The distant ones return
Grappel never doubted he was destined for greatness, and now sent on his first solo mission he knew his time had come. 'Magellen 6, Magellen 6  come in please". He'd never ventured this far from his home world and in the dark silence of infinite space; all he could hear was his breathing and pulse thumping in his helmet. He tried to focus on his mission, Grappel reminded himself of the long line of distinguished military officers he came from. During the dark days war his father had been awarded the posthumous iron star for ramming a Kardashian battle cruiser, destroying it and his own ship but evacuating most of his crew to safety .The Magellen Class scout ship he flew was like his second skin, he could do things with the old hunk that the other cadets had marvelled at, he had been the obvious choice for this mission. The out lying planets had not transmitted for several cycles and he was to find out why and report back. It was probably nothing, just solar storm interference, it had happened plenty of times in the past.  The vast distances between the planets of the Unity made reliable communication problematic to say the least. .  ''Magellen 6,Magellen 6 come in please''. Grappel didn't hear the message, he had become transfixed on what filled his main screen. It was beyond comprehension, he had never seen anything like it. The ship or whatever it was dwarfed his vessel. It sparkled with such a brightness he squinted and raised his hand to his eyes to see it. The skin, yes it looked like skin shimmered in a myriad of colours. As he stared in amazement The Cleanser  began to open like a huge metallic lotus flower." Magellen 6, Magellen 6 are you receiving" Grappel suddenly realised he was being hailed. "This is Magellen 6" he said, as if in a dream. "Do you have contact" said the communications officer. "Yes sir, it's beautiful, soooo beautiful".
Then there was light...... 

www.arado.us

arado's first album Spooky Action at a Distance was shortlisted for 4 grammy nominations in the US
 
Taavi Torim   created the Visual Universe for arado. His animations have been shown at NASA (Houston) , the History Channel  
"Ancient Aliens" ,"The Universe" and voted best animator on iStock.

Live Drummer Dax Arado
Live Keyboards Crix Rayner (CRIX IIIX)live video compiler


DIOL is following