Hi, this is the latest version of the story so far. A few suggestions to make my life a little easier as far as keeping the story readable. 1. Please ease off the use of the ". . ." to end sentences. They should be used only when really needed. Think of it as if it were glue, used in small amounts it can hold a story together, too much and it just makes it tacky.:) 2. When writing dialogue, such as a conversation, each line should be made it's own paragraph. Example: The fox was exhausted by the climb up the side of blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. He staggered as he reached the top of the hill. "Glad to see you made it," said the bear. "Jolly good show!" shouted the bulldog. The fox then proceeded to blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. 3. I, like many readers can be easily confused as to who is saying what if you don't put in enough "he said" or " Reflex asked" in a long conversation. 4. Don't use hard returns (hitting the enter key) when writing unless you really need to, just use the word wrap feature and save the hard returns for the ends of paragraphs and such. I did this mostly and I spent hours pulling them out. 5. Try to keep a consistent point of view in the narration of the story. In this story, third person omniscient dominates. Example; The fox ran up the hill while the bulldog cheered. First person would be; I ran up the hill listening to the bulldog cheer. 6. The story has been set up to take place in the relative past so try to keep it consistent. Example; The fox ran up the hill. It gets confusing if you say, "The fox ran up the hill and he sits down." It would better to write, "The fox ran up the hill and then he sat down." 7. Don't be afraid to add descriptions and details. Put in a little pizzazz by describing things in detail. "Reflex walked down a narrow tunnel" is no where near as interesting as "Reflex walked carefully down the narrow confines of the gloomy tunnel whose stalagmites and stalactites reminded him of the teeth of some gigantic, hideous monster." Thanks a lot and I hope to see more added to the story soon! Greetings, I would like to test the waters so to speak and see if I can get a story going here. The idea is simple, add a sentence, paragraph or a thousand pages to the story to continue what has already been written. Let’s try to have fun with this and don't kill off the main characters in a gory bloodbath and go "the end." It will probably get ignored anyway. It would help if you started off your part of the story with a previous paragraph or an indication of where exactly your part belongs. I've never done this before so let’s see if anything happens. David White ------------------ Contributors so far, David White Michel Brassard Lyra Madril Robert Grinwis (Naros) Krinn ----------------------- Character list: Durandal: An erratic sentient computer, linked up to just about anything in the base (except for weapons, which was a smart move on the humans side, if you ask Roghar), help full at times a menace at others, spurts out essential information, totally useless information and much needed (not) explanations on everything. Nika Female Arctic Fox. Snow-white fur covering her face and muzzle to match the long white hair and pointed ears with just a bit of black at the tips and a jet-black nose. Roghar: Big muscled Male Snow Leopard. Veteran. Reflex: A male otter with dark fur and small ears common to his kind, he is skilled in old languages and allergic to Hyoomans! Saltire: Female Striped Skunk. Only slightly paranoid. Xavier: Male Red Fox, with an edge in anything mechanical or electrical. Wears spectacles. --------------------- Version Notes; This version was edited for spelling and grammar with a few changes for clarity on 8/22/97 Changes in content made by Naros 8/23/97 A paragraph I left off by accident. (Sorry!) 8/26/97 Updated Character list and added section by Lyra Madril 8/29/97 Addition and a few corrections of spelling etc. by Krinn 9/26.97 Spelling and grammar corrections and added section by Naros. 11/2/97 Major spelling and grammar corrections. 