HEROES - PART 3 - SESSION 5

Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.


Session 3.4   Index   Session 3.6


The group enter the ante-chamber to that containing the Soul, where a huge Brood Queen stands slightly to one side of the hole into the Soul chamber. Servo fires his taser at the Queen; it seems to have no effect. She grins, and says, "Greetings, my children."

Noesis telepathically tells Blitz, "I'll try to knock her to one side; you get to the Soul." He then telekinetically attacks the Queen, knocking it aside of the chamber, away from the entrance to the Soul. Blitz dives for the entrance hole.

John Doe throws the (unconscious) Chronos at the Queen; he lands over its face, blocking its eyes. While the Queens eyes are covered, he leaps for it, turning into a mass of tentacles in mid-air, and wrapping the Queen up in them. The Queen shakes its head, throwing Chronos to the floor. "You have killed many of my children, mammals. Even without my influence you prove yourselves to be worthy of me. You will all make worthy daughters of mine, when the time comes."

Unmoved by these words, Servo fires a binding band at the Queen, enwrapping it and John Doe, who is wrapped around it.

Blitz zips through the hole into the Soul chamber. It is a roughly hemispherical chamber is glittering, indeed glowing, crystal, with crystalline stalactites and stalagmites scattered about, and very beautiful. As he goes in he feels an emotion of Love wash over him from the chamber itself. He fires at one of the facets of the crystal. The beam ricochets from the crystal, getting brighter as it does so, and continues to bounce from facet to facet, getting brighter as it goes, turning from orange to orange-white. Blitz backs off.

The Soul Chamber


Truth, who has gone to the hole, sees this and gets out of his way.

Noesis can feel some kind of mental power radiating from the Queen.

The Queen realises that John Doe has no egg inside him. "Butcher!" it cries, "For the death of my child I will feast on your living heart before you die!"

John Doe is unimpressed by this, and creates a beating heart on the end of a tendril which he waves tauntingly in front of the Queen, then slaps across its face. The Queen is not impressed by this, and smashes John Doe's mind with a mental blast. He slumps, stunned.

Servo runs over and smashes the Queen with his truncheon. It seems to have little effect.

Truth, looking into the Soul chamber, sees that the beam Blitz fired is now starting to wane. She tells Blitz to fire again. He does, and keeps firing as often as he can.

Noesis attempts to mentally attack the Queen, but fails. The Queen glares at Blitz, and attacks with a massive mental strike. Blitz falls out of the air, unconscious.

Truth sneaks into the wall and comes out behind the Queen and into its blind spot, right behind its head. She tries to put a grenade into its head, but her hand is unable to penetrate its body, and she unintentionally drops the grenade, which goes off, fortunately to no real effect. Truth ducks back into the wall.

Noesis can sense that the Queen is putting out some kind of mental power in the direction of everyone. He suddenly realises that the Queen is probably trying to awaken all the eggs! He shouts a warning to everyone.

Servo fires a grenade at the Queen, to no real effect. Noesis attacks it, but again has no effect.

Blitz comes round. He fires into the wall of the Soul chamber again. The blasts start ricocheting around. A hum starts to shake the chamber.

Truth emerges into the Soul chamber and heads for the entrance. She concentrates, and dissipates into invisibility.

Noesis moves to the hole into the Soul chamber. He reaches out with his telepathy and links to the egg inside Blitz. It is awakening, moving towards consciousness. He tries to calm it and persuade it that now is really not the time for it to wake up.

The Queen shakes itself, and somehow both John Doe and Servo's binding band simply drop off. Truth, invisible, searches the Queen for weak spots through which to attack, but unfortunately finds nothing. The Queen thanks Chronos, and indeed the group as a whole, for leading it to the Soul. It has been searching for it for many, many years but, until now, had had no luck in finding it.

