"This oath which you are all about to take will not only be your first major step into your own new future with Thora. It affirms your commitment to the future of our mother planet and of our distant cousins."

Martin could feel the tension in him grow as the moment of the oath approached. It wrenched him emotionally. Until now, he was always part of Earth. No matter how much psionic kinetics he had studied, and no matter how many times he had watched the Earth rise in the early Martian sky, he remained an Earthman -- and more important to him, an American. Soon he would surrender both his nationality and his world to become an agent of the Thora Institute, dedicated to the technical education of the Earth. When he returned home, he would do so as a stranger.

The small group of graduates stood on the center grounds of the Institute under the bright artificial lights that simulated the pale blue sky of Earth. For most cadets, this seemed horribly bright compared to the dim twilight that filtered through the oxy-nitro atmosphere bubbles of the cities, but it was necessary to prepare them for Earth duty. Now, standing among the only real maple trees for thirty five million miles, Martin was comforted by the brightness.

"Proctors."

That was the cue for the students to detach themselves and receive one of the proctors into a full mental link. Martin felt the familiar sensation of slipping away from his physical body and saw, not with his eyes now, the other students around him fading from wispy, ghostlike shadows into more solid entities as they began to project psionically.

The proctors now approached the graduates and very quickly formed the links to detect potential fraud and insure that the cadet was thoroughly dedicated on all levels of consciousness. Martin was a bit afraid of the link because, of course, he still felt strong ties with his planet. He didn't recognize the mind that now coexisted with his, since the proctors were shielded, but he hoped that whoever it was would understand his unique position. Martin got the go ahead and began to formulate the words of the oath in his mind.

"I, Martin Andrew Parks, having completed the basic training and fully understanding the implications of this oath do, as of now, relinquish all ties with any political systems and their ideologies and swear to devote my lift to Thora and its purpose in whatever manner I am assigned."

It was over. He now belonged to Thora.

Soon he felt a suggestion from the proctor and he drew himself back into his body once again and found himself the only occupant. When Martin opened his eyes he saw his proctor in person, grinning in front of him.

"Hermes."

"You bet. I came off special assignment for this. Thora thought it would be a good idea for me to proctor your oath since I was the first agent to interact with you.

"It's been three years since our adventure. I've learned a lot since I saw you last. Have you seen Athena?"

"No. Nobody sees very much of a Level One agent. They're busy people."

The speaker raised his voice. "Congratulations new cadets. Each of you has been cleared by your proctor. As of now you are on leave. Check the board for your assignment positions and departure times. Welcome to Thora."

"Can you stay, Hermes? How about we go up to New Greece tonight?"

"Sure, but Zeus wants to see you upstairs right away."

"Oh. I'll be right back."

"I'll meet you at the front hall."

"Okay."

* * *

"Have a seat Martin. I'm sorry for pulling you away from the celebrations, but I need to discuss a change in your assignment. As I understand, you were to be placed in Goteborg base in Sweden."

"Yes. In fact, I was due for facial reconstruction and make over this afternoon."

"Yes, go ahead with that. You'll still need it eventually. However, you'll not be working with the Goteborg base. Not yet at least. There's a special field duty that matches well to your background and qualities."

"Field duty? Why me?"

"Frankly, we believe that of all the graduates, you are most qualified for this assignment. Your psionic training has vastly improved your already strong mental abilities. You're not the strongest psion in your class, but you've had experience with field work before when you worked with Hermes and Athena.

"Most of our agents from Earth are recommended by other agents who work with them. Seldom do we receive a recruit who was drawn into psionics accidentally, as you were when Chronus went rogue. You are also the only graduate that has been trained in Swedish and the territory.

"This assignment will take you near the lumber forest by lake Hornavan in northern Sweden."

"I'm very flattered, Chairman Zeus, but I don't understand why you don't assign a regular field agent."

"That's simple. A graduate is vastly more expendable that a seasoned field agent, but don't misunderstand me, Martin. We would not have even considered sending you if we didn't believe that you had more than adequate skills for the job."

"I understand."

"Essentially, this is an infiltration and information gathering mission. It has come to our attention that a scientist who calls himself Baron Kolenko is living in a deserted castle creating products of extremely high tech complexity. We need to know where he's getting the information -- this could be another security leak -- and if these items are of his own design, why he's producing them."

"How did you find out about them?"

"He was flying over the city of Kiruna in a small airborne device with no propeller or jets. One of our agents was in the city on assignment and saw him. He began to inquire subtly, but all the got was a name and some rumors. He sent the information to us two days ago.

"We have arranged a special departure for you this evening. Report back to me as soon as you are finished in Facial."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

Hermes was waiting for him, as promised, in the front hall.

"What do you think?" he said.

"You knew about this?"

"I found out this morning when I arrived to proctor your oath."

