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  Vidhee pulled away and moved around to Analyn.

  “Mistress, you need medical care. Please release Sir Mahajani. He is in the good hands of Preceptor Igaklay. If anyone can save your bodyguard, the Preceptor can.”

  Slowly unfreezing on the stoop, the Adams family began to absorb the reality of what just happened. Taking in the carnage and reliving what they just experienced, the four fearfully took the two steps and stopped again.

  Seeing the anguished Analyn, Momma Pam rushed over and began stroking her furry head.

  “There, there, child. We have all seen how well Preceptor Igaklay takes care of us. Your Sir Mahajani is in good hands.”

  By this time, Pa Lucas arrived. Reaching down, the elderly human took the young Elonian’s good arm.

  “Come on, Mistress. You’re just getting in the way. And you need to get that arm looked at.”

  Analyn gently moved Mahajani’s head from her lap to the ground and acquiesced to being helped up to a standing position. Rubbing her maw, her paw came away covered with the blood and meat torn from her attacker’s throat. In disgust, she flipped her paw, shaking off the offending waste.

  “Someone is going to pay for this,” Analyn exclaimed. “Someone is going to pay a lot.”

  “Later, Dear. Now, you need to get looked at. We can’t afford to have the Mistress of Ballison laid up. There are too many things to do.”

  “And one of them is finding who set this up.”

  A robot floated over to Analyn and reached out with its mechanical hands. Gently lifting Analyn’s arm, it went to work. Everyone watched.

  “Um, Mistress Analyn?”

  “Yes, Igaklay?”

  “Your parents were also attacked.”

  “What?” Analyn almost snarled. “How are they?”

  Analyn’s paw claws extended and retracted. Her tail raised high, its top flicking in anger. Her ears pointed forward as her eyes squinted, focused for attack.

  “They are fine, Mistress. The Kaporine Guardsmen kept them protected. Also, your father has dispatched a cohort of Guardsmen for your protection.”

  Analyn wanted to pull away from the medical robot, stomp around in anger. Taking a breath, centering her focus, she calmed to a slow burn.

  “Did they catch any of the assassins?”

  “Two are still alive. Lord Kaporine has asked that I keep them that way.”

  “You better. I plan on having a rather firm discussion with them.”

  During this revelation, a boxy skimmer pulled up beside Sir Mahajani. Settling down, double doors slid open and a casket-shaped container floated out. Once clear, the lid opened, and multiple rows of lights began to come online.

  Everyone turned their attention towards the current activity and watched as eight medical robots carefully lifted Sir Mahajani and placed the gravely wounded Elonian into the medical tank. The lid closed. Sounds could be heard as the automated medical pod began its treatment.

  The boxy skimmer, now with its Elonian cargo, floated back into the forest. All but one of the medical robots followed. The lone remainder continued to work on Analyn’s arm.

  “Where are you taking him?”

  “To a medical pyramid, Mistress. I have been reactivating it since I called the medical robots.”

  “Will he be alright?”

  “Sir Mahajani will not die. He may not be the same, but he will not die, Mistress.”

  Planet Bachama

  As the small shuttlecraft broke from behind Bachama, the Ballison sun flashed bright and yellow, forcing Igaklay to darken the transparent, polyoxometalate view screen. Once the smoky color became dark enough, Mack and Sue opened their eyes and visually inspected the small planet below them. Unaware of the attack on Analyn which had just transpired, the two continued to gaze at the small, barren orb.

  “Looks pretty small for a planet, Love.”

  “According to the data, it’s about the same size as a planet in Old Earth’s solar system. Pluto.”

  “Well, it can’t be much. Iggy, could you give us a mark on where your dead zone is?”

  The view screen suddenly became a topographical map overlooking the planet below. A bright, red ‘X’ marked a spot.

  “Cute, Iggy. Take us in slow. While you do that, me and Sweet Sue are going to get some readings.”

  “I have been trying to get into that dead zone ever since I woke up.”

  Since Igaklay’s avatar was still onboard Griffin, his voice came through the shuttle’s speaker system.

