Charlie simply gaped. Korig was so pleased with himself just now that nothing could apparently push him beyond irritation into genuine anger. The giant could easily have killed Mike, but that his purpose had simply been to scare the crap out of him seemed obvious now. Korig worshipped a certain kind of respect - craved it would be a better word - and it was a respect that equated with fear among the opposition.

Korig swung around again, and pinned Pacha in his gaze. "Have much to talk about now."

The koala's soft eyes came up and regarded the giant Arpathant. "I do not think so."

Korig's face twisted into irritation mode again...and then froze. At the same time, the two guards standing watch grunted, and the muzzles of their weapons slowly dropped to hit the deck. Charlie stared, unsure of what was happening, as Korig and the two guards suddenly hunched forward, as if in pain. The guard's arms slowly stretched to their full lengths, and with a terrific thunk-thunk, their weapons pulled from their grasps and dropped to the deck.

Korig voiced something angry in his native tongue, and the three Arpathants dropped to their knees, and then fell over on their sides and lay twitching on the deck.

Pacha turned to Mike. "Can you travel?"

Mike nodded, and pointed at Korig. "Gravity?"

"Twelve of them, to you. Almost six to them. I think that will hold them while we take our leave of this uncheerful place."

Charlie understood then. Just as Pacha had relieved their group of the extra gravitational pull within the ship so that they could move about, now he had somehow increased it sixfold to incapacitate the Arpathants.

"You don't need to tell us twice," Kippy said, helping Mike to his feet. The Aussie boy was still wobbly, and Ricky and Adrian came around to his sides and threw one of the boy's arms over each of their shoulders. Mike looked unhappy to be helped, but just nodded his willingness to allow it. Kippy went to Pacha and bent low before him. "Would it help if I carried you?"

Pacha reached up with his small, furry arms. "It would hasten things dramatically, yes."

Charlie smiled, wishing he had time to take a picture of Kippy bent down as he was, with the koala reaching upwards to be picked up. He patted the pocket containing his phone, but then went to stand beside his boyfriend as Kippy carefully picked up Pacha and cradled him in his arms.

"Oh, my god, are you two cute together," Charlie whispered.

Kippy grinned ear-to-ear. "Which of us is cuter?" he whispered back.

Charlie laughed. "It's damn close, but you know the answer."

Kippy beamed at him, his eyes twinkling.

"We will have time for your mating ritual later," Pacha said, pointing at the bubble ship with one tiny hand. "We should leave now, before something else happens."

Korig twitched and rolled, and grumbled something unintelligible in his gravelly voice. Whether it was a plea or a threat could not be determined, but Charlie felt certain it was the latter.

They started moving towards the bubble ship, expecting any moment for alarms to sound and troops to come rushing at them. But nothing at all happened. Charlie remembered then that there were only nine other crew aboard the great vessel after Korig and his two lackeys, and that made the chance of discovery quite slim, indeed.

They reached the bubble ship, at which point Mike was able to progress under his own power. Pacha waved a tiny hand, and the round entry appeared in the side of the ship. They hustled inside, and the hull sealed up again behind them. Charlie breathed a sigh of relief then.

"Here, I'll take him," Mike said, going to Kippy and extending his arms towards Pacha. Kippy sighed, but held the koala out, and Pacha scrambled into Mike's arms. Mike grinned then, and again Charlie could see that the boy held a great deal of affection for the little alien. They had been through a lot together, he imagined, and the bond they shared was apparent. But...first things first.

"Shouldn't we take off?" Charlie asked.

"We already have," Pacha returned. "I have opened the lock in the ship's hull, and we are about to depart. The moment we do, Korig and his men will be free."

Charlie grimaced at the idea. "They'll chase us?"

"They will try." Somehow, Pacha managed to look pleased with himself. "By the time they swing that giant vessel around in it's tracks, we will have vanished into the Cooee."

Charlie blinked. "Into what?"

Mike started laughing. "Oh, I gave him that word. Cooee is a bush call back home. Do it right and it can be heard for a fair piece. But we've come to use it to mean distance, like, 'we aren't within cooee' of this or that. Means we ain't close, by far. Or, we say, 'that's within cooee' of this or that, and it means it's close by."

Charlie laughed. "So it can mean near or far, depending on how you use it?"

"Yep. When Pacha tried to explain to me how their ships travel through this no-space, no-time stuff, I thought it sounded a lot like he was sayin' that when you went into it, you were just as close to and just as far from some place as you could possibly get, until you got there."

Ricky laughed, and gave Charlie a fond poke. "There's one for that brain of yours. What does that tell you?"

Charlie shrugged. "Beats me. But if it takes us away from Korig and his boys, I'm all for it."

"Can we get back to Earth?" Adrian asked.

"Yes." Pacha offered them a perfectly human nod. "But not right away. They will assume your world as our destination, and move to intercept us."

"They can do that?" Charlie asked. "Stop us?"

"No, they can't stop us. But they can trail us, and be right there when we reemerge into normal space. We would then be in the same predicament that we now have here."

Ricky scratched his chin. "They can't grab us with a tractor beam or something?"

The koala offered a faintly puzzled look, and Mike jumped in to explain the concept. "The technology is fanciful," Pacha decided, after hearing about it.

"That means they don't have it," Mike explained. "They use other stuff to dock ships. No Cap'n Kirk out here."

Kippy frowned and turned to Charlie. "That means we aren't going home? Charlie, we can't just stay out here. Our families will worry." He looked even more anguished a moment later. "And we'll miss the fireworks!"

"Not as much time has passed as you might think," Mike told them. "A ship in flight under the star drive doesn't connect with the time going on out in the yonder. The Cooee is no-time, as far as the real universe is concerned. " He grinned. "You know - back home and everywhere else."

"Is that possible?" Adrian asked, looking like he thought it wasn't at all.

"If they do it, it is," Charlie decided.

"It was morning when we met, wasn't it?" Mike asked.

Charlie nodded. "About eleven o'clock, I think."

The Aussie boy shrugged. "Probably just after noontime, then, back at your place. Korig took us right into the Cooee after he pinched us."

"What about now?" Kippy asked. "We've left Korig's ship, haven't we?"

"Yeah, but Pacha's ship uses the same tech." He looked over at the koala, who had moved to a small pad on the deck by a faintly glowing column, and sat himself comfortably upon it. There were several more pads in a line next to it, and Charlie understood then that this was the Kifta equivalent of a row of seats in a human airplane. "Are we back in the Cooee, Pach?" Mike asked.

"Almost. The Arpathant ship is trying to turn, but such mass is not compliant with a quick about-face. As long as they don't fire at us --" The koala broke off, staring at the glowing column.

"What happened?" Mike asked immediately, looking suddenly apprehensive.

"They fired at us."

Mike looked aghast, and turned to Charlie and the others. "On the deck! Quick!"

Mike dropped like a shot and rolled onto his back, spreading his arms and legs. Charlie wasted only a second staring before following, and the others were not much slower.

"Impact," Pacha said, as if he were discussing the day's weather.

Charlie squeezed his eyes shut, expecting an explosion, followed by a terrible outrushing of their air. But instead, the ship suddenly seemed to gyrate wildly about them in perfect silence. It reminded Charlie of one time when he had been relaxing in a hammock with his eyes closed, just swaying ever-so-gently back and forth, and his idiot cousin Henry had sneaked up and grabbed the lines at one end of the hammock and bounced them furiously up and down.

For a second Charlie felt like he might be seasick...and then the awful twisting, turning sensation slowed, and was gone.

"Another," Pacha said, just as calmly. "Impact."

Again the world shook, and Charlie felt like a Lady Bug caught out on the end of a leaf in a tornado. All he could do was try to hug the deck, and hope this one would be over as quickly as the first one --

The ship suddenly returned to normal. "We have entered the Cooee," Pacha told them. "They cannot reach us now."

The five humans lay still for a while, trying to get their senses back under control. Charlie had heard about the beer-spins from guys at school, a condition brought on by drinking way too much alcohol, and he could only imagine that the way he felt just then was something like that, only ten times worse. It felt like his eyes were still bouncing back and forth inside their sockets, and keeping them closed seemed the best course of action.

Slowly, the sensations ebbed, and then vanished altogether. Mike sat up, sighed, and looked around at the rest of the guys. "We sure got lucky on that."

Kippy sat up, still looking a little like he might throw up. "Lucky? I thought we were going to die!"

Mike nodded. "We might have, if we'd been on an Arpie ship. Those were gravity vortexes they shot at us. They're meant to twist the ship up and incapacitate it. Woulda done that to an Arpie ship the size of this one." Mike turned and nodded at the koala. "Pacha's good with gravity, as you already saw. He deflected a lot of the stuff that hit us. Long enough for us to reach the Cooee."

Charlie climbed slowly to his feet. He looked over at the koala, who still seemed engrossed in the light show going on in the column before him. If Max had been here, Charlie was certain that the elf could have handled this situation, maybe even in the same manner. That the little Kifta understood a power somehow akin to what the elves used back home seemed certain now.

"It's almost like magic," Charlie said softly.

Mike heard him, and grinned. "I've thought the same thing, myself. Beats the hell outta me how he does it. And he can't seem to tell me, either."

Nor could Max - or Frit or Pip, for that matter - really explain what they did, either.

"I kind of get it," Charlie said.

Mike frowned at him, but then smiled. "Maybe you do. You fellas sure have taken to this stuff a lot easier than I expected you to."

"We have some strange friends at home," Kippy muttered, shaking his head. "And I wish they were here right now."

Charlie looked about the room, almost expecting Max to suddenly appear in response to Kippy's call. Kippy saw that, and laughed. "Skwish isn't a radio, Charlie."

"Squish?" Mike asked, looking back and forth between the two boys.

"It's...complicated," Charlie said, smiling at him.

Mike eyed him a moment, and then grinned. "If you say so." Then the turned about to gaze at the koala. "Where are we headed, Pach?"

The Kifta looked over at them. "We need to separate ourselves from possible pursuit. Korig will assume that we will return to your Earth, and if we were to do that, he would find us within the Cooee, and trail us there. When we do get back to Earth, we need a period of time without interference from Korig. So we must travel a different path in order to escape detection. Once he does not find us on the route to Earth, he will think we headed for Kift instead."

Mike shook his head. "That means we'll have to head away from Earth for at least a day or two, before we can double back there."

Kippy's breath sighed out. "No fireworks for us, I guess," he said sadly.

"I was thinking about laying over at Engris," the koala said then.

Mike gave a low whistle. "Holy Dooley! I've heard a lot about that place." He grinned, and turned to Kippy. "Don't count your fireworks out just yet, mate. Pacha is talking about us holing up at Engris for a day or two."

Ricky and Adrian joined them now. "What's Engris?" Adrian asked.

Mike's eyes glowed with what could only be described as wonder. "Ancient space station. Actually, an artificial world, really. Nobody knows who built it. It's supposed to be covered with jungle like a planet and dotted with abandoned cities. It's so big it's never been fully explored." He laughed. "It's supposed to be home to rebels, outlaws, pirates, and every other galaxy bloke that found himself unwelcome at his home port."

Despite himself, Kippy was intrigued. "How can this save my fireworks?"

Mike looked like he wanted to laugh. "Easy. Engris is located inside the Cooee."

Charlie and Kippy stared at each other.

"How is that possible?" Charlie asked.

"Hell, I dunno. That's one of the mysteries of the place."

"So that means no time will pass, right?" Ricky asked.

"Naw. Not a second, relative to Earth." Mike did laugh now. "That ain't the best thing, though."

Kippy tsked. "What could be better than that?"

Mike widened his eyes and leaned forward. "The place is supposed to be haunted, too."

Charlie grinned. Ghosts? "Oh, yeah? We know how to deal with them."

"Not these ghosts," Mike assured him. "These are the ghosts of the builders of the station, I heard. And the station is supposed to be a half-million years old."

Charlie turned to look at Pacha. "Is this true?"

The koala considered that a moment, as if trying to decide for himself the meaning of the word true. Finally, he simply offered up an expression that was as close to a smile as a little koala face could offer. "Yes."

* * * * * * *

The Cooee, on its own, was a dark place. Light seemed never to have been born there, as there was no place for it to start from. There were no stars at all, just darkness, in every direction. So when Pacha said they were nearing Engris they all gathered together before the great expanse of the viewer that the little alien seemed to have conjured out of thin air above the illuminated column that was his control center. The air itself had grown smoky-looking, and then solidified into an image of utter blackness, that Mike explained was the exterior view of what lay ahead of them.

