Shawn's party and the Ruler's party looked at each other as if the other group had an answer to what was happening to them. Neither of them wanted the other side to have the upper hand, but they would almost prefer it to letting Galico control their destiny. They felt like animals in the zoo, trapped in their respective "cages" with someone watching them constantly.
"Now that you're all together, let me introduce myself," the old man began sounding not quite as old as before. "My name is Galico, Guardian of City At The Center Of The Universe and I am about to do the galaxy a big favor."
"Your respective organizations have been battling each other for quite some time without any signs of a permanent victory for either of you. The majority of the galaxy is involved in your petty little arguement preventing more things from getting done. I will alleviate this problem by producing a winner."
"I will give you a chance to rest, but in the morning, you will battle to the death in a little contest I have made up for you. The winner will be allowed to leave the city, but the looser will be immediately destroyed."
"What if we refuse to participate?" demanded Shawn.
"The Ruler will not refuse to participate," Galico informed him. "He may not like the circumstances under which the battle will take place, but he will not turn down a chance to destroy you. If you do not bother to even try, I will declare him the winner and dispose of you and your friends. Like it or not, the battle has already started."
A hope opened in the ceiling above each of their respective compartments and out of it came a blanket and pillow for each of them. Then, the holes closed again leaving no sign that they had even been there.
"It isn't much, but it will keep you warm while you sleep," said Galico. "I would advise you to get some sleep. You'll need all your energy in the morning."
Both sides could see that it would be pointless to argue and agreed that it would be best if they got some sleep. All except the Ruler who began analysing the barrier to see what it was made of. If he could figure out what it was made of, he thought he might be able to get through it.
It was the first time since he took over Altair 7 that he had been captured by ANYONE. He wasn't use to living in captivity and he didn't like it one bit. He was going to have his revenge if it took him the rest of his life.
TIME : 3:00 A.M.
PLACE : 100 meters away from the Ruler's party's "cage"
Knowing that she couldn't talk to Shawn because the Ruler was in between them, Lisa thought it would be best for her to remain hidden. She had heard what Galico had said and wondered what he had in store for them. Whatever it was, the last thing she wanted to do was go to sleep. She was the only one free to roam around and therefore the only one who had a chance of stopping Galico. The others were depending on her and she did not want to let them down.
Lisa had been keeping track of the area around the black hole when she saw an unidentified object approaching the black hole from the direction of Altair She knew it had to be the Ruler and, since there was no way of sending a message to warn them, she would have to follow them into the black hole.
If the Ruler and the old man were connected in any way, Shawn and the others didn't stand a chance. She sent a message to all the other M.W.G.D. bases letting them know what was happening in case she didn't return and followed the Ruler into the black hole.
When she got there, the Ruler, Vondwin, and the two officers had just stepped into the elevator. Lisa checked to see where where they were headed and followed them to the bottom floor the instant the elevator returned.
After she emerged from the elevator, there was no sign of the Ruler and the others. She thought she had lost them, but, with a combination of luck and skill, Lisa guessed that they had gone downstairs. To her amazement she was right. She heard the Ruler ordering the others to keep up with him and knew it was going to be tough to follow them.
Not wanting to be seen, Lisa kept her distance staying just close enough to them to figure out where they had gone. Their pace was very demanding, but Lisa was in good shape and did a better job of keeping up with the Ruler than Vondwin and the two officers did. Even so, Lisa still would have been left behind if it weren't for Galico's interference.
Lisa had stopped to catch her breath, when she realized the Ruler had quickened the pace and began running to catch up.
Suddenly, she heard a loud crash in front of her. Cautiously she approached the source of the noise and found, to her delight, that the Ruler was trapped in some sort of cage.
Then, Galico began to speak and she her friend were trapped on the other side as well. Lisa had better things to do than listen to Galico's ramblings. He could do what he liked with the Ruler, but Shawn and the others needed to be freed.
She ran in the direction she had come in hoping to find a way to get to Shawn's side of the cage. Darting down the first side tunnel she came to, Lisa crashed head first into yet another barrier.
"Going somewhere?" mocked Galico.
"What do you want with us?" Lisa shouted back.
