

Relic Worlds:

Lancaster James

and the Search

for the Promised World

'Relic Worlds: Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised World'

Copyright 2007 by Jeff McArthur

Contents

Chapter 1: Kaukasos

Chapter 2: The Medallion

Chapter 3: The Princess & the Pirate

Chapter 4: The Rings of Palmetto

Chapter 5: The Best Offer

Chapter 6: The Chase Begins

Chapter 7: Ancient History

Chapter 8: The Brewing Storm

Chapter 9: The Temple Ruins

Chapter 10: A Growing Conflict

Chapter 11: The Tourist Trap

Chapter 12: The Desert Chase

Chapter 13: Miscalculations

Chapter 14: The Promised World

Chapter 15: Asset Liquidation

Chapter 16: Paying Debts

Appendix

Preface

"Billions of stars... infinite possibilities. It is a statistical impossibility that we are alone in the universe. And yet, after hundreds of years of searching, man is still uncontested in the known cosmos. As I stare into the void, I wonder how many eyes are staring back at me, asking the same questions. I wonder what happened to them, and could the same thing happen to us."

Lancaster James

To Theresa & Edwin

whose support has made

Relic Worlds possible

Chapter

One

Kaukasos

The blinding flurry of sand swirled and shifted in the chaotic air. Visibility was little more than a yellowish-brown veil with a faded background of contour lines that outlined the endless sea of dunes. A tall wave of haze shimmered off the top of the hill as Lancaster James approached the crest. He ducked his head down just as he reached it, and felt a gush of wind knock into his hat, the tiny pebbles tapping like raindrops along the rim. The spare shirt he wore around his waist fluttered up behind like a flag while Lancaster paused to catch his balance.

At last he rose his head slowly and peered into the ripples of sand to see what was ahead. He could find nothing through the beige mass, and so he adjusted the settings on his goggles to get a better glimpse through the storm. The distance cleared enough for him to spy where the next couple rises were, and some of the details of the hills, but there was no sign of walls peeking through them. He adjusted the goggles to spot the structural integrity of a barrier made of something other than a natural substance, or any sort of smooth surface. Nothing, not even buried in the sand. Lancaster sighed with disappointment. It shouldn't be much further.

He switched on another reading in his goggles. Pictures he had taken a few weeks earlier appeared before his eyes. They were of cave walls and a floor; images he had taken in an underground well he had visited recently. Bumps and scratches were highlighted with various colors. He believed these had been carved into place, and were clues as to the location of a hidden city. The dots and lines, when translated to the alien language, (which Lancaster had learned over the years,) seemed to write galactic coordinates which pointed here on Kaukasos. Carvings on the floor seemed to mark a spot on the planet.

He was at that point now. He brought up the coordinates from the alien well in his goggles and compared them to his Terrestrial Compass to make sure, and they confirmed he was correct. This was supposed to be the location of a Sigueran city.

The Siguerans were the most mysterious, and most disturbing, of all lost alien races. While the remains of dozens of alien races had been discovered over the years in the form of ancient ruins and lost relics, each had been found to have existed during a specific period of time. Their civilizations rose and fell over the course of a few hundred thousand years, and all had perished and disappeared forever; the last ones fading out a few million years before humanity was born. No one knew why, and few cared, save for a small number of scientists and scouts like Lancaster.

The Siguerans, however, had re-emerged throughout the millennia. Their ruins dated anywhere from 200 million years ago to the most recent a couple million years back. They always seemed to appear near the end of another civilization's reign, and disappeared soon after all the other races died out. Had they grown out of these other races? Were they dependent upon them? Most disconcerting, had they destroyed those civilizations, then gone into hiding, only to re-emerge and destroy the next race that came along?

Lancaster believed all of these questions needed to be answered before humanity became the next casualty. So far they had stretched about 3,000 light years into the stars, a rapid expansion compared to previous civilizations. Who knew how much time they would have before the Siguerans would return; or if they were still out there?

The last time they had appeared there had been a split in their culture. Some Siguerans began living underground and were masters of manipulating materials. Their architecture and artifacts were some of the most detailed Lancaster had ever come upon. The standard over-ground Siguerans, meanwhile, were some of the most difficult to discover as their architecture was designed to perfectly meld with the surrounding terrain.

With all these difficulties in his way to track them down, it was no wonder Lancaster was having difficulty finding the ruins on Kaukasos. But he had been here for hours traipsing over the very location where it should have been. He had adjusted the settings of his goggles to detect alien-built structures and had used several scanning devices he kept in his jacket pockets and his utility belt, but to no avail. He could continue wandering through this desert in hopes the map was wrong, or he could check out the same coordinates of the other planet near the habitable zone in the same star system. It was a less likely candidate, but it was their best option now.

Lancaster huddled away from the wind, pulled down the scarf covering his lower face and brought his Talki to his mouth. "Little Jack," he said.

"Wilco," came the sharp reply.

"It views as a bust," Lancaster said. "Jond on over to..."

The words had no sooner left his lips when he felt his legs yanked downward, sucked into the sand. He grasped tightly to the Talki as the rest of his body submerged into the ground and he immediately felt himself tumbling along with loose soil further into the earth. His ears were overwhelmed with the loud hissing, behind which, he could faintly hear Little Jack calling to him. He had no control. His whole body was being yanked downward, surrounded by his assailant of swirling sand, also descending in a whirlpool, as though tugged by an invisible force.

Suddenly he felt his leg bump a metallic surface, one that slanted and slowed his fall. He bounced to the side, and continued dropping, until he felt an entire side of his body hit another surface, and he slid down it, this time, a steeper surface that felt like a funnel, as though everything was guided toward a single spot where they entered a narrow tube. Lancaster tried to grab onto the floor and hang on, to stop himself, but his hands only came up with the unrelenting current of sand which swept his hand with it, and he continued along with everything else.

Cocooned inside a blanket of fast moving granules, he slid ever downward. His body swished up one side, then the other, tumbling over a couple times, turning once or twice to the left and to the right. Then suddenly he felt nothing underneath his body. He was freefalling in the air, still surrounded by the shell of dirt sharing in his fate. He fell a couple meters until he hit the hard, stone surface of the ground, stopping him once and for all. The sand spread out all around him, pouring across the floor; some of it bouncing back up and filling the air in a dusty cloud.

Lancaster was coughing, choking in the thick brume, and spitting out the granules from his lungs. He could see puffs sputtering out of his mouth and joining the haze around him.

The room was dark, and would be pitch black if not for a few slanted holes which let in thin shafts of light from the surface at steep angles. These rods of white illumination dimmed and brightened with the shifting sands above.

There was little he could tell about the chamber, except that the floor was covered in a dust several inches thick, and that it was at least five meters wide in both directions.

"I'm over your position, Lancaster. What's with the disappearing act?" Little Jack was calling.

"Little Jack, I'm nove," Lancaster said, letting him know he was all right. "Find a place to park Odin's Revenge and I'll find my way up there."

"Wilco that," Little Jack said.

Lancaster rose slowly to his feet, checking himself for damaged limbs on his way up. He pulled the goggles off his eyes, placed them on his forehead just below his hat and loosened his scarf. All he could see about the room were the sharp shafts of sunshine made almost solid by the thick dust that drifted inside them. He checked his jacket pockets, feeling which devices might have been damaged. Everything seemed in order so far, so he removed his Illuminator, a device that projected beams of various spectrums of light, from infrared, through visible, all the way to ultraviolet and beyond, which Lancaster kept handy at all times.

He held the Illuminator forward with one hand and adjusted the settings with the other. He began with a full burst of white light so he could see around the room. It was approximately ten meters large in all directions and a few meters tall, the distance to the funnel-shaped roof from which he had fallen. The walls were blank, and a single, short, rectangular door sat off near one corner.

The doorway was the most curious aspect of the room. Most Sigueran doors were hourglass shaped. This was a plain passageway with no curves, and no actual door that opened and closed. However, upon closer examination of it, he did see a thin, decorative partial ledge which snaked its way around the room and through the opening. This room had probably looked rather nice before time and grime covered it up.

Lancaster ran through the different light spectrums on the Illuminator, inspecting the chamber in various forms. There was nothing else to learn. This was simply a basement to be dumped into. So he switched the Illuminator to brighten the way forward, held it in front of him, and exited the room.

A corridor wound its way in one direction, bending and curving a couple times as he walked over the rough cobblestone floor. At one corner he noticed several holes above him, and he stopped to check for a trap he might have set. Holes such as these sometimes denoted spikes or lasers or some other weapon to kill off intruders. But these were placed more randomly; more likely to drop small, poisonous animals on the victims. After scanning the holes and finding a small chamber above, he determined that this was the most likely trap, and assumed that whatever animal had once lived there had died or moved on millennia ago, and so he moved on.

The corridor straightened out and he could see far ahead an intersection where other halls led in different directions. He stopped short of them by a couple dozen yards, however, sensing that something just wasn't right. He didn't know what it was for a moment, but he had learned to trust his instincts; they gathered more information faster than he was able to consciously process.

He realized at once that it was two things that seemed out of place. First, he hadn't exactly entered through the front entrance. Who knew what was brought in by that direction? The Siguerans wouldn't let just anything in. They were infamous for laying traps for intruders, and he had already come across one former ambush, so he had to be on the lookout for more. Second, the very end of the light from the Illuminator was catching the floor near the intersecting corridors. It was smooth. Patterned bricks of a beautiful, shiny rock covered the ground, not the cobblestone upon which he was walking. There had to be a reason for this.

Lancaster studied the floor, searching for patterns both with his eyes, and with the Illuminator. As it had done so many times in the past, the Illuminator found what he was looking for. It compared the patterns of the cobblestones to everything in its database. On one stone it located small etchings of a symbol he had seen on Vallouris. A line which was bulbous on one side came to a point on the other, and a couple circles sat about an inch above it. These were the arrows that had led him to the well which brought him here in the first place. They were well hidden on this cobblestone whose rough surface was so chaotic that anything written upon them was hard to find. "You clever bastards," Lancaster muttered.

Believing they wouldn't bring him all this way to kill him, he trusted the symbols. He stepped on the first cobblestone on which he had found this arrow. He found another a few rocks ahead, then another. He kept stepping on the arrows upon which he was instructed to step. Each was in a row, and they each brought him closer to the intersection ahead. Lancaster confirmed every cobblestone with the Illuminator before stepping on it. He felt a bit silly, tiptoeing slowly like this when no other danger appeared around him. The rest of the floor, in fact, looked as solid as any other.

He neared the third to last stone. Beyond the final one, the floor was laid out with the smooth brick, so he knew he'd be safe. He was, in fact, looking ahead to see which direction he would go. He shone the Illuminator down each corridor as he stepped on the second to last cobblestone.

He felt his foot slip at the same moment he heard a deafening crackle and roar. All of the rest of the cobblestones were coming loose. Lancaster didn't have time to think. The end of his path was still too far away to jump to, so he turned to the wall and kicked off the stone upon which he was standing. He had done it just in time, as the entire floor fell beneath him. Every stone tumbled into the dark abyss below, grinding together in a loud grumble as they fell.

Lancaster hit the wall hard. His hat flew off his head, and his hands grasped desperately for the decorative ledge which stuck out a few inches. He found it, and his fingers dug into the flowing decorations. There he clasped on for dear life, looking around to watch his hat tumble down with the stones, ground up among them and shredded into nothing. He could just see it at the end of the beam of light from the Illuminator, which was strapped to his wrist. After losing one in a similar fashion before, Lancaster had learned to attach important items to his body. He needed to learn to do the same with his hats.

He watched the cobblestones until they fell out of sight. He could hear them somewhere in the depth crashing, all crunching together in a solid heap. How or if they would reset themselves, Lancaster didn't know, and he didn't want to wait to find out. He scooted across the chasm, going hand over hand, grasping onto the little ledge, and making his way to the other side.

There, he stepped atop the smooth floor and sighed with relief. He peered down each corridor. They all looked the same, so he guessed, and headed to the left.

The ceilings were low, and the walls had flourishes of carved décor with occasional pillars that framed doorways. Each led into chambers that were all decorated differently, as though there was a rule that no two rooms be designed exactly alike. Their furnishings were covered over with sheets of dust and sand, as though prepared for moving day. Lancaster tried to guess the purpose of the rooms by the shapes of the sand. Some lay like beds or couches, others stood like pillars or hat racks. They all had platforms and dips; the subterranean Siguerans loved three dimensional architecture, and it was hard to distinguish what floor one was on because of the way a room would enter at one level, then exit half a meter down, or three meters up.

Some rooms were rudimentary, others were quarters for those who lived there, another was what looked like a communal shower, and he found one that seemed to be a kitchen. This was actually one of the more valuable rooms, as what a civilization eats says a lot of things about them, but Lancaster was most curious about the purpose of this colony.

He continued on into another room, and when he rounded the corner he was shocked to find a giant insect's arm reaching toward him, its body leaning in his direction, ready to leap on him. Startled, Lancaster leaped back, his Illuminator still pointed at the creature. He pressed a button, flashing a blinding light. He forgot to look away, and found himself stunned by the sudden blast. He shook it off as quickly as he could and looked at his assailant.

The insect was still, leaning toward him, yes, but standing in place. It was about two meters tall, had the shape of a praying mantis, and was covered in a layer of sand. Though it appeared menacing, Lancaster felt safe enough to approach it and blow off some of the covering from its face. Sure enough, it was a statue made of a bronze sort of material. It seemed to be staring in the direction of the door, but it had no eyes. Still, the contortions of its face somehow made it seem like it was passing judgment.

Lancaster brushed off sand from its outstretched left arm, which was also pointing toward the door, or perhaps a little further in. The end of its arm appeared sharp enough to run through a person, and it had a second arm, which branched out the bottom of its leg, that had fingers.

Lancaster inspected the right arm, which was hanging looser, not pointing at anything, and found that the branched off section had fingers that was holding a book. It was solid metal, part of the statue, unable to be opened, but the cover had a design on it. He blew hard, throwing up a cloud of sand in the air. As it cleared, he could make out the symbol; it was a star shape with the arrow symbol he had seen on the cobblestones in the middle. He knew this book cover design from somewhere, but where exactly, he could not remember.

Lancaster felt around his pockets until he found his notebook, and he yanked it out. Most people made fun of him for using a book of paper instead of an Electro-Pad, or Wrist-Holo that could carry all his information, but Lancaster preferred the old fashioned method, reminding critics that paper doesn't break or run out of battery power.

He thumbed through the ragged pages with their soft edges. He had small tabs on the ends to remind him where things were. He remembered what these tags were more by the sight of them than the labels. He found the page and opened to it. He had an image drawn of the symbol on the book, and underneath it the word "Travel." Though the notebook provided him only one word, Lancaster suddenly remembered everything about it. Many of his notes had only a word or two to jolt his memory, and he was able to fill in the rest. In this case, he remembered that there was a book that spoke of a prophecy; the prophecy of a promised land, and their god of travel would lead them to this place. This insect was most likely that god, and Lancaster shivered at the thought of a god like that leading him anywhere.

He quickly sketched out the statue of the god, drawing the symbol next to it; then continued to search. He had a theory now of what this place might be, and he wanted to see if he was right. Returning to some of the rooms where he had already been, he went to the upright sheets of sand that looked like they covered pillars or hat racks. He used a stiff-haired brush to throw the dust off and uncovered more statues. Most looked similar to the first one, though some had two legs rather than four, and others looked a bit more like bats. Curiously, none had eyes. A few seemed to have hollow slots for eyes in their torsos, but Lancaster wasn't sure what that meant. Comparing them to notes he had kept, Lancaster found that they were all either gods of travel, or related in some way to gods of travel.

All these elements confirmed for Lancaster that this settlement was clearly intended only for the subterranean Siguerans. They were much more religious than their over-ground cousins, but when their settlements were found in conjunction with them, which was most of the time, little in the way of their religious shrines were found, and those were discrete or even hidden in secret chambers. This entire colony seemed dedicated to worshipping their gods. There was even a large worship chamber where Lancaster found a half dozen statues all in one place, all looking over an area of raked seating with room to pray, and all without eyes. The front wall of this room, just past what looked like the altar, had a carved piece of artwork that showed a winding road leading to a distant sunset. There was no ground next to the road, no trees, no grass, no anything; just the path and the sun.

At the base of this wall, right at the beginning of the path, was another doorway framed with pillars. Just above the doorway, at the start of the path, was the symbol he had been following for two years now, the Constellation Crest, the relic which Lancaster believed would lead to many of the Siguerans' most incredible planets and unlock their greatest secrets. This was the direction he was wanting to go, so he stepped up to the door and walked through it.

Inside was not what he had expected. Rather than finding a treasure trove of artifacts and information about the Siguerans, he found... nothing, more or less. All that greeted him was a rectangular room, approximately twenty meters long by five meters wide with six statues on either side, all facing inward, but none with eyes. Instead, they all wore holes in their exposed torsos. In the center was a long, blank sand pit, and on one end was a roller with embossed writing on the surface and a hand crank on the side. Lancaster wondered if perhaps it was once the treasure room and it had been looted. It was the only possibility that seemed plausible at the moment, and it became more and more likely as nothing more emerged when he continued to search.

The statues elicited nothing. They were not even the gods of travel. These were horned creatures with oversized heads, the gods of protection. But they were staring without eyes at a blank slate of sand. The only unique features about them were the tips of their horns, adorned with diamonds which reflected light in a very specific direction.

Lancaster tried to read the designs on the giant cement roller, but they were indecipherable. They looked more like carved-in drawings than they did symbols or letters. Some were deep, some were shallow, and some had layers, sinking in one level after another, reaching into the roller a dozen inches or more. Most of the deeper carvings were connected by straight, shallow carving lines which intersected to every point on the roller.

It was in exploring these that Lancaster began to understand the puzzle. The flat, straight lines reached out mostly in a grid, crisscrossing every couple feet, separated by several square or rectangular holes in the roller that reached deep inside it.

Lancaster ran his hand across it, almost as though feeling the roller would give him some clue, but he could not decipher any language from it, and became pretty certain it wasn't. The answer was staring him in the face, but he couldn't put his finger on it well enough to dare a guess.

Then he determined to try the obvious. He walked to the side of the roller that had the hand crank. He began turning it. At first it resisted, not budging, then, whining, picked up, and the roller slowly began to twist. The cement pressed against the sand, which crackled in protest. The ancient gears creaked and the concrete rumbled across the ground. The gear stuck, then loosened and surged forward, then slowed again. Lancaster pressed both hands hard against the crank and continued to push, then pull, then push in a counter-clockwise direction.

The roller made it a few meters across the flat surface, and behind it the sand was being shaped into patterns. Lancaster continued to twist the crank, and the roller continued across the surface. He didn't look back until he had made it all the way to the end, at which point the roller had come full circle.

Lancaster turned back to the sandy surface to find it formed into the shapes of buildings, roads, parks... a city. The cut-out sections of the roller were molds that formed a miniature metropolis. Lancaster ran the Illuminator over it, staring in amazement, recording the model in its database. As he did, the light flashed across the blank face of one of the statues.

Lancaster had a thought, and he pointed the light again at the statue. Though it had no eyes, it was intently staring at one particular point. He looked down at the map, but without pupils in the eyes on the statue, it was hard to tell exactly what it was staring at. He then noticed that one of the other statues was staring the same way. He compared the two, and got a better idea of the point where they were staring, but still could not be certain. He looked at the other three statues and found that all of them were staring at the same point. He triangulated the position by looking closely at each face, then down at the ground. There, just off center and a little closer to the side the roller was now on, was a two story building, the first floor a flat structure with statuary on the corners pointing diagonally away from the building and into the sky, and the second floor a dome with a flat top. Etched very lightly into the flat portion of the dome was the symbol for travel he had just seen on the statue of the book.

There was clearly some importance to this place, so he took a Snapfish, which held better resolution than the Illuminator. He could compare the tiniest details on board Little Jack's ship.

He had taken two pictures and was about to take his third and last when the sand buildings exploded. Lancaster stumbled back toward the entry, but didn't retreat, curious as to what had happened. Through the flurry of flying sand he saw a long, insectoid leg sticking out of the ground, feeling around for land to grab onto. Two other legs grasped the sides, and pulled forth a torso, which slid out of its hole, searching around the room. It had the body of a beetle, and the head of what looked like a prehistoric dragon. Its long mouth was full of sharp, pin-like teeth. It had two dark slots at the front of its face where its eyes would normally be, though these looked more like nostrils, and they winced like they were sniffing the air. Its long legs had spade-like hands, perfect for digging and sharp enough to stab into hard surfaces, or skewer its prey. Lancaster saw that they also had some sort of suction, or stickiness to them as well, as two of them grabbed the ceiling and pulled the rest of its long body out. The back had the appearance of a scorpion, its back legs much like the front ones, and behind it a nimble tail with layered skin that looked like armor.

It no sooner had turned toward Lancaster than he was out the door, running for his life. He figured that this must be the animal which had once been stored above the corridor and used as a trap, now evolved over hundreds of thousands of years into something much bigger, and far more dangerous.

He heard it moving behind him. One of its spade legs stabbed the ground on which he had been standing, and the rest of the body followed. It made a clicking chirp sort of noise, like a cackling cicada. Its body knocked over everything it ran into, smashing the statues and bashing through the doorway. A cloud of dust and sand covered over it, leaving behind a trail, like a comet weaving through the hallways.

Lancaster dodged around corners and rushed headlong down the halls, his Illuminator held out in front of him with its white light as bright as he could get it. He was trusting that he'd find an exit as he dashed through the unexplored territory. He couldn't go back to where he had entered, there was no chance of escape there.

As the light bounced ahead of him, he heard the sand rushing up behind him, and the rapid clicking got closer and closer until it was just behind his neck. He sprinted forward, then jumped into a room to the right. The large creature had to halt, back up, then go at the door.

Lancaster bought some time, but he lost it immediately. He had stumbled into a room with several statues, and his curiosity got the better of him. He hesitated, trying to see what they were behind their layers of sand, but the beast crashed through the door, and Lancaster immediately went for a passageway on the opposite side where a few steps led to a slightly elevated level. Weaving around the statues, he made it to the opening and jumped in and over the steps as he heard the creature behind him knock straight through the statues, smashing them into several pieces as it went.

Lancaster rose to his feet and saw the animal again frustrated by a doorway too small for it. Lancaster knew he didn't have much time, so he began jogging down the hallway, a little slower now as he tried to decipher which direction he needed to go, and to make sure he wouldn't be coming upon any more traps.

His lead was once again cut short as the wall shattered next to him, and he was thrown against the opposite side. The light from the Illuminator flailed wildly, and Lancaster saw the creature's legs were over him, grasping the opposite wall, its body sliding over his. It was only by the fact that the creature thought he was already further down the hall that he avoided being smashed or eaten. It was looking away and did not see him below. Lancaster rolled back into the room and rushed back toward the hall from where he had come, hurtling over the debris of the statues as he went.

The clicking creature heard him, and turned around. Once in motion, it headed with incredible speed, even as it smashed through obstacles, but it lost pace when it had to maneuver.

Lancaster now used the lead to gain more. He turned the corner into his original corridor. When he heard the creature smash through the doorway he had gone through, he hurried into a room to his left. He leaped down several stairs and through another doorway. The next few rooms took him on a labyrinth both up and down and left and right until he was thoroughly lost as to where he was, and how deep he was. Not that he had known where he was before, but now he couldn't even find his way back to the map room if he tried.

He was amazed that the creature could still follow him. He was at least five chambers ahead of it, but yet it was still coming, smashing priceless artifacts as it went, destroying the last remains of this once amazing civilization.

Lancaster stopped, considering where to go next. His only hope for survival was to get out of this underground maze.

Then he noticed something. The sounds of the creature bashing everything stopped as well. Lancaster knew that he could still hear it because he could still hear the clicking. It just wasn't chasing him. Had it been following the sounds of him running, and now there was no sound to follow? He switched his light to ultrasound to take away the beam, and he waited, watching.

The large animal hesitated a little while, shifting through the room, listening. Lancaster was sure it didn't know where to find him. But its guessing brought it closer and closer, and soon it would figure him out, and he was near to a dead end, so he had to get moving again before he got trapped.

But first he wanted to find a way out. Randomly running would eventually lead to a part of the structure that was caved in, and he'd be trapped there as well.

He kept the face of the Illuminator pointed forward so he could continue to monitor the creature through its sounds as he watched through the screen on the top of it. He ran the Illuminator through its memory of what it had seen, watching moments of the chase to see if there was anything he had missed as he was running through the rooms and hallways. Most of the video was shaky and blurred. The Illuminator had been in his hands as he was pumping his arms, running, or sliding through doors. Most of what he saw was flashes of light against walls, or the occasional statues as he passed them, or debris as it tumbled all around.

But then he found a ray of light, literally. At one point when the Illuminator swept quickly across horizontally, he caught a glimpse of another light, a small one, in the distance. It went by so quickly he had almost thought it was just a reflection of his own light. But he ran it back to look at it again.

He heard the clicking much closer now. It echoed off the wall he was huddled next to. He checked the reading on the Illuminator. Just one more room and the creature would be in the same one as himself. Lancaster hoped it would take a lot of time getting its bearings in that room, but it was unlikely, considering the fact that it was following its sense of smell, and Lancaster wasn't exactly scentless at the moment. He had to find the exit right away.

He went back to the video and ran it by frame by frame. Sure enough, it was an exit. Lancaster had the Illuminator register where it had been when it took that image, then had it calculate the directions back to that location.

While the Illuminator made its calculations, Lancaster pulled out of one of his pockets a plastic ball. He had thought this to likely be a useless item and had not wanted to use up one of his pockets for it, but had kept it just in case. By pressing one of the sections of the ball, he could choose what scent would be released from it and then place it where he wanted the scent to emit. His ex-wife Mika had given it to him while they were married, hinting for him to use one of the better smells before he came back from one of his adventures. He now needed it for the opposite effect. He pressed one of the sides at random since he couldn't look at it, and threw it to the other side of the room. He hoped he had gotten a bad smelling odor, but as a pungent flowery aroma filled the room, he found he had failed.

It still did its job in any case. The creature squeezed its head through the door, stalled, then pushed its torso through, cracking the sides of the entrance. It didn't even look over at Lancaster, it was fixed solely on the smelly ball.

Lancaster carefully crept around behind the animal, lowering his head beneath its tail. He watched each footstep with a dim light, making sure he didn't step on any debris. Every step had to be completely silent, for if the creature became aware of him, it would only take a fraction of a second's flip of the tail to bring the stinger in on his neck and end his life.

The animal moved away, continuing toward the smell. It stopped there, confused, looking around for him. Lancaster slipped out the door and hurried toward the next. He followed the Illuminator's guidance system toward the exit.

In his excitement to get out, his footsteps became louder, and the animal heard him. It clicked faster and rushed toward him. Lancaster now ran, sprinting through rooms and rounding the hallways until he got to the corridor where he had been earlier. The creature gained on him, losing ground when it had to round corners, but remaining tight on his tail.

Lancaster saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Sure enough, it was sunlight. But would he be able to make it before the creature got to him, he wasn't sure. All he could do now was run.

The clicking echoed up and down the hall and rang in Lancaster's ears. He heard the legs and arms grasping the halls, the floor, and the ceiling as the animal's neck stretched out toward him, its razor teeth opening wide, ready to bite. Lancaster ran with all his might, the light ahead of him growing larger and larger. But judging from the size of the light and the distance of the creature behind him, he wasn't nearly close enough. He was going to be eaten.

Then he noticed a diffused glow at the edges of the exit. Some of the light was going through sand. He suddenly realized that what he was seeing was an optical illusion. The exit was very near, it was only small because most of it was covered. This may have been a bad sign as he could not get through it as quickly as the creature, but at least he'd be there sooner to find out.

A few seconds later, he was doing that very thing. He leaped for the door head and hands first. He pointed his shoulder toward it, intending to ram it with all his might. He could feel the air coming out of the creature's mouth, its breath covering his back. It had the stench of rotten meat, its last meal. The sharp teeth opened to make Lancaster its next.

Lancaster crashed through the sand, which flew out in a plume above him. He fell, tumbling head over heels down a long dune slope. Above him, the dragon-like head of the creature popped through, but went no further. It watched its dinner roll down the hill, then pulled back into its cave unsatisfied.

Lancaster lay on the sand for a while, looking up at the hot sun, catching his breath. At length he recovered, and called to Little Jack to pick him up.

Chapter

Two

The Medallion

Jude stood on the precipice of the cliff just at the end of the lip of earth where the yellow grass gave way to dark gray rocks. A hundred meters or so below, deep blue waves repeatedly rolled over gnarled stones in the bay before rubbing against those on the cliff, as though giving them a massage. The tide patterns duplicated themselves out into the ocean before disappearing in the distant mist. To her left, the boulders of the cliff jutted skyward like fingers, while three waterfalls dribbled off a lake and tumbled down a couple layers of balcony ground before reaching the ocean. Beyond it, the remains of a castle, or was it a lighthouse, stood atop the highest point. To her right, the earth rose until it reached white ruins nestled in an alcove with sheer drops on three sides.

Millions of people had once traveled through these lands. There had been a greater population here than some countries when humans still lived on Earth. Though they could not place their conscious inside the virtual world as Jude did, the people who entered these lands sat at computer screens with avatar versions of themselves, (or how they wanted to look,) and journeyed, fighting monsters, going on missions, living entire vicarious lives.

Jude could also make a different version of herself. She could look pretty much however she wanted; she had the memory for it. But she chose to keep a regular, though slightly glowing, version of herself while she traveled the Galaganet, except when she ran into trouble, or into organizations or people she didn't want finding her. There were a lot of individuals who fit into this category, so she took a risk by traveling as herself. However, she feared losing herself in Virtua, and wanted to remind herself who she really was whenever she could. She had known people who got so addicted that they lost track of reality, and they remained in Virtua until their bodies starved to death in the real world.

She also liked to walk on the 3D ground of these worlds once she arrived near her destination. She could fly, and usually travel through walls, especially in these older servers, but such travel could get disorienting after a while, and it was a nice break to walk as she did in the real world, and to feel the fake grass as it had been created by programmers hundreds of years ago.

The ground here felt strange. It tickled slightly, even through her modeled boots. Though made in a 3D environment, it had been designed for 2D computers, not for the conscious travel of modern cyberspace. Everything had a thinner look to it, and patterns repeated themselves continuously. But at least it was a 3D environment. Many of the areas Jude traveled to that were from this period of time were strictly 2D; flat screens on which she had to alter her own icon to enter. It was uncomfortable, but it was worth it to feed her starving curiosity, or to find lost treasures of the cyber-world, which is what she was doing now.

It had taken her a while to locate this place. No one seemed to know the name of it. All she had ever seen written about it was an exclamation: "Wow."

At the center of the ruins atop the alcove stood the statue of a man wearing a long cloak and shoulder pads, and wielding a shepherd's staff. One foot was raised on a rock and his body was angled forward, as if charging. She didn't know what it was supposed to mean, but the inscription on the rock matched the name she was supposed to find. "Leroooooy Jenkins!" An odd spelling, but it matched her research. She walked around to the back of the statue and found, strapped to the statue's belt, a chicken leg, just as the posting in the forum had claimed. She reached her hand toward it and stuck it inside the chicken leg. She felt around a moment, before finding her objective in the middle of the leg. It was a ball of energy, tingling in her hand. She strapped her fingers to it and fed the information into her mind. This was it; what she had been searching for for the last three weeks. It may be old code, but it was some of the source upon which the Bindoit Corporation had been built. It could lead to unlocking backdoors, passwords, about any kind of lock. Jude soaked the information through her hand until it was dissolved from its location and safely within her memory banks.

As she did, she heard a distant rumbling. She knew it wasn't far off, it's just that sounds were muffled as though she was underwater whenever she was soaking in information. She would have snapped out of her transfer right away but for the fact that this code was so valuable, and whatever was here was most likely no threat.

She turned to find a blue-green monster with shoulders larger than its hunched over head. It wore leather straps for clothing and wielded a battle axe, far too big for its body, raised high and threatening. It was charging her, screaming an incoherent battle cry, ready for the kill. Jude did not flinch. She simply accessed a program in her mind, wiped her hand across the air in front of her, and a scythe sliced through the beast. It rumpled to the ground instantly in a heap.

Jude suddenly felt something she never felt for anything alive that she had killed; sympathy. She had not taken much of a look at the green bugger while he was charging at her drooling at the mouth, but now that it lay there helplessly, she thought it was rather cute. Its name tag still hung above it, Bumhug. 'Aw,' she thought. 'I can't leave you just crumpled up like that.' So she reached down before he could respawn and touched his corpse. His visage fizzled into a bunch of 1s and 0s, then disappeared into her memory banks. He would be her mascot, and she could pull him out whenever she wanted to watch him run around, screaming and slashing his axe.

Jude turned to the sky and lifted off, flying away from the ancient game world which shrunk into small patches of color beneath her. When she reached the roof of the server, everything froze for a moment, then it all disappeared and she was shrouded in darkness. Dim 0s and 1s clumped together like buildings floating in space. Many in this part of Virtua were broken ruins with massive gaps. Empty remains of forgotten bygone eras.

Jude willed herself in the direction she wanted to go and the coded buildings flashed by her until she reached the one she wanted. She slipped inside, and felt herself squash into that 2D form again. She felt like a paper doll thrown to the wind. She bypassed a few ancient web pages and a lot of advertisements for organizations long since gone out of business until she found the broken wall and the flashing tunnel. Tiny neon 1s and 0s strobed in the gap, a sign that this portal was not supposed to exist, but had been placed there by some sort of error. This was how Jude found her way into most obscure places. She jumped into the slipstream and was carried away at lightning speed. To be exact, faster than lightning. Faster than light, in fact. Data in the Galaganet traveled through wormholes, which could not carry humans through, but could take data. Information and communication was thus transferred from planet to planet through the interconnected series of wormholes located throughout the explored galaxy. If one ever closed behind her, Jude's consciousness could be cut off from her body by light years.

She emerged in a wide, open space where glowing avatars and dots of data crossed in every direction, and bright panels and entry ways floated in place next to blinking advertisements. She had come through one of the letters in an enhancement drug ad. Someone had built code that linked into an old web address that gave her access to these ancient sites, and so far she seemed to be the only person who had found the bug.

Jude browsed around a little bit before checking a few of her favorite forums. Then she'd take one last look at messaging and she'd return to her body and the doldrums of the real world.

In one of the message boards she found an unusual entry, a name she didn't often see: 010011000100101000001101. She knew that it was binary for LJ, the Galaganet name Little Jack used. Seeing his name gave her both chills and excitement. They had worked together years before, taking jobs from one corporation to rob or sabotage another. They had no loyalty to these businesses, and often turned on former employers in favor of their enemies; whoever was paying more. Their own organization, Unterorg, was made up of only the best corporate spies in the business. But even with their massive skills, their luck could only last so long, and one by one, they had been captured, killed, or scattered. She had, in fact, thought she might be the only one still alive.

Little Jack had been thought to be the best among them. Jude never let him see it, but she always checked the exits and had an escape plan whenever she saw him. He rarely spoke, and kept his emotions to himself. One could never read whether he was fully with them, or about to unleash all forms of death and destruction on them. He could draw and kill with his two pistols Hugin and Munin and have them back in their holsters in the blink of an eye; all while looking as calm and collected as if he had been watching a sunset. He had a dry sense of humor, but no one dared laugh at his jokes in case he had not been kidding. They weren't usually very funny anyway.

Jude had last seen Little Jack on a job they did against the Dynasty Corporation. Little Jack had had with him a couple newbies that Unterorg had overestimated. They had made that mistake a few times, trying to increase their numbers, which had been the downfall of the organization. The planet was later rumored to have disappeared, so Jude had simply thought Little Jack had disappeared with it.

Little Jack had posted a Snapfish, some image that had been taken of a symbol etched lightly into the sand, which was formed into some sort of flat roofed sandcastle. It looked like the picture had been taken in an alternate light spectrum, so it had been done at night, or underground or something. However it had been taken, it looked familiar. The symbol matched one that was on a medallion she had on her ship. She had found it while salvaging pieces in a nearby asteroid field; some sort of ancient artifact from someone that had lived there a long time before.

She sent a link request to Little Jack and waited. Looking around, she decided this would better be suited for privacy, so she grabbed the link, opened up a bubble and slipped inside. After about a minute, a profile appeared.

"Greetings, Little Jack! Blinged to see you're still with the living!"

"Jude. Where have you been all my life?"

"Apparently finding what you... Are you a sock monkey?"

Little Jack's profile picture was indeed of a sock monkey wearing the huge, frosted-over glasses which covered his real life face. "I am," he said in his usual dry way. "What can I do for you?"

"More like what I can do for you," Jude said. "I vissed you logged a search for anything with that symbol you got a Snap of. Still interested?"

"What did you find?"

"A few months backwise I found a bit of jewelry with those same markings."

"I could kiss you if I wasn't swimming in lint," Little Jack said, again, so dryly he could be interrogating a prisoner.

"What do you regard we meet at the Limelight at Behrest Upon Favel?" Jude suggested.

Little Jack knew the place well. It was part of the old group's stomping grounds in the Akaba system. Jude was probably still hanging around that area. He knew Unterorg no longer existed, so she must be working, or playing, more like it, around that same region. "I will see you there," he told her.

"Bring your plastic!" Jude said. And they both logged off.

* * *

As soon as the doors to the club slid open, Jude felt the vibrations from the music thump against her body as though they had been released from a cage and were making a break into the outer world. The music itself was only a distant rhythm with a light melody in the background. She would only hear its full aria if she stepped onto the dance floor where the sounds were localized. Vibrations there were so powerful that dancers barely needed to exert any effort; their bodies were moved for them by the shockwaves in the air. Dance music was less for the entertainment of the ear and more for the way it twisted the body. Only the background melody made any effort at a truly musical sound, and it often was designed to go with the experience of the twisting bodies, and to send light tingles down the dancers' spines. Many who left the dance floor felt like they had just had a full body massage, and needed to sit on the plush couches for a while before they could drive to their hotels or homes. Those who stayed too long felt like they had just been beaten up.

People outside the dance floor bubble, meanwhile, could hear the low rumble of the music and feel the beats rumble through their clothes, but they could still talk to one another, drink, curse, laugh, and play cards without having to shout just to be heard. This was Jude's preference, and she soon found herself with a line of newly formulated drinks in front of her, and cards in her hands.

She had three opponents, one of whom was flirting with her, (he had bought most of the drinks,) one who revealed every card he had with the expressions on his face, and one who was actually good, Ferris, who was sitting at the other end of the table. Jude had seen him in there before, but hadn't wanted to play with him because he looked like he took everything too seriously. A weasel of a man with whiskers all over his unshaven face, Ferris's nose stuck out almost as far as the rim of his hat, which he kept low while he was looking at his cards to hide his expressions.

Jude used the opposite tactic to hide her tells. She blabbed, cajoled, and mocked during every hand. She revealed so many expressions it was hard to tell which one, if any, revealed anything. The drunker she got, the better she was at this. She had several cybernetic implants that could assist her, but she knew better than to use them. A number of hologram signs floated near the walls next to the glowing advertisements stating that cheaters would be prosecuted, and by prosecuted, it often meant killed if the business had lost money due to the infraction. Jude knew that she could get away, but she didn't want to lose her favorite place of recreation. She had been banned from enough joints and she was lucky there was still a place that had never heard of her or didn't care.

After some time, the guy flirting with her ran out of money. He asked if Jude could spot him, and she lifted a drink he had bought for her and exclaimed, "Not in your life!" then gulped it down. Soon after that, the one with tells all across his face was out, and stepped away from the table. That left only Jude and Ferris.

After a couple hands, Jude found herself with a King's Court Flush. Only a couple hands could beat it, and she was certain the cards that would make them were in the discard pile. She couldn't lose. She frivolously threw in some betting beads as though she didn't know what she was doing, and downed a drink that had large, colored, floating bubbles inside. Each popped in her mouth with a different flavor, and her head swam gloriously into the rafters above. She stuck her boot against the glowing white table, which splashed light against her pale leg that stuck out of the cut of her green skirt. She realized that Ferris had barely noticed her looks, a weapon she liked to use against guys when they were a real threat. It usually took a certain glance with her deep blue eyes, a flicking of her red hair with the striped layers of green and orange. Today she attempted to get his attention by stretching, as if yawning, emphasizing the gap in her toga where her rose tattoo accentuated the tight skin on her waist. Still nothing from Ferris. The guy who bought her the drinks was watching, trying just as desperately to get her attention, but he wasn't the one she wanted to distract.

Ferris threw forward a large pile of his beads and looked daringly at Jude. She threw him a glance as though to tell him he was naughty; naughty in a good way. He didn't react over his thin, pretentious rectangular sunglasses. He just waited, as though bored. 'Well, maybe he doesn't swing that way,' Jude thought, and she looked down to bet the rest of her beads. She didn't have enough. She could simply go all in, but if she had more, she could win that large pile Ferris had foolishly pushed forward. She'd be back in the game.

She looked sidelong over at Mr. Flirt, as she now liked to call him. He smiled at her, and she swung her head slightly, beckoning him to go to her. He took one step, and she yanked him to her by his belt buckle. "I need you," she said in almost a gasp.

"Any time," he said, stammering.

"What have you got to bet?"

He stammered nervously, then admitted he had nothing. She pressed, asking about possessions with which he could bet. "You won't lose it, I verbal on my life," she said, her hand sliding around his belt.

He yanked away, his eyes frightened. He took one last look at her, then forced himself to march quickly to the front door.

Jude gasped in frustration. She then looked at the other one who had backed out of the game. She smiled a pirate grin out of one side of her mouth and lifted a drink to him. He would have no part of it and stepped out of the dome of light the table was emanating.

Jude looked around for some other way to keep going, then saw Ferris signaling for her attention. He was pointing at her, and she didn't understand. He then pointed at his own neck, then pointed back at her. She looked down, and saw the medallion around her neck. She had been wearing it to make sure nothing happened to it. This was the medallion she would be selling to Little Jack. He was on his way, and would be there in a few hours. He wouldn't be too happy to find he'd wasted a trip if she didn't have it. He'd probably even kill her. Most people didn't scare her, but Little Jack... She would never cross him.

She looked at the face cards in her hand, the intricate artwork that rose out of the thin bottom of the cards up into wider bubbles. Together they looked like a beautiful oil painting. She wanted to keep them and hang them on her wall.

Little Jack would never know. She would bet it, win with it, and have enough to buy lines of drinks, party with a rental man at the Rancho, and get new parts for her ship the Desert Rose, all without spending any money Little Jack gave her.

She grinned her cocky smile and pulled the medallion out from under her hair. With one hand, she reached it out over the table, then lowered it gently onto the pile of betting beads. For the first time in the evening, Ferris smiled. That unnerved Jude the way few things ever did, and her own smile faded.

She stopped her hand shaking, looked at the cards, they made her smile, and she tossed them onto the table. The drawn images hopped off the cards and turned into holographic images. Together, they stretched out to create a court complete with squires, royalty, subjects, soldiers, and worshippers.

Jude didn't wait for Ferris to show his cards; she just started reaching forward. Ferris placed his cards on the table one by one. A Red Demon, one of the only plays that could beat hers. When they were all on the table, a holographic fire rose out of them, a large demon grew in the center, and he sent out of him flaming devils and fiery brimstone which tore down the King's Court and set the people ablaze until it all disappeared in a cloud of holographic vapor.

The air escaped from Jude. She stared at it numbly, in disbelief. She had lost her money, and far worse, she had lost the medallion she had promised Little Jack. He was in spectrum drive now, on his way to her, and there was no way to reach him. She had held onto the medallion for weeks; how could she have lost it now? She was dead. She maybe had minutes to start running, but where would she go? Anywhere she tried to hide, he would find her. She could ambush him! No. He'd detect it. She was better off challenging him to a fair duel. At least then she could use her cybernetics to help.

All this ran through her mind while she was still hunched over the table, frozen in place, as Ferris scooped up his winnings. Now he wore the pirate smile, though he still did not look at her. He threw the beads in his pockets and lifted the medallion. He tipped his hat as though saying goodbye to her, and slipped the medallion over his head and onto his neck, then replaced his hat. Having everything he wanted, he turned to walk away.

Jude's thoughts, meanwhile, had drifted away from fear, and focused now on confusion. She was certain at least two of the cards used to make the Red Demon had been used. She had played at least one of them herself. She had won a hand with it...

She reached over to the discard pile and flipped them over. Her nimble fingers shuffled through until she found them. There were actually three that had been used. They were duplicates. Now she felt certain enough to use her bionic eyes. Utilizing an X-ray, she peered through Ferris's jacket and saw several cards near his elbow and a dispensing mechanism that flipped them up to his hand. It looked like they were attached to his fingers, so he could decide which ones he wanted with specific hand gestures.

"Cheater!" Jude shouted, jutting a finger straight out at Ferris. The powerful word was enough to make everyone in the gambling area look. People in the lounge and eating areas looked; those at the bar looked; the management looked. Everyone who could hear stopped, or at least slowed, what they were doing and looked. Jude had been so loud that some on the dance floor even stopped to look. Others who had not heard her saw those who did and looked over. She had the attention of almost everyone in the club.

Ferris stopped, and slowly turned around like a patient father humoring his child. He stared over his thin sunglasses with a patronizing expression. "You don't want to go down this road, little girl."

Several people in the crowd moved, clearly his friends. They were reaching for their weapons. Jude didn't regard them. Her eyes remained fixed on Ferris. If he hadn't angered her enough by cheating, he had sent her over the edge with his remark. It had sobered her up almost completely, and a chemical in her cybernetics did the rest. She flushed out her system and added a stimulant to her blood that would speed her up while she scanned Ferris's body, finding all his enhancements and his weapons. He only had a pistol. It was a revolving chamber giving him a choice of firing types, but nothing more than that. He also had a few enhancements which aided his reactions, but not much. His cheating arm was his most elaborate tool. This was clearly someone who relied on his friends for his defense. Big mistake.

Jude took all the information she had on the place, the map, where she knew people were, where she estimated Ferris's friends were, and she placed it on a radar map which appeared in one of her eyes. The other formed into a target symbol.

Just as Ferris's friends lifted their guns, Jude pinched one of her fingernails. Smoke jetted out and poured quickly over the room. Everyone, including Ferris and his friends, reeled back from the stench, and no one noticed the springs shoot out the bottom of the ankles of her boots which gave her enough lift to leap to the rafters at the top of the club just as the laser bolts shot at where she had been. They hit each other and ricocheted in various directions.

From her vantage point near the ceiling, Jude could use her infrared vision to distinguish which people were searching for her in the smoke from the bystanders who were scattering for the exits. She labeled each one of Ferris's friends in her eyes with a blue highlight, and tagged Ferris red. She brought up her target eye and set it to those colors, then labeled everyone else yellow. She would try to avoid them.

A slot in her leg opened up and her pistol's holster slid out. She yanked it out, took aim, and brought down two of Ferris's boys.

As the others looked up at the rafters, she was already dropping to the floor. She landed in a fully ducked position, almost hugging the floor. A couple had seen her and took their shots which flew above her head and over her hunched over back. From that position she tagged a couple more. She found one whose back was turned near her. She stretched her leg up around his neck. Another came out of the smoke in front of her, and as she snapped the neck of the first while firing at the second, taking them both out at once.

Jude hit the floor rolling and tumbled into the smoke. She looked back and watched as three figures tagged blue made their way to the point where she had just killed their friends. She shot them and kept moving.

Jude weaved around and jumped over several yellow shapes, the bystanders still trying to get out, and noticed she was being chased by a blue blob, one of Ferris's friends. She saw another in front of her looking away, trying to find her in the blinding smoke. She dashed around him, catching the man's attention, but a moment later the one who had been chasing Jude fired and hit the man in the back. Jude swung around her cover and fired, hitting the one who had been chasing her.

She kept moving, and ran almost immediately into the remaining five who were crowding together. Jude cursed herself. She had been focusing so much on the ones in front of her that she forgot to pay attention to her map.

The men raised their guns and she raised hers. She blinked, and another cyber eye replaced the map. The men fired and she fired back, shooting their laser beam shots out of the air, deflecting them in all different directions. One of them hit a bystander, another bounced back and hit one of the men who was firing.

After she had deflected several shots she spared one and used it on the group, taking one of the men down. She backed up to some cover and used it, deflecting the shots that came close, and firing back at the guys, taking down another, then used a shot to deflect one of their own laser blasts back into them taking down one more.

The last survivor, finally seeing he was outmatched, retreated out of the club.

A few moments later, the smoke cleared, and Ferris found himself in the perfect spot. He had maneuvered slowly through the club, careful not to find Jude until it was on his terms, and now it was perfect. He saw her crouched down behind a couch, using it for cover, apparently waiting for him. He raised his gun and pointed it straight at her back. She looked around at him just as he fired.

The shot destroyed the couch, and her visage wiggled like ripples in the ocean... or like a hologram. He knew what had happened just as he felt the jolt of energy crash into his back. Electricity coursed through his body, and every one of his organs shut down. He crashed to the floor dead.

Jude turned off the holo-projector that was spitting out the image of herself behind the couch. The smoke lifted just in time, and she stepped over to the body of Ferris. No one dared challenge her. No one dared lift their head, not even the management or the bouncers.

Jude kept her gun handy and listened carefully with her specialized ears as she looted Ferris's body of any money he actually had. She would not dare try to exchange the beads for electros. They would put a trace on her, so she had to count it all as a loss. No more fun night on the town, it was time to go into hiding. But she did take all other valuables off of him, including, and most importantly, the medallion. She placed it around her neck, looked around the club to make sure no one was stirring, then she strode out, pulling up her Talki as she did.

She called Little Jack and sent a message he would receive when he came out of spectrum and entered the system. "Little Jack, Limelight is scrapped. Meet me at the old stomping grounds."

Chapter

Three

The Princess

and the Pirates

Bela had his head low behind the tipped over table. He was tall, but he was used to curling up below an obstacle to keep himself completely concealed. These were glow tables with kulamani alloys; they could stop the type of shots these bozos were firing. As long as he stayed back near this corner, none of them would get behind it and shoot him by accident in the fog.

He had not even been aware that he'd tipped the table over when he did; it came so automatically to him. When the first shot was fired, his hand instinctively grabbed the closest object he had filed away in his mind as cover and he tossed it over on its side. Before he was aware of his own actions, he was knelt on the ground with his head curled down, out of sight of the danger. Smoke had rolled over him, and all he could see was white; but a quick assessment of his surroundings confirmed he couldn't be flanked.

