Trial by Ordeal Read online

Trial by Ordeal

  A Story By

  Philip R Benge

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  Published by

  Copyright Philip R Benge 2013

  Cover Art Copyright Philip R Benge 2013

  Thank you for downloading this eBook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form, with the exception of quotes used in reviews.

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  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

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  Trial by Ordeal

  Prologue

  Magi had once been a young girl, and she had even enjoyed a love affair with the handsome Compton Pallas, but unfortunately, she had become pregnant. Compton Pallas and his family didn`t want a mere serving girl to be part of their ancient and noble family. Instead, he treated her contemptuously by stealing the baby away from her moments after the birth, and then giving it away to an adoption agency. Then he forced her to go away to a far off province in Helionia, where she lived for the next nineteen years. Magi had indeed nearly died there, with no one to turn to when times got bad, but her hate had kept her alive, and it was there that a powerful mystic had taken pity on her and taught her everything she knew about the spirit world. It was only later when Magi became a powerful mystic in her own right that she had returned to enact her vengeance upon the entire Pallas family. Now she was ready to complete her many acts of vengeance by killing the final member of the family.

  Chapter One

  The Final Days of an Empire

  Day 50 Helionia Calendar

  The noise of someone digging came from within a remote cave in the middle of the desert of Musgrave, a wild desolate land located three hundred miles away from the nearest sizable town. Inside the cave was a dust covered young woman, from her present appearance you would never guess that she was once voted the best-dressed woman on Helionia. This cold bright morning she was dressed in soiled jeans, a thermal vest, a shirt, a thick woolly jumper and a heavy fur coat. As usual, she also wore a woolly hat to complete her ensemble, and from which her red hair peeked out from under its edges. She had been interested in archaeology ever since she had found an old shard of pottery on a sandy beach; this had been while she had been holidaying with her family at her family’s beach home at Lato. She had been just five years of age back then, but she had since gone on to university, where she had graduated with honours. From there she had gone on to work for the Archaeological Museum in the capital city of Helionia. At this particular moment in time, she was on a sabbatical, for she had wanted to follow up a hunch of her own, and this hunch had taken her to the remote Musgrave desert where she was working in this even remoter cave. She had hoped to find signs of the three thousand year old civilisation of the Puma; instead, she was finding more and more frozen soil. In her hand was a small trowel with which she was carefully removing the layers of history, as she dug further and further down through the frozen permafrost layers, she was now kneeling in a four-foot deep hole some eight foot square. The cold from the frozen soil was getting deep into her bones; even though she knelt upon a thick kneeling mat that she had bought especially for this dig. Soon she would be part of this frozen world, she thought as a shiver went through her body. On this third day of the dig, she had been in this frozen pit since the sun cleared the far off mountain ridge, now it was almost time to take a break and have some breakfast. Why she had persevered here with so little to find except the odd animal bone was even beyond her, but she was determined to stay until the end of the day and at that time she decided, she would admit defeat. She shivered again inside of her bulky layers of clothing, my god it is cold inside of the dam hole she thought, and immediately felt an icy cold draught that had somehow found its way down inside of her deep pit. She gritted her teeth, determined not to surrender. Her trowel scooped out some more of the frozen soil that she then mechanically deposited it into a nearby bucket and then moved the trowel back to the spot just in front of her knees. This time though as the trowel penetrated just millimetres into the frozen soil it hit something harder than the soil, another stone Trajo thought, I will soon have enough of them to build my own house. Still her training took over and putting down her trowel, she picked up her small hand brush and brushed away the soil. She looked hard at the half-hidden object, almost in disbelief; for it was part of a human skull. Trajo swallowed hard, to find signs of man at this depth made her whole body tingle with excitement. She quickly brushed more soil away and revealed what was indeed a human skull. She immediately called out to her two male companions; they were only now washing and dressing as the sun rose above the frozen landscape. Not waiting for them to join her she continued the work of uncovering the rest of the skeleton. Within thirty minutes the whole of the man`s skeleton had been uncovered.

  Remick Macron, was once just the elderly friend of her uncle, now he was also Trajo`s friend, and he was the first to arrive at the cave.

  “Did I hear you calling earlier Trajo ….my god Trajo you were right the Puma civilisation did get this far north.”

  “I don`t think so Remick, this body seems to be far older, we must get this skeleton back to the laboratory to get a Beta-carbon dating analysis of it, that will soon tell if I am correct about it.”

  Prion Colton, the other member of the team now arrived at the cave, he assumed from the excited conversation that he could hear coming from the cave that Trajo must have finally found something worth photographing, this being very possible he had brought his camera. He was a much younger man than his male colleague was, and he was in charge of photographing and cataloguing every single step of the dig. On seeing the skeleton he managed through his excitement to say ‘My God’, but he didn`t bother with any further words, instead he took dozens of photographs of Trajo`s find from every possible angle.

