Chapter Four - Aria, Conquerer of Men

NATURIA and its two moons, with the Azure Sea at top right
and N'Abode at the head of the Butterfly Sea, top left.

Hesper's cottage was a little way up from the shore. There was a sandy beach that ran around the inside of his cove. Marble steps led partially up the embankment. The house was a simple, old stone structure with many small rooms, and it was just as serviceable then as it had been for over 200 years. The land only grew more beautiful with age. It was locally known as "Sea Garden Estate.” Hesper owned it before he was married, but his wife was now the true caretaker. He was too busy lately sailing around the Azure Sea.

Where the marble steps ended, the garden path began, winding into the back yard and then splitting off into a loose network of narrow clearings that were further connected by smaller paths, seeming to drift all throughout the flower gardens and orchards of the estate. Near an old fruit tree in the side yard was the greenhouse entryway. Quaint stained glass window panes, hundreds of them, were patched with pewter, their frames mortared together and then further combined with bits of antique glass. In the evening a colorful pattern cast itself, fired by the falling suns, through all that glass, across the tile floor of the greenhouse and then up the outside wall of the main house.

Aria

Aria was watching the shadows of distant trees silhouette across the face of those beautiful colors as she stood motionless and lost in thought. She held the watering can as if she were a small, pale statue. She was retired now...early...from what she thought should have been a longer musical career. She'd chosen the married life with the rough-edged, wealthy, Hesper, three years before that very day. He had finally settled her down into this domestic, but not altogether blissful, comfort. They "had” it all. They owned the house here on the coast and another cottage in the mountains of Dnalgne Wen. But their main residence was located near the International Park of the world capital, the City of N'Abode.

The "Hesparia" city estate in N'Abode was a splendid, sprawling net of marble buildings, stone walkways, small canals with bridges, flower and medicinal herb gardens. Their gardens abutted the park, and were known by their neighbors as, “the Domes.” There were many small sitting areas, each with its own tiny, seven-columned domed temple. They bought that house together. Here on the coast, Aria was freed from the public attention that constantly dogged her in the city.

She made her way to the door and up the stairs into the house with the full intention of getting some accounting work done. But she really wasn't in the mood. She was distracted. She kept escaping into her mind. Things went more smoothly there than they seemed to in the outside world.

Aria was nearly the same height as Hesper--who was considered a bit shorter than the average man, but she gave the appearance of being quite petite. With her silken black hair framing large, wide-set blue eyes, she was almost intimidatingly beautiful. But she was not pretentious. Friends and family felt comfortable around her. She sometimes considered her beauty to be a burden. Her soft, pale, violet skin and facial features were inherited from her mother. An unusually attractive grace and charming modesty set her apart from other celebrities. Still, she remained the focus of the fantasies of millions of men and women, scattered across the worlds and colonies of two star systems.

There was a time, right before she was married, when she was almost worshiped for her voice. Her name was no accident. There was a myth in the media, courtesy of her mother, that she sang instead of crying when she was born. She didn't remember of course. But her mother had told her that the melody she used in her first hit, “Land of Light,” was composed with the same notes she sang when she was born. It was a great story. And her mother was known for her great stories. But the public just devoured it when it was published. They loved her unconditionally from then on.

She played her very last hit, “Conquer of Men” in the million-seat amphitheater, at the central plaza of N'Abode. She could still hear the cheers of the ocean-sized audience in her head.

The stars mixed with the lights of the surrounding metropolis, which then blended into the seven concentric, elliptical seating stand levels of amphitheater. She remembered the schematics of the building and the seating diagram: 37,000 seats in the lowest ellipse—closest to the stage and then 74,000 seats in the next ellipse of stands, as one moved outward; 107,000 in the next, then 144,000,177,000, 214,000, with the final and outermost, cheap seats, which held240,000 viewers.

Throughout the night, immense holograms told an accompanying story during each song, in images and swirling masses of color, as the music played. During the first song of the set, “Land of Light,” a giant glowing sphere was projected at about 1000 steps up in the air, directly above the central stage of the amphitheater. And she sang along to this music...

Land of Light Ambient Instrumental

In the Land of Light

I can find my way

There are no shadows here

Even on the darkest day

Children of the Dawn

Are here inside this song...

The music immediately plummeted in volume, to one rumbling and sustained bass note. Middle tones gently transitioned in and blew over the rumble, like an audio wind, bowed instruments followed her voice as she continued...

