Sky Strider in the Dungeons of Thead Sky stood in the transit pod. He was crammed up against the exit door with several other commuters. They all swayed back and forth with the motion of the pod as they sped on their way through the city to the Business Quadrant. Sky gazed through the bubbled top of the transit pod. He could see the top of the city's great dome between the towers of mirrored glass the loomed seventy stories on either side. The great dome, a billion square feet of steel girders and translucent panels all fashioned like a spider-web of triangles that enclosed the city. Occasionally Sky could see a bright beam of sunlight streaming through one of the clear panels near the top of the dome. The light radiating a misty brilliance as it reflected off the thousands of mirrored complexes below. Sky thought of the cool, crisp air and crimson sunsets in the world outside. It had been a long time since he had been outside. Sky smiled, even the thought of it was better than commuting in an inter-city transit pod over stuffed with citizens from a dozen different planets. Sky hated the city. It was too fabricated, too well organized, too precise, and definitely too crowded. Outside was natural. Only those things that were strong survived. It was random, yet there was a beauty in its structure. Everything had its place, outside, if it were strong enough to keep it. So unlike the city, inside. But today was going to be different. Today Sky was on his way to open up his own business in his own office and nothing was going to spoil this day for him, not even the city. Sky laughed out loud to himself, "I've finally made it!" A commuter with a large frog face looked up at Sky and uttered something that sounded like “quite,” then pushed himself forward, away from Sky. Sky just stood and smiled pretending not to notice. The commuters rode on in silence, swaying in unison with the pod. The transit pod stopped in the Business Quadrant. Sky exited with the crowd and rode the pathway towards his complex building. The pathway moved slowly suspended above the courtyards below. Sky looked back and watched the thousands of commuters entering and leaving the Transit Station. Hundreds of yellow and gold pods flying along intricate patterns of silver rails between mirrored mountains and congested pathways delivering commuters to their destinations. It all moved and flowed in predictable rhythm like the workings of some monumental machine. Nothing was out of place, nothing ever went wrong. The well oiled machine had run this way for hundreds of years and would run for hundreds more. Sky's smile began to fade. He hated the predictable. Sky's complex came up quickly on the left. Sky hopped off the pathway and walked towards the complex. A big smile broke on his face as he entered the building. The first day in his own office was about to begin. Sky's complex was the last building in the Business Quadrant. Eight stories of black glass and chrome railings tucked up against the bottom edge of the city's great dome. The complex had eight hundred and ninety cubicles. All of them looking out across courtyards and the other complexes towards the center of the city. All of the cubicles except of Sky's that is. Sky's cubicle was on the outside corner of the eighth floor. The cubicle was not square like all the others but rather rectangular. It was a two room office with the door to the entry room stuck in the very corner of the hallway and the main office facing backwards to the rest of the building as if it were constructed as an after thought by the original builders. Sky's window looked out a short distance to the dome where there was a triangular clear panel. Whether the panel was misplaced in the construction of the dome or whether some prior tenant had in put there know one knew. But it gave Sky a view like none other in the city, a view outside. A view that apparently no one else wanted because the cubicle had stood vacant for some time. Sky had looked for months for a new office. He had considered cubicles that went for twice the credits that this one did. When he saw this one and gazed outside across the Martian desert to the Great Red Forest miles beyond, he knew that this place had been waiting for him. The complex manager was quite surprised when Sky said he'd take it. The manager told him he had not been able to rent it for the three years that he had managed the place and that the manager before him had the same problem. It was as though the cubicle offended people, he said. Sky got out of the elevator and walked to his office door. The sign on the door read: SKY STRIDER & SKELTON WITHARE, INTERGALACTIC INVESTIGATIONS, Cubicle 890, MIRROR CITY, MARS, J COMPLEX, GRID #2-194-17-SOL. Sky stopped at the door and read the sign over and over. Sky Strider stepped inside his office and closed the door. "At last," he sighed to himself, " my own office!" "What do you mean your own office!" Laughed Skelly, his partner, his round robust face gleaming at Sky. "I work here too you know!" Skelly laughed so hard that his overweight middle began to shake. "And don't you forget it either! We are