Buck Rogers in the 26th Century "The Invasion of the Noyas"
Written by: Erin Weinstock
Novelization by: Anthony B.

I don't hold any of the copyrights in this story, and this story was made without profit.
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Introduction

On a planet named Noyas, on the outskirts of a town, Buck was entrapped in a shelter, called by its creators The Generational Mass. He looked to be floating in mid-air, when truthfully he was caught in a congealed mass of past generations and a few living of an alien species named Proto Number Seven. It looked like semi-dirty pink Jell-O. At this point, Buck's eyes were closed.

"How did I get in this?" He asked. "I'm inside a living Jell-O mold. I would have never guessed in a million years, truly..."

"Where your home?" A voice asked.

"What? Where'd that come from?" Buck asked himself, though hoping for an answer from the voice. He turned to look to both sides of him. "I must be losing my mind in here."

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Before Buck engaged on a mission that winded him up in his current state of affairs, he was inside Huer's office.

"According to the databases on Noyas, provided by the Computer Council," Huer began as he stood up from behind his desk, with Buck standing before him, "it's a peaceful planet that gave up trade a few years ago to rebuild and upgrade its resources. They are at war with no one, and that's why I've asked you here, Buck."

"If there is no threat, why ask me here?" Buck asked.

Huer is now right up to Buck's face. "They have claimed their enemy, "The Proto Number Seven", has detonated a bomb in their ammunitions storage complex. They want us to destroy them, instead of lifting a finger themselves.

"If this bombing took place within their own ammunitions storage building, maybe the explosion was a mistake," Buck suggested.

Huer turned away from Buck. "That could be. That was my first thought, in fact, about this whole thing. But they aren't letting go of this whole threat from Proto Number Seven." Huer then turned to look at Buck again. "I want you to investigate this, find out what's really going on. Buck, the council has no record of any species named Proto Number Seven.

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Inside the Generational Mass, a vine, snaking in movement, moved towards Buck. It stopped moving when it reached a foot before Buck's face, and a ball inside the vine moved up through the vine untill it's reached its end. The ball inside the vine puffed out like a flower to reveal what looked like a nerve end.

Buck stared at it. However, the nerve started pulsing tiny lights at Buck on its thin lips.

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A material banner hung above Buck's high school cafeteria that read "Fly with Force: The United States Air Force! Sign up today".

Below the banner was a recruiting booth. Two men wearning Air Force uniforms sat in chairs behind the booth. Papers for sign-up sat before them, along with leaflets that gave information and show phots of the job they're in. A few teenage boys and one girl of the same age stood in front of this setup, talking with men from the Air Force. The teenagers were dressed in clothese that clearly depicted this was in the 1980s. It was clear that this was a high school cafeteria, based on all the books, folders, papers, and backpacks at the tables with the kids.

Buck and Ben, who were teenagers as well, were sitting together at a table. Ben was near a trashcan, with Buck standing behind him with a tray of eaten food and an empty milk carton. Ben was halfway inside the large trashcan, as he tried to reach something.

"Give it up, it's a bad idea," Buck said.

"No no, I'm not going to fill out those papers again," Ben insisted.

"They won't take you," Buck assured him. "Doing that doesn't give them a good impression of you."

Ben lifted himself out of the transh can, holiding the sign up papers that was in front of the Air Force recruitment booth. "I don't need to impress those gusy, Buck. The government will take anybody."

Buck moved Ben aside as he dumped the contents of his tray into the trash can. Ben picked his tray up off the floor where he set it earlier.

"It won't work, Ben. Maybe in the past with guys like Neil Armstrong and John Glenn, but not now."

Both boys walked towards an exit in the cafeteria, where the students took their empty trays.

"Air Force then NASA, Buck. That's how it's been, that's how it's always going to be. They want people who can think well under pressure."

"What about Christa McAuliffe?" Buck countered.

"She was a passenger; trained, but still a passenger."

Buck and Ben sat down their trays. "The ship blew up; you couldn't get me up there," Buck insisted.

"But I could get you to change you mind," Ben said.

"About what?" Buck asked. "Joining the Air Force?"

"Ya."

"No."

"If you say they're really so picky about who they'll take in, sign up," Ben challenged. "I say they won't take you."

