Amok materialized in a musty, unused storeroom at the station's bottom. Using perceptions to the utmost, Amok detected faint traces of Power high above him. There were dozens and dozens of Owners gathered in a rough conclave.

       Amok smiled in the dark. He closed his eyes and held out both hands, palms up. "Great Fairies," he whispered to help him focus. "It is your servant, Amok."

       Like a firefly, a yellow mote appeared above Amok's outstretched hands. The mote whirled impossibly for a second. There was a tiny burst of light, and the Fairy appeared hovering above Amok's hand.

       Eight inches tall, Fairies closely resembled tiny women with pale blue skin. It hovered in the air without the wings of legend, ho. Perfectly formed and incredibly beautiful, the Fairy regarded Amok with playful, mischievous eyes. She held a tiny golden sword in one hand.

       She eyed Amok with an enigmatic expression and, abruptly, her sword slashed across Amok's left thumb. A drop of blood appeared. She dipped the sword in the blood and then brought the blade to her lips, eyeing Amok with glittery, evil eyes.

       The Fairy seemed to grow above Amok's hand, looking even more vibrant, fuller somehow. She was bursting with energy.

       She closed her eyes and smiled, savoring this sweet moment. "Long has it been," the Fairy's words caressed Amok's consciousness like a long lost loved one, "since you last called. I had almost forgotten..."

       "I have not," Amok intoned, hardening his mind against her call. "Aid me now if you would aid yourselves. Look around and see if you see an item of immense Power. Take it, and bring it to me." he clenched his hand into a fist and held it up. "My word still holds, Great Fairy. Our goals are still one."

       "We have been watching," she smiled knowingly and closed her eyes. "I see it," she said. "It is surrounded by barriers and protections. There are more Overlords," she shook her head. "And something else," her tiny face contorted. "Something immense," she breathed at last. "Something," she shivered.

       "Something better left alone," Amok's voice was like ice. "From before times. When the Universe was one. Enderheim found it by accident. Do you know what that means?"

       "Bring down the barriers," she raised her face, her mouth twisted with determination. "I will be waiting at the edges. Do not fail in this, or I can't help you."

       "I understand," Amok said solemnly, "I won't fail."

       The Fairy smiled, "It will be fun to work with you again, Amok."

       "We'll see you on the other side," Amok stood up and teleported.

                                                                                 ......................................................

       Silent in his Elf Boots, Amok crept through the darkest depths of Wolf Zero. Judging from the dust and grime, it was soon apparent that these corridors and tunnels had gone unused for quite some time. Routine maintenance was a thing long since gone, parts being scarce and capable engineers and mechanics scarcer.

       While currently empty, Amok saw signs of recent use as he got closer to the center of the stack. Lines of footprints went this way and that when he entered the main walkway.

      He had to move aside empty crates piled in front of Auxilary Control Room 3. The door groaned and reverberated loudly in the dim silence. Amok closed his eyes grimly for a second. Anyone down here now knew they weren't alone. Hurriedly, he squeezed through the rusty door and closed it behind him.

       Running machinery everywhere, Amok went to one wall and opened a panel. A drop-down shelf with a keyboard and other controls lit up.

       A fixed scowl firmly in place, Amok began typing commands into the interface. A small screen lit up, and he scanned information, quickly moving from interface to interface. Finding the one he wanted, he activated the surveillance system.

       One of the small shipbuilding bays had been converted to the pirates equivalent of a grand hall. About 60 Overlords and human pirates sat along and around a long table heaped with food. A few others stood by with carts with bottles of wine and other spirits, ready to fill the diner's glasses in an instant.

       Amok watched the scene grimly. The servers were human slaves. He used a tiny joystick to zoom the camera in for a closer look.
Scanning the faces as best he could, Amok didn't recognize any other Owners. That came as little surprise, however. There were nearly a quintillion Overlords throughout the Universe. Only the Sister's of Fate knew them all.

       Shrugging slightly to himself, Amok moved the camera's view to the head of the table.

       4 Overlords sat eating and drinking boisterously amidst their fellows. They were celebrating something.

       Rokiki stood, holding up a tall glass toasting to something. Nahl sat on his left, holding up a glass and roaring.

       On Rokiki's right, however, sat two very different looking kurnans. Amok's eyes blazed when he recognized them.