8/5/98 Converted to HTML 8/9/98 The story so far . . . ******************************************************************************** ************* The Cave The darkness that permeated the cave was absolute. Light was unknown to this part of the cave and the silence of eons was broken only by the gentle lapping of water in a pool of inky black water that was the only entrance to this alien world. The occasional echo of water dripping from some distant stalagmite would almost thunder through the silence. Although dark and silent, it was not entirely lifeless. Blind insects and animals, having adapted themselves to a life without the warmth of a sun, went on about their business, oblivious to everything beyond their cave. This dark world has seen few visitors from the outside over the ages. Perhaps a swimming animal had braved the long, dark underwater channel leading from the cold mountain lake to escape predators or to find a quiet place to die. Several small skeletons of animals that would not or could not leave littered the floor. Some were fossilized, some were more resent. Their footprints were still undisturbed in the sand. Something began to change in this dark, silent tomb. The water in the pool went from a sheet of glass to a torrent of ripples. Something moved somewhere deep within the tunnel leading into the pool. It was something large. Bubbles began to break the surface, adding an effervescent hiss to the cave that echoed loudly in the darkness. Suddenly, light stabbed upward from the gloom. It reflected off the cave's ceiling and danced off countless limestone formations damp with shimmering moisture. Light that had not touched this limestone since it began as a diatom sinking to the bottom of a long dry ocean. Soon more light came up from the pool, spilling out into the cave. Beams of light wildly searched the walls of the cave, moving frantically from all sides of the pool. The pool's surface was awash with waves and bubbles. The bubbles grew from a hiss to a mad jumble of gurgles, pops and splashes. A form moved slowly and deliberately just under the surface. Without warning, a head surfaced with a splash and a bubbling exhalation. Its face was covered by a mask similar to a motorcycle helmet with a flexible tube running to a tank worn on its back. The figure raised its arm holding the flashlight above its head and shined it upon the shimmering walls of the cave. Satisfied, the swimmer moved to the steeply sloped bank of the pool, its breathing loud and bubbly in the gloom of the cave. When the diver neared the bank, it tossed a rather large waterproof case onto the shore then disappeared underwater. A few seconds later the figure reappeared and stood up on the incline leading out of the water. With a flashlight in one hand he threw a pair of swim fins onto the sand next to the case and proceeded to walk out of the water. When he got to the case he set the flashlight down and slid back a lens shield and flipped a switch. The light went from focused to omni-directional and filled the cavern with light. That being done, the figure began to remove its dive gear. First, with a push of a button on the side of the dive helmet it split in the middle and the back folded upwards allowing long, damp white hair to fall out, then with both hands sliding the helmet forward away from the face, the figure carefully removed it. This revealed the diver to be a female arctic fox with snow white fur covering her face and muzzle to match the long white hair and pointed ears with just a bit of black at the tips and a jet black nose startling against all that white fur. From the neck down she was dressed in a black skintight neoprene wet suit and booties. She removed the rest of her dive gear and set it near the case. She walked back to the edge of the pool and watched as three more heads emerged from the water. Two wore the same type of dive gear as she while one wore nothing but a small air tank and regulator, which it didn't seem to need. This figure lithely swam to the bank and hopped out in a fluid motion that only an otter in its element could do. The otter padded up to the pile of gear and added the tank and a small waterproof case. The lamp revealed a male otter with dark fur and small ears common to his kind. The two went back to the edge and helped the other two figures with their gear and helped them out of the water. The vixen helped the third diver out of his gear, revealing a male snow leopard. He showed his affection for her in the way all felines do, by rubbing the side of his face against her muzzle. "Thanks for the help, love," he purred. By this time, the otter had helped the fourth diver with its diving equipment. The vixen and leopard turned to watch as a female striped skunk engaged the otter in a passionate muzzle-locking kiss. As she released him, the otter turned to the other two, "Well, we're all here," he panted. "Lets get going." "All right. Saltire, you come with me. We'll start exploring while you guys run some tests. Remember, the idea is total concealment." "You two try not to take too long. And be careful, the waters high this time of year." The snow leopard growls, his deep voice reverberating off rippled stone walls. "Yes daddy!" jokes Reflex, the otter, wrinkling his nose at the much larger leopard. The otter and the skunk move off into the darkness. Both have very good night vision so their light is very dim and flickers faintly as it recedes. The vixen and leopard stay behind and start