Max Stream / Power Mechanic

by Archie Chipps





The North Atlantic Treaty Organization known as NATO has a program called Science for Peace and Security (SPS). A lot of people knew them as the men in black. All species of aliens had technology that we could never beat in battle, so every piece of recovered alien technology was moved to a military base that became known as Area 51. There was some great inventors that were held back so Earthlings would not pose as a threat to the aliens, but one inventor built his own alien ship. NATO took it and all his documents to build the ship, and put him away. Their were a lot of great scientist unknown to anyone working inside Area 51.

One day NATO found out that Earth would be distroyed in over one hundred years. That made NATO's goals change to build ships to get off Earth, but still fight aliens. For one hundred years NATO evolved while the rest of the world was held back, and robbed of it's best scientist, and inventions. One of the aliens told NATO if they held back the development of the people on Earth any more then they will distory all life on Earth and start over. The first ship was not ready yet, so they started to give out old technology.

When the first ship was finished deep under ground they were ready to test it, and fly it outside. The first test was a point to point test. This is a test of the main equipment to travel in space and time. They knew they could not calcutate it accurate enough to put it back inside of the planet after they were finished with the first ship so they built a huge building to hide it. When the test was finished and it worked they put a stabilizer on it to prevent it from entering into another dimension, because the crew was lost for a while before could getting back. This also stopped the time shift, but still alowed it to travel point to point, and they had other propulsion engines to move through space so they started the work on other ships. They built four ships and solved the problem with time travel, but they didn't fix the first ship.

Life inside the resreach separated the people, and the goverment treated the people as backward barbarians. They never even thought when they ordered people killed like insects, too stupid to know anything. They knew the future will distroy all life anyway. Finally NATO picked the first group to leave the planet. There was a ship ready for four countries. Any one that they didn't see fit to take with them stayed behind. There was enough scientist left behind that knew what was going to happen, and they decided to find a way to save Earth. As the last ship took off to another galaxy, the scientist started working on plans to save Earth.

When the ships entered a galaxy they knew had other humans on it, they started disbute. The people on the ships were ready for battle without knowing who they were going to fight. Before the battle started three ships were distroyed. The people of the planet said "We will let you go home if you leave now, and never try to kill your creators again."

They headed back to Earth on propulsion engines, but had a lot of time before Earth could support life again, so they lived on the ships for over 1500 years.

Today all that is history, and life has gone by so many times that people only know what happen from stories and computer logs about our history, and the galaxy we are forbidden to return to. Each ship has five levels, one farming level, one eviromental level and three city levels with a total of twelve cities, so they are huge, but the population has grown. There are plants and even trees groves with fruit to supply fresh air and food, and in the middle are ponds, animals and crops. The lighting is like the sun, and on the top of each level is pipes to recycle water for rain to water the trees, and plants. It would seem a lot like living on a planet, but the air is getting less on the lower decks. Our government is on the top deck. They control the ship, the air, food, and jobs. Anyone too old or unable to work are recycled into the enviroment system. There are laws and rules. One of the main rules is to know the cycle of life and how important it is to maintain life in perfect balance.



A man called Max Stream is just an older working man, but today marks a change in his life.

First Day


This ship is like a big black Domino traveling through space. There are many different transportation, and things to work on, it would take more than my lifetime to work on everything. Space travel is just matter taking up space from one place to another. If we don't know where we are going we need to use engines to move the ship so we can map the area. If we know exactly where we want to be, we just run a program and without moving we shift from one space to another. Using time was a unfinished part of this ship. It just handles space, but we know it can handle time travel. The people that could have finished that part was on one of the ships that was destroyed.

Right now we are near Earth as it travels around the sun. Life on Earth was destoryed a long time ago. This is where we came from, but the only life we know is living on this ship.

My name is Max Stream. I have been in almost every vent, room, crawl space that nobody else even knows about. I have access to everything so I can work on anything that needs fixed.
I'm a Power Mechanic. I'm not the only one, the yongest or the oldest. Just the only one that don't need a stupid instruction computer to fix things.

I learned a lot when I was younger. I understand things with an inventor point of view. Now I just like to take my time. Most of the work I do is known to have a lot of hazzards. The more jobs I do, the more chances I take.
This job, working on the sky train has risk like falling. The harness can stop me quickly, but it can snap my neck or back. A distortion field can form around the Partical Accelerator, sending me to a time when this ship is not here. So, taking my time to reduce risk seems to be wise. They don't care about me. They can replace me, because that is just part of population control. I like to live a long time, and save lives, because they somebody needs to care. I'm fixing this first, because a lot of people can get killed.

It looks like a band is bad on this Partical Accelerator. One bad band effects the train because the magnetics don't keep the train floating to the next band, and a few particals could crash here, and create a time warp. Right now the train is setting on the bad band.

I reach down to the Multiscanner and push the station key. "Mike I need a Fly Motor to move this Sky Train off the bad band."
"Mike isn't here, this is June. I think Mike took all of the fly motors to Earth."

I don't know what I could use, but when I looked up and saw the old track that was used to put the Partical Accelerator together. I set my pliers down to look through my bag, and see if I had an old remote to call the lift over here.

"Woah. What was that?" I fell flat on top of the train. It's a good thing I'm wearing the harness. I think something hit the train. The pliers slid off the top of the sky train. I saw them hit the floor. Oh, I bet that left a mark.

