As usual, Calandrx was all smiles.
“I got a message from a mutual friend,” he said mysteriously. “Said I could be of some help to you — but I think she had something else in mind as well. I think she knew I would like to see you before you left. I know well the anticipation of getting one’s first assignment.”
Hunter poured them some slow-ship wine, and they walked out to the balcony. The sky was absolutely filled with colorful StarScrapers now.
“Beautiful as always,” Calandrx said, gazing at the display. “But in the end these StarScrapers are just playthings of the rich. Just like the Earth Race, something to keep the Specials and the Very Fortunates happy while people like you are out there among the stars doing what’s really important.”
They did a quick toast and sipped their wine.
“You’ve been given quite a ship, I hear,” Calandrx said.
“It’s a J-Class,” Hunter told him. “The AeroVox…”
“Yes, highly regarded,” Calandrx said. “It is not only a fast ship, it also is said to be endowed with tremendous good luck.”
Hunter drank his wine a little quicker. “It better be,” he said.
“Ten thousand special ops troops,” Calandrx went on. “Plus educators, scholars, diplomats. Medical people. You will be carrying both power and knowledge — those two things combined can outdo any warship in the Space Forces or the Solar Guards any day.”
Hunter drank his wine. “I hope you’re right,” he said.
They were quiet for a while.
Then Hunter asked: “How many are there? Planets, I mean?”
Calandrx thought for a moment.
“I don’t think anyone really knows,” he mused. “Hundreds of billions, certainly. Maybe even trillions. The number is changing all the time. They say that on average a planet is destroyed by some catastrophic event every hour of every day. Star collisions, collisions with asteroids, volcano orgies. Luckily most of them are known about way in advance, so evacuations can be undertaken.”
He slurped his drink.
“But beyond that, there still are many planets out there that are uncharted, unknown, forgotten since the fall of the last Empire. Indeed, it’s a major undertaking by this one to recount them all — and then reclaim them all. Like it or not, that’s what you’ll be doing out there.”
He thought a moment.
“The last Dark Age was relatively brief. Only two hundred years or so. The Specials have been reclaiming everything for the past six hundred years, the fastest rate of recovery ever.”
He looked back up at the sky. “But I’m sure a few billion planets up there are still lost in the shuffle.”
He swept his arm across the sky, indicating the thousands of Empire ships hovering near Big Bright City in all directions.
“And that’s what this is all about. Trying to build it all up once more — just so it can fall again.”
The sky began turning vivid orange, then red, then yellow. Thousands of beams of fantastically bright light were shooting up from the city now, aimed at the infinity of the gathering night sky.
They could hear cheering coming from below.
“The Empire is reclaiming what they think belongs to them,” Calandrx said. “Though I’m not so sure all of its subjects — on all those planets — quite agree. But the Empire is an unstoppable force. At least today it is.”
Calandrx took another sip of wine.
“But politics aside, there is untold wonder out there,” he said. “The things I’ve seen. The things you’re about to see…”
“But if it’s so grand,” Hunter asked, “why have three fallen before it?”
“Like everyone else, I can only hazard a guess,” Calandrx replied. “That said, I believe I know what happened to the Second Empire — and probably the Third as well. They grew too big too fast, and events simply overtook them. Vast empires run mostly on luck and the weather anyway; each one reaches a point where inevitably things get shaken up, usually about two hundred years in. That’s what fascinates me. At the moment, the Fourth Empire is nearing its six hundredth year of growth. That tells me one thing: When the time comes for it to crash, it is going to be a hell of a noise.”
They refilled their wine goblets.
“I almost forgot,” Calandrx said. “I have a present for you.”
He reached into his pocket, came out with a small box, and handed it to him. Hunter recognized it right away. It was a twenty-and-six capsule.
“My flying machine?” he asked the elderly pilot.
“I thought you might want to take it along with you,” Calandrx nodded. “It probably will come in handy out there.”
Hunter examined the capsule. Even now, after everything he’d gone through, he was still amazed by the technology behind hiding things in the twenty-sixth dimension.
“Can anything be put in a twenty and six?” he asked.
“Well, just about anything,” Calandrx replied. “I mean, not a whole Starcrasher — there is a limit. In fact, I heard once that one of the reasons why Starcrashers are built so big is so they can’t be smuggled around in a twenty and six. Imagine the possibilities if they could!”
Hunter studied the capsule. “Interesting…” he murmured.
“And thanks. I appreciate it. When I left Fools 6 I never thought I’d see my machine again.”
Calandrx laughed. “My God — now it’s as famous as you,” he said, adding with a conspiratorial wink,
“And in my opinion it’s best that you keep secret what really drives the thing. I mean, someone could shove a truth stick in my navel and I still couldn’t explain why you’re able to go so damn fast in the thing.
But I think it’s safe to say that you tapped into something no one else had realized before — or maybe was too ignorant to exploit.”
“Even with a truth stick thus inserted, I couldn’t tell anyone either what the secret is,” Hunter confessed.
“I just hooked up those boxes I salvaged. It was a random event. I probably couldn’t do it the same way exactly again if I tried.”
Calandrx looked up at him. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, my friend, it’s that there’s no such thing in the universe as a truly ‘random event.’ Not in this universe, anyway.”
More wine was poured.
“Our mutual friend’s request notwithstanding, I actually came for another reason,” Calandrx revealed.
“More out of curiosity than anything else.”
“Details of the Earth Race?” Hunter asked.
“Do you mind telling me?”
“Not at all,” Hunter replied. “At least those I can remember.”
He went on to tell Calandrx of his bizarre encounters within the three blue screens, from the giant teeth of the first to the unexplainable events of the second to the absolute astonishment of the third.
Calandrx’s eyes seemed to go wider with every word.
“You saw the Blackship?” he asked incredulously. “And it was being followed by a round craft? That’s the most fantastic thing I’ve ever heard.”
“ ‘Followed’ or chased,” Hunter said. “Such an event is not typical of what a blue screen usually holds, I assume?”
Calandrx was almost too chilled to speak. “You assume right, my brother,” he said, rapidly gulping his wine now. “And I think it’s prudent that we hush about all this right now. This wonderful place you have here doesn’t comes with a hum beam, does it?”
Hunter shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said.
Calandrx put a finger to his own lips. “Then let’s talk more about this when we meet again. And I think it best you keep these visions to yourself. If they persist in your memory, that will mean something. If they fade, that will mean something else. Do you get my drift?”