setting up the equipment. He does the brute work as her nimble fingers fly over delicate connections. "Yes Daddy" the snow leopard muttered...copying the face Reflex had pulled when he shot off that remark "I would have liked to gone exploring..." he thought out loud. "Just hand me that tool-pack Roghar," she said giggling. As the two moved away in the darkness, they heard a giggle that abruptly stopped when the skunk gazed back over her shoulder. Moments later, the otter and the skunk were moving slowly through the cave surveying it's many branching tunnels. "Look at this Reflex!" said Saltire excitedly, initially attracted by yet an other animal skeleton that apparently couldn't see in the darkness and tried to dig its way out...it's claw marks stop grimly where it's paws (now bones) rest. Reflex dashed up to her, "What is it? Wow would you look at that!" he said holding a paw in front of his muzzle. He had discovered something odd; a large piece of wall had strange markings on it. Saltire nudged him softly in the side. "Huh?" was a slightly dazed response from the awe-struck otter, "What do you make of it?" she asked him curiously. "It's some sort of old writing, I'll have to study it to tell more about it." Reflex replied while already looking at the strange markings on the wall. "Well no time for that now." Saltire said quickly, "we have some more exploring to do . . . well come on!" He looked into Saltire's eyes "OK, lets go. I'll have to study these later." Walking on into the main corridor Reflex suddenly stopped, turning towards his mate. "Did you hear that?" he asked turning his head sideways. "What?" Saltire said as she focused her ears into the darker extent of the cave. "No, nothing." she responded looking at his tiny ears, "I'd hear things before you would." she grinned. "Well I could have sworn . . . " Following a short pause and a puzzled look, Saltire kissed him on his cheek and said, "Come on, can't wait here all day!" After 60 feet Reflex whispered, "There it is again!" as he heard footsteps along with a soft tapping sound, but she didn't hear it. "It's just your mind playing tricks on you." she said, smiling at him. "Eew, what that?" she said pointing at a blob slowly moving forward leaving a trail of slime. "Probably a slug or something like it". Ignoring it completely, Reflex stepped over the 'slime'. "Well if it is, it's the biggest slug I ever saw!" she shuddered as she walked around it in a big circle. "What was that?" looking at Reflex she said, "now you've got me doing it!" she grinned. Suddenly, they heard footsteps, mumbling and a thud. "Now that, I DID hear!" she said, avoiding his eyes which would most probably say 'I told you so'. Moving in the direction from where the sound had come from, they only found a black onyx box. It appeared to be about an inch thick, three wide and four tall with strange isometric lines etched onto it. "Let’s go back and show this to Roghar he'll know what it is..."Saltire said while picking the thing up. "I'll race ya!" she said, rushing past him. He turned and ran in pursuit, "You can't win from me!" he shouted after her. "Watch me . . .. " Walking back out of the caves after a playful round of tag, they came into the open area where they had left their friends only to find no one there! They went to the side of the pool searching frantically. "They're gone!" Saltire said, looking at Reflex for comfort, but he was studying the footprints in a patch of sand and dust. "What are those?" she asked pointing at the scruffy footprints. "The gear is gone too, so no turning back for help from the others on the surface . . . they look like paws . . . wrapped in thick cloth" he said while sniffing the prints..."HYOOMANS!" he snarled. "Didn't they go extinct after they nearly destroyed the entire world?" she asked, her voice trembling. "Apparently not. Let's find out for sure," placing his hand on his weapon. As they set of into the dark recesses of the cave, Saltire suggested Reflex ought to try and find out what those markings mean. "They may have something to do with all this, " she continued. "It seems to be old-hyooman writing, can you read it?" Saltire asked, looking at the markings, "Because I can't." "I can try," he shrugged as he concentrated on the writing. After a moments silence he started translating it. "It tells of a 'Great wrong' and a group of Hyoomans calling themselves 'Man's Legacy' that went 'into hiding' and a number 2010 . . . that's all I can figure out. It's in English - common language back then, the way I figure it." "Hyoomans here? What " Saltire stopped in mid-sentence as the black onyx box began to glow a dull blue. "Drop it! It's magic!" Reflex yelled.She dropped it only to pick it up a second later, "Magic, ha! I haven't heard tales of magic since