 
Astro Saga

The Celestial Secrets

The First Secret

by

Robert Smithbury

To Benjamin (now Ben), the first.

Published by Oblique Media Group Ltd. https:\\\www.oblique.media

at Smashwords

Copyright 2018 by Robert Smithbury.

Third edition 2018,

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Contents

Map

Prologue: The Satellite of Silence

1: The Keeper of Secrets

2: The Eye in the Sky

3: Hearing things?

4: On the edge...

5: Where on Earth am I?

6: Kiki

7: Secret Empires

8: No word from Earth

9: Battle in Space

10: Captured!

11: The Rescue

12: Getting down to Kingsley Downs

13: Finally finding the First Secret

14: Full, foul-tasting fear of failure

15: Crash!

16: The Transportomatic

Living in an asteroid

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The Second Secret

Map

Asteroids in earth's orbital path

Prologue: The Satellite of Silence

The History of the Quest for the Celestial Secrets is shrouded in mystery. What we do know is that the Quest occurred at a time when the fate of humanity hung in the balance, when the heroic actions of a few, saved the future for us all.

It's a tale that involves dragons, dinosaurs, two evil empires, His Imperial Majesty's armed forces, clones, pirates, aliens, dazzling technological weaponry, more secrets than you can carry in one hand and a handful of children just trying to find a way to survive. Most of all, though, this is the story of a boy who starts out looking for his parents and finds much, much more.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. You'll find all of this in the stories ahead, some in this book and others in the books to come. So, where did it all begin?

Some would say that it began thousands of years ago when two powerful empires, the Aztex and Carthaginians, decided to disappear from the pages of history rather than face final defeat. They both apparently vanished, in reality, nourishing and nurturing their power, hiding and preparing for when the time was right for them to re-appear. That time might be now and therefore our adventure is ready to start, right away, on the very next page.

~o0o~

Where?

Here...

... hidden between the stars in a place that's never been mapped. Those that have seen it never speak about it and those who do speak about it are probably lying.

Concealed here, aboard the aptly named Satellite of Silence, are the Seven Celestial Secrets. They're powerful secrets, which keep humanity alive and safe from harm. But, if they fall into the wrong hands, they could destroy all life as we know it.

There's no record of what the Satellite of Silence looks like. You'll just have to use your imagination to fill in any gaps as all plans have been destroyed in a futile attempt to make it hard to find. Unfortunately, it's an extremely cunning ruse that appears to have failed.

A small spaceship, the Eos, slides into view, its inhabitants lost and its navigation systems helpless. Onboard klaxons burst into light, shocking Torr, one of its passengers, from his childhood revere.

"What's going on?" he asked, stumbling into the control room, dazed and confused before slumping his average sized frame into one of the chairs.

"I think we're lost," shouted Uncle Otto, frantically punching buttons and pulling at switches.

The Eos wasn't responding as she should and he was beginning to worry. She might only be a small spaceship but she was all his and completely paid for. Her design, like a swan, stretched out in full flight, had seemed like a good idea at the time. After the first hundred, million miles though, the soft curves had dropped out of fashion and her engines would benefit from a complete re-fit.

Come to that, Otto felt that he would also benefit from a complete re-fit. Middle age, zero gravity and an aversion to exercise had cost him his waistline. Poor genetic stock had lost him his hair.

From his perspective it seemed that his life had become a succession of one boring day running straight into another. At least being lost might create some novelty. It was a line of thought that he was going to regret.

"What makes you think we're lost?" asked Torr.

"I don't know. The automated navigation system just went awry. It's never done that before. Maybe there's some kind of local gravitational flux nearby."

Otto didn't look like he knew what he was talking about, which didn't exactly fill Torr with confidence, but it wasn't unusual for him to feel like that.

"Where are we?" asked Torr, trying to remain calm.

"I don't know. That's what being lost means. It means I don't know where I am, where we are, but don't panic, I'll think of something."

Outside the observation window the Universe slid past around them, slithering wildly about in a carousel of stars as the Eos spun around, whirling helplessly. Suddenly, darkness swept the stars from view as an immense spaceship, clothed in deepest black, slipped closely by, obscuring the celestial backdrop behind its enormous curves. In total contrast to the Eos, this ship, the Typhon, knew exactly where she was and why she was there.

The Typhon was the pride of the Aztex Empire, designed to make you regret seeing her as soon as you did. There was no softness to its curves, these were vivid, angry and razor sharp, rising in waves of darkness and gloomy despair in all directions.

Aboard this imposing spacecraft, formidably armed soldiers stared avidly into endless computer displays, reading weapons, preparing for the conflict ahead. They'd been hunting the legendary lost Satellite of Silence for a long, long time and now the tell-tale, give away signal of a magnetic flux resonator had pinpointed their quarry for them. They'd come looking for the Celestial Secrets and now that they'd found them, they had no intention of leaving without the legendary artefacts.

Aboard the Eos, Torr knew none of this, but the sheer size of the Typhon felt ominous and he wondered whether now would be a good time to start panicking. He looked up at the shadowy bulk of the Typhon in dismay.

Torr and Uncle Otto held their collective breath in anticipation, waiting to be spotted. But the soldiers appeared to be so totally focused on finding the exact location of the Satellite of Silence that they were oblivious to the Eos right beneath them.

Somewhere else, Destiny paused in hesitation. Fate considered his position precipitously and then ploughed on. The die were cast and Fortune held the future in the palm of her hand. Gingerly, she dared to look at what it held. With collective breath the three children of eternity stared at the result. What had they done, what had they started?

Near the Eos and the Typhon, aboard the Satellite of Silence, Zarrox, the Keeper of Secrets, peered out at the unfolding scene in consternation. Despite its much smaller size the Eos was easier to see than the completely black orb of the Typhon.

Zarrox unfolded his tall frame from his seat, clenching his blue fingers into fists of futile defiance. This wasn't going according to plan.

When he'd first seen the Eos he'd been unsure whether it was a reconnaissance scout, or just a bunch of hapless, lost, tourists. He didn't think the Typhon knew his location but he couldn't be sure. Deploying the magnetic flux resonator to make the tourists quickly scurry for home had been a gamble. With the sudden arrival of the Typhon it looked like that was a bet he'd just lost \- big time.

This new arrival spelled trouble with a capital T. The large, dark, spacecraft had, no doubt, homed in on his use of the magnetic flux resonator. It was his first mistake. He knew that he didn't have room for many more.

The Typhon blotted out most of the sky with its black bulk. By the look of it, he guessed that the huge vessel belonged to the Aztex Empire. If Zarrox was right then that presented a serious problem. The soldiers of the Aztex Empire were just the sort of people who would aim hundreds of guns at you before even stopping by to say hello. The Empire had a reputation for it's mean, nasty and aggressive nature.

Zarrox was fairly certain that the Typhon was here by design rather than accident. Someone, somewhere, must have given away some component of his location and the Typhon had, beyond doubt, been sent out to investigate. If the people on board knew he was hiding somewhere nearby then it wouldn't take them long to discover his exact whereabouts, if they hadn't already.

He also knew that if these unwelcome visitors really were from the Aztex Empire then his chances of survival were close to slim. It was a foregone conclusion that there were would be more of them than he could handle alone. An Aztex battleship was a formidable enemy. That meant only the Satellite's airlock stood between him and a very personal doom. Surviving the rest of the day whilst also protecting the Seven Celestial Secrets was looking more and more impossible with every passing moment.

Getting through this alive was going to be tricky, he thought quietly to himself because speaking out loud was a waste of time inside the Satellite of Silence. The spacecraft was silent by name and silent by some strange, unearthly quirk of nature, or possibly a unique, deep, dark, design.

Silent or not, Zarrox knew that it was only a matter of time before the Aztex soldiers launched an assault to recover the secrets he was here to protect. He was sure that very soon waves of soldiers would leave the Typhon and travel across the short stretch of empty space between them to assault the outer airlock door.

The fact that they were here in the first place was bad news in itself. The sad truth was that the secret of its location was not just the Satellite's first line of defence, but also its only one. There were no ultra, super powered techno-weapons for Zarrox to call on for protection.

Now that the Typhon knew about it even the magnetic flux resonator wouldn't work for more than a few moments before the battleship's inevitable backup systems re-stabilised the situation. Zarrox tried it anyway. There was no discernible result. The battleship carried on relentlessly heading straight for him.

The ship was so close now that no room for reasonable doubt remained. Zarrox was certain that the crew of the Typhon knew exactly where the Satellite was hiding.

All he could hope to do was to limit what the Aztex soldiers gained from daring to assault this secret bastion of power, this centre of hope for all humanity. They needed to be punished for wanting to take what rightly belonged to the whole of mankind. The Seven Celestial Secrets were too important, too powerful, to be owned by just one man, or one nation, or even one Empire. They had to belong to everyone.

Aboard the Typhon, the Aztex search team visually confirmed the location of the Satellite. The hunt for the Satellite's exact position was over. With a short, sharp nod, the officer in command of the assault team acknowledged the news and immediately commenced the next phase of the operation. It was time for the specially trained strike force to begin their attack. Soldiers gleefully rushed to obey.

In the few moments that remained before the invaders arrived, Zarrox carefully locked down and disabled each and every one of the Secrets onboard the Satellite. Moving cautiously and arduously, he opened up each egg shaped treasure and tinkered around inside before carefully closing it firmly shut once more.

When he had finished he was satisfied that if unauthorised hands ever opened the Celestial Secrets then the technology inside would shut itself down and stop working completely. With heavy heart he knew that whilst this would be devastating for humanity it would be far, far, better than the fate that would befall them all if the Celestial Secrets fell into the wrong hands.

A tiny beep from the Satellite's automated monitoring systems told Zarrox's that his window of opportunity to fabricate any defence, or attempt a safe retreat, had just closed with a snap. The external monitors clearly showed that the Aztex had started their assault.

As Zarrox prepared his final, inadequate, defences he could see that outside the Satellite's airlock door the leading Aztex soldier bared his teeth and grinned fiercely before raising his cosmic axe, ready to strike. The expected invasion of the Satellite had arrived.

Surprisingly for the lead soldier, eager to smash his way in, the door unexpectedly slid aside an instant before his weapon struck home. Zarrox hated unnecessary damage.

In the darkness, the soldier's grin turned to a howl of alarm that hushed to a whisper as he tumbled headlong inside, falling forwards in silence. With battle hardened reflexes he prepared himself for a sudden attack from any hidden defender.

But there was none.

The airlock was empty and of course, very, very quiet.

Baying and laughing mutely, the other soldiers helped their startled colleague up and together they cautiously peered around at their new surroundings. Then they cautiously slunk further inside.

Fanning out they made low, slow, furtive progress down long, deliberately darkened corridors through to the very heart of the Satellite. The last dark corridor opened out into a large, extended, chamber with a high ceiling. Ahead of them, in the centre of the room an immense display of controls, meters and screens was shining with the brilliance of a thousand exploding fireworks. Within the dazzling radiance, they could see the Seven Celestial Secrets intricately locked into the display by a hundred flashing networks of wires and lights.

It was all very bright, very colourful and highly distracting as their eyes tried to search for patterns that simply weren't there.

Vigilantly and slyly, the invaders cautiously approached each of the Seven Celestial Secrets until they were standing right next to them, arrayed in a circle around the control panel. Uncertainly, they prepared to smash each Secret free from its shimmering web of light. Where were the expected defences? Anxiously, they glanced at each other, blinking in the brightness. This seemed almost too easy. Raising their axes in the air, cold metal reflected the dazzling display a thousand fold, blinding them momentarily with its deadly glare.

From his hiding place, Zarrox knew it was finally time to make his move, while they still couldn't see. Breathing deeply, he tightly gripped the thin, metal pole that was his only weapon and prepared for battle.

With a yell that rapidly vanished into the quiet depths of the satellite Zarrox launched himself from his hiding place and out into the unsuspecting circle of soldiers. The first that the startled attackers saw was a frantic, flying figure, covered in trailing lights and cables, emerging ghostlike out of the machinery right in front of them. Covered in flailing iridescent wires that twirled and swirled with every movement, Zarrox appeared to the soldiers exactly like the evil space alien that they'd been warned to expect. Despite their training they backed away from the whirling, furling fiend in disarray and confusion.

With the advantage of surprise Zarrox easily knocked the first two soldiers from his path. Unfortunately, it was only moments before the other soldiers had recovered their wits and were upon him, eliminating his early advantage with innate cunning and snarling ferocity. Blindness only slightly blunted their effectiveness and deafness worked both ways. Fighting with low slung movements, they edged Zarrox backwards, along the darkened corridors and closer towards the airlock. Only the inner and then the outer doors stood between him and an endless drop into the dark filled abyss of deep space.

The ferociousness of the soldiers' assault forced Zarrox up against the inner door and with dismay he felt it open up with automated helpfulness behind him. Reluctantly he stepped backwards into the airlock and the nearest soldiers eagerly pressed in after him. They shut the inner door behind them.

Zarrox was trapped and the soldiers knew it. Savagely they pressed their advantage in the confined space while one of them pressed the airlock cycling switch. Behind the walls pumps evacuated the air inside the chamber. If he hadn't taken the precaution of getting into his space suit while waiting for the attackers to reach him Zarrox would now be facing suffocation. Instead he had a frightening premonition of what was coming next.

Defending his position furiously, Zarrox risked a glance over his shoulder and realised with dread certainty that he had been right. Behind him, the open doorway gaped hungrily. Pumping the air out of the airlock had enabled the soldiers to open the outer doors.

A trickle of chilling fear slithered down his backbone. Inevitably the soldiers' superior weapons and skills were forcing him further and further backwards. Suspended over the void, his heels on the edge of the infinite, Zarrox considered his few remaining options.

Pains in his chest made him suspect that he'd already been badly wounded. He could choose to die here, beneath the sharp bite of the soldiers' axes, or take the long slow death of deep space. After a lifetime of dedicated service, it wasn't much of a choice.

Pushing himself backwards he felt the floor disappear beneath his feet. Gently and serenely he floated away from his open-mouthed aggressors as he fell away from the satellite and outwards towards infinity.

Empowered by the force of his departure the gap became a rift that rapidly widened into a gulf. Even the huge bulk of the Typhon dwindled as a modest black shuttle detached itself from the enormous battleship and headed for what had so recently been Zarrox's Satellite of Silence.

But now it was someone else's.

He didn't feel well. His ribs hurt badly and he only had a limited supply of air. His future didn't look very promising and he hoped beyond hope that he'd done the right thing.

~o0o~

Entering in quiet victory, Lord Steal strode briskly straight from the shuttle straight towards the shattered remnants of the Satellite's control panel where the Seven Celestial Secrets remained defiantly embedded. Far behind him, the airlock doors shushed back into place.

His features were hidden behind a dark, hooded cloak and only vague hints of his facial characteristics were visible beneath the concealing veil of shadows cast by his cowl. Few alive knew what he really looked like.

The satellite's silence generator had been damaged in the fighting around the control panel and was now only partially working. Unfinished sounds were beginning to emerge furtively from the hushed corridors, creating a cackle that fractured and frustrated all attempts at communication. Stale conversations slunk back from where they had been impotently sulking. Words became jumbled up with strange sounds replacing common letters. It was only many years later that the conversations were ever untangled and deciphered.

"_el_ __ne!" Lord Steal said to the squad leader after they had closed the doors and removed their helmets.

The squad leader saluted, whilst trying not to look down on Lord Steal's dreadful gaze.

"We ha5e suc___sf__ly cap___ed t_e Seve_ Cele__i_l Sec___s my 1__d."

"W_@t ab___the K__per of Se__ets?"

"H_ won'_____5i5e _4r 1ong a_r__t in sp__e. We _a_ f4_get ab___ h_m."

"You f__1. He wi1_ _a5_ dis@_led ___ 7_5_n Ce1____@l Sec___s. We n____ ___ 2_ tell us ___ 2_make them work _____!. T__e s___ m_n & g____m b@__ i_m____tely"

"Wh@t?" said the startled soldier.

Lord Steal frowned. Now totally fed up with trying to make himself understood he reached up and struck the soldier hard. The partially working silence generator was getting on his nerves and he was beginning to lose his temper, which was never good at the best of times. His large nose, which reminded the squad leader of a bald badger's snout, twitched and snuffled with irritation and indignation.

"_ s___ __ _ust reco5__ ___ __eper of ___ Seven Celestial S__rets. We ____ ___ 2o tell u$ ___ we remove ___ b___y tr@ps. __ ____ find him!"

The soldiers rushed to re-open the airlock door to see if they could spot Zarrox. In the abysmal, dark, blackness of space there was no longer any sign of him. He'd vanished beyond any chance of visual re-discovery and was already virtually lost in the vast emptiness of the infinite.

Lord Steal's temper simmered silently as he reflected on what he had achieved. Putting the frustrating loss of the Keeper of the Secrets to one side he had at least managed to recover the Seven Celestial Secrets. If he could figure out how to harness the power within them he could become the mightiest mortal in human space. It was a big if.

His lips twitched as his rage struggled with his unthrottled ambition. He must be successful for the greater glory of the Aztex Empire. No other outcome was acceptable. The Seven Celestial Secrets would make the Empire unbeatable and then......then they could crush the Carthaginians.

He could do it. He would do it! After all, he was Lord Steal, feared throughout the whole Solar System.

Once he succeeded in cracking the Celestial Secrets he would be unstoppable. Nothing would stop him, nothing could stop him.

Nothing maybe, except a boy named Torr, but neither of them knew that yet.

Chapter 1: The Keeper of Secrets

Torr and his Uncle Otto watched in astonished silence from the relative safety of the Eos as the soldiers assaulted the Satellite of Silence. It was an eerie feeling being so close but somehow undiscovered. The looming bulk of the Typhon was so near that the invaders hadn't even noticed that another ship was in the vicinity. To the Typhon's sensors, the Eos was just a minor extension of its own immense mass.

Nobody onboard the Eos wanted to change that situation but it must only be a matter of time before their luck ran out. The tension aboard was almost tangible, easing throttling threads of fear throughout the ship.

When they watched the figure of Zarrox step from the door of the Satellite and slip away into the ether Torr couldn't stand it any longer.

"We have to do something," he insisted.

Uncle Otto stared back at him, attempting to hide the panic in his eyes.

Torr's eyes insisted back.

"We... ah... I mean... yes of course," Uncle Otto flustered, pushing his hands across the controls.

Otto's boring life just hadn't prepared him for this overload of unexpected events.

Under his twittering fingers the Eos eased forwards using only an iota of power to provide a gradual thrust. Imperceptibly she crept across the blackness of the void and slipped out from beneath the ominous shadow of the Typhon. The effortless grace that she moved with displayed none of the nervousness that riddled Uncle Otto with icy shafts of fear and uncertainty.

Torr tried to keep his eyes glued to the flailing figure as it spun into the darkness, the tendrils of cabling spinning a colourfully erratic kaleidoscope amongst the stars.

"We're gaining," he whispered, half to himself, half as a promise and an extra, added portion for good luck.

It took several minutes for him to be sure and all of the time Uncle Otto glanced around suspiciously as if he expected soldiers to emerge from hiding at any minute. But the attention of the Typhon appeared to be solidly and single-mindedly on the satellite and its contents.

There had to be something very important inside, Torr thought, his attention focused on the falling figure. He had no idea how correct he was.

Long moments later they were nearly alongside the solitary figure struggling to swim in the ocean of space.

"You'd better get suited up," Otto suggested. "Someone might need to pull him into the airlock if he's unconscious."

Torr didn't question his Uncle's suggestion until he was halfway inside his space suit. But before he could ponder further they were directly next to the spinning figure who gently bumped and bounced against the sides of the Eos. Quickly Torr dragged the rest of his space suit over his shoulders and zipped it closed. Moments later, with the helmet in place he took his first mouthfuls of circulated air. With hurried fingers he cycled the airlock and stepped outside. He wanted to get a closer look at this strange man from the satellite.

Despite the absence of any help from Otto it didn't take Torr long to pull the inanimate figure inside and close the outer doors. The man was slightly taller than normal, but Torr didn't have time to wonder about that as they floated weightlessly side by side, waiting anxiously for the air-lock to cycle.

With a slow hiss the chamber re-filled and Torr removed his helmet. There was still no sign of life from the figure and Torr realised nervously that he'd have to open the stranger's space suit and see if there was anything obviously wrong with him. Whilst he wouldn't pretend to be an expert in space travel Torr knew enough to know that anyone without a spaceship was likely to be in trouble and the lack of movement was worrying in itself. What he was going to do, he wasn't sure but wasn't it just a matter of figuring out what sort of trouble the stranger was in and then fixing it. Isn't that what grown ups did?

Pulling at the emergency fasteners he tugged at the opaque helmet, gawking in surprise as it rolled free and he cast his eyes upon the unusual facets of the face within.

The man's skin appeared to be a deep shade of blue.

Torr paused in minor shock at the sight of it.

Unusual, he told himself. Maybe it was some form of skin dye.

Slowly, the stranger's eyelids shifted, opening with glacial unhurried motion. Torr gasped for the second time in as many moments.

The 'whites' of the man's eyes were the same blue as his skin. Torr momentarily wondered if they would still be classed as whites but he shook the thought quickly from his mind. He didn't want the stranger to think he was staring rudely. He'd been to Cepheus, he'd seen some strange things. Not many, admittedly, but enough.

It was when the stranger's pupils shifted around the chamber that Torr realised they existed at all. Blue irises in blue eyeballs proved difficult to follow. Only by the sliver of light reflected from the edge of his irises could his direction of gaze be discerned.

The fellow's head appeared uninjured, so maybe there wasn't any immediate danger. Torr felt the need to say something comforting.

"It's okay, you're safe."

It sounded lame, even to him (and probably untrue).

"Where am I?" the man croaked. "The Typhon..."

"...is still nearby. But we're the Eos. The Typhon appears to have forgotten about you. They seem content with your satellite. At least for the moment," Torr finished weakly.

Even floating in the weightlessness of space the man appeared to sag visibly.

In compensation Torr held out his arm, "Do you need any help, are you injured?"

In return the figure dismissed the gesture and struggled to shift his position in an ungainly fashion as if he were some form of giant insect stranded on his back. Eventually correcting his orientation he floated uncomfortably close to Torr, looming over him.

"We have to get away from here, now!" he said in clipped, guttural tones.

Torr still couldn't get used to the man's eyes and stared back blankly, unsettled. Did the stranger have some sort of concussion, was he suffering an hallucination?

For a moment they just stared at each other with Torr going cross eyed trying to figure out if there was any sign of madness behind the stranger's azure eyes.

"Yes, of course," Torr muttered finally, giving up any hope of finding signs of mental instability and instead hastily pushing open the inner doors.

"Uncle Otto!" he shouted loudly.

Otto was right inside, as fascinated by this new arrival as Torr had been.

"Who...?" he started before the stranger brushed him aside.

"We have to leave right away!" the large newcomer demanded.

"Well, it's not quite that easy," flustered Uncle Otto rushing after the new arrival. "There was this local magnetic flux... I'm not sure we even know where we are... but we've rescued you..."

The stranger fixed Otto with an incisive glare.

"Impulse power seems to be working, but not much else. The main drive isn't responding at all," Otto babbled.

"Hmmm," the stranger rumbled and paused. "That was probably my doing," he admitted guiltily.

Pulling his gloves off to reveal equally blue hands he rummaged inside his suit before revealing a small, blank, plastic card. Stroking it with his fingertips a dial emerged from the smooth surface and he turned it gently.

"That should resolve it," his resonant voice insisted.

Otto manipulated the controls not expecting to find any change but he was in for a sharp surprise.

"They're working," he gasped in amazed syllables.

Lights flickered and the sky turned as his digits danced across the control deck.

"Gently does it," advised the stranger. "We don't want to give them cause to notice us. Not now."

With creeping acceleration the Eos eased forward into the everlasting night. The Typhon started to diminish behind them.

Torr's thoughts of concern were converting to uncertain curiosity.

"Just who are you?" he asked.

The man stared at Torr for a few seconds, thinking. His brow furrowed into even darker lines of blueness and for a moment Torr's thoughts turned back to his suspicions of whether the newcomer had sustained some form of unseen injury.

"I am Zarrox, Keeper of Secrets," he replied in deep cavernous tones.

As this stranger made his announcement a thrill went through Torr and his heart beat faster. So there was a Keeper of Secrets! He had heard tales of the Keeper but he'd always thought that was just what they were - tales. They were, weren't they?

Behind them Torr heard Uncle Otto gasp though it appeared to be for different reasons. He was still staring at the control panel and didn't seem to have heard their conversation.

"Oh, oh," he said to no one in particular. "They've seen us."

Zarrox moved surprisingly fast, much more quickly than Torr or his Uncle expected. In an instant he was at the controls, pushing Otto to one side, his fingers flying over the buttons. The Eos lurched forwards, picking up speed, weaving erratically with all of the unintended elegance of a penguin on an ice-slide.

The newcomer certainly wasn't acting like someone who'd been floating, alone and inert a few minutes ago, thought Torr.

Meanwhile, Uncle Otto was trying to watch what was happening as the self styled Keeper of Secrets took over the flying of their little spaceship. Whilst Torr could fly the Eos, he'd only ever been allowed to whilst his Uncle watched and fussed around him. It was a bit of a shock to see Uncle Otto sidelined so easily.

The newcomer was clearly in command and knew more than a little about flying spaceships by hand.

"I'm going to strap in," Torr announced weakly, feeling suddenly superfluous and vulnerable.

His morning was not going entirely how he had expected. If the Typhon was in pursuit of them then there was likely to be a bumpy ride ahead. If they survived, that is.

While Zarrox focused his entire attention on flying them forwards, Uncle Otto switched the viewing screens from in front of him to watch what was coming up behind them. Torr could only just about obliquely see what was happening on the screens closest to him.

