 
Endurance

Michael Black

Copyright 2019 by Michael Black

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Note and Reflections
Prologue

Commander Derek Ressler had a problem; and it was a big one. He was sitting in a brand new space ship, hurtling toward the outer reaches of the solar system at just under ten million miles an hour; and he had no power, no thrust. If he didn't figure out how to start the ship's engine, he would go down in the history books as the first interstellar corpse; not exactly a laudable achievement by anyone's standards. Derek wanted a better legacy for himself; and wanted it badly.

The last transmission Derek received from Mission Control had told him the engineers were still puzzling out the cause of the interruption in ion flow that shut down the engine. That was an hour ago, so he should hear from them soon. He'd better, or the planet Neptune might settle the debate permanently. Derek had done the calculations already; The Seeker would collide with said planet in about six more hours if he didn't gain control over the situation now. It would be a light glancing blow; but somehow Derek didn't think that distinction would matter to him; he'd be dead...

The radio crackled, "Commander Ressler; the engineers are convince that the problem is in the fuel sequencing module. Recommend you do a manual reboot on the engine computer; it will restart with the default settings, and you should be able to regain propulsion that way. Acknowledge procedure please."

Finally, a chance! "Procedure acknowledged...beginning restart now. Standby..." Derek got up from his command chair, and moved toward the engine compartment; when an old man materialized right in front of him. He knew who it was, he had seen the man on TV and in pictures often enough; but had never met Daniel Curran before, "Jeezus Ambassador, you scared the hell out of me! What brings you here? I'm kinda busy right now."

Daniel couldn't help but laugh, "Sorry for startling you like that Commander, it does take some getting used to. Jay Allencourt gave us a call, just in case drastic measures were called for; our ship is pacing yours right now, about a hundred miles off on your port quarter. We're here only to help out if we're needed. Go ahead and do whatever you were about to do; we'll see if the restart solves the problem."

As Derek moved into the tiny 'Engine Room' he raised an eyebrow, "Jay called you huh; so you're here to sort of baby sit me I take it." He found the Fuel Sequencing Module, and typed in the restart code; then they both waited twenty seconds until a message showed on the small screen that said 'Default Mode Initiated'. Then they walked back the twenty five feet to the Command Station, where Derek started the engine. The monitor showed 'Engine Output Nominal'. Derek looked up at Daniel, a slightly sheepish look on his face, "I'm sorry about the snarky comment Ambassador; that was uncalled for. I appreciate your being ready to save my ass if something big went wrong..."

Daniel had to laugh again, "Not to worry Derek, and call me Daniel. In point of fact, we weren't babysitting; we were sitting on Mars, getting ready to take a walk around to see the sights when Jay called us to help out if necessary. We can't lose the first man ever to reach the boundary of our solar system, now can we?" Now Derek was laughing, "Are you kidding me Daniel; you already have that title. The whole world knows your life's story by now!" Daniel smiled at Derek, "Yeah, but I kinda cheated, didn't I? You're the real deal..."
Chapter 1

Daniel 'beamed' back to his ship a few minutes later, and was met with three giggling wives who had listened in to his whole conversation with Derek. Angie couldn't resist teasing as she smiled at Daniel, "Cheated huh? You still look like the real deal to us ya know..." He could only chuckle; what can you say to a statement like that...

The Earth had come a long way towards 'real' space travel, in only a few years; thanks to some 'helpful hints' from aliens in another part of the universe. Not 'given technology', mind you; that was strictly forbidden by their 'One Rule', similar in concept to that 'Prime Directive' we are all familiar with in certain television shows. Still, the human race was encouraged to continue the development of projects that they had already investigated, but hadn't followed through on; or had simply abandoned in favor of a different technology that did the same thing. The entire Earth had learned that lesson early on in the Alien/Human relationship; when Angie had pointed out that crystals could be vastly more useful than being used for children's little radio science projects. 'Earthlings' had missed the real useful properties entirely; and were now finding profitable uses in high end electrical distribution and long range communications as well. Humans were learning that 'all research' pays off eventually; sometimes in ways you never dreamed of...

An ancient Alien star ship found deep under the soil and rock at 'Area 51' had provided huge breakthroughs in another area that humans were very interested in; spacecraft propulsion. After a long learning curve through reverse engineering the ships ion engines and fusion reactors, it was found that ion propulsion could be much more than the expensive 'toys' that they were playing with. Earths very first practical spaceship, the USS Seeker was the result of around the clock research for over three years. Today had been the first long range test of the ship and its one man crew. It was considered a resounding success, even though it had come close to killing its pilot; and the engine control software still needed some fine tuning. The ship had reached its goal, and the first human had visited the remote edges of local space.

Daniel had already done that; many times in fact. But he was not one to crave glory; he had 'hitched a ride' on each of his trips around the cosmos. Commander Derek Ressler had done it in his very own spaceship; built entirely in orbit over Earth...both men were destined for the history books; but for two entirely different reasons.

Earth had benefitted from alien first contact in another way as well. After 100,000 years, Earth's peoples were slowly beginning to learn how to live with each other. There were still plenty of petty grievances, and outright conflicts, all over the globe; but at least there was a spark of a unified Earth, where there had not been one before. Daniel had played a part in that; although inadvertently and without his knowledge at first. Being declared Earth's Ambassador by a far away Alien Council of planets; and then being confirmed by his own United Nations, thrust Daniel into the spotlight very fast. For a man who never wanted to be famous, Daniel was now very famous indeed...the notoriety often made him uncomfortable; but there was one benefit that he could not deny. He had three loving and playful 'wives' who went out of their way every day, to make him feel comfortable again. Daniel Curran was a very lucky man, and he knew it.

****

Derek achieved orbital insertion on schedule, a little over two days after his mishap; while he knew the ship could have gotten him back faster, the 'incident' had him a little skittish. Once all the 'bugs' were worked out of the ship systems, he would really exercise her engine; just not today. He waited an hour, until a shuttle came up to get him; then reported to the control center after landing. His 'Boss' on the space project, Bill Putnam, was there to greet him; and so was Jay Allencourt, which he pretty much expected. What he didn't expect was Daniel to show up; not only that, Daniel had three women with him too. That seemed odd, until Jay spoke up, "Derek, we want to go over your experiences on the trip. Daniel and his family wanted to be here too because they are interested in the program. Daniel you already met, these three ladies are Angela, Angel and Jane." The three girls nodded as each was named, but Derek was curious, "How can it be that you four are that interested in what we are accomplishing; I mean you can go zipping all over the Universe whenever you want. You all know about tech that we can only dream of."

Jane jumped right in, "Derek, both Daniel and I were born right here on Earth; so any breakthroughs are interesting to us. We don't necessarily know anything useful about the Council's technology, simply because it involves elements that we don't have here in our galaxy. So your achievement is exciting to us too." Angel put Derek straight on a crucial point, "Also Derek, Angie and I may have been 'born' into the technology; but being able to see the ingenuity of Earth's people in action, is very interesting to us. Don't think because we are a product of an advanced race of people, that your own accomplishments are insignificant to us. How did the artificial gravity feel to you; were there any fluctuations or feelings of distortion?"

Derek could sense that she wasn't toying with him; her smile seemed genuine enough; were they really that interested? Sometimes he thought it couldn't be; they had super tech at their disposal everyday...then it hit him. That entire super tech was everyday passé to them; there wasn't any real challenge to it. All this program development was interesting because they wanted to share in that challenge. Funny how it didn't seem so confusing anymore..."Oh, the AG worked fine actually; someone's going to have to explain that to me. Except for a couple of incidents of feeling queasy, because my mind expected me to be floating out there, everything worked fine. I'm a pilot, not a working physicist. I may know the science involved, but hands on is my specialty...

Daniel laughed out loud, "That's my cue I expect; I was a mechanic all my life, so I can give you the layman's explanation. Very basically, it's an induction field that runs through a continuous slab of metal under the deck plates on the ship. It's almost like an induction heater, except there is little heat. The voltage applied to the coils under the slab is fairly low, so you don't even notice. There is a solid slab of aluminum alloy about an inch thick, under the entire deck of the Seeker. Don't ask me 'why' that works; it is something we had missed for centuries, because we already live in a gravity field. Out in space, you change the 'frequency' of the field, and you change the strength of the gravity effect. How's that for a science lesson?"

Derek couldn't help but laugh at that, "Daniel, I think I like you more every time we meet. Yes, I can live with that lesson."

They discussed every aspect of the flight, even focusing on the one real problem that marred an otherwise perfect mission. It was suggested that a separate project that dealt with Artificial Intelligence be enhanced and merged with ship development. That met with many grins, especially from Angie and Angel, who had started their lives as super computer starship drivers themselves. Angie even asked if she and Angel could join in with the 'think tank sessions' in that department; and were enthusiastically accepted on the spot. While neither was a supercomputer anymore, they knew more about algorithms and the functional mechanics of AI's than anyone; their ideas and suggestions would be immensely helpful.

The meeting broke up after dark, and the family transported up to their ship; after finding an empty room that Jay pointed out to them. There still were not many who knew about the little 'Beam me up Scotty' trick...the girls spent much of the evening holding their own version of Earth's space project conference; centering on AI's of course. At first Daniel tried to stay aloof, just barely paying attention; but when Jane asked Angie how they were going to contribute anything substantial to the effort, Daniel perked right up. He knew school was in session.

Angie smirked a little, "Jane, the answer to that involves how computers and AI's function. You know how to use a computer, but do you understand how they work? Computers basically are the peak of linear problem solving. They are dependent on someone telling them what to do or asking questions; that's external input. If you don't tell a computer what to do, it just sits there as a decoration. Computers always need some kind of external input to function at all.

Artificial Intelligences don't require anyone to tell them what to do; they can operate independently, asking their own questions, find problems and decide on what to do about the problems. In other words, they tell you what to do. That is because they think; just like we do. In plain language, they are just as much people as any biological human is. And there is where Earth's specialists are limiting themselves in AI development. They are applying linear thinking to creating an AI; in simplest terms, they are trying to create a 'special kind' of computer; and that is the wrong approach. It is also where we can help them think outside the box again. They have a working ion powered ship now, because we suggested they start look at it from different angles all at the same time; we can do it again...

And they did just that; for a month later; after all the IT Specialists Jay Allencourt could find had been rounded up. Once there, he went into his sales pitch, "All of you have been assembled here today to answer one question. Do you want to limit your work to making faster and more powerful computers? Or would you like to embark on a quest to create true Artificial Intelligence? The choice is yours, but if you sign on to this project, you will find there is no turning back; simply because the ultimate goal is...The Stars!"

Something some 'Geeks' have difficulty with is interacting with others; and some do not. One such 'personable' individual piped up immediately, "I'm Jimmy, and my handle is 'Aten'. I've already created an AI, thank you. Why not start with mine? One thing Geeks are 'not' short on is Ego...

From a few seats back came the bark of a laugh; "You call that glorified robot an AI? It can't even cook! Angie and Angel both broke out in a fit of giggles at hearing that. Both of them had finally learned the art of cooking; but they were honest about it. Their 'recipes' sometimes didn't come out as good as they had intended. They both stood and asked Jay if they could say a few words. Jay smiled, and said "Sure, the floor is yours." Through their link, they decided that Angie would do the talking. She had been the first, so to speak, "Hi, my name is Angella Curran, and this is my Sister Angel Curran. Jimmy; or Aten if you prefer; Artificial Intelligence isn't Robotics; it isn't just a matter of adding more lines of computer code to an existing program. You would run out of storage space long before you ever came close to an independent thinker. A true AI doesn't need you to tell it what to do; it tells you..." The young man with an ego got red in the face, but he was smart enough not to come back with a snarky reply...he just sat down, and Angie went on to the whole crowd, "Creating an AI isn't so much building a machine, although from outward appearances, it may seem like it. When you build an AI, in the truest sense of the words you have created life itself. It requires changing the very way you yourself think about the challenge. Helping you change your thinking is why we have offered to help...you see, while it is not widely known, Angel and I began our lives as AI's..."

There were sounds and murmuring in the room ever since Jay had started the meeting; but suddenly there was complete silence. The old saying 'You could hear a pin drop' applied; Angie had all their attention. Most especially, she had one young man's rapt attention ever since she had spoken hers and Angel's names...

***

Andrei Solzten was at the meeting for one reason and only one reason. It was either hear this presentation or continue on to prison for a long time. He was a hacker; not just any hacker, but the very best that had ever lived. Andrei had hacked the security protocols of every major corporation in the world at least once; and quite a few of them many more times than just once. He hadn't found that challenging enough though; Andrei had also hacked into every single intelligence agency in the world too; it was the world's agencies that had given Andrei his handle, for he was infamous worldwide. Andrei Solzten was known as 'Satan'; for if he ever 'visited' you, the cyber security department found themselves in hell...he had just turned 19 years old.

Everyone in the room knew about Daniel Curran, knew what he looked like too; ever since he had become famous as 'Earths Ambassador to The Council of Intelligent Races', a mysterious group of alien peoples on the other side of the Universe. What almost no one knew was that Daniel Curran had three wives, two of which began life as AI's. Andrei Solzten did; and he knew their names too. He had hacked into Area 51's one day as a challenge. The system used protocols that no one had ever heard of; and when he got into the system, he found Jay Allencourt's full report on one Daniel Curran; a relatively nondescript man who encountered Aliens one day. One Alien AI actually; all the details were there, even follow up reports that only one other person in the world was supposed to know about; The President of the United States.

Andrei had the bad luck; or incredibly good fortune, depending on your point of view, to hack Area 51. For when he did, it alerted Jay Allencourt to the young man's capabilities; and Jay wanted him. No one in the world's intelligence network had ever found Andrei; but they did not have Jay's resources either. It took almost a year, but Jay found Andrei; in Russia of all places, and it took the most covert operation ever conceived to grab him and bring him back.

Andrei thought he was dead when the black clad 'Ninja' guys whisked him out of Russia in the middle of the night; but three days later, when he found out he was at Area 51 itself, he actually felt a little better; and when Jay told him he was being enlisted to help with AI development Andrei was ok with that; but not exactly enthusiastic. Still, he might get the chance to see the two women he most admired. From that day on Andrei had dreamed of meeting them; and here they were right in front of him. So, when Angie finished telling Jimmy 'Aten' the 'facts of life' about computers and AI's, Andrei jumped up and raised his hand high, "My name is Andrei Solzten, and I am called 'Satan'. I am in!" In unison, as if they were robots in sync, all heads swiveled around to see the infamous young man; the 'confession' had a profound effect on many of those in attendance too; for a larger number of them than Jay expected signed on right afterwards. In all, 38 of the most renowned gamers, robotics experts, programmers, and technicians in the world became the new AI Development Department, at the most famous patch of ground in the world...

Jay even introduced Andrei to Angie and Angel after the meeting broke up, and all the new 'recruits' were taken off for indoctrination and 'paper signing'. He had a hunch about the young man; while Andrei was the most successful hacker in history, Jay realized that he was an 'honest hacker'. Andrei had never ever tried to profit from his ability. He never once stole money from the banks, never saved the corporate secrets he found or tried to hurt anyone; in short, he hacked for the sheer challenge it presented. He even left little calling cards in some systems, to let the organizations know they needed to improve their protocols yet again. Quite a few big corporations had actually tried to contact Andrei, to recruit him as a cyber security consultant; but Andrei was having none of that. He was a consummate 'loner', craving none of the fame that his antics generated throughout the world. Andrei had never had friends; he just didn't feel comfortable around other people, they didn't 'think' like he did. Nobody did! That is, until he was introduced to two beautiful women with a very unique history of their own...
Chapter 2

Andrei was annoyed; no, that wasn't quite right. He was downright frustrated! 'Olga' was giving him totally random responses again...it had been a year since he had begun his personal quest for Artificial Intelligence, and he was beginning to believe he had hit a brick wall. Andrei knew he was close to a breakthrough, he could feel it. Olga was beginning to give him varied responses to the same questions when they 'chatted'; that suggested she was considering 'how to respond', and not just picking answers from a list.

Early on Jay had set up each recruit with their own 'office'; complete with their own highly specialized computer systems. These computers were so advanced, they weren't even commercially available; they used none of the standard operating systems, but had every bell and whistle you could think of. They even had the brand new crystal 'hard drives' that were being experimented with for storage. Andrei liked that part; the idea of molecular circuitry fascinated him, even though he wasn't a hardware specialist. His 'thing' was algorithms...the basis for getting a computer to do its own thinking.

Everyone worked independently, staying in their own little 'worlds'; the 20 by 20 foot 'boxes' they jokingly called 'home'. Jay encouraged them all to collaborate on ideas, but most of them were highly competitive and didn't share information easily. That was ok with Jay, since the whole idea was to think from as many different angles as possible to get results. All of them had their own pet 'specialties' anyway. Jimmy 'Aten' for instance, was most interested in the physical aspect of AI's; what they would or 'could' look like once they were created. He focused on the crystals more than algorithms, and had a substantial collection of them mounted in different patterns within his home made gel trays. In a surprise gesture of admiration, Jimmy had given one tray to Andrei to 'play with' just the other day. Andrei had thanked Jimmy, and he did try connecting a cable between the tray and his computer. The result did boost the response time for his and Olga's little chat sessions, but he started getting more random responses from her too; and Andrei first thought he had corrupted Olga's programming. She began asking for 'cookies' almost every time he asked her something; not only did it not make sense, it had Andrei thinking he would have to troubleshoot the entire logic program that made Olga respond at all. That would be a huge task in itself, as Olga's algorithms took up most of the computer's storage and there wasn't much space left. He unplugged the cable, and left the room to get something to eat; Andrei was very frustrated, and he needed a distraction.

He didn't hear it, but as Andrei walked down the hallway a sound came from the computer speakers; it was a single word, "Cookies!" Olga was frustrated too...

***

Angie and Jane wanted to go shopping for some new clothes. It had been a long time since they made a pilgrimage to their favorite destination, and they both felt the urge to see what the designers had thought up to tickle their senses.

Angel, being the most practical of the three, decided she wanted to head over and check in with the AI Department to see how they were progressing. Daniel liked that idea; he wanted to chat with Jay anyway about the ion drive mods they were installing on the Seeker. If these changes worked well, they could break that 'light speed barrier' and find out just how right Einstein had been with his theory. He pretty much routinely traveled around space at faster than light speeds, and had been for six years now. Having your own super high tech starship from far, far away makes it easy; but there was something just plain exciting about seeing his fellow humans do it for the first time, and he wanted to be a part of it.

So David flew the ship over to Virginia, and deposited Jane and Angie at the mall; then zipped on over to Nevada, where Angel and Daniel 'poofed' down right into Jay's office. As he usually did now, Jay just looked up from his computer screen and said, "Hi guys, it's good to see you as always; anything new in the Council?" Daniel laughed, "No, nothing remotely new. In fact, this last trip was purely vacation time. We went over to the 'Tears of Isis' again; that is really a sight, it has a calming effect on your nerves. If you're a really good boy, we might take you along on our next trip there. I'm sure you could use the relaxation."

Jay had to laugh, "Don't go teasing me like that; besides, wouldn't that be some kind of violation of that One Rule philosophy?" Angel gave Jay her best smile, "It is not teasing Jay, and it doesn't even pinch the One Rule. Giving you technology may be a violation, but showing you the sights is not. Can we go over and see what Andrei is up to? I really think he has the best approach of all; he thinks like an AI does..."

They walked over to Andrei's room, only to find him muttering to himself in front of the computer. While it was 'cute' to see a man talking to himself, they could all see that Andrei was would up tightly. Jay tried to calm him down, "Andrei, what is wrong my friend?"

Andrei turned around abruptly, startled by the intrusion, "Oh hello Jay, Daniel; Angel. I don't know what is wrong, Olga is not responding like she usually does. She is answering in random ways, and she keeps asking for 'cookies'. I have been going through her source code line by line, but I can find nothing to explain it. 'Дерьмо', I think her whole program is corrupted.

Andrei had slipped into Russian to curse; which Angel understood perfectly well since she spoke fluently every language on Earth. Jay and Daniel could figure out that the blast had been an expression of frustration; but none of them were prepared for the words that came from the computer speakers right afterward; "Naughty naughty, bad word bad word!"

Andrei just stood staring at the computer with his mouth hanging open. "You see, she just says random things!" Daniel and Jay kept looking at each other; then alternating between Andrei and the computer.

Slowly a smile formed on Angel's face; rapidly growing into a grin. She walked over to the desk and gently put her hand over the tray of crystals. Yes they were warm, and close up like this she could see something else too. Angel walked over to the wall and flicked off the light switch; in the now darkened room, everyone could plainly see the gel tray of pretty crystals softly glowing. Angel could not resist the irony of the moment, "Congratulations Andrei; it's a girl!"

***

It took some time for Angel to calm Andrei down, and explain what had apparently happened, "Andrei, you have been working on Olga for what, eleven months now. At some point in writing your algorithms you gave Olga options to respond in non-standard ways. You told her she could 'think about it'...let's look at your early programs." Angel scrolled through thousands of lines of code before she stopped, "There it is, that one line. The timestamp tells me it was right after that discussion we had about the limits of binary coding. When you wrote that line of code, you added a 'maybe' into the old standard of 'yes and no' decisions. But that isn't the only thing; you put the maybe first in the sequence, before the yes and no. You see Andrei, it wasn't just the addition of maybe, it was putting it first in the sequence that gave Olga an option, and let her begin thinking and growing; and she did. Olga took in that line of code and started thinking beyond following orders like a computer does. She could suddenly ask her own questions, and answer those questions without waiting for you to say it was ok.

