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Preface

‘As a species, we were not prepared for dealing with the humans as equals, for we truly did not comprehend the great differences between us. More than just the physical differences divide us, although those are all too obvious. We are a race of virtually immortal beings, capable of great feats of the mind, such as opening dimensional portals and even changing our forms. We are a race capable of speaking mind-to-mind with one another. There is no chance of misunderstanding in such a manner of exchange; what one of us feels and knows, we share completely with others of our kind. Humanity can do none of those things, and are as much separated from one another as they are from us. They are practiced at deceit, not only of each other but even to deceiving themselves.

‘We Æthereal are all moved by the same imperative: to defend the galaxy and its life forms from the enemy of all life: the rapacious Grays. For millions of years, we had battled them alone in secret; always hidden from the eyes and awareness of the fledgling species called humanity. Humanity seems to have no common goals or even common interests.

‘The revelation of our existence was a shock for humanity and yet served as a catalyst for greater change and advancement in the war against the Grays. Partnering with the inventive and inquisitive humanity opened many new horizons for both species. It even led to contact with other species of Guardians created by the Ancients. It is through those contacts that each species has grown to be more than it was before. The recent battle against the Grays on the Ursar settled world proved that we are each more powerful when we work together than when we fight alone. If only that lesson had not been so costly for all of the Guardian races.’

—Amber the Gold, Historian/Archivist, Grand Council of the Æthereal

Chapter 1

Right on schedule, the meeting began in the conference area at the Borland Guardian Facility on Paradise. Ebon the Black, Guardian of Earth, watched as the facility began to fill. The facility, created to house the joint human and Æthereal force known as the Guardians, was both their home and the embarkation point for its many missions. As a part of the principle mission to protect the galaxy from the planet-stripping Grays, the Guardians also performed other missions. Divided within their species by color group, the Æthereal had eight functions. The Blacks, Browns, and Reds were warriors, charged with defending the planets. The Blues were scientists, while the Greens were explorers. The Oranges were also warriors, but their mission was to protect the Blues and Greens. The Golds were historians and scholars, and finally, the Whites were healers. Many of the mighty Æthereal had bonded with human partners in the years since they had chosen to reveal themselves to humanity. It had come as a shock to most humans to find their legends were true, for the Æthereal were fire-breathing dragons.

Together with the humans, the Æthereal had prevented a Gray invasion of the Earth, foiled a terrorist plot to detonate a nuclear weapon in Washington, surveyed other worlds and established settlements on a few of them, and more recently, assisted a fellow Guardian world in wiping out a Gray incursion. The cost of that battle had been high, and that was the purpose of this meeting.

In addition to Forrest the Green and his mate, Laranja the Orange, the other senior members of the Exploration Corps and their Orange counterparts were also present, along with their human partners. Danny and Katarina, Forrest and Laranja’s partners, were not there. Ebon and Negron were conversing quietly at the front of the briefing room while the last of the stragglers came in.

“If everyone would please take a seat,” Negron said after a moment. A hush fell over the room as the Æthereals sat around the table and their human partners sat in the chairs along the walls.

Ebon stepped forward, and said, “Thank you all for coming. This is one of a series of briefings we are giving to all the various branches of the Guardians and to all Æthereals. It concerns the recent battle against the Grays we fought in conjunction with the Ursars on one of their out-system worlds.” He let the group settle back and then said, “As you may be aware, we sustained high losses during the battle because of an unexpected weakness in the shield developed by the humans.

“In retrospect, the flaw was obvious and we all should have seen it. The shield does not cover either our feet or our heads. This means the Gray beam weapon can seriously damage our claws and allowing the beam to strike our unprotected heads is fatal. Scientists, both human and Æthereal, are working on extending the shield to provide protection to our heads and feet. Until a fix is found, however, it is important that all of us remember our limitations. Avoid any direct head-on confrontations. Turn to the side and let your human partner use the shield cannon to return fire. Is this clear to everyone?”

Making sure he looked each and every Guardian in the eye and that they all nodded their heads, he waited before he spoke again. “Okay, next point. The unalterable fact is the Grays now know we have a defense against their beam weapons. That means we can soon expect them to change their tactics and possibly their weaponry. It is an inevitable point of history that as soon as one side develops a counter to the other side’s weapons, it results in an armaments race to newer and more deadly military hardware.

“I bring this up because I want you each to brief all your teams thoroughly, here and at all off-world locations. Furthermore, we need to start contacting the other Guardian races to warn them about the probable escalation in weapons and severity of the Gray attacks,” Ebon said. “That is your mission, Celadon and Forrest. I believe you can skip the Ursars; they already know.” The two Greens nodded.

“One final point. From this moment on, no Guardians travel off-world alone. There must be a minimum of two pairs on every mission. If you run into trouble, your first duty is to return to let us know where the Grays are. I do not want heroes and I really would prefer not to add any more names on that Cenotaph.” The mention of the monolithic monument that bore the names of the Guardian dead was a sobering thought for the entire group.

As the meeting broke up, Ebon asked Forrest and Laranja to remain behind. Once the three were alone, he said, “I am not comfortable with sending you off on a mission without your human partners.”

“There is no way we could ask Danny and Katarina to abandon Katherine, Ebon,” Laranja said. “They are all she has right now and she is due to have her baby any day. That has not stopped her from making the long trek from her house down to the Chamber of the Ancients so she can sit by Spyder’s medical bed. Clan Mother finally insisted they put a pallet in there for her to lie on.”

Ebon shook his head. “I have not spoken to Astra recently. Has there been any change in Spyder’s condition?”

“Not that we can discern. Astra repaired the physical damage caused by the Gray rail gun drill that passed through his skull and brain, but he remains in a coma. Katherine insists she can still talk to him mentally, although no one else has been able to detect him, not even Danny or Katarina,” Laranja said. “It may be a part of their life bond. No one believes it to be just the blind hope of a pregnant woman.”

“Astra said that Katherine was also convinced she could talk with her unborn baby,” Ebon said.

“Talk may be too strong of a word, but they do pass emotions back and forth. Clan Mother says this is normal for telepaths,” Laranja added.

“Our own young have been known to communicate with us before they break their shells, Ebon,” Forrest said. “Why is it so hard to accept that the telepathic humans can do the same?”

“Because those telepathic humans were not born that way. They got that ability from one of the machines in the Chamber of the Ancients on Ursaria,” Ebon snapped.

“Even Astra admits the machine could have done little if the human mind did not already possess the capability. She says it merely awoke what was dormant,” Forrest said.

“My sister is a dreamer when it comes to humans. She spent sixty-five million years on Earth and the last three or four thousand of them studying humans,” Ebon said. “All right, I will grant that ultimately, it has paid off for both our species. Adopting human forms and human ways has made us better Guardians.”

“It has also shown us our limitations, Ebon. We may be almost immortal, but we do not know everything,” Forrest said. “Any time I start thinking that way, I just remind myself that it was the humans who developed the shield against the Gray beam weapons. It was the humans who revealed the existence of the other Guardian races from the captured Gray data. And if that were not enough, our very own Council Chamber on Earth and the tunnels underneath it appear to have been built and designed for humans and not us.”

“I do not need reminding of that. Azure plagues me with his attempts to penetrate the chamber on Earth but so far, none have succeeded,” Ebon said. “Well, do be careful, my friends. Where will you head?”

“To visit the Pride, I think,” Forrest replied.

* * * *

Katherine sat in the tall chair the master artisan had crafted for her so she could see and reach her beloved Spyder. She held his hand as she sat with her eyes closed and her other one resting on the unborn child inside her swollen body.

‘Spyder, I think the time for Meredith’s birth is approaching, so I probably won’t be here for a few days. Once she is born and Clan Mother permits, I shall come back.’

Her mind echoed with his response. ‘It doesn’t matter whether you sit beside me or are home in bed, I’m always with you. Our thoughts are not limited by distance, my love.’

‘I thought the barriers around the chamber prevented such a thing!’

‘Not to me. I am changing, Katy. I know so much more. I can move beyond this chamber at will now,’ Spyder said. ‘I can even reach our Meredith. You are right. She will be born tomorrow.’

‘Why is it that only I can hear you?’ Katherine asked. ‘Katarina and Danny have both tried, and so has Astra, but none hear you save me.’

‘It is our life bond that makes it possible for us to communicate,’ Spyder replied. ‘There will come a time when I shall awaken and then all will know what I have learned.’

* * * *

Korin gently carried Katherine up the long spiral ramp from the Chamber of the Ancients to Clan Home. The gigantic Ursar, resembling a twenty-two foot Kodiak bear, had been Spyder’s first friend among the Clan and Katherine’s as well, unless one counted the Clan’s youngest cub, Lili. She had attached herself to both Spyder and Katherine from their earliest days amid the Clan, especially after Spyder had saved her life. When Korin reached the top of the ramp, Clan Mother was waiting for them.

“You must go to your home and get ready, Kay-Tee,” Clan Mother said. “Your cub will be here soon.”

“Yes, I know. It will be tomorrow.” With a rueful smile, Katherine said, “I am so glad she is finally going to be born as I’m very tired of being pregnant.”

Clan Mother nodded as laughter danced in her eyes at this common complaint by all females of whatever species. “Be glad you are not Ursar, or you would have another nine months to go!”

Katherine groaned at the thought. “Korin, could I impose on you some more? Could you carry me back to my house?”

“It is no imposition, Clan sister. I would be honored to carry you there for you are no burden to me,” Korin replied.

“I will go with you,” said another voice. Lili stepped forward. She was no longer the small cub she had been when Katherine first came to the Clan. Lili was now an adolescent, standing nearly ten feet in height. Her fur had started to darken but she retained the lighter shades around her eyes and her upper chest.

Clan Mother started to object but Katherine forestalled it by saying, “You will be welcome to come along, Lili, so Korin will have company on the walk back. Perhaps you will come with Clan Mother tomorrow.”

* * * *

Once she was safely back in her home and the two Ursars had departed back to Clan Home, Katherine sighed. Katarina and Danny fussed over her, making sure she was comfortable, and she thought it would be a long night. She closed her eyes. ‘Spyder, can you hear me?’

“Of course.’ The essence of his being filled her mind and, for a moment, she felt his lips pressed upon her own. ‘I am with you always.’

Content, she drifted off to sleep. Perhaps the night wouldn’t be so long after all.

Katarina looked in on Katherine and decided not to wake her for dinner. She knew Katherine had not been getting much sleep since Spyder was injured. Katarina did not know how she herself would have reacted had it been Danny lying there. As bad as it was having one quarter of their conjoined mind missing, it would have been worse for her had it been her own life bond. Accepting that fact had made it easier to deal with Katherine’s insistence that she still heard Spyder in her mind. Perhaps she did or maybe it was only her fervent desire for some hope that Spyder might recover. Katarina had her doubts of that; she had seen people with serious brain injuries before and those who did wake up...well, sometimes death was more merciful.

Since Spyder’s fall, there had been no mental joining among them; primarily out of compassion for Katherine, who would feel everything the other two felt, but also because of the pall that had fallen over them all since the battle had ended. Katarina knew she wasn’t “in the mood” and she suspected even Danny had lost much of his desire. The imminent birth of the baby had them all on edge, too. She hoped Katherine was right and the baby would be born tomorrow. Little Meredith may be able to bring some joy back to their home.

Chapter 2

Forrest had spent the previous hour telling Laranja all about his first visit to the world of the Pride. “It is a beautiful planet filled with vast forests of conifers and deciduous trees, crystal clear lakes, majestic mountains, and some of the most spectacular waterfalls I have ever seen. The Pride is a patriarchal society. The males make the decisions, while the females rear their young. In many respects, they exhibit some of the best features of the lions of Africa that they so resemble.”

Laranja snorted, and said, “It is the lioness that does most of the hunting. She does the work and the fat, lazy male lies in the sun.”

Forrest laughed. “Of course, they are much more than that. They usually walk upright now and are tool users like the humans. Their cities are spread among the branches of the big trees, high above the ground. All in all, it’s a fascinating planet.”

Without partners, there was little preparation required for departing. At Ebon’s insistence, they had retained their saddles to permit the activation of the protective shield it included. While they wouldn’t be able to discharge the energy of any beams directed at them, it would at least provide them some protection from the deadly microwave beams the Grays were using. They also no longer had to consider a rider in their flying maneuvers; they could snap, roll or stoop if they needed to avoid an enemy strike. In many ways, this flight would be almost one of mating for it was the first time since they had bonded they would fly together without their partners. As Forrest remembered, there was this one lake, high in the mountains, away from the Pride villages, that would be a perfect place for the two of them to spend some quality time together once they had completed their mission to the Pride.

Forrest linked his mind to his mate’s and gave her the spatial coordinates of the Pride home world. Once he knew she had them firmly in her mind, they opened a portal and flew into hell.

* * * *

Katherine’s call had summoned Astra to her side. “Today is the day, then?” were her first words to Katherine.

As the next contraction hit, Katherine sucked in a deep breath and said, “Oh, yeah.”

“I know you studied the Lamaze DVD, so I want you to start panting through the contractions. You are not ready to have this baby yet.” Astra placed her hand on Katherine’s belly and extended her empathic senses to check on the baby. Katherine’s cervix had thinned, but she was barely dilated. It would be hours yet. The baby was in the proper position with her head down and pressing against the cervix. As she checked the baby’s health, she felt the faintest brush with the mind inside. She could sense the baby’s discomfort and also the determination to be born at last. ‘Soon, little one,’ Astra sent to the uncomfortable baby.

The next two hours were spent monitoring mother and child as the contractions became stronger and more frequent. Clan Mother and Lili arrived and took their positions nearby. As Astra observed Clan Mother’s own examination of Katherine and Lili’s rapt attention to what was being done, she realized Clan Mother was training Lili to be a healer. No wonder the Clan had been so appreciative when Spyder had saved this cub; she was earmarked to be the healer of the next generation.

“Where are Katarina and Danny?” Katherine asked. “I want them here.”

Katarina came in and sat by Katherine’s head. Danny sat by her side and held her hand.

“Thirsty,” Katherine said, so Katarina gave Katherine some chips of ice to keep her mouth moist since the constant panting dried out the lips and tongue.

When the next contraction hit, Katarina said, “Remember to pant,” and she proceeded to demonstrate, “Hee-hee-hee all through the contraction. Now, a deep cleansing breath. That’s good.”

‘You’re doing great, dear one.’

‘Spyder? It hurts!’

‘I know but think about Meredith. Can’t you feel how squeezed she feels? The sooner you get through this, the quicker she will be free.’

‘Can you help me?’

‘No, but Astra will if you ask. She can’t stop all the pain, but she can take the edge off enough to make it easier to bear.’

Katherine turned her head to look at Astra. “Can you do anything about the pain?”

“Yes, I can and I will once we really get started,” Astra said. “Now, what hurts?”

“My back.”

Danny moved around and began to massage the muscles in her back. The rapport they shared helped him pinpoint the correct spots to rub. He placed the heel of his hand in the small of her back and applied pressure, easing the cramps in her back.

As they went through this cycle for the next several hours, Lili was drawn to another presence she felt. Extending her inexperienced senses outward, she reached that faint consciousness. It was the cub! She was frightened and beginning to panic. Lili tried to radiate a calming spirit, telling the small human that soon she would be free of the terrible pressure and that nothing would be allowed to harm her. Lili could feel the cub respond to her thoughts, the fear and panic subsiding. Lili promised to stay with the cub and as each cycle passed, she would renew her thoughts of peace and love.

Now the contractions were very strong, and Astra told Katherine it was time to start to push with each wave. Katherine bore down, grunting with the effort to push her daughter out, and crushing Danny’s hand in her grip, her nails carving small half moons in his flesh. Astra extended her senses once more. The cervix had completely dilated and the baby’s head had engaged the birth canal. Katherine could feel Astra’s healing touch as the baby’s head began to crown.

“Now, push hard!” Astra said.

“I am pushing hard!!!” Katherine exclaimed through her gritted teeth.

‘Easy, love. You’re almost done.’ Spyder’s mental connection poured new strength into her.

As she strained and grunted, the baby’s head was expelled, along with a splash of blood.

“The head’s out!” Danny yelled.

Astra rotated the baby, freeing first one shoulder and then the other. “One more hard push,” she said to Katherine.

With that final push, Meredith was born. Astra cleared the baby’s airway and Meredith gave her first loud cry. Using her talents to close off and sever the umbilical cord, Astra then handed the baby to Katarina to clean up. She then turned her attention to Katherine, quickly repairing the injuries caused by the pregnancy and birth. Even the stretch marks became a memory.

‘Spyder, Meredith is here!’

‘I know and she is beautiful. I can see her through your eyes. Looks like she has all the standard equipment, too.’

‘I love you, Spyder.’

‘I love you, too. Now get some rest.’

Now that Katherine was recovering, Astra turned her attention to assessing Meredith’s condition. After being cleaned up from the blood and amniotic fluid, it was obvious the baby had red hair like her father. Astra probed the little one, making sure she had come through the trauma of birth without any injury. The child was perfect. Astra healed the navel as a minor repair rather than letting nature take its course. As she reached out for the baby’s mind, she found...Lili!

Astra’s eyes fastened on the young Ursar female’s. ‘Lili, what are you doing?’

‘She was frightened, so I calmed her.’

Astra tilted her head slightly as she observed the young Ursar. ‘I knew she had been strangely quiet, which is why I was checking her just now. I was not aware you had been in touch with her.’

Lili’s look was defiant as she said, ‘Someone had to help the cub. You all focused on Kay-Tee and helping with the birth. No one saw the cub was afraid but Lili.’

Astra reached out to Lili, touching her arm. ‘You did right, Lili. Your gift is strong and you used it well. Clan Mother should be proud.’

Another voice rang in Astra’s mind. ‘Clan Mother is proud of her young healer.’ The Clan Mother stood and walked over to Lili. ‘Very proud.’

At that moment, little Meredith stirred and opened her bright green eyes and stared up at Astra. This was not the first newborn human she had held; she had delivered Judy’s son David last year. It was, however, the first time she had looked into the eyes of a newborn and sensed awareness in them.

Astra focused on those shining green orbs and sent, ‘Hello, Meredith. I am Astra. Would you like to go see your mother?’ as she carried the swaddled newborn back across the room to the bed. As she handed the infant to Katherine, she added, ‘Here she is. I will see you soon.’

And for the briefest moment, Astra could have sworn she felt Spyder’s mind say ‘Thank you for caring for my family, Astra.’

Chapter 3

They flew into a sky choked and blackened with smoke, dust, and ash. The ground below them had been blasted clean and the fires that must have burned for days had finally died out from lack of fuel. Even high in the sky, they could feel the heat radiating from below.

They flew on. Everywhere they looked, they saw devastation. What Forrest remembered as sweeping forests were now nothing but ash. Huge craters gouged the sides of the mountains; the waterfalls were gone because there was no longer any water to feed them. There was absolutely no sign of life, not even plants.

‘What happened here?’ Laranja’s anguish came through in the emotional overtones of her mental voice.

‘I have no idea. We must search everywhere in case somehow, someone survived.’

They flew for hours in an ever-expanding spiral, their every sense open and questing for any sign of life. The bleak and blackened world had depressed their spirits as they futilely searched for something that might explain what had happened. They no longer even exchanged their thoughts, each afraid to be the first to suggest abandoning the effort.

As they neared the peak above the lake Forrest recalled so fondly, Laranja thought she heard a faint mental call for help. She banked her wings and drifted lower.

‘What is it?’ Forrest called after her.

Laranja sent back, ‘Quiet! I thought I heard someone very faintly from over this way.’

Energized by the possibility of a survivor, Forrest swooped down even lower on a slightly different track nearer the fouled lake, the only body of water they had detected. It was there, near the brackish black water, that they spotted tracks in the ash and soot. The undeniable tracks of a member of the Pride led away from the lake to a cave in the side of the mountain.

Forrest landed outside the cave and called inside, ‘This is Forrest from the Guardians of Sol. Is anyone inside?’

The response was so weak, he could barely make it out. ‘Please, you must help.’

Forrest shifted form to that approximating the appearance of a member of the Pride, deciding that might be less threatening to a cub than any other he might choose. Carefully walking into the cave, he soon found the survivors. There was an adult male, emaciated and burned, as was the adult female. There were also four cubs in varying degrees of dehydration and starvation.

‘Laranja, go back to Paradise and ready a place for them immediately! We will need clean water and at least a couple of Whites to see if they can save the adults. I will open a portal to you in a few minutes and start bringing them through.’

He crouched down near one of the cubs and it lifted its head to look at him, then drew back its lips in a feeble snarl. ‘You are not Pride.’

‘No, little one. I am a Guardian from Sol. I am going to take you where it is clean and warm, with lots of water and food.’

Forrest opened a portal to the location Laranja had given him seconds before, and he scooped up the cub. He was startled at how thin the cub was; it must have been days, perhaps weeks, since the cub had last eaten. He passed the cub through the portal to the waiting hands of his mate and then picked up another one. This one was too weak to even speak mind-to-mind, as were the two other cubs when it was their turn for rescue.

Forrest moved over to the adult female. She was so gaunt, he would have doubted she lived had her ribs not moved as she took shallow breaths. Still, even as thin as she was, she was a substantial cat to try to pick up. He lifted her limp body up and put one shoulder under her chest, lifting her completely as he stood. With her head and front legs dangling down his back, her long torso and rear legs almost touched the ground in front of him while her long tail dragged in the dirt as he moved toward the open portal. He had no choice but to stagger through carrying her dead weight and several Whites rushed forward to ease the cat off him and onto a prepared pallet.

He motioned for one of the Browns to follow him back through the portal as he knew it would take them both to carry the male. The Brown had brought along a stretcher the Whites had provided, so they carefully moved the unconscious male onto the litter. Even with their prodigious strength, the male was a heavy burden to lift. Soon they had the male resting on a pallet near the female.

The Whites, under Etienne’s guidance, were treating the large felines for dehydration, malnutrition, and shock. Although not familiar with their physiology, the family was close enough to their feline counterparts on Earth that Etienne felt confident of her assessments. None were badly injured, except for the male, who had a broken left leg as well as major burns, which Etienne repaired. She also addressed the minor wounds all had suffered: smaller burns, lacerations, and abrasions.

‘Do you know what they eat?’

‘They are omnivores but their principle foods are proteins, mainly raw. I believe they will find beef very much to their liking.’

Etienne nodded. ‘I shall have some brought immediately. It will take time to build them back up to strength. This is not something we can just heal.’

‘When will they awaken? Ebon will want answers about what happened on that planet.’

‘Tell my uncle he will get his answers, but only if he is patient. Perhaps in a few hours,’ Etienne responded, as she guided Forrest out of the makeshift infirmary.

* * * *

Danny was enchanted by the baby. She had her mother’s beauty, but the combination of the red hair and her grass green eyes gave her a unique quality all her own. In her first day, Danny had already taken almost a hundred pictures, trying to capture that subtle and elusive sense of awareness that sparkled in those eyes. The rest of the time, he merely watched her.

They had been unable to get Lili to leave since the baby’s birth. She had announced that it was her path to watch over the small child and not even Clan Mother had been able to dissuade her. Katherine had accepted her presence as a given, and that had ended the discussion. Lili seemed to anticipate the baby’s needs with uncanny accuracy. Whether it was changing a diaper with an unexpected gentleness or bringing the baby to Katherine for feeding, Lili was always there.

Katherine was currently breast feeding Meredith and she found this act to be the most satisfying facet of motherhood. There was more than simple bonding during these moments. She would merge her mind with her daughter’s and they would share in love and enjoyment. Meredith may have been much more aware than a normal baby, but she still lacked the language necessary to articulate her thoughts, so such sessions were more laden with emotional content than actual exchange of concepts. Still, it was a beginning, and Katherine used these moments to try to give Meredith the necessary labels for what her emotions revealed. When Meredith drifted off to sleep, full and content, Lili appeared to take the sleeping baby back to her crib.

Enough of this laziness. Katherine got to her feet and went into the shower. She caught her reflection in the full length mirror and marveled at the changes in her body. Although her breasts were larger than before, the rest of her looked as if she had never been pregnant. It was hard to believe she had given birth just yesterday. There was no residual pain anywhere. No doubt about it. Astra gets to be my midwife every time! As she showered, she had to admit one small correction to her previous assessment. The one thing Astra could not prevent was the soreness in her nipples from breast feeding. Small price to pay, however, for so much gain.

Clean once more, she returned to her bedroom and opened her closet. After donning panties and a nursing bra, she scanned her clothes. What to wear? It had been a long time since she had been able to fit into most of her clothes. She decided to wear the one outfit she had found she missed the most: her powder blue leathers of the Guardian Science Support Staff. The snug leather pants felt good on her once more, and she slipped her feet into the matching boots. The leather jacket was a bit snug over her enhanced bust line, but the extra tightness also helped provide support.

She brushed her hair until it shone and then braided it into a coil at the back of her neck out of the way. Katherine’s experience with her nieces and nephews had shown her the wisdom of keeping her hair away from Meredith’s tiny fingers. Looking in the mirror once more, she decided against wearing any makeup. Spyder had never liked it, anyway.

“Don’t you look nice?” said the voice behind her. Katherine spun around to find Katarina leaning against the wall that divided their two bedrooms. “I find it unbelievable that you had a baby less than twenty-four hours ago. You actually look better than you did before you got pregnant.”

Katherine laughed. “Yeah, now I have cleavage. Nothing like nursing a baby to add a cup size or two.” Pointedly looking at Katarina’s already ample chest, she added, “Not that you need the help. The men will go crazy when you start nursing a baby.”

“Well, that won’t be for a while,” Katarina said, taking Katherine’s arm and leading her out of the bedroom. “So what’s on the agenda for today?”

“I imagine we’ll soon have visitors to see the baby.”

“You must be psychic. Astra and Judy are here and Ebon and Eric will be along shortly once Forrest and Laranja are free to come here, too. There’s some kind of big problem but we’ll hear all about it once they get here.”

* * * *

The living room was crowded when all the Æthereals and humans were gathered there. Lili sat protectively near Meredith’s cradle while everyone paid homage to the sleeping infant. Talk had drifted from the baby to Forrest’s discovery.

“So the Pride home world has been destroyed?” Danny asked.

“Yes, although until the survivors recover enough to answer questions, we will not know how,” Ebon said.

Forrest, still shaken by the devastation he had seen on the Pride home world, said, “Whatever caused it, the damage was reminiscent of atomic explosions, although we detected no radiation and the survivors do not appear to have any sickness from the effects of a nuclear explosion.”

Astra added, “I would have thought it might be an asteroid strike, such as the one on Earth so long ago, or the one recently diverted from this world, but the destruction would have been localized rather than a global event.”

Eric asked, “Do you think the Grays are behind it?’

“Until I know otherwise, we should assume so,” Ebon replied. “It could be a coincidence that the Pride home world was destroyed so soon after the near-miss on the Ursar home world and the defeat of the Gray incursion in Ursa Minor, but I doubt it. I think the Grays are going after the Guardian home worlds in an effort to wipe us out once and for all so they can have free reign over this galaxy.”

Chapter 4

His head hurt. That was Ragnok’s first thought as he started to regain awareness. His second was one of puzzlement for he was lying on something soft. He carefully opened one eye. Where am I? This is not any place I recall. He could see Liara, his mate, still sleeping on a cushion near him. The cubs were close by; he could hear them from somewhere behind him. Okay, let’s examine this logically. What’s the last thing I can remember? That would be crawling back into the cave and collapsing near my dying mate, knowing I couldn’t save any of them and being ashamed to even look at the faces of my trusting young.

His ears twitched in annoyance at the defeatist thought. Well, you are all still alive, so get a move on. Obviously, someone or something has saved your sorry excuse for a carcass. Since they seem be taking care of all of us, they are probably not the Grays, since our enemies have shown they don’t take prisoners.

‘You are awake. How do you feel?’ The voice in his mind was strong and female. He swiveled his eyes and found its source, locking his gaze on hers. Not what she appears to be. She is not really this weak form she wears like a cloak. Who is she?

The female smiled. ‘I am Etienne the White, Master Healer of Paradise and member of the Æthereal Council. We are the Guardians of Sol.’

Ragnok remembered. The Guardians of Sol were the big flying lizards. An envoy went to their world when contact was finally established with them. She didn’t look like a lizard. She looked...edible.

‘I have taken this form to make it easier to be in this place with you to treat your injuries. I am a healer. You and the others were brought here from your world when one of our explorers found you dying in a cave after some planetwide cataclysm. Do you remember anything?’

Remember anything? He knew he would never forget.

* * * *

It was a glorious day. Ragnok had taken a break from his work in the Chamber of the Ancients to take his family up to the high lake for the day, a rare chance to get the growing cubs out of the city and back into the wilds. The cubs had just taken them to see the cave they had found behind some shrubs when it began.

The first salvo of kinetic weapons struck the city without any warning. Traveling at high velocity, they looked like massive hailstones. The effect when they struck the ground was catastrophic, releasing their stored kinetic energy in huge explosions of heat and blast waves. The trees were shattered and blown around like matchsticks. As more and more weapons struck the ground, a firestorm formed over the area where the city had been, creating a huge windstorm as the air rushed into the zone of low pressure.

Ragnok had forced the cubs and Liara into the back of the cave in an instinctual bid for survival. The adults had placed their bodies over the top of the cubs to shelter them and the very ground rang like a huge gong as the bombardment went on and on for hours on end. The air became choked with smoke and ash as the fires blazed their way up the mountains, consuming all vegetation. For a long while, Ragnok feared they would suffocate, yet the fires passed and the bombardment ceased.

After telling Liara and the cubs to remain in the cave, Ragnok had crawled out into the bleakest landscape seen outside of a nightmare. There was nothing left but ash. A few of the larger trees lay on the ground, still burning. There was the reek of burnt flesh on the air, marking the fate of all living things caught in the path of the fires. He carefully crept to the edge of the cliff that overhung the valley where the city had been.

Resting in the center of that devastated space was a large Gray ship. He was too far away to make out the individual Grays, but their location in the remains of the city awoke Ragnok’s greatest fears. Slowly, carefully, he made his way down the mountain so he could see what the Grays were doing. Finally crawling through one last ash-choked crater, he was close enough to verify that the Grays were removing the stations from the Chamber of the Ancients. Teams of the Grays, using flotation devices that seemed to hover above the ash-covered ground, were moving the great crystalline computers. Others carted off the devices that had been operated by those computers, including the medical bays.

Ragnok knew there was nothing he could do to stop them. He was alone, and unarmed, except for his fangs and claws. As he debated what to do, a Gray sentry had spotted his head above the rim of the crater. The Gray had fired a projectile weapon at him, and Ragnok had fled wildly across the crater in an attempt to get out on the other side before he could be trapped. He had made it, barely, and slipped away, the coating of soot and ash had camouflaged his fur to match the ruin through which he crawled.

As he made his way back up the mountain to where he had left Liara and the cubs, the Gray ship took off. As they flew overhead, they began to blast the area randomly with explosive shells. A nearby burst had lifted up one shattered tree trunk and dropped it down onto Ragnok’s leg. He felt the bone snap as the trunk drove him to the ground. Frantically, he had dug his leg free before the fires that consumed the trunk could burn him alive. Despite the agony of his shattered leg and the various burns on his flanks and hands, he had crawled the rest of the way up the mountain and to the cave.

Liara had done her best to help him, but she had no materials to splint the injury. She would go down to the lake every day to bring back some of the brackish, fouled water and to look for something, anything, that they could eat. There had been nothing. Weak from hunger, exhausted beyond words, they had all sunk into a stupor as they waited for death to claim them.

* * * *

Yes, he remembered and someday, he would have his vengeance against those who destroyed his world.

Etienne had been able to pick up his memories through his weakened shields. To distract the cat from his painful memories, she said, ‘Your cubs are fine. They have already resumed eating solid food, especially the beef. Your mate was not badly hurt, just exhausted and weak as you suspected. Your leg and burns have been repaired, although it will take some time for your fur to grow back. Some things are just beyond my abilities as a healer, I’m afraid.’

Ragnok had been afraid to move before she spoke, but once she had told him, it registered that his leg and paws did not hurt. He slowly sat upright, weak and yet once again whole. Spying the plate of bloody beef, he could suddenly smell it. Still warm and fresh. Without a word, he snatched up a bloody gobbet and stuffed it in his mouth. The taste was ambrosia after so many days without any nourishment, the warm blood sliding easily down his throat along with the smaller chunks of flesh he tore off with his teeth.

Revitalized by this small amount of food, he knew he should not eat a lot right away. Better to see how well his stomach handled this little bit before gorging. Wiping his bloody paws on a nearby cloth, he looked about and saw what he next wanted: a container of water. He slowly sipped the cold water, savoring each icy drop, feeling the cool liquid travel down his throat all the way to his belly. Before long, the container was empty and he put it back on the table.

He eased off the cushion, testing his leg and the rest of his body to see if there was anything the healer may have missed. Even as he recalled his headache, he realized it was gone. Whether the healer had fixed it or it had passed on its own was immaterial.

‘Thank you for your care, healer. I am well now.’

‘You are most welcome. I am called Etienne.’

‘I am Ragnok and she is Liara. Our cubs do not yet have their Pride names, for they are but younglings. We call them Firth, Rawli, Glia, and Scora.’ He moved to his mate’s pallet. ‘I must see to her.’

‘She but sleeps, Ragnok. She was awake for a while but would not speak.’

‘Liara is a dutiful female who knows her place. Pride females do not speak unless granted permission by their male or the alpha female in larger families. Although Liara is the alpha of my family, she could not speak unless I permitted it. This is true for cubs, as well, for they must learn the discipline of the Pride before they can become a part of it.’ Turning to his mate, he said, ‘Liara, wake up. There is food and water.’

She slowly sat up and then knelt in front of Ragnok, bowing until her brow touched the floor before Ragnok.

Ragnok reached out one hand to caress her head, and said, ‘You may speak, Liara, to this healer.’

Liara said, ‘Thank you, my Lord.’ She sat up and faced Etienne. ‘My thanks to you, healer, for saving my Lord and my cubs.’

My word! She’s a cross between a lioness and a Japanese geisha! Wonder how long that attitude will last once she gets to know the Guardians!

‘It was my pleasure to help you all, Liara. My name is Etienne. You must eat a little now and drink so you may regain your strength.’

Liara turned back to Ragnok and said, ‘By your leave, my Lord?’ At his nod, she reached out one paw and took a piece of meat, the smallest on the platter, and slowly ate it. She then took a glass of cool water and took small, delicate sips from the glass.

When she started to put it back down still half full, Ragnok said, ‘Finish it. You must regain your strength in order to raise the cubs.’ Liara bowed once more then finished the rest of the water. Once it was empty, she put the glass back on the low table and then moved gracefully over to where the four cubs lay, eyes wide, watching the adults and the strange being garbed in white. She lay back down; her body curved protectively around the cubs as if to ward off the approach of the strangers she knew must be around.

Ragnok ignored Liara’s actions, instead focusing all his attention on the being in front of him. ‘I must meet with the Guardians. They must know of what has become of the world of the Pride.’

‘I have already informed Ebon, the Guardian of Sol, and Negron, the Guardian of Paradise, that you have awakened. They will meet with you later today when you have finished regaining your strength,’ Etienne replied. ‘For now, I would like you, Liara, and the cubs to eat more and drink more water. You are badly undernourished. I will leave you for now and return later to lead you to the Guardians.’

Etienne rose and left the room, knowing that Ragnok’s gaze never left her vulnerable back for one moment.

Chapter 5

Ebon the Black and Negron the Black were in their full natural forms when Etienne escorted Ragnok out to meet them. As she approached the huge Blacks, she too shifted form, revealing herself as a White Æthereal. While the Blacks may have been larger at their three hundred foot lengths, the Whites tended to be smaller at no more than two hundred foot. Her scales shone with iridescent highlights, sparkling in the bright sunlight like millions of tiny diamonds.

