In the time since the galactic guardian known as "The Hunter" (REF:MISSION:039) imparted his knowledge and conversation of the Solar Priesthood to the select crew of Spaceship Graveyard, it has been incumbent upon them to establish a seminary institution capable of initiating new brethren into the order of the Solar Priest. This would have been the responsibility of the guardian himself had he not succumbed to the infection of the darkness, but it was his last act to pass this responsibility on to the SG crew, whether they were prepared for it or not. To be blunt, none of them were truly prepared for the efforts that would be required to take up this mantle. The establishment of a new school of occult knowledge is no minor task and the utmost care must be taken to ensure that sacred teachings do not become corrupted by ignorance or misinterpretation.

Reverend Funk had taken on the task of researching and designing a curriculum for initiation and advancement within the order. Ugo Fist and Major Rim were available to assist in terms of providing assessment and critical analysis, but the bulk of the effort fell to Funk to try to work out all the steps that would be necessary to produce the kind of "warrior priest" that the order would need to defend the galaxy from certain destructive forces. Before the order could begin to cast its net out to the wider community of potential candidates, it would be necessary to test the new curriculum on someone within the SG crew. Someone who showed the appropriate disposition would need to be selected and trained by Funk to become a teacher within the inner circle of the order. After much consideration, Xocnah came to the fore as the most promising candidate and arrangements were made to begin the regimen prescribed by the teachings of the guardian.

Xocnah was very familiar with the recent history of the order due to his work on analyzing the log entries from the mission where the guardian was encountered. The other crew had done their best to transcribe as much of the information they had been entrusted with as possible. During their encounter, the guardian had initiated a psychic link with Funk, Ugo and Rim whereby all that was known of the order was transferred to their consciousness. But the amount of data involved was so vast that there were inevitable gaps in the transcriptions. Filling in those gaps would require using certain regression therapy techniques involving hypnosis, drugs and sensory stimulation.

With the completion of the transcription library and the training curriculum, Reverend Funk was ready to begin the training regimen with Xocnah. Ugo and Rim had worked to prepare a temple in the SG headquarters where the training could take place. Funk invited Xocnah to a preliminary meeting to discuss what would be required and what would take place. They convened in Funk's office.

Funk began the discussion. "Xocnah, this is not going to be easy and it may, in fact, be dangerous. I've done my best to assimilate the knowledge of the Solar Lodge and have done everything in my power to ensure that these techniques will be effective and safe. But the truth is that they are untested as far as we are concerned. we have no prior experience with any of this and we have no way to know what the effects may be long term. This process is going to involve making real, physical changes to your brain functions which will include developing psychic and telekinetic abilities. Making these changes will involve the use of not just meditation and physical training, but also certain chemical enhancers and the implantation of biotech devices. Myself, Rim and Ugo have all undergone these changes at the hands of the guardian before he died and his abilities allowed him to transform us nearly instantaneously, but you won't have that luxury. We don't have the ability to do what he did, but we can get you to where you need to be over the course of the training regimen I've designed. I've managed to structure your training into a 48 day schedule which will bring you through each phase until you have been given the full knowledge of the order. After this, you will be able to help train more priests for the order so that we can begin to send them out into the galaxy to train others. You've read through my outline of the program, so you have all the basics. Do you have any questions?"

Xocnah looked down and thought for a few moments. "I think I understand as much as I can at this point. The one question I have is how will you know if this has been successful? I see the program detailed in your documentation, but I don't see where you can be sure that it's all worked."

Funk nodded and smiled for a few seconds and then reached into his pocket. He pulled out a single kernel of popping corn and set it on the top of his desk. He then looked at it, focusing his gaze with singular intent. After a few moments, the kernel began to vibrate slightly and Xocnah could see subtle heat waves begin to surround it. Then, with no contact from any other source, the kernel popped, seemingly all by itself.

Funk looked up at Xocnah. "When you can do that, you'll be ready. Your training will begin tomorrow."

