Khin laughed as he dismounted, and looped the reins over the hitching rail which was mounted for just such a purpose. He was wearing dark glasses to protect his eyes from the bright sunlight of Serendipity. “Yes, it was flying and that looked fun, but an odd color.”
“Like that color!” Brink cried and pointed skyward. “The Jellies are coming!”
High overhead a bluish-purple streak jetted across the sky, cutting through the gray and white clouds. It came to an abrupt halt nearly directly above them. From the vantage point on the ground, it just looked like a glowing dot. Bright, irritating to the eye, and static.
Everyone was looking up now, including the townsfolk.
“Jellies?” Kalur asked.
“Nothing to fear,” Jerome answered. “Trust me.”
“But dad!” Brink said. “I do not understand.”
Jerome smiled. “Old wood is best to burn. Old wine is best to drink. Old friends are best to trust, and old authors are best to read. Some friends pass away, but new friends appear. It is just like the days of life. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it a meaningful day.”
The twins smirked at each other, and knew better than to ask their father what he meant. All their lives he had been reciting strange and sometimes apparently meaningless phrases.
The bluish-purple dot changed. It grew closer and closer as it descended. The purplish exhaust diminished, and revealed more of the body of the thing. It was far smaller than anyone expected. Soon it was visible as a ship, of sorts. It was nothing like the Conestoga’s few shuttles which still existed. Nor was it like any of the model airplanes which the teachers had instructed the children how to make.
The grayish blue of permalloy stood out, as most of the purplish glow was now gone. The craft was only about three meters long, and about a meter wide. The ship was vastly smaller than the contrail it had left. It was shaped like a cone, sort of strobiloid in design, but very tapered and narrow. The twins each thought of a spear tip, but refrained from commenting. The machine descended to gently land on four short legs which extended out from the blister on its stern. The craft came to rest on the flat ground to the side of the dock. As it stopped, everyone realized it had made virtually no sound at all as it made planet-fall.
The horses were wary, noses flaring, and eyes staring at the craft. Vesna and Khin stroked each horse’s nose and murmured reassurances. Some dogs rushed up and barked at the craft, as they danced on their legs round and round. They looked back at the people, expecting some kind of command or instruction. Unlike when they were herding the goats or sheep, in this case the people did not instruct the dogs on what to do. So, they continued to bark and circle the craft.
Jerome finally looked over. He saw that a crowd of about a hundred people had gathered. He raised up his hands. “Everyone! Attention! Please listen to me. This is a robotic probe. It is no threat at all. Old friends have found us. Do not ask me to explain how they located us, since we have been unable to figure where in the cosmos Serendipity is, but they did. Sandie is working it all out. They contacted the Conestoga about ten hours ago. It took Sandie a while to realize what the signal meant.”
“From Earth?” Cammarry asked and rolled her eyes in disbelief. “I thought Dome 17 was gone. Was there another dome somewhere which survived? I thought they all died out.”
“Sadly, that is true. This robotic probe is not from Earth. Rather it is from a planet called Bounty,” Jerome stated. “The people who sent this were Michael and Jamie, and a mix of colonists and Dome 17 survivors.”
Cammarry smiled and then bent over and hooted in exhilaration. Her hands were on her knees as she laughed and laughed. “They went to the Eschaton, right?” Cammarry asked. Her mouth was hanging open. “They made it?” She laughed some more.
She was laughing so hard, Khin looked at her to make sure she was not having a fit or something.
Jerome added his own laugh. “Apparently so. They call themselves the Bounty Planetary Confederation. They have been searching for the other colony ships, and they found us. Like I said, I do not understand their technology, as some of it is modified from Jellie engineering. There is a package here with instruction on how to build an ultra-long ranger teleporter,” Jerome said. “We are something like 4,000 light-years away from Bounty, but they think we can reconnect to them.”
“So, there is no Jellie threat?” Monika asked. “We are still safe?”
With that, Jerome sobered. “Yes, we are safe here on Serendipity, from all that they said. However, the Bounty Planetary Confederation is at war with the Jellies, in their section of space. They need our help. Like I said, we are safe way out here, thanks to the Zalians, but Bounty has invited us to join with the rest of the human race. There is a lot more. A lot more, and many things for us to discuss.” He walked over and touched the side of the robotic probe.
A door opened, and a small compartment was exposed. Inside was an Atomic Level Processor. Jerome pulled it out and unwrapped it from its protective shielding.
“Michael and Jamie said this ALP is their latest generation of artificial intelligence system,” Jerome said. He pressed a switch on the side of the ALP and it began to glow.
“Hello, I am Marcia. You can think of me as a granddaughter to your system Sandie,” a pleasant voice came from the ALP. “Have I got a story for you.”
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Thornton lives on the northern plains of North America. He gets to enjoy his life with his wonderful wife and two very silly dogs. Some of John’s best times are when his grown daughters and their husbands stop by for a visit, or call to discuss books, movies, politics, theology, archeology, astronomy, cryptozoology, or any number of other light subjects.
His wife’s ancient cat gave her nineteen years of love, adoration, and affection, but had to take one last flight. Hopefully he has made planet-fall on a beautiful place where he can spend eternity.
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