Encounter with Type IV

Main Characters

Iskander- Leader of the Grand Legion

The Khan- Leader of the Imperial Army

Eider- A centurion in Iskander's army and Itha's father

Saga- Collector of stories and expert in fairy tales

Itha- Son of Saga and Eider

Pollo- Man in the Wilderness

Toliman- Esteemed Council of Iskander

Outcast- Alien lifeform

Chapter One

Itha rested against his father's knee and regarded the mighty centurion with awe. The red brush atop centurion Eider's helmet resting on the kitchen table reached proudly toward the ceiling.

"Will I be a warrior one day?" Itha posed to his father. Itha looked down to the shining shield and the phase-sword that hung from Eider's belt. At eleven years of age, Itha still looked very much like his mother, tender and without the coarseness that was sure to come following puberty.

Eider regarded his son with a calm gaze and a tempered smile. "You will become what Iskander wills you to become. In this way, you will serve your family, the Legion, and the sphere." He ran a calloused hand through Itha's thick hair, tousling it. Itha smiled broadly in response, certain of his father's affection and of his own future.

Itha gazed at his mother who stood across the spacious kitchen where she instructed the Re-matter unit to create the evening's meal. Scents of fresh bread, hearty stew, and roasted vegetables soon filled the room. Saga paused in the middle of her instructions and regarded both of them. Itha, aged eleven, and Eider, thirty-nine and in the prime of his career. She smiled warmly. She moved with the speed and strength of a young mother intent on providing the best for her family.

She gave Eider a sly smile. "Dear husband, I would greatly appreciate it if you were to shelve your armor and the equipment of your station when you sit at the family dinner table."

Eider regarded her with a smile and playfulness in his eyes. "As you wish my beloved. It is not my place to disobey an order given by the master of this house and home."

They both laughed joyfully at his words. Even a mighty centurion of Iskander's Grand Legion must show obedience to the will of his loving wife. Eider's heart swelled with happiness as he regarded his family and the life they had built together. A life built on mutual sacrifice, hard work, and a resolve that nothing -not even the Legion itself – should come between them.

Chapter Two

Saga knelt at the base of a bookshelf and perused the recent acquisitions from Sub-Gov 132 and Sub-Gov 453. The Brother's Grimm, One Thousand and One Nights, The Martian Fantastique, and other gems rested before her, so close she could reach out and touch them. Actual books and lost manuscripts. Works as ancient as the planets of their origins. Somehow, they had survived to this day.

Saga knew better than to confuse the works of humanity with those of the divine, but her reverence for these books came to her with equal strength to that which touched her heart at Temple.

She moved her fingers several inches from the spine of one of the volumes, not daring to touch the actual article for fear of somehow damaging it. Hundreds of pages of adventure, wisdom, and insight opened in digital skins before her, hanging in mid-air. She gasped and chided herself in the next moment. Wasn't it always this way with works retrieved from the inevitable disintegration that must someday come? The songs, sculptures, and portal time traded to Sub Gov's 132 and 453 seemed trivial by comparison. The satisfaction of taking in these stories and moreover the pure joy of sharing them filled her with a lightness and gratitude unlike anything else. Once more she endured the pang of longing that possessed her at the thought of sharing the right stories with the right people to make her world a better place. Her gaze grew serene and contemplative with her secret desire to create a lasting story of her own.