In the midst of the fiery turmoil of his heart and mind, Astro heard a distant link, "God help us!"

Suddenly he was back. The nightmare vision was gone, and the soft light of the moon shone through the opening in the log wall where a window might go one day. Berq'an was still lying beside him, desperately clutching his hand and muttering "Oh God. Oh God. Oh God."

Astro linked, "Hey, it's gone."

Berq'an opened its eyes, startled. "Oh. It is, too." It scrambled to its knees and linked, "Thank God! That was awful! That was horrible! I never want to see it again! What was it?"

"It's the heart of Adversary, who's completely rejected God. It's what life totally without God looks like. By the way: Thank you; you saved my life."

It stared at him for a moment. "You're really okay?" Astro nodded. "I'm so happy!"

"Berq'an."

"Yeah?"

"Adversary lied. I'm not alone." He smiled. "You're not alone."

Berq'an thought about it for a moment. "Heh. We misfit together well, don't we?"

"We do. And God's best destiny for me ..." He closed his eyes. It was brutally hard for him to accept, but he knew it was true. "My destiny now is to be without Luna."

"How do you figure that?"

"Because, if Adversary had really wanted her dead, he wouldn't have made a special trip to bug me about it. Which means that, for some reason, her death, and my life without her, is a big problem for him; and that makes me happy—well, at least somewhat."

Berq'an giggled, and Evan-sa stirred.

"How are you, Astro?" she asked.

Astro sat up. "Pretty good, actually. Ready to get back into the fight."

"Good. That's the Astro I remember."

"What is it?" demanded President Tremorten, seated comfortably in his office chair, sipping his morning coffee and nibbling at some fresh orange—no rationing for Mella's supporters.

"Mr. President," said his minister of science, his image shimmering in the centre of the floor. "Our solar satellites have detected some worrisome activity on the surface of the sun. There's a large sunspot that is threatening to generate a major X-class flare. Our experts think that, if it does occur, there may be immediate danger of an unusually massive CME."

"X-class flare? CME? Speak Wesaiminish, for goodness sake!"

"I'm sorry, sir. I meant an explosion on the surface of the sun. The coronal mass ejection—the CME—would be a cloud of electrically charged particles that the sun throws off occasionally."

"So what's the problem?"

"If it's as big as they're forecasting, and it hits us full on, it would set up dangerous ground currents in the Earth. We may need to take our entire electrical grid off-line in two days to prevent the possibility of massive damage to our infrastructure."

The president sat up straight. "Are you certain of this?"

"Well, no sir, but the forecast at this time is that there's a fifty percent probability."

He settled back in his chair. "Oh, that's all. Don't worry about it then. Call me back if the odds start getting worse."

"But ..."

"That's all, Bento," Tremorten said testily, and cut the connection.

"What's wrong?" Flin-bik asked Zog when he found him looking confused in the yard in front of the farmhouse a couple of days later.

"I can't raise the web," Zog said. "The phone service is out too. I don't understand."

"Maybe there's something gone wrong with your radio. Let me try."

"There can't be anything wrong; my blue energy would fix it right away."

"Oh, that's right; I forgot. And I'm not getting anything either. You think we should go to Robovale undercover and see if the humans there know what's going on?"

"Let's go check with Astro about that first, just in case."

"Sure."

"You're right," said Astro to Zog as he checked the radio spectrum. "I'm not even getting the channels that normally don't go off in an emergency."

"What could have happened out there?" asked Flin-bik.

"I've heard of solar storms sometimes causing electrical problems, but nothing this big."

"So is it okay for us to go check out Robovale?" Zog asked.

"Sure, why not? If this is as big as it looks like, they'll be too busy to be checking for random androids." He grinned.

"That's for sure," said Flin-bik. "Let's go."

"See Hamegg first," Astro added. "If anybody knows anything, he will."

Zog and Flin-bik had to walk, since, for security reasons, the androids had cut back flying to mission activity only. Once they got to the highway, they were surprised to find cars abandoned here and there along the side of the road.

Zog got into one and turned it on. "It's an autopilot model," he said after playing with the controls. "With the web down, it won't run."

"So they had to leave them?"

"I guess. Either that or wait for somebody to give them a ride in a free-pilot one."

They got onto the old railway line where it passed near the road, and headed to Hamegg's place.

"This is really bad," Zane told them when he let them into the shop later. "There's been food rationing for a month now, and Hamegg's saying the power's going to be out for a while—like months or years maybe. Everything we've got in the refrigerator and freezer is going to spoil."

"I've got nothing else to feed my kids," said Hamegg, a note of worry in his voice, as he came up from the back.