  Trajo looked up at the two men, her red hair still peeping out from underneath her woolly hat, her grey sparkling eyes full of excitement and Prion wondered once again what this lovely woman saw in him.

  Prion, like Trajo was still quite young; he was reasonably good looking with a muscular body and a lovely smile, or so Trajo had told him when he had held her close that day when they had first kissed. Prion was six feet tall and he towered over Trajo by at least eight inches but then she had always preferred tall men, men who could measure up to her father.

  “This is fantastic Trajo, if this doesn`t get you the curator`s job at the museum nothing will.” Prion announced proudly. The present curator had had enough of working in the museum and wanted to spend his final days out in the field doing what he called real work. He would then retire to the country and spend his final days taking life easy with his wife.

  Remick ran off out of the cave but returned moments later with a large rectangular metal tray, which he passed down to Trajo. Trajo then carefully put the bones of the skeleton into the tray, and with the assistance of Prion, who had dropped down into the hole; she passed it up to the waiting hands of Remick. Finally, it was sitting safely on the present day floor level of the cave.

  “I will fly this back to the university Trajo, and get the team to investigate it fully, I should be back tomorrow with the results.” Remick promised.

  “Ok Remick, if that doesn`t get their blood flowing then nothing will. In the meantime we will clear out all of the soil remaining inside the cave, we will take it down to a level just below that in which the skeleton was on to see if we can find a little more for when y
ou return.” Trajo called out to the fast disappearing figure of Remick.

  Trajo and Prion worked hard for the rest of the day clearing out the frozen soil from the cave, but they found nothing more, the cold of the hole no longer affecting her as she toiled on into the night until exhausted, they had fallen into their beds, too tired for anything but a goodnight kiss and then sleep. It wasn`t until the morning after that they found the metal plates with the archaic writing on them, writing burned on to plates made of a metal that was used in the making of starships. The words were burned into them by a powerful laser, and they stood out from the surface of the plate like powerful searchlights, or so it seemed to Trajo. One thing immediately struck the young woman; these words were to be read by the people of the future, but how far into the future? The technology to create metal like this was only now being reached, and the words could only have been cut so finely by the use of a laser. No this wasn`t from the Puma civilisation, then what civilisation, and when was it left here for her to find?

  Carefully lifting them out one by one, Prion looked across into Trajo`s eyes, he saw the excitement burning deep within the beautiful young woman so near to him.

  “My but the gods are looking upon you with favour my darling.” He whispered these words, for the confining hole within the cave had now taken on the majesty of a cathedral.

  Trajo and Prion carried the plates lovingly to her large terrestrial shuttlecraft that her father, Ares Fortuna, had provided for her. Inside was the latest in computer technology; she also had at her fingertips a molecular sensor, a multilingual translator and a satellite communication console. She also had every single piece of Helionian history stored within the massive files of her computer. Trajo and Prion carefully cleaned off each of the metal plates and then she scanned them individually onto her powerful computer. When she had finished she activated the translator to convert the archaic writing into modern Helionian. She found that what was on the plates was a letter, written by someone named Ares Divilio to the future people of his ancient world.

  “My name is Ares Divilio, and I have lived for just twenty two years now, unfortunately I will soon leave this land to re-join my loving family. My family is already living safely with the gods of Heliot, for I am forced to bear the past and my sorrow all alone in this now frozen world. I was born to be the heir of the Heliot Empire, but unfortunately, this no longer exists. At the beginning of the summer, my father took his great armada of starships through the dark nebula to invade the star system where the Planet of the Light is to be found. The planet had been chosen as a suitable addition to our empire, as it was both wealthy and well populated. As he exited hyperspace, his armada was swallowed up by a space storm of massive proportions. It came out of nowhere and seconds later disappeared along with my father and his fleet. Whether it was an inter-dimensional storm or even one that travelled in time, we shall never know, for no sign of his armada was ever heard of again. Only one light cruiser, which was on the very edge of the storm managed to escape the wrath of the mighty storm. It was this ship alone that returned to Heliot to tell us of the fate of my father, our beloved Emperor.

  It was just two weeks later that every planet in our empire was struck down by a plague that appeared from out of nowhere to decimate our people, and after only six months most of our population were dead or dying. Our scientists have determined that the virus that caused the plague was almost certainly manufactured in a laboratory, and as we have never dabbled in such terrible weapons, I can only assume that it came from another world. As my people struggled after the worst of the plague passed us by, the suns that powered all of the worlds in our once mighty federation suddenly dimmed. This additional disaster threw all of the planets into sudden ice ages that covered most of their surfaces, the thick glaciers killing off many of the remaining peoples of our once great empire. I have come to believe that both of these calamities came from the Planet of the Light, they were to ensure that the Heliot people never rose again to threaten their own small empire. I have decided to stay near to the palace where I grew up and had such a pleasant childhood, rather this than to try to escape this frozen wasteland to whatever safety may lay elsewhere. Too many terrible memories are locked deep inside my mind to allow me to continue living, remembering.

