20

Super Unknown

Andrew got up and went through his usual routine before he left to open the bookshop. It was just after five o'clock in the morning. He fixed a pot of coffee and sat down to drink and read the paper. The distinct patter of steady rain was soothing and was a refreshing relief from the heatwave. He got up and peeked through the kitchen window curtains, put there by his wife, long dead. They reminded him of her. They still carried the scent of rendered beef tallow. 
Andrew was surprised. Though he welcomed the coolness of the rain it was the dead of summer. It hardly ever rained at he end of July. He wondered at it just the same. Something about this sudden change felt strange. He was no adept but he learned to pay attention to the life behind things; to the things that others didn't notice.
"Hmm." He put down the paper and went to the fake mailbox in his backyard. Perhaps one of them had left a message before they left. Perhaps Trillion did. He couldn't take the risk of becoming lazy and not checking the box. He put on some slippers and a raincoat and made his way to the backyard to the mailbox hidden deep in the bushes, that he and Trillion used to pass on secret information to each other or others.

There was a letter there, and a sticky-note attached to the outside of the letter. The note read:

Andrew, please give this letter to Dan. It's urgent that he receive it for I don't know when I'll be back. I've discovered recently that I'm being followed - this doesn't surprise me, nor should it surprise you - and I have no wish to put you or the others in danger! It may be a very long time again before I contact you. Or maybe not at all. I really don't know what will happen now. The thing must take its course. And be mindful, your duty and position as Keeper of the Doorway is already upon you.

The letter read:

Things are going to become very dark, very soon, Dan. I fear that I will not always be there for you. Please use the techniques I taught you to train the other two on the team and protect Andrew. He's risked his life to help us meet safely. You are all travelers now and your abilities will be heightened. It will be a dangerous time for all of you. When you pass through, open, or close the doorways things change and matter rearranges itself and so will your body and mind. Pieces of you can be left on the other side and this can dangerous if those pieces of you are essential to your humanity. Be vigilant, stay awake. Not everyone who seems liekea friend is a friend. This last battle is going to be waged differently from the others the redshifters have fought against you.

Andrew sat down slowly and then read it again. He felt his hands shake. It reminded him of the discussions he'd had with T in the past. The heat had been turned all the way up, the stakes were high. His bookshop long ago was once a place where a wormhole had opened up, but it was a different sort of portal than those in the rest of the main network. Before this bookstore was built, other stores, such as several grocery marts, a small law office and a medical office had existed in the past in this spot, and each business had seen odd, unexplained things happen. So much so that until he'd arrived and opened the bookshop the spot had a reputation for being haunted. Andrew remembered those early days. The little bookshop had attracted a cult following in Portland for the strange activities that would happen while people were browsing. Books and other objects would suddenly levitate. It had helped keep him afloat for many years. He remembered when Trillion had started coming. A tall, mysterious character in dark gray who would hang out in the store all day, at times. Trillion the time-traveler. He had shown Andrew one night over some beers why these unexplained things happened and after that they'd struck up a friendship and an alliance as Andrew was slowly introduced to the threat looming over humanity and Earth. As for the old wormhole, Trillion had managed to fully close it and keep it hidden.

His world had been turned upside down after that meeting years ago.

Well, there's nothing for me to respond to by letter right now. He thought. Andrew felt nervousness rise in him. He had anticipated a day like this would come and T had prepared him for it well enough. The problem was, he was no brave hero. Would he be able to hold down the fort while the others were away and protect them when they came back? Could he truly be the Keeper and Watcher of the Doorway under his shop? The time had finally come to open the wormhole under the shop. Andrew fought valiantly to still his fear and shaking hands as these thoughts stained his mind. He sat on the couch gazing at the rain. The streets were slick, the sky dark, signaling an omen. He folded the letter and envelope and took the note and stuck it on an end table. He had a safe box here in the house and he had a safe box at the shop. He would hide the letter until Dan and the others came back. And he prayed that they would come back. Andrew finally rose from the couch and continued to get ready to open up the shop. And ten hours later, when he was alone and the shop closed, the portal.

