46 My 1,006th Birthday

Losing navigator Jake and dealing with all the other things that happened recently, I forgot that yesterday was my birthday. Commander Sarah reminded me of it today. She is making me wear the lantern helmet all day long. She said, "But it looks sooooo cute."

I think our tradition of wearing the lantern helmet should be banned. Besides, I look ridiculous wearing it. I guess that is the whole point: Making you look ridiculous on your birthday. Oh, well, I will humor her and wear it all day long. After all, it is my 1,006th birthday and Commander Sarah is the boss.

This morning we landed on planed Havoc. Most of the planet surface is a jungle filled with lush green vegetation. There is only one city on this planet. The city is surrounded by many farms and some industrial areas.

We landed on a service station hidden beneath the base of a mountain near the city.

Keeper Rebecca has asked us to stay inside the drone and wait a few hours for her. She is meeting with the local keepers in order to learn all she can about the stolen embryo that was brought to this planet. After that meeting, we expect to receive further instructions from her.

45 Eldron Rendezvouz

Lord Passivar told us that only a few Eldron ships managed to survive.

It was confirmed that the murderous invaders were Motrons and Mechanos from planet Dablos. Lord Passivar also told us that the invaders have adopted the name of their own planet and now call themselves the Dablos.

It appears that the two Eldron ships which had been seized on planet Dablos three weeks ago, were used by the Dablos to invade the Eldron home planet. The captured ships had been armed with weapons of war and used by the Dablos to travel to Cuevlar and attack all the orbiting planet Cuevlar.

Additionally, each of the ships had its ten standard cargo shuttles, which were now being used by the cunning Dablos as fighter vessels. The Dablos had also used the fighter vessel to land their invasion force on the Eldron home planet.

Commander Sarah asked how could these primitive creatures manage to navigate across the Novus system and reach Cuevlar on their own.

Lord Passivar explained that each Eldron ship has a homing beacon designed to easily bring the vessel back home in case of emergency. He believes that somehow the invaders activated the beacon and used it for their selfish malevolent purposes.

"Another major problem with the homing beacon", lord Passivar explained, "is that the exact location of every Eldron ship can be traced from the flight control center on Cuevlar. Sooner or later, the Dablos might learn how to use this tracker and then learn the whereabouts of all surviving Eldron ships."

Lord Passivar ordered his ship to continue in its flight plan towards the Novus System via black hole C-11. He also sent an emergency message ordering every remaining Eldron ship to rendezvous near planet Techtron. Once there, Lord Passivar and the other Eldron survivors will decide what to do next.

For our part, we have been asked to leave the Eldron ship as soon as possible and take keeper Rebecca to planet Havoc. We intend to do this as soon as we have entered the Novus System.

44 The Eldron Bane

"I repeat, this is an emergency transmission to all Eldron vessels: Do not try to come anywhere near Cuevlar. Our home planet has been invaded by hostile forces. Every Eldron citizen is being hunted down and killed on sight. Rescue is not possible. Invaders are too numerous to repel and they are well armed. Flee for your lives..."

This emergency transmission was being repeated over and over.

Commander Sarah and I were summoned to attend an emergency audience with Lord Passivar.

The Eldron leader told us that they received this most disturbing transmission while making preparations for the sling shot procedure with black hole C-11, en route to the Novus System.

43 Black Hole C-11

Today the Eldron ship is making preparations for the slingshot procedure around the second largest black hole in the Milky Way.

Commander Sarah and I are a bit nervous, but being mere passengers we have been asked to just sit back and enjoy the experience. Yeah, right.

If all goes well, we should enter the Novus system in just a few more days.

42 Pulvars Are No More

As I continue to read the Eldron archives, I continue to learn more about planet Dablos. However, some of this new information has shocked me and also made me very sad.

According to one of the most recent entries in the Eldron historical archive, there are no more Pulvars on planet Dablos. At least not any live ones.

The records state that Motrons and Makanos formed an alliance to massacre the Pulvars. By the end of the swift and ruthless massacre, the defenseless Pulvar had been exterminated. Every single Pulvar on planet Dablos was killed. The record filed by the local Eldron ambassador states that a very large number of the dead Pulvar had been processed and is currently being kept in several long term food storage facilities.

This is incredible. Inconceivable!

After the Pulvar massacre, the Eldron embassy was closed and all the Eldron tried to evacuate from planet Dablos. In addition, all Eldron ships were advised not to travel to Dablos. However, the warning came too late for the  two Eldron ships that were already orbiting the planet on  routine trading missions.

After the two orbiting Eldron ships begun sending cargo shuttles to the designated landing posts on Dablos, it was already too late and they were caught unaware. At that time, the Eldron embassy had been completely destroyed and, tragically, the Eldron ambassador and everyone with him had been swiftly eliminated.

The shuttles that landed were overtaken and all the Eldron crew were executed on the spot.

Surprisingly, the Motron and Makano somehow managed to learn how to operate the shuttles. After that, they used the Eldron cargo shuttles to attack and overrun the two orbiting cargo ships.

Some communication images retrieved remotely from the lost ships indicate that the Motron and Makano had installed powerful automatic weapons to the hull of the cargo shuttles, turning these peaceful vessels into makeshift fighter ships.