I was a child!" "Well, I still say it's magic." Reflex muttered. The onyx box's glow dimmed and faded. "Well now what?" Saltire said while studying the box. "We have to find them . . . if there are Hyoomans here, and we have to be quick about it!" he answered. He then bent close to floor, his long whiskers begin to quiver and twitch. He followed the scent trail along the wall and after a minute or so he wrinkled up his face and said, "Something's making me... Achoo!" He sneezed, tears streaming from his eyes. He sneezed again, and again. "Reflex, I think you're allergic to Hyoomans! That's great!" Saltire said excitedly. "Great how?" Saltire shrugged, "well if we lose the trail, all we have to do is find the place that makes you sneeze!" ******************************************************************************** ************* Consciousness returned slowly to the fox. She couldn’t see a thing. She found she was bound hand and paw. She sniffed cautiously. Leopard musk. "Roghar? Are you ok?" She was answered by a thin moan. Nika tried to scoot closer to him, and found that there were cold metal bars between them. "Roghar?" "Nika" he growled. "I'm tied up" "Me too. Do you know what happened?" "Not a clue. One moment wires and switches and the next - whammo! Ooh, my head hurts." "Do, do you think its..." she trailed off "How could the Purists finds us down here? The only reason we know about these caves is that old journal. It's something else." "Roghar, if there's one thing an old campaigner like you should know, it's that backup is always helpful. I made another copy from the one you made. Someone will find it," she said confidently. "I hope..."she muttered to herself. Roghar, meanwhile, was testing the ropes that held his arms, wrists, and legs. Nothing a wily old leopard couldn't handle given a couple hours... ******************************************************************************** ************* "I can't stand this! AAACHOOO! Lets just take a rest...please?" Saltair suppressed a snicker as she looked at the pleading otter, who was sneezing every third word and looking very funny. "All right, we'll stop" she said, feigning reluctance. "If you're SURE you need a rest..." "AAACHOO! Oh, good, let's sit down over there. AAACHOOO!" Saltair couldn't hold herself. She giggled, and was soon laughing uncontrollably. "What's so funny?" the otter asked a little grumpily as he sat down. "You! You looked so.... funny when you were sneezing." she said between giggles. "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself" he replied a bit acidly. "Some of us *sniff* are having allergy attacks and." "Did you hear that?" she asked. "I told you there was something here and it’s headed this way" "C'mon, I bet we could hide in the rubble over there" Saltair whispered as she pointed to a pile of rocks. "Let's go!" Voices approached. "Where'd we lose Mark?" One voice was a bit boyish. "Back there somewhere...wasp got him." an older, grating voice. "Quiet. You know how they hear..." that one was a commanding tone. Reflex whispered "You think it's safe to look?" "Maybe. Wait a moment before you do though. Those voices sound weird..." "Why are we going this way?" Another voice, a higher-pitched one. "We got directions, remember?" the kid again. "The dead tend to be liberal with the truth, you know." the woman said. "It's what we have to work with." The commander ended the speaking for the moment. Reflex edged half of his head around the boulder he was behind. There were 5 Hyoomans out in the open, wearing some sort of loose, gray clothing with a white stripe down the side and a visored helmet. They were carrying what he recognized as weapons, and old ones even for weapons made by humans. There were two women and three men. One of the women had a gold stripe down the side of her uniform instead of a white one, and Reflex guessed that she was "the commander". She was glaring at one of the men, a slightly built one who didn't look as confident as the others. It was impossible to place his age accurately, but a first guess would be about 19. The commander abruptly grabbed the kid's arm and dragged him towards the boulder that Reflex was hiding behind. Saltair, watching from behind a pile of rubble a few meters away, saw them and groaned inwardly. She saw Reflex press himself against the boulder and try to be invisible. It didn’t look like it was working. The commander got to the rock, swung the kid around against the rock, and pinned him by a shoulder. Reflex was puzzled. Why couldn't they see him? He was right next to them and not hidden all that well either. The commander spoke, and he decided to just listen. "Look, I know how you feel about her. I've felt that way about people too. The difference is, this is incredibly dangerous. If you