The ship was just as I left it.
Jenny was overawed, watching it slowly take up more and more of the screen. I'd found a real Ulix ship, after all. I'd be gloating if my task weren't a bit more important. It seemed strange to me, to be coming back with the intention of destroying the device when I'd first come away from it wanting to make a new one. Sann was convincing though. As much as I was big on continuing my work, he'd been fanatical about it. If he'd decided it was a bad idea, it was a bad idea. Besides, after seeing the minefield, I had to agree with him. It was bad enough that Yotia had fallen victim to the Ulix's schemes, I didn't want everyone else to as well.
I didn't dream on the way through the border this time. I didn't wake up at Ulix Crossroads, either. I didn't feel like I'd slept at all, really, only I had to have because there was no way that I could have jumped this entire distance at once. However we'd gotten there, Jenny and I picked ourselves up off the floor and watched the spectacle of Messenger from the Past slowly grow larger in the viewscreen.
I'd been tempted to find the docking bay I'd blown out on my earlier visit and stop by for old time's sake, but if I'd intended to go in that way I'd likely have to get all suited up. Instead I just located the nearest one. Knowing all the systems of the ship were up and running, I was somewhat apprehensive at the idea of trying to negotiate a docking lane. Then again, if the Ulix were indeed awake in their own resonator - and the fact that my button had done what the 'dream' had said it would do was a good bit of evidence right there - they'd probably be happy to see me coming. Thank goodness they had no idea what I was up to.
Only half-thinking, I put my fingers on the 'random' button just in case something went wrong. I didn't have any idea where it would take me, it seemed even more random now than ever, but if I needed an escape there was nothing faster. I then signaled their docking computer.
The bay nearest my approach opened up, neat as you please.
Carefully, and scanning for security robots the entire time, I piloted the ship into the waiting bay. There were no bots, no alarms, no indication that anything was wrong. The air was pressurized and oxygenated specifically for my species, even though Jenny planned to come along with me when we went on our final tour.
After a few more moments of convincing myself that everything was indeed safe, Jenny and I proceeded through the airlock and into the bay itself.
"Alan, Jenny, it's great to see you guys again!" The voice of Junior, of all people, sounded throughout the bay. "Still, too bad you couldn't get everyone else."
Yeah, it was just too bad. Two of the team captured and one who'd effectively done himself in a long time ago, and to Junior it was just 'too bad'. There was no consolation in his voice, and it wasn't due to lack of translation; his voice came over the speakers in my language, flawless and without accent as it always had been.
I checked my armaments. I'd stocked up on working FAST units from the ship, they'd be able to take quite a few more hits than the hacked up versions I'd been forced to deal with. Jenny assured me that her suit was more than equipped for any offensive task necessary. We headed out, talking loudly to the speaker system so Junior would think that we were right on our way to continue our work.
It was a big ship, bigger than I remembered it, and I'd just been there not too long ago. I managed to calibrate this panel to follow my old path - as the only living thing besides Oorn to walk the halls in decades, it wasn't too hard - and started retracing my steps. It'd taken me days to flit from hiding space to hiding space the first time I'd visited, whereas it took very little time to retrace it now despite the fact that I had to wander from my new docking bay quite a distance in order to find my old one and pick up the trail. Most of my time then had been spent sleeping or hiding, and I didn't have to do that now. Not a single bot roamed the halls; the only sign that any had been here to begin with were the remains of those I'd taken out on my way past.
I emerged into the deep-sleep chamber where I'd awoken Oorn. The robots' broken carcasses were still there, but the Ulix - as I suppose he was - himself had been vaporized and so remained gone. That did free up a space in the deep-sleep chambers, though. It also gave me an idea.