"I don't know what to think. I've been practicing everything from typing to telepathy, but I never figured on field duty. Not yet."

"Well come on. Let's head into town."

They came out of the front archway took a tunnel car which they programmed to take them to downtown New Greece.

In the lowest levels of the main apartment mall complex, Martin was introduced to an exclusive club called Other World, which fascinated its members with many thrilling replicas of the natural Earth. Hermes requested a table in the middle of a willow grove by a beautiful three story waterfall. The fall was apparently built above a gravity reducer unit. It flowed slowly and quietly in a breath-taking panorama of shifting sculptures instead of plunging and splashing straight into the pond.

"Martin, it's not really my place to be volunteering this information. In fact, it's against regulations, but I can't let you go into this completely blind. I don't think Zeus expects you to survive this mission. You see, we know quite a bit about Baron Kolenko.

"We've been monitoring him for about a year. He seems to be working independently, but he knows about Thora. That's why Zeus suspects another leak, although I don't think that's very likely myself."

Martin said, "Zeus told me that my mission would just be basic information gathering. Why does he need to send me in there if he already knows a lot about him?"

"The Baron has recently been moving out, making himself more obvious, like buzzing the city of Kiruna. He's also warned Thora not to interfere with him, and Zeus needs to see how far he will go to back up his threats."

"So he's going to use me to draw the fire."

"Essentially. Of course, he also will want you to continually transmit anything you can about the Baron as long as you are able. Remember, Thora never sends an agent out to fail. You are the best one for the job. He just can't risk a more experienced agent until he knows more about what he's dealing with."

"I understand. I took the oath. I'll do my best."

"I know you will. I was your proctor."

* * *

Martin held still on his back upon a bed of pine needles as he waited for 4:30 am local time. He untied the bandage around his right leg and inspected the would. The pain was lessening more and more, as was the entire feeling in his leg. He pulled at the cloth that had become crusted with his blood and gritted his teeth. He carefully peeled it back and threw it away, ripped off another strip from his shirt and tied it around his leg.

Yesterday morning Martin had been cautiously hiking through the pine forest and had come across the first of the Baron's booby traps. It was rather unsophisticated -- a series of hidden trip wires connected to alarms and concealed machine guns. Martin had easily avoided all the wires by climbing up through the trees. He was also able to slip by the infrared scanning devices by lowering his body temperature and running through at night. When he had come to a field of sonic motion detection and the robots came after him, he was outmatched. He managed to blast three of the robots apart, but one had fired an intense laser that pierced his body shield and grazed his leg, burning deep into the tissue.

He knew, therefore, that the Baron was aware of his intrusion, but for his plan, that was an acceptable element of the game. He was now priming himself to move into the castle itself. He would plant explosives around the castle. Then, after the Baron found them, Martin would report to Thora that he was ready to blow the place apart. That should send him running; the Baron was certainly aware of Thora's firepower. He had decoded ultra-wave frequency lambda and Martin felt pretty sure that he would be listening.

After that, Martin could begin the second part of his operation. He would go through the entire place with his holographic image scanner and send the data to Thora. He had already reported the outer defenses in detail to the Institute.

This next step would probably be even more dangerous than the exterior traps. He was already grateful to Hermes for the inside information. If he hadn't brought the blasters and shield, he would already be lying with the other unfortunate souls whose bodies he had passed on the way in.

Time. He hoped he would be safer now that he had made it beyond the outer defenses. The castle sat in a clearing about half a kilometer away. He stood up and concentrated his mental energies to block the pain in his leg. Then, with his blaster held tightly by his side, he sprinted to the stone wall.

He took only nine or ten steps before he was spotted. A shape, backlit by the red morning sky, appeared above the tallest battlement of the castle. Martin recognized it. It was the Baron's sky rider. He had seen it on his first day as if flew over lake Hornavan. It was maneuverable, fast, and ominous with his red and black colors. Now it was flying right at him.

I should have expected this, he thought. He immediately turned to dive back into the cover of the trees, but there were already to surveillance attacker robots speeding through the trees at him. He turned around once again and ran toward the castle, but the baron had closed in on him in this short time and he was shooting a wide spray of tiny laser beams that shimmered in the early morning fog. Martin dived forward, barely escaping the deadly lights. The baron had to pull up suddenly to avoid smashing into the ground. He banked up and did a backward somersault.

Martin rolled out into the primary firing position and watched the Baron bring his flier under control and again come at him.

Martin Fired.

The air around him crackled with ionization as the particle beam, set on maximum intensity, was engaged. Then he watched with a sudden and full realization of his certain death as the air round the Baron darkened from an energy dissipating shield. He was in the open, a dead duck.