two fool around, you could very easily get us all killed. If that happens, I don't know if you'll be able to talk after you're dead like those other guys, but if I can, I'll be cursing you roundly for the next few thousand years. Are we connecting all the dots? Good. Now go." She gestured imperiously, and the youth left. After he left, the commander slumped against the stone, removed her helmet, and started speaking to herself. "God, I hate having to do that. Why did it have to be him that reminded me of Bob? He was doing the right thing, and then the Hunter got him. He knew how well they see, and he still got killed." "Jeeeezz" the commander stepped around the boulder again, on the opposite side she had stepped around on first.... and stepped right through Reflex! The commander noticed nothing, and started to give commands to move on. As soon as the Hyoomans disappeared, Saltair rushed over to Reflex. "What happened?!?!?" she asked desperately. "I don't know! Didn't the journal say something about ghosts though?" "Jeez, and I though it was a figure of speech!" "We'd better get going. If everything is right, we could be in for some very nasty stuff here," he said. "I second the idea." "Then let's go." ******************************************************************************** ************* --meanwhile outside the cave, on the mountainside— A fox wrapped in a blue cloak sat on a large boulder above the water pool. He watched lights slowly coming towards him from the valley below, he mumbled to himself, "they’re taking too long! . . . and why did *I* have to stay behind anyway?" He sat there quietly watching the dusk close on him. Suddenly he woke up from an unplanned nap, "wha . . . what? Oh damn, Purists!" A light shines directly in his face, he starts to scramble to his feet. "Stay where you are!" He fumbled for his weapon... suddenly everything seemed to happen at once, lights shined on him from all directions. "Give up you've got no chance." Xavier swirled towards the voice; another bright light as he squinted his sharp eyes he saw the outlines of a bear, then several bullets ricocheted of the rock next to him. "Don't let him get away!" the bear shouted in a booming voice. Xavier jumped backwards off the boulder, shouting "You'll have to do better then that Gregor!" as he hits the water, he grabbed the oxygen mask from his belt and he starts to swim down. As he swam deeper and deeper down the dark tunnel he found a side tunnel, "That’s got to be the cave from the journal!" Xavier thought to himself, "They must have gone in there!" As he glances up from the murky depth he sees the lights at the surface, a blinking light distracts him; "I must hurry in to the cave!" he thought to himself and while swimming down into the cave his air runs out of the little air tank only meant for emergencies He quickly dashed up to the ceiling of the side-tunnel hoping to find an air pocket. A glimmer at the cave ceiling attracted his attention, a promise of air for his burning lungs. "Foxes aren't supposed to do this..." he swam up to the air as fast as he could possibly go. He surfaced explosively and promptly smacked the low ceiling with his head, knocking him out cold. He regained consciousness slowly, counting himself lucky not to have drowned before or after cracking his head on the rocks. Shaking his aching head, things started to clear up a little. He looked around and found himself in a tiny cave; apparently the entrance to a cramped tunnel. He rubbed the bump on his head "Ooow!" he muttered as he started to walk down the cramped dark tunnel, which seemed to be the only way out. He walked a few steps until he found a relative wide spot in the passageway and shook himself dry and attempted to wring the water from his tail. Satisfied, he continued to walk down the tunnel. After just a few minutes the tunnel stopped. "Dead end! Just my luck...ooh wait!" remembering an obscure passage from the journal, he pressed an ordinary looking rock. It slid back into a recess to reveal an access-panel. After fumbling with it for a few seconds the cave wall suddenly just slides away, revealing a room beyond. Glancing into the room he sees security monitors flicker, all kinds of furniture and equipment broken and turned over, "This place is wasted!" Finding a computer that was still working, he typed in English the command that was the most logical to him: STATUS REPORT. Green luminous words flash on the screen: COLONIZATION MODULE ....... INTACT OK HUMAN POPULATION .......... 