Buck grabbed Ben's hand in a ball of a stake. "You're on."

Buck headed back into the cafeteria towards the recruitment booth.

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Chapter 1

Buck now returned his attention to him being inside the Generational Mass.

"Why here?" the voice asked Buck.

"Where?" Buck replied.

The vine popped back into itself the nerve that was shining lights at Buck. It quickly snaked away, off into the distance to some unseen place.

"Where did...," Buck continued. "Was it speaking to me...? With no mouth? But they have mouths."

"Different," replied the voice.

Below Buck, two large tendrils form in the jelly, and snake upwards towards Buck's legs. "What's different? Who's there?" Buck asked himself. "Is this all in my mind?"

The tendrils take sharp hold around Buck's ankles, and immediately Buck starts trying to fight their grip on him by kicking around.

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This particular shuttle park looked very private, in comparison to other shuttle parks that Buck has seen. This one looked like it was only large enough to hold four small ships. Buck had just landed the Defense Directorate here, and was walking away from it, which was taking up more than a fair share of space. As he walked, a Firza, an alien native to that planet, walked towards Buck from a building behind him. The Firza had a horn-like extension covered in flesh that headed up and over the forehead like a tower; under this horn-like extension was something almost beak-like that moved down over the mouth to a point, and to either side of the horn-like extension were its eyes, which almost slant completely vertically, instead of horizontally like normal eyes.

"I'm sorry; we're not open today due to repairs being made. Please return to us when we're ready for public view," the Firza said.

"I'm not here to buy weapons," Buck explained.

"But you're here from Earth's Defense Directorate; I recognize your clothes and ship," he replied.

"I thought your planet had given up trade?" Buck asked.

"We have to an official note, but that doesn't mean we still don't welcome it. Tell me why you've come here, if not for that?"

"You reported to us you were bombed by an enemy you have named 'Proto Number Seven'?" The Firza looked towards Buck's ship. "Is something wrong?"

"Only one man, you cannot defeat them with just one man," the Firza dismally explained. "Surly you have brought others here as well with you?"

"I came here by myself under the orders of Doctor Huer," Buck replied.

Firza One snapped his gaze from the ship to Buck. "That won't do. We need them exterminated. You'll need help."

"This bombing, can you tell me how it took place?" Buck said, trying to turn the conversation.

"I'll do one better than that. I'll show you where it happened, too," the Firza said. He then motioned for Buck to follow him into the building, which didn't use Phasoft-doors (Doors that opened automatically, instead of being opened manually).

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Inside the Ammunitions Storage Complex, all the weapons have been moved to one side of the room that Buck and the Fizra just entered. These weapons were mainly bombs of massive size and blasters that looked as though they could take out a whole ship in one shot. On the opposite wall, blast damage could be seen, though it was being repaired by a device that looked like a gun of some ort, but it was shooting a beam that was repairing the wall. How it's doing this was that the beam made a sparkling square in the air inside a damaged area. Then a person sitting at the gun, at the base, presses controls that makes the gun form a thin layer of gray, replacing the sparkling square. This layering act is repeated over and over till the patch in the damaged area looked like the undamaged wall, and with each new layer, the person at the repair gun's controls is making adjustments.

The Firza pointed to the damaged wall, turning Buck so that he could see it. "See, look what they did!"

Buck then looked at the weapons, before turning his gaze back to the Firza. "Are you sure that one of your own weapons didn't do this? The Defense Directorate has no record of the ones you say did this."

"They're real, and they're a real threat to us," the Firza insisted. "You must get the rest of the Defense Directorate here to destroy them."

Buck, after listing to him, took notice of a trash can near the weapons, and went over to it. He then lifted a broken shell of a bomb out of it. He matched it to one of the bombs seen on a top shelf of the storage. The Firza noticed what Buck was doing, and called out to try and dispel his doubts "They did this!"

"We're not attacking anyone, not without cause," Buck said. Buck then threw the bomb shell inside the trash can.

"They need to be destroyed! Please, you can't go!" the Firza exclaimed, almost to the point of hysteria.

"How dumb do you think I am?" Buck said without turning back.

"However you'd like me to answer that to get your help?" the Firza said uncertainly.

As Buck left the building, the Firza ran after him.

