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| in the Eckolir Reality Original cover art: 1, 2. |
Similarly, in Marune, we learn that Efraim's mother, Alferica, died (by drowning) many years before the story even starts. In Araminta Station, Glawen's mother was drowned when he was just a young boy. ⺞
Idite Exceptionalism and Royalty in Alastor Cluster
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| Guide to character names. |
Many characters in "The Alastor Network" use more than one name. Members of the royal family (Idite dynasty) often use an alternative identity when they travel among the common people. When Sharue was adopted into the royal family, her name was changed to Yurahs. For public occasions, such as attending university, she is known as Synthe Shermatz.
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| Yurahs has a vision of the future. original cover art: Tom Miller |
The first of Vance's many casualties who I endowed with a second life was Sessily Veder. Poor Sessily was murdered, sealed up in a wine casque and shipped off across space. Vance could come up with any number of creative ways to get rid of a character.
There are also many Hi-Tek™ methods for giving people a second life. My current favorite is teleportation duplication. For my new story, "The Alastor Network", I imagine that both Efraim's mother, Alferica, and Sharue Hulden were duplicated using teleportation technology (I blame Grean). In each case, one copy of the unfortunate victim died, however the teleportation duplicate lived on and was taken to the planet Numenes where the Connatic became a dedicated collector of people with interesting telepathic abilities.
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| Image credits: see this page. Special thanks for: Leah01 by Eclesi4stiK available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Special thanks to Mirish for stock images |
Origin of Yurahs. The teleportation duplicate of Sharue was brought to the Connatic's palace at Lusz and adopted into the royal family. Sharue's name was changed to ‛Yurahs’. Acyreff and the Connatic raised Yurahs as if she were their biological daughter. Eventually, the baby who is born to Yurahs and fathered by Heshlo becomes part of a mind clone network along with other children who are born on the planet Yerophet.
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| In the Palace. |
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| the Lavany embryo |
⎯ The Alastor Network
Part 1. Robot Tactics
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| The robots of Triskelion image source |
Acyreff, had risen early, feeling anxious about the busy day ahead. She wanted to do some background reading about the proposal from Brevik (Alastor 23) for expanding the Shadow Drone program and its use of robotics technology obtained from the planet Triskelion. Her plan was to eat a leisurely breakfast while reading.
Upon arriving in the dining hall, Acyreff could sense the ripe odor of ghark. She glanced around at all corners of the large room and saw that she was alone. For a moment she gazed at the buffet-style presentation of delectable foods, but Acyreff had suddenly lost all interest in eating. She was trying to find a visual hint that the ghark was still present. Had the mysterious visitor already come and gone? Acyreff slowly walked around the long table. Her hair was tightly bound up in a net in preparation for donning the wig that Acyreff would be forced to wear all day while performing her official duties.
A sound? Something had been detected by her mind. Acyreff stood there with her feet perfectly still while rapidly turned her head from side to side, again checking to make sure that she was alone. There! Hovering above the tea service was a transparent gray smudge: her ghark was here! Acyreff did not want anyone to see her talking to herself, not when she was not actually talking to herself. She spoke to her ghark, "If you are only here to say, 'I told you so', then please go away."
The ghark was not that easy to get rid of. The last time that Acyreff and her ghark had spoken, about a year previously, the ghark had predicted that regardless of Acyreff's efforts to interfere, her adopted daughter and her biological son would become irreversibly attached to each other as passionate lovers. At that time, Acyreff was hoping that Yurahs and Heshlo would abandon their child-like sexual experimentation with each other's bodies. Of course, since the ghark had access to information from the future, Acyreff had been proven wrong and the ghark proven correct. Being a powerful telepath, the ghark put her words directly into Acyreff's mind: Given your lack of imagination, I want to give you a warning about the future. I don't want you to be startled on the day when you receive a report informing you that Yurahs is pregnant.
