Everyone in the room turned back to the TV set. "Well, he's as old as I am, let's put it that way," the Astronaut said. "And he stayed close to Earth when I chose to leave. I can't blame him, I guess. We all had to make tough decisions back then. To each his own.
"But as odd as he might be, he is a genius when it comes to power-producing technology. That was definitely his forte. The core sources, the generation. The very mystery of Super electricity… If there is one soul in this Galaxy who can help with what might be a catastrophic situation, it is him. He will know what to do with this Big Generator business. He will know how we can attack the problem from our end. Or at least I hope he will."
"So, where is this guy?" Hunter asked now. "And where is this amusement park of his?"
Erikk said, "Well, that, too, is strange, Hawk…"
He waved his hand, and instantly there was a three-dimensional star map hovering above the table. Another wave of his hand, the map became more detailed. But Hunter found himself not looking at some far flung star system, but rather into the heart of the Solar System. The original Solar System. More specifically, he was looking at Saturn, its rings and its many, many moons.
Erikk indicated those moons.
"His dizzylando is down there, somewhere," he said. "And so is he."
"Saturn?" Hunter asked, astonished. He'd just assumed the mystery man, while still technically located within the realm, had fled to another part of the Galaxy, just as the Astronaut and his army had withdrawn to the edge of the far-out Seven Arm.
Never did he think he would have stayed inside the Solar System itself.
"As part of his pledge, this man was given a bunch of Saturn's moons and the use of the last of the original Ancient Engineers, or the secrets thereof," Erikk explained. "He was given the ability to change these moons into anything he wanted for his dizzylando. Each moon being a separate attraction. That was his deal."
Hunter studied the moons spinning around the huge ringed planet. Between the real ones and all the artificial ones put up over the centuries, there seemed to be hundreds of them.
"I can confirm his moons have been off limits to even
the highest Specials," the spy told them in his darkly regal way. 'Their very existence, and the way they were altered, is one of the Five Secrets held by the Empire. You won't catch any of the Imperial Family out there, just like you won't catch any of them on Luna. The Solar Guards avoid the place religiously, too, even though, as you know, they are all over Saturn itself."
This much was true. All of the Solar System's planets had been puffed — made inhabitable — Saturn included. In fact, many of the SG's administrative sections were located on the pleasantly fair, yellow and blue surface of the gigantic ringed planet. But as for the planet's many moons, Hunter had to admit he hadn't heard much about any of them since finding himself here in the seventy-third century.
"Because of the knowledge this man possesses," Erikk concluded, "he could very well know how to thwart this devious undertaking by the SSG. The trouble might be getting him to do it, because, as we have learned, he is a very unusual person.
"But in any case, we think someone should go down there and try to find him…"
All eyes in the room turned to Hunter. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"And I guess," he said, "that would be me?"
The spy was the first to reply. "You're a victim of your own success, Major Hunter," he said simply. "Can you think of anyone else who could save the Galaxy, single-handedly?"
Hunter imagined he could see the spy smiling beneath his hat. But the man had a point. While any number of the
UPF guys or Star Legionnaires were bold enough, brave enough to go on such a high-risk mission, Hunter had to admit he was the veteran go-to guy for such things. He'd been on hundreds of special missions in his life, or so it seemed. And this time the cause definitely seemed worthy — if this wasn't all just a bad dream, that is.
"Let's say I agree to do this," he finally told them. "Exactly how am I getting where I'm supposed to go?"
It was another good question. Obviously the moons of Saturn were deep within territory controlled by the Solar Guards. And while it might have been possible for him to bust through the SG lines with his fabulous Flying Machine, without it, he really was just an ordinary man.
How could an ordinary man move hundreds of light-years into enemy territory without being detected?
He was about to find out.
The spy turned to Erikk and the others. "With your permission?" he asked.
In the next instant, there was a flash.
A second later, a large wooden box was sitting in the middle of the room. It was green and red, about the size of an ancient phone booth, with wires and hoses running all over it.
It was called a DATT, for deatomizing transfer tube.
Hunter took one look at it — and let out a long groan. Suddenly he wished he was back in the badlands.
"I feel obliged to explain this thing to you," the spy told him.
But Hunter didn't need any explanation of this contraption. He knew what a DATT was. It was an ancient form of transportation that used deatomization as the means of travel. The traveler is broken down into individual sub-atoms and sent, by superstrings' vibrations, to his intended destination. It sounded cool, but Hunter knew it was a very dangerous way to travel the cosmos, even when it was considered a new technology, thousands of years ago.
"God, I'd rather walk than go in this thing," Hunter said.
"I would, too," the spy admitted. "But it's the only way I can figure you can get where you've got to go without the SG knowing about it. Consider this: the SG is scanning any ship, back to front, that even approaches the One Arm. They're even scanning their own ships, that's how paranoid they are. So, travel by space vessel is out. You'd never make it within a hundred light-years of the One Arm. The SG can also detect flash transfers anywhere in the Galaxy. And they can detect beam transport technology, too. But the DATT method is so old, they don't even have it on their list of scanning objectives. Indeed, I would guess many of them don't even know it still exists. Besides, you have to get very deep behind enemy lines and do so very quickly. So there really is no other way."
Not many things concerned Hunter about his well-being. He was too lucky to worry about death. However, the thought of traveling by DATT was unnerving. He just shook his head slowly. If only he had his damn Flying Machine! He'd be able to break through the Pluto Cloud and any other obstacle the SG put in his way simply by going fast. And at least he'd have a better chance of making it in one piece.
"Can I ask something?" he said to all of them now, with some exasperation. "How come our big bad spy here isn't going on this mission?"
It was a good question. Imperial spies had access to just about anywhere. Why wasn't he going after the creator of the dizzylando?
The spy didn't hesitate a moment to reply. "Do you really think if I found this guy, that he would come with me?" he asked. "An Imperial spy? I'm as much his enemy as I am yours."
There was a round of somber nodding in the room. Even Hunter had to agree with the spy's logic.
"I wish there was another way," he told Hunter directly. "And believe me, I have no desire to be found conspiring with you against the SSG. But time is not a luxury we have right now, because as your friends already know, there is another shoe to drop here."
"And that is?" Hunter asked, not quite sure he wanted to know.
The spy replied, "I'm sorry to say that in addition to their manipulation of the Big Generator, the SSG is planning to attack this very planet with a very unusual secret weapon, as soon as they think the BG is under their control."