CHAPTER TWO::

	Corporal Aryn Stent ducked down at the last second, narrowly
avoiding the set of razor-sharp talons which would otherwise have sliced
through the metal parts of his skull and done far worse to the flesh and
bone.  The owner of the talons, an attack drone about the size and
shape of a mid-sized predatory bird, screamed back into the air.
Stent wheeled around and leveled the particle cannon which was his left
arm, firing off several rapid shots.  The Aerial Enforcer dipped and rolled,
narrowly avoiding the salvo, then spun and dove, spitting a smaller but no
less lethal stream of laser fire down at Stent.
	Booster jets on Stent's ankles fired, launching him into the air,
toward the Enforcer.  With the same jets he jinked from side to side, 
narrowly avoiding all the laserbolts fired at him.  As the distance closed, 
the Enforcer extended its talons once again, intending to gore its target in
close combat.
	This was what Stent had been banking on.  With his armored right
hand he reached forward with blinding speed, seizing the drone's talons in
his arm and crushing them.  As the thing began beeping in alarm, Stent
dropped back to the surface and, with a mighty blow, smashed the Enforcer
into the ground.  It exploded into a thousand metal fragments and ceased
to exist.
	Mission complete.
	"Very good, Corporal Stent," the voice of the head scientist 
crackled though the loudspeakers of the staging arena.  "You are dismissed."
	"Yes sir!" Stent saluted, and headed toward the exit.

	"Well, General," the scientist remarked as he studied the results on
the observation booth's monitors.  "We have a marked improvement from the 
old CC-107 series.  Strength, speed and reflexes all test at levels far 
above--"
	"Cut the crap, please," cut in General Sreezet Rath.  "Just tell me
what I want to know.  Will it beat a V-slave?"
	"Uh... no," the scientist answered nervously.  "Not... not yet."
	Rath exhaled sharply, running a hand through his thick, curly brown
hair, his dark eyebrows knitting in annoyance.  These cyborg soldiers
might be improving by leaps and bounds, but Corve was not the type to sit
around waiting for someone -- least of all Rath -- to design something
better than the Vector Process.  The V-slaves kept getting more powerful,
more versatile; the technological curve kept going up.
	Fortunately, Corve's scientists had yet to discover a way around
the greatest problem surrounding the Vector Process, namely the fact that 
the use of the power was invariably fatal after a few minutes of use.  
Rath's cybersoldiers were not hampered by that problem.  And with his 
scientists working around the clock to improve the CC series, the 
technological gap *was* narrowing.
	All he needed was a little more time, and then Corve would have to
face him on equal ground.
	The intercom beeped.  "Comm for General Rath," a computerized 
voice announced.  Rath leaned forward and hit the RECEIVE button on the
terminal.  The viewscreen activated and resolved into the youthful,
redheaded visage of Council General Cloren Vistia.  Cloren was one of the
youngest members of the Council, roughly the same age as General Cweth,
and indeed one of the youngest officers in the Imperial Army to hold the
rank of General, let alone serve on the Council.
	"Sreezet, hello!" she said, smiling.  Like Algutera, she was one of
Rath's closest allies.  "I just thought you should know how the Council
audience went."
	Rath sighed and leaned back in his chair.  "What did Corve rant 
about this time?" he asked tiredly.  He hated having to get information 
secondhand like this, when it was almost impossible to act on effectively, 
but it was far preferable to staring down that Ghetian bastard in the 
Council Chambers.
	"Enaia.  He requested permission to investigate an illicit lab being
run there."  Cloren glanced around.  "I'd better run, Sreezet.  This isn't a
secure channel."
	The screen went blank, ending the communication.  For a long moment
silence permeated the room.
	"Sir?" the scientist asked at length, worried.  "May I suggest you
check on the lab?"
	Rath did not answer, as he was far too busy fuming to himself.  He 
knew all too well what it meant when Corve "requested permission" to do 
something.
	It meant that it was already too late.
	Damn it, how much of a setback would *this* be?

