The rest of the holos gathered around mine in concern and confusion.   I heard Weslee's holo scream for help.   I heard Perki's holo ask mine what was wrong.   I saw Roliti's holo grab and shake mine as if that would somehow help and I saw Kalana's holo just standing there and plain screaming in horror.   Then Perki's holo suddenly stood stock still and looked around as if she could hear something the rest of the group couldn't.   She looked wildly all around at herself as if she could feel something happening in her body, but couldn't locate the source.   That's when the wings and the clotted blood hair and everything began to appear on her.   She just stood there and shook as if she was having a seizure standing up and couldn't fall down because the wings were flapping too wildly to let her fall.   In short order "Weslee" bellowed in rage and fear, looking like he was wrestling an invisible opponent and his holo turned into the demon/were bear.   "Kalana" raised her head towards the ceiling, spread her arms wide with palms out in the classic crucifix position and got a beatific look on her face as if she was seeing a light that no one else could.   She then, slowly, from head to toe, morphed into the emaciated stigmatist as if that same light was washing the change down over her.   And finally "Roliti" just started puffing up and screaming as if he was slowly being blown up from the inside out.   When he looked like he was surely going to explode, the expanding stopped and he became the overblown bag of blood with the lichen and moss inexplicably suddenly sprouting out all over it.   For a moment the scene froze.   The Annunaki were staring in what looked like genuine horror at the inexplicable changes in the holos and the holos suddenly stopped doing anything as if time had frozen somehow in some terrible unending moment!

   Then all hell broke loose!   The holos went amok, attacking any Annunaki who tried to go near them.   Those Annunaki who were armed tried to stun the holos.   But it didn't help.   Holos, obviously, can't be stunned.   It looked like the Annunaki thought they were dealing with some sort of supernatural phenomena -- something they don't believe in -- and Perki verfied that some of them WERE raising that possibility.   I waited until Perki verfied that the Annunaki standing near the door was INDEED calling for reinforcements and then I told everyone that it was time to move.

   Keeping one eye on the screen to watch the progress of the fight between the Annunaki and the holos, I joined everyone else as we stole from our ship, stepped out into the docking bay and looked around.   It was empty!   Was every Annunaki that could be spared from other duties at the scene of the disturbance?   It seemed possible.   Looking at the screen -- where the meelee was just escalating -- I could not confirm my theory, but there did seem to be an awful lot of Annunaki in the mess hall.   More than there had been, it seemed, the last time I looked.   It was tempting to watch the disturbance some more, but I really needed to focus more on the task at hand, so I hit record -- so I could watch the action for my amusement at a later date.   Then I hit the proximity button so that I would be warned if any being was coming into the close up range of the sensor screen -- and THEN I took off to catch up with the others who had already ranged further ahead.

   When I came up to where the others were stopped, I saw that we were at a junction where four hallways came together.   Everyone else was standing just shy of the left corner, obviously staying out of sight.   "What's the problem?   Why are we stopped?" I whispered, seeing by the look on Perki's face that an unexpected snag had developed, but of course not knowing what it might be.

   Weslee answered before Perki had a chance.   "Doc!   The sensor trail says we are going the same way the Annunaki and the holos went earlier and we need to get into that turbolift down that hall --" he pointed over his shoulder with a big hairy thumb towards the left hand hallway -- "But there's four Annunaki standing by the door and we think they heard us and are suspicious about something, but are afraid to check because they aren't coming to investigate -- or maybe they aren't coming to check for another reason, but anyway -- Perki was afraid that we might have to kill them all because otherwise their life signs might still register with the ship if we just stun them and she doesn't want to have any of them killed of course!   BUT ! -- even if we do kill them then won't they be missed?   Doc! what do we do?"

   I was afraid that Weslee was going to start wailing so I put a hand over his muzzle to forestall any such outburst.   Perki had a point -- even if it had been delivered by proxy.   Even if the ship's computer couldn't register our presence because of the overly strong life signal of the holos that didn't mean that the Annunaki ship wouldn't be registering the life force of the Annunaki around the hall -- if only as a security measure.   It was the sort of thing the Annunaki had been known to do.   And why hadn't I thought of that?   So what COULD we do?   I refused to be stopped this early and by such a stupid thing.   The distraction SHOULD have called away any free Annunaki.   Why would these four Annunaki be guarding this particular turbolift anyway? (And there WERE four Annunaki there!   My senor was confirming it!)   Then the obvious hit me!   These Annunaki had probably been dispatched to guard this turbolift because the captain of the ship didn't want to take any chances that the holos would get away and come here.   That meant that this turbolift led to some place sensitive and nowhere else.   Therefore we were on the right track -- most probably -- to finding Litja or the illusion field generator or both!   There was only one thing we could do!   And when I thought of it I couldn't help chuckling quietly for a few seconds.   It was so obvious that it had been right under everyone's nose all along!

   Everyone looked at me like I had gone crazy.   Weslee took it upon himself to ask the question, "What's so funny, Doc?"

   I told them.   And they all began laughing quietly too.   I shushed them.   Perki had the grace to look crestfallen.   She SHOULD have thought of it too -- she had even more reason to think of it than me since it involved her!   But I could see where she could become rattled in the heat of the moment and have it completely slip her mind.   She had to teleport over to them, snatch them all, take them to our ship and lock them away!

   Of course the wrist screens couln't track Perki when she was teleporting, but we could watch part of the drama.   So we did.   We watched as Perki suddenly apppeared out of nowhere right in front of them.   We watched as the Annunaki got even more bugeyed than they normally were as they realized that a human woman who had materialized right of in front of them from nowhere was standing there naked!   And we watched as they were so flabbergasted that they put up no fight -- or set up no alarm! -- as Perki gathered them up in the teleportation effect and whisked them away.   It wasn't long before she reappeared beside us to report the successful locking away of the four Annunaki!   Wasting no time, we headed for the turbolift. What would we find when we got to where the turbolift took us? The end of the matter?   Or more obstacles?