partners; p-a-r-t-n-e-r-s ! No more working like dogs for that J. J. Snelling and Company for us," Skelly quipped, " that ungrateful bunch of gonads. They couldn't recognize top notch work if it were a crater worm and bit them on the ass!" Sky laughed. He was glad he had Skelly as a partner. Skelly was the best research man he had ever seen. Skelly knew just where to find what ever information he wanted. He could break entry codes and get information that no one else could touch and never leave his desk. Between Sky's intuition and Skelly's knowledge they were going to make it. They were going to make it big, Sky could feel it right down to his shoes. The front office was very high tech with a solid red one-piece desk and chair near the middle of the room. There was a low slung chrome chair in front of the desk with a small glass table beside it. The walls were covered with shining black shelves that were stuffed with record disks, books, folders, and computer cubes. Suspended from the ceiling in the far corner was a large communications screen that read "OFF-LINE" in big blue letters across the center. On top of the desk was a small gold plague with red lettering that read, "Skelton Withare, The One Who Knows." "You've done a lot to this place already, Skelly." Sky said as he looked around the front room. "I like it, even the egotistical sign on your desk." "Hey, I'm good and I know it! Nothing wrong with that!" Skelly got a little defensive. "But it wasn't hard, I just told the movers where to put it and the whole place seemed to fit together like it was just waiting for us to get here." "I know what you mean," Sky's eye-brows wrinkled a bit, "I had that same feeling the moment I first walked through the door. Like we were meant to be here and no one else. Did you find out who the last tenant was yet?" "No, not yet." Skelly sat down at his desk and pushed a blue button on the console in front of him. A panel slid back on top of the desk and a computer keyboard came up. "Of course I've haven’t exactly had it as a priority, but we'll see what I can come up with in the next couple of minutes." "That's OK, it's no big deal. I just thought it was kind of odd that no one rented this cubicle for so long." Sky started to walk to the door to his office. He stopped and said sincerely to Skelly, "You sure you don't mind that I've got the office with the view. I mean we are partners and all and you've got just as much right to the view as I have." "Listen," Skelly was laughing, "I've heard you tell enough stories about you and Miss whats-her-name and your conquests in the Great Red Forest to know better than that. Everything I want to see I'll put right up there." Skelly pointed to the communications screen. "You grew up outside and nailed your first love in that very forest. I mean the view means a hell of a lot more to you than it ever will to me. Besides, I had them put all your stuff just where you told me. Your racing trophies are all on that disastrous antique wood wall unit of yours. Your old oak desk is right in front of the window. Your Investigators License is hung over the door. Shit, if I tried to move all that old crap again it would probably turn to dust! You know I don't see what you like about antique furniture. If it were mine, I'd donate it to a museum or....." "OK, OK," Sky interrupted, "I just didn't want you to think I was taking advantage of being the first partner or anything. You know, I'd never would of thought we'd do this, start our own business I mean. We're total opposites, you like new and I like old. You like research and I like adventure. There is no telling what...." A bland bleep sounded from Skelly's console, a yellow light flashed. Skelly pushed the yellow button down. A computerized voice came over the communications screen. "Interstellar communique for Mr. Sky Strider. Communique from Centurie Sector. Please go on-line and hold." Skelly touched a few buttons on the keyboard. The communications screen showed a robot at a transfer station somewhere in space. The words 'HOLDING' flashed in big blue letters across the screen. "Well I guess we're open for business, Mr. Strider!" Skelly had a huge grin on his face as he shook Sky's hand. "I believe you're right, Mr. Withare. Congratulations!" Sky shook Skelly's hand and stared up at the screen. The robot was in the middle of a cylinder of control panels. Each of its seventeen arms were busy pushing flashing buttons and turning dials. The robots head had six eye sensors, five blue and one red. Its head rotated as fast as its arms could coordinate. The screen still flashed 'HOLDING'. "What the hell is that!" Sky exclaimed, "I've never seen anything like it before!" "Boy you are behind the times!" Skelly teased, "That's a communications drone. An old one at that. Series 17-R I'd say, probably been stuck in that deep space relay station for over fifty years. Real work-horses though, it'll go another fifty before its head needs new bearings. You know the phone company, once they've got a piece of equipment installed it stays there until it breaks down completely." "OK Mr. Know-It-All, tell me how long this drone is going