  The only remaining monument to the Heliot Empire is the dark domain; it is housed on a faraway planet and accessible only through the portal set within the living rock. The portal is set in the centre of our people`s birthplace, here on our once beautiful planet of Heliot. Neither time nor the elements will ever destroy it. I am dying now, as is the power cell that operates my laser that is burning this letter onto plates made of a metal discovered at the height of our power, a power that helped us to build our empire. If someone on this planet discovers these plates, when life is once again possible and the people of Heliot are once again masters of the stars, then I call to you through the depths of time, I call for Revenge, Revenge and finally Revenge.”

  The final metal plate gave the approximate position of the portal set within the living rocks, what was meant by this term they couldn`t think, but their next task would be to find the portal, and then they would find out what was meant by this odd term.

  “My god Trajo this is the find of the century, you will be the most famous archaeologist to have ever lived on Helionia.” Prion said jubilantly, and then reaching his hand out to hers to hold it.

  “Just think of all the apologies and retractions they will all have to make to my father, now that he has been proved right, especially when we uncover the portal mentioned on the third of the plates. Those liberal bleeding hearts will see that he is right about everything, and he will be carried shoulder high by our people when he wins the election by a landslide.”

  Trajo loved her father more than anyone else in the world. Prion though was beginning to vie for that honour, the more she knew him. She would journey into hell and back to ensure that her father won the upcoming presidential election.

  Prion took her gently in his arms and kissed Trajo long and hard until they were both breathless. From outside of the shuttle craft, they heard the engines of Remick`s own shuttle craft as it returned back from the capital city. Trajo and Prion smiled into one another`s eyes and then went outside in to the frozen wasteland to greet their returning friend, and to tell him of what else they had found, but as soon as his craft had landed he rushed out to tell them his own fantastic news.

  “Those bones were fifty thousand years old Trajo, it is the first time that we have ever found evidence that our ancestors ever lived this far north, and at such a time in the past.” Remick exclaimed.

  “Fifty thousand years Remick, yes that seems to tie in nicely.” Trajo said mysteriously to Remick.

  “Ties in nicely to what Trajo?” Remick asked eagerly. “What else have you found?”

  Trajo walked slowly across to the older man.

  “Remick come into my shuttle craft, for I do have something else to show you, something that we found only this morning.” Trajo fought to hide her excitement so that the find that Trajo and Prion had made would be more surprising to their friend.

  Remick`s eyes became as large as saucers as he looked from the computer screen to the plates and back again.

  “My god Trajo, this proves what your father has been saying all along, that there was a great civilisation here before our own, but that it was destroyed during the last of our planets great ice ages.”

  Ares Fortuna was delighted when he heard that his daughter had found evidence that proved his own theories, and he read and reread the transcripts of the letter that was written upon the metal plates. It also reinforced his desire to travel beyond the dark nebula, now though it was because he wanted to search for the Empire of the Planet of the Light. If it still existed, he would have the revenge that his people so deserved, and what the young emperor had demanded from beyond the grave. The publicity of such a find at a time like this would help the waverers decide whom to vote for, whe
n Election Day finally arrived, and he had his own sweet daughter to thank for it. The scar on Fortuna`s face stood out as he smiled, he was thinking now of his coming victory over his younger political rival, for Fortuna was aged sixty and Marot Pallas was two years his junior. He got the scar while fighting during a party rally when he was still quite young, but his opponent had come off much worse. Fortuna stood six foot high with a mass of grey hair and dark brown eyes, he was heavily built and still very muscular, but then he had to be to be the leader of such a radical party. The two men looked very much like brothers, as some reporters had sometimes mentioned in their articles about the coming election, but they were worlds apart in thought or deed.

  Day 80 Helionia Calendar

  Thirty days after Trajo Fortuna had made her fantastic discovery, the starship Dagger, which was owned by Ares Fortuna, was on the far side of the galaxy on a voyage of discovery. It had travelled through a wormhole that had only recently been discovered. It exited the wormhole on the very edge of one of the spiral arms of the galaxy, some one hundred thousand light years away from Helionia. The crew of the Dagger had been instructed to investigate any of the planets that they found there to ascertain whether they could be brought into the growing Helionia Federation of planets, and also to locate any uninhabited planets that would be suitable for mining by the Helionian people.