In the Land of Light

Where the Promise lives

Where the Answers flow

Where the Parents give

Follow the Blue Dawn

LIVE! before you're gone...

As the slow-swept music rolled over the city, seven smaller spheres emerged from the main sphere. By the end of the first song, seven even smaller spheres emerged from each of the satellites. On the last note, the entire system of light-worlds began to revolve, the satellites around their mother sphere and the sub-satellites around them.

It was a new technique in graphic aerial display, designed by Hesper's company. All of the graphics were worked out, off-world, for secrecy-sake. And during that process – to Hesper's horror – the light show's graphics had failed the first three times, each leading to extensive lens burn-outs and fried electromagnetic lines. But on the last two tests the system worked flawlessly. Aria had only heard about the graphics tests – even though she had actually assisted in designing their story boards – but had not actually seen them in full size animation until that very night in N'Abode.

While these giant worlds of light circled above her, the second song began. “Youth Requiem,” another crowd pleaser, faded in. Aria's songs were very slow, hypnotic and filled with ambient, sonic imagery; morphing into light filled holographic images that themselves seemed to produce sound effects, through focused-audio engines. Minor chords filled all space with a melancholy mood. She stretched out her arms on either side, then began...

Youth Requiem Ambient Instrumental

When you were young

I told you you could dream

And when you found this dream

I knew you would succeed

But in the night

That utter lack of Light

Broke your body

And your soul

Dissolved out in the

Churning salty water...

The instrumental refrain played again. And as she began the last verse of the song, a holographic plane of shifting color tones, set in just below the giant light spheres, and then exploded into millions of flying female forms. And the chords turned into majors, as she sang...

And some one saw the candle light

But no one said the rite in time

In the middle of that starry night

The passages would burn sublimely!

Many in the crowd wept with a sentimental joy. She saw their faces in the first level seats. Each holographic being seemed realistically ecstatic and took her own random path through the sky, then down through the audience to their delight, then merging with the others occasionally and finally shooting straight up into the stars, one by one. Their movements were so fluid, the illusion was so apparently real, that they seemed like true persons, as if they had been trapped in the light for an eternity, but were now set free into the universe. The effect, a combination of other ground-based holographic imagery, laser-like flashes, artificial fog bursts and that beautiful, breathing music, was a rapturous experience... even for the musicians. No one had ever seen such a display of artistic and musical grandeur on Naturia before.

A falling-tone, from a modulated sound wave-generator slowly descended, windy and drenched in reverb. As the third song began - “Hesper the Evening Star” - the crowd was almost out of control, as they recognized the first tones.

Security pin-spot lights flashed on in dozens of places around the seating ellipses. Aria chuckled to herself as she sat remembering the ridiculous amount of emotional energy of that night. The instrumental – composed for her then-finance, Hesper – was mysterious, almost scary sounding. Pentatonic scales dripped down the core of the harmony, as a small wind instrument vamped out the exotic melodies.

Hesper - The Evening Star Ambient Instrumental

Though written about Aria and Hesper's lust for each other, it could have been misconstrued as a soundtrack for thief or a murderer. “Odd,”she mumbled out loud to herself as she sat alone in the cottage, the darkness of night filling the sky above the landscape outside her window. Waves could be heard crashing on the beach below and then sinking back into the sea.

She remembered how at the end of that ambient instrumental piece, the giant spheres slowed their movements and faded to a deep, dark, glowing red, becoming transparent and then very dim above the heads of everyone present. A holographic forest image of light faded into the ground level of the amphitheater. Green and violet holographic trees rustled and swayed in a windless breeze, gently creeping vines, flowers – at first dormant in their closed, night positions –suddenly opened. Insects and song birds darted in three-dimensional circuits around and through the performers and the audience members. What looked like a morning suns-rise of brilliant shifting, orange, that sparkled-out shards of secondary blue light through the branches and leaves of this non-material woodland image, pulsed slowly growing and then falling in intensity.

The forth song, “Okeanos” - dedicated to her good friend, former band mate and lover - came bounding in, with its playful, bouncing slap-delayed rhythmic notes. Each note turned into an elf-like creature who then skipped joyfully through the forest illusion. Above these rhythmic notes-made-light-flesh, a melody chased them around the chords.

The crowd was being blasted more frequently with security lights now. She knew that even the large 10,000-guard army of the security staff was being taxed to its limits. She recalled feeling bad for them. As she began to sing, the sky from horizon to horizon was blanketed by what looked like water. The holograms rippled and splashed, and there was the distinct impression of being under the waves of a brightly shining sea. Looking up, the refracted star light could barely penetrate the light image...

