Robotech: The Stargate Saga
Chapter Three
Secure Medical Section
Infirmary, Fort Minotaur
A Short Time Later
Rick Hunter stood quiet and alone before a sheet of one-way transparent glass – well not glass per say but permaglass a robotechnology material that while similar to glass in appearance was a great deal stronger – watching as in the secure medical room beyond medical personnel both ran scans over Nathan as well as treated the burns on his hands which had been in contact with the Spartan's controls when his shots breached the main power bus causing Nathan to get a massive electric shock. What the hell has happened to you Nathan, he thought gazing at his cousin's unmoving form.
The medical personnel had stripped off the uniform that Nathan had been wearing – a uniform that looked almost like something you would see in a drama set in medieval Europe as it had included chainmail of all things, though the chainmail was made from a material that they didn't immediately recognise – and removed a metallic wristband inset with several blue crystals from around his wrist leaving him almost naked. Well aside from a pair of white, standard military issue boxers that they'd put on him to protect his modesty. Seeing him near naked showed just how much Nathan had changed in the three and a half years since he ran away.
Back then Nathan had been a six-foot-tall beanpole, which had made him the star of his old High Schools basketball team, preparing to go to college on a basketball scholarship. Now he was still six foot tall but was in no way a beanpole as to say he was muscular would have been one hell of an understatement. Frankly it looked like he had had a body transplant from Arnold Schwarzenegger. While he wasn't into bodybuilding himself – personally he'd never seen the appeal of it, though as he recalled Ben Dixon had been somewhat into it – Rick knew that it should not have been possible, even with the aid of anabolic steroids, for Nathan to have gained this much muscle mass in just three and a half years. Especially as Nathan had a very fast metabolism that made it impossible for him to put any major amount of weight on, no matter how much he ate.
Beyond his massively, impossibly changed physique he had to wonder what else had happened to Nathan. His cousin had always been a pacifist, far more than he had ever been himself though he had considered himself a pacifist until that fateful space fold dumped the SDF-1 out near Pluto, with even the thought of hurting others being enough to make him feel physically ill. Heck, he knew from Aunt Maria that on more than one occasion Nathan had gotten upset when he'd inadvertently hurt members of either his own or the opposing basketball team during a match. There was certainly no way he would have ever voluntarily climbed into a destroid and piloted it during combat, let alone carried as wicked looking a knife as a kukri or wear a sidearm – even one so bizarrely shaped as like his aunt Nathan had hated guns. For much the same reason as Nathan's father had been shot dead in a drive by shooting a few months before he'd been due to marry Aunt Maria. Uncle Thomas hadn't even been doing anything, just been walking between a car park and a shop to pick up some milk when some crooks – running from the police – had fired into the crowded sidewalk to distract the cops and let them slip away in the ensuing panic.
Whatever had happened to him he knew it was related to the events three and a half years ago when, during a post-graduation tour of Europe, Nathan had abruptly run away from where he had been staying in Northern Italy with Aunt Maria. Leaving only a note to say he had been called to join a group ending it with saying something that if he remembered right sounded downright freaky and cult-like something about a guy calling himself Vosegus being almighty and the source of all light. Whatever that had meant.
The sound of the door opening brought him out of his thoughts. He glanced over to see Claudia coming in, she was alone presumably having left Doctor Jackson to begin his work on deciphering the cover stone hieroglyphs. Which would hopefully tell them what the hell that naquada ring was, what its function was and why had their ancestors buried it beneath the Giza plateau all those millennia ago.
"Hey Claudia," he said in greeting as she closed the door. "Where's Daniel?"
"He's got to work," Claudia replied as she walked up and looked through the window herself. "God is that really Nathan? What the fuck has happened to him?"
"It is and I have no idea," Rick answered looking back through the glass. He wasn't surprised that Claudia knew all about Nathan as he knew Roy had told her as Roy had been as shocked and horrified as the rest of them when he'd been told that Nathan had run off to join some kind of cult, leaving his mother – who he had previously been devoted to - alone and frantic in a small town in the foothills of Italy's Dolomite Mountains. As he recalled Pops had had to fly to Italy to get his younger sister and bring the distraught woman home.
"All I do know is that whatever has happened to him that cult he ran off to join has had to have something to do with it," he added.
"I still can't believe that Nathan did that," Claudia admitted with a shake of her head, "from what Roy told me he was always so committed to his mother."
