Galactica: Book 1 - Via Lactea

 

The Ian Expedition left the Eden Tessaract to return within standard space-time, as defined by living within the ASS Thebes that is.

"Thebes, keep the lock-down on Eden until further notice."

"Acknowledged, Ian."

"Right, let us test this sampling of Bee genes. Lady Electra, you are to report to the Imperial Suite, where we shall be headed. Convert!"

The entire expedition, minus the Faery, Lady Electra, converted into Worker Bees and flew off.

«Ian, are you aware that we shall not be able to fly from the space-ship to the Aquarian?"

«And why not, Sitar?»

«Even if the FSS can adjust to a Bee, winging it it out of the question, and the FSS will have reduced autonomy with such a diminutive size. We know it from the Faeries that are in the Forces. I had to ask Paschal to redesign the FSS for them. Now it is a miniature Thebes they man. Each sphere is about the size of a soccer, and is manned by two Faeries.»

«And why would winging it not be possible?»

«For the wing beats to propel a Bee, there must be air or a gas of sufficient density. Now, define Interstellar Void?»

«Sitar, you are a pain in the arse.»

«How can you tell? We never did anything together in that domain.»

«Do not start him on the issue! We shall hear things we need not, and I hear enough and see enough to fill my fantasies for the next thousand years,» exclaimed Harp.

The group reached a portal, but even their combined weight could not trigger a response from the controls.

«It is time to test the addition I had planned with Paschal before we were rudely interrupted by that expedition. I hope the update propagated correctly,» said Harp. With that, Harp concentrated hard and ordered the portal to activate and port anything within its volume to the portal of the Imperial suite. Nothing happened, much to Harp’s surprise.

«Has it ever occurred to you, oh smart one, that it might require more than a Bee brain to operate that mental interface?" snickered Ian, who had not digested Harp’s barbs.

«Considering an individual Bee has barely more brain than a pea, surprises of the sort will abound!" noted Colibri.

Harp tried the Hive brain trick, but it did not work either.

«GRR! I shall incinerate that portal!»

«Do not bother, your fire thrower is also Bee-sized, not much of an effective tool!» Typhoon replied, barely controlling his laughter.

«Before trying to whip a tornado in a die, maybe Mister Stormy Pants could consider that we are working at the wrong brain wave frequencies?» Colibri replied. «Just change back to your obnoxious but cute self, Harp, and use the portal. We have lost enough time as it is!»

«Up your stinking butt!» answered Harp, furious.

«My butt is not stinking, it is stinging, and if you do not move yours to the portal controls, your cute Royal butt will learn all about it!»

«I shall talk about the frequency issue to Paschal,» grumbled Harp.

«Hey, do not unlock the portals to Insect frequencies! We have enough issues with them as it is!» exclaimed Colibri just before Harp converted to his Atlantean Boy form and ordered the portal to move them to the Imperial Suite.

***

Harold and Annabelle were reading reports in the Imperial Library when Harp and the members of the Ian expedition materialised in the Entry Hall. Harp immediately converted back to his Bee form, and accompanied by the others, flew around the suite looking for his adoptive Dad and Mom.

«Damn, this place is huge! I can barely recognize my own home!» exclaimed Ian as he spotted multiple images of Alexander drawing something with his faceted eyes.

«Imagine if we had taken the form of Mites!»

«Given how interested in Arses you are, Harp, I can easily picture you as an arse Mite!»

«I am not interested in arses... well except for Thorsten’s that is.»

«That is not what I experience!» exclaimed Jormungandr, Harp’s Dragon bonded.

«Nor is it what I feel when we play!» added Thorsten’s bonded, Anbraxias.

«I get it! I come out as a perfect pervert!»

«Yes, oh great one!» answered everyone.

Harp tried hard to test if Bees could blush!

«So, they are not in their Study; they are not in the Bedroom, or the Kitchen, or the Hall, or the Living Room. I am not interested in visiting the Bathroom. Who knows what kinky stuff may be happening there? So where else?»

«The Library! It is huge, and contains an impressive segment of restricted access documents not found in the General Library. Given I placed our expedition under the maximum secret level, FYEO1, the only hard copies of the reports we forwarded, however parsimonious we were in filling these progress reports, have to be in the Special Section of the Imperial Library!» exclaimed Ian.

«You did what?» thundered Harp.

«I did for the best, Harp. Can you imagine the panic in Thebes if what we found became public without proper preparation and safeguards? We can not afford a mob in a space ship, however huge the space-ship is!»

«The Library entrance is down one level, right beside where Alexander was drawing. It is like he is waiting on someone and passing time.»

«Anbraxias is right. That drawing was more like a doodle than a technical drawing, not that there is many ways to differentiate the two with Alexander. Even his doodles compete with Paschal’s architectural drawings!» commented Typhoon.

The swarm of Bees flew down the staircase and reached the library entrance. There, an unexpected obstacle presented itself: the door was closed.

«What is it with hurdles? I am not a steeplechase Horse!» moaned Harp, frustrated.

«No, you are a pissed off wannabe!» replied Typhoon.

«I have a suggestion. Let us attract Alexander’s attention. He is so focussed on his drawing that he has not seen us. This lack of attention to his environment might cost him dearly one day.»

«How do you plan to do this, Typhoon?»

«To paraphrase from a master, I shall say ‘watch me!’"

Typhoon flew by Alexander’s left ear, and got swiped on the side for his effort. After recovering his flight stability, he decided to change tactics. He landed on the Boy’s nose, only to barely escape getting squashed by a hand.

«Stubbornness must run in the family!»

«No, he is only Blond!» replied Jormungandr.