The dark, circular, shape of the Typhon filled a quarter of the image, slowly extinguishing stars in the viewer as it rapidly shortened the distance between the two ships. The huge battleship appeared to be really close and Torr felt inwardly dismayed. He'd hoped that the Eos would get much further before they were discovered.

As if in response to Torr's thought the Typhon opened fire. Lines of light pulsed out from gun batteries all around, seeking the Eos, heralding her destruction. Instinctively, Torr ducked. Detonations resounded nearby. There was a sudden jolt and the view slipped sideways scarily. Had they been hit, he wondered?

Zarrox studied the controls intently, his eyes flickering from one to another, analysing the situation. But it was Uncle Otto who figured it out first.

"The ANPs gone!" he announced glumly. "They must have used something to take it out. I don't see how they could have done that," he looked confused. "Unless they've somehow managed to contradict chaos theory."

Zarrox shook his head, "I believe it's the First Secret," he added sombrely. "Someone is meddling with it."

There was that word again, thought Torr. That was the second time he'd mentioned secrets. Zarrox had also claimed to be the 'Keeper of Secrets'.

"Secrets," he heard himself whisper.

Torr could have sworn that he'd barely breathed the word but somehow the newcomer heard him even though he was supposedly totally focused on saving their lives. Zarrox's dark gaze spun to fall directly on Torr and a scowl creased his features.

"Yes, Secrets. It would appear that the Aztex are already dabbling with things they have no hope of understanding. I booby-trapped the Secrets for just such an eventuality. Clearly they have tried to force the First Secret open and as a consequence they've set off the fail-safes. They've set in motion a chain of events that might doom us all. Let us hope that humanity survives what happens next."

He looked thoughtful but angry, unfocused on the immediate peril of the pursuing Typhon but rather temporarily lost amongst visions of some terrible future.

"The battleship..." spluttered Uncle Otto, pointing at the rear view scanners, trying to get the newcomer's attention.

Fighting battleships was outside Otto's line of experience, like most things.

"You mean the Typhon? It will be experiencing the same problem as us," muttered Zarrox. "Until they can re-stabilise and re-calibrate they will be far too busy to worry about us. One of the most interesting things about chaos theory is that the more complex something is the much more difficult it finds it to recover from a disaster like this. They will though. Eventually they'll figure it out and be back after us. They won't have come up with anything as remotely complicated as an ANP but it will probably be good enough to catch us."

He sat back in he chair, unzipped the front of his space suit and put his hands behind his head. He almost smiled.

"But the ANP?" whimpered Uncle Otto. "Without it..."

"Yes, what is the ANP?" asked Torr.

He wanted to say, 'Tell me about all of the Secrets' but he was too scared to. Besides, he didn't think it would do him any good. A Keeper of Secrets wasn't much of a Keeper if he just told them to the first boy that came along and asked him about them.

Zarrox stared at Torr, the dark eyes pinning his soul down and strip searching it for any trace of treachery or deceit.

"ANP stands for the Automatic Navigation Pilot. Using chaos theory, it talks to every one of the billions of moving objects in Earth's orbit and because it's helping them all at the same time, none of them hit each other faster than your finger touching your nose. Which is quite a neat trick really when you consider that some of them are up to twenty light minutes away from each other, so communication across the solar system can be a bit of headache. But if it weren't there, everything would be crashing into one another...and a lot faster than your finger! More like someone punching your nose. Really hard!"

He punched one fist into his other hand with a loud smack.

Torr protectively covered his face with his hands and Zarrox laughed loudly.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he rumbled, coughing as if the effort of humour had broken something deep inside of him.

"But others most likely will," he added more sombrely, glancing at the Typhon gaining on them.

He pointed his finger at the pursuing battleship accusingly.

"What most people don't realise is that the ANP relies on one of the Celestial Secrets to calculate and instantly communicate the millions of course corrections constantly needed to prevent collisions. With the Celestial Secrets in the hands of the Aztex, mankind is going to have to get used to navigating without the ANP and for a while it's going to be tough. Traffic between the asteroids is going to grind to a standstill, which will mean widespread starvation unless it's sorted out soon."

Torr couldn't believe that something as relatively simple as the Automatic Navigation system could be so important and why was it secret? However, the more he thought about it the more he could imagine it.

Space, at least the bits where the majority of humanity now resided, was extremely crowded. With Earth supposedly uninhabitable and mankind living inside relocated asteroids, excellent transportation and logistics were critical for survival. Earth's orbit around the sun was now a wriggling, writhing mass of constant movement, with thousands of spaceships heading this way and that, aiming at asteroids on a hundred different trajectories.

Automated control over everyone's route could be a powerful weapon in the wrong hands, thought Torr. No wonder that the guiding mechanism behind it all was kept secret. If that sort of power were misused then the results could be, would be frightening.

At the very least, with the sudden failure one of the Celestial Secrets' advanced technology, everyone would suddenly have to learn how to really fly their spaceships by hand and eye, whilst simultaneously hurtling along at thousands of miles per hour. The likely results were both very obvious and exceedingly worrying.

Torr was beginning to feel uncomfortable. This could be bad, very bad.

"Soon, the Typhon's pilots will have figured out how to navigate by eye, similar to the way we are, but docking two or more moving objects in space, is another story entirely," the Keeper emphasised.

He lifted his fingers momentarily from the console and flung his arms in different directions, emphasising his point.

"Add in high speed velocity, spinning trajectories, space debris, communications delays, predictive algorithms, rotational distortion, the coriollis effect..."

He twisted his fingers, intertwining them in seemingly and physically impossible knots.

"...virtual and tangential gravity, fluid dynamics, the Yarkovsky effect and Stanton's 'unbelievable' displacement curve," he finished, staring at his tangled digits in surprise. "It's all a recipe for widespread disaster on a massive scale."

Zarrox tried to unsnarl his fingers, dragging Torr's attention back from the plight that mankind was now facing.

"And if the Aztex attempt to open any of the other Secrets then everyone will have to find a way to survive without those as well," the Keeper continued, laying his hands gently back on the controls. "I may have done a terrible thing," he added darkly.

Torr was beginning to lose track of what Zarrox meant and in the viewing screen he could already see the Typhon sliding off on a different tack from the Eos. Her pilots weren't coping as well with the sudden loss of ANPs as Zarrox was. Uncle Otto looked relieved.

"What are the other secrets?" Torr asked cautiously. "Are they all as dangerous?"

Zarrox's dark eyes flashed dangerously again and Torr flinched involuntarily.

"If I told you that then they wouldn't be very secret would they? The Celestial Secrets are too important to go about revealing to just anybody," he chided before a look of pain winced across his face.

He wheezed loudly and clutched at his ribcage before Uncle Otto rushed forwards.

"Let me see," Otto insisted, reaching up to pull something down from the ceiling behind him.

Torr was disorientated by Zarrox's dilemma to notice too many details about it, although he did notice the thick, extendible hose that appeared to form the central core of the contraption. Woven around it were a myriad of wires and lights that spiralled around the hose in a wild, uncertain fashion.

Uncle Otto pushed the lower end of it up against Zarrox's chest and started twisting knobs and depressing levers with nervous fingers. With alarm Torr could see blood oozing from where the hose was attached to Zarrox's chest.

Otto could see the spreading stain too but was trying his best to ignore it. He needed to resist making a rushed diagnosis until the auto medic had finished its examination, but lights were already turning red all along its length.

It felt like moments were stretching into hours as they all tensely awaited the final few responses. Eventually the unit emitted a soft beep that belied the apparent seriousness of Zarrox's condition.

"You're injuries are too bad for this unit to do anything about beyond advising on emergency treatment," Otto confirmed after checking the auto medic's display. He sighed deeply before continuing, "It says that several of your internal organs are ruptured and some of your ribs might be broken. We need to get you to a medical facility before one of them punctures something important."

"No, we have to go to the Eye in the Sky," Zarrox hissed painfully. "You have to get me there," he gasped before passing out.

A trickle of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Uncle Otto glanced at Torr indecisively.

"We'll go there..." he murmured. "... it seemed very important to him... wherever there is. We'll be safe there."

Torr wasn't so sure. It almost sounded as if Uncle Otto was trying to convince himself that they'd find a safe refuge at this Eye in the Sky. Zarrox hadn't said anything about their destination being safe though.

Torr wasn't going to argue though. The Eye in the Sky sounded just like the sort of place where you'd find out more about the Celestial Secrets. Besides, if Zarrox was correct then for him it might literally be a matter of life and death.

But was the Keeper telling the truth? Torr didn't know. Adults were always claiming things were true that weren't.

Chapter 2: The Eye in the Sky

Torr fidgeted in his chair, worrying about Zarrox and whether they could they get him to the Eye in the Sky in time. If you weren't in the driving seat then space travel could be very, very boring. Once the main drive was engaged and you were on a steady course the view outside changed with glacial slowness (assuming you weren't being chased by a bunch of homicidal maniacs in a fully armed battleship). It was worse than watching the zero gravity washing machine go around. At least that had some variation to it.

Torr almost wished that the Typhon were still on their tail. Only 'almost' though, inside he knew that the Aztex's attention was the last thing they needed and when it did catch them it would seem far too soon.

Instead his thoughts wandered, settling back into familiar routines, back to the mundane existence of life with Uncle Otto with occasional flashes of concern about Zarrox's wounds.

For the millionth time Torr wished that he didn't have to live with his Uncle. Unfortunately, his mother and father were lost on some research mission and his mum's brother was the only relative that would look after him. This meant that he had to travel with Uncle Otto and the lonely, stop-start lifestyle that it involved. Anyone even resembling a closest friend, some other child who might vaguely remember his name, was on the other side of the Sun and at least a dozen asteroid stops away. He had to think hard to remember the last time he'd had fun with someone his own age.

Torr tried to remember his parents. Photos, videos and holograms only gave him small comfort. He wanted to remember what they felt like when he hugged them but a decade of separation left few memories.

It had been ten long years in which their research mission remained classified as 'Missing, No Trace'. Ever since he could remember every day had started and ended with an empty hole where his mother's welcome smile should have been.

"One day I will find them if I have to search the whole solar system," he muttered to himself, staring vacantly at the galaxy spinning serenely and majestically outside.

"I'm going to do whatever it takes to get them home again," he promised himself as he had so many heartfelt times before.

Zarrox's groan interrupted this familiar line of thought. The strange-skinned man clutched at the bandage that Uncle Otto had hastily wrapped around his chest. When he'd put it on it was white. Now the predominant colour was red. Zarrox was still bleeding.

"He's in pain, Uncle," said Torr.

Uncle Otto turned from where his attention had been firmly fixed on the controls and snapped back a quick retort.

"I've given him all of the painkillers I dare. He'll just have to suffer. We're nearly there. Just up ahead are the co-ordinates he gave us before he passed out."

Torr's heart went out to Zarrox, but he knew his Uncle was right. The best way to help the Keeper was to get him to some first rate medical facilities. With his interest piqued he moved forward to try and get a look at what his Uncle could see.

"Really, where?"

Otto spun the magnification on the forward scanners and a strange shape swung into view with the unsettling shape of the Earth in the background.

~o0o~

The object in the foreground resembled hundreds of eyeballs connected by small crawl ways and wriggle spaces, stretching like insane tendrils. As the Eos got closer several of the eyes rotated to stare at their approach. It was almost as if the satellite were alive. A sentient spaceship? That was a really spooky and unnerving concept for Torr to think about, so he decided not to.

"What is it?" he whispered in awe.

"I don't know," replied Uncle Otto. "I guess it must be this 'Eye in the Sky'. If you ask me they misnamed it, 'Eyes in the Skies' would have been a better name for it. Whatever it is though it certainly doesn't look very safe. So much for Zarrox's advice."

Torr decided not to contradict. It wasn't wise to disagree with his uncle and certainly not when he was under stress.

"But we're here now and our new friend needs urgent help. You'd better get into your space suit," Otto insisted.

Torr looked at his uncle aghast. 'His' space suit? 'Why him?' he thought and 'again!' he added silently.

Uncle Otto continued as if he knew what Torr was thinking.

"Without the ANP systems working you're going to have to jump between the two ships with a tether. There's too much chance we'll collide if I try a normal docking manoeuvre. You'd better take some tools with you in case you need them. Throw them in my overnight bag and take that."

He paused whilst he tried flicking a few switches, apparently unsuccessfully.

"Nope, still not working."

He faced Torr sombrely.

"I don't know what you might meet on the other side as I can't get any response. It may just be abandoned but you'll need to be prepared for anything. Maybe those invaders from the battleship got here ahead of us and have taken over this satellite like the last one."

He threw the bag across to Torr, who only just caught it. Fear flashed across his face until he saw the look on Uncle Otto's.

"Get a move on," yelled Uncle Otto. "I don't know what's keeping that strange spaceship up, but we're too close to the Earth here. It's an unstable orbit. If you don't hurry we won't have enough thrust to pull us out of the Earth's gravity. We don't have long before we hit, if we're lucky."

"And if we're not?" asked Torr.

"We'll burn up in re-entry," Otto snarled and returned his attention to scanning their surroundings.

Torr rushed into the workshop, urgently opened the overnight bag's zippers and threw it onto the floor. His head was in a panic and everything was getting on top of him. He didn't have any real idea about what he should be doing but he knew Zarrox needed help and if he was the only one who could help then he'd just have to do whatever he could. He hoped it was going to be enough.

"Good morning, what service would you like?" the bag asked cheerily.

"I haven't got time for all that," Torr answered and then felt mean.

It wasn't the bag's fault they were in a mess.

"We're in a hurry, I need some repair tools and... and... other stuff. Make sure you pack something I can use to defend myself with," he added as an afterthought.

Torr didn't feel comfortable ordering the bag around. He rushed off to scramble into his suit while the bag did his packing for him.

Minutes later he found himself standing out on the wing of the Eos, with the overnight bag wrapped around his chest. The Earth was only a relatively short distance away, hanging high up in the heavens above his head; big, blue and beautiful. It looked so inviting that it was hard to believe that the surface was no longer capable of supporting life, or so all his school texts insisted.

Mankind was now marooned amongst the asteroids that had been dragged from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Each had been carefully hollowed out to provide the most living space and set spinning to give them artificial gravity. Nearly everyone knew that. But what Zarrox had said had started Torr thinking that maybe some of the other things he'd heard might be true as well.

There were rumours, unsubstantiated rumours, that human survival, spread out as it was over several hundred asteroids, was dependent on advanced alien technology. Technology that was so dangerous it was kept locked away in Seven Celestial Secrets.

Well, those were the rumours and after hearing Zarrox's story they were rumours that Torr was beginning to believe had more than a hint of truth in them. The bizarre sight of the Eye in the Sky was making him believe even more that they might be true. He'd never seen anything like it before. If someone could take the trouble to build something this weird then he was prepared to believe that almost anything might be true.

Torr took one last look up, or was it really down, at the unnerving collection of eyeballs that stared back at him. The Earth loomed large behind them. If he was going to do it, he'd better do it soon.

He could already feel the Earth's gravity beginning to tug at him, telling him that what he was thinking of as 'up' was really 'down'. His brain yelled back at him that if this was down then he ought to head straight back to bed right away. With his sense of 'up' and 'down' in total disarray his feet started to lift clear of the Eos and he kicked away briefly to give himself extra momentum. Panic welled up in his throat as an overwhelming sense of vertigo surfaced in his stomach.

Gliding slowly between the two ships Torr felt each moment tick away painfully, certain that he was going to be too late and that they were all doomed to plummet down to the dead surface of the planet below. If he missed he would reach the hard ground only moments before the Eos and the eye ball spaceship. Having them land on top of him was the least of his worries.

He'd probably burn up on re-entry anyway. That was the sort of luck he was having; being lucky enough to have a choice of ways to die.

Stretching as far as he could he just managed to catch hold of one of the tendrils connected to a giant eyeball, but it had no obvious entrance. Regardless he quickly attached the tether, looking around for some sign of an entrance. While hauling himself closer and anchoring his own lifeline he felt he was being intensely scrutinised as the eye he was heading towards turned to stare directly at him.

It was an unnerving but entirely temporary feeling. Almost instantly the eye lurched away to gaze at a new object of impressive proportions hurtling over the world's horizon, coming in fast, still cloaked in the darkness cast by the Earth's shadow.

Desperately Torr twisted his head around to try and get a better look. Beside him the eyeball dilated dramatically with an unnerving whirring sound that was picked up by his external microphone and Torr's head swivelled again. What was going on? Even if he did have external microphones how was the sound being transmitted through a vacuum?

Suddenly, a burst of energy erupted from the eyeball in a brilliant blaze of virulent vermilion that jerked around like a lightning bolt. It arced straight towards the unidentified object that was hurtling towards them around the edge of the Earth. Clearly something on the Eye thought the object was a threat.

Torr cowered backwards, feeling the intense heat even through his suit's insulation. Other eyeballs followed suit letting off a barrage of fireballs that burned across space towards the attacker.

The object was nearly close enough to see details and with a sinking heart Torr had a worrying insight into what the rapidly approaching menace might be. Seconds later the target finally emerged from the Earth's shadow at tremendous speed and started to return fire.

As he'd feared, it was the Typhon. The huge orb darkened the very space around it with its ominous presence. They'd been discovered and for Torr, marooned and out in the open, it couldn't have come at a worse moment.

"Torr?" called Uncle Otto in his ear. "Are you okay?"

At least the suit radio was still working.

"I'm okay," he squeaked. "How about you?"

"Torr?" his Uncle shouted again. "Are you there?"

"I'm here!" Torr shouted back.

"Torr?" Otto yelled. "Speak to me!"

It didn't look like the radio was working quite as well as he'd like it to.

Typical, he thought. He could hear Uncle, but for some reason Uncle Otto didn't appear to be able to hear him.

"I'm alright," Torr said more for effect than with any hope that his Uncle was going to hear him and reply. It felt very exposed being outside at a moment like this. He could already feel growing resignation spreading across what appeared to be an underlying, deep-rooted foundation of fear cowering somewhere inside of him.

Even the battle was going against him. The Typhon's batteries were beginning to have an effect on the Eye in the Sky as one by one the eyeballs ceased firing. With horror, Torr watched an incoming missile strike the Eos. Instantly, a nearby engine exploded as the fuel line was caught in the blast.

It was the one that he'd been standing next to only a few minutes earlier. The battle was getting too close and personal.

"Uncle Otto! Zarrox?"

It was no use. If there was something wrong with the radios then most probably no one could hear him anyway.

There was a screech in his ear and he could hear the Eos' emergency klaxons shouting unnecessary warnings.

"Torr, I don't know whether you can still hear me," Uncle Otto shouted in his ear, "or even if you're still alive, but I'm going to have to abandon ship. If you're able to, then get somewhere safe. Somehow I'll try and get back to you."

Any reply caught in Torr's throat. Abandon ship? Get somewhere safe? Where? He was stranded out here between two targets under fire. Safety was in short supply.

He stared around himself in horror and dismay. There wasn't anywhere nearby that looked even vaguely safe, just space, space and even more space. Now he knew how Zarrox must have felt, floating in the void without any hope of rescue.

The thought of the Keeper reminded Torr of a nagging omission in his Uncle's message; Zarrox. Uncle Otto hadn't mentioned him. Was he still alive?

The Eos launched its lifeboat and Torr knew instinctively that Uncle Otto was onboard. It spiralled upwards, spinning against the backdrop of explosions before gravity clawed at its trajectory, dragging it downward towards the Earth far below. Dispirited, he watched its descent.

If the Typhon didn't shoot at it then the lifeboat should manage a safe landing, but what would his Uncle find there? Could he even survive on the surface? No one had been to Earth for a long, long time.

Another blast from the Typhon brought Torr's thoughts back to his own predicament. Even being marooned on Earth would be better than what fate probably had in store for him.

For a moment he wondered how Uncle Otto had managed to drag the Keeper on board the lifeboat so quickly, especially given his condition. Then he realised the obvious answer. Uncle Otto had always had a tendency to run first and answer questions only if he got caught. The Keeper was unlikely to be onboard the escaping lifeboat. If Zarrox were lucky he would still be alive somewhere on board the damaged Eos.

Torr forced himself to move forwards more quickly. The sooner he could get medical help onto the Eos for the Keeper, the better.

Beneath him the Eye in the Sky shuddered and titled earthwards as well. To Torr it looked like any rescue he might be able to arrange for Zarrox would be short lived. The orbits of the Eos and the Eye in the Sky appeared to be deteriorating dramatically. If that was true then they were all going down, just some of them were going to land on the surface more heavily than others.
Chapter 3: Hearing things

Silence reigned as the Eye in the Sky continued to spiral erratically and the Earth shifted back around to hang high above Torr's head. Everything on the Eye appeared to have stopped functioning and even the Typhon had stopped firing. Had it really lost interest in them? Directly ahead of Torr the sun continued to sparkle off of the lifeboat as it corkscrewed downwards. Uncle Otto was gone.

Torr was totally alone.

He didn't know what to do. Any chance he might have had to influence his fate seemed to have slipped away from him.

Just then there was a new voice in his ear.

"Are you here to help?"

Torr had no idea who the new voice belonged to. Uncle Otto had said that no one was answering from the Eye, but someone had presumably been commanding the defensive barrage that it had laid down.

Whoever it was, Torr certainly didn't feel ready to help anyone. If anyone needed assistance around here, surely it was him? Only someone really desperate would be asking Torr for help and there was already a growing queue of people he needed to help, with himself, Uncle Otto and Zarrox at the front of it. There wasn't really any room in his head to add new people who needed rescuing. He wasn't even sure how he was going to save himself. He still didn't know how he was going to get inside the Eye in the Sky, which was probably his sole source of possible salvation.

He didn't feel ready to admit that out loud though.

Unsettled, he glanced up at the Earth again. Was it closer? It didn't appear to be. Did that mean they weren't falling? He wasn't sure. He hadn't really been listening when they'd discussed the gravitational affects of planetary bodies at school. That was the thing about lessons. Why couldn't they warn you when the really important bits came up? It would be much more useful if they said something like 'You'd better listen to this bit as one day your life might depend upon what I'm telling you.'

Maybe the Eye in the Sky and the Eos weren't slowly drifting towards an inevitable doom.

A quick look at the Typhon beneath him dashed this tiny hope before it could get a firm hold on him. It looked like they really were falling, even if it appeared to be upwards. The Aztex battleship was already receding, or rather the pair of tethered ships really were being pulled firmly and consistently away from it.

If he'd been able to hear the conversation onboard the Typhon it would only have confirmed his darkest suspicions that the Eos and the Eye in the Sky were already falling towards the Earth.

~o0o~

"The enemy has ceased firing and is in a gradually deteriorating orbit," announced the First Officer. "It won't be long before they reach the point of no return based on our assessment of their engine power capacity ratios."

"Hold fire but keep the batteries targeted on all three ships," demanded Lord Steal with his feet placed firmly on the bridge of the Typhon.

He was convinced that it detracted from his imposing stance of authority if he was seen floating around the room during an attack and as a result he wore specially made boots that anchored him firmly to whatever he chose as the floor.

"Give me a status report on our velocity in respect to the Earth. I don't want any surprises," he commanded authoritatively. "And keep a close watch for any Carthaginian activity. That's definitely the sort of surprise that I want to avoid," he added gruffly. "I am however expecting visitors so tell the cook to prepare jelly and ice cream. I fancy jelly and ice cream for brunch."

Lord Steal paused, thinking how that sounded and then added, "With lots of mustard. I like mustard with my ice cream."

That should prove I am a mean and merciless mini dictator who shouldn't be mocked, he thought.

Which just goes to prove that when you are a senior commander in an evil empire then you can get whatever you want at any time of day and there's no one whose going to tell you it's not good for you.

His beady eyes remained fixed on the glowing orb of the planet that filled half of the viewing screen. Being this close to the Earth was dangerous. Every school child knew that and it unsettled him. He didn't like things that unsettled him and things that he didn't like didn't last long!

The First Officer interrupted his chain of thought. "The Typhon remains in geo-stationary orbit. The other ships are slowly sinking into the Earth's gravity. The lifeboat is already well into re-entry. The other two ships will follow soon."

Lord Steal allowed himself a slight smile. Normally he didn't like having his thoughts interrupted but this time he would make an exception to his rule of utterly obliterating the things he didn't like.

"Keep a close eye on them," he ordered. "They might not be as dead as they appear to be... yet."

He smiled into his beard. This was turning out to be a most satisfying day. Now for his guests.

"Where's that jelly?" he shouted.

~o0o~

Without the Typhon's sophisticated control systems Torr could only sigh loudly at his predicament and try and think his way out of it. He started by reviewing his growing list of problems.

The most likely reason the Earth didn't look any bigger was because it was so enormous. That didn't mean that he wasn't racing towards it, hanging onto the strangest spacecraft he'd ever seen whilst still tethered to the damaged Eos, probably with only the wounded Zarrox on board at best. He was unlikely to get any assistance from there.

He reminded himself that Zarrox claimed to be the Keeper of Secrets. That had to be worth something, didn't it?

Then there was the mystery voice that was requesting assistance.

"Well, am I imagining you or are you here to help then?" the voice said again as if it had been listening in on his thoughts.

It sounded more insistent this time.

Torr started to reply and found a rising sense of panic creeping up his vocal chords. He opened his mouth to speak but couldn't think of anything useful to add. What possible use could he be? Maybe he was just hearing voices and going mad on top of everything else?

"Don't just stand there with your mouth open," the disembodied voice continued.

Torr snapped it shut.

He didn't have time to stop and wonder how the voice knew that his mouth was open before it was off and talking to him again.

"Well? Well?" it demanded insistently.

"Yes," Torr said hesitantly, still not sure who he was talking to. "I guess so," he added dubiously.

"Good. If you're really here to help then we'd better get going. We don't have much time before gravity gets such a grip of us that it won't ever let go. I don't particularly want to follow the lifeboat down. Are you ready to get started?"