"He was which is why running off like he did and becoming whatever, he is now? It's completely out of character for him."
"Do you think he was drugged or something," Claudia asked knowing there were any number of drugs in the world that could be used, or rather misused, to make someone vulnerable to suggestions. That number had only grown in the years since the SDF-1 first fell to Earth, bringing with her knowledge of biology that far surpassed anything they'd known before. Though as the existence of the Zentraedi showed they still had a long way to go before they understood even a fraction of the secrets that had been contained within the now half destroyed battlefortress.
Rick shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted before noticing that the doctor who had been leading the medical team was leaving the secure room and that the rest of the medical team seemed to have finished, but not before restraining Nathan on the bed so he wouldn't be able to escape should he happen to wake up. "But looks like we might be about to get some answers."
Claudia nodded she had seen the same thing as Rick had. Thus, they both turned to look at the door to the observation room, a moment before it opened, and the doctor came in. She was a relatively short woman with reddish brown hair that was now streaked through with greys, though despite her small stature – or perhaps because of it – she had an extremely commanding, but at the same time matronly, demeanour that would probably make even the toughest soldier bow to her wishes. The door slid closed behind her, and the doctor blinked in surprise clearly having expected only one person to be in the room.
"Captain Hunter?" she asked.
"Yes," Rick replied.
"I'm Doctor Janet Fraiser, CMO of Fort Minotaur," the doctor replied, "may I speak with you a moment it's about your cousin?"
"It's alright doc you can speak with Claudia here," Rick answered guessing that the doctor was, understandably, reluctant to discuss a family matter with a stranger present. Hence why he hastened to reassure her. "If my brother Roy hadn't been killed in the war Claudia here would have been my sister-in-law by now."
"Oh, I see," Doctor Fraiser replied looking a little relieved before beginning to deliver her report. "We have finished treating his electrical burns with regen packs. They should be fully healed by this time tomorrow with no scarring. In the process we did a thorough physiological and neurological scan. What they revealed is surprising and very concerning."
"What do you mean," Rick asked, even as Claudia moved up to flank him before gently slipping a supportive hand into one of his own. Somehow, through woman's intuition perhaps, she knew that Rick was probably not going to like what he was about to hear and would need all the comfort he could get less he suddenly do a very good impression of Mount Vesuvius at Pompeii. Especially as Nathan was one of the few family members that he had left given Mitchell 'Pops' Hunter had died due to a sudden, massive stroke a year before the planned launch date of the SDF-1 and Roy had perished during the Robotech War.
"Nathan has been biologically altered to an incredible degree," Fraiser explained, "his bones, muscles and connective tissues are considerably denser than that of a normal human being, we have found traces of a synthetic protein complex herculextin in his muscles presumably that was the agent used to either induce rapid hypertrophy or is partially responsible for the increased density. I cannot be sure as the herculextin drug was not meant to be used in this fashion, it was after all created to offset the wasting effects of such diseases as muscular dystrophy."
"Isn't herculextin highly regulated," Claudia asked, she had some passing familiarity with the drug which had been developed fairly recently having only been licensed for use – under very strict conditions – about six months before the fateful launch of the SDF-1. As she recalled Vince's wife Jean had enthused about it and its potential to help sufferers of muscular dystrophy and other muscle wasting diseases that they could not yet cure.
"It is," Doctor Fraiser confirmed with a nod. "How whoever used it on Nathan for this purpose, and how they got the drug to produce these kinds of extreme results I don't know as it should not be possible. But that is not all we found."
"Go on," Rick said with a nod.
"There are large amounts of unknown biological organism present in every single tissue in his body but with special focus on the neurological system. Whatever it is the organism is dead now, presumably killed by the electric shock, and is both breaking down and being removed by normal metabolic processes."
"What do you think its purpose was," Rick asked.
"I am not sure but given that the organism is especially present in the neurological system I suspect that it was some kind of mind altering or mind controlling organism. Almost certainly bioengineered for just that purpose. However, that is not the only thing we found when we scanned the neurological system."
"What did you find," Rick asked knowing somehow that he wasn't going to like this.
"Our tests have shown signs that someone, who I do not know as I would like to throttle them for doing it, has used a neuro-somatic imprinter on Nathan."
