Raven didn’t answer for a moment. He was clearly going through his options. Arun could only see one for him right now. Arun held all of the cards at the moment.
“Very well”. Raven walked over to a chair and sat down. “Did you see the object orbiting around the star?”
“Yes”. Arun nodded.
“Well it’s huge, over 40 kilometres long and in it’s centre, at the widest point there is a hole. That hole is 12.25 kilometres wide and shows a lot of similarities to Regan built jump gates”.
Arun nodded. “You must have had a good close look at it to see that”.
Raven nodded. “Yes we did. Our ship came out of jump very close to the star, we had to perform a slingshot manoeuvre to get clear. We passed within a few 100 kilometres of it”.
“A jump gate 12 kilometres wide. That’s huge!”
“It’s as big as they can”. be a voice said from behind Arun. He turned around to see Sung, the Association mission specialist standing there. “12.25674 kilometres is the theoretical maximum size for a wormhole. Various quantum limits come in to play on anything larger which would destabilise anything larger in microseconds”.
“That’s correct”. Kerrson said from Arun’s left.
“That gives us a way out of here. It must do. You know that you can’t just jump out of here don’t you?” Raven asked.
“Yes, the much tighter curvature of space here, means a huge amount of extra power needed. Could a gate that big do it?” Arun asked Kerrson.
“Yes”.
“Yes”. Both Kerrson and Sung answered together. “Go on”. Kerrson offered to Sung. “Yes. The problem with jump drives in ships is that the ship has to carry the mass of the drive though jump. More powerful drives are have larger masses, but it’s not a linear progression, the efficiency of the drive decreases as it gets bigger and that is an exponential progression. So it quickly becomes impossible to go beyond a certain drive power. The drive would have to be larger than jump field it could generate. That’s where the jump gates come in, since most of the power is needed to punch though in to jump space, the largest part of the drive, the transition booster can be left in normal space. The gates we have are under a kilometre in side. Some of the old Regan gates are 3 or 4 kilometres in size. Again the size determines the power. The only reason to have a gate this big is to over come a very large curvature of space. It was that which gave me the clue that his was a…”
“Thank you”. Raven cut her off. “So you see that gate gives us the way out”.
Kerrson nodded. “I agree. But how can you be sure that hole is a gate, it could be anything, that just by coincidence is that size?”
“I’ve studied Regan gates close up…”
“Sung!” Raven interrupted.
Sung looked hurt, but didn’t say anything further. “Interesting, so the Association was carrying some Regan ‘mission specialists’ either through or too the Kason system. But besides that it sounds worth looking at this station close up. We came out on the other side of the star some distance from, we saw the it, but not in any detail”.
Arun looked directly at Sung. “Any sign’s of it being active?” She shook her head.
“No, the station appears to be in a low power mode. Get got readings from a power source inside, but it was way below the level needed to open the gate”. Raven answered.
“Any idea’s on if the station was habitable?” Arun asked.
“It looks awfully close to the star”. Kerrson said.
“It’s estimated mass would be consistent with it being mostly empty space and given that we didn’t see any obvious hull breaches it would seem there must be something inside”. Raven told them.
“Okay it sounds like it’s worth looking at. Once we have stocked up on air and water we will take a look”
“Yes we will, in our ship”. Raven agreed.
“Take a look in your ship, you are not going to be able to get home in that thing now. But before we get to any of that, we need to find water. There is not enough in the air to refresh our stocks. So we need to go out there and find some”. Arun looked out of the common room view port. The dark forest still flashed occasionally.

The arrangements for who would go outside the ship, exploring where complex and took over an hour of reasoning and arguing with Raven to sort out. Arun was not going to leave Association members on his ship unattended. Raven didn’t want to leave the ship unprotected, so one of the troopers had to stay. With a warrior like that on the ship Arun had to leave some one capable of handling them selves in fight, Luca would have been the ideal choice. However there was no way Arun was going to deny the man his chance to explore part of legend of his faith. Kerrson was the next choice and he was more than happy to stay. That slightly worried Arun, he still wasn’t 100% sure he trusted him but he was sure than Kerrson was wanted by the Association just as badly as then wanted him. Kerrson wouldn’t let that happen, so he would stay.
