MARSA1-Part A Mar-Sa The Ultra-Girl Book One/Part One The Girl of Tungsten Steel by Jim Robert Bader August 21, 1997 (First Copyrights Only) 00000000 000 000 000 vvvvvv 000 000 VVVVVVVVVVVV 000 000 VVVVVVVVV 000 000 VVVVVVV 000 000 VVVVV 000 000 VVV 000 000 V 000 000000000 Mar-Sa, The Ultra-Girl by Jim Robert Bader Book One. The Girl of Tungsten Steel Chapter One. The Exile "The problem, my dear, is one of gravity and the inverse square proportion." Mar-Sa of Ninjarma watched nervously as Kar-Tor, her mentor, attached sensory disks to her bare skin while she lay back upon the inclined examination table in his makeshift laboratory, rather self-conscious of her nakedness, though the man gave no outward sign of paying her condition any notice. "How do you mean, sir?" she asked cautiously, trying not to appear too nervous. "I refer, of course, to the incredible absurdity of the humanoid shape, given everything we know about biology under such conditions as exist upon our planet," he replied rather airily, "Current theory has affirmed that we should be a race of dwarves approximately half our present height, and definitely not bipedal. That was the contention that originally led your father to question the conventional explanation of how life began upon Wolframa, or at least the version that has been officially promoted by the High Council, which-sad to say- also led to his eventual censure." "My father?" Mar-Sa reacted with surprise, "What does this have to do with his research?" "His heresy, you mean," Kar-Tor smiled easily has he turned from her to busy himself with a control panel, "Mar-Tan proposed a radical thesis that actually borrows a lot from ancient mythology to expound the theory of our race originated somewhere among the stars. He believed that we had been seeded upon Wolframa thousands of rotations ago, and that all life as we know it had itself been planted here by a pre-existing star-faring civilization." "That is difficult to credit, sir," Mar-Sa reluctantly conceded, shifting her weight slightly in spite of his admonition that she lay still, "One could hardly conceive of a more improbable thesis." "But not one that is more consistent with the evidence that we have uncovered to date," Kar-Tor casually noted, "Your father and I put together a rather extensive amount of raw data that he-unfortunately--did not have time to completely sort through; but I have devoted the last forty cycles towards that end, and now I am prepared to share the fruit of our combined work with you, Apprentice. It is the least that I can do to honor his memory and dedication to the truth." "Of course I appreciate the gesture, sir," Mar-Sa replied, "But why me? I am only an student Engineer, and I have not even received my Third Level Technical rating" "Ratings are for bureaucrats and those who lack imagination to appreciate true genius," Kar-Tor said dismissively, "I know your mind and heart, and I know that you come from the finest genetic stock our race has to offer. Your mother was only slightly less brilliant than your father, and that mainly because she tended towards more conventional studies rather than the cutting-edge work that fired your father's imagination." "I never met either of them," Mar-Sa replied, "Since I was birthed I have known only the Monitors and Tenders of the Natal Care Facility that I was raised in. You, as my Sponsor, are the nearest that I have ever come to having an elder." Kar-Tor smiled briefly, giving her a curious look before returning his attention to his controls, while she studied him in return with a puzzlement born of close association. Not a very tall man by normal standards, yet well enough formed to be considered handsome with a distinguished air that belied his indeterminable age. His hair was brown rather than the normal bronze color of most Ninjarmans, and he had well-groomed facial hair, which was almost unique among the male half of the population. By contrast, Mar-Sa was of average height and build for a female Ninjarman, with hair and skin the normal bronze coloration of Northern Wolframa with violet eyes set among rather pleasant, if unexceptional features. She had been told that she strongly resembled her biological mother, but having seen no representation of Technician Mar-Ta in the files, she was left only to speculate that this contrast was a favorable one. Kar-Tor being one of a very few who admitted to knowing her parents-alone could confirm the reliability of this estimation. "It has been my privilege and honor to be your Mentor," he said as he returned to studying his equipment with meticulous interest, "You are everything that I could hope for in an apprentice, and I find your performance more than satisfying, but I am not truly your father. The man who deserved that honor was taken from you before his time, and your mother with him, all because they dared to stray from the accepted path of the High Council." "But I have always been told that their deaths were sanctioned because they threatened the security of the state," Mar-Sa protested, "I understand that there was some doubt that I should even have been allowed to live because of that association..." "I intervened because I knew you would prove worthy of your heritage," Kar-Tor assured her, giving her a reassuring smile before returning to his adjustments, "As a senior Councilman myself, I had the authority to override their ruling in your favor. The Council was wrong to condemn your father and his work. His conclusions were entirely valid, and If you wish to confirm my findings for