. . .

Trillion managed to temporarily drop his shadower on the way to the shop yesterday but the shadow was back as he made his way towards the east side pier. He knew this day would come, when they would find him. He could easily evade humans. This one was like him. In fact, he sensed others working in tandem with his shadower. The invasion task force had been hunting rebels like him for years right after WWII, slowly sniffing them out and putting them each to the question. The last twenty years they had grown complacent, thinking they had handed the rebels a devastating blow. So many of his friends and compatriots before the 1970's had disappeared. He shivered to think of what may have happened to them. He shivered, thinking of her. He knew their deaths had been cruel. Their leaders brooked no dissention nor disagreement in any way on the Expansion. Now his time had come. He only hoped the letter would reach Dan and that Dan would be strong enough to be a stabilizing force for the little group. He also hoped that Andrew would be able to find his courage to help them.

He hoped that he had given them enough. Other groups he had founded and trained only to see them fail and disappear, cut down by the redshifters. But there were other blueshifters taking up the fight. In fact, the strength of the blueshifters the world over was growing, which was why the hanyar were stepping up their own attacks. But their complacency over the years would come at a price. This gave him hope.
Trillion felt the cool breeze of the Willamette River running off the waves as he hurried down the walk way on the pier. He would miss such precious little gifts this world had to offer. He could feel them surrounding him even thought he couldn't yet see them. He turned down  a corridor walkway that led under the bridge when they caught him, ambushed him.
"It's about time we found you, traitor," said a voice behind. Trillion stood still and remained silent. The time had come. He was prepared. 
Trillion remained silent.
"Not going to speak? You will, eventually. We'll find out all your little secrets. and what you've been doing all this time out here. Oh, she'll get you to talk before you die." Trillion felt a wave of sharp tension run through him and this sensation, too, he treasured for soon he would be robbed of all thought and emotion except pain and then death, but he remained silent as stone. He could see their shadows, blacker than black, pour of the fainter shadows under the bridge all around him as the cars rolled by above them. He could feel the invisible chain field closing around him, a giant fist. of energy that rendered him immobile and then crushed around him. 
Well, they've at least improved on technology. He thought with grim amusement. The first time they'd caught him years ago the energy chain wasn't strong enough to hold him and he'd broken free. He could try to run for it again but that would be foolish.
"Do it!" One of them said harshly to another and a wormhole was opened. The energy from it was frightening, the screaming winds sounded like sonic cleavers in his ears. Trillion shuttered to hear it. He felt the dreadful power from it, slowly sucking his cells inside. The hanyar were masters at taming and controlling wormholes, imperfect as their technology was. He still marveled at it. If only his people could have used it for good instead of for the Expansion, Seeding and Settling.
He feared the High Sentinel, but in time, she would come to fear him also. He smiled inwardly as he was transported through place and time, through light, pain and darkness.He was ready for them on the other side and they didn't even know it.

Whether he would survive this was another matter. No rebel caught ever had as far as he knew. But the work would carry one on Earth. He laughed as he wound through the wormhole, his physical body tearing apart;  blood, bone and flesh being stripped off from his hanyar form and disappearing into the singularity as he traveled back to his accursed home so far away.

