Once again, Lurk stood on the bare patch of ground outside Yodel's hut. He stared fixedly at the stick balanced atop the log. He closed his eyes and extended his hand.
"No more carrots," he muttered to himself.
He reached out with his mind, examined the Source, found the stick. Carefully, he imagined wrapping his fingers around it, clutching it, drawing it close to him.
On the log, the stick wobbled.
Lurk slowly curled his fingers, beckoning the stick to come to him.
Slowly, the stick lifted off the log. It floated through the air, and Lurk opened his hand again. It sailed neatly into his waiting fingers, and he clutched it triumphantly.
"Haha!" he shouted, "I did it." He opened his eyes.
Yodel nodded. "Good," he said. "Control, you have learned."
Lurk lifted the stick out before him. He released it with his fingers, and it hovered in the air. Slowly at first, Lurk began to make it turn end over end, faster and faster, until it was a spinning blur.
Suddenly he cried out. As his attention slipped, the stick shot through the air and drove itself into the rotten old log. Lurk collapsed to his knees and gripped his head in his hands.
"Mal," he whispered. "Libby."
Yodel looked on, concerned. Closing his eyes, he reached out and gently shielded the youth from the ripples in the Source which were causing him so much pain.
Lurk sagged. "They're in trouble," he said. "Mal and Libby." He frowned. "She's on the Sparrow? I thought she'd gone with her transport?" A look of confusion crossed his face, but he blinked it away. "They're in a city in the clouds. They're in pain. I must go to them."
"The future it is that you see," said Yodel. "Always in motion, the future is. Happen this may, or not."
"Will they die?"
Yodel shrugged. "Everybody dies," he said simply.
"And Jubbly masters always speak in riddles," said Lurk, "but you know what I'm asking. Will they die?"
Yodel sighed. Closing his eyes again, he stretched out his awareness, studying the patterns in the Source. "Difficult to see," he said at last. "Bound to your friends, you are. Muddy the waters, your intentions do." He opened his eyes and looked up at his young Patabum apprentice. "Die now, however, I do not think they will."
"Nonetheless, I must go," said Lurk. "If I can stop them from suffering, I have to go."
"Beware, young Splitwhisker," said Yodel. "If you go, help them you might. But unready you will be. Incomplete your training is. If to the Hard Side the Imperator lures you, undo everything they are fighting for you will."
"I shall not turn to the Hard Side," said Lurk. "Besides, I am not going to face the Imperator. Not yet. And Vapour is ... elsewhere. All I'm doing is getting in, freeing my friends, and getting out."
Yodel shifted his weight and leaned on his stick more heavily. "A trap this is," he said at last. "Wants you, the Imperator does. Made to suffer, your friends are, to lure you."
"And that is why I must go," said Lurk.
Yodel sighed. "Your father's stubbornness you have in you! A bad feeling I have about this. But do what you must, you must."
"Er, yeah," said Lurk. "Trust me. I shall return to complete my training."
"Very well," said Yodel. "Keep you here I cannot."
Lurk had to bend double to enter the front door of Yodel's hut. He rummaged through his small pile of belongings until he found his communicator.
"Arty," he said into it, "are you there?"
There was a long pause, and then Arty's bleeped response came from the small device.
"Everything okay up there?"
One beep. Yes.
"Can you home in on the coordinates of my signal, Arty?"
One beep. Yes.
"Okay. I want you to land the ship as near to my location as possible. There is a large dry clearing just a short distance north of here. It's time for us to leave."
Arty beeped and whistled excitedly.
"Talk to you when you get here," said Lurk. He shut the comm off, then shoved it into his bag. Hastily he grabbed his few scattered belongings and threw them in on top of the comm.
Yodel was waiting for him when he got outside. Together, in silence, they walked through the tangled scrub towards the clearing.
Lurk heard the whine of the Cross-wing's engines as Arty brought it in to land. By the time they pushed aside the final clump of vegetation, the Cross-wing was waiting for them.
Lurk turned to the diminutive Jubbly master.
"Thank you, Master Yodel, for everything you have taught me. I won't let you down."
"Trust in the Source," said Yodel. "Save you, it can."
"I will, Master Yodel. And I promise I shall return." Lurk clambered up into the cockpit of his fighter. He ran a quick diagnostic to confirm that all systems were functioning properly, then flicked a few switches, starting the main engines.
He waved to Yodel. The Jubbly Master nodded gravely in return. "Remember your lessons, young Splitwhisker," he said."
"I will, Master Yodel!" Lurk hit the switch to close the cockpit canopy.
"Ready, Arty?" he asked.
Arty bleeped in the affirmative.
Lurk pulled back on the stick, and the Cross-wing lifted slowly into the air. Once they were clear of the trees, Lurk angled skyward and accelerated away from Daggyboil.
Yodel stood watching the lights of Lurk's ship disappear into the cloud cover. He sighed.
"There goes our last hope," he said.
No, said a voice. The shimmering, ghostly figure of Bent K'nobby stepped into view. There is another.
"Labia?" said Yodel. "Perhaps. I do not think she has the power or the ability that her brother has. Let us hope it does not come to that."
Bent sat down on a fallen log. I have a question, Master Yodel. I never dared to ask while I was alive, but now...
"A question, young K'nobby?" said Yodel. "Then ask it you must."
Bent stared at his former master. What's with the convoluted speech patterns? he asked at last. Sometimes you slip out of them.
Yodel shrugged, and chuckled. "You caught me. What can I say? It impresses the punters..."
In the middle of the ramshackle old settlement, an old man stood in the centre of the street, watching the lights of the ship lifting through the cloud cover until they finally were lost from view. He looked down at the rickety, rusty old buildings which surrounded him, then raised his eyes once more to the skies. There was no sign that the ship was going to come back down.
After a long moment, he sighed.
"Figures," he said.