to keep us hold?" Sky sat on the edge of Skelly's desk with his long arms folded across his chest. "All you had to do was ask." replied Skelly. Skelly's fingers tapped across the keyboard like lightning. The robot's head quit spinning, the one red eye focused on the screen. Its arms continued working at a slower pace. "Yes." came the mechanical voice over the screen. Skelly grinned and gave Sky a glance. "We are tired of waiting. Please put our call through now." "Sorry, no priority. Communiques can not......" Before the robot could finish Skelly's fingers finished working their magic on the keyboard. The robot's arms fell to its sides, the red eye flashed once. "Tele-Drone 4792-17-R. Override." "Tele-Drone 4792," Skelly's voice sounded almost gleeful, " all communiques to this number are to be coded SIGMA PRIORITY ONE. New priority code to be relayed to all Tele-Drones in the system." "SIGMA PRIORITY ONE can not...." Skelly pushed one key down and leaned back in his chair with a smug look. The robot's eye flashed once more, "Number 2-194-17-SOL-890 coded SIGMA PRIORITY ONE, relayed. Entered." The screen went blank for a moment. "Are you crazy!" Sky was nervous, "SIGMA codes are military! What if they find out what you've done! We'll have every Security Patrol officer in the city looking for us!" "Relax Sky," Skelly's voice was calm, "SIGMA codes are untraceable. They are designed that way to protect military outposts. Even I can't trace a SIGMA code to its origin." A small dark haired man appeared on the screen. The man was dressed in a white flowing rope with a red tie around his thin waist. He was sitting on a large pillow in the middle of a room decorated with carved marble pillars and brightly colored tapestries. Beside him was a small control panel, the yellow button was flashing. The man looked startled as he pushed the button and looked up at the screen. "Mr. Sky Strider?" The man's voice was extremely low pitched and he stumble over the words as he struggled with the common tongue. Sky raised his hand with his palm facing the screen. "Hello, I'm Sky Strider and this is my associate Mr. Withare." Sky gestured towards Skelly. "What may we do for you?" Sky spoke slow and loud so there would be no problem understanding him. "I am Darcon. I am High Priest of the Temple Sayco on the planet Centurie." Darcon held his hand up, palm towards the screen. He had five fingers and no thumb. Sky stood up and looked intently at his hand. Darcon continued, "May I verify identity?" Sky glanced at Skelly. Skelly shrugged his shoulders with a puzzled look. "Of course." Sky replied. Darcon pressed several buttons on his console. A multi-colored beam of light emitted from the center of Sky's communications screen. The beam focused on Sky. There was a low humming sound. Skelly watched as the beam created a rainbow like ora around Sky. Sky showed no discomfort as the beam moved on to Skelly. Sky looked at Darcon on the screen. Darcon was pleased with the results. "You are much more than you appear to the eye, Mr. Strider." Darcon spoke more freely in the common tongue than before, "Many things are made clear now. I have definitely come to the right human." "What is it that we can do for you, Darcon? Why have you contacted us?" Sky was visibly intrigued as he stood in front of the screen. Skelly sat back in his chair and turned the recorder on. He sat quietly and wondered at Sky's intense interest in Darcon. "We are, as a rule," Darcon paced the floor as he spoke. Sky followed his every move on the screen. "a peaceful people here on Centurie. We live on what nature provides for us. We shun the use of advance science except as a tool in dealing with the outside galaxies. There are, however, what you would call War-Lords here. We call them Ukaws. They each own their own respective state on the planet. The Ukaws have been satisfied with the way of our planet for thousands of years. There is one Ukaw, Thead, that over the course of the last hundred years has grown greedy. He wishes more than what was left to him by his fore fathers. He wishes to control the entire planet. Indeed, Thead has made statements of war against Ukaws that border his realm. He has defied The Planet Counsel and smuggled in weapons of great power from other worlds. Thead has laid waste to the countryside killing thousands of my people as a demonstration of his power. He holds thousands more in dungeons beneath his capital and sends their half rotted bodies as warnings to those that oppose him. To insure his victory, Thead has recently taken The Oracle Of Sayco from this very temple." At this point Darcon paused and stared at Sky on the screen. Darcon's dark eyes penetrating into every chamber of Sky's eyes looking for something. Sky did not move or show any emotion, but listened and watched intently to Darcon's every gesture. Darcon continued to pace and talk. "The Oracle is a sacred being, revered by all on this world as a gift from God. The Oracle has the power to see all things in the future as they will or might be. The Oracle can not lie nor hide what is seen from any that ask. Thead has gained two things from this