The clockwork machine chugged away in the control room. Two big metal wheels spun as a blur, driving a long metal arm, its elbow bending with each stroke. To Kalla, it looked like there was a large clear teapot crouched on top of the clockwork motor. Everything shook and vibrated, the hiss and thump of the machine could be felt in the air around them. Kalla had never seen a thing more wonderful than a glider, but now she thought she had. She watched as the big clear teapot shook and sloshed with water. Big Crunch had called it a water-to-power converter. She hadn`t ever suspected a little drip of dirty water could make a machine go round and round like this. This was magic.

　　The spinning wheels of the engine were draped with long, flat belts that crisscrossed the room. Once Big Crunch had set the machine to spin, the giant belts went from still to a blur that whizzed-wooshed through the air around them and the light panels in the room glowed. One of the smaller belts ran to the music machine. A black disk sat on it, making a sound both beautiful and lonely. She understood why the big lizard man liked the music. He had played the other disk for her earlier, the one that had the man singing about being a gone cow-boy`. That song had been happier feeling than this song that he played now.

　　The center of the disk had a fine blue perfect circle of paper with words written on it by the people from long ago, in the perfect way they were able to make each letter match in size and shape; four words, two above and two below the little hole in its center;

　　City Lights

　　 Ray Price

　　Ishi stood in front of the metal flower where the music came from and watched the words and the black disk go round and round.

　　Kalla definitely liked the music, but she was more entranced by the machines themselves. She wanted to learn how machines like this worked. She thought the big lizard man was a marvel. At first for saving her, and now for how he`d learned how to use all these things from the before times.

　　punx&, punx&, punx&, punx&, punx& punx&, The motor popped and hissed as the big wheels spun.

　　punx

　　The little lizard mimicked from Kalla`s wrist; his small head tilted up to see her.

　　The room was bright with electric lights. Kala had never seen so many electric lights all at once.

　　Big Crunch had also shown her how the machine made a piece of flat steel hot without any fire. She had felt the rope that led from the machine to the steel, and she found it incredible that the rope was not also hot. She asked him about it and he told her there were so many books in the mine to learn about things, more than you could read in a lifetime. He said the books told him. He could understand one line out of an entire page, if he was lucky, and unlock some secret.

　　The steel was much hotter than Old Betty`s smouldering breakfast fire had ever been. Big Crunch had cooked them a meal of mushrooms and spiced meat that sizzled in the room and set everyone`s mouth to watering as it had done hers, she was sure. She didn`t want to ask where the meat had come from, but she recalled the flying lizards that Big Crunch had mentioned.

　　The Princess had discarded what remained of her armour, wrapped herself in the same strange clothing from the mine that Kalla now wore, and fell asleep in the warmth of the room.

　　Big Crunch had shown them the back room with the wash basin. He melted snow on the flat steel in a half-round piece of old clockwork that served as a pot. Jazzy had a small parcel of soap in her pack. After she had cleaned the Princess` wound, she had given it to the girls.

　　Then the girls had sat and told each other what had happened. Ishi told of how she had found the pod open and empty and how she had kept flying over the footprints in the sand. She told her sister how she had found the two of them fighting, crashed her glider into them to stop the fight, and how she used the bomb on the Field Marshall.

　　Kalla told how Punx and Big Crunch had saved her from the black robot. The big lizard man was bashful at hearing the story and left with an excuse to get more snow to melt. When they were done and there was nothing else to say, the girls fell silent. They were both thinking about their teacher, their protector Raj. And then Ishi helped Kalla wash her hair.

　　Later Jazzy Camps had sat and talked long into the night with the big lizard man. Kalla drifted in and out of sleep listening to his deep rough voice.

　　"It was really the first time you used the staff. Or the staff helped us. Torpedo was stung bad. We never knew that scarabscorp nest was there. It was going on dark when we ran from the soldiers, scrambled down rocks right onto the nest. You healed him, but he still lost the eye."

　　"& and poor little Biter had such a hard time. Once she started getting bigger she started having trouble with her hands and her feet&"

　　"It`s coming back to me. You used to carry her everywhere&"

　　"After the Cantina we went to the Wayfarers, but we were too obvious there with them&, well, I was too obvious. And you and Torpedo wouldn`t leave me on my own."

　　"Because they came looking for us."

　　"Yes. That was Casket`s doing. The Counsellor."

　　"They began persecuting the mutated more. Hunting them out of the wayfarers."

　　"Yes. So we split away. Biter and Long Molly. When Biter was little, you would help her, but she grew. Then Torpedo used to help her. Then me."

