"Then what are we going to do?" I asked.

"We're going to stop that attack," Tuck said firmly as we began moving. "I have no idea how, so don't even ask. If you have any suggestions I'm open."

I followed him. I did have a few doubts about what we were doing, and not just because we were improvising the whole thing. Who were we to judge a General's plans? "Tuck, remember that time we sort of caused a jailbreak," I panted as I ran, "and remember how Shay said that that was bad? Don't you think that maybe doing the exact opposite of a General's orders and wrecking his plans for an entire army�might also be bad?"

"So we're bad," Tuck said remorselessly. "As far as our superiors are concerned, we're the enemy. You have a problem with that?"

"I just want to make sure you know what you're doing."

"Oh yes. I know what I'm doing. I know that if we're caught, and if we survive we probably will be, we'll be dismissed from the mission program and most likely thrown in one of our own prisons. But we'll have saved the lives of half those soldiers. We might not be recorded as honorable deaths for that, but that seems like the honorable thing to do. Do you �"

"Oh, shut up!" I burst out. "Of course I'm coming with you, and of course I'll go along with whatever ridiculous plan you manage to concoct, but just in case you don't already know it I absolutely hate it when you talk like that! All moralizing."

Tuck just grinned boyishly. "Yeah," he said, "I know."

We kept on running on our circuitous path, myself trusting only Tuck's uncanny sense of direction to know that we weren't completely lost. It was late afternoon, and we were nowhere close to the army or anywhere we'd previously traveled, as far as I could tell, when Tuck suddenly slowed and stopped.

"What?" I asked, puzzled and breathless. I scanned the forest around us for spies.

He was looking up. I followed his gaze. Up through the tops of the trees I saw what my teammate was staring at. Something strange was flying in the sky. It actually seemed more like it was sailing, only on air instead of water. It circled around like a bird of prey, but this was certainly no bird. I had no idea what it could be. It kind of glittered.

"What is that?" I wondered aloud, though I knew my teammate had no more clue than I had. Tuck didn't even bother to shrug, just kept his eyes focused upward. The shape in the sky was coming closer to us, I realized, closer to the ground. It was moving downward with great velocity but not falling. I could hear a strange, whirring sound now, and since it also lacked an explanation I assumed it was associated with the flying object. It wasn't an animal type of sound, which made me even surer that the thing was not alive.

It must be huge, I realized in awe, as it continued dropping with amazing speed. I wondered apprehensively if we should get away from there. I feared that, whatever it was, it was going to come crashing to the ground.

I didn't move, though. I was too fascinated. The noise I heard was no longer a gentle whir, but a near roar, and growing louder by the second. The thing fell closer, and I could distinguish several shapes constituting it; the largest was a triangle with a square beneath and a diamond along one edge of the triangle. I couldn't guess which sides were front and back, or even if it had such features. It was uniformly colored � all a shiny, metallic gray that glinted in the sunlight from above.

As the mysterious object sank further it slowed, for which I was subconsciously relieved. Instead of the volume of sound decreasing, however, the noise became deafening. Finally it stilled, hovering at what looked like a couple hundred meters above the ground. Once it stopped moving the sound quieted, also to my relief.

It was even more massive than I'd first estimated. It must have been fifty meters across, or more! As it hovered a tiny, bright circle suddenly appeared in the center of the square. I squinted against the light and watched as a cylinder of a new, clear material emerged and slowly descended toward the ground. At first I thought the cylinder must be gigantic, until I figured that that at the size I'd place it, it would be taller than the entire flying object that had contained it. That was when I realized that the cylinder was actually extending itself downward. It was amazing! I wondered if it would reach all the way to the ground.

"You know, we're losing time as far as beating that General to the building goes," I remarked sardonically, then looked at my teammate to see his reaction but, as happened all too often, he wasn't there. I'd been so engrossed in the scene that I hadn't noticed him leave. I looked ahead and spotted Tuck moving quietly through the woods. I followed, more noisily, still looking up most of the way, until we came to a large clearing. My breath caught in my throat as I comprehended that the cylinder was lowering itself right down to this very place. It kept right on at its slow pace until it stopped about a half meter above the ground. And I saw, standing on the circular gray platform that was the cylinder's base, people looking out.