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| mind clones |
The ghark hovered above Acyreff, drifting randomly from left to right, apparently not interested in locking herself in one location. Mere mortals often felt that gharks spoke in riddles, but Acyreff's ghark really did try to help people, despite the vast ignorance of humans. Your adopted daughter is no longer little... she weights thirty pounds more than you do and has been an adult woman for two years now. Even if you want to treat her like a child, Yurahs has a life to live and there is a powerful temporal momentum pushing towards the formation of a Phari mind clone network.
Acyreff wondered: temporal momentum? She had never accommodated her thinking to the idea of time travel. Now, here was a new puzzle: what might a 'mind clone network' be? Acyreff's thoughts were centered on the well-being of her daughter. "I suspect you could protect Yurahs, if you cared about her health and safety."
Yurahs is very healthy. She'll be quite well cared for by the doctors of the Connatic's Hospital. I'm not worried about the girl's safety, provided that your husband does not allow Yurahs to visit Yerophet. The ghark paused a few seconds then added for emphasis: Yurahs will become even more dependent on constant contact with her lover after her hormone levels rise during the pregnancy.
Acyreff could not imagine the burning love affair between her children getting worse than it was already. Later that day, Heshlo was leaving for a summer internship at Yerophet and Yurahs had repeatedly declared that she would surely die if not allowed to accompany her beloved Heshlo. Acyreff was pinning her hopes for a peaceful summer on Lo and Ra, the two sexbot companions of her children. She mused, "Doesn't Lo even try to do his job?"
The feel of the ghark pressing against her mind ended and Acyreff slumped into a chair at the table, her breakfast completely forgotten, her day off on the wrong foot thanks to the ghark's visit. Quickly reaching a decision, Acyreff activated the comtel in her ring and signaled to Lo, "I need to see you, at once!" Acyreff began seriously thinking about her future as a grandmother. And of course, it was not likely that Yurahs would be satisfied with only one child. Acyreff admitted to herself that it would be nice to once more have small children around the palace.
The robot, Lo, soon arrived and bowed towards Acyreff. Gazing upon the machine's sexy body, Acyreff was shocked by the changes that Yurahs had made to the robot's appearance. Now the robot was sporting perky breasts and his/her two hard nipples pressed outward through the thin fabric of his/her shirt. Acyreff rose to her feet, reached out and touched one of the robot's breasts... only then did she believe what she was seeing. Now trying her best to forget the enticing way that Lo's breasts had jiggled as he/she had first bowed low and then quickly snapped his/her torso erect, Acyreff asked the machine, "Well, Lo, please help put my mind at ease. Tell me, will you be able to contain my daughter's grief?" Acyreff, trying not to stare at the machine's nipples, decided that although Lo had been delivered to the palace equipped with the genitalia of a human male, clothed and under casual observation, the robot might now easily pass as a human female... then letting her eyes slip down to the robot's crotch, Acyreff revised her thinking. The genital bulges in Lo's tight-fitting pants screamed 'male'. Lo would have to wear a skirt to pass as a woman.
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| Yerophet |
Acyreff was watching the curl of Lo's pretty lips and felt at a loss to judge the machine's meaning. "Are you serious?"
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| nanites |
Acyreff looked at the robot with heightened suspicions. She imagined that Lo was quite capable of twisting the facts for some purpose. "Is there some problem between Heshlo and Yurahs that I don't know about?"
"Problem? No, don't use such a dramatic label!" Looking at the worry lines on Acyreff's forehead, Lo resisted the temptation to put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "It is... well, just the usual sort of physiological limitation that you humans deal with constantly. Allow me to explain..."
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| source |
"Where should I begin?" The robot seemed to hesitate with a hand held to his delicate chin. "This past week, leading up to his departure for Yerophet, Heshlo has been rather desperately trying to spend as much time as possible with Yurahs." For emphasis, Lo held up a finger, pointed towards the ceiling. "Well... you know the old saying... 'Too much of a good thing'..." The robot jabbed its finger up and down suggestively then shrugged and slowly shook its head sadly from side to side.