  “Well, now you’ve got the best mechanic and software engineer in the galaxy. We’ll take a peek and tell ya what we find.”

  “This is going to be so great!”

  “Now don’t go and get all excited, Iggy. It may just be a pile of strange rocks.”

  “You’re no fun.”

  Mack looked over and saw that his new wife had already begun scanning the small planet.

  “Oy, Love. What are you picking up?”

  “Something very strange. Bachama, even though it is so small, seems to have a gravitational pull comparable to Ballison’s.”

  “Ya checked your numbers?”

  That got Mack ‘the look’.

  “Just asking, Love. I believe you.”

  “And an atmosphere.”

  “Now this is getting freaky.”

  “I could have told you that, Mack. But that is as far as I got when trying to get into that dead zone.”

  “So, you’ve been up here before.”

  “After I woke up, I scanned my solar system. And found Bachama had changed. So, I sent a probe and some repair robots. But they disappeared in the dead zone.”

  “And you’ve been doing this while hanging with us, Iggy?”

  “I’ve sent all kinds of probes over the last couple of years. But none have gotten in, Mack.”

  “And you never told us.”

  “No, Mz. Sue, you, and the rest of Humanity were extremely busy. I didn’t want to further burden you.”

  “That is an understatement, Iggy. Now, we’re on it. We’ll get it done.”

  “You should be about a hundred meters above the dead zone, Mack. Do you see the silvery dome?”

  “Ya, Iggy. It’s a big mother. A lot bigger than the HEBA pyramid. Big enough to be a small town.”

  “It’s some sort of energy barrier.”

  “Like the ones which we installed on our ships?”

  “No. nothing like that. My readings show that it does not match my disseminator shield. It doesn’t destroy material at the molecular level. I don’t know what it is. I can’t get enough information on it to analyse it.”

  Mack and Sue heard the frustration and despair in Igaklay’s voice.

  “No whining, Iggy. We’ll get it done. Take us around so that we can get a look from all directions. OK?”

  Igaklay, still in remote control of the shuttle, ran a pattern covering the silver energy field. Once done, he returned the shuttle to its original location, a hundred meters directly over the dome.

  “I don’t see any entrance, Igaklay. You said that you were able to send a probe through the field. Is that correct?”

  “Yes, Mz. Sue. But, whatever I sent in never came back out.”

  “No explosions? No overloads?”

  “No, Mack. Whatever I sent just entered and disappeared.”

  “No messages? No distress calls?”

  “Nothing, Mz. Sue. Like I previously stated, the moment anything entered, I lost all contact.”

  “What do you think, Love?”

  “We need to take a look.”

  “I don’t know. With you five months along, this sounds a little risky.”

  “I’m pregnant, not sick, you chauvinist. We can send a drone. See what happens.”

  “Ya, Love. But until we see more, that’s all.”

  “Just a peek.”

  “I’ll get one of my inspection drones I used on Griffin. I can control it from my tablet.”

  “Good idea. As low tec
h as we can get. Also, let’s set the shuttle on the surface. That way, if anything happens, we won’t crash.”

  “Another good idea from that brilliant brain, Love.”

  “Quit buttering me up, Wrenchy. And put on your space suit.”

  Mack tapped a button on his belt, activating his nanite space suit. The nanites which formed his current uniform reassembled to form a hazardous environment suit. Nanites crawled up his face, covered his head then realigned to become a form-fitting helmet, complete with a transparent face mask and communication equipment.

  As Mack became cocooned in his suit, Sue did the same. Her nanites conformed to match the five-month bump on her belly.

  Mack reached over and rubbed her tummy. “Ready Love?”

  “Go for it.”

  “Bring us in, Iggy.”

  Igaklay brought the shuttle in for a landing. He parked the little ship just less than ten yards from the shimmering energy dome.

  “I’m going to keep everything up, in case we need to move fast.”

  “Always looking out for us, Iggy.”

  “That’s my job as the Den Griffin Protector.”

  I’ll check the receivers while you get the drone up and running,” Sue stated.

