Chapter 2: Different Roads

With some sense of urgency some of you begin to pack incase someone shows up looking for the dead men. Others nearly in shock draw into themselves for a time and eventually fall asleep.

By the next morning you have everything packed away neatly in the inner caverns with the door sealed so that if anyone does come looking while you are gone hopefully they won’t find your stuff.

Everyone suits up that needs to, and lacking any specific directions Morgan opens the first warp in orbit above Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.

Titan is huge and vaguely orange in color, and you can see nothing through it’s dense methane smog atmosphere. Saturn itself hangs large in the sky, beautiful in the light of the distant sun. The next thing you notice is the cold. Never having been off Earth you are nearly stunned by how numbingly cold it is. Even those with Adaptability or space suits find it hard to get accustomed. After a few minutes the space suit heaters catchup and have you at a tolerable temperature. Those with adaptability also find themselves becoming accustomed to the extreme. Each person is attached to the others with a kevlar rope and Marcus tows the rests along using his flight abilities. After a short time you decide to check out the other moons since Titan is concealed beneath it’s atmosphere and it would take years to search it without some kind of radar.

Next Morgan opens a warp to Rhea, Saturns second biggest moon. From your vantage in orbit, Saturn looks a little more than twice as large as it did while orbiting Titan. This moon is a bit easier to understand. It looks much like our own moon except that its surface is covered with water ice that is cratered and pock marked instead of stone and dust. While flying around it, it seems apparent that nothing in particular is odd about this moon.

With only 30 minutes or so left in the oxygen tanks, you decide to move on to Saturn’s third largest moon Iaeptus. From the moment you enter orbit, you know you’ve arrived at the right place. The moon is just plain strange. Half it’s surface is covered with some kind of dark material. There is a ridge of mountains encircling the moon’s equator, which average about three times the size of Mt. Everest, or about the same height as Olympus Mons the largest volcano in the solarsystem. And last but not least many of the craters have a distinctive hexagonal shape rather than round.

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/iapetus.htm

With hand gestures Morgan signals that he wants to get a closer look, and opens another warp closer to the surface, and above the largest crater visible on the surface. This crater too is hexagonal. Many of the smaller craters seem to have mountains rising from the center of their bowls. These are probably the remains of asteroids that impacted the surface and created the craters. Just on the ‘dark side’ of the planet you can just make out a crater that should be covered in the dark material, but is instead pristine white. Also, from this distance, it is obvious that the mountain in the center of the crater has been cut into an unnatural shape. If it weren’t for the fact that all the area around it is covered in the dark material you would never have spotted the unusual formation.

Morgan opens another warp close to the surface of the structure. Now you can tell that it is not really a crater at all. It is definitely man made, like a huge radio telescope. It’s just made to look like a crater from a distance. Without a close flyby you’d never have discovered this place. Even with the Cassini probe in the system it could be years or decades before anyone from Earth notices something unusual here.

The structure in the center looks like a mountain that has been carved into a building. As Marcus tows you closer you can see that on the very top is a dome. You see no doorways, but the dome is made of some transparent material. Inside is furniture. In fact it looks like a very large bedroom.

Opening one last warp, Morgan takes you inside.

Near one side of the room there is a staircase going down. Around the perimeter of the dome are walls upon which hang artwork from Earth. Some are parts of rock walls with ‘cave art’ upon them. Moving around the room things progress and get more modern until you see works recognizable as being from the great masters of the Renaissance. Original DaVinci marble statues stand next to Titian portraits and Michelangelo study drawings for the roof of the Sistine Chapel. The collection is utterly priceless, and almost all of the pieces are either unknown works, or ones that were known to have been lost in shipwrecks or disappeared during WWII, etc.

The furniture in the room is all human work, mostly antiques, and obviously made for human use.

Needless to say, there is oxygen and warmth in the room. You can remove your space suits if you wish. The air is fresh and odorless.
[size:17pt][/size]

Carter quickly breaks the seal and removes his helmet. His eyes bulge and he gasps for air choking and crumbling to the ground as he grasps his throat. As the others rush to help he stands and laughs, "Sorry I had to," he smiles a rougish grin, "Air's fine actually. At least I seems fine."

Omar was awed by the sights of the offworldly landscapes. He enjoyed the wieghtless sensation, and watched everything around him in reverent silence.

When they reached the domed building and entered, Omar froze removing his helmut when he saw Carter clutch his throat. Only after Carter admitted that he was joking, and seemed to breathe normally, did Omar remove his helmut.