Xocnah arrived at the Solar Temple about an hour before the first light began to creep across the eastern horizon. The rituals had prescribed that the bulk of the training exercises be conducted during the dawn hours with a break in the afternoon and then resuming in the dusk hours. Something about the refraction of the light at those times of day made the meditations more effective according to the preliminary tests conducted by Funk. When Xocnah arrived in the antechamber, he was greeted by Ugo and Rim who were both wearing long, hooded robes with the hoods pulled over their faces so that they were obscured. They said nothing and only escorted Xocnah into the main ritual chamber. Once inside, Ugo and Rim took seats behind podiums positioned to the north and south of the chamber. The entrance was on the eastern side and Reverend Funk stood in formal dress attire on the western side of the circular room where he was flanked by two large pillars with a setting sun glyph behind him. In the centre of the room stood a narrow pedestal rising about chest high. Surrounding this on the floor was a 9 pointed star pattern. On the pedestal was a single kernel of corn.

Funk spoke. "As the kernel bursts with the energy of the heat, so shall we expand your mind and being beyond the shell that now constrains it. Popping your own corn is the sign that you have burst through the shell and are ready to begin your new life as a brother in the Solar Priesthood. Do you now pledge to walk the path from the dawn to the dusk? Will you stand as the eclipse between the light and the dark?"

"I will." Responded Xocnah.

"So let it begin." Funk continued. "The first step is taken."

Slowly, a large transparent cylinder descended from the ceiling and surrounded Xocnah. Within the cylinder, a metallic skull cap also descended and came to rest on the top of his head. From the top of the cap, 6 thin steel rods extended like spider legs and positioned their points around his head about brow level. They pushed in just enough to penetrate their sharp points into his skin a few millimetres. Xocnah felt a sharp pain and then a burst of light surrounded him. When the light faded, he was no longer in the chamber. He was in a vast desert, barren and empty of all life. There was only the light of the sun in the sky burning him as he stood there exposed.

"This is where we begin." A voice from nowhere intoned. It was Funk's voice, but it sounded strange, alien and synthetic all at once. "This is tabula rasa. All that has gone before is no more. All that is yet to come is unknown. In this perfect place we begin to recreate you. This is where we discard the shell and expand to the horizon. For the sun rises and sets at that line, but it does not end there. Walk now and follow the path that only you can see."

Xocnah looked around and saw no path, no feature, no differentiation in the landscape around him. The sun was directly overhead, so not even his shadow could offer any sense of direction. The heat was intense. It grew hotter with each moment he remained in that spot. He knew instinctively that the only relief would come when he started walking, but which way? In desperation, he closed his eyes and started to spin around. He kept spinning slowly until he felt an urge to stop. He opened his eyes and took a step forward.

With no warning, as soon as he started to walk, the environment around him completely changed. He was now in a dense swamp and he could see things moving in the water. They were serpentine and slithered between the ferns and vines. Xocnah felt an immediate chill run down his spine as his fears gathered within him. These things were all around him. Slowly, something began to rise up out of the water, a reptilian headed thing with glowing eyes and a razor tooth lined mouth dripping thick venom. First one rose up, then another and another and another, all around him they rose up and looked ready to strike.

He could hear Funk's voice again. "These are your demons. Face them. See them for what they are. See that they have haunted you for your whole life and now you can no longer avoid them. What are they? What are they made of? What damage can they do?"

They came closer to Xocnah, so close that he could smell the brine of their breath and the acidic vinegar of their venom. He wanted to run. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't. He knew that these things, no matter how foul, were only a vision. He knew that they were just an illusion. Within his mind he raced through all the days he'd lived and all the fears he'd ever had and watched them all dissolve and vanish. Every doubt and every question he'd ever stumbled upon seemed insignificant and impotent now. As this realization became firmly entrenched in his thoughts, the serpents melted away, dissolving in the water that surrounded him.

Just as the scene began to change again, there was a sudden flash of light and static and, with a snap, he was back in the ritual chamber. He looked ahead and could see Reverend Funk on the floor, collapsed and being attended to by Rim and Ugo. The probes retracted from his head and the cylinder raised up to the ceiling.

"What happened to Funk?" He asked.