The boys had watched as a tiny pinpoint of soft light appeared in the center of the view, and slowly grew before their eyes. It soon became a dark orb, visible mostly as a slightly less dark circle than the Cooee around it, self-illuminated in a minimal, almost ghostly fashion. But then small, slightly brighter lights appeared, at the edges, near the center, and then all about its surface. They were tiny, and weak, like the campfires of old would have looked from a great height. That the lights represented settlements among the dark jungles that covered the face of the artificial world, Pacha soon explained to them. No one knew how many ex-citizens of the galaxy now called Engris their home, but that the place could support millions was obvious by its size alone.

"It is slightly smaller than the moon of your own world," Pacha said, as they all stared at the image in the viewer. "Yet it maintains a gravity much like a larger world. The jungles that cover the surface are artificial, consisting of engineered plant growth fed from below in the absence of a sun above. The small towns and cities you see illuminated are the works of those that came to Engris much later. The surface is also dotted with far vaster cities of towers and domes created by the original builders of Engris, but settlers avoid them, for here is where the legends of ghosts were born."

"You've been here?" Kippy asked the koala, staring at the view in wonder. Charlie smiled in anticipation, already foreseeing that Kippy might like to do a little looking about the place while they were there. That would of course have to depend on what Pacha told them was safe. But...Charlie had to admit that the idea of ancient, abandoned cities waiting to be explored held an allure that could not be denied.

"Yes. The cities of the ancients are lovely, and still as sturdy as the day they were created. All lie in darkness, however. The jungle seems to have encroached upon them only slightly, as some mechanism appears to be in place to prevent the growths from completely taking over the spaces."

"What about the ghosts?" Charlie asked.

Pacha's expression now grew neutral. "I have seen them myself. And heard them."

"Are they dangerous?" This from Adrian.

"They did not seem to be so when I viewed them. I was here with a small party of investigators from Kift, looking into the history of this place."

Charlie shook his head. "There aren't any Arpathant here? I would think they'd want to get their hooks into a place like this."

Mike answered that one. "They ain't welcome here."  A definite note of satisfaction at the idea was evident in his voice.

Charlie had to give a small laugh at that. "Conquerors are seldom welcome anywhere. That never stops them from trying to take over."

Mike shook his head. "Not here. The Arpies managed to find this place about a century ago, and tried to land here. Engris is capable of defending itself, and even the Arpies can't take the place on. Their fleet was kicked right the hell back into normal space, with their tails between their legs." The Aussie boy grinned. "All the big galactic powers have had a shot at taking Engris, and all of 'em have failed. They ain't gettin' a second chance. None of 'em will ever find this place again."

Charlie looked back at the screen. "Why is that? It isn't stationary?"

"Uh uh. It wanders the Cooee like a dingo wanders the outback."

"How does anyone find it?" Kippy asked, his enchantment seeming to deepen.

"Engris finds those in need," Pacha said slowly. "I did not know exactly where to travel to locate this world. But as you see, we are here."

The boys all stared at the screen in wonder. More magic, Charlie thought.

Now that they were closer, the entire globe before them seemed to exude a soft light. Charlie could imagine now that anyone standing on the surface would not see total darkness at all, but more like a view akin to a moonless, starlit night back on Earth. Engris was definitely eerie, but there was something undeniably magnetic about the place, too. Charlie loved a good mystery, and this place seemed to offer them up in spades.

The bubble ship shuddered briefly, and Pacha waved a hand at the illuminated column.

"What was that?" Ricky asked.

The koala looked back at them. "We have entered the zone about Engris by which it maintains itself here in the Cooee. I have deactivated our own drive, as it is no longer needed to keep us from returning to normal space. We are now free to land at the port and disembark."

Charlie frowned. "This place has an atmosphere?"

"Damn right," Mike interjected. "Just as good as our own at home." He frowned, and looked over at Pacha. "Least ways, that's what I heard."

"It's true. Engris is designed to support oxygen breathers such as ourselves."

Charlie stared at the view of the worldlet again. The lights on its surface were brighter now, but no single one seemed to be a city of any great size. "We're landing at a spaceport?"

"There's only one," Pacha supplied. "The rest of the surface does not allow for ships of space to alight, although surface transports may come and go as they please."

The bubble ship drifted towards one of the larger lighted areas on the ground below, which soon resolved itself into a small city surrounded by a huge expanse of flat surface, upon which many space vessels were parked. Their sizes and shapes varied dramatically, and from the beautifully designed to the outright ugly in form. But Pacha assured them that each vessel was basically the same, in that it could travel the mammoth distances between the stars. The differences in them were largely cosmetic.

There seemed to be no flight center, or anyone in charge of berthing at the port. No one contacted them as the bubble ship wafted over a few parked vessels shaped like snowflakes and landed without even a bump on an empty stretch of pavement. Charlie halfway expected a car or some other transport to come racing out from among the nearby buildings, loaded with suspicious-eyed characters asking what they were doing there. But no one seemed to take an interest in them at all.

"Doesn't seem like anyone even noticed we landed," Kippy observed.

"There is an administration, of sorts, here," Pacha offered, as he rose from his comfortable pad before the illuminated column and waited for Mike to pick him up. "The Molorak are the first modern species known to have discovered Engris. Ships fleeing from their great civil war located the worldlet some five centuries ago. Although they cannot claim to own Engris - no one living now can claim that distinction - they do have a sizable presence here, and have taken it upon themselves to manage what tasks are necessary for a minimum amount of organization."

Charlie nodded at that. The place didn't look at all as if it existed under a system of complete anarchy. What he could see of the little city nearby looked clean and modern, and scarcely the hideout of a bunch of dropouts from galactic society. At the same time, there was no one visible at the edge of town, and so the place did give the impression of being perhaps a little underpopulated.

Pacha gave off a small chuckle when Charlie mentioned that. "The towns are circular, with a large open market at the center. These markets run constantly, both for the purpose of buying and selling, for many of those that come to Engris carry cargoes looking for buyers. Some small part of the illicit trade of several star empires is transacted here, and as far as provisions go, we will be able to eat and find whatever necessities we might need."

"We'd have to have something to trade, wouldn't we?" Kippy asked.

"We do." Pacha's eyes were almost merry. "Mike and I have a few trinkets stowed away, gathered in our travels."

Mike picked up Pacha and automatically stroked the koala's fur. Pacha seemed so used to it that he accepted it as his due, and made himself comfortable in the crook of the Aussie boy's arm. Charlie smiled at the closeness of the two. Friendships are not forged by form or background, so much as common need and similarity of thought, and Charlie had learned through his own experiences that the word people covered a lot of territory. If human beings could make friends with those they found in the other places of the universe, both on Earth itself and far across the heavens, then there was hope for them to some day make peace with themselves.

Kippy came and rubbed up against Charlie, his eyes bright with speculation. "Isn't this exciting?" he whispered.

Charlie sighed, and kissed him. "Yep. I can hardly wait."

Kip gave a little sigh and pushed against him, and Charlie put an arm around his shoulders and squeezed him close.

Ricky and Adrian both emitted small sounds of their own, and then a large and unabashed smooch parted the silence within the ship. Charlie and Kippy laughed, turning to look at Ricky, who just grinned back at them. Mike rolled his eyes, but seemed more than good-natured about it all, and even Pacha simply watched with interest.

"I suggest we exit the ship now," the koala finally said, looking up at Mike. "Our guests seem restless."

The Aussie boy nodded. "Come on, guys. Let's go and check this place out, right?" He winked. "You fellas can have a naughty later."

Charlie grinned, and Kippy laughed, and Ricky shook his head, and Adrian just sighed. But all four boys followed as Mike led them to the ship's port, and on to whatever journey lay ahead.

* * * * * * *

Charlie stared briefly upwards at the infinite darkness of the sky, and shook his head in amazement. All about them, the lighted market of Al'roost pulsed with action. For a trading mart comprised of citizens and wares from all the great galactic powers, the place more resembled a large flea market back on Earth than anything else. There was a quaint, almost hastily assembled aspect to the proceedings, giving it the same air as a weekend county fair, rather than that of a long-standing market for high-tech sorcery of every type imaginable.

Nearby, a tall, spindly creature with a head shaped like a pumpkin was demonstrating how quickly a tiny hand weapon could reduce a hundred-kilo block of iron to a molten puddle, and then using some other gizmo that looked amazingly like a canister vacuum cleaner to suck up the liquid metal and reconstitute it as a block only slightly smaller than its former self.

"Mazz lozz izz reeztricted to lezz than two perzent," the alien explained to the prospective buyer, himself a large, scaly creature with an angular head poking forth from a tubular shell. The tiny, almost invisible blobs that Pacha had given them to stick into their ears rendered everything that was said by everyone around them into English, although there seemed to be distinct flavors to the translations that colored every conversation in its own exotic shade.

They had simply walked into the town and down the first street they had come to, and as all roads seemed to lead either to the center of town or around it in a circle, they had quickly arrived at where the action was taking place. It seemed that most of the little city's residents were busy flocking about the great circular center, examining with a festival air the many goods laid out for their pleasure at the stands, tables, and booths arranged in neat lines that crisscrossed the great open space.

Pacha had deemed it wise to kill some time here, although the term time was entirely relative to their present course within the Cooee, which also happened to be Korig's lack-of-time state, as his vessel was presently attempting to hunt them down within that odd medium of no-time, no-space. The time equated to distance, somehow, although Charlie had the distinct impression that distance within the Cooee was something entirely different than he thought he knew.

What they wanted was for Korig to head for Earth long enough to realize that the bubble ship was not on the same course, whereupon he would certainly turn about and head for the only other place they would likely be to go, which was Pacha's homeworld of Kift. While Mike gave the amount of time they needed to wait as 'a day or two', Charlie had come to understand that that was a vague estimate at best. Engris circled no sun, and the wordlet seemed not to even turn on its axis, even if it had. So a day was wristwatch time, if it existed at all, and when Charlie had asked what 'a day or two' meant in relation to the clock on his cell, Pacha had given him that almost-a-smile look and simply said, "I will tell you when it is time to go."

And that was that. So the boys had gotten used to the idea that they were there for a while, but that no matter how long they stayed on Engris, it would not add to the time that they were away from Earth. Charlie and the others had already experienced this seeming indifference to the flow of time in dealing with Max and the other elves, and especially with Nicholaas, who seemed to consider time as a nuisance to be adjusted here and there, more than anything else.

Pacha had told them that they should stay together, but when Kippy had asked him if that meant that they were unsafe on Engris, the koala had seemed amused by the notion. "Your kind will be completely unknown here, which may cause interest in your presence among a few. But no one will harm you, or restrain you in any fashion, if that is what you mean. Engris operates under its own laws, the primary one being that all are safe here. Were anyone to threaten you in any fashion, all others about would come to your aid."

Charlie had been surprised by that, considering that Mike had pretty much suggested that the place was a refuge for pirates and rebels and other sorts that could easily fall under the group term of undesirables. But there seemed to be a requirement for the use of Engris, that placed the responsibility upon all comers to treat all others that they met there with respect. No matter what sort of thief or thug visitors to Engris were in their home territories, while here they were on their best manners, because not to be meant to be expelled by the worldlet itself, and forbidden to return.

Those that lived here full time had long ago passed the test of faithfulness to the idea of peace for all who sheltered here, and while a certain amount of leeway was allowed for differences among species, everyone they met seemed cheerful and helpful and interested. By the time their group had circled once about the great market, Charlie was convinced that here was an attitude that needed bottling and distribution to every corner of the universe. Engris, as a place, was wonderfully mysterious; but as a home to an idea - and a great idea indeed - it was beyond price or measure.

"This place is amazing," Charlie said, for the third time at least, as they paused at a stand for refreshments. The counter was automated, home to a device that instantly analyzed a patron's biological make up, and then provided food and refreshments guaranteed to be compatible. The food and drinks offered to them were even tasty, though none of them could have named a single thing that passed down their gullets.

When they left without paying, Charlie immediately asked Mike about it.

"Oh, everywhere we go and everything we do is taken note of. When we get ready to go, our charges will be tallied and the bill presented." The Aussie boy grinned. "Pacha will pay, so don't worry." Charlie had laughed when Mike had leaned closer and lowered his voice, even though the koala was right there, wrapped in his arms. "Pacha's loaded, so don't have a worry about it."