Acyreff began to suspect the nature of what Lo was trying to explain. Tired of standing, she sat down in her usual spot at the table. A half hour previously, she had herself been blissfully engaged in delicious sex play with the robot Hans. When the Connatic was away from Numenes, Acyreff routinely made use of Hans for sexual pleasure, telling herself that one hot and sweaty sex act per day was good for her health. Of course, that formula did not include the fact that when Oman was away from the palace, Acyreff inevitably invited Hans to sleep in her bed and so there would likely be one or two additional orgasms that usually 'just happened' in the middle of the night. Since leaving Marune and while here in her second life on Numenes, Acyreff had been pleased to find that by feeding her sexual appetites rather than suppressing them, her liking and desire for sex play had expanded. Strangely, most of Acyreff's memories of sex with Hans all merged into a kind of warm and tingly sleep-time dream memory. Trying to clear her mind of Hans, she told Lo, "Please don't be overly subtle, I don't have time for puzzles today. Tell me plainly, Lo, in what way has Heshlo been... 'too much'? Is Yurahs unhappy?" Acyreff had been busy lately with affairs of State, but she had noticed no down-turn in her daughter's mood. Yurahs had seemed particularly buoyant in the week since the end of the spring university semester. During the past week, Heshlo and Yurahs had been together constantly and they both seemed extraordinarily happy.
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| Kwenslo |
"As their mother, I'm afraid I must know what Henslo and little Yurahs have been doing."
Lo had turned away and was gazing off across the dining hall, reluctant to speak. "They are two consenting adults. I don't think you should concern yourself with the intimate details of-" He was adamantly interrupted.
"Stop blathering, Lo!" Acyreff insisted, "Tell me everything you know."
Lo sighed in resignation and then sat in the chair next to Acyreff's. The robot placed a hand on top of Acyreff's arm and said, "Well, in all truth, it started with the basic requirement that you imposed on Heshlo even before Ra and I first arrived on Numenes."
Acyreff thought back about a year into the past, at the point in time when both her children had been officially adults for over a year. That was when Heshlo and Yurahs had first begun to occasionally engage in vaginal sex and Acyreff had set her son down for a long talk and told him not to impregnate his adopted sister. After considerable lecturing and arm-twisting, he had finally promised to track his sister's ovulations and not ejaculate any sperm into her vagina on days when there was a risk of fertilization. In any case, the doctor had informed Acyreff that the risk of pregnancy was small, since Yurahs was only occasionally ovulating. Due to her extreme athleticism, Yurahs was not fully fertile. At that time, after consultation with the Connatic, the robots Lo and Ra had been ordered from a robot manufacturing company on Triskelion. By the time when the two robots had arrived at the palace, Heshlo had already demonstrated his lackadaisical attitude about monitoring his sister's ovarian cycles. He'd told his father, Oman, "Look dad, I love Yurahs. It would be wonderful if she and I had a child. If you are uncomfortable with that then we'll move out of the palace." At that point, Acyreff had ordered Ra and Lo to make sure that Yurahs did not become pregnant.
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| telepathic agent |
"I never said she is annoyed!" Lo explained, "As you know, when I first came to Numenes, Yurahs wanted nothing to do with me. She only had eyes for Heshlo and she was sickened by the idea of sexual contact with me. Luckily, Heshlo was far less squeamish about where he stuck his penis. For many months, your two children's love making usually involved a threesome with Ra who was able to orally corral most of Heshlo's spermatocytes. Predictably, with all the oral sex that Yurahs witnessed, she finally became intrigued by the possibilities. Yurahs discovered that she liked the feel of Heshlo's hot erections in her mouth and she also eventually ordered me to provide her with oral sex."