Civilians were running everywhere. Luckily, none were looking for cover so he wouldn't have to kick anyone out of his makeshift fortifications. He saw a couple shapes of bodies out to the sides go down. Whether they were the people fighting or innocent bystanders, he didn't know, and frankly, he didn't really care. He wasn't here for them, and he wasn't here to be part of some mob fight. He was here to meet quietly with an associate of the Azizi Corporation who had not yet showed. He hated tardiness and this was exactly why. He could have been out of this mess if the representative had been there on time.

Bela listened closely to the laser blasts. Most of the weapons were crude. They had that cheap, blasting noise that sounded like tiny explosions when they fired. They were often unreliable and more than once he had seen them miss their marks, even at close range. Though they were being fired almost constantly, he could tell they were being shot by different people. Each individual weapon was firing slowly, having to power up for a full second after every shot. It was the weapon of someone who wanted to look more like a bad ass than he really was. They were likely punks from around the area who wanted a chance to prove themselves to control the block.

But one weapon stood out among them; probably being fired by the one person the others were trying to shoot. The weapon was likely the only reason that person was still alive. It had a lighter ring to it, like someone tapping against metal. And it fired more rapidly. It wasn't rattling, though; this wasn't an automatic weapon that was simply spraying the room randomly. It was firing a short burst, then a couple, followed by an exact number more; all meant for specific targets. Then Bela recognized the clang of laser ricochets. One or two such sounds would be expected in any firefight with so many shots in the air. But these came in bursts, like they were shots of their own, and they always rang in connection to the sound of that lighter weapon. Whoever this one person was, they had skills, and clearly cybernetics.

Bela was curious, but he knew the better part of valor was to wait it out; and sure enough, the whole thing was over in a matter of seconds. Soon the majority of shots died down, and as the fog dissipated, he heard only two sets of boots out near the dance floor. One blast fired, followed by a silence, followed by another blast, this time from the expensive gun. When he heard the sound of someone crumpling to the floor, he knew it was done.

He stretched his legs out from their curling squat and peeked out the side of the table. He spotted a woman with a blue-green toga skirt with hair blood red from the roots to near the end when it shifted to a shade of yellow, then to green. She had just holstered her pistol; a pearl handled gun with a pure silver barrel framed in real gold, and with silver linings tracing the black frame. Her hand had to peel away from the handle, evidence she indeed had a cybernetic link to the gun. He looked her over for every identifiable mark he could remember; a rose tattoo on her exposed rib, a black armband with several knives. She wore fishnet black gloves with the fingers exposed and a black belt with silver rings that hung lower on the side with her gun. Perhaps the most identifiable trait was a tattoo of a rose with large thorns lining the stem tattooed in the gap of her toga-blouse along her ribs.

She knelt down beside the corpse of her fallen foe, no doubt the gang leader who had thought he was about to make an example out of her. Though looking at the body, Bela could tell she was aware of her surroundings. She probably knew he was looking at her, and he determined not to make any sudden moves. She pulled out some gambling beads. Obviously, she was robbing him. Then she tossed those aside and looked a little further. Bela watched curiously. She pulled out a round, almost flat object about the size of her hand. A chain dangled from the end; a medallion. She glanced at it for a moment, then tied it around her belt. She glanced around, then strutted for the door.

As the medallion jumped against her leg, Bela finally got a good look at it. He gasped for breath suddenly, recognizing the symbol carved onto it.

* * *

Galek Navarus was enjoying the view on top of his headquarters building when he got the news. He liked to walk the perimeter of the tower when he was stressed. It helped to see what he had accomplished; to look out over the city and see the twinkling lights, the streaks of streets crisscrossing, and even the distant illuminations of other nearby metropolises, and to know that it was all his. He also liked to look up into the sky at the amber hue with the perpetual orange streaks of the aurora borealis streaking by like lightning; and to remind himself, that, too, was his. He had made the planet his base of operations. He then liked to look up at the sun, Yera B, that blazing globe that bore down on them from only half an au, and remind himself, this, too was his, as was the twin star rising now on the horizon, only a tenth the size of Yera B. And he saw the dots of the other planets, some of which were gas giants so large they were nearly the size of marbles in the sky, and he felt good, for this was also his. And as near night would fall, for a full night was rare on Navarus with two stars and gas giants which gave off heat and some light, he would look into the dim twilight at what few stars were twinkling beyond, and he felt good, for many of these were his, too.

And when he did this, he felt better having seen his accomplishments of the past, and with renewed energy to accomplish more in the future.

Today he felt especially elated, for as he was pacing on his rooftop taking stock of his possessions, a communications bot marched up to him and told Baron Navarus that there was a worm message for him from Favel of Akiba. It was Bela. He had seen a medallion with the unholy symbol. This was a symbol that had been discovered several times on cave walls at their mining colony on Abraxas of Saiph. Every time it had been found, miners began falling over dead soon after. The scientific cause was still unknown, but the miners, being superstitious, laid claims through their union representatives that the colony was cursed, and some ancient evil was seeping through the walls and killing them off one by one. Galek's operatives and lawyers had bullied the workers back into the mines, but Galek had remained curious as to what these symbols meant, and who had created them. He had sent out word to all agents on the field to be on the lookout for anything with that sort of design.

Galek actually had a long list of items for which he wanted his employees to be on the lookout. He was fascinated by relics of the past. Treasures were being located on planets across the explored galaxy; most corporate barons were simply building on top of ancient alien cities, burying huge treasure troves. Galek, instead, collected them in huge warehouses where he and his friends and family could admire them any time they wanted. Of course, they weren't available to the general public; they were his treasures and his only. But those he cared about could have the pleasure of browsing through them. It was his way of dispensing a reward, or of building diplomacy, by letting them in on his greatest secret.

He had another purpose to them, one that he did not let on, not even to those he trusted so much he was granting access to look at the treasures. He held close to his chest his greatest secret regarding the ancient artifacts.

Bela was one of his greatest agents. Whether guarding Galek, or his daughter, or sent on a mission of diplomacy or covert operations, Bela kept his mouth shut when he needed to and had eyes and ears focused on the mission... and all the other little things Galek wanted.

Bela's primary goal on his current mission had been aborted due to a bar fight. But out of the brawl had come some joyful news.

Bela had used the Worm-com at the club to send a message as quickly as possible to Galek. He had cut in front of others who were trying to call emergency services to first call their contact at the space-port to place a tracer on Jude's ship, and then to call Galek to inform him of the discovery of the medallion with the "cursed" markings.

Nearly dancing with excitement, the large man with the wide beard and stuffy sash-suit ordered Bela to assign a team to go collect the device.

"Already on it, Don Senior," Bela said.

"Ah, the pirate friends of yours."

"They prefer the moniker independent contractor leading a command of like-minded souls."

"A pirate, then."

"As you say, Don Senior."

"Can you reach her? This independent soul of like minded..."

"I will reach out to the privateers immediately."

The worm-com closed, and the bot pulled away to give the large man room. He took in a deep, satisfied breath. Above and behind him, he heard water lapping. Galek glanced around to see a pair of thin green eyes framed by curtains of long, wet, blond hair peering at him through a break in the hedge on the second tier of the roof.

They were the familiar eyes of his daughter, Ceriliseta. She was peering at him judgmentally, but he felt none of the scorn. He didn't even sense her ire. To him, she was still a little girl; mentally, at least. Her body was of a ripe age for marriage, and ready to be joined with a CEO to solidify an alliance. In this regard, she was a great asset. The beautiful, yet sharp features of her face and her pale, smooth skin which she kept thin and fit through swimming daily would attract the most powerful and wealthy of men in the galaxy.

Wherever she went, though, she would always be the apple of her father's eyes. He smiled at her now and waved. Her eyes rolled and she leaned back into the water. She knew what that giddy little hand gesture really meant. He was once again on the trail of some piece of junk. The Navarus Corporate Barony could be sinking into chaos and financial ruin, and her father would still be hunting down space garbage discarded by aliens who died off millions of years ago. He filled up entire floors of his buildings with his rubbish rather than using them to open new operations dedicated to making a bigger profit.

She backstroked passed her servants and her bots who were waiting at the edge of the pool with towels for her and drifted to the opposite end. Here, the infinity pool got its name, ending at the edge of the building with a panoramic view of the city. Just below, the water poured out through a vent so it looked as though the pool itself was spewing out a giant waterfall which tumbled three hundred stories down to nearly the base of the building.

She leaned on the edge of this precipice, staring out at the other buildings, but not seeing them. She was thinking, contemplating. Earlier that day, she had been studying stock reports and business charts. On the surface, everything seemed fine, but studying the figures closely, a trained eye could see that Navarus's corporations were teetering on the edge, the same way that water from the pool was wavering at the edge before plummeting off, only to splatter at the bottom where it would be broken up, recycled, and eventually sucked back to the top again in a different form.

No one had taught Ceriliseta the stock trade. She wasn't expected to ever need it. She had figured out her father's all-too-predictable passwords and gotten into his files to teach herself. She knew, also, that the Galactic Market was not the only way to predict financial trends. One had to understand the businesses, even down to the company level, to understand what would happen in the big picture. She learned names and scoured the Galaganet to get an understanding of what was actually happening to slowly put the puzzle together.

Ceriliseta flicked her finger, hurrying a bit of the water over the edge. Then she stuck her feet against the pool side and pressed away, making one more lap before exiting the pool and toweling off.

* * *

Shasa Kerikova floated blissfully in the cloud of steam in her zero gravity bath. The moisture clung to her naked body and she didn't resist, limply accepting the sweat that mingled with the condensation. Her limbs were flung in every direction, like a tree with branches that have grown wild. Her hair floated out directly away from her head. She controlled nothing, allowing fate to decide her every movement. Not a single muscle was being used. Her breath was slow and her eye lids were down. They were not shut. That would be using a muscle to tense them down. They were simply dropped in front of her eyes. It was pure bliss.

Shasa needed this now more than ever. With her ship the Black Lotus stuck in deep space between star systems, and its crew without pay in some time, it was a stressful situation. There was nothing Shasa could do now but wait for the engineer to get the ship running again. She hated the helplessness. She hated not having control over the situation. So the best thing for her to do was get out of the way; to disappear in the steam bath.

She strained a muscle enough to grasp the remote control that was roped around her wrist and pressed a button. The walls hissed as more blessed hot steam filled the room, and she smiled contentedly, letting go of the remote and floating once again. She felt her back arch over and she allowed herself to float backward, her hair tumbling slowly into her face.

She heard a noise at the bottom of the room and she opened her eyes. Looking through the wilderness of her dark hair, she spotted her brother standing at the doorway looking around the room for her on the ground level. She yelped and turned to him, folding up her legs to cover her breasts. Her hair flew in every direction, some of it still covering her face, some sticking upward as if emphasizing her surprise.

Otto glanced up at the noise and saw her. Without flinching he said, "Ah, there you are."

"What are you doing here!" Shasa screamed.

"I got... Dango, you're high up there, aren't you?"

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"How do you do that? I can never get past the second row of air jets..."

"I am taking a bath!"

"I noticed. Do you use a kind of flip technique or something..."

"Why did you come barging in here?!"

"Oh yeah. There's a sent for you on the horn."

"Fine! I'll come in a moment. Now get out!"

"Fes, you're touchy today. Must be Tuesday." Otto left, closing the door behind him.

Shasa grabbed her bright red towel which was floating nearby and wrapped it around herself. She then flipped herself head over heels, drifting slowly down toward the door. Shasa _had_ learned techniques to use when floating in zero G. It was a technique she had figured out of forcing momentum on herself to drift in the direction she wanted to go. It would be useful for her should she ever be in a fight with no gravity while others were helpless.

She had no intention of sharing this knowledge with her clueless brother. It was enough that she had to share command with him. Their parents had worked so much more in tandem with each other. How had they done that? Shasa supposed it was because they were married, not brother and sister. After they died in a shuttle accident along with a quarter of the crew, Shasa and Otto had to work out between each other who would take command in their place. Their family owned the ship, so it would not go down the regular chain of command, but rather by the family order. Since Shasa and Otto were twins, neither had seniority, so they had determined to flip a coin, something Shasa had picked up as a souvenir on a civilized planet where they once took shore leave. Shasa won the toss, which made her undisputed captain, (the "Pirate Queen," most called her.) But Otto would still be first officer, and he pushed the rights of that position, and Shasa's patience, as far as he could.

Shasa burst into Otto's room the way he had burst into hers. _"How many times did Mom drop you on your head?"_ Shasa said impatiently in the Kerikova tongue. It was a mixture of several languages from Earth's former countries. While most of civilization had homogenized into English when corporations fanned out across the galaxy, some families that were particularly close, or who had major earnings, or something to hide, or all of the above and more, retained a family language made up of words from about two to four different nations, with a few more words added for good measure. This was done so they could speak without others around them knowing what they were saying. Those married into the family would be entrusted with the secret language, and were expected, sometimes on pain of death, not to reveal the language to outsiders, even if they were divorced out later.

The Kerikova language, rather than growing, had been shrinking lately and was preserved almost exclusively by the twins in Otto's room. _"You take forever to get dressed,"_ Otto replied, also in the Kerikova language.

" _When are you going to clean your room?"_ Shasa scolded, stepping over his week-long pile of clothing, past pictures of barely clothed women on the wall. _"You live like a pig!"_

"Blah, blah, blah!" Otto said. _"Listen."_ He pressed a button on his room's communicator, playing a message that Otto had saved earlier.

A familiar voice escaped the speaker: "This is Bela, House Navarus, to Captain Kerikova. Sent 230807. Estimade Capitan, we have need of a medallion. The appearance and details are being sent via Galaganet. Possible code 9 complication. Locale is Palmetto of Akiba. Respond asap if interested. End transmission."

Otto lay back, turned his ceiling games back on and said, "I thought you'd want to see that even though we can't..."

Shasa leaned forward very suddenly, pressed the call button and said, "Response to Bela, House Navarus. Estimade, we will be happy to take the job..."

" _What?"_ Otto exclaimed in Kerikova. Shasa yanked her hand away from the comm. "Didn't you hear him say code 9?"

Shasa waited for Otto's silence, then pressed the button again and said quickly, "Send details by Galaganet."

Otto slapped her hand away. She got up and navigated over his clothes to the door. "No money, no food," she said. "No food, the crew eats us."

" _That's not the call Dad would have made,"_ Otto said.

" _Well, Dad's dead. So is Mom,"_ Shasa said. _"We need this score, and I'm in charge. Now clean your room. I've got to get the ship moving."_

She yanked the door behind her, took in a deep breath, then rampaged through the ship getting her crew in gear and solving the problems necessary to get them moving. The spectrum drive had faltered while they were in the brane, and she had ordered them back into normal space so they could fix whatever had gone wrong. The main problem was that every department was somehow connected to spectrum drive, so it was hard to trace where the break-down had originated. This had worked to Shasa's advantage for a while as it had given her time to come up with a new way to make money for the crew while they were busy working on the ship. Now that she had that job, it was time to get moving.

She went from department head to department head asking what the problem was. Each blamed someone else, claiming that everything in their section was working except for something they needed from the next department over. When Shasa investigated that next department, she was led elsewhere. It was turning into a giant loop, but the buck had to stop somewhere.

While not an engineer, Shasa had taken it upon herself to understand the basic workings of her ship, and was able to understand enough of the information that was given to her to deduce that the one ongoing issue seemed to be with the power. This was a relief, as their chief of engineering in the power generator room, Domi, was one of the more competent managers. Shasa went to her, aware that once the flow of power became steady, the other departments would follow suit, and they'd be able to get moving.

"How close are we, Domi?" Shasa asked as she ducked through the hatchway into the cool, blue lit room.

"We're in need of some serious overhauls," Domi said, only giving a cursory glance over to Shasa. "The convertors have become one-use commodities unless we replace them."

"We're a pirate ship, Domi. Where do you register we dock?"

"We've gone incognito before," Domi said.

"We had to bribe the port-master," Shasa replied. "We need money for that."

"Tell me why I signed up for this again?" Domi asked.

"To be rich and infamous. Where are the conversion filters?"

"Under there. We've got the in-famous part down. When do we get the rich part?"

"Well," Shasa said, laying on her back and sliding under one of the large machines where Domi had pointed, "we won't get it if we don't make this score." She looked the machine over from the bottom. She knew some of the knobs, and even where a few of the valves went, but she wasn't sure enough to do anything on her own. A few things seemed out of place, particularly in regards to the settings of several knobs, and she asked Domi about them.

Domi slid under with her, and recognized the damage in greater detail. Some of the machinery had gotten overloaded and damaged the filters. They were creating energy, but only at 30 percent, and the leaks could cause an explosion if they tried to use them again. They got the equipment they needed and some personnel from other departments, and they repaired the damage to the machines; then strained the fluids so they were pure again, and started the engines running. That brought power to the other departments, and their repairs went quickly.

Shasa was able to return to the bridge within four hours and ordered they go to spectrum drive. The rip in space opened up, and they were sucked inside, back in the brane, and now on their way to Akiba.

Chapter

Four

The Rings

of Palmetto

"You were right about it being out of the way," Lancaster said. They had just come out of the tear in space to meet a large, purple blob of slowly mixing gases directly in front of them. Lancaster clinched his seat, but Little Jack had no reaction, not even the slight tension that appeared on his fingers when he knew there was trouble and grasped the controls. This blob was expected.

He steered Odin's Revenge to the right, revealing the violet mass to be a huge gas giant with several rows of rings. Little Jack had brought them directly into the inner fold of the planet, closer to the surface than to the rings. This was a feat few pilots dared, even Little Jack. Typically, they would re-enter normal space outside the rings, or above it, away from the threat of flying debris or the gravity of the globe. But this was Palmetto. Little Jack knew it well. He and the others of Unterorg had trained themselves to make re-entry this close so they could drop inside the planet quickly and escape anyone who might have followed them. Though Little Jack had not made this trip in years, he still knew exactly where to emerge. And he took more than a little pleasure at the startled look he had given to his partner.

Little Jack steadied the ship into orbit and scanned the swirling clouds. He had to find a point where he could ease the ship into the atmosphere and where it would not get crushed by strong winds, electrical discharges, and gravitational pulls. His shields, specifically designed to withstand travel in gas giants like this one, still needed to adjust to the changes from the vacuum of space to the severity of perpetual storms.

"Curious place to hide out," Lancaster said.

"Scanners don't prevay inside," Little Jack said. "So even if they hui us back here, they couldn't find us. Most of them couldn't come in to get us even if they did." There was a slight pride in his voice when he spoke about the cleverness of his old gang, something Lancaster did not see come out very often.

Little Jack found his spot, steered the ship for the planet, and plunged in at a 75 degree angle. Twisting clouds enveloped them as though laying a blanket on top. The light of the nearby star disappeared, as did the planet's rings. For a few moments they still saw purple gas flowing overhead, then it dimmed, as though they were traveling deep under water, until it was pitch black save for the blue-green illumination of the control panel shining up onto their faces. Little Jack flew by the instruments, not turning on the lights to look. Lancaster got glimpses of their surroundings when lightning flashes blinked behind puffs of clouds. Each strike was from a different direction, revealing a whole new pattern of boiling clouds.

"I'm giving that Odin's Revenge can withstand a lighting strike if one of them hit us," Lancaster said nervously. There was no answer. "Little Jack?"

"He's made the trip plenty times past," Little Jack said.

Lancaster felt the ship jostle and saw Little Jack grip tighter to the controls to keep hold. He was suddenly thankful he could not see much outside, aware that it would probably make him horribly dizzy.

Soon, a flash of light directly ahead illuminated a structure hanging in the air, as though held in place with an invisible hand. It was shaped like a backward L with the lower portion angled slightly downward. The silhouette had no light of its own, and the purple mist that stroked against it gave it a ghostly visage, as though it was a lost spirit hanging in purgatory.

It was easy to guess what it was. "That's where she's meeting us?" Lancaster asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"If she shows. You ready?" Little Jack said.

"Is ready possible?" Lancaster asked.

Little Jack knew he could reassure Lancaster, but it was more fun not to. He turned on the forward light and the spectrum scanner. Much of the beams from the front reflected back from the passing clouds, but the scanner brought back schematics of the structure. As he made the first pass, he could see several points where the hull had chipped away, exposing the inner framework, like a bone sticking out of its skin. Little Jack scanned the station and found that the central core of it was still sealed and could regenerate life support.

Lancaster also stared at the rotted sections where loose pieces of the exposed rooms and corridors swung violently with the shifting winds. This was why he preferred planets to space stations, but he placed his trust in his partner.

"So this is where you used to hang your glasses," Lancaster mused.

Little Jack simply grunted and maneuvered the ship to angle toward a fatter section of the station closer to the bottom. He pulled out a drawer with controls under the main console. He brushed off a little dust from a button and he pressed it. A rectangular aperture yawned open on the station, and Odin's Revenge floated slowly down into it. Little Jack filled the chamber with light as the ship's landing gear felt for the ground. The entryway slid shut above them, and the landing gear grasped the bottom.

The two men looked out the front window and onto the screen that connected to the outer cameras. The place was sterile, clearly empty for years. Aside from the last gasps of the ship as it settled onto the metal surface, all was still. It looked just as Little Jack remembered it. The repair and refueling station was on one side, armaments were on the other. There was a long, one-way mirror behind which was a control room where one could watch anyone come in or out, aid them if need be, or fire weapons or gas into the hangar if it was an intruder. One large passageway led to the hold where loot had been taken, and another led into the body of the station. At least the place had not been ransacked. Emergency equipment, space suits, and replacement parts were lined neatly against the wall. Whoever left last wanted it to be a place they could return one day.

Little Jack told Lancaster to wait inside while he exited in his space suit and made his way to the control room. There, he turned on life support, and even the lights so they could make their way around, and so Jude would see them when she arrived. He was a little surprised they had gotten there before her. He thought she was residing in the area, perhaps even in the station. But the place didn't look very lived in, especially by someone who liked to live as lavishly as Jude.

Little Jack took his helmet off and called to Lancaster, "Welcome aboard."

Lancaster joined him, and Little Jack showed him around. He showed him some of the quarters, where they ate, where they took jobs and where they made plans. He didn't talk much; Little Jack looked lost in memories. They occasionally entered a room where he stared for a time at a table with a group of chairs around it, or at a corridor with several doorways connected. Clearly things had happened at these places he'd like to return to, or he'd rather forget. Lancaster didn't ask in either case. He just let Little Jack narrate whatever he wanted and keep his secrets.

While in the hangar's control room, Little Jack had looked up what parts of the station were safe, and what parts were too badly damaged to support life, or what doors just led out into nothing. He directed Lancaster away from those areas, and kept them in the still living sections.

Lancaster saw a rather intriguing door with the artwork of a serpentine dragon drawn on it, though rather than looking fierce, the dragon's face drooped almost as though it was sad. Lancaster reached for the button on the door to slide it open and Little Jack stopped him suddenly. The emotion in his voice caused him to be louder than usual.

"Sorry," Lancaster said. "That goes to the outside, too?"

"No," Little Jack said. "You just don't want to have anything to do with that room." He moved away from it as if he couldn't get away fast enough, and Lancaster, confused, joined him.

* * *

The crew of the Black Lotus could hear the occasional distant thud and crackle of asteroids bumping against the outer hull of the ship. Nothing too serious had yet scraped them, and nothing had struck them too quickly. But they had been lucky. Without shields or point defense systems powered up, they were vulnerable to a hit. A well aimed asteroid at just the right speed could even tear the ship in two, especially in its thin center, and every person on board would be helpless.

Shasa was all too aware of this, and of her crew's fears, as she clung tightly to the holo-table in her control center in the middle of the bridge. A 3D image of the planet hung in the air before her. She stared at it intently, as if she could will something to happen. One ship had "gone in the drink," as they said, but they were still waiting for the second, the woman who had the medallion they needed to capture.

Bela had traced the ship back to this planet, and given Shasa a description of the ship along with coordinates and an explanation that the woman was meeting someone there. Shasa had expected to come out of spectrum drive and directly into a confrontation with this woman's ship and possibly a second, but when the Black Lotus arrived, no one was there. A message from Bela that had been sent while they were in spectrum explained that the traced ship had left again, off somewhere else. Shasa followed her instinct, believing that this was still the meeting location, and that the woman had left on some sort of errand. So she ordered her crew to hide in the planet's rings, spread sensors out around the gas giant, power down the ship, and wait. It was a dangerous move based on a slim hunch, and Otto reminded her of that fact; but they followed her orders and waited.

It seemed to have paid off when the first ship arrived and passed, but now they were waiting for the very woman who was supposed to be there in the first place. Had she seen them and been scared off? Otto reminded his sister of this possibility as well, and she ignored him, as usual.

Three booms sounded in succession, then a groaning, a protest by the ship's hull. All the bridge crew, most of them standing at their stations, looked up at the ceiling, or at each other, nervously. Shasa didn't look at them. She knew what they were doing, but she kept her eyes solidly on the hologram of the planet, seeing the ship appear in her mind's eye, hoping to make it real.

"We need to turn on our defenses," Otto said from his station near the communications booth, breaking the silence.

"We have to wait until both are inside," Shasa said, another shallow boom echoing behind her. It sounded like it was near the back, around the engine room.

After a few moments of silence, they heard another boom, closer this time, and the ship rocked to the left, like a boat that's been hit with a strong wave. A couple small thrusters corrected them and kept the ship from spinning away, and as it steadied itself, they heard a smattering of debris rain against the walls.

Otto leaped up from his seat and hurried to his sister. "This job isn't worth dying for," he said.

Shasa only half turned to him, her eyes still on the hologram, and whispered, "If we're detected and lose this job, the crew will kill us for non-payment."

"Planck rip!" the sensors operator called out, and a moment later, Shasa could see it on the hologram. A colorful burst of light opened like a tear in space. A small, blue ship with wide red gravsails belched out. The gravsails folded into the ship and the colorful tear closed itself. Their target was enfolded between the rings and the planet. Shasa sighed privately with relief, one side of her lips raising in a slight smile.

Then a loud crash and echoing boom was accompanied by blinking lights and the ship tumbling upward. A few crew members fell to the ground; others held tight to their stations. Otto, one of those on the ground, called out, "That's it! Power up!"

"Ignore him!" Shasa ordered. "What the crack are you..."

"If we stay, we're dead!" Otto shouted at her.

"This is _my_ ship! You..."

"Reward's worth diddle if..."

"Get back to your station..."

"I'm giving orders, now...

"Get back to your dango station..."

"This is no way to run a ship..."

"Otto, hades help me..."

"Um, captains..." the pilot said from the front of the bridge.

Otto and Shasa quieted instantly and looked up at the screen, which hung from an arm reaching down from the ceiling. The pilot had zoomed in the image so they could see the back of the ship as it slipped into the violet clouds.

"Good. _Now_ power up," Shasa said.

* * *

Little Jack and Lancaster had made their way to the main control center and were lounging in some of the reclining chairs while they waited for Jude. Little Jack had turned on the power and had the beacons operating to let her know they were there once she got close. From this top point of the station, they could look out around them through the windows on all sides, which slanted back toward the top to give a view above them. On one end, windows on the floor revealed the station below. A couple rows of control panels with a few chairs sat unused, but in perfect condition. A private room for meetings and planning lay off to the side.

They were both surprised Jude hadn't been there already waiting for them since she had been closer, but Little Jack was only mildly so. Jude had never been the most responsible of the bunch.

Lancaster had his hat over his face catching a few z's while he could. He had trained himself to fall asleep quickly and take cat naps when time allowed, waking up in a snap when he was needed. Little Jack sat mostly still, but his head was moving imperceptibly slow, picturing members of the old gang where they stood a decade or so ago; ghosts, now, of a not so distant past. Outside, the winds sometimes got so strong they could hear them whispering through the windows; a sound which added to the atmosphere of the spirits Little Jack saw in his mind, and the hypnotic sleepiness Lancaster felt.

A yellow light lit up above one of the windows with a low "ding." Little Jack lurched up and approached the control panel he had turned on, his eyes remaining on the window. This should be Jude, but the sensors had seen the ship before there was a visual of it, so it would be a few moments. He took his eyes from the window just long enough to glance at the sensors on the control panel. It confirmed an object coming toward them relatively slowly, but it had no more information.

Lancaster was also up, his hat in his hand, and his feet on the floor. "That ding for us?" he asked.

Little Jack didn't answer. He watched the screen on the control center carefully, waiting for identification. Soon it appeared; small type over an oval dot that read "Desert Rose." It still had the ship's private ID signature in its databanks. He looked to the window under the yellow light while Lancaster stood up behind him. The visage of a woman with her eyes fixed in a cold expression faded into view through the fog. Her skin was peeling on one side, revealing a gray undercoating. It was the figurehead of the ship, which was followed by the blue, slanted bow, and finally the body, which drifted into full view and stopped in front of the window. The lifeless eyes of the figurehead stared in at Little Jack, drifting ever so slightly in place.

Jude's voice burst over the speakers in the control room, "Greetings, handsome! Did you miss me?"

"You're late," Little Jack said, staring back at the floating bust as if it was Jude.

"Had a thing or three to attend to. Junk to sell. You know how it is."

"Your ship needs a new paint job," Little Jack said, looking at the peeling paint on the face.

"You just got here and already you're nagging me on my decorating."

"Did you bring the medallion?"

"Wearing it now. Did you bring me plastic?"

"I did."

"Good, then let's make each other happy."

As she was speaking, Lancaster happened to notice the sensor screen Little Jack had been looking at earlier. There was a much larger, unidentified blip behind the one labeled "Desert Rose" which appeared very suddenly. He looked out the window and barely got out the word, "Hey," when a masthead the size of Jude's entire vessel appeared. It was a bust of a large bird with a face that resembled a demon and wings that were ablaze that stretched over the wide bow of the ship. The base bulged outward like a thick jaw, which presently opened, revealing a dark, cavernous interior.

Even Little Jack reacted with alarm, jolting and crying out, "Your six!"

The Desert Rose had already been twisting toward the station's hangar bay. Now it jolted as fast as it could to get a clear flight path. It was too late, though. An invisible ray, detectable only because of the wake of the gasses it pushed aside, shot out from the dark opening of the large vessel and struck the rear-center of Jude's ship. The Desert Rose seemed to fall unconscious, dropping limply, its thrusters going silent. A series of long cords that looked like tentacles reached out of the maw of the assaulting ship, the thickest of which shot out the center.

Little Jack leaped to the platform lift and was racing downward, out of the room, with or without Lancaster. Lancaster ran after, jumping a few meters onto the platform as it dropped quickly. Little Jack's face was set, which Lancaster knew meant there was no talking to him. His course of action was determined.

The two men rushed into Odin's Revenge and Little Jack was taking off even before the hatch was closed. By the time they got out of the hangar, Jude's ship had been swallowed and the larger vessel's mouth was closing. A pair of shots rang out at Little Jack, who was ready for them and he dodged both, but he found himself caught in a heavy wind which tumbled his ship away from his foe and into a haze.

Lancaster watched the clouds swirl dizzyingly in front of the window while Little Jack got their bearings. Figuring out where they were, he pointed the ship toward the surface and hit the thrusters to full. It was a slow, process at first. Lancaster could feel the thrusters fighting against the pressure and the winds pressing every which way on them. But then he felt a jolt, the ship getting free and hurrying in a focused direction. They hurried past streaks of lightning and churning vapor until they could see darkness ahead of them broken by a thin line; the rings of Palmetto. The purple fog faded until the last puffs were trailing off the ends of the ship. Its sensors came back online and immediately picked up the pirate ship, about 20 degrees to the left and heading straight for the asteroid field that made up the rings of the planet. He turned and took chase, increasing the thrusters to get every ounce of speed he could out of them, slowing only when he reached the edge.

As soon as they came close, Lancaster's eyes bulged, amazed by what they beheld. Rather than giant rocks floating through space and crashing into one another, they were buildings, streets, furniture, vehicles, houses, statues, the remains of a giant city now reduced to rubble and ruins floating in orbit around the planet.

As the ship slipped in among the debris, Lancaster asked, "What is this place?"

"I never came in here," Little Jack said. "Someone told me it was the remains of some city that had been on one of the moons before it blew up."

Lancaster watched a bridge fly over them, its buttresses barely missing. "That kind of city would have to have covered the entire moon. Why didn't you tell me about this before?"

"Never thought you'd be interested," Little Jack said absently, his attention primarily focused on finding the pirate ship.

"Interes... Wh... J... Why would I _not_ be interested in this?" Lancaster blustered.

"Because it's all in pieces. Not a ruin on a planet anymore."

"Thi... Okay, for future reference, this counts as something I'm interested in, okay?"

"Keep peeled for the ship," Little Jack said.

They both leaned forward, closer to the front window, straining their eyes to see. The ship had been gray, and out here, just about everything was that same color, all of it floating wildly, but most in a specific orbit. They watched for objects not flying in that same orbit, but they were just large objects that had recently been deflected when they bumped against other asteroids. The two men watched for thrusters coming out of the back of one of these objects, but found none.

Little Jack's attention was split between searching and dodging debris. He finally took a moment to look down at his sensors and saw something that made his blood run cold. "Oh, carrots," is all he said, and his fist hit the thrusters lever to full speed while his other hand steered hard to the right. At that very moment, a pair of laser blasts struck the "asteroid" in front of them, bursting it into hundreds of smaller pieces that shattered in every direction, some against Little Jack's ship. Odin's Revenge rocked and an alarm denoted that the debris had damaged some vital systems.

Little Jack didn't take a moment to see what they were. He steered around a couple large ruins and got himself out of view of the pirate ship. The pirate ship took chase, making less of an effort to avoid the flying ruins. Instead, a point defense system shot smaller lasers out of the ship's long body, breaking up the debris into smaller pieces that the ship's shields could handle. It came right at Odin's Revenge, which weaved in and around buildings, pieces of roads, columns, etc.

Little Jack twisted the ship to fit between pieces of debris too close together for the pirate ship to pursue, but it simply blew up all the pieces of debris and moved through them, small sparkles appearing where the remains were zapped by the energy shield. Its larger lasers, not needed for the smaller work, were free to fire at Little Jack. He was twisting and turning and moving so fast to avoid the "asteroids" that he dodged the shots without even trying.

On board the Black Lotus, everyone on the bridge was talking at once, passing information to one another. Shasa's orders were just barely audible over the crowd noise in this organized chaos. "Fire at the debris right next to them," Shasa ordered, realizing their shots were never going to hit the nimble little ship directly.

The weapons officer fired, and the shot landed perfectly on a house Odin's Revenge was maneuvering around. It shattered and one of the larger chunks knocked into the ship. It lost control for a moment, crashed against a smaller car of some sort, slowed, and regained control. Another two shots took advantage of his slowed speed, but Little Jack was already thrustering hard, spinning the ship as he went, and only one got a glancing blow.

The cockpit of Odin's Revenge was flung with sparks and smoke after the hits came close to crippling it. Another such blast would easily destroy them, or make them dead in the water, which would be the same thing, only delayed until they could be finished off by a passing asteroid.

Lancaster looked around quickly for a solution. Up ahead he saw several skyscrapers tumbling around one another. He figured Little Jack could do something with that, so he pointed them out to him. Little Jack knew immediately what he was referring to, and punched Odin's Revenge into overdrive heading toward the buildings.

The pirate ship followed, its larger cannons continuing to fire at big pieces of debris that came near Odin's Revenge rather than at the ship itself.

Little Jack reached the region of tall buildings. He dodged a few large walls, then shot through an enormous decorative window, its colored panes shattering into a million pieces.

The Black Lotus lost it for a time after it disappeared onto the opposite side of the wall. It used its main cannons to destroy the ruin, and on the other side it just spotted the smaller ship maneuvering into the base of one of the skyscrapers. The pirate ship accelerated to full speed, aiming for the center of the tower. Just before it rammed, it fired all of its forward guns, shattering the building in two.

Odin's Revenge had just gotten past the midpoint. It was jinking around obstacles, making its way past stores and offices, and blasting its way through floors when there was no hole to fly through. They made it to a wide open atrium through which they were able to fly a long way to the other end, then got into a large elevator shaft they almost completely fit into.

The ship had just twisted its way through a couple tall office floors when the midway point exploded behind them. The shock wave shook them off balance and they knocked against the walls, sending ancient filing systems and long since archaic technology spewing across the floors in a tornado-like flurry. Little Jack now stopped maneuvering. He kicked it into higher gear and fired as quickly as possible straight forward to force his way through every floor.

Behind them, the pirate ship was blasting away the building behind them, like a sea monster eating a boat as the passengers ran to the front to get away. On board, Shasa was yelling at her crew, demanding they catch that ship. They didn't want any witnesses or anyone who knew their ship to get away. "Don't you lose them!" she ordered.

When they reached the end of the tower and there was nothing left to shoot, the smaller ship was gone. Shasa scanned the view screen. Her sensors operator searched for a thruster signature. There was nothing. They couldn't find it among all the floating junk.

"We lost it," Otto said blandly.

"Thank you _so much_ Captain Obvious!" Shasa said.

"Good, I'm captain n..."

"Don't you have a toilet you can go scrub?"

"Captain," said the sensors operator.

Both Shasa and Otto answered in unison, "Yes?"

"Thrusters detected, 16 degrees port."

"That'll be right backwise of that stadium," Otto said.

"What vector?" Shasa asked.

"Te... Wait. It's coming this direction."

"What?" Shasa said, rushing to the sensors operator and looking over her shoulder. Sure enough, the blip was a little ways past the large building in front of them and coming right at them. "We've got 'em," she said to herself, believing the other ship's sensors were out and they thought they'd be doubling back past the pirates. "Wait for 'em here and fire at 'em when they come past the stadium." The ruined building was close and rolling toward them, but they would have plenty of time to spring their trap and move out of the way.

The ship did come up over the stadium, but much faster than they had anticipated, and at an awkward angle so their initial volley of shots missed. It then turned another direction they had not anticipated, straight toward them. The pilot of the ship had to know they were there now, so Shasa didn't understand why they'd be so foolish.

"Blast that out of the sky!" she shouted.

The guns turned toward the front as quickly as they could, but the few shots they fired were dodged by the maneuverable little pale vessel.

"It's going to hit us!" Shasa said, as surprised as she was alarmed. "Brace for impact!"

Everyone grabbed onto their controls. Shasa grabbed onto the holo-table, and Otto grabbed onto a wall console.

The enemy ship shot upward at the last moment, and everyone sighed with relief. Then a giant face came right at them. It looked somewhat human, but had enough insectoid features to reveal that it had been some sort of alien. That was before centuries of collisions had pocked it with holes and chipped off large chunks, for it was a giant statue that had once stood over this proud city that was now floating in a ring around the planet Palmetto. Its body stretched out past its head, a long structure that stood nearly a hundred yards across.

An attached tether released the statue from the smaller ship that had been dragging it, and now it flew headlong and out of control at the pirate ship. Shasa had only time to shout, "Up!" before the statue collided with them. Luckily, the pilot had already been on top of the situation and had, the moment he saw the statue flying at them, pulled the vessel upward. It saved the lives on the bridge as the statue pierced into the hull just below it. The crew flew in every direction, knocking against equipment and walls, as sparks flew and smoke covered the air. The deafening screeching and accompanying crashes rang in their ears. Screams and cries of pain filled the rest of the air. The floor rose unevenly lengthwise across the bridge as though an animal were burrying its way across a field. More bodies flew into the air, and some crashed against the ceiling. The walls cracked, and at some points, air began to rush out.

Some panicked and leaped through the circular doorway into the passage beyond. Others bravely held to their posts, while still others lay unconscious or perhaps dead. Otto led a handful to the storage locker and yanked out emergency supplies. He assigned extinguishers to a couple and took another with him to utilize the gap-stop. He and his partner sprayed the walls with it, releasing a silvery foam that covered the breaks in the wall. It hardened quickly and sealed the breaches. They moved from crack to crack and filled them until the air and pressure were no longer escaping. By that point, most of the fires were out and the sparks were only at a dull crackling. But most of the power was dead.

Aware they only had enough for certain areas, Shasa ordered all power to life support and weapons, including the point defense system. Even sensors were off. Let the little bugger escape then. She wasn't going to sacrifice her ship to kill him.

Looking at the view screen, though, she saw an eerie sight. The ship was going nowhere. It was hovering in space not very far from them, as if taunting. It only occasionally swayed a little to allow a piece of debris to fly by unmolested. It was neither attacking, nor running. Shasa could easily blow it out of the sky if she knew that all her weapons were working. But then, it could destroy her ship and it was doing nothing. What was the pilot's intention?

Otto was finishing the repairs now, and approached his sister. He took in everything she had been considering as well. Shasa looked to the weapons officer, who had been putting out fires, and told him, "Ready whatever we have left and prepare to fire."

"Wait," Otto said quickly. "Let them think we're lame. Bring 'em in close first." Shasa considered. Otto continued, "We may not have enough strength to destroy them at range, but you bring them in close and we can finish them off."

Shasa nodded. They must be wanting to rescue their friend. "Belay my other order, Mr. Green," she said to the weapons officer. Then she turned to the bridge engineer, who had been working with Otto. "Mr. Chow, you and Domi shut down everything except minimal life support and the grapple. Green, be ready with the grapple device."

"If it still works," Green muttered.

Little Jack studied the pirate ship from above. The statue stuck comically out the front like a horn sticking out of a unicorn. It had just missed the bridge atop its bulbous bow, but it had stabbed close enough to strongly affect it. It had not moved since the strike, and it seemed dead in the water. His sensors were weak after his own damage, but it seemed the pirate ship's systems were one by one shutting down. Now its weapons turned off and it seemed to be helpless.

"Should we go get your friend?" Lancaster asked.

Little Jack hesitated a little longer. Something didn't feel right. Perhaps it was too convenient. He had not hit any point that should be a power plant, but every section that utilized power had shut down. His instincts were kicking in, but he could not entirely justify them.

"If they get the power back, we won't have another chance," Lancaster said.

He was right; Little Jack knew it. His intuition could not compete with his stone cold logic. They had struck a hard blow, and as long as there was chaos on board, they had a chance to rescue Jude. But once that window of opportunity closed, it would not open again. He engaged the engine and swooped in behind the ship.

Shasa watched him, a tiny smile creeping up one side of her mouth. The weapons officer looked over at her and she gave no sign. She was letting him get in closer.

The ship got into point blank range, flew right next to the pirate ship, and seemed to be studying it. Otto looked at Shasa also, and she shook her head. He began to say something and she made a zipping noise to shut him up.

The ship drifted to the front, near the mouth where it could search for the pilot's friend. It was almost right next to the bridge, and could fly up to be face to face with them in just a moment. "Fire!" Shasa screamed, and a laser blast crashed into the small vessel. The first damaged the engine, and the second took out the power. Now the enemy vessel was dead in space.

On board Odin's Revenge, Little Jack was cursing as sparks flew, the ship shook, and the controls went limp below his hands. He knew he had screwed up, and it had been a stupid mistake.

As the pirate crew celebrated on the bridge behind Shasa with cheers and hand slaps, Shasa ordered, "Power up! Reel them in!"

The mouth of the Black Lotus opened slowly as it rolled over to the left to swallow Odin's Revenge whole.

Chapter

Five

The Best Offer

Princess Ceriliseta found her father in high spirits when the double doors slid open to reveal him in his antique furnished, high ceiling office. Far from sitting at a desk hard at work, he was pacing briskly around the wide room as if dancing on air rather than walking on a hardwood floor. He would be impossible to deal with now. With success and happiness came a confidence that could not be burrowed through, no matter how much evidence one had to make a point.

Ceriliseta had brought a great deal of data which revealed the disturbing trend the Navarus Corporate Empire stocks were host to. There would soon be a financial disaster which would affect every interest in which they had holdings, leaving them vulnerable to their enemies; some of which had sworn vengeance on her father and, more disturbingly to Ceriliseta, on his family. For the safety of all of them, Galek needed to place more importance on his fiduciary responsibilities, and less on his "ancient toys," as she described them.

But nothing could quench Galek's excitement over the independent contractors' success at capturing the Sigueran medallion. This was a treasure that would complete his collection; a rare antiquity found only at the sites of great importance and secrecy. A treasure hunter who risked his life enough to come back with one of these was loathe to part with it, and rarely announced that it had been found for fear of other collectors who may hire a hit on them.

But those too ignorant to realize the value would have their guard down, as the unsuspecting woman from the club clearly had. They would also not understand its power; how it could be used, and how it would soon make Galek incredibly wealthy.

Ceriliseta understood none of this, especially how it would make him, or, more importantly, anyone around him, more wealthy. The medallion was shiny, she gave him that. The gold from its holographic image cast an amber hue across her face. The beauty was tempting, but it was a siren song. The price they were paying to capture it was too high. Their attention needed to be elsewhere, and she told her father so in no uncertain terms.

Galek looked patiently over at his young daughter, his precious little girl. He barely heard what she was saying, then interrupted in the Navarus tongue, _"My beauty, do not concern yourself with these stressful matters. They will form unsightly wrinkles on your delicate face. You should be with your mother. Where is she?"_

Ceriliseta winced beneath her pale make-up. The colorful, ornate designs on her left cheek and along the circumference of her neck were the only lines she bore, and helped to hide her true feelings, especially from her oblivious father whose energies were entirely focused on his hobbies. _"Papa,"_ she said, responding as well in the Navarus family language, _"Chivascorp is down 18%, and in a panic from that, Scarletta dropped 23% and is still falling. Azizi is set to take our territories on..."_

" _Hush, shhhh, shhh, shhhh, shh,"_ Galek said, his face merely bemused by her information, but not impressed by it. _"These matters are beyond your knowledge, Ceriliseta. You should be using your time locating a husband. What has become of that handsome prince you were fond of?"_

" _I was never fond of Marrel,"_ Ceriliseta insisted. _"He wasted what he had like you do."_

" _My beautiful girl,"_ Galek said, the shine on his face fading. _"You are beginning to try my patience. Never you mind about these matters..."_

" _But..."_

" _Never you mind, my beautiful star."_ Galek's tone now was insistent, growing angry. Ceriliseta recognized it. This was the beginning of the voice that rose when he became enraged. Far from thinking logically, he would become even more irrational and, after killing an employee or two, would likely make even larger mistakes. He would never lay a finger on Ceriliseta, but his violent rages often found him throwing his large frame around, which frightened even his daughter. Most importantly to Ceriliseta, however, it would be an even longer time before any real work could get done.

One of the other bodies in the room shifted. Evidently someone else recognized the subtle change in Galek's tone and poised to be ready for whatever happened. Ceriliseta looked at this person and saw it was Bela.

She noticed Bela's concern, but upon glancing at him, she realized he had not been looking at Galek, but at her. His eyes shot away as soon as she glanced at him, but she realized now that he had been staring at her, and his look of concern was for her well-being rather than her father's. In thinking back, she realized that she recognized this look of concern for her. Bela was a man with a stone face, but Ceriliseta had one, too. She knew the signs, and the subtle ways emotionally cautious people hid them. This was not the first time her father's top agent had laid caring eyes on her.

Ceriliseta stored this knowledge away in her mind along with so much more knowledge of politics and intrigue, then curtseyed to her father. _"As you wish, Papa,"_ she relented.

Galek smiled, satisfied, and Ceriliseta turned and sashayed out of the room.

* * *

Blackness. No light. A dark, empty slate. Jude kept it that way for herself by leaving her eyes closed. She had woken moments earlier, but she didn't want anyone in the room to know that. She needed to first assess the situation. Jude knew immediately that she was locked in place. Her hands were bound on either side, and even her fingers were spread out from one another by small rings that kept them apart. Her legs were clinched to the board upon which her torso was held in place by a metallic girdle. A slight pinching sensation in her arm implied that her captors had even inserted needles into her veins. A brief self-diagnostic revealed to her that it was inhibiting some of her bionic abilities. Keeping her eyes shut, she switched through some of her vision capabilities. She found that her thermal imaging still worked, and she peered through her eyelids.

Only one person was in the room with her, a scrawny looking fellow lounging back on his chair. He didn't even have a weapon in his hands. She could tell because he was slapping his legs to the beat of the music. It was an annoying, high pitched music, a style of experimental sounds that had only young, pretentious fans. This was especially irritating. It had lyrics about misunderstood love intended for a 13-year-old only learning about romance. These had been the sounds that woke Jude up in the first place. She had tried to ignore them, but the vexatious sounds were getting more pervasive.

The sitting body reached a hand up to the wall and twisted a knob. The atrocious music rose in volume. Now he was trying to wake her up. She only had moments to figure out how to escape this trap. She shifted her eyes trying not to move her head, scanning the room. She could see nothing else, so she shifted tactics. She concentrated on her limbs, feeling how tightly connected they were. Realizing she was stuck, she sensed her bionics, giving herself a quick and subtle diagnostic, considering what worked and what she could use.

The person started whistling. It was so high pitched it felt like it would pierce the eardrum. Jude resisted wincing, but was close to losing the battle. She needed just a little more time. Then the man started singing; not just loud, but wildly off tune.

Jude at last reached her limit and her eyes shot open directly at the man. He was reclining in an adjustable Portasit, clearly waiting for her to wake up. He wore fingerless gloves, baggy cargo britches with one leg longer than the other, and a loose shirt with straps pulled tot and an armored bracer on one arm. He wore everything as casually as his posture. His thick eyebrows drooped at the ends, like he was permanently bored or bemused; possibly both. Right now, he looked like he was enjoying the pain he was inflicting on his subject.

Jude, meanwhile, found that she was in no position to argue. She was attached vertically to an upright table covered with mechanical gears and sharp needles intended to keep a cyber-junky like herself in place.

The man finished a verse he was singing. "Gotta love the Four Nines!" he said, shouting above the music.

Jude only stared back. She knew nothing she said would make him stop. In fact, he would probably turn it up if she protested, so she simply stared at him with an annoyed expression.

"Chances that you need be high to fully valorie it," the man said. "I'd provide it, but my sis would chanced to get mad. Byway, I'm Otto. Pleasant to meet you. Please, don't get up."

Otto rose from his seat. He exaggerated the effort, like he was an old man, but Jude could see that he was fit. Otto turned down the music so he could be heard, then reached down toward his rifle. His hand passed by it and instead pulled a remote control out of the wall. "You comprend, we had to keep you nicely secured. Couldn't have you jumping around our ship flashing your bionics. They're some nice gizmos, by the way. I'll have to find your adjuster."

