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Marlowe's light beam, emitted from his helmet lamp danced across the metal floor in front of them,joining the light of his partner as he turned to face the tall Vvolti that was walking next to him. “What do you think make them leave and abandon all this?”

“I don't know and I am not so sure I want it to be us to find out.”

Marlowe held up his scanner.”Nothing alive for miles, and no energies either.” He walked a few more steps then turned again. “Casnu, if didn't know better, it almost sounded if you are afraid.”

“I am not thrilled to walk down the corridor of an abandoned alien space station, almost 6 Exo Light from home. Something made them leave...”

“Casnu, you are a seven foot tall Vvolti, strong enough to wrestle a Nul and win, with claws able to carve duro steel. Why would you be afraid of anything?”

The Vvolti put one of his clawed hands on the customized TKU blaster he carried in a holster. “There are many beings stronger, faster, tougher than us Vvolti, and then there are Terrans like you. Weak sacks of easily damaged bio tissue,but with a temper and terrible weapons.”

“I am not Terran, I was born and raised on Ontario, planet in the Delta Pavonis system. Never been to Earth. You know that you've been to Devil's Oven Desert, our lovley little boring town.“

“You are Terran human and it must be true, you walk down a corridor of an abandoned alien space station without the slightest concern.”

“Because I am friends with a Vvolti and seen it eat. There is little that can scare me after that.”

“That cow was not alive, despite you telling everyone otherwise.”

Marlow laughed, “Yep and Aruell believed...” He stopped in mid sentence. He was sure he saw movement just outside the column of light. His scanner still showing nothing, but the hair on his back stood up. Then he saw it, a greenish vapor hovering there, with the distinct shape of a being.



–

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Sorry, Mr. Cunninham, but Gate operations are still suspended.” Said the Diechsen female behind the counter of the Jump Shuttle Operations. That she was female was clear by her colorful irdidescent fine scaled skin that shimmered in many colors.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Any estimate when it will resume operations? Nothing to worry about?”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">She made the gestue of assurance by clasping her clawed hands to her elongated snout and then it seemed to appear to her, that might not know this Diechsen gesture.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">I smiled at her and said. “My very first feature was on the Diechsen culture.” I tried to do replicate the gesture of understanding as good as I remembered, by putting my hands to my chin.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“No Mr. Cunningham, there is no cause for alarm. A Gate Train convoy bound for Azure Eye is on its way and Gate traffic is always suspended until they are through. We expect normal traffic operations to commence by tomorrow.” She touched the sides of her head in the traditional thank you gesture of her kind. “You know Diechsen signs well.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">I thanked her too and left passenger imformation. I wasn't in a particular hurry anyway, my last story brought me out here to what was called the Azure Eye connection.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">Of course I didn't go all the way because the journey to the most distant point anyone can travel takes almost four years, but I did make it all the way to NGC 3953 and the Alien Gatehouse.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">This journey had taken me 55 million light years beyond Union space, and further than I ever imagined.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">One more day would make no difference. I was still looking at several month of travelling before I would reach SSS Pierre Méchain.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">From where I could board a Space Train and make the rest of the journey in a few days.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">This passengers lobby was different from all the others I had seen so far, mostly becasuse this Gate House was of alien origin.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">While our engineers had done much to adapt it to Union needs, it was undeniably different.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">As I sat down at a table beloning to a cafe, I wondered how the beings looked like that built this station and why they left.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">A man sized squirrel being approached, I was certain it was a Norak, it wore a green apron and said. “Sorry, human the outside tables are not yet hooked up, but I can take your order.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“No worries, I prefer life service over serv matics anyway. If you have Navy coffee, I take one and don't have to consult the menu.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“We certainly do. I bring it right out.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">A human woman with large eyes, long black hair and the physique of a Delicate stopped as she walked past me. She turned and her serious expression changed.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Aren't you Alex Cunninham of Union Galactographic Magazine?”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Yes that is me, indeed.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“I am a big fan of your features, for a very long time. It seems I haven't read anything new for quite a spell.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">I got up and gestured to the other chair. “Why don't you join me for a cup of Saresii tea or Delicate Mous?”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">She nodded and sat down with a fluid, graceful move only a woman could manage. “Thank you Mr. Cunningham, but I rather have strong Terran coffee.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Norak waiter brought my coffee and took her order.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">After that I answered her question. “The reason there aren't any new features for a while, is that I am retired. I am 149 years old next Red Month.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">She spread her arms with a smile. “And yet here you are, about as far as can be. I assume the feature is about this, the famous Alien Gatehouse?”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">My eyes caught hers directly and I started to shiver and get goosebumps up and down my spine. I somehow felt to be in the presence of something not human. I never studdered but I somehow felt compelled to tell her everything.”Retirement felt like a trap, like a final chapter waiting for the end. My wife urged me to do one more, one more trip. She was right, once I was on my way I felt right and having purpose again. I wanted to do a feature of one of these gatehouses that are so distant from Union space. I wanted to go all the way to the end, but Azure Eye is too far”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“You lived a life of a rolling stone, Mr.Cunningham. Once travelling becomes your life your only home when you are on the move.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“For my entire career I have travelled from one corner of our amazing and magnificent Union, sharing what I have seen and experienced, but ten thousand beings with the life span of a Bandrupo could not report on a fraction, but why I am telling you all this, who are you?”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">She thanked the waiter for her coffee and said to me. “I am sorry Mr. Cunningham, I am Alice, Alice Enigma.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">She wore a black body suit, a black leather like jacket and a necklace with a strange winged skull shaped pendant. Only now I was able to focus on anything else but her huge blue eyes. Her jacket collar featured a small silvery pin on its collar, shaped like a human brain, the insignia of the PSI Corps. “That is certainly a fitting name.” I managed to say. “Psi Corps?”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Yes, we just established a branch here and I was sent to help install some equipment and look into a few things.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Classified things?Is there more to this Alien Gatehouse than the public knows?”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“ Yes there is more to this, but it is not classified. And the public might know about it as much as everyone else. What do you know about the Alien Gatehouse?”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">I leaned back carefully avoiding a direct gaze into those beautiful but dangerous blue eyes. “It is an artifical construct, ring shaped dodecagon with an overall diameter of about twenty klicks. The ring itself is four kilometers thick. It is estimated to be about 20,000 years old and of a culture that just about reached tech levelm eight. Some experts believe it served the same purpose as one of our gatehouses, others think it was an attempt to built their own gate.” I took a sip from my coffee and then added. “It was first discovered by the USS Horizon in 5048 and after detailed inspection turned into one of our gate houses by the Army Corps.”

