Chapter Two

Voice Journal Entry OneXephos

-ing on….? What a dinosau- oh, there's the light, ok… I'm starting to keep a voice log on the old recorder that I found in the escape pod. Hopefully it will be of some use to my superiors upon my escape pod I was in crash-landed on a hospitable planet called 'Minecraftia'. It is inhabited by several species of hominid, so far as I have observed. I seemed to have landed far from any densely populated areas, according to some locals. One of them is a scientist named 'Lalna'. He has given me shelter, along with another of a different species, who identified himself as a dwarf. The Dwarf's name is Honeydew, and he has been very friendly. He talks about the strangest things that live on this planet. Or rather, don't live. He speaks of undead rising every night, and tall black hominoids that can teleport, and become hostile if you look at them. He also speaks of alter dimensions that hold even stranger and more powerful creatures. It's probably all that mead he drinks talking. He told me, quite proudly, that mead is like water to his race. Honeydew also talks of the great underground cities his kind inhabits. I have not spoken to Lalna as often, although he seems to be a very nice man. He is always in his laboratory, working on one of various projects. He has not told us much about them, but he's usually very busy.

I need to find the galactic coordinates of this planet, so I can rejoin my crew at the rally point. This planet has the staple materials found throughout the galaxy, like iron, copper and such, and has many other materials I haven't before heard of. I must build a new ship to get back into space.

End

Xephos leaned back in the chair in the nice guestroom Lalna had prepared for him. Honeydew's was across the hall. The dwarf's faint snores came through the walls. Xephos recalled earlier during dinner. Honeydew had shown off by drinking four tankards of the extra-strong stuff his race brewed, then promptly passed out. When he woke up, he just shook it off, saying it was a bit stronger than he was used to. Then he asked for more.

Xephos was amazed at the sheer amount of alcohol he could consume. Perhaps it was another ability of his race. Xephos had already seen the rate at which he could dig. Mining seemed to be a large part of life on Minecraftia. Honeydew constantly talked of it, and even Lalna disappeared into his network of tunnels every now and then.

This place was a lot different than life on the ship, that's for sure. Xephos felt his eyes growing heavy, and he drifted off to sleep.

Across the hall, Honeydew was awakening from a deep sleep. Dwarfs were naturally nocturnal, so it wasn't unusual for him to sleep until dark. But that stuff at dinner might have had something to do with it too. He reached for his tankard on the stand beside the bed and took a hearty gulp. He got up with a groan, and looked in the mirror above the desk. There weren't many mirrors underground, so it was a bit of a novelty to Honeydew. He puffed up his chest and stroked his ginger beard proudly.

There wasn't much to do, seeing as it was night, and both of the men were likely sleeping. Being alone wasn't a new thing to Honeydew. That wasn't to say he was constantly isolated; he enjoyed all the same things as the other dwarfs- drinking, flirting with the dwarven ladies, and mining. He just never really felt like he belonged there. He liked to see the sun, the moon and the stars, but the rest of his tribe never left the tunnels. There was a lot of superstition around life above the ground, and once his preferences came to light he found himself with significantly less company.

He left the mirror, and walked across the corridor to Xephos's room. The spaceman was leaned back in his chair, fast asleep, still wearing that ridiculous skintight suit. Honeydew noticed a little electronic gadget on the desk in front of Xephos. Honeydew had no idea what it was. He wanted to take the gizmo and see what it did, but he didn't want to be caught snooping. He felt drawn Xephos somehow, as though Fate had planned something for a simple dwarf and a fallen spaceman. It seemed ridiculous.

He shrugged, and walked down the hallway to where Lalna's room was.

He frowned when he arrived there. Goggles wasn't in his room. Honeydew had a weird feeling about Lalna. He wasn't scared of the scientist, although many other dwarfs mistrusted science. He had heard strange things though. Rumor said that one night a few years ago something big had broken out of Lalna's lab. The entire incident was quite mysterious and notorious among the dwarven people. It mostly served as a warning to young dwarves to never venture aboveground, and fueled the older folk's worrying.

Honeydew wasn't sure if he bought it. Never knew if you could trust rumors.

Unknown to Honeydew, this rumor was in fact true. It was the 'Alpha' experiment. When the final Alpha specimens had hatched, something had gone wrong. The complications killed one, and sent the other into a fitful rage.

The Specimen attacked. The ensuing struggle damaged much of the lab. Lalna tried to destroy it, but was nearly killed. Eventually the Specimen seemed to open a portal, and vanished as suddenly as it had attacked. None knew of the true incident. They only speculated based on the flashes and sounds coming from the lab. So to Honeydew, and everyone else, it was only speculation.

He left the doorway of Lalna's room, and headed back to his own. He sat on his bed and hummed a tune to himself. Soon, he fell back asleep.

Lalna hadn't been in his room because he was checking on Project Beta. It was about a week into development, and some small features were becoming visible on the remaining specimen, much like on a human embryo. Lalna could see that all the specimen were male, as expected. He had been uncertain as to what effect the enderman DNA material might have on Beta's sex, since endermen were sexless.

Only 8 of the specimen remained viable however. Again, Laln was unfazed. Each of the specimen that stopped developing had genetic errors that wouldn't allow them to live anyway. It was a shame, for sure, but as long as at least one survived birth, the project would be a success. So far, indicators were good. Each instance of Beta had started to develop at different rates. Lalna hypothesized that the ones further along in their development had better chances at surviving to birth.

Three of them had actually started to show indications of brain activity. Everything was going fantastically, and there was no cause for doubt.

"But everything was fine with Alpha until the very end." A small part of him said.

He shook his head. He had spent years on this, and researched everything as much as he possibly could. Every text that existed on the endermen, every paper done on the matter of genetic engineering. There was no way this would go the way Alpha had. He was young and stupid then, going into it blindly. He was prepared this time. Clearing his thoughts, his mind turned to other matters.

Xephos and Honeydew for instance. Lalna hadn't really had company since he left his parents house in Mistral City. That had been six long, happy years ago. The only person had had contact with here was his longtime friend Lomadia, and even that was only through letters and the occasional visit. He knew of the people who lived nearby of course, but he didn't really talk or deal with them.

It felt very odd to have company in the lab, but he was enjoying the new knowledge it brought him.

It had been a few days ago, when he first welcomed the others to the lab. Xephos had barely stepped through the door when he noticed a bit of machinery that separated different materials. He'd crouched by the circuitry.

"Is this Redstone?" he had asked.

"Yeah."

"Wow… my people haven't used Redstone for cen-" Lalna clearly remembered the strange look that had crossed Xephos's face. "I mean… I know a way to make this more efficient." He stepped back "The circuit can double back on itself if you separate the powder everywhere except the ends with a non-conductor. You can save a lot of space and redstone that way."

Needless to say, Lalna was impressed.

As for the dwarf, he was no more crude that the rest of his kind. He constantly hummed to himself, and his skill at that heavily depended on his level of intoxication. He wasn't like the other dwarves that Lalna had briefly met when his tunnel intercepted theirs. They had been rather rude and aggressive, and hated the idea of leaving the tunnels. However, Honeydew was friendly enough, and seemed to enjoy the outdoors, taking a walk nearly every sunset.

Lalna got to his room, but had no interest in sleeping more. He looked for a bare spot on the wall. When he had free time not occupied by sleep, he would usually paint, and as he let his hands flow over the blank canvas his mind would wander. He developed his strangest and most creative inventions that way.

Eventually he found a satisfactory spot, and painted until the sun began to rise.