I presume you all have seen the following post but I might as well throw it in for good measure.
http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=93032
Looks like we are going to have a book at long last!! I can't provide any more details than what is written there so I'll leave it to you guys to look it up
But this, for now, is not the end of my postings here as HelgeK has asked me to let you all know THE BOOK WILL BE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT TO THE ONLINE VERSION! So these postings here should not be the base of a decision not to get the book!
Anyway, here is chapter 21!
Chapter 21
CLOUDBASE
You can't abscond from your fate. Wherever you
go, it will accompany you. It lurks between the shadows
and greets you in mirrors. But sometimes
it will also smile at you. Seize it then!
Woodran Preston,
Argon philosopher
Brennan had carried the secret fear that at his arrival at the Goner Temple he would be greeted like the Son of God, risen again. He almost expected that the holy book of the Goners, the Book of Truth, would be found to contain a convenient prophecy that could be quickly interpreted to validate the Keepers' actions.
Thankfully the Book contained no prophesies or mystically inspired litanies. It was just a chronicle of facts and insights gleaned by Martinus Sandas and Nyana Gunne a long time ago, supplemented by authentic logbook entries from Nathan R. Gunne, some of his contemporaries as well as comments and annotations of the last centuries' most significant keepers.
The preamble to the Book of Truth, drawn up by Fran Foster in the year 353, described the Goner Community as dedicated to the detection and conservation of the truth, and the attempt to find a way of reuniting with Earth, without endangering the lost siblings on the blue planet.
Ninu had read him long passages from the book and commented on them. His questions concerning the history and formation of the Goner Community, the Community of Planets and the coexistence of the different peoples had been deep and exhausting, and after some long nights he knew enough to seriously discuss interstellar politics.
When the Aladna Hill reached the Temple Brennan disembarked with a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. Despite of the Goners' sobriety he must be something extraordinary - a visitor from Earth, at last!
Brennan left the docking tunnel with Lona Brant and Hal Nedrong, while Ninu Gardna and Veithman Wolsh supervised the unloading of the 'cargo' - the X-Shuttle.
It looked to Brennan like some hundred men, women and children crowded the Temple docking bay. They just stood there, thunderstruck, some of them gazing at him with open mouths, as if he was a sacred cow. When Brennan walked towards the crowd, they shied away, forming a path through which an elderly man with white hair walked. Brennan, Brant and Nedrong stopped and waited until the old man reached them.
"This is Supreme Keeper Noah Gaffelt," Lona whispered to Brennan. He nodded, noting that even Lona showed the man great respect, although she wasn't a member of the Goner Community.
"So the day isn't far any longer," the old man exclaimed as he approached the small group from the Aladna. He regarded Brennan with wide, hopeful eyes. "Be welcome, my friend from Earth, be welcome in the Community of Planets and here with us Goners!"
Brennan took the presented hand and cordially bowed.
"Thanks a lot, Keeper Gaffelt," he said. He was glad he had asked Ninu about the correct protocol. The Goners didn't attach great importance to formalities - a characteristic he quite appreciated.
"My Argon friends," Gaffelt addressed Lona Brant and Hal Nedrong now. "You've risked much to rescue this man and his message from danger. Be assured that you've done well. We are in your debt."
The old man turned towards the crowd then.
"My community - friends and comrades in times of need. The moment is approaching that we will be able to catch sight of the planet of our forefathers again. Some of you will surely set foot on Earth."
Brennan didn't let himself be carried away by the Supreme Keepers' confident tone. The Goner might wish it were true but wishes wouldn't move mountains, at least not mountains made of steel from one star system to another.
"May I beg a few words of address from our guest and ambassador of hope?"
"What... me?" Brennan asked, taken by surprise. The Keeper looked at him, radiant with joy. "It would be a great honour and pleasure for us!"
Brennan didn't like to be assigned a role he felt unsuited for but didn't complain. These people had rescued him and earned more than a few kind words. He cleared his throat and took Gisbert's morphing toy from a leg pocket.
"Earth." He said quietly and let the sphere go. It floated to the level of his face and adopted the guise of his native planet. The crowd gasped amazed 'Ahs' and 'Oohs.' Noah Gaffelt stared at the wonderful, slowly rotating sphere in unfeigned, open-mouthed fascination.