Okeanos Ambient Instrumental

Come to reign

My ocean King

Water hides the tears within

Skim the sea floor

Swim in Peace

Night and day

Release...yourself

Release...yourself

Child of Blue and golden Light

Sleeps above the waves tonight

Learned to find the distant Shore

He who walks will swim no more

Release...yourself

Release...yourself...

The show had to have ended soon, even if she didn't end it herself with the next song. The audience was getting out of hand, becoming unruly and defiant. The frustration after decades social dissatisfaction was reaching the boiling point and the crowd was expressing it, as if she had given them permission. The normally peaceful and gentle citizens of Naturia were beside themselves with the new spirit of freedom that her music seemed to impart.

It wasn't really the words Aria was singing—which were always enigmatic and left open to interpretation, nor the astounding light show that raised them into a frenzy, but rather, the need to release the collective anxiety that drove them from their common civility.

And then the rumbling bass for "Conquerer of Men" rolled in. Four notes repeated with an earthquake-like vibration, moving them out into the audience, over the city and into the countryside: |: G, F#, E, F# :|, over and over. A single horn began the melody and Aria followed it. There was only one verse, sung at the beginning and then sung again at the end followed by a chorus. She focused her memory upon the last verse that then led into the three word chorus...

Conquerer of Men Ambient Instrumental

Pilgrims move through

Out into the Age of Blue

For centuries I fought for you

Moons and worlds I bought for you

Are you ever coming back again?

Conquer of men

Conquer of men...

The chorus repeated again and again. The crowd joined in, and dwarfed the sound system with their profound power, as ONE VOICE.

The giant spheres brightened again. The holographic water surface contracted into small head-sized dots that rose and fell with the texture of the music, like a computer waveform image, while wide strips of sunlight-colored, bands turned into images of fire—without heat. They twisted around each other and weaved a tapestry of flame below the giant spheres. As the music ended – but for the four fading notes in the reprise of the introduction – the fiery surface of the holographic sky above rose through the circling spheres, ever expanding in width, continuing up and over them. When it reached a shuttle-worthy altitude, it crumbled into 99 more of giant sphere-systems, each exactly like the lower and first one. They stretched out in all directions across the sky, as far as the eye could see. And the light they shone down upon the world below illuminated it to an intensity of brightness greater that that of midday. The stars were no longer visible behind this grand and dynamic display.

For a moment – only a moment – Aria stood there on that stage in an apparent bubble of silence. She was just as overwhelmed as her fans, and they saw her as a tiny speck in a sea of light and color, caught under the focus of a seven spotlights—one for each hue of the white light spectrum. And at this moment she remembered seeing herself as just a humble, little colony girl stuck in the backwater orbit of her childhood home. How could a little girl from nowhere now be at the center of this temporary infinity; standing on the elliptic disc of that stage, surrounded by a million people who adored her? She was so small, so blown away. But she had risen to Immensity in her young life; TRULY becoming a conquerer in her own right. One of God's meekest creatures had ascended through the trials and struggles of a hard-fought career, climbing to this central isle of light; to this state of perfected glory. And she wept on that stage three years ago and also now, alone with only her memories.

Would any moment ever even come close to that one? There was a touch of the divine in the warm city air that night. A reflection of Paradise, made visible. It was so short a time. Would anything ever rise to this kind of level again for anyone. Could she ever be that happy again as she lived out the rest of her life in retirement? The time in the light...so short a time. The question kept presenting itself: Would she ever see anything or experience anything that could top that night?

YES--she certainly would!

And what loomed ahead of her, just over the horizon, would make her night on that stage in front of a million people look like a little private party thrown for a couple of friends.

But she had no idea about any of that yet. Her eyes grew heavy with the narcotic temptation of sleep, which she surrendered to, nodding off at her desk.

Things were about to transpire that would change her, Hesper, her friends, her family, her whole world, and that entire part of the star cloud which her beloved suns shone so majestically from. But there was darkness coming too—tragedy, betrayal, deception and soul-threatening destruction.

If she could have only know what she was about to face... If she could have only been able to prepare...

Chapter Three - Hesper and the Spitfish

Hesper grabbed the halyard and tugged hard, with the valued assistance of an electric winch, to raise the large gaff sails on each of the two masts, standing sure-footedly on the deck of his beloved yacht.


