Page 243 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

in. He took one of the vaults and each of the other three team members took another. Armed with
the description they set about looking through indexes and catalogue entries; but eventually
resorted to just checking each box or drawer individually. About two hours in; a shout came from
one of the juniors. They all went to that vault room. The junior in this case was Tress W’Gurn; a
Buraxin exchange student, she was holding out a disc
shaped object that did seem to fit the requirements. It
was about 15 centimetres in diameter, had a yellow
metal outer rim, a crystal surface and a conical bump
made of some silvery metal in the centre. There
seemed to be some kind of layered structures within
the crystal, but they were so fine you would need an
electron Microscope just to make out the larger
sections. Bridging the metal parts with the palm of the
hand set it off glowing. Ron took a holograph of the object and had it relayed to the Endeavour.
The reply was not quite what he expected.
“We have the objects location. Place it on the floor and stand well back” T’luha ordered. Ron had
this done and the team retreated up against the walls of the Vault. There was a glow developing
around the object then a bright glaring flash and the object was GONE!
“Thank you we’ll be back in touch. Good work all” was all that Captain Rongad said in response. Ron
and the team were left to wonder just what had happened. Tess had some documents in her hand.
They appeared to be receipts of transfer. One of the origins read Roswell New Mexico…

… Arthur was sat facing his “Attorney”. He had been informed of where he was; that had
come as a shock, but the time scale of his “sleep” had come as an even greater one. In return he
explained about the Hurabash and the Aradash; how his captors had treated him and the other
“Abductees”, that name was going to take some getting used to. He understood why the Unity
wanted this young man to fight for his “rights”. But what he couldn’t; or rather wouldn’t understand,
was why he’d survived, how had he survived and particularly how his Stasis unit had ended up in
Fort Knox? Here he was a survivor from a lost time and place; he felt so out of sync it unnerved him.
Mark was speaking some legal nonsense; Arthur was barely listening when a name popped him back
to full alert.
“… So Felicia Grantham had the Banking Corporation of Hiumitsu International keep your estate in a
solvent, profitable condition. That corporation eventually merged with one of the founding family
owned corporation that founded the Matsu-Hiro-Chin Dynasty. It would appear Mr Styles-
Cunningham that you are an exceedingly wealthy man even by current standards. I would say that
you could quite easily afford to buy yourself a small planetary system. There are also records of the
artworks you did…” Mark was droning when Arthur interrupted him
“If you are referring to the Graphic Art projects I did for Clients; that was my job; I’m not a real artist.
Besides; I had a partner, they were a joint effort and they could hardly be called “art”” he scoffed
“On the contrary… Arthur; not many works survive from that period; your work was turned into a
cult by many of the later generations of… as you would have referred to them, Comic Book Artists.
Your style was copied and used to create a whole sub culture of Graphic Commercialism. Some of
your surviving creations sold for trillions in the currency of your time. I believe the President Elect of
the Unity has one of your originals hanging in the stateroom of the Unity 1… a piece for a long
extinct company called Microsoft!” Mark proudly commented “An Ancestor of mine was responsible
for securing it. We have to handle your discovery discretely; if the media circus gets wind of any of
this…” He added
“You still have Paparazzi today! Why does that not disturb me” Arthur responded sarcastically. Over
the coming weeks Arthur was brought up to speed with many millennia of history. The Ulahri
education alcoves were a god send in helping him to get all that history into his Twenty First Century
brain. In return; the Unity Archivists and the rest gained knowledge that had been lost, they gained