Greetings once again,


		This is a beta version of Dreams. I switch mostly 
everything over to the first person and added somethings to it as well. 
If anyone is interested in the Phantom Riders stories which I�ve written 
this is probably a good place to start reading. As I said before this 
would be the first book in the series if I hadn�t started this series in 
the middle. I�m not used to the first person POV so if there are anything 
I screwed up on please let me know. Crits and Comments are welcome to 
either private email or the fanfic ML.
		I hope to send this to the remailer and RAASC soon. As 
well as cast of characters.
		That�s it. Have fun. :)

		Bentley
		bentley4@ix.netcom.com
		http://www.netcom.com/~bentley4/Forbidden.html

 
        Bensile Inc. presents:
        PHANTOM RIDERS:
        Dreams
        By. R. Bentley
        Email: bentley4@ix.netcom.com
        Beta Version
        5-11-96


        I remember what happened.
        What I experienced will probably remain with me forever until I 
pass from this world onto the next.
        I was the first to experimented on by our God. I was the first to 
escape his experiments, I ran like a child as my family and friends 
walked willingly into his arms, into the light, into the darkness. I 
listened to their screams as I coward in the city that I helped build. I 
watched them be torn apart like rag dolls and stitched up like a walking 
corpse. And I was the one they tried to hunt down.
        Perhaps I should start at the beginning of all this.

       My name is Cassi and I am a Tendor. You might be thinking why does 
my name sound so pronounceable, my name in your language would make no 
sense even if I were to try and translate correctly, in my language my 
name sounds like Cassi, so that is what you can call me. I was borne into 
a family of three daughters and two sons on board a returning star ship 
from the deep throws of space. I am told that when I took my first breath 
of air I was clinically dead for the first hour. My mother was still 
having birthing pains as I withered away, my father hadn�t yet been told 
of my birthing he was still working, designing ships to take our race to 
the stars. He arrived as I�m told when I stopped breathing. My first and 
most certainly not the last time the darkness embraced me.
	According to my birth records in the core of our planet I was 
borne in a year that been designated as one of silence. A year when no 
child would be borne to anyone, no matter what you believed in, no matter 
what rank in society your parents held. I as a child did not exist. The 
records have an note attached to them it says "This baby was borne into 
our world in the third year of silence, she ceased to exist. Through no 
fault of her parents or the doctors she was borne a day early. This baby 
was a kicker. She survived long enough for the new year to cross the 
horizon and she lived."
       The first thing I remember was closing my eyes because of the 
light, the death around me screamed as a candle was lit and began to grow 
whiter as our skin, it was then when I became the first baby to be borne 
in the year of enlightenment. I�ve viewed the vids of my birth when I 
passed my age of enlightenment, my parents looked so happy when I came 
into the world, the camera taking the vids nearly shorted out due to how 
much light I was giving off in the room. My sisters and brothers were 
informed of my death, they almost didn�t believe that I rose from the 
dead a day later. According them I was a terror from day one, I guess 
setting the house on fire three times, practicing my magic tricks thus 
levitating the building where my parents worked and piloting a cruiser 
into the drink would be called a terror eh?
	The year of enlightenment was a year where most of our planets 
factories began to build new vehicles to travel into the black sky which 
one of our famous cruisers dubbed space. Space turned out to be very 
boring, I muttered that to my old sister when she took me up in one of 
her cruisers. Our planet had light, detail, originality while space was 
just black. Nothing, zip, nada, I pouted for about another week until we 
hit planet side and went to work as a cruiser�s first mate. I don�t know 
why, I don�t know how, maybe it was the fact we could only go so far 
before loosing sight of our home world. The one place that fascinated me 
the most was the one place I wanted to leave.
	 My mother had started out as a cruiser Captain and worked her way 
up into the High Council, she retired from the HC once I passed my tests 
of abilities and progression, a batch of tests that show how much 
knowledge one has grasped since they were borne. Rumors circulated that I 
had gotten special treatment due to what my parents did, even though most 
of my class mates will vouch for me on this one. I distanced myself from 
my parents while I study for the test, even though these tests are ones 
you can�t study for I did anyway. I trekked up into the ruins of the 
first city that was built on our world and stayed there with a group from 
my class and studied until it flowed from our ears. Each one of us passed 
with high honors. Looking back now at all that happened I�m not as 
shocked as I was to see all of us getting dumped on the same cruiser or 
for my selection of a crew. But I�m getting a head of myself.
