Chapter 6: Reunion

           Vela opened the door to his sparsely furnished apartment on the third floor of the security building. He took a step inside, paused for a moment to wave a hand over the activation panel to turn on the lights and air system, and continued on a few steps. When he didn't hear Mendel's steps behind him he turned around and looked over his shoulder to look at Mendel.

           “You coming in?” Vela asked.

           “Uh...yeah. It just feels weird to be walking back into your life like this. I don't even know what 'this' is,” Mendel said, as he let out a long thin breath between his teeth.

           “Weird for both of us, I'm sure. Come on in and sit down. No matter what other concerns we might have about each other, we're still brothers. I'm hurt that you left like you did without any explanation of where you were going and why.” Vela paused for a moment to think about something, and looked over his brother, observing his skin again. “You know, that skin condition of yours... they found a cure for it just fifteen years after your disappearance. I don't think anyone's ever lived past, oh, I don't know, twelve hundred without having that skin condition cured. How'd you survive it?”

           “A cure? I've been suffering all these years and there was a cure? I didn't know. I should have...”

           “Should have come home? Should have communicated with your wife? Should have stayed with your daughter? I've thought about how this conversation was going to go so many times I'd almost scripted it out in my mind. I didn't think that you'd ever become so worried about yourself that you wouldn't even ask about Cassie and Ara! Are you really even my brother? Because you sure aren't the person who I called my brother when we were both only a couple hundred years old.”

           “I'm sorry Vela. I can see that I've worn out my welcome. I'll see myself out.”

Mendel had not yet taken a seat, and had only partially made his way through the door, and he turned around and slowly walked through the door. As he walked, he could hear Vela's voice calling after him.

           “Don't walk out on us again, Mendel. They won't be able to take it again. Cassie won't be able to take it.

           “Us? What do you mean 'us'. Cassie's... alive? And Ara? Where are they, Vela?” Mendel had turned around and walked all the way into the living room where Vela sat in his armchair.

           “I didn't mean to tell you like that... I somehow envisioned a much different reunion than this.”

           “Where are they, Vela? I want to see them.”

           “Don't get all worked up Mendel. They've gone out to complete their food transport for the Gathering. They should be back by morning. This close to the Gathering, we take rotating shifts around the clock to make sure that all the ceffyls have enough food and water.”

           “How are they? I'd given up hope that I'd ever see them again. I figured that the way my skin has been virtually tearing away, that there was no way that I would ever see them again, especially not Ara! You know what the survival rates were for children of our generation just as well as I do.”

           “Yeah, but like I already told you, they found a cure for it after you left. Don't get all worked up over this Mendel. And if you want this little reunion to go smoothly, you'll need to calm down, and get some rest. You have to get some sleep so that your skin doesn't frighten them too badly when they see you again. We don't have time to get to the medical center to transfuse my blood to yours. That's the only way we have to spread the cure now that Earth is destroyed.”

           “Vela, you're coming with me. We'll be back before morning, and I'll be cured. Menkalinan! Bring us both back now!”

           “Menka... what? Who are you...” Vela's question was cut off as he and Mendel lost sight of Vela's living room and reappeared in the observation room of Mendel's star ship.

           “Menkalinan. Menkab for short. He's my partner in crime, if you will. He's been my only company for the last, well, you know how long it's been. Come. I'll introduce you to him.”

Mendel led Vela out of the observation room and down the hall to the medical labs. Once they had both entered the room, Mendel sealed the door, and took a seat in front of a blank table, and motioned to Vela to take a seat next to him at the table.

           “Alright, Menkab. Show yourself to Vela.”

           “Certainly, Sir. I'm proud to meet your brother. You've told me so much about him, and I've always wanted to meet him.”

           Slowly, Menkab's avatar appeared holographically on the table in front of them. He turned towards Vela and spoke directly to him.

           “It's a pleasure to meet you, sir,” Menkab said. Vela turned to Mendel and said “He sounds just like... Dad.”

           “You can talk to him, Vela. He's nearly sentient. I've spent millenia working on his heuristic algorithms.”

           “Yes, Vela, you may speak and interact directly with me as you would anyone. Are you ready to begin the procedure?”

           “Wait! What procedure? What are you guys talking about?”

           “Calm down. I just need you to place a finger on the terminal in front of you. Menkab has highlighted the sampling location with bright green. He just needs a small sample of your blood.”

           “Blood? What the heck are you talking about?”

           “Vela, sir? If you'll place your finger on the terminal, I'll extract a small sample of your blood. I'll be able to sequence your DNA, and since it's so similar to Mendel's, I can isolate the cure for Mendel's skin disease in approximately forty-three minutes. It will take me a further twelve minutes to synthesize a gene splice that can be given to Mendel. Using the technology we've developed together, we can accelerate the process of the splicing, and he should be virtually a new man in six hours and thirty-three minutes.”

           “Mendel, what's all that garbage this talking space junker just blurted out?”

           “Please, just put your finger on the green light. You won't feel a thing, and it will be over and we'll be home in time to see Cassie and Ara when they return. You don't have anything to worry about. Just relax!”

           Vela reluctantly moved his finger toward the green light, which suddenly moved directly under the pad of his index finger. The light momentarily brightened, and Vela felt a small pinch and it was over.

           “See, now that wasn't so bad!” Mendel was speaking with more energy and vitality than he had in years. He knew it would soon be alright. He would have Cassie back, and his beloved Ara, the pride and joy of his existence.

           Grus sat back in his chair, riveted by the scene that had just played out in front of him on his security monitor. Vela Omicron was Mendel's brother! How could he have missed that! It should have been one of the first things he discovered. Perhaps he had overlooked it because Vela was chief of Grus' staff, and had been loyal to him. It couldn't possibly be true that the most wanted man in the Galaxies was the brother of one of his men.

           This moment filled him with such satisfaction that he had not experienced but one other time in his career. That was the day twenty-five years ago when he'd accepted the assignment to his current post; the result of the assassination of his predecessor and subsequent framing of an innocent man with the murder.

           Grus pressed the power button on his holographic terminal and turned it off. He took a deep breath, smiling wryly, and put his feet up on the terminal. He rested his elbows on the arm rests of his chair and pressed the ends of each of his fingers against their matching opposites, and closed his eyes. Everything was too good to be true. He was well on the way to strong-arming the Monarchs to give him everything he had ever dreamed of; an entire world of his own, free from the watchful eyes and governance of the Monarchy. He could almost taste it.

           Mendel couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so good as he did right now. There were still twenty minutes or so until the gene splice would be ready, but he was already feeding off the shear anticipation of being whole after so many years, let alone the prospect of being with his wife and daughter again. He had dreamt of it so many times he didn't even bother to count them. The dreams all ended the same way... with him waking up in a hot sweat and a complete and total disorientation. It seemed to take hours sometimes to get himself righted again, fully grounded in the reality of his loneliness and solitude wherever he was in space at the time.

