Dirk Tungsten sat inside the narrow waiting room, just outside of the Great Hall of Science. Inside, the Council of 28 sat, pondering his fate. The Council ruled the planetwide city which was Megalonopolis. Though it would only remain in control for another fifteen minutes.

“Mr. Tungsten, sir?” The voice of the small robotic page echoed, oddly amplified, through the room. The page was only half as tall as Dirk, but that was more than enough height for it to perform its dual tasks of announcing people and opening doors. “The Council requests your presence at this time.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want to disappoint the Council, now would we?” Dirk stood and walked towards the door. “But tell me, are they in a good mood?”

“I am merely a P323-C83 sir, and am not equipped for detailed conversational analysis. I humbly apologize for my shortcomings,” the page said, seemingly close to tears, were it programmed for such a thing.

“Aw, don’t get your positrons in a cascade loop. Here, go get yourself some...er...whatever it is you robot types get.” He flipped a five credit coin to the robotic page, which squealed in delight and zoomed out of the room. Dirk turned and entered the Great Hall.

The Council of 28 had ruled the planet of Megalonopolis for over two hundred years. Their first order of business had been to construct the Great Hall of Science, both as a shining example of Megalonian ingenuity and as a comfortable meeting place. However, science, especially in a society so science-oriented as to name their capital the Great Hall of Science, has a tendency of marching on, making the place rather obsolete after a period of time.

To combat this, the entire Great Hall was redesigned every now and then. In fact, assuming the Council was to remain in power for longer than ten minutes, such a redesign was on the schedule for discussion. That assumption, of course, was seriously flawed.

Consequently, the Great Hall Dirk stepped into was at least five years behind the times. He couldn’t help but notice the aging Quintophonic Holographic Matrices being used to project the scowling visages of the councilmembers. The resolution was truly awful. To Dirk’s trained eye, less than ten million colors could be made out. Hardly enough to do justice to the shades of red racing their way across First Councilmember Darad Vixnik’s face.

“TUNGSTEN!”, Vixnik roared. “Er...sorry about that. Volume control seems to be off. Tungsten!”

Dirk merely glanced at each of the councilmembers. Ignord Pal, with his crowded features and intense gaze. Trapi Caltos, whose eyes seemed to focus on a point three feet behind him. (Though with these holograms, it was hard to tell.) And then there were the 25 others, but Dirk’s examination of the room was cut short by Vixnik’s demanding voice.

“Tungsten, you’re a menace! Why, if I had evidence of all your shenanigans, I’d have you hauling biorefuse in a wagon from here to Canopus! But you’re so damned lucky. You’re like some sort of hidden menace...some ghostly presence sent here to bother me!”

“A phantom, you mean?”, Dirk asked innocently.

“Exactly! Some sort of phantom-” Vixnik was interrupted by Trapi Caltos.

“Tungsten, despite your unorthodox methodology, you have the best track record of completed assignments in the Service. Because of that, we have a very important job for you. One on which...” She paused, the drama accentuated by the buzz of an out of synch holomatrix.

“The entire planet, if not the galaxy, depends!” Uvals Wapro, Quantum Commissioner, finished.

“Uh...huh.” Dirk was unimpressed. “Care to let me in on the big secret, then?”

“You’ll know all you need to know. Which is very little.” Vixnik had regained his composure. “Suffice it to say that you will be entrusted with a passenger. A very special passenger.”

“Passenger? Where exactly am I supposed to be going?”

“All of that has been taken care of. All you have to do is sit back and keep an eye on your charge,” said Vixnik.

“When do I leave?”

“Now!” The word was echoed by all of the councilmembers.

“I don’t suppose you could give me any more information? You know, like...what sort of ship I’m supposed to be taking, or where this passenger of yours is, or how much I’m going to be paid for this whole thing.”

Vixnik’s image flickered for an instant. “Oh, yes, the passenger. Sergeant-at-Arms...send in...the Passenger!”

A small door in the corner of the room swung silently open, revealing a woman flanked by three guards. The guards ushered her into the room and then stood by the door. A spotlight, generated from some unseen point in the ceiling, shined down upon her.

Caltos introduced her. “Dirk Tungsten, meet Elisabeth Jordan. Ms. Jordan, this is the man we were telling you about. He will protect you in the dark times ahead.”

