That night they had all gone their separate ways; but they all met at the Warbird when it was time to leave. This time they were taking the Warbird down to the surface. The group minus Denise went down to the cargo hold to check out the equipment they had asked for from the Concord. Denise went to the bridge and stood beside Huntly as she directed her ship into the atmosphere. About half way down she sent a message to the Spoke that they were having trouble and would have to make a forced landing. The ship then landed as close as it could to the dig site. At this point she sent another message to the Spoke. This time she told them the trouble was temporary. Denise smiled at her and said,

"I hope you are here when we get back." Huntly laughed and replied,

"This place is not big enough to push me off. Besides, someone has to stay here to pull you out of the fire."

"Oh, so that is why you brought Captain Beighur along. And I thought it was because you liked him."

"You are sick, but stay away from him or I might just have to kill you," said Huntly. Denise was not sure if she was kidding or not.

She then went down to the cargo hold and suited up like the rest. They had on their e-suits and each had a weapon or two and a nap sack with equipment to their individual talents. With everything ready, they made their way to the air lock and out onto Penates. The planet was not a pleasant one but they were used to it now. They figured out their position and where the dig site should be. Once all this was done they headed out through the swamp gas and the slush all over the ground.

Denise sent Connor to the point with her right behind him with the most sophisticated scanning device she had ever seen. As they got to within a kilometer of the dig site it started to pick up the sentries. She started to maneuver the group around them when Aleerin came up beside her. He reached down towards the scanner and she could see small filaments come out of his hand. They worked their way into the scanner and all of the sudden another entrance was on it. Denise looked at him and he said,

"Statement: When I was good/behaved they gave/allowed me time to explore. Once day I found/came across a back door." Looking at the scanner she noticed there were no guards in that area. She signaled for Connor to head off in that direction. It did not take long and they were at another cave mouth. They walked in and found a similar wall with an airlock built into it. Denise tried the code they had used on the front door but it did not work. Yalp moved up and said,

"I can have it open in about 15 minutes."

Denise nodded, as Aleerin reached up for the number pad. After holding his hands there for a second the door opened with a hiss. Yalp looked at him and said,

"You would make a great thief."

Aleerin looked confused and turning to Denise asked,

"Question: But is not stealing/taking wrong?" She smiled and said,

"Yes. It was a joke Aleerin."

They all entered the air lock and out the other side. Aleerin moved up beside Connor and pointed the way. Connor moved off to see if it was clear. He came back told them the tunnel they were in joined up with the main tunnel they were in joined up with the main tunnel that went to the gate room. There does not seem to be any activity in the area. Denise nodded and the group moved out. They got to the main tunnel when all of the sudden there was an explosion and rock fragments were flying everywhere. The cause of the explosion was a blast from a black laser. It had come from what appeared to be a robot of some kind. It was about 20 meters up the tunnel towards the main airlock and moving towards them. The thing was roughly humanoid in shape, that is it had two arms, two legs and a head on a torso. It was about 3 meters tall and its arms ended in large mechanical hands with only 3 fingers and a thumb. They looked as if they were made to be weapons. The laser blasts as they found out from two more landing around them came from the robots chest. It's head was an elongated pyramid with the point at the back, while the front was covered with both visual and motion sensors.

Denise noticed all this in a matter of seconds and signaled the group to open fire. She saw the weapons explode in the light, plasma and projectiles. They hit the robot and the walls around it. At first Denise was not sure if the weapons were doing any good. Then she noticed that one of it's arms were damaged. When this happened the robot went into some sort of protection mode. The next round of energy weapon fire seemed to deflect off it and it moved towards them with blinding speed. From it's good arm three blades about 24 centimeters long shot out and the robot moved as if a martial arts expert, not a machine. Denise yelled,

"Prepare for hand to hand!", but before that could happen there was a blinding white flash. Denise was blinded and could tell from the screams around her that they were blinded too. It seemed an eternity, but it was only a second or two and her sight returned. There, standing in front of her was the robot, frozen in mid-swing with it's clawed hand. She noticed it was quite dead. Not one light had any power. She looked around at the others.

"What happened?" Yalp stepped forward and said,

"An electromagnetic pulse. It scrambled it's circuits."

"Yeah, it almost scrambled my eyes too!"

"I am sorry. I would have said something but if it understood it could have shut down for the second and it would have had no effect on it. Then we would have been in much worse trouble."

"I see your point but make a signal with Pogo and he can tell us telepathically. Is that good with you Pogo?" He nodded yes.

Yalp moved to check out the robot. After a couple of minutes he said,

"This robot was not made by any race we know. It is part machine and part plant I think." Graham moved up to take a look at it. He said,

"Fascinating. He is right. We were lucky the grenade worked. Most of it's internal workings are biological. Plant biology to be more specific. I have never seen anything like it. This is definitely not made by any race in the Stellar Ring."

Denise said,

"Let's move out. I am sure someone must have heard us. Linda, send a message back to the Warbird about this robot." Then she signaled Connor to lead off.