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QUETZAL'S FLOCK<br />
situations which otherwise would have gone badly. He felt a surge of mocking<br />
acknowledgement.<br />
He fell asleep still clutching the Pentacle. He could have expected that it was<br />
the appropriate time for him to go visiting. He found himself floating in the utter<br />
vastness of intergalactic space. This was not simply the space between the stars. This<br />
was something outside of his experience. He was far remote from the familiar orbital<br />
paths and transits he had known in the Solar System.<br />
Far distant from him were many tiny spiral galaxies. He knew that one of them<br />
had to be his own - and yet, he was totally separated from it - utterly alone. He didn't<br />
know how he knew which one, but he did. It might have been the nearest, he couldn't<br />
judge - it wasn't important. He looked around him, trying to determine the purpose for<br />
him being there. Everything was emptiness, excepting for one star which stood remote<br />
from any other, isolated in the vastness. It was immense, powerful, pumping out a<br />
blue-white incandescence. He should have been blinded but he wasn't. It was majestic<br />
and defiant. An aberration which had resulted when the nearer galaxies had been<br />
created. Somehow it had been isolated.<br />
The scene changed and he was in utter darkness. Every pinpoint of light had<br />
been extinguished. There was no sound, everything was at rest - no movement.<br />
Nothing to excite the senses; stillness. A voice said mildly.<br />
"Kane Ashford - this will be your punishment if you resist our will and<br />
disobey!"<br />
It was almost a whisper, but after the total stillness, it sounded like a thunder<br />
clap. The voice continued.<br />
"You are beyond the expanding edge of the universe. You are far more distant<br />
than the star you saw earlier. Light from the galaxies has not reached this place yet,<br />
nor will it do so, until the universe is a thousand million of your years older. Can you<br />
doubt the power of the Masters of Psi? Can you doubt the power of Quetzal, who is<br />
our brother? We have brought you here - can you defy us? Would you like to remain<br />
with your thoughts for a thousand million years? With only your thoughts, longing<br />
and waiting for the moment when you will see the first pinpoint of light to break your<br />
darkness? Not knowing if we might not move you further away, because it is our will<br />
to do so?"<br />
The voice stopped and he was left for an eternity to consider the questions. At<br />
the end of the eternity, the voice thundered again.<br />
"That was a period of ten of your minutes. Consider the subject of obedience,<br />
my servant."<br />
The voice faded and they turned the screws by leaving him in the state of nonstimulation<br />
of the senses, until he thought he would go mad. Abruptly, the great<br />
fireball of the blue-white sun, seared his eyes. He wept with relief. He thanked them<br />
abjectly. They gave no sign of hearing - but he was sure that they did.<br />
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