Klaaz was closer to 500 years old. Like Calandrx, he was a little bent, a little slow in walking, and boasted a full head of long white hair. Klaaz was a well-known hero of the Five Arm. He'd rallied entire star clusters to fight against the marauding space merc and pirate armies who had battered the middle part of the fifth spiral for centuries. Klaaz was so famous and so brave, he held the rank of space marshal in nearly two dozen planetary systems. His face adorned the aluminum coin currency of several more. To speak the name of the Great Klaaz in the mid-Five Arm was almost like speaking the name of the Almighty himself.
Tomm and Hunter had come upon Klaaz's lonely world about halfway through their search for the Home Planets. Klaaz had known Zarex and was sure the explorer/gun runner would know the way to the mythical Home Planets system. In the meantime Hunter and Tomm had helped Klaaz defeat not one but two merc armies who were closing in on his ice fortress, allowing the old warrior to escape with a large bevy of beautiful women that he had taken under his care.
When several Solar Guards attacked a pair of these women later on, Klaaz knew his old friends were in trouble. Like Erx, Berx, and Calandrx before him, he, too, eventually found his way to Planet America — just how would fill an entire knowledge bubble — arriving like the others, just in time to save Hunter's life.
So it was ironic then, that the two ancient soldiers were now part of the vigil at Hunter's bed. They had been briefed on the tragic events by the others, and pulling up a pair of hovering chairs, joined in their friend's deathwatch.
The rest of the night passed slowly.
Day came, and there was no change in Hunter's condition.
His face was locked in a clench, his eyes seemed to be shut unnaturally tight. It was clear some kind of struggle was raging inside him. Inside his mind. Inside that place where he really was.
Tomm had already performed the ancient ritual of the last rites. In one corner of the room, Zarex and Gordon spoke quietly about the best way to get the fleet ready for the long flight back to the Home Planets. Although their point of origin was speeding farther and farther away from them with every second, meaning their fuel supply would have to be stretched to the absolute limit if they were to reach the Home Planets at all, they were loath to start out, only to have Hunter die en route. That just didn't seem right somehow.
But clearly, a decision on this would have to be made very shortly.
The dying star of Pepsicus took more than two hours to finally rise above the northern horizon of Xronis Trey. Close on its heels was the last remaining heavenly body in the long-lost star system, the first rock out from the sun, the pearl-white planet of Frangelicus 5.
It was the first time the newcomers to Xronis Trey had seen the planet rise. It's concentric orbit brought it very close to its poor relatives; it rose out of the northeast, nearly twice the size of the nearby Zinc & Tin, an amazing sight from low orbit. Because of its alabaster coloring, the tiny world reflected more light from Pepsicus in a day than the other two planets did in a solar year.
And here's where it got very strange.
Through a small porthole on the sick bay wall, they all watched the whitish planet climb above the forbidding landscape of Xronis Trey, amazed that something so beautiful could be found floating in this empty and foreboding sky. And Pater Tomm really didn't know why he did what he did. He was not a man of impulses, just the opposite in fact. But something told him to stand up and draw back the curtain of the larger window in the hospital room. And when he did, a ray of light from Frangelicus 5 burst through and fell on Hunter's body.
A moment later, Hunter opened his eyes.
Everyone in the room gasped — all except Pater Tomm, who was too astonished to do anything. In many ways, he blamed himself for his friend's plight.
Hunter coughed hard, fell deeper into his pillow, and coughed again. He still looked terrible. But he was alive. And he was coming around.
More baffling, he looked different. His hair had grown out almost as long as Zarex's mane. And he looked stronger, bigger, more rugged.
It was the look in his eyes, though; that was the scariest part.
His pupils almost seemed to glow red now. The eyes themselves seemed to have changed shape: they were now bigger, wider, the eyes of a very angry man.
"Hawk?" Tomm finally said to him, speaking for them all. "Is that really you?"
Hunter seemed to move one more step back into reality.
He slowly lifted his hand and indicated that someone should take the mind ring off him. Zarex quickly complied, only for them to see that another ring was in position underneath it. Zarex removed this ring as well, only to find another. And another. And another. This made no sense, but the people gathered in the room knew that strange things always seemed to happen to Hunter, though certainly this was among the most bizarre.
Only after the fifth ring was removed did he open his eyes again, and this time they stayed open.
He just looked up at them and took in a very deep breath. The doctors were called, but he waved away his friends' concern. He looked up at Erx; the spaceman knew what he meant right away. He had a fresh flask of slow-ship up to Hunter's lips in a flash.
Then Hunter finally spoke.
"Are we still on Xronis Trey?" he asked.
"We are, brother," Erx told him. "The endless night has passed, and we are into a new day."
"Have the robots of Myx arrived?" Hunter then asked, his voice seeming to build in strength with every word.
Calandrx and Klaaz stepped forward. Both men were beaming but at the same time shocked to see him alive.
"They are here, and so are we, brother," Calandrx said.
Finally, Hunter's battered lips were able to form a smile.
"Brothers, my plan worked to perfection," he told them slowly. "I stayed inside the vault of mind rings and put thousands of them on. Even when I felt you trying to pull me back, I had to resist. I had to get as much information as possible, even though I knew that I was in very bad shape."
Erx put more wine into him. He took an even deeper breath and seemed to gain even more strength in the process.
"But it was worth it," he began again. "Because I know the whole story now. I know who forced the people of Earth off their planet. I know why they did it.
"And that means we must begin our holy war against the Fourth Empire immediately."
Part Two
The Other Side of Thirty Star Pass
7
Earth.
It was a diamond floating among brilliant stones, a blue crystal shimmering against the blackness of space.
The white-hot glaze surrounding the planet looked like an angel's halo. Some claimed they could see it from clear across the Galaxy. Others only dreamed they could.