The sky was especially blue and seemed to shine on its own with no need for a sun. Yet, still, there it was, golden orange in the sky. The Home Star. The leaves and grass on the shoreline and hillside beyond, were taking on that typical dark green color of the late morning. There were no clouds yet.

Hesper on his yacht.

He felt rested from a long leave with his family and inlaws, and satisfied after a rather steamy going-away party thrown by his lovely wife - that only two people were invited to - the night before. He was a little sore still, but in a good way.


There was a chop in the waves, and small cool breezes batted him with love taps, while they slapped the pointy tips off of each wave, causing a tiny mountain range to become apparent. The surface of the Azure Sea was filled as far as the eye could see, with translucent water-mountains, each tipped with a whitecap, shifting, blending. Below those waves, looking over the side, brightly colored fish swam in and out of the small shadow of his vessel, as its bobbing was projected upon the white sand of the sea floor. The shadow was black, slightly tipped by the angle of the suns through the water.


Life was good for Hesper now. He'd had his issues but was dealing with them. And he was greatly cheered by the still vivid image he'd experienced, while sampling the Blue Dawn Flower seeds his friend had given him a couple weeks before.


He had seen a beautiful woman or girl (he could not tell which) appear in the his study, preceded, and then surrounded by, a wind that he could not feel, but saw and heard. She was golden orange, like the sun. He had noticed her eyes were shining and green and in the center of each, a yellow light seemed to strain out of her. She introduced herself as "Atled."


She was hard to look at because she shone so brightly. He thought at the time that he'd wished he could have controlled that aspect of the experience like he could with his computer images so he could see her better. He laughed to himself as he stood, then sat down on a deck chair, shaking his head for a moment. The sails luffed loudly in the increasing breeze above him. What a crazy thing to think about during a spirit encounter--adjusting the "image."

Atled, as she appeared to Hesper.

She had only said one thing before she shrank out of sight--speeding away, in a line that brought her directly backwards into the windy light from which she first emerged.


How he dearly wanted to have heard more.  What he did hear intrigued him...


"You and your friend Okeanos will sail toward the distant shore of the Notgnivlas Region, but will end up blown off course. When this happens, fear not. I will be with you and guide you to another place that my sister has pre-arranged for you."


That was it!


He replayed her message over and over again in his mind looking for other hints about why this had happened to him. He had a difficult time believing that it actually HAD happened to him. Aside from this visitation, the Blue Dawn Flower experience was physically stimulating, but not the least bit hallucinogenic. It had lasted for about an hour, but she was with him only, apparently, a tenth as long. When he checked the clock though, it said the same time as it did before she arrived. It seemed nothing like what Okeanos had described, with his tale of sweeping vistas filled with all sizes of "walking plants" and "flying colors" and a god-like being of light. He could not understand how their experiences could have been so different after ingesting the same plant.


The yacht slowly rocked from side to side under him. He stood up quickly and secured the sheets. In no time, he was on his way. A small robot took the helm, while he stepped below to make himself a drink.


There could be no way that his friend would accompany him on this particular voyage. He was headed to Aitnede Region, well south of Notgnivlas. He could not think of any reason why he would EVER go to Notgnivlas. It was an World Park, left in its natural state, but for an "indigenous" tribe of original settlers, called the Setidon, who had volunteered to tend it as a garden, hundreds of years before.

They were a triple gender people.  About one thrid were male, one third female, and one third hermaphrodite, but decidedly female.  There were also women, with breats, but with male preproductive organs.  All of this was not fostered in any way, by a human means, besides perhaps a subconscious "natural selection."  It was a mutation in the genes, one that favored female appearance and behavior.  There was no doubt that their island garden was the most beautiful and ornately appointed places on the planet.  In a way, Naturia was very much a cultural pipeline to the utopian civilization of the home world of Azureon.

But it was not a place of business.  And Hesper had much business to conduct.  Since his introduction of high-powered, sound-projecting, holography, synced to music, there were other colony planets with representatives sent to Naturia to obtain his software.  a large conference was taking place in the city of N'Uversa, the regional seat of Aitnede.

The Setidon might be a fascination for anthropologists, religionists and botanists, but he could care less about visiting them. He liked comforts. And sleeping in a cold, damp cloud forest was not his idea of comfortable. His uncomfortable days were in the past now. Besides, he'd heard nothing from Okeanos in over a month. Hesper had even tried to contact him after the visitation, but only got his answering service.


