River King was good to his word and teleported back in twenty six seconds. Lord Glaen shouted over the roaing of the wind generated by the escaping air,"The Ring City will rotate OFF-AXIS in twenty minutes! It'll tear apart then! BILLIONS ARE GOING TO DIE!" King shouted back,"NOT ON MY WATCH!" The little Tapponok hostess was on her knees transfixed by the horror of her home tearing apart, she was helpless. Sunshine pointed and grabbed her mother's wrist."Those people are DYING! We have to do something!" Rose was overwhelmed by the scale of the structure and she wasn't the only one. The Ring City was a necklace of 320 Km long and 64 Km wide habitats circling Tapponok in stationary orbit 36000 kilometers above it's surface. The structure had no windows because it was so close to the class O super-giant star right outside. One of the holes that Lord Death blew through the outside hull lined up with the primary star and a ray of sunlight was setting fire to the interior as they watched. River King shouted,"LISTEN UP! TOXIC! Turn into a big bird and you and Burning bunny girl put out those fires! DON'T LOOK AT ME,GOOFY GIRL! GO!" He picked up Abaddon and threw him like a ragdoll into a lake about a hundred meters away. He hit it with a steaming splash. He said,"SNOWFLAKE! Grab up Rose and Sunny and fly them over lake! Move the lake over that hole over there and FREEZE IT SOLID after floating Abaddon to surface! Sunny sings up Hyperframe grid, Rose fixes Abaddon's broken hyperframe before he burns up. He fought Lord Death! We OWE him! GO,GO,GO!" Snowflake sprinted into motion, still overwhelmed by what she had seen. Rose said to both of the girls,"Concentrate on ONE THING AT A TIME! Don't worry about the big picture!" River King turned to Lord Glaen of Erhlu. "You can save the Ring City! That big hole is like attitude thruster,right? Equal and opposite reaction? Get on opposite side with your starship and push OPPOSITE THE HOLE THRUST? Can you do it?" Rose asked,"When did he learn about ATTITUDE THRUSTERS?" Sunny remarked as Snowflake floated them up and toward the the huge hole spilling water into the void,"Last week! In class! He's a quick study! HEY! I can stars in that hole!" Snowflake shouted into the Four Sisters system,"EMERGENCY POWER-GRAB! NEED AIR AND WATER! ATTACK BY LORD DEATH! ORBITAL HABITAT DAMAGED! MILLIONS ABOUT TO DIE!" Neblae and Lime gave without disscussion, Measure said,"Take mine,too, if needed. Don't even ask!" Snowflake started moving the lake and freezing it over the hole. She figured it would hold for another seventeen minutes until the sunlight hit it. River King grabbed Glaen by the arm,"CAN YOU HELP? I'M NOT HUMAN. THOSE WOMEN ARE NOT HUMAN! You hate humans? RIGHT? CAN YOU HELP US?" Glaen nodded. "I'll do what I can! Who'll plug the seven hundred meter wide hole?" King smiled, "Leave that to me!" He formed a kilometer wide hadron shield and teleported away. Glaen looked over at the frozen lake and the mother and daughter trying their best to save his friend,Abaddon. He clenched a fist and with steely determination teleported to his craft. He moved it to the plotted point and exerted his engines against the trillions of tons of Ring City. The human ship, Nautilus, joined him without any prompting. They must have been already moving to get there so quickly. He had been moved by how animated Abaddon had been after he returned from his meeting with Kali and how she had spoken so passionately about that ship and the people on it. He had seen it the River King's eyes. An eagerness, a zest for life that left Glaen dizzy. He had never seen that kind of glee, that king of joy before of just helping someone. Helping people he didn't even know. He growled with a smile,"Who are you people? What incredible power do you possess to get a Lord of Erhlu bent to your will so easily?" --TO BE CONTINUED!--