Her transition and its hidden meaning were not lost on Ragnok as he gazed at her suddenly towering body. Just one of her claws was almost as big as his entire body. No longer would he ever regard her as something to eat. He was more worried she might decide to eat him, instead.

His ears perked forward as they came to a stop before the even more massive Blacks. He strained to see upwards into their faces, and the cold jet eyes that met his own chilled his blood. To think these mighty Guardians could also breathe fire as well as fly!

‘Greetings, Ragnok. I am pleased you are looking so much better.’

Ragnok somehow knew the voice in his head had come from the slightly larger of the two Blacks. This, then, would be Ebon, the Guardian of Sol and head of the Council of Æthereals. The other would be Negron, the Guardian of Paradise and Ebon’s second-in-command.

‘The skills of your healers are renowned throughout the Guardian worlds, Ebon the Black. I am pleased they chose to save my worthless self, if only so I may report to the others the tragedy of the Pride home world,’ Ragnok replied.

Etienne snorted. ‘The life of every Guardian is precious, Ragnok. The lives of you and your family are doubly so since you are the only survivors of your world. It was our honor to have helped succor you in your time of need. If you owe a debt to anyone, it would be to Forrest the Green and Laranja the Orange, for it was they who scoured your world for survivors and thus brought you to safety.’

‘That is a debt I and my family will spend a lifetime repaying, Master Healer.” Ragnok directed his gaze back into the cold jet eyes of Ebon. ‘Great Guardian of Sol, it was the Grays who attacked and destroyed my home world.’

‘You are sure of this?’ Negron demanded.

Ragnok described the bombardment of his world and the subsequent landing by the Grays. His mental tones shifted from anger at the alien intruders to chagrin at his inability to strike back or protect his family as he recited the events.

Ragnok fell silent. Ebon, stirred by the feline’s recitation, said, ‘You have omitted some details. You do not speak of the second and third degree burns that covered your arms, paws, face and chest, nor that the break in your leg left the bone exposed through your skin. You do not mention the days you spent in the cave, knowing that death by starvation was all you could expect. You do not mention the fear of seeing your cubs and mate die before your eyes. You need not feel any shame, Ragnok, for you have survived what none should have. Because you have survived, the remaining Guardian worlds are more prepared for when the Grays come after them.’

Ragnok stood a little straighter with a hint of pride in his eyes rather than the defeated and haunted expression that had dwelt there before. ‘My biggest regret is that I had been so close to solving the problem I was working on, but I took the day off because my cubs asked me to take them to the lake. If I had not...’

‘You would have died with the rest of your world, and your family with you,’ Negron said. ‘What problem were you dealing with that causes such regret?’

‘I was developing a shield that would stop projectile and beam weapons and, on a large scale, would have enclosed our world, stopping those kinetic weapons from ever striking.’

The two Black guardians exchanged a meaningful glance, and then Ebon said, ‘Tell me, Ragnok, could such a shield be made small enough to be carried by a Guardian?’

* * * *

Forrest stood admiring the framed photograph of Katherine while Laranja fussed over Meredith. He had to admit that Katherine was truly a beautiful woman and yet that beauty was secondary in this image; the power of incipient motherhood overcame everything else in the picture. Forrest smiled. My partner is a true artist. No, a genius.

Laranja carried the baby over to him. Forrest admired the small human, but really had no interest in children in general. He found them noisy, disruptive, and occasionally smelly. This one was quiet, though. His gaze was snared by the pair of grass green eyes that seemed to be assessing him. ‘Hello, Meredith.’ He could sense a response, although he had no idea what it meant.

As he broke free of Meredith’s gaze, they caught on the intent stare coming from the young Ursar female. Forrest had no doubt that if she thought he was in any way a threat to the child, she would attempt to tear him to pieces. Recalling the retractable claws they carried, Forrest had no doubt she could easily kill most threats. He smiled at her to show he meant no harm.

Danny came over and said, “I saw you admiring the picture.”

“It is excellent; perhaps your best work,” Forrest said. “You could sell this image and make a fortune.”

“I know, and at one time, that would have mattered to me,” Danny said. “But since all my financial needs are met, I can now pursue my art for its own sake. I took this image for Katherine as well as for myself.”

“I can see the deep love you have for her in this image, Danny. Under the circumstances, it is a blessing the four of you found each other and formed this family together.”

“You know Katherine still talks with Spyder. He’s not dead,” Danny said.

“I know she believes he is not, Danny, but that does not make it a fact,” Forrest said.

“Forrest, you should talk to Astra. She swears she has heard him, too.”

Chapter 6

The largest briefing room on Paradise was filled to capacity. Not only were Azure and Indigo present, along with all the senior members of the Æthereal Science Corps, hundreds of human theoretical physicists had also been brought in from Earth. Most of these scientists had dealt with the Æthereal but it had still taken many hours to convince them that the large striped lionlike creature was actually a leading scientist of another race of beings.

Ebon the Black stepped forward to open the meeting. “Good afternoon. I want to welcome many of you to Paradise and the Borland Guardian Facility for the first time. For those of you who have not been out of your labs for the last year or two, I am Ebon, the Guardian of Earth and the head of the Æthereal Council. You have been invited here to listen to a presentation by Ragnok, a scientist of the Pride. Since Ragnok cannot speak to you in your native languages, this briefing will be provided through telepathic means.”

Ebon let the group resettle after some of the new human scientists had been taken aback by the idea of someone intruding in their minds. “If there are those among you who do not wish to take part, you may now leave. I will tell you that should you leave, you will miss out on a major scientific breakthrough that may save your world, as well as all the other worlds protected by the Guardians in this galaxy.”

He waited, although he knew no one would leave. The scientific mind was predictable in its desire to be at the forefront of discovery. “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ragnok.”

Ragnok took center stage before the large whiteboard, a marker in his paw. Liara had prepared him for this day by bathing him and then brushing his fur until it shone, and had fluffed his black mane until it surrounded his head. There was little she could do to cover the marks from the burns he had suffered. His long tail twitched as he surveyed the throng seated in the tiers before him. He knew the ones in dark blue were really the huge Æthereal in human avatar. The remaining seats were filled with humans.

‘Greetings. In the course of my work with the artifacts in the Chamber of the Ancients, I became convinced it would be possible to adapt their technology in a new and innovative manner. The Ancients’ use of subspace technology to form interconnections between their crystalline computers and the different stations translated the signals between them through a different dimension of reality. I postulated that it might be possible to adapt that translation to another purpose.

‘Suppose an object could be surrounded with a field of this subspace. Would anything from outside that field be able to reach the object in the center? If not, what would become of the object attempting to translate through the field? What effect would the field have upon the object it surrounded?

‘I began my experiments faced with the first challenge. The Ancients generated their subspace fields using a point-to-point methodology. I had to devise some means of generating the field in a broader manner. It took me several years of experimentation, but I finally created a subspace field that extended in an arc covering a distance equal to one of your meters. My initial field was very weak and, admittedly, a little erratic but it served to prove the feasibility of deploying a field outside of instantaneous point-to-point communications.

‘To test the second question, I placed a fragile statue behind the field and then fired a variety of weapons at it. No projectile, without regard to its size or velocity, could penetrate it. As soon as the projectile came in contact with the field, it disappeared from this plane of existence. I next used various particle beam weapons after mounting detectors all over the statue. No particles, not protons, neutrons, electrons, or even mesons, were able to penetrate the subspace barrier. Because I could still see the object, I suspected that light could still pass through the barrier. I found that by tuning the subspace field, I could admit some frequencies while blocking others. The biggest challenge proved to be permitting the passage of ordinary white light, while blocking anything harmful from the broad spectrum of lasers common throughout the galaxy. Once again, I turned to the properties of the fields used by the Ancients.

‘The Ancients assigned different frequencies to segregate their signals between different points in the devices. I developed a method of shifting the frequencies of the subspace field at an extremely high rate. This caused the coherent lasers to scatter upon contact with the field, losing their coherence and thus, negating their threat. This had no impact on the field’s ability to interdict projectiles. In fact, the destruction of the projectiles had approached an instantaneous rate.

‘Next I explored the impact of the field on the object it enclosed. I began with sheer instrumentation but could detect nothing that could be seen as harmful. I graduated to small test animals, which I dissected afterwards. Again, no harmful effects were noted. I slowly moved up in scale with larger and larger animals without finding a single harmful effect. I was finally prepared to enclose a volunteer test subject in the field for several days. The Gray attack prevented that experiment from taking place.

‘At the time of the attack, I had the goal of two practical applications. The first was to be a self-contained individual shield for the warriors to protect them during combat with the Grays. The second has been ultimately demonstrated as the most vital, and that would be a shield surrounding and protecting an entire planet.’

Ragnok paused to sip from the glass of water and then indicated he would entertain questions. For the next six hours, using the whiteboard and the arcane symbols of higher mathematics, he explained his discoveries and answered thousands of questions.

Ebon shook his head, admitting that he stopped understanding anything the group was discussing when Ragnok had finished his opening remarks. He could see by the number of scientists scribbling notes and postulating ideas that Ragnok’s discovery had lit a fire in every mind in that room. He signaled Azure, who stood up to take control of the group.

“This has been extremely productive but we are now starting to trample one another with our ideas. I would recommend we break into smaller groups. I would like half of the groups to focus on perfecting an individual shield, while the rest devote their minds to the development of a defense for the planet. I know it goes without saying how important this work is to all of our species and how vital it is that the security on this project be greater than anything ever before done by any of us. Should the Grays even get a hint of this technology, we can be assured they will attack before we can complete our work. As they showed at Ragnok’s home world, when it comes to those whom they see as a threat, they are no longer interested in salvaging resources. They are prepared to destroy the entire planet to wipe us out.” He paused and looked each scientist in the eye. “It is up to us to stop them from destroying our worlds.”

* * * *

Danny and Katarina had walked off toward the lake hand in hand, leaving Katherine behind while she was feeding the baby. She knew the couple needed some time alone because privacy within the house had been difficult since Meredith arrived. The fact they were out of the house meant she could go take a nap once Meredith was fed. Lili would watch the baby while Katherine rested.

Once Meredith was back in Lili’s gentle care, Katherine returned to her bedroom. After kicking off her boots and hanging up her leather jacket, she stretched out on the bed and let her mind wander to Spyder.

‘Spyder, how are you today?’

‘Improving. Learning. Changing.’

‘I miss you so much.’

‘I know. It won’t be much longer.’ She could feel his presence in the room as if he were actually beside her in their bed, his hands caressing her body. As the sensations increased, Katherine realized she was feeling the interaction between Katarina and Danny somewhere out by the lake. After their prolonged abstinence, they were finally enjoying each other in the fullest manner possible. She let herself relax into the meld completely and knew that Spyder was there as well. It was glorious.

* * * *

‘How did the meeting go, my Lord?’ Liara asked Ragnok when he entered the den assigned to the refugee Pride family.

Ragnok was pleased. ‘It went very well. The human and Guardian scientists were very receptive to my work. I will be overseeing the work of both teams as they labor to develop the personal and global subspace shields.’

Liara moved behind Ragnok. She knew from long experience that her mate detested speaking to large groups and his tension would manifest in the muscles in his back and shoulders. She began kneading the massive muscles in his upper back, working her supple digits into the knots she felt there, easing them away. As she worked, she asked, ‘Husband, it seems we are all that is left of our culture. May we not drop the charade that we have maintained all this time?’

Ragnok reached up one of his huge paws and patted the one of hers lying motionless on his shoulder. ‘I hope so, Liara. For now, let us keep up appearances until we can be sure of how this society functions.’

Not a trace of her emotions showed on her carefully controlled features. Her mind was hidden behind carefully crafted barriers that permitted her to catch his thoughts, yet protected her own from discovery. Her rebellion against the strictures placed on her position in society was not unusual; many of the females in the city used to meet to discuss their lot in life. These sessions had turned into forbidden territories when one female tried to teach the others to read. Ragnok had caught Liara as she struggled to read one of his text books. Rather than punish her, he had helped her learn more. Whenever she had trouble with some of the material, Ragnok would explain. Soon, they began discussing his work, and she became both his sounding board and a collaborator in his research.

The destruction of their world was a terrible thing, yet it offered them a chance to be truly partners in a way their society had forbidden. At least, it would if Ragnok had the courage to break out of the façade he been forced to maintain all these years. ‘The cubs are looking better but they need more exercise,’ Ragnok said to change the subject.

Liara responded, ‘There are limited resources within this place for them to exercise.’

‘Tomorrow you should try to take the cubs outside. There must be some trees somewhere on this planet!’

Even as she nodded her acceptance of his suggestion, Liara thought, How can I possibly do such a thing? I know nothing of what’s beyond this room. Perhaps I can speak with the White one again. Perhaps about more than just trees.

Chapter 7

“What, in your opinion, is the worst possible outcome from the Grays possessing the artifacts from the Chamber of the Ancients?” Ebon asked.

Azure replied, “The worst possible outcome would be their use of Ancient technology to develop a weapon capable of wiping us out, obviously. If they can somehow interface with the crystalline computers, they would gain access to all the knowledge of the Ancients, which means, they would know how we were constructed and that might give them a method to destroy us without harming the planets they want. They could gain the use of instantaneous teleportation, negating their dependence on physical travel through interstellar space. The list goes on and on, and it is all bad.”

Ebon sighed. “I was afraid you would say something like that. I had reached the same conclusions myself, but I had hoped I was just being overly pessimistic. So we are essentially in a race to unravel the secrets of the Ancients.”

“Except we don’t have access to a Chamber of the Ancients. I am not sure the Ursars would be willing to let us have full access to their Chamber,” Azure said.

“I know, and you are no closer to penetrating the one on Earth than you were months ago,” Ebon said. Azure frowned and Ebon held up his hand, saying, “That was not meant disparagingly, my old friend. I know you and your partner have tried as many approaches as you can to get through those doors.”

“Frankly, it may take the knowledge of the Ancients to get through them.” Azure’s frustration colored his voice. “Nothing we have tried has made a dent in them.”

“Tell me about this subspace shield idea,” Ebon said to change the subject. “And try to keep it simple. You know I do not understand science.”

Grinning at the Black Guardian, Azure said, “Essentially, the Ancients found a way to move a signal outside of normal space. The signal can then move virtually instantaneously from one place to another. There does not seem to be any distance limitation, either. One foot, one million miles, it is all the same in subspace.”

Ebon nodded. “If you say so.”

Azure continued, “The idea behind the shield is to put a wall of this subspace between the object being protected and everything else. Anything that tries to pass through the field gets sent elsewhere.”

“Where does it go?” Ebon asked.

“Who knows? Who cares! It just goes away somewhere. I suspect it is taken to another plane of reality or another dimension, sort of like what happens to our real forms when we change into these human avatars,” Azure said.

“So this subspace stuff is like what we do when we portal?” Ebon asked.

“Essentially, yes. We apparently generate a large subspace point-to-point connection and then move through it. We don’t vanish because the subspace field has both an entrance and an exit. We are, in essence, the message sent between the points,” Azure said.

“Why is it blue?” Ebon asked.

“Pardon me?”

“Why are the portals always blue?”

“I have no idea. Maybe because of the way the light is bent around,” Azure said. “Anyway, back on track here. The teams working on the personal model have already cobbled together a prototype using a Borland generator. They have begun testing different patterns of oscillation...”

“Osci—what?”

“Different ways of varying the subspace field to change the way it affects things. If we make the field too strong or too dense, it can block all light from passing through it. It can even block the flow of air, which means whoever is inside the shield would soon suffocate.”

“Well, that is not good.”

“No, it is certainly not a desirable feature in most cases.”

“Well, I have another question for you. Could this subspace field be made into a weapon?” Ebon asked.

“It might be possible to adapt it that way, I guess. Some sort of projector...” Azure’s voice trailed off as his mind started working the problem.

* * * *

Etienne made a courtesy call on Liara and the cubs to see whether their recovery was complete. As she entered the room reserved for the Pride, Liara knelt.

‘Liara, that is not necessary. The females of my species do not bow to anyone, and I would prefer that you not bow to me,’ she said to the Pride female.

‘Truly? The males are not your lords and masters?” There was a touch of hope in the female’s tone.

Etienne laughed. ‘Our females would kick the wings off them if they ever tried! How are you and the cubs?’

‘We recover nicely, but Ragnok is concerned by the lack of exercise for the cubs. In our world, they would be spending their days climbing around in trees and chasing small game. Here, they do nothing but fight with one another.’ Liara quickly added, ‘This is not a complaint. Your treatment of us has been wonderful.’

‘There are not many trees around here, nor any small game,’ Etienne said, thoughtfully. ‘Obviously, this base is not the place for raising your cubs. I have an idea that might suit, but I will have to check with others before I say anything. In the meantime, why don’t we take the cubs outside and let them run for a while?’

‘That would be wonderful.’

Etienne led Liara and her litter out of the building and into the grassy landing field nearby. The cubs ran, jumped, and rolled in the deep grass. Etienne could see the two males were very aggressive toward the two females, and that the females never fought back. They would just cringe and accept whatever happened. The males were obviously copying the behavior of their father; did that mean Ragnok was abusive to Liara? Etienne knew there had to be something she could do to stop this one-sided culture.

‘This sun feels good on my fur,’ Liara said as she stretched. ‘Would it be impolite if I were to lie upon the grass and enjoy it?’

‘Go right ahead and I will sit beside you,’ Etienne said. ‘Would you mind telling me what your life was like?’

‘There is not much to tell. My father was one of the chief scientists working in the Chamber of the Ancients and I was presented to Ragnok as a reward for his work. My daily life is spent in caring for Ragnok and the cubs. I awaken, fix them their morning meal, clean our house, prepare the evening meal once Ragnok returns home, clean up whatever mess was made by the cubs and the meal, and then make myself available for whatever Ragnok desires until it is time to sleep.’

‘What were your interests? What did you do for yourself?’

‘That is forbidden. The females exist solely to care for the males,’ Liara said, but Etienne caught a hint of a secret Liara had not shared.

‘I suspect you did more than you are saying, Liara.’

Alarmed, Liara said, ‘You must not tell anyone!’

‘I promise not to say a word. Please, tell me.’

‘I would read. Knowledge is forbidden to females, you see, but one of the females in our city started to teach us. She was caught and killed as an example, so I tried to study on my own. After the cubs would lie down in the afternoons, I would go into Ragnok’s study and read his many books. They were all science books, and it took me a long time to understand them. One night, Ragnok caught me. In defiance of our laws and customs, he helped me to understand what I was reading. We always maintained the image of the dutiful wife subservient to the husband and master. When Ragnok would pace his study and work on his projects, talking aloud to himself, I would listen, kneeling at the door in case he needed something to drink. In this manner, we could exchange ideas about his work without anyone suspecting I was literate. Ragnok used to say that I had a fine mind and was far more intelligent than most of the others he worked with. However, whenever we were in public or there was a possibility that someone might see or hear us, he was the typical male of our society: harsh, demanding, and arrogant.’

‘Surely, it was not always this way?’ Etienne said.

‘Our legends speak of a time long in the past when females were equal to males. There was one female, whose name is now accursed and never spoken, who fell in love with a male other than her mate. Desiring her freedom so she could be with her lover, she used her knowledge to create a disease to slay her mate. She was successful, but the disease spread and killed almost eighty percent of the population of our world. It is called the Great Dying among the Pride. We fell back into barbarism and lost much of our knowledge. As we once again started to regain the lost arts of science and technology, the Pride made certain no female would ever again cause such a disaster. It was forbidden to teach females. What little knowledge we needed was taught to us by rote. We were to be in all ways subservient to the males, first our fathers and then our mates. The only authority a female may have is over the female cubs and the other female wives of our mate, if we should be the alpha female, that is.’

Etienne shook her head in disbelief. ‘Liara, in every male-dominated culture, they have a similar myth to justify their enslavement of the females. Even the humans once believed that a female they called Eve broke the laws of their deity by eating from the tree of knowledge and created all the troubles of the world. The humans have risen above such nonsense and now recognize the equality of their females, who are as capable as the males.’ Etienne added, ‘We shall have to make Ragnok understand that it is permitted here for him to treat you as a partner and an equal.’

* * * *

“Clan Mother, thank you for seeing me,” Katherine said as she sat on the pillow in the solarium at Clan Home.

“You are always welcome here, Kay-Tee. Your cub is growing stronger. I can feel her mind now, even here at Clan Home,” Clan Mother said. “She will be a strong and powerful Clan Mother herself some day.” Pouring Katherine some water, she asked, “What is it that brings you to see me instead of going to see Spyder in the Chamber?”

“I have been asked to approach the Clan about some refugees from another Guardian world,” Katherine said.

“I have heard of this from Clan Father. The Grays have done a terrible thing by destroying their planet and stealing the contents of their Chamber of the Ancients. There is great concern among the Clans as to what this may mean for the future of us all.”

“It is the future of the Pride family that brings me here. Their kind requires things they cannot get at the Borland Facility on Paradise. They need trees to climb and live among, as well as small game to hunt,” Katherine said. “I would like the Clan’s permission to bring them to live near me in the woods by the lake.”

“This would be dangerous for them, Kay-Tee. The grakor could easily carry off the adults as well as the cubs,” Clan Mother said, referring to the large aerial predator that resembled a pterodactyl from prehistoric Earth. “But that is true of our cubs, as well, and yet the Clan survives. The Pride must understand that no Clan cub shall ever suffer from their kind. In exchange, we will give them the space they need to thrive. When they have settled, I shall come to meet with their female and we will have an understanding between us.”

“Thank you, Clan Mother, for your generosity to another group of strangers,” Katherine said. “I shall send word to Paradise.”

* * * *

Forrest approached Ragnok as he was walking back to the room where Liara and the cubs waited. ‘Ragnok, may I speak with you for a moment?’

‘Of course, Forrest the Green. I stand in your debt always,’ Ragnok replied.

Forrest explained, ‘It has occurred to me that this place is not healthy for your cubs to grow. Your world was one of vast trees and open skies, not one of strange buildings and enclosed spaces.’

‘That is true,’ Ragnok said. ‘The cubs do not exercise the way they should, nor do they learn to hunt to sharpen their battle skills.’

‘The Ursars have invited you to live among them. My partner and his mate live near a lake in an area surrounded by vast trees filled with small game. They would like to share this place with your family,’ Forrest said.

Ragnok replied, ‘The offer is generous. But I cannot leave. The work on the shield is much too important.’

‘You could remain, if you wish, but your mate and the cubs could still relocate. If you wished to reside with them, we can provide you with a portal to travel between there and the lab here on Paradise.’

Ragnok was undecided. While he recognized the importance of getting his cubs back to some semblance of a normal existence as quickly as possible, he also did not want to interrupt his work on the shields. The idea of letting them go without him was ludicrous, for Liara was far too important to his work than he would ever let on and he would miss her terribly. However, if he could live there and still work here by traveling through the portals, that would solve the problem. He would have to think on this.

‘You have given me much to think about, Forrest. Let me have this night to see which course would be the best and I will have an answer for you in the morning,’ Ragnok finally replied.

Chapter 8

Ragnok swaggered through the portal, followed closely by the male cubs, Firth and Rawli. Glia and Scora, the female cubs, stayed back near their mother, but followed docilely behind their siblings. Liara appeared to be her usual meek and submissive self, but Etienne was no longer fooled by the persona she wore like a mask.

Forrest was waiting to greet the Pride family, along with several humans they had never seen before.

Forrest said, ‘Good morning, Ragnok. I would like to introduce you to my partner, Danny. This is Katarina, his mate, and finally, this is Katherine, the mate of Spyder, who is not with us today.’

‘It is good to meet you, Danny,’ responded Ragnok. In the Pride, greeting the female of another would be considered an unpardonable breach of conduct.

Forrest turned to the women. ‘This is Ragnok of the Pride, along with his family. The cubs are Firth, Rawli, Glia, and Scora. His mate is called Liara.’

‘Welcome to my home,’ Katherine said. ‘I am pleased you have accepted my invitation to dwell here with us. There is another member of this group you should meet and that is Lili, who cares for my daughter. Lili is an adolescent Ursar in training to become a healer among the Clan.’

Ragnok, who was trying to ignore the ill-mannered female who had presumed to speak to him directly, was shocked by the sudden appearance of the young Ursar. Taller than he by an arm’s length, and much more powerfully built, she had come as an unpleasant surprise to him. ‘What is this?’

‘She is the favored youngest cub of the Clan Father and Clan Mother for this region, Ragnok, and a healer-in-training for her Clan. Do not let her small size fool you. She would make a formidable adversary if aroused,’ Forrest said.

Ragnok sputtered, ‘Small size? She is a cub? How big are these Ursars?’

‘The average adult is twice her height, although some are even taller and wider, as you will see when Korin arrives,’ Danny replied. ‘Lili is growing rapidly, however, and will probably reach her adult size in another year. She is, after all, but a youngling.’

Before Ragnok could say anything else, Korin came up behind the Pride. Although weighing close to a ton and standing over twenty-two feet in height, Korin could move silently so none had heard his approach; none, that is, but Liara. She waited in silence for Ragnok to realize the gigantic creature was there.

His reaction was everything she had hoped for. For one brief, fleeting moment, she saw fear flash in Ragnok’s eyes as he looked up, up, and farther up until he finally saw the top of the Ursar male before him.

‘Greetings, Ragnok. Sorry I am late, but I had to do something for Clan Father before I could come here. I am Korin, a frequent visitor to this place.’ Korin grinned in an affable manner, but that also served to show his mighty teeth.

The warning was not lost on Ragnok. He was no longer the alpha predator. Clearing his mind of the fear he felt, he said, ‘Greetings, Korin of the Clan. We thank the Clan for sharing this beautiful area with us. It is much like our home world before the Grays came.’

‘It was Clan Sister Kay-Tee who opened her area to you, Ragnok,’ Korin said. ‘It was because she asked that Clan Father consented, although he would have granted the Pride space anyway, it would not have been here in the wilds of Clan Valley.’

Ragnok bowed his head slightly to Katherine. ‘I extend the gratitude of the Pride to you for your compassion.’

Before Katherine could retort, Etienne broke in privately to say, ‘Let it go for now, Katherine. I will explain later. Look to Liara and welcome her, for she is the one who needs our help.’

Katherine turned to Liara. ‘If you would tell us your needs, we will help you with whatever you need or desire. I hope you will like it here as much as we do.’

After glancing at Ragnok, Liara responded, ‘I thank you on behalf of my family, Katherine. I will be grateful for your assistance.’

‘Well, I must return to the labs at once. Liara, see that we have some kind of shelter, no matter how crude, before I return. I will bring back rations from Paradise, so you will not need to interrupt your labors to hunt.’ With that pronouncement, he walked back to where the portal waited and left.

“That is the most insufferable, misogynistic son of a...” Katherine started to say before remembering that Liara was still standing there. ‘I am sorry if I have offended you with my outburst, Liara.’

‘Outburst? I heard nothing to offend me. I do not understand your speech, although the emotion behind the words came through clearly. My mate can be aggravating to those who do not understand he is a product of our culture. He cannot help it. Please forgive us,’ Liara said.

Etienne said, ‘Liara, you can trust these humans and Ursars. You can be who you truly want to be around them.’ To Katherine and the rest she said, ‘As you have surmised, the females of the Pride are little more than slaves to the males. Liara would be considered a criminal or heretic because she is both literate and well-educated in her mate’s chosen field of physics.’

‘That is true. Now, unfortunately, my education must stop for there are no more books for me to study,’ Liara said. ‘It is just as well, for my time will be full making us a new home.’

‘If you would like, I would be glad to teach you to read our language and make available to you books on any subject you may desire,’ Katherine said. ’First though, let us take you to the home we built in anticipation of your arrival.’

The Ursar-built home was a series of rooms constructed high among the spreading branches of four towering trees, whose branches interlocked about fifty feet above the ground. Each tree held two rooms and a series of walkways connected them all together. Four of the rooms were designed for the cubs, one for the master bedroom with a paired study, a large common room, and the last for a kitchen. Built by the effort of thirty artisans with the wood shaped to blend in with the environment, the sleeping areas and common room were filled with the colorful floor pillows favored by the Ursars.

Liara was astounded. These humans and their giant friends had done this for them without even knowing them. They just knew that a fellow Guardian was in need. After discussions with Forrest, the Ursars had built this palatial tree house for them. Liara felt like weeping with the joy that welled within her; no one on the home world had ever had anything as grand as this. They had been fortunate to have three rooms back home, and they were considered among the privileged, for most Pride families made do with only two.

There was little that needed to be done to finish the house. They would need some means of storing their food to prevent spoilage. There would also need to be lighting in all rooms and some small storage spaces for the things they would acquire over time. Liara turned to Katherine, knelt at her feet, and bowed her head in profound gratitude. ‘There are no words to express how deeply grateful I am for this gift. It is beyond the greatest expectations of the Pride to live in such...space. It only lacks some minor things to be complete. If you will permit me, I must finish what I can before Ragnok returns.’

‘Liara, never bow to me again, for I am merely a mother like you, desiring to provide a home for my family. We help one another on this planet, not because we must, but because we care for one another. What is it you need done? Let us do it together.’

‘Aside from lighting, I only need a means of preventing our foods from spoiling. In my old world, we had a box that was kept chilled at a constant temperature low enough to keep meat fresh for days.’

Katherine smiled, reached up to a switch cunningly hidden in the foliage of the tree, and flipped it. Lights, hidden among the thatch, eaves, and beams of the roof over each room, snapped on. Liara was startled by the sudden explosion of light that transformed the tree house into an oasis of light high in the trees. ‘Lights you have, with individual controls in every room. I have been told there is a refrigerator hidden within the kitchen space, but I do not know exactly where. Would you permit Lili to show you around your new home? If there is something you need changed or added, please tell Lili what it is so we can get it taken care of.’

Lili led Liara up into the tree and took her through each room. Within the kitchen, Lili showed Liara where the hidden panels moved aside to reveal the large refrigeration and freezer units, as well as large pantry shelves filled with assorted bowls, plates, eating and cooking utensils, pots, pans, lids, and every other item normally found in an Ursar kitchen. The refrigerator was stocked with fruits and other edibles found in the local area, while the freezer held enough Angus beef to last for nearly a year. Lili also showed her the Ursar cooking surfaces and explained how they operated. The final touch was found in the middle of the table in the center of the kitchen; a large woven basket filled with freshly baked breads.

* * * *

The cubs were romping in the trees, chasing Korin from branch to branch. The big Ursar’s roar of laughter echoed across the lake as he evaded the cubs. Liara relaxed on a chaise on the sun deck of the human dwelling. If she had thought the tree house was grand, she now realized how ill prepared she was for the sheer scale upon which humans thought and planned. What had truly touched her innermost soul were the shelves and shelves of books. She knew she could not read a word of them, but Katherine had renewed her offer to teach the language to her, and Liara had accepted. They agreed the lessons would only occur when Ragnok was off-world and the cubs were being entertained by Korin or Lili. As Katherine had described what their worlds were like and the roles females played in both societies, Liara regretted she was not one of them.

Liara knew Katherine’s mate was lying in a coma from a brain injury he suffered in a battle against the Grays. She also knew Katherine had gone on to give birth to her cub, surrounded by her friends, but still without her mate. A female of the Pride could never have done that. Without the male, the Pride society would no longer recognize her existence or that of her cubs, so a widowed female would commit suicide. Once again, the Pride was too harsh in their treatment. While she felt like a traitor to her kind, she found herself thinking it was probably a good thing such a culture had been obliterated. She also knew it would be up to her to see that her cubs grew up differently.

* * * *

Forrest said, ‘Ragnok, have you noticed the way we treat females?’

Ragnok nodded. ‘You have allowed them to be treated as equals. Your species did not experience the Great Dying as did mine, so you have not learned the bitter lesson we did. Our females cannot be trusted with knowledge outside that which they need to run a home or raise cubs.’

‘Such an attitude will not be accepted here, or among the Clan. The Clan Mother is the true power within a Clan, although she does so subtly through the Clan Father. The leader of the Æthereal Grand Council is Amber the Gold, one of the oldest Guardians alive. Half of the warriors of the Guardians of Sol are female,’ Forrest said. ‘Any one of those females would cheerfully explain this reality to you forcefully the first time they see the way you treat Liara or ignore other females. In this area, you must adjust to our ways, Ragnok. Unless there are members of the Pride elsewhere in this galaxy, your family is the last of your species. It is up to you to determine how your species will behave now.’ Forrest paused. ‘I would like you to think on that before you go to your new home and see Liara once more. Free her from the shackles of the past and greet her as a partner in the future.’

‘These are perhaps the words we have been waiting for. At last, we can abandon the charade we have played for so very long,’ Ragnok said, quietly. ‘Liara is my trusted partner, both in my home and in my work, Forrest. You have freed us to be who we really are and that gift of freedom is even more precious than our lives themselves, for now we can raise our cubs in an atmosphere of equality.’

* * * *

The Chamber of the Ancients was quiet; the Ursars had gone home for the night and the lights had been dimmed. One station was active; the medical station’s status lights displayed the brainwaves of the figure on the bed. The rapid spikes indicated the increased mental activity that had begun once the Ursars had left the chamber.

It is almost time to emerge from this quiescent state. The medical machines have done as much as they can, considering their programming is designed for interfacing with the Ursars. The remainder of my physical treatment must be done elsewhere, in the first Chamber of the Ancients.

Ancients. It amuses me that they chose that appellation among all the names by which they had been known. How will humanity respond if they know the truth? The truth imbedded in their DNA. The truth that crept out in myths and legends, fairy tales and folklore.

Should I tell them? Give solidity to the myth? Will they accept it, or will they try to destroy me?

Chapter 9

It was only after he stepped through the portal back to the field near the lake that Ragnok realized he had forgotten the rations he had said he would bring. That meant there would be little, if anything, to eat that night in whatever shelter Liara had managed to throw together during the day. Looking around the empty field, he wondered where she had chosen to locate their home.

A large shadow detached itself from the dark under the trees and was soon revealed as Korin. Suppressing a burst of atavistic fear that had raised a ridge of fur along his spine, Ragnok said, ‘Greetings, Korin.’

‘Liara asked that I show you the way to your new home, Ragnok. She requests you do her one favor, and that is to close your eyes when I tell you it is time. She wishes your first view of the house be from the right place so you may truly appreciate it,’ Korin said. ‘I add my own request to hers.’

‘I will, of course, accede to this request for it is a simple thing. I trust that you will lead the way.’

‘Indeed.’ Korin laughed. ‘If you stay close behind me, you may not need to close your eyes until we draw very close, for how could you ever hope to see around me?’

* * * *

Ragnok stood speechless as he gazed at the jewel nestled amid the branches of the great trees. There had never been such a spacious dwelling for any of the Pride because space was at such a premium. He raced up the tree to the entryway and the large common room, which contained more space in that one room than their entire dwelling back home. Liara waited patiently for his reaction. However, she never imagined the shape his reaction would take.

Ragnok just stood in the doorway, his eyes scanning the magnificent room. ‘Liara, I am without words. Never have I dreamed of such a home.’

‘It was not my work, but a gift prepared for us by the Ursars and the humans.’ Liara was stunned by the sight of her mate rendered so speechless.

As he took her paws in his, he said, ‘The best news is that we can get rid of the ridiculous charade. The ways of our home world are gone. We can choose how we shall live, and pass that new approach onto our cubs without fear.’

He looked around the common room and spotted the archway to the kitchen. ‘I have an admission. I forgot the rations, so I know not what we shall do for food this night.’ Ragnok was clearly embarrassed to say those words, for it was the first time he had ever apologized to a female.

‘Your dinner is waiting in the other room. The cubs have already eaten and are waiting to show you their rooms.’ Liara gestured for Ragnok to go through the doorway before her. Instead, he took her paw and pulled her to his side so they could enter the kitchen together.