They each picked up a trinket or two, after the koala had instructed them to feel free to do so. Charlie paused at a stand holding, among other things, a line of small, rectangular copper plates - or that was what they looked like, anyway. Each was about the size of a photograph, with a pleasant finish resembling a new penny. The stand's proprietor was a small, quite hairy fellow a little shorter than they, with very large, liquid brown eyes that managed somehow to look both interested and bored at the same time.

"What are these?" Charlie asked, indicating the coppery rectangles.

The creature emitted a soft sound that Charlie took to be laughter. "To pick one up," the fellow responded. "To hold one in hand."

Charlie understood that to mean he should take one and examine it more closely, and so picked up the nearest piece. Kippy and Ricky and Adrian crowded around, looking down at the thing as Charlie turned it over in his hands. It looked to be exactly what he thought it had been: a rectangle of copper metal.

But then...something happened. One side of the rectangle was more polished than the other, showing a soft luster that was both restful to the eye and somehow regal in nature, almost like rubbed red gold. As Charlie was looking at it, it slowly darkened.

"Something's happening," Kippy breathed, quite unnecessarily. But Charlie simply nodded, staring. The rectangle continued to darken until it was almost black, and then suddenly started to lighten again. Only, this time the finish did not look like copper. A swirl of colors filled the surface, and slowly a picture took form.

Charlie gasped, and at the same time, Kippy blurted, "That's your house!"

It was. And it was not just a static picture, either. It was Charlie's house on Karloff Street, viewed from the sidewalk out front. But even as he watched, the perspective moved up the front walk, reached the front door of the house, and passed through it into the front hall. And then it climbed the stairs to the second floor, passed the bathroom and the hallway closet, and turned into Charlie's bedroom. The view turned in a circle, showing off Charlie's desk, his bookcase filled with books, and his bed, and the cot next to it.

Kippy sighed deeply. "Oh, I wish we were there right now!" He held out his hand. "Can I see?"

Charlie nodded, and handed the rectangle to Kip. But even as he did so, it went dark again. Disappointed, Kip just held it and looked down at the surface, shaking his head. "That made me homesick, Charlie."

Charlie could only swallow hard and nod. For a moment he was made aware again of how far away they were from the places and the people they all loved. And made aware again of the danger to that home, now that Korig's government had determined them to be people. Would the Earth now be sucked dry of its remaining resources, and left a poor and desperate home to her billions?

"Look," Adrian said, peering over Kippy's shoulder. "It's changing again."

Charlie looked down at the rectangle. Once again a picture was forming. Another house came into view, one that Charlie knew all too well.

Kippy squeaked with joy. "That's my house!"

Again the rectangle showed them a tour, which ended in Kippy's bedroom. Charlie smiled at that, remembering all the love that had been shared there, and considered all the love that was yet to come. Kippy's face was filled with delight, and Charlie could not resist bending forward and kissing him. Kippy squeezed his eyes closed and returned the kiss, and Charlie felt the brief warmth of tears on the other boy's face. "My house," Kippy breathed again.

Ricky and Adrian both put their heads on Kippy's shoulders, and closed their eyes and nuzzled him. Kippy smiled at that, and turned eyes filled with happiness upon Charlie. "I just felt some skwish again, Charlie. We're gonna get home, and things are gonna work out. You'll see."

Charlie nodded, and gave Kip a hug. "I believe you."

The rectangle was passed to the other boys, and each was offered a short tour of his house. Charlie understood then that the rectangle would show anyone that held it the place that they loved the most, the place they considered to be home. He turned to Mike and smiled at Pacha, in his arms. "Can I get this? I'd like to have it."

The koala, who had watched the events in silence, offered him a very human nod. "Yes. A good choice."

Charlie waved the plate at the vendor, and nodded. "I'll take this, okay?"

"To be charged when you leave," the creature said, apparently satisfied with the deal.

Charlie slid the plate into his pocket, and they moved on.

At another stand, Kippy became enchanted with a ring, but a very odd ring it was. It was far too large for a human finger, and was pitted with age. The stone it held was opaque and dark, maybe even dirty, showing no life whatsoever. Yet there was something about it that compelled, and when Kippy picked it up there was the faintest of flashes from the stone, as though it were somehow alive.

"What's this?" Kippy asked the vendor, a large quadruped with dusky yellow skin and hands with tiny suckers on the fingertips.

"Very old," that one said, wiggling its dark nose at the ring. "Found in grave of dead alien, race never identified. Very mystery, it was."

Charlie's eyebrows went up at that, the suggestion of grave robbing quite clear. Well, Engris attracted all sorts, and what was grave robbing but archaeology without the degree?

Charlie looked at the ring anew. There was a sense of vast timespans about the thing, a feeling of age that could not be ignored. Charlie wondered what sort of creature had originally worn the ring, and where in the galaxy it had originated.

"That's pretty weird," he decided. "Does it do anything?"

The alien made a gesture that Charlie interpreted as a shrug. "Stone sparks when some very few touch, but not for most." He indicated Kippy. "Spark for this one, first time in long time."

That told Charlie that the alien had possessed the ring for quite a spell, apparently. He could see why, in a way. Not only was the ring old and ugly, but it was somehow a little creepy, too.

"I love it," Kippy said immediately, causing Charlie to laugh. Kippy turned and held up the ring for Pacha to see. "What do you think?"

"A scholar's choice, in my opinion. I do believe you will enjoy possessing this particular ring."

Kippy frowned at that. "Do you know what it is?"

For a moment the koala looked uncertain. "It...I feel it. There is something special about it. And it's very, very old." Pacha closed his eyes a moment, and then sighed. "As old as Engris itself."

Kippy gave a little gasp, his eyes filling with awe. "Oh, I really want it now!"

"Take it," Pacha said, with a wave of one small hand. "It has chosen you, as well."

Charlie blinked at that statement, a tiny worry appearing in the back of his mind. But...Kippy seemed thrilled with the artifact, and Charlie had to smile at the excitement in his boyfriend's eyes. If Kippy had a good feeling about getting the ring, it probably would be okay.

Kippy turned and held up the ring to the vendor, who seemed unable to conceal some delight at the sale. "Your account charged when you depart."

Kippy nodded, thrust the ring into his pocket, and once again they moved on.

Adrian was the next to find treasure, in the form of a crystalline orb the size of a large egg that reminded a little of a snow globe back home. It was filled with tiny lights of different colors, frozen in an apparently random pattern among a darkness that was totally transparent, yet allowed no light to pass through from the other side of the orb. As the orb was turned, each of the tiny pinpoints of light could be seen, their overall pattern changing only by perspective of the viewer, yet no light passed through from any other direction to dilute the darkness holding the points of light.

One pinpoint of light near the center seemed to have a halo around it, which stayed in place no matter how the orb was turned. Again, there was something compelling about the thing, but Charlie could not figure out just what it was. If nothing else, the orb was a technical marvel, and the sense that it was also an old thing seemed apparent to Charlie. But also that it was a thing of purpose, rather than just a decoration.

Adrian was spellbound by it, and looked to Pacha, who leaned closer to inspect the orb. "I have seen these before. They are Beltracian artifacts."

"What's that?" Adrian asked, staring at the orb with even more amazement. That the orb could actually be said to be something other than art made it even more desirable, in his mind.

"They were a people who colonized the section of space close to that of the territory the Moth now hold. But this was perhaps twenty thousand years past. What you have in your hand is a star chart, pointing the way to a certain place. See, those are stars within, and the one with the ring about it is the destination."

Adrian squinted within the orb, and nodded. "I see now." He looked up at Pacha. "What place do you think it is?"

"I could not say. But other examples of this type of chart have been sought after by scholars and adventurers alike. Whatever the destination, the world is certainly a Beltracian world, and will no doubt hold other artifacts of their science and technology, both of which reached levels beyond what the galaxy holds today." The koala offered up another almost-smile. "That makes this something of a treasure map."

Adrian gasped, and then his eyes slid sideways to where the merchant was still watching them. "Maybe he won't sell it, now that we've told him what it is."

"He does not know," Pacha said quietly, "and he might not care, even if he did. Voyaging to the realm of the Moth is a dangerous proposition. Only the most courageous or the most foolhardy would consider their possible destruction worth any treasure that might be found there."

"No, but this guy could sell the map for more to someone who might want to chance it," Adrian pointed out.

Pacha shook his head. "English is not a language known here, and I turn off our translators when we are in private discussion. So he has not understood anything we have said."

"Oh." Adrian looked over at the vendor and frowned. "That's kind of unfair. I feel like I'd be putting one over on him now if I bought it."

The koala gave a soft grunt. "It is noble of you to feel so, but pointless. If you do not buy it, I will."

Ricky laughed. "There you go."

Adrian frowned a moment longer, but then grinned and turned back to the vendor and held up the orb. Again, here was a seller who seemed pleased to be rid of something that hadn't sold in ages. Adrian felt relief at that attitude, being as happy to acquire the item as the seller appeared to be to be rid of it.

"I'd love to see where this goes, someday," Adrian said, gazing at the orb again as they stepped away from the vendor's stand. "There's something exciting about the idea of looking for lost treasure."

"There would be work involved," Pacha pointed out. "While the star grouping displayed within your crystal might have been known to the Beltracians, it is not known to us. The stars involved will have shifted their locations since that map was created, and require backtracking their movements by twenty thousand years. The grouping itself would have to be picked out of maps of that portion of the sky. Finding the correct location to go to would be a quest all by itself."

Adrian shrugged. "Well, you win some, you lose some." But that his enchantment with the orb was in no way diminished seemed clear.

Ricky sighed as they walked on. "There some great stuff here. But nothing that really grabs me, you know?"

They walked around some more, until they came to a table laid out with exotic cutlery of every shape and size. Some were swords so huge that Charlie just could not imagine what sort of giant had hefted them. Even Korig would have been unable to manage many of them, and certainly not some of the axes and hammers, which were larger than any of the boys, and some with handles or hafts that would have defied the human hand to hold. Some were plainly weapons of murder, and others were jewel-encrusted and showy, despite their obviously lethal qualities.

"Wow," Ricky said, his eyes large and fascinated. If anyone among their group was a tool guy, it was Ricky. And what were such weapons as these, but tools of destruction?

"You couldn't even lift most of them," Adrian said, not unkindly. He laid a hand on Rick's shoulder, and then laid his chin on his hand. "See anything you like?"

Ricky turned his head and delivered a large smooch to Adrian's cheek.

"I meant on the table," Adrian said, though unable to disguise his delight.

Kippy took Charlie's arm and squeezed it, never one to be able to easily withstand a show of affection between lovers, and Charlie grinned and squeezed his boyfriend back.

Mike laughed. "Affectionate buggers, ain't'cha?"

Charlie smiled at him. "Yes."

Mike stared at him a moment, and then his smile slipped away. "Bet it's nice to have someone." He sighed. "Had me a couple of nice girls on and off. Even got my dick wet a couple of times." He laughed. "I miss that."

"There's always the other side," Kippy suggested. "Gorgeous guy like you could find a boyfriend like that."

Mike looked surprised, and then lowered his voice. "Thought about that, too. Don't think I'm ready for it, though." He smiled then. "Seeing how much fun you guys have makes me want to give it some more thought, though."

Kippy gave a little surprised squeak. "You mean you're open to it, and you haven't tried it?"

"Had a chance, once, back when I was your age. Nice bloke from Queensland, visiting some friends." Mike's eyes grew distant. "Really a sweet guy. And he was willing, too." His gaze returned to them, and he sighed. "But I was scared."

Kippy looked sympathetic. "It happens to the best of us. Maybe if you look around again, you'll get another chance."

"Maybe." But then Mike dropped a hand and stroked Pacha's fur, and smiled down at the little koala. "There's time. Me and Pach have been having too much fun for me to run home just yet."

Pacha turned his soft brown eyes upwards. "You have strange ideas of fun, Mike. But...it has been a pleasurable experience. I would be much poorer for having missed it."

Mike grinned at that, but seemed unable to take having all eyes turned upon him at this moment. He waved a hand at the table full of sharp things, and reached out and gave Ricky a gentle poke. "Bet there's somethin' there that'll grab ya, if ya just look long enough."

The remark served its purpose, and Ricky turned his attention back to the arrayed cutlery. That drew everyone else's attention back, too. But Charlie gave Mike a last glance, noting the look of pleasure on the boy's face, and wondering if Mike had found a happiness out among the stars that he had never found back on Earth.

"Look at this thing," Ricky marveled, running his fingertips along the silky smooth blade of a sword resembling a cutlass, but easily eight feet in length.

