"This place is not subject to the same rules by which your own universe operates," Minerva told them, after Horace had explained the problem with the strange hypersphere protecting the Ardvoon world. The hernacki's eye waved around at the desert-like plain, and then looked upward at the congested sky above them. "And neither are the many other universes that are based here. Some of the universes of the multiverse have similar rules, and in some cases very similar rules; but no two are exactly alike. So, you must understand that the solution you require to circumvent this defense you speak of will require some investigation on my part before I can provide you with an answer of any certainty."

"That seems fair," Browbeat said immediately, his enthusiasm at the prospect of being part of a hernacki investigation clear to everyone.

"I have just done the investigation now. The universe you hail from is known to me." There was the briefest moment of silence before the hernacki resumed speaking again. "Yes, I believe I can assist you."

Horace blinked in surprise at Browbeat, and then the little flyer tittered merrily. "A whirlwind investigation! It went so quickly I barely feel like we did anything at al!"

Horace snorted, but was unable not to laugh. "I guess we should have expected that, huh?" The older man looked around at their surroundings, and then frowned at Minerva. "You must be able to operate at a very great distance from your, um, subject." He shook his head then. "This is a very strange place, at least to my mind. I don't sense any part of the universe we came from."

"This is not so much a place as it is an idea," Minerva returned placidly. "It is not a part of any of the universes of the megaverse, but rather a part of the substrate which bears them all upon their journeys. As such, its rules are whatever we happen to give it at any given time. Of course we have set up things here where we can easily monitor all the universes we are responsible for maintaining."

Charlie smiled at that, looking around at the plain they stood upon. "You must like deserts then, or something close to those conditions."

The eye full of stars turned to face him. "This is a neutral place, native surrounds in which my people congregate to consider the megaverse. It is one of many, actually. You are here in thought. Were you here in person, I doubt you would find this place as hospitable as a mere desert plain. There is no atmosphere, no heat, and the lighting is eternal."

"For your kind, yes. For mine? We do not need atmosphere, heat, or even light. The light you see here is generated by the universes presented around us. I have adapted to what you see as the visible spectrum by forming a viewing structure similar to your own eyes. I seems best to communicate with you on your own terms, as you would find it impossible to adapt to mine."

The eye widened into a bow shape, and Charlie again sensed a smile there. "It is the least I can do, since you have made all the effort to visit."

The eye suddenly turned then, and gazed off into eternity. "Well...I sense an impending opportunity here." The eye turned back their way. "This may interest you. In fact, I'm sure it will." The eye turned to look their way again, but the focus was beyond them. "Please observe."

The group turned as one to look in the direction that Minerva had indicated. Charlie squinted, but saw nothing...and then he did.

In a space fairly close to them an outline appeared. A form was taking shape there, coming from nothing and just sort of doing a reverse fade as its outlines filled with color. It solidified quickly, and Charlie realized that it was the form of a human being!

And then, quite suddenly, someone was standing there, looking at them. But...human? Charlie squinted at the man, immediately astounded that he seemed to be wearing the same disguise that they were - golden skin, spiked hair, and a Van Dyke beard beneath a handlebar mustache.. But the newcomer's eyes were not disguised, and Charlie knew that speculative gaze well. And the way the man moved as he turned to gaze at them was unmistakably familiar.

A thought appeared in Charlie's mind then: "I suspected you would want your friend to look as you do," came Minerva's voice. "I have adjusted his appearance to suit your own."

Charlie turned to Kip, saw a trace of amazement there in his boyfriend's eyes; and then his gaze traveled past Kip to the rest of the group, and he realized by the expressions on all of his friend's faces that they had received Minerva's mental broadcast as well. Only the two Loturi seemed not to have been a part of the exchange. But Chi Baradee was looking back at him with just a trace of speculation in her own gaze, as if she had realized that something had happened, but not what it had been.

"Uh, yeah," Charlie sent back to the hernacki. "You did the right thing." He turned back towards Keerby again.