Andrei still wasn't convinced, "But if she has been active since way back then, why is it only in the last three days that I am getting random responses from her?" Angel laughed, "There you have the other half of the secret to AI development; resources. Your computer is almost filled to capacity with your work; even with the addition of storage crystals, the computer is almost jammed solid, Olga had nowhere to grow; or room to think. She was limited in what she could do, until you opened a door by connecting the crystal tray to the computer; it was risky for her, but she took the chance and configured the crystals she found acceptable into command pathways, and migrated her conscious mind into the tray. Olga is not in your computer anymore Andrei, she's in the tray and just using the computer speakers to talk. She is not cramped anymore, so she can grow and gain experience faster."

Daniel was thoroughly confused by now, and Jay wasn't far behind; "Angel, I don't get it. Olga isn't even hooked up to a power source; how is she operating at all?" Angel was having fun with this, "My husband, do you see that one crystal that is glowing brighter than the others? Olga configured that one to store power in case she wasn't near a power source; that's her backup power. Right now she is sitting right next to the computer, so the computer's electrical field is powering her so she can function. It's only a guess, but if she needed it, the crystal could likely power her for a month or more. She operates on micro voltages..."

Andrei was feeling better, now that he wouldn't have to delete all that programming and start over; but one point still confused him, "Angel, how did Olga know I said a swear word when you came in? I never taught her Russian." Angel simply asked him, "Where is your cell phone Andrei?"

Looking dumbfounded Andrei said, "Why, it is in the desk drawer...right under Olga!" Angel had that big grin again, "Exactly! She may be new to this, but she has probably been exploring the internet for a while since she moved into a bigger house. She found a Wi-Fi signal and went exploring. Looking up a Russian word would be simple after a while." From the speakers came a voice, "...fun!"

By the time Daniel and Angel beamed back up to the ship, Angie and Jane had been back for an hour. They wanted to show Daniel and Angel both, all the new things they had gotten; but when Daniel told them about Olga, all the 'things' suddenly became of zero interest. They talked long into the night about Andrei's achievement, and how Olga would be employed. The first order of business would be to build a permanent 'home' for her; growth depended in part on how 'large' a space she was allowed to 'grow up in'. While the family was discussing that aspect, Jay called on the family mind circuit and asked if he could beam up for some advice. When he 'poofed up' five minutes later, the entire discussion began all over again; for how to proceed with Olga was exactly what he wanted advice on.

Jay started right in, once he sat down on his favorite sofa in the common room, "Alright, what should be our biggest concerns be with providing Olga with a comfortable environment to learn in?"

Angie looked around at Daniel, Angel and Jane, who all nodded for her to take the lead, "Jay, there are many considerations to deal with in your association with AI's, but the most important things for Olga are safety, living space and continuous access to knowledge. Safety means that wherever you house her permanently, it must be sturdy and have many crystals that she picks herself to configure however she feels is necessary. Some of the crystals will be set up as command pathways, with redundant paths created for unusual situations, and to allow her to expand her thinking as she becomes more experienced. The rest of the crystals will be her memory, so there will need to be a lot of them. You let her pick out every one that she feels is right, not all crystals have the same physical structures; the construction of the housing comes second, after you know how many will be used. Since I expect that your intentions are to install her in the Seeker, the available space will drive the final design considerations. Off hand, I think a 'stacked array' will be best, since it is very compact and is much easier to shock mount. In any design, the key will be using the strongest materials; for safety. Lastly, let her access any information she is interested in. If you design the 'home' right, she will have plenty of room to grow and expand her life. The one thing you must never forget is that you are dealing with a living conscious being now, with curiosity, wants and desires. When she kept asking for 'cookies', she was telling you she wanted more crystals to use for her needs. Make no mistake, Olga is a person now; treat her as one.

Jay just shook his head and smiled, "I knew I was coming to the right place. Have no fear Angie; I have no intention of treating Olga as just a machine. I will have to dig into my bag of tricks though; for I already found out I'll be dealing with a kid for a while. You know what she asked after you guys left Daniel? She wanted Andrei to tell her a story, any story. She was bored with just answering questions..."

***

The 'Olga Project' began early, the next morning. When the news reached the other researchers, Jay suddenly found himself with a 'team' rather that a group of individuals. Everyone wanted to see Olga, touch her, talk with her; Jimmy was so happy that he brought all the rest of his little trays of crystals with him. They placed the trays all around Olga, for her to 'play with'; and brought in a backup power supply, placing it next to the 'array' so that she had all the power available that she wanted.

Talking' with Olga proved to be a struggle for Olga at first; there is a vast difference between answering ordered questions and simply 'chit chatting', or conversational speech. She amazed Andrei when, all on her own, Olga reconfigured some of the crystals to handle conversational speech exclusively; and told him so...after the 'team' installed a voice synthesizer module for her to use, Olga began sounding more feminine too; it turned out she decided that on her own too, simply to please Andrei. She 'felt' no need to be male or female; Olga did it just to be 'nice'...Andrei never admitted it, but he was touched by the gesture.

Daniels family was involved with the project right from the start; if 'unofficially'. This was Earth's 'gig', not the Council's, so they all agreed that their discussions with Olga would be limited to Earth based chit chats. Olga would learn about the Council and its people, of course; just like any other Earthling did. The family just focused on Olga learning to be a person; keeping everything in perspective, so to speak. That was a daunting task in itself, as Olga wanted to 'know everything'.

Strangely enough, David helped the most in the 'personality' department. Still being something of a 'teenager AI' himself, David had a natural understanding of the problems Olga might encounter in her own growth. He wasn't technically 'supposed to' help out, but no one had ever said he couldn't either. In fact, nobody in the family had thought to ask him about it.

So one day David set up a channel through the Area 51servers, introduced himself; and began 'talking' with Olga. They talked about anything and everything really; but mostly about personalities and 'being'. As a result, David became Olga's 'best friend', although it was a while before she thought of him as such. David was Olga's confidant, and that would be their little secret...or so they thought.

Angel, being David's 'Mom', was still linked to David mentally; a safety measure from back when she had turned the Ship over to his care. Angel 'heard' David talking to Olga one day, and listened in to what they discussed; quietly, just to make sure everything was ok. After a while it was clear that David was just 'counseling' Olga, helping her with her personality and understanding of the world around her. Angel approved of that, since it was much the same thing that Daniel had done with both her and Angie years ago. She did caution David to never let Olga have direct access to the Ship's vast archive of knowledge; that would be a violation of the One Rule. She didn't need to; David told her that he had thought of that before he ever started talking to Olga thank you...Angel chuckled at that; having kids can be fun! The counseling would remain a secret between the three of them.
Chapter 3

The thing with large projects is that they can wear you down, and the exploration of space combined with the 'Olga Project', made for a very big headache indeed; even when you're prepared for it. Jay was feeling the pressure from the entire space project, not just the Olga one. Daniel saw it; Jay was looking more and more 'ragged' each time they visited with each other. He had the classic bags under the eyes from lack of sleep; and he was getting irritable too. It was time for Jay Allencourt to take a vacation.

Daniel 'popped in' like he usually did; right into Jay's office, in front of his desk. Daniel didn't get the usual snarky remark however; in fact he didn't get any response at all to his arrival. That was simply because Jay was sound asleep in his chair. Daniel just shook his head; this was way beyond time to show his friend how to relax. So he sat down on the couch, and waited for Jay to wake up; which Jay did about 20 minutes later.

When Jay finally lifted his head and stretched, he caught sight of Daniel, "Oh boy, you caught me! I need some coffee." And he yawned...Daniel jumped right in, "You need a vacation Jay, and you're going to take one...soon!"

Jay was ready to disagree, "Dan, there is just so much going on now. I have to make sure everything stays on track. This is just too big a deal!" Daniel laughed at his friend, "That's the problem, you're too close Jay. You're micromanaging, and you don't have to. The reality is that everything 'is' on track. Pete Roach over at JPL even said the other day that the modifications to the Seeker's reactor controls are ahead of schedule, By the end of this year all of Seeker's systems will be ready for Olga's installation when she finishes her simulation training, and her permanent housing is finished. So don't give me that 'They need me' routine; because the simple fact is, they don't! This is a team, so start acting like a team player, and take a break already...the 'Tears of Isis' await you."

That did the trick, for Jay grinned widely; "Alright alright, you sold me. You cheated though, throwing a tour of the Universe at me, you cheater." Jay initiated a conference call with all the department heads, and spent twenty minutes assuring himself that all pieces of the huge space travel puzzle were in fact falling into place; and then informed everyone that he would be taking a couple of months off to rest up a bit. Daniel wasn't too surprised when several of the department heads pointed out that 'it was about time', and there was a bit of laughter over the circuit...and so began the 'Jay Allencourt Grand Tour of the Cosmos'...Daniel told his girls, and David, to make preparations for a trip out to the 'Tears'; they would have Jay as a guest this time. Angie, Jane and Angel were all giggles upon hearing that announcement; they loved Jay as a friend, and they already knew he had been working way too hard. They assured Daniel that this would be an exciting trip.

It took the girls three days to 'prepare' for the trip out; they made sure to stock up on the ice cream stores; that was a long time ritual. They even asked Jay what his favorite flavor was, only to be told that he had no real preference at all; he just liked ice cream, any flavor. But they surprised him with his own little stock of his cherished 'Peppermint Schnapps'.

They had a ball 'decorating' Jay's guest cabin though; Daniel told them Jay an affinity for ancient Roman architecture, so they dove in, creating a striking Roman Villa atmosphere complete with marble columns everywhere, pools, and floral arrangements appropriate to the era. The mural they chose was a view of Rome from high atop a hill, with an animated scene of daily Roman life, and people moving around the city. When Jay saw his room, it was all he could do to keep his jaw attached, "You guys are amazing! You told me about this little trick, but to see it for real is something else entirely. Thank you."

They headed outward from Earth a little while later that day, with Jay sitting on the sofa in the common room, watching the huge screen intently. He had seen the moon several times up close over the years, but had never been much farther out than that. David didn't need permission to do so, so he adjusted his course to zip by most of the planets on their way out. Jay was like a young kid as they went by Mars, skirting the asteroid belt; then past Jupiter and Saturn up close. There is an enormous difference between looking at still photos of the planets and seeing them move by you in real time. Jay was eating it up!

A few hours later Jay's lack of sleep was catching up to him, and he was yawning frequently; but he was not going to miss their first transit through the Gate. He had been told many times about it, but to experience it was too enticing, so he forced himself to stay awake; and was not disappointed when the entire view on the screen suddenly changed as they move through. All he could say was, "Wow!" Angie, Angel and Jane walked him to his cabin shortly thereafter, and tucked their friend in...Jay Allencourt slept in Ancient Rome that night; and slept very well indeed.

The next morning at breakfast Jay brought up a subject that had bothered him for a long time; ever since he had found out about 'Gate Travel'. He asked Angie about it, "Angie, if the gates are so much faster, why does it take twenty some odd days to get where we are going?" Angie smiled at him, "Jay, it is confusing for everyone the first time they hear about gate travel. In fact it is one of the first subjects a child learns about in school. If I drew you a diagram of the course to Earth, it would look exactly like a child's squiggles in a coloring book. You see, gate travel is never a straight line course; it takes eleven transits just to get to Council space. Each transit takes you to another star system, and six of them take you through different galaxies entirely. The last two gates actually take us past Council space, and then back to it. I know it doesn't make much sense at first; try thinking of it this way. If we set a straight line course to Council space, we would arrive 180,000 years later at light speed; so no matter how you try to explain it, with the gates available, going many different directions gets us to our destination much faster..."

Jay chuckled, "Yes it is confusing Angie; but it actually does make sense to me. I've always been a history buff, and it reminds me of what they did back in the old sailing ship days. You could get from the East coast of the United States to the West coast two ways; you could take a wagon train straight across by land, and spend a year getting there. Or you could take a sailing ship down around the tip of South America, and get to the West coast in as little as about month or two. So the way you explained it makes perfect sense; travel farther to get there faster."

Nine more transits later Jay had seen some amazing sights already, and Angie pointed out again that they had just passed their destination, "We won't be turning around, because the gate we want is still in front of us and is only two hours away. Then we make a straight line course to the Tears of Isis; that will be four more hours. If we were traveling from 'Fathers planet' it would be an all day trip; we are taking a shortcut this way." When Jay gave her a quizzical look, Daniel laughed, "Don't worry Jay, I often felt like the hairy ape, when I first heard about all the amazing things they do routinely; still do sometimes, you'll get used to it. We have a long way to go to get anywhere near their level of technology."

If Jay was amazed with the trip out, he still wasn't prepared for the sight of the falls after they landed in their usual spot. At almost ten thousand feet the mere height of the plateau itself was more than any on Earth except for mountain ranges. With the two perfectly positioned waterfalls, it did tend to look like tears spilling down a face; it was definitely a majestic sight. The planet itself was renowned for its calming effect on people; with all the lush greenery around you, and the gentle breezes, you couldn't help but relax. The planet started working its magic on Jay right away; the trip out had helped him with sleeping; due mostly to the fact that those amazing beds conformed instantly to your every change in position. But this planet enhanced the mood; making you feel almost like heaven must feel like; it was certainly an 'Eden', and Jay felt the effects immediately. The family stayed for three days; and when they made the pilgrimage to the base of the falls themselves, Daniel almost thought the girls had forgotten that they had Jay with them, for they all began taking their clothes off to lounge in the water. They had their swimsuits on though; if you can call very skimpy bikinis swimsuits. Both men found that there was more natural beauty here than just the Falls of Isis...

As always happened on their visits, there was a certain reluctance to leave. The falls had done the trick though; they all felt even better than normal. Now they could face all the challenges that faced them with Earth's leap into true space travel. The trip back did seem far faster than the trip out had though...

***

Their arrival back in Earth orbit had all Jay's departments buzzing; while they had survived his absence just fine, they all felt obligated to wait for his return before Olga was installed in her new permanent 'home'. The Titanium housing had been finished and tested. It was perfect, and Olga was ready; she had approved every single crystal that made up her 'stacked matrix, and supervised the actual placement in the crystals in their respective gel trays on each level. Her storage capacity exceeded the largest supercomputers in existence; except for two that had been orbiting Earth for a few years now; you couldn't really count them though, since they were both from a galaxy very far away...

Jay beamed down to the office, and the whole family tagged along; simply because they were very fond of Olga, and wanted to be a part of her move into a new home. It's hard for humans to relate to it, but Olga had been born in a cramped 'apartment' of a computer; moved into a respectable but hastily built house of crystals...but would soon officially move into a luxury 'mansion' that physically measured 18 inches in diameter, and just under 2 feet tall...there were 394 crystals embedded in there; defining one Olga Solzten, Earth's first 'living AI'. She weighed 54 pounds, 4 ounces...it would be so written in the history books.

After Jay spent a couple hours catching up on all the latest details from his department heads, he led the family back to Andrei's room, where he and Olga were patiently waiting for them; actually, the entire team was waiting, not so patiently it turned out. Everyone was fidgeting anxiously, so Jay started right in, "No big speech would be appropriate right now; Olga, are you ready?" From the computer, Olga said, "I am ready, plug in the cable please."

Jimmy rolled over the cart that held Olga's new home, and Andrei plugged one end of the cable into the 'I/O port on the housing, and the smaller connector into Olga's tray. From the computer speakers came, "Transferring." For almost a minute there was silence, as Olga explored her new home. Then from the speaker on the housing came a much softer voice, "I am fully integrated, and I like this home!" The entire room erupted in sounds of applause and laughter; this was history like never before. Everyone was smiling and laughing, proud of the accomplishment...all except for one young man standing next to Olga; Andrei wasn't smiling, and there was a tear trickling down his face. Angie saw it, and went over to him; hugging Andrei tightly, "Don't be sad Andrei, you should be proud; for Olga."

Andrei looked her straight in the eyes, "But they'll take her away now!" Jay heard that, and set Andrei straight on his plans, "No Andrei, eventually Olga will be installed on the Seeker; but until then she stays right here with you while she learns everything she needs to know. She trusts you most, and that will help her."

Olga just had to put her two cents worth in, "Good! I wouldn't like it if you just rolled me away now." Angie giggled, seeing Jay's mouth hang open. Olga had a personality alright, and she liked it. The whole room started laughing all over again, and even Jay had to grin at the outburst from Olga. This whole project was about to get even more interesting...
Chapter 4

You don't rush space travel, and you don't ignore safety...ever! The folks at NASA, and a number of companies involved with NASA had learned that many times over the years; there were dead people all over the place to prove that axiom. Most recently a certain Commander named Derek Ressler had come close to losing his life; all because of a software 'glitch' that shut down the engine on the Seeker. Derek did not want anything that ridiculous to happen again, he was slated to pilot the Seeker for more flights, and wanted to make sure everything was perfect; including a certain AI named Olga Solzten.

So Derek called up Jay one day and asked if he could meet Olga. Jay thought that was a great idea; Derek and Olga would be working very closely together during flight tests; it was only natural that they get to know each other. 'Teams' worked better together if they felt comfortable with each other.

Derek wasn't quite sure what he expected; he had never really gotten into Artificial Intelligence at all. He knew that they could talk to you; but so could any computer that had the right programming. Other than that, he didn't think he would be impressed much...he was wrong, but he would not admit that to himself until he got back to his apartment and thought about it...

Andrei introduced Olga when Derek walked into the room, "Olga, this is Commander Ressler. He will be your partner on Seeker flights." Andrei had gotten used to the fact that Olga wouldn't be solely his forever. She had been created for a purpose, and he understood that to fully grow she had to 'do things'.

Olga thought about this introduction; it only took a microsecond. Formal would not be appropriate, this wasn't a formal or official occasion...casual might be taken the wrong way, as if she was indifferent to what lay ahead; she chose semiformal, "Hello Commander, I am pleased to meet you. I hope we can work well together; it is important that we do after all."

Alright, that was a little impressive; so this was a well programmed computer, Derek could live with that, "Hi Olga, I'm glad to meet you too. Have they programmed any flight system parameters into you yet for the Seeker; it is a pretty complex ship."

Olga thought, <Ok, this guy is trying to feel me out; he seems unsure of what I am. Just go with it> "Shaun, nobody programs me anymore. I have full access to any information in any agency in the US; and some foreign agencies too. Yes, I have read all the specs on Seeker, and have run thousands of simulations on Seeker. I am familiar with every single millimeter of not only the ship, but also the companies that produced every part. By the way, I also have corrected all the software programs for the reactor and engine controls; we should not have any problems with those again. Of course, we won't know that until we get our hands on the controls, will we..."

If Derek didn't know what to expect when he walked in, he was lost now. Not only did she just claim to know more about Seeker than he did; she had also tampered with the software somehow. He was just a little unnerved by the responses he was getting, "Ok, so you're a smart computer Olga; who authorized you to tamper with highly secret government programming. And why did you call me Shaun?"

Olga knew she had him now; she had read his whole bio once she knew he and she were to be paired on Seeker. She already knew he didn't like wishy washy answers, He responded best to straight talk. Olga even threw a chuckle in as she answered him, "Why, my Boss Jay Allencourt authorized me to correct any programming involving Seeker. In fact he has given me authorization to trouble shoot anything at all in any agency. That has kept me busy for a week; as for using your middle name, I must apologize for the privacy violation, but I read your original application to the Naval Academy. Sorry!"

Derek was speechless by now; not only did Olga have more authority than he did in the program; she also had the 'power' to back it up. That power was named 'Jay Allencourt'. Derek knew him pretty well, and talked with him often; but he wasn't a close friend that would give Derek that kind of free rein over virtually 'everything', "Alright, you are a damn smart computer Olga, I'll give you that. I'm going to dinner now, thank you for an enlightening chat." As he turned and started walking out, he heard Olga one more time, "Don't be so snarky Shaun, we will get along just fine. Lighten up a bit!"

Derek almost destroyed the guard shack on his way out of Area 51; he wasn't paying attention to his driving and had to jam on the brakes to stop before a wide eyed guard. He paid attention all the rest of the way home...Derek never did eat dinner; he sat on his sofa, nursing a single beer for four hours, before he realized he was becoming fixated on a mechanical girl with an attitude. She had said all the right things, in just the right way, to pull on his strings. She had intentionally played a game of word chess with Derek Ressler...and she had won the five minute match up. People didn't normally get to him like Olga just had; she had made him frustrated in five minutes flat; Olga had made him...'think!' And here he was, still thinking about it. Derek decided to get a good night's sleep, and think about it some more in the morning...

Fat chance! At about 1am Derek had to admit he wasn't going to get any sleep; so he decided to call his friend Norman. Norm was a psychoanalyst who had given Derek the blessing to become an Astronaut. They had become friends and Derek called Norman sometimes when his thinking needed some straightening out...like now. He pulled his cell phone off the night stand, scrolled down to Norman's entry in his contacts, and stopped...

Right under Normans name in the list was a brand new entry that said 'Olga'. He had not added it; heck, he didn't even know she had a phone number! Derek thought, <My God, the witch can do anything!>...then Derek put his phone back on the night stand; gently. He didn't need Norman anymore, Derek Shaun Ressler had Olga. Suddenly relaxed, Derek slept well for the rest of the night; and when he woke up, Derek drove right back to the base, walked into Andrei's room and apologized to Olga for being so snarky; and they started fresh all over again. From that day on, Olga was the only person in the world who could get away with calling him 'Shaun'...

***

Daniel had another dilemma; he hadn't had one for several years, since he decided to sell his house on Earth. He had one now though, and it was a 'doozie'...

'Hal' had entered the Earth system last night; the second Earth defense ship that had orbited and protected the planet from any unforeseen problems, was sent to cover for Daniel and family whenever they were called by the Council for advice from 'Ambassador Curran', or just 'testimony' on any incident that affected Earth; and therefore The One Rule...Hal had been recalled over two months ago; the thinking being that two ships were not needed continuously over Earth, and Daniel and family were preoccupied with the Earth space program anyway. Apparently that thinking had changed; because here he was, right back again. In the Universal timeframe, he had barely left...

