Diary Excerpt
Thrynn Senator Kgnrfss
[speech standardized]

...I fear we are plunging into an age of inestimable darkness…the Uhlek have simply passed by, making for some destination outward with the Gazurtoid bottom-dwellers behind them...but this salvation proves hollow: the Humans are gone…the great treasures of the Empire—learning, philosophy, discovery—they all come under savage attack—even truth itself. “The poison of the Elowan,” it is called...we may have only one alternative...

Low Orbit
DZ160,48-8
Aboard ISS Belfast Windfall

If somebody wanted to build something to last, this was the place. It was a geologically dead rock with no atmosphere, orbiting a fairly old main-sequence star with very little remaining loose debris. For archaeologists, this meant no earthquakes or volcanoes, no erosion from wind or water and very little danger of impact damage. Write your initials in the surface of a world like 148,60-8 and the descendants of the bacteria in your lunch might be reading it, perfectly preserved, sometime in the future.

“Well, it’s not at the poles,” noted Arella. Significant structures for space travelers were often built on one of a planet’s two poles; every planet had them and it was a common reference point. It hadn’t panned out in this case, so the next place to look was along the equatorial band. “Let’s try a belt sweep, then,” she resolved.

“Grav-launch?” asked Grix, throttling Windfall down over the planet’s arc. Arella nodded, punching some more information into the search matrix. The equator was the most efficient place to launch a starship because objects on the equatorial belt had the most centrifugal energy and that took some of the pressure off the fuel supply. For bottom-line types like Biggs Hilsfar, this was a beautiful thing. Forty minutes of searching were well-rewarded.

“That has to be it—it’s on the exact equatorial line,” said Arella. A rectangular marking rolled over the horizon at zero degrees latitude. “It must cover five bloody kilometers—square.” Mack brought the picture up onto the main viewer, zooming into the site.

“It would appear that we have found that for which we’ve been looking,” said Commander Alowala. “There are some small structures south of the main...”

“Map,” finished Grix. “It looks like a starmap. We could read that very well from orbit and probably from anywhere in this cluster if we had line-of-sight. I’d say Arella’s permalite imprint is taken off of something down there.” Computing a landing cycle took a quarter hour and then Biggs ordered the ship to the surface.

----------
Next: “Smokes”

Around the Galaxy According to Someone Who Knows, radio guys "Mic Mike” Kelly and Oxrox “Ixtoo” Xseby are slated to win this year’s Radio Daze Award for their morning show, “My Bad Fanfic IV: The One With The Whales” on AM 640 WICC. Recent Headline: "Shatner Jokes Still Get Laughs" Why? Two words: “Khaaan! Khaaaaan!” Finally, “Calamity” Jane Reynolds, reknowned space cowgirl, has reportedly managed to steal a G’Nunk scout ship. Don’t ask how, just hide your cobalt.

Hilsfar & Company: Spock! Must...Read...Fanfic! *Gasp!*
[email protected]