by Neely Dobbs
PROLOGUE
Had any signal been sent from Kepren to the distant outer planet of the remote Alpha Byreen system only ten years before, it would have gone unanswered; no living being would have been within many light years of that inhospitable region of space. On the rare occasion of its sun’s closest approach, the planet was barely warmed enough to force even its smallest glaciers into short retreats up starkly bare mountain valleys. No sentient creature had ever roamed its bleak landscape nor swum beneath the thick icy shields which completely blanketed its frigid oceans.
Therefore no note was taken when the planet had been assaulted. Its skies had suddenly filled with a massive armada, which converged on a huge mountain near the planet’s equator. The primordial stillness had next been shattered by horrendous explosions. Then gigantic machines— behemoths whose combined size rivaled that of the beleaguered mountain, and whose power obviously more than a match for it— landed in the newly cleared zone around the mountain’s scoured face. Two great holes soon gaped in the mountain, one at its base and one at its peak. Then the entire mechanized army had disappeared into these openings.
The besieged planet had completed a full orbit of its sun before the resolute construction army reappeared. Huge boulders were shaped and stray chunks of broken stone were heaped around the smooth entrance, closing the artificial opening in the mountain’s face, returning it to an unremarkable appearance, strewn with apparently random piles of rubble.
Then the conquering armada had departed—leaving Alpha Byreen III seemingly as untouched as in the eons before they came.
Yet, hidden deep within its mountain, A multitude of tunnels radiated, branching distantly from a great central chamber. Within that chamber stood a translucent obelisk, glowing with rhythmically flowing symbols: a crystal chronograph, marking the soundless passage of time, waiting for its alarm to sound.
Sanctuary-1 had been constructed.