Then I saw Mike on a fly motor "I heard your call, and I was in the area. How far do you need it moved?"

I yelled "You almost knocked me off the train." I saw a girl running through the barriers. I looked at Mike "Just five meters backwards. I need to go get something. Just let me get off the train."

I repelled down on the harness rope, jumped in the truck and went after her. When I came close, I jumped out and took her down to the foor.

She was kicking and trying to get away from me. She yeld "Owe! My knee! What is wrong with you?"

I yeld back at her "Me? You could have been killed by the pliers that just hit the floor. What are you doing running through a work zone?"

She looked at me "I was trying to escape. Let me go!"

I looked around "You can't get away just by running, they will find you with one of these." I held up the Multiscanner "You loose particals, and they can locate small particals of your DNA like a trail. If I hurt you I am sorry. Let me take you to a safe place where I can patch your knee."

She was confused, as she looked at the scanner "Why would you want to helping me."

I said "It's like I said, I didn't want you to get hurt. I can help you up, and there is a first aid kit inside that door." I point to a steel door with a security card scanner.

She took the pain standing up with her hand on her knee but it didn't look that bad "If you want to help, maybe you can tell me why I was brought here."

I used my ID tag at the door and said "OK, don't get too close to the Blue Oras or red pipes. The radiation in here will hide you. All I know is we are visiting Earth to build a place for a lot of our people to live. Where did you come from?"

She looked at me and looked around "Is this place safe?"

"If you do as I said and not go near any of the blue oras or red pipes you will be safe. The red pipes are circulating with radioactive dust that puts out Gama radiation, so if you get too close, you will get burned, but a lot worse if the shealding is broke. This room draws a lot of particals out of the air so they will not know you are really in here, and they can't get in here to look for you. So, where are you from? Another ship or what?"

I walk over to a small relay station for the power room, and pull down a screen, and directed our camera to Earth. "This is where we came from years ago, but this is the first time any of us have ever seen it, because we were born on this ship."

She looked at it with her mouth open in shock "Is that outside? Where am I?"

I get the first aid kit and say "That is were you are from? We were told the planet was burned by the sun."

She said "Well, You were told wrong."

I used the zoom, and zoomed in on the planet and changed the light to filter out some clouds. "There are people down there."

She smilled "What did you think was down there, Lava creatures?" She stepped too close to one of the oras.

I saw her jump away from it. I grabbed her "Wait. Just a minute. Now, Sit up here." I helped her up on a collector buckle.

It sounded like there is a lot more I wanted to learn. I treated her knee for infection. "So, who did you escaped from. I don't see any binding."

Her eyes lit up "That burns. I wasn't the only one, so I ran when they were distracted. They didn't even try to chase me."

I smilled "They don't need to, they just call for a hunter to find you."

She said "I noticed people running towards me after I changed clothes in a clothing place. That is why I was running, but this crazy man knocked me down and hurt my knee saying he didn't want me to get hurt. You can see I have no clue what is happening. Are you sure this is safe?"

I said "Sure, but I can't stay, I need to finish my work. Maybe you can get some rest until I get back."

She slid down off the buckle and leaned on wall saying "I am tired." She slid down the wall to the floor to lay down. It made me feel sorry for her, but I had to finish my work, and this problem of hers will take a while time to fix.

I took the truck back to the work area. People wanted to know when the train will be ready. There was a few people that knew me. A Guy named Mac told the crowd "It will take longer if we waste his time asking when it will be done. If you are in a hurry take the Taxi Carts."

Mac looked at me "Mike told me to tell you, they only wanted younger guys on Earth, so he will be around if you needed any more help. "

Mac is a worker that uses the sky train to check the pipe for saftey. He warned me and padded my shoulder "I saw a small star next to your work area, so take your time going up there. It is a good thing you were gone. I'll keep my eyes open for you buddy." He sat down in his camera truck and looked at his screen.

I climbed back up to top of the sky train. It took a while to finish my work and remove the markers, and while I was looking at the barrior log I saw someone with a high clearance logged in. Mac didn't have that kind of clearance. What ever this girl was running from would not be so easy to get away from. That made me think about it before I did anything. I sat down in the truck and put the memory card in the computer. Submitted the log, then cleared the card like normal. I loaded the truck with my equipment, and drove it to the mechanic's station. I wanted to see if anyone was following me. I had the Multiscanner set to DNA, and set the radius for 1000 feet to see if there was a DNA that stayed in range. There are a lot of people walking around so I can not be sure of anything. There was one that was a little strange, and after I put my equipment away I moved toward it. It moved away so climbed up platform to see who it was, and change the setting to implants. I could see it was a woman, and she didn't have registered implants, but she was dressed as a hunter for the high counsel. These hunters are called Tanui, and they don't work alone, so her trainees are not far away.

I stood still and scanned the area. I saw a man on my right talk with his head down. I didn't see any one he could be talking too. 50 feet in front of me on a walkway was a woman that seemed to be texting, but act like she was doing a shopping list. You know, looking around to add things on a list, but planing a setup. My guess is there might be one more, and a guy next me on this platform seems more like he is acting busy. Doing something that makes no sence. I can spot something like that easy. I decided to loose them, "Hea, Do you need any help with that." Then I raised my arm, and pulled a wire down, hitting him in the face with my elbow. He looked at me very mad, so I hit him in the nose with my arm this time, and when he raised his arm, I gave him a punch under the ribs. That knocked the wind out of him, and gave me some time to get away, so I took a work lift tube down to another deck, and ran to a power room door. I heard another lift tube come down before I used my card. As soon as I was inside I pushed the door until it latched. That guy kicked on the door. I knew of a ladder going up behind some pipe. When I reached the top I opened the hatch quietly and climbed through into the power room on top deck. Climbing up to another deck is a long way.