18

Shrimpy

He turned over in bed, pressing down into his blankets. His body felt as if it were ablaze, nerves endings sensitive to the touch. He couldn't figure out if he'd just awakened from a sex-fueled dream or if he were on some powerful drug. Jack turned and glanced through the window, squinting his eyes. The sky was overcast and air blowing through the bedroom window was cool for a change. It had been as hot as an oven for the past week and once his place got hot, it stayed hot. Jack now had a new roommate. It took him a while to get used to the soft gurgling sounds the creature made in its container. It was still so odd, as if he hadn't awakened from a disturbing dream yet. It bobbed up and down slowly, twitching briefly, gurgled and then went back to silence. It had only been here since last night. Jack waited, lying in bed and looking up at the wall, expecting any minute for the police to show up at his place. He could only guess the little shrimp-shaped creature was asleep. Heaving a sigh, Jack climbed out of bed and headed towards the bathroom and into the shower. The hot water calmed his nerves as it splashed onto his body. Tiny rivulets streamed down his hair, arms, back and legs, caressing him like gentle hands. He closed his eyes and took long, deep breaths, almost drinking the steamy air around him, then soaped up and washed down. In the next room he could hear the cell phone ringing. He turned off the water, climbed out of the shower and went to the bedroom to get dressed. As he walked passed the wall mirror, he noticed something. Several objects were levitating in the air. As soon as he'd noticed this they crashed to the ground. He felt a power go out of his body at this raw sensation. 
The gnawing sensation of nervousness and anxiety settled on him again. It was something that had seemed to grow within him in the past few days. A new ability or perhaps his own ability augmented by something? Stress? The change in circumstances? Well, he had that in spades. Jack toweled off and put on a t-shirt and some clean underwear. He listened out for the little fetus, glancing at it. It still seemed to be in a resting state. So he went into the kitchen and fixed breakfast and sat down at the tiny kitchen table and wolfed down his eggs, bacon and burnt toast. Just in time for his new house guest to wake up. Jack heard loud gurgling noises coming from his bedroom, signaling to him that the thing was doing more than turning around in its sleep. If it actually slept. he was hoping he'd get some important answers from it. He wondered if he should reveal its presence to the rest of the team. No. He'd wait on that. He wanted to find out for himself what the creature was really about. It was time for twenty questions. Jack entered the room and came and sat in front of the little terrarium-like case.

"So, do you eat anything?"

"Not in the way you do. And at least not now, in this form."
"So how do you maintain yourself?"
"So far, I'm able to exist on a self-contained and self-propagating system of my own matter and this flesh. When I eliminate my bowels and urine I refeed upon it. So far, it is sustainable, if not exactly appetizing."
"Wish I hadn't asked." Jack made a face. "So, what's your name?"

"Before I was imprisoned, I went by the name of Gage," the little fetus turned up to look at him with dark, sclera-less eyes. "Gage is my most recent name or alias."

"How old are you?"

"Old enough to have used more than one name and one lifetime. I've gone through several."

"Well. . . Gage, I've got to figure out what to do with  you. If you're gonna stay here you'll need to be useful."

"And what sort of work would I be doing?"

"Giving me answers as to why your people are here, what they've done in the past and perhaps what their future tactics will be."

"I'll do my best but I'll need protection."

"You've got it. Now, how long have you been part of this Expansion project, how is the enemy organized and how do I locate them?"

"You're working by yourself? Surely-"

"I'll ask the questions, Shrimpy. Let's start with when you first arrived on Earth." He was going to make this little monster prove its worth or it was going to the bottom of the Colombia Slough.

"I first came here on the Expansion mission as one of several waves of hanyar in the year 1918. It was four years after our so-called new era to be ushered in, when we were supposed to have triumphed over the human population by bringing in the ideas of nation-states and new economic ideas. Things were set in motion that caused the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and Hungary's assassination, he and his wife. The hanyar, my species, had engineered this war for so long, for so many years. There were so many things we put in motion, unbeknownst to humans, that led up to it. The culmination was the destruction of the old human order of monarchy. We were sure that if we influenced certain humans to overthrow a governing system that had created an imperfect stability for thousands of years of human rule world-wide they would destroy each other and go down into total ruin and then we could come in and take over quite easily. By the time 1918 came it was clear that the first plan had failed. All of that seeding of dangerous and destructive ideas, the giving of new technological progress and know how and influencing humans to use these new technologies in warfare, and secret politicking in the 19th century, lost. Even when the Romanov family had been assassinated, under hanyar influence, it was still lost. Though things had radically changed, humans were still here and obviously not going anywhere. What happened afterward was chaos but human society managed to patch itself together and kept going, limping along. And then we came WWII. That was partly the hanyar's doing and partly through events we unleashed that were not under our control. It became clear after WWI that many hanyar would die here in the quest of the Expansion. It would not be some easy takeover as we were led to believe by the leading lights of hanyar society. When I came it was to be a foot soldier for the cause of taking back Earth. But I was one of a few rebels who, once we had tasted our predecessors' way of life, we didn't want what we saw and experienced destroyed, nor the friends we'd made here."