yourself, I will make the necessary data available for your analysis, but that is the truth of the matter, so there is no reason for you to doubt his or your brilliance." Kar-Tor then turned to another panel, and images suddenly flared to life in the air before them, "Do you see these rock-strata? They were taken from mineral deposits dating back no more than one hundred thousand cycles. Note that the carbon scoring only appears above a certain level, below that are elements consistent with a different type of environment than can support our form of life. High concentrations of Methane, less Nitrogen and very little Oxygen, and absolutely no trace of amino acids beyond their most simple and elementary molecular arrangements. None of the complex polymers we know of as organic residue have ever been found that date less than a hundred thousand cycles, and only after seventy thousand cycles does the abundance of life appear. From that we may infer that the Biosphere itself was engineered between seventy and a hundred thousand cycles ago. We also find the earliest evidence of above-ground settlement about this time, which means that life as we know it began all at once from a virtual dead start to the great abundance of life that we knew until the Disaster only a few hundred cycles back. The only traces of human settlement that date farther back than this are found in underground caverns, which is where our ancestors may have lived during the Terraforming process." "Terraforming?" Mar-Sa asked in mild confusion. "A word your father coined," he replied, "A technical term for a kind of Theoretical technology capable of transforming an entire world from a lifeless globe to one capable of sustaining life as we know it." "How could the first man father a race without a breeder?" Mar-Sa asked, "Surely he would have had to have had at least one woman beside him to become our ancestor." "The Hypothetical civilization that may have colonized our world evidently seeded our ancestors here after modifying our physical structure to adapt to the harsh conditions that must have existed before the development of a thriving ecosystem," Kar-Tor explained, "Mar-Tan suggested that Wolframa may have at one time been a frontier world turned prison planet with the settled population employed to mine the heavy elements our world has in such abundance. Evidence that the earliest settlements were part of such a mining colony give adequate support to this thesis and could explain why we were eventually abandoned to fend for ourselves." "I do not quite follow you, sir," Mar-Sa confessed, feeling a slight tingling from the sensory disks attached to her temples, "Are you a saying a technologically advanced civilization deliberately exiled our people here? Why is this not a part of our historical archives?" "Who says that it is not?" he smiled, continuing to work the controls as the holographic images shifted to match his descriptions, "Tell me, do they still teach the young of your quadrant the legend concerning the Ironstar Rebellion." "Ironstar?" Mar-Sa almost laughed, "Are we resorting to fables in order to explain a scientific paradox?" "Such fables may well be the ancestral memories that survived in oral form long after any written text might have been lost to the ages," Kar-Tor replied, "Ironstar is said to have been the first Man, created by the Powers with all the nobility and grace that humanity is capable of aspiring towards, yet he rebelled against the Gods and was punished by being exiled from heaven. He was made to toil in the Underworld until the day a descendant could ascend to the surface and find a land that was like a virtual garden paradise, and this world was called Wolframa, the Hard Soil, where mankind had a new beginning. Does that not sound rather much like what I have been describing?" "But a single individual could not have fathered an entire race," Mar-Sa pointed out, "You would need a baseline population of as much as several thousand people..." "Several hundred, actually," Kar-Tor corrected, calling up a graph form of linear descent, "Through the illicit tracing of DNA signatures your father deduced a colony of no less than one thousand, two hundred and seventy-six original founders, allowing for such variables as genetic drift and the winnowing out of certain bloodlines. That would be consistent with an army of rebels exiled to this world, and your father further speculated that the reason for that rebellion was that our ancestors were bred to be genetically superior to the original human matrix. Simply put, we were an experiment that went bad and turned against our creators, for which we were turned out onto the only kind of environment where our enhanced qualities would be neutralized and/or put to good advantage." "Enhanced?" Mar-Sa asked, "Now you really have lost me." "It is the only explanation that could account for why we seem perfectly adapted to this world," Kar-Tor smiled, "The Council knew your father was onto something important, which is why they have suppressed these findings." "Why would the Council do such a thing?" Mar-Sa asked, "It makes no sense from a scientific perspective..." "But not a Political one," Kar-Tor smiled, "I regret that I have not shared this with you until now out of concern that it would place you in a rather awkward position, but now I am prepared to move to the next stage, I have decided to be completely open with you. As a former ranking member of the High Council, I have had access to secret files and have been able to requisition materials on