   Obliging us, the door to the turbolift swished quietly open when we stepped in front of it.   As soon as the doors closed the turbolift began to move upward.   I stood there during the short ride whimsically thinking that this was so much like Edgar and yet not like Edgar at all.   Sure, it was the latest in high tech elevators, but I missed Edgar's personality and his greater freedom of movement.   The door opened and we had obviously reached our destination then.   We all stepped out and looked around, leery of a trap.

   The hallway was deserted, in both directions.   I took a quick peek at my wrist screen.   Yes, the meelee was still going on.   It had spread beyond the mess hall, but was still contained in that section of the ship, several levels below us and half a ship away.   And from the damage the holos were doing it looked like the Annunaki were going to be occupied for a while yet.   I checked one other thing.   No one was coming up in the turbolift behind us.   Then from my pocket I took the sensor Edgar had made for us to use in detecting the source of the illusion field and consulted it.   The signal was coming from the left hand branch of the hallway.   We turned in that direction.

   Checking doors as we went to see if the signal was emanating from behind them, we at last came to a door where the signal was the strongest.   This had to be it!   But of course the door wouldn't open.   Obviously the door was locked with some computer code and it did us no good that Perki knew the Annunaki language.   She could not begin to query the computer without setting of some alarm.   Either you knew the code and was thus authorized to use it or you didn't and weren't.   Of course the Annunaki had not counted on supernatural abilities like Perki's ability to teleport, but that didn't do us any good either.   Once inside we'd probably set off another alarm since the computer would recognize us as intruders as we had not allayed it's programming by entering the correct way.   This was where we needed to be really cute.   And this was one obstsacle I HAD thought of and came prepared for. (Dear Reader, this is NOT your pocket frannistan of science fiction lore.   This was not something I just happened to have in my pocket.   Read back a few pages and you will see that this IS legit.   I said, and I quote, " . . . And I'd stowed in my pockets the other gear I would need . . ." See?   I AM NOT making this up as I go!)

   It was a handy little code breaker device.   It's chief distinction was that it could copy the captains voice from the computer itself as it accessed the files containing the captain's voice.   Then it could convince the computer that it was the captain putting in a new code.   I set it to work on the door by attaching it to the lock.   Then we all stood back and waited.

   The code breaker made a chirpy little boinging sound and the door slid aside.   We were in!   Leaving Perki and Weslee outside in the hallway as rear guards, I cautiously entered the room accompanied by Kalana and Roliti and came to a stop a few feet in.   I saw no Annunaki guards nor detected any defensive programs.   It seemed that the Annunaki were so sure of their lock system that they saw no need for a backup.   Roliti and Kalana stuck close by my side as I went further into the room and deployed the sensor Edgar had provided specifically for the illusion. It seemed like they felt like they were treading on holy ground and thought if they stayed close to me that I would protect them somehow by my proximity.   I chuckled a bit, inwardly, at their timidity and then paid attention as the sensor indicated the object I wanted.

   Going closer -- with Kalana and Roliti still sticking close -- I looked at the object in bemusement!   It was a black box!   You know?   Like the black box they have on planes so when they crash the investigators can figure out what happened.   At least that's what it looked like.   It was about three feet square and black with orange Annunaki script written on the sides and top.   I didn't need to know what the script said.   The sensor was telling me that the black box was not booby trapped.   Now was the time to employ the sub-routine Edgar had built into the sensor.   With this sub-routine I was going to be able to reprogram the illusion field!   I wanted it to go on a tangent!   I wanted it to back fire on the Annunaki so that they would be deluded into thinking that the planet below us did not exist -- and furthermore make them wonder why they were even here.   However I also needed to put a delay factor in it so that we would have time to search for Litja Peachtree and have time get off the ship.   With any luck at all the holos would keep the Annunaki occupied until we had accomplished those two above mentioned goals!   So I activated the sub-routine.   Checking, I saw that the program had been successful!   The illusion field was going to turn on the Annunaki.   We had one hour to search for Litja and get off the ship?   Would it be enough?

   It would have to be enough time since the Holos program would eventually give way to the probes the Annunaki were surely employing -- or were going to be employing once they thought of it.   And I certainly wanted us off -- with or without Litja -- by then!   But of course I didn't tell Kalana and Roliti that.   Instead I told them that we needed to rejoin Perki and Weslee so that we could begin to look for their father and told them that soon their world would be free!   They brightened at both prosepects.   Would they be cheated out of one of those things?   I hoped not!   But we'd see!

   Because I was so worried that we wouldn't meet the deadline imposed by all the factors verging on each other like several galaxies on a collision course, that hour went by in a blur.   Several things stood out with perfect clarity however.   We did find Litja.   That was a wonderous reunion to behold, but we had to cut it short.   Otherwise Kalana and Roliti and Litja would still have been rejoicing right up to the moment it was too late.   When that was settled, the next moment that stood out was when we reached our ship and saw that we would be able to get away undetected.   The last moment that stood out in that frenzied time was when we watched the Annunaki ship begin to pull out of the system.   (I would have described the above in more detail, but I was so distracted that I wasn't paying enough attention to remember small details.   I don't want to falsify this recounting for any reason -- not even "poetic license".   Therefore, let's just say that it came out all right to that point.   And that there was a bigger surprise coming that I remember with perfect clarity and which I CAN report on with MUCH more clarity!)

   Time slowed down then and and returned to normal.   I took a deep breath and looked around at all my gathered companions.   "Are we there yet?" was all I could think to say in a moment that should have been graced by a more momentous statement!