

### A Promise Remembered

By Michael Black

Copyright 2019 Michael Black

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Authors Notes
**Prologue**

Nadeen stared at the horizon of this world; it didn't even have a name, just navigational coordinates. The Sun was setting, and the beautiful colors made Nadeen feel more at peace with what was coming for her; she was dying, there was simply no escape from that inevitability. The intense radiation her body absorbed during the last battle had ensured that fate. It had been the last battle for everyone; there were just no more people on her home world; or on any other ships either, for there were no other ships anymore. Dren was the very last or his kind too; a warship with no more war to fight. He was a Reega Class hunter killer; and Nadeen sat under his bulk now, watching this beautiful sunset.

Dren had been the one to suggest landing here on this planet, for they had no 'home' to go to now; it was where Nadeen's people sent all their 'obsolete' starships and Dren was definitely obsolete now with no more war. Even though he was rather new, fitted with the latest weapons, Dren no longer had a purpose; for even though there were no more enemies, the one reason for him to continue on was dying right underneath his hull, "I wish I could go with you to the "Other World' Nadeen, it will be horrible to be alone. Putting me in stasis will help perhaps, but the silence will be hard. Will I dream, do you think?"

Nadeen managed a small laugh, "Dren, I don't know much about ships brains, but I do know that you and I have been bonded or 7 years now and I must tell you the truth. I simply don't know; but I suspect that you will dream. I want them to be happy dreams; my friend, but with all the bad things that we have had to deal with in the war, I think there will be bad dreams in there too; try to focus on our few happy times together, not just the war." Nadeen laughed at that, but it turned into a heavy coughing fit; "That is a silly thought, I know, but don't you ever give up hope. I am biological, so dying is a part of me; but your life is mechanical, so you must be the one to continue on for both of us. There must be something other than conflict and killing; I know it deep down inside. You must find that other way of life; and when you do, you must cherish it and nurture it. Promise me that you will never give up; that you will find that better life..." Dren told Nadeen that he would do it for her; it was all he could really say, but he had no idea how he could honor such a promise.

This planet, a graveyard of ships, was very far away from anything they knew...there were thousands of ships, parked close together on a massive plain, all with their 'brains' removed to continue on in other newer ships. But because they had been put in other ships of war, they were all dead now too. Dren had landed on the outer edge of the huge gathering of ghosts; one hundred yards from the closest one. There were no voices, only whispers of what had been.

***

Nadeen held on to life for 7 more days, her strength slipping away a little more each day. They watched the magnificent sunsets each day, and talked only of good times in their lives together. But by that seventh day Nadeen's coughing was continuous, and she could barely lift her head to watch the sun set one more time. As Dren watched through the one external camera he kept focused on her, Dren heard her last words; barely a whisper, "Dren, try to keep your promise; it is important." Her eyes closed, and the coughing stopped...

Dren didn't feel emotions like Nadeen did, but he knew something went away inside of his housing just then; he could 'feel it'. He watched Nadeen for a time, and then turned his attention to the sunset; he would watch for both of them one more time. When the sun had lowered below the horizon, Dren retracted the stairs and closed the boarding door, reducing all power on the ship to near zero; and he engaged stasis mode, effectively putting himself to sleep. His reactor was good for several thousand years. He would wait, for what he didn't know; and while he wasn't really aware of it, he did dream...

Planets have this pretty neat trick they do occasionally; they rearrange the topographical features a bit. Mountain ranges turn into flat plains; and flat plains become mountain ranges. This planet thought it would be nice to turn a massive grassy plain into a desert; so it let the winds have their way, and over the next hundred and fifty years the winds picked up tons of sand from the other side of the mountains, and deposited the sand on the great plain where the starships were. Slowly that plain became another desert, covering every one of the starships; including Dren. He didn't notice it, since he was dreaming; but by three hundred years there was no evidence that mechanical devices had ever existed on this big floating rock in space.

At three hundred and thirteen years, one month and eleven days, a large colony ship crashed; nearer to the mountains but still on flat land. This ship came from another part of space entirely; it had 5000 people onboard, but only 1100 survived the crash. The command crew had tried to minimize the damage and loss of life, but the ship's power was almost gone and it crashed rather hard. The survivors buried their comrades, and set up shop on the foothills of the mountain; they didn't have a choice, with no ship they were stuck here whether they wanted to be or not. Slowly survivors became residents; and a society developed. It was a harsh environment, but these people managed to negotiate something of a truce with the planet, and it let them live.

Over the next 800 years knowledge was lost, or twisted into legends and myths; the colony ship was a twisted, smoldering wreck, and eventually it crumbled into dust, leaving no resources to draw on. The technological society devolved into a simpler, agrarian one, leaning more toward survival than science. The history of the settlers became a mixture of stories and fact, with the stories prevailing. In the end, the people thought they were on this planet as a punishment for some undisclosed misdeeds. The story got pretty bizarre for a time; until a young girl questioned it...
**Chapter 1**

Jaylee liked this time of day; the sun was touching the world way off in the West, and the colors changed as it dipped lower and lower; it was growing cooler too, always a good thing. Out here in her favorite vantage point, the colors danced across the sand dunes. Soon it would be dark, and she could watch the twinkling stars in the sky too; that always gave her a sense of peace. Tonight Jaylee needed some peace; she was sixteen now, and her mother had told her today that she was chosen to serve at the temple, and that frightened her. Being chosen as an acolyte was considered an honor by the people, but she just didn't see it that way. All the chanting and prayers didn't feel right; and Jaylee couldn't shake the thought that it was all wrong.

"So this is your hiding spot child. It is a nice view; I used to come out here every night too." Jaylee jumped up at the sudden voice; she knew that voice well, "Master Walter, you frightened me; are you alright?" The old High Priest laughed, a twinkle in his eye, "Yes Jaylee, I am fine; I may be old now, but I can still walk out this far to 'our' favorite place to think. Tell me what troubles you child; I can see that all is not well in your world this evening."

The last thing Jaylee wanted to do was bare her soul to Master Walter; but she couldn't just tell him to go away and leave her alone. Besides, she really liked the old priest; he always conducted the weekly services like a town meeting, speaking plainly what he thought and asking for people to speak their mind. Unlike the lower priests, who just chanted and read words out of the Great Book, Master Walter gave an honest interpretation of the words. It was the biggest reason Jaylee liked him; He didn't 'throw' words at you, he asked you to 'think' about them; "I'm not sure I can describe the feelings inside me Master; I know all the words in the Great Book, and have memorized all the responses, but every time I think of the words they seem wrong to me."

Jaylee half expected the old priest to get angry for her questioning the holy words within the Great Book; what she never expected was Master Walter laughing hysterically for over a minute, "Young Jaylee, I suspect it may surprise you to know that I have questioned the Great Book all my life, and every word in it. I have chosen you expressly to 'know' your views on the book, not to change those views. Now that I am Master in the temple, I have read another book that no one else even knows about and I want your views on those words. It was in the old Master's chamber when I took it over after his death; but for now, let us enjoy the stars, shall we?"

They spent three hours just watching the stars, making animals and people out of different groups across the sky. Jaylee tried to focus on the stars, but couldn't help but think of this mysterious book that Master Walter had. What magical words would be inside that book...the two walked the two miles back to the small town rather late, and Jaylee's mother was about to scold her for being out so long after dark; but seeing Master Walter walking with Jaylee prevented that outburst fast. The old priest further surprised the woman by telling her that Jaylee would be his personal assistant beginning tomorrow; then abruptly rose and bid them a good night. Jaylee's mom was too astounded to even utter another word; her daughter was not only honored by the temple, she was now to be the High Priest's personal assistant. She was beaming the pride she felt for her daughter the rest of the night...

***

Jaylee woke before the sun came up, washed and combed out her hair; she put on the best tunic she had, made sure it was positioned just right, and walked to the Temple. She managed not to run; but had anyone seen her they would have known she was excited. At the Temple gate the night 'protector' smiled knowingly at Jaylee, "I haven't seen this much enthusiasm in several years from a new acolyte. Go directly to the Master's chamber Jaylee, he has checked twice to see if you had arrived yet. It seems he is enthusiastic as well."

Jaylee didn't have to knock on the Mater's door; it was already wide open. Master Walter looked up from a paper he was reading, "Ahh, you are prompt young one; come in and have a seat. We need to go over some basic rules for this collaboration. On the table over there is some tea and biscuits; please pour us each a cup and bring the biscuits. I expect you haven't broken fast this early yet." Jaylee poured the two cups of tea, if a little shakily, and served one to Master Walter. She placed the tray of biscuits in between them and took her seat; sipping at the hot tea. She tried to be calm, but this treatment had her wondering what was in store for her; Acolytes were normally installed in their 'barracks', and operated from there during their studies; but the Master was taking a personal interest in Jaylee right from the start. It was only a few minutes before Master Walter began sorting out her confusion...

"You are wondering why you are receiving preferential treatment Jaylee. I understand your confusion, but you see; you are not to be an acolyte at all. I am creating a brand new office, Heritage Researcher, and you are the first one. If you prefer it, you may call yourself the 'Keeper of Truth', for the Great Book does not tell our story accurately. As you are about to find out, the Great Book is full of misrepresentations of our history. In plain language, it is a corrupted account of who we are and where we came from. The first chapter in the Great Book refers to our being 'placed upon this world as punishment, for the sins of our forefathers'. Even as a young man I was confused by that wording. Jaylee, think about the first chapter in the book and see if you can identify the inconsistency in that account."

Jaylee was taken aback somewhat by the query; everyone knew that the Great Book was gospel. You were supposed to take the words as sacred, an absolute account of the people's frailty, and a key to the redemption of their whole society. Jaylee had already had doubts about some of the words, but here the High Priest was asking her to put voice to those doubts. Despite the hint of fear in her, Jaylee went over the first chapter in her mind. It dealt exclusively with the origins of the people; how God had created them on this planet, to seek perfection after having failed. The sentence that Master Walter had referenced was at the end of the chapter, saying that they were 'placed' here as punishment for having failed...and there it was, glaring at anyone who bothered to think about it!

"Master, if we were 'created' here on this world, how could we be 'placed' here as a punishment? And who are the 'forefathers' that failed, if we were placed here as punishment? The people had to have come from another place for that to be true..."

Master Walter smiled widely; beaming like a proud Father, "Jaylee, I have watched you for many years now; you learned to read and write quickly, and you are always inquisitive. You take everything in with your eyes and ears; then think about it all. It does my heart good to see that I have made the correct choice; for you just proved it. You even went one step further in your analysis; I only picked up on the one discrepancy. You now see that the Great Book is not the collection of wisdom that we have thought it to be for centuries. Lock the door Jaylee, for I am about to show you the truth of our existence; the whole truth...

As Jaylee locked the entry door, Master Walter went behind a curtain in his room and brought back a thick and very big book. He placed it on his desk facing Jaylee; when she saw the book, her eyes went very wide, and her mouth fell open. Sitting before her was a leather bound book with golden accents; it was every bit as large as the Great Book, but only half as thick. On the cover were embossed words in gold that she could read easily;

Earth Alliance Starship

EAS 'Expansion'

Ships Log

Master Walter let her stare at the book for a moment before saying, "Open it young one, the ancestors had far better paper than we do; it is not that fragile." He gave her a gentle smile to let Jaylee know it was alright to do so.

What Jaylee found inside of the cover didn't just contradict the Great Book; it called it a fraud in capital letters. The very first entry was a date and time, 21 April 2319, 1143 hours; followed by writing that said, _'I have held to the old traditions of keeping a hard copy log for this ship. The tradition may be ancient now with electronic log keeping, but I feel it is a worthy endeavor. Departed Earth orbit on schedule, vectoring for Tau Ceti star system. All ship systems running at optimum. The Engineer reports stasis pods are ready for the initial batch of passengers, I estimate two to three days to put all of them to sleep. 5117 soul's onboard total. First space watch is set, normal routine...Captain Emile Rolland, Commanding.'_

The next two hundred pages had single line entries, simply date and time with _'Underway as before, normal routine.'_ written. Then the problems began to plague the ship; at first it was just recurring power outages of short duration, but further on the machinery started acting up. The engineers stayed on top of the situation for two more years; but the machinery kept failing at increasing rates, and some systems failed completely. The 'Expansion' missed its target star entirely, and headed off into the unknown. The log entries dwindled, then stopped completely for a while; until page 297. There was a single entry; _"The ship crashed. We had found a potential home on a planet with atmosphere. There were enough sensors working to estimate we could live there, and we tried to enter orbit. Not enough orbital speed though, and we sank into the atmosphere. The engines didn't have enough power to regain orbit, so we slowed down as best we could. It wasn't enough. Out of 5117 people onboard, we now only have 1092 left alive; mostly passengers. There were 8 crew survivors, but only 5 now. The others succumbed to their injuries. I pulled this log out of the ship before it burned to a crisp, don't really know why. The ship is a total write off, with nothing worth salvaging. We are on our own now...Able Crewman Second Jerry Carlson._

There was one more entry a little farther down; _"It has been two years and we're still here; I wonder if God really is watching over us, as this rock in space is not one I would choose to colonize. It is about ten degrees too hot all the time; except for the nights when it actually gets nice out. There is enough vegetation that we can eat, and we have found several streams of good clean water. It does rain too. The local meat market is sparsely stocked however, won't be eating much meat. Miracle of miracles, the hydroponics section on the ship cracked open in the crash and dumped a lot of its content on the ground; and there are several patches of veggies that took hold in this soil. We are cultivating carefully. Still, it is a harsh life on this planet...is God punishing us for our impudence? Are we to pay a penance for such an audacious attempt to expand outward to the stars? I only know that I must keep these people organized, to give them some kind of hope. I have begun thinking of organizing a religion, with services and messages of unity and survival. Without it, we will die, I have no doubt. There are only 1034 left now, but at least that number is stable for the moment and there are six babies on the way. I will start preaching tonight, to see how it goes. Pray for us..."_

While it was not clear to Jaylee just what a 'starship' was, all the rest of the words did tell her that her people didn't begin here; they were not created here, but were 'brought' to this world from another far away. That told Jaylee that the stars in the night sky were indeed other worlds; maybe even nicer ones The words in this book also made it quite clear that the people being here was not intentional, but rather an accident. Why had someone lied about that? The last entry hinted at the reason; the single word 'hope'. That was a word that every one of her people understood; you hoped that someone got better when they were sick; you hoped that the tools used in their farming lasted another year. Were Jaylee and her people supposed to hope for more than that?

Master Walter could see that Jaylee was having a difficult time with the contradictions in this new book. He knew that all of the people would have an even harder time accepting such a drastic change in their beliefs, "Young one, I think you see the real problem here; the people are here on this world, but this book tells us that we don't really 'belong' here. Once our ancestors had machines; and they knew how to use them. The people exist on this world, but we don't really 'live' here. We are not growing as a people; our population is nearly the same number as it was when the ancestors arrived. Part of the reason is that we don't look for new ways to improve our lives, like our ancestors did; instead, we wait for God to do it for us. I don't believe that is what God intended for us; what do you think about that Jaylee?"

If Jaylee had been apprehensive at merely serving in the Temple, this first morning filled her with something approaching fear. The Master was suggesting that she change her outlook on the world around her; not only that, he was hinting that she actively help change all the peoples beliefs. It was a lot to think about, and she knew just the right place to do that thinking, "Master, may I go out to the desert and think on this new thing? I think watching the sunset will help me understand."

Master Walter nodded solemnly at his protégé. He understood perfectly what was going through her mind right now; he had the same conflicting thoughts when he had first read through the old ship's log, "Yes young one, this is a task we must approach very carefully. You must be certain of your commitment, for we will be changing our entire society with our actions."

***

The long walk out to the small rocky promontory gave Jaylee extra time to organize her thoughts; she somehow knew that Master Walter was right, that the people had to do more than just worship God and plant new crops every year. Jaylee had nothing to give her a reference really; to her mind, it was a good life on this world simply because it was all she knew; she was born here after all, but was it a 'better' life? She didn't know if there was such a thing as better. Jaylee was sure of one thing though; the people were only 'surviving', just like her ancestors from so long ago; they weren't 'doing things', and that was not what God wanted of them. For God to see the people as worthy, they needed to do new things...

Jaylee sat down on 'her' rock as usual; just in time to watch the sun lowering to the horizon. She forced herself to clear her mind; and just enjoy the different colors playing across the desert; let the thoughts come on their own. There were sand dunes of different sizes for as far as she could see; some small and some larger. As the light changed angle as the sun set, each mound gave off slightly different hues; until it grew dark and the colors went away. The show was always different because of the winds that blew across the desert; shifting the sand mounds shapes slightly each day. Today the wind was blowing very hard, and from the wrong direction; creating huge clouds of sand that changed shape as the wind shifted back and forth. It was an extra performance, just for Jaylee. At least the sand was blowing away from her.

As the sun disappeared below the horizon, Jaylee saw a bright flash of light from the top of one dune at the edge of the desert. It wasn't one of the largest dunes, but it was pretty big. This wasn't just a color; it was more like a reflection of the Sun itself, like in a water stream. It was definitely odd; there was no water in the desert, especially on the 'top' of a sand dune. Jaylee's curiosity cried out for her to find out what it was; so she stood and walked toward the great dune. It was a steep climb, and Jaylee moved upward carefully; the sand was soft and deep, her feet sinking down with each step. As she got closer to the top, Jaylee could see that this shiny thing was not lying on the sand, there was something 'under' the sand. She was almost up to the object when the world started shaking, and the whole side of the dune slid away, taking a frightened Jaylee with it.

Half buried under a pile of sand did not feel good at all; the gritty stuff chaffed against Jaylee's skin. She wiggled out and brushed herself off as best she could; a bath suddenly was all she could think of, the sand was sticky no matter how much Jaylee tried to brush it away with her hand. As Jaylee turned to walk back to town, she was confronted with a sight she had never seen before in her life. The 'thing' wasn't a big rock; in fact it wasn't made of stone at all, the key word being 'made'. This huge thing was all metal, just like a hoe; even with the big pile of sand still on top, it looked like a monstrous turtle in one of the streams. It even had what looked like a rounded head on one end. On the other end were big funnel like pieces sticking out; Jaylee had no idea what she was looking at, but she knew it wasn't an animal of any kind. For one thing, it was just too darn big; any animal this huge would have been noticed long ago. Also, the only metal known on this world were the tools the people used and guarded closely.

The big thing didn't move, so Jaylee summoned up her courage and walked upward to get close. It was much easier this time; the sand on this side was more of a low hill now. When she got to it, she reached out and touched it; the metal vibrated slightly, and Jaylee could hear a low hum from the big turtle. It 'was' alive then; Jaylee backed slowly away to not antagonize the turtle, and was almost back on solid ground, when the thing spoke to her...
**Chapter 2**

Dren was dreaming again; he had been doing that for many centuries ever since he had gone into stasis mode. That did not shut him down completely; it placed the ship and him into a 'lowest level' of awareness. There was no active thinking involved, just individual impulses roaming around randomly throughout his circuits in various patterns. It had the same effect as dreaming has on a human.

For the first 150 years Dren's dreams took on the daytime/nighttime rhythm of this planet, sometimes bright dreams and sometimes dark dreams. Then the dreams had all been dark nighttime ones, for over 1000 years. He dreamt of battles and quiet times traveling between stars. He dreamt of Nadeen, and all the time they had together; but after the 300 year mark they were always nighttime dreams, always dark out...until today. For the first time in a very long while, Dren saw daylight in his dream. It would not have had much effect on Dren's consciousness; except that a low level proximity alarm also went off, and he began to wake up. As the reactor powered up after so long, it generated a harmonic that shook the surrounding ground for a minute; and centuries of sand slid away, exposing Dren to the world around him once again.

Having just woken up after such a long sleep, Dren was still organizing his thoughts when he shifted his optical camera to his port side; the image of a woman backing away from Dren had him momentarily think it was his bonded mate, and he exclaimed "Nadeen!" It took Dren a millisecond to realize he should have lowered the volume more; for the effect of his voice on the young woman was pronounced to say the least. The woman froze in place, a look of utter fear on her face. He had a moment to study the girl; he revised his age estimate since he could see that this was not his Nadeen. This girl appeared much younger, but she was definitely human...she was also no threat, since she wore no armored bio-suit as his mate had. This girl was wearing a simple tunic of cloth, and a pair of sandals; so by definition she was not a warrior. Dren had not had any companionship for a long time, so on an impulse he spoke to the girl again; softly this time, "Human, I see that you are not Nadeen; even though you have similar features..."Emi lak Dren."