Rick frowned. "What's one of those when it's about?" he asked even as Claudia gasped in horror, drawing a worried look from Rick as it was immediately obvious that Claudia knew what a neuro-somatic imprinter was. Knew and was horrified by it.
"They were found aboard the SDF-1 Rick during the ships reconstruction," Claudia explained, "as far as we understand it, they're devices designed to impart information and possibly even programming into a person's mind. Now that I think about it it's probably what the Robotech Masters used on the Zentraedi to make them into warriors. When it was realized what the things we found were, what they could be used for the Defence Council ordered that they immediately be locked away never to see the light of day again given the potential for misuse that came with them."
"So, what does it mean for Nathan?"
"It means captain that he has been programmed," Fraiser said softly, sadly. "Our scans indicate that there is essentially another personality overwritten on top of what his original personality was. It's not erased it, we can still detect the original pattern as the artificial one sticks out like a sore thumb, but it has completely suppressed it."
"So, Nathan…" Rick started to say before stopping voice choking as he couldn't bring himself to say the words.
"Isn't Nathan right now," Fraiser finished for him.
"Is there anything that can be done for him," Rick asked after a moment, glancing back into the examination room where Nathan lay out cold on the bed. "Can the imprint be removed?"
"It can be erased yes which would in theory allow Nathan's original neural patterns to re-establish themselves," Fraiser told him, "though I will need an imprinter device to reverse the effect and we do not have one here right now."
"Leave getting one of those to me doctor," Claudia replied knowing that once she explained this to Admiral Gloval one of those imprinters would be on its way here within hours at most. "But something tells me it won't be that simple."
"No, it won't," Fraiser admitted. "We can remove the imprint and whatever artificial personality its constructed, but Nathan will still remember everything that he did while under its influence. Possibly not all at once but he will remember and that is going to be extremely traumatic."
"But he'll be himself again," Rick asked.
"As well as anyone can be in this situation."
"So, what's our next move," Rick asked.
"I am going to keep Nathan sedated until the imprinter arrives. It will prevent whoever he is right now from causing us any trouble or make any escape attempts," Fraiser answered before pausing. "I would advise however that we attempt to locate any other family just in case."
"Aside from me the only family Nathan has is his mother my Aunt Maria," Rick replied. "She lives in a small town in the Rockies an hour or so's drive outside of Denver."
"We'll have to arrange for someone to go and get her," Claudia commented. "I'll see to that after I am done speaking with the admiral and arranging for the imprinter to be sent here."
"Thanks Claudia."
"You're welcome, Rick," Claudia responded before looking back at Doctor Fraiser. "Is there anything else we need to know right now Doctor?"
"No that's it," the doctor answered, "so if you would excuse me, I need to file my report on this both with Colonel Kowalski and with the Defence Council."
"Of course, doctor."
Doctor Fraiser nodded, then turned and left leaving them alone.
"We should go ourselves Rick," Claudia said softly. "The Council is sure to want your report on the battle a few hours ago."
"Can you give me a few minutes on my own first Claudia?"
"Sure, just don't be too long," Claudia replied with a nod. "And Rick if you want to talk about this after…"
"Thanks Claudia, I'll probably take you up on that."
Claudia nodded then left the room herself leaving Rick alone. Rick for his part walked up to the window and looked back into the secure examination room, especially focusing on where Nathan lay asleep on the examination bed. To say that he was angry by what had been done to Nathan, one of the gentlest, kindest souls he'd ever known would have been an understatement. For a moment he gave in to the rage and banged hard once on the glass making it momentarily vibrate and producing a loud bang. Closing his eyes he took a few deep breaths, pushing down the fierce Hunter temper as it would do him or Nathan any good to give into it, before opening his eyes again facial features showing no sign of the rage that burned like molten lava in his veins. Silently he vowed that he would find who did this to Nathan…
…find and kill them.
Lab L10
Technical Research Section
Fort Minotaur, That Same Time
Holding a complex tool in one hand Doctor Mason Prescott carefully unsealed the only one of the gunpods wielded by the modified destroids that attacked which had survived the battle. He had already carefully checked it over for any boobytraps that would prevent it being opened and while there had been one small one – a simple feedback mechanism that would overload the power cell – it had been almost insultingly easy to disarm it. It had honestly seemed like it had just been put there for forms sake and that whoever had created this gunpod hadn't thought it would ever fall into their hands.
