Divergence of Evolution

Forward

It has been proposed by some forward thinkers that the reason scientists have not found the "missing link" between the more ape-like humanoids of the distant past and modern man is because there isn’t one. They propose that the jump may have occurred when an alien race genetically manipulated one or more of Earth’s prehistoric hominid races into what are known as today’s modern homo sapiens. Because the temperature and environments of Earth were not well suited to their anatomic makeup, their intention was to create a slave race that would be intelligent enough to mine, plant, and serve their every need. That early man would have inevitably believed that these beings were gods only supported their cause. Unfortunately for the alien race of planet seeders, the cold hard truth that ’playing God’ does not make you God is evident by their mistake.

They made us just a little bit too smart.

Prologue

Kail Ga’Ratkh peered out from the bridge of his ship at the chaos below. It was gone. All of it. Someone must be held accountable. The humans and their ability to think and reproduce so quickly and after only a few years of life had presented a perfect solution to their problems. Now it was their downfall. Taq Ga’Chuk entered the bridge just in time to hear Kail screech in anger. "What are your orders, Ga’Ratkh?" "We will leave them, for now." Ga’Ratkh spit out the words, as he sat to calm himself. "We will regroup and destroy this tiny inhospitable planet, but if we do not return home now, we may die. Even if we survive the rebellion, the heat will finish us before the next pass." Ga’Chuk was Ga’Ratkh’s military leader and adviser. Leaving the humans to their own devices seemed a mistake in his eyes. "How long are we to let them breed, Ga’Ratkh? They are smarter than we originally thought. They will create a civilization to rival our own if not culled periodically." Ga’Ratkh’s body straightened to his full ten feet of height. The look he gave Ga’Chuk seemed to melt his cold steel armor. "We will need some time to prepare; we will allow them their freedom for a time. Their lives are short, and their memories even shorter. We will return on the third revolution, and they will scarcely remember us, even as legend. We will reclaim our mines and start fresh. We have enough reserve ore now to build an armada." Ga’Ratkh walked calmly over to the docking controls and released them. "Our brothers have all returned. Full lift!" Below the humans were celebrating. Even over the ship’s engines, Ga’Ratkh thought he could hear their joyous cries, and rage boiled his cold blood. They will have covered the planet by the time we return, but no matter. "Inform me when we are nearing Nibiru," he said as he left the bridge and retired to his chambers without another word.

Chapter 1

Earth

Casandra Collins’ world was full of strange things by choice, but this was different. She stood and stared out of the window of her country cottage at the sky. It was a spacecraft of some kind, she thought. Had to be. Just moments ago she had witnessed, vaguely, just out of the corner of her eye, something silver descending from the heavens. After much second guessing, she had finally made up her mind that it couldn’t be anything else. It moved too slow to be falling, and it was too bright to be natural. It was dusk and her stew was almost ready, yet she found herself preparing to venture out in search of new friends from outer space.

She was the curious type, alone in her musings. At least no one in Halmont shared her curiosity, and Halmont had basically been her entire world since childhood. Even her best of friends had on numerous occasions scolded her for being so adventurous.

"Where d’you think you’re going?" Hally’s voice sounded from the adjoining room where she sat at her loom working on what she assumed the two of them would be wearing during the coming winter.

"I think I’m going where I plan on going." "Humph. Must you take everything so literally?" "I just want to see what that was I saw out the window. I’ll be back in a minute." Casandra called back. "Dinner is still on the fire."

"Yes, I know, being that I put it there. Don’t guess you need a chaperone, huh?" Hally said, with more than a hint of sarcasm.

"I’ll be fine." Casandra had been known to wander and Hally Jordan had made it her life’s goal to make sure Cassandra’s curious nature was kept in check. After all, what would the townspeople think? A girl bounding off chasing rainbows was one thing, but an adult doing so just wasn’t appropriate.

Casandra had lived with her friend Hally ever since the War had ended almost ten years ago. People seldom spoke of it anymore, but she found it difficult to forget. As a child, she rarely knew stability. Her parents were both off defending the hemisphere somewhere, and she was moved from place to place with many of the other children. Food

wasn’t as scarce as the adults acted like it was, at least in the places she had been, but she knew that in the larger cities it was a different matter.