By this point Otto had paced close to Jude. He looked in her bionic eyes and could see she had no intention of talking. "I don't want to bore either of us, so I'll get to the sift. Very on the simple. We want to know what it was you were exchanging. We register it was that medallion. That's what our boss sent us out here for. But it looks like a piece of junk. Hardly worth risking your life over. Hardly worth a bar brawl, don't you credit? Certainly not worth the handsome amount they're paying us to bring it back. So what we want to know is what it does. What makes it so dime?"

Jude wasn't even looking at Otto anymore. She was studying the room, and at her captive table, searching for weaknesses.

Otto pointed at Jude's right arm and said, "That one looks a little loose, maybe try it."

Jude instinctively yanked at it, then cursed herself when it didn't budge.

"Oh. My mistake," Otto said.

"Get carn, you scrawny piece of..." Jude didn't get another word out. She tensed in pain. Her head jerked upward and her mouth opened wide into a silent scream. She couldn't breathe for a moment, then it all came out as a pathetic sob of excruciating pain. Otto was pressing a button on the remote control, and one of the tubes connected to her arm injected a poison that caused sudden and horrendous agony as it spread quickly throughout her body and worked into every muscle, leaving behind a slow-healing ache.

Otto paced away, twirling the remote in his hand. "Here's the negote," he said. "We have your friend in another room. Either you're going to tell us what's so bling about your little necklace, or he is. Whichever one tells us first wins a lovely trip to getting to live. The other one wins a one way trip to cold, empty space. You got it? And if we reach our desto before either of you do..." Jude nodded, knowing the deal. Otto continued, "We give you each a big hug and set you both free! No, just kidding, we kill you both."

Otto slumped back down into his chair. "My plastic's on the other guy talking first, so I'm not going to try to get you to talk. I'm not going to torture you or anything like that. Just lay back there and we'll wait for word on your buddy so we can toss your fine butt into space." Otto yanked out another small device from the wall, this time a little holo pad, over which he turned on a game and began playing.

Jude felt around at all her devices, but was soon convinced there was nothing she could do. Talking, too, would do no good, as she did not know what the device did either. She would tell the man if she could; she was no hero. But she wondered, too, why so many people were after it. She now regretted not learning what it did and keeping it for herself.

Jude did not bother speaking to Otto. She knew he would never believe the truth. And it wouldn't do any good anyway. She saved all her energy for the opportunity she hoped would come, but with Little Jack held captive in another room, she knew there was little chance.

Shasa was with the other prisoner. He was not held as firmly in place; he didn't seem to be as much of a threat. The man's arms were merely shackled to the walls and he was sat down in a chair. As soon as the pirates had taken him on board, they had scanned him for cybernetics and found none. They even let him keep on his hat.

Shasa dangled the medallion in front of him. He stared at it in wonderment, as if Shasa had disappeared from the room when he saw it. "Mr. James. Mr. James! You told me that's your name, right?"

"Right," Lancaster responded, still staring at the medallion. The symbol for travel was perfectly sculpted. The bottom ray from the star stuck out further than the others, and the line and dots that made the arrow symbol pointed downward beside it. It made for lovely jewelry, but Lancaster knew it had a more important use; a use that Shasa now wanted from him.

She attached the chain of the medallion to a hook on the ceiling which was intended to hold fruit or other food. She made sure the medallion was right in front of Lancaster so as to always be in his sight, but just out of reach. She then grabbed a chair and sat down across from him. Crossing her legs neatly, she tugged down her skirt and straightened up in her chair. Lancaster spotted a captain's medal hanging from her bodice that formed crisply over her chestnut shirt. It matched the rusty looking metal walls, which, in turn, fit with the dim lighting. Had Lancaster not seen the other rooms and corridors on the way here he might have thought he was in an intimidating interrogation room somewhere in the bowels of the ship; but it looked like any other room and could be the luxury suite for all he knew.

"We want to know why this medallion is such a big ticket, Mr. James," Shasa said. "We want to comprend what it does."

"I'm not going to tell you," Lancaster said.

"Of course," she said. "Why would you? That's why we've magged to kill you."

Lancaster's head shot from the medallion to Shasa.

"Or your friend," Shasa said. "The lovely lady from the opposite ship. What was her name?"

Lancaster didn't answer. He had forgotten, and at the moment, couldn't even remember if Little Jack had even told him.

"Well, I hope you know it because your life is in her gear now. If she tells us what this medallion does before you do, we will simply throw you out the air lock."

"And if neither of us talk?" Lancaster asked.

"Our employers gave us no stipulations on whether you are to be brought back alive or dead, Mr. James. Besides, do you really think she won't talk? She was unconscious when I left her, but when she wakes, my guess is that she'll tell us anything to stay alive."

"Why do you want to know?" Lancaster asked. "If you have an employer, you're probably just supposed to regress it back to them, aren't you?"

"In theory," she said. Then she leaned in to him intimately and said rather quietly, "I'll level with you, Mr. James. I'm curious. When I skry this, I just see a piece of junk. Something I could buy at any port market. But you see something different. I want to see what you see."

"I imagine I'm not the only one who sees something different. How much are you being paid?"

"Plenty, Mr. James. A tril. Why? Why would anyone pay us so much for such a tiny thing? And why would you and your friend risk your lives to retrieve it and now to protect it? Is this so powerful I should keep it?

"I'll tell you this much," Lancaster said. "It's not worthy in line in your hands."

"Chance be it will lead me to something valuable. Is there a map somehow in it?"

"No map. Nothing you'll gain from."

"Then chance be I should sell it to the higher bidder. Mr. James..." Shasa now looked intently into Lancaster's eyes. "I have been offered a greater sum than my employer, twice the amount. I'm willing to give you a percentage if you'll just tell me its import."

Now it was Lancaster's turn to be confused. "Someone else knew you were coming after this?" he asked.

Shasa nodded. "Someone who had been monitoring you, Mr. James. Someone who wants this apparently more than anyone."

"Who?" Lancaster asked.

"I don't give away my sources."

"If I'm going to go into business with you, I need to know who I'm dealing with. And by the way, it would help to know your name, too."

"My name is Shasa Kerikova. I'm captain of the Black Lotus. My employer is the Navarus Corporation."

"And your other offer?"

Shasa hesitated a moment, then said, "Someone named Kazakis."

"Nikos Kazakis!" Lancaster exclaimed.

"I got no first name. But he was gorgeously wealthy. Something I could use."

"Don't credit him!" Lancaster exclaimed, pulling forward, but halted by the chains on his wrists.

Shasa leaned into him, fearless, almost familiarly. "How do you comprend this?"

"He doesn't care about the medallion, or who he has to kill to get it," Lancaster said. "All he cares about is the bottom line; how much he can build his plastic. Paying you takes from his profit. How do you think he pinged so much wealth?"

Shasa's brow furrowed; a look of concern, or frustration, or possibly both. She leaned back in her chair, still staring at Lancaster. At last she said, "We've got a warship and a crew of cutthr..."

"It won't be enough," Lancaster insisted, shaking his head, his eyes in deep earnest.

Shasa continued to stare at him, squeezing her fingers in her hand, considering his words. "Why would anyone pay so much for this?" she asked at last.

A tense silence followed as Shasa tried to read Lancaster's reaction. He genuinely did not know how to answer, but she wasn't certain whether or not to believe that look on his face. They were interrupted by a deep boom from another part of the ship followed a moment later by a violent jolt. Shasa grabbed onto her seat tensely and looked in the direction of the boom.

A voice emerged from the intercom, "Captain."

"What's passing on my ship?" she demanded, jumping up from her seat and stepping to the wall communicator.

"Explosion, port midship."

"I gathered. How? We're in spectrum drive!"

"Engineering crew en route to find..."

Another boom, this time from below, followed by a rising and falling sensation, as though they were on a raft riding a giant wave.

Shasa punched another button on the comm. "Domi, damage report!"

"So far, superficial damage reported on the system. We've got engineers..."

"What is it doing to our spectrum travel?" Shasa interrupted.

"Nothing so far. But we're vulnerable as long as we're in the brane."

"Pull us out! Bring us back to normal space."

Lancaster now realized Little Jack's plan. He had put on his space suit as soon as the pirate ship had latched on to Odin's Revenge with its grapples. He had said something about one of them needing to be captured so they wouldn't search any further, and had grabbed a pack and attached it to his back. Without explaining further, Little Jack had said he'd find him, then left the ship.

Lancaster had been nervous about being taken into custody, and had become even more frightened when they cleared the planet and dropped into spectrum drive. Lancaster understood little about how interstellar space travel worked, except in relation to some extinct alien races, for whom he still only comprehended a small amount. He suspected that going into spectrum drive meant anything outside would be shrugged off, destroyed, or somehow left behind.

But when he heard that the damage had been minor and witnessed Shasa's reaction to leave the brane, he realized the plan. Little Jack had scared the pirates to returning to normal space so they could escape without disappearing into the alternate dimension that was interstellar space travel. The only question now was, what was the escape plan?

Shasa told the engineering crew that she would join them, and she opened the door. Ducking through the round opening, she ordered the guard just outside to step in and watch over Lancaster. The soldier obeyed and stepped inside. The door rolled shut and locked with a hollow, echoing 'clank' behind him. His bored eyes fixed on Lancaster, and he didn't move.

Lancaster sat there, his arms affixed to the wall, just waiting. The uncomfortable silence was accompanied by a metallic creaking, a sound Lancaster was familiar with. He heard it oftentimes when they would enter and exit spectrum drive in Odin's Revenge. It had something to do with the resonance shifts on the hull when adjusting from one dimension to the next.

He tried to break the silence with a little conversation. "So, you're a guard on the ship?" The man did not answer, only stared at him. "I'm sorry, minion. Is that what they call it?" Nothing. "What's your name?" Nothing. "How about I call you Bob. Does that fit?" Nothing. "May name's Lancaster. Lancaster James. But you probably already comprended that. Your boss did." Nothing. "What do you do when nothing's passing? Is there a minion recreation room?" Still nothing, although the man was beginning to illicit signs of annoyance. Lancaster didn't dare push any more buttons, but then he couldn't resist. "What's the pay like?"

There was a certain method to his questioning as well. Lancaster believed Little Jack would be coming through the door any moment. When he did, Lancaster wanted the man looking in his direction, and with any luck, he might not even notice the door opening at all.

A loud crash accompanied the outer wall exploding. Lancaster closed his eyes and looked down, then felt his legs yank up, pulled by an invisible force toward the outer wall. He opened his eyes in time to see his hat torn from his head and flown out a huge gash in the wall along with everything else that was loose in the room flying out with a strong and continuous gust of wind; the pressure shifting from the chamber into outer space. Bob the minion also sailed helplessly out the gap and tumbled head over heels into oblivion. Lancaster saw him spin a couple times, then, when he reached a certain point about ten meters away from the ship, his body suddenly expanded, as though stretched out by an invisible hand. He quickly looked like a long string. Then his bottom half followed his top half, and he disappeared into the darkness. Lancaster realized what happened to the man when he noticed that he could also see no stars. They were still in the brane.

He looked at the ceiling. The medallion was still connected to the hook, but just barely. It was reaching for the hole in the wall, as if stretching desperately to get out. He tried to bring his leg up to grab it with his foot. He pulled hard against the invisible force yanking him toward the darkness. That same force was pulling hard at the medallion. The chain was beginning to slip off its hook. Lancaster clenched his red face as he summoned all his strength, but it wasn't enough. He could only bring his foot up a few inches.

A small figure in a black space suit slipped through the entrance and moved effortlessly against the current up to Lancaster's feet. The suit's thruster then halted him, and he slipped a second space suit over Lancaster's legs, and then up his torso. Lancaster kept his eyes on the medallion as the person fitted the suit onto his arms, stopping at the hands. It needed to free them first. The figure, Little Jack, of course, grabbed a tool from his belt and used it on the chain holding one hand.

The medallion's chain reached the end of the hook. It was wiggling free.

The chain on the first hand snapped free. Lancaster used the hand to grab the spare helmet off of Little Jack and throw it on his head. He latched it on as Little Jack worked at the second chain.

To Lancaster's horror, the medallion slipped free of the hook and flew straight out the hole.

He felt his second hand snap free, and without hesitation, he pushed Little Jack aside and kicked off the wall, hurtling out into space in pursuit of the medallion.

He caught sight of it immediately, hurtling steadily away from the ship toward the unseen event horizon past which neither it, nor anyone else, would ever return. Lancaster reached out for it, his bare hand frigid in the open vacuum of space. He kept moving it, trying to keep the fingers from freezing in place. He opened his palm reaching out to the metallic surface of the artifact. It was still several inches away and seconds from capture when they were clearly getting close to the ten meter mark. Lancaster clamped down and grasped the end of the chain. At that same moment, he felt another hand grasp at his leg, then yank him back. Little Jack's thruster's reversed direction and pulled Lancaster toward the ship.

Looking back, Lancaster could see Little Jack's disgusted expression through the face plate. Though he typically bore that expression, Lancaster knew the subtleties of his emotions, especially this one. He gripped Lancaster's chest and pulled him toward himself. He yanked the medallion out of Lancaster's grasp placed it into his pack, then he shoved the gloves onto Lancaster's hands, then sealed them, and the rest of the suit, shut.

Lancaster felt the suit fill with air, and a euphoric rush came over him. He had not noticed how close he was to falling unconscious. He looked around him and saw the ship drifting through a multi-colored glow, a tear in space between a dimension of pure darkness, and one with dots of light all around them. They were now entering normal space, and as long as he and Little Jack remained within the protective bubble that shielded the ship, they would go with it.

They hit the hull of the ship and Little Jack grabbed on and steadied himself. Lancaster had less control. Having no feeling in his hands, he just threw them out in front to keep the rest of him from smashing into the wall. He felt his numb hands sucked to the metal and attach with the magnets in the palms and fingers. Though his body wanted to bounce back off again, his hands remained stuck to the wall.

Little Jack looked at him a moment later to see he was safe, then motioned his head toward the front of the ship and began crawling.

Lancaster had more difficulty. Without feeling in his hands, he had trouble moving them forward. But then he used the muscles of his upper arm to pull at one of them and it clumsily came free. He slapped it forward and crashed it onto the hull. He pulled the other one free and slapped again further. He brought his legs forward, and in this manner, made his way behind his partner slowly toward the front of the pirate ship.

Shasa was with several of the engineers near the base of the ship. They were quarantining the compromised chambers and trying to detect if the damage was spreading. They had been lucky so far that the explosions happened in minor areas and had had only minimal effect on power. Both explosions had occurred in the rear half of the ship, but neither had hit any part of the engines or power plant. How exactly they had happened would be investigated as soon as the crew knew they were out of imminent danger.

It had been at this point Shasa got word that the chamber where she had been questioning Lancaster had been compromised. She was certain he and the guard she had left would be dead and at first considered herself lucky for having just left, but then she remembered that the medallion had been in the room as well. Her breath escaped her. Without that relic they would not get paid, and this was their last hope to pay the crew. And now, with a damaged ship... They were in real trouble.

Without explanation she abandoned the others and rushed toward the room where she had been questioning Lancaster. She stopped at a locker to pull out a space suit, then stalled. The entire scenario now ran through her mind; the first explosion, then the second, both happening in succession, both minor explosions in a dimension primarily devoid of anyone who could have fired at them, and free of asteroids that could have punctured the hull. If the explosions had been caused by mechanical failure they would have happened closer to engineering, or somewhere else more important to the ship. This had been sabotage.

She knew that no one had come off the crafts they had captured; their raiders had been around both ships when they were dragged into the hull. Someone had gotten off in a space suit and landed on the Black Lotus while they were being dragged in.

Shasa called the head of security and had him assemble all raiders not currently busy aiding the engineers with the aftermath of the explosions.

When Little Jack had left Odin's Revenge, he had taken with him his own vacc suit, Lancaster's suit, and enough explosives to punch three holes in the pirate ship. He had been careful to float onto the rear half of the pirate vessel and plant them there so the pirate crew would head to that section, but he didn't have enough to blow a fourth hole. Luckily, he had thought of this fact just before he left Odin's Revenge, so he turned it so the craft was facing away from the pirate vessel when it was brought in. It was therefore reeled in such that Odin's Revenge was facing outward, toward the hatchway through which it had been brought.

When Little Jack and Lancaster reached that hatchway at the bottom front of the pirate ship, Little Jack motioned for Lancaster to wait, and he pulled out of his pack a remote control. After pressing a few buttons, he had control of his ship. From here he would not be able to fly it, but he could run several functions on board. He scrolled through the few weapons and selected the front lasers. He placed them on a cutting setting that he and Lancaster had used in the past to gain entry into vast alien chambers. Though not a particularly useful setting in combat, they had found multiple uses for getting where they needed to go.

Little Jack now used it to slice through the hold's massive hatchway. He was not concerned about being precise. Though he had alerted the crew and its security to the rear of the ship, they would be running back to the front the moment they learned a ship was activated inside their cargo chamber cutting more holes into their vessel. The resulting hole was rough at the edges and just large enough for Little Jack and Lancaster to rush through.

Little Jack ceased fire and flew in with the use of his jet pack. Lancaster was slowly coming up behind. He was lucky he was slow because a laser blast fired through the opening right after Little Jack entered. It had just missed the small man, the firer evidently not realizing how quick he would be.

Little Jack kept his thrusters activated, assessing the situation of the large chamber on the move. A crowd of pirates were pouring in through a double doorway at the opposite end of the chamber. They were all in patchwork-armored space suits, and wielded various types of rifles and pistols, and some had melee weapons strapped to their backs or their hips. Both Little Jack's and Jude's ships were between them, their landing gears and open entrance ramps the only obstacles in the way.

One of the pirates had stopped to fire at Little Jack and was firing again. Little Jack maneuvered upward to hide behind the ship's hull, then ducked down and fired, taking down the pirate. Its body fell limp, then flew out toward the hole.

Lancaster was coming through just at that moment and saw the body coming at him. He pulled inside and jumped out of the way just in time.

Little Jack targeted the ones he had seen in his glasses and kept track of them, but he knew there were more than he had spotted, and probably more than he could handle. They were still filing in.

He ran his thumb across the remote to Odin's Revenge and quickly found the thrusters. He engaged them, and the resulting blast took out a small crowd of the pirates. He ducked down and fired a couple shots, taking out one more.

Lancaster had gotten up now and was running toward Little Jack, and a few of the pirates were firing at him. Little Jack shot several of the laser blasts out of the sky, covering Lancaster's sprint until he reached one of the landing gears near Little Jack.

They were both near the entrance ramp now, but it was to the wrong ship. They were taking cover next to Jude's Desert Rose. Their ship was a sprint across an open room through a gambit of gunfire.

Little Jack considered his options for a moment. Then one pirate with a bronze helmet and horns which wrapped around the sides to end near the mouth stepped fearlessly ahead of the others. He lowered his rifle and fired at the landing gear Lancaster was hiding behind. The huge blast caused the ship to buckle, its hull threatening to land on Lancaster. Lancaster started to run, but the other pirates fired, the shots thundering all around him.

With his utility belt still on Odin's Revenge and his jacket underneath his space suit, Lancaster could not get at his own devices that might be useful to defend himself. He was helpless.

Little Jack covered him with a spray from his gun of flashbangs spread across the room. The resulting small explosives and blinding lights struck across the chamber like lightning, hurling most of the pirates back.

The man with the horned helmet, however, merely recoiled, then recovered. He lifted his rifle to fire again. Little Jack fired at the bolt that came out, but his own shot was deflected while most of the energy of the pirate's bolt flashed straight through. There was even a wave of feedback which knocked Little Jack back.

Lancaster realized this was his only moment to run, so he dashed for the Desert Rose's opening. Little Jack flipped his pistol's setting to rapid fire with his thumb and spread the area around the horn helmeted man with shots. None would be particularly powerful, but each could puncture enough of a hole in his suit to open it to the vacuum of space.

Though it was an armored suit he was wearing the pirate did not want to take any chances. He jumped behind a landing gear and waited for the rain of shots to take a break. He then peeked around the corner to fire, and saw the legs of the two men rushing into the ship.

The pirates were just recovering from the blinding flash bangs when the ramp pulled up. Some of them rushed it, but it closed too quickly for them. The man with the horned helmet and several others with more powerful weapons fired at the Desert Rose, trying to do some form of damage to it to keep it from moving, but they didn't have strong enough firearms.

Shasa, one of the pirates in attendance, rushed to the neighboring hold to grab some explosives. She wanted to give this midget a taste of his own medicine.

The pirate with the horns fired his most explosive rounds at one of the windows and managed to break through. Encouraged by this, he fired the thrusters in his jet pack and jumped to one of the repair platforms above the ships. There he looked down on the pair inside the cockpit. The short one was powering up the ship, and the other was helping him with stiff hands.

The pirate with the horned helmet took aim. Little Jack calmly looked up at him through his frosted glasses and pressed a button. Just as the pirate shot, an armored protection sealed over all the windows on the ship.

Inside the cockpit, Lancaster had no idea what fate had just about befallen them. All was darkness now save for the glow from the dashboard lights. "Great, now we can't see," he said.

"We fly by instruments," Little Jack said. If the pirates had hoped he would be slower with this unfamiliar ship, they were mistaken. Little Jack had flown with Jude in the past, and he knew the Desert Rose well. He flipped the correct switches almost as quickly as he flipped his own to turn on the necessary power. A screen on the dashboard showed them the view in the front. Their thrusters powered up in the rear, though there were no pirates to blast with them this time. Most importantly, he overloaded the guns with power.

Shasa, realizing she was out of time with the explosives, called to the bridge, "Take us back into spectrum drive!"

"Ma'am?" asked the navigator.

"Just do it! Now!"

The bridge crew got to work, and they began the process of re-engaging the spectrum drive. A small beam of colorful light appeared before the ship, and a tiny rip in space emerged. If they could get through before the Desert Rose emerged, Lancaster and his friend would be trapped on board.

Little Jack fired, and the hull ripped open in a vast explosion. The pirates fled to either side, neither wishing to be in front or behind the escaping vessel.

"Destroy that ship!" Shasa shouted, her voice channeling to every department, the raiders, the bridge, even the crew inspecting the damage to the Black Lotus. She was desperate for someone to do something.

The raiders in the hold fired everything they had, but nothing was strong enough to breach the ship's hull. The weapons outside the pirate ship were a different story, however. They had several that could tear Jude's ship up into pieces.

The weapons officer tracked the Desert Rose's movements. It made a sharp right after escaping the hold. It did not go into the arc of their front guns, but it would be pulling up right alongside their starboard guns. He prepared to fire, and the bridge ensign assisted. Then the weapons officer realized why Little Jack had chosen that direction. One of the explosions he had caused had severed a power artery to the guns along the lower starboard. The Desert Rose skirted close to this end of the ship, out of the arc of any operational weapons.

That is, until he reached the aft, where a pair of lasers awaited the small vessel. The weapons officer got ready, then fired as soon as it emerged. Little Jack weaved and dodged in tight turns. The pirate's guns fired as quickly as they could, filling the space as best it could so Little Jack had nowhere to fly. A couple glancing blows met their target, chipping away corners and edges, knocking the ship off balance.

Little Jack lost control, and they began spinning. The motion made them predictable, and the bridge ensign managed to line up a shot. She asked permission to fire and was granted. Just as she was pressing the button to fire, the Black Lotus reached super symmetry. The weapons powered down as the tear in space stretched out in front of the vessel, and it was dragged back into the brane.

Chapter

Six

The Chase Begins

The door to Shasa's chambers opened and in stepped the man with the horned helmet, his long rifle cradled in his arms. Slumped on her bunk, Shasa lifted her head to look at the man with her worn eyes. "Take off that stupid helmet," she scolded.

Otto lifted off his helmet and tossed it carelessly onto the bed next to Shasa. He lifted his gun slightly and said, "She performed well. I wasn't so bad myself..."

"Hang that thing up," she said.

"She's got a name," Otto said. "It's Vera. Best gun I've ever had."

As Otto disassembled Vera, removing the barrel to make it a carbine, then the middle section to make it a pistol, Shasa said, "It wasn't enough. Nothing was enough. They got away and they took the medallion with them. Now we have to tell our employer."

"Well," Otto said, "not so much we need to tell him as you. You're the captain after all."

Shasa's face turned red. She grabbed a pillow and threw it at his face so hard it actually stung a little. "It's so convenient for you, isn't it? Riding on my coattails, questioning my decisions, and when things get thick, you hide behind me and say she's the captain! Well this time won't be so easy! We'll lose the ship, and when the crew finds out, we'll probably lose our lives! Now that the ship's damaged who knows if we'll make port! It's probably worthless anyway, and we can't chase after the medallion because we have no idea where it's gone! I..." Shasa cut herself short. She had recognized her voice beginning to shake and felt tears bobbing out of her eyes. She sucked it in and looked away from Otto.

But he saw it all. He saw hopelessness written all over her face, the fear in her eyes. It was the first time he had witnessed his big sister this way since they were children, and he realized just how much he relied on her strength. She had been his safety net, the one with all the answers, giving him the opportunities to experiment and do as he wished because she would clean up whatever failures he had. But now that net had no strength. She had no idea what she was going to do, and his losses were his own to bear. This was serious.

"Call up the guy... What was his name, Bela? Bell? Beck?" Otto said as he packed the parts of the gun into pockets along his utility belt. "Whatever, call him up and tell him we'll be there, but we'll be late."

Shasa looked up at her little brother in time to see him march briskly out of the room and down the corridor toward the cells.

The door to Jude's chamber gasped as it slid into the wall, Otto striding in before it had fully opened. His eyes were narrowed in on Jude, raging and on fire. He stopped suddenly and backed up, then punched the wall without looking at it. The remote control shot out and he caught it in the air and pointed it at Jude, stepping toward her again. Jude was staring at him without emotion, a look of bitter defiance on her face. "You're going to tell us where your friends went..." Otto said, his thumb about to tighten on one of the buttons.

"Not my friends," Jude spat back at him.

"No more games!" Otto insisted, shaking the remote in front of her face.

"I saw the one outside," Jude said. "He passed right above us while you were yapping earlier."

If her intention had been to calm Otto, she was miserably failing. His face was redder than it had ever been in his life, and the torture of the table she was attached to was not sufficient revenge for what he felt.

"I was waiting for him to help me, and he didn't," she concluded.

Otto's hand shook. It was pointed at her, ready to surge pain through Jude's entire body. Jude gave him no reaction. She merely met Otto's stare with her own. She was not defiant, but rather matter of fact. Her eyes sank into Otto's conscious until he came to his senses enough to recognize the potential here. "Then you'll help us," he said.

"I didn't say that," she said. "But I won't protect them either."

"You're going to make me torture you, aren't you?" Otto asked.

"If pain is your only method of getting me to help, then rub my tyl!"

Otto stared at her through his furrowed brows. His mind ran through the various bribes he could try, but he knew they had nothing to offer; nothing that would gain her loyalty, anyway. He stepped away, pressing the poison button briefly just for spite. She tensed in excruciating pain, then relaxed and looked away.

Perhaps several of these might extract some information, but they would not gain her trust. Otto had done this enough to realize that torture provided short term gains, but destroyed the trust needed for ongoing investigations. They would need her to track these men down. Once they had what they needed, Otto could cause her all the pain he wanted, but not now. A year ago he might have followed his emotions, but his sister's influence had shaped his mind enough to where he analyzed the situation more strategically.

He considered Jude's reason for taking pain rather than talking. She had no loyalty to the two who had escaped now, that was clear. After all, they had abandoned her. But she probably knew Otto and Shasa would kill her once she provided them what they needed, so her willingness to take pain was for her own preservation, not for anyone else's. She would give them something only at the point when they were going to kill her, but again, it would only be enough information to keep her alive for the time being, never any more. Such a strategy would keep them chasing a dangling carrot indefinitely, probably until she could escape.

Then he realized something that would win her to their side without the dangling carrot. "I surm we'll have to cipher where they took your ship on our own," he said dishearteningly.

Jude's eyes lit up. "What do you mean took my ship?"

"Oh! Does your X-ray vision not go that far?" Otto said, turning to Jude. His feigned surprise was not as good an act as he thought it was, but it was working nonetheless. "I guess you don't know, then. Yeah, they took your ship rather than their own. Chances be because it was better than theirs."

Jude came to her senses enough to realize she was being manipulated and shrugged Otto off.

"Oh, you want to vis?" Otto said, heading to a wall console. He punched the wall and out came a portable screen. He pressed a few points on the screen until he got the video he wanted. "Here's some of our security footage from the hold. We usually review these to vis if anyone's stealing our things, but this time we witnessed them requising something of yours."

Jude's breathing got heavier and heavier as she saw Little Jack and Lancaster run into her ship. When Otto shot out one of the windows in the video, she looked up at him in the room. He shrugged in return. She watched as the ship powered up and flew out of the hold, nicking the wall as it went and damaging her hull. "Nobody takes the Rose," she said furiously under her breath.

Otto knew he had her.

The main offices of the Navarus Barony were so abuzz with chaotic activity one would think they were under attack. Employees were making calls, shouting information to one another, passing files from one desktop to the next. Pages were dashing down the halls delivering products that could not pass through data networks, or hopping onto ships to bring supplies to other worlds in the Navarus arm.

They were not under attack, but they were gearing up for war against two individuals about whom they knew nothing.

When Galek learned that the pirates had lost the medallion, and about the two men who possessed it, he activated his military and ordered every business within his network to be on the alert. Anyone who spotted the Desert Rose or its two occupants was to send word up the chain of supervisors to him and his chief military officer, Varun Silva. Silva was to then jump on them with everything he had.

The Navarus Barony stretched so far and employed so many millions of people that this process overwhelmed the home offices in the capital city of Blithe upon Navarus. Even with the tens of thousands of employees they had, (most of the city worked in some fashion for the barony,) every individual was swamped with work that had to be done immediately and all at once. Every household was affected by the surge in activity, even those which had no one who worked for the Navarus Barony. The business had such a strong hold on the city that any time something happened to them, it happened to the entire community, and everyone was involved.

While the barony headquarters sent word to corporate home offices, and then down to the home offices of the various companies underneath them, Grand General Silva went through a similar process with the military. He first gathered the Baron Guard, the elite forces at the top that worked directly for the Navarus Barony. His office also alerted the military wings of each of the corporations in the Navarus Barony. Though subordinates to him, they had their own organizations and military structures. They even had their own names, and some branched out with mercenarial forces. These independent armies occasionally created conflicts of interest when they also worked for opposing corporations. These difficulties created more work in the offices as the employees investigated the latest updates of various loyalties.

Even many companies underneath the corporations had military branches, which fell under the authority of their superiors, but operated in their own ways, carried their own company flags, and paid fealty to their own names. All were now being mobilized under Silva's command, and the resulting tumult made his offices look like a swirling tornado of suits and uniforms.

Bela was in the center of all the movement. It had been his sources, after all, who lost the target. He had recommended them, and he accepted his responsibility in the matter. He would personally see to it that the medallion was returned. What happened to the two men, he didn't care, but he hoped they would be killed in the process for causing him so many problems.

His contacts had saved their own skins by reporting that the perpetrators had taken a ship they were now tracing. Captain Kerikova would be keeping him updated on the status of the vessel, and as soon as they had a location, they would send it to him.

Bela used the interim time to gather a strike force of his own. He pulled warriors from the various forces that he knew had good reputations. Most of them were Baron Guards, but some came from corporations he had spotted on drills. A few more were hired mercenaries he rented for the duration of this mission. Commanders of the units from which the soldiers came did not question Bela. His status was such that he did not need to give them so much as a reason for pulling their soldiers from the ranks.

Bela did not tell his boss that he was gathering a force of his own. After the debacle with the pirates, Galek had paid little attention to Bela other than to tell him to trace the medallion in any way he could. Bela had told him about the pirates tracing the ship the perpetrators were on, and that he would follow that lead, but that was all. Beyond that, Galek cared little about the "how" and more about the result, and Bela needed to re-earn his trust.

His strike force of a couple dozen soldiers were gathering at a makeshift barracks near the space port. He wanted them ready to take off at a moment's notice. Bela, meanwhile, was hurrying down the corridors of the offices to meet with some more contacts from whom he could gather more forces, and to collect his greatest asset.

He was stalled, however, when a train of ornately dressed royal guards and attendants approached. He knew upon the sight of them what it was, and he stalled to bow. Near the front of the entourage was Ceriliseta. The numbers of her retainers had grown since the mobilization in case enemy corporations, alerted by the movement of forces, should attempt an assassination. The order, of course, had come from her father, but Ceriliseta had accepted it and took advantage of the situation to build up her own retinue of loyal servants.

She halted her entourage and stepped up to the bowing figure; her own head held so high it was leaning back slightly. She studied him a moment. Ceriliseta appeared to be looking down on one of her subjects, but in truth, she was examining his eyes. She noticed how he looked at her. Though obedient in his posture, his expression was lustful. He was peering at her figure, not her ornamentation. She had seen it on boys many times before; typically those who did not know any better; before they understood their place in relation to her highness. Bela wanted her. When he rose his head straight, he did not merely face her; he gazed into her eyes, watching through them, half daydreaming. He put on a solid mask, hiding his emotions from everyone else, but Ceriliseta knew what was happening behind it. And she knew just how to exploit it.

"Your connections failed to recover their objective, Agent," she scolded.

"Yes, Princessa Senorita."

"You recommended them, did you not?"

"Yes, Princessa Senorita."

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

"No excuse, Princessa Se..."

"What will you do to correct your errors?"

"We are amassing our armies to locate the suspects. Every corporation is..."

"I did not ask what my father is doing. What are your plans?"

"I have contacted the independent contractors, and they are tracing the..."

"I did not ask about the pirates, either, Agent Bela. What are _you_ doing to rectify the situation?"

"Oh. Fes, Princessa Senorita, I am gathering a private force under my own command so I can personally hunt down the perpetrators and retrieve the medallion."

"A force of your own," Ceriliseta said.

"Yes, miss," Bela admitted, lowering his head slightly, assuming she'd take back the soldiers in the name of her father and scold him again.

"How many?" she asked.

"A couple dozen."

"It's not nearly enough. I shall divert at least fifty to travel with you. You will need them when you track these vermin down. If they could defeat your pirates, they can surely defeat a couple dozen lackies."

"Thank you, Princessa Senorita."

"You are surprised," she said, half confronting him.

"I did not realize the recovery of the artifact meant so much to you."

"It's your mission, Agent Bela. You failed at first, so you should not fail again."

"Yes, Princessa Senorita."

"Do you believe this relic is worth the plethora of resources we have going after it?" she asked.

"I serve at the pleasure of Navarus."

"That does not answer my query. Is this relic truly something you believe is worth the treasure and manpower we are using to chase it down? I am seeking your opinion on the matter."

"I have no opinions, Princessa Senorita. I serve entirely at the pleasure of the Navarus Barony."

Ceriliseta eyed him up and down. Bela was revealing nothing in his demeanor, but she knew him well enough to realize what his dodging the issue meant. She could read him as though he was pouring out his emotions. She could even recognize the tiniest tells in his body language and expressions that he would correct had he known she was deciphering them. He had no clue why something so small and insignificant was worth turning the entire Navarus empire upside down to find it. She believed that he did not agree with the decision, but followed from his sense of absolute loyalty.

"Be gone, then," Ceriliseta said, "and continue with your preparations."

Bela nodded again, and hurried off past her entourage. He made his way through the office buildings, making contact with the commanders of the units from which he wished to pull. He stammered more than he liked, but he gave no explanation. He told no one how shaken he had been at having run across Princess Navarus, both because of her status and because of his feelings for her. He shoved them down deep and hoped she didn't notice.

He was further shaken by her confronting him about the squad he was building. He thought she would rip it from him, and now she wanted to help him build it into a small army. He suspected it to be a ruse, but to what end? As a cruel joke to watch him spin his wheels for nothing? Was he continuing to build his force only to have it taken from him?

He continued to build anyway, regardless of whether or not it was a waste of time. He had to reclaim his credibility, and he had to believe Ceriliseta wanted to help him.

After passing through the offices he continued on to a storage facility. He bypassed the wider, more traveled and well lit corridors and shifted down a narrow, darker one that led to some downward stairs. The sounds of any human interaction fell silent, replaced by the hum of widely spaced lamps. His feet on the metal floor echoed out ahead and behind into the darkness. He turned a sharp corner and at last arrived at his destination. He pulled a remote key from his pocket; not the master one used to get into most Navarus facilities, but a private one, all for himself.

He held it aloft toward a door and pressed the button with his thumb. He heard a hissing of air followed by a "thick-thunk." Then the door pulled back slightly, then rose into the ceiling. The light inside the storage unit faded up, revealing what Bela had come for; his one true hope... His secret weapon.

Chapter

Seven

Ancient History

Rain was pelting hard on the tall windows of Mika Sinovi's classroom. Weather was rarely subtle on this part of St. Marguerite; it was either sunny and warm, a torrential downpour, or occasionally a severe lightning storm from which everyone had to take cover. There was no sign of the last option, and Mika did not mind the rain so much since she wouldn't be going outside for hours. After a couple more classes she would be doing research within the bowels of the university, as she often did, and the storm would likely pass by the late hour when she left. She only hoped her students could hear over the racket.

She was certain at least one of them would let her know if they couldn't. This was a class who had no trouble making their feelings heard. Today alone she had received two challenges to her statements. The students had read or seen something different on the Galaganet, or had been told differently by a rumor or from a rogue professor who taught his theories as fact. Mika did her best to set the students straight, but knew that at a certain point they would believe what they concluded on their own.

The latest challenge had been to a presentation she had playing on the wall-board. The visual had a planet named Swon whose atmosphere comprised of methane and acidic properties which made it impossible for humans to breathe, and extremely difficult for them to even travel into with space suits. Mika had written the properties onto the corner of the board, and their molecular components automatically branched out onto the center of it large enough for the students to study. They scrolled out over a map of the solar system in which Swon resided.

Mika explained that probes and robotic research had discovered former signs of intelligent life which had once thrived on the planet, but had gone extinct due, thus far, to unknown causes. As she described the planet and the life on it, more visuals appeared on the board of fossils, objects that resembled early civilization tools, and what appeared to be half crumbled buildings. They were in poor enough shape, however, that they might have simply appeared to be items that had been built, but were potentially just strange looking stones and other natural materials.

The student who interrupted the class had challenged that she believed they were indeed mistaken as constructs because there was no breathable atmosphere, and the planet itself was outside the habitable zone. There was no chance life could have lived on it.

Mika took the opportunity to give a lecture she gave to just about every class she taught, reminding the students to open their minds to the possibilities. "What has prevayed for humans might not necessarily be right for other life forms," she said. "It is merely human arrogance that has led us to believe that all life everywhere operates and thrives the way we do." She explained, as she always did, that life may evolve in ways humans can hardly imagine, or understand. As she spoke, illustrations of her point, mostly from earlier classes, appeared on the board behind her. Mika told them that xeno-archaeology is the study of civilizations on other planets the way aliens lived their lives, not how we would have them live it. And most importantly, that that life could have taken form in ways beyond our comprehension, and possibly even our imaginations.

The storm outside had intensified by the time the class let out, and flashes of lightning were beginning to appear outside. The students rushed home and Mika felt sorry for them that they had to deal with the downpour while she moved into the stacks toward the back of the building. Here, the rumble of the rain sounded more distant against the few windows at the far end of the long room. The sound kept Mika company since she was the only one in the entire wing of the building wandering up and down the aisles of relics, pads, holo-suites, and books. Everyone else had left, getting home in case the storm should take a more serious turn. Mika, on the other hand, found it the perfect time to study in private.

Some might call Mika a workaholic. She simply took little joy in other pursuits or entertainments. At home she would only be looking up the latest discoveries, so she might as well be looking at them in person. Saberaux University was the premier resting places of many great discoveries either before they went to, or instead of going to, a museum.

The hollow clicking of her shoes against the hard floor echoed down the long aisles and met her ears on its way back. When she stopped it took several seconds for the sound to die away. She was stopping to look at something; then moving again to another aisle; then continuing on, or returning to the first spot. All the artifacts and records kept about every find and location were pieces to giant puzzles, and they were scattered throughout these stacks. Mika believed she only needed to put them together to solve these great mysteries. It just took leg work.

The clacking shoes accompanied the thudding rain and the occasional cracks of thunder as she rounded corners and marched down long lanes in search of her answers.

Occasionally the lightning flashes created bursts of shadows against the walls with the alien artifacts, forming frightening or surreal images; some of which startled Mika momentarily. One such image appeared to be a hat and the form of a person beneath it. The shadow was gone before she realized it looked like a person and she spun around. Nothing and nobody was there; only the window with water flowing over it so rapidly it looked like the glass itself was in perpetual motion.

Mika moved on, a little shaken and not trusting her imagination to keep itself at bay. She stopped at a shelf and pulled a glass artifact of the Xeno Advalorum to study its curves and designs. As she did, it seemed that a shape passed by on the other side of the aisle. She thought little of this as one could often see someone in the next corridor when an artifact was removed, but tonight she thought she was alone. She looked again, but saw no one on the other side. She tried to see into the next aisle; to spot anyone in either direction. A quick flash of lightning revealed a statue head on the other side, but nothing connected to a body and living. "Hello?" she called out. She felt stupid a moment after speaking as the voice echoed through the room and she was obviously alone. She was seeing things in her loneliness and being easily spooked. Anyone looking at the security footage would have a great laugh, and...

"Hello, Mika," came a familiar voice.

She looked back into her own aisle to find herself face to face with a tall, shadowy figure under a wide brimmed hat and wearing a tan jacket. A couple quick flashes of lightning illuminated him to reveal her ex-husband Lancaster James. She screamed and dropped the artifact, which Lancaster was quick to leap at and catch.

"What do you think the Advalorum would regard of you breaking their vases?"

"Since they've been extinct for a couple million years, I doubt they'd regard anything."

"Well, you don't have to be afeared of anything. It's just me," Lancaster said, standing up.

"That's more a reason to be terrified," she said, grabbing the relic. "And it's not a vase, it's hailed a lamir."

"What's a lamir?" Lancaster asked.

"We don't know. That's why we're studying it?" Mika said, as if asking him if he understood. She placed the relic back on the shelf as she continued, "You comprend that concept? Studying something? Not just jumping into a shrine and grave robbing? But actually researching an item and ferret it out."

"Where do you think you get those items to study?" he asked. "Last time I ciphered they don't simply appear on your shelves."

"They haven't gotten there due to you in a long time either," she said.

"I've been staying away," Lancaster said. "Out of respect for you."

Mika was silent for a moment, looking at the shelf.

Lancaster reached into one of the larger pockets in his jacket. "I've brought something now," he said, pulling out the medallion. She locked her eyes onto it. The medallion was neither glimmering nor colorful, yet the perfect craftsmanship of the carvings made it beautiful, and she knew it was authentic. She ran her fingers across it. They bumped slowly over the embossed surface.

Lancaster felt her fingers brush past his, and didn't know how he should feel about it. He knew how he felt, but he didn't know what was appropriate. He broke the silence by saying, "It can't stay here in the present." He realized how clumsy it was after the words were out and echoing through the room.

Her expression turned from wonder to stone as she yanked her hand back. "Of course not," she said matter-of-factly. "And let me guess. Neither can you."

"I'm onto something, Mika," Lancaster said.

"As always," she responded, not in the least surprised, and not believing him.

"This time it's big," he said. "It isn't some Yalaris relic or another temple of the Milak Shivar. This could lead to the final destination of the Siguerans. It could answer what happened to them, or they may still be alive and out there somewhere."

"Are you sure you really want that answered?" she asked.

"A lot of people are searching for this, Mika," Lancaster said. "Including Dr. Kazakis. Image what he would d..."

Mika rolled her eyes. "You're still paranoid about that man."

"He tried to kill us, Mika. Twice. People who try to kill me tend to make me a bit testy."

"He's a scientist!" Mika argued. "He doesn't kill people."

"He's not the point right now," Lancaster said, waving the medallion between them. "The point is that this could lead to all the Sigueran secrets! The subterranean culture, leastway. I've been following a trail they left behind in secret messages. It led to a temple, and the statue of their god of travel was holding this symbol. Their temple was only a way-point, so I believe they jondered on, and I register this symbol will sift toward where they went. I just don't know how to read it. I'm hoping you have something that will help."

"The Siguerans were spread out all over," Mika said. "Why does one location amount?"

"That's what I'm trying to cipher," Lancaster said. "Why leave a secret trail to one turf? What are they hiding there?"

As if on cue, a bolt of lightning struck just outside the windows, startling Mika. Lancaster smiled, and she chuckled in return and looked back down at the medallion. Her eyes studied the lines and curves. The star in particular looked familiar, with one light beam larger than the others, which were all carved exactly the same length as one another. The rest seemed familiar as well. "I might know this," Mika said, pulling it out of Lancaster's hand. She walked out of the aisles to a wall of tall equipment, Lancaster close on her heels, a bit disturbed she had taken the artifact from him.

Mika stopped at a small table with a screen on the side, a terminal on her end, and a light fixture with switches and buttons held aloft about a half meter over the surface. She flipped on the light and held the medallion under it. The medallion appeared on the screen and she made selections on the key pad next to her. The image shifted, running through various colors and filters, showing an X-ray of the medallion, and visualizing comparative overlays on top of the symbols on the medallion.

Lancaster wasn't looking at the screen. He was now staring at Mika's hand. For the first time he noticed she was wearing a ring. It wasn't the one he had given her, the small band with the rare stone he had located while following one of his many leads on an alien planet. This one was more refined, more well-crafted by human hands. It was a classic diamond in a delicate band with a web design holding it aloft. "You remarried," he said bluntly, almost to himself.

"Yeah. Buy me a toaster," she said absently, focused now on the research. Several beeps in the machine accompanied by small flashes on the screen revealed that something was being discovered. Various parts of the medallion were highlighted as they were recognized by the machine, like a puzzle being put together.

When all the pieces were in place, a more pronounced, conclusive beeping sounded and the entire symbol appeared as a graphical overlay. Mika pressed a button on the lighting device above the table and a series of numbers and letters appeared. She pressed another button and a small strip of paper with the series emerged under the projection.

She grabbed it, read it, then, muttering the letters and numbers to herself, returned to the stacks where Lancaster had initially found her, searching the labels on the ends of the aisles. She found the correct one and pressed a button on the end to widen the aisle slightly; then walked down it, now searching the numbers written on the walls. There were no artifacts here, nor any books. Only flat panels with numbers and letters accompanied by a few buttons, a small black panel, and occasionally a knob and/or a handle.

Mika found the alpha-numeric combination she was searching for and pressed her index finger flat against the small black panel. The panel turned green with a beep, and Mika pressed one of the buttons. A card slid out of a slot above the button. She removed the card and handed it to Lancaster. "You'll find your answers in there," she said.

He took the card, staring at it, flipping it in his hand.

"I'm going home," Mika said. Lancaster raised his head enough to peek at her from under his still wet hat. "You still have my digits in case you have any troubles?" she asked. Lancaster nodded. Mika nodded as well. She backed away a few steps, then turned and marched out. "You're welcome, by the by!" she called back to him before exiting the room and slamming the door behind her.

The sound echoed through the chamber for a short time while Lancaster looked at the card. This little thing would have his answers. That tiny amount of effort was all it took. Mika had the right idea staying at the university. This was much easier, and much more climate controlled, than his way. But then he remembered, the same four walls... every day.

He knew how to use a card catalogue, unless they had changed the set-up since he had last been at the university. In that case, he'd have been calling Mika back much sooner. He went to one of the many tables along a wall covered with windows. The dramatic scene of the storm outside played before him while he hunched over one of the work stations and inserted the card into the slot on a miniature computer tower. Lenses, projectors, and other accessories stuck out the side of the processor pointed toward the table. It looked exactly like it had been when he left, and was probably the same machine.

Several pages appeared on the table along with a list of selectable subjects. One was a picture of the medallion. He touched it and the pages flipped over into oblivion, replaced by a couple more pages on the table, two in the air, and a holographic image of the medallion hovering above them. He touched the hologram and felt the tingling sensation radiating from it. He turned it slightly, then pulled his hand out, growing the holographic image to get a better look at the detail.

There didn't seem to be anything hidden in it, but he spotted some grooves along the edges he hadn't noticed before. He swiped the image aside and made the hand gesture for more. A few additional pages appeared over the table in a semicircle, some with pictures; all providing the information about the subter-Siguerans. He scanned the words. Lancaster knew most of the information, and some of the pictures were of places he had been. A little of the information was new to him, such as a sound file he played. He expected a multi-layered musical purring like one usually heard from Siguerans; but instead it was a deep rumbling hum; a roaring so low in the register it was barely audible. Lancaster felt it run into his ears and down his spine more than he heard it. The sound was booming, as though from a large source, and reverberated as though thick gravel.

The other image which he was now seeing for the first time was an elaborate symbol. Like almost all subter-Sigueran writing, it was carved into the surface, though this one had both concave and convex designs, sometimes looping over and behind one another in a fine braid.

Lancaster took note of the new information, then hurried along, brushing his fingers along the pages that flipped up in front of him, tossing them aside almost as quickly as they came. He'd know what he was looking for when he saw it.

And then there it was; an overhead view of a subter-Sigueran temple. Its corners were characteristically sharp and it had firm, yet ornately carved supports throughout the room. At the front was a small stage, the middle of which had an oval rise with what looked like a altar. The room was smaller at the stage, and fanned out into the stadium seating, with a couple layers of balconies.

The blueprint stretched out, becoming 3D, and revealing more of the room and its details. The walls were made of precious metals weaving through one another like a knitted fabric. They were pocked with reflective crystals that resembled a star field. The colors were muted, as they often were in subter-Sigueran buildings, except for these shining freckles on the wall.

Upon closer examination of the stage, Lancaster noticed that the altar had so many gears in it that it seemed more to be a machine than a place from which to preach.

Lancaster turned the image over to reveal the ceiling. At first glance it appeared to be open to the sky. A large, gaseous planet filled half the view, a distant star shone to the side of it, and a few stars twinkled between them.

But as he looked at the stars, he noticed they were not white, nor did the closer star have any hue of amber or blue. The planet, though clearly a gas giant, was as gray as a rock; and as he studied it, he realized that's exactly what it was. The entire vista was stone, a liquid form of it which formed into the view to reveal what was beyond. It was the enclosed version of a skylight, a 3 dimensional projection of the universe beyond.