Elisabeth Jordan stared at Dirk from underneath the intense white light. It washed out most of her features, leaving him with only a ghostly impression of what she looked like.

“I don’t know why exactly you think I need a protector, but could you at least turn off that damned light?”, Elisabeth shouted.

The light dimmed, but did not shut off entirely.

“That’s better. Now...can someone explain to me what is going on here?”

“Miss Jordan, I’m sure that Mr. Tungsten can answer all of your questions in due course. However, I’m afraid that time is one resource we have run out of.” Caltos turned back towards Dirk. “And now, the time has come for you to make your way off Megalonopolis. Despite all our power, this world is no longer safe for Miss Jordan.”

Vixnik, who was obviously uncomfortable with Caltos’ monopolization of the meeting, explained.

“Even as we speak, the very essence of evil travels through space, and it is our fear that this darkness will descend on our peaceful world. We cannot allow Elisabeth Jordan to come to harm. Tungsten! You are to take Miss Jordan to a safe place. Where, we cannot know. We trust that you, in your rather storied adventures, have come across several likely spots in the universe. Go now! And may the knowledge that you are responsible for the fate of all mankind encourage some small modicum of restraint within you.”

As he finished speaking, another doorway opened, closer to Dirk. Three more guards stepped out and gestured towards him. Elisabeth was escorted towards the doorway.

“I sure hope you know what’s going on,” she said as she passed him.

“Yeah, me too.”

****

Meanwhile, aboard the aforementioned essence, evil thoughts were being translated into evil deeds. A solitary figure, cloaked in robes of near-florescent purple, stood framed in a window. Below him, rotating slowly in its ignorance, was the urbanized world of Megalonopolis. From space, it’s cloaking sheath of city appeared as a sparkling jewel. Or perhaps a bright signpost: “Intelligence Here. Lots Of It.” Or, thought the figure, a target. A very large one. The figure held up a tiny communication monitoring tablet and spoke into it.

“Commander, is the weapon ready?”

“Yes, my lord. We await only your command to unleash it.”

“Excellent. Soon, the galaxy shall learn to fear one name as never before. The name of Emperor Faustus Terrorixus! Commander, activate the weapon.”

“With pleasure, my lord.”

****

Elisabeth Jordan was not entirely sure where she was, or why for that matter. But she was certain of her intense dislike for the current state of affairs in which she found herself. Unlike most days, where she woke up- Her train of thought ran out of fuel at this point and chuffed dejectedly. She couldn’t recall where she usually woke up. But she knew, somehow, that it wasn’t inside a completely white room, being prodded at by any number of figures inside equally white coats. Physical discomfort was one thing, but even more maddening was their absolute refusal to answer any of her questions. The most she ever got were bland replies along the lines of “Everything will be fine, ma’am. All of your questions will be answered soon.” No answers ever appeared, and now she was apparently being shuffled off to some other, equally strange location. What was all that talk about evil and space?

The guards had taken Elisabeth and Dirk into a lifttube that ran directly to the roof of the Great Hall of Science. There, laying prone across the roof, was a rocket ship.

“Hold on a minute. Assuming I’m not hallucinating, which I’m still not entirely sure about, we’re going to fly on that...thing? Isn’t this supposed to be the future? Can’t you just shut off gravity, or use a space elevator or something?” Elisabeth’s glance bounced between the guards, the ship, and Dirk. Up till this point, she hadn’t really believed any of this was really happening. But that certainly looked like a rocket, only Elisabeth couldn’t remember ever seeing one with fins.

“Please ma’am, just board the ship. Mr. Tungsten will explain everything.” This from the guard on her right. He pointed towards the entrance to the ship. Elisabeth’s accusing look towards Dirk was greeted with a shrug.

“The ship looks like a late model Astro-Zoomer. Not a bad ship. But these men seem to be in a hurry to get us on it, so I suggest we get onboard.”

The interior of the vessel was a bit more like Elisabeth expected, save for the plush carpeting. She followed Dirk forward to the ship’s control room. It looked appropriately futuristic, though she was almost disappointed by the seeming lack of buttons, dials, and other assorted things one expects to find in a spaceship’s cockpit.