The voice paused as if expecting Torr to say something but he still couldn't think of anything useful to add. He stared around him for inspiration. As the Typhon continued to recede above them it still presented a clear and present danger. The voice was also probably right about the Earth's gravity and then there was both Zarrox and Uncle Otto who needed help as well as his own predicament. His air supply wouldn't last forever.

It all added up to a sticky situation and Torr certainly didn't have the luxury to stick around and wait for something better to come along. At the moment going with whatever the voice suggested was the only alternative he had.

Besides, he shouldn't stay where he was. He had to find somewhere safer. He didn't know when the Typhon might decide to start firing again. Maybe they'd only taken a tea break.

"I guess so," was all that he could think of to say, though.

"You'd better come inside then."

Inside, that would be an improvement, Torr thought. Things were finally looking up.

It didn't take long for his expectations to sink back to normal. There didn't appear to be any way inside the Eye in the Sky. The flailing tube he was hanging onto had no obvious entrance.

"How?" he asked, tired and defeated.

There was a soft pinging sound and in front of his eyes a door that he hadn't noticed before opened up in the end of the long, synthetic, stalk.

Torr was sure it hadn't been there a moment before but if the voice was right then he didn't have time to hang around and investigate. He had to make a start and keep moving forwards.

Unclipping his lifeline from the outside he slipped into this 'new' entrance to the tunnel. The door closed silently behind him.

The walls of the tube were opaque and a lot more substantial than they appeared from the outside. As he made his way along the tube he realised that the metallic interior was awash with unusual sights and contraptions. Deep themed lights gave the appearance of a subterranean setting, whilst smaller tubes, pipes and gauges threaded along the walls, snaking in and out of a myriad of wiring and circuit boards. Joints hissed, steamed and sparked at random intervals filling the interior with a damp, static ridden cloud of ozone.

There was a second set of doors at the end of the tube and he realised that the tube was one long, thin, airlock

With the inner airlock door closed safely behind him Torr released the catches of his helmet and sniffed the air suspiciously. Apart from the whiff of stagnant, ionised air it seemed breathable.

He breathed out and glanced around at his new surroundings.

Torr suddenly leapt backwards in fright. An iota of pulsating light appeared to be floating right in front of his face. Where had that come from and more importantly what was it?

"Welcome aboard," it seemed to say to him.

If that was designed to make him feel more comfortable it wasn't working. His 'this is really weird' radar was going off, big time.

"Are you the voice I've been speaking to?" he asked hesitantly.

The light blinked several times as if unsure of itself. Even Torr felt uncertain that he was talking to the same voice. This one lacked some minute essence of humanity that he couldn't quite put his finger on. Suspiciously he looked around for a second light. This was getting ridiculous, he told himself.

"No, of course not. Do I sound like that electronic buffoon?" the original voice cackled. "I certainly hope not!"

Torr glanced around even more unsure of himself. Now he had two possibly imaginary voices talking to him. Next they'd be arguing with each other. He guessed that as long as he didn't join in the argument he'd probably keep his sanity, just.

"Who are you?" Torr asked warily.

"Men call me the Tinkerer," the original voice replied with the sobriety of clockwork operated stoicism.

"The Tinkerer?" replied Torr.

That was the second surprising and intriguing name he'd heard today. Firstly Zarrox and now the Tinkerer. This fresh influx of new names wasn't adding anything to his sense of safety and security.

"If you are going to carry on repeating everything that I say, young man," the Tinkerer suddenly snapped, "then this is going to take us a lot longer than we have time for."

"He's quite correct, Sir," the light added. "If you're here to help then it's better that we get on with things as quickly as we possible can. If you're not then I suggest you find some alternative escape route quickly because the longer you leave it the more fuel you're going to have to burn if you want to escape the Earth's deadly embrace."

Torr wasn't sure that he had an alternative escape route. The Eos' exploding engine had looked fairly fatal and flying with just the remaining one would most likely leave him spinning in circles.

"My calculations might have a slight margin of error in them and I am having to take an educated guess on how much fuel your ship lost in the explosion," the electronic voice continued. "But based on Böhrin's law of explosions in a vacuum..."

"Oh cut the explanations and get to the important stuff you over engineered excuse for a piece of thinking machinery!" the voice of the Tinkerer called out in exasperation. "We don't have time for long winded buffoonery!"

That was it. Now the imaginary voices were arguing with each other and he was seeing unusual flashes of light in front of his eyes. Clearly he had already gone completely mad.

"...we have less than five minutes to start the engines on both ships before Earth's gravity becomes inescapable," the light interrupted his inner conversation on insanity.

"Okay, okay, you've made your point. You have my full attention, but what can I do about it?" Torr replied impatiently, putting his concerns about Uncle Otto and the Keeper momentarily on hold.

This was all becoming too much for him to take in.

Even the overnight bag gave him a nudge as if it was trying to tell him something.

"Get lost!" he snarled at it, uncharacteristically. "Can't you see I'm busy!"

Torr felt a nagging sense of guilt for taking his anger out on the overnight bag but his stress levels had reached peak capacity and couldn't take anymore. Delirium beckoned.

Torr decided he was just going to have to go with it. Insane or not, he needed to get moving.
Chapter 4: On the edge...

The Tinkerer's voice called out from somewhere around the curved inner edge of the eyeball he'd entered.

"Come over here!" it shouted. "I need your help."

The words echoed coldly.

Torr headed towards the sound of the voice. Instantly he was thrown off balance as gravity assaulted him, coming up from nowhere and then shifting suddenly around him. Where had this gravity come from? Everything moved, with the ceiling becoming the floor and the floor becoming the ceiling. Gravity hadn't finished playing games with him yet and continued to gyrate wildly. Torr spun helplessly through the air.

He fell heavily, banging his shoulder. It throbbed naggingly as he lay winded on the deck watching the tiny light flitter urgently around in front of his face.

"Four minutes," it reminded him.

Torr's levels of annoyance and frustration rose another notch.

Only four minutes before they wouldn't be able to escape the Earth's pull, otherwise there wouldn't be enough thrust available to complete their escape from the planet's gravity. From the stories he'd heard Earth wasn't the sort of place that he wanted to visit anytime soon. Even if Uncle Otto was probably going to be there to meet him. It wasn't his fault that Otto had been forced to abandon the Eos.

"Thanks!" Torr muttered darkly, thinking dire thoughts at the whole universe.

Picking himself up off of the new floor, or was it a ceiling, he lowered himself through a round hole that was now conveniently situated at his feet. Holding on by his fingertips he dangled over nothingness while his feet hung uselessly, finding nothing to balance himself against.

"Three and a half minutes," the light confidently reminded him.

Torr didn't bother to reply. He knew he needed to do something, anything and even though he still wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, he knew that he needed to do it quickly. He glanced around; nothing he could see made any sense. Furniture sprouted from the floor, ceiling and all of the walls in the room that surrounded him as he dangled from the hatch.

Even though he didn't know what he was falling into, even though he was really scared, Torr knew that he had to do whatever it took. Right now that meant letting go. He looked at his fingers and willed them to release their grip on the metallic edge. Resolutely they refused to respond as his whole being was gripped with fear.

Would nothing do what he wanted it to?

"Three minutes and twenty seconds," the light reminded him again with a possible hint of nervousness in its voice.

But that was ridiculous. If it really was a mechanical artefact as the Tinkerer had suggested it didn't feel emotions, did it?

He filed it away for further consideration when there was more time for serious thinking.

His fingers suddenly decided to follow instructions and let go. As he dropped and furniture passed by on either side, disorientation swamped him.

Torr realised with dismay that he was on the inside of one of the eyes; a large, ball- shaped room with furniture arranged around the inner surface. Whichever way he looked there was furniture above him, which his brain insisted was going to fall on him at any moment. It was very unnerving. Whilst he was used to it inside an asteroid, he'd never come across it on this much more personal scale.

At least this time he'd landed on his feet.

He surveyed the whole room. Right over head was the man who he guessed had been calling to him, trapped beneath an overturned cabinet, next to a bed. His heavily bearded features made it difficult to tell how old he really was and his long hair looked like it could do with a good brush.

Torr guessed that the man was the Tinkerer.

The Tinkerer's lips were moving as if he was trying to say something but Torr couldn't make sense of the words while his own head struggled to reconcile up, down, left and right. Torr hoped it wasn't important because whatever the message was he wasn't receiving it.

"Three minutes and ten seconds," the light said weakly in his ear.

With the frantic scamper of an exercising hamster Torr weaved sickeningly around the inside of the ball. Ceiling became wall, became floor and then finally he was at the old man's side.

"Here, let me get that off of you," Torr wheezed while it was the old man's turn to gaze at him speechlessly in disbelief.

"180 seconds," gulped the weaving light still next to him.

Torr grabbed the corners of the cabinet and started to pull it off of the old man. The Tinkerer thrust him away urgently with surprising strength.

"Stop fussing about me, you young fool. You ran straight past the controls. Start the engines!" he yelled.

"150 seconds," agreed the light and started whispering an annoying 'tick, tock, tick, tock."

"What controls?" thought Torr.

He had another look at the room around him. There were no obvious controls anywhere that he could see. How did the Tinkerer expect him to 'start the engines'?

"The big red button on the wall over there. Hit it!" the old man shouted and pointed back towards the ceiling where Torr had just come from.

"While you do that I'll re-activate the IN-VCES," the Tinkerer continued testily as he unwound himself from the floor.

The Tinkerer reached into his pocket and revealed a small card similar to the one the Keeper had used. Torr made a mental note to ask what an 'Invicies' was later. With an exaggerated sigh he glanced 'upwards' to where the Tinkerer had pointed and noticed, with dismay, the large red button above him. Discrete pipes and conduits converged on it from all directions. Written in big friendly letters that he could read even from the opposite side of the room, it read 'Engines: Emergency restart'. Why hadn't he seen that when he was over there? He really needed to be more observant, just like Uncle Otto always reminded him.

Leaping into action he quickly pushed the cabinet back upright, climbed up it and jumped towards the button. If his thinking about the odd gravity onboard was correct then the lower gravity in the centre of the room should flip him over and he would 'fall' back towards the button currently above him.

Feeling pleased with himself Torr somersaulted in mid air. As if in repayment for his arrogance, gravity grabbed him firmly and slammed him down against the new floor and with a loud 'umph!' knocked the wind right out of him. His legs kicked weakly and spasmodically with the elegance of an upside down tortoise.

But Torr didn't care. Around him he could feel the engines humming into life. By some miracle he had managed to land on top of the button that started them, activating it with the force of his impact. Maybe his luck was changing.

"What's an 'Invicies'?" he asked. "What does it do?"

"Two minutes," continued the light.

Torr wondered why the countdown was continuing as he picked himself up off of the ground. Hadn't he re-started the engines? If not, what was that noise and low-level rumbling?

"I'll tell you later," the old man hurried him. "But you need to go back on board your ship and re-start that remaining engine otherwise the combined mass of both spacecraft will still doom us all."

He looked thoughtful for a moment.

"If you can't re-start it then just cut the tether. The ship will just have to burn up in the atmosphere."

Torr looked at him stupidly. How was he going to explain that to Uncle Otto? Assuming Uncle Otto survived of course.

The thought gave Torr another pang of guilt. But there was nothing he could do to help Uncle Otto now.

"What about the Keeper of Secrets. I think he said his name was Zarrox... I think he might still be on the Eos. He's injured." Torr blurted out.

He was going to go on to mention Uncle Otto but the Tinkerer pressed an old and wrinkled hand hard on his forehead.

"Zarrox!" he exclaimed with no hint of surprise in his voice. "Of course he is," he added quietly as if he should have known.

For a few moments the Tinkerer seemed to be lost deep in thought.

So the Tinkerer and Zarrox knew he each other, Torr noted, adding it to the long list of quirky things that seemed to add up to something strangely logical.

"Yes, yes, bring him too," said the Tinkerer. "Get the engines started first if you can, though. That will give us more time to treat him where he is. Without knowing how badly he's injured I don't want to move him before he can be examined."

"Ninety seconds," said the light, helpfully.

Torr struggled back to his feet and raced back to the airlock, rolling and tumbling along each time that gravity twisted him around. He already knew he wasn't going to make it in time.

"Thirty seconds."

Torr started cycling the airlock.

"Ten."

Slowly the door edged open. The Earth and the Eos appeared innocently through the gap. Torr tried his best to squeeze through while the countdown continued from the ever-helpful light that had for some reason decided to become his constant companion.

"Two... one..."

Torr stared across the void towards the Eos. The tether line he'd installed was still a taut link between the two ships and already he could see them beginning to reverse their positions relative to the Earth. With working engines the Eye in the Sky was able to hold its position above the Earth, which was already beginning to drag the Eos down to its doom.

"Zero. Re-entry phase initiated," the light concluded.

Torr's heart sank, his limbs froze and his eyes clamped tightly shut involuntarily. Perhaps if he didn't actually see his Uncle's ship get destroyed then he wouldn't have to explain it. He could always pretend he wasn't here. (As if that was going to work.)

"Torr! Don't stop. Get over there," shouted the Tinkerer's voice in his ear.

Torr opened his eyes. He couldn't believe what they were telling him. The Eos was still there.

"I can't believe it," he mumbled.

"Get over there and restart that engine before she drags us down with her!" the Tinkerer insisted.

Torr just continued to stare in disbelief. Why wasn't the Eos falling?

"The Eye's engines won't be able to hold both spacecraft up on their own," the Tinkerer continued. "So our fall will be gradual, but our orbit is already deteriorating dangerously close to the point of no return. You need to move quickly!"

"Would you like me to re-calculate how much time we have left before we're all doomed?" asked the light helpfully. "It wouldn't be any trouble."

Torr tried his best to ignore it and glanced across to where the threatening Typhon still hovered above them in a perfectly stable orbit. There was no sign of the lifeboat. Moving quickly and getting to the Eos without being seen were probably going to be totally at odds with one another, Torr reflected.

"But the Typhon," he started. "Won't they notice me?"

~o0o~

Onboard the Typhon the First Office looked up from the monitor.

"My Lord, I think you should see this."

Lord Steal shifted his attention from his glorious future to the annoyingly inferior present. His visit from the Doctor had been most rewarding and another piece of his plan to make himself Lord of Everything was in place. Even the jelly and ice cream had been palatable. With a confident swagger he stalked with ominous intent over to the screen that the First Office was pointing at and peered into it.

Lord Steal's eyes narrowed at what the display was showing him.

"The two other spacecraft have disappeared, m'Lord."

"I can see that you idiot!" he slammed his fist on the surface, his anger growing fast. "Get this equipment checked immediately. First the ANP fails us and now this! Have the Head of Preventative Maintenance executed for incompetence!"

~o0o~

"They shouldn't be able to see you if the IN-VCES is working properly," the Tinkerer laughed, which Torr found mildly inappropriate in the circumstances. "But you need to hurry," he urged in a more serious voice.

Cautiously Torr edged out along the line keeping one eye on the Typhon to check for any sign that they'd discovered him. He was now certain that knowing what an invicies was had become one of the most important questions bubbling away at the back of his brain. Nevertheless, he pressed on in silence.

Moments later he was back onboard the Eos. The interior was a mess and he kept his helmet on to avoid inhaling any of the noxious fumes that were billowing around him in dark, inauspicious clouds. Zarrox still lay unconscious but the control panel appeared to have more life in it and the ship's computer still appeared to be active. He still had a chance.

Re-igniting the engine he let it idle for a few seconds before turning up the throttle. It didn't explode. Things finally appeared to be improving.

"What next?" he wondered out loud as he collapsed to the floor and came face to face with the Keeper's unconscious gaze. The man didn't look very well but at least he appeared to be breathing.

Torr felt helpless. Maybe the Tinkerer would know what to do.

Torr's exhausted thoughts wandered. He was already beginning to regret knowing the little he did suspect about the existence of the Seven Celestial Secrets. This was hard work with danger hiding in wait or him from places he hadn't even heard of this morning.

Hopefully Uncle Otto was safely out of the way. It was the best that Torr could hope for because it looked like he wasn't going to be any help to his Uncle for quite a while.

Chapter 5: Where on Earth am I?

Once he was out of sight of the space battle, Otto sighed with relief and tried to calm down. He took stock of his situation. The lifeboat would see him safely to the surface, but what then?

Earth had been abandoned over two hundred years ago. There would be no hope of rescue from some passing ship. He looked out of the window in growing dismay and tried to learn patience.

At first, descending into the atmosphere had been spectacularly unimpressive. Without any reference point he was unable to tell how fast he was travelling and the ground was too far below to make out any of the finer details.

Then as the Earth rotated sedately beneath him, the ocean rolled gracefully into view. Alone in the lifeboat Otto gasped out loud. He'd never imagined that so much water could exist. It was stupefyingly vast, peeping out at him teasingly between layers of vaporous cloud. What could it all be for? What possible purpose did it have?

But before he could wonder too far the clouds reached up and pulled him into their misty embrace, smothering the lifeboat in hazy boredom. With nothing else to distract him, his thoughts turned to Torr.

He hoped the boy was okay. There was still so much that he needed to tell him about the truth behind the lies that defined his life. But when he hadn't been able to raise him on the radio and the Typhon had attacked he'd had no option but to flee. Hadn't he?

Otto closed his eyes and tried to sleep as his tiny craft rocketed across the scarily cavernous sky.

He awoke, minutes, hours, or days later, to pandemonium. Outside the land passed by at a frightening rate. The lifeboat jerked as the parachutes deployed; one, two, and three. Each slowed the small lifeboat slightly before being ripped clear by the slipstream and the ground continued to hurtle by below.

A second set of parachutes and then a third reduced the speed of the lifeboat to a gentle drift and Otto dared to look down at the ground once more. Woodland spread out beneath him in every direction, stretching to the horizon. It looked like that was where he was going to land.

It was.

Cushioned by the last three parachutes the lifeboat softly bobbed along the treetops, blown along gently by the breeze before becoming tangled in the tips of the forest's fingers. The ship snagged to a standstill with a slight judder.

Otto breathed out loudly. Somehow he'd survived. Now he had to find away of staying alive. The ground still looked a long way away but it was clear that the lifeboat had travelled as far as it was prepared to. Unlocking the door bolts he kicked it clear and gazed across the canopy of trees that spread out in every direction beneath him. He'd never seen so much un-enclosed space before. It was all slightly scary.

Otto had been born inside an asteroid, grown up inside an asteroid and spent most of his life either inside an asteroid, or inside a spaceship. He wasn't used to having nothing but naked sky above his head. He tried hard not to look up.

Instead, he reluctantly looked around the confined interior of the lifeboat. There seemed nothing to keep him here. His only hope was out there in the immense space that was Earth. He pulled his hood up. It helped, a bit.

Seeing the microphone, he pulled it towards him and thumbed the 'ON' switch.

"Torr! Torr! Can you hear me?" he shouted before throwing the microphone to one side.

There was no answer. Why was it that technology always let you down when you needed it most?

Instead, a face popped up in front of him.

"Oook?" it said.

Where on Earth am I? he wondered in surprise.

~o0o~

High above, safely in orbit, without the open sky above his head, the Typhon's First Officer passed a message silently to Lord Steal. He watched the High Lord's lips move as he read it before raising his eyebrows in surprise.

He turned to look at the First Officer.

"So it seems that only one of them survived re-entry."

The First Office nodded cautiously.

"But what do you make of this 'Oook'. Do you think it's some sort of code word?" he asked.

The First Officer shrugged. It seemed the safest thing to do.

Lord Steal glared at him closely, scrutinising him intensely.

"Why do you shrug?" he demanded. "Are you secretly working for the Carthaginians? Do you perhaps know what this code word means and seek to distract me with a 'shrug'?"

A chill went down the First Officer's spine and he gulped nervously.

"No, My Lord," he blurted out, pulling himself to attention and giving Lord Steal his smartest salute. "I'll get a code-breaking team onto it immediately!"

"Good," sneered Lord Steal. "I so like to encourage my men to new heights of inspiration."

~o0o~

Nearby, safely hidden by the IN-VCES, on the very edge of space, the Eos and the Eye in the Sky, pulling together, climbed slowly back into orbit. Thanks to the Tinkerer's technology the Typhon remained totally oblivious to their presence the whole time.

At last something was finally going right. But for how long? Torr was still a long way from any family or friends and alone with some weird, old guy who had an even stranger spacecraft along with an outlandish way of explaining things.

Alone, well yes, unless you counted the even weirder, possibly wounded guy who claimed to be the 'Keeper of Secrets'.

It was a thought that made Torr push himself into an upright position. A nagging question at the back of his brain was insisting on an answer and wouldn't let him rest until he got it.

"So, what is an 'Invicies'?" he asked out loud, hoping that the Tinkerer was somehow listening in.

There was silence except for a few nearly inaudible clicks from the communications console.

Torr paused and was about to ask again when the Tinkerer's voice replied, "Come back here and I'll tell you."

Torr looked down at the unconscious, limp form of Zarrox still breathing weakly on the floor.

"What about the Keeper of Secrets?" he asked worriedly. "He looks pretty bad."

The red stain on Zarrox's top still looked damp and his chest was moving gently.

"I'm worried that he's hurt really bad but I don't know how I'm going to get him from the Eos over to the Eye in the Sky. I don't want to do anything that might make things worse."

There was another pause from the far end of the conversation. Finally a new voice came on the line.

"Please wait caller. Your call is important to us. We are considering your problem and will be with you in a few minutes with a solution. Please wait caller...."

The recording started repeating itself again in cooling, nearly female tones, which were almost, but not quite, soothing. Torr was already beginning to feel irritated. When it got to the fifth iteration he'd started investigating ways to turn the speakers off and by the eleventh he was tugging on the wires near the radio switch to see whether ripping them out would help.

"...your call is impor-squark," the voice finished.

"That's the end of you," said the Tinkerer on the other end of the line. "Sorry about that. I was sure I had un-invented her. Must have dreamt it. Now, where were we?"

Torr sighed. Some conversations were just never easy. Having them over and over again was definitely on his long, long list of habits to give up.

"I don't know what to do with Zarrox. He's..."

"Oh yes," interrupted the Tinkerer. "The good news is that I do! Bring him over to the Eye in the Sky and..."

Torr felt compelled to interrupt. He couldn't take going around the conversation once more and certainly not if it involved the nearly female voice again.

"I can't get him across to you because I don't know how to get him back into his space suit!" he almost shouted. "There's too much blood!"

"Ah!" said the Tinkerer, making the small word even tinier.

Politeness made Torr hold his tongue and then he instantly regretted it.

"Why didn't you say that sooner? Stay there and I'll be right back," the Tinkerer muttered before audibly disappearing with a click,

Torr wanted to shout and scream into the radio but couldn't make up his mind whether to insist that he had already told the Tinkerer how bad the Keeper was, or to beg the Tinkerer not to leave him waiting again. In the end neither came out and he just sat there, fussing over Zarrox's hand, fuming with indignation.

Fortunately, the Tinkerer came back on line again before Torr's temper diffused sufficiently for him to be able to rant into the microphone coherently.

"Hold onto him there. I'm going to bring you both in. Stay with him."

"How are you going to do that?" Torr worded voicelessly to the empty control room.

There was no answer to his silent question.

Desperate to see what was going on, he struggled to his feet whilst keeping hold of Zarrox's hand. It felt limp, but warm, in his grasp. He held onto it for support, unsure of exactly who was supporting whom.

Outside, the threat of the Typhon still hung in space above him, half obscuring the viewing port. Spinning the view with his fingertips he cast it downwards towards the Earth and the Eye in the Sky between them.

For a fleeting moment his thoughts slipped to his Uncle. Despite their differences he hoped Otto was safe. Torr had lost both of his parents and now his Uncle. If he carried on losing relatives at this rate then people would start thinking he was careless, not that he had anyone else left to lose.

He hoped that the lifeboat had landed safely and wondered what his Uncle was doing. Hopefully Otto hadn't been injured.

Torr peered at the scale of the immense planet and thought about where his Uncle might be. Was he looking up at the sky right now and thinking of Torr? Was he even still alive? Torr hoped so. No one had returned from the Earth for hundreds of years.

Before he could ponder too long though his thoughts were jerked back to the present. The Eye in the Sky was getting closer. The Eos was being dragged towards it. The nearest eye turned to look at them and as Torr watched closely the iris wound slowly back and gradually began to open.

"We're not going to make it," he whispered to himself. "The Eos won't fit through no matter how wide the hole gets. She's too big!"

He drew in a deep breath to shout a warning but before he could speak the unbelievable logic of what he was watching forced him to gasp instead. Somehow, someway the iris continued to grow and open before them, expanding exponentially. In rapt silence, still holding the Keeper's hand firmly in his, Torr watched the eye swallow the Eos whole.

The Eos was inside one of the eyes.

"How did that happen?" he gasped.
Chapter 6: Kiki

"How did you do that?" asked Torr once the Eye in the Sky had safely and completely devoured the Eos.

He'd found the Tinkerer and the iota of light waiting for him outside.

"Do what?" asked the Tinkerer innocently.

"That thing with the Eye opening up. There's no way the inside of the eye is big enough to swallow the Eos whole."

The Tinkerer made a play of glancing around the large circular hangar with the Eos clearly on the inside. Uncle Otto's spacecraft was suspended in the middle of the area with machinery, gantries and tools arrayed all around it. It had clearly fit in very easily.

They had just finished evacuating the Keeper who was now safely being cared for by another amazing contraption that the Tinkerer had referred to simply as the 'AutoDoc'. To Torr's mind there were too many sharp edges and needles inside for him to ever trust one but he felt relieved that Zarrox was finally getting the medical attention he needed.

The old man looked back at Torr and raised his eyebrows.

Torr huffed noisily. "Was it magic?" he flustered.

The Tinkerer put a hand gently on Torr's shoulder.

"You need a drink," he insisted. "Kiki, could you please explain what happened?"

