Thoss World
The Confederal Senate
Vs’Kssh City

Vs’Kssh City rose from the humid swamps of equatorial Thoss. The new city, built millennia after the old citadel of the same name, bore the marks of a spacefaring society. Elevated starship platforms beckoned for the trawlers, dreadnoughts and freighters that periodically came down from the sky. Despite the trappings of advanced technology, the city was fantastically ancient in its appearance, a collection of sandstone walls and domes cut by winding cobblestone paths. Only the bustle of daily traffic and whizzing skiffs truly distinguished the space-age metropolis from the quiet old citadel on the city’s outskirts.

Senator Hvhuss stood in the warm sunlight by a veranda on the roof of the Senate building. He was, for the moment, alone among the terrace gardens and statues. From the commanding heights he could see the subdued structures of Vs’Kssh and the steaming jungle swamps beyond.

HvHuss peered out over the city, focusing on the roof of a squat building in the slums of the D’Nesh quarter. Plain and functional as with most of the other buildings, this one had a single distinctive feature. On the short wall girding the roof patio, a vase of blue vermusson lilies soaked in the sunlight.

And now things begin. The meaning of the lilies was plain to him and he wondered if things would ever be the same. With a flush of his crimson cape, HvHuss departed, returning to the well of the ancient senate chamber where practiced affability and poise would mask his identity as the centurion of a shadow legion hiding in the dark corners of the murky world.

Arth
Restoration City
The Great Library

Arella rode the glass elevator down to the library’s sub-basement where the artifact collection was stored in the giant vaults. On the opposite side of the atrium, from another descending elevator, an alien watched her intently.

The car reached the lower level and dinged as the doors opened into a cool dim hallway. Arella showed her ID to the guard and made her way through a warehouse of artifacts from the reaches of space. Some were large stone slabs and statues resting on forklift pallets. Others were small, technical pieces of hardware and equipment, and still others were delicate texts from eons past. The bulk of the artifacts had been transferred from the Interstel archives after clearing quarantine and security protocols.

Arella turned onto aisle fifteen, coming to a halt two thirds of the way down. Shelf twenty-three...Ah, there we are. She slid open a wide metal drawer and looked for the correct catalog number. The tag was loosely tied to an Eastern Orthodox cross that an exploration vessel had dredged up in the Martian lowlands. Red grit and dust still filled the grooves and etchings.

She walked back to the check out desk and placed the plastic-wrapped artifact on the counter. “ID and membership warrant, please,” said the scruffy looking Human. Arella gave him the two cards and he looked them over. He was about to hand them back when he said “Newark—that a lieutenant Newark?” She nodded. “Just a minute, I’ve got something back here. Hang on.” He was gone for several long minutes before trotting back with a wrapped package under his arm. “Here you go.”

“What’s this?” she asked, looking over the package.

“Got me,” grinned the clerk, “but I got two thou to make sure it got to one Lieutenant Arella Morse Newark.” The alien had disappeared.

Excerpt
Thrynn Senate Record, 3521
[speech standardized]

Kgnrfss: I can’t imagine that this is the correct course, considering that the Elowan have been our allies since the earliest days of the Em--

Hup: Listen to the corrupt rhetoric, colleagues! The tyranny of the apes has passed and yet he insists--such vile submission!--upon the very markings of that bondage--

Kgnrfss: Friends, must we debase our traditions? Reason dictates--I say a fidelity to truth demands that--

Hup: Yes, yes, insisting along with the Elowan who have manufactured such notions for their own ends...

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Next: "Outbacking"

Around the Galaxy Are rumors true that Veloxi Captain Hrixx Bxx of HMS Hezzy Tu has a new gold pin from the royal mating emporium most grand-lovely? AG is sworn to secrecy! Spied wearing alligator hide boots to StelCom's cosmolife reception, "Calamity" Jane Reynolds of ISS Rodeo Days made quite a splash at the the strictly black tie event on Bellfa Seven, but not for her attire--the flamboyant Miss Reynolds was spotted on StelCom President Bob Drake's arm. Finally, Habby Loman, elusive speculator and sometime fugitive was seen at opposite ends of known space but never by anyone looking for him--including AG. As usual, Loman could not be reached for comment.

Hilsfar & Company: Moving at the Speed of Gossip
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