TERRA'S WAR: Preview

The story and all characters contIained in this preview © Mitch Benn, 2018

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First Edition – August 2018

Introduction

Hi...

So in 2011. I was approached by a sci-fi/fantasy publishing house and asked if I'd ever considered writing an SF novel; as it happened, I was already working on a kid-friendly SF story about a human infant, abducted from Earth by a well-intentioned alien who subsequently adopts her and raises her as his own child on his own planet. They liked the idea and we signed a two-book deal.

The first book, Terra, came out in the summer of 2013 and the sequel, Terra's World, in summer 2014. Both books were very enthusiastically reviewed (the first book in particular making it onto The Guardian's Top Ten SF list of 2013) but then, for reasons I've never really had adequately explained to me, the deal was not renewed to publish the third and final book.

This left me in a fairly impossible situation, as no publisher is going to want to sign a writer up to bring out the third book in a trilogy, and not many publishers are going to want to sign a writer up in order to RE-publish two books which have very recently been in print purely in order to then publish the third book.

I've spent the last three or four years trying to come up with a solution to this; at first, the answer seemed to be to write a completely unconnected novel, see if I could get that into print and, once re-established as a working author, then try to relaunch the Terra trilogy. So I spent about a year working on a YA future dystopia book which I then had to abandon as a movie was announced with more or less the same premise (although I've heard nothing about that movie since, so I may yet finish that book off one day).

After another year or so of similar false starts I decided that the thing to do would just be to finish the third Terra book and then try to get the whole trilogy out by whatever means available, paper or electronic.

At time of writing (July 2018) the book is NEARLY finished, and plans are indeed afoot (albeit at an early stage) to get all three books back into print in the next couple of years.

In the meantime, here is a preview: the "forethought", prologue and first five chapters.

I've very much enjoyed meeting all these characters again and I hope those of you who read the first two books will enjoy seeing them too.

Meanwhile, if you haven't read the first two books and want to get hold of them, contact me at mitchbenn@hotmail.com and we'll figure something out...

Thanks.

MB July 2018

FORETHOUGHT

What Goes Around

There are almost as many different names for it as there are civilisations in the universe.

Many of the planets in the Convocation know it simply as The Expansion, or whatever the nearest equivalent is in their own language. Some of the more idiosyncratic cultures know it by another name; the Chef Lords of the Hindegrontian Gastrocracy refer to it as The First Burp. The sport-oriented societies of Frast and Trincula Prime call it The Great Kick-Off.

And the newest - and, thus far, provisional - entrants into the society of worlds, the noisy, brutish Ymns of the until recently embargoed planet Rrth, have coined perhaps the silliest name of all. A name which reflects the violence and war which have dominated their culture since its inception. The Ymns call it "The Big Bang".

Whatever the name, there is more or less universal consensus that, at some point about 13.7 billion years ago, the universe went from being very very small to considerably bigger extremely rapidly, and has been expanding outwards ever since.

Despite the fact that the expansion of the universe shows no signs of slowing - indeed, it appears to be accelerating - many scientists postulate that at some point in the very distant future, the energy of that initial explosion will run out and the expansion will cease. At that moment, the most powerful force in the universe will not, to the disappointment of the poets of countless worlds, be love. It will be GRAVITY.

Every object in the cosmos will begin to attract (and be attracted to) every other object. The gaps between galaxies will shrink. Interstellar distances will shorten. The universe will begin to rush in upon itself. Some scientists believe that the universe will end as it began, compacted into a hyper-dense dot of matter and energy. A singularity.

One can only imagine the terror and despair any beings still alive would experience in those final times.

Some scientists have suggested that this contraction - the "Big Crunch", as those silly Ymn astrophysicists call it - could happen with such force that the universe would pass right THROUGH the singularity and explode once more. A new Big Bang, a new expansion, giving birth to a new universe. Every particle re-ordered, every atom rebuilt from scratch, leaving no trace whatsoever of the previous universe.

It's an interesting idea, but there is, of course, no way of knowing if this will actually happen.

Nor, for that matter, is there any way of knowing whether it's happened already.

~ o ~

PROLOGUE

Among the privileges enjoyed by members of the Morbis Guild, the most feared and respected society of thieves, assassins and mercenaries in the galaxy, was a range of training courses. Courses in various useful techniques, offered at extremely competitive rates, to those members who wished to expand their set of skills, both lethal and otherwise. Among the non-lethal ones was a spaceship engineering course. Mokorimo had never taken it; it felt like a waste of time - and a little undignified to him. Spaceship repairs and maintenance were the kind of things you paid lesser beings to carry out. He would now regret that decision for the rest of his life, but as he felt his ship's last ultralight thruster sputter and die, he reflected that at least this probably wouldn't involve regretting it for very long.

Mokorimo reached out a gloved paw and flicked his ship's visualiser to the reverse view. What WAS that thing?

It had been, for the main part, a straightforward assignment. Mokorimo had always preferred the thieving jobs to the killing jobs; he had no qualms about dispensing death when the situation required it, but unlike some of his Morbis brethren he didn't take any great pleasure in murder. He'd accepted the commission from Jethakka Taran Gast, the Guild leader, with excitement.

Robberies fell into two principal categories; the sneak in past the security systems and sneak off with the item before anyone knows you were there variety, and the in through the front door with all weapons blazing hand it over and nobody gets hurt variety. Fun though the latter kind of robbery could be, in the case of the First Icon of the House of Pamu Lopo, Mokorimo had opted for the discreet approach.

The icon, a holographic portrait of Pamu Gomo Lopo, the founder of the ruling noble house of the feudal planet Haba Ha-Baba, was, needless to say, priceless. As such, it was, needless to say, kept in full public view in the main atrium of the Pamu Lopo family palace on the island of Gaa. The icon was, after all, the source and symbol of the Pamu Lopos' unchallenged and unquestioned power over the various peoples of Haba Ha-Baba and, as such, it had to be somewhere that people could see it.

Mokorimo had joined a party of loyal Hababian pilgrims, his leonine features disguised by an optical camouflage field. The row of shuffling, supplicant tortoise-like creatures had filed through the halls of the Pamu Lopo palace and past the icon in its opaloid display case, bowing and genuflecting. No-one had counted them in, and no-one counted them back out again, so no-one noticed that one pilgrim fewer exited the palace than had entered.

Mokorimo waited for a good hour or so after closing time before making his move.