He took in the carefully arranged table, set with plates of rare beef and goblets of cool water. He looked around the amazing kitchen as she explained the hidden panels that covered the refrigeration and freezer units, pantry, and storage. He glanced up at the shaped beams and roof, the indirect lighting that played off the ceilings without ever being harsh or creating unwanted shadows. As they sat to share their dinner, he told her all about the work on the shields. They would have talked long into the night, except a sound from the other tree reminded them of the waiting cubs.

Ragnok went from room to room, joining his cubs in their delight in their rooms. It wasn’t until he told them it was time for them to sleep that the cubs rebelled against the new arrangement. Smiling, he agreed that the cubs could all sleep together, and they would rotate rooms until they grew accustomed to their new home. Still smiling, he joined Liara in the master bedroom.

She waited patiently in the center of their large sleeping cushion. She was truly a magnificent female of the Pride, lithe and supple, her every move graceful and delicate. He suddenly understood that what had driven him up that mountainside under the guns of the Grays was the love he had for her, a love he had not acknowledged even existed.

He approached her and knelt on the cushion. He began to caress her as he told her what he had discovered about himself and the way he felt about her, about how proud he was of her fine mind and the incredible sense of purpose that had driven her to risk everything to become educated.

Later, he rose from the cushion and asked, ‘Are you thirsty? Would you like me to bring you some water?’

She shook her head, too overwhelmed to speak. A male offering to bring a female a glass of water may seem like a small thing, but for the Pride, it meant that hundreds of years of cultural conditioning had been thrown out into the night, at last.

* * * *

The Chamber of the Ancients was lit by only a few lights, along with the flickering of the lightning within the great crystalline computers spaced around the vast underground space. Each pair of these monoliths controlled separate stations, most of whose functions were as yet unknown to the Ursars who studied them. What few they had learned to operate, such as the teleportation device and even the medical bed, were not fully understood; they were controlled by trial and error rather than a grasp of the underlying scientific theory behind their function. This was not the fault of those who spent their lives studying the mysterious and enigmatic machines; it was a deliberate move on the part of those who designed them millions of years before and left them to watch over the Guardians that had been left behind. The Ancients had hoped that when the Guardians matured enough to grasp the function of a machine, they would be wise enough to use it properly.

Everything in this Chamber of the Ancients was designed for the Ursar Guardians, including the medical beds. As a result, the human male lying at the upper end of one bed was almost lost in scope. His six foot three inch body only filled a quarter of the long bed. Tubes from the various apparatus that supported the bed snaked out to penetrate the flesh of the human, providing the vital fluids that had kept him alive and drained away the wastes that needed to be purged. Temporal conduits rested securely against his skull, linking his brain to the Ancient monolith.

For six months, the human had lain there, still as death, lost in a deep coma ever since a Gray rail gun drill had penetrated his skull above his left eye, passed through his brain, and exited behind his left ear. The immediate intervention by Astra the White, Master Healer of Earth, had repaired the massive physical damage but could not revive him from the coma. In his final lucid moments, Spyder had asked to be placed in this medical bed and, since there was nothing more she could do, Astra had acceded to his wishes and those of the Clan.

There was a soft hum in the chamber and the tubes disconnected from Spyder’s arms and femoral artery, vanishing into the table. The wounds left behind seemed to shimmer and heal over in nanoseconds. The temporal conduits detached and retracted into the table as well, the compartments snapping shut. The humming stopped.

Spyder’s eyes opened for a moment, unfocused, but they cleared quickly. He looked around without moving his head, verifying what he already knew; the chamber was empty. Excellent. This will sure cause a stir in the morning, a mystery that will puzzle the Ursars and the Æthereal alike.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. A soft blue glow surrounded his body and he faded out of the chamber, leaving behind the small cloth that had covered his naked groin as a gesture to modesty.

* * * *

It was Korin that brought the news to Katherine after he first told Clan Mother and Clan Father. Clan Father had interrogated all those who worked in the Chamber of the Ancients but none had shed any light on the disappearance of Spyder’s body. Clan Mother had sent Korin to tell the humans. At the news of Spyder’s disappearance, chaos reigned among the other humans while Katherine remained an oasis of calm.

“What do you mean, Spyder’s gone?” Danny demanded. “Are you saying he’s dead?”

“No, I mean he is gone. When we went into the chamber this morning, the bed was empty and he was gone,” Korin said, sadly. “We have questioned everyone who has been in the chamber, but have no idea what has become of our friend.”

“He is not dead. I would know if he was dead,” Katherine said aloud while her mind was calling ‘Spyder! Where are you?’

‘I’m safe, Katy. Don’t be afraid, sweetheart. We’ll be together soon.’

‘Where are you?’

“Earth, in the Chamber of the Ancients.’

‘How did you get there?”

“I’ll explain it all later. Right now, I have to finish healing my body and need to concentrate on that. Please forgive me for scaring you. I must ask you a great favor. I know everyone will wonder, but they should not know where I am, so please, don’t tell them.’

‘I promise. I don’t know why, but I promise not to tell them anything, except that you are still alive.’

‘Give Merry a kiss for me and I’ll see you in your dreams. I love you.’

‘I love you, too, Spyder. Come home to me soon.’

‘As soon as I can, lover. As soon as I can.’

Taking Katherine’s prolonged silence for incipient shock, Katarina called to Astra and asked her to come quickly. Astra portaled into the room and came to Katherine’s side.

Katherine looked at Astra and said, “He is still alive, Astra. I would know if my husband, my life bond, had died and I know he’s still alive. I’ve linked with him and know he’s safe and will be back with us as soon as he can.”

Recalling the horrific moment when she had felt the passing of her own life bond, Astra knew Katherine was telling the truth. She also remembered the brief moment when she had been touched by Spyder’s mind after Meredith had been born. Spyder was surely alive somewhere, but was he still the same Spyder they had known before?

Chapter 10

Ragnok had spent several days decorating the study. He had added several of the dry-erase whiteboards created by the humans, and Azure had presented him with the latest publications in the fields of particle physics, along with other scientific journals. Since he was unable to read them, they had been placed on the shelves in the study at random. Other spaces within the shelves held books and games designed for much younger minds, items designed for the education of the cubs.

Katherine had plunged into the project to teach Liara to read English. The ability to communicate mind-to-mind made the task much simpler, for Katherine merely had to point to each word and think about its meaning. Liara had nearly perfect retention and rarely stumbled over words now. It was only when faced with a concept or word utterly alien to her species that she had problems. They had many deep discussions over things, like using other animals as beasts of burden and agriculture. Liara found the human forms of art fascinating, especially painting. She had spent many hours studying the works of Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, and the other great masters. Picasso and the other surrealistic painters gave her great difficulty; how could they paint something not real? Why would they want to?

The greatest breakthrough came when Liara grasped the concept of fiction, and she spent her free time reading works of fiction voraciously, for she learned much about the human species through them. Humans appeared to have a great preoccupation with sex and love, two things Liara found puzzling. The Pride did not value love; to the Pride, one accepted one’s mate and that was it. After time, there might grow a bond of affection as she felt for Ragnok once he had ceased being so domineering and had begun to see her as a partner and not a slave.

Liara had straightened the many books in Ragnok’s study and, in the evenings, would read them to him, explaining the way the human words expressed the arcane concepts he so enjoyed. Soon, he too had grasped the human written language and was able to read them himself. After they would each read an article, the two would sit for long hours in the study, discussing what they had read and trying to fit the new information into their understanding of the way the universe worked. Sometimes, the new data would clear away a misconception, sparking a heated discourse as they raced through the implications to their knowledge. Other times, they would find some flaw or error in the new information, and would discard it after they had mentally torn it into pieces in case there had remained one kernel of value. Liara had written the author of one such piece a detailed and thorough rebuttal of his article and had sent a copy of it to the editor of the scientific journal. To her amazement, her rebuttal had been printed in the next edition of the journal and received much acclaim.

The cubs spent most mornings in the study, as well. It was here Liara taught them the basic education that all thinking beings must have. In addition to elementary subjects, like mathematics and reading, she also explained about the different cultures they now had to deal with. Korin would take the cubs on romps around the Clan valley in the afternoon, explaining to them about the Clan and the things they saw. He always made sure they knew about the dangers that lurked, especially from the grakor. They toured the artisan shops and visited Clan Home.

It was after one such trip that Korin said, ‘Clan Mother extends her invitation to you to visit her tomorrow.’

Liara, intimidated by the idea of visiting the powerful Ursar female, said, ‘I hope I have not offended her by delaying my visit this long.’

‘She is not offended. She knew you would need time to adjust to this world and to place your home in order,’ Korin replied. ’I will come in the morning to take you and the cubs to Clan Home. While you visit with Clan Mother, I will entertain the little ones.’

‘Korin, I thank you for how much time you spend with them, but surely you have many more important things to do than watch my cubs.’

‘Perhaps, but I enjoy playing with them. We have no young cubs now in Clan Home. Lili was the youngest and she is no longer a cub. Clan Father has made me a kind of unofficial ambassador to the new species that have joined us in the Clan valley, so you might say that playing with your cubs is a part of those duties. At least,’ he laughed, ‘that is what I will say to Clan Father when he asks why I am spending so much time climbing trees and swimming.’

When Ragnok returned home that evening, he was very excited. They had fabricated the prototype of the individual shield and would be testing it the next day.

Liara said, ‘My husband, I have grown uneasy about this whole concept of this subspace shield. I beg of you, do more testing before putting any live subjects inside such a device.’

‘But you know I tested it with live animals before,’ Ragnok said.

Liara took a deep breath and plunged on. ’I have a theory of my own about these shields and what happens inside a subspace bubble. I believe that, cut off from normal space, the contents of that bubble actually go into some form of stasis. Time itself stops when the subject is removed from the normal universe.’

“That is ridiculous!” Ragnok said. ‘I’ve been developing this theory for a great many years, while you’re just now dabbling in the edges of science. Don’t presume to tell me what is happening!’ Angrily, he stalked out of the room.

* * * *

‘Clan Mother, you do me great honor by inviting me to visit your home,’ Liara said the next morning.

Clan Mother wasn’t fooled for a minute. ‘What is bothering you? There is no use in trying to pretend it is nothing when I can see it written all over you in the way you stand and speak, and how you carefully measure your words before you let them escape your lips.’ Clan Mother waved her great paw in a sweeping gesture. ‘There is none here but you and I amid all these plants and pillows. You can be open with me.’

Liara sighed, and then said, ‘It is my mate. I made him very angry last night and he left this morning without speaking to me.’

’And what terrible crime did you commit that made him so angry?’

‘I presumed to tell him something he didn’t want to hear,’ Liara said very quietly.

‘And what did the Mighty Hunter of the Pride not want to hear?’

Liara smiled in spite of herself because hearing Ragnok described as a mighty hunter was like calling a flower a tree. ‘I told him that he was wrong in his theory about subspace fields and that I believed they did something entirely different.’

Clan Mother shook her great shaggy head. ‘Never have I seen a species more aptly named than the Pride, for it is his pride that your mate values most. Is he not a scientist? And to a scientist, is not the truth what is important? In time, the truth will reveal that either he was right, or you were right, or that neither one of you was right.’

Liara bowed her head as she thought about that piece of wisdom. It was self-evident, yet had eluded both Ragnok and herself.

Clan Mother said, ‘How do you like your new home among the Clan, Li-Ra?’

Liara’s face brightened. ‘The house is wonderful. On our world, no one had so much room for a single family. A typical family shared only two rooms, smaller than a single room in the palace you have provided us. The cubs thrive, gaining in size and strength. Korin has been a godsend; playing with the cubs in the trees and teaching them what to hunt and what to watch out for, while freeing me to study with Katherine.’

Clan Mother smiled. ‘I’m pleased. If there is anything you need, you need only to ask. You’re all part of the Clan now and the welfare of the Clan is my concern.’

* * * *

Ragnok looked at the testing platform, a small seed of doubt in his mind. He had tried to shake off Liara’s comments from the night before, belittling them as mere womanly concerns of no substance or value, yet he knew better. He had come to respect the keen and insightful mind that rested inside her head.

’Wait!’ he called out. ‘My partner Liara has raised a concern that I feel we must examine before we proceed any further in this testing. She has postulated that the interior of the subspace field is completely removed from the normal universe. Within this removed field, time itself is suspended, creating a virtual stasis.’

“Did you not say that the test animals in your initial experiments were unharmed?” asked one of the human scientists.

‘Yes, they weren’t physically harmed, or at least not in any manner I could determine afterwards during an autopsy. That would be true in either event; if the shield is a protective barrier or if they were suspended in stasis, neither would cause any physical harm to the subject. But what impact would such a stasis have on the mental aspects of a sentient subject? Would they be aware of anything during the stasis, or would time outside the bubble pass without any effect on the inside?’ Ragnok said. ‘I confess, I believe she may be right, and that worries me greatly. Can you imagine what would have happened had we tested the shield on a planetary scale and simply stopped time on an entire planet? How would we ever be able to shut off the generator to rejoin the normal universe?’

Indigo said, “That is indeed a frightening possibility and this must be investigated thoroughly before we go any further. However, if your mate is correct, you have just found a way to keep the critically injured alive until they can be brought to the necessary medical assistance. You have found a way to keep food as fresh as the moment it was picked, no matter what distance it must travel. The benefits that could be derived from such a stasis field far outweigh the loss of a defensive shield! And remember, stasis only occurs if the subject is completely enclosed. As long as some connection to the normal universe remains, the subspace barrier acts as the shield you had envisioned.”

Ragnok smiled. ‘That is true. Perhaps we are both right, and this is merely a different application of the same principle. Now how shall we test it?’

* * * *

Ragnok was all smiles when he came home that night. ‘You were quite right in your concept, Liara. The area inside the bubble becomes a perfect stasis field. We tested it by doing something as simple as placing a timepiece inside the chamber and activating the field. From the split second the field was activated, the timepiece stopped and resumed operating the moment the field was shut off. The fact that time passed outside the field was irrelevant to the testing devices inside the field.’

‘I am sorry, my husband, that your theory was disproved,’ Liara said.

‘Ah, but that is the best part, Liara. We were both right. As long as a connection to the normal universe remained, it continued to act as a shield. We must still refine the exact relationship between the shield size and its aperture to the normal continuum, but the shield will work as long as an aperture remains.’

‘This is wonderful!’ Liara said, relieved that Ragnok had not seen his life’s work be brushed aside and also thrilled that her opinion and knowledge had been respected.

Chapter 11

Katherine sat in the rocking chair, watching Meredith sleep. Danny and Katarina were outside with the Ursars, searching for a lost Pride cub. The cubs had been playing a game of “stalk and pounce” on Korin when the smallest cub had disappeared, and now all available adults were out in the night, searching the woods and lake. She stopped rocking; accustomed as she was to the sounds of the house, she had detected an anomalous sound and knew there was someone outside. She slipped from the chair, and then padded on bare feet to the sliding glass door that led out onto the deck outside her bedroom. Her eyes, already adjusted to the dark, had little trouble distinguishing things on the deck, the table and chairs were where they always were on the right side. On the left were three stairs that led down to the yard below. At the top of the stairs lay a bundle of fur.

She knew immediately it was one of the cubs, broken and bleeding. She sent out a mental summons to Lili, knowing the healer was inside the house, while she went over to the injured cub. It was one of the females, Glia.

Lili came up silently behind her, saw the poor cub, and quickly knelt by Katherine’s side. ‘What happened to her?’

‘I don’t know. I heard a noise and came outside to investigate,’ Katherine replied. ‘How badly is she hurt?’

Lili examined the cub. ‘Several broken ribs, deep lacerations on her neck and side, a puncture wound or two from something’s fangs. Something tried very hard to eat this poor thing.’

‘Can you save her?’ came another’s mental voice, as Korin came up the stairs. ‘I have been looking for her most of the night. We had all been playing but she wandered off and none of us could find her. I found a blood trail and followed it here.’

“I can but try, Clan Brother. It is in the hands of the All-Father whether she lives or not,’ Lili replied. ‘Perhaps you should go get Liara and let her know of her cub’s injuries. Be gentle, for the injuries appear severe and she may have to prepare herself for the death of her child.’

‘As you command, healer,’ Korin replied before slipping off into the night.

Turning to Katherine, Lili said, ‘Kay-Tee, I will need your help, but first you might wish to put on something more substantial than that sheer robe. You do not want to get blood all over it and she may tear it if she struggles in pain.’

Looking down at the diaphanous material, Katherine had to admit it was a poor choice for the task that lay ahead. She dashed back into her room and put on some clothes, opting for her leathers, since they were the most resilient. By the time she was dressed and her hair pulled back out of her face, Lili had brought the poor cub inside and laid her on the table under a bright light so they could see the extent of her injuries.

Katherine shuddered as she saw the great rents in the cub’s side, the white of bone showing through the red mangled muscle as blood seeped everywhere. ‘What could have done such damage? I didn’t think there were any predators around here.’

Lili looked up. ‘There are but three predator species on this world. There are the Ursar, the Pride, and the grakor. I would think this was done by an immature grakor, possibly on its first hunt. She would not have escaped a mature grakor; in fact, one of them would have swallowed her whole and we would never have known what had happened to her. As bad as this looks, there are no major blood vessels injured, nor have her lungs been damaged.’

Liara arrived just as they started to work on Glia. After first calming the mother, Lili put her to work, calming the unconscious cub by mentally linking the two at a deeper level than they normally could have achieved. Lili carefully extended her senses and realigned the broken ribs, then began the slow knitting of the pieces back into unified bones once more. Once they were stabilized, she began to slowly examine the wounds, removing any contaminates from them. Pine needles, dirt, even small bacteria were expunged from the wounds one at a time. As the wound was cleaned, she began to rebuild the damaged tissue, one layer at a time, until she closed the wound with new skin. Once all the wounds were closed, she triggered the hair follicles to produce new growth at an accelerated rate until the newly grown fur matched the length of the rest. The hair she caused to grow was bone white, however. It made a startling contrast to the rest of Glia’s fur, standing out like a nova in the night sky.

Lili let the rapport between mother and child drift back to its normal level, lessening the blocks she had put on the cub’s nervous system to allow the cub to begin to wake up. ‘Liara,’ Lili said, ‘this cub will awaken soon and she will be frightened. You should be prepared to soothe her fears but not too much; all your cubs must be very careful if we have a young grakor prowling about.’

Liara nodded her understanding. ‘Thank you for saving her. I am in your debt.’

‘Nonsense, services rendered within the Clan incur no debt, for they are given freely to those in need,’ Lili said. ‘You are of the Clan now.’

* * * *

‘Katy, love, can you hear me?’

‘Spyder! Oh, honey, it is so good to hear from you. How are you?’

‘Almost healed completely now. We’ll be together soon.’

‘Good, because I miss you being by my side. Mental sex is good but it can’t take the place of the real thing.’

She could feel his mental chuckle at that, then it was if he ran his hand across her body, making her catch her breath as her nerves seemed to catch fire. People always said that ninety percent of great sex was all in the mind, and Spyder showed her it was an even higher percentage than that.

Chapter 12

Katherine greeted Danny and Katarina’s return with a question. “How’d it go?”

Danny and Katarina had accompanied Korin and a group of Ursar warriors as they scoured the area around the Clan Valley to determine the nesting site of the grakors. They had each carried their usual weapons—a holstered 9mm semi-automatic pistol along with an MP5 submachine gun. While Spyder may have proven it was possible to kill a full-grown grakor with the handgun, no one was taking any chances and the MP5 would make short work of any that approached the group. As the warriors searched the ground, Forrest and Laranja had drifted high overhead on the thermal currents, scanning the peaks and ridgelines of the mountains for any signs of the aerial predators. Normally very tolerant of other life forms, the Æthereal agreed the grakor posed no useful purpose in the cycle of life on Ursaria and could be expunged without creating any ecologic issues.

“It went fine, Katy. Forrest spotted the nest. While he and Laranja dealt with the adult grakors, the rest of us made sure we accounted for and destroyed all the young ones,” Danny said. “I took some pictures, of course. Man, those things are ugly.”

“Who would want pictures of those things?” Katarina asked. “I asked you that before and you didn’t answer me.”

Danny looked at his wife and said, “Lots of people. Alien life forms are very popular back on Earth, so any number of periodicals would be interested. Not to mention the various naturalist organizations. Fortunately, I managed to get quite a few pictures of them before we slaughtered them. I did not take any pictures afterwards, though. No use in riling up all the animal rights activists.”

“Those people should have seen poor Glia and the mangled condition she was in after an attack by an immature grakor,” Katherine said heatedly. “I wonder how much they would empathize with the vile creatures if they found themselves or one of their children in the claws of one.” Katherine shook her head in disgust at the actions of some of her fellow humans, people she would never understand.

* * * *

Glia was still somewhat shaken by her recent ordeal and never strayed very far from the shelter of their home in the trees. The other three cubs understood what had happened to their sibling and looked with awe at the gleaming white fur that had grown where she had been savaged. It was a potent reminder of what could easily have happened to any one of them.

Liara rarely let Glia out of her sight. Even now as the cub sunned on one of the branches of the tree, Liara watched her through the window of the common area. The cub’s brush with death had reminded Liara of the fragile nature of their existence. Are we the last of the Pride? What will become of my cubs when they grow up and need mates? She returned her attention to the novel in her hand, still keeping a watchful eye on the smallest of her cubs.

* * * *

Azure and Indigo looked very pleased as they made their way over to the table where Ebon and Astra were having lunch with Eric and Judy. “Now what could possibly put such a smile on both your faces?” Astra asked as they sat down.

“We solved the shield problem,” Indigo said.

“Well, actually, Ragnok solved it without realizing it,” Azure amended. “If we were to place a subspace field generator on a harness at our throat and ankles, we could generate a field around our heads and feet.”

“What about this stasis bubble effect you were all nattering about the other day?” Ebon asked.

“As long as we do not extend the shield into a complete sphere, it is no problem. We are looking at only about seventy-five percent on these, which provides a large enough aperture to stay connected to the continuum.” Azure saw the glazed look settle over Ebon’s expression as the words ‘aperture’ and ‘continuum’ entered the conversation. He reached out and patted his leader’s hand, “Trust me, Ebon. It works.”

“Astra, I know you have to be excited about the idea of a stasis field to keep patients stable until you can get to their location to treat them,” Indigo said.

“I think it will be a tremendous benefit, Indigo, when we solve some of the practical aspects,” Astra replied. “If a warrior is carrying around a portable stasis generator and he gets hurt and turns it on, how does a healer get it turned back off if the generator is inside the field? Can we even move a stasis field surrounding someone? How would you move a Black in natural form?”

“All good questions I know we will solve. Would you mind visiting the team working on this project and posing these questions and any more you may have to them directly?” Indigo asked. “We really need to get some input from the Whites.”

“Sure, I would be happy to do that, Indigo.” Astra then turned to Azure, “And how is Jenna doing?”

Azure smiled. “Jenna is great. In fact, she asked me if I would invite the council over tonight. She says she has received an anomalous signal from the rover outside the chamber doors that she needs to brief us about.”

Ebon looked startled. “Anomalous signal? What kind of a signal?”

“She would not explain and she has been blocking my attempts to weasel it out of her, too. Annoying habit,” Azure said.

“Okay,” Ebon said. “I will get the rest to come by your house tonight.”

* * * *

The council members had all assembled in Azure and Jenna’s living room. Once they had all been seated on the sofa and other chairs Jenna had arranged so they all had a clear view of the sixty-inch plasma screen that hung on the wall, Jenna stepped forward and said, “As you all know, I programmed the remote we left outside the doors of the Chamber of the Ancients to send me a signal if anything unusual happened. The cameras were also programmed to activate if anything triggered the sensors. This afternoon, I received an alert signal and downloaded the video you are about to see.”

“What triggered the signal?” asked Ebon.

Jenna grinned. “The first anomaly was probably when the doors to the chamber opened. Please, hold your questions until after you see the video, because whatever you think is important now, won’t matter after you see it.” She picked up the remote control for the DVD player and pressed PLAY.

The plasma screen now showed the all-too-familiar view of the chamber doors, except in this view, they were slowly opening.

“I’ve slowed the playback down to one-tenth normal speed so you can absorb what you’re about to see,” Jenna explained.

As the doors opened, it was clear that the chamber beyond was illuminated. Tantalizing glimpses of the crystalline computers and other Ancient technology could also be seen. That view paled in significance to the shape that moved into view next. It was tall, thin, and naked, topped with a shock of long red hair. The face came into view, looked at the camera lens, and then smiled.

There was a collective intake of breath, and then Astra said it out loud, “Spyder!”

“How is this possible? Spyder disappeared from the Chamber of the Ancients on Ursaria weeks ago,” Brundig said.

‘I opened a portal between the two chambers,’ Spyder’s voice rang in everyone’s mind. ‘It was essential that I complete my recuperation in the medical pod here on Earth since it was designed for our species. In correcting the damage to my body, the medical computer on Ursaria also activated some other abilities that had been dormant, including the ability to control subspace tunnels—what we call portals. Since I have been here in the first chamber, there have been some other changes.’

Astra asked, ‘Can you leave the chamber, Spyder?’

‘Yes, I am now able to leave the medical support. It has done all it can for me.’ Spyder’s mental voice had a touch of humor as he added, ‘I trust you will forgive me if my first stop upon leaving this chamber is not to see you all. I will be with my wife and daughter in a few moments and would prefer that we weren’t disturbed for a few days as least.’ With those final thoughts, Spyder broke his mental connection with the council members.

Stunned silence settled over the group in the aftermath of the surprising conversation with the one human they had never expected to speak with again.

* * * *

Katherine was just drifting off to sleep when Spyder’s voice whispered in her mind.

‘Hey, beautiful, want some company?’

A soft smile graced her lips as she sleepily replied, ‘Sure thing, handsome. Are you in town for long?’ Her eyes still closed, she expected to next feel his mental caress. She did not expect to feel him physically getting into the bed. Her eyes sprang open in surprise, but before she could make a sound, her husband’s lips found hers in a real kiss.

‘Don’t worry about Danny and Katarina. I have shielded our minds from everyone. What we share tonight is just between us,’ Spyder explained in her mind.

Katherine soon remembered that, as good as mental sex was, nothing could replace the real thing.

* * * *

‘That was incredible, honey. Have you been practicing or something?’ Katherine asked archly.

Spyder pulled her closer. ‘In a way, I guess. Part of the knowledge I gained is a full understanding of how our bodies work. I just put some of that knowledge to practical use.’

‘How did you get here? Does the Council know you’re back?’

‘Yes, I spoke with them before I left Earth and they have agreed to give us a few days of peace before they descend on us with all their questions. As for how I got here, I opened a portal just like they do. Another one of those tricks I picked up,’ Spyder replied.

Katherine ran her hand along Spyder’s chest. ‘What other tricks did you learn?’

As his hand slid up along her thigh, he replied, ‘Let me show you.’

* * * *

Danny stopped dead in his tracks as he looked at the figure seated at the table the next morning. Katarina ran across the room and threw her arms around Spyder’s neck.

“You’re alive and you’re back!” Tears of joy ran down her face as she kissed Spyder’s cheeks and lips repeatedly.

Spyder laughed as he pried the exuberant Katarina off his lap. “Careful now. We don’t want to make Danny and Katherine jealous.”

Danny walked over to the table and stuck out his hand. As the two men shook hands, Danny said, “You’re different. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but you’ve changed.”

“More than you know, my friend, more than you know,” Spyder replied. “Yes, there have been some physical changes, as well as the mental ones.” Spyder pulled his hair back, exposing his ear as he turned his head to the side. Spyder’s ears were now longer and tapered to a definite point at the top.

“Holy crap! You’re an elf!,” Danny said. “Your hands have changed, too. Your fingers are longer and thinner.”

Spyder stood up and Danny realized that Spyder was now about eight inches taller and much thinner than he used to be. “How tall are you now? About seven feet?”

Spyder grinned. “Seven feet exactly, although I do seem to have lost all those muscles I worked so hard to develop.” Seeing the concerned look in his friend’s eyes, he added, “This is all perfectly normal, you’ll see. I do have a bit of a problem, though. None of my clothes fit anymore. The pants are all too short in length and too big in the waist, and the jackets...well, they don’t fit either.” Realizing his attempt to joke about the physical changes was not doing anything to alleviate the concern in the eyes of three of the people who mattered the most, he said, “Look, I really only want to explain all this once. Can you wait for an explanation until the Council is here in three days, or should I have them come today and get it over with?”

Katherine walked over and laid her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Spyder, as much as I want some time with you, I think this is something that can’t wait. You’ve changed too much for us to just ignore it for a few days. Why don’t we have some of the Council come here today and get this over with and then we can take some time off with easy minds.”

Chapter 13

In the end, the small group from the Council consisted of Ebon, Astra, Forrest, Azure, and Indigo. Laranja was also present, but she was not a member of the Council. Eric and Judy, Danny and Katarina, and Jenna were also there. Clan Father, Clan Mother, Korin and Lili represented the Clan. The addition of the four Ursars meant the living room in the human home on Ursaria was very crowded, since the four bearlike beings took up a lot of space. Fortunately, the house had been designed with them in mind as well as the human occupants so there was adequate space, just barely.

The prodigal Spyder stood before the group wearing only a pair of gym shorts. Astra could see many of the physical changes that had occurred. Spyder looked like he had been stretched; his whole body had been elongated and thinned. In addition to longer, thinner fingers, his feet had also been stretched. The pointed ears were matched by a slight change around his eyes, giving them an almost slanted appearance—but not the same kind of slant associated with humans of Asian extraction. Spyder’s eyes seemed to align at a slight angle, perhaps fifteen degrees, off the horizontal.

Extending her senses to probe his internal organs, she could sense that each organ was in perfect health. In fact, Spyder’s body was operating at an efficiency she had never encountered in a human before. As her senses probed upward toward his brain, she met a blank wall. She locked her gaze on Spyder’s just as she received his thoughts.

‘I would appreciate it if you would stay out of there for now, Astra. You and I can do this whole exam thing some other time. Right now, I need to start explaining to everyone what’s happened to me, because some of them are starting to grow concerned and your continued silence is not helping matters.’

‘Very well, but we will finish this later,’ Astra replied.

Astra spoke aloud, “Spyder has changed, that is evident, but none of the changes are indications of any disease, nor do they pose any danger to the Clan or Guardians. Spyder, perhaps if you were to explain what has happened, you might be able to put everyone’s concerns at rest.”

Spyder said, “Very well. Some of this is hard to grasp with our present level of understanding, but I’ll try to explain it in simple terms. We have to start at the beginning when the Ancients, as we have been calling them, came to Earth while fleeing the Grays. The Earth, at that time, was a young planet and the surface of the world was filled with prehistoric creatures. Since these large creatures would pose a significant problem for the Ancients, they chose to establish their foothold within the planet itself.

“Using this foothold as a base of operations, they implemented their plan to establish Guardian races among the various star systems. First, they created the Æthereal to protect the world they occupied. Once the Guardians had been established, they went another step farther. They implanted within the life forms evolving on Earth various genetic markers that would eventually culminate in the development of their own replacement species. What this means, Forrest, is that humans are not the Guardians of Earth. That role is truly one that belongs to the Æthereal. Humans are, or will be when they finish evolving, the Ancients reborn.”

“What genetic markers are you talking about, Spyder?” Astra asked.

“Scientists on Earth have been mapping the human genome for quite some time, and one of the mysteries they’ve found involve little bits of code hidden within our DNA. They call these bits ‘introns’ but have decided they serve no purpose. The scientists are wrong, because these introns are the code that will eventually make us evolve into the Ancients. Are you with me so far?” Seeing everyone nod, he continued, “When I was in the medical pod here on Ursaria, the machine recognized the introns in my DNA and, in the course of repairing the damage done to my brain, activated a few of them. While I was in there, I was in constant contact with the crystalline computers controlling the chamber and I learned a few new tricks. One of those was the ability to communicate from within the chamber to anyone and another was the ability to astral project. That was how I was able to stay in contact with Katherine and to witness the birth of my daughter, Meredith. I finally reached a point where the machines here had done all they could and I needed to use the ones on Earth designed for the Ancients themselves. I knew how to open a subspace tunnel at that point and I moved myself to the chamber on Earth.

“Once I was under the care of the medical pod there, additional introns were activated and my body began these physical changes. Concurrently, the knowledge I’m sharing was given to me.” He looked around at the stunned faces. “Well, that’s the simplified version.”

“But mammals did not exist back then, Spyder. They did not come along for quite some time after the dinosaurs became extinct,” Ebon said.

“That’s true, Ebon. Mammals were actually introduced by the Ancients themselves in order to form the basis for their eventual resurrection in this galaxy,” Spyder replied. “The last of the Ancients finally left Earth about fifty thousand years ago.”

Stunned silence greeted that announcement. Finally Ebon said, “You mean the Ancients were on Earth all that time and they never made themselves known to us? Why?”

“I can’t answer that, Ebon. Perhaps they felt they didn’t need to do so since your species was doing quite well without them. Why they never made contact with you or any of the other Guardians is not stored within the knowledge they gave me,” Spyder explained. “That was the problem the Ancients had, you see. They couldn’t figure out a way to defend themselves without destroying the Grays. Rather than violate their own beliefs about genocide, even to save myriad other life forms from the predations of the Grays, they fled completely across the galaxy and created the Guardians with the hope that somehow, you might solve that dilemma.”

“Spyder, have you looked in a mirror lately?” Eric asked.

Spyder grinned, “Yeah, I look like some kind of elf, which makes sense since that is precisely what the Ancients were. Somehow, our folklore has tapped in to a racial memory and brought some recollections of them and their culture to the surface. Perhaps the closest attuned to that memory was the author J. R.R. Tolkien, although even he messed up a few of the details. As you may recall, he said the elves fled to Middle Earth in gray ships. Instead, they fled here from the Gray ships. Tolkien’s descriptions of the forces of evil orcs and such are extrapolations from encounters between the Ancients and the Grays.”

“Great, so what we need is a Hobbit,” responded Danny. “Look, Spyder, this is all a bit much to accept. I’m not sure anyone will believe the Ancients were really mythical elves or that the Grays are run by Sauron reborn or some such thing.”

Spyder laughed. “I know, Danny, and that’s okay. They don’t need to even know. Mankind’s transition to Ancient is still millennia away. There will be those who come closer than others, especially anyone who is treated by the medical pods, as well as any offspring those treated may produce.” Looking at the expressions on the other humans present, he said, “Yes, even your children. Those people who went through the medical pod here so they could use telepathy have a greater chance of producing children with activated introns. Surely you have all noticed that Meredith has telepathic abilities. At this point, we have no way to know exactly what other abilities she may possess. Should Katherine and I conceive another child, it will have even more activated introns since almost all of mine have been switched on.”

Looking around at the stricken faces, Spyder added, “This is not a bad thing, people. And it is also inevitable, built into our genetic code, and will just happen to us and our kids sooner than to everyone else. The new powers aren’t anything scary; in fact, they’re kinda fun.” A huge smile covered his face. “I can open a portal like an Æthereal, communicate mentally with anyone no matter where they are, and I can also heal myself and others, much like a White.”

* * * *

Meredith knew her father as soon as she saw him, and a big smile crossed her face. She knew that mental voice well as they had been touching one another’s mind since before she was born. She lacked the tools of language to express her thoughts, yet she and Spyder always understood one another, and he was slowly giving her the words themselves. Right now, Spyder and the others were in another room talking and she was lonely. She reached out her mind, looking for Lili, but her Ursar nursemaid was nowhere around, either. Meredith probed farther and found Lili in with Spyder and the others. Meredith wanted to be with them very much so she reached out with her mind and found her favorite place, Lili’s furry lap. She concentrated on the feel of Lili’s fur against her skin and then reached for that feeling.

Meredith’s sudden translocation from the nursery to Lili’s lap in the living room brought the meeting to an end, even though it was the perfect illustration of the point Spyder was making. The children of Earth were changing and dealing with those changed was going to be a challenge in and of itself.

