Hunter just stared back at him. He thought he detected a bit of quavering in the spy's usually resonant voice.
"This planet?" he asked. "Why?"
"Because they know…" the spy replied after a dramatic pause. "They know your friends from the Third Empire are out here. They know the UPF fleet is out here, too. And they know neither one has ships run by prop cores. Don't you see? If they get control of the Big Generator, the very first thing they have to do is wipe out all of you. You'll be the only real organized force that could stand in their way, even though, as has been established, not for very long.
"So time is very short here. And you certainly can't waste it down there, in the dizzylando. The SSG will eventually muck up the Big Generator to a point where they will either have it doing their bidding, or it will be wrecked forever. That is why haste must now be your friend."
Hunter just slumped further into his seat. There was an air of grim inevitability in the room. Hawk Hunter Saves the Galaxy? The spy was right; who else was up to do the job? Who else had the experience? He, on the other hand, was in the hero business. That's why he was here.
He looked at the DATT, then over the at the TV set. "Would you go if you were me?"
The Astronaut nodded slowly. "I would have to. And so do you, I'm afraid."
Hunter thought another few moments, weighing the pros and cons — not that there were many pros. Then he thought about Xara and what she would think of all this. She would not want him to go, but at the same time, he knew that he should. That was enough to convince him.
"OK, I'll do it," he said. "Even if this is a bad dream, it beats trudging through the badlands. I think…"
"Then we must move fast," the spy said. "Already I'm sure people are beginning to wonder where I am all this time."
He asked Hunter for his quadtrol. The pilot passed the handheld device over* his shoulder. The spy began punching information into it, his fingers moving with lightning-quick speed. He handed the device back to Hunter after just a few seconds.
"Once you get down to your destination, you'll have to locate the ticket booths. This information will help you find them."
'Ticket booths?" Hunter asked. "You've got to be kidding me."
"It will all make sense once you're on the ground, so to speak," the spy said. "Just follow the instructions on your quadtrol."
"Anything else?" Hunter asked him.
The spy reached inside his coat and came out with a small white capsule. It was a Twenty 'n Six, a device that could hold large objects in the twenty-sixth dimension until the owner recalled them for use. Items almost as large as a Starcrasher could be stored via the bizarre little devices. Hunter had carried his precious Flying Machine around in one many times.
"There is no sense in denying this DATT is very old," the spy explained. "It might be good only for a one way trip. Or you might not be able to make it back to it once your mission is complete. If that's the case, then activate this Twenty 'n Six. You'll find a lifeboat of sorts inside. But only use it in an emergency. And there's no guarantee it will work, either."
Hunter numbly took the capsule from him. He was more concerned about his means of getting to the first dizzylando moon than he was about getting back.
"Anything else?" he asked the spy again, this time in a mocking tone.
"Just to wish you good luck, Major," he said. "A lot is riding on this. Just please stay smart down there, no matter what the temptation. And, whatever you do, please hurry"
With that, the spy glided to a darkened comer of the room and melded with the shadows.
Hunter looked down at the TV screen to see the Ancient Astronaut looking back at him, a finger pressed to his space mask where his lips would be. Suddenly everything in the room froze. The officers, the spy, the ticking of the grandfather clock. Incredibly, the Astronaut had temporarily stopped time, another trick of the Third Empire. It was the only way he and Hunter could talk privately.
It was fascinating, if just a bit creepy.
"Was this necessary for my last-minute pep talk?" Hunter asked the image.
"If you needed a pep talk, I wouldn't let you go," the Astronaut replied. "Just some last-minute details your friend in black might not be privy to… and I don't want our guys to know either, in case they ever get brain scanned."
"Lay them on me," Hunter said, anxious again. The sooner he got going, the sooner this whole episode would be over with.
The Astronaut told him, "Your first destination will be the Alpha Moon. Those are the coordinates he put inside your quadtrol. And like he said, once you're down, you'll have to locate the ticket booth. It's the entrance to the dizzylando. It will bring you to the first attraction. You'll need a password to activate your entry. Use these two words: Sky Ghost."
Hunter stared back at him. Sky Ghost? Why did that seem so familiar?
The Astronaut went on, "You'll probably have to ride every attraction until you can find out more about the guy we are seeking. But you should know this will not be like simply visiting a bunch of typical moons with things built on them. These places are very, very strange. Their design came from the mind of a very unusual person. Remember, back in their day, these amusement parks were meant to take people to places beyond their imagination. To scare them. To make them laugh, even if they wanted to cry from fright. That's what's really going on down there — Multiplied several million times."
"You mean like a mind ring trip?" Hunter asked.
The old man laughed. "A mind ring trip is like a drop in the ocean compared to what this man created. These places exist in another state of mind. Based on his beliefs, his desires, his dreams. His designs. And because they were built with the same technology as terra-forming, elaborate doesn't even scratch the surface of what they are all about. He'll try to get into your head, that is if he is still the same person I remember. And it will be useless to ask for him, or to ask anyone about him, until you get to the end of each ride, so to speak. I mean, there's a reason no one has ventured into this place for more than a thousand years. It's not considered holy like Luna, or off limits, like Mars. It's just too weird, too scary — which of course is the whole point of a dizzylando. Or at least it's what he thought one should be like. Just be aware that some surprises may be awaiting you down there."
The Astronaut sipped his Tang martini.
"Just go with the flow. Be discreet. Eventually you'll find him — if he doesn't find you first. But have respect for any people you might meet along the way be they real or not. You're entering into their existence now, whatever that existence might be. It will probably seem crazy to you, but it is very real to them."
"You know a lot about this place," Hunter said. "Almost like you've been there before."
The Astronaut laughed. "I don't have to have been there
to know what it is like. As I said, this particular person had a very weird sense of humor. Although, that was the least of his problems or his attributes, depending on your point of view."
"Please explain," Hunter asked him.
The Astronaut sipped his Tang martini again and thought for a few moments. "Let me put it this way," he said. "The man you are seeking is indeed a bit of an enigma. A riddle. A mystery. He could be your greatest friend or your worst enemy. He's cultured, yet he's also a brute. He loves to drink, but he's God-fearing. He's an intellectual, but he wouldn't hesitate a moment to change history to suit his purposes. Or to fuel his amusement. He could be a cold-blooded killer. But in a way, he's just a big softy, too. He has this thing about him where he wants every story to have a happy ending, every dream to come true. But most of all, he was very jealous of the way we used to live — you and I and the rest of the people back in twentieth-century America, so long ago."