Part Nineteen

'Take off his bindings. We can take things from here,'
said the cloaked man to Terry Horowitz's left. An unknown man from the side came and released him. Immediately Terry felt his strength return, and he stood up. The right-hand cloaked man then addressed Norman and his men.

'You may now get back to your duties,'

he said, signalled him to leave in his ship.

'Do I get any reward?'

said Norman, almost as an after-thought as he turned to go.

The left-hand cloaked man then held out a device with a mutated hand.
'Yes, of course,'

he croaked , pressing a button. Norman's face turned grey.
'No!!!'

And then he simply disappeared.

The figure chuckled to himself.
'Now you,'

said the figure on the right, addressing Gospot.
'Go back, and do your job!'

Gospot nodded in agreement and, with his men, went quickly back up the ramp. The vessel took off and flew through the white barrier which covered the whole area.

Terry looked around, realising he was now alone with these two figures.

'Who are you?'

asked Terry.

'We are known as the Scavengers,'

said the left hand figure.

'Universally,'

agreed the other, and both chuckled foully.

'What do you want with me? Why have you put me through all this? I assume it is you that has done this to me?'

'In part, your assumption is correct. Terry Horowitz, you have no idea how significant you are, do you? You have no idea what your existence has done to us... Your very name has forced us to live in this white bubble. We can only exist for a short time outside it, or we die.'

'Are you sure you have the right guy?'

enquired Terry Horowitz.

The left hand Scavenger spat at the ground.
'How can we not know your face? In another time, another reality, you forced our ancestors out of the then known universe, and into oblivion. It was only because of our strength that we survived. There are now only five of us left. I am the leader. My name is Haxes.'

'I don't understand. I've never met you before. I mean I'd led a fairly normal life until recently, I mean a carpenter's pay isn't exactly brilliant, but it's a living.'

'A carpenter!'

mocked Haxes.
'Well perhaps we have not been a complete failure. You may not understand now what has happened to you - but we will make you understand!'

With that the other Scavenger walked over, and with an incredible display of strength for such a weak-looking creature, he dragged Terry off along the ramp. At the far end was a large building.

As Recma finally finished off what was left of the crew on the bridge of the ship, with help from the rest of the Callack members, he noticed the faint signal of a following Sphere.
'They don't even know how to use their own equipment,'
mocked Recma at the unconscious bridge crew. He pressed a few controls, and spoke over the audio transceiver in the direction of the Sphere.
'Hello sphere 12, can we be of assistance?'

'Recma?'

crackled Turk's voice over the ships communications system.
'I'm glad to hear you! How did you manage to get hold of the ship?'

'Don't worry about that. We've got to get out of here, and find the other transport ships.'

'All right, Recma... '

said Turk before he was interrupted by a weak voice in the background.

'No!'

said the Precogiotee.
'We need to save Terry Horowitz.'

Recma could hear some debate going on in the background.
'Is that the Precogiotee?'

'Yes it is! We need to go and save Terry Horowitz,'

she replied talking over the communications system.

'Why, what's so special about him?'

enquired Recma.

'Look,'

she croaked,
'at the moment he is the most important thing in the Universe. If he dies, so will any hope of bringing our organisation back together. Understand?!?'

Recma sighed.
'Yes, Precogiotee. But how can we find him?'

'If he is with the Scavengers, he will be behind their white protection shield. I'll send you the co-ordinates.'

Recma patched in the co-ordinates, and gave the order to move - with the sphere in tow...

The 168th

Greatest Story in the Universe - A Tribute

(Archive)

Vercingetorix

24.07.03 Front Page

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