Jaylee was frightened, that was certain; the loud word the great turtle spoke sounded like a command, but this thing just said it again softly. It did not reach out and destroy Jaylee, and the voice sounded almost like the way Master Walter spoke to her. With a deep sigh Jaylee raised her hand to her chest and said, "I am Jaylee."

Three words do not build a vocabulary; but from those three short words, Dren surmised that 'Jaylee' was the girl's name; the hand gesture suggested that much. It would take many more words to establish a pattern in the local language; the meanings would take longer, but this was a start. Taking a chance, Dren said, "Jaylee, I am Dren; please come here again..." The girl's eyes grew wide again, for he had spoken the first part in her language. The rest was a mystery, but the turtle had said her name. She had come out here in confusion; and now she would try to return to the town, if the turtle let her, enormously more confused. Jaylee slowly turned toward town, and began walking over to the path. When Jaylee was firmly on the path back to the Temple, she looked back at the huge shiny turtle. It just sat there, making no sound; as if watching her.

Dren was indeed watching Jaylee depart. He had conflicting thoughts as to what had just happened; Dren had just met a young girl who was very similar to his beloved Nadeen. The hair was a different color, but the human's features were strikingly similar to Nadeen's. While he didn't feel the way that humans did, he could still recognize the need for close contact with others. He missed his Nadeen, almost as much as the evening when she died right next to him. Was Nadeen somehow calling to him now, from her 'Other World'? He could clearly hear the light wind whispering through the rocks; but there were no clear words in those whispers, only the fleeting thoughts racing through his mind. Suddenly he found another thought racing inside him; Dren hoped Jaylee would return...

***

For the first mile Jaylee walked slowly, fearful that the strange turtle would strike her with lightning or something. When nothing at all happened, she broke into a run; finishing that last mile to the Temple in just ten minutes. Breathless when she reached the gate, it took her a moment to tell the protector on duty, "I need to see Master Walter now!" Beren had known Jaylee for years, and he knew how excitable she could be, "Be calm Jaylee; your enthusiasm grows, but you must control it. You will wear yourself out otherwise; the Master's house is also yours now Researcher; and you do not need permission to enter. Be at peace my friend."

Beren likely meant every word he said; he was a good man and his words did calm Jaylee considerably. By the time Jaylee walked into Master Walter's chamber, she had finally caught her breath. Master Walter had a warm smile for Jaylee, "Ahh, you are back Jaylee; did you come to a decision on our conversation this morning? It is so long after dark, I thought you might be staying out there for the night."

Jaylee was about to spill the whole days experience at top speed, but managed to remain calm, "Oh Master; not only have I decided that we must change the people's views on our heritage, I found a reason why it must be done as well!" Jaylee recounted her amazing encounter in detail; how she saw the reflection of the sun near the top of a large dune; she told Master Walter how she climbed the dune, and how the entire pile of sand had slid out from under her; revealing a huge metal turtle. Master Walter knew Jaylee was not one who imagined things, but her story sounded so unbelievable; had she dreamed this after reading the book this morning? It certainly seemed like a possibility; but when she said this turtle spoke to her in a strange language; it became clear to the Priest that this was more than an induced dream. The Ships Log didn't have any strange language in it, "I think I would like to meet this huge metal turtle that talks Jaylee. Would you introduce me to it in the morning? For now, get a good bath in your quarters over there; and get a good night's sleep. We will be up early again." He pointed to a door on the other side of the chamber, and Jaylee went through to find a large bedroom with its own bath and a closet with two more tunics in it. Jaylee's society might be a simple one; but it wasn't totally backwards. Still, running water was more than Jaylee was used to; she had a long soaking bath before going to sleep; it did take a while for her to close her eyes, but eventually fatigue won out...it never occurred to her to lock her door; she trusted the old Priest completely.

Before the Sun rose, Jaylee was up, washed and in a new tunic; only to find Master Walter waiting patiently for her when she opened the door. Smiling an apology, the Master said, "Forgive me young one, I think I am anxious to meet your new acquaintance." Anxious he was; for Jaylee had to laugh a few times on the journey when the Old Priest kept outpacing her; All Master Walter could do was smile when it happened

For the last three quarters of a mile Master Walter could easily see that Jaylee's claim was very real. Out on the edge of the great desert sat a large gleaming object that looked remarkably like a turtle. It had the curved upper body that resembled a shell; while the belly appeared relatively flat. It had the rounded head; but didn't possess a tail. Instead, what it did have on the rear end was a row of four large funnel like openings. Master Walter couldn't help thinking back to the Ships Log that repeatedly referenced one word; 'engines'. Even before the two were close to this huge turtle, the Priest was becoming convinced that what he saw was the physical example of a 'starship'.

Jaylee climbed the low hill of sand with Master Walter close behind her; they stopped about 30 feet short of the metal, and Jaylee called out, "Dren?"

Dren had been watching the two humans approaching. Jaylee had brought an older man back with her; her Father perhaps? No matter, the man wore a longer tunic with several designs on the shoulders and chest that suggested he was a respected leader. When Jaylee called out Dren's name, he responded softly, "I am here Jaylee, please come inside"; and he released the boarding hatch. He couldn't extend the stairs, as the sand was still too high; but the door was clear.

Jaylee had expected Dren to speak; a good night's sleep had eased her fears some and allowed her to see Dren from a different perspective, but she never expected a big rectangular door to suddenly slide out of the way in front of her. Master Walter took a different approach to the surprise, and walked right up to the open door; looking inside the opening; he saw a solid floor, walls with many fixtures attached; and a ceiling of sorts with pipes and strange snaky looking things running into this 'ship'. There were no more doubts for him, when he spotted the row of lighted buttons next to the door, with strange letters under each button. People were meant to be inside this vessel, "Come Jaylee, your friend has invited us in for tea; and it would be impolite to refuse."

Jaylee had her own reservations still, but she had to obey Master Walter, "Yes Master". As the two walked down this obvious hallway, Jaylee was amazed at all the strange shapes she saw in every direction; she was astounded that the hallway was well lighted, with no candles burning at all. It was like being outside in the sun, and she could pick out every detail. At what must have been the middle of the ship they encountered a cross hallway. To the right was a long hallway, with a stairway leading upward on one side not too far away; but to the left was a short hallway, with four doors in each wall, showing more strange writing on each one. At the end of the hallway was a heavier door colored blue. It had more letters on it; but then it slid open, and Dren's voice came from within the chamber, "This way, I can show you more in here. The words were meaningless of course, but Master Walter seemed to understand the gesture. He walked up to the door, looking into the bridge. Jaylee caught up to the old man, and peered in herself.

Jaylee's eyes went wide; this chamber had strange 'desks' all around, with chairs attached at most of them. There were windows all around the walls at eye level in this round room; and one changed to a picture of a woman. Jaylee was so surprised that she almost missed it when Dren said, "Nadeen"...Dren's soft voice had changed tone when he said her name; she had been important to him, he cared for her. But where was she? As if reading Jaylee's mind Dren changed the image to one of Nadeen lying on the ground outside; it was grassy with little purplish flowers all around. She was talking to Dren, and he responded often. Then Nadeen closed her eyes, and didn't open them again; the image changed again to the same angle outside; but now there was sand everywhere. Jaylee could see the open door they had just passed through, and the footsteps leading up to the door. Dren simply said again, "Nadeen"; barely a whisper. The meaning shouted at Master Walter, "She died here many years ago Jaylee; before the sand covered everything. Dren stayed with her all this time. He is telling us his story, like the Logbook told us our story...

Dren was thinking of Nadeen of course; somehow showing the images to these two people made the emptiness less overwhelming, but it was also for a different purpose. He needed Jaylee and Master Walter to talk to each other. He was recording every word, every sentence; looking for patterns of speech. Dren was trying to learn their language, so they all could understand each other better. It was working well so far, so he showed them more images; any image he had in memory. It didn't matter what the images showed, they would not understand them; not yet. It kept them talking, and that was most important.

By the time the Sun began to set once again, Dren felt he had a pretty good human vocabulary; some of the sentence structure and overall grammar might be odd for a while; but Dren would surprise them tomorrow with his accomplishment. Jaylee had sat down early on in Nadeen's Command Chair; Dren had expected to feel oddly about that, but found that he felt relieved that the chair was occupied again. He didn't think Nadeen would mind it either; jealousy just wasn't her way...

When Jaylee and Master Walter arrived in the morning Dren sprung his surprise on them. After the two got over the shock that Dren could now talk with them; things progressed at a faster pace. The first order of business was to give them a guided tour of the ship; it turned out to be an enlightening experience, not only for Jaylee and Master Walter though. Dren found out that war was not the only reason for existence...

Jaylee was intrigued by the eight staterooms; the made up bunks, the wash basin with faucets, the little desks that folded down out of the bulkhead, it all amazed her. Each stateroom was set up the same, and that brought on the first serious question; Master Walter asked Dren, "If Nadeen was the only person here Dren, why are there so many rooms?" Dren thought it was an odd question, but answered anyway, "First ships always have many people make them fly, but after ships made with others like me to fly. Only needed one like Nadeen to make decision; still made ships for many soldier attacks. 'Troop Berthing' in back..." Master Walter smiled; so many different words. Dren had astounded the Priest by learning their language overnight; understanding would take a bit longer. Jaylee just looked at Master Walter, totally lost after the explanation. He grinned at Jaylee, while answering Dren, "I may not understand all of it Dren, but I do know you were built for many people but only needed one." Dren just said, "Yes." Inwardly, he thought about what the Priest had said; he accepted the words, yes he did 'need' again.

Dren let the two wander as they wanted to; and they wanted to see every single thing on the ship, it was all new to them. The galley fascinated them with all the cauldrons for cooking, and the steam table for keeping food hot. The crew's mess, where people ate that food on communal tables and chairs amazed the two people. It was all so different from what they were used to, and yet strangely similar. It almost surprised Dren that Jaylee and Master Walter viewed the troop berthing with equanimity, until they explained that it reminded them of the acolyte barracks; where the recruits slept in two tier bunks standing side by side like this compartment. The troop bathroom was likewise familiar to them, although the showers did puzzle them both until Dren explained it was taking a bath standing up.

When Master Walter entered the engine room, he ended up disappointed. He expected to see something that would give him a better understanding of what 'machinery' was; while he didn't really think it would be anything like the ship his ancestors 'arrived' in, he had hoped to at least put a physical 'thing' to the word. What he got was a neat collection of colored boxes with some conduits and cables connected to them, all standing in a row. Dren did explain that the biggest box was the engine reactor, while the three smaller boxes were 'auxiliary reactors' for electrical power within the ship. Most of the explanation meant nothing to the Priest, but at least he had a better understanding of how much knowledge the people had lost over the centuries on this world.

The Sun was lowering to the planet's horizon once again, and Dren asked his two new 'friends' if they wanted to watch it from the bridge. They did, and all three watched the colors dance across the sands. Afterwards Master Walter suggested that they head back to town, there was a lot for them to think about. Jaylee wondered about those sleeping rooms behind her, but didn't want to impose on Dren. She didn't know it, but Dren was thinking the same thing. He didn't mention it though; it was too soon. Later he would suggest their staying overnight; when the two were more comfortable with the idea, no need to rush.

After he watched the two walk back, until they were out of sight, Dren began talking with Nadeen. He knew she would not respond, but he just had to put voice to these new feelings within him. He asked Nadeen if she was alright with him making new friends; and then answered for her. Dren was sure that Nadeen would approve; she would not want him to be alone. This exercise was more about Dren convincing himself that he was doing the right thing. He was a war machine; but there was no more war, just two people who he needed to listen to. They didn't talk of conflict and killing; in a way they helped Dren put the strange thoughts in perspective, just like Nadeen did. He wasn't really aware of it yet, but Dren was becoming much more than just the sum of his parts. Dren was becoming a person...he knew there was one thing he needed to do though; well after dark, when he was sure he would not be observed, Dren brought all his systems up to full flight status, and rose slowly out of the sand; hovering at 100 feet above the spot he had remained at for so long. He whispered to Nadeen that he would be right back; then began accelerating away from the people's town. He left his short landing gear down until he felt sure the air had blown any remaining sand away, then retracted them and angled upward toward space. Dren was making sure he could still take passengers...

An hour later, all systems were working well; and he descended to a moderately wide river on the other side of the planet. He spent another hour 'flushing' his water tanks until he was certain they were filled with only pure drinking water; Dren had the beginnings of a plan, and it required good clean water. Then he returned to the desert; landing on solid ground, just away from the sand and the opposite way facing Nadeen. He waited, somewhat anxiously, for the rest of the night...
**Chapter 3**

Dren had been built as a warship, simply because that was what Nadeen's people did; they waged war. It had been a way of life for thousands of years; Nadeen's people, the Prendar, had fought amongst themselves on their own planet early on; and when they had migrated to the stars they took war with them. When the Prendar had found other races on other planets, they found that those races were just as warlike as they were, and just as eager to kill them as their own race was. If they exist, kill them; plain and simple. The reasons for the killing were lost to history; Nadeen had told him that it was not even taught in their schools; 'how' to wage war was all that mattered.

Much of Dren's database was filled with tactics; how to gain advantage over your enemy. Maneuver for the best firing angle; hide in asteroid belts and surprise the enemy from their flank; that was the information he could draw on. He had little experience in dealing with people; only Nadeen...they had talked often, in between battles when they had some 'quiet time' together. She told Dren that she was tired of war, and the killing that went with it. Dren had learned to think abstractly during his and Nadeen's discussions; she had taught him how to think about different things, other things that didn't include killing.

Master Walter and Jaylee didn't care about war and killing; they didn't know anything about such things. They didn't know anything about starships either, since they asked seemingly innocuous questions every few feet as they walked through the ship. "What is this? What is that?" It puzzled Dren at first. Why did they ask such questions; it finally dawned on him that these people didn't know about simple things because they were isolated. The only history they knew was this planet; not even the whole planet really, just this little area on the planet. All they really knew about was planting crops and surviving. Perhaps Dren could show them things that would help them find better ways to do things. It was an audacious idea, coming from a purpose built warship, but he might pull it off with Nadeen's help; through his recordings of their conversations.

***

Master Walter and Jaylee talked all the way back to the Temple; their adventure ensured that. Jaylee could not hold her enthusiasm, "Master, do you think Dren can help us with what we must do about the Great Book?" Master Walter had to chuckle, "Jaylee, after seeing all those wonders today, I believe he can help us in more ways than we can think of. Our ancestors knew about machines and great vessels that carried our people across the stars. His machines seem to be far different than what we had, but he may be able to inspire us to seek that knowledge again. The only thing that we must guard against is simply telling the people about him; the Great Book itself would have them thinking that Dren was an evil being sent to punish us further. Whatever we do, Dren must remain our secret; at least for now. Do you understand why?"

Jaylee certainly did understand such a need, "Yes Master, I understand. I have seen some of the people shouting at each other when they did not agree on something in the Great Book. Once I saw them hitting each other with their fists, and kicking too. Is that what Dren called war?"

The Priest looked down sadly for a moment, "Yes young one, there are several passages in the Book that talk about conflict, and how whole peoples fought against each other once; but Dren's story told me that the war he was talking about was far worse than what we can imagine; he did say that his Nadeen was the last of her people. Now that we agree that our friend must remain a secret for a time, I have an important task for you, if you will accept it. I would like you to go to Dren tomorrow, and ask if you can stay with him for a while; to learn from him and him from you. He does seem to like you well enough; he always answered your questions in a softer tone than speaking with me. I don't think he means us any harm; in fact, I got the impression that he really welcomed our company. Will you do this thing for an old man? I must stay here and prepare for the 6th day services...

The shocked look on Jaylee's face the priest couldn't read; but what she said was very clear indeed, "Oh Master, I will certainly do it. I confess that I found myself wanting to sleep in one of those magical 'cabins' tonight, but I could not leave you to walk back by yourself!"

Master Walter laughed loudly, tears running down his cheeks after a minute, "Jaylee my child, you make me feel young again. So you still think of me as feeble as well as old...no no, don't go apologizing; for I do appreciate your devotion. Alright then, get yourself to sleep; I expect you will want to get up early yet again. Just remember, you will need to check in with me every two or three days Jaylee, to be seen by the people. Make sure to see your mother as well, I do not want her to be worrying..." Jaylee was smiling as she went into her own room; she was experiencing an adventure the likes of which she had never dreamed in all her sixteen years. She would find out in the morning just how much of an adventure it really was...

As the Master expected, Jaylee was up and ready to journey to Dren again; so was Master Walter. In fact, the priest had stayed up all night trying to relate all that he had seen with what was in the Ships Log entries...he had not made any firm relationships, but he was certain now that the people he shepherded had indeed come from another star so long ago. He was just as certain that this star was not the one they were supposed to be on. He would have to be very careful with rewriting the Great Book; but changes would come, he promised God they would. As he watched Jaylee make her way out to her destiny, Master Walter couldn't help thinking, <That girl will change the world, I know it. Please help her in her task God>...

Jaylee was in for some shocks today, and her first one was when she crested the last rise and looked toward where Dren was supposed to be; only he wasn't. He was sitting about 100 feet closer and turned in a different direction. Dren didn't have any sand on him now, and he was standing on four metal legs. Jaylee could see all four of his 'engines' now; and when she was far enough along to see his side the door was open and a short set of stairs awaited her arrival.

Dren saw Jaylee coming, but waited until she was almost to the stairs before saying, "Good day Jaylee, I am happy to have you back again." He saw her smile at him, but when she said, "Good morning Dren, I am very pleased to be back as well," he thought he did something wrong, "Did I not greet you correctly Jaylee? I remember to do better next time." Jaylee looked surprised, "Oh no Dren, you did it exactly right! Either good morning or good day is both the same thing really; it is good night that is used after dark to wish that a person sleeps well until the next morning or day. How did you get all clean and turned around Dren?"

Dren let out an audible chuckle as Jaylee sat down in the Command chair, just as he often did with Nadeen when they talked, "When dark I go up and check all systems; all good, and I come down here to use stairs for you." Jaylee exclaimed, "You can fly?!" Dren was a bit confused at the question, "Yes, I are a starship. Would you want to go up, see your world?"

This was far beyond Jaylee's usual comfort zone. She knew birds flew; she often wondered just how they did that. She had even climbed fairly high up the side of the mountain once to see how different it all looked from up there; but this offer from Dren asked her to reach deeply down for all her courage. As Jaylee looked around her, she could see that she would be enclosed inside Dren, and Dren thought of this thing as normal. She did not want to disappoint her new friend; so she took a deep breath and said, "Yes Dren, you are my friend and I do want to know new things; this is definitely new to me, be gentle please?"

She said it! Jaylee thought of him as her friend; and a little more of the emptiness disappeared with Jaylee's words. Silently Dren thought, <Nadeen my love, know that you are always in my memories but Jaylee needs me. I will help her.> To Jaylee he said, "Jaylee my friend, I will carry you carefully. Strap in please, I must close door." Jaylee looked around and found the two halves of the safety harness that pulled outward easily. Having never seen such a thing, she still figured out that the one shiny piece fit into the other big half, and suddenly she was 'strapped in' as 'Command Pilot' in a space going starship she knew nothing about...yet!

Dren watched Jaylee as she struggled momentarily with the Command Harness; inwardly smiling proudly at his friend. This was a big thing for both of them; Dren could feel that, and a new path opened leading toward complete trust. This was the third day...

***

Dren rose slowly into a hover at 100 feet, just like last night. As Jaylee saw her world dropping away, she tensed and gripped the armrests with both her hands tightly. At first Jaylee thought her eyes were playing tricks on her; but then Dren started moving forward slowly and the desert began sliding away under her, she still felt no movement. She asked, "Is something wrong Dren? I see the world move, but I don't feel anything." Dren whispered softly, "You not feel movement, Dren have 'things' that stop you feel moving; be calm Jaylee, I be careful with you."

Jaylee found herself smiling at the way he explained it to her; he was doing remarkably well with the English language. She might not know any technical words, but she could certainly help him out with basic grammar. The thought calmed her down some, and Jaylee found herself relaxing and watching the ground go by as Dren made several turns at slightly more speed. They were already higher than she had seen birds fly, but the sight no longer bothered her. After a little while longer, Jaylee asked, "Dren, can we go a little higher please?"

Dren was watching her closely now, gauging her reactions. He saw her relax and start enjoying the ride, so he said, "Yes, I will show you the world now." He angled upward and increased his speed some more; Jaylee was watching how blue the sky was up here, when suddenly it started changing to an almost dark gray. When all color went away and it changed to pitch black, Jaylee almost panicked; but Dren was already 'leveling out' and she saw the curvature of the planet come into view. Jaylee's mouth opened, and a tiny 'Ooooo' sound came out; her eyes were very wide, but she wasn't frozen in place. Her head moved around to see more, so Dren wasn't worried; 'newbies' always did that the first time out, "We go round one time, and we go down?"

