Page 133 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

Lorna was looking over the files that Jason had found; in particular the scans of the wall
mural. He was right of course; the Hagunenon script was an early version, she’d studied under
Archivist Halaran senior while at the Academy.
“If this Hagunenon passage is a direct copy of the Kryst passage; even with minor differences, and
the translation is correct, the Kryst were not slaves to the Hagunenon like many races from that time
period, but were considered Masters like the Krall. We may have found our mysterious encoders.
The race that encrypted a code in the DNA of virtually all known species in this and the other galaxy
that the Osir come from; We might just have found the race the Ulahri and Alurak called The
Curators of Everything” she said after a few moments startling Mortimer and Jock, who were
tinkering with a field generator salvaged from the Gardonna.
“What! But that’s…” Mortimer exclaimed but she cut him short.
“It’s only an assumption, it might relate to the coordinates you managed to work out from the origin
point of the probe, but I’ll need to consult with Councillor Magridson as to how we proceed…” she
was interrupted by Hasbid who had been on monitoring duty.
“We’ve just received a signal from the rift; its encryption index is that of the Mechanoid pilot Trok, it
basically says to standby for further transmissions. They’re alive!!” he shouted excitedly “Looks like
the shield mod worked sir” the last part directed at Lennie who had joined them from the Docking
Bay where the probe was stored.
“Wow! I’m going back with you Hasbid, I want to link with him if that’s possible, data transfer will be
faster that way” Lennie said and followed Hasbid to Coms leaving the others speechless with
astonishment. It was a few moments before anyone spoke; when they did, they all tried to speak at
once, before they decided on a “pecking order”.
“You’d better get back to Coms Jason, they could probably use you’re expertise. Mortimer and I
should go back to the task of checking through the probe logs, now we have a working, well sort of
working, translation matrix for the Kryst language, thank you the Untharans” and they set about
their tasks leaving a bewildered Jock to head back to the Docking Bay shaking his head.

Contact
From the bridge of the Luna Mechia; Trok, Misha, Lyris and the Captain prepared to tie in a
link with the capital on Keteria with the Hellion on the other side of the rift. An Ion storm had arisen
during the last attempt and disrupted the first reply. The storm was abating and the static that had
caused so much disruption was decaying down to a background rumble.” The storms here are more
violent than in the rest of the galaxy, probably due to the gas and dust of The Veil” the Captain, Klute
Vetinari, was saying “It caused our ancestors no end of trouble in the early days of exploring our
realm” He to a pad from the Coms technician and signed it.
“I’ve actually encountered worse” Trok said in response “I was assigned to a survey ship in the Rim
region near to a large Gravity anomaly. It was Ionic re-radiation caused by the collapse of a red giant
nearby. Our ship had to overpower its Gravity compensation systems to keep us from being pulled
in. The Ion blast from that swamped all coms in a fifty parsec area almost completely. We eventually
pulled clear and we set up a marker buoy as a warning.” He finished saying as the Technician
indicated a three-way link had been established with the Hellion, them and First Minister Panhedran
on Keteria. The call was a vid-link with the Bridge of the Marchioness Hellion; the screen was blurry
to begin with but cleared rapidly once the filtering protocols took hold. An image of a middle aged
woman appeared
“Hello; I’m Captain Melissa Hart of the Federal Unity vessel Marchioness Hellion. I offer greetings to
you on behalf of the Federal Unity High Council. They apologise for being unable to be present on
this auspicious occasion, but the Hive-Net link to tis location is tenuous at best. I am to act as
mediator in any negotiations that may ensue from this… first contact. To whom do I have the
pleasure of addressing?” the figure said. Introductions were made and the formalities of political
protocol were dispensed with quickly and a less formal communication began between those
present on the two vessels. The team on the Luna Mechia brought the Hellion up to speed with the