"I want you to settle your differences with the Ruler and leave the rest of the galaxy in peace," answered Galico as if he was explaining something to a small child. "I am only providing the conditions of the battle. It is you who will have to do the hard part."
"As long as I am going to be part of this contest of your, you might as well let me join my friends," reasoned Lisa.
"That would not be fair to the Ruler," Galico insisted. "In the morning, when the contest begins, you will have to find the others on your own. Finding them and avoiding the Ruler is your responcibiity."
"Are you going to tell the Ruler I'm here?" asked Lisa.
"That would be unfair to you," Galico assured her. "I only make the rules. I do not favor one side or the other."
A blanket was provided for Lisa just as he had done for the others.
"Enjoy your stay," Galico added coldly.
As far as Lisa was concerned, Galico was just after lunatic. Unfortunately, he was a lunatic with access to the most advanced technology they had ever seen and the power of life and death over them. Lisa did not want to risk making him angry, so she settled down for what was left of the night.
TIME : 8:30 A.M.
PLACE : Inside Shawn's party's "cage"
Morning came sooner that exepected for Peter. He looked around him and saw that he was the first one up. The central barrier separating them from the Ruler was no longer transparent. It was like trying to look through extra dark sun glasses. If he got up next to the barrier and stared at a particular location, could see a few shadows moving about, but other than that, it was impossible to tell what was happening on the other side.
"At least they can't tell what we're doing either," thought Peter.
A few meters beyond the side barrier was a table set for five with a nice, healthy breakfast typically found on Earth. There was oragne juice and bacon and something that looked like scrambled eggs, though Peter could not be sure without smelling it.
As Peter walked over to the table, he could hear the barrier being raised to allow him to pass. Peter continued past the table to see how far the new "cage" extended. A small part of him hoped he was wrong about another barrier being placed further down the tunnel, but he was proven right when he came in contact with it. They now had double the space to roam about in, but that was not going to help them escape.
"Everyone up!" commanded Galico. "The contest will begin in precisely one hour. Breakfast has been prepared for you."
Peter sat down at the table and began to eat. It was the best breakfast he had had since leaving Earth and almost worth what they had gone through to get there. Shawn, Ovetta, Linda, and Hank arrived at more or less the same time. By that time, Peter had already helped himself to seconds.
Shawn was not as concerned with eating as he was with the contest Galico kept referring to. He compared the breakfast to the last meal they gave to a prisoner before he was executed. After breakfast they would have a few minutes to prepare, then, they would fight the Ruler, Vondwin, and the others to the death in some silly contest Galico had concocted for them. They more he thought about it, the more he didn't like it.
Ovetta was not quite as frightened as the others. She had heard about this sort of activity, though she had never actually experienced it herself. She was well aware that she was nothing more than a bystander who had accidently gotten involved in their conflict. Being the only one who knew her way around the city, Ovetta was of vital importance, outsider or not. She had seen enough to know that neither the Ruler nor Galico could be trusted. Her loyality was to M.W.G.D., an organization that she was already thinking about joining.
Linda was still looking for a way to get through the barrier. If they could escape before the hour was up, they could avoid the Ruler and return to M.W.G.D. Headquarters. They had found Hank and that was all they wanted for the time being. They could expore the city another time.
Only Hank was preparing for the contest itself. He figured that there was no way of escaping and the only way of winning their freedom was to BEAT the Ruler in Galico's contest. The problem was trying to guess what kind of contest in would be. A battle seemed the most obvious, but that would not match Galico's style. It could be a sports event or a game show or anything that would put Galico in charge every step of the way.
He looked at Ovetta and regretted that she had gotten mixed up in all of this. She had been there when he needed him and it cost her her job, her freedom, and anything else she had before they met. Now, they would be depending on her to give then an advantage in number. Galico had planned for it to be an even match, but Ovetta's involvement had turned out to be a lucky break for them. The extra person would give them an advantage no matter what the contest was, but he wished there was another way to do it.
TIME : 9:20 A.M.
PLACE : The center of the city
A safe distance away from the people he had imprisoned, Galico sat back and watched them as they continued to look for a way out. He was impressed with their persistence and knew they would give him plenty of entertainment. Regardless of who how the contest turned out, both sides would looking for a way out of the city which was exactly what he wanted.
