Book 1 - Chapter 1

[Out Of The Garth Of Space]
April 17th, 2332 CT/5732 CE/1972 AD
Planet Costellon
City of Haramu Urbis
Federal Republic of Genesikos
Mid-Space Age


The starry eyed young man standing over a series of vials and holding a metallic device in his hand stared into space. He was blinking incessantly, unsure of how to respond after having pored over this hologram. The young man, light-skinned and with a slew of defiance about his face set the device down and picked it up again. Thinking, he said to himself in the loneliness of his laboratory. 'How could this be, and who is Nadia?' The young man, clean shaven with a soul-patch under his chin black as night and thick curly black hair patched above his head; turned radically. There was a knock at the door, and he swung over to answer it.


Navigating vials, desks of strange devices uncovered from the previous day's dig; and three computer-like devices the young man rapidly marched to the opaque glass door hiding his laboratory from the lobby outside. The reflective white-wash mirrored walls were tracking his progress from the end of the laboratory to the door as a second impatient knock louder than the first banged on the door, shaking it on its hinges. "Open up Malkon, I know you're in there. STOP AVOIDING ME!" A woman's voice was behind the door. Malkon paused for a bit, thinking about what he was going to do. "Rachel I am coming!" he shouted impatiently as he rushed his hand over the door handle.


A pretty young woman, younger than him and with similar facial features looked up at him. She was shorter than he with a thin frame and piercing blue eyes like his. This young woman one might say, was the man's sister. Indeed she was, far more important to their father than he, the liberal and democratic Malkon. "Hello, sis." Malkon smiled playfully. "Don't give me that, you were clearly avoiding me like all the other times. Locked away in this den of loneliness. Unwilling to spend time with your favorite and ONLY baby sister!" She smiled back at him after a brief and awkward pause. "Care to join me for lunch?" She asked. "Malkon glanced longingly back at the station he left the strange device. "Sure," he said after a short pause. "I'll join you for lunch. But I have something to share with you first!"


Malkon walked over to the device and handed it to Rachel, who looked over it quizzically. She was confused and didn't know how to respond as it played the message Malkon had heard, showing a robed old man in the form of a tiny black and white hologram. After the message finished, she looked at him, her pretty eyes bulging.  Malkon was smiling proudly. Rachel was so confused that she couldn't think of what to say. "Who's Nadia?" she asked. "It's a new mystery," Malkon said as the pair walked out of the laboratory, Malkon playfully swinging his identification badge in his hand. His finger over the neck-piece.


As the guard saluted them outside, Malkon walked over to his sedan, a dark red luxurious looking four wheeled car that had an appendage in the rear giving it a pick-up truck appearance. He smiled, as Rachel got in and they both drove to a small cafe twelve blocks south to eat. "So why did you show me what you found in Knod?" she asked sweetly. "I figured my 'favorite' sister would want to have the first peek at what I found there. No one else would see it for a few years or so because I intend to hold onto it until I feel they are ready to see it." Malkon replied. "Besides. Society is stagnant right now. No cause to look forward too. Nothing to fight for." She looked ahead as Malkon parked the car. They both got out and entered the cafe, ordering their meals before setting down to eat.