While I was catching my breath I saw the girl was still sleeping on the floor. I touched her hip and shook her a little "Hey, I'm back."

She sat up and squinting her eyes. There is too much light. "I don't remember sleeping like that in a long time. I'm not use to all this light."

I asked her "What is it like on Earth?"

She started by saying "Well, I don't know how to tell you if you have never been there."

I told her "We have ponds, and a farming level to grow food and we have animals."

She leaning her back on the wall and said " I lived in a cave most of my life and we just started to go outside not long ago to look for food." Her stomach growled. She raised her legs and wrapped the arms around he legs "I need something to eat."

I looked at her balled up on the floor, and I knew of a vent that leads to cold storage. It keeps some of the main pipes cool. I held out my hand, and said "I think I know of a safe passage to where you could get something to could eat."

I helped her up and lead her into a vent. There was some thing strange about the way she looked at me, like her eyes were kind of dazed, but she didn't bump into anything. As I lead her through the pipes, and vents to the food storage I kept an eye on her. She was getting cold and started stay closer to me. I put my arm around her, and she pulled me down. I felt my hair just glance a sensor box mounted to the top. I used my light for the rest of the way. We finaly made it, and I showed her some of the good food, that I like. It was fruit salad in containers. Then some meat jurky that last longer. She looked very happy, but shaking from the cold "Wow, this is amazing. I never ta-tasted anything like this. It d-don't really fill me up." She hugged me "Can we get some thing and get out of here, I'm Freezing."

I handed her some of the Jurky. She looked at me, and bit off some. Then she stired the fruit salid with the jurky and tasted it. "Wow, th-this is good, but I need to get out of here."

"If you think this is cold, I don't think you should follow me to the back where the freezers are." I never tried that so I dipped the jurky in the fruit juice and headed to the back "This will not take long and we can get out of here. Oh, Your right this is great. We need something to pack up the food to take it with us."

I found somethings we could use, and headed back towards her. She looked at me and asked "Can you help meeee! find the others. I t-think they are in dan-ger."

I asked "What do you mean in danger? The people on this ship might not care what happens to you, but I don't think they have any plans on hurting you or anyone."
She said "I don't f-ph-feel that way. I'm sure they are in danger."

I had my doubts but I asked her "Where did you see them last?" I started making her a back pack.

She said "They are taken to a chamber that says BIO." She grabbed my head to look at her. "Are you going to help?"

I said "Sure, but that would be the Bio feeder area. The insects eats everything but bones." She seem better now that her mind busy, and not thinking of the cold.

She shook all over and said "Ooh, why would you need something like that." She was back to freezing.

I don't think she knows what it is like being in space, so I told her "We live in space. Our air can become poison, and we don't have a place for all of the waste, so we use bugs and micro organisms, and burn gas and send fumes outside in space. Every thing needs to part off the cycle of life." I looked down and saw a my harness, thinking I can use that for shoulder straps.

She raged out "My clan is not waste!" Tears started to form in her eyes.

I hugged her to calm her down "Nothing will happen to them." I pick up the pack and said "Put this on, we are going there right now. If your friends are there, we will get them out."

I looked at her a little puzzled "When did you see the Bio area? Is there some kind of bond that helps you see things?"

She was wiping her eyes "They are like my family, but there is no bond. Can't you see things like that."

"Like what? Places I have never been? No! I'm would be lucky to see without my light."

She said "You can learn to see in the dark, it is not that hard. You just need to get your other senses working. You can't always depend on your eyes."

I pointed to my eyes and said "I can't see without these. I can keep my mind off the cold, but not for long, so lets get out of here." I point to the other side of her and said "That way, through that door."

As she started walking to the door and said "We never used our eyes that much, because the caves are dark, and our eyes could only see things glowing. Like glow worms, and mushrooms."

We made it out the door, and I said "Wow, you really are different."

I close the door, and we are in a hallway near a dinner. She touched me on the chest saying "Everything has energy, and fills space. I can feel that, but right now I need to warm up before going anywhere."

I hugged and rubbed her body to rub the cold off her clothes "We are near a dinner, and there are a lot of people close by, so we need to keep going."

I opened a air vent with my magnetic latch tool, and she stepped in. I closed it behind me, and we climbed down a few floors to get to the bio area. We could see them through the vents covers. There was three men dressed as guards. I didn't see a hunter around. Her friends where pushed through the door to the bug chamber, and the a man closed the door. I asked "How did you get away from them?" as I saw the guy was looking through the window into the chamber and hit a button to push them in the room and seal them in with the bugs.

She said "I dissapeared and went through a wall. They will do the same thing, because they know we are here, and they will come to us."

I was confused "So, why were they in danger? They seem to be able to take care of themselves any time they wanted."

She squated down and started to pee, I turned my head away and said "You can't just do that anywhere you want, we have places to go for that."

She said "This is a strange place and I'm sure you will show me more, and how you live, but they didn't have anywhere to go. They can't do anything if they are being watched, because we don't know what your people."