He removed his suit, and adjusted his eufiber into red and blue wrestlng outfit. He looked for a secure place to put hs suit. He then grabbed some jerked chcken and started muching on it. He walked around the room looking for any signs of who might live there.

Morgan chuckles at Carter's antics. "Those of us without suits could have told ya the air was fine. We thought there was something wrong with your suit air the way you were gasping." He looks around impressed at the artwork and antiques. "So what do we do now. This ain't exactly what I was expecting. I don't think we're gonna find any little green men in this place. Or if they ever were little green men, I'll bet they look like us now."

Oh, I forgot to mention, that once inside the building you are at Earth standard gravity.

After only a minute or two, a stripe of light begins to glow on the floor leading towards the stairwell. The light dims then brightens along it's length as though beckoning you to follow.

Marcus will morph into lightning and begin to follow the lights, "Looks like they want us to go this way."

Carter looks at the lights on the floor, "Seems like somebody wants some company. I hope this isn't an real elaborate method of getting people to probe anally."

"If we wanted the element of surprise, we were obviously mistaken" Omar says with a smile.

As he begins to descend the stairs, he looks back to the rest and nods before speaking. "I'll take the front...any objections?."

Morgan laughs and says with a grin, "Why would they want us to probe them? Doesnt' that usually go the other way around?"

"Seriously though, I guess we follow."

With that Morgan follows Marcus and Carter toward the stairs and looks to make sure everyone else is coming.


The steps are broad and easy to traverse. As you decend to the next floor you are greeted by the sight of a large English walking garden. The ceiling looks just like an overcast day, and if you look you can actually see the clouds moving. From the foot of the stairs the light leads toward the nearest wall, or in this case the nearest hedge wall. Despite the hologram/illusion on the ceiling the plants all appear to be completely real. Within the hedge where the light is leading, there is an intricately carved stone archway leading into an alcove. As you follow the light you notice an elderly man pruning a rose bush. When you approach he looks up and give a small start of surprise. "Eere now, ooo are you...? Says the man in a thick English counrty accent and wearing a friendly gaptoothed smile. He doesn't give any indication of nervousness, nor is he starteled by the very large man or the being made of lightning leading us toward the alcove.

"Hello there sir" Omar says with a friendly grin. "Pleased to meet a friendly face."

"My name is Omar...Omar Khudikias, and wer're from earth." Omar offered his huge hand for the elderly man to shake. "We didn't expect to find anyone out here."

The man is awed. "I din't know They were avin guests." He swallows, "Yer some of those Nova blokes", he nods to himself in understanding. "Roight, it's not my place to slow you down then by gabber'n away. Ewe, ought to follow the loight then. They'll lead ya to where ya need to be."

"Thank you, sir. We shall do that" Omar says to the elderly man, as he starts following the lights. Just then, he pauses and speaks to the man with a smile before continuing. "By the way, who owns this place?"

The old man looks puzzled for a moment obviously trying to understand what you are asking. Then he brightens, "Ah, you mean who built er? Weil, that wood be the Watchers. Least ways thas what we call em. They're kinda like ewe Novas, or perhaps what ewe might become if ya doon't destroy yerselves in wars and wat not."

The old gardner smiles a friendly smile and finishes with, "Perhaps I'll see ya later if yer stayin in the star chamber this even." He gets a bit reflective as he trails off, "My mate and I had the privilege of stayin there a few cycles agoo. I'll n'er forget that night." He gives a conspiritorial wink and a nod about the night he spent there.

After the conversation with the old man, you follow the light toward the wall and through the stone arch way into an alcove. The space has no visible exit, but is exquisitly tiled in beautiful and intricate patterns. As the last of you steps inside (or floats inside), you feel a tingling sensation, and you are transported to another location. Cheezy though it may be you actually are surrounded by a light effect just like the old Star Trek transporters.

You materialize in a huge chamber. So large infact that you think you could easily fit a small city inside. There is no city, however, there is a very large object, about the length of an aircraft carrier. The lights on the floor are leading toward it. The object has somewhat of a sleek aerodynamic appearance, and other than the fact that you can see no propulsion system it is obviously some kind of vessel. Currently, there is a small opening underneath with a ladder going up.

After getting over your shock at seeing a spaceship, you notice that there are two other men, standing beside you looking somewhat confused by their surroundings.

When Omar sees the two strangers, he reflexively makes a fist. He then turns towards them.