<p style="margin-bottom:0cm">She shifted a little in her chair and said. “That is information everyone can get from GalNet, hardly worth the trip.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">She was right, other than being really far. I had nothing really spectacular or really interesting in my report so far. “I must admit I haven't come across anyhing that could serve as the core of my feature. Maybe you can give me some insights and pointers. The PSI corps dispatched to a galaxy where we have found no sentient life so far, that might just be that special something I still need.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“We did find this station and the ruins on ...”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by alarm sirens and armed Border Guard officers running across the hall.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">I got up and saw a Vvolti carrying a man running in obvious panic into the passener hall and yelling things in his native language.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">Out here my Data brain was not connected to GalNet and thus could not translate it for me.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">Why I followed the black haired beauty, I could not say, but was certain that whatever could make a Vvolti run and scream was certainly worth a story.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Vvotiv lowered the man to the ground while he was surrounded by security personnel. The petite woman walked through the gathering crowd as if she had an invisibe plow im front of her.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Vvotiv spoke with a shaking voice. “There are ghosts on this station and the walls are alive!”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">The man pointed to where they had come from. “We were in section Eight. We saw it! A green vapor shaped like someone and it had eyes! Then there was sand pouring in and taking shape of a being!”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">A red skinned man in the uniform of the Union Border Guard and a woman with blue skin also in Border Guard gray. He was Dai and she was Thauran, I was certain.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Dai officer raised his hands. “Ghosts? You screaming that over the com for the last ten minutes! There are no such thing as ghosts! What did your scanners register?”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Vvotiv held his device up. “Nothing.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“Well it seems the Explorer corps sent us two especially dense individuals.” The Thauran woman said.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">I blurted out. “There are ghosts. I have seen them on Tombstone.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">They all turned and the Thauran woman said. “This is Border Guard business, citizen. Please vacate the premisses.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">The black haired beauty said. “So are you Ms.Gelea. Union Border Guard is not a branch of the military and that makes you a civilian too.”

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">“No need for the PSI Corps involvement. I have robots and guards dispatched and the section sealed. There is nothing alive in this station we don't know about it.” Just as the Thauran said that, she gasped with an open mouth at something behind me.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">I turned and saw a green transparent thing floating there.

<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">The green thing spoke and only now I noticed a belt like thing floating within the gree mist. “Commander Enigma, we checked