I turned around and shocked to see the two others standing in the vent with us, and they took off running through the vent. It took me a while to get use to what just happened before I ran after them. When I came to a tee in the vent, I didn't know which way they went. I shined the flash light on the girl I was helping standing in one of the passageways, and ran after her.

I am in good shape, but not use to running. They stopped in a four way vent. The area was dimly lit with light coming through a fan over us. The guy and a girl looked a little short like her. I asked them do they have names.

The girl that I helped spoke "I am Diamond, and this is Jade, and his name is Silver."

I squated down "So, do you want to go home?"

Diamond smilled "I kind of like it here. These areas reminds me of the caves, but they might want to go home." she pointed to her friends with her thumb.

I asked "So, How many are still in the caves?"

Silver said "Why do you ask?"

Diamond smiled "He just don't know you. It would help if you smile once in a while. So, tell us, what is your name."

I smilled to make them happy and they smilled back. I couldn't help but notice a extra shine on their teeth "My name is Max Stream, and I am a power mechanic. We can stay away from the people looking for you, but I need more information before I can help solve this problem, what ever it is. Because, you can't hide forever."

Jade said "I am hungry. Can we just find something to eat first."

Diamond looked at me as she took off the back pack. I cut open the air tight bags and Diamond helped with the fruit and Jurky, and told them to try it. They looked like they were staving, but they enjoyed themselves, and Diamond sat close to me. I started to think she really like me. She put her arm around me like a show for the others, as she enjoyed being together with everyone. I started having fantasies about us being a happy couple, but thinking she was just making it easy for them to trust me. I put my hand under her chin and turned her face towards me and she smilled. I could see she had sharp fangs.

I looked in her eyes and said "You have some very sharp teeth there. What did you eat before?"

She giggled "Rats and mushrooms. But after we started going outside we found other things we can eat like berries and furry tailed things with long ears. They were better."

They seemed like had enough to eat, because they were getting comfortable. After a while they asked if this place was safe to get some sleep. I looked around "I don't see any reason why not, but it would be better if we moved, just in case anyone were still looking for you. I think it would be safer over the power room."

It took a while walking through and over all the pipes and up some ladders, but we reached the room over the power room.

Silver looked around very happy "Do you feel it. It feels great. You seem to be a good man to know. Are there a lot of people in this place, because we didn't see very many."

I yeld "Don't go near any of the blue oras or red pipes!"

Diamond said "There is a lot more stars around us. This is a great room to get some rest."

Silver asked "We are in the stars? That is a long way from home."

Diamond walked under one of the pipes "Oh yes, I saw a big ball outside. I think that is were we came from, and it is called Earth. Isn't that right Max."

I said "Yes. That pipe over your head has a blue ora and I told you to stay away from it."

Diamond's hair started to stand up. She hugged a main pipe, and laughed "Oh my. That feels good." She looked at me and asked "What does this pipe do?"

I looked up the pipe and back down to her "That is one of the main power Pipes. It sends electron particals towards the main bridge for weapons, and engine Gyro control motors. We handle more power through the engine power pipes back there. It is okay because it is contained in a magnetic field" I pointed to some big red pipes in the back of the room. "You can find thousands of huge red pipes back there, but it is a good idea not to get too close to them, because the gama radiation can burn you."

They found a place to lay down and I picked out a softer spot on a large coupling. I did feel something good with being in this room. It is a place I found a long time ago that helped me think. I am not use to letting the energy flow through me for very long, but with them thinking it felt great, I let it. I really did feel the energy flow into me like I was getting a charge out of it, and as I was dreaming some things were a little strange. I dreamed I helped them get back to the planet and the High Counsel on the ship commanded the planet distroyed, and dust covered the planted. We had to get in the caves to live. In my dream I remember the Counsel didn't want anyone to know Earth was a planet with people living on it. They didn't want to use some of the people for some reason, like they need to be healthy and expendable. This started to make me think of what they really get out of people. Using people to protect the people in there city. I thought about the cycle, and I can see I didn't know enough about it or how it effects the four cities on this ship, and the other communities levels.

I felt someone cuttle up against me, and it felt good and I started to dream about Diamond. It seemed more than just a dream to me. I woke up because I realized she could be making me dream about her. Everthing else just seemed strange like something was out of place. We were in the same room, and the only thing that changed was Diamond was sleeping beside me. I just thought could just be a wild dream, but for some reason, I needed to know more about the life cycle and the laws. Maybe they were made to make the High Counsel happy. I always though about work before and never started to think like this until I met Diamond.

Silver asked "So when can we go home?"

I said "Well, I would like to know why they were going to send you to the Bio dump. Did they take you to see someone, before you were taken to the Bio area?"

Diamond said "I feel we are not out of danger until we stop these people and save our home."

I told them "I don't see how you could be in danger if you can just walk through walls. I know what this ship can do, but I don't know what you can do. There is a lot I don't understand. They could kill me, but I don't see how they can hurt you."

Jade spoke up "Everthing around us is made of adams that are held together with energy, in a harmonic vibration. We can change the harmonic vibration with our mind and become part of the air for a little while. We can even spread the vibration so your adams can go through things." Then she put her hand on my arm, and I looked down to see I was becoming invisible.

Jade said "Now walk through something."

I didn't want to walk through a pipe, because that might kill me. So I asked "Do you see me?"

Silver said "Of course, but only with our minds."

I said "Well, everyone here uses their eyes, and they will not be able to see me. I feel kind of strange. You can stop now."