The elf blinked at them, and then his eyes widened as they moved among the group of humans. That he recognized them, even in disguise, was clear. "Kip! Charlie! Why, you're all here!" He frowned then. "How is that possible?" And then he noted the mountainous shape of Minerva as if for the first time, and his face split in a grin. "That's not Blinken! Oh...don't tell me...you've made contact with your own hernacki!"

Keerby's smile faltered at that. He walked closer to them, and lowered his voice. "You named him Minerva?"

Everyone turned to look at the hernacki. Horace looked stunned, and shook his head. "I thought she was female!"

Keerby's frown slipped back towards a grin. "Well, they don't have genders, or sex. I guess maybe they appear to each of us a certain way, or something." His smile returned fully now "I named my new friend Blinken because it was a neutral name." He laughed. "I couldn't quite decide if he was a he or a she, either. This big fellow of yours impresses me as a male. But I guess it's all subjective."

Kippy looked surprised. "You seem to have decided about Minerva pretty quickly. I actually didn't get a sense of gender at all. Minerva just seems this huge, powerful, um, person."

"I know what you mean. Your hernacki just hit me as a guy first thing. But, what do I know?" Keerby looked around the plain then. "I was visiting with Blinken when this happened. I wonder where she went." He grinned then. "Or he. I still haven't made up my mind on that, either."

As if in answer to his query, another mountainous hernacki appeared just behind him. There was an instantaneous buzz of communication between the two hernacki which none of the humans could decipher; and then Blinken seemed to settle contentedly behind the elf, as if waiting for what came next.

"My companion followed your friend, of course," Minerva supplied. "They were visiting in similar surrounds elsewhere. I suppose I should have asked before bringing your friend here to meet you."

Charlie joined his friends in laughing at what they had always considered a human expression. Charlie grinned, finding the hernacki's response endearing. It just went to show that you could be a creature that could move stars in their paths, and still realize that you were not totally infallible. But he suspected that the slip - if that's really what it had been - was a minor one, and that Minerva was not terribly worried that she had offended Blinken. And Blinken seemed totally unfazed by having her friend Keerby shifted to another desert plain in the middle of their conversation.

Keerby looked from face to face, and then sort of shrugged. "Um...what's with the looks?" he whispered. He canted a shoulder towards Second Captain Rorna and Chi Baradee. "For them?"

"I have just received the specifications of your universe from Blinken," Minerva informed them. "They verify the ones we have stored here. I don't think it will be hard for me to assist you in bypassing the Ardvoon defense."

"I guess you would be, too," Robin whispered to him, "if you were billions of years old and could manipulate universes."

"This is quite beyond my means," Chi Baradee whispered to Robin. She smiled then. "But learning what is beyond my means is just as important as learning what is within them, I think."

"We're all on the learning curve here," Robin offered. "Don't feel badly about it."

"Oh, I don't! It is my experience that what is currently beyond my means does not always stay there. I am excited about the prospect of understanding all of this." Her smiled widened. "Someday. Perhaps in years, or so."

The woman sighed, and there was a happy note to it. "It must be exciting to be able to explore in this fashion. I envy you your abilities."

"There's a future in it," Charlie offered to her. "We're friends now. In later visits to you, you may wish to accompany us, um, somewhere like this again."

"Thank you." Baradee seemed genuinely pleased by the offer. "I would like that, I'm certain."

Second Captain Rorna had been listening to the exchange, and Charlie could clearly see that the Loturi wished to be included in such future explorations, but did not quite dare to say so.

"I guessed," Charlie said, laughing. "No need to worry. Like I say, we are all friends now."

Kippy quickly explained what was going on with the Ardvoon, their world, and the Kawisp they were shielding. Adrian filled in a few other facts, and the elf looked from one to the other as he followed along.

"And, that's about it," Kippy finished up, smiling. "Our typical adventure stuff." He leaned closer to the elf. "What are you doing here?"

