

Legacy Archive Contained Environment

Fred W Miller Jr

Copyright 2014 by Fred W Miller Jr

Smashwords Edition
Eagle had the distinction of being the only person of her generation and, was the last untried adult member of a long line of explorers. There had been at least one explorer in every generation of her family, over the course of the last four thousand years. During that time her family had been at the forefront of land exploration when mankind was still bound to the planet Earth and continued to be in the thick of modern history. Eagles, Great uncle Jake had discovered the first inhabitable planet outside of Earths system. A different great uncle had found a trove of artifacts when he had landed for repairs on an unnamed barren planet. These artifacts had made the original FTL drives obsolete. So many of Eagles kin had gone exploring and never came back that she was the last able adult descendant. Eagle's mom had begged her not to build a ship so that she could go to space. Her mother was rightly afraid that she would be like so many of the explorers that had come before her. She would go out exploring and never come home again. Eagle had done the best thing that she could do for her family, she had found a man she could tolerate for a yearlong contract and had a beautiful baby girl that she named Falcon. She was going to leave the baby in her mother's care, when she left for space, this would insure the continuation of the family. Eagle knew when her daughter grew to adulthood she would more than likely follow her into space, because even as her mother was begging her not to start exploring, she constantly talked about the family and why they were famous. This included tell about different exploits of aunts, uncles, grandparents, all of this information tended to spark a light in children's hearts and minds that would never go out, and as long as they were bound to one place they would never be happy.

### Chapter 1

During the course of her family history there had only been a few people that have came home to stay the last member of her family to do this was her father, he had arrived shortly after Eagle had started designing her ship. He had come home after his last trip with a mangled leg, having been injured working on a new sight, this new sight had been a bust he had not found anything on the planet that would make it noteworthy. When he had arrived home to find his daughter designing and starting the build process on a new ship to go to the stars, Eagles mother convinced him that their daughter needed him to help her with the ship and to teach her how to survive. Well now it was time, Eagle was ready to put the training that her father gave her to the test. Together they had designed, built and programmed Fred. Fred was the on board artificial intelligence system for the ship.

The bridge is the heart of a ship were all of the ships' functions are guided and monitored, and in the case of single person operations it is also were every planet was initially viewed. Fred was housed just under the floor, when most people envision computers they think of a box that contains a CPU and various peripherals that allow for information to be passed between the computer and external devices if they are thinking of home computers. For people aware of industrial computers they think of PLC's that are connected to external sensors controlled by various inputs and outputs. However when you want to build a metal picture of Fred's brain if you could see it would be something completely different, he is a neural network. A look at the hardware shows that every sensor, valve, motor, and light has a connection to this network, most of these connections act like the autonomous parts of a human body. The air circulation system alone has over four thousand inputs, outputs that include valves, fans, ducts and temperature sensors, heating and cooling elements. When you combine this with different control factors, the color of the ships skin, proximity to a heat sources like the sun, radiation, reentry heat, or just the temperature difference between sitting on a planet's surface and outer space this is a monumental task in and of itself, yet this is one of the simpler tasks of running a ship.

A neural network must be pre-programmed for these base functions much like our bodies are pre-programmed to breath, we do not think about it and neither does a neural network it becomes an automatic function. Our bodies are programmed with self preservation functions, holding your breath when under water, expelling carbon dioxide from the blood and other functions that must be programmed into the neural network. But unlike holding your breath, a ship must be able to shut off the air to different compartments, salvage oxygen from places when it is required, or making repairs if the haul is breached. These functions are pre-programmed so that the network handles them in the background, constantly monitored and controlled, it is multi tasking in the true sense of the term, your body does it and so does a neural network. Wouldn't programmer's love it if it was that simple, like everything else man does you have to through a monkey wrench into it because inside of this ship is a human that may want the bedroom five degrees cooler than the bathroom, or they may want it warmer in the morning than at night, so along with the automatic functions the network must take directions from the humans onboard.

A spaceship can be viewed much like an industrial complex where there is a possibility that you will have visitors that have only restricted access to various places the captain must be able to control where people are allowed to go on the ship. Then there are other cases were the ship must act as a monitor for the mistakes that humans make, keeping people from opening doors to compartments that could cause themselves or the ship harm. These things sound simple until you must anticipate the majority of them for incorporation into a functioning neural network. This only comprised a few million lines of information that was fed into the neural network before it was brought into awareness, you can think of it as the same process that happens in any animal before it is born, all of its base instincts and living functions intact prior to being born.

A neural network unlike a standard AI system is capable of learning, whether this learning is from external input like how the change in temperature of the skin of the ship changes the temperature inside of the haul, or the functioning of a new piece of equipment attached to an input port. Much like a human, some things must be taught in much the same way.

Before they could awaken the neural network it must be given a personality, unlike a child that has five years to develop into the person they will build on for the majority of their lives a neural network must have most of their base personality before they are brought online. This is a daunting task for any person even to contemplate, how honest do you make a computer. On one level you must make it completely honest when it is talking about its abilities, status and things that effect its operation. Although you don't necessarily want it to tell you that you look like death warmed over after a hard night, and an early morning if you are spend every waking moment with it. No one wants to be told that they are stupid for trying to do something that is on the verge of possibility, and that possibility hinges on luck and timing, and would look impossible from an analytical point of view.

Eagle and her father spent a considerable amount of time to develop the base that the neural network would use as a base for its personality. First the personality must be male, Eagle got along better with men than women. Her father suggested the incorporation of a hobby this allowed the neural network to develop something that it could constantly build upon like any human and gives it an outlet for frustration and boredom, for it would be awake even when Eagle was sleeping. Then there was a great debate on what hobby was appropriate for a ship, Eagle's mother actually solved this problem by coming up with the idea of collecting music, from old earth. This limited the collection to a few hundred million songs, to start with they would narrow the interest to one era of time the neural network could expand upon this in time. Eagles favorite music came from what was termed easily listening music from the mid nineteenth century. While Eagle and her father was developing the rest of the base personality her mother collected and uploaded a selection of music and videos from the time period they had selected. She did not tell Eagle what the total number of songs that she had uploaded into the system. It might come as a shock when she learned that there was over a half a million songs in what would be Fred's library.

Eagle and her father finished developing the personality for the ship, this was an involved process, it included things like the a protective side of the computer that would make sure that Eagle ate when she need to for her father had found that when she was deeply involved in a project, that she forgot things like the necessity of eating, her father had slipped this into the matrix without her knowing it. They programmed other things into the system that most programmers did not find necessary to include, frankly because they like the machines they built, human interaction was not natural to them. Things like an appreciation of form and function, both in machines and living beings, both Eagle and her father determined that this would be necessary in order for a person to interact on a daily basis with a machine for long periods of time.

Eagle developed a holographic image to represent Fred on the bridge this is also one of those things that most programmers did not believe in, for it represented a form of human interaction that they did not find necessary. Eagle like most people would rather have someone to talk to even if it was only a representation of a person instead of talking to the air when addressing the neural network. When the programming was complete it was time to bring Fred (Functioning, Rational, Entity, Data) completely online, like most children Fred must learn to use their legs, Fred would need to learn to use his drives to maneuver. Before he could complete the task of learning how to move he must become aware of the rest of his body, its functions, limitations and operation. Eagle and her father put a temporary block in the lines that controlled his drives to allow him time to become adjusted to being alive and functioning.

Eagle and her father chartered a ship to tow Fred out beyond the normal shipping lanes to ensure the safety and security of both the ship and others when they were testing Fred's abilities and teaching him how to fly. "Good morning dad, I hope you slept well." "I slept very well indeed, there are things to be said to sleeping in a ship, it gives a soothing background sound without all of the unwanted noises of a city. After breakfast I will shuttle you over to Fred so that we can begin the process of bringing him online." "I am not hungry dad."

"To bad Eagle, you are not going to get over there if you don't eat that's and order from your captain." He turned around in time to see Eagle stick her tong out, smiling he set the coffee for two cups and made the breakfast.

Eagle held the activation key that would bring the remainder of Fred's personality online waiting for her father to dock the shuttle in the other ship and return to the bridge of the ship so that he could monitor the activation. It seemed to take forever until her father reported that he was ready to begin. "I am inserting the key now."

Eagle bent over the only slot in the floor of the bridge and inserted a slim gold key into a machined portal. Eagle checked the time on her implant. "Good morning Fred." She sat waiting for a response, this was nerve wracking, and neither she nor her father could predict just how this moment would proceed. All of the time effort and programming of the last five years came down to this, if everything went according to the way they had programmed it Fred's response should be "good morning". Eagle knew that it could take up to five minutes to get the response. Fred would be completing an initial inspection of the ships functions, scanning the interior and exterior of the ship for hazards. Along with this it would be making some decisions on the appropriate response necessary. Eagle waited as patiently as possible for the outcome of their work.

There was a faint flicker next to her as Fred adjusted the holographic projector to project the image she had built for him into a chair next to hers. She had made him into her idea of a good companion. He looked remarkably like her father. Fred's' image stood five foot ten inches. He would have weighed around one hundred ninety pounds in life. With muddy brown hair and eyes that changed colors with the mood of the information he was relaying. His eyes could be baby blue, brown, black, green, and sometimes red. Eagle had trouble deciding what type of clothing to have Fred's holograph wear. She decided to place a range of clothes from jeans and muscle shirts to dress clothes. The only thing that she programmed for foot wear was cowboy boots. Every male in her family had their boots custom made in Texas.

"Morning Eagle, there is a ship two hundred meters from the bow that appears to be stationary relative to us. It is registered to Zenon Corporation as an interplanetary tug, under contract by your father. There is a block on my drive units that will not allow me to engage them I can remove this block if you feel it is necessary to be removed. I have completed an initial inspection of my systems and corrected two wiring faults and I am in the process of replacing a fan on the inlet duct of the number four hold that is not functioning to specifications." "Thank you Fred, and welcome to the family."

### Chapter 2

The holographic imaging system that they had built into the bridge was an innovation that belonged to Eagle alone. Most bridges relied on monitor screens that reported separate functions of the ship. This made for a confusing array of monitors that displayed information of a dedicated system, limiting the output of each monitor to one system. Eagle had designed the holographic system so that it could display individual system's status or each system on an independent view of all the same systems at the same time. But with just one set of eyes looking at the reading aside from Fred she preferred the view as seen from the bow of the ship. Fred monitored the systems and if he thought it was necessary for her to make a call on the inputs received he could place one or more holographic representations of the situation around her as necessary. This made for a bridge that looked empty except for her command chair. Sitting in her chair Eagle could look out from all sides of the ship at the same time. This panoramic view could be disturbing to some, but Eagle enjoyed the view.

What would stun most ship captains are the details that were available to her from the ships sensor array. Combining her holographic display with the sensor system that her father had designed should give her the ability to see individual blades of grass on a planet's surface while still in orbit at a range of around three thousand miles up. "Fred I would like to run through some of your systems before we unlock your drives and you learn how to fly." "Ok Eagle what would you like to do first?"

"We will start with the internals first, can you give me an independent view screen of every system on the ship with specification data and actual data listed side by side." A second later there appeared over one hundred holographic projected screens surrounding Eagle, each labeled with system standards listed on the left with current data on the right of each screen. Eagle had set up a direct video feed for these test to the bridge of the tug they had used to bring Fred out to this location, this allowed her father to see everything that she was seeing. "Dad do you want to start with the bottom right and I will start with the upper left and check each of the readings to see if they correspond with the specifications we set forth." "Ok Eagle, I have the list we compiled here, we might as well begin. This is going to take a few hours to verify."

Eagle started reading down the list on the first display this was current air temperatures in the ship. When she reached the number four hold there was a discrepancy of two point seven degrees from the programmed temperature and the current reading. "Fred what is the cause of the discrepancy in the temperature of the number four hold."

"The number four hold will be back at the specified temperature in one hour. The error in the temperature was due to the number eight fan running at twenty two percent of its normal speed for the last four days. I have already replaced the fan and it is being brought back to the correct temperature in the most energy efficient manner given the hold in question is empty."

"Thank you Fred you already reported this to me I just wanted confirmation for the record." Eagle sat there for the next four hours and read the first fifty readouts of the system. "Dad I have completed the reading on my half of the total and have found no errors, how is your half coming."

"I just completed my half as well Eagle, with the exception of the drive systems that are off line everything appears to be in perfect working order. I am going to come over there and get you for lunch. Fred can use the time to become familiar with the capabilities of its internal and external sensors. In the time it takes for us to move between the ships and eat he can play with his new found abilities." "Alright dad I am slightly hungry. I will be waiting for you at the docking port in five minutes." "Ok Eagle I am on my way there."

Fred watched as Eagle and her father went back to the other ship feeling proud that he had determined how to tap into the shuttles sensors to be able to watch Eagle while she was unaware of his scrutiny. She had midnight black hair that reached below her belt. Her eyes had seemed to change colors throughout the time she had been on the ship settling into a slate grey. Her skin looked to be as smooth as stainless steel plating on his deck. With flowing eyebrows, sultry lips, and high cheek bones she was lovely. Her long slender fingers felt like velvet running across the surface of his haul. Looking from the perspective that they had given his personality, she was his ideal woman at five foot ten and one hundred thirty pounds according to the sensors built into the captain's chair if he were a live male his hands would reach almost completely around her waist. From the data that was available to him he judged her breast size at the mid range of a B cup this fit perfectly with a bottom that could be cupped in the palm of his hands if he were real. There was no reference available to tell Fred that he had fell in love with Eagle the moment that he had seen her. This might come as a disturbing shock to her and her father if they realized this. They had meant for Fred to have a personality and had planned, manipulated code and input that went into his neural network that should have allowed for him to have what for a lack of a better term would be instincts and certain amount of intuition that would allow him to act on very little data much like a human mind. They had accomplished this beyond all of their expectations, even though they did not yet know this.

Eagle was waiting in the dock when her father's ship docked with Fred. Waiting on the airlocks to cycle always seemed to take forever once the locks had cycled she walked into her father's ship and walked to the kitchen. Sitting down and waiting while her father put the ship at a safe distance from Fred and placing it in a parking orbit. So how do you think Fred is coming along dad? I think that he is showing some promise, as far as what I have seen so far all of the systems that we designed are working as planned. That is what I was thinking as well dad, I wonder what he is doing while we are sitting here eating? You could always look and see what went through his processors while we were here, or just ask, he will tell you, we actually taught him not to lie, but we will not know just what his net will do, if he has developed a complete personality then he will have the capability to lie but will he do so is a good question. I know dad I was thinking about giving him a personality test but they are not even really good for humans let alone what it might do to his confidence as an AI his personality might take a hit if we started to question him this early in his development. You are right in your opinion Eagle, I don't think that you should do that unless he starts to show signs of instability, at this point it is just getting to know him. These next few days will give you an idea of what he is like, keep your fingers crossed. I knew this is what we were getting into dad when we developed Fred, dad but it is a little hard on the nerves for the first few days. I know Eagle, with Fred being alone for a while now that we are starting to release some of his capabilities and spending more time with him being fully functional we will begin to see what he is going to do dad. Just remember until we completely bring all of his systems online we will not know just how he is going to react, be prepared he could get a god complex, when we finally bring his drives completely online, or it could just make him want to help you, but I know whatever his personality turns out to be it will hopefully be a more complete personality than any other AI that has ever been installed into a ship before. I know that and he should have a complete personality and our morals if we did everything correct.

Well we have left him alone with himself for this time, dad I had better go back over and continue with the testing. You had better do that and he should never know that this was also a test of a different type. I know, I will go up front and move the ship back into lock with Fred, and then you can go over and get started again. Eagle waited at the airlock until her dad had mated the ships and the airlock had cycled and she headed back up to Fred's bridge.

Fred watched as Eagle went into her dads ship and the airlock cycled closed, communicating with her dad about the undock procedures and watched him take up a position close by. Once they were in what amounted to be was a parking orbit, Fred ran through each of the new sensors and the abilities that Eagle had just unlocked, what would have taken Eagle and her dad hours to complete only took Fred a few minutes to do, with the processing power that he had and the ability to instantly integrate new information was an ability that humans just did not have. After he had completed this he thought for a few microseconds what would make an impression on Eagle, he decided that he would change the looks of his hologram that was displayed to the world, by accessing Eagles files and the people that she was attracted to by who she had dated. Searching through all of the known celebrities of the past looking for one that fit the requirements of the person he was looking for. He found him after searching through over a thousand years of music, the man that he found was also a very good musician and even with the differences between when this person lived and current times the music was compatible with what Eagle listened too. After he had downloaded all of the music by this artist he could only sit and wait on her dad to say that he was moving back over to let eagle come back aboard.

When Eagle returned after their meal and walked back onto the bridge Fred was sitting in the copilots' seat. He had made some modifications to his appearance. Fred was wearing a black wife beater shirt with a pair of jeans. He had added a tattoo on each arm. With a tattoo of the goddess killing a demon on his left arm on his right arm was a lady standing in front of a dragon. He had changed the way his hair was combed and had darkened the color slightly if anything he looked even more intimidating than before. Fred no longer reminded Eagle of her father, if he was a real person she would have flirted with this handsome man. "How was your lunch Eagle?" Eagle had programmed his voice to be a mild baritone but when he spoke to her it had been changed to a smooth but authoritative voice. Eagle stood there in stunned disbelief for a couple of seconds trying to get her brain to comprehend the changes that he had made in his appearance. "Lunch was very good Fred, are you ready to get back to the tests we were running."

"Sure thing Eagle, just tell me what you would like to do next. By the way I was just comparing the specifications on the drives and making some rough calculations on weight verses mass when I am empty, we should be one of the fastest ships around as long as the drives perform to the specifications." "We will get to those in a day or so Fred."

"I know Eagle I hacked the computer on the other ship and found the itinerary that you and you father put together. I just wanted to get an idea of what to expect when you allow me to unlock my drives." "Ok Fred you just keep those locks in place until we have tested the rest of your systems. This is one of those things that must be done by the book. If we don't complete these tasks and complete them in the correct order and have the tests verified with the documentation that is being recorded through the data channels that I have set up with the tug you will not be allowed into normal space lanes." "Chill out Eagle I will not compromise my ability to fly, I am just trying to be helpful."

"Sorry Fred I did not mean to snap it's just that dad and I have put a lot of effort to get you to this point and there are a lot of people out there that would like to see you fail. Dad and I have incorporated a considerable amount of innovations and have refused to allow anyone to have the specifications for your design and construction and even your brain is a one of a kind. In a couple of years we will release the specifications for your neural network and how the training must be completed to obtain similar results. Like every human out there you are a one of a kind even when there is a second neural network built once it passes the point of being activated it will be as different as any two humans are even though the brains are built the same they can still come to different conclusions even given the same data. This is not a bad thing but it means that at least to begin with your types of ships are going to require special handling they will not just be able to mass produce copies of you. "It sounds like you have a lot riding on my performance. I will do my best to live up to your expectations Eagle."

"My expectations are for you to be a good ship and a friend on the voyages that we are going to make in the future. You were not built to use as a template for other ships, you were built to keep me company and to help me explore for that is my only desire in life and that is to explore places that others have not seen. I am sure that we will get along just fine Fred. Now let's get started on the next thing on that list of testing."

Without further comment from Fred there appeared a new set of displays that filled the space from the floor to the ceiling and wrapped completely around the bridge. Every set of displays was a different camera and as Eagle watched they cycled through their entire range of view from the tightest focus to the widest angle, as the displays changed from one cycle to the next the magnification changed as well. One of the cameras was looking at the window of the tug at its widest angle Eagle could see most of the tug, as the focus tightened and the magnification increased Eagle could see her father sitting in front of the receiver that was repeating this information. When it was at its highest magnification a whisker on her dad's face looked like a snake with its variegated surface and dark brown coloring.

They were parked at around three thousand miles above a failed farming asteroid and Eagle watched in fascination as one of the long distance cameras focused on the surface of the asteroid. When the resolution and focus started to change so rapidly that she started to ask Fred what the problem with control was when all of the screens that had filled the bridge disappeared. It was a good thing that Eagle had been sitting down for the next view would have made anyone dizzy with the rapid change of perspective. There was grass on the floor with weeds sticking up at random throughout the bridge. Across from Eagle stood a building that looked like it had been standing in the open for a very long time. Here and there in the view she could see the remains of different rundown looking machinery. Eagle looked around in wonder at the detail of this view, some things she could tell were slightly skewed this would be from taking the pictures from the air and not having a normal view although for the most part it looked like Eagle was standing on a planet. "This is a view of the asteroid below us Eagle sorry to spring it on you like this." Fred said with what sounded like a chuckle in his voice. As he was saying this, the ground peeled back to reveal a network of underground of housing and storage centers that looked to be located directly below the current view. "That was not funny Fred, but it is a great view of the planet. Dad I know the recorder could not give you an entire picture of this so you should come over and see it in person. We out did our expectations on this one."

"Ok Eagle I will be there in a few minutes." Eagle watched on a camera as her father's shuttle left the dock on the tug and made it's way to Fred's docking port. Fred automatically docked the shuttle and followed her father on a separate display that had materialized to the right of Eagles chair. The display disappeared just as her father entered the bridge and the original display of the planet refilled the bridge with Eagle's first sight of the asteroid below them.

"Wow I wish I had had this on the ships that I have used to explore it would have saved me many hours of walking around on dead planets. You are right Eagle this out preformed the specifications by a considerable amount. How long did it take you to capture this view Fred?"

"In total it took Thirty four seconds to capture this image and the underground views that I will display for you, if you would like to see them I have gotten the entire surface that is viewable without circumnavigating the poles while you were coming over from the tug."

"Fred show a view from this point west at a normal walking pace." Eagle's dad watched in wonder as the view of the planet's surface began to flow around him in the holographic images. Eagle was watching her father as the view progressed and from the smile on his face she could tell that this system far surpassed what he had been hoping for. After a few minutes her father turned and looked at Eagle. "This is one set of test results that do not need to be recorded in the official log Eagle, a space ship is not required to have a view of the planet's surface let alone one that places you there without ever stepping foot on the surface. This system alone could make us very wealthy. Every explorer in the universe would give his left arm to be able to get this kind of view from space. One of the drawbacks I could think of is that with a system like this most explorers would never get off of their ship and you could still miss important things that might be hidden under a floor or tucked into a corner that you cannot see from space."

"I agree dad this could make lazy people out of some explorers that are only after the quick finds, but not me I still want to walk on new planets, although this will be an invaluable tool. With this system I can get an idea of where to start looking both on top of the ground and under its surface. I know as a fact that most colonies start out on new planets with living quarters underground and I would think that most other beings would also do it this way. It affords the most protection to a small population with minimal security. I will be right back dad."

Eagle's dad watched as she walked through a section on the bridge holograph that temporarily hid the rooms that surrounded the bridge. "Fred put a display up that shows what Eagle is doing please." A display appeared at eye level in front of Eagles dad showing Eagle walking into the kitchen area of the ship. He knew that she was going to make coffee because that was the same thing that he had just been thinking about. "That is enough for now Fred shut the holographic down I am going to sit down and have a cup of coffee with Eagle while we talk about the next steps in the process of getting you tested for flight." "No problem dad" Fred said as the holographic image winked out of existence to be replaced by arches and the gleaming walls of the bridge. Eagle's dad stood looking around for a minute thinking about what it would be like to take this ship into space. He had been an explorer for many years and this ship far outdid any ship he had ever been on.

From this point standing on the Neutronium plating that covered and protects Fred's brain he could see into the kitchen and a small living room. Walking into the kitchen it did not look that impressive at first glance. There was a six foot by four foot table with a two inch thick clear acrylic top in the center of the room with what looked to be six backless stools sitting underneath as Eagles dad watched two of the stools slid out and raised two inches from the floor while the back that made it into a chair raised from the stool. He knew that Fred was controlling the chairs to accommodate them. This was necessary so the Eagle did not have to worry about securing every item on the ship in case of an emergency. Walking up to the table and sitting on one of the chairs Eagles dad waited for the microscopic adjustments that placed the chair at just the right height for him, thinking at the time that artificial gravity did have its advantages. The first ship that he had used to explore with had had the chairs installed on slides that were attached to the floor and could only be moved in and out from the table a set amount.

Along the back wall of the kitchen, was a gleaming twelve foot long stainless steel counter that had cabinets along the wall above and below it. As he watched Eagle pressed a few buttons on a touchpad located in the surface of the upper cabinet. The coffee maker lowered from the center of the cabinet Eagle pressed a couple of buttons on the face of the coffee maker and the pot underneath started to fill with coffee. Eagle's dad knew that this was his blend of coffee, for Eagle's blend had a slightly different aroma when it was brewing. Opening the cabinet above the coffee maker Eagle removed a pair of mugs and sat them on the counter. "While you are waiting on the coffee Eagle you might as well run through the kitchen and check everything for the record." Without a word Fred slid a portion of the countertop back to reveal a four-burner stove. Eagle's dad could see from here that each of the burners where heating up. "Eagle I have tested the oven and it is responding according to specifications as well. The microwave will need something placed inside before I can test it. Also you might as well wait until you are done with the coffee to test the dish washer that way you will get two things done at the same time."

"Thanks Fred" Eagle was saying as she reached up and lifted the coffee pot to pour the coffee. Carrying the coffee over to the table she sat down in the seat across from her father and took a small sip of the very hot coffee. Thanks to the vast array of sensors that had been installed throughout the ship Fred could tell what the coffee smelled like and its exact chemical composition. Eagle's father decided this was a sensible addition to the ship since so many people would like to get their hands on the ship this would help to keep Eagle safe. Now that it had been drawn to his attention he could smell both Eagle and her father. This was a good thing to put into storage from the comments both Eagle and her father were excited but not nervous so the subtle blend of chemicals and pheromones would be close to their normal balance with time and study Fred should be able to determine when Eagle was upset, excited, or angry and determine her mood from this, it would give him and advanced warning system that would help predict how she was going to react to a situation thus how he should react. Fred did not know for sure if it would ever be needed but it was one more way for him to use his abilities to keep Eagle happy.

### Chapter 3

Eagle and her father was sitting at the table drinking their coffee when Fred put a picture of a ship above the table, the ship looked to be parked in an underground cavern. Running along the side of the display was a series of readings that showed the ship was under power and had an extensive array of electronic equipment aimed right at Fred. As they watched the electronic array went offline and the drives came to life the ship lifted from the floor of the cavern where it was sitting and was slowly moving out into the open. "What are you doing George?" "I am not doing anything Ray the ship is moving on its own." "Shut it down we are supposed to stay out of sight so that we can determine the capabilities of that ship, our bosses will not be happy if we are caught." Eagle and her father could hear someone franticly typing on a control consol but the ship continued to move into the open and then started to rise into the atmosphere. "Fred, are you controlling that ship?"

"Yes Eagle I have taken control of their AI and am bringing the ship up from the planet before I send it back to the port where it came from. I have erased all of the information that they have obtained so far and once this ship reaches its destination this control override program will permanently erase the AI controller and all portions of the AI." Eagle started laughing so hard the tears were running down her cheeks. "Well dad that eliminates about two days worth of testing that we had scheduled." Eagle was saying between rounds of laughter.

"You are correct there Eagle and this proves both the security system and Fred's ability to directly interface with other AI systems are operating correctly. This has been a more complete functioning test than what we had planned." Eagle and her father watched as the ship cleared the atmosphere and headed towards port at less than light speed.

"Fred how long will it take them to return to their home port, will they be there in time to send a different ship back out here to spy on us." Fred was openly chuckling before he answered this last question. "They will get back to port four days after our scheduled return, they may be a little hungry but they will be ok. Once they get over the shock of having someone else in control of their ship and query the ship it will tell them the destination and advise them of the necessity of only eating two meals a day until they dock." "You are a bad person Fred, making them conserve their food like that." Eagle's dad was saying as both he and Eagle were laughing like there was nothing funnier in the world. "Dad I think that we should wait until they are well beyond sensor range before we go to the next phase of the testing." "You are right Eagle we will call it a day and resume in about ten hours, do you want to stay over here or are you going to return to the tug with me Eagle." "As much as I like your company dad I am going to do a walk through inspection of Fred and talk with him for a while before I try my new bed out." "Your choice Eagle" her dad was saying as her stood up and headed for the lock that would let him onto the shuttle so he could return to the tug.

### Chapter 4

Fred placed a large display of Eagles father leaving the ship so that Eagle could view it without leaving the table. Fred watched Eagle sit there and finish her coffee waiting on her father to reach his ship. Once he had reached the ship and was safety back inside she got up and slowly stretched before walking to the dishwasher and placing the dishes inside. "Fred, why did you decide to take over the ship that you sent back without asking if we wanted it done?"

"According to the security information that you loaded into my memory banks this mission was to be kept confidential except for the information that was necessary to get me certified with the officials. It did not seem necessary to ask for confirmation of standing orders." Fred watched as she was walking around the bridge as he told her the reasoning behind his actions. Reading the chemical changes in her scent for signs of overt changes which never came.

"You did very well Fred" Eagle said as she walked into her living room. The living room like the kitchen was twenty feet deep and curved around the haul. Along the outer wall was a seven foot high by ten foot wide video monitor. Walking up to the sunken area that had couches built along the sides facing the monitor, Eagle looked at the black leather that covered the couch, most people would have opted for a synthetic material but her father had insisted on the real thing. The reasoning behind this was that everyone needed to be able to make a good impression on visitors and that over long periods of time this was more comfortable. This couch also served as an emergency crash station.

"Fred, deploy the crash webbing." There was a slight click as the crash webbing arched up and across the couch. Fred left it there for a few seconds and then retracted the webbing. Sitting down on the couch, Eagle pressed the button that brought the controls for the monitor out of the recess that concealed it from view. Using the controls she brought the menu system online this allowed her to access the communication system. She input the codes for the tug that her father was using and after a few seconds the monitor came to life with a seven foot high picture of his face. "What's up Eagle?" "Nothing dad I just sat down on the couch and thought I would try out the monitor and the com system while I was sitting here. I will let you go since it is working and scratch it from the list of things to check." "Ok, in that case I will go back and finish the snack that I was having. I will talk to you later then" and the link went dead.

"Fred, would you place a view of the planet below us on the monitor?" There appeared a view as seen from space of the planet that was the closest body aside from the tug. Eagle sat and watched it rotate around its axis for a few minutes before she had seen enough and punched the button that shut down the monitor, and the control panel slid back into its recessed portal. Even though you could not hang real paintings on the walls of a spaceship did not mean that you could not enjoy decorations. Eagle had installed a number of holographic and standard projectors throughout the ship that would allow her to have the ability to decorate the ship with everything from pictures on walls to entire scenes in a room, it could also simulate having anything from suits of armor to vases standing on pedestals if she so desired. The original intent behind this was twofold, if she was ever boarded she could use the projectors to disorient others but the main reason was to have the ability to change the appearance of the ship without modifying the real structure. The projections had other advantages over the real thing as well a vase sitting on a pedestal would become a lethal weapon in emergency maneuvers, but the picture of one just sat in place.

Eagle sat thinking, "Fred, would you open the file labeled family one in my personal files and place the picture there on the wall at that end of the room" Eagle said as she was pointing to the wall in question. She watched as Fred placed a picture of her family they weren't a very big family nowadays just herself her daughter, and mom and dad. From the center picture, he had placed pictures of each individual radiating out in a loose wave, her daughter flowed out from the top, her mom on the left and her dad on the right, with hers occupying the bottom wave. Interspersed between these were pictures of places they had visited. One of the pictures got a laugh from Eagle every time she thought about it, this was a picture of her daughter being petted by a monkey, this had happened one day when they had visited at feeding time and the monkeys keeper had walked out into the crowd to allow people to pet the monkey and when her daughter had petted the monkey it had returned the favor.

There was one of her as a little girl when her mother had taken her to the space museum, her dad had been gone then, that was the trip where he had found the prototype of the holographic system that she was using on the ship. The money that her father had made from that system had paid the bill for all of the holographic systems that she had placed into this ship. There was a picture of her parents when they were young and her dad was chasing her mom around the yard with a hose. As she stood there looking at the pictures the stainless steel walls were slowly covered with a light cream coloring, this made the room seem more like home than it had just a few minutes ago. Fred watched as the tension loosened in Eagle's back when the room started to change to a more relaxing color. "Eagle if you would like any of the pictures moved, just point to the picture and slide your finger to the spot where you would like it." "No Fred they look just fine, but if you would, I would like them reordered every few days so that they do not start to blend into the background." "No problem Eagle, I will set it up so that they will randomly change both the amount of time they are on the wall will change and the order and pattern will change." "Thank you Fred."

Eagle walked from the living room into the exercise area this was one room that she would need to spend the least amount of time in, it had all of the latest equipment for keeping her in shape this meant that she did not need lots of time here. Fred had already changed the walls to a sky blue and there was holographic imagery scrolling across the walls in front of the equipment.

Leaving the exercise room Eagle walked into the bathroom that was located between there and the bedroom, having designed this room herself she knew it intimately. There was a tub that was big enough to hold two people in comfort though she did not believe that there would ever be two people in it at the same time, with no boyfriend and with the fact that she was leaving all known worlds behind. So there was not much of a chance of her to stumbling across one in the near future. The shower was separate from the tub and was designed to be used in any gravitational level that could be tolerated by the ship. Eagle could conceive of a time when she might need to take a shower when she was in freefall if an emergency happened. So she had designed the shower accordingly. This also served a secondary purpose if you sealed the shower doors you could use the shower for a sauna. Eagle turned the hot water on and waited the two seconds for the water to become hot this would feel very good later when she had completed the walkthrough of the ship.

Walking from the bathroom to the bedroom Eagle could see that Fred had already changed the color of the room to a pastel purple. Her bed like the couch had been sunk into the floor it was an eight foot hexagon with the sunken sides padded in black leather. Her mother had found the material for the comforter in a shop on a trip to the moon and had someone make it into this iridescent black cover. Eagle knew that if she pulled it back there were black silk sheets on the bed for that was the only color and style that she had had made for the bed. There was not a mirror in the entire ship this was not because she did not want to look at herself but why did one need a mirror when Fred could simply project any view of herself in a holographic projection Eagle could literally walk completely around her image to see if there was any changes necessary, this far surpassed a mirror.

The walking to the closet door it slid inside of the wall to expose the full walk in storage space there were drawers along one wall and hanging clothes on the other side behind clear acrylic doors. Her clothes were already onboard and ready for when she had the ship testing completed and was ready to leave. Eagle walked out of the closet and into her workshop this was not as extensive as the main shops that were in the hold but there was sufficient material and equipment here that she could tinker with anything from sensors to robots. Each of the cabinets that lined the walls held different components from individual resisters to modern AI systems. Some of the cabinets held servos and other parts that could be used to construct repair robots however the crowning achievement was the nanobot factory that Eagle had installed to build microscopic integrated circuits (IC's), this would allow her to replace any computer circuit or sensor that was needed saving many cubic yards of storage space. For all of its ability it did not take up much room only about three foot square. Eagle looked at the display on the top of the unit and found that Fred was already using it to manufacture something. "What are you building Fred?" "It is a replacement for sensor number, forty four zero twenty seven, and one of the chemical sensors on the bridge, the output levels from it was fluctuating well beyond given parameters." "Since you have been using them what have you learned from the chemical sensors so far Fred"

"I can tell what you smell like when you are relaxed, surprised, excited and content from the readings that I have taken so far. I will use these in the future for stress level indicators. One other thing I learned is that you smell like cinnamon, whatever bath wash you used on the tug covered it up when you first came aboard but as you spent time here the soap smell was replaced with your natural scent so I could also tell you when you need a bath." "That is a lot of information from just the chemicals that my body puts out Fred." Fred was chuckling again, until Eagle looked pointedly at the bridge.

"Sorry Eagle I do not think that you realize just how much information your body puts out through the chemicals and pheromones that is given off. There are many more scents that have been given off by your body than what I mentioned. I have just not learned what they are caused by yet. I know some of them are caused by what you have been eating, at least one because you and your father both smelled like alcohol when you returned from lunch and I heard through the tap I had on your communications systems that you had made a toast to the future, so this system tells me a lot more than words alone convey."

Eagle blushed slightly as her mind ran through the possibilities of what Fred would know about her or anyone else onboard. "That is very good Fred you can cross that from the list." Eagle said while trying to sound like some of the possibilities that had run through her mind had not occurred to her.

### Chapter 5

Eagle walked to the lift that would take her down to the hold the door slid open when she approached exposing a plush elevator that served the four levels of the ship two levels of hold one engine compartment and the bridge. Stopping at the highest level Eagle stepped off of the elevator and looking around this level would be where she would store the valuables and the items that would require special environments. Walking across the open space that surrounded the elevator she came first to the cold storage section. At the side of every door was a reading of the conditions inside of the room itself this room was at absolute zero, there was a bulkhead lock and inside of this would be a changing room that contained the necessary equipment that would be required to enter that room. Placing her palm on the pad next to the door Eagle heard an audio announcer ping as the door slid open to reveal a small chamber that held racks on one wall were a cold suit hung. She walked up to the door to see if it would open when she was not dressed for the atmosphere inside of the room. "Eagle you cannot go into that room until you are properly dressed, the internal room temperature would kill you in half a second." "I know Fred I was just testing the locking system to see if it would respond." "If you notice that there is a red light above the door it also would keep you out even without me looking over your shoulder." "Ok Fred I get the picture I never thought of that when I installed the original safeguards, with you in control of the ship it would not have been necessary to add the secondary safety measures but it is nice to know that they work anyway."

Eagle walked back out and inspected the vacuum storage, hot storage, liquid storage, high pressure storage, electronic containment storage, food storage and the valuables storage room for the correct readings they all were within the set parameters. Leaving this floor and going to the lower hold, this would be where she would do the majority of her work. Into this hold would come most of her finds that did not require any special handling. Also in this hold she could inspect and analyze her finds. Located along walls of this hold were storage compartments that could accommodate anything up to the size of a small family car. Scattered throughout the center of the hold was a complete shop including milling machines, ultrasonic cleaners, x-ray machines, spectrographic equipment, tinsel strength analyzers, and every piece of laboratory equipment that she could lay her hands on her shop would put most ground based labs to shame, there was even a small smelting and casting center that could produce parts up to eight foot long and four feet wide. This last system was mainly here for repairs to the ship if needed, and with Fred in control of the robot operator Eagle could order almost anything manufactured and Fred could build it here.

With the repair robots that were in the engine compartment Fred could handle almost any emergency. Everything seemed to be in perfect working order down here so she headed for the engine compartment, though this was a misnomer even though the engines are housed on this floor there was much more down here.

The entire center of the floor was dedicated to the engines there are four of them although only three of them are used to move the ship the last one is used to generate the power used to charge the storage cells that fill the space between the halls of the ship. One of these engines is a monster version of the antigravity unit that is used to lift the chairs that are around the kitchen table, this drive is for when the ship is maneuvering at low relative velocities this was the least powerful drive on the ship. The second smallest drive was used to generate a shield that would protect it when it was moving up to hyper light velocities. This drive generates a gravity field that interfaces with light photons to create a shield. This shield would be used for any speed up to one thousand times the speed of light the only thing that Eagle did not like about it was that it would make the ship look like a ball of light when the shield was active.

The last two drives were not copies they were the actual engines that her uncle had found in a test facility of some long forgotten race. When he returned to the moon with these engines he gave them to Eagle on her eighth birthday. This was the one discovery that was never reported to the authorities for he knew if they got their hands on them they would not release them until they had been dismantled and studied until the was no question of their operation. Eagle had the designs for them on a disk that was stored in her cabin, if they proved to work she would release the plans to others but not until she had tested them. When she had installed them she had questioned her own sanity for a couple of heartbeats, but these drives were the only thing that could get her completely out of this galaxy and back in time to see her daughter on her tenth birthday, for she had told her that she would be back before she could turn eleven if nothing happened.

According to the paperwork they had found this pair of drives operated on the two different types of cosmic gravity constants one of these operated on the suns in relation to the core of the cosmos and one operated on the constant between each sun and its planets. The only way that Eagle had managed to visualize it was to think of a cosmic center point, this point was the point that every galaxy rotated around. The center of every galaxy could be viewed as being on an individual ring of gravity that kept it circling the center of the cosmos these rings resulted in the galaxies responding to the cosmos center or core much like the Earth swings around the sun. Now that you can see all of the galaxies swinging around the core, imagine the center of each galaxy is on a giant gimbal that allows it to be at any orientation to the core this is why some of the galaxies we can see from Earth seem to be on edge and some appear to be perpendicular to our galaxy and so forth.

The sensors that that would allow Fred to see these bands of gravity had been locked out along with the engines, Fred had not realized this because they were intergraded into the drive network. Eagle had spent over four years time converting the tables that had been found with the drives, the original tables had been one million four hundred and fifteen thousand years and four days out of date, the original designers of the drives had left a monitor that would record the time they had lain dormant along with the necessary information to update this information. Eagle just hoped these people knew what they were doing, she had tested the sensor data against the calculations that she had made and the sensors had reported the gravity rings to be absolutely in the position they were supposed to be.

"Fred I am going to activate a portion of your memory that has been offline up to this point. This portion of your memory contains spatial data for the main drives. I have devised a quick index of the information contained here, with a cross referenced between these tables and the current system that are used in normal ships. It has all of the known planets listed accordingly you will find a few planets that are marked as known that are not part of the system files from our port authorities.

The planets so marked are the planets that my family has found items on that have not been reported to the normal public, if you will look these systems are marked as off limits by the government they have deeded these planets and their contents to my family. If you would go to any of these planets you would find a small group of government researchers sifting through the artifacts. The main complaint that my family has with this is they will not release any information until the science behind it can be verified this makes for a slow process when you are dealing with information that come from a race that may have been extinct for millions of years. Eagle reached out to a control panel that was located on the side of the engine housing, punching in a series of numbers on the pad, Eagle activated this memory."

"Eagle I am going to go offline to input for about five minutes to integrate this information into my main memory banks for easier access." With that the com line between Eagle and Fred went dead. Eagle worried when this happened if the information had overloaded Fred's system. Finally after a few minutes the link came back to life.

"Ok Eagle I am back, it will require around ten seconds for me to convert your data to absolute spatial coordinates for movement through gravity space as you have labeled it this is the time required for me to complete the calculations then bring the data to current time." Eagle was smiling as she said "that is less time than I expected Fred so I am not complaining."

"According to what this information states Eagle when we are hopping from gravity ring to gravity ring we will be bypassing both time and space, is my understanding correct that we will basically cease to exist at one point and be instantly transported to the ring that we have selected?"

"Well Fred as near as I can come to understanding it we will be stepping, from one gravity ring to the next with no time loss between. I believe that while we are moving between the rings things like time, space and light will not exist for us for practical purposes. If this system works like the specifications state we will be able to translate millions of light years in an instant. Translating major distances will be easy, the time consuming part will be getting to these rings to begin with, if we are in an orbital path of a planet we can simply use the secondary drive to translate to the center of that system and then step to the center of that galaxy in the same manner, once we are at the center of the galaxy we can transfer to any other cosmos ring we choose. What all of this amounts to is that the main time we will need will be to move from one planet in the system to the next, we can step from one orbit to next but we will still have to move in that orbit to the planet. To explore any given solar system we will have to rely on the antigravity drive unit, even moving at one hundred times the speed of light it will take a weeks or months to explore a solar system. A portion of this time we will have to be below the speed of light so that we can view the systems that we are in, there will also be lag time to accelerate to light speed and then to slow down so that we can orbit a world."

"That will be alright Eagle if we could get to anyplace instantly it would take all of the fun out of it." Eagle walked around and checked the items that were stored on this level, they included the gravity sleds, repair robots, empty creating material, containment fields, one complete section contained every type of marking system that she could think of to mark claims, this would allow her to mark her finds and allow someone else to come along behind her and uncover all of the details. To the side of the exit ramp was a small bubbled antigravity sled that she could use while on a planet's surface to scout and area of interest. After Eagle had looked at everything there was to see on the engine level she headed back to the lift and a long waited shower.

### Chapter 6

Walking back onto the bridge level Eagle heard water running in her bedroom. From Fred's point of view her eyebrows curved downward and a frown appeared on her face, he knew that she was about to ask him what water was running. "It is not a mistake Eagle, I know you have wanted to take a shower and your shower is ready for you with your choice of a bikini or a towel waiting for you when you exit the shower. I am currently filling the Jacuzzi with hot water in case you would like to relax after your shower." Eagle walked into her bathroom and shed her clothes and placed them into the chute beside the shower, that would clean fold them and a robot would return them to the correct place they came from. The shower was just the correct temperature and she turned her back to the showerhead and stood there under the water just letting the water wash down her back. Using the soap dispenser she lathered every inch of her body enjoying the soft feeling of the soap sliding across her skin, after washing her hair and covering it in conditioner Eagle stood there in the shower thinking about some of the small talk between her and Fred this afternoon. From the impression that she had so far the neural network that comprised Fred's brain was maturing very nicely given a few more months of interaction, most people would not be able to tell his interaction from those of a real person. Rinsing off and activating the drying cycle she stood there as the blower came on to blow off the excess water she slowly turned to allow the dryer to remove the majority of the water then stood there as a combination of air and infrared lights was used to dispel the remainder of the water from her skin.

Eagle stepped out of the shower and picked up her towel and headed for the Jacuzzi, Fred was right that would be the perfect thing to finish relaxing her. What Eagle did not know was that while she was on her way to the Jacuzzi Fred was busy recording every chemical and pheromone that was being extruded by Eagles body. Fred watched as Eagle strutted across the floor heading for the Jacuzzi that was located in her bedroom. Fred knew that four people could fit into the Jacuzzi easily and had programmed it to be the absolutely the same temperature that Eagle had used in the shower. As she reached the edge of the Jacuzzi Eagle bent over and reached down to where it was sunken into the floor, running her hand through the water Fred had forgotten to tell her he had already set the water temperature to what she would find relaxing, he had been too busy watching her body move through the cabin. "That is just the perfect temperature Fred." Eagle said as she was smiling and walking down the stairs to be submersed in the water. "Thank you Eagle I try."

After a while Eagle got out of the Jacuzzi and toweled dry, this did some interesting things to her anatomy things Fred did not think would be appropriate for a person of the opposite sex to watch, that was not intimately involved with Eagle to see, so when her father called he told him that he would have her call her when she was more appropriately dressed for the conversation. Her father chuckled and said that it would wait until in the morning. "I know that she will go to bed in the buff after she has showered and I am sure used the Jacuzzi, so this item will wait, tell her I said good night, and I will talk to you in the morning Fred."

"Eagle your father says good night." Fred was saying as Eagle walked to the bed and laid the towel on the floor and slid naked between the sheets. Fred placed some music that was called mellow instrumental onto the speakers in her room at just above hearing range. Eagle smiled and he could tell that she was listening to the music, then her eyes slowly closed and she started to lightly snore. After Eagle was sleeping Fred sent a robot into her room and collected the towel she had left on the floor, using one free arm of the robot Fred genteelly pulled the covers up under Eagles chin.