Torr was confused. Who was Kicky?

The bobbing light flashed twice.

The light? The light had a name? What sort of a name was 'Kicky'?

"Think of it like a fan," it suggested gently. "When the eye is contracted the walls overlap each other. When it's expanded they are next to each other."

Torr still looked puzzled.

"If that doesn't work, think of it as inflating a balloon."

A confused expression remained on Torr's face.

"Clearly I'm not helping," the light gave up.

Torr laughed, "It's not that. I just can't work out why you're called 'Kicky'."

"Kaleidoscopic Interactive Kid-friendly Interface" explained the light. "K-I-K-I, or Kiki for short."

It already sounded slightly exasperated and Torr eyed the light suspiciously.

"Okay," he breathed out slowly, deciding to move on from one confusing question to the next. "So what's an 'invicy'?"

The light bobbed gently as if in a breeze.

"It's alright," the Tinkerer said soothingly. "He means the IN-VCES. You can tell him."

He turned to speak directly to Torr with a sympathetic look on his face.

"I can see I'm going to have to do some work on Kiki before he's completely ready. Clearly he's going to be needed."

"Completely ready for what? Needed for what?" Torr asked, although he wasn't looking forwards to the answers.

"One question at a time young man. Kiki, if you wouldn't mind explaining the IN-VCES then perhaps we can move on."

The iota of artificial intelligence bobbed again.

"The INtelligent Virtual Camouflage Envelope System. Visual light and other wavelengths reaching one edge of the area within the envelope are bent around the perimeter until they reach the far side before being emitted again."

Torr looked none the wiser.

"What does that mean?"

It was the Tinkerer's turn to sigh.

"It means we're virtually invisible. I expanded the envelope of 'invisibility' to include your ship."

"That's why the Typhon can't see us?" gasped Torr.

"Exactly," exclaimed the Tinkerer. "Now drink this."

The Tinkerer held out a glass of something that resembled green slime and smelled like refrigeration oil.

"I think you'll like it," the Tinkerer suggested, watching Torr's expression carefully as he poured himself something looking equally putrid.

Torr was reluctant to accept the glass but a combination of good manners and having nowhere to discretely dispose of the noxious looking liquid meant that he suddenly found himself cupping the glass in both hands. The Tinkerer raised an expectant eyebrow in silent insistence.

Against his better judgement and with significant reluctance, Torr sipped carefully.

It was as if his taste buds had never really woken up before. It tasted fantastic. Somehow the Tinkerer had managed to capture the best bits of every drink he had ever enjoyed and squeezed them all into this single glass. Torr drank thirstily but slowly. He wanted to make this drink last forever.

He was grateful that gravity was currently behaving itself and the drink remained in the glass rather than roaming erratically around the hangar. Ever since he had been in his first spaceship Torr had become used to gravity gently shifting around him. But he'd never come across gravity working in so many different directions all at the same time! The Eye in the Sky was certainly unlike any other space craft he had ever been on.

His shoulder still felt sore from the earlier fall but he was feeling calmer now. The Tinkerer had been right again. He needed the drink.

"Do you mind if I ask you another question?" asked Torr between sips of his delicious beverage as they walked through to another, more comfortable, eye, full of soft sofa's, reclining chairs and thick carpets.

"Well that depends on whether I can answer it," said the Tinkerer with a wink.

Torr decided to ignore the Tinkerer's erratic sense of humour and ask his question anyway.

"Why is the gravity around here so odd?"

"Oh that's just something I keep around to amuse me..."

Funny sense of humour, ha, ha, thought Torr, irked. He glanced back up at the Tinkerer who had a big smirk spread over his face.

"I thought you were going to ask me something more difficult," he continued with a twinkle in his eye. "Something like why did all of the ANPs go dead at the same time, what's going on and why are the people on the Typhon trying to kill you?" he paused patiently as Torr stared blankly at him with his mouth wide open.

So it wasn't just a malfunction, just like Zarrox had intimated.

"But... how..."

"But how would I know that? As I said, my dear boy, there are lots of things I know. I know the whys and wherefores of lots of things, the how's and who's of some other stuff, but I'm not very good on the when's, they usually give me a problem," he chuckled. "What happened to the ANP units is one of the things I do know," he looked pleased with himself.

"Now close your mouth before I learn more than I want to know about the state of your dental hygiene and let me start at the beginning, because I expect you are the type of boy who wants to know the answer to everything whilst not being interested in the hard work of listening."

Torr nodded encouragingly. He wanted to keep the Tinkerer talking. It looked like he knew more than most weird, old men.

"Several thousand years ago there were two Empires, a long, long distance and several centuries apart, who both shared the same fate. For a while, they ruled everything around them but they became complacent and arrogant. Their pride led to over confidence and their eventual downfall, or so the history books tell us."

There was a pause as the Tinkerer sipped on his own brew that looked and smelt of anti coffee, if such a thing existed. Torr didn't know if it did, but if it did he was sure it would smell like the Tinkerer's drink.

"According to stories that have been handed down to us through the generations, the Aztex and the Carthaginian empires were destroyed by the Spanish and Romans, respectively, when they encountered vastly superior forces, weapons and strategy. History tells us of the great campaigns that were fought and lost and how those Empires fell cataclysmically, never to return."

Torr was disappointed. This was all ancient history. He tried not to let it show on his face. The Tinkerer knew things that other people didn't. He was sure of it and the only way to find them out was to listen. He strained his ears. The Tinkerer wasn't someone you could hurry.

"Of course, these tales simply aren't true. They really are just tales and have as much connection to what really happened as Pinocchio does to being a real boy."

This was more like it thought Torr.

This was like one of the stories that his Uncle read to him at bedtime when he was younger. Stories of battles and bravery, the rise and fall of Empires, tales of heroes and heroines, intrigue and insurrection, dragons and monsters. Dinosaurs would be good. He had a thing about dinosaurs.

"The history we've all been fed is false." the Tinkerer repeated. "It was written by people who wanted to hide the truth. It's total fabrication," he sighed and reached into his pocket.

He pulled out the strangest pair of spectacles that Torr had ever seen and started unfolding them. The process seemed to go on for far longer than was normal.

The glasses consisted of multiple eyepieces arrayed around a complex arrangement of cogs, sprockets and flywheels that opened up new dimensions and permutations with every twist of the Tinkerer's gnarled hands. Each lens was a different size and shape and some even seemed to show places that weren't there, or here, depending on your perspective. They were even housed in different frames that clicked and clacked against each other with odd echoes and reverberations.

Torr watched more closely, mesmerised by the way the Tinkerer's fingers flickered this way and that, opening and closing one lens after another. He noted how the Tinkerer carefully cleaned each one with a strange cloth of multitudinous colours and fabrics. As he cleaned he continued talking and Torr tore his attention back to what the Tinkerer was saying.

"These Empires didn't fall, they just went into hiding," he said furtively, hunching his head into his shoulders. "They were happy to disappear from the official narrative of humanity so that they could gather their strength and arise again when the time was right."

The Tinkerer sat bolt upright in his chair again and started talking in a very animated way.

"Now that humans have seeded the solar system with thousands of colonies, each virtually marooned on their own asteroid, the Empires have risen again! They both have one aim and that is to totally dominate all humanity. "

The Tinkerer raised his arms and sketched a large, imaginary, globe in the air as he continued talking quickly. His words were beginning to flow, one into another and Torr had to listen even more carefully to follow what was going on. While he talked, darkness filled the room, oozing in from all directions, clinging to the walls and slinking across the floor. Strange shadows leapt across the walls, chasing each other with unusual expressions.

From what the Tinkerer was saying, to Torr, the future of mankind looked very gloomy indeed.

Chapter 7: Secret Empires

Torr listened to the Tinkerer's voice avidly.

"Throughout the millennia between the 'supposed fall' of these two Empires and today, the Aztex and the Carthaginian, have been gradually growing, secretly and unchallenged. They have been expanding across human space slowly and quietly."

His voice dropped to a whisper.

"Carefully taking over more and more territory, one asteroid at a time, they have conquered huge areas of space. No one noticed them. No one bothered to do anything about it until they were too powerful to stop. Now, however they have encountered each other and are testing each other's strength."

"Out there..." he continued, expanding his outstretched arms and speaking more loudly. "Out there, a not so secret war is being fought with mighty spaceships and powerful fleets. The Typhon is just one ship amongst hundreds, bringing war and devastation wherever they go. If they are allowed to continue unchecked then it's only a matter of time before everything is consumed by their conflict."

"And somehow they've managed to figure out how to turn off the ANPs, or was it the Keeper?" asked Torr, trying to connect the Tinkerer's fantastic tale with something he recognised as reality.

"Well, only accidentally," the Tinkerer shrugged a little and his shoulders appeared to move of their own accord, trying to find themselves a comfortable position balanced at the top of his ribcage.

"Both sides are engaged in an arms race of epic proportions. The Aztex Empire appears to have been trying to capture and understand the technology behind the Seven Celestial Secrets and use it against the Carthaginians."

"The Secrets really do exist then?" Torr asked excitedly.

Ever since the Tinkerer had mentioned the first secret Torr had been hoping that there really was a connection with what the Keeper had said. It looked like the Eye in the Sky and everything about the Tinkerer was also part of the mystery of the Seven Celestial Secrets. A hundred more questions jumped into Torr's mind at the same time and started bouncing around trying to find ways to leap unbidden from his lips.

The Tinkerer raised a hand, "I can see you have lots of questions. All in good time. Yes, of course they exist; Zarrox is living proof of that. Just not many people know about them, that's all. They wouldn't be very good secrets if everyone knew where they were hidden would they?"

That was exactly what Torr had thought. His face fell.

"Guess not."

"Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on which way you look at it, the well laid plans of the Aztex Empire appear to have come undone," the Tinkerer stroked his long grey beard, looking thoughtful.

"I suspect that they managed to discover where the Seven Celestial Secrets were hidden and in a daring raid broke into the Satellite of Silence and stole them. I believe that you and your Uncle Otto became involved because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that may turn out to be the only bit of good luck in this for all mankind."

Torr wasn't sure he would describe it as good luck. Everything had gone downhill for him fairly rapidly ever since they'd stumbled across the Typhon and the Satellite of Silence.

"Now the Aztex have got what they wanted, but they have no idea about how to get the secrets to work or even open them up. The necessary science is way beyond anything they understand. It appears that before he departed the Keeper of the Seven Celestial Secrets managed to booby trap them. Then if anyone attempted to open, or tamper with the Secrets then the machines that rely on them would stop operating across the whole of human space."

That was another confirmation that what the Keeper had said was true.

"So, if the ANP has broken then..."

"Yes, you've guessed correctly. The technology behind the ANP is one of the Seven Celestial Secrets. Each of the Seven Celestial Secrets enables a key piece of technology to work and each of them are needed for humans to thrive in space. The ANP is one of those; enabling travel and commerce between the different asteroids without fear of collision or damage."

Torr's mind spun with a multitude of new questions. What were the other secrets, then? What essential technology was even now resting on the whims of the Aztex about whether it carried on working or suddenly failed? A chill went down his spine. This was really serious and much bigger than him, or his Uncle. Maybe they ought to tell someone, but who? The Tinkerer was just an old man.

"Humans might survive without the Celestial Secrets," the Tinkerer continued, "but it would be a very sparse existence indeed and mankind would be much diminished, if they survived at all. If humans were to lose the technology that the Secrets enable now then many millions would die in the ensuing chaos. Even with just the loss of the First Secret, without the ANPs, ships will be unable to avoid collisions."

If ships were now crashing all across space then even the loss of one secret would be having devastating effects. Torr couldn't begin to comprehend what might happen if all of them went out of action at the same time. It would be chaos.

Chaos, chaos, where had he heard that word recently? Oh yes, Uncle Otto had mentioned something about chaos theory. He had said something about the ANP using chaos theory.

"Is that because the ANPs use chaos theory?" Torr asked the Tinkerer, trying to sound clever.

"No, not really," answered the Tinkerer, absently stroking his beard.

Torr felt stupid and wished he hadn't said anything.

"Chaos theory is a human idea that basically says that some things are just too complicated to predict. It says that very small changes create huge differences in the results, making them unpredictable. Henri Poincaré came up with the original idea and then people used it to say that the weather was too complicated to predict and talked nonsense about butterflies causing hurricanes, or some such idiocy." The Tinkerer stopped stroking his beard and scratched his head thoughtfully before continuing.

"Humans used Henri's chaos theory as an easy excuse for anything they found too difficult to work out. Of course the aliens who built the Seven Celestial Secrets are much too bright and determined to let that sort of thinking stop them."

Aliens, Torr's brain shouted and then his mouth started working before he could stop it, "What about the aliens then? Are they real? Why do they keep the Celestial Secrets secret?"

"Questions, questions, questions, who can tell how an alien thinks? Perhaps they are real; perhaps they are a story created by some hidden benefactor. Perhaps I made them up."

Torr was sure that the Tinkerer winked at him before continuing, "Some people believe that the Seven Celestial Secrets are all that remain of an ancient human civilisation that ruled space long ago before falling back into a dark age. Who knows? We can only guess."

"But the Celestial Secrets are real and they do exist," he continued. "The very failure of the ANP shows that the Aztex ship that stole them, this Typhon that's caused us so much trouble, must have tried to open up the First Secret and now every ANPs stopped working everywhere."

"But what about the other six Celestial Secrets. Are they still working?" asked Torr.

The Tinkerer glanced around, sniffing the air. "Yes, they appear to be. One can only suppose that they will stop working as well if no one can be found to stop the Aztex and recover the secrets."

He focused his thoughts directly onto Torr who was oblivious to the attention.

"What about the Carthaginians?" asked Torr. "Won't they stop the Aztex?"

"They'll certainly try, but that's not going to help anyone. The Carthaginians want the Seven Celestial Secrets just as badly as the Aztex. If they get hold of them they'll try and twist their power to their own designs as well. That's probably the only thing that's stopping the Aztex from breaking open all of the Seven Celestial Secrets already; the fact that the Carthaginians are probably tearing known space apart looking for the Typhon. They don't know it's right here."

"We could tell them," grinned Torr.

"Now that's an idea," replied the Tinkerer, a smile sliding across his face. "You're cleverer than you look."

The Tinkerer turned to Kiki, "I think it's best coming from you," he suggested. "I don't want them thinking I've taken sides in this."

The tiny light winked and disappeared.

"Wow!" whispered Torr, innocently misunderstanding the Tinkerer's comment. "A real space war is underway."

"Well space wars are not all they are cracked up to be," sighed the Tinkerer. "It's all very dangerous

and it's going to need a special sort of individual to get the Celestial Secrets back to the Satellite of Silence before they all get destroyed."

He shook his head as if trying to dislodge a persistent thought that had taken up residence there.

"A special sort of individual who can help save the entire solar system," he said, wagging his finger and staring straight at Torr so much so that Torr glanced over his shoulder expecting to find someone standing behind him.

There was no one there.

Torr was confused. Surely the Tinkerer wasn't talking about him?

He turned back, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Well, you've already proved yourself to be a very enterprising person and you have a very special reason for wanting the Seven Celestial Secrets back," the old man smiled softly.

Torr looked back at the Tinkerer in disbelief. What was he talking about?

"Wouldn't my Uncle Otto be a better choice?" he stammered. "Or the Keeper?"

The Tinkerer ignored this suggestion and instead said something that drove all other thoughts straight out of Torr's head.

"If you can get them back to me and I can fix them then I can probably help you to find your parents."

The Tinkerer paused while Torr's brain tried to catch up with his ears.

"Will you help me?"

The Tinkerer had Torr's total concentration. Anything that would help him find his parents had his full attention. To be able to see his parents again was better than anything he could think of. He didn't even stop to wonder how the Tinkerer knew so much about him.

"You bet I will!" he confirmed eagerly, his mouth doing the thinking for him. "I'll do whatever it takes to find my parents!"

Thoughts of his parents drove all concerns about Uncle Otto from his mind.

"Good," said the Tinkerer in a way that made Torr wonder what he had just agreed to.
Chapter 8: No word from Earth

Torr was filled with an unfamiliar sense of elation. No one had ever offered to help him find his parents in all the years since he had last seen them. Even Uncle Otto had always avoided the subject.

"I believe I can, but not immediately," the Tinkerer cautioned in sombre tones. "There is still a lot of work we need to do first. To begin with, I need you to help me get the Seven Celestial Secrets back."

"Of course!" said Torr without thinking about what he was agreeing to. "Whatever! I'll do whatever it takes to find them. I know they'd do the same for me."

The Tinkerer glanced out of the window and pointed towards the Earth.

"The Earth holds part of the answer. I believe that your parents sent their last message from somewhere in orbit around the Earth. If they did, then we can cross reference the time and position of the communication with the ANP databanks, which will tell us what direction they were heading in when they left the ANP network. If we search for them along that line it will significantly reduce the volume of space we're sifting through. Unfortunately, there are trillions of records in the ANP databanks and any one of them could be about your parents. Searching for the one record about them could take centuries."

Torr's heart, that had been full of hope mere moments before, fell to new depths.

"But if you can recover the ANP command controller for me then we can reduce that search-time down to a matter of days," the Tinkerer continued and Torr held out for a slither of hope, however small.

"About the ANP," Torr started. "How do I..."

"That's a good question!" the Tinkerer interrupted. "I was wondering when you were going to ask that."

Torr continued to feel unsettled by the way the Tinkerer always appeared to know what he was going to ask next.

"But before I can answer it," the Tinkerer continued, gesticulating wildly. "I need to do some work on your ship and then we can talk about what you can do next. Until then I suggest that you stay here on my Eye in the Sky. Get some rest, eat, read, take some time out. You'll feel better for it later."

The Tinkerer led him through a maze of tunnels, past workshops of quirky gravity filled with unusual gadgetry and across perilous drops suspended impossibly high above the Earth with only the stars for company. Dials and gauges were everywhere and every so often the Tinkerer would stop next to one and tap it lightly before sighing to himself and frowning. Amazingly, some of the instruments appeared to frown back in reply.

Just once Torr stopped to examine a pressure gauge that the Tinkerer had inspected in passing. As Torr bent his head forwards to decipher the strange symbols he was sure that the dial deliberately hissed steam into his face. He jumped back in alarm and studiously avoided getting too close to any more of them. In Torr's opinion the Eye in the Sky definitely couldn't be called safe.

"I'll try and do something with the Kaleidoscopic Interface as well," said the Tinkerer, almost as if he was talking to himself.

However, despite its weirdness, Torr felt no fear, or trepidation, as they continued through the Eye in the Sky, even when he could still see the ominous shape of the Typhon high above them. For some reason he felt at home here. Eventually they came to a suite of smaller rooms where things were more settled and normal. There were no hissing pipes or cable filled conduits, no flickering gauges or dials, no archaic levers and clockwork mechanisms. There was only a bed, a few chairs, a shower, a desk and a screen. It was just like his room onboard the Eos, only bigger. An inviting illusion of comfort enveloped him and he finally began to relax.

"The guest suite," the Tinkerer explained. "There's everything you will need here. I'll come and get you when I have finished..." he paused as if considering his next word carefully, "...creating."

Torr settled into the bed, suddenly realising how tired and weary he was. He was asleep in moments. But despite the comforting surroundings it wasn't a restful sleep. It was a slumber, full of dreams and portends.

Several times he awoke with a start, his head full of confusing visions of dinosaurs and dragons, circuses and snow, huge snarling polar bears and pirates. Hundreds and hundreds of pirates and a pink round face surrounded with feathers, staring enigmatically down at him.

Through every scene, in every dream, there was a running figure, constantly chased but never caught. He couldn't see who, or what, was pursuing it but he knew that terrible danger dogged the runner's footsteps, closer, closer, closer...

He awoke with a start. A cold sweat smeared his brow.

Just a dream, he told himself as he sat up, staring into the darkness, looking for intruders. But he wasn't convincing anyone, least of all himself.

~o0o~

When the Tinkerer came back for him Torr was more than ready. Whilst the guestroom had every device and distraction he could desire; he was keen to get on with finding his parents. If that meant recovering the ANP first, then he was determined to get started however daunting it might be. He wanted to be reunited with them no matter what he had to do.

"Is the Keeper going to be okay?" asked Torr.

It was one of two nagging questions that had been nudging him throughout the last few days.

The Tinkerer nodded "Yes. His vital signs have stabilised so we've taken him out of the AutoDoc and placed him in stasis."

Stasis? thought Torr, but asked no more. It appeared to be an improvement on AutoDoc and that was sufficient detail for Torr.

"...and Uncle Otto?" Torr asked, dreading the answer.

The Tinkerer frowned, "No word, I'm afraid."

Torr frowned back. He was really on his own.

"But that is as expected," continued the Tinkerer. "Just because we haven't heard from him doesn't mean that we should worry. There's no point in worrying about things you have no control over."

He looked directly at Torr.

"Come, you should see what I've managed to achieve," he said, holding the door open. "I'm sure you'll like what you see and then we can get on with things. You want to see your parents, don't you?"

The Tinkerer suddenly had Torr's complete attention.

"It won't be soon though," the old man cautioned. "There's lots we have to do before we can find them and the first of those is to follow me."

Just the possibility of finding his parents was enough for Torr. He was ready to try anything.

Within minutes Torr and the Tinkerer stood together in the cabin of the Eos. At least Torr thought it was the Eos.

To his dismay, thousands of extra knobs and switches had magically appeared on nearly every surface. Somehow, however, there seemed to be much more space than when he'd left it. It was almost as if everything had all been pushed outwards to make way for something big that hadn't been installed yet. Even the overnight bag appeared more alert and formidable, although it also looked a little bit sheepish and scuttled away as soon as it noticed him. Torr reminded himself to look into what all that was about when he got a chance.

He was starting to worry what his Uncle Otto was going to say about all the new equipment that the Tinkerer had installed, not to mention the subtle design changes that had been made. Perhaps he should have said something before the Tinkerer had started...err... creating, but he'd been too focused on finding his parents to think about anything else at the time. If he was lucky maybe he'd be able to get the Tinkerer to return it to the way it was before his Uncle managed to return from Earth. That was assuming he ever did.

The Tinkerer was engrossed with describing the purpose of each new switch, knob and lever as well as all the dials, gauges and meters that were sprawled across the control console. But Torr couldn't quite take it all in. There was really only one important thing he needed to remember; recover the Celestial Secrets and he might be able to find his parents. He'd stopped listening to the Tinkerer's explanation and was just staring around wide-eyed in amazement at how different everything looked. How had the Tinkerer found the time to make all of these changes he wondered?

"... and this locker has a number of devices that you might need with anything else you can think of being in the overnight bag."

He turned to look at Torr as if he was about to say something that would make him feel uncomfortable.

"And as promised I've installed Kiki. He has direct control of the ship and I've provided a new mobile form that should be less conspicuous than that neon flashing light. Hopefully he should stop you from getting into too much trouble."

Torr was suddenly all ears.

Art by Ben Smithbury

"Kiki?"

The Tinkerer clicked his fingers and a small object, no bigger than a bumblebee, trailing wires beneath it, floated through the air and landed on Torr's shoulder.

"Hi boss," said Kiki directly to Torr.

Even the voice was new.

Torr stared at the small shape on his shoulder, "Kiki, is that really you? You look so... erm, discrete."

If he was being honest with himself he'd admit that he was still trying to get used to being called boss. While Torr watched, Kiki started to unfold himself in reversing origami until he was the size of Torr's hand.

"I can do this as well! There are all sorts of new

things I can do. Would you like me to show you them all? It will only take a couple of weeks."

"Erm... maybe later," Torr answered diplomatically aware of the Tinkerer's impatience in relation to Kiki's electronic exuberance.

Fortunately the Tinkerer didn't appear to be listening, instead he was muttering about Kiki's new mobile configuration being based on the same versatile principles as paper.

"Wow! That's so cool," Torr exclaimed, ignoring him, whilst saying something that he hoped would fit the conversation.

"Ahem," said the Tinkerer, clearing his throat. "I've programmed him with all of the new information that you will need as I expect you've not been listening to much of what I've said."

Torr's face went red but he didn't say anything,

"Now are you still sure that you're ready for this?"

Torr gulped audibly. What could he say that would reflect how he really felt that wouldn't offend the Tinkerer after all of his hard work?

Chapter 9: Battle in Space

"I hope so," nodded Torr, feeling anxious and totally unprepared now that the time had come to have to finally make a start on his quest.

He'd been thinking about this moment for a while and now here it was. He still felt unprepared.

"I'm ready to do whatever it takes to find my parents," he found himself saying. Fortunately, he believed it, otherwise he might never have got started.

"Good. Well all you need to do is sneak on board the Typhon, grab the Celestial Secrets and get them back here. It should be quite simple. It's still around here somewhere; the Typhon that is."

Torr's stomach did a somersault. The Typhon!?!

He hadn't thought that far ahead. He'd got carried away with the thought of finding his parents and hadn't quite considered exactly what he might have to do to locate them.

Torr's lips tightened into a thin grimace. He'd promised he'd do whatever it took to be re-united with his parents and here was his chance. It didn't seem like he had any choice. If he didn't do what the Tinkerer was suggesting, he might never see them again.

His backbone tightened and he stood up straighter. This was it then.

The Tinkerer started to stare into a nearby scanner in that way that people search for a black widow spider in a terrarium.

Armed with his new resolve, Torr started to focus on what he was going to have to do, whilst reality fixed its resolve with cold, hard certainty and stared straight back at him. Torr was sure that it couldn't be quite as simple as the Tinkerer had indicated. Life wasn't. His particular life certainly hadn't been that simple ever since he and his Uncle Otto had stumbled across the Typhon's attack on the Satellite of Silence.

He'd spent so long trying to avoid the Typhon that going onboard was still an unbelievable idea. But it had to be done.

"Ah, here it is," said the Tinkerer.