It was just after sundown when his computer suddenly jumped to life. Hesper, who had been dosing, stood up half asleep and rubbed his eyes.


"Yes?" he asked to the empty air.


"There is an automated signal dead up ahead Captain Hesper, it is a small vessel with its emergency beacon flashing, shall we assist?"


"Yes, Brown. Change course to intercept along the injured craft's heading."


"Actually, Sir, the vessel is not moving." Brown had a little mocking tone to its voice.


"How far is the vessel from our current position, Brown." Hesper rolled his eyes.


"One step, Sir."


"What is our current velocity, Brown?"


"Zero metric lengths/hour."


"Thank you, Brown..." This robot was in a habit lately of making decisions on its own. He'd forgotten how annoying that was from his last voyage. He should have re-calibrated the decisional scale back to its default parameters and then rebooted Brown the night before... but he had been... "distracted." He was glad now that he had chosen to spend the night before with his wife instead of with Brown who was at least awake and now functioning properly, while he had fallen asleep for over four hours. He guessed that maybe he hadn't been so rested after all that morning. He smiled.


Throwing on a fleece coat, he rushed up on deck and was met by a terrible sight. It was a large skiff, about 30 steps long and 8 steps wide, but it's bow was half submerged. The smooth white finish of the hull was covered in something... He walked cautiously toward the craft barely floating about 20 steps off his port side.


"Brown, hit the torches!"


Immediately the entire area around the Schooner was flooded in a white light. It extended out in every direction, to a radius of 500 steps.


"Hello?! Is there anyone aboard. I'm Captain Hesper of the Schooner, Roses Fly, is there anyone ABOARD?"


He could see into the bilge of the boat, but not very well. It was filled with nets and small black boxes. "It looks like no one is aboard, Brown."


"Sensors show no human life signs, Sir.  It does detect a small animal." Brown extended the lifting cranes from the port side of the 100 step Schooner and secured a fore and aft line to the smaller boat, then rolled out the side-bumpers.


"Be careful, she's heavy with water..." Hesper walked along the rail adjusting the bumpers. "What is the small animal you referred to?"


Brown hesitated in his retraction of the cranes for a moment. Then started pulling the smaller craft in again. "It is a spitfish, approximately three steps long and half a step wide, it's weight is..."


"Nevermind, Brown, I see it now."


The creature writhed and spit mucus, having completely lost the reserve of its sea water. It was obvious that it had been in the skiff for several hours already and it was not pleased. It groaned and slapped its tail against the pile of black boxes. Its sharp teeth gnashed away at the netting reshredding what it had already shred.


"OK!" said Hesper. "Calm down big guy! I'm gonna set you lose."


The spitfish was actually not a fish, but a kind of mammal-like amphibian, found only in this sea. It could breath air through internal lungs or take in oxygen through its smooth skin, when underwater. The entire body of the animal was like a giant gill, absorbing oxygen directly into its circulatory system, through a fine net of blood vessels located directly below and in the dermal layers. It was considered a nuisance by crustacean fisherman because of its obsessive desire for the giant, fat-filled shellfish that were a regional delicacy.  the spitfish used extreme sucktion from its mouth to utterly crumble even the hardest shell.


But spitfish could also be highly intelligent, performing tasks for the civil engineering planners. The only thing they seemed incompatitble for was shellfishing--a food which they could not control themselves from eating. This had earned them the nickname, "Greedy Spitters." 

When freely swimming in the sea, the spitfish always kept a gullet-full of seawater to be used as an emergency moisture source at times like this, being trapped outside of the water. The male also suspended itself vertically, face up, when advertising for a mate.  With its mouth slightly above the surface, it could spit a stream of disgustingly fetid water up to 200 steps in the air. This served a dual purpose; females would be able to judge its fitness and size by the height of its rancid spit-spout AND then locate its position afterwards by the smell in the water. The more disgusting the smell, the closer to lovin' time.


The creature was desperate now and it seemed more willing to suffer Hesper's assistance. Its almost human-like eyes fixed themselves upon Hesper's as he carefully leaned over the rail with a large net. He saw that the Spitfish had a tightly tied rope around it's middle. The rope was SO tight that it pulled the flesh in significantly. The knot looked as if it was... intentionally tied.



He slipped the long razor sharp knife out of a tool box right next to him. Then he leaned over as far as he could and wrestled the spitfish into the net. With his other hand, he sliced the rope which had been tied a short distance from the creature to an open oarlock. The Spitfish fell freely to the bottom of the net, groaning and slobbering mucus.