Blitz fires again. A feeling of Love starts to emanate from the Soul chamber into the antechamber. The humming increases, and becomes more of a shaking. Blitz is hit by an energy beam that passes straight through him, leaving only a tingling sensation behind.

John Doe staggers about the ante-chamber cursing his luck. In reality, this is just an act which he is using as a disguise while he winds up a haymaker. He launches himself at the Queen, and it flies back into the wall, apparently taking some damage.

"It is a pity that you shall have to die," it says to John Doe, "you would have made a wonderful host."

Servo fires another grenade at the Queen and it explodes against its torso.

John Doe winds up another haymaker.

Noesis remains in psychic contact with the egg inside Blitz, continuing to persuade it that it does not want to wake up now.

Suddenly, everyone (apart from John Doe) feels the egg moving inside them. Noesis feels something brushing against his brain inside his shell. Bad!

John Doe swings at the Queen but misses, embedding himself in the wall.

John Doe and Servo wind up haymakers. Blitz, who has been keeping an eye on things outside the Soul chamber, sees this and aims to fire at the same time.

To assist the other three, Noesis telekinetically grabs the Queen and lifts it up, making it an easier target.

Noesis tells Truth to get the contact device Rainbow Dancer gave them. She grabs it from on of Servo's belt pouches, desolid, and takes it away to the side.

John Doe, Servo and Blitz launch simultaneous, co-ordinated attacks at the Queen; John Doe and Servo attack from opposite sides. It flies back and knocks Servo aside. He grabs a grenade and puts it into the Queens mouth. It explodes. Blitz fires into the Soul chamber again.

Truth (still desolid) grabs the blaster Chronos was carrying and goes over to the entrance to the Soul chamber. The Queen is also heading that way.

Noesis mentally attacks his egg, but fails to have any noticeable effect.

Servo feels the egg moving inside him and feels pain coursing through him, then something emerging from his sides, two on each side. Purplish energy starts to swirl about him. Pain starts coursing through Truth and Blitz, too. A smell of burning starts from them.

He ignores it, for the moment, and he and John Doe wind up another haymaker each.

Truth fires the blaster at the Queen, to little effect - she seems very tough.

The Queen moves into the Soul chamber, and as she does so the crystal under her feet goes black, as if ink had been poured into the crystal. It spreads. John Doe, Servo and Blitz quickly co-ordinate another attack. Blitz (who is flying) sees that the crystal under Servo's feet is also turning black.

John Doe, Servo and Blitz attack in co-ordination. The Queen goes flying out of the Soul chamber back into the outer chamber. As John Doe and Servo rush to leave, they are both hit by the energy bolts which are ricocheting about the chamber. John Doe is blasted into unconsciousness. The crystal does not go black under him.

Truth fires the blaster she is carrying at Blitz, intending to charge him with its energy. She hits a little too successfully and Blitz falls, unconscious, to the crystal floor. It starts to turn black.

Noesis telekinetically attacks the Queen, to little effect. Servo attacks it. Its head strikes the wall and it does not get up. Blitz wakes up.

Noesis makes telepathic contact with his egg, and after a little while telepathically persuades it to settle down again.

John Doe wakes up.

Noesis continues, fairly successfully, persuading his egg to stop waking up.

Blitz, in the soul room, fires again. The light is becoming blindingly bright, and the humming and vibration are reaching earthquake-like levels. A cats-cradle of energy bolts is filling the chamber.

The smell of burning, and the swirling purple energy, increases around Servo and the others. It really hurts.

Truth, desolid, but carrying the blaster, goes over to where the Queen is. However, she decides that Servo is obviously a more dangerous threat than the largely unharmed, but unconscious, Brood Queen in front of them, and unexpectedly shoots him in the back of the head. Fortunately, it does not stun him. He fires a taser at the blaster, and the shock causes Truth to drop it.

John Doe turns into a wall across the hole into the Soul chamber to protect Blitz.