  The commander of the Dagger, Captain Titan, decided to travel deeper into the spiral arm, and towards a slightly larger grouping of nearby planetary systems. They spent the first week mapping out a number of uninhabited systems that looked more than suitable enough to provide all of Helionia`s mineral needs, and the starship was just about to return home when it finally encountered its first populated planet. It was the planet Genesis; for fate had decided to stir things up a bit, it had also ordained a far from pleasant future for a certain peace loving man named Tyler Burrows. They went into an orbit about the planet, while they scanned the town and also accessed the town`s computer network. This allowed their multilingual translator to download and translate information about the region and its people; some of this information was then downloaded into their android so that it was fluent in the English language.

  Captain Titan sent his first officer down in the ship`s shuttle craft, along with the android and two crewmen from the science department. Their mission was to find out what more could be learnt about the planet, and the people on it. They landed in a large open space that led into the town square that had a number of two storey buildings on three sides of it. The first thing that caught the attention of the officer was a large bronze statue of a man standing before an antiquated space ship. The plaque said that the statue was of a man called Tyler Burrows, captain of the space cruiser Orion Defender, and the saviour of Genesis.

  Striding across the square towards them was an official who demanded to know their business.

  “Greetings friends, welcome to Genesis. What brings you to our planet?” The self-important official demanded to know.

  “We are strangers to this part of the galaxy, and we want to trade with any inhabited star systems, that and also to meet the many different people that live here so that we can form new alliances, new friendships.” The Helionian said.

  “Well our charter forbids us to trade with anyone except the Church of the Universe, unless of course you have anything that Earth cannot provide.” The official said not mentioning the fact that Tyler Burrows had arranged many trading agreements between the local planets.

  “I didn`t know that, thank you for that information, tell me who is Tyler Burrows?” The officer asked curiously pointing at the large statue.

  “You don`t know who Tyler Burrows is, then you really must be strangers, for I thought that there was no living person in the galaxy that hadn`t heard of him. Eight years ago, he helped us out against a mad computer that was hell bent on destroying us, since then he has been the number one person in this sector of space. In fact Tyler Burrows is the guy who will kick your arse, if you are not an innocent trader, but in fact someone who wants to raid any of the local star systems.”

  “I can assure you sir that we are not here to raid your planet, or any of the other nearby planetary systems. Tell me, if we wanted to meet Tyler Burrows where would we find him?” The Helionian asked.

  “He lives on the planet Orion which is about half a day`s travel from the planet Persephone which is about a day’s travel from here. He might be there, if he isn`t busy on either of the planets Persephone or New Earth, or even travelling to our planet to ensure that the aboriginals on our planet are ok. Well I am sorry that our charter stops us from trading with you. By the way just whereabouts is this planet of yours, Helionia you said it was called?” The official asked.

  “Yes Helionia, it is a beautiful planet in a star system many light years further along this spiral arm of stars. Would you mind if we just wander around your small township and talk to your citizens?” The officer asked.

  “Of course, feel free to enjoy our little planet, good bye my friend; maybe we will see you some other time.”

  When the landing party finally returned to the ship the first officer informed Captain Titan that it was a planet caught in a mini ice age. The people were waiting patiently for it to end so that they could expand. The captain though was intrigued by what his officer had learnt about Tyler Burrows, and wanted to learn more, so using the information that they had stolen from the computers of Genesis, they set sail for the next planet in the spiral arm, Persephone.

  Here the first officer met another official who told them the same thing as regards to their charter, but he did also answer a few other of the officer`s questions.

  “What can you tell me about the planet Orion?” The officer enquired, curious to find out more about what he assumed was the dominant planet in this sector in space.

  “I suppose it is the one reason that peace has reigned in this sector of space for so long now, or at least Tyler Burrows is, and he lives on Orion. After he took care of the Heliot pirates, and the last of the other space pirates in this sector of space, life has been much more peaceful for the new colony worlds.”

  The first officer`s ears pricked up when he heard the word Heliot, for he was intrigued, as it was only a few weeks ago since Trajo Fortuna had found the ancient plates with the open letter begging for revenge for the Heliot nation. Now, here on the other side of the galaxy he had once again heard them mentioned, but in the context as pirates.

  “I have heard stories about the Heliots, but can you tell me the truth behind the tales?” The officer asked, pumping the official for information regarding them and especially now they were linked with the name of Tyler Burrows, whose name also seemed to keep cropping up.

  “You have come to the right man to ask about the Heliots, said the official who had never met a real life Heliot, and certainly wouldn`t want to. It all started when a space pirate attacked Orion and tried to steal the time machine that some scientists were working on there, but all they managed to do was damage it and send it rampaging all over time and space. It was finally brought under control but it brought back with it the Heliot fleet and thankfully Tyler Burrows and his friend George Masters. Tyler not only defeated the entire Heliot fleet when it attempted to enslave the planet Orion, but he destroyed their army single handed and then he killed the space pirates and stole their starship, the one he renamed the Orion Defender.”