«Hey, I happen to like Blonds!»

«You must be colour-blind, then! Thorsten is a red-head!»

Meanwhile, Typhoon began flying around Alexander’s head in a circle, trying to break his concentration. He flew near the ears, under the nose, trying to induce a coughing fit, in the armpits or the rib cage, or directly in front of his eyes. Nothing worked! Suddenly, a Mosquito swapper materialised and began hunting Typhoon across the room! At first, Typhoon tried to outrun the mad Mosquito swapper, but the infernal contraption had as good flying abilities as the poor Dragon!

«Use it to attract his attention! Make it swap his butt!» suggested Brinsop.

Typhoon understood the validity of the strategy and landed on the very exposed arse cheeks, waiting for the Mosquito swapper to hit. It did not take long, and a resounding smack was heard across the room, as Alexander jumped five feet in the air! Typhoon barely escaped with his life by flying between the spread legs, close to Alexander’s dangling bits.

«Talk about a privileged first-seat view of the Male anatomy!»

«Harp!» moaned the others, «Get your brain out of the gutter!»

«I can not help it! I miss Thorsten too much!»

«Go get laid!»

«What do you think I shall do once the report is in? Play dominoes, maybe?»

Meanwhile, Alexander began to come back to the immediate reality and noticed the Bees flying around.

"Where the hell do these Insects come from? I need to call the Exterminator! Oh, I forgot, the Exterminator, aka Sitar, is in the Eden Tessaract. I always have to do all the dirty work myself!"

«Hey guys, we better get the message across before he takes out Bee poison and starts spraying it around!» Enron said as he figured Alexander’s body language.

The Bees took an arrow shape and pointed at the door, clearly trying to convey they wanted it open. Alexander was having none of it.

«Damn it! Down on the work he is doing! Let us spell out ‘Open Door! Ian’ and see if he gets it!»

Alexander saw the Bees land on his precious work and only the fact that the Bees would have ruined it if he had smeared them with the Mosquito swapper stopped him from flattening them into crêpes. It took 30 seconds for the words to form, and another ten seconds before Alexander’s brain finally registered the words and their meaning!

"You fools! All this to play a trick on Mom and Dad! I almost killed all my brothers in a single stroke! Do not, ever, do that again!"

Alexander opened the door and looked inside the Imperial Library. He could not see his parents, but he knew they were there. Converting to a Sabre-tooth Snow Leopard Feline, he used his now hyper-sensitive nose to stalk them. The Bees took the opportunity to hide in the thick fur of the Feline rather than fly off. Why fly when you had free bussing? Alexander tracked Annabelle’s smell up a spiralling staircase that led to different landings of the Library, organised in a beautiful Fusinus Rostratus shell with ever narrower landings as they progressed upward. Near the tip, with still three landings to go, was a closed-off section separated from the main Imperial Library by a currently locked safety gate. Alexander looked at the lock and took a mighty swipe at it, literally tearing it off the gate. Alarms began ringing all over the place, much to his annoyance.

«Stop the crap now! I need to talk to my parents, and you will let me open that gate by whatever means I judge, is that clear?»

«But this is a restricted area!» exclaimed the Security Artificial Intelligence.

«Shove your security concerns up your circuits, or I shall dump you in the Oceanic Tessaract! I am the second in line to the Throne, and I have access, got it?» Too bad it does not have an arse hole, or that is where its attitude would go! Alexander thought. «What are you waiting to shut down that alarm? My ears and temper are getting irritated!»

The Library Security system had never been invoked and was a bit stymied by the life form it detected. Unable to decide, it referred to Thebes’ subroutines to hammer out a decision, and was shocked to get severely put down for treating a member of the Imperial family as a simple robber! It finally conceded, after Thebes threatened to short its power lines!

Once the noise vanished, Alexander used his right paw to open the gate, catching a forepaw toe in the process, and getting even more enraged. He literally tried to tear the gate off the wall, but the bolts were thick, deep, and unmovable. His hair stood on end, making him look three times his normal Feline size, and his razor-sharp claws were fully extended, while his tail swished left and right violently and his ears were laying flat on his skull. He was growling, eyes narrowed and teeth bared. Luckily, the gate was already dead, or it would have died of fright!

Alexander returned to his tracking and quickly found the Imperial couple so focussed on what they had been reading they had not heard the alarm. Harold was the first to notice the arrival of the Cat in the room, more because he could smell the strong odour of adrenalin that preceded Alexander’s arrival than from seeing him. As soon as he saw the huge Feline, he understood something was wrong, and he shook Annabelle to get her attention. He pointed Alexander out to Annabelle, who gasped.

"If I read that body language right, let us do no brusk move and wear Dragon skin. He has gone feral, Harold."

Just to prove her point, Alexander shredded a settee in the blink of and eye and bellowed loudly while sending bits and pieces of furniture flying in every direction. It took several minutes for Alexander to spend his rage on the defenceless furnishing.

Once the Feline had calmed down, the Bees exited the fur and took to doing acrobatic movements in front of the stunned Imperial pair. Finally, Harold remembered the report given to him by a now sleeping Timor about the FYEO1 security issue and signalled to Annabelle not to worry.

"I know what is going on. These Bees are the Ian expedition members."

"This is nuts! Why did they convert to Bees if it was not necessary outside of the Eden Tessaract?"

"I am sure this is another one of the pranks these terrors have thought of. Ok, guys, the best jokes are the shortest, back to your Boy form. And I did not say natural form, Typhoon! I have no wish to be converted into a compressed steak!"