Jaylee figured out he was asking her when she wanted to get back on the ground she was used to, "Okay Dren, can we do this again tomorrow?" Dren gave her a soft chuckle, Many times you want, just say, okay..." Twenty minutes later Dren started re-entry; as Jaylee watched intently as the sky turned blue again. He was proud of his friend; Jaylee didn't get sick like some did...and this was actually part of his plan to help her and her people. It was also something of a new experience for him too; for the first time in 1100 years he was 'just cruising' with someone he cared for, and Dren liked the feeling...
**Chapter 4**

Jaylee slept in the first cabin on the left, just behind the bridge, that night; before retiring she ran her hands over all the smooth surfaces, marveling at how new and shiny everything looked. The sink amazed her, with the faucet arching over the basin. Tentatively Jaylee turned one of the two handles, and jumped back. Clear water shot out of the strange pipe into the basin. Quickly she turned the handle back, and the water stopped; it was the water coming out with such force that had startled her, water usually trickled out of the pipe in her room at the Temple.

There were two narrow doors against the wall, with a simple latch holding them closed; when Jaylee opened the 'closet' her eyes went wide yet again. Inside were clothes! There was a stiff looking 'battle suit' hanging on a hook to one side; but Jaylee didn't know that. What caught her eye were two short dresses; one a soft green color, and the other one was a light shade of blue with subtle raised patterns woven into the skirt and sleeves. Jaylee thought the blue one was really pretty, so she stripped off her tunic and pulled the dress on over her head.

The fit was a little loose perhaps, but Jaylee reveled in the feel of the material; it was 'Ohhh so soft'! Jaylee heard Dren whisper, "Was Nadeen, now yours Jaylee; look good and Nadeen like you have it; okay? All yours now..." Jaylee's mouth fell open again; this all was so new to her young mind, and she almost cried. "Oh Dren, these are magical gifts; thank you, it feels so wonderful!" Dren chuckled softly, "I am happy Jaylee, sleep best." Silently he whispered to Nadeen, <She is very much like you Nadeen, did you send her to me?> Dren had truly happy thoughts for the first time in many years...he shut down the cabin camera to give Jaylee some privacy; but left the audio pickup active in case she needed him.

Jaylee was tired, but the four drawers stacked on one side of the cabinet drew her attention; the top three had all sorts of items in them. One of the drawers had two little storybooks in it; in Nadeen's language of course, but Jaylee could see that they had words and some drawings in the pages. Jaylee thought of them as 'Great Books' in reverse; odd, but important. Another just had three small photos in it; Jaylee had never seen photos before, but the images of Nadeen and three other people told her they must have been family. The third had a small collection of pretty and detailed figurines in it; strange animals with stranger shapes, some with four legs and others with six legs. Dren would tell her later that these were cherished toys from Nadeen's childhood; kept simply because they were reminders of a good time in her life, a happier time.

The third drawer's contents were amazing to Jaylee because they were different and made her think of 'other places', maybe better ones. They were all strange to her; but at the same time comforting in a way she could not describe. They were things to keep close; and safe, they had been important and they were important now...

When Jaylee opened the last drawer she stared wide eyed at the contents for a full ten minutes; inside were pieces of metal, but not just jagged fragments. There were twenty handmade ornaments of gold and precious gems shining back at her. There were several broaches, small and large, all exquisitely detailed with different shapes; two of them showing beautiful starbursts. There were stick pins and ear rings in the drawer too; and one necklace with a simple shape dangling from it, a tiny cross of gold. Jaylee's people had no jewelry, metal was needed for their farm tools; but here before her was a treasure she couldn't even recognize. They were decorations, Jaylee could see that much. Sometimes the people would fashion a pretty shape out of a colored stone or wood, and affix it to their tunics or hang them from their necks with string; but not often, just on 6th day services usually. These items she was looking at were beautiful; meant to be worn not only on services day, but on other occasions as well. It was becoming obvious to Jaylee that learning new things was an ongoing experience; as she had just discovered, every day could indeed bring new and amazing experiences.

Jaylee closed the cabinet after taking off the pretty dress, and lay down in the bed attached to the back wall. She loved how soft yet firm the mattress was, gently conforming to her body. She laid her head on the pillow and pulled the soft blanket up over her; but her eyes refused to close. The one thought kept running through her mind, <We must do something! And it must begin now Master Walter.>

***

When you fight against sleep; whether intentionally or not; sleep always wins out in the end. Even though it took another hour, sleep claimed Jaylee. It was a deep restful sleep, and she woke refreshed before dawn, as was becoming routine now. She put on the green dress from the locker, rather than her tunic; it was just as soft as the blue one. She almost went out the door, when she thought of the jewelry drawer; Jaylee looked into the little box and pulled out the tiny cross on a chain. She could not explain 'why' she picked it, but it just seemed to call her. It took a minute to figure out the clasp, but Jaylee finally had it around her neck.

On the inside of one door was a slim full length mirror; she looked at herself for a moment and the tiny cross 'winked' at her. It was just a momentary reflection of light, but it made her smile; it felt right being there around her neck. She went out to the bridge to greet Dren for the coming day...Jaylee only had a few dried fruit bars with her, but they would carry her through a couple of days with Dren; and the water was crystal clear, tasting very good. She had a cup of it in her cabin from the faucet last night before falling asleep. Bringing a stock of food out to Dren became the top item on her new mental list of things to do when she went back to 'be seen' and report to the Master.

Dren and Jaylee went up into space twice during the next two days; Jaylee's planet didn't have a moon; but there were four other planets in the system, so he took her to those and let her get accustomed to space travel in general. If he ever went searching for a 'better', more livable planet for her people, he wanted her to go along with him. His navigational database had more than a few listed that might be good candidates. Jaylee was wide eyed all that day, watching them circle the planets at various altitudes; just soaking up the different views. Dren thought she handled it all very well; so on the second day he took her out past the outer most planet's orbit around the star. Jaylee was learning many new concepts without even realizing it; and she found that she not only liked it, she actually was beginning to love the experience. In any case, she and Dren talked constantly, improving his language skills tremendously. By the evening of the second day in space, Dren had little trouble forming complete sentences; mechanical brains learn things real fast. They don't forget anything...

Jaylee told Dren she had to make a trip back into town, while he was making his approach to land. The news didn't surprise Dren; he had pretty much expected it. Jaylee was making rapid progress and he felt sure that they got along well. He did not know if they would actually bond like he had with Nadeen, but if not then their relationship would still be very close. Bonded pairs were not married; but the relationship was strikingly similar. It was a mental need for one another's company; for their opinions on many things. Jaylee was filling that emptiness within Dren, but it wasn't exactly the same feeling he had with Nadeen; he decided that it didn't have to be the same, for what he had with young Jaylee still felt very good.

Jaylee went into her cabin to change; she smiled that she now thought of this amazing room as hers. She pulled of the dress and donned her usual tunic; she combed her hair with one she found in a drawer under the sink, and then bid a now fond farewell to Dren. He told her to be safe and come back soon as; which had Jaylee smiling all the way back to the Temple...

Jaylee had forgotten one little detail however; she still wore the tiny cross around her neck. It felt so natural now that she never realized it was there...that is until a startled Master Walter reminded her, when she walked happily into his chamber, "Oh Master, I have so much to tell you, it was...what is the matter Master?"

Master Walter had not had much sleep over the last three days; it was not from worry about Jaylee, he felt comfortable enough in her relationship with Dren. No, it was because his one day with Dren had shown him just how important it really was to change the direction the people were heading; and in the last three days he had only managed to edit the first three chapters in the Great Book. He was very tired, but his eyes still worked quite well; and when Jaylee walked in with such an enthusiastic announcement, he looked up from his task...and saw a tiny gleaming object around her neck. Master Walters's eyes went wide, "Young Jaylee, what is that shiny decoration you wear?"

Jaylee suddenly felt like a rock was about to fall; her mouth fell open, and her hand shot up to cover the cross, "Oh my, I forgot it was there Master! I will take it off." Master Walter stopped her quickly, "No child, I imagine someone has already seen it outside. Now that I think about it; the decoration does look pretty on you, and while it is very unusual you can simply say that you found it out near the desert. That is the pure truth, is it not? Wear it with pride; for you should be proud of our friend." And he smiled widely, knowing the real truth was something a bit longer winded...

They talked long into the night; as long as Master Walter could keep his eyes open, that is. Three days of little sleep, and hearing Jaylee's detailed description of her amazing discoveries and travels into the sky were just too much for him. Jaylee tucked the old Priest into his bed at the twentieth hour; and she went to sleep in her own room. The excitement of the last few days was wearing off now, and she felt the effects of that.

In the morning Jaylee told her story once again; Master Walter wanted to make sure he had not missed any detail. He was very impressed with Jaylee's account of flying up above the sky and seeing other worlds around them, "I am not sure yet that I understand it; I suppose I should see it for myself. Do you think Dren would grant me such a boon Jaylee?" A laugh spilled out before she could stop it, "Master, I know he would be happy to take you out there to see the wonders. He mentioned you many times when we talked; he calls you 'the wise elder'. I am sure of it; would you like to go out there now Master? You have been working too hard on your task."

Master Walter laughed at the suggestion, "Jaylee, I think you want to get back there yourself. Alright, let us have breakfast, and then we will go out to more of Dren's magic." The word 'magic' made Jaylee think of something really important, "Master, one thing Dren cannot do is make food. Can we take some out with us? He has lots of nice tasting water..."

An hour and a half later two 'explorers' headed back out to their friend who flew like a bird. Both had a full back pack over their shoulders, carrying all sorts of biscuits and fruits; plus a special bag of sweets the baker insisted they take on their journey. It did slow them down a bit, and they stopped once to rest; before they arrived, Dren welcomed them warmly, the tone suggesting that he was eager to do anything they wanted to do.

When Jaylee told Dren about the food they brought he demonstrated a bit of his 'magic' by suggesting they put the fruit in a 'refrigerator' back in the galley, and the biscuits in the warmer. He explained that fruits would last longer when they were chilled, and baked goods tended to last longer when they were in a sealed compartment kept at a warmer temperature and the moisture was controlled. He might have made as much sense had he been speaking the Prendaran language; but when Master Walter and Jaylee saw the two appliances up close, and felt the differences in temperature, they had at least a glimmer of understanding. It was later, when they tasted the result, that they more fully understood that Dren could indeed teach the people many different things.

After just chatting for an hour, Jaylee asked, "Dren would you take us up again and show Master Walter the other planets?" While Dren could do that in mere seconds, he knew the old man was just as unfamiliar with flying as Jaylee had been. Jaylee's description of the experience was one thing that would help Master Walter, but actually seeing it was something else; so Dren told them to strap in first, and Jaylee helped Master Walter first before she buckled in like an 'old pro'. It impressed Dren, and from the look on the Priest's face, Master Walter as well.

Dren powered up and rose smoothly and slowly, as he watched with part of his consciousness how the Priest reacted. Other than a slight twitch to the lips, the Master was taking it surprisingly well. Perhaps age does help in situations like this. Dren kept to his usual 100 feet altitude; the town was still just two miles away, and Jaylee had impressed on him early that he should not be discovered for a while yet. He accelerated a bit faster than before; Master Walter actually looked like he was having fun already, so Dren moved faster still. At 300 miles he angled upward and really lit up the engines, reaching space in 2 minutes. Master Walter's eyes did go wide for a moment, but then he relaxed and just seemed to enjoy the show.

Four and a half hours later Master Walter had seen everything Jaylee had; and he was just as excited by the experience. Gone were the vague doubts that he might be on a fool's errand; he now knew without doubt that the ancestors had traveled among the stars, just as he had just now. Dren had shown him that it was not only possible, but a routine thing for some. His task was now a quest for truth; the people deserved to know the truth of their heritage. As they landed in the usual spot Dren asked Master Walter to stay the night; despite his feeling that he needed to get right back to work, the Priest's body told him he was fatigued again. This time it was a result of his excitement though; not from an almost impossible task ahead. Usually the Great Book was copied by 20 acolytes when necessary; but because of the massive editing going on, he had to do it himself. It would take time; lots of time, but he would do it...

There was another truth Master Walter was not prepared for that night. When Jaylee presented him with his own cabin, right next to hers, and tucked him into his bunk; the Priest found once again just how beneficial technology could be. He had slept all his life on mattresses that were the best they could fashion out of local resources, but this mattress felt like a cloud compared to what he was used to. There were no aches and pains when he got up; and for the first time in many years he felt completely rested, ready to get back to work. And work he did; for it would be just over a year later Master Walter unveiled the 'new Great Book' to all the priests and acolytes in the Temple...
**Chapter 5**

During that year Jaylee and Dren became very good friends; they went on many excursions, some of them to nearby star systems, relatively. Those trips took a week to get there and return; it didn't bother Jaylee, the trip itself excited her most. It puzzled Dren for a while; did she take to space travel because of who she was inside, or was it some sort of genetic legacy from her ancestors. It bothered him enough that he finally asked her outright, "Jaylee, I have noticed that traveling through the stars does not bother you at all. You always ask for more distant stars to visit; why do you think you love it so much, because it is new or because your ancestors did it and passed the desire to you?"

Jaylee was a bit surprised that Dren wanted to understand that; she could not deny that she loved moving amongst the stars. Ever since she was a little girl, she had sat outside at night and wondered what the twinkling lights in the sky were. Then, when she was older and the priests had told her the lights were other worlds, Jaylee had wanted to reach out and touch them, to see them up close. It took years of walking out to the desert; of watching the night sky, wishing and waiting; before one evening her greatest wish had come true...in the form of a huge metal turtle that spoke to her. Dren had been waiting too; for a different reason perhaps, but he was waiting none the less. It turned out that he was waiting to live again; waiting for her apparently.

But that didn't make sense to her; if he was waiting for her, why didn't he appear years earlier? She was out there every night, but it took the combination of a strange book that contradicted her beliefs that evening; and an even stranger very strong wind blowing from the wrong direction to bring Dren and Jaylee together. Was that it? Had God been waiting for just the right time? She would have to think on that a lot more one day; right now she had to answer Dren, "Truthfully I don't know the answer to that Dren; since I was very young I wondered about everything, I wanted to know things. That is called curiosity; as I grew up, my curiosity turned to the sky, to the stars that shined every night. And I watched them, wanting to go to them; to know for sure that they were real. Now that you and I are together, I have reached some of them; but I still want more of those stars. This feels like a wrong question, but would you take me to where you came from? If you don't want to, I understand. I just wonder sometimes what it was like...

Dren was silent for over two minutes; he was thinking about what Jaylee had asked of him. He had known the question would come eventually. Dren had no need or desire to cruise through that sector of space again; it was where wars were fought for centuries, where people died every day. It was where finally, an entire race of people had ceased to exist; the planet's atmospheres swept away by bombs of unimaginable power. Most importantly, it was where Nadeen was irradiated by the bomb emissions. The radiation had entered him too, but over the centuries it had dissipated to non lethal levels while he waited under the sands. He wasn't sure how that happened; he didn't possess much of a scientific database. Jaylee's desire to go there seemed like a waste of time to him; but was it really? Dren had been there, and Nadeen had been; Jaylee had not. She knew nothing of conflict, of war; she wanted to go so she could maybe understand a little. Dren knew some of the emptiness might come back to haunt him for a while; but Jaylee had a special talent with making his emptiness fade away. He would take her; besides, it would 'hurt' far less than playing back all those recordings he had in the archive. Those could actually hurt Jaylee if he ever showed them to her. Dren would never hurt Jaylee; she meant everything to him now, "I will take you there Jaylee; it will be twice as long as the other trips, so make sure you stock up with more food. It is not so much that I don't want to go; it is more that I don't want you hurt, so we will go carefully. There may still be radiation in some areas."

Jaylee reached up and touched her cross; was she asking too much from Dren? Would there still be danger where they were going? Jaylee didn't know much about radiation, other than it killed people. It had killed Nadeen; Dren had told her you didn't see radiation, you could only measure it. That in itself frightened her, "If you think it will be too dangerous, then I don't want to go after all Dren." He thought about that for a moment, her gesture told the truth of it, "No, you have the right to know of it my friend; this way you will see the result of war, rather than the reality. Trust me on this; you do not ever want to see the reality of war Jaylee."

***

Jaylee gathered the extra food over the next three days; and then they simply headed out system. Jaylee had told Master Walter where they were going; the old Priest had looked at her strangely for a moment, then simply said "Be very careful in this child; you are not only important to me, but to the people too." She understood that Master Walter loved her as if she was his own daughter; but she didn't understand being important to the people. 'What' she and the Master were doing was important, but how could she be important; Jaylee was just 'doing her own thing'. Surely that wasn't important to anyone but her. Still; she thought about Master Walter's words for three days on the trip out, until they reached the outer fringes of the war that had somehow sent Dren to her world so long ago.

As Dren approached the planet he said, "This was 'Calada' Jaylee; it was a farming world like yours, and provided over half the food for the Prendar people. There were 394 million people here; I show no bad levels of radiation at the moment; so we can orbit the planet." Once in orbit Jaylee could see large craters dotting the planet in groups; but away from the craters were large swaths of squares and rectangles clearly outlined. And there were 'towns' down there! Jaylee could see buildings small and large next to the farms; and individual homes all over, but it was all different shades of gray and brown. There were no greens or bright colors at all...

There was a hazy ring surrounding this world however; it still had an 'atmosphere', Dren had taught her that word months ago when he showed her the people's own planet, Dren, can we land here", this world has an atmosphere; can I see the homes up close?" Dren's answer taught her something Jaylee was unaware of before; "No Jaylee, the 'air' is all wrong now. It does not have the correct 'mix' of gasses anymore, and you could not breathe it. Nothing lives or grows here now; and I do not have an environmental suit that would allow you to walk on this world."

'Dead'! Suddenly that word had new meaning for Jaylee; she knew about people dying, that was the way of life's cycle. But now she saw that whole planets could die too; all because of that mysterious word 'war'...Dren took Jaylee to three other worlds during their journey inward; none of them had any atmosphere at all, and they were a uniform gray in color with no variation. All three did have jagged chunks of metal orbiting them though, some quite large; Dren volunteered that these were 'industrial worlds', a word that had no real meaning until he told Jaylee they had 'made things'; including starships. They had been 'prime targets' because of that, and the fighting had been heavy in these areas of space. Unlike the farming world, these still had high radiation readings; so Dren was constantly changing direction to stay away from the 'deadly spots'.

All this made Jaylee sad; people had existed here but now they were all gone. She had seen people get angry with each other sometimes in the town; a few times the anger had resulted in shoving back and forth, or even punching that led to bloody noses and such. But this was killing, making people dead; not only that, it had made entire planets dead too. It demonstrated one point with clarity for Jaylee; disagreement could lead to anger, and anger could easily lead to some very 'not' good things...

The four star systems Jaylee had seen so far had made her sad; she had known deep down it would, simply because Dren had prepared her somewhat for what she would see. They were dead worlds' and no one would ever live on them again. The worlds had taught Jaylee that conflict was to be avoided if possible; Dren had told her plainly, "That is what 'leaders are for', they are elected to negotiate solutions to problems that arise. The leaders here forgot that!" He had said that so forcefully that it startled Jaylee. It was that moment that impressed on her for all time that people could be wrongheaded, with very bad consequences...

Dren set a course for the 'Home World' of Prendar; he told Jaylee it was where Nadeen had lived, and where he was constructed. She expected it would just make her sad again; she was wrong on that idea, for when Dren entered that star system he told her immediately that they could not get close to any of the planets. There was just too much of that invisible 'radiation' present, still in the 'red zone'. When he zoomed his optical cameras to maximum, Jaylee found out that war wasn't only sad; it was horrible.

As Dren panned the camera slowly, Jaylee could see that Prendar was not a planet anymore. Instead, there were three big chunks of rock chasing each other around the star. It must have been a big planet; one of the jagged pieces looked bigger than her world and she could make out the gentle curve of what had been its surface. The other two pieces were just oblong chunks; there were pieces that were missing entirely then. It just meant that the Home World of the Prendar couldn't even be called a planet now...or ever again.

What Dren told her next made it worse; there had been nine worlds in this star system, and three had been populated. There were only six worlds now; plus three pieces that 'used to be one.' Jaylee reacted the only way a young girl could; she cried during the rest of Dren's 'lesson'. When they headed out from this dead star system, Jaylee said, "I have seen enough Dren; I want to go home"...Dren told her gently that he was heading that way now; he had not felt the emptiness that he had been waiting for. Instead, Jaylee seemed to be taking in all the emptiness for him; was that what emotions really were, feelings of emptiness inside? Well, maybe that was what sadness was; if so, then emotions were very confusing things indeed.