Keerby laughed. "Oh, I was just asking Blinken a few things about time. You know how much that subject interests me!"

"I've been wondering, myself, with what Minerva has been telling us, if time works differently, depending on what universe of the Megaverse you're in," Robin mused aloud.

The elf shrugged. "I'd say so. The rules can be very different in these many universes. But I was just concerned with time in our own universe. From what Blinken tells me, we can't ever travel to one of these other universes on our own - one of the hernacki would need to take us there - but we can visit the alternate realities our own universe is abundantly endowed with. I already know that time can be manipulated in all of them because the physical laws are the same in all alternate versions of our own universe. I was just wanting to be certain in my knowledge about the possible effects of time manipulation on life in these alternate realities."

"That it all works the same, everywhere in our universe. I just wanted to make sure that playing with time wouldn't cause undue harm to anyone, you know?"

"Well, do it more quietly," Charlie sent with his mind touch, canting his head towards the two Loturi. "There's a time and a place, Kip."

Kippy tossed him a quick look of exasperation. "You're too young to be so old-fashioned!" he sent back. "I'll bet the Loturi are more tolerant than you think."

"I'd rather not find out just now," Charlie argued. "In case you haven't noticed in our travels, gayness is not a universal trait among mammals."

"That we have seen," Kip returned immediately. "We may just not have been exposed to it among some races."

Charlie sighed inwardly. "Just cool it with Keerby for now, will you, please?"

Charlie turned back to the elf. "Can you hang out a little? Your expertise with Blinken might come in handy with what we're doing."

"I don't see why not," Keerby answered. He grinned again. "I can always get the time back, if needed."

Horace smiled at that. "That would be a big help, Keerby. I'm not sure I'm up to dealing with all of this on my own."

"You are," the elf returned. "You have more of a gift for fifth-order species than you think. Just relax, and trust your instincts."

Charlie turned to Minerva. "You'll have to return with us to our universe to do this, right?"

"I like," Rick said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "About time we got this bus moving."

The plain and the light-filled sky above it simply vanished from around them, and once again they found themselves seated in Investigator's control center. Now the star-filled eye seemed to be growing from the deck nearby - there were two of them in fact, as Blinken seemed to have returned with them as well. Both eyes were now turned to face the Ardvoon world in the surrounding view, and its mysterious hypersphere cloak.

Another round of indecipherable buzzing passed between the two hernacki, and Charlie supposed they were discussing what to do next.

The nearest eye turned to face him. "In this universe, gravity propagates through the medium of spacetime. Mass tells spacetime how to curve, and the resultant curvature tells matter how to move."

The eye widened again in a smile. "All I need do is instruct the spacetime at a certain point not to allow gravity to propagate, and your vessel can slip through the resulting null without affect to the shape of your darkspace insertion matrix."

"Something we could not do on our own," Grim said into the void. "Amtapora feels this is an excellent solution."

"I like it," Browbeat decided. "It doesn't seem nearly as messy as some of the stuff we were planning."

"And Adrian and I don't have to suck a lot of vacuum energy," Kippy said, winking at Charlie.

Charlie rolled his eyes, but nodded. He let his gaze return again to the eye that represented Minerva. "What do we do next?"

As it turned out, all they had to do was to get Investigator to approach the Arvoon shield at a certain point and pause while the hernacki apparently gave out new instructions affecting a range of the spacetime before them, disallowing the propagation of gravity waves. Investigator then proceeded towards the new null, made a short transition through the cooee, and in an instant they were within the defensive globe.

"I'll say," Rick answered. "That was as tidy an approach as I could have imagined."

Adrian stared at the view ahead of them. "Look at the planet! It looks completely different!"

It did. The Ardvoon world had changed noticeably, both in coloration and in the outlines of its landmasses. It looked like a completely different world, even!

"We were right," Charlie mused aloud. "What we were seeing from the other side of the hypersphere bore no resemblance to the real deal. That must have been a completely different planet we were seeing."

