Thunder watched as the swirling energy of the UE warpgate faded away, and Kirrim Prime appeared in the center of his viewscreen. This warpgate was amazing technology, he'd just completed in 30 minutes a trip that would take at least a week (and probably more) by hyperspace. Thunder entered the atmosphere of Kirrim and glided low over the surface toward the coordinates the note mentioned. As he approached them, he sighted a small group of structures in a mountain valley. Finding a suitable landing site about half a kilometer from the complex, Thunder landed the S.S. Affirmation and pulled a winter coat out of a storage locker. It was winter ten months each year on Kirrim Prime at this latitude, and the temperature outside registered at about -15°C (about 5°F).
Slipping on the coat, Thunder disembarked and set off on foot toward the building complex. Fifteen minutes later he found himself outside the door to a non-descript building with a sign on the wall that read "Building 3A, Terminus Group Research Facility." Somewhat apprehensively, he knocked on the door. Several seconds later it cracked open, and a Zidagar man peered out through the slit. Thunder struggled to pull the note that he'd found taped to the hatch of the Affirmation out of his pocket; it was difficult with his gloved hands, but he eventually managed to pull it out and show it to te Zidagar. Quickly Thunder was ushered inside. Inside he was greeted by a tall, elderly Zidagar who was obviously the man in charge. "Ahh, Thunder. We've been expecting you."
"How do you know my name?" Thunder asked. "What else do you know about me?"
"Just that you recieved two crystals from one of our scientists, and gave them to the UE and Zachit. Oh- don't worry, we're not angry. As long as the crystals aren't in Azdgari hands, we're quite pleased indeed. We found out your name when we ran the ship name 'S.S. Affirmation' through our database."
"Ahh..." Thunder said, beginning to comprehend.
"Wait, where are my manners?" The elderly Zidagar said. "I'm Commander Salvane, and these are the scientists of the Terminus Project. You'll find out what we do soon enough." Selvane walked forward, shaking Thunder's hand. "Welcome to Project Terminus Headquarters."
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Thirty minutes later, Thunder and Commander Salvane were in the building's cafeteria, drinking hot chocolate. Thunder had explained to Salvane how he'd come into possession of the blue crystals, and how he'd given them to the UE and Zachit to use for whatever purpose they chose. Now it was time for him to get the answers he'd come to seek.
"So," Thunder began, "How did Project Terminus get a hold of such pure Aligned Crystals? Or is it too classified to tell me?"
"You're in luck." Salvane replied. "Project Terminus has been completed, and since we need your help, I can give you the answers you seek."
"Need my help? Help doing what?"
"I'll get to that." Salvane said. "First let me explain about the crystals. That is what you're here to find out about, right?" Thunder nodded.
"I've been the head of Project Terminus since it was first concieved 25 years ago. The Zidagar theorized that if they could refine and purify the aligned crystals from the mines of Twyus, we could produce stronger phased beamers and finally turn the tide of the Strand War in our favor. After negotiating with the Miranu, we set up our research facility here, in the remote mountains of Kirrim Prime, far from the battlefields of the Strand War. Immediately we set out to find a way to purify the aligned crystals. It took us two years to develop the technology to achieve it, but once we did, we immediately started testing it. Here, I'll show you our lab facility." With this, Salvane stood up and motioned for Thunder to follow him. As they walked together out of the cafeteria, Salvane continued his story.
"Our first tests were somewhat successful. We managed to purify small samples of aligned crystals by up to 15% beyond normal purity, but if we tried to go any farther, the crystals quickly disintegrated upon use in any kind of technology. We tried countless methods of refining the crystals, but every time the crystals would disintegrate if we tried to purify them any more than 25% beyond their normal purity."
At this point, Thunder and Salvane entered the laboratory, where they saw several scientists working to pack up various peices of machinery, disassembling them. "This is where we tried to purify the crystals." Salvane continued. "We tried unsuccessfully for 15 years to purify the crystals using hundreds of different methods, but never did we achieve more than a minor increase in purity. That's when we made the big discovery."
"What was that?" Thunder asked, by now completely absorbed in Salvane's story.
"One of our scientists calculated that if we wanted to increase the purity of the product crystal, we had to input more aligned crystals to start with. What's more, he calculated that the amount of crystals needed increased logarithmically. It works much like the Richter scale."
