Page 219 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

“It’s just I’ve seen something similar before. In the Terran Archive” He replied and that got her
attention. Lance looked up the entries in his notes and told her the indexes of the relevant entries.
She called them up on the main viewer in the room
“You’re right they are almost identical. Where and when do they say it was found?” she asked then
corrected herself “Ah! But that’s impossible! The Kryst and the Voodon were never in the area
around that period??” she exclaimed, puzzled. Lance explained his research into the “Abductions”
and his reasons for requesting to be on her team when they entered Fort Knox.
“Show me your notes and collations” she ordered. Lance handed over six data crystals and she
scanned through them. “The implants are interesting. The technology looks more like that used by
the Alurak and Ulahri than anything else. But those devices were used for micro excavation work.
We use similar devices when we do a “dig” these days. Less damage to artefacts you see. But putting
them into living beings…? That’s nasty by anyone’s standards” she added after reviewing all the
crystals “You’re in on the team. Have you ever thought of becoming an Archaeologist Lance?” she
replied and asked.

Endeavour was almost ready to depart Unt system to join up with the main fleet. One of the
Biologists had caused a minor hold-up waiting for the delivery of some of the new “Mini-Globes”
from Venosia Prime. “They have a wider spectrum than the previous generation. They are self-
repairing too” she’d exclaimed enthusiastically when Midas asked her. With them aboard; and safely
stowed Endeavour “set sail”. It was about a day to the assembly point at impulse. So Dagnor asked
for permission to try a few “shake down” tests of the secondary drives. He got the go ahead for
when they had cleared Unt system. He; or rather T’luha, wanted to see if the “mods” young Jason
had done would have any noticeable effect. About ten minutes later the two of them had their
answer.
“Incredible; an almost 400% jump in Plasma flow efficiency! Jason you are a genius” she yelled
through the Plasteel of the portable Blast shield. Jason looked proud and smiled broadly
“And that’s only with a 10% regulation from the modified circuits. When we use the main drives
we’ll need to ramp that up!” he replied to T’luha’s statement. The ship seemed to handle smoother
than she had in trials too thought Dagnor. He gave the order to go to secondary for the trip to
rendezvous point and the sleek vessel slid almost effortlessly out into interstellar space.

New to the Mechanoid division were some of the Voodon
“Fembots” as the lower crewmembers were calling them. They
preferred to call themselves Feminoids; to distinguish the two classes of
“Artificial” life forms. Neither of the two liked the term Android; as that
inferred that were derived from “robotic devices”. The Mechanoids; in
particular the Bio-Mechanoids, had synthetic neural nets and brains as
opposed to the Positronic circuitry of robots and Androids. The
Feminoids appearance did tend to be distracting. As yet; the Feminoids
had not opted for the Bio-skin look of the Bio-Mechanoids. Even they
thought that would be a step too far. Endeavour had six of the
Feminoids in their crew manifest among the Mechanoids. They were just
as strong and durable; just as capable as their “male” counterparts, so
shared duties equally. Even Midas was distracted when he first came
upon one of them during a visit to the Med-Lab to have some checks
done on his “skin”. Since the “Mini-Globes” had come aboard he’d
noticed a strange sensation in the dermis of his left arm. He’d also come
to meet the Ship’s Doctor; Willard Manson. Midas had known him from
his time on one of the Mining vessels of the Volgar Fleet. The Feminoid, who Willard referred to as
Lucy 889 had been drafted as temporary nurse until young Ensign Lisa Grundy recovered from her
“Space Sickness”. The sight of Lucy had stopped Midas in his tracks.