Spaz examined the oil tank. "Well, the oil looks all right, but I can't say as much for the engine"



Jazz, who was rather messy from trying to repair the damage Kon-tar had done, slid out a little. "You got that right, Spaz. And I doubt this was some fly by night, more likely someone trying to stop us."



"Yeah, even those small time criminals you're always hearing about probably wouldn't wreck an engine so it would stop in space. For one thing, how would they know?"



Lori walked out of the ship, dusting her... err... paws. "No inside damage, as far as I can tell. Looks like the mysterious sabetour wrecked the engine and left."



"Well then, I guess we can't accuse whoever it was of breaking and entering."



"Very funny, Spaz." said Jazz, going back under the engine. "Still, it's not something to take lightly. Someone is trying to stop us from doing whatever he thinks we're doing."



Just then, a slimy, disgusting looking rabbit walked up to them. "Hi, my handle be Scallion. Rap Scallion. I saw the dude who pulverised your ship, dude."



Lori, slightly grossed out, walked over to him. Not all that close, of course. "Who was it? Kon-tar?"



"Oh man, I just remembered. I'm under, like, allegiance to the dude who did it. I can't go broadcasting his namethingy to all the happening world, like."



"You had better tell us. I mean, we like having suspicions verified or disproved..."



"No, I can't tell you cats. Of course, you'll probably find some crazy way to, like, torture the talk outta me, considering the author's style, so I won't let you, man." Rap promtly drew a large dagger and stabbed himself in the chest with it. "There, I can't utter the info you're wanting now!"



Lori and Spaz looked at each other. Then they both spoke at once. "All right, now that was weird."





Kon-tar strode up a deserted corridor in his orbital mansion. Last he checked, the main control console was this way. If only those weird architects hadn't rearranged everything since the last time he was here, he would be getting to the console, right about... now. Kon-tar stepped into the main control console, and admired the new paint job. Maybe he should have reconsidered not paying the painters after all. But enough. He was here for buisness, not pleasure. "Ben! Ben Dover, are you here?"



A small, muscular frog hopped out of the steering room. "Present, and at attention, sir. What new orders?"



Kon-tar stared. "Ben, just who is steering?"



"...oops."



Kon-tar rushed into the steering room, shoving the obviously incompetent Ben Dover into a waste compactor. There had better be time to regain control before... Oh, man. The entire orbital mansion had gone off orbit, and was hurtling towards Industrius at an alarming speed. Any moment now. it would hit the atmosphere.



Kon-tar ran out of the control room, fled down the hall and jumped into an escape pod. He barely got out into space before the entire million inter-galaxian credit mansion (not to mention the occupants) burst into flames and screeched down towards Industrius. NOW how would he fufill his current plan?





Jazz slid out, cleaned himself off and beamed at his siblings. "The engine is back to normal, and ready to fly. No problems found inside?"



Spaz saluted. "None. The whole ship is in tip-top condition, and clean too." Then his stomach rumbled, destroying the feeling.



Lori laughed, and walked out of the Jazz 1.24. "You have a point, Spaz. Tell you what. Before we go adventuring to Tubelectric, let's get a bite to eat. Deal?"



"Deal." said Jazz and Spaz simultaniously, and the three of them walked down to the street. After they had gotten rather far away from the spaceport, they heard a large crash. Turning around, the three rabbits surveyed the spaceport. Spaz was the first to speak. "It didn't used to have a large, flaming mansion type building sitting on top of it and generally wrecking everything, did it?"



Then the fire reached one of the gas tanks.





Cosair walked back into the space/time warp, and appeared in a sunny field. That was funny, he didn't know of any sunny fields on Industrius. Unless the warp was malfunctioning and this wasn't Industrius after all? His suspicions were confirmed when he saw a sign reading "Carrotus Castle: 10 miles" He quickly turned around, but the warp had vanished. At least his new computer was still with him....