"I am Captain Kyle William Brennan from Earth," Brennan began "It was my mission to test a prototype of a new kind of space ship. Without using any jumpgates, it was supposed to move several light-months into space and return immediately. If it had happened that way, I wouldn't be standing here in front of you."
He let his gaze wander through the crowd breathlessly waiting on every word from his lips. At the front was a boy; no more than ten or twelve, looking at him with devout, adoring eyes.
"Instead, in a few years time, some other people would have arrived - people better qualified than me to make contact with new people and explore new civilisations. I'm just a test pilot."
He stepped back and pointed at the rotating globe.
"Through all the centuries a bond stronger than life itself has kept our nations together. This tie was born of the Goner Community. I've learned that you never let the gap in time between contact between humans here and humans on this blue planet here, become an unbridgeable chasm. Therefore the credit belongs not to me, Earth or Argon Prime, but to you all!"
Brennan looked again at the crowd, astonished how easily the words came to his lips and how deeply moved the assembled Goners were, their faces radiating a joy that engulfed him like a wave.
From the corner of his eyes he saw Ninu and Veithman exit the docking tunnel and approach.
"I've got the same objective as the Goners," Brennan concluded, "to find the way back to Earth. It won't be easy but it is written between the stars - literally. But as the Supreme Keeper has already said - the moment will arrive. Thanks!"
The crowd worked itself into frenzy. "Earth, Earth!" some people shouted, others "Brennan, Brennan!"
He smiled, resigned to the cheers.
A single child's voice cut high and distinct through the cacophony.
"Ninu!"
It was the young boy from the front row and he was running towards the tall woman disembarking from the Aladna. "Ion!" Ninu shouted joyfully. The boy's first impulse was to embrace her, but casting a reverential glance at Brennan, he changed his mind and shook her hand with solemn adult dignity.
Ninu laughed. "Come on, my big man," she said, blinking back tears and hugging him. The boy put up just a token of resistance.
"Kyle, this is Keeper Ion Battler," she grinned. "I'm not a Keeper," the boy protested, "At least not yet."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Keeper Battler," Brennan said and extended his hand. Ion shook it tentatively. "Also for me, Captain Brennan from Earth," he answered seriously. "I would have been honoured to have joined my sister Ninu on the Aladna Hill for your rescue. Was it really so dangerous?"
"What your sister and the rest of the crew did was really brave. It was extremely dangerous." Brennan answered.
"Will you tell me all about it? I want to write it all down. Please?" he asked, looking at both the pilot from Earth and his adoptive sister.
"Sure," Brennan agreed. He liked the boy; he was bright and intensely curious.
"Miss Gardna." The Supreme Keeper appeared at Ninu's side and put a hand on her shoulder. "Your mother's health has deteriorated somewhat. We had to send her to a specialist clinic on Argon Prime the day before yesterday."
Ninu blanched and swallowed hard. "We knew this would happen." she whispered, all colour drained from her lips and cheeks and an expression like somebody who had been punched in the guts by a long telegraphed blow. Brennan offered his arm and she clung to it like a drowning woman clinging to a piece of flotsam. Ninu had told him about Keeper Norma Gardna and the protracted and incurable disease that was dragging her inexorably down to her death.
Captain Lona Brant overheard the short exchange and touched Ninu's arm, her face a mask of concern. "Fly to Argon Prime with Ion, she will need you now more than ever before. The Aladna will just have to manage without you for the time being my dear."
"Thank you Lona," Ninu nodded.
"Captain Brant," Noah Gaffelt said, seemingly summoned from the throng by the word 'Aladna.' "I have a small wish to take undue advantage of your helpfulness if your current orders permit."
"You want my ship to deliver Brennan and his ship to Argon Prime soon?"
"Soon, yes. Or to be more precise, in two or three tazuras. Payment will be, well…"
"Substantial. You're making me rich Keeper Gaffelt." Brant said with a ghost of a smile.
"Government funds are flowing somewhat more copiously than usual," Gaffelt answered with a bow.
"I anticipated as much and kept our schedule free for the next three wozuras."
"Excellent!" the old man nodded. "We have a deal then. It will be a privilege working with you Captain."
Confused at the mention of government funding of an operation he understood had been carried out exclusively by the Goners Brennan turned to the Supreme Keeper and asked for an explanation.
"We had to abandon the government's plan," Gaffelt explained, "And come up with something to meet the changing circumstances. But we continue to rejoice in Senator Gunnar's full support."
