Date Played: 03 March 2002
Game Date: Monday, 12 March 2001
The team arrive at Angles, a small town in rural Quebec where they plan to lay low until the heat is off, and notice that there are seven-star symbols everywhere. Maria asks the owner of the local magic shop about them. She says that it is a symbol of great power. Both hint that they know more than they are willing to let on.
CNN reports that the investigation into the nationwide terrorist network, Aegis, has revealed that the event they covered up in the 1947 was the crash of a flying disk from outer space. The show photos of the wreckage and have a couple of pieces in the studio which are discussed by experts.
Laura, taking comfort in the bed of a French Canadian, asks him about the seven-star symbol he wears on a pendant. Jean-Pierre tells her that it is the symbol of a club he belongs to. She presses him for details about the club and reveals some of what she knows of the symbol. He agrees to talk to the leaders of the club and see if they will let her join.
While the others are busy -- Maria is hocking stolen property, Charles is researching in Montreal's main library, Decklan treats his daughter to a holiday, and Isaiah recovers from his encounter with Emma Coloris -- Laura dines with Jean-Pierre and meets the club executive.
Nicole, the leader of the group and wearing a large seven start amulet about her neck, tells Laura that she uses certain rituals to strip bare the thin veneer of civilization which all human affect and exposes the true core of each individual's nature. Knowing one's true nature, she says, solves many of life's problem by putting them in perspective and enabling the individual to react to them from a place or true knowledge rather than a mish-mash of expectations fed to us by the mass media and other cultural sources. Nicole says she would dearly love to perform the ritual for Laura. Laura asks if she can bring a friend.
Laura, suspicious that she has not been asked yet for money by this charlatan, agrees in order to find out more about Nicole's connection to the seven-star.
While waiting for the team to return from their various tasks, Laura questions Jean-Pierre about the ritual. Did he go through it? Of course, he answers. It showed him that, although he was a sporting champion, rock climber and football player, his true nature is that of a coward. When confronted by the Seven Wise Men, he cowered in fear and could not face them. Life, he says, is easier now he knows exactly what he is.
She discusses this with the team. No one is sure exactly what is going on here but Isaiah thinks it is superficially similar to the dreams the eleven year old Emma Coloris talked about. Wired for sound and followed by the rest of the team, Laura and Isaiah prepare to undergo the ritual.
Isaiah and Laura are greeted at the door of a rather well-to-do rural property by Nicole, Jean-Pierre and a couple of other followers. While they prepare for the ritual, Maria maneuvers herself to get a good shot with a video camera into the room where it will take place, Charles and Decklan start the eavesdropping equipment recording in the van parked a little way down the road.
The ritual room is draped with wall hangings featuring the seven-star symbol. The floor has been cleared and in the centre is drawn a large seven-star which Nicole invites them to sit around holding hand with the person on either side. Isaiah recognizes the hypnotic technique Nicole uses but succumbs despite his efforts to resist. The problem is that Maria and Charles, listening to the ritual through headphones via microphones planted on Laura and Isaiah, succumb as well. Only Decklan is unaffected.
Nicole starts by removing all memory of the modern, technological world -- all memories of trains, planes and automobile. She takes them back before the turn of the century, before the birth of Christ, back to the Golden Age when the world was simpler and people lived if not in harmony at least in accord with the natural order.
Those who succumbed to her technique see themselves in a large field, reaping wheat with copper sickles. Hard but honest work. Then a shadow covers the field. Others scream in panic and run for their lives. They look up and see soldiers levitating down from one of the Grey Masters' floating cities. They wish that Rama and his band of rebel were here to protect them.
The soldiers subdue them and carry them up into the floating city where they are paraded before the Seven Masters. The Masters psychically examine each in turn. Those who cower in fear are sent back to the pens to be made slaves. Those who defy the masters are sent to have their wills broken and be trained as overseers. Those very rare people who fit neither category are kept in cages for further study.
Decklan, puzzling together some sense of what is happening, runs to the window of the ritual room and shouts, "now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds," a line from the Ramayana about Rama's battle with the Greys. He then throws in two stun grenades.
In the confusion, he ushers the team into the van and drives away leaving Nicole and her followers choking on the smoke and disoriented by the sudden light and noise.
On the drive back to town, the team members who succumbed to Nicole's hypnosis see each other and all those they see on the street as slaves, overseers or rebels. Each class feels intense hatred of at least one other class. Only seat belts and being inside a speeding vehicle prevent them from acting on their emotions for the next half hour or so.
Recovering, they watch CNN for more news and see an advertisement about CNN revealing on world-wide TV the unearthing of an alien craft buried under Hopkinsville, Virginia.
Unanswered Questions and Mysteries To Be Solved