I, Zeusias, Commander of the third thought drive scout ship, of The Olympian Confederation do leave this report on the fate of my ship and my crew with my good friend Creos in the hope that some day some members of The Confederation may visit this world and carry an account of what happened to Us back to Our families so the final days of Our existence may be known to all.
2 Our journey began in the century of the third nova in the year of the two moons on the fourteenth day of Arias, when I was officially called to The Hall Of Assignments with my companions. Many thought it strange that a Commander that was less than a hundred years old was assigned to a mission of such importance. But We arrived in The Great Courtyard and The Greeting Officer welcomed me, saying that those of less than command rank refresh themselves in The Courtyard, that the Commander, himself, proceed up the great steps, go down the long hall, and be greeted by The Commander Of Assignments, Taurus, himself. I bid my companions a pleasant wait, and did as I was bid.
3 As I approached the great stairs I looked up and saw The Great Hand Of Chaos casting the ships into the stars fleeing the destruction that was following them at the speed of light. But the great ships exceeded light and carried the survivors of The Ten Worlds that Chaos destroyed to the new worlds where they combined into one race and began The Confederation. Now, I live on The Capitol World where only Those that had ancestry from all Ten of the original Races were allowed to abide. As I pass down The Great Hall I pass the statues of Commanders who had come before me, Those who had fought great battles, and made great journies finding new worlds for The Confederation. I thought perhaps that some day a statue of me might be added in the empty spaces at the end. Little did I know that this would never have an opportunity to be.
4 The doors to The Great One's office were open, and He bid me welcome. "We know why you are here," He announced, "to officially be offered the command of the third scout ship. Of course I know you will accept! But before we begin formalities let us drink the liquid of life together, as is tradition, that all may be well between us."
5 He brought out The Sacred Glasses with the three chambers, filled each chamber with the liquid of life and handed me my glass. We raised them and nodded to each other, covered the two outer openings with our thumbs, repeated the words "We drink from our Mothers' breasts, that we may be filled with Her strength forever!" We emptied the middle section, then raising our right thumb we repeated "We bless the Nine inside of us, that give us health and long life. May we be worthy of the gift that They give us!" And we emptied the second section. Then we repeated, "May our seed be strong and vital, and may we spread The Glory Of Our Fathers throughout the stars!" And we emptied the third section. I returned my glass to the tray and repeated "Bless The Ways Of Old, that They may ever continue!"
6 "Now, sir, of course I accept the assignment, but you can understand that I am very curious. There are many senior commanders above me that would want this assignment. Though I am honored I seriously wonder why I have been brought forward over them."
7 The Commander Of Assignments sat back and stared at me a moment, then answered, "We have had three Commanders of the scout ships go mad in the last hundred years. Older men do not seem to be able to stand the strain. Younger ones seem to do better. The constant vigilance against a fault occuring in the drive system makes some commanders unstable. They cannot seem to trust their subordinants. They do not sleep. They are constantly on the bridge monitoring themselves. We are in hopes that you will be able to trust your subordinants to carry out their duties so that you can sleep well, and carry on the most important tasks." The Great Commander rose and began to pace. "I will tell you, Zeusias, some disturbing things. Those things will not leave this room. You will discuss them with no one, not even your crew! There is discourse in The Confederation. Some do not want to take part in colonization in the way that it is now being done, with the six colony ships taking out colonists to new worlds and other galaxies from six different worlds, and leaving them on a distant world to intermarry and become one race. Perhaps having members of other races added to their bloodlines later. Some of the younger races want the total population of a new world taken from their world, alone. They do not want to mix their glory with other races, as is The Olympian Way. If they find an inhabited world they want to destroy the inhabitants and take it over.
8 Currently, some of them are building their own ships not capable of leaving the galaxy but capable of travelling around within it. And they are taking colonists from their world, alone, to less than perfect worlds where they are establishing colonies. As they are settling on less than perfect worlds, The Confederation is not interfering. But some of them are insisting that the inhabitants be removed from some worlds and colonized elsewhere so they may take them over. They say they lie within their realm of influence. The Confederation has made it quite clear this will not be allowed! That is why your mission to find inhabitable worlds in other galaxies is very important. We would like to take some of these bothersome races out to a distance galaxy where they could live out their existence and be no further problem to The Confederation. You will be headed out into totally uncharted territory, far from any confederation holdings. The other two scout ships will be going in different directions. Long range scanning does not show too much promise in any direction. That is why your scouting mission is going to be absolutely imperative!