"Hey hey hey, look who's back."

Jupiter held up a camera in front of the surprised CBers. "Say cheese." Before anyone could say anything, she pressed down the shutter, then stared at the display. "Not bad. You're a boring lot, but not bad.

"In case you were curious, photography is my new hobby. And my first project is called 'MillyWay Murders,' because every time someone dies, I take a picture of everyone that's left!" Jupiter flashed them a big grin. "But that's not why I'm here. I thought I'd just make this fun.

"Apparently, Galaxy is very busy this week. Something about mechanics? Robotics? I don't know. Something that shouldn't take up this much time, anyway. She says she is unable to continue with anything - like what, napping in your office while I do all the work? - for the rest of the week. Take that as you will.

"Oh, also, she says you can keep guessing who we are." With a cackle, Jupiter gripped an edge of fabric, yanking off her mask to reveal . . . an identical face underneath it. "Gotcha there, didn't I? Old joke? No? Moving on. THERE IS A TWIST! We will not reveal our true identities . . . unless you guess ALL THREE OF US correctly! Ooh, this will be fun."

Jupiter laughed and snapped another photo. "Enjoy your guessing games! I'll be around to deliver your results. I'm glad I have such a stack of rejection letters just ready for use . . . !"

As soon as I return from my unexpected employee training, I discover that Jupiter has zoomed off for spa treatment in some far-flung galaxy called Soomer Caemp! Sheesh, why does she need ten different nail treatments anyway? Nevertheless, I have returned. However, I caught a particularily nasty bout of Eatingchocolateandreadingthreebooksinquicksuccessioninsteadofwriting Sickness. Hopefully when I finish my last book, I will finally be inspired to write. If I can't finish the next part before my follow-up employee training next week, I am very sorry. Also, it seems some curious individuals have persisted with their campaign to guess our identities. Sorry, but I don't think I'll be donating anything this time. You all must have mistaken us for other people. 

P.S. CAPTCHA says "kkzf". Not sure what that means... 

Hey Soren, is it ok if I make Levana more CAPTCHA-like? The only other CAPTCHAs are Viri and Grynne, who isn't really a CAPTCHA. It's OK to say no!

Day 4, Part 2

~~~

Aspen and Ashlee, summoned by the large crashing noises, gasped along
with Quill when they saw the flying book. It flapped in a circle around
their heads before shooting off towards the window. Startled back into
action, the trio gave chase. The book was knocking against the glass as
if it wanted to fly out into space. Since it was distracted, Aspen
managed to leap up and catch it. As soon as she touched it, it stopped
moving. The library's sudden silence felt eerie, and the three friends
pressed closer together as they examined the strange book. It was
heavier than most books, with a completely beige cover. Quill squinted
at the tiny letters that spelled out the title and read them out loud.
"The Age of Beige/Beiges through the Ages/ Pages of Beiges/ Pages of the
Ages of Beiges." "Well that sounds incredibly boring," Ashlee remarked.
She wasn't joking. It was the dullest looking book the trio had ever
seen. But what they had seen it do was not dull at all. And so they
opened it.

***

Leafpool gazed in awe at the walls and ceiling of her dorm room. They
were now displaying a 3D image of a nebula to match the name of the dorm
room. Enraptured by the pulses of other-worldly light, Leafpool lay on
the ground and stared and stared. She couldn't get over how beautiful it
was! To think that all this time, with the two murders happening, there
was such a thing of beauty in this excuse for a vacation. Leafpool
began to fall into a kind of trance. She was hardly aware of anything
surrounding her. Not even the distinct click as the air vent turned off.
The poisonous gas was released from it's holding tank deep in the
bowels of the Space Station. It rushed through the pipes, not caring
where it was going, but following its need to strike. And strike it did.

***

The detectives screamed as the Star Trek holograph suddenly disappeared,
leaving them in a completely blank white room. They quickly stopped,
for they were in no danger. "What, umm… Happened?" Vyolette asked,
confused. "Maybe the AEs are playing a prank on us?" Soren suggested.
"Well it sure is a stupid prank," scoffed Agent Winter, "I could do WAY
better!" Starseeker agreed and headed to the control box to re-set the
Star Trek hologram. There was a string of muttered curses, then she came
back frowning, "It won't work!" Vyolette's eyes widened. "You mean
we're stuck here?" "Let me try," Abigail got up and pushed past
Starseeker. She too couldn't get the controls to work. Each Cber tried a
hand at the controls, but none of them could get it to work. Without
them, they couldn't end the blank white room hologram. They were well
and truly stuck.

***

The book was full of strange symbols that swirled across the pages in spiral patterns. And they were disappearing. Quickly. Ashlee, Quill, and Aspen pulled out their notebooks and frantically began to jot down as many symbols as they could. All too soon, though, it's pages were empty. Ashlee flipped through it once more to make sure, then closed it. But Quill stopped her. She had noticed something. "Look! The back cover is way thicker than the front one!" "Hey you're right!" said Ashlee, "You think there's a secret compartment?" Quill shrugged and Aspen tapped on the thick cardboard. "Sounds hollow," she proclaimed. They began to search for a way to open up the compartment. Quill saw it first. It was a small slit in the side of the binding. She dug in her fingernail and pulled up. The top of the cover came off easily. They could see the remnants of old glue that had held it down. But that wasn't what they were interested in. The inside of the secret compartment was divided up into seven different sections, each one the distinct shape of a key. Only one compartment was full. "Wow!" Ashlee exclaimed. She reached in and pulled out a large dull grey key. She passed it to Quill, who, technically, had found it. She turned it over in her hands and noticed a tiny scratch near the top. She held it up to the light and squinted at it, but as far as she could tell, it was just a scratch.

***

Galaxy sat in Jupiter's office, drowsily watching the monitors. This was usually Jupiter's job, except she was off on some spa planet. Now she understood why Jupiter complained so much. Nothing happened. Wait, I take that back, Galaxy thought as an alert icon popped up on the screen. Her eyes widened as she read it aloud: "Poisonous Gas Tank breached!" She leaped out of her chair and scrambled to the storage room where she promptly bumped into Blacky. "Watcha doin?" he asked. "The poisonous gas tank was breached! It could be anywhere on the space station!" "Wow! At last something happened!" Galaxy just rolled her eyes and shoved a box of gas masks into his arms. "What are these for?" "The Cbers!" "Why? They're all gonna die in the end." "Well yeah, but they're not supposed to die this way. All at once, I mean." By this time they had reached the Space Arcade, which was where all the Aes and CAPTCHAs were having a game tournament. The situation was explained, the gas masks distributed, and then Galaxy and Blacky finally put on their own masks. Everyone was given a spare mask and sent off to find the rest of the Cbers.