           Vela was enjoying some sort of food in the galley, which, oddly enough, was still equipped with a standard Earth-based kitchen, that included the customary oven, range, and other kitchen implements along side the food replicator. The dish he was eating was also of Earth, and presented him with a balance of proteins and carbohydrates and other important nutrients.

           “Man, Mendel, this stuff is really great for coming from the dust in the air or wherever it comes from. I could eat like ten bowls of this!” Vela was quite excited, having gotten over the anxiety of returning to the planet's surface to be home before Cassie and Ara returned from their work.

           “I'm glad you like it. Menkab is quite the chef,” said Mendel. Menkab piped in his automatic gratitude response.

           “My pleasure, sir. Would you like something to eat as well?”

           “No, I'm way too excited right now to eat anything. Shoot, I can't even sit still any more.”

           With that, Mendel leapt to his feet and began pacing up and down the hallway between the galley and the bridge, deliberately counting the steps between the rooms. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, pause, turn left, and go back again. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve... dang, I lost count. No, I just took bigger steps. I've got to do it again. Mendel repeated the ritual for the next three or four minutes until he realized that all this seeming energy was really just an adrenaline rush that was quickly beginning to wear off. His knees were beginning to shake and almost buckled a couple of times on his last turn down the hall. He returned to the galley, and announced to nobody in particular that he was going to go and lie down until the splice was ready, and he could begin healing himself.

           He entered his room, left the door open so as not to alienate Vela from him after their renewing their relationship, and half-sat, half-collapsed at the end of his bed as his knees finally did buckle. Mendel rolled onto his back and slipped into a shallow dream state. Ancient visions of his wife and young child flitted through his mind while his eyes rolled around inside their lids, and the lids themselves flapped halfway open and closed rapidly. His breathing was also shallow and rapid. He woke after about fifteen minutes at the gentle grasp of Vela's warm hand on his cold shoulder.

“Menkab says the sequencing didn't take as long as anticipated, even though he'd adjusted for our being brothers. He said our DNA was almost ninety-eight percent identical. How did we not ever find that out, when we were originally spliced? Anyways, we should get you down to the sick bay or medical room or whatever you call it up here and get this show on the road. From what your computer says, this might be much more painful than it was for our first time through. Back on Earth, we were sedated for the procedure, so I don't recall any pain, but we'll have to see how it goes. Can I help you up?”

           Mendel did not respond vocally, but found enough strength with Vela's help to sit up, rise to his feet, and make his way down to the on-board medical labs. Once there, Vela again helped Mendel to move his body onto one of the examination tables and gently lay his head down. He remained nonvocal and began to return to semi-consciousness. Menkab's muffled voice was ringing in Mendel's ears as he finally passed into total unconsciousness.

           “Vela, it appears that Mendel is incapable of treating himself with the splice. Will you help me do it? I'll give you instructions as we go, but we must begin soon. It appears that all the excitement he's had in the last twenty-four hours have served to weaken his heart. My simulations indicate that if we can begin the splice, his heart will be repaired as his DNA is re-written. You were right also, Vela. This is going to be extremely painful. Please turn to the computer panel behind you, and press on the section marked “IV” Inside you'll find an intravenous injection kit, which I'm sure you'll know it by the old Welsh word “cit mewnwythiennol.”

           Vela reluctantly turned around and gently pressed a finger on the letters “IV” and waited. After a second or two, a small beep from somewhere overhead was heard, and the panel gently protruded from the wall. It didn't do anything else, so he reached up and pried it open. Inside, he found the “cit” and he pulled it out of the cabinet. He set to work, all the time listening carefully to Menkab's instructions, asking detailed questions as he went.

Chapter 5: Commencement

           Just past eight in the morning, Mendel woke from another dream that he couldn't care less to remember. He sucked in a deep breath, filling his lungs slowly, held it for a few seconds, and then very slowly released the air between his teeth. He immediately felt refreshed, and resumed breathing normally. He lay there for a few minutes longer until he felt like he had the strength to get out of bed and set his plan into motion. Mendel swung his legs over the right side of the bed and gingerly placed his feet on the floor, and then sat upright. The dark marks on his skin had lightened significantly overnight just as they always did with adequate sleep and proper medication.

           “Glad to see you're up and moving about, Mendel. Do you feel rested enough to begin your 'adventure' on the surface?”

           “Thanks, Menkab. Remind me when this is over to activate your overnight sleep subroutine. I know I set it up a long time ago, and didn't turn it on, but I think it would do me some good to think of you as sleeping at night. Even though I've been alone on this ship for what seems like forever, I'm starting to feel like I need some alone time. I feel so... watched these days.”

           “Sir, I've been monitoring all incoming and outbound communications, and have not detected anything out of the ordinary. Obviously you know that I only monitor your vitals once you enter your quarters until you rise for the day. Other than that there's nothing else that could be construed as being watched.”

           “That really doesn't comfort me, just the same. It somehow feels like more. Anyway... let's just get this show on the road. Is my wardrobe ready to go?”

           “Not quite. There are only three items left to produce, and they should be completed within the hour. Would you like me to prepare something for your breakfast? This may be your last good meal before...”

           “Before what? You old tin can. You don't have to remind me that this may end in my death.”

           “I'm sorry! I believe you misunderstood. Rasalans have a very different diet, and eat very frequently. The agriculture on the planet isn't as variegated as it has been on other planets you've visited. I merely meant to recommend a balance and large meal to help get you going for what will more than likely be a very long day. You should know, that even as we speak, Vela Omicron is approaching the community square of Pyxis. He's preparing food and water for the Great Ceffyl, and will be returning to work in approximately 1.5 hours. What would you like to eat?”

           Oh Sure, he thought. Try to get me to eat a nice meal after telling me something like that. I haven't seen Vela in centuries, and I'm supposed to approach this plan with a full stomach? I think I'm going to be sick...

           “Just surprise me with something. I'll eat in the observation room.”

           “Very well, Mendel,” Menkab said.

          Mendel watched his brother Vela Omicron from the holographic screen. Vela stopped unloading his rover loader in the main square of Pyxis for a moment, stretched out, and rubbed the back of his neck for a moment. Went it felt sufficiently loose, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes, relaxing his heavy eyelids. With his head still laid back, he rubbed his eyes and opened them. It was playing out just as he had dreamed. Deja Vu? No, that stuff isn't real... Vela saw Mendel's “comet” ship, and thought the light from it was beautiful. The ship reflected the blue light of the Rosalan sun and the yellowish light of its moon, giving it a soft green glow, something like the flesh of a kiwi fruit. Vela reminded himself to look for the comet again later, when his shift was over.

