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  Jacobs, however, wants to get the main party groove on with the long version of Eddie Kendricks’ Boogie Down. The dance crowd rises to the occasion. The wooden dance floor is in constant state of vibration akin to a series of Californian aftershocks. For all of them, it is definitely becoming a groovy situation. Among the many dance enthusiasts who are moving their bodies to the funky and rhythmic beat are three couples. Nathan Clark is jamming hard with his high school flame, Glenda Onata. The five-foot-seven, very dark skinned woman of Cherokee descent is dressed in a green, short-sleeved dress. After getting back together, Tyrone Clark, a.k.a. Superfly, and Célia Cory are dancing wildly. Farther away, Joel Onata is dancing with his heartthrob, Gwen Colson.

  Of course, David and Sylvia refuse to be outdone as they dance opposite of each other, while performing a series of fast-paced arm and hip movements. Sporting a pair mirrored Polaroid sun glasses, David is decked out in a bright velvet blue, wide-collar shirt and black, bell-bottomed pants, is having the time of his life with the woman who, earlier, seemed more alien than any selothian. Kendrick’s repetitive words; “Boogie Down” only adds to their fun. Sylvia, dressed in short-sleeved, red velvet dress, with matching shoes, is ecstatic with his dance steps. During the dance, both of them would circle each other while extending their hands high in the air.

  In essence, the evening has become a Soul Train affair for everyone present. A few minutes later, DJ Rodney “Less Talk, More Funk” Jacobs, begins to slow the prevailing mood with two popular slow drag songs beginning with the O’Jays’ Sunshine. The effect is immediate as Jacobs lowers the overhead lights. For many of the slow moving dance couples, body grinding and lip locking are now the names of this dance game. A few minutes later, Sunshine is coming to its melodious end just as Rodney begins playing the second slow drag, the Delfonics’ For The Love I Give To You. Like many other couples present, Sylvia and David find themselves deeply immersed into each other’s impassioned gaze. Compelled by the arousingly seductive music, David pulls Sylvia ever closer.

  The sheer warmth of her body in close contact with his feels more joyous than any word, English or alien, could ever begin to describe. For the moment, no one or nothing is more important to him than the young woman in his arms. Sylvia’s favorite perfume, Beautiful, is overwhelming his senses, possibly his objectivity. During the melodious play of a French horn during the song’s interlude, David has decided as to how long he wants his relationship with Sylvia to last: forever. As her inhibitions have melted away, Sylvia buries her head in David’s left shoulder as she dances in slow unison with him. She instinctively wraps her arms tighter around his neck. A compelling urge causes her to look up at him squarely in the eyes before pulling his head forward to hers. Whether the music is influencing her, she is uncertain. She no longer cares as she presses her lips against his in a passion arousing motion. She could almost feel her heart beating wildly as he yields to her passionate overtures.

  She has now come to a singular conclusion: she loves him. In turn, David knows, beyond any doubt, that the love between them is undeniably and unequivocally real. Even the sudden beginning of MFSB/Three Degrees’ TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia) fails to change their romantic mood. “Look! I think we better, ya know, cool this down,” David says softly. “Let’s walk outside.”

  Sylvia nods in agreement.

  The evening air is pleasantly cool. They begin walking hand in hand down a crowded South Anonwood Boulevard. Surprisingly, Gareth Williams and Shanté Richardson are walking toward them from the opposite direction. “No funny business now,” Shanté tells David as she and Gareth walk pass them. Gareth breaks out in his typical high-pitched laugh. “Now what did you want to talk about?” David asks, as he ignores Shanté completely and focuses on his own heartthrob.

  “I…forgot!” Sylvia laughs. “Oh yes! How are you doing on your research?”

  “So far, it’s going good.” He avoids any impression of doubting her interest. He strives to welcome her inquiries about his findings.

  “In your translations, did you ever come across a guy by the name of Selvon Jarrak?” She asks while looking at him. David slows his pace and thinks for a few moments. “I think so. Although I’m not sure, I believe that Selvon was involved in some type of criminal case.”

  “I see. How about Quafeira Sibekk?”

  “Yeah! In fact, after making a gender correction, I’ve run across that name several times in my translations. I know you’ve been talking with Nathan on this. Haven’t you?”

  “No. I found out on my own,” she replies with mild disappointment. “He still doubts my abilities,” she thinks to herself.

  Realizing his error, David decides to save face-again. “I’m impressed,” he continues. “Other than a few references, I admit, I haven’t done a follow up on this Quafeira. Who is she?”

  “What about Jebaran?” She asks without answering his question. She eagerly wants to show off her findings.

  David, though, is becoming mildly irritated. “I’ve run across that term a few times. What have you found out?”

  “From those papers you gave Nathan,” she continues, “Quafeira, I believe, was involved in this Jebaran movement.”

  David is amazed with her findings. He had little idea that she would become this inquisitive into this matter. He also suspects that she may be still a little angry from last time.

  “Sylvia.”

  “Yes?”

  “Before we go any further, I want you to join our little threesome and make this, you know, like, a fantastic four sort of thing.”

