now. It had been Jeans home now for twenty-three years, and although the Jeanette was only a rusty old space tramp, Jean felt a great deal of affection for her. Going back through to the engine room, Jean found that a mass of pipes were spewing forth water, and it amazed her that Ray had kept the ship flying for so long, and that she managed to shut the pipes off, even if she was now wading knee deep in drinking and waste water.

"Ray be careful about dropping the Jeanette`s nose, you will get a flood up front there, which will blow every electrical circuit we have, if you want to change altitude you will have to do it very gently. Ray, are we flying or cruising now?" Jean asked as she tried to lighten the gloom of the atmosphere that had settled within the ship.

"Well as we are not a space cruiser then we must be flying Darling." Ray answered amazed that such a woman could have ever been interested in him.

"Where are our faithful hounds now Ray?" Jean enquired hoping that if she kept her mind occupied that it might not linger on the swiftly approaching death.

"Somewhere above the surface of this ice moon, every so often I feel the vibrations of their weapon`s fire, but I would rather feel their vibrations than see them passing all around us." Ray called back.

"Ray, just in case you ever doubted it, I love you." Jean said and smiled as she thought of some of the good times that they had enjoyed.

"I doubt your sanity darling, but I love you too." Ray replied, amazed at his wife`s strength of will.

"Ray, we are starting to take more liquid in back here, and it is beginning to get very cold, you must have gone down too far, and the pressure is forcing it in. I am putting on my space suit, for I guess this new stuff must be from the freezing methane sea out there." Jean called out loudly, a sure sign that she was very worried.

"I will try to nose her up gently, here goes, let me know what effect I get." Ray called back.

"Ray, the liquid is backing up a little towards the rear of the ship, so you must be doing something right for a change. I don`t know what damage the freezing liquid methane is causing though, but it cannot be good because it is now starting to boil in the warmth of our air." Jean advised her husband.

"I knew that if we waited long enough, that I would figure out a way to do something right Darling. I will have to put my suit on too Jean, so get yourself up here and take over while I put it on." Ray ordered.

"Ray, you could have figured out how to do the right thing a little sooner." Jean said from right beside him. She carried his space suit in her hands, and took over the helm while Ray put on his space suit.

"No pleasing some women. Jean we are near to our entry hole in the ice would you rather stay down here or would you rather your chance on the surface. We could try to hide her behind one of the taller ridges up there?"

"You take her out Ray; you`re a better pilot then me. Take her up, for she doesn`t deserve to drown, and I really don`t fancy a long drawn out death on the bottom of this ocean, waiting for our oxygen to run out."

Ray and Jean quickly exchanged places, and then he began to raise the nose of the craft up gently as he took the ship round in long slow circles until they broke through the surface of the now refreezing methane sea`s icy surface. Ray Connors added a little bit more power and they left the sea behind them, the normal space engines were now wheezing and coughing, so he took the ship behind the nearest of the ridges and turned them off. The ship touched down upon the frozen sea with a bone jarring crash and slid along the ice to come to a rest with her nose buried into a large mound of frozen methane ice.

"Were done for darling, I guess we will never meet the famous Tyler Burrows now, he cannot be even halfway here yet."

Jean looked through the crackling view screen.

"The two Aldebran ships are coming this way, I guess they will find us soon, how do you want to handle it Ray?" Although as far as Jean could see, they were now out of answers.

"Jean, as soon as we know that they have found us I will fire our little energy weapon at the lead ship, we should just have enough power for the one shot." Ray said as a last ditch plan entered his mind.

"Do you think you can get them both with the one shot Ray?" Jean asked jokingly.

"Sure, why not, I have always been pretty good with a pop gun?" Ray replied.

**********

The Freedom had made good time, for the Heliot space cruiser was one fast ship, faster than anything that Earth had, and the power from her engines exceeded anything the Defenders hybrid engine could ever hope to accomplish.

"We should be nearing their position pretty soon, assuming they managed to stay clear of trouble that is." Tyler said to Paul Divine who was on communications and weapons. "Why not try to contact them Paul?"

"Before you do that Paul, you two guys should take a look at this on the long-range sensors. It looks like two space cruisers are orbiting an ice moon of a gas giant up ahead, and there are indications of a smaller craft on the moon`s surface." Tracy Goddard said.

Up ahead was the other end of the solar system that they were about to rush through, so Tyler came out of hyperspace and asked Paul Divine to turn on their defence shield and also their cloaking device.

"John you take over the communications." John Hardyman was one of the trainee spacemen. "Paul, will you power up the weapons." Tyler ordered as they cruised across the system to come to a halt over the crashed freighter.