It is hard to believe that something like this could happen so suddenly. It is believed that the Motron and Makano had been planning this murderous action for some time. They had appeared to be far too primitive and not at all capable of carrying out such a cunning plan. Everyone underestimated the aggressive nature of these beings and never believed them capable of converting the peaceful Eldron technology into instruments of war.

This last report and images from the lost Eldron ships was recorded three weeks ago.

41 Creatures of Dablos

The Eldron historical archive is enormous. Before it can be merged into our encyclopedia, I will have to spend a long time sorting and cataloging the information.

Today I am learning many things about the three intelligent sentient species living on planet Dablos. The illustration above depicts the physical characteristics of all three of them.

First, Pulvars are peaceful vegetarian creatures who love music and art. They also reproduce in great numbers and comprise 60% of the population on planet Dablos. Unfortunately, the Pulvar are currently spending most of their time building primitive fortifications in order  to defend themselves from attack raids . It appears that they are systematically being targeted as a source of food.

Second, Motrons are driven by brute strength and have a very strict code of loyalty to their kin. They possess good skills for architecture and spend a lot of their time building fortified castles with tall towers. Additionally, Motrons are known to be insatiable carnivores. Their relentless taste for flesh has led to the extinction of many species of wildlife in planet Dablos. Worst of all, Motrons are conducting frequent killing raids on Pulvar villages whenever they need to restock their meat supply stores. Simply awful!

Finally, Makanos are very furtive and secretive in nature. They are the most intelligent sentient specie in Dablos. What stands out most about Makanos is that they are good at solving any kind of problem, regardless of complexity. Makanos are also carnivores and will hunt small animals, but they only do this in team competitions during an organized sport. Therefore, Makanos never hunt for food. Whenever they want meat on the menu, the Makano simply purchase the meat from the Motron.

40 Lord Passivar

Today we had an audience with the Eldron leader and captain of the merchant vessel. Lord Passivar greeted us and gave us the official welcome to his "travelling colony", as he called it.

Lord Passivar told us about the amenities that we could expect on board, including food and entertainment. He told us that the journey to Novus would take anywhere between 5 and 7 days.

With a ship as large as the Eldron vessel, it is impossible to control both time and space compression. If one tries to control the exact time of arrival, the ship could end up quite far from the intended destination. So it is best to be sure of the exact location and simply guess the time that it will take for the ship to get there.

I am very exited because Lord Passivar granted me access to their entire historical archives. I will be able to add all of the Eldron archives to the historical section of the encyclopedia on board our drone vessel.

Keeper Rebecca was asked to stay behind for a private meeting with Lord Passivar. Commander Sarah told me that the Eldron leader is most likely going to ask her questions about the stolen embryo and what the Keepers plan to do next.

39 The Novus System

Today we started our journey towards the Novus System.

Novus is a twin star planetary system. It is very unusual because, even though it only has six planets, the system hosts four planets capable of sustaining life.

The six planets planets in the Novus System are called, Techtron, Dablos, Exaron, Tempar, Cuevlar, and Havoc.

Planet Techtron is a highly evolved human planet in terms of technology and social structure. This is where the Eldron merchant vessel is headed.

Dablos is a fairly primitive place with three different non-human species that are currently battling for supremacy. I know almost nothing about this unusual planet, but the Eldron might be able to teach me a great deal about the place and its inhabitants. The Eldron must have a some recorded history of these places in their archives and I hope to get access to them during the trip.

Exaron is a mass of hot gases and boiling seas. Not much more to say about that hostile place.

Tempar is believed to be a solid rock covered in ice. I learned that that the ice is being mined by Techtron to replenish their water supply, as needed.

Cuevlar is the Eldron's home planet.

Havoc is the place where the spoilers took the stolen embryo. That is where we are taking keeper Rebecca.

38 New Flight Plan

Keeper Rebecca has negotiated passage for all of us to travel with the Eldron. However, it is not as if the Eldron are going out of their way. Fortunately, we found out that this large merchant ship is also headed for the Novus System. Serendipitously, the Eldron ship is going to planet Techtron, which is not far from planet Havoc, our intended destination.

The best news of all was very surprising to me. It turns out that the massive Eldron ship will be able to travel to the Novus system ten times faster than our drone vessel. I don't quite understand this last technical bit, but everyone seems to agree that this is how it is.

Commander Sarah tried to explain to me at some length that the Eldron ship uses the same slingshot procedures near the black holes that our drone vessel uses. However, since their ship is one hundred times more massive than ours, then the time/space compression coefficient for the Eldron ship turns out to be exactly ten times higher than that of our drone. Simply put, we will get to the Novus System ten times faster by hitching a ride inside the Eldron ship.

Well, that is easy for commander Sarah to say, but not so easy for me to understand.

Being a humble historian, I just can't wrap my mind around these technical details. So I simply nod my head.

37 Adieu Planet X-37

This is our last trip from the planet surface, back to the Eldron ship.

We have been carrying crop seeds and building supplies down to the planet.

On our way back we have been carrying cobalt, platinum, uranium, and tin. The planet has large quantities of these and the humans living on X-37 use the mined metals as payments for the supplies brought from the outside.

Keeper Rebecca is now on board with us. Our next destination is planet Havoc in the Novus System, which is located about 75,000 light years away from here, straight across the other side of the Milky Way.

It is going to be a very long and sad trip without navigator Jake. I do miss him.