Across Time And Space By Philip Mogul Rated PG-13 Submitted August, 2007 ______________ Standard Fanfic Disclaimers apply Again, many, many thanks to my friend and GE, Jeanne Pare, for her invaluable assistance in assembling this Lois and Clark story in a more readable and interesting tale. Warning: Violence- Some scenes may be graphic in nature. Across Time And Space A Beginning Several years after Lois and Clark finally married and founded their Metropolis residence on Hyperion Drive, the State of Kansas, with the support of certain special agencies of the federal government, established a university annex a few miles west of Smallville. The Kansas University extension was modeled on MIT, situated on the eastern seaboard of the country, and the California Institute of Technology, located on the west coast of the nation. The undergraduate men and women were drawn from the best maturing minds of the nation, while the graduate population were drawn from the most talented scholars produced by the universities and colleges within the country's higher academic system. The undergraduate and graduate facilities were the finest in the world as was the faculty in order to shape and infuse the minds of the school's students and to instruct them in the use of the newest research tools currently available. Attached to this new school, named the Gibbs Institute, was one of America's great nineteenth century scientists whose works in the field of thermodynamics still has not been exhausted. The University's research facility was mainly geared for material science research, developing materials for rapid moving aircraft, satellites and spacecraft. When the time came that Jonathan Kent no longer had the vim and vigor to maintain his and Martha's farm, the Gibbs institute had a population in excess of thirty thousand souls. The Return To Smallville For the next twenty-two years of their marital life, Lois and Clark lived in Metropolis rearing seven offspring. The last child, a girl, Lori Jessica, was born a few months before the Lane-Kent clan began returning en masse to Smallville, Kansas. In the time Lois and CK were investigative reporters for the Daily Planet, they earned eleven Kerths and three Pulitzer awards for their journalistic ingenuity and prowess. Although they were the finest journalists that operated in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Alice White's illness and the inability of Jonathan Kent to continue managing his Smallville farm caused the Metropolis Kents, Perry and Alice, and the Olsen clan, Jimmy, Lucy and their youngsters to migrate to the mid-West - Smallville, Kansas. Prior to the three families' departure from the big eastern city, Lois and Clark, using their super abilities, constructed three modern dwellings on the Kent Smallville farm suitable to the needs of each household. Lois Lane-Kent had acquired Superman's powers at the insistence of her growing family and the Kent clan's friend and physician Bernie Klein. Learning how Resplendent Man acquired Superman's abilities from violent forces of nature, the STAR labs scientist created a device that could duplicate Superman's abilities and bequeath them to another non Kryptonian individual. Thus, Lois acquired super powers essentially to protect the young Lane-Kent household. However, she also appeared as Ultrawoman, her past aka, whenever more super muscle was needed to save people from behemothic impending tragedies. Each newly erected house was connected to one another and to the original Kent farmhouse by an underground series of passageways. Along these subterranean passages were special rooms coated with stabilized neutronium, a substance developed by Clark and Bernie in their youth. In these subterranean grottoes were laboratories and special libraries. Martha also insisted that several especially large rooms must be created to accommodate all the families during festive occasions - stabilized neutronium was the material chosen for construction because of its practically indestructible nature. Four months after the birth of Lori Jessica Kent, the White and Olsen families followed Lois and Clark to Smallville and settled in. As Jimmy and Lucy reconnoitered their new surroundings, they were astounded. The new university and research center had helped modernize the Smallville vicinity they had once known. There were several churches and a synagogue clustered in a specially build square for the parishioners. To preserve the fertile farms in and around the Smallville area, the architect created the new housing on tracts of land that would maintain the highly productive farming conditions surrounding the growing Smallville community. When her new neighbors from Metropolis had settled in, Martha prepared a huge dinner for them. Jonathan and Martha also invited the Setland family who had purchased Wayne Irig's farm adjacent to their own. Aside from farming part of his fertile acres, Avi Setland was the rabbi of the traditional Jewish congregation in Smallville near the university. He and his wife Rachel had three children, one born four days after Lois's youngest, Lori Jessica. The Setland's had named their boy Jeremy Seth after the boy's decreased grandfathers. Lois and Clark also became aware that the land that Avi Setland did not farm Jonathan worked for a dollar a year. They found out latter that Avi wanted no compensation, but Martha insisted. So Avi told them that he'd take thirty-six dollars a year to be given to a charity of Jonathan's choosing. Lois noticed that as Martha served her company, especially on holidays, Rachel's two girls, Rifka and Yael, helped her mother and Martha serve the various courses of food without being asked. Lois was aware that her own children could learn from the behavior of Rachel's children and was determined that there would be changes in her family's behavior. Rachel was a mathematician with an earned doctorate in mathematics from Yale. She taught at the university and did computer modeling on the structures of composite materials at the research institute adjacent to the Smallville extension university. As the two women helped Martha clean up, Rachel asked Lois if she would consider a teaching position in the journalism division of the school's English department. After careful consideration, Lois said, "That's not a bad idea, but it will have to wait until we emigres from Metropolis have established our freelance journalistic venture." After a slight pause, Lois continued, "Perry and the rest of us will contribute to the Planet several times a week. Once we begin fulfilling our promise to Eduardo Diaz, the new editor-in-chief of the Planet, I will seriously consider your educational proposition. It sounds fascinating." Rachel then asked Lois what Clark planned to involve himself in aside from his freelance journalistic venture. Lois answered her new friend that Clark would help Jonathan run the farm and continue being involved with some on going research projects with Bernie Klein. Lois added to a surprised Rachel Setland, "Clark has an earned doctorate in mathematical physics from Cal. Tech. He has about eighty-four papers published under the name C. Jerome Kent." After a stunned silence Rachel declared, "You know, Lois, I've read some of his papers describing concepts involving dimensional spaces and the theory of time travel." "Please don't tell others about Clark's scientific prowess," Lois asked her new neighbor. Rachel nodded affirmatively to Lois's request. As they were finishing their kitchen chores, Lois told Rachel that she'd ask Superman to construct an underground corridor from their farm to the elder Kent home. Also, she would request that Big Blue build another underground tunnel from the old Irig place to a grove of trees just behind Mazie's diner. These tunnels would provide shelter and a comfortable passage for Ben Setland as he traveled to Martha and Jonathan's abode or the center of Smallville during either the savage winter weather or the blistering hot summers that were typical of the area. As Lois and Rachel talked over the next few months, Lois indicated that she would home teach her children most of the subjects within the primary level. Rachel was surprised to learn that Lois majored in mathematics as an undergraduate and earned an advanced mathematics degree in a graduate program before altering her career aspirations leading to a journalistic career. Clark followed Lois as an employee at the Daily Planet a few years later after traveling the world and earning a Master's degree in journalism. After Lois had several turbulent relationships with several unscrupulous men, Lois and Clark finally found one another and married - seven children resulted from their union. Dr. Klein believed that the aura from CK and Lois's transformation to Ultrawoman allowed Clark's wife to conceive at fifty years of age. In reality, both Lois's and Clark's bodily functions were aging at a very slow rate and they were behaving as if they were in their early thirties. The Early Smallville Years After Lois and Clark and their long time friends from Metropolis had established themselves in the Smallville locality, events moved relatively smoothly for about the next half dozen years. In the midst of the numerous household chores, during this period, the quality of the journalistic material forwarded to the Daily Planet for distribution earned for the new Smallville reporting facility and its Metropolis associate three Kerth awards and another esteemed Pulitzer accolade for their daring editorials that helped cause the extinction of several notorious and world wide criminal organizations. At the age of five years, Lori Kent and Jeremy Setland started their primary education. Because, the Kent, Setland, and Olsen children were taught mainly at home, only about one third of their educational time was spent within a formal Smallville classroom. One afternoon while Lori and Jeremy were returning home from Smallville's primary school building, they were caught by a swiftly moving and intense thunderstorm as they crossed the grassy meadow adjacent to Mazie's sweet shop. Jeremy quickly maneuvered Lori into a gully that had been excavated on the side of the meadow. Here, the two children both assumed a prone position and Jeremy placed his body over his playmate's, attempting to provide Lori Kent with some additional protection from the storm. As the intensity of the electrical storm steadily increased, a thunderbolt struck the periphery of the small trench that was providing some shelter for the two youngsters. As nature's electrical phenomenon spread over the area, the children were suddenly immersed within an electrical field produced by a bolt of lightening. When discovered after the storm, both children, although somewhat confused, were found to be in relatively good spirits. Within several days, two healthy children were running about as if nothing out of the ordinary had transpired. The meadow incident, after a short time, was considered by many of Smallville's residents to be a fortuitous event or perhaps even a miracle. Since the children did not exhibit any injuries, this event was soon dismissed as just one of those unexplained occurrences that happen from time to time. For the next seven years, the young Metropolis emigres formed a close bond with the juvenile Setland kids. The oldest Kents, Olsens, and Setland children were off to college. These young adults could not attend a school within the Kansas State University system or their extensions since they did not receive high school diplomas within the state of Kansas- it was an archaic state regulation. Since CK and his family had saved the funds from a number of patents the family had sold, the college age youngsters from the Kent farm could easily afford to matriculate at Yale University. Once enrolled at Yale, living quarters were purchased for their use during the university's academic year. When Jeremy was about ten years of age, he approached Lara Kent, Lori's older sister, and scientifically stated what he believed was a novel idea. In face, he was expressing the basic concepts surrounding a transporter device. When Clark was told by Lara of Jeremy's notions, CK called Bernie Klein and discussed Jeremy's views about transmitting matter through space. Shortly after CK's phone conversation with Bernie, Lara, Jeremy, and CK himself formed a research team and over a few months time brought to fruition Jeremy's transporter project. With the transporter completed, Bernie, who was living mainly with his family in Metropolis, the Kent kids studying at Yale and the Wayne family living in Gotham City were now all closely joined and gathered at the Kent farm for brief periods and definitely at times of celebration. The Crippling Of Jeremy Setland - Jealousy Becomes An Issue Just past Jeremy's eleventh birthday, the youngest Setland invited Lara to Mazie's shop to share ice cream and celebrate his birthday with a special person. As they walked hand in hand across the meadow to Mazie's grocery and lunch store, the youngsters were confronted by Biff Spangler and several other Boones Town roughnecks. Because of Biff's parents' political connections, these individuals confronting Lara and Jeremy had unfortunately been permitted to attend school within the Smallville community. The attendance of a few bright Boones Town students in the Smallville schools was in theory a good cooperative academic program and caused very few if any social issues. Mostly, the Boones Town students who attended the primary and secondary schools within the Smallville community were fine academicians and benefited from their exposure to the new and advanced learning environment, which had been created by the state of Kansas. The extension of the state university system with new research facilities was built within the Smallville town limits after a rather heated debate in the state's assembly. This advanced learning facility rapidly propelled the Smallville community to enhance the learning levels within their own primary and secondary schools to meet the needs of the professors' children. To help a small neighboring community, an agreement between Smallville and Boons Town was reached that allowed the boards of education to select bright students from Boons Town to matriculate in the Smallville school system. When students' academic and learning interests were the basis of the transfer policy, there was little or no friction in the agreed upon program. Now, unfortunately, some very troublesome Boones Town children were sent to the Smallville schools. These teenage students, because of their over active libidos, had now confronted Jeremy and Lara with malice on the way to Mazie's shop. The two youngsters from the Kent farm area were threatened that unless Biff got what he desired, Lara and Jeremy were in big trouble. Biff wanted Lara to date him and cease seeing Jeremy. Lara was to become his girl or else. With Lara's eyes flashing, she defied Biff, screaming she would never see him on a social level. She despised him. Becoming emotionally uncontrollable, Biff picked up a large club like stick and started moving menacingly towards Lara Kent. Immediately upon discerning Biff's ominous gestures, Jeremy grabbed Lara, turned her away from the charging Boones Town teenager and covered her body with his own. Soon thereafter, he began to adsorb the blows that were intended for Lara Kent. As Lara watched in horror, Biff's Club-like weapon tore into Jeremy's flesh, inflicting large gashes from which poured the youngster's blood. As Jeremy's cries became weaker and he began to slip toward the ground, Biff's beastly nature intensified and his blows to Jeremy's body occurred with bone crushing impacts resulting in devastating injuries. Looking into Lara's face with pained filled eyes, Jeremy's last conscious words were, "I'm sorry...can't help you anymore." As Jeremy finally lost consciousness, Lara was screaming and telepathically sending a message to her parents. Seconds later, Superman and Ultrawoman arrived on the scene. Superman immediately rushed Jeremy to the hospital while Ultrawoman immobilized the boys from Boones