The scientists of Earth strove long and hard to make interstellar flight a realistic proposition. The technology for the creation of the necessary ships was in place, but a faster than light propulsion system proved to be beyond their grasp. It was only when they turned their attention towards inner space, rather than outer space, that a solution presented itself. The activation of latent psychic powers brought knowledge of a realm where normal physical laws did not apply, a realm which allowed for the fantastic speeds necessary to make exploration of alien solar systems possible.

However, this hyper-space was not free from hazard, for within it surged enough psychic energy to rip ships apart and drive normal humans insane as a result of its onslaught. These problems, coupled with the fact that only psychics could open doorways into hyper-space, prompted the creation of an elite corps of psychically augmented humans, trained from an early age to manipulate the turbulent hyper-space and explore the galaxy through it. This is the story of two of those psi explorers.

*********************************************

She felt him approaching while he was still several hundred metres away. His mind flicked out to touch hers, sending erotic imagery into it; she smiled quietly to herself. Ever the brash, confident, outspoken one, he was a rogue, and broadcasted the fact. She sighed mentally at him, a dismissal of his childish prank, but put no force behind it. She blocked him out as he started to declare his undying love for her and continued with her visual inspection of the survey ship. It was not large when compared with the enormity of the vessel that contained it, and in fact the vast majority of it was given over to scanning equipment and sensors for the mapping of new star systems. It was not a graceful craft, nor was it luxurious within; there was no need for it to be either. The visual check was also redundant; the computer was `aware' of every part of the craft, would detect any problem far more accurately than any human eye could hope to. For Julia, the check was simply a way of focusing herself on the task ahead.

Paul Kinaston arrived in the bay a few minutes later and watched Julia as she looked over the hull of the three-storey tall craft. He mentally stripped her and sent her the resulting image; this time he received a hard mental slap for his efforts. He smiled ruefully and abandoned his play, speaking out loud now as he approached.

`I take it she's ready, Miss Thompson?' he said, voice thick with sarcasm.

She didn't turn as she replied. `Why even waste breath asking the question? You wouldn't be here if she weren't. Come on. It's time to leave.' She strode to the access ramp and entered the Hyperion, smiling at Paul's mental grimace. With him in tow, she moved forward to the control centre. The computer registered their entry and sealed the airlock.

`Good afternoon Miss Thompson. I trust everything meets with your approval,' intoned the computer as Julia settled herself in the padded seat. She glanced at the console screen above her.

`Naturally. You needn't be so modest. You, unlike some things, are reliable,' she replied, directing her last remark pointedly towards Paul as he assumed his position next to her. He gave a lopsided grin in acknowledgement and started accessing the ship's systems through the control surfaces under his hands. Julia, too, began preparing the ship for flight. When she was satisfied, she gave the command to open the bay doors. Warning klaxons sounded, but were unnecessary; anyone in the bay would have been detected and informed of the imminent launch. They were simply traditional, and part of the communication to the mothership as a whole that the Hyperion's exit was imminent.

Various mental emanations of good wishes flooded over the pair as the bay decompression continued. The jaws of the bay door separated ahead of them and the Hyperion used its electromagnetic field generators to repulse itself from the floor of the bay, and bursts from its manoeuvring thrusters took it gently out into the calm surrounding the ship, the artificial eye of the storm around it. The psychic shield surrounding the Odyssey was immense, and required dozens of highly rated psychics to maintain it against the pounding of hyper-space. The fantastic void beyond was not visible, and purposefully so; the shield was designed to be a mirror, in case any intelligent hostile force should enter the void and attempt to engage the immense ship-station that was the Odyssey; the shield made the base virtually invisible, although no human eye had actually registered the fact. The human eye, even with a trained mind behind it, could not hope to unravel the complexities of the void without suffering horrific damage.

