Melock materialized on the bridge of a 71EEB8 cruiser. Every surface of the massive control center was pristine white. Hundreds of identical clones in matching green robes stood at color pulsating workstations. The blackness of space that filled the deck's huge panoramic window was continually interrupted by a pulsating neutron star. Three clones looked down from an elevated central platform; one with slightly more feminine features. 

"You're a persistent little trickster, aren't you?" she said. 

"Good day, Madam," said Melock. 

"If you'd please join us, we don't enjoy shouting," she said gesturing to a spiral staircase. 

Melock climbed up to the command level and took in the enormity of the vessel. Out the window, the front of the craft stretched more than a kilometer. Its massive metal surface was like looking out over an ice sheet that ended in a night sky. 

"What a fantastic craft you have here," said Melock to the three clones.

The female clone stepped to the middle and her two brothers took up relative positions at her sides. Small blue bee-like insects crawled about on their silvery skin. Melock watched them buzz about in symbiosis with the clones.  

"Thank you. We have much work to do here. Why, if I may ask, is it important that you speak with me? When any one of us is capable of answering your questions."

Melock smiled, ran his hand down his mustache, and wiggled his toes on the glossy white deck. 

"I heard about you from Toebee." 

A nearly imperceptible smirk curled in the corner of her stoic lips and a softness came over her pupilless eyes.

"How is our dear sister?" 

"The Mystic of the Planet of the Dead is quite well." 

Seriousness returned to her face. 

"You've been there?" 

"Oh my, yes."

"Do you know its coordinates? Its galactic orbit trajectory?" 

"Not exactly." 

"Please understand, a percentage of our people, a very small percentage but a sizable number nonetheless, simply falter in the conquest of immortality. They grow weary of existence and seek out this fabled world on a kind of euthanization quest. They crash their ships, are infected by a neurotoxin fungal spore, lose their wills, and are in the simplest terms, consumed by the planet. Are you familiar with ophiocordycep type fungi?" 

"Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, the zombie fungus, a parasitic form that preys on arthropods. It gets control of their bodies and forces them to climb to the highest point they can reach, then consumes their insides, growing until it bursts out of their head and rains down spores infecting others and continuing the cycle," said Melock. 

"A similar thing happens to clones that journey to the dead planet, but they suffer from a blood-born infection that drives them to spread it and eventually kills them. Did you encounter any clones on the planet?"  

"Only Toebee. Our scans showed no signs of life other than the bioluminescent fungal bloom."

"It glows?" said one of the other clones aloud. 

"A soft purple light," said Melock. 

The three clones gave quick glances to one another then they looked again at Melock. One held out a small device. 

"May we scan you? It is harmless." 

"By all means," said Melock holding out his arms. 

The clone passed a thin beam of light across his body from the knot on his head to the tips of his toes. The device beeped and the three clones fell momentarily lost in thought. 

"What do you want from us?" she asked. 

"I'm doing research on life extension and immortality. I was hoping to study with your people. Toebee suggested I upgrade my brain and possibly my body with your help. I'm also seeking a Technowizard called Tykö." 

"Your body is impressive and the latticework in your brain exceptional. Your extreme age is beginning to break it down. You would be an excellent candidate for genetic sequencing enhancements." 

"After I study your approach, I would be amiable to undergoing treatment," said Melock.

"We'd consider making a trade with you," she said. 

"Oh?" said the smiling wizard.

"We'd like detailed information on your teleportation technology as well as whatever nanotech lies in the rings you wear. In return, we would share all our knowledge of life enhancement." 

"That wouldn't work at all. The magic I use can not be easily taught." 

She narrowed her eyes at him. 

"Tykö has been abducted by the Makina. His last whereabouts were on the edge of Ibi-Ero space. Would you consider a mission to retrieve him in exchange for some physical enhancements and access to our genetic research compatible with human beings?" 

"I take it, political reasons, stop you from doing this yourself?"

