50

Before Orion's meeting with Hyder, there was another worldwide set of tremors, which had people talking
worriedly for days. He missed the news report on it this time around, because it was time to hunt something for
dinner, but he'd asked a few of the other Thunderians about it, and they'd told him willingly enough. Seems
that this interesting new event had people willing to gossip.

The most information he'd gotten on the subject happened to be from one of the builders that had helped build
Orion's home. He had a shop in town with hi partner, Leona, and Orion worked there from time to time to earn
coin for what he bought in the markets and shops. "I've been hearin' the strangest things," Nagiri said with a
chuckle, shaking his head. "I've heard everything from core-dwelling sentients, to magnetic weaponry from Plundaar that's causin' these tremors."

Despite himself, Orion had to laugh. "Magnetic? Core dwelling...people?"

"Yep, that's about it. The thing I've heard sayin' that makes about the most sense is that there's some kind of
geothermal reactions goin' on beneath the surface of the planet. Don't think it'll come to much, myself, but then again, that's what the expert say, too." Nagiri laughed. "You know what it means if an expert says somethin', don't you?"

Suspecting, Orion grinned. "What?"

"It means the exact opposite's bein' true. In that case, the world's gonna end tomorrow." He winked, and moved on.
Orion shook his head. Nagiri was a strange one, no doubt about it.

But he didn't have long to dwell on this, as his visit with Hyder was coming on fast. he'd talked to him on e
more and told him about the landquakes, and Hyder had been just as puzzled as the Thunderians were. "Planet
wide?" he'd said. "That's just weird. Hope they're keepin' an eye on that."

"Oh they are," Orion assured them. "Big time."

But now was the day for the visit. Orion was told that Hyder would likely be questioned by some of the officers
(and he was assured that Hyder had quite willingly agreed to this beforehand) about various things on Plundaar.
Hyder apparently had said ahead of time that he'd not give anything away that might endanger his people and
his planet, but he would gladly tell anything else.

This bugged Orion a little bit, because he felt they were taking advantage of Orion and Hyder's visit, but at least
this would be done beforehand, and their four days would be theirs alone.

And when he thought of what the Mutants had done to his village...he certainly couldn't blame them for wanting
to get as much information on them as possible.

Orion and Falcon were escorted onto a high-security military base. not the lair; despite everything, they still
hadn't wanted one of the "enemy" so near their king. Orion tried not to be too annoyed at that; after all, they
did not know as well as Orion how decent of a man Hyder was. They didn't have his certainty that if Hyder said
he wouldn't; harm the king, that he wouldn't; even try.

He forgot all of this as he walked into the docking bay, where Hyder had just landed. The young man stepped
out of his ship (a civilian make), and Orion noticed he did not have his weapon.

Hyder's face broke into a huge grin, and he laughed, stepping forward and grabbing Orion into a strong embrace.
Grinning himself, Orion returned the embrace, squeezing the hyena tightly for a moment before drawing back.

"You've got no idea how good it is to see you again," Hyder said to Orion.

"I think I can make a guess," Orion laughed.

Hyder willingly enough gave his bag over to an officer to search it. At least they didn't have their weapons
draw, Orion thought, although there were four or five of them in there. Orion's bag, also packed for four days of
being away from home, was also searched.

When the bags were pronounced safe, Orion and Hyder were led to a corridor with "Guest corridor" marked
above it in yellow paint. "There's no one else visiting at the moment," the grim-faced officer said, showing
them a pair of adjacent rooms. "There are small bathrooms in these quarters. There is a gym here that you will
be allowed to use if you like, and there's a fenced in yard that our high security guests are allowed to go into.
Those and the cafeteria will be the only places you're allowed in. Someone will be by later to show you where
things are." Without waiting for a reply. the officer left.

Orion rolled his eyes.

"That cat's got a face like a monkian," Hyder said quietly, and Orion laughed.

"Hey now, don't insult the monkians," Orion said with a grin, and it was Hyder's turn to laugh. "Well let's check these out."
The rooms were big enough, and had a bed, a closet, a chest of drawers, and a small telescreen.