abduction. None of the other Ukaws will dare to strike against his capital for fear of harming The Oracle Of Sayco and bringing the wrath of God upon themselves. It is my fear that Thead is using The Oracle's power to plan his domination of Centurie. You must help us, Sky Strider, to free The Oracle Of Sayco and rid Centurie of Thead forever." "Surely Darcon," Sky spoke in a light but serious tone, "this is a matter for the Galaxy Command and not an investigation firm such as myself and Mr. Withare." "The Galaxy Command sympathizes with our situation but views this as a civil disruptance. They can do nothing to help us without violating their own interplanetary codes. They can only take action against Thead should he try to enforce his rule beyond Centurie." Darcon lowered his head and for the first time Sky could sense the fear that Darcon held in his heart. "I have no doubt that Galaxy Command will be forced to take actions against Thead. But by that time it will be to late for Centurie." "But why us?" Sky asked. "Why not a hundred other agencies or mercenary groups that would suit your purpose better?" "The Oracle has foretold of you Sky Strider." Skelly sat up right as Darcon spoke, Sky stood motionless in front of the screen. "Before The Oracle forefilled her destiny, she was in your world. Her name was Evolym Hastings." "Evolym!" Sky exclaimed and fell back against Skelly's desk. "Evolym Hastings, The Oracle Of Sayco! That explains a lot. How long ago did Thead take Evolym and where is she being held?" Sky's voice was anxious , his forehead lined in worry. Darcon spoke grimly and leered at Sky from beneath his brows. Sky could not break Darcon's penetrating stare."The Oracle Of Sayco has be gone for three weeks now. It has taken me a great amount of time to locate you, Sky Strider. I fear that The Oracle is in the dungeons below Thead's capital city, Niap. None can survive the dungeons for long, not even The Oracle. The Oracle's body is still flesh even though the soul be Divine." Darcon paused and searched Sky's face with an eerie stare. His words grew in strength and overpowered all other thoughts in Sky's mind. "I must warn you, Sky Strider, that Evolym Hastings no longer exists. She is The Oracle Of Sayco now. The Oracle Of Sayco is the light of Centurie, the Divine gift to our people. The Oracle is what binds us as a people. Without The Oracle Of Sayco the church falls and so does Centurie. Do not head these words lightly Sky Strider, for even should you save The Oracle and Centurie from the ravages of Thead; The Oracle can not return to the world of your past. The Oracle belongs to Centurie!" "I see that you are aware of more that you say Darcon," Sky struggled to speak as he broke Darcon's stare. "and that you know I can not refuse to help Centurie if Evolym is evolved. But the task you ask of me will......" "Wait a minute!" Skelly stood up his expression flustered and his voice shook with tension, "Hold on! What the hell is going on here! Darcon is talking suicide and you're talking about excepting it. We just started this partnership Sky, and I'm not going to see it ....." "Easy Skelly," Sky calmly laid his hand on Skelly's shoulder, "Evolym Hastings is the girl from the Red Forest. I could no more refuse to save her than I could refuse to save myself, or you. Darcon knew that from the moment he scanned me." Skelly looked at his partner astonished at what he was hearing. "Sky, I don't like this. You'd need a battalion armed with disrupters to even think of a project like this and who the hell knows if Darcon here is telling us the truth about the situation. And if Evolym, or The Oracle, or what-ever the frap she is; can see the future then Thead already knows what you're up to. It's suicide Sky! You got to be cr......" "Darcon is not lying," Sky interrupted, his words smooth but distant, "I have felt that stare before. Besides I have a plan." Darcon smiled for the first time and nodded his head. " The sum of fifty thousand of your credits has already been placed in your account. Fifty thousand more will be given to you should you return from the dungeons of Thead with The Oracle Of Sayco." "One hundred thousand credits," Skelly murmured in astonishment, "one hundred thousand credits." Skelly sat down at his keyboard, his fingers flew across the keys. He stopped and looked up at Sky, "It's there!" "Darcon seems to know what we both hold close to our hearts." Sky turned to Darcon on the screen. "You play your cards too well Darcon. Perhaps it is you that should face Thead and not I. We will be on Centurie in three days. We will speak with you again then and then we will see who holds the better hand." Sky slapped his hand on the console and the screen went blank. Skelly was still staring at his monitor shaking his head from side to side. "Does he realize how much fifty thousand credits is? Let alone one hundred thousand! One hundred thousand credits! That's enough to rent the whole damn planet for a year!" Skelly laughed, "Darcon is crazier than we are! Well what's your plan, Mr. Strider? And what do we need?" Sky looked at Skelly with as much disbelief in his