Jhel hurries as her vessel spirals, spins, turns, bounds and very nearly crashes against the asteroids that were rapidly closing all around it. It is a precarious situation to find oneself in and yet, perhaps, there is no better one than Jhel Vol Torne to see it through. Jhel had spent months of intensive training for this exact type of situation. Still, she felt a sort of disconnect between the person she was and who she was expected to be.

Nevertheless, Jhel still was most eager to return and leave space behind at any rate. She turns a near ninety degrees to the right taking her far from the regular course of travel. Jhel's hope was to lose the Nemesistreyon cruiser that was sure to be tailing her.

Iristreyons, of which Jhel belonged, are a most fascinating species. Not to say, of course, that the Nemesistreyons or any other folk are not at all interesting in their own right. But Iristreyons are renowned for their decisive and unique brand of nihilism that formulates the whole of their perspective and philosophy. They live and die with almost a reverence for what they consider the utter meaninglessness of existence. They see no purpose in life but no reason to die either. Still, they differ in that this meaninglessness to an Iristreyon is profoundly meaningful.

Still, admittedly, she did look forward to lunch, which would provide some meaning to existence should anyone wish to see it that way.

Jhel certainly did not.

For seven weeks, Jhel had been acting as a messenger among the stars. She took solace in the old Iristreyon maxim, "The stars aren't going anywhere."

Either that or "Whatever happens happens," both Jhel felt were "tota-firma" that is to say "pretty solid." Though, to be fair, it is the latter notion that gave Jhel the much needed boost of confidence to pilot in the haphazard manner in which she typically did.

At any rate, anyone who cares either to live or to die, Jhel felt, should not find her so deep within the rocky debris. If one as such cares to live he or she would not dare enter at all, and anyone with a death wish would have dashed themselves upon a barrage of jagged rocks long ago.

"Both are fine resolutions to my difficulty," muses Jhel.

"But on the other end," she adds, "I should think anyone would find it largely inconvenient to be dead."

Still, Jhel had to accept the possibility, however small, that the one trailing her might be very much insane. In this case, it would be very difficult to say what one might do. It is this thought that gave Jhel pause. Jhel then found a place to lie in wait and stood watching what might happen. And for a time, Jhel circles round; maneuvering, as best she could, from the various chunks of rock, less she be extremely inconvenienced

But just as she is about to resume course a blinding light flashes directly in front of her.

Jhel is puzzled, at first, but soon she is able to discern a star-shaped craft in the middle. Its construction is certainly not Nemesistreyon, as she had supposed, nor of any other make she was acquainted. Still, Jhel understood that there were a great many asteroids in the belt, and, perhaps, it may be from one world as such was new to her.

It is at that time, Jhel begins to receive an incoming transmission. The transmission relays the following message:


Jhel immediately cut the transmission signal after the word, "purpose."

"Just as I feared," exclaims Jhel, "They're all mad!"

Jhel sent a transmission, a message of peace and good will she had learnt during her elementary education on Iris (the sixball court not the classroom) :


There is a long pause from the Cybeleyons.

Eventually, a transmission is sent back to Jhel:



Jhel responds:


Again after a long pause, the Cybeleyons respond:



Jhel sighs, placing her palm against her face. "These Cybeleyons sound like an awfully clingy bunch," mutters Jhel, who then responds:


Jhel readies her system and lassos a large rock by means of a kinetic ray. Subsequently, she loses no time sending it crashing into the Cybeleyons' communications portal.

Suddenly, Jhel's vessel is engulfed by a light from the Cybeleyon craft, which appears to deter the debris.

Afterwards, a probe lands on Jhel's field viewer displaying the following message:



Off into the distance, Jhel's vessel and the Cybeleyon cruiser resemble two tiny, sparkling twin dots drifting aloft in the vast dark of space. It is strange, but before they disappeared from view, an almost discernible feeling of dread seems to permeate across the cosmos. An anomaly, without explanation.

The moral of it all, the deeper meaning behind which we may only conclude—


There is none.