  She begins laughing. “Well, first of all, my name isn’t Susan and you sure don’t look anything like Reed.”

  Lowering his head, David breaks out in a short laugh. “Well hey, that’s fine ‘cause Reed Richards can’t hold a candle to me. Look, all I’m trying to say is that instead of you being angry with me for not wanting you in on this, we can all put our heads together and solve this mystery.”

  Sylvia smiles at David’s proposal. “Are you serious? I mean, I’m not just some annoying sixteen-year-old girl?”

  “No, you’re not annoying.” He stops walking and faces her. He has a seriously passionate look on his face. “You are a beautiful woman with whom I am hopelessly in love. Now, what else have you find out?”

  Sylvia is flabbergasted. “Let’s continue walking and I’ll tell you, Mr. Know-It-All.”

  She kisses him again before they continue their walk. By 10:45 p.m., David is pulling up in front of the Clark’s home. Tyrone and Nathan are just pulling up behind him. Jumping out of the car ahead of his brother, Tyrone approaches the blue Dodge Challenger.

  After opening the doors, both men climb into the back seat. David is mildly perturbed by their sudden intrusion. “Uh, guys, I don’t mean to be rude, but what are you all doing in my car?”

  Tyrone removes his shades and brings his head forward. “We’re trying to protect one of our own from being captured by some predatory animal.”

  “Well, you’re too late,” David jokes. “She already captured me.”

  All four break out in a loud laugh. From her brother’s bedroom, Diane is looking enviously at the four below in the car. She feels she has to know what is going on. Minutes later, all four are in the men’s bedroom.

  “Okay. Are you ready for this?” David asks.

  “Yeah!” Sylvia replies excitedly.

  Nathan, though, is harboring serious doubts about adding his sister to the team.

  “Sylvia,” David begins, “I need you to promise us that you will not tell anyone else about this. This is critical if we are to solve this mystery.”

  “You better not,” Tyrone warns her.

  “Guys! I’m no tattletale. I know how to keep my mouth shut.”

  David motions her to sit on Tyrone’s bed. She complies. He holds up one of the devices in his hand. “Do you know what this is?”

  Eyeing each other with amusement, Tyrone and Nathan notice that David is much happier when he
is around their middle sister.

  “I think so. You guys call it an extra special whatever it is.”

  “This device,” David tells her, “is called an extraspatial otivicon.”

  “Extraspatial? What does that mean?”

  “Extraspatial is a term that denotes one or more higher dimensional realms that exist outside of our own space-time continuum. Now, if I am correct, this may in time help us solve this mystery.”

  “Oh! Okay,” Sylvia begins. She has little idea what he had just said. Tyrone, shaking his head, mentally agrees with her. Nathan, however, understood every word.

  “So, what does this thing do?” Sylvia asks.

  “Do you really want to know, girlfriend?”

  “Yeah!”

  “Good! So do we.”

  “Oh, I thought y’all knew. I’m sure you must know,” she states.

  “Thanks for that vote of confidence. However, all that Nathan and I could gather—”

  “Uh! Excuse me!” Tyrone protests loudly.

  David gets the message. “As…I meant to say, all that Nathan, Tyrone and I could gather so far is that the extraspatial otivicon works in unison with a distant stellar object called a black star.”

  Sylvia is perplexed. “What’s a black star?”

  “We’re working on that too,” Tyrone adds. “But, hey, we’re getting there!” David looks at Tyrone with cautious amusement.

  “Where are you all getting this information from anyway? And where are you getting all these weird alien words from?” She asks.

  After laying the extraspatial otivicon down, David picks up the communicator. “Sylvia, this device is a communications transceiver that allows us to view text and basic graphic images that are transmitted from Dabenar, an inhabited alien planet.”

  “Yeah!…Right!” Sylvia states with apparent disbelief.

  Smiling, David lays the communicator on the table and turns it on.

  A three-dimensional holographic cube materializes in mid-air a few feet from her. After a short scream, Sylvia jumps off the bed and runs toward the door. She stops after hearing the others begin laughing. She turns around and watches the floating cube. She edges toward Nathan and stands behind him.

  “Quit being afraid, sis!” Nathan tells her, “It’s just a light projection.”

  Sylvia still remains fearful. “Then it’s not real?”

  “Well, the information is real,” David replies. “As your brother said, it’s only a light projection.” Overcoming her fear, Sylvia walks toward the image. She moves her hand through the image twice.

  The text and graphic symbols on each side of the cube astound her. “So this is where you were copying the information from!”

  “Yes!” David continues. “What we see here is the result of some form of information conduit.”

  “Information conduit?” Tyrone objects. “Where on earth did you get that term from?”

  David answers Tyrone’s question by pointing to the holographic cube.

  Nathan cuts in. “I still believe there is a problem in your deciphering.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “No offense David, but looking at the papers that you have given me, much of what we are trying to find is lost in a jumble of irrelevant information.”

  “I understand what Nathan is saying,” Sylvia adds. “It’s like going to the library and randomly pulling books off the shelves until we get to the material we’re searching for. Get it?”

  “Well…yeah! So, what’s your point?”