Brown lit another pin spot of light that followed the netted animal as Hesper quickly flung it on to the deck of the Roses Fly. The Spitfish was exhausted and beginning to die. Its mouth opened and shut slowly over and over again, and it's eyes darted from side to side.


Speaking as if to a good buddy, Hesper calmly said, "Don't worry, I'm gonna cut this middle rope off of you and set you free. OK?"


The creature did not react, it just kept opening and shutting its mouth...slower and slower. Hesper fell to his knees and gingerly reached out his left hand, placing it on the side of this sea wanderer's warm body. With the knife in his right hand, he cut a small slit in the thick rope to weaken it on top. Then he gently slid his fingers under the tight part of the rope, between it and the spitfish skin. Still the spitfish did not react. In one fluid stroke, Hesper eased the knife under the rope and cut it outward, away from the animal.


When the rope broke and fell to either side, the Spitfish twitched at the opportunity of freedom. Hesper eased the creature back into the net and quickly walked to the edge of the deck. He grasped the net right under the spitfish and tipped it into the sea. With a large splash, its body twisted and vibrated alternately for a moment, as it filled itself with water. Then unceremoniously, it slipped beneath the surface and was lost to sight.


The skiff had been pumped out by Brown, and the robot was collecting the strange black boxes and dropping them into a bait box near the wheelhouse. A specialized crane was patching the large hole in the bow, unbidden. In the pin spot light, Hesper finally saw what was all over the outside of the hull: red, congealed, and splattered...blood. He reached out and wiped up a little with the edge of his knife. He didn't want to think that it was blood, but he knew already.


"Brown..."


"Yes, Captain?"


"Run a genetic analysis of this."


"It's human..."


"Brown, you haven't even tested it yet!" Hesper dabbed the ghoulish substance on Brown's extended sensor pad. Brown, dutifully retracted the pad into its side compartment.


"It's human. Estimated time of air exposure...six hour ago." The pin spot turned off and the rail lighting turned on. The overhead floodlight clapped off too, leaving an orange glow that faded as it cooled.


Hesper walked over to the cut rope. He picked it up and threw it into a bucket nestled along the rail. A "clank" rang out in the darkness as the rope settled. Stepping to his side and peering into the bucket, he saw a small rainbow shimmer out from inside it, reflecting and breaking apart the rays of the rail light that was just above it. "A nanodisc?"


"Pardon me, Captain?"


Human blood on the outside of the boat, with no apparent gore on the inside, and a poor, tied-up spitfish. What did it all mean? "Hey..Brown there's a nanodisc in this bucket. Is it one of yours?"


"My storage discs are all present and accounted for, Sir."


"Must have come from the skiff." Hesper grasped the nanodisc and slipped it into his pocket. "Can you finish up here, Brown? I'm headed below deck for the rest of the night."


"And I will secure the sheets again and continue on our regular course."


"Thanks for at least telling me ahead of time, Brown."


"You're welcome, Sir." Brown's many ship-wipe connections kicked into a flurry of activity.


Catching sight of the edge of the second moon as it began to break over the horizon, he opened the hatch door and slowly, deliberately, but distracted mentally by a sudden string of strange thoughts, stepped down into the warm light of his ship's office area. Fingering for the disc in his pocket, he felt a small rounded object beside it, no bigger than...a seed. Drawing the two objects out and dropping them on his desk, he dropped himself into his chair and sighed.


The nanodisc was covered in stinky spitfish spout-water, but otherwise unharmed. Wiping it with a cloth easily shined it up as clean as new. And the small, dark, crescent-shaped pebble looked an awful lot like a Blue Dawn Flower seed...but he wasn't sure.


He grasped the coin-sized disc between his thumb and forefinger and slid it into the disc port of his sleeping computer. Instantly the machine's 3D image lit up in mid-air...


"Processing..." said the computer.


"Thanks, Red."


"Type one digital message, seven words:" A sentence appeared across the air-image in front of him.


He drained the melted ice water from his drink into his mouth, while lowering the light level in the cabin with a foot switch under the desk. Rubbing his eyes, and staring at the image closely, he took a moment from swallowing his mouthful to read the words out loud...


"Thank you for setting the Monster free"


Then he swallowed...choked on the remnants of his drink, coughed loudy, and swiftly pushed himself back from the edge of his desk, as if a fire had just broken out. And...in a way...it had.