"Martya! WAKE UP! We're in trouble!" Martya blinked against the harsh blue-tinged light shining on her clenched eye-lids. She looked straight up into some light-show. She muttered,"Oooh! Purty! Very swirly! Hey! I was...fire....oh---shit!" She swallowed hard and looked around her. "Uh..ehrm...where did all these CYCLOPS come from?" Recon2051, the cyclops nearest her, remarked sarcastically,"WE live here. YOU are just visiting!" The Oracle stepped forward, his four blue eyes glowing in the dim light of the rear of the room. He boomed in a voice so low-pitched, he practically vibrated the room,"Your teleportation to here was not unexpected. The Band of Air was influenced to come here at some point. I am...surprised that two Scavs would be teleporting in. Be warned, Scav-Girl. I know it takes one point six five seconds to power up your artifact. I can show you if I detect you powering your Time-Space Matrix Distortion engine to jump out of here." The quadrupedal Mark 15 behind the Oracle said, as it pointed half it's weaponry at the Revered oracle, said in a hush,"Grandfather of us all...are you an alien being? Do you mean us harm or are is this some kind of mistake?" The other Cyclops were thrown into confusion as wild search. Neither Martya, nor 518 realized that they could have escaped during the confusion. The Mark 15, also called First Mother, shouted loudly and on all frequencies, "EVERYONE SHUT UP! Oracle--explain!" The Oracle shrugged and answered, "I am NOT an alien. I was manufacture here, on this planet. I was built almost four million two hundred thousand years ago by the same beings that built one of the artifacts that this Scav woman is wearing. I do not mean anyone who is native to this planet harm." "The humans of this planet built the Cyclops series of Robot warriors to battle in their armies thousands of years before I returned to this planet. After the fall of civilization, a human named Seth, in the city of Afaris, reactivated the Cyclops and worked his hardest to make you all--Inheritors of the planet Balaam after all the humans died off." "When I and some other aliens came to this world, almost forty years ago, I decided to help Seth realize his dream by upgrading all the Mark Ten and Mark Fifteen Cyclops up to Natural Intelligence! I do not know what became of the two companions I escorted to this planet." "HOWEVER--If the artifacts of the Four Sisters have been activated by Shalmiraine...the world is in the balance and there might not be a planet for any to inherit if the worst happens.These two organics have been selected by probability. Further information from me may destroy the planet." The Oracle paused a long time. He looked at the two Scavs and said in almost a whisper, "I'll speak to the organics. Get me a Doctor who can treat them and draw blood samples for analysis. I'll have to consider who among the Cyclops I CAN talk too with the world unraveling. The wrong word in the right ear can spell doom for us all." The Oracle turned and walked out the far blast-door, which locked behind him. A LONG awkward silence followed. Martya shrugged and lay back down with a loud,"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Cooooool! I was on fire before I got here. You guys need that spot-light on me?" The light went out. She said, "Thanks! Ooooooooh,swirly." 518 heard snores after that. 518 dropped his arms by his side and shook his head. --TO BE CONTINUED!--