  “David!” Tyrone speaks out. “Her point is that, maybe, you can use this to locate only the specific information needed to solve this mystery.”

  “That’s what we’ve been trying to do all along,” David answers. “The thing acts as if it has a mind of its own at times.” Suddenly, he notices the doorknob turning. He switches off the communicator just before Diane enters the room. Nathan breathes a sigh of relief.

  “Hey Diane! What’s going on?” David asks.

  Diane looks around with a suspicious look. “What are you all doing in here? I saw you all down in the car talking about something.” She cuts her eyes straight at David.

  After giving her a sheepish smile, David turns way from her stare. “Diane! What do you want?” Nathan demands.

  “I want in on what you all were talking about. I know it’s probably about that stuff that Sylvia and I found in that suitcase.”

  Sylvia looks back at her in mild surprise. “I can let you in on the basics later. Right now, the guys wanna share some stuff with me.”

  “Yeah, I bet,” Diane concludes. Despite what she sees, Diane does not like the budding relationship between her sister and David. She turns and walks out, shutting the door behind her.

  “Now,” Nathan continues, “we need to find out how Daljik Ra’as, the extraspatial otivicon and this Hilexos Project are related to each other,”

  “Don’t forget about Quafeira Sibekk,” Sylvia interrupts.

  “Who is Quafeira Sibekk?” Tyrone asks.

  Sylvia pauses as she considers one particular aspect. “I don’t know all the details yet. But from what I deciphered so far, Quafeira was involved in something called a Jebaran.

  “Which is?” David asks her on becoming more curious.

  “Jebaran appears to be some sort of organization or group formed to stop something. Maybe they wanted to stop whatever this Hilexos was?”

  “Why would they want to do that?” Nathan asks.

  “I don’t know,” she admits. “I think it may have something to do with that other device.”

  “Okay! So we’re all back to square one again,” David concludes. He lays the communicator down and holds up the extraspatial otivicon. “Guys and girl! We have to find out what this thing is. Yes! I am stumped as to its function. Right Tyrone?”

  “Hey! You said it. I didn’t.”

  “Okay then! We have an alien corpse, the extraspatial otivicon and a project called Hilexos. We have to find out how all these are related. It’s driving me crazy!”

  Sometime later, David is back in his room. Laying the communicator on the table, he switches it on. He concedes that Nathan is correct. He had been using the device to randomly rummage through various agencies and businesses with information that was unrelated to the present situation.

  In time, he finally learned that the communicator would establish a link only to a limited number of agencies.

  Yet, he remains puzzled. The deciphered information indicates that the communicator can be manipulated graphically as opposed to entering text characters. He had realized that the communicator has been configured to operate in a lower display mode, a mode that does not allow for higher definition audiovisual interaction. He is trying hard to determine how to switch the communicator to this high-definition mode. In addition, he is frustrated in that he does not know which agency holds the most relevant data for which he is looking, much less, the exact sequence of alphanumerical characters that can link him to that particular agency. Still, he wonders why Sylvia is obsessed with Quafeira. What possible relevance, he wonders, could this alien female have in this situation?

  He reasons that the situation regarding Daljik Ra’as, along with the technical data is, by far, the most logical choice in solving this mystery than being concerned about, in his view, an insignificant female. Regardless, he would attempt to find various topics dealing with each of the specific events. He rotates the cube to a different side. From memory, he can understand some of the information without resorting to translations. He makes the cube’s bottom side flip up to face him. He sees a familiar term from his earlier deciphering efforts. Under one line of text is another string of text: Aweyan Science Institute. Out of curiosity, he selects that line of text to see what it may do.

  The line of text blinks twice. “What is this Aweyan crap about?” He asks himself. He selects that line. The text color changes to red. A blue line broken into eight dashes appears just below the blinking red text. Sud
denly all the alphanumeric keys begin to flash. “Now what could this be?” He thinks a while before answering his own question. “It’s asking for a password!” He realizes that he can only access this information by keying in eight specific letters. “Oh! This is just great! How am I supposed to know which eight-letter word to enter? There are only a few billion of them in the entire universe!” He skips over to another research topic for the time being.

  Chapter 6Prophecy

  Quafeira continues her scanning and comes to a listing. “On 17 Veneth 1511, dalkhans from a planet called Thalos made planetfall.”

  “Wait,” Aarath interrupts. “I have heard of the dalkhans many years ago. I was traveling aboard an osakian transport with Ngozi merchants. They mentioned that the dalkhans are in league with the thaons.”

  “Are you certain, Aarath?” Quafeira asks.

  “Yes.”

  Ra’el interrupts again. “I have read older literature and have seen photos of these thaons. Who are they?”

  Quafeira becomes unnerved at Ra’el’s question. “The thaons of planet Meiros, most notable thaon military officials, are people of whom you do not want to have any dealings.”

  “Why Professor Sibekk?” Thanor asks. “My parents informed me of the troubles that were occurring at the time of their visit.”

  Aarath gives Quafeira a nod to continue. “Adding to what your parents may have already told you,” she begins, “the thaon military is reported to be vicious and warlike. Their motto is rumored to be Resistance Is Death.”