"You've been here since 1918?"
"Yes."
"Tell me, when you first arrived here, I assume you had a duty or were assigned to do something, to work with - comrades - or something. Are they alive now?"
"Some of them."
"Do you know where they are?" The creature gurgled softly. Jack could only guess that this was in regards to it's being deep in thought.
"I'd left the Expansion behind and was in hiding for so long that I'd lost contact with most of the others. We stay hidden because we are deserters. They hunt us and kill us. I don't know much about my former fellow soldiers anymore. But. . . .the last I knew, one of our cell leaders had been assigned to another task and location. This was many years ago. Back in the 1930s. A location called Telon. We have our own certain names for important locations. Telon is one of the biggest gathering places where the hanyar work. It's in New Mexico. We have another in Chicago, I think, but I'd heard only scant gossip about that one. I don't know its name."
"What are they, exactly?"
"They are bases of operation. The one in New Mexico is in the Jemez mountains."
"Do you guys have a hidden place like this in a vault with a planetary symbol on it?" The creature just looked at him. He couldn't really tell as there was not much expression on its face.
"Vault? I don't know. I've never heard of such a place." Jack didn't know if this was true or a lie but he decided to move on, for now.
"Nevermind, then. Can I assume that your species also had a hand in the 1929 stock market crash and the following Depression?"
"We had a hand in that, yes."
"Telon. How would anyone be able to get inside this base?"
"It's been many years since I saw schematics on the place. There's a specific cave opening that you would use last time I saw it. from a faint memory I can remember this, most of the large bases are connected by one doorway. You would call it a wormhole. it is the most stable wormhole we've ever constructed. It's been in operation since 1918. it connects the large bases scattered around the world. It is highly secured and highly guarded and difficult to enter. I think one of the bases here is connected to it." Now this was information the team could use, if it were true or accurate. Who knew? The fetus might have been telling the truth but since it had been sundered from its contacts for decades, things could have radically changed. But, it was a start. He felt excitement rise in him. Jack sat back, appraising the little fetus with a cool gaze.
"You don't believe me," stated the fetus.
"I don't know yet." He had an idea. "Of all the places in the Pacific Northwest we could find and hit which ones should we go to? And which one is the important base connected to this massive, stable wormhole?"
"There are several small hideouts operating here but the one that I know of connected to the most important bases. it's where you found me. The little house on Ankeny street. Believe it or not. it's different from the others int hat things are stored there, very important things and information. Especially in the basement. There are. . .other places where we have opened doorways and because of stability issues closed those doorways and abandoned them. But they still leave traces that a wormhole was once there." Jack would hire someone to investigate this privately to see if this were true. The fetus gurgled urgently. 
"I realize that the few humans who know about us see us as the enemy. But not all of us are your enemies. Just like not all humans are your allies in this. Some have created a place for themselves in the establishment of the coming New World Order."