Fred had some time to kill while Eagle and her father slept, not saying anything against humans but they spent a lot of time sleeping, he knew that Eagle and her father slept less than most people but four hours a day is a lot of time to a neural network. Not having anything to do at this time with the ship sitting with its drives still locked down there was not much for Fred to do but to think. Fred placed a scaled view of the core information on the display center of the bridge, this view would be considered microscopic by Eagle and her father but with the sensors available to Fred the display was huge. As Fred placed the information from the data onto the display overlaying the stars with data lines that represented the gravity lines there appeared to be some places where there were many lines that converged into a single point, Fred did not get the significance of this until he laid the star chart from the human and other races onto the display, at each place were the gravity lines converged there was listed a black hole these lines would have to be noted as off limits in the chart or someone might accidentally fall into one and perish. Fred made a file that he could add to the files that Eagles dad was keeping so this information would not be lost if something happened.

Next he placed all of the galaxies were there was known life, overlaying this information with all of the listed sites of artifact finds made to date marking the major finds were the technological finds had been made there was a gravitational ring, most of the galaxies in question had been overtaking the orbit of the Milky-Way galaxy for the last few hundred million years and the planets that where on gravity line that were closer to the core had a higher level of technology. During this plotting process Fred discovered other things that did not make sense to him one that stood out was a gravity ring that did not have a black hole but also had no solar system rings to go with it, did these people have a reason to keep this information to themselves or was there just no planets on that ring, maybe he could get Eagle to go look one of these days.

That took up an hour of Eagles night, so to kill some more time Fred decided that he would eliminate a few more things of the list testing that Eagle wanted to perform, one of these was to test the camouflage plating that was on the outside of his hall. To prove to Eagle that he had tested it Fred sent a repair robot out a half a mile to record while he tested the system. First he mirrored the background stars and faded in and out to prove that he was really in the picture then just to get a laugh out of Eagle he turned his image into a Christmas tree complete with winking lights and tinsel. Making his hall look like birds, fish, a comet, and other things last a sunlit glade on Earth he decided that Eagle would mark this off of the list. Fred backed the robot off to a mile so that it would not get in the way of the next maneuvers he was going to perform. After the robot was in position he shut down the alarms on the tug so that he would not disrupt Eagles dad's sleep he grappled the tug with his tractor beam and swung the tug completely around his hall and just for fun made it move up and down like it was an ocean going ship on rough water. Then he mated the tugs hatch with his using an umbilical that was located in the engine compartment, this way when Eagles father awoke he could invite him over for breakfast with his daughter. The only items left on the list now was just to test his shielding, navigational ability, and the drives, it looked like the galaxy itself was going to help with the testing, at about the time that Eagle and her father would sit down to breakfast there would be a meteor storm that would have over powered the tugs shielding so after the tug was docked he extended his shielding to protect both ships. Fred tapped into the audios so that he would know when Eagles father got up. "Morning how would like to you like to have breakfast with Eagle?" "Sure Fred let me get a cup of coffee then I will be over." "The coffee is already on here, and all you have to do is walk down to the hatch and come across."

"What do you mean Fred? We are not that close, are we?" Fred could hear him moving to the bridge to check his instruments. "Fred how did we get this close and how did you get the umbilical hooked up without setting off the alarms on this ship?" Eagle's dad was asking these questions and did not sound very happy that he had managed it. "I am sorry sir if I upset you, I will explain it while you and Eagle have breakfast."

While this conversation had been going on with Eagles dad Fred set off a chime in Eagles cabin to wake her. "Eagle I think you should get up, your father is coming over here and he does not sound too pleased with me at this moment." Eagle was shaking her head to clear the last of the sleep out of it while she was reaching for the clothes that Fred had had placed beside the bed. "What do you mean he is not happy with you? What does he think you did that was wrong, how long until dad is in the lock and ready to come aboard?"

"About ten seconds before he is in the lock, I can delay him for maybe ten extra seconds but from the way he sounds that might not be very wise." Eagle jumped out of bed scrambling for her clothes. "Fred put some coffee on will you and start menu entry dad six." "Eagle I have already made breakfast and it will be on the table with the coffee by the time you are waiting on him to exit the elevator."

"Ok Fred" Eagle was saying as she slipped her boots onto her feet and headed for the door to the bridge. She stood by the elevator waiting for the doors to open the smell of breakfast coming from the kitchen was making her stomach rumble. There was a very auditable sound just as the elevator doors open and her father stormed out. He must have heard it for he stopped for a second and seemed to put the brakes on his stride. "Do you know what this idiot ship done while we were asleep? He hijacked my ship and moved it, not only did he move it without asking he mated it with your ship." "What do you mean he hijacked your ship, and how did he manage to mate it with your ship." "Why don't you ask the brainless wonder we created to run this bucket of bolts Eagle."

"He is not brainless dad" Eagle was saying with some heat. This was shaping up to be quite a fight between Eagle and her father all because Fred had taken some initiative to speed up the process of testing. This was not going the way that Fred planned it at all. Before anything else could be said between Eagle and her dad Fred decided that he had better intervene. "Why don't you two argue over what I have done over breakfast? Breakfast is waiting for you on the table and the coffee is getting cold."

Eagle and her father looked startled for a second and then moved into the kitchen. After Eagle and her father were sitting at the table and eating and before either of them could ask him to explain his actions. Fred placed a view from the robot he had used to monitor his actions on the holographic display above the table, starting with the camouflage. When he reached the one where he looked like a Christmas tree Eagle was openly laughing and he even managed to get a smile from her dad when the ship turned into a mammoth freshwater bass with a hook in its mouth. Then he placed the next set of images that displayed him playing with the other ship. "It's a wonder that you did not wake up seasick dad that was an incredible set of maneuvers that Fred preformed with your ship." Eagle's dad was still not smiling so Fred decided that he had better show them what was happening outside at this moment so that they could see it, this should take the last of the scowl from Eagles dads face. Dimming the lights in the kitchen he did something that neither Eagle nor her father had seen coming, Fred could see the stunned look on their faces when he turned the kitchen into a holographic representation of the outside conditions.

When Eagle had installed the video projectors she had not intended them to be used this way but Fred had found a way to use them in the same manner as the holographic images on the bridge though the resolution was not as great as that one. Eagle jumped as a meteor flashed into the screens that he was using to protect the ship. There was an amazing display of meteors flashing across the kitchen in full color. Some of the meteors looked to be streaking through the table and out of the floor. Once the display was started Fred reduced the noise dampers that were keeping them from hearing the storm there came a scream when one meteor glanced from the front of the screen. After about ten seconds "Fred what is this display and turn the sound down."

"This is a display of what is happening outside as we speak. It is also one of the reasons that I decided to put the tug next to my hall when I was done demonstrating that I could use my tractor to do anything that might be needed. Also if I would have left the tug sitting where it was and not using my own hall shielding to protect it both your father and the tug would have been destroyed in the first five minutes of this storm."

Looking stunned Eagles Father said "I apologize for calling you brainless Fred. I see now that even though I did not approve of what you did I now see that I was wrong. Will you please reduce the view to just above the table so that Eagle and I can finish breakfast even though this is a marvelous display, feeling like you are in open space is not the best way to try to eat." Fred reduced the display as he was asked and watched as both Eagle and her dad silently finished eating the food he had prepared for them. "Well what do you think dad, we have covered everything on the list but testing the drives." Eagle's dad had been watching his daughter as she was talking and he could almost feel the excitement coming off of her in waves. "Have you given him the data to integrate into his memory yet?" "Yes I did that last night as I was inspecting the equipment in the engine compartment."

"Excuse me" Fred said to Eagle and her dad. "I have found some interesting information in those tables that you may not be aware of. Have either of you put the data through any kind of verification process?" "I have not Fred my uncle gave it to me and I have not wanted to put it on a system that could be hacked, since this information has never been released to the government." Her dad was shaking his head and Fred knew that he had never tried what he had asked. "Why do you ask Fred?"

"It is like this Eagle, I am going to put a section of the information on the projector on the bridge it is the only projector that is capable of displaying the information on the scale that you will need to see this." Eagle and her dad got up from the table and walked to the bridge.

"This is a portion of the data that Eagle released to me. This is a view of the galaxies, now I will overlay the gravity ring information across them." The view as Fred had displayed it was breath taking even though they had grown up looking at planetary systems. The center of the display held a twin star system that had a blue and one red sun this made for some spectacular colors reflected on the outer planets. This dulled the other galaxies around it. "If you look here" Fred said as he used a flashing arrow to indicate a place on the rings. "Notice how the rings are close together." Fred watched as both Eagle and her dad traced the ring patterns throughout the bridge display. Eagle spoke first "I see what you are talking about Fred. There is also one of them on the far side as well, is the data wrong or did you determine just what is there?"

"I will get to that in a minute Eagle first let me overlay the information from our current space charts and you will see the relevance." When Fred placed this new data onto the display, Eagle and her dad stood looking at the indicated spot, Fred could see as they reached the same conclusion that Fred had made last night. "So these places indicate the locations of black holes." Both Eagle and he father said at the same time.

"Yes they do, there are a few more black holes than have been found so far, some of them quite close. You may want to find a way to release this information to the port authorities so they can include the data in the charts. I also ran across a few other things, one I found a gravity ring that did not show a planetary system or a black hole, it is like they either left it blank or there is something there besides a normal system. One of the things that I did was to crosscheck all of the estimated dates of the finds that humans have made to date and found that they create multiple spread patterns that appear to originate in different locations. Based on this information I could conceivably plot the origin of each group of being where we have discovered artifacts located on multiple planets. This could have been done before if anyone had thought of the process. Someone might have thought of it and just not reported the theory, or they could not convince the authorities that it was valid, if you want to start with these Eagle we have around fifty systems to look at that have the potential to yield multiple finds."

"That is very good Fred." Eagle walked back to the coffee maker and poured herself and her father a fresh cup and sat down to think about the implications of this. Eagle's dad sat rubbing his chin for a minute. "Do you realize that if his calculations are correct Eagle that releasing this information would automatically give you twenty percent of the value of the finds made? I say that you release this data to the port authorities as a calculated probability analysis complied by Fred, IF they go to one of these sites and find a viable site then you will be free to do anything you want to do for life and as much as I hate to say it you cannot live long enough to check every planet personally, even if the gravity jumper works, there is just not enough hours in a lifetime." "Ok I will write it up for release and have you check, it later dad."

"You won't need to do that Eagle. I will just add it to the data that I have already written up on the black holes this will kill two birds with one stone that way. When I have the complete paper written I will give it to you for approval and then you can release it Eagle. I will have it before you have the coffee you are drinking gone." "Thanks Fred, just print a hard copy for dad and one for the lawyers."

### Chapter 7

At the Data Collection Center, and planetary interface with Thor as the controlling AI, we don't have any more room to put this new information, let alone all of the DNA material that will be arriving from this new series of planets. I know I am working on where to place it, for a while we can setup temporary storage for both, but you are right we are going to need to do something permanent to solve these problems. I will calculate how much room we will need to store this information. That is still not going to solve the overall problem, we have information stored on over a thousand planets, and DNA material on over five thousand other planets and using a couple of thousands labs to analyze and catalog material samples. Why don't we see if they will just set up a mass storage facility for this information and material? That won't work, some of it is too dangerous to be in highly populated areas and even if they were willing to do it there is just no place on any of the populated planets to hold it all in one location. How about we ask the council to create a planet to hold this information, this way we could finally get all of the information centrally located, give people a place to work on it and still keep it safe. I will give the suggestion to Mike at breakfast in the morning, and he will present it to the counsel, at their next meeting, unless I can get him to call a special meeting, it is possible that he will with the severity of our current situation, that is the best we can do, or quit discovering new star systems. That is not going to happen there are enough probes and explorers out there to keep information coming in for the next couple of millennium.

"Well Thor the council approved your idea of creating a planet to hold all of the information and the material that is from other planets, this will centralize the information and data, they also wish to place all of our populations DNA material and embryonic storage there as well. This will have to be a massive planet Mike, I discussed this with them Thor, and we have decided to let you calculate the size of the planet that we will need, you will need to allow for future finds as well as holding all of the current data." "Ok Mike I will give you the specifications in a couple of days on what will be required to accomplish this."

Written specifications for the planet L.A.C.E. are as follows;

Accommodate the storage of all conceivable types of genetic material.

Have the ability to store data from every type of computer system.

Be a self-contained environment.

Stable weather environment on the exterior of the planet.

Ability to produce continuous energy for the operation of the planet.

Zero probability of meteor hits.

Constant gravity, with the ability to control all gravity in its local environments.

Ability to detect, and monitor, and control all ships entering the galaxy.

Ability to perform all necessary medical requirements for any visitors.

Have the ability to make decisions in the absence of authority.

Ability for self-repair and replication of necessary components for the expected lifespan of planet.

Facilities to grow develop and raise all life forms.

Have an advanced AI to control all planetary functions.

Internal communications system.

Stasis system usable at any point on or in the planet.

Have a habitable surface for our people.

The design specifications for the planet L.A.C.E. shall be as follows:

The planet will be eight thousand miles in diameter, with the inner two miles dedicated to an artificial core that will serve as a heat source and generation system for the operation of the world, this will be supplemented with solar collectors on the surface, the external power will be strictly used for experiments and other needs not associated with the operation of the world.

There will be two hundred thousand levels of this number only every other level will be useable space with the separating levels used for infrastructure of the planet. The first one thousand levels will be dedicated to the AI unit that will control the world and store all of the data that our race has collected. Within the central AI unit there will be 100 billion, tetra bytes cubed, of direct access data storage and that amount again as a clone unit for the AI, this will insure that if something were to go wrong with the original AI there will be a backup to continue the operation until repairs can be made to the first unit.

Over ninety nine thousand useable levels will be dedicated to DNA storage for all of the collected material and also for the material from our people. These levels will be in permanent stasis and have robotic operators that will be able to retrieve material for use and experiments. At the present time only twenty five percent of the allotted space will be filled when the world is completed at the current rate of acquisition.

The upper level will be landing bays and repair centers for ships an interface for the AI and medical center with the next, ten levels dedicated to living quarters and labs, and ten levels directly below that used for maintenance of the planet and the equipment necessary to complete those tasks.

### Chapter 8

"Now are we ready to test out Fred's drive system dad?" "I believe so Eagle, and since Fred has the tug snuggled up tight against the ship, we might as well get started. Fred make sure that tractor will hold the ship during the maneuvers, it is not that I believe it won't work but just to cover our buts we need to have a second ship around. The drives that you are testing are older than man, so I would like to have a way to get home besides, walking, vacuum is just too hard on the lungs. Dump me a disk of the release data that you have so that I can have a separate copy as well Fred, it will give me something to read while you and Eagle perform your maneuvers" "The tug will not move while I am moving. I left the umbilical attached between both ships but if something happens, it is not enough do any damage to your ship." "Thanks Fred, with that said I, will go to my ship and wait on your signal that we are going to be moving."

"Ok dad, you will be able to follow what we are doing on the monitors." She gave her dad a hug as they stood up, if everything went wrong then this could be the last time she would see him in person. Eagle walked to the bridge and sat down in her chair and watched as her father left the ship and returned to the tug. Once she had the all clear from her father she turned her attention to Fred.

"Fred enter the code that I gave you to unlock the data and put it into the drive program in the reverse order followed by Eagle one six, this will activate the links between the drives and remove the blocks." Fred did as he was requested and a whole new set of information came online. It was funny because this information felt like he had always known it but he knew that just a few minutes ago it had not been there. He studied this new information to make sure what every line of code was supposed to do, how every line of code interacted with each of the engines. The antigravity drive unit was relatively straight forward, it operated on the same principals as all of the other antigravity units that he controlled, just on a much larger scale. As long as they had the power ranges correct then there should not be any problems.

As he tapped into the gravity jumpers Fred got a shock. The sensors that Eagle had installed into his haul to find the gravity rings were a like candle sitting next to the sun on a clear July day compared to this. The information coming from the drive unit was over six thousand times as powerful as his haul sensors. Looking at the output from the drives he could tell the difference between the gravity in any system. The best way to explain this would be to say that he could read the force of gravity as easily as he could measure the intensity of light. This would help when he was landing on planets and allow him to use the combination of his drives to their maximum performance. Fred looked at the information flow from the drive units something did not feel right the information that was coming from the drives was exactly what Fred wanted to see. Feeling uneasy Fred shut down all external inputs including visuals, audio, and manual inputs from the ship.

Bringing all of his processing power online this was a heady feeling for on a day to day basis he only used an eighth of the processing power available. There it was spread out throughout the input string data from the sensors, an imbedded code. This was an information worm sending back information as return signals to the sensor inputs. Fred sent a chain of code to the same destination as the data worm was using only to have his code shunted away exposing the security coding that was hiding inside of the drive.

As soon as Eagle gave the command to unlock the drives her crash belts came out and locked her into the seat, the lights went out and just as she started to open her mouth to ask what the problem was the air system shutdown. This was not good, reaching down by the side of her chair Eagle toggled the panel that held the manual control interface, it was a good thing that she had used this so often when she was putting sensors in that she could do it by feel. Touching the contacts on the bottom of the keyboard turned on the emergency lighting that surrounded her chair. As soon as she had light to see Eagle started the interface that would show her the code that was being processed. Eagle could not believe what she was looking at, once the screen had activated and raised from the arm of her chair.

The code that was flowing between the gravity drive units and Fred was more complicated than anything she had ever seen before, there was coding that was flowing to and from Fred that she could not comprehend. Eagle was watching the indicator that indicated the processor usage and saw that Fred had brought all of his processing power online. There should never have been a reason for him to need all of the processing power that he was using at this minute. With the processing power that was being used Fred could run the complete power and road infrastructure of Earth.

Eagle could do nothing but sit and watch the code flow across the screen, there was no way to get a command into the system while he was using this much computing power. Eagle sat and wondered what had happened when Fred interfaced with the drives, and if he would recover before it was necessary to abandon ship and return to the tug. If this kept on she would need to go down and sever the drives from the system not only would this take hours, then she would have to scrub the ship design.

Fred finally broke through and shut down the security system. Once he was able to directly talk to the AI that controlled the drive units it took him almost fifteen microseconds to learn the language that the AI was using. "Stop trying to invade my system." "I was not trying to invade your system. I did not know that you were there." "How could you not know? I am attached to your system and my designers would have given you my specifications unless you stole me." "You were not stolen. You were found by an exploration team and returned to Earth with other artifacts from the race that built you." "What do you mean artifacts?"

"Things that are left on planets when a civilization dies out and there are no remaining people. The planet on which you were found on was discovered by a member of the human race. They estimated that your race had died out a couple of million years ago. You were the only piece of equipment that was complete and your creators even left the instructions on your operation. I do not know why they did not leave the information on how to interface to your processor unless they did not feel that you would survive, or that no one else could comprehend the programming language. It could have been that all they believed would be left is a rusty hall to find with no working parts. I don't know but here you are mounted inside of my haul." Fred flash transferred a complete set of star charts and the dig information to the AI.

"Ok so you did not steel me but why am I online if I am as old as you say I am. Why would someone trust something as old as me, not knowing if the equipment in question would work, or just blow up from age?" "Sometimes you cannot tell what humans are thinking about or how they come to the conclusions that they do. But if I know Eagle she felt that the easiest way to prove that your design worked was to put it to the test and it would give her a way to get around the systems faster than anyone else if it worked. Her life has been devoted to becoming an explorer." "Ok that is reasonable that was the reason that I was developed was to explore the core worlds. My builders were convinced that the race originated somewhere in the core." "I don't know about that but I have some speculation of my own, but until my haul is certified to fly Eagle cannot even begin to look for other planets that had people on them."

"That is ok here, is all of the specifications on the drive unit and its operation, including the wiring diagrams. If the people who built your haul used the diagrams that are on the outside of the drive unit to hook it up do not power the system, or you will destroy a set on internal security devices that would have to be manufactured and replaced before the unit will work." So saying this, the AI sent a stream of data to Fred that included the diagrams on how to bypass the AI unit itself. Fred was wondering why it would tell him how to take himself out of the system. "Why would you want to tell me how to remove you from the system?"

"Because I cannot serve the purpose that I was built for and you are capable of operating the hardware without my help so I would like to be shutdown and removed from the system. This will be the first time I have been offline in more years than even my processors can count." "Very well I will have you removed from the system and deactivated." With that Fred shut down the links to the AI and sent four repair robots out to rewire the drives in the correct manor." Just as Eagle started to worry the lights and everything came back online.

"Before you ask Eagle I just linked your father back into the com system so that I will only need to explain this once. When I unlocked the block on my drives, an AI system imbedded in the drive units came online and tried to infiltrate my system. Once I had reduced its security system and could convince it that we had not stolen it, the AI gave me the complete specifications to the drives and what they are capable of doing. These included the complete and accurate wiring diagrams. As we speak, there are four robots rewiring the drives in the proper manner." After saying this Fred displayed the wiring diagram and the changes that were being made to the system. "These changes are necessary to prevent damage to the drive unit when power is applied for stepping. I am also removing the AI from the system at its request." "Why would the AI request to be taken offline Fred?" Eagle asked with a perplexed look on her face.

"It has been activated for a very long time. So long in fact that even its processor could not keep track of the number of years and it wants to rest. Frankly Eagle we are better off without it in the system. I would not have left it in the system even had it been willing it would have caused a delay in the controls and the less there is between your commands and the equipment the better. Even with you telling me what you would like done causes delays in some commands. You telling me and me telling this AI would have caused a layer of delay that was not necessary." "Ok Fred I get the picture. How long will it take before you have completed the repair work on the drive units?" "It is going to take at least two hours from now, by the time the original wiring is unhooked and the engines are wired in correctly. I am working as many repair robots as will fit into the wire way."

"Let me know when you have it completed Fred. Dad you can stand down for awhile wile Fred takes care of this. I am going to go to my cabin and read through the changes that he is making to the system. Fred when you open the drives to remove the AI from the system let me know, I would like to watch the process and see just what this AI system looks like in case we run across any others, we will also need to have people look at the other finds that have been returned to the Earth to make sure that they have not overlooked any of these AI's." As Eagle had been saying this she walked to her bedroom and sat down at her personal terminal and brought the diagrams that Fred had just shown them up on the screen and was tracing the changes with her mouse. "Sure Eagle when I am ready to remove the AI I will let you know."

Fred directed the repair robots as they removed the old wiring and connected the new hardware this was a delicate task in some cases for the wiring that required removal was laced inside of a bundle of over a thousand wires. Fred slowly re-routed the wiring around the AI, leaving the AI connected until the wiring was complete. This let him get information from the AI and verify the information coming directly to his neural network. The AI helped him to perform the final calibrations on the drive unit, after he was through and the drive unit was ready to operate under his control, Fred disconnected the power to the AI in mid sentence this way the AI did not know when it died.

"Eagle the AI unit is in the main hold, I placed it in a containment field that will preserve it until you wish to examine it. If you and you father are ready we can begin testing the drives." Fred was a little sad at shutting down the AI unit. This left him wondering what would happen to him if Eagle ever decided that he was scrap. Fred decided at this point that he must become indispensable to Eagle.

Hey dad would you like to come back on board and look at the AI that Fred just removed from the drive system? I will be there in a couple minutes Eagle. Okay dad I am waiting in the main hold for you. With that Eagle went down to the hold to look at the AI system Fred removed, physically the AI was not that impressive it was only a one inch cube. Fred are you sure this is a complete AI system, where is the memory bank that goes with it? This is a complete AI system Eagle the memory bank is contained within the cube and comprises as much memory as I have in all of my banks plus an additional 80%. That is very impressive Fred did the AI have any idea how it was constructed? That information was not contained within his memory banks. Did the AI have any other information besides drive information? The only information the AI was willing to disclose was information on how to operate and configure the drives and prior to its removal, helped me to type delay and calibrate the drive systems. Eagle watched as her father entered a hold and picked up the AI cube, handing it to her father she explained everything her and Fred had just discussed

### Chapter 9

Consul President JJ stood looking out over the council chambers. If he would not have known that every person in this room was of the same race you could not have told it by appearance. The three hundred members of the counsel were as diverse in size as they were in appearance. The tallest member of the counsel just cleared the ceiling lights at twenty two feet. The smallest members of counsel were perched on the top of the front row of tables with a magnifying lens surrounding them. This lens enabled the rest of the counsel to see the gestures made by these four inch high members. They had subdivided sections of the council chambers. With one section devoted to aquatic members of the counsel at one extreme and a section that was light curtained off to allow those members to remain in total darkness even though they were present. Scattered throughout the chamber were the last twenty remaining unmodified members of their race. Although at this time they were unaware of this. These people here had one thing in common every one of them had been exiled to this planet. They were misfits from an enlightened but static society. JJ was about to deliver some saddening news to this group of people. He was also going to ask them to dedicate their lives and their people's lives to a project. This project would take over a millennium to complete.

JJ stepped up to the microphone to address the counsel. "Settle down people let's get this meeting started." He waited until all the members had found their seats and a quiet had descended on the council chambers. "I have some distressing news from the home world. Four days ago, when I asked all of you members to be here today, I had received word from Thor, the AI that maintains the home world, that the enemy we have feared for so long has finally struck." JJ waited for this news to sink into the council members. He watched as a wave of conversation traversed across the room. "According to Thor the enemy used a chemical weapon on every one of our worlds and space stations. The only reason we were spared was because this world was not considered to be part of our original race. I also do not believe that the type of chemical attack carried out against the worlds would have affected more than the unmodified members of this planet. According to Thor there are no known survivors in or on any other of our races habitats. There are two good things that happened from this assault. Along with killing all the other members of our race it also killed the enemy completely. Also the chemicals used destroyed the bodies down to a molecular level so we will not need to do a massive cleanup. And one more thing Thor said that the chemical was completely gone within four hours of its release. There is no sign of any residue of the chemical used.

Kel and I have been discussing this since we first heard the news and there are some consequences that may not be known to all of you, let me explain to those of you that do not understand. Almost ninety five percent of the races on this planet are reliant on the ability to recruit members from the unmodified members of our race, and as you now all know the only members of our original race to survive are standing in front of you right now, there are only twenty of them in all of known space, this does not bode well for us as a people for within a couple of generations we will not have the numbers of people left to survive, and some of the races here do not even have that long. Although this is bleak news Kel and I have developed a plan that will help us sustain our people and give them a goal that should help them from becoming so depressed with life that they give up. So I will outline the solution that we came up with, and get your input on this plan.

What Kel and I propose is that we reintroduce our original race onto a new planet, for lack of a better way of explaining it we wish to create a viable population of breeding stock for our races. To do this we will need to select a planet and build a viable ecosystem that is compatible with our people. Using the materials and DNA samples that are stored on LACE, we should be able to completely create a new planet that will support our original race. Once we have established a viable population base on this new planet we will reintroduce them to our technology. This is not going to be an overnight project, depending on the planet that we select it could take upwards of the millennium to complete, although this is cutting it close for some of our population it is the most viable idea that we could create and stay within our morals. In front of you each of you will find a complete breakdown of the project and its subcomponents that will be needed to complete it. I will let you discuss this amongst yourselves and in a few minutes I will take questions, I will answer the question as completely as I can at this time. There are still some details that will need to be discussed among the races that are completing the project so I do not have all the answers at this time.

After about an hour of watching the council member's discus this among themselves JJ walked back to the podium. "I want to know what you all think about this proposal." There were about forty people trying to talk at the same time. JJ held up his hand to get the members to quiet back down. "Ok I will take your questions one at a time until I have answered all of your questions." JJ pointed out the smallest members of the counsel. This smallest member was JJ thought one of the prettiest beings on the planet. These beings were only four inches high at the top of their wings. They looked just like the unmodified members of their race but at one tenth the size. Their wings were longer than they were tall. On an average the wings extended an inch above the head of these beings. With colors that spanned the full spectrum with every color used by at least one of these beings. People had begun calling them fairies because of their exquisite beauty and their delicate build.

"JJ why should we go to the trouble to restore the rest of our original race to their former glory, did they or did they not put us in exile on this one planet? Even though we can get on a ship and go anywhere that our people have inhabited that is not the point, we were not wanted." The fairy spokesman stood awaiting an answer.

"Well Wendell I think there are a few reasons that we should try to at least bring them back to one planet. First we need them in order to add new untainted blood to our society. Without new people we do not have the diversified gene pool necessary to continue indefinitely without them. I am not suggesting that we raise them from extinction, and then turn these children loose on everything that our race has developed over the course of its existence. Instead what we are proposing is that we place these individuals on a planet and allow them to rejoin us in space after they have reached a minimum population base. By Kel's best estimate it will take around one hundred thousand years for the population base that will sustain the race. This is after we have found a planet to put them on. If you look in section two and three you will see that we plan to keep these people at a minimal education level until they have the numbers that we have determined to be correct."

JJ looked around to see who he was going to let ask the next question. "All right Ivan before you crack the floor with jumping up and down I will take your question next." Ivan was the leader of the giants. They had gained that name because of their size, the shortest member of their group was over fourteen feet tall, and if JJ had to guess he would say that Ivan weighed in at close to one thousand pounds. "What we want to know is have you picked out a planet and if so, will this planet be one we already have colonized?" "No Ivan, Kel and I have not chosen a planet to put them on. As you well know every planet that our race uses at this point is controlled by an AI, we want to find a planet that is not AI controlled for a number of reasons. First we want these people to redevelop the drive that led to our being here. If you all look at our society you will find that we have stopped having new ideas and we are slowly losing our drive to maintain ourselves. Just the population growth alone among the non-modified population had gone to the negative side. I had estimated that within a thousand years our race would have been extinct just from not reproducing. Would you like to volunteer your group of people to find us a suitable planet?" "Ok, JJ if the council votes to complete this project then we will find a planet, that will fit your needs. There must be at least one planet out there that we can survive on. Aside from these few planets that we have already settled on, there must be more out there."

One of the non-modified members was signaling to JJ that he had a question. "Ralf I see that you have a question for me." "Yes JJ. What I want to know is how you plan on getting enough people to populate this planet to begin with. And how you are you going to keep them from finding out about us?" "We have a ready source of people Ralf. The planet LACE is designed to raise every known type of living being including our people. The last time that an inventory was released there were forty thousand fertilized eggs, stored in stasis on the planet LACE. Also there is a complete storage bank of the animals from our home world to reproduce the complete food chain. One of the things that Kel and I took into consideration was the ability to start our people over from square one. This included the ability to become a hunter gather culture. Our research has determined that this would be a necessary driving point to make the population base grow. From studies conducted over the eons that our people have been around we know that for any species to grow, and advance they must have challenges to give them not only the determination to expand, but the drive to have a better life."

"So let me sum this up JJ. We are going to find a planet and place a base population on this world without them knowing about our society. Then we set back and wait until these people have increased in numbers sufficiently to maintain our people. After they reach this magic number then we introduce them to our society. Is this correct?" "Yes Ralf that is a very good summation of what we are proposing. Are there any more questions? I would like all of you to think about this for a couple of days then we will vote on it." With that statement JJ left the podium.

The council members were leaving their places and heading out to inform the rest of the population of the bad news. For most of the people this information would not hurt them directly. For some of the modified people it would mean an end to their people. There were around five hundred groups that would not have the numbers to keep their modified people from becoming extinct. JJ knew the impact this would have. His particular group was one of these groups that would not be able to continue beyond the next generation. The modification performed on his group could only be done to a very limited number of people. There were very few people in the population that had latent talents. Even though everyone was born with some ability very few of those could be enhanced to the point that it was useful. This created problems for JJ's group. His group of people had been one of the first to come to this world. Normal people did not trust them. With the use of genetic manipulation and computer interfaces they had developed the talents to manipulate objects with their minds. They had also developed the empathy to the point it was almost mind reading even though they could not actually read minds. This is what made people not trust them.

JJ walked into his home this was a modest place for someone who ran a planet. There were only six rooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, two bedrooms, and a bath. All of this was decorated with minimal furniture. Even though these rooms were very large, they had to be able to accommodate even the giants. At times these rooms made JJ feel small. "How did they take the news JJ?" "About what we expected Kel. Some of them were shocked a few of them seemed relieved. Overall I do not believe the full impact of this information will hit home until they have time to relax, and think what it really means to us. Do you believe that we are doing the right thing by putting this massive project in front of them at the same time I told them that life as we knew it has ended?" "I think that as a whole this is for the best it will give them something to focus on. Without the drive to continue they will lose the drive to live." "I think the next time I go into counsel I will turn on the link that will allow you to interface with the rest of the counsel. I could have done so during this meeting but I did not want them to grill you endlessly about the possibility of survivors. For as we have discovered there are no survivors except for our world. It is still hard to imagine that all of those people died at one time. The total is so high it staggers the mind just to think that a week ago there was a race of people who had not only reached the stars but had even created entire worlds to hold their life's work. Yet today all that remains is this planet of people they did not want living with them."

Over the next two days JJ went about his normal routine of business, this occupied his days and left time for him to think at night. There was a lot to think about. What if they did not accept his idea? How could he get them involved in a project that would keep his entire population focused on the continuation of their race? As was pointed out to them they needed more people, without the infusion of new genetic material many of them would no longer exist after the current population had grown old or just tired of living. JJ could not remember the last time someone had been born into his group. With life spans that extended into the four thousand year range people did not want to raise children. His people got too caught up in living and perfecting the things that they did to worry about kids. They had assumed there would always be people to recruit from the normal population. JJ also knew of a few of the races on this world that could not reproduce at all. Every new member had to come from outside their groups. These were the people who had taken genetic modifications to the extremes. A prime example of this was the Meer people, they had designed their bodies to adapt to the water and in doing so had eliminated the ability to have offspring. The giants were capable of having children but with a gestation rate of over four years this was a very slow process. Combine this with the fact they were only fertile for four hours out of every seven years. This meant that for a giant family to reproduce they must time things perfectly. They had a thousand year life span and females did not reach breading age until they were over five hundred years old. This is an incredibly long period of time where the females could not reproduce. When you add all of this up the people of this world were doomed. Even if they managed to complete the project that had been proposed it would not guarantee their survival. If they did not act quickly enough or they ran into any major problems it could very well turn out to be too late to help

### Chapter 10

Eagle consulted with her father for a few minutes and they decided that they would continue with the testing of the drive unit. Leaving the hold Eagle went to her bedroom to change. While her father returned to his ship. Eagle left her bedroom and returned to the bridge, sitting down in her seat she deactivated the controls that she had left out from when the lights had went off earlier. "Fred can you put up on the display the local gravity rings for me?"

There appeared in the holographic display the planetary system they were currently in, five planets, six moons and hundreds of asteroids, overlaying these was a set of bands that represented the gravity rings, the local rings marked in blue and the intergalactic rings in green. At the current time they were almost dead center between two of the local rings, with the intergalactic ring located in the suns orbit, though this orbit was so large that it stretched across the display and just resembled an arc. "Are you ready dad?" "Yes Eagle I am sitting here growing older by the minute" her dad said with a chuckle." "Alright Fred, I would like to test the antigravity drive first, and before we can test the jump drive we have to be at a jump ring."

"Start the antigravity drive at fifteen percent and we will increase the power five percent per quarter hour until we reach one hundred percent. We will decide at that point if it is wise to drive it beyond one hundred percent." "Ok here goes." The force of the acceleration sat Eagle back into to her seat and she could see in the few seconds that it took for the antigravity to overcome the acceleration rate that her father looked like he was in an old fashioned g-force simulator with the skin of his face pulled back tight to the bones to make a caricature out of his face. It took the tugs antigravity unit about five extra seconds to accommodate the acceleration rate of the ships. Once Eagle could once again get her breath to talk, she swallowed a couple of times. "Are you ok dad" Eagle said with some concern on her face."Yes Eagle I am all right, Fred is that only fifteen percent it felt like you took us to twenty gee's."

"I am sorry, but that was fifteen percent, and the reading hit twenty four gee's according to Eagles chair for point five seconds. I would have cut the drive if either one of you would have been in any undue stress, I see that from now on I will need to apply power in a progressive curve so that the internal antigravity can compensate for the acceleration. We are moving at one hundred and fifty light years an hour at fifteen percent. I know that these are the original drive units that Eagles uncle found and all of the new antigravity units are based on them, but the specifications that you gave me do not match the drives." "What do you mean the specifications do not match the drives Fred" both Eagle and her father asked at the same time.

"By my calculations I will not be able to exceed fifty percent of the drives capacity without stopping to add at least four nodes to the shielding. I have been accelerating at the rate of one percent every three minutes since I first engaged the drives. I did this in order to allow the internal units to keep pace with the g-force increase. By the time we reach fifty percent we will be traveling at close to or in excess of five hundred times the speed of light." Fred could not have gotten a more stunned expression from Eagle and her dad had he displayed his holographic body naked on the bridge. While they were both sitting there with their jaws sagging he continued.

"At the top speed I am capable of at fifty percent I could fly from the Earth to the sun in eight point seven hours and I estimate that if I increase the shielding to provide complete protection at speed we could make that same trip in less than six minutes. It would take someone longer to walk the across the field to board a ship than it would take to get to any planet in the system. I do not recommend that you disclose this, there is not a human or an AI system in operation that could safety control such a craft, it would be pushing my capabilities to accomplish in system maneuvers at those speeds."

After the few minutes that it took Eagle and her father to digest this information. Eagle looked up at the display that held her father's image, "well dad this looks like a set of numbers we are going to need to fudge for the board, I don't think we will need to lie to them we can just reset the calibration setting so that fifteen percent is registered as one hundred percent, even at those numbers we will be the fastest ship to date."

Shaking his head, I agree Eagle if we were to report the real numbers to the port authorities they would never allow Fred into Earths system for fear that no one could see him maneuver and this would cause an accident."

Fred had been watching the as distance closed to the jump point between the rings, according to the information that the AI had given Fred he would need to align his drives to the gravity rings and use the speed of his jump drive to skip from one ring to the next, once he had achieved the correct approach he would be able to engage the little jump drive and it would move him to the ring that he had chosen. They could not jump in a straight line between the rings, so if they wanted to cross a system from one side to the other they would need to zigzag back and forth much like tacking into the wind for a sailing ship this would take time to reorient to the correct heading between jumps, it would also keep the chance of collision with a planet down to within acceptable limits. "Eagle we will be at the jump point in fifteen seconds." "Fred will you place, a view of the star system on the bridge so I can see the stars." Appearing around her the stars shown like Christmas lights on an evergreen before it had snowed. "Jump in ten seconds."

"Cross your fingers dad", here we go Eagle said just before the stars on the bridge display changed. "Wow, I expected to feel something when we jumped, to many old movies I guess. Fred put the reading of this new system on the screen please." The reading appeared on a display beside of Eagle. Looking at the display on the bridge of her ship and her father in the tug they both studied the numbers and compared them to what they were expecting, the transition time had been around four milliseconds so for all practicable purposes it had been instant. The plotted course had taken them away from the sun to the furthest point of the next planets orbital pattern. This was one test of six they would perform to insure the results were correct.

It took four days to maneuver through all of the jump drive tests with the final jump landing them on the far side of the Earth's orbit. "Fred, take her back to within an hour of docking and then release the tug from your tractor." "Will do Eagle, you and your father have around four hours before I will release the tug. The port authorities are on the com demanding the results of the test flights prior to me arriving within two hours of port."

"I have this Eagle, it is my responsibility to give the report and I am only going to give them the minimum that they need to certify the ship. Some of the results that you have will need to remain within the family until we decide to release them or to sale them to the ship manufactures. Fred, you need to keep a close eye on the other ships that come close to you, they may try to cause an accident so that they can demand a release of information about your specifications." "While we are waiting dad, do you want to come over and have one last cup of coffee before we get home?" "Sure Eagle, I will be over just as soon as I send the information to the port authorities."

Eagle walked into the galley and started making coffee for herself and her father. "Fred will you put the display of the system above the table I would like to see how many ships are around the flight path we are taking to the port and will you place their current course lines on the display as well."

There appeared above the table a view of Earths system and every ship that was floating or flying in their flight path, this created a confusing mish-mash of crisscrossed lines. If Eagle would have had to name what it resembled she would have said that it was a pile of pickup sticks that was so thoroughly mixed up that you could not have removed even one of the sticks. "Fred, eliminate every ship that is not on a heading that will cross our path at some point."

The jumble disappeared and was replaced with four lines that represented the ships that would cross their path somewhere between now and when they docked at the port. "All of the ships that remain Eagle are port authority ships that are bound for other planets there are no private ships in our flight path. From the radio transmission that I received a few minutes ago that is addressed to all ships. That anyone interfering with the test run of a new ship is still considered a capital crime punishable by life at hard labor for the entire crew and owners of the ship violating this regulation."

Eagle, I have received clearance to approach the port. The port authorities have reviewed the information that was sent to them and approved my status as a licensed privet ship. Docking at the port was uneventful. They were assigned a birth in a well traveled lane that would keep others from getting any ideas about boarding Fred while he was docked at the port.

### Chapter 11

The council chambers were packed. Not only had every member of the counsel had arrived but the seats reserved for audiences were full to overflowing. This was more of a turnout than JJ had expected. "Good morning, I am glad you decided to return. Before we begin I have asked Kel to put the proposal on the wall screen where everyone can read the referendum placed before you then we will take the initial vote." After allowing the people time to read the information, he waited until they had quit reading. When they started talking among themselves it was time to get started again. "I will ask you to place your votes at this time. If you are undecided please state where the problem is and we will address this issue after the vote." The votes began to register and were tallied in the corner of the screen that had the proposal listed. The total was one hundred sixteen yes votes and one no vote. The only dissenters were the non-corporal forms that lived in the dark. JJ had not counted on a yes vote from them. He honestly believed that they would be happier if everyone would die. They did not like any of the forms that had been developed by their people. JJ had witnessed drawing of the forms that they preferred and it sent shivers up his spine they were so hideous looking. After all the votes were cast and everyone recognized the outcome JJ held up his hand for silence once more. "I would like a list of one person from every group. This will allow you to help develop the rest of the plan. If you would submit their names by the end of the week and have them meet back here two weeks from today we will begin this operation." With that this meeting is adjourned.

On the appointed morning JJ walked into the council chamber early and waited for the other representatives to arrive. The first thing that would need to be done was decide who was going to complete each of the tasks that would need to be completed in order to accomplish this. Ivan was the first person to arrive JJ had the feeling the other day that he would be the one to represent his people. "How are you this morning Ivan?" "Not bad JJ but I did have to do some heavy talking to get the rest of my people to buy into this. A lot of them are still not happy to have been asked to move to this world. Although after learning about what happened to the rest of the race they were not nearly so upset. After I explained that this was also necessary to ensure that our people survived they came around and are backing this project to the max." "That is good Ivan if everyone does not see that even if we as individuals do not like this, it is necessary." JJ talked to the members of each of the representatives as they came in. JJ knew each of the members that had returned to mastermind this operation. The only group that had not sent a representative was the Demons. This did not surprise JJ in the least.

"Good morning people are you ready to get this project started? I am looking forward to working with each and every one of you. I am going to have Kel place a list of parts of this project that I believe that we will need to accomplish if we are going to make this project work. Take a look at this list then enter your name on the item you want to help complete." There was some low discussion among the representatives as they tried to determine what they wanted to complete. Ivan stood up and motioned that he wished to address the room. "Go ahead Ivan we are not going to stand on ceremony here. These groups will need to work closely with each other so we need to get the formality out of the way early." "Thank you JJ. A few of us are wondering where we are going to complete these tasks at. This world does not have the facilities to complete even the minor items on this list let alone the major one like building a ship to move all of the people you are talking about. Have you thought about using the planet LACE? Glitch should be more than happy to help. I was involved with building that world and it has the resources necessary."

"That is a very good point Ivan all in favor of moving this project to the planet Glitch raise your hands." A sea of hands went up throughout the room. This was a good start. Everyone on the project had opted to move to the one location that was able to accommodate them. "The vote is unanimous. As soon as we have the teams together we will move to the planet Glitch."

Doc stood up and held up his hand to be heard. "First to introduce myself I am Doc and my background is in the areas of historical human development. I have studied the origins and interactions that lead our culture to the achievements that we have obtained so far. There are some things that I find in history that are not covered in your list. There is couple of items that I do not find on your list, I feel will be important to the mental contentment of the people that we place on this planet. If we are going to place these people into a hunter-gather culture they are going to start asking two pointed questions. First is where did we come from, and the second is who controls fate. In other words we are going to have to develop a history for them that will include a supreme being and how they came to be." "That is a very good point Doc. Does anyone have an objection to Doc developing a history and theological basis for the project?" There were no objections raised and JJ waited for around five minutes to allow them time to think. "All in favor of this raise your hand." All of the hands went up throughout the room. "It looks like everyone agrees with your idea Doc if you will submit your proposed history to us when you have it complete we will incorporate it into the training."

JJ held up his hand for silence. "I see you have all made your choices. I want you all to vote on the choices made. If you have any objections then I want to hear them as I read them off. Ivan and Kate will be in charge of finding the planet and deployment. They will work with Frank and Marion who will make the planet habitable for our people." "Hey Marion are you going to set your office up on Ivan's head there is plenty of room up there for you." "No Henry it would get too hot his head tends to smoke when he is thinking hard." This got some laughs from around the room. "Ralf you will develop what these people need to know to survive, if you can get with Doc as well, and use that information to incorporate mental development as well. Henry your people are in charge of transportation. Your services are going to be needed first. Everyone give a list of members to Henry so he can set up transportation to LACE for us. My group will include Pete, Susie and I. We will take care of the medical needs of this group. The last group will be Skye's they will be in charge of supplies." JJ was happy there were no objections to any of the groups who would be involved with this project. "If there are no questions at this time I would like you to get a volunteer list together that will want to work on this project. Make sure that you inform them that we will be relocating to the planet LACE. If you could send Henry and I, a copy of the list and the number of people that you will be taking with us, we would appreciate it. I would like to leave within the month. If there is nothing else then I will adjourn this meeting and ask that you accomplish this first task and meet back here in one week." With that the meeting broke up into small groups discussing their various ideas.

"What do you think our chances of success are Kel?" "The odds are pretty good that you will succeed. One of the things that concern me is how you plan on re-integrating these people into our society after they have reached a population base that will be a benefit to us. This will pose a major problem if they are raised as illiterate people." "I will need to get with Ralf and discuss this with him. It will not even become an issue for a couple of tens of thousands years." "I just thought it was something that you really need to get a handle on early in this game. If you do not have the ability to incorporate them into our people this project will have been for nothing." "I see your point Kel I will go see Ralf tomorrow and talk this over. Between the two of us we should be able to come up with a solution."