He then turned to the Aladna crewmates. "Ladies and gentleman, perhaps it is time for us to retire to a more comfortable place than the docking bay. Captain Brennan, I'm afraid there are still many hands to be shaken today."
"No problem." Brennan answered and plucked the morphing toy from the air.
The crowd had calmed down somewhat. Half the Goners began filtering away but the other half expectantly stood around in small groups like they were at a party. They took his pocketing of the globe as a signal the party was over and began meandering towards the exits. As Brennan and his party followed Gaffelt the crowd parted to let them through, some of them reaching out to touch him as he passed. 'The Hero Effect' Brennan called it, something he'd come across before in his career and he knew they meant no harm no matter how uncomfortable it made him feel. It seemed to come with the job.
Many hours later, after an exhausting but fascinating guided tour of the Temple, and several meetings with the Keepers' senior officials, Brennan was happy to be in the privacy of his assigned quarters. At first he considered heading for his familiar cabin on the Aladna but realised the hospitable Goners could have misconstrued that as a snub. Ninu accompanied him, to wish him a good night.
"How you bearing up Ninu?"
"Oh Kyle," she sighed. "It's okay and it isn't, Norma has been ill for so long but now everything is happening at once."
"I wish I could help."
"You can, you are. Just be here with me."
She embraced Brennan with more intensity than he had expected.
"Good night Kyle, I'll see you tomorrow."
She vanished through the door before the confused pilot could respond. He eventually fell into a deep, dreamless sleep still feeling her arms on his shoulders.
*
"What a crafty brood of reptiles." Veithman Wolsh looked more surprised than upset as he brandished a fist sized piece of equipment, with wires dangling.
Brennan looked at him enquiringly.
"A grav-pulser - a tracking device!"
Brennan had asked the engineer to put the X through an inspection and make whatever repairs and modifications his technical expertise permitted. He went straight to the Teladi upgrades installed aboard the Phoenix.
"But that means..."
"That means the Saurians know the location of your ship Kyle. They are able to blow your cover."
Ion Battler was with them on the repair deck, unobtrusively watching the two men work, intent on memorising every single detail of the Earth craft.
Now he jumped to his feet.
"The Teladi know where the grav-pulser is, not the ship..."
He shrugged, leaving the thought incomplete.
"Brilliant!" Veithman exclaimed.
"We could plot a course…" Ion started.
"Which looks plausible…" Veithman picked up.
"Given the situation." Ion finished.
Brennan looked from one to the other. "Perhaps when one of you can spare the time you could tell me what you're on about!"
"Captain Brennan, we are going to attach the grav-pulser to a message drone and send it on a lap of honour through all the jump-gates of the Community." Ion explained.
"The Teladi already know the destruction of the X was a ruse. We won't be able to lead them up the garden path forever but it will confuse them for a few tazuras." Veithman added.
"Long enough to get you and your ship safely to Argon Prime." Ion said.
"Exactly, so let's roll up our sleeves and get to work!" Veithman ordered a drone delivered to his workbench. The supply belt began to move with an electric hum.
Brennan smiled. "That was one smart idea, Ion!"
"You would have thought of it yourself sooner or later Captain." Ion said humbly, his eyes shining.
"Later rather than sooner probably!" Brennan laughed.
It took Veithman less than a stazura to integrate the bug into a message drone. After consulting with Noah Gaffelt and his advisors the drone was programmed with a circuitous route to Paranid Prime, taking it through Kingdom End, Company Pride and Thuruk's Beard. It was a three-wozura trip but the Teladi were not stupid and would probably figure it out long before then.
Brennan hoped it'd take a long time. The thought of Loanises, the captain of the Phoenix chasing the drone for weeks was, to put it mildly, funny.
'Hoisted by his own petard!' he chuckled. 'Justice is a dish best served poetic.'
The drone was loaded aboard the Aladna and readied for launch.
Brennan had promised Ion and the Keepers that he would answer all their questions that afternoon and kept his word but the question and answer session dragged on much longer than he had expected. More and more Goner requested admission to the Conference Chamber until he was facing the same awestruck crowd marvelling at every word uttered by his lips and it wasn't until late in the evening he returned exhausted to his quarters.
He sat brooding in front of a screen, pouring over technical schematics and nano-scans of his ship until there was a knock on his door.
