The Lone Wolf recovers his compusure quickly after Hermann Prime's demonstration of removing his head to prove he is indeed an android. LOL. After everyone else, save Archie, get over their good humored reaction to Hermann's antics, Sir Girard suggests they take a tour of the settlement. Reed and Skylar excuse themselves and return to their earth base. They plan on returning later in the day. Sir Girard leads the way and makes introductions to the any settlers they meet along the way. 'You really did a nice job on this planet!' Lone Wolf says to the Spaceman. 'Much better than some of your other creations.' The Spaceman only smiles as he remembers what the Lone Wolf is referring to. At least the ones Lone Wolf was involved in. The Lone Wolf is very interested in this latest project of the Spaceman's. He asks many questions. Sir Girard answers some of them, but Hermann Prime has most of the answers. Hermann has been elected the mayor general of the community by popular demand of all the settlers. He is such a charming and talented individual. How could he not rise to the top of the political heap? Again, LOL. But it is not just his charm that has propelled him to lead but also his genuine humility. 'One of the challenges we are having is our population. We didn't want to bring too many people here at once till we determined just how hospitable this new planet would be.' says Hermann. And it is a good thing we have been so cautions. It has been nearly five years and we still haven't had any children born here. We are doing extensive research of the environment and in depth psychological profiles of all the settlers. They all passed extensive medical examinations before any of them came to this planet. Recent examinations of the child bearing families show that both sets of parents are still very fertile and capable of producing children. We just don't know why that hasn't happened yet.' 'Maybe if you took a small sample off planet for awhile to see if it is the planet preventing the pregnancies?' asks the Lone Wolf. 'That is a good idea!' says Hermann. 'We should give that some consideration.' he says to the Spaceman. The Spaceman looks up at them, smiles and nods his head in agreement. About that time, the Lone Wolf's robotic assistant, Miss Charms, saunters up to the group. The Lone Wolf introduces her to them all. She seems amiable and it is soon apparent how she got her name. She could charm the wings off an angel with her wit and personality. Hermann asks about her and Lone Wolf tells her story. She has been with him for several centuries. He found her on an uninhabited planet. It had a large population at one time but they squandered all their resources and in the process destroyed their planet. They ultimately destroyed each other before they could advance into outer space. They had achieved impressive advances in robotics though. But all evidence was all but erased over the eons, except for Miss Charms. He found her deep inside the planet quite by accident. She contains some very rare minerals and when Lone Wolf scanned the planet for anything of value, she stood out like a sore thumb. After determining her coordinates he did some extensive excavating before he broke through to a large tunnel that led to the underground complex Miss Charms was located in. Once he got down there, all he found was mostly disintegrated remnants of equipment and lots of dust. Miss Charms was standing against a wall totally covered in dust and mostly inactive. He was able to detect a trace of current still supplying her brain power so he took a chance on trying to reactivate her. Luckily for Miss Charms, it was the rare minerals in her construction that prevented her from decaying into nothingness along with everything else in the underground chamber. With a little bit of luck and a lot of talent, Lone Wolf was able to reactivate her and here she is now, one of his most valuable assistants and a genuine right hand lady. Later that afternoon, they get a message from Reed and Skylar to meet them at a transport gate to their main lab, located across the river from Sir Girard's castle. The gate is a transport device that moves anyone between this planet and the home base near Reed & Skylars home planet via technology that Archie discovered and he and Hermann Prime perfected. Everyone but Sir Girard assembles across the river from Sir Girard's castle and are still having animated conversations when the gate doors open and Reed and Skylar come through. The Spaceman is having a grand old time petting his favorite little fox. The next phase of their meeting will be to discuss what Lone Wolf might be interested in acquiring from them and what terms they can agree on. Thank you for taking a peek! Your support is greatly appreciated!