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Teilhard III wore a white suit. Parts of the suit, his shirt, belt and shoes, reflected the full spectrum of the rainbow from certain angles, while the pants, vest and tie were solid white. His hair was wavy and red, his face was sharp and aged, his blue eyes were focused and intense.
He walked down a path from the private hovercraft that had left him, and he approached a large metal gate in the side of a mountain. He brushed a bit of hair from his eyes, which was the hand signal that confirmed to those all around him, who observed him, that the time had come.
He walked through the gate of sliding metal doors as a synthetic voice greeted him, "Good morning, sir. I trust you had a pleasant journey."
All of the Reds on duty stood to greet this respected Noble of House Angelsey. He stopped, unexpectedly, and they wondered if they had done something for which they should be reprimanded.
He spoke to them in a firm, but comforting tone. "We will be recieving supplies here in about ten minutes, the new birds will have to be moved to another location. Start their engines, leave them running, then line up here and wait for my command to open the gate."
The Thirty Reds dutifully opened the hatches of the thirty prototypes of the new all-purpose White Birds. The White Birds were small, aerodynamic, insect-like flying machines that were capable of traveling for several years without a break. They were capable of traveling to the bottom of the deepest parts of the ocean, or into outer space, using a small nuclear reactor for its energy.
These thirty prototypes were the such only ones yet made, and they had not yet been tested. No one knew they existed save for the King of Angelsey, who's family crest, a red and white X on blue, was on the nose of each bird, and his immediate cousins and most trusted nobles, of which Teilhard III was one of the latter.
With the subtly warbling hum of the ships echoing throughout the inner walls of this chamber, Teilhard pulled himself out of his thoughts and saw the Reds lined up, again, at attention before him.
"Open the gate."
Two of the Reds moved to either side of the sliding doors. Each produced a key and inserted them into locks on either side. One nodded to the other, and they turned the keys simultaniously.
When the door was opened only one meter, several flying objects entered the warehouse. Each of them landed as a dart at the neck of one of the Reds. Teilhard III turned to seem them all fall down at once.
"Now!"
Twenty nine men and women ran into the warehouse wearing the blue and black bullet-proof uniforms, the silver guns and red swords of the Resistance, and back packs filled with supplies and technology.
Teilhard III himself walked to one of the white birds and climbed inside.
He turned the com-link to a local frequency no one in the area used, which he knew no one would be monitoring, and the twenty nine rebels did the same.
With very little extra sound, his bird lifted off the ground as he operated the controls, and he exited through the gate leaving thirty Reds to wake up 10 hours later and report that they were missing.
As the birds exited the building, each of them turned directly up. Teilhard III watched the clouds come and go, and the blue sky become indigo, then black, as the stars came into view around a brilliant white sun.
Seeing what appeared to be the brightest star in the sky, he focused his eyes on it, as well as the ship's controls, and accelerated. As the star grew brighter, and larger, he began to decelarate. He saw the brilliant white and blue atmosphere before him, and continued onward, seeing familiar continents and cliffs he had only seen in simulations.
They landed at the planned location, opened their hatches, removed their helmets and stepped down to the surface of Venus.
A croud of slender, tall homineds with only a few recognizable human features were there starring at them curiously. They had black eyes and pale grey skin, very little hair and long, boney arms and fingers. They moved cautiously, and slowly.
Teilhard III was the first to speak. "We are humans."
"You are our ancestors." One of the Venusians spoke.
Teilhard III's heart skipped a beat, "You speak english?"
Another Venusian replied "Yes. We can hear your language in our minds."
One of the blue uniformed rebels stepped forward and placed a hand on Teilhard's shoulder, "May I?"
"Of course, Jobe," Teilhard motioned with his hand toward the Venusians.
Jobe walked up to one of the Venusians and handed him a small cube. "This contains the history of our people, millenia of accumulated technology and ideas, and the means to communicate with any of us who are not a part of what we call... the Empire."
One of the Venusians said, "We have been waiting
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