"It's me, Ninu."
He stood and opened the door. "Come in."
Ninu looked at him and then took the proffered place on the sofa.
"I'm here to say goodbye Kyle. Tomorrow I'm going to take the first shuttle to Argon Prime."
"I understand," Brennan nodded slowly. "Would you like something to drink?"
"No, nothing thanks. You're going to be tied up in a lot of meetings with the government and military aren't you?"
Brennan sat to her left.
"Probably for the rest of my life," he half joked.
Her smile seemed forced.
"The Aladna is going to pick me up in five tazuras, a run to Montalaar. I don't know what I'd do without Lona. She's an amazing woman you know."
"When will we meet again?" Brennan asked.
"After the War, maybe." Ninu answered quietly.
Brennan felt a knot in his chest and he didn't know whether it was Ninu's depressed, hopeless tone or the realisation he might never see her again. He held his head in his hands. "That doesn't please me at all," he said softly. Ninu didn't reply but after some seconds she put her arm around his shoulders and leant her head against him.
Brennan hesitatingly brushed a strand of long blonde hair from her face and tenderly caressed her cheek.
"You know it," she whispered.
Brennan didn't know anything. She put her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. Her lips were warm and soft; the lingering kiss, passionate, intense, urgent.
After a long moment they broke, breathless.
"Captain Brennan, I don't know what the future will bring and maybe I can't have you forever but tonight you won't escape me!"
"I'd be crazy to even try." He pulled her close.
Now he knew.
*
The flight to Argon Prime was refreshingly uneventful and Brennan caught his first glimpse of the planet from the bridge of the Aladna Hill. He was immediately struck by the strong resemblance with his own home world. The continents were noticeably larger and the oceans correspondingly less prominent but it shone in the same beautiful blue. 'How wonderful,' he thought, 'That humanity had found two such beautiful homes so far apart.'
The reception he received from the Argon government was altogether more restrained than that of the Goners, but not having to make another speech, not being gazed on like The Second Coming, that was okay with Brennan. He did have to tell his story over and over again to individual Senators and shake dozens if not hundreds of hands.
He endured the inescapable politicking stoically and counted himself fortunate to only have to attend the next morning's first meeting of the new Special Committee on Research and Development, chaired by Senator Nan Gunnar.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Captain Brennan," Gunnar began, climbing to his feet at the end of the long conference table. "You all know the story of our guest from Earth by now and if you have any further questions for him I ask you to put them on hold for the time being."
He paused and scoured the faces for dissent before continuing.
"Now may I welcome the minister for Defence, Henna Steen-Hilmarson. Ma'am."
The Senator took his seat and a woman with hair pinned up in a pink bun, wearing a determined expression on her round face stood up.
"Thank you Senator Gunnar. I'd like to begin by summarising the memorandum we circulated yesterday. First - in the last wozuras we have detected an upsurge in Xenon activity in the sectors under our surveillance. There have been many small attacks on both civilian and military targets. Intelligence concludes, for reasons I am not at liberty to explain at this time, that these are a smoke screen for something bigger. Any questions?"
She paused.
"No, good. Second - there are numerous indications the Xenon are developing and testing a jumpdrive. Captain Brennan?"
"That's correct. Some years - some jazuras ago - such a prototype had an accident in the Terran solar system. It gave us the incentive, and the technological leg up, to develop our own drive."
"Jumpdrive technology is the next great leap forward and if we don't get it before the Xenon they will use it against us!" interjected an Argon. His first name was Njord, Brennan remembered, but couldn't dig up his surname or title.
"That is correct Senator Renda," the Defence Minister continued. "But before we leap ahead to the agenda I'd like to finish my summary. Thank you Captain Brennan. The third point dealt with the appearance of space craft of the Ancient Ones, coincident with the arrival of Captain Brennan. I think we can assume this isn't a coincidence even if we lack proof. Questions?"
"Many," Nan Gunnar mumbled. "Later."
"Good. Fourth - the Secret Service has been unable to confirm anything yet but there are reports that three jump gates on the outer rim of the Community have gone off-line. There is no indication as to whether this is permanent."
This last point sent a frisson of unease rippling through the room. These devices were integral to the whole Community and a jump gate failure meant many ships and unknown numbers of people trapped in their own system. It meant a breakdown of trade. The last jump gate failure had been many generations ago and life without them now was just unthinkable.
