Preview of Book Two

                 “Tell me again why I’m doing this.” Marley Skeets said aloud to his companion.  The second seat of the small shuttle was occupied by Garid, the native of Ularus that had met him at the wrecked Monitor Station on Garid’s home world of Ularus.  No, that’s not right.  The bird-thingy is intelligent too, so that makes two of them, Marley thought to himself. 

             “Because I asked politely.”  Garid answered back, as he stared out into the void of space.

             That wasn’t exactly how Marley remembered it.  Garid had told him about the kidnapping of Mason Hawks, or at least as much as Garid had surmised.  Apparently the Monitor Station had been attacked for a specific reason, and its Repair Beacon had been deactivated.  If Garid had not reactivated that signal, no one would have ever known anything was wrong at this particular Station for another two standard Earth years.  So the real question was; how did a primitive Ularian know how to find the Repair Beacon, turn it back on, and learn how to speak Standard? Not only that, Garid seemed to know enough about interstellar law to convince Marley to take him back to the nearest Orbital Station to file a report.  This Garid was a loin-cloth wearing mystery.

             “Yeah, well...” Marley answered “you better be able to talk as polite to my Superiors, ‘cause my butt’s in the proverbial sling if you can’t.”

             “Do not trouble yourself. All will be well.” was Garid’s only reply.

             “We’ve got a few hours before reaching the Vaur Station.  Don’t touch anything.  I’m gonna grab some sleep.”

             The door hissed gently closed between the cockpit and the living quarters of the tiny shuttle, isolating Garid and Aliat for the seventh time in as many days.  There was barely a minute between the door closing and the muted beep that sounded from Garid’s belt pouch.  After checking to make sure the noise hadn’t brought Marley Skeets back to the cockpit, Garid pulled the wrist comm out from where he had stashed it.

             “Doctor Kirks,” Garid said in a whisper.  At the sound of his voice a tiny figure of Doctor Jacob Kirks appeared above the faceplate of the wrist-comm.  Garid wasn’t sure he understood what Doctor Kirks really was, so he considered him Mason’s Scout Brother. “Have you found a way for me to locate Mason in all of this…this…emptiness?”

             “I am working on the problem, Garid.  Granted I am working at only sixty percent capacity, which was all of me that I managed to download to your wrist-comm.  If we get close, I can detect the other forty percent of me and lead you in.  We have to be within twenty clicks for that, and the odds of us stumbling into that range by accident, after all this time is…astronomical.  Maybe I will have something by the time we reach Vaur.” The image of Doctor Kirks replied.

             “How should I proceed, when we arrive?” Garid asked.

             “Mr. Skeets will take you to one of his Superiors.  Tell them your story, and be sure to mention Mason by his name and rank.  The file will probably throw up a red flag for them, since Mason is considered deceased, and then they will want to know how someone on a planet that Mason never visited has all of this information about him.  That should at least stir the pot a little, so to speak.”

             “And then?”

             “That’s all I have at the moment, Garid.  Maybe we’ll get lucky and somebody that can help will take notice.” 

             “What can I do until then?” Garid asked.

             “Just sit and wait, my friend. Just sit and wait.” Answered Doctor Kirks as his image faded.

             Garid returned the wrist comm to his pouch, and resumed staring out at the vast emptiness around him.  He had been in space before, when he helped the zaneth, Mason Hawks, to kill the Master Kanri, but that had been the very edge of space.  They had been traveling through the blackness for a very long time now.  How did one find anything that was lost out here?  How did one find one’s destination in all this black?  Once again, he wondered if the task the Father of All had set him was too great.  On his own world he was in control, but out here Garid was lost.  He closed his eyes and bowed his head in a silent prayer to the Father, for help in his quest.