Page 192 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

now. The distortions follow an arc of about a million kilometres. Any object entering the arc is
accelerated along it and catapulted toward the systems star, a red giant.

“Many races have; at one time or another, used this “sling-shot”
as a means of disposing of hazardous materials. So radiation
levels in the area tend to be quite high” Jovhar said after he
pointed out a route to mitigate the bulk of the effects of the
distortions “The asteroid and hidden deposits are near that
small moon” he added. The indicated spot was in a debris field.
The moon had been struck by some massive object at some
time and the detritus hurled out from its surface orbited around
it. One large piece of that debris seemed to stand out from the
rest having a metallic sheen under its encrusted surface. Jovhar indicated that the surface was
littered with the remains of a vessel that had been catapulted into the moon by the distortions. “We
were unable to ascertain where the ship had come from. So it seemed logical to us we could hide
our materials among the wreckage” he concluded. Michael offered to take a look using the suit but
the Kryst stopped him explaining that the mineral would be attracted to the suits energy field. Trok
said he and two Mechanoids would do the retrieval using a shuttle.

As the Trok and the mechanoids approached the asteroid they spotted one of the escape
pods. It was heavily damaged. “Looks like it was hit collided with something. I doubt that the
occupant survived” Trok said over the coms. He fitted a retrieval thruster pack that could be
remotely controlled and T’luha guided the pod into the Veklaar’s Docking bay. The three robotic
figures made touch down on the asteroid surface.

“You should be looking for a cylindrical object about a metre in diameter and two metres in length. It
shouldn’t be very heavy, but could be under a large layer of dust by now” Jovhar announced.

“Bring a sample of that dust too. I want to do an analysis” Stenerton said not explaining further.

The object was just as described and was indeed encrusted in a thick layer of fine dust.

“That’s weird! This dust feels waxy?” Trok said; puzzled. The work went quickly and the three of
them soon had the cylinder and Doc’s samples aboard the shuttle. “We’re heading back now.
There’s a high radiation reading coming from this region. And there’s a strong magnetic field here
too. Jovhar was right Michael; the suit’s systems would have been thrown completely out of kilter.
There’s a strange directional gravity field emanating from the planetoid below us. It appears to be
pulsing.” Trok mentioned as the shuttle made the return to the Veklaar.

During the decontamination process it was discovered that the dust had a component that
reacted effervescently with the chemical wash down spray. So much so Trok and the two
Mechanoids looked more like snowmen than mechanical beings. Upon further analysis the
component was proved to be a mineral similar to Gypsum. Luckily the water wash removed all traces
before it dried out and set hard. The dust had a couple of highly radioactive isotopes in it; probably
from the crashed ships reactor core. The samples that the Kryst had secreted away, proved to be a
complex compound that seemed to have many uses other than the ones the Kryst had discovered.
One surprising one was its ability to abrade defence grade Shild Bronze. Any work on the extremely
tough, resilient alloy was usually done with diamond or diamond dust. The unity and the Buraxin
would be highly interested in obtaining this resource.

While all this was going on Michael had been running long range sweeps to discover the
location or trace the path of the other Escape Pod. He eventually managed to locate a residual trace
of the Pod’s Ion trail.