Xato received the same regimen of medication and sessions with the mind oracle as the other pilots and he seemed his old self afterwards. Had the machine not been destroyed, the lead mind oracle told us, the pilots' recoveries would have been a far more difficult task.

Tando explained it to me as we all walked in a Rothrock garden “The machine was never truly switched off, although the stage crew lead the management of The Golden Bat to believe that it was. The machine sent waves into any humanoid within 25 miles, but it was only really maddening to those who had come to see the show to feel the full effect.”

“And that's how that same face appeared in everyone's heads,” I said. “although most of them didn't know it had happened at the time.”

“But you could see it then?” Tsang asked me, his green face alight with interest.

I shrugged “They tell me it's my brain, it works differently. The mind oracle told me that I'm harder to put into a trance for that reason, less suggestible.”

Tando gave a laugh “That might explain why you're so stubborn about some things!”

I blushed “You know I'm still adjusting. You can't expect me to absorb it all in a couple of months.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Tando sat down at a bench at a bend in the path between some massive shagged palm trees. He pulled a small envelope from his belt and took out a piece of blue paper. “The leadership of Selenium have sent a request to meet you.”

“Me?”

Tando nodded “You're quite an important person, you know. Not to mention they've heard about some of your exploits in the field.”

I shrugged “I figured there wasn't much else I could have done.”

“Say!” Tsang jumped between us. “I can come too, right? We're all going, right?”

Xato pulled Tsang back by his ear “The rocket is going and we go with the rocket.”

I looked around at the garden and the incredible crystalline city growing up all around us and I sighed “I really hoped to be able to spend some time around Rothrock before we went out again.”

“It will still be here when we return,” Tando assured me. “It's been standing for over 10,000 years, after all!”

“I know, still, it seems too soon to me.”

“Cylas,” Tando took on a paternal tone. “You know there are things we must sometimes do that we don't want to.”

Of course I had to obey him. Tando was not only my superior officer, he was also my guardian or “Gnaro”. It was a position not unlike a foster parent, a guardian for those who needed one but did not have a natural one. In Selenium society it was not unusual for an adult to have such a guardian, and among fighting men it was a universal fact of life. Since I was still very much the wide-eyed child in a future world, I very much needed Tando and his guidance.

Our ship blasted off from the roof of the tower where we'd docked and soon were up out of the crater that housed Rothrock. Tando turned the nose upwards and soon we shot up through the atmosphere.

Indicators on the controls began to buzz, letting us know that the ships of the enemy had taken notice of us. The Satellite Lords kept their top-like bases on the alert for any and all space launches, trying to blockade the planet. They meant to seal us all in and claim us as subjects for their empire, but of course we were prepared for them. Even as the ships came into view we pelted them with volleys of raygun fire.

Only six or seven enemy ships broke through the clouds at first, since we were only one ship. Every man took hold of his weapon and directed the concentrated discharge towards the spurting lengths of the enemy ships!

First two then three of the enemy burst into a jetting white streams of burning destruction, and the remaining vessels had to fight now simply to keep up with us.

Tando kept a firm grip on the glossy iron level that work the engines to acceleration. The fury neared climax as each man aimed his ejaculating weapon at the unprepared steel of the enemy. A groan filled the hull as the machinery's excitement peaked and we quit the scene in a great haste, leaving only the blinding silver cloud behind to show we'd been there.

We broke from the clouds and into the eternal night above, dodging long range emissions from the bulbous heads of the distant satellites.

Soon the Earth was no more than a glowing blue crescent beneath us and our small craft seemed to shrink in the chill vastness of the cosmos.

I looked down with the telivisor and thought for a moment how small and peaceful our embattled globe appeared from this distance. A moment was all I had though...

Tando activated the first wave of anti-gravity, breaking the Earth's hold on us. The effect was incredible! Suddenly the Earth appeared to dash off to one side, and other planets and pieces of space-rock whirled around us. ]

The second wave broke us free of the gravity of our sun, which seemed to pull us rapidly away from the solar system itself, the whole spinning thing rushing away from us, only the rings of Saturn standing out from the rushing blur, leaving just a shrinking star.

The final wave broke our connection to the gravitational pull of the center of the Milky Way, and when Tando pulled that the starts around us began to whirl like thousands of sparks!

Our ship had broken free from the forces that slow travel through the heavens to a crawl, leaving us stationary in the rapid spin of the galaxy. To still further expedite our journey, Tando employed the thrusters and sped us off in the direction of Selenium.

“I can hardly believe my eyes,” I told Tando. “the thought that we could so simply pluck ourselves out of the flow of stars.”

“It's easy for us now,” Tando said. “It took many generations long years of trial and error to get us to this point. It was long ago, but it was quite a struggle for some. Men lost their lives in bold experiments before anti-gravity was perfected.”

Xato left his seat and crossed to one of the foot-lockers, adding “The ancients nearly had it, but then, they didn't really needed it. Did I forget to bring that syrup?”

“Living as long as they did,” I mused, “It's a wonder they didn't go a little crazy on long flights like this.”

Tsang jumped from his seat and crawled over Xato, calling back “What makes you think they didn't?”

“This is more than I'd ever dreamed. Why, in my day just flying though the air would have been a miracle, but this is so much more.”

Tando smiled and indicated the control panel “You can see here how three waves of anti-gravity are in use from the gravitational control. We can also employ extra waves if we should need to counter obstacles, such as other ships traveling the way we are now. If we went with a fleet of ships we could also fix ourselves too them in a gravity chain and stay together.”

As we flew, Tando showed me a little bit more of the practical workings of the long-distance space-flight controls. The theory about how it all worked was still a little bit beyond me, all this mechanical stuff almost looked like magic to me anyway.

We began to slow when we reached the solar system of Selenium barely three days later. As we moved in towards the planet I couldn't help but take notice of how seemingly crowded the space was in the area. Rockets flew in all directions, often in orderly rows, and huge objects passively orbited the star, things that were many times the size of our ship and were shaped like giant tacks.

On our descent to Selenium I could see, even from the great height, that much of the world's surface was cultivated, organized into enormous cities and parks. On our way down we passed lazily floating airships and far below were slow yet beautifully decorated barges. I thought of illustrations I'd seen of Venice in books crossed with what I'd heard of places like New York or London.

When Tando announced us on the communicator, we were cleared for flight into the central palace. We came in to land not on a roof but inside a massive chamber full of rockets and airships of all sizes. The chamber was not walled, but supported by many hundreds of columns like the opulent halls of Istanbul.

A car came to meet us and we rode in the rest of the way to the elevators.

I must confess that the experience overwhelmed me and I went forward through the day like one in a trance.

The décor and conveniences in the palace were like the finest saloons, hotels, or showboats I'd ever seen or heard of, multiplied to an exaggerated level. My friends had to take me by the hand many times to stop me staring at huge features and small details that caught my attention.

In the upper offices I was seated with the others and officials came and sat with me and introduced themselves. I couldn't tell you now who they all were, and although I'd never heard of most of them I was a bit star-struck, like a commoner meeting the queen of England. It was a small consolation that a few of them were just as starstruck to meet me.

This day was something out of Arabian Nights to me, an unreal dream, and yet it couldn't compare with what happened next.