Chapter 5: The Zentas Hue I

During the time Mev and Kathleen were on shore leave there were scout teams exploring the planet from the air. The Republic battlecruiser carried a number of small, fast armed space boats which could be used as either scouts or as fighters. During the week the group of these was making daily flights ranging over the planet, providing cover for the people on the surface as well as exploring the planet in more detail.

One of the pilots of these small craft, Lt. Beverly Franklin guided her ship swiftly across an open grassy plain. She was ranging a considerable distance away from where the others had landed and was enjoying the extra time flying. She had her sensors scanning for anything interesting or out of the ordinary. She was especially looking for anything which could be a danger to the people who were enjoying shore leave on the planet surface.

Suddenly an alert sound filled Franklin's ship as one of the sensors was triggered. Her computer popped up a display indicating the location of the detected signal, which was a low level power generation source. This was something unexpected and could be a possible danger to the Republic battlecruiser. The signal did not seem to match any known Morro technology but you never knew. It was better to check on it and see what you are dealing with.

Franklin contacted her wingman Lt. Barnes and discovered that he also was seeing the power generation signal, though it was a faint one. After a short discussion and after contacting the battlecruiser to give them an update Franklin decided to land and investigate further. The two pilots started a search pattern to try to locate the source of the power generation signal more precisely. Soon they had the location pinpointed to a small rocky hill in the middle of the plain and they both landed their ships beside it.

The two pilots exited their ships carrying sidearms, communicators, and a portable detection unit to allow them to trace the power generation signal. They quickly determined the signal was indeed coming from the rocky hill and one side of the hill was torn away to form a vertical cliff-like cut about five meters high. Franklin could see from the readout on the detection unit that the source of the signal lay within the hill behind the cliff wall. The two pilots walked closer and when they reached the cliff face they could see what appeared to be a plastered over doorway.

The two examined the doorway more closely and the plaster looked to be old and a bit weathered, with numerous holes where small chunks of plaster had fallen out over time. Obviously it would seem the power source they were getting the signal source was walled up behind the door and appeared to have been there for quite some time. For the two pilots the question was what should they do about it. Should they break down the sealed door or should they leave it alone?

Probably it would have been better if they had left the door alone. However the pilots of the scout ships tended to be young and brash and Franklin and Barnes were no exception to this. Their inclination was to break down the door to see what lay inside and that was what they ended up doing. Franklin pulled her sidearm which was an energy weapon and discharged it at the doorway. The caused the plaster to shatter and the rocks it bound into the door tumbled down into a pile in the doorway.

The two pilots rolled the larger rocks out of the doorway and then kicked enough of the smaller ones out of the way so they could enter the chamber that was now open to them. Franklin and Barnes climbed over the remaining pile of rubble into the tunnel beyond. About five meters into the tunnel it changed to a stairway carved from the rock that led downward deeper into the hill. The two pulled their sidearms and started down the stairs until they came into the chamber beyond.

At the bottom of the stairs Franklin and Barnes found a long relatively narrow chamber dimly lit by softly glowing panels in the ceiling. Along each wall of the chamber were two long shelves running the length of the room. On each shelf were transparent half-tubes each about two meters long and a meter in diameter. Moving to one of the shelves the two pilots could see that the closest half-tube contained the remains of a half dead humanoid being. From what they could see the remains appeared to be human or similar to humans.

Franklin and Barnes walked down the passageway between the two shelves, past tube after tube containing long decayed remains. The two pilots were rapidly coming to the conclusion they had entered some sort of ancient tomb, the decayed remains would seem to indicate that was the case. Finally the two pilots came to a wall with a door into another chamber. They went through the door into the chamber beyond.

Inside the end chamber, which was the last one, Franklin and Barnes found only three more half-tubes. But the contents of these tubes were very different from any of the others they had seen so far. Unlike the decayed bodies in the other room the bodies in this room were perfectly preserved and lifelike. The bodies in this room looked completely lifelike as if they were only sleeping. Somehow these three bodies had resisted decay when all of the others had almost turned to dust.

The bodies in this room were a single man and two women, nude and perfectly preserved for some unknown vast length of time. The male appeared to have been in the early thirties, and was muscular and well built. Franklin felt her eyes immediately drawn to him and felt a great attraction for the man in the tube. She found herself wishing that he was still living instead of perished some unknown ages ago.

The two female bodies were as beautiful as the male was handsome, and the eyes of both pilots were drawn to them. Barnes especially felt his eyes drawn almost magnetically to the two lifeless women and immediately he decided they were some of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. Barnes found himself thinking it was a shame they had died so long ago.