The Hyperion's main engines came slowly to life, moving it clear of the bulk of the Odyssey which lay stretched out behind it. Julia watched the display of the cratered surface of the Odyssey, mingled with metallic outcroppings, receding as the survey ship accelerated away. The Odyssey had started life in orbit around Sol, a member of the asteroid belt with thousands of other such bodies, but mankind had chosen it as one of the first asteroids to be used as a base in hyper-space; and so it had been fashioned over many years into a carrier of mankind's psychic adept, a jumping off point for the exploration craft it housed. The converted asteroid was completely self-sufficient, as necessity dictated; constant supply trips would have been costly and risky affairs.

`Warning. Braking manoeuvres have begun. Fifteen minutes to shield interface. Commence preparations for departure of safe zone.' The computer was dispassionate, but the humans shared a mutual tingle of anticipation. The levity was gone from Paul's attitude. The task ahead was not to be undertaken lightly and required the upmost concentration from them both. Julia left to take her position in the core of the ship. There must not be any possibility of either member of the crew distracting the other, and the nature of Julia's responsibility necessitated her positioning. Paul's moment would come later, but for now it was she who lay down on a cushioned bed as she detached herself from the distractions of her body and focused her mind.

As the ship approached the boundary she gradually kindled her power within her, not yet releasing it. It continued to mount within her. The room surrounding her was complete night; her eyes could be open but they would register nothing to distract her, and she used other senses to see now. She could feel the nearness of the tempest beyond the shield, but it did not concern her. Still she gathered her strength, holding it finally at its peak. She felt the slightest of mental nudges from Paul and began to extend her power at his signal. The shield she created encompassed the ship. The work would have been easier with others to assist, but unless there was special cause, numbers were never used on these missions; psychics trained as she was were a rare commodity, and fewer still were strong enough or dedicated enough to do the job she did. There must always be reserves should the Odyssey need them to bolster its shield's strength.

The Hyperion met itself as its nose penetrated the reflective edge of the main shield; the front of its own shield bubble had passed through the barrier moments before. Julia's power held steady as her shield was exposed to the fury of hyper-space, and shortly her shield was all that prevented the ship from being torn apart. The ship was adrift in hyper-space; its momentum carried it forward, but this was not the normal space mimicked within the Odyssey's shield; traditional propulsion would not function in this realm. Navigation here required mental power; no amount of physical force would produce movement by itself. This lay within Paul's area of expertise; while Julia ensured the ship's safety, he worked to secure its passage into real space. Using brute mental force he tore a small hole open in the fabric of hyper-space and maintained it. This was a portal to normal space, and he willed its destination to be that which was desired; this was the particular talent of his type of psi, the ability to focus the exit of such a portal into a particular part of real space. He extended his mind, took his mind's eye through the portal, and felt for the correct destination until the stars and reference points aligned themselves with what he required them to be.

Satisfied, he moved his left index finger a fraction and sent a quiet signal to Julia; the computer responded to the former by opening a hatch and releasing a small sphere. Julia reacted by extending her shield and normality towards the portal, until the two met. Paul forced the gap wider as the sphere was moved along the small tunnel of normality into the portal, where it vanished. Having made the transition to real space, the probe confirmed its location and moved away from its egress point. As it did so it projected electromagnetic fields to create an area of entirely clear space ahead of the egress to allow the safe transition of its mothership into real space, and maintained its invisible barrier to prevent any particles from entering the arrival point. It signalled its readiness through the invisible but still open portal. The computer did not speak, but instead flashed the lights in both rooms to signal the commencement of the final stage.

Paul and Julia gathered themselves for the last effort. Paul exerted his will to force the portal larger still, and Julia extended her shield to meet that expansion. The Hyperion lay in a tunnel of normal space, the shield boundary at one end and the portal at the other. It proceeded to move slowly down the tunnel of normality and entered the portal, gradually bringing itself into existence in real space. Moments later the ship was completely through the portal. Julia retracted her shield, but only let it drop once Paul had signalled his closure of the portal. Julia relaxed her concentration and her shield dissipated immediately; it was of no use in real space, as the danger it protected against did not exist outside of hyper-space.

Their efforts had lasted no more than twenty minutes, and yet they were both drained to near mental exhaustion. When Julia arrived back at the control centre Paul was sitting quietly in his chair, checking the ship's status regardless of the computer's assurances, and drinking an energy replacement fluid. Despite his fatigue, he broadcast to her in a genuinely inquiring tone `How was it for you?' but accompanied it with an image of a couple who'd just finished making love.