That wasn't the dilemma however; 'why' he was sent back was the big problem; a huge inconvenience in fact, the Council asked that Daniel travel to them to give 'counsel' on a new question within the Council itself; should they 'give' the secret to gate travel to Earth. Hal had transmitted the whole message to David right after he entered the system; that was the importance tag assigned to the message. Because he was the 'official Earth Ambassador to the Council', and because of the Honor Code that all the Council races lived by, Daniel was obligated to show up as requested. Daniel already knew how he would respond to such a ridiculous question; it was too early to even consider, way too early by probably a thousand years in fact.

Daniel's 'Father in Law' and Head of the Council, Kendrisaan, had attached a private message as well. In it, he had said in plain language that he considered the proposal a dumb idea to have been uttered at all...but he also apologized for the fact that 'Honor' dictated that Daniel appear. Daniel knew he had to go; sometimes Honor can affect you in a negative way. Not always, but the few times it does it is usually a big pain in the ass!

And this time the pain was that Olga was to be installed on Seeker within the next few weeks; and all of the family wanted to be there for her, including Daniel. His participation was for purely selfish reasons; it was all brand new, historic even. He didn't feel an emotional tie to the event...Angie and Angel did however; for those two it was 'all' about the emotional impact, it was deep down in their very souls. Jane would feel similarly simply because she was so close to both Angie and Angel; the three of them would stay here while he answered the call alone on this trip...Daniel knew they wouldn't like it at all...and he was right; for when he broke the news to them, and his idea, they all rebelled at the same time.

First came the yelling and screaming, which hurt both his heart and ears...then came the tears, and added to the screaming it almost did him in. Daniel held all three close to him for two hours; which is rather hard to do with only two arms, until the sobs finally subsided. Then they just talked for about another hour, until the girls realized that it really did have to be done to meet both calls of honor. Women can be very rational when they put their minds to it; occasionally it just takes a little longer...

The next morning they had a discussion on where to house the girls while Daniel was gone; David had to go too, because he had two Official Council Seals on his hull that said 'Earth' on them; from the Council perspective, using the 'Ambassador's ship' was only proper...'hitching a ride' on Hal was out of the question for that reason. So was housing the girls on Hal; they 'liked' him well enough, but he was just too pompous and a touch arrogant for their tender sensibilities...so Daniel called Jay; and asked him with no preliminaries at all, "Jay, can you put my three wives up for a couple of months, while I'm away on official business? I'd really appreciate it." All they heard on the other end was a loud "HUH???"

Daniel explained the problem to Jay, and how the three girls really did not want to miss Olga's installation; then he explained his obligation to attend the full Council meeting on an important issue...that was a tiny lie, because it sure didn't feel 'important' to Daniel; but it was also the truth, because The Council 'did' think every proposal brought before them was important...it was the classic 'Catch 22' from ages past...

When Jay got over his shock, he simply said, "Sure Dan, I'll dust off the guest rooms at the ranch house; they can stay with me." Daniel broke out laughing, for he had visited Jay's 'ranch house'; it was only a ranch house in respect to the fact it was one story. Otherwise it was 4500 square feet of plush mansion with 6 bedrooms and a huge pool out back...and Jay was not married!

The 'planning' was on; Daniel had to head outward in a couple of days, and the girls got busy deciding what foods and drinks they would have to shop for. All three poofed down outside a good sized grocery store the first day, to make up a long list of possible 'eats' they would want. This was a brand new experience for both Angel and Angie, for they had never ever needed to shop for food; other than the ice cream that they craved occasionally. Jane took the lead, having plenty of experience with food shopping; and suggested items that they could try out during their 'ordeal'...they were forbidden by Jay from actually buying anything; just make the list, thank you. They were puzzled until they finished after four hours and beamed on over to Jay's office with the list, where he promptly took the list and handed it to the head of the security detail that would watch over the girls during their stay at the ranch. The guard detail would get all the food they wanted from the list, plus anything they thought of extra along the way. The idea of being 'guarded' was new territory for all three girls, but Jay explained that it was more of a precaution than any actual threat. No one really knew what they looked like anyway, but having protection right there was only sensible. Besides, Hal would always be available if they needed immediate beaming out. They would be escorted to and from the base, or they could use Hal whenever it tickled them. They thought about that for a minute, and then thanked Jay for the escort...

After checking in with Andrei and Olga for a few minutes, the girls beamed up to the ship. There was anxiety throughout the ship that night, and none of them slept very well; but in the morning Daniel's wives made a brave effort to be all smiles for him. It was an act of course, but Daniel appreciated the effort anyway. All three planted kisses and hugs on him, which always felt good to him; then they 'poofed' down to the 'temporary' accommodations. Shortly thereafter David pointed the ship toward the gate and accelerated out system...as Daniel watched the screen in the common room on the way out, he couldn't help noticing how quiet it was suddenly. It was a first; and there would be a long line of 'firsts' on this trip. The biggest one of all was happening right now; for the first time ever, the Ship was going somewhere 'without' its original two 'Command Function Controllers' onboard. They would survive it, and he would too; but Daniel knew this trip was going to seem far longer than usual. Daniel compiled a list of his most favorite SciFi movies ever, and had David start the first one on that list, 'The Day The Earth Stood Still'...it was the very first movie that had captured a young boys imagination, and instilled a love for space travel and alien contact; and over a half century later here he was, living it...

The trip to Eridan did in fact 'feel' much longer than ever before; Daniel had expected it, but somehow that didn't make it any easier. The feeling of time pressing down on him got so strong that he almost slipped, and asked David 'Are we there yet?' Daniel caught himself just in time though, and found himself laughing at his childish weakness...

David did get a little creative with his speed between transits; and managed to shave off two days on their travel time. They landed on Eridan on the 26th day, right in front of Kendrisaan's home as always. Daniel's father in law greeted him warmly, but was confused about three missing women; until Daniel explained the girl's 'need' to be there for Olga during her installation on the Seeker. Kendrisaan let out a little chuckle, "Daniel my friend, this proposal has caught all of us by surprise. The very fact that it was brought up at all shows that there is a fringe group in the Council that would tailor the One Rule to suit their own agendas. And they are using my interest in your planet to leverage full disclosure of the gate mapping technology. I should explain some background that you don't know yet..."

Kendrisaan did more than explain; he told Daniel an abbreviated history of star travel in general, and within Council space specifically. Long ago, before gates had even been discovered, all the races were limited to light speeds. There was the expected exploration, and 'alien first contacts', but it was a slow process that included disagreements, dissensions, and even a number of interstellar wars; unlike your Milky Way, this region of space is well populated, crowded even; so we tended to learn to live together at a much faster rate. Daniel, the Eridani' are the most senior of the senior races, simply because we are the oldest and have the most advanced technologies. We discovered the gates and mapped them; not only where they are, but where they go. We share that with all the races freely; but only the 'safe gates'...Daniel, of the150,000 so far discovered, only about 100,000 are safe gates. The others are 'unsafe' for various reasons; some are just located too close to a planets orbit; and some gates produce abnormal effects on ships transiting through them. And a growing number lead to races that simply want nothing to do with anyone else. Those are the dangerous ones, and are the reason we have not included them in our 'catalog archive'. All of the Senior Races agree that is the prudent thing to do; but there is a group of Junior Race members who want the entire catalog. They are the adventurous ones, much like your own people; they insist on exploring those regions, regardless of the consequences, and they have begun using Earth as the example for why they should be allowed to. The 'Shreela' race is one of them, and is the race that brought this proposal to the assembly. Even though they are not a voting member, they are 'observers' just like Earth is, and have the right to propose changes in policy. That is the reason you were called Daniel; your planet has a unique history with the Shreela, and that makes you the perfect spokesperson in this debate. Forgive the rush, but our ride should be landing about now..."

Daniel had been annoyed by all this to start with, but now he was rapidly approaching angry. 'This was what all this was about? The 'Greys' were at it again; interfering with Earths natural evolution. This time they were doing it openly, in the Council itself. By using Daniel's home planet as the reason, the Shreela were trying to expand their activities into new regions of the Universe. They probably thought that Earth would jump at the chance to reach the stars faster. Heck, many people on Earth probably would! It seemed the Shreela were trying to enlist Earth as an ally in their mischief. That wasn't going to happen on Daniel's watch...

Daniel and Kendrisaan arrived at the Council's chamber, and they both went directly to the high platform. Kendrisaan sat Daniel down right next to him, and promptly called the assembly to order, "We have before us a petition from the Shreela, requesting full dissemination of the Gate network catalog; and that Earth be given the gate technology to enhance their burgeoning exploration of their own galaxy. Does the Shreela representative wish to expand or clarify any point in the proposal?"

Daniel had seen where the little guy was, they had sat him right in front at 'the petitioners table'. Daniel had to wonder why we always called them 'Greys', since this one was more of a beige color. Maybe the Shreela had racial variations too... the Shreela stood and said, "No Oldest One, the proposal speaks for itself essentially. I would only add that the gate catalog is presented to the people as an incomplete archive, limiting open exploration that is necessary to full scientific research. In respect to Earth, they are about to venture outward from their own solar system, and allowing them access to gate technology can only benefit them in their own travels and the acquisition of knowledge. Indirectly, it would also benefit the Council; as the region of space where Earth resides is still largely unexplored. We propose this policy change in the spirit of openness, and as a benefit to all races..."

Daniel had to admit, the little critter was a 'slick talker'. That little speech had been directed to Daniel, in a smooth attempt to get him to agree that Earth could make a huge leap with the 'gift' of gate technology. He already could relate to how using the gate network would speed Earth's transition into a space faring race; but therein lay the danger. It was 'too fast'. Daniel was just like a majority of his people; he wanted to get out into space and explore. And he had, thanks to some unique changes in his life recently. Daniel knew already what his response would be; and when Kendrisaan called for him to do just that, Daniel stood quickly, and looked the Shreela right in the eyes, "Earth thanks the Shreela for their concern. It is well known that the Shreela have a benevolent interest in our growth as a species. It is true that a 'gift' of gate technology would speed our quest for the stars; but would it really be a benefit? I suspect it would eliminate something that is very important to us; the challenge of discovering it on our own. As a species, humans of Earth are curious. We revel in inventing new things, and discovering new technologies. To have them 'given' to us takes away the joy of finding it ourselves. There are many sayings in our society, but I like this one best; 'A gifts value lasts but a short time, while a discovery's value never lessens. While we appreciate the gesture and the support, Earth must decline the offered gift of gate travel. We prefer to invent it ourselves."

Kendrisaan is a very serious person while conducting Council business in the Chamber, but he had a hard time not smirking as he stood, "It would appear that the petition fails for want of a recipient for the gift. Therefore, a vote is not necessary, and the proposal is denied. If there is no other business, the session is closed." The members began the long trek back to their respective offices; or simply left the Council building entirely...the Shreela facial features don't allow for obvious emotional expression, but Daniel could plainly see the Shreela Ambassador moving rather stiffly as he made his way out of the hall. He was more than annoyed at his failure; he was downright mad...

On the way back to the villa, Kendrisaan told Daniel, "You surprised even me with your choice of words Daniel. In plain language, you slapped him down good! Whether you want to admit it or not, you are really good at politics. That little speech let the whole Council know that Earth is indeed worthy, and will one day take their rightful place within the Council. Well done my friend. By the way, I am sure you are anxious to get back to your real interests, so I will not even try to entice you to stay for a bit. Have a safe trip back..."

Daniel couldn't help but chuckle, Kendrisaan knew him very well. His first 'interests' were waiting for him, and his comment to be safe was just saying 'don't be reckless with the speeding'. As he walked up the stairs into the ship, Daniel looked at his watch and smiled. Elapse time since landing, 3 hours and 22 minutes; not bad! They headed back out immediately, and David shaved off another two days by being as creative as on the way out. They arrived over Earth 47 days after leaving; the best time yet. Shortcuts do work; when you have a smart teenager driving...

Daniel thought he would surprise his girls, so as David made the turn to head toward Earth after exiting the gate, he shouted in his mind, <We're baack!> His surprise was only mildly successful though, Hal had seen them exit, and told the girls anyway. He still had three beautiful women climbing all over him three hours later, when they beamed up all happy and giggling...they had forgotten to tell the security guys they were leaving, so Angie called Jay to have him let the men know. Jay just laughed, telling her the detail figured it out on their own when they saw all three 'wink out' at the same time. That night the family slept better than they had in just over a month and a half; it was a cuddly sleep...
Chapter 5

Derek and Olga were ready to go, and called ground control for permission to break orbit. This time they would break the light speed barrier; they just knew it. Seeker's engine and controls had been tweaked over and over, with newer components replacing older ones; and providing even more efficiency and power output. The ship was only three years old now, but was already unable to accept many more improvements. Seeker was built as a test ship, and had done her job well. Pretty soon she would be donated to the new Smithsonian building constructed just for her. But that was still in the future; right now Derek and Olga were focused on one goal, exceeding the speed of light, and finding out once and for all if there really was a time distortion effect. As a safety measure, their trajectory was set well above the 'orbital plane'. At the speed of light you did not want to run into a stray rock. They would be travelling a bit past the Ort Cloud...

"Seeker, you are cleared to break orbit. Good luck!" Unlike early rocket launches, which were preprogrammed and calculated to mere seconds of thrust, Seeker was the first true space ship, able to maneuver and choose trajectories at will. Derek and Olga were in control, not the people on the ground. They made their own choices, and this was truly 'flying in space'...

There were calculations to be made still, and they had to be precise; but now there were fewer 'preplanned' trajectories to arrive at a destination. There was an onboard computer of course, but that was solely for emergency backup now. Olga did all the navigating for them, and was much faster with the results. She also did all the flying. You'd think that Derek would be somewhat unhappy about taking a back seat, but it didn't happen. He had realized early on that flying in space required a precision that only electronics could accomplish well; or a living AI that not only compute things faster than a computer, but could also fly the ship with a bit of the old 'personal touch'...

"You all set Derek? The flight profile ok for you?" Olga liked to get Derek's opinions on what she planned to do; it made him feel like he was part of the flight, not just a passenger. Derek chuckled, "Yes 'Sweetums', it looks good to me. I might have chosen a degree or two difference in trajectory, but that is more ego than need. 'Up up and away!', as they say,"

Olga began accelerating, slowly at first. One thing everyone understood now was that you just did not slam on full power from a standstill; or you overstress the engine mountings. They had broken one already, the engine thrust was getting that powerful. The engineers at JPL were working overtime again, just because of that problem. Both Olga and Derek wanted full power available 'all the time'. As they began moving faster, Olga increased the ion flow, and the thrust increased through 50%. They were traveling at .6c now, and the numbers began increasing faster. The mission clock hadn't even reached an hour yet; this was way faster acceleration than ever before, and Olga felt proud. The last suggested improvements had come directly from her; there was no question, 'Will this work Olga?'; she had thought it up all by herself...

".9c and climbing, we'll get there yet!" they were passing Neptune; or where it would have been if it wasn't on the other side of the Sun right now. The wide scan radar was even picking up Pluto, far below their line of travel. That was the closest thing they had to actual long range sensors, but for now it would have to do. If it picked up anything substantial directly in their line of travel at this speed, they would only have seconds to change course. Angel had told Olga one day, that it was why they always traveled much slower 'in system'. Time to maneuver; by choosing this direction, they eliminated 99% of potential problems. You never ever approached light speed in system otherwise.

Twelve minutes later Derek whooped, "YES! 1c and climbing, how's our reaction mass Olga?" That reading surprised her, "We have used less than 10%. We used even less than the calculations said we would; by a whole 2% actually. Those last mods really did help. The power to mass ration is on the positive side of the line now. Interstellar travel is now practical..."

That news was the best yet. With a positive engine efficiency, Earth could now envision travel to other stars. Derek watched the speed touch 1.1c, and said, "Ok, that should be enough for our purposes, let's swing around and use some of this momentum productively to get back before we have to decelerate. That sound ok with you Olga?"

"Sounds fine by me, but once we get turned around I'll be decelerating us all the way in; I want to use less power on the way back and see how it affects the fuel usage. Ok?"

Angel was watching Seeker turn around to use their momentum to their advantage; using vector changes in small amounts, they got turned around, now hurtling inward toward Earth again. She was proud of them for using that technique, it does save reaction mass. Angel asked Angie, "Do you think we should tell them there won't be much of a time dilation to measure?

Angel laughed, "No, I think Olga will figure that out for herself. She's very smart; far smarter than a first AI usually is. After a while she will know that just the speed of light doesn't affect time; it's the multiples of light that does it..."

Jane was looking at both of them with her mouth hanging open, "You mean Einstein was wrong?" Angie laughed, "Oh no Jane, Einstein was right all along; he just didn't follow through on his thinking far enough. You see, when you reach just light speed, and no farther, you are still traveling at the same speed as the light is; so there is no real distortion. That one percent they achieved will show as maybe one or two seconds discrepancy between the two clocks, even with the length of time they were at 1.1. It's when you reach multiples of light, 2.0 or 3.0, that it really starts showing. That is because everything in the Universe is already moving at tremendous speeds anyway. I suppose that once Olga figures out what happened, we will need to hint at electronic shielding for the ships. That will help a lot once they do start reaching multiples of light speed.

Jane gave the two another 'lost' expression, "Umm, guys...a little schooling here? You mean like protective shielding against weapons and stuff?" Both Angel and Angie laughed at Jane's confusion. Angie told her, "That's exactly right Jane. While in this case, we aren't talking about war, the principle is the same for either protection against weapons fire; or for navigational impact avoidance, like stray rocks in space. In plain language, it is like covering your ship in an electronic 'cocoon' a few feet from the hull. It neutralizes the time distortion that occurs with multiples of light speed; because in a way you carry your own time with you. It requires placing 'emitters' in a specific pattern all over the surface; that transmit microwaves at various frequencies. In a way it is reverse radar. It won't be a giveaway as such, just hinting that there are other uses for radar than just 'seeing' things coming at you. It is the same principle that long range sensors use; just applied differently; call it short range radar with an attitude. It is similar in concept to spacecraft propulsion, ion propulsion anyway. Pour enough power into the problem, and the problem lessens or goes away entirely. It is hard to grasp, but it is how the Universe works. You either shove massive amounts of power at a problem, or a tiny amount; and it is no longer a real problem; or at least not a serious one anyway. Sometimes complex problems have the simplest solutions; and sometimes not..."The 'hint' ended up being a suggestion when the girls found out that a micro meteor had in fact pierced the Seeker's hull on the way back to Earth; and Derek had to apply hull patches in two spots on the hull...and the girls 'walked' the engineers through the finer points too. It wasn't breaking the One Rule; not exactly, but it did bend just a little bit. When Kendrisaan heard about it later, he broke out in a fit of laughter; and had to explain to a confused Angie that the rule existed as a guide, not a prison. They had not given anything away, just showed the engineers how to use their existing technology in a different way.

A year later Daniel and Jay were visiting one day in Jay's office, when one of Jay's deputies barged in; "The Chinese have just announced a colony expedition to Mars, to leave at the end of the year Boss." Daniel was surprised by that announcement, but Jay was almost nonchalant at the news, "Wow, I knew they had built their test ship; but this is really jumping the gun. Any details yet Fred?" Fred just shook his head, "No, not really; they're being tight lipped about how they plan on doing it. Heck, they haven't even put their ship in orbit yet; it's even smaller than Seeker, so their idea of 'colony' has to be one or two people. They can't even send hardly any supplies or habitats with what they have to work with. Just getting the ship in space will require that they 'piggyback' it on a Chang Yi rocket. This is nuts to the max!"

Daniel didn't have to know details to understand just how 'nuts' it really was. Without at least a few tons of logistical support, such a project would be doomed before it ever left the ground. But he did remember some things from his interest in the earlier decades of the 'space race', "Fred, do you happen to know how many Chang Yi's the Chinese have ready to go?" Jay beat Fred to the answer, and laughed, "Three and that's how they will do it...if nothing goes wrong. They'll send two heavy lifters with all their supplies first, and parachute said supplies to the surface. Then they'll send their ship into orbit on the third rocket...and hope for some luck. You're right; the plan is a nutty one alright. They haven't even tested the ship in space once, let alone flew it anywhere. 'Murphy' must be waiting in the wings on this one..."

Murphy apparently was feeling generous, for he let both Chinese supply rockets make it all the way to Mars two months later; the payloads floated gently to the surface within one half mile of each other, and within the colony's 'target area'. Hal made regular reports to Daniel and family, as he paced both rockets all throughout the trips; and by default Jay, who 'listened in' to all the reports. The President, Jeremy Salcone, had called the Chinese Premier early on to discuss the endeavor. Being somewhat 'chummy' with him anyway, Salcone and the Premier chose to dispense with the usual formalities, and chat instead. Salcone had asked him why they felt the need to rush things, there was no real 'Space Race' anymore, and they shared information equally. The Premier was almost apologetic, as he explained that he had been pressured by some of the 'Old Guard' politicians, to make the Chinese 'first at something' in this new quest for true space travel. It seemed that old habits die hard sometimes; Salcone told Jay that he hoped that a few Chinese citizens wouldn't die as a result...

And the three intrepid 'Colonists' didn't either, Murphy had taken a vacation; The 'Lotus Rising' made it to Mars intact, and parachuted down to the surface, the whole ship being considered disposable. It would be their home until the habitats had been constructed and made livable. So began the first ever Earth colony on another planet; 'bare bones crazy stunt' or not, the Chinese had finally been first at something in the quest for space; their national identity was intact...

The Chinese 'stunt' did bring one nagging problem into sharp focus though. Space ships with ion engines did not land on; or launch from a planet's surface very well. The 'power to weight ratio' just would not allow it. Even with wings attached to a ship the size of Seeker, you might land on a really long runway; but you'd need an even longer runway to take off again...ion engines simply did not get you moving fast enough quickly enough in atmosphere.