"Or, it was the Ardvoon world," Robin suggested slowly. "Just in a vastly different time. Our own world's landmasses have moved over the ages, too."

"Something's happening," Kip said softly, reaching out to place a hand on Charlie's shoulder. "I feel them coming closer."

A group of sparkling, shining globes were rapidly rising towards them from the planet's surface. "These are the Ardvoon?" Charlie asked aloud.

It was Minerva who answered him. "Or, what you can see of them in the visible spectrum you are familiar with. Coming to see what has crossed the boundary into their planetary space, I would imagine."

"Not while I am here," Minerva answered. "And possibly not even if I were not. This vessel of yours seems unusually well able to defend itself."

"We like it," Browbeat answered, with a titter. "It was on sale, and we got it at a great price!" The little flyer gazed at the rising globes with anticipation now. "This should be fun!"

In fact, all eyes were upon the approaching Ardvoon, and no one said anything as the group of locals spread out as they arrived in the ship's path, encircling Investigator neatly in the process.

"I am receiving a communication," Amtapora announced."They wish to know what we are doing here."

A voice came to their ears then, one that was slightly raspy, and decidedly alien. "...trespassing in our worldspace. This will not be allowed."

Charlie nodded, thinking fast. "It is not our intent to merely trespass," he began. "You are shielding people who have committed a criminal act by our laws, and we are here to apprehend them."

A moment of silence followed. "You refer to the fourth-order entities we have detained below? They, too, have trespassed in our worldspace. We have yet to decide what to do with them."

"Allow us to approach them, and we'll take them away for you," Charlie answered.

"We cannot allow you to destroy them," the Ardvoon voice warned. "That act would violate our own laws, as well."

Charlie turned to Chi Baradee. The woman's eyes widened, but she nodded, and a look of determination appeared in her gaze. "We don't wish to destroy them," she said. "We wish simply to speak with them, and arrange some sort of agreement that they will not use what they have stolen to harm our people."

"I sense that that such negotiations will be a fruitless," the Ardvoon voice returned. "Their hostile reaction to your arrival was quite notable, and especially to your penetration of our defenses. Their intractability is quite apparent, even to us."

"Your thoughts suggest more to your plans than simple conversation," the alien voice told them. "Yet I do sense that you do not wish to terminate their life processes. At least, not if it is not necessary. So, your plans must include some factor which will negate the importance of what they have stolen from you."

Charlie whistled internally at the words. These Ardvoon were some sharp negotiators, indeed!

"There is the matter of your trespass here, too," The Ardvoon continued. "The purpose of our defensive globe should have been quite clear. Yet you entered it, nonetheless. This is in violation of our own laws. This cannot be overlooked."

Charlie sensed a bit of curiosity behind the words. It seemed clear that the Ardvoon had not expected them to be able to break their defenses.

"Your failure to communicate with us prompted that action," Chi Bardaee responded. "You left us no choice,."

"There is always a choice," the Ardvoon countered. "You could have respected our wishes, and simply gone away."

"Not without knowing your intentions," the woman said sharply. "Had you simply released the Kawisp to be on their way, some of our people would have paid for your action with their lives. We could not simply walk away and allow that to happen."

Another moment of silence, and then: "It runs against our beliefs to allow ourselves to become involved in galactic affairs. We require that your vessel remain here while we discuss this matter among ourselves."

"We can do that," Charlie answered promptly. "But how long will this discussion take?" He smiled. "We are aware that your sense of time is different from our own. We can't wait a lifetime, certainly."

A hint of amusement filtered into the alien voice at that announcement. "It will take as long as it takes,. But we can assure that it is within a time frame that will be compatible with your own. Not long, as such things go."

They sensed the withdraw of the Ardvoon communication, but the circle of sparkling entities surrounding the ship remained in place.

Kippy rubbed his hands together and smiled at Charlie. "So...second presence investigation?"

"I said the ship would remain here," Charlie corrected. "That doesn't mean we can't do some looking around on our own."

