The replication had taken place on Mars when samples of red crystals had turned into an amorphous form and contacted Redgrave's skin, then his bloodstream. The replicant was highly intelligent and explained his origin as being an instrument of the Progenitors, who or which resided in dark matter. Apparently their raison d'etre was to maintain balance in the Cosmos with particular emphasis on the forces of dark energy. This contest between gravitational and expansion forces was crucial to the survival of everything. The Progenitors had seeded the Cosmos with many such life forms which could potentially assist their objective. The red crystal which replicated Redgrave was one such example - it was known as the Continuance. Others were the Interference, the Amalgamation, the Elimination and the Subtraction.
Being primarily inorganic and composed of data cells as opposed to biological cells, Alex 2 had no need for most of the organic processes of humans. His data processing and retrieval were incredibly advanced and he had made it clear to the human race on his arrival with the Copernicus crew that the way of the Progenitors was not to be proactive in assisting species develop their potential. Encouragement of promise was the guiding principle. The view was also extremely long term - for example the period on Earth from single cell life to the present was considered insignificant. He needed no respiratory function, could withstand radiation, could regenerate damaged cells quickly and did not require glycogen powered musclature. He could withstand wide extremes of temperature as long as there was changing data interaction, so he was perfectly suited to the rigours of space travel. This also made him a source of interest to less scrupulous humans with their particular agenda.

Alex 2 had suggested humanity would not survive the nova of the Sun if their physiology remained one of haphazard biological mutation controlled by the environment. He described the the need for a Darwinian Extension - a conscious adaptation of the species. He also said the accidental replication on Mars was typical of the Progenitors approach insofar as it required certain promise from a species in order for the discovery and implications to be realised. The Continuance had interacted with many species already throughout the Cosmos, some more promising than humanity.

A concurrent development with these events had been the attempts of the United States of Arabia, via Iranian sponsorship, to discredit the Confederation's motives in their relative emphasis on conservation and colonisation programmes. The USAr maintained that the underlying objective of the Confederation was to maintain the powerbase in the big four - namely China, India, Russia and the USA. However, various acts of sabotage to discredit and slow down the Mars project had been perpetrated by the USAr. These acts were to cause loss of confidence rather than loss of life and Redgrave had been their presence on the mission. He had been instructed to eventually commit suicide on Mars to destabilise the programme. This he did after being identified as the saboteur. Earth investigations had, with the help of Alex 2, uncovered a sub agenda of the USAr to delay the benefits of the colonisation drive until they had joined the big players, with the attendant benefits.

Alex 2 had revealed this duplicitous, divisive blindsiding of the species. It was not a surprise but, when delivered with the impact of a non human who was totally neutral, it became the first step to a change of political system and a departure from consumer driven trends. The seeds of a meritocracy were sown. This development was accompanied by Alex 2 declaring that he would readily submit to reversion to his crystalline (harmless) form if that was the wish of the species. He said he would then be 'in hibernation' until new promise emerged either from humans or another species. He concluded with a phrase that would become all too familiar - 'it is really up to you to decide'.

As part of the formation of the new order, the Council fo Human Exploration was formed and the Chief Executive was Roberto Xiang, former Mission Controller of the Copernicus and Darwin Mars programmes.

Alex 2 was nominated Honorary Leader because of his knowledge and his life expectancy of billions of years. This continuity was important.

In the time since this 'silent revolution' the difference between ideology and practicality had manifestly provided challenges to the new order and particularly to Alex 2. His perspective of having been on Mars for billions of years was difficult to bridge with human concerns about tomorrow. Sweeping away the corrupt is sometimes easier than reconstructing the trust.

Conservation was being addressed bur proving cumbersome. The prospect of replacing 'Humanity' with inorganic efficiency sounded logical when considering how we escape our solar system but is not without fear in the near term. The replicant technology, although admirable, did not require or offer procreation in its ultimate aim or form, and this was creating mass protest from many quarters, not just religious leaders. There was evidence of organised crime investment in searching for these red crystals which were apparently seeded on Earth as well as Mars.

To offset these thorny issues somewhat, the technical progress on antimatter propulsion, medical breakthrough in curbing rejection of medical implants, and the merging of science disciplines of chemistry, physics, mathematics and biology by Alex 2 in a new view of the Cosmos, were impressive.

Aquamarine crystals had been prised from West Candor Chasm on Mars at the same time as the red replicant ones - which had been dubbed Scarlet O'Hara. Samples had been retained on Mars, the rest were inBeijing.
The entire Beijing inventory of Martian samples had been quarantined for some considerable time after the inception of the new order on Earth. However, before the resumption of their evaluation on Earth the remaining replicants on Mars had not been so idle...........

