- - - 3, 2, 1, 0

Outwardly it was just another Indian burial mound. Inside - IF you could have seen anything - the architecture was decidely unusual, but otherwise, it wasn’t remarkable, either. There was a thin coating of dust, which was to be expected, since the mound had been sealed about a thousand years ago. Even a sensitive parabolic microphone wouldn’t have picked up so much as a faint hiss. It was as dark and silent as a tomb.

But tombs, especially Indian ones, don’t contain a few hollow rods - two in what looked like a stone sarcophagus and several larger ones scattered about under the floor. Because they were “total conversion” units, their output was pure energy, and with everything powered down, they needed very little “fuel”. Even though each was busily absorbing tiny amounts of air, it was too little to use of much of it, even over 1,000 Suncycles, or make a detectible sound.

Most of that energy went to keeping the computers in the mound and the “sarcophagus” running, though most of their functions were also inactive. Some went to keeping the contents of the sarcophagus in good working order. A bit went to six tiny boxes in the sarcophagus. Each had a very simple task - to count backwards, and they had been doing so since just before the sealing of the mound.

And then, after those 1,000 Suncycles or so of its makers had passed, one of those tiny boxes counted 3, 2, 1, 0. It ceased and sent a signal to the computer, which made a note of the fact and waited. For a short time, nothing else happened. The boxes were built specifically to keep working for a very long time, and a bit of accuracy was sacrificed to that end. Then a second box finished its count. Still the computer waited. Finally a third sent its signal. The computer requested a confirmation and received it. That was sufficient to satisfy its program, and it began switching out of rest mode. It also sent awakening signals to both the TC rods in the sarcophagus and the main computer in the mound.

There was a brief pause. Then patches of the mound began to glow. Some were bright and intended to provide illumination to the interior, others much less so and meant to act as indicators, gauges, and other functional purposes. Many were subtly colored and arranged in patterns designed only to please the aesthetic sense of its inhabitant.

A whispering would now have been audible and the dust began to move about as the air circulation system turned on. The main computer checked its readouts and, satisfied that conditions were suitable for life as its makers defined it, sent an OK back to the computer in the hibernation chamber, for that is indeed what that coffin-like object was. It responded by initiating its Awakening program.

Had there been an observer to watch, he - if he could read the language on the touchscreen now apparent on the front end - could have followed the process to its conclusion by observing the readouts appearing on the screen. As it was, everything went smoothly and the being inside awoke, her memories and Mission training intact, just as they were supposed to be.

Mira found herself conscious inside her sleep chamber. Everything seemed normal, so she issued a mental command and the lid swung open. She stood up, carefully stepped out of it, and headed for the shower to remove the film of hibernation fluids clinging to her body.

Physically she was a rather typical specimen of her Race, that of the planet Eldebran. She was, by Earthly measure, about six feet tall, firmly muscled and well-busted, though not voluptuous. She had perfectly clear skin, long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a remarkably beautiful face. She also had a large Medallion depicting what seemed to be an Earthly Phoenix bird hanging from a chain about her neck. Otherwise she was, understandably, nude.

Finishing her cleansing, she used the dryer, then set about getting dressed. As a Missionary Healer, she had a standard outfit, though she had chosen the exact style and colors before entering hibernation.

A brief snack put the first solid food into her stomach in the last thousand SunCycles. Then it was time to contact her Partner Bennu. She sat down in front of the communications console and touched the waveform-shaped light. A panel tilted out and she slid her Medallion into it.

Normally, telepathy, even between familiar minds, would never come close to reaching from well north of the zone of tropical climates to well south of it. Even using their Medallions as focussing agents would help little, since not only was it impossible to maintain a tight mental beam over such long distances but, even if it were possible, nobody, not even a Mature Adult, could aim the beam to the degree of precision needed. But that’s what the slots in the panel did, since they were fixed in the correct alignment. And the equipment helped her with the the focussing.

There was no response. Oh, well. The timers had a several minute tolerance over their hibernation period, and her Partner was well-known for enjoying his sleep. She could wait.

But when she continued to get no response she began to become concerned. Finally she removed her Medallion and reluctantly activated the intermound radio. Radio, after all, unlike tightbeam telepathy, might well be detected by the planet’s natives.

She was bombarded by a series of emergency alarms - a very familiar series. His mound had been broken into and the sleep chamber removed! Fortunately, the chamber itself was still operational, and she was able to communicate with the computer in it.

MORE bad news! The emergency Awakening circuits in it had been activated - unquestionably deliberately, by the readouts. Worse, she was deeply afraid that some of those radio signals his chamber had detected, set as they were to the alpha-wave frequency of the brain, had affected his memory refreshing.

Fortunately she knew exactly where his chamber was - someplace well to her east, it having been moved after his Awakening. And at least the Priming Circuit in his sleep chamber had been activated. He had a native friend, for whatever good that might do.

Even one such as her, trained as she was for the ability to function in a world of the Immature, was shaken by the shattering of her mood of anticipating the beginning of her Mission to this planet. Instead she had to plan a rescue - and there was no guarantee that he was still alive. Immatures not only panicked easily, but were likely to conduct “experiments” on a lifeform from another solar system. Each of them had the ability to self-terminate if no other option was left to them, and in the extreme, the systems could operate automatically.

Still, she was an Adult. If she had to rescue her Partner, she could not afford more than a short time for prayer to The Light That Is Love - the Eldebrani term for God - then composed her mind and began packing. Most of what she took was standard, of course, from condensed Sunpower tablets to a box about the size of a pack of Earthly notepaper. It had several slots and touchscreens, and was known as a “documentator”.

She then touched the indicator on yet another panel. It slid open to reveal a variety of devices somewhat resembling Earthly batteries, though all were hollow, and they were all TC units. She attached one to each device that needed power, closed up everything, left a message in the main computer detailing her intended search pattern in case he were free and found her mound, and prepared to set the security systems in it and chamber. Then she stopped.

Her hand reached out slowly to another indicator, a red lightning bolt. She paused briefly, weighing her options, but if she intended to attempt a rescue, she really had no choice. Her hand touched the glowing warning symbol and the door slid open. She reached for one of the few rods inside it, and drew her hand back at its touch. She sighed unhappily. Sad as it was, if her Race had not intended her to take - and even use - the objects inside, it would not have left them for her.

She picked up the rod, attached its TC power supply, and activated it. Like all of the other supplies now in use, it lit gently. Now armed with a “disintegration ray generator”, she quickly stowed the weapon away and set the various security programs to the rather high level she felt necessary. Then she unsealed the mound.

She felt the shudder as the concealing rock face blew away. The doors swung open, she left the resting place she had spent so long in waiting for the right time to begin her Mission, and began her rescue attempt instead. She used her Medallion to reseal the mound, scanned the area for concentrations of Immature minds, and thus located a road. Soon enough she was headed east. It would be a long journey, and she was in a hurry to complete it - though afraid of what she might find at its end.