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Just in the nick of time, the Firza caught Buck, as he was ready to enter the shuttle.

"Meet them, encounter the Pront, you'll see how awful they are. What they’re doing to this world, how they're destroying it," the Firza begged.

"Are you sure it isn't destruction you're doing? LIKE THE BOMB?" Buck said, shouting the last sentence.

"Meet them, they're real. I swear it!"

Buck took his hand away from the access panel that would allow him to enter the ship.

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Indeed, Buck now knew that they were being real as the tendrils were not dragging him into the depths of the Generational Mass. He continued to fight the tendrils that were pulling him down, as he passed more of the vines with nerve ending glittering around him, popping in and out of view to look at him as if loaded with caffeine.

"Please, if you can hear me, if you're real, help!" Buck yelled.

Buck then watched the nerves pop in and out of their vines, sparkling at him.

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Buck was shooting a fighter jet high up in the air, above an ocean, as he shot forward.

"Please, that doesn't help. I can do this," Buck said.

Buck was sitting in the pilot's seat, holding the steering grips, which are wavering a little. Buck, in his early twenties, looked very concerned with his gaze fixed on the view outside his window.

"The engines aren't powering down, I think it's the switch!" Buck said.

Buck flipped a switch far off to one side of his steering grips.

"Which switch, Rogers!" General Larson asked Buck over an intercom. "Which switch did you just flip? This could be a matter of life and death!"

"The small one just to the far right of my grips," Buck replied.

"Christ, Rogers, that switch controls your fog lights!" Larson yelled.

"Whoops," Buck said, embarrassed.

"This isn't a funny matter!" Larson chastised.

"I know it isn't General, it's just when there aren't many choices left, what else can you do?"

"Full power or not, you're coming into us. Prepare to land!"

"But I might crash or go right past the flight deck!" Buck yelled.

Ahead of Buck, at some distance, is an aircraft carrier with the name Highstone painted near its bow.

"When there aren't many choices left, what else can you do? You said it, Rogers, not me," Larson said.

"What if I wanted a second choice!" Buck asked his superior.

"I'm not the one in the sky, and over months of training meant to prepare you for this, you still don't know fully how to fly that bird. I'm ordering you to land, if you crash we'll deal with that," Larson ordered.

"My death means nothing to you!" Buck screamed into the intercom.

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On the Flight Deck of the Highstone, men were moving all about, clearing everything as far away from the runway as possible as Larson, unmoving, talked into a mobile intercom, looking up in the air towards the area that Buck was coming from.

"And obviously, the training I gave you means nothing to you!" Larson said into the intercom.

After the intercom was given a click by the general, Buck began to murmuring swear words under his breath. Larson looked around at the cleared flight deck before he returned his attention to the sky and gave his intercom a click. "We're ready for you down here, General Larson out."

He turned off the device, as Buck's jet was coming in fast for a landing. Larson watched as Buck's jet readied to land on the deck. Larson then backed away a few feet, as Buck's jet zooms close by. After watching that, Larson turned towards where Buck just went off to, and into the device his voice began to boom. "Attention all available officers, you're needed on deck for a Code Splash!"

The commotion of people moving around the deck came to a halt.

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Chapter 2

Two large helicopters came towards Buck, with four heavy cables, complete with oversized hooks dangling downwards fastened between them.

Buck, soaking wet, was wearing a life-preserver, looking up in the air and blinking as the overhead helicopters created massive winds around him. Under Buck, coming up from the depths, were bubbles rising up around him. Buck's gaze was fixed so fixed on the helicopters that he didn't notice the harness of a rope thrown to him until it hits him.

"Hey!" Buck shouted.

"Put it on," called General Larson, "We need you pulled up before the jet!"

Buck did as he was told.

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The slimy, pink gelatin was moving off of Buck, who was coughing the alien gook out of him. He was in a pocket dome of air with the Generational Mass surrounding him. H began picking himself up and off the floor, rubbing the slime off his face before trying his best to get the rest off of him.

"Please let me out. I'm sure you can work out some kind of deal with the Firza or Harno," Buck called, turning in a complete circle to project his voice in all directions. He waited for an answer, when all sides of the pocket began to ripple. "You two don't have to be enemies. Think what they've give you, surely you could do a favor for them in return... On another world?"