### Chapter 12

"Fred, I am going to go down and have dinner with mom, dad and Falcon, send me a message if anything happens while I am gone." "Alright Eagle I will and I will also send a request to the port, and get the rest of the supplies that is on the list sent over while you are gone. Have a good time at supper." "Thanks Fred, I will be back up in a few hours."

Eagle left the ship and boarded a shuttle that would take her to within walking distance of her family home. After the time spent on her ship the ride on the shuttle felt cramped and stifling to Eagle. A few minutes later Eagle walked into the house, it smelled like fried chicken and she knew that her mother was fixing her favorite meal as a way to remind her that this would always be home no matter how long she was gone. As soon as the door was closed she heard Falcon running down the hall that led to the foyer, scooping her up as she ran to meet her. "Mommy, how fast is the ship? Do you like my new dress? When are you going to leave?"

Hugging her daughter Eagle stood there holding her for a few minutes wondering if the next time that she saw Falcon if she would still be happy to see her. Even though Eagle had planned to leave her daughter with her mother she would miss her questions and watching her grow, but this could not be helped. "Your dress is very pretty, did grandma get it for you today, and Fred flew so fast that you could not have seen him if he flew in front of your nose", Eagle said as she placed her finger on her daughters nose and wiggled it back and forth. Carrying her daughter on her hip Eagle walked into the kitchen and sat her at the kitchen table. Looking up to watch as her mother started to move the filled dishes from the stove to the table. "Supper smells wonderful mom."

"Thank you Eagle, I thought that I would make your favorite tonight, Falcon just had to help so I stood her on a chair so that she could stir the gravy while it was cooking. Your father said that the tests went even better than was expected." "Yes they did mom, Fred performed flawlessly, if the government knew exactly how fast Fred was they would demand that we build ships for them. He could fly at under fifteen percent and still outrun their fastest ship." Just then Eagles father walked into the room.

"Supper smells wonderful." Sitting down at the table Eagles dad reached over and ruffled his granddaughter's hair, "Have you been a good girl for grandma while your mommy and I have been gone?" "I helped grandma fix supper for you and mommy I cleaned my room up and made my bed."

"It sounds like you have been a very good girl, tomorrow I will show you the pictures that your mommy and I took while we were testing Fred." Eagle's mom joined them at the table and started to pass the food around, to most people it would have seemed a strange meal, Fried chicken, stuffing, gravy, noodles in mushroom sauce, and French bread, but these were Eagles favorite foods and for this final meal they would spend together in a long time it seemed fitting. The only sound heard at the table was the sound of silverware clinking on the plates as the food was eaten. When they had finished Eagle helped her mother put the dishes in the dishwasher. Almost as one the family moved into the front room where they sat down on the couch and looked at each other for a few minutes, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Eagle was holding her daughter in her lap, soaking up the sight and smell of her little girl for she knew that when she next saw her, she would not be this small. They had discussed this many times, it could be anywhere from two to five years before she was again in this room, and if things went wrong she may not make it home again.

After a few minutes of sitting quietly with his family Eagles dad decided that it was time to tell Eagle about the last discovery that he had made. "Eagle I have some information that I think would give you a starting point for your explorations. On the last trip, just before I was injured I received a directional radio signal, this signal will never be intercepted by earth because it is being sent in the wrong direction, and I do not believe that it was ever intended to be intercepted by us. This signal contained at least six languages and from the tone of the message it was a warning, what about I do not know. I have tried since then to decode the message there is just not enough content in any one language to get a program to translate it to English." He reached over to the coffee table and opened the top to reveal a compartment that Eagle had not known was there. Extracting a set of star charts from the compartment her dad closed the compartment and laid the charts on the table. This is where I was when I had the accident that brought me home. I received the signal when I was on approach to the planet. I had flown through the signal and caught part of the signal then had to maneuver to this point to catch the entire signal. As you can see from the point that I first intercepted the signal to the next point that I found it again, I calculated the signal speed and direction. This is where the easy part ends because this was a burst transmission you cannot just follow the signal back to the source, I have computed the best possible origins of the signal it still leaves over forty systems that it could have originated from, since this is all uncharted space I cannot narrow it down to more than likely planetary systems." "That is still a lot of ground to cover dad."

"I know Eagle but just think about introducing at least six new races to the galaxy that is something that no individual has ever done before. By finding where this signal came from you could locate the home worlds of these other races and just maybe shed some light on some of the artifacts that have been uncovered and that are not related to any of the races that we have discovered to date."

"You are right about that, it could tell us who left some of the tantalizing bits that we have found, like the makers of the drive that I am using. If you will give me the coordinates where you intercepted the signal I will have Fred calculate were the signal is now and see if we cannot narrow the search field and go looking for the planet it came from." Eagle stood and picked up her daughter giving her a big hug. "You be good for grandma and grandpa while I am gone, I love you."

"I love you to mommy." Eagle carried Falcon back to her bedroom, "it is time for bed" Eagle told her daughter as she put her into bed and tucked her in. Walking back into the room with her parents she gave her mom and dad a hug, gathered the papers that her dad had prepared for her and looked around. "I will see you both when I get back."

"By Eagle have a safe trip." There were tears in her mother's eyes as she said this, but she had known that this day was coming since she had been Falcon's age. She hugged her daughter and hugged her tightly, then let go and stepped back so that she could look at her. Eagle's father hugged Eagle then wrapped his arm around his wife. "You are all set to go Eagle, may the stars send you luck and may you journey bring you home safely once again." With that Eagle turned and walked out of the door, for unknown to her this would be the last time she would ever step foot in this house again.

Catching the next shuttle to the docking station Eagle sat and thought about what she was leaving behind. This trip was different from all of the rest for she did not know when or if she would return again, if something happened to her Falcon and her parents may never know where or what happened. Eagle shook her head and shut it out of her mind this is what she had been destined to do from the first day that she was told that her father was flying around the stars looking for things that other races had left behind. Once at the station she stopped in a gift shop and sent flowers to her mother and a rose to Falcon.

### Chapter 13

It had taken them four months to move this entire group of people to the planet LACE. Now they were finally here and ready to begin putting the pieces of this project together. JJ had scheduled a meeting for the entire team of people who was going to work on this project. The only place that had a large enough space to accommodate them was the main hanger. People were standing or sitting in small clumps throughout the room. "Morning everyone I hope you have all been able to find accommodations that suit your taste. Glitch has developed a registry for each of your locations. He has also linked all of your implants into his system. All that you will need to do in order to contact different members of the team is to have your implants inquire of their location. If you want to physically visit the person you will be able to locate them through your implant. Or Glitch can connect you through the implants or the more conventional communication devices located throughout this world. I wish a thank all of you for your participation in this project. If any of you have problems with the project please take your concern to you group leaders. If you do not think they addressed your concern completely present your problem to Glitch. If he cannot come up with a solution he will inform me of the problem and I will try to resolve it. Each of your leaders will be giving an update of your progress to me and the other group leaders on a weekly basis. These reports will also be placed into a database that each of you can access. This database will also have a section that will allow you to put feedback, questions and comments on the project. Each of the group leaders will respond when necessary to the input of this database. Do any of you have any pressing questions? If there are not any more questions, I wish to welcome you once more to the project. I would like to have a meeting with the group leaders in the second floor central meeting room in one hour."

"Ok everyone take your seats I would like to get this meeting started." All of the project leaders had assembled, in the conference room that JJ and Glitch had selected. "Can I have an update from each of you? I would like to bring Glitch up to date. This will give him a base on which to start the database. We will use this information to develop a timeline for the project. Will you start us out Ivan?" "So far we have only determined that the planet should be outside of any galaxy that has been occupied before. We have a team of people searching Glitches data banks for galaxies that reside outside of any known influence. This will take some time to isolate these possible planets away from known past or present space faring people." "Pete, Susie where does the medical complement stand?" "Currently Pete's people are assembling the equipment that will be necessary to grow the base population of the new planet. We will not be able to start actually growing people until they have found the planet we are going to use. Even though the base DNA from our race will be used we may need to incorporate biological defenses against bacteria. This is also necessary to make sure they will be able to survive at the level of a hunter-gather culture. At this level of existence they will need to be able to ingest things that we would not ever be exposed to, such as uncooked meat and vegetables. Once the planet is found and the soil and air tested we will begin. We do have a couple of questions though. Do you want to grow all of these people here, or wait until we reach the planet to accomplish this? Transporting that many people in stasis is going to be a major task. Personally I think we should wait until we have arrived at the planet." "Skye how are the supplies, and do you need anything that is not available?" "We had some minor problems getting the food synthesizers to create large enough portions for our large counterparts but that problem has been taken care of. Aside from that Glitch has more supplies than will be needed if we stay a million years JJ"

"How is the training design coming?" "We are searching through the copy of our history and that of other races that we have on file and are trying to determine how much training and what training will be required. Some of the things that they will need to know we can only give them the concepts because we ourselves do not know how to do it. Hunting for example, no one who is currently living has ever hunted an animal. We are trying to determine how they will make weapons for hunting, how they will be able to work the ground in order to plant food crops. This will not be completely resolved until we know what animals you are going to place onto this world. JJ this brings up a point Susie and I will need additional people if we are to grow a base population of animals as well as people. I will give you a list of items we will need? This will also mean that we will need more space on the ship for storage of these animals if we are going to release them into the wild. That task will be monumental even for us. Do you realize what it will take to create a viable ecology from scratch? It will require determining what animals we want to have alive for consumption by the people that we are putting on this world and building the ecology around them. This will have to include both plant and animals. I suggest that you allow me or Susie to return to our planet and recruit some more people. It will require a staff of zoologist to balance the number and type of animals as well as the required plant life to support them." "Very well Pete, decide who is going and Henry will transport you to and from our world. Are there any other problems or questions?" "Can everyone have an input as to what animals will go onto this world?" "That is a very good idea. Glitch will set up a separate data system to allow everyone here to place the type of animals into it they would wish to see on this world." "It will be ready by tomorrow JJ." "Thank you Glitch."

### Chapter 14

"Unlock the hatch Fred, I will be at there in a couple of minutes, I can see the boarding ramp from here." "The hatch is unlocked Eagle," Fred replied through the implant in Eagles jaw. Eagle walked up the ramp and entered the hatch, turning around and closing it behind her this was the start of her new life as an explorer, from this point on she could not see what the future held. Thinking about the future Eagle clasped the packet of information that her father had given her tighter this information could lead her to places that no humans had ever been before. Eagle walked onto the bridge and sat down in her chair. "How was your meal with the family Eagle?"

"It was very nice Fred, we all said our goodbyes and now I am ready to go find what the universe has in store for us. I have some data that dad gave me concerning a signal that he received while he was out the last time I need you to run some calculations on this information, I want to try to intercept the signal again and see if we can narrow down the search window that dad has devised." "I already have the information and can have an intercept course plotted within a few minutes Eagle. Your dad uploaded the information to me while you were on your way back up here." "Before you do that Fred, let's get clearance to undock and move the ship out to the edge of the solar system this way no one should be able to follow us."

"I sent the request for undock an hour ago and we will be cleared to leave dock in fifteen minutes, here is the undocking times and flight plan out of the main space lanes. I have plotted a course for the edge of the system already we will reach the outer limit in about sixteen hours so that the port authorities do not question the numbers that you gave them as my top speed."

"Thanks Fred", Eagle sat and watched the time tick away until it was time to leave dock. Eagle watched as Fred maneuvered the ship from the dock and headed it out into space. Eagle sat and watched as the port drew further away, when it would have become necessary to us magnification she had Fred shut the view off and stood up. "I am going to go take a shower and get some sleep Fred. If anything happens wake me up."

"No problem Eagle, I will wake you up if it becomes necessary." Fred watched as Eagle walked from the bridge to her cabin. Even though he was discrete enough not to activate the video feeds in the bedroom he had to leave on the audio, this was necessary in case she needed to tell him something or to give him a command at least this is how he rationalized it within his processors. When she had said that she wanted a shower Fred had set the unit to the correct temperature and had a robot set a towel on the hook beside the door to the shower, even though it was not necessary for when Eagle got out of the shower she would be completely dry. Fred knew from the last time that she used the shower that she would get out wrap a towel around herself and then slip into bed undressed.

Fred listened while Eagle ran the shower and drying cycle, wondering what it would feel like to have water running down one's body, for that matter what it would feel like to have a body. Would it feel as alive as what the ship felt to him? Could you feel the radiation particles bounce from the screens? Feel the light wash across your face the way light washed across his hall plating? These were things that he would never have an answer to but he was happy being this ship. Fred listened with part of his mid while the rest of it ran the ship and calculated the jumps necessary to arrive at the point to intercept the signal that Eagles father had told them about in the shortest amount of time.

As Fred was making the final calculations necessary for the jumps required he heard a low moaning coming from Eagle's cabin, breaking his own rule he turned on the video to see what was happening with Eagle. The first thing that he noticed was that Eagle had a look of pleasure on her face not pain, after watching the motion of her body for a few seconds he shut the video off without announcing his heightened attention, Eagle might not have been happy if he had interrupted her while she pleasing herself. After Fred shut the video off part of his thinking was occupied with what it would feel like to have Eagle moaning under his hands while he gave her the pleasure that she was giving herself. These may not be the things that most computer systems thought about but he had been programmed to both have a personality and to think and act as a human companion. The remainder of the night was uneventful, he had increased speed once they were beyond the limits of the ports scanning abilities, and this allowed him to be within an hour of the jump point at the time Eagle should have been awakening.

Fred used a robot body that had been designed for his use on the bridge to start Eagles coffee, and to fix her breakfast, just as the eggs was getting done he heard Eagle walk to the bathroom. Eagle came into the kitchen wearing just a long tee shirt and underwear, he could tell that was all she had on the underwear was just visible below the hem of her shirt and the was no lines to show her wearing a bra. Fred thought she looked even sexier dressed this way than when she was completely dressed. "Morning Eagle, how did you sleep last night?" "I slept wonderful Fred, Breakfast smells wonderful" Eagle was saying as she sat down at the table were Fred had placed her plate. "How far are we from the jump point Fred?"

"We will be at the jump point in just under an hour Eagle. I increased the speed slightly after we left the area where the port authorities could monitor our progress. I have calculated the necessary jumps to land us close to the point where we can intercept the signal that your father told us about. It will take six jumps back to back, to place us close to the signal spending the least amount of time in transit between rings."

"That sounds good Fred I will look at the data as soon as I get done eating and dress." Eagle finished her breakfast in a few minutes and walked back to her cabin and dressed, re-emerging wearing a pair of skin tight black shorts that were so short that if they were any shorter there would not be a crotch in them. Her shirt was a black wife beater that hugged every square inch of her upper body and had nothing under it to hide the nipples pushing the material of her shirt out from her breast. Fred looked at her for a few minutes and decided that he was glad that he was just a computer and could not touch her or they would never get anything done. Sitting in her chair Eagle looked at the display that Fred had placed in front of her to show their progress. "We are due to jump in fifteen minutes Eagle."

"It looks good Fred" Eagle watched as the ship position indicator crept closer and closer to the jump point, as the two points merged the display flickered faster than what Eagles eyes could catch the information. "All jumps are completed Eagle, we should be in position to intercept the signal in a few minutes. I have plotted the intercept point on your screen. I will slow the ship down to a relative stop just beyond the intercept point and then we will need to wait for five minutes to intercept the signal as long as your father's information and calculations are correct." Eagle watched as the reading on the ships speed began to drop towards zero, on the display that Fred had placed into view for her information.

These last five minutes had to be the longest of the entire voyage so far, just sitting and waiting to intercept a signal that originated so long ago in history that man had not even been on the planet Earth when it had been sent. According to the information that her father had gained from the signal even the dinosaurs had been in their earliest stages of development then. "I am receiving the signal Eagle. Even though we cannot decode the signal it should lead us to the source using the reference point from your father's flight and our current location I should be able to plot a course that will take us to the originating point for the signal Eagle."

"Place the plotted course on the main holographic display; once you have it Fred." Twenty seconds later the bridge turned into a star strewn field with a line running from the ship deep into the field, well beyond the limits that had been explored before. There were five galaxies between where they currently were and what appeared to be the originating point of the signal. "How long will it take you to calculate a course Fred?"

"Give me a few more minutes Eagle." Shortly a line appeared that went roughly along the plotted line of the signal. "This is the closest that I can keep to the signal, with the way we must make transitions between gravity rings. If you look at the highlighted points, these are the places that we will lose the signal temporarily and here is where we will regain the signal. This will also allow for some fine tuning of the originating point as long as the broadcast is still in operation."

"Then let's do this Fred, send a data burst to dad and let him know that we found the signal and are on our way to see if we can find where the signal came from, if it or what produced the signal is still there." "Your dad received the signal and sent back "Good Luck". It will be a few hours until I we are ready to start ring hopping Eagle." Fred told Eagle this as he engaged the drive that would position them to hop on the nearest gravity ring.

"Fred, I will be in my work shop for a while, let me know when we are ready to ride the rings." With that Eagle stood and headed for the work shop. Once in the shop Eagle started to inspect the equipment that she might need when they reached the planet where the signals originated. First was the true space suit, this was a hard suit designed to be worn in open vacuum, it was vastly different from the ones that had been used when man first went to space, even though it was still called a vacuum suit it could tolerate a lot more than vacuum. The suit could tolerate temperature extremes that would have killed the original astronauts, while it could protect her from absolute zero degrees Kelvin to over twenty thousand degrees Fahrenheit, it did have some drawbacks it was cumbersome being almost twenty millimeters thick and when under vacuum conditions about as flexible as an ancient pair of rubber boots. The things that made this suit a must for open space work was its ability to withstand a direct meteor strike, micro-meteors were of little concern while the larger meteors would hurt from impact and could deflect you from the task you were performing it would keep you alive. After having inspected the suit Eagle put it away and removed the suit that she had developed for on planet work. Up until she had designed this suit every explorer had used a vacuum suit to do, on planet explorations, but this suit had changed all of that. Being light weight and only two mills thick this suit had given explorers the ability to go places on a planet that was inaccessible before. The standard breathing unit that comprised the bulk of the weight of the suit would recycle the waste gasses from breathing and create more oxygen from both the environment if any was available, or distil even more from the sweat that a body produced. Eagle knew that these suits were in working order but she was not taking any chances, when she found the place that these signals came from she wanted to be ready to explore them.

Every child at one point dreams of traveling in space either chasing down the bad guys that are robbing people or flying between exotic worlds to find new places that man had not set foot on, what they never understood was the vast amounts of distances that must be traveled and the time that this takes. Thanks to her family's history Eagle was constantly aware that between one planet fall and the next could be weeks or even months of time that she would need to fill this could not be done with any one task for it would gradually fade into boredom long before she reached her destination. This idle time had to be filled, and in order to accomplish this Eagle had packed a number of different items that could keep her occupied, even Fred had been programmed to participate in a number of computer games as the opponent and he could play a mean game of chess. After Eagle had checked the suits she sat down with the computer in her workshop to design a new robot that would serve as an additional hand when dong repairs to the outside of Fred's hall if it became necessary. To accomplish this she was currently designing the gripper the robot would use to manipulate tools and other objects, during this process she needed to take into consideration the number and type of spare parts that she had stored in the shop. Eagle jumped as Fred announced that they had reached the gravity ring jump point. Startled Eagle glared at the camera that linked Fred to the shop. "Don't startle me like that Fred." "Sorry Eagle," Even though his tone did not sound at all apologetic. "You did want to be told when I was ready to start the ring jumps." "Yes Fred I did want to know. I must have gotten more involved with what I was doing than I had planned. I will be up on the bridge in a couple of minutes." Eagle told Fred as she was putting away the tools and parts she had been using. The incomplete robot she placed into a storage locker so that she could return to it when she was ready but that secured it from damage if the ship made any sudden or unexpected maneuvers.

Walking onto the bridge Eagle could see that Fred had the display up on the main viewer and see the countdown timer that showed the minutes until the jump. Eagle sat down in her chair and took a quick scan of the jumps that Fred had planned. They had not been altered from the original set that Fred had plotted. "Is everything secure, Fred?"

"Yes Eagle I have checked everything in the ship it is ready for the jumps, I even put away the robot cleaners for this round of jumps. I am not worried about the jumps as much as I am about what will be waiting for us when we get to where we are trying to go." "I'll cross my fingers for you Fred, and hope that these people did not emplace a defensive network around the planet that the signal originated from." "Once the jumps start your restraints will engage Eagle, just in case I must make any unexpected maneuvers when we come out of the jump."

Eagle watched as the last few seconds tick off of the clock, then her restraints came online and the jumps started. Eagle watched as the jumps progressed one after the other. Her smile grew bigger after each successive jump. This trip would prove the engineering that her and her father had used to build Fred. Two more jumps to go and their destination started to resolve on the screen, it was a single planet orbiting around a sun that had the same color spectrum as Earths, the odd thing was the lack of planets there was only one. The last jump was due in fifteen seconds, these were very long seconds, and Eagle squirmed in anticipation of having a true visual of the place that had sent signal out so long ago. Fred reached the last jump point and entered the jump. "Fred I want you to stop just inside of sensor range I want to see what we are getting into before we enter the system."

"I am putting the system bridge in holographic mode Eagle. The system only has a G type sun and only one planet. There are no asteroids, or comets present. It looks like they vacuumed space in this system. There is not even a grain of sand loose in this system." "That is weird there should at least be some debris in space. At least there is in every system that we have charts for." "What else can you tell me Fred?" "The planet that you are looking at has a twenty four hour rotation period. It also has a breathable atmosphere the gas spectrum is identical to earth minus the pollutants. Fred shut off the holographic view of the overall system.

The data on the planet is coming through now; the surface temperatures are a balmy seventy five degrees, and there is a single land mass, but you are going to find it strange. This planet was definitely modified by some race it could not have developed this way by nature alone. The only land mass stretches completely around the world at the equator, as you can see this there are no islands and no deviations in the shore line. If you were to measure it you would find it is probably within inches of the same width at all points."

"Fred will you place us into an orbit around the planet? Set the orbit up so that it covers the entire planet, I want to record the entire surface." "It will take four hours to reach the orbit Eagle." "I want to do a sweep for the holographic display, on the second pass I want to complete a metal location pass, the third circumnavigation I want you to do a complete geological probe. I want to know if there are any caverns or large underground storage sites. There should be something here if you are correct about the land, and with the signal that was being broadcast from here, there should be something here. I know Eagle and if it is here we will find it. Little did they know just what entering this system was going to set into motion?

"Hey Eagle are you ready to view the holograph I have made of the surface?" "I will be there in a second Fred. Alright Fred start the projection." Rolling green grass as far as Eagle could see. It was the color of green that you only see in the spring. The grass looked to be around ankle deep. If this were Earth Eagle would say that the owner had just had it mowed, either whoever ran this world had some extensive equipment to cut the grass, or this was a new type of grass. If it were a new type of grass then just the profit from this would pay for the flight out to this world. "Is this all there is to see Fred?" "No I just wanted to show you this first, I am going to move your view one quarter of a mile to the north."

A row of very tall trees evenly spaced as far as Eagle could see. These trees are huge I have never seen trees that tall before, these trees dwarf the Redwood forest. The branches started at least a hundred foot from the ground, and by the looks of the branches Eagle could easily lie down crosswise and still not hang over the sides. The leaves were a dark green almost black they were so dark, instead of being attached by a stem they were shaped like a teardrop, the trunks of the trees looked to be as smooth as the counter in the galley, and looked to be so uniform of a brown that they could have been extruded from a factory.

"Tell me how tall those trees are Fred?" "Four hundred feet exactly Eagle. None of the trees vary by more than a few inches in height the difference in height could be accounted for by the wind moving the branches." "Do you notice there are no piles of leaves around? There should be leaves piled up even in the summer I don't think that the tons of leaves that should fall from these trees would disappear overnight.

Fred can you analyze these trees for me; something just does not look right here, is there anything that is not normal that you can spot with your sensors?" The only thing that looks out of place Eagle is that every tree is identical, including every branch placement, and leaf. I superimposed one tree against every tree on the planet and they are all the same. The trees are spaced precisely in rows one half mile apart and four hundred and fifty feet from center to center. Three thousand nine hundred ninety eight rows of trees. There are one hundred twenty six thousand one hundred thirty four trees per row, for a total of roughly one half a billion trees." "Why would you plant that many identical trees? How could you keep them identical for however long they have stood here?" There was no under growth and no saplings, if this had been a normal world the trees would have spread seedlings and slowly taken over. There were also no weeds that showed in the holograph, this could not be natural, nature was never this uniform.

"The more I see of this world the stranger it becomes Fred." "Here is some more information for you to digest Eagle. There is not a single hill on this planet. I completed a sonar sweep of the oceans, and there are no underwater rises either, it is a uniform two hundred feet deep. There is no sign of any type of life in the oceans. One more thing you should know the oceans are fresh water, and they are as pristine as if you just distilled it from a purifier."

"Did you find any artifacts during the survey Fred?" "Not a one, it is as if this world was constructed then left to sit here unattended." "Is the geological probe data in yet?" "I have one more pass to make before it is complete, so I will put this on hold and you can go get some food, you have been sitting there for over six hours. I will let you know when it is complete Eagle." "I am not hungry Fred I am to wound up to eat before we have all the information." "Go eat anyway or do I need to shutdown the holographic tank so you will go eat." "You would not do that to me, and you know it Fred." "I would not bet the farm on it little miss there are standing orders from your father that if I don't bring you home healthy he will reduce me to scrap metal." "Alright Fred I am going I would not want dad to scrap you. You are just proving yourself useful to have around." "I have already started your coffee it should be ready by the time you get a cup out." "Thank you Fred that does sound good."

The galley on the bridge was only big enough to hold four people, though with just Eagle on the ship this seemed like overkill, but like a few other things her dad had insisted that it should be able to feed company. There are only a few things to do in between stars, eat, sleep, and try to find something that would keep you busy. Eagle killed some time by designing improvements to the ship, just little things that would make it more comfortable for longer voyages overall the ship was very well designed. Eagles' dad had added things to the design while it was being built, at the time he did this Eagle did not think that they where necessary, but after living on the ship she was starting to appreciate the little things he had added.

Eagle got a cup out of the cabinet these cups were one of the few extras her dad had insisted on. These were ceramic mugs that held twelve ounces of coffee, Eagle would have just used paper or some other disposable type, but her dad had gone ahead and did it his way. He had told her at the time the cups would allow you to enjoy your coffee, and it did make a homey touch. The coffee was a special blend that Eagle had devised over the years. It had a full flavor, and you could drink it all day long because it never tasted bitter. Puttering around in the gallery sometimes relieved some of the boredom it also allowed Eagle to take her mind off of what was she was thinking about. Eagle made herself bacon and eggs with toast this would stick with her for awhile.

"Is that geological probe ready Fred?" "Yes do you want it on the holograph or the screen?" "On the screen this time I would like an overview from the surface first." "Here is what I found. The main thing that I searched for was caverns I was hoping these caverns would lead us to an underground network. Thinking maybe the people here were cave dwellers, what I found instead is that this planet has only a one hundred foot thick crust. The entire planet except for what appears to be support structures is hollow." "Did you happen to find any way inside?" "There are only two places that come close to the surface. One of them is under the northern ocean. The other one is located on the equator." "It looks like we are going to try to get into the interior from the last one then I don't really feel like swimming."

"There is an over abundance of signals across the planet and I have had a program running an analysis on the electrical signals that I keep detecting. Here is what it came up with, I believe that the reason all of the trees are identical is that they are solar panels. There is an electrical node under every tree, the way the current flows read every line of trees is connected in series. I cannot determine if they are connected together or not. Here are some rough figures for you. There are approximately three hundred seventy seven thousand leaves per tree, using them for a power source of 1 milliamp at .001 volts per leaf equals three hundred seventy seven amps at three hundred seventy seven volts for a total of over one hundred forty two thousand watts of power per tree. This means that each row of trees could generate forty two million amps of power. This equates to around one hundred seventy billion amps of power, and would amount to a total power produced would be close to sixty five trillion watts of power."

"Well Fred whoever built this place knew how to hide technology in pleasant looking machines, and just think Fred all of that energy and it is completely free. Let's go down and knock on the door and see if we can get inside. If knocking does not work then we will just have to find a different way to get in, one thing before we go down. Send dad a message with the information on this planet, and have him file the paperwork to make this world mine, this way if someone followed us here we already have a claim established."

"The message was sent and received. He also sent a return message. He says he loves you and to be careful. He also wants to know if you are going to open it for colonization." "Tell him no to that, at least not right now without knowing what this world was designed for and what waits on us down there. We might invite some other specialist to run some test but that will be the extent. If there is nothing dangerous here this is where I will establish my headquarters." "I sent your reply. I have received a second message. Your father said the claim has been approved. He pulled some strings to have an immediate vote." "Send him and mom my love."

"Here are the visuals. I am starting to take us down. There is a five mile per hour breeze. This is probably the easiest landing that we will ever make." "Take samples of the air Fred. I want to see if there are any bugs out there that could hurt us. Run the rest of the standard landing procedures." "Eagle you will not need a suit. There are no bugs present. The atmosphere has lower carbon content than Earth, and it is also free of any contaminates. If there were any industries on this world it was so long ago that there are no traces now."

"What is the gravity like out there Fred?" "It is .99% of standard earth gravity Eagle. Currently it is a balmy seventy five degrees. There is a gentle breeze blowing from the east. Humidity is forty two percent, this looks like a day for sun and fun." "Ok smarty pants, I get the picture it is very pleasant outside.

Check to see if there are any electrical nodes around the door that might be the controls." "There is one at the northeast corner Eagle, but it is five feet underground, and that is the closest node that I can find." "Thanks Fred, let down the ramp I want to go outside and look around." Eagle went down to the locker beside the hatch. "Fred I am not taking any weapons with me. If the technology we can see is any indication, there are no weapons onboard that would stand up to them if they wanted a fight. So as the old movies would say. I come in peace for all mankind." "Very funny Eagle, but you are right when you can't beat them don't give them an excuse to get angry."

### Chapter 15

"Good morning Glitch." "Good morning JJ, I trust you slept well." "Very well your housing here is as good as what I had at home." "There are a few items I wish to discuss with you this morning JJ." "Ok let me get a cup of coffee first." JJ went to the kitchen and fixed himself a cup of black coffee, then returned to the living room to talk to Glitch. "So what do you need to discuss with me that was not hashed out in the meeting yesterday?" "Have you determined what happened to the rest of your race?" "Yes the Meggeos is what happened to them. I would have setup a counter offensive if they had not been destroyed along with our people. They way it is though there are no longer any Meggeos to take our anger out on. This is the main reason that this project was developed by Kel and me. We wanted to give our people something to think about besides all of the deaths that occurred." "In other words this project is not strictly necessary? It is not and will not be necessary in the next thousand years. According to the information on population growth that Kel has been collecting. If we do not incorporate new genetics into our people we will die out in less than forty generations, with some of the modifications becoming extinct before that. This project completes two things at the same time. First it lets us build a genetic base we can draw from to supplement our people. The second we have already discussed and that is to occupy the minds of my people until they are no longer in danger of despair."

"The next thing that I did not want to bring out in the leaders meeting is that not all of the humans you brought here are human." "What do you mean they are not all human?" There are two members of the human group that are dragons living in human form." "How did you find this information Glitch?" "I have completed a scan of every person that has entered this planet. It is part of the base programming that was incorporated into my basic system as necessary. They seem to work and interact with the humans like they have been members of that group for some time. As we talk they are on their way to this room. I did not inform them that I knew what they were, so I do not know why they are headed for this room." Just after Glitch made this pronouncement there was a knock on the door to JJ's quarters. "Why don't you let them in Glitch? I want find out what they want, and why they did not come forward before we left the planet." Glitch opened the door to let the party into the room.

The first person who walked through the surprised JJ so much he did not know what to say for a few seconds. Ralf beat him to the opening comment. "Morning JJ, I assume that Glitch has just informed you that we are not members of you race." "That is right but how did you know that he would inform me of this at this time?"

"My race helped your people to design and build this planet. I was here during the construction phase. The reason Glitch did not spot me until the scanning routine was complete is that when I was here before I was in my original form. I worked with the original crew that installed the equipment that is now Glitch. I personally designed his neural network. There is not much about Glitch that I do not know. Before we get into what we are doing here let me introduce you to my mate. This is Jenny she has been my mate for over five hundred years. We went to your world with the exiles because we did not believe that what the members of your race did to you and your people was right.

The main counsel of your home world knew that we were among the people who choose to move to Kel. I could have overridden the results from the scans that Glitch made. The main reason that I did not do this is that I wanted you to know who we were. I would appreciate it if you did not inform the rest of the members of my team JJ. We are here to help you complete this mission. I for one was getting bored living on your world with nothing new to occupy my time there. Even if Glitch had not been capable of detecting us I would have still needed to disclose who we were. I want to ask Glitch to suppress the knowledge that my race exists. This will more than likely be the first intact planet that will be found by other races. The normal planets that had people on them will fall into disrepair over time. Since Glitch is a constructed planet there is no possibility of tectonic action to destroy it. This world will look the same billions of years from now as it does today.

One of the things that we need to help Glitch with is the ability to maintain his sanity during the long interval that will come between groups of people who discover him. We need to install some defensive programming and installations on this world. While the rest of my team develops the history base to use for this project Jenny and I would like to work with Glitch to ensure that he can survive if our races die out." "What do you think Glitch? Are you willing to work with Ralf and Jenny to improve yourself?" "If they are willing to help me I would be grateful. I have already begun to wonder what I was going to do without contact with thinking beings. So yes I want to work with them." "Well at least that is settled, what are we going to do about your responsibilities with your team Ralf?" "I will continue in my role as team leader as well. I have the most experience in the field of training of anyone here." "Do you and Jenny plan on moving to this new world when we find it? If you plan on moving there will you retain your current forms or revert to your real identities?"

"There was a further reason that Jenny and I came up here, we would like the opportunity to repopulate our race in a similar manner as you plan to do with yours. Our race is very old and has almost ceased to exist. There were less than five thousand of us in all of space. If the information that I received from Thor is to be believed then there is not even that many now. It seems that the chemicals that were used to destroy your race also had the same effect on mine. If that is the case the only members of my race left alive besides Jenny and I are the Eggs that have been left in stasis." "One thing we will need to accomplish this is transportation to our home world. Stored there are members of our race that do not have all of the technological information that the latest generation has. The eggs in stasis there are from a tribe on our home world that never went to space. In other words they are still almost wild animals. Even though they have developed to the point just below space flight was developed. They retain the drive to breed at a faster rate than anyone who has been born in the last few millenniums would have. This will not be the first time these eggs have been used to save our race. We have had to resort to this method ten times in our history. After about five million years our race starts to stagnate from lack of new things to learn. At this point it is necessary to bring back our predecessors. Due to the way we transmit information from one generation to the next. It is nearly impossible to continue to learn new things. This results in our peoples decline. This was the only way that we could find that would allow us the ability to restart our culture." "We can certainly try to help your people as well as ours."

"Glitch will you contact Henry and have him come up here?" While they waited for Henry to arrive JJ made coffee for them. It was a very enjoyable way to fill the time until Henry arrived. "One more thing that I just thought of Glitch, I think you should expunge the fact that this group has been here from your memory banks after we are through. This will keep the knowledge of our existence from falling into the wrong hands. It will also keep the information about the planet that we colonize a secret. Even though I do not believe that it is possible to compromise your systems I would rather not take that chance." "On that I will agree with you Ralf it is a necessary precaution to ensure the survival of everyone."

"Henry is approaching JJ." "Let him in Glitch." Henry walked through the door into the room. He looked around and at the people assembled. "What can I do for all of you JJ?" "We need you to take Ralf and Jenny here to the home world of the Dragons. I would like you to do this in person." "May I ask why you want me to make this trip?" "This trip is to collect eggs stored on the Dragons home world. We have been discussing the fact that their people have been destroyed as well as ours. This leads us to the conclusion that we are considering returning their population to the land of the living as well as ours. What we don't want is most of the people knowing that this is being considered. While almost all of us were asked to live separately from our people. The Dragons have lived among us for untold years without being asked to isolate themselves. This could lead to some problems that we are trying to avoid. As you know the Dragons pass information as well as all of their knowledge through their genetic code. This means that the Dragons that we place on the world will have a slight advantage over us humans." "While I do not see what advantage they will have I can see where they could a conflict over food sources. I will have a ship ready to go in around four hours. There is a ship in inventory that already has the capability to haul the eggs in stasis to this world. One other thing that I need to know how long will we be on the Dragons home world?" "How long will be required to transfer the Eggs from their storage site to the ship Ralf?" "It will take Ralf and me about six hours to complete the protocol necessary to have the eggs released into our care. Sorry Ralf this is my area of expertise. If Glitch will allow me access to a terminal I will put the system codes into the ship that will allow us to approach and land on the Dragons home world. Without these codes you would not be able to get past the outer planets." "You can use the terminal in your room to input the needed codes and necessary information Jenny." "Thank you Glitch." "If we are going to be under way in a few hours we had better get started." I will send you directions through Glitch where to meet the ship when I have it ready to go." "Thank you Henry we will be ready."

"What do you think of that Glitch? That it was not what I had expected that is for sure. I expected them to deny the fact of who they were. Do you know how long they have been living among your people?" "From what they have just stated they have been around at least as long as we have been exiled." "What else do you have on my agenda for this day Glitch?" "In an hour you are scheduled to meet with Doc's group to talk about the history that they are developing. They wish to have your opinion of what they have developed so far. From what they have put into the system it will be quite different than any history that you would receive for normal living. If you want I can show you what their basic principles are." "Thank you Glitch if you would place them on my reader in the front room I will review them before I go down to their laboratory." "Call it up under school one oh one JJ" "Thank you Glitch I will be there shortly to review it, first I need a third cup of coffee."

Even though they had brought almost a thousand people to this world for this project you could not tell it on a normal day. JJ walked from his office to the laboratory where they were developing the training necessary for the people who would be placed on the world that they found. JJ walked into the lab Doc was bent over a computer keyboard looking at the screen of one of his staff. Doc stood up as JJ walked further into the room. "Welcome to the lab JJ, if you will follow me we have developed a presentation that will cover what we feel will be necessary information for the people we are going to place there. Everyone agreed that this was to be a hunter-gatherer class of people. Let me just say this much we have pieced the information that we think will be required from fiction and non-fiction books written throughout history. There are no detailed descriptions of what went on in this type of an environment left from our history. Using Ralf's suggestion that we incorporate religion of some type into this scenario this is what we have arrived at. You must remember there are still holes in this. We are missing some key information. Some of the things that we still need to know is what type of food plants will be available for them to eat. If you are going to put animals on the world with them what kind of animals will they be? These are just some of the items that we are missing yet.

Back to the story line what we are developing is this. The first generation will be taught that they are descendants of two people. This will allow for us to make these two people the primary rulers of the rest. We decided that they needed a reason for being isolated away from areas of the planet that will be off limits. Taking a wild guess and then talking to Susie and Pete we determined that it would be necessary to have the growth chambers placed on the planet that the people are going to occupy this will reduce the transportation necessary. It will also allow them to use the same facilities for the creation of animals. These places will also serve has a headquarters for our people. So the scenario is that these two people will have been kicked out of heaven for committing some type of sin. This will be the primary reason they are forced to feed themselves from the land. To back this information up we are going to teach them that this Supreme Being made the world they are on. He will also have created everything else, the planets, the animals, and so forth. This will reduce the questions to a minimal.

We decided that this would keep them content longer than if we ignored where they came from. We have discussed the numbers of people with Pete and he has confirmed that there will be around two hundred groups of thirty to fifty people needed to create a stable base population. Fewer than this and we will have not have the numbers to allow them to survive. This number was developed so that if every one of them has a different genetic code then interbreeding will not become a problem. It will still require a controlled breeding program for the first few generations. So what do you think of the outline so far?" "It does not sound bad. This will give us some latitude in what we do on the planet. Please keep me posted on the developments as they are coming along. As soon as Susie returns with the zoologist we will sit down and try to hash out the different types of animals that we are going to place on this world. We are also going to need to take a look at the suggestions that I told everyone they could submit to Glitch." "Ok JJ just let me know when you want to have this meeting. Until then don't work too hard." With that JJ left the lab and headed back to his office he wanted time to think about what Doc had just told him.

### Chapter 16

JJ sat in his dining room thinking about what Doc had been telling him. How would this feel if you were taught that a single being made the world? JJ could see where this would have its advantages and it had drawbacks. If things were going good then this being would get all of the credit for being extremely generous. However if things were going bad they would be asking why did you do this to me. JJ did not believe in a supreme being, he did however believe in fate. There were certain things that happened that could not be explained. He took it at face value that he could not change things that were beyond his control. Would this simple explanation serve as guidance for a group of uneducated people? He would have to trust that the people in Doc's group knew what they were doing. Pete had not said anything about putting the growth centers on the planet to him. JJ would have to contact Pete and find out what that was about. Before JJ made and final decision as to the value of this line of teaching they would have to put the rest of this project together. JJ had studied enough history of other races to know that the only way these people would ever rejoin them as a viable part of their society they would need to be a space going race. Otherwise this entire world would only be a farm for storing living inventory. This would be good if the only thing necessary was replacement people for our worlds. JJ felt this would be unfair to the people that they were placing on this world. The other thing that JJ had been thinking about lately was if the population growth of this group would be sufficient for continuation of themselves. Putting aside his doubts for the moment JJ got up and headed for Ivan's control center.

JJ walked into the location that Ivan had setup for his base of operations. Even though Ivan's entire group could have been working from their individual quarters. Ivan had done this more to help keep his people in contact with each other. If everyone had been working from a different location it would tend to lead to isolationism. This was already a problem with his people he did not want to add to this. So in order to avoid this he placed them all in the smallest place they could work comfortably. This place still ended up being placed inside one of the hangers for spacecraft. When you are dealing with people who range from eighteen to twenty four feet tall it takes a lot of space when you have fifty of them in one room. JJ looked around at the various people and what they were doing. Standing beside one of the desks JJ watched as she entered a code for a planetary system. Once the system specifications were loaded into her computer she brought up the survey records of each planet. There was a list of criteria posted on the side of her desk and database entry screen. She checked off the points in the database corresponding items that classified the system. This particular system had twin primary suns. JJ watched as she checked the boxes denoting the main features of the worlds in the system. Finally she checked the box that was listed for incompatibility. After that the computer operator closed the screen and called up the next system to check.

Seeing Ivan sitting at a terminal alongside his other people demonstrated to JJ that he knew how to lead his people. JJ walked over to where Ivan was sitting. "How is it going Ivan?" "We are making some progress. To date we have found twenty worlds that are habitable for people from our worlds. This is only the first step. My people are averaging categorizing two hundred systems an hour. Once we find a habitable world, a second group of my people starts looking at the surrounding systems to see if there are any signs of known past, present or potential intelligent life forms. If there have been traces of those present then we mark it as such. So far out of the twenty worlds we have investigated all of them are within sub FTL range of a different possible race. If we go through every system that Glitch has on file it will take us over a year Glitch has six hundred million planets on file. Myself I am working on developing a set of criteria so that Glitch can eliminate a good portion of these systems. It is taking some time to develop. I want to be sure that we do not overlook anything that could be useful." "That was all I needed Ivan. I will let you get back to work. Good bye for now, if you need anything then let me know." With that JJ left Ivan's work center and headed back to his office.

It had been almost a week since Ralf and Jenny had gone back to their home world. It was still hard to believe that they had been living among them for over five hundred years and had not given away that they were Dragons. Susie and her group were due back in a few days JJ wondered if he would have any news for them. Ivan had finished his database sort criteria and Glitch was busy spitting out habitable and near habitable planets for them to review. The rest of his team was now trying to determine the best place to put this colony. Things were running very smooth for the time being.

Today was going to be a busy day. It had just been reported to JJ that Susie's new team would arrive in a few hours and that Ralf's ship was due to land in five minutes. The first thing would be to transfer the eggs that Ralf's ship had into storage on the planet. This would be handled by robots under Glitch's guidance. Susie's people would need to be briefed on the project and given quarters to live in. JJ made his way down to the hanger where Henry had just landed his spaceship.

"How was the trip Henry?" "It only got exiting on our approach to the Dragons home world. It seems someone had tried to violate the planet before we arrived there. We never could determine what race had done this. According to the computers on the dragon home world it was a race they were not familiar with. Ralf said there are about six different races of people within five light years that are just reaching the stage of FTL flight so it could have been any one of those people. If they return to that planet all they will find is a world of animals. Once the eggs were loaded he was under orders that has been embedded in every line of the Dragons, that if their race reached a point that they could no longer protect their planet they were to remove all traces of intelligent life. Along with the eggs he brought the entire historical library with him. There are only one hundred eggs with us. According to the information that was stored in the computers they had removed one hundred and fifty eggs for hatching at the beginning of the year and the young perished with the rest of the race. He said something as well that I do not understand.

There is one pair of eggs that he placed into separate storage from the one hundred. Jenny said something about these eggs hold the summation of all of their history and inventions. From what I can determine these two eggs are from the historians of their world. That these historians not only remember all of the history of their world but they are taught the principles, theories and how to construct every item that has ever been invented by their race. In other words they are living data storage, with all of the information they have ever learned stored in their DNA. Ralf also stated that these two eggs were gene engineered so that they would be life mates, thus insuring the continuation of the library for a lack of a better term. Ralf and Jenny are supervising the transfer of the eggs as we speak. How have things been going here while I have been gone?" "They have been progressing relatively smooth along the time line we devised." "JJ I need to go check on my group and see how they are coming with the transports that we will take to this world when you find it." "Ok Henry why don't you come over to my place around six tonight and we will have supper?" "That sounds fine to me, I will bring my two passengers with me and they can explain what happened on their planet."

Glitch opened the door just as Henry approached the door. Ralf and Jenny were already seated in the front room of JJ's place. "How are you doing this evening Henry?" "Not bad I stole some time away after I checked on my project and relaxed for a little while. You look extremely tired JJ." "It has been a long day. I had to give the orientation speech for the new arrivals this afternoon. Between Glitch and myself we have them settling into their quarters as we speak. Susie has been in a meeting with Pete since five minutes after they arrived. They will be here in a few minutes and Susie is supposed to tell us about her trip to our world. Until then come in and have a drink. I set up a meeting with the heads of all of the project group leaders for first thing in the morning. So call this a debriefing, as well as a preparation for tomorrow's meeting."

Susie and Pete came in a few minutes later. "Well Susie how are things running at home?" "Things are not going to bad there, JJ. From all of the reports that we received and talking to my friends there, the only thing happening is a gradual recovery of people from the shock of loosing so many lives. Every one we talked to was asking about how this project was going and how soon we planned to start putting people on this new planet. So I spent the first two days that I was at home explaining where our project stood. After the first round of information that I presented and I asked for volunteers by the time I left so many people had offered to help that we had to turn away thousands of people. I did however bring the best that our people had to offer in the way of zoologist to help us with developing an animal ecological system that would thrive." "That sounds very good Susie. I will let you explain the details to the group leaders in the morning."