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| Pharism |
"So, from there, their sex play progressed rather predictably. Now a typical sexual encounter between your son and adopted daughter takes the form of a foursome, with both Ra and I performing the oral sex preliminaries. It usually takes Ra only a minute to collect Heshlo's primary ejaculate, removing most of his sperm from the equation, as you have requested." The robot paused and reflected for a moment. "Although, now that I actually count the orgasms, this past week it has been Yurahs who most often consumes Heshlo's ejaculate."
Acyreff reflected on this one clear success from having provided Yurahs and Heshlo with sexbots imported from Triskelion. Heshlo had quickly discovered that he greatly enjoyed Ra's skill in performing oral sex and for many months Ra had daily disposed of most of the sperm cells produced by Heshlo's testicles. Yurahs and Heshlo still refused to use any other form of birth control, although the two overly-enthusiastic lovers could usually be distracted from engaging in vaginal sex on days close to the middle of her ovarian cycle. So far, at least, pregnancy had been avoided.
Lo continued, "After Ra has completed her mission," Lo pointed at his mouth, "I'm usually still hard at work between Yurahs' legs, providing her genitals with oral stimulation. Then Heshlo turns his full attention to Yurahs, but at the same time that she is basking in his..." Here, the robot almost used different language, but then simply said, "...attention, she insists that both Ra and I continue to make ourselves useful." The robot spoke in a voice tinged with resentment, "Your silly daughter had developed the absurd notion that Ra is better at performing both oral sex and sex play hand-work than I am." Lo said rather testily, "Really, it is fantastic! Ra and I were manufactured together in the same factory run and our programming is identical."
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| source |
"When Heshlo gets inside your daughter, Yurahs usually insists that I must join the effort. She says that having both of us inside her makes her feel pregnant."
Acyreff momentarily reflected on her three past pregnancies, then asked, "How could she know what it feels like to be pregnant?"
"I do believe your daughter when she says that she occasionally has a glimpse of the future." Lo tapped his head with one finger. "Some humans have a telepathic ability that makes them receptive to the backwards flow of information through time."
"As to that, I cannot say." Acyreff wondered: could time travel really be possible? "However, it is clear that Yurahs and Heshlo are linked telepathically. Now, don't change the subject, Lo. I don't have time today to discuss time travel and metaphysics with you. If there is some sexual incompatibility between Yurahs and Heshlo I need to know about it. We may need to seek medical help. Best we do so before Yurahs goes off to camp for the summer."
"Not at all, Madam. This is not a medical issue."
"Please stop stalling and tell me what it is."
"During our group love making, Ra is also kept busy, providing her expert stimulation to the nipples and glans of Yurahs. All that in itself is no problem, but during the past week, Heshlo has been wanting to make love to Yurahs at least four... and usually five, even six times a day. Bottom line... Yurahs is feeling a bit worn out, although she insists that she is always eager for more sex."
Lo nodded. "You can have complete confidence that Ra and I have the situation under control... if 'control' is the correct word for our attempts at managing the volcano of their passions."
"Yes, I believe she will be ready." Lo glanced down at his breasts. "However, Yurahs wants another shopping session before her departure tomorrow."
"Oh, I approve. Shopping will distract her. You can go this afternoon... I'll be busy all day with work, so thank you for taking care of it."
Just then, Yurahs arrived in the dining room for her breakfast. "Good morning, mother."
"Hello, darling. Where do you plan to go for this last minute shopping?"
"Maybe the tourist shops of the Katenary Islands." Yurahs was at the buffet, putting food on a plate. "They always have some new and exciting fashions."
Lo told Acyreff, "Yurahs intends to buy me a bra." Lo held one of his breasts in one hand and bounced it a bit.
Yurahs giggled. "I simply could not resist doing so after Lo admitted to me that he had the capacity to grow breasts. With Ra bouncing around all the time, I've learned that I like playing with breasts. Usually Heshlo is monopolizing Ra's breasts, so it is convenient for Lo to have a pair that I can play with."
Acyreff shook her head, but tried to sound tolerant. "I'm glad that there were no sexbots on Marune when I was growing up."