The expedition members quickly converted to Atlantean form and sat down around as soon as Harp had removed every shard and splinter of wood from the area with a simple cleaning command. Ian replaced the devastated furniture, and Alexander kept his Feline form, purring noisily as Sitar rubbed his ears.

"He has the family temper all right!" he explained.

"We did not need to get a demonstration to know it!" replied Annabelle rather acidly.

"Did one of you sting him?"

"Hey, Dad, we are hot-tempered, but not suicidal. When a Bee Worker stings, it uses its oviduct and dies when the venom sack is torn out of her. I am not particularly interested in that way of dying!" replied Colibri.

Harold blinked, and then looked at the impressive group.

"I understand the FYEO1 security level, Ian, and I have confirmed it. However, are there other issues?"

"As if we did not have enough? Consider this, Dad. There were 32 Ant nests in the clearing into which the main entrance to the Eden Tessaract leads. We dealt with only one of them. Now, the Bee Hive is interested in Elevation and there are several Hives in the vicinity of the one we contacted. To be honest, I need to do some research in the Eden Tessaract to establish beehive distribution, and species. I am worried because, as you know, we found out that the Ancients had imported African Bees in America to improve honey production, and these Bees are notoriously more aggressive. We must imperatively remove that trait out of their gene pool, and that will not be an easy task."

"I did not know you were interested in Bees, Son?" asked Harold.

"Stay stuck with the Imperial Ethologist for days on end in a Wolf Den with nothing to do and you learn a lot. By the way, what was the cause of that prolonged alert?"

"The Aquarian Mating ritual was, let us say, rather troubling, and the birthing of the new Aquarians was spectacular if sobering."

"I see. Who is in command?"

"Greywolf. He is assisted by the Runt."

"Ok. I shall pay the Bridge a visit. It seems we shall not need to infiltrate the Aquarian?"

"Maybe the youngsters of the species, but certainly not the Female. It is now a comet orbiting the star. I plan to sleep in the Nest tonight and enjoy some well-deserved fun. Tomorrow, we begin another day."

"Dad!!!"

"Hey, I miss my Boys! I think I will go camping with the Rolling cart and you Boys one of these days. Being Emperor is over-rated!"

"What were you searching for when we so rudely interrupted you?" asked Harp.

"Oh, I was wondering if there were information about similar encounters in the Secret Imperial Archives. It seems it is not the case."

"I have to study another aspect, while trying to do terrain research, Harold."

Harold blinked. It was the first time Colibri called him by his first name after all these years. What had troubled the young Ethologist to the point he lost his almost reverential attitude toward him? Ignoring the question for now, Harold raised his right eyebrow to the hairline, waiting for further clarifications.

"I wonder how domestication occurs? Consider the Wolf. We know the Dog is a Wolf that stays perpetually in juvenile stage. But how did this occur? I doubt the Humans of the stone age had any knowledge of selective breeding!"

"You have a point. But why are you interested?"

"If the Life Forms of the Eden project are striving for Elevation, what about those of the Ark project? That is troubling. The animal life forms of the Eden project are primitive compared with those found in the different layers of the Ark project. We are talking about Insects in one environment versus a wide variety of mammals, amphibians, and birds in the other. This situation worries me, and my only response is to try to domesticate every instance of animal before they become too bright to be handled."

"I think you should talk to the Runt. At some point, he was interested in understanding the origins of the Dogs. Did you know he found a subspecies of foxes that behaved like Dogs and shared their physical traits, including continued playfulness?"

"No, I did not. I shall move to the Bridge immediately after taking a shower. Mister Alexander has Fleas!"

Alexander converted into his Boy form to protest vehemently against these false accusations!

"I do not have Fleas, I shall tell you! You, on the other hand, were covered with Bee Mites!"

Colibri lifted Alexander on his shoulder and began tickling the ribs ferociously, producing hysterical laughter from the victim.

"Stop! Stop! I am about to pee!"

Harp created a diaper right around the offending body section, much to the amusement of the others and a redoubling of the tickle attack by Colibri.

***

Colibri, Alexander, Harp, Enron and Typhoon made their way to the Bridge and entered, finding a quiet, relaxed environment.

"Hey Greywolf! I hope all is to your liking?" asked Colibri as he walked into the bridge.

"Hey Colibri! Yes, it has been quiet."

"I see your Science officer is the Runt. Can we borrow him for a chat?"

"Sure, use the Captain’s Ready Room. Rockhook, can you do dual duty on defence and science stations or a while?"

"Sure."

Colibri led the Runt into the room, and materialised a glass of orange for everyone and a glass of hot blood for the Runt.

"Type O, Rh negative, your favourite, if I remember correctly."

The Runt had a hiccough, but took the glass graciously, smiling at Colibri.

"What are you trying to get from me to resort to bribery?" he asked, still smiling.

"All you know about domestication, my friend. We have an issue."

"What issue?"

Colibri looked at Harp, questioningly. After all, it was not common knowledge that Harold had raised security clearance, and even then, it did not include the Runt.

"First, what is your security clearance?"

"Wow there! I have no security clearance, whatever that is! If it requires a security clearance, I do not wish to know the issue! I have enough of my own troubles without getting in that kind of trouble!"

"This is Thebes, Sir. You do have a security clearance, otherwise, you would not have access to the Bridge and captain the ship, Sir. Your security clearance is Captain Command Level 1, four steps below the one required to get the information you requested."