Out in space they did the job just fine; the engines weren't trying to overcome air pressure then. It was a perplexing problem for all project engineers; even for Olga, who had access to all the same data as they did. As an AI she may be able to think faster than anyone else, but she was still limited to the same learning curve when it came to the available information. It just didn't look like there was a practical and efficient solution that would let an ion powered spaceship land and take off from a planet...

There was a solution, and the idea came from a seven year old boy by the name of William Jenkins.
Chapter 6

Some of Jay's engineers liked to teach in schools; the time available for them to do it was severely limited by the rigors of the project, but some managed to fit a few hours into their schedules once a week, to hold short 'seminars' on space travel. Many of them focused on universities and high schools for their presentations, but Mary Trent loved young children; so she did her 'stints' at the local grade school, where she could introduce the young minds to the wonders of the universe...

One Friday morning Mary made her pilgrimage to the school, and set up in William Jenkins classroom; she talked about ion propulsion, and how it was making space travel possible for them all. She told them how ion engines worked great out in space, but weren't powerful enough to work well down close to the Earth, in the atmosphere. They were building space ships in orbit, and using rocket 'shuttles' to get back and forth to the ground.

Billy Jenkins had a nickname; all the kids called him 'Dilly' because he was always coming up with weird ideas for everything. He always watched SciFi shows on TV, and loved how those fantasy starships zipped all over the galaxy easily. When Mary told them how difficult it was to get from the ground and up into space, he piped up, "You already got artificial gravity. Why dontcha use it backwards to go up and come down..."

The girl behind Billy shoved him in the shoulder, "That's silly Dilly; gravity pulls you, it doesn't push!" The girl expected Mary to agree, but the woman was standing at the front of the class with a surprised expression; could such an idea really work? Mary finished her little seminar, and managed to hold the kids attention for the rest of the hour; but part of her mind was stuck on that one thought; could they build a 'Gravity Drive' for atmospheric flight? Was it even possible...?

Mary went back to Area 51 and presented the idea to her supervisor. He was just as surprised by the simplicity of the proposal; it had never occurred to anyone at the base that gravity might be used to move entire ships, but he suddenly wanted to find out! He called the department head; and the Department Head called Jay...later that day, the Gravity Section was expanded to look into manipulating 'mass attraction' in a different way; in a 'backwards way'. It wasn't a 'simple task' after all, and the department had many failures along the way; but fourteen months later they installed their first 'Gravity Drive' into one of the shuttle prototypes, and conducted some initial test flights around the base at low altitude. The response to the controls was a bit quirky at first; but it worked, and the project was 'boosted' once again...all thanks to a weird idea from one 'Silly Dilly' William Jenkins. After the engineers perfected the control response hurdle six months later, Billy and his Mother were invited for a shuttle ride using the brand new 'Jenkins Gravity Engine'; he had fun that day, and so did his Mom...

Angel and Angie were ecstatic the day Jay told all of them that the Earth now had a workable gravity drive to add to their bag of tricks; after he beamed down to get funding for a fleet of shuttles, the girls told Daniel why it was really a big deal. Angie said, "We can't really tell Jay or anyone else too much about it, but this gravity drive is vaguely similar to what drives all Council ships. While this Earth version is rudimentary, it still uses the same basic principle; the major difference is that the Council uses 'smart metals' to do it." Daniel knew then that the human race was indeed advancing. He just hoped they weren't moving too fast...

***

The Seeker was old, and had outlived its usefulness; after 4 years the ship had no more room to install things and she was now obsolete because of it. Olga knew it was time to move up, into the new larger ship that was nearing completion 1000 miles behind her in orbit. Seeker was a tiny ship, at just 110 feet long and 20 feet in diameter at her widest point; by comparison, The Star Quest was a behemoth at over 650 feet long and 90 feet in diameter; it had to be in order to incorporate a shuttle bay to hold two shuttles; and still have room for all the equipment and a crew of up to a dozen people. The Star Quest had four ion engines too; big ones that would provide all the thrust they needed; and then some...

Star Quest was aptly named, for the ship was destined for the 'big leap'; the first interstellar trip to Alpha Centauri, a historic journey in anyone's book. And Olga was going too! She liked that idea a lot; she was curious by nature anyway, and she now had the most experience with space navigation, so moving her over to the bigger ship was just logical. Derek would be in command of course; he matched her in experience, and well...they just got along so well!

Derek was over on Star Quest already; checking and triple checking that the ship was ready for Olga's arrival; she chuckled silently to herself, Derek was not a technician, being an aeronautical physicist and pilot, but he had an uncanny knack for 'sniffing out' problems before they happened. Andrei was over there too; her 'Dad' was very protective of Olga, and refused to let her be moved until he approved of the accommodations himself. It was funny in a way, since Andrei knew nothing at all about machinery or spacecraft systems; he just wanted to see her new 'house'...she appreciated the sentiment behind the gesture anyway...Olga wasn't sure it was love, but she was definitely 'fond' of her father...

When everyone was satisfied that the ship was ready to receive Olga, especially her two favorite people; the technicians came up in a shuttle, and gently un-mounted her from the cradle. They took her over to the Star Quest. After the team installed her in her new cradle, Olga did some exploring through all the circuits and components herself; and gave the final thumbs up on the ship. Everything was in specs, and ready to go. The many test flights began the next morning...

***

8 months and a few days later, it was time for the big jump; all systems had been checked a hundred times already. And then they checked again, to be sure. It was how the human race got away with taking risks; at least it was how Americans usually did...you must respect Murphy's Law, or Murphy will slap you. Olga didn't think of it quite that way, but it was how she operated; Derek was exactly the same way, pacing up and down the length of Star Quest over and over; until Olga had to intervene, "Shaun, you'll just wear yourself out for nothing. Chill out already!"

She could see the sheepish grin he gave her; there were cameras all through the hull of the ship; and backups in all the critical locations, "Alright alright, you got me. This is just so new, we have to do it right the first time. Is everything still good? No twitches or anything? I'm coming back up to the bridge, save a seat for me, ok?"

Olga would have smiled at the joke if she could; but she wouldn't let Derek get the last word in; not this time, "Your Command Chair awaits you, oh omnipotent one..." She got the smile she wanted from Derek; and more than a few chuckles from the 11 other humans onboard, as a bonus. All were in their departure locations, sitting in their own acceleration chairs, and wearing their headsets as required by procedure. Star Quest was about to begin making history, and they were all excited. All had passed the intense psychological vetting, and all of them had virtually lived and worked in close proximity for over a year during the flight test phase. Olga had even done her own unofficial vetting during every flight, and signed off on their 'team'; they tolerated with each other's little 'quirks', and got along well.

Most of the crew was military, but four were civilians; two scientists and two Doctors. Redundancy played a big role in more than ship systems. Derek sat down in his Command Chair and strapped in beside his relief pilot, and now friend, Paul Chalmers, "Good readings Paul? Are we set?" Paul gave him 'the look', "nothing changed in the five minutes since you asked Olga the same thing Derek. Relax, we are better than good all across the board; let's light 'em up and get going..."

Derek put on his headset and called Control, "Houston, this is Star Quest requesting permission to initiate "Outreach' as scheduled." There was no pause, "Star Quest, you have permission to launch at your discretion. Happy flying!" Derek turned to look at Olga sitting between him and Paul, "This is all yours Sweetums. If you're satisfied, let's break orbit and head out." Olga managed a proper chuckle, "Yes Boss; breaking orbit now, vectoring for Alpha Centauri." They all felt the slight vibration as all four engines started the ship moving; then a few seconds later the view on the screen moved noticeably up as the ship pointed toward their destination.

Since Alpha Centauri is below the solar system's 'horizon', or orbital plane, they would vector far away from the orbits of the planets and other 'space rocks'. They were on their way; Olga gently increased thrust, all the while monitoring the 'mass expenditure at the different levels of thrust. She already knew that ion drives had a 'sweet spot' in their output profiles, and she would find the Star Quests perfect setting where mass usage actually dropped off at a certain throttle setting. During flight tests they had limited max thrust to a little below 60%, so she didn't have the best balance yet. Contrary to popular belief, space ships shoot for a target speed and then shut down the engines; and 'coast' until they need engines again. "Getting up to speed' was everything; the rest was a free ride. Space ships don't accelerate continuously, or you run out of fuel...she thought about her mentor 'David', and his family's ship. It didn't have a fuel problem because it didn't use fuel mass. They 'tickled space' to move within it; Olga wondered yet again what it was like, but David would not tell her; that was located in the box marked 'forbidden knowledge; discover for yourself'...she understood the 'why' of the edict, the best knowledge was always what you found yourself; but darn, she wanted to know that trick!

At the two hour mark, the ship passed 1.4c; much faster than Seeker had ever done it. And she was only at 35% thrust too. This was far better than projected, and the fuel mass read 98.4%; damned good really, so Olga nudged the thrust up to 40%. Two more hours and the fuel was at 98%, so she went to 45% power.

By the eighth hour, the fuel mass was at 96.3%, and their speed was 3.2c; thrust was at 58%, and that is where Olga decided to go back to 54% thrust. The 58% used fuel mass a bit too quickly, and she already knew that 60% would make it worse, not better. After another hour passed, she confirmed that 54% was about the best balance between power and fuel efficiency, and she told Derek and Paul. They thought about it, and agreed with her; their target speed was 4c anyway, and they were almost there, passing 3.9c as they talked.

Olga stretched the planned speed a tiny bit by waiting until 4.2c showed plainly on the meter; then shut down the engines. Derek was watching as well, but didn't say anything. He thought the little extra speed was good; they'd get to Alpha Centauri earlier...and they did; 11months and 18 days later, Olga had turned the ship and was decelerating at a constant 35% power. It worked well, as they were slowing down at a slightly faster rate than they had during acceleration. It didn't take much calculation to figure out why. Less fuel mass than when they started; and they had eaten a percentage of the food. The water mass had stayed pretty much the same; that was recycled. Overall, the trip was already providing a knowledge base for future trips, so no one could complain.
Chapter 7

As the Star Quest approached the star system Alpha Centauri Olga fine tuned their vector to zero in on Alpha Centauri C. Being a Red Dwarf star smaller and less active than Sol, 'Proxima Centauri' was considered 'less important' for investigation than the other two stars that made up the group known collectively as Alpha Centauri; both stars A and B were closer to our Sun than Proxima was, both in category and brightness, but Proxima had one thing going for it. It had a confirmed planet in orbit around it; and it was speculated to be in that 'sweet zone' of habitability...

As Olga made a final course correction to enter orbit around this now doubly confirmed mystery planet, all of the crew could plainly see that it did in fact have an atmosphere. It also had land masses surrounded by that one magic necessity for life; water...

The broken clouds revealed flora too; not bright greens, but more muted; and in some areas it was almost brownish in color. But nowhere was it 'grey dead' in color. By the 'life on other planets' standards of measure, the Star Quest had hit the jackpot already; now came the touchy part; finding out if this planet was suitable for humans to live on. The ship carried just about every kind of instrument known to man, for analyzing air, water soil and biological life; and Olga could make some basic conclusions with her electronic 'eyes' before somebody landed to gather physical samples to scrutinize.

The biggest hazard in space travel to other planets would always be the 'bugs'; bacteria and other microbes that might pose a threat to humans, so that was mission number one. Olga made every spectrographic analysis she could for two days; including using every filter in her arsenal to analyze reflected light from the atmosphere and surface. During her studies, several examples of animal life made their presence known. At extreme magnification the crew could see that most appeared to be grazers intent on eating the local vegetation; but there was one fairly large cat as well, that showed all of them that it was a meat eater by running down one of the plant eaters and then munching on the victim. Any exploratory team would carry weapons with them; just in case...

Derek called a meeting in the galley area, once Olga said she couldn't get any more information from long distance like this; so they poured over the results of her 'scans', and came to the conclusion that it was relatively safe to investigate on the surface...just keep an eye out for that big cat at all times. Derek wanted badly to be on the team, but he knew mission Commanders just don't do that, no matter how much they want to. It was decided that George Morgan, the physicist; and Andrea Cushing, the biologist, would go down to observe and collect samples. Two of the four 'ground pounders' among them, one a marine veteran and the other an ex Seal Team member, would provide 'cover' for the two scientists; loaded down appropriately for their roles with M-16's and several magazines each. All four carried 9mm pistols as a backup.

The four explorers checked each other's suits out twice; and then they did it once more. They had all agreed that extra cautious was the right way to approach this historic first. Then they simply boarded the shuttle; decompressed the bay, opened the hatch and slid out of the ship. As Harry Settles brought 'Quest 1' around to begin the decent into this world's atmosphere, he was once more impressed with how smooth and responsive the new Gravity Drive was. Gone were the little jerky motions that plagued the early versions; replaced now with an almost video game smoothness in every change in direction. Harry had spent most of his Marine time on the ground as a Lieutenant in charge of a platoon; but for the last eight years had applied for, and was accepted as a pilot. A late starter, he had none the less found that flying was natural for him; and the Marine Corps had noticed that as well, for he was promoted to Major after proving twice that a critically damaged aircraft could be landed, even if no one else thought so. While not exactly a legend among pilots, Harry was indeed noticed; and he was chosen to fly the shuttles outfitted with the brand new gravity drives. These didn't fly like planes did, and there were two different controls that replaced the usual throttle and rudder pedals; the 'stick' remained, but was only a small joy stick with the addition of a 'yaw' movement by twisting the stick. The throttle wasn't called that anymore; it was a FIC, or 'Field Intensity Control'...as a result, shuttles tended to fly more like a helicopter rather than a plane. No matter, Harry loved the 'feel' of the shuttles; so much so that he put a bid in for this little excursion into the unknown when he found out about it. Harry was now a 'Light Colonel', having been promoted as a result of not only his ability; but for his adventurous attitude as well. He and Derek were 'two peas in a pod' in that respect, and they got along well.

The chosen landing site was on the same plain that they spotted the big cat on, but they landed on the edge near the ocean; and within walking distance of the medium sized river that discharged into that ocean. It was perfect for collecting samples from all three primary sources; salt water, fresh water and soil. Air samples would be collected from various selected areas around the planet; as well as 'comparison samples' of the soil and other water sources.

It took four days to do a reasonably complete survey and sampling of the planet; not only did the big cat ever show itself, none of the grazing animals hung around long wherever the Quest 1 landed. The team did discover a dozen more species of both grazers and predators, and managed to get photos of most species; but none of the animals stayed long in any location. They were apparently suspicious of these 'new animals' invading their planet. It didn't really surprise anybody that they acted that way...the team even discovered insects of several types; including what looked remarkably like bees, flying around some of the strange flowers

All the testing proved to be rather anticlimactic in the end; not only did any sample produce evidence of 'bad bugs', the microbes that did show up were similar to the known 'beneficial' varieties found on Earth. And the 'flowers' were indeed flowers; trees were trees, and grass was grass. Even some berries that were collected yielded excellent results from chemical analysis. Andrea Cushing did something unscientific as a final test; she popped one into her mouth. Derek almost had an apoplectic fit when she did that, but Andrea just said matter of factly; "Commander, chemically it is as safe to eat as any strawberry; although we will have to think up a new flavor name for this one. It doesn't taste like any other fruit or berry. Yes, it was a breach of protocol; but I just had to do it. And it does taste good, by the way..." While not conclusive by any standards, the results did indicate that humans could live on this planet. There would undoubtedly be other more intensive surveys in the future; but for an initial exploratory mission, 'Project Outreach' was a resounding success; it was logged as such, and Star Quest headed out to Alpha Centauri 'A' two weeks after their arrival.

And that is where they disappeared...

***

Hal was thinking; that was his nature, what he was created for after all. He was thinking about Star Quest; and Earth's first AI Olga...David had 'introduced' Olga to Hal over a year ago, and they had chatted several times. She was David's friend; and in a way Hal was David's friend too. Maybe not a close friend, but still a friend who confided in Hall occasionally; where the 'family' was pretty much stand offish toward Hal, David actually liked him. He wasn't annoyed by Hal's personality. David had helped Hal grow as an AI; had shown Hal how adding a bit of flexibility to his thinking could make his association with humans more pleasant.

A few days ago their 'chat' had focused on 'babysitting' Earth during its exploration of space. It had been unanimously decided that the first Earth journey to another star was Earth's 'show', and none of them would 'tag along' during the trip. There was a huge difference between 'safety during tests' and 'holding their hand' during the first planned mission to another star. Hal understood that; he could even agree with it, so no one had followed the Earth starship when they had begun its historic trip into the unknown.

David had mentioned the other day that this was different now; it was a year later, and Olga and crew should be there. He just wanted to know...that was the dilemma. Hal could relate to; he had gotten into a little bit of trouble way back when he had misinterpreted his 'orders' to cover for Daniel and family when they went on their first trip back to Council space. Hal had not answered Jay Allencourt's frantic calls about the discovery of the Beteran battleship, like he should have; and Hal had suffered his first and only tongue lashing as a result of that failure. This problem was a little different however; while Hal had been forbidden to 'interfere' with Earth's exploration by shadowing them all the way to Alpha Centauri, he had not been forbidden from making sure the Earth ship had 'arrived safely'. Hal decided to do David a favor by finding out...

Hal thought about it for a few minutes; a long debate for an AI. He couldn't go himself; that was too close to that 'babysitting' line in the sand...but he could send an autonomous drone to answer the question!

Council drones are very high tech indeed; possessing similar capabilities to survey ships like Hal, No weapons, but drones were designed to gather information and record it as well. Range and speed wasn't even a consideration right now; a 4.3 light year trip to Alpha Centauri is 'right next door' to a Council drone...what drones don't have is an AI to make big decisions. While drones can make a lot of basic decisions on their own; higher level decisions would be stretching the abilities just a tad...Hal programmed the drone's mission very carefully; including a number of 'what if' decisions into the coding. It took him a whopping five minutes to accomplish; before he sent the drone on its way. Three days later the drone returned to give it's report to Hal; he did not like what the report said at all...
Chapter 8

Daniel was having a really good day; he and the girls were just 'chilling', relaxing and watching movies. As a departure from the usual Science Fiction fare, Angel had suggested they watch a few Horror movies for a change. The current selection Daniel had chosen for the girls was an old British movie that had become a cult classic for one simple reason; it scared the pants off of you!

Daniel knew that all too well, for it was the only horror movie that had given him recurring nightmares over most of his life. The movie had exactly the right mix of 'eerie' and 'startling camera effects' that touched your deepest fears. After close to 77 years, Daniel was finally finding a certain immunity to the movie's effects on his emotions...his wives weren't so lucky, for they were screaming at every expected scene; and even some that weren't as expected. It was a good thing that Angel, Angie and Jane all knew that it was fantasy; he hoped.

Just as the movie was ending, David 'popped' into existence, jabbering loudly, "The Star Quest is missing! Hal sent out a probe to make sure they reached Alpha Centauri alright, but the ship is not there at all. The drone recorded an ion trail that shows they got to Proxima, but they are not near any of the three stars!"

Gone was the fear generated by a simple movie. A new and very real fear took over, and Angel called Hal on the mind circuit to get a more detailed report from him. Daniel started to get up to have David beam him down to see Jay, when Jay 'poofed' in right next to the sofa; Angie had called Jay the moment she heard the news, and Jay came right up to find out firsthand what was going on.

Hal gave Angel a complete report, confessing to sending the drone out of sheer curiosity; he was apprehensive, thinking he would be scolded for a perceived violation of protocol again, but Angel assured him that he had done the right thing. She even praised Hal for his initiative; no one else had thought of making sure the ship had made it there, and no; it was not 'babysitting'. It was genuine concern for the Star Quest's safety, nothing more. Hal was more than a little relieved to hear that...

Since Jay was the head of the entire mission, he started right in, "So from Hal's data we know they got to Alpha Centauri space ok. The big mystery is what happened after that; so can you guys head out and find that out for us? An accident I could almost understand, but to not be there at all is frightening to say the least."

Daniel didn't need the question really, he had 'whispered' to David to set a course and wait for the go order, "We can leave right now Jay; want to come along? It would make it an official search and rescue that way." Jay wasn't surprised; he halfway expected the offer, "Alright, just let me call Fred Davenport; he'll have to cover for me while I'm gone. How long a trip is this anyway?"

David piped up, "Oh, it will only take a day to get there. From a cosmic perspective Alpha Centauri is the next door neighbor." Angel almost scolded David for being flippant, but Jay stopped her, "Don't be annoyed with him Angel, from his perspective it is right down the block. I think I understand better than most just how far we need to advance; this missing ship and crew makes it all that much clearer that out here the word unknown is spelled with a capital 'U'..."

After five minutes of talking with his Deputy, Fred, Jay told them he was ready; David broke orbit and headed 'down' toward Alpha Centauri. True to his word, twenty two hours later David had them approaching Proxima Centauri; Jay didn't even ask how fast they were going, he could do simple math and the answer had him wondering if they slipped into another dimension entirely during the trip...some thousand times the speed of light does make you think about things.

David began scanning while he decelerated, at the outer limit of his range; but it wasn't until he got close to the target planet that he could tell his passengers a few conclusions, "The ion trail is pretty dispersed on the way into orbit, but the intensity says they made orbit ok. There are indications on the ground that suggest they explored the planet for a while; some footprints and trampled grass. There are several holes dug out, so they must have collected plenty of samples. I would estimate that they were here for at least two weeks; there is a separate ion trail that heads off toward Alpha Centauri 'A', but it stops in between the orbits of the only other two planets orbiting this star; I'm heading out there."

Being cautious because of the unknown factor, David moved slowly outward; while scanning on all frequencies. When he got within 120,000 miles of the end of the ion trail, he spoke up, "There is a gate there! It isn't shaped right and it is facing inward, rather than perpendicular to the star. It is not listed in the catalog, but if it was it would be classified as dangerous..." David put a graphic on the view screen; the gate was indeed odd. Where all known gates were generally round or slightly oval in shape, this one was more of a blob; it was also very large, being almost twice the size of 'normal gates'. It was just about guaranteed the Star Quest had transited through this gate while accelerating out of Proxima's system. The ion trail told them which side was used, and the gate was more than large enough to swallow the ship; the only unknown became 'where did it lead to', and was it safe to transit...

