The cockpit door slid open, bringing Ewansa into the cabin. He tapped a snoozing Cat urgently on the shoulder. Stickman was in the rear, playing with Whisper.  

"Wh-what is it, Ewansa?" asked Cat groggily, then sneezed once, waking up.  

The grim helmet turned to one of the consoles and tapped at it with blade-like gloved fingers. Cat squinted at where he was pointing. A dot.  

"Stick... get in here a moment," said Cat slowly, an uncomfortable concern in his voice. Ewansa simply glared through opaque lenses at him.  

The little figure strode in cheerily, "What's up? We're not out of juice, are we?"  

"Look at this," said Cat, indicating the spot Ewansa had targeted.  

Leaning close, presumably squinting, Stickman said, "So? It's a thing. Do we care? We aren't going towards it."  

"But Ewansa is bothered by it. He's never bothered by anything. Why this?" said Cat.  

"You could ask him, he's behind you," said Stickman slowly.  

Turning to the quiet being, Cat inquired, "So what is it, Ewansa? Are we supposed to go there?"  

Swaying uncertainly, the helmet rasped forth breath, as if struggling to form words. "Huuungry fiiiiiishes... we arre nooisy. Noiiisy."  

"Well, I only see one... wait," stopped Stickman, adjusting the sensors. The view rotated and revealed a series of dots in a line, streaming directly away from the ship. "These things are coming straight for us. There's twenty one of them."  

"I think we'd better get out of their way," said Cat, seating himself at his console.  

"We're already travelling at top speed and they're closing in kinda quickly," noted Stickman. "We need to go a lot faster. Can you make this thing go any faster?"  

"Not really," said Cat.  

"Whisssper cansss makess fasteeer," said Ewansa unexpectedly.  

"What? How?" said Stickman incredulously.  

Turning to the back, Ewansa walked to the couch where Whisper stood and silently communed with it. After a moment, the little wisp floated up along the wall to the ceiling. Its giggling body seemed to slowly diffuse, becoming larger and thinner, until it was absorb into the hull. Stickman looked at Cat and shrugged his shoulders.  

Suddenly the ship lurched and the sound of the engines soared. Everyone was slammed into their chairs as the ship shot forward, accelerating faster and faster.  

Tearing through space, the Vorascha One fled the chain of marauders. Their burning eyes flamed in the vacuum, their sails focused on their food. That little ship sparkled with potential.

Matteheus lit the candles for the night. The children had just been put to bed and the day had been difficult. There was a strange tension at the bureau, as if something big were happening. He'd asked his supervisor what was going on, but she claimed nothing was out of the ordinary. He'd returned home concerned. When the Andonian Bureau of Planetary Defense is upset, it usually means dimensional rifts are opening across the street.  

Walking into his bedroom, he stared out at the dark sky. Crystal clear stars twinkled comfortingly. A chill wind was picking up, though. The curtains brushed against the wall tiredly. Matteheus turned to his bed, looking forward to a nice long rest.  

A shuddering shearing sound shot through him, his back pulled towards the window. Losing his balance, he fell hard to the floor. A horrible lurching twisted the house. Sudden cries from the nearby rooms erupted from his children. The candles toppled. A forceful wind suddenly smashed apart the window, blowing the curtains wildly into the room.  

Turning to look out the window, Matteheus beheld a terrible sight. The rifts must surely have reopened! Far away and towering above was a tripod thing, with massive spiked legs. A toxic smell pushed around the room, and the shuddering sound of its footsteps neared.  

A beam of light shone into the window, and with lancing speed, one of the tripod legs fired through the window, punching into the floor with explosive force. Matteheus screamed in terror, his children's wails torn in the wind.

Skittering across the cold sands of decay,  

Tattered companion close behind.  

The klaxons sound, the barrier tears forth,  

Only one arrives, only one departs.  

Cool mist settles atop shiny shell,  

Springy grass bends beneath tiny feet.  

Strange tastes and smells surround,  

Fat flying frogs pounce down.  

Up, up, into the air goes the pair,  

Tucked in a pouch, no place to stare.  

Riding as loot atop a world so new,  

Patch of poison where forest once grew.

The Vorascha One had been travelling on a brownian course for days. Cat had been growing tired, impatient to get home. Unfortunately for him, their first destination was Ewansa's planet.  

"Hey, Stick, can you explain to me again why our navigation route looks like a crumpled wire?" asked Cat idly, spinning slowly around in his chair.  

"Huh? Wires? You want me to fix what?" said Stickman, lifting his head from the monitoring console.  

"Our navigation route. You do know where we're going, right?" quipped Cat, glancing over at the two-dimensional crewman.  

The little figure turned half-way. "Our route! Oh. Yes. It's kinda weird, isn't it? I'm going by a sort of particle trace thing. It's complicated. Ewansa is complicated. It's not helping things. But we're getting closer. It's a straight line from as far as I can tell."  

Cat raised his eyebrows in disbelief, then frowned with concern. "Stick, I know you're one dimension short of a space-time, but I hope you know what a 'z-axis' is," said Cat, then he sat forward and quickly filtered the navigation route coordinates.  