Town. After the Smallville police arrived and the Boones Town boys had been incarcerated, the superheroine spoke with Rachel Harris, the town's elected chief law enforcement officer, and flew Lara home. Later that afternoon, Clark returned to the hospital and was informed about Jeremy's condition. Returning home, he told all those present at the Kent farm sanctuary that Jeremy would recover and be fit as a fiddle in no time. The physician told CK that Jeremy was as strong as a horse. He then informed those present that Jeremy's parents were now at the hospital and were overjoyed at the news of their boy's pending recovery. Later, when Lara and her parents were alone, Lois quizzed her about Jeremy's actions. Looking at her parents Lara told them, "I'm not quite sure what caused Jeremy to react as he did. All I know is that as Biff approached, I felt that Jeremy somehow knew that he had to protect me, and a moment later his body was between my own and our attacker." Then after a slight pause, Lara said, "I first believed that Jeremy had uttered his thoughts just as his body lost consciousness, but his comments were not verbal, Mom; they were in my head." "Jeremy contacted Lara telepathically," Clark then remarked to his wife. Lois's head shot up as she heard her husband's words. She replied rapidly, "Only soulmates can communicate in such a manner." "Yes," Clark said to his wife. Turing to Lara again, Clark remarked, "It looks like you've unawares discovered your life partner, my daughter." Looking at her parents, Lara said, "Jeremy is three years and eight months younger than I." "Does your age differences matter when yours and Jeremy's life expectancy, according to Bernie Klein's estimate, is probably near the ten millennia mark? Of course, the age value I expressed, my daughter, is still a *guesstimate* since you and the other developing super beings represent the first generation after the melding of Krypton's and Earth's genetic characteristics. You, Lara, and your siblings are hybrids produced by the genetic joining of two different societies whose characteristics, while appearing somewhat different, are still nearly identical. You and Jeremy are soulmates and possess the ability to communicate telepathically on two frequencies - one is part of a general communication network that connects our entire clan. The second mental affiliation is special and is a personal telepathic network just between soulmates - you and Jeremy. The phone then rang, and Clark upon answering the phone found that Jeremy would recover sooner than expected. Lara then jumped up and said, "I want to see him as soon as is possible." As Lara and her parents were leaving the house, Lois asked her husband how he thought the linkage between Lara and Jeremy worked. "I'm not sure of the mechanism as it currently functions," Clark replied, "but I'll certainly attempt to find out in the near future how this mechanism acts. We have other children approaching marriageable age, and we should understand the personal telepathic pathways that may develop between each soulmate pair. Remember, beloved, we've had our special mental communication channel all our married life." At the hospital Lara sat in a chair next to Jeremy's bed. He was still sedated from his recent surgical procedures. Lara grasped his hand and immediately felt the surge of Jeremy's thoughts flowing through her head. They were a bit jumbled, but she figured that was to be expected. As Lara sat beside her soulmate's hospital bed, she appeared to enter a trance like state as her thoughts with Jeremy flashed between them. Finally releasing Jere's hand, she said to the others present in the room, "I'll see him again tomorrow. Then we'll be able to communicate verbally for a little while. With the narcotics in his body, his mind is somewhat incoherent." After Lara arrived home, her parents, knowing what had occurred at Jeremy's bedside, told her of a similar occurrence that had happened early in their own marriage when Luthor had nearly killed Lois. "When your mother healed, Lara, I insisted that she become my true genetic life partner. Bernie and I created a genetic conversion device predicated on the info we had obtained from my Resplendent Man adventure. When Lois was subjected to the genetic conversion device, her physical capabilities became identical to mine. When Luthor struck again, as we surmised he would, he was captured and incarcerated in an inescapable facility for the remainder of his life. Your mother, my beloved soulmate, was not injured by Luthor nor by any other attempts on her life ever again." Lara became excited and said, "Jeremy can be treated with the same transmutation device which will protect him." "That may not be necessary," Clark then said to his daughter. Pausing for a second or so, CK said, "When Lori and Jeremy were about five years of age they interacted with a lightening bolt. I believe at that instant we had a repeat of the Resplendent Man incident. Lori's super abilities, although not yet functioning, were transferred to the Setland boy. Jere's powerful telepathic linkage with you, Lara, strongly suggests that a super power transference occurred between the children." Then Lara's father smiled and said to his offspring, "How would you like to verify my suspicions?" After a few moments, Lara remarked, "That's an interesting project, Papa. Let's do it." "Lara," Clark said, "Jeremy is a very sensitive young man. Be careful. If I'm not mistaken, he feels very strongly about you." Lara then said rather agitatedly, "I would never hurt Jeremy. He's my future, a future that will last for all eternity." Lois just smiled at her remark. Lara was her daughter all right. Several days later, as they walked toward home, Lara asked her soulmate if his body were experiencing any unusual sensations since his altercation with Biff. After a relatively long pause, Jeremy placed Lara's hand in his and said that he was beginning to hear things that a year ago the walls within his home would block. Jere added, "I was hearing conversations in the tunnel connecting Jonathan and Martha's farm and the other dwellings connected by their hidden subterranean passageway system." Lara then said, "Let's try an experiment." Jeremy agreed wholehardedly. Lara blindfolded her life partner and then hurled a rock a distance that measured more than two hundred-fifty meters across the meadow where it struck a rather large rock. Removing the blindfold, Lara asked Jeremy, "Where did the thrown object strike the earth?" Turning in the direction of the collision area, he pointed toward a distant tree about two point five kilometers from their present location, a feat that would be impossible for a normal human to perform. Smiling, Lara grasped Jeremy's hand and nodded affirmatively. "Like you, Lara, I too appear to be developing super abilities. How is that happening?" Then Lara reminded her soulmate of the lightening incident which occurred between him and her sister. "For a while, as my body began to change as I approached puberty," Jeremy then added, "I started to believe that my ultimate destination would be a mental ward in some institution for the demented. However, after some cogitation, Lara, I started recalling the lightening strike that involved Lori, and I wondered how that fit into my bodily change puzzle. You just gave me the final pieces." Looking at Lara, he said, "Since Lori was the daughter of Lois Lane Kent and CK, I've finally realized she is the daughter of the superheroes that periodically appear throughout our world. So, am I correct in assuming that all the Kent offspring will inherit the super capabilities of their parents over time?" Lara just nodded her head in an affirmative mode. "Lara, please inform your folks that their secret is safe with me. Also, ask your father if you can help me improve my abilities as they come on line. My inherited super powers must be controlled. Otherwise," Jeremy added, "I might seriously injure somebody inadvertently." From Jere's last words, Lara knew that her forever soulmate would be a good man and a fantastic life partner. As they continued walking home after Lara's little experiment, Jeremy said, "You know, when we touched during my recovery from Biff's beating I felt you and I were bound to one another." "We were, Jere," Lara said, "and that emotion will intensify as we get older and spend more and more time together." "Wow," was Jeremy's comment. "That's great." Lara just felt happy all over when she heard his spontaneous remarks. After a pause, Lara added, "We'll have time to talk about that aspect of our lives as we mature and move toward our final bonding proceedings (marriage)." That evening Lara informed her father about Jere's comment. Clark agreed that Lara and Jeremy should work on their super abilities together. Having the green light, Lara and Jeremy set out to discover a relatively isolated area somewhere on the Kent's farm where Jeremy and she could work on his developing super abilities and strengthen her own powers. What the two youngsters didn't realize was that during their practice sessions, either Ultrawoman or Superman was secretly hovering above their secret location as a protective source. As the practice sessions continued, both superheroes were extremely satisfied with the development of their super abilities and unknown to them the constant reinforcing of their soulmate bond. Without their knowledge, Lara and Jeremy's love for one another was developing along very similar avenues as those still enjoyed by Lara's parents, Lois and Clark Kent. Jeremy Setland and Lara Kela Kent were nearly inseparable during the next several years until Lara matriculated at Yale University. All of her older siblings, excluding CJ, had graduated from Yale and were now enrolled in their new academic home, the Cal Tech graduate school in Pasadena. CJ was delighted now that Lara shared the family's New Haven, Connecticut dwelling with him and that Jeremy Setland would teleport to there at least five times a week to be with Lara. On the other two days, CJ would accompany his sister to Smallville to be with the families at Martha's Sabbath dinners - both Saturday and Sunday. When Jeremy reached his fifteenth year, he and Lori received their general diploma from the state of Kansas and then matriculated to Yale. Like those before them, the super children majored in physics and had minored in areas of study that included mathematics and engineering. Once CJ graduated from Yale, he joined his older siblings at Cal Tech where he majored in experimental physics. In the evening, Lara worked with her soulmate showing Jeremy how to levitate and control the force of gravity acting on his body. As Lori watched, she said in a slightly jealous tone, "No-wonder your superpower development is ahead of mine. Lara has been helping you." "For years, Lara and I have worked together," Jeremy said, to Lori. "We're soulmates, my sister, and I've been told by those who know that that's what life partners tend to do throughout their lives." "Soulmates," Lori commented. "That means you two will form a nuptial bond and become a super pair forever like mom and pop." "That's true," Lara told her sister. "Even now we are a very strong unit. Each of us, I can say, is half of a loving pair." "That means," Lori added, "you two will make me an auntie someday." "Hopefully, in the near future," Lara responded. As the sisters watched, Jere started to turn a shade of red. "Look at that," Lori added with humor in her voice, "Jere is embarrassed." Jeremy soon sat down on the couch and placed his face in his hands. Seeing that her soulmate couldn't speak coherently and seeking no way to escape from the room, Lara quickly sat down next to Jeremy and telepathically calmed his discomfiture. Then she yelled at her sister, "That's enough, Lori. As you can see, my soulmate is quite a sensitive person." After a pause, Lara added, "If you want Jeremy to consider you as a credible ally and family member, stop horsing around." "Thanks, my love," Jeremy said to Lara, his forever soulmate and life partner. For nearly a year, the Kent household living in New Haven functioned normally. Within their first year at Yale, Lori and Jere mastered their flying abilities, and then all hell was unleashed. While Jeremy was working with Dr. Klein at the end of his first university year, Lori convinced her sister to gallivant about the country to see the sights, so to speak. Soon, there were newspaper articles about younger super beings flying over the US land mass, followed by more press releases speculating about the possibility that a family of super beings was now subsisting on their world. Then, the aerial observations began causing the kind of conjecture which Lois and Clark always feared. It began slowly when people seeking to enhance their public image began to print material concerning Superman and Ultrawoman's objectives in procreating a super family. Eventually, this kind of unofficial and nonscientific news brought a host of fanatics into the limelight. These individuals caused considerable concern among the general population about the purity of humankind's genetic pool, and the possibility of conquering the world. The super family was soon under attack by uniformed people such as religious bigots, scientific charlatans, philosophical speculators, and the real bottom feeders, talk show hosts, who invited unqualified people, such as tabloid people, as guests on their shows to discuss the goals of the super people now living on Earth. About a week after the various assaults on the super family had reached its frenzied peek, Lois and Clark descended upon STAR labs. After locating Bernie Klein, they soon located Jeremy. He had essentially been locked away in a laboratory studying how to apply stealth technology to garments that the super family could wear when they needed to soar through the Earth's atmosphere. When Lois and Clark, in the company of Bernie Klein, entered Jere's experimental facility, they saw a young man intensely engrossed with the examination of a swath of cloth that had been specially treated. Upon seeing his in laws to be and Dr. Klein, he smiled and greeted them with a jovial "Hi, Mom, Pop and you, too, Bernie." From his greeting, Lois and Clark obviously knew that Jeremy was not involved in any super joy flying and was even unaware of the super craze that had developed in the country. Then, seeing the seriousness on Lois's and Clark's faces, Jeremy asked what was troubling them and if there was anything he could do to help. Lois then placed a pile of newspapers on the table in front of Jeremy. As he read at super speed, Jere murmured over and over, "My G-d." Placing his arms on his workbench, he sent a special call to Lara. Within ten minutes or so, Lara and Lori arrived at Star labs. When Lois and Clark's two young daughters entered Jeremy's lab, Clark started toward both of his girls displaying a very angry countenance. Jeremy immediately moved between Clark and his girls saying, "Please, Pop, control yourself. I can't allow you to harm either of them, especially Lara. You'd have to kill me before I let you harm my soulmate, which I'm quite sure you could accomplish almost at will." As the anger in Clark calmed, Jere turned and gave his soulmate and Lori a pile of newspapers to read, pointing to the articles concerning the new super people and the supposition by certain popular radical commentators that Superman and Ultrawoman had produced super kids. After the two young women had finished reading the editorials on super kids, they looked up, and Lori said, "We just didn't know." Now, Jeremy said to his soulmate and Lori, "You both, I believe, can understand why Clark became uncontrollably angry for a moment." The girls both nodded their understanding. Then, Jere walked across the room, stopped and looked toward the ceiling of the room, toward heaven, and very quietly murmured, "Thank you." To emphasize his point, CK flashed across the room and confronted the girls again. Now, sounding like an irate father, he tersely said, "You gals are science majors at a major university. You should have been aware by this time