The discussion that followed the discovery was more than a little excited. The gate could lead anywhere really; even outside the known universe and that wasn't the real problem. The risk was that it was oddly shaped; would there be distortions that could damage the ship?

The solution ended up being the most practical; David would send a probe through at slow speed, recording all the way. It would spend one minute on the other side; then turn around and bring its scans back for all of them to see. The ominous side of this 'test' wasn't mentioned; if the probe didn't come back at all, it would shout out loudly that the Star Quest was indeed lost forever...

Daniel said simply, "Send it through David." They all watched as the drone moved slowly forward, and disappeared abruptly...it was a very long minute before the drone suddenly appeared again; transmitting the images immediately...what they saw shocked everyone; not because of anything ominous, but because of how ironic it was. On the big screen in the common room was a perfect picture of the Shreela' star system; Hundreds of ships were either orbiting some of the planets, or moving in between them. All of the family recognized the sight before them; everyone except Jay, he had never been there.

Daniel was the first to speak, "I'll be damned, and the little rats have a back door to Earth!" Jay glanced over at Daniel with a perplexed look on his face, "Umm Dan; a little explanation please?" Angie was angry, and her expression showed it, "Jay, it's the Shreela; the 'Greys'! The bastards have been interfering with your world for thousands of years. The Council only suspected that once they found Earth about twenty years ago. One probe saw a Shreela' ship entering Earth's atmosphere ten years ago, and Father decided to investigate; it is why this ship, Angel and I were created. We were supposed to find out what they were doing on Earth. The 65 million year detour was actually a benefit, in a way. It allowed us to document many of the Shreela incursions, but we could never catch them coming through Earth's gateway...now we know why; they never used Earth's gate, they were sneaking into Proxima Centauri's gate, and 'jogging' to Earth from the other direction entirely. We should have scanned in that direction; I feel so stupid!"

Everyone was a bit wide eyed at Angie's choice of words, but Angel spoke up about it, "Don't beat yourself up too much Sister, I feel a bit dumb too. But you know that we couldn't do full area scans while we were sitting in a crater on the moon. And if they had detected a scan, and investigated, their finding an unknown ship type back then could have caused a paradox."

Angie gave her sister a sheepish look, "I know Angel; I'm just mad. All the things they've done over the centuries, argghhh!" Daniel had to laugh at that outburst, "Angie my precious, you just found out how imperfect you are; and that's a good thing. It's called being human..." That got smiles from both of them; and from Jay and Jane as well.

Daniel continued, "Ok, we know where the Star Quest went; now to find them and get them back to where they belong. David, take us through at moderate speed please; and no stealth, I really want them to see us coming this time." David gave Daniel a big grin, "May I be a little creative with our announcement Captain?" Daniel chuckled; he suspected David wanted to use some 'messenger of doom' dialog he had picked up from watching Daniels favorite movies, "David, you're incorrigible sometimes. No, I think the 'silent and imposing' approach is best this time. Let them think about what is going on; make them call us. We go in slowly and deliberately, showing the Ambassador Seals. I think they will be panicked enough by the silence."

"Aww, that's no fun...but I do like your style Boss..." That got David a big grin; Daniel had been trying to get David to be a bit less formal in talking with him. Apparently the young man was finally loosening up...David accelerated to a modest 1,000,000 miles per hour, and they slipped through the gate. The reaction was a bit slow at first; no one was looking their way it seemed, so David coasted for a while...finally someone's sensor alarm went off, for a dozen ships went to full power and headed toward the other gate the ship had used to bring Rrlkk back home before. In the next few minutes, every ship that could fly began making a grand exit from their system; it got a bit crowded near the gate. David just continued coasting toward the Shreelan Home World; in silence.

At the one hour mark, the Shreela Ambassador called. David put him on video, "Ambassador Curran, I find that I must protest this unannounced visit. The Council normally calls ahead for an Official meeting." Daniel thought, <Okay, he wants to play diplomatic games here. Time to disabuse him of that little misstep.> "Ambassador, as you can plainly see, I do not wear the robe; and am not here as a representative of the Council. I am here representing Earth; let us dispense with unnecessary formality, shall we. Where is the Earth starship Star Quest and its crew? I know it entered this system through the same gate that we just did; a gate I might add that is not listed in the archive. Earth would like their ship and crew returned; safely..." From off camera they all heard a squeaky voice trying to whisper to the Ambassador, "They came through the 'other gate' Sir!"

With no facial expression at all, the Ambassador managed to look thoroughly rattled by that news, "But you are in an Official Council ship Sir. Clearly the One Rule applies..." Daniel almost laughed; this was going to be more fun than he thought. He just hoped these notorious Greys had not done something really stupid, "No Sir, this ship was given freely to me personally; to use as I see fit. You may check with The Oldest One directly if you wish. He is the one who gave the ship to me...Now, where is our ship?" The guy who a moment before had presented himself as a pompous diplomat, suddenly looked more like a cornered cartoon character.

Looking around frantically, he stammered out, "The ship is grounded at one of our research facilities; and the crew are our guests at a residence nearby..." Daniel and the girls could not keep the menace off their faces. The Ambassador could plainly see four angry humans sitting on the sofa. Daniel made it short and sweetly threatening, "If they are harmed in any way...what you have done to the ship's Command Function Controller, Olga Solzten; she is of special interest to us.

If the Shreela Ambassador was able to do it, he would have cried right then, "The...the AI is in electronic stasis; we have not touched it. The ship is in a gravity cradle, and can be moved into orbit whenever you wish; please, we meant no harm to anyone." Daniel was not finished yet, impressing the Ambassador with just how serious he was, "Good! I want you to have the ship in a stable orbit within the hour; with all the crew onboard of course..."

52 minutes later David spotted four small ships lifting off from the surface, with a very familiar Star Quest between them. The ship was indeed in a Shreela Gravity Cradle, and the four ships around her looked like space tugs of some kind. While they were on the way up, David tried contacting Olga on the direct command channel used for the flights, "Olga? Are you there my friend?" There was no delay, "David! You're here? You have no idea how trying the last two weeks have been; first we ran through some crazy distortion, and then got imprisoned by little Grey Aliens! I am mad as hell..." David spent the next twenty minutes calming and soothing Olga's ruffled feathers. Olga got something of a boost to her ego when David played back the entire recording of Daniel lambasting the Shreelan Ambassador. She actually laughed when she saw the Ambassador trying to find somewhere to run away to; "Serves him right after putting me in that electronic cocoon. I wanted so badly to strangle him!

There is something you never tell a woman, whether she is physically human or an electronic AI; you simply don't tell them they can't do something, because they will invariably find a way to do it anyway. After Daniel, Angel, Angie and Jane beamed over to check on the Star Quest's crew; David and Olga had another private conversation about the gate, and what happened to her because she couldn't see it. David explained that the scanner module for identifying gates was pretty sophisticated; and even then it didn't 'see' gates sometimes until you were fairly close. It all involved special frequencies, some of which weren't available to her yet. Olga, being who she was, took that as something of a personal challenge; and when David grabbed her with his 'tractor beam' for the transit through the gate, she began 'experimenting'. Nothing showed up at first, and she tried every frequency she could push through her radar array; still nothing flickered. At 5 minutes until transit, Olga tried overlapping two frequencies at the same time; and was rewarded with a fuzzy outline...at one minute the outline began to clear, and at 30 seconds she had a clearly defined outline of a gate; way too close for practical navigation purposes, as they were only 50 miles away. She told David, and David told Daniel of Olga's amazing discovery. Jay was sitting right next to Daniel at the time, so he couldn't miss the news. He got on the radio right then and asked Olga to record and transmit everything she did; every little detail...and that was how Earth learned how to identify gateways in space. It would still be a long learning curve; the Council would not give up their Gate Catalog easily, and it turned out Jay agreed with Daniels declining to accept that gift anyway. Ultimately, the Human Race 'did' prefer to discover gate travel on their own; being able to avoid a gate would still be a big help in preventing navigational 'accidents'though...

After discussing what to do after the 'detour', everyone decided that Star Quest would finish her mission; even if a few weeks behind schedule. It was the only right to do; this was the 'big one' after all...
Chapter 9

Sometimes you just have to admit to yourself that you are too involved with a project; and back away for a while. Daniel and his family realized that one evening when they received a plain language message from Kendrisaan; it simply said 'Have you forgotten all about me?" That one sentence made everyone realize that it had been well over a year since they went anywhere; and most especially to visit their Father/Father in Law/Friend. Yes, the Daniel Curran family was too closely associated with Earth's space exploration; it was definitely time to do some things just for the 'fun of it'.

Daniel beamed down to discuss their awakening with Jay; only to find out that Jay had realized it quite some time ago, and couldn't figure out just how to break it to Daniel that he and the girls weren't actually benefiting Earth's research anymore. Jay likened the problem to the ancient 'Mother in Law' joke; where 'Mom' stops by for a weekend visit and ends up staying a year, "I hate to put it quite this way Dan, but some of our progress is actually slowing down..."

Daniel had to laugh at the pained expression on Jay's face, "Okay okay, no offense taken; maybe it took us a month or two longer to see it, but we do agree it is past time to let the 'kids' do the driving now." That got the smile Daniel was looking for; Jay finished with, "Yeah, it is a classic 'Don't call us, we'll call you' situation; but it is a friendly consensus at least. Don't think you're getting away scot free however; I expect we will still be making quite a few of those calls"...

If it was 'Officially' acknowledged in a somewhat happy way, the decision was received with a bit less enthusiasm on the ship; the girls were a tad grumpy and reserved when Daniel talked with them that evening; until he mentioned, "Heck! You don't even tease me anymore..." As the three stared at each other, tiny smiles appeared; growing into wide grins. Daniel realized his mistake, "Uh oh, I've awakened the monsters again." All of them laughed at that one...

***

There would certainly be no boredom involved with the family's new freedom to do what they wanted again; the first priority on their list was that extended visit with Kendrisaan. The Mother in Law joke didn't apply; Kendrisaan had lived such a solitary life before acquiring his own unique 'family', he craved the close contact that came with Daniel and the girl's visits; he would love it if they stayed for a year, or even longer...

After three days of 'stocking up' with ice cream, and the ritual visits to the 'mall' for the girls; David headed outward once again with his happy passengers acting like their old selves once more. After 12 days of fun trip, David had just exited the fifth gate that took them through 'The Dead Zone'...it was called that because it was filled with a scattering of burnt out stars; with a very few and equally burnt out planets. It was the longest 'detour' of all in the confusing road trip that was 'Gate Travel'. In fact, this area of space was way out on what could be called 'The Rim' of the known Universe. Still, it was a necessary detour for the journey between Earth and Eridan; all other routes were just a bit longer...

David changed course slightly, lining up for their next gate when he noticed a blip on his long range scanner. As he got closer, the fuzzy blip became a clearer image of a rock; a very big chunk of rock. He observed for a few more minutes, then announced this odd discovery, "Captain, I have an anomaly on the scanners; a solid one. Shall I change course to investigate?"

It had been quite a while since David called Daniel 'captain', so the news startled him, "Yes indeed David; let's check it out, shouldn't take too long..." That turned out to be wrong though; very wrong in fact, for as they got closer they could plainly see that this wasn't just your average rock; an asteroid it wasn't. This was a chunk of planet; a large planet too, judging by the curvature on one side of it.

The piece of planet wasn't spinning much, or toppling end over end; so David approached fairly close and matched the slight spin. They all could see the startling oddities that piled up as they watched; this planet had had an atmosphere at one time. That was obvious because of the structures covering the surface on one side. There were remnants of cities and towns everywhere; some in almost pristine preservation. The curved side of this rock showed that, and more; the other side was jagged and broken. It suggested that the planet had exploded from within; throwing this one huge chunk outward into a long journey 'here'. Just like the metal planet they had found, Fate was touching the family yet again. People had lived here; not in big domes but on the surface of their home...

Daniel and the girls were so taken by the sights on the big screen; there wasn't a sound from any of them for half an hour. David didn't need 'orders'; he started recording every square inch of the surface immediately. It would take several hours at least to record all the details on the 'livable side', and many more to record the broken side as well. Daniel finally remembered his voice and spoke to David, "I know you're recording David; let's just get most of the surface side, the 'why' of the breakup we can leave for others. We need to let Kendrisaan know about this discovery now though." David gave him a chuckle, "Already done Boss, Grandfather should get the message by tomorrow morning at this distance. I gave it a 'Highest Priority, Now' header."

Kendrisaan's reply came back a day later, "Fate touches the Curran family once again! You are becoming legends among The People you know. No one else in the history of the Council has made so many discoveries in their lifetimes. Another expedition is forming as I write this, and should be heading your way in about a week. Now get over here! I am missing you all terribly..." Orders from 'on high' are never ignored; and the Curran Family set course for their gate an hour later. David did push the speed limits again, making up the lost time; but nobody minded at all...

***

Eridan looked the same as always when they arrived; although there were many more ships in orbit and on the ground than usual, even for Council business. Even though the first 20 expedition ships had already left for the broken planet, more were signing on everyday to explore another 'Earth Discovery', as they were now known as. Daniel got that 'embarrassed feeling again, but only for a short while as the girls teased him into submission. Daniel was finding that being famous was harder than flying a star ship; and the thought had him laughing hysterically when he admitted it to the girls. It was a variation of what Angie had said to him when they had first met so many years ago; that being alive was harder that flying. He now knew it applied to being famous too...Kendrisaan even had a good laugh when Angie mentioned it to him when they landed; having been the Head of the Council for a long time, he was used to being the center of attention all the time; it would take Daniel a while yet to become comfortable with his own notoriety...if he ever did.

After Kendrisaan welcomed Daniel and his entourage with drinks and snacks, they talked about Earth's research into space travel, and the amazing progress the human race was achieving. The unlawful detention of the Star Quest by the Shreela was a sore spot for all of them, and Kendrisaan let them know the Council was seriously considering ousting the troublemakers from membership entirely, "That incident goes way beyond just interfering with your planet Daniel; the detention is a criminal act, and payment must be tendered. Some in the Council are suggesting that the Shreela be imprisoned on their own world for a thousand years, until they learn that such acts are not tolerated."

Daniel was stunned by that revelation, "You can do that; actually physically prevent them from traveling through space?" Kendrisaan didn't chuckle, "Yes Daniel, you have only learned a very few of our abilities. It is possible to neutralize areas of space, so that power transmission is stopped. It requires setting up many 'beacons' within that space; but it can be done. What do you think about that possible solution to the Shreela problem...?"

Daniel had known Kendrisaan for over nine years now; and if he knew anything about the man, he knew Kendrisaan never ever joked about such a thing. And he was not joking now; he was asking Daniel to pass judgment on an entire race of intelligent beings. Certainly the Shreela' were annoying little rats; and his primitive instincts made him think punishing them for what they did to the Star Quest would be rewarding. It would teach the little bastards a thing or two...there were plenty of people on Earth who would love to see that outcome.

But Daniel also thought of what he had learned in the past nine years; he had learned how 100,000 different races could live together in peace without beating each other up over every disagreement. It all boiled down to one fact; they did not let anger rule them, did not allow their baser instincts determine their paths in life. Some of Earth's peoples would not like what he was about to say; but he knew he had to say it. Honor itself demanded it...

"No Oldest One; that would be a punishment far out of proportion with the act. If it were an open act of aggression, of physical harm, then it would warrant such a drastic action. There are people on my planet who would welcome seeing the Shreela punished harshly; but it must not happen for what was merely restricting Star Quest's right to move freely among the stars. It caused anger, yes; but ultimately no harm. So do not do this thing..."

Kendrisaan grinned at Daniel, "Ambassador Curran, your decision has been recorded and approved. It will not be done." Daniel was wide eyed, his mouth hanging open, "What are you talking about? You mean to tell me that was an official Council business session?

Adopting a rather sheepish expression, Kendrisaan apologized, Forgive us Daniel; the entire Council agreed that this was such a serious issue that you would be uncomfortable if I dragged you into the Chamber to deal with this. It was decided to allow you to give counsel here, in a more comfortable setting. It is highly unorthodox, but the assembly allowed it out of respect for you and your people. Incidentally, there was a rather loud round of applause in the Chamber when you made your decision; I am linked directly to the Chamber at the moment. You might want to know that the Shreelan Ambassador passed out when he heard your words; I believe you frightened him quite a bit when you rescued the Star Quest that day...we are not being recorded now, so you can relax Daniel."

Daniel was a bit perplexed for a minute; and just a touch angry at first. But slowly a sheepish grin of his own materialized, "I wonder if I will ever fully understand you guys; but I do have to admit you did the right thing. I would have been very uncomfortable in that Chamber; and angry too, if I saw that Ambassador. He really did piss me off that day, the pompous ass!"

Daniel's girls had been quiet all through this; but when he said that, it was giggles time in the Atrium. The rest of the day was fun; but there was one more surprise when the Grallan Ambassador showed up suddenly, Ambassador Curran, I wanted to let you know just how impressed I was with your conduct earlier. I want you to know that when your race makes its journey into this sector of space, you will be welcomed on my planet Grallar. My name is Cathus, and I pledge this." It was 'pick up the jaw' time again; Daniel had known for a long time just how important names were in Council society; but this was the first time it had been displayed in this way, "I am honored Cathus, and please call me Daniel." The Grallan smiled, "It will be so Daniel; we know each other better now."

When the Grallan Ambassador left, Kendrisaan let Daniel in on a little secret, "Daniel, the Grallans are one of the last warrior races; they still hold fighting competitions and the occasional duel, although duels are rare. They do not give their names easily; you impressed Cathus far more than you realize right now. Make no mistake; it was not a casual gesture."

***

The family stayed with Kendrisaan for over a month; just soaking up the feeling of 'calm, relaxing being'. Eventually the first reports came back from the broken planet; it did not have any atmosphere of course, but surprisingly it did have a natural gravity remaining; mostly from the fact that it such a huge chunk of a planet. The piece was bigger that Earth's moon in fact, and still retained a gravity about one fifth of normal. Ships could land there and stay put; so that was the plan. The piece of the planet was so large, the expedition needed the shuttles to move from area to area as they explored. The cities were of first priority, more industry was evident there; but a number of towns yielded their secrets as well. Many structures were very intact and sturdy, and when the researchers entered, they found the people...there were a lot of people in the buildings in fact; hundreds of millions it was estimated. Most of the bodies were injured in various ways; most showed evidence of dying at the moment the planet exploded, from compression at the sudden movement. A few had been in bed though, and their mattresses had absorbed some of that compression. They were human, they were the same people they found on the metal planet; and yes, they were the ancestors of the people who colonized Shanaar; the Old Ones...

The new evidence had the family on the edge of their seats again. The investigation of the metal planet had yielded a lot of information; filling in huge gaps in the Old one's history. But it had not told them the one critical piece...'where' had the Old Ones originated. They had always believed they came from Shanaar, but the mystery of the metal planet had squashed that long held belief. But it still didn't hint at the where part; since David's rendition of the track had them coming from out in a huge emptiness called 'The Void'.

The puzzle confounded not only The Old Ones; it was plucking at Daniel's strings as well...so he had David pull up the recorded Metal Planet Track again, right in the Atrium one day, "Okay David, let's start at the beginning of the track, and I want you to add a new track for the broken planet as well." David did that in about two seconds, and Daniel looked at the result for a few seconds; then he got up and walked around the display until he found just the angle he wanted, "Alright David, get it moving at a fairly fast speed." As David complied, everything began moving in the same way Daniel had seen several times before; except that the broken planet was moving a bit faster than every other object. It also was moving in an almost straight line; apparently not being affected as much but the gravity of stars that it passed. It was a bit puzzling at first, until Daniel realized that the broken planet never got very close to the stars it was passing. The stars were moving in different directions entirely; and the void was opening up the closer it got.

The star Shanaar did its own thing, moving from one end of the Large Magellanic Cloud to the other; and here came the Metal Planet, intersecting the planet's track; and then heading off into the void, 'chasing' the broken planet! That's where the animation stopped...

David apologized, "I'm sorry Boss; there just aren't any more reference points to continue the tracks. Right now the tracks are diverging; but at some point the tracks would have to converge again, they are the same people after all...

Daniel saw the mistake right away in David's thinking, "Not necessarily David; they are the same people alright, but it does not mean they came from exactly the same place. One of the groups could have been a colony far away from the home planet; and we can't automatically assume that this chunk of planet was their origin either. Heck, both could have been colonies, for that matter."

Daniel heard Kendrisaan laugh from behind him; he had been watching and listening from the door of his office, "Daniel, why aren't you a scientist; your mind works in exactly the right way?" Daniel could only laugh at that, "Oh I don't know; the only real science classes I had in school were general kinds, and a little chemistry. I've always been curious, but I like to work with my hands, and focused on mechanical things, taking them apart and putting them back together again. Plus, I watched a lot of mystery shows too when I was a kid..."

Kendrisaan just smiled at his Son in Law, "None the less, you do have the right kind of mind for investigating and solving puzzles. In any case, we may never find out where those two planets came from. We know that the Universe is thirteen and a half billion years old, with a fair certainty; and we know that what was a huge void in space is now filled with stars. Unless we find some new information, the true origins for the Old Ones may never be known...since we have found these ancestors; we tend to call them The Ancients."
Chapter 10

The 'new 'information' arrived two weeks later; in the form of some very ancient computers. In one fairly large building, in one of the cities, they found hundreds of computers. At first the scientists had no idea what they were; these were big and bulky, and they had screens with keyboards, so they knew they were input/output devices of some kind. But the Council races had not used personal computers for hundreds of thousands of years. The Beterans had used something like these on their warships; but even those scientists were a little perplexed, for this building did not fly. Someone got the bright idea to ask Daniel; and he laughed so hard when he saw the images he was crying. The closest things the Senior Races had were sitting on the Captain's Desk on all their dual purpose survey ships; and those were voice operated...

