Greetings everyone,

			Well someone mentioned a challenge about posting something not Ranma.
And well here it is. For those of you who don't know me my name is
Robert Bentley and I like to write Robotechish/mystery/sci-fi/mecha with
a pinch of magic for flavor. And I dislike Ranma and SM. I do like
Robotech and mecha stuff so I started writing Robotech inspired stories
way back in 7th grade. And this Gamma Version is the _very_ first story
in the series. It is also the first story I've done in first person
point of view. So bear with me please.
			C+C can be sent to: phantomr@sprynet.com. Or the FFML.
			For any of those people who like to spif up documents in Word. The
text that has these -> __blah__ are bold faced. The text with these ->
<blah!> are italics and in the original doc I've got Cassi's voice as
Algerian. And all the Accessing files names are bold faced.
			I'll place little spoilers at the bottom of this story.
			That's it, thanks for your time. :)


			Bentley "a few more pages of this and Poker End will slowly make
sense. Ha ha!"
			phantomr@sprynet.com
 			http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/phantomr






 
	Bensile Inc. presents:
	PHANTOM RIDERS:
	Dreams
	By. R. Bentley
	Email: phantomr@sprynet.com
	Gamma Version
	9-26-96


	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 then 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 Academy 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. Our sentient AI in the bowls of our ship
was equipped with infinite memory. One test of this AI was to record
everything that went on during the voyage via cameras and microphones
built into our skin. The only people privileged to any information
recorded was the Captain and Second Officer. Only Em and I had the
access codes, no one else. 
	At first I didn't know why they kept the comm system 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 a 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.

		Accessing Searcher's Captain's Entry, log 0001.

	"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. After that 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 weapons.
"We cannot allow to go any further Captain, we have orders." The younger
female disciple retorted and looked away from my ole holier 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. 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, our
navigator. I could have sworn I heard one of the guards say "pleaze
start a fight, pleeze start a fight." I heard Alex shuffle to the right
of me. He 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 ship 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.

		Searcher's Captain's Entry 0001 End of File.

	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. The other people we found were unidentifiable. The doc'
began his autopsies as soon as we put them through detox.
	I had read about the passenger in books they had supplied at the
Academy for us. The few people in the religious sect who wanted to
become a member of the religious sect were called Mages. Mages
encompassed people who were born into the religious sect. People who
were not borne into the Mages Sect, those people were known as Pryors.
Their 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 our moons when his cruiser vanished off the radar screens.
The storm according to the transcripts 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.

		Accessing Searcher's Bridge Entry, Log 1012 

	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. Our homeworld appeared in
the middle of the screen, a wavy dotted line started to appear, it went
from our 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. "One 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
going to 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 forty-five 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.
	"Thirty 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 stared down at
Ciro and moved closer to him. "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?"
"fifteen seconds, fourteen, thirteen, twelve." 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.
	"Ten, nine, eight."
	"Shields down to ten percent and fall fast."
	"So are we!" Alex retorted!

		Searcher's Bridge Entry, Log 1012 End of file.

	During those last few seconds, Ciro's rough thoughts came to me for a
brief moment, it felt more like a haze actually. A vision of a ship, the
one we found adrift. Knol is on board with two others, the book in
Ciro's hand. Knol was reading it, practicing when there was a flash of
light. It engulfed them. 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 pummels my mind like an out of control
train. My mind screamed in pain as the charred body of Knol, his
disciples and their 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. At the time of this recording
I remembered nothing of the following.

		Accessing Searcher's Bridge Entry, Log 1012

	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.

		Accessing Searcher's Bridge Entry, Log 1012 End of File

	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 a mystery.


	End Part 1.
	Part 2 is right behind this. :)
	phantomr@sprynet.com