Kerrson didn’t fancy being left alone and since Annalaver was still not fully recovered she was staying anyway. Raven had insisted on this too, but that wouldn’t have mattered, she wasn’t well, she wasn’t coming. However Kerrson decided that he wanted someone capable of fighting with him, so it was down to Savanna or Arun to stay. Arun wasn’t about to let Raven lead the expedition, but he wasn’t going to leave him on the ship either, so Raven came and Savanna stayed.
Oddly Adams wanted to come. This again worried Arun. Why did he want to come? What was his motive? Arun suspected it wasn’t a good motive. He also worried about having him next to Luca out on the surface. He didn’t worry for Luca, but for Adams. Arun had never seen the big man get angry like he had in the confrontation on the bridge. He really didn’t want to see what would happen if Luca lost control. Micheals opted to say on the ship.
Finally the two Regan experts (Arun assumed Seaton was in the same field as his partner) wanted to come. Raven didn’t want either to come and Arun didn’t see them as a threat, but both of them worked their charms on the two captains. Arun got Sung while Seaton talked to Raven. She really was a very beautiful lady and very charming (Arun knew she was trying to get him to agree to something so, this might not be what she was like normally). Arun couldn’t see any reason why they couldn’t both come, but Raven didn’t want it to happen. In the end he was talked around in to allowing 1 of them. There then followed a 10 minute discussion between the two of them which one should go. If there was any doubt they where partners before this, there wasn’t after. Much of the conversation (in hushed tones in a corner) revolved around, ‘no you go’ sorts of arguments.
Finally, Arun thought, the team was ready.

“Okay. Everyone ready”. Arun asked. Nods and yes’s answered the question. Everyone, bar the trooper Kargh (or was it Khan?) where dressed in standard vac suits, but without helmets. They where the best insulation they had against the cold, the ships sensors showed it’s was minus 15 outside. The trooper had the helmet on his battle armour, Arun knew the Pavarians where not good in the cold.
Arun opened the airlock doors.
A wave of icy cold washed over them, as did the smell of this alien world. It was an odd smell, slightly metallic with maybe hints of sulphur Arun thought.
Arun lead the way on to the lift platform.
It was then that they all heard the sound. It was like a metallic ting which seemed to echo almost constantly, but unlike an echo, the sound seemed to get further away with each repeat. The sound came irregularly, some times several a second, others only every few seconds. Each one echo’ed way from them quickly.
“What is that?” Raven hissed in Arun’s ear. Raven was looking towards the ship for the source of the sound, but Arun knew his vessel and this was not a sound that he had ever heard coming from it. Everyone started to look around searching for the source of the sounds.
“It’s the jungle it’s self”. Arun whispered. “Look” He pointed to the section of jungle in front of them.
Everybody looked, but for a few moments no one saw what Arun was pointing at. Then it slowly dawned them.
Each ting sound seemed to start with the edges of one of the large circular ‘leaves’ on the trees, flashing. It seemed that the individual ting sound accompanied the flash and so as the flashing of one leaf triggered the flashing of it’s neigbours (but not all of them, Arun noticed) so the ting sound travelled onwards away from them.
“Sound trigers the light”. Sung said suddenly understanding. “Or the other way around”. Arun added.
“The first of many wonders”. Luca whispered to him self.
Arun started lowering the big cargo lift at the back of ships head section. The cargo tractor was stored on this. The loud clunk of the catches releasing broke disturbed the clam. “Okay it’s not sound triggering the light”. Sung, corrected her self. “Or at least not that sound”.
Arun lowered the passenger lift to the ground as well and they stepped out on the surface.
The looked and felt like soil on most worlds he’d seen. It was dry and cold, but still stony and sort of brown. All around the ship where trees broken by ships landing. Again the trunks of the tress looked similar most wood Arun had seen. It was hard, but brittle and it quickly broke down in to long fibres and fine powder.
The trees standing around them, towered over there heads and the ship as well. The leaves seemed to be at all levels on these odd trees, there where much smaller at the top of the trees, but even still Arun wondered how much light got down to the huge leaves just above the ground. Maybe these leaves didn’t collect light, there was not, after all a lot of it.
The planets star wasn’t yet visible above the canopy of the forest, but it’s faint, icy white light made the tops of the trees look like there where coated in frost. Looking more than a few metres in the forest was impossible, beyond the faint light from the star and the ships landing lights, all you could see was the odd, distant flash of the leaves.