Truth picks up the blaster from the floor and fires it at the unconscious Chronos, who is also becoming more and more Brood-like. Unfortunately, as he is unconscious he has no force field, or indeed any other kind of protection. Large quantities of blood spurt from him, and keep spurting - it looks like he is bleeding to death.

In the Soul chamber, Blitz fires again. The rumbling and shaking increases further.

The costumes of Truth, Chronos and Blitz burst open under the arms as they start to grow extra, Brood-like, legs. They burst open on the backside, too, as they start to grow Brood-like abdomens. Servo is also suffering this, but it is all contained in his armour, so it hurts even more as all these new parts are crushed as they grow.

At Noesis' bidding, John Doe forms a transparent window in his wall. Noesis forms a mental link with the egg in Blitz (now that he can see Blitz), and tries to get it to stop hatching. Unfortunately, the egg seems to think it's far too late to stop hatching, and Blitz has grown extra Brood legs...

Servo grabs the blaster from Truth. Truth tries to grab a grenade from Servo's armour, but he is too fast for her, and she misses. The wall that is John Doe grows many tentacles that reach across the chamber and grab all the guns he can see. He uses them to shoot the Queen many times.

In the Soul chamber, Blitz fires again. The whole place starts to shake more and more. Blitz seems hung in the cat's cradle of energy beams criss-crossing the chamber. The light gets brighter and brighter, then seems to condense into what looks like a tiny star, about 30cm across which hovers 50cm or so over Blitz' head. It hangs there for a few seconds, then shoots upward, through the roof of the chamber and away. As it goes a wave of white light, and a feeling of love bursts from it, outwards in all directions, washing over everyone.

Everyone gets a feeling of warmth washing through them. Those who were turning into Brood feel their extra body parts vanish. As the wave of light clears, they can see that the Queen has been transformed into pure crystal, like that in the Soul chamber, and all of Chronos' wounds have healed. John Doe smashes the crystal statue that was the Queen into powder; it is very fragile.

The Brood Queen turned into crystal


The powerful shaking in the ground continues. Stalactites in the Soul chamber (which is now dark) snap off and crash to the floor. Truth pushes the button on Rainbow Dancer's contact device. The group are not instantly transported to safety, so they decide the time has come to run.

They all exit the chamber at high speed, heading back for the surface. Blitz carries Truth and Servo. John Doe grows a wheelbarrow, and organic rocket motors (learnt from the Brood shark-ships) and zooms along carrying Chronos in this rocket-powered wheelbarrow. Servo takes digital photos of various party members in their ripped and torn costumes (Chronos and Truth particularly).

The tremors get worse and worse as they go. Parts of the tunnel collapse behind them. Just as the tunnel starts to collapse around them, the blue transporter glow appears around them, and they vanish.


The group re-appear back on the LookFar, in the same room as they left. Rainbow Dancer appears.

The walls of the room fade away to be replaced by a holographic view of the Brood world. "Observe your success," says Rainbow Dancer. A bright spark of light is visible rising from the head of the Soulsinger's corpse, up and out into space towards the nebula where the new Soulsinger was hiding.

"Unfortunately, your actions seem to have triggered a tectonic catastrophe. The Brood world is tearing itself apart," says Rainbow Dancer. On the world below, one of vast ribs of the dead Soulsinger topples. Bubble cities collapse. "Fortunately, this is a dead world, thanks to the Broods actions."

Someone points out that there are all the carrion creatures living on the Soulsinger's corpse. "This is true," says Rainbow Dancer. "We are sampling what we can." From the holographic view of outside, the LookFar seems to go into a very low powered orbit, speeding round and round the planet.

"We have done what we can," says Rainbow Dancer. Then the LookFar pulls away from the Brood world at high speed. As it recedes, the Brood world stays in view, earthquakes shaking it more and more. Giant cracks appear in the planet's surface, miles wide, with magma showing at the bottom. They spread until the whole surface of the Brood world is covered in a network of them. Then, all of a sudden, the planet explodes, and rocky and molten shards spray into space into all directions. Rainbow Dancer is looking somewhat subdued.