  These were just some of the rumours currently in circulation regarding the ‘super human’ Tyler Burrows. They say that there is a certain amount of truth to be found in all rumours. There were some truths to be found in the ones about Tyler Burrows, if only you looked deeply enough.

  “A time machine you say, whatever happened to it?” The first officer asked for he was astounded by what he had heard.

  “The story that I heard was that Tyler blew it up, either that or he dumped it out into space so that it would burn up in the planet`s atmosphere when the time machine was finally drawn back down b
y gravity of Orion.” The official answered.

  “He destroyed a time machine, why would he do such a thing like that?” The first officer said just a little bewildered by all that he had heard.

  “Seems that he didn`t trust the politicians enough to let them play with it, can`t say that I blame him either. From one of the stories I heard the President of Earth himself was after it, along with some powerful magnate, the church tried to stop them but it was Tyler Burrows that finally put a stop to their antics.” The official said beaming across at the young Helionian.

  “When did this all happen?” The young Helionian officer asked.

  “I think it must have been eleven Earth years ago.”

  The last port of call for the Dagger was of course the planet Orion. The captain had also been intrigued, as it was only a few weeks ago since Trajo Fortuna had found the ancient plates. Now, here on the other side of the galaxy his first officer was bringing tales back to him regarding the destruction of a Heliot space fleet that been caught up in a time storm created on this side of the galaxy.

  Once again they scanned the planet`s surface, but found as on the other two planets, a small colony world with a small population and no evidence of any planetary defences. Orion`s powerful Phaser weapon wasn`t found by the scan, nor was the fusion reactor or the Heliot defence shield, all were safely hidden behind a Heliot cloaking device recently installed by Brian Goddard. This was the last of the Heliot technological wonders taken from the broken fleet before Earth had finally realised their value and arrived to take possession of all of the remains of the broken Heliot fleet.

  What Captain Titan saw was a small colonial outpost, which of course it was. There was no sign of the Orion Defender, which at the time was on the colony planet of New Earth unloading a cargo of mixed items traded in return for a similar cargo.

  Captain Titan was at a loss to understand why the local star systems felt so safe, and why they trusted the planet Orion to keep it so. He decide that it was a myth to deter would be pirates from attacking any of the planets on the edge of the galaxy.

  Regarding the planet Earth, Captain Titan had scanned the three planets computers and found enough out about Earth to see that any attempt at trying to annex the colony worlds lying on the edge of the galaxy, would probably result in an interplanetary clash at some time in the future, conducted most probably via the wormhole.

  Day 97 Helionia Calendar

  Captain Titan had just finished reporting his finds to Ares Fortuna regarding the many planets that he had visited at the other end of the wormhole. Ares Fortuna was transfixed by his description of an alien fleet destroyed by Tyler Burrows, and of the many rumours in circulation about the man. During their limited time on the three planets, his officers had heard twelve stories, and this number being limited by the fact that they only had the one android with them to act as a translator. Piecing together the many rumours, Ares Fortuna realised that a Heliot space fleet had been snatched up by a time storm created by pirates attempting to steal a time machine. The Orionists led by Tyler Burrows savagely destroyed the attacking pirate vessel, but then turned on the remainder of the Heliot fleet. He destroyed the surviving starships and then murdered the shipwrecked Heliot spacemen. Ares Fortuna silently vowed to bring his people the revenge they deserved, and had waited for so many centuries to get.

  “Thank you Captain Titan, the report that you have brought is very interesting, I will have to take my time evaluating it before I decide what our next step should be. Please keep all that you have found out a secret for the time being, and order your crew to do likewise.”

  Day 100 Helionia Calendar

  Trajo Fortuna could not believe it when she finally cleared away a large piece of rubble, to see her first sight of the portal set within the foothills of massive mountain of Divilio. The mountain had always been known by this name, and now Trajo knew the reason why, for it housed the dark domain of Divilio. The search had taken them fifty cold short days of Helionia`s spring time, but it had proved to be more than worth the hard work. Prion picked her up in his arms and twirled her around, while she shouted out in joy for all to hear that they had found it. Prion finally set her back on her feet and kissed her. It was Remick who brought them back to reality.

  “Come on you two love birds, there is still plenty of work to do before we are finally finished for the day.” Remick ordered.

  “Ok slave driver, come on Trajo let`s get back to our hard labour before we annoy our overseer.” Prion said finally releasing Trajo and turning back to the mountain and all that it held.

  It took the rest of the day for them, and their small team of helpers, to clear the remaining rubble from in front of the portal, which was more like a dark forbidding tunnel. Then the plaque had been found by one of the archaeological students, it was thirty feet away from the portal and fixed to the rock wall. It was made of the same type of metal as the four other plates Trajo had found in the cave, but of a much larger size. Trajo was like a schoolchild, eager to enter the portal and find its secret. Prion and Remick had to forbid her from entering into the portal until they had finished cleaning off the fifty thousand years of debris from the plaque.