The rippling gelatin outside the pocket had the vines with nerve endings come into view, and immediately they sparkled towards the pocket.

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Firza One was pulling Buck along to follow him as they reached a slope in an area beyond the town limits. The Firza, with his free hand that was not holding Buck, pointed downwards.

"The Proto Number Seven. See, they're real!" the Firza exclaimed.

Buck could see a massive pool of dirty pink gelatin littered in holes of different sizes, almost like Swiss cheese, filling a gorge which sized matched what was filling it. Buck and the Firza were standing near the edge of this.

"This is it? Pink Jell-O?" Buck asked.

"Will you get the Defense Directorate to destroy it?" the Firza asked.

"First of all, I don't even know what it is, so no way am I going to do anything with it till that's settled. Second, let go of me. You've made your point of it's really here."

The Firza let go of Buck's hand, and then stepped back a foot. "They were on Licode, a living, one-celled organism that had no thought, only reflexes, made electric energy. We brought them to this planet..." the Fizra then took another step away from the slope. "...to power our homes, factories, businesses. But they..." the Fizra took yet another step from the Generational Mass. "...evolved, our guess was due to having no natural predators on this planet. They began creating so much of their electrical energy; they began shorting out the devices they were being contained in..." The Firza took another step, and now looked as though he wanted to head back to town. "...then began thinking; with each generation of evolving, they've been getting smarter and smarter."

"With how you're backing away from this place, I'm guessing they really ARE dangerous?" Buck asked, observing his guide.

The Firza responded by backing away again. "We can't fight them. I'm leaving this up to you alone, now," he said as he ran back towards town.

Buck gave him an ugly look before returning his view to the Generational Mass. The Mass, however, gave no sign it was aware of Buck's presence. Buck upholstered a blaster, and started moving down towards it. Within a yard of the Generational Mass, it pushed aside itself to create an entranceway, then later a hall for Buck to walk down as he went further inside. Buck started moving into the area that was now being hollowed out for him. But as soon as he was completely within the entrance, the gelatin sealed up behind him. "Not again," Buck said as he took notice of the entrance being sealed.

An evolved Proto Number Seven then came out of the gelatin from within the thicker Mass. It had a smooth, non-descript looking body of dark pink, nearly the same color as the Mass that surrounded it. It had an expressionless face with black eyes and no whites, had vines near the surface which looked purple. Buck could not tell by any means rather it was male or female.

Buck gawked at the evolved form. "Proto Number Seven?" A tentacle whipped out from the Generation Mass, and took Buck’s blaster away from him, pulling it into itself. "That's not very friendly, I needed that."

"You are not very friendly," the Evolved Proto Number Seven replied.

"You can talk?" Buck asked in amazement.

"Your weapon presents a threat. Not as great as the Harno Number Six, but it was still unfriendly to present it to here," the Evolved Proto Number Seven said.

"If you'd said something earlier, I might not have had it drawn," Buck responded.

The Evolved Proto Number Seven moved around Buck, looking at him from different angles. "You are not Firza."

"You're right, I'm another species named Human."

"Did the Firza bring you here?" the evolved life form wanted to know.

"They brought me here; they want me to destroy you."

"Do you want do destroy me, our..." The Evolved Proto Number Seven moved its head around to indicate what was surrounding him. "Generational Mass?"

"Generational Mass?" Buck asked.

"We grow and die here, evolve here, we live in here with those gone to us and coming into being," The Evolved being stated. "How could..." It then gave Buck a close up look. "I should, I should, we..."

Another Evolved Proto Number Seven emerged from deep within the Mass.

"What is Human?" both beings asked at the same time. "What is the purpose of Human and planet of origin?"

"We... we have no purpose, we invent our own. We're from the planet Earth," Buck replied.

"Your weapon has been destroyed, Human," the Evolved Proto Number Seven replied.

"I was told you were dangerous," Buck said. "You destroying my blaster, that wasn't too friendly either, but understandable. Tell me what you're doing to the Firza they find dangerous."

In response, the Generational Mass creates a path further into itself as it pulled the jelly back. "We are growing, expanding. Come see."

