Chapter 15

It was six seconds before Bix Banderson reappeared, but it was a long six seconds by anyone's count.

He rose, impossibly from thin air, hands on his hips and a cocky grin on his face. He was six or eight feet

away from the edge of the building, seemingly floating in the middle of nowhere, and gradually

rising into full view, cape flapping dramatically in the wind. He looked very pleased with himself,

even by his standards. You hear that, everybody? He called me Bix.

No one spoke.

The face of every person on the rooftop was frozen in astonishment,

as were all of the faces in the great hall below,

and the hundreds of millions of faces glued to screens around the planet.

What the actual snib is going on?

Echo called at last.

Vicks's boots floated into view, and with them came the explanation for everything.

He was not actually floating at all, but standing on a new-looking but somehow very familiar

spaceship.

Twin Tom Tom-Tom guns folded out of the ship on either side of the fuselage.

Shieldbuster 7 photon missile arrays whirled and ready to launch.

The forward laser array glowed green with pulsing energy, prepared to let fly in an instant.

Keep your hands off of my captain.

The ship's voice roared.

Freebird!

The rest of her crew cried as the queens of Grathol raised their hands in surrender.

...