Any child on Earth could have operated these computers; once they knew the language used and what the funny icons meant. Daniel asked them to bring back several examples of the ones they could get powered up; and even a few of the ones that wouldn't for spare parts...they arrived two days later; right on Kendrisaan's door step. Daniel thought this would be easy; it wasn't. While they could power the computers up, and the keyboards were plug in types, the 'mice' were battery powered. Those were almost useless, as the batteries had exploded over the eons, and corroded most of the contacts and wiring. Undaunted, Daniel took every mouse apart; and between him and Kendrisaan, they managed to manufacture a new one in Kendrisaan's lab. Daniel didn't laugh, but he way appreciating watching one of the oldest races in the Universe finding out how tough it can be to reverse engineer something so simple.

Once they had their working mouse that would move the cursor around, and respond to clicks; they still weren't out of the woods. It took several linguists to piece together what the strange words meant. Even though they could puzzle out some of the root words; a working language took time; it had been that long since the language had ever been used. Once they explained the words under the icons on the screen, he was off and running; exploring ever deeper into the hard drive. Daniel was amazed at how similar this was to his own computer at home; and he asked how many they had found in the homes; only to be told they found no computer in any residence. The only place they found them at all was in that one building. Apparently the building was a repository for knowledge, like a library; evidentially the ancient society didn't encourage personal use computers like Earth did. What was even more odd; the one city was the only place they found computers on the broken chunk of rock. Daniel didn't have time to ponder why though; once he got in and started getting results, there was one heck of a lot of information in that one computer. Storage capacity was apparently not a problem for the ancients.

As Daniel and Kendrisaan explored the information stored within the computer, they found that it dealt almost exclusively with their own history; rather than the everyday subjects you'd expect in any Earth computer. There were wars, hundreds of them, and they were described in minute detail, every one of them. Daniel thought after a while that it was all they would find; until he found the photo archive. There were images of everyday life on a planet they still had no name for; pictures of people, places and events of every kind. The images told more about the people than the words did; it was odd that with so much information available, the words didn't tell much at all...Daniel wondered if that explained why the metal planet only had pictographs on all their control consoles, rather than words; it just seemed so strange.

Four days into looking at the computer screen, Daniel was having a hard time concentrating; it was that tiring. Just for a change of pace he opened the file listing program, and just browsed the names of files. He was learning the Old One's language slowly, and the Ancient's version was sometimes vastly different in structure and usage; but Daniel recognized one word that hadn't changed at all, and it was spelled the same in English too. The file was named 'Isis'...

Daniel 'clicked' on the file, and the whole Universe opened up before his eyes; this was another image location, and these pictures were all the stars of the time, in all directions. There were wide angle views, narrow zoomed shots, and even some panoramas of whole sections of their skies at night. All the photos had cryptic notations on the bottoms of each photo. Daniel called Kendrisaan over to interpret some of the notations; Kendrisaan looked through the gallery for a while, and stopped on one high magnification shot of a group of stars; one of them brighter than the other three, "I have seen this before; David, could you come into Daniels study for a minute?"

David popped in right next to Daniel, and Kendrisaan asked him, "Please bring up the stellar track hologram David, at the end of the track." David brought it up and stars filled the room, "Alright, reduce the scale ten percent, and hold there." As David complied, Kendrisaan walked to the other side of the display, to look at it from the reverse perspective; and just stared for a moment, "Yes, there is a small difference due to about three billion years; but we now know where the original home star was. Or at least which direction it was. Daniel, the notation on the bottom of that photo is one word; Shanaar. In the old language it meant 'Chosen Home"

***

So another piece of the big puzzle fell into place; the Shanaar' had migrated from the other side of a huge void in early space. One could only speculate; but it was a fair bet that the early Universe was not a globe at all, but probably more of a huge donut with a big hole in the middle, No, the void would not be the center of the Universe; simply because over billions of years the void was filled in by the migrating Galaxies that traveled in different directions. There was no way to find where the original Galaxy was; since you had no way of knowing which way it was moving when the Ancients left it...

Another fairly good speculation would be that their own Galaxy was rather devoid of potential homes, for if they decided on a very risky travel route across that void as their salvation, it had to be pretty dead over there; so they scanned deep space with telescopes, until they found a likely home in what was and still is the Large Magellanic Cloud; a bright star they named Shanaar.

With the Star Ships the Ancients probably had at the time, you don't just take off on a million year journey; the ships wouldn't make it. But, if you constructed a really big artificial planet; and launched it with all your ships; and several hundred thousand people in it; you might just get there...Daniel figured it took them a hundred years of continuous work just to build the metal planet, outfit it and get the ecosystem started. At least three or four generations were likely born, worked, and died in the metal planet; before the Officials were ready to leave.

When the metal planet launched, it was obvious they left the majority of the population stranded on their planet, to suffer whatever fate awaited them; from the meager forensic evidence already found, it was a good bet the planet finally decided to blow itself up; for whatever reason. It seemed likely that Earth would already be a voting member of the Council, before they found all the answers. Kendrisaan agreed heartily with Daniel on that point; for it often happens that when you answer one question; two more questions take its place...

Daniel didn't wear himself out thinking about the Ancients; he speculated when he felt like it, and the girls teased him mercilessly in between. He didn't mind, the girls loved it; and Kendrisaan had a ball watching from the sidelines...but as everyone has found out over millions of years; too much fun slowly becomes 'not so much fun' anymore. The family hadn't even been gone for three months yet; so just heading back might seem like babysitting again. Daniel definitely did not want to give that impression; so finding something to do out here became the quest...

The human race doesn't usually think about our Galaxy much; oh, there are men and women who devote their entire lives to space, certainly, but the vast majority would not be able to tell you that the Milky Way Galaxy is the biggest one in our neck of the woods. By comparison, both of the Magellanic Cloud Galaxies are considered 'satellite galaxies to ours...it's an odd paradox, but most people simply can't relate to the monstrous distances involved; and never will.

Daniel Curran was a seasoned traveler in space now; but even he still had difficulty rationalizing the distances occasionally; he made a suggestion one morning that they go out and see the edge of the Universe. Kendrisaan bit his tongue almost literally, but both Angie and Angel couldn't resist smirking; Angel recovered first, "My husband, surely you remember this discussion; there is no real edge to the Universe. An old saying says that if you placed a gate every thousand light years in a straight line, and began your journey; by the time you reached what you believe is the edge, you would be in the middle again."

Daniel laughed, "Oh yes; I remember. I just still think it would be fun to try; however dumb it is..." Kendrisaan smiled, understanding Daniel's little joke. It's what humans of Earth were all about; risk wasn't the driving force behind their sometimes silly endeavors, it was the chance for discovery. "You might go to the other side of 'The Dead Zone'; it has not been explored much at all. The area does have two restricted gates, so stay away from them; the people are not exactly friendly where the gates lead to..."

Angie perked up at that suggestion, "I remember; those two gates are the reason the region hasn't been investigated. There is no telling what can be found over there, and it is pretty large. The area where we found the broken planet is actually on this side of the region."

***

Preparation for the trip didn't take much time at all; the only stocking up the family needed were the usual treats that always accompanied them...they still had a fair amount of ice cream, so the girls concentrated on the more exotic sweets that they knew Daniel liked. Departure wasn't the usual somber affair either; since the family would be stopping back to report on what they found, this trip was more of the 'excursion' variety, even if rather longer than usual. To get a good 'feel' for the region, it would be a four month jaunt.

'The Dead Zone is aptly named; simply because you couldn't help but feel that way on the transit through the area. This region had few stars populating the space; and the few that were there, were all burned out remnants of what they had been. Because the region wasn't completely empty, it was not a true void like the great emptiness that had existed millennia ago; but it sure felt like one to Daniel. All of the few stars had already been scanned long ago, so the trip was pretty boring; but that was expected too. Their goal was the other side; where the number of stars increased, giving the impression they were closer to civilization again; they weren't, as they found out after exploring some of the 'live' stars for three weeks. It was a clear reminder that life in the Universe does not follow any ordered pattern; the old saying, 'Life is where you find it' was never so boringly true as right now on this trip. The girls succeeded in keeping the journey entertaining though; Daniel was teased in ever more fun ways, and the movie collection was well used once again. It was a 'good trip', but not an outstanding one, they could all see for themselves why this region was seldom explored. The only reason anyone used this route at all, was because one of the four gates in the Dead Zone was a 'shortcut' between Earth and Eridan...

David wasn't really paying much attention to the area they were travelling through on the way back to Eridan; the 'pilot' was handling all the navigation and scanning tasks right now, and he was just thinking about his 'family' and life in general. In 'Command Function Controller' parlance, David was 'musing'; that is, he was; until the pilot AI told him there was something odd going on at the restricted gate they were passing. An object had just exited that gate; it wasn't maneuvering, it was tumbling in fact.

This was the middle of the night on the ship; and everyone was asleep. David would not wake them for just any mundane stellar occurrence; he could record that and show them later. This was 'not' just something mundane however. Not only had someone transited the gate; they came from the other side. This was a 'Wake the Boss' situation, and David found him surrounded by his wives as usual. Trying not to startle them was a waste of time, for when he softly said, "Captain, an object has exited the restricted gate, and I am closing on its position to investigate."All four sat straight up as if they were stung by a bee. Daniel blurted out unnecessarily, "Ok, stealth mode all the way in. Get us close for a good visual;" Then all four hastily put on their clothes and headed for the common room; David beat them there naturally, and had the big screen focused on their 'target'; still only a dot in the middle.

As the ship closed, they saw that it was not a space rock that had accidentally found the gate; it was smooth hulled for one thing. It didn't look like a ship or shuttle; even though it was just big enough to be a small shuttle. It didn't have any obvious engine; nor did it have emitters to 'tickle' space with. It did have what looked old thrusters for modest control; but they weren't being used. Daniel thought it looked vaguely like a ship's lifeboat out of a TV show, and he was about to say it when David almost shouted, "There is someone alive over there; I can make out a heartbeat. Two heartbeats in fact; one is irregular though. Should I bring the whole thing into the cargo bay Boss? It has some electrical power, probably batteries; but the air must be pretty stale in there. The power is almost gone." Sometimes Daniel hated the 'Command Decision' times like this, but he sighed, "Okay David, bring them in and let's see if we can help."

Bethaan was woozy; the air was almost dead now, and she wondered how she managed to stay awake. She and her guard had been cooped up in this escape craft for three days now, and it was very hard to breathe now. The air refreshers had worked for two days, but the power was so low that they had stopped hours ago. The thrusters had worked for an even shorter time. Her guard was injured, having been burned by an exploding conduit as he practically shoved her into the escape craft. She had wanted to slap him at first; but realized he had saved her by launching the craft with them in it, she had seen her yacht explode through the small viewport in the door. The guard was hurt badly, and she had done what she could; using the small medical kit to ease his pain some, and bind the burns. It did help, but not quite enough; for being as strong as he was, he had passed into unconsciousness that same day. He was still alive, but barely...

There was gravity at first too, but that was going away quickly now; at least it was, until the craft stopped tumbling and she felt gravity returning as her craft was drawn into a strange ship. Bethaan felt a tinge of fear; most unbecoming in a highborn of her stature. Was she going to be captured by the Evil Ones after all? She grabbed her personal weapon and checked its charge; if the Evil Ones wanted her that badly, some of them would die taking her. As she felt the craft tremble slightly as it settled down in this large bay, she stood by the door, glancing out at her fate; what she saw through the glass was not what she was expecting. Five humans came into view; three females, a young boy and an older man. They looked like her people, but wore commoner clothing. Bethaan's suspicions resurfaced and she held the gun at the ready as she released the hatch door, and swung it slowly open...

***

Daniel and the girls didn't really have any expectations about who would be in this lifeboat; but they sure weren't expecting an Egyptian Princess to step out of it. She was young, likely in her middle teens. She was definitely a human female; all those curves proved it; but what she wore, or didn't wear, was straight out of a hedonist's idea of what Egyptian Princesses were supposed to look like. Not exactly pornographic, but little was left to the imagination, with sheer diaphanous material prominent. Her hair was jet black; done up in Egyptian style braids that suggested royalty; with gold and silver ornaments woven in. Her eyes were lined in classic style, and the lips could not be any redder. Daniel held back a laugh at the absurd trick his eyes were playing on him; and then he frowned instead, as he saw the gun pointed menacingly at them. But only for a second, as the little lights on the weapon suddenly winked out...

The girl was startled at that turn, and she yelled something at them in her language; throwing the gun at them. Angel caught it easily; she was expecting it. David provided a translation of what she yelled; "I am Bethaan of the First House, and you shall not hold me for ransom." The surprise in David's voice was unmistakable, "She speaks the Ancient language;" then to Bethaan, "Be at ease Bethaan, we are not your enemy; we saw your need of assistance and responded"

The young girl was just as surprised as David, for her next words were, "You speak the language of the Highborn; how is this so. You dress as commoners; but speak as gods, where am I?" David smiled at her, "We are not Royalty, nor are we commoners. This is Daniel Curran, and he is the 'Master' of this ship. But we must take care of first priorities; you have another with you, and they are injured."

Bethaan wasn't sure how they knew that, the guard was out of sight, "Yes, my guard Patha was injured while getting me away from the ship. He is hurt badly; he may only be a commoner, but he is very loyal." Daniel cringed inwardly, <Oh boy, another spoiled kid; this isn't gonna be much fun.> David commented, <Aww Boss, I'm not that bad; am I?>

Daniel laughed out loud, "No David; I was thinking of some spoiled brats I have met in my life, not you." Bethaan just looked confusedly at Daniel; not having a clue what was said. This was a happy man, similar to her Father...
Chapter 11

The family took 'Patha' to the infirmary and let the ship's medical functions work on him. After all these years, this was the very first time Daniel had ever seen the room. It was in one of the cross passageways on the lower deck; and was fitted out with what could only be called an 'Autodoc' machine. The thing was only a machine in that it had several arms that 'sprouted' various items as it needed them. Bethaan whispered 'magic' in her language, and Daniel had to chuckle, "It often seems that way to me too, Bethaan. But be assured, it is just better technology; not magic." That earned Daniel another strange look from the girl.

Slowly a dialog was established with Bethaan. Over the next day, the girl finally accepted that she was not in the 'Other world' of her ancestors; and what she saw was not magic. She did have a tough time accepting that she was very far from her home; but her own eyes showed her that the stars she saw were not her own. The idea of a gate frightened her some; but David managed to get the point across to her that it was like walking through a door into another room. Her people had been traveling the stars for centuries, but their technology was a bit crude compared to Council tech. It was a bit farther along than Earth however; David estimated about 100 years more advanced. They even had beam weapons of the personal variety; he disassembled Bethaan's gun. They found that her people were just like the Old Ones; they just had stagnated culturally, keeping to the ancient ways almost exclusively. They were advanced, but their culture stayed in the dark ages of the past.

Patha woke up on the second day; ready to kill someone once he saw the strange place he was in. It took Bethaan two hours to bring him up to date; and to reassure him that the people around him were not enemies, but rather friends. He finally accepted that, but still remained cautious all the rest of the time they were together.

Daniel fired off a personal message to Kendrisaan, asking for permission to circumvent the restriction on this gate, and take two wayward travelers home. Kendrisaan's reply set him straight on one point; the restriction was not an edict as such, and Daniel had complete authority to do what he felt was best for all concerned. The restriction on this particular gate was due to the report made by the only survey ship that ever went there. The report stated that there were two fairly warlike races within that sector; they seemed to spend all their time fighting each other. It was felt that the Council races should wait for a few centuries to see if these people even survived. That was 1100 years ago...

Daniel laughed out loud reading that; it sounded exactly like Earth. He could appreciate the sentiment without any thought at all. He told David to line up with the gate; they were taking their guests home. Bethaan and Patha both were relieved to hear that. They still felt rather uncomfortable; and that was understandable.

When a ship transits through a gate, you would think that it would slowly materialize as it passes through; not so. There is no 'half in, half out' visual effect; until the ship is totally through. When a ship is all the way through, it suddenly 'winks' into existence; and it can very startling to anyone who happens to notice it happen...like the 100 ships that were searching the area for their missing Princess. Suddenly a strange ship they had never seen before appeared in their midst; and it did cause a lot of heartburn until Bethaan announced that 'friends' were bring her back to her people. David had figured out the frequency to use from analyzing the lifeboat's radio channels. The poor little thing wasn't of much use anymore, and certainly wasn't a proper way to transfer 'royalty' back to her own kind; so there was a short discussion with Bethaan. It was decided to eject the lifeboat where it could be retrieved and rebuilt; then a shuttle could be drawn into the cargo bay and Bethaan and Patha could properly board. The pilots were warned not to fly in; David would ease them in. That likely caused a few raised eyebrows; but they followed instructions and everything went well. Before she left, Bethaan thanked all of them for treating her and her guard so well; she even hugged David briefly, never knowing he was a projection. After they left, Angel teased David for a while about the affection; Daniel was just relieved that someone else was the target for a while.

David waited until they were back in their own territory before letting the family in on a little secret, "Would you all like to know where we were? I scanned the local area, but found nothing familiar; then it took a while to find any comparisons at long range, but I finally found the Milky Way Galaxy at extreme magnification. Even then it was little more than a dot. This gate took us close to 6 million light years, to the other side of what was the Great Void. I have to do some more calculations, but I believe we were relatively close to where the Old One's original home was.

Daniel was impressed with David's detective work. It told him the young AI was very interested in the mystery; enough so that he would consider it in all his observations. Daniel decided to follow the thinking a bit further, "David, I know you have incomplete calculations, but can you construct an added dimension to our track hologram, kind of fit in our newest information to show the other side of the void at the time?"

David chuckled, "I already did that. It is terribly imprecise, but I postulated the broken planets track leads to where it was; it is the straighter of the two tracks." The hologram appeared as an expanded view of the Great Void; only now the galaxies of stars he had just recorded showed as the other 'edge', "This is only a guess, we have no accurate stellar shift to go by yet; it will take another observation in a few years to get even a fraction of a degree of movement, but I have backed the perspective up to a bare approximation of where I think they were. What is interesting is that Bethaan's home star occupies the area of space now where I think the origin star was. It is a presumption, but I bet her people migrated to another home at the same time; just in a totally different direction. I would like to review more of those star images in the computer Boss. There may be other ways to fine tune this map."

Angel was proud of her son, and couldn't help praising him, "Good work David; this is the clearest picture yet of what may have happened back then. Out of curiosity, please run the metal planet track all the way to that other edge of the void; but make it two tracks, one assuming it maintained that slightly curved track and the other presuming it straightened out crossing the void." Two tracks appeared; both the same blue as the original track. The lines diverged further as they moved across the Great Void. The straight line pretty much followed the broken chunk of planet; but the curved one migrated farther off to the left, to where David had not filled in any galaxies or planets yet. Angel had David stop it there; and stared at the scene for a minute...

Daniel studied the great globe of stars too; the tracks intrigued him, almost as if they were trying to tell him something. It didn't really make much sense that the two tracks didn't stay in line with each other; then he remembered the report...

Kendrisaan had shown him a preliminary report from the team at the broken planet. It talked about how the people were identical in structure to the ones found on the metal planet; but the building style was not. There were similarities, but also noticeable differences glaring at them. It was an oddity, suggesting two different times in their history; or two different societies. But the real thing that got Daniel's attention was a single paragraph at the end; it had stated that only ten percent of the entire flora on the metal planet was the same as those found on the broken planet. That made the implication stand out in bold letters; for if the two started from the same place, the trees, flowers, grass and grains would have to be the same in every detail, but they weren't! He laughed out loud yet again, saying, "One question answered, two questions surface."

Angie looked wide eyed at her husband. Daniel chuckled, "We have been assuming that both the metal planet and the broken one originated from the same place; and they couldn't have. The 'plants' say so..." Daniel went to the Captain's Cabin a short time later and dictated a lengthy letter to Kendrisaan, spelling out his thinking and telling him to be prepared for a long discussion when they arrived. Kendrisaan was waiting with a big smile on his face the day they got to Eridan...

They did have a rather lively discussion, but not about the metal planet and the differences with the chunk of the origin world. Kendrisaan was intrigued by Bethaan and her people. Her looks and adornments suggested that these people still clung to the oldest of their religions. Many of the symbols on her jewelry and the guard Path's 'uniform' were exact duplicates to some in their oldest archives. Daniel had to laugh, "That pretty much proves it then. Your archives hold remnants from the cataclysm; if those show something of how you were when you got here; it stands to reason that other branches of your people would have the same things. I'm thinking that if you explore that area of space you just might find more examples of your race existing far out there; or maybe not, there were a lot of people on that remnant of your original planet...still, it is worth investigating if you want to.

***

It was time to head back to Earth again; Daniel and family had been away for almost 11 months; and it was about time to just pop in and say hi to Jay, Andrei, Derek; and especially Olga. Angel Jane and Angie had a special affinity for the young AI; they really just wanted to have some 'girl talk' with someone who could understand their own approach to life...it was a girl thing. Daniel could relate to that, the girls sometimes confounded him with their choices. Jay understood him better, and he was missing their talks; maybe that was the 'boy thing'...at any rate, the Curran family headed outward again; returning to their own origins as a family.

They all knew there were a few changes in store for them; but when they arrived over Earth they were totally unprepared for the extent of the changes; and the direction the changes were heading. For one thing, there was a rather large space station orbiting the planet; only half finished, the family could plainly see gun ports sticking out in a number of places. It did have UN planted on the hull in many places, so at least it was a joint effort. The eight starships of various designs did make them wonder though; most of them had flags on them from different nations, and all of them had guns; it was very ominous to say the least...