"Oh, you mean like a 5.0 is 10 times as powerful as a 4.0, and 100 times as powerful as a 3.0?"
"Right." Salvane said. "To create a crystal twice as pure, it would take 10 times as much mass of aligned crystal to start with. Using these new equations, we tried our purification techniques again, and met with far more success. Our first test successfully created a crystal with 1.9 times the purity of an average aligned crystal. The only limitation was that to create higher purity crystals, the amount of crystals needed to begin with quickly rose into the range of tons. Since only 100 tons of Aligned Crystals can be produced anually from Twyus, it quickly became an inefficent use of resources."
"I'll bet," Thunder commented.
"For example," Salvane said, "the crystal you gave to the Zacha was 4.7 times as pure as a normal aligned crystal. It took 800 pounds of aligned crystals to produce it."
"How many of these crystals did you produce in all?" Thunder asked.
"We produced 25 crystals in all." Salvane answered. "But only 5 are left. The two you gave to the UE and Miranu, the first two we created, which were only about 1.9 and 2.2 times as pure as average aligned crystals (respectively), and our greatest creation, the Terminus Crystal, an aligned crystal 5.6 times as pure as normal, and over 4 times as large. It took more than six tons of Aligned crystals to create. To create a more powerful crystal would be physically impossible, because of the lab and equipment needed to purify that many tons aligned crystal to begin with."
"Where are the other 3 crystals?" Thunder asked.
"That's where you come in. The first two we created are stored in our vault. We will entrust them to you if you can recover the Terminus Crystal and ensure it remains safe from all who would misuse it. Of course, those two would only be about 3 times as powerful as a standard phased beamer."
And just what happened to it?"
"Our main corporate sponsor, a rich Miranu buisnessman by the name of Keldran Syril, stole it after his wife and oldest son were killed in the renegade attack on New Mira. He stole it from our vault, and we believe he still has it in his possession. His last known wherabouts were that he had retreated to his private mansion on Mira two weeks ago. He knew that since our project was almost out of money after the collapse of the Zidagar government that we didn't have the resources to hunt him down. But now we've got you."
And you want me to track him down?" Thunder said.
"I take it by the fact that your ship is a Zachit Arada, that you have ties to the Zacha."
"Yea, that's right."
"Then take this, and report to the Zachit," Salvane said, handing Thunder a hand-held scanner of some kind.
"What is it?" Thunder asked.
"The Terminus Crystal resonates on a very specific frequency. This scanner will home in on that frequency if the Terminus Crystal is in the same system. After you contact the Zachit, have them send an escort detail with you to capture Keldran Syril. He will have the Terminus Crystal with him. If you find him, you'll find the crystal, and vice-versa. If you succeed, we will reward you with our remaining funds, which amount to 402,000 credits and a Zidagar systems upgrade for the S.S. Affirmation. And we'll reward the Zacha with the Terminus Crystal."
"I'll do my best." Thunder replied, walking back to the door. As Thunder put on his coat and prepared to return to his ship, Salvane entered the hallway and spoke. "Remember, the Terminus Crystal is the greatest power known to any race, anywhere. Please, do whatever it takes to keep it out of the hands of anyone who would misuse it. Once again, the future course of events of the entire universe is in your hands. Here are the two smaller crystals," he said, handing Thunder a familiar looking leather pouch. "I assume you'll probably want to give these to the UE. Now, hurry off and find the erminus Crystal!"
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Returning to the S.S. Affirmation, Thunder quickly set a course for Mirava and sent out a priority one message to Pikera and the Zachit.
MESSAGE TO ALIEN (to Pikera and the Zachit)<<<
PRIORITY ONE<<<
Encryption sequence confirmed, level 9 encryption active.
Pikera, Zacha officers, please pay close attention to this message. I have contacted a group of Zidagar scientists working on what they called "Project Terminus." This was the project that created the blue crystal I gave you. They also created another one, the power of which far exceeds even that of the one I gave you, one called the Terminus Crystal. It was stolen by a Miranu buisnessman named Keldran Syril, I've attached the Terminus Group's file on him to this message. Please look up his last known whereabouts and have a Zacha detail meet me in the Mirava system. We will track down Keldran Syril and if we succeed, the Zacha will be able to keep the Terminus Crystal.
END MESSAGE<<<
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If you hadn't screwed up my past, your future wouldn't be like this!
