Free Flidoring The Early Wars by Roger W. Hayes Page B

of energy and virtually everything was run by the electric grid. They even grew their food inside the caves using grow-lights powered by the grid.
    Lyemad knew that the Furzonians like to tell stories so he asked Huglam, “What—if I may ask you Huglam—was the chain of events that led to you becoming the Supreme Ruler?”
    “Ah, yes you may, and that is a very interesting story,” Huglam said while grabbing a large, blue piece of fruit. “Please, everyone, help yourselves.” He continued, “This story starts a long time ago when I was just a young boy. My marvelous father—may his brown bones turn to rock—had taken me on a climbing hike in the Deep Spike Mountain-range just north of our city. It was a warm summer’s day, which was much warmer back then. Much of the snow had melted from the peaks, and the wildflowers and grasses were covering the valley floors.”
    “It sssoundsss beautiful,” exclaimed Tessslan, just before he sank his teeth into a big, juicy, red and black-striped piece of fruit.
    “It was truly glorious,” resumed Huglam, “nothing can compare to the canvas of colors laid out in that valley on that day. The sky was pale-blue, and the mountains were layered gray and black with a few white peaks. The flowers spanned the colors of the rainbow, and the new grass was a brilliant green. The climb, however, was steep and treacherous, with overhanging cliffs and narrow ledges. The rocks were damp and slippery from the morning dew. Each step higher into the mountains brought with it increased danger and challenge. We had been in the highlands for about two hours when I pulled myself up onto a small outcrop, and right there in front of my eyes I saw it.”
    “What was it, some sort of a monster?” inquired Bichael, in-between crunching on some green nuts.
    “No, no,” insisted Huglam, “there are no monsters on Furzon. This was a sight that would change the course of my life and the future of our race.” He paused for a moment. “Lying there on a jagged piece of rock was a small, white and barely alive, Nick bird. It had probably tried to fly out of a nest on a ledge above us, or possibly it was bumped out by a sibling. At any rate, it had crashed not long before our arrival and was no doubt suffering. I gently scooped it up and placed it in my backpack, carefully tucking soft ropes around it for protection. We climbed back down the mountain and went straightway to the city, where I spent the next five light-cycles nursing it back to health.”
    “That was surely heroic,” said Bellmus, “but how did that change your life or the lives of your people?”
    “An excellent question,” said Huglam. “The Nick bird is very rare and it is a symbol of love and commitment amongst our people. After it became healthy again, it decided to stay with me even though I tried to let it go back to the mountains. For many years, as I grew older, I watched that Nick fly effortlessly around our house. One day I decided to build a replica of it, to see if I could understand the principle of flight. My first few attempts were a total disaster, but finally I was able to make one that glided from one side of the city cave to the other, with the help of some compressed air stored in a rubber bladder inside its body. My little ‘Nick-O-Light’ not only became a popular toy, but it also led to us thinking about sky and space travel.”
    “Now that is an amazing story,” said Lyemad, “but there must be more to it.”
    “Very insightful my young friend,” said Huglam. “Indeed, the story does continue. After a few years of testing prototypes, I decided that we needed a way to communicate with the Nick-O-Lights if we were going to leave the security of Furzon. We had long known that electricity gives off particles that certain types of equipment could detect. I was able to put together a transmitter and receiver that enabled us to have two-way communications. In the process, we inadvertently picked up