that every nation in our world would have elaborate electronic detecting devices, radar of some sort, which could easily detect objects moving across their air space." Lori then asked, "How could the current electronic equipment in existence determine that it was a member of our family and not a high flying aircraft that was being observed." "Density," Lara replied. "Correct, my love," Jeremy immediately spoke-up. "The bodily densities in our family are about one point five that of a normal human," Jere also added. "Metals and composites have density values greater than our own fleshly values. From different density values, this planet's electronic detecting gear can only suggest, but not specifically state, that objects detected streaking through the Earth's stratosphere were truly an alien and not composed of special Earth substances. The assumption of a Kryptonian presence sighted above this planet's surface therefore is a purely speculative assumption and cannot be verified. But that won't prevent people with access to the media from expressing their views. If I may be so bold, may the entire family retire to the Kent farm for a general meeting; that means you, too, Bernie. I may have a solution or a partial one to our immediate problems." Jeremy added, "For the immediate future, can we suspend juvenile super activities that can be observed? Jeremy looked at Clark who nodded affirmatively to the young man's suggestion, after conferring with his wife, Lois. Several days later, the Kent clan, which also included outsiders such as Bernie Klein, Rabbi Setland, the Whites, and the Olsen families, watched as Jeremy demonstrated his new diamond producing apparatus. Jeremy also showed the gathering the test fabric of a stealthy cloth-like material. As the group watched, Jeremy caused his apparatus to produce white, green, red, and blue-white stones of varying sizes. After Jeremy completed his scientific demonstrations, the Setland youngster said to his assembled group, "With my diamond producing equipment, the Kent, Setland families, and their friends will never lack for needed funds." Then Jere's equipment was locked away in the family's vault fabricated from stabilized neutronium. Also secured in this exceptional safe chamber were the teleportation equipment and the Star labs new stealth material, developed by Jeremy Setland. Several days later, Bobby Big-Mouth was receiving about twenty financiers. At this negotiating conference with the top Metropolis money brokers, Bobby allowed the buyers to study the kind of merchandise they could expect from his source at a fair price. When the diamond merchants were satisfied with Bobby's commodities, the financiers called in their bully boys who began to maul Bobby Big Mouth in an attempt to discover the location of the new diamond field they felt had been discovered within the States. Unable to obtain any further info from Bobby Big Mouth, the money men from Metropolis purloined the billion dollars worth of diamonds and left a battered and bloody former snitch for dead. Finding Bobby Big-Mouth later that afternoon, Clark took him to his family sanctuary beneath the Kent's farm. There, he was treated by the best physicians in the business and soon started to recover his health. As he regained consciousness, he apologized to Clark and Lois for failing in his mission. "It was not your fault, Bobby," both Lois and Clark told him. "You acted in good faith." "Thanks CK," he said, as he closed his eyes. Turning to Lois, Clark said with considerable feeling, "Your snitch, to my surprise, is a very honest man." Lois just smiled and said, "I somehow always knew there was a streak of loyalty and honesty woven into the fabric of his soul." After Bobbie was asleep, Lois remarked, "We have to talk about Lara and Jere." "What are you insinuating, my dear?" Smiling, Lois said, "Their marriage. Oh, I don't mean now," she added, "but certainly before they graduate from Yale." Looking at his soulmate, Clark smiled at his wife and gave her a positive nod. Later that evening, Lois called her daughter and Jeremy together and told them what she and Lara's father had decided about their nuptials. After learning the Kent's decision, Lara and her soulmate, without hesitation, agreed with Lois and Clark's time frame. As they were walking through the subterranean passages, Lara said, "I'll be twenty-one while you will be about eighteen years of age when we wed." Jere then said, "The way I feel about you, Lara, I'd marry you if we were both twelve years old." Lara then just giggled like her mother. After Jere's comment, Lara gave such a passionate kiss that her soulmate said, "Lara, if you keep kissing me like that we'll be parents before we leave our college environment." Lara hooked her arm in his and smiled as they continued to walk through their school's lab facility. Justice And Punishment Without Vengeance That evening, after dinner, Jeremy addressed the family. He told them that a small quantity of a radioactive material had been added to each gem that was pillaged from Bobby. He then added that Lara and he had also devised a technological device that could locate the missing gemstones. What he and his soulmate wanted to know was the punishment that would be merited out to the thieves when they were apprehended with their diamond plunder. "What do you suggest?" Jon Kent asked. "If those we capture are proven guilty," Lara and Jeremy remarked, "we should move the culprits to the Centauri star system where we will create a large space depot - a station in space. Then, we should incarcerate the diamond thieves in the space station and set it in motion around the Centauri sun. The gem thieves would be confined for the remainder of their lives. They, of course, would be furnished with nourishment, means of entertainment, and the means of viewing what is occurring on SOL Three. Droids, which would accompany the castaways, would provide, if required, needed medical attention to maintain their health." After a slight pause, Clark added, "First things first. Let's apprehend the thieves and then allow the family to consider Jeremy and Lara's punishment proposal. Remember we are not only considering theft, but the discipline of people who caused death-like injuries to Bobbie Big-mouth." CK then said, "Our punishment system should be severe but fair." Over the next year and a half, all the muggers and the crooked financiers, save one, were apprehended by the Kent family, their friends and allies. They were initially imprisoned within cells situated in the tunnel system under the Kent's farm awaiting trial. When the search for the gem thieves was finally suspended, all but one of the culprits with their loot had been apprehended. Although addition searches were conducted from time to time, no success was achieved in locating the remaining ruffian and thief. After a reasonable period of debate, the family agreed with Lara and Jere and placed the nine brokers and their hatchet men within a satellite circling Alpha Centuri for the remainder of their lives with the necessary accouterments to maintain their physical comforts and health during their lifetime exile. A University Prom - a Yale Event During Dick Grayson's junior year, Lori approached Jeremy and Lara and asked Jeremy if he would mind if Lara accompanied Dick's roommate to their junior prom. His name was Kyle Lotario. Jere said, "Lori, Lara is my soulmate, not my slave. She can do whatever she wishes. She and I are partners in all things, not master and slave." "In fact," Jere added, "I would like Lara to socialize a bit. It's not fair to her to ask her to wait until our marriage permits us to socialize within society as a couple. Married, we can be a couple that can be seen together in public without any negative ramifications. Because of our slight age difference, she has been isolated and somewhat unhappy at times. This prom will allow her to get out and enjoy herself and make me feel joyful because my soulmate will participate in a social activity I feel she needs. I'm too young to be a proper social escort at this period in our lives. I think this prom event will be a pleasant night out for her. If there's a problem, I'll know immediately through our telepathic linkage." So it was agreed that Lara and Lori would be the dates of Dick and his roommate Kyle at the Yale's junior prom for that year. When Dick and Kyle arrived at the Kent residence, Jere opened the door and first confronted Dick Grayson whom he knew well from the Kent clan gatherings in Smallville, Kansas. After greeting one another, Jeremy took Dick's coat and directed him toward the living room. Dick thanked Jere. Before he could hang up Dick's over garment, Lyle threw his overcoat at Jere and followed Dick into the living room with a sneer on this face. To Kyle, Jeremy Setland was inconsequential, a rather worthless personage. Both Lara and Lori observed the young men as they entered the Kent abode and were shocked at the behavior of Kyle Lotario. When the girls joined their escorts within the living room, Dick presented a corsage to Lori and placed a ruby necklace around her neck. It was matinee length. Dick told Lori that his ward, Bruce, told him to present it to his date to be worn for this affair. When Dick had completed his introductions to Lori, Kyle also presented Lara with a corsage of orchids. Then he displayed a yellowish-green necklace of diamonds. They were magnificent and in a necklace arrangement. As Lyle put the necklace on Lara, Jere used his tracer device to examine the diamond array in Lara's necklace. The outcome of his scan indicated that the necklace she wore contained the missing gem stones taken from Bobby Big-mouth. At last the rest of the missing diamonds had finally been located and in the most unusual way. As Lara and Kyle were leaving with Dick and Lori, Jere told his soulmate to place an unremovable and non-detectable surveillance bug upon Lyle's person, which she accomplished as she and Lori were deposited upon their stoop as they returned to the Kent home from Yale's junior gala. During the next few days Jeremy, Lara, and Lori ascertained that Lyle was engaged in patricide. He was adding small quantities of poison to his father's medication as he was resting from surgery after a severe accident. Instead of recuperating, James Lotario's health was slowly deteriorating. Marianne, James' wife, was told that if things didn't improve, her husband, James Lotario, would be joining his ancestors within a month's time. A week or so later, Lara, unknown to the verbal combatants, heard an argument between Kyle and his mother. She said, "You were aware that your father was intending to return the diamonds to their rightful owner. I hardily agree with your father's decision to correct his wrong doing." Continuing she said, "James is a good man and should not have been involved in the illegal acquisition of those jewels in the first place, and you, Kyle, should not have made use of them for Yale's junior prom." After a pause, she added, "I was hopeful that Lex Luthor's genes would have been cleansed from our family when I married your father. It appears that Lex's evil is now manifesting itself within your soul." Without waiting for a reply, she left his presence. After Marianne had left, Kyle summoned one of his henchmen and together planned his mother's demise. It appeared that Lex Luthor in another form had been resurrected and was planning to begin a new reign of evil. Unseen, Lara then made a copy of Kyle's conversation with his confederate. Later, she played it for Jere and her sister, Lori. Jere immediately sent a copy of the verbal transcription to the family in the Smallville community. As Lois and Clark were perusing the message, Jeremy enveloped himself in a stealthy garment and flew to the home of Kyle Lotario. Entering the Lotario dwelling, the Setland youth silently pilfered a small amount of James' medication, but not enough material to be missed by any of the attending medical personnel. He then streaked through a violent thunderstorm as fast as his new airborne super power would allow to Dr. Klein's residence in Metropolis and awakened the famous scientist. Grumpy at being awakened, Bernie quieted down when he was told of the events that brought Jeremy to his door at this ungodly hour. Three weeks later, Bernie sent Jere a telegram which stated that the medicines were contaminated with a rare poison that interfered with an individual's water and his/her body's metabolic functions shutting down the organs and leading to a horrible death. Now the family was ready to act. Soon after Bernie Klein had discovered the poison, which had been placed in the medication prescribed and administered to James Lotario, the brilliant scientist developed an anecdote for the mephitic. With the anecdote, Lara, Lori and Jeremy made a call on the Lotario house. Lara activated the teleport equipment Jere was carrying enwrapped with stealthy cloth-like material. As soon as the teleport device was energized, Superman and Ultrawoman appeared in the large hall. A few minutes later the local law enforcement authorities also entered the mansion. After exhibiting to Marianne Lotario the evidence of her son's impending homicides, Superman and his side kick Ultrawoman, with the blessings of the judicial authorities, whisked Kyle and his accomplice through the teleporter to face Kryptonian justice at the Smallville sanctuary. With Kyle absent, the Lotario household soon returned to normal. When Jere and the girls returned to their home in Kansas, Kyle's trial got underway. When Kyle finally faced his accusers, a sneer appeared on his face, a countenance of evil. Jumping up, Kyle said, "Incarcerate me and all the world will know your family's location and its secret identities." Ignoring Kyle's outburst, Clark had the young Lotario placed in the chair of justice. Each member of the family then began asking questions until the chair of justice indicated that no further information would be required to be extracted from the accused to arrive at a just opinion. The trial adjourned until the electronic chair of justice could analyze all the data accumulated and pronounce a judgment upon the potential felon - the devil's new right hand man. Several hours later, the trial resumed and the chair of justice pronounced a sentence of guilty and recommended the death sentence. The humans after hearing the condemnation of Kyle Lotario debated the chair's sentence. Adding their human compassion, they cancelled Kyle's execution and altered the punishment to exile for life in a prison station within the Deneb star system. Hans Mueller, Kyle's hit man, turned to the Kent clan and said, "I am guilty as charged. You don't have to go though that chair business." "So be it," Clark stated. Before sunrise on the following day Kyle Lotario was taken to the Deneb prison solar station and was never seen or heard from again. Because Hans Mueller owned up to his felonies, he was allowed to remain within the Kent sanctuary, which provided him with all the comforts of home so to speak. During his confinement, three guard droids maintained a constant surveillance of their prisoner. During Hans's incarceration, he dined each evening with the Kent family and also participated in all holiday celebrations. When the time for his release arrived, Hans was presented with a quarter of a million dollars. He was injected with an elixir that would not allow him to return to the Kent sanctuary unless he was alone. On the third return, some years later, Hans decided to remain with the Kents for the remainder of his life. The world outside Smallville had changed too much for Hans to be comfortable. Shortly after the Lotario episode was resolved, Lara and Jeremy became engaged. Lara extended her education at Yale studying advanced mathematics concepts and learning music composition, obtaining a master degree in each of these areas. This education extension was the plan of both soulmates so Jeremy and Lara could become equal in all things. While the Grayson lad frequently visited the Kent New Haven dwelling almost each evening to be with his soulmate Lori, Lara and her