Date: 6/27/2673

"Hey, man, what's that sound? Someone is getting near, whistling a very familiar song…" Wizard said.

"Isn't it "I Wanna Be Free?" The Judge suggested.

"Well… Let's see who enters..." Cannibal smiled, but he already knew who was coming. It didn’t take him to be in charge of the Intelligence section to understand who is the anonymous singer.

A voice could be heard, he was saying: "Oh, I can't stop singing!" And there he was, entering the room, Miguel 'Dreamer' Terol, the document researcher in TCS Gypsy. He spent many years dedicated to the study of all the members of the AHG (Ancient Heep Gods). He had the assignment of building up a family tree regarding all the AHG, and he successfully finished it.

Cannibal's face filled with a smile. Miguel and Boris were very good friends, but after they moved from TCS Gypsy to different ships, they couldn't see them face to face, living in distant countries. But they were together again. When Miguel asked Boris when they should reunite, he answered: "One day, my friend, one day… This world is like a Circus (well, Cannibal WAS a clown, after all) and we'll see each other again". He was completely right. The Recreation Room was a good scenario for a reunion of the original team. Miguel approached to the group...

"Hi, Colonel White!" They didn't speak to each other since Wizard’s last birthday… "Hi Everyone!" He continued.

"Hi, Miguel!" They all replied and got up on their feet.

"What have you been doing all those years, Miguel?" asked Cannibal. He was very curious about his old time friend.

"Oh, well, I had a hard task, ordered to me directly from the High Priestess dedicated to the worship of AHG, the very famous Lady In Black, and supported by our University Dean, Mr. Roger." He looked at everyone again and smiled, as he still couldn’t believe that he was meeting his old time friends after so many years… "I've spent all this time, since our last mission, wondering around several worlds in our galaxy, looking for some ancient manuscripts, decoding cryptic writings, hearing noisy tapes, trying to fill the gaps in our knowledge of millenary ancient cultures of our ancestors".

"Ah, and did you finish your studies about AHG?" Colonel White asked. The Ancient Heep Gods always interested all the Heepsters. They always wondered who REALLY were the Ancient Heep Gods, and who were their worshipers, as most of the data got lost in the seven centuries that past since the Heep Gods and Worshipers first showed up on the world.

"No, I couldn't, if I had the time..." Dreamer sighed "I've spent long time traveling between worlds, so I didn't have enough free time to finish the task. But you can't imagine in how many interesting places I've been. Let me remember some... I've visited the original places where very interesting civilizations lived: The long ago disappeared Black Toe Fat Foot men, the Bakerloos, the Cressidians, and I had the luck and pleasure to see hidden places where man didn't dare to visit: the Land of the Tempest, the Mountain of the Rough Diamond, the kingdom of the Shotgun people, the land of the Seven Stars, the Fountain of the Natural Gas where big mushrooms grew, the Colosseum monument, the National Abominog Head, the Osibisa elephant path. I hadn't the luck to see any elephant or mammoth, they went away from that place some centuries ago, but as the climate there was so cold (in the 22th century, it happened there the tremendous Blizzard of Ozz, bat heads falling from their sky), I still could see some Footprints In The Snow. Amazing!!!"

"Tell us more!" Traveler asked.

"Oh, I remember that once I tasted mammoth chops, and they were even better than lamb chops. But I'll speak about these places another day, if you're interested. Now I wanna have a soft drink On The Rocks, he he!" They all laughed.

"Hey, bartender! a glass of fresh water for Miguel, and more beer for the rest, and here you have my credit-card!" shouted Cannibal. Actually, Cannibal didn’t have to pay anything, as it was his ship, but he said it anyway.

They drank. Miguel was thirsty, it was too hot in the TCS Spaniards, as the air conditioning was malfunctioning, and YOU try being in the 119CE system where the whole system (even the farthest planet) is in a temperature of about 10,000o without air conditioning! Get the point?

He continued speaking, more relaxed. "Well, my friends, and now, who's the next to come in? I still miss some other friends here. We used to be in contact, but from some time ago, communications between us are very hard to maintain, the UHML (Ultra High Molecule Light) is down too often, in spite of Mac's interest in keeping it working. But I hope all of them will join here with us ... Vlad, always searching for the Songs Of Eden; Avi, the researcher about (neo)classical ages; Darrell the JSS (Jet Space Shuttler) site maintainer, and keeper of the Talisman; Rod, the speaker of the Visible Faith events; Oh, those were the days, my friends ... I may not seem very 'umble, but we were the best Confed crew, weren't we?"

"Yes, of course, we were!" they all replied at once, while their minds went back in time, all making the sign of the butterfly with their right hands, just like the admired Space Marshall Box taught them, so many years ago.

"Does anybody know where is Todd, our logistic officer?" Miguel then said suddenly "How are we supposed to drive the starship without his long experience? He's the best flight engineer we've had aboard! I still remember how he could use the Bronze particle disintegrator, the machine where we launched Travelers In Time."

"Don’t worry… we will meet them all very soon…" The Judge said, smiling. "I hope…" he whispered to himself.