"Whatever your orders, Colonel and Princess, my brother Alha and I Biejong will serve you in this Wonderland. We pray for Henri." Who do AI pray to, I wonder? Oh, dear! We have to do something for dear Henri! If he stays in the metaphysical whirlpool long, he will be hopelessly lost forever. I will ask Imurir what she thinks. ........... Imurir says that the lessoned gravity and too much Temporal nonsense sometimes causes those symptoms. She said have Alha and Biejong take him to the Gravity treatment building in her city. The gravity and green tea should have him recovered in short time. Imurir's city lies beyond Olympus Mons in the green valley shown in the picture above. The Ishant control the area around Olympus Mons but never approach the Inci city.
Now you are back on deck Captain Dubois I need you to take Alha, Beijong and six of Princess Healani's best warriors in the Flash and give me a 50km recon north to determine if the Ishant followed us and pose a threat to the Inci people...... Princess Healani what precisely did the Inci leader tell you and does she welcome us strangers to her land......
Hi all, I back on deck again. Sorry about my fugue. Imurir's Inci people really helped teaching me mental and breathing techniques. They're very kind and wise. Their city, people and culture seem beautiful and intriguing. Colonel Fenworth, I'll take the 6 Suvan warriors and do that reccy. I've asked them to put on that high tech armour and carry heavy weapons, just in case we meet any Ishant sneaking this way. Horrible creatures. By the way Colonel, my surname is Gariepy, not Dubois which was my mother's maiden name, an understandable error. Je m'appelle Henri Gariepy. Alha the Suvan Warrior who prayed to Namaka for his Captain Henri .
With Colonal Richie's help and approval Henri sought local maps and an Inci senior guide/advisor to go with him and the Suvanese Warriors now coated in fiendishly excellent self repairing smart nano metals....all down to Tempus Henri admitted, whilst I was unwell, ga ga, lol. Thanks for all the flowers. Imurir introduced Goravi, an elderly Inci wiseman who volunteered to be our guide and advisor. His data chips were hard to interface from a Flash ATV until my Tempus solved the issue, once again. I also now know better to ask further. And so we set off with my Sgt Alha driving and hovering at only slow sub sonic speeds, like 100mph, and Scanning hard with our best learnt techs peering everywhere. Multiple invisible spy drones also and our two vehicles in dynamic camoflage n strategic modes. Multi spectrum... In combat the Flashes have a manned small cannon turret that is lethal to most infantry and non armoured vehecles. Savant ultra smart AI and, ultra fast reactions and fast rates of fire too, with a large selection of projectiles. Even gases.... Deadly and 2 ATVs, F1 and F2 captained by 3rd Lieutenant Foraster, a Senior, wise and tough Suvan Warrior. He's a great leader but a little slow on imagination, imo said Tempus to Henri. Sorry to say Healani, please correct me if I'm wrong Healani or Colonel said Henri J'ai bon.. Again, I'm really just a techy with a love for Sci Fi, but it's mainly my AI watch Tempus' imagination that gets me by. He knows all my pass codes and stuff, and lots of replicators available to him. He pays all my bills, does my finances, nags me, ...God knows what he's made and stashed, especially when I was comatose, but he's good at heart. He worked hardest to pull me out of my temporal dementia, or whatever it was? He kept saying 'It will pass, it will pass...' It did. Time passes, this is our slip stream. Some sort of an new evolutionary wave bio-tech symbiousis? Henri breathes deeply closing his eyes, "Green tea anyone?" shades of who said temporal metaphysics is boring....? I thought, therefore I wasn't." Sorry, the cure is a work in progress....Tempus is an especially hard task master. He's resetting me he says. Bon Voyage ! "I sense the heart of this Warlike planet is keenest in its Equators" said a glazed eyed Inci functionary to Colonel Richard Fenworth, in Henri 's head and mind's eye.. 'where a giantanticaly tall forest grew, with its ancient and Sacred longest limbed Apes still held sway...That Cradle of Martian Life's heart beats still.... .' 'That is true dang To many, Goravi continues, ' it is more of Destiny that we dismiss aan... but the words fade away...' sang Imurir and echoes of other lost voices. 'Seeking the Emerald City' sang Lara the ship's semi sentient AI flashing images of Dororthy, Toto, Tinman, Lion, Strawman, .. ok , says Captain Henri, stow the muddy metaphors, and get me a coffee. 3 Sugars.
Very well Captain Gariepy I want all communication channels open while on your reccy. And I only want confrontation with the Ishant as a last resort. Rather than eliminate them I'd prefer capture. Only shoot if your lives are under threat. Is that understood captain......
Interplanetary law dictates that we do not interfere with native species in any way. We can only observe. If we are threatened, we are supposed to avoid confrontation at all costs.
Agreed totally Colonel Fenworth and Princess Healani. Observe only if possible, got it. Capture if possible, so weapons will be set to stun only. We've got knock out gas grenades too. Also, we've set the Camouflage to max on the Flashes.