betrothed generally retired to their own quarters to allow Bruce Wayne's ward and Lori space and some privacy to enjoy their company. Bruce Wayne once asked Lois why Lara and Jere were allowed so much freedom seeing they were not as yet married? Lois said, "First, Jeremy is a rabbi's son and raised in a rather strict tradition concerning the treatment of women, and secondly, he had already asked Lara not to try to seduce him before their marriage. He had said, 'Other kinds of sexual play I believe is good for us, but I would feel put out if we consummated our love before we are married before G-D.' She said that to me some years ago, and his request has worked well since then. Anyway, they'll be wedded soon, in a few months." In reference to Lori and Dick, Lois said, "Dick may be a nice person, but he is an unknown sexual quantity though he looks and acts every bit a gentleman. Lori, on the other hand, is a bit frisky and may get easily carried away sexually since she knows she and Dick are also soulmates." Bruce said, "I perceive Lara and Jere are acting as subtle chaperones." "You got it," Lois replied. Some months after Jere's eightieth birthday, Lara and her soulmate tied the knot. Dick and Lori's nuptials occurred a week later. The different weddings and their locations were so arranged so that the sanctuary of the Kent family was never placed in jeopardy. To compensate for the small nuptial in Smallville, Bruce Wayne threw a gala affair for the marriage of his ward. For those who were in the know, the Wayne affair was for both Lara and her spouse Jeremy and the newlyweds Lori and Dick. Both brides received a necklace of the yellow-green diamonds and a wedding band of the same jewels. After several days, the celebration winded down and the newlyweds were off on their month long honeymoons. After returning from their honeymoons, the two newly married couples matriculated at Cal. Tech to pursue their graduate studies. The three Smallville youngsters became majors in mathematical physics, while Dick tracked a business career. For the next three years, the Cal. Tech studies provided the two couples an almost idyllic existence. Shortly after Lori, Lara and Jeremy received their doctoral degrees and Lori's husband received his advanced business degree, the four family members and friends returned to Smallville, Kansas for a visit. A few days after Lara and Jere had returned to Kansas, Bernie Klein made a frantic visit to the Kent farm sanctuary in Smallville. The Kents were informed by Dr. Klein that an asteroid about the size of Manhattan was discovered on a collision trajectory with Earth. In a few months, Sol's third planet, Earth, would be struck by the asteroid somewhere in the Indian Ocean causing the annihilation of most if not all the life on Earth. Approaching Doom Jere asked CK whether the clan's experimental interstellar craft was functioning. Jeremy received a positive nod from Lara, his soulmate. "What do you have in mind?" Clark then asked Jeremy Setland. Jere rose from the table and began pacing about the room as he informed the family that several years ago Lara and he had created several weapon systems for the defense of their planet in the event that they were suddenly attacked by alien invaders. In the intervening years, Lara and Jeremy had also constructed a laser cannon that could rend an enemy vessel by shredding its hull components and destroying the ship and its occupants. With such a defensive weapon system employed, an attacking flotilla of enemy ships could be quickly eradicated and the planet wide civilizations saved. After a pause, Lara said, "Bombardment of our world by a comet, a large meteor, or an asteroid unfortunately will not be deflected nor pulverized by even these new laser devices. The forces involved are just too large." Jere then said to the family, "Lara and I realized that this oncoming asteroidal collision could not be handled with our existing defensive systems. Therefore, we have created a device that combines magnetic antiparticles with gamma radiation generated at specific frequencies that will make our world invincible. Lara and I believe that the discharge of these forces together will produce a rift in space." Jere then added, "Lara and I have dubbed our destructive instrument 'the Disruptor.' In essence," Jeremy stated, "our contrivance will produce energy from our weapon system that will propagate a magnetic antiparticles beam wrapped within a gamma radiation envelope. The effect of this disruptor beam will form a rift in space producing a null continuum within the space fissure that is connected to our normal space-time continuum. When an object has been pulled into the space fissure, like a meteor, it should be eradicated within the null crevice. If Lara and I are correct, any item after entering the breach the disruptor created in the void will cease to exist." After a pause, Lara cautioned those present, "The disruptor device is still in the theoretical stage and could fail to function properly when it is discharged. Therefore, a fleet of intergalactic spaceships, as large as possible, needs to be constructed if for some reason evacuation from our world becomes a reality." Lara's soulmate then added, "I must reiterate, while the family is engaged in constructing this new disruptor weapon system, a large aggregate of intergalactic vessels for the possible evacuation from Earth must also be fabricated as rapidly as feasible. As horrible as a world evacuation scheme might be, it must be considered. The probability that such a maneuver might be necessary is still highly feasible." As the Kent family began to muster its resources, Clark said, "We also should try collecting a large amount of space debris that we can hurtle at the asteroid as it plummets on its collision trajectory toward Earth. Such an act may alter the asteroid flight path so that its motion may not cause it to collide with our planet." "If the space junk idea fails," Lori added, "we'll utilize Lara and Jere's new weapon system." "You should all realize," CK warned, "if our interception attempts fail to halt or change the course of the meteor, only a fraction of Earth's population can be saved from consequences caused by the asteroid's collision with our world." Five months from doom's day, Jeremy and Lara's terrible invention was tested using an asteroid subject in the Ort area of Sol's solar system. When the disruptor successfully test fired, Jeremy murmured, "Thank G-D." The disruptor functioned beyond the family's wildest dreams. Lara and her husband were ecstatic. Earth now had a chance of prolongation. One side effect of discharging the disruptor was a space quake. When the disruptor's use was discontinued, normal space in the region near the weapon's discharge range rushed to fill the void generated when the Ort asteroid was extinguished. Because of the minimal test conditions associated with the new weapon, only a mediocre space quake was produced and normal space resulted within the test region, destroying Ort debris after the rift filling effect occurred. Because of a possible space quake after the disruptor was discharged, it was decided to keep Lara and Jeremy's disruptor in reserve. The result, if too violent, could produce catastrophic results near or on Earth itself. Therefore, the other schemes developed by the people of Earth would be used before the disruptor would be employed. In theory, it could destroy the universe. The military also had a plan and put their two cents into saving Earth from annihilation. It was a nuclear option. The marshal elements in Russia and the United States wanted to use their nuclear armada - a vast quantity of nuclear tipped missiles, which could be fired at the asteroid. The military people believed that such nuclear power would obliterate the space material now on a collision trajectory with Earth. There was a good probability that the U.S. and Russian approach to the asteroid problem would succeed. However, the resulting radiation from the military's proposal would also produce a plethora of radioactive debris that would rain down upon the Earth causing the demise of many people living on the land masses that covered their planet. After all the proposals were considered and attempted, excluding the nuclear option, the disruptor was eventually employed. As Jere and his soulmate expected, it eradicated the asteroid. The space quake, which was portended, was marginal, altering the Earth's environment conditions to a negligible degree. The temperature of the planet was found to fluctuate several tenths of a degree due to a slight fluctuation in the Earth's orbital motion. The Future After the meteoric incident had passed, the Kent clan, their associates, and friends were content with an idyllic living period - a duration of five years or so. During this time, Lara, Jeremy and Lori initiated several STAR lab investigations and their results were the marvel and envy of the world's scientific community. Also during this time frame, Lara and Lori gave birth to five children. One set of fraternal twins conceived by Lara and Jere were named Joshua and Rebecca, while Lori and Dick became the parents of triplets - two males and a female - the names given to their kids were Adam, Benjamin, and Judith. During this period, Dick, now the CEO of Bruce Wayne's billion dollar enterprises, had amassed a still greater fortune for the Wayne industrial complex. Sometime after Lara's and Lori's kids had celebrated their first year of life, Jeremy Setland began to hear a strange voice resonating within his mind. If it were not for Lara's telepathic linkage to her soulmate, Jere would start to believe he was becoming deranged. The slumber messages occurred as Jeremy began to fall into a relatively deep sleep. It was during this deep sleep period that the strange communiques commenced. The messages were sharp and lucent, which caused Lara's husband to awaken, startling Lara also into wakefulness. The question Jeremy recalled after each episode seemed to ask, "Can you hear this call, Jeremy Setland?" At last, Jeremy answered, "Yes, my wife and I can mentally hear your call. We'll attempt to answer you telepathically tomorrow evening." During the coming day, Jeremy and his wife Lara had an urgent discussion with a major portion of the Kent and Setland families. All agreed that before anything further was done, they should attempt to establish full contact with the unknown entity. That evening Jeremy and Lara finally learned what the sleep messenger required of them. The next day, Lara and Jeremy informed the family that the telepathic messages, as they suspected, were from a future time continuum. A period which existed about two hundred and twenty-five thousand years from their current time-space hereafter. After the future time communiques were corroborated using Lois and CK's interlocking minds phenomena, the two reporters, Bernie Klein, and other scientists in the Kent clan developed a remarkable detection instrument which could record the transmitted messages gathered by Lara and Jeremy as they reached their rem sleep cycle late each evening. From the futuristic data, the people in the Kent sanctuary ultimately understood that Lara and Jere were urgently needed by their future descendents, descendents that were a Utopian culture that had been spawned from the Kents and part of the population from SOL Three -the planet Earth. As Earth's inhabitants moved into the galaxy over time to settle in livable areas within the Milky Way, some of the Utopians traveled on Earth's great migrations into the Milky Way. The scientist who was contacting Jere and his wife was called Zarth Arn, and aided by his assistant named Vel Quen, they had devised their own calling instrument that could transmit thoughts across the centuries during an individual's sleep period. Both scientists were citizens of a galactic oasis called the Mid-Galactic Empire, the greatest civilization within the galaxy. The capital of the empire was located on a world within the Canopus star system. Zarth Arn was a prince of the royal house. His brother Jhal Arn, the first born, was the ruler of the constitutional monarchy and headed the governing system of the empire. The leaders of the different star-kingdoms within the Milky Way, sometimes warlike rivals, were given titles to better hold together their widely separated star systems, which were inhabited by humans descended from Earth and exhibited different ethnic codes and creeds. These oases of life were widely scattered throughout the vast Milky Way galaxy. From the Kent's mental receiver, with Lara and Jeremy acting as the antenna, the scientists living and using the Kent sanctuary discovered that in this future time there also existed, within a plethora of different star associations, groups of star systems that had formed alliances for their mutual protection. For example, there were independent star-worlds called the Baronies existing mostly throughout the Hercules cluster. There was also a sizable Kingdom in the Formalhaut realm, and a number of smaller kingdoms such as Lyra, Cygnus, Polaris, and other smaller star domains, most of which were allies of the Mid-Gallactic Empire. Clark and his kin also learned that there was a sizable empire that existed within the largest dark cloud in the Milky Way. Within the borders of this huge cloud cluster existed the League of Dark Worlds, composed of suns and worlds engulfed in nearly perpetual murkiness that covered the cloud region. The league was the most powerful and jealous rival of the Mid-Gallactic Empire. It was dominated by a man known as Kar Kam, the absolute dictator of the cloud region, a man who was continually increasing the size of the clouds' war capabilities - armadas of intergalactic battle cruisers. The name of the federation that linked the cloud worlds was generally called the League. This island of galaxy life was initiated by the criminals and rift raft of the galaxy. Kar Kam was quite aware that the Mid-Gallactic Empire was the dominant force within the galaxy and had long sought to induce the various star-kingdoms to unite and banish all war in the Milky Way under banner. Simultaneously, as he attempted to gather other star dominions to his cause, he politically intrigued against the Mid-Gallactic Empire policies of unification, by fomenting jealousies of the smaller star-kingdoms against the empire's efforts at galactic unification under democratic principles. After contacting H.G. Wells, a time traveler originally from the latter part of the nineteenth century, the novelist was requested to travel to the far future and find Jhal Arn and Vel Quen and return with them to the Kents' current time frame. Once the two future men arrived in their past, Jhal Arn and Vel Quen told Lois and Clark, their family members, and their friends that their secret Utopian identities were Samuel Jonathan Kent and Joshua Klein. The Kent designation from their antiquity really referred to a Lane-Kent appellation. All Utopian names maintained the Lane-Kent lineage with their forename coming from their own past family history. So, Jon, Richard, Joshua, Samuel, Viki, Joan, etc. were common appellations in the secretive Utopian society during their future time frame. After introductions between the Ancient Utopian culture, Lois and Clark et al, and the future Mid-Galactic Empire people had been finished, info from Samuel Kent and Joshua Klein began to explain the paramount problem that very recently had developed between the ruling house of the Mid-Galactic Empire and the Formalhaut Star Kingdom, whose present dominion ruler was known as Lady Linanna Jarsi. Some moments later, the twenty-first century Samuel Setland entered the time conference and was given the opportunity to converse with the futurists. His questions were based upon his normal curiosity. He wondered how the current ruling political structures had evolved as the star kingdoms dotting the Milky Way galaxy evolved. Joshua Klein (Vel Quen) indicated that as the space pioneers and explorers permeated the void each spacecraft was controlled by a Utopian family who remained in contact with other