"If I may have your attention please!" Henna Steen-Hilmarson demanded, banging the table with her fist for emphasis. "My last point concerns the arrival of Captain Brennan from Earth. I'm afraid we won't be confirming the existence of Earth to the general public for quite some time."
"Or the alleged origins of humanity?" a Senator shouted.
"We can't avoid the facts," Nan Gunnar muttered.
"Facts? You're talking like a Goner."
"We're all Goners now." Gunnar answered.
"The setting up of this committee was a serious mistake if you ask me!"
Gunnar's complexion darkened and he snapped angrily, "Senator Morsa, if any mistake was made it was the one that wiped Earth from our history!"
"There is no Earth - not in the origin of mankind sense!"
"Can I just say something?" Brennan cut into the increasingly heated debate.
"No!" Senator Morsa shouted.
"Please do, Captain," Senators Gunnar and Steen-Kilmarson said in unison.
"With time and study I'm sure you'll answer the question of humanity's origins but I can save you the trouble…"
"Captain - I don't know who you are or where you came from." Morsa clasped his hands on the table before him and glared at Brennan. "Therefore I am, unlike some of my fellow Senators, unwilling to just abandon a constitution that has served us for centuries, just on your say so. And that's my final word on the subject."
"Can we have that in writing." Brennan read on Gunnar's silently moving lips.
"Gentlemen," Steen-Hilmarson said, raising her voice. "Debates on the origins of our species are both pointless and divisive in the present context. Using my authority as Minister of Defence I ordered a general mobilisation of our armed forces this morning and all governments have been informed. We are in a state of war with the Xenon. Are we at least clear about that?"
"I blame the increased Xenon activity on the provocative joint exercises with the Paranid last wozura," the petite older woman with snow-white hair sitting opposite Brennan snapped.
"Yes and no." The Defence Minister answered with a slight shake of her head. "Xenon encroachments were already significantly on the rise but there were only a few minor skirmishes while Brennan and his escort passed though the machine held sectors."
"Minimal!" Brennan exclaimed. "That's not how I remember it."
"If you're sitting in a burning house you're not likely to notice the blazing forest." Steen-Hilmarson countered. "Only seven of the black spacecraft and three Paranid cruisers were destroyed."
"That's ten spacecraft, looks like a lot from where I'm standing."
"Where you come from there have not been any major wars in a long time I take it?"
Brennan nodded.
"Well Captain, this is a real war. The Community will win but the question is - at what cost? We will need your help, for our and for Earth's sake."
"I'll do whatever I can."
"Thank you Captain." The Defence Minister glanced at her wristlet and stood up, briskly corralling her papers into a neat stack. "I'm afraid I have to adjourn this discussion for at least two stazuras as there is an emergency meeting of the General Staff. I'm sure you'll all be very interested in the results. Shall we say here again in three stazuras Senator Gunnar?"
"I suggest we all think about what we've learned and reconvene in three stazuras. Thank you for attending." Gunnar said to the room at large.
As the meeting broke up Brennan made his way to Gunnar's side to ask a favour. The Senator was only too pleased to assign Sobert, his assistant, to lay out the route to the hospital treating Ninu's mother.
It was a short, five-mizura walk, and the fresh air was welcome. Argonia City was a bright, lively place, with the old and the new, the small and the big, the angular and the smooth, metal and glass, red brick and timber, skyscrapers with single storeys. It all seemed co-ordinated, contrapuntal, like a symphony in architecture, composed by an Old Master. It gave the place a certain unique charm that reminded Brennan of the 'futuristic' cities in the old genre of speculative fiction back on Earth. It was even a bit like Milan in that Argonia spread well inland from the coast and a Mediterranean ambience seemed to have settled over the relaxed locals.
Too relaxed for the word to have spread Brennan realised. Things would be different after the government made a statement.
The directions were easy to follow and Brennan felt confident exploring the side streets and alleyways that split off from the busy main street. He was admiring the window display of a shop selling a variety of electronics when a tall, slim beauty with long blue hair, wearing a suit of sparkling scales that clung alluringly to her contours, approached him.
"Hello stranger," the girl, who looked no more than twenty, said. "Fancy a round of Schubmukh?"
"Maybe some other time," Brennan warded her off with a smile while wondering. 'What the hell is Schubmukh, some kind of drink?' "Some other time might just be too late," the woman answered ambiguously and blinked.