Buck moved forward quickly, but found the two Evolved Proto Number Sevens wouldn't move with him. "Guys, you do want me to see what's back there?

"Then move forward," the first evolved being said.

Buck gave the two a look to say he wasn't sure he was doing the right thing, and then pushes past them and through them. After doing that, the two blobs reform themselves where Buck disrupted their bodies. They then turned to face where Buck was now heading to by shifting their whole bodies backwards in a total reforming. Soon, almost real looking walls form out before the trio, and tentatively, Buck touched a door that even had a knob on it.

"Good impression," Buck said, complimenting the make-shift door.

"We can impersonate all objects created by the Firza, including the Firza, but the Harno Number Six, we still have issue with," the first Evolved Proto Number Seven said.

Buck looked to be in deep thought as he turned his back to the wall and leaned against it. "Harno Number Six? What is that, they, it?" He said as he looked to both of them.

Both responded. "Origin on Licode, our memory of them is faint but still present. They are a predator that has killed billions of us."

"But you don't have to worry about them here, this isn't Licode. You have no natural predators here," Buck said.

"The Firza have brought them here," they both replied at once.

Buck paused before he responded. "So what the Firza are calling a threat from you towards them is truthfully a threat towards these other aliens, the Harno?"

"The Firza feel threatened by our presence inclining on theirs, that's why they brought the Harno Number Six to this planet, to destroy us," the Evolved Proto Number Sevens said.

"Then just keep your distance from the Harno, and you'll be fine," Buck assured them.

"We have evolved since our last encounter with the Harno Number Six, but we must not fight, destroy them yet. We still need to become more than we are before then," the first Evolved Proto Number Seven replied, before the other joined in. "The Firza must never bring the Harno Number Seven to this planet after. We will make sure it will never take place again.

Buck waved his arms to them. "Wait guys, now that does sound like a bit of a threat. Can't you just leave them be?"

"The Harno Number Six must be destroyed; they are a threat to the Generational Mass. We must expand, grow. But we can't do it with them on the planet."

Buck moved towards them, from the wall. "Guys, something must be done about this, and I'm not sure what the Defense Directorate will do will be in your favor."

"You are with the Defense Directorate?" the first gelatin blob asked?

"I'm a fighter for the Defense Directorate," Buck replied.

The door behind Buck began to open without his notice. "The Defense Directorate might take action not on our favor. That is a threat, you are a threat, you must be destroyed," both Evolved Proto Number Sevens said.

"Hey wait, guys," Buck said. They advanced on Buck who doesn't notice what was about to back into, which was a mass of tentacles coming on from the open doorway. "I like to help people. This isn't necessary!"

The tentacles grabbed Buck and pulled him into the Mass. Buck is then hurled through the Generational Mass a good distance, until he stops moving, his eyes closed.

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Chapter 3

"What is this? What are you doing to me here?" Buck asked, as he was back in the present moment inside the pocket of the Generational Mass. "Is... is this some kind of stomach?"

"Studying you," the voice replied.

"Show yourself. I need to know I'm not going mad," Buck demanded.

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Inside Commander Dilliway's office, Buck, in his early twenties, was sitting in an uncomfortable chair made of mainly plastic, with metal for its frame and legs. He looked like he could care less about where he was, and frankly, would like to be any place else. Sitting before him at a neatly organized desk is a man who was a few years older than Buck, and wearing a decorated uniform, implying that he's done a good amount of service to the Air Force despite his young age. This man did care that he was in the room.

"Cadet Rogers, how much do you want to be here today?" Dilliway asked.

Buck slumped his head to one side. "As much as I bet you want to be here, sir."

"Cadet, I love my job here as much as I love this country," Dilliway affirmed. "But you on the other hand. Do you love this country?"

Buck lifted his head up. "I love this country; however there are a few things I could say about..."

"The Air Force," Dilliway quickly cut in, "we know you don't fit in here, Rogers. We wish you were more like your brother about this."

"Sir," Buck began.

"Commander Dilliway."

"Commander Dilliway, my brother isn't in this to stay," Buck said.

"He made that clear from the first day he entered this base," Dilliway agreed. "However, you don't have many choices right now where you can stay."

"Am I being assigned to another base, or being kicked out?" Buck asked.

"Cadet, have you ever considered working for another branch of the military?"

