two

Deeter Zor looked around. The sun was low in the horizon, and the nearest trees were not that near. He pulled a blanket out of his pack and made as comfortable a bed as he could. The lush grassland was soft enough, at least. It beat sleeping on cobblestones. He pulled out a small fruit and ate it slowly, trying to savor it. When he finished, he began speaking.

"I will call this place Prairia in case I ever want to return," he recorded in his diary. "It's nice and quiet. That is to say, as long as no one finds me here. Tomorrow I plan to search the woods for edibles and possible shelter. Tomorrow night if I'm not quite so exhausted, I'll try to use the visible stars to place the planet a bit." He'd bought a rather high quality map, although it was still only two-dimensional, it had every known star system in it. And it didn't use "satellite telemetry," which he only understood to mean "tells someone else where you are."

As a boy he'd loved maps and atlases. Realizing that they were pictures of places that really existed made it all the more exciting, and he'd planned thousands of imaginary trips in his head. None of them ever happened, alas. Now, he never had time to plan new trips, he just went. He was truly looking forward to attempting the reverse. He almost wanted to chart out his entire course in reverse, but he knew better than to leave a record.

With that thought, he drifted off. His dreams were dark, as usual, and involved almost getting caught or killed. Beautiful women seduced him and pulled out tasers. Men he bumped into on the street punched him in the face. A Watcher somehow held his jewels in front of him, just out of reach, and crumbled them into dust.

As usual, he awoke feeling wretched. Some of those things had come close to happening, but fortunately no one ever had touched his gems. Using them was the only way he could survive. As far as he could tell, there was nothing else like them known in the universe. Not even They could travel instantaneously.

He ate a small breakfast of dried meat and crackers and finished the water in his canteen. It had a built-in water vapor distiller so he set it in the sunshine to refill. Then he began speaking. "Command: record. Day ninety-three. Days here are a bit shorter, it looks like. Judging from the sun's position it's summer. But enough about that. Now that I have a bit of time to kill, I'm going to make a list. Command: bookmark FACTS ABOUT THEM.

"Fact One: They travel quickly but not as quickly as I can.

"Fact Two: If a planet is past the Iron stage, the inhabitants know about Them by their lawkeeping functions. Before that, They are looked at more as wizards, if They are known at all.

"Fact Three: Most of Them I have met have been different people. At least, none looked the same, and their behavior was as expected for different people, rather than the same person with illusion spells.

"So, I will assume that they have bases all around the sector, and different people come from different bases."

He checked his canteen. It was nearly full. He strapped it to his leg, re-packed his pack, and began walking towards the woods.

"Fact Four: Not every planet who knows of Them supports Them. Nastier planets don't officially, but plenty of people have been apparently bribed.

"Fact Five: No matter where I've gone, They have found me within a week. Except the first time, which was closer to a month. I will assume that something about me is detectable. Probably the portals, but I've never tried traveling via 'space ship' so I can't be sure. But since They don't have them, it makes sense to assume no one does. Command: End Bookmark."

As he approached the woods he heard water. He didn't exactly need an external water source, especially a questionable one, but hopefully other animals did, and hopefully they ate things he could as well. Not that he wouldn't eat a forest creature, but he'd feel a little funny about it.

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