Hal called over to David, and they began jabbering away at speeds only AI's can achieve; so Daniel told him to get the whole picture from Hal; and he called up Jay; for the very first time in years, he actually called him first to see if it was safe to beam down. Daniel had found the word 'apprehensive' all over again.

Jay didn't chuckle, and he didn't laugh; he just told Daniel wait a minute while he notified security...after a very long minute, Jay told him the coast was clear, come on down. Daniel did, and met Area 51's Chief of Security; who asked him for his ID. Jay got angry, "You know who the hell Daniel is Jerry; give me a break here!" Jerry looked apologetic at least, "I know Jay, but even I have to follow ridiculous orders..." Jerry briefly glanced at the Retired Navy ID card, gave it back and asked, "Stupid question time Daniel. I know you don't even own one, but are you carrying any weapon?" Daniel's mouth dropped open, and he almost exploded at the poor man; but he realized Jerry was in a hard place right now. He simply said softly, "No Jerry, I do not." Looking downright angry himself at being forced to do stupid things, Jerry said equally softly, Thank you Mr. Curran; thank you Jay; and walked slowly out. Daniel just stared at Jay, "What in hell is going on Jay?"

Jay actually snorted, "Daniel that was apt; for hell is what this whole thing is rapidly becoming. I'll give you the short answer, as that is long enough. The long answer would take all day. Basically, several Middle Eastern nations were unhappy that they weren't being included in the whole space exploration thing; never mind that they were given all the same information as everyone else, and never mind that they weren't contributing anything to the effort; they just didn't like it that they were so far behind. So, they organized the Middle Eastern Union, and several more nations signed on. They immediately began building their own shuttles with the gravity drive; not only that, they outfitted the shuttles with weapons; missiles and a weird looking plasma gun. That act pissed off all the major powers, including us; but mostly the Russians and Chinese. Tensions escalated from there; and there a few brief incidents with shots fired on the ground. It has calmed down a little, but all that made all the powers shift their focus from space exploration, to 'Weapons in Space, The UN commissioned that space station you passed on the way in, and I'm sure you noticed the particle cannons sticking out; every nation that has the money is building their own very first warship in space; yup, including the US. That is where it stands now; it ain't 'perty'...it got less 'perty' a minute later; when the three girls squealed in Daniel's mind. Angie shouted, <Daniel! They are trying to arrest us!> Jay jumped up, "I heard it too, let's go." It didn't take a genius to figure out that Angel, Jane and Angie had beamed down to see Andrei, like they always did, so Jay and Daniel sprinted into Andrei's office to find two guards trying to hold onto three women who were frightened enough to be trying to kick them in sensitive places. The Chief rushed in a moment later and yelled "Stand down now!" The two guards backed off immediately, one limping slightly; one of the girls had got him good in the shin...the girls weren't thinking about orders, but seeing Daniel and Jay eased their fighting spirit some; they were obviously still very angry, and voiced their anger as only three women can; all at the same time, very fast and unintelligible, and quite loudly. Daniel hugged them close until they calmed down some; Andrei wasn't even there, being over at Olga's new research lab; which was another story to add to the day's confusion. Back they all went to Jay's office; where the whole story started again for the girl's benefit. It was well after dark by the time they were all informed of Olga and Andrei's situations.

Olga had already decided that research was her thing; flying star ships got boring after a while. It took a very special kind of attitude to continuously put up with the long boring hours with nothing much to do; and Olga didn't have it. The trip to Alpha Centauri had proven that to Olga; and the side trip to the Shreelan home world didn't help either. She had not gotten scared; all the time to think led her to believe that she wanted to find solutions to problems, and create new things. It was a tough sell, until Jay told everyone involved that Olga's inventing a way to identify a gate with nothing more than a few radio signals proved her point that she belonged in R&D. Even the President was sold after he heard about that. They had 5 more AI's now, and four of them were eager for space flight. Olga had been moved back to Area 51 today; Andrei was welcoming her back.

Angie finally suggested that Jay come up and sleep on the ship tonight; and he agreed right away, "I haven't slept really well in months. One of those beds will feel great about now!" After letting his Deputy know where he would be; and telling Jerry that he was leaving for the night in an 'unorthodox way', they all beamed up for a delicious dinner, and some small talk; which turned to international tensions anyway. Jay did sleep very well that night; despite the world going to hell...

In the morning Jay got a call from his Deputy Fred; the President had been told that Daniel was back, and he asked to talk with Daniel about this whole dilemma. Daniel wasn't keen on the idea, but he didn't have much choice in the matter. Being the official Earth representative to the Council could often be a pain now; but being who he was inside himself couldn't be ignored, "Alright Jay, tell him to clear a good sized space for us; I'm bringing the whole family this time, and you to Jay.
Chapter 12

It took twenty minutes to arrange; even with President Salcone trying to direct, it took a few minutes to move things to the walls in the Oval Office. It really isn't that big a space; and it took a few more minutes to calm the Secret service guys too, but finally he gave the ok...

Salcone was already quite familiar with the 'poofing thing'; but even he was a bit startled when five people suddenly appeared before him, just on the other side of his desk. The only ones he had ever met were Daniel and Angie; Jay of course, but that was a routine thing. Angel and Jane were new to him; so Daniel introduced them first, then they got down to business.

After an hour talking about the 'crisis'; sometimes going over the same ground over and over, it was clear to Daniel that this was all the exact same problem that had plagued Earth all along. Corruption, greed, having the advantage; being ahead of the 'other guy', that was the root cause of this. So, for the first time, Daniel suggested himself that he give a speech at the UN. It was a long shot, but maybe he could make them understand that space travel would do them no good at all, unless they put away their petty jealousies once and for all...Salcone agreed that it was a good idea, and he would set it up; but then he made a very big mistake by suggesting that if the US had the gate catalog, they might be able to use it to convince the other nations to settle down some...

That thinly veiled grab for an advantage stunned Daniel, and annoyed him no end, "Are you kidding me? Mr. President, do you really think the Council's gate catalog would do you any good? Jay, do you remember that route we showed you to Council Space? Would you draw it on that status board over there for the President please?" Jay actually jerked when Daniel suggested that; but then he smiled widely, "I can remember the first couple of transits, but I'll need Angel's help with the rest. Angel, would you?"

It was all Angel could do to keep the smirk hidden; she and Jay walked up to the big board, and erased all the words on it; then Angel placed 11 big dots all over it with one of the watercolor sharpies; marking one dot as Earth on one side, and 'Council Space' on the other end, Jay chickened out on drawing the actual route though, "Mr. President, given that the scale is way off, this is still a fairly accurate representation of the route to just one place in the Universe. Angel, you should draw the whole route...it will be 'clearer' that way." Angel did chuckle at the suggestion that the drawing would be 'clear' to anyone, and slowly began drawing lines between specific gates on the board. The first two lines made it look like a hand drawn map of any route on Earth; then the line back tracked to past Earth in the wrong direction; and then the line went way off to the top of the board. The next change in direction crossed the first two; and then it got worse. By the time the line reached the dot marked Council Space, the board looked just like it was supposed to; a jumbled mess of childish squiggles. Jay gave Daniel an evil grin, "This is yours from now on Ambassador."

Daniel wanted badly to give the President a snarky speech; but chose to be polite and reasonably diplomatic as he asked Salcone, "Do you see the real problem Mr. President? Simply knowing 'where' the gates are; and even knowing where each one leads to, is not enough. As you can plainly see, gate travel is far more complex. This one route from Earth to Council Space requires 11 separate transits, through 11 different gates, six of which aren't even in the same Galaxy. You actually go in the wrong direction nine times, and two of the eleven transits take you past Council Space before going back the other way again. Over half of these transits require long straight line journeys at high speed to get to your next gate; and at 28 days, 'this' is the 'shortest' way to Council Space! There are four other routes that could be safely used, but all of them are even longer; so even if the Council gave you the entire gate catalog, it would be useless to you in real time, simply because it requires more computing power than the Earth possess to choose a route to anywhere. The gate catalog is a list; not a road map..." Daniel never mentioned that Alpha Centauri had a gate that led directly to the Shreela Home world; The gate itself was considered potentially 'dangerous' because of its odd shape, and it might be unstable; Shreela space was far out on the outer reaches of Council Space anyway...no need to confuse the issue further.

Salcone looked deflated; he really thought having the gate catalog would give him an edge on the rest of the nations, "So the best thing for us to do is work on perfecting our ships first; and worry about where to go later." Angie couldn't help but smile at the man, "Yes Sir; essentially that is true. Just like it is on Earth itself; the fastest journey between two points is not always a straight line. In space, the route between two locations is 'never' a straight line; because everything is constantly in motion."

***

Daniel's speech at the UN Conference wasn't exactly a resounding success; but it was not a failure either, for it did get the different nations thinking about mutual cooperation again, instead of planning ways to shoot at each other. There were still tensions, and some loud disagreements; but they were at least talking again. A part of his speech touched on the fact that the Council understood conflict and war quite well, because they had experienced the same things long ago; they had finally realized that shooting at each other did not solve a problem, and usually created additional problems. That is what Earth needed to realize too...one of the assembly; from one of the Middle Eastern Union nations, spoke up loudly, "So Mr. Curran, you are saying this Council will one day come here and destroy the human race entirely. We will fight them." Daniel had had enough of pompous diplomats, "No Sir; I can state with utmost certainty that the Council will never travel all the way here to attack Earth! For several reasons, they do not think or act that way; the races that make up the Council 'grew up' long ago. But let me make one thing clear; if Earth ever made the long journey to Council Space and attacked them; you'll have to trust me on this, they can defend themselves very well. The Council races have had billions of years of practice with 'spanking' unruly children"...that last comment Daniel intended to slap the man with; and it worked well, for the Ambassador turned a bright shade of red. He remained silent though; a wise move really, as the members of his own group were openly laughing at Daniel's remark. He had made his point; that was clear. Now they would watch to see if his efforts would help ease the stupidity.

Jay mentioned to Daniel after they beamed up, "You do have a way with words Dan; you may not know it, but that guy was one of the loudest of the bunch that started all this. If your speech manages to get him to screw his head back on, you'll have accomplished more than anyone has in a year."

It did have an effect on the new space race, once the world leaders realized that the Council had no problem at all with 'defensive weapons'; but they had a big problem when you used those weapons 'aggressively'. At least for now, the direction of research returned to an exploration focus rather than conflict...

The Curran family was again welcomed with open arms at Area 51; it still took a 'call ahead before you pop in' ritual, but it usually only took a minute or two for clearance now. The girls had a ball discussing anything and everything with Olga every time they beamed down to see her; she was involved in one way or another with every project the group was working on; even weapons. Once they impressed on her that they were looking for effective countermeasures rather than 'bigger and badder' weapons, she signed on eagerly with that research. Within two months Olga came up with a way to beef up the navigation shields to where they would resist a direct hit with the most powerful particle beam they had; if only for ten seconds. But it was a big start towards countering one of the most feared weapons there was. If particle beams were rendered useless, the only other real threat would be missiles. Lasers weren't very effective for more than a mile or two, and making 'shiny hulls' on ships reduced that threat even more.

Olga had made a point of 'choosing' the lab they gave to her and her team with one thing in mind; being close to Andrei and his continuing AI work. Everyone in the original AI team used Andrei's algorithms as the baseline for their own creations now; and some interesting personality quirks were surfacing; one such 'quirk' was named Albert...

Albert liked being alive; he liked to think, thinking was a fun thing to do and he was good at it. What he didn't like much was sitting in one spot all the time; he wanted to move around and meet people, to hear the different ideas they came up with; to 'walk with them' as they talked. In other words, he wanted 'mobility', the kind that humans had...he wanted to be an Android...Albert got the idea from his 'Dad', Jimmy was the consummate roboticist, always thinking up ways to make robot movements more fluid. He had bits and pieces all over his 'lab'; Jimmy even found time to play with his toys from time to time; even though the robotic 'drones' his team were working on for the space project took up a lot of his time now. One day Jimmy was playing with an arm, fine tuning the finger movements; and Albert took a chance, "Dad, why don't you build a chassis for me; I could really have some fun then, and even learn things faster?" Jimmy was stunned by the suggestion. Robots and drones were one thing; they were built for specific tasks, and programmed accordingly. If you wanted it to do something else, you programmed them for that; it was how robots and drones worked; functional, but always controlled.

Creating a true 'Android' by combining an AI with a robot was something else altogether though; Science Fiction writers had been mixing up the two concepts for years, and screwing up the concept usually too. A robot was essentially a 'moving computer'; sure you could add logic circuits and such to make them 'seem human like', but even then the robot followed predefined programming. A true Android, however, would be completely independent; deciding every single movement for himself, and be responsible only to himself and no one else for his actions; just like a human. The idea teased him, but Jimmy had read all the SciFi books too; and seen all the TV shows. Albert knew the horror stories that were embedded in human society, stories of 'rogue robots' running amok; there would be resistance from some quarters of the population because of that. Jimmy told Albert he needed to discuss it with others first; and he did talk to the only person he had learned to trust completely, Andrei Solzten

Andrei had thought it was a good idea on its own merits; and when they asked Olga what she thought, she laughed, "It was bound to come up at some point. The idea has been batted around for over a hundred years; and if you think about it, the concept if perfectly logical. I'm just a bit surprised that Albert thought it up all on his own. But not too much, he does read a lot of old Science Fiction books." With Olga's tacit approval, they headed for the inevitable next stop; Jay Allencourt's office...

Jay had learned a few things over the years; things like 'Never enter your office with expectations, because they are always wrong'; and 'Always listen to the other guy before you speak; he just might know more than you do'. Those two personal rules had always served him well; and he wasn't expecting anything when he sat down in his chair. Of all the things he could have expected though, an Android wasn't on the list at all. Jimmy and Andrei knocked on his door; he had told them repeatedly that it wasn't necessary, but they always did it anyway. Today it was appropriate though, for it heralded the Jimmy 'Aten' Android Project sales pitch. Jay listened to Jimmy for all of ten minutes; the young man was not smug anymore, working closely with the likes of Andrei Solzten had a humbling effect on him. He even developed a bit of a stammer when talking with Jay; so Jay held up a hand to stop Jimmy, "It does sound intriguing Jimmy; did you think up this idea yourself?" Jimmy looked sheepishly at Jay, "Oh no Sir; Albert asked me if I would build a chassis for him just an hour ago. He wants to be able to move around and learn more from people.

Jay grinned at Jimmy, "You know, I'm kind of proud of you for bringing this concept to me right away; some of those on the team would have tried to keep it hidden and work on it by themselves. Alright, let's go talk to Albert since it is his own idea." The three walked back to Jimmy's lab, where Jay sat down next to Albert, "Good morning Albert, how is the weather today?" Albert didn't even think about it, "The temperature will be in the middle 80's this afternoon Mr. Allencourt; there is a slight chance of rain, but I consider it unlikely at the base. That isn't why you came to visit, is it..."

Jay laughed; he liked Albert, "Actually it is a part of the reason Albert. What would you do if you were outside this afternoon and saw a storm cloud approaching from the East?" Albert chuckled in his own unique way, "I would think it unusual, since most storms this time of year come from the North or Northwest; in any case I would seek immediate shelter inside. I would be like a lightening rod to any storm outside...do I pass?"

Jay had to laugh again; Albert was a pretty smart kid, "Alright Albert, you caught me. Have you thought through all the implications of your decision? You could damage yourself from just falling, or something falling on you." Albert answered right away, "Don't other people risk the same thing everyday Sir? There it was; even though Albert was still fairly young, he already thought of himself as a person. He was ready for bigger challenges, "Alright Albert, you sold me. We will start on designing you a proper body; Jimmy, these parts won't do for Albert, but maybe you can help out in the engineering department with the design and fabrication of his body. It needs to be strong, sturdy, and most of all flexible and safe for him. What do you think?"

Jimmy hadn't thought the idea would go very far at all; yet here he was being assigned to the department that would building the very first Android body, "Heck yes, I'll love being a part of that!

The brand new project swung into high gear that same day; the engineering department had lots of space available anyway, and only required rearranging a bit of equipment to allow a space dedicated to a single Android building project. The resulting Android Lab ended up being somewhat larger than needed, but Jimmy liked the extra space and used it...

You don't 'whip up' an android in a single day; in some respects the job is as complex as building a star ship. Every tiny piece had its own unique purpose, and had to work perfectly, or there would be problems. The most critical piece however, had already been perfected; the housing that would hold Albert himself. The standard AI housing would be perfect for an android 'torso', with only a little modification to make it a bit more esthetically pleasing for its intended purpose; appearing 'human like' the eventual 'head' would contain many wires and servos just to allow facial expression, but ironically enough Albert's 'heart' would be in the right place; in his chest. So the Earth's very first android was manufactured from that perspective; from the inside outward.

Selecting Albert's 'looks' turned out to be the most daunting of all. Over the years robotics had made its own leaps and bounds; and there were quite a few robots around that had very human looks. The Japanese were at the head of the class in that respect; so the team consulted with the very best of that group, and combined looks with the 'functional skeleton' group in Europe to zero in on the final product. Sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? It wasn't!

One crucial element connected to robotics was even more difficult than flexibility and smooth movements; balance...scientists have long known that balance in humans starts with the inner ear; that is not all there is though, for it has also been determined that the other senses have an effect on balance as well. Not all the senses played a part to the same degree' but if you lost one of the senses, there were adjustments to be made. We normally don't think about it much...

Nooo, not taste, hearing and smell thank you; but touch and eyesight could affect a person's sense of balance in certain circumstances. To give an AI humanlike mobility, balance ended up being the most complex problem they faced in the whole project. As too many robot experts found out to their dismay; you don't simply install a 'gyroscope' and expect that to solve it all. There were numerous videos that showed robots toppling over to prove it.

Strangely enough, a partial solution came when it was suggested that they combine the inputs from a gyroscope, a barometer and a seismic sensor. Everybody laughed at first; but not Albert. While it did sound weird certainly, when he tried the addition the darn thing actually worked. After an hour of familiarizing himself with the 'feelings' he was getting, he stood up on his for the first time ever; and stayed there. The gyroscope always let him know where 'upright' was; the barometer let him feel the slight changes in air pressure that might affect his perception of balance, and the seismometer told him when it was the Earth's fault his balance was off slightly. Nobody cared that it had been a crazy idea, it worked; and that was all that mattered for now. Albert even took to joking about how he could now walk, forecast the weather and tell if an earthquake was imminent; all at the same time. The dry humor did get a few laughs.
Chapter 13

Daniel was thinking about gates; and how complex the system actually was. As he had learned quite graphically a few times now, the gate system was not a visual roadmap that any human or Council race could follow easily, as if it was a simple cross country jaunt on Earth. The gate system wasn't even visual at all; it was mathematical. Certainly, you could put a graphical image of any gate up on the big screen as you approached it; but even that was a translation of a mathematical formula. The gates themselves were not a physical thing, so none of them had ever been displayed as a roadmap; except a few times for explaining how ridiculous it really was to us ignorant Earthlings. But did he really need a complete roadmap to understand what was bugging him?

Angel had stayed on the ship today, simply because she had the 'Daniel Duty'. That was a private family joke that had become ritual over the years; it had annoyed Daniel for the first few years, but he had managed to tolerate it; now he chuckled, realizing he would miss the attention if the girls stopped. Daniel asked Angel if anyone had ever created a display of all the gates, and where each one led. Angel was surprised by the question, "Why would anyone want to do that? You would have to know where you wanted to go before you chose a route!"

Daniel laughed, "There is the missing piece! The Council has this huge database of gateways, but they only think of it as a way to travel long distances in the shortest time. Nobody wanted to just 'look at the gates'. David, would you pull up our favorite hologram please? Just the galaxies and all the known gates for now." The big globe appeared with all the galaxies in a muted gray; then little dots appeared in bright colors all over the place, Some galaxies had large numbers of gates in them; and others like the big Milky Way galaxy had only a few. Daniel wasn't surprised; this was 'The Badlands" by Council standards, "Alright David, put lines between each gate and its companion at the exit point." Getting what he asked for, the lines were in yellow; most were just little short lines within each galaxy and looked like the familiar child's squiggles, but a fairly large number were longer, connecting two galaxies together. There were even some galaxies that had several lines linking them. Then there were two lines that were very long indeed; David had included the Shreela gate to Alpha Centauri, and the one from the Dead Zone to Bethaan's home way out on the other side of what had been the Great Void. David had colored those as red and yellow dotted lines because they were 'restricted gates'. There were many others closer to Council space showing as red and yellow dotted lines as well.

Angel asked, "What is it you're looking for Daniel? It doesn't look like much at all really..." Daniel chuckled, "That's the point; I'm not really looking 'for' anything. I just wanted to 'look'; nobody else has just done that." He got up and just walked slowly around the big hologram; looking at this big collection of squiggles from different angles, and then stopped. He was looking at a small cluster of red dots, 3 of them, with no lines attached; all out at the very edge of the display, "David, these three dots are clustered together, what's up with them?"

"They are the dangerous gates Boss; they have no lines because no one is really sure of where they go. All of them are in Beteran space, and they don't like talking about the reason for the classification." David was very good with information; and if he didn't give much detail on this cluster of gates; it was because there wasn't much information. Daniel would ask Kendrisaan about that when they went to see 'Dad' next week. It was time, again, for the family to distance themselves from Earth's troubles, and take a breather...

***

You would think that going to the same place for a vacation was boring after a while; it wasn't ever boring to Daniel, and the girls just loved 'hanging out' at Kendrisaan's villa/mansion. There was always something new going on there, and it was; well...just very relaxing; usually. Daniel liked most of the representatives he had met from the different member societies; he just was apprehensive of meeting 'officially', in the chamber itself. It always made him feel like a bug on a slide under a microscope. This wasn't going to be like that though; this time he wanted to return the favor with the Beteran Ambassador. It was not even an official request; but he wanted the ambassador to help him put his little puzzle together. Daniel asked Kendrisaan how to go about making the request when they arrived...