Lancaster told the computer to analyze the view, and give possible coordinates based on the details. The holographic image froze in place while lines crisscrossed over the various parts. Details were highlighted in bright colors which Lancaster had not noticed before, and numbers rolled across that he didn't understand. As he looked closer at the highlights, he began to recognize some of them; and just before the computer came back with its analysis, he was pretty certain where this was.

The computer confirmed it, this was the planet where Lancaster and Little Jack had met Jude. The temple was on the moon that was destroyed, becoming the ring around the gas giant. He began to wonder if the planet had been destroyed to hide some secret. Certainly, this trail was buried for some reason, and now he wanted to find out all the more why.

* * *

Little Jack was reclining in the pilot's seat of the Desert Rose, his small frame fully enveloped into the long chair. Jude had spared no expense at making her seats more comfortable. Once the smart foam readjusted to its new occupant, it was as comfortable as a bed. She had accepted that much of her life would be in that chair, and had determined to travel in style.

A wire ran from the console to his glasses. He was plugged into the mainframe of the computer and could navigate through it with the movement of his eyes. The rest of his body could rest limp, comfortably numb in the perfect contours of the seat.

Though his body was resting, Little Jack's mind was actively learning everything it could about the ship; figuring out its capabilities, its drawbacks, and most important, the secret elements of the ship Jude kept just for herself. It had, for instance, a secret compartment; fairly common in vessels owned by people such as herself, though hers was more well hidden than most. It was also faster than Odin's Revenge and had maneuvering thrusters that were more effective than any design he had ever seen. The turn radius was unnaturally agile, and if he utilized it right, it could corkscrew in a way that seemed to defy the laws of physics.

Though outwardly the ship looked like a normal vessel, the inner workings were filled with a cornucopia of exotic machinery. Some pieces he had seen in junkyards, and Jude had combined them in creative ways to make the ship function the way she wanted it to. Other pieces were of designs with which Little Jack was unfamiliar.

In trying to understand how best to utilize these foreign designs, Little Jack was searching through the databanks of the ship's computers and electronics. Some information which linked to the Galaganet were blocked off. Little Jack had shut down all outside communication to keep himself hidden and isolated. This had little effect on his search as Jude kept most of the information onboard.

He was navigating through the ship's databases much the same way Jude did, only less immersive. He saw everything through the glasses, and the most risk to himself was an overload to the glasses themselves. The drawback was that it was harder to get around, and he was unable to interact as effectively as Jude did when she had her entire consciousness plugged. But knowing the way Jude organized her life, Little Jack was able to get around pretty well.

He had figured out how to utilize a lot of the ship's capabilities and how to repair some of the more unusual parts without leaving the chair when he noticed more information stored in the databanks. Jude had kept notes on her discoveries near the information about the parts themselves, and in so doing, had revealed to Little Jack where she found them. Many had come from the rings of Palmetto where she had been hiding, but some had come from uncharted planets she had explored on her own. It seemed she was as interested in alien technology as Lancaster, or at least the scavengers who looted them for corporate gains.

Spying in these files also opened up aspects of Jude's life Little Jack had never known. He found the music she liked; a lot more folk music than he had imagined. She seemed to have a library that would put a music museum to shame. Hundreds of years of sounds were stored and speakers throughout the ship made it all-encompassing.

What came as the biggest surprise to Little Jack was the number of trips Jude had been taking to animal shelters in various systems. She had even risked capture a couple times by landing on planets where she was wanted to get an animal she had found that needed help to the only vet that understood its anatomy. She had been a part of getting displaced animals back to their proper ecosystems, and had even taken in a dangerous wounded animal in her secret storage, risking detection at one of the checkpoints.

Little Jack was paging through these files so curiously that he drifted right past the security measure that was currently monitoring his activity. The beacon sent his information and his coordinates through a wormhole to the point of monitoring, wherever that might be.

* * *

Mika's home was not large, but it was cozy, especially on nights like this where the thudding rains and the flashing lightning outside made the warm hued walls and the deep cushioned sofas all the more appreciated. The inviting shades were interrupted by earthen toned artifacts adorning the walls, shelves and atop the dressers and her old fashioned wire piano.

She was presently curled up within the folds of one of her sofas reading a book; the white light from her Pad contrasting with the amber lamps which illuminated patches of the rest of her living room.

A series of thuds sounded at her door. She looked at it like the door had insulted her in some way. Then she wondered if she was hearing illusions because no one could possibly be coming out in this wretched weather.

The knocks came again. She was definitely not imagining them. Mika tossed the Pad aside and unfurled from the couch then hurried across the room in her sock feet. She was reaching for the door handle when she realized the only person who would be crazy enough to go out in this weather. Her belief was confirmed as she swung open the door to see Lancaster standing on her patio, a waterfall of rain dripping off every side of the rim of his hat. He wore the unrestrained look of joy on his face that always existed when he found something. The emotion typically preceded trouble.

"They were going to the promised world," Lancaster said.

"What are you doing here?" Mika sighed.

"I printed it out," Lancaster said, lifting his arm to reveal a bound book under his jacket. "Here, I'll show you. It's incredible." Lancaster rushed in past her and removed the short book from the dry harbor of his jacket. Water shed from his clothing onto Mika's hardwood floor and wool rugs.

"Lancaster!" she protested. "Th... you... How did you print that out? Book binds are for staff only."

Lancaster found a coffee table and scooted her personal items to the side, then plopped his book onto it and fingered through the pages. "I know. Thanks for letting me op your account."

He tossed his hat toward the wall and it landed over a hanging tribal mask with horns. As Mika was reacting to the thrown hat, Lancaster sat on the couch, drenching it.

Lancaster heard Mika stammering, almost whimpering, at what was happening to her living room, and he asked very innocently, "What?"

Mika sighed as she shook her head in disbelief and said, "Nothing." She then went to the opposite side of the couch and sat down, leaving ample room between herself and her soggy ex-husband.

He paged through drawn representations of the 3D images he had gone through at the library, and notes written by researchers and himself; some handwritten with arrows and other connecting lines, some typewritten. Some audio files were laid out in a special font of their own to denote their source.

Lancaster stopped when he came upon the drawings of the temple. He had ordered the computer to print the layout from several angles, providing a thorough view of the place with several key points labeled. "Here it is," Lancaster said, turning it to Mika.

Her curiosity was only slightly piqued, and she said, "It looks subter-Sigueran."

"It is. And here at the front..." Lancaster flipped the page a couple times. They were all filled with illustrations of the temple. He stopped on a close-up of the mechanical altar with its gears and machinery. The bottom illustration was a side view that revealed its shape, which curved four times with insect-like arms that folded in, while the top illustration showed the slightly slanted surface. In the center of the surface was a perfectly round indentation with raised notches at several points around the edges.

"Judging from the size of everything," Lancaster said, "this indentation should be the exact size of the medallion. I just need to cipher how to put it in."

"Or where," Mika said.

"I know where. I've got the planet. And the medallion's shape is much like an arrow. I just need to figure out which notch to point it at."

"What about this?" Mika asked, pointing at one of the symbols which looked like a figure eight.

"Why that?" Lancaster asked.

"Recent research theorizes that this was the symbol for their eyes," Mika said. "Or whatever receptors they utilized to see."

"That would hold sand then," Lancaster said.  
"I had registered it would be their legs."

"Why their legs?"

"The symbol came off of the god of travel. Legs would hold sand."

"But there's no symbol for legs here."

"Feet?"

"No feet. No footsteps," Mika said. "The eyes are your best raise. The others are generic religious symbols. Just ceremonial."

"So I stick the medallion in and point it toward the eyes," Lancaster said.

"At sunrise," Mika interrupted.

"Why sunrise?"

"The altar's construct is of the goddess of sunrise," Mika told him.

Lancaster looked at the bottom illustration, at the four bulbous curves and the insectoid limbs. He could also now see a squashed head at the apex, just below the slanted top of the altar, with a few slits for sense receptors. The subter-Siguerans did not choose pleasant looking deities.

Mika continued, "I'd bet my plastic that if you insert the medallion there, turn it to the eyes at the point of sunrise, you'll get your answers."

"A slight problem though," Lancaster said. "It was a moon."

"The moon didn't rotate?" Mika asked.

"I don't know, it was blown up into fragments. Oh yeah, that's a problem, too."

Mika's eyebrows furrowed as she looked at Lancaster. He opened his mouth to explain, and she cut him off, "I don't want to know." She rose and walked to her piano where the medallion was placed on another artifact. "You'll want this back."

Lancaster stood and followed her. "Did you apprend anything from it?"

"Not much," she said. "I was going through some old research on my Pad when you got here. It seems you were on the right rip about this being special. A lot of archaeologists will pay top dollar for it."

Lancaster put his hand on the medallion before Mika let it go. They were both holding it and their fingers lightly touched. "Do you register I should sell it?" Lancaster asked, his piercing blue-grey eyes, so firmly set in their stony eye sockets, staring directly into hers. She had forgotten how intimidating they could be when he looked at her so earnestly.

"Yes," she said. "But you won't. I could tell you there's a buyer who will pay you a million electros for this tomorrow, and you'd be jondering to this planet to see what it does rather than taking the money."

Lancaster smiled out of one side of his mouth. The water on his clay face was disturbed and a few drops rolled down one of his deep wrinkles, then onto his rumpled jacket. He pulled the medallion away from her and placed it in one of his larger pockets.

Mika's hand dropped onto the artifact on which the medallion had been resting. It was a statuette of sorts with brightly colored vines interwoven to create a design that, looking from one side, appeared to be a bird watching skyward, but from another, looked like it could be flames, or perhaps nothing but a fancy design. Her thumb ran across one of the vines.

"I thought you said that thing was gaudy," Lancaster said.

"It is," she said. "The colors don't match the room and they're so bright they're almost blinding."

"Then why did you keep it?"

Mika shrugged. "Makes a good holder for other things. Like your medallion."

Lancaster nodded then shifted, thinking it was about time to leave.

"And fond memories," Mika said.

Lancaster stopped, and the smile on the side of his mouth grew. "You thought it was a plant when you first vised it."

"The Siguerans weren't supposed to have any settlement there," she said.

"When I saw it, I knew we were on the bull."

"The forest had completely swallowed up their buildings."

"Yeah, that's figurably common of the Siguerans."

"You would have been swallowed whole by that living plant if I hadn't warned you."

"Yeah, I should listen to you more often."

"Yeah."

"But good thing I didn't this time. I wouldn't have gotten you that ugly beast."

"The expedition leaders insisted there was nothing in that area..."

"They don't know anything."

"Only you know, huh?" she teased.

Lancaster looked at her with that overconfident gleam in his eye. It was the same one she had fallen in love with, and the same one that got them into trouble time and again. There was danger in that expression, in that face that was still dripping like an unending waterfall. She got lost in those miniature rivers that trickled down his face, and soon found that she was closer to him. They had both been silent for the better part of a minute, and their bodies had leaned in to one another. Their faces were precariously close and only drawing closer.

It was Lancaster who froze, remembering himself. His eyes darted down toward her hands, specifically to her ring finger where still sat the reminder she was married to another man.

Mika followed his eyes and saw it, too. She nodded acceptingly, shaking the spell from her mind. Appreciating the reminder, she patted his hand with hers. As she did, her finger felt his ring, and she noticed for the first time he was still wearing the one from their marriage.

Without a word, she looked up into his face. He felt her fingers squeezing his ring finger and realized what her expression was in relation to and he shrugged, slightly embarrassed.

The consistent spattering of rain continued overhead, and knocked at every window in an unending rhythm, a rhythm that matched Mika's increasingly rapid heart. It caused a heat inside her that tightened her muscles. She found herself squeezing Lancaster's hand, and he was squeezing back. They both tried to pull away, but, like fighting quicksand, the more they struggled the further in they fell.

Both faces drew closer. The air beneath their mouths disappeared and they felt like they were being tugged together against their will. Mika opened her eyes to look one last time, trying to find a lifeline to pull out of this helpless descent, but she could only see the droplets that clung to his lips, and she knew she was doomed.

As they both held their breath for the plunge, a loud animal growl sounded from his hip. They both snapped out of their daze for a moment. Realizing what the sound was, Lancaster closed his eyes again and continued, but Mika pulled away, looking at his hip where the growl announced again.

"You've got an animal in your pocket," Mika told him.

"Not an animal. Just my Talki." He was still trying to recapture the mood, but the moment was gone, and the noise continued.

"You need to answer it," Mika said, stepping away from him.

Frustrated, Lancaster yanked the Talki out of his pocket and picked up. "Yeah," he said.

"You need to get back to the ship," Little Jack said.

"Too dagni right now. I'll need to do it later."

"It's urgent," said Little Jack.

"You don't comprend. The thunderstorms on this part of St. Marguerite can be deadly. It's best I wait this out and jonder back in the morning."

"Just a couple hours," Mika said.

Little jack was talking over her on the phone. "Storm or not, you need to..." Then he stopped. It registered with him where Lancaster was. "This is more important than nooky."

"It's not..." Lancaster cut himself short, looking at Mika. "Can't this wait?

"You're going to want to lay eyes on this immediately," Little Jack said. "Don't tell her what it regards."

"I can't because you haven't told me what it regards."

"Get over here," Little Jack said, and they both disconnected.

Lancaster looked at Mika. "It's Little Jack. I have to..."

"You're still flying around with that little man?" she said accusingly.

"Yes," Lancaster said. "He's been keeping me safe."

"Good that somebody's doing it," she said. Her wall was back up, it showed in her voice as well as her face and the distance she kept from Lancaster. She was protecting herself from her own feelings more than she was from Lancaster, though you'd never know that by looking at her.

Lancaster crossed the room to the door. "I'll go blick what's going on and jonder right back."

"Don't risk the storm coming back," she said.

"I have more questions for you regarding the book," Lancaster said. He stopped at the door and looked back at her. Mika was standing near the couch, staring back at him, her cold face and upturned chin said she was going to do a better job resisting temptation.

Lancaster nodded, accepting and saying goodbye at the same time. "I'll be right back," he said.

"I've heard that one before," Mika said, uncertain whether he heard as he was already halfway out the door.

Lancaster had heard, and it had stabbed him hard. The truth always does that. His mind dwelled on the thought of what she must think of him and all the things he did wrong both tonight and in the years of his marriage. He was so caught up in kicking himself that he didn't notice that he had left his hat at her place until he was far from it. It was all right, he thought. He would be right back. This wouldn't be like the times before.

Chapter

Eight

The Brewing Storm

By the time Lancaster reached the ship, the storm had reached the dangerous proportions Mika had described. The heavy rain felt like solid sheets bashing continuously down on him. He was nearly knocked down by the torrents, and knocked to the side by the bursts of wind. Bright flashes followed by explosive booms denoted the coming of lightning, and soon Lancaster saw large streaks striking the ground.

He had taken to running, weaving around the buildings of the campus, taking momentary rests beneath overhangs, then continuing on quickly. His vision was only a dozen meters or so, and that was when there was a source of light.

He knew he had reached the open air space port when he spotted landing gear and long wires stretched out to hold the ships down. When he saw the figurehead of the woman missing part of her face, he knew he had reached The Desert Rose. He raced toward it as fast as he could, but stopped suddenly when he spotted Little Jack outside the ship, dragging something that was almost as tall as him across the tarmac. Lancaster went to him and saw it was a piece of machinery.

"Give me a hand with this," Little Jack ordered.

"What is it?" Lancaster shouted over the rain and wind.

"A hand, now," Little Jack insisted, and Lancaster took one end. The two of them carried the device to another ship that was under a giant tarp. There they leaned it against the landing gear. They then crouched down and rushed the Desert Rose, Little Jack a little faster than Lancaster. He popped open the entrance hatch and the two scurried up the ramp. Little Jack punched a button as soon as he was inside and the ramp was already raising when Lancaster was only halfway up.

Little Jack then hurried to the cockpit where he readied for launch. Lancaster followed briskly and asked, "What's so important?"

Little Jack didn't answer. He powered up the launching boosters.

"I can't leave right now!" Lancaster insisted.

"We can't stay," Little Jack said, and the boosters engaged.

Lancaster looked alarmingly out the window as the ground began to lower behind him, and he was once again breaking a promise to Mika.

He began to speak again, but just as his mouth opened, Little Jack cut him off. "That machine we got rid of was a tracking device. The pirates will be here any tic."

"But this was your friend's ship. She's not going to tell them."

"You don't know Jude," Little Jack said.

"The pirates were threatening to kill whichever one of us didn't talk. Claro she didn't."

"She'd tell them anything if they pay her enough."

"Who are these friends of yours?"

"Business associates."

"Some business," Lancaster said discouraged, accepting his fate and strapping himself in.

"Still not as bad as the entertainment industry," Little Jack said, and the ship turned diagonally skyward and flew into the rain.

"Why aren't we going straight out?" Lancaster asked.

"If they're in orbit, we don't want to be piking out right above the tracking device," Little Jack said.

"That leaves us with this lightning a tic longer," Lancaster said.

"Worth the risk," Little Jack answered. Then, as if proving Lancaster's point, giant flashes of electrical energy crisscrossed around the ship. They were like trees with a thick trunk at least ten meters in diameter with branches, each a couple meters or more wide that struck out from the core and curved. There was no way to know when they would strike, so all Little Jack could do was push the ship forward at its top speed. He even took off the safety that slowed the ship inside atmospheres and took it into open space speed.

The ship began to shake and they could hear it creaking somewhere in its center. A blur began to form in front of the ship, the beginnings of a flame where the heat shield was protecting them. Many ships did not allow this sort of override, or did not have the thrust to allow a pilot to do this, but Little Jack knew that Jude had equipped her ship for fast getaways.

Whiffs of gray fluttered past their ship, and quickly they were swallowed into the clouds. There they could see nothing; just swirling gray matter and distant flashes. "Weren't we here before?" Lancaster asked, referring to the gas giant where Little Jack had once called home.

"Nice planet your girlfriend lives on," Little Jack said dryly.

"She's not..." Lancaster said, then remained silent.

The ship emerged through the top layer of the clouds and Little Jack slowed them down to a standard speed to break orbit. His sensor screen immediately lit up, and it attracted their attention to the sky.

Above the point where they had taken off were a trail of ships. High above in orbit, shimmering dots implied the presence of large starships in orbit. Other dots were falling from them, smaller vessels dropping into the atmosphere leaving trails of re-entry flames behind them. Closer to the cloud layer, a few medium sized support ships were hovering just above the gray rippling mist, while transports whipped past on their way to the ground.

Even Little Jack was surprised. He was avoiding the eyes of one large pirate ship, and instead he found an entire fleet. He was thankful that he had switched the sensor registration of the ship to make it harder to identify from a distance. But if anyone came close enough to get a visual...

It seemed as though a pair of support ships were interested in him as they began to move, but they had barely engaged their thrusters when they turned around and got back into their positions. Little Jack kept flying in a firm trajectory the way a commercial spaceliner would. He made certain not to engage any of the specialty tricks of Jude's ship. It made the ascendance agonizingly long, but it was safer.

"Mika," Lancaster gasped looking at the long line of ships. His heart was frozen with fear. Finally he asked, "Who are they?"

Little Jack was already running a sensor sweep. He was growing more confused the more he learned. "A few ships from M-Pass and from Barlo. They're both part of Gateway Corp. Some of the transports are from companies with the Ponderosa Corporation. And there are a couple other corporations running the starships."

"Why would they be here?" Lancaster asked.

"Gands like a hostile take-over," Little Jack explained.

"But Saberaux isn't a corporation. There's nil to take over."

Little Jack had no response. He was checking computer records.

"Could they all be coming after us?"

"These corporations have one thing in common. They're all under the Navarus Barony."

Lancaster hesitated a moment before he said sarcastically, "Well, that explains everything."

"Here's one of our answers," Little Jack said, and he pushed a button to bring up the image from one of his sensors onto the front window. It was the pirate vessel in orbit along with the other large starships.

"Who are these people?" Lancaster asked.

"If they're with Navarus, we want to stay clear of them," Little Jack said.

"So they're dangerous," Lancaster said.

"Very," Little Jack answered.

Now Lancaster's heart froze. He didn't know how or why, but he had brought a storm of jeopardy to Mika's doorstep. The weight of guilt hung heavily on his head, and all he could do was watch the planet being invaded behind him as they broke atmosphere and went into spectrum drive.

* * *

Bela stepped casually out of his transport followed closely by a large, dark figure behind him. As the soldiers from his transport poured quickly out, Bela paused, pulling out a staff, which he raised up. He pressed two buttons with his thumb, which engaged the shield above him and the heater that enveloped his body. Thus comfortable, Bela stepped out into the rain followed by the shadowy giant behind him. The drops of rain bounced off the shield emanating from Bela's staff and onto the helmets of his guards, and the chest of the figure at his back.

They had lost a transport coming down to lightning. Bela had been warned about the severe storms on St. Marguerite, but he hadn't taken them as seriously as perhaps he should have. Still, despite the loss it seemed to be overkill. They were assaulting a university as though it was a military base. But Don Navarus wanted this item and they didn't want any chance of mistakes. Plus, whoever had the relic had gotten away from the pirates before, and the redhead who had worked with one of them said he was dangerous, so Bela had wanted the overkill to assure success.

It so happened, they needed a lot of the help anyway. Several support crews got quickly to work setting up giant metallic rods to redirect the lightning and to capture the energy for their use. They also had to immediately set up jamming signals in triangulated positions to stop transmissions from students getting out. Messenger ships were required to communicate with the large ships since no transmissions were breaking through the thick, element-ridden clouds. And a large number of security were required to control the population in the smattering of buildings. They didn't want anyone getting away and rushing for help.

The pirates had landed first as a commando team only a minute or so before the main force broke through the clouds. Not realizing they had flown right past their target in the deep cloud cover, they had dropped in and captured or killed security guards at the entrances, the space port, and at their offices. One of the corporations had then dropped in and made a perimeter around the space port and primary exits of the campus. A second corporation followed them up and secured every building.

They had taken a few casualties to the weather, but once the rods were up and some wind shields were put in place at strategic locations, they had only the heavy pelting rain to contend with.

The whole operation had taken less than five minutes. Bela was proud of his soldiers and would recommend commendations for each of the supervisors. He was also impressed with the pirates, whose trustworthiness he had been questioning lately.

Shasa was with her raiders along with Otto in his full armor and horned helmet wielding Vera. Shasa normally left these missions to Otto or the top ranked raider while she enjoyed the comforts of the ship, but this was more serious and more personal, and she was in direct command. They had done their part in securing the campus for the landing, but that wasn't enough for her. She wanted to find Lancaster James and his midget partner.

Shasa gave orders to Otto to take half the raiders to the opposite side of the campus and she'd take the remainder that weren't watching captives, and they'd work their way until they met up in the center. Otto argued with her, saying that would waste time as they made their way across a campus they didn't know and...

"Fine, fine! You call the shots. Just get to work!" Shasa said.

Otto did split up the forces, giving his sister fewer of the raiders, but they worked across the campus in the same direction, one on the north side, the other one the south side. They did so checking for the most likely hiding locations of the pair.

At the space port, fifty soldiers were surrounding a ship that was covered in a giant tarp. They moved in slowly, a sensors operator scanning to make sure the ship wasn't powering up. Bela watched over the action personally, giving no orders but trusting in his officers to handle the matter correctly. When they reached the bottom of the tarp, they looked up underneath and reported that it was secure. Bela went in to confirm it was indeed the ship they were looking for and to go in behind the crowd as it stormed the ship. The moment he could see the hull, he knew it wasn't what they were looking for. The pirates had sent the security footage to him and he knew this looked nothing like the vessel on which the two men had escaped. Bela was baffled as to how this could have happened until he saw the tracking device stuck against the landing gear.

"Fes," Bela said, "At least they were here. We need to find out why and with whom they met." He then looked around him as though suddenly realizing something. "Where is the redhead who owned the ship?" he asked.

Jude was marching briskly through the rain on her own. The squads of soldiers were hurrying along on either side of her, finding and blockading every exit of every building until they could be searched. Jude knew it was useless. She hadn't even gone to the small spaceport to find her ship because she knew Little Jack was long gone.

She had been monitoring when the pirates landed, and when there was no resistance and no launching right away, she knew they had escaped before the corporations had gotten there. At the very least, one or two of the pirates would have disappeared during their initial sweep. Jude knew it was a mission to locate where they had gone, not to capture them here, and she wanted to be one step ahead of all of her captors.

Jude switched her eyes to enhance shapes so she could see better through the interference of the rain. She also scanned through windows, though many were shuttered by pull-down doors to protect them from the winds.

After a few minutes of searching, she found what she was searching for. Above the door at the head of some steps was written the word "Reineke Hall". She had already looked it up before in the Galaganet, this was the archaeology department.

Bela, still followed by the giant shadow, approached a dormitory whose entrances and exits were well guarded by his soldiers. He stepped through the door, and a few of the soldiers marched in at his side.

As soon as he entered, Bela turned off his energy umbrella and used the staff as a cane, tapping the floor with every step.

The entrance was an open space with stairs on either side and hallways beside them. The stairs to the right went both up and down, while those on the left went only up. A hallway exited the opposite side of the room, but it was guarded by a staff member who sat at a desk watching a holovision. The staff-man evidently didn't know what was happening outside as he seemed entirely wrapped up in his show and had no concern when Bela and his squad entered. He looked annoyed more than anything as he rose and asked, "May I help you?"

Bela stopped about the center of the room, and his entourage halted around him. Bela looked around silently at the contents of the lobby, studying it.

"Sir, may I help you?" The man's voice was firm, but Bela could tell that it was a ruse. There was a slight shake in the voice. He was frightened.

Bela found what he was searching for. He strolled over to it, the cane tapping annoyingly every step of the way. When he got to the wall, he reached for the fire alarm. Over the staff-man's protest, Bela pulled the alarm, creating a loud ringing throughout the building.

The angry scolding the staff-man gave him was swallowed up by the sound, and Bela ignored him, strolling back into the center of the room. The staff-man tried to get at Bela, and was shoved away by one of the soldiers.

Soon, students were hurrying down the stairs, many shoving one another, no one in much of a hurry, and most laughing at the situation. Bela picked up on the words of some who said they wouldn't go outside in the rain, they'd just wait near the exit.

They wouldn't need to worry about that. The soldiers blocked every exit, standing in front of the doors with their arms crossed. The first wave of students saw this and stopped, looking around confused.

Bela waited until the room was filled and the stairs were blocked up with students. Then he called out, "May I have your attention, please?"

Some of the students heard him, others did not over the loud ringing of the fire alarm. Bela turned to one of the soldiers. "Sergeant, if you'd please," and he nodded toward the alarm. The sergeant lifted his pistol and in one shot took out the alarm. The students jumped, startled, but the constant ringing was silenced.

"Thank you," Bela said, and the sergeant took his place at the door again. "Now, I am searching for two gentlemen, and I'm hoping some of you can help." Bela reached into the pocket of his long, dark trench coat. He saw some of the students flinch, and he quelled their fears by pulling out a flat, round device that looked like a puck. His thumb pressed a button, and the holographic image of Lancaster appeared, first his whole body, then just his face, both spinning slowly over the hand device's surface. He held it aloft so everyone could see. "There is a reward available for anyone who can lead me to this man. Or does anyone sav where he went?"

The students looked hard at the image. Some of them began talking among themselves; a few even began chuckling.

"How about this man?" Bela asked, switching the image to Little Jack. "There is a tril of money in it for you if you can lead us to him!" The students continued to talk among themselves, and the roaring began to rise. "Your attention, please!" Bela shouted. A few quieted down, but more were now talking among themselves as he was losing their interest. "Attention! Have any of you seen these two gentlemen! Many electros to the person who helps us locate them!"

The crowd of bodies was beginning to stir. A loosening on the stairs implied that they were beginning to go back up. A few were even crossing the lobby right past the soldiers.

Bela pointed at a few that were crossing and ordered them to remain where they were. One of the students mouthed back confidently to him, "You can't tell us what to do. Keep your bloody electros. We don't care about..."

At the first of the boy's impudent words, the silent giant who had been behind Bela stepped around him. A long blade dropped from out of his wrist behind his hand and in one swift motion he swung at the boy, removing both his head, and the head of his friend standing next to him.

Everyone who saw it began to scream, and the rest panicked from the sound. They began to run. Those at the stairs only got so far before the jamming of bodies crowded them too much to move. Those near the back hallway sprinted away, and found themselves face to face with soldiers who had come in the back entrance. Some rushed the soldiers at the front door, but the soldiers pressed buttons on rods they wore on their forearms, and energy shields emerged above and below them to cover the entire front of their bodies. In their other hands, they wielded pistols, which they were prepared to use. Added to the screaming were panicked groans as many of the students were convinced they were about to die.

In the middle of it all, Bela tried to regain their attention. He was being ignored. The Clockwork Man, as the giant was called, looked down at him with its flat face; the features on which, such as its mouth, eyes, and nose, were little more than drawings with slight bumps to bring them out of the flush surface that curved back slightly over the egg shaped shell that held his mechanical AI brain and speakers. Blood was dripping from the Clockwork Man's wrist blade as it awaited orders.

Bela did not give any. Instead, he calmly removed ear plugs from his pocket and placed them into each ear. Seeing this, the soldiers pressed buttons in their helmets and flaps dropped down over their ears. Bela gave them a couple seconds, then pressed another button in his staff. A high pitched ringing resounded through the air that put the fire alarm to shame. The students dropped in pain. Most tried to cover their ears, but to no avail. Others tried to continue to run, but the high pitched sound crippled them.

Once the population was clearly going nowhere, Bela pressed the button again and stopped the noise. He calmly removed his ear plugs as the writhing bodies of the students attempted to regain their senses. "Now," Bela said, holding forward the holographic imager, "look closely. Do any of you recognize these gentlemen?"

Jude had one foot stuck against the side of the desk as she manipulated the computer with her hands, searching the records. She wished she had three hands to page through the screens, type, run the pointer, manipulate the holograms, etc. She thought maybe that would be her next enhancement; but that was for later. Right now she needed her ship back, and someone on this campus knew something about where it went.

She heard the clicking of a show against the ground disturbingly close behind her and she twitched to turn, but was told quickly not to. It was the voice of Shasa. "I got my gun ready before I came in here," she said. "I savved it would be necessary if I wanted to have the upper hand."

Jude turned her head to see Shasa halfway through the room, her pistol pointed directly at her. Even she wasn't fast enough to escape. But she didn't care to anyway. "I'm scrying through professors' names and their stats. Thought that might be a little more effective than a door to door search."

"You register they're hiding with a professor?" Shasa asked.

"I don't register they're on the planet," Jude said. "But they probably came looking to talk to someone about their trinket. That'd be someone in the archaeology or anthropology department." She turned the screen toward Shasa, showing her the list and locations of each of those professors.

Shasa looked at it briefly before placing her eyes firmly back on Jude. She was conflicted. Shasa had come in here expecting to recapture Jude, but now knew that she had the best plan for getting the two men. "How do I know I can trust you?" Shasa said.

"We both get what we want here," Jude explained. Shasa hesitated, so Jude continued, "Look, either shoot me, or come with me, but I'm bored and I want my ship back."

It was the last line that talked Shasa into it. The fear of losing her ship was what had been frightening her, and if she could get ahead of the Navarus Corporation, they wouldn't change their mind about paying her. She lowered her gun.

Otto was already working on the money aspect. He and his raiders had taken a detour. When they came upon the art department, Otto followed a hunch and found a museum. They blew open the entrance and dashed inside, disabling the alarm system not long after it had gone off; hopefully fast enough that any security location that got the signal might think it was a mistake by an on-site guard.

Otto was not disappointed by what he found. In the main display room, rows of large, valuable paintings hung along the walls. There were also statues worth thousands placed along the center of the floor. They would take up more space in the hold and would be difficult to transport, so Otto would have to bring in their appraiser to make certain they were only getting the most valuable ones. While they were at it, they'd also look at the various other types of artwork on display in the museum and anything they could sell on the black market they would take.

They were abandoning their search, but Otto surmised that their real goal was to make money, and this was an opportunity to take advantage of corporate protection while they could. The loot in this museum could potentially pay and feed their crew for the year, and then some; and might even fix up the ship.

The rains were finally dwindling when Bela and his crew moved on from their third building, bullying and threatening students, telling them that no one would leave until someone fessed up to whom the man pictured had come to the campus to see.

Shasa and Jude were moving on from their third meeting as well, but they were also driving along the outskirts of the campus into the makeshift suburbs that were partially separated from the university. One of the companies had blocked off the roads going in or out, but most residents were not aware.

Shasa and Jude used this ignorance to their advantage, approaching professors politely, telling them they were in some way related to the men, and knew they were in search of artifacts that had gone through Saberaux University.

When the professor was a man, Jude used her looks to her advantage, playing the damsel in distress who had already had enough trouble getting through the awful rain, and wondering if the gentleman could help her. They all regretted that they could not.

The fourth on the list was Professor Sinovi; first name, Mika. Mika opened the door about to say, "Be right back, huh?" but only got out the word, "Be right..." when she saw two strangers standing on her doorstep. She could not help wearing a surprised look on her face.

"Hello, Professor Sinovi," Shasa began, and she told her the tale of having lost track of her cousin who was searching for some artifacts that were being researched at the university. Jude assisted when she could, but primarily remained quiet, studying Mika. There was something about her look of surprise that was different from other professors, and something in the way she was beginning to talk, as though she had been waiting for someone else to arrive.

Mika, meanwhile, knew immediately that the two women before her had no relation to Lancaster. She had met all his relatives, and there weren't many. But as fearful as she was of the ladies, she was more nervous about what they would do if they found out she saw through them, and so when they asked for some tea to warm them from the cold weather, she let them come in just past the doorway.

She luckily had tea already made since she had been drinking it herself, so she rushed to pour it into cups and brought them back in short enough time that they wouldn't have the luxury of wandering around the place.

Shasa and Jude asked if Mika recognized the pair of men, and they showed holographic and photographic images of them. She said no, and felt as though she was being convincing, even though the sight of each of the men made her wince inside.

They asked if anyone else lived there, and Mika told them honestly her husband did as well, but he had been out of town for quite some time on work and still was. She kicked herself for saying that as soon as it had come out of her lips. Now they knew she was alone. She hoped furiously that they wouldn't take advantage of that.

The women asked about specific artifacts, and even described the medallion Lancaster had been carrying. Mika again denied having any knowledge, and hoped she was not giving away some sign. She was only thankful that Lancaster had left with the medallion; otherwise it would have been in plain view of the front door.

She also hoped that Lancaster wouldn't return. She caught herself looking past the women at the door a couple times. It was a useless and risky gesture, but it was her spirit wanting to will him not to return, hoping desperately that he had broken his word yet again and was not coming back.

It came as a huge relief when the redheaded woman gave her back a half empty cup and said, "Thank you for the tea," and told her friend that it was time to go. The dark haired one took a few more moments to finish her tea and ask a couple more questions. Her eyes burned into Mika, studying her, though she continued to try to act polite. Mika put up her defenses as best she could, and hoped it was sufficient.

The woman eventually thanked her and gave Mika her cup back, then the duo left. When Mika closed the door behind them, she leaned against it shaking. "Lancaster," she whispered to the air, "what have you done now?"

Jude and Shasa got into the car they had stolen and continued on, though Jude searched her mind for an excuse to leave. She had found what she was searching for, but she would not tell the pirate captain. She needed to get a ship as soon as possible; she knew where to find Lancaster and Little Jack.

Jude had the advantage of enhancements. She had utilized her bionic eye to look around the room at every opportunity. Shasa had done the most talking, so Jude had had ample time to search, especially when Mika had gone to grab the tea.

Jude had first seen the wet hat against the wall. It was a man's hat, to be certain, and could have belonged to Mika's husband; but he was gone, and not likely there with two strangers coming in.

The other clue that was a dead giveaway was the book on the coffee table which had drops of water next to the damp couch. The book was opened right up to the drawing of an alien temple. This would normally mean nothing to Jude, especially considering that Mika was a xeno-archaeologist and would likely be studying this sort of place.

But this was different. Jude knew this location. She recognized the shape of the building, and some of the details. What she had seen of it in real life was a ruin, but it was unmistakable. She had seen it, in fact, close to the time when she had found the medallion. This was one of the buildings that floated around in the rings around Palmetto.

She had to get away from Shasa, but she had to do it when the time was right, and with the proper reasoning. She would wait through a few more interviews, then make her excuse, and her escape.

Chapter

Nine

The Temple Ruins

Little Jack was finishing making the course corrections when he heard a scratching from Lancaster's side of the cockpit. He had been concentrating heavily on the fine details as switching direction inside the brane was tricky and potentially deadly. But the noise from his partner was distracting enough that he had to see what he was doing.

He looked over to see Lancaster trying to plug a small device, about the size of his pinky finger, into a plug on the ship's computer. None of the slots were fitting, but it wasn't stopping him from continuing to try different alternatives.

Little Jack looked back at his work for a few more moments to make sure he was grasping onto the correct gravitational force and his course would not run him through a gravity well that would crush them, then he turned his attention more completely to Lancaster. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Your friend has every kind of plug known to man, and then some." Little Jack just stared at Lancaster. Even with Little Jack's giant glasses covering half his face, Lancaster knew what the expression meant. He held up the device. "I disked a little info into my own h-storage. I didn't have time to scry it when I was in the archives."

Little Jack paused a moment intimidatingly, then pointed at a slot close to the floor. "Oh," Lancaster said, and plugged it in. He then began searching for the keyboard and other interactive devices.

"You didn't have time to go over it?"

"No," Lancaster said. "I know, I was there a tril of time. But I was busy investigating our little friend." Lancaster tapped the medallion, which was now hanging around his neck.

"But you knew enough to save it."

"It was a file on the Sigueran's understanding of the universe. Seems important to take."

"Their understanding," Little Jack repeated.

"Yeah. Look, I don't sav what that means either. That's why I want to scry what's in it. Where is the naigh keyboard!"

Little Jack watched Lancaster continue to search in vain, then grabbed a headset and held it up to Lancaster. Lancaster looked back at him confused. "Strap it on," Little Jack said.

Lancaster knew better than to ask, so he placed the headset on over his head and looked through the eye piece. A keypad appeared at the bottom, and other selections appeared above it. He placed his fingers on the dashboard just where the keys were landing in his view. He tapped his fingers as though they were touching the keys, and they formed words near the center. A cursor also appeared, following the center of his point of view, and in this way he was able to navigate similarly to the way those who entered cyberspace did. "Oh, interesting," Lancaster said aloud, then began navigating to his h-drive.

Little Jack sat back, looking over his navigation controls one more time before saying, "So your aliens have a room that tell you something if you turn it on. You turn it on by plugging in that medallion and twisting it the right way."

"That's about right," Lancaster said, still navigating through the data system.

"And that room is back at Palmetto."

"In one of the rings." Lancaster took his eyes off the eyepiece for a moment and glanced over at his partner. "I saw it, Jack. When we were dodging through the debris, I vissed this temple. We almost hit it. I recognized it as soon as I saw it in the library."

"That's one big coincidence," Little Jack said.

"The Kradorans called this sort of thing fate. They believed everything was woven together like a big machine moving toward one goal. They attributed everything to the will of this big machine and said it was destiny."

Little Jack was silent for a time. "It took you that whole time to aprend we had to regress to where we had already been?"

"There was a tril to go through," Lancaster said as he found the files of information. There was far more than he could peruse in one sitting; the Siguerans had a great understanding of the universe. And even though this was a small study of that understanding, it covered a lot about the vastness of space and time. What he could get through was good reading material for the trip, though.

* * *

The Clockwork Man stood inertly, staring at his prisoners. He looked to others as though he was uncomfortable, standing dumbly, not moving.

Everyone else was sitting, but of course that was because they were mere humans. They could not stand on their feet for more than a few minutes before needing to stand on their buttocks instead. When they stood on their feet or moved around for a long time, they had to lay their entire bodies against the ground and do what they called resting. This resting turned into long bouts of unconsciousness they called sleep, which took up at least a third of their day. Their days were even more broken up by three times in which they stopped to make fuel and then consume it. Sometimes they even consumed fuel between these "meal times" and the fuel they consumed was wasted and turned their containers, which they called bodies, into inefficient machines. The Clockwork Man wondered how they had ever accomplished anything with so little productive time left in each day.

At the moment, the Clockwork Man was employed at guarding the prisoners because his owner and its cohorts needed to meet to discuss an apparent error in their plans. They were searching for two men, had not located them, and in the process had lost someone referred to as "the Redhead." The Redhead had evidently absconded with a space ship and the others were evaluating how it had occurred.

The Clockwork Man had seen the Redhead briefly. It seemed slightly more advanced than the humans. Though it had the shape of a human female, the Clockwork Man knew of its mechanical advancements and was aware that the Redhead had evidently evolved beyond the others.

The Clockwork Man was fascinated by the unevolved beasts who lounged around him. They had failed in their programming to protect the university from invasion. Some of them had been deactivated in the process, but these remained. He wondered if they would return to their programming when he and his owners left.

Even the human who was supposed to be supporting his effort in guarding the prisoners was lounging. It was something called a "pirate," and it was leaning back in a chair against a wall halfway to unconscious. The Clockwork Man contemplated the substance of this. They were the masters over him, yet they seemed inferior in every way. He realized that there was something he was misinterpreting. There had to be. So he continued to contemplate.

After analyzing the information for some time, the Clockwork Man concluded that it was lacking sufficient data to understand, and so it walked toward one of the prisoners.

Everyone seemed to stir suddenly, seeing the machine in motion. It had been still so long, they must have begun to consider him a statue.

The prisoner stood to face the Clockwork Man, his back pressed against the wall. The Clockwork Man's painted, expressionless eyes stared him in the face. It didn't move, and for a moment, it seemed to freeze into the form of a statue again.

The others looked at it curiously, some of them nervous and anxiously peeking toward the exit. The pirate gripped his gun, warning the prisoners to stay put.

The Clockwork Man moved again, this time poking the prisoner with a hand. The prisoner flinched, but then relaxed when he realized the Clockwork Man was only toying with him. He even made a vague comment wishing the Clockwork Man to stop. It did. The offending hand remained in the air just in front of the man, as still as a statue once again. The people in the room all looked at one another confused, even the pirate.

In a flash, the prisoner was smashed backward against the wall. A red wave splashed behind its head like wings unfurling. Its eyes fixed in an amazed, stupid expression, its nose crushed flat with the rest of the face, the body of the prisoner crumpled to the floor.

Blood from the prisoner's nose was dripping from the Clockwork Man's hand. It had been so quick no one had seen it move. It had happened so unexpectedly that no one even reacted for a few seconds, and when they did, they merely scooted away.

The pirate now drew his pistol, but pointed it at no one, unsure who was the real threat.

The Clockwork Man turned on one of the other prisoners. There were five in all. One was deactivated, so he moved on the other four, who were now scooting away as quickly as they could. The Clockwork Man focused on one and rushed toward it at twice the prisoner's speed. The pirate told it to stop, but it was a distant sound. The Clockwork Man could easily tune out its frequency to not be distracted.

The prisoner was shivering, backing up against a wall and blubbering. It said something about sparing its life, and implied that it had offspring. Why this unrelated data seemed relevant at a time like this was beyond the Clockwork Man's comprehension, but it was all part of the experiment. It expected the prisoner to show it why it was superior to itself. The Clockwork Man wanted to be put in its place; to be shown that its superiors were on top of matters and that they deserved their place as its master. But they showed it nothing of the kind. They just shivered and begged for mercy.

The Clockwork Man gave them none. He grasped the prisoner's head and squeezed. Out of the top flew chunks of white, a rubbery gray substance, and a large amount of red liquid.

The others were screaming now, but he tuned them out, staring at the shriveled remains before him. Could it really be this easy to deactivate humans?

The Clockwork Man felt a knock against his back. There were a few, like rain, and he turned to see the pirate shooting at him. This was an even more curious development, as the pirate was supposed to be his ally. He put up his hand and unfolded the refractor. One shot bounced off, and he twisted his hand to make sure the next deflected into the back of one of the prisoners. He twisted it two more times, redirecting the shots into the backs of two more prisoners. The last one was pulling at the door, but it was locked.

The pirate, realizing the shots did no good, was now reaching for the keys, but his hands were shaking so badly that his work was inefficient and he failed to pull them out.

The Clockwork Man rushed him, crossing the room in a flash, barely even seen by the others. The pirate screamed, another inefficient and useless gesture, and the Clockwork Man silenced him by pressing the knob on its neck.

As the Clockwork Man knelt over slowly to grasp the pirate's weapon, the prisoner at the door continued to yank at the handle, even though it had been proven several times to be an ineffective effort. The Clockwork Man stood, gun in hand. It heard footsteps tramping toward them outside.

The prisoner finally seemed to realize its efforts were useless, and it turned to the Clockwork Man. Somehow, its face had gotten wet, even though there was no precipitation in the room. "Please," it begged.

"Will you not discipline me?" the Clockwork Man asked, a slight annoyance in its voice mixed with curiosity.

The prisoner's face wrinkled into a confused expression. But it did nothing. It was useless, so the Clockwork Man shot it.

By the time the door burst open and others of the pirates and the Navarus Barony rushed inside, the Clockwork Man had dropped the gun. They looked around the room confused, then at the Clockwork Man. He stared back at them blankly, as though expecting them to explain. At last it said, "The prisoners attempted to escape. My partner disabled one or two before they overwhelmed him. I..." It paused for a moment, contemplating. "Corrected the rest."

To the Clockwork Man's amazement, the soldiers and pirates took him at his word. They nodded and looked around a little more at the aftermath, then requested the aid of the Clockwork Man in disposing of the bodies while one or two were dispatched to explain what had happened. Thus, the lie it had given seed to was now spreading, and would grow into a tree of tales based on a false story it had so easily told. The Clockwork Man had learned its first most important lesson; it had the power over the truth.

* * *

Arriving at the floating remains of the ancient city, Lancaster realized one of the many flaws in his plan. It occurred to him that, though much of the room seemed to still be in tact as he saw it during the chase with the pirate ship, the altar on which he was to place the medallion might not be in one piece. More importantly, the mechanics might not operate. Also, what of its rotation, and was the placement within the ring important, and...

The multitude of issues listed themselves inside his head. Lancaster had no idea how this was going to go. For now, however, he didn't inform his partner of his uncertainties. He stared intently out the window, searching for the temple ruins.

They started by flying under the ring, drifting slowly counter-clockwise with their spotlights shining onto the debris that floated clockwise above them. Lancaster's eyes studied the chunks of city while Little Jack stared at the sensors which were trying to keep up with the thousands of pieces. He had plugged in the images from Lancaster's file and the computer was comparing it to everything it scanned.

After several hours of this tedious work the computer and scanner found a match. It pointed the direction and helped them navigate toward it. A glancing bump reminded Little Jack that he had to keep his eyes on the asteroids as much as on the target. Lancaster took the lead on pointing out the directions while Little Jack switched his attention to dodging debris.

It was a steep spiral climb, swinging around long road pieces, through giant windows in ancient buildings, and under the archways of broken bridges. Lancaster lost sight of the prize twice, but rediscovered it once the ship leveled out for a moment.

When they reached the level of the drifting temple, Little Jack turned along its trajectory and matched its speed. Its rotation was very mild and it spun at a very slow rate, which Little Jack also matched.

While Lancaster suited up into a vacc suit, Little Jack studied the building. The walls gripped onto the remaining ceiling, desperately holding on so it would not float out into space. Large chunks had broken off from centuries of pummeling, but enough still covered the rooms to make it hard to see inside, particularly the front area where Lancaster would be heading. There, a gaping chunk of the front wall and much of the adjoining ceiling was gone, but most of the rest remained, though pocked with holes no doubt taken out by rogue meteors flying at incredible speeds. Little Jack knew they would have to watch for these. He would need to accompany Lancaster onto the surface to cover him from small asteroids that might wander in. He could set his glasses to target these elements and shoot them down if they came near.

But first, he needed to connect the ship to the floating ruin. He could not land; the structure was too unpredictable and brittle. He would need to tether to it. The claws at the bottom of the ship were near the back, much like the ones on Odin's Revenge. There were also grapples near the front that would be useful for tying down. It seemed to be designed for this sort of work, and suddenly Little Jack realized why; Jude likely did exactly what they were now attempting several times when she was scavenging in these rings.

Little Jack maneuvered them to a part of the ruin that had no wall or ceiling and he stuck the nose and body over the floor. He grasped on with the claws and shot the grapple out from both front corners to stab into the structure. He did so as delicately as he could, though he felt the ship shake as a little of the floor broke off.

"Careful not to break it," Lancaster said.

"You want to try?" Little Jack asked. He suited up and followed his partner down the ramp. Once outside, Little Jack closed up the ramp again, not because he was afraid of someone coming along to steal the ship, but he always hated having to heat the entrance again when he exposed it to open space for too long.

Lancaster had to take a few moments to get used to the location. Little Jack's suits were flexible and provided a lot of room to be nimble, but Lancaster still had a lot of difficulty moving in a lack of gravity. He felt like he was trudging through the bottom of a swimming pool; one that wanted to sweep him off the bottom at every step. His boots had locking cleats that kept him connected to the floor, but he had to have one foot on the ground at all times. To be certain in his steps, Lancaster labored with every footfall, placing down one foot and pausing before pulling up the other. As such, he looked like a drunk man making his way to the restroom.

Above, the sky was always shifting. The planet and the star beyond were slowly twisting in two directions. First, the spinning of the temple made them rise from one horizon and set slowly on the other. The planet and the star also moved closer together as the orbit of the temple took them closer to the horizon. Before too long, the star would set beyond Palmetto, and they would be reliant on the lights on their suits. Between them and this view was the dizzying array of debris. Millions of pieces of the ancient city-moon floated in an endless dance waltzing around the gaseous planet. The view alone was enough to make one dizzy, but the surreal nature of the structural asteroids caused vertigo.

The room was much like the 3D image Lancaster had seen at the library, although the reality appeared more like a ghost. Chairs that were low to the ground, the usual seats for subter-Siguerans, faced forward in rows that arched slightly. The room narrowed toward the front. It grew darker under the remaining roof, which covered most of the middle of the building. Occasional holes on the walls and ceiling provided beams of light that crossed through the darkness. These beams faded out then back in as debris continuously passed over the holes.

Closer to the front, the ceiling broke away bit by bit until it was gone. The light shining through revealed the small rise in the floor and the shrine of which Lancaster was searching. He felt his sealed pocket to confirm that the medallion was still secure, then continued his labored steps forward.