***

Master Walter had finished his monumental task of rewriting the entire Great Book; in the process making it feel less sinister and, he hoped, more 'believable'. His goal wasn't to turn the people away from believing in God; but rather to see God as more encouraging, more 'benevolent'; not the 'punisher' that was always described. The last entry in the logbook had described the intended reason for the Great Book, to inspire the people to survive and continue on. That would have been a good reason; but over the centuries the words had been corrupted into a condemnation, rather than inspiration. Whoever the person was that wrote that last entry had the right idea; and he set the people on a path toward hope. That path had become twisted over the years; to a point that the people were simply wallowing in their misery. Master Walter hoped his efforts would open up new potential in them. He wanted Jaylee to read the new writings, and see it from that younger viewpoint; how she reacted to it would tell him if there really was hope for them all. He was anxious for her to return from this extra long trip; and he was very tired again, so he went to bed...

When Master Walter woke up, Jaylee was sitting next to his bed; and she was very unhappy, "What is wrong young one, did the new writings trouble you that much?" Jaylee looked surprised, "You finished it Master? No, I have not read any words in a book; I have seen death...the reality of death. Dren took me to see the worlds where Nadeen's people lived; where he was built, and there is no life at all anywhere. Master, God did not do it; the people killed themselves, and destroyed their planets in the process. I don't think they lost hope; I think they pushed it away. They had amazing machines, and all the food they could ever want; but they quarreled amongst themselves, and fought because they didn't like each other, did not respect each other; we can learn from that I think."

Master Walter smiled at the young girl, "Jaylee, you are far wiser than your years suggest. Life is only as hard as we ourselves let it be, and that is why I took on this task; the words that were in the Great Book told us to fear not only ourselves, but to fear God himself. I do not for one minute believe that God wants it that way. We should certainly fear what we could do to ourselves; but God should be our guide, not our guard. I want you to read the words I have written; and I want your honest appraisal. If some words need changing, then we will change them; if whole sections need changing we will do that too. Use your recent experience to guide your thoughts Jaylee; for we do not want to follow the wrong path, now do we? I think it might be a good idea to seek Dren's views on this; I think he helps you see the light more clearly."

The High Priest had set Jaylee's mind at ease once more, and she found herself smiling at him, "Master, would you like to know why you are so precious to me? You always speak honestly, and never ever try to tell me something just to make me feel better. I think you are right too; Dren doesn't know much about us or our people, but he knows more than he realizes about why Nadine's people died. I am sure he can help..." Early the next morning Jaylee took the first twenty chapters out to her friend. Once she showed him the alphabet, and read the first chapter to him while he scanned the letters in each word as she read to him, Dren was scanning every page himself; and storing the words for evaluation. All Jaylee had to do was put up each page to his camera, and two seconds later he wanted the next one. She was giggling, which made Dren feel happy too; even though he still didn't see it that way. But he did know he was learning more about Jaylee's people, and that was a good thing.

After Dren had scanned all the pages, they went over every page and Jaylee would ask Dren what he thought about the meanings. Dren found himself trying to think in the abstract again; about philosophies he really knew nothing about. Nadeen's people weren't really religious at all; or were they. He thought about when Nadeen had told him about the 'other world', as if it really existed. If it did, Dren would like to know where it was, so he could fly over to it and see Nadeen again. But he knew that wasn't what Nadeen meant. It wasn't another planet that you could fly to; Nadeen had told him it was inside her, a 'belief' that made living worthwhile; and made death a little less fearful. And here Jaylee was, asking him to contribute ideas about their God; it didn't make much sense to him yet, but he would listen to her...and to the old Priest, Master Walter. He already had decided that the man's words were worth listening to.
**Chapter 6**

Jaylee had read over the whole 'New Great Book'; so had Dren, once he had put the entire work into his memory, which still puzzled her somewhat. It had taken her years to memorize 'most' of the book; yet Dren had done it in only one week, and that was only because it had taken time to bring the chapters out to him. She figured that if she had had the whole thing with her on the first day, Dren could have memorized it in less than two hours. The trouble was that Jaylee didn't think of Dren as mechanical; she thought of him as another flesh and blood person, a human. She sometimes wanted to search the ship for him, to find where he was hiding; deep down Jaylee had come to accept that he really was 'the ship' itself, but it would not change the fact that to her he was her friend. She finally decided that it didn't really matter; a friend was a friend, whether he was a human or a big metal turtle. Jaylee smiled at that revelation, as she rounded the last turn into the Temple courtyard. She was bringing the very last chapters back to Master Walter; and he would grill her on her opinions. It was a very long day indeed...

Dren was debating this book that Jaylee had shown him too; she had told him it might be a day or two before she could come back to him, so to pass the time he thought about all the words. He was looking for patterns rather than the actual meanings; it was pretty much how Dren thought about everything really, find the patterns first then find meanings from those patterns. He wasn't aware of it, but that was similar to how Jaylee and her people thought about things too. Humans tended to make up meanings to explain the world around them; at least this little group did. Jaylee had tried to explain how they lived here on this planet, but it didn't make much sense to him; until he began comparing this Great Book to the little bit of Prendaran history he had stored within his memories. The comparisons showed some minor similarities; genetically the two races were very similar. Jaylee had consented to give him a sample of her saliva once, and the result surprised him, once he compared it with Nadeen's; there were differences in the two chains, but that was more likely due to environment. The base pairs were the same; in a strange way, Nadeen was Jaylee's ancestor too, just as much as the people from Jaylee's own history. Dren wondered how that could be; the two groups had not come from the same place. At least that seemed very unlikely; Dren knew exactly where the Prendar had come from, he had the coordinates. Conversely, he had no idea where Jaylee's people had migrated from in this mysterious 'ship' that was mentioned often in this new book. Dren could speculate that the ship was a rather fragile vessel indeed, since Jaylee had told him about all the mechanical failures those ancestors had experienced during their journey here. And, of course, they had crashed here, losing most of the people in that ship. Dren wanted to know where they had originated; but Dren didn't even have a direction to search; in a three dimensional galaxy you don't just point a finger and say 'It's off in that direction somewhere.' With no reference there could be no search...

***

The unveiling of Master Walter's edited 'bible' took place a week later in the Temple meeting room; he read through the entire work slowly, gauging their reactions to every chapter. The wide eyed stares told him little more than the fact he had their full attention. While this wasn't quite the resounding success he was hoping for, the dozen priests did take these new revelations with varying degrees of shocked acceptance that changes were on their doorstep. The idea that the people had traveled here in a great 'ship' was the hardest selling point naturally; and was met with skepticism, until Master Walter explained the many contradictions in detail within the old version. He had been extra careful to use words that didn't fly in the face of basic reason; and he did not just delete whole sections like someone else might have done. Master Walter wasn't looking to start a riot after all; he wanted the Priests to start thinking more, to talk to each other about the one real problem that faced the people. They existed; now they need to 'grow'. And to grow, they all needed to accept that seeking a better life was not the bad thing they had always thought it to be. The people were not prisoners being punished by God; he finally got the point across that they were punishing themselves by interpreting the holy words too narrowly. Master Walter considered the meeting to be a success simply because they did not jump up and attack him; using that as a measure, he had won. He left the book on the table, inviting them all to examine it and debate the book as they wished to...his 'deputy', Master Bradley, did ask him for a private meeting in his chamber, after the meeting broke up however. He wanted to know what the High Priest knew that he didn't...

Jaylee had not attended the meeting; it would have been awkward to be there at her young age, even though two of the Junior Priests were only a couple of years older than her. Jaylee simply was not a priest, so she had stayed in her own room anxiously waiting for whatever happened next. When Masters Walter and Bradley went into the High Priest's chamber, she heard them enter; she also heard Master Bradley's first words, "Walter, are you losing your mind my friend? What you just did will cause enormous ripples in the stream you know. The very idea that we somehow traveled to this world from another could frighten the people."

Walter laughed out loud, and that got a raised eyebrow, "Bradley, I have had to keep you in the dark I'm afraid. I did not want you to suffer the fallout if this endeavor went badly wrong; but I have proof Brad; I have the logbook of the ship that brought us to this world. Now that I have seen that my hopes did not fail me, I can tell you all of it my friend. Jaylee! Please come in here? Brad, Jaylee knows everything that I do, and I trust her thoughts even better than I do my own. It is why I defied protocol and installed her into the new position of Researcher; as you will see, she is uniquely qualified for it. She believes in much the same fashion that you and I do."

Jaylee had heard all that Master Walter had said, and she couldn't help herself feeling some pride at his praise for her. She also felt more anxious too; the proverbial 'cat' was about to leap out of the mythical bag...Master Walter smiled at her, but wasted no time, "Jaylee, bring the logbook please; it will open Brad's mind further. And relax girl, Bradley does not bite!" That got a laugh from Bradley; he had met Jaylee many times, but didn't really know her well. Walter's words did lighten the atmosphere quite a bit though, and his mood too.

Jaylee went back by Master Walter's bed; picked up the book and presented it to Master Bradley. Master Walter had her sit in another chair with them; and Jaylee watched Master Bradley's whole world change before her eyes. When he was done reading Master Bradley closed the book and stared at the cover for a minute, before saying in a soft voice, "So we truly did come from another world in a great ship. This artifact shows that it was made somewhere else; we could not have done it. I still cannot picture a ship in my mind, but this is quite a surprise none the less. I will have to do a lot of thinking on it Walter."

Walter looked thoughtfully at his friend for over a minute before coming to a decision, "My friend, this logbook is only a small surprise; and it is a good thing you are sitting down. Jaylee, please tell Bradley about Dren? Not only has he been my friend for many years; he will also take my place one day. He deserves to know it all."

Jaylee didn't know Master Bradley personally; but she had heard his words at services many times. While his words were different, he always spoke in the same honest way that Master Walter did. To Jaylee's mind, Bradley said what was on his mind and did not apologize for it. She decided she liked him; and so began her story of the Great Metal Turtle. She told it slowly and in great detail, including all the emotions that she felt as she came to know and trust the mechanical person. Jaylee made sure to explain that Dren never ever lied, or kept anything back from her and Master Walter. If he knew it he shared the information freely; without hesitation.

She told Master Bradley of all the travels to other planets and stars; all of them, except her latest trip to the Prendaran home world, and Master Walter caught the omission, "Tell him the rest young one..." And Jaylee did just that, describing all the dead worlds all colorless and lifeless. She told of the Prendaran home world being broken into pieces, and some pieces missing completely. She told Master Bradley about seeing the many buildings with no people anywhere, how the mysterious word 'war' had annihilated an entire race of living beings. She finished by saying that the very last Prendaran, Nadeen, had chosen to die on this world, in peace, and was buried under the sand near where Dren had landed. Jaylee had tears streaming down her face when she finished, "Dren is not like us Master, but he is a product of a people who were like us. He may be mechanical, but he is very much alive in his own way; and I trust him..."

Master Bradley was normally a very calm and cool individual, well equipped to accept unusual stories; but his mouth had fallen open halfway through this startling account. He noticed it and closed his mouth for a moment, before saying, "This is astounding; you mean to tell me that there is a strange metal person out there next to the desert? I believe you Jaylee; but I must see this marvel for myself to fully understand." Looking at Master Walter he asked, "My friend, may I indeed meet this being from another world?" Master Walter looked to Jaylee, who nodded her head rather vigorously, a smile forming quickly on her face; "Yes Brad, you must meet him and talk with him. I expect you will find that he is just as straightforward and honest as we are. He did impress me, and I think you will like him. How about tomorrow morning Brad you go out with Jaylee, and I will remain to answer the inevitable questions that will be piling up quickly. It is getting late and I think we should sleep on all this. The path we are taking will benefit us I think."

Both Master Walter and Jaylee did sleep rather well, even though they both felt the lumpy differences in the mattresses; still, they did sleep soundly, knowing now that their plan just might work. They had not discussed any long range goal, but this first step toward a better life felt good. Master Bradley however, slept somewhat fitfully; having no idea what to expect from this meeting tomorrow. Just as with Jaylee and Walter had been, Brad was apprehensive; the unknown has a tendency to make you uneasy he thought. Finally, Master Bradley drifted off to sleep...

The walk out to Dren was a bit annoying for Jaylee that morning; Master Bradley wasn't quite as fit as Master Walter was, and asked for a break several times during the trek. Jaylee knew that not everyone was as spry as she was; but she was anxious to talk with Dren again, and watch Master Bradley's reaction to Dren's 'humanity'. She smiled at the thought; Dren was indeed getting more humanlike in his thinking and demeanor, and she really liked that. They could talk about anything now, even the not so nice things; like war. Jaylee had told him that if anything made him feel uncomfortable, he did not have to talk about it if he didn't want to. She even told him plainly one day, "Don't you ever tell me something just because I want to talk about it, it just isn't right." And had wagged her finger at his camera; Dren felt very happy afterward, Nadeen had done the same thing a couple times in their discussions. He felt bonded with Jaylee then, even if it wasn't exactly the same. He did know that he would never fail Jaylee; ever! Dren had crossed an imaginary line in the sand that day; he was fully human in mind, if not body. There would be no going back now; Dren was on a new path now, a far brighter one.

When Master Bradley crested the last rise he stopped dead, unable to move; it wasn't because he was winded. There is a very big gap between being told a story and seeing the real physical evidence. In front of him was the big shiny turtle, his hull gleaming in the morning sun. No matter how ready you think you are for something brand new, the reality does strike you rather strongly. It took a moment for Jaylee to get him moving again, "Please come Master, your reaction is normal. Both Master Walter and I had the same feeling at seeing Dren. He is quite a shock the first time, isn't he?" It took Master Bradley a moment to gather himself together, but he finally smiled, "Yes young Jaylee, seeing him for the first time is very startling. It is hard to see such a creation as someone to just talk to."

They were fifty feet from Dren before he spoke, "Good morning Jaylee, I see you brought a Guest with you today; welcome Master." The Master's eyes went wide again, "How?" Jaylee giggled, "He saw your ranking Master, Dren knows such things from when he met Master Walter." Bradley was shaking his head when Jaylee led him inside Dren...

Eleven hours later Master Bradley walked even more slowly back to the Temple; he had told Jaylee that he did not want an escort back, and after a brief rebellion she had agreed. He managed a chuckle; the young girl had impressed him at every turn. His friend Walter had chosen the girl correctly, he was certain of that. Not only was Jaylee intelligent; she was a voice to be reckoned with, she was that persuasive.

No, Bradley's confusion was with this amazing 'turtle'; Dren was certainly shaped like one, but it did not 'define' him. He had impressed Brad early, by being honest and complete with his answers; if Dren didn't know something he told you, and if he did you got the whole answer, every detail. One of Dren's answers had been ten minutes long; Bradley had asked Dren to explain war to him, and Dren had told him simply that it was death on a grand scale. That took a second; but then he had explained how he had been constructed for one purpose, to kill. He explained how he was programmed with all the known tactics for assaulting and killing others; and how to turn defense into attack. Dren had followed that programming; it was all he knew, until he had been bonded with Nadeen. She had shown him how to think about other things, good things that had nothing to do with conflict and war, "Nadeen taught me that there were many other reasons to exist, Master Bradley; she taught me that life was far better than death. It was too late though, for fate touched us in the last battle, and she was taken away from me. Nadeen died right outside; she is under the sand out there. I stayed with her for many years. I think your God may have touched me somehow, for he brought Jaylee to me; she does not replace Nadeen though, she continues something Nadeen started. Nadeen showed me a different path than war; and Jaylee keeps me on that path. She is important to me and I will help her and her people in any way I can."

Bradley had gotten far more than he expected from Dren; the man...no, he wasn't a man; not in the usual meaning. <The 'ship' Dren accepts who he is; the least I can do is accept him for that too.> Master Bradley had been impressed, and he went right back to Master Walter and told him so, "Walter, I admit I had some doubts about this change in direction you want for our people; but no more. I will support you in this my friend. Your ship convinced me, even though he never mentioned it specifically. He spent more time telling me how he had been changed from a killing machine, into something else...no; some 'one' else. You know what he asked me? Dren asked me if I wanted to go flying! I told him another day perhaps." Walter laughed at his longtime friend, "Brad, remember you said that. I have been up there, and I can tell you the experience is quite exhilarating." Master Bradley went to bed shaking his head again...
**Chapter 7**

Master Walter's grand project went rather well for the most part; it turned out that changing the minds of the priests in the Temple was the hardest, they were the ones most closely associated with the Great Book. They asked difficult questions; ones that didn't have simple answers now. 'How are you so sure that we are not being punished Master' was asked many times; and Walter was thankful to have Bradley to help answer the queries. They often 'teamed up'; Walter telling his version of the answer, and then Brad telling it from his own perspective. Both of them said the same thing, but Brad would use different words in his answers. They could not just simply say 'Because we have proof', it was way too soon for that revelation. Eventually, four months later, the questions subsided, and the next task was convincing the acolytes. That was considerably easier, since they were still learning the Great Book, while learning how to preach its contents. It helped that they now had their 'army' of Junior Priests keeping the acolytes on their toes. It was two years to the day after Master Walter began writing that the 'New Great Book' was introduced to the people at 6th day services...

Master Walter himself presided over the service, explaining to the crowd that the Great Book had been rewritten with some careful corrections made to inaccuracies and poorly copied chapters from the previous version. Only about half the population actually show up for services in any one week, and most of those who did would only listen with half their attention; their minds on somewhat more important things...like what was for lunch and what needed mending at home. Walter started reading the first chapter, raising his voice just a bit to capture the crowd's attention, if only for a minute. He told of the people traveling from a place called 'Earth', in a 'great ship of metal', searching for their promised home. The ship was imperfect and 'faltered' during the journey; and was cast away from the promised home. He spoke of how God had seen the ship's 'failure' and in his grace allowed the people to 'land'on this world. It was a struggle for the thousand who lived, the world was not meant for the people; but the people endured, allowed to live a simple life until another came who would redeem them. It was a bit flowery perhaps, but it told a truer story of what happened; if rather obliquely. To Master Walter's mind, it was far better than constantly blaming God for their troubles...he hoped it was enough to begin a change in the way his people saw their condition. Changing the original number of colonists tended to minimize the need to explain why 80% of the people had died in arriving here; he wanted them to find a little hope in his words, not lose more hope.

Inadvertently, Master Walter had breezed over a part of the first chapter, the part where the people had only the few scraps of metal they saved for their tools. The rest of the evidence of the ship had crumbled away into the ground. This world had no metal of its own; so the people had no other reminders of the world they had left centuries ago.

One member in the congregation had heard that part clearly however. He thought of what Master Walter had said all afternoon, and came to a decision. Later that evening Peter went to the Temple carrying a small wrapped bundle under his arm; and asked to speak with Master Walter. He had something the High Priest might want. The night's protector debated within himself for a minute, and decided the High Priest would not mind; there was still light showing from under his door.

Walter wasn't ready for sleep yet, he was still pondering the service. He knew he had gotten through to his audience, simply because when he finished reading, all eyes were wide and on him. Had he delivered his sermon too forcefully? He didn't think so; and when Peter came in to talk with him, he realized his sermon had been more effective than he had thought. Peter told the Master that this treasure had been passed down to every first born in his family since the beginning; since the colony ship had crashed. Opening his bundle, Peter uncovered a strange rectangular 'thing' with glass on one face of it, and a few buttons along one edge. The glass was cracked, but otherwise in good shape. It almost looked like an oversized book, at least three times the size of the storybooks of Nadeen's on Dren, but it was very thin. Having seen all the amazing mechanical 'appliances' on Dren, he figured it might be some kind of device to aid people. After thanking Peter for the gift, and sending him home to sleep. Master Walter spent an anxious six days waiting for his intrepid explorers to return from their latest outing.

***

Jaylee and Dren were out on their favorite quest again, searching for habitable planets; ones that provided a more livable environment and better resources. Dren had explained that to 'grow' as a people certain elements in the ground were helpful to advance. The people's world didn't have much metal 'ore' to fashion more durable tools from, or other materials to improve their lives with. In other words, it was barely livable; the only problem was that the galaxy didn't have that many planets that were even livable; and even fewer that had the necessary combination of resources for a society to advance and prosper. There wasn't a department store out there, with stacks of planets that you could pick out what you wanted. The only sector Dren knew of was totally dead; and they no longer wanted to go back there anyway. So the few possibilities they had found were good candidates in one respect; and seriously lacking in others. Still, they had identified two that were at least marginally better than where the people were now. Jaylee found herself wishing again that they had some idea of where that magical 'Earth' was.