"Ok. I shall try to answer Colibri’s questions without further information. Let me see. The first studies on the process of domestication were done by the Ancients. Initially, they thought the process was a long and arduous one, but, a few years into the Nuclear Cataclysm, they discovered it was not so. Dmitri Belyaev domesticated wild Foxes in less than three generations by mating the tamest in a group of 700. It went so far in this short interval that the Foxes began showing morphological changes that were getting them progressively closer to the Dogs. Evolution was so quick the Foxes, which initially showed a uniform silver colour, began showing fur patterns closer to the Dogs, a reduction in canine size, and a reduction in brain and cranial size. Within a short interval, the new Foxes showed all the behaviours of the Dogs, including continued Juvenile playfulness, the bonding to Humans, and the fun-loving attitude of a bunch of Dogs. Their tail, initially held low, gradually rose to take the characteristics of the Dogs, a flag-post. They also stopped howling and began to vocalise like Dogs, barking."

"When you say three generations, you mean?"

"Thee years. Foxes are ready to mate nine months after birth. It was the first proof that Darwin’s notion that evolution was slow and time-consuming was wrong. Given the proper conditions, evolution can occur in the blink of an eye. In this instance, by separating the aggressive Foxes from the more tame ones, a new species of Foxes appeared."

"Can this occur in nature, without Human interventions? Asked Enron, fascinated by the unfolding story.

"Yes, and it has happened quite frequently at that. The most explicit example of this phenomenon in a natural setting is the long-lost Bonobo species. It is derived from the Chimpanzee ancestry, and evolved into a much tamer species than the Chimpanzee. According to the Ancients, the emergence of the Congo River separated the original species in two. One species had to compete with the Gorilla for food and became considerably more aggressive, even between members of the same family group, as food was scarce. On the other hand, the Bonobos had a rich supply of food in the lower Congo Basin, and, apparently, the Females spurned aggressive Males. In the long run they evolved into a much gentler species."

"That is most interesting..."

"There is more. The Chimpanzees mated once a year, during so their young were born just prior to the abundant food supply season. On the other hand, the Bonobos mated all year around, and the females came into heat every month, much like the Human females!"

"Wow!"

"The domesticated Foxes also showed changes in mating. Initially, they mated once a year, in winter, so they could have their young in the early Spring. But the docile Foxes changed their mating interval to twice a year, like the Dogs, and also matched the same interval!"

"All this after three generations?"

"Yes. The Ancients began thinking about the Dogs, which are, as I told you earlier, domesticated Wolves. They surmised it happened naturally. The Stone Age men had no knowledge about domesticating animals, so it is the Wolf that domesticated itself!"

"How is that possible? I am sure the Wolves had no more knowledge of genetics than Humans!"

"There is a phenomenon called the ‘fear distance’ beyond which a wild animal will run away. When the Humans began settling down into more stable communities, they created garbage dumps. The Wolves that had the shortest fear distance benefited the most from the dump and reproduced between themselves. It probably took three or four generations to get the first Dogs, no more. Once the Dogs became integrated into the Human community, their rate of change increased exponentially. The Humans might not have had rocket science, but they noticed that the primitive Dog was territorial and could alert them to intruders. It also showed protective attitude toward the family members. And the Dogs could team up to take down a big predator to protect their Human family. Thus was born the unending bond between Humans and Wolves."

"Thank you for that insightful lesson on the speed of Evolution. It explains so much!" exclaimed Colibri, as Enron looked positively ill. Harp looked at the Runt, scratching his chin.

"Thebes?"

"Yes, Harp?"

"Raise the Runt’s security level to the one required for a frank discussion of what we discovered."

"FYEO1?"

"Yes."

"I need a confirmation. Only the Emperor can override security levels on his own."

"I confirm order to clear the Runt for FYEO1," stated Alexander forcefully.

"Acknowledged. FYEO1 clearance for The Runt in effect as per order of the Prince of Magic Harp."

"Ok, this being out of the way, we can tell you what we discovered. Your feedback is vital in this circumstance."

"I am listening."

The members of the Ian expedition explained what they had discovered in the Eden Tessaract, and their worries about the developments this would cause. As the picture became clearer, the hair on the Runt rose up on his body, clearly indicating an unexpressed fear.

"Does the Emperor know about this?"

"Yes. We just met him before coming to the Bridge to collect you."

"What does the Emperor want?"

"I suspect he is as stuck as we are. I think we shall have a family meeting tonight after we rest from our expedition. Join us."

"I shall do so. How many people know of the circumstances?"

"The Ian expedition, that includes most Dragons, Typhoon, Harp, Colibri, Enron, Sitar, and all those with a FYEO1 clearance. I suspect the entire Dragon population knows about it, if only because of their social structure. And Lady Electra, the Faery Legate. I do not know if the Elvin Legate knows, but I suspect he does, as most of those involved in the Eden Tessaract, but at a lesser level. They suspect something is up, but they have not been able to confirm things."

"That makes for a lot of people to keep something secret. It will not stay that way long."

"We are aware of the issue, my friend. That is why the decision to expose the reality of things as quickly as possible rather than risk speculations that might dramatise a situation that does not need any of that."

***

After vespers and a tense supper, the Royals retired accompanied by the Runt and Lady Electra to the suite. The furniture in the main Hall was reorganised in a semi-circular fashion with Harold occupying the focal point of the hemisphere.

"Runt, I gather you got clearance from my sons. Thebes, I confirm the security clearance. Lady Electra, since you were part of the Ian expedition, it goes without saying you automatically gained clearance for this topic."

Both acknowledged the Imperial Decree with a movement of the head. Harold continued.

"Runt, can you give an overview of what you explained to those that bothered you while on duty on the Bridge? This is required for Lady Electra, which has no telepathy yet. Harp, Enron, Colibri, once this meeting is over, I want you to find out why some have no basic magical powers, including telepathy. If a solution can be found, proceed with it as soon as it is verified."

