Bonz paused for a moment and thought about this. Then he said suddenly: "You should marry her, you know…"
Hunter stopped what he was doing. "Marry? Marry who?"
"Xara, of course."
Hunter tried to stay cool; he stuffed another small apple into his pocket. "Why would you say that?"
Bonz shrugged. "Hey — I'm a spook. It's my job — or it used to be, anyway — to be able to read people in a half a second."
"SF3 is turning out love connectors these days?"
"I don't have to be a wizard to know you're crazy about her, and she's crazy about you," Bonz said.
"Whether I've been here ten years or ten minutes, it's rather obvious."
"So?"
"So, when all of this is over, back on the other side or wherever the hell the real world is, I suggest you marry her."
Hunter thought a moment. "But if I did that, that might make me Emperor someday."
Bonz suddenly shook Hunter's hand.
"Well, Major," he said, "I never thought I'd say this, but if there was one person I would choose to be top man in the Empire — in the entire Galaxy — that guy is you."
Hunter just laughed again, picked one last apple, and stuffed it into his pocket.
"Good luck, Gym," he said. "And enjoy your eternal reward."
8
It took what seemed like a very long while for the UPF troopers to complete the relocation of the Vanex Door.
Taking it apart, piece by piece, and carrying the sections to the other end of the small valley went smoothly enough. But when it came time to put the last half of the portal back together, strange things began to happen.
Soon after the main frame had been put up, a twilight came, one that lasted longer than anyone could remember. No moons appeared in the sky this time; nor were there any great washes of stars over ahead, at least not over Happy Valley.
The lack of starlight hampered the final phase of the repositioning. There was no artificial illumination in Happy Valley; there was never a need for any. When it became apparent that the dusk was going to last longer than usual, the UPF engineers tried to switch on the search and landing lights attached to the bottom of each ship, including Resonance 133. But none of these lamps would work. The power inside the ships was already very low; trying the lights only further drained the limited supply. Then someone suggested they try making a fire and then lighting torches. But no one could produce as much as a spark.
There was no fire in Paradise, because there was never any need for it.
So the last part of the rebuilding project was done in the low light of the strange twilight, which made it all that much more difficult. But somehow the troopers prevailed. It was only as they were tightening up the last truss that the twilight finally ended. The sun rose; the dusk went away.
The Vanex Door, powered by the tiny cell included in the Echo 999.9, came to life a short while later.
There was never any doubt who would be going aboard the Resonance 133 for this first attempt to break back through to the other side.
As the most seasoned pilots, Zarex and Calandrx would handle the flying. Tomm, Gordon, and Klaaz would lord over the primary controls. Erx and Berx would be back in the engine room, watching over the ship's dual-power system.
Why two power systems? It was the only solution to yet another complication. The Resonance 133 was an Empire ship. It was powered by a prop core. But the juice it needed to draw from the Big Generator was nonexistent here; Supertime did not extend to Paradise. So taking a page from Bonz's experience on his ill-fated ship, the TxroVox, the Resonance 133 now had both an ion-ballast engine — actually a spare taken from one of the original UPF ships — as well as its own prop core. It was hoped if enough power could be diverted to the ion-ballast engine, it would give the ship the boost needed to penetrate the Vanex Door and to get through the twenty-sixth dimension.
Once on the other side, the prop core would be kicked in.
If the ship made it that far.
The bare-bones crew of the Resonance 133 had prepared for their flight up on High Hill. A bridge connecting the peak and the access door to the ship had been constructed with materials left over from moving the Vanex Door. This way the crew could walk right across to the main hatchway to the waiting vessel.
The crew would have to wear their spacesuits, for they had no idea what was going to happen once they entered the Vanex Door. A short trip through the twenty-sixth dimension certainly, lasting just a microsecond in real time but seeming like an eternity for those going through it. This was how it had been on the trip that brought them here. But whether the Resonance could take the strain of all this transdimensional flip-flopping was a big unknown. There was a good chance the ship might break up upon reaching Zero Point on the other side. Spacesuits would give the crew about thirty seconds to say their last good-byes — and then, theoretically at least, head back to Heaven by more traditional means.
Another twilight came and went. The plan called for the Resonance 133 to leave during a daylight period, so the final preparations hurriedly began. Helping to attend to some of the last details, Hunter was up on High Hill with the crew. That's when Tomm approached him and pulled him aside.
The two men knew each other very well. Hunter had met Tomm when the space monk was serving as a tagalong chaplain for the Freedom Brigade, the small band of American mercenaries who eventually led Hunter to find Planet America. Tomm had stuck by him in the worst days of the war to free the Home Planets and during the UPF invasion of the Two Arm. Next to Erx and Berx, the priest was probably Hunter's closest friend.
But Tomm was not a man without secrets. And one was known to very few people in the Galaxy; in fact, it was one of the deepest secrets in the history of all humankind.
Once they were a good distance away from the others, Tomm said to him, "We all realize that getting back to the other side will be an enormous undertaking and might not even happen at all. I also realize that as you will be going back a different way, we might not have a chance to speak again, ever."
He took something out of his pocket but kept it hidden tightly in his fist.
"I think I know where we can find an ally for our cause," Tomm went on, choosing his words carefully. "A very powerful ally. Someone who might not need much convincing to join… our fight. But I am reluctant to talk about him here… for obvious reasons."
Hunter nodded. He fully understood.
"Finding him, though, is a mission that only you can see through," the priest went on. He finally passed the object in his hand to Hunter. It was a viz-screen capsule, a sort of compact image projection device used by soldiers in forward battle areas to receive orders from their superiors without jeopardizing string communications.
"I made this a very long time ago," Tomm told Hunter. "Right after we first met, in fact. I had hoped that I would never have to give it to you. I hoped things would never get so bad. But now, under the circumstances, I believe it is the right thing to do. The message it contains is in two parts. Open it when you get back. It will give you all the specifics you will need. We will all have a role to play when we reach the other side. I think this is the avenue you should pursue. And I think that is all we should say about it here."
At that moment, the Resonance technicians passed the word that it was time to go. Tomm shook Hunter's hand and turned to join the others walking across the bridge. But Hunter stopped him. He looked at the viz-screen capsule. "But Father, even if I do what it says in here, what are the chances of me actually succeeding?"