  Mack left his pilot seat and headed to the back. There, he opened a case and withdrew a small, battery-powered drone. Going to the airlock, he set it down and closed the inner door. Once the safety light turned green, he opened the outer door. Then he returned to the shuttle’s cockpit.

  “You do the flying. I’ll make sure that I get everything recorded.”

  “You’re the boss, Love.”

  “You’re learning, Lug-nut.”

  Mack worked the controls of the small, primitive drone. Sue worked the camera. Slowly the drone approached the silvery energy shield. Less than three inches away, Mack stopped its forward momentum.

  “What have you got, Love?”

  “Visually, the silver shield. All other readings are null. No energy bleed, no emanating waves of any kind across the entire spectrum.”

  “I’m taking it real slow. Here goes nothing.”

  Mack barely slid the forward icon on his tablet. The drone inched forward. It touched the barrier. Then one of its rotors sank into the silvery energy shield. Mack paused the drone.

  “Anything, Love?”

  “Nothing. Still the same.”

  “OK. Here it goes.”

  Mack flew the drone entirely through the barrier.

  “I just lost video and audio, Mack.”

  “I’ve still got control. I’m going to back it out.”

  “Good. You’ve got memory banks on that little guy, right?”

  “Of course, Love. If it’s still working, we’ve got some video.”

  “Hold it in the airlock. I want to check it for any radiation or foreign particulates.”

  “Will do. We should sanitize it anyway. Just in case.”

  After returning, sanitizing, and double checking the drone, Mack flew the small device back into its case. while the drone settled into its cradle, it also connected to an I/O port. Mack downloaded the collected data and threw the video up on the shuttle’s view screen.

  “Oy, Iggy. What are we looking at?”

  “A single point perspective, Mack. It looks like a manufacturing pyramid. With a surrounding township.”

  “Are those your drones and repair robots scattered around the grounds?”

  “Yes, Mack.”

  “What did them in?”

  “From my visual inspection, they all still seem intact. My evaluation would be some sort of electromagnetic pulse. Or an electronic overload.”

  “If that happened to your equipment, why didn’t our drone get taken down?”

  “That confuses me, Mz. Sue.”

  “We have a mystery, Iggy.”

  “That would seem the case, Mack.”

  “Love, do you have any other readings?”

  “Just breathable atmosphere and Ballisonian gravity. It’s as though whatever is under that energy dome is built to replicate the living conditions on Ballison.”

  “No radiation or strange emanations?”

  “None that the sensors picked up.”

  “So then, it’s safe to go in there.”

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  “But, Love, it’s for Iggy. This place may hold the clues to where his people went.”

  “No way, no how.”

  “How about, I stay in my spacesuit and don a jump pack. Then, I do a quick step in, get a looksee and jump back out. Thirty seconds, tops. I just need to get a feel for the place.”

  “No. I don’t like it. No.”

  “Aw, Love. Thirty seconds. You load up my suit with a zillion cameras and pickups. You get hours of data to comb through for just a thirty-second jump. Just thirty seconds. Please?”

  “Gods, you are such a whiner. You are not going to let it go, are you, Wrenchy?”

  “It’s for Iggy.”

  “Don’t you pull that on me. You want to go in there and trapse around.”

  “Come on, Lassie. Thirty seconds. I’ll tell you what. I’ll tie a belay to me. Hook it to a wench. Then, you can haul me out.”

  “Damn, you are incorrigible. Thirty seconds. Not one second more. Then I jerk your ass out of there.”

  “Yeah, baby! You are the best!”

  “Get going before I change my mind.”

  Mack hustled like a kid just learning that he had a date with the prom queen. He and Sue still wore their hazardous environment suits. Mack mounted the breathing unit with the jet pack on his back. He fairly vibrated as Sue attached a plethora of cameras and sensors to his space suit. He cycled through the pressure lock and checked the wench on the front of the shuttle. Then he hooked the line to his harness.

  “I’m ready, Love,” Mack announced over his intercom.

  “Thirty seconds. Step in, do a complete three-sixty and get out. Got it?”

