I couldn't help it, I yelled, "Watch out!   Annunaki!"

   Perki who was behind Weslee started to remonstrate with me, but Weslee wasn't listening.   He practically bowled everybody over running back down the ramp.   He stopped abruptly when he heard my loud laughter coming from the top of the ramp.   "Very funny, Doc!" He muttered from the ground at the bottom of the ramp.   Then he made his way back in following the rest of the group.

   When everyone was gathered around me I looked around more closely than I had when the lights first came on.   We were standing in what looked like an airlock bay.   Visible ahead of us because of a door hanging open was a hall that led around a corner and disappeared.   To our right was a short set of gangway stairs that led downward to a closed door set in the floor.   To our right was a slightly longer set of gangway stairs that led to another closed door that was set into the ceiling.   Standing there in that quiet ship I nevertheless felt something.   It was like the very ephemeral ghosts of past inhabitants.   It was the same sort of feeling I'd had when I'd toured, as a child, a mothballed Navy battleship that had been drydocked at a Memorial Park in the state of Texas.   Not that this ship had neccessarily been some kind of war ship, but that it was the same sort of eerie feeling I'd got that I would meet somebody (read ghost of the past here) somewhere at some point in time if I just stayed on that battleship long enough.   This ship too felt like someone would come into sight at some point somewhere in time if we stayed on it long enough.   But then I shook myself out of my reverie.   Time was a wasting and we needed to get to the bridge to see what we could see.   I opted for taking the short stairy leading upwards on three assumptions: that the hallway in front of us would lead to crew quarters, that the doorway in the floor would lead to a cargo space and, lastly and most important, that the bridge would be at some high point.   Now we just needed to see if the door above us would open.

   Weslee by far being the strongest of us all, volunteered to go up the stairs acting on the assumption that a little brute force might be needed to open the door since it had a wheel in the middle of it that resembled the watertight doors on a submarine -- although in this case it was probably more like "spacetight" -- and that the wheel might be a little rusty from disuse.   When Weslee reached the top of the stairs he took a little experimental tug on the wheel to see if it would turn or not and which way he wanted to go.   It would not budge to the right so he tried the left and to the surprise of us all it turned rather easily.   The door turned out to be mounted on hinges that swung it upward when the lock in the wheel was disengaged.   Letting the hinges do the work, Weslee waited until the door wasn't going to swing upward anymore and then he poked his head into the ingress.   When he did lights in whatever room was above came on silhouetting his head and shoulder and spilling down to where we waited below him.   After a few seconds of turning his massive head and shoulders around in a 180, Weslee stooped down to where we could see his face and said, "I think we hit the Jackpot, Doc!   C'mon up!" And without waiting for any reply he scrambled all the way to the top of the gangway and disappeared.

   Being a gentleman I let the ladies go first.   I also waited until after Roliti had ascended.   I figured he'd waited so long for this moment that he had precedent over me.   When I was at last in the room I stood there a moment looking around, getting my bearings.   The first thing I noticed was the backward seeming nature of the portholes.   From the outside we had seemed to be looking into observation ports.   Even if we couldn't see much because of the darkened interior and because of the angle we were standing at, still I had thought we would be able to see in if we had been on a level with them.   But from the inside I couldn't see out.   It took me a few moments to realize that the "portholes" couldn't be useless, but instead had to be screens that would allow someone on the inside to see anything the sensors were trained on, while at the same time give someone on the outside the illusion that they WERE seeing in.   With Perki's help we located some controls and verified that my theory WAS in point of fact the truth!   It was an ingenious security arrangement -- since viewers on the outside could not really see in, they only thought they could! -- and at the same time it gave viewers on the inside much more latitude of vision.   I played with them for a bit and then, abandoning the wonderous portholes for the nonce, I started heading over towards where Perki was currently standing.   I intended to help her peruse the bank of instruments she was looking at, figuring she might have found something promising.

   Weslee, who was slouched in a countour chair like the others scattered aroundf the room, interrupted me before I got to Perki's side. "Look at me, Doc!   I'm the captain!" And he started tapping on something under or on the smooth black surface of the console before which he was seated.   I assumed it was a touch sensitive control panel of some kind and since I didn't know what it might do and I was sure Weslee didn't know either I yelled, "Weslee!   NO!"

   My words of caution came too late!   I heard a kinda of sizzling, singing, keening sound build up and then over my left shoulder through that porthole I saw a flash of light.   Quickly I raced over to the porthole and looked out, hoping I still had time to see what had happened.   Thoroughly cowed, Weslee joined me. And the others crowded around behind him craning to see over or around his massive bulk.

   "Geez, Louise!   Did I do that?" Weslee asked in a hushed voice of horror and wonder.

   "Not exactly," I said grimly, "but whatever you activated sure did!"