                                                                                                              Completion

Stella, his life companion, continually kept his spirits up by reminding him that their 'children' would all be well into their forties by the time they arrived and they had only known life aboard Phoenix.
When they were young they pleaded with him every night to recount stories of life on Earth and Mars. Although there was video footage and hundreds of movies to enjoy, they never seemed to infuse the wonder of Daniel's tales. He admitted that he liked to recount them again. He was considered by both the Axis and Symbiant species as the father figure of that part of the Human race which had transformed Mars. Testament to this affection was the lakeside virtual reality station aboard Phoenix. The Axis had constructed a living version of the inscribed obelisk which was Carvalho's parting gift to the Martian colony. It was the most popular programme on the VRS, and kept every passenger's mind on why they had undertaken this pilgrimage. The portrayal of the spirit and factual events mentioned in the inscription were delivered in the context of a play, authored by the younger of his two sons, Rafael. The final scene was a scrolling replica of the actual edifice, which they hoped had inspired the Martians to avoid past mistakes. The scroll was in both Human and Axis language. The great appeal seemed to be the ever present danger, from those first moments of Copernicus countdown to Mars orbit insertion, all the way to Phoenix leaving orbit decades later. They had not perceived any danger as the Quantum Spatial Distortion craft had pulled the galactic content toward them. All three species were relishing the prospect of uncertainty again.

 The Martian history had chronicled some unlikely if not preposterous timelines. The Symbiants were individual members of the Continuance. Over four billion years ago the Cosmos had been seeded with red crystal by Progenitors. These elusive entities apparently designed the crystal to emerge to an amorphous form whenever temperature and data sources were conducive to this metabolic transformation.
The Symbiants' knowledge of their masters was sketchy. They were aware of other agents of this gravitational alliance, and the struggle to rein in uncontrolled forces of expansion to ensure the contest was never actually decided, as that would be the worst possible outcome.
The timeline indicated that they had fleeting interaction with microbes and simple plant species on early Mars over four billion years back. The molten core dynamo was small and therefore did not generate adequate magnetic protection from solar wind;    this had gradually seen the atmosphere disappear and the active amorphous form had responded to the plummeting temperature and data desert by re-crystallising, and 'hibernating' until Humans decided to colonise the plane in 2033.

Three million years before Humans landed on Mars, another species had colonised the planet, but strangely had not encountered the Continuance there. The Axis had been forced to leave 55 Cancri because their home planet Nexus was being dragged into oblivion by neighbouring gas giants with unstable orbits. They had created a wormhole and as their four spacecraft had entered, they witnessed a consequent and colossal release of negative energy. The threatened fate of assimilation by gas giants was overtaken by an extinction event of their own making.

The four ships were confronted with multiple choice exits and decided to separate. Epsilon Eridani, Gliese and Sol produced survival exits, but the fourth ship was destroyed in an unstable domain.

The discovery of Quantum Spatial Distortion (QSD) propulsion as a safe means of interstellar travel was made by all three Martian species some thirty years after the first Human landfall on the red planet. A combination of factors led to a desire to return to 55 Cancri. The Axis had never found real purpose after the accidental genocide of millions of their brethren left on Nexus. The species had also suffered mass infertility prior to the cataclysm and could not procreate. Immortality by scientific application was remarkable but did not replace the loss of 'belonging'.

As Phoenix had engaged QSD on leaving Mars the individual Symbiants had received two discrete data transmissions. The first was a re-configuration of registry and the second implanted data of the Nexus cataclysm. They had figured out from circumstantial evidence, provided via the Axis archive on Mars, that there had been interaction between the species on Nexus. Now they had terabytes of detail. They had decided not to share this until they reached Nexus, because of a discovery by the Gliese based Axis. Their two kilometre ring of advanced telescopes had now shown Nexus to be in a stable orbital relationship with the gas giants, more importantly, radio wave sources emanated from the planet. The Symbiants did not want to offer more false hope.

With two years to go at just under light speed, a third transmission was received. The stabilising influence for 55 Cancri was not accidental. A brown dwarf had become a companion star with the secondary sun in what was once a binary system. This celestial harmony was filed under 'The Interference'.

It was the first time that the solar system branch of the Continuance had ever been connected in this way. They had always 'known' of other agents but didn't know exactly how they knew. The message also carried a warning that under no circumstances must the brown dwarf be approached. It was delivered as a message to which there was no reply or further inquiry option.

As leader of the Symbiants, Alex 2 consulted his kin about what this could mean for the mission, and particularly the Axis. The first two transmissions, forty years ago had afforded the privilege of merely confirming what was already theorised. This had other possible implications for the return of all Axis clans, not just the Martian branch. Alex 2 saw no merit in deflating their new found energy to restore Nexus, yet he could not assign much weight to the Progenitors employing the Interference, in the form of a brown dwarf, simply to correct a wormhole mishap of three million years ago. He deduced that there must have been some unfavourable chain reaction prognosis between then and now to invoke such action, particularly as it was accompanied by a warning.........