"Too big, you," the proprietor of the stand said then, grunting as if to accent his opinion. Charlie had given the fellow a single glance when they had first stopped at the stand, feeling it might definitely be impolite to stare for long at this one. At least eight feet tall and probably weighing as much as any three of the boys, the fellow had startlingly pink, soft-looking skin, almost completely covered by fancy chain mail and bejeweled scabbard, from which hung an ornamented sword to rival some of the larger ones there on the table.

At the same time, obvious bits of high-tech were hung about the creature's wardrobe, including a silvery device stuck into one long, mule-like ear, that was probably doing the same job as the translating blobs in their own ears. The fellow looked like a baroque solder-of-fortune, the modern touches only serving to accent a kind of serious and deadly side that the more primitive outfit definitely managed to convey. Here was a fellow that no one in his right mind would want to meet in a dark alley, most definitely.

The giant waved his hand at some smaller pieces along the right side of the table. "More fitting, you."

Ricky transferred his gaze to the objects in question, and almost immediately his face lit up with interest. "Hey, look at this one!"

He extended a hand as if to pick the thing up, and then stopped short, his gaze lifting the meet the giant's. "Can I see it?"

"Please."

Ricky grinned, taking that as a yes, and lifted the weapon off the table. The other boys crowded closer, and eyeballed it along with him.

It appeared to be a dagger in a metal scabbard, with a belt that seemed the right length for a human waist. The hilt of the dagger was only slightly ornate, being engraved in a beautiful fashion that caught at the eye and pulled it along the intricate grooved patterns, yet which obviously would serve well as a good grip for the hand. And it was a sword-hilt dagger, with a small crossbar that served to protect the user's hand, and which in this case was also carved and inlaid with a reddish metal that was quite striking to the eye.

The scabbard was finely etched, too, but far from ostentatious in manner, and the first thought that Charlie had was that it resembled the conductive printing on the bottom of a circuit board in complexity. The belt looked like leather but was probably a synthetic, and the buckle was of the friction type where you passed the end of the belt through it and a roller inside held on until you pulled a release.

That the weapon was not some ancient, primitive piece in construction seemed obvious, and yet that it was so obviously old seemed almost a contradiction. Charlie had to remind himself that the races out here in the galaxy had been around far longer than humans, and that something could easily be a thousand years old and still be a high-tech marvel as yet undiscovered on Earth.

Ricky smiled at Adrian, and slowly drew the weapon from its scabbard. And then he blinked and stared at it, and Charlie was right there with him, the beginnings of confusion filtering into his thoughts. For the blade that appeared was neither pointed nor sharp, the tip being rounded, and though both edges of the blade were polished to a shine, that neither had any sort of edge on them was readily apparent. The blade was easily eight inches long, but that it obviously would not cut a piece of paper removed any sense of danger from the thing entirely.

"It looks like a butter knife," Kippy said, trying not to laugh. "And a dull one, at that."

Ricky stared up at the vendor. "Is this for cutting, or what?"

The alien extended a large hand, and Ricky pushed the blade back into the scabbard and handed it over. "Observe," the giant said, and withdrew the dagger from the scabbard. He laid the scabbard on the table and held the hilt of the dagger between his beefy fingers, the weapon almost a toothpick in comparison to the size of its wielder. The alien laid the blade in his other hand and drew it back and forth. "Safe," he said, nodding.

Then he laid the edge of the blade against the tabletop and drew it along, leaving no mark of any kind. "Safe," he said again.

Then the giant squatted, felt around underneath the table, and pulled forth a block of what was certainly wood, at least four inches thick. He set it on the tabletop with a meaty thud, which perfectly conveyed the point that it was dense wood, and heavy. "Feel," he instructed to Ricky, who reached out a hand and caressed the block with his fingertips, and nodded.

"Feels like oak."

The alien then took the dagger and casually swiped the blade at the block of wood. There was a fierce, high-pitched humming sound, and the blade of the dagger almost seemed to disappear. The shadowy blade connected with the block of wood, and severed it neatly in two.

Everyone stared. The giant grunted again, and immediately pulled the dagger back. The hum disappeared the moment he did, and then when he immediately drew the blade across the back of his hand, nothing happened at all. "Must want to cut," the giant said then. "Otherwise, always safe.

Pacha turned to look up at Ricky. "The atoms of the blade vibrate, probably at the rate of a million cycles per second or so. It will cut through just about anything you can imagine, I would guess." The koala made an admiring sound. "And, it is thought-regulated. Unless the wielder obviously intends to make a cut, the blade will not activate."

"Yes," the giant agreed, actually looking somehow pleased. "Very safe."

"It's gorgeous, too," Ricky said, turning pleading eyes on the koala.

Pacha simply nodded. "Take it."

The giant handed the dagger in its scabbard back to Ricky and stood back, and waved a hand at the block of wood. "Must try first. Not work for everyone."

Ricky nodded, looked down at the scabbard, and then grasped the hilt of the dagger and slowly pulled it forth. He gazed at the innocuous-looking blade, almost as if he feared the power it held within it. But then he gave a little cough, visibly firmed his resolve, and bent over the table and carefully brought the blade down on one half of the severed block of wood. Just before it touched down the fierce hum sprang into being, and the wood parted again just as if it were the butter that Kippy had suggested with his earlier comment. Ricky straightened, stared at the dagger's blade one more time, and then carefully returned it to its scabbard.

The giant vendor raised his hands to his midriff, and gave a little bow over them in Ricky's direction. "Gospeth. Am honored to meet another."

Ricky blinked, and then gave a little circular wave of his free hand. "Hiya."

Charlie grinned, and Kippy gave a little laugh. Ricky's face reddened, and he shrugged. "What?"

"I believe that was an honorific," Pacha said, watching the giant vendor. "I suspect that this particular weapon will not work for just anyone, just as the man said."

"Only Gospeth," the vendor agreed.

"It worked for him," Ricky said of the alien, and then pulled in a sudden breath as he understood. He bit his lip, but pulled his hands to his midriff and gave a little bow over them at the giant. "Gospeth."

That seemed to please the alien no end. The man's face knotted into something fierce-looking, but somehow also gentle, and damn if there wasn't some sort of smile hiding in there somewhere. The giant's head nodded forward again, and one eye blinked in Ricky's direction.  "Charged when leave."

That there was humor in there somewhere seemed apparent, and all of them save Pacha were grinning as they moved along.

"What was that last about?" Ricky asked, as they congregated at the edge of the market.

"I am not certain," Pacha admitted. "That was a Molorak, one of the people I mentioned earlier, the oldest known race to inhabit Engris. They are a peculiar breed, but frighteningly honorable. At least, almost all of them are. The few that weren't rose to a position of power a few centuries back, and the race had a pretty terrible civil war over it. It was refugees from one of their destroyed worlds that first found Engris."

Charle gasped at that. "They destroyed each other's worlds?"

Pacha nodded. "A terrible crime perpetrated by the evil ones, not the honorable ones. The acts of destruction so united the rest that they pursued the evil ones to the edge of known space to eradicate them from the galaxy."

"Damn," Adrian said, shaking his head. "You guys play rough out here."

"There's assholes everywhere you go," Mike said then. "Even out here. The Arpies are one such group, and if they weren't restrained by galactic law, they'd be a real problem for everyone else."

"You said they suck people's planets dry," Charlie reminded. "That sounds like a real problem to me."

"Yeah, but that's legal. It's commerce to these blokes." Mike grimaced. "The powerful always get the laws to go their way."

Ricky snorted, and wrapped the belt with the scabbard around his waist and cinched it. Then he patted the hilt of the dagger and grinned. "Well, they better not mess with me, 'cause I'll stick a vibrator up their ass."

Charlie howled, and Kippy squeezed his eyes shut and slapped his knees, and Adrian fell against Ricky and hugged him. Even Mike tossed his head back and laughed, leaving only Pacha staring round from one boy to the next, wondering what was going on.

"Humans," the little koala finally said to himself, as the others laughed. But then he blinked fondly at the boys, and would have grinned, if he could have managed to do so.

* * * * * * *

They stayed at an inn later, one of many modern accommodations the city had to offer to visitors. Mike was especially happy to do that, having had to suffice in the past with sleeping on a row of the cushions that Pacha's people used as both seats and for sleeping. The inn had real beds, although they were round, and enormous, and conformed themselves automatically to the physical needs of the user.

Or, in this case, the users.

Rooms came in all flavors, and they decided to get one room with three beds. Charlie and Kip took one, and Ricky and Adrian another, and Mike and Pacha flopped down on the last one.

"Man, I am beat," Ricky said, patting the soft covering of the bed next to himself and winking at Adrian. That boy finished kicking off his shoes, and hopped in beside his boyfriend and snuggled up close to him.

Kippy was already snuggled up with Charlie, and both of them laughed when a huge smooch reverberated from the other bed.

"You're gonna break your lips one of these times, Ricky-tick," Kippy called.

"Yeah, but it's a hell of a way to go," Ricky called back.

"You mates keep it clean, hey?" Mike called, not to be left out. "I don't wanna wake up at the odd hours to find the naughty going on over there."

Kippy sighed. "We'll be good." He snuggled against Charlie, and kissed him. "At least until we get back home," he added, more softly.

Charlie lifted his head and looked over at Mike. The Aussie boy was on his side, facing them, with Pacha laid out an arm's length away from him. Mike's hand rubbed the koala's pelt absently, and Charlie wondered how Mike would feel if he had any idea of how that looked. That it was perfectly innocent affection was obvious to Charlie; Mike might as well have been rubbing a dog, or even a real koala. But it was somehow different when the other was as intelligent a person as a human. The ease with which Pacha accepted attention from Mike said a lot about their friendship, and a lot about how easy the Kifta were with each other, probably. Most creatures enjoy being touched. As a form of fond exchange, it was a tough one to beat.

He almost made a comment that Mike and Pacha should keep it cool, too, but stopped himself just in time. To take the innocent affection they had for each other and hint at something more would be totally unfair to both of them, and might even make Mike self-conscious about touching the little alien. So Charlie just laid his head down and smiled at Kippy. "Love you."

"Oh. Me, too, Charlie. Being with you is such an adventure."

Charlie grinned at that. "Me? I'm not the one with skwish that sets us moving into all these things."

Kippy grinned at him. "It is you, Charlie. Everything happens around you. Wonderful things follow you wherever you go."

Charlie kissed Kip again, and closed his eyes. "It happens to all of us, together," he reminded. "I can't go anywhere without you."

The lights in the room dimmed, and the air filled with a gentle sound, almost like crickets in the nighttime woods, only much more alien in nature. The ceiling above them flickered with a hint of stars, and Charlie and Kippy gasped at the beauty of it.

"Now, that's what I'm talkin' about," Ricky whispered loudly, from the other bed.

"That's just Pacha's way of saying 'go to sleep'," Mike called across to them. "G'night, mates."

Charlie sighed, and pulled Kippy close. They kissed in silence for a while, somehow aware that Ricky and Adrian were doing the same in the next bed. But soon they grew sleepy, and the sounds and the sights of an alien night lulled them into sleep.

* * * * * * *

"A tour of one of the ancient cities?" Charlie asked, looking at Kippy to see how he would take it.

Kippy gaped, and then looked excited, and his eyes shone as he grinned at Charlie. "Me, me! I want to go!"

Pacha looked from one human face to another. "There are no laws denying entry to these places to visitors. Most people simply avoid them on their own, due to the stories of ghosts and other things."

Ricky, who had been smiling at the idea of going, blinked at that and scratched at his jaw. "What other things are you talking about?"

Pacha's soft eyes gave nothing away, but Mike grinned at them. "Aw, all sorts of stuff. Not just ghosties, but monsters, and bunyips, and even bogans." He winked at the last one - or maybe it was at the last two - but Charlie had no idea what he meant, anyway.

"Oh, stop, Michael," Pacha said, turning his gaze briefly on Mike before returning it to the other boys. "There have been cases of disappearances, and even deaths, in the ancient cities. But nothing has ever been ascribed to violent acts by unknown forces. Some people react negatively to the sight of unexplained phenomena, of which there certainly have been documented examples. Death from fright has been suspected in more than one unfortunate case."

"I'm surprised the cities aren't crawling with treasure hunters," Adrian said.

"The buildings are all completely empty of artifacts," Pacha returned. "There is simply nothing to take."

"Still, people are curious," Adrian argued. "If nothing else, you'd think they'd want to look around."