"Ok Dad," replied Harp with nods from the others.

The Runt took about an hour to explain things to those who had not been at the preliminary meeting, and then sat down, waiting on the next step of the assembly.

"What do you make out of this, and how is it pertinent to our situation?" asked Harold.

"First, it shows that Darwin was off. Evolution can occur in the blink of an eye. Had we known about this, what has happened in the Eden Tessaract would not have taken us by surprise. The Eden tessaract may look like a garden, but it is not a garden, because it is a high-order Tessaract. Remember the baby boom? We are seeing another manifestation of the Tessaract Effect. By the way, has the baby boom abated?"

"Not in the least, Harp. I checked this morning on the birth rate and population growth curves and both are up a notch," replied Paschal.

"There is another issue. We seem to skim it, but no one wants to face it. What is happening in the Ark Tessaract? If the Felines are any indication, we must imperatively verify we do not have a time bomb waiting there!"

"Harp is right. Who would have thought that Spare Ribs and Fang Chao would become telepathic?" wondered Annabelle.

"And they are not the only Felines with this capacity. Where are they?"

"Off in the Hunting layer of the Ark Tessaract, training another kitten brood."

"Have the four previous kittens progressed magically?" asked Harp, while looking at the Runt.

"They are stronger telepaths, and have now mastered teleportation, something their parents never managed to do. There is one thing about Magic I need to expose right away."

"Go ahead."

"Your first estimates were that it would take several generations to reach the 50% Mages mark in the general population. We are only at the second generation, and it is already at 75% Mages in that age group."

"Explain."

"Remember, when we escaped Earth, the number of Mages in the population was at roughly 15%. Now, we have been living within the Thebes Primary Tessaract, for approximately five years. In those five years, a certain number of Children reached sexual maturity and exploded into Mage level. Furthermore, quite a few pre-pubescent Children also showed strong Magic. The total number of Mages in the four to 11 years old slice is around 85% and the 12 to 18 years old is around 65%. And in the 12 to 18 years old, quite a few have mated and produced viable Children, all aged from newborn to nearly four years old. To complicate things, or ease it, depending on how you look at things, the Mages are more likely to mate early, produce more Children and overall produce a disproportionate number of Children. So, in conclusion, I suspect the vast majority of the next generation will be magical. We shall reach an almost total magical population in three generations, rather than the expected 30 or so."

"Is that all?"

"No. The non-magical individuals benefit from the Tessaract Effect, but to a much lesser degree than the Magical ones. For instance, the life expectancy of the non-magical has doubled, more due to intensive medical care than anything else; but Mages seem almost immune to anything. Short of blowing their heads off, I do not see what could kill a full-grown Mage. Harp, it has been a year since you visited the College of Magic. You need to take a look. I suspect you shall be shocked. We have Toddlers, barely able to walk, do Class 1 Battle Magic. I had to reinforce the Wards in the training fields several times already! Oh yes. The first thing a Toddler wants to learn is the internal cleansing spell so he or she does not need diapers! Once this is done, they don the Mage dress."

"The Mage dress?"

"Yours, Harp! Integral nudity from then on. Not that they need to wear anything. Most live in their magical core all the time, and can create virtually any clothing they can think of, but they prefer au naturel."

"Let us get back to our problem. What else is there to cover?" asked Harold.

"We have not visited the life forms we rescued some time back. I wonder how things are going?"

"I have been monitoring them, my lord." replied AI-1. "They seem to flourish. But I do think it is a good idea to visit them to assess their magical progress."

"Sitar? You and I shall visit them shortly," decided Harold.

Sipping on a glass of iced tea, Harold turned to Colibri.

"How do we deal with the Eden issue?"

"We inventory the Insect population, determine who wants Elevation, and see what can be done for their needs to be met. We are responsible for them."

"What about the other Tessaracts? I am worried about the Ark tessaract, particularly the Pterodactyls."

"We monitor each species for any indication of a sudden change in behaviour. I have already ordered a log of behavioural changes be made in each layer. It will be some time before the reports come in. I also have added the Atlantis One Tessaract to the monitoring list. After all, I may be rebuilding the ecosystem, I am not blind to the fact that once I have reconstructed a segment of the biosphere, it starts evolving under the influence of a Tessaract layer!"

"How do you supply the Hunting tessaract?"

"There, it is me that is involved. We kept a pool of preys and mapped their genomes. Each time one prey is killed, it is replaced by a new individual grown in incubators. I designed the incubators so they were immune to the Tessaract Effect. I noticed the Tessaract Effect affect the genes in the beginning of incubation. It took some tweaking to find a proper setting to compensate the field effect, but it is now done."

"Ok, Enron."

"Talking about incubators, have the Goblins asked for new incubators to come on line or for Females to be recreated?" asked Annabelle.

"I redesigned their incubator so it would not be a power hog. There are now 300 incubators, and I am waiting for them to be occupied at 85% before adding more. The Goblins seem satisfied with a rather slow population growth and visit the incubators to inseminate them rather sparsely. They are way too busy enjoying each other to worry about making babies!" replied Paschal.

"I have not had any requests for the reconstruction of Females by the Goblins," added Enron to the nod of Colibri.

"Apparently, Female Goblins were particularly obnoxious and pushy. They have been dead for millions of years, but the memory of their temper haunts the Males to the point they are not interested in reviving the harpies," added Colibri. "Harp, are you sure you ar not a Female in disguise?"

Colibri vanished a second and then came back sputtering water and holding a fish in his right hand.