"New World Order?"
"Yes. Even in this prison I've seen and heard things no human is suppose to know about. Right before I was caught and imprisoned they set another lofty goal. A final war. I fear they have learned their mistakes and about human adaptability and ingenuity. They won't fail this time. There was a twenty-year time-table last I heard of this new project."
"Which means that it is even closer now. What project is this?"
"Project Destruction. It's a biological weapon. A disease designed to kill only human beings. The code name for this superbug is hyper-pneumonia."
"Lovely." Jack had to use all of his strength not to break his cool exterior. "What happened to your planet? Why come here and take this one?"
"Our planet is not like Earth. It is vast, frigid cold and full of violent storms. It's more like a failed star. It is beautiful. . . but not in the way that Earth is. Our planet is cruel and cold."
"It's a ringed planet." The creature gasped.
"How did you know?"
"That planetary sigil is emblazoned on certain things. I've seen it." There was silence for some minutes.
"Perceptive. We were once you, you know, but we changed ourselves to a type of being with minds, hearts and senses unable to taste, smell and experience the sensations humans have."
'If you've evolved beyond these earthly things why would it matter so much?"
"Because those long lost gifts were encoded within us. We dream them even though we cannot have them as we are. it's a form of torture." Jack thought on this, inclining his head at the fetus. What a pitiable existence. He wanted nothing more than to experience  life in the way he did. He wondered who or what process brought these people to this state. So many questions.
"You don't have to destroy us to get them back."
"I know this. But many of my kind don't see it that way." This creature was put in this awful prison of a half-formed body. And shoved into a creaky old room in a dusty old house. Why would it lie?
"Why didn't your enemies kill you?" It made a sound that was something of a sigh. rolls of air pockets and bubbles rippled through the fluid and bubbled up to the surface.
"I know something they still find valuable. However, they were planning to get rid of me sooner or later."
"Is there any way I can get you out of that state you're in?" The thing made a mournful sound that Jack could feel in his belly. Jack heard his phone ring in the other room.
"I don't know," it finally said.
"Look, help me save my kind, Shrimpy, and I'll do my damndest to help you."
"I thank you to the very bottom of my quantum soul and as I've said before, I want to help you. But actually, my name is Gage."

13

The Trans-Resurrection Machine, Part 2

The last explosion was terrible. Clouds of thick, burning smoke started to fill the room and fireball flames began to engulf the place.
"What has happened!" Screeched one of the redshifters. "Fire! Fire! Save the machine! SAVE THE MACHINE!!" He screamed.
"I'll call the others! We can't save the machine by ourselves!" The taller one ran from the room.
"COWARD!!" Cried the other in a rage. Mary could hear all of this behind the door of the device. it woke her from the near hypnotic state she felt the machine was puling her into, and away from the strange visions, or were they shapes she saw in the fluid. 
Shots were fired and then someone opened the device door.
"Mary!" it was Dan.
"Dan! Untie me!" he took put a blade and began cutting the straps.
"Hurry!" Shouted someone. It was Jack.
"You don't know how glad I am to see you guys!" She said. The bonds were difficult to cut through and Dan began unraveling them by hand. When he was done she managed to force her legs out of the straps holding them down and rolled off the door.
"What is that thing?" He asked,
"No time. I'll tell you later!" She said.
"They're coming! More of them. They called for reinforcements. I think I hear sirens too," said Jack. Fire was running up the ceiling like wild fire. The way was blocked. He covered Mary with a long silver cape. He was breathing hard.
"We make a run through the doorway. As you get towards the entrance, leave the cloak behind. Hopefully we'll get out without severe burns. Come on!"
They followed him out. Mary could feel the fire hot against her burning. It was so hot she thought she'd combust into millions of tiny particals. Her scalp was felt as if it would melt off her skull and she brushed her hair frantically as Jack herded them into an old car. The building was burning, like a raging beacon tearing into the night. Jack jumped into the driver's seat and sped off, burning rubber.
"We were lucky. this was a small cell. We caught them off guard!" Said Dan.
'"How on earth did you guys find me?" She asked, wiping sweat from her face.
"The red trail was strong nearly all the way to this neighborhood. I sensed you as they were driving away. I called Jack and he brought the car and we tracked your essence until it dropped off sharply about five blocks south of here. At that point, we investigated the buildings and by happenstance we found this old abandoned one. The redshifters seem to like old abandoned buildings for certain reasons. Old buildings have old memory that they thrive and work from to build their wormholes. People don't seem to pay much attention to them either." Mary turned to look out the rear window. In the distance a flurry of swirling siren lights were gathering at the burning building as they sped away into the night.

