Page 194 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

strip was in amongst them was anybody’s guess. The shaft of a control knob was the only broken
item that was obvious.

“What’s this thing?” Jenifer asked holding up a small, flat rectangular card and searched the data
base of images. “Oh! It’s called a Bank card; a form of replacement for coin and paper currency.
Apparently popular before the Economy Wars; the institution’s logo is still recognised and the
organisation became part of one of the founding five great companies. We know that as the house
of Brit-Hugeno today” she answered herself.

“Pretty much most of the jobs these electronic parts did is now done by parts of Nano-circuits in the
most basic equipment, but I suppose for their time were still pretty vital and useful” T’luha added.
Hubris was holding a folded piece of paper. He had a little difficulty at first translating the script; it
was written in an Ancient language of “Old Earth”, English he believed it was called.

“The box seems to have been some sort of Time-Capsule. From what I can gather the people that
put it in its hiding place were the descendants of others abducted from Earth in or around the
twentieth century, that’s by the Old Calendar system. It seems we might have answers of sorts to
the disappearances that happened around that time” Hubris announced. Michael walked in at that
moment and whistled.
“I haven’t seen one of those since I found an old fashioned shortwave radio that belonged to an
ancestor” He said and pointed to one of the Vacuum tubes “The people of their generation called
them Valves or Tubes; depending upon which of the two major continents you came from” he
picked it up and scanned the internal structure “It’s what they referred to as a Hexode” he went on
to explain further. His hobby of ancient historical studies of early civilisations gave him grounding in
what most of the items were and their possible uses. “It is a strange collection to put in a “Time-
Capsule” though! Anything more in that message Hubris?” he asked eventually.

“It’s difficult to translate without a proper context, but I believe they called themselves “The Taken”.
There is reference to an alien race that sounds similar to the Ulahri. Though I don’t believe their
“abduction” was down to them; more probably the other race that is referred to in the Kryst data
discs found on She’brakda. I’ll try and get some more information from Jovhar when he’s free. Doc
Stenerton’s using him to update his biological database. Our Kryst friend seems to have had a
medical skill base, so the two of them are talking anatomical differences etc. It would be a shame to
interrupt the exchange but, this discovery might take precedent” Hubris answered. Jovhar was more
than eager to help.

“That race is known to us through our Ancestors. We called them… I believe your phrase is
“Curators” or “Keepers”. They were responsible for injecting the “Marker code” into our peoples.
And those of many other races in this region. When Martin, sorry Doc, showed me the holographs of
the Alurak and the Ulahri I immediately knew what he would ask.
The Ulahri were one of the few elder races that we encountered
that stayed in this region; many of the others dispersed into other
galaxies or the farthest reaches of this one. Our ancestors and the
“Curators” came from the “Third Galaxy” as you refer to it, long ago
in our spacefaring history, more so for the “Curators”” he said. He
added more about why the Kryst eventually made permanent
colonies in this Galaxy and in some nearby nebulae. The Kryst it
seemed were consummate explorers. They also had had run-ins at
one time or another with Gantrax scouting flotillas. The Kryst didn’t
much like the Gantrax, but tolerated their presence. “We preferred
the Hagunenon and Voodon, as they were easy to genetically
enhance. It wasn’t until we encountered the ancestral Untharans
that we realised the Voodon were distant relatives of them and one