As the LookFar continues to recede, Noesis asks if he can broadcast a gloating message to the remaining Brood. Rainbow Dancer refuses.

The group ask how they can get home from here. Rainbow Dancer says they think they have found the Earth, by analysis of the frequencies of light their eyes are most sensitive to, and from analysis of the trace element signatures in their bodies. It also says that John Doe is from Earth, from trace element signatures nut mostly from the genetic similarities between him and the rest of the group.

A holographic map of part of the Milky Way galaxy appears, with a fairly large volume of space coloured in red. One star is highlighted. "This is the Brood world," says Rainbow Dancer. "And this is, we think, your world." Another star, deep within the red volume, is highlighted. The group ask about the red volume. Apparently it is known as 'The Blight' and is the remnant of an ancient war that devastated all worlds with advanced forms of life in that area, and probably explains why no-one on Earth had ever encountered any aliens. The Blight is the result of an artificial plague created by one side that attacks all life forms over a certain level of neurological complexity, and which is almost impossible to destroy. "Your Earth must have been very lucky to escape infection," comments Rainbow Dancer.

The description of the Blight plague rings bells for John Doe - it sounds very much like the symptoms of the OMEGA-2 virus Viper was experimenting on, and which destroyed the world in the future the group saw (see Sessions 2.8, 2.9 and 2.10). Rainbow Dancer asks whether it was all destroyed, and is told that the virus the group found was destroyed, but that they don't know whether there were any other samples elsewhere.

The Caretakers are prepared to take the group back to Earth, but don't know how long it will take - hyperspace travel is somewhat unpredictable.

The LookFar returns to the nebula where the new Soulsinger was hiding. There are now six other, vast, Acanti with it - some of the Acanti elders, apparently. The Soulsinger sends out a telepathic song of gratitude and thanks to everyone - it is the most beautiful thing anyone has ever experienced.

The group offer their assistance if the Acanti need them again. The Acanti thank them, but say (sing) that they cannot brave the Blight, and do not know of any way to get rid of the Blight plague. Regardless, Noesis allows the Acanti to implant a one-shot psychic link to the Soulsinger in his mind (this is a 'break glass in case of emergency' type thing).

The Soulsinger allows John Doe to touch him, and learn his genetic makeup. They are completely independent of hostile environments, don't need to eat, drink or sleep, are highly intelligent, have powerful psychic abilities, and can fly through both normal space and hyperspace under their own power. John Doe has a lot to assimilate before he can do all this!

At the request of the group, the Acanti implant the 'seeds' of mental defences inside all the party, which will grow as they concentrate on learning the ability. They also plant in Servo the ability to learnt psychic powers - they cannot do this for the rest of the group as only he really has the potential for it.

The Acanti sing another psychic song of gratitude, then fold themselves out of space, and vanish.

The group design a new (and unflattering, to say the least!) costume for Chronos, and do various other embarrassing things to him while he remains unconscious. They also take his mask off and have a good look at his face, and search him for a wallet or anything else giving his real identity. They do not find one. Truth and John Doe are the prime movers in this.

Rainbow Dancer asks the group to go into stasis for the journey to Earth. The group are a bit unsure about this and ask whether it is necessary. Apparently it is - the ship has no quarters any bigger than the room which is all the group has seen so far, and also has no entertainment facilities, it would be very boring, too. The group grudgingly agrees.

It also mentions that, with the group's permission, it will be returning to Earth too. This is so it can study the Earth and human cultures and society for the Caretakers. This is a preliminary to a Caretaker expedition to help the Human race with its various problems. The group ask about their intentions and what they will do. How they intend to help the Earth and the human race. Rainbow Dancer admits that it currently does not know - more information is necessary, and that is why it needs to come to Earth. The party go along with this.