Julia was too sapped to respond to his attempt at humour, and nothing more was said before they retired to their quarters to get the rest they so desperately needed following their ordeal.

In the two weeks that followed the Hyperion accelerated in towards the target system, passively scanning it and gathering data as it approached. It braked itself to a virtual crawl as it entered the outskirts of the system, allowing the gravity of its outer planets to reduce its speed still further. Julia watched the screens as the computer displayed its visuals of the planets they were passing. She soaked up the images in awe and wonder. Paul glanced over at her and smiled. She'd never lost her capacity to be stunned by the individual beauty of each new planet they encountered. Even barren rocks held a certain fascination for her. She was here for the exploration, he was here to do a job, to fill a void inside himself, to conquer the doubts about his capabilities that lingered beneath his confident exterior. She had always been more adept at the Academy, always the quicker, and he admired her for it, but it accentuated the fact that he hadn't been able to reach her standards, even after ten years. He became lost in thought as the ship plunged deeper into the system.

As the planets became warmer, turning from ice to gas, the computer found one which had life supporting capability, and turned its attention to it. However, it did not find life signs but instead detected six perfect spheres in geo-stationary orbits above the poles and around the equator of the planet. It called its crew to the control centre.

`Passive scans reveal no information beyond the positional and visual data noted. No indications of life exist on the planet which the spheres orbit. This would indicate that the objects were put in place by a race not indigenous to this system,' the computer reported, tonelessly. Paul could sense excitement positively emanating from the woman seated next to him. He frowned inwardly and outwardly, and felt her subdue herself in response.

`Sorry,' she muttered, then turned her attention to the computer. `Computer, what are our options from this point?'

`Three courses of action are suggested in mission guidelines. Priority is to be given to the completion of the mapping and analysis of the system. This would mean no additional investigation of the objects. The second option would be to return to the Odyssey in order to report our findings and allow for a decision at high level to be taken about how best to proceed. The last option would involve an active scan of the spheres to aid in information gathering. This option is not generally implemented because such scans are readily detectable by other technologically competent races. However, the absence of life signs and power sources in this system as a whole would permit the use of this option.'

Paul knew which option Julia would take, and had to admit a degree of curiosity himself. He felt Julia turn towards him and met her look. They exchanged thoughts in an instant, considering the avenues open to them, and came to a decision mutually, as was necessary. Julia gave the order. `Computer, move into a high orbit of the subject planet and commence an active scan of one sphere.'

`Does Mr. Kinaston concur?'

`Yes, computer. Carry out the command,' replied Paul. He glanced over at Julia. `Well, you always wanted to be the famous explorer. Here's your chance. Let's just hope we don't blow it, eh?' he said, turning back to monitor the course change before she could respond. She wondered why he was so abrupt; what had he been thinking about on the trip in, and why had it come to a head now?

It took the ship a week to halt its inward course and move into the requested orbit. It had monitored no change in the spheres using its passive scanners. When it had completed its final station-keeping manoeuvre it informed its small crew. The planet hung far below them as the Hyperion's active sensors initiated their sweep of the closest orb. Moments passed and nothing changed. The Hyperion hung in space. The spheres stayed where they were. Then five red beams appeared to link the Hyperion and the five globes in its sensor range together for a moment. An instant later the Hyperion's hull began to crumple where the beams struck it, and the ship was effectively impaled on the lances of energy. As abruptly as it came, the attack ceased, and the Hyperion started to tumble as glittering particles of frozen atmosphere spilled into space from the multiple hull breaches.