   It was a scene right out of Star Wars!   Several trees had been standing at the crest of the trail leading up to the hillock.   Those trees no longer existed.   We could see this plainly because the porthole/screens were illuminating the scene with some kind of enhanced light, bringing the image clearly to us.   I was just glad that the weapon -- whatever it was -- had not been pointed at the ground where Father Logis and the others still lay, still stunned and out of it.   I really didn't want their unintended murders on my conscience.   Refusing to engage in overt anger with Weslee I opted instead for understatement, "Now we know why it is called the fiery chariot.   And we also know that we have at least one weapon on board to use against the Annunaki -- if we can just figure out how to aim it."

   Kalana, who was standing right behind me and leaning around me to see out, corrected me, "Nay!   It were not so! The fire, whether it be of God or demon or some etheral magic unknowable altogether, hath an appearence upon the vessel whole!"

   I turned to look at her in surprise.   "What?!   You're saying that it is/was enveloped in fire?   When?"

   "Upon the nonce when from the sky appear it did.   This a signal note be?"

   I thought for a second and then explained my surprise and wonder, "This is old fashioned technology -- for the Annunaki, at least.   It harnesses the power of gravity and marries that with electro-magnetism and with that marriage one can go very fast very far.   Still one cannot go faster than the speed of light with this vehicle.   It is thus -- now! -- relegated to being nothing more than a planet hopper or a scout ship carried by a mother ship.   The wonder, to my mind at least, is that beings used to travel from star to star in ships powered very much like this.   Of course they were larger than this and the crew had to travel in suspended animation.   But anyway, I guess it will be useful for what we want it for and I think this explains -- in part -- why it's here.   It's not something the Annunaki would mind losing very much.   But of course to people not used to seeing anything high tech it would seem very marvelous."   I smiled at Roliti and Kalana, "No offense intended."

   "Roliti answered with a wry grin, "None taken.   We be but country bumpkins all and thus upon that reason did we the jest embrace considering the Shekinah Glory upon the vessel withal it's very being."

   I gave him a wry grin in return.   Then I turned back sternly to Weslee. " DO NOT , under ANY circumstances, touch anything else -- UNLESS it is very clearly written in English --touch me and I will give you complete control of the ship.   Got it?!"

   Weslee could have broken me in two and went on about his funny business without even giving it a second thought, or even breathing hard, even with my enhanced body, but he's too lazy to confront me when it doesn't really make any sense ( sense in his universe, that is) so he desisted.   Surprisingly, he didn't even grumble.   Instead he wandered over to join Perki who had sat herself down in the contour chair facing the bank of instruments she had been perusing earlier before Weslee's fiasco.   I headed over to join them, feeling Kalana and Roliti following me.

   When we were all gathered around Perki she looked up at me, flipping a stray lock of her red hair off her left breast.   Something made me look at Roliti then.   I could tell by the look in his eyes that he thought she had done that to make sure the breast was seen.   But I knew Perki better than that.   She had just done it because the hair was bugging her by being there.   She wasn't doing it to be an exhibitionist.   I smiled knowingly at Roliti and shook my head no.   He flushed, getting my message and began to look steadfastly at her face instead.   Oblivious to the byplay that had just gone down Perki pointed to the blue glass covering the face of the console and and the glowing purple letters seemingly floating beneath and said, "I have been studying the script on the keys and while I realize that my grasp of the Annunaki language is a bit rusty, still I am pretty sure that this is the console that starts and controls the engines.   Do you want me to give it a try and see what happens, Doc?"

   "Sure!   Why not?   The worst that could happen is that we'd all get blowed to Kingdom Come!" I said flippantly.

   Kalana and Roliti gasped in unison, giving me horrified looks.

   "Just kidding kiddies!" I chuckled, looking at Kalana and Roliti.   "Actually it will either work if Perki does it in the right sequence and it is ready to fly -- or else it will do nothing."   I turned back to Perki, who was leaning over the console, studying the script intently, apparently making a last minute check of her interpretation, and said, "Yeah, go ahead."

   Perki straightened back up, absently flicked the offending lock of hair away from her breast again and began tapping on the console face plate, her fingers doing an intricate dance.   After a moment or two more she stopped tapping and leaned back putting her hands over her head, stretching the kinks out of her back as she waited to see what would be the results of her attempt to program.

   It didn't seem like anything was going to happen.   The ship gave no sign that any engines were coming on line.   I felt no vibration or heard no rumble or hum or whine or anything.   But then Roliti, who had turned away (standing right beside him, I'd caught the movement in my peripheral vision) to look out the viewport -- presumably because he couldn't trust himself to keep looking at Perki's face -- gasped.   "Look!"   He shouted.

   We all turned to look where he was pointing.   Outside the porthole/screen like a fiery sunset was a pinkish, reddish, purplish glow.   The ship was obviously the source since we could see nothing different outside that might be causing it.   Mentally I slapped myself.   Why had I thought I would feel anything or hear anything?   Does gravity make a sound?   Does TV or radio carrier waves passing through your body produce a sensation?   Duh.   NO!   But then I dropped my mental castigation because it was obvious by the view from the porthole that we were moving.   I turned back to Perki -- who I belatedly realized had not frowned as if she couldn't understand why her efforts had produced no results -- and said, "You are controlling this rise, right?"