Everyone goes into stasis on the LookFar.


Some indeterminate time later everyone is woken up again (apart from Chronos, who remains unconscious). This does not seem to have affected John Doe's memory. Rainbow Dancer leads them out of the cylindrical room, down a corridor, and into another ship, which has a room with stasis pods, and another with a view of the outside, and enough seats for everyone. Most of the group goes back into stasis. John Doe remains out of stasis to talk to Rainbow Dancer about the results of the Caretaker investigation into his genetics. "We do believe that you arise from the same tree of life as your comrades, but you are very different from them," it says.

First, Rainbow Dancer shows a hologram of the DNA of the other team members, expanding out from the DNA double helix to the entire chromosome set. The differences between Truth's and those of the others are highlighted. Rainbow Dancer speculates it is due to gender differences. Then the view expands out to show a huge tangled mass of DNA. "This is your DNA," says Rainbow Dancer. "It is a single strand containing roughly one million times more DNA than that of your comrades."

"Your cell structure is different too." Some cells from the others are shown, of a variety of different kinds - nerve cells, muscle cells, blood cells, etc., etc., with nuclei and mitochondria. "These are from your compatriots. This is your." A hologram of a single cell appears; slightly bigger than the others, with no nucleus or mitochondria. "All of your cells are of this kind. They do not have nuclei, or the small energy-producing structures," (mitochondria) "But, your DNA does contain the same DNA as that of them." Part of John Doe's vast DNA strand is highlighted.

"You also have the same chemical structure as your comrades." (Amino acids and the like, and the larger structures they make up.) "Some of your DNA is identical to that of your comrades," more areas are highlighted. "From our scans, as you change your cells change function by activating and deactivating genes as required, which make and unmake the structures the cells require for their current task."

Rainbow Dancer expands on this in a great deal of technical detail. John Doe remembers it all (with his eidetic memory), even though he does not understand very much. Rainbow Dancer also says that from analysis of the trace chemicals he needs, and of his DNA, he is of Earth origin, though this is by implication only - if he was alien but had adapted he might also be like that. However, scans do show Acanti, shark-ship, 'flying fish' and Brood DNA at one end of the DNA strand - it appears to add new DNA learnt by growing.

John Doe has Rainbow Dancer subtract them, and all know species - the left over part must be partly him. Unfortunately Rainbow Dancer can't subtract much as it doesn't have examples of known Earth lifeforms. It can scan what genes are currently active and what are not.

John Doe changes form a lot to eliminate those bits of DNA which become active. Quite a lot are always active - for example those to do with cellular respiration. He goes through his entire repertoire to see the unused bits. The majority of his DNA seems to be unused.

Even though he forgot his conscious memories as a garden shed, he did remember some abilities - for example, how to shapeshift.

It seems that much of his range of forms are combinations of genetic capabilities rather than each one being an ability of its own.

Even with this combination accounted for, the majority of DNA is still unused, implying whole ranges of things he can't do or can't remember. He speculates that they are probably just lost, but the Rainbow Dancer has chemicals that can stimulate specific parts of the DNA strand, including the unknown bits. However, it warns that it has no idea of the consequences (though they do have antidotes if necessary). John Doe goes for it anyway, having small bits of mystery DNA activated at a time. A syringe arm extends and injects him.

As the chemical takes effect, he flops into a puddle, which writhes a bit. He has a sensation that all his abilities have turned off and things are firing at random. It wears off after a while. A second chemical has the same effect. A third causes him to lose control of his body, and also gives him the impression of remembering nothing - like white noise to all his senses. He focuses on this, and it stays the same. Then he drifts with it, and it remains the same again. He doesn't like this much, and tries to bail out, but cannot, and cannot signal Rainbow Dancer for the antidote. It wears off after a while.