Colonel, we've picked up signatures of three Ishant Rangers a mile ahead with one our semi invisible silent spy drones flying at 200m altitude. Have a look at this screen. They are trying to stay hidden and looking in the general direction of our two Flashes. Awaiting your orders Colonel. Goravi, our Inci Elderman guide, had been telling us all sorts of things about Ishant thinking, intelligence, militay tactics and so on with numerous questions from our savvy Suvan Warriors. Even Tempus, the Colonel and Pricess Healani joined in on the open channel,...
You have your orders captain.. observe only. Bear in mind they are trespassing in Inci territory so are breaking a long standing treaty. Having said that, we do want a peaceful outcome from this. See if Goravi is willing to converse with the three Ishant rangers and have Alha and his warriors close by in case of any belligerence by the Ishant. But remember no use of weapons, capture only. Use tranquilizer darts if necessary. I will monitor the situation from the ATV viewfinder as this is a most important mission captain in relation to our future here on Mars.............
Yes Colonel, will do. Tranquil darts it is. We slowly headed obliquely in the direction of the Ishant spies. Goravi disembarked with 6 Suvan warriors staying 20m behind him. Goravi raised a hand as a sign of peace and approached them as they stood up to greet him. One of them held up his hand too and they met.
Alha turned up his audio to listen to the conversation, translate it, and pipe it to me, the Colonel his Princes Healani. Goravi was very polite querying their presence. The Ishant speaker said they were curious about us and sought more intel on us. He clicked and pointed at the Flashes and the six burly Suvan warriors. "They are powerful beings come from a far off planet called Gaia, and a different time in the Future" said Goravi pointing to the sky. "Beware of them, however they come in peace and have our protection. Now you must leave or pay a high price." and they did grudgingly skulking away. "I saw them looking worried at my harmless big net gun that Tempus designed for me" laughed Sergeant Alha. sticky carbon fibre 2m x 2m micro fibre nets. 30m range. Goravi turned smiling and returned safely to Flash 1 with me waiting with cups of green tea for all. Most of the Suvan warriors prefer their new found triple sweet expresso coffees working the replicators hard. "There will be more" said Goravi. "Continue your reccy Captain Henri, especially that high ridge to the north. Take a bearing of 327 degress initially. Later, up this land spur I've uploaded to your strangely slow Flashe's Computer. It feel's like its got a bug. That technology is beyond the Ishant? I've given your Tempus an open pass to our Libraries to speed up things. Being 8' tall, skinny, old and bent, Goravi had to sit or crouch. At an age of 66 long Martian years he preferred to sit of course. 'So what brings you here Colonel' he said to the live comm link?
Goravi you are a wise Martian but I doubt you know of quantum physics which is the catalyst for time travel which my planet had almost perfected. Myself and Captain Henri came from a future Earth and landed accidently on Princess Healani's island home one century in the past. I was in an Earth space force and traversed much of our universe but had never been to your planet. In my time of 2400 our scientists had finally found a way to overcome Mar's toxic air and and its extreme heat and cold. This meant the air was breathable for humans. However, the most important aspect was that fresh water was to be made abundant. Meaning Mars could be colonised. Several months after I became lost in time a multi nation expedition was to be made to your planet and I was to be among them.
Goravi replied "Dear Colonel Fenworth, I'm glad you've visited, and given us a glimpse of our own future with your kind. I'm sure it will be beneficial for all. We will be prepared. Thank you for representing your species so politely. It is noted well. Your Captain Henri is an interesting study/case too. And of course your Princess Healani and her six sacred and most zealous warriors. We don't know about your 'Quantum Mechanics' nor 'time travel', except in speculative stories. Shorter mind time travel is one of the greater skills some sacred Inci have. We call them our Seers. They foretold you. Many did. What we do know about, as our evolution led us, is Psionics. That's using the power of our minds, like telekinesis, far sight, far talk, mind reading, shaping, mental control of other's minds, blessings, healings, pain, paralysis and the like. I've allowed Henri's Tempus to rife through some selected libraries, just to keep him busy....and several red herrings.... The fiercely deadly Ishant fear that in us with good reason. Your technology with its tiny mechanics is your forte, and your good hearts too of course. We could be Allies? I sense 4 more Ishant spies on that ridge ahead, and have your Captain Gariepy headed us that way. He has a good soul but a temporally strained mind which I'm gently working on. It embarrasses me to say I'm also a renowned Inci healer. I've even published books, lecture, recordings ...ummphh, and other stuff. Henri's AI Tempus (a sly ai) has suggested a hologram of a horrible Giant to scare them off. Not a bad idea and I can assist with some illusions of my own, or mental warps where they turn on themselves, as only a last resort, a horrible sight.'click"
Isaac Asimov wrote a book about a planet called Gaia. It's part of the Foundation series. On this planet, everything is a part of the whole. When one thing learns something, everything on the planet learns it at the same time; people. plants, rocks, insects, birds, water, everything. In some indefinable way, everything on the planet is the planet and the planet is everything on the planet. Can this be true of the beings on this planet?