Opaloid was a hard substance, but it yielded to his atom blade like warm snurg butter. The alarm system was dampened by a localised inertia field. The hologram was suspended in a perilously thin sheet of calatite crystal; to touch it with his naked paw would have risked scratching or cracking it; Mokorimo chose instead to extract it carefully using a pair of precisely calibrated no-touch kinetic tongs; he lifted it from the opened case and inserted it delicately into a gravity-cushioned transportation box. The inertia field would be in operation until the early morning; by the time the dimwitted Hababian stewards realised anything was amiss, he would be many systems away, collecting his fee from the obscenely wealthy Ganoramangan prince who had commissioned the theft.

Or that had been the plan, in any case.

When his ship's proximity alert woke him from his contented slumber, Mokorimo's first thought was that the Hababians had somehow managed to identify him as the thief and track him through space. This seemed unlikely; he was sure he'd checked the icon for tracking devices, and besides, the Hababians didn't possess any craft fast enough to catch up with him. When his own ship's systems began to fail one by one, as if compelled, or somehow persuaded to do so by some external force, he concluded with a shiver that whoever was after him, it was not the Hababians.

Now, as he gazed at the visualiser in alarm and bewilderment, he decided it didn't matter who was coming for him. If he was going down today, he was going down like a Brother Agent of the Morbis Guild. He was going down fighting.

The ship - if in fact it was a ship - that had immobilised his own, now drew it back toward its prow with tendrils of invisible energy. Mokorimo had never seen anything like it; it was undeniably beautiful, with flowing, sweeping lines and a hull that seemed to be made from a single sheet of gleaming metal, but the sight of it filled him with dread.

With a barely perceptible jolt, the ships' hulls connected. Mokorimo knew that any boarders would enter via the rear airlock; he tried to lock and secure the hatches between the airlock and the flight deck but all his instruments were still frozen. He felt a small but noticeable drop in the ship's internal air pressure; they were through the airlock already. He still had time to secure the last hatch manually.

Mokorimo slammed the hatch shut and began to grapple with the locking mechanism. From beyond the hatch he heard the clatter of boots on metal deck plates. He grabbed his blast tube and took cover behind his pilot chair.

There was a moment's quiet, then the soft creaking of the hatch's locking mechanism releasing itself. Mokorimo swept his mane out of his eyes and took aim.

The hatch swung open. Two spacesuited intruders emerged. Mokorimo couldn't tell what species they were or what, if any, force or organisation they came from and he didn't care. He gave no verbal challenge or warning; he just opened fire.

His first blast caught the first boarder square in the chest. The figure rocked backward, then continued to walk slowly towards him. Mokorimo could see that the blast had damaged the suit - and, presumably, the individual within - but still both intruders approached, calmly, deliberately.

He fired again. The second blast hit the second intruder with the same accuracy and the same apparent lack of effect as the first. Mokorimo fired and fired again; the intruders marched heedlessly forward. One snatched the blast tube from his hands; the other seized him around the shoulders with a surprisingly gentle but, Mokorimo could tell, utterly immovable grip.

- Peace, pilgrim. We mean you no harm.

The voice came from behind the hatch. It was soft, soothing, and familiar. Who was that?

When the owner of the voice passed through the hatch, Mokorimo saw that it was literally the last person in the galaxy that he'd expected to see.

- You? he growled in astonishment.

The newcomer just smiled serenely, golden eyes twinkling.

- There's nothing to fear, said the soft voice. There will never be anything to fear, ever again.

The smiling face drew nearer. Mokorimo struggled.

The voice whispered in his ear. Four simple words.

Mokorimo stopped struggling.

He smiled.

Of course, thought Mokorimo. It was all so obvious.

The three intruders walked calmly back through the hatch, and Mokorimo went smilingly with them.

The ships detached. The sleek silver vessel turned, powered up its engines and was gone.

Mokorimo's ship, still containing the priceless icon of Pamu Gomo Lopo, drifted away into deep space.

~ o ~

1.1

"Ready?" asked Terra.

"Hang on," said Billy.

Billy stuffed his earphones into his ears, fumbled in his pocket for his phone, started up the music app and selected track one of Appetite For Destruction.

As the chattering de-tuned guitar intro of Welcome To The Jungle resonated through his head, Billy Dolphin reflected that there were few experiences on this world or any other which weren't immeasurably enhanced by the addition of a little Guns N' Roses.

"Now!" he shouted. He gave a little jump, clicked his heels together Dorothy-style and descended almost all the way back to the ground, remaining suspended a few centimetres above the purple grass on a twinkling cushion of energy. Terra did the same, gave him an excited smile, pushed back with one foot and they set off down the hillside.

Billy took an early lead; he was under few illusions that it'd last for long. He might have invented gravity skis, but Terra, being by far the more athletic of the two, had a more natural gift for downhill racing. She shot past him, looking over her shoulder and poking her tongue out.

Of course, it had been Pktk who had constructed the first pair of gravity skis – fitting a pair of shoes with low-power grav bubble generators, just powerful enough to suspend someone a couple of inches above the ground - but the idea had definitely been Billy's. He'd been mulling over the possibilities of such an invention one day while back on Earth; the Fnrrns' mastery of gravtech had revolutionised their domestic transportation system and ultimately given them the capacity to travel between distant stars, but Billy couldn't help but feel that they could be having a lot more fun with it. He'd sketched out the concept on a bit of paper one evening and tucked it away in his travelling bag, then shared it with an excited Pktk immediately upon his return to Fnrr. Pktk had marvelled at the simplicity of the idea and asked Billy how he'd thought of it. Billy had replied modestly that he really didn't know; it had just come to him one evening. The fact that Back To The Future 2 had been on TV that afternoon had had nothing to do with it.

The ground gently levelled beneath them as they reached the bottom of the first slope, but after a short flat plain (during which Billy managed to stop wobbling and ski smoothly) the terrain plummeted away again (at which point Billy's wobble returned with a vengeance). Terra leaned into the descent; she didn't look back to make sure Billy was still behind her. She could hear him making worried groaning noises as he hurtled along, and if (or, more likely, when) he fell over, she was fairly sure she'd hear that as well.

At the very bottom of the hill (which was now rushing toward them) there was a small but knotty patch of forest with a smooth-surfaced silvery lake at its centre. The slope itself ended in a small clearing, almost like a little beach; a patch of purple grass with the water's edge at its far side. Terra looked back over her shoulder; she exchanged a quick glance with Billy and they prepared to execute the trickiest, but most vital, manoeuvre in their new sport: stopping.