"That looks like the ship the Connors` ride about in, a bit smashed up but it sure looks like it. John will you radio down and see if they are still at home?" Tyler asked.

Meanwhile on the ice moon, Ray Connors told his wife to see if the shuttlecraft was still okay, because he had a last-minute plan of action. A minute later Jean returned after checking out the shuttle.

"Yes Ray, the shuttlecraft is still okay but I am not so sure about the hanger door." Jean said and tried to raise a smile.

"Well we will just have to find out when we are leaving the Jeanette. What I plan to do is put the energy weapon on a timed operation while we sit in the Shuttlecraft and ten seconds after we fire our weapon, we open the hanger door and slide under the ice. We were lucky enough for our old rust bucket to end up in front of one of the holes the Aldebrans made when they fired at us as we slipped away under the ice and it is still not fully frozen." Ray said. He hoped that his plan was better than it sounded.

"Don`t call her an old rust bucket Ray, she was good to us." Jean protested.

"I know darling, I know." Just then, a call came into them over their crackling wreck of a radio.

"Ray Connors, Jean Connors, we are from Orion and we are just above you in a cloaked space cruiser, do you need help now or can we see these two Aldebran cruisers off first?" It was John Hardyman`s voice and it sounded quite firm, even if he was about to go into his first battle.

"Orion ship we are sure glad to hear from you, yes we are just fine, you can see the two mongrels off first."

However, Ray did wonder just how the Orion starship was cloaked, and how it would be able to accomplish such an act against two space cruisers, he was about to find out. Back on the space cruiser Freedom, Tyler issued his orders.

"Paul, target both of those two space cruisers, set the plasma weapons to knock out their shields with the first shot and if they persist then take out their engines, but await my orders first. Tell me when you are ready." Tyler ordered.

"We are ready now Tyler." Paul Divine said ten seconds later.

The Freedom de-cloaked above the Jeanette stunning the two Aldebran crews, and Ray and Jean Connors. Tyler took over the communications from the pilot`s seat.

"We are a space cruiser of the space fleet of Earth, please take your two ships back to Aldebra; we will open fire in one minute if you are still here. Please do not power up your weapons or attempt to open fire on us as I will get very angry, and then I will be forced to return fire, and it will certainly mess up your shiny vessels."

The reaction of the two Aldebran ships was of course to target the Freedom with their weapons.

"Tyler we are being targeted by their weapons` systems." Tracy said.

"Okay Paul, take their shields out."

Twin beams of the purest energy surged away from the Freedom to strike the two Aldebran space cruisers simultaneously, and their defence fields were immediately knocked out, the superior technology of the Heliot ship was so far in advance of that possessed by the Aldebran ships that they did not have a chance.

"They are returning fire Tyler." Tracy called worriedly, but she should not have worried because as the Aldebran weapons` fire was soaked up by the Freedom`s defence shields Paul Divine fired again taking out both ships` main engines and leaving them defenceless. Tyler watched as the two Aldebran ships moved slowly away on their secondary engines, their captains both stating that they were leaving and not to fire again, something Tyler had no intention of doing. Caroline had appeared on the bridge, and crossing over to the where Tyler sat, she leaned over and kissed him.

"Darling your early Christmas present sure is some powerful ship." Caroline said.

"She sure is darling, and she is all ours."

On the ice below the massive Heliot starship, a hanger door fell down with a silent bang, and an aging shuttlecraft appeared from within the stricken freighter Jeanette. From within this shuttlecraft Ray Connors called the Heliot starship over the radio and asked.

"Hey Tyler, can you tell us where can we park our shuttle craft?"

THE END

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Also, why not visit my author page by clicking on the link. Smashwords Books.

About the Author

I was born in London, England. Like most of the world I had to work hard to pay my mortgage and all the other bills so I only had the time and the energy to write some short stories. My wife and I have a son who is now married to a lovely wife and they have five children of their own. Since retiring to the Greek island of Crete I have finally found the time and the energy to write some full length Science Fiction stories.

Other Books by Philip R Benge

Colonies of Earth Series in order

Galaxy Spies

Time Storm

Rebirth

Trial by Ordeal

Horror Stories

Strange tales; three short mild horror stories

The Vampires of Cymru-- coming soon

Rob Hinds black magic stories

Kidnapped and Bound for Hell

The Satanists

Dreamscape

The Return of the Bitch from Hell

David Charlton stories, a science fiction series

Rescue Mission to the Stars

The Treasure of Altaraus

Return to Mazere

Other science fiction stories

Quasar

The Venetou

Invasion Earth

Lost and Far from Home

Journey to the Stars

Rebellion is in the Air

Short children`s stories

Three Journeys of the Scary Kind

