~ Chapel Perilous ~

[Malaclypse 666]

Omega 49
Impact - 2hrs 47min.

FN-23.
FnordNet Node #23.

Ironic. Out of the hundreds of nodes to FnordNet which had populated the Omega 49 system, only 23 remained. The Goddess certainly was smiling this day.

The rest had succumbed, either to search and destroy missions from within and without the Ska Ralla, or to the virus released and transmitted by Dr. Artifice. But some evaded detection, and some were "hardened".

The Nodes had renumbered after the "purge". Those capable of motion assumed new orbits and assignments. The fixed units covered more area to make up for the reduced numbers.

FN-23 was positioned on a small ice asteroid at the "east" edge of the Barrier Nebula; exactly 20km due "west' of Lanzarote. It had been performing a full-spectrum scan of the area to the south of Lanzarote Station, where an unstable jump hole to Omega 168 once existed.

Sheer coincidence had the F-Node pointed at the old jump hole's location when a small, weak, ruby-spectrum lased light signal struck its receptors. The rest of the spectrum was dead, save for the spike of the bright bluish-white that permeated the system. Sensing some "artificial" aspect to the light, the Node immediately sent back a weak but focused beam of its own. At the distance of the anomaly, almost 40km south, the small beam's effect could hardly be seen. There was no bright reflection to be observed, but a small, corruscating area of interference patterns revealed itself to the Node's powerful detectors.

Within seconds, the corruscation had been picked up by three other Nodes, then six, and finally, weak echoes from ten points close to the anomaly. Triangulation. Programmed response. The coordinates of the anomaly were sent to three locations:

The Veranda Incognita, where the compound had locked itself down, but much too late;

The Planet Bora Bora;

and a Phantom Battleship stationed nearby in the Omega 47 system.

The anomaly did not move.

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