  “Who knows what dangers are waiting through this ancient portal, first we must read what is written on the plaque, and only then judge whether it is safe to enter.” Remick said to her in a voice that sounded just like the one used by her father.

  This work took until noon the next day but finally the area around the portal and the plaque were clear of the rubble and rocks. Then they had to clean the plaque sufficiently to allow Prion to photograph each section of the writing on it and then send the data back to the translator within the shuttlecraft.

  The local news team had been permitted entry to the site by Ares Fortuna, it was so that they could show that everything that was found at the site was the genuine article, and they had been present for the entire search. Not being archaeologists they had begun to become rather bored as the days went by, that is until yesterday when the portal was uncovered, then there was a frenzy of activity around the site, with the television channels filled with many archaeologists giving the television audience their own particular slant on the situation.

  Trajo, Prion and Remick retired into the warmth of Trajo`s shuttle craft and into the passenger compartment where her computer was sitting waiting for her. What the writing on the wall said, was shown on the large wall screen that was set in the passenger compartment of the shuttlecraft. On the screen was a warning from the computer. It stressed that as some of the archaic words were difficult to translate, it could not guarantee that the translation was completely accurate. Then it gave what it thought was its best translation.

  The writing instructs all travellers who wish to prove the veracity behind their claim to be fearless, to enter into the dark domain. Those with the courage to do so should first charge their magnetic keys within the portal slot set just inside of the entrance to the portal of Divilio, that is if they were brave enough, and still wished to travel through to his dark domain. This initial charge would entitle any who wish to accept the challenge of the portal to twenty-four hours only in each of the domains, during these twenty-four hours the user is able to pass into the next domain and onward through the entire ordeal, recharging their keys in each of the subsequent portal slots.

  “We haven`t found any keys Trajo.” Prion declared sorrowfully.

  “We will just have to search for them tomorrow, maybe we will find them within the tunnel, we haven`t fully explored it yet and it cannot be dangerous as we haven`t charged a key.” Trajo declared to her two colleagues.

  The finding of the portal silenced all those critics who accused Ares Fortuna of fabricating the writing on the other metal plates; they could hardly accuse him of secretly constructing the portal, this was due not only to the immense size of it but also because of the writing, writing that had been hidden behind a wall of rock and mud. The writing now found on the wall in front of the por
tal was of the same archaic nature as that on the other metal plates, a metal not yet identified, but now of immense interest to the scientists of Helionia.

  It took just twenty minutes of searching the next day to find the magnetic keys packed away for a time far into the future; they sat within a box made from the same metal as the plates, which in turn sat in a niche in the wall well inside of the portal. The niche was ringed by a geometric decoration waiting to be found.

  Professor Qatar, was sixty years of age with little hair, and almost black beady eyes. His short height was emphasised by his wide waist, which was that way mainly due to his current position as curator of the museum. He had decided to make a field trip through the portal to mark his retirement, and had just arrived when the keys were found, and he was ecstatic.

  “Trajo we must both return to the capital to hold a proper press conference, we can report your tremendous finds in full, and also announce that we intend to send a team through the portal as soon as is possible. Prion, Remick you must stay behind until I have organised some extra security, I will have them sent out to relieve you both, that is if you both don`t mind missing out on the press conference?” At present the only security was a wire fence that surrounded the whole area of the extensive dig site, with a security cabin set at its entrance.

  They certainly didn`t mind, the attention given to the project here was bad enough, what would it be like back in the capital where they would be much closer to the heart of the news industry.

  With that decided, Trajo was whisked away to the museum, as they left Remick contacted Ares Fortuna to inform him of what was happening, and Fortuna joined his daughter at the museum. He wanted to ensure that the reporters knew who was responsible for this fantastic discovery, his daughter and her two companions, and not to the aging curator of the museum.

  Professor Qatar had already made up a list of six people who should be the first to enter the portal. At the top of the list was his name, followed by Trajo of course, Remick and Prion, as they were part of the original team which had made the find, and two men who made their fortune risking their lives doing things which normal mortal men would never dare to attempt.

  “This is ridiculous Professor; surely the initial exploration should be made by robots, for it would be foolhardy to risk the lives of so valuable a team as you propose.” Ares Fortuna stated forcibly. Secretly he didn`t care a fig whether Qatar risked his own life, but he wouldn`t allow him to risk his daughter`s life, or those of her two friends lives in so stupid a fashion.

  “Robots are all right at times Fortuna, but this is a find of the upmost importance, and it should be people who go through the portal of Divilio to investigate, not robots.” Qatar cried out incredulously.