Utopian cultures that had also evolved in the Sol solar system before emigration to the stars had begun. The household remained in contact with the Earth based Utopian systems by using the teleportation units secretly placed upon each migrating spaceship. Since the intergalactic activities within each family unit aboard the exploration spacecraft were essentially self contained, such conditions allowed the offspring from each Utopian family to be sent daily to Utopian centers in the SOL Three star system. There, they could be thoroughly educated and eventually discover their soulmates or life partners. As time passed, the capital of the galaxy wide Utopian society was transferred to the Ort belt where the weapon systems and other scientific equipment were warehoused and the preeminent educational and cultural activities were located. Small communities, however, still were maintained on SOL Three to safeguard the Utopian stock. Using teleportation equipment, the Earth communities could move conveniently between the SOL Three and the main Utopian citadel situated in the Ort belt. "The fabricated housing materials made from stabilized neutronium, a substance discovered during this time frame, now provides houses for more than a billion people," Sam and Joshua declared to their progenitors. Asking and receiving approval from his fellow Canopian, Joshua told his ancestors that Sam was not only his friend but also the ruler of the Mid-Galactic Empire. His twin sibling was also a male, and in the Canopian dialect was called Zarth Arn. Zarth was a prince of the royal house and second in line for succession to the Empire leadership. After a pause, Jhal placed his arm on Josh's shoulder and remarked, "Zarth was my brother and was assassinated some months ago by a professional killer we believed was in the employ of the League. The timing for my brother's passing was fortuitous. Zarth (or Richard) had just become engaged to Linanna the ruler of the Formalhaut galactic aggregation and his Utopian life partner. Although Zarth himself is out of the picture, knowledge of his assassination is still unknown to the people of the Empire. The time of his passing was fortuitous in a strange sense because his murder gave us time to act. The timing of his dispatch provided us the opportunity to locate a possible replacement for the upcoming betrothal ceremony. To give us a chance to locate a possible replacement, we postponed the ceremony for several months announcing illness as the reason." After a pause, Jhal continued, "Before his death, Zarth completed his greatest scientific achievement. Zarth produced an instrument that could contact individuals who lived in past time periods. For his initial test, Zarth set his apparatus to contact Jeremy. The rest you know." As Thal Arn took a breath, Ben Setland entered the room. After he introduced himself, Val said, 'He's the one we've been searching for. His soulmate oscillations correspond to Linanna's frequency." Directing his question to Ben, Vel asked, "Do you have a soulmate?" "Are you wed and have children?" Thal hurridly queried Ben. "No, on all accounts," Ben replied to Thal and his companion with a chuckle in his voice. "Thank heaven," they both murmured. Then Vel and Thal repeated what Lois and Clark and their children already knew. "When we return to our time and announce the death of my brother," Jhal said, "there will be political repercussions throughout the Milky Way. Soon after Zarth's demise will be announced and a proper period of mourning observed, Nardi Lyz, a distant cousin of Kar Kam, who married into the family of one of the Barony's star groups leaders, will, I'm sure, introduce Linanna to Kyle Lyz with the intension of creating a matrimonial climate between the two houses. If such a matrimony union occurs, the Formalhaut Star Association could become an ally of the Cloud people, weakening the military status of the Mid-Galactic Empire and its allies within the galaxy." A rather lengthy discussion continued with Benjamin (Ben) Setland, to be known as Belton Arn, a prince of the Canopian royal house, and the couple Jeremy and Lara Setland called Jeram and Loretta Arn, also nobles of the Arn household and until recently had made their home on SOL Three at the periphery of the Empire. The two children born to Lara and Jere on the Kent farm would be raised for a time by Lois and Clark until Jeremy Setland and his soulmate Lara returned to their roots or other arrangements could be made for the children's upbringing. ******* As H.G. Wells returned Jhan Arn and Vel Quen to Canopus, Lara, Jeremy, and Benjamin Setland made their way by an intergalactic spaceship to the Ort Utopian Sanctuary, which had been recently fabricated from stabilized neutronium. There a special vault was fashioned where all the weapon systems and other ingenious inventions of the Kent family and its associates were to be stored. Then, after modifying a copy of their teleportation device so it could move through the time stream, the interstellar spacecraft was hurled through time to two hundred and twenty-five thousand AD. When the humans and their accompanying droids disembarked from their space ship, they were greeted by the Utopians of that future time. Working around the clock the Setlands and their droids placed the several dimension destroyers, disruptors, and a host of laser cannons into hidden firing compartments within their spacecraft's stabilized neutronium hull. The Setland's battle cruiser itself was now essentially impervious to any enemy's weapon system and could, if necessary, be a destroyer of enemy space fleets. When all preparations necessary had been completed, Jeremy, his soulmate, and his older brother Ben with a half dozen droids set off for Canopus, the capital world of the Mid-Galactic Empire. As the interstellar vessel hurled through the Milky Way, the hundred or so droids left within the Utopian sanctuary went to work to construct a large battle fleet to counteract any armada from the league of dark worlds if they were set in motion to conquer the free regions of the Milky Way. On their journey across the galaxy, the ancient Earth humans studied the epic tales with the aid of thought spools that allowed the Earth folk to learn about man's conquest of the stars and the settling of the galaxy. The Setlands were shown great feats of heroism during humankind's many exploration efforts, disastrous wrecks in cosmic clouds and nebulae, and bitter struggles against stellar aborigines too alien for peaceful contact. Sometime during humankind's expansion into the Milky Way, many criminals and fugitives sought refuge from the law in the cloud region of the galaxy and eventually founded the League of Dark Worlds, now a rival and at times a menace to the more civilized worlds and large settled areas within the Milky Way. A few days into their journey to the Canopus star system an alarm sounded and ten war ships, league phantom cruisers, suddenly appeared on their ship's view finder. These sinister vessels did not show any kind of identifying emblem, but the shape of the intruding space craft was a very telling sign. The video monitor showed a control room loaded with gray uniformed helmeted men who carried weapons with long, slim-barreled pistols and were preparing to board the Mid-Galactic Empire spacecraft constructed with stabilized neutronium. One of the android crew stated, "While those men wear the uniform of the Empire, their physical appearances indicate that they live within Cloud's domain. Notice also that their coloration varies from a white to an ashen hue. Some of the ship's warriors possess a colorless and an unnatural chalk like white." Android, I-23, who had spoken somewhat earlier, further remarked, "I believe we should contact the closest Empire naval facility immediately." "Do so," Jeremy replied. Within a few seconds, I-23 informed his human compatriots that the ten intruding vessels were blocking their spaceship's alert signals. Soon after I-23's information, they were informed of their entrapment by a sneering Cloud trooper. It was then that Ben, aka Belton Arn, prepared the android crew and his family members for battle. Then, the Utopian cruiser set upon the apparently ten hostile intergalactic war ships sent by the Cloud with laser cannons blazing destroying the entire League squadron that had been dispatched to intercept and either destroy or capture the spacecraft traveling from the Earth environs to Canopus. The few dazed Cloud survivors of the brief battle were captured and brought aboard the Utopian vessel where they were slapped in irons. Upon reaching Canopus, these individuals were handed over to the Empire authorities for interrogation. Then the stealth mechanism on their Utopian intergalactic battle cruiser was engaged, and the vessel was placed in a circuitous orbit about the Canopian solar furnace-sun. Making sure the Utopian vessel was properly cloaked, Jhan Arn, Vel Quen, and the three antediluvian Earth Utopians began to grapple with the Empire's tactics and strategy connected with the current economic and military conditions throughout the Milky Way. As they conversed, Linanna Jarsi of the Formalhaut Star Collection entered the conference chamber inquiring the whereabouts of Jhal. After being told, the noble lady appeared in Jhal's presence. As Linanna approached, the Setlands arose out of respect for her position and offered their greetings. Kyle Lyz, who was accompanying Linanna, broke into peals of laughter as she remarked, "Such behavior is so antiquated and unnecessary to show respect to a noble individual." Linanna, sensing that the people with Thal were Utopians, her people, faced Nardi, Kyle, and their entourage and asked them to leave the conference chamber. She had private words for Jhal and the other individuals in the room. After the Nardi group vacated the area, Jhal and the others secured the room from unwanted spying instruments. The device displayed by Ben would visually and audibly proof a room from the outside snooping devices. After a pause, Linanna declared, "I sense that we here are all Utopians. "That's true," Jhal quickly replied. Pointing to the Setlands, Jhal informed Linanna that they were from the far past - more than two hundred millennia. Jhal then remarked, "Their names are Lara, Jeremy, and Benjamin Setland - Lara and Jere are soulmates. Ben has not been blessed with a life partner. He was the basic reason for their trip to our time continuum. Joshua, here, pointing to Vel Quen, you know. He was Richard's intimate friend and has also been my silent and intimate colleague and consultant." Ben Setland then rose and added, "Linanna, since I was without a soulmate and you had unfortunately lost your potential life partner, I was requested to lure you away from Kyle, if possible, and prevent all the negative ramifications to the galaxy that such a union would engender." After a pause, resounding laughter emanated from Linanna. The leader of the Formalhaut Star array then remarked, "I would never form any kind of matrimonial alliance with that Lyz clan." Smiling, Ben then said, "I guess that Lara, Jere and myself won't be needed during this time frame." Ben then added, "I guess we can leave for home any time now. My research and medical duties call. How do you feel about my views?" Ben then asked Lara and Jeremy. They nodded their heads agreeing with their brother's comments. Then, Ben took several paces toward Linanna, stopped, and remarked with fervor, "May the creator of the Universe grant you peace, good health, and continue to maintain your wisdom." He then bowed to the cluster leader and kissed her hand. As Ben's lips touched Linanna's hand, an energy rushed between their bodies. The energy surge that rushed through Ben's and Linanna's bodies caused them to fall floorward, leaving them both breathless. Looking Ben directly in the eyes, she said, "You and your family now have a reason to stay and help with the galactic storm that will be provoked by the League in the near future." "What is Linanna implying?" Ben asked his sister-in-law, Lara. Smiling, Jere's soulmate said, "Ben you have just discovered your life partner. Congratulations." After hearing Lara's comment, Ben turned toward Linanna. "How did Linanna and you know, Lara?" Ben quickly inquired of his sister-in-law. Then, Lara replied to her brother-in-law, "I could feel the electrical surge between Linanna and you as the two of you made contact." After a pause, Lara also added, "As your bonding charge went to you Ben and your soulmate, it also transferred to your brother Jere. This same charge was conveyed to me because Jeremy is my husband, and our special linkage informed me of the bonding event. Then, Lara and Linanna helped Ben to his feet and Debra Noya, Linanna's Utopian appellation, took Ben in her arms. "You know, of course," Debra articulated to her soulmate, "only two of your party will eventually return permanently to your time frame. It is fortunate," Debra announced, "that because of Utopia's new and modified devices our families will be able to visit one another during our rather unusual and extensive lifetimes." After Debra's declaration, Ben could better understand why his name had suddenly vanished after the Lois and Clark Utopian era passed into history and the next phase of the super civilization began developing. When library investigations occurred which provided an account of the Mid-Galactic Empire conflict with the League, the Utopians found that Ben Setland was linked with Debra Noya, aka Lady Linanna Jarsi. In the normal jargon of the day, Belton Arn was the consort of Linanna of Formalhaut during their relatively extensive lifetime together and both functioned with distinction during the League war. ******* That evening, very soon after Debra and Ben discovered they were soulmates, Belton (Ben) was summoned to Linanna's (Debra's) apartments within the official residence areas reserved for foreign dignitaries and those of noble rank. After Ben was admitted to Linanna's elegant lodgings, her servants were dismissed for the evening. Once alone, the two soulmates conversed to almost sunrise. The main topic of their talk focused upon Nardi and Kyle Lyz, two individuals who were enemies of most folk not allied with the League and had to be kept in the dark as to the rapidly escalating growing feelings between the soulmate pair. During the days following the Setlands' arrival, Jeremy, Lara and Ben, all first-class scientists and physicians, and as far as anyone knew part of the Arn household, were provided with living accommodations within the Empire's special housing area. Because of their scientific skills Jhal made sure that the Setlands were also provided with sub-rosa laboratory quarters. From their new clandestine working accommodations, Jhal Arn and his military were soon provided with a far-reaching scanning device which could penetrate any galaxy location that might be harboring forces with possible hostile intent. Until the arrival of the ancient Utopians, the Mid Galactic Empire scanning equipment could not probe any portion of the League's dominion. With the new scanning implements, the Setlands had provided the Empire with the means to monitor all movement within the Cloud. Lara, Jere, and Ben's new scanning device was a fortuitous invention, a G-D sent, since it provided the Mid-Galactic Empire with important information about the League, especially how the Empire's potential enemy used the Cloud's murkiness as cover when moving the fleets of space battle machines from one location to another. The Empire and its allies, utilizing the Setland's new equipment, discovered that the Cloud people possessed three times as many engines of war as was previously suspected. The only weapon system that could currently prevent the Cloud League and their allies from attacking the free regions of the Milky Way was the fabled disruptor known from antiquity. The disruptor was known to have saved the Milky Way a number of times from invaders who came from other nearby galactic domains. The weapon itself was believed to have been created nearly a quarter of a million years in the past to