Canned Heat was already handing Spark's the batteries which he took as he pulled a hand held scanner out of his pocket. Walking around the ship he scanned the optical fibers hanging down from the ceiling, then he went to some open panels on the wall. This is the most logical place for a power source and with a twist of a few of the fibers on the niode batteries some of the ship's systems began to boot up.
Lights flickered on and holo images began to dance on the ship's heads up display as the crew looked around in amazement. Now they could take off their thin skin suites and lighted helmet's. Seeing the ship entirely for the first time, they noticed all the thousands of gate slots, now empty, lining both sides of the massive ship. At the bottom of each slot was a door that would open to eject the gate down to a awaiting planet where it would be tied to the planet's core and niodes hooked up.
Dorien heard from his father, how all this was done, in the beginning of the gate system, but he had never seen or even imagined standing by the real thing. All he could say was WOW! a forerunner gating ship Wow! Looking at the controls, Dorien found one marked log which he activated with a wave of his hand. The log read Kellek here, a forerunner named Roah captured my crew and I and put us on this old gating ship then striped it of most of its power and shoved us towards Earth as they watched from far away.
Roah though he saw a flash which he assumed was us burning up or crashing on Earth but what really happened was remarkable. This ship collided with a time machine piloted by a man named Droh. His machine was destroyed but we saved him. This ship was thrown across time and space and ended up here on this planet the natives called Tolobin. We quickly ditched the ship in this canyon not wanting to be found by Roah and his unbodies.
With the help of the natives we filled in and buried the ship. Just the end stuck out of the canyon so we used what little brush we could find to conceal the rest. Droh and I will go to the town to our west to set up camp and see if we can take the remaining niodes and part's of this ship and make gate's so I can get back to fight Roah and to take Droh to wherever he's going.
The rest of the log talked about Roah and the unbodies (consciousness in orb-ed bodies ) Dorien turned off the transmission , so that's what I saw back there he said pointing to where the bat's had been on the ceiling. Let's take a trip to town. Seeing that nothing more could be learned here, they grabbed the niode batteries and departed. They talked among themselves along the way on what thy had found.
Reaching town , they found piles of burnt skeletons everywhere. Stone tablets told of a fallen one that fell from the sky with a army of minions with metal bodies that could shoot fire out of their mouths. A large crumbling tower was the only structure left standing. A stone was blocking it's entrance and upon removing reviled a inscription on it's underside. The Mantis must have missed this on her visit here said Dorien as he began to read the inscription aloud.
In a time so far forgotten, in a land not far away, lies a place that's sorely trodden where time and space have come to play. But who will weld this ancient power, twisted stairs will lead the way and ascend up in the tower to evil forces kept at bay. Light emitting from the portal, clothed the welder in light's array, pushing back the dark lord's shadows making them as bright as day.
Dorien decided to camp at the base of the tower and ascend the twisted stairs in the light of morning when he and his crew were fresh. Secretly, Not wanting to expel his fears to the rest of the crew Dorien set up a make shift camp and slept, or at least tried to, until the twin moons no longer shed their light and the sun hung high in the sky.
Submitted by Marianne Stewig # 687261 (and Mark Stewig)