"Perhaps once," Pacha agreed. "But those that live on Engris now respect those who lived here once before. While there are no rules against exploring, almost no one does it. There is almost a feeling of trespass involved. The locals are happy with their own towns and cities. They see no reason to tramp about in the once-homes of others."

"And there's the ghosties, too," Mike reminded, almost gleefully. "Too many have seen and heard them for most people not to believe."

"How will we get there?" Kippy asked, undaunted by the idea of ghosts.

"Very few locals will go," Pacha said. "But the guide that provided transport for my last visit here with the study group from my world is willing to take us out."

"Why?" Adrian asked, bluntly. "Why do you want to do this, Pacha?"

The little koala gave them that almost-a-smile look. "The ancient cities of Engris are among the most fascinating places in all the galaxy. To visit this world and not see one is almost a waste of the journey. The number of people that can claim to have visited a city here are so small a portion of the galactic population as to be negligible." The little alien shook his head. "Don't you wish to see a legend first-hand?"

"I do, I do!" Kippy said, jumping up and down and waving one hand in the air.

Charlie laughed, and looked over at Adrian. "Kip and I are going along. You and Ricky can stay here, if you like."

"I don't think so!" Adrian said, looking indignant. "I just wanted to know why we were going." He grinned then. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

Ricky looked over at his boyfriend, shrugged, and then nodded at Charlie. "We're going, too." Then he grinned. "It'll give me a chance to wear my new dagger."

Charlie grinned at that. "I feel safer already."

Pacha nodded. "We still have time to pass before we can leave for Earth, so we might as well pass it profitably. Visiting one of the ancient cities will be an experience none of you will soon forget."

It was decided. They walked across town to the opposite edge, and came to a building with a large door on the front that looked to be the roll-up type that suggested a garage. A sign out front showed a stylized saucer-like vehicle with a bunch of heads popped up above the rim, flying just above some trees, with some weird-looking towers in the background. Underneath the illustration were several large words lettered in a blocky alien script. Charlie didn't have to read the sign to imagine what it said: Tours-R-Us. See the Ancient Cities!

The proprietor, one Sefton, was another Molokar like the one that had sold Ricky the dagger. This fellow was a tad smaller than the vendor had been, and dressed in relaxed-looking clothing of a totally unwarlike nature. He wore a floppy brimmed hat on his head that struggled to cover his long ears, and which would have looked at home on one of Mike's Aussie neighbors.  He offered the strange, gentle, smile-grimace, that seemed a characteristic of the species, after almost everything he said. Charlie liked the man immediately, and felt that Pacha and the others liked him, too.

And, his translated English came across a little better than had the vendor's in the square, making him much easier to talk to.

"I hope you know what you get into," Sefton said, as they made their way through the building to the garage. "Scary places, these old cities."

"So we've heard," Charlie offered, smiling. "Ghosts and stuff, right?"

Sefton looked over at him. "Don't know what is there. Have seen the glowing lights myself, look like fluffy clouds, but small. Hear sounds that make skin crawl, and see other strange things. Nothing ever touch me, though." The alien grinned. "If they don't touch me, I can get along. Only when lights pat pockets will I get nervous."

Pacha looked over at Charlie's uncertain expression. "'Patting pockets' is a local expression for being robbed."

"Oh." Charlie grinned. "Can't say I'd want to be mugged by spirits, either."

The garage held a saucer-like craft much like the one depicted on the sign out front, with a large open interior and no roof. Charlie was about to ask what Sefton did when it rained, but then remembered that there was no weather on Engris. The atmosphere was regulated, uniform, and completely unchanging, for the most part.

They climbed aboard through a section of the circular hull that slid aside to admit them, and then the craft lifted silently, the big roll-up door opened, and they moved out into the streets of the city. The brightly-lit buildings and street lights showed them the way to the edge of town, and then the craft started out across a vacant section of the paved landing field towards the dark trees beyond.

They reached them, and the craft slowly rose until it was just above the treetops. It moved away from the city lights, and powerful headlights lit at the fore of the vehicle and illuminated the way ahead. The treetops resembled palm back on earth, but were packed closely together, and they couldn't see even a hint of the ground below. That the surface was not uniform was apparent though, as the craft lifted to pass over hills and settled again into a valley beyond.

"Just like real planet," Sefton explained, when Charlie asked the guide about it. "If you walk about out here, it look like you own planet at night. All of jungle have glow, never totally dark. If you had to walk, could see way back to town, as long as you knew direction to go."

Hopefully that would not occur. Charlie felt that dependability was a common trait of technology at the level these people enjoyed, and that their vehicle might break down and force them to walk back seemed not to be a worry. The treetops appeared ahead of them in the beams of the headlights, and passed beneath them without change, and they covered what was certainly a dozen or more miles before Sefton slowed the craft and pointed ahead.

Dimly visible in the faint glow around them, Charlie could see that the trees below were thinning. Gaps appeared between them, and then they simply ended. The transport crossed a section of level ground covered with paving squares, and the dark bulk of a city loomed out of the darkness ahead of them. The craft flew in among great cylindrical, steel-clad towers coated in a variety of pastel colors, and over low domes covered in mosaic patterns that teased the eye and caused them to blink and look again. Finally, a great open square appeared, and Sefton set the craft gently on the paving stones, and shut off the power plant. A silence of incredible proportions settled upon them, without even a breeze to give life to the surroundings.

The city had a faint glow, too, and they could make out the towers and domes all around them. Nothing moved, however, no matter where they looked, and the feeling of abandonment seemed clear. No one had lived here in more years than the boys could imagine, the city long empty of life even when the pyramids were newly rising on the plains of Giza.

For a moment no one said anything. The weight of years was apparent to them somehow, and the sense strong that those who had lived here were now the dust of ages. Charlie and the others looked slowly about them, now knowing what to expect, but expecting more than simply nothing at all.

"I don't see any ghosts," Kippy whispered, and Charlie grinned in the darkness and pulled him close with one arm.

"They are not seen in the open," Sefton explained, opening a compartment and passing out handheld lights. "Pick any dome, and maybe you find them inside."

"Shall we, then?" Pacha said, looking up at Mike. The koala was the only one not to take a light, depending on Mike to carry one for the both of them.

Mike nodded, and climbed out of the vehicle when Sefton opened the door, moving carefully with Pacha cradled in one arm. The other boys followed, and snapped on their lights as soon as they stood on the pavement. Sefton shut down the craft's powerful lights and followed, and the six of them stood quietly and gazed about, shining their lights about like new scouts on their first trip into the big woods.

The towers were large, and they marched away into the distance and became lost in the dark. That the city was far larger than any present settlement on the surface of Engris was plain to see. This had been the home of a million people, easily, and perhaps more.

The nearest building was one of the domes, and Charlie turned and started towards it. No one argued the point, and the others fell in and followed. All except for Sefton. When Charlie turned his head and saw that alien was not following, he stopped, and the others stopped with him. "You're not coming?"

The big alien offered one of his strange smiles. "Oh, I just drive now. I wait here for you. Have fun."

"It's okay, Charlie," Pacha said quietly. "Let him be."

Charlie nodded, and they started out again. He waved his light slowly over the structure as they approached, again noting the mosaic covering, set in intricate patterns of varying colors, each as bright and crisp as they day they were new. Nothing about the buildings looked old. It was as if the people had simply walked away yesterday, never to return.

"This place was beautiful, once," Ricky said quietly, as they drew up before large double doors set into a covered entry at the base of the dome.

"It's still beautiful," Charlie decided, shining his light at the pleasant patterns etched into the doors. They were of no one thing, not even a picture, yet somehow suggested rolling hills with forested flanks, a waterfall, and a sun or a moon overhead. The craftsmanship was exquisite, the detail incredible.

"Yeah, but it's just a little creepy now," Ricky returned, in a hushed voice.

Charlie nodded, and stepped up to the right hand door. It towered above him, appeared to be made of steel, and certainly weighed more than their entire group. Yet when he gave it a slight push it turned silently inward, smoothly, and without so much as a pause. The space beyond was genuinely dark, and they aimed their lights through the opening and were not terribly surprised to see that the structure was completely empty. It was large enough to cover a football field, and the roof was obviously self-supporting. The floor inside was of the same type of pavers as covered the square outside.The interior of the dome was simply a huge open space of no obvious purpose.

"That's kinda weird," Mike said, shining his light about. "You could play footy in here no problem. I wonder what they used it for?"

Charlie shrugged, and entered the dome. They walked about a bit, but couldn't see anything that was of much interest. Only when they finally decided to cross to the other side of the dome did they discover something unusual. Charlie kept his light on the pavers as they crossed, allowing the others to shine their lights about the interior, and so he was the first one to spy the hole in the floor.

"Hold up," he called, throwing out an arm to stop Kippy. "Look at that."

Judging by where they were, the hole was in the exact center of the dome. They moved closer, and Charlie shined his light over to the other side. "Looks like twenty, twenty-five feet across." He crept up to the edge and pointed his light downward, and then immediately jumped back. "Holy shit!"

Kippy was instantly by his side. "What did you see? A monster?"

Charlie gave out a nervous laugh. "Kip, that hole looks bottomless. All I saw was a shaft going straight down, and I do mean down. The light beam went down and down, and then just ran out of energy to light things." He pointed the bright spot across the dome, and it easily lit the other side. "That's a couple of hundred feet, and you can see the spot on the far wall. But when I pointed this light down that shaft, I couldn't see the bottom at all. That means it is more than two hundred feet deep." Charlie blew a small burst of air between his lips. "Way more than two hundred feet, I think."

Kippy placed his hands on his hips and glared at the hole. "Well, that's just plain stupid. How unsafe is that, putting a damn crater in the middle of the floor? Look...there's no railing, no signs...nothing. Someone could fall into this thing in the dark and be killed."

Pacha, who had been listening to the byplay in silence, suddenly spoke now. "I would have alerted you, had you not seen the opening. I am aware of them from the last time I was here."

Charlie looked at the koala with interest now. "You knew about it?"

"Yes. Every dome in the city has a hole just like this one at the center. We used a small drone to explore one for depth."

"More than a couple hundred feet, right?" Charlie guessed.

"Oh, yes. These shafts extend down to the core of the planet. About a thousand miles, in your measurements."

Charlie simply gaped. And then he and Kippy both stepped even farther back from the edge. They bumped into Ricky and Adrian, who grabbed hold of them and pulled them back even farther. Only then did Charlie turn on the koala. "You let me walk right up to it!" he accused.

For the first time, the little koala looked slightly flustered. "I apologize, Charlie, if you were frightened. But you could not fall into the hole. It has a neutral gravity screen across its diameter. Had you stepped over the edge, you would simply have floated across and been deposited on the other side."

Charlie turned back and shined his light at the hole. "I couldn't have fallen in?"

"No."

He turned back to the koala, now feeling sheepish. "Then I apologize for being so abrupt with you." He took in a deep breath, let it sigh out. "I think that scared a few years out of me, though."

Kippy stared at the hole now, one eye closed. "Why would anyone build something like that?"

"I can answer that," Pacha said quietly.

All eyes turned to the little koala, who gave them that face that suggested a hidden smile. "It is a ghost catcher, of course."

"Oh, of course," Ricky said, nodding enthusiastically. "Everyone should have one."

Mike frowned, and waved a warning hand at Rick. "Here...don't get smart, mate. Listen and learn something, why don't you?"

Ricky drew back. "You mean he's serious?"

Mike frowned himself, and looked down at the koala cradled in his arms. "You serious, Pach?" he asked quietly.

"Of course. I made light of the terminology, but the fact is that this entire world is designed to work here in the Cooee as a focus to attract the immaterial spirits of those that have passed from life into the beyond." Pacha looked about the room, and nodded. "And it seems to work quite well, too."

Charlie licked his lips. He already knew that ghosts - or at least the spirits of the once living - really existed. He had met a few of them himself. But...

"Why here?" he asked, looking slowly about the room.

"The Cooee is not part of our universe," Pacha said. "We do not know for certain how, but we do know that the spirits of those deceased are able to move on from the universe we know, and attain an ability to explore every place and every when there is or ever was. Engris was clearly designed by a people that understood this, and who hoped to once again interact with those of their race who had moved on. What we don't know was whether these ancients understood that Engris would also attract the spirits of other races, or all races, for that matter. We just don't know. Nor do we know why the builders of the this place abandoned it and went elsewhere." The koala looked about the vast chamber. "But the purpose of Engris lives on."

Charlie looked about at the dome again, astounded. They had flown over several of the domes on their way in, and the layout of the city suggested that the domes were numerous, indeed. That each was a receiver for the spirits of the dead...was almost unbelievable.