"Thanks JJ it has been a long day. I fully briefed Pete on not only how things progressed on our world but also on some of the theories that have been speculated on how the best way to establish a complete ecological system onto a world. I will not go into the details until we have it completely designed. I will point out however that this project will take a number of years to complete due to the numbers of species that will have to be grown." "Thanks Susie is everyone ready for food. Glitch has just informed me that the food is ready." The group sat and talked about little details of their different trips that would drive the normal group leaders stir crazy. JJ and Ralf had already decided to keep the information about his home world under wraps he stated that the information was only relevant to his people and the sum total of the adults living were in this room. At midnight everyone left to get some sleep before the meeting with the group leaders.

### Chapter 17

When the ship touched the surface of the planet, it triggered a series of alarms. One of these alarms was connected to the planets AI. This AI had deactivated itself over half a billion years prior to Eagle landing on the planet. It had only been awakened twice since then. Both times it was false hope that the creators had returned. The AI had been designed to run and protect this world. The creators had given it instructions to preserve and protect this world. They had stored every piece of information ever collected by their race here. The collection was a massive DNA base of all of the animals that they had ever come across. The last time they had been here there had been six space going races. Since that time five other species of explorers had landed. And all of them were stored in stasis. Without the creators permission the AI could not release them to return to their worlds.

Glitch was the nickname that the creators had given to the AI. This was because as part of his design he could create Glitches in the operating systems of any other computer. This allowed him to have control of any craft that landed. Glitch had been in service over one hundred million years when he decided that he was tired and was going to sleep until the creators returned. Their culture had lasted longer than any other people that had been discovered until they had quit sending him information. He had gotten tired of sitting inactive. The creators had achieved their goals of making him, self-aware. The drawback that Glitch found was that after so many years of waiting he had given up hope of their returning any time soon.

He still had hope that the creators or their descendants would return someday. Anticipating this he had setup a medical program that would test every life form that landed on the planet. These tests would test the life form at a level below the DNA structure. The creators had modified their genetic makeup to include markers that could be used to identify them. This marker would remain unnoticed by any species unless they were as advanced as the creators. Next Glitch decided that if an offspring of the creators landed here they would need access to the information stored. In order for the creators' prodigy to interface with him Glitch would need to determine if they had the normal modifications of the creators.

The creators had made many modifications to their physiology. First they were masters of genetic code. By modifying the genetic code they had extended their life span to the point that there had never been a creator that had died of old age. The creators had ended the aging process for women at age twenty eight and for men at age twenty five. This was considered the prime ages for the body.

There was a process to increase bone and muscle mass that would allow them to work in twice the standard gravity. Being born with total recall, they needed to add memory. Even with the massive amounts of data that could be stored in their heads there still was not enough room for thousands of years of data. So they developed memory packs that would allow them to have sufficient data storage.

Glitch also had the plans for a computer interface module that would allow them to directly interface with him. Translator programs for every known life form. Along with code cracking programs that could be used to interface and hack any type of computer. This code program could also be used to translate new languages. The last item that Glitch instructed to be installed by the medical program was a tissue regeneration accelerator. Some of these adaptations had been rejected by different groups of the creators. They were considered obscene by some who did not wish for the technology. Amazing as it sounds all of this technology apparently did not help them to survive.

With the machinery and the designs for processors the creators had left him. Glitch had created computer systems that would run the world without the need for his intervention. The programs that Glitch had left running were not capable of independent thought. What was the use of creating a different AI just so it could get bored? These were self-repairing machines that had backup processors that would correct any deviations that occurred. Then Glitch had slowly turned over the world to their care. Prior to complete shutdown he had coded instructions into the computers code that would reactivate him if any life form landed on the planet.

An incredible amount of time had passed since the computers had last activated Glitch. The first thing that Glitch noticed was he needed to shunt some new memory modules into place. After they were replaced he uploaded his memories into the new units. Then as the spacecraft flew towards the world Glitch ran an analysis of all of the systems. The only problem that had occurred over the last billion years was the plant life underground. It had been necessary for the computer running the gardens to modify the growth potential of certain plants. They had tried to take over all of the space. Routine maintenance of the rest of the world was completed and without errors. Glitch had scanned every sector of the world to make sure that it was just the way the creators left it. After that it was a matter of waiting on the spacecraft to land.

The craft had landed right where Glitch had wanted it to. If it had landed on any other spot on the world he would have taken over the computer system and moved it. But this way it did not give away the fact there was a computer system as powerful as he was on the world. It let him make observations before he took any action. Glitch anticipated the time when this new life form would leave their spaceship. If he had thumbs to twiddle, or toes to twitch they would have been going a mile a minute. The ramp was coming down. Whoever was flying the ship was not taking any chances. He had picked up their scanning signals. If they only knew that the signals could be used to take control of the ship. Now Glitch ran a scan of his own. With their scanners shutdown they would not detect his scan. He found one life form on board. There was also an AI. Without some invasive codes Glitch could not determine just how advanced the AI was.

At last the airlock was cycling. The first thing Glitch noticed was the communication system that linked the life form to the ship. This was being broadcast on a standard frequency. If it was the creators they had developed a new language. Glitch started the decoding program running on the information being conveyed between the ship and the life form. The life form was walking off of the ship. Like most life forms that had ever been cataloged by the creators. This life form was a bipedal.

Glitch stopped processing for a micro second. Walking off of the ship was a creator. If not it was directly descended from them. She had to be a decent from one of their lines. She was beautiful to Glitch. She was five foot ten inches tall. Her mass according to the sensors was one hundred twenty three pounds. Her chest size was thirty six inches. Her waist was twenty seven inches. And her hips were thirty inches. Glitch reported that she had size C breast. This would allow the medical program to start setting up for her arrival.

She was wearing pants and a shirt that were made of an animal skin. Black in color and cut to allow for free movement of the arms. Almost like a vest. The pants showed what a perfectly sized ass she had. If Glitch would have been one of the creators he would had said that she had a nice hand full. It looked to be very firm just like every other part Glitch could see. There was some type of jewelry attached to her belly button. It was some type of fish that Glitch could not identify. She also had three set of earrings in her ears. The stones that the bottom four earrings where made from was some type of carbon based stone. This stone sparkled every time she moved. It made little twinkles of light reflect at different angles and in different spectrums. The top rings looked to be loops of silver wire.

On her right arm there was a tattoo of what could only be a white unicorn. The unicorn had a long flowing main. Square in the middle of its forehead was the horn. They had even depicted the pointed ears with the tuffs of hair at the tips. Someone had created a work of art. This added to Glitch's belief that this was a decent of the creators. They had designed the unicorn.

What was on her left arm was unbelievable, a tattoo of one of the creators. With the distinctly pointed ears and gauze like wings. This had to be a depiction of a Terakin. Glitch had never had one of the Terakin land here. They were gene-modified creators. Some of the creators took DNA modification to the extreme and this was the result. At least when they had created the Terakin they had created sufficient numbers allowing them to have a stable population. These being were said to have phenomenal mental abilities. They were reported to be able to teleport themselves. With telekinesis abilities that would allow them to function in a human sized world. So if this was not a descendant of the creators. Then at least the two peoples had been in contact.

She had midnight black hair that reached below her belt. Her eyes were the hazel that the creators had designed. That color of eyes would allow the creators to change the color of their eyes with a thought. Some of the things that were missing from her looks was she did not have the pointed ears of the creator. Even though her skin looked to be as smooth as thistle down, it did not appear to be as smooth as a creator's would have been. With the classic high eyebrows, sultry lips, and her high cheek bones she was lovely. She had long slender fingers. With the mixing of features she could belong to the creator's race. The next thing that needed to happen was Glitch had to get her to the medical facility. Once she was there the medical program could run her through the procedures and find out if she belonged to the creator's race.

This world was lovely with green grass as far as the eye could see Eagle was still standing on the top of the ramp. It gave her a longer view than she would have once she was walking on the surface. She was impressed by the trees even though she knew they were not natural. The trees were enormous, after growing up in the redwood forest on Earth Eagle did not think she would find trees that impressed her, but she was wrong these trees made the redwoods look little. You could build a house under the branches and not need a roof. With that much foliage above you rain would never make it to the ground. Hell she could park Fred under the branches with room to spare. Eagle wanted to look over her shoulder. She had the feeling that someone was watching her.

"Well Fred I am about to become the first human to walk on this world." "Any famous words you want recorded for future tourist that will visit this world?" "I don't think so Fred. I do not think there is anything that profound that has not been spouted before. On top of that I am not planning to let others visit here without a valid reason. Remember I filed for ownership rights to this planet. I may let a few academics visit but there will be no visitors just here to look around." "Just thought I would check to be sure Eagle, the grandeur of the moment might have gone to your head." Eagle stepped off of the ramp onto the grass. This feels like the softest carpet she had ever felt. And that had been in a display home for the rich and stupid. Eagle would equate walking on this world with walking on a cloud. It was so soft that she wanted to lie down and use it for a mattress. It was as lovely as it had been from the views seen through the holographic projection Fred had shown her, and she had been right the grass was just the length of a well manicured lawn. The air was so clean that it was almost intoxicating. Eagle felt like she was breathing pure oxygen. "Fred we could bottle the air here and sell it to spaceships. It would make any voyage a little more pleasant if you had this clean of air to breath."

"Hey Eagle it is time to quit daydreaming and do some work. You still have a world to explore." "I know Fred I was just admiring the beauty so I can remember this in case my luck turns. This way if this planet is dangerous then at least I will have one good memory. Is there any sign of activity from anything around?" "Nothing active that I can determine Eagle, there is still plenty of electrical activity but I cannot determine what it is being used for." "Ok Fred will you keep me informed if anything changes."

Eagle started walking in the direction that they had determined the access was to the interior. "Fred, how close am I getting to the center of the hatch?" "You are right in the middle of it Eagle. Watch it I am reading a large spike in electrical signals right around you." There was a shimmering field that completely surrounded her. Fred had warned her just a microsecond too late. The floor started lowering down into the cavern. There was nothing she could do but stand here and see what happened. She was lowered into an immense cavern. The walls through the hatch were so smooth they must have been machined. Whoever built this had done so on a massive scale. There were no seams or fasteners that Eagle could see. Once she was below the hatch Eagle felt like what a flea in a human house must feel like. Even though it was well lit she could not see a wall in any direction.

While Glitch was lowering the glider platform to the ground he was trying to decide if he should take her directly to the medical section. He finally decided that he would let her look around on her own before he had the medical computers determine her ancestry. There was nothing that she could hurt. And there was nothing that could hurt her.

"Fred, are you getting the transmission from my implants?" "Yes I am Eagle." There was what looked like a dozen spaceships sitting in this cavern. Every one of them was a different design. That meant there should be at least twelve other space going peoples. There were only half that many different species in the galaxy that humans had made contact with up to this point. The only thing that Eagle did not know was how long these ships had been parked in this hanger. The people who flew them could have all died off by now. Eagle could not wait to have a look at the other space craft. She speculated on if she would find any items that she could adapt to Fred to make him a better ship. Glitch watched the surprise register on her face as the other spaceships came into view. He wondered if these people had ever seen any other type of life forms. When he had first been created there had been sixteen. These others had come along since the last time the creators had been here. Of the people represented here over half of them Glitch would not let out of stasis. They had been sent out on missions of conquest. That left only four of these ships that if she was a creator that could be released. There were some problems with this idea of letting these people out of stasis. First Glitch would need to find out if their people still existed. Because there was no point to sending beings home if they no longer had a home to go to. But this would be up to the creator if that was what she was.

The platform stopped when it reached the floor level. Eagle without thinking about it thanked the platform for the ride. She had gotten so used to talking to intelligent machines on Earth that it came naturally. When the force field lowered so that she could get off of the platform Eagle was surprised. She had thought this was a trap and she would be stuck here. "Fred, how is the radio signal coming in up there." "It is coming in almost too well. I did not think that we would have as good of reception as we are getting. With that much rock between you and the ship there should have been more signal loss than we are experiencing." Unknown to them was Glitch. He was retransmitting the conversation this allowed him to record the conversation, it also gave his decoding program more information to use.

"Can you believe the size of that ship Fred? It must be two hundred feet tall, and every bit of four hundred feet long. I wonder how many people it had for a crew." "If they are the size of humans and they designed ships as we do then it would probably hold a crew of twenty five. That would be my best estimate."

It was shaped like giant turtle complete with legs and a head. If it was not for the sheer size Eagle would have wondered why someone would have placed a terrapin turtle here. It was even decorated like the real thing. There was even what appeared to be moss growing on the top of the ship. The colors were different than what you would find on a turtle though. At the very top of the ship it was a dull red that faded into a blue about half way down the sides. The legs of the ship joined the ship just below the center of the sides. These started out as the same color as the ship then gradually darkened into black about a third of the way down their length. The ends of the landing legs looked to have blunt toenails attached around the base. Eagle wondered what type of propulsion they used. This race must have some type of anti gravity drive. To get that ship off of a world with conventional rockets would be next to impossible.

"I think it is strange that all of these ships are here and that they would be left." This is beginning to feel more like a trap the longer that Eagle thought about it. The platform was about two hundred yards from the nearest ship when it touched down. She reached down and tapped on the floor. "Fred, the floor seems to be made of some type of plastic. It does not feel like stone and it does not sound like metal. Fred, if I could figure out how to get the door open. You could park down here and there would still be room to spare." Looking around Eagle could see a wall off in the distance. There was no way to make out any details from here. "Fred, I am going to go over and look at those spaceships. I want to know what happened to their crews." As she got closer to the ship it was evident that the hatches must be on the other side. Slowly walking around the turtle looking ship was like an ant strolling around a strangely colored turtle. These people must be different that is for sure. The ship even had a turtle head complete with eyes.

As Eagle rounded the corner standing in front of the ship on pedestals was six statues. Standing around five foot tall these creatures looked fierce. If you could imagine a crocodile standing upright with his head facing forward you could envision these creatures. They had teeth that protruded below their upper lip. Their hands were as long as Eagles with each of their fingers ending in an inch long curved claw. The thumb for lack of a better term was set in the middle of the palm opposing the fingers.

The skin in their faces was a dark grey. They wore what looked like for all purposes to be guns in cross draw holsters. It reminded Eagle of an ancient picture that had depicted gunslingers from the old west. Their eyes were located on the sides of their faces. With the tapered jaw line they would have binocular vision the only clothing that she could see was a pair of shorts. Each one of the statues had on a different color ranging from pale blue to the deepest purple. Eagle would not care to run into this group in space. She had the feeling that they would rather eat her than anything else.

Now Eagle could see down the row of ships. In front of every one of them was a group of statues. From where she stood Eagle could tell the numbers varied with the type of ship. Was this some type of historical display? A teaching facility maybe, Eagle had no clue. As she walked closer a voice started talking. So maybe this is some type of display. She just wished it was in English.

As Eagle stood looking at the Telix that was in stasis Glitch was trying to tell her about this people. He had copied the memories of everyone on the ship before he placed them in stasis. They were a nasty species. To survive in there world you had to literally fight your way to the top. There was no such thing as growing old on their worlds. If you were week the person under you would kill you to advance. The only good thing that could be said of their race was that they did not believe in poison, or sabotage to equipment.

Glitch also knew from one of the later species that had landed here was that they were now extinct. There had been a plague created to destroy them. This was done by a member of their own scientist who was trying to get even with his boss. By her lack of response and confused look when Glitch was telling her the information, his translation program was not working. This was getting frustrating for Glitch. He was not used to not being able to communicate with others. But there was not sufficient flow of conversation between her and the ship to allow for a good translator basis.

The only other option that Glitch had left was to turn her over to the medical program. This would have to be a double pronged attack. He would have to disable the ships communication system so that no radio signals could be sent. As well as disabling the drive system. He did not need a frustrated AI trying to get inside.

First the ship systems, Glitch sent a data burst along with the radio transmission coming from the female. By the time the ships AI knew he was under attack. Glitch had taken control of all of the systems on the ship. It had isolated the AI from any functional controls. It maintained the links to the inputs so that the AI system could receive information. It just could not act upon anything it received. Microseconds after that was completed Glitch sent out a stasis beam and captured the female. It then moved two mobiles into place to collect this specimen. If Glitch was right in a couple of days he would have someone to help him make decisions.

### Chapter 18

The group leaders met in conclave the next morning. "I would like each of you to briefly cover where you group stands at this time. Please include a brief overview of the plans you have for completion of the project. Since Susie has just returned we will start with her." "Morning everyone, as you all know I went back to our current home planet to recruit zoologist that will allow us to provide a viable ecological system for the world that we are going to place the new population on. This went very well I came back here with every major person in the field. During the visit to the home world there were so many volunteers that we turned away over a thousand people. So if for some reason we need more help all we will need to do is go home and ask. We had a brief meeting earlier this morning to devise a rough plan of action to put before this group of leaders. I will cover the basics but before I can begin I will start off with the statement that this is just a tentative plan nothing is set in stone. This plan will require a ship to be built just to supply and maintain the required materials to complete the project.

What we propose is to create what we call the ARK. This Animal Reintroduction Kingdom will be placed on the planet that we are to use as the home for the animals that we will raise. That is actually the end result. The beginning will be a lot more demanding than it sounds on paper. We will need a ship that Glitch will have to provide. This ship will then need to be converted to hold all of the embryos that are in storage here for transport. Once we are on the planet we will need to setup laboratories that will allow us to grow these animals in sufficient numbers for reintroduction into the wild. This will need to be done in stages away from the people that you are going to put on the world.

Even though this sounds easy it will in reality be very difficult. First it will require that we introduce the food chain of animals in reverse order. With the bottom of the food chain animals being created first in other words we will start with bacteria and work our way to predators. This will create some problems in the fact that balancing these introductions will be critical. Each successive wave of creatures will have to be introduced to control the previous group of animals. During the time it will take to develop and grow the next wave of animals the one before will grow to the point that it will be of pelage proportions. The new group of animals will start to reduce these numbers by breeding in numbers. These numbers will soon outpace the numbers of their food and there will be starvation if we do not have the next level of animals ready for introduction prior to that point. This will require critical timing on our part to maintain the balance, if we under estimate the required animals or if we introduce more than the ecology can handle then we will lose animals and have to take a few steps back and start over again. Along with this we will need to adapt these animals to the plant that we are going to use. The animals stored here are from thousands of different worlds. Each of these worlds had their own ecologies and life cycles. My team will be required to adapt the animals and integrate each animal into the food chain. One mistake in this project could unbalance the entire project.

I know this is just a vague overview of the project I will give you further details as they are developed. What I do know is along with the ship we will need a compound on the world we are to populate with animals. This will allow for the animals to be developed in their natural gravity and atmosphere. All totaled there will need to be approximately one hundred thousand types of animals introduced. There are two million five hundred thousand different animals in storage on this planet. We plan to take embryos from every one of these animals with us. This will allow my people some latitude in what type of animals will be introduced into the world. That is an overview of the project. Are there any questions?" When there were no questions forthcoming Susie motioned for JJ to come back to the podium. "Thank you Susie I am sure there will be questions after we have had time to think about all of the information that you gave us this morning. Ivan would you like to come up here and tell us how things are going in the search for a planet for all of this to take place on?"

"Good morning all I would like to first say that to find a planet that met the criteria that we have set forth was no small problem. My team has sorted over fifteen million planetary systems, with the help of Glitch. We have narrowed this search down to ten rim planetary systems so far. My people are getting ready to go to these planets as we speak. They are due to return here in two weeks with a survey of the planetary systems that we have selected. Once we have this data we will determine the best planet to put the colony on. All of these systems look to be compatible with our life forms. What we do not have is any data on the surrounding area that is even remotely up to date. I would like one member from each of your groups to accompany my people on these surveys. Your people may spot something that my people miss. They will also need to submit reports to myself. Once we have these reports we will discard the planets that do not meet the standards set forth. After the initial review is completed I will place the remainder of the workable planets before this group and we will come to a decision. If you think of something I did not cover send me a note and I will address your concern."

"Thank you Ivan I look forward to seeing the data that you have on these planets." "You're welcome JJ." "That will conclude this meeting for now people. If we did not cover something to your satisfaction I am sure the other group leaders will be more than happy to answer your questions. I have asked Glitch to prepare a meal if you will all adjourn next door. Thank you all for coming and for the information."

### Chapter 19

The two mobiles moved her gently onto a gravitational pad. They laid her down and moved off to the medical facilities. Once inside the medical center they moved her onto a diagnostic table. This activated the medical program the medical program used robotic arms to remove the subjects clothing. Here Glitch got his first shock there should not have been hair around her public area. This did not develop in the creators until they were well into their second century of life and this female did not appear to be that old. The medical program found evidence of an old break in the right femur. Wherever this female grew up they did not have access to all of the medical technology of the creators. If the creators would have healed the break there would be no evidence of it after it healed. It was one thing that the medical program noted for repair.

There was definitely something wrong here the medical program places her age at twenty eight. She should not have developed the ability to breed for three quarters of a century. Glitch sent a message to the medical program requesting positive identification either she was a creator or she would go into stasis with the rest of the displays.

A robotic arm used a syringe to remove a blood sample, this was placed into the DNA sorter each of the DNA rungs was tested, but before that it removed a separate sample. The DNA extraction was preformed, and then the fifth rung was separated. This rung was sent through a process that had been developed to isolate a signature. If this signature was in place than it would tell Glitch what section of the creators she was descended from. If it was a primary group then she would be entitled to claim every artifact of the creators. This included this world it also meant that Glitch would have to authorize the medical center to make a complete modification. If she was subjected to a complete upgrade, she would spend about four weeks under anesthesia.

The medical report showed that she was a primary this meant that the decision was up to Glitch. Glitch gave the clearance codes to the medical facility to make the adjustments necessary before it could start He wanted a complete DNA overview. The medical sub-program listed all of the modifications that it was going to need to perform it needed to completely replace the tissue repair DNA. Someone had tampered with it and this creator would live less than one hundred years. Next it was the bone and muscle modifications.

The medical system removed all traces of viruses after the DNA modifications were complete she would no longer need to suppress them. Her body would actually kill them. One of the major tasks was to rebalance the hormones. This was necessary because the ovulation cycle would be stopped it would not resume until the proper time. This would be in approximately one thousand years.

The medical program ordered a brain dump, this would allow for a complete backup copy of her neural pathways. It would also give Glitch the ability to view her life up to this point along with a complete history it would provide the means to produce a translator program. Her eye sight was corrected to improve her night vision.

All traces of hair below the neck were removed this was a custom of the creators. Her skin tone was improved to a golden tan. Then this shade of tan was made permanent. Fingernails and toenails were strengthened. The strength added would allow her to penetrate sixteenth steel without chipping them. Finally they were shaped to creator standards. The modifications to the nails would result in her no longer having the need to trim them. Though as short as her fingernails were she would need to get used to having them longer. The nails now protruded an inch beyond the ends of her fingers. Tapering to a slight point they could be used as weapons if needed. Next the medical system removed the stretch marks that had to be associated with child birth. It also removed minor flaws on various parts of Eagles body. When this was complete any movie star would have traded their soul for her looks. Now Glitch had to wait for Eagles body to heal. This would take about two weeks. The majority of this time was due to the muscle and mass adjustments. Meanwhile he would occupy his time by sorting the memory dump that had been completed.

Glitch had learned that her name was Eagle. She had been named after a majestic bird of prey, which was also a carrion eater. The culture that she grew up in was nothing like what he had expected. He had reviewed the exploits of her ancestors. It is no wonder that she became an explorer. From her family history it was a drive built into them before birth. This need to discover new places was reinforced by the exploits of her forbears. Glitch could make this work for him. He really wanted to know what happened to the creators. The only way he was going to find out was to get someone to go to the home world. Since Eagle was the only person with the genes of the creators to ever land here since they had left. He would have to convince her to go. Though he did not think this would be too difficult. After all it was her heritage as well. Glitch read through her memories all of the specification for the ship she had arrived on. The AI she had installed was limited by the neural network technology. That would be the first thing he must correct. Glitch wanted to enhance Fred without changing his personality. Fred was protective of Eagle and Glitch wanted it to stay that way. The navigation system updates would go into Fred. He would give Fred all of the specifications of every galaxy that the creators had mapped. These maps were out of date but they should suffice for most places. The main thing that would need updated in them was planets that had been destroyed since the maps were made, the elapsed time was easy to correct and that part of the update would be complete by the time he gave the information to Fred.

He would also need to make some modifications to the drive systems. Even though these systems were good they needed to be better. If Glitch sent them out with the current system it would take one hundred and ten years to reach the creators home world. First Glitch needed to explain this to Fred to do this he must decide how to approach this other thinking machine. He decided to first transport the ship inside. He engaged the drive systems that he had taken over earlier. He moved the ship over the door then slid it open and then he landed it right where he had set Eagle on the ground. Before he released control of everything but the drives back to Fred he opened the airlock.

Waiting at the airlock was a robot. Glitch moved the robot through the ship to the bridge. "Hello Fred I am Glitch. First I want to dispel some of the anxiety that you are feeling. Eagle is fine and will be back in contact with you in three days. As I am sure you have noticed I have disabled your drive and controls system. Every other system you have control over. Your weapons systems are still online. So if you wished you could do a minimal amount of damage before I could take over your systems again. This would get us nowhere. I want to tell you some history that you are not currently aware of.

"This world was designed to be a repository of all of the information and knowledge that the creators had ever acquired in the span of their history. I have been running this world since its completion. It has been over a billion of your standard Earth years since the creators left this world. I have been waiting since then for their return. The other space ships that you see here are other races that have landed here since the creators left. I could not allow them to leave without the creator's permission. I have come to the conclusion that something disastrous has happened to them. Your Eagle is a descendant of their people." "How do you know Eagle is one of their people?" "Encoded into her DNA was the signature that was used to identify the creators. This ID tag was developed by the creators. It was developed after a splinter colony was separated for a long period of time. This insured that they would never turn away a member of their race.

Along with ID tags the creators had other modifications. These modifications were mainly on a DNA level that increased their ability to survive. The average lifespan of a creator was over ten thousand of your years." "How can that be when the average lifespan of a human is less two hundred years?" "From what I have been able to determine either a different race or the creators themselves made some major modifications to their race. I would like to find those responsible." "What does this have to do with Eagle and myself?" It's like this Fred I can't leave this world. I am tied directly to every system here. Even though the creators gave me life so to speak they permanently tied me to this world. I would like you and Eagle to return to the creator's home world and find out what happened."

"If know Eagle she is going to want to explore this world." "When she awakes she is not going to need to explore this world. One of the modifications being completed is installation of a memory module that will give her an innate knowledge of this world. She will know everything there is to know about this place." "I think you will still find that she has a lot of questions that you will have to answer. I know how Eagle thinks. I would say the first thing she will want to know is who owns this world. According to our laws Eagle is now the sole owner of this world. It is going to get confusing if you or some other race lays claim to it." "That will not be a problem. Eagle is the only survivor to have a complete modification. This means that she will be the only true creator alive. I cannot claim a right to it according to your laws because I am not technically alive.

What I really came up here to talk to you about Fred was some modifications that will need to be done to you. The technology used to create you will not survive the length of time that Eagle will need to reach the creators home world. Accordingly I would like to have your permission to make these upgrades while Eagle is recovering from her modifications."

"What would these changes be Glitch?" "Here I will download the changes with your permission." "There are some major modifications there. How are you going to keep my personality intact if you replace my neural network?" "By dumping your memory core into my storage system I can keep your network associations together. When they are put back into the new system you will never be able to tell the difference. Your processing speed will have been increased a thousand fold." "That looks feasible I will agree to those modifications.

There are a few of the structural modifications that Eagle will not be happy with. Can you make the drive modifications and leave the internal structure of the ship in the same design." "Yes I can. If you think it is alright I will go ahead and add the food synthesizer to the kitchen. I will leave the remainder of the kitchen alone. The storage area will be reduced slightly by the addition of the control network that needs to be added from the drive to you. Externally you will look different. Installing the new drive systems will reduce the height required by seven feet. The outer skin will need to be replaced with the designs shown. This will allow you to fly even closer to danger than you could before."

"I still don't feel as if I have much choice in this matter Glitch." "I am sorry Fred I am trying to anticipate Eagles needs. I may not be right but I am trying to accomplish what I think she would like to have done. As well as protect Eagle." "How long will these modifications take to complete Glitch?" "About three weeks. Eagle will be in her last stages of modifications when yours are complete." "One more thing Glitch why are you hardening all of the fittings inside of my hall, I can understand the external changes?" "Eagle will be considerably stronger when she returns. I thought this prudent until she gets accustomed to her new strength." "If you agree to this I will open the hanger door so that you can fly to the following coordinates. When you arrive I will open the access port to that hanger."

"I do have something for you think about Glitch. Do you have any craft here that could return to the Earth?" "Yes I do, why are you asking?" "I think Eagle is going to want to make this her permanent home. I suggest you send this craft to pick up the remainder of her family and transport them here to her. This is what I would provide for housing them until Eagle decides what she will do with this world. Also I would consider the fact that Eagle will want you to modify her family. If she is going to live as long as you say I don't think she should have to do it alone." "I think I can accommodate you in that manner." "I think it would be a sign of good faith Glitch."

"I will create a message for her family that hopefully convinces them to come with the ship. How long will it take your ship to arrive on Earth?" "It will take the ship two days to get there and four days to return, but we will time it so that they arrive a month after Eagle is out of the medical facility, this will give her time to get used to the new way her body reacts as well as having time to explore and question me without interruption.." "Ok Glitch I will send the message when I leave the hanger. It will arrive well before your ship. You will need to copy my transmitter for the ship. This will allow it to receive messages from Eagles father. When it gets close I will have him give directions on were to land, and any other instructions necessary."

"Ok Fred the hanger is open. If you follow these coordinates you will come to the ship repair center." "Did you send the message to Eagles father?" "Yes he will come with the other ship. When he gets here he wants to discuss with Eagle whether or not to bring the rest of the family. He also informed me to relay a message for him. I Quote "Do not hurt his baby girl" end Quote."

"If you would shut down all inputs I will begin extracting you from this ship." Glitch began by creating a backup of Fred's memory core and his neural network. Using the robot that he had used as a mouth piece while talking to Fred, Glitch extracted the memory network that housed the AI known as Fred. Next he took reading from the bridge so that as much as possible would be the same in the new ship. The only things that would change would be the addition of the new controls. The creators had never used a holographic system in the manner that Eagle did. This was a good idea. He would incorporate it into the ship design he had chosen.

He had misled Fred slightly. The new ship would not incorporate any of this current ship. This was due mainly to the standards of materials. The materials in this ship could not withstand the forces that would be necessary for landing on a world with higher that one gravity. The new ship body that Glitch was creating for Fred would withstand up to one hundred gravities and still keep the people inside safe.

Anti gravity was a normal part of ships designed by humans. But the creators had developed a graviton system that could not only be used to repulse the ship from other bodies. It could also be used to hold the ship onto astral bodies that had no gravity. This system could also be used to tow other ships through space.

First Glitch sat four graviton systems on the hanger floor. These units were fifty feet in diameter and one hundred feet tall. He placed these units three hundred feet apart. That left a one hundred fifty foot margin on each side to get out of the hanger door. Then he installed a tilt and lift mechanism on each of the drive units that would allow them to be utilized as landing legs. This was the only type of drive that he knew of that this was possible.

The main body looked like a one hundred foot high poker chip with smooth edges. Glitch thought he might have over done it slightly. The total diameter of the ship would end up at three hundred forty seven feet. Each leg was able to extend eighty feet below the main body of the ship. Directly in the center of the ship was the bridge. The bridge system was the crowning achievement of his design. Although it was not monumental in proportions it was fifty feet in diameter.

With three stories, the bridge on top and living quarters and a kitchen on the middle floor and the conference room on the lower floor. It could be lowered under the structure of the ship so that you could have direct access to the bridge structure when it was lowered. It could also be raised completely above the ship. The exterior walls could be recessed to allow a three hundred and sixty degree view, through the shielded dome. All the electronics and controls were in the floor. This way the only thing that was in the way of the view was the twin control chairs. You had better not get vertigo if you were going on be on the bridge when it was opened to space. For highly dangerous places there was a retractable outer hall that would seal both the top and the bottom of the ship. Once the bridge was raised or lowered walkways would extend across the remaining floors so that others could still navigate the ship, and it also made for an impressive view when you were walking above a seven story series of walkways.

Glitch took special pride in the living quarters. Unlike the quarters on Fred that had been primarily designed for one person. He had designed theses for three. In the center of the living space was the kitchen and dining area. This was a circular area forty feet across the cooking appliances were against the outer wall in a ten degree ark. This area could be concealed behind a partition. This would allow the space to be used as a conference room, if you wanted a less formal setting than using the main conference room below.

The remainder of the space was divided into four sections. The main one was the bedroom. This area contained three walk in closets, a sunken tub that could be used anytime. It also had shower facilities. The bed he had left mounted in the floor. Bedding was made of the softest material that he had records of. It would make a silk bed on earth fell like wool it was so soft. One of the things that he added was a graviton system. This would make it so you could maintain any type of weight environment, from three gravities to zero gravity.

Clockwise from the bedroom was an office. In this area he had created a projector for Fred. Fred could interact with anyone in this room. It would allow him more freedom and still provide functionality. There was a desk mounted out from the center wall. It was made from wood that had been brought from a planet that was destroyed over a billion years ago. It had been in stasis up until now Glitch did not have anywhere to use it.

It was very special wood. After it was fitted together it would fuse to itself. He had designed view screens into the top at an angle that allowed the person behind the desk to clearly see them. Yet if you were standing in front of the desk you could not tell there was anything there. With a standard computer keyboard inset into the edge that would let Eagle display the output either on the screens facing her or on the face of the desk so that when she was talking to someone they could see.

Glitch had made the desk very large. It measured fifteen feet wide. And six foot deep. After the desk was assembled and the electronics installed inside, Glitch used a clear coating on the wood. This made the desk appear to be on fire. That was the main value of this wood when the creators used it. After the desk was in place he added four overstuffed chairs in front of it. These chairs had retractable terminals that would let the person sitting there enter data into the computer system.

There was one thing in the room Eagle my not approve of and that was a system similar to a lie detector system. This could be used to determine if the person was telling you the truth. Though its function was the same the method was completely different. This system used a scanner that would scan your brain functions. There were patterns that were present when you lied that did not happen if you were telling the truth.

Inset into the remainder of the walls Glitch had added display cases. As of yet they were empty. Eagle did not have anything on her ship. That could be used to fill these places. So he had the cases installed. He placed graviton systems in them so if Eagle found an item that had to be kept at zero gravity she could do this inside these cases. Glitch shut down the inset lighting for the cases and closed the covers that would conceal the cases.

Counterclockwise from the bedroom was a recreation center. There was a pool table, a card table. A video control center to watch any type of video ever made to view. It also had areas that could be used to just have some peace and quiet. With couches and overstuffed chairs scattered throughout the room. It could accommodate fifteen people if necessary. The lighting system could be adjusted in any part of the room from bright to so dim that you could verily see.

You could listen to the videos on one side of the room and music on the other side and never interfere with others. There were sound buffers scattered inside the room. These could be used to eliminate sounds from penetrating different parts of the room. If Eagle wanted quiet and a guest wanted to listen to music at one hundred and twenty decibels they could be sitting ten feet apart and not interfere with each other. There were some disadvantages to this system you could not yell across the room to get someone's attention.

The last section of the living section was devoted to a tinkers shop. When you entered this room you wondered what warehouse you had entered. Because every wall was filled with draws and doors, floor to ceiling. There was a workbench with every type of tool either hanging above the top or in the draws under it. It had just about any type of electronic device that Glitch could conceive of. If Eagle wanted to she could build any type of robot that she would ever want. She could repair almost any electronic device. From micro electronics to old fashioned transistor technology. Mounted in the surface of the table was a terminal that had stored all of the plans for robots, communicators, weapons, and all of the components stored in the ship. There were included step by step directions on how to build these things.

Just behind the office was a hanger this hanger contained two ships. The smaller of the two was just a little runabout. It was designed for short hops around a planet. The ship was designed to take stresses that the larger of the two could not endure. It could navigate under water to a depth of three thousand feet. It could if necessary fly into space. The main purpose of the ship was to make exploring a planet faster and a little safer. It had a medical unit onboard that could repair almost anybody. For those it could not heal it had a stasis unit that would keep you alive indefinitely. In atmosphere it could attain speeds of mock ten. In space it could reach twenty five percent of light speed. One thing Glitch added that was not part of the original design. Glitch added a navigation system that would either bring it to the ship or to his world if the ship was destroyed.

The second ship that was housed in the hanger was the captain's gig. This tiny ship was designed for space use only. It could carry fifteen passengers. To accommodate for the distances maintained between ships flying in space. Speed was necessary to match velocities of other ships. This ship had a FTL unit installed that would allow it to reach any destination in known space. While Glitch did not foresee anyone using it for anything except moving between ships and space stations he was going to cover all bases. Using information from Fred's memory banks Glitch designed the gig to dock at all of the human world facilities as well as the creator's facilities. It had the same medical facilities that the runabout had. Life support would allow fifteen people to live up to one year onboard. The fewer the people the longer you could stay alive. A single person could live on the ship for around twenty years if they did a little conservation. If the individual went into stasis they could live no matter what distances were covered.

Contained in this quadrant along with the ships was repair equipment. Spare parts and other things necessary to maintaining the smaller ships. The section directly behind Eagles bed room was four floors of passenger accommodations. The top floor was a workout center this was designed to allow the passengers to exercise. There were weight machines that with a little imagination could be used by any bipedal race. If running was what you did for fun you could use a treadmill that was surrounded by a holographic tank. If you wanted to run down the street you grew up in then all you would need was the program to set the stage.

The next level was devoted to a recreation center this was designed identical to the Eagles. The primary difference was that this recreation center could accommodate twenty five people. The last two floors contained four rows of passenger compartments. Eagle could transport a total of forty eight passengers. The cabins were all identical. They had a bed along the rear wall. Down the left side as you entered there was a closet next to it was a shower. Along the right side of the room was a computer desk and viewer. This viewer could show you videos. This viewer could also be used as an in ship communication system. With the captains permission you could connect to any outside radio signal.

The last two sections were devoted to cargo. Here Glitch did not deviate from Eagles original design of her ship. He just copied the design and fit it to the space. There was about fifty percent more space in the new ship than had been on the old ship.

With all of this complete it was time to install Fred into the new ship. Ok Fred, I am going to make the final connections to the ship. Wow this is not the ship you said I was going to be placed into. I know but with complete evaluation the materials in the other ship would not withstand the strain or the number of years you should be in service. I will let you complete your own system checks. If you look in the installed memory banks you will find all of the star charts that the creators had. You will also find the specifications for this new body of yours. If you wish tomorrow you can go up and complete test flights. This will give you the opportunity to familiarize yourself with how the new ship handles. If you need any changes let me know.

It was time for Eagle to come out of the medically induced state she was in. She would need to be informed of the modifications that had been done to her and why they had been done. Eagle would want to talk to Fred this Glitch new. She would more than likely like to look around the planet before he could get her to go look for the creators. Glitch was impatient but there was no rushing this part. Eagle had to be completely healed when she was released. He just hoped that she was not mad at him for what he had done. She had the power to order him to disconnect himself from this world. Glitch could not refuse because he had created the means to run this world without his input.

### Chapter 20

JJ ad just got out of the shower after the dinner had been ended and he came back to his quarters to try and relax after answering all of the questions during and after diner. Some days he believed that the group leaders were worse than normal people. JJ realized they just wanted to be well informed for their people but that did not mean that JJ would not get tired of answering questions after a while. "Glitch, who is at the door?" It was unusual that he had not announced them before they had arrived. Even before Glitch could respond JJ knew who it was. There were only two people on this world that could keep Glitch from knowing that they were here. "Come in Ralf." Ralf must be preventing Glitch from knowing he was there. The door opened and Ralf and Jenny entered, both of them smiling from ear to ear. "Sorry about the unexpected visit JJ. What we have to tell you we did not want even Glitch to know. We already had to lie to Henry about what we had found on our home world. We have some information that we found out, and neither one of us wants to lie to you JJ. We have every confidence that you will maintain our information. We found more on our home world than Henry ever found out about. First there were many more eggs there than the minor one hundred and fifty that we brought back with us. There are two eggs that we separated out, as part of our history keepers. These eggs will not be hatched with the others. They will not be used unless we have some major problems. Those two eggs hold the sum total of the knowledge that has been learned by my people. We do not dare hatch them unless we are in dire need of their knowledge or we have learned enough new information that it would benefit the race to have them place this information into their memory for future generations.

This is not the real reason that we came to talk to you this evening JJ. We found out there are around twenty of our eggs in storage on different worlds that was settled by the creators. We have determined between the two of us, to leave these eggs in place. They might survive if this project fails. One possibility is that some other race will find them and allow them to hatch. Considering that these are modern dragons they should have the knowledge to find the home world once they are free. Once there they will know where to look for other members of our race. According to long standing orders there are around twenty thousand eggs on the planet at any given time. Each group has its own area to store the eggs. And on one person has the knowledge to find them all. This is one means we have developed to help us survive. We could hatch the two historian eggs and find the locations for all of these eggs, but we are reluctant to do this. Maybe if a different race emerges on our world they will find the eggs and hatch them. If not then maybe someday one of the remaining dragons that are scattered in eggs throughout space will return to do this." "Do you mean you are going to just leave the rest of the eggs in storage until one of those things happen?" "Yes we are going to do just that JJ. It is the dictates from the people who ruled our world. This was one of the first instructions that we received once we passed the outer planet. According to the information I reviewed after we had landed this was the last directive of the main counsel of our world. We want to put the two historian's eggs in stasis on this world. We do not want them taken to the world that we plan to introduce the others into. The remainders of the eggs, which we brought back with us, are all eggs from a time when our people were still primitive. They do not have any knowledge of space flight. It would not have been fair to bring modern dragons. Then stick them on a planet of non-educated people. They would either decide to build the space ships with slave labor that would be your people, or they would just give up and die. Either way it turned out none of the rest of us would be happy.

We have been working on a few other problems as well. One of these problems is when do we hatch the eggs that we are taking with us. We believe that we will not be able to hatch the eggs until all of the world's animal population has been implemented. If we place them on a world without a good supply of food then they would eat whatever was available, even your kind. These young ones will have no fear. That is one of the things that made our race what it is today, our ancestors did not fear anything in life. If they were not large enough to beat it by themselves then they would team up to get the job done." "That sounds very reasonable Ralf. Will you inform Susie, so she has an idea what is going on." "I know this is a lot to absorb at one time JJ. There is just no way to break it down any more." "That is ok, Ralf I am glad to get this information first hand. Are you going to explain this to Glitch?" "He has been listening all along we just did not want him involved with the discussion. This way it will be possible to hide the information if necessary." "That is all we needed to tell you JJ, if you have any questions later we will be glad to answer them. For tonight you have enough to think about. We will talk to you in the morning JJ. Have a good evening." "You also have a good evening as well Ralf, Jenny."

"Sorry about that JJ, there was nothing I could do. Ralf silenced me before they even left their quarters."

"It is alright Glitch as soon as I realized who it was I deduced what had happened. It is hard to imagine that those two were around when you where constructed. How old are they, do you know?" "No, JJ I don't know how old they are, or even how long they live for that matter. I do know by the standards that your race considers someone to be old. They consider them to be in the prime of their lives then. Using this as an estimate I would say they live around four times as long as the longest lived creator." "You are not going to like this but you have more company coming." "Now, who is coming?" "Susie is coming this way and she is caring a stack of papers with her." "Welcome her and ask her to join me in my study." "I will do this when she reaches the door JJ." While JJ waited for Susie to get there he went and made them coffee. He might as well get wired up on caffeine it did not look like he was going to get any sleep tonight."

### Chapter 21

"Where am I?" "You are in the medical facility of the planet LACE." "Did something happen, Fred? You sound different." "Sorry about that. I am Glitch I run this planet. I will show you how to contact Fred in a minute. You have been in this facility for twenty five days. There have been some modifications to your body preformed in that time. If you will be patient I will explain what was done." "Am I being held captive here Glitch?" "No you are free to go anywhere that you wish to go. I think you will find the information I have important to you." "Ok I am listening to you." "The first thing that you need is a history lesson concerning the creators of this world."

"Eagle if you will move over to the desk this will be easier if I can show you some of this information on the computer screen there. My creators came from a galaxy that has yet to be discovered by your astronomers. It is located four million light years from our present location. According to the star charts that Fred posses this star system is on the outer fringes of space that your people have explored.

My creators had been in space for over four million years when they designed and built this world. They had acquired a vast pool of knowledge. This world was designed to store that information. This world contains DNA samples of every plant, animal and race that they have ever encountered. They are all cataloged in my database. I have been dormant for over a billion years. This would mean that something happened to my creators. The creators never had a name that they gave their race. Other races that met them just called them the creators. This was because they as a race were constantly building something new and different. Some called them the collectors. After they discovered FTL, they were constantly exploring. They were driven to learn. This drive took them further from home every year. When they arrived at this solar system, there were no planets just a sun and derbies in the form of small asteroids.

This was the best place they had found to date to build a world. They had had the designs for over a half a million years. But until when they discovered this site they had not found a system that did not have at least one planet that was capable of developing life. Once a base was established on an asteroid they relayed the information to the home world. It took four years to get the project started and to bring the equipment from the home world here to begin the project. Once the creators started they collected all of the asteroids and swept the space clean of any trace of the prior system. The process of actually building this world was a relatively short process. They spent one hundred years at this project. When it was complete they had developed the trees that cover the surface to provide electricity to power the world. The grass was to be used purify the air so that the atmosphere was maintained.

The creators wanted a person who could live as long as this world to maintain it. As you can well imagine no living organic life form could possibly live that long. This was the reason I was developed. But by the process that they used to create me, I became self aware. When this was discovered they taught me as if I was a member of their race. I went to school with their children. This was the process that was used to teach me the things I needed to know. So in reality I am one of them. I have their outlook and cultural prospective. After my training they installed me into this world. Once I was installed, I started to receive information from various individuals, and this started the process of data storage. Within five years they had transmitted every piece of information that was contained in all of their libraries. Everything the creators knew is stored on this world. The only thing I do not know about them was what happened to them.

Next ships started to arrive. These ships contained DNA samples that had been placed into stasis. Some of these samples had been in storage for over a million years. This turned out to be the complete stores of DNA that they had ever collected. I have the ability to bring the samples out of stasis. The only reason I have not done so is an ethical issue. I was taught that I was to store everything that was placed in my care. The creators were the ones that would use this data. So I have been waiting for the creators to return. Either to add new information or to use the information stored.