the side that have gone into my private research. I have gone much father than your father ever dreamed of going in proving his theories, and I have found the actual sealed caverns where the machinery of the ancients still exists, and I have spent the past few cycles analyzing how they work so that I might reconstruct them using modern technology. I am at last ready to employ this machinery so that I can prove once and for all that your father was right, and thus break the power of the High Council." "What?" Mar-Sa blinked, "But..." "I have told you how much you remind me of your mother?" he sighed, "Mar-Ta was special. She chose to side with Mar-Tan at the cost of her own life. She believed that his ideals were worth any cost, and I believe that you will feel the same way when you know all that there is to know about the work that we have accomplished." "That is unfair," Mar-Sa protested, "You are playing on my sympathies, sir, by naming people of whom I have never been permitted to know that much." "I know," he sniffed, "It is rather much to drop in your lap all at once, but there it is. You have been wondering what we have been doing out here in this cavern far removed from Ninjarma, living in virtual exile in this self-contained laboratory. I have kept the truth from you, for which I must apologize, but you would not have understood or believed me until now, when I at last have the proof of my claims, which I will now demonstrate." A new image formed in the air, this time alongside a representation of Wolframa, only somewhat smaller and different in coloration. There were more oceans, for one thing, and very different landmasses. In spite of her growing alarm at what she had been brought into, she found this new image strangely appealing." "What is that?" she asked in wonder. "A new world that I have just discovered," he replied, "I call it Earth, which is another word for soil, amusingly enough. I sent a modified probe to the Atlan-Chala-Four quadrant and it sent these images back through subspace, along with some data analysis taken directly from one of the natives. Brace yourself, this next part may cause some discomfort as I stimulate your cerebral cortex." "What are you...?" Mar-Sa began to say when the tingling sensation intensified about her temples, flowing down her spine and back again, causing her body to arch as her perception of reality blurred for a few confusing moments, followed by a white light that opened up within her skull and seemed to transverse her entire nervous system before the sensation passed, leaving her mildly disoriented. Oh," she gently exclaimed at last, "That...I feel very...strange..." "Hardly surprising," he replied, "I've just downloaded the implanted memories of the native subject that I have encountered in order to enable you to better understand their language and culture. Here is some of the rest of the data Probe 1138 recorded of this native, whose name apparently is Mark Daniels." "Mar-ak Dan-Yels?" Mar-Sa repeated, finding the words both strange and strangely familiar. "Yes," Kar-Tor replied, "And no, the third and fourth syllable appears to serve no special function. He does not seem to be a very important member of his society, rather more like a transient Minstrel, what we might have called a Bard in the old days of your ancestor, She-La." "Now we are onto She-La the Conqueror, are we?" Mar-Sa laughed, finding it strangely easier to do now than before, her normal reserve having become inexplicably relaxed. Then she studied the data more alertly and her jaw almost dropped, "Are...are these Bioreadings accurate?" "I've checked them several times, to be sure," Kar-Tor said, evidently enjoying her reactions, "A remarkable fellow, is he not? Lighter density, a less hardy frame and far less advanced musculature than what we possess, but otherwise near identical to our own form. Several internal organs are arranged differently, but on the whole he is a splendid example of a humanoid life variation that is so close to our own form of life that the genetic computability is a precise match to fifteen decimal places. Obviously he is adapted to different environmental conditions than ourselves, but in every way that matters he is entirely human." "Parallel evolution?" Mar-Sa gasped, "That is impossible! Unless..." "Unless?" he grinned broadly, encouraging her to finish her statement. "Unless we share a common ancestor," Mar-Sa almost whispered, looking from the image of the man to Kar-Tor and back again, "You are right...my father was right...we have to be related!" "Exactly my conclusion," he nodded approvingly, as if she had just impressed him with some far-reaching thesis, "It is my contention that we are not only not alone in the cosmos, but that there are other star systems with life rather much like ourselves, Brothers of Man, if you will, all related to the same ancient star-faring culture. Somehow that prehistoric civilization must have collapsed and left our worlds to fend for themselves, but the fact remains that we are essentially one people." "But the Council..." Mar-Sa began, then hesitated before saying, "They must know about this...it would change everything, our whole concept of our place in the Universal Order..." "Exactly," Kar-Tor said, "Which is why they have sought to suppress this knowledge." "But...why?" Mar-Sa asked, then answered her own question, "Because it would weaken their credibility with our people?" "And provoke them to ask questions that the Council would rather not have answered," Kar-Tor replied, then asked, "Do