Snowflake grumbled as she climbed back out of the escape pod. "All of our weapon energy capacitors are discharged! You know...I HATE Dark Energy bombs. May be the first one I ran across, but I hate them!" Pazu laughed his strange alien bird-like laugh, and chortled,"No one likes them. They DO have their uses." She sighed and waved a hand at the waiting human hundreds of feet away. "Let's go meet the natives." "I'm always in the mood to meet new people. I hope they have some tasty food around here, I'm hungry!" Pazu said as his stomach rumbled loudly. They walked across the stone cobblestones to the hand railing to the mysterious figure. He held some kind of green glass axe-headed staff and was dressed in black and was wearing a pair of goggles that glowed a faint green. He stood there. Snowflake cleared her throat and said lamely,"Uhm...Hi!" He stood there. "We came here by accident. I...hope we didn't break anything. My name is Snowflake. This is Pazu." She fidgeted and looked over at Pazu. Pazu exclaimed,"HI! I'm Pazu, a Melcosi Space alien! ....You know? From SPACE?" Pazu looked at the man. He stood there. Snowflake thought of the most cliche line she could, "Ahhh...Take me to your leader!" The man responded in a measured tone,"I'm the leader." His voice was deep and flat in tone. He turned to Snowflake and asked,"Are you a robot?" She frowned, and was surprised at the feeling of movement on her face, and shouted,"NO, I'M NOT...a robot. Sorry. Didn't mean to shout. Not a robot." "Take off your helmet." The man said with no emotion in his voice. "Why? To look at my head?" She took it off and set it on the handrail upright. "FINE! There! Now what?" "Come closer." The man had no expression on his face as he said that. She picked up no clues from her other sensors. He was biological, and was perfectly calm to the point of being spooky. She stepped closer to the man. He yanked her hair hard. She exclaimed,"OW!" She broke away from him, punching him in face. He rocked back on his heels. A small run of blood ran down from a nostril as he made a sound like,"Mmf." She stepped back and angrily asked,"WHAT IN HELL are you doing? That was RUDE! You remind me of my cousin, Livewire! He'd always pull on my ears, and run off laughing! I'd punch him in the head,too! At least you didn't run off, I'll give you that." The man smiled and laughed. Snowflake stamped a foot after a minute, then Pazu joined in a bit. The man said,"I am Sen, hetman of the tribe of Blue Gorge. Only the strongest warriors can wield the Glass Axe. We fear the robots of the Queen of the North, They attack us for resources sometimes." "Here in the Underworld, we work while we have light. Night is falling. The unlit areas are very dangerous when the sun sets. Come with me." He turned and walked off. Snowflake grabbed up her helmet and both she and Pazu leaped over the handrail. Snowflake caught up with Sen and asked him,"Who is the Queen of the North? My friends went down north of here, about three hundred kilometers?" "Mmmmf. That's too bad. That's in her territory. Malbess is reknown for her cruelty." He was back to sounding flat and emotionless. Snowflake grabbed his arm in shock, and exclaimed,"Are you KIDDING ME? MALBESS?" He nodded. "Malbess, empress of the Frozen planet, and Queen of Friggia. She rules this world." Pazu started laughing and couldn't stop,"MALBESS? Oh my GOD! Malbess?" Snowflake sighed and threw her hands in the air, saying,"It's STUPEFYING! I'm sure OUR Malbess will enjoy hearing about some place where her old show is still playing! On a post-nuclear winter ice-world, no less! Great. Neblae will enjoy this tale!" They followed the man through a darkened doorway into a warmly lit room. --TO BE CONTINUED!--