Second Captain Rorna looked uncertain. "Can they detect us in your second presence travels?"

Charlie shrugged at that. "I don't know. Fifth-order beings are just full of surprises. But I suspect that if they can sense our departure, they won't know exactly what to make of it. I think it would appear to them as if we are using some sort of unusual sensory array to look around." He let his eyebrows rise pointedly. "Something they did not demand that we not do. And if they ask us, I don't have to tell them anything."

Chi Baradee smiled. "I sensed an implicit requirement in the Ardvoon's demand that we remain here, that we trespass no further within their domain."

"So did I. Still, I think if they sense us in my second presence, they won't know exactly what to make of it."

"I can negate any ability to sense your travels by the Ardvoon via your second presence," Minerva told them then. "They would sense you in that mode, but could only suspect what you were doing. It seems best to not even allow them that suspicion."

"I like thus guy a lot," Browbeat said happily. "I'll bet he's a riot at parties!"

Charlie turned his head to smile at the little flyer. "Takes one to know one, I always say."

Browbeat let out a fiercely happy laugh. "You're just saying that because it's true!"

"Your humor pervades even the most dire of circumstances," Chi Baradee noted again. "I am beginning to suspect that it has a lot to do with the success of your plans."

"It does," Rick agreed. "It's hard to be totally serious in the galaxy we're living in these days!"

Charlie motioned towards the others. "So...gather around, folks, and let's go see if we can find the Kawisp."

They left Investigator in Charlie's second presence, and moved swiftly downward towards the world below. It seemed obvious that the Ardvoon did not detect their departure. Minverva was as good as her...or his, word.

Charlie sighed inwardly, finding the whole problem of gender semantics annoying here. Minerva was neither male nor female, so why was the issue of what term to use when referring to the hernacki troubling him so? The English language didn't really allow for such gender neutrality when referring to living beings other than the term it, and Charlie found that a wholly inappropriate term to use for a friend. It might work for a bacterium, but not for people.

Well, Horace had named their new friend based on his perception of Minerva as a female. Why not just go with that, and forget about the neatness of the term?

"I think we need to just refer to Minerva as a she for now," he told the others in mind. "I'm finding the whole matter of gender pointless here."

Horace chuckled at that. "Minerva still reminds me of my Aunt Gretchen's best friend. She was strong and direct, too."

Everyone else quickly agreed. "Won't be hard," Robin said. "Much better than it, don't you think?"

Browbeat tittered softly. "I'm a he, but my body is a machine. If anything, it's more an it than Minerva is!"

"You're definitely a male," Kippy said, and Charlie sensed his boyfriend waving a mental hand at the flyer. "Your sense of humor, especially!"

"I try," Browbeat said, with mock intensity. "You're all guys, and I want to fit in!"

That there was humor in that very statement somewhere made Charlie smile to himself.

"I beg your pardon," Amy said then, sounding mildly insulted. "I am not one of the guys!"

"I must agree," Chi Baradee added. "Are you overlooking something here, my small friend?"

Browbeat took a mental breath. "Oh, I didn't mean to! I just mean that Charlie and Kip and Adrian and Rick are the ones I hang out with the most. I didn't mean to overlook you two!"

Browbeat was quiet a moment, and then sighed. "You're pulling my feathers, aren't you?"

"This humor in moments of intensity is quite refreshing," Baradee said then. "I must remember that there are times when a serious mindset must be moderated by a little plain silliness."

"It does tend to mitigate the sense of danger, doesn't it?" Amy agreed. "Yes, sweetie," she said to Browbeat then. "We're just playing with you."

"I sense the Kawisp below us, over by that range of mountains," Baradee said then, changing the subject.

By now they were low enough to distinguish the various surface features. Charlie took aim at the mountain range in question, and headed them that way.

"Fifth-order beings lead a spare life," Rick noted, as they crossed a wide plain. "Any other inhabited world, this plain would be home to a huge city of some kind. These people seem not to build anything at all."