       The farthest from the right was Leeki. He sat, looking profoundly unhappy amidst all the rowdiness. The goblet before him remained mostly untouched .and he picked at the food on his plate half-heartedly. He seemed preternaturally occupied about something.

       How Leeki arrived there was a mystery, but another mystery just solved made Amok clench his jaw with fury.

       The tall Overlord who sat next to Leeki was none other than Morda Kaid, the head librarian on the Kurnan Homeworld.

       Amok had had little to do with Morda over the eons. Morda Kaid was an envoy of the High Ones. His duty was to oversee the day to day operations of the library. Amok never trusted him from the moment he met him. Morda was no doubt a spy sent to report on everything Amok did to the High Ones. For this reason, and others, Amok had maintained a distant professional relationship.

       Morda Kaid was no fool to be toyed with and sent home with his tail between his legs like so many others. He was strong, smart, and resourceful. He kept to himself and lived on his own homeworld. This person was the one who'd helped Krage construct the emerald Thronegate to the Demon Universe.

       Enderheim had gotten into it with Morda once over an overdue book, and they'd fought each other to a basic standstill. Afterward, they gave each other a wide berth, only gracing each other with the occasional death stare if they passed each other on the street or encountered each other in the library.

       Abruptly, in mid-bite, Leeki looked up from his plate and stared with astonished eyes directly at the camera Amok watched them with. He started choking and coughing, grabbing his goblet, and drinking it all in one gulp.

       Amok cursed silently and cut the feed. Leeki was another variable he hadn't considered before he'd charged in here so recklessly. While physically feeble compared to most, Leeki was the smartest Overlord Amok had ever met. The volumes of background information Leeki possessed made him the most formidable of opponents. Given time, Leeki could cook up surprises for the greatest of Overlords without breaking a sweat.

       The station vibrated suddenly. Amok heard and felt a series of colossal clangs. His keyboard light went out. Alarmed, Amok began to teleport and stopped. In the Lemurian stronghold, Amok's teleport spell was blasted by a barrier that left him unconscious for several moments. He'd awoke to find Enderheim fighting for all he was worth against a pair of Beleagurs. Bewildered and angry, Amok had nearly killed Enderheim when he blasted the Beleaguer with his Wrath spell.

       Amok was beginning to sense those very same barriers around him now. He dare not try to teleport to escape. Most of his other powers and abilities were damped as well. The Hundred were cut off from teleporting in, and he didn't know about the Fairy.

       Amok heard another clang and a series of clanks somewhere in the distance. Doors were opening, and men were pouring in. Grabbing his Earthquake staff, Amok fled Auxilary Control Room 3, moving through the blackness in his Elf Boots as smoothly as most people in full daylight.

       The layouts of the space stations were roughly similar. It made things easier when mechanics and engineers moved from one station to another. Having been closely involved with his own station's repairs and design, Amok felt right at home when he came to a wheel on the floor.

       Amok knelt down and twisted the wheel. There was a click, and the door came up, revealing a short vertical shaft. He saw the light at the bottom and smiled. He put a foot down on the rung and climbed down two steps, pulling the door closed after him. He grabbed the wheel with both hands and used all his strength to close the wheel tight. With luck, anyone checking it would think it stuck and move on. He would have liked to use a small portion of his power to weld the wheel closed, but with the barriers in place and people highly sensitive to Power emanations, he dare not risk it.

       After traversing a short corridor at the bottom of the shaft, Amok entered the room slowly, looking behind the door and scanning carefully for life signs.

       This place was what Mr. Stanton called the "Bones." A last bastion of defense reserved for the mechanics and engineers. There were no cameras, Stanton had told him. The only ones who knew about the bones were the engineers and mechanics. More than once, Stanton had informed him solemnly; upper management had left the station without telling anyone, leaving the crew behind to fend for themselves with all systems locked down behind passwords and other security.

       Two things worked down in the Bones no matter what: Life support and Communications.

       Amok moved past arrays of equipment running to maintain the station's internal integrity to a small metal desk along one wall, noting with a small smile a small military-style cot. There were other recent use signs, such as the half gallon-sized coffee mug on a small table next to the desk, along with a half-eaten doughnut.

       "Come out!" Amok called loudly. "I won't hurt you!"

       There was a noise, and the glowing red bulb of a pulse pistol appeared from between two shield generators.

       "If you shoot me," Amok said in a reasonable tone. "That pellet will go wild and wreck this place. Understand?"