"Are all the ancient cities on Engris just like this one?"

Pacha nodded. "Yes. All built to the same end."

Charlie gaped, simply staggered by the notion of an entire world culture focused solely on making contact with the dead.

"How does it work?" he wondered aloud.

Pacha pointed at the floor beneath their feet. "The center of this world is hollow, and the home of energies we do not quite understand. To those passed away spirits journeying the great beyond, the center of this world shines like a beacon in the darkness. They are attracted to it, arrive at its core, and then can rise up the tunnels from the there to meet with the living in these domes. But they cannot exit the domes. The only way to leave is the way they arrived, by retracing their route to the center, and then away again."

"It's unbelievable," Kippy whispered, mirroring again Charlie's own thoughts.

"The people that live here on the surface, in the settler cities - they don't know all this?" Charlie asked.

Pacha shook his head. "No. Sadly, many would not understand. Many would not believe. The beliefs of even the most intelligent of species vary widely around the galaxy.  Engris survives as it is because the ghosts here are legends, and people can get along with legends. That they don't want to know more is as good an explanation of why there are no other explorers in these cities as any. If the settlers here knew that the entire world was an attractor, and that the spirits visiting here were genuine, they might feel differently about staying here."

Ricky shook his head in wonder. "How is it that the spirits don't get out and wander the whole planet?"

"These domes incorporate some very complex fields within their hemispheres. The shafts, as well. They cannot be passed by those spirits that visit here."

"Someone could leave a door open," Kippy suggested, quite seriously. Charlie grinned at his boyfriend's capacity to accept and believe even the most outlandish of facts.

"The fields are circular, and cross the thresholds of the entries," Pacha said. "Material beings can cross, but immaterial ones cannot." Pacha opened his small arms and spread them at the ceiling of the dome. "The dome we visited once before was full of light, as these immaterial beings swirled about above our heads. We heard their voices, but could not understand their tongues. The number of races that have come and gone in this galaxy since the first race walked the first world here is uncountable. The numbers of those many races that have passed into death, beyond comprehension. These domes are meant to be meeting places, where the living can meet with those that are no longer alive. The people that built this world must have once yearned greatly to stay in touch with their members that had died."

"But they didn't bank on every dead guy in the galaxy showing up, huh?" Ricky asked.

Pacha gave out a tiny grunt. "We just don't know the answer to that. They may have known it would happen, or they may not have known. The answer is lost in the depths of time."

"Are all these domes the same?" Charlie asked. "How could a spirit know which one to go to to talk to his descendant, or whatever? Or vice versa?"

"Again, this is a question with no answer. It took our party a year of inquiry here to learn the few facts that we have." The koala grunted. "That is a year of chronometer time, actually. We could have stayed here an eternity and probably learned no more."

Kippy turned his light towards the center hole again. "It couldn't have been just random, Charlie. The chaos would have been incredible. There must have been a way to talk to the spirits that you wanted to talk to. A system, or maybe even a way to call the ones you wanted to see."

Charlie shrugged. "I can't even imagine how that might work."

Kippy turned to him. "I can. Skwish."

Charlie was about to say something else when a flash of light arrived in the corner of his eye. He turned to look, just as a tall, wispy, glowing cloud of light rose up out of the tunnel and hovered in the air above it. It was like a mist that he could see through, with tiny sparkles of light inside. Even as he looked, another of the same things rose beside the first one, and both wispy clouds moved away from the tunnel opening and approached them. Charlie was rooted to the spot, the urge to run strong, but the urge to stay and see this incredible thing even stronger.

The two clouds stopped a few feet from them, and the sounds started. It was like voices, but from afar, and so many that it was a chorus, with each separate voice lost among the others. Charlie and the others simply stared, unable to do anything at all but watch.

The two shapes pulsed and flowed, and settled to the paving stones. Slowly, the many voices began to quiet, even as the misty clouds darkened and started to change form. Charlie could not pull his eyes away, even as the two forms took on arms and legs and heads, and the many voices ebbed away, until only one was speaking.

"Hello, Charlie. Hello Kippy."

The two shapes became people, and two smiling faces covered with an otherworldy glow looked out at them.

Kippy gave out a gasp, and raised his arms towards the two, even as Charlie understood who it was he was looking at.

Billy Matson and Will Hopkins.

It was Billy that had spoken, and now Will raised a hand and pointed at them, too. "Hello Ricky. Hello Adrian. I see you brought friends."

Charlie found his voice, and stepped forward. "Billy! Will! I don't believe it!"

Kippy was right beside him, and turned and gently smacked Charlie on the shoulder. "Of course it's them. I'd know those faces anywhere."

And then Ricky and Adrian were there, and the four boys surrounded the two spirits of their friends, all talking at one time. Finally, Ricky stuck two fingers into his mouth and blew a sharp whistle, and everyone ground to a halt. "Let's take turns or something, huh?" he pleaded. "No one can understand a damn thing being said!"

Charlie found himself laughing along with the others, but suddenly remembered Mike and Pacha. He turned to find the other two simply watching from a few feet away. Charlie grinned, and went and took Mike by the upper arm and pulled him closer. "Come meet our friends."

Mike simply stared at him. "You blokes never stop surprising the crap out of me," he whispered, eying the two spirits.

But Pacha seemed eager to come closer. "Please introduce us, Charlie."

Charlie did that, and Mike nodded nervously while Pacha leaned forward, obviously burning with curiosity. "We are honored to meet you," the little koala said.

Billy laughed, and Charlie smiled at the pleasant sound of it. "You have such wonderful friends, Charlie. Why am I not surprised?"

Charlie simply shook his head. "Billy...Will...what are you doing here?"

The two boys looked at each other. "We came to see you," Will said. "All of you."

Kippy looked astounded. "How could you know we would be here?"

Billy smiled. "We always know where you are, Kippy. Where all of you are. Even when we don't know where we are ourselves. We are linked to you, in spirit." Billy winked, and Charlie laughed at the joke.

"Seriously," Charlie went on, "how do you two happen to be here?"

Billy looked about the interior of the dome. "This place is known to us. And to all of those like us. We were absolutely amazed when we sensed that you were here. It was a golden opportunity to see you again, to talk to you. So we came as quickly as we could."

Charlie was agog at the meeting, at the impossibility of the timing. But then he remembered that they were in no-time, and that things that happened in the now were not always things just started. That the two spirits could have taken more time to get here than Charlie imagined was a real possibility, because no matter how long it had taken them, it was still no time at all. Here in the Cooee, there was no math for the dimension of time.

Charlie closed his eyes a moment, feeling almost overwhelmed by all the impossibilities this journey of theirs was handing to them. It seemed just moments ago that they had been sitting on Charlie's front stoop, wondering what to do with the day. But...he opened his eyes and smiled. "It's so wonderful to see you two again. Have you guys been...happy?"

Billy and Will smiled at each other, and Charlie knew the answer right away. "I can see you have been," he went on, answering his own question.

"Yes," Billy said. "Our bond is incredibly strong now. Nothing will ever break it again."

"Have you been back to your house again?" Adrian asked, referring to the house in the woods where Pat Burroughs had had his Halloween party. It had been Billy's home as a boy, and it was there Charlie and Kippy and the others had first met the lovelorn spirit.

Billy shook his head. "It is no longer mine to keep." He looked at Will again, and smiled. "And, I have all that I need."

For just a moment, it seemed that the two spirits faded, but then they came right back.

"Are you okay?" Kippy asked, his voice full of concern. "You guys just almost winked out."

Will laughed. "It is because we are here, while part of us is still there."

Charlie blinked at that. "Still where?"

"The place we were before we came here, of course," Billy said. "We had to leave some of ourselves there, like a bookmark, so that we could find the place again." He laughed. "It is a very big universe, and there are an infinite number of iterations of it, too."

Pacha leaned forward at that. "Then it is as we thought? There are other universes bordering our own? Branches, and loops, and causal variations of this one?"

"Oh, yes." Will nodded at that. "There are so many iterations of reality that even we may never be able to explore them all." He winked. "And no two are exactly the same, either."

"You have all the time there is," Kippy said, sounding worried. "I mean, it's not like you can die again, or anything. You only have to do that once, right?"

Billy laughed. "It is not that we will die before exploring all that there is, Kip. It's that the Great All keeps expanding, getting more numerous, faster than we can keep up with it. No matter how long we go on, there simply may be too much to see and do."

Pacha closed his eyes, and nodded. "This is so good to know. To know for certain."

Billy nodded. "Yes. We understand." The spirit leaned closer. "One purpose in us coming here was to tell you, Pacha'ka, that you must perform the duty you have been assigned to perform by your people."

The koala actually gasped. "You know?"

"Yes. Freedom must be fought for, even when the cost seems high. If you do not act, it is not just your own people that will continue to suffer."

The koala looked up at Mike, and the taut expression of worry on his face softened. "I understand." His soft brown eyes went back to the spirit of Billy Maston. "I will do my best."

Billy and Will both closed their eyes a moment, and then reopened them and smiled. "Yes, you will."

"What...what is it like? Pacha asked, his eyes brimming with interest. "To be able to visit all of eternity?"

Billy looked at Will, and Will looked at Billy. "It never ceases to be interesting, does it, Will?"

"Never," Will agreed. Both spirits returned their gazes to the koala. "Have patience. Life is interesting, too."

Pacha nodded. "I have found it so. The more I learn and understand, the more fascinating life becomes." He turned his head to look at Mike, and then the other boys. "The more people I meet, the more I love life."

Mike smiled at that. "Amen there."

Again the two spirits faded for a moment, and Kippy stepped forward. "Don't go!"

"We must," Will said. But then he smiled. "But we will be back, the next time you are here."

Charlie's eyebrows bounced upwards at that. "We'll be coming back here?"

Billy pointed at Mike and Pacha. "Of course. You will return here with your new friends." He smiled. "Your lives are just starting, Charlie. All of you have wonderful things to do in your futures."

"When will we come back here?" Ricky blurted, looking almost breathless at the idea. When Charlie's eyes sought his, he smiled. "Well, I need to mark my calendar."

"We will see each other again," Billy promised. He closed his eyes again. "But now...we have to go, or lose our place in that other there."

Charlie nodded. "It was wonderful to see both of you again, Billy. Take care, okay? Will? You guys look out for each other, okay?"

Ricky and Adrian lifted their hands and waved, and Kippy's face scrunched up, but he waved as well.

The two spirit boys smiled, and joined hands, and began to fade away. "We will, Charlie. Always, we will..."

And then they were gone. There was a brief flicker of light at the edge of the shaft leading below, and then nothing.

Kippy gave out a little sob, and turned into Charlie's arms. "It was so wonderful to see them again," he said softly, pressing his face into Charlie's cheek. Charlie nodded, and closed his eyes, and squeezed Kippy close. They stood together in silence a while, until Pacha cleared his throat to get their attention. "It is time to go."

"We just got here," Adrian said, as if that was all he could think of to say.

"We have things to do," Pacha announced. He nodded, his eyes moving from one boy to the next. "It is time to return to your Earth."

There was something behind those words, Charlie thought, as he stared at the koala. Pacha seemed to have been energized somehow by his conversation with Billy Matson.

"One purpose in us coming here was to tell you, Pacha'ka, that you must perform the duty you have been assigned to perform by your people."

Charlie shined his light a last time at the opening in the floor, that led to the center of the world, and beyond. And then he pushed Kip back, and looked into his eyes. "Did you know Will and Billy were coming? Did you call them, somehow?"

Kippy shook his head. "No. I only just had the thought that maybe Skwish had other purposes than just sensing the future. I did think of Will and Billy...but then they were just there."

Charlie thought back over the conversation with the two spirits, and nodded. It had sounded like they had purposely come on their own. Still...

For a second Charlie closed his eyes. This was just too complicated to easily grasp.

Kippy leaned his face forward to touch Charlie's. "Getting a headache yet, Charlie?" he whispered, his tone one of humor now.

Charlie opened his eyes and smiled. "Not yet. But I think I am well on my way."

* * * * * * *

They all watched Engris grow smaller in the bubble ship's viewer, and finally fade from sight. Once again the utter blackness of the Cooee surrounded them, and Pacha waved the viewer away into nothingness again.

"Are there other places like Engris, that exist only in the Cooee?" Charlie asked, as they made themselves as comfortable as they could for the trip back to Earth.

"If there are, they are as yet undiscovered," Pacha told them. "Engris is unique in that it wishes to be found by people in need. Without that trait, I wonder if it would have ever been discovered at all."