  “Got it. Going in, now.”

  Mack slowly approached the shimmering silver dome. He reached his hand out and paused a few inches from its surface. Then with an ‘oh hell’ sigh, he stuck his hand into the barrier.

  Nothing happened.

  “You getting this, Love?”

  “Clear as day.”

  With another sigh, Mack stepped through the barrier.

  The moment he cleared the barrier, all his clothing turned to black powder and fell off. The cameras, without their anchor points, clattered to the ground. All that remained was the rope around his waist.

  “What the? Love? Sue?”

  A giant hologram of a Ballisonian head sprang from the facing wall of the pyramid.

  “You contain Igaklay technology. Leave immediately or you will be destroyed!”

  Mack didn’t wait. He backup up through the energy dome, turned and sprinted towards the shuttle.

  Sue saw the naked Mack running hard. She pressed the emergency open icon to the airlock. Mack raced in. The hatches slammed shut. Sue jumped out of her seat and raced to the back of the shuttle.

  There, she saw a naked, terrified Mack shaking from fear. Sue pressed the uniform button on her nanite suit as she ran over to the medical cabinet and slammed the emergency release button. The door popped open. After a quick look, she grabbed a thermal blanket, ran over to Mack and wrapped him in it.

  “Mack, Mack, look at me!”

  By this time, Mack’s naturally effervescent personality began to return.

  “Well, that will surely be something to tell the wee one when he gets around to being born.”

  “You Lug-nut. How do you know it won’t be a girl? What happened in there? How did you get naked? What happened to your suit?”

  “Nothing bad, Love. Just a difference of opinion. I’d say that we now know what that place is. And Iggy isn’t going to like it.”

  “What happened?” Mack and Sue heard Iggy’s nervous voice over the intercom.

  “Whoever put that place togethe
r doesn’t like you very much, Iggy, my friend. As soon as I stepped in, all the nanites making my spacesuit died and fell off. Then a giant hologram said that I contained Iggy tech and that, if I didn’t leave, I’d be destroyed.”

  “That’s why our drone survived and all of Igaklay’s didn’t. Our drone came from the shipyards. No Ballisonian technology.”

  “Iggy tech. not Ballisonian.”

  “Well, that place is off limits. We’ll just make sure that no one comes to Bachama.”

  “Um, Love, I don’t think that’s the right call. Before I scampered out of there in my all-together, I saw something else besides the pyramid.”

  “There’s nothing there worth going back for, Mack.”

  “Actually Love, there is. I think I saw a Ballisonian spaceship.”

  “So? Leave it.”

  “But, it may have the flight path that the Ballisonians took. Iggy, do Ballisonian ships have navigation charts?”

  “Yes, they do! If we can get that ship out, we can find out where my creators went!”

  “Nope. Not going to happen. You said that, since you have Igaklay technology, you will be destroyed if you go back in there.”

  “I’m thinking whatever that hologram was, it was referring to my nanites. After it wiped out my suit, that’s all I had left. Iggy, can you remove my nanites?”

  “Not going to happen. Not now. Not ever. We have a baby coming. You are not going to do anything which will endanger this family. Don’t say another word about that.”

  “But.”

  “No! Igaklay, take us home! Now!”

  “Yes, Mz. Sue.”

  Even Igaklay knew that a mother-to-be was no one to cross.

  Chapter 03

  Cencore - Weiskoff’s Home

  Vice-Admiral Theodore Millhouse Weiskoff the Third deserved all the trappings associated with being the last Admiral of the Unified Federacy Space Force and the ranking governmental official of The Federacy. At least that is what he demanded.

  Never having cooked a meal himself, he conscripted the best chef on the Federacy’s remaining personnel. Loath to do the daily chores of running a household, he decided that he needed a personal valet. His next conscription had been an up-and-rising lieutenant who had been left behind, Lieutenant Klein, as the head of the household staff. Finally, to fill his home with servants and maids, Weiskoff had the pick of the abandoned populous in Cencore’s Capitol planet, Olympia.