The baron, instead of diving right down on top of him and frying Martin's body to charcoal, suddenly lit up with a blinding white flash and flew off spinning crazily. Another object screamed out of the sky. Martin also recognized this one. It was fusion powered, fully armed, interplanetary, Thora-designed Ferrari. martin sent his mind out to it and made telepathic contact.

"Hit it pal, go get those pictures."

"Hermes! How did you get here?"

"By breaking every regulation I could think of. We were monitoring you and I thought you could use a hand. Now git."

Martin stood up and ran the rest of the way to the castle. There was obviously no use trying to stay with his original plan, so he grabbed his holographic scanner from his pack while he ran.

The baron's castle was a cluttered laboratory full of projects in various stages of construction next to chalkboards filled with strange mathematical and physical formulas. Martin quickly engaged the scanner and ran from room to room, letting the machine gobble up every bit of minutiae while on direct feed to Thora.

He was in the last room when Hermes's voice came through his ultra-wave voice transceiver.

"Get out of there, Martin. He's got reinforcements on the way."

Probably the robots, thought Martin. He heard explosions from the speaker before Hermes signed off.

One of the rooms had a prototype of the sky rider that the Baron was now flying. He put the scanner away and ran back through the arched hallway and down the grand stairs to what once must have been an elegant dining room. He pulled the craft into the middle of the room. It was sleek, like a flattened bullet. He opened the clamshell casing and hopped in, thrusting his legs under the axle for the large flywheel that was positioned just in front of the seat.

He pulled the cover down. Through the wind shield, he saw two small jets set at the ends of the axle. There were two other jets, also designed to precess the machine against the fly wheel, to the front and the rear.

He pushed the red toggle switch forward and watched the flywheel begin to spin. He strapped himself in, and as he heard the robot attacker units breaking through the main portcullis, felt a slight tingle and saw a bluish glow to the outer skin as it became electrified with over a four million static volts.

He pulled the yoke back and shot upward. The flywheel kept him stead as a rock. Turing the steering yoke to the right caused the jets to the left and right to fire, pushing down on the axis, which the gyroscopic action of the flywheel turned into a quick spin.

"Martin, can you get out? I'm coming over to pick you up."

Martin grabbed the microphone from his belt.

"Negative. Negative, Hermes. I've got one of his flying machines. I'll be right behind you."

"Okay, move it. We're bugging out."

"I hear you."

By working the yoke and the pedals, he quickly figured out the basic movements and flew out down the length of the room as the robots rushed in from the other side. He aimed for the tall stained glass window at the end of the room and felt the power of the anti-gravity unit shoot him quickly forward.

The sun shone through the pretty blues and yellows of the window which offered no resistance as Martin punched his way through. He came out face to face with the baron's cycle.

Martin jammed his foot on the left petal, intending to zoom around the Baron, but his quick movement threw him into a spin which caused him to tumble forward in the same direction. The Baron's craft flashed past him as a blur of color and as soon as Martin straightened out, he punched forward straight up through the low clouds.

In a short couple seconds, the Baron popped up from the clouds.

"Hermes!"

"Where are you, Martin? Go into psionic mode."

Martin let his mind open to Hermes so that they could exchange information non-verbally so that they were practically thinking as a single person.

A shot from the Baron jolted Martin to the side and for a moment, the blue haze flickered and he suddenly dropped like a rock until the unit came back on-line. He pulled up and found himself under the Baron. Through his psionic contact, and the corner of his eye, Martin saw Hermes shoot up through the clouds.

He unfastened his straps and pushed the yoke forward, increasing his speed, and zoomed directly to the Baron.

He popped the hood. It flew up and was ripped away by the wind.

His ears popped.

Part of him screamed No, but that part of him was Hermes. Martin focused his mind, and at the last possible moment, jumped. His craft crashed into the Baron's, and the electrical aura of the two sparked. As he fell backwards through the clouds, he saw the yellow bright explosion.

He turned over and saw the lake rising fast toward him and he wondered if he would be able to survive if he entered the lake feet first, like the high platform divers.

But he didn't need to worry about that. The Ferrari matched him and flew under him with the passenger window rolled down. Martin shot through, bounced off the dashboard, and knocked Hermes back.

The lake was here, now.

He reached forward from his nearly upside down position in Hermes's lap and grabbed the wheel. He pulled out sideways and skimmed across the water until Hermes pushed him off and pulled them straight, barely missing the pine trees the other end.

"Strap in."

"I'm okay."

"You're insane, is what you are."

"Wo! Buddy! Did you see that?"

"All of Thora saw it. You left the holoscan on."

They circled around and examined the wreckage of the two sky cycles.

"There," Hermes called out, pointing.

A parachute was floating slowly down to the top of the castle.

"Better luck next time, Martin. He ejected."

"I've used up my luck for today. Let's get the hell outta here. It's Miller time, buddy."

"I hate American Beer. Let's go to Germany."

:^D