"Ten minutes!" he announced as if they had forgotten. "I would highly recommend that you stop trying to escape and keep your mind focused on your opponent. The barriers are impossible to break through."
All of them started to complain, but Galico simply turned the volume down so he couldn't hear what they were saying.
"You're wasting your breath. I'm not listening to you," he told them.
He watched them as they slowly calmed down and began talking to each other, except for Lisa. Lisa had enjoyed her breakfast like the rest of them, but there was no one for her to enjoy it with and no one to talk to other than Galico. She refused to be ignored and started looking for another way of communicating.
Galico thought the time was right to explain the rules of the contest. Their thoughts had turned from getting revenge to simply escaping. With their release coming soon, they would be more willing to listen to him.
"The rules of the contest are fairly simple," he began. "Hidden somewhere in the center of the city is a sculpture of a bear, an old engine, and a radio transmitter. The first group to find two of the three items will declared the winner."
"A scavenger hunt?" wondered Peter as if something wasn't quite right.
"If that's what you want to call it," replied Galico. "Only this scavenger hunt has no other rules. You may use any means necessary to acquire the three items and that includes killing your opponents."
"In two minutes, you will be released to do whatever you'd like, but, remember, if your opponents find two of the three items, you will be destroyed on the spot. This is your final warning."
Two minutes later, he opened the side barriers. He left the central barrier where it was because he didn't want them to fight each other right away. A second later, he freed Lisa and warned her that the Ruler was heading in her direction. At last, he could sit back and enjoy the action.
TIME : 9:31 A.M.
PLACE : Inside the tunnels
Shawn's party continued toward the center of the city as if nothing had happened. For the time being all they had to do was avoid the Ruler. Galico told them that the objects were hidden in the center of the city, but they couldn't look for them until they got there.
Ovetta led the way. She estimated that they were about seven hours away, if they could keep going at the same pace. The Ruler's party was still behind them, but they had caught up with them before. This time, they had to make sure they stayed ahead.
"Galico contacted us at M.W.G.D. Headquarters and you said that he lives somewhere in the center of the city, so I'd guess that the radio transmitter is wherever he is," guessed Peter.
"I can understand what he might want with a radio transmitter or an old engine," stated Hank. "but what does he want with a sculpture of a bear?"
"Good question," agreed Shawn. "Galico is getting weirder by the minute."
"I still think he's up to something," suspected Linda. "He wants something from us. This scavenger hunt might have something to do with it, but there's more to it."
Shawn listened to what everyone else had to say and tried to come up with a plan. Seeing that he needed to concentrate, the others kept quiet so he could think. About few minutes later, Shawn was ready to speak. His hesitation made it plainly obvious that he wasn't totally confident with his plan, but they needed something to rely on until he could think of a better one.
"If we were to leave the city, would you come with us?" he asked Ovetta.
She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had been wanting to leave the city all her life.
"Of course I would," she answered enthusiastically.
"We may not be able to leave the city, but I know someone who can," boasted Shawn.
Peter, Hank, and Linda knew that he could only be talking about X. X, the former leader of M.W.G.D. and the Ruler's long time nemesis, had the fastest ship in the known universe. If anyone could escape from the black hole, he could, but he couldn't help them unless they found a way to contact him.
"If we can find the radio transmitter, we might be able to contact him," Shawn explained. "I know the frequency X normally uses. After he finds out what has happened to us, he should come looking for us."
"Do you know X?" Ovetta wondered.
"Yes," declared Shawn astonished that she knew who X was. "We all do."
"I've heard about him," she began. "A visitor by that name arrived here about three years ago and told us what was happening in the rest of the galaxy. He talked about countless numbers of planets, each of them being the home of somebody here, and offered to take us back to our own planets. We were told he had been killed trying to leave the city."
"Well he's still alive," Linda informed her. "We thought he had been killed too, but he returned as powerful as ever."
"I just thought of something!" Peter exclaimed. "Maylin told us she came from the planet Catcotu. Those are the initials for City At The Center Of The Universe. We met Maylin, for the first time, a little less than three years ago, so I'd guess that she left with X when he came here."