"Who are you, and how did you get here?" Omar asks, trying to be as awe-insipring as possible.

Carter rolls his eyes at Omar's sudden "greeting" of the newcomers. He quickly speaks up, "Shit Omar, take it easy, we're guests here, maybe these folks are too, or maybe they're our hosts ..."

Carter turns to the two newcomers and extends his hand, "I'm Carter Linwood, and you are?" He pointedly ignores any looks from the others as he gives a completely different name than the one he told them.

One of the men is a very hansom (presumably) baseline, dressed in a suit coat and tie that somehow manage to scream "plain clothes detective or FBI" but in a suave way.:blink: The baseline frowns, this isn’t the statement he was expecting, but before he can respond.He says,

“I’m Steve. Steve Courier. Hmm, you’re all novas, correct? I was about to ask you the same question, 'Who are you and how did we get here?' For that matter, where is here?”

Steve is a Caucasian in his mid twenties with black hair and piercing blue eyes.

{Lie Detector On}
{Investigative Prodigy On}
{Luck Roll for the scene please}

Morgan smiles and extends his hand to the new comers as well. "I'm Morgan, and yeah, we're all novas." He glances toward the ship, "I think we're in an underground chamber on Saturn's moon, Iaeptus. Least we were on Iaeptus before we were transferred here. What about you fellows, I take it you weren't expecting to be here?" He looks back at the two men and continues, "We were told the folks who built this place are called the Watchers and that they are like novas but maybe more advanced. Their technology certainly is advanced. We were following the glowing line on the floor hoping to meet them when we were transported here."

The lightning form that is Marcus morphs back into a normal form. "Novas? I don't know what you are talking about. I'm just a golfer." Marcus gives a big grin. "Oh, I'm Marcus. Nice to meet you."

"My apologies, I am in a cautious mood." Omar extends his ham-sized hand out to the two fellow-travellers. "My name is Omar Khudikias...Nice to meet you."

Carter shakes Steve's hand, "You look familiar, have we met before? Do you work in international shipping? ... nah, probably not I'm just imagining it."

Carter looks toward the ship, "So anybody else wanna see if somebody left the keys in the ignition?"

Morgan grins, and nods. "I don't think it would be a good idea to take it for a joy ride without permission, but those lights are leading us there, so we get to see the inside at the very least."

After a moment of thought, Omar agrees wth Carter. "Heading to the ships, sounds like the obvious choice. Who else is interested?"

Omar starts following the lights towards the ship.

The other man standing next to Steve is obviously a nova, being posessed of that tangible aura of health and vitality. His features also, bear that trademark exoticism that comes with being moreno, or mixed african and hispanic heritage. Light brown skin, and buzzed jet black hair. He is dressed in some kind of streamlined tactical bodysuit, and his eyes are concealed behind sleek mirrorshade goggles. He appears to be unarmed.

As soon as Omar thinks a threatening thought; even as the first motor impulses start to contract his fingers, this newcomer has drawn a glowing red bead upon his forehead with a laser electroshock pistol that materializes itself into his hand, even as the arm raises to aim it.

Another of the strange Novas steps in, diffusing the situation, putting the incredibly large man's thoughts at ease. With his intuition satisfied and apologies forthcoming, the gun dissasembles itself back into thin air.

After his partner has finished introducing himself, he steps forward, towards Omar first and offers a hand. Speaking with a deep, sonorous voice in an American accent he says,

"Sorry about that...my psionic reflexes picked up on your "mood". My name's Cody. Courier here is my partner. We were investigating connections between a bunch of missing scientists when we were transported here, from Earth... Iaeptus huh? Long way from home..."

Steve shakes hands with anyone who wishes. At the news about being off Earth he bounces up and down on his heels for a moment and says,

"Artifical Gravity then? But if that thing (Steve motions to the spaceship) is real then I guess it's expected... and the place to head towards."

(Steve follows Omar)

"Howdy Cody, Steve, nice to meet both of you. Shall we?" Marcus motions for them to lead the way.

*Ahem!* Cody clears his throat.

"It may be that we don't have much of a choice in the matter, but how come I'm the only one that seems to be surpised that we are just now standing on a moon of Saturn, in front of a half-mile long SPACESHIP for god's sake!"

"I mean, Steve and I *know* you aren't lying about your story, and I don't sense that we are in any immediate danger, which is a good thing, but it would seem like our little mystery just got a *whole* lot bigger..."

