Page 195 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

of our relative species, the Jumbat. There must have been some kind of exchange deep in the distant
past” Jovhar said.

“Perhaps the race that abducted the Humans may have been responsible; the “Curators”. There are
precedents. Take Cain’s People that were taken by the Unat and Osir for example. It is almost certain
that the Space Whales are descended from a species that came here from another galaxy. Some
species of primates on my Home World of Vaham obviously did not evolve on Vaham. I can think of

at least a dozen of them.” Hubris responded. He was cut short by a gasp from
behind him. Killiris had walked in and was staring at Jovhar. Her transport; the
Scharnhorst, had managed to intercept the Veklaar. So she had arrived sooner
than expected. Jovhar did a slow head nod and gave her the same greeting he
had given Hubris. It was obvious to all the others that Killiris was visibly shaken.
She stammered a response to the greeting and just looked at Hubris with an
open mouth. Doc Stenerton had encountered only male Vahamat, his first sight
of a female floored him. The head quills were her most astounding feature, and
her vestigial wings were slightly larger than Hubris’ examples. She had a curvy
figure that he found pleasant on the eye; and, in common with the Nephel, her natural pheromone
was beginning to have an effect on him, Michael too. She noticed this and took a container from her
carry all. She sprayed a mist over herself and the effects subsided. “I had forgotten that there would
be Human and other males present. Forgive me gentlemen for not having the presence of mind to
take the necessary precautions beforehand” she said apologetically.

While Hubris and Tom; who had joined them from Engineering, explained to Killiris what
they knew so far about the Kryst and the outpost on She’brakda, the medical information obtained
from the corpses, mummies and Jovhar. T’luha and Michael worked with Jovhar to fine tune the
sensor arrays that were going to be used to get a more precise location of the escape pod; once
they’d arrived in the target system. The Kryst was more than happy to assist and to disseminate his
knowledge; meagre as he conceived it to be. In practice it proved to be more advanced than what
the Veklaar team had managed to glean through their efforts. Jovhar was unaccustomed to
attention he was getting; in fact among some of the elements in the crew he was becoming a bit of a
celebrity. One young female Ensign had managed to program a replicator unit to create facsimiles of
Kryst clothing for Jovhar to wear. Though it appeared that he was not concerned about being naked;
the others were, and out of deference to them, he donned the apparel, even commenting as to the
quality. The Kryst; it seemed, were a respectful people, at least the faction to which Jovhar
belonged. From what they had gathered from his response when asked about the Blenders, he
tended to show disdain or contempt. He obviously did not like them.

The Kryst; the Voodon and the Curators

The crew; Tom included, were amazed that Jovhar was unconcerned about how long it had
been since he had entered the Sarcophagus. Equally; he showed little concern that the passage of so
much time probably meant Hivlar was long since dead. Tom eventually plucked up the courage to
confront Jovhar on the matter.

“Do not concern yourself. We Kryst only age up to adulthood; there after we constantly regenerate.
It’s a process that means we are exceptionally long lived. It is one of the reasons we reproduce so
infrequently. Only a handful of us are viable for mating in every fifty years, and then only if outside
influences have reduced our number. I am convinced Hivlar has found a place to regenerate and
survive. In the case of death; rarely by natural causes, some trigger will spark a reproductive cycle.
The last spawning was around the time of our incident. Prior to that; it was loss of an entire colony
due to stellar collapse in a distant system. A telepathic signal is received by all other Kryst and an
appropriate number of us become viable. That time it was around a thousand of us. Kryst females
generally produce a brood of around a hundred, sometimes two hundred eggs! He said in a sort of