X had disappeared on May 20, 2013 and was not heard from again until September 30, 2014. During that time, the only people know to have seen him were the people on the Earth Research Station and Maylin. Maylin was with X when he reappeared on Triax, but she preferred to keep her origins and X, with some secrets of his own, agreed not to tell anyone.
Maylin had originally said that she was the one who had found X when he was stranded on Earth. Later on, when they found out that this was not the case, she told them that X had found her on the planet Catcotu in another galaxy. As usual, it was only partially true. Being isolated by the black hole made coming from the City At The Center Of The Universe seem like coming from a different galaxy. Most of the natives considered it to be in a galaxy to itself. They had finally solved her riddle.
"That would explain a lot," agreed Shawn. "This city has plenty of questions, but not enough answers."
"Galico must have heard about M.W.G.D. and the Ruler from X," Ovetta speculated. "There's no telling how much he knows about you."
"We don't even know whether or not he's listening to us at this very moment," added Shawn. "That is why we must find the radio transmitter and contact X as soon as possible."
"Isn't that what Galico wants to do?" inquired Hank. "Why else would he include a radio transmitter as one of the items?"
The others turned and looked at him as if for the first time. He was right. That was exactly what Galico was expecting them to do. They had been wanting a radio transmitter before the contest even began and now Galico was apparently providing one for them. The whole thing smelled like a trap.
"He wants us to contact X," declared Linda who suddenly realized who Galico was after. "That was his plan all along."
"But without X, we won't be able to leave the city," Peter reminded her. "Like it or not, we're going to have to play his little game," Shawn conceded. "Either that or find Galico and fight him face to face."
As much as the others preferred the alternative, they knew that it would be practically impossible for them at the moment. They would have to wait until the opportunity presented itself.
TIME : 11:00 A.M.
PLACE : Elsewhere inside the tunnels
Once again, the Ruler ordered Vondwin and the two officers to keep up with him and, once again, they started slowly falling behind. The Ruler was getting impatient and told them he was not going to wait for them. Not wanting to be separated from the Ruler, the three of them started keeping up.
"How much further?" complained one of the officers.
"I'm not quite sure," answered Vondwin. "I think we'll reach the center of the city by the end of the day."
"I don't think I can last that long," groaned the officer.
"You'd better," snapped the Ruler who had been listening to in on their private conversation. "if you want to leave this city alive."
There were three things the Ruler wanted to accomplish before he left the city. First, he wanted to win Galico's contest and rid himself of Shawn and the other officers from M.W.G.D. Next, he wanted to kill Galico. If possible, he would torture Galico first for the humiliation he had caused him, but Galico was not going to live much longer if he had anything to say about it. Finally, he would explore the city looking for a way to increase his power. Most of the galaxy had united in their fight against him. The Ruler needed the technology of City At The Center Of The Universe to restore his advantage and give him enough power to conquer the rest of the galaxy.
They had taken a different path from the one Ovetta chose, but they were headed in the right direction. Their faster pace made up for their longer path. Galico watched the progress both parties were making and had a hard time trying to guess which of them would reach their destination first.
TIME : 1:30 P.M. (13:30)
PLACE : 250 meters behind Shawn's party
Forgotten by Galico and hidden from the others, Lisa managed to retrace her steps and find the path Shawn's party had taken. It was a pretty safe guess that they had travelled along the main tunnel, so she walked briskly along it hoping to catch up.
"Ever since I entered this city, all I've been trying to do is catch up with people," she mumbled to herself. "and so far I haven't caught up with anybody. Hopefully, that's going to change."
Her own pace was almost as demanding as the Ruler's. She wanted to rest, but, if she did, the others would be that much further ahead of her. All she could do was keep going at that pace and hope the others stopped to rest sometime in the near future.
This time, things went the way she wanted them to. Peter, Hank, Linda, Ovetta, and Shawn agreed to stop briefly for lunch allowing her to catch up. When she got there, she was totally out of breath and felt like she was going to collapse at any second.
The others were stunned as Lisa came up to them trying to say something and fell to the ground.
Copyright MCMXC, MCMXCIX
