“Then she’s a cyborg too,” said the one in red, “and going in there recklessly won’t help her.”

“What?” asked Cliff. “You want me to give up on my sister?”

“I didn’t say that,” answered the one in red. “I mean, she may be beyond help – but then again, she may not be. I really don’t know – but if there is something you can do for her, marching into the hornet’s nest with no plan at all certainly isn’t it.”

“Okay then,” asked Cliff, “will you help me get her out?”

“If you come up with a good plan,” said the one in red. “I’ll do what I can – but even with my help, you’ll need a plan.”

“Agreed,” said Cliff.

“One more thing,” added the one in red. “Even if we can physically remove your sister from the Cyborg King’s camp, that doesn’t mean she’s out of his clutches. There’s no way to know what affect her physical removal will have on her.”

“We don’t know,” admitted Cliff, “but I have a friend who might.”

* * *

On an elevated cushion in the bridge of his saucer ship, Edmund lay curled up, asleep. Any moment, Cliff would call him and need his help, or an automatic alarm would sound indicating that Cliff was likely in a kind of distress that prevented him from calling – and without a doubt, in either case, he would need all his energy so as to give the situation the attention that it deserved. Until that time, however, there was absolutely nothing that Edmund was able to do to help. For this reason, it was absolutely imperative, his sacred duty, that in that vacant time he take a nap to refresh himself.

His nap was interrupted by a three-tone alert. The sound itself would not have roused him, except for the fact that he recognized the alert and knew what it signified. It was programmed in as the signal that would let him know if the com-link was activated while he was away from the console – that is, if Cliff was trying to reach him.

Edmund woke and stretched. As he did so, he could hear Cliff’s voice coming from the console. “Are you there, Edmund?” Cliff was calling.

Edmund took a deep yawn. The sound produced by the yawn would be too high-pitched for it to be detected by human ears had there been any present in the room, but it was nonetheless invigorating to him, having just woken up. He then leaped off the cushion onto the floor in front of the console and stood up. “Yes, I am, Cliff,” he replied. “Am I right in presuming you were able to get away safely?”

“I was,” answered Cliff, “but it’s pretty bad. I saw Jennifer.”

“Is she alright?” asked the cat.

“No,” explained Cliff. “She’s gotten sucked into some weird cult – and it gets worse. The dude who got me out of there says they’re all cyborgs.”

“I regret to say,” replied Edmund, “that there is probably, at the very least, some truth to this fellow’s assessment. The first image you sent me appears to be an inscription in Palaron, a language that nobody has seen in use since the last visit to planet Leraxi – which was approximately ninety years ago.”

“Did Leraxi have lots of cyborgs?” asked Cliff.

“No, it didn’t,” answered Edmund, “as a matter of fact, there was not known to be a single cyborg on the planet – but that was ninety years ago, and the planet’s experimentation in the field of cybernetics had already begun to go in some dangerous directions. In the time since then, it is entirely possible for them to have developed into a complete cyborg society. And if they are in fact responsible for the inscription you found, that would indicate that they have also become a spacefaring society.”

“But it could have been put there by someone else,” suggested Cliff, “like the Palaron people.”

“No,” chuckled Edmund. “Palaras is merely a small region on Leraxi that just so happens to be the birthplace of the planet’s lingua franca. The only possibility of the inscription not being of Leraxian origin is if someone else, for whatever reason, has decided to resurrect the language from its state of disuse.”

“Not something we can count on,” admitted Cliff.

“Indeed not,” agreed Edmund.

“Anyway,” said Cliff, “I had help getting out – and the same guy who helped me might be able to help us get Jennifer out if we can come up with a good enough plan. Is there a way I could introduce you to him?”

Edmund thought for a moment. Bringing someone to the base until he had personally verified that it was someone he could trust was out of the question. After nightfall, it would be possible to inconspicuously launch the saucer vessel from the base – but landing it in the forest for a rendezvous without attracting unwanted attention would not be so simple. Cliff’s vehicle was not yet equipped to rendezvous with the saucer in its airborne state. Eventually it would be, but in its current state of development, it was little more than a motorcycle.

Furthermore, Cliff would be bringing someone else along, and Edmund had no way of knowing that this mysterious ally would be able to rendezvous with the saucer ship while it was in the air. He dreaded what he must do – but he knew that he had no alternatives. “We will rendezvous in twenty minutes,” he announced. “I will see to it that the helmet knows the location so that you can find me. Bring your friend along.”

* * *