　　"Yes. I have a vivid memory of you always carrying her."

　　"Yes. Yes, I sure did. She had grown too big for the rest of you. And we were at the point of having to move quickly back then. And then Torpedo got us into that one vault. Found those droid parts. Some type of medicine table. Somehow you fused them to her. Medicine on a level I had never seen before or since. You changed her life. We realized the staff was much more. We thought of the clues that were given in the cantina that night; the clockwork used the crystal to heal Casket. From that moment on Casket had no problem remembering. He had no trouble thinking. It healed him and allowed him to remember. Sorted his messed up memories out for him."

　　"Casket remembered something. Something that happened between you and him. You would never tell us what. Casket split away from you. He left after the Cantina. Went to the People`s Army. We asked you why&" Jazzy said.

　　"Yes. Yes, he left. He remembered, you see, and that was all my fault. And I hope&," The big lizard`s voice drifted off.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author`s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

　　"I need to remember more about the staff. Now."

　　The big man shook himself from his reflection, and his voice picked back up. "The staff is the key."

　　"But what can it do? I know about the shield. It was the Princess that remembered that and the healing."

　　"Well..., The electricity. That night in the cantina. It controlled that and spoke to us using the tech at the back of the room. And fire. It lit my cigar. Eventually you mastered all these things."

　　Kalla recalled the package for the Beast that Raj had given her, but she would not disturb them. And not let them know she was awake and listening. She would give it to him in the morning.

　　"I remember now, when it first walked into your Cantina, the shield it made across the entrance to stop the wind," Jazzy said.

　　"That`s right. Torpedo yelled something to it&"

　　"I remember! Wind ripping through the Cantina."

　　"And the way it shook the metal tables. The way it moved Torpedo`s mag gun. Magnetism."

　　"I remember now. The five powers we called them. I can control those five elements with the staff." She said.

　　"Do you remember how?"

　　"No."

　　And Kalla had fallen asleep after that, nestled up to Ishi`s warmth.

　　And now they stood, in the morning, the motor still cranking its arm, the big metal shaft with the elbow bending and straightening to spin the wheels - they all stood and stared at the locked vault doors with Jazzy Camps.

　　Punx&, punx&, punx&, punx&,

　　The electric lights blazed on around them. The vault doors bristled with a thatch of cross-locking shafts and toothed wheels of all different sizes.

　　"And how do I do this exactly?" Jazzy Camps, the Wayfinder, the keeper of the crystal tower staff asked with her broken memories.

　　"I don`t know, Jazzy." Big Crunch replied. They were staring at the big doors.

　　"You were the one sent here to guard this place. You`ve been here all this time, and don`t know anything about opening these doors? Not even one little hint?"

　　"No. I have worked with these machines, learned what I could from the books..."

　　"Last night. You said Torpedo could open any doors, open any trap."

　　"No one opens smart locks. They have been built with an intelligence."

　　Jazzy strode with her staff to one side of the vault doors and then the other. She looked at Big Crunch.

　　"And this staff is supposed to open these? Are you sure?"

　　"No. I`m not." Big Crunch said. "The Priestess&"

　　"The High Priestess said this staff was needed out here. Do we know exactly where that is? What that is? Possibly it is not these doors. Maybe it is something else?" Jazzy said.

　　"But the drone came here," Kalla said.

　　The discussion became one of questions in circles that decayed into overlapped and overspoken words. Finally Big Crunch raised his hand to Jazzy.

　　"I have told you everything I know about it. You are the Wayfinder. You carry the staff. It is your purpose to unlock this door." Big Crunch said.

　　The Big Lizard leaned back against a row of smashed consoles and crossed his arms. Jazzy gave the lizard man a sour look. "I know what you`re doing. You are trying to force some memory of mine to the surface, and I`m telling you there is none. You are the one that has been out here all these years. Possibly you are the one that should have had it open by now."

　　Big Crunch replied, angrily, "The High Priestess has a plan&"

　　"I don`t care about her. I`ll bet you if she herself was standing here she wouldn`t know what to do either. As if this is all so easy. Some great plan. I don`t think any of us know. We`re all just trying to do our best and survive."

　　"We are running out of time, Jazzy, your best needs to be better&"

　　Ishi had stepped close and Kalla automatically placed an arm around her.

　　Ishi`s hand passed through a few quick motions.

　　They are here.`

　　And that`s when the alarm sounded. A deafening klaxon pulsed through the air, making them all jump.