Stopping on gravity skis is a two-stage process; before you smash into whatever unavoidable obstacle lies at the end of your course, you either jump or fall over in as controlled manner as possible, then quickly activate the regular gravity bubble pod on your belt (you'd better have remembered to bring this). The effect of this is to nullify your forward momentum instantly; the trick is to then immediately switch the gravity bubble off again before you start rising into the air. Pull this move off (as Terra now did) and you transition smoothly from racing headlong to standing still looking extremely cool in about a second. Mess it up (as Billy now did) by failing to activate your gravity bubble in time and you cannon into the aforementioned unavoidable obstacle, which in this instance would have been a sturdy red-trunked tree, had Terra not been standing directly in front of it.

Billy let out a squeak of alarm and activated his bubble with centimetres to spare between his flailing form and the unsuspecting Terra's back. The glittering sphere of energy enveloped them both; Terra found that she was no longer standing by the stream admiring her own landing technique, but rather being bounced from tree trunk to tree trunk like a human pinball. She was further mystified to find that her limbs were now entangled with Billy's, and resolved to enquire as to exactly how this had come about as soon as they were back on the ground.

Terra didn't have to wait long; Billy regained enough control of one his arms to reach the gravity pod on his belt. He switched it off and he and Terra, now resembling a sort of many-limbed abstract sculpture, landed with a wet thud on the purple grass, the impact knocking the breath out of them both.

Their breath returned after a couple of seconds, whereupon they put it to the best use they could think of; laughing their heads off.

Terra and Billy were both sixteen years old, and dividing their time between Earth and Fnrr. An accord had been made between the Fnrrn and human authorities to allow them to alternate academic years between the Lyceum in Hrrng and Latimer Lane Comprehensive back on Earth. It was being passed off - more or less convincingly - as a "student exchange programme" to their human classmates and was, in truth, a somewhat haphazard arrangement. The difference in Earth and Fnrr's orbital periods (and concomitant imbalance in school semesters) was making it tricky to keep things level in terms of time spent on each planet, but they had been muddling along more or less successfully for two years so far.

A decision would, however, soon be required from Terra and Billy, and their respective parents - a complex arrangement incorporating Billy's Mum (by no means delighted with her son's planet-hopping lifestyle) and Dad (altogether more approving of, indeed undisguisedly envious of his son's planet-hopping lifestyle), Terra's human parents the Bradburys (generally just happy to be involved in Terra's life in whatever capacity, having missed most of the first twelve years of it) and her adoptive Fnrrn father, the scientist Lbbp, recently elevated to the post of Vice-Preceptor of the Hrrng Preceptorate, the vast teaching establishment around which Terra had grown up, and would - perhaps - attend herself, as a novice student - the first ever human novice student - in another couple of years.

And this was the decision, the looming decision which could not be avoided for much longer. Would Terra complete her studies here on Fnrr, at one of the foremost educational centres in this quadrant of the galaxy? Or among her own people, at a human university back on Earth (or Rrth, as she still found herself pronouncing it occasionally)? And what of Billy? Would the Hrrng Preceptorate even consider admitting him? His exam results seemed to indicate that he was bright enough to attend university back on Earth, but how much would that count for on Fnrr, being as it was, generations ahead of Earth in terms of scientific advancement?

The decision could not wait for ever, but it could wait for now. Now there was the warm, sleepy late Fnrrn summer, deep pink skies, the rolling violet hills and crystal lakes of Mntp province, and gravity skiing.

Their laughter rang around the clearing. Fortunately for both of them, Billy had been underneath Terra when they landed. He was a little slimmer and fitter now than when he'd first visited the planet Fnrr two years previously but he was still, by some degree, the bigger and heavier of the two. Terra flailed like a stranded tortoise for a second, then succeeded in rolling off him. As she struggled to her knees, Billy sat up and their faces came close together.

Just for a second the air seemed unusually still.

Neither Terra nor Billy moved or spoke for a long, long moment.

Then Terra wrinkled her nose and said "Just because you're the only other human being on this planet doesn't mean I'm going to start fancying you, you do realise that, don't you, Billy Dolphin?"

Billy blinked and swallowed. "No," he mumbled, "course not.'

Terra hopped up onto her feet and turned to walk back up the hill. "Of course," she added breezily, "it doesn't mean I'm NOT going to either. Come on." And with that she skipped away up the purple slope.

"Eh?" spluttered Billy as he shambled to his feet and set off after her. "So hang on, does that mean..."

There was a sudden, sharp cracking sound. Like thunder, but more staccato and high pitched. Billy fell silent and Terra looked around in alarm.

Instinctively their eyes went to the sky. The deepening red of the evening was split by a jagged white line, like a bolt of lightning frozen in mid-strike. A crack in the sky, through which now poured light from... somewhere else.

Terra and Billy exchanged a fleeting glance of confusion and alarm, and the cracking sound came again. Looking up to the split in the sky, they saw a tiny black dot emerge from the spilling light. It fell, wheeling, spinning, acquiring form as it grew closer.

"What is it?" Billy asked with fascination and dread.

"I have no idea," replied Terra, "but it's coming this way. Run!"

She set off at full speed up the hillside. Billy huffed after her, reflecting that there were few terrifying situations to be encountered on this world or any other that couldn't be exacerbated by having to run uphill.

Terra stole a glance over her shoulder as she ran. The crack in the sky was gone, sealed over... the thing that had fallen through it was now hurtling crazily downwards; not simply falling, but rolling, banking, swerving. She could see now that it was a large black object, shaped like a cross with a oblate sphere at the centre, a round pod from which protruded thick straight limbs (wings? engines?). It was, she decided just before it hit the surface of the lake, a spaceship, but quite unlike any she'd ever seen before.

The impact sent a wave of cold water into the air; it splashed heavily down over the hillside, soaking them both. They turned to see the black cruciform ship lurching and bucking on the chopping surface of the lake.

For a moment there was no movement except the washing of water against the shore of the lake, and the falling of droplets from the trees. Terra and Billy stared at the floating shape in fascinated bewilderment. Then Terra took a few steps back down the hillside.

"Terra, don't!" gasped Billy.

"I... I need to see if..." began Terra, but in truth she wasn't sure why she needed to inspect the ship. She just knew that she had to. Her curiosity burned so intensely as to obliterate all other considerations.

Billy, realising there would be no dissuading Terra, followed a few steps behind.

The cross-shaped ship had washed to within a few metres of the shore. Terra, paying no mind to her socks or trainers (she'd taken to wearing her Earth clothes on Fnrr outside of term time) waded in up to her knees, her gaze still fixed on the bobbing wreck. Steam hissed from its black metal surface.

