Hunter didn’t even have to think about what to do next. His instinct took over. He snapped his fingers and suddenly a weapons control was locked in his fist. He turned the flying machine twenty degrees off center and squeezed the trigger. Two blinding beams of yellow light erupted from his nose cone — weapons that weren’t really there. He squeezed again. Two more beams appeared. He squeezed again—now there were six beams of extremely bright Z rays flowing out of his nose.
Six…
It seemed to be the right number.
The beams smashed into the first moon; it went up in an orange flash and was gone. He flipped over.
There was no need to fight the second moon; Hunter simply streaked around it — and then found himself back over the X-ray image of the Earth again.
Another close one…
He looked down at his hands and saw the weapons control quickly dematerialize. When he looked up again, he found himself heading toward a set of gigantic mechanical teeth.
They had to be more than a hundred miles away, yet in this distorted world, they were quickly filling his entire field of vision. There was a mighty gleam coming off their razor-sharp edges; each tang was at least a mile long. They were moving up and down so quickly, a surge of static electricity was exploding outward each time the gigantic jaws came together and opened again. It was a scene right out of a nightmare.
And it was no optical illusion. Hunter could tell these things were real — or as real as anything could be inside the thirteenth dimension. No amount of blinking was going to make them disappear. And no matter how fast he was going, Hunter knew if one of these things came down on top of him, he and his flying machine would be crushed into oblivion.
He was suddenly right on them. In a heartbeat, the giant incisors were directly in front of him, closing shut. Again, his instinct took over. He stood his machine up on its wing and before he could even think about it, he streaked through the narrow opening just as the teeth snapped closed.
A really close one…
But the bad dream was not over, for once on the other side, he found himself facing another set of monstrous jaws, these fewer than fifty miles away. He just barely made it through them when a third set appeared, even closer to him. Then a fourth. And a fifth.
This was getting serious. Hunter was just barely getting through the monstrous obstructions before they clamped shut; each time, they were a bit closer to chomping off the tail of his aircraft. This went on for what seemed like forever, each time making it through the gigantic mandibles, but with less and less time to spare.
Finally the set in front of him clamped shut — and stayed shut. Hunter had nowhere to go but up. He yanked back on the controls and soon was looking deep into the night emerald sky — if there really was a night sky in Dreamland. The stars were most definitely green, and there seemed to be many more of them. No matter — this was not the time for stargazing. Hunter continued pulling back on his controls and soon was upside down; then, an instant later, was looking at the distorted colors of the ground again.
And I think that’s called a loop…
He wound up in nearly the same place from where he’d started the maneuver. The teeth were still closed.
Hunter squeezed his trigger, and the six weapons in his nose lit up again. They were so bright, they felt like they were burning away his eyes. His barrage hit the clenched jaw a nanosecond before his aircraft did. This was just enough time for them to blow a hole large enough for his machine to streak through. He twisted his way among the subatomic debris, then yanked the flying machine back to level again.
That was the end of the giant teeth.
But no sooner had he caught his breath than his instrument panel began blinking madly again. A viewing screen appeared out of nowhere — it smashed into Hunter’s helmet after a clumsy pop-in from God-knows-what dimension. The screen was displaying two very strange icons; they were moving from the top to the bottom of the field. A warning buzzer went off in his ear. He looked up from the screen to see a pair of aircraft coming in the opposite direction, heading right at him. Their noses were lit up with Z beams.
Jessuzz, not again …
In a heartbeat Hunter twisted right, and felt the bottom fall out from underneath him again. He was spinning out of control once again, the ground racing up at him. He blinked once. Nothing. He blinked again. Still nothing.
The hell with this…
He pulled back mightily on his control column and pushed the aircraft hard left. Something deep inside his power plant growled in response, but he ignored it and quickly recovered flight.
Now he found himself on the tail of one of the aircraft. This contraption looked worse than his own. It, too, had wings, a tail, a large bubble-type canopy, and, Hunter would have bet, wheels as well. It was silver and had a large red-star emblem on its wings and tail.
Familiar…
He pushed his trigger. His nose cone erupted again, and the enemy aircraft vaporized into nothingness — only to be replaced by another. Hunter squeezed his trigger again. This aircraft exploded, too — and was replaced by another. And then another. And another.
This must have been some kind of nightmare back where I was from, he thought. No sooner had he dispatched one enemy aircraft than another would slot in and take its place, almost as if its pilot were anxious for his turn to get slaughtered. Again, this went on for what seemed like an eternity — until finally Hunter smacked himself in the forehead and blinked.
All signs of the enemy aircraft quickly disappeared.
He took in a long, deep breath…
That’s when another of the aircraft went right across his nose. Its cockpit was on fire, its pilot was struggling to get out. It seemed to hang motionless in front of him for a very long time. The pilot’s skin was searing right off his face. He was looking right into Hunter’s eyes, his mouth opened as if to scream…
That’s when Hunter swerved violently to the left to avoid the flaming wreckage… and punched out of thirteen.
He’d popped out over a vast stretch of aqua water.
There was no solid ground anywhere that he could see. No triads, bridges, or islands. This was not a lake or a wide canal he was crossing. This was something else. The Western Ocean. It looked cool, calm, pacific. If he looked hard enough, he could almost see right down to its bottom; the water was that clean.
The sun was coming over his shoulder now. He turned around and looked behind him. There wasn’t another racer in sight.
He checked his instruments. All the weird weaponry had vanished, and his usual array of controls had reappeared. Everything seemed to be running fine. He was still moving incredibly fast, and just as before, it seemed more like the world was turning beneath him than he flying over it. He felt his body relax a little.
Out of the corners of his eyes he could still see the people in the arena stands, cheering for him. Or at least he thought they were cheering for him.
When he looked forward again he saw another blue screen coming right at him.
Pow!
This impact was even more violent than the first. The flying machine began vibrating so fiercely, Hunter found himself reaching out for something — anything — to hold on to. Once again, he grabbed the control column, with two hands, and held on. It took nearly twice as long this time, but finally the aircraft settled down.
Once his eyeballs stopped shaking he saw that his cockpit was once more jam-packed with imaginary weapons. And he was back over the X-ray Earth again, all darkness and neon outlines, everything looking like it was there and not there, everything closing in on him just like before.