"We've drifted apart a bit on different courses but it's still out there orbiting the earth. It's drifted away a bit while you've been asleep but you should find it just over the horizon. Shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes to get there."

That sounded far too soon and Torr's stomach did a quick flip and then a hop, skip and a jump for good measure. It was all his backbone could do to hold it all together whilst words spilled out from his mouth.

"Won't they try and stop me? It sounds dangerous," he asked anxiously.

"It quite probably is," the Tinkerer agreed dismissively. "But I've packed a number of items that might come in useful. Now what were they?" he looked thoughtfully. "Hmmm, I can't seem to remember at the moment but I'm sure that Kiki can fill you in on them as you go along. That's what he's for. When you recover the Celestial Secrets bring them straight back here and I'll fix them. I'm probably the only person this side of the Gates of Titan who can."

Torr started to object, but then reconsidered whether that was wise. Given what he had seen so far the Tinkerer was probably right. Besides, he had no idea where the Gates of Titan were. He'd certainly never been there himself and didn't know of anyone who had.

He was starting to realise that there were a lot of unusual things about the Tinkerer that he didn't understand. Maybe the old man was more than just unusual?

Torr looked sideways at the Tinkerer. Yes, the Tinkerer was old, but how old? With his face hidden behind that long beard it was difficult to tell. He was tall, but was he taller than normal? Despite his jet black skin that was strikingly similar to Zarrox's Torr could see that he was wrinkled, but did that mean he was too old to be human? Yes, he wore a long brightly coloured robe that wasn't current fashion, but did an odd dress sense make him alien?

Torr had never met an alien before and wouldn't know what one looked like even if he had. Not for the last time he regretted his past for being too boring. It hadn't prepared him for any of this. Recent events had been totally overwhelming. He felt totally unsettled and didn't like having a lot more questions than answers, especially about himself and the situation he was in.

"Can you tell my Uncle that I'm OK?" he asked quietly. "That is, if you, or anyone else ever find him."

The Tinkerer smiled and the whole room seemed to light up. He placed a comforting hand on Torr's shoulder.

"I'll see if I can locate him and if I do I'll let him know that he shouldn't worry about you. I suspect he's got a lot on his mind right now."

Torr hoped Uncle Otto was in a better position than himself. He had to be, there weren't many situations more fraught with danger (except maybe docking a ship inside an asteroid without a working ANP).

"I've extended the IN-VCES to cover the Eos so you should be able to sneak up undetected," continued the Tinkerer. "In fact I've made so many changes that this isn't really the same ship you arrived in. I can't however promise that you'll remain undetected forever. The Aztex and the Carthaginians are smart. If they want something then they have a habit of figuring out how to get it. The IN-VCES won't work for ever so you'd better get a move on."

Without waiting for a response, the Tinkerer adjusted the instrument panel and showed Torr how to start the engines before handing over control to Kiki.

There was nothing left to say. Torr found himself shaking the Tinkerer's hand and thanking him before the old man disembarked and closed the airlock door behind him. Torr found himself wondering when he would see the Tinkerer again and an eerie blanket of loneliness wrapped him in its arms before Kiki shattered the temporary instance of solitude.

"Outer eye-door opening. Engine pre-ignition sequence initiated. Pressure doors locked and set to manual. Optimal trajectory calculated..."

The rumble of the engine grew to a roar, drowning out Kiki's monologue. Within moments the Eos eased clear of the Eye in the Sky and started an easy drift towards the Typhon.

Torr was on his way. Towards what, he had no idea.

~o0o~

Soon afterwards, onboard the Typhon, the First Officer stared at the report that had just been received from the Deciphering Desk.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FROM: The Head of the Deciphering Desk, Aztex Armed Forces HQ, Amazonia.

TO: The First Officer, HESS The Typhon

SUBJECT: Coded message: #3trco\\#!*dd7

I hesitate to report that despite several days of full factor deciphering we are no further forwards making sense of your message. We can therefore only assume that the meaning isn't hidden within the word, but the word itself is a warning that something is about to happen. Please take all necessary precautions.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The First Officer bit at his nail and thought about how to tell Lord Steal. The inability of the Deciphering Desk to unlock the hidden meaning in the message was likely to send him into a rage. Most times that would be directed at whoever hadn't done their job. But the Deciphering Desk was on the other side of the sun and it was always possible that Lord Steal would focus his displeasure on someone much closer to home. Perhaps he'd even take his anger out on the person who was only delivering the message. That could be bad, very bad indeed. He needed to think carefully about how he passed this note on.

Placing the page to one side until later, he concentrated on a more pressing problem: where had he left the nail scissors?

~o0o~

Nearby, all alone on the Eos and out in space, much closer to the Typhon than the Eye in the Sky, Torr was still studying the silent battleship. He'd been trying to think of a cunning plan to get onboard and back again without being spotted but wasn't having much success. His mind was beginning to ache with all of the fruitless thinking it was having to do.

As he continued to stare uselessly at the immense battleship, explosions started to erupt across the hull of the Typhon, jerking him back to reality. He watched in fascination as another battleship struck fast and serpent-like around the curve of the earth, firing as it came.

The attacker appeared to have taken the Typhon almost completely by surprise and its guns were pounding the Aztex ship mercilessly. Written along its side in enormous letters, were the words 'Nebulon III'.

Torr gasped in amazement as the Typhon started to turn tail and run. Wow, he thought. If I had a battleship like that, recovering the Celestial Secrets would be child's play.

"Kiki?"

"Yep."

"What do you know about the Nebulon III?"

"It's a Carthaginian battleship. The biggest in their fleet," Kiki announced helpfully.

So the Carthaginians were here. Just like the Tinkerer had said. The two empires really were in the middle of some huge war. He had to think of something quickly because otherwise the Nebulon III would destroy the Typhon before he even managed to sneak on board. This new development changed things dramatically.

Almost as he thought it, the Typhon started to break apart under the onslaught.

Typical, thought Torr. Just when I thought I was beginning to understand what I needed to do, it changes again!

Torr's spirits sank. The Typhon had been taken unawares and already looked finished. How was he going to recover the Seven Celestial Secrets and find his parents now? He started to think about how he was going to explain this to the Tinkerer.

But as he watched, eyes glued to the screen, a strange thing happened. He could see that the Typhon wasn't being blown apart. It was breaking itself apart!

Torr stared in fascination as he realised that the Typhon was nothing more than eight interconnected ships joined together. Now that they were under attack, the individual sections of the huge battle ship were separating out and taking their own chances.

It struck Torr that this was an ingenious plan and a good tactic for when you were overwhelmed. The Nebulon III couldn't chase all of the separate pieces at the same time. Most of them would be likely to escape, rather than all perishing together.

Seven of the ships fled away from him, disappearing amongst the nearest asteroids. But the last one was heading straight towards where Torr and the Eos were hiding. The Carthaginian Nebulon III was already turning in pursuit of the segment heading in his direction. With a concerned frown, Torr knew that somehow he would need to board the nearest subsection of the Typhon and search it for any of the Seven Celestial Secrets before the Nebulon III caught up with it. Worse than that he realised that he had to keep ahead of the Nebulon III, searching each of the segments for any trace of the Celestial Secrets until he found all of them. Time had run out faster than he had thought possible.

With nervous, shaking hands he reached for the controls. This is where he would find out what he was made of.

Elsewhere, Fate nudged Destiny on the shoulder and pointed to what was happening. Things were beginning to get interesting just as Fortune had popped out for a moment. Typical!
Chapter 10: Captured!

Reluctantly, Torr admitted to himself that he didn't have a plan. The only thought in his head was to get aboard the first segment of the Typhon heading towards him and figure the rest out as he went along. He realised it wasn't the best of plans but at least he could take full credit for thinking it up.

Torr felt nervous. He just hoped that he could get on and off before the Nebulon III noticed him. He knew he'd have to be quick. He also recognised he'd need something to carry the Celestial Secrets in. Torr glanced around for the overnight bag. He couldn't see it anywhere.

He scratched at his head, trying to think. He remembered seeing the bag when the Tinkerer showed him around the improved Eos. Torr recalled it acting oddly, but before that... there was something he'd said that was important. He just couldn't remember what it was.

"Kiki? Where's the overnight bag?"

"Hiding!"

"Hiding?"

"That's what I said, hiding."

"Why's he hiding?"

"Let me just check my memory banks."

There was a soft whirring sound as Kiki pondered. Then the screen lit up. Torr saw himself standing inside the Eye's airlock. It looked like he'd just arrived there as he appeared stressed and unsettled (he didn't want to use the word 'scared' but it was probably more accurate). The light that had been Kiki bobbed around in front of him.

"...we have less than five minutes to start the engines on both ships before Earth's gravity becomes inescapable," said the onscreen Kiki.

"Okay okay, you've made your point," shouted the on-screen Torr. "You have my full attention, but what can I do about it?"

Torr watched in dismay as the overnight bag gave him a nudge as if it was trying to tell him something.

"Get lost!" the on-screen Torr snarled at it. "Can't you see I'm busy!"

Ah! Realisation hit Torr and roughed him up a bit. He'd told the overnight bag to get lost and it had docilely followed his orders.

He felt guilty.

"OK, look, I'm sorry. Can you tell it...err...that I'm ... um ... not busy anymore and I'm sorry. There's no need to be 'lost' anymore. It's safe to come out now."

Several slow seconds later the overnight bag peeped carefully out of one of the new lockers that the Tinkerer had installed. Torr beckoned it over and gave it a hug.

"Oh, I missed you," Torr said to the overnight bag.

He knew it was an odd thing to say, especially to a bag, but apart from his clothes it was all that he had left of his old life. Even that was an odd expression. It had only been a handful of days ago but already he was missing his boring life with Uncle Otto. At least there had been someone to share his adventures and worries with. All he had now was Kiki, who was hardly huggable, a completely remodelled Eos and the overnight bag. He held onto it tightly.

The overnight bag looked at him weirdly in return.

"Whatusay? You want me to pack tissues?" it asked, stupidly.

Torr sighed. Why was his life never simple? The Tinkerer clearly hadn't worked too hard on the overnight bag's intelligence then.

"No, no, not at all. Just tell me, what have you packed?" he asked wearily.

The overnight bag unzipped itself and started pulling out pyjamas, a toothbrush and Uncle Otto's spare underpants.

Torr laughed, "Stop! Stop! Stop!"

It was a welcome release for the coiled spring of tension that lay curled in his stomach. So much for the Tinkerer's assurance that he'd put 'anything else you can think of in the overnight bag'.

"Well, that's not going to help us take on a Carthaginian battleship is it?" Torr asked, waving Uncle Otto's toothbrush menacingly at his frozen image on the big screen.

Thankfully, Kiki ignored his question, "We'll be alongside the Aztex mini ship in a few more minutes. What do you want me to do?"

Torr thought for a few moments, "Better match its speed, trajectory, velocity and anything else you can think of. I know that won't be easy without a working ANP but I'm sure a computer of your calibre is up to it."

If Torr hoped that his attempt at amateur reverse psychology was going to work on Kiki he was about to be disappointed.

"If you think I'm just a computer then you're sadly mistaken," Kiki huffed indignantly.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Torr stammered, one eye firmly on the rapidly approaching mini Typhon. He wasn't used to arguing with emotionally charged computers.

Wasted seconds passed while he tried hard not to look at the screen and stop feeling foolish at the same time. Gradually he regained his composure and settled himself. He reminded himself that getting on board was the most important thing he needed to focus on.

When he began speaking again he tried to talk quietly, hoping Kiki had calmed down a bit.

"Please try and hide in the shadow of the mini Typhon so as to keep us out of sight of the Nebulon III. I don't know how far the IN-VCES envelope will stretch and I don't want to take any chances. We've got to get used to working without it. I don't want them to notice us if I can help it, I mean 'we' can help it."

He started to get up, "I'd better get dressed."

Torr started towards the airlock and the modified space suits he'd seen hanging there. He had assumed that there'd be one there that would fit him but recent events were beginning to erode his self-confidence.

"And while you're at it, pack the overnight bag with something you think might be more useful than a pyjama cord."

"Please," he added as an afterthought. "The bag's coming with me."

"Whoopee!" shouted the bag, leaping to the floor and doing a backward somersault flip.

Gymnastics was clearly one of its new specialities.

~o0o~

On the planet below, Uncle Otto sat in silence, oblivious to the adventure that was happening high above him, just beyond the edge of the atmosphere. After several days he'd finally got used to the open expanse of sky overhead and could now spend several hours outside without once ducking expectantly.

Discovering that the Earth was still inhabited had come as a bit of a shock. Inhabited was a loose term he was using that reflected the fact that whilst he'd seen lots of wildlife he'd not met anything human. But even the existence of wildlife was completely contrary to everything he'd ever been taught about Earth. It was supposed to be uninhabitable. Someone, somewhere had been telling a whole host of lies and at the moment he had no idea who, or why. One thing he was sure about, though, was that he intended to find out what was really going on and, possibly why there was such a big cover up. After all, it wasn't as if he had anything better to do.

The troop of monkeys that had helped him down from the treetops had moved off the previous night, bidding farewell enthusiastically and promising to write. He didn't expect them to though. Passing travellers rarely became best friends, he thought. Besides, he wasn't sure that the postal system was still functioning fully. Just because a troop of monkeys thought it was a good system didn't mean that it worked.

Ahead of him lay a city. He was almost certain of it. Some of those large grass and ivy covered mounds had to be buildings. Whilst his grasp of Earth geography was sparse he was fairly certain that nature didn't usually create straight, very narrow valleys that criss-crossed each other at regular intervals.

Leaving the lifeboat behind was a gamble, he knew, but if anyone was coming to rescue him they would have been here by now. Besides the stores onboard had run out the day before. The breakfast of berries that the monkeys had helped him gather had filled his stomach and he felt confident that he could find some more whenever he needed. Food would be the least of his worries. No, now was the time to move on and see if he could uncover the reality behind the mystery.

Pushing himself up he turned and placed the note he'd written under a stone inside the capsule. If Torr were still alive then one day he might read it and understand. He hoped the boy was alright but there was nothing Otto could do about it even if Torr wasn't. Torr had to pursue his own life now. Uncle Otto's future lay out there in the abandoned wilderness.

The adventures of the last couple of days had better prepared him to live with the fear and uncertainty that was beginning to pervade his life. He stepped out into it with more than a hint of trepidation.

Despite himself, he was intrigued. If there had been one lie, then there might be others and somewhere out there were the answers. Somehow it felt reassuring to be more than a little afraid. He just had to learn how to feel the fear and do it anyway.

Simple really, he tried to reassure himself. It nearly worked...

~o0o~

Standing out on the wing of the Eos once more, with an immense panoply of stars surrounding him, Torr prepared to leap across the infinite void again. This time, he was wearing a space suit that was slightly too large for him. Maybe he was supposed to grow into it.

Inside his head, a small voice was starting to get concerned that jumping from spaceship to spaceship was becoming a bit of a habit for him. Silently he quietened it with a promise that this would be the absolute last time. Definitely, never again. Never, ever!

"Oh yeah?" said the voice. "How are you going to get back then?"

Torr ignored it. He didn't have time for an argument with himself or the inevitable mental breakdown that would follow.

With the recovery line securely tied to his waist he strapped the overnight bag across his shoulders and pushed away. Repetition was making this slightly easier, but Torr felt that the emphasis had to be on the slightly.

Landing lightly next to the airlock door he tried the handle.

Locked!

Well, what did he expect; a welcoming committee? Torr started to see the holes in his plan to make it up as he went along. He was beginning to realise that it hadn't been one of his best decisions.

Standing on the hull of a defeated enemy ship, hurtling through space, pursued by a different enemy's battleship, wearing someone else's space suit, Torr was completely out of ideas. With nothing to lose, he peered in through the window in the door before sheepishly knocking on it.

"Hello, is anyone in there?" he whispered to himself.

To his amazement the airlock started to cycle and the outer door opened. Cautiously, Torr peered around the edge of the door. There was nothing there. The airlock appeared empty. Who had opened the door?

Just then, a furry hand appeared at the inner airlock window and beckoned him into the vacant chamber. Having come this far Torr couldn't see he had any alternative but to follow the beckoning hand, however much it appeared to be a trap. If he was going to do whatever it took to find his parents then he was going to have to enter this ship. Going back now just wasn't an option.

With a lump in his throat and a furiously beating heart he climbed inside. He was glad that there was no one around to see just how scared he was. Hopefully Kiki wasn't recording his mistakes to play back to him after it was all over. Assuming he survived, that is.

Torr swallowed hard.

Once inside, the door closed behind him and the airlock shut again before the inner door opened. Carefully, Torr stepped from the airlock into the main part of the ship. Inside there was more than he had bargained for.

The hairy hand he had seen at the window belonged to a small, teddy bear sized figure. Whilst it had fur, that was where the resemblance to a teddy bear ended. Both its head and body were too ball shaped to belong to any bear that Torr had ever seen. But it exuded cuddliness and definitely looked soft and fuzzy enough to be someone's favourite furry friend.

To enable it to wave to Torr through the airlock window it had stood on a pile of books, from which it was now carefully descending. (Who uses books anymore?) At the other side of the room was another figure, bigger, nearly as big as Torr, dressed in a space suit, just like him. It was standing over two more space-suited figures lying on the floor. More importantly was pointing a gun straight at Torr.

"Put your hands up and don't try any funny business," it ordered.
Chapter 11: The Rescue

Torr decided to do as he was told. He dropped the overnight bag and stuck his arms in the air. He felt very vulnerable and helpless. That and very, very foolish for letting himself get captured so easily. He'd suspected a trap but what sort of evil mastermind baits a trap with a malformed teddy bear?

The overnight bag landed heavily, giving out a small yelp before subsiding quietly into a sulk. Obediently it raised its handles into the air. This was clearly a time for playing dumb and taking no chances.

Things were definitely not working out the way Torr had expected. He resolved to put more effort into planning the next time he decided to sneak aboard the fleeing remnants of a battle ship. That was, if there ever were a next time.

"What are you doing here?" the figure with the gun demanded.

Torr's eye caught a slight flicker of his assailant's hand that caused him to look more carefully. Was the gun shaking?

Despite his Uncle's insistence that he always tell the truth Torr decided that this would probably be a good time to start practising the fine art of lying. Saying 'I'm hoping to steal the Seven Celestial Secrets before you're blasted into space dust by the Nebulon III', wasn't going to get him anywhere he had any particularly interest in going.

Instead, he said, "I saw that you were being chased by the Nebulon III and I'm here to offer to, um... help."

He knew it sounded lame but it was the best he could think of with the business end of the gun pointing directly at him. While he was talking, the fuzzy ball shaped creature came over and cuddled his leg. At least someone appeared to believe him.

"How did you get in?"

Although the voice was muffled by the space suit, Torr began to realise it was a girl speaking. He started to relax a little. Girls weren't dangerous... usually.

'I let him in,' the fuzzy ball appeared to be gesticulating. Ripples flowed all over its fur giving it an extra cuddly texture. Torr hoped that it was also adding, 'He looks friendly. We should put down the gun.'

The girl sighed and amazingly lowered her weapon. Torr relaxed slightly but kept his arms raised. Crouching down she beckoned the fluffy creature over.

"Fuzz ball, you think everyone in a space suit is friendly."

Fuzz ball melted into the girl's arms as it had its ears scratched and cuddled the space suited figure back.

Torr had to admit to feeling an overwhelming temptation to cuddle the fuzzy creature too. There was something about her... why did he think of it as a her?

He couldn't tell, but it just felt right.

There was something about her that made you just want to snuggle up...

Behind Torr there was an urgent beeping sound and the airlock started to cycle once more. He dragged his attention away from the fuzzy creature. This time there was no friendly face on the inside, helping whomever it was gain entrance.

Someone else was outside and trying to get in; someone who had taken over the ship's door control systems. It could only be soldiers from the Nebulon III. Had time run out?

Torr lowered his arms and chanced a quick look over his shoulder. He was right. There was a squad of soldiers floating outside the ship and the outer door was slowly opening to let them in. They were heavily armed and even now trying to force their way through the reluctantly expanding doorway. The ship's control systems appeared to be fighting back with everything they had, even if it was only a pressurised door.

Frowning, he started frantically rummaging in the overnight bag, hoping that Kiki had packed something useful. Dramatically he pulled out a large re-sealable bag. That wasn't any use unless he was going to pack his dirty washing in it. Annoyed, he threw it away from him in exasperation.

His mind was in a blind panic and he could only think of one thing that might work. He didn't have any real understanding of what was going to happen when he put his plan into action but the possibility that it might get him out of the jam he was in was the best that he could do at the moment. He'd have to chance it.

"Hold on!" he shouted and felt better when he saw the girl fasten her safety line around a nearby post. For some reason he didn't understand he didn't want her to be a victim of what was going to happen next. He copied her and secured his safety line.

Twisting quickly he released the power clamps on the inside door to the airlock and overrode the safety locks that usually prevented anyone opening the inner doors before the outer ones were closed. Hoping that the 'Fuzz ball' was holding firmly onto the girl, (it was cute), he slammed his hand onto the emergency exit sign and wrenched the internal door open.

The entire interior of the mini ship was suddenly open to the emptiness of space. The vacuum sucked hard and everything that wasn't anchored down hurried for the exit sweeping all before it. The two bodies that had been on the floor when he entered the ship were sucked upwards, flying towards the airlock and the oblivion beyond.

Torr gawked. What had he done?

Inside the airlock the four soldiers were totally surprised by the sudden, hurricane-strength wind that overwhelmed them. In desperation, they tried to save themselves from being blown backwards out into space by the maelstrom of air and debris that rushed out of the doorway. Their strategy might have worked but the dead weight of the flying bodies slammed into them, driving them out helplessly into the drifting darkness between the stars.

They wouldn't be back for quite a while, if ever. They might even die.

Torr felt sick. He'd never done anything like that before. He was beginning to realise that doing whatever it took meant being prepared to do a lot of things he'd never even considered before. A chill slipped between his shoulder blades.

As the hurricane wind abated, Torr stared aghast at the tiny, paper-chain of soldiers spiralling away form the airlock, ejected with the speed of flying bullets. If the Nebulon III didn't change course and try to save them they'd drift endlessly away forever. The inevitable rescue operation should give him enough time to make his escape though. At least he hadn't endangered the soldier's lives for zero benefit.

The girl tapped Torr on the shoulder, startling him.

"Come on, we need to get going. There will be more of them along in a minute. Where's your ship?"

Taken unawares, Torr automatically pointed along the safety line that he'd used to tie the two ships together. The girl peered intently but appeared to remain nonplussed. With the IN-VCES still running, the Eos was almost impossible to see.

He was wondering where the 'we' had come from. Since when were they a 'we'? Things appeared to be happening faster than he could control, which wasn't unusual.

"We'd better be quick. I'm not sure how much air there is in this thing," she continued, waving something large in her hand. "If we don't act quickly she'll suffocate!"

Torr stared at what the girl was holding up. It was the bag he'd discarded and inside was Fuzz ball looking very uncomfortable. She glared at him sullenly as if he was the cause of its predicament, which in a way he was.

"It was the only thing I could find to put her in when you suddenly opened the door," the girl said accusingly. "You could have given us some sort of warning. She didn't have a space suit. If I hadn't quickly pushed her into the bag she'd be dead, you idiot!"

Torr felt stupid that he'd put Fuzz ball's life in danger. He'd only just met 'her' but he already felt responsible for her safety.

"Come on then," he growled, angry with himself for being so foolish and reckless but too proud to admit it.

~o0o~

Inside the Eos the girl removed her helmet as Torr shouted for Kiki to get them as far, far away from the Nebulon III as quickly as he could. Her shoulder length, blond almost white, hair cascaded out and she nonchalantly brushed it behind her ears. Torr guessed she was pretty in a standard sort of way, if you like that sort of thing, of course.

"And try and keep hidden behind her ship for as long as you can. Now that they know we're around here somewhere I'm not sure how much longer the IN-VCES device will work."

"It's not my ship," she announced indignantly. "I was just ...erm," she stumbled over her words, "... borrowing it."

She didn't look too sure she knew what she was talking about.

"Borrowing it? Who borrows a spaceship, or even part of one?" he asked.

Torr was still angry at himself for putting Fuzz ball's life at risk. He wasn't about to make friendly concessions to someone who had been pointing a gun at him just a few moments previously.

"You must think I'm really stupid if you expect me to believe that!"

"OK, I admit it, I'm a stowaway," she said quietly, embarrassed. "Well, sort of a stowaway..." she trailed off, uncertainly before trying again, "I just woke up there..."

All conversation halted. Torr felt the Eos lurch as Kiki fired the engines. Maddened by his mistake he continued to glower silently at the girl. He wanted to rush to the controls and pretend he was too busy flying the ship to talk to her but he didn't trust Kiki not to expose him. Then he'd feel even more foolish than he already did, even if that seemed impossible right at this very moment.

"Look, we probably got off on the wrong foot," she offered. "My name is Natalia Vodianova. What you did back there, when you opened the airlock, was really clever and Fuzz ball seems to like you, so I'm prepared to take a chance and trust you."

She stuck out her hand towards him, "Friends?"

Torr's hands stayed by his side, "How do I know you aren't really an Aztex agent just pretending to be a stowaway?" he scowled.

"That's a good question," she replied sheepishly. "But if I was really your enemy I would have shot you the moment you entered the ship. After all, I'd already dealt with the two guards," she shrugged her shoulders as if that had been simplicity itself.

"I wouldn't be doing this either," Natalia said handing Torr the gun. "I don't know what you are up to, but what you did back there was better than clever," she paused and then added with a quiet smile, "for a boy."

For a moment he had almost started liking her.

"Besides, I couldn't have exactly used the gun inside the spacecraft," she continued with a grin. "If I'd missed you and the bullet had punctured the hull then we would have had an emergency blow-out just like the deliberate one you created with the airlock. We just wouldn't have been able to turn it off so easily, though."