There were two seats at the front of the room, facing out through the arching windows into the city below. Dirk sat down on the left side.

“It’s bad luck to fly from the starboard, you know.” For the first time since they met, he favored Elisabeth with one of his winning smiles. She was too caught up in the view to notice.

“Oh...it’s... Is that, no nevermind. What is this place?” Elisabeth, usually never at a loss for words, was. The scene before her was without equal in her experience. Great towers rose up from smaller but seemingly equally great towers below. Threading their way through this shiny metallic maze were thousands of floating vehicles in shapes Elisabeth had never thought to relate to something that could move, much less float through the air. But float they did, at high rates of speed and in every direction.

“Megalonopolis.” Dirk looked over at his awestruck passenger. “It’s the single largest city in existence. Covers the entire planet. Which happens to also be named Megalonopolis.”

“What? Mega-lon...that isn’t even a word. And how could a city cover a whole world? I mean, you people have to eat, don’t you?” Elisabeth continued to stare into the cityscape before her. “Don’t you?” she said, quietly.

“Well, most of us have had chlorophyll implants.”

She turned away from the view to look at Dirk incredulously.

“Only joking. Most people with them are pretty unstable types anyway. But it’s about time we got off this rock. Just strap yourself in there and we’ll get going.”

Dirk turned his attention to the console in front of him as Elisabeth struggled to wrap her mind around the events that were unfolding. Quite sensibly, her mind refused to be contorted into such an odd shape. Closing her eyes, Elisabeth concentrated on the chair she was sitting on. It was a rather nice chair, as chairs go. Comfortable, almost...soothing. Yes, soothing, she thought. And for the first time since she had found herself in this strange world, Elisabeth relaxed. The sounds the ship made as it was powering up were soothing too. One of them in particular, a sort of rhythmic tapping. It was very soft, and was increasing in urgency. Accompanying the tapping was something else, something even quieter. Had Elisabeth been expected it, she would have said it sounded quite a bit like a smallish robot banging on the hull of the ship and shouting at her. As it was, she merely opened her eyes and looked over at Dirk.

“Can you hear that?” she asked.

Dirk looked back at her and then turned towards a screen inset on his control console. It was displaying a rather desperate looking robotic page.

“What in Sorikon does that bot think it’s doing?” he exclaimed as he reached for the control to open the ship’s airlock.

The robot quickly made its way to the cockpit. “Mr. Tungsten, sir!”

“Do I know you?”

“I am the P323-C83 you made accquantice with earlier, sir. You gave me this five credit chip out of gratitude for my services, with the proviso that I spend it on one of the approved products for robotic purchase.”

“Oh, right. And obviously, that proviso included running up to a launching spacecraft and knocking on the airlock.”

“Not as such, sir, no. You see, I had attempted to deposit the chip in my credit account to spend at some later time. Unfortunately, the banking terminal would not allow me to. So I fear I must return it to you, as I am unable to carry out your command.” The robot held up the chip and cast its visual sensors down in shame.

“Look, keep the money. I’ve got a schedule to keep here, so if you would kindly depart...” Dirk was interrupted by Elisabeth.

“Why wouldn’t it take your money?”

The robot pivoted to address her. “That is the prime thing, ma’am. I did not receive any official processing error documentation. Most disturbing. The terminal simply rambled on about some disastrous rumor being reported in the networks.”

“What rumor?”

“Apparently a second-level communications processing satellite reported that a very large energy buildup was detected from a hidden vessel in orbit. Of course, it would be just such a tale that could inspire a banking terminal to disregard its duties. They are always on about the latest conspiracy tale or rumor-mongering nonsense.”

Elisabeth stared at the robot for a few seconds. To say that she understood anything it had said would be gross exaggeration. She informed the robot of this.

“Well, as I said ma’am, you can never trust networked rumors, especially from banking terminals. I recall a time shortly after my activation.” The robot continued to drone on for several seconds, interrupted only by the end of the world.

****

From his personal cabin, the Emperor Terrorixus watched as his greatest invention released its pent-up energies on the planet below. Spiraling waves of blue and green lept from the ship, cascading into the world’s upper atmosphere. The planet began to ripple and pulsate, as if viewed from the desert on a very hot day. And then, as suddenly as the effects had begun, Megalonopolis vanished.