“Well, this should make life interesting. How do you put a teleporting baby down for a nap?” Danny asked.

“For that matter, how do you keep up with a teleporting baby?” Katherine asked.

“I have no idea,” Astra replied. “Our young are almost self-sufficient before they discover the ability to move between places. We have never been faced with the ability in one so young and helpless. At least we know where she seems to want to be,” she added, while looking at the smiling infant in Lili’s lap. “She can only open a portal to some place she knows, and right now, that will only be within this house.”

* * * *

Ragnok was surprised to see so many Æthereal at the human’s house and he turned to Liara for an explanation. She shook her head to indicate she had no idea, either. When Clan Father, Clan Mother, and Korin were seen leaving the human dwelling, she sent one of the cubs to intercept Korin.

The cub raced across the field to the large Ursar. Korin was the cub’s favorite playmate and the chance to be with the Ursar was too good to pass up. Firth was the largest of the male cubs, and had grown considerably since the rescue from his home world. He was almost at his full adult length but still lacked the musculature of an adult member of the Pride. He was lean and swift, yet almost silent as he bounded through the long grass.

He reached the spot he’d chosen to ambush Korin before the Ursar party was in sight of it. This had become a game with Korin; the cubs would try to pounce upon the big Ursar from ambush. They had never been successful but perhaps today would be different. After all, he was traveling with his parents and might not be as alert. Firth was draped over a tree limb above the path back to Clan Home, lost in the shadows of the tree. When Korin passed beneath, he planned to drop down on the Ursar’s shoulders.

While Korin may have been distracted by his parent’s presence in exactly the manner Firth had hoped, Clan Father was not. He knew the woods of this valley the way his son was just beginning to know them. He had detected the disturbance in the long grass as the cub had raced from his home in the trees to the spot up ahead. Clan Father could see the dark shape on the limb ahead, and he could see what the cub had planned. The question was whether to permit it or not. It might be amusing to see what Korin would do if the cub succeeded in ambushing him, but then it would also be humorous to put the cub firmly in its place.

They had been walking side by side as they had passed through the long grass field but as they approached the path into the trees, it would require that they begin to travel single file. Normally, they would take an order based on precedence with Clan Mother taking the lead, then Clan Father, and finally Korin. Korin held up a single hand to stop his parents from proceeding. So he had seen the cub as well.

Korin stepped onto the path and, as he reached the spot just before the overhanging branch, he reached up and slapped the branch with his paw, creating an unexpected vibration that startled the cub. ‘You might as well come down, young Firth,’ Korin said with hint of laughter in his booming voice. ‘I am afraid you will fall on Clan Mother.’

Disgruntled, Firth rose from his hiding place. ‘My mother and father would like to speak with you, Korin.’

Korin turned to his parents. Clan Mother nodded and Clan Father said, “Go see what they need. Come home when you can.” Clan Mother and Clan Father moved off down the path and Korin turned to the cub. ‘Let us go, Firth. Perhaps we will have time for a game before I head back to Clan Home.’

* * * *

‘Korin, thank you for coming to see us,’ Liara said as the large Ursar seated himself on the large deck that had been built with the Ursars in mind.

‘It is always a pleasure to see you, Li-ra, and a rare treat to talk with Ragnok,’ rumbled the deep voice of the Ursar liaison to the new Clan members.

Ragnok kept reminding himself that the great bearlike creature was really quite civilized and he was not in any danger from the Ursar. ‘We were wondering what was happening at the human dwelling. It is rare that so many of the Guardians of Sol visit at one time and with the leaders of the Clan, as well.’

Korin said, ‘You have heard us speak of the mate of Kay-Tee.’

‘The one in the coma, yes?’

‘He is back. He came home last night and we met to discuss the meaning of the changes he has undergone,’ Korin said. ‘The medical equipment in the Chamber of the Ancients altered his body in some ways, making him more like the Ancients and less like a normal human.’

Liara said, ‘I am so happy for Katy. She has missed her mate very much.’

‘That was not the end of the surprises, either. Meredith surprised us all by opening a portal to Lili’s lap because she was alone and wanted to be with everyone,’ Korin added.

Ragnok gasped, ‘The baby opened a portal?’

‘Yes,’ Korin confirmed. ‘Spyder had just been telling us that the children of those humans who had used the Ancient medical pods would all exhibit other talents when Meredith chose to illustrate his point in a dramatic fashion.’

Liara asked, ‘When would it be appropriate for us to pay our respects to Spyder?’

‘Perhaps tomorrow around lunchtime would be best,’ Korin responded. ’Of course, should you happen to run into a tall, thin human with red hair walking the grounds, feel free to say hello. You might wish to warn the cubs to keep an eye out for him, too. In fact, I will bring it up with them before I go.’ Turning to Ragnok, he added, ‘Firth is getting quite good at ambushes. He managed to get into position very quickly this afternoon and would have been successful against someone less attuned to this Valley.’

Ragnok beamed with pride at the unexpected praise for his son, but before he could frame a reply, the Ursar had slipped from the platform and disappeared into the trees. Ragnok could see three of the cubs chasing after the large Ursar. He turned to Liara and asked, ‘Glia still won’t leave the tree?’

Liara shook her head. ‘Not in the late afternoon or when it is dark. Unless she is sure that she can be back here before the sun sets, she will not leave unless I am with her. I do not know what will ever get her past this trauma. She still has night terrors, yet she professes not to remember anything about the attack itself.’

Ragnok stood looking out at the darkening sky. There had been no aerial predators on their home planet, so none of them had really understood the threat when it had been explained. It had not registered at a visceral level that the sky could hold a creature which could carry off a two hundred pound Ursar cub with ease, and the immature version could easily carry off one of the Pride young. The sight of the bright white fur that covered Glia’s side, belly, and throat had driven that point home. Ragnok knew he could not have protected his daughter. He had accompanied the warriors that had found and destroyed the nesting site, and had been terrified by the big flying predators. No wonder his daughter was now afraid of the sky. He realized that he was, too.

Chapter 14

Danny was pouring himself a cup of coffee when his partner’s voice rang in his mind. ‘You had enough time off? Feel like getting back to work?’

‘Sure thing. Now that Spyder’s back, Katarina and I were talking about making ourselves scarce for a while to give Spyder and Katy some time alone,’ Danny replied. ‘Or as alone as they can be with a baby in the house.’

‘Excellent. How about I open a portal in two hours? Will that give you and Katarina enough time to get ready for a full field mission?’ Forrest asked.

Katarina’s voice cut in, ‘I can be ready in one hour. Feel free to open a portal earlier.’

* * * *

Danny was enthralled by the vista before him. There must have been millions of the large herbivores spread across the plain, grazing peacefully on the long grasses or drinking from the stream that bordered the area. Young herbivores gamboled, always carefully kept in the center of the vast herd and away from the fringes. This action alone convinced the exploration team that, somewhere out there, there must be some form of predator.

Danny studied the creatures through the lens of his camera even as he took pictures of the herd. They were large quadrupeds with shaggy pelts that reminded him of the old sheepdog his neighbors had when he was a kid back in Colorado. From what he had seen through the telephoto lens, they had hooves. Large, erect ears extended through the fur, constantly in motion as if scanning for sounds, like radar dishes looking for a signal. The young ones made a bleating noise while the adults seemed to low like cattle back on Earth. Their long tongues looked almost prehensile as they snaked out to wrap around strands of the long grass and then withdraw to pull their meal free of the ground and into their waiting mouths. Like most herbivores, their jaws seemed to grind the grass with a sideways crushing action.

‘Danny, focus your cameras to the far right near the tree line. Something has spooked the adults,’ Forrest’s mental voice rang in his mind. Danny swung the camera lens toward the indicated spot to see the adult herbivores all reacting to something in the trees. These adults, males if the jutting horns were any indicator, were now standing shoulder to shoulder facing the trees, while the females or hornless adults moved away toward the center of the plain. As the females shifted away, the males began a slow retreat, backing away from whatever threat they sensed in the trees.

Danny caught a flicker of motion from within the shadows under the trees. What suddenly burst from the trees was unexpected, however. These new creatures were virtually indistinguishable from the velociraptors he’d seen in those dinosaur movies. There was a pack of about eight of the speedy lizards and they darted in and away from the shaggy herbivores. One got too close, and the herbivore gored the raptor with one of his large horns. The wounded raptor clung to the prey’s head and the other predators closed in on the entangled pair. One raptor leaped on the animal’s back and bit down on its neck just behind the head. Others attacked the flanks and legs, finally tripping the herbivore to get access to the soft belly flesh. Blood and entrails soon covered the flattened grass as the pack of predators devoured the downed beast. With the raptors occupied by their feast, the other herbivore males continued their retreat and were soon far away from the predators.

Danny had captured the entire spectacle on film, using both still and motion cameras. As he shifted his camera to get a better angle, the sun glinted off the lens and attracted the attention of one of the raptors. The raptor lifted its bloody muzzle from the carcass at its feet and stared up at the hill where Danny and Forrest stood. The raptor hissed and the rest of its pack turned to stare up at Danny.

“Uh, oh. I don’t like the looks of this,” Danny said.

The raptors sprang away from the dead herbivore and raced toward Danny. God, they’re fast. Even as Danny started to panic, Forrest shifted shape to his natural form. The raptors slammed to a stop, suddenly confronted by two hundred and eighty feet of dragon. One darted forward and Forrest roasted it with a blast of flame.

The sudden appearance of the dragon and the flash of fire caused the entire herd of herbivores to run in a mindless stampede away from this sudden apparition. Several of the raptors chose to pursue them, hoping to pick off some stragglers from the fringe of the herd. When the herd veered to avoid a ravine, they trampled the raptors underfoot without ever slowing. Within minutes, the vast herd had run halfway across the plain, leaving behind a cloud of dust and the smashed bodies of the raptors they had trampled. The other raptors had fled back under the trees to escape the unexpected new threat.

Forrest shifted his shape back to his human avatar and helped Danny pack up his camera gear. “That was exciting. I have not faced a raptor in such a very long time. Raptors can be such a nuisance as they are not very bright. I once had one jump on my back while I was sleeping. I portalled into the sky and then rolled so it fell off. Silly thing was thrashing all around as it fell, making it hard to catch, but I did manage to eat it before it hit the ground.”

The planet was a curious mix of what Danny considered prehistoric reptiles and a wide variety of mammals. While they had not found any of the really large dinosaurs that once roamed the Earth, they did find a great many of the raptor type and some small ones that filled the role of scavengers. No avian life forms had been found, nor had any mammalians analogous of the hominids of Earth. Most of the mammals were herbivores, except for some curious arboreal creatures that looked like lemurs, which were insectivores.

* * * *

Spyder and Katherine were enjoying their time alone together. Now that Meredith was no longer being breast-fed, Lili could handle most of the baby’s needs, so this was truly an opportunity for them to reconnect as a pair. Even though they had never been apart on a telepathic level, the significant changes in Spyder’s physiology gave Katherine the feeling she was learning the body of a completely different man.

Astra had arranged for a complete wardrobe to fit Spyder’s new physique, so the couple was outside walking the grounds around their home. Hand in hand, they walked in companionable silence, still linked mentally.

‘Would you like to meet our new neighbors?’ Katherine asked.

Spyder looked up at the massive tree house that spread between two trees. ‘That would be interesting. Do you think they are home?’

‘I’m sure Liara and Glia are home. The other cubs are probably around here somewhere stalking us since that’s their favorite game with Korin. Ragnok is undoubtedly on Paradise working on the subspace field projects.’

Liara had seen them approach the tree house and was silently studying Spyder. She had never seen such a tall, thin human before. He looked as if a strong breeze would blow him over, although she knew that was only because she compared him to the more muscular human avatars of the Æthereals and to Danny and Eric, the only other human males she had met. As she watched, Spyder lifted his head and locked his stare on hers.

There was a sudden connection between them. ‘Hello. You must be Liara. I’m Spyder.’

Liara was surprised by the intensity of the mental connection and the clarity of the mind touching hers. Even among her own species, such a link was extremely rare. ‘Yes, I’m Liara. Would you like to come up, or would you prefer that I come down?’

‘Whichever would make you more comfortable. I’m perfectly capable of climbing up there, even if everyone tends to think of me as some kind of invalid.’ Spyder’s mental tone was colored with humor at the situation. ‘I imagine the view from your deck is quite nice. Why don’t we compromise and meet there?’

* * * *

Spyder and Katherine sat on two of the broad pillows on the deck of the tree house. Since neither the Pride nor the Ursars had much use for chairs, there were none on the deck; just big pillows and low tables more suitable to the feline nature of the occupants of the house. Spyder took in the wide deck with a large opening in the railing and quickly surmised the rationale; it was to permit an Ursar, probably Korin, with a place he could join the Pride at their home. As he looked around some more, he was struck by the beauty of the tree house and how well the Ursar artisans had crafted the rooms to blend with the tree itself.

Liara came out of the house bearing a tray of drinks and a plate of sliced fruit. Spyder was struck by the graceful manner in which the large female feline moved as she walked erect balancing the tray. Katherine had made an allusion to Liara’s geisha qualities, and Spyder could see what Katherine had meant as Liara poured each of them a glass of chilled water. Each movement was fluid and artful, and her face was serene, even though Spyder could sense the turmoil that roiled inside the female.

‘You have a lovely home, Liara. Katherine has kept me informed about events as they transpired so I was aware of the attack on your home world and that your family was the only survivors.’

‘Yes, it was a terrible time. We had accepted the inevitability of our deaths when we were rescued by Forrest the Green. The care given us by Etienne enabled us to recover from the ordeal fairly quickly and moving here has met our physical needs,’ Liara replied. ‘I have found a new life here, as well. Thanks to Katherine, I learned your language and could read your many books. I have been teaching our cubs, too.’

Katherine looked around. ‘Where are the cubs? I was hoping Spyder would get to meet them.’

‘They are probably out in the trees somewhere, except for Glia, of course. She is up in her room, reading a book,’ Liara answered.

Spyder smiled. ‘Actually, Glia is perched on a branch about six feet above our heads. Her sister is on the same branch but farther out from the trunk. One of the males is under us on one of the cross braces supporting the deck while the other is lying on the roof of the house watching us over the peak.’ Spyder opened his mind call and said, ‘Come and get to know me, young ones.’

Slowly, the four cubs made their way onto the deck. Firth merely jumped from his vantage point on the roof to land lightly a few feet from Spyder. Rawli soon joined his brother and Scora padded over to sit beside them. Glia moved to sit beside Liara.

‘Such a fine group! How proud you must be of them,’ Spyder said.

Liara looked at her children and realized they were almost full-grown now. Does any mother ever really accept that her children have become adults? If we were back on our home world, each of them would have had their naming ceremony a few weeks ago, marking their passage into adulthood. Ragnok would be arranging advantageous pairings for each of them. Where will my children find mates now?

Spyder sensed her sudden shift in emotions and caught enough of it to understand her concerns. ‘Liara, Katherine has told me about what your life was like back on your home world. She said that in ages past, the Pride had a more advanced scientific culture but had lost much of it after the Great Dying. Do your legends talk about travel to other worlds during that lost period of advancement?’

‘Yes, there were records that told of using the machines of the Ancients to travel to other places, but that was lost to us. Somehow in the barbarous age that followed the Great Dying, the machine was damaged and could not be made to work again once we had regained the knowledge of its function. Many scientists, like my mate, were involved in the research but had not been able to restore its function before the Grays came,’ Liara said.

‘It’s highly probable, then, that there exist other worlds which the Pride made their own before the pandemic struck,’ Spyder said. ‘I will see if I can find one of them.’

‘Could this possibly be true? Could other Pride worlds still exist?’

“Easily. The Ancients’ teleportation system has built-in safeguards to prevent the transmittal of infectious disease, so none of the other Pride settlements would have been affected by the pandemic on the home world. I had been bothered by the fact no one from those worlds ever returned to see what had happened but the damage you report would explain that. They would not have been able to come back,’ Spyder explained. ‘Imagine what it must have been like for those colonies. All contact with the home world lost and no way to get back. Over time, the lost home world would achieve an almost mythical nature. Now imagine what it will be like when we finally do reach them!”

* * * *

As they walked back toward their home, Spyder turned to Katherine and said, “Feel like making a little trip with me?”

“Where to?”

“The Chamber of the Ancients on Earth. There’s something I wish to check on.”

Katherine stopped walking, pulled her hand free from his grasp, and said, “Now just a minute. I am not about to go traipsing off-planet so you can check something on Earth. We have a daughter who needs our attention, remember?”

Spyder laughed and put his arms around his wife. “You’re right. This can wait until our vacation is over. Let’s go play with Meredith. She’s awake now.”

* * * *

Azure and Indigo were meeting with the scientists working on the stasis field when Spyder walked into the conference room. This was a complete surprise to both Blues as they thought the human would still be relaxing with his family on Ursaria.

“Spyder! What a pleasant surprise!” Azure said.

“I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d drop by and say hello,” Spyder replied. “What are you guys working on?”

“This is the stasis field project. As you may have heard, we have found a way to generate a field around an object that removes it from the normal universe, suspending the natural laws within the enclosed space. Time itself stops within the field,” Azure said. “It would seem like a perfect manner to preserve things indefinitely, including the seriously injured. But we have found two problems. How can something within the stasis field be moved since no one can come in contact with it, and secondly, how can the field be shut off once it is on? Do the Ancients’ computers contain any reference to this kind of a problem?”

Spyder thought for a minute. “Yes, they do. Subspace technologies were an integral part of everything they did. Stasis fields were commonly used in their medical systems, from complete suspension to the use of decelerated time,” Spyder said. Seeing the confused look on the others’ faces, he added, “Decelerated is when time passes at a much slower rate within the field, rather than a complete suspension of it.”

“Do you know how they moved something in a stasis field?” Azure asked.

“Isn’t it obvious? They opened a portal around it and moved it wherever they needed,” Spyder replied. “Medical stasis fields were set at a frequency that would not interact with their subspace tunnels, so there was no danger of any kind of interference between the two.”

“Well, that makes sense if a discrete frequency can be found that would be safe transiting a portal,” Azure said. “Do you know the frequency?”

“I believe I can find it. In fact, I can do more than that. The devices exist inside the Chamber of the Ancients on Earth and you can use them to make more, and to further the development of your defensive and offensive shield projects,” Spyder said. “As for the second part, the Ancients would take the injured directly to one of the medical pods. The pods themselves are capable of adjusting the stasis field from a full suspension to a decelerated one to permit them to initiate repair of the damage.”

Azure looked at Spyder. “Just how much of the technology within the chamber do you understand?”

“Not all of it,” Spyder replied, “but enough to help us against the Grays. That brings me to the real reason I came by today. I need some help with a special project in the chamber on Earth and was wondering whether one or both of you could come with me there.”

“Of course we will come help you,” exclaimed Azure. “For the chance to enter the chamber, we would do just about anything!”

“Great! And while we’re there, we can pick up a couple of the stasis belts,” Spyder said.

Chapter 15

Azure found being taken through a portal by a human a novel experience, and somewhat humbling since normally, he was the one in control. Once Spyder had brought both Azure and Indigo into the chamber, Azure asked, “Spyder, why can you open a portal inside the chamber but none of the rest of us can?”

Spyder said, “It has to do with the introns. The protections around this chamber are keyed to the intron markers left in our DNA. Since you don’t have them, the chamber keeps you out. This chamber was meant for use by the Ancients and their descendants, as were most of the others they scattered among the other planets in the galaxy. There are certain stations that can be used by the Guardian species, such as the teleporters, medical pods, and surveillance systems. Those dealing with genetic manipulation and such were keyed to the introns to prevent those not ready to assume the responsibility from using them. The Ancients were very big on responsibility.”

“So what is your special project?” Azure asked.

“How much do you know about the Pride?” Spyder asked in response. “Specifically, what do you know or surmise about the time before the Great Dying?”

Azure thought about it for a moment or two before he said, “At that point, they were probably on par with the Ursars with a greater reliance on technology. Evidently, they had achieved genetic manipulation, which is how the pandemic occurred.”

“I agree, and I’ll take it a step farther,” Spyder said. “Based on my conversation with Liara, I believe the prepandemic Pride was using the teleporters to expand onto other worlds, much like the Ursars do now. If that is so...”

“...Then the Pride exists elsewhere. Ragnok and his family are not the last of his species,” Indigo finished.

“Exactly,” Spyder said. “I believe we might be able to track their usage and determine what worlds may have been settled by the Pride. Once we identify those most likely, we can go to one of them and make contact.”

“Spyder, you know the Grays stole all the systems from the Chamber of the Ancients when they attacked the Pride home world, right?” Azure asked.

“Yes, but they’ll never be able to access the computers or use any of the technology,” Spyder replied. “The Ancients were rather clever in their designs. Not only is their technology keyed to the introns and other genetic markers they put into the Guardians, they are also specifically guarded against the hive mind of the Grays. Once they were removed from the surface of the home world, the crystalline computers would become inert pieces of rock, while the various science stations would become disabled when their subspace communications links to the computers failed. Such a failure would generate a self-destruct sequence in the stations themselves.”

“That will be a relief to Ebon and the rest of the Council,” Indigo said. “It has been a matter of grave concern since we learned of the Gray theft of the devices.” Looking around the chamber, he asked, “So what can you tell us about these stations, Spyder?”

“The teleporter and medical pod are fairly obvious, as you have seen them before. This unit here is a deep space surveillance system. It has a range of about a light year. Since it uses subspace communications links, the data is virtually real-time in display.” Spyder demonstrated the device, showing the different display ranges. “In fact, you can see some of the deep space probes NASA launched years ago. There are obviously no threats within a light year of the planet, or this display would be indicating the threat in red, much like it did the asteroid that threatened Ursaria.”

“We should have someone monitoring this, then. What good is a warning device if no one monitors it?” Indigo said.

“If an alarm goes off anywhere in this chamber, I will know,” Spyder said confidently. “The crystalline computers maintain a link to me and they would advise me if there was a problem. In order to establish a cadre of people to work in this chamber, Indigo, they would have to go through the medical pod and have their introns activated. One reason is so they could gain access to the chamber itself. Without the activated introns, they can’t open a portal into the chamber. They also would not be able to interface with the computers.” Spyder shook his head. “I can’t imagine I would get too many volunteers to undergo the physical and mental transformations necessary. It’s my belief that my children, along with those of Danny and Katarina, Eric and Judy, and the others will have enough of the introns enabled to work in here. Until then, it looks like this will be a one-man operation.”

Spyder walked over to the station nearest the teleporter chamber. He reached out a hand and stroked the glass tube that surrounded the teleport platform, a rueful smile on his face. “I remember the one time I traveled in one of these so we could fix the coordinates of the Ursar world that was under attack by the Grays. The absolute random fashion the Ursars use the device amazes me, but without the neural interface to the computers themselves, their method was the most viable to their species.” Spyder moved over and sat down at the console. “This particular chamber is the primary control for all the others the Ancients placed throughout the galaxy. In addition to controlling the functions in here, it also monitors and records all activity in the other chambers.”

“Spyder, just how many other chambers are there? How big is this network established by the Ancients?” Azure asked.

“They established sixty-five thousand, five hundred thirty-six stations throughout this galaxy, of which twenty-three no longer function,” Spyder said.

“What an odd number!” Azure said.

“Not really,” Spyder replied. “Since you have little experience with computers, the significance of that number doesn’t jump out at you. It’s the number two raised to the sixteenth power. Computers deal with things in a binary state. It’s either on or it’s off, a zero or a one. Now, dealing with mathematics in a binary counting system is fairly cumbersome, so we use hexadecimal mathematics to express the language in computers, assigning each position a value from zero through nine and then use the letters A through F for the remaining six values. Sixty-five thousand, five hundred thirty six in binary is a one followed by sixteen zeros, while in hexadecimal, it’s just FFFF. See, much easier to work with.”

“If you say so,” Azure said, shaking his head. “I never really have understood those things.”

Indigo said, “So there are still sixty-five thousand, five hundred thirteen functional chambers in the galaxy? Are there that many Guardians?”

“No, the Ancients placed the chambers to be used by the Guardians and themselves. Only a small number of these chambers show any activity outside of routine monitoring.” Spyder examined the records displayed on the terminal. “About twenty of these are the ones the Ursars have used in settling their region. There are ten others that are quite active, and they used to all connect to a station that only recently left the network. These ten stations are the targets.”

“Spyder, just how far back do these records go?” Indigo asked.

Spyder examined the display once more. “All the way back to the establishment of each chamber. Apparently, the Ancients used to check up on all the Guardians up until they abandoned Earth about fifty thousand years ago. The Pride home world seems to have discovered their chamber first and started using it to travel to other locations about a thousand years ago. The Ursars got started only five centuries ago. Another group of Guardians used theirs a few times in the last decade, probably first exploration efforts, but nothing full-scale.”

“What group is that?” Indigo asked.

“Not one we’ve had contact with. I’ll have to dig into a bunch of other records to see who and what they are,” Spyder replied. “I’ll do that and make a report to the Council once I know something.”

“So what do we do now that you have identified ten possible Pride worlds?” Azure asked.

“I’m not sure,” Spyder replied. “I was hoping you two would have some ideas.”

* * * *

Azure and Indigo walked into Ebon’s office on Paradise and sat down in the chairs he indicated. “And to what do I owe a visit by such esteemed scientists?”

“We just left the Chamber of the Ancients on Earth,” Indigo said. “It was a humbling experience. I know Spyder did not mean it that way, but he made us feel very ignorant.”

Ebon smiled at the idea that anything could make Indigo or Azure feel ignorant. “So what was the point of your visit to the chamber?”

“Spyder went to find the other Pride worlds. He identified ten possibilities and would appreciate some guidance on what to do next; how to make contact, that sort of thing. He also found what he believes to be another Guardian race, but is not sure who they are yet,” Indigo said.

“And while he was at it, he also casually resolved all the questions we had about stasis fields and provided us with working samples to take back for reverse engineering,” Azure said. “The Ancients, however, were not ones for offensive weapons, so he was not able to provide us any help in that area.”

“Sounds like the new and improved Spyder is going to be a lot of help in some areas, but not the answer to everything,” Ebon said. “What did he have to say about the stolen chamber?”

“He said the Ancients protected everything and all the Grays have is a bunch in inactive rock in place of the crystalline computers and permanently disabled stations that cannot be reverse engineered because of some self-destruct sequences designed to operate if the devices were ever removed from their chamber,” Azure replied.

“Well, that is good news, at least.” Ebon looked thoughtful. “I would recommend discussing the first contact issue with Forrest and possibly Ragnok. They would be in a better position to have some kind of answers.”

* * * *

Danny and Katarina ran to the community center carrying their personal weapons and as much spare ammunition as they could, reaching the door just as the pack of raptors bounded past the perimeter of the camp. They took up defensive positions, opening fire on the predatory creatures even as their minds frantically called for their Æthereal partners. Katarina dropped one of the raptors with some well placed shots from her MP5, and the other raptors slowed to attack the carcass.

“No pack loyalty there,” Danny muttered as he fired several short bursts at the ravening animals. “Looks like any meat will do, even their own.”

Forrest and Laranja appeared overhead and circled around the camp. ‘We cannot use flame against them within the confines of the camp. You will have to use your weapons against them. We will handle the other pack still approaching from the other side.’

‘Great, two groups of these buggers,’ Danny replied, ‘Well, do what you can and we’ll continue shooting them until they either go away, we kill them all, or we run out of ammo.’

‘If you get low, let me know and we will open a portal out of there for you. No heroes!’ Laranja said.

Katarina shifted her fire to a raptor that had abandoned the feeding frenzy and started heading toward the community center. She had scored several shots to the beast’s head but the bullets merely bounced off the dense bone. She fired a few short bursts at its chest and scored with most of the shots. Danny shifted his fire to the same raptor, mangling its left forearm and hitting it a few more times in the chest. “Fall, damn you, fall,” he muttered over and over as he fired at the raptor. The beast struggled forward a few more feet before collapsing.

The least wounded of the pack surged toward the newly fallen raptor and began to devour its flesh. Danny and Katarina resumed firing at them, slowly reducing their numbers. Danny’s clip ran dry. He reached for another one and realized he was out of ammo for his MP5. Snatching his pistol from his belt, he started firing single shots, each one carefully aimed. He hit one raptor in the eye and it reared its head back, roaring in pain and rage. Danny fired two shots into its open mouth and punched through the soft palate it exposed. The beast dropped.

He slapped a fresh clip into the pistol and started firing at what seemed to be the last of the beasts still standing. A few moments later, it finally dropped to the ground. He brought his pistol up and scanned the area for movement. Katarina looked around through the windows on the other side of the building but she didn’t see anything moving either.

‘Forrest, I think we got them all but we’re not moving from here until you guys fly over and make sure the buggers aren’t hiding around one of the buildings waiting for us,’ Danny sent to his partner.

‘Good idea. We’re on our way. The second pack is no longer a threat.’

Moments later, the large shadow of a dragon passed over the camp, circling to observe from every side. As Forrest circled above, Laranja landed outside near the carcasses of the dead raptors. She stalked over to each one, placing a taloned foot down with care to pierce the throat of each carcass to make sure they were truly dead. ‘They’re dead and there doesn’t appear to be any more within the camp. You can come out.’

Danny holstered his pistol, picked up his now empty MP5 and slung it over his shoulder. He then carefully picked up his empty clips so they could be reloaded. As he did so, Katarina did the same.

“How many rounds do you have left for the MP5?” Danny asked.

Katarina grinned. “Four. After that, I would have used my pistol as you did.”

Danny shook his head. “It’s my considered opinion that this planet is just too freaking hostile for human life, and we should get out of here. Either that, or we need heavy weapons and some grenades, plus a company or two of marines.”

Katarina laughed. “What fun would that be?”

Danny looked at her like she was crazy. “You have a very strange sense of fun, my dear. While this wasn’t the first time something decided I might make a nice lunch, it was a lot more intense than I prefer. Like I said, I’m for bugging out.”

“I heard that,” Forrest’s voice came from the doorway. He’d resumed his human avatar and walked in. “It might interest you to know that the Grays did not fare much better in their encounter with this planet.”

Danny and Katarina looked up at that statement, surprise on their faces. “Grays? Here?”

“Not for some time. One of their scout ships apparently landed on the other side of that mountain range. We found the badly damaged ship, some smashed weapons, and what appears to be the scattered bones of about a dozen Grays, most of them badly gnawed,” Forrest explained. “Looks like a pack of raptors hit them before they had a chance to set up their usual perimeter defense. We also found the skeletal remains of several raptors, so I guess the Grays took a few of them out before they died.”

When Laranja came back in after disposing of the raptor remains, Forrest said, “I hereby declare this mission over. As Danny said, this world is just too hostile for human settlement unless we use overwhelming firepower in defense of the settlement. I will arrange for the Blacks to check on this world every so often, but it seems even the Grays are avoiding it.”

“That must have been some lesson for the Overmind,” Danny said.

Katarina looked quizzically at him, so he explained. “What one knows, they all know. So now they all know what it’s like to be eaten alive by a raptor.”

“No wonder they avoid this place!”

Chapter 16

Danny had just finished describing their defense of the community center to Spyder and Katherine when they heard a scratching sound at the door from the deck. Katherine turned to see Firth seated at the glass door, waiting patiently for someone to answer. She got up from her chair and slid open the door.

‘Firth, what a pleasant surprise! Won’t you come in?’ Katherine said, holding the door open in invitation.

‘No, thank you, Kay-Tee. My father wishes to know whether it would be acceptable for him to call on Spyder this evening,’ the young male sent mentally.

Spyder said, ‘Tell your father he is welcome to come by any time it is convenient for him, Firth. I will be here all evening.’

Dipping his head in acknowledgement, Firth turned and bounded down the deck steps and out into the twilight. As Katherine closed the door, she asked, “What will you tell him, Spyder?”

“The simple truth,” Spyder replied. “How he’ll react is anyone’s guess.”

“What do you mean? Won’t he be happy?” Katarina asked.

“The Pride on the other planets never experienced the slide back into barbarism, so it can reasonably be expected they will be much more advanced scientifically than what Ragnok knows. In addition, the cultural shifts that occurred on the home world as a result of the pandemic also never occurred on those worlds, so just about everything Ragnok takes for granted about the Pride will be different.” Spyder added, “If I were him, I would find the prospect of suddenly contacting them rather daunting, to say the least. Imagine you’re living in England at the time of William the Conqueror and you were suddenly given the chance to travel to modern day England. You would be terrified.”

“I see what you mean,” Katarina said. “By the same token, couldn’t those Pride worlds be advanced enough to provide us with help against the Grays?”

“We certainly hope so, which is one of the main reasons we’re pursuing this,” Spyder said. “Even if their level of science is the same as ours, we must establish contact for the sake of Firth, Rawli, Scora, and Glia. They deserve a chance at a future, complete with a mate and young of their own.”

Ragnok arrived a short time later but was hesitant about entering the human dwelling. ‘Would you mind if we stayed outside on the deck, Spyder?’

‘Not at all. It’s a beautiful evening,’ Spyder said as he sat down in one of the chairs on the deck facing the large male. ‘How are Liara and the cubs? I saw Firth earlier and I swear he’s gotten bigger.’

‘They are well, thank you.’ Ragnok shifted uncomfortably. ‘It is my understanding you spoke with Liara about the possibility that the Pride had used the Ancient devices to travel to other worlds. I hope you understand those tales are merely legends and we have no proof such travel ever took place.’

‘Ragnok, the tales are the truth. Using the records contained in the Chamber of the Ancients on Earth, I have verified that travel from your world was quite common at one time,’ Spyder said carefully. ‘It came to an end approximately one thousand years ago at the time of the great pandemic.’

Ragnok looked puzzled. ‘Spyder, I worked in our Chamber of the Ancients my entire adult life but I know nothing of any such device within that chamber.’

Spyder said, ‘Do you recall a tall tube of glass that surrounded a circular platform?’

‘No, there was no tall tube. There was a circular platform that no one could make work, so we had no idea of its function,’ Ragnok said defensively. ‘The Director of Science said that several of the machines had been damaged during the age of barbarism after the Great Dying. Perhaps that would explain it.’

‘That was my thought, too,’ Spyder replied. ‘It would also explain why none of the Pride settlers ever returned to discover what had happened on the home world.’ He watched Ragnok’s face as the male digested that particular line of thought.

‘There were settlers?’ Ragnok’s voice was a whisper.

Spyder replied, ‘I found records of travel from the home world to ten separate worlds during the period prior to the pandemic. Once the pandemic began, the teleporter would not permit any outbound travel to preclude the spread of the disease beyond the original planet of infection, so the settlers would soon have been cut off from your world. Once the teleporter was damaged, that door would have been closed forever.’

Ragnok was quiet for several minutes, weighing his next words. ‘Do you know what became of the settlements?’

Spyder looked at him steadily. ‘They appear to have thrived. There is constant travel between the ten planets, with the most recent teleportation occurring yesterday.’

‘Yesterday?’ Ragnok said softly, and then added in a louder and firmer voice, ‘The Pride lives!’

‘Yes, the Pride lives,’ Spyder agreed. ‘What does Ragnok intend to do now?’

‘I must travel to them, of course.’

‘If that is your wish, I will arrange to send you there,’ Spyder replied. ‘It will take several days to determine which world would be the best choice.’

Ragnok was very excited by the news his species still existed and flourished on ten other worlds. ‘Can you imagine what they must be like? Never having known the Great Dying, to have never lost the sciences? It is almost intimidating when I consider how far advanced they must be.’

‘Yes, I have thought of that, Ragnok, and I wondered whether it would occur to you. There would probably have been language shifts as well in the millennia between contacts,’ Spyder continued. ‘Once I have found whichever world seems to be functioning as the center of the Pride civilization, I will contact you and we can plan the next step.’