“Luca can you get the tractor ready?” Arun asked. The big man was just standing and starring, his mouth agape.
“Yes, sorry”.
Arun walked around the ship checking the hull. The damage here didn’t look to bad, but he worried that this was just surface damage. The power plant and been damaged, he knew, what about the jump drive? Luca hadn’t reported any problems, but much like jump space navigation, it required intuition and a direct connection to the systems to really know. Annalaver wasn’t ready for that just yet.
Arun kept his eye on Raven. He stood by the lift with the trooper never far away. The was Association training for you, take a good man and make him rely on the people above him for orders and thinking. The problem was that happened all the way up through the hierarchy of the Association. By the time you got to the top, you had been relying on the thinking coming from above that you didn’t have any imagination or even intelligence left in you. Arun knew personally, this sort of thinking when all the way to the top.
Without any one to give him orders or with out a procedure for this situation, maybe Raven didn’t have the imagination to be a problem. Arun knew the man before he started the training and knew that wasn’t the case. He also knew the nasty streak he had in his personality. Raven was going to be a problem.
Standing not far from Raven was Adams. He was also going to be a problem, Arun knew. Adam’s just stood there scowling at the world in general and particularly at Luca. Luca didn’t seem to notice this, he was filled with a childlike awe and wonder at this world of his legends. Adams looked the vindictive type, crew chiefs normally where and the fact he had the baton, and clearly used it, was not good. He probably wouldn’t directly confront Luca, It would be a very brave and stupid man to do that, no he would try something sneaky, underhanded and then claim it was regulations, that was the Association way.
What ever happened he was going to be trouble.
The engine of the tractor hummed smoothly in to life. “Right lets get this over with”. Arun whispered to him self.
There was only enough room in the cabin off the tractor for two Luca was in the drivers seat already and Raven looked like he was heading quickly over the the tractor to claim the second one. Fine, Arun thought, let him have the place, he’ll have to give up is body guard.
As expected Raven took the second seat. Luca glanced up to Arun and he nodded. The rest of the team would be ridding on the flat bed which normally would carry cargo modules. It wouldn’t be comfortable, but at the speeds the tractor could do, it would be relatively safe. Arun helped Sung on to the back of the tractor (no one else seemed interested in helping her) and headed back to the cabin end.
“Right we’er aiming for the complex. Take it nice and slow. You okay with everything?” Arun asked. Luca couldn’t help be smile. He would probably even be okay if it where Adams in the cabin with him, right now.
“Okay then lets go”. Arun boarded the tractor and they where off.

The journey would be slow. Given the nature of the terrain and the fact Luca had to keep the passengers on the back safe, the tractor was could only do 10 kilometres a hour so it would take them about 3 hours to make it there.
3 long, cold hours. Arun took a look around at the forest they where passing through. The trunks of the trees, while thin, less than a metre across, had wide bases made of a thick tangle of sturdy roots. These roots acted as buttresses extending several metres up the trunks.
Arun noticed Sung was taking a very close look at the trees as they passed by.
“Amazing isn’t it” He said to her. “We are probably the first humans to see this place. We are pioneers here”.
She nodded and smiled weakly at him. I wonder what they have told her I’ve done. Have they even mentioned me? Arun pondered. Arun stepped back from her. The trooper looked on, with it’s helmet on Arun couldn’t tell if he was looking at him or not.
“Yes, sorry. This is my first time exploring a new planet. But if we get out of here it will be a story to tell…if I’m allowed”.
“That it will. So are your not confident about this plan for escape then?” Arun asked.
“The plan as whole, no. The fact that there is a Regan built or at least inspired jump gate in that station around the sun, totally. I just told them that’s what it was, Raven figured it was a way back. I don’t know if it even works still, that’s not my field. And as to how to get it to work? Well I don’t know, I’m not an engineer of jump space expert. But if it is Regan and the there are instructions in Regan script I can read that. I….” She stopped. “Sorry I tend to babble a bit when I’m nervous”.
Arun nodded. “That’s what I thought. We are a long way from getting home”.
“You seem very relaxed about that”.
Arun looked down at the little lady. “We are still a long from from home and there are lots of problems in our way. We have answers, maybe, for some of these problems but not all of them. Worrying about them isn’t going to help”.
Sung shook her head. “I wish I could think like that, but then I suppose a man like you, gets in…oh…er”.