A hole, two meters tall and touching the platform, suddenly whipped open in the cylinder's side. The two people, a woman and a man, stepped to the ground, placing their booted feet sturdily on the soft floor of the grassy field. Despite my awe I was immediately dismayed. They were Barons. Or were wearing Baron uniforms anyway, though these seemed slightly different from the traditional ones. I guess I should have expected it, since we were in Baron territory, but somehow I'd assumed the sky to be neutral. And, though I had no idea what the purpose of the equipment in front of us could possibly be, I'd never imagined the Barons were capable of building anything like it. I looked around, but there was no point in hiding. They'd obviously seen us.

The woman began to speak, though neither to us nor to her companion. He stare was straight and her voice stern and monotonous, her accent strange, as she said, "We've encountered two natives at the point of disembarkation. Both appear uniformed; neither armed."

The man held up a small device upon which dots of colored light flashed while various quiet beeps and chirps were emitted. "Myriad small life forms, in what appears to be forest land." He spoke in the same manner as the other. "Nothing large within range but the two humans." For some reason I felt slightly insulted by their words.

The man stepped forward and so did the woman. Tuck and I each took a step back. I didn't know whether we should trust these Barons, and from my teammate's guarded expression he obviously did not. Then the woman addressed us, her voice slightly less stiff and formal than before.

"We received your distress call," she informed us. "Location was impossible to confirm based on verbal communication, but our ship was near enough to simply trace the signal, though its precise origin could not be pinpointed. If you will join us aboard our ship and report your situation to IGA officials, perhaps whatever problems you are experiencing may be resolved."

"Ship!" I half-whispered, delighted. The incredible picture suddenly made some sense to me. "This is a ship! Not a water-going ship but a spaceship! Like the original Colossus!" I was only dimly disappointed that Tuck didn't look nearly so excited as I felt."

"Who are you?" he warily asked.

"We are IGA," the woman explained briskly but kindly enough. "Intragalactic Allies."

Tuck took another step back, and so did I, hearing the word by which Barons called themselves. I was now wishing we'd run upon sighting the ship instead of freezing and watching in curiosity. These Barons, wherever they were from, obviously had an unfathomable amount of power. The contents of this ship on their own were probably enough to win the war for them, if the tales passed down about spaceships and their forgotten technology held any truth.

I hadn't even known there were Barons off planet Skye. Fleetingly I wondered if Cols also existed elsewhere in the universe, and wished they could have been the ones to appear here instead.

"We've responded to your distress call and require a person capable of reporting on this planet's condition to accompany us to one of your bases and make your situation known before an executive committee, enabling the possibility of a rescue."

It took a moment to process what she'd said. Then I cried, "The General! We should go back and get him�" I trailed off, realizing guiltily that I'd suggested the man not only for his superior knowledge but because I wouldn't much mind handing him over into Baron clutches.

"There is insufficient time in which to collect this 'General'," the woman countered in her impersonal voice. "He is out of range of the life scanner, at the least. No human form other than yourselves is within an acceptable distance. Unfortunately we could not zero in on the exact location of the signal once it was terminated. We are requesting your company aboard our ship. Should you decline we'll make a second attempt to come down on the signal, but given our present situation time will allow for no more. Should we fail in our second attempt to acquire a reporter we will simply have to request that a party be sent to investigate this planet at the Alliance's own convenience."

I only understood half of what she was saying, and her face deviated so little from its clean slate that nothing extra was revealed. She didn't seem to be hiding anything; it was just that her message was incomprehensible. "You mean you want us to leave our planet and come into outer space with you?" I asked, barely believing what I was saying. Somehow I hoped I'd gotten the message wrong, and feared that I hadn't.

"Affirmative." The woman nodded slightly.

"But we're only missioneers." I struggled for a moment to explain that. I looked at Tuck. His face was stony and defiant. "Could we have a few minutes to talk about this?" I asked.

The man and woman exchanged a glance. Then the woman nodded gravely. "We'll allow that, but a very few minutes. As I've previously stated, we are pressed for time. We're on a mission, you know."

So I drew Tuck aside, back to the edge of the clearing, from where I hoped the two strangers couldn't hear our voices.

"Well, what do you think?" I asked him.

Tuck shook the stony stare off his face and said, "I think we should leave right now and pretend we never saw this thing. Let them 'investigate at their own convenience'. That should at least give our cause a little more time."

"Maybe if we go with them we can turn them to our side."