‘You have my eternal debt for this, Spyder,’ Ragnok said, laying one paw on his chest in the gesture of a vow.

‘Nonsense. As Korin would say, you are Clan. Assistance within the Clan incurs no debt.’ Spyder stood up to indicate the discussion was over and Ragnok dipped his head in salute and then raced down the steps and into the night. As Spyder watched him disappear into the darkness, he thought, Not a species given to small talk.

* * * *

Spyder slipped out of the bedroom, leaving Katherine still sleeping peacefully, and went into the kitchen. He fixed himself a thermos of coffee and a few sandwiches for later, then opened a portal to the Chamber of the Ancients on Earth. While he made it seem like it would be easy to determine which world was the center of the Pride civilization, he knew it would take a great deal of guesswork, too.

He sat down at what he knew was the central console for the teleportation network and called up the logs for the ten planets he had surmised the Pride had settled. As he looked at the various entries on the screen, he wished for the hundredth time that he understood the system better. Back in the day, I could crack any computer system on the planet. Now I’m looking at this interface screen and wondering what the buttons do. Shaking his head in amusement, he selected one of the icons and activated it.

Now that’s interesting! It’s a video record of who used the teleporter! After studying the screen for a moment, Spyder nodded. That’s a big feline, all right. No mane of hair, so it’s a female.

There was a soft chiming sound and an icon began to flash in the corner of the screen. Spyder selected the icon and his display shifted to show a new video. Hey, this is happening right this moment! Studying the image, he realized it seemed to be the same female and that she was returning to where she started. Hmmm, she seems to be carrying some kind of data notebook, like a tablet PC. She also seems to be bleeding, based on the readouts, although it is not life-threatening. Perhaps all is not so peaceful on the Pride worlds.

Spyder spent the next several hours going through the individual video logs of the trips during the past dozen years. There seemed to be a cadre of females that used the teleporters to travel among the worlds. Were they couriers of some kind? Every once in a while, one of them would travel off world and not return. Soon, a new female would take her place in the regular travels. Several of the records indicated the travelers had been injured in some fashion when making their return trips, one with such severe injuries as to seem fatal. That particular female never made another trip so the interpretation seemed to indicate she had subsequently died and been replaced. Whatever they were doing seemed to be inherently dangerous.

There didn’t seem to be any kind of schedule for these trips. Some trips, like this last one, seemed to only be for one or two days, while others, several weeks. In the past twelve years, six of the travelers never returned, while fourteen had been injured before their return trip, including the one whose injuries were severe enough to assume she had died from them.

None of the records indicated any trips originated on the other nine planets, other than those of the females returning. Scanning back over the preceding century, there had been a lot of travel between the worlds up until about fifty years ago. At that time, the travel stopped completely for about twenty years. Then this current situation started. Definitely something weird going on. We had better tread very carefully in making this first contact.

* * * *

Spyder finished explaining his discoveries to Ebon and Astra, finishing with, “So that’s the situation. I’m not sure what’s happening on those Pride worlds but something bad is occurring on the nine these females keep going to visit, which has killed several and wounded many of the rest. We need more information, but I have no idea how to get it.”

“We obviously cannot risk sending Ragnok to any of the worlds without a better understanding of what he may face. The fact all the travelers are female obviously means something, but what escapes me,” Astra said.

“What about an astral exploration?” Ebon suggested.

“I thought about that, but there is such a small window of opportunity. We would have to follow a traveler and who knows when the next trip will be? We’d have only seconds to react since we wouldn’t know a trip was taking place until the teleporter was active,” Spyder said. “As much as I hate putting Ragnok off on this, I don’t see any other choice.”

“I agree and I will explain to him our concerns, as well as those you have expressed,” Ebon said. “If only there was some way to get one of those travelers to teleport to Earth or Ursaria.”

“What an excellent idea!” Spyder said excitedly. “I could set a redirect command into the system to send the next traveler to the platform on Ursaria with a lock-out to prevent her from immediately teleporting back out again. That way, when she materializes, we can have Liara come to speak with her.”

“Can you do that without interfering in the travel by the Ursars?” Ebon asked. “They do use that network as well.”

“Good point. Well, the only other choice is to redirect the traveler to the chamber on Earth with a lock-out of all outgoing teleportation. The system could be set to notify me and then I could portal myself and Liara there to meet with our kidnapped traveler,” Spyder said. “I sure hope they keep the same schedule. I would hate to have to collect Liara in the middle of the night!”

“I would suggest discussing this with Liara first to see if she is willing to serve as an intermediary and if she would be willing to accompany you to the chamber on Earth on short notice,” Astra said.

Spyder laughed. “Yeah, that would probably be a good idea. She’s pretty easy to talk to so I’ll head over to see her and Ragnok after I get home tonight.” As Spyder stood to walk out the door, he added, “I assume you want to be kept informed.”

“Every step of the way,” Ebon replied.

* * * *

After Spyder had explained his findings and interpretations, Ragnok said, ‘I agree there is something very strange going on. While I have come to accept the equality of females to males, the fact all the travelers using the teleporter are female is strange in itself. Add to that the fact so many of them have been injured or presumed killed. It is difficult to know how to proceed.’

‘It is possible to redirect the next traveler from that world to a different teleport platform that would, in turn, not let her depart. We could then speak with her and try to understand the conditions that exist on the Pride worlds and how best to make contact,’ Spyder said.

Ragnok thought for a few moments before he said, ‘It would seem inadvisable for you to speak with her alone. If she has never seen a human before, she might decide your intervention in her travels was an attack and that you were, therefore, hostile. Forgive me, but even a female would have no trouble tearing you to pieces. You must be, therefore, accompanied by one of us. I believe Liara should be the one that comes with you to speak to her. The presence of a female, even a stranger, would provide an opportunity to open a dialogue between the traveler and Liara.’

Spyder carefully hid his smile as he bowed his head to acknowledge Ragnok’s suggestion. ‘I think your idea is wise, Ragnok. There may be some issue between the genders of the Pride that confronting a male such as yourself might exacerbate. We will not know when a traveler will arrive at the chamber until they make the transit. This means Liara must be agreeable to come immediately when this happens to prevent the traveler from panicking when she realizes she is not where she expects to be.’

‘That is agreeable, Spyder,’ Liara said quietly. ‘I presume you would open a portal between where we are and the chamber. Since my cubs are old enough now to be on their own for brief periods, I would suggest you open a portal on the deck of the tree house right after you contact me mentally. I will immediately step through the portal to join you at the chamber to meet with the visitor. Is that acceptable?’

‘That will be perfect, Liara. Thank you both for your support in this project,’ Spyder said. ‘I will set up the redirection tomorrow. It may be a few days before we have another traveler but it could happen at any time.’

‘I understand and I will be ready,’ Liara replied.

Chapter 17

Raísa knew at once that she had traveled to the wrong chamber. This location seemed much larger than the one she had intended to reach and had many more Ancient devices than she was accustomed to seeing in any chamber. She reached out with her mind to activate the transfer and, when nothing happened, she knew her presence here had not been an accident. She knew the Mothers did not have the scientific background to intercept an Ancient teleportation device, but apparently someone did.

The chamber lights were on low, befitting its untenanted state. As she stepped from the teleport pad, the lights came on. This was definitely someplace no one had ever described in any of the mission reports she’d read. All the chambers they’d used had been very much alike. She prowled around the chamber, inspecting the stations but not touching anything. They had learned the hard way that some stations left by the Ancients could be deadly.

Raísa finally stretched out on the floor behind a console to wait, keeping an eye on the only doorway into the chamber. Whoever had the capability to intercept her undoubtedly also had some way of knowing she had arrived and would probably be along shortly.

* * * *

Spyder knew the moment the interception was successful and he sent his astral self to watch the traveler as she first inspected the room and then lay down behind a console to wait. Smart lady, conserve strength whenever possible while minimizing exposure. Someone trained you well. Her tawny fur seemed to blend into the stone flooring and the shadows cast by the dim lighting, making her fade from sight whenever she was still. He reached out with his mind for Liara. ‘Liara, our traveler has arrived. Are you available to come with me to meet with her?’

‘Of course, Spyder. If you would open the portal on my deck in five minutes, I will be ready,’ came her immediate response. Her mental tone was colored by a touch of excitement that Spyder could understand. This would be the first Pride female Liara had spoken with since the Gray attack on the Pride home world almost a year before.

Spyder quickly portaled to the deck at Liara’s tree house to wait for her to join him. She appeared through the doorway to her house almost immediately. ‘Spyder, it is good to see you. I must admit that I am both excited and somewhat fearful about this.’

‘That is understandable, Liara. You’ll do fine,’ Spyder said. ‘Are you ready?’

At her nod, Spyder opened a portal to the Chamber of the Ancients on Earth and they stepped through.

* * * *

Raísa came alert as the blue nimbus of a portal began to form within the chamber. This was something she had never seen before and she expected it meant that whoever had intercepted her trip was making an appearance. The first being through the light did not match any species she had ever seen before but the second was a Pride female. Raísa waited for them to make the first move.

Liara raised her head and said, ‘Greetings. I’m Liara from the Pride home world.’

Raísa snorted. ‘Impossible. Contact with the home world was lost a millennia ago.’

‘Nonetheless, it is true. The home world was devastated by a terrible plague and most of the population perished. During the dark years, our teleportation device was damaged and knowledge of our other settlements was lost. It was only through the work of Spyder,’ Liara indicated her human companion, ‘that we learned of your existence. He arranged for us to meet with you in this manner because of a strangeness he felt in the patterns of the use of the teleporters between your worlds.’

‘Accepting for the moment that what you say is true, then you have done well to be so cautious in your approach.’ Raísa rose to her feet and walked over to join Liara and Spyder. ‘I’m Raísa. What do you know of the Mothers?’

‘Mothers? You make that sound like it’s a title of some kind, rather than a biological condition,’ Liara responded. ‘I personally have four cubs, so I am a mother, if that is what you mean.’

‘Congratulations. No, that is not what I meant,’ Raísa replied. ‘I was asking if you were familiar with the Cult of the Mother, and whether you ascribed to the tenets of that faith.’

‘I have never heard of them,’ Liara said. ‘Your tone and your body language say this is very important to you, but I do not know why.’

‘The Cult of the Mother has taken control of nine of the Pride worlds, and enslaved most of the population. On those worlds, science is forbidden,’ Raísa replied. ‘I had to know whether this world ascribes to the cult or not.’

Spyder spoke for the first time. ‘This world is not a Pride world, Raísa. The Pride home world was destroyed a year ago by the Grays. You are presently on Earth, known as Sol in the language of the Ancients.’

‘Sol! Are you saying the myths are true? There really are Grays and the Pride is a race of Guardians?’ Raísa demanded.

Liara nodded. ‘My family were the sole survivors of the attack on our home world. We presently live with another group of Guardians on Ursaria. We are working with the Æthereal and humans like Spyder.’

‘Raísa, would you like to come with us to Ursaria to meet with the other Guardians? You can tell them what has happened among the worlds of the Pride,’ Spyder suggested. ‘It will be a much more comfortable setting for such discussions than standing around inside this chamber.’

Raísa considered and then said, ‘As important as my mission was, this takes precedence. I will go with you to this other world and meet with whomever you would like so I may tell my own leaders what you have said and shown me.’

Spyder opened a portal back to the deck on Liara’s tree house and escorted the two Pride females through to Ursaria. He watched Raísa’s reaction to the huge sprawling tree house and the amazing view from the aerial deck.

‘This is so beautiful. How many families live here?’ Raísa said.

Liara smiled. ‘We are the only members of the Pride on this world. The Ursars built this home for us. My mate is presently off-world working with the Guardians on Paradise, but my four cubs are around here somewhere.’

As if summoned by her voice, Firth and Rawli sprang unto the deck from nearby branches while Scora leisurely strolled up the steps from below. Glia came outside through the door of the house. Liara said, ‘These are my cubs. The males are Firth and Rawli, while the females are Scora and Glia.’ Turning to face her cubs, she said, ‘This is Raísa, a visitor from another world of the Pride.’

‘They are very handsome, indeed, Liara. It is such a pleasure to see them running free under the sunlight as they are meant to be,’ Raísa said.

‘Is this so uncommon on your world, Raísa?’ asked Spyder.

Raísa shook her head. ‘On my world, no one has this much space to spread out but the cubs do exercise in the parks. On the other worlds, this sight would be rare indeed. An explanation of all that is a part of the discussion I must have with your Guardians. I would like to cover that trail only once.’

Spyder summoned several members of the Guardians of Sol but it took almost an hour before everyone could come to the field near Liara’s tree house. The Æthereal were there in natural form and were accompanied by their human counterparts. Ebon and Negron represented the Blacks, Forrest the Greens, and Azure the Blues. Astra represented the Whites and Laranja the Oranges. The Browns, Reds, and Golds were not represented, although Spyder suspected several were watching in astral form. Eric, Danny, Jenna, Judy, and Katarina were present, as were Korin and Lili representing the Ursars. Azure had also brought Ragnok along to meet another member of the Pride. Spyder had already made introductions of everyone present.

‘Thank you all for coming on such short notice,’ Spyder said. ‘As many of you know, I recently discovered there were at least ten other worlds where the Pride had established settlements prior to the great pandemic that struck their home world a millennia ago. After studying the usage of the teleporters between the worlds, I noticed the pattern was odd and such that we could not risk blindly teleporting to any one of the worlds without some knowledge of what lay beyond the chamber. I set up a program to redirect the next traveler from their intended destination to the chamber located on Earth, and arranged for Liara to accompany me. As a result, I have asked you here today to meet and talk with Raísa, the traveler we kidnapped, to learn about what has transpired on the other Pride worlds and to make some decisions about what actions we should take in the future.’ Spyder gestured toward the new Pride female as he said, ‘I present to you, Raísa.’

Raísa was clearly unnerved by suddenly being in the forefront before so many strange beings. She’d been told all her life about the Guardians and the Grays, but those tales had the feel of folktales rather than scientific fact, the edges blurred by the mists of time and without any real details of the nature of the other guardian races. To be confronted by two of those other races, both so much more massive and deadly than anything she had ever encountered in her life, was enough to make her want to run and hide. It was the sight of the smallest human present, baby Meredith, curled fast asleep in the lap of the Ursar female, that enabled her to restore a sense of calm. She looked out at the huge dragons and smaller humans, and took a deep breath. She locked her stare, however, on the other Pride female, as a familiar frame of reference as she began to speak.

‘I am called Raísa, and I am one of the nine scouts used to keep an eye on conditions on the other settled planets. Nothing in my training as a scout has prepared me for the role I find myself in right at this moment. On my world at least, we still teach our young about the Guardians and the Grays, but there has never been an encounter in recorded history, so those teachings are treated more like a myth or legend. We are taught there are other Guardian races, but there are no descriptions of them. So, as you can see, there was nothing that prepared me for all of you.’ Raísa paused to let the group chuckle with the idea how intimidated she must feel.

‘As Spyder said, contact between the Pride home world and the settled planets was completely lost a millennia ago. The loss was sudden and complete; one day, we could go there using the teleporter and the next, we could not. Since we could still travel among the other settled worlds, we knew the problem had to be on the home world. We expected the problem to be resolved in a short period of time, but soon, years passed and then decades and we finally abandoned all hope to learn of what had befallen our home world.

‘The intervening years were spent in expanding our settlements and establishing a self-sufficient culture on each in case whatever tragedy struck the home world should repeat itself on one of the settled planets. As is probably common on newly settled worlds, the culture shifted in terms of gender roles. The overwhelming need to expand the population drove the females in the direction of biologic necessity; they became breeders and nurturers, to be protected at all costs, for they were the only means to provide the population needed.

‘Over time, this mindset stratified and held the force of law. Females were denied basic suffrage, and had no participation in the ruling councils of our worlds. We were coddled and protected, pampered and spoiled, but had no value other than breeding cubs for the expansion of our worlds.’ When Liara reacted to this, Raísa glanced over to Ragnok. Seeing his guilty look, she said, ‘I see by your expressions that things were not much different on the home world after the pandemic. So conditions existed for many hundreds of years. Our male-dominated societies flourished, and our populations grew out of control, leading to overcrowding and occasional food shortages.

‘No one is sure on which of the ten worlds it started, but about a century ago, a group of female evangelists began preaching about the Cult of the Mother, creating a new theology based on a personified female God and a creed based on bearing children and nurturing. It spoke of the feminine as being superior to the masculine, establishing that the male traits of aggression and dominance were the root of all evils in our societies. The cult gained in popularity among the females, since it gave them a vision of a life beyond the drudgery of their everyday existence and a meaning of being more than the personal slave of whatever male ran their household, be it parent or mate.

‘On my world, open discourse was achieved between the males and females, and the females were given the same rights as the males. There were programs established to educate and train females for all endeavors needed to further society. Females began to gain seats on the governing council itself. This trail was not followed by the other nine worlds; their councils chose to try to crack down on the new religion and this led to violence and the eventual overthrow of those councils. Instead of achieving a balance between the genders, those worlds established matriarchies that are worse than what existed before.

‘How can I put into words what I personally have seen on those worlds? All males that were in a position of dominance were put to death. Science was ruled a tool of the males and forbidden. Males that were selected for the breeding pens were confined as pampered pets, while the rest were gelded and used as slaves, treated harshly and worked until they died under the lash. The females have become fat and lazy, with their every whim catered to by either their slaves or their pampered males. Their worlds have become stagnant, slipping back to an agrarian-based culture with little technology. The Council of Mothers decreed the tales of the Guardians and the Grays were nothing more than a ploy by the males to further their agenda of violence and, as a result, the stories are no longer told to the young. The treatment of the slaves has shown that aggression is not solely a male characteristic, although the Mothers claim their treatment is merely a redressing of the wrong committed to the females since time began, done in the only means the males would comprehend.

‘For the last twenty years, my world has been sending scouts to each of the other nine worlds in an effort to monitor them. We look for any opportunity to shift the balance of power back to a more rational culture based on equality and knowledge. At the same time, we are required to look for any incursions by the Grays, although none of us knows what a Gray looks like or how we’d know if an incursion took place. Most of our missions have passed undetected, although we have had our failures, too. Some of the scouts have been discovered as fakes, and punished as heretics by the Mothers. Since they are guilty of betraying the Mother, this punishment is normally to have their reproductive organs ripped out with steel hooks. As I said, violence and aggression are not merely a male trait, after all.’ Raísa looked around at her rapt audience, more embarrassed now that she was finished than she was before she started speaking.

Ragnok said, ‘This is grave news. None of these worlds is prepared to defend themselves against the Grays. Indeed, we were not prepared for the tactics they used against the home world, either, but at least we knew the threat existed. We must do something since we know the Grays are operating in that part of the galaxy.’

‘I agree, Ragnok, but the question is what to do,’ replied Spyder. He turned to Ebon, asking, ‘What do you think, Ebon?’

‘I think we need to establish an Æthereal presence on these worlds immediately. Negron and I will organize rotating patrols among the Blacks and Browns to be implemented as soon as we have the spatial coordinates to open a portal. These Pride worlds offer no threat to our physical beings and our presence may open a dialog about their so-called myths,’ Ebon said in reply.

Raísa bowed her head toward the large Black dragon. ‘I thank you for all the Pride of the ten worlds for taking over what should be our duty. I ask that you permit me to pave the way on my home world for your arrival, as beings of your size and power would create panic and fear were you to just suddenly appear in our skies.’

‘Agreed, although we are capable of flying so high that few of your kind would even notice us. We managed to patrol the Earth for millennia without the humans ever being the wiser,’ Ebon said. ‘Spyder, it will fall to you to give us the spatial coordinates we need. You will have to travel to each of the ten worlds just long enough to permit our teams to get a feel for where in the galaxy the world lies.’

‘He will not go alone,’ Raísa said. ‘After we establish contact with the Council on my world, I shall personally escort him to each of the nine worlds of the Mother.’

Spyder looked across the deck at Katherine as if he could hear her say, Here we go again.

Chapter 18

As soon as he stepped out of the teleportation device, Spyder made his way past several startled Pride scientists to the surveillance console that kept watch in this part of the galaxy. ‘My apologies for brushing you aside, sir, but I need to determine whether this region of space is clear.’ Changing the display settings to the maximum range possible, he studied the screen to see whether there were any Gray ships in near space. Thankfully, the screens were vacant at the moment. ‘As you can see, this setting gives the greatest range. There is nothing unusual in this area for almost a full light year from this world.’

‘Who is this creature?’ demanded the outraged scientist.

Raísa said, ‘He is one of the Guardians of Sol, a partner to the Æthereal and Ursar of legend. He has fought the Grays in close combat. You will hear the rest from Council when they chose to inform you. For now, accept that he is our friend and ally against the Grays.’ She took Spyder by the arm and began to lead him to the doors that led from the chamber.

As they approached the doors, Spyder exerted his mind-link to the Ancient computers, and quickly assessed the level of knowledge attained by the Pride of this world. He was pleasantly surprised to find them very close to human technology without any dependence on petrochemical power systems. They passed through the doors and Spyder found this chamber was located deep underground, as were all the others he’d ever been inside. After what felt like ages, they reached the top of the ramp to emerge from a set of plain doors onto a busy city street. Spyder turned around and saw nothing on the exterior of the building that gave any indication that within lay the access to the chamber. Raísa grinned a little self-consciously as she said, ‘Hide in plain sight. Who would think the portal to other worlds is hidden behind such plain doors?’

‘Whatever works. Do you have much need to hide the chamber from your citizens?’ Spyder asked.

Raísa shook her head. ‘No, we just don’t advertise its whereabouts. The existence of the chamber is taught, along with the roles of the Guardians and the menace of the Grays.’ She smiled a little. ‘Of course, after today, those lessons will take on new life as people realize they are real and not fables to frighten cubs.’

Spyder could feel the amused chuckle that came over the link he was maintaining with Katherine back on Ursaria. ‘Behave or the Grays will getcha,’ seemed to be the gist of the response he felt from her amusement. He reached out to Ebon. ‘Ebon, can you get a fix from this contact?’

‘Clearly. You will let me know when you want the first wing to appear, correct?’

‘Yes, I suspect I will need them as a practical demonstration of their new reality at some point. I will call when I am ready for them.’ Spyder returned his attention to Raísa as she led him through the town. He said, ‘I'm surprised to see the Pride no longer lives among the treetops but instead has these large, multistoried buildings.’

Raísa replied, ‘As I said back on Ursaria, we had a bit of a population problem. It was no longer practical for us to dwell in the trees as had been the custom. In fact, trees themselves became endangered and now can be found only in carefully nurtured parks.’

Spyder looked around at the wide avenue between the buildings and the strange apparatus that ran down the center of the road. It looked like a T-bar chair lift used at most ski resorts back on Earth. Pride were hopping on and off the device as the seats moved along the way. ‘Raísa, I understand how this could move people from one place to another, but what if you want to go in the other direction?’

'The lifts run in the opposite direction on alternating roadways. Were you to walk between the buildings, you would find a lift running the other direction.’

Spyder saw the logic, much like alternating one-way streets back on Earth. ‘How do you transport heavy loads from point to point?’

‘We have special devices that make it possible to move heavy or cumbersome objects with relative ease,' Raísa explained. ‘We call them gravoids because they essentially void gravity's effect on the object to be moved. Don't ask me how it works, because the science involved is quite beyond me.’

Raísa led him across the avenue to a spacious tree-lined walkway that led to a columned entryway. As they approached the doors, Raísa said, ‘This is the Council Arena, seat of the governing body of this world. We may not get to see the entire Council today, but we should be able to meet with Councilor Treon, who is in charge of the scout program and the defense of this world. He is kind of like the Chief Guardian, but without the respect and authority your world gives that position, since there has not been any contact with the Grays in our recorded history.’

‘I imagine that perception will change soon enough,’ Spyder replied.

Raísa looked doubtful. ‘I hope so, Spyder, but the Council leadership can be very stubborn and will not yield their prestige easily.’

‘It's hard to argue about the existence of other Guardians when your skies are filled with fire-breathing dragons, Raísa,’ Spyder said.

* * * *

Spyder was rapidly losing patience with the bureaucracy that seemed all important to the Pride. He turned on Raísa and asked, ‘Just how many visitors from other species does your planet receive? I have a mind to call in the Æthereal wing and get them to start patrolling at low altitude. That certainly would get the attention of these clowns.’

The soft grumble that served as a chuckle came from the large Pride councilor; his fur was almost white with his advanced age. Treon had accepted Raísa’s report at face value since she’d brought along the alien as proof. He’d immediately called for a full meeting of the Council, but the others had stonewalled him ever since. Several members had apparently started rumors that Treon was losing his mind as a prelude to replacing him with a younger and more amenable choice. No matter what they said, Spyder knew the elder Councilor was as sharp as an assassin's blade and just as deadly. Raísa’s comparison to Ebon was extremely apt, and Spyder knew anyone who crossed this canny old male did so at their own risk. Even his mental voice was a deep bass rumble in Spyder’s mind.

‘Your idea has merit. The unexpected appearance of a flight of winged Guardians above the city would indeed make the Council stop all this dithering. Could you arrange such a thing?’

‘Easily, Councilor Treon. They will start patrolling the entire planet, not just over this city,’ Spyder said.

Councilor Treon shook his head. ‘You still do not understand us, Spyder. This city covers the entire world. We desperately need to expand off this world but the situation with the other nine planets has made that impossible.’

Spyder looked at him, puzzled. ‘Sir, I can see how the situation would stop you from going to those nine worlds, but why haven’t you gone to the other twenty-six planets earmarked by the Ancients for your use?’

Treon spluttered in amazement. ‘What was that? How many other planets did you say? How do you know this?’

‘The chamber on Sol is the master station built by and for the Ancients. Using that system, I have access to a great deal of information about all the worlds the Ancients set aside for each group of Guardians, not just as places for them to settle, but as worlds they were expected to protect from the Grays,’ Spyder explained. ‘The Ancients set aside this entire portion of the galaxy for the Leonid Guardians—for that is what they called you—to serve as your worlds and your responsibility. You were never meant to be bottled up on just these few planets. We can start emigrating your surplus population, at least those capable of adapting to a more primitive existence in the beginning, as soon as you wish.’

‘It would take far too long to migrate through the teleportation tube, Spyder,’ Raísa observed. ‘Plus, the tube cannot handle large bulk transfers.’

‘I was speaking of using the assistance of the other Guardians. The Æthereal can open portals large enough to permit the transfer of hundreds of your citizens and their baggage in mere moments.’ Spyder looked at the councilor. ‘Sir, you seemed to be on the verge of suggesting I call the Æthereal here. When I do, I would like us to be where you can observe their arrival to gain an understanding of what I mean when I say they can open a portal between this world and another.’

‘Yes, I think it is time to press the issue, especially if you can start us on the path to emigration and dispersal of our huge population. I have summoned the senior members of the Council to meet me in the plaza outside in thirty minutes, intimating that I had an announcement they were long waiting to hear. Of course, they think I mean to resign, when in fact, I mean to announce the opportunity for settling new worlds. I know they will be there since I have also summoned the media and they have agreed to carry my broadcast live.’ Councilor Treon bared his teeth in a feline grin. ‘It should make for a very interesting broadcast, especially if you can arrange for the Æthereal to arrive overhead at exactly the moment I wish them to.’

* * * *

The Pride media were out in force. Rumors had spread about the presence of an alien and that, more than any Council pronouncement, drew a crowd. At the appointed moment, Councilor Treon stepped up to a bank of microphones and Spyder was struck by the parallel with the announcement by the President of the United States a few years before. He, too, had stood behind a bank of microphones and in front of video broadcasting equipment to make an announcement that would change a world’s perceptions.

‘I have asked for this moment of your time in my capacity as Guardian. Largely regarded as a ceremonial title without any purpose, the role of Guardian is a position charged with the defense of our worlds against outside aggression, especially from the species known as the Gray. Since we have never seen the Grays, no one ever believed the role had a purpose.’ Councilor Treon paused, and then said, ‘Recent events have revealed our error in these assumptions. The Gray threat is real and, in the past year, they destroyed our home world. Yes, I said in the past year. There was a single family that survived that attack and they were rescued by the Guardians from Sol. One of our scouts has met with the survivors and with the Guardians of Sol and of Ursaria, and a representative accompanied her back to meet with us.’

At his imperious gesture, Spyder stepped up on the dais next to Councilor Treon. By prior agreement, Spyder spoke a few words. ‘I bring you greetings from the Guardians of Sol and Ursaria, as well as a warning of the arrival of the Grays in your portion of the galaxy. The recent destruction of your home world must serve as a reminder of the seriousness of your charge as Guardians. We stand ready to assist you.’

Councilor Treon resumed his statement. ‘As Guardian, it is my responsibility to prepare for the defense of our world and I must admit before you all that we are incapable of defending ourselves. It is a sad fact that we have never believed in the Gray threat and have never devoted ourselves to what should have been our primary mission—our reason for even existing—the defeat of the Grays. I have, therefore, asked the Guardians of Sol to assume that responsibility until such time as the Pride can meet the role ourselves. They have agreed, not just for this world, but also for the nine worlds of the Mothers.’ He looked over at Spyder, who nodded. ‘I would ask the media and those present today to look to the skies above as we welcome the Guardians of Sol, the Æthereal of legend.’

On cue, a massive blue portal formed in the sky above the plaza and a flight of one hundred Black dragons appeared overhead. Once through the portal, they fanned out in pairs to fly off in all directions. Per instructions from Spyder, the initial flights were done at a low level to afford the population of the world the opportunity to see and appreciate their new reality.

Stunned, the crowd made no sound as they watched the display. One pair remained overhead, spiraling ever higher and then they spread out to perform an aerial display of acrobatics and, finally, a demonstration of the fiery breath. The crowd gave a collective gasp as the flames arced across the sky, and again as the dragons dove once more toward the ground, leveling off a few hundred feet overhead and winging away to the west. As they faded from view, the video cameras once again focused on the Councilor, who smiled as he said, ‘I cannot help but wonder what the Mothers will make of the Æthereals. I suspect they are something beyond their philosophy.’ The crowd broke into laughter and the Councilor let them settle back down before he continued.

‘The news is not all bad. The Guardians of Sol have offered to open up to twenty-six planets for us to begin settling, and yes, they will provide protection to those worlds as well. Details will be established in the coming weeks, but it means an end to the overcrowding and food shortages. It also means a chance to return to the real lifestyle of the Pride amid wilderness and trees. Were I younger, I would be first in line to move to another world. I will, however, travel to each new world myself to demonstrate the safety of the portal travel we will be using and I invite all the other councilors to join me.’ Councilor Treon stared at each one of the other senior councilors for a long, hard moment before he continued. ‘There will be further announcements from the Guardian office in the next few days regarding the draft for service in defense of the Pride worlds as well as the policies for emigration. This concludes my comments today, and I will entertain questions submitted in writing to the Guardian office. Good day.’ With those words, Councilor Treon turned and strode back to the building and his office, with Raísa and Spyder hurrying behind. As they followed, they could hear the media shouting questions at the other councilors, who were busy ducking the questions as best they could.

Spyder had no sooner sat down than a blue portal opened near him and Ebon stepped through in his human avatar. ‘Councilor Treon, may I present the Guardian of Sol, Ebon the Black. Do not let this avatar deceive you for he is truly one of the largest of the Æthereal,’ Raísa said by way of introduction.

Councilor Treon reached out one silvered paw to touch the proffered hand of the Guardian. ‘It is indeed both a pleasure and an embarrassment to meet the Guardian of Sol. The pleasure comes from the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to actually meet some of the other Guardians, while the embarrassment stems from my own failure as the Guardian of this world to believe deeply enough to perform my duties.’

Ebon smiled as he said, ‘All of us feel inadequate for the task given to us because we simply cannot do it alone. Our partnerships, first with the humans and then the Ursars, have shown us that together, we are stronger than any of us can be on our own. It is a Pride scientist that has developed a new kind of shield to augment those created by the humans. That same technology is being adapted by the humans to create an offensive technology that can be turned against the Grays. This is my first message to you, Treon. You are not alone and all the Guardians are ready to help you.

‘My second message concerns the announcement you just made regarding emigration to these new planets. Much time has passed since the Ancients established their plans for the galaxy and we have found there were certain developments they failed to consider, such as the independent evolution of sentient life forms on the planets they chose. I would recommend a program of careful exploration of these worlds by an experienced survey team to determine whether they are available for resettlement before we start sending colonists to them. I would hate to deliver a group of settlers to a planet and have them find themselves in a conflict with an indigenous sapient species as that would make us no better than the Grays,’ Ebon said.

Councilor Treon looked a bit stunned. ‘That had not occurred to me. It would be a bit arrogant to think we were the only forms of intelligent life, would it not? Obviously, we shall have to send a survey and exploration team to each world before we start any kind of emigration effort.’ He sighed heavily. ‘As my father always said, if something looks too good to be true, it usually is neither good, nor true. I had grasped this as a solution to so many of our problems, such as overcrowding and food shortages, that I completely overlooked the issues inherent in such an endeavor.’

‘We would like to offer you some hope, Treon. We would like to have these survey and exploration teams be a joint effort between all our species. We would like to have several of your folk come to Paradise to train with the Æthereal and human teams. Then we can start exploring those worlds together.’ Ebon watched the delight settle in the Councilor’s eyes as the import of those words sank in.

‘Of course, we can call for volunteers for a new survey and exploration arm of the Guardians. How many would we need initially, do you think?’

‘Well, with twenty-six worlds to explore, we will need quite a few. I would think you would want at least six trained representatives on each team, plus a few spares in case the primaries cannot make a trip as scheduled. Why not plan for two hundred to start? They should be evenly split between male and females, as we have found that both genders bring different observational skills into the mix. They should have a fundamental background in science but it is not necessary that they all be scientists. Our exploration teams are mainly filled with individuals with an incurable wanderlust—a desire to know what is over that next hill.’

‘Most of our citizens have that, believe me.’ Councilor Treon added, ‘But I sense there is something else you wish to discuss.’

‘Yes, and that is protection for the worlds ruled by the Cult of the Mother. We need Spyder to start using the teleporter to briefly visit each world so we can get the spatial coordinates the combat wings need to portal to those worlds,’ Ebon said. ‘How soon do you think you can start traveling, Spyder?’

Spyder looked over to Raísa, who replied, ‘We can travel to the first world today. Since we just need to be there long enough for Spyder to make contact with you to give you a determination of the coordinates, we could travel to most of them in just a few hours.’

Ebon nodded, ‘That should be fine, Raísa. Spyder, contact both myself and Negron when you reach these other nine planets and we will get started with our patrols. The teams will be instructed to patrol at high level for the most part and not to interact with the locals unless there is a good reason. We will place a seasoned Black or Brown in charge of each group.’ Ebon turned back to Treon. ‘That concludes my business here, Councilor. With your permission, I will return to Paradise and wait for word from our young friend here.’

* * * *

Spyder and Raísa stepped into the teleportation tube and triggered the sequence to send them to their first stop. The chamber where they arrived was cold and dark, the Ancient systems running quiescently in the background. Spyder quickly accessed the surveillance network to look at the nearby space for any sign of the Grays, but everything indicated the area was clear of intrusion.

Raísa led the way out of the chamber. Once past the doors barring access to the chamber, Spyder was outside the dampening field. Although he could send messages inside the field, he preferred to leave the chamber and be able to see the sky before establishing the coordinates for the Æthereal patrols. Very quietly, Raísa led him out of the tunnel from the underground chamber to a point where they reached the surface access point.

Raísa said, ‘Once we pass this point, we are in danger of discovery, so you must be very quick.’

‘What’s past this point?’

‘We enter the cellar of one of the cult complex buildings.’

‘Then we’ve gone far enough. As long as we aren’t inside a mountain, Ebon can take my present coordinates and add enough height for the patrol.’ Spyder reached out with his mind for Ebon and Negron, establishing contact easily. It took a mere fraction of a second for them to determine the information they needed and then break contact.