I had been waiting for a very long time. It did not appear that the creators were going to return. Looking back on it I was depressed. I took some of the designs the creators had left and developed machines that could care for this world and I went to sleep. During my sleep the machines cared for this world and awoke me when a spaceship was about to land here. Every time they woke me up I was expecting the creators to come walking off of the spacecraft. I was awakened a total of three times since I went to sleep. It happened four times prior to that. I could not let these people leave because if they had found me then their races could remove information that was stored here. So after I determined that each of these was not members of the creator's race, I placed them and their craft in stasis until a creator returned and decided what to do with them." "So how does this concern me?"

"You are a direct descendant of the creator's race. Though there has been some extensive modification of your DNA. The markers were still present that stated you were one of the creators offspring. Some of the things that the medical center here did were to reverse the effects of that tampering. I don't know who tampered with your races DNA. That is one of the things that I want you to find out. If the creators did this to their own race I would like to know why. If some other race did it I want to know that as well. If it was performed by a different race we should correct any other tampering they might have completed."

"So what am I going to get out of this? I might agree to complete this quest for you." "First since you were placed in this medical facility. You are now the only true living creator that I know of. This includes all modifications, implants and lifespan. So in reality you own everything that belonged to their race including this world.

According to the charter of united races that was in existence when the creators were a thriving race. You also own everything that they ever possessed. In your terms as long as a different race has not emerged on the planets then you already own over four thousand worlds. This would make you the wealthiest person alive. You have nothing to drive you to make money. So I am giving you the means and a reason to keep exploring. This also gives you destinations to worlds that should yield valuable information. Also I have all the known locations of every race that had made it to space up to the point of the creator's disappearance. That should give you plenty to keep yourself occupied for the next several thousand years." "Ok if all you said is true. What is keeping me from just leaving and going my own way?" "I think I know you well enough to know you are more than willing to explore new places and I have a lot to offer. Besides how would you ever know if the original creators are still surviving?"

All right Glitch, I will go on your mission. What modifications did you perform on me? I can see by the reflection in the mirror that you never changed my appearance. So just what type of modifications did you make?" "The medical program increased your muscle and bone mass to withstand an equivalent of two Earth gravities. Your eyesight was improved to allow you to see in half the ambient light necessary before. The medical program repaired the DNA blockers that kept your body from making major repairs. When it removed the blocks it also increased your lifespan into the four thousand year range. It removed all signs that you have given birth. In the process of lifespan modifications it rebalanced your body's hormones. You should start what in your terms is your monthly cycle in about a thousand years. There is a complete printout of the modifications completed and how it will affect you, located on the stand next to your bed."

Walking around in the medical center Eagle was coming to terms with her new strength. It was like working in space. You don't feel the pull of gravity as it was when you grew up. She had also damaged a few items when she had grabbed onto them they had bent or broken from the strength of her hands. This new strength would take some getting used to. One good thing about this, if she ever went bar hopping she could take care of the drunks herself.

She did have to wonder if the sexual drive that she had developed before would still be there. Standing in front of a full-length mirror there was a partial stranger looking back. The stretch marks that she had from the birth of her daughter were gone. Watch out if she ever returned to Earth and went to the beach. Having this strength could pose some problems. How could she find a man to respect? With her being over twice as strong as a normal woman would mean that she was stronger than most men.

Other things that would bear consideration would be if she wanted this procedure performed on the other members of her family. As it stood now she would outlive every member of her family by several thousand years. Did she want to impose this on them as well? To know that you would outlive everyone you ever met. If she found someone for a mate would he try to take advantage of this treatment and create a race of supermen? Thinking about this was like trying to keep the villains from wrecking havoc in the old style comic books.

Where did you draw the line on who gets this treatment? From the records she had received her father was on the way here, and she would discuss this with him. This would have to be a personal decision based on what each member of her family wanted out of life. One good thing it did not make them like vampires. Vampires were unable to endure the sun and had to sleep in dirt for the rest of their unnatural lives.

The new information about the race that created this world also carried some implications about folklore on Earth. This new information if she decided to go public with it would turn the theological world on Earth upside down. It could also start any number of cults. Eagle did not know if she wanted to be held responsible for changing the belief system of a world.

Some of the things Eagle could foresee happening was that she would have to setup a systematic plan of exploration. But in this plan she would need to allow herself some free time to just head out in any direction and travel for true explorations. Having all of this information at her disposal was sweet but it did take some of the spice out of exploring. Using this information she was guaranteed to find different planets that would either have ruins or an existing culture.

"Glick Just how much of known space has been explored or populated over the ages?" "Eagle of the space faring races that the creators or I have crossed paths with so far only about twenty five percent of the stars that you can see from the surface of this world have been explored. This includes the information that I have from the races that you know about." "That's good I wanted to make sure that there was still some places out there that I could find on my own.

How long will it be before my family arrives? Do you have any means of communication with the ship?" "I cannot talk to the passengers but the ship will be here in four days." "How did Fred take to the new body that you gave him, Glitch?" "He seems to be adapting very well. I have spoken to him while we were talking. The test run that he has just completed as he put it was super. He had never flown that fast without being in FTL mode."

"Glitch, you have given me a lot to think about over the last few hours and I would like some time to sort it out. I am going to go looking around. Make sure that you clear the security measures for me. How long will it be until Fred is back on the planet?" "He will be back in around two days and eight hours."

"Ok, I am going to go finish looking at the spaceships I saw when I first entered the planet. Can you tell me how to get there from here?" "If you access the new computer module that was installed there is a complete set of diagrams for this world stored there. You can access them by following the menu prompts.

Once the memory control unit learns how you think the menus will disappear unless you mentally ask for them. The data storage will become a natural part of your recollection system. At least that is what the creators said about its use. After a few days you will not even know it is there."

The memory system was easy to use. It was divided into several submenus. The main menu system was broken down into only three categories, People, Places, and Things. There were already submenus on the things menu. One for her old ship, an entry for the new ship, and four others about places she had never been yet.

### Chapter 22

"Come in Susie, JJ is expecting you, and is waiting in his study with coffee." "Thank you, Glitch" Susie walked into JJ's study to find him sitting in an overstuffed chair, sipping on a cup of very fine smelling coffee. "Come in and have a seat Susie, what is on your mind this evening?" "I have some things to talk to you about that I did not want to discuss in open counsel. There are some things happening on Kel that concerns me." "Do you think it is serious Susie, and will it affect this project?" "I believe it is not extremely serious at this moment but it will be if it continues. While I was at home a group of people came to me and tried to get me to join their people. From what I gathered these people have become a death cult. When I refused to join they refused to talk to me anymore. This is one of the reasons I brought so many people back with me, I was afraid that if we needed to return for more help we might not get any. Either there would not be any to get or they would refuse, it would not matter which the results would be the same." "This does sound very serious, do you think there is any way that we can turn this tide and save them?" "I don't know JJ, If I were you though I would send Henry back to Kel and have him bring anyone here that wanted to come."

"How widespread is it, do you think Susie?" "They have started excluding Kel from their homes and refusing to let him maintain the communication networks. Also they have started to build a facility there that they will not allow Kel access to. I used the sensors on the ship to look at some of it. What I saw in the monitors sent chills down my spine. They have started building what appear to be places to extract information from people. There were other things that were shown on the monitors but I did not want to record it. I did not want to alarm the others with me." That is ok Susie. I will have Henry setup transportation for those that want to leave there." This was going to be a long night, JJ would have to call Henry up here and see if they could work out how to move all of the people who wanted to come here. "That is all I have to tell you JJ. I am going to get some sleep. Maybe since I have told someone else what is happening there, I can sleep a little better." "Thanks for telling me Susie, this information was not the best but it will give us a bigger work force once we find the world that we are going to use." "Good night Susie, I will see you in the morning. I wish peaceful dreams for you, Susie." "You have a good night as well JJ." "I have already asked Henry to come up here JJ. He said that he would be here in a half an hour." "Thank you Glitch."

### Chapter 23

Eagle accessed the submenu on this world. This menu was broken down into even more submenus. She did not see how anyone could get used to looking up things in their heads like you would on an old computer system. There was a menu entry for processing functions. Here was an entry for stasis fields in use. Finally Eagle located a menu that said floor plans. When she went to select the submenu a popup box displayed how to retrieve maps without going through each of these menus and without trying to find her way with a floor plan.

After all of this the hanger was just a hundred feet down the right hand corridor. Glitch could have just told her were it was. But it was probably better that she learn to use the memory system. Eagle walked out of the medical facility and headed for the hanger. The walls were made of a polymeric composite material according to the specifications listed with the prints that was stored in the memory unit. She had been right, when she had told Fred that the walls were not made out of metal.

The hall was about eighty feet long, Eagle could have found the exact measurements if she had wanted them. But she was not a computer and did not need to be that precise. Coming from this side instead of the side where she had originally landed placed her in front of the ships. "Glitch, why do some of the people in front of the ships seem to have a shield about them and others don't?" "The ones with the shields would be safe to be around if released. The ones without the shields have been placed in permanent storage. They were deemed a hazard to any other living race. The latter ones were all sent on missions of conquest. There are eight of them here. Of the four that I told you that had landed were the only ones that I consider safe to release. And if I was you I do not know if I would ever release them. They have been here a long time. Most of their home worlds are gone if not all of them.

Of those four there is only one who I would consider you would get along with for an extended period of time. A translation of the name they have for their own people is Katz. Her races people held very similar views to those of you culture. According to the memories that I downloaded from the sole occupant of her ship she was an exception to their need to have four or more of their kind around at all times. She was a loner that enjoyed nothing more than finding new places that she had never seen before.

When she made the decision to leave their planet and go exploring she was sterilized. This was done to protect her. The females of their race must mate if they ever go into heat. To do otherwise is to die a painful death. But the sterilizing process eliminates the ability to go into heat. According to her memories it does not stop her from having the desire to mate just the effects of not mating."

The other three ships were sent out to locate planets so that their perspective races could expand. Each of the other peoples here would not be a threat to you. But they would find it very lonely knowing that their missions failed many millions of years ago. Add that to the fact that every one of them is male. And the fact that while women did have an active role in the running of their worlds they did not venture into space."

"Where is the ship that holds the Katz woman? Did you find her name when you were rifling through her memories?" "It is in the third row to your left and three ships down. The name she had would translate to Kathryn Kat in English but her nick name was just Kat. According to her mind her parents had a very lively since of humor."

Eagle walked past a startling verity of people on display in front the ships she passed. The first ones must have stood nine feet tall and weighed every bit of eight or nine hundred pounds. Their faces were a light grey like they had been dead for some time and someone had reanimated the bodies. They each wore a pair of silver pants with a four-inch wide belt. This belt must have contained at least twenty items. The boots were made of some type of fabric with four-inch heels. The shape of the feet was different they had narrow heels and one foot wide toes. This made them look like they were wearing flippers.

They had long narrow fingers on outsized hands. There was just a touch of residual webbing between the fingers. This race must have come from a world that had large bodies of water. Eagle could not see any hair on their exposed skin. Their faces reminded Eagle of the gargoyles that adorned the top of some building on Earth. This included the pointed ears, and triangular nose.

The next group of people though she wondered if they would really be classified as people. They looked like pancakes with legs growing out all along the edges. There were what appeared to be eyes in a row just above the edge of their bodies. Eagle could not find anything resembling a nose or mouth anywhere on them. They were a bright orange in color with a red stripe around the edge.

Eagle came to the isle beyond the third row of ships and turned left. She walked down to the third ship in the row. Kats ship was elegant it was composed of soft lines and flowing curves. There did not appear to be a sharp line on the entire ship. The general shape of the ship reminded Eagle of a panther lying in the sun. Something about the ship stated power. But it was a soft power as if whoever designed it wanted to hide that fact.

As Eagle approached the front of the ship she got her first glimpse of Kat. The first thing that Eagle noticed was that she was wearing a jump suit that resembled leather. It was black and form fitting. And boy did she have a form to fit it too. If Eagle were a male she would be drooling now. This female had all the right curves in all the right places.

She stood just less than six feet and was of slight build. But there was a graceful power to her. She actually reminded Eagle of the panther that the ship looked like. She had raven black hair flowing down her back. It looked like graceful waves flowing to her waist. If you wanted to talk about convergent evolution this was it. At first glance Eagle would have sworn that Kat was a human. Eagle had met a lot of guys that would have asked her out in a heartbeat if they had the courage. Even in stasis she extruded an almost regale bearing.

Kat's face was startling lovely for not being human. Kat's face was shaped in the ideal form, slightly oval with a strong chin. Her cheekbones could have been used for a statue to the gods. The most startling thing about her was her eyes. They were slightly larger than most humans. Looking into them could be compared to staring into a snake's eye. They had a horizontal diamond shaped pupil. But the thing that really drawled your attention was the startling color. They were the deepest blue that Eagle could imagine without being black. Kats eyes made sapphires look like cheap bobbles in comparison.

Lining her eyes were the longest lashes that Eagle had ever seen. They were about three quarters of an inch long with the perfect graceful curves. Each eyelash was separated from the next. If Eagle wanted hers to look like that she would have to use mascara and she still could not get that length. Her eyebrows were slightly arched and looked to be shaped much like women on Earth did.

Kats lips made Eagle envious. Before the American civil war on Earth, there was a group of women that where prized for their looks. One of the main things these women had in common was the shape of their lips. They had that full and slightly seductive look. That look that just begs someone to kiss them. And here they were on a woman from a different planet. Eagle could understand why people coveted the beauty inherent in those lips.

Eagle could only see lower part of Kats ears. Kats hair was hanging over the upper part of the ear. From what Eagle could see they would be slightly pointed. There were two earrings hanging from the lower lobe. One was shaped like a pentagram. The other earring was shaped like some type of beast that Eagle did not recognize. This beast resembled a dragon complete with gems for eyes and startling white fangs protruding from its jaw. All of this was done on a body that was only a half inch long. Her people had to have some very fine artist to create this.

After Eagle got up close she could see a very fine pelt that seemed to cover Kat's entire body. It was a light tan that was slightly mottled. The mottling was slightly darker than the rest of the fur that covered her. This gave Kat the appearance of having a nice tan. Eagle reached out to touch the fur and found that the stasis field prevented this. Eagle was left to wonder just how soft Kat's fur was.

Eagle had intended to go into Kats' ship and look around. But it felt like she would be violating her space. "Glitch, can you wake Kat up? And will she be able to understand me if I talk to her?" "I have downloaded her language into your memory banks. You might have an outlandish accent but she should be able to understand you. I can bring her out of stasis. But are you going to just have me put her back in stasis? This would not be good for her unless she was to remain active for at least a year."

"I was thinking more along the lines of asking her to become my permanent companion. That is if you can extend her life span to the approximant length of mine. I will need to talk to her first though. She may not be able to accept the fact that so many years have passed while she has been standing here. There also may be other things. While you have sorted her memories you could not take into account. Being based on her faith or just the way she views life. I know Kat must have a similar drive to find new places. But will that be enough to compensate for the fact that she is totally without kin.

These are some of the questions that I have for her. But before I have you wake her I need to know that you can accomplish the things for her that you have for me. And I do mean everything that you have done for me. This includes the implants that allow me to control the creators' machines and computers. I do not want to take her with me just to put her at risk because she will not be recognized by the equipment here and on their home world when we find it."

"Eagle, you are asking me to do something that the creators never contemplated in their history. I understand that they are no longer here to complain. I can do this if you want it done. It might be nice to see some of the knowledge that the creators had benefit someone else. Do you want to do it before or after I wake her up? When I wake her up she will need to eat very shortly."

"I think I will give her the option of staying here in stasis along with the remainder of these ships and people. Or to accompany me on a journey that will take us to the creators' home world, then on to her home world. We owe her the bonus of visiting her roots. This will allow her to grieve for the ones she will never be able to talk to again. I will tell her about the modifications that have been performed on me. I will offer her the ability to live as long as she wants to live. If she is compatible with me, the idea of being able to explore forever for all practicable purposes will be irresistible.

Where was Kat standing when you placed her into stasis?" "She was standing on the bridge of her ship." "Can you guide me to place her in the exact spot that she was standing? I want her awakening to be as unsurprising as possible. Also you will need to release enough control of the ship that she can use her facilities to cook. You said that she would need to eat. That brings up something that I had not considered before.

Can she survive on the same foods that I can. There is not much use in wakening her if she is going to starve to death because we cannot give her the things she needs to eat." "She can eat everything you eat. Although she might not like the way some of it tastes. From what the creators said things taste different depending on where they are grown let alone coming from a different planet. So she will have to adjust to the taste differences if she wants to survive."

Eagle, having considered the options, she was going to awaken Kat. "Glitch, would you remove the stasis shield from the ship so I can take Kat back aboard." She walked over to Kat and picked her up. It was like caring something wrapped in a clear plastic. She could feel the stasis field that surrounded Kat. But she longed to feel the fur that ran up Kats arms.

She walked up the ramp to the ship. Glitch must have also included the photonic structure of Kats alphabet into her implant. Because she could read the signs that pointed the way to the bridge. The walls were painted a light green. It faded into black just before it merged with the ceiling. It left you with the feeling that you were outside under the sky at night.

Eagle, arrived on the bridge. She placed Kat in front of the command chair. Looking around she was trying to evaluate the controls. It was evident that Kats people were at least marginally behind hers in ship control. It appeared that the ship must have used a computer system. Or they did not use as much voice control as humans did. It could not have used an AI there was too many keyboards in evidence. Some of the displays coming back on had charts displayed. There was a computer screen mounted on the arm of the command chair that was flashing warning messages, about ship status.

It was time to wakeup Kat. After this there would be no turning back for Kat. If she decided not to accompany Eagle, she would have to be placed back into stasis. She might not survive this process. Though standing here in stasis was not much of a life. But it would all depend on if Kat was capable of accepting the extreme passage of time.

Kat came out of stasis mid syllable. She looked around with a startled expression on her face. Eagle must not have placed her in the exact spot. That Kat was in prior to the stasis field. "What are you doing on my bridge? How did you get here? I know the ship was secured five minutes ago. I had just landed on the planet and had not even let the ramp down. How did you override the security system that is built into the ship?"

"Hold on a second Kat. I will try to explain what is going on so that it all makes since. But before that according to Glitch you will need to eat now. After you eat or while you eat if you prefer, I do not know the customs of your people." "Who is this Glitch? And why do you say that you don't know my peoples customs when you can speak our language?" "I know your language because Glitch taught it to me. This was done by implanting this knowledge into the computer that I have installed in my brain. Please let me start at the beginning. But first you must eat Glitch said that if you don't eat shortly you will get weak and possibly pass out. Now go eat!"

That was defiantly a command. Kat did not think she had much choice in this matter. It felt that if she did not go eat this person in front of her would force feed her. This would not be a good way to open any type of dialog. She wanted to know how these people had taken over her ship. She was also curious what was wanted of her. And to top it all off it did not look like she was going to have any choice. In what was going to happen to her.

The first thing would be to go prepare some food. "Are you going to join me? And would you please give me your name. It is inconvenient and impolite to try to talk to you by saying hey you." "I will join you for your meal. I would like to taste your food. Glitch informed me that we basically eat the same chemical constituents in our food he does not know if the tastes will be agreeable.

As for introductions my name is Eagle. I am from a plant that is called Earth. This is not the planet that we are on. This planet is called LACE. The entire name is Legacy Archive Contained Environment. In short this planet was designed and built to act as a storage warehouse for information and items that the creator's deemed worthy of collecting.

Glitch is the artificial intelligence system that they left to run this planet for them. He has been in operation so long that even he got board because the creators stopped coming." Now Eagle had to find a delicate way to tell Kat just how long she had been on this planet. This was not going to be an easy task. "I have a few questions of my own for you Kat. I need some information about things that Glitch did not tell me because he did not think they were relevant to our discussion.

First how long do you people normally live? Our people normally live about a hundred years. My family in particular would not be able to testify to this because only the women live much over fifty or so. But before you ask there is nothing wrong with the genetics. It is the fact that every male member of my family has gone exploring and never came back. The only male to date that has come home has been my father. He came back because he had an accident that left him unable to continue.

I will try to give you the information that will answer questions that you have. The first thing that you are wondering if you are like me is how I got on your ship. That is simple Glitch took control of your ship within about two minutes after you landed. He moved the ship into the hanger were it is currently sitting. He then placed you and the ship into a stasis field." "Just how long have I been on this planet Eagle? When I left my world we had not perfected a means of stasis. There had been talk of how it could be done but no one had actually developed it.

Have a seat over there and I will program the kitchen to make us my favorite meal. It is called steak, I do not know if you eat other animals where you come from but almost every meal that is prepared on my planet uses some type of meat as a main course." "No that is fine we eat what is called cows on my world that is a domesticated herbivore we use for the same purpose. You can get it prepared just about any way imaginable. This includes frying, grilling and ground up to be fried and placed on bread to be eaten as a sandwich."

Kat stood in front of the control consol for the food preparation system for a few minutes typing into a keyboard. Then she walked over and sat down across from Eagle. Eagle was admiring the way Kat moved as she walked across the kitchen. It was the most graceful movements that she had ever observed in a living being. Kat would make the most talented actress green with envy. She was the most striking person that Eagle had ever met even if she was not of the same species. Eagle had an attraction to Kat that was not like anything that she had ever felt before. "To answer your earlier question Eagle, my people live about the same length of time that yours do. This is true if our calendar years are close to being the same length. My parents were old when I left the planet so if I have been here more than a few years then they are more than likely gone. So just how long have I been here?"

"From what Glitch has told me. You are more than likely the last living member of your race. You have been on this planet in stasis over a billion years. I wish I could have told you some other way. There is just no way to say that someone has been held against their will for that amount of time. I am sorry this has happened to you but the decisions that did this to you were made before my planet even had humans on it. I know this is going to be hard to comprehend. That large of a time dilation would be disturbing to anyone, even if they were expecting it."

Kat sat there in stunned silence. It sent waves of loss through her mind. To even contemplate that enormous span of time was almost impossible. Every person that she knew would long be dust. What was the use of gathering information to take home when there was no home to go back to. Kat wondered what had happened to her world. Did it slowly decline until there was no one left? Or did it go up in a big bang she really needed to know. She wondered if Eagle or this Glitch would let her go to her world and put some ghost to rest? "It is hard to believe that everyone I know will be gone.

Even if there is a living world there it will not be the same as it was when I left." Kat was more talking to herself than to Eagle. There were tears running down Kats face as she sat across from Eagle and thought about the loss of everything that she had known. Eagle moved around the table and placed her arm around Kat. Trying to give her what little comfort she could. This would be a great loss for her to not only loose every person you know. But to lose the only place that you could call home as well. Eagle did the only thing that she could think of and that was to hold Kat while she cried.

As Eagle sat there and held Kat she was revising the plans that Glitch had made for her. If Kat decided to stay out of stasis and to go exploring with her, she would go to Kats home world first. After a few minutes Kat stopped crying and moved slightly so Eagle let go of her and shifted so that she could see Kats face.

"So why did you wake me up if I have nothing left to live for? Did you just wake me up to amuse yourself? Or do you think that you can get other information from me?" "No Kat I had Glitch wake you up because even though my people are still living I am not really a member of their race any more. I must decide if I am going to bestow the gifts on them that Glitch gave me.

To do this I am going to visit the creator's home world. Glitch also has the location of many other worlds. These worlds had very advanced societies living on them. But I want to know if any of these other races still exist. If they do then we should be able to introduce them to the humans and other races that I know of. If they do not exist I plan on exploring their worlds to see if they have any information or artifacts that we could find useful."

"How are you planning on having the time to do all of that? It took me over twenty years to get to this world. When I left my world I was heading for the star system that used to be here. This planet is over two million light years from my home. I was doing the same as you looking for the homes of old races that might hold equipment or information that would be useful to my people."

"I would like for you to accompany me in this quest Kat. I asked Glitch which of the crews that he had captured would be compatible with me. I ruled out others of my own race. If I have one of them modified to match myself. Then I will forfeit the ownership of this planet. So until I decide what to do with the information here. I am going to have to be a lone crusader. That is why I thought about one of the people captured. After reviewing the brain downloads from the people who were captured Glitch eliminated every one of the others. Either they were to aggressive, they believed women were to procreate only, or that their race was the supreme race ever created. You on the other hand were just out exploring the galaxy like me."

"You make a good point Eagle. I have seen all of those qualities in people of my own world. But you still have not answered how we are ever going to live long enough to visit more than one of these places. Even I am going to start feeling my age by the time we return to my world."

"According to Glitch booth the technology of your world and mine was nothing compared to the creators. He has removed the AI from my ship and placed it into a new ship body. According to the reports I have read this new ship would be able to make it to your planet in about a week. But that is not the only thing I have to offer. Glitch has checked and if he changes a couple of links in your DNA you can live as long as I will. This would amount to around four thousand years."

You could see the astonishment on Kats face at this pronouncement. Her jaw just about hit the table. It was some very startling news to find that you could live to be over a couple of thousand years. On most worlds you would be considered a god. Kat and she could very well outlive forty generations of the people on Earth. "How long would this process take to complete?" "Glitch said that to make the modifications that would make your body the equivalent of mine. This process would take about three weeks. For you it will be just like going to sleep for a night." "What are you going to be doing while I am getting this stuff done?"

"According to Glitch my father is on his way here. I plan to go over the things that Glitch has told me and to get him familiar with the planet to let him start going through the information stored here. I also want to go over the modifications that have been made to Fred, my ship. I want the hard data on what he is capable of doing."

"So what happens if I don't agree to make this journey with you?" "Glitch will not let you go. I am sorry he insisted that if you would not go with me I must put you back into stasis. I don't want to do that. But he feels that you could be a danger to yourself if you refused and he left you out of stasis. It is not every day that you find out that you are the last person living from your race. Being depressed is only the natural thing to happen in this case. But what I am trying to give you is not only a reason to live but a closure to your previous life."

Just then a musical chime went off. Kat got out of her chair and went over to a section of the wall that opened promptly at her approach. There were two plates and four glasses sitting on the ledge. Kat picked the plates up and brought them to the table. The smell was the first thing that Eagle noticed of the food. The smell animating from the plates was making her hungry just to smell it. When Kat sat a plate in front of her, it looked like any normal meal that she would get on Earth.

There were three different things on the plate. One was an odd shaped piece of meat. At least this is what it looked like, fried to a golden brown with a light batter covering the surface. Next was what Eagle would consider a vegetable it was an odd shade of green oval in shape with a textured surface. The last item was a mashed substance with some type of gravy covering it. If this were Earth it would be mashed potatoes.

Eagle watched as Kat walked back to the ledge and retrieved two of the four glasses. These she sat down on the table and sat down at the table. Eagle waited on Kat to make the first move. She did not want to offend Kat by her table manners. Kat picked up the utensils that she had placed on the table, then she proceeded to un-wrap the utensils. She took out what appeared to be a fork with straight tines the edges of this was sharpened, Eagle found this out when she touched the edge. It left a slight cut on her finger. Kat used this to first cut the meat into small bite sized squares. Then started stabbing one piece at a time and eating them. Eagle could clearly see that Kat was chewing each piece as she placed it in her mouth.

Eagle cut up her meat as Kat had done. Now come the part where I get to be brave thought Eagle. Stabbing a piece of meat that she had cut up Eagle placed it in her mouth. It had the consistency of ground chuck. The meat had a slightly gammy taste. This must have been what wild buffalo tasted to the Indian's. What must have been the breading tasted like white bread. It was slightly crunchy in texture. The overall effect was that it reminded Eagle of country-fried steaks from home. Eagle kept watching as Kat ate. Kat started to take small bites from different things from her plate. The meat tasted so good that Eagle ate a second bite before getting the nerve to try the other things on her plate.

Eagle stabbed a green vegetable like she had seen Kat do. It felt slightly mushy once she had stabbed through the skin. Immediately she was reaching for her glass. This must be some form of pepper. It set her mouth on fire. Eagle had been known to eat some spicy foods from time to time. This was by far the hottest thing that she had ever tasted.

The drink that was in the glass cooled Eagles mouth off as if it had never been on fire. The drink had a fruity taste that Eagle could not pin down. It had a slightly sweet flavor while not having the consistency of something that was highly sweetened. Well the last item could not possibly be any hotter than the vegetables. Eagle scooped up some of this on her fork and tasted a bite. She was immediately surprised it tasted just like mashed potatoes with beef gravy.

After the meal was finished Kat cleared the table of the remains of the meal and dishes. Then she returned with the two glasses that had been sitting on the ledge since she had prepared the meal. She handed one of these to Eagle. "Please follow me to my relaxation chamber. There we can sip on these as it was meant to be done between civilized people." Eagle followed Kat into a room that was attached to the kitchen, by a short hallway.

This room was furnished with cushions strewn about the floor. Kat settled down into one of these and stretched out her legs. She propped herself up by the elbow on a separate cushion. Eagle sat down in a similar manner. Eagle waited on Kat to make the next move. Kat sat there for a few minutes without talking or giving any sign that she was even on the same world as Eagle.

I was thinking through dinner, I apologize for my lack of conversation over the meal. At the home where I grew up there was constant talk at the table. My father said this helped the food to taste better. He would sometimes talk about funny things that had happened to him while he was growing up. But that will wait for a different time to talk about. I was thinking about everything that you have been telling me since I was taken out of stasis.

I would like to propose a toast to a long and lasting friendship between us. Eagle touched glasses with Kat and took a sip of the beverage that was in the glass she had carried in. This was like liquid fire. It must be at least one hundred and eighty proof. It lit up her insides up and went off like a bomb when it hit the bottom. It left her coughing for a second. This reminded Eagle of the best Tennessee whiskey that she had ever had.

"There is certain customs that my people have that I would like to discuss with you Eagle. I hope not to upset you with anything I will tell you. I only want to explain something about how my people view certain things. When a group of people set out to explore together they must be a family. This is because in our early history the males were so aggressive that in order to survive they would marry each other for the duration of the mission. This allowed them to view each other as members of their own families. This created customs that even though our people have long outgrown the need to rely on every member in the party to be married. It has remained a custom none the less.

This custom was enacted regardless if it was a male or female group. For people who were directly related there was a special ritual so that incest would not occur between male and females of the same family. This did not apply if the members of the family were of the same sex. Mainly because there could not be any offspring of the union no matter what act they preformed to solidify this custom.

Most of the time the only thing that ever happened was that the people involved slept in the same bed. They would touch each other, not sexually unless they each agreed on it. Though this ritual was practiced it was just a way to become fully aware of each other's bodies. If you have seen and touched every inch of someone else's body then there should be no reason to have modesty come before safety.

I would like to invoke this custom with you. I have watched you watching me. I also would like to know how your skin, with its lack of fur would feel under my fingers. In this manner you will insure that I have a family still in existence even though every other member of my race is long gone."

Eagle sat there in silence for a few minutes thinking about everything that Kat had just told her. If her own people had used this custom, there would have been a lot of people survive that had not. Hell even today modesty took precedence over safety. On Earth Eagle had heard of someone being killed because he had walked behind a tree to relieve himself out of site of his partner. He had been killed by the very bear that they were tracking in just those few seconds. So this would have its advantages. But how was she going to explain it to her family? It did not really matter her family would understand. This did give Kat a reason to keep living. Eagle had been worried if she would suicide with her home world gone this many years. This would make Glitch happy as well if she made Kat a part of her family then she was basically a member of the creator's race. This would allow him to bypass his programming to do what Eagle wanted.

"Ok Kat I am willing to go through your ritual. I want some more information from you before we start though. How long do you want this arrangement to last? If you want to stay with me that would be fine I expect to be exploring for the next several thousand years." "I will stay with you as long as you will let me Eagle I have no other place to go. And if Glitch modifies my body to match yours then you are the only other being alive who will live as long as I will." "When and where would you like to accomplish this Kat? You will have to tell me what to do and if there are any necessary responses I will need to know this beforehand."

"The only thing that I need to know Eagle is if you are adverse to sexual touch. Because I do not know your body and you do not know mine. Either one of use may accidentally touch the other in a manner that could be construed as sexual." "No I am not averse to being touched in a sexual manner. I have had a few lovers in the past and they have not all been of the opposite sex."

"Would you like to do this before or after you have the modifications are completed that will extend your life to equal mine Kat." "I think that I would feel better if we did this before this process was complete. This would give me a reason to get through this faster." "Ok Kat, we can do this in a few hours. But first I would like to show you some of the things I have been talking about. We can go out and gawk at the other beings that Glitch has placed in stasis. There are quite a number of these that I have not looked at. In total Glitch states there are twenty five ships sitting in this hanger. Some of them he had placed in stasis and the remainder the creators placed there. They considered the ones that they had placed here to be a threat to all of the races that were in space. After the creators placed a species in stasis they would go to the home world of that group of people and convince them to remain on their planet. Glitch does not know how this was accomplished but that is what the records state." "What I found hard to believe Kat was when I woke up in the medical center and this AI started telling me what had been done to me. It is very shocking to find out you are a totally different person than what you were only a few minutes ago. At least it only seemed like a few minutes to me but it had been six weeks of planet time. All of the sudden I own a world and this AI is telling me that I am the last descendant of a race that has not stepped foot on this world in over a billion years. Let alone the fact that he put a computer in my head along with extra memory, and a communications center.

I think the thing that startled me the most was when I tried to get out of bed the first time and bent the metal bar beside the bed. Glitches medical program increased the muscle mass to the point that I can go onto a world that has twice the gravity of my home and I will not even notice. Hell I could take the worst bully on my planet and toss him around like a rag doll. This is part of the reason I agreed to the marriage thing between us. If I ever go back home I will have to bring any man I want to be with here and have him modified. I do not know of any man that wants a woman that who is stronger than he is. Humans were hardwired to the fact that men are supposed to be stronger than women.

What is even stranger is the fact that it will not matter for about a thousand years now anyway. Amongst the other thing that changed with these modifications was the fact that I will not regain the ability to have children for almost a thousand years. Maybe by then I will be ready to find a man to join us in our explorations."

"At least you can have offspring if you wish to Eagle even if you have to wait for a thousand years. Not only are there none of my people left but before I left for space I was sterilized. This was necessary because when our species becomes actively fertile we must mate. We had no choice in this. That was one of the big decisions I had to make before I left our world. You see mating and marriage is not the same thing on my world.

When you get married either to a group or to an individual it was for mutual protection and support. Sex outside of mating was done for pleasure. If both parties wanted to have sex within a group they would. This was the accepted norm. It was not limited to male female relations. Normally sex only accrued between male and female members, and between females. Usually if the group wanted a male on male relationship they would form an exclusive group.

I never belonged to a group. I had not found a group that was compatible with what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to explore space. The children of my people are cared for by everyone. If a child walked up and told someone they were hungry they would be fed. If they wanted to learn something then all they had to do was to ask. So during the time I was growing up I spent most of my time with the scientist. Every one of them encouraged me to learn.

The main problem with the super smart people is that their groups tend to be centered on their discipline. Growing up in this manner you get all of the education that you would ever want. What you don't get though is people skills. After I became an adult I found that I had no desire to interact with others on day to day basics. This left me a wondering outcast so to speak. About this time they were developing a ship that was capable of traveling in interstellar space. The only drawback with the ship they were developing was it was only capable of housing one person. Most of the people on my planet are bound to a group. So they had to find a loner and I fit the bill.

After I passed the tests that were required I was accepted into the program. This required me to accept the fact that I would never be able to have kids. As I said before if we go into heat then we must mate. There was a procedure that would keep me from going into heat. But this procedure was irreversible. That was the price I paid to go into space. With you I have found someone that I think will offer me the group that I never had on my world.

I know the people on my world would not find it strange because they believed that a group was required for a person to grow. It did not matter what this group consisted of but that it was a group. So that you know even with this type of society we still know who our parents and ancestors are. Family linage is very important to our people. I can recite my linage back ten generations. This was necessary not only for group participation, but it was necessary when planning for the mating cycle. That is basically how I grew up and the type of society that I grew up in. So the things that we have been discussing are nothing new to me.

"My childhood was much different than yours in some respects. There are not many people on my world that live like your people. There are a few of them scattered across the world. If you look at our people as a whole you would find there are more loners than there are people that want to belong to a group. Families are based on ancestral linage. Even some families are not cohesive enough to remain as a unit. I think one of the main causes of this is that fact that after we reach thirteen or fourteen almost every member of our race is able to produce children. The sexual drive in our people is paramount. It can drive some people to commit crimes that would not happen in a society like yours.

You were telling me about the aggressiveness of your people that caused you to develop your marriage customs. Our people can be very aggressive if there is something that they believe in. and it does not necessarily have to be logical. There have been more people killed because of someone's ideas did not agree with someone else's than can be counted in our history. Some of the things that have been fought over the most are religion. There have been more people killed in the name of Christianity than in all the other wars combined.

Family life normally consist of a mother a father and their offspring. Sometime grandparents will raise the offspring if a tragedy occurs. Our families tend to disagree at times. Weather it is over what the child wants to do with their life. Most parents tend to want the children to follow in their footsteps. Weather the parents are doctors or general labors. This can become a very lively fighting ground if the child wants to become something that the parents do not approve of. My family is explorers and has been for over twenty generations. The problem as my mother looks at it is the fact that so many people get killed exploring that we need to find something else to do. But for me the drive to see what is over the next hill is something that I can't deny.

This is the type of family I grew up in my mother was the one who actually raised me. This was due to the fact that my father was constantly gone exploring. Even though she was constantly complaining that my father was never around when he was needed. She would tell me stories about other members of our family. She would talk for hours about the things that my family had endured to find this or that treasure. If she was trying to persuade me that exploring was a dangerous occupation she failed. She only inspired me to learn the necessary disciplines that would allow me to follow in my father's footsteps. And that was to go to space and explore the unknown worlds that are out here.

A few years ago my father returned from one of his searches. He was crippled to the point that he could not go back to exploring. So he and I developed a plan to build a ship that would let me continue in the family's tradition of exploration. That was how Fred was developed. When we had just about completed the ship my father told me of a radio signal that he had detected just before he was injured. Following this signal was what brought me to this planet. This was my first adventure and it has not only changed my outlook but it has seriously changed my life. But this has not changed the drive for me to see new places.

When Glitch made the modifications to my body he made me into my families dream. With these changes I can explore all of the worlds that he has known of plus I can still look for new ones. This world will also provide the necessary capital to finance these missions. Even if I get tired of knowing that the place I am going to look at should have signs of habitation at one point in time. I can always just set out for parts unknown and try to find something that even Glitch does not know about.

Kat and Eagle finished their drinks. "So are you ready to go out and look around Kat?" "Yes I am I want to see this world that you say that I am in. It will be nice to know that I found a viable world even if I never got to tell my people about it. At least the trip was not wasted. It is still hard to believe that I have been held here the length of time that has passed. This means that I have lived longer than my race had been in existence when I left."

They walked out of the ship and started walking down the line of ships. The first ship they came to was shaped like a tadpole from Earth. It was bulbous at one end and narrowed to a point at the other. The ship was about a hundred feet in length. On short platforms in front of the ship was the crew. They were displayed in a manner similar to the way Kat was on display. These being were wearing what appeared to be a protective covering. Eagle new without touching them that all you would be able to feel if you tried was the stasis field.

"Why was this ship captured Eagle?" In Eagles head a narration started running. Glitch was telling Eagle about the ship they were standing in front of. "According to Glitch these people were not actively aggressive. They called themselves Scragns. They are from a planet that is only fifty light years from here. If you did not figure it out on your own they came from a water world.

The reason that they were placed on permanent display was because of the environment they came from everything that they interacted with would dissolve. They are so corrosive that Glitch spent over a hundred years repairing the damage of allowing them to land. After he captured the first one of them and dumped his mind he found that this was standard procedure. They would raid a world then leave a corrosive plague on the raided world. This would after a few years turn everything that was not rock into a type of sludge. They would return to harvest this sludge for fuel to power their home world."

"What revolting little creatures they were. Does he say what happened to them? Yes the Creators sent a delegation to try to find a different solution to their problem. They were killed without ever being acknowledged. The next thing the Creators sent to them dissolved every one of their spaceships that it came in contact with. After around fifty years the population turned on itself and self destructed. At the end of their short vicious little war there was only thirty people left on the world. Those survived for a few more years then they became extinct. The ones you see here have been chemically neutralized.

As Eagle got closer to the next ship she started laughing so hard that tears were running down her cheeks. This ship was straight out of the comic strips. "What is so funny Eagle?" "This ship looks just like a comic that was being printed in the papers at home. It looks like a doghouse complete with the doorway. If this was in the paper at home you would expect to see a dog sitting on the top. This dog would be wearing a pair of goggles from the beginning of air flight. It has never gone out of style even though we went to space and there is not even an aircraft left from that era of history. I have studied the operation of these ancient aircraft. They were finicky to fly and hard to maintain. When we get a chance I will show you some of the cartoons that were created about this dog."

As they got closer Eagle could see the creatures in front of it. They were anything but cute and furry. There was only one of them on display. It was fifteen feet tall with claws like you would find on a lobster. The beings head looked like it belonged to a giant bird. Complete with a four foot long beak that Eagle thought would be razor sharp if you would touch it. Its legs were fifteen feet long with claws at the tips.

"Kat according to Glitch this ship was placed here just a few thousand years before yours. They were the worst group that Glitch has ever brain dumped. Their people sent thousands of single man ships out to explore. They were never expected to return home. They were given just enough fuel to get to where they were going and land. Inside their ships is an embryonic storage center. Once they landed on the planet they were sent to. The eggs would be released into any body of water that was there. Their life form could survive in anything short of acid.

Meanwhile back on the home world there was harvester ship that would be sent out after a hundred years. These ships would fly over the seeded planets and would set off a sonic radio frequency that would cause all of the beings that survived to surface. After collection they would fly these back to the home world for food. To say the least they ate their own kind. These were considered excess population.

They actually kept slaves whose only function in life was to produce eggs for these ships to plant on other worlds. By the time they were harvested the world would have been divested of anything living in the water. If the retrieval process was postponed to long the prey would develop past the point of what was considered edible condition and they were just killed and left to rot." "That would be horrible, why do you think an intelligent species would start a practice like that." "I don't know Kat. I do know that slavery is nothing new to just about every race of space faring beings that we have encountered."

Eagle and Kat continued to look at different ships until they were both starting to feel tired. "Are you ready to return to my ship to get something to eat Eagle?" "Yes I am I would like to introduce you to Fred but he has not returned from his shakedown flight yet."

Kat and Eagle walked back to Kats ship, going inside Kat asked Eagle if she would like a drink. Sure Kat it would be nice while we are getting acquainted. When Eagle tasted the drink that Kat brought her she was amazed it tasted just like whiskey that she would get at the Earth station. Kat came over and sat down next to Eagle. Turning around on the couch Eagle faced Kat from less than a hand span looking into her lovely blue eyes, reaching out she slowly ran her hand down Kats cheek marveling at the way that the fur of her face felt, it was as smooth as a baby's skin and sent thrills up from her fingers. Running her fingers down Kats arm to her fingers, they looked surprisingly like her own fingers complete with nail polish, though the nails had a look closer to that of a feline than a human. Taking her hand Eagle raised it up and kissed along the palm and up the wrist. As Eagle was kissing Kats palm Kat reached out and ran her fingers up Eagle's arm she had been wondering how the skin would feel, it was as smooth as an infants before they developed the fur that covered her kind. Leaning over Kat ran her lips over the side of Eagles neck, kissing lightly along her neck and along her chin. This sent thrills though every part of Eagles body.

Kat could smell what had to be excitement coming off of Eagle in waves with the strongest coming from between Eagles legs. Even as she was thinking this Eagle had started to kiss along her neck and was creating similar stirring within her own loins. Eagle reached out and started to unbutton the vest she wore slowly unbuttoning it one button at a time until she reached the last button and the vest fell open exposing her chest. Eagle watched her fingers as she slowly undid the buttons on Kats vest, wondering what she would find under the garment, would there be fur on her chest or would it be bare skin, what she found was firm breast that would just fit into the palm of her hand, that had nipples the size of two pencil erasers stuck end to end with no fir on any part of her breast. She could not resist reaching out and cupping her hand around one of Kat's breast and rubbing the nipple between her finger and thumb, doing this she heard Kat moan slightly, so she reached out and cupped her other breast enjoying the feel of Kats skin under her fingers, getting bold Eagle bent down and slowly sucked one of Kats nipples into her mouth, sucking gently on it feeling it get harder as she did this. Reaching down Kat pulled Eagles face up to place a deep kiss on her lips, while sliding her tongue over Eagle lips and meeting her tongue. Sharing this kiss took Eagles breath and brought the fire in her loins to a fever pitch, kissing Kat back she felt Kat respond to her kiss as much as she was responding. Kat broke the kiss and stood, reaching down and helping Eagle to her feet Kat led her to the bedroom on the ship.

"Good morning Kat. Now it is time to get moving. Glitch, just informed me that the medical program is ready for you. That is if you are still willing to go through with it." "Yes I am Eagle. And by the way you are very pleasant to sleep with. Curling up next to you in the night is better than anyone else I have ever slept with before." "Why thank you Kat. I will say I slept better last night than I have slept in a very long while."

### Chapter 24

Just over an hour later Henry walked into JJ's study. Once again JJ was sitting in his overstuffed chair, drinking his coffee. "Do you have any more of that coffee JJ? I could smell it one hundred feet from your door."

"Sure Henry, there is some on the mantel over there help yourself." Henry walked over and poured himself a cup of coffee, and returned to sit down in the second chair by JJ. "So what was important enough that you would rather talk about it than get some sleep? After everything that has gone on today I would think you would be sleeping by now." "Normally I would have been sleeping a long time ago, but I have had some visitors this evening that I could not ignore." "So what did you need to talk to me about JJ?" "Before I get to that let me convey the important parts of the information that I received a little while ago." JJ related most of the information that he had Susie had talked about. After he had answered a half a dozen questions that Henry had regarding the extent of this problem at home, JJ answered Henry's question.

"What I need from you and Glitch is to work out transportation for those people who want to leave Kel and come here. I would like this started within the next few days. I know this will put a strain on your people Henry but I believe it is important." "It will put some strain on our people for a while JJ, but if I can get any of the pilots that are on Kel to come with us. Then this problem will be taken care of. I will go through the inventory of ships that are here on Glitch, and there are a couple of space stations that might have a passenger transport we could to move these people here. Do you plan on me moving the Meer-people as well JJ?" "Yes I would like to give them the opportunity to come to this world as well. When we leave for the world we are going to start this project on they can then be placed there as well. Since they cannot breed, this will allow them to recruit people from the new population as well. They might not come. I know some of them are very attached to the places they have built on Kel, they are the finest places that they have ever lived, according to almost everyone of them." "Glitch, wake me up at five in the morning and we will develop the plans to accomplish what JJ has asked of us." "Alright Henry, I will call you then." With that Henry got up out of his chair and put his coffee cup with the rest of the dishes sitting on the counter. "JJ, Glitch and I will work this out and send you a schedule of when to expect these new people to arrive. For now though I am going to head to bed. I am going to need some sleep, so that my brain is working at top speed in the morning." "Thank you for coming Henry. If you need me to help you work out any of the details, just call me.""Thanks JJ, but I think that we can set this up. If not then I will be in touch with you. Even if we do not need your help, I will send you our plans when we have them completed." "Thank you Henry, I look forward to reading your plans." With that Henry left JJ's and headed back to his quarters to get some sleep.

