text: Part I~The Pacific “Ok, Aquila , you should be approaching the site about. . . now,” the intercom murmured. A little submarine was inching across the sea floor, about six hundred miles off the coast of what was once California. “No, I’m not seeing it, and we could’ve passed it already. Doesn’t help that the ocean floor’s so. . . rocky here,” Eualia said, lacking any confidence. Eualia was the curator of the Mars Galactic Archives, established in the year 04037. She had named the submarine Aquila , after her favorite greek myth, and Eualia was quite sure she was the only person living on Mars that knew anything significant about ancient Greece, even though Mars was a Greek myth too. She found that rather ironic. “Wait. Stop! Back up a little,”Sulo blurted out. “I thought I saw it,” Sulo Aiken was Eualia’s research assistant, and often was the first to see something. “Okay, where? All I’ve seen is rocks for the last two hours,” Eualia said exasperatedly. “That way.” He adjusted the viewing lights, revealing a glinting metallic object, just barely poking out of the muddy bottom. Both researchers’ heartbeats quickened. “Sorry, you did see. . . is that really the capsule?” She extended a long, slithering robotic arm, and grabbed hold of the thing. With a sharp jolt of the thrusters, the object came free of the sand with a whoomp. Eualia brought it past the glass, and surely enough, they were both staring at an easily four meter long torpedo shaped capsule. One could just make out the depressions of letters milled into the capsule: Do not disturb this vault until 03500 C.E. Left in the year of 02029 C.E. “So the map was right. Huh,” Sulo remarked. In his hand he held a perfect copy of the etched globe they had discovered two years before. Disguised among the land forms, barely readable, was a string of coordinates. And those Coordinates led them here. “Sea Hub, we’re coming up. We believe to have found it at last,” Eualia informed the intercom. “Roger, Aquila . We’ll have the platform ready.” With that, Aquila began the lengthy climb up to the surface. Part II~Location Unknown Deep in a subterranean laboratory, Oddmund De Vroom was pacing furiously. “Damn, they found it ay? Who let this happen ! I thought we sent a crew to intercept their craft!” he thundered in a strong British accent that nobody really had anymore. “I do not know, sir. We shall see shortly,” his young assistant replied with foolish sarcasm. “ What? Ugh, why did I hire you? Security, take him away.” Security did just that, as the assistant half squealed in protest. There was a thud as he was hurled out the door, and the door clanged shut. “He won’t last long in the cold,”De Vroom remarked. “Oh, I have a message?” He checked his computer terminal. Away crew #1 Here. We failed to intercept the submersible craft, they have already docked to the floating research hub. As you know, the research hub is armed to a degree that prevents us from safely making a raid. Obliteration would be likely. END OF TRANSMISSION De Vroom muttered something rude, and furiously punched in the following reply: De Vroom Speaking, the one who happens to be paying you. I don’t care how dangerous it is, get it finished. You understand how valuable that capsule is? END OF TRANSMISSION Part III~The Pacific Eualia and Sulo emerged from the Submarine to a small, but jubilant crowd of engineers and colleagues on the well deck. The capsule was lifted from the Aquila ’s cargo rack, and placed upon a folding table that had been set up. A hush fell over the crowd, aside from an occasional murmur. A friend of Eualia’s produced the original globe, that they had discovered in the Himalayas two years prior. Eualia began to announce the significance of the event: “We discovered this globe due to a stray radio signal that our transmitters were picking up, which turned out to be intentional. On the globe was a number of symbols, which my partner Sulo deciphered as co-ordinates. After multiple attempts to find the location, today we finally pinpointed it, and on that exact site was this capsule. Now, if I remember correctly, by twisting the two halves of the globe apart, a key should be revealed.” She slowly pulled the globe apart, and within, was a short metal rod, with several indentations. Please work, I’m relying on you, key, Eualia thought. With extreme caution, Eualia inserted the key into a small opening on the top of the cylinder. Clik! The top smoothly hinged open, revealing a thick envelope, and many things that looked to be ancient. The crowd began to cheer with great enthusiasm, as she removed the envelope, and passed it around. Booom! The station violently shook, and everybody but Eualia and Sulo were thrown off their feet. Booom! Another shock hit, and this time Eualia tumbled over. “Station under attack!” bellowed the security officer, “Man the laser repulsers!” “The station’s never been attacked before, and of all times, ” Sulo said wearily. “Shut the capsule. Now!” Eualia hollered at Sulo over the roar of artillery. He tossed the envelope back in, and shut the lid. “We can’t move it out of here, it’s too heavy.” Suddenly, the station began to lean sharply, and the cylindrical capsule began to roll rapidly towards the opening in the well deck. “Noooooo!” It was too late. The capsule clanged into the submarine parked in the well deck, and Plunk. Down the capsule fell, into the abyss once more. Part IV~Location Unknown De Vroom slouched on an expensive reclining chair, and giggled. Well, almost