5410 OK Xavier skips the obviously faulty readings... tries the command "LOG" A metallic voice reads the message on the screen "No sentient life found on the planet." "Then what am I?" Xavier cuts in. The voice speaks on. "...colonization on schedule, grand scale colonization in: 15 days; 10 hours; 35 minutes; 14 seconds." "This thing must have a lose wire!!! Things certainly don't "look" OK!" A panel blows and the circuitry fizzles. "Or maybe two..." A confused babble of voices surrounds Xavier. " Can you hear me? A new battery...!" " -andal? NO. TROUBLE." "Good luck..." "-ey're everywhere!" "T minus 15.354643456434653544687101 + 9 years until the universe clo-" "-rrit White had been floating 6 feet off the floor..." Xavier covered his ears, and the turmoil died down a little. He crouched in a corner and waited. Finally, the voices stopped. Xavier sat up and looked around. Only one voice was speaking, from the terminal he'd touched first. "I surmise that &^%^I˜*˜iÞ˜ÞÁþÐ have plans for old Deimos, they bought the colony ship for sale..." Xavier made a curious little noise, and the terminal's tone changed. "Aaaah...being in a containment unit for five hundred or so isn't exactly beauty sleep, but it does help. Now then, who are you? You sure don't look much like that guy that used to work for me. Oh well. Your mission here-" "Hmm? Mission? Who are you...wait you're just a computer, you're not talking coherently..." "Wanna bet? I'm Durandal, and you are doing what I tell you to because I won't let you leave otherwise. Now, as I was saying-" "Yeah, right. I can just walk out of here." "Not if there's a Spfh't there who doesn't want you to." "Spfh't? What are you talking about?" he asked. "You are a greenhorn, aren't you. Listen carefully. Those metal-headed-big-robed-things-which-shoot-green-and-yellow-bolts-at-you-when-the y're-angry. THOSE Spfh't. Now, listen this time or I'll-" "I don't see any 'Spfh't' around here, and even if I did know what you're talking about, I bet I wouldn’t be convinced." "Oh yeah? Let's see how you handle a close encounter with one..." The speaker chuckled ominously...for several seconds. Nothing happened. "Umm, would you mind keeping it down?" asked the fox, industriously trying to repair a console across the room. " I'm trying to work here." ******************************************************************************** ************* Roghar and Nika finished getting their ropes off, and congratulated themselves in whispers. After conferring a moment, they had a plan. Roghar groaned, growled, and finally roared, shaking the table he was strapped to. A door opened in the stone wall, and two figures strode in. They were human. It took Roghar a moment to realize this, but Nika acted quickly. She stepped up to the first human and dropped him with a head kick. As the second one turned to look at what had happened, he received the full weight of Roghar crashing into him from behind, the leopard trailing the remains of his "bonds". After assuring themselves that no one else was coming, Nika and Roghar took stock of their situation. The humans were unconscious and likely to stay that way. It was fascinating to see real, live, humans, but they had no leisure to study them. They took the weapons the humans were carrying; two pistols of somewhat high caliber, an assault rifle, and some sort of energy weapon. There was also some of what they assumed was ammunition for each of these. After a little while, Nika carefully stuck her head outside the door. There was a long corridor with several normal-looking doors along it. They were at one end of it. The other end curved sharply away and out of sight. "All-right, Roghar, you're the old campaigner: what do we do?" "Let's see. You want we should try to get out, or explore?" he asked. "I think we should explore towards an exit. If we find one, we're out of here, but if we don't let's just keep looking." She grinned. "All right, let's go with 'what would happen anyway," said Roghar a bit smirkingly as he started down the corridor, counting doors on his left as he went. He stopped on the seventh one. "Let's try this one." "All right. You want to go in first?" "I suppose . . . " ******************************************************************************** ************* Reflex was tired. The otter had been walking for what felt like hours, he was sure they were lost, and he needed some water. "Sal, can't we stop sometime? Preferably soon . . . " "C'mon, it's pretty close to here" "You know, that's the third time you've said that in as many hours . . ." "But I'm sure of it," she assured him. Just then, the passage turned, and Saltire, in the lead, stopped to look around the bend. There was the pool, but they were on a ledge several meters above it. There were three humans standing around the pool. Saltire motioned Reflex forward "Look hyoomans!" "We have to find them, we need their help and they need ours" the commander of the scouting team stated. "When the ancients come it won't mater anyway." the smaller of the two soldiers cut in. "Don't say