***************************************************

Julia felt her stomach turn as the artificial gravity failed. Sparks flew around her as power surged and systems blew. She called out for a status report and cursed when she received no reply. Then the screen above her blinked on and text appeared. Paul was out of his seat and pulling Julia with him before the computer completed the report. He didn't speak out loud; the air was thick with smoke which the life support system was struggling to cope with, but at least there was still air. `We've got to get to the lander. Fast. The reactor's going down, and when it's gone there'll be nothing to hold the ship together; the only thing keeping us together is the emergency shields. They wouldn't last long under perfect conditions. The lander's our only chance to get clear,' he transmitted grimly, not adding his own private thought `assuming it's still in one piece.' The couple pulled themselves along the corridor by the rungs there, to be used in such an emergency when gravity was lost.

Paul gasped when he saw the hole in the floor of the hangar. It was sealed by an emergency shield, but that was not what concerned him. The left wing of the lander also had a gaping hole in it as a result of the beam's passage. He dreaded to think what would happen if it had to go through re-entry in that condition. As things were, however, the use of the lander was their only escape option. Julia was already moving towards the lander in a slow drift, and he pushed off to follow her, cursing the loss of gravity. She stabbed in the access code for the hatch and swung herself inside, moving to the cockpit and commencing pre-flight checks. Paul joined her seconds later. He punched the com pad to speak to the computer. `Computer, de-pressurise hangar and open door.' He waited for a response. None came, audibly or otherwise. He swore under his breath and made for the exit.

What he meant to do was dangerous in the extreme given the condition of the ship, but he had no choice; it was more dangerous to remain. He moved to the side of the bay and punched in the sequence for the bay door release manually. The shield should remain in place while the door opened. He fought not to look down as the bay doors slid back beneath him, but could not help himself. Vertigo spilled over him as he watched the starfield spin as the ship tumbled; the planet rolled into view and then disappeared again. He was emulating the ship now; tumbling out of control. He felt something grip him, steady him, and realised that Julia was extending a telekenetic helping hand. Her mind reached out to him. `Get back here, NOW, the reactor's fluctuating. It'll go down any second.' He didn't need her to explain the consequences of the reactor failure. If it went down, the shield trapping the air in the bay would go down with it, and nothing Julia could do would allow him to breath in vacuum; even if she was able to hold onto him, he'd be a corpse before she managed to get him aboard. He forced himself under control and started the `swim' to the lander. The inner door of the airlock had just slid shut behind him when the craft lurched and then steadied itself. He reached the cockpit and found that the lander was free and clear of the crippled Hyperion.

He took the controls and looked at his partner. `Thank you. I needed that. I take it we got blown out of the bay with the atmosphere when the shield went down?' She nodded numbly, gesturing to the screen set into the forward panel of the cockpit. They watched in silence as the Hyperion broke apart and finally detonated soundlessly, sending fragments scattering outwards in all directions. Some approached the lander but bounced harmlessly off its deflector shields. The silence continued for a few moments, then Paul broke it. `Alright then. We get out of orbit and into the clear, then get back to the Odyssey. As soon as possible.' Julia's gaze remained fixed on the screen. He corrected the lander's trajectory and pointed its nose away from the planet. The ignition of the main engine brought with it five red beams, intersecting a point directly in the path of the ship. Paul cursed and stabbed a direction change into the computer. The beams came again, hitting a point a little closer to the ship. Paul shut down the engine. He looked at Julia. `Julia.' No response. This time he reached into her mind and spoke her name. Finally he gave her the kind of mental slap she'd given him in the bay of the Odyssey. That brought her out of her trance and he gave her his assessment of the situation, and his suggested course of action. She looked at him long and hard, then came to herself and nodded slowly.

************************************************

The lander threatened to shake itself apart as it encountered the first layers of the planet's atmosphere. The jagged hole in its left wing made it aerodynamically unsound and only the onboard computer's fly-by-wire capability was maintaining the vessel's level flight. Despite the best efforts of the computer the stress on the wing was far beyond its tolerance levels given its condition. Julia tried to reinforce it with her psi ability, but found it hard to concentrate as the craft jerked down through the atmosphere. Paul diverted power from the engine to bolster the shield patch covering the hole, but the drain on the craft's small reserves was considerable. Still it struggled valiantly downwards, its underside glowing as the air thickened around it and put up more resistance to its erratic descent.