  Ares Fortuna had been keeping an eye on his daughter all the while the discussion had been going on, and he could see that she was in full agreement with the curator, she was positively eager to get on with investigating the portal and all that it contained. Knowing that to forbid her to go would only increase her desire to go through the portal, Fortuna professed defeat and left it at that for the moment. The big day was almost upon them, when Trajo, along with Prion and Remick, were hospitalised with an extremely bad case of gastroenteritis. Ares paid the restaurant owner a large sum of money as payment for the celebratory meal they had enjoyed, for he didn`t want his daughter and friends to risk their lives on such a dangerous exploration. Not until it had been found to be safe by the use of either robotic machines or a team of Helionian scientists which didn`t include his daughter.

  Day 120 Helionia Calendar

  Three archaeologists from the other museums around the planet took the place of the three sick members of the team; the patients would just have to sit this exploration out within the confines of their sick rooms inside of a private clinic, one mostly owned by Fortuna. Here they were kept drugged until it was too late to re-join the expedition. The press were told that their condition was quite serious, but that they would soon recover if the doctors were allowed to do their job. Ares Fortuna had now become insistent that the exploration of the portal go ahead immediately, so the team of six explorers went through the portal of Divilio, and into the first of the dark domains as planned. Unfortunately, it went wrong from the start, as the authorities were unable to re-establish contact with the six men after they had passed through the portal, and after seven days, they were followed through the portal by a team made up only of robotic devices. The authorities once again failed to re-establish contact, following a further seven days when no sign of either team was spotted, the authorities closed down the portal, and set up a team to look into the problem.

  Day 130 Helionia Calendar

  Trajo Fortuna finally recovered her health, but she was feeling extremely guilty about the disappearance of Professor Qatar and his team, and so she returned to the Musgrave desert with Prion and Remick. At her father`s insistence, an android went along with them to act as their protector. Trajo was determined to search the cave to see if she could find more plates, she hoped that if successful they might shed some light on just what had happened to the two exploration teams that had journeyed through the portal. Within just three days, she found a narrow passage that allowed her to go further into the cave system, but it took another two days of digging out yet more frozen soil before she found yet another two plates.

  The first plate showed the position of a maintenance portal that would allow entry into the dark domain at another point; it was on a small moon that she named Galafrey, after the god of hope. The second plate gave a detailed map of what was behind the portal.

  “This new portal could well be another portal to nowhere Trajo, don`t raise your hopes too high.” Remick said to an elated young woman who now had hopes of finding the team of archaeologists alive.

  “This time we will send a robotic team through first, only afterwards will we follow it up with a manned team Remick.” Trajo said, but she was now feeling the same sort of excitement that she had felt when she had first found the skeleton, a tingling all over her body. Prion came up behind her and put his arms around her. Trajo turned around and put her arms around him.

  “You will soon be so important Trajo that I will have to get an appointment just to do this.” He said smiling down at her upturned face, Trajo smiled up at him.

  “Yes I will have to get a private secretary for such appointments.” Trajo said teasingly moving her body away from his. Prion pulled her back and kissed her hard before moving his lips slightly away from hers.

  “There are plenty of other archaeologists around Trajo, so just you be careful that I don`t run after one of them.” Prion said teasing her.

  “What like old Mademoiselle Paros, yes she shouldn`t take too much catching Prion.” Trajo said laughing at him.

  While the two young lovers teased one another, and unknown to them, the android had already reported the find back to Ares Fortuna, who now came out to the archaeological dig in the starship Dagger. Before the three friends could report their find to the museum and the world at large, Fortuna swore them to secrecy. He then took them away to the moon Galafrey in his starship, to arrive the following day at the moon, much to Trajo`s excitement at seeing this new find of hers, and ending her slight fit of pique at not being allowed to report her new find to the world.

  Day 135 Helionia Calendar

  The small moon was orbiting a blue gas giant in a star system just outside of the dark nebula, and they immediately scanned the surface of the moon for signs of the portal mentioned on the new metal plates. It certainly was not sitting in plain sight upon the surface of the moon, it took them five days of hard searching to find the tell-tale signs of the portal`s energy signature. It lay within a large crater in the highlands of the small moon. Captain Titan sent down a survey party who found that the portal was now buried beneath a large amount of moon rock, they also found the remains of a man made dome meant to cover the portal and provide air for the maintenance crew. The dome had been destroyed and t
he portal had been buried when a second meteorite had buried itself into the large crater making a smaller secondary crater. The work of clearing away the rubble took a further two days before the new portal was open to view. This portal was slightly different in that a magnetic key did not appear to be needed to journey into the dark domain.