           The solstice was was progressing on schedule, and Vela kept one ear tuned to the noise of the forests, waiting and watching for the Great Ceffyl to appear. About ten minutes after the rover was unloaded, the Great Ceffyl galloped down from the hills; didn't walk or trot like the ceffyls were known to do. When it reached the square of Pyxis, it raised itself on its great hind quarters, and howled, no, screamed at the green comet in the sky. It was a blood curdling howl. No one had ever heard a ceffyl make a noise other than the clop of its two front hooves when walking over the paved roads in their cities. Vela was on hand to see the event, and Mendel saw and heard it on his ship. Both brothers froze in place, Mendel in his chair and Vela with his back to the Great Ceffyl. For several minutes they both just watched or listened to see if anything else would happen. Vela took the stunner from his belt, and kept it at the ready in case he had to defend himself from some unexpected motion of the Great Ceffyl.
          Vela slowly backed away from the Great Ceffyl so as not to startle it, or disturb it with sudden movements. He thought that he might gain some sort of insight from the positions of the other ceffyls in the woods around the the cities of Rasalas, or at least the nearest handful of cities.

Vela had almost reached the security office tower. There were just a few more blocks to go. He thought that it was odd that there were no other people out. Usually, there were at least a handful of people walking about the streets, stepping in and out of the small shops, or simply just meandering about to get out of the house for a few hours. Mendel had made his way down to the planet's surface, and was now following Vela towards the office. He was making a crunching or crackling noise behind Vela, more of a scuffling sound really. He was scuffing his way through the remnants of straw that had been lost from the loaders on the cobblestone streets on their way to the square for The Gathering. Vela stopped abruptly and cocked his head to one side, straining to hear the noise; Mendel froze in place in one of the dark shadows near the corner of a building. Vela turned to look in the direction he had heard the noise and saw nothing.

           Mendel resumed following Vela as he continued on his way, both of them being more cautious. Vela listening harder, and Mendel trying harder not to be heard. Vela slowed down as he was moving down the street this time, hoping that the Great Ceffyl might be there next time he turned around.

           Vela heard the sound again... the scuffling was closer. He stopped walking and this time the scuffling did not stop. He waited as long as he could wait, all the while holding still, and when he could stand it no more, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand straight up. He quickly turned around, and dropped to one knee, drawing his side arm. It wasn't a lethal weapon, but the stun solution that was normally only ever used on a ceffyl would be more than adequate to stop any human assailant. Mendel could not believe this was all happening just like he had seen in his dream less than twenty-four hours earlier.

           The stunner was in still in Vela's hand. He held still, and waited just a moment longer to see if he could finally pinpoint the source of the should. He dropped to one knee, raising the stunner to a firing position. There was nothing to be seen, but while he was on his knee with his stunner raised and aimed at nothing but air, he heard the scuffling again, but behind him in the direction he had been traveling. Now Vela was starting to get worried. First the unearthly scream he had heard from the Great Ceffyl back at the square, the fact that no one was out and about on his entire route back to work, and now, what seemed to be someone following him that seemingly had the power to be in more than one location at once, but no where at the same time. He was scared; he didn't know what to do now.

           “Who's there!?” Vela spoke timidly, at a volume just above that of a normal speaking voice.           

          “Is someone there?” With his left hand, he started to feel for his radio in his left pocket, and as he did so, he felt the hand of someone placed lightly on the nape of his neck. The hand was cold, and as it rested on his neck, he closed his eyes, and slowly lowered the stunner, and pulled his hand out of his left pocket, leaving the radio untouched.

           “I never thought this day would come. Not in a million years,” said Mendel. “You're looking well, Brother.”

           “M-, Mendel? It can't be you... They said you were dead, well missing, or disappeared, or something. We looked for you for a very long time! Where have you been for the last nine thousand years!?”

           Vela was now back on his feet, and turning to face the man who had placed his hand on the back of his neck. He was hardly prepared for what he saw. Mendel was now very thin, and his skin white, and had almost a paper-ish look too it; thin, and almost brittle. Vela could clearly see the largest veins and arteries in his brother's face, as well a mixed look of anger and extreme fatigue. Did he detect a twinge of sorrow in Mendel's eyes?

Author's Comments - Chapter 4

Hopefully by now, I've started to show some improvement. I feel like I'm revealing more of the plot, and developing my characters more fully. Let me know what you think of Chapter 4 as compared to the previous. Have I really shown any improvement in style?

Chapter 4: Preparations

          Menkab new very well that Mendel had not formulated any sort of a plan. It was easy enough for a computer to study the empirical evidence of that fact. The two of them had been wandering the galaxies for almost 10,000 years-- visiting this star system or that. Mendel never showed any real interest in any of these exotic destinations, no matter what the planet or its people might have had to offer him. He simply didn't care. He didn't care about anything, and he didn't care that there was no one to care that he didn't. As a matter of fact, everyone he knew was more than likely dead, and so who would be there to care about him? Vela hadn't tried to contact him for more than four centuries now, and for all Mendel knew, he was dead too, until he had arrived at Rasalas and directed Menkab to look for him on the planet's surface.

           Menkab had an easy enough time of it. After all, computers were good at collecting massive amounts of meaningless data and scouring it tirelessly, limited only by the capacity to think given it by its human creators, and eventually finding the important tidbits that some human wanted to monitor. Menkab had kept tabs on Vela since the day Mendel had taken the ship from Earth, keeping him the subject of a low-level subroutine that would be sure to evade Mendel's detection. Mendel wasn't aware that the computer had access to all the information systems in the Fifty Galaxies through a series of network-to-network interfaces. Unbeknownst to Mendel, one of the software and hardware installations that was completed early in the ship's construction schedule included an interstellar C&C Module, or Command and Control. This would give the the home star port a way to not only track the ship, but direct it to return home or self destruct in the event of some sort of hi-jacking maneuver.

           Fortunately for Mendel, he had known about the self-destruction device, and had jettisoned it out into deep space just minutes after his first tesserotation to another galaxy. It blew itself up at the end of a two-minute countdown set on the device that would be initiated should it detect any tampering or become detached from the body of the ship. It was a miracle Mendel had even found a way to dislodge the device and get it to the cargo hold fast enough to depressurize the hold letting the suction pull it into the vacuum of space. Later that afternoon, he had discovered that the ship was on an Earthbound course, and used his administrative login to stop the recall, and delete the program. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, considering that the device that executed the tesserotation was only added to the ship just hours before his departure.

           The one piece of the puzzle that Mendel had never found, never became aware of was the indestructible information link that was created between the ships computer and Earth. Menkab was given a security subroutine that Mendel had never been made aware of. It was a basic installation that went into all star ships, and therefore would be overlooked if someone was looking for a special program or background process in the system. There was no physical hardware that was specific to the program. The captain of the ship could “jam” communications, but could not terminate the homing link. It was undetectable to anyone that wasn't supposed to know about it.

           Altair Grus knew everything about every place Mendel had been to, everything he ate, and even the times of the day when he slept or woke. Grus was the chief of security for The Fornax, the Monarch's intergalactic brute task force. He'd been keeping tabs on Mendel since being promoted to his current position over twenty-five years earlier. He was shocked when he came into work this morning and found the urgent message waiting for him in his communicator.

> URGENT MESSAGE: ALTAIR GRUS, SECURITY CHIEF [THE FORNAX]

> > > STAR SHIP, SERIAL # 44932A6019XDD # HAD BEEN DETECTED

> > > IN ORBIT AROUND THE PLANET RASALAS. PASSENGER LIST
> > > CONFIRMED: MENDEL OMICRON; [NO OTHERS PRESENT].
> > > AWAITING FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS RE THE FORNAX.