you recall the legends surrounding your ancestor, She-La, concerning the cult of the Keepers?" "The Keepers?" Mar-Sa asked, "They were an obscure religious movement that opposed material progress. She-La broke their power when she founded her Empire." "The Keepers are more than just a legend," Kar-Tor said soberly, "They were a very real movement said to descend from the time of Ironstar. In Legends they were specially appointed by the Gods to keep Ironstar's descendants from climbing back to the stars in order to renew his challenge. In reality, the Keepers believe that they are the guardians of Social Order. They opposed progress and individual liberty, stressing that human beings were innately corrupt and needed intense regulation by a fixed system of laws meant to preserve that order. Your father believed that they were descended from the Jailers originally charged to keep the prison population in line while the Terraforming process was in progress." "Why would they oppose progress?" Mar-Sa asked. "Because knowledge is power," Kar-Tor replied, "Ignorance is enslavement. People are easier to control if they lack the tools to question authority, and the Council has a lot riding on preserving the current system. Shaking the foundations of science is not the sort of thing that they want to encourage, nor is rewriting the history texts, so they would rather kill the messenger than embrace the message." Something new awoke in Mar-Sa just then, an emotion she almost did not recognize, a feeling of both resentment and anger, "How can knowing the truth about our ancestry affect their position?" "By bringing into question the very legitimacy of the High Council," he replied, turning back to the image of the man named Mark Daniels, "This fellow with the lighter build represents everything that they and the Keepers say humanity cannot aspire towards. He lives under an open sky with a pale skin complexion that implies only minimal solar radiation can penetrate the atmosphere of his world. Probe 1138 confirms that there is a slight industrial degradation to the environment of his world, which would place their technology at or around what we had over a thousand cycles ago, during the Mid-Industrial period predating the Great Environmental Crisis. It would appear his world is heading in the same direction as our own, but they have not yet gotten to were we are, meaning that there is still time enough to alter the direction of their progress. It would seem advantageous if we could offer them some of our technological knowledge to help them avert their coming crisis, in exchange for which they could assist us with some of our own needs, in other worlds, there exists a solid foundation for trade between our two civilizations." "That would be incredible," Mar-Sa breathed, "It could mean the end of rationing our material resources, a virtual end to Inter-dome wars between the different sectors of our planet..." "But only if the High Council would permit it," Kar-Tor reminded, "Which they will never do since contact with this world would mean the end of their stranglehold on power." "Saving lives is threatening to the Council?" Mar-Sa said in dismay. "Who do you think engineers those shortages that cause our city-state wars that play one half of the world against the other?" he replied, "The Council cares only about its own power and not the ultimate welfare of Wolframa. Our world is dying because of their obsession, we are losing more to senseless internecine conflict than we did to the overconsumption of basic resources that led to the Great Crisis in the first place. Something must be done to bring an end to this intolerable situation, and that is what you and I will do this evening. We are going to defy the council by making first contact with Planet Earth and bypassing their authority all together." "But how?" Mar-Sa asked, "The distance between star-systems...how far exactly is this...Earth system?" "About a thousand chulans," he replied, "Nearly twice as many rotations to travel to at conventional velocities. Even moving faster than the speed of light would take many lifetimes, but only if we used conventional methods." "What are you getting at?" Mar-Sa asked, "If you sent a probe to find this system..." "I sent dozens of probes out to various target sectors, but only this one returned the data that I was seeking," Kar-Tor noted, "Their system has a yellow-white dwarf star that they have named Sol, after an ancient deity in one of their primitive religions, whose output is nearly a thousand times the Radian level of our star. Their planet is half again as distant from their sun as we are to ours, and consequently their Solar year is almost twice as long as one of our cycles. The reason that I mention this is because of this curious factor that I discovered by studying our young Earth subject." He called up an image that showed two different hemispheric displays of the human brain, then magnified the image of the frontal sections and color-coded a particular gland sector. "See this?" he asked, "This is the Pineal gland of the forebrain, said by some ancient mystical sects to be the third eye or sensory organ. We know that it is sensitive to Biosolar radiation and that it is a kind of nervous conduit to energy patterns that circulate throughout the body. It secretes certain hormones that regulate the sleep patterns of the mind and helps maintain our normal biorhythm cycle, but it has long been speculated that it serves a far more important function vital to the overall health and vitality