Torr looked at her in shock. He hadn't thought of that. He hadn't thought of a lot of things.

"I'd like to help you in whatever it is you are doing," she continued, barely speaking louder than a whisper. "I owe you."

Shamefaced, Torr took the gun. But he couldn't overlook what she'd said about boys.

"OK. I accept your apology," he said peevishly. "But what I'm doing is far too dangerous for a girl. I'll have to drop you off somewhere."

"I don't think you've got time for that, have you?" she asked innocently, although Torr detected a hint of mischief lurking behind her eyes.

He looked uncertain.

"If you waste time trying to find somewhere safe to leave me then you'll never catch up with the other Aztex ships. Not with the Carthaginians on your tail." She paused before adding, "In their battle ship," for emphasis. "Their very big and powerful battle ship..."

Torr hesitated. He hated to admit that she might be right. Which just made it all the more important to get her off the ship before she started thinking she was cleverer than he was. This was his ship, or his Uncle's, or the Tinkerer's. He wasn't sure, but he knew it didn't belong to this girl and he didn't want her ever thinking it did.

"Look, I think it's great that you're trying to look after me and everything, but honestly me and Fuzz ball, we can take care of ourselves," Natalia added. "After all, I took out those two guards didn't I?" she reminded him. "Not that I killed them or anything. I'm not sure I could do that, but when they wake up onboard the Nebulon III they're going to have very big headaches for a while."

Torr gave in; she was already cleverly outsmarting every excuse he was trying to come up with. He didn't have time for an argument.

"Whatever!" he shrugged. "Girls!" he sighed. "Kiki, find us another Typhon segment ship. We still need to recover the Celestial Secrets."

Torr clamped a hand over his mouth. Too late, the words were already out there.

"What are the Celestial Secrets?" asked the girl.

Torr didn't know what to say. How could he have been so stupid?

She smiled at him sweetly.

"You might as well tell me. I can be more helpful if I know what's going on. At the moment I'm only guessing."

Torr was in a quandary. On the one hand he felt guilty telling anyone about the secrets, but on the other he'd already established how useless he was going to be on his own. If he was going to have any chance of success on this quest he was going to need all the help he could get. He had to admit that she had a point. Reluctantly, he stuck out his hand.

"Friends?"

Natalia took the offered hand and shook it firmly.

"Friends!" she said. "In which case you can call me Nat, or Nattie, if you like."

Torr felt himself smiling. With a squeal of excitement, Fuzz ball did a backward somersault as the Eos roared across space in pursuit of the next mini ship remnant of the Typhon. The overnight bag joined in.

Still holding hands the two human refugees both looked at each other. For some reason he couldn't put his finger on, Torr felt that he could trust her.

He sat down and started to tell her everything that had happened to him in the last few days. As he did so he half expected her to say she didn't believe him, or that he was making it all up, but she didn't. She just listened quietly with Fuzz ball nestled on her lap as if what he was telling her was the sort of thing that happened to her every day.

It looked as if Fate had pushed the two of them together, thought Destiny silently. He hadn't seen that one coming. Fortune shrugged her shoulders, 'Same difference'.

As he finished recounting his tale a nagging thought surfaced spluttering alarm everywhere across Torr's consciousness. The First Celestial Secret!!! He'd forgotten to search the Typhon segment ship for it. If it was on board then the Carthaginians had it now. He felt certain that he was going to regret that oversight.

He wouldn't miss the next one, whatever it took, he promised himself, whatever it took.
Chapter 12: Getting down to Kingsley Downs

Huddling around the small screen set into the centre of the Eos' control panel Nattie and Torr closely studied the space radar map closely. It was one of the new improvements that the Tinkerer had added and Torr was still learning how to use it properly. It seemed to have many more features than the old one.

Fortunately, while Torr had been busy on Nattie's ship, Kiki had been using the radar map to keep track of the other seven remnants of the Typhon. In the deep pool of blackness that lurked within the screen, bright dots shifted and swirled. The major planets could be seen skulking at the edges of the screen, each with its own inner glow; Mars red, Venus blue, the Earth a shifting, shimmering, green.

Between them the screen was littered with twinkling asteroids. They resembled a light sprinkling of dust so closely that Nattie had to resist the urge to wipe the screen clean. Instead, she studied the interplay of dots carefully, trying to find the pattern they wove.

"So each of the segment ships has headed for a different asteroid?" Nattie eventually concluded for them all.

"Yes, I guess they think that by splitting up, the Carthaginians won't be able to chase them all. Some of them might escape. It's not a bad plan," Torr explained, conscious that his own planning left a lot to be desired.

"But which one should we chase?" Nattie asked.

Torr was keenly aware of that 'we' again. He shot her a questioning glance but she appeared oblivious to the effect her words had on him. Besides, he'd already told her all about the Celestial Secrets. It looked like his sub conscious trusted her more than he realised.

"We could chase the closest spacecraft. That's the one we're most likely to catch before the Carthaginians get them," he said. "It's a pity there were no Celestial Secrets on the segment ship that you stowed away on," Torr added, hoping Nattie would agree with him.

The possibility that he'd let one of them slip through his hands was still nagging at him and he hoped that she'd dispel the unsettling fear that he'd already missed his first Celestial Secret.

"Or we could chase the one that the Carthaginians are closest to. If we can get to it before the Nebulon III we might be able to keep one step ahead of them," Nattie was still talking, unaware that she had left Torr's implied question unanswered. "That way we have more chance of stopping the Aztex, or the Carthaginians getting away with ANY of the Seven Celestial Secrets."

"If we can catch it," Torr reminded her.

He was annoyed that Nattie's plan appeared to be far better than his own idea. He needed all of the Celestial Secrets; any one of them might be the crucial piece he needed to help the Tinkerer find his parents.

Nattie studied the screen. "That would be Kingsley Downs then," she said reading the tiny label on the screen. "Both the Aztex and the Carthaginians appear to be heading there."

Torr had a sudden thought, remembering the broken ANPs and his recent pan-ship jumping escapades.

"Wait a second, how are they going to dock with Kingsley Downs? Come to that, how are WE going to dock with the asteroid?"

Kiki chirped in. His over enthusiastic banter made Nattie jump and Fuzz ball hide between her legs.

"No problem, boss. I can get us real close and when I do I'll just have a word with my equivalent, we can match velocities and then sync for docking."

"But what if the asteroid hasn't got a Kiki equivalent," replied Torr, annoyed.

It was one thing having a super brained assistant with the mental processing power of a small nation, but without any concept of common sense, or human humility, it was relatively useless electronic junk.

"Good point," replied Kiki. "I hadn't thought of that," he sounded almost disappointed and went silent, brooding.

Torr thought he caught a whisper from the speakers, "Why didn't I think of that?"

But he couldn't be sure.

"We'll just have to do it the same way that you got on board my ship," suggested Nattie.

Torr gave her a withering stare. "I was trying to give up leaping across bottomless drops. I didn't want to make a habit of it. I thought it might be bad for my health."

Nattie just smiled at him sweetly. It was the sort of smile that you could spread on toast, instead of jam.

"... and if the Aztex have the same problem and can't dock then we'll just cross to their ship the same way and just take their Celestial Secret from them," she finished, ignoring the fact that it would take another leap across space to get to the other ship and the Aztex were unlikely to welcome them with open arms.

Torr just grunted. Staring at the symbols on the screen he realised that somehow spaceships were still managing to dock at the larger asteroids. But at the moment he couldn't figure out how. Maybe the Tinkerer had been wrong and the ANPs were fixable after all.

~o0o~

Hours later, as they got closer to Kingsley Downs, Torr and Nattie began to understand how ships were starting to dock again across the solar system. It wasn't elegant, it wasn't safe, but it was a great example of human ingenuity and brainless, heroic stupidity in the face of insurmountable difficulty. That's evolution for you.

Around the outskirts of Kingsley Downs' space port, brave volunteers were on standby to help any ship that wanted to dock. As each spaceship got as close to the jiggling, shifting asteroid as it dared, the volunteers started their jet packs up and launched themselves towards the patiently waiting spacecraft.

~o0o~

It was a crazy, mad, yet totally logical extension of the method Torr had used to reach the Eye in the Sky.

If they were lucky and neither ship nor asteroid, had to take evasive action whilst they were in mid leap, they usually managed to grab hold and attach long ropes that were then used to haul the spaceships gradually towards the spaceport doors. He couldn't help feeling a little awed that so many people were apparently willing to keep on trying until they eventually succeeded. The rescued spacecraft was then carefully wound through into the waiting hangar deck, all relatively safely and easily. Relatively being the important word.

The disorganised desperation of the various groups either circling in erratic parking orbits, or making staged rescue attempts, was leading to chaos and pandemonium as the radio waves were overloaded with calls for help and offers of assistance.

Added to the normal crowded space surrounding the asteroid there was now a complete circus full of volunteers firing themselves into space, aiming at the waiting ships, probably trying to make a quick astro-buck from the calamity. You had to admire human ingenuity for turning a crisis into profit. Some had the necessary agility, some were just careless and some were downright suicidal, especially when two jumpers targeted one spacecraft at the same time. Trailing long tow ropes behind them, they could be seen colliding and tangling themselves in knots, before the winches snarled, pulling the ropes ever tighter.

If they missed then the lucky ones were hauled back in and someone else tried again moments later. The unlucky ones dangled helplessly with empty jet packs until they were untangled, rescued, or ran out of oxygen and hung in space, inert, and with an uncertain fate in store for them.

A plethora of rescue attempts were in progress as they all watched, adding to the overall confusion. It didn't look like a safe place to go but Torr couldn't see any other option. Much as he didn't want to cause anyone any trouble he knew that this was the only way into Kingsley Downs and to follow the Aztex's fleeing to wherever they had probably taken one of the Celestial Secrets.

Whoever had survived the Nebulon III's attack on the Typhon segment ship was probably in a bit of a panic right now, thought Torr. With the Carthaginian warship in hot pursuit they were probably looking for somewhere safe to hide and if they had one of the Celestial Secrets with them then they needed to protect that as well.

Kingsley Downs was a neutral asteroid, owing allegiance to neither the Aztex, nor Carthaginian Empires. But Kingsley Downs was de-militarised and even if they had an army they would be unlikely to try and stop the Nebulon III. There would be no help from the Government of Kingsley Downs. Any survivors were on their own.

While Torr and his shipmates were still trying to make sense of the scene below them a figure launched towards them from the surface and landed gently on the outside of the Eos.

Not knowing what else to do, Torr cycled the airlock and invited the stranger inside. It seemed ungracious to do anything else.

The new arrival took off his helmet and shook his head. They were all surprised at how young he was. He was only a few years older than Torr with a long, blonde mane of razzling, dazzling hair cascading out in a wide fan of amazing, unmissable magnificence. It almost glistened as it fell in golden locks around his heavily tanned, well-chiselled face, hidden behind a pair of spectacular sunglasses. A wide grin displayed equally sparkling bright white teeth that finished off a look of totally carefree adolescence and joy-filled, expectant innocence.

"Sam Eight," he announced, pushing his hand forwards brightly. "Or perhaps I should change my name to Sam Eight-ball now."

With another broad, flashing grin, he adjusted his sunglasses, winked at Nattie with clear blue eyes and then covered them up once more. Torr felt himself taking an instant dislike to Sam, (eight ball or not), without really understanding why. It was quite primal.

"You must be very brave to volunteer to help us all out like this," Nattie smiled back, simpering slightly.

"Nonsense," Sam answered. "This is the best rush ever. It is so cool. Normally I'd be hauled over the coals for trying a stunt like this. But now, it's legal. Wow!" he whooped. "Firing myself out into space trying to catch spaceships is one of the most exciting things I've ever done. My parents would never have let me do this if the Mayor hadn't asked for volunteers and stressed how important it was. I might even get a medal!"

Teeth flashed whitely again as Sam grinned widely and Torr grimaced with distaste.

"Okay, okay, enough," Torr announced, waving his arms in the air.

He was annoyed that the conversation didn't appear to include him. At least that's what he told himself.

"Let's get into Kingsley Downs space port. We're in a hurry."

He was almost convinced that he was really worried that the Aztex had a head start on them and he didn't want to lose their trail inside the heavily populated, living interior of the asteroid. But deep down inside he suspected his real feelings were tinged green with envy and sprinkled with a fine dusting of jealously. Fortunately Nattie wasn't paying close enough attention to his feelings to notice if anything was bothering him. Her attention was totally focused on the dashing, handsome, heroic stranger from Kingsley Downs.

For the few moments before the winches started hauling them back to Kingsley Downs they all sat in stony silence. Torr and Sam just glared at each other, whilst Nattie wore a glazed grin on her face. That's how Torr saw the situation. With Sam's huge sunglasses it was difficult to tell exactly what he was looking at. Maybe he was asleep, hoped Torr.

He was already regretting agreeing that Nattie and Fuzz ball could stay on board. Well, maybe just Nattie. Fuzz ball was too cuddly to be angry at for more than a few seconds.

Hopefully they'd be able to pick up the trail of the Aztex soldiers again once they arrived safely inside. In Torr's opinion that almost made Sam Eight-ball bearable, with the emphasis firmly on 'almost'.
Chapter 13: Finally finding the First Secret

"What's it like inside an asteroid?" Nattie asked.

Torr looked at her incredulously.

"You've never been inside an asteroid?" he gawked.

"No," she admitted as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world.

Torr wanted to question her about it further but decided against it, not with Sam 8 still on board.

With a silent sigh he paused, thinking about where to begin. Inspiration grabbed him and he pointed outside.

"See the winches? They're pulling us into the spaceport. It's the first thing they build on any asteroid and they position it at the axis of the asteroid's spin."

"Axis of the asteroid's spin?" Nattie echoed helplessly.

Kiki decided it was time to help out. It probably wasn't.

"Asteroids spin to create artificial gravity on the inner surface. The spaceport is positioned at the axis of the spin so that it is easier to reach from the outside as its rotating less; like the hub of a wheel is easier to hit than a spot on the rim."

Nattie's eyes were beginning to glaze over.

"Asteroid's have rims?" she stammered.

"Ignore him," Torr insisted. "You don't need to know all that stuff. The important thing to remember is that most of the spaceships park in the spaceport and don't venture further. Uncle Otto said it was for safety reasons, or something like that."

Torr felt a lump in his throat at the thought of his Uncle and hoped he was okay.

"Sometimes they go inside," chirped Sam 8 and Torr glared at him.

"Sometimes they go inside," hissed Torr in repetition, "but not often and we won't. We'll park the Eos and take the gravity elevator to the surface."

"What's a gravity elevator? " Nattie asked, "I know what an elevator is, but what's a gravity elevator?" she continued, keen that Torr didn't think she was stupid.

Torr hesitated. He wasn't entirely sure himself. Fortunately, Kiki came to his rescue.

"It's like any other elevator and balances the speed of your descent with the downward thrust created by the increasing gravity. The closer you get to the surface the stronger the gravity grows. When you're in the elevator you start off floating in zero gravity and then gently descend to the 'floor' as you reach your destination."

"This I have to see," she announced excitedly.

Kiki hummed quietly to himself for a few seconds before one of the large, blank, interior walls of the cabin lit up with several illustrated pages that looked like they had been lifted from some old school book.

This is what was written on the pages...
Living in an asteroid

Following a cataclysm several centuries ago humanity abandoned Earth. The alternative was to face extinction and therefore they were compelled to find somewhere else to live.

The other planets around our sun are inhospitable places and therefore new habitats had to be manufactured. The asteroids were identified as being able to provide ample raw materials but were unfortunately too far from the Sun to be viable. Over a period of several years, suitable asteroids were towed into safe areas of Earth's orbit and aligned in five layers around the Sun.

BEFORE

Asteroid map circa 2000 by kind courtesy of NASA

AFTER

Asteroid map circa 2520 by kind courtesy of NASA

as updated by the AsteroNation digital archives

The process of converting these into habitable environments then began, but time and materials were beginning to run out. As a result most of the asteroids were initially fitted out with only minimal facilities and the addition of customised environments following later. In many instances this has enabled individual communities to configure the layout of the interiors to meet their own cultural ideals. Consequently there is significant diversity in the style of habitats amongst the current Astro-Nations.

In some areas the inequalities in the distribution of resources has led to local depravation, rising tension and conflict.

Asteroid habitats tend to follow a common design, dictated by the availability of time and resources available at the time of their construction. This involves a hollowed out interior that is then set spinning to create an artificial gravity inside. Communities were laid out on the inside of the exterior shell of the asteroids.

In the majority of designs attempts have been made to create artificial skies along the axis of the asteroid's spin. These have been only partially effective and in most asteroids it is still possible to see the communities on the opposite interior suspended above the artificial sky. This has led to a decrease in the mental health of some citizens and Astro-Nations report higher health cost ratios post migration compared to the levels experienced on Earth.

The hurried timetable for the fit out of some asteroids has led to a number of subsequent catastrophes arising from poor design and the maintenance of adequate records related to the construction. The worst of these was New Attica in 2297 when a gunshot fractured a thin section of the asteroid's shell leading to a major disaster as the artificial atmosphere dissipated in less than an hour. Official casualty figures of 3,757,293 fatalities were recorded but some agencies consider these to be under estimates. New Attica has only recently completed its re-population programme.

While the terraforming of the asteroids was taking place the 'ark ships' were also being constructed on Earth to ferry everyone to their new homes. This was a time of much confusion as communities were uprooted and relocated in hastily constructed accommodation inside of the asteroids. Space had to be found for everyone and no one was to be left behind. This created significant upset and millions of misplacements, the ramifications of which are still creating upset in some societies today.

~o0o~

"That isn't quite what I had in mind," Nattie grumbled but everyone ignored her because at that moment the Eos had slipped between the outer doors of the spaceport and its immense interior was suddenly revealed to them all.

~o0o~

After docking within the vast expanse of space they disembarked from the Eos and said their farewells to Sam 8. Together, Torr, Nattie, Fuzz ball and Kiki descended down the gravity escalator with a mixture of cautious optimism, unfettered excitement, ruffled fur and digital nonchalance.

A pity it wasn't to last.

~o0o~

A few hours later, safely down on Kingsley Downs, they weren't making very good progress and any optimism had long since been replaced with tired feet and heavy hearts. Everything was on a far larger scale than they had envisaged. The interior of the asteroid was an immense cavern with almost limitless space stretching into the distance. It was the largest and yet most backward Astro-nation Torr had ever visited and certainly didn't look overpopulated.

Beyond the hangar deck, they'd entered the main living area. Inside the hollowed out shell, as far as they could see, roads, towns and countryside stretched away. Out into the distance, the ground laid out on the inside of the asteroid gradually arched up on all sides until it met again far over their heads. Looked at from the far side of the interior, towns and large lakes lost all detail as people, roads and traffic shrunk to invisibility by the distance across the asteroid's diameter, left a lasting impression of tiny toys laid out in some vast diorama. Clouds idled high above, apparently unworried about the ground and humanity suspended far above them. It was like being on the inside of an enormous, irregular ball.

Torr was reminded of the curved interior of the Tinkerer's ship and the way it had expanded to accommodate the Eos. But this was on a whole different scale. Millions upon millions of people could live here without ever meeting each other.

"I keep worrying about the sky falling on my head," announced Nattie in a slightly worried voice, pointing towards the sections of the asteroid suspended above their heads, above the simulated clouds. "What's keeping it up there?"

"Don't worry Chicken Little," replied Torr. "The asteroid spins and just like a roundabout we all get pushed out against the edge. It's really just simulated gravity, not the real thing. To get the real thing you have to visit a planet like Jupiter, or Earth."

The very mention of Earth returned his thoughts to Uncle Otto again. One day, if he could, he'd use the Eos to help him find Uncle Otto or discover what had happened to him. After he'd found his parents he reminded himself; them first.

"The continual spinning to create simulated gravity is what makes the asteroids so difficult to land on without a working ANP. The asteroid doesn't stay in one place; it's always spinning to create artificial gravity to keep us anchored firmly on the ground and shifting orbit to avoid other objects," Torr heard himself saying.

The four passengers and crew of the Eos made a motley collection of travellers making their way from the harbour towards Kingsley Downs' central market town. It wasn't clear who exactly was passenger and who was crew, but then it was beginning to no longer matter. Torr was beginning to enjoy having someone his own age around for a change.

In the garish surroundings of Kingsley Down they didn't attract undue attention. Fuzz ball kept switching between sitting on Nattie's shoulders and running around between their feet whilst Torr wore the overnight bag slung lazily over his shoulder. Kiki had repacked it with things he thought they might need before joining them in his bumblebee sized mobile outfit. To the careful observer they might have appeared odd, but here, odd was normal and normal was odd.

Besides, they were surrounded by many things far odder than Torr and his friends. The market traders of Kingsley Down had a reputation for kaleidoscopic, dazzling, displays that lent a carnival atmosphere to even the most mundane shopping experience. Their exuberance extended far beyond the magnificence of their own stalls to include their colourful and outlandish attire of every shape and size as well as the resplendent fabrics that they were constantly waving at every passer-by in an attempt to gain their attention. Every trader appeared to be involved in a constant battle for the customers' attention, each trying to outdo the others with ever more gaudy, yet enticing, offers of extreme customer fascination.

All around them strange sights and wonders beckoned to them from every stall with colourful displays of weird and wonderful wares. The majority of the items on sale were edible and Torr struggled to keep his attention on looking for the Celestial Secret as he was tempted by the sight and more importantly smell of hundreds of different things to eat, many of which he'd never even known about before. What did a froogleberry taste like, he wondered. Their succulent, yellow spotted fruits certainly looked like they were bursting with flavour.

In addition to the food on display there were stalls selling pots, pans, cooking utensils, clothing, gadgets he had no use for, furniture, carpets and art. Lots and lots of art, it seemed that the local taste in art was the more psychedelic it was then the better it was considered to be.

Gravity weakened quickly the closer objects were to the axis of the asteroid and shopkeepers had used the effect with varying degrees of success and stable construction. Stalls climbed, spiralled and soared skywards with commodities stacked and hanging apparently weightless high above the mingling crowds. Very occasionally one would tip past the point of lost precariousness and hover uncertainly before it came crashing to the ground. As it hit, its contents would tumble everywhere before being furtively gathered up by anyone that was fortunate enough to be close enough to grab them.

Small children scuttled around endlessly amidst the unbounded market that stretched in all directions, apparently as large as a small town. Whilst the towering displays remained dwarfed by the distant mountains, they rose high enough to embarrass the hills that undulated across the terraformed landscape.

Towering over everything was an enormous roller coaster that used the steep gravity gradient to pile loop upon fantastic, unbelievable, loop to the loud delight of whooping passengers. Shopkeepers shouted and shoppers shopped whilst children of all shapes and sizes ran, played and created mad havoc amidst them all. Fat ones, thin ones, short ones, tall ones, seemed altogether intent on creating as much noise and nuisance as possible with only the occasional, wasted admonishment of parents and passers by.

Despite the colourful spectacle that surrounded them, Nattie's eyes kept being drawn upwards to what was happening above her. Soft, rounded, artificial clouds sluggishly slipped across the suspended 'sky' unaware of the urgent search going on below.

"I think I can see a large lake up there, on the far side of the asteroid," Nattie mused, ignorant of what Torr was trying to tell her.

Torr looked up at the patch of water on the other side of the asteroid that distance had robbed of any sense of scale and size.

"We're going to get very wet if it suddenly falls on us. But I guess the asteroid's spin is forcing it against that side like it's forcing us against this side."

Torr sighed wearily, he didn't have the energy to explain again.

"Better keep your eyes on the ground we're walking on, or we won't find what we're looking for. Not that we're ever likely to find it, anyway, I never thought this asteroid would be so big and I haven't even got the faintest idea of what I'm looking for," he continued despondently.

"Any surviving Aztex soldiers are going to be trying to remain inconspicuous as they try and evade the Carthaginians; probably wearing disguises, if they can find any," he said. "With the Nebulon III hunting for them, they will be in a bit of a panic as well. There's probably nowhere around here that could be described as safe for them, or any Celestial Secret they might be trying to hide, either."

Torr stopped as a sudden thought hit him dead centre.

"What do Celestial Secrets look like? I don't know," he said.

"Well I did hear the soldiers talking about them whilst I was aboard the Typhon," replied Nattie.

"I think I might even have seen one," she admitted as she stopped beside him, while Fuzz ball and Kiki played tag around them, blissfully ignorant of the importance of what she was saying. "They seem to be about the same size as basket balls, but are shaped like giant eggs apparently, or so someone said. They're quite volatile as well, so the soldiers placed them in wooden chests stuffed with straw for safe keeping."

Torr was speechless that she hadn't thought this important enough to mention to him before. He was about to splutter some dismissive retort before she continued speaking.

"The crates would probably be about the size of..." she glanced around the bustling market to see if she could see something about the right size. In front of her the crowd suddenly parted, "...that chest on the cart over there. Well I assume it's a chest, they haven't done a very good job of disguising it."

Directly in front of them, there was clearly a chest shaped object vaguely hidden underneath a dusty old oriental cloth, atop an ancient handcart. Four big, hefty men were with it acting like guards. Each was wearing a heavy, weather beaten cloak disguising their features. Perfect for hiding weapons in, worried Torr.

As Nattie and Torr stared at the cart in disbelief it felt like all four of the men glared directly back at them in alarm. There was a hesitant moment of recognition on both sides. Suddenly Nattie grabbed Torr's arm so hard it hurt.

"Torr! That's them. I recognise their cloaks from the ship. Those are Aztex soldiers!" she whispered urgently.

"That must be the First Celestial Secret in that chest then. Right there, right in front of us!" she kept emphasising by grinding her fingers into his arm.

Torr looked at the men more thoroughly.

