Chapter 5

MONDAY 4:45 P. M. CST 50Ly. Shy of the Edge of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm, Milky Way Galactic Plane

Emerging from the third jump in their course to the emanation source, Miklit took the time to ponder what orders its traveling companion could be laced with, while caressing the sent bulb Alpha-1 had created for it.

'All it will take is one wrong twitch from this one and I'll certainly trigger this bulb. I don't care if I have to try piloting this blasted thing back Home by myself or not. I am not expendable, no matter what Decision Maker thinks. Besides, Alpha-1 would never forgive me if I disappeared in the depths of space. Not to mention the ruckus Little One and it's generational sibs would raise, ' Miklit's thoughts ranged.

What Miklit was unaware of, because the two beings had not communicated more than perfunctory greetings to each other since entering the ship. Was that the Pilot had also been ripped from Home and Nest in the same manner it had and was suffering the same pangs of Home loss as the light years of separation mounted.

Unfortunately for the not-so-dynamic-duo, even with the extra shielding in place, their passage through this region of space had not gone unnoticed.

Unit ZZ-1340 of the Kroll Hive Mind was patrolling its sector just outside the solar system Heliopause when a radiant energy trace appeared on its monitor. This event triggered long dormant protocols in the craft's programming that immediately sent this data to the Mind's intelligence section. ZZ-1340's only conscious thought was to verify that the new data had been transmitted correctly.

As this new data was thoroughly gone over, it was also correlated with the current version of stored information the Kroll had on hand. The Mind was not unaware of Miklit's race, as it had made a few undetected probes in the vector direction of their Home. But this was certainly the first recorded journey it was aware of that Miklit's people had taken in this direction. They were normally such 'homebodies' that their presence here was an extreme departure from their standard behavior.

The questions raised by this new data were: where are they going and why?

While Miklit's pilot punched up the navigation program to confirm the ship's position and orient the ship for the next jump, ZZ-1340 was receiving new orders from The Mind also. Since the craft it piloted was equipped as a long duration mission vehicle, it was ordered to follow this new and unusual occurrence to its destination, or until the path it followed led back by the Kroll home system.

When Miklit and Co. jumped into N-Space again, they had a ghost with them and at this point, it was pretty much a sure bet that its name wasn't Casper. As it turned out, separation anxiety was not a phenomenon strictly limited to Miklit's race.

The vessel with a reluctant Miklit on board, would make three more Navigation stops on the way to its target. At all three, either they, or those following behind them would pick up devotees of their own. By the time this long tailed train 'Ghosted-on-silent-wings' into the Sol system, they resembled nothing less than a Mallard hen with her trail of ducklings.

TUESDAY 5:45 A. M. Peshawar, Pakistan

As Ali rose to begin another day, he made his way to the bathroom and finishing his business there; then laid out his prayer rug just as the adhan went out from the minaret's loudspeakers, carried by the sweet voice of the muezzin.

Rising back to the kneeling position from his first salah, he was distracted from the rhythm of the prayer he had said daily since childhood. There, before his startled gaze, was a spot of light growing on his bedroom wall. It was as if someone had drilled a hole through to the outside air and the sun was rising directly through this growing portal. He watched in astonished wonder as the light spread to encompass his entire bedroom wall and at the same time became so bright that even bowing his head back to the floor and closing his eyes was not enough to keep his eyes from watering.