Externally the gunpod looked like any other GU-11 gunpod, it was even made from the same titanium-hypercarbon composite material as a regular GU-11. Internally though Mason was well aware that it would not be normal as instead of firing armour piercing hypervelocity rounds it fired, if their sensor readings were correct that was, some type of plasma energy bolts. He wanted to find out just how it did that as it could give them a few pointers to something that had been eluding them for years now, building viable portable energy rifles for their veritechs and destroids to use in the field.
A soft click from the gunpod caught his attention and he looked at it in time to see that the seam between the two halves of the weapons housing had opened as he had intended. He put the one tool down and picked up another which carefully let him remove the outer casing revealing the innards of the weapon. He was immediately intrigued by what he saw as just back from the muzzle of the weapon were three barrels that weren't rifled like in a regular GU-11 but were lined with electromagnetic coils. The chamber that the three barrels connected to immediately behind the muzzle was also lined with the coils. Back from the barrels was what he guessed was the chamber that initially generated the plasma used in the bolts which was connected to some kind of large orange crystal that was in the place of the normal ammo pack.
"Interesting," he muttered as he moved to carefully investigate what he believed to be the plasma generator. It was cylindrical – it would have to be to fit into the GU-11 housing – and made from a material that he didn't recognise. A material that had three series of strange flat crystals – that frankly resembled playing cards in size and shape – that varied in colour from yellow, to blue, to orange spaced along its length.
Carefully he used a pair of heavy tweezers to remove one of the crystals – a yellow one – from its housing. The crystal surprising him by easily slipping out of the slot with a soft chime. He then carried it over to a sensor and analysis machine, placed it in the sample tray and began an analysis. The machine hummed for a few moments as it ran a series of scans on the crystal before the analysis appeared on a scope style screen that he looked down into.
"Incredible," he breathed as he beheld the results. The molecular structure of the crystal was laid out like a circuit board one that had to have been deliberately grown into this configuration as this kind of molecular and sub-molecular patterning could not occur in nature. Someone had to have specifically designed and grown the crystal - though how they could so precisely control and manipulate crystal growth he had no idea - to act like a computer chip. A few taps of controls zoomed him in deeper, letting him get a closer look at the structure of the crystal and learning that the patterning and arrangement of the molecules was even more intricate than he had thought. "This is incredible."
"What's so incredible?" a familiar voice said from behind him making him yelp in surprise before he looked up, to see that Doctor Carter had come into the lab. Her shoulders were shaking in slight mirth at having caught him by surprise like this.
"Damn it! Sam what are you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?" he asked his direct superior, and honestly long-term friend as they had been working together on and off for years now. Ever since Sam had left the old, now long-defunct, US Air Force to fully devote herself and her time to unlocking the secrets of the alien ship that had so dramatically fallen from the sky in mid-1999. The two of them, alongside the likes of Emil Lang and the late Karl Riber, had been instrumental in understanding and reverse engineering the reflex furnace technology that powered the battlefortress. With he himself focusing on the control systems that maintained everything in balance, a tricky thing given the incredible forces and energy levels that were at play inside both reaction chambers.
"Sorry Mason but you weren't answering your door," Sam replied with a slight smirk, that showed she was really in no way sorry for startling him. "So, I let myself in to find you glued to that scope."
"Oh right," Mason answered, giving her a look that said he would have some form of vengeance for her trying to give him a heart attack like that.
"So, what had you so entranced that you didn't even hear the door hailer?"
Mason smiled. "Take a look," he said standing up and moving away from the scope. Sam raised an eyebrow but humoured him and had a look through the scope herself, blinked and looked even more closely at what she was seeing. Before looking back up.
"Is that?" Sam asked.
"Crystal based technology yeah," Mason replied, "somehow, someone has developed the ability to control the growth of crystals so precisely that they're able to use crystals in much the same way we would use computer chips. There are numerous differently coloured crystals inside the plasma gunpod, it's possible that the different colours represent different functions in much the same way we colour code wires."
"Interesting hypothesis how do you plan to prove it?"
"I'm going to slowly take the crystals out, noting down where each one was so I can put them back, and run them through the analyser. Hopefully that will teach us a great deal about this technology and how exactly it works."
"Good," Sam replied.
"So why did you want to see me, Sam?" Mason asked.
