Jeena wrapped her arms tightly around Rallen and smiled. Rallen smiled back at her. They stayed like this for a few minutes.

Then Jeena's mind woke up. She looked down again at how close they were. She realized that the only things they were wearing were thin medical robes. She roughly pushed Rallen away from her and blushed bright red.

Rallen, still a little drowsy, could only manage a few nonsensical sounds of protest.

Suddenly, Commander Grant burst in. He was followed by an unexpected visitor.

"Neal?" Rallen and Jeena exclaimed almost simultaneously.

"Hi guys!" Neal said in that whiney voice of his. "Long time no see!"

"We don't have time for idle chatter." Commander Grant said. "I need you two in my office YESTERDAY. Understood?"

"Yes, Commander," Jeena said as she stood and saluted.

"Yes, Sir," Rallen said as he shakily got to his feet.

Once Rallen and Jeena were back in uniform, they quickly made their way to the Commander's office. They opened the door to a strange sight. Neal and Commander Grant were studying a large piece of brick that was on a transport cart.

"Ah, Rallen, Jeena, come in," Commander Grant said when he looked up and saw them at the door. "Neal discovered this ancient slab of text on Slayso."

"It broke my fall when I tripped on that antenna," Neal said.

"More like your fall broke it," Rallen retorted, "It's completely smashed!"

"Yes," Commander Grant stated bluntly, "most of the writing and illustration is illegible. However, we have been able to decipher some of the text."

Jeena stepped up to the tablet and quickly analyzed the lettering. "It's an ancient dialect, no one has spoken it for hundreds of thousands of years. My scanners say it's from before the age of terraforming."

"That's nice and all," Rallen said, "But what does it mean in English?"

"It's older than me." Commander Grant said to Rallen. "You're right, Jeena, it was left on Slayso before the people who left it were even able to live there. Our theory is it was part of some ship or experimental terraforming device."

"So, what's it say?" Rallen asked, obviously frustrated about not being able to understand the conversation.

The Commander looked at the tablet again. "It tells of a great scientific revolution. It was called, as we translate it, 'Project Gnome.' We still have not found any reference to the word 'gnome' in any records besides those of the museum."

"What's wrong with the museum's files?" Jeena asked.

"Nothing," Neal replied. "Except for the fact that the word gnome is in the fictional section of the museum's library."

Commander Grant closed his eyes and placed his hand on his chin. "There is something else on the tablet." Everyone looked to the place where Neal had landed. "Can you decipher it, Jeena?"

Jeena took a series of scans. "The data is pretty messed up, but I'll put what I could find up on screen."

The screen behind Commander Grant's desk flickered to life.

... he created ... we are the ... crawlers and creepers ... we swear ... those who made ... gnome project failure ... we will ... must ... eternal ... blinding us to ... path ...

"What does that mean?" Rallen asked boredly.

Commander slammed his hand against the tablet. "Rallen, pay attention! Whatever this 'Project Gnome' is, it created something. I have a little more than a hunch that it's got something to do with the krawl."

"What makes you say that, Commander?" Jeena asked.

"Three things," He responded, "One: the term 'krawlers' comes up in the script. Two: Neal found this on the same day that you defeated Krux. Three: That." He pointed to a cracked carving of a common swar on the tablet.

"But, Sir," Jeena exclaimed, "This tablet is hundreds of thousands of years old, how could krawl have been around then without the ancients being devoured?"

"I don't know." Said the commander.

After a while of everyone else doing nothing, Rallen piped up, "So... what are our orders?"

"Right," Commander Grant said, "you two are to go to Slayso and enter the tower, but this time go down, not up."

Rallen and Jeena looked at each other. "But, Sri..." Jeena started.

"Yes, I remember that your ship is destroyed. To prevent this from happening again, I am permitting you to use a frigate instead of a patrol cruiser." Commander Grant handed Jeena a "brief" manual telling about every aspect of the two-person frigate.

This is not my best work, but I had to work with what was given to me. Special thanks to

clessxmint

for the idea for this chapter. Feel free to post your ideas for the next in the series. I want people to try to fill in the blanks in the tablet too. Remember, only three people's ideas will be chose, so post post post.

Also, bear in mind that when I'm choosing an idea, I'm looking for one idea that I can direct towards a young audience, one I can direct towards a teen audience, and one I can direct to a more adult audience.

P.S.: If anyone can guess the underlying conspiracy I intended this story to have, I will use their ideas every time for the rest of the series.