Billy remained on dry(ish) land, marvelling at Terra's fearlessness and wishing he could borrow a bit of it.

With a grinding hiss, one of the limbs of the cross split open. Blackish liquid poured out and floated on the surface of the lake. Billy wondered if the ship was venting fuel or oil, but soon there was movement visible inside the limb. Something black and slithery writhed and pulsed, as if trying to free itself.

A long, jointed arm - or possibly leg - burst from the opening. It was covered in a rubbery black fabric and ended in a clawed hand (or foot). This extremity planted itself firmly on the bank, the claws sinking into the soil. Terra's curiosity could no longer override her sense of self preservation. She scampered onto the shore and ran to the trees. Billy was already there.

More of the creature emerged from the ship. Another long limb, similar to the first, then another, then a stocky body and helmeted head, then one more limb. It struggled through the water. It was the same shape as its ship, Terra couldn't help but notice.

The faceplate of the helmet was dark but transparent. Terra could see liquid sloshing against its inner surface. The creature's suit was full of the same oily fluid that had spilled from the ship. This, Terra realised, was what the creature breathed.

Terra wondered if there might be a way to communicate with the creature, to assure it they meant it no harm. "Billy," she said, "do you have your cube?"

Terra, having been raised on Fnrr, spoke the language of her adopted home nation Mlml like a native. Billy was learning the strange, clickety, almost vowel-less tongue but was still far from fluent. He carried a small translation cube in his pocket, a psychic device which came in handy when his Mlmln vocabulary failed him. He tugged it from his pocket and tossed it to Terra.

Terra was about to switch the cube on when the creature swung at her viciously with its claws. She leapt out of range and took cover behind a tree; it swung again with another long forelimb. She caught a glimpse of its face through the fluid. Unrecognisably alien, not a single feature in common with humans, or indeed any species she'd ever seen, and yet somehow she could read the face's expression. Rage. Fury. Pure, untempered anger.

The creature swiped at her again, its claw raking out a chunk of wood and bark from the tree. Terra grasped the cube. If she just could reason with the alien...

Terra switched the cube on. Her brain seemed to catch fire.

Terra felt her heart race, her veins throb, her skin itch and her mind churn and convulse. Images flooded her consciousness, nothing distinct, nothing clear, but certainly nothing good. Feelings and desires overwhelmed her, the desire to destroy, to punish, to avenge, to scourge. To kill, but not just to kill. To crush, to destroy, to humiliate... to rend, to tear, to rip her enemies limb from limb...

Terra felt her heart race, her veins throb, her skin itch and her mind churn and convulse. Images flooded her consciousness, nothing distinct, nothing clear, but certainly nothing good. Feelings and desires overwhelmed her, the desire to destroy, to punish, to avenge, to scourge. To kill, but not just to kill. To crush, to destroy, to humiliate... to rend, to tear, to rip her enemies limb from limb...

With the last vestige of consciousness still under her control, Terra commanded her thumb to find the button on the cube and switch it off. The feelings and images dissipated at once; as her vision cleared she saw Billy slumped against another tree, his eyes blank, his jaw slack. Whatever the cube had done to her, it had done to him too.

"Billy!" Terra called. He did not respond; she made as if to rush to his side but the creature's clawed limb flashed across her path and she ducked backwards. She'd almost forgotten that she was under attack, such had been the shock she received from the cube. She looked out from behind the tree; the creature was still flailing around by the shore of the lake; Terra saw that it was tethered to its ship by a cluster of translucent tubes. The tubes, she could see, were replenishing the fluid in the creature's suit. It could advance no further, but looking again to where Billy still sat, she realised that he was in range of the claws and unprotected. She needed to make sure that the creature's attention remained focussed on her until... until what?

Until help arrived, perhaps... the G'grk were supposed to be in charge of monitoring the skies above Fnrr for hostile or unauthorised arrivals... had they noticed anything? Terra, unlike many of her Mlmln neighbours, had no doubt that the warlike G'grk were capable of performing their recently-appointed duties, but they seemed to be taking their time about it on this occasion.

Terra sprang to her feet. She emerged from behind the tree so as to be visible to the creature, but moving backwards into its field of vision rather than forwards, in the hope of remaining out of reach of those vicious claws. "Hey!" she shouted. "Over here! Come at me!" If what the cube had shown her was indeed representative of the creature's state of mind, all hope of reasoning with it had to be abandoned.

The creature turned toward Terra and lunged. The claw came unexpectedly close; she had to leap backwards to avoid it. The creature made no vocal sound - its liquid-filled respiratory system wouldn't allow it, not in this atmosphere anyway - the only noises to be heard were the wooshing of its swinging forelimbs and the creaking of its rubbery suit as it did so. Now Terra heard a new sound; a squeaking, ripping, popping sound. As the creature struggled up the hill towards her, it was stretching the tubes which connected it to its ship to breaking point.

Terra felt a jolt of concern and panic. "No!" she cried out, not caring that the creature would neither hear nor understand. "Don't! You'll..."

The creature surged forwards. The tubes tore free of the suit, splitting it wide open. The black oily liquid gushed from the tear, coating the ground in a shiny slick. The creature did not break off its attack but charged on. Terra turned and fled. She did not look back; she could hear the crunching and snapping of branches as the creature heaved itself through the trees.

The sounds slowed, then stopped. Terra turned to see the creature, its limbs weak, trying to drag itself across the forest floor. Its movements were sluggish. She looked to its face and saw straight through the transparent plate in the front of its now empty helmet. The creature's clawed hands went to the helmet, fiddling with catches and valves. With a wet little noise the helmet fell off. The creature stared at Terra with pure, undiluted loathing in its glassy eyes as it wheezed its last breath, black liquid trickling from apertures that might have been gills or nostrils. Then it was dead.

Terra stared at the alien body for what have been a minute or half an hour, feeling an uncomfortable blend of emotions: revulsion, fear, relief, pity...

A grinding sound came from above her. Better late than never, she thought, then remembered Billy. She rushed back to him.

Billy was blinking and rubbing his temples. "They don't do paracetamol on this planet, do they?" he asked feebly.

"I'm sorry," said Terra, "I had no idea the cube would do that."

Billy looked up at her, his eyes reddened and his face pale. Terra glanced at the rubbery black bulk of the alien corpse, then back to Billy. "What was that, Billy? What was that we were feeling?"

Billy smiled ruefully at Terra. Of course she doesn't know, he thought to himself. Growing up here among the enlightened Fnrrns. They didn't even know how to lie until we accidentally taught them, he mused. But unlike Terra, Billy had grown up back on good ol' planet Earth, with the good ol' human race, in all its beauty and ugliness. Billy knew exactly what they had been feeling.