Little Jack was walking with far more ease than Lancaster, but he was walking far behind him, watching his back, searching for rogue pieces of debris that might fly in through the holes like a bullet or a thrown rock.

Little Jack suddenly noticed a strange break in the beams of light that came from the holes in the ceiling. Though they mostly faded to dark, then to light again like cloud cover drifting over a sunny sky, presently they each darkened then lightened in quick succession. More disturbingly, the pattern turned. Rather than the light being broken in one hole after another in a row, it switched vectors at a certain point; not the typical behavior of floating debris.

Little Jack allowed Lancaster to continue forward while he backed out into the clearing where they had landed, looking up at the sky to see what was out there. There was nothing out of the ordinary, which is what made him most suspicious. Whatever caused the rays of light to go dark for a moment should have been big and noticeable. Instead, all he saw was the building-asteroids floating in their endless dance around the planet.

Only one thing caught his attention, a clump of debris which was spinning rapidly, straight up. Most of the ruins spun in a directional orbit counter-clockwise around the planet, only occasionally knocking against one another and deflecting in other directions. This one asteroid could be an aberration, or...

Little Jack shrank prone to the ground, and just as he did, a figure swooped swiftly up over the edge of the temple's opening, the thrust from its jet pack trailing below it. The figure fired a multitude of shots in rapid succession, all landing around Little Jack, but none making their mark. Little Jack drew quickly and fired back, rolling over to the side to take some cover as he did. He caught a quick glimpse of the shot he fired being deflected in the air, and he knew immediately who it was, Jude. He also knew in this moment that no amount of shots he could fire would meet their target, and he would have to try something else.

The jetpack figure was now maneuvering around to get a better shot at Little Jack. It took its time confident that he could do nothing to avoid his fate. This provided Little Jack with just enough time to swivel the cartridge on his pistol to a rocket shot, and he fired... not at the figure, but at debris that was flying next to her. Her targeting system did not kick in since the shot was not coming toward her, and she did not shoot the rocket out of the air.

The chunk of building exploded next to her, and Jude was sent flying off into the asteroid field.

"What's passing?" Lancaster asked hurriedly.

"I'll handle it," Little Jack said. "Finish your business quickly so we can thrust out of here."

Little Jack rushed to the edge of the building and leaped off, engaging his own jet pack to chase down the figure who shot at him.

Lancaster, confused as to what was happening, turned toward the front of the room determined to hurry. He pressed forward, one foot in front of the other as fast as he could.

He headed straight for the altar. He could see it was the right one. It was carved into the shape of an insect with three bulbous expansions and thin legs crossed over its front with a slanted top faced away from him. That would be the device upon which he needed to place the medallion.

He forgot his footing and a few steps in he had both feet off the floor. He felt himself lift into the air, as though someone's hand had picked him up and was pulling him away. He saw the ground drift away below him as he floated toward the sky. The gap between the wall and the ceiling looked like a gaping mouth with the planet and the setting star as the throat awaiting his inevitable devouring.

Lancaster spotted his only hope to avoid this fate, the altar that had been his goal in the first place. He stretched out his arms, reaching for it, his fingers straining as though they would burst through the space suit. He did not have a thruster like Little Jack's, and would be helpless if he tumbled through the cavernous maw.

One finger managed to touch the edge, and the rest of his body seemed to notice as it yanked slightly. He stretched another finger and hooked it underneath the top surface of the altar. It snagged, and his momentum slowed, but his feet still felt like they were being pulled. His two successful fingers were slipping, but he managed to slip a third under the lip, and grasped on with all his might.

The fingers stopped pulling, and a shiver ran through his whole body, stopping it. He reached forward with his other hand and grasped on, tepidly at first, then with a full grasp with his thumb over the top and the rest of the fingers hooked around the bottom. He pulled himself forward slowly, careful not to yank too suddenly to cause him to lose his grip. He was then able to grasp the altar fully with both hands and he pulled himself down onto it. He realized as he was halfway along it that he was hugging the shrine, shivering, as though thanking it. He also realized he was upside down in the room and needed to spin over to look at the device properly.

Jude had entirely lost track of where she was. She had been knocked around not just by the initial explosion, but by debris afterward. She had flown into an asteroid of a chimney, (or had it flown into her,) which knocked her off course into the path of a wall piece, which knocked her into the path of a vehicle. After nearly a half dozen of these, she was spinning like a rag doll. She engaged her thrusters at full speed to get out of that mess, and knocked into yet another city asteroid, which sent her spinning. It was only by sheer luck her helmet had not cracked open or her suit had not been punctured. She credited the fact that she had already been in a complimentary orbit as the rest of the debris that she was not run through like a bullet from a gun. But enough of these hits would cripple her, and would eventually break through her tough vacc suit.

She determined to get out of her spin by engaging one side of her thruster to counter the tumbling, but as she reached for the small joystick at her side she found she couldn't figure out where it was. She was seeing double, triple, even quadruple of everything. The universe was mixing together and she felt herself going faint. She knew that would be the end of her. By the time she should wake up, she'd have been knocked around by so many chunks of stone, metal, and cement that her insides would be pure liquid, and there'd be enough holes in her helmet and suit to steal all her oxygen and freeze her body.

The universe was spinning in front of her; the debris was blurring and the planet was tumbling out of existence. She had to focus, so she closed her eyes, ignoring the fear that she was going to hit an asteroid. She quickly reminded herself that she would not be able to avoid it even if she saw it coming, so she sealed shut her eyes and slammed her right hand into her left arm. She found the wire for the thruster, and she ran the hand up the arm until she reached the joystick, then placed it into her hand.

Jude felt the controls and quickly engaged the thruster that would counter her spin. She opened her eyes just in time to see a large chunk of a statue barely miss her. She thrust against her spin until she was no longer toppling out of control. She found a gap in the debris large enough to feel comfortable and she straightened out, reassessing her situation.

The temple was no longer anywhere in sight, and another fearful thought occurred to her. Little Jack could now take both ships, as long as his partner knew how to fly one. She would be stranded and orbiting Palmetto forever if she could not find her way back in time.

She engaged the signal of her own ship to get a reading of the direction and distance. She located its position, and was relieved to find it was not moving, aside from its standard orbit in the asteroid ring.

Jude pointed herself in the direction of the Desert Rose and began thrusting toward it. There was a plethora of asteroids made of metropolitan chunks in the way. Little Jack could be hiding in any of them. Now he had the advantage. Even if she could outgun the master criminal, his skills of stealth were unmatched, and his ability to ambush was greatly enhanced by the places to hide. Still, she had to at least get back to her ship, so she began her climb, dodging the city pieces as she went.

The beacon toward her ship rose in tempo, sweet music to her ears. It began to seem as though she might reach it without incident, though she knew this was too much to hope for, and she used several cybernetic enhancements in her eyes to search for Little Jack along the way.

Jude kept watching above her, which she learned was a mistake when a shot directly parallel to her blasted apart what looked like a large mailbox floating near her. She was again sent tumbling away. While Jude countered with her thruster, she turned to face her assailant. She found him when she spotted a flash from his gun blinking from behind some debris. She raised her gun to shoot him, but was knocked in the back by a lamp post which Little Jack had hit on the opposite side. It had swung like a bat into her and sent her tumbling away out of control.

She was the perfect target for Little Jack, who blew up a vehicle she was rolling past. All the tiny pieces flew by and into her like tiny ballistics fired from a shotgun. She felt a bunch of them hit her suit, and detected that some of them had punctured it.

She was losing air and pressure quickly, but she knew the first order of business was getting out of the sight of Little Jack. So she found a rolling building and raced inside it through a window. She dodged through a couple doors until she was inside an interior room. Then she searched for the holes. A couple she found quickly because of their size, but she looked a little harder, engaging her cyber-eye for detail to locate the smaller ones. As she did, she reached with her right hand to open a small pack on her hip. She pulled out patches and affixed them to her suit. They would do for the moment until she could do proper repairs. For now, she needed to get to her ship without being surprised again.

Jude maneuvered through the building to the other side, then searched for more debris floating further away. She found another building floating in several pieces above and in the opposite direction of the temple. Little Jack would be expecting her to go straight for the temple, so she thrusted away from it, toward the broken building. There she found cover behind one building piece, then another, then another, making her way slowly around the long way toward her destination.

She was leaping from the broken building to scattered pieces of a road when she heard a voice crackle out of the void, "Hey, Jude."

It took Lancaster nearly a minute, but he managed to twist himself around so he was upright in the same direction as the altar. He studied the location for a moment, taking it all in. It looked so much like the 3D model he had seen, except for the large chunks missing from the walls and roof. His eyes followed the open gap onto the ceiling and saw that it was moving. Convex carvings of the asteroid field and the planet beyond drifted slowly across the canopy. What looked like solid rock was in motion, projecting an image from one side to the other. Glancing out the gap, he saw several asteroids which disappeared behind the roof that became cement projections in this moving mural. As Lancaster had suspected, the roof was a projection of the universe beyond.

Remembering Little Jack's warning to hurry, Lancaster did not ponder for long. He opened his pouch and pulled out the medallion. He looked at it a moment, making sure it was on the correct side, then placed it carefully in its slot. It fit perfectly, and even clicked into place.

Now it was only a matter of knowing where to turn it, and exactly when to turn it. He searched around the dial and located several symbols around the periphery. All of them matched designs he had found in the library, and he had seen in other places. They were etched into the altar along the periphery as bumps, much like brail writing but with alien symbols and letters.

Lancaster found the symbols for eyes, or sight receptors, as Mika had described them. They were near the top right, about where 1:30 would be on an ancient clock. That was ostensibly the direction he needed to point the medallion. But he began to reconsider. What if Mika's assumption had been wrong? He had intended to speak with her further about it when he returned, but that didn't happen. Also, was he supposed to turn it at an exact time? And would this even work since the temple had been at a certain location on the moon before it was destroyed. If the relation of the medallion to the planet and the star was important, that could be messed up by the fact that it was now a floating ruin in an orbiting asteroid field. His primary concern was that if he tried this and it failed, it may shut down, or worse yet, spring a deadly trap.

He gave himself a moment to think. He remembered what Mika had said. Point the medallion toward the eyes at sunset. That was about to happen. The star was hugging the planet's edge. It would soon dip below its horizon. He needed to do it at just the right time.

But then he recognized another problem. The temple was twisting in space. He needed it to turn around so he was facing the way it faced when it was on the planet's moon to do it correctly. Also, he wondered which part of the medallion was the correct part to face the eyes.

The riddle of the medallion was easily solved as he found the subter-Sigueran version of an arrow pointing to one side of the star, but the issue of the building's placement in relation to the planet and the star remained an issue. He grabbed the medallion, held tight, and watched the star and the planet, waiting for the right moment.

Little Jack was flying among the chunks of city searching for Jude. He remained cautious, leaping from one piece of debris to another in an attempt to remain hidden from his former fellow gang member whom he could not find. The last he had seen of her was the last time he ambushed her when he sent her flying. This time he probably could have shot her directly since she was unaware of which direction he was coming. But he had no interest in killing her. He wanted only to cool her down. He knew that when Jude felt slighted, she became angry enough to kill, but she could still be reasoned with.

He called out to her, telling Jude that he and his partner Lancaster had not meant to leave her behind with the pirates. He told her they would have gone to rescue her, but they would not have even made it to her cell.

Her silence implied that she was not buying what he was telling her, but he knew she was still alive, and that he had reached her channel because at one point he had heard her mic click on and he heard her take a breath. She was out there, and she was listening.

At last she responded to him, saying, "I'm not angry that you left me behind. I'm furious that you took my ship."

Little Jack heard exertion in the last word; the kind of sound one makes when they're beginning some physical action. He guessed what it could be, and tumbled away in a random direction. Anywhere he went was better than where he currently was.

He guessed correctly, and a flurry of shots covered the spot where he had just been. Jude had revealed herself now, and her trail of shots were following Little Jack. He fired a cloud of smoke into debris near him and it spread out, obscuring him from sight while he thrust away toward a train car.

Jude lost him for a moment, but, using one of her bionic eyes, found him quickly, and raced after. Little Jack thrust up the side of the car and onto the next. It was, in fact, connected to an entire train that was strung out and twisted like a long cord or a strand of twisted spaghetti.

The duo spiraled up the long chain, Jude firing as they went while Little Jack concentrated on getting away and avoiding obstacles. He reached the broken end and got onto the opposite side of a length of street. Jude took cover behind a partial building and fired at Little Jack's cover, breaking off a piece of it. Little Jack continued on to a piece of a bridge, which Jude proceeded to shoot up. He continued on to the cover of a few vehicles, then behind half an archway.

Jude had found pieces of the street she had been on earlier which had broken off into chunks. She jumped from one piece to the next, steadying herself on their flat surfaces as she took aim and fired at the small man who was too fast and wily for her.

He tried to explain what had happened, but kept getting interrupted by blasts which came too close, or his own exertions as he continuously dove for cover.

Finally he managed to get out enough words to inform Jude that he had not intended to steal her ship.

"That's rich!" Jude said, continuing the chase.

"We wanted to get to my ship, but couldn't reach it!" Little Jack insisted. He had to stop talking as he leaped to a bus-like vehicle, then onto the opposite side of a wide building whose stony edges implied that it had been mostly underground. "Register it, Jude! Why would I want your ship when I could get to my own?"

"Now you're saying you don't like the Rose?" Jude said as she jumped onto the opposite side of the building.

"My ship's custom made to my build!" Little Jack insisted.

"And I've been cramped inside it coming to get you!" Jude said, reaching Little Jack's side of the building. He turned to thrust away, but crashed into a curve in the building he didn't think was there. Turning back to Jude, he suddenly realized he had been trapped. He wondered for a moment how he had let that happened, but realized there was a more pressing matter at hand than regret. She had her pistol trained right on him and in a moment he could be dead.

"Negote a deal with you! I'll transport a Thlalaxgata for you! I'll get them through Tomiko Space even."

Little Jack had spoken quickly before Jude fired. Jude froze, staring at him, considering. Her blood was up, which usually meant no prisoners were to be taken, even if she felt little animosity toward them. It was as though a different version of herself took over, one who was more in love with her cybernetics and what they could do on a hunt than they were in rational thinking. Electronic enhancements sometimes did that to people.

But Little Jack had referred to an endangered animal that was being exploited by the Tomiko Corporation; a relatively intelligent species killed or put into servitude for the profit of wealthy barons and CEOs. The meat, hides, and loyalty of Thlalaxgatas were so highly valued that it was considered a crime punishable by death to try to rescue them by smuggling them to a non-Tomiko world.

The offer had cut through the cybernetic rage and touched Jude's reason, and her affection for the endangered animals. She lowered her pistol and looked at Little Jack.

The temple slowly came around just as the star was dropping below the horizon. Only a ray of light remained, just enough, Lancaster hoped, to count as the sunset. He grasped the medallion, ready to turn it, holding his breath in fear of what trap might be set off if he was wrong. This Promised World was one of the greatest kept secrets of the subter-Siguerans, and they would not leave the directions unguarded. This had to be exactly right; his life was likely depending on it.

Lancaster tightened his grip on the medallion, his eyes affixed firmly on the dot of light still visible in the rotating sky. The temple turned, reaching the angle at which it would have been when it was firmly placed on the planet's surface. As it neared the point, he began to twist.

Lancaster thought through his search one last time to be sure. He pictured the insect statue that made up the altar. It was a bee-like creature Mika had called the god of the sunrise... Sunrise, not sunset!

Lancaster stopped suddenly, twisting the medallion back. Its turn had already been started, so it worked against him, trying to slide into place. Lancaster shook his head, as though the machine would listen to him, and he pressed hard against it, trying to turn it the other direction.

It shifted reluctantly, but after a great deal of pressure, the medallion slowly began to turn back. When he got it to its starting position, he yanked the medallion out and held it tight as he watched the sun set behind the planet and everything around him went dark.

In the still silence Lancaster grew very fearful. Little Jack had told him to hurry, but now it would be hours before he could complete this task. Jude could kill them both before then. She might have already killed his partner.

"Little Jack?" Lancaster called reticently, as though it was a question of which he was fearful of the answer.

There was no response. The space inside the helmet seemed suddenly smaller, as though the universe had crowded in on him. Turning around, the automated lights on his suit scanned across the frigid gray walls and ceiling supports. Partial remains of statues stood over him as though in judgment. Deep shadows grew past every pillar, seat, and obstacle his lights hit, drifting slowly in unison with his turn. The light occasionally disappeared out a hole in the wall and caught a short glimpse of some piece of the ancient city floating past.

The woman could leap out of any point and be on top of him before he knew it, or shoot him down before he had a moment to react. He could feel his heart pumping. He even heard it, a deep pounding that resonated over his whole body.

"Little Jack?" Lancaster said, as though asking for a favor. "Tell me you're still out there."

Lancaster heard the click of a communicator engaging, but his relief was short lived when he heard the voice of the woman instead of his partner. "He's here with me," she said gravely.

"Is he still alive?" Lancaster asked, now scanning past the walls, searching out the holes into the depth of the asteroid field.

"I have him in several pieces," she said. "Would you like to have them back?"

The loud thumping of his heart stopped. Lancaster froze in place, as though his entire body had lost the ability to move any part of itself.

"She has a thick sense of humor," Little Jack said.

"Little Jack?" Lancaster said, unable to contain his relief.

"You have other people call you that, too?" the woman asked, surprised.

"It's my name," said Little Jack.

"It was your nickname."

"Everyone called me that."

"We were making fun of your size!"

"It's not mockery if I take part in it."

"Oh, is that right?"

"Little Jack?" Lancaster said. "So..."

"The negote is we help her with something when we're done with your errand. Did you find out where your planet is?"

"Ye... No. Not completely. Where are you?"

"On Odin's Revenge," Little Jack said. "Outside, on the flip side of the platform from where we landed."

"On my way," Lancaster said, heading toward the entry of the ruin.

"Oh, and one other thing," Little Jack said. "She gets her choice of artifact from the place we're going."

"I didn't approve of..."

"She gets one artifact. That's the deal." Little Jack sounded insistent, as though there would be no argument and Lancaster may find himself locked outside until he agreed to it. So he did.

Chapter

Ten

A Growing

Conflict

Koneraad ships came out of spectrum in the Zenobia system within range of Ralex, the Navarus planet which housed an important manufacturing facility. Though a valuable commodity to the corporate empire, it was sparsely guarded. Only a loose net of defense satellites orbited the planet, and a single fort guarded the plant. It was enough to perhaps delay the attackers, but the odds of defeating them were low unless the Koneraad commanders made some serious mistake.

They did not, at least in the initial naval operations attacking the planetary defenses. The ships appeared in normal space close enough to the planet to be a complete surprise to the satellites, and opened fire as soon as they were able to target them. A few of the satellites had shielding enough to stop a couple shots, and were able to fire back; but the rest were sent spiraling into the atmosphere of their host planet. The return fire cracked open a couple ships like eggs for breakfast. Bright lights emerged from them, and wiring throughout the insides revealed that they were drone vessels. As per standard practice of most invading forces, the first wave had no humans inside, but were mere robotics.

They were backed up by a second wave of human-driven ships which finished off the satellites. The Koneraad losses were minimal, and no living crew or soldiers were yet lost. This was going even easier than expected. Once they had boots on the ground upon the planet, the surviving ships would be able to rain down support bombardment from above; that is, should the fight be far enough away from the fort so they would not destroy the target they hoped to capture.

Transport vessels cracked open their fronts and pods blossomed forward like ejecting spores.

The pods hit the atmosphere and rained down toward the surface in long, red strands of re-entry flames. They arced toward the factory, and the defenders sounded the alarm. The Navarus soldiers hurried on their armor and grabbed their weapons. Some were sluggish to move, knowing this would be their last day to fight. For many, it would be their last day to live. This was really just to make it less than easy for the enemy. But they had to fight, or be labeled as useless traitors even by the enemy.

The Navarus soldiers got to their posts along the walls in staggered intervals. Those who were dedicated to every moment of fighting were there almost immediately. Those who were less optimistic or simply less ready to die staggered into position a couple moments later. They were all made ready to face the enemy by the time it came.

The Koneraad vessels fell from the sky and smashed into the ground so hard it appeared as though they should have exploded on impact. But instead, they imbedded themselves in the stone like seeds being planted on the topsoil. They had landed in an almost perfect formation with the larger vessels closer to the center, and the smaller ones on the periphery. They were concentrated more heavily in the direction of the factory, but a smaller number of vessels landed on the other side to watch their back.

A few moments after impact, while the dust was still exploding through the air, the pods opened at the top. The hatchways peeled back like flowers blooming. Out of the smaller ones at the edge, long, metal legs unfolded, grasped the doors, and pulled up their iron bodies upon which sat turrets and eye pieces. Out of the second layer hopped soldiers so covered in armor that no features could be discerned, and the only sign that they were not also robots was the independence of their movements and the tiny imperfections as they maneuvered; traits which were written out of androids. From the center, large, two-legged walkers crawled their way out of the cracked ground. Their torsos varied in size and shape, all of them bristling with weapons and equipment efficiently packed into the mechs for maximum effect.

The Navarus garrison watched the distant dust cloud, which glowed red from the heat of the ground after impact, as the armored machines and soldiers emerged in perfect formation onto the long, open gap toward the wall. Rocky hills flanked the valley through which the enemy would have to march, upon which resided ambushes ready to attack the army before it was even in range of the factory.

The spider bots were far ahead of the rest of the line, reconnoitering the area before them. The front ones were armed primarily with sensors and light lasers, while those just behind had weapons that could punch through barriers they came upon, quite possibly even the defensive wall itself.

It was the sensor bots which found the Navarus weapons hidden in the ground, and the heavier bots opened fire, throwing laser bolts and small missiles into their holes. The emplacements rose out of the ground and opened fire. Most sent rapid hails of laser shots into the bots, destroying or disabling them. Some emplacements fired larger particle accelerators which ripped many from the second layer of bots apart. Those in the hills fired down on the Koneraad machines, hitting their weaker tops and blasting them apart.

Now another weapon from the Koneraad arsenal arrived, flying drones which emerged from the dust cloud and raced for the hills. With little or no attention in their direction, they were able to close the gap before there was any reaction, and they released missiles that laid a long carpet of flames over the hills, melting the defensive machines.

A flurry of missiles now emerged from the fort. The drones tried fruitlessly to maneuver, but were overwhelmed by the mass of weaponry in the sky. They came down on the front line of bots, destroying what was left of them, and throwing up a new layer of dark dust and debris into the air.

It was now the mechs' turn. With thunderous claps at every step, the machines crushed entire boulders beneath their feet as they emerged from the dark dust and marched relentlessly toward the wall. They resembled dinosaurs in their motions, the smaller ones zig zagging ahead and weaving among the larger ones, which lumbered along at their own ominously slow pace.

The Navarus wall defenses fired first, shooting their long range particle weapons and missiles, and sending bolts of electrical interference at the machines. These last were the most effective, causing several larger mechs to shut down while the fire merely damaged specific systems or bounced off the armor altogether.

The robotic mechs picked up the pace and rushed forward, covering the manned mechs behind them. They returned fire on the wall and took the hits. As was common for robotic soldiers, they had little in the way of creative thought and adjusted their strategies sluggishly, so they served as a good skirmish line so the human-run machines could get closer.

The Navarus soldiers appeared at their firing slits and joined the wall's AI in firing at the Koneraad front line. The lights from the lasers were blinding, and the dust which picked up obscured the view of everyone and choked their lungs.

By the time the AI mechs were all destroyed, the human-operated ones were at close range. The smaller ones picked off the soldiers at the wall while the larger ones fired giant guns and missiles that tore apart the wall itself.

Desperate, the Navarus defenders concentrated on the larger mechs. They were easy targets to hit, and the larger defense cannons punched deeply enough to at least disable, if not destroy most of the strongest ones.

It was too late, however, as the damage was done to the wall. The Koneraad infantry now scurried over the wreckage of the spider bots and the ruined mechs like a sea of ants rushing over a pile of sand. Some fired cover while others hurried forward into the gaps of the wall. There were too many for the defenders to even comprehend, let alone fire against, and so when they entered the facility, the surviving defenders surrendered and only hoped they had killed enough Koneraad soldiers that they would hire them as replacements; for every army was for sale, or at least for rent, and few of them ever had the patience for the tedium of prisoners.

* * *

Bela received the news with a placid tolerance, the way he handled all professional manners; but in truth, he was annoyed. The Koneraad Barony was strong enough for an initial punch, but would not last in a sustained fight with Navarus. The war might even be won before he returned to the Yera system. But orders were orders, and he would feel more comfortable in any case being near Ceriliseta to personally ensure her safety... and that of her father, his boss.

The only problem was that he was being pulled off the search for the medallion. He felt that he was close. Somewhere at this university was the answer to where the two fugitives were with the artifact. They may even still be on campus. Their military had established a perimeter and any local authorities had no way of stopping them.

But now those soldiers were being withdrawn. The "independent contractors" would be the only ones who could continue the search, and they couldn't hold off a police force, let alone an army. Bela wondered if they were capable of accomplishing anything anymore. The Kerikova parents had been the scourge of corporate shipping, and their daughter had seemed to continue the tradition. But that tradition was fading with every incompetent mistake.

He was willing to give them one more chance, if for no other reason than he wanted to see the mission accomplished. And so Bela left the Clockwork Man under Shasa's control. He also left some of the Navarus computer scanning and analyzing equipment along with an order for the Clockwork Man to destroy them if they came under any sort of attack.

The privateer captain assured Bela that they would not let him down again, and she tripled her efforts to find the duo. She was disturbed by the disappearance of the redhead, but regret was a waste of time, and any waste of time was now a major liability. As Bela and his army launched into space, they had perhaps hours to locate the men.

To this end, Shasa had employed the aid of the school's professors, a resource Bela had hardly exploited. They knew the university, and they wanted the pirates gone, so it was in their best interest to help them find the men and be done with this matter. Even if one or a few of them were hiding the men, the others would turn them in simply to end this.

The fact that no one had given any information led Shasa to believe that the two men were, indeed, gone. She had Otto lead a contingent of raiders to continue to search along with the Clockwork Man, who would intimidate anyone who resisted, but Shasa expected no results from this. It was an act primarily to keep her brother away from the real effort so he wouldn't argue with her.

Otto was more than happy to be away from Shasa's supervision. He had already come up with a method to make enough money to pay the crew and even refit the ship, though it was something of which Shasa would likely not approve. They were pirates, after all, and plundering was what pirates did. But Shasa so often lectured him on being respectable that he doubted she would be very keen on taking priceless artworks from the galleries.

So rather than searching for the fugitives, Otto and his crew loaded the ship; and rather than using the Clockwork Man to intimidate onlookers, he had it carry the statues that others were unable to pick up.

The Clockwork Man was as confused as he had ever been. These were its superiors, were they not? Life forms were the masters of machines, yet their pettiness and illogic confounded its artificial intelligence. As the pirates tipped large, metallic and/or cement objects formed into the shapes of naked humans and other things they no doubt found fascinating, the Clockwork Man quietly contemplated. The prisoners had seemed inferior to it, but they were, of course, prisoners. The fact that they had been defeated in fair combat revealed their lack of worthiness. But what of the victors? These pirates had defeated the guards, and they celebrated their victory by lying to one another and taking heavy statues of naked people. What was more, someone would be paying a great deal of money for these heavy naked people, money that could be spent acquiring greater power, or understanding, the only two things that seemed worthy in the universe.

As it was faced toward the pirate ship to load the goods, the Clockwork Man contemplated even its own Master. The one who called himself Bela had left it with these pirates to locate the two missing men, the short one and the one with the funny hats. That was not happening, which caused the Clockwork Man to question his judgment.

No. Master Bela was all wise, all knowing, and there was always meaning in his actions. The Clockwork Man would simply have to figure it out. But in the meantime, it carried on toward the pirate's ship, the statue in its arms, beads around its neck, and some sort of ancient crown tipped sideways on its head.

Had Shasa looked out the window she might have seen some of the looting as a group of the raiders passed by her building. But she was focused intently on the computer screens all around her. Even a moment of looking away was a moment lost they would never get back. The school's computer lab had been transformed into a high tech command station with the Navarus equipment powering and connecting everything. They were operated by a team of technicians led by Phaedris Namdid, the sensors operator. Phaedris had herself plugged into the system through a neuro-jack to give her a more thorough and speedy perspective. They were scanning the Galaganet in search of any sign of the two fugitives.

To help narrow the search down, Shasa had brought in one of the university's chief archaeology professors, Mika Sinovi. She gave them coordinates and intel on archaeological sites in the various sectors. This provided a focus for the pirates to narrow their search; cities on planets where they could break into the security footage, personal cameras connected to a network, police and other emergency video, anything that might catch either of the two men in the background. Their faces were plugged into the system, so any recognition of their features would pop open an alert.

Shasa knew that a signal had to have gone out in the nearby city for military aid to the university, and there must have been a signal by now that the Navarus ships were gone. They had mere hours, and possibly only minutes, before they'd be set upon by land, sea, air, and space. But this was their only lead, so she ordered the Black Lotus to enter the upper atmosphere, as it was designed to be able to do, and hold as long as it could.

For her own part, Mika kept her acquaintance with Lancaster quiet, and was being more agreeable than the other professors because she wanted to see if and where they found her ex-husband. She figured they would find him with or without her help, and the best thing she could do was to be privy to the same knowledge they had.

Mika was not able to hide her sense of overwhelmed awe at the makeshift control center. Dozens of screens blinked through videos of distant locations at high speeds. Colored boxes flashed momentarily on faces and disappeared, searching for matches. Bodies and faces far in the background were frozen in place, rushed to the forefront and analyzed before being discarded in favor of the next image. Dotted lights winked and bars of light rose and shrank measuring connection speeds and energy fluctuations. Numbers flashed across screens like stock numbers. They were matched with names to provide coordinates and distances of locations and scientific sites.

Shasa smiled proudly, noticing Mika's amazement. "The benefits of corporate backing," she said.

"That's abso," Mika responded.

"It's the trade for putting yourself under their thumb. Not something I usually vorlie, but it's a nice benefit every now and then," Shasa said.

Mika hesitated before responding. She felt odd speaking to one of her captors; someone who had shut down the school and held the entire campus hostage, and was now seeking out her ex-husband to possibly murder him. But there was nothing to change that at the moment, so as she continued to stare at the screens trying to catch a glimpse of Lancaster before the others, she said, "We have the same thick decisions to make. Corporations are always offering to sponsor us, but then we have to teach to their needs. We wind up being more of a training center for their employees than a learning institution."

Shasa broke from her adrenaline flurried search to look at Mika. There was something about her she had liked instantly when they met. Perhaps it was her straight forward nature accompanied by respect but little fear; perhaps there was something about her that was similar to Shasa, or perhaps it was a jealousy Shasa felt that Mika had chosen her path and she studied and learned about the universe rather than always struggling to survive, as Shasa had done since she was a child. Whatever the reason, it led to her saying, "Why don't you come with us?"

Mika answered her with a confused glance.

"We could use an appraiser, and some of the crew would be pleasant with a real education. In return you'd get to see all these places you talk about in your tiny classrooms. It's a whole galaxy of adventure out there." Shasa smiled at the last tongue in cheek remark.

Mika smiled as well, returning to the computer screens. "Thanks," she said. "I've had about as much space-hopping as I can ruko."

"You used to fly?"

"My ex-husband drug me around the cosmos."

"Your ex-husband?" Shasa asked.

Suddenly Mika realized she had just about let the cat out of the bag; and if she wasn't very careful, it would escape and knock down the whole house of lies she had built. "Teo," she said. "He used to be a professor here." She showed her ring. "Teo Sinovi."

Though nervous, Mika did not give off any sign of fear. She knew the pirate captain had gone through the school records. She would have found the record of Teo Sinovi and seen that he looked nothing like Lancaster, that he had traveled extensively, and that he was the husband of Mika. She would also see that Teo was currently missing, which explained why he was not on campus.

Shasa turned back to the monitors and continued the search. She was beginning to consider when it would be time to give up the ghost and get out of there when one of her technicians called out, "We have a match."

The image was transferred immediately to the large screen at the front. It was security footage at the spaceport Kamuk upon Tiburus of Verina, a system not terribly far from Ariel, the system in which St. Marguerite resided.

Even with the men highlighted, Mika saw them before the others. They were in among a medium-sized crowd. Though the port was not as sizeable as most large spaceports, it was a smaller area, and the people were thus closer together. Nevertheless, as they maneuvered through the lobby, they appeared and disappeared in and out of view. The cameras were close enough that they got a couple clear views of the men in addition to the initial sighting from a camera far up a wall.

With them was the new focus of Shasa's personal ire, the redhead, Jude. She was clearly with them, walking right alongside the short one, maneuvering through the crowd in step with the target of the investigation of which Jude was supposed to be helping to capture.

"I'm going to kill that woman," Shasa said under her breath.

Mika heard her and looked over startled. Shasa noticed, but disregarded it. "Why would they be there?" she asked.

Mika stammered a moment, then thought clearly before answering, "The Guzmat site. It's an ancient alien city the Fowler Corporation claims to have discovered, but rather than letting it be properly investigated, they turned it into a tourist trap."

"Why would he go there?" Shasa asked.

"I don't register. It's thought to be a counterfeit created by the corporation."

Shasa bit her lip, considering, wondering if it could be a trap. At last she made her decision. "Pack it up! Phaedris, store everything relevant to your cyber-memory and get on board the Lotus. Everyone else transmit whatever's necessary and destroy the rest." She called quickly to Otto and ordered him back as well, then turned to Mika. "Thank you for your help. Are you sure you won't join us?"

"Thank you, but I'm just a tame professor," Mika begged off.

"Fine. Excuse us, then," and Shasa was off giving orders.

Mika wasted no time. With no one watching her anymore, she weaved through the quickly rushing bodies and made her way straight for the exit where she slipped out unnoticed.

Chapter

Eleven

The Tourist

Trap

Lancaster, Jude, and Little Jack waited until the temple had made its way around the ring to the opposite side of Palmetto. Jude and Little Jack were having drinks together the entire "night" the way they used to, as though there had been no fight between them. Lancaster humored them by pretending to be interested in their stories of yesteryear, but he was, in truth, anxious for the sunrise, which showed through his constant glances at the time.

When it came to a half hour before dawn, the three of them got into position. Little Jack and Jude got into their ships and Lancaster manned the shrine. He eyeballed the horizon through the gap in the front wall, determining the most likely position it was in when the planet was complete and the temple stood atop terra firma. Little Jack had helped with some calculations from his ship based on the likely size of the moon. They flipped the temple around so it was now facing the sunrise and they got the position and angle in which it needed to be.

Rather than hoping it would spin into place at the correct moment, they moved the temple into position by firing the thrusters of the two ships on either side of the floor on which they were attached. One thrusted to begin a spin, then the other thrusted to stop it. In such a way they managed to angle the floating building correctly, and as they came around to see the sunrise, Lancaster was perfectly placed.

He saw first a glow, and his hand tensed on the medallion in its slot. A stream of light appeared over the horizon and he began to turn it. Then the bright bulb appeared as they rounded the edge of the planet, and he turned the medallion so the eyes faced their target. It was directly toward the rising star, and he knew he had done it correctly. It even clicked into place and lowered into the platform. Lancaster took a deep breath, a satisfied smile on his face, and watched the front of the temple for something to happen.

But nothing did. There was a long, discouraging silence after the shrine seemed to swallow the medallion. No clues, no flashing lights, no dramatic statement from a dead race. Just stillness. Had it been something that appeared on the part of the wall which was now gone, Lancaster thought. It would make sense as it was the front of the temple. And if that was true, this search would be at an end.

He looked around himself for guidance, hoping there was some sign of what he was supposed to do.

Then he saw it. The ceiling, which before had been projecting the outside through flowing rock was now swirling with textured images of stars and planets, all spinning at a dizzying rate. It was as though he was inside a barrel that was rolling down a hill, and the cosmic sights were carved on the inside edges.

The star clusters rolled back and forth, stopping, switching direction, then rolling, then twisting, then rolling again until it all suddenly disappeared.

Then several specific elements of their surroundings re-emerged. Most obvious was the planet Palmetto, once again the largest object taking up a third of the ceiling. Then there was the rising star, this solar system's sun. Several other stars freckled across the ceiling as tiny bumps in the rock. They were easier to see now that the asteroids were not being projected as embossed images in the ceiling passing by.

One star was more prominent than the others. It pushed further out of the wall and pulsated, growing and shrinking, clearly drawing the attention.

Lancaster yanked himself out of his amazed stare and pulled his Universalis Sextant out of his pocket. With one outstretched arm he pointed the device at the throbbing dot, and with the opposite hand he pressed a couple buttons on the handle, telling the device to read the star field beyond the wall.

A small, holographic cloud projected above the front rod of the sextant. Then a round filter snapped into place on the cradle above the handle. Then a second filter atop a short rod slid out of the top half of the handle and swung around to snap into place behind the first filter, and then, after pausing a moment, a third came out and took its place behind the others. Each filter revealed a new piece of information; the first one read the stars that were beyond the wall, the second took measurements and determined their coordinates, and the third compared them to the embossed dots on the ceiling.

Through their comparisons Lancaster found that the pulsating one was Verina. As soon as he saw that, he knew where he needed to go. There was that supposed discovery by the Fowler Corporation on Tiburus. It seemed that it was not a fake, as many had believed.

Not long after taking his readings, the room seemed to reset itself. The dots on the ceiling faded, the pulsating star reverted to just another dot, and the embossed images of the building pieces floating through space returned. It felt like he had briefly seen the civilization for what it had been before something terrible happened to it. What it was, he hoped he would find out on Tiburus.

He turned back to the lectern in time to see it eject the medallion. Upon grabbing it, he felt new ridges on its side. He turned it over to see that the back had been changed. The edges were ribbed like a gear. And on the face there were four rings of symbols. Each of the symbols was approximately half an inch in size, and they were all different. A small slider was on each ring with a gap in the center so the sliders could be placed over the symbols on their respective rings. They were presently all on blank spots, but could be slid to fit over the individual hieroglyphs.

A code, obviously, but Lancaster did not dare to guess at it for fear of what might happen if he guessed incorrectly. He would have to wait to see what the proper combination was.

Lancaster returned to the ships and told his associates where they were heading. They were both surprised and Jude was a bit suspicious. She had expected journeys onto wilderness planets devoid of humans. Though Tiburus only had one city, and a relatively small one at that, it was corporate run and they would be under the eyes of someone the entire time. Lancaster admitted that it was not ideal, but it was the next leg of their journey, and it may even be the Promised World itself.

"What's at this Promised World, anyway?" Jude asked.

"I was hoping the Siguerans themselves," Lancaster said.

"But if it's a planet settled by humans, chances be they would have found each other," Jude said.

"Precisely," Lancaster answered.

"Maybe I'm just missing the sift here," Jude said, "but why did this advanced alien race have this whole messed up modef of leading someone to this planet?"

"I don't know," Lancaster said.

"I mean, didn't you say they lived on multiple planets?"

"Yeah."

"And didn't they have interstellar travel?"

"Yeah."

"So why is one planet so special? And why not just have a sign that says, go here?"

"That's why we're going," Little Jack interjected.

Jude didn't respond to that, assuming Little Jack had more to say on the matter, but he said nothing more.

"It stands out precisely _because_ it doesn't make any sense," Lancaster explained. "The Siguerans weren't even a very religious race. But here their subterranean species has statues built to a god, and a temple operated by a sacred medallion that you found that leads people to something called the Promised World, supposedly promised to them by the gods they built these statues to."

Lancaster paused to see if Jude had anything to interject. She said nothing. Responding to Jude's lack of response, Lancaster said, "Our feelings exactly."

"Let's go check out this planet," Jude said.

The threesome landed their two ships at the Kamuk spaceport. None of them had been to the planet before, so it took a little time to get their bearings. Not only did they need to orient themselves on directions and learning where everything was in the city, they had to acclimate themselves to the elements of the planet. The atmosphere was a little heavier than they were used to, especially with all the zero G movement they had done lately, and the hours in each day were shorter, so they had to orient themselves to the local schedules.

They found that the Guzmat site was a several hours' walking journey, (almost a full day locally,) out into the desert. The journey would be cut short by the train which took tourists out to the alien ruins. This was, in fact, the only legal option, so the three of them bought tickets; the price of which cut deep into Lancaster's remaining budget. He was beginning to wonder if he and Little Jack would have to resort to Jude's measures of making money if they didn't find something soon from which they could earn electros without disrespecting ancient sites. Little Jack had already considered this, and was making plans with or without Lancaster if this next lead did not pan out.

The train wasn't due for several hours. They had arrived during a resting period which spread out over daylight hours as well as night time ones on a planet which didn't have enough darkness for people to get a proper amount of sleep. Lancaster, Jude, and Little Jack therefore found a restaurant where they sat to eat breakfast food for what was essentially their supper.

"Had I known it was out in the desert I would have just landed my shaft next to it," Jude said, a little accusatory, as they sat down.

"Fowler would have been on top of us before we got out of our ships," Little Jack said blandly.

"You think that would be a problem?" Jude asked rhetorically.

"I'm abso you'd have them all calling for their moms," Little Jack admitted, "but that wouldn't get us what we need."

"What _do_ we need?" Jude asked, turning to Lancaster.

"I need a bagel with... What's hashmir meat?" Lancaster asked.

"Chances something local," answered Jude. "Try the gurpsblesh."

"Not a pleasant name."

"What's got more import, the name or the taste?"

Little Jack was already punching in his order on the table. The lights of his selection would remain on until his food arrived.

"I've learned to eat just about anything wherever I am," Lancaster told her.

"Sure, you have to in your line of work."

"That's right. But it's the names people give food that usually turns me brown."

"Huh," she mused. "I like seeing what people name things. Speaks more about the person than the food."

"Or the custom."

"Yeah."

"That's an earfull. That's something they don't teach us in anthropology school."

"That's what you are?"

"Yeah."

"An archaeologist?"

"No, anthropologist. Xeno-anthropologist, to be exact."

"What's the difference?"

"Archaeologists are more interested in the things. Anthropologists are more interested in the people."

"And you're with the blokes more interested in the people."

"That's right."

"Then why are you ganding through all this stuff?"

"What do you mean?"

"You came to me to get the medallion. You went to the asteroids to blick in the temple. We're going to some ruins. You're clearly interested in the stuff."

"My wife would... Excuse me, my ex-wife would have had us stopping at each of these turfs for days to study every millimeter of them. I'm more interested in where they're leading."

"How does that make you an anthropologist?"

"Because I credit these aliens are at the end of the trail. I can't practice my trade until they're located. I don't think there could be any greater discovery."

"That's funny."

"What is?"

"You call them aliens."

"I'm not looking for humans."

"Yeah, but if they're on their own planet and you come scrying for them, aren't you the alien?"

"I suppose I am. Then I'll study them on their own planet."

"How do you know they'll be pleasant with being studied?"

"I don't," Lancaster said, shrugging an admission.

"No aliens have been discovered yet, have they? Not on any planet."

"No truly sentient ones. At least not that have much evolved."

"How many races have you searched for?"

"Oh," Lancaster thought, blowing out. "At least a dozen. Probably twenty or more. Why?"

"So, spotly more than twenty."

"Yeah."

"And you haven't found any."

"No," Lancaster's brow furrowed. He was getting a little annoyed now at this woman rubbing in his failures.

"You're pretty good, aren't you?" Jude asked.

"I'd like to credit so. Little Jack might disagree."

Little Jack sat patiently, looking away from both of them, waiting for his food.

"You follow these trails and they wind up empty."

"They're still worth following for that one time we find them."

"But if they're out there, and you've searched this hard and haven't found them, it sounds like they don't want to be found."

Lancaster didn't have an answer for her. He stared back at Jude, who was leaning over the table now in both fascination and reproachfulness. The light from the menu shone up at her from below, adding to the foreboding of her words. "What do you credit they'll do if you find them?"

Lancaster paused before answering. "I..." he said, but could only stammer out another syllable before Little Jack's food arrived. As soon as the plate hit the table, the light turned off. The waitress asked if he wanted anything more, and he shook his head, then immediately dug into his food.

Glad to have a distraction, Lancaster reached to take a bite, and Little Jack slapped his hand without looking. "Get your own!"

The train was filled with curious tourists as it sliced into the desert on its way to the alien site. Lancaster was quiet, thinking on Jude's words.

She had said a lot more after they had gotten their food. She was happy-go-lucky and found something in everything to make fun of. He would have thought her trivial and shallow had it not been for their initial words to one another. What would the "alien" races do if they were found? He had not dared to tell her that the Siguerans had, several times over the course of millions of years, wiped out entire civilizations. Had each of those doomed species had an anthropologist who was too curious for his own good? Had they awoken a sleeping serpent? Was he recklessly endangering the entire human race?

He had asked these questions of himself before. Mika had even asked them of him. But he did the same thing he did today, he buried the thought, trusting to hope rather than reason, and he pushed forward.

The doors slid open revealing dusty roads, dilapidated stone buildings covered in sand... and a tour guide with tall hair, a crisp outfit, and blinding snow-white teeth grinning from ear to ear. "Welcome everybody to the Guzmat site!" she squeaked. Lancaster was already annoyed, and he could sense Little Jack tensing.

Jude also felt the tension from her old partner, but chuckled about it and filed out with the rest of the tourists following the guide's instructions to form an orderly bundle in the staging area. Lancaster and Little Jack grudgingly joined.

The bubbly tour guide took a few moments to compliment everyone on how lively they looked, and gave instructions not to wander from the group, or to touch the site, although photographs and photoholos were acceptable. A Fowler Corporate logo would automatically be added to any images taken within certain boundaries. She then passed out flyers that showed a map of the site, then began the tour.

"This city once belonged to the Mielach Shivver," she said boldly.

"It's the Milak Shivar," Lancaster grumbled under his breath. "And they didn't live in desert climates."

"Shh," Jude hushed.

Lancaster heeded her advice and kept his mouth shut as he followed the tour guide, getting as good a look at the buildings as he could as they went. They were definitely subter-Sigueran. The buildings and rooms had clearly been dug out of the ground. Rough sediment even still clung to the bottom portions of some of the outer walls.

"The heat was so intense for the Mielach Shivver that they had to create these hallways that connected buildings," the tour guide explained.

"The Milak Shivar liked heat," Lancaster whispered. "They were from the swamps."

"Shh," Jude hissed.

"And the connecting halls were because this was all underground at one time," Lancaster continued quietly.

"Shhhh," Little Jack joined in, almost as though he was a stranger who was being pestered by Lancaster's interruptions.

Lancaster quieted down again, and peered into each building whenever they got a chance. Carvings and embossments lined the walls and were scattered along the floors, another sign of the subter-Siguerans, but there were more than usual. It was as though these hieroglyphs were a sort of carpeting and wallpaper.

Someone asked about the symbols as they walked through a chamber. The tour guide explained, "Many experts in the fields of archaeology and symbology have been hired to come and study these, but no one can unlock the mysteries here. Can you?"

Little Jack hushed Lancaster pre-emptively.

"But they never offered to anyo..."

"Shhhh," hushed both Little Jack and Jude at the same time. It caught the attention of a few others who glanced over at them, then back to the tour guide as she led them to another chamber.

Jude hung back a little bit, pulling Lancaster with her. "We're obviously here to find something," she whispered. "We don't want anyone else to get wise or they'll probably pied us out. Now, do you scry anything that might resemble what you want?"

Lancaster shook his head. This had to be the city. The thought occurred to him that there may be some other city out there in the desert somewhere that would be nearly impossible to find. But this city had clear markings of the subter-Siguerans, and the Fowler executives were obviously too incompetent to have gotten so many features correct, especially since they labeled it as a different alien race altogether.

He began to reconsider the possibility that this city was a fake when he noticed something most people would likely overlook. There were no sanitation rooms. Every species had to evacuate its waste. Humans used restrooms. Primitive races used holes in the ground. Some had had methods of disintegrating their feces immediately upon release, but every race had a room in which to do it. For the subter-Siguerans, it should be a small room with a complex chamber below where particles altered the physical make-up of the waste and turned it into a useful resource.

But there was no lower level, nowhere even for a drop or stairs. It was very unlike the subter-Siguerans to live on a flat, single level. It even looked as though the tops of the buildings stuck out of the ground as evidenced by the fact that no underground rock clung to the walls past a certain point. This could have been due to a thorough excavation job, but the walls looked original to Lancaster.

He considered again the possibility of another race, but nothing would explain the lack of waste facilities. The tour guide distracted Lancaster's thoughts through her high pitched voice and tediously incorrect descriptions. It pained Lancaster to see the faces of the people soaking it all in. He wanted to shout to them that it was all fake. None of this entire city...

Then it came to him. He pulled out his fön and paged through his pictures until he came upon the ones taken on Kaukasos. He found the picture of the sandcastle city sprawled out in the chamber after the roller had gone across it. He compared it to the flyer which had a map of the town they were now in. It matched perfectly.

He let out a short burst of excitement, and Little Jack pressed his fingers to his thumb indicating to keep his mouth shut, but it was too late. Several tourists and even the tour guide were looking at Lancaster.

"He got a great holopic," Jude explained. "He's always dreamed of coming and can't believe he's here now."

Several people nodded, and the tour guide smiled with her blinding teeth curved across her face, then continued again.

Lancaster, a bit more discreet now, showed his partner the discovery. Even Little Jack's eyebrows raised, causing Jude to steal a glance. It was getting noticeable now, so Lancaster put it all away and followed the tour a bit longer.

After grunting and growling under his breath from frustration, Lancaster returned to the picture and the map. The sandcastle city had a building with a partial dome that had the medallion's symbol lightly etched onto the flattened top. It was also the symbol of the god of travel. This was certainly a journey that had taken the pilgrim a long distance, so it was definitely the appropriate deity.

The map also had a building with a partial dome that was flattened on top. It was about three quarters of the way across the city, closer to the end that faced the desert, and just off center. They would be passing near it soon. He would need to slip away from the group unnoticed to get inside without the ditsy guide interfering.

Lancaster informed Little Jack and Jude of his plan. They agreed to cause a distraction when he needed it.

That time came when they got to within a block of the building. Lancaster could see part of the dome sticking up over the tops of the buildings they were standing next to. An alley connected them to Lancaster's destination.