"I noticed that you hadn't filed any results from the firing tests of the gunpod," Sam replied, "the Defence Council will want to see them when they meet in an hour or two."
Mason grimaced. "That's because I couldn't do the tests," he admitted, "some of our destroids tried to get the gunpod to fire but it simply won't. Nor will its targeting system automatically sync up with the mecha's. My guess is that there is some kind of security lock in place that means only an authorised destroid or any other battle mecha whoever attacked us has can use the gunpod. It's a sharp contrast to the booby trap built into the gunpod – that was almost laughably easy to disarm."
"That's strange. Is there anything else you can tell me about the gunpod that I can relay to the council?"
"Nothing at the moment as I have only just begun examining it. I'll let you know when I have something you can relay Sam."
"Thanks Mason."
"You're welcome. By the way have you learned anything more about the ring yet? And what about that damaged modified Spartan?"
"Nothing more about the ring," Sam admitted, "I am hopeful however that once that laser scanner gets here that Doctor Jackson will be able to reconstruct and read all the hieroglyphs on the cover stones."
"They're quite badly damaged huh?"
"Quite a few of them are cracked and chipped. Guess having a few million tons of crashed and derelict Zentraedi warship lying on top of them for nearly a year and a half would have that effect. We're lucky they weren't smashed into a million fragments by the weight."
"That would have been a nightmare," Mason commented, mentally shivering as he imagined the extent of the jigsaw puzzle putting the cover stones back together would have been. It might even had proven to be impossible, thankfully it hadn't happened and thus with a little bit of time and Doctor Jackson's knowledge of hieroglyphics they would hopefully soon learn about what the ring was. "And the destroid?"
"I've put Ryan's team on it," Sam replied. "They think they've found the generator and emitters for the shield that the destroid was protected by, but they're not sure yet. It's not helping that the shots from Captain Hunter hit the main power train so there is no energy available at all, they're still unloading the Spartan's conventional armaments."
"So, it could be a while before they find anything of use."
"Unfortunately, yes. You know the kind of damage those veritech autocannon rounds do."
"Yeah, I do," Mason replied, knowing all to well the damage those weapons did. He had been part of the team that had designed the GU-11 gunpods – it was the main reason why he had been tapped to dismantle the Spartan's modified gunpod as he was intimately familiar with the technology they used. "I suppose it's a miracle that they didn't rip the destroid apart."
"I suspect that that's because the pilot moved at the last moment so instead of hitting the magazines for the chest gun cluster the rounds hit the main power bus."
"Are the rumours true that the pilot was Captain Hunter's wayward cousin?"
"I don't know," Sam admitted as she had been too preoccupied overseeing the examination of the ring and arranging for the destroid to be examined to pay much attention to the rumour. "I'll let you get back to work. Let me know the moment you know more about that gunpod and those crystals."
"No problem, Sam."
Sam smiled at him once more then she turned and left, heading back to her office and the mountain of paperwork – or rather its modern electronic descendant – that was surely waiting for her by now. Mason watched her go…
…before turning and getting back to work understanding the gunpod and the crystals contained within it.
United Earth Defence Command
New Macross City
A Short Time Later
"Are you sure a neuro-somatic imprinter has been used on your prisoner?"
Sitting in the chairman's position UEG Defence Secretary Ian Anderson stared in shocked surprise at the image on the screens of Major Grant, Captain Hunter, and Doctor Fraiser. He was of course familiar with what neuro-somatic imprinters were, he had been informed of their existence when he had taken up his current position, and like everyone else who had heard about them he'd recoiled in horror at the thought of what they could actually be used, or rather misused, for.
"I am sure mister secretary," Doctor Fraiser replied. "The neural scan is clear there is a different personality in charge of the body than there should be. A personality that has been artificially created and imposed, suppressing the original neural pattern and with it the personality of Nathan Hunter. An in-depth analysis of the neural pattern shows that the original pattern is still there but completely suppressed."
"So, you are thinking that if the imprint is removed then the original personality will resurface," Anderson asked.
"She is not wrong," Exedore said softly, "there is a setting on an imprinter that can remove any artificially implanted knowledge or memory and certainly an artificial personality matrix as well. Though to the best of my knowledge the Robotech Masters never actually used it to create an artificial personality, it was one of the few moral boundaries that they refuse to cross and impose it on someone. Modify a personality to be more pliant to whatever they wanted yes but not completely suppress one."