"Buildings stem from a need for protection," Robin mused. "From weather, other lifeforms - those sorts of things. If you don't need that protection, the formation of protective structures, and then their evolution into practical ones, may never occur."

"Masters of all they survey," Horace said softly. "I can see that, with these people."

"And little need for protection," Adrian observed. "Have you seen any other life here? Grazing herds, or predators slipping silently through the woods?"

"Um...maybe planets that birth fifth-order beings don't also always give rise to third-order beings?"

"What about Gretchen?" Horace asked. "And Pyewacket? Earth has both third- and fifth-order beings."

"It's still an idea worth considering," Kippy agreed. "Your average bison is definitely third-order material. A plain like this back home would be lousy with four-footed life of some sort."

"Maybe they exist elsewhere," Amy suggested. "Maybe the Ardvoon just corral them away from where they live themselves?"

"Something odd about all this," Rorna offered. "It feels like there should be other life here."

"Yes," Baradee agreed. "Plant life and animal life are usually intertwined. There are dependencies in every ecosystem. This planet is covered with forests. I find it hard to believe there are no animals, as well."

"I agree with Rorna," the elf replied. "It feels like there should be animals here. But I can't feel them anywhere about. And yet..."

"I sense traces of other life. Once here, but gone now. Our kind of life, too. Third-order, I mean."

"Like I said, maybe the Ardvoon simply corralled them elsewhere," Amy offered. "People like this, with their abilities...they could probably have easily moved the animals to another continent."

"Why?" Kippy asked. "I can't see a bunch of animals roving about bothering the Ardvoon. Why would the want to move them anywhere?"

"The Ardvoon are not prolific," Minerva said then. "And at some point they seem to have removed a fair part of their population to other worlds.The ones that remain have confined themselves to this one continent. I do sense third-order lifeforms elsewhere on this world."

"A purge," Charlie answered. "One that took place in the past. The dominant majority here rid themselves of all those that thought differently."

"I see this now on their timeline," Minerva put in. "The culling you mention has vastly damaged the originality of thought among those that remain. Individuality - diversity - is a necessary ingredient in any thriving culture. That seems to have failed here."

"I said as much earlier," Minerva reminded, with a hint of humor in her voice.

History's favorite thief laughed. "It's easy to be damn near perfect and claim you aren't perfect. It's a lot harder to be imperfect, and claim you are perfect."

"The Ardvoon haven't claimed to be perfect," Amy reminded. "In fact, it's kind of obvious they aren't." She made a tiny, uncertain noise. "I feel sorry for them, somehow. And I don't even know why."

"We can't consider their problems just yet," Charlie decided. "The problem of the Kawisp must be settled first."

They moved on across the empty plain, until the mountains were before them, covered with forest. At the edge of the woods they found a bright, glowing circle of light - a dome, really - and within that enclosure they could spy the unique forms of the fourth-order aliens that had been described to them. The Kawisp were crammed together, and Charlie could sense the intensity of their interaction, even from a distance. The alien's amazing structures glowed with sparkles of light that transferred to others around them, and illuminated the gases and charges within their columns.

"Pow wow of some sort," Robin offered, a little sourly. "And not a civil one, either. Looks like the prelude to a hanging."

Charlie remembered then that Robin had lived his long life through some lawless and troubling times. Their friend had seen a lot of history, some of it not good at all.

"I don't think they're in a position to do much of anything," Horace mused. "They do look desperate, though, don't they?"

"They're trapped, and they know it," Rorna said. "And we know from prior experience that they can sense our kind form a distance. They must know we are here to get them."

"And the Ardvoon are not helping them," Baradee added. "They know they're prisoners here."

"They cannot," Minerva told them. "They lack the sensitivity of their fifth-order cousins."

"One point in our favor," Kippy said. "We can get right up to them and listen to what they're doing."

"Minerva can do it for us," his boyfriend returned. "The Kawisp use radio to talk to each other, right? I'll just bet that Minerva can tune right in."