She didn’t really know much about the War, other than her parents had disappeared in it, and her side of earth won. She didn’t know who caused it, what it was over, or where it was fought. She didn’t even really know who was involved. People she interrogated seemed to basically ignore the questions. All she knew was what what she learned in classes, and since the war, there had been precious few of those. Apparently the government had decided it was best for people to remain ignorant, and people were content to do so. Most of them, at least.

Luna

"The Second Lunar Colony flourished beyond anyone’s wildest expectations – if not exactly in the way people expected. Although it was called the second colony, the first was really more akin to the international space station years ago, meaning it had no permanent inhabitants, and lasted only a couple decades. Luna Circa was founded at the site of the first lunar expedition, as it was convenient to use some of the structure already established. Although a surprising number of people from all walks of life were eager to join us here for the foundation of human kind’s first permanent off- world colony, relatively few were permitted to come. The Chosen few had to not only be perfectly healthy themselves, but were also required to have a healthy lineage, and a compatible genetic makeup with the rest of the expedition for the insurance of future generations."

"You know, I’m not convinced that whomever wrote this had all their facts straight. Remind me again why I’m reading this aloud." Jubal’s questioning statement was to be expected, and was right down his personality highway. ’Question everything’ was his primary objective, which pleased his instructor greatly.

"I merely wanted to see the image you’d paint." In addition to being his teacher, Kara was Jubal’s mentor of sorts. This was the way of the Luna Humane. Education was a reflection of middle age society. The Luna Humane took the best parts of everything Earth ever knew and made it their own, all

the way from government offices to door handles (not that there were many of those around).

The lunar cycle is approximately 29.53 days on Earth. Since the same side of the moon always faces earth, the length of a day is the also about 29.53 days. This being a slight problem, the Luna devised a new table of time measurement. They moved to a 25 hour day, which is closer to what the body will naturally do if the time of day remains unknown. Artificial gravity was yet to be invented without using motion, so their bodies hadn’t the need for their (original)current bone and muscle mass. They grew taller and thinner as generations passed, until the average male human on the moon was about 7.5 feet and a mere 110 pounds.

Children spent childhood with their parents. Once they were old enough for school, they were taught in a classroom for 36 cycles (roughly 35 months), then by their parents or in small groups for 12 more. After this it was 36 cycles in various hands on environments or until they were ready to move into doing almost solely the things at which they were best and enjoyed the most – which usually were the same. This was around the age 11-13. From then on they would work with a mentor until they were ready to begin their trade.

Since the moon is a different environment than earth, with a different infrastructure, there were of course different needs. Some people worked on creation, repair and maintenance of automated machinery that grew their food and provided electricity, some were mentors in their field or teachers, and others handled the day to day scheduling for life on the lunar surface.

Jubal was learning the combined histories of Earth, Luna, and Mars in the hope to one day be a representative of an interplanetary committee (currently named Tri That Again – Yes, the humor abounds) that had been reformed in recent years with the agenda of once again uniting the home planet and the two colonies. It was not going well. The mindsets of the three places had become entirely different, as was only natural. After all, they all had completely different needs. Still, further expansion and exploration depended on cooperation, and Jubal, Kara, and many others were intent on success.

"You know this building is suppose to have secret labs and things in it?" Jubal was always reading blogs and message boards looking for anything unusual that the government might be up to.

"Really now, Jubal. Let’s keep with the agenda just this once, please." Kara had had several apprentices before Jubal, and found they all had some interest in conspiracy theory. Kids always loved that stuff. Especially the good ones, and Jubal was the best she had ever met.

Mars

Harkin stared out at the sandstorm through the window of his surface cubicle. He was suppose to be working on new modifications for his visual spectrometer, but found himself watching the red sand swirls instead. It never seemed to stop. The endless mechanical adjustments or the wind. He swore silently. He’d rip the thing off it wasn’t directly linked to his optic nerves. Harkin Beaumont was seen as an ornery and old fashioned gentleman, and although he blindly opposed change for no good reason, his word was taken as gospel throughout the territory.

Today, he was getting ready for a press conference, no doubt introducing some new innovation or gadget that would get an instant vote of "no" from him. Although he was on the technology board, his vote mattered very little. He knew he was elected mainly for his ability to find counterpoints where other members seldom could, and although his points were rarely considered with any weight, he was glad that the people knew it was best to at least discover and consider them. This position, although not his work of choice, was at least rewarding in its own right.