"You guys have good science," Ricky said. "Could your people build something like that in the Cooee?"

"No, I don't think so." Pacha looked thoughtful. "Then again, there has never been a need, so it has not been considered. But...I think the current level of science in the galaxy is somewhat less than the one the builders of Engris enjoyed. Civilizations seem to run in cycles, rising and falling over time. Their civilization was part of a previous cycle, unrelated to the current one."

"What are we gonna do about Korig?" Mike asked then. "We can't let him do to Earth what his people have been doing to other worlds. Yours included."

Pacha considered that. "My people have come up with a solution. I have been charged with deploying it, as you may well have guessed."

Mike grinned. "I remember that you tucked that doomsday gizmo into your pouch when we left Kift."

The koala patted himself, and nodded. "It is still there. I had my doubts that I could use it." He turned his head and smiled at Charlie and Kip. "But meeting your friends on Engris was the final piece of the puzzle I have been struggling with."

"So what happens now?" Kippy asked.

"We go home," Mike said, as if the solution was obvious..

"Exactly," Pacha agreed. "I have every confidence in Korig's ability to find us."

"Are these people really so bad?" Charlie asked. "I mean, we've only seen the one ship. It's not like they have these great, conquering fleets swooping about the galaxy, taking over everything by force."

"Like Star Wars," Mike nodded, grinning. "Korig ain't no Darth Vader, I can say that."

Charlie smiled at the Aussie boy's pronunciations. "I agree. So are they really so dangerous?"

"They are," Pacha said, nodding. "They do not take by blatant, destructive force, but they use force just the same. The force of law. Their law, bent to their own ends. It is a law that gives them the right to create trade agreements with peoples and planets that do not want trade agreements with them. It gives them the right to set quotas, and prices, and to back those requirements up with sanctions if they do not get them. And, if the sanctions fail, to back them up with real force. They do have an enormous fleet of vessels, quite capable of delivering complete destruction to an entire world."

Charlie leaned forward. "Have they ever done that? Destroyed someone's world?"

The koala nodded. "Yes."

"If Pacha's people refused to go along, the Arpies would move in and take over the planet," Mike said. "Buncha damn thieves, is what they are."

"Galactic law favors the powerful," Pacha agreed. "Trade is the law for them. To refuse it is to invite police action to enforce it. My people do not wish to be occupied, and so we have complied. But...that is coming to an end."

"Can you fight these guys?" Adrian asked. "One planet against...how many?"

Pacha looked uncertain. "We do not have an exact number, simply because the figures are deliberately blurred. There are purely Arpathant worlds, but then there are all those like mine, that have a small presence of the creatures, but do not belong to them. But their worlds number in the hundreds, surely."

"And they aren't even the big boys," Mike added. "The Arpies are in the top ten, but the top three - the Moths, the Braunigan, and the Trichani - those guys are huge."

"We are actually fortunate to reside within the Arpathant sphere of influence," Pacha agreed. "We are far away from the center of things, out near the edge of the galaxy. The Moths are closest to us, but even they are twenty thousand light years away. The Arpathant have it all to themselves out here, at least for now."

"Think the Moths will ever come looking this way?" Mike asked. "The Arpies wouldn't like that one bit." He grinned. "Might even start a war. The Arpies would get their butts handed to them, too. The Moths aren't people you want to mess with."

"The Moths are no longer in an expansion phase. None of the big three empires are, being still busy consolidating what they have acquired in the past thousand years. I do not foresee an encroachment upon Arpathant space any time in the near future." Pacha sighed. "So if we cannot hope that a superior power will deal with them, then we must deal with them ourselves."

"Good luck," Ricky said. "Little guys on our planet have had a tough time with the big boys forever."

Pacha said no more, and the boys settled in to wait. This was odd going, having no time pass while the senses said very plainly that it did.

"I wonder if the fireworks have started?" Kippy asked at one point, leaning up against Charlie on the series of pads they were laying on. "I hope we don't miss them."

Charlie smiled, that Kip could be concerned with fireworks when the fate of worlds was hanging in the balance. Whatever it was that Pacha planned for the Arpies, it had better work, or the Earth would face the same problems that the Kith did. And Earth was far less likely to adjust to such measures easily than the more advanced Kitha.

"I'm sure we'll see some, of one kind or another," Charlie said, giving him a hug.

Kippy sighed. "This has been so amazing, Charlie." He smiled then. "We have such fun together."

Charlie couldn't help laughing. "Kip, your idea of fun sometimes amazes me. But whatever you call it, I love every second of it, as long as I am with you."

"Oh Charlie. You're such a romantic."

They kissed, and heard Ricky and Adrian whispering - surely about them. And then another smooch! came to their ears.

"It's contagious," Kippy whispered, smiling into Charlie's eyes. Charlie just nodded, and kissed him again.

Pacha called them together later, and said that they were nearing the solar system containing the Earth.

"What is the plan?" Adrian asked, just as Charlie opened his mouth to ask the same question. The two boys grinned at each other, and Kippy laughed.

"We will land, and wait.," the koala told them.

Charlie blinked at that. "That's it?"

"Yes. I will set the ship down on that hill where you first met Mike. Korig will be about somewhere, I am sure, and he will attempt to subdue us and capture us. This time, that will not be allowed to happen."

Charlie just stared at the koala when he heard that. "You let him capture us the first time?"

Pacha's eyes held humor. "Yes. Sorry about that. The greatest advantage my people have had so far is that certain elements of our physical selves, and our science, have been successfully hidden from the Arpathant. To have made them aware of these things before would have been to make them feel threatened, and to invite armed conflict. It was a situation we did not wish, and so we have been patient, and waited for the moment."

"Two hundred years is pretty damn patient," Ricky noted.

"Exactly. But we are patient no more."

Mike gave the koala a fond rub. "Trust Pacha, mates. He knows what he's doin'."

Since there seemed to be no other course of action, Charlie just nodded. "We're with you, is all I can say."

The other boys nodded in agreement.

Pacha returned the viewer to action, and soon the darkness peeled away and a sun burst into the center of the screen. Slightly below them was the face of the moon, which they were just passing. Beyond lay the Earth, blue and green, covered with the intricate swirls of weather systems, and just beautiful to their eyes. That they might lose control of this, their special place in the universe, was an intolerable thought to them, and Charlie set his jaw as the bubble ship settled into the top of the atmosphere with a tiny shudder. Surrender is not an option.

The world seemed to turn rapidly beneath them, and North America came into view, and grew wide across the screen. The east coast spread out in the viewer, rushed towards them, and then they were among clouds, the land below covered with familiar features. And only an instant later, it seemed, they were settling towards Myer's Hill, with the evening sun still above the horizon, and the sky all about them still bright and blue.

Kippy looked delighted. "We're in time!"

Charlie laughed, that Kippy could still be worrying about fireworks while the fate of the world hung in the balance.

The ship touched down with nary a jolt, and Pacha shut things down, and invited them all to go outside. They exited the craft through the round port, and once again stood on the surface of their own planet.

Kippy sighed, and grinned at Charlie. "I'd get down and kiss it, but it's just so dirty."

Charlie laughed, pulled Kippy close, and kissed him. Ricky and Adrian were doing the same thing, all of them happy to be home.

The sun had not yet reached the horizon, and a few puffy clouds flecked with violet and orange trekked slowly across the sky. It was still quite warm, but Charlie took a deep breath, and enjoyed every bit of it. Home.

"Stay close to the ship," Pacha warned them. "You need to remain beneath its defenses to be safe."

"Didn't help before," Charlie pointed out. "Korig's ship showed up and they zapped us and knocked us out cold."

"Only because we could not let them know we could defend against that," Pacha said. "Now, it does not matter."

Charlie nodded, and he and Kippy went back to examining the sky. It was a perfect evening for fireworks. The few clouds above them were moving off, promising an utterly clear view of the show. A few early bird stars were appearing, and a small and comforting breeze was sending waves through the grasses around them.

They were still looking up when Charlie felt a familiar vibration, and the huge Arpie wedge ship appeared above them. There was a flash from it, and a corresponding flash from the bubble ship, but nothing else happened. Then, a tiny dot disengaged itself from the giant wedge, and dropped rapidly towards them.

"Here they come," Pacha said, unnecessarily. But his voice was calm, and Charlie found it reassuring.

The dot continued to grow, and finally resolved itself into a miniature version of the great wedge ship above them. It touched down nearby, and a door immediately opened in the side. A half dozen of the armor-clad soldiers piled out, each carrying one of those mammoth rifles, and formed a skirmish line aimed at Pacha and the five humans. The business ends of the rifles held steady on them, and Charlie felt that to even breathe too hard might be to draw their fire.

Another Arpie emerged from the transport, and Charlie immediately recognized Korig by his size, and the black armor he wore. The man moved to stand between two of the soldiers, and waved his trunk at them uncertainly. "Why you no unconscious?"

Charlie almost laughed at that. But then Mike stepped forward, bearing Pacha in his arms.

"You still wear disguise," Korig added, disapprovingly. "Pointless, now that I know it."

"What do you want, Korig?" Pacha asked.

The alien stared at them, and then rumbled out one of his seismic laughs. "We both know. Your people send you out to test new weapon of some kind. Not find it in your ship, so you must hide somewhere. Tell where now, and no incinerate your friends there." Korig waved a large hand at Charlie and the others.

"You would not," Pacha said, almost disbelievingly.
 
"Detect threat against legal trade authority," Korig countered. "Can under law, and would."  He offered up his awful smile. "Not animals, these. People involved in conspiracy. Deadly force authorized if feel threatened."

Charlie found his voice. "We're not even armed."

Korig laughed again. "You know, I know, but trade authority that receive my report not know. I say you dangerous, they believe me."

The giant alien lifted a hand, and the six soldiers leaned slightly forward, looking anxious to pull the triggers.

There was nothing slow about the reaction this time. Pacha suddenly flowed in Mike's arms, his shape changing astonishingly fast. His fur lightened to white as his jaw grew long, and his ears thrust upwards like a rabbit's. But there the similarity ended. The tops of the ears ended in a fine spray of tiny, waving, cilia-like appendages. which suddenly vibrated almost into invisibility.

The muzzles of the soldier's rifles crashed to the ground, followed by the rifles, and then the soldiers themselves. Korig was right behind them, mashed flat by the force of six gravities of acceleration. Something leaped from the small wedge ship, a whip-like arc of yellow energy, aimed squarely at Pacha. The little alien threw up an arm, and the whip cracked like thunder, but was deftly deflected into the grass, catching it on fire. Pacha raised another hand, and the grass was smashed flat, and the fire simply vanished before it could get started.

One of the little alien's ears changed its appearance, vibrating in a new fashion, and Korig's wedge transport vibrated with it. A sound grew, the sharp, keening wail of molecules vibrating fiercely, and another Arpathant appeared in the doorway of the vessel and threw himself to the ground, there to be mashed flat by the same force holding the others.

And then quiet descended upon them, as if none of it had happened at all. Only the eight Arpies, laying motionless on the ground, fiercely trying to breathe, gave any indication that a battle had been fought here, and lost.

Above them, the giant wedge ship started to move, and circled above them in an agitated fashion. But that those left aboard  dare not move against Pacha for fear of hurting their commander seemed plain.

"You lose," Pacha said quietly, climbing down from Mike's arms. The little creature crossed to Korig in a series of hops, and sat himself beside the huge alien. He looked into the flattened expression on Korig's face, and actually smiled this time. "You aren't so tough, after all."

Pacha waved a hand over Korig's face, and the giant took a fierce gulp of air. "How you do dis? How!"

Pacha nodded. "Science has many directions, Korig. Your people tend to one version, and my people to another. Your version is limited by your ability to mold matter into machines, while ours is limited only by our knowledge in using it. And that grows, every day we live." The little alien leaned closer. "You're done, Korig. Even as we speak, your trade mission is being rounded up and expelled from our planet. No more taking from us, Korig. Not ever again."

"You cannot fight us," Korig returned, the first traces of a kind of fear appearing in his eyes. "You have no ships, no fleet. You cannot fight."

"We do not need those things, Korig. They are of your science, not ours. What small ships like this one" -- he indicated the bubble ship behind him --" we use to travel about, are all we will ever need."

"Den you will die," Korig assured him.

Pacha shook his head slowly, almost sadly. "What vermin you are, that you feel others simply exist to serve your needs." Pacha looked back at Mike and smiled. "You would do the same to these people as you have done to us."