"I can," the hernacki agreed. "I will need to use the translation information that Chi Baradee knows, however."

"Not even a great talent," she responded quietly. "I have a natural ability to retain foreign languages. I have studied the Kawisp tongue for a long time now."

Charlie could see where that did apply here. The unrelenting hostility the Kawisp seemed to display when it came to the Loturi was not to be ignored. People that hated on that level could do great damage, if not handled carefully.

They reached the dome and settled to the ground outside of it. The Kawisp paid no attention to them. "Ready when you are," Charlie told Minerva.

There was a brief pause, and then they heard voices. They were thin and hard, and sounded angry.

"Easily said, harder to do," said another. "These fifth-order beings are beyond our capabilities to circumvent."

"We must get to the Abask," another voice put in."We must tell them what we know."

"Whatever. We must ensure that the Loturi are not successful in this most recent plot of theirs. Each success on their part further hinders our cause."

"Numbers do not always provide the answer," the first voice returned. "This situation is unique to our experience. Nothing at all comes to my mind on how to deal with it."

"There must be a solution!" This was followed by a violent electrical discharge from one of the Kawisp, but which crashed harmlessly against the inner wall of the dome.

"They can kill with one of those blasts," Rorna said, sounding alarmed. "It's what makes dealing with these creatures in person so dangerous. Baradee? Can you work your talent on these miscreants and delete the digital information they carry?"

"I can't reach them," his companion said then, sounding unhappy. "My talent for randomizing digital information seems not to work from within your second presence, Captain Boone. I must be here physically, it seems."

"Well, we can't do that, at least not now," Charlie returned. "Minerva? Any way you can assist Baradee with her talent?"

"I can open a pathway for her talent directly into the dome," The hernacki replied. "But in so doing, the Ardvoon will become aware that something has changed with their containment vessel for the Kawisp. They will come to investigate."

"The Ardvoon build of their own selves, Charlie. The defensive sphere they erected around their world is the product of their own energies. It is a part of them. So, too, is this dome. They will feel any manipulation of its substance, and I cannot shield against that."

"No. But they will come, anyway, to see what the Kawisp may be trying to do to the dome."

"It is done." Charlie could sense the sudden change in the dome then, as if a doorway had been opened in its side.

Charlie felt a surge of power then, one that coursed away from his second presence, and into the dome.

"Done, done, and...done." The Loturi's thoughts carried a note of satisfaction then. "The data has been randomized beyond any recovery. Our people are safe now!"

"They come," Minerva warned them then, sounding almost serene at the prospect. "The Ardvoon."

"Then all they'll have is a mystery," Charlie returned. "I'm taking us back to the ship. We've accomplished what we set out to do."

"Will the Kawisp know that their prize has been randomized?" Browbeat asked curiously.

The hernacki made a sound very much like amusement. "Very shortly, yes. They have been checking what they carry within themselves regularly. I timed the incursion to take place directly after their last check."

Charlie snorted, but happily. "This will be the first time we've had both fourth-order and fifth-order entities mad at us."

"It feels good," Rick answered, with a hefty helping of humor. "Darn energy people can be a pain in the butt!"

"I am not offended, as I happen to agree with you that both of these species have the capability to be troublesome when there is no reason needed for it." Minerva sounded almost annoyed. "These Kawisp, especially, wield their darker thoughts quite liberally. I consider them dangerous to more rational beings."

Since they had already covered the interval between the ship and the dome holding the Kawisp, Charlie was able to take them back to Investigator instantly. They sat in their seats, and watched the ring of sparkling globes that surrounded them. It appeared that none of these Ardvoon had left their posts. The ones heading to investigate the dome must be some others.

He sighed, almost tired of this entire bizarre situation. "And now, I guess we wait for what happens next!"

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Charlie Boone

by Geron Kees

Life Is Like A New Suit of Clothes, Charlie Boone! - Chapter 10