  Ares Fortuna had Captain Titan send a robotic device down into the portal`s entrance, and using a video camera they were able to watch as the device moved further into the portal. The picture flickered and dimmed for a matter of just a few seconds, and then the picture reappeared to show first a tunnel and then the surface of a planet with an atmosphere and sunlight. The viewers were transfixed as the camera operator moved the lens up to show part of a multi-coloured ringed gas giant slowly sinking beneath the horizon, and then as the camera panned around, they saw a yellow sun high overhead.

  “This is fantastic father, now we can send a team through the portal to find the team led by Professor Qatar.”

  “Let us watch and see for just a while longer Trajo, before we endanger yet more people.” Ares advised his daughter.

  They indeed did watch and see as the robotic device moved slowly along a trail, and when all seemed to be peaceful upon this large moon the scene changed quickly to one of violence, as a large animal suddenly appeared in front of the robotic device and charged towards it roaring ferociously. Trajo for one was happy that she was not confronting the beast, for she thought that its teeth were enormous. The camera operator though was un-phased, and he turned on the robotic device`s defence system and ordered it to defend itself. The robot sent an energy beam whistling towards the animal stopping it in its tracks. The animal was a dinosaur, and it had been knocked off its feet by the bolt of Phaser fire, the roars of pain coming from the animal showed them that their weapon was highly effective even against this enormous creature. The dinosaur though soon shook off the effects of the Phaser bolt and regained its feet; it then looked menacingly towards the robotic device so the camera operator sent another bolt of energy at the dinosaur. It exploded against the ground just inches from the creature’s feet making it turn and flee from its fierce foe, and the high-pitched whistling noise that accompanied each of the energy bolts. The last they saw of the dinosaur was its tail finally disappearing around a bend in the track. Ares Fortuna was thoughtful for a moment, and then he looked up at Captain Titan.

  “Send a message to our freighter, the Vehra, have it collect one of the temporary atmospheric domes that we have in stock at our warehouse, along with another couple of the robotic devices, and tell the captain to bring them here, also inform him of the need for secrecy.” Turning to his daughter who was looking over at him questioningly, Fortuna answered her unspoken question.

  “I don`t want to give a renewed hope to the families of the missing men until we know for certain that some of them are still alive Trajo, it would only make it worse for them if we subsequently found the dead bodies of their loved ones.” Fortuna said.

  “But the two men who accompanied the four archaeologists were armed with Phaser pistols, so they should have been able to defend themselves father?” Trajo complained.

  “I am about to ask the operator here to order the robotic device to try to find a way through to the first domain, as you know from the plate that you found this is the second domain. We need to know that they or the robotic devices that followed them got that far at least before raising the hopes of the families concerned.”

  The robot didn`t need to return as far as the first domain as they found the destroyed remains of one of the six robotic devices just ten minutes later.

  “I thought that the devices that were sent through the portal were all capable of defending themselves father?” Trajo asked her father, Ares Fortuna.

  “They were, but maybe some of the beasts in the second domain are smarter than the one that we sent packing, or maybe they hunt in packs and there were simply too many for the device to defend against. We simply don`t know enough about this place yet to risk sending further teams through.” Ares Fortuna stressed to his excited daughter.

  “Well whatever the answer, any of those terrible creatures that were killed by the robotic device must have been eaten by their fellow beasts, for there doesn`t appear to be…” Trajo trailed off here for the camera came across the remains of a dead man who had obviously been eaten by something. Who the man was they couldn`t tell as there just wasn`t enough of him to identify.

  “As soon as the freighter arrives I will have to return to Helionia and begin to campaign for the forthcoming election Trajo, do you want to return with me or stay here?”

  “I think that I will return with you father, looking at this view screen, afraid that at any moment we might see another body of one of the team, torn to pieces, I couldn`t bare it. It is tearing me to pieces just anticipating it father, I shall leave it to your men.”

  Trajo looked very different from the excited girl of just a few days ago, now she was downcast and in need of rest and recreation to bring her sunny side back to life. Remick and Prion were of a similar frame of mind to Trajo, and so they all returned to Helionia on the starship Dagger.

  Day 144 Helionia Calendar

  Ares Fortuna told his daughter that so far no further sign of the missing archaeologists had been found, which must be good news he told her, for it could mean that they may still be found within the dark domain. One of their robotic devices had travelled into the first domain by way of a maintenance door set near to the first inner portal that took travellers from the first domain through to the second domain. It found a mountainous terrain seemingly empty of life except for a few mountain goats and some bird life. It made its way to the starting point, which was only about ten miles along a mountain track, here it was able to confirm from the many footprints that the missing men had at least got that far, but what became of them afterwards was still unknown. Another two of the robotic devices were found smashed to pieces, presumably by the animals of the second domain, leaving just three of the devices still unaccounted for, but up until this time no further members of the archaeological team had been found, alive or dead.