The pilots were wrong in thinking the three in the inner room to be dead, though that was very much true for the larger number which populated the shelves in the outer chamber. The three were actually very much alive though their bodies were in deep hibernation. Yet there was an aspect to the process that sustained their hibernation which allowed the three to retain a measure of conscious thought and memory even though their bodies were completely inactive. Their hibernation was sustained by a fusion of technology and spell craft beyond the comprehension of the two pilots, though Mev was later able to make some sense of it.

As Franklin and Barnes looked in awe at the three bodies laying in the room the consciousnesses from those bodies was even then scanning them, and their minds. They had been doing so ever since the pilots had detected the power generation signal that had led Franklin and Barnes to the chamber. The three slumbering aliens had already learned a great deal and now were in the process of awakening themselves. They had lain in that chamber for more than five thousand standard years and would soon return to life!

Barnes was staring at the face of one of the female aliens, it was just so beautiful and he found it difficult to look away. Some of this was the consciousness of the aliens which was now starting to exert a subtle but growing influence over the two pilots. The three aliens were delighted to find how little defense the two pilots had and how easy it was to start to gain control of them.

Barnes was still staring at the face of the female alien when suddenly her eyes opened! The pilot jumped back in shock at the totally unexpected movement by the alien he had supposed was dead. Franklin also stepped back in shocked surprise as the eyes of the male alien whose face she had been staring at with equal eagerness also suddenly opened.

The three half-tubes which covered the three bodies suddenly flipped open exposing the three to the open air for the first time in thousands of years. The two pilots continued to watch in astonishment as the three aliens started moving, stretching their limbs and looking around. Then the male alien turned, swinging his feet over the edge of the shelf he was lying on, and then sat up. A moment later the two female aliens did the same. For a moment the three aliens and the two pilots stared at each other in silence. The two pilots were shocked wordless by the sudden resurrection of bodies they had thought to be dead.

"Thank you for finding and awakening us," the male alien spoke after a moment had passed. The two pilots were further astonished that he had spoken in unaccented standard and they understood him perfectly. The three had already extracted from the minds of the two pilots a perfect knowledge of the language they spoke.

"Er ... Yes ... Hello" Franklin choked in reply. She found herself even more drawn to the strange man with every minute that passed.

"Lieutenants Franklin and Barnes I believe," the alien replied.

"Yes, how do you know our names? How can your speak our language?" Franklin replied.

"We have our way of knowing. My name is Jed An, and beside me are Me Su and No Se. We have been buried here for more than five thousand of your standard years, waiting for someone to come to us." The alien continued.

"Who are you?" Barnes asked, speaking for the first time.

"We are the last remnant of our people, buried here to wait until we might live again." Jed An replied.

Jed An moved himself closer to the edge of the shelf, slid his feet down to the floor, and then pushed himself to his feet. Me Su and No Se also stood up at the same time and the thee aliens stood a little unsteadily at first but with increasing confidence.

The two pilots were now feeling and increasing and more obvious, almost hypnotic interest in the three aliens now. Despite the situation and the fact they basically knew nothing about the three aliens, Franklin and Barnes found themselves relaxing and feeling more comfortable, yet their attention was still riveted upon the aliens.

Jed An slowly walked to the door of the chamber. He looked out into the long hall that contained the long dead bodies of other aliens. The two pilots saw a quick look of sadness flicker across his face to be quickly replaced with a serene expression.

"Ah, my poor people. The instrumentality which sustained them long ago failed and they are no more." Jed An said as he stared at the long chamber. Then he turned his thoughts away from those sad remains, never to return.

The three aliens now quickly completed the process of taking complete control of the two pilots, which had already been well on the way to completion. Jed An directed Franklin to return to her ship and call for a shuttle to carry the three to the Republic battlecruiser which orbited overhead. New freedom and new power would be theirs after waiting for so very long!

Mev continued searching for the presence he sensed had come on board the ship. From the nature of what he could feel Mev also knew that eventually that presence would come to confront him and Kathleen when it felt the time was right. He wanted to learn as much as possible before that inevitable confrontation occurred.

It was when he happened to pass Lt. Franklin in a passageway one day that Mev got his first real clue to what was happening. As he was passing the pilot his mind brushed across hers and suddenly he had to force himself to keep walking as if nothing had happened. Franklin was under control of the Power of Command! And the control was sealed into place making it unbreakable except by death of the commander or commanded. This could have only been done by some entity which partook the nature of the High Lords of Venda.

The High Lords of Venda had forbidden themselves from using the Power of Command upon the humans with which they lived, except in cases where the human was a life threatening criminal. For Mev encountering someone under the influence of this power was surprising and disconcerting. He could also sense that the presence he had felt recently was also responsible for imposing its control on Franklin. For himself and Kathleen there need be no specific fear of the Power of Command since the High Lords of Venda were immune to such things. Yet the presence of an entity with both the power and the willingness to use the Power of Command on humans helpless to resist it was very troubling.