Grim, exhausted and haunted features could just be seen peering out from within the deep, dark hoods, whiskered and unshaven. They all looked very wary. Could it be that they were exhausted from the constant worry of a renewed assault from the Nebulon III? Fleeing across space and then trying to find somewhere to hide on Kingsley Downs probably hadn't given them much chance to sleep over the last few days.

Torr considered their predicament further. It could be that when they'd reached Kingsley Downs they'd realised the enormity of their predicament. If the Nebulon III had pursued them here then they were marked men. Their only option was to try and disappear into the local population and hope that they were overlooked. Motorised vehicles were few and would immediately mark them out as strangers. Maybe instead they'd waylaid some local merchants and commandeered their cart, or possibly been conned into buying this ancient one. Could they have been that foolhardy?

Torr's suspicions were closer to the truth than he could have hoped.

After only a short distance the Aztex troopers had realised how old and decrepit the cart was but by then it was too late. They'd got caught up in the mass of humanity in the marketplace and needed to keep moving to avoid detection. It hadn't been the best of solutions but at least they had blended in with their surroundings.

Until now.

One of the soldiers caught Torr staring at them and turned to one of his comrades. Together, they glared suspiciously back at Torr.

Despite the pain from Nattie's grip on his arm, Torr's mind leapt into top gear and started racing with a variety of different options about what they should do. His brain was left spinning with indecision. Which one was best?

For their part the guards took only a few moments to realise they should be worried more about what was right in front of them than searching the skies for any sign that the Nebulon III had found them.

As a result, the Aztex guards had already started towards them before Torr automatically turned on his heel to make a quick exit.

He hadn't thought through how he was going to get his hands on the First Celestial Secret yet and now things were developing too quickly for him to deal with comfortably. Again!

By themselves his legs decided to create some quiet thinking space so his brain could recover its breath and figure out what to do next. He ran.

"Quick! Before they grab us," he hissed over his shoulder and disappeared between two fruit stalls, vanishing back the way they had come. The shops had multiple, large, brightly coloured sunshades that extended upwards, providing artificial glades with ample dark recesses to hide within. There was safety here. He dared to breathe out loud again.

He glanced back but neither Fuzz ball nor Nattie had followed him, though Kiki still buzzed irritatingly around his head.

"Where are they?" Torr hissed, swatting at Kiki to keep the suddenly annoying contrivance out of his face.

"They're still with the men who had the cart," replied Kiki innocuously whilst seemingly buzzing ever more erratically. "It's lucky that they dare not fire any sort of gun inside the asteroid and are having to resort to swords instead. The risk of explosive decompression is too great."

"I'll remind Nattie of that after she's been sliced and diced then shall I?" hissed Torr.

Sometimes computers just didn't get it, no matter how many circuits and chaos based algorithms they had at their command. He sighed loudly and got down on hands and knees before crawling back from in between the two stalls. Peering out, whilst keeping hidden, he could see Nattie completely stationary where he had left her and Fuzz ball trying to hide behind her legs. Three of the men were advancing on them both and their motives were unmistakably menacing. One of them had drawn out a large sword whilst merchants and shoppers alike were backing away frightened, clearing a space around Torr's companions.

Despite the obvious danger Nattie still hadn't moved, which was either incredibly brave, or unbelievably stupid, or both. It looked like there was going to be trouble and she was in the centre of it, Torr was certain.

"What are you looking at?" the guard growled at Nattie. "Do I know you?"

The man with the sword started to point it directly at Nattie who didn't appear worried by it. She just stood there watching the blade advancing steadily towards her.

Torr couldn't believe what she was doing. Didn't she recognise the danger she was in?

Torr shook his head in disbelief.

Why didn't she run away? Why had he ever agreed to let her come with him? Why was he here anyway?

Well, at least he knew the answer to the last one.

With the blade still advancing mercilessly towards her Nattie remained impossibly motionless and silent, glaring icily at her assailants. Did she think this was a staring contest?

The other two soldiers started to edge around her from behind. She didn't appear to be worried that they were encircling her either. Torr needed to do something quickly before Nattie was surrounded, sliced, diced and cubed prior to being discarded in the nearest recycling bin.

Without thinking, he leapt out low from where he was hiding, straight into the legs of Nattie's nearest assailant who had finished circling around behind her. His foe went down easily with a gnarl and a howl of outrage. As the guard fell his large bulk knocked Nattie out of the way of the swinging sword wielded by her other assailant. The three of them collapsed in a swarm of bodies, thrashing limbs and snarled tempers.

"Hold it right there or I kill this... this... thing!" the swordsman shouted grabbing everyone's attention in an instant.

Tangled up in the legs and arms of the fallen soldier, Nattie and Torr looked up at the man who was doing all of the shouting. Despair and despondency settled heavily on their hearts. In his hands he was holding Fuzz ball at the point of his blade, which looked extremely sharp, deadly and dangerous.

Fuzz ball appeared terrified and was visibly shaking. There was no doubt that with the slightest nudge the soldier could ensure that her short, furry career as the Eos' favourite mascot would be over forever.

Torr and Nattie glared at each other in dismay, uncertain as to what to do next.
Chapter 14: Full, foul-tasting fear of failure

There was a collective gasp from the surrounding crowd who had been trying to back away from the fight. Except for the older children, of course, who were itching to see some excitement and find any excuse to start creating some mischief themselves. Parental restraint grappled uselessly with youthful exuberance.

Instantly and without warning, Kiki buzzed in close to the swordsman holding Fuzz ball and stung him loudly on the bottom with some sort of electrical shock. With a yell, the soldier threw Fuzz ball, sword and dignity into the air and started to leap around, screaming loudly. As he galloped off, clutching his nether regions with both hands, Nattie deftly caught Fuzz ball. Instantly she shoved the furry ball of fluff discretely out of sight behind her.

Torr gingerly picked up the discarded sword. It was heavier than he'd expected and it felt odd in his hands.

Holding on firmly, he swung it in a wide circle with all of his strength. The remaining soldiers scattered as they struggled to get out of its way. They knew how dangerous it was.

The blade's scientifically enhanced edge was supremely sharp, able to easily cut through anything it touched. It was designed to slice cleanly between the sub atomic bonds, separating surfaces smoothly and surely.

The only things still within reach were the ropes supporting the overhanging sunshades of the fruit stalls. Deftly parted by the blade, the elaborately coloured awnings fell all around him, cloaking him from view and descending across him with a blanket of darkness. Above him, higher tiers of merchandise teetered in a losing argument with gravity about whether there was any merit in falling groundwards. Several lost and fell heavily, splattering everyone with the messy debris. The surrounding shelves shifted and rocked on the brink of disaster. They were only seconds and a slither of luck away from a food fight of epic proportions initiated by the barely restrained children who were awaiting any excuse to start noisy, messy trouble.

Emerging cautiously from beneath the fallen awning Torr was disappointed that he didn't get the reaction he'd hoped for from his desperate attempt at sophisticated swordplay. Instead, the soldiers smirked at each other knowingly. They didn't appear at all worried.

Angrily shaking the heavy canvas from his shoulders Torr glared furiously back at them in what he hoped was a look of fierce defiance. But before he could make a move, three swords swept effortlessly from their scabbards and started advancing towards him again, plunging him straight back into deadly danger.

Torr didn't know what to do. He'd never even held a sword before today. He guessed correctly that taking on three fully trained swordsmen, single handed, wasn't the right time to find out whether he'd been born with any natural abilities in the sword fighting department. The accident with the supporting ropes probably wasn't a promising sign.

Dropping the useless sword beside him he quickly pulled the overnight bag off of his back and held it in front of him like a shield. He couldn't think of anything else, even remotely sensible, to do. He immediately felt guilty, putting the overnight bag in danger like this. It wasn't really fair was it?

Holding it gingerly he peered around the edges of the bag to see if it was safe to lower it again but the soldiers' smiles had slipped into ghastly, grim, grins. This was becoming too easy, they thought. As one, the three of them closed in for the kill.

Torr's grip on the overnight bag tightened as he flinched in anticipation of the first blow and his feelings of guilt rose to overwhelming proportions. With luck the bag might survive more than one hit, he hoped. Suddenly the bag writhed in his fingers as something squirmed inside. A long, hard object was wriggling to get out. Then he remembered, he'd told Kiki to pack the bag with something he could use to defend himself with. What foresight!

Ripping the zip open Torr hastily grabbed the first thing that his fingers found and waved it around in front of him whilst covering his face with his other hand. If they were going to ridicule him again he didn't want anyone to see his reaction.

The anticipated derision and disaster didn't happen and Torr chanced a glance. Unexpectedly, the soldiers had stopped in their tracks and started to edge away from him.

A result?

Torr gingerly looked at what he had removed from the bag and was now brandishing in front of him. Whatever it was, it certainly had the guards frightened because they were now cowering away from him, looking around them for some means of escape. The tables had turned.

A result!

He found himself holding a strange looking pistol. In many respects it appeared normal, but carelessly attached to the side was a rather pathetic looking cup holder. Who would want to clip a drink to the side of a pistol? It'd throw the whole balance of his aim off. Was this one of the Tinkerer's less successful innovations that he'd discarded and the overnight bag had gobbled up in a famished, feeding frenzy?

A result, not!

Torr fought down his concerns and promised himself that things were looking up for him. Pointing the gun at the soldiers made him feel better as well as making them look increasingly worried. Feeling more confident, Torr picked up a swagger, vaguely aimed the gun at each of the soldiers in turn and waved it in front of them in what he hoped was a threatening fashion. If Nattie could do it so could he.

"That's it. Back off. I'm not afraid to use this," he shouted because it seemed like the right thing to say.

One of the soldiers thought otherwise and tried to laugh, but it came out with a cautious edge.

"Well you should be," the Aztex soldier blurted out in a slight panic. "Don't you know it's against inter-asteroid law and extremely dangerous to use guns inside an asteroid? If you shoot and miss, that gun could punch a hole through to the outside. Asteroids are pressurised. If you puncture through to the outer surface you'd create an instant tornado, sucking everything through a widening gap and spurting it all straight out into space. Within hours this whole asteroid would be a lifeless hunk of rock."

Torr already had a good idea of what would happen if he ruptured the surface. He'd seen what had happened to the soldiers ejected through the door that he'd opened in the side of the Typhon. Only Nattie's quick thinking had saved Fuzz ball then. But this time millions would die and he, Nattie and Fuzz ball would die with them.

Indecision gnawed at him. It was a quandary he hadn't expected. He didn't know what to do next.

Time wasn't on his side and he was rapidly running out of options. His mind raced and came to the flawed conclusion that he only risked puncturing the asteroid if he missed.

Better not miss then.

He had to take the chance that he wouldn't miss because the alternatives were just too scary to think about. But if he didn't miss that meant he'd hit something and that didn't fit easily with his conscience either. Conundrums weren't easy. Not even the spelling of them was straight forwards.

Clearly feeling braver on observing Torr's indecisive shifting from one foot to another, the guard who'd been arguing with him decided to move forwards. His voice lost its cautious edge and became more demanding.

"I think you don't know how to use it, boy."

He held out his hand.

"Better give it to me."

"I warned you," shouted Torr.

His fingers tightened on the trigger. Surely even he couldn't miss from this range?

This was it then?

His conscience took a long walk off of a short pier and bought a ticket to Timbuktu, which was a pity because it probably would have enjoyed what happened next.

There was a large explosion and a big cloud of black smoke erupted from the barrel of the gun. Everyone nearby threw themselves to the ground and tried to find something solid to hang onto.

As the fumes cleared Torr peered between his fingers and couldn't believe what he was seeing. From the end of the barrel of his gun stuck a small white flag with the word 'Bang!' written in large red letters across it. What kind of a gun was this?

Certainly not one that was any use that was for sure. Was this someone's idea of a joke?

Before he could get to a better answer Torr realised that somehow he'd managed a modicum of success from what was quickly becoming a disaster disguised as a catastrophe.

Like everyone else, the guards had initially scattered for cover, trying to get out of the way, grovelling for handholds, anything that would anchor them to the asteroid. The stampede of people shook the multi-tiered fruit stalls far harder than they had ever been shaken before. Their wares, so delicately suspended, finally succumbed to gravity's demands for some sort of reckoning and dumped their remaining teetering contents on everyone beneath with a barely perceptible creak that broke into a full throttled groan.

~o0o~

An avalanche of fruit descended. Amidst the debris, children gleefully grabbed up the fallen fragments and started pelting soldiers, adults, stall owners and anyone who looked like they might be a legitimate target, as hard and fast as they could. An epic food fight was well and truly underway!

Fate grinned, nudged Destiny in the ribs and raised his eyebrows questioningly. Fortune covered her face in horrified anticipation.

Whilst everyone was distracted by the blueberry, battling, banana bonanza that was rapidly deteriorating into a froogleberry fight, Torr grabbed Nattie's hand and they both ran, dodging their way through the crowd in an attempt to lose their pursuers and find a safe place to hide. Nattie in turn kept a firm grip on Fuzz ball, who followed along closely behind. Ahead of them Kiki buzzed loudly, trying to find a safe route through the crowd without being swatted unnecessarily.

~o0o~

Minutes later, they all paused, panting for breath, safely hidden in a dark, deserted, sandy, side alley where Nattie was trying to calm a fretful Fuzz ball down. The loud bang and the flight through the crowd had freaked her out badly. Even now she was trying to burrow further and further into Nattie's clothes whilst her fur rippled and flowed backwards and forwards in abject frightened fear.

"Fuzz ball, Fuzz ball! It's OK!" Nattie whispered soothingly.

"Look, you stay here," Torr found himself saying, handing over the gun.

Not that it was much use. Not being a real gun and all that.

"I'm going to try and sneak up to the wagon they have that crate on and grab the First Celestial Secret while they aren't looking."

He wasn't sure when that would be or how he would sneak past the guards but he felt the need to say something that sounded like a solution. For some reason that he couldn't explain he wanted to assure Nattie that everything was going to be okay. Probably because he didn't know what else to say. It was the first and only thing he could come up with. It was the best and the worst he could do, which wasn't saying much.

Nattie's gaze swapped back and forth between Torr and Fuzz ball. She was clearly torn between wanting to help them both.

Torr made it easier for her, "Fuzz ball needs you more than I do. Besides I have Kiki," he added dubiously. "There are some baskets here, hide in those."

Uncertainly, Nattie took the gun and climbed into one of them with Fuzz ball cradled in her arms. Torr lowered the lid onto them whilst she still struggled to understand what the mad boy and his irritating electronic companion were intending next.

Moments later she stuck her head back out to tell Torr that she'd changed her mind. She was about to insist that she really did need his help. If he just went blindly blundering in he was sure to be captured, or worst. But the street was empty. Torr and Kiki had already gone.

Chapter 15: Crash!

Back in the marketplace Torr had just rediscovered the cart before the soldiers were about to restart their journey again. Unfortunately their recent encounter with the two children had made them doubly cautious and now they were anxiously trying to look in all directions, weaving cautiously in and out of the crowded marketplace. Torr had to keep a safe distance to avoid being detected as he followed them whilst still wracking his brains for a way to steal the chest without being noticed.

There had to be a way surely?

This was another fine mess his instant planning and easy promises had got him into.

Cautiously, Torr managed to keep close behind them without being seen. The soft purring of Kiki buzzing along close to his ear somehow managed to give him some comfort. At least he wasn't entirely on his own, he thought. He felt better knowing that Nattie and Fuzz ball were safely somewhere else, unburdened by his responsibilities.

Torr furiously racked his brains for inspiration. Nothing in his life had prepared him for this and being unprepared was a habit he could live without. In fact he WAS more likely to live without it. For the first time he realised that he missed Nattie. He felt sure that she would have a clever plan. She appeared to be quite bright, for a girl that is.

Watching the soldiers snaking and weaving their way through the bustling market, Torr began to notice a pattern in the way that they travelled. With surprise he realised that he had the beginning of an idea forming in his cranium. All four of them were continually looking outwards at the crowds, but they hardly ever looked inwards at the cart and its hidden Celestial Secret.

Maybe, he thought, just maybe, if he were quick enough he might be able to run underneath the cart unseen when they navigated one of the frequent crowded corners on their route through the town.

When the next turn appeared Torr ran ahead, unseen and undetected, racing behind the stalls until he was ahead of the soldiers and their cart. He hid beneath a froogleberry stall that was positioned at the junction of two tracks, directly in front of where the old cart was heading.

Torr watched it roll directly towards him with a sense of mounting anticipation. The creaking cart rumbled forwards noisily and Torr let the first soldier go past before he edged slightly further forwards. Within moments, he was right next to the cart's gently gyrating wheels that wobbled and bounced with every bump in the road.

Torr's aching muscles tensed unconsciously and unexpectedly he realised that he was ready to make his move. Then as the cart came level with him Torr acted involuntarily before caution could catch him unawares. Dashing out quickly, Torr held his breath and leapt between the muddy wheels.

He crouched low to avoid bashing his head against the underside of the cart. Amazingly Torr realised that he'd got beneath the cart without being seen. One of his plans had actually worked.

He'd made it!

Now what?

Searching around he noticed that the underside of the cart was constructed of thick timbers that looked solid enough to hold his weight. As the cart rolled by above him Torr carefully caught hold of them and lifted himself clear of the ground.

He still appeared to be unnoticed!

So far, so good, but he could only hang on for so long, which probably wasn't going to be any time at all. Already after a few moments his arms were beginning to ache. His fingers were starting to slip and he already knew he wouldn't be able to hold on much more. The ancient wood creaked and Torr watched in dismay as broken paint split, revealing rotten timbers beneath.

He realised that the next time that the cart stopped he would have to chance sticking his head above the edge and seeing whether he could grab the chest without being seen. Either that, or drop into the mud and get trodden down. Hopefully it would stop soon, surely.

Coming up to another bend the cart slowed and as his fingers finally started to give way Torr got ready to try and sneak a peak around. But unfortunately, just as the cart started its turn one of the wheels struck a large boulder and jammed as the soldiers accompanying it heaved against the obstinate obstruction. The overburdened wooden frame fractured and groaned as Torr lost his hold, falling to the mud. He was moments away from discovery.

One of the soldiers grunted loudly and the wood wriggled in his grip. He was losing control and the wheels lurched and churned. Suddenly the whole cart tipped over, splitting and tumbling over Torr and tipping all of its contents across him and into the sodden dirt. With a muddy splodge, the chest where he suspected the First Celestial Secret was hidden fell right next to Torr and the dirty rug immersed both of them in darkness. For now he remained hidden, but that wouldn't last for long.

Torr froze where he lay, not daring to move. As soon as the soldiers started to rifle through the remnants of the cart he would be discovered. He frantically tried to think of some plan for an escape. But his mind remained blank. No change there he thought. Sadly he realised that he'd inadvertently swapped his advantageous position of 'hidden thief' for 'trapped animal'.

From beneath the mouldy carpet Torr heard a loud yell. It sounded like Nattie! but he couldn't see anything and thought he must be hearing things.

Why hadn't she stayed in the basket? Now he would have to rescue her on top of everything else! Girls! Why didn't they ever stay where you told them to?

The soldiers were almost as confused and surprised as Torr. First the cart had tipped over, then the wheel had come off and now one of the lunatics from earlier was leaping around shouting insults at them. Tempers were short and frustrated exasperation was running at new highs. Something permanent needed to be done. Blades slipped from their scabbards. Leaving the remnants of the cart lying haphazardly across the road Aztex troopers sprang forwards together.

Undeterred, grabbing a large melon from a nearby stall Nattie threw it towards the advancing soldiers. Her aim was apparently off and it sailed high over their heads, but they all looked up to watch it nonetheless. What was she up to?

Flying high in the air above them, all of their eyes followed its erratic trajectory. Surely no one could aim that badly? Nattie blew a loud raspberry before disappearing back into the crowd in a swirl of mud and puddle dust. All eyes instantly snapped back to the space she had occupied only moments before.

Realising she was suddenly alone in the street, Fuzz ball hurried quickly after Nattie. The soldiers let out a roar of anger and chased after them in hot pursuit. They weren't going to let her get away this time. The hunt was on!

Whilst the soldiers were off chasing Nattie, Torr struggled out from underneath the carpet and caught the melon. Without another thought he did something he'd been aching to do. He opened the chest.

Inside there was a dimly glowing globe, wrapped in straw, about the same size as the large fruit in his hand. Across the mid-section of the globe there was a large cracked and broken seam as if someone had unsuccessfully tried to force it open. The pyrotechnic display that had once surged within it on the Satellite of Silence was now dimmed and much subdued. Only a dull gleam remained, pulsing slowly and painfully, waxing and waning.

Carefully, but swiftly, Torr swapped the melon and the globe over and merged back into the crowd hoping that no one would give him away.

Moments after Torr had disappeared the soldiers returned, having given up chasing Nattie and Fuzz ball. The four men gathered up the chest, unaware of the swap and looked warily around at the crowd as they covered it back over with the cloth. The weight of the melon had been just enough to make them think that the chest was unmolested.

Without realising Torr's sleight of hand the men suspiciously started rebuilding the broken cart, alert for any new sign of attack.

~o0o~

Frantic minutes later, safely back on the Eos, Nattie gave Torr a high-five. Fuzz ball leapt around, bouncing off of the furniture in furry exuberance, while the Overnight Bag danced a jig and Kiki looped the loop.

"We did it!" Nattie and Torr both shouted at the same time.

"Jinx!" Torr called out quickly.

Nattie squirmed in silence.

"Nattie, Nattie, Natalia," shouted Torr ecstatically, immediately releasing her from the childhood hoodoo.

"Well it certainly wasn't as easy as I'd expected."

"Nor me!" replied Torr. "Thanks for coming back. You saved the day."

She smiled back at him in humble agreement.

"I wonder what's in store for us next?"
Chapter 16: The Transportomatic

With the Eos safely back in space Torr asked Kiki to plot a return course to the Eye in the Sky. He wanted to get the First Celestial Secret safely back to the Tinkerer before anything more happened to them. Life had become a little too 'anti-boring' for his liking.

Suddenly the Tinkerer's voice filled the cabin, "That won't be necessary Torr."

"How? Oh, never mind. I know! Just one of your tricks."

Even the Tinkerer's weird sense of humour couldn't dent Torr's good mood.

An image of the Tinkerer filled the big screen. He was grinning wildly.

Nattie was trying to get Torr's attention, "Is that... you know who?" she whispered.

Torr nodded.

"There's no need for you to come all the way back here with the First Celestial Secret. Place it in the large box on your right," the Tinkerer said, pointing over Torr's shoulder.

Torr glanced behind him and noticed the box, which he had assumed was a microwave oven. Gingerly he placed the damaged globe inside.

"Are you sure...?" he mumbled, not wanting to be the person who doomed humanity by accidentally microwaving the First Celestial Secret.

The Tinkerer nodded his head sagely.

Reluctantly Torr closed the door and with a flash of light it was gone. On the big screen they could see it reappear on the Tinkerer's workbench thousands of miles away. Torr breathed out.

"Let me guess," said Torr. "You built a matter teleporter into the microwave.

"Well," replied the Tinkerer with a definite wink, "it was never really a microwave in the first place, but yes, you are right. I call it the 'Transportomatic'. I can see you've learnt that looks can be deceptive. Good."

Torr was suddenly glad that he hadn't tried using the 'Transportomatic' to cook his lunch. He could just imagine cold microwave chips suddenly turning up in the Tinkerer's workshop. I wonder what he'd convert them into, Torr pondered momentarily. Possibly a potato robot?

On the Eye in the Sky, the Tinkerer immediately started work on the First Celestial Secret and re-configuring the ANP command controller. Torr began to relax.

The Tinkerer's multi-glasses came out once more and were subjected to another absent-minded cleaning whilst he 'tinkered'. Working quickly, he muttered quietly to himself as tools spun and flickered in all directions performing emergency globe surgery.

"Perhaps I should add a microwave into the transportomatic? That would be interesting," he said, half to himself. "There's quite a few possibilities of what you could do with that combination."

Torr's eyes were drawn to the interior. It seemed like the Tinkerer was so absorbed with his work and internal monologue that the Eos along with its inhabitants had been totally forgotten. He slipped down, exhausted into his chair.

"So are you ready to find the next Celestial Secret?" the Tinkerer suddenly called out over his shoulder as he worked.

The simple request snapped Torr back into reality.

Torr gulped and nodded slowly as the Tinkerer turned and triumphantly showed them the finished ANP command controller. You could tell just by looking at it that he'd fixed it. Instead of a dull, dying glow the controller was now covered in thousands and thousands of flickering lines.

Torr's eyes were drawn to the interior where it almost seemed like you could see right through it into some miniature universe where life was clean and simple. The lines appeared to be connecting different places, flickering with alternate possibilities, mapping trajectories, calculating probabilities, working out how to avoid one bright line colliding with any other. Inconceivably they weaved in and out of each other's paths in a never-ending light show.

"Ah! It appears to be working," the Tinkerer announced proudly, clearly pleased with himself. "The ANP grid should be back to operational status now.

"Sure is," agreed Kiki as he smoothly interfaced himself back into the ANP grid and experienced the full wonder of the First Celestial Secret.

"And now that it is, Torr, take a look at your own ANP."

Torr did. On it he could clearly see the location of the remaining six Celestial Secrets, blinking frantically at him. They easily called for his attention amidst a myriad of displays computing different paths, shortest distances and other clever stuff he had absolutely no interest in. Now, even if the Aztex removed the Secrets from the ships they were on he would still be able to find them, no matter how well hidden they were. Things were looking up for his Quest. He just wasn't sure that was a good for his Quest was also good for him.

"Now are you ready to continue?" asked the Tinkerer with a slight edge to his voice.

"I promised I'd do whatever it takes," Torr frowned, frantically trying to think of an excuse. Now that he'd found out how difficult retrieving one Celestial Secret had been he was more than a little hesitant about going straight out and chasing down the rest. Surely a break wasn't too much to ask?