As he left his home for the lower levels where most of the government offices were held, he had the sudden urge to double check and make sure everything was turned off that could be turned off, which was silly, since everything turned itself off that needed it in this day and age.

As he walked the halls towards his meeting, he passed several uniformed attendants and scientists, all buzzing about looking busy. He wondered what might be going on. The halls were busier than usual.

Chapter 2

Casandra made it to the wreck site in just fifteen minutes or so... that meant the craft had to be smaller than she had initially imagined it to be. No one else was around, and the dust, steam, and smoke made it hard to see. What she could see however, caught her off guard. There was movement – a man - or maybe a robot – kind of crawling with difficulty around the decimated ship.

"Hello?" She mumbled, a little unsure of herself. The robot stopped its strained movement suddenly, obviously having heard her but not having discerned her voice as a greeting.

"Are you ok?" Cassandra said, this time with a little more resolve. It pulled itself up to its knees slowly and turned slightly to face her.

"Yes. Hello. Good evening," the robot replied, in a voice that was a little too human, but very strained. "I am Criss Ardon."

"Are you... from... Earth?" Cassandra was more than dumbfounded. "No... I can barely... move. Gravity is... too strong. You have a harness?"

"A harness for what?" Cassandra wasn’t sure about anything at this moment.

Criss had a puzzled look on his face. "An anti-gravity harness, so I can walk." He had lain back down to make it easier to speak.

"Oh. Oh! Oh, no. Nothing like that around here." Cassandra paused, not sure if her next question would be met with animosity. "Are you... an android?"

"What?" Criss couldn’t suppress a chuckle. "No, of course not. I’m human, just like you. Well, maybe not just like you. Apparently I have a few more mechanical augmentations, but my brain is still organic. Mostly."

"Um. Wow, you mean that stuff is like, permanent?" "Most definitely. Space travel is too taxing for a normal human body to cope with on a regular basis. At least, in a ship like this it is." He lazily indicated the scrap heap next to him. "Is there anything around that you could get for me that would allow me to move about?" Criss was beginning to wonder if this would be his final resting place, even though he didn’t seem be hurt anywhere.

"I’m sure I can find a wagon or something in town," Cassandra mused. "But where are you trying to go?"

"Optimally, somewhere where I could use a transmitter, or get a power source for mine. I need to inform the council about the... setback."

"Well for now, why don’t I pull you back to my house some kinda way and get you some food and sleep."

"I suppose that would be a good start. Thank you. What was your name then?"

"Cassandra. Cassandra Collins. You can call me Cassie, like everyone else if you want." With that she ran off to find something to transport her guest back to town.

The Luna developed their minds far above and beyond the level that humans on earth ever had. There was little gravity there, so more blood was present in the brain at all times. No advantage is without its drawbacks though. Because of the lack of gravity, the heart and muscles didn’t have as much work to do, so the people got physically weaker as generations passed. This was beginning to show through Jubal’s discontent remarks as they walked through the Central Arbiter’s courtyard.

The Arbiter was kind of like king, but without total control of his people. He was provided with a beautiful living quarters, complete with traditional kitchen and the courtyard or garden area which contained an extensive variety of plants from every continent of Earth, along with many that had been genetically designed by man. Most were ornamental but there were a great many herbs and fruit and vegetable producing varieties as well. These were the focus of Kara and Jubal’s attention today.

Kara thought it was a good idea for anyone to know the basics of plant life, and though Jubal didn’t enjoy this exercise, and could argue that no plants grew wild on Luna anyway, he couldn’t disagree that being able to pick out plants and knowing their attributes was quite helpful in many situations. Also there was always the chance however small, that an expedition to Earth would go wrong, and depending on the degree of deterioration of the expedition, it was possible he and his entire party could be stranded.

Although such an expedition was not even in the planning stages at this point, everyone assumed that someday it would come. After all, it would be impossible to live somewhere your entire life without eventually getting to know your neighbors.