"You proved my point, Harp," continued Colibri, not in the least bothered. "Here, your diner!" Colibri snapped his fingers and was dried instantly, as was the upholstery and the plush carpet.

"Luckily, the colouring is chemically fixed or we might have a running mess," noted Thorsten as he watched the furniture with a critical eye. "Your ideas on fixing colours to tissues were remarkable, Paschal."

"I did not want to carry a mirror image of the furniture colours on my butt because I had sweated on it."

After a few well-placed jabs at Paschal and his lack of ‘nationalism’ since he did not want his rear to carry the Rising Sun on his rear end, the discussion turned to another subject.

"Ian, should we stay here much longer? I think we are done in this star cluster."

"I believe we are done too. However, I would like to leave behind some monitoring devices so we can keep an eye on the Baby Aquarians and learn more about their development. We know nothing, absolutely nothing, about this species. And, who knows? Maybe we shall have to intervene to protect them at a later date. I am not idiot enough to believe the Galaxy is safe because we kicked some rear ends. The number of space-farers may be limited now, but with the disappearance or serious reduction in numbers of two major predators, I expect new threats will rise. Paschal, how far can the best transmitters send?"

"Somewhere in the vicinity of 50,000 light-years before the signal degrades too much. But nothing stops us from installing boosters along the way. In fact, I suggest the next missions to include installing boosters in space. Sitar, how would you proceed?"

"It depends on what degrades the signal?"

"It is the time quantum flux. This means it is sensitive to the presence of mass."

"So that precludes installing them on a planet."

"Yes. And in the Galactic core. There, the amount of mass is such the signal can not propagate more than 2,000 light-years, and we would have to set up well over 1,000,000 of them just to make sure we cover the core adequately."

"Trouble! Trouble! When will things be simple?"

"When we are dead." replied Paschal, snickering.

"Ok. We leave the area tomorrow, following the Galactic periphery. We drop a repeater every 20,000 light-years. We are not in a rush, so we travel at Warp 9.9; that will take us some time, but we shall get there."

"Dad?"

Yes, Ian?"

"You have been skating around the bush long enough. We need to decide if we make our discovery in Eden public knowledge or not. As Runt said, it can not be kept secret for long without some speculations occurring. The current closing of Eden, and probably of Ark later tonight, will produce a lot of questioning."

"What do you suggest?"

"Be honest. Let us not fall into the same hole as politicians of old. Secrecy may be needed for family issues, but this is public issue. Everyone should be concerned and think things out given the facts. Acting otherwise would create suspicions, divisions, and weaken our hard-won unity."

"Does everyone agree?"

It took less than fifteen minutes to come to a consensus, and the next step was to determine how to make the information available.

"How many Mages are there in the current population?" asked Harp, looking at Enron.

"Not enough. We have gained a lot of people without Magic when we rescued Atlantis One. After all, 9,000,000,000 persons is not an easy number to control. We must add the almost total absence of Magic in the old Orc, Goblin, Elf, Faery, and Human populations, to name a few. Remember! There were about 15% that showed some Magic. The rest had none or not enough to be considered magical. Why do you ask?"

"We need to contact those with Magic first and explain what is occurring to them. They are the least likely to panic. We can then call on them to help us educate the non-magical portion of our population."

"You are aware that a good share of the magical population are Children?"

"Yes. And so is the most important part of the non-magical population. I think that it is the Adults that will freak out, not the Children, magical or not. If we gain the Children to this calm approach, the Parents will have to put their head in the freezer and cool down. To be blunt, I suspect if Parents lose their head, it might stop being figurative. I have seen a three-year old whip his Dad’s arse in a street fight after the old Man, barely 30, tried to punch him. The Man barely made it to the Hospital alive."

"Did you intervene, Harp?" asked a shocked Annabelle.

"Certainly not! The old geezer had it coming! Anyway, what could I say after he told his friend Harp would have dealt the same to anyone hurting him, not knowing I was listening right there! The Children still think I am four, I guess. I may not be eternal, but my reputation seems to be. Parents of the old generation are becoming very weary of pissing off their Children. The Fields of Mars have expanded considerably. Did you know there are now teams of Sabre-tooth Snow Leopards carrying one-year olds around and doing target practice on mobile targets in a maze that measures several square miles, Sitar?"

"Yes. It was built at the request of the two-year olds. You saw the Cats; you should see the Dogs, Wolves, Foxes, and all sorts of other Canines practice in it. There is another maze, several times bigger than the Toddler maze, used to practice with the Equines. The youngsters run that maze daily as a warm-up before getting into hand-to-hand combat, the use of weapons of all sorts, the training into infiltration, and then they do space fighting exercises using the FSS. Luckily, the Artificial Intelligences cover standard schooling during their sleep periods."

"Do they learn survival skills?" asked Harold

"Yes. That is done in the Ark. This is why it is essential to talk to them first thing tomorrow morning, so we can explain what is going on. Closing the Ark would have dire consequences," replied Colibri. "I have been working with Harp, Enron and Sitar on the survival program, adjusting it to the competence levels of each group."

"Ok. Tomorrow it is then. Where should we hold that meeting?"

"There is the amphitheatre we use for big events. It can hold vast numbers of individuals," suggested Annabelle.

"Yes. I shall increase ten-fold the seating capacity overnight. That way, we shall not spend months updating the Children and the Mages. In what order should we proceed?"

"The Mages first, Harp. Use the call to visit the refurbished College of Magic tomorrow, and after that we proceed with those that have left the College to service the population. The next step should be the Children that are currently undergoing survival skills trials. It should be followed by the Children that are undergoing weapons training. Finally, a general announcement to the Adults should be made, with a forewarning to the Children to stand ready to quench any panic movement by any means necessary."