‘I bet it would be interesting to watch their reactions to the dragons, but we’d better move on to the next world,’ Spyder said. Turning, he started back down the tunnel with Raísa hiding any trace of their passage in case any of the Cult came this way.

The same pattern was followed at the next seven worlds as well, and Spyder was lulled by the routine sameness of each excursion to the worlds of the Mother Cult. His first indication of a difference as they reached the final world was the amount of light that was in the chamber when they materialized in the tube.

The room was filled with members of the Cult. It was an ambush for the agents from Raísa’s world and the anesthetic darts fired by those waiting hit Spyder and Raísa before they could react. Even as the drug entered his bloodstream, Spyder opened a portal for them both and they toppled over unconscious, falling into the portal and onto the deck of Spyder’s house on Ursaria.

Katherine and Lili rushed out to see the unconscious forms of Spyder and the scout lying on the deck, each with five or six darts of some kind sticking in their exposed flesh. Lili attempted to reach the minds of the recumbent pair, but the drugs in their systems had them too far under their influence for the young Ursar healer to reach them. Katherine sent a call to Astra for assistance.

Astra opened a portal to Katherine’s side and knelt beside Spyder. After removing the darts and setting them to one side, she extended her senses to analyze the drug used and then began to break it down into harmless components. Once she finished, she said, “He will be all right, Katherine. He was merely drugged by these darts and will wake up shortly with no ill effects. Now, let me tend to Raísa.”

By the time Astra had treated Raísa, Spyder had begun to stir. Katherine helped him sit up and asked, “Do you feel like telling us what happened?”

“Trap,” Spyder said weakly. “They were waiting for us when we teleported into their chamber. I guess they figured out where the scouts were coming from and decided to ambush the next one. They shot first before asking any questions that I could hear. As soon as I saw all the light in the chamber, I knew we were in trouble, so I opened a portal here. I guess we fell into it.” Spyder shook his head to clear the last of the cobwebs from his mind. “It’s okay, though. I know where the world is now and I can go there in astral form to select the best place for a portal. Talk about a nasty bunch. I’ve of a mind to open a portal and bring a bunch of the Clan to call on them, but I’ll settle for the idea of the Æthereal roaming their sky at will.”

Spyder closed his eyes and extended his sense of self outside his body and along the subspace path he had just traveled from the final world of the Mother Cult. He roamed around the chamber amid the oblivious cult members, checking the surveillance system. Even in astral form, he could interface with the crystalline computers so he asked the computer to adjust the display to its greatest range. Now the display indicated a potentially hostile object approaching the system. It was still quite distant, almost a light year based on the scale displayed. The computers estimated it would reach this world in slightly less than one hundred days. Great. Just what we need. Unexpected and unwanted visitors to a planet that doesn’t believe in the bogeyman.

Spyder moved his astral self out of the chamber and along the access tunnel. The tunnel came out at a set of doors within what appeared to be a main audience chamber for the Cult of the Mothers. This must have made it interesting sneaking in and out of the chamber all this time. No wonder they got caught every once in a while. Also explains the reception committee downstairs. Spyder moved through the building and drifted through the main doors and outside. Before him was a huge plaza, nearly the size of the landing field at the Borland Guardian Base on Paradise. Spyder drifted down to stand in the center of the field, then he reached out for Ebon.

‘Ebon, can you sense where I am?’

‘Yes, although it is confusing. Part of me says you are on Ursaria at home and the rest says you are across the galaxy.’

‘Raísa and I walked into a trap on the last planet so I’m now there in astral form. I’m standing in the center of a huge plaza directly in front of what has to be the supreme headquarters of the Cult of the Mother. We have a problem. When I accessed the systems, they detected a Gray warship approaching this planetary system with an expected arrival time of about three months or so, so we can’t pussyfoot around with these zealots if we’re to establish any sort of defense here.’

‘I agree and know just how to deal with this situation,’ Ebon said. “Come on home, Spyder. We have some planning to do.’

Chapter 19

Danny and Katarina followed their Æthereal partners into the huge hanger at the Borland Guardian Base on Paradise. They were excited, not just because this would be their first off-world trip since the abortive exploration on the dinosaur world, but they would be joined by the first team of explorers from the Pride on this, the first of many trips in a collaborative exploration of the other worlds located in the Leonids, the area reserved for the Pride.

Celadon the Green and his mate, Terra the Orange, were already in the hanger. They were talking to some of the six Pride explorers that would be accompanying them on this inaugural exploration. Danny studied the large felines as they approached the group. The Pride males looked like large African lions, with large manes of hair covering their heads, necks, and upper shoulders, and sleek, muscled bodies. Their tails, each tipped with a tuft of the same dark hair as their manes, were still. Danny knew from his studies of lions and other predatory felines that the tails were a giveaway to their mood; a still tail indicated a feline on the hunt, ready to spring into action, while one that moved about showed a feline at ease, secure in its surroundings. Having dealt with Ragnok, Liara and their cubs, Danny knew how mercurial the temperament of the Pride could be, and how swift and strong they were. He caught sight of one of the female Pride and relaxed slightly for she was someone he had, at least, met before.

“Greetings, Raísa. It’s a pleasure to see you again,” Danny said as they reached the group.

Celadon turned to face the newcomers. “Forrest, Laranja, Danny, and Katarina, allow me to introduce the Pride contingent. I know you have all met Raísa, but I doubt you know the rest. This is Orlan, the leader of the team.” Celadon indicated the largest of the Pride males, whose mane was streaked with grey and silver. “Next to him is Tragar, who is Councilor Treon’s son, and Rowena, Tragar’s mate. Roognar and his mate, Narina, round out the rest of the team.”

Orlan said, ‘It is a great pleasure for us to join with you in this effort to find new worlds for the Pride. You are aware of the great overcrowding we experience and the resultant loss of contact we feel with the world around us. We are not meant to live in great city warrens. We must have open sky and trees, lush meadows, and game to hunt.’

Forrest said, “These are indeed the heart and soul of your people, Orlan. I well recall the beauty of your home world before the Grays destroyed it. It is my goal to bring such a beautiful world back to the Pride.”

‘You were actually on the home world before the attack?’ asked Tragar.

Danny said, “And afterwards, as well. It was Forrest and Laranja that rescued the single surviving family from that destruction.”

Orlan said, ‘We are indeed honored to have you with us. Your names and deeds have gone down in the annals of the Pride and your praises shall be sung for generations yet unborn.’

Clearly embarrassed by the mere thought, Forrest said, “That is really not necessary. We did no more than anyone else would have done in similar circumstances.”

Katarina asked, “I am curious how this group will proceed. In our other trips, we humans rode astride our Æthereal partners. How then shall we transport the Pride?”

Raísa said, ‘We have brought three gravoid sleds capable of holding two members of the Pride, plus a reasonable amount of supplies. Since resupply will be merely a matter of opening one of your portals back to this facility, the three sleds will be more than adequate for us to travel about on the new worlds.’

“I have gotten the coordinates of the first of the worlds from Spyder and the rest of the Æthereal teams are ready to go,” Celadon said.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Danny asked.

* * * *

Turza made her way slowly along the corridors of the Mother’s House. As the Revered Mother, she was the ultimate power over every citizen of the planet and she had inherited this post from her mother and her grandmother before her. Her grandmother had instigated the overthrow of the male-dominated regime nearly a century before. Hardly a day went by when she didn’t marvel at the way things had worked out. Her grandmother had been the cast-off mate of a minor civil servant, who had thrown her and her daughters out into the street. With no skills outside of the home, she had stood on a corner and reviled the male-dominated society that had permitted a mother to be discarded so casually. Before she knew it, she had drawn a sympathetic crowd of females, some of whom had brought her food. Each day, she had gone to a different part of the city and repeated her tirades, and each time, she had touched a chord in the females of the area.

Eventually, she formalized the rant into the creed of the Mother, a benevolent deity steeped in the mysticism of conception, birth, and child rearing. Her creed reminded the females of the harsh realities of their male-dominated society, with its accepted abuse of females and history of violence and aggression. Just look at the legends the males purported to explain their existence: a race of beings they called the Ancients who created the Pride to wage a final war against some other race called the Grays. It was all padded with other drivel about other races of Guardians and how they were tasked from the dawn of creation to protect the galaxy from this Gray threat. Where, she had challenged her listeners, were these Grays? Had anyone ever seen one? What about these other Guardian races? Has there ever been a sign of them? Of course, someone would bring up the loss of their home world, and Turza had an answer prepared for that: the home world had been destroyed by the arrogance of the males in their unbridled quest for science. After all, if it had been anything other than a sudden catastrophic event, surely the home world would have sent some kind of word to them.

Before she knew it, she had begun to attract followers and began to worry that the males would put a stop to her little group. She made arrangements to gain the confidence of one of the guards on the Chamber of the Ancients—arrangements involving sexual favors of a degrading nature—but she was able to flee her world for one of the others, along with her daughters and several of her followers. The new world was even more eager for the Creed of the Mother, and the seeds she sowed reaped a rich harvest of new believers. As her daughters came of age, she arranged for them to be sent to still other worlds and soon, they had established the Cult on each one. As the Cult grew in power, one world surprised her by actually listening to the message she had been preaching. They opened a dialog between all citizens and actually brought the females into the power structures. As females were enfranchised, the cult lost all power to sway public opinion.

Rather than risk the other worlds following this example, her grandmother triggered a plan built out of desperation calling for the overthrow of the established order to create a new society based upon the Creed of the Mother. Much to her amazement, it had worked. After several bloody days of conflict, the females had risen up on nine worlds and taken control. To her further amazement, she had been selected to head their new world government as the Revered Mother. Those were heady days, indeed. She had personally selected which of the males that survived the rebellion would be sacrificed and which would be gelded.

Even today, as Revered Mother, Turza had her choice of the male sex slaves for her recreation and amusement, even though she was long past the age of breeding. She loved forcing them to abase themselves and perform perversions of all sorts. If they amused her, they would go back to the pens; if they did not, she would personally tear out their throats. All in all, it was a good life.

Suddenly, there was a sound like the end of the world; a roaring that shook the very walls of the Mother’s House. She could see her female attendants scurrying about and they looked as if they were screaming, but the roaring drowned out all other sounds. Yet even as the roaring began to die down, it was replaced by a new sound. It was a thunderous deep voice that rang in the mind of every living thing on the planet.

‘WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE?’

As the echoes of that mental clarion call began to still, Turza realized that everyone was pointing toward her and waving frantically for her to come to the main doors of the House. Despite her every effort to remain calm and in control, her fears began to take over as the voice sounded once more.

‘I ASKED WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE? IF I DO NOT GET AN ANSWER QUICKLY, I WILL BEGIN DESTROYING THIS BUILDING AND EVERYONE IN IT.’

Turza took a deep breath and nodded at the shaking attendants, directing them to open the huge double doors so she might walk through the center of the main doorway. Nothing in her life prepared for the sight that greeted her astonished eyes.

The skies were filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of large black flying beasts. The plaza was filled with huge, purple-furred creatures that stood three times the height of a Pride male, each bearing a massive shield. In the very center stood a tremendous black winged creature, perhaps ten or twenty times the size of the purple ones. This beast fixed its obsidian eyes on her and she almost froze in her tracks.

The beast lowered its head to stare directly into her face as it demanded, ‘Are you the leader of this place?’

‘I am the Revered Mother.’

‘I am Ebon, the Guardian of Sol and leader of this expedition. The Grays will assault this world in approximately one hundred days. The joint Guardian force from Sol and Ursaria have come to help you defend your world.’

Turza was dumbfounded. Guardians? Grays? They were fables. And yet, if they were fables, what were all these creatures before her in this plaza? She looked around, trying to get control over her racing thoughts, and she spotted a lone Pride male standing in the shadow of the great black being. She pointed one hand imperiously at the male, and demanded, ‘You! Male! Come here at once.’ She seethed as the male took its own sweet time about responding to her summons, and when he failed to grovel at her feet, she snapped, ‘Who owns you, male? Get on your belly, or I will have you gelded.’

To her utter astonishment, the male threw back his head and laughed. ‘Oh, this is indeed justice. Ebon, while we were not as bad as this, our treatment of females back on the home world was not all that much better than this arrogant bitch before us.’ The male turned his attention on Turza. ‘Hear me, Revered Mother. I am Ragnok, a scientist formerly of the home planet of the Pride and now working with the Guardians of Sol and Ursaria. The Grays are coming. We know you have no means to defend your world, so we have come to do it for you while your restructure your society to resume your own responsibilities for the defense of this and other worlds.’

‘Impossible! The home world was destroyed a thousand years ago by the male obsession with science and violence. The Grays and the Guardians are no more than a convenient fable invented by the males to maintain their hold over the Pride.’

‘The Grays destroyed our home world only a short year ago, killing all save my own family. We owe our continued existence to the Guardians of Sol. Open your eyes, fool! How can you deny the existence of the being in front of you?’ Ragnok was incensed.

Ebon lowered his head once more. ‘Understand me, Revered Mother. Your cooperation and assistance is not only expected, it is required. Fail me and I will remove you and deal with another. I can continue this process until I find one of you intelligent enough to realize your new reality. What is your answer?’

Turza had no answer. Her mind had gone completely blank as reality settled in. The Creed of the Mother had toppled the previous belief systems. How could she possibly step aside and let them sweep away all that had been accomplished over the past century? Even as her mind formed her refusal, Ebon acted. This eventuality had been planned for and an elaborate stage show was put on for all the other Pride. As Ebon’s mighty foot smashed down onto the spot occupied by the Revered Mother, Spyder opened a portal and whisked her away to a secluded spot on Ursaria as a guest of the Ursars. To the viewers, it appeared as if the mighty Guardian had crushed the Revered Mother under his foot.

Ebon tilted his head back and let out a mighty roar, followed by another mental bellow to all the citizens of the world. ‘HEAR ME AND HEED WHAT I SAY! THE CULT OF THE MOTHER IS ABOLISHED. ALL MALES ARE BOTH EMANCIPATED AND ENFRANCHISED. THE GRAYS ARE COMING AND WE HAVE ONLY A SHORT TIME TO PREPARE. YOU WILL ASSIST ALL GUARDIANS. ANY ONE WHO INTERFERES OR DISOBEYS THE GUARDIANS WILL SUFFER THE SAME FATE AS THE REVERED MOTHER.’

Within an hour, the Æthereals had opened portals at various locations between the threatened world and the staging areas set up with Councilor Treon. Hundreds of Pride family groups with a larger number of unattached males and females with scientific backgrounds began to come through the portals to serve as an interim government, including one middle-aged male named Sindar, the newly appointed Guardian for this world. He quickly established contact with the other landing zones, and ordered the set-up of temporary housing for all that needed it. It wasn’t long before he began receiving reports about the way the local population was reacting to all that had happened.

The citizens of the world had been bewildered by this sudden turn of events. The male slaves had broken free and fled their former lives to seek new ones with the Pride settlers at the advance areas. Most of them were in pitiful condition and arrangements were made to send the worst ones off-planet to be treated by the White Æthereals. The rest were given food and some light work to do helping the new settlers.

There had been pockets of brutal retaliation where the males turned on their former masters and slaughtered them. Several bands of these now rogue males had grouped together and begun roaming the countryside, but a team of Æthereals and Ursars had rounded them up without any bloodshed on the Guardian side, at least. The rogue males had not fared as well.

The females of the planet were likewise confused. They suddenly found themselves without servants or slaves, having to fend for themselves for the first time in their lives. They, too, made their way to where the new arrivals were setting up their camps and soon were working alongside their former slaves.

The good news was that both genders had greeted the new arrivals with open support and acceptance, eagerly placing themselves under the jurisdiction and control of the new Pride settlers. Sindar believed their reaction was completely understandable as they might otherwise be under the control of the Ursars or the Æthereals.

The materials for the temporary housing were being brought through the portals on large gravoid sleds, unloaded, and then they would return for another load. Once all the materials were brought through, the sleds would be turned over to the Guardian force for use in the defense of the world in whatever manner was deemed necessary.

Ebon, now in his human avatar, and the Clan War Chief of the Ursars met with Sindar at the plaza outside the Mother’s House. Sindar rubbed his paws together in a gesture of fierce excitement. ‘This has gone well. The settlers are coming through with the supplies we need at every location, and thus far, there has not been any trouble with the locals. In fact, they are turning out in droves to help.’

Ebon smiled. ‘That is good news. Even better news is the reports from the battle wing scouring the planet. There has been no sign of any prior Gray incursion, so the ship heading this way is the first. If we can stop them quickly enough, we will buy time for the rest of this sector of the galaxy to get ready.’

‘Guardian, would you mind if we returned to Ursaria?’ asked the War Chief. ‘It is evident we are no longer needed here. We will return when it is time to fight the Grays.’

‘Please accept my thanks, War Chief, and pass them along to Clan Father, as well,’ Ebon replied. ‘If you will assemble your warriors, I will open a portal back to Ursaria.’

As the larger purple Ursar moved off to gather his forces for their return home, Sindar said, ‘Formidable allies.’

‘You have no idea,’ Ebon replied. ‘When they go against the Grays, they do not stop until every last one is destroyed, no matter how many losses they incur in the process.’

Sindar shuddered at the idea, and it made him realize that same level of commitment was expected from the Pride as well. They had much to learn about being Guardians and very little time in which to do so.

* * * *

The large blue nimbus surrounded the portal of the exploration team. First through the opening was Laranja the Orange, accompanied by Katarina, and Terra the Orange. While the Æthereal females scanned the skies and ground with their amazing eyesight, Katarina activated the sensor suite built into her saddle and helmet. The air was quickly assessed for its ability to sustain life while passive arrays listened for any form of electromagnetic radiation. The air was sweet and pure, with no trace of any forms of pollutants, and slightly higher in the ratio of oxygen to other gases, but well within the ranges of tolerance for the various Guardian species. There didn’t appear to be anything in the frequencies commonly used by the Grays, nor in any of the myriad used by humans for radio, television, microwave stations, or radar.

After making sure there wasn’t anything inimical to life at the opening of the portal, Terra summoned the rest of the team. Celadon and Forrest came next, followed by the trio of gravoid sleds, and then the rest of the Greens, Blues, and Oranges that made up the survey team.

Danny looked around at the rolling plains beneath them, the snow-capped peaks in the far distance, and the abundant animal life dotting the plains and said, “This reminds me of Serenity. Let’s not camp near any mountains this time.”

Katarina shot her husband a glance that let him know she, too, was reminded of the planet where they fell in love and then almost died in an earthquake that buried their camp. “I quite agree. Mountainsides lose their allure after you’ve been buried alive under one.”

A new voice broke into their communications channel, “I can well imagine it would, although I’ve been buried myself a time or two.”

“Jenna! What are you doing here?”

“When Azure heard about this trip, he couldn’t wait to go,” Jenna replied. “Since I’ve never been on one of these, I thought it sounded like a great deal of fun.”

Danny scanned the skies. “Where are you?”

“Down by the river getting some water samples,” Jenna replied. “So far, my small lab here says the water is safe to drink, although I would boil it first just to be sure.”

“Uh, I think I’ll pass and stick with the water from Borland,” Danny said. “Despite my years of being a wildlife photographer, I’m not real big on the whole roughing it outdoors lifestyle.”

Katarina’s amused chuckle came over their headsets. “That is so true! His idea of roughing it is having a cot instead of his king-sized bed.”

“Why don’t you just go back to Paradise at night?” Jenna asked.

“There are some things we can only learn at night, Jenna. On that one world, we would never have detected the sentient species had we not spotted the beam of light that escaped through a crack in the rock wall of their cavern. We’d never considered that a sentient, preindustrial society could develop underground,” Danny replied.

* * * *

Turza was still screaming as she fell through the portal that opened under her feet. She still expected to be crushed by the towering black beast and only the fall to the ground beneath her startled her enough to make her realize she was no longer anywhere near the Mother’s House. Instead of bright daylight, she found herself under a red sun in what looked like twilight. She squinted to try and make out objects around her since her eyesight had begun failing a few years before and it was then she realized the big objects were the same beings that had been behind the Black beast.

A smaller object detached itself from the group and came closer, and Turza was relieved to see it was a Pride female.

‘Greetings. I am Liara. Welcome to Ursaria.’

‘How did I get here?’ Turza asked, fear making her voice shake a little.

Liara smiled in compassion for the older feline. ‘You were brought here through a portal. Since you are here, I would surmise you were the leader on the planet the Guardians have gone to defend. It was anticipated you would be stubborn and unwilling to yield your leadership, so they arranged this small subterfuge to convince the rest of your world to cooperate or suffer the same fate.’

‘My followers will not rest until I return. Do you have any idea who I am?’

‘You are a foolish old female with too much pride. Your followers believe you were crushed beneath the foot of the Guardian of Sol. Not wishing a similar fate, they have probably completely capitulated in the face of such overwhelming force. That means a new Pride Guardian has taken over leadership on your world and even now readies to defend it against the Grays,’ Liara continued. ‘I once lived on our home world and I saw the Grays rain death and destruction down until there was nothing left. With our final breaths, we cursed the Grays and prayed for some way in which we might repay them for the horrors they had brought to us. The Æthereal rescued my family and brought us to safety, and the Ursars have given us a place to live. The lesson we have learned is there is never enough we can do to stop the Grays; there will be more demanded of us all until the last Gray has been removed from this galaxy forever.’

Turza was stunned. This female must be the mate of the arrogant male that had spoken with her on the steps of the Mother House. She looked around and realized all she had ever known was now gone, and she was alone. Tears began to stream down the old female’s face even as her mind churned. As Revered Mother, she had long learned to sequester her thoughts behind adamant barriers where no one could read them while her surface thoughts reflected what others might expect. Somehow, some way, she would find her way back to the worlds of the Mother.

Liara placed her arm around Turza’s shoulders. ‘Come with me. For tonight, you must stay with my family. Perhaps being with us will help clear your mind of the false beliefs that have crippled you for so long.’

* * * *

The group gathered at the top of one of the rolling hills which afforded a full view of the surrounding territory. The principle Æthereal members had taken their human avatars to minimize the space needed for them to confer with their colleagues. The six Pride had grounded their sleds outside the area and now lay sprawled in the grass like the big cats they were. The five Æthereal and three humans sat cross-legged on the ground interspersed with the Pride.

“What are your impressions, Orlan?” Celadon asked.

Orlan’s tail twitched in agitation as he responded. ‘There is no doubt this is a beautiful world, but there is something here that bothers me, although I know not what it might be.’ There was a growl of agreement from the other Pride members. ‘There is an abundance of game in these fields and among the trees, and nowhere have we found any sign of intelligence life other than ourselves. This world seems ideal for the needs of the Pride, yet I cannot hide my uneasiness.’

‘I agree with Orlan,’ Tragar said. ‘I think it is the absence of any predators that stirs my distrust. Since we have seen no sign of anything that preys on these animals, I am forced to wonder what is keeping the animal populations in check. There must be something, as there is no sign of overbreeding among the herbivores.’

Danny thought about his own observations, plus the results of his remote video surveillance of the areas around them. The Pride was right; this world seemed to lack the usual cycle of life that involved prey versus predator. If there were no predators, this world would be ideal for any of the species, but especially the overcrowded Pride. Even if there were some other predators not yet identified, it would not necessarily rule this world out; the Pride could probably overcome anything smaller than an Æthereal.

“I take it, then, that the Pride would like to continue the exploration of this world?” Celadon asked.

All six Pride nodded their heads. Katarina leaned her head against Danny’s shoulder and sent him a tight mental communication. ‘This is a beautiful world, Danny, and reminds me very much of Serenity. There were few predators there, either.’

‘That’s true, my love, but that was only because the species preservation program of that vanished civilization never included any predators in their species ark, rather than any natural development.’

Celadon stood before the group and said, “We will continue with the exploration of this world, but not tonight. Tonight we will return to Paradise to gather supplies and return here in the morning.”

* * * *

Spyder looked around and couldn’t believe the changes that had been made since his first visit to the planet. First of all, no one was trying to shoot him full of tranquilizer darts so that was a major improvement right there. Secondly, there were Æthereal and Pride Guardians everywhere.

He walked over to the new planetary headquarters for the Guardians, formerly the Mother’s House. There were a couple of the human Black guardians on duty at the doorway and they waved a cheerful hello as Spyder climbed up the steps.

“How’s the duty here?” Spyder asked as he approached them.

“Boring,” replied one of them. “I don’t think the kitties have figured out that humans and dragons are two different groups, so they keep expecting us to change shape and either crush or flame them.”

“Kitties? I wouldn’t let Sindar hear you say that!” Spyder admonished the sentry. “He knows the difference and is perfectly capable of separating your head from your shoulders with one swipe of his paw. He might feel bad later, but that wouldn’t matter much to you, would it?”

“No, sir,” said the sentry.

Spyder walked between the open doors and into the atrium of the headquarters. Even here there had been some evident changes. An orderly confusion reined as Guardians of each species hurried about on various tasks. As a human in Science Support Staff Blue came by, Spyder reached out a hand and stopped him.

“Could you tell me how to find the Guardian, Dick?” Spyder asked.

“Spyder! What a pleasant surprise. Sure, his office is down that hallway and the last door on the left,” replied the man in powder blue leathers.

With a wave of his hand, Spyder went down the indicated hallway and found the door to the office he wanted. He knocked and, after hearing a noise from within, he opened the door and walked in to find the new Guardian sitting behind a desk buried in paper.

Sindar looked up. ‘What can I do for you?’

‘I think that is something I should be asking you, Guardian. I’m Spyder, Head of the Science Support Staff for the Guardians of Sol,’ Spyder replied. ‘I was wondering if there was anything we could do to help you.’

‘Are you not the one who is an expert on these Ancient systems?’ At Spyder’s nod, he came to his feet. ‘Would you mind coming with me to the Chamber to explain something to me?’

“I’d be glad to, Guardian. Would you prefer to walk all the way down there or take a shortcut?’

‘There is a shortcut?’ Sindar asked.

Spyder grinned. ‘There is when I’m around.’ Spyder opened a portal to the chamber deep underneath the building, and said, ‘After you, sir.’

Once inside the chamber, Sindar led Spyder over to the surveillance system. ‘Could you explain what this is showing? My people are telling me two different things.’

Spyder glanced at the display and then stopped to study it more carefully. Where the display had previously indicated a single massive ship inbound, it now indicated there were six smaller ships. Since the range had decreased, he shifted the setting on the display to the next stage so they could monitor the objects in closer detail. As he did, he queried the crystalline computer system for its interpretation of what had occurred deep in space. ‘Well, it seems our incoming visitors were traveling through the reaches of space hooked together. According to the computer, about six hours ago, they broke apart from one another and separated far enough to prevent any inadvertent collisions. They are still coasting along at the same high velocity and they haven’t altered their course, so they are still heading here.’

Sindar shook his head in disgust. ‘That’s what the junior man on the surveillance team said, but he was overruled by his boss. The rest decided the Gray ship had been struck by a meteor or something and had broken apart into fragments. That obviously meant the danger was over, so the idiots then abandoned their posts and went home.’

‘What do you plan to do?’

‘Well, I cannot let this stand, obviously,’ Sindar said. ‘I am open to suggestions if you have one.’

“Yes, sir, I do. Have them accompany me on a little trip. When I bring them back, I guarantee they will be motivated to work.’

In less than an hour, Sindar had brought the disgraced crew to stand beside Spyder in the courtyard. ‘If it were left to me, I would have you torn to pieces as an example to the others but this human has told me he can turn your attitudes around. I hope so, because he is your only hope of living to see the sun rise tomorrow. You will go with him and do whatever he says.’ With that, Sindar turned his back on them and walked over to Spyder. ‘I hope you know what you are doing, Spyder. I need all the good warriors I can get.’

“Sir, if this doesn’t make them see the light, nothing will.’

Spyder walked over to the sullen group. ‘I’m going to open a portal and I want you each to step through it quickly. Once we are all on the other side, I will explain.’ He opened a portal and the five Pride warriors hustled through the blue nimbus of light. Spyder waved goodbye to Sindar and followed them, closing the portal behind him.

* * * *

One hour later, the portal opened and the group returned. The warriors were dirty, angry and ranting about wanting to kill every Gray they could. Spyder dismissed them back to their quarters to get cleaned up and then to return to their regularly scheduled shifts.

Sindar watched in amazement. “I have to know. Where did you take them?’

‘I took them to a promontory overlooking what once was the capital city on the Pride home world. There is nothing left there but ash and craters. I told them where they were and what they were seeing was the price for dereliction; for failing to defend against the Grays because our enemies will settle for nothing less than the total annihilation of the Pride. I made them stand there for the full hour to absorb the horror of what the Grays had done. Then, just before I brought them back, I told them about Ragnok, Liara, and their cubs—the only survivors—and how each and every day Ragnok works for the downfall of the Grays. I then asked how we could expect anything less from those who still had a world of their own.’ Spyder shrugged. ‘I believe we should route each and every one of your citizens through that experience so they can feel in their souls what it means to be a Guardian and what the price of failure can be.’

“I agree completely, and ask one small favor. Would you mind taking me there now so I can take it all in alone?’ Sindar asked.

Chapter 20

Ragnok was very surprised when he entered his family room and found his wife entertaining the former Revered Mother. He knew she had been sent to Ursaria but it had not occurred to him that Liara would take the old feline under her care. ‘Well, Revered Mother, do you still want to geld me?’ Ragnok laughed at the ludicrous situation.

‘You! You were there beside that black beast when it tried to kill me!’

‘For the record, you were never in any danger. Had Ebon wished you dead, he would either have burned you where you stood or eaten you whole on the spot. What he did was remove you from power in the most dramatic fashion possible to make it clear to those you left behind that their world had changed in ways they could not even begin to imagine,’ Ragnok explained. ‘It worked, too. Right now, several hundred settlers from other Pride worlds are setting up temporary camps for housing, while the warriors from the Guardian forces are establishing control over the entire planet. Those of your people, male and female, that were in need of medical attention have been seen by the healers from the Æthereal, who are amazing in their abilities to heal anything short of death or amputations. You would be astonished at how grateful your people are to those new settlers, who have treated them with respect and equality. Apparently, it has been a new experience for all of them.’

‘Ragnok, that is quite enough!’ Liara broke in. ‘Quit browbeating her. She is just as much a product of her society as the rest of the Pride on those worlds. She does not know it is actually possible for males and females to treat one another as equals.’

Ragnok took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly to calm his temper. ‘You are right, Liara. Turza, I apologize for my outburst and my bad manners. Welcome to my home. Please, sit back down. Have you eaten? I know it is past your normal meal time back on your world.’

Turza had sat back down in her confusion. She shook her head. ‘No, I am not hungry.’ Turza’s mind was spinning. Liara had publicly chastised her mate and he had backed down. He had even apologized. There had been no anger, no aggression between them. Was it really possible for the genders to get along as equals, as partners?

Moments later, the four cubs came spilling into the room from the direction of the deck outside. Almost fully grown now, they were prime examples of healthy diets combined with rigorous daily exercise: fit, lean, and graceful. The males had started to grow the heavy black ruff of fur that would one day become the hallmark of a male in his prime. Turza found the markings on the slightest of the females the most striking as such a large patch of white fur was quite rare.

Seeing the direction of the older female’s gaze, Liara said, ‘When she was small, she was attacked by an aerial predator. Barely alive, she found her way to the home of our human friends across the field where one of Ursar healers was staying. The healer worked very hard to save her life, restoring everything except for this one thing. The fur over the wounds remained white ever since.’

‘What are humans? Ursars? These are words with no meaning for me,’ Turza said in confusion.

Ragnok explained, ‘Do you recall the large creatures on the plaza behind the Æthereal Guardian? Those are Ursars. This is their world we are on right now. When our world was destroyed, they offered us sanctuary. They even built this massive tree house just for us. Humans are hairless bipedal mammals who are the partners of the Æthereals. Ironically, although they seem to be the weakest of us all, they are in fact, the forerunners of the returning Ancients.’

Seeing her confusion, Liara said, ‘When the Ancients made the Guardians to combat the Grays, they also created the humans, encoding within their very structure the genetic codes to bring about the return of the Ancients themselves at some future time. One human in particular has already moved far along that path, aided by the Ancients’ machines.’

‘It was Spyder who noticed the incoming Gray ship that threatens your world. It was Spyder who opened the portal under your feet that brought you here, rather than permit you to be crushed,’ added Ragnok. ‘He believed there was another way to resolve the transfer of power which did not involve bloodshed. While Ebon, the Black Guardian, set up the whole massed appearance of the combined Guardian force on your world, it was Spyder who choreographed the confrontation with you. He predicted you would react as you did, even your response to my presence. He also suggested that we bring you here to Ursaria to see a society that truly lives with the principles of gender equality.’

Liara turned to her cubs and said, ‘Would you mind getting dinner started for me, Glia? Scora, please set the table for three. Firth and Rawli, please set up a table in one of your rooms for the four of you tonight. Finally, Scora, you will be sharing a room with Glia for a while. Please empty your things out of your room so our guest has somewhere to stay.’

As she finished speaking, the two males bounded out of the room while Glia and Scora went to the kitchen. Turza was impressed with how quickly the cubs obeyed their mother, and she could see it was not out of fear but love. Turza turned to Liara, and said, ‘It is not necessary to put her out of her room, Liara. I would be fine sleeping here, or even out on the deck.’

‘It is really no trouble, Turza. To be honest, Scora spends most nights with Glia and has since Glia was attacked, holding her sister when she has her nightmares. She merely keeps the treasures she has collected in her room.’ Liara smiled as she continued, ‘On the home world, we only had three rooms and all the cubs shared one of them. Since we came here, only the males have truly adjusted to being alone at night, and that is to be expected as they have grown older. Now that we have reconnected with other worlds of the Pride, I would not be surprised to see both of them leaving home soon to serve in the Guardians.’

Ragnok looked uncomfortable as she said that last part. Liara caught his guilty expression and arched her eyes to invite him to say what was on his mind. He cleared his throat before saying, ‘Actually, both have already asked for our permission to join the Guardians. I told them I would discuss it with you and then we would tell them our decision tomorrow.’

Turza could see tears glittering in Liara’s eyes in the moments before Liara rose and walked to the deck door. She stood there for a moment, staring out into the night as she battled to gain control over her emotions. Finally, she said, ‘All cubs must grow up someday, and I imagine it is never easy for their mothers to let them go. When they are old enough to ask permission, they are old enough to go. You may tell them they have our permission.’

Ragnok walked across the room and slipped his arm around his mate’s shoulder. She put her arm around his waist, laid her head on his shoulder, and the pair stood there looking out into the night.

Turza was afraid to intrude on what was obviously such an intensely personal moment. She stood as quietly as she could and slipped from the room, following her nose to the kitchen. Scora had finished setting the table and was assisting her sister in finishing the preparation of the evening meal. Turza admired the luxurious kitchen and the large food storage units filled with fresh fruits and meats. The savory aromas drifting from the ovens were making Turza realize that she actually was hungry after all. ‘That smells very good, Glia.’

‘I hope you will like it,’ Glia said. ‘Our human neighbor, Kay-Tee, taught me to make this dish. It contains bite-size pieces of meat, potatoes, onions, celery, and carrots in a rich broth. It is called beef stew. We also have some fresh bread baked by the Clan Mother to go with the dish, and some of my mother’s favorite local fruit for dessert.’

Scora glanced into the other room and witnessed the tableau in front of the door. She turned to Glia and said, ‘Mother must have agreed to let Firth and Rawli join the Guardians. How about if we dish up the tray for the four of us first and I will take it up to the room? By that time, Mother and Father should be ready to join us here in the kitchen.’

‘Do not dare let on to Firth and Rawli!’ Glia admonished, ‘It is not our place to tell them.’

‘I know that,’ Scora said. ‘Now, help me dish this up.’