eyes as pity. "Contact Rob-B and tell him to get clearance for Eagle Seven to depart for Centurie before noon. Get all you can on Thead; the size of his army, who he's been buying weapons from and what kind. Get a lay-out of Niap and the surrounding countryside. Be ready to leave in an hour. And find out what the hell an Oracle is!" Sky stepped quickly towards his office. "Got it!" Skelly called over his shoulder to Sky as he began to type at the keyboard, "But do we have to use Rob-B, you know how I feel about Cyborgs!" Sky pretended not to hear as he snapped his office door shut. Sky fell down in his chair oblivious of how neatly Skelly had arranged his office. He gazed out through the dome past the Martian desert to the shadowy violet haze beyond that was The Great Red Forest. Sky sorted through his mind all that he had heard and formulated his plan. He wondered if this would be the first and last time he would gaze into the forest and if he would ever see Evolym alive again. ***** Eagle Seven had made it safely through the solar system's barrier field. Skelly was in his compartment busily trying to find all the information Sky had asked for. In the control cabin Rob-B was plugged into the ship's guidance system. His mechanical hands gently stroking the control sensors. Except for the flesh on his face and his right arm, Rob-B was as much a machine as was the craft he was flying. The only difference was Rob-B was human, despite the fact he drew his energy and most of his thoughts from the cable that ran from his chest plate to the control module. His attention was on the view panel as it flashed pictures of star clusters and solar systems. A blue light flickered in Rob-B's left eye as he mapped the coordinances for their flight to Centurie. Sky sat at the back of the control cabin looking at a photo-disk on his screen. The screen showed Sky with his arms around a beautiful black haired woman. She was dressed in a dark gray tunic that exposed her slender legs as she hung arms tightly around Sky's neck. She was beside a sign that read College of The Forest and there were dark red trees in the background. They were both holding one hand out as if to wave hello. She had five fingers and no thumb. Sky closed his weary eyes and fell into an uneasy sleep. Evolym and Sky were in the forest. She was laughing as Sky tried to catch her as they ran down a secluded path. The clear light tones of her laughter echoed off the giant red trees and showered down on them like the sweet smelling frosts in the Martian springtime. She whirled around a sapling in the path and flung herself softly into Sky's open arms. Sky stroked Evolym's silken black hair from her eyes and held her tight as he found her lips with his. She ran her fingers up his thigh and gently caressed him as the passion in their kiss grew hot. Sky slid his hand down the back of her tunic and it fell silently around her feet. Evolym guided Sky's hands along the soft curves of her thin waist. Sky watched his fingers touch the velvet pink of Evolym's soft skin. And as he watched, the skin beneath his fingers turned to gray-green scales and Evolym's face transformed to that of a huge lizard. Then the scales on its sides began to fall away leaving a half exposed skeleton of bone and flesh. The skeleton arms held on around Sky's neck and would not let go. The lizard hissed as maggots began to crawl from under its dangling flesh and..... "Sky. Sky!" Skelly was shaking Sky in his chair. Sky woke up with sweat on his forehead and pain throbbing in his neck. He could still see the lizards face in his mind. Sky quickly shut his screen off. "Shit Sky," Skelly continued, "you were really going there for a second." Skelly smiled and gestured towards the blank screen. "Nice. Evolym I presume. I wish I had dreams like yours, I wouldn't need a date for a decade!" "Knock it off!" Sky gave Skelly a cold stare. "Whats our status?" Sky got up and rubbed the back of his neck. "I've got the reports in my compartment. Not everything is in yet but there is enough there to give us a good start. You better come in and take a good look at it. I can fill you in on some things I noticed." Skelly said. "Rob-B." Sky raised his voice as he turned around. "Whats our status?" "Cruising at Trans-Light," Rob-B's unemotional human voice always seemed soothing to hear, "eighteen hours fourteen minutes from Mars. Thirty-two minutes and nine seconds to Galaxy Barrier and Trans-Void Warp. All systems are nominal." Sky and Skelly walked down a short hall and through a bulkhead to Skelly’s compartment. The room was strewn with printouts, charts, and electronic equipment. Skelly cleared a space on the center table and rolled out a large chart. "This is the only lay-out of Niap I could call up. It's dated three centuries ago, our time, so I'm not sure if Thead has change Niap since then. You give that a ponder while I give you the rest." Sky sat at the table and examined the chart. Skelly paced in slow circles around the table as he continued, "The front gate is the only way in or out but if you look just inside the gate to the right there is staircase that leads directly