"I agree with Sitar’s plans. Runt, accompany Harp to the College. No use warning Nestor or his replacement, Ferriday. Surprise inspections by the two most powerful Mages should always be expected," decided Ian.

"And what will you be doing tomorrow, Sitar?" asked Colibri.

"I plan to go with you and Enron to inspect the Ark Tessaract layers."

"Fine. Bed time. I have a nest to warm up!"

***

The next morning, the Royals ate, no, devoured a humongous breakfast.

"I am going to the Bridge to get the orders out for our move," commented Harold. "Who will be Captain?"

"Bushtail Fox. He is the best to get us out of here unnoticed," said Ian, as he looked at the crew complement list. "Engineering will be manned by Greywolf, Science by Willie Coyote, and Security by Timor. The helm is in the hands of Rockhook Goblin. Communications is held by Greywolf’s Wife, Felicia. Normally, it should have been Iridia, but there is a meeting of the Faery Privy Council."

"I am surprised Timor is not with her?" asked Amethyst.

"Do not worry. No one will know. There is a pair of Dragons with her: Tiamat and Kalseru, if my memory is correct, and she wears a Dwarf-made chainmail. She has been paranoid with the constant bickering, and is likely to have roasted Faery for lunch today if things degenerate. If she gives a blow job, it will be burning hot!"

"Could it be that the Harp temper is a contagious disease? That is fine by me. If I am needed, I shall be in the Imperial Chair. Has anyone seen Nestor this morning?"

"No, and that is strange. I shall pick him up in his room when we go to the College of Magic," Runt replied.

The change of the Guards, which included a Centurie of Felines for the second time that month, went without a hitch. Fang Chao and Spare Ribs decided to accompany Harp to the College of Magic to see how their Kittens were handling the discipline of becoming Mages. Runt popped to his Parents’ Den to pick up the four promising new Pups for their test in Magic that morning, while also collecting his own Pups for the same reason. Only one of the five Pups Felicia had given birth did not show magical capabilities, and that only because he seemed to lack the ability to focus. Of his own, all six were magical, and also prone to prank someone out of his or her fur! That promised for the poor College Staff! Also in the lot were Tom and Jerry, who had been allowed to visit their family in the Ark Tessaract over the weekend, and brought with them a dozen Australopithecus Regressi pre-teens for testing. These visits and tests were veritable status symbols for the species. A family group that had one Mage in its midst was sure to never fall prey to the numerous predators that ravaged their layer of the Ark Tessaract. Crocodiles and other saurians learned quickly to stay clear of these groups.

Timor accompanied the Emperor to the Bridge, while Rockhook made his to the same are after doing a quick visit to a couple of Male Goblins wanting his assent to bond and have Children. A quick mental scan revealed they were very serious and committed to each other and raising their Children together, so Rockhook told them to report to the Imperial Suite the next morning for a bonding ceremony.

***

The team headed for the Ark Tessaract, under the guidance of Colibri, made his way to the main entrance and began its investigation. Quickly, some changes were noted. Elks, Antelopes, Reindeers, in fact the vast majority of animals with herding traits showed substantial changes in their behaviours. Even the newly recreated Buffaloes and Musk Ox herds behaved strangely.

"Are you sure it is not an effect of time-travel sampling?" wondered Sitar.

"That is unlikely, Sitar. If it was the case, only the Buffaloes and Musk Ox herds would show this behaviour. Did you know we also recreated a herd of Hairy Mammoths?"

"I have no objection, Colibri, as long as you do not try to recreate a Tyrannosaurus Rex! I had my go at one of these oversized Chickens in my Ordeal, and I am not particularly in love of their attitude."

"Oh! I never thought the unflappable Sitar would be afraid of some oversized Geese!"

"Colibri, one of these days!"

"Hey! What can I say? It is not my fault the beast does not like to be seen as two legs with a breast to feed your ravenous appetite!"

"Colibri, you are playing with fire again!" said Enron.

"I feel cold!"

"Who plays with matches burns his fingers! You have been warned!" added Sitar, as the group walked into a forest clearing occupied by a group of Collared Peccary, which, upon spotting them, charged as one.

"That is the definition of Pig-headed. We did not even bother them!" exclaimed Sitar as he ported himself in the nearest tree. "Is everyone safe?"

"I am fine," answered Colibri, as he sent the Peccary Bull to the kitchen to be processed.

"So am I," added Enron. "But the Female that tried to gut me met a very pointy bit of wood and skewered herself on it. Where did you send your Bull?"

"To the kitchen. They had not enough time to create intoxicants in their body and their charge was short-lived. If they are left to hang a week or two, we shall have a nice collection of Pork cuts."

"I shall send mine there as well."

"Do not bother. The stick perforated the intestinal tract from the thorax to the anus, and the meat is a loss. Send them out to feed predators in the Tessaract instead. I just placed an invisible shield in front of the charging Bull and it broke its neck. That prevented internal damage. You need to learn hunting, Enron."

"Hey, I did hunt before!"

"Yes, using arrows that barely managed to perforate the heart. Magical hunting is something entirely different. The best method is to use the animal’s momentum to kill it, rather than a lance, or a spear, like you did. That reduces damage considerably, while remaining as effective as weapons."

"Ok, Colibri. When I think I have had Magic longer than you, I feel shocked. You, young Man, are a pearl! Ian made the biggest discovery of us all with you!"

Colibri blushed so hard it would have melted an iceberg, had there been any around.