The only problem with such a voyage was gravity. Earthlings could easily visit Luna, however unwilling they were to do so, but Luna Humana could not even survive on Earth. Merely attempting to stand up could easily crush all the bones in their bodies. They could barely manage on Mars, where their weight was only about double what it normally was on Luna.

"Go ahead to the fruit trees if you like," Kara said. "I need to run inside for a moment."

Jubal didn’t need prodding. He loved fruit, and he knew that apples would be close enough to ripe.

"Thanks!" He rounded the corner and headed straight down the center of a row of apple trees. He reached up and picked one from one of the trees and as he took a bite he had an idea. He backtracked and looked down the central walkway just in time to see his mentor enter the huge double doors that graced the front entrance of the palace.

There is no such thing as anti-gravity. The best we can do is create more gravity and direct it so that the force is exactly opposed to the gravity that exists at that point in space, one effectively canceling out the other, so long as neither is too great. For very high gravitational forces, creating so much opposing gravity only serves to rip apart whatever is caught in between the two forces.

A favorite among Mars’ tech was an invention that allowed them to artificially reduce gravity in a field was wide enough for a human, and it was portable enough that a person could push it around. It had to be above the area on which it was acting, like an umbrella. This was essentially an anti-gravity harness.

There had been recent talks between the Lunar and Martian governments about technology trading and things were going quite well. Luna in turn agreed to start a mental training program on Mars, but was insistent that it may take several generations for it to truly be beneficial. As much like the old Earth governments as the Martian counterparts

were, they seemed to understand this point and were willing to part with many useful techs now in exchange. The Martian people believed in a free exchange of information, and so their government was forced to comply to some degree. After all, it’s not like there was a war or any inkling of one to come.

The farthest removed of all earth colonies, Mars had incorporated technology as deeply into their daily lives as one could while still be considered alive. Sleeping was a thing of the past. Breathing was unnecessary. Gene splicing and mechanical augmentation were as commonplace as unnatural hair colors.

One thing about a war between neighboring planets is, it’s fairly easy to see it coming. Humankind may have populated its moon and a nearby planet, but it was nowhere near establishing an effective means of faster than light travel. True, some scientists in some lab somewhere had created some types of particles that moved faster than light, and they had found a way to use these particles to communicate back and forth, but a phone call is a far cry from a spaceship. Consequently, any weapons aimed at another world would be detected in plenty time to respond. The fear of unexpected attack was all but extinct.

Harkin had arrived at the board meeting room a couple minutes before anyone else, as was his custom. He took his usual seat and waited. Finally the door opened, but the two men that walked in weren’t on the board.

"Harkin Beaumont?" one of the men asked, only as a formality. "Please come with us. The meeting has been canceled, and you are needed elsewhere."

Chapter 3

It was well after dark when Cassie finally returned with a horse drawn sled. Criss once again found himself unable to suppress a chuckle.

"What’s so funny?" Cassandra asked, feeling a little taken aback. "Forgive me," Criss mused. "Titanium rocket ship, meet horse drawn carriage."

"Oh... Yes, I see." Cassandra found herself smiling too.

As Criss fought his way onto the sled, Cassie couldn’t help but stick her head into the airlock of the ship.

"Feel free." made Cassie jump. "The ship is technically property of Mars One, but I’ve been using it now for a year to try to contact Earth. Flying around sending out messages and refueling on Luna. No one ever responds though."

"That’s probably because no one is listening." Earth’s eyes had been facing inward since the war. "I’m sure we still have some people here scanning the skies in case of attack, but as far as chatting with the neighbors is concerned, no."

"Yes, I’d reached that conclusion myself, though I was under instruction not to take no for an answer." Criss had loaded himself onto the sled with a little help.

"Okay, well, back to Halmont we go!" Cassie readjusted the horse’s sled just before grabbing the reigns. Hally met Cassie at the door with a worried look on her face. "Where have you been all this time?"

Cassie was more than a little excited by everything that was happening, but she was trying hard to conceal it, especially from her roommate Hally, so instead of jumping up and down and telling her about the extraterrestrial visitor, she just said "Sorry. This is Criss. He was hurt in the ship wreck, so it’s not like I could just leave him there."

"That’s a... hello?" Hally could have been on another planet herself right now, from how awkward she looked.

"No, sorry, not a hello. You must be Hally. I’m Criss Ardon. Nice to meet you. Please forgive me for not getting up."

