Page 151 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

“I managed to find our wayward tourist. Why do these Flutvarn insist on “experiencing” all and
sundry? He’d tried to run after and catch a Scabber Rat” he announced. T’luha winced “Yup; it bit
him. He’s in the infirmary now with a leg swollen to twice its size for his trouble. You off then; See
you on the rebound!” and with that he coupled the trailer to Old Betsy and sped off heading west.
T’luha explained about the native rodents; more related to marsupials really, the blighters were
scavengers and would eat just about anything. They hated being handled and their bite; although
not actually toxic, caused serious pain and inflammation.

“Oh dear; I hope the poor chap recovers quickly” Krysta chuckled “we
have a similar creature on a world in our sector, the planet Shust, they
are like the ancient packrats of Old Earth, inquisitive and will try to eat
just about anything you leave alone for a few minutes. Fast little devils
too” she added and the two ladies laughed as the hovercraft headed off to the Lander.

T’luha decided to make herself useful as soon as they arrived back on the Veklaar; seeing to
it that the recovered items were sent straight to engineering. Meeting up with Trok and the rest of
the engineering crew she revealed the contents of the hovercraft to them.

“Blimey! I wasn’t expecting anything remotely like this” Tom exclaimed “I recognise most of the
Buraxin tech, but that part is a surprise” he said as he lifted
up a small cylindrical object about 20 centimetres in length.
“I thought that would intrigue you Tom. Remember when
your brother was reported lost about five years ago. I have
been given permission to let you in on what happened back
then.” T’luha said “I wasn’t working as a trader when I
came on your brother David. I was attached to the Buraxin
survey commission that were looking for remnants of
Gantrax technology. David was assigned to the same group
I was in at the time…” T’luha went on to explain that the
Terran contingent of the Unity survey Commission teamed
up to discover why the Gantrax had been so interested in a
particular asteroid field. It had to be kept secret and the
Buraxin were just as anxious to clear the region for mining

rights, it would, after all, lead to trade routes and all that went with it. There had been rumours
among the local races that a large contingent of Gantrax ships had been seen in the area around the
asteroid field. These were strange ships of a type not seen before. Their joint mission was to gather
any intelligence they could for the Unity and the Osir. David had been the first to spot the tell-tale
signs of Gantrax being there. “That’s one of the many hundreds of fragments of a construction that
were recovered. It was being sent back by a message drone when its guidance systems went on the
fritz. It’s taken me some time to track where it ended up. I asked to join this expedition as a mark of
respect for your brother Tom; he was a great engineer, and an even better intelligence officer” she
paused. Tom had a blank look on his face “These cylinders seemed to be part of an array that was
slowly attracting stellar dust and gas by gravimetric attraction. It must have been booby trapped as,
when a probe drone scanned it, it blew apart. We still don’t know for certain what the device was
for, and the Military took all the others. They had forgotten about this one. David was always going
on about how you were the better of the two of you at figuring things out. So I thought I’d find the
part and get it to you. The rest of the stuff from the drone is useful for spares.” She concluded. Tom
remained silent staring into space. Trok took the cylinder from Tom and ran a scan with his sensors.

“Odd? This surface is similar to the brooch found by the temple on Shust. I wonder?” he said, “Ah,
there’s a symbol on one end” he said