"Hate," said Billy. "That's what hate feels like."

~ o ~

The three blue spheres landed by the lakeside, their gravity engines rumbling away. The G'grk might have repurposed their hardware to serve peaceful ends but they hadn't noticeably upgraded it, Terra reflected. Her mind flashed back to the first time she'd seen one of these spheres, bursting out of the sea at the rainbow beach of Rfk, heralding the invasion of Mlml. She remembered the terror of that night, all those years ago... She was used to seeing the spheres now. Their arrival brought no fear. Some sort of progress, Terra thought to herself.

G'grk drones began to climb down from the spheres and mill around the wreck of the alien ship. Terra approached them, eager to help.

A young G'grk drone, turning to address the officer who seemed to have placed himself in charge of the scene, spied Terra walking towards them. His eyes bulged in alarm and he fumbled for his pulse-orb.

- State your name, purpose and planet of origin! he shouted, his voice unsteady and his pulse-orb wobbling in his extended hand.

- Now that IS a long story, said Terra.

The drone didn't acknowledge her comment. - This is your second of three warnings! he said. State your name, purpose and planet of origin or I will be forced to -

He was cut off in mid-warning by a painful-sounding slap to the back of his head from the officer.

- Have you been studying the Almanac of Aligned Worlds and Species as instructed, Drone Tz'kh?

Drone Tz'kh rubbed the back of his head. - Yes, Drone Major, he protested.

- Not very closely, it would appear, snarled the Drone Major, or you'd know that Ymns are to be addressed in the manner appropriate to member species of the Galactic Convocation, even if their membership is currently pending...

Drone Tz'kh peered at Terra and blinked.

- Besides, the Drone Major went on, THIS Ymn has lived here for most of her life. Surely you remember that time we invaded her homeland? The Drone Major turned and smiled at Terra. It's been a long time, little Ymn. You're not so little anymore, are you?

Terra grinned as Billy shuffled nervously towards them. - I thought it was you, she said.

Billy's day was getting weirder. - Sorry, he said (having tentatively reactivated the translation cube), are you two old friends or something?

- Not exactly, said Terra, a few years ago I caught the Major here invading my country and he captured me. Then his leader's right hand man tried to have me ritually sacrificed, Lbbp saved me and then the Major saved him, so I think all things considered we're about even, wouldn't you agree, Major?

- I think the Ymn expression is "let gone by be gone", isn't it? mused the Drone Major.

- Close enough, said Terra.

The Drone Major watched as three of his drones placed a net around the dead alien and began to pull it back towards the wreck. - Careful with that! I don't want any more damage done to it before we get it to St'nn-Br'kh.

- Professor Steinberg is still here? asked Terra with a smile of surprise.

- The Ymn scientist? There's no getting rid of him, muttered the Drone Major. He says he can't bear to leave all our wondrous Fnrr technology behind, and there's only so much he's allowed to take back to Rrth, so he's staying put. He earns his keep, though. We'll set him to work examining the wreck and the body, so we can see what we're up against.

Oh terrific, thought Billy, I'm not even the only other human being on the planet.

- So, young Ymn, said the Drone Major, turning to Terra, how did you manage to vanquish this great beast? Mind you, after the mess you made of poor Z'ksh all those orbits ago I suppose I shouldn't be surprised...

- For the last time, sighed Terra, that had nothing to do with me, he was perfectly okay when I got away from him. She referred to the unfortunate drone from whom she'd escaped on the night of the G'grk invasion, who had succeeded in getting himself mauled to death by a wild Znk shortly thereafter. And neither, she went on, did this. It attacked us and tore its suit open in the process. That black liquid that's all over the ground is what it breathed. It suffocated. It knew it would die if it attacked us... and it did it anyway. Terra pondered this, and the feeling of pure hatred the cube had detected in the alien's mind, and shuddered. Billy put an arm round her shoulder.

A team of drones had attached small remotely operated grav motors to the derelict ship; they hummed into life and it began to rise from the lake. The Drone Major watched approvingly and then turned to the young humans.

- I must transport this to T'Krr. Do you want to come along? Since we failed in our attempt to bring our culture to your land, he peered meaningfully at Terra at this, perhaps you'd like to experience it for yourselves.

Don't say yes, don't say yes, PLEASE don't say yes, thought Billy, his fists clenching with anxiety.

- Well, said Terra after a pause that lasted far too long for Billy's liking, tempting though that is, we need to get back to Hrrng. You've got to report this incident, and so do we. This was true, in essence; Lbbp would be extremely keen to hear about the alien incursion, but more to the point, if he heard about it from someone else first - and that Terra had been mixed up in it in some way - he'd be beside himself with panic by the time they got home.

- As you wish, said the Drone Major, striding toward one of the spheres. I won't say goodbye, he said as he climbed aboard, I feel certain our paths will cross again one day.

The sphere's hatch clanged shut. Its gravity engines rumbled into life, and it rose into the air in formation with the other two, the cruciform derelict suspended between them. Terra and Billy watched them disappear into the deep red sky.

"What just happened, Terra?" asked Billy.

"I don't know," she replied. "I don't think anyone knows just yet. But I want to know as soon as someone figures it out. Let's get back to the city." And with that, they activated their gravity bubbles, rose above the trees and headed for the lights and spires of Hrrng, just visible at the southern horizon.

~ o ~

1.2

The people of Fnrr had mastered the technology of interstellar travel many eras before. The method they used (massless suspension coupled with neutrino drive) was popular throughout the known galaxy, with many cultures developing it (or something like it) independently of each other, and then exchanging tips and ideas to refine the technology as they started to come into contact. There were alternatives; some civilisations employed radical space-bending techniques which could reduce travel time to almost nothing, but which were notoriously prone to error and miscalculation. The slightest unforeseen glitch in the process could send you thousands of light years off course, or have you re-emerge into the continuum in the middle of a star, or simply remove you from space/time altogether, never to reappear. As Pshkf, Terra's late lamented practical science Lector, had once remarked during an infra-light engineering class, Nobody's in that much of a hurry.

Nonetheless, whatever techniques were developed and employed to quicken the journeys between stars, it remained the case, on Fnrr as on Rrth, that nothing travels faster than bad news.

By the time Terra and Billy arrived back at the home she shared with Lbbp (and in which Billy was currently staying), Lbbp was pacing the floors, his grey features greyer with worry.