"Do we have any imprinters in storage," Anderson asked.
"Over a hundred units were recovered from the SDF-1," Gloval explained, "they are stored in several different high-security locations around the globe. The closest stored units to Fort Minotaur are to the best of my knowledge in an old slate quarry in North Wales. There was another storage facility outside Naples, but it was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted in the aftermath of the Rain."
"Arrange for one to be sent to Fort Minotaur," Anderson ordered.
"Yes sir."
"What interests me is how did Captain Hunter's cousin got exposed to one not to mention how he came to be so dramatically altered," Colonel Matthews said.
"I suspect sir that it was the cult that he ran off to join three and a half years ago who did it to him," Rick replied, his voice calm but anyone who knew him could see the rage hidden behind his eyes.
"A cult?" Anderson asked.
"Yeah, three and a half years ago Nathan and my Aunt Maria were on a post-graduation tour of Europe," Rick explained, "they had been about to go hiking along some of the World War One trails cut into the Dolomites when something happened."
"What was it," Gloval asked gently, sensing that this was a delicate issue.
"Nathan went out one evening to a party. When he returned from what Aunt Maria said he was behaving strangely, almost spaced sir," Rick replied, a look of concentration on his face as he tried to remember the events in question. "Aunt Maria thought he'd been slipped ecstasy or some other recreational drug, so she left him in his hotel room to sleep it off. When the next morning came Nathan was gone. He had left a note saying he had been called to join the service of someone called Vosegus who he claimed was almighty and the source of all light."
"Well that certainly sounds cult-like," Matthews commented with a frown. "Did the Italian authorities search for him?"
"They did," Rick confirmed. "They didn't find him. They also let slip that it wasn't the first time this had happened in the months before and after Nathan vanished more than a dozen young men and women had vanished in similar circumstances. All of them leaving something behind that referred to this Vosegus character."
"We did discover a previously unknown biological organism in all of Nathan's bodily tissues but especially focused on the neurological system. I believe it was some kind of mind control agent," Fraiser replied, "or some other conditioning agent. Whatever it was it is dead now, certainly killed by the massive electric shock he suffered, and is leaving the body through normal biological processes."
"We really need to look into this Vosegus business," Matthews commented.
"Agreed. Colonel have our intelligence people get to work on finding out anything they can about this Vosegus character," Anderson ordered.
"I will begin at once sir. I already have people working to find out where the destroids that attacked Fort Minotaur came from, which from what Captain Hunter said is likely related to this Vosegus business."
"That is concerning," Anderson admitted. "Now onto another related matter. Do we have a damage and casualty assessment for Fort Minotaur?"
"We do sir," an exhausted, but very unhappy looking, General Micah Richards said from his own screen. He hadn't been happy to get back from the birth of his first grandchild to find that his base had been attacked by unknown hostiles.
"Please detail it for us general," Anderson ordered.
Richards nodded and began explaining the extent of the thankfully, relatively light damage and casualties that Fort Minotaur had sustained in the attack. As he spoke and detailed everything every member of the defence council looked at each other silently deciding that whoever was behind the attack on the base – be it this Vosegus or someone else – they had revealed themselves to be a potentially very dangerous enemy.
One that they would quickly find and eliminate.
Authors Note: Well, another chapter bites the dust. The UEDF and by extension of the UEG are now somewhat aware of the threat of Vosegus – though they are currently unaware of the fact that he is a Goa'uld left behind on Earth thousands of years ago during the Goa'uld evacuation during the uprising – and will move against him when they find where he is hiding out as by attacking Fort Minotaur, in an attempt to seize the Stargate, he has let them know that he is a threat.
If anyone is curious about what Vosegus did to Nathan – and what he's done to others – he was attempting to turn them into his version of Jaffa. Lacking a Goa'uld Queen to produce symbiotes for them meant he couldn't create traditional Jaffa warriors, so he did his best to create something similar using both his own ingenuity and repurposing some robotechnology drugs and technology that he got his hands on thanks to some sleeper agents of his – the same ones who revealed the presence of the gate on Fort Minotaur to him. In the next chapter I plan a little bit of a time jump – just a few days – to give Daniel enough time to reconstruct and translate the damaged cover stone hieroglyphs and for the neural imprinter to arrive to try and save Nathan. Until next time.