Chapter six: -- Continued --

Ignus Fortworth flew the ship down into the spaceport at Port Orpheus. The landing was gental and almost imediately, the ramp was down and security officers from the Port Authority were onboard.
"Where is the prisoner?" one very gruff guard asked. He was wearing the traditional armour of The Orpheus family - the founders of Port Orpheus. In the early days, they had been very militant, taking colonies by force. The armour was functional, but looked like aflashback to the eary history of Earth - the breast plates were shaped like a muscular man and the helmets looked more read to deflect a blow from a sword than a gunshot. There were very oppulent plumes on the helmets and each gaurd wore a cape or deep purple. Although these unifroms would never be used in actual combat, the tradition was an old one. Beyond that, the uniforms were very intimodating. It was hard to disobey somebody dressed up as these men were.
"I'd like permission to Escort him to the elder's chambers." Captain Fortworth asked.
"I don't think I should allow you that luxury." the second gaurd said. He must have been the higher ranking of the two.
"Name and rank." Captain Fortworth demanded.
The gaurd snapped to attention as if an invisible hand were commanding him. "Polis, Harold. Luitenant, First Class, Port Authority, Orpheus family," the man said.
"Luitenant Polis," Captain Fortworth looked at the man. He had been conditioned in the miltary for years. He had about as much free will as robot when looking into the face of a Captain of the Spacing Comission. "I order you to allow me to excort the prisoner, Jonathan Brooke, to the Elder's chambers."
"Yes Sir!" the soldier saluted. "I must insist, however, that we come with you."
"Fair enought. Mr. Brooke is in the state-room."

Jonathan was woken up by a gruff looking man in some sort of strange military costume. He found it very imposing and somewhat scary. In his half-dazed state of consciouseness, he was lead out of the ship and onto another world. This one was definetly not earth. The sky was a pale shade of red, like Mars, and the gravity was a little light. The sky was lit by two dusky suns, so close to one another that they bled into one another in vision and formed a kind of glowing elipse that was hard to look at.
Norman scuttled down the ramp after the part of four men. Not understanding why it was so warm, he just followed Jonathan.
Captain Fortworth lead the way to the Elder's Chambers. They were in a large complex, a large building that Jonathan could never have guessed the purpse of.
It was a decadant building. It was nothing like Jonathan had ever seen in his life. He was use to the utalitarian architecture of Earth. A strange future it must be, to revert to the old oppulent day of rich empires on Earth.
Just before they entered the chambers, Captain Fortworth pulled Jonathan aside. "A word of advice. Don't say anything to the Elders unless they ask you to. I don't think you could quite understand how their minds work."
Jonathan did not really understand, but he nodded. He felt it wise to take the man's advice, since he appeared to know the culture better.
The doors creaked open as the two guards bent considerable weight into them. One of the men grunted with the effort.
The room was not overly spectacular. It looked not unlike a court room. Six people sat at a long bench at one end of the room. The rest was an empty floor.
Jonathan was lead forward to a marble cirlce laid into the floor, where he simply stood, not knowing what to do.
"Elders of Port Orpheus, I am Captain Ignus Fortworth," the Captain said.
One of the people behind the becnh gave a dry laugh. "So formal... Tell me Captain, are you from the Bush Family?"
"As a matter of fact, yes."
"We are not as strict as your elders, young man." An old woman said from behind the bench. "We find being open with our citizens can be more effective when arguing points."
"Please," another of the elders said. "Take a seat."
Jonathan could not believe his eyes. There were now comforatable arm chairs in the cirlce. The bench at the front of the room seemed to shrink, become more of a conference table than anything else. The others in the room didn't seem overly impressed. Not sure what else to do, Jonathan took a seat in the chair. It was pushed towards the table, but Jonathan could not say how.
"Captain, I am Lucas." The first elder said. "The other elders here and Marian, Gregory, Gretta, Farhad and Danforth."
"I am, of course, honoured to be in this discussion with you." Captain Fortworth said.
"Tell us," Farhad asked "What it is you find so important?"
"This man," Captain Fortworth indicated Jonathan, "claims to be of Earthly Origin."
"Aren't we all?" Chuckled Lucas.
"Sir, with all respect, I mean recently."
"You're serious." Marian piped in for the first time. "But Earth was destroted in the Destruction."
"Maybe not." Captain Forworth suggested.
"What reasoning do you have?" asked Farhad.
"This man claims to have travelled to DN-94 from Earth by use of a technology that should be impossible - Faster than Light Travel." Jonatha started at this. Captain Fortworth had just attested that Faster than Light traval was impossible. How then, had they come to this plant from Norton? "Furthermore," Captain Fortworth continued "he claims to be from Earth, and apparently has no conception of our society. Lastly, he seems to use another system to measure years than we do. He has listed the year as Eleven Fifty Two, PD."
"Eleven hundred and fifty two years ago? That is not long after we left Earth." Marian projected.
"Exactly" Captain Fortworth said.
"What you mean to tell us is that the Destruction did not destroy human civilisation on Earth?" Lucas asked
"It appears that way." Captain Fortworth said.
Jonathan could not sit mute anymore. "You people obviously have a handle on what's going on around here. Could somebody explain you me why the hell there is a colony on thsi world when i was supposed to esablish the first human colony outside the Sol system? What the hell is going on?"
The elders were not offended by the outburst, as Captain Fortworth had expected them to be. He knew Jonathan would say something eventually, despite his warning.
"What is your name, son?" Gretta asked.
"Jonathan Brooke."
"I think perhaps we can only partially answer your question. It appears our version of the history of the human race is not as accurate as we had once supposed."
"What's the supposed to mean?" Jonathan demanded.
"It means," greogory said with a deep bass rumble "That when we left Earth over a millenium ago, we though we were leaving behind a doomed few people that could never be rescued."
"That was just after the Destruction." Jonathan figured. "Are you telling me that you are all desendants of people left Earth for the starts a thousand years ago?" The conections were starting to make sense. Jonathan was beginning to believe that maybe he wasn't outside of his natural timeline.
"That is indeed correct." Gretta said.
"I believe that the best way to proceed from here would be some sort of mutual education, Jonathan." Lucas suggested. "To give you the best picture of what is going on, I suggest you tell us your history of the desruction and anything prudent to the history of Earth for the next thousand years."
"That's a lot of history..." Jonathan said.
"Please, we have to keep track of quite a lot more, with all of the families different colonies. It can only help us explain to you what is happening to you if you tell us." Lucas coaxed the information out of Jonathan.
"Very well," jonathan sighed. "But it could be a long story."