 

           Grus' heart began to beat fast. This was it. He'd been waiting for this for most of his adult life, ever since he'd first heard of the tesserotation theory. It was supposed to be just that, at the point in time when Mendel had walked out of the lab, and both he and the ship simply disappeared. Fast-forward ten thousand years, and the time had come. Grus had coveted Mendel; coveted his knowledge and the possession of the tesserotation device. Now, in his role as Security Chief, he had the opportunity of his lifetime. He would soon have that technology to himself. Leave the blasted Monarch's out of it. His loyalty to them was just a cover for his own selfish desires. He had used them and his position to obtain the resources he needed to track Mendel down.

           Grus logged in to his secure terminal at the desk in his scarcely furnished office. He navigated to his secure personal file area, entered the password “OMICRON,” and waited for the program to load. In minutes, he confirmed that Mendel and his ship were in range for him to gain not only information access, but he could now view the interior of the ship via the embedded tracking cameras that were the center of the computer's human occupant monitoring system. He deftly switched the view screen from one camera to the next, searching the ship for it's only passenger. After about five minutes of learning the layout of the ship, and searching from fore to aft, he finally located his target, Mendel Omicron.

           Suddenly, Grus felt his heart take another leap as Mendel turned to face the camera. He was speaking now, directly into the camera he had just accessed. Had Mendel seen him? No. That was not possible. It only felt like Mendel was looking at him. His gaze was deep and penetrating, yet empty at the same time. The appearance of his skin was not as Grus had expected—white, and see-through. The veins and arteries in his face and neck were clearly visible. If Mendel hadn't seen him, which was technically impossibly, who was he so intently conversing with at this very moment. He fumbled with the software settings to find the audio controls. He turned the volume up and picked up the conversation in the middle of a sentence.

           “... way to appear as a local while I'm down there. I need you to synthesize some clothing that matches the current styles of Pyxis. It shouldn't be hard considering that they all seem to wear nothing but gray.”

           “Mendel, they were only wearing gray clothing... uniforms actually... because the people were preparing for The Gathering,” Menkab replied. “The normal clothing of Pyxis is quite garish, and brightly colored.”

           “The Gathering.... it's real?” Mendel asked the question under his breath, but Menkab answered the question as if it had been asked of the computer.

           “Yes sir, The Gathering is real. The Gathering is an annual “festival,” if you will. It is a gathering of a breed of animal called ceffyls. They wander in out of the woods each summer solstice and “

           Mendel cut him off abruptly. “Don't bother telling me. I know what it is. I saw it in my dream last night. I just didn't think it was real.”

           “Your dreams, sir? I haven't detected you entering REM sleep cycles for the last sixty-five hours.”

           “I don't know how I dreamt it, or even if I did... All I know is that I did see it, and it was as if I was there. Vela was there too. I spoke to him. He was angry with me for everything that happened after I left.”

           “Very well. I will begin the synthesis process for your clothing in about twelve minutes. Rendering will be complete then, and it will take a further two hours and forty-nine minutes to generate a wardrobe sufficient to last through your visit to the plant. Would you like me to arrange for housing and furnishings while you wait, sir?”

           “Yeah... that would be good. I wish I still felt up to doing those things myself, but I'm just so...”

           “No need to finish the thought, sir, I'll continue to take care of you in any way that is needed and within my ability to provide. You should go and get some rest before the trip down to the surface. I'll have a supply of your maintenance medications ready for you prior to departure.”

           “Thank you, Menkab. I wish you had feelings so you could feel how much I truly have appreciated your companionship all these years. If everything goes according to plan, I may not have need of your services for too much longer.”

           “Your welcome sir.”

           Grus glowered with excitement. He was both excited by seeing Mendel Omicron, and disgusted at the frailty of the man who had eluded the all-searching eyes of the Monarchy. It disgusted him, his weak manner of speech, his touchy-feely language with the computer. How pathetic. What a waste of the stretched and pasty-white flesh pulled tightly over his face. As Mendel walked away from the camera trained on him and feeding the terminal on Grus' desk, he decided then and there it would be a much easier job of obtaining possession of the star ship and the tesserotation device than he had previously thought. He logged off the terminal and immediately began formulating his own plan, making a note to himself to search for newly occupied dwellings in Pyxis. He'd give Mendel a few days or weeks to settle in and get comfortable, sure in the knowledge that he'd avoided detection.

           Mendel slowly strode down the narrow hallway of the ship towards his cabin. What would matter if he slept another few hours before making his way down to the planet's surface anyway? No one was expecting him to show up, so the hours he was about to waste really wouldn't be a waste to anyone but himself.

           After the door to his cabin slid shut, he stopped short of the foot of his bed, and pressed the spot on his collar to activate the release in his suit. After a moment, the materials slowly half-melted half-poured from its highest point on Mendel's body until it pooled on the floor. He stepped out of it, and over the next few minutes, the material formed itself into a small rectangular box, about the size of a deck of playing cards, with the dime-sized activator in the center on the upward facing side.

The skin on Mendel's body that was normally covered by the suit was even more damaged and wasted than was the skin of his face, which he treated with a special blend of chemicals. His back was covered in a lightning storm of blood-red cracks that spread from the nape of the neck down to his tailbone. Similar marks spread down each arm and leg, both front and back. He gingerly stepped over to his bed, and crept in between the sheets, laying on his back, looking up through the only real window in the ship. It revealed a vast expanse of space, and was capable of zooming in over two thousand times to expose details not visible to the naked eye.

           Mendel stared out the window for nearly two hours trying unsuccessfully to fall asleep. He found himself reflecting on his spirituality and the nature of his soul when he looked out into the expanse of creation. How could he possibly live this long? God had not intended for man to live this long, surely. Even Earth's ancient prophets had lived eight- maybe nine-hundred years or so. He had lived for over ten-thousand years. But that didn't make him a prophet, did it? No; he couldn't possibly place himself in the same category with so many highly revered and righteous men. He had left the family he loved, not to save his people, but to preserve himself. He stole, he lied, he cheated his way through situations over the dark years of his life to preserve his own life.

           Clearly, God had intended as part of his plan that it was appointed unto man that he should die, so why had He allowed Mendel to live this long? Perhaps man had tampered with one area of science that should never have been explored. Why had he chosen to undergo the gene therapy that had let him live so long when he should have died so long ago. Everyone who had ever meant anything to him had been destroyed in the Cleansing on Earth just fifteen years after he left. His wife, Cassie, and his daughter Ara were no more, and he had done absolutely nothing to save them. He had known before they themselves knew, and he did nothing to save them, only to preserve his life, and this forsaken ship he now lay in. He felt his time was come; time to finish his work and somehow find a way to return to his maker in whatever manner possible. But first, he had to exact his revenge for the Cleansing. His anger comforted him... it was his only true companion through the ten centuries he had roamed through the universe. It carried him off to sleep, much as it always had.