Korig did not say anything, but his eyes showed that he was in total agreement with that statement. Even flat on his back and defeated, the Arpathant could not keep his contempt from showing.

Pacha shook his head. "This cannot be allowed." He took a small hand, and Charlie saw it disappear into the fur at his belly. It reemerged a moment later, grasping a flattened ovoid with a clear skin, inside of which dots of crimson fire danced and spun. Pacha brought his hand around in an arc and smacked the thing down on Korig's armor, where it stuck fast. The giant alien's eyes stared downward in horror at this new development, and Pacha laughed. "You wanted our new weapon, and now you have it."

Pacha backed away, and raised his hands, and his ears vibrated anew.

Korig suddenly sat up, and the other Arpies gasped and did the same thing. The first thing Korig did was grab at the ovoid attached to his armor, but even with his formidable strength, it remained immovably in place. The big alien dropped his hands and aimed the end of his trunk at the device, and the tendrils at the end closed upon it and tried to remove it that way.

"Korig." Pacha said the name softly and patiently, but it seemed like a whip to the big alien. His eyes came up, and his trunk ceased to pull at the ovoid.

"You have five minutes to be away from this world," Pacha said. "All of you will now get into your transport, go up to your vessel, and go. If you are still here in five minute's time, I will destroy you. Understand?"

"You cannot," Korig grated, but his eyes plainly said he didn't know what to believe.

"I can, and I will," Pacha assured him. "And if you get to your ship and decide to take a few shots at us, I will definitely be upset. Understand?"

Korig got to his feet and backed away from Pacha and the humans. "Dis not over. Dis just starting."

Pacha raised his hands again. "You don't seem to be leaving."

The Arpie soldiers found that, while they could get to their feet, their weapons remained pinned firmly to the ground. Once Korig saw that, he barked out a command, and the aliens piled onto the ship. The door closed, and the wedge leaped into the air.

Pacha turned and hopped back towards Mike, changing as he moved, back into the koala. He stopped before Mike and raised his arms to be picked up. The Aussie boy grinned and retrieved the fuzzy creature, and stroked him fondly as he settled into the crook of his arm. "That was some amazing stuff, Pach."

"It's not over yet. Despite my warnings, Korig seems determined to fire upon us. He has ordered his ship to do just that." Pacha closed his eyes, and lifted his hands again. "Oops. Weapons require power, and the fusion plant that powers theirs seems to have somehow broken loose, and is busy bouncing about inside the ship, knocking down bulkheads and just being a general nuisance. Amazing what damage thirty tons of shielding can do to your basic walls and decks."

Charlie and the others just stared at Pacha, and then almost as one tilted their heads back and looked up at the huge wedge ship. It had risen, and now danced about in the sky in a panicky fashion. Suddenly it accelerated, and grew rapidly smaller.

"Good," Pacha said agreeably. "Now you show some sense. I just need you and your ship beyond the atmosphere, and then you will have a personal demonstration of the device you wear upon your chest. Good, good. A little higher. Faster Korig, or you will regret it. Yes, higher, almost there..."

The big ship was dot now, and then it disappeared altogether. The boys continued to watch the skies, not knowing what to expect, while Pacha continued with his monologue, and Mike stroked him fondly.

"...that's good, a few miles higher...my, that power plant is making a mess of your machine spaces, isn't it? So sorry. But you need a good reason to go away...good...better...and you're there."

Pacha sighed and closed his eyes. "Farewell, Korig."

Far above them, a flash lit the sky, and a great green ring of light expanded outwards into a halo about a tiny, furiously bright dot of light. Moments later a faint rumble reached them, and then the pinpoint of light slowly began to fade, while the halo became like a bright ring of smoke, slowly dissipating outward.

Charlie and the others simply gaped, and Kippy turned an accusing look upon the koala. "You blew them up!"

Pacha laughed. "I did no such thing. They are not dead. We are simply rid of them." But then his mirth faded. "All of them, everywhere."

No one spoke, because no one understood. Finally, Charlie shook his head. "What happened?"

Pacha's warm eyes examined him a moment before the koala spoke again. "Reality is where you happen to be at the moment, Charlie. Our universe is vast, but it is not the only one there is. For lack of an easier way to put it, I will say that, to either side of our own universe, are millions or billions - or even more - other universes. If you argue that once there was just one, then each universe that followed is a child of the first, born when some event that had more than one possible outcome in the main universe went one way or the other. If a star goes nova in our universe, there is one created where it did not. For everything that goes one way in our universe, there is a mirror universe created where it went in the opposite direction. The more possibilities that exist, the more universes are created to address each possible eventuality."

Charlie had actually read about this very idea once before. "I thought that was just a theory."

Pacha nodded. "We had evidence that there was truth to this, and we have been looking into the matter almost since the day the Arpathant first showed up on our world. We had discovered another universe, next to ours, if you will, that was identical in every way save one: there was no life in it, not a single cell of it." Pacha nodded. "It was decided to make this universe available to the Arpathant for colonization. That is what just happened."

Charlie and Kippy stared at each other. "What does that mean?" Kippy asked.

Charlie shook his head. "I'm not sure."

"They're gone?" Ricky asked, staring at Pacha. "You sent them away?"

"Yes. You have it now. I was charged with placing the trigger with an Arpathant. Any Arpathant would do, it just was my luck that it was Korig himself. An Arpathant genome was required, as a template. The tech was expanded to include their technology - their ships, their cities, their worlds. And then all were simply moved to that other, empty universe." Pacha gazed upwards at the still dispersing halo, a certain satisfaction apparent in his eyes. "No one was killed, no cities destroyed. The Arpies will simply find themselves suddenly alone in an entire universe, with no way to return to this one."

Charlie shook his head. "I don't think I could have done that. A whole race...there must have been billions of them."

"There were. And believe me, I was burdened with the weight of the task assigned to me. It was not known for sure that this mirror universe actually existed, or was simply a phantom version of our own, fooling our investigations. But after I spoke with your friends in the dome on Engris, I understood that all these mirror places were real, and could actually be reached. So I knew then that I was not committing genocide, but actually removing a certain blight from our universe to a location where they could still live, but not harm others."

Charlie could hardly get his mind around the idea. "They are all gone? Every single Arpie?"

"Yes. All of them. And their ships, their planets, and even their trade missions on subject planets. It is now as if the Arpathant never existed in our universe at all."

"I cannot imagine a technology that could do such a thing," Charlie whispered. Kippy nodded, eying Pacha now with something akin to worry.

Mike saw that, and shook his head. "Stop that right now. Pacha's people are the most decent folk I ever met. If he says the Arpies are okay, then they are." Mike snorted. "That's better treatment than I would have given them. But the main thing is, it's done. So stop worrying about it."

"What will happen now?" Ricky asked.

Pacha gave a little shake of his head. "Nothing. It's all done. You are home, and all I need do now is drop Mike back in his land, and everything will be fine."

Mike's face twisted up at that. "Uh...Pacha, about taking me home...?"

Charlie almost laughed out loud at the look that crossed the koala's face - a mixture of amusement, and pure, unadulterated innocence. "Yes?"

Mike looked uncertain, but then stamped his foot. "Dammit, I don't have nothing back there to go to." Mike's eyes looked pleading. "I wanna stay with you, Pach."

The koala nodded. "Okay. I just needed to hear you say that."

Charlie and the others laughed at the dumbfounded look that appeared on Mike's face. "As easy as that? I've been worrying how to ask you!"

"Yes, Mike. As easy as that." Pacha shifted in Mike's arms, and patted the boy's chest with one small hand. "I'm kind of used to you now."

Mike grinned. "All right!"

Charlie knew it would take some time for himself and the other boys to sort this all out. They would have a lot to talk about, for some time to come.

"Billy said he would see us again on Engris, sometime," he said to Pacha. "That would seem to indicate that we will see you again."

"I would love that," Pacha said. "And I think you would enjoy visiting my world, now that it is free. I will check with you, from time to time, and we will come up with something we can all do. How about that?"

"Works for me," Charlie said.

Kippy nodded, looking happy, and Ricky clapped Adrian on the shoulder. "I never got a chance to use my dagger, dammit."

"We'll find something here for you to hack to pieces," Adrian returned, fondly.

Charlie patted his pocket, where the little copper panel resided that showed whoever held it his home. "We all got some cool stuff out there."

"More than you know," Pacha said. He turned to Kippy. "The ring you purchased has a great secret, one that will bear looking into." He then turned his eyes to Adrian. "And your object - your star chart - may just be something to pursue as well."

"I thought you said it would be dangerous?" Adrian asked, looking surprised.

"What part of this adventure has not been?" Pacha countered. "And didn't you somehow enjoy it, anyway?"

"Yes!" All five boys chorused the reply, and then started laughing.

Pacha nodded. "I am finding a certain exhilaration to our travels, as well." He leaned closer and lowered his voice. "I feel like a cub again!"

"Wait until we get back out among the stars," Mike said, patting the koala's fur excitedly. "I've heard some great stories, I have, about some great places to go, and --"

The koala held up a hand. "We will discuss it later. After I give my report to the council. Fair enough?"

Mike grinned. "Fair enough."

Charlie laughed. "Sounds like you and Mike will be doing a little exploration."

Pacha nodded. "Having completed this task, I am interested in doing something more restful. I have an interest in antiquities of all sorts. What better way to relax than looking about space for such things as that?"

Mike beamed at that, and nodded, and Charlie and Kippy both laughed.

"Will you stay for the fireworks?" Kippy asked. "They have even more meaning, now that our Earth will not fall under the thumb of the Arpies."

"We should go, actually," Pacha said, now a little sadly. "My people will expect a full recounting of recent events." He turned suddenly, and pointed at the Arpie rifles still laying on the ground nearby. "Maybe I had better dispose of them. I don't see any good coming from feeding your military-types any distressing new ideas." He closed his eyes and held out a hand, and the weapons jerked into the air, lined up like a freight train, and headed for the entry of the bubble ship.

Charlie sighed, realizing that this adventure was coming to an end. There was an anticlimactic feel to that that must have shown on his face. Pacha saw it, and nodded. "We will be back, Charlie. But, for now, we do need to go."

No one said anything then. Charlie looked over at Mike and smiled, and Kippy sighed and leaned hard against Charlie's shoulder. "Oh, I hate saying goodbyes."

All the boys took turns giving Mike a hug.

"I still say you're  gorgeous," Kippy whispered, when it came his turn, and then laughed when Mike's face reddened.

"And still not ready," the other boy whispered back. "But...if I decide to give it a go, I'll come to you first for some pointers."

"Ooh, I can hardly wait!"

 And then Pacha had to suffer the same fate. The boys lined up to offer the koala a hug, and Pacha took it kindly. Charlie could see that he was actually sad to see them go.

"We'll be in contact," Pacha assured them. "It is a big galaxy. More than Mike and I can explore on our own."

Charlie laughed. "I think all of us are interested, Pacha."

The koala reached out and patted Charlie's arm. "It was wonderful to meet all of you, Charlie. I am very fond of Mike, and it is especially pleasurable for me to know that he is not unique among your kind."

They said farewell again, and then Mike took Pacha and climbed into the bubble ship. The two stood in the doorway a moment and waved,  and then it was closed.

Kippy put an arm around Charlie and hugged him. "You sure know how to show a guy a good time, Charlie Boone."

Charlie smiled. "It was mostly fun because you were with me, Kip."

The bubble ship hummed, rose quickly into the sky, and then was gone.

Charlie gave a sigh, and turned to look towards the sun, which was down below the horizon now. The sky was darkening, and the lights were on over at the distant mall. There would be a huge crowd there in the parking lot now, waiting for the show to begin. "We don't have time to run home. I guess we'll just have to wing it without pizza and drinks for now."

"We can go later, "Kippy decided. "I'm just happy to be here, with you."

They went to the front of the hill, and tramped down the grass to form a place to sit. And then they did just that, Charlie and Kippy, and Ricky and Adrian.

"What a great Fourth of July this was," Adrian said. "Best one I ever had."

Ricky sighed, and snuggled against him. "Everything is great when it's with you."

Kippy leaned against Charlie, his eyes capturing the last rays of evening sun. "It was a wonderful Fourth, Charlie."

"It's not over yet," Charlie said, pointing at the distant mall, where a series of sparks were rising into the night sky.

"Oh, Charlie. I love you so much."

Charlie sighed, feeling the moment himself. "Me, too, Kip. I love you, too." And then they snuggled together as the first rockets burst in the sky above a free land.

And, a free world.