Enter the Dawn

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

3/25/96:

Sitting at my kitchen table, I flipped through some printed
documentation, muttering to myself under my breath.

"Something wrong?" Oria asked, sitting down across from me.

I shook my head, sipping at my tea a bit, "Not really, just
getting a handle on this stuff." I waved the printouts at her
as I said it.

Picking up one of the stacks she pawed through it, then
looked up at me, "I can't read this."

"Naturally, Terran English Written isn't in the translator
database. The reason being that it's a locked universe."

She nodded a bit, "Can you read my writing?"

I cocked an eyebrow, "I don't know. Being in a limited
universe, it's probably not in the database."

"Ah," she said, sighing.

I set my work down (as it was for work considering), "What's
wrong?"

"I was hopping, have you had any luck yet, you know, with
getting me away from the HammerHeads."

I shook my head, "Not a thing, and I've been searching up to
three-hundred years ago."

She sighed again, her ears drooping a bit.

I bent over and touched her lightly on the forehead, right
between her eyes. "Don't worry Oria, I'll take care of it,
even if I have to break in to the HQ of the HammerHeads, and
hack there system. I don't want to loose another friend."

She looked up at me, her ears still drooping, and grinned
weakly. "Thank you Foxeris."

I blinked a bit at this use of my full name, Oria never used
it. I was about to comment, when I was brought up short by a
knocking on the front door.

Glancing at her, and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not expecting anyone." She said, shrugging.

Getting up, and heading down stairs, and popped open the
door. On the far side, highlight a bit by the Teleport
Curtain was Rathal.

I opened the door wide, "Thal! What are you doing here?"

The Elf motioned for me to keep it down, "Listen," he said,
"the council head has been having a hell of a time getting
all this, and staying under the radar."

He handed me a small data cube, "This has what you asked
for. I was never here."

The, pressing the cube into my hand, he went back through
the curtain.

I looked at the crystalline cube, it's many facets inside
reflecting the light of the setting suns. Closing the door,
I turned, and looked up at Oria, "This is it."

She tipped her head a bit, as she came down the steps, "What
is on that?"

I moved over the computer, and slipped the cube into the
reader, "It's all the records, the reports, the interviews,
the files, EVERYTHING!"

She looked at me, "Of what?"

I grinned, as the files started to scroll down the screen,
"Catarn."

She blinked, and put a paw to her mouth as she "oohed." For
it was exactly what I has requested, everything about how I
was exiled.

It was time to bust some heads....