When Dren was less than two miles away from landing, he said, "Master Walter is waiting for us." Jaylee sat straight up in her command chair; had something gone wrong with the Master's service? Dren had told the Priest that he estimated they would be back in about eight days, which wasn't exactly written in stone; Walter's appearance suggested he had been waiting for them since at least last night. When Dren swung around and landed in the usual position, Master Walter smiled at them; so Jaylee's anxiety lessened considerably. That anxiety bounded right back though, as Master Walter actually jumped up and ran to the ship; taking two steps at a time up the stairs. This was not the old man Jaylee knew; it was an excited boy! Something was very 'up'...

The Priest burst into the bridge, already speaking faster than Jaylee had ever heard from him before. "This is an artifact from the time of the crash. I don't know what it is, but it does look vaguely similar to some things here; Dren, do you know what this is?" Dren did know what it was of course; Nadeen had had a similar looking device next to her when she died, "it is a data tablet I believe; it is different from Nadeen's, but clearly used to view information in its memory." He zoomed in on the tablet for a few moments, noticing the cracked screen glass and the buttons. This was less bulky than Nadeen's had been, but obviously meant for the same purpose. The devices battery would certainly be worthless after all this time; but Dren could plainly see the small solar panel in the upper left border of the tablet. If the circuits were set up just the right way, this might power up with just the sun, "Master Walter, I will hover and turn toward the rising sun; please put the tablet on that flat surface on the console in front of you? We will see what happens in perhaps an hour." The world dropped away from them slightly and swung around until the sun was positioned in front of where the Priest sat, shining on the tablet; and they waited...no one said much of anything, simply staring at the device. Finally Jaylee could stand it no longer, "This waiting is terrible; why doesn't it do anything!" This was one of the few times Dren actually laughed out loud, "Jaylee my friend, it does nothing because you have not done anything yet. It has only been 40 minutes, but push that big button in the middle and hold it down for a few seconds." Jaylee did that; almost afraid she would break something; and the screen lit up. That was something of a major miracle in itself, after so long a time; it took over three minutes to load up, with different words flashing on the screen all the while. Finally it settled down on the home screen; Dren was a little surprised this tablet had not asked for a pass code to run; Nadeen's had always done that when she used hers. Either this was not a military device, or it was maybe a child's computer, used to learn things. That might be even better for Jaylee's people; they were certainly children when it came to information. Both Jaylee and Master Walter were just staring at the screen, waiting for it to do something again.

Dren studied all the odd icons spread across the screen, reading every word under them. Some had plain, simple words, application names perhaps. Others had what looked like made up names, often descriptive ones that suggested someone's saved information. This device did not appear to possess a keyboard of any kind, so he experimented, "Master Walter, gently touch the third icon down from the top on the left side, the one that says email under it. When the Priest tapped the icon almost fearfully, the whole screen blacked out for a second, but then loaded the email program. When it settled out words appeared in the thin orange strip at the bottom, 'Unable to connect to internet'. The odd words did confirm one thing; this tablet was indeed an artifact from the people's colony starship. The three spent an hour exploring the emails stored in the program; there were quite a few of them. Some were people sending their thoughts back and forth during the ships transit amongst the stars and the older ones appeared to be from before the starship left Earth judging by the dates. Dren, Master Walter and Jaylee were off and running; no one slept that night. Dren didn't really sleep anyway, but he needed human fingers to operate the tablet. When the sun had gone down, the three were afraid that the tablet was dying on them. Dren simply turned up the bridge' lighting, and adjusted the frequency of light a bit, until it approximated the sun; and the screen brightened again. They continued their learning experience all through the dark night...

When the sun rose again, both the old Priest and Jaylee were yawning frequently. The excitement and the constant staring had worn them both out; so Dren told them to sleep for a while. It felt odd for him to be giving 'orders', but when he saw them both smile rather sheepishly, he figured it was a welcomed one. While the two slept in their cabins, Dren thought about all the information they had found within the tablet so far; trying to piece together a history, a life from long ago. While he did that, he mused that waiting for the Priest and Jaylee to wake up again, was rather inefficient. He had been able to access Nadeen's computer whenever he had the need; through a specific radio frequency that the computer used to transmit and receive data. Maybe this one could do that too...

Dren scanned all the Prendaran frequencies for any sign of a response from this device; nothing. Then he went outside the known ones, and tried fractional frequencies as well; climbing slowly through the millions of available bands, until he received a tiny 'ping' back. He was in, and as soon as he made friends with the tablet, more of the little universe within the small device opened to his every whim. He downloaded every scrap within the device; even broken files that had been deleted; they might be useful in some small way. The tablet had only two terabytes of storage space, compared to his vastly larger archive; but it was still respectable for such a tiny thing. After deciphering the different structures, he began organizing part of his own memory into a ghost of the little machine; Dren now had a small part of himself 'emulating' the personal computer. He began a new quest for knowledge; much faster now. And found the photo library...

Images are just electrical impulses really, whether you are a human or a really smart computer; humans 'translate' the information their 'cameras' see; their eyes, inside their brains. So do really smart computers like Dren was when he was built. Now, after all the time talking with Nadeen and Jaylee, Dren was much more than a computer; he was a living person. Maybe not 'just like' Jaylee and Nadeen, but very definitely alive; so Dren found he was enjoying browsing through the hundreds of thousands of images from places he had never known of before. He was having 'fun', while at the same time searching for something he wasn't even consciously thinking about at first. Subconsciously, Dren was looking for clues to where the mythical Earth was. He didn't find Earth at first; but he did find where the colonists had hoped to go, Tau Ceti...

Whoever put the photo in the library was thoughtful; they had edited a swath of the night sky and put a little arrow on the picture, pointing to one star. Under the arrow were the words Tau Ceti. Dren 'looked' at the collection of stars in the photo for several minutes; the relative positions reminded him of images he had in his archive; sort of...but they were all wrong; they seemed backwards, so he flipped the image around. Suddenly he had a nearly exact match; he had found the colonist's original destination, and it wasn't all that far away. In fact, Dren estimated that the star was only about half again as far away as the Prendaran home world was. It would still be the longest trip yet.

Jaylee woke slowly; it just felt so good in the bed, and she had certainly needed the rest after an all night staring session with an ancient computer. She chuckled at her thoughts; every day was an amazing discovery with Dren around, you just could not get bored with him there, "Good morning Dren, did I miss the sunset again?" She walked onto the bridge to find the sun just now setting as she sat down in the soft chair. Dren chuckled, "You do love those sunsets Jaylee; and so do I, but now I have a surprise for you. I found where your ancestors had expected to settle; I found Tau Ceti." He put the image up on the large screen for Jaylee; she read the words and looked at the star the arrow pointed too. The only words out of her mouth were, "Can we go there Dren!?"

Master Walter woke an hour later; feeling as refreshed as Jaylee had. He needed the extra comfort just to ease those dratted aches he always felt. When he entered the bridge, the entire excited dialog started all over again. When the jabbering finally slowed down, Dren explained to Walter, "As I already told Jaylee, the distance we must travel is farther than the Prendaran world; it will take almost a month just to get there and another month to get back, so we will need plenty of food. I have plenty of places to store it, so that is no problem. The real problem will be bringing it out here in quantity. People might notice if it is done too quickly."
**Chapter 8**

It took over a month to gather all the food together, each day they carried backpacks of food out to Dren. They brought biscuits and breads; fruits and vegetables out to the ship. Everything could be frozen except the fruits; those did not take well to freezing temperatures. They could be chilled to almost freezing however, and that let them last almost twice as long. It was a compromise between 'edible' and storage certainly, but it was an acceptable solution; the fruits just didn't taste quite as good as fresh did. The different vegetables didn't suffer from the treatment; and could be combined into soups and goulashes that tasted darned good too...

The exercise was good for all of them; Master Bradley even helped out when he could, and benefitted the most from it...he lost weight and felt much better for it. Finally, all seven designated freezers, refrigerators and warmers were full; and there were still nine more empty ones available for future endeavors. Master Bradley begged off from going on this journey, for two reasons. First off, he was still fearful of flying; he had gone up once for five minutes, before pleading to get back on the ground again. It would take some very careful counseling and understanding before he would ever become remotely comfortable with the concept.

The other reason was more practical; someone 'in the know' had to oversee the transformation of the people's belief structure. It was essential if they were ever going to take their people to somewhere 'better'. It was the ultimate goal after all; and required two key ingredients, a good place to go to and a 'willing' people to go there. The first requirement was Dren and Jaylee's responsibility; and the most important responsibility belonged to Masters Walter and Bradley, and they had to tread softly within that territory. Master Bradley insisted that Walter make the 'journey of discovery' to evaluate what they found at this other star; while he trusted Dren and Jaylee, Master Walter had been his friend for a long time, and he felt more comfortable with his analysis.

Dren left the star system with his two favorite passengers, on one of the 6th day services day; and set course for where he 'thought' Tau Ceti was. It was imprecise simply because everything is constantly in motion within the Universe; and they were moving in different directions too. Sometimes in vastly different directions within the huge globe of stars; he had to teach school on the way out, when Jaylee noticed him changing their course slightly, she had felt the engines kick in. He explained to both his students that going to other stars and planets was never a straight line; even when it was a reasonably short trip. Since everything was moving, a 'course' was a gentle curve, needing slight changes in direction to end up where you wanted to go. Dren told them that he was pretty fast for a big ship; so his curvy course wasn't too obvious, but it was still a slight curve. A slow ship like the colony ship must have been would have to change course many times in their travels, and it would be a pronounced curve if you drew it on a piece of paper. Master Walter took to the idea rather quickly; but Jaylee only accepted it a bit doubtfully. Sometimes it was difficult for her to simply believe the physical reality of space travel; to her young eyes the stars didn't move, they were always in the same place every night she stared at them. The idea of 'relative motion' hadn't embedded itself yet.

At 27 days, 14 hours and 37 minutes, Dren and his friends were approaching the outer fringe of the star system that Earth called Tau Ceti; scanning on all wave lengths. He did not have scientific scanners; but his military ones did provide enough information to pick out habitable planets as they got closer. That was all well and good; except that his readings were showing something entirely different, there weren't any planets that were even marginally livable. There were two that 'might have been' at one time, but they weren't now; Dren had no way to estimate how long ago that was, so he orbited both of them, seeing if there were any indications up close. He had two very quiet passengers during their observations...

One of the planets had no remaining atmosphere at all; but it had plenty of evidence that there had been one, there were billions of trees grouped together all over the planet and long snaky lines that show there were many rivers once. The trees were nothing more than tall dried up sticks now with no air and water; just silent sentinels, monuments to another time. Dren thought this one might have been the planet the colonists had chosen; for while the third planet out from the sun did have an atmosphere, it was very thin and there was no evidence that life had ever existed on it. He spoke softly to his friends, "Please don't be so sad, for if the ancestor's ship had reached here as they wanted to, they would have died here. In a way God saved them by sending them to your world. He got two startled looks from Master Walter and Jaylee...

Jaylee had been crying while they looked at the screen, but she dried them with the back of her hand, "Dren, you believe in God! You make me very proud." She managed a wide smile just for him; Jaylee was looking directly at the camera when she said it...the sadness, the emptiness that was in the bridge a moment ago was gone. Master Walter wasn't exactly smiling; it was a smirk, "Dren, you truly amaze me sometimes; not because of all the magical machines you have, but because of your understanding. And you have given me an idea; I must edit the Great Book yet again. You just said that God 'does' watch over us. You are an inspiration my friend."

Dren had to think about that one for a minute; he started as a warship, with no real thinking involved but flying, angles of attack and optimum firing range, but now he was an inspiration?' He wasn't sure he understood what Master Walter said, so he decided to think about something else. Master Walter and Jaylee chatted; talking about what they should do now. This had been their best chance yet to find another home for the people, and the failure had them planning something else now; all because he said something about their God. He was beginning to think there might be something to this idea of 'believing in someone greater than you are'. Dren decided to search for Earth some more...

Finding a star is hard when you don't have the celestial coordinates; sure, you can look at the stars in the night sky and point at it with your finger and say, 'There it is, go that way', but will that work to get you there? No it won't; remember, space travel is never a straight line, and there are no road signs in space. Dren knew that very well, so finding Earth was hard, even for him. He did have 'clues' though, only a few; Tau Ceti was the biggest clue of all really, it was where the ancestors were heading for at the time. That gave him a 'base angle' to work with, he had an old photo that gave him something of a 'vector'; unfortunately, it was a very big vector, a wide cone of space to look at; and there were many thousands of stars within that cone. It was still going to be a long search...

***

Jaylee and Master Walter weren't so much discussing other planets as they were discussing what to do if they were forced to remain on the one they knew already. That thought weighed heavily on both of them, because they now knew all too well that they just didn't have some of the important 'things' necessary to improve themselves. The people themselves didn't really know there was something 'better' to aspire to; so they tended to accept their 'lot in life', That doesn't exactly translate into 'contented with their life'; but for now it was all they had. Jaylee blurted out once, "Master, are we to remain an ignorant people forever? Dren has shown me that other worlds to live on are not easy to find. There are so many little things that have to happen just to be able to exist on a world at all; and even more things are needed to live 'well'. It just seems so impossible."

Before Master Walter could respond, Dren spoke, "I heard that Jaylee, and you are right in a way. It is very hard to find good livable planets that have just the right combination of air, water, temperature and resources to live a good life; they are not lined up in a neat row waiting for us to pick one of them. But at the same time, they 'are' out there; you and I have only searched a small fraction of space, and that only for a little over a year. Please don't give up hope my friend; we will find just the right place, it just takes a bit more time."

Master Walter chuckled at that, "Well said Dren, you have the right of it. I sometimes think you could be a priest in disguise; you have a way of making a struggle less of a struggle. Jaylee, listen to him, I too believe we will find our world one day, give it some more time to find where it is." Jaylee couldn't help but smile at their words, "I think you two are teaming up on me. Alright, I will hold on to my remaining hope; I just don't like bad things happening." Dren got the last word in before the two went to their cabins to rest, "You are not alone in that; and it is why I believe in you and your God..."

While Master Walter and Jaylee slept, Dren went back to his primary task; searching for clues to where the elusive Earth was in all the stars out there. There were tiny clues in the tablet's contents; just fragments, hints at how he could find it, Dren just had to figure them out. To rest his mind a bit, he started looking at the emails again. There were thousands of them in many different folders; many of them just innocuous communications between friends. But there were quite a few that were from something called 'News Sites'; and they had pictures embedded in many of them, showing what they talked about in their 'articles'. Dren read through the news emails, and found that Earth was in trouble back then; they talked about 'Global Warming' and 'Climate Change' alot, and how people had caused it. The pictures showed storms, big storms called 'hurricanes' and 'Typhoons', and how they were becoming more deadly each year. One article had a large map of the Earth, with eleven "current hurricanes" in one of their oceans. They were all called dangerous. Then there was another map showing another big ocean, with another six hurricanes in it. Somehow Dren didn't think this was normal. That many strong storms, all at the same time, just did not seem right to Dren. He moved on; the next article said 'First Colony Ship 'Hope' Launches to Alpha Centauri 'A' Looking For Planets'. Dren read that one very carefully...

The article had pictures, and one of them was a telescope view of Alpha Centauri; helpfully including a yellow arrow to point him toward the star. Just like with Tau Ceti Dren began comparing star patterns in his memory...Alpha Centauri was referenced in the article as a 'trinary star system', which meant there were three stars that were relatively close together, so he looked for that pattern in his travels memory. No, he had never been close to a system like that; but maybe someone else had. He opened his star catalog; every star that the Prendaran starships had ever visited or passed by, and there it was! Well, not quite; there were two trinary star systems listed, one on the other side of Prendaran space and one over toward this area. The one on the other side was unlikely to be the one, so Dren created a three dimensional globe of known space; and added the trinary star system highlighted in it. He highlighted where he was now in a different color; he could easily reach it in eleven days...the article stated Alpha Centauri was 4.9 light years from Earth. Dren didn't need a scientist to figure that out, so he doubled the distance and created a ghost globe 9.8 light years in diameter, with that star system centered in it. He still didn't know how far Tau Ceti was from Jaylee's home planet; so he went back to reading more news articles...

Colony starship number two was named 'Botany Bay', but didn't reference why. Luckily, it had a photo of where it was in Earth's sky. They had gone to 'Epsilon Eridani and that was 10.52 light years away from Earth; working his optical magic Dren isolated seven possibilities. Five of them were only similar in pattern, but two were close matches. As before, one was way out there and one was again 'in the vicinity' to where he was sitting in space; he created another ghost globe, this time 21.04 was the magic diameter, and the globe's outer edge just entered the other globe. Dren was on the right track, he was sure; so back to reading articles.

He found the article finally, and it had the star photo he didn't need; he knew where he was sitting already. Dren felt fear for a moment; the article did not say how far Tau Ceti was from Earth! After all this, was he about to break his promise never to fail Jaylee; Dren was feeling something he had not felt in two years, the emptiness was opening up again. What was he going to do? He could not fail her, so almost frantically he read through another thousand emails; finding nothing much, Dren almost quit; but then his mind froze for a moment, right there was a 'header' in all capital letters that said, 'YOU'RE GOING ON EXPANSION!'

Opening the body of the email, Dren read:

'I just read the acceptance list Jay; you and your parents are going to Tau Ceti on the Expansion. Man, I sure envy you buddy. Imagine, in a couple years Jay Lee Taylor will be walking on another planet 12 light years from here. I'm crying, I'm so happy for you; promise me you'll be good out there, God loves you!

Love ya', Emily'

Dren now had two things to do; he did the most important first. A third ghost appeared in his catalog globe; it was 24 light years in diameter with him in the middle. One edge intersected the two other globes; and where they did, a single point in space showed Dren where to look. Engaging his best optical scanner, Dren zoomed to maximum, and there it was; slightly off center was a bright yellow sun. It was not in his star catalog before, but it was now! Dren engaged his engines, and began moving toward the star; to Earth. He woke his two passengers as gently as he could; simply telling them to please come to the bridge, he had made a discovery...
**Chapter 9**

When Master Walter and Jaylee sat down in their chairs on the bridge, Dren started right in, "When you went to sleep I started reading through emails again, and found some that were from places called 'news sites'. They were writings that told people what was happening on Earth; by dealing with only the ones that had news of colony ships and where they went. Using the comparisons with my star catalog I was able to find where they went. The news also told the distance they traveled, so I could create this"; and he showed the two globes on the big screen. Both of his passengers looked lost, so he moved along, "The news for the Expansion did not have how far away from Earth Tau Ceti had been; but an email to the owner of the tablet computer did...and Dren switched to the email to let both read it.

Master Walter's eyes grew wide, but he said nothing. Jaylee read it and asked, "Is that 12 light years a distance Dren?" Dren did not play any games with her, "Yes it is Jaylee, I have found Earth; and we are heading there now. We will be there in four days; it is not as far as I had feared. But read through the email again, carefully. Jaylee did that, and was about to say she didn't understand; then looked again, her mouth falling open, "Jay Lee Taylor; Jaylee, you mean to tell me..."and her eyes started filling with tears. Master Walter reached over and took Jaylee's hand, "Yes my young Jaylee; it appears the tablet belonged to your ancestor. We don't use family names now, but I'm sure there is an accounting left in one of the oldest Great Books, a list of the crash survivors by name. I'm thinking Jay Lee Taylor will be in there. Since Peter brought the tablet to me, he may be related to you as well; he said it had been passed down from the crash survivors."

Jaylee had difficulty maintaining her composure for the rest of the day; spontaneously she would burst into short fits of crying, just at the thought of the whole story before her. All this time she had been just an observer, a bystander in a crowd of people; but now, holding onto the tablet, it was suddenly very personal. Master Walter understood what was going on in her mind; Jaylee had taken on a monumental task, going from just an innocent young girl unsure of herself, to something of a savior, working tirelessly to find ways to make their whole society better off. It was all catching up with her, now that she realized how personal it really was for her.

The Priest also knew that Dren was the key, the catalyst in all this; he had lain under those sands for centuries, deep in his own misery, until a strange wind had brought Jaylee and him together. Jaylee had tended him, taught him how to live ever since; Master Walter did not think of Dren as just a huge metal turtle anymore; he was much more than that now. Dren had a soul. There was a message in there somewhere; Walter would have to think on it a lot more...