to the lower floors. Centurie is a peaceful planet as Darcon said. There has been no war, except for recently, for the last two thousand years. The planet has a plus two gravity ratio and the oxygen rating is plus four. You, being born and raised on Mars, will have difficulty on the planet's surface, but we have plenty of Troxgen Compound on board and that should help compensate. You'll need one Troxgen cap every three hours. Don't forget! Or you'll fall flat as a pancake, if you follow my meaning. The Centurians are a small race, none of them over five feet in height and all with black hair and eyes, but I guess you know that. The average life-span is two hundred years. The population of Centurie is just over four billion. The Ukaws, on the other hand, are of a different breed. They average six feet tall, are heavy set with blond or red hair. They live in excess of five hundred years. They are the ruling class of Centurie and have been as far as its history has been recorded. The Ukaws use to have great wars over land ownership that lasted hundreds of years. They built fortresses to protect themselves from the other Ukaws, Niap is one of these. Thead holds one of the smallest, but oldest, states on Centurie. He inherited it from his father after a traditional father-son battle to the death called The Onlu, two hundred odd years ago. Since that time Thead has been amassing an army of well over half a million Centurians. He has been pillaging neighboring states trying to invoke a war. Now this is where things start to pick up." Skelly quicken his pace. He always got excited explaining all the work he had done. "Traditionally Centurians have always fought with hand-held weapons; swords, spears, bows, and alike. Ten years ago a smuggler convinced Thead that his ways of war were out dated and that he could supply Thead with weapons that would make him ruler of Centurie in days. The name of this smuggler is Cabbot Rightler!" "Cabbot!" Sky shook his head, "So that's where he got off to! But he was only carrying Langthanite ore when we lost track of him on Mars five years ago. What's he doing messed up in a civil war with the likes of Thead?" "Well apparently Thead couldn't break with tradition as much as Cabbot would of liked but did hire Cabbot to supply him with laser swords and neuron grenades. Cabbot stole the Langthanite on Mars to trade for the weapons Thead wanted with a dealer named Sharplen on Odus 5. Thead paid Cabbot off with platinum coins and now Cabbot is working for Sharplen supplying Thead with laser swords and Lithian mercenaries for his private guard. So we may be able to close one of Snelling's old cases and pick up a few extra credits on the side." Skelly stopped pacing. His broad smile showed how proud he was of himself for locating Cabbot. "Isn't one hundred thousand credits enough for you Skelly?" Sky was a little disgusted with Skelly. "There is a hell of a lot at stake here besides lining our account with credits. People are dying Skelly! A civil war is about to break out, women and children could die by the thousands!" Skelly put his head down for a moment. "Sorry Sky, sometimes I get wrapped up in the numbers and forget what's really going on. It all works out so smoothly on the computer. I guess I just lost my perspective." It wasn't the first time Skelly had lost his perspective. Sky knew it probably wouldn't be the last time either. Darcon hadn't help matters by throwing all those credits in the account. Sky looked at Skelly and smiled. "Where is Odus 5 anyway?" Skelly picked his head up with a puzzled look. He grabbed the star chart and rolled it out in front of Sky. There was excitement in Skelly's voice as his fingers traced over the chart, "Here! Right here, third system two quadrants away from Centurie. Eight hours at Ultra-Light max." "Where are you getting all this information on Sharplen from?" Sky ran his fingers over the chart. "I've tapped into Galaxy Command using the SIGMA code. They've got Sharplen's operation staked out. As soon as they locate his position they are going to go in and shut him down. If we hit..." "Fourty-five seconds to Trans-Void Warp." Rob-B's voice broke in over the intercom, "You boys better get up front and get strapped in." Skelly and Sky hurried into the control cabin and took their seats on either side of Rob-B's. "Thanks Rob-B." Sky said as he buckled his straps. "How long before we break into the Galaxy barrier?" "Twenty-five point eight seconds." Rob-B's reply was calm. "You ready Skelly?" called Sky. "I don't see how Rob-B can stay so relaxed." Skelly snapped his buckles in tight. "He's not going to black out like you and I will, that's why." Sky laughed. "Skelly, what are Lithian mercenaries?" "Lithian's are a race of giant humanoid type lizards...." "Lizards! Oh God!...." Sky cried as Eagle Seven began to shake and everything went black. ***** Sky opened his eyes. His head throbbed and his ears pulsated with a low fuzzy hum with each beat of his heart. As his vision cleared he could see Rob-B still expertly stroking the control sensors. The view screen was totally black but Rob-B stared intently into the