Jade stopped and looked at me. "That would be why they didn't see Copper, because he was doing that, and they didn't take him."

Diamond had her eyes half open like the light was getting to her. So, I thought it would be a good idea to get them some Sun Googles before their eyes start giving them headaches. I told them "Stay here until I get back. I am going to get something you will need, and maybe you can tell me about Copper."

Diamond said "That will be good. We can get more rest, and soak up some more of this energy." I see she is trying to act like her head wasn't hurting, but I saw her sit down like her head would explode.

I didn't want to go through the main door, and have the Tanui see me leaving this room, so I went down the ladder and up the lift to get to the Mechanic's station. I saw Mike as I was getting the goggles.

Mike said "I see you finished the sky train. There are a lot of things to do, but if you are working on something I don't know about, just file a report when you are done."

I don't know if they told to him they were looking of me or not, so I didn't want to say anything about what I was doing. "So, just the young guys go to Earth?"

Mike laughed "Yes, I think they want people that don't think about what they are doing so they just follow orders. They don't even let me know what they are doing. Some thing is going on around here, and I like know what it is, but from what I see it don't look good."

Sounds like some one I can trust, but I don't know how far. "I wished I knew what they are up to, but what do you think is happening."

We have been friends for a long time, and he can tell when I am up to something "Come on Max, I can't think of to many uses to need three goggles for one person."

I looked down at the googles and asked "Do you see the Tanui looking for someone?"

Mike said "No, I just know that they are moving a lot of heavy equipment to Earth. It's like they are going to build something big, and I seen your log. You ran after a girl when I was moving the sky train. Who is she, and why are you helping her, and I guessing her friends." He was looking at the goggles again.

I smiled "Just keep your eyes open, a lot is happening, more than you will know, and I don't know who the nice guys are, yet. There are people on Earth, and the counsel members are out to kill the ones on this ship. So it don't look like we are on the good side."

Mike's mouth dropped open "Oh, maybe I can help, but I need to stay here and keep track of things. I want to find out what they are building."

I pat him on the shoulder "You do that, because knowing what they are doing would help. If we know what they are going to take we might be able to hide in the equipment."

Mike looked as if he might not need to know that. I said "I will talk to you later."

Mikes eyes lit up "Oh, right. Change the then band on the old communicator to 20304051, and if you want to listen to them use the emergency channel. That is what they are using."

I set the googles down to change the communicator, and picked up the googles again and asked Mike "Do you have anything for a headache."

He reached into his pocket, and handed me a few packets "I hope that will do, because I don't have anymore."

I said thanks and he pointed to a lift next to his office "Take that one, you know it can get you to the conduit room quicker, and you should take the subcar to the front power grid. There is a room to the left as you get out that the Tanui are afraid of. I think it is claimed to be haunted, but nothing bothered me when I was there."


When I made it back to the conduit room I gave them the googles and told them "Put these on they will help your eyes."

Then I told Diamond "Eat this packet, it will get rid of your headache." I gathered them up to move "We need to move to a safer place, and it will take a while to get there. Do you feel good enough to go?"

Diamond mouth smiled while her face didn't look too happy. After she ate the packet and put on the googles the smile was all I could see. If she wasn't really happy I wouldn't notice. She said "I guess we will get better." I handed the other a packet.

I lead them to the subcar station. It is something that was made for us to haul equipment and parts to do repairs, so it was not something anyone would use.

Silver looked at it, and asked "Is this it? I don't see anyone around."

I opened the door "Yes, this is the subcar that will take us to a better hiding place. Some place nobody will look." Everyone gets in and I set the location map to take us to the front power grid. I told them "I'm going to get some sleep. It will take a while so if they want to sleep, just find a place to laydown. We will hear a beeping noise when we get there."

Diamond layed next to me and the other two layed next to each other, because there wasn't a lot of room.


Day two

I woke up feeling someone shaking me, calling Max, Max. Then I heard the beeping. I remember where I am now. "Oh, we are here? Good, time to get out, and send the car back. I looked to my left, and I didn't see a door. I called Mike on the communicator, and he told me to look for the red paint. What I saw looked more like a air lock hatch. "Are you sure this is a safe place, because it looks like it goes out side."

Mike said "Of course I'm sure. It has an air lock door because it is the workers bunker when they built this ship. The air might be a little stale, but there are some valves for fresh air near the back hatch. Just watch where you are going, not everything has padding. If you look around you can find some blankets."

I replied "I just opened it. Oh! The smell makes my eyes water. It is worse than the bio room. If it wasn't for the smell this would be a great place to stay. I need to get rid of this air, I would say thanks, but I don't know who is doing who a favor. Off."

I unbagged my breather and stepped in and closed the hatch. I saw a small red light, and when I touched it some lights came on just enough to see a control panel. I found a button marked for inside lights that worked. This place looked like it is very old, and nothing like the rest of the ship. I opened the bay doors and flushed out the air. I watched the cabin air pressure gauge, seeing it still worked as old as it was. Then I sealed the bay doors and turned on the air. It took a while before the air pressure was back to normal. This could be the small shuttle from our history that came from Earth years ago. I climbed back up and opened the front hatch to let my new friends inside. While I was looking around Diamond and the others opened the food and asked me was I hungry. I put my breather away and sat down with them, and started eating some jurky, while I looked around. Jade took off her googles, and said they are a little tight. I showed her the buttons on the side that adjust the googles. Silver adjusted his, and said that is better. I showed them some buttons over the lens that adjust the darkness.