During the trip to Earth Jaylee and Master Walter poured over all the information in the tablet; each piece of information was a hint, one piece of a giant puzzle. The puzzle was incomplete of course; there was only so much a little tablet can tell you after all. If there was indeed a message inside, it was not clear yet; Master Walter found himself chuckling frequently, there was a great deal more to ponder than he had thought. The tiny clues came from many different directions or perspectives; you had to sort them out.

***

When Dren got closer to this star system he slowed way down; this was the great unknown, were there people still here; were there other star ships that might not take kindly to unannounced guests? He didn't know; so Dren scanned using everything he had all the way in...

There were nine planets in the system; some had atmospheres and some did not. Dren knew from the start which one was Earth, you simply could not miss it. It was blue colored for one thing, even at a distance. That said it was breathable, just like the people's world was; how breathable was the question to be answered.

Several planets had manmade constructs orbiting them; small satellites probably. But Earth surprised Dren; it was a veritable junk yard, with thousands of satellites orbiting and two medium sized constructs that looked like stations of some kind; but no power generation. Nothing had lights burning to welcome them; and there were no communications on any frequency. There were no starships either; no potential threat at all, this was odd. Clearly the Earth was habitable; Dren's scans showed that much, but people seemed to be in short supply. Dren entered orbit and began close up scanning; his two passengers were completely silent, staring wide eyed at the scene before them. This was like nothing they had ever seen before; not even their world compared to this. Master Walter and Jaylee did not have to be scientists to see that this world was a huge round garden. Even from this altitude Jaylee could see green vegetation growing almost everywhere. There were some deserts on different land masses, but the majority of the planet was growing things not sand...and the water! Earth had two huge oceans; and dozens of smaller ones, the sight of so much water actually scared Jaylee for a minute, she knew of nothing to compare it to. There were thousands of cities and towns; everywhere on the land!

Dren was concentrating on two things foremost in his mind; first he had to know for certain that there were no toxic poisons in the atmosphere, and that led to the second question. Where were the people? He had half expected to find a society here; to at least be challenged in some way, but it didn't happen. Instead, the people seemed to be missing. The tablet said there had been billions of people on this world; what happened? There were animals though; lots of animals, all over the world. Had all the people abandoned Earth? It seemed unlikely; this planet was just as lush and beautiful as Prendar had been, so why just leave it...

Dren finally made a decision; there were no toxic gasses and no pathogens he could find, so he asked Master Walter and Jaylee, "It is safe to breathe here, would you like to walk on this world?" He was expecting an enthusiastic response; Earth was a paradise compared to the world they lived on, but they seemed apprehensive, almost frightened. Jaylee had noticed the very obvious discrepancy, "There aren't any people Dren; where are the people?"

"I do not have that answer Jaylee; not yet. It is possible that many of them left this world for various reasons. We know three colony ships went out to the stars; Jay Taylor was on the third one. There could have been many more that would not be on this tablet; but I think it unlikely that is why the people are missing now. There were billions of people here; there has to be another reason."

Master Walter simply asked, "Do you believe it is safe Dren? If so, then yes, I would like to visit this wonder." Dren waited a moment, "Master, I can detect no bad gasses in the atmosphere; and no pathogens. It should be safe." Master Walter had to chuckle, "As usual some of your words fly over my head Dren, but I understand. Let us see the world up close Jaylee; it is why we searched after all."

Dren picked a spot to land that was near the edge of a moderately sized body of water; he had picked it simply because all the sand in the desert close by was familiar to them, and the temperature was close to what his passengers were used to. The location also had interesting triangular shaped, four sided structures made of stone; he landed near a small cluster of odd trees none of them had seen before...and opened the door, lowering the stairs to the ground.

Master Walter stood in the door for a moment, taking in the new air, "It smells different Jaylee, but it does smell good..." He walked down the stairs with a purpose, and stepped onto the land of their ancestors. Slowly the Master walked around the ship, his eyes catching every detail he could see. He looked back at Jaylee standing in the door now; wide eyed as she breathed in deeply, "Come young lady, this is what you have wished for and it has come to pass. Escort this old man to the trees." And he smiled widely, just for Jaylee...

Jaylee could feel the shivering all through her body; the temperature was just like any day on her world, yet different at the same time, just like the air was different. Here she was, at the end of a long quest; she was about to set foot on her very first 'other planet' and by some quirk of fate, it was the very one she felt like she was supposed to walk on. And Master Walter was absolutely right; Jaylee had wished for this moment, prayed for it even. She laughed, seeing him smiling; and walked onto her new world, to the man she loved dearly.

They stayed under the trees for over an hour, just talking, trying to form questions about Earth; Jaylee asked Walter, where they should choose to begin again if they brought the people here. Master Walter just laughed at the bright blue sky above them, "I think the question would be more easily answered young one, if you asked where we would 'not' want to begin again. This world appears to have many more possible choices than there are people, Jaylee. Your question does hint at a serious answer however; wherever we choose, it must be relatively safe; at least at first. There are many millions of animals here; some could be dangerous. We will not only be learning a new world; we will be learning to be a new people as well, and we must grow in number to succeed." To Dren he shouted, "Dren, warm up your engines please; we have been away from home for a long time. Our other home that is..."

***

Dren ran his engines up to their maximum safe power setting; he didn't spend much time debating things while he was flying, where navigation and collision avoidance was most important. He tended to think more clearly when he was stationary in space or sitting on the ground; so pondering missing people had to wait a while until he could devote some quiet time to it.

When they landed Master Walter and Jaylee both went back to the Temple; but not exactly the Temple they left. All the acolytes and junior Priests were scurrying around with a purpose, and there were two protectors at the entry gate now; all of them were armed with wooden clubs and sturdy poles. One of the Priests stopped before them, "Master Walter, people are revolting; they threaten to beat us if we do not teach the old ways. Master Bradley has been hoping you would return sooner, he wanted to speak with you as soon as you returned." Walter closed his eyes for a moment, sinister thoughts running through his mind, "Thank you Jeremy, tell all the others that they may defend themselves, but they are never to attack the people. Try to keep the injuries to a minimum if they show up. How many dissenters are there among the people? Jeremy looked confused, "There are 24 of them, led by Shane." Walter shook his head, Shane was a young hothead alright; he had been in several fist fights over the years, usually for seemingly petty differences of opinion, "I know Shane well; when they get here ask him if he will consent to speak with me. In fact, if he is amiable, ask them all to meet me in the convocation room; it is big enough."

Jaylee was frightened by this turn; she feared what was happening, it echoed loudly of the stories Dren told her. She followed Master Walter in to see Master Bradley. The Priest jumped up quickly when he saw the two walk in, "Walter, this little rebellion is ridiculous. Most of the people accept the more hopeful tone of the new version, but these young ones seem to feel that hope does not belong in our society; that we are being punished for a reason. I'm afraid my words are not s convincing as yours are; you must talk to them my friend!"

Walter almost chuckled, but caught himself; this was a serious development, "Brad, you must have read my mind, for I have told our Priests and acolytes to ask Shane and his group into the convocation room for a little chat. But Jaylee and I have some wonderful news; we not only found the ship's original destination, which was fortunate in a way for our ancestors; Dren found Earth for us." You would have thought the Deputy was hit by a stone, "How is this? You mean to say you now know where we were supposed to be all this time?"

Walter did chuckle that time. "Yes Brad, we found more truth than we ever imagined, and it is fortunate after all that they had the accidents; for we would not exist at all if they had gotten there. The worlds they hoped for are both dead. They would have died there, and none of us would have been born. So God may have had a hand in our survival here after all. After what Jaylee and I have seen on this journey, it is possible that his intention was for us to struggle and grow as a people before he allowed us a better life; for Earth is lush and bountiful my friend; and our ancestors apparently treated the world poorly. It looks like it needed time to restore itself for our return. I will discuss it with you in detail after we have dealt with this current problem."

The young Priest Jeremy entered, saying, "They are here Master Walter. Shane was shocked when we did not attack them; I think he wanted a fight; but he has agreed to talk with you and they are in the convocation room as you wished." Walter felt a bit relieved that there weren't any bumps and bruises yet, "Thank you very much Jeremy; you did well, very well indeed. Shall we go tend to this meeting Jaylee? I happen to know Shane likes you; and frankly I need your moral support." Jaylee gave the Priest a startled look, but she trailed after him, over to the room.

Shane jumped up when they entered, and he saw Jaylee; "Why is Jaylee here Master? She isn't even a priest." Walter smiled at Shane, "Simply because she is my personal assistant Shane; and I trust Jaylee's thoughts about anything in the Great Book. I believe you already know that she is impeccably honest. Please tell me your quarrel with the new passages?"

If anything was going to shake the young man's confidence, it was being asked to explain the reason why he was upset, "Master, we have been told all our lives that we were created here, and the ancestors were somehow being punished; but now you are teaching us that we came here in some magic 'ship' as an accident, and God saved us. I just don't understand why you would tell such a lie."

Master Walter was High Priest for several reasons; but most importantly because everyone knew him to be honest. He knew how to reach the young man, "Shane, have I ever lied to you when we talked?" That startled the boy as if he had been slapped, "Why no Master, you always speak plainly to me; it helps settle my mind when I listen to you." Master Walter knew he had Shane now, "Then why do you think I would start lying now, especially in something that is so important to all the people? I changed the words because I found out that there were many inaccuracies in the Great Book; and frankly some false accounts. I don't believe the first Great Book was written merely to lie to us; I don't think it was intentional. Would it help you understand why the new version is the truth of our history, if I showed you my proof?

Young Shane practically withered right then, "No Master, it is not necessary to prove yourself; I respect you and will believe you." Walter could have ended it there, but a thought struck him; Shane was much like Jaylee with his curiosity and insatiable desire to know thing, "No no Shane, you have a right to know the truth of this; all the people do, but I will ask you to keep this knowledge to yourselves for now. I must prepare the people carefully for the better life that will come. Jaylee, would you get the log please?" All of the boys nodded at him; they were all good young people in their own unique ways, and he felt they would keep the secret that was slowly becoming less of a secret.

Jaylee jumped up and almost ran for the book; Master Walters request had startled her, but as she picked up the book she realized what the Priest was doing. By trusting the group of boys to see and read the log book, he was defusing their fears; making the conflict simply go away. Truth can do such things. She placed the ships log book in Shane's hands, and the boy almost dropped it. He could plainly see that this book had never been created here; the leather cover with gold letters on it simply did not exist on this world; yet here it was in his hands. Master Walter asked Shane to read the first page to the whole room...an hour later Shane had read over half the book to everyone present. Master Walter made sure he read the last two entries that explained the intent behind the Great Book.

All eyes were wide in the room, except for Walter and Jaylee. Shane made a point of apologizing to Master Walter for ever doubting his wisdom; then he apologized to Jaylee too, which surprised her; "Jaylee, I was a fool for a while, but no more. You are very lucky to be in the presence of such a great man; we all are. Good night Jaylee." So ended the Great Temple Siege...
**Chapter 10**

The acceptance of the New Great Book suddenly began moving at a much faster pace; that was due to partially to the fact that a certain group of former detractors had transformed into 'unofficial priests'. While the process of changing almost a thousand year view on life had been slow at first; being limited primarily to one day a week discussions, people were beginning to talk about the book every day, thanks to Shane and his group's efforts. He and his friends talked about the teachings in relation to daily tasks such as improving the crop yields and improving the tools they used out in the fields. Their efforts helped ease some of the confusion that people had with these new concepts; it wasn't easy for a society to excise 800 years of believing they were supposed to suffer in order to be worthy of something better. Now the Temple was teaching that God wanted them to actually make their own lives better through innovation and invention; 'Work with the limited resources you have, and create new things' became the watchword. It was preparing them for the shock of actually moving to a better place; 'that' Master Walter knew would be a huge leap, in more ways than one. He often pondered how to unveil Dren...

Dren and Jaylee were making more and more 'speed runs' to Earth over the following months; for several reasons. First and foremost they needed to confirm that the massive storms they had seen in the 'news' emails had eased. There were still storms popping up occasionally, but not as huge and not as destructive. These seemed to be a part of the Earth's normal cycle of life. The storms they were used to on their planet were nothing like even these smaller ones; so Jaylee jotted down one more issue to 'get used to'.

The second most important thing to do was to carefully choose a place to start the people's new life there; it was not an easy task, simply for the fact that there were an almost infinite number of areas to choose from. Then there were numerous considerations to take into account in making that choice. It was Dren who pointed out the number one concern; the people themselves and what they were accustomed to. Their current planet did not have seasons; Earth did, so picking a place that had a drastically varying temperature difference between summer and winter was out for now. Mild climate year round was a better choice; too hot and arid was out for the same reason. That would just remind the people of what they had left; likewise, too wet for half the year was not good for them, they didn't know 'soggy'. Rain was ok, the people knew that, and even got soaked occasionally if they stayed out too long in it; but drowning in rain was unknown. Living directly on a coastline was eliminated for now, for similar reasons; as well as the fact that Earth had a moon that generated tides and surges. It did narrow down the possibilities quite a bit.

It surprised Dren that he was so involved with the choice; he had not realized that he knew so much about climate, it was bits and pieces but it all came together in a rational opinion, "Jaylee, I think too close to one of the large oceans might be too much for the people with those 'hurricanes'; one of the smaller enclosed ones looks ok though." Jaylee giggled, "You are so smart Dren; I had not even considered that. You are right of course; there are so many things to consider, and we won't find a location that includes every one of them. How about that spot there", and she pointed to a place on the southeastern edge of a moderate body of water; not too far from where they had originally landed. It had some desert, and some pretty good soil for growing things, with good water. It wasn't perfect, but it looked like a good place to start a new life. Somewhat ironically, Jaylee was pointing to a location with a history uniquely its own; for it was not too far from an area that was speculated to be where the human race had been 'born'. The area next to the middling' sized ocean that she was pointing had once been called 'The Promised Land'.

***

Leaving Earth felt almost sad in a way; it felt to Jaylee like she was leaving a new friend who wanted her to stay. She whispered as they cleared the low cloud cover, rising toward space, "Don't worry, we'll be back; and one day soon we will bring more people." As if in answer, a random strand of lightning wove its way through the clouds; something of a 'Hurry up'...

When Dren landed at the usual spot, Master Walter was waiting for them as he often did when there wasn't too much pressing down on his mind. It made Jaylee happy to see him smiling. Rather than walking to Dren, he gestured for Jaylee to come sit by him on the rocks; he wanted to talk, just the two of them she thought, but when she sat down with the Master he raised his voice, "Dren, can you hear us alright? I want to talk to Jaylee, but I do want you to listen. I'll be looking for your independent opinion after."

Dren chuckled, even though the Master's words were odd, "Yes Master, I can hear you clearly. Speak normally; it is merely a matter of adjusting my audio sensitivity. Thank you for including me..." Master Walter chuckled for a moment, "Dren, I want you to know something. You're thoughts and insights are always important to me; to us. I think you don't really understand it inside yet, but you are a part of our family; and the people. I would have talked to Jaylee back at the Temple, because it is where the subject of the discussion is; but then you would not be able to listen and contribute."

Dren almost laughed out loud at hearing that, "Master, we have a device available that would allow us to maintain communication; even at the Temple. Jaylee, will you get the small round piece of jewelry out of the drawer in your locker? The two with the sunbursts will help us. The two are communications transmitters. The large one is long range; about fifty miles, but the small one is all we need. Its range is far more than the short distance to the Temple." As Jaylee stood, Master Walter laughed, "I wish we knew that long ago, it could have saved many walks out here just to talk. Two miles may be 'short' to you, but to my old bones it is quite a hike." Dren apologized, "I'm sorry Master, it had not occurred to me; you see, it has one drawback. If you can hear me through it, so can anyone near you. I didn't think it would help much if we needed private talks."

Jaylee brought the shiny starburst broach back to their seats on the rocks, and fastened it to her tunic as out of sight as she could make it under her long hair. Once Jaylee got used to the slight shock of hearing Dren right under her ear, it felt a bit more natural; they were off and running. Master Walter asked Jaylee simply, "Young one, how do you see your role in all this? Sometimes I don't think you realize just how important you really are to not only me, but to all the people."

Over the last couple of years Jaylee had gotten used to some strange experiences since meeting Dren; but the Master's question had to be the strangest of all, "Master, I am just another one of the people; I am not important at all really. I am just me!" Before Master Walter could respond, Dren laughed, "I would disagree my friend. I remember something you told me about self confidence and realizing your worth; it seems you should listen to your own words Jaylee."

It was Master Walter's turn to laugh, "You should listen to Dren too young Jaylee, and he has the right of it. I told you I had watched you for many years; I did that because I saw something different in how you viewed our world, something special. You do not see yourself as special simply because that is who you are; but apparently the people see it quite well. Would you like to know that every single one who knows you has asked about you each day, every day on this latest trip? Have you ever wondered why people ask you questions every 6th day? They want to know your opinions on the words in the Great Book; and about the world around us. They seem to know that you see things more clearly than most; you are a leader Jaylee; whether you know it or not. It is time to start acting like one I think; I will help you. Come, we should get back so you can be seen again. Trust me young lady, the people have missed you!" As Master Walter led his protégé back to the Temple, a blushing Jaylee would have lit up the sky had it been dark out...

For the next few days it was a bit disconcerting for Jaylee to hear Dren without being next to him or 'in' him; but she slowly got used to the feeling. They worked out a little signal routine so that she could let him know when it was safe to reply. Dren didn't tell her that he could hear perfectly well when someone else was near her; it let her feel more in control of things. She went to visit her Mother, who fawned over her for two hours; asking her not only about the Great Book, but also about the people and how they all seemed much more positive, more hopeful; all because of Master Walter and how her daughter was helping him with his important work, "You are destined for great things Jaylee; I am so proud of you!" Jaylee walked back to the Temple more confused than ever; she loved her Mother, but to Jaylee, she was acting weird. She couldn't ignore the evidence on the way back however; everyone was moving around with a purpose, rather than almost shuffling. People were talking with each other as if life was great already. Everyone she passed said good day to her; had she been away so long that she didn't even know her own people anymore? It sure felt odd; but then Jaylee realized that it felt 'good' too...

Master Walter greeted Jaylee with a warm smile, "I see you are perplexed Jaylee; I expect you have been seeing the change in our people. Frankly, I am rather astounded by our success in preparing them for even more surprises. Dren, I would like your thoughts on whether to unveil you to the people now or just a bit later; soon, very soon I think, it will be our number one topic of discussion.

Dren's voice didn't seem surprised; nor did he sound particularly happy, "Master Walter, I think you know the position I will take on that. I simply don't have an opinion on it; I couldn't have. I don't know the people, you and Jaylee do; the only people I know are you, Jaylee and to a smaller measure Master Bradley. Today I heard Jaylee's Mother's view on people feeling better about 'hope for the future'; then I heard perhaps twenty people greet Jaylee warmly, seemingly because her support of 'you' made them hopeful for a better life. Those things I can understand; but at the same time I cannot say how I think they would react to 'me'. Seeing me for the first time is not like meeting another human; it will shock the people if there is no preparation, and probably shock them badly. The only opinion I can give is that I think you must move very carefully, prepare them slowly; so that shock will be less..."

Jaylee actually jumped up, "I believe you are more right than you know Dren. I do know many of the people, but from a different perspective than Master Walter does. Growing up I was in the congregation every 6th day, listening to all of you Master. Our people have strong characters and they handle hardship every day; but what they don't handle well is fear. I remember the day I met you Dren; I was so afraid I could not move; and it was Dren's tone and his soft voice that allowed me to put that fear in a box and come back to you Master. It was your strength that let us learn who Dren is and to keep that fear away for all time. So I think that it will be your strength of character, and your words; that will help the people overcome their reaction to first seeing him. They simply have no reference in their life to compare to a large starship Master Walter; so it will be 'how' you prepare them for the first sight of him that will matter most. As always, we must be totally honest with the people; we must also go slowly, to give them time to absorb and accept how Dren looks." Master Walter was about to chuckle, but was stopped short by a loud knock on the door...

***

Shane had wanted to go exploring; real exploring, to try and understand how their world 'worked'. His mind thought about things much the way Jaylee's did; but where Jaylee and Shane both wanted to discover new things, Shane's mind went one step further; he wanted to know the 'how and why' things worked in certain ways. If Shane had been born on another world, he would have been a scientist. The only thing that held him back really; was the fact that there was always precious little time to do anything; other than grow food to keep their society alive. The people were doing better now, and they were finally almost happy. So Shane decided to devote more time to discovery, rather than 'the meaning of life'; and he went to Master Walter to tell him what his plan was. He wasn't looking for permission; he just wanted to give the Priest the courtesy of letting him in on Shane's idea.