I went to the one I'd opened up way back when and started using the translator to change its settings. It had to be set for dark-sleep so as not to stand out from the rest, but I could change the duration to be relatively short, say, a few months. I turned to Jenny and let her know what I was thinking: The ship that the Resiliant had seen was mine, they had to be relatively certain that they were tracing me. Other than her failure to appear at the spaceport where they'd expected her, they had no reason to believe that Jenny had been traveling with me. She could hide out in the chamber while I performed my task so, in the event they caught up with me they wouldn't find her too. Even if they managed their way through the border and searched the ship, they wouldn't discover her, as she'd look like one sleeper out of millions. I'd stop by in a few months, assuming I survived, to pick her up. If I didn't make it, she had a whole colony ship she could take over and move about, even if it was a bit on the rusty side. As I explained this to her, I opened up the tube and gestured hurriedly toward it. I knew, on some level, that we had quite a bit of a lead on the mission ship that would no doubt be trying to follow us, but I still couldn't shake the feeling of hurriedness. If the Ulix were watching, and Junior's impassioned greeting suggested they had at least a cursory idea that something was going on here, it wouldn't take them long to ask themselves "If he's so keen on building us another Resonator, why's he putting his scientist on ice?"
I turned to face Jenny as I was talking, and was violently thrown backwards into the tube. I looked on in shock - she'd pushed me! Her suit was far more powerful than I'd given it credit for, and she was a lot faster; she was already at the controls, and the lid to the booth was closing. Before I could even react, it was shut.
I was surrounded by blackness, but I knew what I had to do. I already had my blaster out and pointed in the direction it needed to be. I pulled the trigger.
The chamber door exploded outward and I burst forward, breathing heavily. The dark-sleep had apparently already started coming over me, and I shook off its effects while spinning wildly to try to find Jenny. She seemed to be gone, no doubt to save the Resonator. Here I'd thought, despite seeing it actually happen a number of times with my own eyes, that her people were incapable of guile. That'll teach me, assuming any of us survives this.
I ran forward, picking up the panel that I'd dropped and boosting the power on it in an attempt to find the Resonator. If the Ulix didn't know something was up at this point, they were more asleep than I'd thought. I'd probably run into security trying to stop me, and my FAST units had been shorted out somehow by Jenny's suit. I had no idea how to get to the chamber where they housed their treasure, I was hoping the panel would help me out.
It did, and if I'd bothered to think about it, it wouldn't have been a surprise. It was Exile technology, naturally, and if there's anything such technology is good for, it's detecting Yotia type events. The Resonator was the original, after all. I rushed toward where the corridor would be, certain I heard the clacking of metallic heels on the deck behind me.
The door opened, and I found myself for the third and last time in the presence of the Resonator.
The security robots which had been stationed there last time were gone. I raised my blaster and took aim. Perhaps in one final moment of awareness that something was going wrong, the Ulix cut power to the lights, but it was too late.
I was surrounded by blackness, but I knew what I had to do. I already had my blaster out and pointed in the direction it needed to be. I pulled the trigger.
The chamber door exploded outward and I burst forward, breathing heavily. The dark-sleep had apparently already started coming over me, and I shook off its effects while spinning wildly to try to find Jenny....
<!--The journal continues on and on in this vein, repeating itself with no change. We caught up with Ledford several months after this entry was made. The Ulix border was gone, but we found no other evidence that the reclusive species had returned. The Resiliant moved to where Ledford's ship had been traced to, and a boarding party investigated the Messenger from the Past. Once it had been deemed safe, we entered it. An exhaustive search turned up no trace of the ship, Jenny, or the Resonator - we almost left the derelict at that point, but then discovered Ledford himself. He'd been locked in a dark-sleep chamber which had been calibrated for a member of the Last Great Race. It had not had a positive effect on him; he told the story of the last entry in his journal over and over again into the recorder he'd been using for some of the entries. We've added it to this report as best we could decipher it.
As near as we can determine, Jenny left with the Resonator and it is in the care of her people. The few computer records we could access from the derelict, though, had extensive data on its makeup and working, including the research data of Project Archetype. With this, we should be able to commission another project with little loss of time.
Work on the Resonator will continue.
--> ## Editor's Personal note:Should Alan ever recover enough to be able to read this report and answer for the crimes he's confessed to, I want it made understood for him that I accepted the job of lead investigator on his case in the hopes that I could bring balance to it. The current climate fostered by hunting down those responsible for our people's deeds in the past has its detractors, myself among them. I wanted to act as an advocate for him, as nobody else would. My work itself has strained to be as impartial as possible, but I was always willing to see his side, even if I did not like what I saw.
Chief Investigator,
Katie Simmond ##THE END