"Hey, there's Tel-S's in here," Hyder said with a grin. "Cool. We can watch the screen if we want to." There
was also an intercom by the doors. He had a little black box in his hands, but Orion was too interested in hearing about what had been happening in his friend's life to ask about it.

"Sounds like a plan."

The two friends talked for an hour or so in Plundaarian, while they waited for their guided tour. Lounging on
the bed, Hyder told Orion all what had been going on with the organization, and how they were faring. It had
grown, even in just a few months, and Hyder expected its numbers to grow. "People are tired of the
persecution," Hyder said to Orion, shaking his head. "They're tired of the tyranny, and their tired of the slavery.
A lot of them were slaves themselves, and know what it's like." Hyder grinned, and leaned close to Orion.
"And we've got some more financial backing, which we sorely needed. And guess who?"

Not able to think of who it could be that he was familiar with, shook his head.

"Lady Hintracrii."

Orion's eyes widened, and he laughed. "You're kidding!"

Hyder shook his head and leaned back against the wall again. "Nope! Talked to her a few times.." He smiled.

"She remembers you, Orion. I told her what had happened to you...and about how you'd swum that river and
everything, and you shoulda seen how proud she was of you for that."

Orion beamed "Wow...I'm really honored she remembers me," he said. "I'm glad she's helping you out."

"Yeah, and we've even gotten a few more that managed to get away from Blackmoor's complex ere." Hyder
laughed. "Seems they got quite an underground there now! After we escaped, and people saw that it was possible..."
Better news could not have been said. Orion laughed long over that, and finally lay on his back on the bed, his
belly sore from laughing. "Hyder that's the best thing you could've said to me!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah." Hyder's expression sobered a bit. "Blackmoor's not dead though," he said. "I finally got the information on what happened to him."

"Aw, fuck."

"Yeah, that's what I said. It was close though, Orion. You sent him to the hospital with that beating you gave
him. Seems he was actually in a coma for a month or so, and was a couple of week recovering even from that."

Orion winced. "Hope he wasn't too hard on everyone when he got back."

Hyder shook his head. "No According to a couple of the adults that are with us now, he wasn't really harder than
normal on anyone. I figure that as mad as he was, if he let his temper take over that he'd kill people, and he
really can't afford to lose anyone."

Orion nodded. "Phiron's part of that underground, isn't he?" he guessed.

"Right in one. I hear there's some taskmasters who are actually a part of it too, but I don't know if that's true
or not.

Orion looked satisfied. "Good." Then a rather unpleasant grin surfaced on his features. "I hope he was in
pain," he said savagely. "I hope he felt pain while he was in that coma. I hope he felt it when he came out of
it...that bastard."

"You and me both."

This talk was interrupted by a knock on the door. It was one of the other officers, who had been assigned to show the guests around. There were little maps on the walls, he explained, labeling where everything was. There was Basic and Thunderian.

She showed them where the gym was, the cafeteria, and the yard, which turned out to be a pleasant little garden
type place with a fountain and trees and some flowers. It was covered top, sides, and bottom by wire fencing,
and there were cameras. but other than that, it looked quire pleasant.

She told them that it was time for lunch. There would be only officers and other employees there, but no one
would bother them, as they all had their orders.

They ate lunch quickly in the cafeteria, after being told they weren't allowed to bring the trays to their rooms. It
was against the rules of the base. Anything they got from the vending machines along the wall, however, were
permitted.

After lunch, they went out into the yard. Hyder had until then seen only the inside of ships, transports, and
bases. Orion wanted to show him, like he remembered wanting to do all those years ago, the brilliant blue sky,
and the bright red sun of the planet. He very sad, remembering when they talked of escaping and coming to
live as brothers here on Thundera. But at least now he could show his friend the sky.

Once outside, Hyder closed his eyes, wincing, and Orion grinned. He remembered that feeling!

"How do you see on this planet?" Hyder demanded, opening his eyes the smallest crack.