...after a pause in which noone seems to answer, Cody adds:

Since nonone seemed able to answer his question, Cody tries a different tack.

"Okay. How about this? What is it that brought you here to Iapetus in the first place? Sightseeing?"

After a few raised eyebrows and nods of agreement to Cody's statement, you proceed toward the ship. The ladder is directly under the belly of the ship and leads into the interior. The style is elegant, but a little spartan. Of course, most ships tend to have even less ornamentation than this. Rather than doorways, or hatches, the corridors have stone arches leading into the rooms, with artfully carved wooden doors. When you look close however, you notice that the doors aren't really hinged wooden doors, anyone with engineering or intrusion, would figure that the doors probably slide into the walls like the doors on the starship Enterprise.

Once in the ship you find it easy to choose your path. The corridor leads straight as an arrow toward the front of the ship. The doors to the sides, if you curiously try to open them lead into personal quarters that look empty. In fact, other than the total lack of dust you get the feeling that the ship is unoccupied. The long hallway continues down the length of the ship, but one of the archways on the right hand wall opens as you approach. It looks like a large elevator, and as you enter it moves up and opens on a room that you have to assume is the bridge, though it lacks any of what you would expect. No huge view screen or captain’s chair, or science workstations like on a science fiction show.

What you do see is a group of comfortable chairs and couches set in a semi circle facing the front of the room. As the last of you steps into the room and the lift door closes. You feel something unusual. It is kind of like when you are driving and the road takes a sudden dip and you feel your stomach drop. The feeling is just as fleeting and when it passes a large hologram appears in front of the chairs. The hologram is a perfectly rendered image of a man's face. He appears more than humanly handsome, but not so much so that it is frightening they way some novas become.

Then you hear a deep entrancing male voice, as the image looks at you and speaks. "We apologize for the inconvenience We cause you. You have stumbled upon a secret that was not meant to be revealed at this time. We have made it Our goal to not interfere in the course of human events on Alpha. Revelation of our technology would cause irreparable damage to your history at this point. We choose not to usurp your free will, by erasing the memories of what you have experienced, nor will We place upon you compulsions not to reveal what you have learned. Therefore, you have been 'shifted' into an alternate Earth timeline. You will find that it is exactly parallel to Alpha except that We do not exist there. You may travel as you wish, except that you will find it impossible to return to Alpha before the year 2125. We also claim as Our domain Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon, you may do as you will in any other timeline.

As for this vessel, you are being allowed to dwell in her. She was our friend, and served us well for many millennia beyond counting until she was killed. Rather than destroy her body, We kept it in an honored place entombed below Our home on Iaeptus. Treat her well, and she will serve you better than any vessel you can imagine. Her former intelligence is lacking, but We have imbued her with new life and restored many of her former capabilities."

With the last word, the hologram fades. After a pause, a female voice speaks, "How may I serve?"

Ironically for a telepath, Cody has a habit of thinking out loud when deciphering a mystery, like the tips of an iceberg, while the preternaturally potent intellect remained largely below the surface,

"Revelation of our technology?...Those crystalline structure? Of course."

At the mention of being shunted into another timeline, Cody looks very alarmed..."They wouldn't..."

...We also claim as Our domain Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon, you may do as you will in any other timeline.

"They would."

With the last word, the hologram fades. After a pause, a female voice speaks, "How may I serve?"

"Do you have a name?" Cody asks the voice. "What is your designation? Please list current capabilities followed by a list of those additional abilities this vessel possesed in life."

Turning to Steve, he raises a knowing eyebrow. "Lets find out what we're dealing with, eh Old Man?"

Morgan replies, "We were following the same mystery, of course it goes a bit deeper than just the scientists." Morgan will proceed to fill Cody and Steve in on what they've discovered so far, as you all head into the ship and hear the message described above.

"OK, well, I think it's time to wake up now," Carter says while proceeding to pinch himself. "Crap! Umm, What the hell just happened?" Carter gets up and goes back to the entry to the ship to look outside.

The female voice responds to the question, "We have shifted into timeline designated Zeta, per instructions." A new hologram appears in the air in front of the chairs, it is of the Saturn system minus Iaeptus. The detail and realism of the hologram is pretty spectacular, way better than HD optnet displays.

Again the voice speaks, "I await instructions."

Carter returns to the sitting room after seeing the doors shut. "OK floating in space, not cool. AI time traveling, dimension hopping spacecraft ... very cool. Umm, computer?