         After the tests I was given the opportunity to either choose 
which cruiser I wanted to be on or let the Acedemy Council randomly 
choose which cruiser and which post. I was asked during the celebration 
party for all of the students that passed, I was completely drunk on 
whatever Firewater my parents had hidden away for such an occasion. I 
don�t even remember what I said, let it not be said I cannot hold my 
�water. One drink of the stuff and I�m in heaven, I�m not addicted to the 
stuff by a long shot, I�ve heard the older the �water the worse the hang 
over will be in the morning and the talk from all the religious addicts 
will say �water pollutes you�re soul. All in all, I have no memory of any 
of the events of the party, I wish I did, least I could actually remember 
calling my ex-boyfriend a complete jerk off to his face and dumping him 
right on the spot.
         At first I thought enrolling and passing the tests would be 
easy, they were. I think the hardest part was remember what job was ment 
to go with what cruiser. To say that I had put a cruiser through it�s 
paces would be an understatement, I nearly cost my father his job giving 
his own designs a shake down cruise. I was suspended and put on planet 
side for at least a cycle. I stayed on planet and basically annoyed the 
hell out my parents until my youngest sister came home with her new baby. 
Babies started to pop up everywhere, it wasn�t that I had the same idea 
as everyone else, I hadn�t found anyone yet. My ex-boyfriend was one of 
the few to enlist in a military program to terraform one of the twenty 
satellites in orbit of our planet, friends from my little test group were 
crossed off the list. They felt more like family then anything else. The 
coupling years seemed to drag by until a rumor that I had been hearing 
about from some of the cruiser Captain�s came true. A chance to enlist on 
a deep space cruiser, it�s goal to explore much farther out then any of 
us had even dreamt off. My parents presented the cruiser to me as a 
birthday present, I was to be her Captain. I was able to recall most of 
my test groupies and assign them spots on the manifest, my oldest brother 
was given a spot as science officer and we dubbed her the Searcher. A 
crew compliment of ten thousand we set sail on the eve of a new year.
         The Searcher was a sleek ship, it looked big on the outside but 
on the inside it was even larger. You may think that a crew compliment of 
ten thousand is rather large waste of space and people. Ten thousand was 
a our scientists best guess of how many people would be on board when we 
returned from our journey. The male to female ratio on the ship was a 
little biased in my view, the Captain only got to choose her command 
staff, anyone else was chosen by the council. We had people from all 
walks of life on board, scientists, warriors, civilians. If you hadn�t 
guessed there were more women on board then men. I would bitch some more 
about this but what kind of story teller would I be?
         We kept in contact with our home world through a long range 
communication set up in the middle of the ship, something that had been 
kept top secret to the public. At first I didn�t know why they kept it a 
secret, so it projected an image of you to a viewer a long distance away. 
My view of this changed when long range sensors reported another ship in 
our path. I ordered the ship out of hyperspace, the ship�s tac drives 
were brought down to stand-by and the Searcher reappeared in normal 
black, boring space. My brother was the first to react, he scanned the 
ship in front of us and reported. It was one of our cruisers, it just sat 
out there, her hull had been torn apart and crew of what looked to be 
thirty just drifted in front of us. I ordered all communication lines to 
be cut immediately and towed the remains on board for an through 
investigation. That was when the shit hit the fan.

         "I detest this, Captain!"
         "Move out of the way, Ciro, we need to get through." I replied 
and held back the security guards. I glared down the religious figure, 
the one I�d had been butting heads with ever since we left dry dock. He 
was one of the older Mages on board and was so stubborn. He and two other 
of his kind blocked the door way to the main hangar bay. All the debris 
from the derelict had been tractored on board per my orders, all of it 
had gone through deep detox and was ready to be looked over. Why is he 
here, I thought. "Get away from the door."
         The Mage according to his files was known as Ciro and his two 
lower disciples took an aggressive step forward, their bows flickered for 
a moment as their mystic energy surged from their bodies to their only 
weapons. "We cannot allow to go any further Captain, we have orders." The 
younger female disciple retorted and looked away from my ole holy then 
thou don�t piss off the Captain death glare, something I had begun to 
perfect almost to a T. "Only followers can enter and see what remains."
