Narchi remembered his best day with his master. His current body had only been alive for a year. He had all his previous incarnations memories downloaded into his body and had been working on a mystery that had perplexed people on Balaam for over twelve thousand years. The 'Golden Egg' was an orb that had 'fallen out of the sky' long ago. It was invulnerable and had marks on it that was unknown. Many people had looked at it, until it finally reverted back to who it had belonged to. A small church became it's last resting place. That was a point in time when Aldus Panchetta and Gar Moderaan were hired by the Church of the Holy Child to debunk it's 'holiness'. The Jade Empire had fallen after it had killed the seas, and nuked Adamesh. The Church had risen up and then controlled Balaam for over a hundred years at the time of the current incarnation of Narchi's body. He was the eighth of the Narchi line of genetic discards. He hated that name. 'Discards' were once off creations, not capable of breeding. He kept copies of his memories in his horn's flash-drive so he could keep his memories up to date if he was killed, his ninth version could remember him. Hermoz had been Aldus' assistant, in much the same way Narchi was to Gar Moderaan, except he was a human who was like a brother. He said,"Narch--you know this might be someone's refrigerator. COMPLETELY prosaic,you know!" Narchi laughed."Maybe. It's the same material as Shalmiraine. SO I'm assuming it isn't unimportant. The mathematic puzzle is convoluted and fun, so I'm having a good time." Aldus said, waving a hand at the kneeling figure of Gar and said,"Life is too short to be miserable! He IS having fun. Why aren't you?" Gar had been meditating and said,"You and Hermoz are too flippant.The church is going to seize the contents when we discover them!" Hermoz said,"Only if we TELL them! Only bullshit will save us from the Church! They want to grab everything. We can tell them we haven't opened it when ever we actually do open it. It's shocking that Narchi found the damned doors! Using a sonic probe to find them is UNIQUE. I believe he'll open it!" Gar said,"This version is thinking differently that the others. Those genes you found in Shalmiraine are having a measured effect on his brain development,Aldus!" Aldus smiled his wily look and said,"This one IS more than the sum of his historical parts!" Narchi said then,"The inner surface of the iridescent surface is the key. The outer surface has math symbols on it the ARE just like registration numbers and such, but the inner are opening instructions. I am sure I can open this in an hour or so!" Hermoz phone went off about then. He picked up and after a moment he said,"Seems like there was a break out of disease in Apharis. People going mad and their skin peeling off and becoming murderous." Aldus looked sick and shocked. Hermoz said,"That's more your area of expertise than mine. I need to leave planet tonight to investigate things in the up and out. You and Gar are on your own on this. Farewell my friends. I might see you all later, Church willing!" Narchi was shocked at the suddenness of the leaving. Hermoz had been his friend and like a brother to Aldus. Narchi didn't know that he had just heard of the breakout of the Blight and how it would change his life. It was hours later when he touched the right spots on the sphere and it opened up. Inside was a female android from millions of years ago, when the Altha-Krommiums had ruled Balaam, and the current humans were no more than primates lingering in the jungles. Her name was Periko and she could translate the language in seconds. There was nothing else in the orb, but Narchi remembered the odd feeling of sadness when he sealed it back. --TO BE CONTINUED!== Poser,and Wings3d. Fixed the previous picture by moving people around some.