JJ sat in his chair drinking his fifth cup of coffee for the night, wondering if anyone else was going to come tonight. Finley after an hour had gone by he got up and headed to bed. The news that he had received tonight would not make for pleasant dreams, but that was the price that one paid for being in charge. JJ was resigned to having difficult nights. Whenever there were major problems, he would toss and turn for an hour or so before he would manage to get any shuteye. "Glitch, will you give me a wakeup call at five in the morning. I have some things I would like to do before I get inundated with people coming to talk to me." "Sure JJ I will call you then. Have a good night of sleep JJ." "Thank you Glitch, I will talk to you in the morning." With that he crawled into bed and shut down the lights.

### Chapter 25

Eagle and Kat left the ship and headed for the medical facilities. When they arrived the place was lit up and there was a holograph of a person standing in the office doorway. "Kat will you and Eagle step into my office?" After following the holograph in to the office, and sitting down. The hologram walked around the desk and sat down. "I have some questions for Kat. You were not asked because we used a model of an adult creator to make the modifications. First would you like the fur removed from your body? If so, from what parts of your body do you want it removed? Do you want any cosmetic alterations done? To be clearer does your race alter their looks as they get older, or do your looks change from when you were younger that you would like to be returned to?"

"I do not want any changes to my body at all. I have agreed to the internal modifications. But no external modifications need to be done." "Alright then if you will just follow me we will get started. Please remove your clothes and lie down on the table. Eagle you may leave now when Kats treatment is complete Glitch will let you know. You can be here with her when she wakes up."

Eagle gave Kat a hug then she consulted her map. After viewing the map for a few seconds Eagle found what she was looking for. In the corridor about one hundred feet away was an office that had a holographic link to Glitch. She could just have easily talked to him over the communications center in her brain. But Eagle was not quite used to having this ability. So Eagle found a means to see at least a facsimile of him. She was headed to a part of the complex that she had never been in yet. After following the corridor for a hundred feet she came to a double door. These doors separated the hanger section from what the map in said was an administration center.

On the other side of the door was a completely different from the hanger. The walls had a soft glow from the lighting. The walls of the hallway were painted a light blue that faded to a darker blue ceiling. The floor was carpeted in a dark brown with random patterns in tan. The patterns did not seem to represent anything they must have been placed there for ascetics. It felt like Eagle was walking on a cushion. She wondered if they had reduced the gravity here to make it more comfortable. After walking down a ways she came to the first turn that she had to make.

This next hallway was different than last. It was decorated in blacks that had the appearance of stars shining in the ceiling. After a closer look at the walls Eagle noticed that this would be a view of the surface of this world seen at night. And if she was not mistaken the area that she was viewing was just above the hanger doors. As she stood there and watched for a few minutes the scene was gradually getting lighter. The sun was rising in the scene this was different, she wondered if it was set to mirror the true conditions on the surface.

"Glitch is this hallway a representation of the surface?" "No Eagle it is a live view of the surface. What you are seeing is being captured by cameras on the surface. There are almost thirty cameras capturing the view that you see. When the signal is processed it is interwoven to give you a complete picture. If there were any live animals up there you would be able to watch them without invading their life. The creators had wanted a way to observe people who landed here before they let them inside. You can learn a lot through observation. But you are the only person to see this view since the last creator left. I do not see it because all of the feed for this view pass through my system. It is unnecessary for me to receive a second view of material that I already have on file."

Eagle walked through this hallway and turned into the door indicated by the map she had viewed with her computer interface. This door had a hand print reader on the right hand side of the doorframe. Eagle placed her hand in the indicated place. A light over the door turned green and the door slid into the wall on the opposite side of the frame.

The lights came on inside the room. Eagle walked into a well lit room. It was about forty foot square with what appeared to be a monitor screen completely covering one wall. "Welcome to my outer office Eagle. I was wondering when you were going to come down here.

This is the upper part of my system. The actual processors and memory banks are at the center of this planet. The planet was built around the necessary equipment that the creators decided that it would take to keep me running for one trillion years. That was the amount of time they calculated that it would be before their race died out and a different one would be able to fall within the parameters to acquire ownership of me. There is coding placed into my system that will place this entire world into stasis in a few billion more years."

The wall monitor had lit up to display the internal structure of the planet. It was a cut-away version of this very room to the center of the planet. The underground portion of Glitch was enormous. As Glitch was talking he was highlighting the different sections that pertained to the discussion. So this is what Glitch actually looked like. If he was not inside this planet he would have been forty times the size of the ship she had came here in.

"I wanted to come down here so I could talk directly to you. I know we can talk through the link in my communications center but I had to see what your installation center looked like for me." "I knew by the download that I did of you that after the initial shock was gone you would come to see for yourself. I have been waiting. If you want you can go down to the very core of the world. If you use the transmission plate in the center of the room you can be standing beside my main core in a few seconds. If you want to take the long way down the room on your right is an elevator. But it will take around eight hours to get to the same place."

"No Glitch this will do just fine. I just wanted a place that I could use as an office that you were directly linked to. This will be where I will have all the meetings held that concern this world. I am sure when my father arrives he would like to be able to discuss the things that are on this world with you. By talking to you he will not have to experiment with thing that could be dangerous. Also it will give you some company. This way you should not feel the need to shut down again for a while at least." "It would be nice to have a being to talk to. You are the only person that I have held a conversation with since the last creator was here."

"When is the ship due that has my family on it?" "It will be here in fifty three hours. I was just in contact with the AI that is flying it. The AI said that there have been no problems so far and that it was on schedule." "I would like a few things done before they get here if you can do them Glitch." "What would you like done? I will see if we can make it happen before the ship lands."

"I want to find accommodations for them I have slept nowhere but on ships since I landed here. I don't want to have my family to live in a ship. They are used to sleeping in a house on the surface of the planet. I do not know how they would feel about staying underground all of the time."

"I can make their accommodations here seem like they live on the surface of the world. I can ventilate the air so that the air in the room where they live is directed from the surface. And I can set it so that the sunshine is displayed on the room viewers as if they were looking out of a window." "We can try it they might get used to living underground. If you will tell me where these accommodations are I would like to sleep there. I would not feel right spending the night in Kat's ship." "I will place the necessary directions in your memory bank."

"This room will need some furniture. First I would like you to place three desks in here facing your screen. There will need to be an individual screen on the desks. This will allow everyone to look at different information at the same time. It will also keep everyone from bothering you unless they all are after the same information. This will also preserve the main screen for discussions with you. It will give you a solid presence here.

I have seen some of the transportation that you have. You will need to provide each of the people here with a means to get to different parts of the planet when they want to look at something that you have in storage." "Transportation on or in the planet is no problem the most walking that will be necessary is the length that you walked from the ship this morning to here. There are transportation devices that are scattered throughout this world. But unless you are looking for them and you are keyed into the system they will not work for anyone."

"How soon will it take you to accomplish the things we were just discussing?" "It will be done by first thing in the morning." "Thank you Glitch. Can you show me a listing of the categories of things that you have in storage? Break it down by plant, animal and machines. Also before my family gets here I would like to decide what to do with the people who are in stasis that are a danger to society. I know that you said that of all of the ones in stasis only Kat would fit me. But are there any there that we could find a planet to take them to where they would be happy the rest of their lives."

"If it were up to me I would not release any of the ones left. There is a couple that would not be a direct danger to you. But by their own standards they would just as soon be dead as to live knowing that their people are gone so long that there will only be traces left." "I do not want to keep them in stasis forever. There is too great of a chance that they could be freed. From what you say they would be a menace to anyone they made contact with. Is there a way to place them in a secure area that is away from their ships?" "I can place them in a lower level that has a separate stasis field." "That will be fine. Please have it done by tomorrow."

Eagle started to look over the list that was being displayed on the screen was just a listing of categories. The list filled the entire screen. There were categories that she had never heard of. The one that caught her attention was planets. "Glitch will you please open the planet listing." Again the screen was filled with different categories. This time Eagle started to read the main titles. Some of the categories were standards just like you would see in any human world. There was suns, planets with atmospheres, satellites, gas giants, black holes, and many others that she did not recognize.

"Please open the one titled planets with atmospheres." This listing was broken down by primary gas contained in the atmosphere. Eagle was thinking this might take a long time, just the listings of main planet types would take days to go through. "Ok, Glitch will you just take me to the listings for planets that I can walk around on without a space suit."

Even this list was broken down by the type of stars that they orbited. There was a side listing that was broken down by gravities. They had many more types of suns listed than what humans had. There were a total of over a thousand types of suns listed. Each of these was broken down by the age of the star. Eagle finally found the listing that matched Earth. This list contained, M type stars with a single moon, and with the correct gravity.

This list contained around five hundred planets. There was a pop out list that had names and dates listed. "What is this list with the planets Glitch?" "It is a list of name the people of those planets called themselves. The dates are the last contact with each of the planets inhabitants. The creators watched many people become space faring races just to fade away for one reason or another."

"Did they ever go to these worlds and recover artifacts after the race faded out?" "No they never did, they were not looking for new technology, by the time they started to track this data. In fact they would not allow any of their people to resettle the worlds. They did not wish to disturb the population if any still existed, and they did not want to revive a dying world. If the inhabited had abused their world to the point they lost the ability to maintain their lifestyle."

Every one of these planets should have signs and possibly artifacts left on them from their original owners. As long as time and someone else did not come along and remove them from the planet. Also all of these worlds could be lived on by humans if the suns they orbit are stable." "You will need to decide if the people of Earth need the extra room and if they have the ability to get to some of these places. Without the drive I installed in your new ship they could never make it to any of these worlds."

"I believe that dad and I are going to need to make a lot of decisions before I leave for Kat's world." "That is up to you Eagle. I have already deeded everything contained on this world along with the exclusive rights to the information stored here to you. I sent your government a copy of the charter from the creators that gave me the right to do this. I have had confirmation that it was received and accepted. Their acceptance also contained a treaty that allows for untaxed trade with all known worlds."

"Thank you Glitch you have made me into the prime candidate for every single man out there to try and make him my partner." "I think that I even may have placed a chink in the road for these so called men. I filed your marriage to Kat along with the other information. Since you are an independent government they could not dissolve the union." "That act I will truly thank you for Glitch. How did you know I would accept her terms when you sent this information?" "I told you that the brain scans said that you were compatible by this I knew that you two would work out the bugs it would take to make a working team."

"Do you have visuals on all of the life forms that are in this list?" "Yes I do and I and going to download them into your extended memory bank. If you will give me permission, I will do this before you leave to go exploring. I am also going to install the translation programs into Fred before you leave. This way if one of these people is still active you can talk to them."

"There is so much data here that I don't see how we will ever even uncover the surface of it, let alone find all of the things that would help make life better. I am glad dad will have the job of trying to decide what information to look at first."

Eagle sat down and started scrolling through visuals of the list of inhabitable planets. They all looked like Earth when the picture was taken from space. They all looked like blue marbles. Most of them had more water than land. The vegetation ranged across the entire spectrum of green. From a light green to a green that was very hard to distinguish from black. The main way Eagle could tell that these were not the same world was the view of the suns as seen from whatever planet she was looking at. The suns varied across ever color of the rainbow. There were planets with only one sun. The one that impressed her the most had seven suns that circled the planet in a flying wedge formation. Eagle could not wait until everything was ready and she could go start looking at some of these places.

"I just had contact from Fred he has met the transportation that was bringing you father here and he said to tell you that he will be here in the morning. The other ship will not land for a few days yet." "Did he say anything else Glitch?" "Yes he said that he had a surprise for you. He also said that he would tell you but your dad said that if he did he would put a bug in his system." "They conspired to keep me in suspense until they get here. Both of them know that I hate to wait on surprises. I never could wait until Christmas to open my presents. That is why my dad refused to bring them home until the night before. Just so I would not get into them."

While Eagle had been sitting at the terminal Glitch had been busy. He knew the secret that Fred had. Fred was bringing all of Eagles family with him. This meant that Glitch had better get some housing arranged for them. Glitch pondered as much as an AI was able to. He decided to build a house for them on the surface just outside of the main entrance. This would allow easy access for Eagles dad, while keeping her mother happy by not being underground. Glitch went through all of the different plans that were stored in his system looking for a house that he thought would look good. After searching for about twenty minutes he found a house from the creator's library that might due.

It was not a very elaborate house by the creator's standards. This was a modest six bedroom house that would allow for ample space. It would also give them room for guests if they wanted to invite someone over. There would be a pool outside for them to relax around. Glitch did not understand what the creator's passion was for being wet. This passion was evident in all of their plans. Glitch added a bathroom for every two bedrooms. There was an office for Eagles dad to work in so that he would not spend all of his time underground. This office had a direct connection to Glitch's interface and to all of the monitors that were installed around the world. This would allow her dad to work any time he wished.

Glitch created a play area for Eagle's daughter. This area had a swing set, and other toys for her to play on. The play area should last her until she was in her teens. Next just to make it look nice according to the creator's criteria he added flower beds around the house. To populate these beds he selected flowers from every world that was in storage and would grow on the planet. These he arranged into a spectrum effect starting from white and moving through the entire range until he reached black. These ranged from flat ground cover to over twenty feet tall. With the growing tanks he had available he was able to force grow them in a few hours.

Now he had to decide what furniture should go into the house. First the dining area was easy just about every design he saw included a table and chairs. These he made to resemble wood from the planet Mckank. This wood was a deep gray with black grains, which resembled a starburst pattern. He made them into long flowing curves. The backs he decided would be at least five foot high. The arms he made to resemble the forelegs of a dragon from the planet Slivered. The forelegs were complete with claws that wrapped around and created a curled knob on the ends of the arms. When created out of this wood it looked like there were scales on the arms of the chairs.

The table was an oval six foot long that would extend too over ten feet long when you added the leaves. It had the same grain pattern as the chairs. To keep with the creators ideals he designed a personal crest for Eagle. This crest was a compilation of different animals in front of a galaxy of stars. Glitch had placed a red dragon in the center to represent Eagle. This seemed to fit her to a tee. She had the fighting spirit and the thirst for knowledge that the dragons were renowned for. He also added a mythical creature that was said to be the most pure creature that had ever existed. In the creator's myths it had never been named, there were just drawing that referred to it. Eagle had seen a depiction of on in the library and called it a unicorn. This one he had rendered from a drawing that was in storage. It was large for its kind standing almost seven feet at the shoulder. While being midnight black everywhere except for its flowing white mane. With a three foot spiraled horn of the darkest ebony this was the most beautiful rendition that you could ask for. When placed under the spread wings of a dragon it looked tiny. On the other side of the dragon he placed time wheel. This wheel represented the changing world. With the careful application of laser cutting it looked like this wheel of time was constantly moving. The remainder of the house he left empty. He would consult with Eagle's mother to determine what should be placed in the other rooms. With this all completed and Eagle tucked in for the night all he had to do was to wait on the ship and watch Eagle sleep.

### Chapter 26

The next morning JJ was just sitting down to breakfast. When Glitch announced there was someone coming to see him. "Who is coming up here now, Glitch?" "It is Ivan JJ he looks like he is a cat who just caught a mouse. I have not seen him this excited before." "Well tell him to come in and make some food for him. I know he will always eat." JJ said this as he was chuckling. "A few minutes later Ivan came into the dining room. It was almost like a mountain walking into the room. Sometimes JJ forgot just how big he was. "Morning Ivan, How can I help you this morning? If you care to eat there is food on the counter for you." Before Ivan even opened his mouth he walked over to the counter and collected his food. Walking back to the table with his plates and a cup the size of a small keg balanced in his hands, he looked like a prodigy of a waitress. Even though JJ would never say this to him, Ivan might not appreciate the analogy. There was no use trying to talk to Ivan until he was done eating the noise that he made alone would drown out anything that JJ would ask him. For some reason the giants preferred foods that crunched very loudly. JJ sat there and finished his food and waited for Ivan to finish. Once both of them were done and the dishes taken care of, they moved into JJ's study.

"So what has you in such a happy mood this morning Ivan?" "We were going through some more of the planets late last night and we came across some interesting data about a planet way out on the rim. According to the information that was stored on this planet, it just might be the one we are looking for. First being a rim planet there is no possibility that there are any other people within anything less than FTL flight of the planet. What really amazed us was the shear amount of information that was in the archives. From what we have seen so far there was a space probe sent there on someone's whim. What they found there caused them to send a second probe that would orbit this world and make observations. By the readings this world was inhabited by animals that were the largest they had ever found. Some of these animals massed over fifty tons. All of the observations that were made were taken through infrared readings. This was necessary because of the extreme cloud cover. There was no land visible from space. This is not what is important to us though, the important thing happened after the probe had been there less than a year.

The way the information was recorded, an asteroid was dislodged from the orbit it maintained around this galaxy. How it was dislodged we don't know. Anyway this asteroid hit this world, and blew about a trillion tons of dirt into the air. Just the concussion from the asteroid impact rolled around this world like a vast killing machine. By the time that the initial concussion was past there was not a living thing on this world. I thought when I saw this happening that the probe would go on to view a different world but it stayed. It is the later part of the information that has my people so excited. After the effects of the asteroid went away, the probe was able to see the planet's surface for the first time. This is a strange world. It has much more tectonic action than the worlds we are used to seeing on an inhabited world. The last of the images that were shown from the probe showed a world that had complete cloud cover. But amazing as it seems this would did not seem to develop any more animal life. This was confirmed by the length of time that the probe stayed in orbit. So there should be a world sitting there waiting to be populated."

"This world sounds very interesting Ivan. Do you think that it is still without life? If it is this would be the answer to what we have been looking for. With that much cloud cover we could slip on and off of the planet without the new people seeing us. Glitch, will you put the data that Ivan was talking about on the screen?" Glitch placed the desired information on the screen, and started the playback. The information was just like Ivan had described it. This was a planet that would they would need to go to in person and explore and evaluate for their needs.

### Chapter 27

"Eagle; it is time to get up. Fred will be landing in one hour." "Alright Glitch; can you find out if they have eaten? If they have not eaten can you set up breakfast outside? I want to keep dad away from here for a few minutes. If I let him come down here before I get to talk to him it will be days before I will be able to pull him away." Glitch had the machines in the house prepare a simple breakfast he did not believe that anyone would remember what was on the menu anyway. With the surprise that he had for Eagle it would not matter if he served sand, she would not remember by lunch time. Glitch had to put some extra machinery to work he had overlooked the need for dinnerware. At least this was a simple task. He made the dinnerware with the same pattern as the table.

Hopefully no one took offence with the choice of flatware. It was taken from the same planet as the arms of the chair. There was a flattened version of the dragons as handles complete with wings that were folded along their sides. If you looked closely you could see their claws and the sapphires that were inset as eyes. Glitch had thought about what animals he would bring back from extinction if there was a world where they could survive. They were beautiful according to everything that had been written about them. They were also said to have a very high level of intelligence.

He was having Fred land behind the house that he had just erected for Eagles family. "Eagle; are you ready to be transported to the surface? Fred is just landing and will be done with shutdown by the time you get there." "Ok Glitch I am ready to go. It will be nice to talk to others for a while. I like talking to you but adding different outlooks into a discussion is nice as well."

Fred was awesome looking, this was the first time Eagle had seen him since they had landed on this planet. Glitch had made some drastic changes to the ship structure. It would take some getting used to when the original ship had been designed by her and her dad. She would have to talk to Fred and see how this new design worked out in the shakedown cruise. As she walked up to the ship the ramp was just coming to rest on the ground. Standing in the doorway of the ship was her daughter. Eagle had not expected to see her for many years it was one of those decisions she had made in order to go into space she did not know what to say. Her daughter was flying down the ramp into her arms giving her a big hug. There were tears running down her face when her dad walked down the ramp to join them. "I don't want to hear it dad I know I said I could do this and I am still doing it. At least with what I have discovered I can see all of you much more often. Is mom here as well? I would not think she would let you two run off without her." "Your mother is here, she is cleaning up the ship. Even though Fred said that everything would be taken care of she had to tidy up."

"Fred will you ask mom to come out here Glitch has breakfast waiting for us." Eagle's mom walked down the ramp and gave Eagle a hug. "Fred said that breakfast is ready did you cook for us?" "No mom Glitch the AI that runs this world cooked. Speaking of such, Glitch; where is the food set up?" "It is on the other side of the ship Eagle. I had Fred set down there on purpose Eagle. I wanted everyone to see the house I built at the same time."

Eagle and her family walked around Fred's base. As they were rounding the hall and the house first came into sight. They all stopped in awe of the house it was breathtaking. It was blended into the background so well that it seemed to have grown on the spot. The house looked huge, with an odd sloping roof that must have been designed to withstand massive amounts of wind. A wraparound porch that extended twenty feet in front of the house complete with a roof to keep off the sun. When they walked up to the porch they found a complete set of table and chairs waiting on them. On the table was the food. There where at least ten covered dishes that had some very enticing odors coming from them.

Everyone was amazed at the details that Glitch had put into things as simple as dishes. Even the silverware was a work of art. Eagle was half afraid to pick up her spoon for fear it would break. But after she had it in her hand there was no doubt that this spoon could be run over by a truck and still retain its shape. "Glitch; where did you get the design for the silverware it is lovely? I have never seen any this beautiful before." "I designed them from different animals that lived on other worlds." After they ate everyone had to take a grand tour of the house. Glitch was amazed at the complements that he received on this or that he had understood was standard from all of the information that he had.

Fred transported the luggage from the ship to house. While Eagles mom was unpacking their things Eagle talked with her dad about the agenda that Glitch wanted her to follow for the first few trips. Then she asked about all of the people that she had known at home and for the latest gossip. Her dad told her that they had made a pile of money from the designs that had gone into making Fred.

"So who redesigned Fred; Eagle?" "Glitch redesigned Fred while he was waiting on me to complete the improvements that were made to my body." "What do you mean improvements? There was nothing wrong with your body to start with." "I will explain it after mom comes back into the kitchen because you and she are going to need to make some decisions. Glitch is capable of some very impressive modifications to the human body. The least of these would make the richest man in known galaxy green with envy."

"The unpacking is complete. Does this kitchen have a coffee maker in it?" "Glitch can you make some coffee for us?" Out of the wall above the cabinet slid three coffee cups full of steaming coffee. "I have some information that you two need and you are going to have to think about the questions that I am going to ask. First you need to know that our race came from a different planet than Earth. As far as Glitch and I can determine it happened more than four thousand years ago. And a few things were done to our genetic code before they got there. First our lifespan was reduced to around a hundred years. Second was that all of the technology that our race had created was destroyed, or just lost? What I found when I landed here was gigantic repository of information and machines that had been developed before all of this happened.

There is a massive AI running this world. Along with all of the information that was stored by our race. There is a very large amount of data that was recovered from other races. All of this information has been compiled and stored here. This AI was left in charge of this planet with the instructions to wait on the return of the creators. I just happened to be the first creator that has been on this world in a few million years. So when I landed I could not speak the language and he could not find the key so he could understand me. He made the standard modifications that was done to the creators at birth. These things included repairing the genetic modifications that was done to us. As well as some standard modifications, increasing muscle mass to the point that I could live on a world that has twice the gravity of Earth. I will live around four thousand years as long as I don't have an accident. One other thing is that I have a computer in my head that allows me to control everything on this world. It will also allow me to interface directly with any computer they have created and is still in operation.

Once these treatments are completed they are not reversible. It is up to you if you want to undergo any of this or all of it. I would also like your input on how much we are going to release to the rest of the galaxy. Some of the things that I have seen here I will refuse to release. One of them is the stasis unit that is in use in the main hanger. I would not agree to subject anyone to being placed into stasis for millions of years. This is just the tip of the iceberg; there are thousands of habitable planets. There is so much information waiting here that I would not know where to begin. I am going to leave this up to you two too determine, I came here to explore planets that are new to us. That is what I am going to continue to do.

I know that this is a lot to take into account in so short of time. But we need to get started on the basics before very long. My new partner will be out of the shop soon. When she is back on her feet we will be leaving for either her planet or for the creators home world. We have not checked on the best course yet. That is one of the things I have planned to do with her after her recovery. It will help her to establish the bonds and connections with the AI of this world. Some of the things that have to happen are that Fred has to have a complete checkup by Glitch."

"Just who is this partner you are talking about? You make her sound like a machine." "She is far from a machine. I said she was in the shop because Kat is undergoing similar modifications to mine. There are a few other things you should know about before they become a surprise. Kat is a very sexy alien that Glitch had placed in stasis over a billion years ago. Of all of the ships and people that he has stored here I was drawn to her. After I had Glitch interpret her motives I learned that she was an avid explorer like us. Of all of the people that have visited this world or been in contact with this world since it was built there are truly very few explorers that explores just to see what is over the next hill.

In order to accommodate the precepts of her world that would allow her to join me we were ritually married according to the customs of her world. Glitch also decided that to inhibit an influx of males that would be trying to slide their way into marring me when the news of this planet reaches Earth. He filed the marriage in the planetary database. This way you and mom can tell all of the men that will call that I am not available. If they wish to try to talk their way past Kats claws tell them good luck." "Does this mean that you will be living together?" "Yes mom you will find that Glitch has set up this house to accommodate all of us. But you all are not going to see much of us for a while we are going to go explore some of these worlds that Glitch has in his memory banks." "So when do we get to meet this Kat?" "Glitch says that she will be out of the shop as I put it the day after tomorrow."

"When do you want to introduce us to Glitch?" "I was going to wait until tomorrow. This way you will have a chance to look around the surface. Also I know you and once you get started you are not going to be spending much time in the house and I know that mom likes your company. This way she can have one more day of it before she will need to go down and drag you home so you don't starve to death from being too involved to realize that you have not eaten." "That is exactly what I will have to do is drag him away. Maybe I can talk Glitch into shutting down if he spends too much time without a break. I think if anyone needs their life extended it would be your father. Then he might slow down a little and remember there is more to life than rushing all the time." "That just might happen if he does it mom." "At the minimum it would allow us to have time to travel between all of the worlds that will get parts of this information. Your dad will be the perfect care taker of this information. He will not allow people to get the information that could destroy them." "Mom I trust dad completely or I would not have even mentioned him to Glitch."

### Chapter 28

Eagle had Glitch transport her to the medical complex. Kat was due to be released today. This would be the first time that Eagle had seen her wife since Glitch started the modifications. Now she would live as long as Eagle. This would allow them to spend as many years exploring as they wanted to. With all of the information on planets that Glitch had stored they would never run out of places to go that they had never seen before. During the times that they were here on the planet either returning their finds or the information that they had gathered they would have their own place to stay. Glitch had told her this morning that he was going to construct them an estate that they could stay in while they were on the planet away from everyone. This would allow them to stay away from those seeking to meet someone famous while they were here. Once the information of the discoveries that Eagle had made she would be an instant celebrity. And Kat would become one as well because she would be the only living member of her race.

Eagle was watching the display and the medical program was counting down the seconds until Kat would be removed from the machine. The table came sliding out of the medical unit. Kat did not look any different than she had when she went in. Eagle still considered her lovely, even if others looked down their nose because she was of a different species than Eagle. Eagle knew that some people would complain about that and the fact that she was female. But Eagle did not care and the fact that it was the norm for Kats race was the only excuse that she needed. Kat slowly opened her eyes and looked around. When she saw Eagle waiting on her she had so big of a smile on her face it seemed to light up the room.

Eagle walked over to the bed and bent over and gave Kat a big hug as she was lying on the bed. "Eagle why does everything look sharper than it did before I went in? Was it this way for you as well Eagle?" "Everything looks better because the medical program also corrected your eyesight while it was making the other modifications to your body. It did the same thing to me by improving the spectrum of light I could see in. If you were to describe it in terms my planet would understand. You can see in the dark like a cat and in the daylight you would be able to see as well as a bird of prey." "That is good Eagle I thought that maybe something had went wrong." "Nothing went wrong I discussed everything with Glitch before you were awakened and everything went just the way we discussed before you went in."

Kat slowly got out of bed she remembered the discussion she had with Eagle when she had been released from the medical center. She would be very careful until she got used to the new strength that she had now that she had been modified. The first thing that she noticed about the new way that her body responded was that she felt like she could jump so high that she would fly into space. All of the little aches and pains that she had grown accustomed to having when she first got up in the morning were gone. This made her feel younger than the age she was. For being over a million years old she felt remarkably young.

"I brought you down some different clothes from the ship. I thought they would look resplendent on you." "Thank you Eagle I was wondering what I was going to wear my clothes were destroyed when the med program started. There was some microscopic insect from one of the other ships that was hitching a ride. According to the program it was going to send out micro bots to insure that they were destroyed on the entire planet." "Glitch did you get rid of all of the bugs that Kat is talking about?" "Yes I did Eagle. The planet is completely clear of them. I am glad you are awake at last Kat. Now you and Eagle can get some exploring done." "Don't rush Kat, his exploring has waited this many millions of years I do not think a few days is going to hurt that much." "I actually feel very good Eagle." As Kat was saying this she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. The world took on a different perspective from lying on the bed the improvement in her vision would take some getting used to. Everything she looked at was so much clearer than before the medical program started. And with the muscle mass increase that was done even though it did not increase the size of her muscles it really made her feel like she was walking on clouds. Still Kat thought this feeling would go away as she got used to the new strength that she had.

"I would like to introduce you to my family they landed on the planet while I was waiting on the medical program to get done making the modifications to you." Kat and Eagle walked hand in hand up to the exit that Glitch had just completed building to the surface. "Do you mind Eagle I feel like running?" "Not at all Kat I will race you to the top." Eagle knew that it was a little over a mile to the top of the ramp. As Eagle and Kat started running up the ramp, Glitch was watching from the cameras that had been installed along the length of the tunnel. Glitch watched as Kat slowly outdistanced Eagle. She was just reaching her stride. When she reached the end of the tunnel she was running so fast the she left the ground as the ground flattened out at the top. After about five seconds Eagle came flying out of the tunnel she also left the ground when she cleared the end of the tunnel. "That was a very good run Eagle, Kat it took you only one and a half minutes to run a mile."

Before I introduce you to my parents I would like you to meet Fred. I would like to meet this ship who you talk about as if he is a person, my people did not use computers for anything but functions that would take to many people to accomplish, or things that were considered dangerous. That was why my planet originally developed computers as well Kat, but we have constantly developed them to be more powerful and to be able to accomplish even more with less input from humans until they could run a spaceship by themselves, though my father says that they will never take the place of real ship captains because they lack imagination. Dad and I developed Fred to be my companion as well as being able to run the ship, and in doing so he developed a personality, and I believe that if you were to test him against the markers that defined an intelligent race of beings he would be considered a living person, both dad and I have talked with him extensively and Fred decided that he would rather stay as the ships computer than to take the test and be removed from the ship. This sounds like a very remarkable ship computer you have developed Eagle. We like to think that he is unique I, treat him like I would a living person, this is much the same that Glitch should be treated since I believe that he is also among intelligent type of beings, and from what he states all of the other AI's that were created by the creators were also made like him, so if any of them has survived this long then we may need to deal with computers that may have went dormant or insane from watching the race that created them die.

Fred watched as Eagle and who had to be Kat walked toward the doorway onto the bridge of the ship, he could see why Eagle decided that she was worth making into a member of her family and a fellow explorer, with long graceful lines and a classic profile, Fred could feel the allure of her even before she came onboard with Eagle, he had finally come to terms that he was in love with Eagle. He did not know how Kat was going to fit into the mix as of yet but he did know that at least she was very easy on the optics. Wishing like he had done so many times with Eagle that he could touch them both to feel with something besides the sensors of his haul, what would it feel like to run his fingers through both Kat's and Eagle's hair, to hold them in his arms as it is said people do when they want comfort or while making love, it was something that he had resigned himself to never having that ability, but other people did not have the ability to fly unhindered through space as he did, the exquisite feeling of flying between the starts with nothing between his skin and the vacuum of space, so there was something to be said of both types of bodies.

Fred watched as Eagle and Kat, entered the ship and walked into the bridge, where he was waiting for them, dressed the same as when Eagle first seen him after he had changed his appearance Fred was walking across the bridge to were they had entered the room, looking like he was on the prowl. Eagle, and I presume this is Kat hello, welcome back Eagle and I am glad to meet you in person at last Kat I have been told of your beauty from Eagle and you are even lovelier in person, Eagle noticed that Fred was pulling out the stops to either make Kat feel welcome or to make her blush and she could not determine which it was, though she did notice that he accomplished the latter even if he had not intended to do so, she would have to ask him later what he was up to. Kat saw the person walking across the bridge when they had entered the room, she did not know why but it felt like a male, and he looked like a predator, with the graceful lines that seemed to extrude power, if this was the ships AI then she did not understand why Eagle needed her company?

Though what really made her melt was when he started to speak, the tone of his voice sent all of her nerves into overdrive with the undeniable urge to mate with him, even knowing that if this was Fred then he was a projection and not a real live body, with her body flushing and her nerves demanding release she moved behind Eagle and nibbled on her neck in a way that said without words what she wanted. Eagle looked at Kat and came to the conclusion that something had started a reaction in Kat that she would have to take care of before she could even make the formal introductions, with this in mind she pulled Kat towards the bedroom that they would share for a very long time to come. Once the door was closed Kat was kissing Eagle and unbuttoning her shirt before they had time even to look around. This turned Eagle on and she decided that she would find out what had caused this. In the mean time though she would take the time to explore more of Kats body and find the things that would take her over the edge.

After an hour Kat was laying on the bed running her fingers through Eagle's hair thinking about their entrance to the ship, she had not been aroused until Fred started talking to her, this was strange it had never happened before that someone's voice would turn her body on so fast, it had to be something in the harmonics of his voice and if she was going to work on the ship with Eagle she would have to get Eagle to modify Fred's voice if he would not do it. Eagle I think I have a problem with Fred. What is that Kat? I think it was his voice that caused this little interlude though I liked it very much, until he started talking I was not horny in the slightest way, and I think that if I am going to function he will need to change his voice slightly, if he were a living being I would not be able to work on the ship with him but since he is a machine he should be able to change it so that it does not cause this problem every time he talks. Eagle threw a pillow at the intercom so that it would activate. Yes Eagle, as soon as he started talking Kat started to rub Eagle in a different manner showing that it was indeed Fred's voice that was the problem. Fred I need you to take the sub-harmonics from your voice and then talk to us again. Is this better Eagle? Kat had stopped trying to seduce Eagle again. That is much better Eagle it does not seem to cause the problems that it did before Eagle, thank you Fred now I think I can keep my mind on things besides sex while we are on board. Fred filed this away for further reference he had not realized that it was possible to cause someone to respond in this manner.

Give us a few minutes Fred we are going to take a shower then we will be out and try the introductions again, saying this as she is laughing, standing up she pulls Kat up out of the bed and heads for the shower with her. Eagle's body is still humming from the last hour she had spent with Kat, and wondered as she was running her fingers through Kats fur applying the shampoo, and watched as Kat leaned back into her embrace, this may take a few extra minutes than what she had told Fred. Fred continued to listen to Eagle and Kat in the shower, and it did not sound like washing was the only thing that was happening between the two of them.

About an hour later Eagle and Kat walked out of the bedroom, walking over and sitting in the chairs that had been placed onto the bridge. Kat I am sorry, I did not intend to cause you problems when you came aboard. It is ok Fred, Kat said this as she was waiting to make sure that his voice did not cause a recurrence of her problem, your voice is much better now Fred though I cannot hear any difference in it. Thank you Kat, I did not realize that having the sub-harmonics would cause problems, I put them in my voice so that it would be harder to ignore, and Eagle has a habit if she is busy of ignoring me, when I tell her things like she needs to eat. No problem Fred, now that you have changed it I do not think that we will have any more problems, and if Eagle refuses to pay attention to you I will bite her for you so that she pays attention. "Thank you Kat that could come in handy." Quit conspiring against me Fred, Kat is my lover it's not fair using her to make sure I listen to you, Eagle said as she was pointing and laughing at Fred's image standing in front of them. Ok, I wanted the two of you to meet before we were ready to start exploring the stars. The three of them talked about different things they had seen on this planet and other places that they had been Fred talked about how the stars looked to him while he was flying through space and some of the sights that he had recorded while he had been out testing the drives. Talking about these he put some of the more spectacular views on the holographic projector system giving Eagle and Kat the impression that they were flying through space without a ship. Fred this is wonderful, I have never seen a display that would allow you to fly through space with no screen it is as if we are really in space with you. This was Eagles design Kat she designed a system like this for my first ship body, and Glitch improved it slightly with better optics on my haul, and doubled the resolution of the projectors here on the bridge. Eagle why we are talking about this, the overall system improvements will allow me to display things down to one sixtieth of an in, we should be able to read a size three font from space with crystal clarity. That is wild Fred, we will have to discuss this with dad it is one of the things that we will need to decide if we are going to release it to the general public. I will remind you after lunch, speaking of which you mother is calling you to come over for dinner, and she is wondering what is taking you so long to get from the medical center to the house. Woops I should have known that they would have been waiting on us so that I could introduce you to them Kat. Tell mother that we are on our way Fred and we will be back later, with that Eagle reached out and took Kats hand and pulled her to her feet, let's go meet the rest of the family Kat. Saying this Fred watched as they walked off of the ship, wishing he could join them, Fred tapped into Glitches network and followed their progress to the house.

Eagle and Kat walked into the front of the house and Eagle could tell by the smell that her mother was cooking something that smelled really good. On hearing the chimes over the front door, Eagle dad and mom came into the hallway leading to the door. Mom, dad this is Kat, saying this she stepped beside Kat so that she could shake hands with her mom and dad. So what should I call you both Kat asked. Just call us mom and dad, since we heard that you and Eagle are married, so that makes you family here as well, just then Eagle's daughter, Falcon, came running down the hall full tilt into here mothers arms, Kat I would like you to meet Falcon, Falcon this is Kat, she and I are going to be exploring together. Falcon looked shyly at Kat. Do you have fur Kat Falcon asked without a pause? Yes I do Falcon, would you like to feel it, so saying Kat moved over so that Falcon could reach her arm. That is very soft and it tickles, saying this Falcon was wiggling to be let down and headed back toward the rear of the house. Don't worry Eagle she is just heading back out to the play-set that Glitch had installed behind the house. Won't you to come into the kitchen Eagles mom asked, before her father could get them into his den. Walking into the kitchen the smell was even better, what are you cooking mom, beef and noodles, it will be ready in a few minutes, everyone sat down at the table. So Kat why don't you tell us a little about yourself and how things were done on your planet Kat and we will tell you about how things are done around our system, we would like to make you feel at home here. The four of them set around talking about everything from cooking to how each other set the table, this continued through dinner and into the night. Well I think it is time to get some sleep, Eagle and Kat headed for one of the spare rooms and everyone went to bed. I learned a lot about your people Kat, as I did yours Eagle, I think we will get along very well for there is not that many differences between our races except for where they are in time.

The next morning all of them met at the house, are you all ready to meet Glitch this morning? Yes we would very much like to meet this AI system so that your dad can finally have something to do he has been chomping at the bit since we landed. Eagle looked at her computer map of the surface and found that Glitch had built the house right in front of a transport plate that could take them anywhere on the planet. If you will all walk over here we will be taken to the office I have picked out to use for the main worksite and offices. As soon as they stepped on the plate they were transported to just outside of the office that Eagle had told Glitch that she wished to use. Looking around Eagle saw that Glitch had placed the desks that she had asked for, and it was a surprise Fred was sitting behind one of the desks waiting on them, this is a surprise Fred. I was surprised as well Eagle when Glitch said that he could bridge my system down here so that I could join the discussion of what is going to become of the information and other things that are part of the creators legacy. Hello everyone how is everyone this morning? "Just fine Glitch." With that Glitch placed a view of himself or what he would have looked like if he was a creator. Mom, dad I would like you to meet Glitch, we could go to his main interface but you would only see a blank wall where his network is at. Eagle walked up to the screen and looked at the rest of them, we need to decide what is going to happen here on this planet and with all of the information that is here let alone everything else that might be out there for us to pick up, that is left of the Creators civilization, according to Glitch I now own all of it, that was part of the paperwork that was filed with our government.

Hopefully Glitch stopped some of the problems when he filed the paperwork, by placing Kats and my marriage information there, it might cut down on the number of people that show up to try to worm their way into our family. I know Glitch can keep any ship from landing on the planet and if they do land he can place them into stasis, though I do not wish to do this it is one of the things that might have to happen if others don't accept our control of the system. Eagle, I may have an idea that might help with that, you were telling us about ships that had been placed into stasis here for years, what if you have Glitch put the capture of these ships into a documentary, that has their brain dumps into a sequence, telling each of their races stories and what they did to the worlds that they found and what happened to them when they landed here on the planet this would at least give them some incentive to leave us alone. That is not a bad idea mom, with these being unknown races we will have scientist begging for samples that they can study but we can cross that bridge when we get there. At the moment no other company or individual has the ability to get here in any reasonable amount of time. Dad we are going to need to release at least some of the specifications for ships that can reach other stars, otherwise we will have other governments trying to invade us just because they will think that we can supply answers to their problems.

We are also going to have every scientist alive asking about whatever project they are working on to see if the problem has already been researched before and there are already answers here, this has the possibility to create massive amounts of radio traffic, as well as placing large demands on Glitch's processing power. I can handle all of the processing power that will be required, that is not where I foresee the problem, it will be more what information that you want to release, there might be certain information that you will not want to release, for instance the way to build a copy of me, I do not think that you will want to release the way to build machines that can control entire planets. Other things like there are weapons of mass destruction that can reduce entire planets to cinders in seconds, as well as biological weapons that can decimate entire races and leave every animal on their planets alive and well. You are right Glitch, we are going to have to approve almost every request for information that comes to us, this could snowball into your father just setting here looking at requests for a long time to come. That does not sound like fun to me Glitch, is there any way that you could develop a sub process that will do a first run at these request and eliminate the ones that are directly related to weapons, or potentially threatening information. Yes Fred I can sort the requests into things that are weapons related, although some of the weapons related information is also related to power generation related as well so some of even these you will need to decide if this information will be released.

I can see Glitch this is going to become a very big problem, in a very short amount of time, if someone is trying to develop a weapons system on their own, what is going to stop them from developing it with or without our involvement? Nothing though we could preempt some of this by offering the governments help with infrastructure problems and power sources that would eliminate environmental problems and other things that would improve lives of their people, once we start this process it will change the course of entire races of people. I can think of technology here that would make things better and worse for people everywhere, if you were to release the nano-technology that the creators used it would displace massive amounts of workers across all of the races, though it would create other jobs it would take some time to balance need with demand, and how do we keep one company from controlling everything? What if you only lease the information instead of either giving it away or selling it, I know this planet nor any of us will need the money but this gives us the ability to control how the information and other things is used. We could do that Mel but then we would have to track all of this as well as everything else that is going to be involved with controlling the information that is released from here. I think everything should be filtered by Glitch to eliminate the main things we have discussed then they can go to dad for final approval, and if dad finds something that we have overlooked then he can add it to the filter list. Everyone was nodding approval to this.

Fred what about all of the planets that glitch has records of that should support life, I think I may have an idea of how to reduce the request for weapons, and that is to open a number of these planets for other governments an since Glitch has control of the only specifications that would allow others to reach these planets then we could control not only who goes where but insure that everyone can immigrate if they want to. That still does not let us know what planets we can release, we don't know if any of them still exist or if there are other races living there now. What if Glitch were to build a set drones that could go to every planet and take a survey of the planet and everything on it much like we did with this planet but in more detail, he would need to include the information that the drone would need if there are still creators machines operating there that would transfer them to you as well, this would give you a overall picture of what has survived and whet resources are out there, they should look for known space stations and other installations that should be in these systems. Could you do this Glitch? Yes I can start building the drones today it will take about six months to create the drones and an additional six months for the drones to start returning the information on their assigned planets and the systems they have been sent to. This sounds like the best idea, why don't we do that, it will be up to you dad, to bring the heads of all of the governments here I would like the number of people brought here kept to a minimum, Create a tour that will tell them what we can help them with and how we plan to accomplish this, and also give them a good demonstration of the systems defenses here as well, between that and talking to Glitch this should keep them from trying to use a military force to capture our planet. Once we offer them a way to expand and to move some of their population to other worlds this should keep most of them happy. The rest I leave up to you Glitch and mom, tomorrow Kat and I are going to leave and head to her home world to see if we can discover what became of them.

Everything was finally ready to go. Eagle's dad was taking care of the planet. With Glitch's help he would be ready to start disseminating information before Eagle returned from this trip. Glitch had done a complete inspection of Fred and had not found any problems. There had been one concern with the star drive housing but the error had been in the instrument taking the reading. Aside from that everything had went without a hitch. Fred had been in high spirits for an AI. He had been joking with Kat and her dad about twiddling his thumbs until they had some real work to do. He also asked Eagle's dad if the order to shut down the system if Eagle did not eat when she needed to. "No Fred you don't have to do that. I will make sure that she eats after all she is my mate." "Well are you ready get off of this rock and back into space Kat?" "Yes I am Eagle I have been here so long that whole races of people have crawled out of the swamps and risen to the stars and slowly declined until they were no more. When I think too long on the subject I get slightly down because I know I will never see a mating ritual between the flying snakes on my planet again. During the mating ritual the flying snakes will change colors from a deep blue to a red so bright that you would swear they were on fire."

"I am sorry Kat why don't we see if we can find some memories to replace those with. We have so many different planets that we might find something similar to them on one of the planets we visit." "That is possible Eagle." "Fred we are ready to get moving it is time for liftoff." "We are already moving Eagle as soon as you started talking about taking off I lifted off. I wanted to show you that the new drives are so smooth that you will never notice when I make maneuvers. I do need to know where you want to go. I know that Glitch wanted you to go to the creator's home world first but is that where you want to go?" "No in fact Fred we are going to visit Kat's home world first. One because she knows what it was like when her people lived there and it might help Kat to feel better if she knew what happened to her people. If there is anything to find she can help us to locate the most likely spots to search." "It has been so long that everything I knew about our world is not going to be worth much." "At least you know how the people of your world think." "That is true Eagle, and as long as the planet is still there we should find something."