Rim replied. "We're not sure. He was connected to you while you were in the psychosphere projection and I think the chemical balance was off. This is something we were worried about, but Funk ensured us that he could handle it."

Funk was visibly shaken, but he slowly began to recover and regain his composure. "I'm really sorry about that. We've managed to get half way through the program at least and we will be able to resume shortly. I just need to get myself together."

"Half way through?" Xocnah questioned with some surprise. I thought you said this would take 48 days?"

"It will." Said Funk. "We've been in the psychosphere for 24 days so far. Time in there isn't the same as it is here. When we were initiated by the guardian, it was done in a matter of minutes in real time, but we haven't been able to replicate that yet. It's much slower in real time for us, but the experience still seems to happen very quickly in the psychosphere domain. While we are in there, Rim and Ugo maintain vigilance and meditations to help sustain the correct environment. They must function in real time while we are in the psychosphere."

After some time, Funk felt strong enough to continue so they took their previous positions and re-entered the psychosphere. Once the probes had contacted and connected to Xocnah, he found himself floating in a vast, open sky. All around him were stars that seemed to move ever so slightly. As they began to drift about faster, they started to form geometric shapes. Then more patterns emerged - words, numbers, equations, formulas, long historical texts. He could see layer after layer of images as well - glyphs and symbols, images of whole worlds and galaxies.

Funk's voice echoed through the air. "This is the knowledge of the brotherhood. This is the history of the sons of the sun. This is the wisdom of the guardians of the galaxies. This is our weapon against the void. This is the blade of truth slicing through the shadows of illusion. Hold this in your mind. Hold this blade always at your side and use it with abandon. It can never be over used. It can never wear out. It can never break and it will never dull with the passing of time."

Around Xocnah the images and symbols swirled until they became a blur. Faster and faster they swooped around until they formed like a tornado around him, closing in tighter and tighter. As they did, Xocnah could feel himself being squeezed and restrained. He felt like the air was becoming solid. Soon it was dark and he felt like he was completely encased in stone. He tried to move, but there was not even a millimetre of free space. He could feel himself being slowly crushed.

"Matter is your cage." Said the voice of Reverend Funk. "You are trapped and you can never move so long as you are held in place by your attachment to matter. You are more than this. Your physical self is no more than the container of your essence. As the sun rises and sets at the horizon, it is not limited by that line. You too are not limited by the delineations of matter. They are merely a convenience of expression. They are there for a time and then gone. There is something else that is more than this shell. Feel your essence inside your shell. Feel it grow."

Xocnah closed his eyes and focused his mind deep within. This is where he found the sun, shining and bright. He saw himself moving deeper into his solar self. He saw the glowing orb grow larger and larger. As it grew, he could hear the stone around him cracking and crumbling. The sound became louder and louder until it was a constant rumble and then, with a massive crack, the stone shell flew off into the distance and he found himself again in open space. This time it was pure and clear. There was only a warm glow which seemed to come from within himself. There was an enormous feeling of expansiveness, like there were no limits to his being. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and, when he opened his eyes again, he found himself back in the temple chamber.

The transparent cylinder rose up and the head probes retracted. He looked across at Reverend Funk and then at Ugo and Rim who were standing on each side of him. In front there still stood the pedestal with the kernel of corn.

"You know what to do." Said Funk.

Xocnah looked at the kernel and focused his gaze. He imagined the solar orb within himself and saw it glow. He willed it to expand and intensify. Within a few moments, the kernel started to vibrate. Soon, visible waves of heat could be seen surrounding it and, within a few second, the kernel popped into a brilliantly white, fluffy piece of popcorn. Funk, Rim and Ugo looked at each other, nodding and smiling.

"He pops his own corn." Said Funk. With that, Ugo approached Xocnah holding the rob of initiation. He placed it on Xocnah and, with Major Rim and Funk following behind, escorted Xocnah back through the antechamber and out of the Temple. Aside from one minor hiccup, the process had worked and the order could now begin to recruit in earnest and none too soon. The signs of darkness were gathering on the horizon and, with the light at their backs, the Solar Priests would need to face this darkness if anything in this galaxy were going to survive.