giggled. Before him was the time capsule that just a day before had been in the hands of Mars Galactic Archives’s researchers. He looked about it playfully, and upon seeing the keyhole, his face broke into a nasty grimace. He cursed, and said: “ They, have, the key! Ooooh,” he groaned. “Tell the away crew that their job is nowhere near done,” De Vroom informed his new assistant. “But” the assistant stammered. “Of course I know we only have one vessel left! Get out of here.” Part V~Mars Eualia paced about her cliffside apartment, which happened to have a great view of Olympus Mons, as well as the expansive city below. Another Greek name that no one cares about, she thought. Now talking to herself, she said: “There’s no way that space pirates would attack exactly on the hour that we discover something so important out of coincidence. And then that capsule rolled perfectly out of the well deck! They must have targeted the pontoon on that side of the base. All that fuss over a time capsule? They lost all but one ship, which happened to be the one carrying the capsule. Hmm.” At least they don’t have the key , she remembered. “Ah!” Eualia walked over to her micro book rack, home to many thousands of volumes, all printed microscopically to save space. She looked under P, and found a book called: “The most infamous space pirates - A traveler’s guide.” “Maybe this could give me an idea of who did it?” She turned on a micro book reader, and began to cycle through the pages. The security officer aboard the research base had managed to snap a photo of the ship’s flag, and Eualia began to compare the flag in the photo to the ones in the book. “Rabues, no, The Plasmised Gang, no, Alectra Piracy treaty, nope. Ah, is that it? De. . .Vroom. . . Incorporated. What a strange name. Lore: The De Vroom family has long been involved in the piracy community, looking for a so called ‘Cylinder of Ultimate Power’, fabled to hold the secret to creating perfect artificial intelligence. . . So that’s what they are after.” Part VI~ “Hello?” Eualia called out groggily. Her holo-clock read 2:07. Eualia had been startled awake by muffled thumping and something that sounded like. . .glass being shattered? This thought jolted Eualia awake. She sprang out of bed, picked up her stun rifle, and slowly opened her door. The moment she did, the sound stopped. “Who. .Who’s there,” she said uncertainly, inching forward. When she poked her head around the corner, to her horror she saw a figure standing there, just an outline. Eualia reeled back, surprised. She pointed her weapon around the corner and barked “Stop, um Hands Up!” “Don’t mind me missy,”he replied quite rudely. And then, it was lights out for Eualia. Part VII~ When she came to, a worried Sulo was hovering over her. “Let me guess, I have a big bruise on my forehead or something.” Eualia said. “I am afraid so. Here,” Sulo helped her up, and Eualia was shocked to see her apartment an utter mess. The glass coffee table had shattered disastrously, and several shelves had been upturned. “What the. . .” “I am wondering the same thing,” Sulo said. “I can actually guess who did this.” “Who, but why?” “Remember the attack on the research station? I think whoever ransacked my apartment was also responsible for this. Have you heard of De Vroom Incorporated?” “Yes, actually. Once on the news.” “I was thinking yesterday, and realized that they might be responsible for the theft of the time capsule. I looked them up in a book, and according to that, they’ve been searching for the capsule, like, forever and now they’ve stolen the key! Ugh, the second I thought of that , I should’ve got to safety. It’s my fault.” “I didn’t know you had taken the globe when we abandoned the research base. I’m sorry Eualia,” Sulo said glumly. “Hopefully the Police can fix this, cause otherwise the entire galaxy’s done for.” “What? Whaddaya mean done for?” “Apparently the capsule contains the instructions to build the world’s first true AI. Somebody like that surely isn’t going to use it for anything good , right?” “I’ll call the police right now,”Sulo said, rapidly punching in the number into his comms device. Part VIII~Location Unknown De Vroom was growing more and more impatient by the second. The key was supposed to be delivered over an hour ago. “Have those Buffoons lost it?”he muttered. Almost in answer to his question, De Vroom heard a distant tapping of feet along the stone floor. This was followed by a security door opening a hallway down. The footsteps were getting closer. This is it! he thought. When the final security door into his rooms opened, he was greeted by his assistant, with the key on a silken platter. What he wasn’t expecting was the twenty or so armed policemen escorting him. “Hello, sir! You may see I brought some friends. They are here because that poor nice lady you stole the key from tipped them off. And they offered me a pre-tty nice reward if I helped with your capture! Good by, sir,”his assistant said in gleeful mockery. “The De Vroom reign of piracy is over,” the Chief of police remarked. Behind him stood the woman his men had robbed. “I’ll be taking this,”she said triumphantly. She wheeled a cart up to the capsule, and lowered it down. Oddmund De Vroom was taken into custody, and immediately led to the Police Cruiser. On Eualia’s way out, she slipped a small note into De Vroom’s hand. It read simply: The capsule will be waiting for you when you are released. I’ve been looking for you, Father. -E D V