Galactic Whore Ch. 02

There was nothing in the previous survey that even hinted at an advanced presence, now or in the past. I wondered just what information the good professor actually had. Normally, I wouldn't pry into someone's data records, but Thoraxer had pissed me off. Plus, there was something about this mission that didn't make sense. Most of the worlds scheduled to be investigated had never been visited before. Where did his information come from?

Crystal was infiltrating the professor's data pad almost as I was thinking that we should. I was always amused at the pleasure I felt from him when he was unlocking the secrets of another lattice, as he puts it. Then I felt his shock.

[BRING DATA UP ON VIRTUAL ROOM.]

[I've put up a scan block]

With some trepidation I called up the data Crystal had just downloaded to my room. A hologram was projected in the air; a hologram of a section of a star field. I was no atsrogator, but I do have a good memory.

[This is the star map from the Map of the Heavens.]

[AFFIRMATIVE. OBSERVE THE ANIMATION]

As he spoke, I saw the stars moving. There seemed to be a shifting in a vaguely circular pattern.

[What am I seeing?]

[This is stellar drift. The positions of the stars are being updated for 50,000 years of natural movement in space.]

The process took only a couple of minutes. Once it was done, there was nothing significant about it that I could see. Then a second starfield appeared and superimposed itself on the map. This second field was larger and the map fit in it.

[Wait a minute. Are you telling me that the map has always fit in known star maps, only it had to be adjusted for 50,000 years of time passing?]

[AFFIRMATIVE]

That explained much. When Brusjin and I first encountered the Map of the Heavens, we tried to fit it into known star charts, and at first part of it seemed to. But, the rest didn't. We concluded that it was a coincidence that part did; that some portion of the map just happened to match known stars. Now I could see what had really happened. The part that seemed to match up was a small cluster of stars that moved together as a group. They would always match up, but the rest of the map wouldn't.

[Crystal, where was your homeworld?]

My hand adjusted a control and a star lit up in red. Oh my. We weren't going there, but we'd get close on this trip; close enough that it might get dangerous. Still, why these particular worlds?

[Is there any indication of just why he picked these worlds. I mean, it's interesting that he figured out how to fit the map in, but why these 13 worlds?]

[OBSERVE]

Again, I called up the original map again. Then data started appearing along side various stars; data about number and type of planets, life on those planets, mineral resources.

[Where did this data come from?]

[It seems the professor had access to more than just a copy of the map. He somehow was able to pull specific data about the star systems from the Map of the Heavens itself.]

Damn! He's figured out how to use the map interactively. [You mean he's been to Ralint and convinced the Ralinti to let him play with one of their religious artifacts?]

[No, he has the Map of the Heavens with him right now. He apparently stole it from the Ralinti.]

Bloody hell! Only Hellfire would be brazen enough to go in and steal artifacts from Ralint a second time, now that Ralint was a protectorate.

*

Thanks to Sugaro at The Masque for her editing work. I love the feedback, so let me know what you think. I do try to answer all non-anon private feedback.