- Where have you been? he asked, his voice quavering. It's all over the Source that an alien crashed in Mntp and ATTACKED TWO YMNS. Two Ymns! What was I suppposed to think? That it was a different pair of Ymns? That there was a group of Ymn tourists in Mntp today? You didn't think to take your comms? I've been going out of my mind. And what was I going to tell Billy's parents if -

Terra flung her arms around him and he fell silent. Billy kept his distance, let Terra and Lbbp make their silent peace and chuckled inwardly at the thought of human tourists wandering around Mntp. It might not be long before such a thing became a possibility, he reflected. The increasingly close contact between the human authorities and the Convocation - the council of inhabited worlds in this galaxy - was still being kept officially secret on Earth, but if the human race's membership (currently under consideration) were to be approved, ideas such as humans recreationally visiting other planets would become altogether less fanciful. Billy smiled at the idea. Humans visiting Fnrr on cultural exchanges, perhaps. Or historical tours. Nature treks. Holidays. Works outings.

Stag weekends.

There's no way they're going to approve our membership, is there, thought Billy glumly.

As Lbbp's panic abated, the second most prominent component of his personality replaced it: his insatiable scientific curiosity.

- So what was it? Did you recognise the species, the technology?

Terra shook her head. - No. It was like nothing I've ever seen before, either up close or in a Life Science programme. Big, quadrupedal, the four limbs seemed to operate as arms or legs as required... It breathed a sort of oily black liquid.

- That's how it died, added Billy. It didn't seem to have been injured by the crash. It went after Terra and ripped its breathing tubes out of its suit.

- It knew it would die if it attacked and it attacked anyway, said Terra. And there's something else, she paused to gather her thoughts and Lbbp's eyes widened in worried anticipation.

- I tried to use Billy's translation cube, to see if we could communicate with it, tell it we meant it no harm... Terra shuddered, then went on. We saw its thoughts, we felt its feelings. It was CONSUMED with hatred for us. I've never felt anything so horrible, said Terra as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Lbbp stared, dismayed at this concept in general and at the thought of Terra undergoing such trauma, however brief or illusory. - It makes no sense, he mused. Why would it be full of hatred for a species it had never encountered before on a world it had never visited?

- An ancient grudge, said Billy with a shrug. Maybe this species ran into either Fnrrns or humans centuries ago, and it didn't go well. Entirely possible if it was humans. We may not know them but perhaps they know us... perhaps they've been looking for revenge for generations while we've forgotten all about them.

There was a pause as they pondered the various possibilities.

- Well I don't know about you, said Terra, but I'm not waiting for the official report from T'Krr to come in. She picked up her comm from the shelf.

~ o ~

1.3

Dave Steinberg was, by his own estimation, perhaps the most highly qualified scientist that the human race had ever produced. It was an unspoken but accepted truth among his old colleagues back on Earth, and his new colleagues here on Fnrr, that Steinberg had been justified in his decision to remain on this world as the scientific advisor to the Extraplanetary Defence Initiative because there simply wasn't anything on Earth to test his intellect any more.

Steinberg held professorships in both Physics and Astrophysics, a doctorate in mathematics and took a keen layman's interest in chemistry. If there was a weak spot in his scientific expertise, it was Biology. Steinberg knew a fair bit about Biology, (a ridiculous amount, by most people's standards) but nonetheless always felt far less at home with the study of actual physical, squelchy living things than with the "purer", more theoretical scientific disciplines.

As such, when the G'grk Drone Major and his company had arrived at the huge hangar-sized laboratory on the outskirts of T'Krr in which Professor Steinberg conducted his research, and deposited a derelict alien spaceship in his workshop and a deceased alien pilot on his workbench, he had opted to leave the vast, rubbery black corpse where it was for the meantime and concentrate instead on the ship.

Right now, Steinberg was wrestling with the apparent paradox that while the late alien was much bigger than him, he was finding the interior of its ship almost impossibly cramped and confining. He heaved himself around the derelict's poky interior, considering the possibility that the alien might be soft-boned or perhaps even boneless, like some sort of vast mollusc, able to mould itself to fit the ship's inner spaces.

The ship had little in the way of visible controls or instruments; Steinberg reasoned that the pilot might have operated the craft by way of some biological or perhaps even psychic interface. Having established that there was still some residual power left in the ship's systems - that it was "dormant", rather than dead, he squeezed himself back out of the aperture through which the creature had emerged and began trying to set up some sort of apparatus by means of which he might be able to communicate with it.

A quick scan of localised psychic frequencies confirmed that there was indeed a faint telepathic background transmission emanating from the derelict. Once Professor Steinberg had established this, it was relatively straightforward to set up a narrow-banded signal booster and route the enhanced transmission through a biocircuit processor running the latest empathic/intuitive translation software, then peruse the deciphered messages in text form on his slate while he fixed himself some coffee.

DAMN I'm glad I stayed on this planet, thought Dave Steinberg.

The message itself, however, did rather put him off the coffee once he'd made it.

"All must submit before the Benefactor... all who defy the Benefactor must die... may their pools run dry and their skin become parched and brittle... may their suffering know no end, even in death..." muttered Steinberg with a frown. Like something from medieval Europe, he pondered. How to reconcile such a bleak, Dark Ages mentality with the kind of technology required to get here from... where exactly?

Seeing that there was little chance of a congenial conversation with the derelict, Steinberg resolved to confine himself to getting the salient facts out of it, and its point of origin seemed a good place to start.

Where... are... you... from... Steinberg tapped the text onto his slate and waited for the biocircuit processor to convert it into a form the derelict would understand.

After a few seconds, his slate began to display star charts and co-ordinates. Steinberg's brow furrowed as he studied the figures. "That can't be right," he pondered aloud. He cross-referred the figures with a standard navigation programme, and his jaw dropped in disbelief.

Professor Steinberg was still trying to process the enormity of his discovery when his comm started bleeping.

~ o ~

- He's probably in the middle of something, said Lbbp as Terra's comm pinged away unanswered.

- He's always in the middle of something, replied Terra, but he always has time for me.

The pinging ceased, to be replaced by Steinberg's voice.

"Terra!" he said delightedly.

"You busy, Prof?"

"I'm always busy," said Steinberg with an audible weary smile, "but I always have time for you." Terra shot Lbbp a quick told-you-so wink and Professor Steinberg went on. "What is this thing you found, Terra?"

Terra was wondering if the G'grk would have told the Professor that it was she and Billy who witnessed the crash. Of course they had; it would have appealed to the generally unfathomble G'grk sense of humour. And Terra needn't have worried that Professor Steinberg would be concerned for her safety; to him, her involvement just added another layer of delicious mystery to the affair.