Diamond said "I already found that by mistake. How do you make them lighter?"

I said their are two buttons up there. She adjusted them and I could see her eyes. Then she moved them up on her forehead. "I like these. I just hope we don't always need to wear them. The lights are not as bad in here. They just glow, and not shine at you."

I smilled "That is because most of the lights you have seen are work lights. I need a lot of light to work on things."

Silver said "That is were we are very different, because we don't."

That statement made me feel left out. "Now that you are safe, you can tell me what happened after you were brought on this ship."

Jade looked towards the back and said "Hello, who are you."

I looked around and didn't see who see was talking to, then I felt a cold draft go by. I gave me chills. I pulled out my detector, and turn it on Temp, and energy. There was a highly condense location that dropped 10 celsius, and had an energy spike. I followed it with the detector. I asked to use one of the googles, and tried every light range. I see it now.

Diamond asked it "Are you lost?"

I put in the ear plugs and scanned for any kind of sound, because they are talking to it, and I don't hear a thing. "There we go! Ha! Got it."

The electric field had the shape of a face, and as I saw it look right at me I almost jumped out of my suit. After my heart slowed down, I asked "Who are you? What are you?"

It said "I'm Mars. My mom was teaching me to be a hunter and I feel through that hatch and I could not get back. Can you help me out of here, so I can go home."

Diamond asked "You mean that door?" She pointed to the hatch in the bottom if the room.

Mars said "Yes. Can you help me."

Diamond said "I think so." She climbed down and turned the wheel on the door, and the door dropped open, almost pulling her through."

She turned and asked "Is that your stuff."

Mars said "Yes, what is that? I see bones."

The temperature droped, and Mars was getting stronger. The energy went up a lot.

Mars screamed "Is that Me! Am I dead."

Jade said "It looks like you are, but you are still here, and we can take you to your mom."

Jade looked at me and asked "How do we get down there to get her stuff. We need to take it to her mom."

I pulled out the rope and gloves, threw the loop on a pipe and hooked up. Then I jumped down on the rope, and grabed the gear tied it to the bottom of the rope, and climbed back up. When I pulled the gear up. Diamond put her arms through the loops, after putting in on her backpack.

Diamond said "We can take you home now."

I grabed Diamond by the arm "Wait! Her mom is a Hunter, and she might me looking for you right now. You stay here and I will go, I don't think they are looking for me. Besides I can find it easier."

Diamond said "Don't you need some help? You can't really see her, I can tell."

I said "I can with these goggles."

Diamond asked "What if she goes through walls, can you follow her then? I can help, and I will stay invisible when I need to."

I can't argue with that "Fine! You can go, but the first sign of trouble and you get back here as quick as you can."

Diamond said "No problem."

I said "I hope so for your sake that would not be a problem."

Mars asked "Are we going now? I need to get home, my mom must be worried."

I climbed up to the hatch, and Diamond followed me. Mars was already outside, and I asked what city do you live in.

Mars sounded happy and was taking fast. The sound was breaking up, but I was sure she said the Booth City. I asked "Did you say Booth?" I heard a yes, then I turned to Diamond "You are going to need to be very good at staying invisible, because we are going to the front of the ship. It is were the people live that are looking for you, and there are a lot of hunters there that could be using the same stuff I'm using to see you. You are going to need to go through some walls to get away." I get in the subcar, and asked can Mars keep up?"

Diamond laughed "Sure. Anywhere her stuff goes, she goes. She is attached to it."

I close the subcar and say "Okay, if you say so."

When we get to the city I see Mars waiting on us. "That worked, but if she has to stay with her gear, I could have done this myself. I can leave you here, so next time I will know better. Don't try to trick me again."

Diamond said "I'm sorry. You can't be sure they are not looking for you too, and I just need to be with you."

I said "Point taken, and that is nice."

We followed Mars up into the city, I ran to a alley, and waved Diamond to come quick as I looked around. "This place is very busy. There is a lot more activity than what I remember. We need to get some clothes, and hide ours until we get back so we can blend in."

I take a good look around and see the guy that followed me on the lifts. He turned and talked into his communcator. So, they know we are here. I told Diamond to go to the restrooms, and pointed to the mens room. She went in and the guy followed her. I was behind him, and she went into a stall, then he checked her door, and walked over to a stall. I pulled out some wire, and pushed one end into the outlet and threw the othe end into his urnal water. He started to scream, and his eyes were open wide as he looked at me while he was getting shocked. "You really should leave me and my friends alone, because I can do much worse." I pulled the wire out of the outlet, and called for Diamond, and she followed me out. I turned the corner, and the shopping list lady looking at me. I pushed Diamond back so she would not go around the corner and opened my tool bag and pulled out a screw driver, to remove a magnetic band from a partical conduit. The lady though maybe I was just there to work on the power, so she walked around me, and pulled out a plasma gun. When she past me I pulled her to the pipe and discharged some of the current into her, and told her to get undressed. She started to put up a fight, and took the magnet and pinned her neck to the pipe. She was choking a little, but not enough saying "I will not take this from you animals."

I asked her "Are you talking about me? You know you are not in the possition to do anything but take off your clothes, or I will move this magnet over another magnet and send you to another time zone. I would hate to do that when we need your clothes trainee."

She said "You can get clothes from the dressing room over there, but I'm not going to get naked in front of everyone." A shot just hit beside us, and I turned to see people running, and clearing a path for a male hunter walking toward me. "Let her go or I will not miss with the second shot."