void as if expecting a sudden change. Sky's voice croaked as he tried to speak, "How long have we been in the void Rob-B?" "Three hours twenty-eight minutes and thirty-two seconds. No structural damage but number seven ion drive is malfunctioning. Maintenance drone affecting repairs, estimated completion in two hours. Loss of number seven drive will not effect ETA on Centurie. All other systems nominal." Rob-B kept his eyes on the blank screen. "Exit from Trans-Void Warp in four hours." "OK,OK" Sky rubbed the back of his neck, "Simple answers for a while, OK Rob-B. At least give my brain a chance to catch with my body." "Sorry." Rob-B said as the corners of his mouth turned up in a barely perceivable smile, "I guess there is one advantage to being a Cyborg, no ill effects from space warping." Sky put his hand on Rob-B's shoulder plate, "You're a damn good pilot Rob-B. You're with me because you're good, not because you're a Cyborg. " Rob-B turned towards Sky. His deep blue eyes looking deep into Sky's. "I know; but thanks anyway." Rob-B returned to concentrating on the screen. Sky unbuckled himself and walked back to Skelly's cabin. Skelly was sitting in front of his terminal entering data. They spent the next several hours going over the information that Skelly had been able to come up with. Sky sat and listened patiently as Skelly rambled on with a seemingly endless amount of history on Lithians, Centurie, Cabbot, and Thead. Yet that was the way Skelly always did his job. It was up to Sky to decipher what was of importance and what was not. With all of his expertise in research, however, Skelly had not found much on Oracles or Evolym Hastings. The only records on Evolym were from when she had attended college on Mars for four years. Before that and until now there were no records of her anywhere, including Galaxy Command's files. Skelly had found mention of Oracles in the history of almost every intelligent culture in the known universe. But never more than a passage or two and nothing that stated what they were or why they were on those planets in the first place. The Oracles just seemed to be present just before or just after major turning points in a civilization's development. Sky sat in silence long after Skelly had finished. Skelly watched as Sky traced the charts of Niap and Odus 5 with his fingers. "Something just doesn't add up." Sky said at last breaking the silence. "Galaxy Command has enough on Thead and Sharplen to shut down the entire mess for interplanetary transportation of stolen property. There is no reason they shouldn't have by now seeing as how Thead is trying to instigate a war on Centurie. And I just don't believe that with all the hardware that the Command has that they can't find Sharplen's base on a dust-hole moon like Odus 5." Sky paused, his worried face deep in thought. "Maybe Galaxy Command has been told not to interfere." Skelly said trying to be helpful. "Maybe," Sky repeated, "but who. Who could have that kind of authority to tell Galaxy Command what to do? Certainly not Darcon, he's just a priest. But he is the one that summoned us here. Darcon has to know more that he's told us." As soon as they were through the void, Sky had Skelly place call to the Temple of Sayco on Centurie. Sky took the call in Skelly's compartment, alone. Sky was in there for several hours. When Sky stormed out of the compartment and slammed down in his seat next to Rob-B's Skelly knew something big had happen. "Well?" Skelly questioned. "What did Darcon say?" "Darcon?" Sky voice staggered as he struggled to regain his composure. "There is no Darcon. There never has been a Darcon at the Temple Sayco!" "What!" Skelly was astonished. "But I checked his file! He's got to be there, files don't lie!" "File don't lie, but there is no Darcon on Centurie!" Sky was back in control now. " The priest I spoke with said The Oracle of Sayco went to Niap of her own free will, but is late in returning. The priest had never heard of Evolym Hastings. I rechecked several things and it's obvious that all the information we received before coming through the void had been tampered with, placed there for us to see." "Impossible!" Skelly ran back to compartment steaming something about he couldn't make mistakes under his breath. "Rob-B, plot a course for Niap. But don't take us too close, just close enough for us to observe." Sky turned and started back for Skelly's compartment. "What's the plan now Sky?" Rob-B's voice had a hint of sarcasm in it. "We play out our hand the way it was delt; and see what breaks loose." Sky gave a soft laugh, "What ever it is that Darcon is up to, he fed us a lot of information that doesn't exist in Galaxy Command's records." Sky slumped back down in his seat with a sudden jerk. His eyes were closed. Rob-B grabbed Sky's arm as he fell into the seat. Sky opened his mouth and spoke as if his voice were traveling down a long tube, "Doesn't exist; yet." ***** The countryside around Thead's capital was thick with green jungle. Rob-B had no problem putting Eagle Seven down unseen from the tall ramparts of Niap. They were about a half mile from the front gate hidden