Volar's Story - part 02 The compuvid blinked for attention as it did when a vote was to be taken. The immense computerized communication system that tied all of Lazavelt together was notifying him others had come to a decision, and he was being called upon to make one also. As Volar rose from his bed, he absentmindedly ran his fingers along the hand carved scrolling that decorated it. As he dressed, he looked around his bedroom and thought "There's just something about the smell of wood". When he walked into the kitchen, he reached up into the overhead rack for a glass cup, but stopped before he reached it. It was then Volar saw the compuvid had three 'immediate vote bars' displayed. The last time he saw three immediate vote bars at once was years ago. A major disaster must have happened. The title on the first one was "War!". Somi could wait. ( somi is a local drink of bean curd and kelp in water, served hot -translator ). Tapping the screen brought this proposal up first. Many believed the large triangular ship now in orbit could only be their ancient enemy; the Shifters. They were calling for a council of war - something which had not been done since Lazavelt was first settled over five hundred years ago. War!? thought Volar...and what do they propose we fight a war with? We have no space ships, no armies, and except for a few hunting and sporting lasers, no weapons. The second proposal was labeled "Declaration of Emergency". This proposal called for activation of emergency plans in all cities and an administration to be set up to deal with whoever was operating the orbiting starship. Basically it said "let's find out who they are, but be prepared for the worst". The last one was labeled "A Plea for Peace". It said we cannot hope to fight them, so let's welcome them. Let's not start a war because we didn't make our friendly overtures loud enough. Let's not start a war by mistake. Volar tapped the screen on the second proposal. Then he verbally instructed the compuvid to search for information on the orbiting starship. The next five tipas were spent staring at the screen studying every detail in the images Moon City and ground based telescopes were feeding into the World Net. He watched as the triangular ship launched what could only be a shuttle. The image changed several times as the smaller vessel left the arc of one telescope but was picked up again on another. It was heading for Second City - the capitol. Second City University fed a clear picture of the shuttle landing in Administration Airport. The view changed again as it was now being fed by one of the information services using a hand held camera. The shuttle's wings folded as it touched the plasticrete runway. A ramp lowered beneath the nose and out walked six humanoids in white armour. Their faces were covered but the weapons they carried were not. Then a man in a gray-green uniform walked down the ramp and waited. Volar could not tell if these were Shifters in the armour or not, but the man waiting at the bottom of the ramp was definitely a man. After three tipas or so, an Administration vehicle arrived. As it's inducted fans shut down and the vehicle settled to the ground, out stepped two Administrators. Their attempt to speak to the man proved fruitless as he did not speak Lazaveltian. He motioned for them to enter the shuttle. After a few terse words, they did, and were lost from view. Nothing else seemed to happen for two tipas or so. Volar thought this would be a good time to get up and make some somi. When he returned, the view on the compuvid had not changed. There were now two information services feeding different views of the shuttle with six armed humanoids in white armour standing immobile in front of it. As Volar watched, the six guards entered the shuttle and it lifted. It flew straight up to the orbiting starship. All that was left was the Administrators' hovercraft sitting where it had been parked. The World Net came alive as speculations flew around the planet. Some noted the numerous apertures all over the surface of the immense starship guessing they could only be weapons...that this was a ship of war. Others noted the man in the grey-green uniform was not a Shifter, so this could not be a Shifter ship. Still others said the invaders had kidnapped their Administrators. While others noted they hadn't invaded and the Administrators had entered the craft on their own. And so on and so on... The three red immediate vote bars disappeared from the computer to be replaced by one green resolution bar at the bottom. It read "Declaration of Emergency". Wow, thought Volar, 75% of the population had just voted in agreement to implement a plan. And it was done in less than one littim. He'd never seen that before...except when that fire raged uncontrolled in Chemcity a couple of years ago. In the basement of the Planetary Administration Building was an old office at the back end of a long hallway which appeared unused for many years. In this office sat one Administrator monitoring. From his many terminals, which had no address' or numbers, he could monitor anything which occurred on, and any messages which were sent over the World Net. On one screen was Moon City's image of the unknown triangular starship in orbit above Lazavelt. On another was the Declaration of Emergency. On a third was a running list of procedures. From behind a cabinet, carved in a style long since out of date, he picked up a very old computer which had not been used for centuries. Although it did not appear to be tied into the World Net, it was. The Administrator turned it on and waited for it to become fully functional. It signaled it was ready not with the customary images, but only with a small white dot blinking in the lower corner. The Administrator began typing numbers from the list of procedures into the ancient machine. Only very few would receive these signals. But, how many would understand them? The Administrator didn't know. It had been so long. But the Holy Writings told him the watchman must sound the warning or he would be responsible for all the lives that were lost. Right now, hands trembling, he was sounding the warning. He would worry about the explosives later. Two thousand tsan away (a tsan is about one and a half kilometers -translator), on the other side of the world, a little girl looked at her compuvid screen in confusion as her math lesson was interrupted by random numbers and letters scrolling across the bottom of her screen. She hollered "Grandpa! The compuvid is broken!" As Grandfather slowly walked over, leaning heavily on his cane, she hurriedly explained " I didn't break it. I was just doing my math lessons." Grandpa patted her on the top of her head and said "Well let's just see what's wrong, OK?" Grandpa's eyes went wide when he saw the numbers and letters, for he knew their meaning. In Museo, City of Artists, Redel the Dancer looked at the random numbers and letters at the bottom of the screen. His thoughts whirled; "Father told me something about this. What did it mean? Oh, Yes! There was a translator...it had been in the family for generations. It was supposed to be from the time of the first colonists. I think it's still in the attic somewhere..." In a small log cabin in the forest just outside Frontier Town, a woman put down the scented candles she was making and asked her husband "But what does it mean?" As he headed down into the basement she repeated "Did you hear me?" The man rummaged around until he found the old box; the old box with the old symbol on it. Muttering "I'm not sure...", he walked back up the stone steps (which he had laid himself when he built this house) to the compuvid and compared the random letters and numbers to what the ancient datapad displayed for him. He answered her only with "It means we are leaving". "What!?" she exclaimed, "What do mean - leaving? We can't just leave. There's a school board meeting tomorrow with..." She was cut off in surprise as her husband whirled around and grabbed her by her arms. "Wife!" he all but yelled at her, "When we were married, you swore to obey me! This is one of those times! Pack! We are leaving!" In Volar's apartment the words "incoming communication" flashed onto the screen of his compuvid. "That would be the hospital" thought Volar. He touched the screen and the face of Rechat the Healer appeared saying "Volar, come to my office at once." The screen returned to the previous images. Rechat did not even wait for a reply. Volar had never seen the old man so upset, why he was downright...rude. Volar did as his teacher ordered, as he had for two years now. He put on a light coat, walked the four blocks to the maglev station and caught the next maglev to Humana Hospital. As he watched the buildings and gardens whoosh silently by Volar thought "well, starships or not, at least the maglev still runs on time". Ten tipas later, he walked into Rachat the Healer's office and was told to close the door behind him. Source: Mark Nielipinski These pages are in no way endorsed or sponsored by Lucasfilm Ltd or West End Games. ®, TM & © Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL). All rights reserved. Trademarks of LFL used by West End Games under authorization.