			* * *

	"God, will you look at all this crap?"
	Steve's remark wasn't all that necessary, since all the others 
except for Trevor (who of course had seen it all hundreds of times) were 
already looking around and gaping at the mass of clutter and bizarre devices 
which was Professor Becker's lab.
	"It's like we wandered onto the set of a 50s sci-fi movie," John
remarked as he and Becky peered at a device which she had picked up to take
a closer look at.  It was about the size of a computer mouse.  Or at least 
it was until it suddenly sprouted legs and a head and wriggled out of 
Becky's hand, startling the hell out of both of them.  Becky shivered and 
quickly regathered her wits.  There were plenty of weird professors at Loram 
State, but Becker had to be the weirdest of the bunch.
	Ron tried to ignore the chaos behind him and caught up with Trevor,
who had nearly reached the other side of the lab by now.  "Where is Becker,
anyway?"
	"Up there," Trevor replied, pointing toward the ceiling.
	Somehow, given the weirdness they'd already run into, Ron was not
really surprised by what he saw: hanging upside down from a bar on the 
ceiling, rather like a bat, and entangled in unidentifiable wires and 
machinery, was the form of Professor Becker.  He was either asleep or in 
some kind of trance, but the sound of Trevor's voice apparently jarred him 
back to consciousness.
	"Huh... wha?  Oh, hi Trevor," he said as the others caught up with
Ron and Trevor and just sort of gaped at what they saw.  "Are these those
friends you were telling me about?"
	"Uh-huh," Trevor replied, as if this sort of thing happened every
day.  (Knowing Becker, it probably did.)  "We thought we'd give you some
help on the dimensional energy project."
	"And I suppose you all want extra credit as well," Becker remarked
as he got down and extricated himself from the mess of wires and machinery.
	"If it's not too much to ask..." Ron offered.
	"Not at all," Becker smiled widely.  "In fact, if this project works 
as planned, I can guarantee each of you an extra letter grade."  The faces 
of the students almost instantly lit up with various expressions of surprise
and delight.  In this class, any help at all would be greatly welcomed.
	The professor led the group into a roomier section of the
otherwise cluttered lab.  Standing in the middle of the cleared area was a
large metal frame in the shape of a pyramid, numerous wires and cables
running along its surface and leading off to a console about the size of
a large photocopier.  In the center of the pyramid was a small round
pedestal, on which was perched a device which looked, for lack of a better
description, like a high-powered automobile engine.
	"This here is the Dimensional Energy Extractor," Becker said,
gesturing to the device.  "It has a few bugs to be worked out, but if we
can get it going, it could solve the world's energy problem."
	"You mean a few of these things could, like, replace all the power
plants," John inquired, arching an eyebrow.
	"Nope, just this one," Becker answered, rummaging around in a
nearby pile of equipment.  "Where the hell is that socket wrench..."
	John arched the other eyebrow.  "Just this one?"
	"For the whole damn planet??" Steve asked, equally incredulous.
	Trevor snickered.  "See, Becker's pet theory is that there exist
parallel dimensions whose space is filled with... well for lack of a
better term, 'pure energy'.  By tapping into these alternate universes, he
hopes to create a practically limitless source of power."
	The others all chose to keep their comments on this theory to
themselves, except for Becky: "Don't take this the wrong way, but isn't
this a little, well, weird to be supported by the university?"
	"Of course it is," replied Becker, who by now was half-buried in
the pile of machinery he was digging through.  "That's why the grant
proposal was for 'cold fusion research'... aha!"  For the second time that
day he extracted himself from a tangle of machinery, this time emerging
with a set of hand-held meters which looked rather like Geiger counters in
design.  He passed the meters out to the group.  "I'd like you to take
some readings for me.  It's perfectly safe."