"The grain and the grape are wasted on me anyway," Brennan answered.
"The grain and the grape?" she repeated uncomprehending.
"Yes, that's... oh, doesn't matter. Besides, I've got a girlfriend already - and she certainly wouldn't be enthusiastic if I did a round of Schubmukh without her knowledge and consent."
The girl laughed brightly. "I'm sure your girlfriend would have no objections. Where do you come from Stranger, to not know Schubmukh?"
Brennan lifted his eyes and pointed up with one forefinger.
"From there. The third star to the right and straight on 'til dawn, or seventeen light years."
"I'm Siobhan," she said.
"Hello Siobhan," Brennan answered. "I'm called Kyle."
"Kyle, Kyle," she smiled and furrowed her brows. "I don't know exactly why but I sense you are carrying a big secret. And I do believe you really have come from afar, farther than any."
"Is that Schubmukh?" Brennan enquired, "Fortune-telling, crystal balls and all that hocus-pocus?"
"No, just knowledge of human nature. After some ninety jazuras you develop some sort of intuition about these things!"
Brennan looked surprised. "Ninety?"
"Jazuras, right. Don't ask, Kyle, I've really got an awful job and have to carry on disposing Schubmukh. Of first-class quality, by the way! Maybe we will meet again - there's only one Siobhan on all Argon Prime. You will find me."
Bemused, Brennan said good-bye to the pretty, young woman. Ninety jazuras - no, he couldn't and didn't want to believe that!
He crossed back over the street and ambled towards the hospital. An alleyway opened on what seemed to be a larger area, bustling with Argon and Teladi. He had seen no aliens on the streets of the city and intrigued Brennan headed down the narrow walkway. It broadened into a space of grass and cobbles where something resembling a medieval market from an ancient movie was taking place. Traders and stalls selling goods of all kinds from livestock to handcrafted baskets, kitchen utensils, books and electronic components. The air was shrill with hard bargaining buyers and the outrageous laments of beaten-down sellers. There was even a Paranid juggling an excessive number of geometric objects - pyramids, globes, cuboids, rhomboids, octahedrons, tetrahedrons and shapes Brennan had no name for - with formidable precision.
Brennan wondered what prompted a Paranid to prove his formidable mastery of the three-dimensionality to those soulless, two-eyed creatures in a marketplace? Possibly just that, he realised: to demonstrate the superiority of his species. He stopped and watched. The Paranid's white pupils, which could just still be seen in daylight, were simultaneously looking in three different directions, but didn't move to follow the twirling geometric figures. Presumably his three eyes gave him a field of vision well beyond 180 degrees. Astonishing and pretty useful for a juggler, Brennan conceded.
Moving along, a Teladi offered him a scale-scraper polished to a high gloss shine. Brennan waved him aside. What, did the saurian think he could do with a scale-scraper? Open a beauty salon for reptiles?
Near the centre of the market a cheering circle of humans and Teladi prevented further progress. Brennan insinuated himself into the crowd and threaded his way through the mass of bodies, drawing furious growls from the Teladi and angry glances from the Argon.
Brennan affected not to notice and squeezed through to the front row of spectators just in time to see a big broad-shouldered Argon staggering and falling backwards from the arena. The crowd parted quickly and the toppling giant hit Brennan like a sack of sand, half smothering him with his weight and half choking him with a body odour a lot like fish.
Crushed to the cobblestones Brennan managed to roll onto his stomach and arms but the Argon lay like a lead weight across his body, unconscious.
"Great," thought Brennan, "I can see it now. 'Envoy from Earth badly injured in fist fight with mad body-builder.'"
"I'm really sorry," he heard a female voice behind him saying regretfully. "But I didn't have any choice." Brennan struggled to shift the inert mass of the Argon. "Can I help you up?"
"That's fine by me!" Brennan shrugged off the insensible fighter and looked up into the light-skinned moon face of a dark haired woman with almond Asian eyes that misted up as they disbelievingly took in his face.
The Argon giant had awoken, crawled away on all fours and the crowd long dispersed before they stopped alternatively hugging and holding each other at arms length in wordless astonishment.
"I know it's a small world," Kyle finally managed to say through a grin so wide it hurt. "But this is just ridiculous Elena."
I fixed these things. Finally, IvanT re-read everything and corrected my bad english in places where I made changes (and more).
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