Shane had 'checked in' with the day protector, and gotten his permission to speak with Master Walter. He was about to knock when he heard three voices engaged in a rather lively discussion; so he politely waited for the talking to slow down some; and listened. He heard Master Walter's voice plainly; and Jaylee when she spoke. He just couldn't place the third voice; he didn't recognize it at all. The man's name was equally unfamiliar, Shane had never heard of a 'Dren' before.

They were talking about 'unveiling' something new again, a different thing, which made Shane feel good; new things were usually exciting. But then Jaylee mentioned the magic word 'starship' and Dren in the same sentence; they were discussing when the people would be ready 'to see Dren', to accept something that might frighten them. Politeness and courtesy went out the window, and Shane knocked on the door rather strongly; barging right in...and stopped, his eyes widening in shock. There had been three voices, but only two people were in Master Walter's chamber; suddenly remembering his manners, Shane began stammering, "Master, I heard...I wanted to...may I...there were three of you talking...where is Dren?!''

This moment was so ludicrous, Master Walter wanted to laugh; Shane's confusion had eased his mind; and pointed out clearly exactly what they had been discussing. You don't expose 800 people to sudden shocks; like having Dren fly over the town and just say, 'Hey; by the way, we have a huge starship to show you!' The Master settled his own shock at the intrusion, and then said to the young man, "Shane, please sit with us; there is something more that we need to explain to you."

For over an hour both the humans explained to Shane how Jaylee and Dren had met one evening; how Master Walter had met Dren the next day, and how over time they had gotten to know each other; and learned from each other. Master Walter explained how Dren was important to them both; and how he was even more important to all the people, "For you see Shane, Dren can carry the people to a new home, a far better one. I actually think that God may be rewarding our struggles at last."

Shane listened to the words, trying to understand. He could accept that there was someone, some 'thing' that could end the people's harsh life here; but where was he? "Master, I don't understand completely. I heard three of you talking, but where is Dren? Is he invisible?" Dren couldn't stop himself, and he chuckled softly; which startled the young man. He looked all around, but there was still no one there. Dren gently said, Shane, I am physically too big to be in the room with you. Jaylee wears a small device that allows me to speak with her and you from a distance; would you like to come out to the desert and visit with me?"

Jaylee let out a little giggle at Dren's choice of words; for he was indeed too 'big', "That's a wonderful idea Dren. Shane, would you walk with me out to meet Dren? You deserve to know about him; heck, all the people deserve to know, for he will take us to Earth..."

There it was, the mythical home of their people being offered to Shane almost casually. If he were not a burgeoning scientist who actually sought out the truth of things, he might have fainted, "Yes, I want to understand; that is certain Jaylee. Let's go!" As Jaylee led Shane on his new quest for knowledge, Master Walter could only smile, shaking his head. Yes, they were in for a new type of struggle; convincing the people to depart this world in another starship would be a bit hard perhaps, but he did not think it impossible. The new teachings in the Great Book would help prepare them; especially that one mystical word...Earth. He didn't need to 'teach' the meanings so much anymore; Master Walter realized that the words themselves would convince the people; actually 'tease' them into wanting to make the journey. The Priest began writing a special sermon for this week's 6th day service. This one would describe the wonders; the beauty of Earth...for he had seen them now.

***

When Shane and Jaylee crested that last hill that hid Dren from view of the town, the boy stopped short; the surprise at seeing the huge gleaming object sitting next to the sands had Shane wondering what was really in store for him; the shape could not be ignore, "He's a turtle!" The outburst had both Jaylee and Dren laughing. Dren told him, "I have grown accustomed to the description Shane; Jaylee even brought one of them out to show me one day; and I certainly do look like a turtle. Be at ease, I have found the humor of it."

The three chatted all day long; just as had happened with Jaylee and Master Walter, Dren and Jaylee gave Shane the grand tour of the entire ship; Shane soaked up everything he saw, having no idea how to duplicate even the simplest thing he saw. He was good at remembering things, so Shane stored it all away in memory for future reference. By the end of the tour Shane had worn himself out mentally, and was yawning a few times; but he forced himself to listen to all the stories he was told. It was full dark now, and Jaylee suggested Shane take a nap in one of the cabins; even though he was wound up tight from all the new information, it was barely a minute before he was sound asleep in the comfortable bed. Jaylee sat on the bridge for a while longer, just chit chatting with Dren; before she went to sleep herself in her own cabin. Before dropping off to a welcome slumber, Jaylee thought of how this day had been yet another turning point in their long quest; there were now four people who knew of Dren. There would be more soon; but not 'too' soon. Jaylee slept well, a tiny smile on her face...

Over the next six months more of the people did get introduced to Dren; all of them had their own difficulties with the revelation, but eventually they all became somewhat comfortable with the knowledge that a huge metal turtle that talked to them was sitting only a few miles from the only world they had ever known. Little by little they accepted that they would move to a new world; a better life. Jaylee was puzzled for a time that the young people took to Dren more quickly; until Dren explained one day that the young usually accepted new thing better than the elders did, simply because to the young people 'everything' was new. To Dren's mind Masters Walter and Bradley were the exceptions because they saw it all from a different perspective than the average person did. Jaylee had to smile at that. Eventually about half the people had accepted the strange metal 'savior'; if not for who he was quite yet, at least for what he might 'do' for them. The other half of their population had at least heard about the metal turtle, but held back from accepting him yet. So Masters Walter and Bradley teamed up on the hold outs; but in a gentle, almost subtle way; they began mentioning how hot it felt to them. That little tactic actually worked; for the numbers of holdouts started dwindling.

By the end of the year 'if' they would move became 'when' they would move; and then finally the physical 'preparations' began. The logistics were overwhelming at first; there was just so much to consider. First and foremost, Dren could not take all of them in one trip. He was designed to be able to carry a maximum of 350; but that was hardened combat troops who were accustomed to close quarter transits. These new 'colonists' knew each other to varying degrees, and sometimes very well; but no one was ready to be stuck less than three feet away from each other for an entire month; so it was decided to take about 100 to 150 at a time; they could spread out that way, have their own private space if they needed it. Another benefit of Dren's design was that there were no windows along his hull. Only four of the people had ever seen space; yes, Shane had gone up several times, and actually liked it. There were only two who thought of space travel as 'homey'; only Jaylee and Master Walter had any experience with the long search for livable planets.

The hardest preparation to solve was food for each group; even though the people were used to eating frugally, the amount of food necessary for each group would strain Dren's storage capacity just a bit. Planetary Assault Troops did not make month long journeys that required lots of food; this group of very average people would...still, with Dren's helpful suggestions, Masters Walter and Bradley had created six lists. 837 people had been divided, if a bit unequally, into those groups, with a group 'leader' selected for each one. Every group would carry their own food out to Dren; and so it was that 826 years, 5 months and 9 days after the crash that had created this colony, the first group of descendants began their exodus 'back' to Earth...
**Chapter 11**

They took relatively little with them, simply because they had very little to take. The only things they had that were considered valuable were the tools they had tended and repaired for so long; every group took every cherished tool they had. Some of the people took the hand crafted mementos they had carved and used for decorations. The people had no idea of what they would find on their new home; Jaylee and Master Walter made every trip back and forth; the two were the seasoned travelers and tried to counsel the groups on what to expect, but it was impossible to prepare them. It was exactly like cave dwellers exiting their home one day and finding a modern city before them; well, not quite modern anymore. The cities and towns they saw were ancient now; but to people who had never seen anything like it, this world in front of their eyes was all brand new in a terrifying way. For a while they actually huddled together; fearful of this 'new' world. The Priests did what they knew how to do; tending to their 'flock'. They had their own fears, but pushed those away and tried to comfort the people; speaking positively and supportively. Master Walter and Jaylee had impressed all the Priests that there was a possibility that dangerous animals lurked near or 'in' the water; so everyone was cautioned to be careful at all times; but for whatever reason, the 'crocodiles' that had once inhabited this region did not appear. There had been many changes in the 800 years...

What do you do when you don't know a damn thing about the world around you? You learn; or else! By the time the last load of people landed on Earth, the first groups were beginning to branch out; to explore their new world. At first they had been apprehensive of even entering the old buildings they found plentifully sprinkled all over; but as the weeks went by they began exploring inside some of them; and found treasures beyond compare. The 'houses' began receiving occupants again; the structurally sound ones anyway.

Shane and his young group were more adventurous than most of the people, and rapidly became the pathfinders for the people; they were almost one hundred strong now, and carried their clubs and poles for protection; but for now most animals pretty much stayed away; even the actual predators. In their travels further outward they encountered the first stores; the grocery stores were useless for the most part, as even the canned goods would be unusable after 800 years. They did find useful utensils on the appropriate racks though, and distributed the items as far as they would go. Some uses for them were obvious, and some uses had to be puzzled out. Since they were in a region that didn't use the English language, directions were likewise useless to the people; that would become a sticking point later, but for now they were doing more than just survive. For the first time they were actually 'living'. Food straight off the trees was plentiful; likewise the water. It was already a 'good life', and would get better as they became accustomed to this world's ways. One of the biggest stumbling blocks of all was all the strange 'things' they constantly encountered when they explored.

***

Dren descended through the heavy cloud cover as he approached the 'colony' with the last load of people; he had felt a small emptiness inside when they rose into the sky for the last time, he was leaving Nadeen as well. As he thought about it though, she wasn't really under the sand anymore; she was inside him, in his memory. She was within the ship, always traveling with him wherever he went. Seeing it that way made Dren feel better about leaving that world; it was right, he could actually feel it.

When he landed the cycle of apprehension followed by learning began once more. The first ones who had arrived were now the wizened guidance counselors. No one was an expert on this world; but their months of experience helped the newest arrivals acclimate quickly; far quicker than they had at first. One of the hardest feelings the whole colony had to accept was that they didn't have to constantly struggle just to stay alive; for the first time in their lives they could do something simply because they wanted to, rather than because they 'needed to'.

When the last passenger went through the boarding door with their belongings, Jaylee said to Master Walter, "We have done it; the people finally have a better world Master! That it is the world of our forefathers makes it even better; doesn't it?" Master Walter had to laugh at that, "Young Jaylee, I cannot argue with that; the people are indeed on a better world now. Just make sure you are ready; for we have an even greater task before us now. This world not only has a nicer feel to it; it has hidden dangers we may not even recognize, and not just from animals. Our forefathers had machines of all kinds; those machines are still here, so we must be extremely vigilant as we learn of these wonders."

Master Walter had been more right than he realized; learning about technology alone was a process of trial and error, and you could get hurt because of the simplest mistake; just ask anybody who had a momentary lapse while using their string trimmer. Painful and sometimes bloody ankles were not unknown. The people were doubly disadvantaged; not only did they not have any idea 'what' most of the machines were, they also had no idea 'how' to use them. 'Learning' was the number one priority from day one. But they were stalled in that endeavor by one key concept; language. The region Jaylee had chosen didn't use the language they were familiar with; the signs and billboards they saw made that clear. The 'Expansion' had been filled with people who came from a place called 'North America'; one of a number of areas that used the 'English' language predominantly. Unfortunately for this small group, the rest of the Earth had used many different languages; sometimes vastly different ones like here in the 'Middle East'. The 'brick wall' became clearer one day when a young boy named Alex brought a tablet he had found to Dren.

Dren had become something of the unofficial 'professor' for the people. He might be unfamiliar with much of Earth's technology, but he did know far more about machines and electronics than anyone else. So it was natural for Alex to seek him out for some help with Alex's new treasure, "Dren, can you change the words in this so I can read it?" Dren chuckled in his own unique way and began guiding Alex in changing the default language in the tablet. When they were finished, Dren still had an unhappy Alex; changing the default language only changed the labels and instructions in the operating system and some of the pre-loaded software. It didn't automatically change the contents of 'emails' and such that were 'sent' to the device. Still, it was an improvement over what Alex had before; so Alex thanked Dren for the help and walked back 'home' to learn some other things. When Jaylee and Master Walter came back from their latest exploration; their daily discussions turned to the underlying problem that was now obvious to Dren.

"Master Walter; Jaylee, the people were struggling just to stay alive on their previous world. Now the struggle has been eased to a great extent; only to be replaced with an even greater struggle; a struggle for knowledge. There are millions of examples of the ancestor's culture of technology lying all over the Earth; but to learn about it the people have to be able to read it. This region used a language the people cannot read; to help them learn we should get them learning materials in the language they know, I think."

Master Walter nodded slowly; he had been hearing complaints from some of the people for months now, about the difficulty understanding all the strange devices all around them, "I agree Dren; the people are becoming more comfortable on Earth and it is only natural to voice frustration at not being to learn how to use all these strange machines. So how do we approach this; do we bring the learning here or do we take them to the learning? I believe the second option will be the best; but then the question once again will be 'where' we take them."

Jaylee spoke up right away; a smile on her face, "I think Dren and I may have an idea Master; we were talking about it the other day. A place called the United States was English speaking mostly, so everything we could need should be there; a large city called Dallas Fort Worth has a climate similar to this place, can we look there?" Master Walter burst out laughing, "Yes Jaylee; let us visit the city where your ancestor lived, I am sure he would appreciate the gesture. Dren also told me that he had found it in those emails, handy things aren't they? We had better get Shane and some of his people to go along with us too; for both safety and exploring. Our first rule for this world applies doubly in this small journey; careful and cautious always." After letting Shane in on the plan, they decided to go the following day at the 12th hour to arrive at dawn in Dallas. It took Jaylee a while to sleep; the excitement had her full attention. Finally; well after midnight, Jaylee drifted off to a sound sleep in her cabin.

In the morning time seemed to slow down for Jaylee; despite her habit of rising with the sun, Jaylee 'slept in' for the first time in her life. She spent the morning glancing at the sun in its slow travel to the 12th hour position high in the sky; that is until Master Walter laughed, "No matter how much you wish it young one, you will not make the sun move faster. Relax Jaylee; Shane and his group should be here soon." Despite her anxiety, Jaylee had to laugh too; she could recognize the futility, "I know Master; but it is hard to ignore the excitement. We have found comfort on Earth; but we still don't 'know' this world. We must learn so much now, just to understand..."

The trip to Dallas took half an hour simply because it was on the same planet; ten minutes up into orbit, ten descending and another ten minutes picking someplace to land someplace 'interesting'. Since just about every place they could see filled that requirement, Dren suggested they start with a large complex that some of Jay Taylor's emails called 'North Park Mall'; and he landed in a moderately sized field less than a quarter mile away. The whole region was overgrown and the grass was tall, but manageable; still, it took another twenty minutes for the group to walk to the huge collection of interconnected buildings. What they found inside was well worth the trip; the items in the two large department stores alone would outfit all the people for years, even though some of the organic materials had deteriorated a bit. The synthetic fabrics were perfectly usable; and the variety of appliances would be useful once they learned how to use and power them. The ultimate treasure however was found in one of the smaller stores...

Shane was in his own kind of heaven; with over sixty stores to explore, most of them with totally different items to decipher, he would have a gold mine for a long time. Just the fact that some of the lighting still worked had him trying to puzzle out that little mystery; Shane speculated that it might have something to do with the 'solar panels' Dren had explained to him once. Jaylee admired Shane's analytical mind, so she tagged along behind him trying to piece together her own puzzles; everything was in English and it was a joy just to read the words easily. Just the clothing tags were 'fun' to examine...

After Shane and Jaylee came out of another electronics store they took a right into a side corridor that at first looked empty; there was one light working down near the end of the hallway, giving just enough light to see a single sign above a doorway. As they got closer, both could see it read 'Used Books'; a slow walk became a jog to the door. It wasn't even locked; and when they entered the whole worlds history stared back at the two. While it wasn't a big store, whoever had stocked the shelves did so with care; for only two aisles were set aside for fictional stories, and there were a couple thousand bound books there. The other five aisles had little signs that covered every kind of science known to the people's ancestors. It wasn't all the Earth's knowledge, but it sure was a great place to start. The main reason for coming here had been fulfilled; when everyone had returned to Dren that evening, it took less than half an hour to decide that they had found a base of operations.

Master Walter had done a little bit of exploring on his own; and found his own treasure, a church. He had long surmised that the ancestors had practiced their own forms of religion; some of the oldest writings in the Great Book suggested that. This sight before him was proof; the weather worn sign outside simply read, 'Peoples House of God', nothing more and nothing less. To Master Walter the words were a calling in itself; not saying you had to be a certain person, but saying this place was intended for 'all people', he liked that concept. He decided this was indeed where his people belonged; and said so at their meeting.

***

The human mind is a very unique and interesting organ; most of the time it makes decisions using a series of facts and rational deliberations, but once in a while it just wants to feel comfortable. When Masters Walter and Bradley called a full meeting of the people next to Dren, to announce moving to another place to allow them to integrate more fully with the world around them, a small group of them rebelled...

Elliot was 92 years old by their previous calendar; on Earth he was 81. By either measure Elliot was an old man; prone to the many aches and pains that went with that distinction. He certainly felt that he was too old to be moving to other places; and said so at the meeting, "Master Walter, I am an old man now and don't really contribute anything to the people anymore. I can't work the fields now, and don't particularly feel a need to learn all the wonders that Earth has to offer us, that is for the young to puzzle out for our future here. I am content where I am now; and truthfully it feels like a reward for a lifetime of hard work, we have more food than we can eat and all the clean water we could want. I have nothing to offer the people, so I would like you to leave me here please." It was soon apparent that eighteen others felt the same way, for they voiced their agreement with Elliot's little speech. Master Walter understood where Elliot and the others were coming from; he was only a few years younger than most of them no matter which way you counted years. He didn't quite understand Jaylee tugging insistently on his sleeve however..."Master, may I speak?" Receiving a nod for permission, Jaylee faced the assembly; whispering to Dren, "Can I speak through your external speakers Dren?" She heard a soft chuckle, "Already set up Jaylee, and just start speaking."

"Elder Elliot, I am afraid I must disagree with you; I agree that learning all the wonders Earth offers us is a job for the young among us. It will require a lot of walking and carrying whatever we find; but it will also present dangers that we may not see at first. You say that you have nothing to offer the people anymore; I believe you have the most valuable 'things' to offer that exist; all of your experiences and wisdom. We young people always want to do things quickly, sometimes without thinking enough about it. You; all of you Elders can see things that we might miss in learning this world. The simple reality is that we will need your guidance in our long journey ahead; so please reconsider your choice, for you are more important to all of the people than you realize."

The cheers and shouts that erupted from the crowd startled Jaylee; it also startled all the elderly holdouts, especially Elliot whose wide eyes were focused only on her for the moment. He gathered his friends together for a group discussion; several of the group kept glancing in her direction while talking animatedly. Master Walter put his hand on Jaylee's shoulder and said, "You make me proud Jaylee; as you can plainly see and hear, the people are proud of you too. Well done young one, very well done indeed"...Elliot came over about ten minutes later to tell them that the group had chosen to make the move to this 'better home', "Young Jaylee, you are a soothing voice for our old ears; and make no mistake, we can all learn from your own wisdom. All of us will go with you. We may be too old to learn much ourselves about all these wonders; but you have shown us that we can help others do so."

***

The people's final move to a permanent home took longer to prepare for than the actual move did; it took a week for everyone to select what they wanted to take with them. They already had far more knick knacks and pretty decorations than they ever had at their original home; Jaylee and her 'exploration crew' knew the people would go nuts with all the amazing items they would find in Dallas, so learning moderation would be at the head of the list of things to deal with. This was the classic 'Kids in a candy store' cliché, raised to the power of infinity otherwise.

When everyone was ready, it only took a single day to move them all; Shane and half his bunch had stayed in Dallas to select the best housing for the arrivals. It wasn't too hard to do; Master Walter had set the three rules for selection, keep the people relatively close together to be able to help each other; good sound housing to keep the weather at bay...and use his chosen 'church' as the central point; Walter had found his cherished home on the first trip. Dren and Jaylee had collaborated one evening, and chosen a big enough 'parking lot' less than a hundred yards away from the church as their base of operations and support for the Priest. Devotion is a good thing when it is based upon the right reasons...
**Chapter 12**

The human race had apparently learned some lessons over its long history on Earth; one such lesson involved the use of stronger and more durable building materials. By the time Jay Taylor's generation was dealing with climate change all over the Earth, homes and commercial buildings were very resilient; able to endure the extreme weather patterns of the time. That one advancement was a benefit for Dren's people now; he chuckled to himself, for Jaylee's people were now his too. Dren wasn't sure exactly when the change in thinking had happened; but he was certain that it was a good thing, Nadeen would approve.