"Oh! It’s a... I mean he’s a... well... hello..." Hally repeated unintentionally.

"I promise you, I’m really not a hello." Criss couldn’t suppress his amusement.

"I mean, hello Criss. I’m Hally," finally came out, after she regained a little composure. "Nice to meet you too, though obviously I’m a little surprised!"

"Oh don’t be embarrassed. I’m sure I look a little abnormal considering what I know of Earth."

"Well, yes, you could say that. We barely use technology down here anymore ya know. Much less on our bodies..." Hally’s expression was

somewhere in between terror and curiosity. "So... I guess you’re going to need a place to stay for a while?"

Criss looked up at Hally, suddenly realizing how long ’a while’ was likely going to be. "Well, I’ll be working on my ship day in and out once I’m able. Once it’s semi-orderly I can live in it quite comfortably. I’ve already been living in her for several months anyway. However, you’re right. It will probably be a few months before we get to that point."

"You’re more than welcome at our house, as long as you comply with one request!" Cassie couldn’t have been more excited. The twinkle in Cassie’s eyes was so obvious that Hally rolled hers. "I’ll teach you everything you need to know to live on Earth, and you teach me everything I can grasp about Mars, and that ship back there!"

"Oh, you have yourself a deal young lady. I’ll be needing some help repairing her anyway. If you’re up to the task, that is." Criss’ half smile showed he knew she was.

Hally broke in, tired of what was about to take place around her house already. "Right now lets just get inside and make sure he isn’t bleeding or anything, and eat. That okay with everybody?"

Jubal followed Kara through several corridors, wondering what she could be involved in now. Kara was quite political, and more than a little secretive. Jubal had known about several government related covert ops in which Kara had been involved in the past. Not that she was a bad person or anything. All the stuff Jubal had found seemed to be as if she was acting for the greater good, as they say. But secret government agendas usually had more than one side.

Jubal had to duck into a side room to avoid security. As he watched, the two guards came down the hallway towards him and stopped right outside the room he was hiding in. Great, now what? Jubal backed away from the door, but they never came inside. Were they guarding this room? What could be in here? As he looked around and his eyes adjusted to the dark, he could see... nothing. Except a bunch of furniture or something covered in white sheets. He tiptoed back to the door and opened it just a crack. They were still there! There must be something in here. Why else would they be standing guard outside the door? And why were they gone in the first place if they were suppose to

be guarding? Oh well. If he was stuck here anyway, may as well see what all this was about.

Jubal walked to the center of the room and pulled back one of the white sheets. It wasn’t furniture at all. It looked like some kind of control panel, but it didn’t seem to be Lunar. It was very strange and alien, all angles and buttons and flashing lights. Well... he assumed they would be flashing if it was on. Not at all sleek and sophisticated looking like the technology he was use to seeing around Luna. He decided it must be Martian because he knew enough to know Earth had very little technology these days, but what would it be doing here and what was it? His thoughts returned to the guards outside the door. How was he going to get out of this? He sat down on a metallic platform in the center of the room, put his head in his hands, and couldn’t help but think of home.

"Is that your living quarters?" one of the guards asked the other. "No, I just saw it too, though!" the other exclaimed. "I didn’t think there was anyone else around!"

Oh no. No, no, no, no! What now? Jubal was telepathic, as were many on Luna, and he had just projected a view of his place to anyone within ten meters or so... which meant the guards outside the door just got a minds-eye view of his apartment... and now they are going to want to know who just projected it.

No one really knew – scientifically speaking – why or how Luna developed the mental abilities they now have. The predominating theory is that the lack of gravity on the moon allowed the blood in the human body to flow more unhindered, thus allowing more neuron firing in the brain, and hence more brain activity. Generations later, many of the Luna have developed many different mind and brainwave based abilities such as telekinesis, telepathy, and many others. Telepathy being the simplest of all these abilities, especially when coupled with being able to read body language, almost everyone on Luna is able to project at least to a small degree, and at least half the population can project well enough that speaking is almost completely unnecessary.

In order to project a thought, which could be a sentence, just like one would normally speak, or a series of images, or even abstracts and combinations of ideas, all that is required is approximately the same amount of effort as speaking, so there is no danger of another person

’reading your mind,’ so to speak. That is, unless you are young and still getting the hang of it.