by the thick forest and an embankment that ran from the hill behind them. They watch Niap for several days and saw nothing that resembled the story Darcon had told them a week before. Sky sat near the top of the embankment watching the Centurian guards going about their daily routine on the ramparts. Skelly came up from the ship hidden in the ravine below. "Here's your Troxgen capsule." Skelly said in low voice as he handed it to Sky. Sky sighed as he pulled the scope away from his eyes. He rubbed the back of his neck and washed down the capsule with water from his canteen. "You still haven't told me about that incident back on the ship." Skelly continued raising his voice a little higher. "I mean you were out cold for a couple of hours. What the frap is going on?" "I don't know Skelly." Sky's distant eyes looked at Skelly and Skelly could tell he wasn't looking at him. "Ever since then; well really a couple times before, like when I had that picture of Evolym on the screen, I get these strange thoughts entering into my head. Like their coming out of a deep, wide well. It's like I feel them more than I think them. I journey into the well and as...as I..." Sky's voice tapered off into silence. Skelly was never more concerned for Sky then he was at this moment. All at once it seemed his partner had gone off into oblivion. Sky's eyes were wide open and he still gripped the viewing scope in his hands, but Skelly knew that Sky was off somewhere deep inside himself. Somewhere that made Sky totally detached from the world he was in. Skelly studied the movement of Sky's eyes as they dilated and began to twitch. Skelly shook his partner by the shoulders and called in a coarse whisper, "Sky. Sky!" "Quiet!" Sky snapped in low voice. "Can't you hear it! Their coming! Quick get down!' Sky grabbed Skelly and forced him to the ground. The air was still and nothing could be heard, not even the subtle sounds of the jungle around them. Skelly laid on the ground wondering what he was going to do with Sky. He guessed he'd have to return to Mars and check Sky into a medical station. There was no other explanation, Sky had to have some serious illness. Medical attention was the only thing that could be of any help now. A deep rumble began to break the silence of the air above their heads. The rumble quicken to a loud roar that made the ground they laid on tremble. Skelly and Sky watched as a bright flash of white and yellow flame broke into view in the skies above Niap. A large dingy gray space ship began it's vertical descent and landed just outside the main gate of Niap. "That'll be Cabbot." Sky whispered to Skelly. Skelly, relieved in thought that Sky was really all right, said nothing. Skelly and Sky watched as a group of soldiers came out of the gates and waited beside the spacecraft. Soon a ramp folded down from the ship and twenty huge shapes dressed in dark green hooded cloaks filed down the ramp. At their head was a much smaller shape in a blue cape. They paused momentarily with the soldiers and then they all marched inside Niap. "What's that all about?" Skelly whispered to Sky. "I think the story Darcon told us is about to come true." Sky watched the walls of Thead's domain his grip tight upon the scope. He scanned the every inch of the outside walls waiting for another clue. Skelly patiently waited for Sky to add to what he had said. Skelly hated it when Sky ignored him. Sky knew something very important to this case and he wasn't letting Skelly in on it. Skelly lived on information and the thought that Sky was holding information back on him was almost to much to bear. But Sky had not been himself since that dream on board the Eagle. Skelly had been worried about Sky ever since. Skelly tried to hide his anxiety and politely asked, "What do you mean 'about to come true' and why is Cabbot using that antique combustion spacecraft?" "Think for a minute Skelly." Sky answered while he continued to scan Niap. "What is the technological level of Centurie?" "Except for some highly developed communication systems, they are about at the same level as twenty-first century Earth." Skelly answered quickly knowing the answer before Sky had finished the question. "And what would happen if Thead suddenly started using ion drive, light speed capable spacecraft? Or if he started using neutron guns or plasmactic bombs?" Sky asked. "Why he could totally dominate the planet in a matter of hours," Skelly paused as he thought for a moment, "and then Galaxy Command would realize that he had outside influence and shut him down." "Exactly." Sky said. "Thead must give all appearances that he is using and developing his own planet's technology or Galaxy Command will end his campaign to conquer the planet." "What about Cabbot and the Lithians?" "Galaxy Command has no control over the migration of peoples from planet to planet, only the technologies that they may bring with them that would upset the natural advancement of the planet..... ...................................
(Still expanding Story story #109) (If you'd like to see it completed ... ask the Author)
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