"Let's take them back to the farm with us," said Flin-bik eagerly.

"I don't know," said Zog. "The humans might not like it."

"Well, get Dragon to ask, or something, but we've got to help them!"

"Okay, okay."

While Zog was busy with that, Hamegg asked Flin-bik, "Did you see any fires around here on your way in to town?"

"I think so," he answered. "But they weren't very big; you know, columns of smoke all over the place."

Hamegg nodded. "Transformer fires, it sounds like. I have a friend in Sanpacho with an interest in astronomy who I chat with now and again, and he told me the other day that the sun had erupted, and to look out for this kind of event. Why didn't the government do something to prepare? They must have known."

Flin-bik shrugged as Zog turned back to them.

"Dragon says they're okay with it," he said, "so let's get them ready to go."

"How far is it to this farm?" Hamegg asked. When Zog told him, he exclaimed, "And how are you proposing to get them there? Walk?"

"Um, yeah," said Zog. "That's how we got here, and it's not like we have a car or anything like that."

"Well, I still have a car, so we'll pack in as many as we can—with one of you in the front to navigate—and get them there that way. We might be able to do it in two trips, if I don't run out of fuel first." He scowled. "That's rationed too."

"Are there any more appointments today?" President Tremorten asked his computer from where he stood at the window.

"No, Mr. President," said the robotic voice. "What are your intentions for the rest of the day?"

"Call Brimney Locken for me."

"Yes, sir."

"Victoro," exclaimed his friend's image from the centre of the floor when the connection was complete. "What can I do for you today?"

"Are you up for a round or two of tennis this afternoon?"

"Why certainly. How does two o'clock sound?"

"Perfect. I'll see you then."

"Excellent. Do bring the wife. Emmy would be so put out if she didn't come."

"But of course I'll bring her. Have no fear of that. At two."

"At two." Locken looked like he had more to say.

"Yes, Brimney?" asked the president.

"Uh, Emmy and I just wanted to say 'thank you' for that heads-up you gave us about the sun storm yesterday. That was brilliant. I was able to notify all of my branch offices and take precautions to prevent any damage."

"Glad to be of assistance. We disciples of the Holy One must stick together in these difficult times, after all."

Locken bowed deeply. "May the Holy One live forever."

Tremorten bowed as well. "Forever."

The connection ended.

Astro scanned around the farm as far as he could see from the androids' house. "Ran-tan?" he radioed finally. "Where you at?"

"I'm over here helping with the construction of Hamegg's house."

"Oh, of course. Could you do something for me tomorrow?"

"Sure. What have you got in mind?"

"I'd really like to know how our farms are doing around the world, with what's happened because of the solar storm."

"You sure that's safe?"

"I'd be really surprised if there was radar working, since I haven't been able to even detect air traffic control."

"Okay then. I assume you want Evan-sa to stay behind so I can report in."

"That would be really helpful."

"We can do that," radioed Evan-sa. "I don't mind."

"This is unreal!" Ran-tan linked as he soared over the first city he had come to.

Evan-sa stared through her husband's eyes at the scene below him. Pitched battles were taking place in and around grocery stores, and looters were running wild, snatching whatever they thought they could use. Dead and dying could be seen everywhere. "They're terrified," she linked back.

"Yup," said Ran-tan. "They've got no clue what to do without power. But listen to this." He linked in his radio receiver, and she heard a newscast from one of the popular web services.

"You mean there's still power out there?"

"As near as I can tell, only the rich have got it."

Ran-tan could feel anger smouldering in Evan-sa's link. "That has to be the most evil thing I've ever heard of," she said.

"Tell me about it."

"I feel so sorry for those poor people."

"Me too, except they did choose to go along with Mella, and this is where it's gotten them. He can't protect them like our God protects us."

"Won't protect them, you mean."

"Well, that too. But he's just a human."

"We can't do any better. We're just androids."

"But we don't claim to be God."

"True enough. Where's the next farm?"

"Five hundred kilometres southeast of here. I'm on my way."

"Astro!" radioed Orkan from the entrance to the farm that looked out onto the highway to Robovale the afternoon Ran-tan returned from his week-long tour. "We've got a problem."

"On my way," Astro responded, and ran over to where Orkan was manning the gate.

He didn't need to ask what was up when he got there: Hundreds of weary-looking humans of all ages stood huddled in groups along the roadway, and a well-dressed middle-aged man stood beside Orkan.

"What do they want? Astro asked.

"We heard you had food here," said the man. "We lost all of ours in the power failure, and we haven't got the courage to stand up to the looters in the city. We're scared, and we're starving."