Yurahs laughed and sat in Lo's lap, placing her plate on the table. She appreciatively slid the tip of a finger across the curve of Lo's soft breast. "I wonder if my little breasts will ever grow this big?"
Acyreff advised, "Don't be in a hurry to grow up, my darling. While you are at dance camp this summer you'll be better off not having to lug around any extra fat."
Yurahs kicked up one of her long, lean legs. "My doctor says it is all my dancing and other exercise that prevent me from developing a regular ovarian cycle." She ran a hand across her own nearly flat chest. "Maybe I should skip the summer dance training program and go to Yerophet with Heshlo."
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| original cover art by Ed Emshwiller |
Yurahs giggled and kissed Lo. "You are a distraction." Yurahs gave a direct order to Lo: "Go away and let me eat." The robot stood up and placed Yuras back in the chair, then the machine quickly departed from the room. Yurahs ate a bite of apple and took a sip of water. "I keep gaining weight, but it all goes into more height and muscle. I'm almost as tall as father, now."
Acyreff reached out and stroked her daughter's lean, well-muscled arm. "You have a powerful body. I suppose I should not be surprised... you were born into a family of athletes."
Yurahs reflected on the little she had been told about her home world. She knew that the sport of hussade was very popular on Trullion. "My biological father plays hussade?"
"Yes, he did." Not wanting to say any more, Acyreff sprang out of her chair and went and served herself from the buffet.
Yurahs had never previously been told anything about her biological parents. "He is dead?" Acyreff nodded. "My mother also? That is why you adopted me?" Yurahs had never been told that she had died on Trullion.
Acyreff refused to say more. "I'm not going to tell you any more about your bioparents. I don't want you getting the idea that you can go to Trullion and find your family. Be happy with what you have here." She filled a mug with tea from a silver dispenser.
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| the sport of hussade |
"I am happy, mother. Very happy. I certainly have no problem thinking of you as my mother and Oman as my father, although I do have clear memories of both my biological parents and my brothers on Trullion." She added, "And I miss grandma and grandpa."
Acyreff returned to sit beside her daughter. "I'll be lonely here by myself with both you and Heshlo off on your summer adventures."
"Father will be with you most of the time." Yurahs tried to look at things from her mother's perspective. "This will be the first time that you have an empty nest."
"Yes, in past years at least one of you was always in residence here at the palace during the summers. Now I'll be here alone, although Voyt has arranged for a week of leave from the Whelm in the middle of summer." Acyreff contemplated her biological daughter and her intellectual pursuits. "Still, there is some man she keeps talking about going to visit, so she has not committed to being in Lusz during her leave."
Yurahs shook her head in wonder. Voyt was a prodigy, having obtained a university degree at age 13 and now she was working as a special agent in the Whelm, appointed to that position by the Connatic. Yurahs asked her mother, "When has Voyt ever had time for men?"
Heshlo now arrived in the dining room along with Ra. He waved to Yurahs and Acyreff and cheerfully called out, "Good morning, ladies!"
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| image source |
Heshlo told Ra, "I'll have the usual." The robot began filling a plate with Heshlo's favorite foods from the buffet. Heshlo sat down across the table from his mother.
Ra, her sensitive robotic hearing having overheard Acyreff's words, glanced up from the buffet and said, "It is nearly a year now since I have seen Triskelion. Maybe this summer I should return home for an upgrade and systems rebuild."
Heshlo told Ra, "Don't be silly. I'm going to need you keeping me chained to my desk while I'm on board the Netal." Ra set the plate of food in front of Heshlo and returned to the buffet to get his drink. "Besides, you function just fine." He was watching the robot's shapely bottom. "What needs to be upgraded? You are perfect."
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| Acyreff and Yurahs inspect Ra. |
Heshlo laughed. "Not possible. Josef will be watching me the whole time that I'm on Netal. Just think, under the eye of a telepathic machine!"