"You're not checking, are you?" asked Stickman. "That dimension isn't very big anyway, don't worry about it. What's wiggly in your set of dimensions is straight in mine, so relax! We're going to get there quicker than you think."  

Sighing, Cat asked "How about Rion? Where's its stop compared to Ewansa's?"  

"That's a bit of a puzzle. The location I had before we launched and the location I have now are different," replied Stickman.  

"How so?"  

"At first it just seemed to have drifted, so I figured I goofed. So I took a third reading, but that one was even more off. But I saw it was drifting in the same direction."  

"Rion's planet is moving? Where to?"  

"It could be. But that would mean the space around it is moving too, not just the planet. Lucky for us it's moving directly towards Ewansa's planet!" said Stickman, and Cat could swear he felt a cheerful smile in that dark circle of a head.  

Cat did not feel comforted by this news. He looked back into the passenger cabin. Rion was resting on the couch with Whisper, who was doing its best to mimic Rion's head. It was somewhat convincing.

Shards of rock and glass shifted under foot. Phloa tried to step carefully, but everything was sharp around here. It was nightfall, and the sounds had died away. Time to collect what she could.  

Kneeling down, she gingerly picked through the debris. A massive hole had been tunnelled out of the rock face, possibly for another shelter. She really didn't fathom the minds of these things. But they opened the depths of the earth and that offered a unique opportunity for her.  

She spotted one! Pressing a foot squarely over it, her roots tapped its nutrients. It was very small, but even a little gave her considerable strength. The wind picked up. Wet air swept above her.  

Suddenly a light illuminated in the distance. Dimly lit fog swirled around the edge of the cliff as a terrible dragging sound erupted from somewhere too close. Stepping away, Phloa raised her leaf shield, covering herself. The rock staff in her hand suddenly felt very inadequate.  

"Go back to sleep," she thought. But the familiar thunderous vibrations of footsteps began. One, two, three... one of them was approaching the work site. If she moved it would sense the disturbance in the air. She knew they could detect movement this close to their camp. Her staff trembled in her grip.  

BOOM! BOOM!  

"HROOOOOO!" came the ghostly gasp of the thing as it passed the other side of the cliff. Its baleful slitted eyes glared about, breathing tiredly through shafted throat. She peeked over the edge of her shield and saw the outline of its misshapen head, turning slowly. Chiselled fingers twitched agitatedly, seeking something to destroy.  

BOOM! BOOM!

Sense returned as if from decades of sleep, but only moments had passed. The dragon leered at the tiny prey. Its maw tilted open, a slicing tongue lashed out.  

Ini-ta focussed on the snaking appendage, time slowed, He relaxed his body as the thing neared. With little effort, his mind wrapped around the savage weapon and allowed it to lift him. But instead of retracting the tiny being into the dragon's mouth, it instead knocked him high into the air, through the forest.  

Crashing through branches and brush, Ini-ta fell to the moist earth, uninjured. His mind released. Not far off he could hear the creature searching for him, frustrated and angry. He ran.  

Stubby legs propelled the little one back towards the path. Urgency gave him strength. The monolithic thing was crashing through the aged forest like grass. And then the air left his lungs.  

A horrible blur tore the air in front of him. Death itself had formed a wall. His body froze.  

Within moments it cleared, but beyond he saw the world laid waste. The sky boiled with toxicity, no sun burned brightly anymore. Behind him was no monster, but also no forest. Only a small circle of grass lay around him, and beyond was unlife. Barren plains, charred rocks, and the certainty than no one lived for days upon days of travel.  

Everything was lost.

The cavernous enclosure echoed with silence, yet within the darkness was pure thunder. Walking in a spreading circle, the crew formed a line. Dank air swirled about them. Nervous feet shuffled.  

Suddenly the floodlamp from outside the hall illuminated. The light screamed forth, piercing ears, forcing people to their knees. A hard metal beam swung out and struck one of them in the back.  

"Watch it! Get back!" screamed the operator at the entrance.  

Reorienting themselves in the light, the team backed off from the centre of the room. The sharp shaft cut a circle in the black floor and fell across the maw of the creature. It twisted its head above the fallen man, trying to lash it towards itself. Heavy rods of wrought iron held the thing fast in place. Pierced through, they prevented the thing from moving. But still it struggled. Its eyes glowed a pitch black, red vapours slowly flowed out of its eyes.  

The crew leader stepped forth and leaned down, looking closely at the nearest rod. Small numbers were engraved on it. Noting them down, he stood again and motioned everyone back.  

"This is the one. Confirm deportation," said the leader. "Someone throw a hook on that man's leg and drag him out of there. Then seal it up."  

Striding through the massive doors into the choking open air, the crew leader signalled for the transport. He couldn't make it out in the orange fogged air, but he could hear its engines roaring nearer. He kicked the dry dusty ground once, sending a small cloud drifting down the ancient city streets.  

"Can't wait to see what this place looks like tomorrow," he murmured.