The power reserves failed when the ship was still twelve kilometres above the ground and moving at more than three times the speed of sound. The shield failed and the flow of air over the wing became more disturbed. Moments later the ship rocked as the computer's control system reached its limits, and the turbulence distracted Julia for an instant, making her mental grip slip. One half of the wounded wing peeled itself off and span away into the lander's slipstream. Paul cursed once more as the lander tried to go into a roll, its right wing rising with nothing to counter its lift on the other side. However, Paul had prepared for this situation before taking the craft out of orbit. The spheres' action had convinced him that he could not leave orbit, and maintaining an orbit would have drained the lander's energy to nothing before a rescue ship arrived. Entering hyper-space was not a possibility; it was a slow process, and the spheres would undoubtedly have taken action to prevent any form of escape. So they found themselves forced to attempt a landing on the planet in their crippled craft, which was undoubtedly the purpose of the spheres' attack; had they intended to destroy them, they had had ample opportunity. No, the attacks were far too well conceived; at each stage there had remained a chance of survival, a path which they had been forced to follow. The signs indicated an intelligence at work, but at the moment Paul had other things to worry about.

He executed the command he'd held in readiness, and the port side landing thrusters fired, countering the roll produced by the right wing. He worked to get the remaining control surface of the left wing to produce some lift to ease the pressure on the thrusters. Although the instructions he'd implemented were sufficient to hold the ship steady, he was unwilling to leave the ship entirely to its own devices, and allowed himself only a quick glance to his right. Julia was resting in her seat; sweat beaded her brow from her exertions in holding the wing together. The telekenetic hold she'd had to maintain had drained her. She'd given them a fighting chance; the rest was up to Paul's skill as a pilot and luck. He had no time to doubt his abilities now. Here everything depended on him; he could not afford doubt.

The thrusters held together, but could do nothing to produce a reduction in speed or rate of descent. The projected area of impact was desert, but at the speed the ship was travelling the sand would still do serious damage to the hull. Paul was in his safety harness, as was Julia, as he prepared for one final manoeuvre. As the craft's altitude became critical, he fired the forward landing thrusters at maximum power, raising the nose of the crippled lander. At the same time he lowered the landing feet to increase drag and bleed off more speed. The sudden imbalance of thrust threatened to stand the ship on its left rear quarter, but Paul compensated rapidly and maintained the angle of attack he sought. Thirty seconds later the rear of the lander smashed into the top of a dune, ripping away the rear landing feet; somehow the craft took to the air again, its nose still raised, thrusters still operative. The impact shook their bodies to the core. A thin trickle of blood came from Julia's lip where she'd bitten into it. Paul tried to broadcast calm but gave up and set his mind to surviving. The rear of the lander smashed into the top of another huge dune and its momentum was immediately checked. It gouged an immense chunk out of the crest of the dune and the nose inevitably pitched forwards. The thrusters could not recover the situation and the next impact, although at a greatly reduced speed, buried the nose of the ship and half its length into the body of a dune. The rear half attempted to bring the nose up out of the sand by its sheer mass, but failed, and, as if in protest, tore itself free and embedded itself at the base of the dune. Paul and Julia were unaware of this, as indeed they had become unaware of everything.

**************************************************

Julia slowly returned to consciousness some time later. Her eyes focused on the ceiling above. She immediately realised she was no longer aboard the lander, nor was she outside it. The instruments poised above her were totally alien to her. She tried to tilt her head, to scan the room for any sign of Paul, but found she could not move. She was not restrained; her brain's commands simply seemed not to provoke a reaction in her body. As she came more to herself, she realised this also applied to her eyes; she could do nothing but stare straight up. Suddenly there was a sound from somewhere around her, and another from a different location. An instant later consciousness was ripped away from her.

When she came to her senses once more she was in a standing position. She felt rather than saw Paul beside her. What she did see ahead of her was a door, a foot taller than a human door would have been. She took that in, but her attention was fixed on the small black globe that hovered motionless in the air between her and the door. It was a half metre across, and completely smooth. The voice that came from it was natural yet hesitant; clearly the translation algorithm could not keep up with the input data, but despite that, the words, when they came, were understandable.