       "I should kill you where you stand, Amok," Greadles hate-filled growled from behind the machine. "for putting me through this," there were the sounds of furtive movement. "I've been skulking down here for weeks. What have you been doing?"

       "Who me?" Amok's eyebrows rose. "I've been on vacation."

       Greadle appeared from around the side, holstering his pulse pistol. "It's been no vacation here; I can assure you," Greadle said dryly.

       Amok smiled. "Really? I would think all the excitement of avoiding the deadliest of enemies a welcome break after your normal duties."

       "Perhaps," Greradle tried not to smile. "Now that it's over. I assume you've brought the Sisters of Fate and the High Ones to put an end to this insurrection?"

       "Ahhh, no," Amok looked pained for a second. "I came out to check on something with my engineer friend. I never expected to find Wolf Zero with Rokiki and the others."

       "What?" Greadle looked appalled. "You came here alone? Where's your ship?"

       "Major Shaw has it, I think," Amok shrugged. "He is watching over the Sisters to make sure nothing happens to them while they visit the homeworld."

        "The Sisters are on the homeworld?" Greadle stared hard at Amok.

       "Three of em," Amok replied idly, turning away and heading towards a control panel along one wall. He started touching numbers and letters on the keypad.

       "This place is locked down tight," Greadle shook his head. "They've been working on this place night and day. They are expecting either you or Enderheim to show up here eventually. They are ready for you, Amok."

       "We'll see about that," Amok chuckled. "They are foolish to use human equipment to build their little cage."

       Amok's fingers flew rapidly across the keypad for almost a minute. He pushed one last button, and there was a slight vibration throughout the station.

       "What did you just do?" Greadle moved closer to see. "The last time they locked down, I couldn't get anything to work. I was blind down here for almost a week."

       "There are things the humans call 'rogue chips.'" Amok smiled evilly, "Integrated throughout this station's systems and almost everything electrical they have. If you know how to access them, you can do just about anything."

       "It would have been nice to know that before I got sent here," Greadle said, woodenly.

       Amok glanced over at the fuming spymaster. "At the time you were sent here, Greadle," Amok replied equably. "I had no idea you would wind up here, now did I? If I had, I would have."

       The station was vibrating slightly. Greadle frowned. "What did you do? What is happening?"

       "I noticed they were having a little party," Amok went back to the keypad and started pushing numbers again. "They used one of the ship bays to set up in. I just cracked open the landing bay doors a few inches to let out the air. Right now, I imagine they are scrambling around like a barrel of boiling eels to get out of there."

       "Close the doors, Amok," Greadle's voice was deadly. "And back away from that whatever you're doing." Greadle pulled the sleeve of his robe back and spoke into a wrist communicator. "I've got him. We're at the bottom. Come and get us. I'll hold him here until help arrives."

       Amok took a step back, smiling recklessly. "Will you now? The Sister's of Fate will make you a lich Queen's husband for betraying them. I will watch and laugh at the consummation, along with Enderheim."

       "Morda's barriers and protections even the playing field, Amok," Greadle eyes narrowed. He pulled his pulse pistol and pointed it at Amok's chest. "The pellets in this can hurt even you now. I suggest you sit quietly and wait for the inevitable."

       The orange jewel on Amok's staff began to glow. "Do it," Amok dared him. "This is the outermost deck. If I blow a hole in it, we'll both be sucked into space."

       "You will die too," Greadle scoffed," You wouldn't d...." Greadle's eyes few open in awful horror as Amok raised his staff and slammed it to the deck.

       The whole station rocked. A giant hole 10 feet across gaped suddenly beneath Greadle. Amok grabbed a manifold and held on grimly till the pressure equalized. He went back to the panel on the wall and punched numbers rapidly. A force field went up, and the atmosphere began to restore itself.

       Amok pushed on the keypad for several minutes. Amok felt all but the teleport barrier fall away with a smile of relief. That was no problem, Amok thought grimly. He jumped through the force field onto the hull. His shield restored, he stood on the hull and looked up.

       Greadle writhed and twisted angrily about a hundred yards away, floating towards open space, surrounded by his shield's blue aura. Amoks' clothes were washed with magnetic particles and held him lightly to the hull. Amok smiled, waving Greadle a heartfelt, fond goodbye, before making his way across the hull.
                                                                       ...........................................................