         "Orders from who?!" Decca responded from behind the two groups 
of armored security guards. She�s the senior helmsman for the Searcher 
and probably the second most heavily trained person in hand to hand 
combat on my  boat. She also has very short fuse when it came to the 
religious sect, pairing her up with my brother had been the first thing 
I�d done when we set sail. He�s calmed her down considerably. She stood 
on her tip toes to see and nudged the navigator to move over more so she 
could see. This corridor was getting cramped, it wasn�t ment for a close 
quarters confrontation and if the Mages started up with their magic the 
door to the hangar bay would be the first thing to go then outer hull and 
then us.
         "Our orders are to search space and record what we see," My 
brother Alex semi-quoted the rules engraved on the wall on the bridge. He 
stood right behind me, behind him were the guards, then Decca, then Dina, 
my navigator. I could have sworn I heard one of the guards say "pleaze 
start a fight, pleeze start a fight." Alex ducked his head under the 
outer airlock frame to try and get a better look, this was as far as we 
had gotten before one of the younger Mages had dropped water on me by 
accident. I was the only one inside the inner air lock, the others were 
still clustered in behind the guards. "I take it you have orders from the 
Black Arts Council, right Ciro?"
         Ciro�s fluffy white eye brows shot to the top of his head. His 
hands nearly dropped his bow on the deck. He recovered quickly and sucked 
in his chest. "I do yes." He replied. "And they told me not to allow 
anyone besides our followers through this door."
         Alex leaned forward through the door frame, reached out with his 
right hand and pulled me back just enough so he could whisper in my ear. 
My eyebrows raised this time and I smiled. "Then you won�t mind Alex 
taking a look then?" I said and crossed my arms.
         Both of the younger Mages looked at each other then at Ciro. 
"What is she talking about, sir?"
         "He�s a Mage�s apprentice," Ciro muttered through his white 
beard.
         Alex nodded gleefully, pulled out his final test scores and his 
certification of passing. Decca was the only one who gave a pat on the 
back to Alex while the other people in the corridor let out a slight 
groan, he had been showing it off to people since the left dry dock. They 
had almost forgotten about how much of a show off he was until he pulled 
that one piece of paper out. I know he didn�t hear one of the guards say 
"if he does that one more time do I have your permission to slap him 
around, just a little sir?" "Cassi would be too but she filed her papers 
before we pulled anchor. She should qualified by now. So are you going to 
let us both pass or are you going to stand there and let us wait until 
you pass out or your power runs out."
         Ciro�s teeth started to grind together as he motioned for both 
of his apprentices to stand down. "You will tell none of your crew this 
Captain."
         I took a step forward, little droplets of water entrailed behind 
me. "What am I supposed to tell them Ciro, the debris you all saw was 
reflection of our own ship? There�s nothing out here but space. No one 
would believe me and sooner or later I would probably be asked to step 
down due to incompetence or something." I said in one deep breath.        
"Besides how bad can it be?" I commented.
         Ciro�s eyes met mine as the outer air lock door hissed open.

         On that deck we saw why the secrecy of the communication system 
had been so tight. The debris on the deck of the hangar bay was the 
remains of one of the religious sect�s cruisers. Her crew compliment had 
been only one or two but the passenger on that cruiser had been one of 
the sect�s rulers. I had read about him in books they had supplied at the 
Acedemy for us, the few people who wanted to become Mages or people not 
borne into the Mages Sect, those known as Pryors. The ruler had been 
known as Knol, he had tried to unify church and state into one big 
bundle, this was back during the age of silence, a few years before I was 
borne. He was also one of founders of the religious sect and the one that 
had introduced Black Arts into the Sect. Black Arts usage had been 
foundation for the long range comm system, the military along with my 
father must have tried to duplicate the idea with out using the Arts as a 
crutch. It worked, so why the hell did we find Knol�s remains on the deck 
of my ship and why did we find a brand new, never been touch by Tendor 
hands Black Arts book clasped in his hands. A book that had never been 
released to the public.
