Becky's Gift

Showdown!

Mican walked towards them! Farley tried to reach with his telepathy, and it didn't go anywhere. It hurt! He tried harder and nearly fell! Ella held him up, away from that poison dust!

Did you think you could control it? I let you think that. Your friends do not know where you are. This world's mines are automated. They won't find you for a very long time.

Mican jerked the necklace off Ella and threw it on the black glass. They were underground in a black glass room with no openings. The necklace shattered into fine dust!

Then he just walked out. They tried to follow him and bounced off. Fell.

Some of the shattered necklace dust absorbed into Farley's wrist. Ella brushed it off, but it stuck to her hand. Absorbed into her, as if she were Zheien!

Farley put his hand on it. Smiled. Before she could stop him, he smoothed his hand over all of it and it was gone.

"Love, we don't know what that will do to you—"

He tried reaching with his telepathy, and a white flash startled them. Farley cried!

Ella pulled him against her.

And Mican laughed.

"I love you, Farley. If we have to die tonight, I'm glad we're together."

"I love you, Ella. We only step into Elohaia. The 6th will send someone else. We have to have hope, Ella." He gave a sigh and shivered. Another shiver. Ella rubbed his arms.

Shivers became rhythmic. She looked at his face, lit by light that somehow came from black glass walls. His ears and the tip of his nose were white. The rest of him was gray. He's going into regen. In this cold, he'll die fast.

Ella talked to him. "What is this place? I never saw a building with one empty room, and open to the sky like that! Oh, that must be Mican's ship. He's running something like a vaporizer. What's he trying to get? Vaporizer progs analyze things, and they can port it to alt storage. Sand is vanishing, and there's black obsidian left, like when ships used to leave it in spaceports, and we still see melted sand obsidian in old spaceports.

"Oh, he makes me mad! I wish his engine would just fall out!"

Pirad startled me. Now, Becky!

I looked his ship over. It wasn't smooth. There was a line splitting it in half. He was capturing a ship when they broke his containment. Barely got a containment around his ship to hold the halves together. Mican was just outside of D'sharr, and it had a ship repair facility. A very expensive repair.

I reached and swapped his ship for after it split, but before the repair!

Suddenly, his engine sound changed from smooth clicking to snapping. Vibration began.

What are you doing? I'll kill you!

A crack formed in the side of his gray metal ship! It grew wider.

Stop it! I'll kill you! I'll kill--

The crack was just wide enough. The engine fell out and the black obsidian cracked, too! A crack spread until the room Ella and Farley were in—the glass wall cracked! Boom! His ship fell! Black obsidian cracked, and engine and ship fell through!

Ella pulled Farley back. But the wall slid down and was smooth. A panel behind Ella on the floor slid open.

The other walls wavered. Ella pulled her husband into the space and a ramp slid them down! It wasn't a steep slope, just enough that her jeans slid, and it made a wide spiral.