Torr's lips opened of their own accord and a defensive question came bubbling out, totally unbidden. "Have you managed to find out which direction my parents disappeared in yet?" he asked, keen to remind the Tinkerer of his side of the bargain.

He might have been too nervous to ask the question deliberately but now that the words had been said he felt much better for it.

The Tinkerer's smile faded but his eyes still held a friendly glimmer and Torr relaxed. He started to fuss about his workbench, tidying the tools away, talking as he tidied. The glasses had already disappeared back into his pocket.

"Not yet, I'm afraid. But now that I have the ANP command controller back it shouldn't take more than a few days before I have that small problem figured out."

Suddenly the lights dipped and the cabin was plunged into near darkness. Nattie screamed and Fuzz ball jumped before snuggling further into the comfortable lap where she'd been sleeping. The image of the Tinkerer faded sharply in front of them and then as he adjusted the jewelled clasp that held his cloak together it strengthened once more. Only the dim light from the screen illuminated the interior of the Eos.

"Hmm, I was worried that this might happen," muttered the Tinkerer, rubbing his bearded chin thoughtfully in the half-light. He looked sombre and more than a little concerned.

"What is it?" asked Torr. "What's happening?"

Nattie was beyond words and just squeaked.

"Kiki, will you please switch to the solid fuel reserves in the Imperial Batteries?" the Tinkerer commanded.

Onboard the Eos the lights grew brighter again but not quite back to their previous brilliance and Torr noticed Nattie visibly relax again. Was she scared of the dark?

"I'm afraid that probably means that the Aztex have started to try and crack open the Second Celestial Secret. Either that, or the Carthaginians have," announced the Tinkerer, dryly. "It won't be long before they break it entirely. This is indeed a dark day for all of the inhabited asteroids and probably for every living thing that dwells within them."

"Why, what is the Second Celestial Secret?" asked Nattie, gulping the words asthmatically.

The Tinkerer looked at her from beneath heavy eyebrows, appearing very old and weary. "The Second Celestial Secret is the Solar Energy Converter, or as the engineers like to call it, the Solergy." He turned back to his workbench and rummaged in one of the many drawers. He pulled out a small grey metallic tube no bigger than his thumb.

"This is a Solar Engine," he said holding it up to his eye and examining it closely. "When powered by the Solergy, this tiny device provides enough energy to fuel a whole city. Just a bucket load of these provide enough energy to run a whole asteroid."

He tossed the Solar Engine back onto the work bench and it hit with a lifeless thud.

"Without the Solergy, this is just junk."

He headed into the darkness at the back of the workshop and started to pull out a big, heavy trolley on wheels, filled with glowing bars and angry wiring. It almost dwarfed the old man as he struggled to manoeuvre the mountain of metal into view.

"This," he puffed, "is an old Imperial Power Battery. It's what we used before the aliens gave us the Solar Energy Converter. One of these will give you enough power to run a house for about a day," the Tinkerer puffed. "If you're lucky," he added sadly.

"The Eos has about ten of these so we're going to have to act fast."

"We're going to have to act fast," thought Torr wearily.

Returning to his workbench the Tinkerer gazed directly into the screen. Onboard the Eos his face peered down at Torr, Nattie and Fuzz ball snuggled closely together in the dimly refracting light aboard the Eos.

"With Solergy, energy and power are cheap and abundant. Without it, there's probably not enough energy to go around. People will have to make difficult compromises."

He paused and his features grew very dark and gloomy.

"If this goes on for any length of time then Asteroids will start to freeze, ships will stop running and lights will grow dark. Even the re-designed Eos can't last long without Solergy. You'd better wrap up well and turn down the heating to save power. I'm just going to get changed into some warmer clothing myself."

The screen went blank and the room was plunged into the dimness provided by the emergency lighting. Outside the stars twinkled innocently in ignorance of the calamity facing the human race.

The large viewing screen reverted to show the view directly ahead of them. Dead centre was a tiny, luminescent gruesome, green rock. Torr knew in his heart that this had to be where they would find the Second Celestial Secret. He looked at the name on the screen, NördStrörm. As he watched, he could almost feel it getting bigger, ominously rolling straight for him.

"Is that really the next one, on NördStrörm?" asked Torr, hopeful that Kiki would tell him otherwise. "Is that where we are heading?" he asked with a creeping feeling of dread, driven by their dwindling power supplies.

The asteroid appeared to be full of menace and baleful malevolence as it glared back at them. There was something about it that was making Torr feel very uncomfortable.

"Sure is," answered Kiki. "Unless of course you wanted to go anywhere else," he hinted.

Torr didn't reply, but he felt sure that even Kiki wanted to go anywhere that wasn't towards NördStrörm and the Second Celestial Secret. His heart sunk deeper with trepidation.

What had he got himself into? An overnight bag that deliberately put his life in danger, a clever girl who'd never seen inside an asteroid and didn't seem to understand danger when she saw it. Combine that with a series of quests for things that were so secret that he couldn't expect much help whilst also being hunted by two evil empires with near infinite resources and you had...

What? He didn't know, but he was sure he was going to find out.

~o0o~

This is the end of the quest for 'The First Secret' but Torr's quest continues in 'The Second Secret'. An extract of the Second Secret can be found at the end of this section. Click HERE to jump straight to it.

(published by Oblique Media. https://www.oblique.media).

Uncle Otto returns to the Astro Saga in the Earth Series, coming soon from Oblique Media. Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed it, please take a moment to leave a review at your favorite retailer.

Thanks.

Robert Smithbury

All art and words by Robert Smithbury, except where credited. Visit Oblique Media (https:\\\www.oblique.media) for further insight, stories and art from the Astro Saga.

If you want to know more about the Astro Saga and upcoming releases, please subscribe to my email list either at <https://www.oblique.media/subscribe> or send us an email at astro.saga.oblique.media@gmail.com from the email address you'd like to subscribe from.

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Thanks to Pixabay and their contributors for many of the photographs incorporated into some of the artwork contained here.

Other books by Robert Smithbury also published by Oblique Media

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ASTRO SAGA

The Celestial Secrets

Already published or scheduled for publication

The Second Secret

The Third Secret

The Fourth Secret

The Fifth Secret

The Sixth Secret

The Seventh and Final Secrets

Further **Astro Saga** adventures

for future release

The Earth Series

Torr Naydo and the King of Earth

Torr Naydo and the Battle for Earth

The Casebook of Armitage Shanks

The Mysterious case of Un-Life

The Voyages of the Spaceship Oceanius

Underworld

Colony and Conflict

Kezin: Bio-Gene Agent

Kezin in deep

Kezin's Pride

Kezin, Dragon Lord

Faerielandz

Yet to be scheduled for publication

The Prophecy

The Hamster, the Explorers and the Fridge

Princess De Stiny

The Vision of the Dawn Together

The Lost Battle

The Second Secret

The following pages contain an extract from the Second Secret.
Prologue: Winter Wonderland

Two sinister, dark, hungry eyes watched the snowball hurtle through the air. It curved across the sky and out of sight before finally catching Sarah Sinclair on the side of her head. Ice crystals slipped under her collar and down her neck. She shivered and screamed in the way that only young girls can.

Ears flattened at the sharpness of the sound. Changing direction, a hunter's nose sniffed the air and caught the scent; small humans, hmmm.

"I'll get you for that, Jason!" Sarah's thin voice trilled in the chilling winter's air. It gave a clear direction to the hidden hunter.

Ursine synapses pondered. Sensitive nostrils scented warm meat, still fresh. Definitely somewhere near. Taste buds salivated. A thick, blue tongue licked hairy, frosted lips surrounding strong, sharp fangs.

Sarah shook the melting ice from her hair and bent low to gather up handfuls of snow, forging them into a frozen ball of unpleasantness for her brother. Vengeance called.

Hunger gnawed, hunger urged, hunger growled, unwittingly interrupting the silence of the freshly fallen snowfield.

Sarah turned at the unexpected noise. "What was that?"

Hunger forced a painful hush.

Silence, once more.

"Jason, was that you?"

Slow breaths, steamed in the cold air. Paws pressed down on the thick covering of fresh snow, searching for a solid grip on the hard ground beneath. Claws gripped, tense, expectant. Perhaps a step further forwards? Movement slowed, time stretched.

"Jason?" Sarah hissed and whispered slowly, urgently, pleadingly, quietly wishing.

In the sudden darkness that edged her vision it felt to her like the tendrils of the surrounding trees reached ominously out towards her, clutching anxiously at her coat.

The sound of a breaking twig shot the silence. Sarah leapt and ran, slipped and fell, all in one movement. Heavy breath lurched into the periphery of her vision, a searching shadow heading unerringly her way. A cold blade of twilight slipped into her soul. She tried to raise her head to find some clue, some inclination of what was happening, to no avail.

A sudden heavy weight crashed into her, knocking the last urgent, panting breath from her lungs, forcing her back down, leaping on top of her. She gasped to breathe. Another snowball was rubbed into her face, filling her mouth with slushy ice and leaves.

She tried to cry out but couldn't speak, "Spplttz!" was all that she could manage.

Sitting astride her, Jason was exultant. Oblivious to the hidden watcher, he gouged fresh handfuls of snow from the ground with his frozen fingers and rubbed them into his sister's hair with glee.

At the sound of triumphant laughter, muscles tensed, adrenaline surged, reflexes accelerated. Talons extended. Time slowed to a crawl. Hunter's eyes narrowed and focused, all senses converged on a single thought: food.

From his position of temporary triumph, prehistoric senses deep within Jason's brain flared and fought for his attention. Subconscious neural triggers vainly tried to warn him about the expectant hunter.

Satisfied that his sister was safely vanquished as she sobbed into the frozen ground beneath him, he glanced around warily. The wind howled around the two children, constantly shifting wooded shapes and shadows uncertainly.

Jason's skin crawled with mischievous, malicious imagination, urging him to heap further humiliation on his sister but something was stopping him. A new unknown fear appeared to be circling him just out of his vision. His thoughts filled with hesitation and uncertainty.

Even to his young, hesitant observations, the small wood had changed beyond recognition in the last few days. The last time he had left the house in the sharp, brightness of midsummer the trees had been a welcoming haven. Now, in the half gloom, they creaked with the unexpected weight of snow and cast long shadows in the limited, thinning daylight.

On the other side of the nearby hill his mother, Janx, scraped at the ice on the inside of the strengthened glass to get a better look at what was happening outside. Pensively she worried about what potential catastrophe might threaten them next.

Life had gone downhill for the whole family rapidly ever since the Solergy energy batteries had failed without warning only a few days ago. Immediately, all of NördStrörm's thermal systems had automatically cut their output by 90% to conserve energy. Normally, by preference, the weather in NördStrörm was kept mild verging on chilly. But now, with power at a premium, the asteroid engineers had reviewed the situation and reluctantly cut the thermal power further, shunting everyone straight into the middle of the deepest arctic winter ever known.

With no molten planetary core to call on for heat reserves, the extreme cold of deep space had quickly sucked any remaining warmth from the inhabited interior of the asteroid. An immense blizzard had hit in what should have been midsummer and a new ice age had started overnight. Rivers glaciated and fresh, sudden snow fell in sheets that blanketed the rapidly freezing ground. Frozen chaos fractured civilisation as it skidded to a halt, an ice road juggernaut caught in a 360-degree whiteout.

The sudden onslaught of the coldest weather Janx had ever known had rapidly depleted their cabin's energy reserves, as night was significantly extended by the government in an attempt to conserve further energy. In the subdued lighting of a new dawn she had come to the painful realisation of how reliant they were on the tiny energy cells, even with their tiny energy needs inside their pitifully tiny residence. Without energy to generate heat the temperature in their small dwelling had dropped dramatically. Then the weather had taken another turn for the worse.

Thanks to https://pixabay.com/en/users/free-photos-242387/ at Pixabay for the unedited photo.

As a second chilling night fell the normal weather systems had ruptured and an intense storm had spread deep snow down from the mountains and buried the wood near their small home. Animals fled for heat preserving burrows. Roots ruptured in the frozen dirt.

Fortunately, the freak blizzard had blown itself out by the morning as weather systems struggled to re-stabilise around the unendurable arctic climate. In the dim half-life of an unnaturally foreshortened day, the children's excitement at the heavy snowfall had been easy to release. Janx had encouraged them to go out and play whilst she stayed indoors trying to figure out how to survive the days that lay ahead. Now she was beginning to regret letting them out of her sight. If only she could see what they were up to...

Jason stared frantically around him trying to quieten the surging sense of peril that was rapidly building up inside him. Fallen snow from overloaded boughs lay piled around in newly blown mounds. The one in front of him shifted and extended a nose, a mouth, a claw, another...

Jason didn't wait to see more of the hunter as it burst into the clearing. But to his credit he stopped long enough in his headlong flight to drag his sister and scream at her to run for her life.

With its quarry in full flight, the enormous polar bear accelerated at an amazing pace for its three metre long frame. This was a game it knew how to win. Huge lungs pumped oxygen to muscles that burnt energy at a furious pace in the hunter's race with its chosen prey. A colourless blur on white, a surging tide of furry snow, an avalanche of awesome ferocity, it descended upon the fleeing children.

Free of the wood and its restraining trees the hunter's quarry burst into the open, rushing across the frozen lawn towards the distant log cabin. Its welcoming wisp of smoke trailed into the sky, beckoning with a gossamer thin hope of sanctuary. Jason prayed he'd see the inside again.

"Mummy!" screamed Sarah.

"Save your breath for running," panted Jason alongside her, wasting his own.

Above the roar of his own heart thumping in his ears he could sense the thundering footfalls of the giant polar bear relentlessly gaining on him. From some hidden reserve Sarah found a new source of energy and she began to move ahead of Jason, her longer legs opening up a life saving gap.

Closer, closer, nearly there, keep going. Wear them down. Rip their hides. Snap their bones. Tear their meat. Taste their screams. Rend their dreams.

From inside the cabin Janx heard the screaming and rushed back to the window in alarm as her fears manifested, chilling her heart as solid as the water in the brutally broken, fatally fractured pipes.

Her eyes frantically scanned the white hillside for signs of imminent jeopardy. Apart from the screams there were none. Across the snow covered meadow she could see the children rushing towards her, voices loud but indistinct. There was nothing else to indicate any apparent danger. Perhaps they had only been screams of laughter, she thought, prematurely quietening her concerns.

Suddenly, her illusory complacency splintered, shattering into slithers of fear as the huge bear crested the hill and cannoned along in pursuit of her children. It rapidly gained on them as they hurtled down the slope. A primeval scream ripped its way clear of her throat as she ran towards the door with vain, faint hopes of rescue and self-sacrifice.

Finding himself between the giant, hunter, killer bear and his sister, Jason lengthened his stride as the heavy, wooden cabin door opened ahead of him. Several steps later Sarah threw herself through the gap and from somewhere much too close behind him, the bear roared and prepared to leap across the remaining distance between it and its prey.

Whether it was a roar of frustration, or triumph, Jason didn't wait to find out and launched himself towards possible salvation. His only chance of survival remained in crossing the threshold before the bear's claws could impale him. As he passed through the welcome opening he landed atop his sister for a second time that day. Together they scrambled for cover. Behind them Janx slammed the door shut and jammed down the hefty cross bars.

She prayed that the wood would hold against the giant bear's thunderous assault.

There was a rending, explosive crash as the hunter collided with the sudden and unexpected barrier that was preventing it reaching its prey. The whole cabin juddered to its foundations as the bear's onslaught threatened to demolish the whole, suddenly fragile, construct in its rage.

Then silence. They listened to their hearts beat wildly as wide-eyed they panted with exhaustion on the cold, unforgiving floor.

One.

Two.

Three.

Then a bellow of rage as the cabin shuddered again under a fresh onslaught. Cracks began to appear in the door's weaker beams as the bear assaulted their refuge, hammering on the walls with furious fists, splintering wood with swipes of its carnassial claws.

Jason and Sarah fled, scampering into the next room and straight underneath the beds as their mother hastened to shutter the remaining windows before joining them. Crawling into the slim, dark, space they crushed their squeezing, wheezing tears and fears tightly together.

"We should be safe here," Janx whispered, hoping that her words were more likely to come true than their chances of surviving through this unexpected winter. If that giant bear managed to get in she didn't want to think about what it could do.

No, what it would surely do.

Chapter 1: There's something following us...

Torr awoke in shock at the screaming sound in the cabin and as he opened his eyes the flashing overhead lights overloaded his eyes. For a moment he couldn't remember where he was and then reality came crashing in. He was aboard the Eos, in search of the Second Celestial Secret, supposedly donated by aliens, stolen by two evil empires and desperately needed by all humanity. Somewhere along the way he was hoping to locate his lost parents.

In the last few weeks his average, normal, life had become a lot more complicated.

Nattie burst into his room and shouted noiselessly in an effort to be heard. He could see her lips moving but couldn't make out the words above the deafening klaxon.

A small voice inside his head was trying to make itself heard. To make matters worse, Fuzz ball rolled into the room and started running around it in broken circles. Lights flashed in neon colours and pandemonium truly reigned.

"KIKI! MAKE IT STOP!" Torr shouted at the top of his voice.

The noise ceased as suddenly as it had started and only its echoes remained, leaping around inside Torr's skull. In shock, Fuzz ball ran into the table, bounced helplessly before missing her balance and falling to the floor.

"What was all that about?" Nattie asked, carefully removing her hands from her ears in case there was any sudden resurgence of noise.

Torr held his aching head in his hands, "Kiki? Care to explain? Quietly though!" he emphasised.

"Sure boss. Oh, and I forgot to say 'Good Morning'. Good morning," Kiki sang in a syrupy, cheerful voice.

"Good morning Kiki," Nattie whispered, wearing a faint, crooked smile. She couldn't help but feel amused.

The lights of the room faded back into a soft glow. Between Torr's feet, the overnight bag crept out gingerly from underneath the bed with both handles wrapped firmly across its zip. It looked clearly annoyed.

Torr was unwilling to forgive Kiki so easily and waved an irritated hand in the air.

"Get on with it," he growled.

"I think there might be someone following us," said Kiki.

The Tinkerer had claimed that Kiki, the onboard computer, had a child friendly personality overlay, but Torr had his doubts. He couldn't find anything particularly child friendly about the way that Kiki behaved.

"Someone's following us?" Torr asked, silently dreading the answer.

"Someone's following us," Kiki chirped cheerfully.

"Who?"

"I don't know. If I knew that I'd have said."

"So how do you know that we're being followed then?"

"Because every time we change course, they change course in exactly the same way and keep coming directly for us. In my book that counts as being followed. How do you define it?"

Torr ignored the question and instead glanced across at Nattie. She looked scared. Her smile had totally vanished. Fuzz ball scratched at her head and took Nattie's hand between her large soft paws as her fur wafted in waves.

"You don't think it's the Nebulon III do you?" Nattie asked nervously. Her recent incarceration on the Typhon had made her naturally cautious about evil empires and their dark designs.

"Kiki?" Torr asked, reluctantly knowing that he needed the computer's assistance.

"It doesn't look like the Nebulon III," the computer answered huffily. "I think I would recognise the biggest battleship in the Carthaginian fleet."

He sounded like his feelings were hurt.

"You mean you can see it?" Torr leapt from the bed. It always amazed him how Kiki could hide important pieces of information in plain sight.

"Sure."

"Why didn't you tell me?! Don't answer that. I know the answer, because I didn't ask you. Just show us now, OK."

Torr talked rapidly to avoid Kiki getting a word in. But nevertheless Kiki managed to give the impression of sullen, reluctant acceptance that the game was over, without making a single sound.

They all rushed into the main cabin where the large viewing screen was brightening. As they watched with growing anxiety, an object with long rotating wings and a worrying array of weapons slid towards them. It was gliding carefully between the multitude of spinning asteroids and floating remnants of a failed construction boom. Unerringly it kept all of the missiles pointing at them through every twist and turn it made.

Torn between watching the lethally equipped drone and the huge revolving rocks that spiralled silently in space, Torr wondered whether the people living inside them knew that heavily armed death was passing so closely by their door. He felt sure that their community safety computers hadn't woken them loudly with worrying tales of alarm and concern.

"Ugly, armed and dangerous," muttered Nattie, biting her lip.

"Perhaps we should take the Eos up into another layer," suggested Torr, "maybe the Behomian layer. We might give it the slip that way."

"Probably not. It's pretty persistent." replied Kiki. "Tracker drones usually are."

"What's the Behomian layer?" asked Nattie. It wasn't a phrase she had heard before.

"All of the asteroids in Earth's orbit are arranged in five layers," explained Torr as if he were some form of expert. "Kingsley Downs, where we found the First Celestial Secret, is in the Midgard layer, which roughly equates with the equator on earth. The layer 'north', or 'above', of Midgard is the Behomian layer."

Torr could see Nattie's eyes glazing over. He wasn't making it very clear and tried again.

"Think of it as a jam sponge cake. Some asteroids orbit in the jam layer in the middle and some orbit in either the upper or lower bits of sponge. No asteroid moves between the layers."

Fuzz ball's eyes also glazed and her vivid imagination turned inwards at all of this talk of cake. Nattie was amusing herself by wondering how much of a mess would be made if the asteroids really did travel through giant layers of Victoria sponge.

"Is NördStrörm covered in jam or sponge then?" she asked in her best and most innocent voice, goading him with assumed ignorance.

But as Nattie asked her supposedly harmless question about their destination, Torr felt a shiver go down his spine and a hole open up in his stomach at the merest thought of jam sponge cake. NördStrörm; the very name frightened him. With that in front of him and the heavily armed tracker drone behind, he felt trapped between an unavoidably hideous destiny and an unrelentingly deadly pursuer.

"How is that thing following us?" Torr muttered, half to himself. "Space is crowded this near to Earth. There should be no way it can keep track of us amongst the millions of objects out here."

"That's easy", chirped Kiki. "It's a tracker drone and it's following our Automatic Navigation Pilot signal."

"You mean our ANP is on?" Torr asked in disbelief.

He and Nattie stared at each other in disbelief. Some days computers could be so stupid. They shouted in unison, "SHUT IT OFF!"

"Okey, dokey" replied Kiki, apparently oblivious to the tension that he was creating as he blithely switched off the very technology they had worked so hard to recover on Kingsley Downs.

Silently they stared at each other holding their breath.

"Well?" whispered Torr.

For a few seconds there was only the hum of the engines being engaged before the computer spoke again.

"I've tried a couple of simple manoeuvres without any corresponding movement from the tracking drone, so that seems to have worked."

They all relaxed visibly.

"But it's now trying a search pattern. It knows it's lost us and has started looking more thoroughly. Tracker drones are known for their persistence."

Torr was thinking furiously, "We can't afford the fuel to take too much evasive action. Now that the Aztex have most probably started tampering with the Second Celestial Secret they've disrupted its technology and as a result the Solergy energy cells have stopped working. That's severely affected how much energy we have available, which means we're on reserve power batteries and we've only just got enough fuel left to get us to NördStrörm. We can't dodge around too much whilst trying to lose the tracker drone."

Another shiver quivered down his backbone and settled with the others hiding in his stomach. It neatly filled the hole left behind by his thoughts of jam sponge cake. A proper breakfast would have helped his digestion better. His Uncle Otto had been right; a good breakfast is very important. Especially if you're trying to pull one over on an evil empire, thought Torr.

"And with everyone else conserving fuel as well, if we tried too hard to escape by jetting away quickly then we'd show up like a sore thumb for acting so differently," added Nattie.

The overnight bag crawled back underneath the bed and started shivering and shaking. It had a sensitive constitution and wasn't really built for the worries of long distance travelling. Watching it shuffle awkwardly into the darkness gave Nattie an idea.

"We could hide!" she exclaimed, slightly too loudly for Torr's ears which were still ringing from the alarms that had started his day.

"Where?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know. Kiki, any ideas?" Nattie asked.

"Hmmmm," hummed Kiki helpfully. "Hmmmm."

"That's all I need," muttered Torr darkly, "an indecisive computer."

"Humph!" said Kiki. "Well, I had thought of somewhere to hide. But I'm not going to tell you if you are going to be insulting. You'll have to figure it out by yourself," he finished defiantly.

"Kiki!" Torr and Nattie shouted at the walls together. Even Fuzz ball went over and kicked the control console. She regretted it instantly and hopped around the room, holding one foot between her paws, before falling over onto her back.

The computer didn't respond, instead remaining eerily silent. This was so unusual that all of them felt unsettled.

"Kiki, if we don't evade this tracker drone, we're all going to die. You included. Didn't the Tinkerer programme any sense of self preservation into you?" Nattie asked, trying intellect where shouting had failed.

"Well," Kiki said with deliberate slowness. "There is this hollow asteroid a short distance away. It was excavated to provide living accommodation in the last construction boom but was never finished due to lack of funds. If we slipped inside it and turned off all of the power sources, then the tracker drone might not find us. We could then slip out again and continue on our way to NördStrörm. But I have to emphasise the word 'might'."

"Do it, before I take you apart screw by screw and transistor by transistor," Torr threatened.

Intellectual deviousness wasn't something he could consider on an empty stomach.

"It's going to get cold," Kiki warned in retaliation. He didn't like being shouted at.

"If we turn all of the power off that's going to include the heating. The temperature will drop quickly. Are you absolutely sure that's what you want to do?"

Nattie put her hand on Torr's shoulder in an attempt to prevent his temper overheating. She could feel the tension in his muscles.

"Just do it Kiki. Come on guys, time to put on all of our warm clothes and space suits."

She reached under the bed and grabbed the handles of the overnight bag, dragging it out into the open, "That means you too."

"I just hope this works and we don't freeze to death waiting for the tracker drone to forget about us," Torr muttered, biting his nails but following her lead.

No one appeared to be listening, they were all too busy struggling into heavy jumpers and extra pairs of socks.

No change there, he thought. No one ever seems to listen.

Continued in the Second Secret

For a free copy of the Second Secret, please visit <https://www.oblique.media/free>