         Over dinner one night in my cabin Alex had explained that Knol�s 
ship had been lost in a solar storm of some kind, he was coming back from 
a dig on one of the moons when his cruiser vanished off the radar 
screens. The storm according to the trans scripts had appeared one moment 
engulfed the cruiser and vanished. Knol�s vision had snow balled over the 
next few years. I was Mage on my father�s side, Alex and I were the only 
ones who expressed interest in the Arts at a very early age. Over the 
next few months the comm system still bothered me a little bit, so what 
if it was long range, it wasn�t like anyone was out this far anyway.
         Me and my big mouth.

         Alex moved from one console to another and eyed the readings as 
they came in from the long and short range scanners. His smile was 
illuminated by the scanner�s monitors as he sat back in his seat. 
"Computer AI has confirmed Captain," he reported. He looked over his 
shoulder and winked at Decca. "We�ve got a planet coming up on us."
         I turned in my seat to see Alex to make sure he wasn�t joking. 
My frown brought only a very vigorous nod while he showed his science 
mate what to do.  "Visual!" I ordered.
         The view screen that made up three fourths of the bridge�s main 
window fuzzed over with snow for a moment and then became crystal clear. 
A jewel of a planet appeared to the left of the screen while various 
numbers appeared to the other side of the screen. The entire bridge crew 
turned in their seats as Decca slowed the ship back into normal space and 
blue white planet filled the main window. "Dina, lock that planet 
coordinates into the computer and plot a reverse course back to home," 
Decca murmured in awe.
         "Aye."
         "She�s smaller then our home world, energy output from the core 
is off the scale," Alex replied to my thought before it reached my lips. 
"Looks like it�s a new borne."
         "Reverse course appearing on screen two." Dina commented and fed 
the information from the nav computer into the screen�s projectors.
         Everyone not in complete awe of this spectacle turned to see the 
second largest screen on the window surge to life. Their homeworld 
appeared in the middle of the screen, a wavy dotted line started to 
appear, it went from their home world to green dot. "Green dot is 
location we found the debris of Knol�s ship," Dina voiced over as the 
dotted line continued on it�s course until it came to a blue dot. "Blue 
dot is this planet."
         "Almost a straight line," I muttered.
         "And if we�re the center of the universe," Alex thought it 
through. "We�ve come to a cross roads in our travels. We either explore 
the planet below or return home." He looked up from work and his gaze met 
mine, a wide smile crossed his face. "You�re orders ma�am?"
         I sat back in my nice cushioned Captain�s chair and thought it 
over for a moment. My first thought was to radio back to home world and 
tell them what we found. But then the thought of being recalled home 
didn�t settle with me to well. I was starting to get used to being so 
free. I ran a hand through my hair and took a deep breath. "Prep crews 
for landing. I want small detachment of warriors, scientists and 
religious sect," I ordered and let the breath out. "Once we land we can 
contact home world from the surface."
         "How many each?" My brother asked.
         I cocked an eye brow and shrugged. "Twelve sounds like a good 
number," I looked over my shoulder at Alex. "I�ll lead, you pick two of 
you�re best from science, Dina; I want you to come along from the command 
staff, I want Ciro and two from the sect, Decca; choose two you can trust 
you�ll take over for security. We can ponder the leftovers later."
         "What should we dub the planet?" Dina�s fingers tapped away at 
her console while she saved the location of the planet into the deep core 
memory files that resided in the middle of the ship.
         "Cassi�s Hope?" Decca kidded and ducked accordingly away from 
Dina.
         "Hirala." I stated and found a few people looking at me kinda 
funny. "After my mother," I replied to the looks and most of the bridge 
crew began to set the Searcher for a atmosphere landing. I felt the deck 
plates shudder as the main drives came to life and began to push the ship 
onto her side. The ship according to specs began to make achieve high 
orbit and with the help of the scanners found a window to aim for. I must 
say that the crew is handling this well, watching them prepare for our 
first atmosphere landing. I watched in absolute awe as the nose of the 
Searcher began to slice into the atmosphere. The darkness that I had 
gotten used to was pushed back by the soft rumble of the atmosphere, the 
entire ship lurched to the left which caught most of us off guard. I 
found myself on my chin on the deck, a few others had decided to join me 
as the sound of re-entry nearly deafened all of us.