Yurahs was quite certain that both Ra and Lo had telepathic abilities, but Heshlo only had minimal, subconscious telepathic powers and could not really imagine what it would be like to have conscious telepathic information exchange with someone. Josef had been designed and built for the Connatic's program of monitoring the Phari telepathy network, but that artificial intelligence system was top secret. As the Connatic's family members, Heshlo and Yurahs were among the few outside of the Whelm who knew that Josef could intercept Phari telepathic signals. Yurahs gazed at Ra and almost asked what the robot knew about Josef, but then a different thought popped into her head and she said, "I think Lo can read my mind... he promptly gives me anal sex without me even having to ask." She told Heshlo, "I simply love having both of you inside me at the same time... that makes me feel so full and happy!"
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| Oxypathin |
However, Ra did not depart and simply sat down beside Heshlo. All the packing had been done and Heshlo's bags had already been sent up the space elevator.
Heshlo glanced across the table and saw that his mother was blushing and looking at Yurahs as if she intended to say something about her daughter's sexual behavior. Heshlo asked Acyreff, "Why did you provide us with Lo and Ra if you did not want us learning creative alternatives to vaginal sex?"
"When you put it that way, I really don't know what I was thinking." Acyreff sipped her tea. "Actually, now that I know how much you two love each other, I'm rather embarrassed to admit that I tried to keep you apart, even though you are two adults. Now, my hope is to allow Yurahs to grow up just a bit more before she makes me a grandmother."
Yurahs put an arm across her mother's shoulders, "I'm taller than you are, mom. How much more growing do I have to do?"
"Well, I was 22 before I got pregnant."
Heshlo asked, "Mom, are you ever going to tell us anything about your first born child?"
Acyreff shook her head and told her son, "That was another life, before I met your father. There is no need for you to know. Anyhow, I was on another planet and in a completely different society, so I suppose my experiences are only tangentially relevant to you and Yurahs."
Yurahs said, "Actually, mother, I'm in no real hurry to make babies. I could easily wait until I'm 22... no problem! I just like sharing orgasms with your son. The one that we had just a short time ago this morning felt like it lasted at least seven minutes!"
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| image source |
Ra reported, "Today it lasted eleven minutes and thirty seven seconds."
Startled, Acyreff blurted out, "Eleven minutes!" Rapidly turning her head and looking towards Yurahs, in her peripheral vision Acyreff now again noticed the swirling mist that often accompanied her ghark.
Heshlo whispered across the table to Yurahs, "That orgasm was spectacular, my love. I suppose we can be pleased if that is the last one we share before I depart for the summer."
Acyreff asked Ra, "Was this a unique event, or... ?"
Ra explained, "This past week, as their frequency of love making has increased, so has their capacity for falling into and staying in these linked orgasmic states." For a minute, Acyreff watched Heshlo and Yurahs as they ate and traded loving glances across the table.
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| the Phari |
Heshlo turned and kissed his mother's cheek. "Why not come up into orbit with us?"
"I can't possibly. I have a half dozen official appointments this morning and more later in the day." Briefly resting a hand on her son's arm, Acyreff told him, "Have fun aboard the Netal and say hello to Josef for me."
Acyreff then hugged and kissed Yurahs and asked her, "I'll see you for lunch?"
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| the love death |
After the others went off down the corridor, Acyreff turned back into the dining hall and began looking for her ghark.
Next: part 2 of "The Alastor Network"
Related Reading: the chemistry of sexual climax
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| visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers |
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| A cover was made using SciFi02 and Leah01 by Eclesi4stiK which are available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. For additional DeviantArt stock image credits, see this page. Special thanks to Mirish for stock images. |
The Alastor Network
2. The Hoo
10. QB5 Meets Josef
11. Rupert Gensifer
12. Space Lawyer
15. Lavany Clones
16. Triskelion
17. Royal Cross
19. Agent Joole
20. The New Josef
23. All About Yōd
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