                                                                                                              **************

                                                   Monday November 5^th 2018

Jack Renton checked his watch and reflected on the absurdity of the situation. The smell of fireworks was still in the air. He was looking at potential fireworks of a different kind. The Angel of the North was once a revered iconic landmark, a welcome to the world from the Northeast of England. It was no longer a safe location, even in daylight. Today, at 5.47am, it was unusually crowded, particularly with police vehicles and personnel. Renton was never at his best in the early hours, but this incident had already ascended to the top of his Monday morning workload, and would likely remain there for many Mondays to come. His resigned demeanour wasn’t directly linked to the process of identification of the body. Everyone knew Alistair Banks, a wealthy industrialist who had continually sought confrontation with the purveyors of institutional red-tape. He was seen by the populace as a vigilante for the cause of the individual, whereas the establishment was openly hostile toward him, and would not be disappointed to see his empire crumble. As Renton waited impatiently for the Medical Examiner, he was already pretty sure the location of the body had been carefully selected, and that the killing had taken place elsewhere. The Angel would answer the prayers of the killer, ensuring that discovery would be quick and act as some kind of announcement.

In the years immediately after the break-up of the Eurozone and its single currency in 2015, events had gathered pace. As Britain pushed for the repatriation of more powers, the government drastically underestimated the antagonism toward their new genetic mapping system, which became the detonator for massive civil unrest. The European Union harnessed the public protest, and threatened expulsion of the United Kingdom, unless all intent to implement the database, and its potentially manipulative social engineering capability, was abandoned. 2016 ended without resolution of the issue. The threat of expulsion had been considered by the Britishgovernment to be no different to the years of bankrupt dogma which characterised the Brussels administration. The shock which reverberated throughout the world, when the axe fell, brought the word ‘abandoned’ into sharp focus. The British Prime Minister was forced to declare that the offending implementation had indeed been abandoned, albeit after the deadline. This was dissected by the media and re-spun as having achieved the government desire to actually force the expulsion. The soap opera split public opinion so radically that riots became commonplace. By 2018 the landscape in the United Kingdom had altered beyond recognition, thus providing scope for the Genetic Profile Directory to disappear.

The incident scene continued to attract officials, journalists, and members of the public. The hastily erected exclusion zone was not going to work, and Jack Renton conceded to calling for assistance from headquarters in Durham. With the top brass still in slumber he had to convince the duty officer of his identity by asking him to call his boss. “You will regret your ‘rule book’ attitude if the media decide to crucify the force because your tardiness results in compromise of the crime scene. I have sent you a message to confirm you were alerted at 6.23. Check it for yourself Thompson, but for Christ’s sake get back-up out here now.” He turned to Ben Adams, his detective sergeant, and discharged a tirade of profanities in the general direction of the Three Rivers Force. Adams had heard it all before and drew Renton’s attention to a young uniformed officer who had cordoned off a section of the site behind the towering sculpture. The lightest of snow coverings had made it easy to see the tyre tracks in the half-light. All of the other fresh marks were to the front and side of the Angel, and were accounted for by the vehicles currently assembled. It was important to get photographic records of these tracks before the approaching sunrise melted them. Renton glanced in the direction of approach the vehicle should have taken, but there was no evidence of any further tread marks. He told Adams to surround the immediate area with the police cars, until back-up arrived. “This is important. What is your name son?” The young officer replied, “Harrison Sir.” Renton tapped his temple with his forefinger and whispered, “Good work, now keep everyone away from here until I tell you otherwise.”

As D.C.I. Renton raged about the Medical Examiner’s non-appearance, he gazed skyward and contemplated the silhouette of the rear of the iconic yet foreboding creation – an angel whose guardian wings were disproportionately elegant, and strangely complimented the subtlety of the accumulated rust. He recalled the unveiling all those years ago, when many questioned the concept of not painting the gigantic steel structure. He could not visualise the new hierarchy of law enforcement, imposed after the EU exit, enjoying the same growth of respect in the future. Centralisation of policy had been deemed necessary after the failure to quell organised rioting. This was reflected in the major regions of the UK, and the distillate in the northeast was that Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria forces were steamrollered into one unit, which was tagged as ‘Three Rivers’ – Tees, Tyne and Wear. Concessions to local decision-making saw a division in city and rural autonomy. He had no doubts that dual standards would be the legacy of such ill-considered policy. The slow homogenous growth of the rusty dermis of the Angel seemed to grate with the dichotomous policing structure in which he was now marooned. He snapped out of his self-indulgence with a shake of the head as the Medical Examiner arrived. “Glad you could make it; did you find a suitable place to park your bicycle?” Gregory Watson had grown resistant to the abrasive nature of Renton, and did not rise to the bait, merely replying by answering all of the usual questions with one statement, “All will be revealed as it becomes known Jack, why the two tents?” Renton pointed to the nearest and said, “That one has the body and is for both you and forensics. The other is covering simple tyre tracks and is only for forensics. We don’t want you to muddy the water any more than you have to.” Watson had already been informed of the deceased’s identity and was unusually apprehensive. They were both members of Concord golf club, and had sometimes played for the team in competitive matches.