'Zaratorio: The Story Continues' is a political parable dedicated in general to everyone who believes in #PeaceinUkraine and who says #NoToWar. More specifically, it is written in support of the brave and generous women and men of Medecins Sans Fro...
The message is flashing on screens all around the SISP headquarters, and everyone scurries to their posts to await Professor Amber Jessop's instructions.
She is in deep and anxious consultation with her second-in-command, Anton Koval, and with the newly-arrived Holopath2 – the most recent holographic emissary from her allies in the twenty-fifth century. After about ten minutes the new order is
'STAND DOWN, STAND DOWN'
and normality returns.
'They have been very quiet recently.
Perhaps the Odgans believe that they have learnt all they can about the twenty-first century?' ventures Anton.
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'I doubt it. These creatures have some of the most sophisticated cloaking technology in the known universe, and either by accident or design, the cloak must have slipped, so to speak, when they came within range of one of our chrono-scanners', replies Amber.
Holopath2 presses some buttons and changes her terminal display.
'These are my latest unter-space readings. These all point to alien activity on Earth in the past twenty-four hours, and more specifically here in Ukraine. Unfortunately, the technology is still quite slow to compile, and so we still have to rely on the chrono-scanners to give us reasonable warning.'
Anton: 'So there really is an Odgan ship out there?'
Holopath2: 'Almost certainly.'
***
Professor Amber has been intrigued by the concept of the 'music of the spheres' since she was a teenager, and it has occurred to her recently that Catherine the Trobairitz might have some additional, intuitive insight into the matter. Perhaps the apparently random chaos of the time vortex actually follows a musical pattern, and now that Admiral Pathway has provided the SISP with Holopath2, it should be possible to let the medieval minstrel work with Holopath1 to investigate this unusual musical theory.
'I'm so glad that I have something positive to do. I'm sure that, in the background, they have been thinking about how they might send me back to my own time and to Occitanie, but they are always so busy with their fight against Zaratorio ...'
'I can understand your frustration. Now that Holopath2 is here, I fear that she will get all the glory, and I will be pushed off into some backwater. Not that what we are doing is unimportant. Now, give me that chord again ...'
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***
'Hello Harnii! How are you?'
The blonde child rubs her eyes in disbelief, because her secret friend, No-ee the Odgan, is communicating with her in English, spoken like a native.
'Or perhaps I should speak to you in Ukrainian? Yak Spravy?'
'But how are you speaking at all, except in Odgan?'
'A translation programme I have borrowed from the mother ship. Our mission to Terra/Earth has come to an end, and so I was planning to say goodbye anyway. But now I have gathered that we are going to be sent to 'the Far Future', so I am hoping that you will let me stay ...'
'For ever? That would be great, but I would have to ask my mother and father ... I don't know what they will say.'
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