I moved the magnet down, and ran out of the way. He stepped up close to get her out. I was far enough away when I turn to look. He was reaching for the magnet and a bright light flashed followed by a blue wave, then they were both gone. I ran to the magnet before it happened again, and put it back in place. Diamond was still waiting around the corner, so I took her to the dressing rooms.

There were mens and womens clothes for trainees. They were all dirty, but not too bad. I gave Diamond some I was sure would fit her size, and told her to put it on. I checked the small rooms and when I turned around I see Diamond getting undressed. She looked beautiful with her smooth milky skin. It was too late to tell her to use the small rooms. I tried not to be distracted by this, so I picked some that would fit me, and started to change in front of her since I had underwear. Diamond didn't have anything underneath. She looked at me, and I know she saw me looking at her body, but she was looking at mine just as much, and with the smile on her face. I smiled back knowing she didn't see much. After we changed I looked around for a vent to put our clothes in, and I can swear Mars was looking at me while she was giggling.

Diamond said "She likes you."

I said "We need to put our gear and clothes in that vent. I take the latch tool out and open the vent, and say we can put them in here."

I keep the gear a hunter would wear and rest of my tools went in the vent. I put the vent cover back, and put the latch tool in my pocket.

We walk out and Mars leads us to her building, which just happened to be the government building, with security. I asked Diamond "Can you get us in through a wall or something."

Diamond smilled "See, you needed me after all."

I said "No, but while you are here, you could make it easier."

Diamond said "Max, you just can't admit you need me, but okay, lets go through this wall."

Diamond gets us throught a wall into a room with nobody in it. Mars leads into a lift, and we go up to a upper floor. One away from the sky train deck, and more guards.

Mars is jumping around in flashes, "I'm Home! I'm Home! Mom must be worried." We followed her into the room as I look at the name on the door. Brenda Harvey V1. That means her mom is the top Tanui. I looked at Diamond and said softly "We need to drop her stuff here and get out of here before her mom gets home. Now!"

As we head back to the door I hear the door unlock, and Diamond grabs me and takes be to another room. The lady looks around, and gets out her googles to look around as Mars hits her and knocks her to the floor. She gets her googles adjusted, and the sound on the ear plugs, saying "Who are you? Why are you here?"

Mars was screaming "It's me mom, don't you see me?"

She must have adjusted everything in time, because she screamed "Mars, your dead." as she tried to crawl away."

Mars was crying "Mom, didn't you miss me? I'm back home again."

The lady Tanui, I'm guessing is Brenda Harvey said "You can't be here, go back to where you came from, my daughter is dead."

Mars cried "But mom, I am home to stay, don't you want me anymore?"

Brenda said "No your not staying here."

I could not take this anymore, so I stepped out of the room and said "She is your daughter! She has no place to go, and she can't rest until you are happy she is back."

Brenda screams "You are the Mechanic. You did this? Why could you not leave her in the shuttle where she died?"

I said "So, you know she was there, and you left her there. What kind of mother are you?"

Brenda said "I'm a high Tanui, and I'm giving you a chance to get out of here and take her with you or you will find yourself as dead as she is. So Go! Get out of here."

Diamonds steps out, and said "I will not let you hurt him, and you need to hug you daughter and welcome her home or she will be here forever. Here is her stuff, now welcome her home or you will suffer for it. You don't want Mars to get angry, because she will become a demon. You don't want a demon on your hands. Now do it! Hug her and welcome her home."

Brenda was shaking all over as she was on her knees holding out her arms "Welcome home Mars I really missed you." I saw tears rolling down her face, and as Mars hugged her, a bright light filled the room, and she was gone. Her mom was on the floor crying out loud. I asked her "Was that better?"

Brenda screams out while she is crying "My daughter is gone, forever. No I'm not happy. You should have left her alone. At least she was still around."

Diamond helped her off the floor "Your daughter is at peace right now, and she is not suffering any more. That makes me happy for her."

Brenda still crying said "You need to go. Everyone is looking for you. Go back to the old shuttle, you are safe there."

I asked "I would like to know why are they in danger? Who wants them dead."

Brenda looks at me "Why did you get involved? They are putting you in danger. Why are you helping?"

I said "I risk my life every day, and what for? So someone can ride the Sky Train home, or have power to their homes? Why Not help them? I am saving their life, and that makes me feel better than dying to make life easier for people like you. You want to kill them. Why, and how can you even think of hurting anyone. You and the counsel should be ashamed of yourselves."

Brenda yanks her arm from Diamond "Get off me. You don't know what they are. They are not alive, they are all dead. The caves are full of bodies, some of them have teeth marks on their bones. If they are really alive they are cannabals. They eat people, and we want to start life over on Earth not give them food to eat."

That really threw me for a loop, I didn't know what to think, but was telling the truth? They didn't seem to be like that to me. I asked Diamond "It that true? Do you eat people?"

Diamond sat down and said "We are always starving, and some of us die from the hunger. I we mostly eat the rats in the caves. When someone dies that gives us something to eat, but we can not eat our friends. We can't trust the ones that do. We had to kill a few people that was killing other people for food. They ate babies, and we ate them. No regrets, they should starve to death before they kill someone and has some respect. I can't say our people could be trusted but I think they deserve a chance. All of my clan find food outside and other clans still eat people. I know my friends, and they just want to get away from that, and live. I trust them, they are not what you think, and neither am I. We left the caves to find someplace better so we can sleep at night. The bad people live deep in the caves, and they can dissapear. They can be very dangerous. If you want them gone we can help, but if you want to kill all of us, you will bring the bad one out of the caves to kill everyone. I'm sorry if it has to be that way. Max showed me some people are worth saving, but the way I see it there are bad people on both sides. You kill people so easy, so why should I save you."

