Star Clusters: New Arrivals by Dalo Lorn Page A

said.
    Shortly afterwards, they had found the breach; as Hatos suspected, it had been created by orbital bombardment and allowed a few of the lesser Xargans to enter the heavily concealed outpost, avoiding detection and wandering mindlessly through what may very well have been the only functioning facility of its kind left in this part of the galaxy. Within a matter of hours, teams of scientists arrived at the facility to study every single part of it while Lanis and the others beamed back to the Tarhedia.
    “So, that control panel in the cave really looked like old Tarhedian technology?” Lanis asked Hatos outside the transporter room.
    “The layout was similar, yes - but the symbols throughout the base also reminded me of something we found near the Tarhedia.”
    “How did you find it, anyway? Back at Anlara, you said you hadn’t designed it - that you only completed the ship.”
    “In the aftermath of the Tarhedian Civil War, what few of us remained were forced to abandon Tarhedia and the few worlds our people had colonized before the war and search for a new homeworld. Eventually, we found a devastated, lifeless world in a star system a few days away from Anlara. The planet could have sustained life, and with very little effort, it could be repopulated; what had killed every living thing on it, I dare not speculate. In orbit, we found a small, badly damaged ancient outpost similar to the one here, and a massive, half-completed ship. While we were incapable of deciphering the symbols, there was one thing that we could see clearly - the outpost used to be much larger, and it had been used to construct the ship that remained nearby. The schematics - while not detailed enough for us to understand some of the key systems like the crystal powering it - were easy to comprehend even without an understanding of the language used to write most of it. Surprisingly, the ship had sustained very little damage despite its age. Someone had activated its shields before they left - or died - and those shields withstood everything the universe threw at them - it took a remarkable amount of effort for us to turn them off.”
    “So you modified and finished the ship?”
    “Exactly. It took us months to analyze the schematics in sufficient detail so that we could construct the required components, and it took even longer to actually finish the ship. The technological advances we made, however, were well worth the effort; we have improved almost every facet of our technology in the process. The plasma beam weapons on the Tarhedia, for example, were assembled using the original schematics; other Tarhedian craft typically use energy weapons similar to your own.”
    “It sounds like your people have had plenty of contact with whoever built this outpost - first your early transporters turn out to be similar to the ones used in this base, then you stumble upon a nearly undamaged ship, and now this place…”
    “Yes, it is rather interesting. I do not believe standing here and commenting on it will offer an explanation, though,” Hatos noted.
    “Yeah…” Lanis said, and the two of them returned to whatever they were planning on doing.
    *** About 42 hours later ***
    The intercom beeped.
    The intercom beeped again, and Rear Admiral Eugene Jackson got out of bed, hitting a button on the beeping panel. “What?” he asked.
    “Sir, we’ve almost reached the Menlon system,” the officer on the other side answered.
    “I’ll be right there.” He pressed the button.
    Shortly afterwards, the admiral was in a turbolift towards the Orion’s bridge. The elevator opened, and he got out. “Drop out of hyperspace at the edge of the system - let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
    The helmsman acknowledged; the Orion soon exited hyperspace with weapons standing by and raising its shields, and its accompanying fleet did the same. “Sir, sensors are detecting militia ships gathering near Menlon Four with all weapons charged - it looks as if