           Grus had been absolutely appalled at the site of Mendel Omicron's skin underneath the clothing. His stomach turned and he felt like retching, yet he did not have the power to turn his gaze from the horrendous creature. How could anyone live in such a condition as this? By all rights, he should have died, with gaping wounds such as those. There must be something about that suit that he didn't know about. What was that? As far as he knew, no such technology existed anywhere in any of the worlds people with humans. There was no such things as “aliens” as depicted by ancient earth people in films, books, and television shows. Humans had only ever discovered humans on other worlds. Where could he have possibly gotten the technology for that? It looked like some sort of animal hide, but there is no way that animal hide could pour off a body and form itself into a neat little package, ready for the wearer to transport or wear again.

           “Ahhh.... Omicron, you've been a very busy man, these many years! I'm guessing in all that time in isolation, you've had the opportunity of a lifetime to develop technologies with that ingenious mind of yours,” said Grus, aloud to himself in his office. It was entirely possible, seeing as he was the man in possession of the tesserotation device. “I suppose that's just another thing I'll be happy to pry from your cold dead fingers. You certainly won't be needing it that much longer.”

           Grus heard a rapping at his door, and quickly turned off the holographic display on his desk, and turned to answer. It was one of his direct reports, Heze Volans, waiting in the hallway to bring him news.

           “Chief Grus! This message was sent to you from the Monarchs. It's past my security clearance to even carry, but it was so urgent, they sent it through a third-world courier. We found him in the woods attempting to “harvest” the Great Ceffyl. Turns out it was a ruse to get our attention so he could safely deliver the message undetected.”

           “Is he still here?” Grus asked, as he quickly finished reading the brief message.

           “No, sir. We didn't have any reason to hold him after he revealed the reason for his activities. He checked out with Rasalan security credentials, so we had him transported back to the woods. “

           “You fool! He didn't give you the whole message. Without his key code, this part of the message is meaningless. Quickly! Get out there and find him again! GO NOW! Take all of the available men you can find, and round him up!”

           “But sir, he's long gone, the released him already and with the Gathering starting shortly, it's not safe for the ceffyls in the region we found him for us to be on the road. Maybe we should wait...”

           “No. Go now. Your life depends on it. You have to find him now, ceffyl's be hanged!”

           “Very well sir. We'll do our best.”

           “Your best isn't good enough... just bring him back here as fast as you can.”

           Grus was infuriated beyond anything that Heze had ever seen. He knew that this time was serious. He ran back down the hallway toward the security staff quarters and sounded the alarm.

           “Gentlemen! Let's move. We've got a man to catch!”

           The four or five men who had just walked in the door from releasing the messenger in the woods looked at Heze with fatigue. They had just spent hours hiking through the woods, and new a manhunt was not going to be over very soon. They roused the remaining three men from their bunks, and together they all left the security headquarters in search of the man who had brought the mysterious message to Grus.

Author's Comments - Chapters 1, 2, and 3

I thought I'd offer a few thoughts on what I've written so far. I had a really hard time getting the ball rolling on this. It took me a good while to finish the first chapter, and then I spent another long while revising it. I feel like my discussions of technology are a bit long and cumbersome, and almost out of place, as if I were trying too hard to impress my audience, which is rather small at this point.

I'm getting a better handle on the story line, and I feel like I'm finally finding some direction. I know some authors try to outline their novels before writing them, or write pieces and then go back and elaborate-- I have simply been adding to the story line as I see fit. I'm letting the story tell itself through my fingers. I haven't set myself a schedule, and I think about what to write next until something feels right. That's primarily why I have not yet started writing chapter 4. I've been considering elongating Chapter 3, though. I feel like that part of the story isn't quite done yet.

Does anybody have any suggestions to make the story better?

Chapter 3: Regression

           Vela had almost reached the security office tower. There were just a few more blocks to go. He thought that it was odd that there were no other people out. Usually, there were at least a handful of people walking about the streets, stepping in and out of the small shops, or simply just meandering about to get out of the house for a few hours. There was a crunching or crackling noise behind him-- no; it was a scuffling sound. It was the sound of someone walking through the remnants of straw that had been lost from the loaders on thee cobblestone streets on their way to the square for The Gathering. He stopped and cocked his head to one side, straining to hear the noise. When he thought he'd identified the direction it was coming from, he turned that way. No one was there.

           Vela continued on his way, only he was more cautious this time. He felt his senses heighten, especially his hearing. He was moving a little slower down the street this time. There it was again... the scuffling sound again. It was closer now, and now, when he stopped walking, the scuffling did not stop. He waited as long as he could wait, all the while holding still, and when he could stand it no more, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand straight up. He quickly turned around, and dropped to one knee, drawing his side arm. It wasn't a lethal weapon, but the stun solution that was normally only ever used on a ceffyl would be more than adequate to stop any human assailant.

           When he stopped moving, with stunner raised at arm's length, he held still and waited for his eyes to detect movement. There was nothing, but while he was on his knee with his stunner raised and aimed at nothing but air, he heard the scuffling again, but behind him in the direction he had been traveling. Now Vela was starting to get worried. First the unearthly scream he had heard from the Great Ceffyl back at the square, the fact that no one was out and about on his entire route back to work, and now, what seemed to be someone following him that seemingly had the power to be in more than one location at once, but no where at the same time. He was scared; he didn't know what to do now.

           “Who's there!?” Vela spoke timidly, at a volume just above that of a normal speaking voice. “Is someone there?” With his left hand, he started to feel for his radio in his left pocket, and as he did so, he felt the hand of someone placed lightly on the nape of his neck. The hand was cold, and as it rested on his neck, he closed his eyes, and slowly lowered the stunner, and pulled his hand out of his left pocket, leaving the radio untouched.

           “I never thought this day would come. Not in a million years,” said Mendel. “You're looking well, Brother.”

           “M-, Mendel? It can't be you... They said you were dead, well missing or disappeared. We looked for you for a very long time! Where have you been for the last nine thousand years!?”

           Vela was now back on his feet, and turning to face the man who had placed his hand on the back of his neck. He was hardly prepared for what he saw. Mendel was now very thin, and his skin white, and had almost a paperish look to it; thin, and almost brittle. Vela could clearly see the largest veins and arteries in his brother's face, as well a mixed look of anger and extreme fatigue. Did he detect a twinge of sorrow in Mendel's eyes?

           “I'm sorry, Vela, I had to leave.”

           “What do you mean you had to leave? You left your wife and child behind on Earth. Left them to die with the rest of us who had no where to go. NASA discovered the space ship missing, the one they called the star jumper. You were the only member of the senior science team that had access to it twenty-four hours a day, unsupervised. Of course it didn't work, so they weren't sure how.... wait. Did it work? Did you find a way to make it work?”

           “I don't know, you tell me. You were working security that day,” Mendel said.

           “We didn't see anything. I didn't see anything. The ship was simply there one minute, and gone the next. Tesserotation was just a theory, not a science. Nobody could believe that it was actually possible, and you were the only explanation for the disappearance.”