"Do not set the jungle on fire!" said Sitar, "We need it intact, and it is as dry as a tinderbox in here."

"Hey, that is true. I need to check on the weather setting for the Tessaract," exclaimed Colibri as he noticed the yellow leafs hanging all around.

Turning to an Elf, Enron signalled for him to come closer.

"When was the last rain?"

"Three years, your highness!"

"That is way too long. I shall trigger a gentle rain. How long should it last, Colibri?"

"I say a couple of days, then let it sink in the dry soil. The earth must have hardened considerably. Then repeat every three days. I suggest we talk to Harp tonight about the weather program in this layer."

"Good point. I wonder what was wrong with the Peccary family?"

"Nothing. We entered its territory by surprise and it reacted like any wild Pigs, it charged. Count your virtues: it was not a family of wild Boars."

"These vanished at the end of the Cataclysm, Colibri."

"You are right, but they were part of the restoration program we instituted while scanning Earth in Time for genetic maps. We have a herd stowed away on a remote island, along with other recovered species. We apply selective hunting to maintain the herd healthy, killing the old, the sick, and the unhealthy young. It works, and protects the forest cover as well," replied Colibri.

"Are you sure you sleep? You maintain the conditions we had; you restore long-lost ecosystems in two widely different planet," said Kalseru.

"I can answer that question better than Colibri," replied Sitar. "If he has organised his work in each instance the way he has done in the Atlantis One tessaract, he probably spends more time sleeping than a Feline. He is so organised I am surprised the sand dunes do not align themselves like giant furrows."

"Ah, but they do!" exclaimed Enron, laughing, "but Colibri has nothing to do with it. It is the wind!"

"Are you telling me all order does not come from Colibri’s intervention? It is hard to believe."

"But it is the inescapable truth, big brother."

"So, what do we do with all these herds that seem to have gained a lot of intelligence? I am feeling uneasy on several front," asked Enron. "First, they are quite close to realising their own existence; second, they are showing an exponential increase in their ability to escape predators; third, I feel uneasy eating intelligent life. I admit the predators suffer no such qualms, but we are light-years ahead of them."

"What we do is conditioned by Ian and Dad’s decisions. We came here to investigate an report. Things are far more advanced than we thought. So we get our arses back to the Imperial suite and report directly to Harold," decided Sitar.

***

The group that had decided to visit the College of Magic had first stopped to pick up Nestor, but there were no answers when they knocked at his door. Thinking he might have been out early, the took off for the College, and arrived at the main door just as tierce. The classes had been going on for an hour already, and the hallways were almost deserted. Harp was surprised at the amount of change the College had withstood in the past year. Hundreds of building were strewn across the campus, and the training arena had been relocated. It now comprised several hundred training fields, much to his surprise. Most were occupied, with only the huge central arena being empty, as there were no exams to be held in Magic that morning.

Runt took the lead and took them to the dugout that usually lodged the contestants in the Magical exams.

"The Wards are particularly reinforced here, since it is not uncommon for a stray spell to head that way during competence tests. Everyone sit down, and we shall start with the placement tests for the new students. Fang Chao, would you introduce each of your Kitten to me formally, so I can register them?"

«Certainly, Grand Master of Magic. This is Fur-Ball. He is the eldest of the brood.»

"Thank you. Fur-Ball, come here."

The Kitten walked nervously toward the giant Wolf, unsure as to what was to happen.

"Sit, and let me rub your ears. It will feel good and it will allow me to taste your magical core. That is very pleasing."

Indeed, it was very pleasing! Fur-Ball purred loudly at the touch, unable to hold back. Once the Runt was finished and tried to remove his paw, the Kitten literally rubbed himself on the side of the Wolf, trying to recapture the most pleasant feeling of his young life.

"I gather you liked it?"

The Kitten purred louder than a diesel engine running wild!

"I see. You have a huge magical core, Fur-Ball. After you train and learn to live within your core, you will be a class 1 Mage, about as powerful as I am. We are still well below the Imperial family, Fur-Ball, and I, for one, am glad of this. Go sit near your Dad. I have to test your other siblings."

The process was repeated for all newly invited students, and most were at class 2, some at class 1, and some at class 3, but none reached Imperial class.

"Are we finished?"

«Can I be retested?» asked Spare Ribs.

"Certainly, my friend. Come here. If I remember you were Class 7 last time Harp tested you. What brings this request?"

«Test first, and my brother and I shall explain.»

Runt did the test, and the huge Feline purred so loudly Harp worried about the roof. Huge spurts of sperm laced the sand ad the Sabre-tooth Snow Leopard came violently under the gentle examination of his magical core.

"Well, that is a surprise! And no, it is not the physical reaction, it is the size of your core. You are now a Level 5, Spare Ribs. Let me check your brother."

Fang Chao underwent the same test, with similar results, much to Harp’s surprise.

"Now, you promised some explanations?"

«I managed to move objects without touching them. That took me by surprise. Then Fang Chao told me he found himself at the bottom of a cliff without the need to jump. I tried it and got similar results.»

«That means you have acquired line of sight teleportation, my friend. It is a remarkable progress.»

«Can we expect more?» asked Fang Chao.

«Yes. I suggest you spend a month here to train in how to get and stay in your magical core, and we shall test you again. If things go as planned, by the end of that month, you will have gained another 2 notches, and we shall see to finding you a Dragon to bond with and that you undertake your Ordeal in the Pyramids. That will give you shape-shifting capabilities, and by Magic level 3, you should be able to do continuous translocation, allowing you to teach your bonded how to fly.»

The two Felines purred loudly, as well as their Kittens. Things seemed to go well for the Cats of Atlantis!