Turza came over and helped the younger females prepare the tray for the four younger members of the family. As she placed a basket of the bread on the tray, she said, ‘I hope I am not intruding and forcing you to eat away from your parents.’

‘Do not give it another thought!’ Scora declared. ‘We usually eat separately from them because all they ever talk about is particle physics and subspace, things which frankly, bore the fur off of us. Having you here is actually a treat for us because it will give our mother something to focus on besides us.’

‘Scora! Do not be so rude!’ Glia snapped. She turned to Turza. ‘I apologize for my sister. She sometimes does not think before she speaks.’

Turza laughed, and then said, ‘I find her candor refreshing. She reminds me of my own sister when we were both very young. Now that we have the trays ready for you four, how about we get the food on the table for the adults? Scora, fetch one of those brothers of yours to help you with the trays.’

As they were placing the bowls of steaming stew on the table, Liara and Ragnok entered the kitchen, and stood watching in amazement as Turza, the former Revered Mother for the nine planets, chatted amiably with their daughter while carrying bowls of food to the table like a servant. Once the food was on the table, Glia slipped from the kitchen to join her siblings, leaving the adults alone in the dining area.

Turza took a delicate taste of the savory stew and said, ‘This is quite good. I have never had anything quite like it. Cooking the meat seems to change both its texture and taste. Did I understand Glia to say she learned to make this from the humans?’

‘Yes, Katherine has been a great friend to us. I will take you to meet her tomorrow,’ Liara said.

* * * *

The next morning found Firth and Rawli accompanying their father to Paradise on their way to joining the Guardians. Liara fought to maintain her composure as she bid her sons goodbye and she actually felt a strange sense of comfort from the older feline that had been thrust into the middle of her home. Glia and Scora had also come to see their siblings off, but returned to the tree house as soon as the portal closed. Liara led Turza along the path that led to the humans.

Turza admired the architecture of the dwelling occupied by the humans. On her previous worlds, the Pride had started to build such structures, but never to such a scale for a single family. Upon learning that the building was actually occupied by two groups plus an Ursar, she accepted the size more readily. As they climbed the stairs leading to the exterior deck, they found Katherine sitting in a chair sipping coffee while little Meredith was pulling herself to a standing position against one of the other chairs and then trying to walk to a different one. Off to one side, keeping a watchful eye on the baby, sat Lili, now almost fully grown.

Katherine waved the two Pride females to join her. ‘Liara, what a pleasant surprise! Who have you brought with you?’

‘Katherine, this is Turza. Turza, this is Katherine and that is her cub, Meredith. Over there is Lili, the Ursar healer,’ said Liara as she pointed out the various individuals.

Lili said, ‘Li-Ra, you are sad. What has happened to make you feel this way?’

‘Firth and Rawli have left to join the Guardians on one of the Pride worlds, and I imagine it will not be too much longer before Scora and Glia leave as well. All cubs grow up and must find their own trail, but that does not make it any easier to see them go,’ Liara replied.

Lili dipped her big shaggy head in acknowledgement of this fundamental truth, and then said, ‘Korin will be sorry he missed seeing them on their way. He has enjoyed the challenge of teaching your cubs, Li-Ra.’ Turning her gaze on the newcomer, she said, ‘As Li-Ra said, I am a healer. I can sense some infirmities in your body that I can correct if you will let me.’

Turza was taken aback by the idea of being treated by such a large being, but the very thought of being free from some of the aches and pains that came from aging was enough to overcome any xenophobic reluctance. ‘I would be grateful, healer Lili, if you would see what you can do when you can spare the time.’

‘Just make yourself comfortable and speak with Kay-Tee and Li-Ra,’ Lili said, ‘and I will see what I can do.’

Turza joined Liara on some pillows near the chair where Katherine was seated. As soon as Liara was comfortably settled on the cushion, Meredith tottered over and fell against the Pride female with a happy laugh. ‘Li-Ra.’ The mind voice was unmistakably Meredith’s. The baby’s expression shifted to one of cool appraisal as her gaze settled on the newcomer. ‘Tur-Za.’

‘Come to Lili,’ said the healer as she patted her lap in order to get the precocious toddler away from the Pride females. The baby closed her eyes and portaled over to Lili’s furry lap.

Katherine smiled at the antics of her child, wondering if she would ever get accustomed to her daughter’s abilities. Meredith’s growing vocabulary was making it much easier to communicate in thoughts rather than basic emotions, but her ability to portal places was becoming an issue. The only place they could be sure she would stay long enough to take a nap was on Lili’s lap.

* * * *

Firth and Rawli followed Ragnok across the field at the Borland Guardian Base on Paradise after they left the portal. Ragnok had explained it was necessary to travel there first in order to make the passage to the Pride world. There would be portals several times each day between the base and the defensive build-up on the threatened planet. They looked around in avid curiosity at all the activity, especially at the mighty Æthereals as they flew in the sky overhead or moved amid the structures on the base. The two young males knew some of the humans they saw were probably also Æthereals in their other guise.

They soon reached the laboratory area where their father had been working for the past year. Several pallet loads of equipment were already being loaded on the strange floating sleds. Seeing his sons’ questioning gaze, Ragnok said, ‘These sleds were built by the Pride. They have devices that can nullify gravity and are used to move heavy loads. We are going to adapt them as defensive weapons platforms by mounting our new subspace projectors on them.’

Finally, the portal was opened and the gravoid sleds moved through, followed by all the personnel who would be working on the project to mount the projectors. At the end of the line came Ragnok and his two sons. Once through the portal, Ragnok led his sons to the new headquarters to meet the Guardian Sindar.

Sindar greeted the Pride scientist warmly. ‘Ragnok! It is good to see you. I take it you are ready to start mounting the projectors so we can begin testing and developing tactics.’

‘Yes, Guardian. I have brought you two new recruits. These are my sons, Firth and Rawli, and they have expressed a desire to join the Guardians. I will accept no special treatment for them; they rise or fall on their own merits as befits a member of the Pride,’ Ragnok said.

Sindar looked the young males over. ‘I would expect no less from your sons than I would my own. Very well, I will get them assigned to a training unit and we will see if they have what it takes.’ Sindar summoned one of the other Pride guardians and directed him to take the two newest recruits over and get them started on their training. After wishing them well, Ragnok went back to work on the projectors and sleds.

* * * *

For two weeks, the survey crew traveled all over the new planet, studying and analyzing the flora and fauna of the world. They had brought the standard deployment package of personal cabins, laboratories, dining facility and community center. Danny had his photographic darkroom to process his still film with its built-in video mixing equipment to edit and combine the film footage from the various video systems that covered a wide range of environments around the planet.

While the world did not have even a single moon, the absence of any competing light sources made the night sky an amazing sight. Millions of stars sparkled in the heavens above, creating enough light so no one had trouble seeing their way. Danny and Katarina walked hand-in-hand, studying the stars, exchanging their thoughts mentally to avoid disturbing the others.

‘It was on a night such as this that we were walking along a river, hand-in-hand, and I was trying to wait to kiss you,’ Danny said.

‘I remember being so glad that you were alive after that attack by the trascat.’ She ran her fingertips along the faint scars that ran from just below his eye and across his face.

‘And then we spotted that flash of white light from the mountainside, which resulted in the discovery of the underground civilization that meant we couldn’t stay on that world. Now we have deployed a full spectrum of sensors everywhere to spot even the smallest emission in any spectrum. We even have seismographic probes and ground-penetrating radar looking for any life underground we might otherwise miss,’ Danny said.

Katarina sighed. ‘This world lacks something else. Even with the millions of stars, I miss the moon. There is something about walking under the night sky with a full moon overhead, arm in arm with the man you love.’ Katarina reached up and pulled Danny’s head down until their lips came into contact for a very long time.

After a month of analysis, the world was released for colonization by the Pride and the exploration team was withdrawn for a one week break before they left for the second planet on Spyder’s list.

* * * *

Spyder looked at the display on the surveillance screen. The six Gray ships were still on course and expected to reach the planet in about six weeks. In another two weeks, they would be close enough to attempt an astral scan of them and perhaps try to cause some trouble for the Grays while they were still out in space. He interrogated the crystalline computers to see whether any of the other Pride worlds had detected any other intruders but the remaining systems all reported clear space, as did the Ursar worlds and the systems around Sol.

He leaned back, closed his eyes, and said, ‘Ebon, Sindar. The scans are unchanged and the Grays are still coming. We have about six weeks before they arrive. In about two weeks, I’d like to try to mess with them a little by sending some meteors their way to see what they do, that sort of thing. It might give us a clue about any change in their capabilities.’

Ebon’s response was quick in coming. ‘That is a good suggestion, Spyder. When you are ready, I will help you. Perhaps we can stop them before they even get here or force them to go somewhere else.’

‘I’m not sure that is a good idea, Ebon. I’d rather have them come here where we are waiting for them than have them divert to someplace even less prepared,’ Sindar said.

Ebon replied, ‘True, and I should have thought of that. Spyder, have you checked the surveillance systems on the other twenty-six worlds set aside for the Pride?’

‘Of course, plus those for Sol and the Ursars. In fact, the master system is now programmed to notify me if any Gray intrusion is detected by any of the systems on any of the sixty-five thousand plus worlds. Right now, this one group of ships is it.’

‘What are they up to? I cannot believe the Grays have abandoned this portion of the galaxy,’ Ebon mused.

* * * *

Turza was amazed at the difference she felt as she and Liara walked back to the tree house. Not only was her vision as sharp and clear as it had been when she was a cub, but none of her joints ached any more. All the small aches and pains she had grown accustomed to over the years had vanished. She could breathe deeply without risking a hacking cough, and she felt a renewed strength flowing throughout her entire body.

Turza was truly confused by the way this group of complete strangers had not only welcomed her into their homes but had even gone so far as to restore her aging body to good health. She now had the physical strength to match her determination to return to the Mother worlds, and she knew just the approach to take: a desire to atone.

When Ragnok returned that evening, she approached him after carefully masking her real thoughts behind her barriers, and said, ‘Ragnok, I would like to do something positive with the years I have left to me. Would it be possible for me to travel to the other worlds of the Mother so I might speak to them about what has transpired and the grave mistakes we have been making?’

Ragnok, through the mental communication they employed, could see she was sincere in her desire for atonement, but he did not know whether the others would be so willing to trust one who had so recently been such an implacable foe of the Guardians and all they stood for. ‘I cannot promise you that they will listen, but I will at least ask the Guardians of Sol and Ursaria to lift your banishment so you might do what you can. One of those to whom you might wish to speak is Spyder, for the Guardians of all worlds listen to what he has to say.’

Turza bowed her head in assent. ‘With your permission, I will go to the house of Katherine and Spyder tonight. I feel this call very strongly.’ She raced down the stairs from the deck and across the field, surprising Ragnok with her speed and agility.

Turza tapped her paw against the glass door as she sent out a mental call to Spyder and Katherine, ‘I wish to speak to Spyder, please.’

There was a sudden blue flash and the human cub, Meredith, was suddenly leaning against her side, saying, ‘Tur-Za! Tur-za, come see Spyder.’

The door opened suddenly and Turza heard the human male’s voice say, ‘There you are, you little minx. It’s time for your bath. Hello, Turza. Let me get her back to Lili and Katherine and then I’ll come out to speak with you.’ Spyder picked up his giggling daughter and carried her back into the house. Within moments, he returned and took a seat in one of the chairs on the deck—the same one, in fact, his wife had occupied earlier when Turza was there.

Turza said, ‘You know who I was back on my world. The past day has torn the veils from my eyes and I can see the terrible mistakes we have been making in the name of a false creed. I would like to try to redress some of those wrongs by telling others what I have seen and learned. Would it be possible for you to speak with the Guardians to permit me to do this?’

Spyder did not trust this sudden reversal of character. He sent a swift mental probe into her mind, finding her surface thoughts echoing her expressed desire to atone for her past. He went deeper and found a solid blank wall sealing off a portion of her mind. He brushed that barrier aside using the knowledge he’d gained from the Ancients and found her real desires and motivations. Well, he knew how to deal with that.

‘You appear sincere, Turza. Before I speak with the Guardians, though, I shall require more of you than just sincerity,’ Spyder said. ‘I need conviction. Would you be willing to go someplace with me, right now?’

‘Yes.’

Spyder stood and opened a portal. Moments later, he and Turza were standing on the rocky point overlooking the blasted remains of the Pride home world. ‘Turza, now that we’re here, it’s time for me to tell you that your deception is in vain. I can see beyond your mental walls and I know what’s truly motivating you. Your mind is as clear to me as a glass of spring water. I’m giving you this opportunity to put your past behind you and embrace the truth. This is what the Grays left of your home world. Do you see that small cave over there beside that lake? That’s where Ragnok, Liara, and their cubs took shelter during the devastating attack by an enemy they could not reach. The Grays did this from high above the planet. The Grays don’t care about anything except what they want for themselves. To them, all other forms of life are nothing more than animals for the slaughter when they come between them and their goals. I want you to look over this scene and burn it into your heart, for this was the birth world of your species. This is the price of failure as Guardians.’

Spyder stepped back and watched the tears slowly etch their way down Turza’s face as she absorbed the blackened vista of craters and ash. Her attention was caught by tracks in the ash that led up the mountainside, made by someone injured and dragging themselves along the burnt ground. At that moment, Spyder began to broadcast the experiences of Ragnok and his family into Turza’s mind. She began to relive each and every moment of the end of their world. First, she felt Liara’s panic and fear for her children and the children’s mindless panic during the attack, followed by the numbing desire for food and water. Finally, she experienced Ragnok’s trip down the mountain, witnessed the Grays desecration of the Chamber of the Ancients, and finally she lived through the retreat back up the mountain, felt the pain of the burns and the breaking of his bones, smelt the searing of her own flesh. Ultimately, she felt his despair at being unable to save his family and strike back against those that had destroyed their world.

Spyder had brought enough members of the Pride here to recognize the moment when commitment entered those standing on the bluff. They suddenly stood a bit taller, their backs straighter and their heads high. Their eyes may still burn with unshed tears, but their hearts now sang with the fire needed to prevent this from ever happening again. He watched as the defiance and rebellion slowly drained from Turza as the realities of the devastation imprinted themselves in her mind and spirit, driving her to her knees in the ash, her hands reaching out as if to drag herself forward in an echo of the experience playing within her mind, her tears creating small impact craters in the ash as if repeating the actual Gray attack in miniature. As she slowly regained her feet and faced Spyder, he could see that she had changed from the self-centered manipulator into a true Leonid Guardian, driven to wipe the Grays from the galaxy and protect their worlds from a similar fate. Wordlessly, he opened a portal and waited for Turza to choose the moment to leave. As she turned away from the vista below her, she bent down and scooped up a handful of the ash. ‘Would you have something I could carry this in?’ As Spyder handed her a small bag, she asked, ‘What if bringing me here had not changed my mind?’

Spyder quietly said, ‘You would not have left this world.’

* * * *

The next morning, Turza traveled to visit the artisans of the Clan along with Korin. Once at the shops, she met quietly with the master stone crafter to explain what she desired and he agreed.

He took the small bag of ash in his hand and then rummaged around through one of the bins full of unpolished rock until he found what he sought: a piece of clear quartz about the size of his fist. He carefully planed the sides of the quartz until he had fashioned a cube about three inches in size. After carefully slicing off one third, he took the larger piece and created a hollow space. Once all had been smoothed and polished, he carefully poured every bit of the ash inside the hollow. He then placed the piece he had sliced away atop the hollow to form a lid. Using all his skills, he joined the two pieces once more into a whole, erasing any trace of a seam, and leaving only a polished crystal block containing the ashes of a devastated world. The magnifying effect of the crystal made there appear to be more ash inside than truly was, but the contents were sealed and would never become corrupted by any outside contact. The master artisan wrapped the crystal block in a piece of soft leather and presented it to the delighted Turza, who hugged the great shaggy artisan and then carefully carried her artifact away.

At dinner that night, she showed the block to Liara and Ragnok. ‘Spyder took me to the home world and showed me the cave where you sheltered and the remains of our birth world. Within this block of stone lie the ashes I collected that day as a remembrance of what once was and a reminder of what shall be again.’

Ragnok was moved by the sight of the grey ashes within the block. There was no doubt in his heart the provenance of those ashes; he would carry the memory of the ash he had crawled through until the day he died. The mere sight of the ash stirred up a fierce determination within his soul to not only defend the other Pride worlds against the Grays but to also find some way to rebuild his shattered home world once more. One glance at his mate’s face and the tears that ran unheeded down her face was enough to know she felt the same way.

Turza said, ‘I intend to begin preaching once more, only this time, it will be the true message for our people. We must undo the wrongs done in the name of the Mother and we must establish a society based on equality. But most of all, we must all become warriors against the Grays, each in our own way, contributing to the defeat of this great enemy of all that lives. This stone shall shine to light the way.’

‘And when she leaves, I intend to go with her,’ came the voice from the doorway. All heads turned to see Scora standing there. ‘Many will not accept the changes Turza will bring and she will need someone to protect her from her former believers, as well as those who reviled the Mother cult. Furthermore, I am living proof of the attack on our home world, and I must do this.’

Ragnok and Liara shared a quick glance, each recognizing there was nothing they could say or do that would dissuade their daughter from following her heart and nature. She had chosen her path and all that was left for her parents to do was to support her in her choice.

* * * *

As the joint Æthereal-Pride exploration teams exited the portal on the sixth planet, they knew this one would be quite different, for the landscape below was littered with the skeletal remains of buildings and other indications of an advanced infrastructure that had been obliterated. From the patterns of the destruction, it appeared there had been some form of a nuclear war fought centuries ago on this world. Their instruments detected a residual radiation level that would still be harmful after prolonged exposure.

“I wonder who they were?” Danny asked.

“I wonder if anyone survived,” Katarina replied.

Since the radiation levels would be harmful to both the human and Pride members of the exploration team, they were returned to the Paradise facility while the unpartnered Æthereal continued their sensor exploration of the damaged planet, looking for any sign that a civilization might remain.

After going through a thorough decontamination, the humans and Pride met in one of the conference rooms to discuss what they had seen. The mood was somber.

Orlan said, ‘I am not sure I understand what could make a civilization do that to themselves.’

Danny shook his head. “I’m not sure I can explain it. Humanity came very close to the same thing. In fact, it was only through the intervention of the Æthereal that we avoided it. Our world was fragmented into many different political groups called countries with different philosophies of government. Some of those philosophies were diametrically opposed to the others, and armed conflict would break out between them. The ostensible reason for most of the conflicts dealt with scarce resources or a desire to expand their political influence over a weaker neighbor. We came to the brink of nuclear war several times, but always managed to somehow stop short. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States of America was left as the last remaining ‘superpower’, but then some of the smaller nations got their hands on weapons of mass destruction and came close to destabilizing everything all over again.”

‘It is insane to think such a war could have a winner!’ Raísa responded.

“The sad fact is once you learn how to make such a weapon, sooner or later, it will actually be used,” Danny said. “On my world, they were used twice as a weapon of war. There was a great conflict over sixty years ago, and in order to force one of the battling nations to surrender, the United States dropped one atomic weapon on Hiroshima, a city in a country called Japan, and then a few days later, dropped a second on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered, but the fact we used those weapons, even to save millions of lives which might have been lost through a continued ground conflict invading Japan, remains a source of shame for us to this day.”

“Yet you still built those weapons, perfecting them, in an arms race with the Soviet Union,” Katarina said.

Ruefully shaking his head, Danny said, “It was a defense strategy known as Mutually Assured Destruction or MAD. The idea was that if both sides were capable of destroying the other completely, then neither side would ever attack. As insane as that sounds, it actually worked because no one wanted to test whether the other side would really do it. As a balance between the superpowers, MAD served its purpose. The problem is that such a strategy is useless against smaller or nonaffiliated groups, such as terrorists. Those small groups could attack a much larger nation without fear of obliteration in kind because the small group had no recognized country as their home.”

‘How did the Æthereals put an end to such a problem?’

“Ebon made each nation surrender their weapons of mass destruction to the Æthereals for control, and if they refused, the Æthereal took them by force. Once they had all the weapons under their control, they moved them completely off the planet,” Danny said. “To be honest, I doubt they even exist any more as they are an anathema to the Æthereal.”

Chapter 21

‘Revered Mother, come quickly. There is a disturbance in the sky!’

Revered Mother Omana hurried after the acolyte to the main doors, which stood ajar as numerous other acolytes peered outside. They parted as she approached the doors, letting her through to the outside. She glanced up at the sky above the plaza and saw the source of the alarm. There were large flying creatures high in the sky. There had been sightings reported all over the world in recent days. At first she had dismissed them, but now she was forced to admit they had a basis in fact. She stood there watching as the creatures grew closer and larger.

Her attention was drawn from the sky by the sudden blaze of blue light in the center of the plaza. As the light dimmed, there were three figures standing where none had stood a moment before. Two were Pride females and the third was a tall, thin alien creature of a kind she had never before seen. One of the females looked familiar. No! It could not be her!

‘Hello, Omana,’ came the familiar voice. ‘How have you been, daughter?’

‘Mother? Can it really be you?’

Turza smiled. ‘Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I would speak with you and all who follow the Mother.’

‘Of course. You are the Revered Mother of us all, and we are yours to command,’ Omana replied.

‘Hold on to that thought because you are really going to put that to the test in a few minutes. Assemble everyone in the plaza, if you would, Omana.’

* * * *

Turza looked out over the assembled throng and waited for a few more minutes to increase their nervousness before she stepped forward. As one, they all bowed deeply to honor the Revered Mother of All. She caught Spyder’s nod and knew he was going to broadcast her mind speech to every inhabitant of the planet, even if she did not have any idea how he was going to do so. But then, no one understood how Spyder could do all the things he’d done and most quit trying.

‘I have been to the home world and have come back changed.’ She let that statement ring in their minds a moment and then continued. ‘I have seen and touched the ashes of our past, and have come to know the truth.’ Another pause. ‘The Creed of the Mother is WRONG. The purpose of the Pride is to be Guardians of our worlds; to defend those worlds from the rapacious Grays. That is why we were created by the Ancients.’

Revered Mother Omana was stunned, and the acolytes around her were beginning to mutter among themselves. The Creed was wrong? Has Turza gone insane?

‘What proof can you offer of your new vision?’ Omana demanded.

Turza pointed to the sky. ‘There is my first point of proof. They are the Æthereal, the Guardians of Sol, who are patrolling this world because we are incapable of doing so ourselves.’ She pulled Glia to her side. ‘This young one is my second point. She and her family are the sole survivors of our home world, destroyed by the Grays a year ago.’ Next she held aloft the crystal block containing the ashes. ‘Finally, I offer this, the sacred ashes of our home world. Look upon what is left of our birth world and recognize the TRUTH.’ As she continued to display the block, she used her considerable mental powers to broadcast the memories and experiences of her time on the home world, aided by Spyder’s amplification.

She waited and let the muted conversations below run their course. As she expected, it was her daughter, Omana, who spoke. ‘Please, Revered Mother, tell us more.’

‘A year ago, my family was in a wilderness zone above the capital city on the home world,’ Scora said. Even as she spoke, Spyder took the memories from her mind and broadcast them to all that could receive them. ‘My brother had just found a small cave and was showing it to us when the Grays struck from high above the sky, raining rocks the size of tall trees down upon the surface of our world. In moments, our world was aflame; the sky black with smoke and ash, and the ground shook violently. My father forced us into the back of the cave, and he and my mother covered us with their bodies as the attack went on and on. When the ground finally stopped shaking, my father left the cave to see what had happened. He was gone for hours and when he came back, he was badly burned and injured with many broken bones. We stayed in that cave for days with no food or water because there was none; everything that grew on the land was gone and the water had been fouled by the ash. We lay there, preparing to die, when the Æthereal came to save us. They took us to a new world and healed our injuries and gave us a new home where we could live in peace with other Guardians called the Ursars.

‘My father and mother are both great scientists and they have devoted themselves to fighting the Grays by developing weapons to use against them. My brothers have joined the Guardians on Turza’s world to defend against the Grays when they come in one month. I am no warrior, but I speak and know the truth. We exist to fight the Grays and protect all other forms of life. There is no higher purpose in life than that.’

At the moment Scora finished speaking, a portal formed above the plaza and Ebon the Black flew down to land near the steps; the frightened acolytes scattered to avoid his massive form. As soon as he landed, he shifted form to the human avatar in the black leathers of the Guardian warriors. Turning to the frightened crowd, he said, ‘I am Ebon, Guardian of Sol and leader of the Æthereal Council. Where have the Leonid Guardians gone? Have you all become prey, rather than predators? At this moment, your brothers and sisters prepare to combat our mortal enemy. The Grays will not stop until the Pride is exterminated from every world in the galaxy. I command you in the name of the Ancients and the Guardians of all the worlds to rise up! Throw off these chains you have forged in the name of the Mother and embrace your destiny as the true Guardians you were meant to be.’

* * * *

Spyder came over to Ebon an hour later. “I’ve spent the last hour wandering about listening to the conversations around me. Some of what I’ve heard surprised me.”

“How so?” asked Ebon. “Are they accepting what Turza has been saying?”

“Yes, they are, but their reasoning is what bothers me. They’ve decided that Turza has risen from the dead to bring them this message. Apparently, our subterfuge worked too well, and word spread between the worlds that you had crushed the Revered Mother of All. Now, she has come back but she’s been changed. She’s been healed of all physical ailments and she has a new vision.” Spyder shook his head. “They are saying the Mother sent her back to revise the Creed. They are also saying that those who refuse to hear the new message will be cast down to be trampled by the Mother’s winged messengers.”

Ebon groaned. “Just what we need, a religious cult centered around Turza that features the Æthereal as God’s messengers.”

Spyder said, “It’s not that bad, Ebon. They’re merely trying to fit all this into a framework they can understand. They are relatively uneducated; all they know is what the Creed of the Mother told them. What we’ll need to do is start bringing settlers in from Treon’s world to show them other ways of living. Once we get past the Gray confrontation next month, we’ll have time to start building these new societies.”

Ebon shook his head. “We do not have time for this right now. As you just reminded me, we have less than one month to be prepared for the Grays. There are more important things we need to be doing than putting on this stage show to support Turza’s quest for atonement.”

“Turza knows that, Ebon. She plans to remain here on this world while we deal with the Grays, preaching enlightenment to the crowds and trying to get them to understand that she has not risen from the dead. We can leave any time we wish.”

“Excellent!” Ebon said. “There are many other things I need to be doing, so I will just slip away right now before someone comes along. Are you coming?” Ebon opened a small portal and the pair walked through it together.

* * * *

Spyder sat once more at the master console and studied the approaching Gray fleet. The six ships, each the size of a small planet, continued their steady approach toward the Pride world, moving at a sustained velocity approaching a quarter the speed of light. By his estimation, the ships would have to begin some kind of action to slow their speed soon unless they had incredible inertial dampening fields. Any kind of abrupt speed translation without such fields would be catastrophic for whoever was in the ships.

Spyder wanted to wait until the ships started slowing down before trying to take any kind of offensive action against them. They had placed an asteroid in front of one of the ships using a portal, but the Gray ships had opened fire with some heavy beam weapon that blasted through it as if it were a soap bubble.

Why six ships of this size? How do they determine their targets? In their flight here, they have passed by numerous worlds of the type they usually harvest. Why? What are you up to, Overmind?

A small chime from the computer drew his eyes back to the screen. The expected braking action was finally happening and the ships were beginning to slow. It would take days for them to shed their speed safely, so Spyder tasked the computer to continue monitoring the approaching ships and to notify him if anything unusual occurred.

Spyder continued to ponder his questions as he sat at the dinner table. Katherine had never seen him so preoccupied. “Spyder, what’s on your mind?”

“It’s the Grays. Something just doesn’t make sense. The galaxy is this really immense place, right? The distances between stellar groups is incredibly vast, so even traveling at a quarter light speed, it would take decades, if not centuries, to cross between star groups. Therefore, the Grays must have a functional propulsion system that can move their ships faster than the speed of light, a kind of warp drive if you will. If that’s true, then the ships we’re monitoring have already translated from that warp drive down to sublight speed.” Spyder shook his head. “Listen to me. I sound like a Trekkie discussing some Star Trek episode.”

“Okay, let’s accept as a given that the Grays have warp drives,” Katherine said. “I would have thought that anyway just as a matter of logic. Otherwise, every voyage would need to be made by generation ships.”

Spyder looked up at her. “What did you just say?”

“Generation ships,” Katherine said. “You know, spaceships designed for centuries of use, crewed by breeding families so they could grow and train the next generation to fly the ship in turn. Why?”

“That’s another thing that has bothered me. The sheer size of these ships. They’re like small planets. What if they aren’t generation ships? What if they’re colony ships? What I think we’re dealing with is not some exploratory group as we have in the past. I think this is a full-fledged colony leaving the last world they stripped and moving to establish a new base of operations in this sector of the galaxy. The smash and grab raid on the Pride home world established there were viable planets here. It would also explain why they’ve passed up so many viable worlds already. Once they have set up operations, they can harvest those worlds when they’re ready to. Katy, if I’m right, we can’t allow this group to establish a foothold here or we’ll never be rid of them.” Spyder took Katherine’s hand in his own as he said, “If I’m right, then each of those globe ships is a complete colony of the Grays and combined, they contain the Overmind itself. That’s why there are no Grays detected anywhere else. They’re all on the move to this part of the galaxy in those ships.”

* * * *

Drawing even deeper upon his neural interface with the great crystalline computers left behind by the Ancients, Spyder worked feverishly to set up the relays he needed to establish a console and display in the briefing area at the Borland Guardian Facility on Paradise. He’d located the heretofore unused Chamber of the Ancients on Paradise, and routed the subspace connections between the computers there to the console and large plasma display he’d set up. As he worked, he maintained his link to the master station on Earth, monitoring the Gray ships and refining his theory.

Ebon had assembled the Æthereal Council, plus the Clan Fathers of the ten major Ursar clans and the new Leonid Guardians of the Pride worlds to hear what Spyder had to say about the Grays and to decide what they needed to do in response. The Ursars sat around the edges of the room, towering over everyone else, while the Pride, humans, and Æthereal in human avatar sat in the center.

Spyder began by explaining what he had theorized and then said, ‘I’ve been examining the records of the response the Gray ships had when confronted by the asteroid we placed in their path. The heavy beam weapon is merely a much larger and more powerful version of those we’ve already seen the Grays use. This one, however, is capable of shattering a planet, so we must determine a means of dealing with it.’ Looking at Ragnok, he said, ‘That’s a task I want you to start thinking about, Ragnok.’

‘Spyder,’ Ebon asked, ‘What do you think will happen when the Gray ships reach Turza’s World?’

‘One of two things will occur. The first would be an aerial bombardment as they did on the Pride home world. I rate this as being unlikely. If these are in fact colony ships, the Grays will want the world relatively intact for their own use. I think the most likely thing will be a full invasion. We must prepare for both aerial and ground assaults by heavy concentrations of Grays.’

* * * *

The first few weeks of their training had been spent in an assessment of their skills and in learning the standard tactics of the Grays. Both Firth and Rawli had excelled in the tests for speed and agility, but Firth had outstripped all others in his ability to stalk. When their instructors had been told about the amount of time Firth had spent stalking and pouncing on the Ursar Korin, they were no longer surprised. However, such skills would be of little use against the usual Gray strategy. The grizzled Ursar War Chief stood before the assembled Pride guardians and said, “The Grays always follow the same routine when they land on a planet. They set up a defensive perimeter with both crew-served energy beam and individual rail gun weapons. Over time, they expand that circle. Our job will be to contain them within that perimeter and then overcome them. Stalking will only occur if the Grays manage to break away from our forces.”

During their third week, Ragnok appeared in front of the trainees looking for volunteers to set up the aerial defense force. Rawli was one of those who volunteered.

‘Are you crazy?’ Firth asked. ‘Stay with me on the ground, brother. We will be able to kill the Grays with our claws and teeth.’

Rawli slapped his big paw against his brother’s shoulder. ‘I will leave that to you. I think I will enjoy flying across the sky and striking the Grays before they have a chance to land on this beautiful world.’

‘Well, if you find it is not what you expect, you can always land your little sled and join me in the real fight on the ground,’ Firth said. ‘Take care of yourself, brother.’

Rawli went with the other volunteers to the camp set up for the aerial defense group. As he sat waiting for their first training session to start, he looked around at the other volunteers. They were all in his age group, mostly young males. He thought he saw a familiar face off to one side, so he strolled over and said hello.

‘Raísa, what an unexpected pleasure,’ Firth said, greeting the Pride female that had visited his parents’ home. Raísa was with another younger female.

Raísa turned and said, ‘I might have known I would find you here, Rawli. You always did like to be in the treetops.’ A soft cough from her companion reminded Raísa of her manners. ‘Rawli, let me introduce you to my younger sister, Adara. Adara, this is Rawli, one of the family members that survived the Gray attack on the home world.’

Rawli faced the young female for the first time and found himself lost in her liquid brown eyes. They held a sparkle of amusement and a hint of devilment. He was also very much aware of her lithe and supple body with its sleek, tawny fur. For once in his life, he didn’t have a clue what to answer when the young female said, ‘Sister, you never told me he was this handsome.’

Raísa realized something rare was happening between these two. Neither of them spoke but they exchanged looks that were filled with volumes of communication. She sighed, wishing that some male would look at her like that and at the same time, regretting these two had found one another on the eve of battle. Knowing her sister was no longer even aware she was still there, Raísa turned and walked away. She’d only meant to bring Adara to the assembly area and that was accomplished.

Their rapt contemplation of one another was interrupted by the start of the training session. First, the volunteers were divided into smaller groups called flights. Rawli and Adara stayed side by side throughout the selection process. At one point, one of the leaders attempted to separate them, but one look at the blazing eyes and slightly extended claws on both of them made the leader back off. It just wasn’t worth losing fur over.

Once the flights were established, each volunteer was taken up on a gravoid sled to see how well they could handle heights. A very small proportion just couldn’t face being so high up and were dismissed back to the ground forces without any prejudice, but the rest then moved on to a series of lectures about the principles of the gravoid sled and how it was being adapted to aerial combat.

‘How can something so clumsy be effective in the air?’ Rawli mentally whispered to Adara.

Adara replied, ‘Surely you must know about the fighters! Your father is one of the designers, after all.’

‘I have not seen my father for several weeks,’ Rawli admitted. ‘What are the new fighters like?’

Before she could answer, the volunteers were taken back outside and made to assemble around a shrouded object up on a stage. Once everyone had settled down, Ragnok stepped up to the platform and began to speak.

‘I am sure each and every one of you has been asking yourself how you will be able to fight the Grays using something as slow and clumsy as a gravoid sled.’ There was a low murmur of agreement from the volunteers. ‘The answer, of course, is that you will not. You will fight the Grays using this.’ The shroud was pulled off the object and the first aerial defense fighter was revealed to the volunteers. Designed to make the most of the capabilities of the antigravity field combined with the offensive and defensive use of subspace shields, it looked like an oversized jet-ski from Earth, upon which a single Guardian would be positioned.

Ragnok began pointing out various features to the volunteers. ‘Directional and flight controls are achieved through these throttles, which are designed to be gripped with your claws. As the grip is twisted, the antigravity effects are increased or decreased in relation to the twist. By decreasing one side relative to the other, the craft can bank and turn. Coordinated adjustments make the craft rise or dive.

’The subspace offensive weapon, known as the lance, has been placed along the midline of the craft, and projects in front of the vehicle. The generator creates an extremely powerful and dense subspace field concentrated in a relatively small point of one hundred millimeters for a range of one kilometer. Objects in normal space and time that came into contact with that subspace ‘lance’ are translated into another plane of existence. There will not be any terrific explosion or bloom of light from that contact; the material that touches the lance will simply not be there any more. Aiming the lance is simple. If the target is within range in front of the fighter, the lance will hit it.