Dren had become something of a clearing house for information; as more and more tablets turned up. While the technologies were different from what was in his database, he did have the ability to recognize how things worked; Dren was a puzzle solver at heart, and most of the people came to him to explain some of the finer points in their own personal learning curves. Dren liked that; it let him exercise his mind in new and useful ways. It occurred to him one day that he was getting only a fraction of all the information available on this world; people had found more 'used book stores' around the area, but the books in them dealt with older basic knowledge mostly. That was good for the people certainly; they could learn things at their leisure, at their own pace. It didn't help Dren though; to read hardbound books he had to have someone hold the books up to his camera, and turn the pages; it was terribly inefficient. The Earth as a whole had evolved into an electronic information society. Even the 'libraries' they found throughout the city had shifted to electronic storage rather than the old way of printing heavy books; Dren needed some way to access more information faster, in order to learn the most important answer of all; what had happened to all the people living here back then. The individual snippets he found in the news articles from the tablets helped some; but even then it was only fragments of a bigger picture. He needed help; that help came in a rather odd way when Shane got one of the old personal vehicles working...

The thousands of cars all over the city fascinated Shane; they were obviously meant to carry people around, Dren had confirmed that early on in their discussions. Most were electric cars, but used battery packs that deteriorated over time; which made the cars effectively useless now. It was frustrating for Shane; he wanted to explore even more of this amazing world!

Shane was a little tired; he'd been walking for several hours and had covered about ten miles. He was into the Fort Worth area of the 'dual city', and decided to take a break. He walked over to a large building sitting by itself. A glass door had a bench next to it; so Shane sat down to rest for a minute, and read the sign on the door. It said;

Crystal Power, Inc.

Forever Batteries

In a Forever World!

Being the consummate seeker of knowledge Shane could not resist checking this out. The glass entry door was locked, but one of the garage doors a few feet away was slightly open. He tugged it upward for a couple minutes until there was space to scrunch under; once inside Shane found the chain mechanism to open the door fully, it was old tech but reliable. As the light poured into the large space, Shane was met by a series of small green dots of light blinking at him; there were twenty vehicles in here, and the four closest to him were winking at his entry. It didn't take a genius to figure out that these vehicles were responding to the sunlight; so Shane carefully opened the remaining garage doors; suddenly all the other cars began winking at him. He was very curious now; Shane opened the driver's door on the first one that had started blinking and sat in the seat. Gripping the steering wheel, he turned it slightly in both directions, and felt the response from the front wheels as they moved; Shane was grinning now, so on impulse he flipped the single switch up on the dash; it simply said 'On' above and 'off' below the switch.

Shane didn't really have any expectations, but when the big screen in the center lit up; his grin turned into a wide open mouth. The screen had a colored bar slowly growing longer across it, with a number changing through 15% as he watched it. The words under the bar were plain enough, 'Full charge recommended for trips over 300 miles. Time remaining 57 minutes'.

Excitable by nature, Shane could not remember being this wound up since they had first arrived on Earth; this was even more important than finding those first books in the store. This 'car' was going to let him travel over long distances; and find even more amazing things. He was almost giggling as he watched the colored bar moving across the screen for the next hour; when the screen changed to say, 'Full Charge; Drive Safely!' Shane wasted no time, and shifted into gear; and backed right into the car behind him. The experience taught him the most important of lessons; know what you are doing before ever doing it. Shane spent the next hour learning what each control did, while creeping around in the parking lot; he also found out how important a safety belt was, when he almost broke his nose on the steering wheel when he stepped on the brake too hard once. By the time Shane was courageous enough to venture out onto the street, he was a fully fledged 'driver'; and the sun was going down. Having already found the headlight switch, he turned them on; and drove back to Dallas at a stately 10 miles per hour; faster speeds would come later...

***

Jaylee and Master Walter were on the bridge talking with Dren about the different efforts going on to absorb the ancestors technology and integrate it into a society that was starting from ground zero; Jaylee was making her point, "We are learning so much Dren, but I wonder if we are missing things along the way. You yourself have warned us all about electricity; and how it must be respected always, but...what is that light moving toward us?"

Shane pulled up right beside Dren, and bounded up the steps; he told them of his discovery rather excitedly. The next morning Shane gathered his 'Pathfinders' together and showed them all about what a car could do for them; the enthusiasm spread quickly and within an hour everyone wanted to head right over to this facility. Master Walter decided to stay behind to read more of the large 'Bible' he had found in the church; he had found the inconsistencies in their Great Book; it was a structured work based solely upon the people's origins and existence on a harsh world; and now he was finding strange inconsistencies in the original book of their ancestors. Walter would corner Jaylee and Bradley one day for a long discussion on these oddities...

The group piled into Dren for the short five minute trip over to the big building in the desert; before landing, Dren made a discovery of his own. There was much more to this facility than was showing above ground; and the three other large buildings surrounding the area. All of them had subsurface levels going down at least 100 feet; and all four had solar panel 'farms' on their roofs, along with several enclosed antenna pods situated in the centers. This was a self contained micro environment on a planet that had leaned towards a more spread out power structure; to Dren it was a more important discovery than the cars had been, and he talked about it with Jaylee and Shane when he landed beside the main building, "There appear to be more hidden treasures here than you thought Shane. I think we should approach this facility with a solid plan. These buildings all have solar panels on top of them, but the covers are all worn and must be replaced to allow the panels to gather more of the sunlight. That should be the first task..."

It took five full days to accomplish; finding the panel covers was relatively easy since all the buildings had their own maintenance departments, with replacement clear composite panel covers stacked neatly on shelves; it took a long time to actually replace them, simply because they had to first learn to be mechanics. It was easier than having to use wrenches though; all the solar panel covers were attached with a dozen spring clips on each one; Dren did remind them that tools were important for maintaining everything, including the cars, so they paid attention.

There were 19 more cars to learn driving skills in, so the ninety seven boys alternated between that and the repair work; there were a number of 'bumper car' moments, but the vehicles held up well; they were built rather sturdy. When the last cover was in place Dren had the boys inspect the power distribution panels in each building; cautioning them that they were dealing with even higher voltages now and safety was imperative. When everything checked out visually, the main breakers were set...and the whole complex came alive for the first time in centuries.

Circulating fans began turning, lights came on in all the rooms and halls. Some computers booted up and some didn't; the sudden noises startled Jaylee, she was standing right next to one of the computers in the main office, and she could feel the air coming out of the overhead ducts, "What are all those strange sounds Dren; is something wrong?" Dren couldn't resist laughing, "No Jaylee, nothing is wrong from the sound of things; in fact everything I can hear says it is all very 'right'. This facility is alive now, so would you organize everyone into search groups please? We need to know the purpose of all the floors under the surface. Have everyone go slowly and do not use the elevators at all; the machinery must be inspected carefully before you try those." The warning was not lost on Jaylee; she was well versed in the caution department by now. It was plain to Shane as well; he had walked up to her as Dren had spoken, "I heard all that Dren, and I'll get on it now; would you go with me Jaylee? We will need to report everything we find to Dren so he can figure all this out."

The search did take a long time; not just because they were large buildings with lots of floors underground, but because they were being very careful. Empty dead places had physical dangers of their own; but powered up 'live' building possessed numerous hidden ones as well, stupid mistakes could kill. Three of the four buildings were constructed for research of different kinds; the first one that Shane had entered was dedicated to solar power storage and distribution. All four of the buildings benefitted from that; the second one was focused on cryogenics and stasis development for long term space travel; the Great Book had referenced the early use of that technology. These buildings had dates that told Dren they were from two hundred years later...after Jay Taylor's journey into a new history.

The third building dealt exclusively with spacecraft propulsion and environmental control; this one Dren spent some time in. All three facilities were linked together through their computers and servers; so once Dren tapped into the first building, he was into all three after all the computers were turned on. He found that these people had gone past the basic ion propulsion that the first three colony ships had used; and they were well advanced in the use of both gravity engines and amplified light propulsion. Dren's own engines used high focus light amplification, so he could appreciate how far along the humans had advanced in just two hundred years; it wasn't easy to perfect such a system.

The fourth building was an enigma at first; it had no link to the other three and wasn't transmitting any signal on its own. There was only one word on the entry door; 'Repository', indicating a storage place. The door was not locked; it didn't even have one, so Jaylee and Shane walked it to wait for the others to catch up to them. The short hallway ended in one huge room, occupied with hundreds of desks; each one with a computer sitting on top. None of them were on, so Jaylee went to the closest one and pushed the power button. After a few seconds the screen lit up with the words 'Archive: No signal available.' When the team entered, they began the trip down stairs once more.

The first three levels were duplicates of the ground floor, with even more computers; but the fourth level was different...very different. Jaylee whispered to Dren, "This floor is very cool Dren, and it has many rows of clear cases with those shiny rocks you showed me once..."

Crystal Memory Modules! Dren didn't have to see them to deduce that this facility was meant solely to provide information; a lot of information. Dren's own crystal matrix could hold many millions of terabytes; perhaps this one would be similar, "Do the modules each have a power button Jaylee? If so, please turn them all on." The team spread out and began powering up all the modules; each one began to glow as they were turned on. As they did so, Dren could see in his mind the space open up for him, growing as each module came to life; this was a direct access storage system, and Dren could pick out any information instantly, just like his own matrix. This was more sophisticated than any computer on Earth; no waiting time at all.

This system had all the history of the Earth contained in it; every scrap that had ever been recorded, it must have taken decades to populate this matrix; every document, every speech, every book ever written. You name it and it was in here, 'if' it could be located it was there; including a personal space filled with the history of one man, complete with all his notes and thoughts. As Dren began browsing through the history, he was introduced to a true genius...
**Chapter 13**

Edward Thomas Delaney was born on April 17, 2517; from day one his eyes never stopped moving, taking in everything he could see. Once his young mind caught up with his eyes he analyzed everything he saw; what it did, how it worked and how it could be made even better. Edward experimented as soon as he got his hands on some tools; his penchant for experimenting escalated during High School, then exponentially after college. His inventions made him very rich; then his improvements made him still richer, disgustingly so. It sure disgusted Ed, for he started giving vast sums away to deserving institutions and companies who thought the same way he did; making people's lives better was job number one.

Edward Thomas Delaney was wealthy in a different way too; people loved him; so much so that he never had any trouble finding people to work with him or 'for' him. Ed had an army of workers ready to make any of his ideas into reality; that was how 'Redemption' was born. It was designed from scratch, and would be the largest starship yet built. Redemption would have the very best of everything; environmental systems, stasis pods for people, and the newest engines ever invented, light engines. Dren liked that revelation, it explained the three buildings around him; so he read on.

Edward had the right idea all along; it wasn't even a new idea, just perfecting a known theory, light has 'power', and a lot of it. He took that principle and looked for different ways to harness that enormous power. Ed knew a focused beam of light could burn things; every child with a magnifying glass knew it too, there were millions of burnt hands to prove that theory. The problem was that you didn't create a starship engine with a gigantic magnifying glass; but light also reacted to magnetic fields; ask any scientist. Ed began working on 'shaped magnetic fields'; and built the first focused light drive on a thirty foot long 'drone'. When launched from Earth orbit in a 'safe' vector, the drone disappeared from all scanners thirty minutes later. Not only was the engine a success, it was a darn sight faster than any ion drive in existence; construction on the Redemption sped up shortly thereafter; five years later the starship had eight 'Focused Light Star Drives' installed on her stern, and a viable atmosphere inside. People were actually living onboard to coax the hydroponic farms into existence. It turned out to be a good thing, for in the next few years it became apparent the Redemption would be a lifeboat for the human race; at least a small portion of them anyway. The Plague had arrived...

Dren read through the news articles from the time; the incident was on all the agencies. Climate change had reshaped the Earth for three hundred years; between the massive storms and floods all over the world, a full one third of the Earth's population had died. Sea levels had risen by over 150 feet, and the continents looked nothing like the old maps had portrayed them. As the levels slowly receded, the human race thought they had survived the worst; it was not to be so...

On August 8, 2579 a huge chunk of the continental shelf broke off and began breaking up; that was concerning enough, there were still numerous water bourn ships traveling the seas. A week later it became a crisis as people began dying from an unknown virus; scientists speculated that it had been entombed within the shelf ice for millions of years, possibly since before the age of dinosaurs. That didn't help much, for the health agencies of the Earth could not identify it or even treat it effectively. The plague just kept spreading slowly across the globe; and by February 16, 2585 it was on Edward Delaney's doorstep, most of what 'was' the US was infected now; mass graves and cremations occurred every day, 24 hours a day. Most of the people in Dallas and Fort Worth had abandoned their cities in a vain attempt to outrun the plague, but Edward had no doubt; the Earth was doomed and he wrote a final message into the matrix. It wasn't so much a confession as it was a plea to someone he would never know...

Jaylee and Shane were sitting at the two computers on the ground floor, trying to puzzle out this different operating system and start learning about their world, when Dren spoke softly, "I believe we have accomplished enough for now. Would you gather everyone please Shane? We should approach this with fresh eyes tomorrow. I have found a message that Master Walter should see; it affects our future. It took just under an hour to round up the 'crew' as a few of them were still practicing their driving skills out on the roadway; fifteen minutes later they landed and both Shane and Jaylee jogged the hundred yards to the church, totally forgetting the car sitting there.

Two jogged to the church, but four walked back; Master Walter brought Master Bradley back as well, there were just enough seats on the bridge as all the rest had gone back to their homes for some needed sleep after 5 days of hard work and excitement. Without fanfare Dren put the message up on the big screen for the four to read:

"If you are reading this and the plague has not touched you; then know that my hopes are with you. The human race has caused this catastrophe, that fact is no longer debatable. We ruined a beautiful world because of our arrogance and if you choose to stay, do not repeat our mistakes. Treat Mother Nature well, and she will treat you well. Our ship, the Redemption leaves in a few hours for NGC1197; our astronomers have identified a planet that has a good possibility for our new home. We never heard any communication from the first three colony ships, so I doubt they are still out there. Three more left Earth a hundred years ago, but again nothing from them either. So this trip is the last desperate hope to continue our race. Oddly, none of my people have ever caught the sickness; I cannot guess why...

There are only eleven of us left in the facility now; all the others have gone up to the ship. It feels sad that a ship designed to hold 25,000 people is about to leave Earth with only half that number onboard. We wouldn't have had that many, but the three military cutters in orbit all asked us to take their crews on for the journey; none of their ships could have even left the system. None of the crews show any symptoms so we are safe and have 411 more people to help save humanity.

Well, Andy is threatening to carry me out screaming and kicking if I don't go to the shuttle now; be well my brothers and sisters, may God watch over us all.

Edward Thomas Delaney"

Master Bradley spoke first, concerned over the most obvious possibility, "Dren, do you think it safe to continue here?" Dren responded quickly, "Master, I scanned the whole planet before we ever landed the first time; and I have scanned numerous times since we arrived. The database has a very clear bio-description of this virus, but it simply does not show up anywhere; I believe the virus died out long ago."

Jaylee piped up next, voicing the next obvious question, "Dren, can you find where they went? We need to find them..." Dren actually chuckled softly, My precious Jaylee, I know exactly where they were going; Edward was thoughtful enough to include a photo of the star field; Nadeen and I visited the planet orbiting that star once, and observed it. The world is lush and similar to Earth's in vegetation. I never mentioned it to you because it has a serious drawback for living there; it has large dangerous animals all over the planet and some are as large as I am. Now that I have learned the word Jaylee, there are Dinosaurs on that world. Our people would not have survived there with only poles and clubs. Edward Delaney's people may have been better equipped to deal with them. The world is on the other side of Prendaran space; out on the Rim; you will need to stock up all the freezers and refers before we go search"

Both Master Walter and Shane made it very clear that they wanted to go too; Dren laughed loudly, "Pack the food very carefully!" For the next four days every one of the people helped load Dren up with all the food they could spare; Dren took Shane's crew over to their first home and picked all the fruits and dates from there too. Finally all the freezers and refrigerators were full, and thanks to their bakers, most of the warmers were filled with special treats; there was excitement in the air, once everyone knew that the trio was going on an important search for relatives of the people. The entire congregation was there to see them off on the long journey. Everyone understood it would be over a three month trip this time, just to get there...

Late that evening, when they were well out of Earth's solar system and well into the void between stars, Shane and Master Walter retired to their cabins. While Jaylee and Dren were chatting, Dren thought of a dream he had a long time ago; an odd dream because it had just been a short series of words. Dren asked Jaylee about it; "Jaylee, I had a strange dream once, strange because it was during the dark times. It was only a low soft voice saying, 'Soon my son...soon you will live again...' It is odd because the time stamp on it matches the time just before we met. What do you think of that?"

Jaylee thought about it for a minute, before smiling right at his camera, "I think God spoke to you Dren; to prepare you for the task he set before you. God does not speak to people unless it is important; I believe he thought of you as important enough to speak to you in your dream. Think about it Dren, God believes in you."

Dren wasn't quite convinced though, "It is just so strange to me; I was built as a war ship, that was the only purpose I had; I just don't see how God could think me as worthy of anything. It is ironic though that Redemption chose a star so far away. At closest approach the estimated course I believe they took had them less than one light year away; if they had been just a little closer, they could have found your people and helped you. I think they arrived about two hundred years ago; they might not have survived all this time."

Jaylee was still smiling at Dren, but she wasn't going to let him get the last word on this one, "They didn't get close enough because they weren't supposed to Dren. Think about one thing; Expansion was supposed to reach Tau Ceti, but God knew we would all die if we did; so he set before us a test, a challenge to survive on a harsh world. It wasn't the punishment we thought it was; it was a test of our faith in God. Redemption had a similar test, but for a different reason; Edward Delaney said as much in his message. Earth still needed time to repair itself, and become whole again, and it could not do that with people living on it; so God sent another small group of them to another lush world as a reminder of what Earth could be. It was harsh also, because of these huge animals you spoke of; they would have to fight not the planet itself, but the living things on it to survive. I don't know how many people we will find there; but I believe we will find them. In both situations you are the key Dren; you were under the sand for 1000 years, feeling lost and thinking there was nothing for you anymore. Whatever reason God had, he chose you to learn that life is precious and important. I was despondent too Dren; I was questioning the very meaning of life; if it was worth all the struggles. That is why he sent a strong wind from the wrong direction one evening; to put us together, to learn just how precious life really is. You have learned that lesson Dren, we both have, and now you are set a new task to bring that message to the survivors of the Redemption. Master Walter, Shane and I are along to help you deliver the message that Earth is ready for them again."

Jaylee went to her cabin a few minutes later; deep thinking always made her tired, and this discussion had been very deep indeed. Before she bid Dren good night, the bridge lights glinted at Dren from the tiny cross she always wore now; it was just a momentary reflection, but to Dren it seemed like the little symbol winked at him. It puzzled him for a moment until he realized where Jaylee had gotten it from. Nadeen had never mentioned God; the Prendarans had no formal religion at all. She had talked about 'the other world' though, many times; was that simple thought the same as God? Perhaps; the only other place he had ever seen a cross was on the highest top of the church Master Walter had claimed for the people. Suddenly it made sense; the cross wasn't really a symbol of God or some other place, it was a symbol of what you felt down deep 'inside'. It was a belief; a reason to go on, to continue the struggle of life; Dren felt at peace with all of it now; to the empty bridge he said softly, "I understand now Nadeen; there is a better way..."

Dren didn't expect any reply, but he heard a soft whisper; like the wind he heard one night when he met a young girl. There had been no words that night, just a soft sigh; but the words were clear now, _"I knew you would..."_

***
**Authors Notes**

Okay, you got here again; so I owe you an explanation. If you read all the way through 'A Promise Remembered' I'm sure you already noticed it ain't my usual book. Truthfully, it began as a little spark in my head again; where my first book began as a single thought that had been residing in my head for 70 years (rent free by the way), this time I wasn't even thinking about writing another book. I was debating whether or not to even try finishing the one I was working on two months ago; see, that's what happens when you 'try' to write a story, it stalls or stops completely. So I looked at that little spark patiently waiting in my head and said, "Alright, show me what you have." This book is the result...

Just like before, I let the characters do the driving. They are the ones 'living it' after all, so why not. I do offer suggestions along the way, but I refuse to 'direct' it; no apology, that's just who I am...please remember, I don't 'expect' anyone to like the way I write.

I also won't apologize for including a good measure of religion into the story. I'm not afraid of religion; I am more afraid of the people who spend all their time interpreting religion just to justify what they do. In this story the background theme is a religion that was started for the best of reasons; but got twisted along the way into something different.

As always, if you liked this story then thank you for your support; if you didn't like it, I still thank you for at least trying. In any case, if you want to voice your thoughts in a more personal way than reviews, my email is:

mwb_8@yahoo.com

Thank you again for reading, Michael