. . .

In the tiny, dusty bookshop that was now their headquarters, they sat around a small stool. Mary was frazzled but wiser and more courageous than she'd ever felt. Everyone was gathered around her, Trillion draped a warm sweater around her shoulders. 

"I'm so sorry I got you into this." said Dan. "Maybe we moved too soon-" she frowned at him at first, and then smiled.

"Got me into what? I'm in this along with all of you. We either face them now or they'll face us down later. We have to find out where they're hiding. I'm, glad it happened."

"You are?" Asked Andrew, the bookstore owner, nervously. He chewed his bottom lip and wiped his thick glasses with the corner of his shirt. She nodded vigorously. Everyone began talking at once. Mary felt a self assurance she'd never felt before in her life. She hoped this wasn't some temporary adrenaline wave.

"Listen," she said, putting her hand up. Then she took a long sip of hot coffee and set the paper cup down on the stool in front of her. The others leaned in, falling quiet. 

"I saw something I wasn't supposed to see. Both Dan and I did." She glanced at Dan excitedly.

"What?" Asked Jack. "What they actually look like?"

"Yes, but more than that. They do have these strange, advanced devices, huge machines that they call trans-resurrection devices. They use them to transfer one of their own inside a human so that they can take over the bodies and live here among us." The store owner's eyes widened.
"I was afraid of something kooky like that would be revealed." Trillion gave only the barest hint of dismay but his serene countenance remained.

"So that's how they do it!" Said Jack.

"But that's not all. There are, I think, quite a few of these machines but they are very old contraptions. It suggests they've used them for a very long time. It reminded me of a Rube- Goldberg machine. Anyway, they have this program from what I heard, called the Settling, Seeding and Expansion. There seems to be a hierarchy too. I heard something about a High Sentinel among them."

"High Sentinel?" Asked Trillion. "Troubling."
"Why?"
"She oversees punishment for wayward, incompetent and rebellious hanyar attached to the Expansion project. She has never revealed herself to humans, so far as I know. And she's not the only one. Perhaps they've changed something in the structure of the plan." 

"Yes." They all looked at Trillion
"What do you mean?" Asked Dan.
"All I mean is that things are changing. It's been a long time since I've kept in touch with their more secret activities. High Sentinels are vestiges of the older hanyar societies."

"Tell us more about the machine. How does it work?" asked Dan.

"I'm not sure on the exact nature of how it works. Only that they strap you on a bed on the other side of the machine door and close you inside and you are lowered into a huge tub of fluid with electrical currents flowing through it. I don't know what sort of fluid they use or what substance it is. It was frightening and not just because of what it would have done to me but because of the energy I could feel from it. it was overwhelmingly hostile, the energies coming from it. The very instrument they use to destroy us. More scary than any weapon they might use," she said. They listened with rapt attention.

"I felt it too," said Dan.

"What did you see, Dan?" She asked. They all turned to him.

"I entered part way through what I can only describe as an inactive wormhole. That's why I'm still alive, and through the other side I saw a vault of some. I saw a trans-resurrection machine, Mary! Inside the vault. It looked similar from the other one. I had no idea what that strange looking thing was at the time but it was another one of those devices! I'm sure of it!"

"Did you see anything else?" Asked Trillion.

"Yes. I noticed an odd symbol of a planet with out-sized rings. I wonder if that is where they came from?"

"Not likely," said Mary.

"Why do you say that?" Asked Trillion

"Because they come from subspace. They are subspace beings."

"Subspace! You aren't -" said Jack.

"Oh yes," said Mary firmly. "They said so."

"You heard them say all this?"

"They were going to kill me so they felt free to talk." Trillion folded his arms and leaned against the wall.