Jubal groaned almost audibly when he realized what he had just done, but just then there was an odd tingling sensation all over his body for just an instant, and when he lifted his head, he was caught completely off guard.

Harkin found himself walking in between the two secretive men down even deeper into the planet. Deeper than he was allowed to go, farther than he had ever been. Finally, the entourage arrived at a Speed Lift. The two men turned to Harkin. "You are to continue down to the lab below," the one with the third arm said. Harkin hated these sorts of augmentations. They made humans look... well... not human. "And what will I find once I arrive?" Harkin wondered aloud.

He received no reply, which was fine because he didn’t expect they knew the answer anyway. Harkin stepped onto the lift and sped downwards. He looked up as soon as the doors opened, and was greeted by half the tech board. "Why is everyone down here instead of in the board room where we usually meet?"

At first no one answered, but finally one of his best friends stepped forward and replied. "Harkin, something has happened on Luna. Something... incredible." Naro Wilkins was grinning uncontrollably. Naro had worked alongside Harkin for as long as either of them could remember. They had been childhood friends, and had such similar interests that they ended up on project after project together. Right now, Naro’s smile told Harkin that one of their old projects was about to be investigated again.

"Which one, Naro?" Harkin asked. "The Transport. It was activated." "The Transport? Are you sure? No one could ever get it to do anything right!" Harkin exclaimed.

"Well, they have now," Naro retorted, "But we don’t know anything else. Just that it was activated, and apparently it worked!"

"So what are we to do now?" Harkin wondered. "We’d have to go to Luna..."

"Yes! That’s what we’re going to do. You and I are going to Luna!" Naro’s excitement was contagious.

"Well, I suppose I’d better pack a few things." Harkin couldn’t believe he was just going along with this.

"No need. Everything we need has already been loaded onto the lifeboat."

"Now? We’re leaving now?" Harkin inquired. "What’s the big rush?" "Mr. Beaumont, I don’t think I’ll even grace that question with a response." Naro and Harkin hadn’t spent much time together lately, but when they did it was just like back in the old days. Naro and Harkin were both in their eighties, which by Earth standards would be quite old, but with the help of Mars’ tech and gene manipulation techniques, barring the occasional medical oddity, they were still considered in their prime. The two of them had worked on many inventions together, sometimes on their own, and sometimes on larger teams, depending on the size of the project.

This one was a big one. The teleportation system was something they had worked on with a reasonably large team, and even included a couple Luna scientists, but even though the logic and science seemed sound, it never worked properly. The prototype has been collecting dust someplace on Luna for over a decade now. They had had to work on Luna to include the Lunar science officers, because of this discomfort of the heavier gravity of Mars. Sure, they could use a anti-grav harness, but it’s a little impractical to keep one in use twenty-five hours a day.

So now, they were boarding a lifeboat, which would take them directly to a smaller orbiting ship, which would in turn take them to Luna.

Chapter 4

"You know, it’s amazing how much you miss food when you’re up there." Criss said in between mouthfuls of the stew Hally had prepared. "And after a while on board a ship, you don’t even realize you miss it until you get back landside.

"I’m sure I wouldn’t be suited for what you do." Hally’s tone was an odd mix of disapproval for everything Criss represented and elation for all the praise her meal was receiving. Cassie stifled a laugh, but couldn’t keep the smile off her face. She knew her roomie too well.

"Oh, come on Hally. Don’t you think it’s exciting? I’d love to go up there!" Cassie couldn’t help egging Hally on just a little bit, for which she received a look half between terror and shut up.

"Well I really would. Maybe once our little project is done you can show me the ropes, Criss." Cassie said.

Criss loved Cassie’s enthusiasm, but he didn’t want to disappoint her. "Once we get communication up, we’ll probably get some help, if they can get here fast enough. If that happens, I can’t promise anything, because they’ll more or less take over. However, if we finish before the Mars retrieval team gets here... well, what they don’t know won’t hurt them, will it?"

Cassie risked a glance in Hally’s direction, complete with that ’I can’t wait’ smile of an eight year old girl on Christmas morning. Hally expression was less than enthusiastic.