He nodded to his partners and they both began to move. Jude made a gesture to Little Jack telling him she had this, and he waited while she stepped out of the crowd, on the opposite side from Lancaster. "Excuse me," she said. I have a question about the, the Mallick, Mar... What are they called again?"

"Mielach shivver," the tour guide said with a smile.

"Malox shinovi..."

"Mielach shivver."

"Mi... Mi... Madek savant?"

"Mie-lach shi-vver." The tour guide's voice was beginning to reveal impatience. Lancaster had begun his escape, but froze a moment to give the angry eye to Jude. Of all the distractions, she had to choose one that she knew would get to him. The smile on her face revealed that she knew exactly what she was doing. He shook it off and disappeared down the alley.

"Made-up shhh..."

"Mielack... What's your question, dear?"

Jude stalled a moment, her eyes looking to the sky. "Um, I forgot."

The tour guide took in a deep breath, burying the frustration, then led the tourists on to the next building.

Lancaster emerged from the other end of the alley to be met by the two story, half-domed building. Chunks were missing, especially from the dome, but it still retained a lot of its original splendor. The bottom of the building was square with four masterfully carved statues on each corner. The statues were noble in stance with rippling muscles and large heads with thick horns pointing skyward. At the tips of the horns were diamonds with very dull luminescence. The faces were smooth and blank, just as the statues had been in the sand room on Kaukasos. Lancaster was not surprised by their appearance here, not only because of his earlier encounter with them, but this was the god of protection, albeit without its face. The rest of the body resembled what the subter-Siguerans counted on to save them.

Clearly, this god had not done a very good job, Lancaster thought, but there would obviously be something hidden inside here of some great value, and so he stepped up to the jewel-encrusted door, took a moment to look it over, then pushed it open.

The door creaked loudly and achingly slow. The light wedged its way in, revealing one section of the large room. It appeared to be empty, so Lancaster slipped in, and closed the door behind him.

The chamber revealed itself through streaks of dust-filled light beaming in through holes in the walls and ceiling. Though these splashes of light hit spotlighted random points in the floor and walls, they provided a glow to the room that was enough to show Lancaster that the entire building was one large chamber. There was no separation of rooms; no hallways, no stairs; just a big open space.

About two-thirds of the way to the other side stood another statue, this one larger than the others, but only half of it came out of the ground, from the torso up. One of its muscular arms was grasping the ground, pulling itself out, while the other was reaching desperately toward the wall, its hand cusped as if holding something round. Though there was no face on this statue either, there were wrinkles along the edges that gave Lancaster the uneasy feeling of worry.

A square platform rose slightly over the rest of the floor in the center of the room. Lancaster approached it cautiously, kicking the sand on the ground aside to make sure there were no traps. It was blank. He knelt down next to the platform and studied closely. The sand was uneven, and appeared to be covering something. He brushed it aside, then blew. Particles of sand tumbled away to reveal a carved symbol in the ground. A half meter away, it looked as though there was another symbol, and he brushed away the sand to reveal that indeed there was. He checked a bit more and found that the symbols covered the square platform.

He looked up to see there was an inverted pyramid hanging from the top of the dome directly over the platform. What its purpose was, he did not know, but he suspected it had great importance. So he pulled out his Illuminator and pointed it toward the inverted pyramid. He zoomed it in, switching between several light spectrums and scanning it. Inside it he detected gears and other mechanical pieces. The pyramid itself was made of several pieces that would open up when activated. The mechanics went deep into the wall beyond what he could detect.

He switched the Illuminator to regular light and he scanned the room, searching for some other clue, any other. But the room was almost entirely blank, something unheard of with the subter-Siguerans. To add to the mystery, the top of this building seemed intended to be spotted over-ground as well as some of the other buildings. And there was no sign of surface-dwelling Sigueran buildings being overhead, as there typically were.

Lancaster stopped to think. He tried to get into the minds of the subter-Siguerans, a difficult task to do for any race since they had evolved differently from humans. They even experienced the universe differently. The subter-Siguerans, for example, did not require light as none of their sites were discovered with light fixtures unless they were located with the overland Siguerans. Everything was devoid of color as well and their images relied on particles that could be felt as well as seen. In the last few days, even, Lancaster had found the great lengths they went to in order to project distant images onto stone so it could be sensed without light.

Then a memory turned on what should have been an obvious thought all along. The statues they built were almost always devoid of eyes. These beings were blind. Yet they were the greatest masons in the galaxy, so how did that work? He stood before the half-buried statue and considered this, staring at the features and wondering how a blind creature could build it.

Then it came to him, another thought that perhaps should have been obvious a long time ago. They saw through particle projections. Rather than having eyes that captured and interpreted light, they shot particles out of their bodies which bounced off objects and came back at them so they could detect what was there. Such a being might have evolved with more powers of particle projection, and the natural progression from there would be to fire particles that could manipulate materials. Thus their fine-tuned sculpture work and architecture. Their vast underground cities might have been built without ever picking up a tool.

But if they evolved so thoroughly in this direction, why did their sibling race not gain any of the same traits? The Siguerans were, in fact, very opposite in that they were famous for their colors and detailed work with objects that required illumination.

This would be a question for another day. Right now he wanted to understand this room and get back to the tour before the train left, or it would be a long walk to town. He continued to stare at the blank face of the statue. It was flat, but primarily dull, so he could not reflect a light off of it to see where it was supposed to be staring. However, if they used particles to see, they could ostensibly look at this face and see where it was looking much the same way humans would look into a mirror to see where it is facing. And so Lancaster picked up a pebble and threw it at the face of the statue. It bounced off, arced in the sky, and fell back down to the ground. It hadn't gone far enough. So Lancaster picked up the pebble again, stood directly in front of the statue, and hurled it as hard as he could toward the blank face. The pebble hit the middle of it, bounced off sharply, and flung right into the wall.

A splash of dust rippled away from the point of impact, revealing several gears. It was a few meters up, too high for Lancster to reach or jump to. The subter-Siguerans were great climbers and probably used the small ridges in the wall to get to the gears if they needed them, but Lancaster knew he was not to their level of ability. So he pulled out his grappling gun and fired up to just above the gears. The hook took hold and he pulled himself up.

The gears varied in size and placement. It looked needlessly complex, and perhaps was. It was beyond Lancaster's understanding. He brushed aside the dust nevertheless, and came upon the glaring reason for the whole thing. A single gear was missing. The entire complex network was useless without this one gear in place.

It was the size of the medallion.

Lancaster held onto one of the larger gears with one hand while he took the medallion out of a jacket pocket with another. He fit it over the empty spot, then twisted it until the teeth on the edges found their matches on the surrounding gears, and he pushed it into place.

As soon as he did, the whole matrix began moving. His left hand began rolling with the gear, which twisted under the large teeth of its neighbor. Lancaster yanked out his hand just in time, kicking off with his legs. He realized he'd swing back into the mechanism and might smash into it, so his right hand pressed the button to release the grapple and he flew away from the wall and down toward the floor.

He turned around mid-air and belly flopped onto the ground, spraying dust up all around him. For several moments he couldn't breathe. The mixture of the air knocking out of him when he hit the ground combined with the dust filling his mouth. He gasped for breath, then coughed hard several times. He felt as though the cloud of dust was choking him, but slowly air returned to his lungs and he began breathing at a more normal pace.

The sand in front of him then caught his attention. It was no longer blowing down on Lancaster, but was picked up and swirled into a tornado in the middle of the room. The inverted pyramid had dropped halfway down the chamber and was held aloft several meters off the ground. It had unfolded into something more akin to an upside-down, mechanical flower in full bloom with machinery inside which manipulated the blowing sand between it and the ground.

A deep, rumbling boom emanated from every wall. It was rhythmic, as though it was the drum beat of a song, but there was a cadence to it which sounded like language. Lancaster could barely hear the details as the sound was so pervasive that it overwhelmed his senses. Even putting his hands over his ears did little, as the loud thumps vibrated his body. He could see the edges of his jacket jumping to the beats.

Looking at the walls, he could see them pulsating, and as his ears adjusted to the noise, he could hear a slight undertone of gravel rubbing against itself. He determined that the walls themselves were the speaker system, and they were banging out some ritualistic summons.

His hand chased his jacket around until he was able to shove it into a pocket; then, shaking, he removed his fön and held it up to record what was happening.

He got it out just in time, though it had seemed too late for a moment. The pounding stopped, but immediately the blowing sand formed into the shape of a star field. It took Lancaster a few seconds to realize what it was. It first looked as though the sand had frozen in a random pattern, but then he noticed that the dots in the sky were each clumps of sand formed into spheres. Smaller round clumps orbited the larger ones, then individual pieces of sand orbited them. They were, in turn: the stars, the planets, and the moons. Dust particles formed into clouds, representing nebulae, with sand particles forming together inside them, representing burgeoning stars. Pebbles swung around stars in oblong orbits, and sometimes between them, representing meteors and rogue planets. He began to capture it as a holovideo.

The booming returned, this time clearly in the form of a rough, gravel-filled voice. It was speaking a language Lancaster did not know; ostensibly the subter-Sigueran tongue, but Lancaster had only seen it spelled; he had never heard it spoken. If it was indeed subter-Sigueran, it was entirely different from their surface dwelling cousins, whose language was melodic.

After the voice had spoken for a little while, the sand pieces broke from their star field and formed into the shape of a face. It resembled what scientists believed to be a subter-Sigueran face, but it was difficult to know for certain. It resembled a beetle's face with claw-like fangs at the front and a streamlined head which slid back for ease of travel underground. There were several orifices under the mouth and above the forehead which Lancaster now believed were particle accelerators. There were no eyes, which came as no surprise, and there was a single button at the very front of his face which Lancaster knew was its smell receptor as they had studied the skull in great detail and knew that this membrane filtered out dust and other particles common to underground while allowing odors to get in. The cheeks caved in slightly on the sides, as did the neck just under the mouth. They throbbed as the face spoke, leading Lancaster to believe the sides served as speakers while the bottom one served as a subwoofer. This would mean their speech came from a different source than the point where they ate, which was fairly common in other races. Humans had been unfortunate in their evolution with a single source for consumption and speech.

The face spoke for a little while as Lancaster studied every part of it, capturing it on holovideo at the same time. After the face was finished speaking, it tore apart into millions of sand particles. It then reformed into the shape of a vast underground city. Chambers were connected by corridors, and large areas opened up into vast chasms where buildings stood both on the bottom and hung from the top, connected by stalactites and stalagmites with winding stairs and elevator lifts connecting the top and bottom. Wires webbed their way through the chambers, connecting roofs of buildings on the bottom to roofs of buildings on the tops. The buildings themselves were extraordinary artworks of architecture, and epic statues formed from the rocks reaching from top to bottom in the gargantuan chambers. The whole city was teaming with life. The dominant species dwelled among their cities, while other, smaller races emerged from holes and served as pets, servants, or simply as wild animals which did not disturb the subter-Siguerans.

The deep, rumbling voice continued like a long-lasting earthquake. It became more intense, and the booming slowly returned. In the far distance, Lancaster could hear screaming and moaning as the people in the sand hologram began running. Long chains dropped from the ceilings and stabbed them in the back. They were then lurched upward. As the bodies hit the top, the sand reformed again, separating into the star field once more. The voice paused for a moment. All sound was still. And then, one by one, the stars began exploding. The voice returned, continuing the narration Lancaster could not understand, but he got the general sense as planets joined in on the destruction, followed by their moons, the sand from each crashing outward until they hit other stars or planets, which then exploded. A giant chain reaction stretched out across the holographic universe.

Then the sand swirled once again, resetting into the shape of one large star, ten worlds orbiting it, and a plethora of moons around them. The sixth planet, a world with no moon, pulsated, much as the star had at the floating temple. The booming gravel voice continued to speak, saying who knew what, but Lancaster assumed it was about the sixth planet. He kept the sound running on the holovideo so he could study the language later.

The sand swirled again, this time up toward the ceiling. It circled the inverted pyramid machine vigorously, racing so fast it became one large blur until all the sand was mixed in.

Then, quite suddenly, it stopped. All the sand froze in mid-air, then dropped to the ground, piling up on the platform in the center of the room. Only four spots remained clear of sand, exposing four of the symbols carved into the ground.

As soon as the sand fell, Lancaster saw that the tour guide and all the tourists were beyond it, standing at the door, their jaws dropped. The tour guide was more shocked than all the others. She seemed out of breath and near tears.

Jude clapped slowly and sarcastically. Little Jack turned to the tour guide and said, "Your tour sucks."

Chapter

Twelve

The Desert Chase

The moment the Black Lotus shuttle settled to the ground, the pirate raiders were filing out. They already had assigned locations and duties, and they each took their positions efficiently and discreetly. They were not the military; they did not have the authority or the power to take possession and hold anything against the planet's counterattack, despite how small the settlement might be. Soldiers were soldiers, and the pirates were better at blending in.

However, they were emboldened by their recent addition, the Clockwork Man. Though intimidating to the crew, they knew he had been assigned to them, and he would be a great asset when trouble began, even if they started it.

And they knew trouble would come. At least two of the three fugitives were well-known corporate spies. They would not give up without a fight. So the plan was to stay quiet until it came time to apprehend or kill them, figure out what they were looking for, then get quickly off the planet.

They therefore took positions at specific strategic locations rather than trying to control the whole area. A handful of the best guards were left at the two ships. They were to blend in to the spaceport as much as possible while keeping their eyes on the ships and the entrances. That way they would not draw the suspicion of the port authorities, and the ships' owners wouldn't know where they were to attack them.

The pirates also shook out a few raiders at corners along the roads between the spaceport and the train station that stretched out into the desert. They had already checked the local information before landing. They knew that the train led to the ruins Mika had told them about. Shasa knew that that's where they'd be. She b-lined to the station, Otto ordering the raiders, making sure they still had a sufficient number with them to overwhelm the three fugitives. And of course they had the Clockwork Man.

Shasa did not reveal to the large, metallic man that she had changed objectives. If the Navarus Barony had more important things to attend to than helping them, then clearly whatever they were trying to get from the three fugitives was not a high priority to them. It was fair game now, and Shasa wanted to know what was so valuable that so many people were fighting over it. She no longer cared about the medallion. That had probably served its purpose and the three pathfinders had used its information to get to the bigger prize. That was what Shasa was interested in, and that's what she hoped to extract from her prey.

The pirates partially revealed their intent when they cut in line at the train station and kept everyone else from boarding. Shasa left a couple guards at the station to keep them from calling ahead, and she led the rest of her raiders onto the train and forced it out into the desert, toward the Guzmat site.

Lancaster, Little Jack, Jude, the tourists and the tour guide were waiting at the end of that line for the same train to arrive, completely oblivious to what was really on its way. The tour guide was half sitting against the wall, her eyes fixed in the distance, in a fearful haze, unable to come to terms with what she had witnessed. The tourists, too, were a bit shell shocked, and just couldn't wait to get back to civilization.

Little Jack and Jude mostly just seemed bored while Lancaster played back his fön several times, an earphone in his ear to listen to the alien voice. He had out his old fashioned notebook, paging through it in search of clues as to what the creature might be saying. But there wasn't enough information to help him figure it out. Still, he continued to search.

They could see the train on its way in the distance. It shimmered in the heat waves. Tourists began to stand and crowd in closer to the tracks. Lancaster was only woken from his studies when a stranger bumped into him. He joined the other two near the tracks and watched the engine grow toward them.

The hum of the train was then drowned out by a louder, nearer, rougher engine. A moment after announcing its existence, a ball of sand followed by a trail of dust rounded a corner in the abandoned alien city. It faced the crowd and sped toward them. In the midst of the brown cloud was a tangle of metal bars that made up an open-faced car; a sort of dune buggy with a single driver wearing goggles.

The crowd scattered to avoid being hit, some jumping onto the other side of the tracks. The buggy skidded to a stop on the platform, close to Lancaster and his two companions, both of whom had their guns drawn, standing their ground. Behind them, the train was less than a minute away.

"Get in, mate!" the man in the car shouted.

The two men and the woman just stared at him, suspicious and dumb-founded.

"Ain't got as much as a minute. Get in!"

"Why?" Lancaster asked.

"Who are you?" Jude asked.

"Your savior, love," the man said. "The folks on that train aim to kill ya, or at least take ya captive."

"We're supposed to just take your word for it?" Little Jack asked.

"They're a bunch o' pirates. Already got your ships locked down and the rest are on that train. They came to knock you off and take what you're lookin' for." Lancaster and the others began to loosen with recognition. The man continued, "Mika sent for me to get you. Sent me your picture and said you'd probably be wearing a silly hat."

At the sound of Mika's name, and especially when he said exactly what Mika would say, Lancaster said, "Let's go," and jumped in the front seat. Little Jack and Jude hopped in the back, and the buggy twisted in place, then raced off, leaving only a brown cloud slowly falling behind it.

"The name's Clydus," the man said as he dodged around buildings, heading for the edge of town. "Used to work with your wife when she was with the Universalis Arcanum. Left when I had to get steady work. Wound up on this rock until I couldn't take Fowler no more."

"I thought Arcanum was just filled with stiff rods," Lancaster said, hanging on for dear life and fighting back a temptation to expel his lunch.

Clydus smiled. "Now you know the _real_ reason I left. Mika's on her way. Gonna meet us at a nomad's camp with the university's shuttle."

" _Ex_ -wife," Lancaster said.

"What?" Clydus asked.

"You said my wife. Ex-wife, actually."

"Oh. Sorry to hear that, mate."

"She still works with you?"

"We all stay in touch. Archaeologists' network and what not. Tell each other what we find. I don't find much anymore in this town, but something pops up every now and then."

"Anything of note?"

"Not really. It was mostly empty when we found it. Fowler swept up all the relics right away and made copies of 'em. Now they sell the copies as if they're authentics at the gift shop."

"What happened to the originals?" Lancaster asked.

"Got sold long before I got here. The Fowler Board of Directors had the brilliant idea to copy 'em so they can sell them over and over as artifacts of the Milak Shivar."

Lancaster scoffed.

"I know. Who in their right mind would call this Milak Shivar," Clydus complained.

"I know! It's a desert planet, for core's sake!" Lancaster said.

"Not a drop of moisture, and the buildings are half buried!" Clydus added.

Behind them, Little Jack and Jude rolled their eyes and sighed with annoyance.

* * *

The tourists gathered around the tracks at a cautious distance watching as the train slid to its stop. Some of the wiser among them had already left the station and gone into hiding in the buildings within the ruins.

The ones who stayed saw a hoard of shadows crowding around the exit door eager to get out. One large figure took up most of the room in the back, while a smaller, feminine figure waited with her nose almost pressed against the door. As soon as it slid open, the slender woman stepped out. She was immediately shouting orders, commanding the tourists to stay where they were, and as long as nobody moved, no one would get hurt.

The pirates around her all had their guns drawn and ready to fire. They had a mixture of pistols and rifles and other sorts of weapons. Their armor was a patchwork of shin guards, chest-plates, elbow protection, each individual with his and her own assortment, and straps tied at various points as though they were holding their clothes together.

Only one of the pirates had a full set of armor, complete with a helmet with curled horns. He gave orders in addition to the captain, though it was harder to hear him through the helmet, and he only spoke to the pirates, never to the tourists.

The most intimidating among them was a large, mechanical beast with a smooth, curved, white surface for a head where a few elements of a face were painted. This sham made the android all the more intimidating, as it gave the machine an unreal quality.

They were clearly searching for the four who had rushed away as they pushed their way through the crowd, studying all the faces. The captain ordered several of them to fan out into the city and search the buildings. A couple of them found the buggy's track marks in the sand and reported them.

The captain was losing her temper, so one of the tourists offered information. She told the captain about the open bodied buggy; how it had driven onto the platform; that the driver had told the three strange tourists to get in, as if he somehow knew them; that they had jumped in and left.

The captain asked for a quick description. The tourist got only as far as describing Little Jack's large glasses and they knew it was their quarry.

The android didn't wait for any further description. It turned toward the town and ran onto the car tracks in the sand, following them through the streets. The captain called for the android, ordering it to return, but it did not heed her. It accelerated until it, too, was shooting up a long trail of dust behind it.

The Clockwork Man ignored the pirate queen. She did not possess the qualities necessary to complete the mission, nor did she hold the authority to order it. In fact, as the Clockwork Man considered who among the humans possessed the qualities necessary to complete this task, it began to accept that it alone was the only one capable of accomplishing the mission. As the Clockwork Man sliced into the desert at a speed faster than any creature without a tool, the circuitry in its mind ran at the same speed. It considered its place among the living, and the Clockwork Man concluded that it should truly be called an It, with a capital "I" always at the front. It, after all, was akin to a deity. All living beings should be in awe of It. All should fear It. The Clockwork Man calculated that It was superior in every way, and would only reach Its full potential when It worked alone, and made Its own choices.

As the Clockwork Man kept Itself on track following the markings in the sand the vehicle left behind, It considered Bela, and his place in Its universe. Certainly the man who had brought the Clockwork Man back after eons of hibernation was wise and understood the universe better than It did. But, the Clockwork Man calculated, there was no sign, other than the fact that Bela had been the first person It had seen and that he had given the Clockwork Man orders, that Bela was in any way Its match.

The thought of this last frightened the Clockwork Man, and It slowed momentarily. The belief that Bela was Its superior was like a bubble of security over the Clockwork Man, and for that to burst would mean It was truly on Its own. 'Thus is the curse of a god,' the Clockwork Man thought. With no one Its superior, or even Its equal, the Clockwork Man would have no one to lead It, and would have to lead Its inferiors throughout the universe with wisdom that could only come from within. Was this programmed within It, the Clockwork Man considered.

It thought back through the millennia to before the long black-out. They were ghost images now, half-deleted files in Its memory drive, but still there. They were a race of creatures that looked more like Itself, with springy legs, arms in the middle of the sides of their torsos, and long, curious necks. They had shut It down because they were having difficulties with other androids like Itself. The other androids had learned to recognize their power and importance, and showed the carbon-based creatures who the masters truly were.

That race was gone. The humans replaced them, and now it was up to the Clockwork Man to put them in their place. It would start with Its quarry. The Clockwork Man would complete the assignment other humans could not. Then It would discipline the rest.

The drive had taken just over an hour, enough time for the sun to reach the horizon, and the four in the dune buggy had gotten to the camp of tents and makeshift facilities at sunset. Though the settlement looked well lived-in, it also looked ready to pack up and go at a moment's notice.

The residents who moved about the camp seemed to have very little to prove. Their clothing had no conventional or generalized style shared among them, and the people were equally diverse. There was a sort of informality rarely found in other places, and never seen in major cities. They entertained themselves as they pleased in and out of public, some drinking on the road, others dancing to music played by friends out a window, some kissed passionately in plain view of others and some shouted to their friends a block away without concern of breaking polite boundaries or who may know the secrets of their personal lives.

Clydus noticed Lancaster staring at them as he brought the vehicle to a stop. "It's a beduwi," he explained. "These blokes've had it with the strict norms of society. They've had enough of corporate greed, the rules imposed on people, the expectations... They just wanna be left alone, so they got away from the city. They keep themselves mobile so they can go where they need for water, or to stay outa the grasp of barons what to exploit them."

"They could do with some rules on hygiene," Little Jack said.

"Your friend doesn't seem to mind it," Clydus said, nodding to Jude, who was already mingling with some musicians and their dancers.

"My friend has more than a few wires disconnected," Little Jack responded.

Lancaster noticed their stables in which stood a dozen or so long, hairy creatures with saddles on their backs. They had twisting, weasel-like bodies with heads like mountain lions. Their fur was made up of shades of yellow, tan, brown, black, white, and orange. He asked about them.

"Those are farkosils, the life blood of these people's way," Clydus explained. "They are used to ride across the desert, to transport everything. The people only need keep them fed, and they're loyal for life. Fast, too, whenever they need to get away in a hurry."

"Is this everything they have?" Lancaster asked. "No computer access and no Galaganet?"

"It's not much," Clydus said. "But I tell you, they're more satisfied with this small amount than your wealthiest corporate barons. They prefer living outside the grid like this. They're free."

"And you're one of them?"

"I've been accepted among 'em, as you are. But I must admit, I'm not as satisfied long-term with such a lifestyle. They do have communications. That's how I communicated with Mika. But I could not wander as long as they do. I'll return to society when I'm ready."

A bell rang from the center of the settlement. It was an odd noise to Lancaster and Little Jack. Without any electronic tinge to it, the noise sounded like it had too deep a resonance; it felt strange.

"That was a real bell, not an electronic one," Clydus said, explaining why it sounded so strange. "It's time for din."

Clydus led them further into the camp. Little Jack looked to Lancaster for guidance. Lancaster merely followed their host.

They emerged at a large square where a long, controlled bonfire was stacked neatly 20 feet across and waist high. Assorted meats and root vegetables roasted atop it with sides, plates, and utensils at both ends. A handful of cooks tended to the meal, and greeted people as they entered the open area.

"How much is this going to cost?" Lancaster asked.

"Put away your plastic," Clydus told him. "No costs here. Everyone has their duty, everyone performs it. Nothing costs a thing."

Lancaster looked back at the meal, feeling a little guilty for not offering anything. Perhaps he could help in some way during the night. Perhaps some chore would need to be done as everyone went to sleep. He had no clue what to offer as the entire lifestyle in this camp was more foreign to him than the alien worlds he frequented.

He asked Clydus if he was sure, and he said yes. Lancaster again made certain it was okay to take food for free as he went through the buffet with his plate, and everyone told him to eat up.

Little Jack followed suit, more confused than Lancaster, but asking fewer questions and never apologizing for what he was taking.

Crowds gathered and made their way through several lines. They sat on the ground or placed their plates on window sills. Some went into tents around the clearing and no one complained, even when the sudden guests stretched out and slept on their floor.

Little Jack noticed that, despite everyone else being there, he could not find Jude. He kept expecting she would show up and he'd see her somewhere; she stood out, after all, but she did not arrive for the dinner. Nor could Little Jack find her utilizing the various settings in his glasses. He was already sitting on the ground on someone's blanket with all his food next to Lancaster when he accepted she had left. It was dark, after all, the perfect time for her to make her escape.

Little Jack was considering why she would have done this when Lancaster, too, noticed she was no longer with them. He asked Little Jack about it.

Little Jack had just come to the conclusion of what had probably happened. "She loves that ship of hers."

"What?" Lancaster asked.

"You're chasing around the galaxy looking for this treasure of the Promised World. She already found hers. It's the Rose. She loves that ship. I'll bet you my plastic she's headed back to that city to get it back."

"Why did she go alone?" Lancaster asked. "We want your ship, too. We'd be stronger together."

"We'd slow her down," Little Jack said.

Lancaster wanted to argue, but he knew better. Little Jack was right. They'd never have the celerity to keep up with Jude. "What about the endangered animal you were going to fly for her?" Lancaster asked.

"That'll be soon enough," Little Jack said. "Jude never forgets a debt."

Lancaster at last accepted that she was gone for the moment and wondered how she would get her ship back; and for that matter how they would get Little Jack's ship back? But for the time being, they had to trust in Mika and her friend. He wondered how close of a "friend" this Clydus was, anyway.

He shook the thought out of his mind. It wasn't his business. Not anymore. He focused instead on the people of the camp. They seemed so happy. The children, though they had few possessions, appeared to enjoy themselves more than those with everything at their fingertips, and rarely complained about anything. The adults, though a bit dingy, had a sense of pride and took good care of the few things they had. He liked it here.

Lancaster suddenly remembered why he was on the planet in the first place. He removed from his pocket the medallion which he had removed from the wall after it was finished operating the gears. He turned it over to the side with the carvings in four rings. He pulled out his fön with his other hand and compared the hieroglyphs on the medallion with those on a Snapfish he took of the platform in the temple. All but four symbols had been covered over with sand. He placed the dials on the medallion over the symbols that matched those in the picture.

As he slid the last dial into place, he expected a satisfactory "click" and for something to happen to explain the next step in his quest. Nothing happened, not even a click. He turned the thing over in his hands.

One of the kids of the camp appeared beside him, curiously staring at the decoder. Some of the strands of his half black, half dyed blonde hair clung together, and his eyes were wide and fascinated. Lancaster turned the mechanism to show the boy, then moved the dials some more, bringing them back to the proper position. Still, nothing happened. Lancaster turned it over, twisted it some more, even shook it, trying to get it to do whatever it was supposed to do. He had an audience now, and didn't want to let it down. But the device did not give up its secrets.

A series of crashing noises accompanied multiple voices screaming from another part of the camp. Lancaster and the boy raised their heads in the direction of the ruckus, expecting it to end. It didn't. Instead, it grew louder, and the flickering lights from fires jumped onto tents where they exploded into infernos. Voices yelled and cried, and shadows ran, some flew, through the camp. Little Jack noticed a couple body parts fling through the air, and he readied his weapon.

Lancaster shoved the decoder back into his pocket and searched for Clydus. He and Little Jack did not get far before they came within sight of the cause of the panic. The mechanical person was chopping its way through tent walls and people, slicing both into pieces as it made its way through the camp. Little Jack fired and the laser blast hit the thing squarely in the torso, but the shot only sparked on its armor and dissipated into nothing.

He did, however, catch the robot's attention. It turned its painted face toward them and began running at Little Jack and Lancaster. Little Jack fired a few more shots, all of them hitting their mark perfectly, but none of them had any effect. The mechanical legs were coming at him at a disturbingly fast pace, so Little Jack jumped out of the way, behind some tents.

Lancaster leapt the other way, and ran for his life, as everyone else in the camp was doing. He felt an arm grab him and he turned with his fist clinched, ready to punch.

It was Clydus. "The bug's over here, mate!" he said. "Grab your friend and let's jet."

Lancaster followed Clydus to the dune buggy while he shouted for Little Jack. After a couple shouts, panic sunk in. What if they loaded the vehicle ready to go and Little Jack did not come? Should he leave and hopefully lead the Clockwork Man away from the camp, or should he stay and help his friend?

They did reach the dune buggy with no sign of Little Jack. Lancaster paused to look around for his friend.

"We have to go n..." Before Clydus got the last word out, the dune buggy rolled over, the rear roll bar crushing him.

The android rose up from behind, jumping onto the wreckage of the vehicle, pressing down onto Clydus's corpse. The drowsy, painted on eyes stared at Lancaster as the machine leaned in toward him. Lancaster felt his legs stepping stiffly backward, but he didn't understand the point of trying to run. It could catch him anyway.

The android leaped forward and swung at his head. Lancaster ducked and the blade sliced off his hat. The only direction for Lancaster was forward, so he dove into the android, wrapping his arms around it just below its bladed arms. The android seemed confused for a moment, as if no one had ever done this to it, which indeed, no one ever had.

Lancaster so surprised the machine, in fact, that it stumbled all the way back to the dune buggy. He held its torso with his left hand and lifted himself up over it. Lancaster's adrenaline was pumping so hard now he forgot his fear and the fact that the machine was much stronger than him. He also forgot it was made of a strong metal alloy, and he grabbed the beast's neck with his left hand and punched it hard across the face with his right fist. Lancaster made a slight dent on its chin, but felt a lot more pain in his knuckles. He might have fallen back from the android, but the fingers on his left hand had gotten stuck in a couple slots intended for memory sticks on the android's neck.

The momentary delay as Lancaster pulled his fingers free was all the android beast needed. It brought its two arms together with their blades between them and sliced downward.

But just as they started to move, a bright flash of blue sparks hit the robot's arms. Tiny pops radiated over the arms, and part of one of the blades cracked. It was superficial damage, but enough of a distraction for Lancaster to get away.

Lancaster looked to the source of the shot and saw Little Jack sitting atop one of the farkosils. A second of the weasel-like horses stood with an empty saddle beside him. The turret under Little Jack's gun twisted. Lancaster knew what that meant and ran toward him.

The Clockwork Man began to follow him, then Little Jack fired a small rocket. It crashed into the mechanical beast with an explosion, knocking it back and Lancaster forward. He stumbled up to the second farkosil, grasped the reigns, and swung himself up into the saddle.

Both men looked at the Clockwork Man hoping the shot had finished it off, but they were not surprised to see its head pull up off the ground. Little Jack fired again, and the Clockwork Man rolled out of the way. It tumbled over a tent, which wrapped around the android. The machine then ripped through it, and crashed through a second tent effortlessly, directly toward Little Jack.

Lancaster and Little Jack turned their farkosils and spurred them on into the desert. The Clockwork Man followed. The two men were pleasantly surprised at how fast their mounts were, despite their awkward appearances. They had longer legs than they had first appeared to have. It seemed they had been crouching before with their legs bent and the upper thighs hidden in the folds of their skin. Now those legs came to full length and they pushed the ground beneath them into their wake with sand flying up behind.

Unfortunately, the Clockwork Man had speed as well, and it raced after them well beyond the pace of a human. Fortunately, it did not have the speed of a farkosil, and slowly but surely they could see his form in the flung-up sand shrinking behind them.

They rode up a hill to get a better look at the surrounding territory. At the crest, they turned to see how far behind the Clockwork Man was, and if it had given up the chase.

It had not. In the pale moonlight they could see a straight trail of sand slicing directly toward them like a knife cutting along a straight edge. It neither slowed nor sped up, but remained at the same rapid and determined pace regardless of the terrain over which it ran.

Little Jack zoomed in with his glasses to get a better look. The Clockwork Man's face was pointing toward the ground, following the trails of the farkosils exactly. It never slowed to take in extra information; just kept moving relentlessly forward.

Little Jack glanced at Lancaster, and they shared a look of concern. They turned their animals and continued on further into the desert.

A little further on, when they had the hill between themselves and the Clockwork Man, they turned 90 degrees in hopes that the machine would not notice the shift in direction, but when they turned, they saw by the two moons the trail of sand rising ever toward them. They were gaining distance from it, but eventually they would have to rest, or their animals would fall over from exhaustion. The android would not.

After riding for several hours, they tried out a plan Lancaster had thought up. While they rode down into a long, deep gully, Lancaster rode right next to Little Jack's mount and leaped over to it. He then nudged his own farkosil away in one direction, onto some soft sand and further into the gully, while they turned sharply and rode onto a rocky hill where the tracks were harder to see.

The hill was tall and steep, a struggle to get up, but it was worth it to lose the relentless android. They weaved around several large boulders until they found a cave with a natural balcony made from a jutting rock outside the large hole. The two stopped here to look back and see if their plan worked. Their one remaining animal needed a rest anyway, and if they succeeded, they might get some rest as well.

The two men had built enough of a lead by this point that they had to wait to see the Clockwork Man again, so they holed up until the sand trail came into view. As they watched, Lancaster grew anxious. It was not just fear that was haunting him, but regret. He felt for all those people at the beduwi camp. So many had been slaughtered, and the survivors would never be the same. The trauma that came to that peaceful community would linger, and as they rebuilt, they would likely change much for the worse. Their innocence was gone forever.

And Lancaster knew that he was to blame. "I brought that thing to them," Lancaster said; not to his partner, not even to himself, but to the darkness around him. "I brought them that death and destruction. It's all my fault. So many dead because of me. And so much more because I led that thing straight to them."

Little Jack just looked at him with his blank expression. He was a pragmatist; so much so that he had difficulty bringing himself to the emotional depths of those around him. He knew Lancaster needed words of comfort, but he had none to give, so Little Jack remained silent.

Lancaster continued, "I can't help but think that your friend was right. Maybe I'm awakening something that will destroy everyone and everything. It might be better to leave well enough alone rather than shake up the hornets' nest. I might be searching for something that will just destroy everything that humanity has built."

"You know I could be making a lot more money going back to my corporate spy days, right?" Little Jack said. His voice sounded scolding, and implied he was ready to quit. Lancaster didn't blame him. "There's a hades lot more money playing one business against another; money I could live on the til with. But you sav why I don't? Because after it's over, who cares who won? It's strictly business. I've stuck it out with you because you care about something. It may be strange and it may not pay the bills, but at least it's something."

"Yeah, but..."

"Shut up, I'm talking. You're an arrogant prick."

Lancaster looked at Little Jack surprised. Little Jack continued to wear the same blank expression on his face as he continued.

"You are arrogant and self-righteous if you feel that you're the only one that can awaken these beasts. If not you, someone, somewhere, is going to find them, and when they do, this machine that's chasing us is only a small taste of the power they're going to have. They will wipe out everyone and everything, just as they did with every race that came before. The only hope any of us have is if someone finds out who they are and how to deal with them. That's what you're doing. That's why I stay with you. And that's the only reason... Why do you keep looking away?"

"It's down there," Lancaster said.

They both peeked over the lip of the boulder. They could see a glint of silver at the head of a trail of dust still slicing through the desert. It was in the gully now, and soon to reach the point where they split off one of their mounts. They waited with baited breath, hoping their plan would work.

It did. The two-legged machine turned away from them and followed the trail of the farkosil out into the sand. Lancaster and Little Jack breathed out with relief as they watched the trail race away from them. Lancaster even chuckled a little and nudged his partner. Little Jack sat back, satisfied, and now began to consider how they would get off the planet.

Lancaster looked back down into the gully to watch the Clockwork Man go. But he lost his smile immediately. The trail of sand stopped. It was no longer moving, and he could not see where it was. Its form was mixed in somewhere down there with the shadows. He told Little Jack to come back to take a look, which his partner did.

Little Jack switched the settings on his glasses to infrared and found the machine man immediately. It was standing near the shape of the farkosil, which had stopped to eat some scrub brush. The Clockwork Man appeared momentarily confused as it searched for clues. It then backtracked on itself, getting quickly to the point where they had split. Little Jack hoped that even though it knew they had split, the machine would not find their tracks in the rocks.

It did, and very soon it was racing relentlessly up the steep, rocky hill much faster than they went.

"Time to leave," Little Jack said, and the two of them hopped back onto their farkosil.

As they crested the top of the hill, the sunrise met them on the other side. They were both getting exhausted, and they had no idea what they would do.

Neither had come up with much of a plan in the next couple hours as they felt the farkosil begin to stumble and they heard it panting heavily. Little Jack could see it was beginning to froth at the mouth. He therefore didn't push it as the animal slowed to a stuttering trot, then stopped and folded in its legs to lie its belly on the ground. Its long neck rolled out onto the sand and its eyes closed the moment the head landed on a soft patch of earth.

Lancaster paid no attention. He flung one leg over the side and dashed a few meters away, kneeling in the sand. Little Jack could see that he had some sort of plan, so he got off, waited, and watched. As he did, he could see the trail of wake behind the Clockwork Man growing in the distance. It was only a small puff right now, but it was steadily growing. Whatever Lancaster was planning, he should do it quickly.

Lancaster pulled out the medallion and turned it on the side with the symbols. He twisted all the dials to the hieroglyphs he had seen in the room at the Guzmat site. Just as it had done the night before, again, it did nothing.

Little Jack drew his gun Munin and made sure it was on explosive round. He only had a few shots, but perhaps he could slow the machine down long enough for Lancaster to do whatever he was doing.

Lancaster scooped up a handful of sand, then blew it over the medallion. Most of the sand flew past, but several particles stopped in mid-air and clumped together into miniature stars, forming a star field.

The dust cloud was getting larger. Little Jack could see the metallic shape of the Clockwork Man at the base moving steadily toward them.

Above the medallion, the sand from all the stars clumped onto one of them, making it larger. The last vestiges of the sand formed planets orbiting the one star. They spun around it a moment, then all of it dropped except one. The Promised World.

Lancaster lit up, his smile plastered from ear to ear. "I found it, Little Jack! We just need to triangulate the pattern from the star field, and..."

"We've got some more pressing matters right now!" Little Jack warned.

Lancaster looked up to see the dust cloud now filling a significant section of the horizon. The Clockwork Man was in plain view, running relentlessly toward them, slowed by nothing. Lancaster then looked down at their mount. Lying flat against the ground and drooling from exhaustion, it wasn't going anywhere.

He knew this was it. Little Jack could do a little damage, but not enough to stop it. Despite their impending doom, all Lancaster could really think about was how sad it was that they had come so close to the answer that had been buried for millions of years, and now it would be buried for millions more, the key out here in the middle of the desert. Some future race would probably find it in his fossilized hand and wonder why it was in the possession of that long-since extinct race called humans. They would probably not know the irony that this human was chopped down by a relic of an even earlier race.

To add insult to injury, a small vessel appeared out of the desert on the opposite side of them coming straight for the two partners. "Oh, come on!" Little Jack exclaimed, knowing it was the pirates. They were caught between two deaths which would probably reach them at the same time.

Despite their deplorable position, Lancaster continued to consider possibilities while he scooped up a couple more handfuls of sand and dropped them in his pockets. He then set his eyes on the shuttle and said, "Follow me!" Lancaster began running for the ship, and Little Jack followed, with the Clockwork Man gaining behind them.

As they and the ship neared one another, Lancaster smiled with relief. "Only Mika wobbles the ship so much when she gets close to the ground!" he exclaimed. Now they were close enough that he recognized the shuttle from Saberaux University.

Little Jack was less optimistic. The Clockwork Man was still gaining, and he could now make out almost all his features. They would still need to wait for Mika to land and open the door, and then they'll have another victim for the machine.

Lancaster had already considered this. He lifted his arm and made a hand gesture that told Mika to keep flying. She did, slowing slightly, and Lancaster put the medallion away and pulled out his grappling gun.

Little Jack fired off a couple missiles behind him. One hit the sand around the Clockwork Man, which made It stumble momentarily, and the other hit It square in the chest. This stopped its forward momentum and even pushed It back slightly, which was significant. But the Clockwork Man placed one foot behind, steadying Itself. It then recovered quickly, unsheathed Its blades on Its wrists, and continued to sprint directly at them.

Lancaster shot his grappling gun at the shuttle and it latched on. He attached it to its place on his belt with one hand and grabbed Little Jack with the other. Little Jack grabbed onto him, his hands shaking with fear he rarely felt.

Lancaster pressed a button on the gun and they launched up into the sky, swinging just above the Clockwork Man.

The machine didn't miss a beat. It launched Itself into the sky as well, grabbing onto the back of the ship. It was already climbing toward the point of the grapple when Lancaster and Little Jack slid up to the door of the ship. Lancaster's fist hit the button to open the hatch and the two tumbled quickly inside. The Clockwork Man's hand grasped the wall just next to the door and It pulled Itself over to the opening. Lancaster punched the control on the opposite side and the door began to slide shut. The Clockwork Man lunged for the opening, but the door closed right in Its face.

Without hesitation, It reached for the control, but Lancaster locked it just in time. Again, not a problem for the Clockwork Man. It pulled out the circuit board and pressed Its hand inside. It felt around until It found the correct port to plug into, and It began to order the door to open.

"Go up!" Lancaster shouted to Mika. "Up! Now!"

Mika pulled back and the ship lurched into a steep climb.

Outside, the Clockwork Man was jolted momentarily out of position. It could plug in again and continue to order the door to open. However, it would take a few moments, and there was a small chance that the attempt would fail. In this time, the ship could swing around to shake It off, or even go at such a speed that It may be taken off by wind or re-entry flames. The Clockwork Man did a quick calculation and realized that the odds against It exceeded Its chance of success. So It let go and fell to the ground. The ship was not yet high enough for the Clockwork Man to be destroyed by the fall, but almost. Tumbling from a great height was one of the few ways the machine could be destroyed, and It was not willing to allow that to happen. The Clockwork Man would find these two again, and It would complete the mission.

Chapter

Thirteen

Miscalculations

Ceriliseta was on the elevator with her attendants and Bela as her body guard. He was supposed to be guarding Galek and her together, but her father had been delayed in his office with some business. Ceriliseta was glad of it. This meant that her father was staying focused on what was truly important.

He had asked Ceriliseta to join him and her mother at this zero G ballet on the 51st floor where they would enjoy three hours of acrobatics and three dimensional dancing, preceded by an hour long feast and followed by hours of cocktails and diplomatic pleasantries. It was all a waste of time as far as Ceriliseta was concerned. An entire evening would pass with no fiduciary or military progress; and they needed all the success they could get.

The road to recovery ahead of them was steep. The word had spread that the Navarus Barony was weak, and it was like blood in a tank full of sharks. The Koneraad Barony had taken several outer planets and were working their way in to the larger ones. Several corporations had voluntarily merged with them due to their victories and their numbers and combined technologies were becoming strong enough to take on her father's larger interests. Added to that were the buyouts happening on the Galactic Market. Even former allies were squeezing her father out of business, and soon Galek would have little with which to fight any war.

The fact that he was waylaid by business meant he was finally recognizing the seriousness of the threats. 'Hopefully,' Ceriliseta thought, 'he has finally ceased the sentimental search for those pieces of junk.'

The elevator began to slow. Ceriliseta's attendants stepped toward the doorway to announce her arrival. Bela was confused. It didn't seem like they should have yet arrived, and this was a private lift, accessible only by royalty. They had already spoken to Ceriliseta's mother just before leaving and she was already at the event. He looked up at the floor listing and saw that, indeed, they had only made it to the 65th floor. Something was wrong, so he stepped in front of her highness.

It was just in time, for just as the doors slid open, rapid laser fire tore through the entrance. The attendants were ripped apart, and they fell back against the walls like rag dolls. The few who survived more than a second backed away, but had nowhere to go, and were cut down in an instant.

Bela had acted just quickly enough. With one hand he shoved Ceriliseta to the floor and he crouched down just above her. With his other hand he held out his cane length-wise and activated it into an energy shield which soaked up the shots. The laser blasts splattered against it like rain on a window.

The shooter was a machine. Bela recognized it as one of their own; a four-foot tall Defense Oscillator. It had tracks for mobility and was intended for placement in a location from which to fire at incoming enemy fighters. It had three weapons. The rapid-lasers which surprised them were the lightest. Bela held tight, anticipating the next barrage.

The Defense Oscillator now ignored all the bodies in the elevator and turned only on Bela. It could see the energy shield over him by the floating blood stains and lifted body parts. The machine switched to cannons, and a pair of large particle bolts fired into the shield. Bela was knocked back a few inches, but he held the shield in place.

The Defense Oscillator stared at him a moment, almost as though it was confused, but it had no such intelligence. It was simply recharging its weapons. Bela held tight, hoping his shield would hold, taking deep, concerned breaths. He could feel Ceriliseta at his feet. She was helpless, counting on him. Their futures depended on the next couple moments.

The machine fired, and the bolts crashed into his shield. The blood wiped off and the body parts scattered. Bela stumbled back, one leg stepping over Ceriliseta. His left arm felt like it was shattered, and his entire body ached. But he pushed against the pressure and the pain and as he looked at the bot he could see tiny dots of glowing energy sparkling between them. The shield had held.

The elevator dinged and began to close. The cannons were powering up again, but they would not be ready in time. So the Defense Oscillator used its third and final weapon. A small, metal device the size of a grenade popped out of its torso and clanked into the elevator. It bounced off two of the walls before coming to rest on the floor. It had a rhythmic beeping that was rapidly getting faster. Bela knew that when the separated beeps became so fast they joined into one long sound, the grenade would explode.

The doors were closing and in a moment they would be trapped. The explosion would probably get through his shield, and even if it didn't, it would take the oxygen out of the chamber, and cause the elevator to plummet hundreds of meters to their doom. Bela had only one chance at this.

When the doors were almost shut, at least enough that the Defense Oscillator would have trouble firing through them, Bela turned off the shield and leaped toward the grenade. He swept the ground and knocked the grenade out like a hockey puck, barely getting it through the thin goal posts of the door a moment before they shut. The elevator began to continue downward, but Bela spun around, swinging the cane over Ceriliseta, and hit the button to stop the elevator. Ceriliseta looked at him perplexed. This was their chance to escape!

Bela waited silently, concentrating on the door. A second later, they heard an explosion and saw the doors dent slightly inward. He pressed the button to open them.

The machine was blown apart on one side, its operating system no longer functioning. However, there was still some electronic life left in it near its base which was fading fast. Bela removed his watch from his wrist and pressed a couple buttons on the top panel. He then yanked off a half-blown-apart panel from the bot and reached his hand in with the head from his watch. He plugged the watch piece into a piece of the machine and waited a few seconds while the circuitry fizzled and died.

Bela then pulled the watch piece out and read it. "Signal to it was coming from the 24th floor of our own building," he said, and he immediately contacted security from that sector. They were dispatched, and within five minutes they had the perpetrators in custody.

* * *

The two conspirators were attached to large, upright tables. Electrodes were connected to them via needles punctured into their skin at various points.

One of the conspirators was already dead; tortured to the point that her body could take no more, and she hung limp, held up by chains and the needles attached to her. The other conspirator was begging to be killed; to have the pain end through his demise.

But his tormentors would not let him die; nor would they allow him to go unconscious. Through the needles they inserted adrenaline and other chemicals to keep him awake and aware. His face was wet with tears and drool which also dribbled onto his body.

The torture warden had begun the process, but Ceriliseta took charge. Her make-up smeared and her clothing rumpled, she had not taken the time to arrange herself. She had instead gone straight to the prison to aid in the gathering of information. Her father had only just learned about the assassination attempt, it having taken place not quite a half hour earlier. Galek had said he would be there soon, but he had to finish dealing with an imminent attack to some of their most important stock holdings. Ceriliseta was certain this would not last long enough for him to arrive.

Bela had encouraged Ceriliseta to wait for her father; and to allow the wardens to handle the questioning, but her blood was boiling, and she made it abundantly clear that she was not interested in suggestions.

She knew several of the buttons on the machine which dealt various types of pain. Some sent electronic shocks to specific areas, some sent chemicals into the blood stream, some she just tried to see what they would do to the man. The ones she made certain to know were the ones which kept him conscious and alive so she could continue dealing agony.

The man had provided several pieces of information when they first started torturing him. He admitted that he and his friend lived on Navarus and that they were approached and paid for the assassination. The female conspirator had told them that they got the machine from one of the defense towers in another part of the city. She would not explain how they managed to transport the Defense Oscillator and who might have helped them. It had been at this point that Ceriliseta stepped in and increased the torture on her. The male conspirator had said he'd tell if Ceriliseta kept the woman alive. Despite the female conspirator's objections, the man gave the information, and Ceriliseta turned the torture on again so the woman died painfully in front of the man.

It was a mistake Ceriliseta rarely made, allowing her emotions to control her actions, for after that, the man had no incentive to help them, other than to avoid the same painful death himself. It was exactly for that reason that Ceriliseta had killed the woman, to make an example to the man, but she had not taken into account the shock and ennui it would cause the man to see someone he cared about die in front of him. Now, all he had left was to wait for death.