"The Makina cannot be made aware of our involvement."

Melock scratched his chin and adjusted his hair. "I'll need my team." 

The two male clones turned their attention to something else. Outside, the light of distant stars began to bend. A huge gravity well formed in front of the massive spaceship and the cruiser fell into it.

"I would like to teleport back to the ship you came from with you, if possible. We can retrieve your sister Murphy and will enhance you, equip you, and brief you for the mission," said the ambassador. 

"And what of the ogre and the gnome? I suspect they might play a role in this," said Melock with raised eyebrows. 

"They will be our source of plausible deniability. We'll put them on a ship toward Makina space and you can rendezvous with them en route."

Melock took a deep breath and tried in vain to read the thoughts of 71EEB8. The cacophony of technological telepathic communication was far too much to even parse out a single individual thought. His mind simply interpreted it as a noisy crowd numbering in the trillions; impossible to decipher.

"You 71s are so proactive. Shall we go now?"

"Yes," she said. 

Melock reached into his bag, pulled out his mobile device, and attempted to triangulate their position and the position of the ship he had just come from. It didn't work. 

"That primitive tracker cannot calculate the movements of our gravity drives when in use," she said. 

Melock reached back in his bag, took out the vile, and poured out an exact duplicate of the swirling pattern he had left behind on the octahedron ship.  He fanned it and it solidified on the floor. 

"If you'll step inside this circle with me." Melock reached out for her hand and she retracted it. "We'll have to stand close together for this to work. I could send us one at a time, though there's a risk I could lose you." 

"Your hand device's partition blocked our scan. If you gave us access, we could calculate the position for you," she suggested.

"Again, it's a complicated magical process."

"Very well," she said with a hint of disgust. 

She stepped into the spiral with him. His old cheek pressed into her breast. Melock put his arm around her waist, she made an uncomfortable face, and they vanished from the bridge.

The two clones left behind scanned the area where they had just been and the design that was now burned into the floor.

Light consumed her. She felt her ship, space, time, and existence fade away to nothing. It only lasted a millisecond but she was aware of a perceived time expansion. Light turned to darkness and darkness dimmed back into light. She appeared alone on the flight deck of the octahedron. The two pilots snapped to attention. 

"Ambassador," said the clone guide now used to speaking aloud for his guests' benefit. 

She looked at him with narrowed eyes, then to the Gastraddar sitting on the deck with an Ursa Minor gnome casually smoking a pipe on his shoulder. No successful diplomatic ties had ever been brokered between the two species. She connected her mind to the ship's Hexagon Memorizer and through its quantum computing power reached out to the deep space ambassadors guild and through them, she connected with the entire 71EEB8 population. She searched for any instance of Ursa Minor and Gastraddar cooperation. The results came back negative. 

A young human girl sitting next to them stood and walked over to her. 

"You're the other female clone. You were there the day Toebee was born. Ten thousand years ago." 

"How could you possibly know that?" she asked. 

"We shared a vision quest," said Murphy. 

"Is that so? Where is Melock?"

"I believe Toebee called it transdimensional meditation," said Melock materializing at her side. 

The Ambassador jumped, uncharacteristically startled by his sudden appearance. "Were you lost in the teleportation?" 

"Only momentarily delayed. Was the travel acceptable to you?" asked Melock. 

The Ambassador felt a bit queasy but she declined to mention it.

"Beyond satisfactory. We traversed a hundred light-years in a second. How is this possible? Where is your power source? How did you plot the distance? How are you dematerializing? Transporting? Reconstructing? Did we travel on some kind of subatomic lightwave?" 

"Oh my, nothing like that," said Melock. 

"I have so many questions," said the Ambassador before she caught herself, "WE, we have so many questions." 

"I'm sure you do, but let's fill everyone else in on the plan, first."  

Information was shared in real-time with the entire 71EEB8 population. It was decided that this Melock the Wise was an even more troublesome influence than the Technowizard who came before him.