Brenda looked at her and said "If I had my way your cave would be nothing but dust, but I do what I am told, and I will tell the Counsel what you said. If you can get your clan away from the caves we will destory the rest, but you are on your own. Earth is big enough, but if we clean it up we want to keep this area. I know that is what the Counsel will say."

I looked at Brenda and say "I trust her but I don't trust you, so how do you think that makes me feel to not trust my own people. I think her clan should be able to live with us because I feel safer with them around than live in the same place as you. You are not fit to have a kid, or be in charge of anything."

Brenda said "Well, I will make sure nobody ever hears from you again."

She made me mad, but I am a nice guy "If you trained everyone to think like you, then a good way to kill you is to use you as a sheld, and let your trainees kill you."

We heard a knock on her door, and I stood behind Brenda and held her in front of me. When the door was opened a High Counsel woman walked in. "I am glad you turned the camera on so we could see what was happening in here. Gaurds! Escort Brenda to the bio chamber. Isn't that how you make people disappear?" She looked at Diamond and asked her "What is your name?" Diamond told her and she said "I'm Gia May and I understand what it is like to live with people that love to kill. There are good an bad on both sides, but we can't live with the people in the caves anymore than you can. So get your people out and we will do the rest. What we don't kill will be berried alive."

Diamonds said "Let me show they can do." then she disappears, and someome starts to knock on the door. Gia openeds the door and can see Diamond. Diamond dissapeared and reappeared on the other side of her. Then she said "See, you can not stop them. So, I think it would better if you helped us get rid of them."

Gia has her mouth open, just a little surprised by what she saw. Gia walked over to Diamond, and they talked. I didn't hear a word, but it didn't look bad by the reaction on Diamond's face. They talked a long time so I sat down and waited I saw a new version of the scanner on a stand so I picked it up and put it in my pocket so I can check it out later. Then Gia gave Diamond something, and Diamond looked at me and said "We should go before the others think we are captured and come looking for us."

I said okay, and we left the same way we came in. I though it would be a good idea to stop and get some more food to take with us, so after we made it back to the dressing rooms I asked Diamond. "What did Gia talk about?"

Diamond said "Why do you want to know? Don't you feel safe with me? I can tell you right now, my friends think of you like one of our clan. I feel you are more than that."

I asked "So, why don't you tell me?"

Diamond walks to a locked closet, and unlocks it, and pulls out a hunter outfit saying "Because I don't want you to worry."

It looks like Diamond might be an offical Hunter from the looks of it. Then Diamond said "She gave me a key and told me to use one of these outfits, so I can help."

I think, Why should I worry. I watch her change.

She looks at me watching her, and said "Well, don't just stare at me get your stuff back on so we can go."

I open the vent and get my stuff out, and put her clothes in my bag. I had my clothes off when I turned to see her watching me as I changed. She was looking down at what was hanging between my legs, and she looked up into my eyes and smiled like she was caught doing something she shouldn't be doing. I knew it was more than a hungry look at food. I can tell she likes me sexually. I finished getting dressed and we take the subcar back while I take a look at the new scanner, and see what has been added.

I pulled some tools out so I could take it apart to see if any trackers was added inside. I found one and I took it out and crushed it with the pliers, then put it back together. Now this new scanner is mine. When we made it back the others were standing by the call button. I don't know if they were waiting for the subcar to go someplace or not. I just wondered what they were doing.

Silver said "I am glad you are back, because we didn't know where to go to get more food."

Diamond said "Relax. We brought some back with us." She handed them the food and took some for herself and me, then handed me some "Here. I know you must be starving because it was you that thought of getting more food."

I said "Thanks, and I am."

Jade was happy we were back, and said "That little girl must have lived really far away, because it took you a long time to get back."

I asked "So you were't worried we might be captures or in danger?"

Jade said "Maybe we would have, if Diamond came back by herself, but as long as she was with you, I don't think she would let anything happen to you." Jade giggled

I asked "Why is that."

Jade said "Well, Max Stream, if you do not notice that by now, there must be something wrong with you."

Silver said "Maybe he just needs to hear it. Did you ever think of that?"

Diamond said "Alright, Alright, I will tell him." She looked into my eyes, and moving side to side with her head tilted sideways, then busted out laughing "Maybe not, he has been through too much already."

Then Diamond looked at them and said "He knows about the Hellious in the caves, so, I don't want to scare him."

I asked "Maybe Jade will tell me so I can decide what I should be afraid of."

Jade said "Don't let her fool you, thinking there is something you should be afraid of, because it is really her that is afraid. She is just afraid to ask you to be her mate."

I say "Afraid to let someone know how you feel is something I understand. In a way of life..."

Diamond stopped me "You talk too much, so just shut up and kiss."

Jade said "She has never been with a man before." Jade giggles "Maybe you could show her what to do."

I rap my arms around her and kiss her.

Diamond said "It has been a long day lets get some sleep."

I said "There are blankets in a cabnet built into the wall" We find them and get some sleep.


Day Three