         A sharp wine caught my ears, the sound was coming from the 
damage control station that was slaved into Decca�s console. "Hover jets 
two through four are off-line," Decca reported, she grabbed the controls 
with two hands and steered the ship slowly downwards. The nose started to 
dip down at a forty-five degree angle, the sound of circuit breakers 
popping around the bridge made me pray while everything around us shook. 
I had heard that sound before, right before I dumped a cruiser into the 
lake. "I�m taking the main drives off line," Decca pointed to the buttons 
safeties she needed Dina to press. "Their going to tear us apart."
         I got to my feet and found my seat, I then proceeded to buckle 
up with the safety harness. "Someone�s writing this down for further use 
I hope?" I tugged the clasps close around my shoulders and felt my 
stomach get lost in the reentry.
         "Already on it," Decca replied and sucked in her breath as the 
clouds passed from the main screen, I blinked and let out a soft cheer 
inwardly. The fluffy white clouds left us and blue sky, something 
completely new to us surrounded us. The roller coaster of a ride eased up 
as the ship fell slowly downward. What I saw was marvelous, green rolling 
seas of water and land, lots of land. "Hirala land ho!" The bridge crew 
let out a small cheer and they all stared at the screen for a moment. 
They were all getting home sick, I was too sometimes. They went back to 
work gathering information and saving while the ship under Decca�s 
control leveled out and Dina began to look for a soft place to possibly 
land.
         "There�s a bottle of fire water my parents gave me for such an 
occasion," I said to my bridge crew. "Once we land and set up camp. I�m 
gonna prepare a dinner you�ll never forget and we�re all gonna get 
blitzed." That got a laugh from everyone, my cooking had somewhat become 
legend on board. My recipes had begun to circulate around the ship, I 
pondered what to make for our first night on this world until Alex 
stopped laughing and sucked in his breath. "Captain!"
         I swung the seat around and looked at Alex then over at the lift 
door as it closed. Ciro stood there alone, his eyes wide with either fear 
or excitement I couldn�t tell, I was still trying to get a hang of 
reading peoples minds. I mearly smiled and was about to turn around to 
enjoy the view when my eyes caught what Alex was talking about. In Ciro�s 
left hand was his staff in the other was the book we had found Knol 
clutching in his decomposed hands. And it was glowing.
         Well that killed the small celebration dead in it�s tracks.
         "Ciro, I sounded general quarters you were supposed to stay 
there," Em, my first officer seated to my left found her voice and 
thumbed towards the lift door. "Time to go."
         Alex was closer to Ciro then I was when Ciro said something, I 
know he said something his beard moved that and he motioned with his 
staff to the book. Whatever he said it made Alex drop his pad on the 
floor, his face started to lose it color. I frowned. "What?"
         Ciro held up the book that seemed to pulse now. "It called to 
me." He said. He nearly dropped the book, he was scared out of his mind. 
"It told me to tell you to leave this place and return home. Before it�s 
too late."
         I frowned at that, I felt the deck shudder again. I turned back 
towards the main screen. The hover jets where on full front and slowed 
the Searcher as a clearing in the trees formed on the main screen. Decca 
slowly brought the horizontal propulsion off-line and geared down the 
landing mains. "Hang on folks this may get a little bumpy," she warned us 
just in time for the deck to drop out under our feet. "What the hell!" 
Decca pulled back on the controls all the way back to her chin and she 
pushed the hover pedals all the way to the floor. "We�re being pulled 
in!"
         "Confirmed!" Em mused, she turned her portable console towards 
her and eyed the readings. "Another gravity well, just peaking above the 
surface of the planet. It must like our ship, nothing else is being 
pulled in!"
         "Planet fall in thirty seconds!" Decca reported, her harness 
activated automatically as did everyone else�s, Ciro found the seat to my 
right and clutched the book to his chest. I bearly heard him begin to 
pray.
         "Drop the shields!" I ordered.
         Everyone looked at me, this time with absolute horror on their 
faces. If we dropped the shields then technically the ship would be wide 
open for an attack. It also didn�t help matters that I A) didn�t orbit 
the planet and check for life signs before going in and B) didn�t test 
this little atmosphere drop on another planet. But that�s neither here 
nor there. "Captain?" Em blinked.