tha-" the bigger soldier started to say as he turned around wide-eyed. Reflex leaped into the group of humans from off of the ledge, knocking the two soldiers down and pinning the leader down under his weight. "What have you done with our friends?" he thundered, twitching his muzzle. "N-no d-don't, we meen you no harm..." the commander stutterd. Achoo! achoo! ******************************************************************************** ************* Roghar and Nika sit with their backs to a boulder in an otherwise metal-coated corridor, shots ricocheting of the boulder and zooming over their heads. "So it was the wrong door, how was I suppose to know?" Nika said shaking... "Its hopeless" Roghar groaned, as he took Nika in a protective embrace. A panel in the ceiling opens up. "Oh great, now the automated defenses are gonna get us before the Purists do." Nika muttered. The automated turret unfolds from the ceiling and starts shooting ... "I thought you might need some help" A familiar voice said. "Xavier!" Nika and Roghar said at the same time. Glancing up at the turret and over the boulder, they could see a group of purists getting blasted, the turret shot some sort of blue balls, stunning the purist as they ran, "Retreat!" a young fox shouted just before he was hit. Some made it to cover but didn't return fire (The fact of the mater is they dropped their weapons in blind panic.). "The one and only." Xavier replied. Glancing around the two found out where Xavier's voice came from. It was a small communications panel built into the wall. Roghar moved over to the Com-Unit and smiled at Xavier. Xavier twitched his ears as he smiled back "I'm glad your-Wow!" Xavier dodges something and moves out of video-range, the screen lights up in a flash, a fizzle as something strikes near the Com-Unit where Xavier was and fizzles, something metallic clatters on the floor, then the sounds of an energy weapon firing thunders from the Com-Units speakers. Then the distorted image of Xavier moves back into camera range, "Thanx." "Your ever so welcome." Durandal said. "Let me fix this static... there done, how’s the picture now?" asked Xavier. "Who's that with you?" Nika asked with a confused look on her face. Xavier sigh's "Just that lamebrain computer." "Just a lamebrain computer that just saved your ass-" the metallic voice mutters "Anyway they are onto me." Xavier cut in. "Anyway, I'm not just a computer, I'm a S160 consciousness level biocircuitry prototype from..." the computer mumbles through the conversation. "Who is onto you?" Nika asked slightly startled. Xavier tips back his glasses and starts to explain "The Ancients, the creature who attacked me was a Sphf't -" "I told you there where Sphf't here." Durandal spat "Ok I'm sorry now be quiet, as I was saying: the Sphf’t are a slave race of the Ancients "Ancients?" Roghar growled, his tail twitching. "Right, Ancients a race older then history writes, a hunters race, we (The Humans and I), found this artifact base here several years ago, whe-" Durandal kindly explained. "No time for that now," Saltire said & Xavier nodded in approval. Roghar asks "Why doesn't your computer put up those defenses all over the base, and why IS he helping us?" "I am not his computer, I am Durandal." "He is not connected to any weaponry outside this secondary command post, when I detected weapon fire I saw you and activated that turret just in time, but I haven't much time..." Xavier pressed. "Smart thinking on the hyoomans side..." Roghar mumbled. "The Humans are trying to stop the ancients from taking this world." "Ancient’s fleet approaching the edge of the solar system now, Human colonisation ship ETA 1 day 6 hours 14 minutes." Durandal's metallic voice recites. Roghar slaps a paw to his face "The Hyoomans are on our side?" Xavier glanced about and hastily said "And the purists are not, move back down the corridor and head east, remember meet me at the command center" A three dimensional map appears on the screen showing the path. Roghar & Nika ran down the damp and dimly lit corridors, after taking numerous turns they run into a group of purists, who furiously charged at them, but then began to shoot at random, in panic. "Ghosts!" Roghar snarled The Purists fire in a frenzy, trying to shoot the ghosts, instead they ended up shooting their comrades in the progress, several seconds (And 300 rounds) later the remaining purists ran. The ghost faded from sight. "So now we have a ghost on our side." Nika said looking very puzzled indeed. Okay you've read the story .. now pay the price! You have to go see my Den ! Oh BTW my name is Naros Soulfox and im hosting this page at http://www.tigress.com/naros/misc/the_cave.txt =) If you have a story you wanna put up there .. just let me know by pouncing me or something =)