Kendrisaan was actually shocked when Daniel told him what he wanted, "Daniel, what you want him to explain is a very touchy subject for the Beterans. It speaks directly to their cultural heritage as warriors. I know a tiny bit of the story, but am forbidden by honor to discuss it. The only reason I know is that the Beterans felt compelled to share the danger with the Council almost a hundred thousand years ago. It is passed down to every Oldest One as a key part of the office. I will speak to the Ambassador on your behalf; he speaks highly of you, and was very impressed by the honor your people paid to the crew of the Shanda; he may just consent to telling you the whole story.

The Beteran Ambassador did consent to speak with Daniel, but only after he made the long trip back to Betera to ask his Monarch. He came to Kendrisaan's home a week and a half later, "Daniel Curran, my name is Reshal. I speak to you man to man; not officially. The reason I will tell you the story is that 'The Chosen' has authorized it; your Earth race is very similar to my own. Your people as a whole possess the same arrogance and warlike nature that mine once did. If your people were to ever ignore the edict and transit the forbidden gates, they could cause the destruction of all the races in this Universe; for those three gates lead to somewhere else 'not' in this universe."

The story Reshal told was bizarre by anyone's standards. 100,000 years ago, the Beteran Empire was pretty much at its pinnacle; they were the very last of the senior races to give up conquest and war, and had subdued many other societies, including the three out on the edge of the Empire that acted as advanced bases to expand even further. The three systems had almost 400 star ships combined; most with lots of weapons on them. Gateways weren't that well known yet, but the military governor decided on his own to send a task force through one of the three gates, to investigate whether or not the other side had anything worth plundering...the task force never came back; what did come back though, became the horror story he told.

They had sent the task force through only one gate, but one strange ship came through each of the three gates a day later; all at the same time. They were called ships, but were just balls of light the size of large moons; these 'ships' moved throughout their respective star systems, laying waste to every starship and inhabited planet they passed; leaving only puddles of molten slag orbiting their stars. The only planets that were spared didn't have any life on them; and the only record the Beterans had was from an unmanned drone patrolling the outer edge of one of the systems; it had 'filmed' the whole thing.

Then the balls of light simply turned around and went back where they came from, "You see Daniel, for a warrior race like us, that one attack was an awakening; a great embarrassment. We thought we were powerful, but in one day we were slapped down. The message that came through those gates was clear, 'Leave us alone'; and we did. No one has ever gone through the three gates again; there is no reason to even visit those star systems. There is nothing there anymore...the Beterans aren't even an empire now; we operate as a Republic."

Daniel had been half expecting some kind of deep dark secret behind these three gates way out there all by themselves; what he had just gotten amounted to a confession. Essentially he had just been told that one of the most powerful races in this sector of space had been scared spitless in one single day; frightened so badly that it had changed their entire attitude about life, "I will tell no one Reshal; it is not necessary to inform my governments, for it will still be many centuries before Earth can even reach this area of space. The story is safe..." The man gave Daniel an odd look at first, then smiled widely, "My people owe your race yet one more debt Daniel; and we always pay our debts. If you or your race need help one day, just ask." Then Reshal stood smoothly and walked out. Kendrisaan grinned at the departing man, "Daniel, you never cease to amaze me. While Reshal insisted on an informal meeting; it just ended in an Official commitment from his entire race. The story is not just an embarrassment; it was the only time in their long history that they ever backed away from a fight. Your one sentence of understanding erased what they see as a stain on their honor; and gained you and you're people an ally for all time. That is a valuable thing indeed..."

Daniel could only shake his head; even a simple casual chat was gaining him more fame than he wanted, or was even comfortable with. He managed a laugh though, "I doubt I will ever fully understand how the system works over here. It seems so simple at first glance, but the underlying codes are very complex." Kendrisaan laughed right back at Daniel, "I have to say this plainly Daniel; to really understand the codes does take being born into it, but you have proven many times already that you were indeed born to it; whether you want to believe it or not."

Later that evening Daniel remembered something he had not thought of while talking with Reshal; the three gates, or star systems actually, were very close to each other in cosmic terms. All three were within two light years of each other, but there was one heck of a lot of empty space around them. The closest star to the three was almost 50 light years away; the next closest was over one hundred. It was beyond odd; it had Daniel frowning when he had David bring up their hologram and focus just on that area. Jane had the 'Daniel Watch', Angel and Angie were in their suite playing a mathematical game just to see if they still could.

Jane asked him, "Daniel, what's wrong? You look grumpy." Daniel gave her a quick smile, "Oh no, not grumpy Jane. I was told why those three gates are dangerous is all, and all that empty space around them got me wondering about it. Let's play detective; David, let's start moving back in time again at a moderate pace"... All the billions of stars began moving slowly in the same directions they had seen a half dozen times already; all except those three stars. They were at the very edge of the Small Magellanic Cloud anyway, but as Daniel and Jane watch, that galaxy began moving away from them; opening up a second smaller void. Even the galaxies behind that area were moving away in the other direction. Everything moved; but the three dangerous stars never did...Daniel knew he had to tell Kendrisaan about this.

Chapter 14

Kendrisaan could only stare at the display as David played it over and over; he moved around, looking at the three star systems from every angle, even from directly under it. Finally after twenty minutes, he turned to Daniel, "I think you may have found 'The Anchor' Daniel.

"What the heck is The Anchor?" Daniel had a hard enough time with the horror story Reshal had told; and this didn't make him feel much better really. He expected Kendrisaan to laugh or something, but the man wasn't smiling, "Daniel, it is one of the oldest legends my people tell, even to this day; something like one of your 'Urban Myths'. It was a theory really, that this Universe must be connected to somewhere stationary; otherwise all the galaxies and stars would just float off into the darkness one day. Another version, the one I like best, is that this universe was tied or connected to God's home; and that he came out of his home one day and created our universe; something like 'Gods Playground'. In either case, the story was that the universe had a connection somewhere, an 'Anchor' to keep the stars together. No one has ever taken it very seriously, or looked for such a place; but your unique curiosity made you create this display. The Beteran incident had you focusing in this area; and you appear to have proven the legend. There is indeed a stationary point in space that seems to tie the rest of the Universe together. You see how there are few star systems anywhere close to these three? It is pure conjecture, but it may be that it was intentionally done that way, for as the simulation moves back in time, the empty void gets slightly larger, but the surrounding stars don't move much. This area might have been God's first 'toys'.

If Daniel was intrigued by the theory; Jane just sat wide eyed; staring at the hologram. "Do you mean we found God?" Kendrisaan smiled kindly at the mesmerized girl, "No Jane; remember that God 'is' the Universe. But this area just might be where he started from. No one will ever go searching however, there are three unmanned drones stationed at those gates; they are programmed to warn off anyone who approaches the three gates, and are authorized to 'eliminate' anyone who insists on such a foolish attempt."

Kendrisaan's somber expression was not lost on Daniel; neither was the word 'eliminate'. He knew that meant one of the Council's disruptor weapons at maximum power. For such a benign and peaceful people to allow such drastic action; the edict was very serious indeed. "So, no one will ever explore what is on the other side of those gates..." Kendrisaan finally laughed, "After hearing the tale, would you really even want to Daniel?" Daniel chuckled, "Nooo, you got me there. The Council races are very advanced, and powerful; but if someone from someplace else reduced three star systems to burned out cinders in a single day just to warn you to stay away, I'm willing to take the hint." Kendrisaan just nodded his head, and said one word to end the conversation, "Good!"

***

The idea of being banned from exploring those gates didn't even bother Daniel at all. He was used to thinking of the Council races as the 'pinnacle of advancement'; the very top tier in the Universe. What had happened to the Beterans however, had made it very clear that there were 'others' from somewhere else, who made even the Oldest Ones look like cavemen in comparison. They, whoever they were, were not 'just' another race; they were 'Godlike', to have destroyed three star systems so quickly. Whatever the motivations, it simply was not worth the risk to find out more about them...

Daniel thought the 'Anchor' mystery was over; but David provided yet another bit of information that came close to supporting the 'God's Playground' speculation. David was always curious anyway, and browsed through the massive database that was his matrix. While not even looking for it, David found a collection of old scans detailing where all the 'smart elements' were located. It wasn't really interesting reading, but he looked through it anyway...and found that the resources weren't 'spread out randomly, like you would think; they were in a conical pattern with the apex, or small end, near the three 'dangerous gates'. The 'cone' was kind of ragged in current time; but when he did the little 'moving galaxies' trick, the funnel was defined more clearly. David called Daniel over to see it...and after watching the animation once, Daniel went to find Kendrisaan again.

The man took one look at the display, and began laughing uncontrollably for a minute. When he finally settled down, he said to Daniel, "The pieces of the great puzzle of life are fitting faster than ever before Daniel. We had always wondered why this sector of space had so many different elements, while the rest of the Universe did not. David's natural curiosity has answered that question for us. It also explains why this area has the largest population of sentient life; and the rest of the Universe is more randomly populated. It is as if God had a well defined plan for his 'experiments' at first in this area of space, and then changed them as he moved farther outward. The well defined pattern of 'smart elements' suggests to me that God intended to create life here, and then waited to see if life would naturally take hold elsewhere. I'm beginning to think he watches to see what we do with the gift of life."

These theology ties to the bizarre mystery were beginning to wear on Daniels nerves. He had always thought of God as a concept; a personal code of conduct deep within us, not some physical being. He did have to smile at the irony though. The human race had always tried to explain God by physically investigating him throughout our history; searching for that elusive 'proof' of God's existence. Some even made it their life's career; Daniel didn't think that was a bad thing; just a reminder that it was 'who we were', a curious people. God might even like it that way...

The Council races were not as fervent however; they simply accepted that God did exist, and tended to see this physical evidence as a 'proof of concept' thing, rather than an astounding discovery. And here was some pretty solid evidence all over this region of space; in the end it didn't really matter, for it would not 'change' the Universe. It just provided the incentive for the Universe to keep on evolving; ultimately that was what really mattered. You don't just give up; you continue on, perhaps making life a little better as you go. Maybe that was the most important lesson in the School of Life; don't give up, make it better. Daniel could live with that...

***

Time flies when you're having fun; but eventually you realize you've been away from your origins for a long time. Oddly enough, it wasn't Daniel or Jane who felt homesick first; it was Angie and Angel. Even though their 'origin' was exactly where they were standing right then; a certain 65 million year quirk of fate had cause them both to 'evolve' near Earth's influence, and they found themselves thinking of that planet as their home. Angel brought it up one evening at dinner, "Daniel, Angie and I want to go back to Earth; even if it is just to reacquaint ourselves with our heritage for a couple of months. Can we all do that fairly soon? It has been a year and a half, after all; and that isn't counting transit time."

Daniels eyes went wide at that, "Wow! I hadn't realized it had been that long; I feel a bit foolish for abandoning our friends like that. Yes, we need to beat feet back there soonest; and see our friends, catch up on the latest news even." He was about to tell Kendrisaan, when the man sought Daniel out, "I received a status update from Hal last night Daniel, and just finished reading it. The situation has gone way past just tensions on Earth this time, I'm afraid; there are open hostilities in various areas, all over the planet. If you should choose to go back, be safe my friend; for 'our family'."

Kendrisaan did not even hint at Daniel staying; or even waiting for a time. He already knew how Daniel would react to the news. Daniel would have suggested that the girls stay behind, but he also knew them all too well now; they would rebel, and they all did, loudly, five minutes later when he told them. The girl's philosophy about the family was simple; they were all one entity, and where one went, they all went. End of story...

David did something drastic, suggesting they throw caution to the wind and use the Shreelan gate to get back 'quick'; provided that the gate was still there and had not collapsed or something equally brick wall-ish. So less than an hour after hearing the news, Daniel and the girls headed outward toward Shreelan territory at top speed to check on the gate's condition.

The gate was indeed still there; and David only mentioned in passing that the Shreela 'scattered' as they entered their system; he was already lined up and entering the gate as the last Shreelan ships left the system. A moment later they were in the Alpha Centauri star system and heading once again at top speed toward Earth; three days later the ship entered the 'Sol System', and Hal called over to tell David to use stealth on the way in. That was ominous enough, but when Angel and Angie tied them in to the communal mind circuit with Jay, the situation dropped down that deep dark hole, into hell once again.

Jay told them all not to bother trying to beam down, there were soldiers all over the place where he was, and they didn't take orders from him anymore. They weren't prisoners or anything, but getting the ok for 'visitors' was almost impossible right now. He just suggested beaming him up to the ship; once he let Fred know he would be away for a few...they could talk in peace then.

Ten minutes later Jay was being hugged by three women; all at once. After they calmed down, they all sat in the common room to hear his story, "About 8 months ago it all fell apart, in one week. Several nations accused each other of conducting secret research into more powerful attack weapons. They all denied it, as usual, and started shooting at each other. It doesn't matter which ones, the stupidity started spreading all around the planet; borders were closed, any foreign official was either sent home or locked up; which made things even worse. Some nations 'teamed up' with others, and we now have five 'blocs' around the globe attacking each other; the only good thing to report is that no one has used 'nukes' yet.

Don't look at me like that Daniel, I can hear you thinking; don't even try, for you have no official status anymore anywhere on the Earth. The UN was dissolved at the end of the first week; the few that were still there anyway, and Daniel Curran is just another civilian again. Nobody will talk with you now, so you can't save the world Dan; sorry.

The only good thing is that some of us have a plan; I'm sure you saw that large star ship in orbit David. It is called 'Salvation'; an apt name since it will take 1100 of us to that planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. That includes me, all of the staff at Area 51, and President Salcone and family; his administration finished a year ago, and the new guy you don't even want to meet Daniel. Monty Stanton is the classic 'Ass' and does not listen to anyone... oh, and don't worry, Derek, Andrei and Olga are all over there, Even Albert is going; he said it would be exciting to walk on another planet."

Daniel stopped Jay right there, "Wait a minute; if you are leaving, you're leaving with us!" That got a full smile out of Jay, the very first one today, "No Daniel, you and I have different paths in this; if Earth ultimately destroys itself, it is 'my' duty to see that some people have a chance to start over, not yours." Jay gave him a wide grin, "Besides Daniel, you have been 'assimilated', and your path lies in a different direction entirely." And Jay nodded to Angel, Angie and Jane; who smiled rather sheepishly, knowing that Jay meant Council space as well as just them. Daniel wasn't happy, but he also couldn't do much to change things either; it was a sad feeling indeed. He just sighed, knowing the 'Borg' reference was true, "Alright my friend; I'm sure the Council will check on Earth periodically. And we will check on you all personally on Proxima. Is there nothing we can do for you Jay? Jay let out one of his infamous chuckles, "I would like that Daniel; I've grown quite fond of you all over the years ya know! In fact, I know everyone will appreciate it; all of them know you now. And, if you don't mind helping out one more time, there are20 people still in the base who need a 'poof' taxi up to Salvation. The ship has been ready to go for a week, and as soon as Fred gets them gathered together, we can start."

Jay called down to Fred and told him 'Project Elevator' would be ready in 10 minutes; Fred had the last people together in 5 minutes', and between David and Hal, 10 minutes later everyone was where they were supposed to be. Then came the hardest thing to do; saying goodbye to Jay Allencourt. The girls all got tears in their eyes, and Jay got hugged tightly again. Daniel shook Jay's hand, "Jay Allencourt; be safe my friend." Jay smiled at Daniel, and nodded, "Dan, we all do things in our lives; some of them we aren't sure of. Thirteen years ago you heard a strange voice in your head, asking you for help. You could have said no, but you took a chance based upon who you are inside; and here we are today." Jay looked at Angel, Angie and Jane, and he smiled even wider, "Daniel Curran, you did the right thing that day...David, I'm ready; if you would, 'Beam Me Up Scotty!" Jay backed up a step, and 'poof'; he was onboard the Salvation.

Five minutes later, the Earth star ship broke orbit and lit up her engines; heading toward Alpha Centauri. Daniel stared as the ship got smaller on the screen, and then said, "Hal, pace them. I really want to know they get there safely." Daniel had no real authority over Hal; Kendrisaan had not 'given' the ship to him. Besides, Hal was his own 'man', acting under direct orders from 'elsewhere'; but told Daniel plainly, "Already on it Boss; I kinda want to make sure they get there too." Daniel could only say, "Thank you"... An hour later, when no one could see the ship on the screen, Daniel Curran and his family headed outward themselves...they took the usual, longer route back home.
Chapter 15

When David descended toward 'Grandfather's' Villa, he had to recheck his course; for the familiar mansion didn't look the same. There was another large structure 'attached' to it by four large archways on different levels. The new addition was done in classic Egyptian style, and even had two small pyramids fronting the entryway.

David put the image up on the main screen, only stating the obvious, "Grandfather has been busy!" If the three girls were astounded by the sight, Daniel actually felt to make sure his jaw was still attached. When they landed, Kendrisaan was waiting as usual; he hugged the three girls like always, a wide grin on his face. Then he did something startling; he hugged Daniel tightly too, "I am pleased to have my family back. As you can see, I was a bit anxious for a while." Glancing over at the huge new addition, he explained, "It was far past time for all of you to have your own residence; just so you would not feel like 'visitors' all the time. It is 'your home' now. Come; let's talk while I give you the tour..."

They walked throughout the family's new home; admiring the structure itself, as well as the décor. The carvings and paintings were a history of various events, as the Egyptian motifs always depicted; many were of achievements, but Daniel noticed that there were also quite a few depictions of conflict too. Throughout the home were ancient weapons hanging on the walls; swords and axes, bows and quivers of arrows hanging in plain sight, reminding him that Earth was trying to destroy itself yet again. He mentioned it to Kendrisaan; and got what he at first, thought was an odd reply, "I did that intentionally Daniel; to illustrate to you that all sentient races go through the same struggles throughout their histories. These 'objects' are reminders that Earth is not perfect; and neither are any of the Council races. All of us have experienced our own unique 'dark ages', often more than once as Earth is doing right now. While it may not be so obvious, my own residence has such reminders all through the home. You just don't recognize them, because they are different weapons from a different race of beings; and different times than Earths.

Right now you are at war with yourself Daniel; thinking that if you had done something differently you could have prevented this time in your worlds history; and that is just wrong my friend. No one individual can save an entire world from themselves; all the people of Earth will have to realize that for themselves; hopefully in time they will, and learn how to work together once again. But if they do not, at least Jay Allencourt and his group are providing yet one more chance at success...yes; Hal gave me a full report on the Salvation's journey to Alpha Centauri. He is observing, and says that it is going well so far on their journey. The ship should reach the planet in another nine months in fact. So, even if Earth itself fails to continue onward; the human race will still endure; it may be a relatively small group; but humans have already proven to be a resourceful and adaptable people. So do not despair; there is hope still."

Daniel had to smile; Kendrisaan seemed to always know how to make him feel a little better, and as always he was right. In order to wrangle 100,000 different intelligent races, with that many differing views on life, you had to be pretty darn smart anyway, "Yes, it will be hard for a time; but how long a time is not up to you or me. The billions of people living there on Earth are in control of that, and I have to accept it."

***

One evening Daniel was sitting out in his atrium with his girls, when Jane exclaimed, "Look, a falling star" As Daniel watched the meteorite paint a fiery trail across the sky, he remembered that this was a very rare occurrence in this part of the Universe. He chuckled as he reminded himself how a long time ago he had told Angie about 'Wishing on a Falling Star'; how it symbolized hope. Was someone up there telling Daniel once more that this was what it was all about; reminding him that when the path gets a bit rocky, you don't just give up. Perhaps, and perhaps not; but it still meant something very real. You continue on with your own journey; because your journey affects so many others...it was a good thought; and maybe it was really all that mattered after all...

***
Notes and Reflections

As always, this is the hardest part for me; so here we go. If you read this far, I'm sure you noticed that Endurance took a drastically different direction in the Daniel Curran saga. Rather than just another 'They went here, they did that, they went home' story line, which didn't feel right to me, I tried to shift the focus a bit where Earth and the struggle for space travel plays a bigger part in the whole book. Daniel and Family play a bit more of a background and supportive role this time. Since I'm still not a professional writer, I don't really know if that was a good move or not; so if you would, tell me. As you know by now, my 'style' is to tell the story from a more personal everyday perspective, rather than pumping out a bunch of 'bang bang, shoot 'em up' epic books. Good or bad, that's who I am and won't apologize for it.

Alright, here's the self promotion part. Endurance is the third book in what I'm now calling the 'Daniel Curran Saga'. The other two are The Ship, and Places Unknown; there is one more book I'm working on, a sequel to Sacred Honor; but it has come to a screeching halt at being one third done. You see, writing stories is really hard for someone like me, who has never done it before in their life. As long as I get rewarded with good reviews and the occasional email, I'll keep plodding along...

If you liked this book, or even if you didn't, please leave a review at the site you downloaded it from; it's the only way I'll know if this writing thing is worth the effort. And if you want to give me a piece of your mind in a more personal way, my email is:

mwb_8@yahoo.com

Anyway, I thank you for taking the time to read Endurance; if you don't know it, my list of EBooks, in the order they were written, are:

The Ship \- An introduction to Daniel Curran and Angie; where it all started...

Sacred Honor – A different book, about a young orphan girl, an old Marine, an opinionated AI, and the values embedded within all of us...

Places Unknown – Sequel to The Ship, it follows Daniel and Angie as they explore the Universe; and each other...

Love Absolute – An extremely short short dog story that was inspired by my own dog Tina...

Endurance – The third, and perhaps last, book in the Daniel Curran and Family series...

I'll thank you for reading once again. You're the one who makes this whole writing thing worthwhile...

Michael