   She gave me a sunny smile, hopped up from the contour couch and did a little victory dance.   I was used to seeing Perki doing things like that when she was naked so I thought nothing of the fact that she was naked.   Roliti, however, seeing all that flesh in motion, groaned -- and then slapped his hands over his mouth.   (Apparently it was different when lives weren't on the line!)   Kalana gave him a reprimanding look, Weslee looked at him as if he was some kind of strange lab specimen and he couldn't quite figure Roliti out, I suppressed a grin remembering when I was a teenager and Perki ignored him.   Sitting back down in the contour couch, Perki turned her head back to look at me and said by way of answering my question verbally, "You know, it feels so good to be flying one of these things again.   I almost forgot how much fun it can be!   Er, yeah, Doc!   that would be an affirmative!   So where do you want to go?"   I was about to answer her when she interrupted me.   "Oh, and Doc?"   I gave her a look of inquiry. "It just so happens that there is a homing beacon!"   I gave her the thumbs up sign!

   Then playing along for the moment, and giving Weslee a wink, I said, "Oh I don't know!   Since there is a homing beacon -- maybe up there --" I pointed spacewards through the ceiling -- "to kick some Annunaki butt?"

   Weslee, taking me serious, let out a bloodthirsty yell.   Roliti joined him after a second.   But Kalana just looked deeply thoughtful.   I held up a forestalling hand. After I had everyone's attention, I somberly said, "I know.   I know!   It would be nice to just get this over with, but you all do realize we that we do need a plan?"

   Weslee said, "Hey dude, like -- that's way cool!   You always have the most soooper plans!"   On our way here to this planet Weslee had been viewing old TV shows he'd had Edgar pick up.   He'd justified it as research -- he said he wanted to know all about me and my culture.   I saw now, though, that he'd been watching entirely too many of those B type, beach movies.   I chuckled anyway, despite wondering why Weslee picked the oddest times to come up with something!   "Yeah, right, dude!   So let's get out of here and find some place to hide before the calvary comes and some place where I can cook up said soooper plan without any interference."   I turned to Perki, "Shall we?"

   Perki obliged, taking us out of there.   We made one quick stop so I could tell Edgar to follow us and then we went so far away from the town that the only way Father Logis could find us was if he managed to get another ship and follow us.   we certainly went too far for them to reach us on foot.   Still that didn't mean we were safe.   Hiding like this had only bought us some time, it was a temporary thing.   However, there WAS one thing that wasn't temporary.   We had permanently changed their world by showing Roliti and Kalana that there was NO other towns than theirs.   This surprised them to no end!

   I finally put an end to them exclaiming over the emptiness of their world by bringing up a few important issues to help them focus on something else.   We were sitting in what we had come to call the crew's lounge -- a fairly large, well appointed, comfortable room in the middle of the ship -- when I changed the subject on Roliti and Kalana.   "I hate to change the subject," I began, "But I think we need to consider something else.   The main questions are these: Why was the ship there?   Why was it so easily taken?   And why did the ship work at all?   I mean it seems way too easy!" Weslee and Roliti both started to answer at once.   But I let them know it was not open for discussion since we didn't have time.   Instead I answered my own questions.   "I think we know the answer to the first question -- at least on the surface.   It was put there, simply, to wow the natives.   But could there be a deeper reason?   Of course there could and I think that reason is tied in with the answers to the last two questions.   But those answers bring up three new questions.   The last two answers is that they wanted us to take the ship and it wouldn't be any good if we did and it didn't work.   That leads me to the corollary questions.   Is it a trap?   Was it arrogance on their part?   Or did they simply want to see what we would do if they let us have the ship?   I think I know the answers to those corollary questions and thereby hangs the conclusion to the matter.   Yes, it is a trap.   But only of sorts.   It is also arrogance on their part.   They think they are so smart that no one can outsmart them.   But I have proved them them wrong already once and am prepared to do it again.   But to back track a moment.   It is arrogance on their part also because they think they are so superior that they can play god with our lives and just set back and observe.   Well they can't!   I'm not going to let them!   And that leads me to my plan."   I then proceeded to outline it in great detail.   I thought it would be the perfect -- albeit creepy -- distraction and would allow us to operate on two fronts -- which we would need to do if we were going to attain victory.

   When I was done there wasn't even the sound of anyone breathing for several moments!   And then Kalana best described the reaction of everyone to the creepy part of my plan when she said in an awed tone of voice, "Upon my soul!   I fair believe a spirit invading I do feel!   Willy nilly chill my very marrow he does!"   And she shuddered, not quite convincing anyone that it was completely theatrical on her part!