ReaderPaul

Ah, but since the timeline branched at the burning of the library at Alexandria Egypt and its companion library, Robin probably does not exist in the reality from which Ilessa and Hendrick came. @Geron Kees -- The guys are traveling to more and more -- unusual -- locales. I like it. I predict Durapar will come up with something important, since he is along for this ride. Keerby's growth is wonderful to see. And Horace -- his increasing sensitivity is coming in handy. Exposure to the guys, the witches of Kenniston, Pacha, Ragal, Casper, Durapar, Max, Nicholaas, Keerby, Robin, and all the other skwish using others, are stretching his talents. I suspect even Auggie may be helping Horace and the guys increase in strength and sensitivity, since Auggie uses a differing method of tele-transportation that is related to teleportation, but yet does not seem exactly the same. Good tale , Geron.

Simply extrapolate from what has been mentioned so far in the story and the previous Charlie Boone stories. Keerby + dark energy being + Horace + side dimensions + unusual mystery = probability. Correlation of coefficients from all the previous stories (except number one Charlie Boone which was before meeting Max).

Keerby's comments make it seem more likely to be extra-dimensional versions of Earth that those folks come from. And Horace seems to be getting stronger with his skwish, as well, being to detect a dark energy being that even Keerby had not sensed. So far, Keerby and Pip seem more sensitive to dark energy beings than Frit, though not by much. In addition, we don't know if there are some skwish abilities these others have that none of the personnel in this quest with Robin and Charlie have seen before.

So, tech not quite galactic in quality, but beyond our Earth's tech -- sounds like a parallel or alternate Earth (or Terra or Tellus or Gaea or Gaia or Terrene world -- and I was surprised to see Tellus listed as a synonym for Terra on Thesaurus dot com -- I had previously seen it almost exclusively in the works of Edward Elmer "Doc" Smith) place. Hooray for the quick action of Adrian.

And as for the Jimmy Buffett song, @Geron Kees, @drpaladin and @drsawzall -- I vote for "Brown-Eyed Girl." Geron, didn't you say Amy has brown eyes?

I have to agree with @drsawzall and @drpaladin on it smacking of offworld -- although it could be extra-dimensional as well. After all, the guys and Horace visited the alternate universe and met Pilfer and Costel, and we don't know who else in addition to Keerby and Nicholaas and Max can visit alternate universes. Pacha probably can, although we have not yet been told of him developing that talent yet. But the Kifta did develop the means to send the Arpies to an alternate universe, and Max used some of that knowledge to get Oumuamua and her companion together. [Reference: Do the Stars Have Hearts, Charlie Boone?] @Ivor Slipper and @raven1 and @weinerdog are also right with the program, I feel. Hey, @Geron Kees -- Is this the adventure where Ricky's little brother and his middle sister get to be seen? I predict, when we do meet Ronyx (hint, hint) and Rhonda, they will be already be developing skwish, since they have been around Ricky and the other guys to trigger it, along with the skwish being shown by Uncle Bob. And I know you are too wise to give any of the Travers kids a middle initial of A, O, or U -- Otherwise, they would have initials spelling RAT, ROT, or RUT. {A friend warned my spouse and I to make sure we named our kid something innocuous on the initials -- her kid ended up with the initials A S S, and in the first grade other kids started calling her kid "Ass.") Will we get to see Kiernan and/or Uncle Bob this trip/tale/saga/story? And when are you going to marry off Amy and Horace to each other, and have her get pregnant at the surprise age of 50?

Fascinating start to this new story. I look forward to reading more.

Looking forward to seeing the next installment of this saga. Good story, @quokka/Preston. I think they need to install a personal data identity tracking device in Torres, so that when he gets out in 36 years (since he has three twelve year sentences) they can be warned if he even gets near a URP facility. Can you give us a hint, Preston, what the title of the sailing story will be which had a chapter posted by accident? Thanks for your consideration.

The story, "Substitute Dad," is on Nifty in the adult-youth section, and has 51 chapters on Nifty. The story is also on storylover dot us and has 69 chapters there. Scribe 1971 has several stories on Nifty. Since many are in the adult-youth section. I really doubt we will see them on GA, since GA has stricter story requirements

Yes, the security upgrades are being very useful. We will have to see what additional things develop from them.

Lots of questions raised in this, as @centexhairysub and @chris191070 pointed out. I trust that the security upgrades will continue to be valuable. Has Huon shown Isaac and Mason/Maenyl the secret passageways where they live yet? And then, has the Crown Price demanded to see the complete architectural drawings of the building, so he can know if there are additional secret passageways Huon does not know about? Good chapter, @quokka.

The Sahndrol people seem more cooperative and peace loving than their Earth counterparts. I think most of the home world folks will adapt better than many of the Earth peoples. Just because the Emperor is getting married does not mean that there WILL be a new heir, though it is possible. If there is a new heir, that does not mean she or he will survive to adulthood. So the present Crown Price must be available as a backup. I think Huon needs to get together with Isaac and the Prince and go through all of the secret passageways in the building.