"I don't know, Prof; it just sort of fell through a crack in the sky. We happened to be underneath."

"A crack in the sky..." mused Steinberg. "Yeah, that makes sense..."

"I'm glad you think so", muttered Billy. If Steinberg heard, he didn't respond.

"The thing is," Steinberg continued hesitantly, "this ship travelled a long way to get here. As in a LONG way."

Lbbp's brow furrowed - How far? he enquired.

There was a pause as Steinberg collected his thoughts, then, "Have you heard of the Kyzean Spiral?"

Lbbp hadn't, nor had Terra or Billy.

"There's no reason you should have," Steinberg continued, "it's only dimly visible from either here or Earth, even using the most advanced equipment. It's a galaxy; a distant galaxy. Millions of light years away. This ship came from a planet orbiting a star near the outer rim of the Kyzean Spiral."

- That's impossible, said Lbbp, there's no way to cross intergalactic space. It either takes millions of orbits, or if you accelerated to such a speed as to make the journey survivable, you'd create such a massive time distortion that by the time you arrived, millions of orbits would have passed for the rest of the universe anyway. Either way, it takes millions of orbits.

"Oh I know, Vice Preceptor", Steinberg used Lbbp's proper title so as not to sound condescending in his reply, "but nonetheless this ship set out from the Kyzean Spiral, and it did so within the last two Fnrrn days..."

The was a moment's silence as everyone absorbed the impossibility of this.

"That's why Terra's crack in the sky makes sense," Steinberg went on at last. "I'm thinking the only rational explanation is a wormhole."

"Wormholes..." pondered Billy. He knew of the theoretical existence of such things from his lifelong immersion in science fiction. Corridors through which matter and energy could instantaneously travel between points in space and time, however distant.

- Do you think it was a naturally occurring wormhole, or could the ship have generated it for itself? Lbbp knew that inventing a "wormhole drive" had long been an ambition of interstellar engineers, but that so far nobody had any idea how to go about developing one. Had the secret been cracked, all those millions of light years away?

"No way to tell, unless I can retro-engineer this ship, and I'm not sure where to start. Anyway, before I can even think about that, I have to give my report to Zst'kh. At least I know there's no chance of him deciding to invade the Kyzean Spiral." chuckled Steinberg.

Grand Marshal Zst'kh, leader of the G'grk, and, as such, commander in chief of the Extra-Planetary Defence Initiative, would be waiting impatiently for the Professor's report on the alien incursion. The various nations of Fnrr were adjusting to their warlike neighbours' new role as the defenders of the planet; this had been helped in no small measure by the universal - if erroneous - belief that the G'grk had saved Fnrr by destroying the Black Planet two orbits previously. Only Terra and a few close friends knew the truth, and they weren't about to disrupt the new accord by speaking out.

~ o ~

1.4

At that moment, Grand Marshal Zst'kh was engaged in hand to hand combat practice in his private quarters, located in an upper floor of the Grey Tower, the ancient, looming edifice which rose up above T'Krr's ragged skyline, and which had served as the home and headquarters (in truth, neither G'grk language nor G'grk culture made much distinction between the two concepts) of countless generations of Grand Marshals.

Zst'kh paced around the circle that was marked out on the floor of the chamber. It was about ten metres in diameter; above it, an electrical field, an invisible wall of humming energy, contained the space within. The field was on a medium setting; to cross the circle would bring a painful but non-lethal shock. Zst'kh's sparring partner, General Ch'zst, raised his blunted training sword to first guard position and waited for his leader to make his move. Had the practice bout been between two officers of lesser rank, they might have used sharpened swords and turned the electrical field up to maximum, but even in a society as relentlessly aggressive as that of the G'grk, to lose one's commander in chief in a training accident was considered an eventuality best avoided.

Zst'kh took a sudden step forward and lunged; his blade described a perfect arc towards Ch'zst's neck. Ch'zst dropped to his knees and leaned back as far as he could; Zst'kh's blade slashed through the air above his face. Flipping his body forwards, but remaining on his knees, Ch'zst scythed at Zst'kh's legs; Zst'kh read the move instantly and leapt backwards into the air, landing just inside the circle. He could feel the electrical field crackling at his back as he watched Ch'zst spring to his feet and take a guard stance once more. The fight had lasted just over a second thus far, and was off to a good start.

Dave Steinberg stood uneasily outside the chamber's heavy double doors. He heard the clangs and grunts of exertion coming from within, and shot a knowing guess-we-better-leave-them-to-it look at the armoured sentry stationed by the doorway. The sentry did not return or acknowledge Steinberg's attempt at communication, so the professor shrugged and resolved to wait in silence.

Inside the chamber, inside the circle, Zst'kh flexed his left shoulder and felt a fresh bruise begin to develop; Ch'zst had caught him a decent blow on his upper arm in the last exchange. In true combat, with real swords, Zst'kh knew, he would have lost that arm. Slowing down, he thought angrily to himself. Command is making you soft and lazy. Not good enough.

Zst'kh resisted the urge to charge back at his opponent. Rash and thoughtless was not much better than slow. He lowered his sword, and breathed, and looked for an opening in Ch'zst's defences.

He saw one. Mistaking Zst'kh's calm, slow breathing for tiredness, Ch'zst raised his blade high, aiming to swing it down onto Zst'kh's shoulder and claim victory. Zst'kh flashed his own sword upwards; it caught Ch'zst painfully in the ribs while his sword was still raised. Ch'zst winced, coughed, staggered and dropped his sword. Zst'kh kicked it away - it sparked as it crossed the circle and passed through the electrical field - and raised his sword point to Ch'zst's throat.

- Victory is yours, Grand Marshal, said Ch'zst between gasps of pain and exhaustion.

- Only because of these child's toy swords, old friend, smiled Zst'kh. If we'd had warriors' blades I'd be painting the floor blue and looking for a new arm. Lower the field, he said in no particular direction; the faint hum ceased as the electrical field deactivated itself.

- I can hear you breathing, St'nn-brkh, called Zst'kh in the direction of the double doors. Come in and give me whatever news it is that you find so urgent.

Professor Steinberg opened the door and peeked inside. - Dare I ask who won? he said.

~ o ~

1.5

- What I don't understand, pondered Lbbp between mouthfuls of configuration 6, is how a species motivated entirely by hatred and violence could also be so advanced as to develop at least interstellar and possibly even inter-GALACTIC travel...