`You will be unable to ask any questions. No further information beyond that which you are to be given is necessary. Your old bodies are gone. Only your brains and spinal columns remain. They are maintained by the systems of your new bodies.'

Julia recoiled mentally; her `body' did nothing. As her mind floundered she felt her arm move, but she had not willed it to. Yet she knew it was moving, and as her hand appeared in her field of vision she let out a silent scream, heard it echoed by Paul. The flesh and bones were gone. A metal appendage, writhing as if in torment, had taken the place of skin and bone. As she watched, it took various forms as a demonstration of its versatility, and she knew that each of the forms was a weapon. The sphere began to talk once more.

`Your new bodies are not under your control. They are to be used in the Games. However, their pain will be yours in combat, and you may survive many games before you are destroyed. You will welcome the release that brings. We will enjoy your suffering before that time. The journey ahead is long. You may lose your sanity before our arrival. This is of no concern. Your pain will still amuse us. You will feel it now, that you may consider what is to come and fear it.'

Agony swept through their minds. There was no source; it simply flooded their minds, threatening to knock them out once more. As abruptly as it had come it vanished. As the pain receded Julia saw that the sphere had gone. She tried once more to change her field of view, but even the control of her `eyes' was denied her. She lost control of herself for an instant, wandered blindly through the corridors of her mind before Paul pulled her back. He, too, was shaking mentally as he reached out to touch his mind to hers, but he was forcing himself back under control. They shared one another's strength, pooled their resources. He spoke to her.

`They don't know our abilities. They don't have them. They wouldn't have left us alive if they knew. You know that. We're still in trouble here. We've got to hang on. We can't move and they can kill us on a whim. I need your help to get us out of this if it's possible. I can't do it alone.'

`I know. I'm not going anywhere. What do you suggest?'

There were only two alien crewmembers on the ship, and both were preparing to enter a state of self-induced hibernation for the trip back to their world. They were physically formidable, taller then the average human but bore only a basic resemblance to one, in that they had the same number of limbs and a head, but there the resemblance ended. Their red skin was leathery and their opal eyes were forward facing, the eyes of a predator. They had no apparent nose, but their mouth was well defined and filled with the canines of a hunter. All this Paul noted as he extended his mind's eye to probe the ship. He had never used his powers for anything other than navigation into and out of hyper-space, but he no longer had the distraction of a biological body and he found his powers heightened as a result. He scanned the mind of one of the aliens and although its language was as alien to him as it was, he understood the visual imagery in its mind. He learnt what he needed to know and then guided Julia's mind to them.

What she meant to do filled her with revulsion, but the orders for situations such as these were clear and had to be followed. Where a hostile enemy was met and there was no possibility of negotiation or avoidance of conflict, lethal force was authorised, especially where that enemy presence might endanger further missions. She thought of the others who must have fallen into the trap, how they must have suffered. That gave her the will to do what was asked of her. She reached out her power and crushed the brains of the two aliens. They died instantly and painlessly, crumpling to the deck. Now speed was of the essence. The ship was undoubtedly technologically advanced and would be aware of the death of its crew. What its reaction would be was unclear, but in any event she acted quickly, using the information Paul had gathered to cripple the main computer while leaving the ship's systems on-line. With that accomplished she set about giving them the use of their artificial bodies.

***********************************************

Two days later the Odyssey went to full combat alert as an unidentified, alien craft penetrated its shield and drifted slowly towards it. Fighters were scrambled and defence systems locked onto the craft. Then they stood down as the message the ship was transmitting was recognised. It was the identification code for the exploration craft Hyperion.

The medics aboard the Odyssey could do nothing for Paul and Julia's condition. They could not give them back their bodies. They did not know how long they would survive. Paul and Julia did not blame them; every trip they made had its risks, and they had accepted them. The Odyssey's commander made preparations to mount a strike on the alien homeworld based on Paul's scan of the alien and the analysis of the alien cruiser's data, but Paul suggested an alternative. Following some heated debates his plan of action was accepted.