John Doe continues to have bits of his mystery DNA activated all the way back to Earth (Rainbow Dancer provides food whenever he needs it). Some parts of it are fully physical shut down; others give paralysis with the white noise sensation, or anything in between. By the time Earth is reached (John Doe is not sure how long it took, given that he was affected by the chemicals for a lot of the time), more than three quarters of the mystery DNA has been activated, all with these effects. Rainbow Dancer speculates that it all seems to code for nothing - it is just junk DNA, or perhaps potential, where new things can be encoded at a later stage.

John Doe remembers what happened under the drug, for later use and play. It might come in useful.


Another indeterminate time later, everyone apart from John Doe is woken up by Rainbow Dancer.

They come out into the main compartment. A star is visible - the Sun, and a pair of bright points in the sky - the Earth and the Moon. The ship moves towards the them.

The group discuss where to land. Noesis does an impression of a globe to show Rainbow Dancer where the group comes from (geography is somewhat distorted by Noesis' prejudices). He suggests the estate of Professor Barker, outside London, as a good place to set down. Everyone agrees on this.

The Earth and Moon expand rapidly as they ship zooms towards them. The group discuss using the ship to be the first to land on the other worlds of the solar system, but Rainbow Dancer points out that it is on a fixed trajectory to Earth, which can't be changed that much. Oh well.

There is some concern that the ship will be picked up by Earth-based radars. Rainbow Dancer assures the group that the ship is cloaked against radar detection.

As the ship approaches Earth the group listen in to radio signals. Today is Wednesday the 16th of August 1995, about six months after they stormed into the Canary Wharf tower.

The ship comes in closer than the Moon. There is a 'clunk' and something black is seen passing the ship. Rainbow Dancer explains that it is the faster than light drive, and the stasis module, being sent into the Sun for destruction. Apparently this was done to stop Earth obtaining their technology before it was developed of its own accord, which could have serious consequences for human society. Noesis is offended that Rainbow Dancer doesn't think that humans are ready for their technology.

Rainbow Dancer says that it has constructed a body to use on Earth without standing out too much. A human appears from the rear of the ship. It is male, tall, with an athletic build, fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. Rainbow Dancer says it was constructed from the genetic samples given by some members of the group. The body bears a family resemblance to Truth, Servo, Chronos and Blitz, and when John Doe touches it he can tell it is genetically a cross between all four of them, and perhaps a bit of Avenger too. It is dressed skin-tight matt black - like a superhero costume. The group suggest it changes outfit as this one stands out, not blends in.

They also suggest that he pretends to be a foreign tourist (from somewhere other than wherever he happens to be), which will make it easier to blend in. A name is invented - Rainbow Dancer is now Sven Juhnsen, Swedish tourist. A radio is offered to 'Sven' but he declines - "This body already has facilities to do so."

The group also arrange a contact frequency for Rainbow Dancer in case they need to contact him. They arrange a code-phrase of 'Rainbow Dancer'.

As the ship heads in for Earth, over Africa, Rainbow Dancer suddenly says, "We are under attack." In the view screen, now showing the view behind the ship, an enslaved Acanti can be seen, shimmering out of invisibility. Huge blaster bolts are fired at the ship, and it shudders and tumbles in space as it is hit.

"We've got to go down now, use the atmosphere to shield us," says Rainbow Dancer. The ship turns downwards from its shallow approach and dives almost vertically down, towards north-east Africa. More shots hit the ship. 'Sven' slumps down into a seat and no longer reacts, as Rainbow Dancer concentrates on flying the ship.

Noesis tells Rainbow Dancer not to land in the Sudan. Rainbow Dancer says it doesn't know where the Sudan is, and there is only limited control over where they will land anyway.

The ship nears the ground, and levels out of its power dive. It powers over semi-arid scrub land, dropping all the time. "We must land now." says Rainbow Dancer, "Brace yourselves".

The ship crashes, tumbling across the landscape, and everyone falls unconscious...


Session 3.4   Index   Session 3.6

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