of the body. Your father speculated-and I have now proven-that this gland is the radian center of Bioenergy in the body, that it absorbs the very life-essence of a star and channels it to be stored in the individual cell structure of a normal, healthy person." "I still don't see the significance..." Mar-Sa began, but he motioned her to silence. "Bear with me," he urged, "Do you note the difference between the pineal gland in your brain from that of our young Mark Daniels?" "Mine is larger," she frowned, "By a factor of nine-point-seven." "Exactly," he smiled, "And subsequently more complex. This is the crux of your father's argument: that the modification to this gland is what gave our ancestors a genetic edge over other types of humans. Rick Shepherd is an example of what we may have been like before the modifications rendered upon us by the ancients. If so, then the implications would be staggering. Think of it: we absorb and channel life energy into our body, which enables us to withstand the high stress factors that I mentioned before. With twice the gravity comes a host of complicating features to which our ancestors had to adapt in order to survive here. We have fifty percent more density in our tissues, which makes us nearly twice the mass of these Terrans, which requires twice the force to withstand at rest, and four times the effort just to move, which means that we must be consequently at least ten times as physically powerful as the natives of this world. You could leap four or five times farther, lift twice the mass and move at a rate at least three times as fast as a typical Earther, but that is not the full extent of the difference. Consider again that the Biosolar output of their sun is a thousand times as great as our own sun..." "But wouldn't the increased radiation levels prove harmful over long-term exposure?" Mar-Sa pointed out. "The atmosphere filters out most of the harmful ranges, including Ultra-Violet," Kar-Tor pointed out, "Note that the subject has less skin pigmentation than our own reflective epidermis. It might be difficult at first to cope with the brighter illumination, especially as it is shifted more to the blue range of the spectrum, but since we posses a secondary inner eyelid that was designed to cope with this, I believe that, in time, we could more than compensate. In fact, we would be fortified by the intensified Biosolar input." "Are you saying that we could become like gods on their world?" Mar-Sa asked, "But...what about atmospheric density? Can we even breathe the same air as these people? What if prolonged exposure might cause the kind of physical deterioration that was noted in our early abortive space program...?" "Interesting questions, to be certain," Kar-Tor replied, "And I have taken every factor into account. I believe, with the right sort of conditioning program, that we could adapt to these special conditions and even prosper over time. A subject from our world would indeed be superhuman, if my theories are correct, perhaps even a hundred times as powerful as a terrestrial native. The only way to be certain is to send someone there who has the right sort of makeup." "But who would you convince to risk such an ordeal?" Mar-Sa asked, "Such a volunteer would be risking all sorts of unknown side-effects and...." She froze in the act of finishing her statement, turning to look at her Mentor with growing comprehension, "You don't mean...? That is insane!" "Unfortunately, I am rather short on alternative candidates," he said with a touch of sadness, "Now you can finally see why I insisted on putting you through such a battery of tests to learn everything that I could about your suitability for this program. I have implanted Rick Shepherd's knowledge into you so that you may be able to process it in time and learn to speak their language." "I have not agreed to this!" Mar-Sa protested, "And in any event you have yet to tell me how it is you propose to send me there in the first place." "By means of this," he said, touching a panel and causing one wall of the laboratory to slide back, revealing a separate chamber that Mar-Sa had never seen before, dominated by a large array of equipment that centered around a single raised platform upon which a cylindrically shaped chamber rested. "What is that?" Mar-Sa asked in amazement. Seeing devices that she could not even begin to identify from her position on the table. "A functioning Transpacial Mass Teleporter," he replied with evident relish, "The one we found was old, its vital components decayed beyond their half-life. It took me years of analysis to painstakingly reconstruct the device one unit at a time using materials diverted from other projects. The immense cost was covered by requisitions from the Council for other programs I had commissioned to cover for the needs of this program, but finally the device is fully functional and has proven more reliable than I dared hope that it would be. I have used it to send out those probes that I designed for studying various candidate worlds where I believed other intelligent remnants of humanity might still be located. The only two problems yet to be fully overcome is aligning the focus of the projectors more precisely. It requires advanced calculations to triangulate the relative positions and distance in regards to actual motion of two separate bodies separated over the vast distances of our respective solar systems, and some of the probes I have sent wound up off target by as much as a hundred thousand kaplans. The other problem I am still