He met Julia on the hangar deck. She had moulded the alien body to a semblance of her own, and she now controlled it almost as she had her own. They had even managed to emulate their faces with practise, but exchanged words by mind, not mouth. They hid nothing from one another now. No barriers remained between them. They acknowledged their readiness to each other and walked, hand in hand, towards the brooding hulk of the alien cruiser before them. It was an impressive ship; despite its size it could travel within the atmosphere of a planet with ease. They intended to turn it against its makers.

Paul didn't bring the ship into real-space on the fringes of the aliens' system. Their defences scanned that area constantly. Instead, the cruiser dropped into the heart of the system and powered towards the homeworld. The defences swung their aim inward to intercept it and were lost as the Odyssey's fleet of fighters and warships dropped into real space which had been covered by the defences moments before but now lay unguarded. In such a battle those who fired first won. The Odyssey's fleet remained on the outskirts of the system, however; they were a blockade against any aliens who attempted to leave. The main thrust of the attack was not its responsibility.

Paul cloaked the cruiser as it moved within range of the homeworld's orbital defences; this was how the Hyperion's sensors had missed it during the initial incident. Now it appeared as if the cruiser had never entered the system. Even the aliens themselves could not track their own ship; that was the price they paid for making their traps so perfect. The lure was straightforward enough, but the fly couldn't see the spider until it was well within its grasp; the aliens did not wish to risk their ships unnecessarily.

The alien ship could have decimated the planet from orbit without straining its weapons systems, but what Paul and Julia had in mind was far more personal than that. They restricted themselves to strikes on the orbiting weapons platforms and the destruction of ships and communication centres on the surface. In the chaos that followed, the cruiser entered the atmosphere unchallenged and landed on several large islands, collecting a very important cargo. With its capacity filled, the cruiser took off for the planetary capital.

Once there, it came to a halt in front of the immense building that served as the principal home for the government. Paul decloaked the captured craft and brought its weapons systems to life once more as the aliens looked on in terror. Some half-hearted shots from members of the security forces were absorbed by its shields. Paul did not fire on the building ahead. Instead, he used the craft's firepower to clear a place for it to land. He set it down in the middle of the wreckage he created, like an immense bird huddled in a bizarre nest. Hundreds of figures emerged from its gaping cargo bay doors. Hundreds of figures transformed as Julia and Paul had been transformed, from dozens of different races. They had all been given the use of their new bodies by Julia and Paul's psionic efforts. Julia's translated voice boomed across the capital.

`You sought to transform us into puppets to be torn apart by you for your own amusement. So sure were you of your domination, that you gave your creations far more potential for destruction than any individual of your race could possibly have. These beings that we have rescued from your game zones have suffered for your enjoyment. They are all sentient. You subjected them to a living hell, trapped within themselves, forced to endure unbearable pain time after time, without release. They are all normally peaceful. Some of them are no longer sane. Now they have only one goal, only one desire to fulfill before they die and gain release; a desire for retribution, revenge. The puppets are freed from their strings, and now they seek the blood of their old masters. Now they will kill and maim only for their own pleasure, and certainly not for yours.'

As the ex-players started to advance, the cruiser lifted off and the humans proceeded to free all those in the game zones, placing them in the principal cities of every continent. Finally they stood before the government building once more, now ransacked and burning from the efforts of the liberated game players. They watched the cruiser lift off on automatic, rising majestically for all its bulk into the alien sky. It dwindled rapidly until it was a tiny speck, even with their artificial eyes enhancing the view. Then it abruptly vanished, to be replaced moments later by an expanding halo of bright light as its self destruct sequence was completed. That was the signal the human fleet had been waiting for; it withdrew, leaving only probes to monitor the outcome of the conflict. On the surface of the alien homeworld Paul and Julia turned their attention away from the sky, and as they began to move into the city, bodies altering for combat, only one thought filled their minds: Retribution.

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The above is the copyright of Andrew Gavin Thomas, 1996 to present day. Reference to any person, living or dead, or any event, is purely coincidental. This text may not be reprinted without my permission.

Last updated 31 January 2002