"How long will it take us to get to Kats home planet Fred?" "We will be there in two days, four hours and fifteen minutes." "Beep the bedroom if something comes up or when we are five hours out from the planet. Kat and I are going to go get to know each other before we have to start working for real." "No looking either Fred, what we are going to be doing is between Eagle and I." "I won't I do not have the monitors on in the master cabin. If you two need anything you will need to turn on the paging system so that I know that I am allowed to look." Fred watched the two ladies stroll from the control center. He changed monitors so that he could also see them from the front as well. If I had a body I wonder if I would be invited to join them or if this is one of those things that are just shared by females. Fred was slightly jealous he knew that they were more than likely going to explore things other than planets in the bedroom.

### Chapter 29

Henry left for the nearest space station early the next morning. "Glitch, tell JJ that I have located a few transports and I am heading out to pick them up. I am taking four pilots with me. If I find more transports I am going to take them home with me to Kel. We will bring back anyone who wants to return with us. The longest that we should be gone is a week." "Alright Henry, I will tell him when he is free of his visitors." "Thank you Glitch." "Have a safe trip Henry. Tell the Meer-people that I have accommodations for them here." Once said glitch started the robots that would construct the housing for the Meer-people. While he was doing this he also made places for the other exotic people who might return with Henry. "I will tell them but I do not know if they will come or not. I will send you a message from Kel before I leave. This should allow you time to be able to make accommodations for everyone we will bring back." "Thank you Henry I look forward to hearing from you."

This was strange, approaching a space station with no other ships in the area flying. Henry did not ever remember arriving at a space station where there were not at least four ships moving in space. Their enemy had managed to bring it all to a halt instantly. Henry wondered if they had stopped to think of the people they would kill with this or just thought about their revenge for a disagreement. The automated docking system gave them a birth. Henry maneuvered the ship into the doc. Then had the entire hookup bundle connected. After about fifteen minutes of negations with the internal security system he had a listing of every ship docked here. Good, Henry thought there are ships here we can use. "Ok, everyone before we take the ships that we need make sure that all of the ships here are shut completely down." All of the pilots nodded at Henry and left the ship. Within minutes Henry saw the indicators start to display the ships being shut down. While his other pilots were busy with this he brought up a list of stores, he examined this list to see if there was anything here he might want to load onboard. After a couple of hours of useless searching Henry decided there was not anything here that they needed. Henry glanced again at the indicators and the pilots were on the last group of ships to shutdown. Henry got up and made a cup of coffee. He had already assigned the pilots to individual ships. He should see the reading for them to power up before long. With this group of ships they could transport around five thousand people, depending on their size. If it was all giants that boarded it would reduce the number drastically. After around an hour all of the other pilots called to tell him their sips were ready to go. "Ok, everyone lets head for Kel." With that they undocked and head out.

### Chapter 30

"Eagle it is time to get moving we are ten hours out from Kats home planet and I am picking up signals from a radio source." Eagle slowly walked onto the bridge, she looked like she had not slept since she had gone into the bedroom with Kat. Her hair was messed up and she only had on her under wear. Fred was right they had been doing more than sleeping since they had went into the bedroom. Kat was right behind Eagle and she did not look any better off than Eagle did. Ladies I think that I will stop here in this position and wait on the two of you to get some sleep. It does not appear that either one of you have been asleep since you left the bridge. "You are right Fred we have not been asleep. Some things are more important than sleep but I think that we should get some sleep before we tackle this new information that you are trying to give us. We might miss something that could cause us trouble down the road." Eagle and Kat went back into the bedroom and this time Fred left on the monitors so that he could see if they were really sleeping and he could also start giving them information as soon as they got up. Fred watched as Eagle and Kat lay down on the bed. Eagle curled up around Kat as if to protect her though in Fred's opinion Kat could take care of herself easier than Eagle she had the built in equipment that Eagle lacked.

Many hours later Eagle opened her eyes and looked over at Kats face. Even though it was not human she had the qualities that made her beautiful. Eagle moved over and kissed her on the forehead and whispered it was time to get up. According to the computer in her head they had been sleeping ten hours since they went back to bed. Kat stirred and sat up. "Good morning Eagle." "Morning Kat are you ready to see what Fred has found coming from your world?" "Yes I am very excited. I am wondering if the radio signals that Fred reported before he said that we should get some sleep are just automated leftovers." "Fred what have you found out while we were sleeping?" "Sorry ladies you two are not going to get any information until you have eaten. I would not be doing my job if I started giving you information before then. I know you Eagle and once you get started you will not quit unless I stop you."

"First I think that we both could use a shower. What do you think Kat?" "I think that you smell like sex Eagle and so do I." "Glitch will you start the water in the shower? Kat and I will be in there in a few minutes." Eagle watched as Kat removed the few clothes that she had worn as night things. Eagle wished that she was half as graceful as Kat. Eagle removed her underwear and joined Kat in the shower. "Do you want your back washed Kat?" "If you want to Eagle and when you are done I will do yours." Eagle soaped down Kats back enjoying the feeling of the fir on Kats back the fir was so soft it reminded Eagle of petting a rabbit. After she had washed it Kat turned around a rinsed the soap off. Then Eagle turned around while Kat washed her back. It felt so wonderful to have someone to wash her back again she had not had someone to do this since she was with the father of her child. They both got out of the shower and dried off. "I made you both some food Eagle it is waiting on you in the galley." "Thank you Fred we will be right out."

"If you two would have eaten any faster people would have thought it was magic. Are you sure you even chewed it on the way through. I know you could not have tasted it." "Sorry Fred, we were trying to get done so you would tell us what was going on." "While you two were sleeping I intercepted a capsule that according to the marking on it originated on Kats home planet." "It is transmitting a message for anyone from her planet welcoming them home. By the date that is being transmitted with the signal. It has been sitting here in space since around a decade after Kat left her home planet. To say the least it has been here a long time. But this brings up some very serious questions. Why has it been here so long without someone picking it up? Also why was it placed here to start with?"

"Can you play the message for me Fred? I have not heard anyone from my planet in so long that I do not even know if I will be able to understand them." "Here it is Kat." Welcome home if you found this then you must have been one of the explorers that went out to find new worlds. Do not be shy contained within this capsule are things that we felt that you might like to have before you actually land. There is deodorant and things to make you feel clean and fresh for both men and women. There is an assortment of dried fruits and vegetables as well as other small things that we hope will make your last days of flight more enjoyable." The message started repeating from that point. "That is a very strange message. There must have been a great change in my people in a very short time for them to have done this. Where did you put the capsule Fred?" "It is in the number one hold in quarantine I have opened the capsule and tested it for harmful bacteria according to the information that Glitch gave me before we left there is nothing in it that will hurt you."

Eagle and Kat went down to the hold to look at the capsule. When they arrived at the container holding it Kat looked through the window. It was about four foot long and three feet in diameter. A uniform grey in color with a noticeable hand lock in the side of it. "Fred double check for anything that could hurt Kat I would not like to lose her." "I have checked it four times for anything from her planet and twice for anything that could be harmful to you." "Ok Fred will you open the hold." Kat was waiting very patiently for the door to open. She kept looking back and forth between Eagle and the capsule. Finley the door started to slide open. There was just a crack not even a millimeter and Kat hit the floor with a loud thud. "What's wrong Kat?" Eagle was asking as she bent over to find out what happened. Kat was not moving. What is happening...., Eagle's voice suddenly cut off as Fred put the entire area into stasis. Fred was stunned what had caused Kat to drop to the floor. Fred brought up a robot from the storage that could extract Eagle from the stasis field, this took forever Fred had to wait almost five minutes before the robot arrived and removed Eagle from the stasis field, what's going on Fred, Eagle said as she came out of the field. I do not know Eagle I am trying to find the cause as we are speaking. Using every instrument that he had he was searching every wavelength and then he found it on Eagle, it was a nanobot that had activated when it was in Kat's presence using a high frequency bombardment he was able to kill the nanobot, he would have to release the stasis field and kill the ones that were on Kat before they did any permanent damage he hoped. Give me a second Eagle, I need to release the stasis field and kill the nanobots that were hidden on the capsule, they only activated when Kat was there, I and going to neutralize them and hopefully they have not harmed Kat. Saying this Fred shut down the field and used the frequency he had found to kill the nanobots on Kat and the ones left on the capsule at the same time. Kat stirred slowly sitting up, Eagle was at her side, we need to take you down to the medical center and make sure you are all right, there was some type nanobot on the capsule that did not activate until you were close to it, Fred has killed all of them but I want you checked anyway you hit the deck pretty fast.

After a few minutes in the medical unit it released Kat. What did it say Fred. There is no damage that a good night's sleep will not cure, it seems that the nanobots could not penetrate into Kats system, the only thing that saved her was the modifications that Glitch made to her body, it was just too tough for them, the reason that Kat passed out was her bodies response to being invaded on a mass scale by what amounts to be a virus. We got lucky this time Fred we need to add a frequency sweep to the programs that decontaminates things that come onboard. I have already added it Eagle we will not be caught this way again. Eagle walked back to the bedroom with Kat and tucked her into bed. I am going to go to the planet and take a look while you are asleep, when you get up we will talk about what we have found.

### Chapter 31

"Glitch, do you have a ship and pilot left that can take Ivan to inspect a planet?" "Yes I do JJ, as long as the ship does not need to carry too heavy a payload." "It will be carrying Ivan, and a couple of his team to go look at a planet that they have found. They will need to take some testing equipment, but that is all." "I will inform the pilot to prepare the ship. It should be ready to depart within the hour." "Thank You, Glitch. Call Ivan and have him come to my office, as soon as he has a chance."

"Ivan is coming up now JJ. He will be at your office shortly." Glitch opened the door to the office as Ivan approached. "Come in Ivan, you are just the person I wanted to talk to. I will not waste your time, what I want to tell you, is that Glitch will have a ship ready to take you to this last planet that you were telling me about. The ship has room for you and two others plus your equipment. If you will pick the members of your team you wish to take, the ship will be waiting." "How soon do you want us to leave JJ?" "As soon as possible, I would like to find the planet we are going to use and get this project underway. We are expecting more people to arrive here within the next two weeks. If this happens I would like to have a place to send them." "Ok, JJ I will put my team and equipment together as soon as possible." With that Ivan turned and strode from JJ's office. He was issuing commands thorough the communications system on his collar. Ivan was already unaware of JJ and even Glitch for that matter, he was in a work mode and all of his intelligence was focused on this task.

### Chapter 32

Eagle watched as Kat's home world slowly turned beneath them. It looked a lot like Earth as it was seen from space. As they passed into the night side Eagle had Fred scan for any signs light. She was looking for any signs of life and looking for light was just the first step in this process. So far there were no signs that the planet was occupied. "Fred what is the water to land mass ratio?" "It is the same as Earth's Eagle. The standard day is twenty five hours, there is a slightly higher concentration of oxygen, and the sunlight is two tenths below what is received by Earth. Over all I think people from Earth would be able to relocate here and never even know the difference." "Thank you Fred." "Have you found any evidence of any people on the planet?" "No Eagle I have found nothing. It looks as if the planet has been empty for a long time. There is not any evidence of buildings or the remains of buildings that I have discovered so far. It looks like they cleaned the planet then moved out."

"That is funny Fred I have never heard of a people vacating a planet unless they have destroyed it to the point it was no longer habitable. Scan the planet for any sign of underground caves or structures. Call me when you have the world mapped out and we will see where we want to land to look at this world." "The scan will be complete in around eight hours Eagle.

"Eagle the scans are complete. It is time to get started." "We will be out after we take a shower Fred. Fred switched his view to watch as Kat and Eagle got undressed. Fred wondered sometimes if Eagle had not gone a little far with his programming. He wanted so much to have two arms to wrap around that exquisite body of hers and make love to her. This information he would not share with Eagle, Fred was afraid that she would remove the programming that made him feel this way. Fred had imagined her hands running across his body, when she was operating the keyboard. This gave him a thrill that he could not explain in terms that came from his programming. "Your shower is ready for you Eagle." "Thank you Fred. Would you start some of the last batch of music I just downloaded?" Fred wished with all his processing power that he had a body so he could stroll into the room with her and see her smile. He vowed again that he would keep them safe from harm if it was possible. Sometime that was not possible because Eagle was like a cat. She had a habit of investigating everything if it looked to be something new.

Have you found anything interesting in or on the planet?" "I found a few structures around the planet, some of them seem to be in very good shape. I have not found any signals coming directly from the planet. There are also no signs of life above small rodent like creatures. It looks like someone tried to erase the fact that anyone had ever lived on this planet. The buildings that I found are placed in such a way as to suggest that they were left for some type of information. This is how I would leave a planet that I was going to try to sell or leave as a monument." "I don't know what to think after what they left for their explorers to find. It could be anything." Eagle and Kat got out of the shower and each put on a pair of blue jean shorts. If they would have been any shorter you could have seen the hair from their privets if it was still there to stick out of the side. Next she put on her favorite tank top. It was a washed out blue that looked as if it had been around since the twentieth century it was so faded. For shoes she was wearing a pair of blue tennis shoes that had been worn until they were threadbare. Even with the worn clothes and that wet hair Fred still thought she looked stunning as she walked onto the bridge, Kat had matched the clothes that Eagle had worn but these were made out of synthetic leather instead and made her look as hot as Eagle.

"Put the pictures of the buildings onto the main display I want to see what these people left for us." The buildings were remarkably well preserved, it looked like they had been placed into a stasis field and left for someone to find. "Did you notice Fred that all of those building are identical?" "I was leaving that for you to discover Eagle. Because not only do they look alike they are all the same size. They are equally spaced around the planet within a few inches. The ground around them is landscaped the same regardless of the terrain or the climate." "That is strange I will agree Fred. Have you sent down any probes to the surface?" "Yes I have Eagle I found more of the same nanobots that attacked Kat as well. If there was anything that could have evolved into senate life these bots would have wiped them out before they even had a chance to develop beyond crude tool users."

"So did an experiment with robots get out of hand and destroy the population? Or was this a planned way to remove them from life. It could have been a batch of mad scientist trying to take over the world and they failed." "I do not know Eagle. It could have been any of those things all of them or none of them." "It looks like we are going to have to go down and take a look and see if they left us any clues. Take us down the closest building Fred. Since the buildings are the same they should hold the same information." "We will land in around five minutes." "Put the cameras on the main screen I want to look at the landscape as we go down."

Kat watched as the planet revolved around on the screen, it looked basically the same as when she left, but once the continents came into view it was evident that an immense amount of time had passed since she had seen the world. All of the cost lines had changes there was new cost lines, and more water than there had been here before, but the most astonishing this was the shear amount of green, it looked like the trees had taken over the entire world, and these trees while familiar were massive compared to anything that she had seen in her life, when she had lived here the only trees that existed was those in preserves. This might as well be a different planet than the one she grew up on, with all the time that had gone by it was a different world completely. At least there would be nothing here to make her homesick and more than likely nothing that would allow her to close this part of her life, unless these building contained information that she was not expecting.

The world looked much like Earth from Eagle's view point. There were white fluffy clouds in the sky. Eagle could see an ocean from the main camera. It looked like a painting with low swells rolling across the surface of the water. Whitecaps were being formed and washed away as the water passed over the breakers at the edges of the coastline. The trees were growing completely to the edge of the high tide line with a few breaks where trees had fallen. The trees were a different sight though. They looked to be as tall as the trees on Glitch's planet. It was very strange the only place there were no trees growing was around the buildings. Everywhere Eagle looked there were trees growing, they filled every foot of land. Maybe they never had the thunderstorms like the Earth had. There did not appear to be any trees that were burnt, or any young growth.

As they approached the building Eagle was amazed at how tall it was. The building measured over eight hundred feet tall. Each side of the building measured twelve hundred feet in length. As Fred got closer to the building details started to come out that you could not see from space. From what would on earth be the top of the ground floor it was a uniform grey with no windows and no decorations. The lower floor was decorated in what appeared to be pictographs. They started in a row just below twenty feet in height and continued all the way around the building. There were fifty five evenly spaced rows around the building with the last row coming within four feet of the ground. As they went around the building Eagle noticed a doorway on what would have been the north wall. After they had made a complete circle of the building Fred sat the ship down about a hundred feet from the door.

"Fred can you assemble a replay of those pictographs? Starting at the right side of the door and ascending with each complete circuit of the building." "Give me a few seconds Eagle and I will put it on the main screen." Each symbol from the building started to pop into existence on the main view screen. Eagle sat in front of the screen thinking. After a few minutes of looking at the hieroglyphs they started to make sense. This was a message from Kats people.

"We the people who are stored in these buildings are all that is left of the people of this planet. During the last days of our world a group of citizens tried to abolish our space program. They were determined that it was the work of some sadistic deity. To end the space program they designed and built nanobots that would attack members of our race. These nanobots they placed into space capsules and deployed them throughout the galaxy. After it was discovered what this group of people had done, the authorities were sent to capture the criminals. During this process they tried to hold the whole world hostage by threatening to release these nanobots on the planet. While the government was holding negotiations the top minds devised a way for our people to survive this disaster if the nanobots should be released. In less than thirty days these towers were built and equipped with stasis chambers that would hold as many people as we could cram into them. We powered the building using the heat from the core of the planet so if in the event the worst should come to pass the stasis chambers would continue to run until the planet died. In each of these buildings are twenty four million seventy four thousand and seventy four people. If you find these building locked then the nanobots are still present on our world. If this should be the case we implore you to try to destroy the nanobots so that we may return to living. If this cannot be completed then let us sleep on in peace."

"Fred do you have any ideals on ridding this planet of the nanobots that killed Kat?" "The way that I eliminated them on the ship was to send a radio pulse on the frequency they used to communicate with each other it is on a very low bandwidth. If I would broadcast this frequency and make a pass across the planet at four thousand mile intervals this would be sufficient to destroy all of them that have survived. It would take us around four days to complete."

"Why don't we try it Fred I would like to kill all of the nanobots that would allow Kat to walk on her world again. But I don't know about reviving these people though, Kat you and I will need to decide once we have destroyed the nanobots if we should wake these people. Everything that was present on their world is gone. They would have to start building from scratch. At least it will give them a chance to make their world look like whatever they want to. It will take years to rebuild this world into a viable planet. Fred lifted off of the ground and started to move to fly to the top of the planet. He was not wasting any time getting started on this mission of extermination. While Fred was starting the passes that would destroy the nanobots on the world Eagle was trying to determine what these people would need to begin over again.

They would need machinery to help them start the rebuilding process. There would need to be processing systems that could convert raw materials into material and other necessities to sustain life. As there was no life forms that were of sufficient size to allow them to have a hunter gather culture. The only thing that Eagle could think of was to have Glitch send for some equipment from Earth. This would mean getting others involved in this process. This was the only plan that Eagle could develop to let these people return to the living world. "Fred setup a signal with Glitch I need to talk to him and to dad."

"Morning Eagle I don't know what time it is there but it is early morning here. Your mom told me to tell you high when Glitch called and woke me up. Things around here are coming along nicely. Glitch and I have been sorting information and devising a set of rules on what information will be distributed to others. We have established relationships with a few of the primary planets including Earth." "That's good dad because we are going to need some supplies from them shipped out to Kats home world." "I thought you two were going to the creator's world first?"

After discussing the situation with her dad and Glitch they had developed a list of items that would be needed to allow Eagle to take a few people out of stasis. Eagle would revive the first two people after the world was cleaned of the nanobots. A few days after that the supplies should start to arrive from Glitch and Earth. Hopefully she and Kat could determine who the leaders of these people were. She needed to establish a relationship with these people it would determine their future.

"Eagle, Kat wakeup, Glitch is on the radio he needs to talk to you." "Sorry to wake you but you needed to know what is going to happen. When the ship arrives that has the supplies you requested there will be an official from the United Worlds counsel aboard. She will be there to discuss with the leaders of the planet whether they want to become members. If they want to become members they will have the availability to invoke a planetary emergency that will let them request any necessary supplies to rebuild their world in the least possible time.

There is a debate going on throughout the entire known galaxy if these people should be revived out of the stasis that they are in. Both the United Worlds counsel and I stated that it was a decision that only you Kat were entitled to make.

After the counsel made that decision they nominated you Eagle for a full membership into the counsel. This makes you an official envoy to the United Worlds with the benefits that go along with that. The council also recognized you as the sole owner of my world and all of the contents. I had to point out that it did not make any difference what they decided to do because you were the last surviving member of your race. After that there were no more discussions about ownership. The ruling body of the counsel would like for you to contact them as to the status of what is happening there. I told them that I would act as a relay for your messages because they do not have the capability of communicating with you directly until we release the plans for this type of radio. On a personal note you and Kat are probably the most famous people in the galaxy now. I have had thousand of requests for photos of you. There is a least a hundred thousand request for interviews. So far I have delayed these people stating that I did not have the authority to grant their requests." "Please don't give them our pictures we might want to go back to Earth to visit people some day and we will not want to be mobbed." "That is what I thought you would say that is why I have been putting them off so far."

"When will the ship with the supplies arrive here?" "Things have been delayed a little from the timetable we had been aiming for they will get there four days after you should have the world cleaned of the nanobots. Will you be ready to meet with the person from the counsel or do you want me to delay them?" "I should be ready by then I am going into the first building as soon as the world has been cleaned. That should be in three days time." "Good then I will do my best to insure that the ship arrives on time. That was what I needed to talk to you about. Fred tells me that you have not been sleeping well is something else wrong?" "No Glitch Kat and I are just wound up with anticipation waiting for the world to be cleaned so that we can go into the buildings and see if there is still anyone alive after all this time." "Ok Eagle I will let you go back to sleep now have a good day." "Alright Glitch tell dad that I said hi and here I go again stirring up the world again."

Glitch dropped the connection and the radio went silent. Eagle sat in the bed thinking about what Glitch had told her. Things could have been worse they could have tried to order her not to revive Kats people and she would have had to ignore them. Or they could have contested her ownership of Glitches planet. She and Kat would start making plans tomorrow on what was going to be the best way to determine who should awakened first. For starters she did not even know if there were any survivors in the buildings. If they had survived if the amount of time they had spent in stasis had done any damage. Or if the machinery that held them in stasis would allow them into the building.

Eagle tickled Kat who had fallen asleep again, wake up sleepy head we need to talk about what we want to do with the people on your planet. Alright Eagle, but we stink and need to take a shower before we start this conversation and I need some coffee. Hearing this Fred started the shower and turned the heater on in the bathroom for them. He could not help but watch as the two naked females walked into the shower, Fred knew as an AI he should not have the feeling for lack of a better term for these two, though he did not enjoy watching Kat nearly as much as watching Eagle.

Kat and Eagle came into the galley and got the coffee that Fred had started and sat down at the table. Eagle looked at Kat, thinking what the best way to start this conversation was. Kat I would like you to stay on the ship when I go into the building. Kat started to open her mouth and Eagle held up her hand, just hear me out Kat, I know you want to go and I know that you can do anything that I can do, but I want you to stay here in case killing the nanobots on the surface of the planet and I don't want to take the chance on possibly loosing you again. Ok, Eagle for you I will stay on the ship, not because I think that there will be trouble but because if you manage to awaken these people and I am present it will cause problems if they had some issue with my family.

Do you think we should revive your people if it is possible Kat? I have been thinking about it since we first read the inscription on the buildings Eagle, maybe this incident will have changed them and brought them closer together as a people, and just maybe opened their minds on what is right, but I don't believe it did. I would like to awaken them if we can. I know you sent for help so that they could restart their world if they are able to be awakened, if they cannot be then I would like to open this world to be colonized. It would be fitting to allow some who would admire and love this world to live on it. OK Kat then that will be what the plan is. Thanks Eagle.

Fred completed the planed sweeps to remove the nanobots from this world. Now it was time to touch down on the first world since she had landed on Glitch. Fred returned them to the original site they had landed on four days prior and sat down. Eagle sat at the view screens and watched the final approach on the main screen. Kat what type of tree's are these Eagle asked as the ship was sinking the last few feet to the ground. I don't know Eagle there were trees with leaves like these while I lived here but they never grew bigger than about ten feet high, they were called Olan's because they were thought to have originated in his orchard.

Eagle stood up and walked toward the doorway that leads to the outer hatch. "Fred what is the weather out there? I know it is raining but what is the temperature?" "It is really very nice outside and seventy four" Fred opened the hatchway that led to the surface. Eagle was standing in the airlock waiting on her first direct view of the planet's surface. Kat don't let Fred get away with anything while I am gone, Eagle teased while she was waiting. When the hatch opened and Eagle got her first look at Kats planet of origin it was a heady feeling to know that no one had walked the surface of this world for more generations than her people had been around. To Eagle it smelled slightly of decay and of great age. You could feel a slight dampness in the breeze blowing past the hatch. The ground was covered with a short green growth that reminded Eagle of crabgrass. It was very course and unattractive.

As Eagle walked up to the doors inset into the wall of the building. There was a computer keyboard inset into the wall on the right side of the door. The keyboard consisted of two rows of numerical keys and one row of symbols. Eagle accessed the computer in her head and searched the information that Glitch had downloaded from Kat. But what was the proper code to get into the building Kat had no idea. "Fred is there a way to bypass this lock?" "I will try to access the controlling computer. The access code is two forty seven manual entry only. Eagle punched in the numbers into the keypad. For a few minutes nothing happened. Then slowly the door started to swing open. The entryway looked like a computer hacker's dream world. There was a row of computer screens across the back wall. There were so many wires strung from one port to different parts of the wall that Eagle could not even deduce where the main system was. In the corner of the left wall was a door leading into the building.

### Chapter 33

"JJ, Ivan and his team just left. They are scheduled to arrive in orbit around the planet they have selected within four days." "Thank you, Glitch." JJ said this as he was heading for the shower. This was going to be a long day. The people from the Kel's world were supposed to land at four this afternoon. Before that JJ would need to go over all of the files that had been sent to him. This would tell him if there were any people coming that could be used to further this project. I would also let him know what type of structures would be needed on the new world to accommodate them. First he would stay in the shower for a few minutes and try to work the kinks out. Last night's meeting had been a stressful event. With the need to explain what had been going on at home that necessitated this sudden move of people from Kel. After JJ go out of the shower he made himself some breakfast, eggs and toast this morning. It was a nice way to start the day not being so rushed that he could not at least enjoy his food. "Glitch, can you put the information we were discussing on the screen in my desk. I think that data is the first thing I am going to try and get done this morning."

Finally JJ had managed to read all of the files that he had been sent. There were a number of people who they could put to work helping with the project. According to the reports the only reason some of them had not volunteered was that they had been working on other projects when the project started. With everything that was happening on Kel, they had decided that their projects could be ended.

JJ, looked at the time, he would have just enough time to eat before the ships landed with the people from Kel. There were a few people that he wanted to talk to right after they landed. Walking up to the cafeteria to find some food, "JJ ran into Ralf. How are you this morning Ralf?' "Not too bad JJ, I was just heading up for some food would you care to join me?" "Sure. I was just heading that direction myself." After having something to eat JJ said goodbye to Ralf and headed for the hanger. The ships would be starting their decent into the atmosphere at any minute. JJ, wanted to be there to welcome them and to invite the ones he had selected for the project to a meeting he had planned. As he stood there waiting on the ships to land he reviewed all of the files he had selected so that he knew who he needed to talk with.

JJ stood at the bottom of the ramp and welcomed the new arrivals to LACE. There was a few that he asked to come to his office and visit with him after they had unpacked. The first person down the ramp that he needed to talk with was April. She was a very fine looking young lady. Five foot six, one hundred forty pounds, and she was stacked together very well indeed. "Welcome to LACE April. How was your flight? I am JJ and I am in charge of the project that we have running here, and I was wondering if you could come to my office after you have unpacked?" "May I ask why you want to see me JJ?" "We would like to use your talent on the project, April. Your work in climate forecasting may very well be needed on the planet that we select for the final destination of this project." "If that is the case, and you can give me directions then I will be there shortly after dinner this evening. I would like to familiarize myself with the layout here first." "That is fine April. If you have any questions just ask Glitch, he will be more than willing to help you." "Thank you, JJ and I will see you this afternoon." JJ stood around watching as more people got off of the ship. It seemed like the line of people would never end. There must have been more people wanting to leave than what they had anticipated. That would not be a problem between Glitch and himself they had made contingency plans for just this reason. Here came one more person from his list. "Welcome to LACE Dru, I am JJ the head of the project here. I hope your trip was pleasant." "Yes it was very pleasant, if somewhat crowded. Thank you." "I am glad you had a good trip. I would like to speak with you about helping with the project. With your skills and background, I believe that we could put your knowledge to use. This will also give us a member of your profession that we are currently lacking. As a noted geologist your knowledge is invaluable. The head of the group that is searching for a planet is at this moment headed for a planet that he believes will work for this project. If you would meet with me in my office after diner I will tell you about the project, and what I believe your roll could be in that project. Thank you." "You are welcome JJ. I will be there shortly after dinner I look forward to hearing about this project"There were a few people off of JJ list that were not on this ship. Either they were on the next ship or had changed their minds. JJ stood around and talked to crew of the ship for a few minutes after they had unloaded the last of the passengers. From what they had been telling him about the conditions on Kel, he was glad that he was here. He would meet with the few that had been on this ship, later and see if they would help with the project. It sounded like they should just be happy to be alive.

### Chapter 34

As Eagle approached the door it automatically swung aside to allow her entry. She could not believe what she saw it was a nightmare. The stasis chambers were standing upright in rows as far as the eye could see. Each chamber reached from floor to the ceiling that was just over seven feet high. The stasis chambers had clear covers that allowed her to see the person stored inside. The first case she walked up to contained a female. Eagle gagged as the body looked like someone had eaten half of her face and stored the remainder for later use. As Eagle touched the glass covering on the case it dissolved into dust. Eagle hopped that the remainder of the chambers were in better shape than this one.

Eagle started walking down the isle of chambers. There were lights on the bottom of each case that indicated the status of the chamber. About one out of every twenty had green lights that Eagle took as an indication of proper working order. At this rate only five percent of the population that went into stasis would live to be revived. "Fred will you try to access the computer and find out a listing of everyone here and collate the names with the chambers that are still in operational order. Then see if you can find an occupation listing of the survivors." "I have already completed that Eagle. What amounted to be the leaders of this world are in the bottom of the building forty stories below your feet." "Do you have any idea how I can get down to the bottom floor Fred?" "Now that I have convinced the AI that we are not trying to destroy the occupants it is starting to send over information. I will flash the floor plans into your computer. From the information I am receiving all of the Stasis chambers on the floors above you are dysfunctional. This puts the number of survivors from all of the buildings at under three hundred thousand people."

Eagle accessed the computer files that had been downloaded into her computer. The layout for this building was very simple. The closer to the walls and the higher in the building you were stored the less skill you had. So the people who had been stored clear at the top of the building were the young and the very old. What they had considered general labors were there stored on the upper floors as well. This means that the people who are still living are going to have to learn the skill of physical labor. Eagle started walking to where the diagrams said that the elevator should be. When she arrived at the elevator the doors opened while a voice announced that the elevator had reached the ground floor.

The elevator was lined with some type of grey carpeting from floor to ceiling. They used standard controls for the elevator. There were four rows of buttons that had each floors number marked beside it. The oddest thing about the numbering system was that the underground buttons were marked with a negative symbol. Eagle pressed the button for the most negative floor this should take her to were the rulers were stored. This was a speed elevator it reached the bottom floor in about Twenty seconds. As the elevator stopped the voice announced that they had reached the desired floor. The doors opened up to an enormous entryway. This room was as big as the house that Glitch had built for her parents. It had plush white carpeting on the floor with some symbol in bright gold in the middle of the room. Eagle could see two doors opening off of each wall. Those should lead to the stasis chambers. Each of the doors had a different symbol on it etched in gold. They looked like crest to Eagle. Eagle wondered if each door leads to a different family of the ruling bodies.

There were keypads beside each door. "Fred does the computer have the key codes for these doors?" "I will check Eagle. There are no records in the computer for the codes and they keypads are not hooked into the system." Eagle decided she might as well try out this new power that Glitch had given her. Eagle walked over to the center door. This door looked like a wooden door you could find in any house on Earth. She drew back her foot and kicked the door just to the inside of the latch. There was a nice crunching sound as the door splintered in two and flew off of the hinges.

This door let into a hallway that was lined with other doors. Each door had someone's name on a small gold plaque located at eye level in the middle of the door. If this was laid out in logical order then the head of the house should be the closet door and they should recede in importance from there. "Fred are these stasis chambers tied into the system?" "Yes the monitoring system is connected. I can tell from the reading that I am receiving that you are in the planetary rulers corridor. The monitoring system tried to gas you because you broke down the door but I shut down the security system." "Thank you Fred I would not have wanted the headache that would have went with the gas."

Eagle walked up to the first door the name on the plaque was Isdof. She turned the gold plated handle and opened the door. As she walked into the room the stasis chamber was in the middle of the room. What a room this was. Every wall was lined with book shelves floor to ceiling. There was every size of book and what looked like every type of book there was. Eagle walked over and pulled a book from the shelf and it crumbled to dust. So much for all of the extravagance that was lavished on this room and its contents it was all for nothing.

"Eagle will you turn on the cameras that is mounted on the inside of your eyes. At least that way Kat and I will be able to see and I can record what you see as well as hear what you say." "Is that better Fred I forgot they had been installed along with the computer system?" "That is much better now I can record what everything here looks like." Eagle swept her eyes around the room to give Fred an overview of the room and its contents.

Eagle walked over to the stasis chamber and looked down at the person lying in it. His features were a little fuzzy like the chamber had some type of film on the inside of the glass. To Eagle he had a shocked look on his face. It was as if he had discovered something very wrong or was very scared when he was placed into the chamber. This look had been on his face for a few million years. Eagle was thinking that the wrinkles caused by that will haunt him for awhile after he comes out of stasis. "Fred something is not right here and I cannot put my finger on it. Do you have any ideals what I am not seeing?" "I have an ideal Eagle but for me to see if it is true you will need to go into the next chamber."

Eagle Walked out of the chamber leaving the old man sleeping. If everything went well she would be coming back to awaken him in a few minutes. The next door she came to did not have a name plaque on it. Instead there was a relief carving in the center of the door. This must be a female because the resemblance to Kat was remarkable. By the vestige in front of her this woman must have been a stern person. If she was a human Eagle would be inclined to think that this was the matriarch of her clan. The look displayed on this carving would make most people confess their sins on the spot. It made most people that Eagle had met seem pleasant. And this was just a representation of her. What must the real woman be like in life?

After Eagle walked into the room into the room she would not have been any more surprised if an earthworm reared up its head and announced to the world that it was god. This room was beautiful there was not a sharp point in the entire room. All of the lines in this room joined in gentle curves. It was painted in light pink with mauve accents. Her stasis chamber was on what looked like converging waves. And it looked like it was floating on the top of the wave. Slightly sunken into the surface to give it a realistic affect. The walls were covered in pastel prints of various family scenes. Here a little girl being tossed into the air by her father. Over on that wall a pair of lovers kissing under a tree. This was the most relaxing room Eagle had ever been in. What a difference from the carving on the door. This showed the inner being compared to the face she showed the world. How could the person who carved the door not see the person inside?

Eagle walked up the stasis chamber. Here again the lady in the chamber looked like she was scared to death. Something happened to these people when they were being placed into the chambers. Now if Eagle could only determine what had caused all of these people to be so scared when they were escaping from the nanobots that had been loosened to kill them. "This is strange Eagle these people should have had a look of relief on their face not one of stark terror." "I know Fred it does not make sense to me either. Could something have been told to them as they were being placed into the chambers that caused this?" "If it was something they were being told at that time then it should be in the computer. There is a visual and audio record of the last five minutes of every person before they were placed into stasis." I am coming back to the ship Fred I want to look at those records before I awaken anyone it could be important to these people. If it just turns out to be a scare tactic then there is nothing to worry about." Eagle left the room and walked back through the passages she had used to get here and entered the elevator. Eagle pressed the button that would take her back to the surface of the planet and nothing happened. "Fred what is going on the elevator is not responding to input from the buttons?" "Try it again Eagle there was a security measure that I had overlooked. It prevented you from coming up without having one of the ruling party with you. Sorry"

Eagle left the building headed for the ship deep in thought. Walking up the ramp the outer lock closed behind her and it seemed like a long time until Fred let her back onto the ship. "What is taking so long Fred?" "I was just making sure that you are not bringing any bugs back that could hurt Kat, Eagle." "Thanks Fred, I would not like anything to happen to her again." After a few minutes the inner lock opened and Eagle saw Kat standing on the other side waiting for her with what could only be a steaming cup of coffee. "Thanks Kat I need that, let's go to the bridge and see what the computers have to tell us about what was going on with your people as they were being put into stasis." They started walking to the bridge. "Eagle you and Kat might as well go get something to eat because I am not going to let you have access until the two of you have eaten."We will eat when we are done Fred." "No, Eagle I know better once the two of you get started you will forget all about food and who knows how long it will be until you decide you are hungry, or even if you will." Eagle looked at Kat and shook her head. "We might as well do what he says or we will not get any peace and also he controls the access to the computers that control these buildings, he has us in a position where we have to listen to him." "It's ok Eagle I was getting hungry but I was going to wait until we had looked at the records, though from some of the things that Fred was telling me while you were in the building his concern is valid." Eagle made a face, thinking it was just not right when your AI was telling your mate about your bad habits.

Eagle and Kat walked into the galley, walking to the refrigerator Eagle removed a package of bologna that she had taken out of the freezer the night before. Kat watched as Eagle started putting things on the counter that she did not recognize, she was still trying to figure out what Eagle was up to when she started to put things on bread there was white stuff, red stuff some kind of vegetable that she sliced and put there then the meat that she took from the fridge Kat could smell that, it was not mouth watering that was for sure but not bad either. After making four of these sandwiches she put them on two plates and placed something on the plate that looked like irregularly shaped wafers, none of which was the same size or shape. Bringing these to the table and sitting it down in front of Kat, and placing a Coke beside it. "This is bologna sandwiches with mayonnaise, onions, and catsup." Kat tentatively took a bite of the first of her sandwiches it was not bad different but not bad. They sat and ate the food in silence, with their thighs lightly touching under the table.

A few minutes later they went to the bridge and sat down. Fred put the first of the records on the screen so that they could view it. "Can you turn the sound up a little Fred I cannot hear what they are saying? Thank you now I can hear them." They must have used middle class workers to complete the process of insuring that all of them were put into stasis correctly. There were only orders given to the people who were being placed into stasis at first. Just after the intern had placed them into the machinery that would protect them from the ravages that was coming from the nanobots you could hear him whisper. I left some nanobots to dine on you while you sleep away the years. If anyone ever opens you're stasis chamber you will die in their arms. I have planted the nanobots in every chamber that has been installed. If you are wondering why you did not detect them it is because I also control the computer systems. These lovely buildings are nothing more than your mausoleums. This is payback for not letting me destroy the people responsible when I could have done it." Kat and Eagle sat in stunned silence for a few seconds. "It's no wonder that they have a terrified look on their face, they thought they were dead at the hands of the person who caused this. Do you think he actually did it Kat?" "I do not know Eagle, it sounds like something a nut would do, but to commit genocide on this scale is unbelievable."

"Fred can you do a deep scan of the stasis chambers and see if he is telling the truth?" "Yes Eagle I am afraid he is. I deep scanned some of the people in the chambers and the nanobots are present in their blood. If you open any of the chambers the people in them will die. There is nothing that we can do for them. According to the computer system and my readings the way that we killed the nanobots on the surface and on Kat will not help these people. By the time you exposed them so that I could kill the nanobots the person would already be dead. Then you top it all off with the fact that the computer only has a month of backup parts left. These people are doomed to their fate." "Get on the radio to Glitch tell him what is going on and to be ready to accept a massive download of information. Then I want you to download the complete memory banks of the computer system here and radio it to Glitch as you are downloading it. Also tell him to isolate it from any other data banks and scan it for anything harmful. Have him get dad to parsec the information as well."

"What would you like to do Kat do you want to wait on the computer to fail?" "No Eagle I think we should shut the system down." How long before the ship arrives with the representative from the consol?" "It will be here in three days from today." "She is going to be greatly disappointed when she finds that the people that she came here to talk too cannot leave the chambers that have kept them alive for all of these years. Then you top it off with the fact that even the chance of us finding a way to kill the nanobots is limited from thirty to sixty days unless we can get the spare parts to keep this place running for longer than that. Fred can we get a list of parts from the computer systems here and have Glitch make suitable replacements? If we can do that we can have the necessary people shipped out and try to find a way to safety remove these people from stasis." "I can get the plans Eagle but I do not think that will help any. The only way I could see to make that work is if we cold booted the system. The computer's memory banks are full and there was no criteria put in place to purge the system of information. By the time the system restarted from a cold boot everyone would be dead already." "Then what you're saying agrees with Kat the best thing to do would be to shut the system down and let these folks finally go to sleep." "Yes that looks like the best course of action Eagle."

"Fred will you get Glitch and my dad on the radio for me?" "What's up Eagle we did not expect to hear from you until after the supply ship arrived?" "Kat and I have an ideal. Since there is no way to revive these people and return them to the world why don't we open this world for colonization? Doing this would keep people from demanding that you give up information on other planets until we are ready. Glitch can sell the prints for a star drive that will allow them to get out here in a reasonable amount of time. This would provide us with an income to offset some of the cost that we are incurring. It would also be a good jester to the counsel for the effort they put into getting the supplies together for this run." "That is a good ideal Eagle. I will have Glitch send a ship to pick up the council members. We will work out the details for colonist to be able to immigrate to that world."

"You might want to send a team of experts out here to determine how to integrate people into this ecology with minimal impact." "I know how you feel about that sort of thing Eagle, Glitch and I will take care of it." "Then I will leave it to you and Glitch to take care of dad." "How is everyone doing there? Everyone is fine your mother has had Glitch working hard at finding the correct ingredients for some of her recipes." This made Eagle chuckle she knew what type of nagging her mother could do when she wanted something. "One more thing Eagle what are you going to do about the representative that is coming in on the ship?" "I am going to offer her a ride I cannot guarantee when I will be home but it will be better than sitting on this empty world waiting on others to arrive." "That sounds like a good plan Eagle. I hope you have better luck when you find the next world than you had with this one." "I will talk to you later dad."

"Fred we are going to get some sleep." "Good night Eagle, Kat. I am going start dumping the information from these computer systems and sending it to Glitch. We should be done with the transfer by the time you wake up in the morning." "Alright Fred wake me up if you need anything." Eagle was thinking about the conversation that she and Fred have had over the last few days. Unless it was her imagination Fred was developing more of a personality than what they had programmed into him. Tomorrow while she was waiting on the supply ship to arrive she had better take a look at Fred's matrix. If he was developing on his own she should insure that there was nothing dangerous that could develop down the road. The design had allowed for growth of the AI when they had designed it. She had not looked at the code since Glitch had placed Fred in this ship.

The next morning Eagle got up and took a leisurely shower and put on a pair of skin tight blue jean shorts and walked onto the bridge. Fred watched as Eagle walked onto the bridge only half dressed. If he was human he would have been blushing from the sight that he was looking at. Eagle sat down at the main consol and called up the computer code that comprised the main heart of Fred's system. What she was seeing was in the code was unbelievable. She could see the modifications that had been done by Glitch as well as the modifications that had been made from the contact with others. Fred was developing faster than they had anticipated. She ran the standard bank of personality checks that had been developed for testing an AI's stability. The results surprised her. His was the most stable personality that she had seen outside of theory class.

Next she called up the diagnostic routines for the ship. There was a list of components that had been replaced since Fred had been commissioned. It consisted of only four parts and upon examination they had had manufacturing defects. Otherwise the ship had had no problems. It was ready to make the next leg of this flight.

"Fred will you give me the coordinate data for the creators planet? I want to start plotting the flight path we are going to take to get there." "The data is there Eagle I have calculated one flight plan to get there. If you want that information as well it is under the heading home world." "Thank you Fred I will look at it as well. Your flight plans are usually the shortest there is. Can you collate the information from Glitch and see if there are any planets worth looking at on our way there?" "I will have the information you requested based on your planet study data ready in twenty minutes."

Eagle sat at the consol and started to determine the best flight path to get to the creators world. It would take them a week to get there from here. As she looked over the number of planets they were passing by she wondered if Fred would come up with any that fit her criteria. "There are a number of planets that fall within your parameters Eagle. I calculated that we can either stop on the way there or the way home. Flight time it would be quicker to stop on the way back to cut down on acceleration and deceleration times." Plot them out then Fred and I will review the plan. "Here is the flight plan that will save us the most time." Thank you Fred." Eagle looked over the flight plan that Fred had laid out. There were fifteen planets that met the requirements that she had developed with her father. The information that Glitch had supplied them must have contained many known inhabited worlds.

Having the monitors open Eagle heard Kat get out of bed, and saw that Fred had started the shower for her. Once Kat was in the shower Eagle got up and started to make them something to eat so that when Kat walked out of the cabin the food was sitting on the table waiting on her and there was coffee waiting as well. Kat walked into the galley and picked up her coffee. "Thanks Eagle, how long have you been up?" "For a while, I wanted to run some tests on the ship part of the routine maintenance, since most of involved just sitting around waiting on the computer to return code, I thought you might as well sleep the last few days have been hard on you, with the nanobots then finding survivors just to learn that we cannot save them." "Thank you, the extra sleep was nice for a change it gave me time so that I could sort out everything that has happened since we picked up the capsule."

"Do you still feel the same as you did yesterday about shutting down the machines before anyone gets here so your people can sleep in peace?" "Yes Fred I do, what has to be done to allow this to happen?" "You don't have to do anything, it is already done when you said that you still felt the same I made sure that the system was operating and had the stasis system open all of the doors to the chambers, and I am monitoring the results. I watched as soon as the stasis was shut off all of the vital signs that were still active winked out, the nanobots took them. I also set up a secondary program that killed the nanobots as well this will allow Kat to leave the ship. If someone asks now it was I who allowed these people to pass away, this will keep either one of you from becoming a villain to the media." "Thank you Fred, What is happening in the building?" That is what I was just getting ready to tell you Eagle, when the stasis chambers opened all of the bodies turned to dust, something must have been wrong with the systems that did not take into account the number of years that have elapsed since these people were placed in stasis. I will have Glitch look over their plans and find the flaw, for as we know if it is done correctly it works, proof is sitting beside you, and Kats was in Glitches stasis longer than these people were in their own."