　　Big Crunch, shocked out of his argument, strode to a far console and threw off a section of cloth. Kalla went with him, and she looked down at the countertop to see a square of flat glass flooded with gray skittering bugs and a large round light beside it that was flashing red. He pressed the light and the alarm stopped.

　　"What is that?" Jazzy asked.

　　"It`s a warning system I had built. I kept a Reaver that was really good with tech here for a while as a guest after he decided to try to surprise me in my sleep one night." He tapped the flat glass with one big claw. They all peered down at it.

　　It was some type of moving picture and Kalla realized what it was a picture of. It showed the floor of the canyon. She could see cavalrymen riding across the canyon floor outside, blurry through the silver light. Then a man`s face suddenly filled the window, peering at her, and Kalla jumped back. She watched as the man seemed to brush his hand on the opposite side of the glass.

　　"They can`t see you." He said to Kalla, steadying her. "That is a monitor connected to an optical sensor in Mary Anne." Big Crunch said. "I always make sure I clean her picture and especially those red shoes she wears. The buttons on her shoes are cameras."

　　The Princess had joined them to look down at the flat glass. She had been been sleeping in her spot in the corner all morning, but now she had rose and stood with them.

　　"This is it then. This is a good spot you have here, but they are too many men. They will get in here. We can`t fight them all."

　　Ishi hadn`t moved, hadn`t joined them at the counter with the moving picture in it. Kalla went to her and put her arm around her.

　　"Open the door," Kalla said to them. Everyone turned back to her. They all walked back to the doors and pondered them once again. "Raj sent us here. We were supposed to make sure the staff was brought. Open the vault."

　　"I`m concentrating! I`m trying! I just don`t know." Jazzy said. She touched the staff to the doors, but Kalla knew it wouldn`t work this time, just like it hadn`t worked last time.

　　"You tried the same thing earlier," She said, frustrated, and started talking to Punx.

　　"Punx? Punx. You saved me before. You knew what to do. You went and got help. Well, I really need saving again&" And she couldn`t help it, but tears welled in her eyes. She stopped. It was hurting too much. Raj lost. Now her and her sister would be captured.

　　She sat down on the floor. Ishi sat down beside her. It was too much to talk about. She fell silent, but it didn`t help. She couldn`t stop the tears from coming.

　　And it didn`t matter if she cried in front of these people, and once again she began to talk to her little friend on her arm.

　　"If anyone knows how to get in there, I know you do, Punx. You see? We`re out of time. The men are here. And they will take you, and Ishi. We did what we were told to do. We came here. Ishi made sure the staff came here. I don`t know what to do anymore, Punx. But something is in there. Something that all of these people believe in. It has to be a good thing. Because we are on the good team, Punx. These people here are all the good people."

　　The Princess watched her, they all heard, but the Princess watched closely as she said these things to the little gecko on her arm.

　　"Something good to stop the bad men is in there."

　　She wiped her cheeks with the back of her sleeve. "The vault doors open," Kalla said and nodded with conviction to the little silver lizard on her sleeve. "The vault doors open!"

　　A baritone voice called loudly from outside. "This is Field Marshall Daktor! We are here for the Princess and her staff. Release them!"

　　Kalla continued whispering to the little lizard, "They have sent a drone here to wake up something inside, behind those doors. It has come here to help us. Help us stop the towers from falling." Her voice had died to a whisper. "To stop children from being taken away&"

　　"COME OUT NOW OR WE COME IN!"

　　Ishi stood up, beside her sister, and ran her hand down her sisters fine golden hair. The fine golden hair that always glowed like a fire in her vision ever since Kalla was brought to her when Kalla had been brand new and little.

　　Ishi knew she would have to stop all the men outside. She couldn`t see them in the glowing picture like the others could, but she could feel them moving and pushing through the air. She could sense them on the other side of the big room down on the canyon floor. Ishi knew where each man was and she would have to go and get each one. She would be really quick, and it made her sad that Kalla would see that they weren`t the same, but it wouldn`t matter anymore. The men would try to stop her, would hurt her, but not enough before she was done, or at least done with most of them. But she didn`t know if she could get enough of the men. There were so many. But maybe Kalla could get away then. There was the big lizard man though. He was formidable. Perhaps he would fight with her. Perhaps with both of them&

　　Punx looked up to Kalla.

　　punx

　　The star-shaped bar melted away from the vault doors, washed off it like a little waterfall of silver liquid onto the floor, coalesced into a glob and then reshaped itself into a twin of punx.

　　Punx, it said to them, and leaping onto Kalla`s arm, it entwined with its twin.

　　"Well done, Kalla." Big Crunch said. "You have convinced the smart locks to let us in."