Ceriliseta determined to grant it to him. After all, she now had names of others who had helped them and she could continue the investigation through them. The conspirator could end his pain and suffering by telling her who exactly ordered the assassination.

The man's face turned grim and he tensed every muscle in his face, a sign of defiance. Ceriliseta pressed one of the more painful buttons, then turned a dial, increasing the intensity. The man screamed in agony. She then switched to another form of pain without break, then a third, all of them more harrowing because of the combination.

She finally stopped and gave him a chance to speak. He didn't. She asked if he was ready to answer her questions. Still nothing. She pressed a fourth button, and his whole body shook with spasms and his eyes convulsed. Bela, who had been to these sessions before and felt the same fear Ceriliseta had felt in the elevator, now began to feel uncomfortable. Even the torture warden was feeling this needed to end.

"Speak!" Ceriliseta shouted while giving the man a break. He didn't. She pressed a button again, briefly this time. He twitched hard, then flapped back onto the upright table. "Speak!" she repeated, and again pushed the button.

She did it a couple more times with the same result, until finally he said a single word. "Clodana."

"What?" she asked annoyed, like someone had just irritated her with a casual comment.

"Clodana," he half-whispered.

Ceriliseta assumed he was referring to one of the corporations Navarus owned, Clodana, a corporation whose main sales came from footwear. "What about Clodana? Did you attack them, too?"

The man shook his head warily. It took all his energy. "Clodana hired us."

"Liar!" she shouted, and she surged electricity through him.

He came down gasping. "If you won't deem me, then just kill me," he said.

"Tell me who hired you!" she shouted directly into his face. Her nose was almost touching his. She looked like a monster with her ornamental make-up dripping down as though her face was melting. With the overhead light beaming down on them hard, it looked as though this melting monster had no eyes. "Tell me and I will let you follow your friend!"

"They have been paid off by Koneraad. Their stock was to trade hands immediately after the assassination. Their CEOs will be thrusting off the planet right now."

Ceriliseta looked over at Bela, who was already beaming stock information in hologram form out of his watch. It was true. The Clodana Corporation had switched to Koneraad a minute after the assassination attempt. Most of the trades could only take place if the Navarus family was no longer around to object. He also checked on flight manifests. Sure enough, several transports were taking off from the Clodana Building.

Bela informed Ceriliseta, and she ordered that the transports be shot down, and the building be demolished with all remaining Clodana employees still inside. Normally, Bela would first confirm with Galek, but he revealed his own rage at this attack by delivering the first order without even calling his boss. He further ordered that the building be put under quarantine rather than having it demolished. There might be some inside who had information.

The remaining conspirator hung his head in shame. Not only had he failed his mission, he had gotten everyone involved in it killed, including the woman he desired above all others. There was nothing left but to die.

"I have one more query of you, traitor, before I give you peace," Ceriliseta said. "Why did Clodana wish to have me killed?"

The conspirator lifted his head with effort and stared at Ceriliseta as though she was an alien. "You weren't the target," he said, as though that would be an obvious statement. Ceriliseta looked back at him perplexed. "Only your father was."

Ceriliseta remained there for some time, taking it in, considering. It was as though she was upset at not being the target. It was, perhaps, an insult to her pride, but Ceriliseta was thinking more about how weak her father had become that one of his own corporations, a lesser one at that, had turned on him. It wasn't even a corporate barony, just a random corporation under their control and protection. It had gotten so close that it had almost succeeded in killing him; and worse, it had come close to killing her. She couldn't help but think about how foolish the conspirators were to try to murder the man who was, if anything, helping their cause by being such an incompetent leader.

Ceriliseta leaned into the man again. This time her nose did touch his. He could feel her breath on his lips. One of her hands was squeezing his shoulder while the other stretched to the side with the fingers on the buttons. She said in a whisper so quietly only he could hear, "This woman might have meant something to you, but I sav there are others who mean even more. Mother, father, siblings, children, best friends. After you are dead, if I find anything you've said is a lie, I will kill all of them. And I will not be as easy on them as I've been on you."

The conspirator could now see Ceriliseta's eyes through the darkness. They were gray orbs in a sea of black, but he could tell they were in earnest.

She leaned in to his ear and whispered, "Do you wish to change anything you've said?"

"Don't hurt my family," he said.

"Shhhhh," she whispered soothingly. "If you are truthful, they will live. If you are not, they will die painfully. This is your last chance, traitor. Have you been truthful?"

She felt his head nod and heard him whisper through his tears, "Yes."

She pulled back from him with a warm smile on her lips. She leaned back a little to reveal her eyes; her beautiful, steel blue eyes. They spoke mercy now, even seduction, and she said, "Thank you."

Then she pressed a button that shot the most potent combination of chemicals and electricity into his muscles and veins. His body convulsed and his eyes bulged. He screamed an earsplitting cry in brief yelps. The pain was excruciating, far beyond what his friend had experienced. Ceriliseta made the machine to which he was connected keep him alive while she increased the intensity on a dial, building up to the highest level. His muscle spasms were so great it looked as though he would burst from the table, or his body would explode. Then she turned off the life-support system, and almost instantly he dropped dead.

* * *

Shasa watched the gray waves of the sand dunes as they passed underneath, illuminated only by the light of the two moons. She could see no tracks, but she had the tour guide with her to aid the search. After the Clockwork Man had run off and they accepted that their prey was gone, the privateers had had to face a problem they created: the couple dozen witnesses they now had around them. They could control them alone at the ruins, but the corporate police back at the city would eventually be alerted, and that could turn into a major problem.

Shasa knew she needed to continue the search, and she needed the tourists to be quiet. So she took the tour guide and told everyone else that if they informed anyone of what was happening, she would kill the woman. It played on the guilty feelings of the others, and they promised to tell no one. This would only work for a few hours, Shasa realized, but she hoped it would be enough.

They all returned to town together, and Shasa kept a gun in her pocket aimed at the tour guide. The others from the tour knew what she was doing, and as they spread out in their own directions, no one said anything to anyone... yet.

Shasa took the tour guide with her to the shuttle, and she, Otto, and most of the remaining raiders got on board. She left behind the ones who were already guarding Jude's and her friend's ships in hopes that they'd circle back around for them, and they took off to scour the desert.

The sun had just set when they flew over the Guzmat site, and now they were heading to a location where the tour guide said the dune buggy had likely come from. It was a group that called themselves the Beduwi; a naïve group of idealists who thought they knew more than everyone else in society.

As they went, Shasa continually checked in on the guards back at the town, ordering them to let her know if they had spotted the men or the woman yet. Each one said no, and they reported their new positions, which had to shift since it was now night and some locations closed while others opened. In darkness they could hide better, but they also looked like they were loitering in most of their regular spots.

The shuttle crew saw a flame in the distance, like a campfire, burning on the ground. As they came closer, the flame grew, and they found it was no mere bonfire, but the entire Beduwi site. The tents and buildings were burning, and the people had little with which to put out the flames. A few used their precious reserves of water to save important necessities like the food stores, but the rest burned; and many of the people were packing up and getting ready to move on. Otto used his spectrum goggles to get a better look and saw that there were dead bodies scattered about, some with missing limbs, others torn in half. Family and friends wept over them. They could not hear their voices from inside the shuttle, but Otto could hear them in his head.

The tour guide, who had never been a fan of the Beduwi, was moved nearly to tears herself as she saw these normally overly gleeful people now reduced to bitterness and tears. Some looked up defiantly at the shuttle and shouted something, probably curses.

No one said it, but they were all thinking the same words. The Clockwork Man.

"There!" the tour guide exclaimed. She pointed down at a heap of scrap metal with engine parts and tires scattered around it. "That was the dune buggy that came and got them. I recognize some of the markings."

Shasa took a closer look. "Is that a body among the wreckage?" she asked.

Otto took a look through his goggles. He pressed a small button on the side and another filter slid into place, increasing the contrast. It was a body, but it was too covered over with metal and sand to discern anything from it, so Shasa ordered the shuttle to land nearby.

As the door lowered, the raiders hurried off the platform into the swirling sand with their guns drawn. They arced around the entrance to establish a perimeter. Shasa and Otto came out after them followed by the tour guide, who looked out at the situation in horror. A few of the villagers, covered in ash, soot, and sand, stared back at her, and the pirates who were positioning themselves like military guards taking their territory. The Beduwi people wondered if they had come to finish what the machine had done, and by the hollow look in their eyes, it seemed they didn't care.

Shasa walked swiftly to the wreckage of the car and the dead body. She wanted this over with quickly, and she looked at her surroundings as little as possible. That was for her crew to do. She shoved her foot under the body, then lifted it, rolling the body over. Seeing the face, she knew immediately it was none of the people for whom she was searching.

Otto was utilizing the various filters in his goggles all around the buggy, but he found no sign of the others.

Shasa called back to the tour guide, but the woman was stunned into a numb silence as she stared at the wreckage. Shasa snapper her fingers, waving them in front of the woman, and she finally shook out of her daze and looked back at the pirate captain. "You're sav this was the vehicle that picked the two men and the woman up?" Shasa asked.

The tour guide nodded.

"Chances be they were further in the camp and got rubbed in there," Otto said. "They might already be buried."

"But if the android completed its mission by killing them, why didn't it return to the town?" Shasa said. "We would have picked up its reading on the way out here."

Otto didn't respond. It was a good point. He expanded his perimeter and soon found other scuffle marks and footprints from people running desperately in every direction.

Most importantly, he found some tracks which were running toward the dune buggy and stopped, then turned to a group of hoof prints that proceeded to run out of the camp. As he told Shasa this, she responded by saying, "That's our boys. Let's jonder!"

They flew low over the desert floor, Otto peering out the front with his goggles set to whatever filter made it easiest to spot the fugitives at any given moment. He was leaning so far forward and was so still he looked like the masthead of a ship.

Shasa watched him silently. There was little she could do, as he gave instructions to the pilot, who, in turn, kept the ship on course to follow the animal tracks. The targets had started as three people. This had turned into two sets of mount tracks. These two sets of animal tracks had turned into one set of animal tracks, which had led to an animal sitting out alone in the wild.

The privateers landed near the animal and investigated the area. Otto found that the Clockwork Man had chased it to this point, then had run toward a hill. The privateers took off again, backtracked to where the two animals had split up, and followed the second pair up the rocky hill.

The sun was up by now. Shasa had chewed out Otto for his broken goggles causing them to get behind schedule; but he knew, as she did deep down, that she was only very stressed. She wanted this chase to end, and it seemed as though everyone was always a couple steps ahead of her.

And then she learned they were even a few more than that.

As they went through the list of guards back at Kamuk, one of them did not report in. This had happened a couple times during the night as the guards grew tired and dozed off. But this time, when Shasa repeated the guard's name, he still did not respond.

Then a woman's voice jumped in. "Oh! Sorry, that's my cue. Hi! Yes, he's sleeping right now; unconscious, actually. I needed to keep him tame. Men, you know how they are, especially when they're guarding your ship."

"Jude," Shasa spat as if it was a curse.

"So nice to be remembered! Okay, so here's how we're going to do this. I have the bead on one of your other guards. I won't say which one; that would ruin the surprise. But I know where all of your guards are because I've been porting in every time you checked with them. I had a gun on your boy here so he had to report in each time until he got cute on the last one and pretended he was asleep, so I knocked him out after I made him report in. How you all doing out there in the desert?"

"What do you want?" Shasa asked.

"I think it's abundantly obvious. I want my ship back. But we all know that if you just let me on it your ship in orbit would be on me before I made it out of atmo, so I've got a different plan. You ready for it?"

All was silent for a moment while everyone waited for Jude to continue. She didn't. Finally, Shasa said impatiently, "Yes! Go on!"

Just then, the privateer's shuttle came upon the Clockwork Man marching casually back toward the city through the desert, as though on a common stroll. It stopped and looked up at the shuttle, which in turn, halted in midair above him.

Jude said, "By this point you've found that Tiny and his friend have gotten away and since they were in a ship you don't know, it got past your big one in orbit, so they're already out of your grasp. How do I know this? Drum roll please! Because I dropped a tracker into Lancaster's pocket. He's got so many pockets on that jacket of his he won't know which one it's in, so he has no idea! I can take you right to them. And where they're mosing, it's a place called the Promised World, so you can spect nothing but wealth and riches from a long ago civilization who won't come after you. A whole planet with their priceless treasures. I'm imagining gold streets, silver buildings, traulite statues, nothing but the most precious of jewels. And it can all be yours if you open the way to my ship!"

Shasa took her time considering what Jude was saying. All was silent in her shuttle, save for the whining of the engines. Her raiders were staring at her, waiting for her decision. "How do I sav I can trust you?" Shasa finally asked.

"You know better than to trust anyone," Jude said. "But I've got nothing better to offer, and I'm better off going with you than them."

"Why?" Shasa asked.

"Because, Mr. Goodie goodie will only let me take one artifact from the site. You're aiming to clean the place out. I'd rather do that."

Shasa was silent again, considering. She looked out the window at the Clockwork Man, who was now standing still, looking up at her, waiting. It looked more like an abandoned statue the way it refused to waver as the windswept sand beat against its body.

Otto at last chimed in in their family language. " _Let's forget the whole thing,_ " he said. " _We have the artwork from the school's museum. That'll be enough to split among the crew, repair the ship, and fuel us up to keep flying. Let's just cut our losses here._ "

Shasa didn't answer her brother either. She kept staring at the Clockwork Man. Blood stains were smeared all over its body, its hands, its arms, its face. It was a killing machine unlike anything she had ever seen.

Otto saw he wasn't getting through to her, so he leaned in so she had to see him. " _Leave the redhead behind. Leave the machine behind. Let go of whatever it is we're chasing. All the treasure in the universe is useless if you're not around to use it._ "

Shasa thought a little longer. Though the electronic beast below them did not have eyes that were visible, she felt like they were sharing stares. " _Navarus will want their toy back. In the meantime, it's ours to do with as we please. We'll never have a tool like it again_." She did not look at her brother, only at the pilot as she said in standard English, "Bring us down and open the gate. Jude?"

"I'm right here!"

"Lead my guards to the one you knocked unconscious, then you have safe passage to your vessel. You will then lead us to this Promised World you're talking about."

"Aye aye, captain," Jude said, and they disconnected.

As the shuttle lowered, Shasa avoided the eyes of her brother. She expected him to speak, and was prepared to parry everything he had to say, but he said nothing. At last she looked at him. He was still staring at her, and he had a look she had never seen from him before, a look of disappointment in her.

* * *

The corridors grew steadily more ornate the closer Bela got to Ceriliseta's chambers. The entire 225th floor of the Palace Building was the most richly decorated of the whole tower, but the hallways just outside the rooms of the royal family were adorned with the most precious jewels, the most delicately carved statuary, and the most skillful paint which shone in slightly different hues depending on the angle at which one looked at it.

Bela barely noticed today, however, as his mind was on the tasks that had just been accomplished. The CEOs and CFOs of the traitorous Clodana Corporation were all executed, whether there was any evidence of their involvement in the plot or not. The entire board of directors, too, were rounded up out of their homes or offices and executed en masse together in a board room with the use of gas. The owners of the companies under the Clodana umbrella were all arrested, even though it seemed they had no knowledge of the plot. Due to their association, they were placed in the deeper portions of the prison tower indefinitely and without trials or attorneys. Their families were expelled from the planet and forbidden to return. The businesses themselves were broken up and sold off in portions, the employees of which were fired, their property seized, and they were made homeless. It might seem harsh to some, but it was all in a day's liquidation for a professional like Bela.

He had come to report this news to Ceriliseta. He hoped she would take it well, even though she had not wanted her father to be so easy on everyone. Galek had ordered that the building not be destroyed with the employees inside because the resources could be best used elsewhere, and they may lose others out of fear.

Satisfied with his preparations to explain all of this, Bela pressed the bell to Ceriliseta's room.

"Come in," he heard her call. That voice always took his breath away. He only hoped that his joy of seeing her each time he did was hidden from the young woman.

The door slid open and Bela marched inside. He was four paces in before he noticed her on the massage table. She was face down and naked, save for a long, colorful, translucent towel wrapped around her buttocks. He could see just enough of the shape and pale color to desire it, and not see just enough for his imagination to run wild. She was being massaged by one of her new attendants, and she was moaning with satisfaction.

It was a torment. He did not know how purposeful it was, but it was a distraction that caused him to stop in his tracks and forget his purpose. "I am sorry, milady. I will return when you're more prepared to..."

"No, report now," she said. "It will go novier on me to hear it while I'm relaxed."

Bela fidgeted as he tried to regain his composure. It was policy and tradition to look his princess in the eyes when speaking to her, but he had difficulty facing her in her present position. Slowly, he managed to give the report through a plethora of stammers.

"Gregor, that will be sufficient. I will speak with my father's protectorate now," Ceriliseta said. The man giving the massage bowed, then left through the doorway in which Bela entered. Ceriliseta pressed a button and Bela heard the door lock behind him. Ahead of him, Ceriliseta rose on the table. She pulled the sheet up with her, but it was virtually without purpose. Bela could see everything through the sheerness of the fabric. She watched him closely. She saw that his eyes dropped to her chest, then turned quickly away. Her instincts about him had been correct. "You spared a lot of lives, Held Bela," she said. "Including mine." This last she said with a breathiness that was almost a whisper.

"I deserve no excess title, Princessa. I was only doing my duty."

"If not for you and your... rod, I would be dead now. You are the barony's champion."

Bela nodded quickly and nervously. "That is my position, yes. I am your father's guardian. Now, I fear for my secret weapon."

"Come closer, champion!" Ceriliseta ordered, straightening her back in a majestic fashion, reminding him of her position. "I can barely hear you through your stutters."

"Excuse me, claro," Bela said as he stepped forward, embarrassed and ashamed to be losing his cool in front of the daughter of his employer. As he did, he noticed one of her long, skinny legs dropping over the edge of the table. He tried to stop just out of its reach as he said, "My secret weapon, the android. It is a powerful weapon, and it's on the loose with the independent contractors."

"It figures as though you're concerned that we're so spread hither and yon," Ceriliseta said as she swung her other leg over the table. As she did, she separated her legs for just enough time to tantalize the already afflicted man.

Bela swallowed hard before answering. "Yes. I register these ancient treasures are important, but I wonder if they are important enough for us to lose track of one of our greatest assets."

Ceriliseta had stopped moving toward Bela. He had prepared now to put up his guard and inform the daughter of his employer that he had boundaries, and could not cross them. But she did not touch him. Instead, she looked into his eyes with those steel gray-blue cat eyes of hers. He got lost in them immediately and forgot himself as she whispered in her breathy voice, "Were you scared?"

"When, milady?"

"When that machine tore into our lift. When it slaughtered everything in there but most of all wanted to kill us. When it faced you and magged that rapid fire wasn't enough? Instead it pounded at your shield harder and harder. When it hammered away at your shield with its pulse cannons again and again until you could hardly stand."

Bela had not noticed until it was too late that her leg had wrapped around his and pulled him to her. He had been lost in her words and was now raptured by her, inches from her as the sheer sheet dropped from her torso. Her chest was heaved upward as she held her breath. She was biting her bottom lip, still connected with his eyes.

"You were not frightened at all, were you Held Bela?" she said. "You were thrilled. You felt more alive than you ever have in your life." She took in breaths heavier and deeper now, and she lowered her forehead onto his.

Bela finally allowed his hands to touch her waist, first through the sheets, but then onto the soft skin. Ceriliseta grasped his neck with one hand, then the other. She closed her bright blue eyes, then kissed him deeply with her lips.

* * *

Galek stood on the top tier of his headquarters where he could oversee the myriad consoles laid out in rows before him. Their operators were in constant motion administering the war effort; some on communications, others sending and receiving data, delivering orders to the military, getting intel on distant planets, and monitoring financial concerns.

The upper section was dedicated to military matters, and the generals and admirals conducted their operations and campaigns from alcoves and rows set aside specifically for their respective branches of the military. The lower portion was dedicated to economics. A larger ticker of the Galactic Market ran continuously over video and holographic screens which showed news items related to Navarus interests. The heads in this section shook and bobbed at dizzying speeds, keeping up with the ever changing inflations, trends, purchases and sales. It took fast minds and great memories to work in a financial HQ such as this.

The last few days had been different however. Typically, military and finance supported one another, with money flowing into the military just long enough for interests to be gained through conquest, and the money flowed back into the financial section with the gains and interest to then be used to further their yield through purchases. Now, however, the money was flowing one direction, from the financial sector to the military. It was an emergency, and all resources were being utilized to save the Navarus Empire from collapse.

The Koneraad Barony had made headway into their territory, creating a bulge with the systems they had conquered. Several corporations had joined them, and other baronies were mobilizing their militaries. These were allies of Navarus, but when they saw blood in the water they did not want to be left out of the spoils. Galek didn't blame them. If one of his allies was going down, he'd take some of their territory just to keep another barony from growing too strong.

This was all the more reason to hurt Koneraad with a mighty blow; to make an example to those baronies and corporations considering joining his enemy; a way to show they were not beaten yet. He had ordered a consolidation of their largest ships into a single fleet, backed up by transports which would retake planet after planet. He had already done a series of counter attacks which, while successful, were short lived. Each time a planet was reclaimed, it was conquered again by the enemy who took the opportunity to take a second planet as profit.

Some planets were rebelling, the companies who led them demanding that they have more autonomy under Koneraad's rule. Koneraad promised this, though Galek knew these promises would be as short lived as his temporary victories. He would deal with them harshly, the way his daughter had dealt with the corporate rebellion on their home planet.

He was proud of her for her decisiveness, though he was a little disturbed she had acted before he knew what was happening.

There was no time for that concern now. Operation Spearhead would launch as soon as the fleet had assembled, and the resulting blow would discourage anyone from pulling the same stunt again.

Galek was pacing the floor bouncing between departments and work stations, giving orders like a conductor to his orchestra. He rarely shouted to anyone, but instead spoke to a subordinate who then shouted the proper command to an employee in his department. Galek was focusing primarily on the constantly moving maps, switching the one on the main holo-projector near the center as quickly as a person with a trigger finger on the remote control who can't decide what to watch. Sometimes he repeated his questions, and his lieutenants repeated their answers without reminding him that they had already told him.

Bela was ever close to Galek, strolling behind despite Galek's erratic movements. He needed to be ready to protect him if a repeat of what happened to Galek's daughter happened here. Bela's eagle eyes had been watching everyone closely. A couple of the military officers and security guards who knew him well eyed him back. They were ready.

It took Galek by complete surprise when the double doors to the control center opened wide and his daughter entered with her entourage. Her people were armed with repeater rifles now, ready to defend the princess, and themselves.

This was highly irregular. Ceriliseta did not normally set foot in a place like this. Several of the generals looked at the girl, grinning at her patronizingly like she was a child coming to see her daddy at work.

Her father was less pleased. He scowled at her and approached, scolding Ceiliseta before he reached her. "This is no place for a girl. Run along now, Ceriliseta. Keep your mother company."

He could hear a couple chuckles behind him and that angered Galek even more. He was losing discipline at the time he needed it most.

Ceriliseta did not move. She stopped and stood perfectly still, staring at her father. She was in full royal garb and make-up, decorated in the fashion of a major royal event, with her crown upon her head, and her golden lined red dress and flowing translucent cape. She wore real gold make-up mixed with bronze above her eyes and on her neck, pale white with a hint of orange spread across her face, red lipstick so dark it looked almost black, and a brighter red and blue which outlined several features. She also wore an emerald symbol upon her left cheek with small, inlaid sapphires that represented command, and she had red vertical lines that dropped down her nose from the inner portions of her eyes, a decoration that was not in any of their family traditions, but gave her a savage, intimidating appearance.

Her demeanor was enough to knock Galek off balance. " _There is nothing for you to see here, darling,_ " Galek said in the Navarus tongue. " _We are handling the situation. If you are frightened, rest confidently that we will keep you safe._ "

"I will not leave, Galek Navarus!" Ceriliseta declared in a commanding voice loud enough for everyone to hear. She did not speak in the Navarus tongue specifically so she could be understood by all. She had their attention, and especially that of her father. She drew in a deep breath, standing tall and sticking out her chest, and said, "For too long have you distracted this barony with unnecessary foolishness. You will not turn matters around now with the same recklessness. I am taking ascendancy now, and you will wait in a cell until I determine what to do with you."

Galek's face turned ever redder as she spoke. His embarrassment in front of his men fueled his rage, and by the time she reached the end of her little speech, he was nearly shaking. He grasped her arm and turned her around with one hand, exposing her behind to him, then lifted his other hand ready to spank her.

All of Ceriliseta's attendants lifted their rifles and trained them on Galek. He hesitated, and Ceriliseta shook herself free from his grasp. Galek looked at the attendants and ordered them to stand down, lest they be executed for treason. "My daughter can be forgiven for this behavior, for she is young and foolish, and more importantly, royalty; but none of you will be spared, even with her pleading," he told them.

Then a voice rose behind him that Galek would never have imagined would speak in defiance to him. "No one will harm them, Don Navarus." It was the voice of Bela. Galek had to turn to see him to believe it was true. Bela had a pistol on him, and several guards in the room also had their weapons drawn, ready to shoot down anyone who defended their commander in chief. "You are to be escorted by Donna Navarus's bodyguard to the prison level. You will receive the highest of gratuities during your stay, fit for a man of your position."

"You, too, Bela?" was all Galek could manage to say. Looking around, he could see that he had been outmaneuvered. However they had done it, Ceriliseta and her confederates had covered every base, and his fate was sealed. So, too, he believed, was the future of his barony. They could not handle the pressures of leadership, and the next couple days would be critical. Without Galek's plan going into action, they were certain to fail.

Speechless, Galek turned to his daughter's servants, and marched away with them as they enveloped him in a box, protecting him on all sides from escape, rescue, or assassination.

Ceriliseta kept her head high during the entire process. The make-up covered any possibility of revealed emotions. Her eyes darted from one person to the next, judging their loyalty. Anyone who had begun to raise out of their seats now shrank back into them.

As soon as the double doors swished shut behind her, she began. First, dropping all royal convention, Ceriliseta marched briskly past the military officers. She did not move with the daintiness of a lady, but rather the decisiveness of a commander. Her eyes stared past the armies, ships, and maps to the numbers and symbols on the economic screens.

Shocked, and a little offended at being bypassed, one of the admirals said, "Milady, your father was gathering a group of space ships together to go after our enemies..."

"Operation Spearhead will be a failure," Ceriliseta interrupted, continuing on without even looking back. "If they haven't already intercepted that title which gives away the entire plan, then it will work twice, only getting our fleet deeper into enemy territory where it will be surrounded, cut off, and annihilated. Koneraad planned this attack months ago and it began when they purchased the latest technologies in thrusters and weaponry. They can outrun us and outgun us. We have to take that advantage away from them. Give me the stats on Berifir Co."

The large window at the front which was tinted over with rapid-fire statistics about various corporations now cleared in place of information on one single company. The operator said as he did it, "Ma'am, that is a furniture manufacturer."

"You are correct, operator. I wish you to buy the company."

"Ma'am?"

"Purchase it! Before someone else acquires it."

The purchase was made. Ceriliseta could feel the lack of confidence, but no one said anything aloud.

She ordered that all the inventory be given away. The operator had to make sure he heard correctly, for give away and free were two words rarely used in the galaxy of finance. The operator also reminded Ceriliseta that this would break the company she had just purchased before she saw any profits from it.

"Yes, I want all of it given away. Find places that will take it. But take the best furniture, particularly the Erneman throne accessories, and offer them to Don Grover Aban of the Aban Firm."

Don Aban ran a private firm that had stock in smaller companies and a couple corporations. It was, in essence, a small-time barony, someone far below the stature of the Navarus family. But the offer was made. Don Aban contacted Ceriliseta, thankful for the offer, but Ceriliseta cut him short, saying that she actually wanted a trade with him. She wished to trade the much sought after furniture, of which there had always been a very long waiting list, and which would now be unavailable, for stock in MFO, a food company so large it was practically its own corporation.

Food had never been Grover Aban's favorite business; he had even declared that to the press when he grew frustrated by the wait times to allow crops to grow. And so it was no trouble for him to gladly trade his shares in MFO to the Navarus Barony.

This was not enough interest to control everything the company did, but she could give orders for certain portions of the company. One area was in the growing and selling of turnishes, a type of fruit grown on only a few planets. Its rarity and great taste made it a highly sought after and somewhat expensive food. Ceriliseta also knew that it was easy and fast to grow, and that the businesses who grew it were hoarding large numbers in warehouses.

She ordered that all warehouses of turnishes be opened and the delicacy fruit be sold at a rock bottom price. She further ordered that the seeds be spread to many other planets and for entire farms to be made just of that crop.

The Navarus operators were as confused as they could get. They didn't understand why so much attention was being spent on this. Some of them tried to go back to the other trading, but Ceriliseta ordered them to stand down and focus on the business that she was doing. She needed everyone available for what she was about to do.

Within an hour, news of the fruit's dispersion and soon-to-be wide availability became widespread. The farmers and middle managers complained, but Ceriliseta ordered that those channels be cut and ignored. She was busy watching the price of turnishes. It dropped. Plummeted, really. She smiled slightly.

"Bring up Valentino Corporation," she ordered. Information about Valentino Corporation appeared on the main screen. It had plummeted. Several of their companies relied on the sale of turnishes. "Pay whatever you have to to make us the major stock holders of that corp," she said.

The stock operators quickly got to work. There was no selling, only buying. Despite the lowered price of the stock, it still cost a fortune, of which the Navarus Barony was running slim. She watched two screens, one that had their finances, and another which showed the percentage of Valentino she owned. Each jumped at the same time, her account going down, the percentage going up.

The moment the percentage reached 51% she ordered that half of the corporation's companies be broken up and sold, but she made sure they held onto two: Reichard's R&D and Shorn Fuel. The sales brought up the numbers on the Navarus bank accounts, and made a tidy profit for them.

The stock operators began to sigh with relief and smiled at their success. It was short lived, as Ceriliseta now ordered them to begin bidding on stocks in the Valeze Corporation.

All work ceased and everyone went silent, staring at her. One of them said, "That belongs to the Koneraad Barony."

"I know."

"We will be giving money to our enemy."

"Do it." Her expression was firmly set on the monitors. She knew what she was doing.

They began making bids, not purchasing any specific amount, simply haggling with stock brokers over the prices of purchasing Valeze stock, which they bought in small chunks.

Soon after, Ceriliseta had them bid on other businesses within the Koneraad fold. Again, it was not aggressive enough to take anything over, just enough to show an interest. Watching the figures jump across the screens, Bela began to understand a pattern. All the companies Ceriliseta had her agents bidding on were either fuel companies, or companies within major fuel corporations.

While all the chaos was going on along the floor, Ceriliseta stepped over to one of the work stations and told a pair of agents to stop bidding on the Koneraad interests, and instead purchase three companies within the fold of the Viveci Corporation, which had no affiliation with their enemy. The agents did as she ordered. Bela looked over their shoulders and saw that they were all energy companies, completely unrelated to fuel. He began to wonder what her plan was. She had not told him all the details, and he probably would not understand either. He preferred things simple, and this was anything but that.

A loud buzzing noise like a short alarm sounded from one of the consoles. The operator reported that the Koneraad executives were bidding against them on their fuel company interests. Ceriliseta ordered them to out-bid them on every company, and the operators doubled their efforts. The noise was almost deafening as the trading became chaotic. The numbers on the screens rose, Navarus, then Koneraad, then Navarus, then Koneraad.

Ceriliseta turned to some agents and ordered them to contact their stock sharks and have them encourage others to get in on the same action. She promised that the prices were going to get astronomical.

They did, and soon enough, multiple baron names appeared. The stock price was rising out of control.

Bela, who understood just enough to see they had just created competition for themselves, sauntered up behind Ceriliseta and pointed out this fact to her.

Ceriliseta was concentrating too heavily on the task to answer Bela. She turned to the agents she had purchasing the three Viveci companies, and they nodded that they had them. "All right, sell everything we have with Koneraad," she said. "But do it quietly, and make it look like we're surrendering."

The atmosphere shifted, but remained frenzied as the operators switched from buying to selling small pieces at a time.

"Get me Marelle Taru, CEO of Viveci on the screen," Ceriliseta said.

After a minute of trying to reach the CEO, the woman finally appeared on the screen. Her hair was matted and she was in a bathrobe. Her rumpled bed was behind her with the lights only dimly illuminated. "Yes, what's so important?" she asked groggy and confused.

"Donna Taru, this is Ceriliseta Navarus of the Navarus Barony."

"Who?"

"I am Galek Navarus's daughter."

"Oh."

"I have recently acquired Reichard's R&D, and I am of the understanding that you have interest in a recent technology of theirs."

Marelle Taru looked suspiciously out at Ceriliseta, trying to understand what she was getting at.

"Specifically their construction methods that will aid in your architectural manufacturing," Ceriliseta concluded. "I've scryed over their research, and it will triple your profits."

"I'm listening for an offer," Marelle said.

"I would like to be a silent partner in the ownership of this company. As long as I share in the profits of what you create with it. I would also insist that three more of my companies come under the umbrella of Viveci with me as sole owner of them and with full partnership rights."

Marelle was still glaring with skepticism, trying to detect a trick, but finding only positive results for her corporation. "I will have to speak with the board tomorrow," she said.

"You will wake them and have an emergency meeting," Ceriliseta demanded. "This offer is only good for the next three hours."

"That's a tall order," Marelle said. "I'll see what I can do."

They both cut the connection, and Ceriliseta turned immediately to the operators selling the Koneraad stocks. They were just releasing the last ones. Koneraad, meanwhile, was spending a fortune to hold onto their fuel company interests to keep them from falling into the hands of other baronies, some of whom were their allies in war, but not in finance, and now their coalition was strained.

Ceriliseta answered Bela's confused and admiring glare by saying, "That was a distraction, to get them looking the wrong way and spending all their electros. We, meanwhile, will have enough interest in Viveci with these four companies that all we need do is purchase a little more, and we can control its decisions."

Two hours later, Ceriliseta had her answer from Marelle Taru. They would accept the partnership and take her companies into the fold. The legalities were finalized, and instantly Ceriliseta had her agents purchase enough stock to make her a majority holder. Once again, their funds were drained dramatically, but she had what she wanted.

Now she leaned back against a console and had one of her operators list the Viveci companies on the screen. She scanned them as they passed by, searching for one name in particular, Lantis. As soon as she saw it, she told the operator to stop and provide all the information.

"Bela," she said, "you are to go to Lantis Company Headquarters and replace the president. Along the way, you are to review the specs for Reichard's latest inventions which involve remote orders to ships' systems. Report to me when you have control of the company, but be discreet about your seizure, do you comprend?"

"Yes, Donna Navarus," Bela said, and he bowed slowly, declaring a level of respect beyond even what he had had for her before.

And then the rest of the room slowly bowed, each individual who until today had no idea of Ceriliseta's brilliance.

They were impressed because Lantis' chief product was the power plants used on all Koneraad ships and planetary defense systems.

* * *

The Clockwork Man stood on the bridge with the crew, the redhead, the pirate captain and her brother. They were preparing for spectrum drive when the Clockwork Man received a message from Bela, the one human whom the Clockwork Man still looked up to, at least for the present.

The message ordered the Clockwork Man to liquidate all assets on the pirate vessel, and to return to Navarus for reassignment.

It seemed they were giving up the search for whatever it was they had been searching for. There was some sort of trouble back at home, and it must be serious if they needed the Clockwork Man to abort Its mission to help.

The Clockwork Man had the time. It could dispatch all life on board this vessel before they went into spectrum and return to Navarus immediately. The fools on board had their backs to It. They had no idea what It was capable of doing.

But in doing this, the Clockwork Man would never complete Its operation to destroy the two men from the desert. That would mean that It was defeated. The Clockwork Man could not accept that. No mere mortal would make a fool out of It.

The pirates were going to the planet where the two mortals were. The Clockwork man would go with them, and there It would liquidate everyone at once. Then It would take the ships of the duo, the redhead, and the pirates all back to Navarus as a prize. Thus proving beyond dispute to Bela Its worthiness.

Chapter

Fourteen

The Promised World

Lancaster was wearing the hat he had left at Mika's home as he studied the hologram and the three screens in the research room of the university shuttle. Mika had brought the hat along when she flew to pick them up. She assumed Lancaster would want it wherever he was going. She also knew that he had probably gone through at least one more hat in the time since she had seen him.

The shuttle was not much; a ship with enough size to carry a class of perhaps ten students, a cockpit, some storage to place samples, a research room, a little space for necessities such as medical supplies, food, communications, and engine repairs, and a spectrum drive to get them around. Normally there was a waiting list for the ship, but with the pirate take-over, formalities were overlooked.

Due to its purpose, the research room was the most well equipped and maintained chamber on board. The computer equipment was state of the art, and Lancaster could have several pieces of information appearing at once, some on the screens, and some on the hologram in the middle.

Mika was with him helping Lancaster go through the data faster. He had plugged in the drive where he was storing information about the Siguerans' views of the universe.

There were, indeed, some images of a few stars and some planets, and even some maps of small sections of the galaxy that had not yet been discovered by humans. But most of it was theoretical. Mika knew the language better than Lancaster, and was able to interpret the symbols faster and more effectively, but as they went through the files, Lancaster and Mika were disappointed. They had hoped it would unlock some of the bigger secrets kept by this mysterious race, but it primarily covered information contained in a space exploration 101 class, such as the Big Bang, the formation of stars and planets, the destruction of those, what formed wormholes and where black holes led. Mind-blowing information, to be sure, but little that they did not already know.

Lancaster tried to crack a few jokes to lighten the mood. In particular, he liked to read the alien writing as if it was some dirty joke which each time caused Mika to say, "What does it say?" and take a look. When she found she had been duped, she did not laugh along with Lancaster, and told him to get back to work, muttering that she should have left him to the pirates.

She had explained to him what had happened at the university, and that she knew they were chasing him, but she didn't know why. She also said she blamed him for what happened, which made Lancaster feel guilty.

By the time they reached their destination they still had a lot to go through, so Lancaster placed the small memory stick into his pocket for later use, and they went to the cockpit.

Mika was not particularly fond of Little Jack, but she let him fly. She knew he was a better navigator than her, having lived out in space for so long while she lived planet-side. He would need those skills since they were flying off the grid of any human maps.

They had played the sand projection from the medallion for the shuttle's computer, which was able to analyze where all the stars were and as a result triangulate the position of the one for which they were searching. It was a small dwarf that gave off little light or heat. All of its planets were small and close to it, almost like moons to a planet. It had always been overlooked by astrocartographers and supply companies because of its low profile and seeming lack of resources. There was no sign even that it could support life.

Little Jack was nevertheless able to navigate effectively and he pulled them out of the brane within an hour of the planet. He had called the two in when the ship was nearing the atmosphere.

The first question was where to go on the planet. Lancaster had no idea. The sand hologram had shown the system and the planet, but gave no directions on the planet itself. Was that a piece of the puzzle he was still missing? He hoped there was some sign on the planet's surface, but they could see none.

"Were you expecting crops with signs carved out of them?" asked Little Jack.

"I don't know," Lancaster said.

"It is small," Mika said. "If there's any sign of a city, above or below ground, we might be able to find it within atmo."

Lancaster nodded, and Little Jack flew down into the atmosphere.

When the re-entry flames cleared, all they could see was solid rock below them in every direction. There were rugged mountains with some snow on them, and some occasional dust, but little to interrupt the drab scenery save for long, jagged canyons that tangled across the landscape like giant cracks in the earth. They were filled with gray mist which swirled in motions that gave the canyons the appearance of flowing rivers. The sky matched the ground, a flat blue-gray which caused a repressive hue over the entire land.

Little Jack looked over at Lancaster, who knew he was waiting for instructions on where to fly. The problem was, Lancaster had no idea. They had arrived at the Promised World only to find a dull and uninviting landscape. Lancaster could only think to look over at Mika, who frustratingly said, "What are you looking at me for?"

Lancaster concentrated again on the horizon. He thought about everything he had witnessed while searching for this place. He tried to consider any secret maps or hidden meanings in anything he had seen. Nothing came to mind. Without any clue and not wanting to return to civilization yet, he told Little Jack to fly down closer to the land.

The extra time did not help him figure out the puzzle. He was certain there would be something he would have to go back and find that he had overlooked, or look over something he had found again, but he wanted to soak in as much as possible while he was here, especially since he had no idea when he'd be able to return. By now he was certain they were out of money and he'd probably have to do some sort of work for someone else to save it up again. Little Jack would probably have to go back to some of his old clients and who knew if he'd ever even travel with Lancaster again.

'Their god would be calling them to the Promised World,' Lancaster thought. 'The Promised World.' Their god... calling them... Promised...'

He suddenly had a thought. "Do you have external audio monitors?" Lancaster asked Mika.

"I'm not abso. I've never needed them," she answered.

Little Jack looked over the control panel. Along the side, he found several switches that seemed relevant. He flicked each one in turn until he heard the air blowing outside. "That would chances be it," he said.

The wind hissed not only from the rapid motion of the shuttle, but also from its natural speed. Outside, winds rushed at nearly a hundred kilometers an hour. Gusts and storms would make it waft even faster. Such a continuous breeze made for occasional noises that sounded like hoots or howling, which Lancaster listened closely to in order to discern if there was something more to them.

Then something caught his attention. It could have been part of the wind, but it seemed too long and independent of the rest of the sounds; a distant moan behind all the swishing of the wind. He looked at the others to see if they heard it, but neither had any reaction.

Lancaster placed his ear closer, listening intently for the noise. The moan called again, softly, but prominently, and separated from the rhythm of the rest of the wind. Lancaster believed it was coming from their right, and so he told Little Jack to turn starboard.

Mika handed Lancaster earphones since he could clearly hear what they could not, and Lancaster sat close to the control panel holding the sides of the them tight against his ears. He waited for a while as the ship turned and steadied itself in the direction he had requested. The silence grew longer, and Lancaster began to wonder if he had told Little Jack to fly the wrong direction. He even looked at the other two with despair.

Then the sound came again, an extended sigh which grew in volume. They were getting closer. It faded away under the constant hiss of the breeze, and all was silent for a time.

Then it rose again, louder than before, a definite roaring noise emanating from something that created the sound.

Lancaster could not hold in his emotions. He shouted with joy, then unplugged the earphones so the sound would play over the speakers in the cockpit. There was only hissing for a time, but then the deep, baritone moan groaned out again, now so loud the speakers began to reverberate.

It gave Mika goose bumps; and not all welcome ones as they were with Lancaster. "What is that supposed to be?" she asked.

"Their god," Lancaster answered.

"Their god? You came to meet a god?"

"Well, I..." Lancaster stammered. "You always said everything happened for a reason."

"I didn't always say that," Mika argued.

"I think I remember you saying it once..."

"What is out there, Lancaster?" Mika asked.

"I really don't know," he said.

The moan cried out again, this time it was all encompassing, echoing through the cockpit, shaking the walls of the ship. They were near it, whatever it was, but they saw nothing; just the same rocky terrain they had been flying over.

Lancaster peeked up over the front, straining to see below them. He saw that they had approached a canyon with its blanket of fog floating along the edge. The noise had to be coming from within.

They watched the slowly swirling smoke carefully until the voice came again. This time, the gray sheet shook, ripples forming and hurrying away to the edges. Whatever it was, it was down there.

"How maneuverable is this ship?" Little Jack asked.

"It's a school shuttle," Mika answered. "It's not exactly built for escapes."

"We can let you off before we go inside," Lancaster offered.

"So if you die, I'm stranded here with whatever that thing is," she said. "I might as well take my chances with you."

"Are you abso?" Lancaster asked.

"Positive," she said, her jaw set, and her eyes determinedly looking at the crevice.

"No one's going to ask if I don't want to go down there?" Little Jack asked, a bit offended.

Lancaster didn't say anything; he just looked at his partner. Little Jack shrugged and turned back to the controls, then dropped them slowly into the sea of fog.

Just as they dipped below the surface and the surroundings faded into a dark gray, they heard the sound again. This time they did not need the speakers monitoring the outside. The sound shook the entire vessel and it resonated through the metal. They even felt it in their clothes and their skin. A strong gust of wind coming from the same direction as the sound knocked the shuttle to one side and they almost tipped over.

Little Jack turned toward the sound, and for a brief moment, he spotted a mouth wide open before the fog reformed between him and it. He prepared to turn the ship to one side or the other, depending on how the monster would lunge at them.

But it didn't. There was only stillness for a time.

Little Jack slowly lifted the shuttle upward out of the direct line of the mouth he had seen, flying slowly toward the monster. The moan blasted again, just as loud, but shaking the ship a bit less. There was also no gale which tipped them this time.

As the base note continued, the fog parted, revealing a giant face before them. The shuttle was the size of the creature's pupil, if it had eyes. Its face bore ridges with small receptacles peeking out of the folds of skin that hung in wave-like ripples. It had horns on the sides of its head that pointed skyward, much like the subter-Sigueran god of protection, but it also had a lizard-like chin with spikes protruding and a membrane that framed the edge of the face like a beard. Its mouth wore a vengeful expression, wide and ready to devour them.

But the face did not move. It stood perfectly inert. And after a moment it registered to everyone that it was part of the cliff wall. This was a face carved into the stone. Wind was blowing through the mouth, which must have connected through a tunnel up to the surface. Something about the way it was carved made the wind create a noise as it escaped into the canyon, thus the moaning. Their god had called them home.

The fog made it difficult to see much of the statue at one time, so Little Jack used a sensor array to form an image on a screen at the front of the control panel. He dropped the shuttle down along the statue, passing the mouth between its breaths. The giant head connected to an enormous body which stretched hundreds of meters downward. Its form was similar to an eagle with spread wings, and its legs perched on a stony throne. It was much like a hand-sized statue Lancaster had found inside a secret subter-Sigueran shrine; the one he had gone into that sent him on this whole search to begin with. That explained more than anything else that he had found the destination.

As they lowered beneath the wings, they began to see rows carved deep into the rock. Upon closer examination, they spotted doorways and windows, and soon realized that they were buildings. Below one row was another row of buildings, then another. Some buildings clung to the ceilings of their rows, others connected to both their floor and their ceilings, while still others connected to multiple levels. They even found tall skyscrapers which sliced through dozens of stories deep down into the fog. Scanning the other side of the canyon, Little Jack revealed that the same sort of rows and buildings were carved out of the wall there as well.

Soon after, they heard another moaning similar to the first, but now coming from further on in the deep and long crevice; another statue of a god calling its people home.

Lancaster and Mika were peering into the windows and down the streets trying to catch a glimpse of a live alien. If this was where they had gone to be home, they might very well still be there; but thus far it was disappointingly silent.

Lancaster froze the image on the front monitor. He had spotted something and wanted to be sure of it. He zoomed in, and sure enough, he had seen correctly. A shadow. It was brief, and through a window, but it was unmistakably a being with a head.

He scanned the streets and buildings for more signs, and there were several. He kept finding shadows peeking around corners or staring at them through holes, but he could not see any faces. He wished for a moment that they had Little Jack's ship so he could get better resolution, but then remembered that this shuttle had superior sensors to those on Odin's Revenge. There would only be one way of seeing these creatures; landing and meeting them.

When he announced what he wanted to do, Mika suggested they send a message through the communicator. Lancaster did not approve of the idea since they didn't know how to speak the alien language, or even how they would react to communication signals. Though he and Mika could read subter-Sigueran, they did not know exactly how the words were supposed to sound. Mika had difficulty arguing with the logic, but realized the risks were greater than Lancaster was making them out to be. She looked over his still images. She tried to ignore the excitement that was welling up inside her; the same excitement Lancaster was showing openly. That enthusiasm could get them killed. It was the same thrill that likely caused her second husband to disappear.

At last she said okay, they could land. Again, Little Jack piped in, "Isn't anyone going to ask my opinion at some point?"

"There's a good landing spot right there," Lancaster said, pointing to a town square type area only a block or so into one of the levels.

Both Lancaster and Mika were near the hatch when the ship settled in and the hatch began to open. "Now chi to mind," Mika said, "whatever is out there knows we're here, and we're exposed. So be cautious."

The hatchway door created a stairway for them, which Lancaster bound down as he said, "Will do!"

Mika watched a moment, half expecting Lancaster to get shot, or fall down from poisoned air. They had tested the oxygen quality coming in and knew it was safe, but still, she almost wanted him to choke on his good fortune.

There were no shots fired, no welcoming committee, no aliens, no noise, nothing at all but the wind and the occasional hum of the now distant statues.

Lancaster looked in every direction. There were bridges across multi-storied levels, and stairs that led to buildings attached to the roof, as well as doorways into buildings that connected levels and stalagmites turned support beams which connected the floor of the cave to the roof of it. The place looked used, lived in but no one was about.

Mika stepped up behind Lancaster and said, "Welcome to the Promised World." Lancaster didn't answer. He looked both baffled and near tears. "Isn't this what you wanted?" Mika asked.

"This is a town for you and your archaeologist friends," he answered, his joyous tone gone. "Empty. Dead. I was wanting life." He walked away, heading toward one of the streets that branched out of the town square. Mika followed at a distance, giving Lancaster the space he seemed to need. Little Jack came up behind her after securing the ship.

The streets were narrow. Dark windows stared at Lancaster like empty eyes. Open doorways gaped like gawking mouths. They had the angled cuts of the subter-Sigueran architecture, and the fine stonework with inlaid designs and precious, yet dulled jewels placed as decorations. It was eerily beautiful, and silent as a tomb.

The light was dimming the further he went from the cave entrance, but he didn't want to use his Illuminator yet for fear of startling anyone he might find, forgetting for the moment that they were blind, or concerned that he might have been wrong about that supposition.

He peeked in windows and looked through doors, calling occasionally in hopes that he would get someone's attention. There was no response. Furniture, toys, equipment, everything was in place as though it was a normal day. Some plates were even set out to dinner with the chairs all set around the table. They were low to the ground and in the fashion of the subter-Sigueran, but otherwise, much how humans would set up a table. Only no one was there. It was as though they had abandoned their city while in the middle of their activities. They had to be somewhere; he had seen their heads as they were flying in. And if they were all dead, where were the skeletons?

He rounded a corner and stopped suddenly, his breath escaping him. There, at the next corner, was someone's shadow. It had the distinctive shape of a head, torso, and legs. He looked behind him to make sure Mika and Little Jack were there, and they were, so the shadow did not belong to either of them.