"Please, Bryt � they're Barons! Friends of the Barons, at the very least. Why do you think they're here? Because the Barons somehow called them here, that's why. Somehow they sent a message to these people from who knows where, and asked them for help, and that's what this ship is here to see to now."

"Well then, maybe we can stop them."

Tuck stared at me for a second. "You want to try to stop that thing?" he snorted.

"Well, what's wrong with trying? They wouldn't land here only to collect two people and kill us."

"No, they won't kill us, at least not until they interrogate us. Or 'report', as they put it. They'll learn the locations of all our major bases and battlestations and military quarters. Find out all they need to know to wipe us off the face of the planet. You want to be responsible for doing that to our cause? And we'll answer any question they put to us. I can just imagine what sophisticated technological torture devices they've got up there. You ever been interrogated, Bryt? It's an experience you won't forget, that's for sure."

"But Tuck, if we don't go, eventually they'll come back." I shook my head. "And even if we could potentially give away valuable tactical data, it's got to be better to have Cols as this planet's representatives with these people. And look where they are: in the middle of Baron territory. This is probably our only chance to get Cols up with them."

Tuck looked at me darkly, his eyes glazed over. "Bryt, I will not willingly give myself over to Barons, especially ones with more power than I've ever dreamed of. That's final."

I took a deep breath. Yes. I understood my teammate's disgusted aversion to such a course. "That doesn't mean I can't," I said, my voice shaking a little.

Tuck looked at me as if he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. "Bryt, I'm not letting you surrender yourself willingly to the Barons, either �"

"You can't stop me," I quietly interjected. Tuck glared at me so coldly that I had to look away. Finally he spoke again. "What about the army?"

"Tuck, we don't know if we can stop the army. We don't even have a plan!"

"There is one way." His voice was crisp and icy.

"What?" I was almost afraid to ask.

"Simple." He shrugged. "Right into that building the way we got in before, this time with a torch. Explode the powder before either half of the army gets there. The fire'll even be big enough to drive away any groups armed with powder moving in to attack. Problem solved."

"That's a suicide plan �"

"So's going up there!" Tuck thrust his hand skyward.

"Please hurry!" came a shout from the center of the meadow.

I looked at Tuck, ready to try reasoning again. "This has to be the biggest thing that's happened on Skye since the war began�"

"They're Barons," Tuck said curtly. "Nothing can change that fact. You can't trust Barons." He stressed each individual word. "Haven't you seen enough to know that by now?"

"Tuck, if we're going to make a difference in this world then now is the time to do it!" I burst out in a rush. "When an opportunity like this has literally dropped out of the sky I can't just let it go. It has too much potential to be awesome �"

"It has a whole lot more potential to be as disaster!"

"I'm going!" The words were out of my mouth before my brain had made the decision. I tried to set my face as rigidly firm as his. I couldn't believe that after all the people and traditions I'd followed him in defying, I was now defying Tuck himself.

I wished his eyes weren't so cold and glazed. "You said it before:" he finally said, "I can't stop you."

"And you?"

"I'll leave now. I've got some time to make up in reaching that building." He turned.

"Tuck!" I cried.

"You can't stop me!" he replied insolently, mocking me.

Unable to form my emotions into words, I grabbed my teammate by the shoulder and forced him around, losing control. He faced me, his eyes still glazed over but his expression no longer cold.

"Bryt, you're right and so am I," he said quietly. "And there isn't any other way."

I covered my face with my hands and shook my head, trying to deny the truth in his words, my mind racing desperately for some alternative.

"Then you be the one to go up," I tried. "You know more than I do anyway�" I realized the error in this line of persuasion even as I spoke.

"That's why you're the one going. And besides, you couldn't find you way back to that building from here, let alone before the General does. Hey." Tuck placed his hands on my shoulders and actually smiled a little. "We're probably both going to die."

I nodded in reluctant agreement but wished that we could die together.

"Tuck," I looked up and told him solemnly, "you're my best friend. The best friend I've ever had�"

My eyes spilled over and I couldn't continue, and he pulled me against him and squeezed me so tightly it hurt, but I was glad for it. I pressed my face against his shirt, trying to imprint in my memory the feel of his strong chest, running my right hand down the muscles of his bare arm. "Then why do my best friends always leave me?" he muttered into my hair, with only a touch of bitterness lingering in his tone.