dealing with is the great amount of energy required by the device each time it is activated. I have had to tap into the nearest grid-net and arrange a sequence of false power- surges to account for the excess energy that I diverted from the main channel each time I have used this. So far I have been lucky and the Council has not traced the diversions back to this hidden cavern." "You intend to use that to send me to this other planet?" Mar-Sa asked, faintly appalled at the notion. "It is perfectly safe for living bodies," he assured, "Once I discovered the viability of this Earth, I sent a capsule containing a laboratory specimen to confirm that there were no undesirable effects for living matter. The capsule came down on a land mass in the Southern Hemisphere, and it sent back reliable Bioscans along the Sub-E channel that proved that the creature was unhurt in the landing. In fact, its Bioscans were so positive that I was at first afraid that there had been a malfunction, but diagnostic tests confirm that the creature was thriving in its new environment and that the lessened atmosphere in no way impaired its ability to metabolize the air in perfect health." "What sort of laboratory specimen did you use?" Mar-Sa asked. "A Lakrintha," Kar-Tor replied, "They have a larger pineal gland in relation to their brain and body mass than most other sorts of test animals, and a greater sensitivity to environmental stimulus. If any adverse conditions existed on this world, it would have affect the Lakrintha more readily than if the subject had been human." "So you're saying that the transfer is safe," Mar-Sa noted, "I am still not convinced, sir. Would not a trip to this world be effectively one-way?" "Not at all," Kar-Tor replied, "The device can home in on a subject and retrieve it, all I have to do is activate the recall setting. I can understand your reluctance to take part in this experiment, but I have gone to great lengths to insure your safety before even considering making you this offer." "Very considerate of you," she said with mild irony, "But I am not sure I want such a great honor." "It is not just you that I am considering here," Kar-Tor replied, "You would be the first, but others could follow your example if everything goes according to my plan. You would be a pioneer worthy of the heritage of She-La and so many others from Ninjarma's glorious past. We could select other candidates to establish a community in exile and begin to ferry material resources from this world that would replenish our own depleted reserves. The natives might be willing to cooperate in such a transfer once we demonstrated good faith on our part, and offer them the benefits of our own more advanced knowledge." "The Council would surely oppose that," Mar-Sa agreed, "But I begin to see why you have considered this such an important undertaking." "Exactly," he smiled, then added, "You may remove the disks and step down off the table. I have finished the initial conditioning process. It is time to move on to the next phase of the program." "Conditioning process?" Mar-Sa asked, grateful to be able to move at last as the disks on her skin had been tingling her body the whole time that he had been talking. "To ready you to survive the journey," he said, simply, "I was not merely inputting information into your memories, I have used electrostimulation to give your body added resiliency so that you may cope with sudden changes in air pressure. After all, the sea-level air density of this world is more than half what you are accustomed to, and it would not do to suffer from a nose-bleed when you are greeting your first Terran." "You've been planning to send me all along, whether or not I agreed to this," Mar-Sa said in a slightly accusatory tone while she finished removing the disks from her skin. She then moved from the table to retrieve her discarded clothing. "I will not force you if you truly do not wish to go, child," Kar-Tor said, "But I am afraid that time is of the essence. Will you not at least consider what I have said before making any decision? The future of life on this planet may well hang in the balance." "That is hardly fair of you," Mar-Sa replied as she finished slipping on her basic harness, slipping on her boots and gloves before covering herself with her laboratory cloak and cape, then gathered her now-long hair up into a bun so that she could fit her helmet over her headband, "You are asking me not only to risk my life in this experiment but to risk the anger of the Council. I do not wish to suffer the same punishment as was bestowed upon my parents." "It may be too late to consider that," Kar-Tor replied as he moved to the device and studied another control panel, "You have been mixed up with me since I requisitioned your services two cycles ago, and the Council has long been suspicious of my intentions. I left my seat on the Council after my disagreement with their decision to sanction your parents, and while they suffer my little eccentricities whenever they notice my activities, they would nonetheless gather you up for interrogation to learn all that you know in order to discover what I am up to." "Are you saying I have no choice but to agree to this?" Mar-Sa turned to him, now completely appalled at his manipulation, "In telling me all of this you have effectively removed my only other option!" "Forgive me," Kar-Tor replied, "The need is great, and I must prove the validity of my research at all costs if I am to convince others to join with me. Not everyone on the High Council is convinced