save the galaxy's mother world - Earth. It had been nearly a hundred thousand years since the great battle off Gemini ensued between the battle fleets of the Milky Way kingdoms and an outside galaxy. Under the command of Bren Arn and by employing the disruptor, their ancestors all but annihilated the Beast Beings from a galaxy cluster known as Andromeda nebula. The peoples living within the Milky Way survived that invasion threat to create its present magnificent galactic civilization. Now, a new enemy, from within the galaxy itself, was menacing the tranquility of the Milky Way. The current Cloud peril, which was controlled by Kar Kam, a man who sought power for its own sake, was about ready to plunge the galaxy into a horrible war of conquest. However, before Kar Kam would order his great armadas of intergalactic war ships into action, he had to know whether Bren Arn's disruptor was the deadly weapon history said it was or merely a fanciful falsehood to restrain any hostile kingdom that would arise within the galaxy coalition for the sake of conquest by using a fear factor. When the clandestine Cloud operation by the Arn family and their subsequent evaluation of their sub-rosa data had been completed, the Utopians in the Jhal Arn court realized that the billion or so Utopians - Kryptonian descendents in actuality - were insufficient numerically to produce the necessary combatants to stave-off any Cloud armada that could be released by Kar Kam when he attempted to conquer the Milky Way - there were currently apparently twelve hundred trillion League inhabitants under arms. Even combining the current Star Kingdom battle fleets with the Utopian armed forces would be inadequate to keep the League's military forces at bay without the disruptor. Unknown to most people in the galaxy, Kar Kam had been building his war machine for an extended period at a very rapid pace. The size of his military was now so extensive as to easily rout the democratic governments throughout the Milky Way. If the Utopian military were suddenly added to the defensive alignment against the League, their presence would make very little difference in a classic military campaign. If the freedom loving people of the galaxy could survive this current crisis, future battle cruisers of the Milky Way battle fleets would be fabricated from stabilized neutronium and possess an armament that would consist of an array of laser cannons. This weapon, also an ancient weapon system, would be capable of shredding all kinds of matter reducing it to fragments. The proposed modern space fleets would be virtually indestructible. If the League's armadas erupted from the Cloud, some battle cruisers with each Empire fleet would be constructed of stabilized neutronium and would carry weaponry consisting of laser cannons and a single disruptor unit. These special war crafts would provide the final and great destructive punch that would obliterate the rampaging League and its threat to the Milky Way and its people. While the specially stabilized neutronium battle cruisers were currently being constructed, the building of these ships was slow because of outmoded methods of processing the new stabilized neutronium building material. Those in the know were aware that Jhal Arn's military notions were of course for the future. At present the League's forthcoming military foray into the heart of the galaxy must be the essential overriding concerns of galaxy free fighting forces. Now, Jhal said to his brethren, "All we can do is wait for Kar Kam's blow to fall and hope the man is wise enough not to attempt conquest." Then smiling, Jhal said, "Let's rejoin Linanna's birthday celebration." Turing to his cousin, Jhal, Belton Arn (Ben) gave him a small package. "Unfortunately," Ben added, "I can't join you at Linanna's birthday bash. I didn't receive an invitation to her shivaree, and it's not my nature to crash parties." "What's in the box?" Jere quietly asked his brother. "A birthday gift for Linanna," Ben quietly replied. "I still can be gracious in my own fashion." Continuing, Ben added, "I purchased parts of her gift from that small jewelry store you accompanied me to from time to time. The diamonds, gold, rhodium, and platinum I mined myself and completed my birthday package to Linanna with the jewelry shop equipment I purchased with the salary we were given for our work." As Ben was ambulating toward his apartment, he came across Dar Carrul followed by his family. The man, a leader of the largest Barony dominion, was as Ben, a Utopian. Both Ben and Dar (Daniel Stein) recognized their common lineage immediately and communicated their next few thoughts telepathically. Behind his entourage was a girl of about three years of age who her step mother called Silvi (Lynn). Looking closer, Ben saw that Dar's wife was none other than Nardi Lyz - their marriage was a part of a political package that his governing council had forced upon him after the untimely death of his soulmate. As Ben was about to continue toward his living quarters, Nardi said to her husband, "Dar, ask Belton to care for Silvi so we can really enjoy Linanna's birthday bash. He has not been invited to such an illustrious event. Her words hurt, but Ben simply smiled and said, "I guess my humanity is just second class, however, I'm still willing to allow my humble self to care for Dar's daughter; it would be a pleasure and privilege to do so." Nodding to Dar, Ben turned to Silvi and asked the young girl if she wished to spend an evening with him. Her smile lighted up the corridor. As Dar and Nardi left Silvi with Belton Arn, the Baron's wife commented, "Are those tears I see, my love?" Looking at Nardi and smiling, Dar replied, "Something must have irritated my eyes." Nardi nodded but did not notice that Dar's smile never reached his tearing eyes. Before another word could be uttered, the Baron and his distasteful political consort were off toward Linanna's birthday gala. As the shadows lengthened, Ben cooked an elaborate meal for himself and his young guest, allowing her to help in the preparation of their banquet for two. "Who taught you how to cook," Silvi asked Belton. "Your cuisine is delicious." "A very gracious lady whose name was Martha Kent. I'll always remember her. Not only could she cook, but she was a kind and considerate person - both she and her husband Jonathan." After their feast, Silvi asked Ben to be her teacher in the preparation of such delicious foods. His positive reply caused Silvi's smile to illuminate his usually lonely apartment. After cleaning the eating utensils, Silvi asked Ben to take her to a spot where she could view a portion of Linanna's birthday gala. As nearly total darkness surrounded the Arn palace, Ben picked up Silvi and floated them to an aerial location from which the child could observe the festivities occurring at Linanna's birthday bash using Ben's super eyes as her telescope. Silvi was too young to have developed any super abilities. Sensing his brother was close by, Jere visually searched until he found Ben holding Lynn (Silvi) close to him and levitating just out of sight above the ballroom. He was allowing Dar's child to enjoy the frolicking folk at their party tables and on the ballroom dance floor. When Linanna came to the Setland's table, she was introduced to Lara and Jeremy, Dan Stein and his devious and unwanted consort Nardi Lyz. Jeremy handed Linanna two gifts from his family and one from Dar; the birthday lady acknowledged the Baron and his wife's generosity and the Setland's presents. Standing next to the Formalhaut princess was Kyle Lyz; Nardi was her first cousin and the Baron's relative. Before those sitting at the Baron's table, Kyle, in a show of pure opulence and obvious poor taste, opened his own particular gift and placed a matinee length of jewelry that comprised a diamond-ruby pendant about Linanna's neck. After a rather stunned Linanna Jarsi thanked Kyle for his most magnificent gift, his cousin Nardi Lyz remarked, "I'm sure not even your dual presents from Jhal's relatives will be comparable to my family's magnificent gift to the Formalhaut's noble leader." "Actually," Jeremy said, "only one of the packages is from my wife and me. The other jeweled container holds a birthday token from my older brother, Belton Arn - he did not receive an invitation to this magnificent affair." Linanna immediately opened Ben's present and saw a pair of huggie type earrings composed of white gold and relatively large yellow diamonds cut in a magnificent style. Looking at the gift, Jeram Arn told his host, "My brother made them for our mother, Rachel, for her last birthday she would celebrate with us on our home world. My mother talked to us shortly before her soul joined her husband's at the Well of Souls. I must tell you she and my father were joined in their soulmate bond for nearly eighty years. As we were about leave her room our mother passed on. It seemed to us that she was aware that her time of parting was at hand. As she was slipping in the next world, she removed her special earrings and beseeched Belton to present them to the woman who held his loving soul within her own loving and caring being." Snickering, Nardi Lyz remarked, "Those trinkets will never match the value of my family's present." Lara, looking straight into Nardi's eyes said, "Your comment is tasteless. A gift passed through the ages that would be cherished by two lovers for a lifetime is worth more that all the riches one could ever glean from the universe." After pausing she continued, "Those earrings wait for another lifetime of affection between two soulmates, with all the trials and tribulations that accompany the love between two life partners." Lady Linanna seated herself next to Loretta Arn and requested that she place Belton's (Ben's) gift in the perforations found in her ears - placed there when Linanna had been born and strangely had remained empty since the occasion of her birth. After the beautiful earrings had been inserted, Linanna asked Loretta and her husband why Belton Arn was not present. The reply was swift and to the point. "My brother did not receive an invitation, my Lady," Jeram told her. Hearing Jeram Arn's statement, Linanna swiftly rose and rapidly traversed the distance to her workroom. Reaching her invitation book, she found that Belton Arn's name had been expunged from her invitation list. Of course, no one knew how Belton's name would have been deliberately omitted from her invitation list. It would be an affront to the Arn family. Upon returning to the Arn table, Linanna immediately saw that Nardi Lyz had disappeared from the area. She then turned to Jhal and apologized. The leader and ruler of the Mid-Galactic Empire graciously accepted her regrets. After a pause, Linanna said, "This indignity to my friends is a personal vendetta." Then she added, "I'll get to the bottom of this affront." Then giving Kyle Lyz a nasty look, she turned and was about to visit alone with other guests invited to her birthday shindig. Before she left, however, Lara remarked quietly to her, "Place your eyes at the top part of the wall near the pinnacle of the ballroom." After a few seconds, her super eyes beheld Ben with Lynn's arms locked about his neck. As Linanna watched the two Utopians, she saw that Ben was busy describing the various dances and other party games and activities that were in progress to the sweet little girl. As she continued to watch her soulmate interact with Dar's little girl, tears pooled in her eyes. She had just been shown the best and most thoughtful part of her birthday gala. Ben's actions with the young girl and his gift on her special day unequivocally revealed that he was truly her own soulmate and life partner. Later that evening, Lady Linanna knocked at Ben's dwelling. When he opened the entrance way of his small apartment, Ben found himself staring at his soulmate. Within seconds, the two lovers were entangled within one another's arms. As Linanna crushed her lips to Ben's, a young girl's voice said, "Is she the one you love?" Looking at Silvi, his charge for the evening, Ben remarked, "Most assuredly, little one, my love for her is for forever and a day." Then Ben picked up Silvi and presented her to Linanna. Silvi then said, "She's a Utopian like us. Ben, after quickly looking about, closed the door to his quarters and said to Dar's offspring, "You are a very observant little girl and in this case correct. But Silvi," he added, "for the sake of our safety and your own protection, that information must be kept locked in your head whenever you are not in our Utopian sanctuary." The young girl nodded her head in a positive nature and said, "I've been keeping my father's secret for a long time. Now, I'll not only keep yours and your soulmate's, Ben, but I'll keep the secret of all Utopians I will encounter." When Linanna heard Ben's emotional expressions concerning his feelings for her, she at last had her definitive answer to a nagging question that had been coursing through her mind. Would he stay with her in a bonded soulmate pair when the League problem was eventually resolved? Now she had her answer. She knew he would stay with her. Linanna was also still somewhat surprised at the intensity of his commitment to her. The tingling that now inundated her nervous system told her of their great love and commitment, one for the other, which would be for an eternity of time. As Lynn yawned, Ben asked his soulmate Debra, Lady Linanna of Formalhaut, if she would help him put Silvi to bed. A short time after Dar's natural daughter was sound asleep there was a knock at his door. Linanna silently slipped into Ben's sleeping quarters as Ben as Belton Arn answered the door to his abode. There in his entrance way was Dar Carrul and his political consort Nardi Lyz. When Nardi discovered that her step child was sleeping, she nagged her husband to allow Silvi (Lynn) to stay the night. She wanted to experience the high life, the game playing that plagued the Arn residence by lasting to all hours of the night. Dar then ask Belton to bring his daughter to his quarters on the morrow. Ben readily agreed to Dar's request and opened the door to allow his friend and Nardi to leave. Dar was very gratified to Belton for providing him with the solution to stifle his political liability, Nardi his consort. It also was to Ben's advantage to have Dar's entourage leave his abode quickly so Linanna would not be discovered and her reputation sullied. He also wished that the rooms within his home to be empty, except for Silvi, so Linanna and he could seriously converse about their current situation and their future. During their lengthy discussion that evening, Linanna proposed an idea that would allow Benjamin Setland to visit with her without much suspicion surrounding his visitation. Linanna's entire plan was thus centered about the child Silvi. If Dar would allow Ben to be her guardian when he was politically committed, then Ben could meet his soulmate within Dar's garden or anywhere they thought safe and with Silvi they would be free to do as they wished. When Ben returned Silvi to Dar (Daniel stein), Ben proposed what Linanna had suggested, which to Ben's surprise was highly acceptable to the Baron. As Ben was leaving, Dar walked with him to his apartment. During their stroll, Dar told Ben that he was grateful for the free time his offer gave him by babysitting Silvi. Then more quietly, Dar said to his friend, "Watch your back. Your tactics to see your loved one, while brilliant in scope, is still fraught with some danger. Although Silvi will provide you with a shield as you and Lady Linanna see one another with a child, eyes, although to a lesser degree, will still watch the actions between you and the Formalhaut ruler." "Thanks," Ben remarked to the Baron (Dan Stein). "That brilliant plan you mentioned was not due to my thinking, Dar, but was concocted by my soulmate, Debra (Linanna)." As Dar was about to leave for a political hassle with some of the League representatives, he said, "It doesn't matter who proposed the Silvi idea, the plan belongs to you both. You and Linanna are life partners and that's all