"My people the hanyar come from another place in the universe humans have never seen and can't imagine, somewhere on the other side of a singularity, somewhere near a planet with rings for from this solar system. They want to live in this world and in this dimension. But most want to take it over. They desire the kind of life that humans call life, to taste, touch and see and experience things the way you do.They want everything you have. They are dissatisfied with where they've gone as a species and wish to take over this world and take over your bodies as well."
"But if they only want to live as we do, why do they have to destroy us?"
"A people with a hostile, militaristic bent see things through a very limited scope. There is no room for others different from them and there is no room for others when those others have what they desire. We have countless examples of hostile human cultures that have eradicated others when it was unnecessary to do so. Greed and selfishness are the only excuses they need," said Trillion.

"You're right. And they know that some of us can detect them now," said Mary. Trillion sighed heavily.

"Yes. Once they thought they'd destroyed all sensitives, but they didn't. I and my co-workers have helped protect sensitives from them. I once thought we could find and protect all of them. We couldn't."
"You say, 'we' Trillion when you are one of them," said Mary gently.
"I know. I have been here for so long and so invloved with helping humans that I no longer feel as if I'm hanyar any longer."

"That's because in a way, you are one of us now. or at least I think so," said Mary. 
"I think our powers are growing and becoming clearer," said Dan. "I could sense you, Mary, your emotions, your fear, when they took you away."
"Yeah. We could almost track you because of that," said Jack.

"This will only help us all as things grow darker," said Trillion. "As for the plan, so far, you all managed to destroy one small alien base. That's important."

"It was two-"

"Actually just one. The wormhole you saw and were nearly pulled in through Dan was not destroyed. They can't be destroyed by fire. The building was burned but the wormhole remains, mostly likely they collapsed it and moved it to another location."

"I guess we gave the bastard the opening salvo then," said Jack. They all grinned.

"You did and I'm proud but don't be too confident. I think you all should lay low for a little while. I'm sure they're looking for the cause of this problem. It wouldn't be the first time humans have detected and ruined their plans," said Trillion. "In the confusion of two important places being targeted they'll be worried that they can't detect you. Yet."

"Then this should be a tactic we use again? Attack and lay low?" Asked Jack. Trillion nodded.

"If we use guerrilla-style tactics it needs to be when we have more power on our side. This time was a fluke. It won't happen again this easily. We've got to hone this down. But I have an idea," said Dan.

"And what's that?" Asked Mary.

"Some techniques I learned from Trillion. We need to have another meeting next week here. We need to be able to sense and know for certainty where the other places are, the other machines, and take them all out. And also," he said grabbing a piece of paper with a red marker and drawing a symbol on it and showing it to the others. "We need to find out what this means." It was the symbol of the ringed planet. Mary saw the little bookstore owner shift nervously in his seat.
"I can't imagine why a bank vault would have a sign like that and I don't know of any logos of companies with that particular symbol." 
"Let me see the symbol up close," said Jack, reaching for the slip of paper. "Maybe I can do some research on it after we leave here tonight."
"Research? How?" Asked Mary.
"Trillion said they've been here for a long time, right? There must be something out there that can shed some light on this. I have some interesting underground connections. Maybe they can turn up something?"
"Just be careful that you aren't asking one of The Others in disguise. I know that you guys can detect them now, but there just may be a few that are much harder to detect in the traditional way. That's what I'm trying to work out now. Besides that, remember, some red-shifters may be human. Only part human because of trans-resurrection or because they have no human feeling for others." This made Mary perk up.
"Hey, I can handle this," said Jack, grinning.
"I know you can. Just. . .be careful," warned Trillion.
"If I may, Jack, I have something to show you that you might find very interesting. I'd like to show you before you leave here tonight." Andrew turned to Dan. "Dan, do you remember the old book I showed you?" Dan's eyes got wide.
"Oh, yes!" Andrew glanced at Mary.
"Mary, you'll want to see this too, so stay awhile longer." They were all buzzing with even more excitement now. It seemed things were coalescing around some important paths to answers.