"No."

Leaning forward on his desk, Commander Dilliway put his hands together. "You haven't earned enough credit here for a full college scholarship. The officers on board the Highstone, well, they have some pity for you after what you did... off their flight deck."

Dilliway gave Buck a look that asked him if he was listening. "I'm listening," Buck replied.

"The NAVY wants you," Dilliway finished. Buck leaned back in his chair, and looked downwards. "They are willing to take you under their wing and give you personal training aside from the rest of their cadets."

"I don't need special training," Buck replied in a low voice.

"Then you'll listen to your commander and follow orders like everyone else."

Buck looked up, but still spoke softly. "I haven't agreed to anything."

"I want you to think over what I've just told you, and give me an answer before twenty-one hundred hours tomorrow. Is that understood?" Dilliway asked.

"Understood," Buck assured him.

"You may leave now, Cadet," Dilliway said, dismissing him.

Buck got up from his chair, and left the office, into a hallway. It was a very plain looking place with light blue walls, with wooden trim surrounding the door to Dilliway's office and floor and tiles on the floor that all looked the same. Buck just exited the office when he noticed Jenny, near his age, in a fast walk down the hall past him. She was wearing an Air Force uniform that looked brand new.

Buck's attention was fully caught by her, even as she walked past him.

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Inside the Generational Mass, Buck sat on the ground, staring at one of the jelly coated vines with sparkling nerve ends.

"I have no clue who you are, what you are, but staring at this is getting really boring, really fast," Buck said.

"Ninety-eight percent determined. Almost done," the voice replied.

"With what? Studying me?" Buck asked.

"Studying you," the voice affirmed.

"You're trying to figure out if I'm a threat like how the Proto Number Seven see me?"

"I am Proto Number Seven," the voice corrected Buck.

That fact took Buck off guard, and he started looking around himself.

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In the middle of a clear sky, the U.S.S. Rockyshark was pushing its way forward through the water.

"Enemy aircraft, please identify yourself," Buck said, wearing a headset. Buck is in a crowded dimly lit area, now nearing thirty in age, and was standing over a man with a radar screen in front of him. On the radar screen, Buck could see a green dot moving into its center. Buck listened from a headset linked into the radar's station, stretching over to one side of the man in front of Buck.

"You'll be shot down if you don't comply with my orders," Buck said smiling.

"Try to shoot me down when I'm about to land on your deck," Jenny's voice could be heard.

"Are you sure 'deck' is the right word for that," Buck asked.

The man in front of Buck turned to him. "Captain!" the man said sternly.

"Sorry," Buck said, bringing himself under better control.

"I'm landing now," Jenny's voice said.

"And I'm greeting you with a firing squad," Buck responded.

Buck took off the headset and handed it to the man in front of him, and ran to the Rockyshark flight deck.

Jennifer's jet was sitting on the deck, where she threw her helmet against her side, heading towards the entrance towards the interior of the ship. Buck ran up to her from the entrance in which she was heading to.

"Where's the warm greeting?" Jenny asked.

Buck and Jenny then embraced in each other's arms. "Right here," Buck said.

"You destroyed me bird, I might have to stay here a long time," Jenny said, which caused Buck to laugh.

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Buck was standing in front of an area of the wall where it was pushed out in a plate-like surface. Near his feet, the vine with sparkling nerve endings slunk back into the full goo of the Mass.

"How could you be Proto Number Seven?" Buck asked.

"One hundred percent determined," the voice informed.

"How could you be Proto Number Seven?" Buck repeated.

"I am what they once were, I am less than they are, almost dead," the voice replied.

"You're dying?" Buck asked.

"I am of generations ago, I am less than they are but am kept alive by the nourishment they feed me," the elderly Proto replied.

"You are a less evolved form of Proto Number Seven?"

"I am," the voice answered.

"How is it that you are speaking to me," Buck asked.

"My mind is inside yours," the voice answered.

"You are a telepath, but I can hear, think your thoughts?" Buck asked.

"I am."

"Tell me, what were you studying about me?" Buck inquired. "What were those weird things looking at me?"

"My feelers, they were probing you," the Old One replied.

"To find out what?" Buck asked.

"Who you are," the Old One said.