there is to that. You must know that Kyle Lyz has made it known directly and in a sneaky manner that Linanna is his girl. He has told many of his sycophants that he intends to make her his wife. Nardi Lyz, my political wife, is doing all that is humanly possible to aid Kyle's matrimonial aspirations. Consider his birthday gift to Linanna. It was a definite warning to other suitors to keep away." Smiling, Dar ambulated rapidly to his meeting with Lara (Loretta Arn) and Jere (Jeram Arn), saying, "We shall meet again, my friend." Several days later, one Belton Arn arrived at Dar Carrul's embassy residence to receive Silvi Carrul for an outing. Leaving the Baron's embassy, Ben escorted his friend's daughter to the first of many science museums and learning centers. Under Ben's tutelage, Silvi was fast becoming a first-class science student. The bond between the two of them was such that Silvi considered herself as having an added uncle. On their first day together, and after having a nice lunch at the museum, Ben and Silvi visited Linanna at a session of the Galactic council. As they entered the great hall and approached the Formalhaut leader's permanent seat, they were intercepted by a troop of roughnecks from the Lyx clan. They drew their traditional weapons, similar to swords employed on an old Earth, but layered with a green material called Kryptonite. The name and the reason for the green covering substance on their metallic blades had unfortunately not been lost to history. Seeing the deadly intent of the Lyz warriors, Ben immediately covered Silvi with his body to save her from any grievous wounds. When Silvi saw blood gushing from wounds in Ben's back, she screamed almost hysterically and loud enough for the work of the assembly to halt. Seeing her soulmate being assaulted, Linanna drew her rapier and slew six of the Lyz guards within a few seconds and was restrained from killing the remainder of the hoodlum guards by her colleagues. Then leaning over her soulmate, she said to him, "Belton Arn, you've got to survive." Then she saw to it that he was rushed to the council hospital. A few hours later she was told that Belton Arn would make a full recovery, and she had nothing to worry about. During the waiting period for Ben's surgery, Lady Linanna asked Kyle why he had his thugs attack an unarmed man with a young child who was simply approaching the area where Linanna had her council seat within the galactic chamber. Kyle Lyx then replied, "I was just protecting my fiancee. My men simply over reacted." Jhal, looking steely eyed upon Kyle's countenance, coldly said, "Not only do you have a viperous tongue, you compound your political ambitions and jealousy by lying." Pausing for a moment, Jhal added, "As far as I know, Lady Linnanna is not your fiancee." As Jhal was speaking, Linanna was shaking attempting to control her anger. After Jhal had all but accused Nardi's cousin, Kyle, of being a scoundrel with murderous intent, he all but ruined Kyle Lyz's reputation with a series of rebukes, which would make it difficult for him to continue mingling within polite society. Lady Linanna added the coup de grace - a finishing blow - when she yelled at Kyle, throwing his birthday gift - the diamond and ruby necklace - across the political chamber scattering the precious gems over the floor of the house. Gaining some control over her emotions she said, "Presenting me with a costly birthday gift does not purchase a betrothal. That is a loathsome assumption on your part, Kyle, and it is a fallacy. Count Lyz you never have been nor will you ever become my matrimonial partner in this or any of my lifetimes." Kyle immediately left the political chamber within the Arn residence with the remaining portion of his bodyguard and by that afternoon had left for home within the League's domain. Later that day, Linanna could be found in Ben's hospital room holding Belton's hand as he asked about her and the welfare of Silvi. Under the influence of his pain medication, he said, "Debra, I wish that some day we will be blessed with a child like Silvi." Linanna was aware that her drugged soulmate made certain comments he would never had uttered if he were in a drug free condition. Hearing the mention of her name, Dar's young daughter ran over to Belton's recovery bed and hugged her uncle as tears poured from her eyes. Then Ben brought Debra and Lynn close to him with his outstretched arms to ease the pain in his and their souls. "Easy," Debra said to Lynn, as they cuddled close to Lynn's newly created uncle and Debra's official fiance. "He's still in an injured state." Turning toward the hospital doorway Linanna became aware of Dar, Silvi's papa. There were tears pooling in his eyes. Wiping his eyes, Dar entered the room and crossed to Ben's bed. Pausing for a second, the Baron said, "Ben, my brother, I'm giving your soulmate a packet of documents. It essentially makes Silvi your ward if something should befall me." Ben replied, "With your unusual abilities, you're survive for an unusually long time as do most of us. "True enough," Dar responded to Ben's rebuttal, but I can still be killed if a spacecraft upon which I'm traveling through the void were to explode. Thrown into space, I could survive maybe twenty to thirty minutes before my body became oxygen starved and I would be gathered to my ancestors. Still in a drugged condition, Ben said to Dar, "I, Linanna, and your daughter are in great need of your countenance. I always had few friends, and I can't afford to lose any of them. Please don't do anything foolish. And, my brother, watch you back, and keep an eye on your consort, Nardi Lyz." "Remember, Ben," Dar remarked, "I am aware of Nardi's ambitions. That devious woman still lives within our midst. She cannot convince me to support the League, nor is Linanna now in a vulnerable position to be forced by some means to marry Nardi's cousin and over time be coerced to allow the Formalhaut cluster to become an ally of the League. However, Nardi still may attempt to eliminate me to gain control of my Barony and in that position be able to form an alliance with the League. These documents I place with Linanna and you," Dar added, "must remain a secret and only brought into use if I am no longer on the scene to stabilize a take over of my Barony. The documents in this package grant you both equal rights when the protection of my daughter and Barony are at stake." Dar then articulated his adieux and was off to another of his political meetings. ******* Two Years later Ben was pacing somewhat nervously in the delivery room at the Arn hospital complex on Canopus. After the delivery of his expected fraternal twins, the obstetrician approached Lady Linanna's consort, Belton Arn, and said, "The first born is a girl child. Do you want me to alter the times of their birth so that the male will be placed in the first born position and will inherit the prime governing position?" Ben looked at the physician said, "Why would you wish to perpetrate such a fraud?" After the hospital physician had expressed his whys and wherefores, Ben said, "What you're suggesting has merit in a practical sense and would certainly make it easier for my daughter socially later in her life. Although my wife and I appreciate what you're attempting to do, we cannot steal my daughter's birthright. She is the rightful and future leader of the Formalhaut cluster. My wife and I will discuss how our son's and daughter's roles will interact when the time comes for them to lead our people." "You feel that you and the Formalhaut people are one?" "Yes, although I was born on Earth, my marriage to Linanna not only bound me to her forever, but also linked me to her subjects," Ben replied simply. "Physician," Ben continued, "I want you to know that my wife and I are partners; not only are we equals in the life we share, but in all the obligations we share. We hold no information from one another. She and I are one in all things possible. When Lady Linanna and I disagree, and we do at times, within several days I have generally ignored the causes of our disagreement and have removed the reasons that caused them from my psyche. She, I believe behaves in a similar fashion." The physician then added, "Many people with whom I am in contact professionally or as friends believe humans cannot function as a single entity, as you've described, even for their own mutual good. They gather generally in function groups or join in a coupled relationship for their own benefit." "That may be true of some couples or groups," Ben replied, "but there are communities I know where loving couples and even the entire society work for the welfare of one another." Ben then said, "Physician, this discussion is moving into a very philosophical sphere, and our discussion progresses. I believe you and I can only be speculative in this with our views. Only the creator of the universe, I feel, would know how to answer to our queries." Ben then added, "I tell you here and now, my friend, Linanna and I are a husband and wife team in the true sense, and we will function as one entity throughout all eternity. That I know somehow from the feeling within my heart and the loving thoughts that course constantly through cerebral areas." The physician then said, "You appear to be a good man, Belton Arn, and yet I have watched as you are belittled before your wife for simply not bending your body in a salute to a politically appointed individual or low ranking dignitary who has been consigned to the Formalhaut court." Pausing for a moment, the obstetrician continued his remark, "I've often heard your philosophical statements concerning prostrating one's body before your fellows. As I recall, you have said repeatedly that humbling oneself in a bowing kind of gesture is reserved only for G-D. You know, Belton," the physician further stated, "I applaud your views about your greeting gestures and paraphrasing your comments, which I've heard often, allow me to take your hand, my Lord, as a token of my personal friendship for you and your lady." The physician then said, "Most who know of your medical help for the poor and your general love of people deem it a privilege to take your hand. Only the political scum of our galaxy criticize your views and refuse to shake your hand in a gesture of hospitality. Their actions, I believe, unfairly allow that group of low life an opportunity to make scurrilous remarks about you, your wife and this realm. The kiss that you present to your wife as a gesture of fealty is rather unique, but I feel is a more significant statement than a mindless prostrating gesture. You have to know that the people of this kingdom regard you and your wife in the highest esteem." As they moved Lady Linanna's movable bed toward her private nursery suite, unknowingly to her husband she was crying. She had overheard the entire conversation between her husband and her obstetrician. Ben's comments were the most beautiful remarks Linanna had ever heard, and Linanna would treasure them for the remainder of her life. In years to come, she would tell their children what was said this evening, and hopefully, they would learn what is true and fine between husband and wife. The following day names for the twins were chosen. Rachel was the appellation presented to the infant girl in honor of her grandmother and Kivi was named in honor of his great-grandfather. During the first months after Rachel's and Kivi's births, the parents were nearly exhausted. Although Ben attempted to act as a house husband and allow his wife to perform her duties as the Formalhaut cluster noble leader, she insisted on helping her husband in the evenings. Attempting to be a mother and head a large galactic kingdom was proving to be exhausting. Although she and her husband possessed super abilities, they still occasionally required a sleep interval. Although they worked out a system in raising their twins, it was still a marginal kind of solution considering their other obligations. Then a remarkable event occurred. Silvi (Lynn) became a miracle for Linanna and Ben when one day she entered the nursery. At that moment, Ben was attempting to feed his infants breast milk biochemically made with the aid of Linanna's (Debra) breast tissue and some essential chemicals combined in a biochemical synthesizer Ben had fabricated. As Ben was hustling about the room, Silvi nonchalantly placed her hand in Kivi's crib to help quiet down the screaming and the exuberance of the child by wiggling her fingers near his face. Suddenly, Kivi grabbed one of Silvi's digits. Once he had her finger in his fist, the boy almost immediately quieted down and just stared at Dar's daughter. Then, still holding onto Silvi finger, he quickly finished his bottle and fell asleep. When Silvi's presence quieted the commotion generated by her brother, Rachel too began to calm down and become more accustomed to a normal nursery routine. Within a few weeks, Silvi began to care for Kivi to a greater extent and essentially joined Ben and Linanna's household, of course, with her father's consent. Linanna's pediatric staff also discovered that when Silvi neared the Setland twins, her demeanor generally decreased any turbulence within the nursery. Kivi always seemed to be with Silvi. While Dar's little girl and Linanna's male offspring did not quite understand or care about the implications of their constant closeness, Silvi and Kivi simply accepted the fact of the situation. As Silvi and the twins matured, Dar sent one of the best educators in the galaxy to instruct his daughter. Ben and Linanna simply accepted Dar's tutor and provided him with a room within their household to initiate the learning process necessary for Linanna and Ben's fraternal twins. The tutor initially requested for Silvi by Dar was known as Pliny. He was one of the best household educators in the Milky Way and in time also became the political instructors for all the kids within Ben's household. Not only were the children provided with an excellent political curriculum, but the adults too learned from Pliny's political expertise by asking challenging questions of the political scholar from time to time. In time Kivi and Silvi became one of the greatest scientific soulmate couples in the galaxy. Rachel, a scientist in her own right, when she wasn't guiding the Formalhaut kingdom, would work with her brother and his wife to create beneficial devices which would enhance the living conditions for the people living within the Milky Way. Jhal indicated that his spies had ascertained that the League had determined a way to totally or partially negate the effects of the disruptor. Jhal's undercover people found out that the League's fleets upon invasion of the Milky Way would immediately enter the domains of the various star kingdoms throughout the galaxy as quickly as was possible. If the disruptor would be brought to bear upon the League's fleets, the kingdom targeted and its people would be destroyed along with the invading fleets. Loss of the League fleet would matter little to Kar Kam. "So my colleagues," Kar Kam announced to the free dominions in the galaxy, "if you don't capitulate the free galactic kingdoms to the League, you will, in essence, be sentencing the people within the free Milky Way realm to annihilation. You'll have a year to consider the offer sent with my declaration." When Silvi became aware of Kar Kam's ultimatum, she nonchalantly said, "Why don't the free kingdoms build a force field of some kind that would prevent an attaching vessel from penetrating a kingdom territory, Barony or other human domain, and then destroy the League's attacking armadas with the mystical disruptor as they travel in the vast emptiness of the Milky Way." After the astonishment of Silvi's message subsided, Jeremy kissed her on her forehead and remarked, "That's the way to go. When the League armadas leave the Cloud, their battle fleets will become isolated within the vastness of the void unable to penetrate the space occupied by the galaxy's free worlds. Also, when the League battle fleets have begun their invasion of the Milky Way, we will have phantom cruisers seed the Cloud