She looked embarrassed and more than normally nervous now. Arun smiled.
“I guess they have told you some pretty interesting things about me?” Sung nodded. “I’m probably not guilty of most of them”.
“Probably? Your not sure then?”.
Arun shook his head.
“Mmmm”. Sung looked away, appearing to inspect the leaf of a passing tree. “I guess you would remember mass murder if you had done that”.
Arun showed mild surprise. “Mass murder…”
“Of women and children”. Sung added.
“Well yes, I can see why they would want to say that about me…” Sung took a step back form him. He smiled. “No, I’m not a mass murder. But I can see why they would say that about me. It would turn any right thinking person against me. Good tactics on their behalf”.
The travelled on not saying anything for a few moments. Only the low hum of the tractor and constant, soft tinging and twanging sound from the trees echoing around them constantly.
“You can read Reagn script then. There aren’t many that can clam that”.
Sung nodded. “True”.
“There must be story behind that. Regans aren’t known for their openness when dealing with outer races and I’m guessing there isn’t enough script out there for you to have learnt it with out some sort of teaching”.
Sung nodded. “There is a story there. And I’ll bet it’s as interesting as the story about how you end up running from the Association and them making up a story about mass murder”.
Arun smiled and nodded. “Touche”. He liked this lady more and more, she was beautiful, smart and strong minded. “No more questions like that then. But I do have one question you might be able to answer”.
“Go on”.
“There are no Regan sites that I know in the Kason system”. Sung cast a quick glance over to Adams. He was sitting by the cabin still, looking angry. He didn’t seem to be paying much attention to either Sung or Arun.
“That’s right none that you know of”.
Arun nodded. So she and Seaton where bound for Kason. That might turn out to be useful information one day.
As the journeyed onwards in to the strange forest light started to filter down from the canopy high above there heads. Faint patches of white light started to appear on the forest floor. As they did suddenly, almost instantly the forest became quiet.
Arun had become used to the constant background pings and tings of the trees and didn’t really hear them anymore, but as soon as they stopped, everyone knew it.
“Stop the tractor”. Arun ordered and gentle hum of the engines died.
Total silence filled there ears for a few moments. After the background sounds of the forest, this was unnerving. Kargh lifted and readied his rifle. Adams looked around nervously.
The flashes of light that had accompanied the sound was gone to. “Wow”. Arun whispered. “So they only do it at night”.
“Is that important or significant?” Sung asked.
“No idea, but it’s interesting. Okay lets move on again”. The tractors engine started up and they where on the move again.
Arun checked his watch. They had been on the go for nearly two hours now, so there should have been two thirds of the way there.
“Look over there”. Sung suddenly called out. Everyone on jumped. Kargh aimed his rifle in the direction Sung was pointing. She was pointing to a small spot of light moving the forest. This wasn’t the flash of a trees leaf, it was a constant point of light that seemed to bounce around.
“What is it now?” Adams said. It wasn’t a question, it was a complaint. This place had was clearly very unsettling to the man.
“Good question”. Arun answered. “It’s getting closer. I think”.
The light was getting bigger. Arun could make out some details now. It wasn’t just one light, but a collection of tiny lights moving together.
“It’s some sort of bird” Sung exclaimed. Kargh still had his rifle trained on it.
Yes it was a small bird, Arun realised. No bigger than his hand. It slow flew in a lazy pattern between the trees. As the it flew in an out of the pools of white light from above Arun could see it was brightly coloured. Fiery red on the top half of it’s body and sky blue on the bottom. The feathers had a metallic sheen to them. The lights seemly came from points out side of it’s body.
The bird fluttered by, apparently unworried by the strange new visitors to the forest.
“I don’t think we’ll be needing that”. Arun put his hand on Kargh’s gun. Kargh, just grunted at him, but lowered the the weapon.
“There more of the”. Sung pointed out some more dot’s of light in the distance.
One of the dots approached and flew along side the tractor for a short while. It was another red and blue bird. From this distance, Arun could see that the lights which where apparently floating around the bird where in fact coming from stiff hairs which stuck out beyond the feathers and which glowed from the ends.
The bird landed on the roof of the cabin and quickly looked around at the strangers.
“How wonderful!” Sung said with a smile. Arun saw what a stunningly beautiful lady she was when she smiled. He couldn’t help but smile to. “Isn’t it”.