"Promise me one thing." I pulled away quickly. "Promise me you'll try to get out."

My teammate smiled and shook his head a little. "With that much powder it won't make any �"

"Just promise me you'll try," I begged.

"Okay," he agreed, humoring me. "I'll try."

I didn't want to leave. I knew the two Barons from the ship were impatiently waiting.

"You know," Tuck said with a half smile, probably all he could muster, "if you were Seile I'd never let you go."

I tried to smile back, with the same result, for the ironic justice of the world. For the incredible, momentous task that I was about to undertake was the one thing that the heroic dead woman I could never measure up to could not have done. I squeezed his hand once more before I stepped back and away. "But I'm not Seile," I said, giving him a very weak smile through my tears, and turned and left my teammate at the edge of the woods. As I walked away my feet were almost too heavy to lift, as if all these days without food and water and running all over the area were only now taking their toll. I'd never felt so alone.

Not halfway to the center of the field I turned around and looked one more time back at my teammate, and could see a solitary tear glistening in the evening light on his cheek. I'd never imagined I'd see Tuck cry. He mouthed words at me, which I interpreted to be, "Go change the world, Bryt." I nodded dutifully and managed to turn back again, back toward the Baron strangers I was blindly following on the foolishly hopeful chance that they were not the enemy despite their names and uniforms, and somehow they could help end the war that had ravaged my planet throughout its entire history, without destroying everything that my people had for so long fought and died.

I approached the man and woman, my expression bleak and my face pale, I knew, and stood before them as stoically as I could.

"Do you agree to travel in our custody until an audience with an executive committee can be arranged?" the woman asked, hurried and formal.

"Yes," I whispered, looking her in the eyes.

For a second her eyebrows raised slightly in surprise at such a firm response from a being so primitive, and then her standard neutral expression returned. Placing an arm lightly around my back to usher me forward toward the cylinder leading up to the ship, she said, "Then we'll do what we can to remedy the situation here. Of course, before we can convey you to a base you'll have to come along for the remainder of our assignment, as your transmission was an unexpected complication to our journey." And with that she pushed me gently forward to step up onto the gray platform, inside the transparent cylinder.

The platform felt surprisingly sturdy for its thickness of only a few centimeters. I touched my hand to the lining of the cylinder, and found it smooth and soft. It didn't wrinkle or ripple when I pressed, though the picture distorted slightly around my fingers. The woman and man also stepped up and in, and the opening in the clear material quickly sucked itself shut, and we began to rise. My heart started to pound a little at the unfamiliar sensation of the floor raising upward beneath me. There wasn't much room in the cylinder � the base was only just over a meter in diameter � but both space travelers stood stiffly, arms flat against their sides, so I did the same, and didn't touch either of them as we rose.

From inside it felt like the cylinder was retracting upward much more quickly than it had extended down. Soon we were higher than I'd climbed in any tree, and I could no longer make out my teammate or any other distinct objects in the field and woods below. It was unnerving seeing open air in all directions; it felt like nothing was holding me up. Several times I looked down at the platform as if to make sure it was still there, and glimpsed my old Minor uniform looking especially worn and ratty next to those of the space folk. And it was colored only with dirt; by now it was so faded that it was practically white. I looked out and could see well beyond the boundaries of the field; observed a large, moving mass of blue below the treetops and recognized the army marching; spotted other yellow clearings and meadows scattered through the colorful autumn forest; a glittering lake; a winding river, though not the one alongside which I'd spent so many days and nights; all the natural marvels of my planet that I'd seldom noticed before. Of course, I'd never had the chance to see them from quite this viewpoint. A large bird soared past, screaming for all to hear, a cry that echoed the pangs in my heart, and then individual shapes became unrecognizable and even colors began to fade. I realized I was looking at my beloved Skye, the planet that was everything for which I'd lived my life to fight, for what was probably the last time. Briefly I wished it could be Col territory I were seeing instead of Baron, but the land looked essentially the same, and either way it was spectacular. The sun setting down behind mountains and plains illuminated half the world while darkness overtook the other, and the shadows of great hills and forests and lowlands varied so profusely that a clear line between the two halves of the world was indiscernible. That was the last impression I had of my home planet, before the thin platform lifted me all the way into the ship, and the white light of the sky was sealed off, and I'd released myself completely into a new and unknown realm. I took a deep breath and got ready to begin.