with anti penetration devices so their own fleets cannot return to the sanctuary of their home ports, further isolating them from the inhabited areas of the galaxy." Within a week's time, a secret military project was in development headed by Lara, Jeremy, and Benjamin Setland. This project utilized thousands of scientists and engineers throughout the free galactic quadrants. These people rapidly worked to develop the working clandestine conditions that would enable them to produce an anti penetration device before the League made its military forays into the free territories within the Milky Way. The scientific effort was accomplished within several months to the surprise and delight of the politicos. Some time after testing was complete, the free kingdom's new defensive weapon was operational and being massed produced. Before the League fleets appeared, the anti penetration devices had spread over the various habitated regions of the Milky Way near their strategic periphery locations of the clusters. They would not be activated until the Cloud men struck. When the League attacked the freedom loving peoples of the Milky Way, the anti penetration electromagnetic field mechanism associated with each habitated area would be activated preventing any kind of League war vessel from entering a protected territory. Merchant class intergalactic spacecraft of all types would still be able to make a journey between one milky region to another through special electromagnetic corridors, but they were restrained by the anti penetration pulses from deviating through prescribed and protected regions. Since the League forces were unable to penetrate the star Kingdom's domains and other regions in the galaxy, they began to wander across the galaxy attempting to conquer any unprotected regions within their reach. As the League Armadas wandered, they had less military success. As panic within the League fleets commenced, Kar Kam's ships headed home. When it was observed that the Cloud's battle cruisers were running for home, the Setlands boarded their intergalactic star ship circling Canopus. Soon the Setlands were joined by an android fleet of battle cruisers from the Utopian sanctuary and, at Lara's command, began pursuing one of the League's fleet battle cruisers now wandering in the void. As the android flotilla constructed of stabilized neutronium and armed with the disruptor approached a League armada near a habitated region in the Milky Way, both the League and the free world fleets began to discharge laser weapons. Kingdom and Barony battle cruisers, supporting the disruptor ships, started to attack other portions of the League's space cruisers with their laser equipment and position their disruptor vessels into maximum destructive positions. When the disruptor power flowed, pale, ghostly beams emanated from the prow of the space cruiser toward the enemy fleet in the dim region of space ahead. The pallid rays appeared to creep slowly forward fanning out as it did so. The crew of the battle cruiser bearing the disruptor was crouching at the ship's portals as they stared into the distance. While there seemed to be no change, the void where the pale beams converged seemed to begin oscillating. Then the massed specks on the monitoring equipment, which marked the location of the Cloud fleet's advancing battle line, seemed to waver slightly as the oscillation increased. Then suddenly there was a flicker that appeared to run across monitoring scopes. Then Captain Hull Burrel, commanding the intergalactic free fleet escorting the disruptor, groaned, "Nothing is occurring. The Disruptor contraption must be ..." Suddenly, a point of blackness appeared far ahead of the Setland's war vessel. The darkness began encapsulating regions of the void and escalated as the pulsing and throbbing void expanded and enlarged. Soon, the blot of blackness was forming more and more swiftly. The blackness they were observing was not the mere absence of light, but more like a living, quivering blackness no living creature had even beheld. The ship's monitoring devices now showed that the blackness had already engulfed more than half the Grand Fleet that this Mid-Galactic Empire squadron had engaged. As members of the Mid-Galactic Empire fleet watched on their monitors, it became obvious that the battle line of Cloud ships had been overwhelmed by the darkness and were being swallowed by the growing unholy black field created by the disruptor. "G-d in heaven!" Yelled Val Marlann, a now shaking crew member, the Disruptor is eradicating space itself in the targeted area. The appalling and the inconceivable answer to the mystery of the disruptor's dreaded power flashed through Lara's and Jeremy's quaking minds as they watched the League vessels being enveloped into a null continuum and ceasing to exist. Lara and her soulmate still did not fully comprehend and might never quite understand the science that drove their disruptor weapon system. The disruptor they created so many years ago to destroy an asteroid was now a weapon of war. From their minimal studies, it appeared that their disruptor produced a force of energy that annihilated not mass but space-time itself. As they observed the blackness, Lara commented to her soulmate, "It appears the space-time continuum of our cosmos is a four-dimensional globe floating in an extra-dimensional abyss. The thrust of the disruptor beams seemed to destroy an expanding section of that sphere as the disruptor force thrusted it out of our cosmos taking whatever was encapsulated in the blackness with it as it went." A second after the Setland's minds grasped the disruptor's working fundamentals, they became fearful of its resulting destructive essence. It was then that Lara convulsively ripped open the switch that controlled the space distorter. As soon as the disruptor was silenced, the universe seemed to go mad. Titanic hands appeared to swat Lara and Jere's battle cruiser through space with unbridled power. The glaring white mass of Deneb began oscillating widely through the void. Comets, asteroids, and dark stars cascaded insanely through the Milky Way. Hull Burrel, the Setlands, and the android crew were hurled against the wall of their ship. As Lara and Jere grasped each other, the universe around their ship began to rise in mad vengeance against these puny humanoids who dared to lay their desecrating hands on the warp and woof of eternal space. As Hull, the Setland family, and a few of the undamaged android personal began to function some minutes later, the disruptor carrying warship was still being tossed about by gigantic space storms. The starry vault of heaven seemed to have quieted some from its initial insane convulsion. Val Marlann, Hull's second in command, with blood flowing from a large gash on his temple, was seen holding onto a stanchion shouting orders over the spacecraft's communicators so their own fighting squadron could regain its proper battle formation. When Lara looked at Val, she noticed that his face had turned a ghastly white due to his injuries. She heard him tell Hull that their ship's turbines were holding and the disturbances in the void were stabilizing with increasing speed. Turning to Jere and his wife, Hull remarked that the space quakes had nearly thrown their fighting squadron into Deneb. "The backlash reaction," Lara reminded them - space collapsing upon the hole in the space-time continuum the disruptor had created. Hull then said, "Only half the Cloud vessels assigned to this battle front were destroyed by our disruptor unit. Other Kingdom fleets were more successful with their disruptor weaponry." The surviving League's battle cruisers in this sector are running for home and attempting to reenter the Cloud, but to no avail. The Mid-Galactic Empire's anti penetration devices are preventing them from finding safe havens in their home ports. Unable to return to their home ports each League fleet, one by one, surrendered to the fighting forces of the galactic kingdoms and their allies. As the Cloud dominion was surrendering, Kar Kam and a small group of battle cruisers managed to escape from the Cloud and were last observed speeding from the Milky Way into intergalactic space. To any one's knowledge, no trace of Kar Kam or his men was heard from again after their images vanished from the monitors of The Mid-Galactic Empire's warships that were pursuing the last of the enemy. The Medical Storm Following the fierce military encounters resulting from the League's failed attempt to capture the political authority of the galaxy, many casualties were rushed to medical facilities that were hastily constructed at strategic locations throughout the Milky Way. Unfortunately, after the horrific battles between the free kingdoms and the League finally ended, the medical personnel was now scattered throughout the Milky Way, and those healers still on the major planets were swamped and had difficulty providing even the basic medical needs so desperately required by the mutilated warriors who were embroiled in the galactic conflict. Docking their fleet of battle cruisers at Canopus, the Setlands were appalled to discover that the medical community on the capital planet of the Mid-Galactic Empire was refusing to treat the ill, the weary, and the battle injured warriors after the fighting had long since ceased. Gazing in horror at the mass of suffering people lying on the floor of the assembly chamber, Jeremy looked to Linanna, but before Jeremy could speak Linanna placed her hand on his shoulder and said, "I'll take charge of this situation; you rest." As Jeremy rested, Lara and Ben, using the troopers from their own fleet, began creating a makeshift hospital in the assembly area. Linanna found Hull Burrel and told him to collect the physicians and get them working on the injured people strewn about the assembly hall. As Linanna was returning to the make shift hospital ward now being assembled in the hall, she told the fleet's commander to declare martial law and hang any of the healers who refused to treat the sick and injured now being assisted and sustained by the few battlefield medics that were serving with their fleet. The medical situation on Canopus was as critical and desperate as war itself. Linanna later in the day discovered the petty issues that were causing the political squabbling between government and the healers. After getting the info from reliable leaders, she had the leaders of the healers' association imprisoned and held for trial - the healers' union goal was power pure and simple. Therefore, it was refusing to treat those in medical distress until they gained the power they desired. After Linanna, with the aid of Hull Burrel, had stabilized the political and medical conditions on Canopus, she joined her husband, and in the company of Lara and Jeremy Setland, now up, applied their medical skills to save the lives of many injured citizens and fleet warriors. When Jhal returned to his capital, he found the great political assembly turned into a hospital facility with his SOL Three relatives working like yeomen to save the lives of severely wounded warriors. Even the youngsters, Kivi and Silvi, worked on the noncritically wounded patients. Silvi and the Setlands worked round the clock for five sun cycles till all the needed surgery was completed. Ben then thanked his family in public and the Canopus medical people who worked with them. Then they set up a military tent on the assembly floor and slept continuously for a two-day and night cycle. As Silvi and the Setlands rested, Hull told Jhal what had occurred when their fleet had arrived at the Mid-Galactic Empire's capital city. After hearing what Linanna and Ben performed on behalf of the Empire and its allies, Jhal agreed wholeheartedly with what they were forced to do with healer politicians. To make what Linanna did to the healers militarily legal, an electronic court was established. This body vindicated the Setlands, including Linanna, and then suggested that the union leaders be banished from Canopus and the humans involved during the war emergency be sent to the more backward and needy worlds to practice their medical disciplines. Medical supplies would be provided by the Empire and other areas of the galaxy. Dar was very proud of his daughter and the manner in which she acted during this medical emergency. Looking at Silvi and the lad that held her hand to his breast, Dar knew at that moment that his daughter had found her soulmate: Kivi, Linanna and Ben's son. Later Dar told Jhal, "Trouble is or will be brewing at home. I'm sure that my council will soon wish to select a consort for my young daughter, Silvi." Then Dar dropped his little bomb. "My brother Jhal, Silvi has already found and chosen her soulmate, Kivi from Ben and Linanna's household. If the circulating rumors are to be believed, Tarvi is angling to have his middle son, Kile, who is several years older than my daughter, declared her consort and establish a future date for their marriage in an upcoming council meeting." Taking a deep breath, Dar further remarked, "What a battle I can expect at home over this issue. If only my beloved wife, Silvi's mother, still lived. She would expose the political plot and defuse it saving our family's current quagmire. Silvi's mother was a master at dealing with this kind of intrigue." After a brief period, Jhal said, "When the time comes, my brother, I'll be there for you. Neither Kivi nor Silvi will be denied either happiness or their heritage." ******* Some months later, Baron Dar and his daughter were summoned to Throom, the capital city of Dar's domain. Of course, Kivi accompanied Silvi and his future father-in-law on their journey. Upon arriving on Throom, the noble family was greeted in a most regal fashion and that evening attended a gala reception in honor of their return home. Kivi, being several years younger than Dar's daughter was not considered a rival for Silvi's hand in marriage and was just ignored. Considered just a noble friend of the future baroness, Kivi was seated with most of the single young men at a table at the rear of the banquet hall. As Kivi dined with his peers, Kile, after consuming somewhat more alcoholic spirits than he should, started to boast how he would wed Silvi and become her consort, and eventually, a prince of the realm. It was at that moment that Silvi arose from the dais and walked toward the table at the rear of the hall where the young single men invited to the gala were seated. As Silvi neared her destination, the young men arose and bowed in respect to the heir apparent to Dar's Barony, except Kivi, who in turn kissed Silvi on her forehead. After kissing his soulmate on the forehead, Silvi took Kivi's hand, and he escorted her to the dance floor where Silvi placed her head upon her life partner's shoulder and began swaying to the music that permeated the hall. As the couple glided upon the floor, Kile became furious. Filled with rage, Kile pulled his rapier and dashed onto the dance floor and forcibly separated the lovers. When Kivi and Silvi were pulled apart, Kivi immediately shielded Silvi and placed her behind him for her protection. When Silvi was safe, Kivi said to Kile, "How dare you produce a weapon and endanger the Baron's daughter." After hearing Kivi's reprimand, Kile became even more infuriated by the rebuke especially from a relatively younger personage, a snot nose in his view. Loosing control at last, Kile lashed out and struck Kivi across the mouth. As blood flowed, Kivi led Silvi to the Travek table and asked the noble councilman to escort his soulmate to her father to protect her from harm. Turning then to Latham Travek's first born, he asked the warrior to please furnish him with his rapier. The councilman's male heir did as he was asked with admiration in his eyes for this rather young individual. Thanking Latham for his kindness, Kivi kissed Silvi on the lips to the great surprise of all present in the hall. Then people gasped as Kivi turned to face his adversary weapon in hand. Leering at Kivi, Kile lunged at his younger opponent eager to take his life as he expected to do in short order. Ten secon