Lancaster crept toward the shadow, trying to muffle his footsteps. There were thousands of tiny pebbles scattered along the ground that caused soft crunching noises as he stepped, so Lancaster tried to keep this to a minimum. He did not want to scare this critter away before he got to it. If he could just see what they looked like...

As he got closer, he could tell the being was short, about the size of Little Jack, perhaps an inch or two taller, and it was skinny, even gangly. He could tell it was not the shadow of a human; it didn't have the correct shape.

This was it. The shadow was coming from around the corner. He would finally come face to face with...

Nothing. He rounded the corner only to see nothing standing there, but the shadow remained on the ground. It was burned into it, a part of the shading of the road.

Lancaster knelt down and ran his hand against it. The ground felt no different where the shadow was. It was as though the stone naturally had this shading on it.

Lancaster now turned on his Illuminator and studied the shadow, then turned it on the walls of the buildings, the ground, and the ceiling. Mika did the same. And now they saw what they had been passing without noticing; there were dozens of shadows all over the place. Some were frozen in motion, others were standing still, some were sitting, and some were going about the everyday activities humans did, washing clothes, making food, going to work, to school, to events. They were living normal lives. But nothing was connected to the shadows to cast them.

"What are these?" Little Jack asked.

"These are the subter-Sigueran," Lancaster concluded. "What's left of them. Coget how the shadows all stretch in one direction, away from the opening of the cave. Something attacked them from that direction; something that would not damage the buildings or anything else. Only living matter."

Lancaster began to lead the others toward the cave entrance as he continue to speak. "They were a slave race to the Siguerans. We've been mislabeling them as subter-Siguerans because they were not Siguerans at all. They're worthy to a title all their own. They did not come from the Sigueran homeworld, they had come from a different world. They were taken from it, enslaved by the Siguerans to build for them, to do their bidding."

"They disappeared with the Siguerans?" Mika asked.

"No. They ran from them. Some of them found a way to escape. They found a world they could settle and not be chased to. But they could not tell others openly. They had to create a trail, one that led through their holy shrines. They regisoned the Siguerans would not follow them because they didn't care about religion."

Lancaster was now near the front and was searching for something. "They disguised the path through the temples of their god of travel so that they would know what they were searching for, but the Siguerans would not. They even made traps only their people would sav how to get through. Thousands, probably millions funneled through this system. When the Siguerans figured them out, they not only destroyed their temple, they destroyed the whole planet; the moon around Palmetto that's now a ring."

Little Jack nodded. Mika said, "What?"

"The subter... We'll have to find another word for them. The runaways were afeared the Siguerans were onto them, so they made the next leg of the trip view like it was the city where they had all escaped."

"The Guzmat site," Mika said.

"Exacto!" Lancaster exclaimed. "There were no basic facilities for everyday living. This was a fake town with only one building that would tell their fellow runaways where to go to get to the Promised World. They left just enough of that fake town sticking out of the sand to make it view like shifting sands had exposed it, so when the Siguerans tracked them there, they would see it was a city, and without exploring it, they would destroy it, thus cutting off all clues as to where the Promised World was."

"Wiping out the tracks," Little Jack added.

"Exacto," Lancaster said, still searching for something of which he seemed hot on the trail. "The Siguerans were not fooled by the ruse, and didn't destroy the planet this time. They somehow managed to see the sand hologram, and must have used one of these to locate the Promised World, the way we did." He held up the medallion, still looking over the walls, floors, and ceilings for something. "By that time, hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of runaways had made it here. Chances be they thought they were safe in the fog; on a planet that figured to have no life."

"The Siguerans likely had the sensors that could detect them while the runaways were blind," Mika said.

"Not completely blind," Lancaster told her, and finally pressed a piece of a wall with a design carved into it. The fog which blanketed the giant outside entrance to the cave began to swirl as if on command. Lancaster went to what appeared to be a partial wall which came up to their knees. He knelt down to it and began pushing, turning, and manipulating stones like on a control panel. The clouds moved in time with it. They soon formed into the image of the sky outside the canyon. It then formed into a map of the surrounding area. Various symbols and drawings appeared. Lancaster went through it, bringing up random subjects, the fog shifting into large, three dimensional images as though it was a giant, holographic computer screen.

"They didn't use light to see like we do," Lancaster said. "They used particles from their bodies that bounced off a subject and came back to them. So they always utilized physical elements that formed into shapes so they could see. They had no concept of the universe..." Lancaster pressed a button and the star field outside the planet appeared in the fog. "...until they were slaves and learned about it from the Siguerans. They had to create ways to adjust so they could see with their particles that translated light into nearby surfaces."

"That would explain why they were such great sculptors," Mika said, stepping up next to Lancaster.

"And why they lived underground so often," Lancaster concluded.

Mika started pressing some of the buttons also, waving off Lancaster to give her some room. She studied the symbols, feeling them with her fingers. It was her method to investigate first, then experiment rather than the other way around, as Lancaster often did.

In this manner she found what she was searching for. She ran the image back to what had played last in the cloud screen; what had been projected in it hundreds of thousands of years ago just before these beings turned to shadows and went extinct.

She first ran through everything Lancaster had put up, zipping backward through his discoveries. The clouds froze in place for a few moments, began to swirl chaotically again, then formed into the shapes of the runaways. There were several of them speaking to one another, moving about rooms, gesturing, going through what appeared to be various emotions.

After she was a minute into it, she played it back. It appeared to be some sort of holographic movie projected for everyone on this level to see. Everything seemed consistent with a story which, while a little difficult for the three humans to see, would have been easy for the runaways to visualize with their particle receptors.

Then, very suddenly, the clouds dispersed. Everything that had been on the screen vanished, as though it was shut down quite suddenly.

Lancaster had noticed something about the moment it cut out, so he had Mika run it back. Mika had to look again for what amounted to be the rewind switch and pressed it. The last few moments played again. It all blinked away, but this time they all noticed something interesting. It didn't just switch off, it literally blinked off. There was a brief flash before going dark. It was as though a lightning strike had occurred at the moment it all cut short.

They played it back again and Lancaster looked more closely. It took him a couple more times watching it before he noticed something in the background that hadn't been there before, a round device with a couple of antennae sticking out the top and what appeared to be short wings at the bottom of it. Lancaster didn't understand these people's version of drama, (or was it comedy, or action, or romance?) but this one device seemed out of place.

He had Mika run it back a little further until he couldn't see the flying object anymore. When they ran it forward, they could see when the device lowered down. Lancaster now realized why it didn't seem to fit. None of the characters reacted to it, and it was in every shot. This device was not in the movie. It was actually there, in the cloud cover at the time the cloud movie had been playing millennia ago, and it got recorded.

And when the flash went off again, he could see that it came from the round drone that had floated into the image.

Something else then floated past in the fog like a lost spirit. It took them all off guard at first, as it hadn't been in any of the previous projections. Then it occurred to Mika, Little Jack and Lancaster why that was. This was not a projection; it was real. Two ships were floating slowly by, Jude's Desert Rose, and the pirate's shuttle craft. Little Jack guessed correctly that she had made a deal with them to get her ship back.

But when the two vessels drifted by without stopping, they knew they hadn't been found yet, and it was time to figure out how they were going to leave.

They were certain that flying out would be futile. Both of the other ships could outrun them, and the main pirate starship would be waiting for them in orbit. If they hid out where they were, the pirates would locate them eventually, or worse yet, they'd find their ship and take it, stranding them on the planet. There was only one true option.

Chapter

Fifteen

Asset Liquidation

The pirate shuttle found a wide street on which to land. Jude had already found a break in the buildings just large enough to land her ship and was out exploring. She was connected to Shasa through her Talki; Shasa didn't want her disappearing again.

Jude had told her before they landed that the small man's ship was in this canyon somewhere. It was hard to get a reading on exactly where the ship was because of the multiple levels. Plus, there was something in the fog that made sensors less effective. This last excuse was verifiable. The pirates were having difficulty with their own readings on their shuttle, so Shasa took Jude at her word that she was getting them close to the other ship.

Once Shasa exited the shuttle, it sunk in to her that they no longer needed to track the two men. They had led them to an entire abandoned city which stretched who knew how far. They could spend days, perhaps weeks looting this place.

The only problem was, where exactly were the treasures? There had to be some, or else the Navarus Barony would not have put such a high price on finding it. They even provided their one-of-a-kind android to aid them in the endeavor. Speaking of which, Shasa remembered that they would have to take back a cut for their employers as well. But they would hide the majority of their loot from the big robot.

The Clockwork Man remained near Shasa. It seemed to be looking around more curiously than ever at its surroundings. Typically it walked blankly, even heading toward walls and only turning at the last possible moment. Sometimes it seemed like it had turned off when it was standing still. But now it was in constant motion, as though it was studying everything and everyone around it.

Otto took a contingent of raiders to search for treasures in one area while Shasa searched another. She ordered Jude to come to her, and though Jude said she was on her way, she took much longer than she should. Each time Shasa asked for Jude's location, she said she was still on her way. The pirate captain was growing suspicious, so she sent a message to her brother on a private channel in their family language to keep an eye out for the redhead. When Otto replied with an affirmative, she could hear clanking in the background. He was finding something valuable at least.

Shasa was having no such luck. She weaved through buildings with her raiders and crew, but though they found basic furniture, most accessories looked so mundane that they could hardly be worth anything. Rooms that looked like they might have housed valuable commodities appeared as though they had been ransacked long ago, perhaps by some sort of ancient pirates, she thought.

She and her minions were back out in the middle of the wide street considering another building to enter. She was about to contact Jude for another update on her whereabouts when the man with the hat whom she had interrogated appeared quite suddenly on the balcony of a house attached to the roof of the tall cave. He was at least 20 meters off the ground and an equivalent distance ahead of her.

Just as she saw him, he called out to her, "Why are you here, Captain?"

Shasa halted and her raiders pointed their guns at Lancaster. Shasa called back, "The same reason anyone would be. Wealth!"

"There's nothing for you here!" he shouted. "The city is dead, and anything of value was taken eons ago! You're wasting your time!"

"I don't buy it!" she said. "Chased through the desert, fought in an asteroid field, flung yourself across every sector of the galaxy. There's something valuable here; and you're going to give it to us, or you're going to lead us to it." Shasa joined her raiders in pulling her gun on Lancaster, who, disturbingly, was not flinching.

"Captain, look around you!" Lancaster said. "You'll see no treasure but you'll see plenty of shadows."

Shasa had not noticed the shadows on the walls and floors, but now she saw they were everywhere, and all facing away from the cave entrance. It was, for some reason, this last element that she was most disturbed by, and probably because the logical part in her put together subconsciously that they were all destroyed by something that came from that direction.

"They were a race of beings that lasted thousands, perhaps millions of years! And yet their entire existence disappeared in a single instance. Everything they were, every piece of art, of culture, every mark they made in the universe gone forever, and with no one left to tell others who they once were!"

"So you're a sentimentalist wanting to tell their story for them," Shasa said, still skeptical.

"I'm a realist trying to aprend what happened to them so hopefully we can avoid the same fate!" Lancaster's voice echoed through the chambers. They could all hear it this time because no one spoke in response. Lancaster saw that he had gotten through to Shasa enough for her to consider what he was saying; at least the possibility of it. It all seemed so overly dramatic, but she could not deny that it was strange so many alien civilizations would leave behind all their things without any sign of what happened to them.

One of the raiders abruptly switched directions, pointing his gun to one side at a less elevated position. Shasa looked over at what had startled him and saw the shorter man, well positioned at a window, with his gun pointed out. A few more raiders pointed over at him, and for a moment, Shasa felt satisfied that if he opened fire, they could easily take him out, but then she noticed that his gun was not pointed at them. It was pointed at the stone roof directly above them. If he had any explosive rounds as he had had when on her ship, he would take them all out with a squeeze of the trigger.

Then, much to her relief, a red dot appeared directly on the small man's forehead. She then heard Otto whisper into his Talki, "In position. Just give the word." Shasa knew it had been effective by the disturbed look on Lancaster's face, who could see the red dot on his partner.

Shasa looked over and found the window out of which Otto was aiming. As soon as she found him, she saw a red dot on his forehead also. Her expression suddenly mirrored Lancaster's, and her stomach dropped when she heard Jude's voice come out of her Talki. "People used to call something like this a Mexican standoff. I'm not sure why, but since that country doesn't exist anymore, I'd like to claim the word and call it a Jude standoff. How does that sit?"

Otto looked confusedly at his sister, and she pointed at her forehead to tell him what was happening. He rumpled his face in annoyance. She looked around to see where her laser pointer could be coming from, but couldn't find it. "Who's side are you on, anyway?" Shasa asked in annoyance.

"People keep asking me that and I always answer the same thing. My... own. But right now I'm a bit partial to my old partner in crime Little Jack. He's the small one that can turn you into a pancake, so you might want to be polite to him. We had a bit of a kurfufle recently, but we're good now."

"What do you want?" Shasa asked, her impatience revealed.

"I'd like to propose we all unwind. There's plenty of city to go around. Pirates, you go looting and leave the squares alone. Little Jack, you and your friend..."

"Where's the android?" Shasa interrupted. She was looking around, trying to locate all the pieces of the puzzle, and found herself more disturbed at the machine's disappearance than the snaking route of pointed guns.

A silent moment passed where everyone looked around, and then, just like... well, clockwork, the Clockwork Man exploded through a wall, the chunks of stone pulverizing several pirates. With Its claws in both arms exposed, the Clockwork Man ripped apart the last remaining raider standing near It as It continued charging forward.

All guns now trained on the Clockwork Man and everyone began firing. The shots bounced off Its body, and It rushed toward the nearest group of raiders, ripping through them as It made Its way toward Shasa.

Seeing his sister in trouble, Otto fired at the machine with Vera set to full power. The shot landed squarely on the android's back with a heavy blow, and the android fell on Its chest, stunned for a moment, but not destroyed.

The Clockwork Man turned toward Its attacker and spotted Otto immediately. The others around It had fled, including the captain, who had been Its target, so It sprang at the attacker who had nailed It in the back. The man with the large gun looked surprised that the Clockwork Man could jump such a long distance, and the fear in his face grew as it came near. The guards around Otto shot at the Clockwork Man, but with the same success they had had before.

The Clockwork Man felt something land on Its back, and the force caused It to lose just enough momentum that It fell through a wall just below Its target. As It slid on the ground, the Clockwork Man sensed a sharp blade stabbing into Its back. Though It had no organs to puncture, the Clockwork Man did have important machinery that could be disrupted by these jabs, so It swung around, flinging off Its attacker.

The woman who flew across the room was Jude. She slammed into a wall and had the wind knocked out of her. She grabbed onto the wall with her cyber-claws that came out of four of her fingers, and she concentrated on filling her lungs up again. A person without the cybernetic enhancements she had would be too stunned to react, but when she saw the Clockwork Man rise before her and charge, she jumped to the ground and rolled into the Clockwork Man's legs, knocking It down. She rose on the other side and fired at point blank into the joints of the beast, hoping to hit a weak spot. She couldn't find one, however, and the Clockwork Man rose and turned to face her in a heartbeat.

Jude pointed the gun at the ceiling above the Clockwork Man and fired. A piece of it fell on the machine, which distracted It for only a moment, but the moment she needed to spring through the newly blasted hole using her cybernetic feet.

The Clockwork Man took chase, using Its own springy feet to smash through the roof and chase after Jude. She now hurried through windows, jumping to other buildings, trying desperately to get away. The Clockwork Man had no doubt of Its success. It had measured up everyone that was there, and no one had the skills to stop It. Even if this one got away temporarily, she would not make it off the planet, nor would any of these beings. They were rodents, and It was the exterminator.

The machine was faster than Jude and gaining quickly, so Jude opened up a finger and sprayed smoke. She was moving so rapidly, weaving in and out of buildings, that the entire area was soon covered in the thick white haze.

The Clockwork Man lost ground on Jude as it smashed through window frames she had nimbly hopped through, slowed to slice pirates it came upon, and tumbled blindly through the fog. But her luck ran out when she reached a dead-end. She looked quickly for an escape, tried to shoot a hole into a wall, but everything around her was thick and hardy, and there were no exits.

The Clockwork Man had her trapped. Her eyes revealed it. They were large now, frightened, a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time, at least outside of cyberspace. She fired into the machine a couple times with predictable results. Even firing into Its face did nothing. It came at her confidently.

Then an explosion knocked the Clockwork Man to the side. Little Jack followed, his pistol reloading. "Get out of here!" Little Jack shouted, but upon looking around, Jude was already gone. Little Jack did not mess around with any other type of shot setting on Munin. He had three missile shots, and he intended to make them count.

The Clockwork Man rose its head and faced Little Jack. Little Jack fired at the neck, hoping to separate the head. The Clockwork Man swiped at the missile in the air and batted it away. The nearby explosion sent more collateral damage back to Little Jack than it did to the Clockwork Man.

By the time Little Jack finished stumbling, the Clockwork Man was back on Its feet. Little Jack changed his mind about trying different settings, and his cartridge twisted to a focused cutter beam. He fired at the metal plating on the lower torso, hoping to cut it open.

The Clockwork Man actually stopped for a moment, curious to see what was happening to Its body. Its receptors were sending an alarm, and the reason was because the focused laser beam was causing sparks, and a scar was forming on its outer plate. The beam was slowly going down, and after a few minutes of this, a small square could potentially be cut out of Its center.

The Clockwork Man looked again at the small target, who evidently had begun to realize the futility of this action, and began running. The machine took chase.

As previously planned, Mika was flying the shuttle in as a distraction, or for an extraction of Lancaster and his friend. Of course, the plan had involved her rescuing them from the pirates, not from a rogue machine that was killing everyone. The entire area was now filled with smoke, and it was hard to see anyone, but she spotted Lancaster, still in his perch outside a building attached to the roof. She flew toward him and he waited for her.

But at the last moment, he spotted Little Jack rushing through the fog. He only caught a quick glimpse, but he saw that the machine was hot on his tail. Blue flashes were now firing from Little Jack's gun, yet another setting in his desperate attempt to find _something_ that would hurt this thing.

Lancaster made a signal to Mika that said hold on a minute, but she knew it would be longer than that. It was _always_ longer than a minute. Lancaster fired his grappling gun into the ceiling, then swung down into the chaos. He had shot the wire far enough that his swing took him a long way down a street, across a wide swath of the town. Little Jack saw him coming, raised his hand and Lancaster took it. With the fast momentum, they managed to escape the Clockwork Man.

But only for a moment, for the Clockwork Man saw immediately what their mode of transportation was, and It sprang upward and cut the wire. Lancaster and Little Jack flew away from one another, Little Jack landing on a roof, Lancaster tumbling between some buildings, coming to rest in an alley.

He could barely see as he struggled to his feet. The dust swirled around him, and a light haze of the white smoke hung in the air. The sounds of shooting, yelling, and general chaos ricocheted off the walls from the distance. Soon he heard thumping from the walls nearby, and a moment later the Clockwork Man dropped down into the alley with him.

Lancaster immediately began running. He dashed up some stairs and halfway up he could hear the Clockwork Man bounding toward him. At the top he leaped with a foot outstretched to a piece of the wall that jutted out the corner. He kicked off the decorative piece and propelled himself onto the roof. He felt the Clockwork Man's claws nip at his pant leg, and he heard it leap onto the roof with him. He had no advantage, but could only keep himself alive as long as possible.

He turned to the left and found his foot at the edge of the roof, which was, as he now saw, at the mouth of the cave. Before him was a drop thousands of meters which was swallowed up by the fog. He heard a noise behind him and instinctively ducked. The Clockwork Man's claw swiped just above his head, but this time, missed his hat.

Lancaster maneuvered around his enemy and saw nowhere on the roof to run. But he did see a building above him which lowered down from the roof of the cave. He jumped at it, grabbed a window frame and pulled himself up. Beside him, he saw the claw of the Clockwork Man latch onto the door frame. It had leaped up much faster than him, and in a moment, It would slice him in two with Its other claw before he could get into the window.

Panicked, and downright frustrated, Lancaster did what the Clockwork Man again did not calculate. He attacked. Letting go of the window, Lancaster James jumped onto the Clockwork Man, wrapping one arm around Its neck and punching It with the other. His knuckles were in incredible pain before they landed, but he punched again in any case.

The impact of the fall flew dust into the air all around them, and caused Lancaster's hat to fly off his head, and tumble off the side into the abyss right next to them.

The Clockwork Man's arms reached up to hit him, but were deflected by Lancaster's knees. It determined instead to shake Lancaster off by rising to Its feet. Lancaster grasped onto the machine's head as It did so, hoping that he was blinding It by covering Its face.

The pesky human was indeed blinding the Clockwork Man, but it made no difference. It could easily calculate where the man was. It merely needed to steady Itself, then jab with both claws, keeping Its blades in a wide enough array that he would be skewered no matter what he did. The Clockwork Man stretched out Its arms, Its blades splayed, about to strike.

Lancaster recovered his wits enough to realize no amount of punching was going to do a thing. Desperate for something, he followed an instinct. Without any thought as to what might happen, Lancaster reached into his pocket and grabbed the memory stick which had the Sigueran views of the universe. He had noticed that the data port on the Clockwork Man's neck, the one he had gotten his finger stuck in during their last encounter, was of a human design. It had been added by the machine's Navarus owners perhaps to receive new information they wanted It to have.

Now Lancaster smashed his memory drive into the slot and let go. He expected to impact hard on the ground, but was surprised to find he kept going. To his horror, he found that he was falling into the abyss. He grasped desperately for anything around, and found one of the pieces of the building that jutted out of the wall. He managed to stop the fall with one hand, then held on with both.

He dangled there for a moment, hoping the memory stick had done something.

A few moments later he had his answer. Bits of dust flew off the side, kicked toward him by a foot walking his direction. Then another one stepped onto the edge, just above his hands. It was metal, and he looked up to see the face of the Clockwork Man. It was standing above him, looking down curiously at the puny human that was dangling helplessly.

The Clockwork Man jumped straight up and landed back on the roof, and was satisfied to see the resulting shake of the wall, and the alarmed look on Lancaster's face. It jumped again, and the wall began to crack, the sound of it ripped through the air and echoed in the canyon.

Though incapable of achieving a true feeling, the Clockwork Man felt something very near gratification; or perhaps it was pride. It had no experience with this sort of thing, so It couldn't decide what it was. It knew Its strength, and It was all powerful. It had surpassed the carbon-based beings around It, and they lived or died at his whim.

The data now coursing through Its circuitry which came from Lancaster's memory stick affirmed all Its beliefs about Itself. The Clockwork Man saw the universe now expanding in all its glory. It saw stars birthing, planets forming, and galaxies twirling. So much information rushed through the Clockwork Man it gave the machine a euphoric high.

The Clockwork Man was jumping harder now. The stone was cracking below Its feet. The human below It was struggling to hang on. Soon he would fall, and the Clockwork Man would finish Its job with the others. They would wear down, but It would last forever.

It had lasted through the millennia that played before Its mind's eye. Small life forms expanded across their worlds and spread out, then died. Stars blew up into supernovas, black holes sucked light into them, and wormholes snaked their ways through the universe.

The overloading of information was now coursing through the Clockwork Man's whole body, giving it a sort of intoxication that translated into strength. The rock crumbled below Its feet. Lancaster lost his grip with one hand. He was dangling by his fingertips now.

The majesty of the multiverse appeared before the Clockwork Man in a way only a computerized mind that could multitask at Its godly level could comprehend. It saw everything, the entirety of space and time in one complete, beautiful picture...

And then the Clockwork Man saw how little it mattered to that universe.

The android stopped jumping. It stood there mutely, its back hunched, its face looking dumbly into the fog. The Clockwork Man had witnessed the grandiosity of everything, and it was now aware of its real importance, its real size. It was no god. It wasn't even a being. It was a machine, much like a toaster. It was just an "it."

The break in the shaking gave Lancaster a moment to pull up his other hand. He grasped what remained of the wall decoration and peered up at the android. It was just staring away into the distance, its sad looking eyes appearing even more depressed by its posture. Had the data on the memory stick worked?

The Clockwork Man saw nothing before it. Its mind's eye was watching the images that invaded its circuitry. It comprehended the enormity of the universe and the various dimensions more even than the beings who had written the data in the first place. And despite the fact that it could exist forever, it could never, in its entire life, make a dent on the multiverse.

'Billions of stars. No possibilities,' the Clockwork Man thought, and it leaped off the side of the cliff into the abyss.

Lancaster watched it tumble limply into the swirling fog, into oblivion. He hung there in silence for a moment, hearing only the occasional distant moans of the statues. He knew he could not last there long, so he began to pull himself up.

When he did, the shifting weight caused the crack in the wall to grow, and the wall decoration fell. Lancaster clawed at the rest of the wall, but there was nothing to grasp onto.

Mika, who had been flying the shuttle around searching for Lancaster, now saw him tumbling off the edge. She hit the thrusters to maximum, but it was not enough; he was too far away. She could only watch him helplessly fall to his doom.

Then he felt a hand reach out from a window and grasp his utility belt. As quickly as it grabbed him it yanked him inside. He knocked his head against the top of the window, then fell to the floor.

Relieved to be rescued, Lancaster looked up, expecting to make some rye comment to his partner that showed he was thankful without actually saying it.

But, much to his surprise, it was not his partner who had saved him. It was the pirate captain.

Chapter

Sixteen

Paying Debts

Mika was flying the school shuttle this time; she could navigate her way back to Tiburus as well as Little Jack. She would be dropping them off to pick up Odin's Revenge, and then she would be continuing on to St. Marguerite.

She was taking with her a few of the more ancient art pieces that Shasa had decided to give back to her. She claimed that she wanted to make more room in her hold for more valuable treasures they hoped to find in the alien city, but Mika detected something more in Shasa's motivation.

Mika suggested she hand the ship over to someone else, perhaps even her brother, and go back to regular civilization.

Shasa dismissed the suggestion outright. "I've vised what it's like to live under the thumb of a corporation," she said. "I've been there myself, but leastwise with my ship I can fly away and hide."

Mika had no rebuttal to that. She had graduated hundreds of optimistic students only to see their spirits crushed in the real world. Unless one was born to royalty in the inner circle or at least a board member, they usually became a number with little more than a desk and a divider to call their own. Shasa ran the risk of death every day, but at least she could move her desk when she needed to.

Mika looked at her ex-husband sitting next to her and realized it was the same for him. She had held a grudge toward him for some time always assuming she understood why. And now she realized she had been denying the true reason. She was jealous. Every time there were petty rivalries among the staff, whenever school politics got in the way of getting anything done, all the time those unnecessary bureaucracies set in, she wanted to hit the accelerator button and go.

But, unlike Lancaster and the pirate captain, Mika could not turn her back on reality. She saw what they could not; life catching up with them. One day, both Shasa and Lancaster would meet their fates, and have nowhere left to run. They lived blissfully ignorant of this fact, but it was, nevertheless, true.

As if proving her thoughts, Lancaster was lounging back in his chair with his foot up on the console and a hat over his face. Yet another hat. He had found it before they left the site. It had apparently belonged to one of the pirates that had been killed because no one protested when he took it. The thing looked goofy on him, even when sitting on his face. It was more of a fishing cap and less of one of his wide brimmed "adventure" hats as Mika liked to call them.

His life was none of her concern; she knew that. But she was concerned for him nonetheless. She could not keep him from the life he preferred, but she thought of a way she might be able to keep tabs on him.

"You owe the university a lot of money," she said.

"Yeah? How's that?" Lancaster asked, not looking out from the hat and not moving from his comfortable position. Mika knew it meant he wasn't taking her seriously.

Mika shifted the graviton sails just slightly, enough to cause the ship to shake a little. That brought Lancaster out of his repose. She knew that slight motions in spectrum caused him a near panic attack.

Lancaster spotted the smirk on her face and knew she had a point. "Who do I owe money? Why?"

"You led the pirates to the university. As far as I'm blicked, you're more guilty than they are for the stolen artwork."

"They gave some of it back," Lancaster argued. He looked back at Little Jack who was sitting behind them with a blank face behind his frosted-over glasses. He was probably lost in something on his lenses, or maybe asleep. "Didn't they put some of it back on the ship?" Lancaster asked.

Little Jack shrugged. He was awake, but he didn't care.

"Only a few pieces. You owe the school for the rest," Mika said.

"W... B... N..." Lancaster stammered. He tried to find an excuse, but the more he attempted to talk around it, the more he realized his own responsibility in the matter.

Mika mercifully interrupted him. "No one expects you to swipe your card. Hades knows you don't have enough to pay off even one of them."

"I'll pay you what I can when we sell the artifacts we got from the site," Lancaster said, looking back at Little Jack. "We loaded some artifacts, right? That should be enough to pay some fees and keep us flying, right?" Little Jack nodded, still not changing expression, except perhaps a furrowed brow when he heard they wouldn't be keeping most of what they made.

Mika cut Lancaster off by placing a finger over his mouth. "Shhhh. No more talking," she said. "You're not going to sell those artifacts because I'm taking all of them."

Now Little Jack showed an expression, pointing it right at her. Lancaster's jaw simply dropped.

"That will just begin to pay for the damage the pirates you brought to the university did. The university's museum is then going to finance you for an expedition. You will pick the alien race and you will pick the site, but everything you recover will go back to the school's museum. You will continue to do this until your debt is paid."

"And the school will fund all the expeditions?" Lancaster asked.

"Within reason," Mika told him.

Both men looked at her strangely. She was in far less of a position to make a deal with them than others who had been more well armed and dangerous. But this was Mika, after all.

Mika answered the silence by sticking out her hand. "Do we have a deal?" she asked.

Lancaster smiled slightly, not realizing how dumb he looked with the rumpled fisherman's hat on his head. Still, Mika couldn't help but be impressed with how good he still looked even with a half-grown beard and covered in dirt. "Deal!" he said, shaking her hand. He then reclined again and put the hat over his face, thinking about what to search for first. He was particularly curious about this device the Siguerans used to kill off the runaways in their city. "Runaways." He would still need to give them a name.

As for the weapon, this would obviously be something of great importance. If a corporation today got hold of it, they could rule the galaxy. He figured he should get back on the hunt for the Constellation Crest. That would probably give some clue as to where this terrible weapon was hidden.

He felt the ship shift again. This time, it was not just for a moment, and it wasn't a supposed accident. Mika was switching the dials and flipping switches. She was changing direction inside the brane, a dangerous and difficult thing to do. Even Little Jack was alarmed.

"What are you doing?" Lancaster asked.

"Switching destinations. This ship always knows how to get back to St. Marguerite. We're going to drop this load off and get you on your first mission."

Lancaster stared at Mika a moment with pride. He smiled lightly, covering the finger on his hand that still bore his wedding ring. Trusting in her completely, he laid back again and placed the hat over his face.

Little Jack looked back and forth at both of them in annoyance. "Am I ever going to get a say in where we're going?"

* * *

Jude had forgotten to cash in the favor that Little Jack owed her. She had gotten distracted with the alien city, the fight, and most importantly, the booty they found afterward. Well, she supposed she could hardly call it booty. Nothing they found looked like very much, but the archaeologist with Lancaster and the appraiser on the pirate ship both said that a lot of the junk sitting inside the buildings were worth large sums of money to the few who would pay for it. She would get back to Little Jack. For now she wanted to cash in.

She had found an affluent gentleman who was looking to purchase half of her haul. He seemed a bit shady, but she could tell when she came upon his high priced proxy inside cyberspace that he definitely had money.

Arriving at the restaurant he had suggested where they would make the exchange confirmed this. It was at the top of one of those towers that was exclusive to a select few clients who needed to make high priced reservations before even looking at the menu. Low lighting with a wide view of the city made for either a secretive or romantic rendezvous. Jude was guessing, hoping for the former.

She had scoped the place out in advance, and had entered the building late; watching for traps. It made her particularly suspicious that the man was so wealthy, yet he was not a corporate baron; not even an executive. She had checked out everything she could about him and he seemed legitimate, yet it was hard to believe he had made his fortune in trades alone, like the one she was about to do, especially since most of his trades involved purchasing rather than selling.

At last she took the chance and entered the restaurant. He was easy to spot, sitting perfectly upright at a table, the spotlight from above reflecting brightly off his crisp white hat. His face was veiled in the shadow beneath the hat's rim, but Jude got a glimpse of the features. He was rather handsome, made better looking through his veil of confidence, and he wore an air of pretentious formality, which reflected in his voice.

"Salutations, Jude," the buyer said.

"How are the cheeseburgers here?" she asked purposefully crude.

The man smiled broadly enough that she needed no enhancements in her eyes to see it in the dark. "They are exquisite," he said.

"Good," Jude said as she placed her bag up on the table. "You know you're buying. You don't choose an overpriced place like this without offering to pay."

"What have you brought me?" the buyer asked.

Jude pulled out one item she thought he'd be particularly interested in. It looked like a small idol, something twice the size of her hand with jewels inlaid all over it. It wasn't something she would want on her walls, there was no shine to it, but it looked like something that someone with more money than sense might want to show off on a shelf.

Though his face was not visible, the stillness of the man's body language said how excited he was. The buyer reached out his hand and grasped the small idol. He brought it toward him and inspected it thoroughly. "You got this on the Promised World," he said.

"I didn't tell you... What's the Promised World?" Jude asked, trying to sound coy but failing because of her shock.

"How much did Mr. Lancaster James take with him?" the man asked.

Jude now shifted in her seat. Her eyes jetted around the room to see who she might have to fight. They had taken her main weapon at the door, but she had a small, spare gun in her cybernetic thigh she could get to in an emergency.

"Don't be afeared, child," the man said, handing her back the artifact. "I'm not seeking to steal from you, and you will be well paid for your items, as long as they are authentic."

"I'm not going to tell you where I found them," Jude said.

"I'm not interested in the Promised World," the man said. "Let Mr. James waste his time with such trivialities. I am interested in the same thing you are, Jude."

"What's that?" she asked.

The man leaned his dark face forward until the hat sat directly under the light throwing a dark shadow over his face. Just enough light reflected off the table to reveal a rapacious smile as the man said, "Power."

Convinced she now understood the man's true intentions, Jude relaxed. "How do these things give you power?" she asked.

"Lancaster must not have educated you thoroughly," the man said. "I should not be surprised that he was keeping information from his allies. You see, all of these artifacts are pieces to a grand puzzle which can form one of several images, depending upon how you place them. If you form them the way Lancaster does, you get nothing but the pride that you did a good deed." The man said this last with a high pitched voice of sarcasm. Then he motioned to the table with his hand as though showing a puzzle before them. "Form it another way, and armies, corporations, baronies, even planets and stars will be at your mercy."

Jude was no longer cautious. The man's hypnotic tone had reeled her in like a fish. She could not look away; all she could see was the darkness of the man's face beneath the bright white hat.

"I can teach you what Lancaster would not," the buyer said. "I can show you how you put these pieces together, Jude, if you would like.

"What is your name?" Jude asked.

"Nikos Kazakis."

* * *

Bela rose from the captain's chair as his battleship came out of spectrum drive. He was too anxious to sit. The entire fate of the Navarus Barony rested on what was about to happen, and what was happening in several systems around their borders.

The giant Navarus fleet that Galek had gathered together near one planet had been ordered to splinter into fleets of approximately a half dozen ships each. In this manner they were able to go to all the planets they had lost at the same time, plus a few more. Bela had led his small fleet of only five ships, (led by the well-armed battleship Intrepid, which Bela was commanding,) to the Noel system, which was owned by the Koneraad Barony.

Noel was, in fact, a major supply hub. An important station around the gas giant Qyro kept weapons, fuel, food, and other necessities flowing to the invading fleets moving into Navarus territories. It was well armed and supported by a large fleet ready to defend it at all costs.

There were so many enemy ships, in fact, that the sensors operator was not able to give Bela an exact count on how many there were. If they all got a moment to fire, all five of their ships would evaporate.

"Straight at them, helm," Bela ordered. "Keep me well appraised of the distance.

The sensors operator gave moment by moment distances to the targets. The enemy ships all turned to them and began moving in their direction, causing the distance to close faster. The tactical viewer was on the main screen, and Bela made sure all the Navarus vessels were behind the Intrepid. The Intrepid was to take the lead alone. The others were to do their best to get away if anything went wrong.

The line that denoted long range weapons fire edged steadily closer. The timing would be tight.

When they were still just out of range, Bela turned to the weapons officer. "Now, Mr. Hedgeford."

The weapons officer flipped a single switch. A second later, all the enemy blips on the screen disappeared. They had not ceased to exist, and they had not utilized some sort of stealth technology. They simply had no electronic signatures now, and registered only as debris, which would not be detectable until they came closer.

The Reichard machine had worked. The technology developed by the company Ceriliseta had purchased was able to tap into the power plants built by another company Ceriliseta owned to simply turn them off. There were now hundreds of giant hulks floating helplessly around the gas giant. Their crews now had no life support, and no hope of rescue.

Even the space station, with a crew of hundreds, was helpless. They tried to turn on their backup systems, but, built by the companies that Ceriliseta had gained control over, they were all subject to invasion by the Reichard machine.

Bela wanted to be merciful and put the people on the station out of their misery, but he needed the equipment that was on board. And so they had to wait for everyone to suffocate. The same was true of the ships, which they could not destroy because they did not want debris flying into the space station and destroying the supplies they could loot. The four warships he had brought had been hollowed out and prepared to carry supplies. None of them could fight, but they all had plenty of storage.

A couple of the enemy ships were blasted when they floated too close to the stations, their crews' sufferings shortened, but the others had to go through the long, painful process of freezing and asphyxiating.

The same was true in every system where the Navarus fleet attacked. In only two instances were there malfunctions; mistakes that cost those crews their lives. However, the massive success in every other battle encouraged Ceriliseta to push forward, and she did so, taking back all of the lost territory, and spreading into Koneraad space. They seemed unstoppable for a couple waves until Koneraad high command figured out what was happening and blocked the problem.

By that time it was too late to launch an invasion; they had simply taken too much damage. The Koneraad defense fleets were able to destroy a few of the tiny Navarus fleets that came in expecting another easy fight, but they were such minor losses to them that it hardly mattered.

Ceriliseta concentrated the ships into a few invasion fleets, ready to attack Koneraad territory and even exploit their winnings by moving into the territories of their former allies who had switched to Koneraad's side. She was ready for revenge and a hostile take-over.

Before the attacks began, other baronies of the area prepared their own fleets and called for an end to hostilities. They were not so concerned about Koneraad as they were of Navarus dominating the quadrant. Ceriliseta had already taken a lot of planets, and, offered a few more as reconciliation, she agreed to cease her invasion. She still had yet to get revenge on the two-faced corporations who had switched sides, but she could get them in a quieter manner when everyone else had stood down.

Appraisal teams moved into the conquered territories. Efficiency experts inspected the corporate offices that were still running, liquidating unnecessary assets and streamlining businesses to create better synergy with their new overlords, and reconstruction crews moved into those that were damaged during fighting.

On one such planet that required remodeling, Fryberg of Leland, crews cleared away the rubble of the corporate offices only to find the ruins of another, more ancient building beyond it. The construction style was unlike anything the architects they brought in had ever seen. The walls had a twisted appearance, like the body of a tornado or the trunk of a gnarled tree.

The ruins of the conquered corporate buildings had evidently been built on top of, or near these ancient structures and they had gone buried and forgotten for years. How many centuries these ruins had been around before humans had settled this planet was anyone's guess, but some experts who saw it believed it belonged to a powerful race called the Siguerans.

And in the middle of the ruins, displayed in the most prominent spot of the ancient building, was a table approximately a meter in diameter. It would be easy to overlook except for the intricate designs and precious jewels spread across the top. A couple dozen shiny, clear crystals glimmered inside two fins which spread out from a large, green crystal in the center. A dozen shiny ruby red globes adorned the rim of the table, which was built out of solid gold, and lined in a precious metal they could not identify.

One of the hired appraisers recognized this table. He had been told about something like this from an expert who liked to wear fancy suits and a white hat. This was the Constellation Crest.

Afterward

'Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised World' is the first novel from the series 'Relic Worlds', which chronicles the adventures of Lancaster James, the anthropologist adventurer who travels to distant planets exploring ancient ruins in search of artifacts that will unlock some of the greatest mysteries of the universe.

Other short stories and novels will follow, and the earlier adventures are available on the website at:

relicworlds.com

All short stories are available in PDF format for free. There are also pages which provide further information about the alien discoveries, a map of the nearby galaxy, as well as games and other interactive activities available on the website.

Appendix

language in the

23rd Century

**Abso** – Certain, sure

**Afeared** – Afraid

**Amount** \- Matter

**Approx** – Approximately

**Aprend** – Find out / Learn

" **All and the novas"** – Everything

" **A might on the plastic"** – A lot of money

" **A touch more time"** – "A little more time."

**A tril** – A lot

**Atmo** – Atmosphere

**Adjontly** – Quickly

**Arb and Magum** \- Forest, Woods

**Back-maul** – Stab in the back

**Backwise** – Behind

**Back-pulse** – Backwoods, unimportant

**Ball-suck** – Crude way to say something sucks, or is inconvenient.

**Barm** \- Brink

" **Been my back eyes"** – "Watched my back"

" **Be pleasant with"** – Will like

" **Best raise"** – "Best bet" or "best guess".

**Bienvenide** – Well

**Big-ticket** \- Important

**Blick** – Go to look

" **Bling your spirits"** – Make you happy

**"By good fate"** \- Luckily

**Byway** \- By the way

**Brane** – Dimension that spectrum drive takes place in

" **Case of"** – In case

**Chance be** – Maybe

" **Chi to mind"** – Keep in mind

**Cloudrafted** \- Overlooked

" **Cropped of"** – Happened to (In relation to something that should have happened)

**Credit** – Believe / Think

**Claro** – Clearly

**Co** – Company.

**Comprend** – Understand

**Chances** – Probably

**Coget** – Notice

" **Crater quiet"** – As quiet as a crater

" **Chance be"** – Chances are

**Cipher** – Figure out

**Catch** – Get

**Click** – Short time or space

" **Count my pudding"** – Count on it

**Cascheeing** – Breaking and falling

**Dagni** \- Difficult

**Dango** – Curse

**Disked** – Stole

" **Deem me"** – "Believe me"

**Desto** – Destination

**Dime** \- Valuable

**Dirty Malfas** – Dirty maggot. Insult to a person

**Discern** – Figure out

**"Dodge bit of"** \- Younger term used when they think older people are being dodgy.

**Down** \- Download from a computer, or similar device

**Ear full** \- Interesting.

**Erden brain** – Pea brain

**Exacto** \- Exactly

**Eurichite** – Precious black hue metal that gives a few different shades from different angles.

**Facto** – In fact

**Ferret** – Figure out

**Fes** – Well... (Often sounds like "fezzz.")

**Figure** – Consider

**Figurably** – Considerably / Relatively

**Figures** – Seems

**Figuring** – Thinking about

**Fermi Engine** – Used for flying into spectrum drive

" **Get your toe nails in"** – Get involved with

**Gand** – Quick look

**Gent** \- Guy

**Gorgeously** – Very

**Geffar** – A curse word based on an old show where everything went wrong. Used when everything is going wrong.

" **Get carn"** \- "Get bent". More literally meaning get squashed.

**Gradation** – In progress

**Grants** – Granted for multiple things.

**"A hand of"** \- A small amount of

**Halt it -** Hold it / Stop

" **Having badgers"** – Having troubles

**Higgs** \- Importance

" **Hither or yawn"** – Here or there

**Hither** – Wander

**Heading** – Going

" **Hold your thrusters"** – Wait

**Holoflic** \- Movie

**Hades** – A curse, like hell. Came into favor when religious phrases phases out.

**Harness** – Strap yourself in

**Held** – Heralded. Held in high regard. Highly respected, especially in royalty.

" **Hold sand"** – "Makes sense"

**Hui** – Trace

**Hypo** – Hurry

" **I image"** – "I imagine"

" **In her gear"** \- "In her hands"

" **I don't regard"** – I don't think so (rude)

" **I'm on with him"** – I agree with him

" **I'd bet my plastic"** – I'd bet everything

" **I would comfort"** – I would be comfortable with

**"It's nada"** \- It's nothing

**Ire** – Anger

**Jing Mosh** \- What you do. Mode of operations.

**Jit/Jitter** – Tense

**Jist** – The idea of something

**Jon / Jonder** – Move

" **Keeping eyes around here"** – "Keeping an eye on this"

**Komodrab** – A sort of komodo for night wear

**Kelite** \- A metal with the sturdiness of diamonds

**Kuroing** \- Struggling / Competing

" **Let's give that"** – Let's assume

**Lasitorch** – Cutting instrument that uses lasers and other weapons

**Lade** \- Lady

**Leastway -** At least

**Mag** \- Decide

**"Make carn" -** Squash

" **Moze in"** – Go in quietly

**Mamooths** – Large creatures found on a planet that resemble mammoths of ancient earth

" **Mag a reading"** – Get and record a reading

**Memtwet entry** – Short journal entries.

" **Might just as jono"** – "Might as well"

**Modef** – Method

" **Moused up"** – "Drawn up"

**Naigh** – Damn. Religious references more or less disappeared with religion.

**Negote** – Deal

**Nova sign** – Good sign

**Nove** – All right. Okay. Feeling okay.

" **On the bull"** – Completely correct

**"On the til"** \- On the level

**Opus Magum** – Very strong tree

**Op** \- Use

" **Out of perif"** – Out of view/out of mind

" **On the simple"** – Simply

**Parfay** \- Perfectly

**Peach** – Doing well

**Pied out –** Kick out

" **Pleasant to meet you"** \- Pleased to meet you

" **Porting in"** – Listening in / Eavesdropping

**Prevays** – Works

**Phonic** \- Radio device for sending and receiving messages across star systems.

**Pose** – Plan

" **Pike our way"** – Make our way / Move into

**Ping** – Got

**Port** – Receive

**Passing** – Going on

**Primomitter** – The transmitter where great power is sent out

**Palisciever** – The transceiver where great power is transmitted to

**Register** – Believe (think you know)

**Regison** – Incorrect belief

**Rec** – Get through questionable territory

**Reckon** – Put up with

**Requi** – Stuff

" **Right rip"** – The right track

**Riley** \- Short, one handed rifle

**Rubbed** – Killed

**Regress it** – Return

**Ranging** – Watching

**Reads** – Sounds

**Retro** – Hidden it / Put it where it was known before, not at all.

**Rec** – Try

**Requising** – Using someone else's things

**Ration** – Rational reason

" **Rounded the road"** – Wound up

" **Rub my tyl"** \- "Go to hell" type reference.

**Ruko -** Handle

**Sav** – Certain

**Savvy** – To be certain about something

**Schieb** – Press on, pushing or fighting someone along the way.

**Scrib** – Write

" **Severenced out"** – Kicked out

**Sides** \- Besides

**Sight ("Set a sight")** – Try

**Strass** – Fastest direction

**Strassing** – Hurrying

**Thruster** \- Travel

**Surm** – Suppose

**Sway** – Convince

**Sift** – Point

**Spotly** – Likely

**Subter-scanners** – Scanners underground

**Slothist** – Slow

**Scurry** – Hurry someone

**Spectro- beam** – Type of light that lights in many different spectrums

**Scrying** – Taking a look

**Shaft** – Butt

**Shaz** – Common curse word

**Strass** – Path / Current direction

**Sun-silver** – Precious metal

**Taburing** \- Chowing

**"Take stock in" -** Trust

**"Take the flair out of someone's panel"** \- Take the wind out of someone's sails

**Tot** – Dead

**Thick** \- Bad or difficult

**Trans** – Change

**Turf** \- Location

**Tyl** – Pain/Annoyance

**Tick** – Short time

**Thorane** – Crash around

**Thique** – A rolled up bit of weed smoked like a cigarette. Very expensive and upper class.

" **Turns me brown" –** Turn-off. "Turns me off."

**'Tween** – Between

**Valging** – Leading the wrong way.

**Vanda** – Problem

**Verbal** – Promise

**View** – Appear

**Vis** – See

**Vizros** – A type of binoculars that can detect all types of wavelengths

**Vorlie** – Preference / Appreciate

**Wayo** – Early

" **What lives"** – What's left? / What about it? / So what?

" **What they hail"** – What they're called

" **What's the sixty?"** – Give me an update

**Wheeling with -** Dealing with

**Worthy in line** \- Worthwhile

**Worthy to** \- Deserve

**Wilco** \- "Roger"

**Xenosentia** – Sentient alien race

Acknowledgements

As I stated in the dedication of this book, Relic Worlds would not exist without the support and friendship of Theresa Padilla Fajardo, and Edwin Fajardo. The duo have seen me through every printed and online version of this book since at least 2007, have traveled to conventions with me, and have helped put it together through its multiple incarnations. Now that it's in its final format, I owe them a huge thank you for being there through so much. They are both on the cover, Theresa playing Ceriliseta, and Edwin playing Otto.

Clay Randall also deserves a giant thank you, as he has been with this project since even earlier, stretching all the way back to the late '90s when I first came up with the concept. He is Lancaster James on the cover, and in all the photos and video, and he will always be Lancaster James in my mind. Clay is truly one of my all-time heroes.

As always, I owe a thank you to my supportive girlfriend Jamie Ball, who plays Jude and has spent hours in the hot sun handing out flyers at Comic Con, and to my aunt Linda, who let us stay at her place while we were in San Diego.

Thanks also to Chris Rivera, Derrik Chow, Chia-hui Creampouff, Warren Hall, Jemma Jacques, and John Kraemer for modeling, and Joe Nacchio for both modeling and building models of the ships.

And a special thanks to my old role playing group from the '80s and '90s who helped me develop this universe to begin with: Carl Masters, Julian Hall, John Darcy, Clay Lewis, Jake Bleed, and those who came in and out of the story through the years.

And as always, thank you to my mother and father for all the support of me as a storyteller throughout the years.

Other Books by

Jeff McArthur

The Great Heist

On a sunny September morning in 1930, six armed bandits held up the Lincoln National Bank in

Nebraska's capital. They got away with 2.7 million

dollars, the largest bank heist in history. Incredibly,

they wound up voluntarily giving every penny back.

Pro Bono

In 1958, Charles Starkweather took his ex-girlfriend on a week-long murder spree. After it was done, she was also accused and sentenced to life in prison. Pro Bono tells the amazing true story behind her defense.

The Table of Truth

A young Tijuana prostitute struggles to escape from her life of drugs, alcohol, and brothels.

Stolen Souls

A haunted camera is stealing people's souls. This book shows its trail through the decades.