‘A defensive subspace shield extends around the front of the craft leaving the essential aperture at the rear and facing away from the enemy. Carefully tuned to the frequency of the weapon itself, the shield will not be disrupted by nor affect the lance when it is fired, yet it will stop any and all projectile, energy beam, or even coherent light weapons fired against it.’

One of the volunteers asked, ‘Why is it painted that dull mottled green and brown? Will we not be obvious up in a blue sky?’

Ragnok smiled, ‘To someone on the ground, perhaps, but from above, no. The Grays will be looking for you against a background of greens and browns. Small, fast, and able to blend in the background, you should be almost invisible to optical detection by the Grays, allowing you to get close enough to strike against their scout ships before they understand the danger you represent.’

* * * *

The combined manufacturing capabilities of all the Guardian worlds had worked together, assembling a fleet of nearly one hundred thousand fighters. Rawli had become a true artist at the controls, and he could make the small craft dance and spin in the sky. Only Adara could come close to matching his virtuosity with the nimble fighter. Their bond and the tight mental link they constantly maintained enabled them to fly and fight as a team, making coordinated attacks against their targets using unexpected yet synchronized maneuvers none of the other pairs could match.

When they weren’t flying, they were still together. While they never spoke of it, they each knew, after the coming battle, they would be formally joined as a mated pair. Until then, they spent long hours discussing their lives. Rawli had shared the terrors of the Gray attack on the home world followed by the wonders of growing up among the Ursars. Adara had talked about growing up in the crowded warrens of the city world and her original intention in joining her sister in spying on the Mother cults before the coming of the Guardians. They did much more than share their pasts, of course. They romped and played, shared their meals, and finally consummated their union. In their hearts and minds, they were mated for life; the civil recognition could come when time permitted.

As the Gray ships approached, all noncombatant Pride members were evacuated to other worlds. Only the warriors would remain, augmented by their allies of the Æthereal, Ursars, and humans.

Chapter 22

The six Gray colony spheres took up positions around the planet, encircling it at equidistant points. Twenty smaller ships, each the size of an aircraft carrier on Earth, were then launched from each sphere and began their descent toward the surface. As they neared the atmosphere, each of those ships deployed one hundred smaller scout ships. A wave of nearly twelve thousands ships crossed the atmospheric threshold. The invasion had begun.

Deep within the Chamber of the Ancients, Ebon lifted his gaze from the surveillance systems and said, “You were right, Spyder. There was no kinetic bombardment. They mean to conquer this planet and live here while they harvest the rest of the system.”

“It makes this both easier and harder, Ebon. It’s easier since we don’t have to defend against the falling kinetic weapons, but harder because we now face thousands of those scout ships,” Spyder said. “Plus, we must keep in mind that the Grays are fully capable of cutting loose with the heavy beam weapons from those spheres when they start to lose the fight. Those beams are capable of blasting this entire planet into small pieces.”

“Not to mention the problem those dreadnoughts present,” Eric added. “They undoubtedly have some heavy armament as well.”

Ragnok interjected, ‘I have a thought on how to handle both the spheres and the large ships.’

* * * *

The descending scout ships were met in the air by the combined aerial defense forces of the Guardians. The mighty Æthereal wings of Blacks, Browns, Reds and Oranges had joined the gravoid fighters flown by the Pride Guardians. The Gray scout ships fired beam weapons as they plunged down from space, concentrating their fire at the Æthereal’s heads, virtually ignoring the smaller gravoid sleds.

Rawli sent a sharp mental command to his mate as the fighters flew toward the descending Gray ships. ‘Adara! They are concentrating their fire on the Æthereals! Follow me!’

The two fighters slipped by the dodging dragons, slipping even closer to the descending scout ships. As they got within range, they each aligned the nose of their fighters onto the main body of the Gray ships.

Joined by their mental telepathic abilities, Rawli and Adara extended their claws into the special openings in their flight panels to make contact with the firing controls and opened fire simultaneously. The subspace lances, tuned to match the bubbles surrounding their sleds, passed through the shields, and slashed into the sides and bottoms of the scout ship with devastating effect, literally slicing the ship apart. As the beams touched upon the drive systems of the ship, collapsing the protective magnetic bottles surrounding the fusion plants, it vanished in a flash of actinic light.

The other scout ships altered their field of fire to target the sleds, and their energy beams and projectiles vanished harmlessly against the forward-facing subspace shield that arced across the bow of each sled.

‘Keep your nose pointed at the ships! Don’t let them get a shot at the back of the sled!’ Rawli heard Adara say as he dodged another beam from one of the Gray scout ships. As he banked away from the scout ship, another one fired at him from behind, the projectiles hitting the back of his fighter just behind the space covered by the shield.

Smoke began to stream behind and the antigravity motor began to experience intermittent failures. ‘I am hit!’ Rawli shouted as he fought to maintain control of the wildly oscillating fighter craft.

Adara brought her craft alongside. ‘Can you control it, Rawli?’

‘I do not think so, Adara,’ Rawli said. ‘I think that projectile damaged the lance as well as the antigravity control. My sensors are showing a buildup in the system. I think it is going to explode soon. Get away, Adara. I am going to take this thing and fly it into one of the Gray ships.’

‘NO! You will be killed!’

‘There is no way I can get down to the ground before this thing blows, beloved. I might as well try to take some of the Grays with me.’ Suiting actions to his words, he began shifting his fighter above and behind one of the Gray ships. ‘Remember that I love you.’ He aimed his fighter down toward the center of the Gray ship below.

When the Grays shifted their fire to the small fighters, the Æthereal wings began attacking the scout ships, using the collected energy from the beam weapons that had been fired at them to strike back. When close enough, the Æthereal would also use their innate weapons of flame and claws. Gray scout ships were melted by flame or rent by the mighty talons of the dragons.

Negron the Black flared his wings as the small fighter dropped toward the Gray scout ship. ‘What do you think you are doing? Pull up!’

‘I cannot! Antigrav is shot and the lance is about to explode!’ Rawli yelled back.

‘Then let gravity do the rest. Jump toward me!’ Negron shouted.

Rawli unbuckled his safety harness and threw himself out and away from his plummeting fighter. The wind of his passage forced his arms and legs wide and he found that by angling his arms, he could direct his fall toward the large black dragon rising to meet him. He braced himself for impact as the broad scaled back rose to meet his fall. His head struck the saddle mounted on Negron’s back.

At the same moment, his falling fighter crashed into the Gray scout ship. The flare of the subspace shield heralded the contact of the fighter with the outer shell of the ship. Carving a hole into the ship, the fighter plunged inside. It reached the fusion engine at the same moment the lance overloaded. Whether it was the failure of the magnetic bottle or the detonation of the lance, the effect was the same. The scout ship was obliterated in a flash of light and heat.

Negron shouted, ‘Grab the harness and hang on!’ The overpressure from the explosion was strong enough to toss the mighty Black across the sky.

No sooner had Rawli seized the harness than Negron opened a portal and brought Rawli to the ground. Rawli jumped to the ground and Negron leapt back into the sky. Even as his feet touched the ground, he scanned the sky for his mate. ‘Adara! I am safe on the ground. Negron saved me.’

‘Rawli?’ Hearing her mate’s mental voice so unexpectedly after believing he had perished when his fighter crashed into the scout ship, Adara’s attention was momentarily diverted from what she was doing. Her fighter shifted course in the sky as she scanned the ground for some sign of her mate, following his mental voice to make sure he was unharmed. As she did, she exposed the back of her fighter to a descending Gray scout ship. A heavy energy beam struck her fighter from directly behind, with all the energy passing directly through the aperture in the defensive shield.

Rawli was knocked to his knees by the force of the blast of anguish that came through his link with his mate. For one long, horrifying moment, he shared her agony as the energy beam cooked her internal organs before her flesh finally burst into flame milliseconds before the fighter itself exploded. Rawli now knew only one emotion: rage.

* * * *

The aerial defenses took out thirty percent of the descending scout ships, which left nearly eight thousand that reached the ground. Those that landed began to deploy the standard Gray defensive strategy, a layered system of crew-served beam weapons and projectile systems that ringed the grounded ships.

The Æthereal were not the only Guardian species here to assist the Pride. The Clans of Ursaria had sent one million warriors to aid in defense of the Pride world, and they now ringed every grounded Gray scout ship. Each warrior carried a beam shield with its embedded energy collection system and cannon like the ones the human partners of the Æthereal used. Interspersed in the ring were the subspace lances operated by the Pride. Although smaller than the ones mounted on the gravoid fighters, these lances fired a stream of a mere five centimeters for a range of five hundred meters and contact with it was just as effective as the bigger lances.

As the Gray defensive ring opened fire on the encircling Guardians, the Ursars shielded the Guardian forces and opened fire with their concentrated beam cannons as soon as they had collected sufficient energy. The Pride gunners concentrated their subspace lances on the Gray gun emplacements, carving the weapons and their crews into small pieces. Rawli, spotting such an encircled Gray scout ship, ran to join the forces attacking the invaders.

* * * *

While the aerial and ground battles waged, another front was begun against the spheres and dreadnoughts in orbit above the planet. As suggested by Ragnok, tiny subspace field generators had been built. The six units for use against the spheres were capable of generating a full subspace bubble that would extend ten kilometers around the spheres, while the smaller ones, designed for the dreadnoughts, extended only two kilometers around the large ships. Using astral projection to pinpoint the exact placement of the generators, portals were opened to transfer the inactive generators into place.

‘Since this is your world, Sindar, would you care to send the signal?’ Spyder asked, gesturing to the button on the console.

The Pride Guardian stepped forward and placed a single clawed digit down on the small button. With a gentleness that belied the immense strength of his feline form, he slowly depressed the button, triggering the subspace signal that flashed to each of the generators in place on the Gray armada. Instantaneously, the subspace generators engaged and the fields sprang into existence. With the ships now sealed inside completely impenetrable fields, the time within them slowed to nearly a standstill.

* * * *

As the spheres were sealed off, the Gray warriors on the ground lost all communication with the Overmind. For a brief instant, there was chaos and confusion on each of the encircled Gray landing sites.

Primed to expect that moment, the Guardian ground forces stepped up their assault, rushing forward in the battle lust that raged within the Ursar and Pride warriors. High technology weapons were cast aside for those more primal, and satisfying, claws and teeth. The Grays’ personal weapon, a magnetic rail gun that fired a five millimeter diameter drill at incredible velocity, could barely slow the advancing twenty foot tall Ursars. Even after being hit with drills up to ten times, an Ursar warrior could rip a Gray to pieces using their twelve-inch long titanium-tipped battle claws.

Firth and the other members of the Pride ground forces raced alongside the Ursars, their blood singing in exultation as they fought the Grays. His time spent training with Korin back on Ursaria had taught him the value of speed and agility against prey, and that was all he regarded the Grays as being: prey. Springing into a tremendous leap, Firth pounced upon a Gray before the invader could bring the rail gun to bear on the bounding feline. A quick swipe with a paw ripped the Gray’s arm off, casting the rail gun away. Pinning the Gray to the ground, Firth looked deep into the Gray’s large eyes even as he dug his rear claws into the softness of the Gray’s upper abdomen and disemboweled the alien with a single thrust of his legs. He looked up in time to see his brother Rawli rip the head off one Gray even as his other paw tore the throat from another.

‘What are you doing here? I thought you were a hotshot flier!’

‘Adara is dead, brother. Killing Grays is all I have left now.’

Firth was appalled by the cold and merciless tone in his brother’s mental voice. Gone was the lighthearted brother he’d known. Before Firth could say another word, Rawli charged another group of Grays attacking a rather familiar looking Ursar and Firth had to rush to catch up. In tandem, they leaped upon the backs of the Grays, and reveled in the splash of blood and rending of flesh, destroying those who had dared attack the Pride. Yet for every one that Firth killed, Rawli slew three. Injuries did not matter. A close encounter with a beam weapon took most of Rawli’s left ear seconds before he tore the Gray to pieces. Splinters of metal from an explosion savaged his face and destroyed his eye, so he moved so Firth was on his blind side, yet kept on killing. And with every slash, his mind repeated one word. Adara. Rawli pounced on the final Gray. Even as he punched his claws through the Gray’s skull and ripped its head from its body, the Gray plunged a bladed weapon into Rawli’s chest, piercing his heart. With his final breath, he whispered, ‘Adara.’

By the end of the day, there wasn’t a Gray left alive on the planet.

* * * *

The next day found the assembled Guardian leaders from each species overlooking one of the landing sites. It had been a literal blood bath. The Gray complement of the scout ship had numbered around two hundred fifty, and they had all been shredded in the battle frenzy. There were also dead among the Guardian ranks, Ursars and Pride slain by the Gray, mostly from an unlucky encounter with a drill from a rail gun that hit a vital organ.

As they walked around, the soft ground squelched around their feet, saturated with the blood and other fluids of the various species that had died there.

Ragnok shook his furry head, ‘I never imagined such carnage was possible.’

War Chief of the Valley Clan said, ‘In our last encounter, the one where Spyder was hurt, we lost over eighteen thousand Ursars and killed over twenty thousand Grays. The entire valley was awash in blood so thick, it laid in lakes above the ground. It will be a long time before that ground is clean again.’

Ebon said, ‘That was a single battle in one location. This is repeated at over eight thousand locations across this planet. We estimate the Gray dead to be almost two million in the ground battles alone, plus another million in the aerial battles. Balance that against our dead: one thousand Ursar and five thousand Pride warriors. It was a great victory, yes, but the cost was still high. ‘Shaking his head to clear the images that brought to mind, Ebon added, ‘We will treat the Guardian dead according to their species’ custom. The Gray dead will be disposed of and the ground cleansed by fire.’

‘How will you dispose of them?’ Sindar asked, ‘And what of those enclosed spheres and ships above the planet? We cannot just leave them there.’ Sindar gestured upwards at the darkening sky. The large silvery spheres of the subspace fields reflected light down toward the surface of the planet, looking like small moons. From their position, two of the spheres could be seen. The smaller ones surrounding the Gray battleships could not be seen with the naked eye, but were clearly visible with a telescope.

‘We will portal the largest portion of the Gray dead into the sun; the rest will be consumed by the flames that cleanse the ground,’ Ebon replied. ‘As for the ones in orbit, we are discussing that.’

* * * *

‘Is there anyone who believes we should show any mercy to the Grays that are entombed in the subspace spheres above the planet?’ Ebon asked.

War Chief said, ‘Mercy? It is a concept unknown to the Grays. They show no mercy to any living thing. If we allow them to live, they will merely attack us again. I say kill them all now and be done with it.’

Ebon glanced at the others seated around the conference table. The sixteen Æthereal Council members, their human partners, Spyder, the Clan Fathers and War Chiefs of the Ursars, and the Pride Guardians made a huge body for such a deliberation, but they all appeared grimly unanimous in this decision. Ebon turned to his sister and said, ‘Astra, what say the Whites? You are normally not in favor of killing.’

Astra looked her brother in the eyes as she replied, ‘The Whites are healers and strong advocates for life. When dealing with illness or injuries, a healer does not question whether the invading disease should live. The Grays are a cancer unto the universe itself, attacking and destroying the health of the universe to perpetuate its own agenda of destruction. The cancer must be destroyed for the universe to live.’

Ebon nodded. ‘It is agreed that the Grays enclosed in the subspace spheres must be destroyed. The question is how.’

Sindar said, ‘Can you remove the spheres from around my world and send them elsewhere?’

‘It will require the collective power of the Æthereal Grand Council to open a portal large enough to enclose the subspace field around a single one of the Gray spheres. In other words, it means using the focused will of every single living Æthereal,’ Ebon said.

‘Even if we do that, how do we get that much mass moving into the portal?’ Negron asked. ‘We would not have any energy to spare to actually move it.’

Clan Father said, ‘We will do that. We will unite the minds of the Clans and focus our telekinetic power to move it into the portal. While it will be draining, I believe we can do it using a few billion of us.’

Spyder chuckled. ‘A few billion, he says. So we open a huge portal and move the sphere into it. Where do we send it?’

‘There are always stars going nova somewhere in the universe. We could send it into one of them,’ Forrest suggested.

‘What would be the impact of introducing that large of a subspace field into the heart of an exploding sun?’ Danny asked.

‘As the sphere enters the portal, I could trigger the subspace signal that collapses the field,’ Spyder replied, grimly. ‘From the Grays’ perspective, they would find themselves going from a peaceful orbit about a planet they had just started to invade to the heart of an exploding sun. They might even have a brief second where they would be aware of the transition before they all die.’

Sindar looked aghast. ‘That sounds so...cold!’

‘Between those six spheres and the dreadnoughts, there are almost one billion Grays. Each Gray has but one mission in life; to exterminate all other sentient life forms so they and they alone can make use of the resources of the universe. I will never shed a tear over what must be done to eliminate the threat they represent to all other forms of life,’ Spyder said.

Ebon said, ‘It will require almost a full month between efforts to make portals this large. If we can group the dreadnoughts into groups of twenty, they will have about the same volume as a sphere. Therefore, it will take nearly a year to clear the skies above this world. Can we commit ourselves to such a lengthy project?’

‘Have we any choice?’ Negron asked.

* * * *

The Grand Council convened on Turza’s World, ready to begin the process of clearing the skies above the planet. At Amber the Gold’s mental command, the entire Æthereal species focused their considerable mental talents to open a huge portal around the first subspace sphere. Concurrently, the focused minds of the billions of Ursars provided the needed impetus to the sphere to begin its transition through the portal. As it passed through the blue nimbus of the event horizon, Spyder sent the coded subspace signal to deactivate the subspace shield surrounding the Gray colony ship, leaving it naked as it emerged to plunge into the heart of an exploding star.

Chapter 23

Ragnok and Liara stood on the high hill overlooking the vast plains and forests of the new world. It had been a difficult decision to leave the Valley Clan on Ursaria, but they both knew their place was with their own kind in settling one of the new worlds opened by the exploration teams. Their decision was made harder by Glia’s inexplicable refusal to leave the Clan Valley.

* * * *

‘Why do you wish to remain here? Your mother is already saddened by the loss of your brother in battle,’ stormed Ragnok. ‘Do you wish to add to her pain?’

‘Father, I cannot explain why. I just know it is something I must do.’ Glia’s voice was firm and resolute.

‘Does it have anything to do with your mysterious walks?’ Ragnok asked. ‘Yes, I know about your skulking and probing around the area. In the name of the Ancients, what are you searching for?’

He watched as his daughter’s paws unconsciously stroked the patch of white fur at her throat as she struggled to answer him. ‘I do not know. That is the problem, you see. I do not know what I am looking for. I just know I must find it.’

Ragnok reached out and stroked his huge paw along the side of his daughter’s face in a gesture of affection. ‘How can you be alone here, Glia? Especially at night? I know of your night terrors.’

Glia’s back was straight and rigid, her voice cold as she said, ‘I am no longer a cub, Father. This path, no matter how difficult, is one I must take. I must find the answer before I can ever move on with my life.’

As her father had sadly left the room, Glia started to reach out to him but how could she explain? She’d never told anyone about what had happened that night in the forest when she’d been taken by the grakor. Everyone assumed the grakor had somehow dropped her and she’d crawled to the humans for help. No one but her knew the truth. That someone, some thing, had rescued her and carried her to that porch.

* * * *

Nothing they said would change Glia’s mind and, in the end, they had been forced to accept her wishes. They had made arrangements with the humans and Ursars to keep an eye on her. The Ursars built Glia a smaller tree house, closer to both the Clan and the humans, and Glia had remained behind. Lili had surprised everyone when she announced that she would share the house with Glia. ‘Glia is Clan and should not live alone.’

What they never expected was the surprise arranged by the Ursars, the humans, and the Æthereals. Somehow, using their abilities with portals and telekinesis, they had transported the huge interlocked trees supporting the magnificent tree house to this spot on the new world, which is the reason Glia had needed a new home.

What made this particular location so valuable was what lay hidden amid the boles of the trees underneath the tree house. Masked by the trees and some artfully arranged shrubbery was the entrance to the Chamber of the Ancients on this new world. With its proximity, Ragnok could easily commute to the other Pride worlds, Ursaria, and even to Paradise. This was important for his new life’s work: the reclamation of the Pride home world.

Just below them lay the growing tree city, and they could see another amazing sight: groups of Ursar artisans moving among the trees, helping the settlers establish their homes. There would be no haphazard development here. The Ursars intended to provide each of the settlers with homes equal to the one Ragnok and Liara had upon the hill. At the edges of the forest were the homes for the Pride Guardians; they would serve as both warriors and hunters. These dwellings were smaller with only one or two bedrooms. Farther back among the trees, protected by the warriors, would be the homes for the Pride families; larger with four or more bedrooms.

Among the surrounding hills were the shops and factories of the Pride and Ursars, hidden away in caves and caverns so they didn’t despoil the natural beauty of this world. Ragnok’s eyes were drawn to the most impressive feat the other Guardian species had accomplished. Where it had come from Ragnok did not know, but the Æthereal and Ursars had transported a huge mountain of granite to the edge of the plain and forest. Within that massive rock were housed thousands of Pride fighter craft with their subspace lances for use in defending this world against intrusions.

It was the transport of that small mountain and his tree house that inspired Ragnok with the way to reclaim his home world. He’d requested a meeting with the Æthereal Council and the Clan Leaders of the Ursars to discuss his idea and, right on schedule, the portal to Paradise was opening.

* * * *

“Greetings, Ragnok. I hope all is well on your new world,” Clan Father’s voice boomed in the conference room at the Borland Guardian Facility.

‘The Pride is ever indebted to the Ursar artisans for their assistance in developing the new settlement. My own gratitude is beyond measure for the thoughtfulness of bringing the fabulous home we had among the Clan Valley to the new world.’ Ragnok paused. ‘In fact, that action, along with the arrival of the mountain housing our fighters, is what prompted me to ask for this meeting.

‘As you know, it has been a dream of mine to reclaim the home world from the devastation caused by the Grays; a dream shared by every living Pride member, no matter what world they claim as home, as a symbol of the rebirth of the Leonid Guardians.’

“The destruction of that world was a heinous action,” Astra said. “It was a spiteful thing since it ruined the world even for the Grays.”

Azure said, “It will take centuries for balance to be restored there. The entire cycle of life has been destroyed.”

Ragnok said, ‘What if we give nature some help?’

“What kind of help?” Astra asked.

Ragnok leaned forward, his paws flat on the table, as he said, ‘What if we were to take a section of the planet and clear it down to bedrock? What if we then brought in all new layers of earth and flora to cover the cleaned bedrock? Could we not then reclaim our home world a bit at a time, reestablishing the all-important oxygen-nitrogen cycle and make it live once more?’

He leaned back and watched the faces of those around the table as they digested this idea. He caught the eye of Forrest the Green, and the explorer winked at him.

Azure said, “I can think of no greater use of our time and efforts, with the exception of exterminating the Grays. What we learn in reclaiming the Pride home world can be used to begin reclaiming other worlds devastated by the Grays. Such a project will take decades to accomplish, but each step will bring us that much closer to having another viable world for the Pride. I vote we do it.”

Ebon said, “It is not a question of whether we will do it, Azure. Consider that doing it is a given. I do have one stipulation, though.” Ebon fastened his gaze upon Ragnok. “The area around the cave and the zone of the devastated city below is not to be touched. That dead zone will remain as both a memorial to those who perished and a reminder to all who live of the price of failure as Guardians.”

The Æthereal Council and Council of the Ursars voted unanimously to support the reclamation project of the Pride home world with the stipulation outlined by Ebon. The work would begin once the final sphere had been removed from the skies around Turza’s World, as the planet was unofficially known. Ragnok bowed his head in thanksgiving and relief. He would probably not live to see the project completed as it would probably take several lifetimes for the full recovery to be accomplished, but he would at least be a part of the effort for the rest of his days. He could think of no greater goal than that.

* * * *

With the sensors of all the Ancient’s systems monitoring the space around all the Guardian worlds, the battle wings were freed from the need to constantly patrol them. They immediately volunteered for the reclamation project, along with thousands of Blue scientists and Green explorers. The Ursars also volunteered in the millions, especially those with an affinity for working with stone and vegetation. It became an obligatory duty for the Pride to serve in the Reclamation Corps; a two year stint that marked the coming of age for all Pride and their entry into the responsibilities of adulthood.

Survey work began immediately. First, the “dead zone” had to be designated so it would be left undisturbed. Ursar artisans extended their senses to stabilize the ash cover of the dead zone, freezing it solid so it would never be altered. For ages to come, the marks in the ash that showed Ragnok’s torturous passage up the mountainside and back to the cave would remain as a tribute to the Pride’s determination against all odds.

A belt ten miles wide around the dead zone was cleared and then fresh clean soil was brought in. Small trees, taken from the virgin forests of a dozen worlds, were brought in and planted in the soil, along with grasses and small shrubs to help stabilize the new ground. Artisans tended each plant, down to the individual blades of grass, to encourage them to root and to grow. Once each planting was thus treated, nature was left to care for it. Once this belt had been reforested, small animals and birds were brought to live among the trees and shrubs, as well as the necessary insects to ensure a complete cycle of life.

Only one week of each month could be spared for this reclamation project in the beginning. The Æthereal had to preserve their strength for the creation of the portals to relocate the entombed Grays around Turza’s World. However, plans were made for afterwards when the Guardians of all species could concentrate on the project. And even with the restriction, the reclamation effort had made a difference in that first year. They had reclaimed almost one hundred miles in every direction from the dead zone; almost ten thousand square miles had been restored into a viable ecosystem. Perhaps it wouldn’t take several lifetimes after all.

* * * *

Small survey teams were dispatched to the world where the nuclear war had been fought, and reclamation plans were made to clean that one up as well. Archeologists and other specialists were brought in for brief intervals to study the remains of the civilization to see whether they could learn anything about the prior inhabitants. Fortunately, the biosphere had not redeveloped enough to support any viable forms of animal life, so the decision was made to recover this world using the same bedrock approach as was being done on the Pride home world. This would be the Reclamation Corps’ second project.

* * * *

Even as the reclamation teams were planning their approaches to the dead worlds, Spyder met with Celadon and Forrest regarding a pet project of his own.

“As you may recall, I explained that the Ancients established chambers on sixty-five thousand five hundred thirty-six worlds, and that twenty-three of them were no longer responding to queries from the master computer. One of those worlds was the Pride home world, where the Grays stripped the chamber of the Ancients. Another world is the one where there was that nuclear war about seven hundred years ago. According to the records, there was once another chamber here in this solar system, located on a world between Mars and Jupiter. I would suggest the presence of the massive asteroid belt in that region of space provides us an answer about what happened to that world; it was destroyed. A fourth world was Serenity. That leaves nineteen worlds unaccounted for,” Spyder said.

“And you want us to find out what happened to them,” Forrest said. “How can we do that when we do not have any idea of their coordinates?”

Spyder shook his head. “I have no idea. I was hoping you two would have some.”

Celadon gazed at the ceiling. “It is an interesting problem. Do the Ancient records give any indication at the approximate location of these missing worlds?”

“Even if they do, those positions would be millions of years old. The galaxy has shifted quite a bit in the intervening millennia,” Forrest said.

“Actually,” Spyder said, “the Ancient systems have been continuously updating the positions of the responding stations. Perhaps…” Spyder used his mind to access the Ancient’s crystalline computer system, asking the system to project the current location of the unresponsive planets. “Okay. The computers have now updated the locations of the unresponsive planets based on the relative positions they held to the others before they stopped communicating with the computers. When I factored in the known Gray incursions, we can eliminate ten more worlds. The systems shut down when the Gray infested the planets where they were located. That just leaves nine unaccounted for.”

“So what do you plan to do?” Forrest asked. “Please tell me that you do not intend to just go there!”

“No, nor do I intend to send any of the exploratory teams,” Spyder replied. “I think we should play this safer than that. I think we’ll first use an astral projection to see if the planet is even there and then use a small reconnaissance drone to collect environmental and sensor data.”

“That makes me feel much better, Spyder,” Forrest said. “Katherine would have some seriously harsh things to say to me if I let you get hurt again.”

Spyder laughed. “Forrest, are you afraid of my wife?”

* * * *

Later that night after Katherine had fallen asleep in his arms following their moments of conjoined bliss, Spyder let his consciousness drift outwards. Not limited by the laws of physics, his mind arrowed across space to the place where the computers predicted the missing planet would be. He found an airless orb of rock, with a crater on one side that must have measured several hundred miles in diameter. The catastrophic impact of an asteroid had blasted away even the atmosphere, rendering the world an airless and useless place. One down, eight to go.

The second world was shrouded in a poisonous atmosphere of methane gas mixed with trace amounts of other toxic gases. Plunging deep beneath the swirling clouds, he directed his mind down to the surface of the world. The surface of the planet was covered with a riot of strange life forms, part fungus and part plant, and all seemed to glide about on a film of slime that covered everything. Since the world was no longer capable of supporting Ancient life forms, the computers would have closed down. Two down.

His attempt to reach the third world was interrupted by Katherine’s lips pressed to his. He opened his eyes even as his arms closed around her bare body. “If you’re awake enough to go exploring out of body,” she whispered, “then you’re awake enough to explore this body at home.”

* * * *

Spyder had gone to the Master Chamber on Earth to continue his explorations of the missing worlds. Thus far, he had traveled to six of them and found them to be either airless rocks, unsuitable for Guardian life forms, or burned out cinders from a supernova.

The seventh world hung in space like a blue and white jewel. Spyder was struck by the resemblance to the early photographs of Earth taken from space. This world seemed fully capable of sustaining life as the Ancients knew it. Why then had the crystalline computers stopped reporting? He willed his mind to drift down to the surface. The vast oceans covered seventy percent of the planet, just as they did on Earth. There were several large continents, and ice caps on the poles. As he approached the land masses, he began to detect signs of an industrial civilization.

There were aircraft of various types in the sky and vessels moving on the surface of the oceans. Huge cities were scattered across the surface of the land masses, interconnected by a series of what looked like superhighways and elevated monorails. Spyder moved closer until he could actually get a look at the inhabitants and his first glimpse confirmed his theory. He had found survivors from the Serenity exodus.

Since the planet now hosted an external technological society, the Ancient computers had self-destructed when they failed to detect the requisite introns in the inhabitants, thus alerting the master system that this planet was no longer available for use by the descendants of the Ancients and their Guardian species. The species had apparently suffered some technological regressions because he could see they were no further advanced than humanity back on Earth.

The eighth planet was much like the first one, an inert lump of rock floating in space. The ninth and final “missing” planet was the biggest mystery of all. Like number seven, it had hung in space like a jewel, drawing Spyder down to the surface.

He found a world with vast cities of soaring skyscrapers that seemed to defy the laws of gravity and fundamentals of physics. The crystalline buildings were connected with graceful monorails. There were large parks scattered throughout the cities, each one filled with abundant wildlife amid carefully nurtured beds of flowers and ornamental shrubs. Aside from the animals, however, the only movement he could detect came from small robotic caretakers tending the flower beds. The world seemed completely devoid of sentient life.

His astral form drifted amid the empty thoroughfares and buildings. Everything was neat and orderly; looking like everyone had just stepped away for the day. Spyder found several more robotic caretakers moving amid some of the structures, cleaning and dusting. Where had the inhabitants gone?

Spyder knew this was a mystery he would pursue for many years to come. Returning to his own form, he opened a portal and went to the Paradise facility to brief Ebon and the others on what he had found. As he expected, Ebon was concerned about the Serenity colony.

“Should we make contact with them, or just keep an eye on the situation?” Ebon asked.

“The world is close enough to some of the others in the system that we would have adequate warning of a Gray penetration in that part of the galaxy,” Spyder replied. “I do believe, however, that contact should be made. They are a society very similar to Earth’s and could become an interesting addition to our loose federation of planets. I would suggest we maintain a watch on them for a while and develop a means of communication before we attempt open contact. After all, they probably have some fairly ingrained distrust of aliens after what happened on their home world. Once we know we can communicate with them, I would suggest using a human contact team until we ascertain just how xenophobic they may have become. After all, the Æthereal, Ursars, and Pride can be fairly intimidating to most humanoid species.”

“That makes sense. I will get Azure to assign some of the Science Corps to the project of monitoring the planet using astral techniques until the time comes for physical contact.” Ebon paused, and then said, “What about the empty world?”

“That’s a big mystery, isn’t it? Why did they abandon their planet and where did they go? How long ago did they leave?” Spyder pondered aloud. “Those are just a few of the questions I plan to spend the next few years investigating.”

* * * *

Katherine sat back in her chair at the table, placed her napkin next to her plate, and picked up her wineglass. After sipping the excellent Chardonnay, she said, “I’m so glad to hear that some of the original population from Serenity made it to safety and founded a new world.”

Spyder said, “Their ship took them halfway across the galaxy, and about as far from the Grays as they could get in that direction. I can’t help but wonder whether any of their other ships made it safely to another planet somewhere.”

“Serenity is a fine example of why any sentient species, especially humanity with its troubled history, must establish settlements outside their birth world,” Danny said. “We all know how close Earth came to being a radioactive wasteland like that one planet we surveyed.”

Katarina said, “And what of your mystery world, Spyder? I’m sure you have plans to study that place.”

Spyder smiled. “I have plans for us all to study that place, including the other Guardians as well. This is the first world that implies an extremely advanced civilization. We need to know why they left, where they went, and whether they’re still out there somewhere. For all we know, they could have been neighbors to the Ancients themselves and have gone to join them. Perhaps that’s our own destiny. When we reach a high enough plateau of civilization and science, we all migrate to some other place and join the rest of the advanced species already there.”

“Okay, you’ve watched way too much Stargate,” Katherine teased. “You’re starting to sound like Daniel Jackson when he talks about ascended beings.”

“Okay, every one loves to knock the science fiction shows, but look how much of what they portrayed has come true over the years. Cell phones, Bluetooth headsets, teleportation, exploring other worlds, other sentient beings living in peace, not to mention the evil, planet-destroying, gray aliens,” Spyder said. “When you look at me and recognize the physical changes my body has been going through are the precursors of our whole species evolving into what our fables have called elves, you begin to wonder whether there is indeed a racial memory that can sometimes be tapped in to and used. Tolkien came the closest in his descriptions of the elves of legend. To me, that means the writers of today’s shows may just be tapping a different racial memory, and maybe, just maybe, ascension is what it’s all about in the long run.”

Katherine stood up, walked around the table, and took her husband’s wineglass. “No more of this if you’re going to get all philosophical on me! I have other plans for you.” She pulled him to his feet and led him from the room with a small wave good night over her shoulder at the other couple.

Danny chuckled, “I guess they’re making up for lost time.”

Katarina said, “Does it need to be lost time? I think she has an excellent idea.” Smiling archly at her husband as she began to unbutton her blouse, she added, “Don’t you?”

Epilogue

Spyder and Katherine sat on the deck of the house, enjoying the peace and quiet as the red sun set. Lili had taken Meredith inside for her bath. Now nearly two years old, Meredith really enjoyed bath time.

The glass door slid open and Katarina came out. “Got room for two more?” she asked as she and Danny came onto the deck. Danny helped his wife to a chair, her distended stomach leading the way.

“Won’t be long now,” Danny said.

“Two more days, I would expect,” Spyder said. “While we have about six more weeks,” he added as he rested his hand on Katherine’s pregnant belly.

Katarina groaned as her stomach visibly shifted shape. “I just wish they would be still! At least you only have one inside. I had to go and carry twins!”

Danny looked across the darkening deck. “Spyder, has there been any sign of the Grays since we cast that final sphere into the nova?”

“No. All the stations have reported quiet,” Spyder replied. “We cannot assume, however, that we have seen the last of the Grays. It’s a big universe out there. For now, we’ll just watch and prepare. As our children grow, they’ll become more attuned to the crystalline computers, as well, so should the Grays ever return, we’ll all be waiting for them.”