I have seen excellent Chinese plate spinners spin twelve or thirteen at one time @Mawgrim -- I add my request that you continue this story.

Well done in fixing the text, @quokka. But I definitely wish to read the story involving Zac, when you get it posted eventually. You have a lot of good stories involving sailing. I also agree with @centexhairysub about Russia and China on a Luna (the moon) base. They can share or not have one. Good work on this story. Thanks.

@quokka, a fascinating chapter, especially the last two paragraphs. Your suspense skills are still in full force. While I can make guesses as to who the person might be (and there are multiple possibilities) I think some possibilities are more likely than others. In the very first deep space story, you mentioned "time rips." This allowed the first deep space exploratory ship to make the journey much faster to neighboring stars. Do any time rips exist in the Earth-Sol system which might be discovered and make the journeys from Ganymede to Earth and Ganymede to Mars and Mars to Earth faster? If so, it might be advantageous to not tell Earth about those, so an element of surprise could be used if necessary to address problems. Please clear up something. The Deimos colony is on Mars, and is named after the smaller moon of Mars? For the health of the colonists on Mars and Luna, they have artificial gravity, right? There are some spinal problems and blood circulation problems NASA has discovered for those on extended time on the International Space Station (six months or more, especially more). There is some reason to suspect that there might be some of this problems to a lesser degree at lower gravities than one gee, meaning one Earth gravity. Such would be less on Mars than Luna (the moon), since Luna has about one 6th of a gee, and Mars has about one third gee. Artificial gravity would also allow those from Earth and Sahndrol to keep up their strength to handle Earth and Sahndrol gravity easily. From how you described Sahndrol in the first story, I am guessing it has gravity of just slightly over one earth gee.

Hey, @quokka -- you are mixing the chapters of your stories by accident. This one looks very interesting, but it is not "Deep Space New World." And I love the terms "checkout chick" and "checkout rooster."

We do not know if the craft was fully assessed or not. But the URP and Sahndrol tend to be rather thorough in these matters. I'm sure @quokka will reveal what we need to know on that. I'm looking forward to those answers also. Great idea, @drsawzall, on the freight charges.

I think each of the crashed crew needs to be thoroughly scanned and examined, including for hollow teeth and micro ear implants, wrist microchips, passive RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Devices) tech, artificial knee and ankle joints, skull partial replacement, etc. Also they need to be checked for implanted teeth with micro detection and scanning devices, and the men scanned for penile implants which have micro- or nano-devices. (As you can guess, @quokka/Preston, I tend to be somewhat suspicious.) I would also do space scanning to see if any other ships are headed toward Mars, Ganymede, ore any other URP locations. Though earth technology is not up in the same league as URP and Empire tech, lesser technology is still dangerous.

Interesting. Is it a craft from earth which landed heavily, or another spacegoing people? Or a booby-trap of some kind? And whatever happened to Oscar, the friend of the prince who in a previous story could hear telepaths? @quokka/Preston, I am very glad to see this saga continue. On the question of Oscar, please do not immediately answer. It's rare for you to just bring a random, throwaway person into a story, unless there is a good reason to do so. If Oscar does not show up in this story, I predict he will appear in another story, or perhaps in his own story some time in the future.

@JamesSavik is one of the few masters of short and/or flash fiction. There is one other who can equal him, but not as consistently. As he is currently taking a temporary hiatus from writing, I won't mention him further at this time, except to say that he had one flash story of only 11 words.

Some time back, I saw an alternate translation for most of the Old Testament version of the word translated "abomination." One Biblical scholar suggested that in most cases, in stead of "abomination," most of the Leviticus verses should have been translated as "It is not our custom" instead of "It is an abomination." That would greatly change the meaning of the Leviticus translations. Also, in the New Testament, there was a Roman custom, though not common, of plying younger (usually teen) boys with presents in return for sexual favors. The words used by the Apostle Paul and by the Roman Centurion who implored Jesus to heal his servant often were used for those type of relationships, rather than consenting adult same-sex relationships. However, the translators of the King James Version of the Bible were probably, in most cases, unaware of these translation possibilities, and, for sure, against using them. There is much more I could say about Biblical translations and their shortcomings, but this is not the place for it. Thanks for writing this story, @JamesSavik.

@quokka -- Preston, I sincerely hope you consider a sequel to these stories. They are quite good.

Wow, what a chapter! Well done, @R. Eric.

Just re-read this again, 7th or 8th time. Well done, James.

So little information has ACTALLY been revealed in these hearings that I am reminded of the 1964 movie starring Don Knotts, "The Incredible Mr. Limpett." Just as Limpett and his abilities after turning into a super-fish were kept secret by the U S Navy, what information has been revealed is like three small crumbs of a reduced-salt Ritz cracker compared to a complete sleeve of crackers. Some of the information is probably at the lesser known "Area 52," where signs warn "No Trespassing" and also that one might see experimental aircraft.