         "Twenty seconds!"
         "Our shields are powered by your Mages, right Ciro?" I asked 
him, he looked at me and for the first time he seemed to know what I was 
thinking. "Mages and Pryors give off a sphere of power that surrounds 
them. The first gravity well didn�t harm us, the second one doesn�t like 
the Arts." I stopped in my thinking, a light came on. I looked down at 
Ciro. "Was Knol here?"
         "Captain?!"
         I punched the comm tab on my armrest for the shield/weapons bay. 
"De-activate the shields, now! That�s an order!"
         I heard a series of voices about to object but the head Mage 
shut all of them up and cleared the channel. "Aye Captain!" I closed the 
channel my gaze locked with Ciro�s. "What was Knol doing here?"
         "Ten seconds, nine, eight, seven." The bridge lights flicked off 
and the emergency lights flooded the room with harsh red light. A few of 
our eyes began to glow due to the lack of light while others just blinked 
to get adjusted to the light.
         "Shields down to fifty percent," Em reported.
         "Six, five, four."
         "Shields down to ten percent and fall fast."
         "So are we!" Alex retorted!
         Ciro�s rough thoughts came to me for a brief moment, it felt 
more like a haze. A vision of a ship, the one we found adrift.  Knol on 
board with two others, the book in Ciro�s hand. Knol was reading it, 
practicing when there was a flash of light. Their screams, can�t get them 
out of my head. I winced inwardly, too much, too clear! His ship was 
falling out of orbit, they knew what we knew, there was an explosion. 
Something happened, can�t tell the others of this. Ground coming up 
quickly, can�t stop. His death hits my mind like an out of control train. 
My mind screamed in pain as the charred body of Knol, his friends and the 
ship are transplanted by someone. Transplanted in front of us. Can�t see 
him, someone is here. Something is coming.
         That�s when everything went black.
         I viewed the bridge recorder afterwards, since I remembered 
nothing of the following. The voices from the bridge were blocked for a 
moment as the shields were dropped completely just as landing mains 
touched the ground. The hover engines kicked in full and the ship slowly 
began to ascend towards the darkness of space.
         "Hover jets: dropping to fifty percent, prep for landing," Decca 
eased out of her straps and watched the read out next to her, a very 
small diagram of the plain around the ship, the ship and air currents 
started to form. 
         "Touch down in three, two, one."
         The sound of the jets stopped and the soft thud echoed around 
us. I didn�t understand, why can�t I understand? The thud broke the 
contact between Ciro and I. He seemed a little more sane when the bridge 
lights came back on. I held my head for a moment and then opened my eyes 
to see what lay before.
         A brand new world.
         I looked around at the happy looks on everyone faces. We would 
celebrate later, I somehow lost track of Ciro as he made his way up the 
stairs to the lift and silently went back to his room. His message he 
sent me, or maybe the what the book sent me was something I wouldn�t soon 
forget. According to our teachers our planet is the only planet in the 
universe, we have sent out signals to other places and even sent deep 
probes out into space. They have returned with nothing. This planet which 
has been named after my mother is mystery. Somehow Knol and his 
associates were transported to this planet and crashed. Someone is here. 
Something is coming.
         The communication system hasn�t been working properly since we 
arrived here. We�ve tried so many times to get it to work it sends our 
own messages back to us. We have the means to reproduces smaller 
cruisers. It would appear we�ll need to establish some kind of satellite 
system in orbit. The repair crews are already hard at work repairing the 
system that were shorted during reentry. When I look out at this place as 
dusk settles, the lights from the Search come on one at a time. I look at 
the beauty of this place. Why would they try to hide this place from us? 
I take a sip of tea and look at the updated agenda for tomorrow. When 
light breaks we�ll send a unmanned drone out to sample the planet. Once 
those results are over we�ll send out a two man team with suits and if 
that works out then maybe without suits.
         The death of Knol still weights heavily on me as I fall asleep. 
I�ve posted heavily armed guards at all the air locks and gave strict 
orders the bridge crew on night watch to wake me if anything happens.
         Something is here.
         Something is coming.
         I drift off to sleep.
         The Intelligence is coming��



         To be continued.....
         bentley4@ix.netcom.com