           “Vela, I need you to stop and think a minute. What reason could I have possibly had that would have taken me away from Cassie and the baby? I didn't want to leave! Think about it!”

Vela stood there and let the anger course through has veins. It had been over nine thousand years since that day when Mendel had “abandoned” Cassie and their two year old daughter, Ara. Not to mention the fact that he himself had lost his best and longest time friend from off the face of the Earth with no warning. When he couldn't stand the thought of it anymore, he let the words come flying from his mouth, like a handful of fiery darts aimed at Mendel's eyes.

           “Mendel, there's nothing you could possibly have discovered that could ever justify leaving your wife and child, and the only brother you ever had. You were my true and only friend, too. You left us with nothing. You went away, and left them to fend for themselves, and left me in a dark place, Mendel! The government did nothing for your family after you left. They considered you a thief, a cheat, and a traitor. Cassie was exiled, and Ara taken from her, for her never-ending belief that you'd done nothing wrong. She said you couldn't have simply stolen the jumper, and she always believed that you must have had a very good reason. So, YOU tell ME what you could possibly have found out that is worth the price of losing your family, no, LEAVING your family behind without so much as a phone call to explain why!!!”

           “Wait, what... what did you say about Ara? She was taken from Cassie? What happened to her? Where is she now?” Mendel asked frantically, raising his voice from a whisper to stern, commanding voice.

           “No. You don't just get to come here after all these years and demand to know what happened to them. Where were you when they needed you? You act like you need them now, yet, you have been absent from them for nine THOUSAND YEARS, you ungrateful piece of trash! How could you conceive of doing such a thing!” Vela was in a frenzy at this point. All the emotions of everything that had gone wrong in his life, which he blamed on Mendel leaving, were rising to the surface in a perfect storm of anger and sadness.

           “Vela! Stop this madness. I'm here now, and I want to make this right. I've finally found a way to come back, and leave the problems I left for then behind us all.”

           “US? You have the audacity to include yourself, and shift this hateful act onto me, and Cassie, and... and to your innocent daughter? You must be truly mad. I once thought I knew you; well, that's certainly not the case now. There were times over the years when I thought I could feel your thoughts, or hear you in the next room. I would go to work and expect that at any moment, you might simply walk around the corner in your lab coat, just like you did every morning when you came to work.”

           “OK, I see that what I've done has caused you to have some issues with me, but this is hardly the time, or the place to have this kind of a discussion. Why don't we go to your home, and I'll explain everything to you..” Mendel conciliated. “Let's go. It's dark, and somebody might hear what I have to say, and then it all might start over again. But, if we go now, and I tell you what's happened, you might be able to help me end all this, and then I can find Cassie, and Ara, and then we can all be a family again!”

           “No. That's not going to happen. You simply cannot waltz back into my life right now, and expect everything to be hunky-dory between us. To say nothing of Cassie or Ara. You have no right. You gave all that up the moment you disappeared.”

           Vela, was on the verge of tears. He also knew that he had to get Mendel to leave him alone and go back to, well, wherever it was he came from. Probably that stupid hunk of space junk he'd been traipsing around space in for the last nine thousand years. He also didn't want Mendel to come home and find that he had taken Ara in, and she had taken him, as her surrogate father, when Cassie had been imprisoned for not staying away from NASA. Cassie had pestered them, day in and day out, convinced that NASA was somehow behind Mendel's disappearance.

           “Come on, Vela! Let me come home with you and I'll try to find a way to make things up to you, reunite with the only people in the entire universe that share my same blood!” Mendel was scared now. His world was beginning to collapse around him, and he wasn't sure if there was anything that he could do stop it from happening.

           “No. That's the end of it. I let go of you a long time ago, and I'm not about to go through it all again.” Vela was over the pain, and was getting angry with Mendel, and defiant.

           “Please, Vela! Let me ask your forgiveness—repent of the evil I've perpetrated against those I love!!!” Mendel was down on the ground now, practically grovelling under such a mental torment he didn't think he could live through it.

           “No. Mendel, I loved you once-- respected you and even revered you. I can't do it anymore. Go back where you came from, or rather, back where you've been hiding for eternity. Now, all Vela could think about was Ara, his brother's daughter whom he had raised as his own. Ara had long since grown to adulthood, married, and had children of her own. When she was thirty-seven, her family had gotten into a tragic accident that had killed her husband and three children upon impact. She had spent three years in asylum recovering from another devastating loss. Ara had never gotten over her father leaving her without saying “goodbye.” Now, she had returned home to live with her adopted father, Vela. She loved him as if he were really her father. Vela could not bear to reintroduce into her life the man who had caused the pain and anguish that ruled her life. She was home right now, watching the television and waiting for The Gathering to begin, just many other Rosalans were at that very moment.

           Mendel woke with a start. He lifted his head slightly, looking around his dark bedroom, finding the only source of light, a small round circle on the wall glowing in simulated moonlight from a nonexistent window. He was soaking wet as was his bed from the cold sweat that covered his body.

           “That can't have just been a dream. It was too real...” Mendel said under his breath.

           “I'm glad to see you're awake now, Mendel. You've been tossing and turning for over an hour now. Your vitals fluctuated some, and your heart rate was running at such a rate, I was afraid I was going to have to revive you again,” said the computer.

           Mendel's form-fitting suit was equipped with all sorts of electronic devices, and among them, were small dime-sized sensors strategically placed over key points on his body. Together they formed a network that the computer could use to visualize his overall health, and in fact, could create a holographic projection of any of his biological systems.

           Mendel had once asked the computer to show him each of the different visualizations of himself. He was completely impressed by the computer's capability. The endocrine system appeared as a collection of organs and glands floating inside a pearl white skeleton. His nervous system looked like a collection of green twigs and spider webs from head to toe, and the body was visualized as what Mendel could only describe as a clear, plastic shell with a blueish hue to it. His favorite visualization was the lymphatic system, which looked like the same plastic shell with what looked like still-frame photography of a a massive red lightning storm inside, originating from several symmetrical points on his body.

           There was no need for him to review his visualizations again... he knew what was going on inside his body. Despite the fact that his entire genome had been spliced with regenerative DNA from several species of land crawling creatures on Earth mixed with the genes of half a dozen alien species with anti-aging abilities, he knew that his body was beginning to rebel against its now integrated foreign parts.

           “Menkalinan!” Mendel shouted at the computer.

           “Sir? I'm not sure I understand what you mean,” said the computer.

           “Menkalinan. That's your name. I'll call you Menkab for short. I think it's rather fitting considering the fact that you drag me all over the universe. It's an old Arabic name that means 'shoulder of the rein holder.' I'm the rein holder, and you're on my shoulder all the time, whether I want you there or not. I can't seem to get any other clothing, the kind without all the sensors and built in communication device that allows you to hear and see everything I do... all the time. So, it's only fitting that I give you that name,” Mendel explained without rising from the bed.