	"Perfectly safe, huh?" Steve grumbled as he swept his meter over
the metal frame.  Trevor stood at the center of the device, monitoring the
softly humming engine (the 'extractor proper', as Trevor and Becker called
it), while the other four crouched at each corner of the pyramid,
observing the readouts from their own meters.  "If I die, Trevor, I swear
I'm gonna kill you."
	"Relax, it's harmless," Becker chuckled from his position next to
the control console.  "We're not extracting any energy at all, we're
simply feeling our way around."
	"So I shouldn't be worried about that flashing red light on your
console?" John asked, noticing it out of the corner of his eye.
	Becker blinked.  "Red light?"  Sure enough, a large red LED had
begun flashing at a steadily increasing rate.  Stepping closer, he tapped
a few keys and peered at a small data screen.  "Hmm.  That's odd.  That
should only be possible if we... hooked onto an identical system..."  He
shook his head.  "Ridiculous.  Still, to be safe, you'd better come out."
	Steve promptly moved forward to step through the large open space
between the pylons, which had begun vibrating faintly.  However, instead
of passing through, he crashed into an invisible barrier, which became
visible in the process, like a thin sheet of glass.  Becky and Ron
attempted to exit through other sides of the pyramid, only to meet with
the same result.
	"Uh, Professor?  We seem to be stuck," Ron said nervously.
	"That's, uh... a safety feature..." Becker fumbled, not doing a
very good job of hiding his confusion.  "I don't understand what's
happening..."
	"Well *do* something!!" Becky cried, panic rising within her as
the hum of the machinery began to increase more dramatically.
	Becker's hands flew over the console as he attempted to shut the
machine off, but the controls were no longer responding.  Only one way to
show the machine who was boss, then: lunging over to the wall, he got a
firm grip on the large industrial power plug and yanked it out of the
wall, cutting off the power supply.
	Instead of shutting down like it was supposed to, the noise and
volume of the humming began to increase exponentially.  Several alarm
klaxons went off as well.  Becker just stared at the machine.  "This can't
be happening.  This is impossible!!"
	"Gee, thanks, that makes me feel *so* much better!!" Steve
growled, pounding ineffectually at the barrier and resolving to kill
Trevor if an opportunity presented itself, here or in the afterlife.
	Running to the wall, Becker grabbed the fire ax mounted there and
began hacking at the outer frame of the pyramid.
	"That won't stop it," Trevor said, causing all eyes to lock onto
him.  Trevor turned and looked at the humming, and now faintly glowing,
extractor.  "We have to get as close to the extractor as possible.  It's
our only chance."
	"Are you crazy?!" Steve blurted.
	"Do it!" Ron snapped.  At the moment, the only people who might
have any idea how to deal with this situation would be Trevor and Becker.
If Trevor said that getting close to the extractor was their only chance,
then it *was* their only chance.
	Immediately the five huddled closely around the glowing device,
trying to ignore the noise which by now was making their skeletons
vibrate.  The glow grew brighter and brighter until finally it eclipsed
everything.
	Becker was blown off his feet and sent sprawling onto the grass as
a shockwave blew part of the physics building out.  He had made a panicked
run for it as soon as he realized there was nothing he could do, and had
managed to make it outside before the feedback loop reached critical mass.
Thankfully the building had been largely unoccupied at the time and the
alarms had alerted those who were present to get the hell out of Dodge
immediately.
	Shakily getting to his feet, he looked back at the ruins of the
laboratory.  This was a total disaster.  He hoped beyond hope that the
kids were still alive, that Trevor's plan had saved them from
annihilation...
	<But if they are alive,> he thought.  <And they went where I think
they went... gods have mercy on them.>

	The klaxons continued to blare incessantly, and all efforts to
rectify the situation, from reloading data solids to cutting off the main
power supply, had proved totally ineffective.  The central chamber was by
now glowing intolerably bright, and the scientists knew that there were no
options left to them.
	"It's no use!!  Evacuate the lab!!  EVACUATE!!!"
	The techs made a panicked run for the exits, but all too soon
everything was eclipsed by brilliant white light, and the sound of the
blast drowned out the screams.
	For a few moments, two separate universes were forcibly linked to
each other by an artificial singularity.  In those moments a small amount
of matter was briefly converted to energy, siphoned through the opening,
and remanifested on the opposite side of the rift.
	In the core of the now destroyed research center of Tralkista,
capital city of Tralkania, five humanoid shapes began to materialize...