Mary rubbed her hair absently.As fearful as she was, she felt something awakening in her. She'd nearly crossed the threshold into a kind of death. She was able to study the inside of that threshold before being rescued. The experience left her wanting to know what the symbols and the other. . .things she'd seen in the pool, were.She would go home and ponder what she saw to make sense of it. There had to be a pattern here. Perhaps if they could decipher the pattern, they could defeat The Others. The symbols and characters had to mean something. Perhaps they were directions on how to build one? What if they could build one? It seemed crazy to even imagine such things. But she'd faced death and lived. They all did. She felt bonded to them more than she had before. And brave, an emotion she had never experienced before. She smiled.

"What is it, Mary?" Asked Dan. She shook her head.
"Nothing. I'm just ready for what's coming. I'm ready to fight."
"So we all are," said Jack.
"Dan, I'd like to study the hotspot map you created at your place again," she said. Andrew turned to Trillion.
"What are you going to do until the next meeting?"
"I have other sensitives that I've rescued out of the darkness, to train."

Andrew pressed his hands against his knees, bewildered. He had a hotspot of ragtag avengers assembling under his own roof. How long before they got found out? And what would happen to them all? He feared to think on it but he'd had some inkling of what he was getting himself into when he forged an alliance with the mysterious Trillion. Being near such special people helped him to feel he was adding something important to the cause. And he was. In fact, there was one thing he and Trillion were keeping in store for later that would be sorely needed one day. What did I get myself into? he thought, fiddling around in his apron pocket for the old skeleton key.
"Before I get the book, anybody for more bad coffee?"

My Dearest Magdalene

Stardate: May 1, 3999

My dearest Magdalene,

It is with both great excitement and trepidation that I am writing to you. The hunt for the Starry Lathe has fallen apart. Once we were all intrepid adventures voyaging across the inner arm of the Milky Way on our wild, hot-blooded chase. Now, well, I fear to reveal all that has happened as it would be a great humiliation for me and my men. It has made me rethink my life. Certainly not with you. If anything, I am even more eager to be with you than ever before. So, I am coming to you. Look for me in the stars each night before you go to sleep. One day I will be with you.

As for my trepidation. The ship I have bought a ticket on to journey back is in bad working order and I am so very far away. The engines are weak and are going out and when they shall be fixed the captain cannot say, for he is of poor means and little influence. He is not a captain in any official capacity but a civilian with a few ships and a means to make a little money carting people here and there. Or did have the means. Anyway, we are stranded, I hate to say it, on a lonely star port in the middle of nowhere. Though the heavens are beautiful as always, none so beautiful as the soft shape of your face and the stars in your dark eyes. Until I see you again, my dearest Magdalene. I long to be with you again.

Love,
R. Vaughn

New sci-fi romance serial: You Drop Stardust

The first ten episodes of the blueshifters is finished and will soon be available in ebook form for $0.99. For the next month I will be introducing a new serial to readers of the blog, a romantic science fiction serial called You Drop Stardust. If you've ever read the Griffin and Sabine series by Nick Bantock then you might like this new serial. This will be more of a flash serial and the story will unfold in the form of letters - or in this futuristic case, ship log posts and electronic messages.

I hope you have enjoyed the blueshifters, and part 2 of that serial will start in the winter. Also, take a look at my official publishing website, www.epistlepublishing.com for more stories from me. So, stay tuned. . . .

An Introduction

Hello folks! This is Victoria and this is a new blog I'm developing for my short fiction. Look at it as a place for continuous - or serial - speculative fiction, flash fiction pieces and vignettes of scenes and poetry. A place for adventure, marvels and wonderment in science fiction and fantasy stories and anything that travails the path in between the two.

I do hope in the future to open the blog up for story submissions. It won't be this year but I will keep that desire in mind. Until then, I look forward to the solo ride and I hope that you will too.