- Progress isn't always a straight line, observed Pktk. Civilisations go backwards as well as forwards. If a society achieved great scientific advances but THEN fell under the influence of some sort of primitive ideology you'd end up with a brutal culture that still had access to all the cool stuff their ancestors had invented, even if they'd never be able to make it for themselves.

- Could that really happen though? Fthfth's brow furrowed at the very idea.

Pktk turned and looked solemnly at his friend. - It very nearly happened here, remember?

Fthfth realised that Pktk was right; the rise to power of the Gfjk-Hhh, or rather the false pretender who'd proclaimed himself the reincarnation of the Gfjk-Hhh (and whose true name had been utterly forgotten) had indeed almost brought about the very scenario Pktk described in their own homeland just two orbits previously. She chewed her configuration 8, deep in thought.

- If it's any consolation, said Billy, it happens all the time back home.

Terra ate in silence, without any relish or appetite. She was grateful to her friends for having come by, but she was afraid she wasn't being especially good company.

The memory of that burst of pure loathing passing through her mind, and of the pathetic, needless death of the alien weighed heavily upon her. What was the point of breaking all the known laws of physics to travel halfway across the universe, just to pick a fight and then get yourself killed? The creature's arrival should have been an occasion for excitement and amazement, heralding as it did a new era of communication with life from the furthest reaches of the universe, and the prospect of whole new levels of technological advancement. As it was, it all seemed depressingly futile.

- Excuse me, she said, then got up and left the servery to go and slump miserably on the bench seat in the main room.

Terra's glum reverie was shattered by the pinging of her comm. When she answered it, to her surprise, Professor Steinberg's face suddenly appeared in uncomfortably close close-up on the room's visualiser screen.

"Hi Terra," said Professor Steinberg's face. There was a tremor in his voice and his usually ruddy features seemed lined and troubled. "Hope you don't mind me hacking into your home system like this but there's something you and Lbbp need to see."

Lbbp was already shuffling into the room, curious as to why the Ymn scientist's voice was booming out of the walls. Fthfth, Pktk and Billy followed him.

- What's going on? demanded Fthfth, sitting down beside Terra.

- Professor Steinberg has found something, said Terra.

- Well, yes and no, Steinberg went on (switching to cube-translated Mlmln for the benefit of Terra's friends), there's something I need to show you but it's not me who found it. Just a second...

Steinberg's face shrank down to a corner of the visualiser screen; the main image now showed a distinguished-looking Fnrrn in a high-collared black robe. At the sight of this, Fthfth leapt to her feet.

- Postulator V-Kst V-Shft! she exclaimed. I can't believe it! I've read all your articles! Tell me, in your piece on the atomic decay of neutron stars, were you using the old universal standard units or the new...

- Shush, Fthfth, said Lbbp.

- But it's Postulator V-Kst V-Shft! beamed Fthfth. She's the head of Ff-Shkrr Observatory!

- Yes, I know I am, said V-Kst V-Shft. In Ff-Shkrr, on the far side of Fnrr, they speak the same language as Mlmlns, but with a thick accent.

- I asked the Postulator if she knew anything about the Kyzean Spiral, and she's made... a kind of alarming discovery, interjected Professor Steinberg. I thought you should see it first because it's all gonna go a little crazy when everyone else finds out.

An expectant, apprehensive hush descended over the room.

- Here, began V-Kst V-Shf, and her own image shrank down into another corner of the screen, which now showed an image of deep space; galaxies and nebulae.

- This, said V-Kst V-Shft, is the region of space in which we see the Kyzean Spiral. As she spoke, the Mlmln text for "Kyzean Spiral" appeared on the screen next to a particular galaxy.

- Now this is the region as it appears to us from Fnrr, she continued, that is to say, this is how that region of space looked millions of orbits ago.

Billy had often marvelled at how the speed of light meant that when one gazed at the night sky back on Earth, the stars that one saw were in fact visual echoes of those stars as they had been, many years, in some cases many centuries earlier. In fact, when he looked back towards Earth, the Earth that was (barely) visible from Fnrr was the Earth of decades ago. An Earth on which he hadn't yet been born. Billy wondered how long it would be on that Earth in the sky before he would exist there too, after which moment, from his vantage point on Fnrr, he would be looking back at himself. He listened intently.

- As some of you may know, continued V-Kst V-Shft, the Deep Space Infra-light Imaging System enables us to see distant regions as they are now.

- Yes! enthused Fthfth. It's ingenious! It uses infra-light probes which detect tachyon traces and use psychic frequencies to transmit the information instantly back to... she fell silent upon getting the Not Now Fthfth face from everyone else in the room.

- We've used the system to create an image of that region as it currently exists. This, said V-Kst V-Shft, is how the Kyzean Spiral looks now...

The image changed. The Fnrrn text remained in place. Everything about the image was the same as before... except the Kyzean Spiral itself was gone.

A moment's horrified silence.

- It's... disappeared... whispered Pktk.

- How? said Lbbp, his black eyes wide and disbelieving.

- Impossible to say, replied Professor Steinberg. There's no natural process known to science which can destroy an entire galaxy. And remember, according to that alien ship's memory banks, it set out from the outer rim of the Kyzean Spiral about two Fnrrn days ago. Whatever destroyed that galaxy, it did it in a matter of hours.

- Some sort of weapon, said Terra calmly. A weapon which can destroy whole stars, perhaps setting off a chain reaction from one star to the next until the whole galaxy is gone.

Terra's friends looked at her in alarm. She was an imaginative girl - she'd single handedly introduced the Fnrrns to the whole concept of storytelling - but to come up with such a bleak concept, and moreover to throw it into the conversation with such casual conviction - disturbed them to the core.

Terra looked up at her friends. - I saw into its mind, remember? I felt its hatred. It was absolute hatred. It didn't just want to kill me, it wanted to kill everyone and everything that wasn't its own kind. And the only other thing we know about it is that it may well have had the technology to cross the distances between galaxies.

Billy nodded. - Combine that sort of tech with that sort of hatred... I think our rubbery friend was fleeing a war. A war involving weapons like we've never seen. A war that just snuffed out a whole galaxy.

- I need to report this to Zst'kh, said Steinberg with a nervous sigh. I think I'm gonna be spending a lot of time dismantling that ship.

- I must declare my findings to the Observatory, said. V-Kst V-Shft. She disappeared from the screen.

There was a solemn pause.

- And I'd better tell Preceptor Shm, said Lbbp.

~ o ~

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Forethought

Prologue

Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1.2

Chapter 1.3

Chapter 1.4

Chapter 1.5