"Tomorrow, then." said Cassie. "Wait just a minute, young lady! What about, well, everything else?" Hally exclaimed.

"I’m sure mundane things can happen without me around." Cassie said. "Besides, when will I ever get another chance like this?" "Well, don’t expect me to do your chores for you." Hally complained.

"Dammit, Jubal!" Kara screamed mentally. "Where have you gotten off to this time?"

After a rather extensive search of the grounds, she had come to the conclusion that was obvious. He was not here. But where did he go? None of the palace personnel had seen him leave.

Finally, Kara got an up-link. It was Jubal. "Jubal, where the hell did you go?" Kara was perhaps, a bit agitated Jubal thought, so he started out on the defensive. "Hey, I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened, but... I’m at home."

"Home? What? No really where are you?" "Really, I’m at home. Yeah, I’m just as curious as you. More so, I’m sure."

"Well just stay there then. You can tell me about it when I get there.. in a couple hours. And you’re claiming you got there in less than thirty minutes, huh?"

"Actually, I got here more or less instantly, from what I can tell." "Instantly..." "Yeah, that’s what I said." Kara left the palace grounds and boarded the nearest tube. ’The tube’ was a means of travel adapted from an old system used on earth for a short time. The limits of Earth’s atmosphere were not relevant here on Luna, so the system was much easier to implement. Basically it involved a hollow vacuum tube with a car inside, which was propelled by electromagnets. Because there was no chance of colliding with anything inside the tube, it could move at incredible speeds. Kara arrived at her destination, all the way on the other side of Luna, in under an hour. From there she had to travel on foot. She arrived to find Jubal researching something at his data center.

"Jubal, what the hell?" Kara was not usually given to such exclamations, and Jubal didn’t like it when it happened. It was bad news for him.

"I’m just trying to figure out what happened, but I can’t find anything. Anything! I thought we had freedom of information here?"

"We do." "Well, I guess I’ll just tell you everything." Jubal related to Kara everything that had happened since she had left him in the garden. "And what’s more, I know what time it was when I was there, and what time it was when I got here, because the first thing I thought to do was check to see if I had lost time."

"Hmm. Well, at least you kept your wits about you." "I swear, if I didn’t know better, I’d say I was teleported." Kara’s expression was a total blank.

"Wait a minute. Teleporters don’t really exist, do they?" Jubal demanded.

Well, I don’t really know how to answer that question.” Jubal squinted. “How about just answering truthfully?”

“Not as easy as it sounds, Jubal.” Kara sighed, resigning herself to a lengthy conversation. “And the correct terminology is teleport, or teleportation - not teleporters.”

Jubal retorted with a blank stare. “Yes, of course. That’s the most important thing here - my grammar.”

Kara was attempting to regain some control so as to lead the conversation, but seemed to still be losing ground. It would be much easier to explain were she not constantly inundated with questions she knew she would eventually answer provided Jubal could contain his excitement and impatience. “You are still my student, are you not?”

Even a short hop in space, crammed into more than close quarters with several other people, was generally unpleasant. It took quite a toll on the patience of those involved, and even the best of friends can be on the verge of homicide if precautions aren’t taken and the participants are not prepared.

Harkin and his companions however were old timers and quite use to it by now. They spent most of the trip in silence or sleeping or contemplating their plan of action once they arrived. Even so, they still had ample time to discuss every little detail of what needed to be done on Luna once they arrived.

When they were within a couple days of Luna, Harkin noticed something on the transmitter readout. “Naro, what is this?”

“How should I know? You noticed it.” Typical reply for Naro. “I assume it’s a message, but from whom?” Harkin thought aloud as he adjusted dials and attempted to clean up and amplify the message they were receiving. “Here we go. Wonder who it could be?”

“Just play it already!” Naro said, interrupting the first few words of the message that Harkin had already started.

“...Ardon, an Earth observer. I have crash landed on Earth, and am unable to repair my ship. Requesting evacuation or repair team at your convenience. Repeat. My name is Criss Ardon, an Earth...” Harkin stopped the recording.

Harkin and Naro stared at each other for a moment, but Nero spoke up first, as usual. “An Earth Observer? I didn’t know we had anyone out trying to contact Earth. I assume that’s what he means.”

“Yes, I would think so. And neither did I, but why would we?” Harkin said.