           “You honor me with your words, Master. I am but your humble servant and you treat me with dignity worthy of the ancient Third Star of the Five Chariots,” said the computer, with a strong Chinese accent.

           The computer was being sarcastic again, and Mendel knew it. He'd programmed it to provide interaction that was more human over the years they were in isolation together. Mendel never felt like he could stop anywhere long enough to have real companionship again, and considering his outlaw status, he knew that would never again be possible.

           “Menkab, have you you located my brother on the surface of Rasalas yet? I'm getting kind of anxious to get down there.”

           “Sir, I have already taken the liberty of finding and tracking Vela Omicron. In fact, I've recorded all of his activities for the last 24 hours. Would you like to see some footage? It will only take a moment to piece together a decent two-minute clip from the available security footage I've been able to obtain.”

           “No; I'm not sure I'm quite ready to see him again,” said Mendel, reflectively.
          “I gather from your recent nightmare that you are not looking forward to your meeting with him. You know, it's pretty much inevitable, considering that your chances of success without his cooperation are approximately 14.8%.”

           “I know that, Menkab. I wish you wouldn't keep reminding me of that fact. And for that matter, you're right. I'm absolutely not looking forward to seeing him again. I'm afraid of what he's going to say. I am not even sure if he'll give me the time of day, let alone let me win his help in overthrowing the Monarchs.... For all I know, he might be a full supporter and try to turn me in, or they might be tracking his movements all these years in hopes he'll lead them to me.”

           “There are exactly three hundred million five hundred and forty-two thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven individuals in the Fifty Galaxies that have lived in excess of five thousand years. The Monarch's computer networks report that only twenty-seven percent of them are still alive, and out of those, they've ruled out ninety eight percent as not likely to be you. Official reports list your status as 'Unable to Locate – Presumed Dead. Periodic review required.'” Menkab was entirely too precise sometimes, even with the human-like adjustments Mendel had made.

           “It's nice to know they're still worried that I'm around, even though both my brother and I have outlived almost all the others who underwent gene splicing on Earth back in the day. They've got to be watching for me more actively than that. I find it hard to believe they wouldn't be watching for me when Vela is still alive. I'm almost positive that I'll be noticed the minute I set foot on Rasalas,” Mendel remarked with a bit of fear and a lot of fatigue in his voice.

           “Very good, Sir. What preparations would you like to make before you go to the surface for your meeting with Vela?”

Author's Comments - Chapter 3

Well, I've been working on Chapter 3 for a few days now, and it's not that I've hit writer's block per se, but I'm trying to boil down a few ideas in my mind before I put it down on paper. I really like where this story is going, and feel like it got of to a rocky start, but that my writing is improving overall.

I never thought that I'd be putting so much dialogue in anything I wrote, and thought that I would spend a lot of time describing things. I thought I'd run out of adjectives with which to describe things and never have any decent characters.

Mendel and Vela Omicron are very much alive in my mind. I know their personalities, their interests, their loves, hates, fears, and even how they look. I used to wonder how authors could conceive of the details they put in their stories, but never until now, did I understand how they did it. I finally feel like the "Creativity" button has been pressed in my mind.

I hope to post Chapter 3 in a few days, hopefully no later than the weekend.

Let me know how I'm doing!

Chapter 2: The Gathering

          The people of Rasalas, or Rasalans, had been preparing for what might very nearly be considered a sacred celebration... if celebrating the gathering of one of Rasalas' most unique species of fauna each year could be called sacred. Every year, almost always on the day of Rasalas' summer solstice which took place on or about March 15th, ceffyls meandered out of the dense forests that covered absolutely every square inch of the planet that hadn't been bent to the will of the humans who had settled there so long ago. They gathered in exact groups of three, placing their hind ends against each other and forming a sort of three headed sculpture. There they stayed for a day, or two, or sometimes three before simply getting up off the ground and returning to the woods.

           A ceffyl's hind legs were paws, with fur starting at the knee and growing down to dangle just between each of the 7 toes, which were covered in skin much like the skin of a chicken's hard yellowish foot. Where claws might have been expected to be present, there were human-like toenails instead. They were kept worn down by constant walking over the stony foothills of massive mountain ranges, near which the Rasalans had colonized because of the shelter they provided from regular heavy wind. It's front legs were just like a horse's, hooves and all, except that two of those same “chicken” toes grew partway up the lower part of the legs facing back towards the hind legs. The body of a ceffyl was exactly like the body of any horse that was ever seen on Earth, and some of the Rasalan colonists had hypothesized that perhaps some ancient people of Earth had settled on the planet earlier, and somehow, a weak leak in the genetic code of the parent species had allowed genetic drift to allow viable in inter-species cross-breeding. 

           The first time the ceffyls had come out of the woods, they wandered about, eating leisurely through the fields of wheat, corn, and barley, very nearly devastating eight of the smaller colonies surrounding the capital city of Pyxis. When they appeared the second time, almost exactly one year later, the people knew that they were going to have to do something to preserve their crops while at the same time not doing harm to the native flora and fauna. The Deep Space Colonization Act of the International Congresses, which was a primitive form of the current Monarchy, had imposed a strict policy to ensure that no native species on the colonized worlds were genetically contaminated by direct intentional acts or by accidental drift.

          Regardless of how the ceffyls were created, or had evolved, or perhaps simply sprung forth from muddy holes in the mountains, they were what they were; majestic beasts with beautiful and well-defined features, and Rosalan's were bound by the law to preserve and protect them from any sort of harm, unless they were in imminent danger from them. So, as the next year's solstice approached, a group of animal behavior specialists from Pyxis were sent in pairs to each of the colonies to teach them conditioning techniques to steer the ceffyls from the fields and draw them into the city instead, where they could feed them and water them without causing irreparable damage to their fields. Over the years, the ceffyls changed their behaviors and began entering the cities directly, and on their own; forming their strange groups of three.

          There was always the same number of them each year, and they always sat in groups of three and always on their haunches. They never did anything other than eat the grains and drink the water that was brought to them until they returned to the woods. Each ceffyl had the capacity to consume nearly 500 pounds of food and 200 gallons of water in the short time they stayed in the city.

The Great Ceffyl was known among all the many planets colonized by earthlings. The Great Ceffyl was half again as large as the others, and always came to the square in Pyxis by itself. No other ceffyls came with it. It was a great beast, with graying hair, where others had only brown, and its massive shanks were wrapped in mottled gray and white skin, giving it an overall ancient look when compared to the others.

          Over the years, The Gathering had become such a ritualistic experience and took so long to prepare for, that even Vela Omicron, whose normal duties at work included monitoring the interstellar space sensors around Rosalas was called away to the fields every year for a few days, leaving the security post behind for a while. All Rosalans left their jobs and regular lives to prepare for The Gathering, and since security would be low during the celebration, The Monarchs graciously restricted star ships to approaches no nearer to Rosalas than five parsecs. This prevented visitors and wrongdoers from interfering with the Gathering. No one had violated that perimeter in over two hundred years, and the watchmen had eventually been comfortable enough with the situation to participate in the preparations at Pyxis.