Adams moved quickly away from the bird. “This place is just wrong”.
The bird startled by Adams movement fluttered off.
“That’s wrong with you!” Sung asked calmly. “Can you see what a wonderful place this is? Can you get excited about what we might find here?”
“No! This place is…is, wrong. It’s not the work of the great one. It is…a heresy made solid”.
Oh no, though Arun. This can’t be good.
“Can’t see past your rigid dogma? This place is full of new wonders, just because it doesn’t fit in to your world view doesn’t make it wrong”.
“It does! You heard the heretic this…this place was created by the agents of the Destroyer”. Adams spluttered. “The accursed, self proclaimed lords of the stars. None should calm credit for the works of the Great One. Any that do are agents for destruction and should be hunted down and shown the same justice that the Great One dispatched to the vile Lords of Sardos and Seth at the end age of darkness”. He was now quoting directly from the book of creation and he spoke with the power and conviction of a preacher addressing his corrugation of the faithful.
“Finish now”. Sung said with an edge to her voice. He reached for the baton hanging from his belt.
Arun grabbed the man and pushed him away. “My ship, my rules”. He hissed. “If you hit her you will have to answer to me”.
Few a moments they glared at each other, there faces just millimetres away from each other. The tractor stopped and both Raven and Luca opened there doors.
“What is going on”. Raven demanded. Arun didn’t look at Raven, but he released his grip on Adams.
An uncomfortable silence followed. Arun and Ravens eyes where locked on each other. Kargh shifted his weapon in his hands.
“I…” Sung started to say, but before she could get any more words out, the quiet was totally obliterated by a huge sound. The sound coming as it did from quiet caught every one off guard. Kargh’s weapon was lifted to firing position as he quickly scanned the dark forest. Every one else jumped.
The sound was loud and low, not unlike the brass horns that bands played at ceremonial events in Association halls, but this was much louder.
Raven shouted something, but Arun couldn’t hear what he said, his ears where filled with a whine and empty space. The space started to fill with distant sounds, but the whine remained. Arun looked around the tractor. Nothing had changed that he could see, but it was impossible to see more than a few meters from the tractor.
“What was that!?” Ravens voice faded in. He was shouting but still sounded distant. Arun shook his head and looked to Sung, she said something but Arun couldn’t hear it. She just shrugged.
Adams had his hands over his ears. “Okay, okay. We’re fine, just need to let our hearing return”. Arun said. His own voice started to sound normal. Sung nodded.
For a few moments they all just stood and looked around. The light birds had been absent just after the sound, but there where now returning.
“Look over there”. Luca shouted. Sung and Arun winced. “Oh sorry. Yes my ears are better now as well”.
Luca pointed to a patch of faint light in the distance, almost directly ahead of them. It wasn’t like the small point lights of the birds or the flashing of the trees. This was a large blob of light which was fading slowly.
“Lets take a look”.
Luca nodded and he ducked back in the cabin.
“Is this wise. We…” Raven started to ask, but he was cut off as the tractor started move slowly forward. He quickly sat back in the cabin of the tractor.
“Can everyone hear again?” Arun asked. Nods showed that they could.
“The horns of doom”. Adams muttered to him self. That wasn’t a story Arun knew from the book of creation, but then he knew very little of it. He hoped for both there’s and Adams sake that story didn’t end badly, but given it’s title Arun suspected it wasn’t good.
The light they had seen was still fading, but it now became clear that it was coming from a strange, low, wide dome of something on the forest floor. It pulsated slightly as if it where breathing. Around the things edge, close to the ground where a large number of funnels sticking out. As it’s glow faded, Arun realised it was the same colour as the leaves, a dark green.
“Some sort of plant?” Sung had obviously come to the same conclusion.
Arun nodded. “Maybe. I…. Okay lets keep on going. Luca, turn away. We need to get out here quickly”.
Sung frowned. “What’s that…Oh yes”.
Luca looked out from the cabin. “Move it, now”. Luca didn’t look like he understood, but he flowed orders. The tractor moved away quickly.
“We might want to cover our ears for a bit” Arun shouted to everyone over the now loud noise of the engine. Everyone but Kargh did. Arun wondered how much protection the helmet had given him.
They carried on for 10 minutes or so like this before the forest suddenly thinned and they found them selves on a wide flat plane with the imposing wall of the complex some distance in front of them.