As I went out a second time, I could not find the planet. My heart fell and I was prepared to turn back when, farther out than it had been before, it finally appeared. I called to it, asking why it had moved and that I was at half a tank of fuel, just enough to leave it now and go home. How had it moved? Had I not come back to the exact same coordinates? My instruments assured me of it. I had indeed gone beyond where the planet had first resided.
Upon closer proximity to the red misted planet, my heart leapt as a signal was indeed picked up from them. The strange sighing and singing noise that greeted me was soothing to hear, but I could not make it out at all. I said as much and to my astonishment, a voice, low and still melodic, answered in a language of our Earth II. After much conversation back and forth (I have taken an oath not to divulge too much of this species or their planet in any report private or otherwise) I at last learned the speaker was called Merlin and that he (for it was a male) was a, what I understand to be, spiritual leader among the others on the planet. He called the planet Avalon.
It took a great deal of time to convince Merlin that I was not a threat and I was simply an explorer. I told him of the race I represented and he made me recount our entire journey for as long as I could remember. When he asked if I remembered our Earth II, I said I did not. I had not been born there. He then said I was a child of the stars and need not be afraid.
I was nearly out of fuel by this time and told Merlin I must leave. I thought I was to be given a farewell, but instead, my little pod was gripped by a tractor beam and held steady. Politely, Merlin asked me to stay and said he would guarantee my safety if I was afraid. I was deathly afraid, I told him. He asked why. I said it was because I knew nothing about him or his planet and if I came out, unprotected and unprepared as I was, I may die. He asked if I wanted to see Avalon and meet his people. I said that I did. He then promised me I would be safe. I cannot say more on his niceties, but know he was a very civil being.
The Avalonians are humanoid in nature, but beyond that, I cannot describe their true form as I promised Merlin I would not for the safety of his people. They were so polite and full of every kind of inspiration. The best and queerest thing about them though was their technology. I fell in love with those devices and machines. Their mines were full of the strangest Avalonian metal and were harvested by the greatest of beings. Giants. I had never seen anything like it. In faith, Merlin showed me his world.
But here, I confess ends the gladness of my report. Where I had once come in peace and curiosity was replaced a desire for their power. The virus took hold of me so fast that I cannot even place a time on when I realized what I wanted. Too quickly I had descended into lust and greed. I asked Merlin how to find Avalon again and he said should I ever want to visit, I only need send out a certain signal designed into a melody only he would know and I would be allowed safe entrance into the divine planet. He had called me a Mist-friend. But I betrayed that. To my everlasting sorrow, I betrayed Merlin.
I started just by bringing Benedict and Augustine with me. They were just as entranced by the beings as I was and saw that where they were advanced in technology and robotics, they were sadly lacking in medicine and biological procedures. Benedict took it upon himself to teach them all he could with their compliance, which greatly added to our knowledge of them. Soon they were surpassing him in medicine and had created new surgeries for their own people. As can be seen in my reports, the Avalonians have a higher rate of regenerative cells than anything I have ever seen. This fascinated Benedict and myself.
The most interesting thing Augustine discovered while working with the mechanics of Avalon was their great capacity for communication amongst themselves and seemingly with the planet. While in the mines, Augustine realized the entire planet was a bio-machine. It was wired like a network of binary brain cells, but as a living, breathing thing. Everything was connected and the beings as well. From here, we realized the Avalonians had been preserving their lives, when medicine failed them, by adhering themselves to the earth or elements from the mines. This is where I broke our trust. Seeing the greatness of the Avalonians, in every respect, and the way in which they connected with the resources of their planet, I knew it had to be shared. Thus, I brought back an entire fleet to