          The preparation for the Gathering took weeks, and for the last three days leading up to the event itself, all males were called to the storage silos to collect and deliver the food to all the locations where the ceffyls were expected to gather. Water pumps and troughs were installed in each town square so that water was readily available. All this meant that no one on the planet was aware that Mendel had arrived in his Galleon-class star ship. Rosalans wouldn't even think about it, and probably wouldn't detect his arrival until Vela returned to work re-initiated interstellar security scans.

          Mendel knew that his arrival would appear much like that of any other ship dropping out of other faster-than-light speeds to approach a planet's orbit without simply blasting right through its core, even though theoretically, his ship hadn't “moved” so to speak. His mind was called back to another discovery; one that he hadn't revealed to the rest of his team, and one he knew must never be made available, because if the technology were to fall into the wrong hands, it would have been abused. Mendel had observed that the octet atom didn't actually “rotate” along the tesseract. The final position of the octect or collection of octets on the tesseract was set by stopping oscillation completely for a nanosecond when the peak of the wavelength had reached the desired end location before restoring it to its natural cycle. This was why he had left Earth so abruptly... to protect his discovery.

          “Sir, so far as I'm able to tell, our arrival has gone unnoticed, “ said the computer.

          “What, this old bucket of bolts hasn't announced our arrival? I myself have seen this ship come into orbit from the surface of a planet... It's absolutely huge! It looks like someone has placed a bowl over the earth, poked a bloody-great hole in it and shined a flashlight through it!” said Mendel with disdain. “Actually, it reminds me of Halley's Comet. I should know... I'm seen it over one hundred times over the years, and from different planets in the Solar System.”

          Mendel was almost disappointed that there would be no confrontation with Rosalan security personnel, no surprise discovery of an unannounced visitor to Rosalas.

          “Yes, Mendel, I remember you describing my return after our first successful attempt at tesserotation. It was actually the same year that Halley's Comet was visible from earth. You were quite excited about it. You were excited about a great many things back then, not tired and worn think like you are now,” said the computer.

          “ 'Mendel', huh? So after all these years you finally decide to use my name. I'm not sure how I feel about that right now. It's kind of weird.”

          “I'm sorry, Sir. Would you like me to stop using your name? I should not have taken the liberty.”

          After a few moments of thought on Mendel's part, he replied, “No... I think I can get used to it. It's been so long since I've heard someone else speak my name. I'd almost forgotten it. Please; Keep using it.”

          “Sure thing, Mendel,” said the computer.

          Vela Omicron stopped unloading his rover loader in the main square of Pyxis for a moment, stretched out, and rubbed the back of his neck for a moment. Went it felt sufficiently loose, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes relax his heavy eyelids. He rubbed his eyes with his head still back, and opened them. He saw Mendel's “comet” ship, and thought the light from it was beautiful. The ship reflected the blue light of the Rosalan sun and the yellowish light of its moon, giving it a soft green glow, something like the flesh of a kiwi fruit. Vela reminded himself to look for the comet again later, when his shift was over.

          That night, the solstice began, and no one was prepared for what happened next. Or rather, what didn't happen that night. The Great Ceffyl galloped down from the hills; didn't walk or trot like the ceffyls were known to do. When it reached the square of Pyxis, it raised itself on its great hind quarters, and howled, no, screamed at the green comet in the sky. It was a blood curdling howl. No one had ever heard a ceffyl make a noise other than the clop of its two front hooves when walking over the paved roads in their cities. Vela was on hand to see the event. He froze in place, which was within feet of where the Great Ceffyl had stopped and screamed. It took him several minutes to regain his senses, and then he heard the voice calling to him over his hand-held radio.
          “Vela! Vela! Are you there? What's happening? We just heard a horrendous scream or something. Are you guys alright?” said the voice over the radio. It was Lepus Tau on the other end of the radio.

          “Lepus! Yes, I'm here. I'm standing, I kid you not, just a few feet from the Great Ceffyl, and it just bellowed, screamed... I'm not sure what that was. What's going on with the others?” asked Vela frantically and with much excitement.

          “The Great Ceffyl is there?

          “Yes, it's here. I came barreling down from the hills and screamed at the sky!” said Vela. “What are the other ceffyls doing?”

           “What do you mean, 'what are the others doing,' Vela, there aren't any. They haven't even come yet!” replied Lepus, frantically.

          “That can't be right. Have you sent scouts to the edge of the woods to spot them as they come out?” Vela asked.

          “Vela, you know just as well as I do that we always have scouts placed about as far into the woods as we dare go along the ceffyl pathways to watch for their coming and tell us of their progress. We've lost contact with them,” Lepus spoke into his radio, frantically. “We didn't notice until we heard the scream, and started calling out to them.”

          “What do you mean you've lost contact with them? That's not possible! There's hundreds of them on all the paths of the ceffyls. How can you just lose contact with them... All of them?”

          “I don't know!” Lepus said in a quieter, shakier voice than before. “We can't reach a single scout, and we've sent a few of our nearby feed haulers to check the two nearest paths for scouts. We sent them out as soon as we realized the something was wrong.”

          “Well, any word back?” Vela asked again.

          “No. It's too early to tell. The paths start a few miles from the square, and beyond that, it's a couple-of hundred yards to the nearest scout positions on those paths. It's going to take some time to get word, since during the Gathering, we don't allow vehicle travel other than to haul the feed. It's too dangerous for the ceffyls.”

          “Keep me posted. I want to hear something from you the very second that you have any news to share. I'm going to stay here with the Great Ceffyl for another 15 minutes or so, and see if anything else happens.”

          “Okay, Vela. I'll let you know if something develops or we have some more information back from our runners.”

          Vela slowly backed away from the Great Ceffyl so as not to startle it, or disturb it. When he got far enough away, he turned, and ran for the security tower to start up the heat-seeking surface scanners. He knew that he might gain some sort of insight from the positions of the ceffyls in the woods around the the cities of Rosalas, or at least the nearest handful of cities. And he hoped find some of the scouts with the scanner as well.

          Mendel was tired again. Or still; it was hard to tell the difference anymore, since his mind felt so old, so stretched, despite the messages his healthy young body was sending to the synapses of his brain. How had Earth's scientists managed to jump the gap from senility in the early 100s to join with the genetic enhancements that virtually enable the body to regenerate indefinitely? Sometimes he longed for the peace of death, but there was still something there in the back of his mind, nagging at him, nipping at him to keep on going; keep on searching. And so he kept on searching. He knew of a man on the key Monarch home world who had the information he needed.

          Mendel was not above getting violent to obtain the information he wanted; however, he did not want to, and quite often used methods of persuasion other than physical harm to extract important data from his subjects. Unfortunately, Mendel knew of no techniques that didn't leave the recipient with some sort of long-term damage, be it mental or physical.

          It was time to formulate his strategy, study the computer reports, and get down to the surface of the planet and find the man who didn't know he was Mendel's twin brother; Vela Omicron.