“True. So what do we do with this? It certainly isn’t reaching Mars, considering how scrambled it is even at this short distance. They might pick it up on Luna, but I doubt they even monitor this frequency.”

“You are probably correct, on both accounts.” Harkin weighed in. “I’m sure the best thing to do would be to send it on home. We could try to talk to him. We’re close enough that the signal shouldn’t take more than a minute or so to reach him.”

“Ugh!” Just the response Harkin expected from Naro. “You might have the patience for that, but I don’t. That’s over two minutes between the time we say something and when the reply comes!”

“You have something else to do?” “Fair point, but it’s still going to keep me on edge for the rest of the trip. I’ll be constantly waiting for replies! I’ll end up counting the seconds until the next one comes! You know I’m compulsive like that!” Naro sputtered.

“You’ve always survived before.” “I swear, the next project we work on has to be quent communication. We already have a name – the hard part’s over!”

Harkin looked up. “We’re a lot farther along than just a name. I knew there was something I hadn’t told you. I’ve been working on it for the past year or so. In my spare time at first, then I was assigned a team about six months ago. In fact, I’d say we’re at ninety percent.”

“What!?” “Calm down.” “How!?” “Don’t know, don’t care, just do it.” “Why haven’t you said anything?” Naro wasn’t angry, exactly, but he wasn’t happy either. “We started on that years ago!”

“We got sidetracked. I just picked up where we left off. You were busy with thermal vents and other stuff.” “Well, let me join your team!” “Too late now. Like I said, ninety percent. You wouldn’t be caught up by the time we finish.”

“At least put my name on the patient with you and your team! I deserve that much.”

Harkin smiled, “You do, and I was going to do that anyway. You know that.”

“I’m going to send a message to Criss now.” Harkin had already calculated the coordinates for a reply.

“Oh, alright,” Naro fiddled with the navicom, busying himself with checking their flight trajectory and distance.

“This is Harkin Beaumont aboard the Mars lifeboat Summer Dunes. We are en route to Luna, but have sent your message on to Mars. Your signal was very weak, it wouldn’t have reached Mars on it’s own, so we took the liberty of amplifying it and resending.”

Quent was a shorthand word for quantum entanglement. Quent communication was a method of communication developed to take advantage of the strange properties of entangled quarks.

If you smash two quarks together in a certain way, they become ’entangled.’ Once this happens, you can leave one quark on Mars, then take the other one anywhere in the universe, and they will always be in the same state - that is, if one is turned to face up, the other will do the same, at the same time (quarks don’t really have sides that can face certain ways, but that’s the best way to explain it). Therefore in theory, if you were to take one of the entangled quarks with you, you should be able to communicate instantly between any point in the universe and wherever you left the other quark. It’s kind of like two tin cans and a very, very long string.

Chapter 5

Cassandra was finding out that working on a spacecraft was not as fun as it sounded. Even after Criss had explained most of the fundamental systems, she felt like she had only scratched the surface. She was afraid to do anything by herself, because everything was so integrated and packed together. She just knew the first thing she touched would blow them to the moon.

“This ship doesn’t have a self destruct, does it?” Cassie asked. Criss laughed rather heartily, considering it wasn’t even easy for him to breathe. “No ship has a self destruct. It’s easy enough out there to blow yourself up on accident. Why add any extra ways?”

“Oh.” “Look, most of the systems are dead, and the ones that do have some life left in them don’t have enough to cook an egg. There’s nothing you can do to this ship any worse than I already did.” Criss gave her a reassuring smile. “Besides, you have to...”

Criss was interrupted by the beeping of the transmitter. “Oh! Looks like we got a response from someone already!” Criss exclaimed.

“That’s impossible though, isn’t it?” Cassie hurried over to take a look.

“Well, it’s impossible to have gotten a reply from Mars. The message hasn’t even gotten there yet. Someone on Luna or here on Earth may have picked it up though.”

“Not here, I wouldn’t think. I doubt anyone on Earth even could receive the signal, much less care enough to reply.”

“I’ve got an idea. Let’s just play the message and find out.” Criss joked.

“Okay, what do I do?” “Just hit the red one there.” Criss indicated a button. Cassie pressed it and Harkin Beaumont’s message came through the speaker in the console.