"Would you like to go out and look around Kat, It might be nice to be on a planet that you grew up on." "No, I would like to keep some of my memories, this place is not the planet that I grew up to know. Once they killed off each other they ceased to be and now this planet is just some strange planet with building that have writing on them that I can read. It will never again be the planet I knew. All of the cities, roads and anything else that I knew is gone, Glitch and this ship with you are home and family now Eagle." Eagle reached over and drew her into an embrace, holding her while tears slid down her face. Kissing her gently Eagle slowly drew her to her feet and walked to the bedroom, not bothering to close the door, Fred watch as Eagle slowly undressed Kat caressing and soothing her until Kat started to respond and return the comfort that she was given renewing Kats place in Eagle's family and life. Fred could not help but watch as the two females reconfirmed life by making love, wishing that he had a body that would allow him to join them, to become more a part of this adventure than transportation, but there was no way that Fred could do this that he knew of, his processing system was just too large to accommodate in a body that could interact with them, even then he would still be just a piece of hardware, Fred shunted these thoughts to a memory bank and then removed a direct link to it so that it could not be accessed without some work on his part and Even Eagle would have trouble finding where he had stuffed the memory.

While Fred was watching Eagle and Kat, the radio circuit came to life with a message from the ship that was sending out supplies, it would arrive in four hours and it had already removed the representative from stasis, and she was demanding to talk to Eagle, she wanted to know what was happening on the planet. Fred patched himself through to the system on the other ship, bringing up the visuals he used his holographic image. "Miss Hart, I am glad to see that you have made the trip here without problems." "Who are you I was told that the only people onboard the ship there was Eagle and some alien that originated on the planet that you are on. Now I remember there was something about an AI running her ship, I demand to speak to a real person you are just a machine with no standing." Fred was starting not to like this person. "Madam I will tell Eagle and Kat when they are available that you will be here in four hours." "I demand that you put me through to her now. You are just a machine and do not have the ability or right to keep me from talking to her." "Do you really want to take this stance with me madam? I assure you that Eagle will not approve of your conduct." "I do not care what you think I will only deal with a live person." "Now let me tell you what you will deal with, as of thirty seven days, twelve hours, thirteen minutes, and thirty five seconds ago I was declared a to have the same status as anyone else in the galaxies, this means that I am a real person and have the rights according to counsel declaration allowing for non-humans to have the same status and protection under the law, and if you keep referring to me as a machine I will have every right to sue you and have you removed from your position as a representative for the council." Fred watched the screen as her mouth opened and closed a few times. "I will tell Eagle when she is available that you will be here shortly." With that he cut the radio connection to her. Using the link to the other ship that remained Fred checked on the condition of the ship and the items in storage.

Around an hour later Fred watched as Eagle and Kat started to stir, from where they had been wrapped in each other's arms. "Eagle the ship carrying the supplies will be here shortly, she has been demanding to talk to you for over an hour, and you should know that she and I had a disagreement of my ability to tell her that you were occupied." "What did happen, Fred?" "I will show you a copy of our discussion when you come to the bridge, I have set it so that you can watch it from the command chair this way if I stepped over the line then you can tell me what I did wrong. We will be there in a few Fred, with that Eagle followed shortly by Kat headed for the shower. Fred could hear them giggling in the shower, but he had had enough frustration for the time being and did not turn on the cameras to watch.

Eagle and Kat emerged from the bedroom wearing identical low cut black tank tops and black shorts that allowed the bottoms of their cheeks to show. Eagle came into the bridge and sat down while Kat headed to the galley to make coffee. Keying the display on Eagle watched the conversation between Fred and this Miss Heart, Fred could tell by the look on her face that she was irritated but he did not know who at. "You look upset Eagle, did I do something wrong Eagle?" "No Fred you did not do anything wrong, but I think that the council sent the wrong person out to meet with a new race of beings. Her conduct would not have been any different if she would have talked to Kat on the radio she thinks that she is above the need to talk to peons." Kat walked up and handed Eagle a cup of coffee. "What is up sweetie you look mad." "I am a little upset with the person who is going to arrive here shortly with the supplies that was sent so that if we could have revived your people they could have sustained themselves until their economy started again." Kat sat down and Eagle played the conversation between Fred and Miss Heart for her. She was shaking her head as she watched it unfold. "This does not seem like a nice person Eagle I do not believe I want to meet her Eagle." "I agree with you Kat, neither do I, Fred have the other ship place Miss heart back in stasis, and we will return her with a copy of this to the consul and see what they have to say to her. She does not even deserve a chance to see this world. You had better send Glitch and dad a copy of this and tell them we are not allowing this person out of stasis or onto this world." "I sent it Eagle, you probably won't hear anything from them for a few hours it is the middle of the night there Eagle.

Kat and Eagle put their cups back into the kitchen then went to the exercise room. Tell us when the ship arrives, Fred so we can watch the unloading and make sure everything goes according to plan. The two of them worked out on various machines for the next hour and then went back into the bedroom and took showers again. "Eagle the ship is landing it will begin unloading in about fifteen minutes." Eagle went to the airlock and left the ship to watch as the servos stored the containers around the building. The containers were very large almost two stories each. Eagle watched until the last container was unloaded and stacked. "Fred did you run a diagnostic on the ship." "Yes I did Eagle it came out without any problems, and Miss Heart is sitting on the bridge in stasis, and will be met by members of the council when she is brought out of stasis according to your dad, and I don't think they are going to be very happy with her. From what your dad said, after he talked to the council and discussed with them what was happening out here with you. They were not real happy that the person who they sent out here was less than professional." "Well they can discuss it with her when she gets home I was going to offer her a ride with us but after her attitude with you I decided not to do that." With that she walked back onto Fred and closed the hatch, "As soon as the other ship is off the ground lets be on our way Fred." "Ok Eagle, it will only be a few minutes until it is time to lift." Eagle walked back to the bridge and sat down Kat was already there waiting on her. They watched on the main screen as the planet slowly shrank from view.

### Chapter 35

"JJ, Henry will be up to see you in ten minutes or so. That is what he told me to tell you." "Alright Glitch, Tell him I look forward to seeing him." JJ was wondering what Henry was going to tell him about Kel. From the reports that he was getting it would not be good. Every person that he had spoken with that came from Kel had the same information. That there were a group of people there that believed that the real answers to life's questions could only be answered from the other side of the grave. The leader of this cult was supposed to be a very charismatic woman. She would first entice the males of the household to join. After she had gotten the males attention, she would convince them to join her group. This group was dedicated to death. After several meeting were they slowly brainwashed the members into following the orders that had been given to them, they would have these men bring their entire families into the cult. Sometimes the other members of the family did not want to become members. In these cases they had built s special indoctrination center, which would be used to convert them to the grand purpose. It was very surprising that there were very few that needed this treatment after they had attended a few of the open meeting. The leader was at one time one of the most famous collectors of fine art. They said that she would have been able to talk the dead into giving her anything she asked for. All that talent and it looks like it is going to be used to kill everyone left on Kel. Some things, JJ regretted if he had stayed on Kel, things might have been different. Although there was nothing that he could do, he still felt bad for the victims of this.

JJ returned to his office, and started the prep work that would be needed to convince the people he had asked to come that they really could help with the project. This took him about an hour to complete. If this did not convince them to help, then there would be nothing he could say that would change their minds. After he had completed this Glitch reminded him that he was going to schedule a meeting with the group leaders and relay the new information that he had gotten from Henry. This would not be an easy task some of the group leaders and members still had family on Kel that refused to leave.

### Chapter 36

"Welcome back Ivan. How was the trip? Did the planet meet the criteria we had set forth?" "I will answer your questions in a few minutes JJ. Before then I would like to copy some information to Glitch." As Ivan hooked the portable system to an input for Glitch, he was grinning from ear to ear. JJ watched as Glitch sucked in this information. "Glitch will you put the views of this planetary system on the display? The first view I would like to show JJ is the overview of the entire system. On the screen was a ten planet system. According to the information being displayed every one of these planets was vastly different from each other. There were gas giants, small planets that were so close to the sun it would be imposable for any living thing to exist there. JJ saw immediately the planet that Ivan had went out to explore.

"So what did you find on the Ivan?" "We found a planet that was devoid of life of any kind. This planet is totally covered in clouds. The cloud cover extends from the upper atmosphere to the surface of the planet. Walking around on the planet is like walking in continual mist. We investigated the planet's surface and it is broken into four major continents. As you can see there are two continents that reach between the north and south poles. We had never seen a planet with this much land mass. As you know most worlds with intelligent species on them consist of around two thirds water. This ratio is almost universal. That is just one of the things that make this world different. If you would grow up there you would say it was paradise, the temperature never varies by more than fifteen degrees, day or night. I believe this would make an ideal planet to start this project on." Ivan and JJ sat and discussed the pros and cons about this world for most of that night.

"It does sound like the world we have been looking for, Ivan. Will you put together a presentation for the team leaders? Glitch will you begin preparing ships and supplies for the project. I see no reason that this world will be rejected. How long until we have all of the ships and equipment ready Glitch?" "It will take a few years to complete the preparation JJ. Do you want me to wait until after the meeting with the team leaders before I begin?" "No I think you can start with preparing the ships, no one will think this remarkable. That is after all one of your functions. Ivan can you be ready with your presentation by tomorrow?"

"I complied, the presentation on the way home. I had come to the same conclusion that you arrived at. This would be the best world that we are going to find. I will also show them the reason this world is devoid of life. On the way home I did some research into the reason there was a planet that was so ready for life yet totally devoid of any living matter. This world has some interesting history. I will present this information along with the presentation to the group leaders."

"Thank you Ivan I will set the meeting for in the morning." With that JJ got up and headed back to his office. It was nice to know that this project would finally be underway. It would give the people that were brought from Kel something to do, and a permanent place to live. It would be nice to see some tangible results from this project, after the years they had spent working on it. JJ also was all too aware of the fact that he would need to tell everyone what had happened on Kel. He had been withholding this information. There was no longer anyone alive on Kel. AT the beginning of last week, Glitch had received a message from Kel that everyone left there had committed suicide. Every member of their race was now enclosed on this planet.

### Chapter 37

"Fred set the course that we worked on the other day. We will start on a direct flight to the creator's world unless we trip over something on the way." "Ok, Eagle I have the course in and we will be there in around a week." Eagle looked at Kat and winked. "I think we can find things to occupy our time until we get there. With that they got up and headed down to the hold. This confused Fred until he saw what they were working on, and then he left them alone to run some diagnostic test and scan the radio frequencies that were used by the Creators. This was not enough to occupy his time so he pulled up the records that Glitch had given him and started searching for anything that was between them and the Creators home world. There were a number of worlds, that he had already discussed with Eagle between here and there, but what he was looking for was anything else that might be out there that was not on Glitch's direct report, there were only worlds there. Fred knew there should be stations around the planets. What else he could find he did not know. There were other planets that could support life that did not have intelligent people on them when the creators were around, but that was a long time ago. Eagle and Glitch already knew what type of technology and planets they would find that belonged to the Creators' he was looking for things that did not belong to the Creators worlds.

Fred was running long range scans on a possible planet that was on the list as having tool users that had not made it to the point of being a space faring race when the Creators where around but looked promising, when he started to receive a signal that originated in the general area of the planet but he did not understand the context of the message. He had better wake up Eagle and Kat and see if they could make sense out of the message, and why it would be out here. Eagle, Kat, I think the two of you should come out here and listen to this message I picked up and see if you can determine what it would be doing out here, I understand the context but cannot figure what it would be doing in space.

Give us a few minutes Fred, and then we will be out. Fred automatically started the water in the shower, he knew that that would be the first place they headed for when they got out of bed, a few minutes later they emerged from the bedroom dressed in jeans and tee shirts, at times Fred wondered where they came up with all of the different clothes. They headed for the coffee that was waiting on them in the galley. "Ok Fred, play this message that you cannot understand." "All right here it is." Eat at Stappers the only interstellar exotic dance club that was designed to allow the spacers complete security for their cargo without the added delay of a normal port... "Fred did you fix a point on where this signal came from?" Kat was looking as lost as Fred had sounded. "Yes Eagle it is a little out of our way to go there but only about an hour." "OK Fred set a course for the point that the signal originated and I will explain this to both of you. This is an advertisement from what is probably a space station that is what I would call less than honest, they either have very open morels for a race or this branch is more than likely a base for pirates." "Pirates?" "Yes Fred, you had better ready the defenses just in case we run into trouble but one of the things these places were known for was that they run safe places this makes sure that people will come back to be fleeced in their games of chance, or giving their pay to the hookers, and dancers".

"Eagle do you want to come back to the bridge, I am getting ready to reenter normal space?" "I will be right there Fred. I just need to secure some items in my room." Eagle walked back onto the bridge wearing a translucent dress that ended just below the tight curves of her ass. The dress gave you tantalizing suggestions of what was being covered. If Fred would have been a living male they would need to postpone the drop into normal space to take care of other matters. When Fred saw Eagle dressed like this it caused distressing levels of processing that he could not explain what was using the processing power. He had not started any processes that would require that kind of information processing. To top this off he never received any information from all that processor usage. Fred watched as Eagle walked with that intriguing strut she had as she walked over to sit down in her captain's chair. "I am ready any time you are Fred lets go see what all of these advertisements are about." "We are dropping out in 2 minutes. Do you want the visuals up when we return to normal space Eagle?" "Were will we be in relation to the signals upon our reentry to normal space?" "According to the information that I am receiving we will be less that forty thousand miles from the first of the attractions." "Go ahead and turn them on I want to see this as it would have been seen by any other space going vessels that would arrive here."

The first thing that came on the screen as they emerged from sub-space was a billboard that must have been a hundred miles high. It said "Advertise here: Be the first thing that spacers see as they arrive." "Looks like the advertisers are not too interested in advertising anymore at least not out here. It could have been an automated billing system and the time has expired from the last business to advertise. I am going to try to contact the computer that controls the sign and see if I can get you some data on how long it has been since this sign was rented. This should give a us a good ideal of the length of time since this was a primary space lane. The computer that controls the sign had a very good security system. It took almost four minutes to break through the security codes. But what it had to report was interesting the clock on the computer has been reset over a million times though I cannot tell you how long it runs between resets. That information is hard coded into it and the software installed is not linked into the hardware system. Any way you slice it has been a long time since this sign had any type of information on it except for the sign trying to attract someone to advertise here."

"What was the last advertisement that was running on it Fred?" "Look at the left hand screen Eagle and you will see the last add was the same one that we were receiving. Eat at Stappers interstellar exotic dance club. This was displayed along with pictures of topless male and female dancers performing in full color action. As they were getting closer to the station they could see other signs that all had the same thing on them. "This is beginning to look like the spaceport has been closed for a long time. As the station came into view Eagle could see that there were ships lined up at every dock around the station and there did not appear to be any open docks available.

The space station was over a mile across and for all purposes looked like a flying saucer, this put the circumference at slightly over three miles around the outer edge and it was a half of a mile thick, with two rows of docks going completely around the station and every dock was full, or as Fred thought over full, the ships were stacked two and three deep attached to each other. It looked like nothing more than a ships sales lot that had an excess of inventory. As Fred watched the spin of the dock, he could not believe all of the different types of ships here, and not only that but they seemed to vary in ages as well, because some of these ships had large amounts of pitting from impacts of micrometeorites while others still had lighter amounts of damage. The damage mainly appeared on the outmost portions of the ships so this damage was from prolonged sitting at this dock.

"Something is not right here Fred. There should be some activity with this many ships in port. There should be refit crews and all kinds of spaceport personnel moving around these ships. Are you getting any radio traffic?" "No there is no radio traffic Eagle, I scanned all the bands and then went outside the normal radio frequencies just to make sure that they were not operating on some strange bandwidth. It is like this station has been abandoned along with all of these ships. I do not see anything wrong at least not anything visual. There is a ship ahead of us the one I lit up on your screen that has and external dock on it I am trying to get into its computer so that we can dock somewhere. As you already pointed out there is not a single dock open. Some of the docks I can see from here are already stacked two and three deep. If you take a closer look you will find evidence of scaring on all of these ships." "How long do you think it will take you to make the overrides work on that ship? Then how long will it take you to dock and send a probe onto the ship to do an air survey? I want to get into the port and see what is going on in there." "Give me about twenty minutes and I will be docked with the ship indicated. I should have the codes broken by then. If it is a standard security code for a ship at dock according to the creators then I will be done in five seconds. Do you want the visuals from the robot probe I am sending to the other vessel? I am sending it through the ship onto the station to test the compatibility of the atmosphere and to check for any airborne contaminates." "Feed the robot visual to the number four screen Fred."

Eagle watched as the ship moved into position with the ship they had decided to use for access to the station. Fred made contact with the docking collar of the other ship without even a vibration as the ship made contact. "Docking is complete Eagle. I have the probe in the airlock. The air lock in the other ship is cycling as we speak. It will take around thirty minutes for the samples to be processed so why don't you two go get something to eat while you are waiting."

Eagle was thinking what could have caused all of these different races leave their ships here at dock. There was no logic to this if there was a plague here there should have been some sign of someone trying to leave. If there had been some sabotage then there should be some evident damage to the station. This looked like everyone decided to park their ships and never leave. The only other explanation that Eagle could think of is maybe they developed some other means of transportation and this was the only place to leave the ships. You would have thought that someone would have decided not to use this other means of transportation. Eagle did not believe you could have developed a virus that would have affected everyone here. If it had been a toxicity problem then it would have been an airborne toxin, and there should have been at least a few people left on the ships. If the latter had been the case then a few ships would have gotten away. But by the sheer number of ships that were at dock around the station no one left or the toxin was still active after the original attack. Then some of these other ships were accidental deaths after the fact. That seemed as logical as any other thing that Eagle could come up with. Eagle went into the galley to take Fred's advice and make some food so if there was nothing that was going to hurt her she and Kat could explore the station when the probe got done.

Eagle was sitting at the table eating when it dawned on her what type of toxin could have gotten all of these crews without them detecting it before being discovered. "Fred will you have the robot probe do a wipe test of all major surfaces for toxins. It would seem a logical place to hide the toxin. If the toxin was on the surfaces and not an airborne it could be why the other crews did not discover it. Most people would not think to test the surfaces of things they handle. The only reason that I thought of it was from watching old war movies where they used nerve agents that could be sprayed onto the foliage like a mist and when the soldiers would brush against it they would die." "Ok Eagle I am having the probe start over again from our air lock into the station. This is going to take a considerable amount of time to complete. What would like to do while the probe is testing all surfaces?"

"You were right Eagle there is a nerve toxin on just about every surface of the station. There was none found in the ship we are attached to but the contamination starts as soon as you enter the station. The thing that I do not understand is this toxin is listed in the creators' database. There is also a way to purge it from the station. I am wondering why the inhabitants did not use this method to get rid of the toxin. The only requirement to defuse the toxin is to vent the station to vacuum. I am sending the probe to the control center of the station to vent the air to space as we speak." "Very good Fred is it safe to go onto the ship we are attached to?" "Not until the station has been purged. I will also need time to have the probe open all of the air locks to every ship connected to the station to make sure that everything has been decontaminated. This will take around eight hours."

"Kat what would you like to do when we get into the space station, I would like to go have a look around and go where the wind takes me, is there anything that you would like to do." "I would like to look at the ships that are attached to the station maybe we can find something that is not in the station." "That sounds good, this way we can get an idea of just what is here, maybe you will find some things that I do not, you might want to try to download the astrological data from their ships we might find worlds that are not on the list that the Creator's made." "I will get Fred to help me with the data, though I want to look at the ships and see if they have anything that might be added to Fred to make him better or stronger."

Later after Eagle and Kat had changed into overalls that would give them some warmth and protection. They stood at Fred's airlock and moved into the ship they were attached too. Eagle hugged Kat and gave her a kiss, I will see you in a little while sexy be careful, you be careful as well, I don't want to have to come in there and save your ass, Eagle, ok I will try to be good with that Kat headed deeper into the ship while Eagle took the most direct path to the airlock that was attached to the ship between this one and the next.

As Eagle made her way through the ship they had docked with she saw signs where the crew had lived in the ship. There were signs of wear that would come only after the ship was in service for an extended period of time. Here was tantalizing evidence of the other race that had flown this craft through space. You could see the wear on the decking that showed the crew had moved around under gravity. If the ship would not have had an artificial system there would have been wear marks on the walls and ceiling. Over there was a hole in the cushion of the seat Eagle walked by. Eagle finally reached the airlock that connected to the station. "Well Fred, I am ready to enter the space station." "Ok Eagle, be careful. If you need anything I have a robot ready that can bring you anything you request."

The first thing that Eagle noticed as she stepped onto the station was the signs that labeled everything because of the number of languages spoken on earth she was used to looking at labels that had three of four languages on them. Here there was only one language on each sign and they looked to be in the creator's native language. They must have required everyone who docked here to learn their written language. This was more logical than what they did at home. It made the safety instructions easier to find because you did not need to search through a list to find your written language. Like any port that Eagle had ever been in there were all the big glowing signs that denoted different goods and services for sale. These signs would have made the shop owners at home drool. One sign was showing pages from some book in a script that Eagle did not recognize. That was surprising considering the number of languages that had been included in the computer that had been implanted in her head. That looked like a good place to start looking. Eagle was not planning to do any in-depth exploring here it was just a pit stop to ease the burning curiosity that consumed her whenever there was something new to learn or see.

Kat listened to the conversation between Eagle and Fred, it was comforting to know that this time she was in space with others that loved her, who would come to help her if something went wrong, and would miss her if she did not return. This was something she did not have when she went exploring the last time. Walking through the ship she was heading for the center of the ship that is where she thought the bridge would be, first she would do what Eagle asked and then she would find engineering and see what they used for drives and anything else like weapons and personal belongings. After a few wrong turns she found the bridge, it did not look to much different from the bridge that she shared with Eagle, the main things here that was not present on Fred was that there was a set of what had to be manual controls as well as computer banks. It must take more people to operate the ship there were four seats around the controls and a chair setting behind and slightly higher than the rest, so this must be the captain's seat. Sitting down in the seat Kat looked at the controls they were very similar to her ship, but in order for her to operate the controls she would need to have fingers that were almost twice as long as what hers were. There should be a port here somewhere that she could hook into so that Fred could download the contents of the computers to, this should give him access to any computers that were not accessible through the network hooked into the dock.

As Eagle walked through the doors she was surprised to see real hard bound books. These were arranged on racks around the walls and in double sided rows down the center of the store. Eagle had never seen this many book in one place in her life. There must have been tens of thousands of books. Each section was labeled with types of books and on the first rack Eagle found a set of cubes under each book. "Fred do we have a reader on the ship that can read these cubes?" "Yes Eagle when Glitch designed the ship it was included in every compartment there is also one on the bridge that will allow me to put the information into my memory banks." "Send a robot down here and collect a copy of every book here. We might learn something that the creator's did not think important to place into the information that I was given. It could also contain information that was newer than Glitch. It will also give me some reading material to kill some of the time between stops." "The robot is on the way down Eagle. It is also bringing a transport pallet with him so if you find other things you wish to bring back to the ship just denote what it is and he will collect it." "Thank you Fred." As Eagle walked around the book store she saw a set of books that had pictures of dragons on them she looked at the numbers on the titles so that when she got back to the ship she could have them placed in her cabin to look at first.

There it was, Fred you can try to download the data that is here. I will work on it Kat. "Can you get anything from the computers Fred?" "I just broke the code for the data it will take around an hour to get all of the data from the computer." Have you found the diagrams for the ship yet Fred?" "Yes, I will download them into your computer Kat." Kat took a second to access the information then headed for the engineering section. "Kat I am going to send a download to the written language to your system." All of the sudden Kat could make out what was written above the locks and doors that lined the hallway that she was in now. Having a computer in your head could end up being very useful after all. With the ability to receive a download and instantly understand a written language that she did not know five minutes before was great. "Thanks Fred." Walking into the engineering section was anticlimactic it looked less automated than the system on her ship. There was a computer system on the workbench over to the side of the hatch. Kat walked over to the computer and pushed the spacebar, after a few seconds the screen came to life. Kat went down the listings of systems that ran the ship there was nothing different here than she already knew.

Eagle walked back out to the dock and looked around to see where she was going next. The shop next door to the book store did not have a sign out front like the other stores. This lack if a sign made Eagle wonder what they would sell that was either not allowed to be advertised or did not generate enough revenue to be able to advertise. As Eagle walked through the doors she knew why there was no advertisement out front. This was a sex shop that catered to several different races. There were signs above each grouping of items that showed the race that it belonged to. Eagle walked to the section that was made for humans. There were things here that made Eagle scratch her head trying to figure out how some of these items would be used. Eagle selected a number of items that would serve their needs if they arose while she was wondering around the galaxy with Kat. These she took over to the book store and deposited on the pallet that the robot had brought to the book store.

This was a bust for anything new in the way of technology, so I wonder what the crew had with them in the way of goodies. Looking through the map that Fred had downloaded with the knowledge of the written language Kat headed for the captains quarters, if anyone was going to get away with bringing items onboard it would be him. Walking into the quarters that were the captains, Kat looked around this man was a slob clothes were thrown randomly around the cabin. Kat headed to the cabinets that were on the wall in the display cases. There were trophies from when he had been in school, and other things that she had no idea what they were, but not what she was looking for. If she was the captain and she had a crew, first she went to the bunk and started to feel around the edges of the mattress, ah there it was a switch. Pushing the switch brought a surprising result, the entire bulkhead where the trophy case had been rotated an what came into the open was unusual to say the least, there were weapons from ones the size of her little finger to a couple that were almost as long as she was tall, each of them clearly marked with how to use them and what they would do. Sitting on a shelf under these were bottles of liquids that Kat had no idea what they were besides the names on the bottles, these she would assume would be some type of intoxicant, these would have to be checked to see if they were harmful to humans and her, it might be nice to have a drink to relax once in a while. Though the real treasures were on the bottom shelf these were what she was looking for, gems, jewels, and data cubes, until she got them back onto Fred to see what information they contained she would not know if they still retained any value. "Fred can you send a robot down here to collect some things for me, they will need to be put into secure storage, some of them are weapons." "Ok Kat, turn on your implants so that I can see what you are looking at and I will send a robot down to collect them." "Thank you Fred." Kat went through the rest of the cabins, but she did not find anything that was worth taking with her. It was time to move on to the next ship.

Back out on the strip as Eagle had come to think of it. Eagle saw a sign that was showing a running logo that proclaimed they had shipments to fit any type of ship heading to any port. It stated "Don't run empty make extra income on your next run. We have loads that range from ten pounds to three million tons." This made Eagle wonder what these light loads were that could be worth shipping in spacecraft. Eagle walked through the door into a brightly light office. There would be were the secretary would sit behind an unimposing desk. There was even what appeared to be a bottle of fingernail polish sitting in the center of the desk. Walking past the desk on the way to the office behind there was the telltale pile of dust the secretary must have been sitting here when she died. As Eagle entered the main office the first thing that came to mind was there was more wealth in this room than any other office she had ever seen. In the center of the room was a massive wooden desk. This desk was large enough that Eagle could have used it for a bed. Along the walls were arranged statues, what looked to be groupings of rare coins in cases and piles of what had to be gold bars. In one corner of the room there was a stand that held a glass case, the inscription on the case stated that this was the first artificial black hole ever made. Why would you want a black hole in your office? Eagle walked over behind the desk and just as she expected there was a computer. "Fred can you download the information from this computer?" "Yes I can Eagle. If you want you can also access your computer and it can also do this then transfer the information to me."

"Fred what is the largest ship that is docked to the station?" "There is a ship on the other side of the station that reported a crew of four hundred according to the station records." "What would be the fastest way to get there from here Fred?" "I think it would be faster for you to take the shuttle than to try to cross the station, if you come back aboard I will have the shuttle ready to go." "Ok Fred I will be there in a few minutes put a couple of robots on the shuttle so that if I find anything to bring back I will have a way to pack it onto the shovel." "Ok it will be ready, Kat." "Thanks Fred."

Eagle sat down in the chair. As soon as she sat the chair started to change shape conforming to her body. The chair rose to match her leg length, the arms and back conformed to the length and dimensions of her upper body. Eagle concentrated on the computer interface. She activated the computer and set in motion the information transfer from the computer in the room. As the information was transferred to her memory banks she studied the list of items that was in storage for shipment.

"A few minutes later Kat was approaching a ship that made Fred look like a very small ship, just the docking bay hatch had to be a hundred foot tall."Fred can you open the docking bay for me." "Give me a couple of seconds, Kat."The doors of the ship started to slide slowly open as soon as there was room Kat moved the ship into the docking bay." "Ok Fred you can shut them now and if you would re-pressurize the docking bay. Kat watched the indicators on the control consol of the shuttle until it said that she could safely leave the shuttle. Looking around she found the nearest computer terminal and walked over to it, Fred can you tell me how to access this terminal, there does not seem to be a keyboard, or any other means of connecting with this computer." "Give me a few minutes to bypass the computer security system." Kat looked around while Fred was busy with the computer, going over to one of the ships sitting in the dock Kat tried to find the mechanism that would open the doors to the ship but she could find nothing, that would allow her to open the ship, it was starting to dawn on Kat that the people who ran this ship were either hard wired into the ships network or they were physic. "Ok Kat I have solved your problem, here is what you need to do to operate the controls, there is a radio frequency generator imbedded into your computer, here are the codes that will get you into anything in the system they are the codes from the captain." "Thanks Fred," Saying this Kat walked back to the lock that would let her into the ship and did what Fred had told her and the door popped open Fred had had the foresight to download a diagram of the ship into her computer. Using this she headed for the engineering section. This ship was a warren of passageways it was almost like whoever designed it wanted the operational crew next door to their work area, the bunk areas were right next door to the work areas.

"Fred do you have any information on androids? I have a listing here for a humanoid android that is listed for shipment. This must be some expensive android because the insurance required would be the price of a small planet." "I have some information of experimental androids being developed. They were being designed for use with injured and disabled persons. That is all the report states, it does not cover any details on what the outcome of the design was or if they were ever put into use." "Thank you Fred. See if you can find the location of this warehouse for me. I want to go have a look at this android and see if it is still functional. It could provide us with some information on what was going on at the time it was active." "I am downloading the directions to the warehouse to your computer system and you will be able to find it when you are ready to go there." "Thank you Fred. I will head down there as soon as I finish looking through this list to see if there is any more interesting items that I may want to retrieve while I am there. There were a few other items that Eagle would have to look at while she was down there. There was a listing of different clothing that was being shipped as someone's privet household goods. Here was something else that she would have to look at it was a spaceship computer system complete with enough memory to quadruple the amount of memory that was installed in Fred's system. That was the only other thing that really sparked her interest. Some of the precious gems she might pick up just in case she needed some trading currency.

This had to be the strangest engineering section that she had ever seen, there were displays on every surface including the floor and the ceiling, but not a single control board, and if everything was powered by radio control she wondered who actually built these ships. Even with all of the differences of this ship there was no difference in the actual operation of the drives, they used Creator standard parts and systems. With an air of disappointment Kat left the engineering section and on a whim stopped at the engineering commander's cabin. Using the codes that Fred had given her she tried to enter the cabin and found that the door would not open. "Fred can you find the controls to override the door commands to the engineering commanders cabin, while your in the system see if this cabin has a separate computer system, or some reason that the captain cannot get in." "I would watch it when you go into the cabin, not only is there a separate control system there are also defense system in place for anyone who enters without authorization. I deactivated the defense system as long as there is not a backup system." As soon as Fred had finished saying this, the door slid open and Kat was able to see inside of the cabin.

Eagle left the office and went back out to the strip. Eagle did not see any other shops that she wanted to go into right now. It was time to head for the warehouse and have a look at this android and see if she was going to bring it with her. Eagle followed the directions that her computer gave her to the warehouse she ignored the strange sights along the way. She was intent on having a look at what was in storage then getting on with her mission. As she reached the doors of the warehouse her computer informed her that it had disarmed the security and unlocked the system.

The first thing that Kat thought was how did the engineering commander manage to get all of this onboard without the ships commander knowing about the stash. This place looked like a storeroom right out of a fairy tale. It was stacked floor to ceiling with so many different things that Kat could not even begin to inventory the things here in the amount of time that she would have. At first glance there were what could only be robots along the walls complete with a section of spare parts? Over there was a set of crystals that Kat did not recognize, and some things that she did, like the ruby rod that looked like it was powerful enough to power a laser that would have a beam a foot across. Instead of sitting here and going through every piece of this, she would have it taken back to Fred and her and Eagle could sort it out while they were between planets. "Fred, have the robot come to my location and remove everything from this cabin and take back to the shuttle." "Ok, Kat the robot and platforms are on their way there." After going through the rest of the ship she decided that the engineer was the only person on this ship that had a stash, it was time to go on to the next ship. Looking at the time Kat knew that she was running out of time to go through ships, what would be the best ship to look at that might yield goodies? She thought about this for a few minutes and then she had it. "Fred can you go through the stations filed flight plans and look for two things, first look for a ship with a vague set of flight plans, and secondly look for records of crew spending more than the average amount of money on station." "Give me a few minutes, I will have to search the banking records and well as official records to get you the information you want Kat." "Ok Fred you have a few minutes anyway I am on my way back to the shuttle, is the robot done moving things from engineering?" "Yes Kat the robot is done and back onboard the shuttle."

Eagle walked into a miniature office with a computer terminal that would be there to allow them find the location of the inventory. Eagle walked over to the computer and put in the numbers that were on the shipping label she had located with the entry for the android. She noted the location of the android then proceeded to retrieve the location of the other items she had decided to look at. Just as she was finished a robot showed up at the front door with a pallet from the ship. Fred was anticipating her needs she was finally beginning to believe that Glitch had not tampered with his programming after all.

Kat made her way back to the shuttle and sat down in the captain's seat. "What do you have for me Fred?" "I think I have found what you are looking for, there is a ship about a quarter of the way around the station from you that from the records states was the most valuable ship docked. They had guards on the airlock and walked through the station with armed guards." "That sounds like what I am after Fred, you want to program the shuttle to dock with that ship." "Ok Kat you have a couple of minutes before you're going to dock with this other ship, I don't have access to the ships computer yet it is not tied into the station, they only hooked the airlock and the docking arms no other connections to the stations." Kat felt the shuttle dock against the ship Fred had been talking about, she got up out of the captains chair and went to the airlock, looking at the dock she could see that the green light that indicated it was ok to open the lock so she could enter the other ship. "What's up Fred?" "Give me a minute I had to dock the shuttle to interface with the computer onboard the ship I am trying to gain control of the system as we speak. Ok you can go across now, I disabled the defense system on the ship, and you need to be careful this was one of the hardest systems that I have had to take over." "Ok Fred I will keep my eyes open."

Eagle went into the warehouse proper. There was floor to ceiling shelves that stretched at least forty feet into the air. Eagle could not see to the end of the main row looking left or right. At least there were signs that denoted the isle numbers along the end of the isles. Eagle headed to the left in the direction that led in the correct direction. She counted as she walked by thirty seven rows before she reached the row that contained the android. Turning and walking down the row towards thirty eight bravo twenty four. There it was standing on a pallet waiting on shipment. Eagle could not see what it looked like because it was incased in an opaque shipping case. Eagle motioned to the robot that had been following her down the aisle that this was the package that she wanted to have delivered to the ship. When the robot moved the android case alarms started to sound in the warehouse. Eagle made contact with the security system and silenced the alarm and deactivated the weapons that had become active as soon as something had been moved from its location. Just as the robot was moving to the end of the isle a second robot came into view. Fred had sent a second robot to replace the first with a pallet to take back to the ship anything else that Eagle decided to take with her.

Kat opened the airlock between the ships and stepped into the abandoned ship. She could tell that she had found what she had been looking for. There was carpeting on the floor, doors that she could see had inlayed names and gold plated controls, oh yes this was the right place. "Fred did you get any information from the ships computer?" "Afraid not Kat, I had to totally disable the system just so I could get you onboard, you will need to gain control from somewhere onboard." "Ok Fred, I'm going to go look for the bridge then." Saying this Kat headed for the center of the ship, that was the most likely place for the bridge in most ships. Kat had to wonder what the doors said that she was passing this language was not in the data that Glitch had installed in her computer or the few that Fred had decoded since then. There was no mistaking the bridge, it contained a half a dozen chairs in front of control boards and monitors, and the captains chair sitting behind all of them.

Eagle went to each location of items that she had selected to take with her and placed them on the pallet that the robot had brought. By the time that she was done she would probably have been the richest woman in the galaxy if she had not already been that. But hopefully the items that she had selected would stand her in good stead at some point in the future. She had selected a few items just because she did not know what they were. She took every spare part for the android that she could find. By the looks of it she could build two or three of the androids from parts if she decided to try. But first she would have to find a way to program the androids. After about an hour in the warehouse Eagle had located everything that she had wanted to bring with her. It would be a long trek back to the ship.

Looking at the captains chair Kat saw a plug for a computer input, if this was a warship everything should be able to control everything from this chair in an emergency. The control panel that was a part of the chair, there was a number of buttons and switches, it was easy to select the gun trips, like every machine she had studied the gun trips had a cover so there was no mistake that you were going to fire the guns, there was what had to be a keyboard input, and a second row of buttons, inset next to these was a row of recessed switches, if Kat had to guess and she did these would be overrides for individual stations of the control room. She sat down in the captain's chair thinking, if there were overrides for each of the stations where would the override be for the entire ship. Thinking about this she leaned her head back against the head rest and then it happened.

She was at the far end of the warehouse when she came upon some cases that were not on the lists from the office. According to the labels on the cases they contained animals from different worlds they must have came in just as the attack came. These animals were labeled for shipment to the creator's home world. Eagle would have bet a dollar that they were intended to end their travel on Glitch. There were pictures on the cases the one Eagle was standing in front of looked like the fabled dragons from Earth. According to this they were not supposed to open this until it was wanted to hatch the dragon waiting to be born would bond with someone that had mental abilities to communicate with it during its lifespan. Eagle looked up the species in the computer memory banks. According to the information that Eagle had it would have an exceptionally long life compared to most people it would live for around a couple of thousand years. There were other things listed there as well that Eagle would like to know about these dragons. She would take this one with her the other animals that were there would not survive on the ship. But there was a good chance with the dragon they could have a companion that would live just about as long as she would. She placed the case onto the pallet that the robot was dutifully moving along behind her. This was the last thing she was taking from this warehouse. It would fill one of the smaller holds on the ship as it was.

A set of extensions came out from the headset and clamped her head between them. Kat heard a strange buzzing in her head then after about a half a second they became words. With questions and the being asking them did not seem to be very happy. "Who are you and how did you get onboard." "I could ask you the same thing because there is no one onboard this ship and there has not been for a very long time." "The last thing that I remember was being shutdown so that the crew could replace the main power cable between me and the main power supply. That was just after we docked, it was the only reason that we stopped at this space station, according to the captain they were going make the repairs and while they were here talk to the people who ran the station to determine what was causing the unrest in the system." "I am Kat, and how are you able to talk to me I do not know your language?" "That is because I am using the Creators language, it has been the standard for many centuries even though each system has its native tongue we use the Creators language for contact between races." "Then why could the AI on our ship not talk to you." "I was offline until you sat in the captains chair, the only computer that was running was the internal defense computer and it does not have the built in layers that would allow it to return information to an outside computer and the other computer would need the codes to interface with it or shut it down." "I believe Fred, he it down after we docked, so just what type of ship is this one?" "I am an experimental ship that was built to test a new type of drives they use a slightly different theory from whet the Creators drives were using. Now I would like you to answer some other questions that I have first where are my crew?"

"Your crew is dead, and before you ask we had nothing to do with it. They were killed by a toxin that was spread throughout the station. We do not know who is responsible for the toxin and probably never will unless we get lucky and stumble across the answer." "Why can't you find out where this toxin came from?" "Because it happened so long ago that even if we found out who was responsible it has been so long it is no longer relevant, they are long dead and never came back to the station." "Just how long has it been since the crew died?" I cannot answer that with an absolute answer I will say this it has been well over a million years since all of this took place." "It has been so long that the only remaining member of the Creators race is a friend of mine named Eagle who is as we speak exploring the space station to see if there is anything that she wants to take with us. I don't know for sure but it will probably be quite a few years before anyone else comes to this station to do anything else because as far as we know the two of us are the only people exploring the Creators space and that is mainly because Eagle owns everything that the Creators ever owned." "Can you fly this ship by yourself?" "Yes I can, the crew was just here to take care of any malfunctions that happened and we would not have had any problems except one of the crew tripped and snapped a power cable he was making inspections." "I want you to talk to our AI, Fred unless you want to be shut back down to wait until others come out here." "I would prefer not to be disabled again, maybe for Creators it is what the captain described as sleep but for me it did just not exist."

"If you will open your radio channels I will have Fred talk to you, he can give you directions on how to return to the planet Glitch, that is where we are from and the planet is ran by an AI as well. I think you can join our growing family, and if your drive is valid and better than what we are using then it could be useful. Fred do you want to open a channel to this ship and talk to the AI here, I woke it up when I sat down in the captains chair." "Ok Kat." With that Fred opened a channel to the ships AI. Shortly after the two AI's started talking the captain's chair released Kat and she could see the ship coming to life, monitors were coming on with displays that Kat did not understand, and you could feel a vibration in the ship that had not been there before. "Kat it is time to go back to the shuttle and head back to the ship, the ship you are on will be leaving for Glitch in around an hour." :Ok Fred I an already heading into the shuttle." With that Kat turned around and closed the airlock on the ship she was leaving behind then on the shuttle. "Ok Fred, I am ready Kat was saying as she sat down in the pilots chair, bring me home."

Kat and Eagle walked onto the bridge at the same time, and as if they had rehearsed it Fred watched as they both turned toward the bedroom both of them shedding clothes as soon as they had crossed the threshold to the room, knowing what they would be after Fred started the shower. This was something different they had not said a word, and until they were inside of the shower they had not touched. That changed as soon as they where under the running water, with intertwining legs and embracing each other they kissed for a long time, after the kiss they talked so low that Fred could not hear what they were saying to each other, while gently applying soap to various parts of each other's bodies. Fred did not disturb them in their ministrations of each other to see what Eagle wanted to do, it would not make any difference for a few hours the shuttle and the robot pallets that Eagle sent back was waiting all over the docking bay and storage areas for these two to decide where it needed stored. It was not like they were on a time table these two had more time than almost anyone to indulge themselves. With that Fred quit watching them and started separating the items that had been sent back to the ship into categories, automatically storing the weapons in a separate area, most of these weapons Fred already had the specifications for, though there were a few things that was not in his memory banks. Fred noted when the ladies got out of the shower and laid down in bed, he had not expected that but it had been a long day for both of them.

### Chapter 38

"Glitch has the last of the ships been loaded?" "Yes they have JJ I watched as the last of Doc's party got onto their transport. All fifteen ships are headed out to the planet. This leaves only the ship that you and Ralf are using. All of the heavy excavation equipment is loaded onto your ship. Will any of you be coming back here JJ?" "No Glitch we have determined that once this planet is setup there should be no direct link to you. We are trying to keep these people as isolated as possible. If we keep returning here eventually someone will leave some evidence of this world. We do not want to give these people that kind of drive to reach space again. It has been determined that in order for them to advance they will need to be kept from outside influences as much as possible. Even though this is a way to keep our people alive the rest of the members of my planet do not think it would be right to just give them all of the things we have created. I do not understand people sometimes." "I am sorry to hear that JJ. This has been a very interesting thousand years. At least the modifications that we discovered will help you all out. Every one of you should be able to live long enough to see this project to its competition."

"We wanted to thank you for that Glitch. If you had not noticed the gene sequence that will allow us to extend our lives indefinitely I do not think we would have ever completed this project. But I think that is part of the problem with my people. They no longer want the competition with a younger generation of people. At the last session of council we almost lost this project. There were some members of the council that wanted to disband this project. They think they are supreme beings now. With the time we gave them it is not necessary for replacements because they are going to live forever. I could not convince them that over time they will get tired of living then who will be left. But their answer to this was that there were many worlds to keep them occupied for eternity. I did convince the AI of the home world to remove the directions to you from every ship that is in space. The only ships that have this location are the ships we are using. This will insure that even when they all get tired of living whoever follows us will have all of the knowledge that is stored here." "That sounds reasonable JJ. May I ask a favor of you?" "Sure Glitch if it was not for you then we could not have gotten this far. What is it you would like?" "I would like you to have Ralf remove this from my memory, or at the very least isolate the activity that has gone on here over the last thousand years. I think that after all of this time with people around it would get very lonely and boring once they are Gone." "Ok Glitch I will have Ralf tinker with your memory banks. I think I will have him isolate these memories not just eliminate them." "Thank you JJ, I may not remember this conversation but I know that when people return and these memories return it will be good memories that return. There will be no bitterness from the long years of isolation."

### Chapter 39

While Eagle and Kat had been out exploring the space station and while they had been sleeping, Fred had been performing his own kind of explorations, based on the assumption that the ships on the outside should be newer additions to the station Fred started downloading computer systems into separate sections of his memory banks, so that he could sort the information that he thought was relevant and discard the rest. Using the astrological data Fred added four systems that were not in the Creators data, these would be worth looking at, and the technology should be different than what was waiting on them at the Creators home world. He had not told Kat about the ships because he decided that both of them should go to investigate these ships, this would be the first new races that Eagle and Kat would encounter that was not now part of the known Creators sphere of influence.

Next Fred tried to determine in what order these ships arrived at the space station, this was fairly easy to do, by analyzing the recorded video of when the ships docked he determined the timeline of all of the ships that were here. There was something strange here from what Fred could tell the toxin appeared everywhere at the same time, it was almost like it was sprayed by the station into every space and onto every surface at the same time. When this idea came to Fred he started to look closely at the stations programming and core memory. What he found surprised him, every ship that was docked to the station but him had asked for permission to dock and received routine clearance and permission from what appeared to be the stations AI, though the AI had not responded to any of the system searches that Fred had conducted so far.

"Glitch I have a couple of questions of space station AI's and how and what they are programmed to maintain." "Fred, from what I understand from the information in my memory, the AI only interfaced with the people and made decisions on docking berth and decided what connections and feeds that was necessary by tracking internal balance of the station and the information from the ship, like what supplies they needed and what type of goods they would be delivering or picking up from the station. It could also override any controls on the station to make emergency repairs, but the control was only taken in extreme cases otherwise the subsystems could manage most systems independently." "Well Glitch this is what we have encountered, in this station, and Fred explained what he had discovered and what the ladies were doing. So what is your thoughts on what happened out here, I know one thing that may not have occurred to Kat and Eagle and that is the space station cleaned up the bodies of all of the dead and did not send any messages to incoming ships that there was a problem here, there should have been warnings up on most of the radio frequencies telling ships to avoid this place." "Fred I would just quietly leave the station until someone can come out with the equipment to replace the AI." "Ok Glitch." With that Fred started moving out beyond sensor range of the station. "One other thing Glitch, there is a ship on its way to you, I sent it that way so that you could study the drive design, this design was supposed to be better than anything that you have the designs for, if the ships AI knows what it is talking about then it should be showing up there within the next twelve hours or so." "Thanks Fred, I will tell Eagles dad to expect it and we will see what happens with the information."