Orion cackled, looking rather gleeful at his friend's predicament. "Hey, you get used to it. When I first came
here, I couldn't see much outside, either. You'll be fine in a bit. here, let's go over in the shade."

"Jeez...I think I'll melt or something here," Hyder griped, and let Orion lead him into the shade. "Okay...that's
a little better."

Still, it was several minutes before Hyder could look up at the cloudless blue sky, and he gaped. "I've...seen it
in books," he said finally. "But those pictures...wow. I'm not sure that you could even convey this in a picture."

"Pretty cool," Orion said, nodding his head. He smiled a bit sadly. "Remember when we talked about coming
back here when we escaped?" he said. "I wanted so bad to show you this sky."

"Yeah," Hyder said, looking back down to Orion. "We were talking about scavenger hunts."

Closing his eyes, Orion nodded, and laughed. "Yeah...I remember how I wouldn't say "bra" aloud. At least not
so other people but you could hear it." He looked at Hyder. "I missed you Hyder, that's for sure. Got your
letter." he smiled. "And the pictures. Oh, that reminds me, I have a current one of me to give you, it's back in
my bag."

Hyder smiled, hugging the smaller man. Orion let a few tears slip, but then looked at Hyder in shocked surprise
when the hyena slugged him in the arm. "You're it." Then he took off running.

Orion blinked for several moments and then laughed, calling Hyder a rather uncomplimentary word in Plundaarian. He tore after him.

The two men spent the rest of the day playing childish games, living a bit of the childhood that was denied them
when they were actually children. The soldier that came out to tell them that dinner was nearly ready to be
served in the cafeteria, and that the yard was closed after dinner, looked at them a bit strangely as they raced
past him, chasing each other.

Panting, Orion and Hyder trudged towards the door. They were both tired, but had grins on their faces. The soldier shrugged, let them in, and locked the door.

"How do you know there's no bugs or cameras in the room?" Orion asked Hyder after dinner. They'd asked if
they could being a cot in so they could bunk together like they used to, and it had been granted. They were going to take turns using the "real" bed. Orion now lay on the cot.

Hyder grinned and pulled out a little black, thin box. It was about as wide as his palm, and twice as long as his
palm's length. "A mini-computer," he said, opening it up. There was a tiny keyboard and a screen, and a few
buttons and levers. Orion laughed.

"That's neat!' he said as Hyder turned it on.

"Yeah, it's one of the latest models. You can play games on this thing, scan for a pretty wide distance for such
a small machine. There's a mike for the little radio transmitter but it takes too much power, so I don't use it a
lot." He looked at Orion. "I told them what it was and they said they'd allow it. I scanned the room when we
came in."

"Oh, that's what that was!" Orion said. "Good, that makes me feel better. I wouldn't want anyone hearing some of this stuff.
Hyder nodded. "It also beeps loudly if someone's been outside the door for longer than they should, too."

Hyder and Orion spent much of their time together talking of old times and whether this person had ever gotten his freedom, or if that taskmaster was dead yet. Things along those lines. They spoke quietly of Hyder's organization, and how that was going, and Orion was pleased that it was going so well. As Hyder had said, they had many more members now, and more financial backing. "I think that we'll soon be able to stand up to the government and openly declare what we think. Openly recruit. I mean, they can't kill all of us!"

At this Orion had bitten his lip. "Hyder, you be careful doing that. You're one of the leaders. If they did kill anyone, it would be you.

"What, are you crazy? We wouldn't do that until we had enough people that the government would have to think very carefully about going after us. And even then we'd have safeguards and the like to protect everyone."

Orion had nodded at this, his mind put at ease.

"One thing worries me, though. The armies have been talking of working together. The three main factions on
Plundaar."

Orion raised a brow. "The monkians, and jackalmen..."

Hyder nodded. "And the reptilians. If that happens, they will be a good deal harder to deal with." Hyder
grinned. "But then none of them are hyenas, so there's not a whole lot to worry about!"

Orion snorted. "Yeah, right."

Chapter 51

Table of Contents
ThunderCat Stories Page
Main Page