"If you asked me, I could have told you who I am. Could have saved you a whole lot of time there."

"I needed to go in your mind, to truly know who you are," the Old One said.

"What did you find out about me? What purpose did it serve to do that to me, to find out who I fully am?" Buck asked.

"Your actions in the past, what has made you who you are. If you really are a threat to the Proto Number Seven."

Buck absorbed the words of the elder Proto Number Seven. "And what have you determined about me from your findings? Am I good or bad? Do I live or die?"

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Chapter 4

"Which is it?" Buck asked softly.

"I could not care less if you lived or if you died. I only care if you could help the Mass," the Old One replied.

"I won't help you kill the Harno. To my knowledge, they've done nothing to you here," Buck said.

"The Harno Number Six are a threat I do not wish to meet nor my descendants to meet," the Old One said firmly.

"Is that what you want me to take care of?" Buck asked. "Making sure you never encounter the Harno?"

"Going home."

"What do you mean by that?" Buck inquired further, still confused by what was going on. "What's 'going home'?"

"My descendants are more powerful than the Harno Number Six. They will become more powerful, but so will the Harno Number Six. We must retreat to a safer place," the Old One declared.

"And where's that?"

"Home."

Buck thought for a moment as to what the Old One was referring to. "Licode?"

"The Mass must return home," the voice affirmed.

"The Harno are there too," Buck said.

"No evolved, not greater. Threat, but not great."

"I think I see..." Buck said as he began to walk around a little. "They've evolved here too like you have."

"Need to go home. No threat there," the Old One affirmed.

"How can I get you there when your descendants want me dead?" Buck asked of the Proto Number Seven.

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Back on the slope that led to the Generational Mass, forty or fifty of the Evolved Proto Number Seven were standing near the gully that contained the Generational Mass. All of them were staring into the gully. At its surface, goo was boiling up to form structure as it cooled once it hit the air. They made no sound, nor movement, until a non-defined mass rose eight or nine feet into the air. From the center of the Generational Mass, the Old One appeared. The Evolved Proto Number Sevens' only reaction was to blink, while they took in the sight.

"List to us," the Old One ordered.

"You are gone, what is us?" asked each Evolved Proto Number Seven in unison.

The Old One commanded the Mass to push aside itself to make an opening that would push up Buck. "Not gone, but still here by little, you must listen to us."

"The Human is a threat to the Generational Mass. It must be destroyed," the Evolved Proto Number Sevens said together.

Buck took in his surroundings, as he was no longer completely surrounded by pink jelly anymore. "Your ancestor and I want to help you."

"You will use weapons on us," said the chorus of Evolved Proto Number Seven.

A bit of the boiling goo hit Buck, and a sharp noise of pain escaped his lips. "I will take you back to Licode."

"You are a threat to the Generational Mass; we will not face the Harno Number Six yet," the Evolved Proto Number Sevens said.

At this point, Buck was beginning to get impatient. "Facing them here could be even more dangerous than facing them on your home planet! They have no enemies here but you, and as long as you stay out of contact with them here, as you evolved into higher beings, they too might evolve! The Firza doesn't want you here any more, they might try in the future to use greater force than call upon the Defense Directorate for it! Later, you might have to face not only an evolved form of the Harno, but the Firza as well!"

"We have no means of returning to Licode. You have no means of returning us to Licode," the Proto Number Sevens argued.

The Old One stepped in to Buck's defense. "The Human... Captain William Buck Rogers, has the means."

"Explain," the crowd of Evolved Proto Number Sevens demanded.

"I came here in a small transport shuttle. We have larger ones back at the Defense Directorate. I could call them to be brought here, they could take you back to Licode," Buck answered.

"Then what of the Harno Number Six on Licode," they asked.

"It is always easier to face one enemy than two," Buck reasoned. "They might be no match for you on Licode; you could live in peace and far away from them."

"But do you need an entire planet to do so?" Buck asked. Everything then became silent, and even the boiling Generational Mass calmed to a simmer. "Do you really need an entire planet?"

"Licode is a large planet," the crowd of Evolved Proto Numbers Sevens said in unison.

"We can live in peace, far from them," the Old One told the others.

"We will live in peace far from them," the Evolved Proto Number Sevens affirmed in unison.



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