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After the ensuing disaster, Sumas piloted his craft away from the scene. He
was not an alien without empathy. Eventually, the boys had recovered enough to
huddle in a corner in abject terror. Sumas began:
"Look my friends, I'm not here to hurt you; quite the opposite really. You two are lost. Here in this ship yes, but also in the world out there. You make love in a deserted house. You met by chance, in front of a setting sun. One of you fled from your home. The other had no home from which to leave. One of you carries the means to go anywhere you choose. This "means" has meaning. It is more than conveyance--it is the stolen sepulchre of a powerful race of overlords. They have been planting seeds of civilizations throughout the universe for thousands of eons. In the form of spores, the size of beach sand. But the Overloards have been extinct now for ages. Their crops--their children--have enjoyed every fruit of the celestial garden." "One of these civilizations, we will call them the SOMMS--were fortunate to evolve earlier than most, for the Overlords planted the spores on the SOMM's home planet when the cosmos was still very young indeed. The SOMM's development over hundreds of thousands of generations gave rise to all matter of sublime and fruitful endeavor, in culture, science, and most of all, in biotechnology. The SOMMS were the first to stumble upon the gateway leading to the Overloard's life-giving secret---and with that they would be able to colonize entire galaxies. But to open that gate would be to unleash a mighty flood of terrible proportions. For the SOMMs are not gods, and their art and their machines, awesome and beautiful though they may be--cannot alone support the fabric of reality as we understand it. The floodway they open will spill the blood of every generation of Orbs, past and future, that exists. And without the Orbs--the universe itself, and all that exists in its wake--will collapse. Such is the warning left by the Overloards, a message whose existense can be found in only one place--the sepulchre in Cole's backpack. Its the size of a Christmas ball. It weighs almost 4 ounces. The Orbs, ever mischievious, child like, and annoyingly whimsical, have for whatever reason chosen you to keep it safe. It contains something besides the means to defeat the SOMMs (for the message is the means)--it contains detailed instructions for how to construct a machine that floats; an anti-gravity device." "Goodness, where are my manners...have you eaten? Try one of these coconut shrimp; they're marvelous." |
| More later. |