that the status quo is more desirable than progress. There are scientists who would listen to my discoveries if I can prove their reliability, and then we could work together in secret to undermine the authority of those Council members doing the work of the Keepers." "This is all too much for me," Mar-Sa replied, turning from the Transporter to study the holographic image of the blue world and its side-displayed Terran inhabitant. For a long time she was silent, but then she said, "But I...would like to know what it is like upon his world." "A Blue sky," Kar-Tor said, "A golden sun, fresh air and water only lightly tainted by industrial pollutants. There is abundant life on Earth, life such as once existed in abundance on our world, before Industrialization converted the land to inhospitable wasteland. There is considerably more personal freedom in their society, and if you should happen to meet this fellow, Mark Daniels, then he could not doubt explain for you the other differences that make his world special." Mar-Sa slowly lowered her gaze, then in a very small voice said, "Very well. I will agree to help you, sir. What do I need to do?" "Come here and watch, child," Kar-Tor grinned brightly, as if he had all along anticipated her response. He at once began to work the controls of his device, and Mar-Sa noticed the tell tale sounds of its activation. She stared at the ominous cylinder at the center of the device and wondered what she was allowing herself to get talked into here, almost instantly regretting her decision. "This will take only a few moments to fully power up," Kar-Tor said, "Once the cells are fully charged then I will set the coordinates to match the projected orbit of the Earth and..." He paused, a red light flashing over one panel. For a moment he did not say anything, but then he murmured, "Ah...dear me, this is a problem." "What is?" Mar-Sa asked, almost hoping that the device would need to be shut down for a diagnostic. "A servo-relay has malfunctioned in one of the power-couplings," Kar-Tor replied, "It seems the strain was too much for the component, but it should not affect the overall performance of the Transporter." "The way you say that...is it important?" Mar-Sa asked, sensing his tension. "It is not an important component to the operation of the system," he replied, "But without it the power surge might become detectable, which will alert the authorities that something is amiss." "Then they will find out about your experiment?" Mar-Sa said, feeling close to panic, "We have to leave here before the Security forces arrive..." "There is no time," he said grimly, "And no where on Ninjarma where we could hide if they are sufficiently determined to find us. Security is rather more efficient than I would like, but there is one place where they could not hope to find you. You must go there at once before they can send a strike team down to this level." "But..." she started to protest when Kar-Tor seized her by the arm with more force than she would have believed possible and firmly drew her with him as he moved to the central cylinder, mounting the steps leading up to it and compelling her to follow. "I am sorry," he said gently as he opened the chamber door, then forced her to enter before sealing it tight, trapping her inside the cylindrical chamber. "Kar-Tor!" she protested, throwing herself against the glassteel partition in a futile gesture that she knew objectively to be hopeless. He moved to the controls and spoke levelly, his voice being transmitted through the partition, "I do not want to seem cruel, but this is the only way. You may formally complain at another time, preferably when you report back from a successful mission." The machine started to whine as systems flared to life and the walls of the chamber became warmer to the touch. Mar-Sa tried beating her fists against the partition to no effect as she felt the nape hairs along her spine begin to curl from the increasing static. A glow began to surround her, partially obscuring her vision as she watched helplessly from within as Kar-Tor made the final adjustments and said, "I do hope my aim is better this time than it was the last. If only I had more time, just a few more militors..." That was when the hatch at the far end of the adjoining room exploded inward, and through the resulting smoke and debris burst black suited security men in full battle dress with weapons leveled at Kar-Tor's backside. Her mentor ignored the threat as he depressed the final switches, causing the walls of the cylinder to flare brightly so that she could barely see as her mentor moved away from his station and began to run, ignoring shouted orders as the security men opened fire a few militors later. Kar-Tor was struck several times, and then his whole body seemed to erupt into flames as his blackened form crumpled to the floor, followed by what seemed to be a very massive explosion. Mar-Sa cried out in dismay as she saw her mentor falling to the floor in a flaming heap. Then everything became a blinding haze as even her screams were drowned out by the sound of the Transporter. Reality inverted along an event horizon as her mind exploded in a bewildering display of sound and color, followed by...nothing... (First Copyrights Only) (First Eleven Chapters) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- If you wish to check out my other works, Please check out my Fanfiction webpage at: http://s11.sexshare.com/~jbader/jimbader.html All related chapters of this series can be found there along with my other works.